MichaelMoore.com

THE CONTINGENT

THE MARCH OF FREEDOM
Back from vacation and off his immigration sidetrack, George will deliver a speech on Wednesday once again defending the Iraq war and, presumably, telling us how ready and capable the new Iraqi army is -- but they're just not quite ready yet. ThinkProgress takes a look at some other truths George might mention.

The European Union threatens to punish member countries who are complicit in America's secret torture jail system.

WHICH WAR ARE WE FIGHTING?
Senator Orrin Hatch, Republican of Utah, is a little confused about... well, any number of things, but geography first and foremost:

"The Democratic Party seems to be taken over by the Michael Moore contingent in their attitude toward Vietnam, and they continually call for a withdrawal of troops at a time when we haven't finished the job," Hatch said on [Fox News]. Hatch's spokesman acknowledged the error, which was first reported on the American Prospect Web log.

Spokesman Peter Carr said the Utah senator had been reading a magazine article that referred to analogies between the Iraq and Vietnam wars and misstated what he meant to say.

For the record, the Michael Moore contingent only controls the Party's attitude toward Djibouti and we are firmly against dropping either Agent Orange or White Phosphorous on our good Djiboutian friends. And we're truly sorry if that offends Mr. Hatch.

THE HUDDLED MASSES

Caught between business Republicans who want cheap labor and conservative Republicans who don't want to see a browner America, George talked up his immigration plan which is now less his original ideas and more a copycatting of some proposals floating around the Senate. The House Republicans, who are stressing the security threat and the economic cost (but ignoring the economic benefit), are too mean for George's liking. The Arizona Daily Star covers:

Bush didn't reveal new details about his guest-worker proposal in a 26-minute speech inside a hangar at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base. The president also didn't choose favorites among the host of proposals in Congress that deal with border and immigration issues. Bush did talk tough about illegal immigrants, first highlighting how they burden hospitals, schools and law enforcement in border states, then pledging to "promptly return every illegal entrant we catch at the border, with no exceptions."

How do you say flip-flop in Spanish? The President who once said Mexicans were "hard-working" now says they're "terrorists."

JOB FLIGHT
America's inner cities are "continue to hemorrhage jobs" says the AP.

RED TAG SALE

Last year, General Motors showed a net income of $2.8 billion (that's what they call "the bottom line").

GM CEO Rick Wagoner was compensated handsomely in 2004, to the tune of $10 million.

This past summer, General Motors revolutionized automobile industry advertising by introducing the "employee pricing guarantee" and sales shot up 41% in June and 19% in July.

Last week, just in time for Black Friday and Cyber Monday, the auto giant laid-off 30,000 people at plants around the United States.

This week, there is word that they will increase their workforce in India.

Some blame the company's problems on its union (rather than on its substandard cars and behemoth SUVs) and yet those union-blamers are also solidly against national health care and solidly in favor of the-company's-always-right free-market principals -- so, if GM just listened to their advice, they'd still be going out of business.

CYBER MONDAY, REAL BULLSHIT

If you've seen, heard, or read the news in the past two days you were probably beaten over the head with a new buzzphrase on the lips of every good anchor and writer without a brain. And if you found yourself wondering, "Where did this come from?" or "I don't think I've ever heard of that before," then congratulations. It's a marketing scam and our news media fell hook, line, and cyber-sinker. BusinessWeek reports:

So what's up with this Cyber Monday idea? A little bit of reality and a whole lot of savvy marketing. It turns out that Shop.org, an association for retailers that sell online, dreamed up the term just days before putting out a Nov. 21 press release touting Cyber Monday as "one of the biggest online shopping days of the year."

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