'White House Rebuts Drudge Report Link' But Neglects to Show Disputed Videos

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In another display of adapting campaign tactics to governing, the White House posted a video on its official website Tuesday to rebut accusations that President Obama's healthcare proposals would do away with private health insurance.

The video shows White House spokeswoman Linda Douglass sitting in front of a computer monitor displaying the Drudge Report website.

Douglass says that because the president has talked so much about healthcare, he is at risk of having his words distorted by people with

"a computer and a lot of free time" who "take a phrase here and there, they simply cherry pick and put it together and make it sound like he's saying something that he didn't really say."

You mean Obama never said what he said in this video? Here is what he supposedly never said:

"I don't think we're going to be able to eliminate employer coverage immediately. There's going to be potentially some transition process..."

And here is what Obama said with greater specificity about his support for single payer in a 2003 speech to the AFL-CIO in another uncut, not cherry-picked, video which was left on both the Linda Douglass and Peter Nicholas cutting room floor:

"I happen to be a proponent of a single payer universal health care program. A single payer health care plan, a universal health care plan. And that’s what I’d like to see. But as all of you know, we may not get there immediately. Because first we have to take back the White House, we have to take back the Senate, and we have to take back the House."

Somehow Nicholas couldn't be bothered to report on what was actually said in these two videos in question.

Beam me up, Scotty. How do you answer charges when you simply ignore the facts presented in them? Only by pretending that what your lyin' eyes saw didn't happen. And both Douglass and Nicholas conveniently dropped those videos linked from the Drudge Report down the memory hole.

[So watch them {video}{video} yourself and ask; out of context? 'cherry-picked'?]

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image toon - 1st fnn hcare lbrty libs crpt reps othr msm - Dem says hcare questioners mob

Supreme Court rejects challenge to 'don't ask, don't tell' policy on gays in the military

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The Supreme Court on Monday turned down a challenge to the Pentagon policy forbidding gays and lesbians from serving openly in the military, granting a request by the Obama administration.

The court said it will not hear an appeal from former Army Capt. James Pietrangelo II, who was dismissed under the military's ''don't ask, don't tell'' policy. The appeals court in Boston earlier threw out the lawsuit

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The Place for Propaganda

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It's been a long time since MSNBC could pretend to be anything but a shill for liberal politicians, policies and causes. Any remaining doubts about that can be dispelled by surveying the network's recent coverage of the controversy over gays in the military.

Cable news' self-described "place for politics" covered the U.S. military's "don't ask, don't tell" administrative policy six different times between July 27 and July 29. Opponents of the current policy were able to state their case unchallenged, while network anchors made it clear that they were themselves in favor of allowing openly homosexual men and women to serve in the armed forces.

Not one defender of the current policy appeared in any of the pieces.

There are plenty of valid arguments to support retaining the current 'compromise' policy. MSNBC audiences just won't hear any of them.

For example, a July 30 Washington Times article reported that a survey conducted by the Military Officers Association of America, an organization made up of active-duty officers, reservists, military retirees and veterans, found that 68 percent said changing the law would have a negative effect on troop morale and military readiness.

Unsurprisingly, MSNBC failed to report that study, or other any other evidence of military officers' support for the current law. In March 2009 more than 1,000 retired flag and general officers signed a statement of support for the 1993 law.

The only play the letter received on MSNBC was a brief mention in 1 of the 6 airings.

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Jordan rejects American call to improve ties with Jewish state

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Washington - Jordan on Monday joined Saudi Arabia in publicly rejecting US appeals to improve relations with Israel to help restart Middle East peace talks, throwing a damper on President Barack Obama's administration's push for Arab support behind new negotiations....

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Mideast Peace Achieved

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Is it time for those who clamor for a Middle East peace to "declare victory and go home"? Two recent events in the region signal the answer.... [snip]

On July 5, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a warning to Lebanon:

"that Israel will hold the Lebanese government responsible for any attack launched from within the country's territory, including Hizbullah operations."

Israel-bashers who waited for the usual Hezb'allah bluster and threats were disappointed for none has been forthcoming. To the contrary;

[a] week after a group of 15 people carrying Lebanese and Hizbullah flags crossed into the Shaba Farms, the terror organization called on its followers... not to demonstrate in the area under Israeli control."

Also,

top Hizbullah and Amal officials made a commitment to the UN envoy in Lebanon not to organize rallies along the border with Israel and to block any attempt to demonstrate there.

And at the same time, in the West Bank, according to Ethan Bronner of the New York Times:

Seven months after Israel started a fierce three-week military campaign here to stop rockets from being fired on its southern communities, Hamas has suspended its use of rockets and shifted focus to winning support at home and abroad through cultural initiatives and public relations.

Of course, if Israel attacks Iran, all bets are off regarding Hezb'allah. But for now, all is quiet on the northern front. And the eastern front. And the southern front.

Today, amid all the "international community's" caterwauling about a supposed need for Israel to make substantial unilateral, self-endangering concessions "in the interest of Middle East peace, the chances of Israel being attacked by any of her neighbors right now is virtually nil. Which, in most people's definition, means, there is peace.

Unnoticed, unheralded, not even reported, under their very upturned noses, the international community's professed goal of a peaceful Middle East, at least relative to Israel, has been achieved.

Peace, finally, has come to the Middle East, and it came not through Barack Obama's and the international community's (and Neville Chamberlain's) prescription of "negotiation" and appeasement, but through Ronald Reagan's -- and Franklin Roosevelt's; and Harry Truman's and, yes, Tony Blair's -- prescription of peace through strength and the resolve to stand forthright against one's enemies.

That's the peace part. As for the prosperity...

[I.e., "do you know...?" the good news re: 'Palestine' due to the cessation of their hostilities toward Israel? Rhetorical given the above implied news blackout {being off the left-line message} - hence > Highly Recommended > ]

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image toon - 1st fnn islm gwot israel - Demonstrators welcomed to rally by terrorists

U.N. Global Food Shortage Survey

[HT:DT]

Last month a world-wide survey was conducted by the UN. The only question asked was:-

"Would you please give your honest opinion about solutions to the food shortage in the rest of the world?"

The survey was a huge failure because of the following:

In Eastern Europe they didn't know what "honest" meant.

In Western Europe they didn't know what "shortage" meant.

In Africa they didn't know what "food" meant.

In China they didn't know what "opinion" meant.

In the Middle East they didn't know what "solution" meant.

In South America they didn't know what "please" meant.

In the US they didn't know what "the rest of the world" meant.

And Finally: In Australia they hung up because they can't understand an Indian accent.

[I just post 'em folks]

The Secretive Villain Of Our Economic Decline

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We currently find ourselves in the worst economic crisis since the "Great Depression". If you have an inquiring mind, you have to ask "how did we get into such a mess?" We can point our fingers at many that are indeed guilty, such as Wall Street, the mortgage industry, cowardly politicians, and plain old fashioned "greed and dishonesty" and there is some truth to be found there. However, there is one entity that is not well understood by most of us, that lurks in the shadows and in reality has the greatest accountability here.

That entity is the Federal Reserve.

It is guilty for dereliction of duty in its entrusted job of maintaining a stable dollar and as a protector of economic stability

The Federal Reserve began in 1913. Its job was to be a protector of our monetary system. Since then, we have had many recessions, the Great Depression of the 1930s and our current debacle. Each and every single one of them can be traced to the Federal Reserve manipulating interest rates, to either higher or lower than what the free market has determined what that rate should be. The results are either inflationary artificial booms, (such as we saw with the housing boom these past few years with artificially low rates) or cycles of tight money and recession/depression.

The Federal Reserve's interference throws markets and interest rates out of balance. Although short term this may all seem to be "fine and dandy" there is always a longer term price to pay, and inevitably the "chickens come home to roost". The Federal Reserve has the tremendous ability to create money out of thin air, but with a cost, for all money creation, in the current system, is only created through the mechanism of DEBT. Money supply growth is thru the vehicle of loans. Like the personal abuse of credit cards, the compounding of interest on this debt lives long after the enjoyment of the purchase.

It may come as a surprise, but the Federal Reserve, in spite of its name, is actually a privately owned cartel and is only a "quasi governmental agency". It is actually owned by its member banks, which hold its stock. The primary dealers are the well known entities such as UBS, Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, Credit Suisse etc. These business entities harvest the benefits of interest debt and inflation, and are "insiders" to the mechanisms and directions of this process. Realize that much of the "bailout" that was given to banks by the Federal Reserve was actually authorized by these very same banks themselves as members of the Federal Reserve! Talk about a conflict of interest!

The Founding Fathers knew that unbacked paper money would ruin our beloved and hard fought for country, and they put into the Constitution the way that would ensure a sound, commodity-backed currency. Unfortunately, the Constitution was dismissed and ignored a long time ago. We find ourselves now suffering under an unconstitutional regime of bogus paper money.

Until we abolish the Federal Reserve, and its severe conflicts of interest, and return to a true stable currency that will not create boom and bust cycles, we will continue down the path of economic manipulation, bubble markets, and our debt slavery to the banking system.


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image toon - mny sclm bbro = Kid to dad re 250K$ welfare not enough

"PELOSI JOBS TAX" PAIRS UP WITH OBAMACARE

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Last week, the Wall Street Journal noted that the House health care bill places an 8 percent payroll tax on small businesses with payrolls of $400,000 or more that do not provide health insurance for their employees.

In addition, individual workers would have to pay a 2.5-percent tax on gross income if they do not buy the health insurance the government mandates.

What people do not realize is that whether an employer offers health benefits is generally a function of how badly the employees want those benefits and if they are willing to forego wages in return.

Labor and health economists both have documented that health benefits are essentially part of an employee's compensation -- employers do not pay for that, workers do.

That is why minimum-wage workers in small businesses will be hit the hardest -- they will either be laid off, or in many cases not get the job because their skills are too marginal to afford the cost of a Cadillac health plan.

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POLL: 54% Favor Middle Class Tax Cuts Over New Health Care Spending

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Fifty-four percent (54%) of U.S. voters say tax cuts for the middle class are more important than new spending for health care reform -- even as President Obama’s top economic advisers signal that tax hikes on the middle class may be necessary to pay for their plan.

Thirty-four percent (34%) disagree and say new spending for health care reform is more important. Twelve percent (12%) are not sure.

The partisan and ideological divide on the question is sizable. Fifty-eight percent (58%) of Democrats say new spending for health care reform is the priority. But 80% of Republicans and 62% of voters not affiliated with either party favor tax cuts for the middle class...

[Baloney; they're all right-wing-extremists who have been paid to answer that way.]

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Obama Officials Don't Dismiss Possibility of New Taxes

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President Obama may have to break his campaign pledge and raise taxes on middle-class Americans to pay for public health care and the growing deficit, an eventuality that administration officials touched lightly on Sunday as they attempted to describe the economy emerging from recession...

[The news is the 'attempted to describe' per a major news outlet. Methinks even the media is catching on...]

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image toon - mny = Oby's change = Spend THEN tax..

The Myth of the Expert

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It's time to explode the Myth of the Expert and the disinterested scientist, because scientists are part of the problem in climate science

Last week Steve McIntyre of the Climate Audit website cracked the walls of the fortress at Britain's Climatic Research Unit. A "mole" sent him a sample of global temperature data that CRU Director Dr. Phil Jones had refused to share with the climate audit community. By Sunday Christopher Booker had reported the news in the Daily Telegraph.

For some reason government scientists like Dr. Jones that get millions in government research grants are considered to be disinterested experts. Yet anyone who has ever taken a dime from an oil company is bought and paid for.

Of course that is nonsense. To politicians, scientists are just another interest group competing for favors. It's pay to play. To get their grant money scientists need to deliver science that helps argue for bigger government. And they do, especially in the climate sciences.

Climate scientists like Michael Mann of Penn State University and the "Hockey Stick," James Hansen of NASA's Goddard Institute of Space Studies and Phil Jones of CRU are not disinterested experts. It's perfectly obvious when you watch Steve McIntyre audit their work.

The climate scientists don't respond to McIntyre like disinterested experts. They act like politicians looking for a fight... [snip]

But there is hope...

[Recommended > ]

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Government study finds climate bill would cost jobs

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Despite President Obama's prediction that it will create new jobs, the global warming bill passed by the House of Representatives will mean fewer jobs by 2030 than if Congress did not act at all, according to the first comprehensive study of the measure by the federal government.

The Energy Information Administration report, requested by the two Democrats who wrote the House bill, says the short-term economic consequences are considerable, especially as rapid increase in energy prices causes the economy to contract.

The House passed its bill June 26 on a 219-212 vote, and a week later Mr. Obama said the legislation

"holds the promise of millions of new jobs -- jobs, by the way, that can't be outsourced"

But the EIA report, in a chart examining employment, reports that if the bill were implemented, employment in the manufacturing sector would suffer a 2.5 percent drop in jobs... [snip]

According to the worst-case scenario [assuming you didn't work in one of the above destroyed manufacturing jobs] -- if technology doesn't 'materialize' [!] and other countries refuse to cooperate on offsets -- consumer prices could be 14 percent higher than they would otherwise be without the 'global warming' bill...

[And on and on - it's economic suicide -- prepare for a 24/7 MSM blizzard of coverage on this report...]

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State prepares for climate change

CALIFORNIA

Along with California's efforts to crack down on its own greenhouse gas emissions, state officials have begun preparing for the worst: heat waves, a rising sea level, flooding, wildlife die-offs and other expected consequences from what scientists predict will be a dramatic temperature increase by the end of this century.

California's Natural Resources Agency on Monday issued the nation's first statewide plan to "adapt" to climate change...

[They plan to adapt to future changes. Now there's a plan. Don't laugh, you're actually paying for this idiocy.]

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image toon c-art - mny cali = California IOU Flag

A Success In Mexico

[July 27]

Border: Last week, a U.S. agent was murdered in cold blood by Mexican traffickers. But something different occurred in the aftermath: Mexican cops swiftly arrested the thugs. It shows the value of the Merida drug pact

The barbaric criminals who murdered Border Patrol officer Robert Rosas last Thursday showed absolutely no regard for human life or the sovereignty of the United States.

What's worse, they thought it was easy to shoot an American agent investigating their drug and alien smuggling operations, slither back across the border, and get away with it.

After all, that's pretty much how border crimes have worked in the last few decades. Banditos have always known where to run.

But this time, the thugs were in for a surprise...

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Obama's war on Sherrif Joe Arpaio

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You may have heard of Maricopa County, AZ Sheriff Joe Arpaio who has been a one man border enforcement machine - doing the job the feds refuse to do.

Well, Joe got himself in a spot of trouble with Obama administration immigration enforcement officials at Homeland Security by rounding up 13 illegal immigrants and trying to deliver them to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency.

One would think that ICE would be grateful to Sheriff Joe for doing their work for them. Not according to this editorial in the Washington Times. It seems that in the end, Joe was forced to let the illegals go - and ICE lied about the reason why:

Sheriff Arpaio blamed ICE. However, Matthew Chandler, Washington-based spokesman for the federal Department of Homeland Security (ICE's parent agency), issued a statement saying that "the determination to release these individuals lies solely within the [sheriff's office].... [On July 23], ICE gave the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office permission to interview the three individuals in question, arrest, and initiate removal proceedings -- instead Sheriff Arpaio released them."

Homeland Security's story doesn't pan out. The sheriff's deputies taped the calls to ICE. The recordings show that ICE repeatedly refused permission to take custody of the illegals.

"Right now we cannot authorize you to take her into custody," an ICE official said to one deputy about a woman who had admitted to being illegal. On another call, ICE said: "The only way we can [authorize detainment] is if he has a criminal record." A frustrated deputy replied, "We're just gonna kick him loose then." ICE said: "OK."

The obvious misinformation from the administration might be dismissed ordinarily as a spokesman's one-time goof except that it follows a pattern of misbehavior by Obama appointees that seems intended to undercut the controversial sheriff.

On May 29, Arpaio attorney Robert N. Driscoll, former chief of staff at the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department, sent a complaint letter to both Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano.

His letter, amply documented, accuses the two federal departments of "a serious violation of ethical standards of conduct" with regard to three federal "investigations" into Sheriff Arpaio's practices...

Within weeks of Obama taking office, three separate federal investigations were begun by the feds looking into Sheriff Joe's administration. And now we have Homeland Security lying through its teeth and trying to blame him for them not doing their job?

No politicizing going on in law enforcement here - move along...

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FLASHBACKS:

• Al Sharpton vs. Sheriff Joe: The Hypocrite vs. The Patriot

• Ideology versus Competence

• Harassing A Lawman

LESSONS FROM MASSACHUSETTS

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The Massachusetts experiment in health care reform offers many lessons that are applicable to the current debate in Congress. The goals of the Massachusetts plan are similar to proposals supported by Democratic congressional leaders and the Obama administration: universal health insurance coverage through greater access to health insurance.

The Obama proposals would use similar means to achieve these goals: requiring individuals to purchase insurance and creating an "insurance exchange" where they can buy heavily regulated, heavily subsidized health insurance.

The Massachusetts reform, however, has raised costs, not lowered them.

The state has indeed lowered the number of uninsured dramatically -- down to 2.6 percent of the population by some estimates. But it has done so in a very expensive way that does nothing to control costs.

The state was able to get the federal government to pay for much of these new costs, but even with that help, state government spending has increased 42 percent since 2006.
The Massachusetts program has cost about one-third more than projected when the law was passed.

In just two years under the Massachusetts reforms, from 2005 to 2007, health care spending per capita rose an additional 23 percent.

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'They May Not Know What's Good For Them'

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The poor, benighted little people. They just don't understand what a wonderful hopey-changey world Pres. Obama is offering them . . .

Andrea Mitchell has suggested that the problem Pres. Obama is facing in selling his health care plan to Americans who already have coverage is that people "may not know what's good for them."

Mitchell made her condescending comment on today's Morning Joe. [snip]

Condescension seems to be in the MSNBC air. Yesterday, we noted Chris Matthews, surprised that Sgt. James Crowley could handle a press conference, calling him "our Susan Boyle." Now this.

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image toon - hcare = Dr. Oby = 2nd opinion too risky

SPIN METER: 'Help Wanted' counting stimulus jobs

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PORTLAND, Ore. – How much are politicians straining to convince people that the government is stimulating the economy? In Oregon, where lawmakers are spending $176 million to supplement the federal stimulus, Democrats are taking credit for a remarkable feat: creating 3,236 new jobs in the program's first three months.

But those jobs lasted on average only 35 hours, or about one work week. After that, those workers were effectively back unemployed, according to an Associated Press analysis of state spending and hiring data. By the state's accounting, a job is a job, whether it lasts three hours, three days, three months, or a lifetime.

With the economy in tatters and unemployment rising, Oregon's inventive math underscores the urgency for politicians across the country to show that spending programs designed to stimulate the economy are working — even if that means stretching the facts...

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Labour's Lies Have Brought the UK to Ruin

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Labour's rhetoric on immigration is a colossal exercise in deceit. Ministers are fond of talking tough, endlessly boasting of “crackdowns” and “robust new rules” on entry. But in reality they have presided over the wilful collapse of our borders and the destruction of our British identity.

Over the past 12 years, the Government has been engaged in a vicious cultural war against the concept of British patriotism...

[Are we paying attention?]

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image toon - vals bdd othr lbrty Lucy Liberal sees all Oby's cliches in mainstream Americans

Current House Committee Chairs are More to the Left Than Any Time In History

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In a Democratic caucus that is to the left of America, the most powerful committee chairmen in the House - just like House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) - are to the left of the majority of Democrats.

This study by RealClearPolitics shows that the current House committee chairmen are more liberal than the Democratic rank and file than at any time in history.

Time and partisan drawing of districts have elevated a group of liberal congressmen, who were first elected over 30 years ago in response to Watergate and the Vietnam War, to the most powerful positions in the House.

• Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, was elected to Congress in 1975.
• Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-N.Y.), the chairman of the all-powerful House Ways and Means Committee, entered Congress in 1971.
• Rep. Pete Stark (D-Calif.), chairman of the health subcommittee of Ways and Means, was elected in 1971.
• And Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), chairman of the Financial Services Committee, has been in Congress since 1981.

After over 30 years of service, these hard-left members of Congress see their last chance to transform our health care system from a largely private system to a government-run system.

That's why they attacked the fiscally conservative Blue Dog Democrats for objecting to the high taxing, big government provisions of the House health care bill.

And it's why they are pressuring President Obama not to compromise now.

They have power and they have clout. And if America is telling President Obama to slow down and reconsider his health reform plans, these powerful House committee chairmen are telling him to go full speed ahead, never mind what the people think.

President Obama faces a choice.

At American Solutions we stand ready to help develop a bipartisan, pro-small business economic growth plan that could be passed when Congress returns in September.

At the Center for Health Transformation we stand ready to develop a bipartisan, market-based health reform plan that delivers more choices of high quality health care at a lower cost - without raising taxes.

Will President Obama hear the message of the American people and work with centrists -- even though it will cause his leftwing to attack him?

Or will he listen to Senator Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and ram through the programs that have the support of the Left but are opposed by the country?

It's his choice.

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image toon - engry mny - WAXMAN opposed to energy and commerce

Seven Time Mag Covers Since Election for Obama

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Time magazine's August 10 edition with President Barack Obama on the cover (“Paging Dr. Obama”) brings to seven the number of issues the magazine's cover has featured Obama just since November's election -- make that eight for the First Family if you add in June 1's genuflecting “The Meaning of Michelle.”

The frequent cover appearances led even Jon Stewart, a Bush-hater who was thrilled by Obama's election, to quip Thursday night on his Comedy Central show:

“Time magazine is like O magazine, like Obama has to be on the cover -- it is like Oprah magazine. I think he's been on like thirty times this year.”

Well, not thirty, at least not yet, though at about once per month Time will hit thirty Obama covers well before the 2012 vote...

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Stunt Goes Boldly Where No Green Vandals Have Gone Before

.Greenpeace and Canadian-born actor William Shatner joined forces against Hewlett-Packard (NYSE:HPQ) and accused the company of "breaking green promises" for not producing products completely free of PVC plastic and brominated flame retardants. Activists from the radical environmental group painted a giant message on the roof of Hewlett-Packard's headquarters in Palo Alto, Calif. that read "Hazardous Products."

And in addition to the rooftop graffiti, Greenpeace set up an automated message to dial HP employee's numbers and then play them a recorded message from Shatner.

A representative from HP told the Business and Media Institute

"The unconstructive antics at HP's headquarters did nothing to advance the goals that all who care about the environment share, ... HP has recycled one billion pounds of electronic products from 1987-2007..."

Go green[er] or have your private business robocalled and vandalized.

HP declined to comment on the possibility of pressing charges against Greenpeace.

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[A case of children (not yet) raised on two Spocks; Mr. Spock & Dr. Spock.
Seriously, we know why Shatner's out of work

but can't any of these Greenpeaceniks find constructive employment?]

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image toon - 1st fnn mny = Congress = support clunker clunker plan

Obama refuses to release data on 'cash for clunkers'

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The Obama administration is refusing to release U.S. government records on its "cash for clunkers" rebate program that would substantiate -- or undercut -- claims of the car purchase program's success.

President Barack Obama wants $2 billion more to boost car sales just days after the first $1 billion was made available for the program. Obama has promised greater transparency for his administration, but transportation officials say they do not have time to turn over sales data car dealers have provided that would shed light on the program.

The information released so far shows most buyers are not picking Ford, Chrysler or General Motors vehicles, and six of the top 10 vehicles purchased are Honda, Toyota and Hyundai.

The Associated Press has sought release of the data since last week.

[A new era of transparency.]

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image toon - c-art sclm bbro bdd crpt = Oby's transparent oval office windows bricked up

POLL: 54% Oppose More Money for ‘Cash for Clunkers’ Program

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Fifty-four percent (54%) of Americans oppose any further funding for the federal "cash for clunkers" program which encourages the owners of older cars to trade them in for newer, more fuel-efficient ones. A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that just 33% of adults think Congress should authorize additional funding to keep the program going now that the original $950 million allocated for it has run out.

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Reid: 'Shall Pass' Clunker Extension Before Recess

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Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said he has votes to extend "Cash for Clunkers," ensuring that the popular program will receive a $2 billion extension before Congress leaves for the recess.

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image toon - 1st fnn mny = USam wheelbarrel's Capitol to Clunkers program

Made in the USA Jihad

Everything the sociologists are saying about terrorists is wrong

This week's arrest of seven North Carolina residents, including Daniel Boyd and his two sons, on charges of supporting terrorism and conspiracy to commit murder abroad, showed how the problem of homegrown Islamic terrorism is far more rampant than the media or the public is aware of. Just look at the major cases in the past year alone:

• The convert from Long Island who joined al Qaeda (disclosed this past week) and gave the group information about Long Island trains and New York City's subways.
• The plot to blow up two synagogues and a National Guard plane in upstate New York by prison converts (scheduled to go to trial).
• The plot to kill hundreds of soldiers at Fort Dix by assimilated American Muslims living here 25 years (all convicted).
• The plot to operate a terrorist training camp in Oregon (pleaded guilty).
• The plot to blow up buildings by the Liberty City 7 (all convicted).
• The sweeping conviction of Hamas officials for conspiring to support terrorism overseas.
• The cases of young Somali teenagers raised in the U.S. going overseas to become suicide bombers.
  

The Boyd case in North Carolina proves that radical Islamic ideology transcends economic class problems as has been claimed by pointy-headed sociologists.

The Boyd family was white, had a middle-class existence, and had the economic opportunities afforded all Americans—just like most of the terrorists cited above—and yet chose to engage in jihad to the point that Daniel Boyd was willing to send his two kids on suicide missions to Israel.

In the end, the mainstream media refuses to recognize that the "mainstream" Islamic groups are actually radical organizations that teach and imbue their followers with a hatred of the United States and Israel.

These groups front as civil-rights groups, but in fact are radical Islamic groups whose constant message disseminated to the millions of Muslim followers is that the U.S. is an evil country engaged in a war against Islam.

Once that message takes hold—and after all, these groups control the mosques, the Islamic newspapers, the Islamic schools, and the Islamic leadership from which American Muslims and converts get their ideas about the world—it is not a huge leap for some of them to become committed to violent jihad.

And it is up to all of the citizens of the U.S. to admit that yes, there is a problem of Muslim terrorism right here in our country and to call it by its proper name.

That the FBI stopped all these plots is amazing, but they will never continue to bat a thousand. One of these days, the jihadists will succeed.

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CIA Documents Will Show Enhanced Techniques Worked

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The ranking Republican on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence told CNSNews.com that releasing Central Intelligence Agency documents describing the effectiveness of the enhanced interrogation techniques that the CIA used on a few high-level terrorist detainees would show that these techniques worked.

Rep. Pete Hoekstra (R.-Mich.) said that he had called several months ago for these documents to be released, a proposal that has been pushed by former Vice President Dick Cheney.

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image toon - gwot nsec = CIA feels like geldings

The Religion of Peace

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Hamas launches 'virtue campaign' in Gaza
Shopkeepers in the Gaza Strip have been ordered to remove lingerie from their windows as part of a ''virtue campaign'' launched by Hamas.The Islamic group has also told female lawyers to wear headscarves in court and teenagers have been ordered to stop playing ''suggestive'' modern music.
.....Hamas have been patrolling the beach asking men to cover up bear chests and separating groups of single people congregating together...
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Nigerians count cost after uprising by Islamic sect
Maiduguri, Nigeria - Samuel Yunana's father, Fayam, was taken from his home, stabbed in the side of the stomach and told to convert to Islam. When he refused, his throat was slit.
.....Fayam was among more than 700 people killed in the northern Nigerian city of Maiduguri during an uprising last week by a radical Islamic sect which wants sharia (Islamic law) imposed across Africa's most populous nation...
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Hizbullah TV network gets okay to air in Australia
Hizbullah-sponsored TV network Al-Manar TV has been granted permission to broadcast in Australia, after having been banned on two occasions.
.....Dr. Colin Rubenstein, executive director of the Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council, said the decision Friday by the Australian Communications & Media Authority that Al-Manar TV did not violate government anti-terror laws was ' ''regrettable, if unsurprising''...
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image toon = islm gwot = Taliban Camel's nose in Pakistan's tent

Clinton's Unwise Trip to North Korea

John Bolton

Former president Clinton was met at Pyongyang's airport by notables led by Kim Kye Gwan, the North's long-time chief nuclear negotiator, an unmistakable symbol of linkage. In Pyongyang's view, the two reporters are pawns in the larger game of enhancing the regime's legitimacy and gaining direct access to important U.S. figures.

The reporters' arrest, show trial and subsequent imprisonment (twelve years hard labor) was hostage taking, essentially an act of state terrorism. So the Clinton trip is a significant propaganda victory for North Korea, whether or not he carried an official message from President Obama.

Despite decades of bipartisan U.S. rhetoric about not negotiating with terrorists for the release of hostages, it seems that the Obama administration not only chose to negotiate, but to send a former president to do so.

While the United States is properly concerned whenever its citizens are abused or held hostage, efforts to protect them should not create potentially greater risks for other Americans in the future.

Yet that is exactly the consequence of visits by former presidents or other dignitaries as a form of political ransom to obtain their release. Iran and other autocracies are presumably closely watching the scenario in North Korea.

With three American hikers freshly in Tehran's captivity, will Clinton be packing his bags again for another act of obeisance? And, looking ahead, what American hostages will not be sufficiently important to merit the presidential treatment?

The point to be made on the Clinton visit is that the knee-jerk impulse for negotiations above all inevitably brings more costs than its advocates foresee. Negotiating from a position of strength, where the benefits to American interests will exceed the costs, is one thing.

Negotiating merely for the sake of it, in the face of palpable recent failures, is something else indeed...

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image toon 1st fnn - gwot nsec = NKorea's twitter being followed by all bad guys

LEAVE SWISS BANKS ALONE

Swiss financial privacy laws respect the privacy of citizens, unlike the "Orwellian" systems in places like America

In Switzerland, financial privacy laws are a foundation for individual dignity and basic property rights.

Unfortunately, the confidentiality that is the hallmark of Swiss banking is coming under increasing pressure. The global economic crisis has led some governments to intensify efforts to seek tax revenue abroad -- and Switzerland, which accounts for nearly 30 percent of all offshore private wealth, is a natural target. Earlier this year:

• Switzerland was put on a "gray list" by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and threatened with financial sanctions, leading the government to provisionally renegotiate tax agreements with a dozen countries so far.
• Most of those agreements would require Switzerland to hand over individuals' financial information for tax purposes in accordance with the organization's standards.
• The United States Justice Department went even further and filed a lawsuit against UBS, seeking the names of 52,000 account holders suspected of hiding money from the Internal Revenue Service.

Switzerland, which is home to an impressive number of global corporations, has also come under fire from the European Union for offering too-favorable tax rules, including exemptions for income earned abroad.

Today, Swiss citizens continue to vote on any tax increases in referendums (and sometimes even accept them). These healthy curbs on government contrast with the Orwellian concept of the "transparent citizen" whose every act is known to government.

[Again and again: liberal-progressive governments think it's their money...]

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Dad fined for belting man wooing his child

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A Blenheim father has been convicted and fined $1000 for assaulting a man who wanted to have sex with his 13-year-old daughter.

Defence lawyer Michael Hardy Jones told the Blenheim District Court yesterday that the May 5 assault occurred after the defendant and his wife had tried other ways of keeping the man away from their daughter.

[We've a legal crisis in this country.]

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Could bar stools be next?

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Could bar stools and pool cues be next to be banned from Queensland pubs and clubs, following the State Government's decision to replace glass with plastic cups in some bars.

In March, Treasurer Andrew Fraser said some Queensland licensees had taken voluntary action to make '''glass alternatives''' available to patrons...

[It doesn't stop until stopped.]

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AP Finally Discovers 'Head-Snapping' U.S. Receipts Dive

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Well, it only took them about 3-1/2 months.


Yours truly and others have since April noted a precipitous and likely historic dive in Uncle Sam's monthly collections. Year-over-year declines actually began last summer. The degree of monthly fall-offs has gotten "progressively" worse since then.

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Higher Costs Spur Rise in Spending

[Credit where due; from the NYT {even a blind squirrel...}]

The broader economy may be testing the bottom, but for American consumers, there appears to be no end yet in sight for falling wages and higher living expenses. That was the picture painted Tuesday by the government’s monthly report on personal incomes and consumer spending.

While consumers spent more in June, they did so because prices of food and energy were rising, and not because they were ready to spend freely again...

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Green Jobs: Fast-tracking Economic Suicide

The sobering real world economic realities for "countries like Spain, Germany and Japan" who "surged ahead"

It's a shame that members of the US Congress that voted for the recent Cap and Trade Climate Bill did not bother to check up on the economic realities which are causing European states to back away from expensive alternative energy commitments and the ‘green job' creation schemes associated with them by inserting all manner of substance-emptying ‘get-out' clauses into EU cap and trade plans.

Germany's Angela Merkel has already insisted on major exemptions for German heavy industry come December's ‘definitive' global climate summit in Copenhagen. Bizarrely, for a so-called ‘Green Chancellor', Merkel's government is also supporting the building of 26 new coal-fired power plants across Germany.

Italy also rocked the EU climate boat by insisting on exemptions for its own energy-intensive industries at the turn of the year. Most significantly, it is an exemption that requires the EU to renegotiate Europe's entire climate policy after the UN summit in December -- effectively, giving Italy a veto. [and after the US has signed up to lunacy without such veto clauses]

In June, deputy head of Poland's Solidarity trade union, Jaroslaw Grzesik, estimated that the EU's climate policy would cost 800,000 European jobs. The think-tank Open Europe has already estimated that the same policies will cost the UK $9 billion a year, leaving an additional 1 million people in poverty by 2020.

Cited as a role model nation by President Obama in Januaray 2009, Spain is the only country to have produced an in-depth analysis of the impact of renewables on the jobs market.

The Study of the effects on employment of public aid to renewable energy sources was published by a team at the Universidad Rey Juan Carlos in March, 2009, and though largely ignored by the mainstream press [but not the amateur press*], its findings were damning. Here are just a few:

• "Despite its hyper-aggressive (expensive and extensive) ‘green jobs' policies ... Spain has created a surprisingly low number of jobs."
• "Since 2000 Spain has spent €571,138 ($800K) to create each ‘green job', including subsidies of more than €1million ($1.4million) per wind industry job."
• "The programs creating those jobs also resulted in the destruction of nearly 110,500 jobs elsewhere in the economy or 2.2. jobs destroyed for every ‘green job' created."
• "Each ‘green' megawatt installed destroys 5.28 jobs on average elsewhere in the economy: 8.99 by photovoltaics (solar), 4.27 by wind energy, 5.05 by mini-hydro."
• 
  

The report concludes, "Policymakers must recognize that because of government action, other jobs are not created." And, most significantly for international consumption, "These costs do not appear to be unique to Spain's approach but instead are largely inherent in schemes to promote renewable energy sources."

If Obama & Co. were to remove their green-tinted glasses for just a moment and take a long hard look at the European experience they profess to cite as ‘proven', they would discover those glasses have been rose-tinted all along.

[Ah, but saving mother Gaia isn't really their objective...]

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*FLASHBACK >

Thursday, April 16, 2009
Spain’s green jobs boondoggle
Every “green job” created with government money in Spain over the last eight years came at the cost of 2.2 regular jobs, and only one in10 of the newly created green jobs became a permanent job,

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imag toon - grn engry - C&T pills: over 47M bought it

HEALTH "REFORM" THAT ISN'T

Despite the rhetoric, health care costs will rise under the President Obama's "reform"

The health care conundrum involves a contradiction that the administration steadfastly obscures: in the short run, government cannot both insure the uninsured and rein in health spending:

• The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) judges that the cost would be $1 trillion over the decade; of that, $239 billion would add to the budget deficit.
• Worse, the costs would rise faster than the sources of financing, including a tax on the wealthy; in 2019, the deficit would be $65 billion.
• Assuming that deficit rises four percent a year, the cumulative shortfall in the second decade would total $800 billion.

Judged objectively, such 'reform' may do exactly the opposite of what Obama says. It would bloat spending, not restrain it.

But because the president is so well spoken, he has the ability to make misleading statements sound reasonable or sophisticated... [and go unchallenged by our professional media]

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Alinsky-in-August Offensive

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Alinsky Rule #13:

Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it.

Nancy Pelosi, last Thursday:

"It's almost immoral what they are doing," Pelosi said to reporters, referring to insurance companies. "Of course they've been immoral all along in how they have treated the people that they insure," she said, adding, "They are the villains. They have been part of the problem in a major way. They are doing everything in their power to stop a public option from happening."

On Friday, The Hill intercepted a top-secret, Dem communiqué that spelled out the battle plan for the Alinsky-in-August MediCoup offensive, echoing Imperious Nancy's salvo at the insurance companies, the now-to-be targeted "villain."

The Democrats' war strategy is simple and, of course, it's pure Alinsky. Target the insurance companies and make them out to be reprobate wretches of the most vile, greedy, Simon-Legree sort imaginable. We are sure to be treated to ads, which feature purely hair-raising "robber-baron-rips-off-Harry&Louise" tales of insurance company bad guys.

Setting up the battle lines, Pelosi told the NYT what the so-called enemies of the little people will do in August:

"This is going to be carpet bombing," she said. "Carpet bombing, slash and burn, shock and awe - anything you want to say to describe what the insurance companies will do to hold on to their special advantage, which exploits the patients and holds the American consumer at the mercy of the insurance company."

But, so far, none of the Democrats' tactics has worked all that well in convincing a wary public to just trust them to know what's best for all our healthcare.

When 83% of Americans are quite happy with the healthcare they have, then convincing them to let go of it for the obviously-fools-gold "public option" is an up-hill battle, as the Dems have finally figured out.

So, they will employ their usual politics-by-fear, and fill the airwaves with individual stories about evil insurers denying coverage, and plant the fear that the same will happen to you without the MediCoup solution... [snip]

When every single Democrat Congressperson and their President signs a pledge to be the first enrollees in their "public option" health insurance scheme, then, and only then, will we be willing to talk about reform. Because, at the moment, we -- Harry & Louise Q. Citizens -- are the only ones with any skin in this game and we're feeling mighty burned.

Besides, it's hard to trust an insurance salesman who hasn't even read the policy, now isn't it?

[And according to Gibbs yesterday, has no intention of ever reading what Congress eventually asks for his signature on.]

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image toon - crpt reps libs hcare - Book report without reading it

Obama Joker Poster Popping Up In Los Angeles

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Have you seen this poster?

Apparently, it's beginning to appear in odd places in Los Angeles, but nobody seems to know who's responsible for it.

Radio host Tammy Bruce posted some pictures of this odd creation at her blog Saturday morning (h/t Pamela Geller) leading me to investigate further.

At this point, all I could find on the subject was an April 25 article from Bedlam Magazine:

A poster of Barack Obama in Heath Ledger-style Joker make-up with the legend 'Socialism' beneath it has been popping up recently on surfaces around L.A. It does not appear to be in the same category as the many benign take-offs on the Shepard Fairey 'Hope' poster, such as the one by Australian James Lillis (more of a straightforward spoof that merely substituted a Shepardized image of Heath Ledger as Joker on the Obama poster).

The ObamaJoker poster has also been seen in Hollywood.

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Obama Joker Poster Stirs Outrage, Bush Joker Poster Not So Much

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Not surprisingly, the Obama Joker Poster reported by NewsBusters Saturday is already drawing some outrage.

According to a television station where the posters have been spotted,

"Los Angeles Urban Policy Roundtable President Earl Ofari Hutchinson is calling the depiction, politically mean spirited and dangerous."

Hmmm. I wonder where the Los Angeles Urban Policy Roundtable was when Vanity Fair published this last July:

And where was their outrage when the Village Voice published this on the cover of its October 26, 2004, issue:

In reality, if I wanted to, I could likely produce hundreds of disgusting drawings of Bush, Cheney, and others in their Administration plastered at publications across the fruited plain the last eight years.

That was acceptable commentary and political satire - back then.

Now that Obama is in the White House, it's called "mean-spirited and dangerous"??

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‘jOker’: When the Left’s Scared They Scream ‘Racist’

Naturally those who enjoyed (and created) all the “art” and pop culture used to demonize and dehumanize George W. Bush (whoops!) are now crying “racism” with the turning of the tables. They’re worried, and this hollow cry is all they got because who knows better the power of this kind of imagery than those who have been using it for decades to further their goals of enslaving entire populations under the cruel yoke of Big Government.

Yesterday, when the “L.A. Weekly” went all crybaby over the Obama-Joker poster, they must have known that they themselves had published a cover portraying Bush as a blood-thirsty vampire. But all’s fair in love and war and this is ideological war where hypocrisy is a weapon, not something to be ashamed of.

The Left wants Obama-Joker nipped in the bud, and their goal is to stigmatize it as something racist before it shows up on t-shirts all over the country — before it catches fire.

Like Zorro with his “Z,” this artist strikes anonymously — and who can blame the desire for anonymity. No one even knows who this person is (he or she might be an Obama fan who thinks the posters are cool), and already the “R-Word” has been thrown about. Imagine if this individual is found to be anti-Obama.

Remember Politico digging up dirt on a private citizen who merely asked Obama a question; the coordinated attack on Sarah Palin’s family courtesy of Hollywood and the media? Hell, Carrie Prejean agreed with Obama on gay marriage and look what they did to her. No, anonymity is probably a good idea.

Here’s another reason to stay in the shadows — a political reason:

When Obama has no one to attack, he must address the issue of his socialist policies directly, instead of attacking critics (or more accurately, using the media to do it for him). Personally, I hope the artist is a little, old, African American lady from Compton.

Personally, I hope the first person to give me a hard time over my Obama-Joker t-shirt is wearing something Leftist-approved, like something found here.

That kind of irony doesn’t come along every day.

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The Great Lie: ‘Americanism’ Doesn’t Sell Overseas

If you think the national news media is biased, spend some time rummaging through the world of entertainment news.

Today’s L.A. Times piece about the marketing of “G.I. Joe” has an especially priceless whopper:

"Yet overseas, where big action films often earn 60% or more of their ticket sales, rah-rah American sentiment doesn’t play well."

The Great Lie told by Leftist Hollywood and the media who shill for them is that in order to make money the likes and dislikes of an “international” audience must be considered, and international audiences loathe Americanism.

Let’s see how that’s working out with some overseas numbers for a few “big action films.”

To excuse the stripping of Superman’s Americanism (and masculinity), a lot of fanfare was made over the need for “Superman Returns” to appeal to the foreign box office, and yet the film bombed both here and abroad, making only $191 million overseas.

Compare that to the international box-office for Sam Raimi’s ”Spider-Man” trilogy, which never shied from its hero’s unique Americanism or an iconic shot of the stars and stripes:

Spider-Man: $418 million [ *-all]
Spider-Man II: $410 million
Spider-Man III: $554 million

Here’s the international box-office for some “big action” films from the last fifteen years unafraid, and in some cases proud, of their Americanism:

National Treasure: $174 million
National Treasure II: $237 million
Pearl Harbor: $251 million
Armageddon: $352 million
Independence Day: $511 million
I Am Legend: $329 million
Hancock: $396 million

At best, Leftists can argue “pro rah-rah” is a box-office wash outside the states, but “anti-rah-rah” has zero appeal to international audiences, and yet Hollywood refuses to stop making them.

Here are the overseas numbers for those with so-called “bankable” stars attached:

Lions for Lambs: $43 million
In the Valley of Elah: $22 million
Rendition: $17 million
Stop-Loss: $291 thousand
Body of Lies: $75 million
A Mighty Heart: $9 million
Grace is Gone: $887 thousand

Don’t confuse my argument here. I am not saying ”rah-rah American sentiment” does sell overseas What I’m arguing is that it’s wholly dishonest for anyone to flatly and matter-of-factly state it does not.

This myth about international box-office was created to give Hollywood a “business” excuse when they refuse to portray America in a positive light or turn Superman into a flying symbol of United Nations conflicted meterosexuality.

The unquestioning entertainment media jumps right on board because it’s yet another way for them to spread dishonest propaganda regarding America’s unpopularity overseas.

It’s a win-win - except at the box office...

[*Links to all revenue claims at source.]

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Obama shares a birthday and a smooch with Helen Thomas

[Tell ME the man can't act.]

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