Count Simmons in the Mitt Romney camp, and his reasons for choosing the former governor over Newt Gingrich come down to a pragmatic view of modern women. Simply put, they won’t stand for a first lady who came in third.

Mitt Romney’s got a chance … and he’s got the experience. He’s run successful companies, knows how to make money and knows how to be taxed at 15 percent instead of 48 percent if he lived in Beverly Hills the way I get taxed,” he says. “If you invest you should be taxed at 13-15 percent because if you invest you could also lose everything, so it’s all fair.

Simmons is more cynical regarding former Speaker Newt Gingrich’s hopes of beating President Barack Obama in the fall, and it’s not because Gingrich isn’t qualified to become Commander in Chief.

Fifty percent of the population are women, and they’re not gonna put up with a First Lady as the other women, the mistress … I really don’t give a shit. I just want to know if you can do the job. I don’t care what you do with your schmekel or who’s in bed with you.

The bassist for KISS, who can always be trusted to speak his mind and who, unlike many other entertainers, actually has something to say, gave us his take on Robert Redford, President Barack Obama, and Mitt Romney.

Regarding Redford’s statements against one-percenters, statements that only Occupy Wall Street types could love, Simmons said:

He means well, he’s a great guy. But it’s a bit hypocritical, since he’s part of the one percent, to address the 99 percent.

Simmons then went to speak to that fact that he doesn’t like all the class warfare, all the dividing of people into different camps.

Either we are all Americans, or you’re going to fall victim. This is the reason why the old Roman Empire died, it fell from within. Division from within is one of the stupidest things you can do.

Regarding Obama, Simmons basically called him a rookie, and stated anew his regret for supporting him in 2008.

I voted for [Obama], last minute. I wasn’t going to vote for him because he didn’t have a good resume. He only had two years of local political experience, he’s never run a company, he’d never been overseas, and he didn’t know any of the political leaders. I voted my conscience, based on some sort of – well, it’s the right time in history.

In other words, Simmons was driven to vote for Obama out of the same white-guilt that drove so many other Americans to vote for Obama in 2008. But no more. Simmons made it clear he is on board with the GOP in the coming election and that his favorite is Mitt Romney:

But I want Mitt Romney and Barack Obama to face off on the economic and political issues of our time. I want a real dialogue, and I, as a private citizen, want to be able to vote my conscience. More often than not, I want business men and business women in politics, not college professors.

“Shout it Out Loud,” Mr. Simmons. Such common sense is sorely lacking in today’s conversation.

Now, Simmons has upped the ante by predicting “The next president will be Gov. Rick Perry.” (Mind you, Obama is running for re-election, so this is tantamount to saying Perry is going to beat Obama in 2012.)

Simmons has also intimated that he will be voting for Perry, inasmuch as he said the candidates for whom he votes always win: “I voted for Pres Bush. I voted for Pres Clinton. I voted for Pres Obama… [Gov. Perry] will be our next President. I’ve never been wrong”

(I don’t want to be too picky, but Simmons was technically wrong when he bought into Obama’s “hope and change” mantra. Still, we won’t hold that against him because he’s not only seen the light, but is actually shining the light on the world right now.)

Besides his voting record, Simmons has another political feather in cap that gives his prediction a little more gravitas – in 2010 he predicted that the Tea Party would usher in “major change” during the mid-term elections.

He was certainly right on that one.

Simmons can spit blood, blow fire, and rock with the best of them (I still roll my windows down and crank up the radio every time “Calling Dr. Love” comes across the airwaves). And when the makeup is off, Simmons has proven to have a deep love for America and a genuine concern about the direction in which Obama is pushing us.

I hope President Perry has Mr. Simmons to the White House once the 2012 elections are behind us.

As a citizen of Israel, he also had a strong opinion about Obama’s markedly anti-Israeli foreign policy.

The interview began with Varney pointing out that Obama had admitted he overshot on his predictions for job creation, to which Simmons responded: “[Obama] is a man that I voted into political office and…I want my vote back. …I don’t think the man is unqualified to know the structure [of business] and what business needs.”

Varney next pointed out that although Simmons owns and runs a number of businesses, he isn’t hiring at the moment. He looked at Simmons and asked why he wasn’t hiring, to which Simmons responded: “There are so many barriers. The Government means well, but it’s become our mommy and daddy.”

And from there Simmons simply unloaded: “We never gave our kids an allowance, because in real life when you train your children [that] at the end of the week [they’re] going to get an allowance… when [they] grow up…[they’re] used to getting entitlements,” and to asking, “where’s my money?”  

Simmons intimated that such kids eventually become conditioned to look to government with their hand out and say: “Mom and dad [used to] give me my money every week.”

Let me just say that by this point in the interview, Simmons was rolling so hard and fast that I thought Varney might cue up “Dr. Love” or “Shout it Out Loud” and flash the studio lights on and off for a KISS-like ambiance. Instead, Simmons just kept unloading on Obama:

“What we were hoping for was a man who would surround himself with business leaders, not professors from Berkeley. …Our president had two years of local experience, was born in Hawaii, and never ran a business in his life. …I am ashamed to say I didn’t look at the resume long enough. …Greece here we come.”

At the end of the interview, the subject of Israel came up, and particularly Obama’s call for Israel to return to its 1967 borders. Said Simmons: “It’s the height of lunacy.” He also pointed out that Obama can say these things because “he doesn’t live there,” so it doesn’t affect him.

I concur wholeheartedly, and would only add that Obama is able to say alot of what he says about America because “he doesn’t live there” either. Rather, he has lived a federally subsized life — both as a Senator and now as President — wherein  expenses are covered by tax payers and every luxury is afforded him.  The man has absolutely no idea what it’s like to try to make ends meet by spending a hot July afternoon working a field in Kansas or facing the cold of a winter night to break ice for cattle in West Texas or the agony a family of four faces as they try to figure out if they can afford the gasoline needed to take the family vacation they’ve taken every year till now. 

 Simmons put it best when he said of Obama: “The man is unqualified.”

A big thanks to Hot Air Pundit for finding this gem. Gene Simmons speaks so much reasoned clarity in this clip that he deserves curtain call.

How about a little “Detroit Rock City”?

UPDATE: By popular demand… “Rock & Roll All Night and Party Every Day”:

The Weekly Standard:

Gene Simmons, a cofounder of the rock band Kiss, recently returned to his native Israel, after a 52-year hiatus. Unlike other entertainers who have boycotted the Jewish state, such as Elvis Costello, the Pixies, and Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters, Simmons expressed his support for Israel. “The countries they should be boycotting are the same countries that the populations are rebelling,” Simmons told the AP, suggesting that the entertainers who boycott Israel should place a more critical eye on other nations in Israel’s neighborhood. “People long to be free … And they sure as hell don’t want somebody who’s a ruler who hasn’t been elected by them.”

In supporting Israel, Simmons now joins the former lead singer of the Sex Pistols, punk rocker Johnny Rotten.

Jerusalem Post:

Even though he hadn’t returned to Israel until this week, Simmons has always been an ardent supporter of the country, most recently sending a televised message to a IDF soldier (and Kiss fan) wounded during the 2006 war with Hezbollah in which he called him a “hero.” Although Kiss has never appeared in Israel, Simmons dismissed other entertainers who have chosen to boycott the country as “idiots.”

“As an American, there’s no choice but to be supportive of Israel,” he said. “This is the Holy Land, and it’s no secret that everybody in America perceives Israel as it’s only real friend in the Middle East – who else are you going to rely on?” ….

According to Simmons, Israel has been a source of pride for him ever since he left. “There ain’t no place like it on planet Earth. It’s astonishing that it’s still here – stronger and prouder than ever,” he said, adding that the recent upheavals in the Muslim world has filled him with hope for the future of Israeli-Arab ties. 

Gene Simmons really is rock and roll. The new rebellion against conformity is rebelling against conformity of the Left. Trashing Israel is a resume enhancer in the entertainment world today. Defending Israel is just the opposite.

—–

It’s interesting  that Gene Simmons pretty much admits he voted for Obama out of white guilt. It’s also very intelligent politics on his part, a way to say to others who made the same terrible mistake, Hey, we tried to do the right thing for the right reasons and look where it got us. But we can fix it in 2012! The Kiss bassist also makes a simple (in a good way) but articulate case against against Obama’s ever-expanding government. If our presidential candidate is half as capable of making the same case against Obama in 2012, we should be in pretty good shape.

 As far as Simmons’ belief that musicians should stay out of the business of politics in their music… Does this mean “Love Gun” isn’t a a pro-Second Amendment song?

No place for hidin’ baby
No place to run
You pull the trigger of my
Love gun, (love gun), love gun
Love gun, (love gun), love gun

What am I missing?

Simmons and Ted Nugent represent real rock n’ roll, which, at its core, is about freedom. Just leave me alone to do my thing. Those of us who are more socially conservative might not be personally comfortable with what that particular thing might be, but Kiss never lobbied to raise my taxes and Aerosmith never argued for my health care to be taken away. But that bastard Springsteen sure has. He’s “The Man” now, living in his mansion on the hill and telling the rest of us how to live our lives – a real moral scold protecting the status quo.

Sometimes I wonder if this isn’t why the music business is so stillborn now, with so few major artists and acts breaking through in a big way. The biggest tours each year are usually artists and bands old enough to be grandparents.

Is this simply nostalgia or is it due to the fact that the liberating spirit of a rock n’ roll, of Ted Nugent and Gene Simmons, hasn’t been passed on to the next generation of musicians?

Nugent/Simmons 2012! — Simmons/Nugent 2012! — Anyone But Obama 2012!

—–

Watch it ALL!

It only gets better as it rolls on.

Joel’s problem is that he can never get home from work before his wife Susie (Kristen Wiig) puts on the sweatpants at the strike of 8pm … and once the sweatpants are on there will be no sex for the Extract King. What makes him late is the personnel and personality nonsense at the office; what slows him down is Nathan (a terrific David Koecher), one of those boorish nightmares of a neighbor whose lack of self-awareness eventually forces you to be rude to them. So Joel is frustrated — very frustrated, and taking advice from the exact wrong person: His buddy Dean (Ben Affleck), a long-haired bartender who has only one answer to every imaginable problem: Narcotics.

The clouds seem to finally part when General Mills makes an offer to buy Joel’s company. Eager to get out from under the thankless role of employer and escape the never-ending hassles his eccentric staff puts him through, “Sell!” Joel says, and then the mishap occurs. In what’s commonly known as an industrial accident, Step (Clifton Collins Jr.), loses a testicle and the sale of the company is put on hold due to all the unknowns surrounding a personal injury lawsuit.

Thankfully, Step has no desire to take advantage of the situation. All he really wants is a promotion to Floor Manager. Joel’s okay with that and once more the skies clear until the gorgeous, cunning, but still somewhat naive Cindy (Milas Kunis) arrives on the scene to complicate both the lawsuit and Joel’s love life. Having thus far coasted on her looks and made her way through life as a small-time con artist, Cindy sees the loss of a testicle as a shot at the big time.  

Batemen plays put upon about as well anyone out there, his Joel is no exception and he and the whole cast are the best part of a movie that has some fine pieces but never works as a whole. The plotting is choppy, the laughs sparse, and even for a somewhat off-center comedy, Joel’s actions – which turn most of the plot – strain credibility. My abiding affection for “Office Space” is well documented, and no one would argue that much beloved workplace comedy exemplifies tight plotting, but “Extract’s” whole reason for being is predicated on Joel’s inability to get home from work at 8pm and yet after this is firmly established, on at least three occasions, he up and leaves the office on a whim.

One can only suspend so much disbelief.

Judge’s insightful observational comedy is also lacking. “Office Space” (1999) nailed the subculture known as Planet Cubicle, and you didn’t have to live that life to appreciate how perfectly that world was captured. Here you never feel like you’re given the full tour of all the eccentric details that would make up the blue collar small business world of “Extract.” Bits and pieces work: Step’s empty machismo about being the fastest sorter, the tattooed fork-lift operator with the band, the bitter, territorial woman on the assembly line… Unfortunately, they serve only as a taste of what could have been.

Instead, the main focus is on one of those relationship comedies where the audience knows a simple conversation (or leaving work ten-minutes earlier) would solve everything, which in turn makes all the ensuing hilarity feel somewhat forced.

The luminous Kunis is sorely underused. Because the early focus (and the film’s advertising) is on her, it takes a while to adjust to the fact that her character’s primary function is to instigate the main story, not be a major participant in it. On the other hand, Affleck knocks his supporting role out of the park, Gene Simmons has a great time as a flamboyantly unscrupulous lawyer and in what could be a breakout role as the dumbest gigolo ever, Dustin Milligan is responsible for the film’s few memorable scenes.

One could argue the unfairness of comparing anything to “Office Space,” but that lightening in a bottle shared many of “Extract’s” plotting and structural problems. What swamped those flaws and made them irrelevant were endless streams of quotable dialogue and one iconic scene after another. “Extract” has some fine moments and will certainly play better on television than up on the big screen, but never gets off the ground. Removed from the shadow of what came before and placed in a vacuum, the result would not be a more entertaining movie just a less disappointing one.