A Great Chinese Thriller…Pass!

I thought about writing a script about China – thriller, action, intrigue.  The last film that dealt with China would be “Red Corner” which a Wikipedia review said, “…more the movie’s subtext swallows its story, until all that is left is Gere’s superior virtue, intermixed with his superior virility — both of which are greatly appreciated by the evidently under-serviced Chinese female population…”  The film was banned in China.  But it’s fertile ground for material.  Imagine the conversation with a Studio Executive…

Me: So, I found this article by Secretary of Defense Gates: “China Could Undermine U.S. Military Power in the Pacific.”  China is expanding its navy in the Pacific to secure disputed territories in the South China Sea with lots of oil and gas.  A Tom Clancy/Harrison Ford thriller.  I’ve followed the Chinese military since the nineties and it’s a central plot of my novel, “Stealing Thunder.” (Shameless Plug! 600 pages long; waiting for Amazon jerks to come through with the darn discount price…).   Think “Clear and Present Danger,” “Hunt for Red October”…

Executive: Liked ‘Sum of All Fears.’ (more…)

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Tags: "China", Censorship, Government censorship, hollywood, movies
Posted Oct 18th 2009 at 5:48 pm in Politics | 22806614 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/mmandaville/2009/10/18/a-great-chinese-thriller-pass/A+Great+Chinese+Thriller...Pass%212009-10-19+00%3A48%3A10Michael+Mandaville

Principles? Leftists Don’t Need No Stinking Principles

I often find myself thinking that if liberals didn’t have double standards, they wouldn’t have any standards at all. 

For instance, consider the uproar from the left when Don Imus opened his silly yap about the black women on the Rutgers basketball team.  Now compare that to their response when David Letterman made his smarmy cracks about Sarah Palin and the governor’s 14-year-old daughter.  The liberals immediately sprang to his defense, pointing out that Letterman is nothing more than a TV personality and is therefore free to make offensive jokes without fear of censure.  So what do they think Don Imus is?  The secretary of state? 

Or consider how choleric those on the left become any time that Dick Cheney defends the former administration.  Well, if Obama and his cronies didn’t constantly attack Bush and Cheney and their policies, the chances are the ex-vice president wouldn’t feel compelled to set the record straight. Furthermore, Jimmy Carter never stopped bashing George Bush during the eight years he was the president, and yet nobody on the left ever suggested he shut up.  On the contrary, he was hailed at the 2004 Democratic convention, and even had the honor of being seated next to the patron saint of left-wingers, Michael Moore.  Speaking of Carter, how is it that he, who is always volunteering to monitor elections anywhere on earth, including the Westminster Dog Show, wasn’t in Iran, making sure that Ahmadinejad got 110% of the vote?  (more…)

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Tags: "China", Ahmadinejad, David Letterman, Don Imus, george bush
Posted Jun 27th 2009 at 3:03 pm in Featured Story, Politics | 16615423 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/bprelutsky/2009/06/27/liberals-don%e2%80%99t-need-no-stinking-principles/Principles%3F+Leftists+Don%27t+Need+No+Stinking+Principles2009-06-27+22%3A03%3A42Burt+Prelutsky

Act of War: North Korea Holds American Hostages

The tin-pot dictator, Kim Jong-Il (who has turned his entire country into a Communist Gulag) has snatched a couple of American journalists, dragging them across the border from China to be tried on trumped-up spy charges and sentenced to twelve years of hard labor.  Here is how the North Korean news agency reported it: “The trial confirmed the grave crime they committed against the Korean nation and their illegal border crossing as they had already been indicted and sentenced each of them to 12 years of reform through labor.” Isn’t that a great line, “Reform through labor…”?   Given that almost everyone in North Korea is already starving, I suspect that Euna Lee and Laura Ling are not likely to survive twelve years of “reforming” big rocks into gravel.

At the same time, dictator Kim Jong-Il rattles his puny saber and threatens that if any of his ships carrying nuclear materials to other rogue nations are stopped on the high seas, he will consider it an “act of war.”  Well, gee… There was a time not too long ago when the kidnapping of American nationals would have, in itself, been considered an “act of war.”  I imagine that had Teddy Roosevelt or even Ronald Reagan been at the helm when Kim Jong-Il took two American nationals hostage, the response would be quite different.   More likely it would have gone along the lines of: “You have 24 hours to return our citizens before we start obliterating your military bases – one every hour until the hostages are set free.  If we run out of military bases and you still continue to hold them then, unfortunately, we’ll have to start on your cities.  Have a nice day.”  Then, like any good parent, we would follow through with our pledge. (more…)

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Tags: "China", Al Gore, Current TV, Euna Lee, Hiroshima
Posted Jun 18th 2009 at 8:16 am in Music, Politics | 1635303 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/ebalogh/2009/06/18/163530/Act+of+War%3A+North+Korea+Holds+American+Hostages2009-06-18+15%3A16%3A58Endre+Balogh

Dear Mr. President, Please Don’t Kill My Kids

On Dec. 12, 1974, my grandparents were driving home when a vehicle traveling 50 miles per hour hit them. On March 17, 2002, I was driving home when a vehicle driving traveling 50 miles per hour hit me.

My grandparents were killed instantly. I lived.  My grandparents were driving an AMC Gremlin. I was driving a Dodge 3500 diesel dually pickup truck.

AMC is now out of business. Dodge Trucks are still selling well. The free market decided that we didn’t need AMC Gremlins.

I still drive a Dodge dually. We factor in safety versus miles per gallon on every automobile purchase that my wife and I make. Devo could not have said it better: “Freedom of Choice…It’s what you want!” Freedom to choose is a basic American right. Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness are guaranteed to me and 299,999,999 other Americans by the Constitution. (more…)

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Tags: "China", AMC Gremlin, Central Planning Committee, Chrysler, Czars
Posted Jun 15th 2009 at 4:51 pm in Politics | 16167418 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/cburgard/2009/06/15/dear-mr-president-please-dont-kill-my-kids/Dear+Mr.+President%2C+Please+Don%27t+Kill+My+Kids2009-06-15+23%3A51%3A51Chris+Burgard

‘NewsBusted’ 6/12/09 — Fake News from the Right

In this episode, “NewsBusted” covers: China, Venezuela, The Fairness Doctrine, General Motors, President Obama, Minnesota Voters, Climate Change, Al Gore, Bob Woodward, the NBA, and Britney Spears.

YouTube no link

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Tags: "China", Al Gore, Bob Woodward, Britney Spears, climate change
Posted Jun 12th 2009 at 6:41 pm in Media Criticism, Video | 158790No Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/newsbusters/2009/06/12/%e2%80%98newsbusted%e2%80%99-61209-%e2%80%94-fake-news-from-the-right/%E2%80%98NewsBusted%E2%80%99+6%2F12%2F09+%E2%80%94+Fake+News+from+the+Right2009-06-13+01%3A41%3A06NewsBusters

The Power of Language

In the 1930’s, when world audiences were asked to name the capital of the U.S.A., one answer was high on the list: “Hollywood.” That was the location listed at the end of every amazing movie: “Made In Hollywood.” How could such magic not come from America’s capital?

Such is the power of a single word.

That power has not diminished but only increased with an ADD, multi-channel, hyperactive media-centric world. The silver screen has long given us immortal dialogue which now blends so deeply into the culture that people may not know their origin, but we know the meaning.  A wise man I know said, “Image creates perception, perception creates reality.”  It couldn’t be more true in the film business.

–

In a media-centric world, from motion pictures to internet to phones, we are pounded with images, forming our perceptions and then creating our reality. How fast did the Internet meme “Cheese Eating Surrender Monkeys” become a daily reference at the coffee klatch, in your email, or on phone calls?  Not long.  We forget how powerful words can be when written in a clever and pithy way.  The masters of dialogue like Charles Brackett, Billy Wilder and I.A.L. Diamond, and the Epstein brothers, knew irreverent and immortal lines.  And as producers, writers or just Americans who appreciate a good, nimble turn of a phrase, we should excel at creating phrases that demonstrate the values we hold dear.  Don’t understand?  “What we have here is a failure to communicate!” (more…)

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Tags: "Cheese Eating Surrender Monkeys", "China", activism, Billy Wilder and I.A.L. Diamond, Charles Brackett
Posted Jun 2nd 2009 at 11:11 am in Political Humor, Politics, Video | 145802No Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/mmandaville/2009/06/02/daily-dialogue/The+Power+of+Language2009-06-02+18%3A11%3A46Michael+Mandaville

An Alternative to War

Disclaimer: What you are about to read is fiction. It is a story about peace. Peace at any cost.

THE WORLD TODAY: A News Summary

May 2009

BONN (EU News) – The current CSPEU administration has decided to increase productivity by lowering the age that children are required to enter the workforce from nine to eight years of age. The EU Vice Minister for the Interior states the lowering of the work age is due to an increased shortage of youthful workers. “It’s a reflection of the ongoing fighting between our peaceful union and the obstinate Russians.”

Citizens and subjects in the 18-25 age bracket have seldom been seen in recent years. The Vice Minister commented on this by stating, “This temporary downturn in our youthful population is insignificant compared to the tremendous loss of life on the Russian side. Though our rockets delivering Vemork V weapons obliterated St. Petersburg and most of Moscow years ago, the Russians, though scattered and ill equipped, still choose to resist to this very day. It staggers the mind why they wish to continue their own misery. ” (more…)

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Tags: "China", air force, allies, America, armed forces
Posted May 28th 2009 at 4:33 pm in Politics | 1436262 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/smann/2009/05/28/an-alternative-to-war/An+Alternative+to+War2009-05-28+23%3A33%3A41Schizoid+Mann

RINOs, Abortion, Servicing China and Obama’s Eggroll

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Tags: "China", debt, federal reserve notes, rino's, t bills
Posted May 8th 2009 at 5:46 pm in Politics, Video | 130218One Commenthttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/arachel/2009/05/08/rinos-and-eggrolls/RINOs%2C+Abortion%2C+Servicing+China+and+Obama%27s+Eggroll2009-05-09+00%3A46%3A36Alfonzo+Rachel

Cyber Attacks and Our Southern Border

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that computer spies have broken into the Pentagon’s $300 billion Joint Strike Fighter program – the Defense Department’s costliest weapons program ever – according to current and former government officials, familiar with the attacks.  Former US officials say the attacks originated in China, although they are difficult to track. 

Perhaps this doesn’t qualify as an open act of war, but it would be hard to term it “friendly espionage.”  

At the same time the Pentagon is fending off cyber attacks from China, Texas ranchers are experiencing the continuing flow of human trafficking from mainland China.  (more…)

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Tags: "Border: The Movie", "China", border patrol, Chinese illegal immigration, Chinese immigrants
Posted Apr 24th 2009 at 8:14 am in News, Politics | 114022One Commenthttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/cburgard/2009/04/24/cyber-attacks-and-our-southern-border/Cyber+Attacks+and+Our+Southern+Border2009-04-24+15%3A14%3A51Chris+Burgard

From Desk of: All the Congresses and President, Hope Change Without Bush Update

FROM : ALL US CONGRESS AND PRESIDENTS OF THE US

TO: ALL THE PEOPLES OF THE EARTH AND THE AMERICA.

CC: Madame Pelosis, Hary Reide, Sen. Frank, Not Bush. Mr. Gietner Taxes.

Dear American Friend!,

Oh the happytimes for us are coming without Bush. Assureing the future pleasent times for the Americans. Her’is what we are doing for this things: (more…)

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Tags: "China", British, Christmas, England, Erupe
Posted Apr 9th 2009 at 4:53 pm in Political Humor | 98710No Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/emannix/2009/04/09/from-all-the-congress-and-president-americans-hope-status-update/From+Desk+of%3A+All+the+Congresses+and+President%2C+Hope+Change+Without+Bush+Update2009-04-09+23%3A53%3A18Ernie+Mannix

China, Sacramento And Hollywood

With 1.3 billion people and the world’s second-largest economy, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) stands an insecure colossus: hyper-sensitive, moody, and quick to deploy diplomatic, economic or military muscle to silence critics of all stripes.  

Of all the forms of influence, the one the Chinese Communist Party wields most effectively is, ironically, money.  Money’s impact can be most clearly seen from Hong Kong to Hollywood and, surprisingly of late, Sacramento. 

The transfer of Hong Kong to mainland Chinese control in 1997 offers a clear case study.  Prior to 1997 and a few years afterward, reporters in Hong Kong would often break stories about official corruption in China, poor living conditions for average Chinese, riots and workers’ protests.  In 2002, Reporters Without Borders started ranking press freedoms worldwide.  Hong Kong rated 18th – the highest level of press freedom in Asia.  Then Chinese conglomerates closely connected with the Chinese Communist Party began buying media outlets in Hong Kong.  Reporters knew that, if they wanted to remain employed, they had to behave themselves by not writing stories critical of the Chinese government.  Press freedoms quickly plunged in Hong Kong, with its free press ranking slipping to 39th in 2005, then 58th in 2006.   (more…)

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Tags: "China", "Kundun", "Red Corner", brad pitt, Chinese Government
Posted Mar 13th 2009 at 11:43 am in Entertainment, Politics | 7903819 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/cdevore/2009/03/13/china-sacramento-and-hollywood/China%2C+Sacramento+And+Hollywood2009-03-13+18%3A43%3A23Chuck+DeVore

‘Spreading the Good Vibe’: New Orleans’ Finest ‘Cowboy Mouth’ to Play for U.S. Troops in Iraq, Kuwait

Memo to all active duty servicemen and women stationed in Kuwait and Iraq: An amazing musical group and an almost surreal positive live musical experience is coming to a theater near you.

According to the Times-Picayune, New Orleans-based Cowboy Mouth will be coming to Iraq and Kuwait for two and a half weeks in the beginning of March. This is not PR puffery. This is a direct order: See Cowboy Mouth when they come to your base. There are no excuses. And send your photos — I will post them at Big Hollywood.

Back in my college days in New Orleans (’87-’91) I took advantage of the city’s historic music venues (Tipitina’s, Storyville, etc.), the cheap drinks and cover prices, not to mention the great bands born from that vibrant, otherworldly and unpredictable culture. In 1990 my friend Chris Huston was working for the local music magazine, Wavelength, and informed me that the locally famous former drummer of Dash Rip Rock (still a Southern-fried country-punk bar band without peer) was starting a new band and would be playing at the now defunct Jimmy’s on Willow Street. (more…)

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Tags: "China", Chris Huston, Cowboy Mouth, Dash Rip Rock, Fred LeBlanc
Posted Feb 18th 2009 at 6:13 pm in Entertainment, Featured Story, Video | 5447855 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/abreitbart/2009/02/18/spreading-the-good-vibe-new-orleans-finest-cowboy-mouth-to-play-for-us-troops-in-iraq-kuwait/%27Spreading+the+Good+Vibe%27%3A+New+Orleans%27+Finest+%27Cowboy+Mouth%27+to+Play+for+U.S.+Troops+in+Iraq%2C+Kuwait2009-02-19+02%3A13%3A59Andrew+Breitbart