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I interviewed Michael Moore for a few minutes in between his media stops about his new movie called Capitalism, A Love Story which I reviewed here. As we discussed his film, the topic of conservatism, hate speech and FOX News came up and I asked him if he would consider going back on FOX News again. His responses were interesting and I think FOX News will go scrambling to book him after they hear what Michael had to say. I also think Bill O'Reilly and Glenn Beck will not be happy campers.

Amato: Would you ever go back on FOX again?

Moore: Yes,I would go back on FOX again. I would not go on Bill O'Reilly and Glenn Beck because they use far too much hate speech and calls for violence and I cannot participate with anyone that goes down that road.
I stayed off because somebody at the studio told me that whenever I go on their ratings go up and I'm not interested in helping them sell products and make money for themselves and having said that I'm ready to tee up (garbled audio, but I think he said Hannity) Hannity I think pretty soon.

Amato: That would get huge ratings and it's also really enjoyable to see you kick them around because you know the type of Democrat that go on most of the time that are just so weak and that's the way they like them so that they can serve them up and kick them around.

Moore: Then I will make a point during this tour to try and go on one of their shows and give them something-something...

Amato: Do it for the blogosphere! (laughs)

Moore: Do it for the blogosphere. This one's for you!

The attacks on President Obama by FOX News programs have been profoundly upsetting and as much as I object at times to lefties that go on FOX, I have to say that it would be very enjoyable to see Michael smack down Roger Ailes crew. Do you think Michael will go on Hannity since he won't do they Beck or O'Reilly? Sheppard Smith might be a good choice. And you can be sure that O'Reilly will whine about this. The reason I asked the question is because I've seen Moore duke it out with Bill O'Reilly before and they were very good segments to watch.

John Amato: This is John Amato from Crooks and Liars and I am joined by the great movie maker Michael Moore and he has a new movie out "Capitalism: A Love Story." Hey Michael, thanks for joining me.

Michael Moore: Thanks for having me here.

John Amato: I just want to say one thing here before we get going. How about those Lions?

Michael Moore: [laughing] It's been two years, and if they had to beat somebody it might as well have been the Washington Redskins. But I feel sorry for the Redskins as it’s going to be a trivia answer for the next few decades.

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Last Thursday night I went to the Grammy Museum with Digby and Howie Klein to see the great Terence Blanchard do a Q&A and then play a short concert. It's an incredible venue to see a live event because the sound system is so sweet and with only 200 seats, it's a very intimate setting. I'm a member of NARAS and they often email events they have there but this is the first one I attended. Blanchard just released a new record called "Choices," and he was doing some promotion on his new amazing disc. He plays a magnificent trumpet and was accompanied by bass, piano, drums and a dynamic tenor sax. the record is unique too because it features the spoken words of Dr. Cornell West and he was a major inspiration to Blanchard's latest project.

West, who is a distinguished professor at Princeton, is best known for work that fuses civil rights and anti-war activism with a powerful moral and even religious social critique. Long a hero of progressives, he got into a much-publicized fracas with obtuse corporate shill Lawrence Summers, then serving, inexplicably, as president of Harvard. Asked about his collaboration with Blanchard, West defined Choices as being about "what kind of human being you’re going to be. How are you going to opt for a life of decency and compassion and service and love. What goes into that kind of choice. That’s the human challenge. To be part of this album is an unadulterated joy because no doubt about it, music for me is continuous of life-- to be able to live the kind of life that I live on the certain kind of Socratic calling of raising
unsettling questions. To be able to be in conversation and on an album with Terence Blanchard, that’s serious business... I mean, that’s... that’s a beautiful thing.”

You may know Blanchard's music because he has composed many music scores for Spike Lee including the haunting soundtrack of "When the Levees Broke," which documents the horrors of Hurricane Katrina. The event changed his life and he said something so simple yet so profound. "I didn't choose to be an activist, it chose me."

During Q&A sessions, I usually get bored and start daydreaming until the artist starts playing music, but I was riveted to each answer he gave. Terence is an educator who is the Artistic Director of the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz in New Orleans and he answered each question decisively, majestically and honestly. He understands how important it is for an artist to imitate the greats of Jazz, but then develop a personal voice which might be the most difficult taks of all. In his early days, he broke in with Art Blakey and when he tried to play like Miles on "My Funny Valentine," Terence said that Blakey yelled at him. "Miles never played the melody. Play the damn melody." I laughed because Art was famous for that, but was also responsible for adding new voices to his band. He launched many careers in his time and when I used to see Art play in college, the talk was always, "Who's in his band now?"

Blanchard's voice floated through the hall like the mellow tone of a flugelhorn, but with a richness of sound that was magnetic. His passion for music reeled me in and never let me go. I related to his story because of his dedication to teach jazz to a new generation of musicians without the snobbery that sometimes gets passed down by the elder statesman so to speak. His explanations of his approach to teaching and playing that are such a deep and personal nature resonated within me. And then he took the stage and he let his music do the talking from there. It was a delicious treat and we're working on having him come to the LNMC for a live chat with our readers.

After the show my heart was pounding from the experience and I stood outside waiting for Digby to pick me up. When I got in her car a new experience was waiting for me and I'll let her tell you what happened.

Renewed Faith

I have,sadly, become something of a cynic in my old age and it's not a happy thing to be. The world is darker, inspiration harder to find and humans are constantly disappointing me. But today, my faith in the goodness of human nature was renewed.

Howie Klein asked John Amato and I to an event last night at the Grammy Museum, which is in downtown LA near the Staples center and the convention center. It was a fabulous Q&A and concert with the great Jazz trumpet player Terrance Blanchard and his band. Unfortunately, when I got back in my car after the event I found that my wallet was missing...read on. It has a happy ending.

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I grabbed Darcy Burner for a quick minute to say hi to C&L's readers at the 2009 Netroots Nation shindig. She was recently named to serve on the board of the American Progressive Caucus Policy Foundation. It's been an amazing time and just before she did this video, Darcy was named to give the keynote speech Saturday night. Good times.

I just got back from Florida after a whirlwind week and I wanted to thank all the readers, activists and bloggers who said such kind things to me in a very difficult moment in life. Your words have helped my try and get through this ordeal and I can't thank you all enough.

Kindness does go all long way to jump start the healing process and I will always remember the support and love you have shown me. I will write more on my father later this week...

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Please support our drive to Fix CNBC and sign the petition. Jim Cramer finally commented on his much talked about appearance on The Daily Show after he was left sitting there, almost teary eyed and speechless when he was confronted by Jon Stewart face to face. His remarks on The Today Show just underscored how out of touch this man is and what lengths he'll go to distort the truth. (rough transcript)

Viera: ...you guys had been cheerleaders for the financial bubble, that you had also allowed CEO's to come on the shows and essentially lie to the American public without really challenging them. I don't want to rehash the whole thing, but did he have a point?

Cramer: I don't think so.

Viera: Not on any of this?

Cramer: Well I think it was a naive and misleading thing to attack the media. We weren't behind this. CNBC in particular has been out front on this"

Viera: So you don't think the media bears any responsibility, Jim?

Cramer: I think there are people that bear so much more responsibility that it's just wrong headed...

Sure, there were a lot of parties responsible for the meltdown of the economy, but that doesn't absolve the news media for turning a blind eye to it, Mr. Jim. Meredith Viera really asked the right questions so good for her and as Cramer bashes Jon Stewart I would like to ask this. Why was he such a coward on the Daily Show when he had the chance to confront Stewart?
Comedy Central makes a good point in there piece : Jim Cramer Attacking Jon Stewart Again From a Safe Distance.
Since Cramer became so outspoken about CNBC's role in the financial crisis, he and Rick Santelli are becoming the poster boy's for it, but Cramer has another huge credibility problem and his name is Lenny Dykstra. Cramer has a lot of juice in the Wall Street world and he promoted Lenny Dykstra like no other. On HBO he said this:

Jim Cramer: “He is one of the great ones in this business. Lenny Dykstra.” HBO: “Lenny Dykstra?” Jim Cramer: “Lenny Dykstra.”

So much so that Lenny was posting his stock picks on The Street. Well, it's now being revealed that Dykstra is possibly a fraud.

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Digby, Howie Klein, Robert Greenwald and myself co-hosted a blogger get together at Brave New Films Tuesday afternoon to meet with a true progressive candidate named Tom Geoghagen. He's running to grab Rahm Emanuel's vacant seat in IL. and and showed off his progressive chops big time. He was very impressive as he spoke about many issues that would have a huge impact on America if he's able to win that seat. He's a real leader, not some yes man and as a labor lawyer he knows what's been happening to working class families all across America. He touched on an interesting concept that I haven't heard any one else touch on.

Since we've spent so much money bailing out the financial institutions, Tom thinks that working families should get the same consideration when it comes to their own credit record and with some help they should get the same fresh start as the banking industry was given. Without the private jets and huge bonuses of course.

After he spoke for about 30 minutes and then a Q&A, Robert and Howie grabbed me unexpectedly and off I went into the studio with Tom to ask him to explain in simple terms what the Employee Free Choice Act really is since there's so much misinformation littering the airwaves about it by the corporate elites.

It's insane watching the right wing freak out over the fact that all this act does is give the employees and not the employers the choice of how to unionize. That's it. In this video, Geoghagen gives a very straight forward answer that dispels a lot of the anti-union nonsense that the Orrin Hatches of the Republican party are spewing. After meeting him, listening to him and speaking with him about the issues, I'm convinced he's an excellent choice for Rahm's seat and is a person that I am fully endorsing.

Howie writes:

Yesterday I got to hear author and congressional candidate Tom Geoghegan speak live. Robert Greenwald and the folks at BraveNewFilms hosted a blogger get-together for the progressive candidate running in Illinois' 5th CD. I knew he was already a good candidate from his writing and from trusted friends in Chicago; that's why we endorsed him and added him to our ActBlue page. But seeing him live... it's like the difference from hearing a band's recorded songs and seeing a live concert.

Katha Pollitt called him "the next Paul Wellstone" in The Nation and Thomas Frank wrote that he's a "true reformer" in the Wall Street Journal. This morning Don Rose endorsed his candidacy in the Chicago Sun-Times.

John Amato was one of the "Near Misses" in the Forbes Web Celebs 25 list this year for his work here at C&L.

The list, as you can see, is pretty tech-heavy. In fact, Amato was the only member of the list from the liberal blogosphere. Quite an honor, actually.

I arrived in D.C. late Sunday night and finally made it to the baggage claim. You know how much I hate flying, anyway, I'm really tired, but I look up as the bags are going by and I see Ben Vereen standing next to me. He's got a big smile in his face. I say, "Hi Ben, I'm John."

Vereen: How are you? What a wonderful time...

Amato: Yes it is. The flight attendant announced as we were landing that there's a new President in town and everyone on the plane started clapping and cheering.

He asked me what I did and I said that I play some music, but mostly I'm a political blogger these days.

Vereen: Who did you study music with?

Amato: Milt Hinton...

Vereen: I bet you're pretty good.

Amato: I'm OK...

We laughed...

I said that it was an intense election and there was a lot of right- wing spin that liberal bloggers had to defend against. To which Vereen responded,"That is so beautiful...."

He agreed to take a picture with me. I gave my phone to a man standing next to us and he snapped a quick shot. At that moment, my big bag came around and I missed it. Ben quickly moved to his right and snatched it off the carousel:

Vereen: Here you go, and you have a wonderful time in D.C.

Amato: And the same to you.

He had that big smile on his face, we shook hands and I left. What a beautiful and humble man and and what a way to start the party!

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Mostly the conversation was about Bush's farewell speech and how "gracious" Republicans have been. You'll enjoy John's reaction.

Amato: This has been the most incredibly destructive presidency probably in the history of our nation. Look at the results. Look at what Obama has inherited. And I'd say David again, what America has done now is repudiated Conservatism in its entirety.

Our very own John Amato has been chosen as this week's "Muckraker of the Week" on David Shuster's 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue program on MSNBC.

He'll be appearing in the latter half of the 3-4 pm PST (6-7 EST) hour. Watch for it! We'll have video when it's available.

C&L will be hosting a Christmas party with the Drinking Liberally crowd in Santa Monica tonight at 7PM....
The club is called TRIP and the address is 2101 Lincoln Blvd, 90405

There will be some food and drink...see you there.

Our Dear Leader John Amato was interviewed for a story on NPR's Weekend Edition Sunday this morning.

"You can't deny the fact that liberal blogs are a very powerful force in American politics today," Amato says. "And if you've been on the wrong side of torture, you're going to have a big problem with liberals and progressives."

Give a listen here.

Part 1

Part 2

Thursday night I was joined by the brilliant Naomi Klein, author of The Shock Doctrine,” to talk about the current economic Shock Capitalism that is taking place right now, thanks to Bush and Paulson's 700 billion dollar plan to bail out Wall Street. And all the wealthy free-market conservative CEOs that drained Main Street for ungodly sums of money until all the financial institutions began to crash and burn are cheering. Bush's base is comprised of these CEOs and they pulled off the ultimate "complexity scheme" on the American people. Naomi hits on some very important ideas during this twenty minute interview.

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Klein: But I think that it's important to stress that this is money that could be used for actively preventing foreclosures. They could be using this money - a fraction of it - to keep people in their homes. They could be stimulating and rebuilding the fundamentals of the economy by investing in infrastructure, public works projects, a green-style New Deal - all of the investments that are so desperately needed. New technology, investing in the real economy and getting away from this casino economy. And because they want to throw all this money at Wall Street, that is money that will not be available for those real investments.  

Say goodbye to Universal Health Care if McCain is elected. John and the House Republicans are now trying to pull another scam on the American people ,which is another tried and true method that conservatives use. As Digby says: They run as Populists, but govern as Aristocrats. It works all too well. It's a wonderful scam. Now, I'm not saying that a deal shouldn't take place, but a cautious approach should be paramount.  As Krugman says: The Dodd-Frank changes make the plan less awful, mainly by creating an equity stake... Also, the oversight means that Treasury can be prevented from making the plan a pure gift to financial evildoers. If the plan looks not-awful enough, I'll be pro. But I won't be cheering - I'll be holding my nose.

Klein: And they all knew it. They all knew it and they were making money as fast as they could based on their belief that they would get bailed out. Because it is entirely consistent with the Bush administration over the past 7 years. One of the other big lies floating around is this is somehow a departure from the way the Bush administration usually does business. It's not a departure; it's just a change in the direction of the flow. This is what they have been doing for 7 years: transferring public money, public wealth, into the hands of private crony contractors. And now as their final act they are taking the bad debts of the corporate sector and transferring them to the taxpayer. There is no aberration here; there is no big surprise. This is entirely consistent with everything they've done.

As Rachel Maddow notes:

For instance, where the heck did this $700 billion figure come from in the first place? A Treasury Department spokeswoman told Forbes.com this week, quote, "It's not based on any particular data point, we just wanted to choose a really large number." A really large number? That's the calculus among our nation's leading economic theorists and managers? We just need a ton of money; we don't know how much, just make the pile really tall? Isn't economics a science? Not reassuring.

Just think about that figure. They pulled it out of thin air. Here's the interview. (full transcript below the fold)

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  I was asked to participate in E Entertainment's two hour documentary called 15 Most Shocking Political Sex Scandals at 5/8 PST-EST and 9:30/12:30 PST-EST tonight and I'm sure throughout the week. It was really fun to do and there are a lot of great progressive voices appearing on the special like---Lane Hudson, Rachel Maddow, Cenk, and Stephanie Miller too.  I was able to talk about our very special friends like Jeff Gannon, Larry Craig, Clarence Thomas and a few others.

David Walker of NOLA has some more details...