Last weekend at New York Comic Con, during a panel on the anime series Robotech, speaker Kevin McKeever played a clip from a new documentary on the making of the groundbreaking show, mostly culled from interviews with the series’ American producers and voice actors. One anecdote that stuck out at me was that the voice actors constantly used pseudonyms in the credits because they were breaking union labor rules–the hours they worked, the pay received, it was all in violation of their actors’ guild’s regulations.

Stories like that always bring a tear to my eye. There’s nothing quite as stifling to art and creativity than arbitrary rules placed on artists by disinterested third parties, and labor unions are a major offender. Thus, it’s heartwarming to see union members rebel against their leaders because of the passion they have for a project–going the extra mile to make it an outstanding product and to make it feasible by charging less than their standard pay.

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That documentary’s story also stuck out to me because a recent Pitchfork interview with Anthony Gonzalez, frontman for the French electronica group M83, revealed a similar story, this time involving his newly-released double album “Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming”:

Pitchfork: When I spoke with you last year, you said you were worried about having enough money to make a double album.

AG: We had a good budget to make a 10-track album with good sound, so we had to find ways [to stretch that out]. It was difficult. But [producer] Justin [Meldal-Johnsen] did an amazing job putting a lot of artists together who worked for no money, just because they were in love with the project. I always wanted to play with strings and brass, and Joseph Trapanese, who did the arrangements for the album, didn’t get paid. We didn’t put the real names of the string and brass players on the album because they’re part of a union, and it’s illegal to work for shitty money. They’re credited, but with fake names. [emphasis added]

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So this debt ceiling thing is confusing the hell out of me.

For one, every President seems to really like it.

Case in point – Bush wanted it raised too.

But do you know who was against it then? Obama.

Because, he wasn’t President yet.

Now he is.

Suddenly raising the debt ceiling is paramount.

So to me, the President is like your wife, and the debt ceiling is a credit card. You can’t blame her for loving it.

But it’s time to cut that card in half. We need to say, “Honey, I love you – but hand it over. We’ll live.”

The point is, raising the debt ceiling is easy, because it’s easy!

In the past five years I put on the weight of your average sized child, because I kept raising my “weight ceiling.”

I didn’t die or anything, although over time, my wife found me repulsive.

Still does, actually.

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There’s a theory that in order to ensure you never get hassled again, you walk up to the biggest guy in the room and knock him on his butt.  If you win, no one will ever mess with you because you knocked the biggest guy in the room on his butt.  And even if he gets up and pounds you into the ground, people will still avoid messing with you because you were crazy enough to try to knock the biggest guy in the room on his butt.

In the battle for the soul of our country, popular culture is the biggest guy in the room.  And it’s time that conservatives took a swing.  The Powerline Prize contest is a potential haymaker in one of the most important battles of our campaign.

Here’s how it describes itself:

The Power Line Prize of $100,000 will be awarded to whoever can most effectively and creatively dramatize the significance of the federal debt crisis. Prizes will also be awarded to the runner-up and two third-place finishers. Anyone can enter the contest—individuals, companies (e.g., advertising agencies) or any other entity, as long as the contest rules are followed. Any creative product is eligible: videos, songs, paintings, screenplays, Power Point presentations, essays, performance art, or anything else, as long as the product is unique to the contest and has not previously been published or otherwise entered the public domain. Entries may address the federal debt crisis in its entirety, or a specific aspect of the debt crisis, such as: the impact of the debt crisis on the young; the role played by the “stimulus” (Where did the money go? Why didn’t it stimulate?); how entitlements drive the debt crisis; the current federal deficit; how the debt crisis impacts the economy; or any other aspect of the debt crisis. The contest is non-partisan. Its purpose is to inform the public about the federal debt crisis.

Conservatives often dismiss the world of art as a milieu of posing half-wits seeking government subsidies for the unsellable, ridiculous and boring crap they churn out for the benefit of goateed posers and other suckers.  This is because an enormous amount of what is today labeled as “art” is manufactured by   posing half-wits seeking government subsidies for the unsellable, ridiculous and boring crap they churn out for the benefit of goateed posers and other suckers.

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[Ed. Note: Please visit Big Journalism for the full "Cry Wolf" series.]

Patrick Courrielche’s kickoff article exposing major university faculty and graduate students’ Cry Wolf Project is alarming. Each installment in the series has only made it more so.

CWP’s solicitation for policy briefs designed to construct politically driven narratives is a confession of academic malpractice. As Kurt Schlichter has pointed out, its participants’ intentions are unethical, insubordinate, and potentially illegal.

The CWP email shows its players to be intolerant of varying viewpoints in the pursuit of their ideological ends. The fact that they are offering colleagues and grad students money to predetermine outcomes proves their intent: to tell partisan political stories:

Drier-Email –

What are they afraid of? (more…)

I know, I know. It’s cliche and trust me, I hated the punks/celebrities who wore those slogan t-shirts throughout the Bush administration as much as the rest of you. The day Obama was elected, like many of you I told myself “Well, I didn’t vote for him, but he’s my President and I’ll support him.” A few months later, times have changed and I feel the need to officially declare that Barack Obama is “Not My President.” If you disagree, feel free to smack me around a little. If you feel the same way put your John Hancock down below and make your voice heard.

Seeing as the “Green Day Liberals/American Idiots” started the whole “Bush is not my President” schtick and their new album is dropping this week, I couldn’t think of a more appropriate time to issue a retort. Granted, the men of Green Day have had to overcome a lot to attain the success they enjoy today. It’s not every day that a group of legally-declared midgets can produce platinum-selling albums. Folks, I can give credit where credit is due. Rather than accept this success on behalf of the “little people” however, Green Day (along with other generic punk bands) had to start the “not my President” crusade against their commander in chief during a time of war. Punk bands even collectively put out the “Rock Against Bush” album which was eyebrow-raisingly sympathetic towards our enemies. Some would call it treason, I call it “a-bunch-of-uneducated-toolbags-playing-power-chords-in-an-attempt-to-brainwash-the-youth-of-America.” (more…)

A lot has happened in fourteen days — since Friday, the 24th of April — when the wires started buzzing 24/7 about the “Swine Flu.”

Oh wait, my bad. Now it’s the much more politically correct, H1N1 (Dems can’t offend the porcine population, they might need Porky Pig or pro-choice Miss Piggy to vote in 2010 and 2012).

In the meanwhile, a lot of stories haven’t been covered nearly enough outside of blogs and Fox News. Oddly, the vast majority of these stories seem to be things Obama God, Jr. wants to keep quiet. Here’s a not so exhaustive list: (more…)

“Strange…”  he blurted, on feeling that familiar pain in his lower back. “I’m just vapor and thought, and I still need a chiropractor.”

The handsome man instinctively brushed aside the hair barely hanging down on his forehead as he pressed on towards the residence portion of the house.

“Ah… I am here to see Obama” he told the secret service guard inside the residence. The guard did not react at all.  John Fitzgerald Kennedy knew right off that his presence would be seen only by his intended audience and the guard saw nothing. “Fix your tie pal.” Kennedy joked as he walked passed the oblivious sentry.

“You must be President Kennedy”, Obama sheepishly asked the figure now standing above him as he lay in bed.  ”These visits are getting quite regular, are you the last?”  (more…)

If the last two months are any indication, Barack Obama is a better bowler than he is a president.

And to think all the “smart people” in Hollywood sold him as a “brilliant” mind. Of course, this is brilliant by Hollywood standards. The place that remade “The Beverly Hillbillies.”

Let’s review how brilliant the president is. After spending his campaign complaining about President Bush’s lavish outlays, he decided to triple it.  Not just triple it, but spend more than all the presidents who preceded him combined. Take a good look at this chart of deficits and look at the one he’s projected. Here is a “best case” scenario from Obama fluffer network MSNBC. Now this is how his budget stacks up against “stupid” president Bush and others before him. This is Bush’s deficits compared to Obama’s. Yes, Obama’s budget is brilliant if you want to bankrupt the U.S. and keep its citizens indebted for generations. But maybe that’s his cunning plan. (more…)

Hmmm.   Is it just me that thinks this is sadly ironic?  That we hear the President say on the news that he’s going to try to block the AIG bonuses for top executives, who are guilty of “recklessness and greed”…for the $165 Million they are contractually obliged to receive?  After bailing AIG out to the tune of $180 Billion, (billion with a ‘B’) of taxpayer dollars??

Hey, I don’t care a wit about these AIG guys, and to hell with them.  They screwed up their company but good, and I’m sure more than one shareholder would like to spend a few up-close-and-personal minutes in a closed room with them.  And if job performance is to be the criteria for bonuses, it’s probably more equitable that, rather than receiving a bonus, they should be perp-walked off to prison; straight to the showers to sing the Song of Sodom.  Put them between a jailhouse rock and a hard place.  So to speak. (more…)

First, let me make it clear that I despise Bernard Madoff and wanted to see him fry.  Still, I must confess that when I first heard that they were sending this elderly rat to jail for a hundred years, it struck me as absurd.  But if it’s true that the good die young, I suppose it’s just possible that Madoff might walk out of prison a free man in 2109.  

On the other hand, I kept asking myself why anyone would invest with this schmuck.  When I was a kid, I used to watch a TV show called “Racket Squad.”  Every week they would dramatize a different con game.  (Obviously, while young Burt was just sitting home watching, young Bernie was busily taking notes.)  As varied as the cons were, the moral was always the same.  As the show’s narrator, Reed Hadley, patiently pointed out week after week, if something sounds too good to be true, turn around and run, don’t walk. (more…)

Mr. President, the fact that you and your party spent the better part of 8 years systematically and falsely tearing down the presidency of George W. Bush to seize this moment of power is reflective of the fact that your party is corrupt beyond belief. Only a corrupt organization can behave with one singular, mean-spirited and patently false message like that for eight long years.  You’re not a real leader, but instead you’re a brilliant MIS-leader.

I’ve intentionally held back from being too critical long enough to give the President and his staff time to really show their hand to the American people but enough is enough. This is a disaster that is going to last 4 slow, long years and will likely end with legions of young Democrats, completely disenfranchised, running to our party because we’re the only ones who actually read and understand the fine print. Consider a vote for a Republican in 2010 and 2012 to be like that extended warranty you can purchase with expensive electronics. You know, the one that provides added protection against defects? If what’s broke cannot be fixed then it’s replaced free of charge with something new and better — and Congress has been making some strange sucking sounds lately… (more…)

Big X here, broadcasting live from Celluloid City in the swishy-swishy Peacock Lounge, high atop the mighty Breitbart Tower on Sunset and Cherokee!

Holy cats, what’s next?!

After last week’s spectacular victory over Hard Times with the passage of his trillion-dollar Stimulus Bill, the sour-puss Republican Tycoonocracy was crying in their caviar, throwing a tizzy over the so-called “deficit” and demanding to know who will pay the piper for all those bee-yutiful C-notes! (more…)