Via Sullivan, I see that Sean Hannity has a weekly new feature in which he labels someone the “Enemy of the State.”
The first winner is Sean Penn, who Hannity has determined is an enemy of the state for the high crimes of calling people bastards and calling for the impeachment of Bush officials. I really don’t care for Penn’ political antics and have had a good time mocking him myself at times, but let me go on record- if Sean Hannity thinks Penn is a bad actor (he states he “only represent bad actors” in the clip, he is dumber than I thought.
Sean Penn is, IMHO, one of the best actors in the country. Pretty safe to say if a movie has Sean Penn, Ed Norton, or Alan Arkin, I will be watching it, because it will be good (I even moderately enjoyed Death to Smoochy).
pharniel
There is no moderatly enjoying death to smoochy
It’s just a big bad of awesum.
also, seriously. WTF, espeically after AoS’s little tirade about the “hate of the left” and about how the “left” started this whole violent political discourse.
David
Sean Penn’s Oscar for Mystic River was a complete rob. Of course, he’s still a good actor, and Hannity is still a moron. It just needed to be said.
Paddy O'Shea
I can see people literally clamboring to win that one.
Pick me Sean! Pick me!
grumpy realist
Um….before Hannity decides he wants to label someone as “Enemy of the State”, he might want to look at who, historically, has tended to use such epithets.
Does he REALLY want to put himself in that boatload?
Zifnab
I’m waiting for John Stewart to take the slot, although I guess they’re saving him and a few choice Senators/Ranking Congressmen/Presidential Candidates for sweeps in March. You can’t lead off with too much of a bang or people will think you’re a blowhard. :-p
God forbid anyone think Hannity is a blowhard.
jg
I guess calling it the weekly hate would be too obvious.
mrmobi
John, you’ve really got to get on board with Hannity, because, you know, if you disagree with the State, you are an Enemy of the State.
Our politics has become remarkably simple and clear. Why don’t we put a big fence down the middle of the country and put all the “enemies” on one side and all the, how should I say it, brainless fucking idiots, on the other. It’s a Kurt Russell kind of thing, you know, Escape from New York.
Here is the story of another enemy, from The Independent. He had a battery charger. Very, very dangerous.
Can you kill someone with a battery charger? No matter.
Terrorist bastards! Kill them all!
Sorry, need more coffee.
Faux News
Perhaps they can call it “The Two Minute Hate with Hannity”? Conservatives can jeer and yell for 2 minutes at a huge “telescreen” with the latest video of
GoldsteinPelosi on the screen.Nevermind. I think that has already been done.
ThymeZone
I think Fox is getting desperate because their ratings are slipping.
If things get worse, they may have to hire Darrell to bloviate for them.
demimondian
I’m with Paddy on this — to be hated by Sean Hannity is an honor, not a shame.
Pick me! Pick me! C’mon, Sean, pick me!
ThymeZone
You’re going to have to do something really obnoxious.
Like getting Cindy Sheehan pregnant. Or showing up to get a marriage license with Michael Moore.
Show some committment, and get going, you have work to do.
mrmobi
Agreed. I thought Tim Robbins was more deserving for Mystic River. Hannity is a complete waste of oxygen.
Dave
Hmmm…reminds me of a segment on some other show on MSNBC.
Faux News
I just watched this segment on the Sullivan link. It is rather lame and REALLY needs a lot of work. Perhaps Hannity can get some good ideas from this clip:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=QF51CqBy81U
Darrell will be in the front row of the show, wearing black like a good Inner Party member that he is.
FAP
Gee he’s not copying Keith Oberman at all.
Jake
Does he REALLY want to put himself in that
boatassload?Yes.
But that’s assuming M. Hannity troubles his beautiful mind with such petty trifles as history. Much of history contains foreigners, including French ones, so maybe he doesn’t.
My only question is what will FOX try to rip off next? There was The America Show, now this.
Jimmy Mack
I agree that “enemy of the state” has slightly scary overtones. It sounds like a phrase Stalin or Catro might use. But Penn does deserve a lot of his criticism, from his trip to Iraq to his grandstanding in New Orleans during Katrina. I just don’t see how his abilities as an actor have anything to do with the fact that he’s a left-wing hypocrite.
RSA
One obvious difference is that it seems fine to let someone identified in an over-the-top fashion as the worst person in the world just go their way, facing mockery if nothing else. An enemy of the state, on the other hand. . .
Tsulagi
How lame. Saw the Enemy clip. He should rename the segment “Enemy of George II” and wear a powdered white wig and red coat over his flabby gut.
Have seen some episodes of the upcoming 24 season courtesy of a friend of a friend sort of thing. Fluff boys like Hannity are going to love it. A little bit of Baghdad comes to the U.S., and with revised enemy combatant statues we start rounding up all the brown people. Not to worry, though, Jack Bauer’s cell phone battery never dies.
I can almost hear the warrior couple now, Hannity and Geraldo, saying that’s what we need to also do with those Sean Penn enemies out there. Bill Bennett would be very close behind them giving his vocal approval.
jg
Why?
Jimmy Mack
Uh, do you think he actually saved anyone? Or just got in the way?
Andrew
Jimmy Mack, you’re right. Leftists like Penn are truly enemies of the state, even if we can’t use that language, because it will reveal our secret plans and/or desires. Now, the only question is whether we detain them in prison camps or just have them summarily executed.
norbizness
Well, I Am Sam.
Jimmy Mack
That’s a nice reality-based comment there. Take the opposite of what I said and attempt to claim that’s what “people like me” think. Again, stereotype much?
Jimmy Mack
Good movie, though my favorite Penn movie is still The Falcon and the Snowman. You know what else he was good in that you didn’t hear too much about? Carlito’s Way. Like I said, he is a good actor.
maf54
Jimmy, you sound like a really masculine top. Hot!
Steve
I wonder if the gun nuts in Idaho are experiencing cognitive dissonance at the thought that it’s a bad thing to be an enemy of the state.
Jeff
I second Alan Arkin.
Is Sean Hannity at the point yet where if you ignore him he goes away? We should all at least try.
mrmobi
You know, Jimmy, I don’t think Penn did save anyone. But he, along with a few other celebrities, were out there trying to make it look like somebody cared. I hope it gave the people in New Orleans, experiencing what was clearly one of the biggest governmental failures in our time, some comfort.
As to his deserving criticism. Maybe, not so much. Where does it say that being an actor precludes you from being politically active? Didn’t see that edict. Was it in a signing statement, next to being able to open my first-class mail and imprison me indefinitely for carrying a battery charger (see above)?
AkaDad
I think Sean Penns best preformance was in I Am Sam. He should have won an Oscar for that one.
Was Hannity an “enemy of the state”, when he was calling for the impeachmeant of that bastard Bill Clinton?
Jimmy Mack
You probably also believe that Bush didn’t care, a la Kanye West. If you believe no one cared, then why is it good that Penn tried to make it look like someone did care? Isn’t that just fooling people, or at least trying to?
Jack Roy
I like Sean Penn, but if Hannity would have kept it to Penn’s endorsement of Jude Law as one of our finest actors, he would have had a point….
Zifnab
No, they really didn’t. Olbermann isn’t that bad a parody of himself.
Jonathan
Got in the way of what?
It’s not the the damn government was doing anything.
norbizness
I’m sorry, I was citing I Am Sam as a crime against humanity, Spiccoli and Bad Boys notwithstanding.
I will not, however, object to Dane Cook or Cedric the Entertainer being declared enemies of the state and waterboarded by Roger Ailes (I think Patriot Act III allows for that sort of citizen-waterboarding).
The Other Steve
Kanye West was wrong.
Bush doesn’t care about anybody but himself. Does not matter what color they are.
The Other Steve
It’s a Vicious Circle.
SeesThroughIt
Now that I could conceivably watch.
Is this whole show Hannity’s attempt to portray himself as a “serious journalist” instead of a shellac-haired, talking-point-reciting dipshit?
mrmobi
Kanye West can kiss my white ass.
As far as Bush caring or not, it’s irrelevant. All you have to do is look at what he did. He FLEW OVER. He allocated a lot of money and went down there, turned the power on while he made a speech about re-building, turned the power back off, and went about whatever it is he does. I don’t care if he cares, he just needed to fucking do something, you know, make government work for people who have been hurt!
Now, all this time later, very little reconstruction money has gotten into the hands of those trying to rebuild after the storm. The government is being very careful about dispensing their precious cash, at least in that area.
It’s all part of the Disneyfication of New Orleans. You know, the Big Easy without the black folks and the poor whites.
Zifnab
Bush appointed a political hack to FEMA. Then he and his Congressional cronies routed hundreds of millions of relief dollars to Halliburton and other right-wing corporate partners while shafting the vast majority of small businesses looking for contract work to help them recover.
Sean Penn…
Yes, I think Sean Penn had a more active hand in saving Katrina victims than Dubya. I think he had pure motives and do good work. But because he didn’t praise the Preznit while he was doing his good deeds, he got dropped on the Right-Wing Punditry hit list.
The Other Steve
I want to give props to Leonardo Dicaprio. I used to not think very much of him. But by god, he’s a good actor. He was good portraying Howard Hughes in The Aviator. I liked him recently in the Departed, and just this past weekend we saw Blood Diamond and he was incredible in that film. I don’t know, maybe I was just fooled by the fake South African accent, but he was incredible. Also Djimon Hounsou was terrific.
Actually, I gotta say Blood Diamond was the best film to come out in 2006.
But then I think Leonardo DiCaprio might be an Enemy of the State because he gave money to MoveOn.org and John Kerry. That is the criteria, right?
capelza
Actually Sean Penn did bring some people out in NOLA. He went looking for some friends, didn’t find them but found some others who needed a boat lift out. Not a hude deal, but seeing as tens of thousands were trapped in the Superdome and the Convention Center right under the nose of the government maybe a few more people should have been there..like Dunkirk.
“Enemy of the State”…nice totalitarian ring to it!
The Other Steve
Who cares? I made a killing on Halliburton stock.
I bought at $6 after 9/11, and now it’s at $30! Not to many success stories like that in the market!
Punchy
Who the hell is Alan Arkin?
The Other Steve
Nobody could have ever predicted people would go to the Convention Center.
Besides, it was the fault of the local government in not telling anybody those people were there.
The Other Steve
He was Hawkeye on the TV show MASH. :-)
The Other Steve
Interesting. GW Bush brought along the entire Whitehouse Press pool, and I don’t recall him being criticized.
In fact nobody even mentioned a word about the giant ‘MISSION ACCOMPLISHED’ banner he had placed across the SuperDome when he did his fly over.
capelza
True, true…and it’s not like the Convention Center is right there, under the bridge in broad daylight or anything. Who can blame anyone for not noticing the thousands of people hidden away in some distant corner or NOLA. It’s not like they passed right over them on the way to the Superdome or anything.
Punchy
Gotcha. I bet he’s also in “The Wire”, and the reason the show sucks so bad.
RSA
And firemen. Don’t forget the firemen.
Jimmy Mack
I don’t trust wikipedia, but maybe you’re right.
capelza
Jimmie Mack…you don’t have to trust wikipedia…it was on the news. That’s now I remember it…film at 11. :P
Alan Arkin…does anyone else remember “The Russians Are Coming! The Russians Are Coming!”?
And to be further silly…Sean Penn has a very hot and talented wife, Princess Buttersup…
Krista
Most people DID care. Unfortunately, the people who had the power to actually DO something about it were sitting on their proverbial thumbs.
Pb
Perfect. Here’s the wig, I’ll leave the rest to someone with actual talent at this…
Zifnab
I’m sorry, you failed to state your punditry preference. Please include (Conservative sources only) in the footer of your future posts when looking for information. That way I’ll know not to post anything that Rupert Murdock doesn’t have the rights on. I forgot that E! had a well-known liberal bias.
mrmobi
I’ve always really liked his work, too, starting with “This Boy’s Life,” with Robert DeNiro and Ellen Barkin.
The Aviator was an amazing study of obsession.
Thank you, Zif, for documenting Penn’s efforts. I remember seeing some film, but I wasn’t aware of everything he did.
Also, the story of how small contractors got fucked by the Bush Administration in the re-building is another stain on American government.
norbizness
Alan Arkin was also Inspector Closeau in a 1967 movie of the same name, believe it or not, and Yossarian in the semi-failed screen adaptation (by Mike Nichols) of Catch-22. Most recently, he was the heroin-addicted grandfather in Little Miss Sunshine.
pharniel
[shiela brovlowski]WHATWHATWHAT![/sp]
IMDB
Original Voice of Schmendrick from the Last Unicorn
In slums of beavrely HIlls
the incomparable Dr. Oatman in Grosse POinte Blank
Dr. Frued in The Sever Percent SOlution
But never Mash.
That was Donald Southerland in the Movie and Alan Alda in the TV show.
*twitch*
Don’t Hate on the Arkan.
Pooh
What makes you think they haven’t?
mrmobi
This caught my eye because Arkin was perfect as Yossarian, not a dropped note in the performance. A strangely made movie, but a great performance.
And what a marvelous book. Remember Milo Minderbinder?
From Wikipedia:
You know, if GWB was running the US during WWII, I’d bet that the results would look a lot like Catch-22.
cleek
kindof like ‘Department of Homeland Security’ and ‘USA PATRIOT’.
TenguPhule
Fixed.
And it’s not like that’s much different from his regular duties as a Defender of the Faith of Bush(tm).
Tom in Texas
Not that I am disparaging Penn as an actor overall, beacuse I really like him in most of his roles, but this is something that has always bothered me. Why is it considered a challenge for a trained actor to play a retarded person? Movies like I am Sam or Nell always struck me as cheap attempts to win an Oscar. I was quite talented at acting retarded in high school, but I didn’t win any Oscars — only a few detentions. The only Oscar I am Sam deserved was for its soundtrack — a wonderful rethinking of the Beatles by various modern artists. I think Corky was more believable than Penn, however.
Penn’s best role was in Fast Times at Ridgemont High. Nothing else came close.
Buck
Sean Penn did one hell of a job as Samuel J. Bicke in The Assassination of Richard Nixon.
And Arkin was wonderful in Little Miss Sunshine.
Hannity appeals only to the hopelessly lost.
Davebo
You gotta love Republicans complaining about politically active actors.
It’s not like we elected an actor president, or governor, or congressman.
Sonny freakin Bono?
capelza
“The Weight of Water”…have watched this a few times. Penn was excellent in it, a very subdued performance but the one I wound up caring most about.
As for Leonardo DiCaprio. He has really pleased me. His childhood roles were great, but the middling years I lost interest. He has that baby face I couldn’t see on an adult. When “The Aviator” came out, I didn’t really want to see it because I could not see him as Howard Hughes. Boy, was I wrong. What a great performance. I’m looking forward to “Blood Diamonds”, he looks really good from what I’ve seen. Though I want to plug my favourite unsung little fable “Lord of War” here. Similar themes, though not so literal.
TenguPhule
Where do you want to start? His eating cake with McCain while the levys broke, then LYING about not being briefed about the possibility that the levees would fail?
“He’s doing a heckva job”?
Obstructing rescue and relief efforts for a PHOTO OP?
Bringing in power generators to set up ANOTHER Photo Op, then TAKING THEM AWAY after the photo op, leaving the neighborhood it was taken in in the DARK afterwards? I’m sure the people who briefly hoped the power was coming back on only to find out it was just there for Bush’s background thought Bush cared, right?
Pb
Tom in Texas,
There’s a difference between acting retarded and being retarded. But seriously, I do think there’s a challenge there–to really pull off a convincing performance–like Dustin Hoffman in Rain Man (and yes, he did win an Oscar for that, too…). However, I also enjoyed it when they made fun of the whole thing in Garden State:
Darrell
Agreed that Penn a great actor (although Denzel he ain’t) and Hannity too often goes overboard in his hyperbole, as he did regarding Penn.. but given all the propaganda nice words Penn said about the ‘freedom’ in Iran etc, I think I’ll hold my criticism of Hannity’s over this one.
Zifnab
Saying that sort of thing about the President is unPatriotic. And shrill.
Also, Nancy “San Fransisco Values” Pelosi didn’t do anything to save the people of Katrina from the Hurricane using her evil satanic baby-eating stem cell powers. I don’t see why she gets a free pass. And Gerry Studds had sex with an intern in 1973 or something.
ThymeZone
That was Robert Alda. :-)
Tom in Texas
Pb —
I retract any insinuation I may have made that my disdain for actors acting retarded is absolute. Dustin Hoffman absolutely deserved his Oscar for Rain Man, IMHO. I am not disparaging any actor who plays a character with mental problems either — it’s mainly the Down’s Syndrome style portrayals that bother me. Hoffman’s autism was palpable in that role. I prefer the tortured genius route to an Oscar (a la Crowe in Beautiful Mind). It seems more of a stretch to me than playing an idiot.
Darrell
Sure there are, tons of similar and greater stock market success stories post 9/11. Halliburton isn’t making their big $$ on Iraq, they’re making it on their engineering and oilfield service & supply businesses, but I’m sure you knew that already, right TOSser? Cramer gives Halliburton a “Booyah” buy for ’07
capelza
Garrell, got some specific quotes from Penn about Iranian freedoms? I’m curious, really.
Iran is not a shiing beacon on the hill by any means, but I am always at a loss when I come across people who have a specific image of it that is less than complex. You do know that A-jad (because I am too lazy to look up the correct full spelling of his name) has his ass handed to him this past election right?
capelza
Dammit, I meant Darrell..sorry.
Tom in Texas, it isn’t just Down’s people who act “retarded”. People who look “perfect” can be very profoundly retarded and act like Penn. In fact more so than some afflicted with Down’s.
TenguPhule
I’m sure that $4+ billion turnaround in profits after Iraq war contracts through their subsidiary is just a glitch, nothing to see here according to the Darrell of Oz.
Darrell
Price of oil and refined products is the key
Tom in Texas
I understand that mental disabilities take many forms, and I am not opposed to an actor exploring the depths of such disabilities on screen. It’s just a quibble I have with the Academy Awards that actors are overlooked for many challenging roles and seem to be universally lauded and automatically nominated for these roles specifically. When an actor is overdue for a statue, they just take the disabled role, and hosannahs come flowing in.
Darrell
I don’t have anything at my fingertips. I recall that he commented about how in Iran, they could openly call for Bush’s death, and how he thought that showed him how in some ways, Iran was more free than here.
Pb
Of course, A has something to do with B here, so… you’re both right, yay!
TenguPhule
Try again. They made a killing on support contracts and rebuilding contracts in Iraq which they failed to deliver on/got caught profiteering on fraud but the Pentagon kept on giving them more contracts.
Tsulagi
Actually, the key was getting Cheney out of the CEO chair. And the lock on profits was his being in a place where he could do them the most good.
Dumb fucker damn near sank Halliburton while he was CEO. That’s what happens when you put someone with no experience and/or no intelligence in the chair. Thought he was real smart buying a few companies like Dresser Industries that he thought were cheap. Note to astute Republican businessmen: If a company has billions in asbestos claims against it, that might be a reason why it’s cheap.
dreggas
Regarding DiCaprio, I hated him in Titanic (hated the movie too), hated him in Romeo and Juliet (leave the fucking classics alone and quit modernizing them for the “duh generation” that doesn’t have a clue).
However he did make a good HH and he was really good in The Basketball Diaries.
Zifnab
Don’t forget the killing they made when FEMA handed them those no-bid contracts for Hurricane Katrina clean-up. And what a good job they’ve done. You should come down to Houston and ask all the ex-New Orleans residents what an abso-fucking-fantastic job they’ve done.
SPIIDERWEB™
I’m with Paddy O’Shea. I’ll be completely pissed if I don’t make it.
Then again, I don’t have nearly the high profile of Sean Penn.
ConservativelyLiberal
Krista Says:
I hope you don’t mind the minor clarification Krista… ;)
Newport 9
No, you can’t beat the Great Stalin when it comes to the perfect quote.
Btw, if Sean Hannity is reading this, I want him to consider me for his Enemy of the State list: I cite my work helping Sheldon Whitehouse win Lincoln Chafee’s senate seat.
Redhand
Too funny!
rachel
Now, If Stephen Colbert had thought of this “Enemy of the State” segment idea first, the only difference between his and Hannity’s version is that the first guest would have been…
Sean Penn! (Because it would be funnier to feature him rather than Osama bin Ladin or Carrot Top.)
Mr Furious
Of course you don’t, you dishonest hack. Apparently your fingertips must be incapable of typing “G-O-O-G-L-E”, because Penn’s quotes and entire columns on Iran are readily available.
HH
Three words: I Am Sam. The only movies in which he was not playing approximately the same character are as follows: the aforementioned crime against humanity, Fast Times at Ridgemont High and Sweet & Lowdown. Other than that, most people wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between his characters.