So, what next?
Are entertainers going to be afraid to speak out in favor of their candidates for fear of losing their livlihood?

http://www.accessatlanta.com/hp/content/sh...aJUX\XYXUR

No, but they should be concerned about their jobs if they do not exhibit responsibility to the customers. She has the liberty to do as she pleases, as long as she does no harm. But just as liberty offers certain freedoms, it also imposes certain responsibilities to be paid heed to.

At the same time, the company's responsibility is to make a profit and share those profits with it's stockholders. And if enough of the customers are alienated by one of their employes or spokespersons, then they are well within their rights to terminate the bad advertisement. Note that loss of customer base equals loss of sales and loss of profit. Elemental economic principles.

You act as if you do not understand these principles. They are basic liberties. So what about this do you not agree with?

Her livlihood is in films and comedy standup, not in Slim Fast ads. She'll be fine. Maybe she should have a chat with Bill Cosby?

I don't question Slimfast's legal right to fire Whoopi.
However, I do think this is a bad move.
It throws water on free political speech and I do NOT believe she would have been fired if she had done the same thing for the right wing ruling Bush regime.

Also, her career is in the doghouse, so this is really not good for Whoopi, who has become accustomed to a certain style and level of living. Whoopi's career is a great American Horatio Alger type of story. She came from living on welfare in the slums of California's east bay area to be the comedy goddess she is today, and now this!

TQ:

Don't tell us, tell Slim Fast!

Entertainers get no free ride. She mouthed off and now has to accept responsibility for her actions. Big deal. That is something I have been doing all my life.

Maybe she should have thought about her career before she popped off. I have no sympathy for her. She just let her alligator mouth overload her hummingbird a*s.

Welcome to the real world, Whoopi!

The woman is a radical, ignorant, and uninformed left-winger.

The Hollywood left HATES America, and we are NOT going to take it anymore.

Boycott SLIMFAST!
However, Michael Moore still has permission to use it, special case.

I imagine Slim Fast will call a special Board of Directors meeting to ward off this boycott you have started.

Maybe it will gain some momentum tomorrow.

You are probably right.
Republicans are MUCH FATTER than democrats, so Slimfast knows where their bread is buttered.

WOW

Au Contraire Thaiquila. This does not in any way throw water on political speech. She can still say what she wishes no matter how outrageous, just as you are want to do. And you are correct here.

She certainly would not have been treated the same had she been doing same for the "Bush regime". It would have been ten times worse. She would have been castigated, shunned, and persecuted before her peers aND the press. I shutter to think how she would have been treated.

So, yes, she would havve been treated differently here. Your genius shows through even when you don't even try.

You might want to check who one of the top contributors to the Democratic National Commitee was in 2000:

http://www.opensecrets.org/parties/contrib...=DNC&Cycle=2000

Slim-Fast Foods/Thompson Medical $730,000


Not to mention I believe it is the CEO or President or some such top dog who is a major Kerry supporter.....


.... I would not be surprised in the slightest if this wasn't some serious back-pedaling on the part of Kerry and his cohorts......

Dern tootin' we will. Especially low-class "entertainers" like this one who grabs her crotch and says it's a whiter "bush" than our President. All the while JFK (the lessor) is standing by applauding. Real class act here, America. No wonder this society is going to the dogs...

Wait, don't forget Kerry said to those gathered "This is the heart and soul of America."

I am offended by that on so many levels but I will refrain.....

Maybe micheal moore will hire her to help the slumping F911 ticket sales.

Get real.
I don't even BELIEVE your outrage. It is FAKE outrage.
Your attitude is the definition of disingenuous.
This was a FUNDRAISER for Kerry.
If Kerry felt that Goldberg had been offensive, these entertainers had the good grace to work for free to help raise millions of dollars for the Kerry campaign, all of it needed to counter the superious war chest of Bush.
What would you have had him say????
You are the heart and soul of America, EXCEPT the off color remarks from Whoopi Goldberg.

How UNGRATEFUL and UNDIPLOMATIC would that be?
BTW: It is widely reported that what was said at that fund raiser was similar to what you might here on network tv Saturday night live any week.

Kerry is perfect. Bush is an ahole.

TQ, I'm going to miss you come Nov. I don't see how you can dare show your face here either way.

Show my face?
What face?
In the highly unprobable event of a Kerry loss, I will be just fine.
It will simply mean that I made the common error of overestimating the wisdom of the American people.
Right now, I prefer being optimistic, and all the evidence supports my optimism.

Who Said This?

Some people have said I was courageous to speak truth to the power of the Bush White House. But let me tell you, what I have done doesn't hold a candle to the courage that John Kerry showed as a young man and throughout his political career. I am supporting him for President because he has been willing to tell the truth no matter what the pressure. He is ready to restore truth and honor to the White House. And I hope that everyone else who is outraged by this Administration and who wants to change America will join me in doing all you can to make John Kerry our next President.

Willing to tell the truth no matter what the pressure? On the contrary, Kerry earned his nickname "Flapjack" because when it gets too hot on one side, he flips over to the other.
But more than that, this endorsement is amusing because of who wrote it; the man who was revealed as a complete liar himself, Joe Wilson.

And the best thing about Joe Wilson's site, which is named "Restore Honesty"?
It's paid for by John Kerry for President, Inc.
courtesy of KH

Well since you insist.....


The heart and soul of America, hunh?

The heart and soul of America is not to be found in the degenerate hills of Hollywood, among people who make their livings pretending to be someone else, who have their every whim catered to, who are so spoiled, and idolized, and worshipped, their grasp of reality is a poor facsimile of truth. Who change partners as soon as their ego trips are played out. Who wouldn't know a genuine emotion if it was tattooed on their a$$es?

This is the heart and soul of America? An isolated, limited group of people with more money than the commoners will see in a lifetime? A group of people who produce nothing useful, their jobs to entertain? People who value their external appearance over all, and have the time and money to perpetuate an impossible ideal for the rest of us. People who spend hundreds of thousands and millions of dollars on homes, cars, engagement rings, vacations, clothes, furnishings, and take it for granted.

And then have the nerve to congregate together with their Presidential hopeful, who is just like them, to raise money for him, and they did it for free?! How like them to never have to pay for anything. And then this man has the gall to say THEY are the heart and soul of America and then turn his face and say he is for the working man?

The heart and soul of America?

I think not.

My outrage disingenuous? Not hardly, not by a long shot.

Of course Kerry thinks they are the heart and soul of America. The only time he sees the real heart and soul of America, is when it is parking his car, cleaning his toilet, taking out his trash, bringing his dinner, carrying his luggage. Of course to him the Hollywood elite is the heart and soul of America, it is the only America he knows.

Outstanding, Cleo!

Pure hypocrisy, as usual.
You right wingers pretend you want freedom and liberty but when a wonderful industry like Hollywood, which is the leading cultural entertainment machine in the world, and one of America's top export, you say you don't like what people WILLINGLY SPEND THEIR MONEY for.
Incredible.

My view: YOU ARE JEALOUS.

Another interesting point is that right wingers hatred for Hollywood (not saying this is you Cleo) is a code word for intolerance for Jews and homosexuals. It is absolutely true that the power in Hollywood is concentrated among Jews, and also a significant amount of that power to homosexuals. More power to them! It was all done legally and it provides entertainment and pleasures for millions of people and wonderful livelihoods for industry workers as well.

Back to topic.
This Whoopi firing is a BAD PRECEDENT.
Just watch.
It is a threat to free speech.
Celebrities on the RIGHT and the LEFT will now have to be very careful about what comes out of their mouths about politics or it could seriously hurt their careers.
Is that what you right wingers REALLY want?

There you go with that persecution complex again...it don't hold water.

Every time this fool loses another argument he throws in the "hate Jews and homosexual argument".

Then the next thing he does is say the thread is off topic.

"If you can't stand the heat, stay out of the kitchen" (H. Truman) is exceedingly appropriate for TQ.

I thought Cleo was spot on with her posts.

I see the entertainment industry as nothing more than highly paid prostitutes, without the morals you will find in most Thai Bar Girls.

Whoopi is a court jester and nothing else. She reads scripts that are written for her and tells jokes she pays somebody else to write. She has few original thoughts and those she does have are xxx rated. For John/John to laud her for these talents is reprehensible.

For you to think otherwise is idiotic.

Yea, and the person who fired her, is one of Kerry's and the Democratic Party's biggest supporters!
If these celebrities are looking over their shoulders, they don't need to look very far to find the reason why, its in their own back yard.

Now as to this malarkey:



I have no problem with how an entertainer chooses to make their money, or how they choose to spend it. But I have a problem with people standing on a pulpit, speaking to an audience they aqcuired for one reason, and using it for an alterior motive to promote a viewpoint that is contrary to the very lives they live. And I have a problem with John Kerry identifying those people with the "heart and soul of America". At no time did I say one thing about freedoms or liberties. Please re-read my post, and then argue what I ACTUALLY said, not some fictious rendering you created out of it.

You know what? Does anyone here really give a crap about Whoopi Goldberg? I mean really...who cares if slim fast or anyone else employs her.

She opened her mouth, got fired. That happens everyday in America when you can't control yourself. So be it.

Whoopi Goldberg is a B rated comic/actress at best, and as far as I am concerned she can go jump off a cliff....adios Whoopi

wow.

for a second there, i thought u were talking about Dubya's big business corporate constituents like Enron's Ken Lay (or "Kenny Boy" as the Bush family likes to call him) who spend the benefits from Dubya and Daddy Bush's deregulation and globalization on $5,000 shower curtain rings..

yes, the Bush family and their billion dollar big business campaign contributors certainly know what the heart and soul of America is all about!

Bush and his campaign contributors like Ken Lay know EXACTLY what its like to park their own Bentleys and Lamborghini's, take out their own trash, clean their own gold and diamond studded toilets and carry their own thousand dollar luggage sets!


yes Cleo, THEY'RE JUST LIKE U AND ME!!




of course, the Democrats may have Whoopi, Deniro and Bon Jovi at fundraisers, but the Republicans ELECT THEIR MOVIE STARS TO OFFICE.. isnt that right Arnold?


its OH SO TERRIBLE for Kerry and the democrats not to disown Whoopi for telling "bush" jokes at a fundraiser, but yet Bush has given The Terminator (responsible for lines like "F--- you a--hole" and "consider it a divorce" after shooting his wife in the head in a movie) a platform to SPEAK at the REPUBLICAN NATIONAL CONVENTION??????

lets see.. comedian at a fundraiser, or vulgar, violent action star speaking at the RNC....... i cant tell which is worse!


well its good to know Bush supports the morals and values portrayed in Ahnold's movies enough to embrace him and give him a speaking role at the RNC..

but then again why wouldnt he?
he's responsible for more deaths in Iraq than Arnold has ever caused on film.

You really are too funny!

wow! another thought provoking, fact-filled rebuttal from the righties!

i feel so enlightened now after reading your one-sentence response, i might just switch parties and vote for Bush now!

First I'm going to guess you either live in California, or are from there....oh wait I think you mentioned that in another thread......


...and again, way to misinterpret what I said.
Please show me where I said anything about Bush, or that he is any better at understanding where the average American is coming from. Where did I say that, because I don't remember saying that, I don't remember even implying that.
Reading comprehension is our friend, as is grammar and punctuation.



And if you bothered to read any of my other posts you would see that the Democrats ARE disowning Whoopi. It is not Bush who is backpedaling and distancing himself from the debacle, that's Kerry...a Democrat....

And since you missed it, Slim Fast is run by.... a Democrat, and huge contributor to the .....Democratic party.... let's see how many more times you will ignore that fact.... seeing as how it doesn't serve your purpose I am sure you will continue to do so....

uhhh.. Cleo, if Kerry and the democrats are distancing themselves from Whoopi, then what is the whole purpose of your novel-sized post rambling about "the heart and soul of America" ??


u sure did try to put Kerry on blast with that post, dont try to deny it now.


and nowhere did i say u mentioned Bush..

but YOU, as a Bush supporter and a Republican, pointing fingers at Kerry and the Democratic fundraiser open yourself up for criticism of your own party.


its called debate honey, learn about it.



and im from Florida, NOT Caca-fornia.

See you kind of need to keep up with the pace of the thread as a whole, I guess things would make more sense to you if you did. Please go look at who I quoted and the statements that person made, to find my purpose.

And I certainly don't deny blasting Kerry, it was my whole intent.


And, honey, it might be debate, but putting words in other people's mouths is no way to "win" an arguement.

See I don't have a problem with people being rich, Kerry being married to a rich woman is a non-issue to me. Bush growing up wealthy is a non-issue. Thank god some people in this country have the ability to do so. I don't begrudge them that for an instance. However, if you have the fortune to be wealthy, go be wealthy, but don't claim to know where I'm coming from. I don't appreciate it from any candidate, but this thread was about Whoopi and Kerry's fundraiser.
You want me to go on a diatribe about how Bush doesn't "know" me either?, start a thread about him claiming his cronies represent the heart and soul of America. I'll be happy to oblige.

If I have the stamina that is. This is wearing me out..... and I have a day off work, I should be relaxing. Think I will go read for awhile.
Later

There was the time when Bush was speaking a group of super elite, super rich business leaders and he said:

YOU ARE MY BASE.

You like that, Cleo?

And the NAACP is Kerry's "base"? Yeah right....I often see John Kerry hanging in the hood and chillin with the homies..


Of course, thats when he's not in one of his million dollar mansions......with the rest of the "regular people"..

Gimme a break

That's not the same thing Thaiq. Of course Bush would say that his "base" are people like him.

Cleo, i think its YOU thats missing the point..

people that live in glass houses shouldnt throw stones.


you, my dear, are sitting here bashing my preferred candidate for the exact same things your candidate does, and i am simply turning the mirror back around on u..


Republicans CONSTANTLY bash Kerry for marrying rich and not knowing what "your average American is like"..... while Bush was BORN into a rich family and has NEVER had to work for a living.

Republicans CONSTANTLY bash Edwards for "not having experience", as if being governor of TX made Bush some kinda foreign relations expert ready and able to take the white house.

Republicans, like YOU, are sitting there bashing the people at Kerry's fundraiser for not really being "the heart and soul of America", as if the multi-BILLIONAIRE CEO's at Bush's fundraisers have any clue as to what its like.



once again, HYPOCRICY at its finest from u righties.

HYPOCRICY and right wingers is an oxymoron.

You are just another ###### BUSH APOLOGIST.
You acknowledge Bush's base is the TINY SUPER RICH ELITE (maybe one percent of the population).
Are you part of that base?
If not, why are you so foolish as to support him?
He does not act in your interest.

see thats the thing.

people get duped into voting against their interests with red herrings like gay marriage bans, crude jokes at fund raisers, personality attacks, etc..

divide and conquer the "little people", the average Americans, while 1% of the population reaps all the benefits...



in no way am i saying Kerry or other Democrats are beyond reproach; as a yellow dog democrat, even i will say Clinton and his wife Hillary have done some reprehensible things (and im not talking about where they stash their cigars) in the name of special interests..

..BUT.. it just so happens that your average American, and definetely those outside that elite 1 or 2% benefit more from the domestic, foreign and economic policies of Democratic presidents.


i was alive for Reagan, i was alive for Bush 1, and im alive for Bush pt. Duh, and i remember for each and every one of them, me and my family's socio-economic status and overall quality of life has NOT improved.



youre dam right im a LIBERAL... cuz LIBERAL means the desire "change".


who among us can say they are happy with the direction of our country right now?

I wasn't apologizing for him, Thaiquila, I was saying I would expect him to say something like that.

Ya'll should really learn the meaning of the word hypocrisy before you start banding it around, and make sure you are applying it correctly.

Pretty vacuous dodge there, Madame C.
Are you Gop's mother?
APOLOGIST in a political context means you DEFEND the indefensible.
So, again, why do you support a president who lives and breathes for the super elites? Do you seriously think what is best for the super elites is best for you?

Do you seriously think what is best for the Hollywood elites is best for you?
See you spend much of your time, Thaiquila, defending the indefensible, so you really shouldn't call people out on that.

And once again I wasn't defending Bush I wasn't apologizing for him, I was stating I completely expect him to claim kinship with rich elitists, because he is one.

If Kerry had claimed kinship with the Hollywood elite, that wouldn't bother me in the least (even though he isn't one, in that regard he's more like Bush, than say Whoopi, but I digress) it is him comparing the Hollywood elite to the rest of America that bothers me.

I am not being hypocritical (two-faced, insincere, duplicitous take your pick) in regards to this issue. If you had said Bush said to those "super elite", "You are my base, and you represent the heart and soul of America" I defended his comments and attacked Kerry, THAT would be hypocritical.

Absurd question there, and devoid of logic. Kerry has never said Hollywood stars are his base. They are his supporters because Hollywood stars tend to be liberal and democrat.

This is the base of the democratic party, and if you add them all together, you have a definitive majority:

WORKING POOR
WORKING MIDDLE CLASS
SOCIALLY MINDED WEALTHIER
UNEMPLOYED
RETIRED AMERICANS DEPENDENT ON SOCIAL SECURITY
COLLEGE STUDENTS
AFRICAN AMERICANS
LATINOS (EXCEPT MOST CUBANS)
JEWS
HOMOSEXUALS
ARAB AMERICANS
NON-FUNDAMENTALIST CHRISTIANS
DISABLED PEOPLE

TQ:

You forgot Hollywood in your list above.

Isn't time for your beer ?

Whoopi's Just Deserts courtesy of RWN

As most of you are no doubt aware, SlimFast canned Whoopi Goldberg after a Kerry fundraiser where she "reportedly fired off a stream of vulgar sexual wordplays on Bush's name in a riff about female genitalia and was reported as saying the country should 'keep Bush where it belongs and not in the White House.' She pointed to her crotch while making that remark."

Well today, predictably, Whoopi started whining about her well deserved firing...
"America's heart and soul is freedom of expression without fear of reprisal," she said in a statement."

This is the same sort of liberal elitist vision of free speech that Tim Robbins was so fond of. You know, the one where anything the Hollywood liberal says is classified as "free speech" and if anyone tries to disagree with them it's "censorship". We didn't buy that back then and we don't buy it now.

"The fact that I am no longer the spokesman for SlimFast makes me sad, but not as sad as someone trying to punish me for exercising my right as an American to speak my mind."

You know, Whoopi apparently hasn't grasped one of the most basic lessons of life: that your actions have consequences. She chose to do an offensive, vulgar, rant about George Bush at a John Kerry fundraiser that was guaranteed to offend roughly half of the people who are using SlimFast's product. Yet, she chose to go ahead and do it anyway. So be it. Whoopi calls that exercising her "right as an American to speak my mind". On the other hand, when a lot of SlimFast customers chose to exercise their "right(s) as...American(s) to speak (their) mind(s)" she described it as "punishment". (italics mine)

It’s "just deserts". Or as they say in Thai, som nam naa!

Freedom does not preclude a lack of common decency. hence whoopi goes Bye-bye.
whoopee!
humour is one thing but crass obcene disrespect of the commander in chief has no place in polite society.
Hence whoopi went bye-bye. whooopee! fock whoopi!

What's with this obsession with the Hollywood elite ? what are they doing wrong ? are you guys jealous ? Is there some kind of "Hollywood conspiracy" ? This smells like McCarthism

Exactly, to the right wing mind, Hollywood represents:

leftist thinking
Jews
homosexuals
really great parties that they are NOT invited to.

This is nothing new. Cleo is following in a long line of Hollywood haters, who not so secretly, just LOVE the Hollywood product, the most successful entertainment industry in the history of the world.