If comic book artists were rock stars, Billy Tucci would be more of a Yo-Yo Ma – a man whose talents would be recognized immediately by those fortunate enough to discover him.

I first met Tucci, an award-winning illustrator and graphic novel writer, at San Diego’s massive Comic-Con International in 2010. Tucci was intently drawing away in his display booth seated next to an aged but unbowed veteran of WWII’s famous 442nd Regimental Combat Team.

On closer inspection, I saw that that Billy was personalizing a panel connected with his then-current offering, “Sgt. Rock – The Lost Battalion.” This illustrated novel was a beautifully rendered fusion of the fictional Sgt. Rock combat hero with a historically accurate account of the 141st Regiment’s rapid advance into German lines only to be cut off in the rugged Vosges Mountains region.

Running low on food and ammunition and with casualties running high, the divisional commander made the decision to break the German siege of the 141st by sending in the 442nd. The 14,000 men who would serve in the 442nd, a regiment of Japanese-Americans recruited out of internment camps, earned 21 Medals of Honor, more than 9,000 Purple Hearts, and more than 18,000 medals overall – the greatest number of decorations for any unit of its size and duration of combat service.

Tucci has an eye for detail and, in the case of his military-themed work, this detail is fortified by personal service in the Special Forces as an enlisted man in the 1990s.

I saw Tucci again last weekend at the Austin Comic-Con, where his latest work caught my eye because it was so decidedly out of his usual superhero, military, beautiful fantasy samurai/geisha woman pinup genre: a graphic novel about, as Tucci said, “The greatest superhero of all time.”   (more…)

Of the many advantages of having children, a key one is that one’s tastes in music don’t become ossified (the negative corollary being: you know all about Justin Bieber).

For this reason, our home has openly wondered when My Chemical Romance would create their fourth studio album.  After turning out one collection after another: 2002’s “I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love,” 2004’s “Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge” and 2006’s “The Black Parade,” My Chem (MCR for short), took a break that saw band members marry and start families.

[click on image to watch]

Well, the four year wait is almost over, with MCR scheduled to release “Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys” on November 22, 2010.  The first music video from the new album made its MTV premier yesterday featuring the song, “Na Na Na (Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na).”  The “Na Na Na” music video can be seen above.  

As with much of MCR’s work, “Na Na Na” sports some profanity, but, the band is from New Jersey, across the Hudson from New York City – it’s how they communicate there.  Big Hollywood fans will especially appreciate the song’s explicit (in both senses of the word) political reference.

“Na Na Na” closes with a thought infrequently heard in the often self-centric music world: (more…)

It’s been 11 months since I last wrote about big liberal donor Don Henley’s lawsuit against me for writing two music parodies and turning them into online campaign videos. 

I’ve long believed that conservatives ignore culture at their peril. Hollywood and faith shape culture and culture shapes voters far more powerfully than can mere politicians.  With this understanding firmly in mind, I have cultivated contacts in the entertainment industry and used Al Gore’s invention to its fullest extent, winning awards for our campaign’s innovative use of Twitter and for our groundbreaking iPhone app (Beat Boxer? There’s an app for that!). 

A key part of this effort to harness non-traditional modes of political speech began 13 months ago when, while campaigning in the Bakersfield area, I saw a fading Obama bumper sticker on a Prius.  Instantly, the line, “Out on the road today I saw a Deadhead sticker on a Cadillac, a little voice inside my head said: don’t look back, you can never look back,” from the Don Henley song “The Boys of Summer” popped into my head.  (more…)

Today, eight years ago, acts of unspeakable evil were committed on American soil. Al-Qaeda terrorists killed almost 3,000 people.

Whether the effort to preserve our liberties, secure our Constitution, and protect our people is called the “Global War on Terror” or “Overseas Contingency Operations,” the result of failure is the same: more terror and death.

Let us stop to reflect on what happened eight years ago and pray for the families of the dead, both civilian and uniformed, and the living serving on the front lines of freedom. As we do, let us also remember the nature of the attacks in far flung places like Mumbai, Islamabad, Jerusalem, Beirut, Baghdad, Kabul, and Sderot. (more…)

Quentin Tarantino’s “Inglourious Basterds” has all the trappings of a Tarantino film – from the rich cinematography and soundtrack to the unpredictable action and character development. Tarantino has directed and written another effort that, as usual, is in a class of its own. 

“Basterds,” misspelled the way Brad Pitt’s moonshining Lt. Aldo Raine character carved it into his rifle, takes place in German-occupied France from 1941 to 1944.  Tarantino makes a point of specifying “Nazi-occupied France,” justifying to the film watcher the extreme measures needed to deal with this particular type of human evil.  That National Socialist German Workers’ Party membership never numbered more than about 20 percent of the adult German population is beside the point; the Nazi Party in the guise of Hitler (played by Martin Wuttke) controlled the Wehrmacht from the top.  

“Basterds” follows three characters.  ”Chapter 1″ introduces Shosanna Dreyfus (Mélanie Laurent) a young Frenchwoman whose dairy farmer family is wiped out in 1941 by the Germans and Col. Hans Landa (Christoph Waltz), who directs the killing.  Landa is a member of the Sicherheitsdienst (SD), the intelligence service of the SS and the Nazi Party, who considers himself a detective asked by his government to find every last Jewish person in France.  In “Chapter 2″ we meet U.S. Army Lt. Aldo Raine. Raine’s crossed arrows insignia on his collar identifies him as a member of the First Special Service Force, a U.S.-Canadian commando force called the Devil’s Brigade.  Lt. Raine leads a small band of soldiers, all of whom happen to be Jewish, on a mission of retribution, mayhem and terror behind enemy lines, the goal: take 100 “Nazi scalps” each.  (more…)

As someone who spent 24 years in the uniform of the U.S. Army, I can say without hesitation that every soldier, sailor, airman, and Marine greatly appreciates the support of Hollywood.  Military personnel, often deployed far from home for the first time in their young lives, yearn for bits of American familiarity – for recognition from their fellow Americans of a job well done. 

The Second Annual Troop-a-thon is a wonderful chance for an entire industry to raise money online to send needed care packages to those Americans overseas who are defending our Constitution and our way of life.  Any deployment can be an intense and lonely experience.  Mail can be scarce.  Contact with home is sporadic.  Receiving a package from a stranger who cared enough about your mission can be a big boost in morale – literally, a life-saver.   (more…)

Cyrus Nowrasteh’s “The Stoning of Soraya M.” is a grim and solemn duty.  This is no popcorn flick, to be viewed and forgotten.  It stays with you, like your conscience telling you to do the right thing, the difficult thing.  

Set in 1986 Iran – the Islamic Republic of Iran – Stoning is a gut-wrenching film with haunting music.  Nowrasteh’s movie, set to open June 26, is based on a book about the crime by French-Iranian journalist Freidoune Sahebjam. 

The film opens with Freidoune (James Caviezel) breaking down in his car on his way to the border.  Spending unwanted hours in a small village, he is approached by Zahra (Shohreh Aghdashloo), a woman the villagers try to shoo away as they call her crazy.  But Zahra has a terrible secret.  She does all she can to get word to the journalist about a terrible injustice committed in the village the previous day when her niece, Soraya M. (Mozhan Marnò), falsely accused of adultery by her cheating husband, Ali (Navid Negahban), was stoned to death per Islamic law.  (more…)

Barbara Boxer’s snippy confrontation with Brigadier General Michael Walsh on Capitol Hill on June 16, 2009 (Don’t call me “Ma’am,” call me “Senator”) wasn’t a display of a lack of proper military respect for Boxer, it was an open display of contempt from Boxer towards the people who serve in the military.  That the Senator’s contempt was open and obvious shows Boxer’s lack of acting skills – most liberals have mastered the art of at least acting like they respect the men and women in the armed services. 

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Liberal contempt towards those who take an oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States has deep roots in the hard left that Boxer epitomizes.  Look at how Boxer manipulates concern for the casualties of war to ram home her political attack against former President Bush in this email from 2007:  (more…)

For context, see BlogDeVore.

With California swimming in $24 billion of red ink, many of the peoples’ elected representatives are seeking to raise scores of fees and taxes to close the gap.  So, after voting to raise the highest income tax in America even higher, the highest state sales tax rate in America even higher, almost doubling the car tax, and cutting the child tax credit by $200, Sacramento Democrats now want to charge children $100 a year to work in Hollywood.  

A 10-year-old California law makes parents of children desiring to work in the entertainment field gather information from one part of government to present to another part of government to obtain a permission slip to work.  Now, this paper shuffle adds little to nothing of value – no added safety for children or oversight of employers.  But, rather than terminate this self-perpetuating paperwork drill, Democrats what to charge for it – taxing minors who want to work before they even work an hour. 

This Kafkaesque scenario is almost reality in the form of Assembly Bill 402 (AB 402) in Sacramento.  As summarized by the Assembly Republican Caucus bill analysis, AB 402, “Requires a fee of $50 to be submitted at the time a minor applies for an Entertainment Work Permit in order to offset the costs of administering the Entertainment Work Permit program.”  In other words, AB 402 is the ultimate in self-sustaining bureaucracy.  You need government permission to work and the government will only give you permission if you pay for it. 

The stated purpose of the bill, curiously supported by the Screen Actors Guild, is to increase protections for children working in the entertainment industry.  The main intended protection is to ensure compliance with the Coogan Act, a 1999 law designed to set aside a portion of a minor’s earnings until age 18.   (more…)

Paul Rodriguez wants water – and he’s angry enough to get some 

One wouldn’t immediately associate comedian and actor Paul Rodriguez with a serious issue such as water.  But, as Mark Twain said: “Whiskey is for drinking; water is for fighting over.”  

Rodriguez is so concerned about water that he helped create the California Latino Water Coalition, led marches with several thousand people in recent weeks, and spoke Saturday night to a convention of the conservative California Republican Assembly in Bakersfield.  I addressed the convention goers about my U.S. Senate run against Barbara Boxer just before Rodriguez’ turn at the podium. 

What has Rodriguez’ concerned to spark political action is the shutdown of water pumps in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.  These pumps move water from California’s wet north to the agricultural Central Valley and urban Southern California.   A judge’s ruling switched the pumps off over a controversial U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service report that declared a fish, the delta smelt, threatened.  No one really knows if turning the pumps off will help the fish, but most can agree that California’s agricultural industry will take a big hit this year due to lack of water.  (more…)

Since yesterday evening, when news of lawsuit filed against me by aging liberal rockers Don Henley and Mike Campbell first broke, online comments to me have been running hot and heavy.  Fairly emblematic of the “fan” mail: “i hope you get in a car wreck and die.” 

Understanding that the DailyKos crowd can never be quieted (save for my untimely demise in a speeding vehicle), I do think it important to set forth what we did with the two parody songs I wrote to be sung in style of Don Henley’s works. 

 
I penned “After the Hope of November is Gone” based on Mr. Henley’s “The Boys of Summer” with parodic eye.  One can clearly see my intended skewering of Henley and his ilk’s well known liberalism in the lines:  (more…)

All She Wants to Do is Tax! Music video parody of Barbara Boxer in time for the tea party rallies. 

Political parody has a long tradition in the West, with the First Amendment affording significant protections for political speech.  In spite of that, our political parody of President Obama, “After the Hope of November is Gone” using rocker Don Henley’s “Boys of Summer” as the vehicle attracted the wrath of Henley, as he engaged lawyers to threaten an alternative paper and temporarily bounced the music video from YouTube.  (more…)

Rocker Don Henley’s legal threats have shut down our rough cut April Fool’s music video Obama lampoon based on “The Boys of Summer” on both YouTube and on Orange County’s alternative newspaper, the O.C. Weekly.  We’re responding with a counter-claim, asserting our First Amendment right to political free speech in parody based on the Supreme Court ruling of Campbell v. Acuff-Rose Music, Inc.

While the legal issues play out, it’s time to up the ante on Mr. Henley’s liberal goon tactics.  By popular request, I have penned the words to our new parody song, an expose of Senator Barbara Boxer’s new cap-and-trade energy bill that will operate as a hidden tax that will also enrich a few people.  (more…)

The laughless legions of the left have struck again. Eagles band member Don Henley demanded the removal of my “Hope of November” parody song on YouTube.  YouTube took the music video Obama parody down yesterday after it was approaching 1,000 views.  

I was inspired to write the lyrics for “Hope of November” using Henley’s “The Boys of Summer” as a starting point after I saw a fading Obama bumper sticker while campaigning in the Bakersfield area.  

Liberal warriors are notorious for their thin skins and Don Henley is no exception. 

Perhaps I should mine some of Henley’s other songs for satirical gold.  “The End of the Innocence” comes to mind.  That 1989 song slammed Ronald Reagan, a man I worked for in the Defense Department, in the form of the line, “they’re beating plowshares into swords, for the tired old man that we elected king.”  At this line in the song the music video shows several Reagan posters while at the line “armchair warriors lead us into war” a television displays scenes of LtCol Oliver North’s congressional testimony.  Or perhaps the overbearing lyrics of “Little Tin God” will do.  The line referring to Reagan, “The cowboy’s name was Jingo,” cries out for parodic reengineering.  (more…)

A few days ago I posted some Obama parody lyrics set to Don Henley’s “Boys of Summer” and am now formally soliciting the deep base of Big Hollywood talent to do a professional version of this parody. The campaign will have a contest and choose the parody effort posted on YouTube by April 6th.  

In the spirit of April Fool’s Day, here’s our own attempt performed by the DeVore for California Director of New Media, Justin Hart, working entirely on his own time.  (more…)

Sung to the tune of “The Boys of Summer“:

Obama overload
Obama overreach
We feel it everywhere
Trillions in the breach

Empty bank, empty Street
Dollar goes down alone

Pelosi’s in the House
So we now all must atone (more…)

Why is it that many government agency names are oxymoronic?  How much new water has the California Department of Water Resources delivered in the past couple of decades?   How much energy has the federal Department of Energy or the California Energy Commission produced or encouraged?  

It should come as no surprise that in 2009, an era when the L.A. Basin’s air quality bureaucracy, the SCAQMD, wants to ban dark cars because they need more air conditioning in the summer, that the California Energy Commissariate is drafting an order to outlaw TVs.  (Perhaps if our TVs had one state-approved channel they would relent.) 

Why is the California Energy Commission (CEC), a Gov. Jerry Brown creation, wanting to ban television sets?  Well, it seems that a honking 48-inch plasma screen, that bright symbol of the bygone days of conspicuous consumption and purveyor of drooling vacuity, uses too much electricity, and electricity production makes too much greenhouse gas emissions (at least in America, where half of our electricity comes from coal – in France, a plasma screen would emit nary a CO2 molecule as the TVs there are nuclear powered).  (more…)

The “Race to Witch Mountain” is a Disney remake of Disney’s 1975 production “Escape to Witch Mountain.”  

I took my 17 and 12-year-old daughters to see this PG-rated film.  They liked it, especially the action sequences – many of which were fairly innovative, not something I expected in what I thought would be formula Disney entertainment.  

Dwayne Johnson (The Rock) continues his able development as an actor.  He plays Jack Bruno, a down-on-his-luck Las Vegas taxicab driver who, hoping to someday be a NASCAR driver instead became a wheelman for the mob and is trying very hard to stay out of trouble.  

The film opens with an alien spacecraft crash-landing in the Nevada desert.  Soon, the two very human-looking teenage aliens link up with Bruno and the pursuit begins in earnest.   (more…)