GOP raps Hollywood at convention

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NEW YORK, Aug. 31 (UPI) -- Hollywood took its lumps on the first day of the Republican National Convention from speakers including Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and actor Ron Silver.

McCain called "Fahrenheit 9/11" filmmaker Michael Moore "disingenuous," saying the alternative to war in Iraq was a greater threat from Iraq.

"Don't let anyone tell you otherwise," McCain said. "Not our critics abroad. Not our political opponents. And certainly not a disingenuous filmmaker who would have us believe that Saddam's Iraq was an oasis of peace when in fact it was a place of indescribable cruelty, torture chambers, mass graves and prisons that destroyed the lives of the small children held inside their walls."

Silver ("Ali," "The West Wing") identified himself as "a well-recognized liberal" on many issues, but criticized entertainment industry colleagues for opposing the war.

"I find it ironic that many human rights advocates and outspoken members of my own entertainment community are often on the front lines to protest repression, for which I applaud them," he said, "but they are usually the first ones to oppose any use of force to take care of these horrors that they catalog repeatedly."