On Tue, 10 Oct 2006 11:05:08 -0400, Brice Yokem <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

>Hmmm, I seem to recall an "axis of evil" that GWB referred to many years 
>ago??  Looks to me like he was right on.  Well, on second thought, I think 
>he missed a couple.
>
>John Lee
>
>------------------------
>
>I think he picked the top three (or bottom) depending on your prespective.
>

and why are the others left alone?
Seems the are and were a far more serious threat.
But NK has no oil. what a bummer.

For the serious humor.
http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/10/10/williams.politics.reut/index.html

Robin Williams: 'The whole system sucks'
LOS ANGELES, California (Reuters) -- To hear comedian Robin Williams tell 
it, politics as usual in the United States is no laughing matter, even if 
he makes a lot of jokes about it in his new movie "Man of the Year."

"This is not about one party or another. This is about how the whole system 
sucks," Williams told reporters.

He criticized the influence of special interest groups, the millions of 
dollars needed to campaign for office and the negative advertisements 
candidates use to hurt their rivals.

Director Barry Levinson's satirical "Man of the Year" hits theaters on 
Friday, aiming to tap into voter disenchantment ahead of the November U.S. 
election with a story about an acerbic talk show host, played by Williams, 
who runs for president.

Williams teamed with Levinson for 1987's anti-war film "Good Morning 
Vietnam," and it earned the comedian an Oscar nomination for acting. This 
time around the pair is trying to shed light on a political system the two 
believe is deeply flawed.

Levinson has been down this road before with 1997 political satire "Wag the 
Dog," about how a Hollywood producer and a Washington public relations 
expert concoct a fake war to cover up a presidential sex scandal. During 
the term of President Bill Clinton, that story sounded all too familiar.

" 'Wag the Dog' was made in a more innocent time and a less cynical time," 
Levinson said. "We are in a much darker period, a much more cynical period, 
therefore you have to find a movie that is going to work in another time."

In "Man of the Year," Williams portrays political commentator Tom Dobbs who 
runs for president as an independent candidate in an election that is 
marred by a glitch in computerized voting. Sound familiar?

Not only are marred vote counts a fact of presidential campaigns, but a 
celebrity running for office is nothing new. There is, after all, 
California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, and fans of Jon Stewart and Oprah 
Winfrey are printing T-shirts and running Web sites to draft them for 
president in 2008.

Williams might make a good candidate, although he says he is not 
interested. He is beloved by fans who remember him in movie roles such as 
the divorced father who dresses as a nanny to be near his kids in "Mrs. 
Doubtfire."

Moreover, there is a serious side to him that has shown through in recent 
years in dramas such as 1997's "Good Will Hunting," for which he won an 
Oscar.

In "Man of the Year," Williams' fans see both the old comic satirically 
ripping the U.S. system and the new dramatic actor who has a rather simple 
message for lawmakers: Tell the truth.

Yet, the star said being a real-world public servant is not on his agenda, 
and he wondered how his past drug and alcohol use, which as recently as 
August landed him in rehabilitation, would sound in those nasty campaign 
ads.

He considered what might have happened to Thomas Jefferson -- the principal 
author of the Declaration of Independence, third U.S. president and 
ambassador to France -- if he had been forced to publicly acknowledge an 
affair with black slave Sally Hemings.

"You might be extremely qualified, but if your life isn't squeaky clean, 
you can't be president," he said. "If you applied the same moral standards 
to most of the presidents we've had, they wouldn't even be nominated."

Then, the serious Williams turned funny. "Mr. Jefferson, you've got a call 
on line 2," he said, then changed his voice to mimick Hemings: "I told you, 
I wouldn't wait in Paris...You said I'd be first lady."

The reporters laughed but to Williams, it was no joke.

* To join/leave the list, search archives, change list settings, *
* etc., please visit http://raven.utc.edu/archives/hp3000-l.html *