Matt Damon: "The Bush Administration Disgusts Me"

Hollywood superstar Matt Damon lashed out at both the Bush Administration and Tinseltown while visiting France to promote his latest spy flick, "The Bourne Ultimatum," according to French broadcaster RTL.

In interviews for the French glossies Paris Match and Telerama, Damon said "After Iraq, the Bush Administration disgusts me," RTL presenter Thierry Guerrier told listeners Wednesday. Damon also criticized the President's handling of Hurricane Katrina.

And the Oscar- and Golden-Globe winning actor took aim at Hollywood as well, implying that Tinseltown's one-track mind was too depressing for him to stomach.

"I refuse to live there because the only subject of conversation is movies, and it's sad to only have that to talk about that."

Damon owns a home in Miami and has an apartment in New York.

These Weapons of Mass Destruction cannot be displayed

Hit and Myth: Poll Shows 1 in 3 Americans Still Believe Saddam Involved in 9/11

Six years after the 9/11 terror attacks on the U.S., it seems the media still have some educational work to do. A new CBS/New York Times poll reveals that even today, 1 in 3 Americans believe that "Saddam Hussein was personally involved in the September 11th, 2001, terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon."

This notion was thoroughly debunked by official sources, including those in the White House, years ago, but the myth endures. Polls have shown that belief in this untruth was a prime component in support for the attack on Iraq.

Four in 10 Republicans still hold this view, compared with 32% of Independents and 27% of Democrats.

MORE...

Ex-New Orleans prostitute says Sen. Vitter was a long-time client

BATON ROUGE, La. -- A former New Orleans prostitute who says she had an affair with U.S. Sen. David Vitter passed a lie detector test and will provide details of the four-month relationship on Tuesday at a press conference in Beverly Hills, according to publisher Larry Flynt.

Wendy Cortez alleges she had a sexual relationship with Vitter, R-La., in 1999 when he was a state representative in Louisiana's Legislature.

Flynt asked Cortez to take a lie detector test about the allegations after Vitter admitted links to a Washington escort service that federal prosecutors claim was a prostitution ring but denied having relationships with New Orleans prostitutes, according to a news release Monday announcing Flynt's press conference.

Copies of the polygraph test results for Cortez, whose real name is Wendy Ellis, will be provided to reporters, arrangers of the press conference said.

MORE...

Colin Powell on Barak Obama

From GQ's new interview with Colin Powell:

You've met with Barack Obama a couple of times and given him advice. Is it possible that you will support him?
I will give advice to any of the principal candidates. I've met with others, including John McCain and Rudy Giuliani. Barack called me and came by, and we had a long talk. Right before he decided to run, we talked again about the presidency and the type of decisions and problems that come in the middle of the night. I think he's a very impressive man, I think he's very smart, and I think he's going to be a formidable candidate.

Do you think he'd be a good president?
I don't want to start saying who would be a good president and who wouldn't. I will say that I don't see any among the major candidates who I think is unqualified to be president.

Would you be tempted to support Obama, even though he's a Democrat, because he would be transformational?
He is transformational because he is a black man who has become one of the leading candidates of a major party. That is exciting. It's transformational. But am I going to support him? I am going to be for who I think is the best person. Not the best Republican, not the best Democrat, not the best black guy or the best woman. I'm going to try to figure out who could best serve this country. And that's who I will be voting for.

Read the full interview here

Did Ol' Fred Just Shoot Himself in the Foot, um... Mouth?

From Jonathon Martin at Politico:

Fred wants 'due process' for bin Laden

Fred Thompson said today in South Carolina that Osama bin Laden should be granted "due process."

Speaking to reporters in Greenville, Thompson said the leader of Al Qaeda "needs to be located and killed."

But, according to the AP, the former senator said such a punishment shoudn't be immediately meted out.

''No, no, no, we've got due process to go through'' depending on the circumstances, he said. ''I'm not suggesting those things happen simultaneously.

"Thompson's spokesman didn't immediately reply to a question about what sort of due process the candidate thinks bin Laden should get.

On the campaign trail in Iowa Friday, Thompson downplayed the importance of capturing bin Laden, portraying him as a mere symbol, before saying later in the day that he wanted to see the terrorist leader caught and killed.

But his comments today, in military and veteran-heavy South Carolina, are even more puzzling. The prospect of granting anything but swift and final justice to bin Laden is anathema to the GOP.

Thompson may have been indicating that he wants to extract information out of bin Laden before killing him, but the words "due process" will remind many in the political world of similar language that got Howard Dean in trouble in 2003.

"I still have this old-fashioned notion that even with people like Osama, who is very likely to be found guilty, we should do our best not to, in positions of executive power, not to prejudge jury trials," Dean told the Concord Monitor as the Democratic primary heated up in late December of that year.

Dean clarified later that he wanted to see bin Laden killed, but the specter of offering a terrorist the sort of legal rights afforded a U.S. citizen was too good for the former Vermont governor's rivals to pass up.

READ MORE OF THIS ARTICLE AT POLITICO

The Real Rudy in 30 Seconds