Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown, candidate Barack Obama and Gov. Ted Strickland

The poster boy for these two broken promises is Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown. If you’ve never heard of Senator Brown he is probably most famous for being mistaken for an African-American by Rush Limbaugh because of his name. He is actually a child of privilege who was raised in Northeastern Ohio. Senator Brown has never had a “real” job.  After graduating from Yale, Senator Brown entered politics taking a short break to go back to college for an advanced degree. Despite the fact Senator Brown has never worked in the private sector much less gotten his hands dirty with physical labor, he likes to see himself as a common man. What rich, well connected politician doesn’t? The Senator has been in Washington so long he has come to think he is employed by the Democrat Party and not the people of Ohio.

Senator Brown was one of the brave legislators who when he saw how the whole open town meeting thing was going last summer staged a number of “community roundtables” in heavily Democratic areas. Senator Brown claims to have visited voters in every Ohio county but has dodged my county and my invitations to appear at a true open town meeting. His propaganda events were heavily attended by stooges from the SEIU and other Brown operatives. Public input was heavily limited and also staged as I have documented in the past. These union “workers” would have been easy for Senator Brown to turn out as his daughter is employed by the SEIU. His other daughter works for the Ohio House Democratic Caucus. If one were a cynic they might wonder how hard those two had to work to get those jobs 

His biggest achievement in his three years in the Senate was that he had compiled a voting record that is 97% along party lines. Recently, Senator Brown did a bit of grandstanding and included his name on a Republican amendment that would demand all congress members join the public option in health care. An amendment he knew would not make the bill but gives him cover at home. Again a cynical person might wonder if he had to get permission from his boss Harry Reid to make this move. If the Senator wants to show he is serious he should write his own amendment, get a few other committed Democrats to join him and refuse to vote for any health care legislation that does not contain his amendment. Rep. Bart Stupak, a Michigan has already shown this kind of courage, but I am guessing Senator Brown doesn’t have that much spine.

To see how much of a lap dog to the party Senator Brown has become one only need look at his voting on the meaningful amendments to the Senate health care legislation. On the three amendments, to stop stripping a total of $560 billion from Medicare, Senator Brown said no, no, no!  

If Senator Brown believes in transparency and bipartisanship why has he not spoken out against the closed door meeting that excluded conservative voices in drafting this legislation? Why has he not demanded the President uphold his campaign to put the crafting of this legislation on C-Span?  If he is a man of the people, why has didn’t he support the amendment limiting the payout to tort lawyers in medical malpractice lawsuits? I have an idea how we can help Senator Brown achieve his desire to become a man of the people of Ohio; help him join them in the unemployment line in 2012.

President of all Iranians — both living and dead in the streets — Ahmadinejad still wants to build a few nukes even though Mr. Obama has told him not to. Colonel Qaddhafi, or Gaddahfi or Khaddafi, or Kaddafy or however you spell it, isn’t on board the love train either.

This has not deterred President Obama! Moving swiftly, he said he will name a new Apology Czar, rumored to be either Jimmy Carter or Maxine Waters and set a schedule for more apologies to settle all past wrongs of the United States.

The President is planning a public World Apology Tour for the interventions, imperialism and mistakes the United States has made in the past. The President believes that only then will everyone hold hands with us and join in a rousing chorus of “Kumbaya.”

The Tour Schedule

November 1st – The President will travel to Berlin, Germany to make amends to the German people for our interference in domestic European politics during the First and Second World Wars. Our nation building efforts were unwarranted and resulted in unforeseen liberty and economic development. The President will recommend the return of Poland and France to German control in reparation.

November 4th – The President will stop in Pyongyang, North Korea to offer our apologies to Kim Jong-il for getting involved in what was basically a civil war. The unintended consequence of this action left half of the Korean people living a comfortable and successful lifestyle while their country stole untold millions of car sales from the Japanese.

November 5th - In Tokyo the President will announce the return of the Philippines and Hawaii to the Japanese for our unwanted interference in Asian-Pacific affairs in the 1940s.

November 11th – Set to coincide with Veteran’s Day celebrations, the President will travel to Appomattox, Virginia to apologize to the former Southern states for the Civil War.  He will apologize to the South for imposing the morality of the North and imposing their Judeo-Christian view of slavery on Southern plantation owners.

TBA - Trip to France for apology for taking advantage of them during the Louisiana Purchase.  Date for apology to the British for the American Revolution…

Last week I went to a town hall held by Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown. Since the Senate went on recess I’ve been blogging, calling the senator’s office and writing opinion pieces for my local paper asking him to have a public meeting in my county. At first the Senator was having stealth get-togethers with supporters and then went back announcing them on his website as “public forums.”

At one of his stealth meetings on the Ohio State campus in Columbus, a few conservatives got wind of the meeting and tried to get in but were told the Senator wasn’t holding town halls. This was documented on video here.

The Senator was so afraid to face conservative voices he went to Afghanistan. While I fully support him visiting out troops he has never been a supporter of the war or given our troops what they need to win in Iraq or Afghanistan.  It’s a strange kind of guy who would rather face bullets from the Taliban than a few harsh comments from conservative voters.

Finally the Senator announced a “public forum” on healthcare. It was to be held on a college campus in the middle of an urban area. I was told by his lead press flack that the meeting was to be open with no reserved seats — first come first served. Later I received an announcement from the President’s PAC, Organizing for America, directing supporters to show up an hour earlier than the time published on the Brown website.

When I arrived at the town hall there were already many folks in union t-shirts seated up front. There were also several sections of seats reserved for students who were bussed into the meeting. The meeting was scheduled to last 90 minutes. When the meeting started the Senator announced there would be several “invited” speakers who would talk for five minutes each, after which the Q & A would begin. The five speakers took almost 55 minutes! That left just 35 minutes for the questions.

Before the meeting started we were told if we wanted to ask a question to put our names on a 3×5 card and pass them to the middle of the aisle. Being the nice guy I am, I collected the cards from our row and passed them to the staffer collecting them. When the Q & A began the Senator pulled five names from the cards to come forward and ask questions. The guy who was sitting next to me was called even though he had not handed me a card! When he got to the mic he gave a long sob story about his problems and the Senator gave a scripted answer which I had heard him use before. In all, only three questions were asked that did not agree with the Senator. Three questions in 90 minutes of what had been purported to be a fair and open public meeting on health care.  

This is why we are angry, my Progressive friends. I didn’t want a protracted debate. I didn’t want to change the Senator’s mind. I just wanted to be heard by my elected official, not lied to by his press secretary and treated like a rube at the county fair.

In late 2008, I published a list of predictions for this year on my personal blog and many of them have already come to pass. Because of this success and the urging of many liberal readers on Big Hollywood who have encouraged me to get a life, I am giving up comedy and am starting a career as a psychic predictor!

My service as a psychic predictor may be a great boon to the conservative cause. There is very little we can do about the past. The budget is done, TARP is passed and the stimulus is, well attempting to stimulate. It’s hard to stop a truck that has already begun rolling down the hill but if we know what is coming then maybe we can act rather than react.

Here are some things that will happen in the next one hundred days:

1. Barack Obama gives the commencement address at Notre Dame. He urges the Church to lighten up! Notre Dame needs to be more inclusive. Since they have already lowered their standards by honoring a pro-abortion politician maybe they could drop their admission requirements and stop discriminating against the stupid.

2. Obama encourages Congress to pass the so called “Cap and Trade” legislation. Without this legislation he says temperatures will rise sharply through June, July and August. If the bill is passed cooling could start as soon as late September or early October.

3. Obama comes up with a great plan for the prisoners at Gitmo. They start a military tribunal to try the prisoners and then hold them in a new prison to be built on the U. S. Naval Base at Diego Garcia.  All prisoners at Guantanamo Bay are sent to the middle of the Indian Ocean and the reputation of the United States is restored! Why didn’t the Bush administration think of this!

4. President Obama nominates himself to the Supreme Court! There’s no Constitutional prohibition to him holding the two offices and since he is a multi-tasker he doesn’t think the job is above his pay grade.

5. Perez Hilton says anyone who believes in traditional marriage is a stupid %$#^& and intolerant! He repeats the statement so many times that the irony builds up in his bloodstream and he becomes magnetic. He exempts President Obama from his wrath because he says everyone knows he was just saying that to get elected.

6. The White House unveils plans for some new photo-ops that include a cruise missile flying by the Texas Statehouse,

7. The Department of Health and Human Services announces a possible pandemic of summer colds. Secretary Sebelius reminds the public that the swine flu had killed only one more person than the common cold.

8. President Obama has no news conferences in July due to a labor stoppage by the International Brotherhood of Teleprompter Operators.

9. Janet Napolitano announces that she found a new way to discover potential enemies of the state. Many of them are registered on their county voting rolls under the heading “Republican.”

10. The OMB announces that by going line by line over the budget it will save over $35,364 over the next seventeen years by having DiGiorno instead of delivery.

The Late Great Bill Hicks

Bill died at age 31 fifteen years ago but is still a cult celebrity among comedy mavens. His last national television appearance was on Letterman’s show. The set was cut due to controversial content. It was aired last Friday by CBS with Bill’s mom making an appearance on the show. Letterman was profusely apologetic about the censorship of the material fifteen years ago. You can watch the set here.

Before I get into this next bit, let me say I was a huge fan of Bill’s and was honored to have been a friend and have had the chance to watch him artistically develop from the Comic’s Annex in Houston into a major force in comedy both here and in Great Britain. This set, even though it has some very funny bits, is not Hicks at his best.

I’m not sure why Letterman cut the segment back in 1993. Some thought it was because of his roasting of gays or pro-lifers. Others thought it was his attack on Christians for wearing crosses. I think it was the opening minute where he called for, in a comic way, the killing of some celebrities he didn’t like. I’m still of the opinion that the opening minute is unacceptable for broadcast television, and I’m sure many find Bill’s take on the pro-life movement offensive. I’m sure others would find his ribbing of gay children’s books homophobic and his take on smoking in heaven a little over the line, but comedy is supposed to be offensive and irreverent. However, it should never advocate violence against individuals even in a comic way.

If Hicks had gone on TV and said he had a new show called, “Let’s Hunt Down and Kill Bill Clinton” instead of Billy Ray Cyrus, he could have been arrested. When Alec Baldwin was on Conan and “joked” about killing Henry Hyde and his family I was outraged. It’s a crime if you name the wrong person, and even though we may not like Billy Ray Cyrus or the other “Bill’s” named at the top of his monologue, calling for violence against anyone on national television is morally objectionable.

Dave was right to use his good judgment back in 1993. Maybe he’s been in New York too long, but the opening minute of this set still isn’t funny and shouldn’t be shown on the public airwaves.

So today most filmmakers opt for the politically correct solution of demonizing the only target that doesn’t fight back; corporate America! And who is it that runs all the corporations in America? Rich, fat, middle-aged white men!

In the perfect politically correct world of Hollywood there are no Latino gang members, no Arab terrorists, no black mobsters, no bad gay men or women, or evil straight women. There is only that most diabolic oppressor, the middle-aged white guy. This means that when you go to see a movie like the recent hit “Iron Man,” as soon as fat, bald, middle-aged, white Jeff Bridges walks on the screen its dollars to donuts he’s Mr. Big, the head of all evil doings and the one pulling all the strings.

There’s also been another interesting movement in Hollywood over the last twenty years – the politically correct movement against acting. There’s been a call from inside the acting unions and activist groups to only cast perfect ethnic and physical matches for roles in film and television. For example, if the script calls for a hearing impaired character, you should cast a person who is hearing impaired, no acting required. If you have a role for a Mexican character you should cast an actor who is ethnically Mexican, not cast an Italian guy who’s a better actor and still looks the part because there’s no way that he could “act” Mexican as well as an authentic Mexican. When Tom Hanks and Antonio Banderas were cast as gay men in the movie “Philadelphia” there was some controversy about straight men playing gay. How could they possibly understand the gay experience under the oppressive straight white man?

So why, when Sean Penn was cast to play the iconic gay politician Harvey Milk, was there not even a murmur from the gay activist community? I believe it’s the same reason women’s groups said nothing about the various sexual shenanigans of Bill Clinton; the politics of the offender were so perfectly leftist no foul was called. Bill Clinton was for unfettered abortion and appointed a women to be Surgeon General, Attorney General and Secretary of State. How could he possibly be a sexual harasser? Sean Penn is a leftist’s leftist and leftists do not eat other leftists for breakfast, it just isn’t done.

A final piece of political correctness in Hollywood that drives me up the wall is how the term “actress” is seen as politically incorrect. In the beautiful world of the Screen Actors Guild we are all equal and all known simply as “actors.” Until it comes to handing out the SAG Awards then there is a category for “female actor.” If we are all equal, why not just one award for best actor? I think a lot of “female actors” are afraid that too many fat bald middle aged white guys would win, you know how they are!