Jon Schwarz is editor of MichaelMoore.com and was research producer for 'Capitalism: A Love Story.' He's also written for the New Yorker, New York Times, Atlantic, Wall Street Journal, Slate, Mother Jones, Esquire, and the Village Voice, and contributed material for Saturday Night Live and National Public Radio.
He made and collected on a $1000 bet that Iraq had no WMD.
Let's Send Tony Blair and the Woolwich Killer to Debate Extremism on Mars
After Michael Adebolajo decapitated Lee Rigby on May 22nd, he stood on the streets of Woolwich and told the Western world that "you lot are extrem[ists]." More than most Americans, I'm open to hearing this perspective. The $4 trillion invasion of Iraq that killed hundreds of thousands of people, all based on lies – I ...
We Are So Disappointed With the Corrupt Afghan Government
I'm sure it's tough for many reasons to work for the Sulzbergers and Carlos Slim at the New York Times. But I'd have an especially hard time coming into the office every day and being forced to write paragraphs like this in today's story about Afghanistan: American and NATO officials ...
Reminder: The U.S. Government Lies About Who Uses Chemical Weapons in the Mideast
Obviously I have no idea whether any chemical weapons have been used in Syria, and if they have who's responsible. But this is a good time to remember that, even beyond the bogus case for the invasion of Iraq, the U.S. government has a long history of lying about this ...
This seems like it must be made up, but it's not. Just days ago, Texas Governor Rick Perry wrote an open letter to Illinois business owners saying this: If you’re a business owner in Illinois, I want to express my admiration for your ability to survive in an environment that, ...
Bill Clinton to Condoleezza Rice in 2003: Invading Iraq Would Be Morally Right Thing to Do
Last week Glenn Greenwald interviewed Flynt and Hillary Mann Leverett, who both were National Security Council staffers during the Bush administration. At one point Hillary Leverett describes how "the entire American political apparatus," including Bill Clinton, supported the invasion of Iraq: LEVERETT: It wasn't just ideologically-driven people, individual actors within ...
Almost no one today remembers Margaret Thatcher's long history with Iraq. But few people beyond Saddam Hussein played a greater role in shredding the country into tiny little pieces. Here are some highlights: 1981 Despite Thatcher's government being officially neutral in the Iran-Iraq war, and having voted for a UN ...
We Will Find and Kill All of You
The first U.S. soldier killed in combat in Iraq, Jose Gutierrez, actually was not a U.S. citizen; he was Guatemalan: Marine Lance Corporal Jose Gutierrez was shot in the chest as his unit took heavy fire in the Iraqi port of Umm Qasr. Everyone believed he was 22. But his ...
Cheney Saw Iraq as a Delicious "Additional Source of Oil"
This is from a new article by David Frum, the Bush administration speechwriter who coined the term "axis of evil": I was less impressed by Chalabi than were some others in the Bush administration. However, since one of those “others” was Vice President Cheney, it didn’t matter what I thought. ...
It Would Be Polite If Americans Who Criticize Hugo Chavez and Venezuela Would Shut Up
Wow, who doesn't sympathize with this righteous, blistering 2006 critique of Bush's foreign policy? Bush is not spreading human rights...Instead, he is spreading secret prisons everywhere, practicing mean torture in Baghram, Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo. Well, me, actually. Because that criticism was coming from al Qaeda's second-in-command, Ayman al-Zawahiri. There ...
Stanley McChrystal Becomes "Something of a Leftist"
In the new Israeli documentary The Gatekeepers, one of the former heads of the Shin Bet says that for people like him who've seen Israeli foreign policy up close, "when you retire, you become something of a leftist." According to a new interview with Stanley McChrystal, it looks like that's ...
Yesterday Bob Woodward went on TV to explain how infuriated he is that Obama is planning to follow the law and make cuts to the defense budget required by the "sequester" bill. Specifically, Woodward can't believe this could necessitate lowering our number of aircraft carriers in the Persian Gulf from ...
Bob Woodward Describes 'A Kind of Madness'
Bob Woodward went on TV yesterday and got very upset that Obama says the upcoming budget sequester will reduce the number of U.S. aircraft carriers in the Persian Gulf from two to one: WOODWARD: Can you imagine Ronald Reagan sitting there and saying ‘Oh, by the way, I can’t do ...
Sean Wilentz: Wrong on 'Untold History,' Wrong on History in General
Sean Wilentz is a fancy professor of history at fancy Princeton, and a personal friend of Bill and Hillary Clinton, two extremely fancy Democrats. And as he recently explained in the New York Review of Books, he hates Untold History, the new book and Showtime documentary series by Oliver Stone and Peter Kuznick. A quick glance might give you ...
Lie After Lie After Lie: What Colin Powell Knew Ten Years Ago Today and What He Said
Colin Powell made his Iraq presentation at the United Nations ten years ago today, on February 5th, 2003. As much criticism as Powell has gotten for this—he calls it "painful" and says "I get mad when bloggers accuse me of lying"—it hasn't been close to what he deserves. That's because ...
Chuck Hagel Told a Really Funny Lie Today About Tables
It's the law, everybody in the U.S. government has to tell this funny lie: SEN. CLAIRE MACASKILL: Do you believe that all options should be on the table when we confront Iran? HAGEL: Absolutely. Now, of course Hagel does not "absolutely" believe this. For instance, one obvious option for dealing ...
Bush's Greatest Lie Ten Years Ago Today
Just like the greatest actors are never the biggest movie stars, the greatest lie in George W. Bush's January 28th, 2003 State of the Union address has never gotten the recognition it deserves. Everyone got all excited about the "uranium from Africa" and "aluminum tubes" lies, but when award season ...
May the Road Rise Up to Meet You, Lyin' Joe Lieberman
As of noon ET, Joe Lieberman will no longer be a U.S. senator. I hope we can all take a moment today to stop and remember his deep, lifelong commitment to lying. You could fill a book with Lieberman's lies, but some of the most impressive ones have been about ...
Are You a Crazy Billionaire? Antonio Villaraigosa Would Love to Hear More of Your Fascinating Ideas!
Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa (and chairman of the 2012 Democratic National Convention) has just joined the Steering Committee of Fix the Debt. Fix the Debt is the latest Wall Street/Corporate America front group for their decades-long campaign to slash Social Security and Medicare. As always, it's not that they ...
Ronald Reagan, Crazy Conservatism's Crazy Grandfather
Lots of people say American conservatives have gone crazy, and live in a weird fantasy world where they only talk to each other and convince themselves of things that everyone else can tell are obvious crap. Right now in their little bubble, global warming is finally being exposed as a ...
Oliver Stone's Untold, Unboring History of the United States
American history! Whose heart doesn't race when you remember being initiated into its excitement and mystery in high school? There's the Logan Act of 1799! And the presidency of Benjamin Harrison! And the Open Door Policy. And, uh, the Fordney–McCumber Tariff of 1922 ... and "A Return to Normalcy" ...
One of the very first things Barack Obama said during the second presidential debate was this: OBAMA: Governor Romney doesn’t have a five-point plan. He has a one-point plan. And that plan is to make sure that folks at the top play by a different set of rules. That’s been ...
How Paul Ryan Is Like John Brennan and Madeleine Albright (also, Saddam Hussein)
If you hate ever being asked tough questions — i.e., ones where an honest answer would make you look horrible – you should definitely go into American politics. The U.S. media is awesome at putting together video promos with Brian Williams where he furrows his brow and crosses his arms ...
How Crazy Are Right-Wing Corporate Zillionaires? This Crazy
This is from "Transaction Man: Mormonism, private equity, and the making of a candidate" in the New Yorker last week: "The private sector is less forgiving," [Romney] said. "If you make serious mistakes in the private sector, you'll lose your job, or, if you're in a position of responsibility, you ...
Citizens United Decision Was Complete Garbage, According to Billionaires Who Love Citizens United
This was the funniest part of the Supreme Court's Citizens United opinion back in 2010: [W]e now conclude that independent expenditures, including those made by corporations, do not give rise to corruption or the appearance of corruption…The appearance of influence or access, furthermore, will not cause the electorate to lose ...
Today Is the Eleventh Anniversary of an Enormous Opportunity
Today, September 11, 2012, is a good time for a short quiz. Here are the questions: 1. What is this? What did you answer? Did you say "That's the last moments of the lives of thousands of people"? Or "That's a hideous act of mass murder"? Or "That's the beginning ...
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June 5th, 2013
Let's Send Tony Blair and the Woolwich Killer to Debate Extremism on Mars
After Michael Adebolajo decapitated Lee Rigby on May 22nd, he stood on the streets of Woolwich and told the Western world that "you lot are extrem[ists]." More than most Americans, ...
May 12th, 2013
We Are So Disappointed With the Corrupt Afghan Government
I'm sure it's tough for many reasons to work for the Sulzbergers and Carlos Slim at the New York Times. But I'd have an especially ...
May 6th, 2013
Reminder: The U.S. Government Lies About Who Uses Chemical Weapons in the Mideast
Obviously I have no idea whether any chemical weapons have been used in Syria, and if they have who's responsible. But this is a good ...
April 18th, 2013
This seems like it must be made up, but it's not. Just days ago, Texas Governor Rick Perry wrote an open letter to Illinois business ...
April 14th, 2013
Bill Clinton to Condoleezza Rice in 2003: Invading Iraq Would Be Morally Right Thing to Do
Last week Glenn Greenwald interviewed Flynt and Hillary Mann Leverett, who both were National Security Council staffers during the Bush administration. At one point Hillary ...
April 8th, 2013
Almost no one today remembers Margaret Thatcher's long history with Iraq. But few people beyond Saddam Hussein played a greater role in shredding the country ...
March 19th, 2013
We Will Find and Kill All of You
The first U.S. soldier killed in combat in Iraq, Jose Gutierrez, actually was not a U.S. citizen; he was Guatemalan: Marine Lance Corporal Jose Gutierrez ...
January 28th, 2013
Bush's Greatest Lie Ten Years Ago Today
Just like the greatest actors are never the biggest movie stars, the greatest lie in George W. Bush's January 28th, 2003 State of the Union ...
November 13th, 2012
Oliver Stone's Untold, Unboring History of the United States
American history! Whose heart doesn't race when you remember being initiated into its excitement and mystery in high school? There's the Logan Act of 1799! ...
March 11th, 2013
It Would Be Polite If Americans Who Criticize Hugo Chavez and Venezuela Would Shut Up
Wow, who doesn't sympathize with this righteous, blistering 2006 critique of Bush's foreign policy? Bush is not spreading human rights...Instead, he is spreading secret prisons ...
January 31st, 2013
Chuck Hagel Told a Really Funny Lie Today About Tables
It's the law, everybody in the U.S. government has to tell this funny lie: SEN. CLAIRE MACASKILL: Do you believe that all options should be ...
February 28th, 2013
Yesterday Bob Woodward went on TV to explain how infuriated he is that Obama is planning to follow the law and make cuts to the ...
February 5th, 2013
Lie After Lie After Lie: What Colin Powell Knew Ten Years Ago Today and What He Said
Colin Powell made his Iraq presentation at the United Nations ten years ago today, on February 5th, 2003. As much criticism as Powell has gotten ...
October 2nd, 2012
Citizens United Decision Was Complete Garbage, According to Billionaires Who Love Citizens United
This was the funniest part of the Supreme Court's Citizens United opinion back in 2010: [W]e now conclude that independent expenditures, including those made by ...
'The East'
Why have you started a comedy festival in northern Michigan in the middle of winter?
Because if you were here in the dead of winter in the middle of nowhere (which is actually somewhere to us), you'd need a few laughs too ... Continue Reading
Michael Moore on MSNBC with Michael Eric Dyson, 3/22/13
Michael Moore on Democracy Now!, 6/28/12
Michael Moore on the Rachel Maddow Show, 5/11/12
Michael Moore on MSNBC, Super Tuesday, 3/6/12
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Michael Moore on the Rachel Maddow Show, 2/27/12
