Thursday Open Thread

In the interests of bipartisanship:

SNL takes on the bailouts:
http://www.hulu.com/watch/38041/saturday-night-li...

The Daily Show takes on Code Pink:
http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/mon-march-10-20...

SNL does Olbermann:
http://www.hulu.com/watch/42024/saturday-night-li...

I see Strobe Talbot's hands all over this. This will come back to haunt Europe. Sad. Sad. Sad.

Big Hollywood was my favorite website until BigGovernment.com. Thanks, Breibart. Great work! Keep it up! Thanks, Hannah Giles (Ho) and James O' Keefe (pimp), and Fox News.

This will come back to haunt more than Europe. What happens over there affects us all in some manner, big or small. Not only sad but alarming.

The ACORN revelations should be a story with "legs." And not just any legs but the legs that look like they belong to LaDanian Tomlinson (so to speak.) Once again the irrelevance and intellectual bankruptcy of the MSM is on display through their omerta-like refusal to go with this sensational story. Given the "correlation of forces" (Lenin's term) in the House and Senate we will see a formal investigation of this travesty of an organization when pigs are flying out of Harry Reid's you-know-what. Tea Party rallies should include this as an issue and bring it up at every opportunity.

BTW – Lee Remick! Not only an incredibly beautiful woman but also a smart, insightful actress. Perfectly cast along with Jack Lemmon in "Days of Wine and Roses." Fought her battle against cancer with courage, dignity and class. Taken away far too soon.

To all you good folks who sent their "Fishy E-Mails" to the pResident's site !!

By Audrey Hudson (Contact)

EXCLUSIVE:

The White House is collecting and storing comments and videos placed on its social-networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube without notifying or asking the consent of the site users, a failure that appears to run counter to President Obama's promise of a transparent government and his pledge to protect privacy on the Internet.

Marc Rotenberg, president of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, said the White House signaled that it would insist on open dealings with Internet users and, in fact, should feel obliged to disclose that it is collecting such information.

"The White House has not been adequately transparent, particularly on how it makes use of new social media techniques, such as this example," he said.

Defenders of the White House actions said the Presidential Records Act requires that the administration gather the information and that it was justified in taking the additional step of asking a private contractor to "crawl and archive" all such material. Nicholas Shapiro, a White House spokesman, declined to say when the practice began or how much the new contract would cost.

Susan Cooper, a spokeswoman for National Archives and Records Administration, said the presidential records law applies to "social media" and to public comments "received by the president or immediate staff."

RELATED STORIES:
• Obama seeks Patriot Act extensions
• EXCLUSIVE: Wilson: Carter's racism claims a distraction
• U.S. envoys hesitate to report bad news

Mr. Obama signed a memo in January stating that his efforts to maintain an open government would be "unprecedented" and "ensure the public trust and establish a system of transparency, public participation and collaboration."

An Obama campaign document on technology pledged that, as president, Mr. Obama "will strengthen privacy protections for the digital age and will harness the power of technology to hold government and business accountable for violations of personal privacy."

In a June 5, 2008, article in PC Magazine, Mr. Obama said, "The open information platforms of the 21st century can also tempt institutions to violate the privacy of citizens. We need sensible safeguards that protect privacy in this dynamic new world."

That's where your wrong Harley….It would be the only thing the Obama news agency would be covering…ACORN is done thanks to "film at 11"

According to the media this goes together:
George W. Bush and ENRON
but..apparently this doesn't:
Barrack Obama and ACORN

Watched Conan O'brien last night.

Joe Wilson "You Lie" joke was there. Not a word about ACORN and child prostiution. I guess they haven't firgured out how to make the punch line come otu "George Bush" yet.

talk about sensory overload…

How is that purple flavored kool-aid tasting? If the NRA did what you say the story would lead every newscast and be on the front page of every newspaper. ACORN? Not so much. FYI…The total ACORN offices that helped the underage prostitution ring is up to four with more to come.

I was forced to watch it by my psychology teacher in high school. It was a great movie, but I hated that teacher with a passion.

This teacher was the only qualified teacher for AP Eurpoean History, but he refused to teach it because every year that he did teach that class, half the students wound up going on exchange trips and missing several weeks of instruction. The exchange trips were to Spain, France, and Germany. Pissed me off to no end when I heard that was the reason I couldn't take a class I was very much interested in.

"Show the videos of anyone from the NRA willfully advising anyone to break any law. Oh, don't have any of those???"

and I'm pretty sure it's not for lack of trying on the libtard's part.

Have at it, Harley ol' buddy. Get yourself a camera and try your thesis out. Or are you waiting for the government/fringe media to do it for you?

Just a brief note: If this was just a couple of wingtards going in to ACORN to do a gotcha story about the mundane every single day ACORN practices of providing tax cheating info and how to lie to get a house poor people simply (and I'm sure loan default data will bear this out) can't afford,would Congress and the White house be moved to even comment.NO!.Only ridiculous sensationalism could get it done.God bless ACORN for hiring such buffoons.

One thing to keep an eye on is the new Health care reform package..Dems are "not" liking it and moveon. org is "supposedly" not liking it either. What this means to me is that they're hoping that the republicans will think "gee if THEY don't like it then it must be OK", kind of like a reverse psychology thing.

Nathan – me too! Just yesterday I was listening to Bernard Herrmann's score for North by Northwest* in the car and I kept thinking, "They'd never do a score like this today."

*Actually I was listening to the 2007 Varese Sarabande re-recording, featuring Joel McNeely conducting the Slovak Symphony. http://www.varesesarabande.com/details.asp?pid=vc...

My goodness – such an unflattering photo.

I'm good for a laugh I guess….

I proudly second that emotion! We The People need to take the media back from the likes of Charlie Gibson, Ted Turner, Katie Couric and the rest of that ilk.

And this is exactly how we do it. One free, open minded, thinking individual patriot at a time.

Hey! We got a troll!

I love it when they show up, it proves BH is working, and getting attention.

let alone, would the same pair be able to get this done in three different ACORN offices in three different cities?

He does creepy really, really well. Remember Fargo?

Dave Chappelle is great in it, too. "Girl, you got the prettiest eyes I seen in five to ten."

There's a time for mindless action, and a time for adequate expectations of the audience. Con-Air is good, mindless action that doesn't try to make a political point.

In addition to a good soundtrack, I'd implore filmmakers to leave the Party out of it.

Oh yeah, I loved Fargo. Also Things to do in Denver When You're Dead.

I'm not implying I'd like a political point in my movies, movies are a great way to get away from politics.

Just a couple of quick examples from Con Air. Would any sane people think John Cusack and Colm Meaney as police officers would be commanding black hawk helicopters? Last I heard, the army doesn't take orders from civilians, other than the president.

And I cringe every time I see the scene where the army and the police fall into a perfect ambush, set up within 10 minutes by the convicts. No army officer would fall for that.

Those kind of things bug me. It says to me, "we can't come up with a decent believable plot, so we'll just fake everything."

It reminds me of several years ago when NBC (?) had a miniseries on Mary, and rewrote part of the gospels. If a writer can't find a decent plot in the Bible, they really ought to hang it up and go back to writing commercials.

I checked out the link in the headlines section at the top of the main page,

"Michael Moore's "Capitalism": Stirring Outrage from the Left " (headline from original site)

http://www.wilshireandwashington.com/2009/09/mich...

First, not only was the headline incredibly misleading. There appears to be little or no "outrage from the left," but the comments section made me want to tear my hair out. There was comment after comment of people rhapsodizing about a " a guaranteed livable income!" for everyone. Everyone on the planet.

The reason this idea makes me so angry is that I know it is espoused with all the best intentions and care for the downtrodden, but the idea managed to be simultaneously so naive and so pernicious — so staggeringly immoral and evil — that one cannot excuse the naivete' of its proponents.

A world where everyone has guaranteed livable income is a world in which vast, vast segments of the society will live as leeches off the no doubt dwindling population who still chooses to be productive and to strive for more. I recall the words of John Galt: "I swear by my life and my love of it that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine."

The world of a guaranteed livable income is a world where the productive are enslaved, their life and labor stolen to meet the endless "needs" of people who are not working for what they have.

I do not have a right to one red cent or one second of another man's time. Unless the man feels fairly compensated for his time and labor, anything I take from him is simple theft.

Already I pay enough in taxes each year to support an entire additional family in modest comfort. I am a slave. Though that family is only hypothetical, it would be no less moral than the current situation if I were actually assigned to a particular family and my tax money directed to them. It would just be more stark:

How many of us would tolerate it if we were told, "Here, Mr. Smith, meet the Jones family. They are much poorer than you, so each week we will take money from your paycheck to educate their children, pay for their healthcare, subsidize their utilities and their rent. At any time we reserve the right to give them additional entitlements — money to help buy a car or receive adult education. If at any time you attempt to refuse to pay the amount required, you will be jailed, your property forfeit, your life ruined."

How is that different from the life I actually lead except that the money is laundered through the government so that I cannot track it, specifically, to the Jones family?

Some will argue that giving to the needy is good, and that I should do so willingly, that charity is a social responsibility. Yes, charity is good, but this isn't charity. A rich man giving money to help those less fortunate is a generous man. A rich man who is forced to give up his money at gunpoint is a victim of a crime, even if, had he not been forced, he might have chosen to help out anyway.

Our vast welfare state no longer gives me the choice of being a good man. Rather, it has attempted to redefine "being a good man" as quietly smiling and acquiesing as people I don't — legislators and bureaucrats — make decisions about when I have "too much" and how much of my hard labor and precious minutes of my life shall be confiscated from me. That's not a good man. That's a good slave.

WELL SAID……

I prefer SHOOTER……I wonder if the Montana Senator was a Rep. or a Dem. either way…it kind of shows big brother at work.

The book it's based on is 100 tiems better.

Point of Impact, Stephen Hunter. See also: Black Light, Time to Hunt, Hot Springs, Pale Horse Coming by the same.

Fantastic post.

I read the linked article about the kid in Texas who got busted for hanging Obama/Joker posters in his neighborhood?

Any bets on the ACLU taking this case?

Thomas Sowell could write a grocery list and it would be more worth your time reading it than anything in MSM now. Good post.

A great movie. Unfortunately it spawned the dreaded movie-of-the-week…a genre that featured a debilitating condition instead of a stellar cast.

Maybe, every once in a while the ACLU can surprise you.

Andrew Jackson

Minimum wage goes up, prices go up…so minimum wage must go up again, which means prices go up again.

What gets forgotten is that raising the minimum wage increases costs on the business, which gets passed along in the form of higher prices…then the whole circle starts all over again.

I think they believe that the businesses will simply eat the costs of the higher wages. If that happens often enough, the owners will realize it costs too much and BOOM – they close. Then you have unemployed people, instead of minimum-wage-paid people.

Actually it's a simple modern liberal debate tactic. It's easy to fall for it if you don't see it coming. Having spent decades in the liberal camp, I'm well acquainted with it. Technically it would be called the straw man argument, where you set up some false target – a straw man – and then demolish it. President Obama employees it constantly. One of the reasons I can't stand listening to him speak.

The desired outcome? Instead of the left defending sexual slavery and child trafficking, we're defending the NRA from something that no one can prove ever happened.

The best defense against this type of smear is to refuse to accept the premise of their statement. Flat out, "No, we're not debating the NRA, stay on the subject."

Oh yes, you're absolutely right. When reading through a troll's post, the second I see anything like that I know the only point the troll has is on top of his head.

For all you young men out there,
Stop thinking about boom-boom and start telling anybody to help save America,
Vote Republican in 2010

Both you and ChiTown Tom are acting in a way Jimmy Carter would not approve. Shame on both of you racists.

Hey now, ConAir is a good movie. Frankly, I think it's something conservatives should applaud. Ex-military "family guy" locked up by a mindless court refuses to be a part of "the system;" instead, he keeps his values and saves the day, foiling fellow inmates who (with a few exceptions) are not portrayed as sympathetic or misunderstood, just evil, heartless killers. And the few sympathetic prisoners are not portrayed as heroes per se, rather as men who committed crimes but had a change of heart through their experiences. (See Buscemi.) Plus, there's the subtle digs at the media, Hollywood, and the courts. Who cares if the action is a bit over the top, since when was any action movie totally realistic? I'm not saying it's my favorite movie by any means; but it's grown on me over time and I think it has a good story line overall. It's certainly not the worst movie ever.

Pres. Obama has shown a remarkable inability to differentiate the difference berween Strategic and Tactical thinking. He has abandoned Strategic Plans of Great Importance for Tactical Gains that are temporary at best and does nothing to change the long term outcome. It has been reported that one of the reasons that Obama abandoned the plans for the missle defense in Eastern Europe was to placate Russia. That is supposed for help with the Iranian problem. At best we could only expect a delay in Irans plans to come to fruition. It is unwise to abandon long term plans for temporary gains.

Sorry. I was just paraphrasing. (For the Obama voters)

As for myself, I love taking modern liberals on. Having been one, I know the tricks, I'm sitting here waiting for them, specifically so I can pounce. I'm Irish, I go for the knees (metaphorically).

The dirty little secret about modern liberalism is, there's nothing there. It's just a facade. They have nothing. They don't even realize they have nothing, they don't think that deeply.

That's the reason for deceptive debating tactics. They intuitively know they have to carefully navigate a debate like walking though a mine field, bobbing and weaving facts, logic and reason. And this is a perfect example of that. Text book case.

Since they can't rely on facts, logic and reason (because they don't understand them*), they have to seize control of the debate, set the premises, definitions, and say what is and what is not allowed. DO NOT LET THEM DO IT. That's their secret. Don't let them get away with it.

Of course the inevitable out come is they'll call you a racist, a liar, and what ever emotional (there's that word again) insult they can think of, declare victory and start their victory lap while mentally masturbating their ideology. But so what? I don't care.

* One time while debating a modern liberal, I was attempting to explain to him Aristotle's classical rules on logical debate. He called them twisted republican logic.

He's definitely a contender. The Trail of Tears.

ROFLMAO!

http://s2.buzzfeed.com/static/imagebuzz/terminal0...

Thanks for the post…..which just goes to PROVE that our President is a "LAIR", and of the worst kind. The American public has met and put in office, the most powerful position in America, a conman, or a pathological lair. I have my own opinion on that matter. Oh by the way, they have my permission to save this email….I want to be on record as to what I think.

My friends that turned me on were pros also. I was a young buck, having just returned from desert storm, and went to my first two shows. I was hooked. We packed up the car and drove to KC for two more shows. I crammed my 40 shows in over the next five years. About half were in Chicago and the rest were wherever I went on vacation. (K.C., D.C, Miami, Indianapolis, Eugene, OR., Vegas) I miss the long strange trip!

That didn't take long.

Agreed, there was nothing quite like a Dead show. A real slice of the quirkiness that makes America what it is. A great place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there.

But oh, what fun it was to visit.

True story, my first show, '85 or '85 JFK in Philly, the last show at that stadium before they tore it down to put up the new ones. After the show, there was a huge traffic jam in the parking lot where we were hanging out, quaffing a few brews, waiting for the traffic to thin out.

There were 3 different lots, exiting onto the road, out to the interstate, and it was a complete snarl. At the spot where the 3 exits merged was a green space with a big ass boulder on it. I don't know what came over me, but just like George C. Scott did in the movie Patton, I grabbed a fresh beer, ran through the traffic, jumped on top, and started directing traffic.

Okay you stop, you stop, you go. Then you go, then you go. And it worked. The Deadheads figured out exactly what I was doing, and we got that jam flowing in no time.

That's what I always loved about Dead shows, that quirky kind of things that just seem to happen, and its always for the good.

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