This is a smart, thoughtful discussion, and Michael Moore is not quite the unquestioning Obama supporter he so often seems to be, as evidenced in this Nation interview with Naomi Klein. He also points out the major flaw in the Obama "Hey Guys, Let's Just Split The Difference" strategy:

Naomi Klein: Meanwhile, we are not seeing too many signs of the hordes storming Wall Street. Personally, I'm hoping that your film is going to be the wake-up call and the catalyst for all of that changing. But I'm just wondering how you're coping with this odd turn of events, these revolts for capitalism led by Glenn Beck.

Michael Moore: I don't know if they're so much revolts in favor of capitalism as they are being fueled by a couple of different agendas, one being the fact that a number of Americans still haven't come to grips with the fact that there's an African-American who is their leader. And I don't think they like that.

NK: Do you see that as the main driving force for the tea parties?

MM: I think it's one of the forces--but I think there's a number of agendas at work here. The other agenda is the corporate agenda. The healthcare companies and other corporate concerns are helping to pull together what seems like a spontaneous outpouring of citizen anger.

But the third part of this is--and this is what I really have always admired about the right wing: they are organized, they are dedicated, they are up at the crack of dawn fighting their fight. And on our side, I don't really see that kind of commitment.

When they were showing up at the town-hall meetings in August--those meetings are open to everyone. So where are the people from our side? And then I thought, Wow, it's August. You ever try to organize anything on the left in August?

NK: Wasn't part of it also, though, that the left, or progressives, or whatever you want to call them, have been in something of a state of disarray with regard to the Obama administration--that most people favor universal healthcare, but they couldn't rally behind it because it wasn't on the table?

MM: Yes. And that's why Obama keeps turning around and looking for the millions behind him, supporting him, and there's nobody even standing there, because he chose to take a half measure instead of the full measure that needed to happen. Had he taken the full measure--true single-payer, universal healthcare--I think he'd have millions out there backing him up.

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Patrick Swayze, 57, after a long battle with pancreatic cancer.

From an emailer:

This is Democrat Alan Grayson asking Chairman Ben Bernanke where the Federal Reserve sent $500,000,000,000 last year. And Chairman Bernanke doesn't know. He says it went to foreign central banks, but beyond that, he has no idea what those banks did with the money.

Whatever, it's only a half a trillion.

It would be nice to know where our money is going one would think. And with these "beyond Monopoly money" figures that went out to the world---why isn't there any form of accountability? I'll take a page from Bernanke's playbook. I don't know.

Just one more example of the best healthcare system in the world:

Police want to interview Michael Jackson's doctor after the star's family suggested he died because of a drug overdose, according to reports.

The King of Pop suffered a cardiac arrest at his home in Holmby Hills and was taken to the UCLA medical centre where he was pronounced dead.

Tmz.com said Jackson received a daily injection of Demerol, a synthetic narcotic similar to morphine, but was given "too much" on Thursday.

Los Angeles police want to talk to the doctor - who lived at the star's home and administered his injections - but he has not yet been found, the entertainment website said.

This comes out just two days after my birthday. Guess how I'm going to celebrate?

Michael Moore wants his money back. Actually, he wants your money back, if you lost any in the financial meltdown.

And though he knows that probably won't happen, the filmmaker at least wants to stick it to the people who took it.

The still untitled film, which opens Oct. 2, will zero in on the corporations and politicians he says caused the global financial crash.

Wall Street robber barons are Moore's new on-screen enemy.

"The movie is not going to be an economics lesson; it's going to be more like a vampire movie," the filmmaker jokes. "Instead of the main characters feasting on the blood of their victims, they feast on the money. And they never seem to get enough of it."

When the collapse walloped the country last September, Moore says he knew not only that it would matter to regular people, but also that the inherent decadence was ripe for his style of satire.

"If you go to see my movies, even if you don't agree with everything in the movies, you're going to have a good laugh," Moore says. "I want them to walk out at the end saying 'Wow, that was something!' And in this case, maybe they also walk out asking the ushers, 'Um, excuse me. Where are the pitchforks and torches?' "

Oh no he didn't!

And what did Cher say or do to deserve the “honor?" On Bill’s video she told a reporter that “I just don’t understand how anyone would want to be a Republican. I just can’t figure it. I don’t understand.” If you’re poor, if you’re any kind of minority – gay, black, Latino, anything. If you’re not a rich – I don’t know. If you’re not a rich born-again-Christian, I don’t get it.”

Bill said that “we like Cher” because she does good things and “she seems like a nice person.” Bill snickered while he “broke it gently” to Cher that “there are good people in both parties who love their country like you do. Don’t be a pinhead. Be independent, LIKE ME.” (Cue the blurting of the coffee on the TV!). Course Bill edited the video so Cher’s preceding sentence was cut: “You know what? I have so – I try to be charitable and there are some really good Republicans..” So who is really the “pinhead” here?

We've posted about artist Chris Jordan's work before.   Here's his latest.  It's an 8 foot by 25 foot mural in five panels showing the heading of the Constitution, rendered entirely with 83,000 pictures of Abu Ghraib prisoners, equal to the number of people who have been arrested and held at US-run detention facilities with no trial or other due process of law, during the Bush Administration's war on terror.  Click here to see a close up.

Good for Rep. Mike Doyle...

The United Nations has designated April 2 as World Autism Awareness Day. To mark this historic occasion, the Autism Society of America, the World Autism Organization and the Co-Chairs of the bipartisan Congressional Coalition for Autism Research and Education (C.A.R.E.), Rep. Chris Smith and Rep. Mike Doyle, will hold a press conference on the Cannon Terrace to build support for critical legislation that would provide needed autism services in the U.S. and around the world.

In February 2008, a bi-partisan group of legislators joined Congressmen Smith and Doyle in introducing the Global Autism Assistance Act, (HR 5446). This landmark legislation will establish a global health and education grant program related to autism spectrum disorders and provide support to families, educational institutions, clinics and medical centers in developing nations...read on

Related: Above shows L.A. Skyline by Stephen Wiltshire, who is diagnosed with autism. Click image for larger and read more about him and his work here. The PRI program Studio 360 had an excellent show this past weekend on Art and Autism which can be streamed and/or downloaded for free.

It looks like we're going to have John Cusack and his writing partner come on C&L next week to do a live chat about his new movie called "War Inc." Here's the My Space page. You may remember this wonderful post he wrote back in '05

Bush 2. How depressing, corrupt, unlawful and tragically absurd the administration's world view actually is...how low the moral bar has been lowered...and (though I know I'm capable of intellectually lazy notions of collective guilt) how complicit our silence as citizens is...Nixon, a true fiend, looks like a paragon of virtue next to the criminally incompetent robber barons now raiding the present and future. But where are the Dems? American foreign policy is in chaos. We are now left in the surreal position of having to condemn American-sponsored torture as official policy while a deranged President Bush orders his staff to attend ethics briefings -- a "refresher course" -- from the White House counsel.read on

When we set the date, I'll let you all know...

What we love most at the Open Thread is good writing. When I saw a THIRD well-written review of the Led Zeppelin London concert, reviews that were clearly labors of literary love, I had to share. It's a thing to behold when fine art, in this case an amazing musical career and arguably the concert of the year, leads and inspires another kind of artist, the journalist, to greatness as well.

Instances by...

Salman Ahmed and Mark Levine at Al Jazeera,

Sasha Frere-Jones at The New Yorker,

and Ben Ratliff at The New York [effin] Times...

Open thread below...

Found within this must-read post at Group News Blog.

You've got to see Chris Jordan's work.

Image above shows detail of blocks made of blocks indicating the number of US children without health insurance.

From Running the Numbers, an American Self-Portrait:

This new series looks at contemporary American culture through the austere lens of statistics. Each image portrays a specific quantity of something: fifteen million sheets of office paper (five minutes of paper use); 106,000 aluminum cans (thirty seconds of can consumption) and so on. My hope is that images representing these quantities might have a different effect than the raw numbers alone, such as we find daily in articles and books. Statistics can feel abstract and anesthetizing, making it difficult to connect with and make meaning of 3.6 million SUV sales in one year, for example, or 2.3 million Americans in prison, or 426,000 cell phones retired every day. This project visually examines these vast and bizarre measures of our society, in large intricately detailed prints assembled from thousands of smaller photographs. My underlying desire is to affirm and sanctify the crucial role of the individual in a society that is increasingly enormous, incomprehensible, and overwhelming.

Chris promises to add pieces as they are completed; well worth the bookmark.