Name:

I was previously a constitutional law and civil rights litigator and am now a journalist. I am the author of three New York Times bestselling books -- "How Would a Patriot Act" (a critique of Bush executive power theories), "Tragic Legacy" (documenting the Bush legacy), and With Liberty and Justice for Some (critiquing America's two-tiered justice system and the collapse of the rule of law for its political and financial elites). My fifth book - No Place to Hide: Edward Snowden, the NSA and the US Surveillance State - will be released on April 29, 2014 by Holt/Metropolitan.

Wednesday, August 02, 2006

Breaking: Mel Gibson's Liberalism exposed!

(updated below)

It turns out that, all along, Mel Gibson was an anti-war liberal who hangs out with Michael Moore while they swap anti-Semitic slurs:

I couldn’t agree more - although I’m still a little hazy on how Gibson is a figure of the political “right.” Although Gibson clearly used the conservative media to promote a product of his, Gibson’s politics remain vague. Basically Gibson appears to be an idiosyncratically devout Catholic whose agenda crossed paths with religious conservatives when his film came out, and also when Gibson lobbied against stem-cell research. Otherwise, it isn’t clear to me how the mythology of Mel Gibson as political conservative began. In fact, these days I’m sensing the opposite may be true: Gibson may be a left-wing Catholic much like … Michael Moore. . . .

Many Catholics are left-wing, and it’s conceivable that Gibson’s been this way all along. This could explain Gibson’s otherwise odd chumminess with Michael Moore when the two met at the People’s Choice Awards last year.

Neoconservative Boston Globe Herald columnist Don Feder -- who had previously defended Gibson vigorously and held him up as an example of moral strength ("More power to Mel") -- had the same sudden realization about Gibson yesterday, writing in David Horowitz's Front Page:

Michael Moore believes all the evil in the world is attributable to "Israel and the oil companies." (Little wonder Gibson has become chummy with Moore. When they’re out drinking, they probably swap Jewish conspiracy theories.)

His reputed conservatism notwithstanding, Mel is antiwar. He asks rhetorically: "What the hell are we doing in Iraq? No one can explain to me in a reasonable manner that I can accept why we’re there, why we went there, and why we’re still there." The F*****g Jews?

After all, how much of a leap is it from Israel is responsible for all Middle East turmoil and anti-Americanism to "the Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world"?

Gibson crusades against stem cell research and has a long history of vulgar and extreme anti-gay commentary. He belongs to a "splinter Catholic group that rejects the modern papacy and the reforms of the Second Vatican Council." His campaign to defend The Passion began by "screening it for evangelical Christians, conservative Catholics, right-wing pundits, Republicans, a few Jewish commentators and Jews who believe that Jesus is the Messiah," and attacks on The Passion were routinely depicted by Gibson's right-wing defenders as a left-wing assault on religion and Christianity.

But now Gibson's true character, his real core, is revealed in a way that was previously obvious but is now undeniable, and we start suddenly hearing that Gibson is a left-wing Bush-hater (proven by "Gibson’s remarks about Bush's 'fearmongering'") whose friendship with Michael Moore shows what side he is really on. Yet more proof for the wisdom of the now famous Digby quote:

There is no such thing as a bad conservative. "Conservative" is a magic word that applies to those who are in other conservatives' good graces. Until they aren't. At which point they are liberals.

And with that we are presented with: Mel Gibson, yet another left-wing Hollywood degenerate.

UPDATE: I'm going to be on the Alan Colmes Show tonight at 11:06 pm EST to debate Mark Zaid, the lawyer who filed the frivolous defamation lawsuit today against Jack Murtha on behalf of the Marine Corps staff sergeant who led the squad accused of killing two dozen civilians in Haditha. Ironically (though likely not coincidentally), the complaint was filed on the same day that a new report reveals that the Naval Criminal Investigative Service completed its investigation and that "evidence collected on the deaths of 24 Iraqis in Haditha supports accusations that U.S. Marines deliberately shot the civilians, including unarmed women and children."

Station listings and live audio feed are both available on the Colmes site linked above.

My Ecosystem Details