The Google logo has been blacked out today. Wikipedia, reddit, Mozilla and Twitpic are all blocking access to content.  Even Star Trek icon George Takei has blocked his site.  The moves are displays of cyber-protest against the heavy-handed and ill-conceived Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA).

From a political and public relations standpoint, this has already been a complete and utter failure for Hollywood and their formerly formidable lobbying arm, the Motion Picture Association of America. Former Sen. Chris Dodd became the new CEO of the MPAA after he realized he would never be re-elected in his home state of Connecticut due to his personal scandals with Countrywide Mortgage and his involvement in the mortgage collapse at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. So naturally, Hollywood hired the failed Senator as their man in Washington. Dodd has been the chief architect of SOPA, which was written with about as much subtlety and constitutional protocol as his equally disastrous Dodd-Frank banking law.

The merits of SOPA and the overall issue of online piracy is a worthy topic, and it can be argued that the federal government should have some hand in policing and enforcing piracy on behalf of private industries and artists who rely on royalties as a major part of their profit structure. These details can and should be debated here and in Washington DC. What is striking about today’s Internet blackout and the over-the-top reaction to it from Dodd is that this arrogant, befuddled and inept former Senator has finally figured out a way to unite the left and the right to focus their passion against a common enemy:  Hollywood.  (more…)

So just a day after the Republicans won big, President Obama ran screaming from the “cap and trade” program like it was a hooker with herpes.

Remember, this was his solution for global warming: curb carbon emissions by hiking the price of electricity and gas, forcing us to use less.

Well, that’s deader than the nerves in Nancy Pelosi’s face.

Says Obama:

“Cap-and-trade was just one way of skinning the cat. It was a means, not an end. I`m going to be looking for other means to address this problem.”

And with that, we owe massive gratitude to the American people.

By going to the polls and yanking one house away from Obama’s control, they – in effect – blocked the largest tax increase in history.

That’s what cap and trade was: the higher prices it guaranteed would have showed up in our electricity bill, gas stations, and in everything we buy. According to the Heritage Foundation, it would have cost the economy 161 billion dollars in 2020 – or $1,870 per family of 4. By 2035, that number jumps to $6,800. (more…)

A missile is fired from the a distant nation, heading for your city; in only 33 minutes or less, that missile will find its target.  Such is the premise of the Heritage Foundation’s aptly named documentary, “33 Minutes.”  The film covers the history missile defense and more importantly discusses the nuclear threats that face our nation today.

With the news of Iran’s nuclear research being more widespread than previously thought, as well as the Obama administration’s retreat on the missile defense system; a documentary like “33 minutes” is more timely than ever.  Too often, Americans think of nuclear threats in the abstract, and this film does much to move the hard truths of the current state of our defense into the concrete.  Featuring interviews with numerous political luminaries such as Ronald Reagan’s Attorney General from 1985-1988, Ed Meese III, and the Iron Lady herself, Margaret Thatcher, the film will leave you understanding why missile defense is arguably the most important issue facing our nation today. (more…)

Frankly, I’m beginning to feel a lot like Howard Beale, the character portrayed by Peter Finch in the 1976 release, “Network.”  He insisted that people get up right now and go to the window, open it, stick their heads out and yell, “I’m as mad as hell, and I’m not going to take it anymore!” 

I’ve always heard that misery loves company.  If true, misery in America has more company these days than it knows what do with. 

I realize that conservatives have felt this way ever since the Democrats nominated the Chicago crony of Bill Ayers, Jeremiah Wright, Tony Rezko, Rod Blagojevich and the assorted felons at ACORN, to be our president, but why aren’t millions of honest, decent, hard-working Democrats up in arms?  I can guarantee that if a Republican president had done half the things that Obama has pulled off in his first half year, most of us on the right would be calling for his head.  At the very least, none of us would be kissing his heinie.  (more…)

Last Tuesday evening I was privileged to attend a dinner at which Karl Rove was the keynote speaker.  The event was put on by the Heritage Foundation, the premiere conservative think tank of Washington, DC, of which I am proud to be a supporting member.  While Mr. Rove’s speech covered numerous topics, one point that he made has stuck with me and, I believe, should serve as a light for conservatives as we travel through the political wilderness. 

While Mr. Rove has been defined by the media and Hollywood elite as a partisan attack dog and nicknamed forebodingly as “The Architect,” he came off as anything but and emphasized that conservatives should be careful to work with our current president in a respectful manner.  When he mentioned President Obama’s name, a few overzealous members of the audience shouted out their less than positive feelings about the man; and Mr. Rove quickly and gently reminded them that our president has made some decisions that conservatives should applaud. From the surge in Afghanistan to military tribunals, Mr. Rove explained that President Obama has taken the right steps in regards to some very important issues that face our nation.   (more…)

As I recall, the words to Jim Croce’s song from the early seventies went something like this: 

You don’t tug on Superman’s cape
You don’t spit into the wind
You don’t pass counterfeit currency in old Las Vegas
And you don’t mess around with Jim 

Maybe I’m wrong about the third line, but two weeks ago Chen Chiang Liu of San Marino, California learned the hard way from U.S. District Court Judge James Mahan you don’t tug on Superman’s cape and you don’t pass counterfeit currency in Las Vegas.  (more…)

It was almost exactly two years ago that I walked into the Heritage Foundation in Washington to deliver a speech about how the Modern Liberal “thinks” and why he invariably and inevitably sides with evil over good, wrong over right and the behaviors that lead to failure over those that lead to success. 

Having had very little experience with the Internet, I had no idea that the talk would go much further than that half-empty room of eggheads.  Instead, it soon went viral and became the talk of the conservative community.  To date, the speech, which I called, “Regurgitating the Apple: How The Modern Liberal ‘Thinks’” has been viewed by almost a half-million people on YouTube alone.  As far as YouTube hits go, that’s perhaps not the biggest number, but remember, I wasn’t wearing a bikini and singing about my love for Obama. This was a forty-seven minute, rather wonkish talk, by a previously unknown (at least in Washington and political circles) television writer with a bad haircut. (more…)