Are there “Hollywood” aspects to electing a president? Yeah, that’s why they say politics is show business for ugly people. (Except not many ugly people get elected in politics anymore, which is a sign of just how Hollywood it has become.)

-- Roger Simon, Politico

Janeane Garofalo on the Republican Party

The Republican Party, their message and their policies of exclusion and the tilted playing field appeals to the dumb and the mean. There is no shortage of dumb and mean people in this culture. So, therefore, their message, the dumb and the mean find a nice home in the GOP.

This dumbing down and this pseudo patriotism, which is very conveniently partisan, because the dumb and the mean love patriotism. Now the dumb believe unto patriotism because it’s really-when it’s as unexamined as it is for the dumb, it’s merely narcissism. Yeah, it’s my country right or wrong. Well what of these colors don’t run? What do you mean? I don’t know. They use the word evildoer with a straight face, knee jerk reactionary phrases that go down well from the Republican Party with the dumb and the mean and then the mean pretend that it’s unpatriotic to be critical of your government.

You don’t let the facts get in the way of your arrogance and belligerence. You just keep saying no, it doesn’t or you just lie about everything. What you have now is people that are closet racists, misogamists, homophobes and people who love tilted playing fields and the politics of exclusion identifying as conservative. They have hijacked that name and somehow they are proud of it. I don’t understand that, why they’re proud of being conservative but that is-seems to be the case. There is no liberal media.

If there was a liberal media that would be good and our culture would reflect it. We can no longer tolerate anti-intellectualism. We can no longer tolerate liberal bashing and we can no longer tolerate the politics of the dumb and the mean. Thank you.

-- Forum on the future of the Democratic Party, New York City, 2003

Janeane Garofalo on campaigning in the future

No, I don't think it's helpful. I worked very hard on the Dean campaign and it became an object of derision, myself and some of the other people who happened to be in entertainment — we're tax paying citizens first and foremost. ...  And in any town we would do our little tours across the country, the critics couldn't resist bashing myself and the other actors who happened to be there working on the campaign. And they lose focus from what is important and it just doesn't help because there's too many hacks writing about it that love to waste our time mocking people in the entertainment industry. You know what I mean? And it takes away space from important stuff about the candidate.

-- Dark Horizons 

Short stuff 

If you're in a peace march, and the guy next to you has a sign that says "Bush is Hitler," forget the peace thing for a second and beat his ass.

-- Dennis Miller 

Ah, conspiracy theories -- they're as American as mom and apple pie. Our fascination with shadowy sects and secret, nefarious schemes has inspired countless books, television shows, and, yes, movies -- and in honor of the long-awaited arrival of the conspiracy-rich X-Files: I Want to Believe, we've compiled a like-minded list for this week's Total Recall. So, what's your favorite brand of conspiracy? Government manipulation of the press? The military-industrial complex? Secret surveillance? Aliens? Assassinations? How about the Freemasons? We've got 'em all -- and more. Put on your tinfoil hats and draw the shades, and follow us down the dark (but oh so entertaining) trail of conspiracies at the movies! 

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The Commentocracy rises online -- Politico.com

At the left-leaning HuffingtonPost.com, which got 600,000 comments last month, the site has a paid staff of 30 full-time and part-time moderators who work in shifts around-the-clock to filter each blog comment. They also “post-moderate” the comments attached to news stories appearing on the site.

While there are certain computer technologies that can flag inappropriate comments based on key words, Huff Post Editor in Chief Arianna Huffington says that it still requires a human eye to keep the comments in line with her site’s posting policies.

“There are certain obvious things we have, certain specific things,” says Huffington. “Conspiracy theories — we don’t allow conspiracy theories. If you thought Sept. 11 was caused by the Bush administration, your comment is not going to appear unless it is a mistake.”

“Once it is clear that everything is moderated,” she said, “a lot of trolls disappear.”

-- More

Janeane Garofalo on the Iraq War

This [Iraq war] is a manufactured conflict for the sake of geopolitical dominance in the area.

There is no evidence of weapons of mass destruction. You never even get that idea floated in the mainstream media. If you bring it up, they hate the messenger. You've ruined everyone's good time.

-- The Washington Post, January 27, 2003

Janeane Garofalo on the mainstream media

Q: What's your opinion on the current state of the mainstream media?

Garofalo: The mainstream media has, in my opinion, been so grossly negligent, so disturbingly devoid of authentic debate, and actual dissemination of information. They are, in theory, the custodians of fact, the watchdogs of government. That's the theory. At a time as important as this, they have absolutely rolled over to the conservative hawkish agenda.

The parents of the troops who die and the parents of Iraqi civilians who die should have the right to slap a lot of these media outlets with a suit of criminal negligence. Military parents would have a legitimate case, especially against Fox and the New York Post for cheerleading this thing the whole way, for waving the flag, and using knee-jerk, sycophantic, pseudo-patriotism as a tool to galvanize public opinion.

That brings us to some of the rightwing pundits who dominate the radio, like Mike Savage, or some of the commentators at Fox -- the Ann Coulters, what have you. I think what they do is they turn their own personal issues -- whether they be racist, homophobic, sexist, xenophobic, or imperialistic --and they wrap them in the flag and hide them behind Jesus.

-- Progressive magazine, May, 2003

Janeane Garofalo on "crackers", "redneck nation" -- BoreAmerica.com

Like fine, aged battery acid, Air America Radio has released an "interview" (i.e., screed) with troubled ex-cutie Janeane Garofalo which was apparently conducted while she was still screeching on their network.

While it's difficult to put an exact date on it, in the clip she's got her blonde, slightly-attractive-lesbian look and it looks like she has less tattoos than she has now, so I assume it's at least a couple years old.

Her Gandhi-esque comments begin with complaints about "crackers" and how much of the U.S. is a "redneck nation" and then she discusses how some in the media are "geishas" who "service" the president.

I stopped watching after a bit when it got too depressing. She's just a sweet, wholesome, smart, lovable girl-next-door... gone horribly, pathetically wrong.

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