Too Big to Fail, which premieres on HBO on May 23, 2011, features a star studded cast recounting the events that led to the financial crisis and bailouts by the U.S. government in 2008. It is a mini-series packed into a 98-minute made-for-television movie where several essential characters are quickly introduced and where finance and economics are casually discussed. It may help if one has a baseline of knowledge about the crisis before watching the movie. If one doesn’t know who Henry Paulson, Ben Bernanke, and Timothy Geithner are or what Lehman Brothers, Goldman Sachs, and AIG are, it may prove slightly difficult to follow.

Although the Director, Curtis Hanson (L.A. Confidential, 8 Mile), was limited to telling a very long and complicated story in a very short amount of time, he was able to skillfully pull it off. Perhaps this is because the screenwriter, Peter Gould (Breaking Bad), deftly adapted Andrew Ross Sorkin’s 2009 prize winning New York Times Bestseller, Too Big to Fail.

The cast was right out of a Robert Altman film, there was a large number of well known actors including William Hurt (Paulson – Sec. Treasury), James Woods (Fuld – Lehman Bros), Paul Giamatti (Bernanke – Chair, Federal Reserve), Bill Pullman (Dimon – JPMorgan Chase), Ed Asner (Buffet – Berkshire Hathaway), Billy Crudup (Geithner – President, Federal Reserve), Matthew Modine (Thain – CIT Group), Tony Shalhoub (Mack – Morgan Stanley), Topher Grace (Wilkinson), Cynthia Nixon (Davis), and many others. They all looked and played their parts very well with the exception that there seemed to be no effort made toward sounding like the people they played. It was difficult to get past the notable voices of the actors. Paul Giamatti sounds like Paul Giamatti and nothing like Ben Bernanke. Hurt sounded nothing like Paulson. Crudup nothing like Geithner. Perfection wasn’t necessary, but it seemed as though there was little to no effort made at all by the actors to at least sound a little more like the real people they were portraying and less like themselves.

The story opens on a  shot of Ronald Reagan. It is news footage of a speech he gives on deregulation. Credits play as we see an image of Clinton signing a piece of legislation as the audio of newsmakers make mention that this is Congress’ bill being singed. Alan Greenspan is seen and states, “Don’t regulate for regulation’s sake,” which is followed by Bush proclaiming everyone should live out the American dream and own their own home. Miscellaneous clips talks of high profits and subprime loans, and then mortgage meltdown and government bailout.

At this point, I am thinking this film is going to be about blame… and that blame is going to be deregulation ushered in by Reagan, the Republican Congress during the Clinton years, Bush 43, and Reagan through Bush’s Federal Reserve appointee, Alan Greenspan.

This prompts me to check the cast and crew to see who they support and if they are bringing their agenda to this story in their hopes to rewrite history and put Republicans in a negative light and Democrats in a positive light before the election in 2012. And, of course, the Director and the Writer are both ardent Obama supporters. All those at HBO support Obama like Co-President Eric Kessler, Co-President Richard Plepler, President of HBO entertainment Sue Naegle, President of HBO Films Len Amato and Executive Producers Paula Weinstein, Carol Fenelon, and Ezra Swerdlow. Even the Cinematographer Kramer Morgenthau and Casting Director Alexa Fogel have contributed to Obama’s 2008 campaign. And the Obama supporting list of actors is long too: Topher Grace, William Hurt, Matthew Modine, Cynthia Nixon, and Amy Carlson. As if that’s not enough, there are many other ardent left-wingers like Paul Giamatti, Bill Pullman, Tony Shalhoub, and Ed Asner.

Then the story opens on James Woods playing Dick Fuld, Chairman and CEO of Lehman Brothers… an ardent Democrat and Obama supporter. James Woods stands out as the political maverick in the cast. In a recent interview with New York Magazine, Woods is quoted as saying, “I’ve always said that the next Obama slogan should be, ‘Barack Obama: Putting America Out of Business,’ because that’s what he’s doing.” So I decided to turn off my bias filter and give this story a chance.

As the story unfolded, I saw that the villains in this film weren’t the Republicans, rather it was a single villain… the total and complete financial collapse of our nation, or as Bernanke puts it, “[replaying] the depression of the 1930s. Only this time… far, far worse.” So, regardless of any one American’s political affiliation watching this film, total and complete financial collapse is an enemy we can all collectively desire to defeat.

The heroes, however, that’s a little more complicated. The actual heroes of the story are Republicans Henry Paulson (Secretary of the Treasury), Ben Bernanke (Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve), and Independent Timothy Geithner (President of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York). They artfully maneuver their way through the minefield of economic collapse. Bear Stearns has already collapsed, Lehman Brothers is on the brink, Merrill Lynch next, and with all this going on, AIG – the safety net for all these creditors – was in the process of imploding from its own lack of liquidity and inability to meet its obligations. If AIG falls, all the banks fall. People would pull their money out of their banks and there would be no George Bailey (Jimmy Stewart) trying to stop the “run on the bank” by convincing his depositors to take only what they need from his honeymoon stash. America, as we know it, would be in ruins.

Every maneuver in their quest to stabilize the markets is met with unpredictable reactions. Once they believe they’ve averted disaster, the pundits, investors, and citizens react differently than expected. It’s a reminder of Nobel winning economist F.A. Hayek’s precept that, “The curious task of economics is to demonstrate to men how little they really know about what they imagine they can design.”

But in the end, as we all know, it was capital injections in the form of a Troubled Asset Relied Plan (TARP) that would “save the day.” In short, the plan would see the U.S. government purchase assets and equity from all financial institutions, even if they didn’t need it, in order to stabilize and strengthen the financial sector. As Bernanke put it, the upside would be stabilizing banks faster, the downside would be nationalizing a few banks. Their plan to soften the blow was that they would force private banks to participate in this plan under law, but that the government would not have a voting interest or the ability to tell the banks how they use the money injected into their coffers… leaving the question to the viewer, “They will lend it out, won’t they?”

But, was TARP the right solution? If one believes it was, then the heroes of this story are without a doubt Republicans Paulson and Bernanke. But, if one believes it wasn’t the right solution, then the Republicans are just kicking the can down the road. Regardless, the story is a quest for a private solution, according to Paulson.

As Republican public relations guru Jim Wilkson (Topher Grace) says at one point, “You just can’t hand the banks massive piles of cash. Nobody’s going to go for it. To the Republicans, it’s nationalization. To the Democrats, it’s a bailout. And the banks are going to go ballistic.”

The story is well crafted and builds suspense out of the unexciting topics of finance and economics. There were parts that bothered me, like making the Republican Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, Christopher Cox, look like an immature boob, or Republican presidential candidate Senator McCain look like he is clueless on economic matters contrasted by Senator Obama’s grip on the subject, or simplistically blaming deregulation while omitting the fault of Carter’s Community Reinvestment Act of 1977, or that derivatives and subprime loans were born during Clinton’s presidency, or more importantly that in 2006 Republicans pleaded with the Democratically-controlled Congress to begin taking measures by pulling the reigns back on Fannie and Freddie to mitigate the impending economic disaster.

Those criticisms, however, were offset by so many of the lines delivered by Topher Grace’s character, Jim Wilkson, who best resembled the attitudes and feelings of most Americans during this time. At one point, it is suggested that the government purchases up the toxic assets of the banks, to which he responds, “Ohhh, call it cash for trash,” he also calls nationalization “the N-word” and that it is un-American, and he suggests that the government running the banks would be like the government running the Post Office, which they “run like a dream.” Another character addresses the issue that the government having the ability to dictate compensation would be the biggest “brain drain this country has ever seen.” And House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is characterized as something like the head of the Mafia. Her character comes across as an elitist snob, which I particularly enjoyed.

The movie was a surprise. Although it wasn’t 100 percent balanced, it was enough for this right-winger to actually enjoy it. And the filmmakers did a pretty decent job packing in a lot of characters and a lot of story into a short amount of time. If Obama-loving HBO can pull off the upcoming Sarah Palin story, Game Change, and the Dick Cheney movie, Angler, with the same deftness and fairness, I will be pleasantly surprised.  Better yet… I will be astonished.

–

Listen closely to the rocket scientist. Bill Maher says ”America is a stupid country” because ”Sarah Palin could be president.” Then when CNN’s Wolf Blitzer argues that America elected Barack Obama, Maher responds, “Look who he was running against.”

Well, he was running against McCain and PALIN. So…

…Americans are stupid because we would vote for Palin, and Americans are stupid because the only reason we voted for Obama was due to the fact he was running against Palin.

Genius.

The video ends there but I’m guessing Blitzer didn’t follow up on that tiny contradiction. What’s the difference between Bigfoot and serious journalism on CNN? People claim to have seen Bigfoot.

Lamest Attempt at Obama Joke: David Letterman claimed that Obama was in Russia, hiking the Appalachian trail.

Letterman also used John McCain as a foil on three different nights to compare the disparity between winners and losers of the last Presidential election: While Obama traveled to Russia to meet with Putin, McCain was chasing kids off his lawn. While Obama was in Italy, McCain was heating up a can of Chef Boy-Ar-Dee; While Obama was in Italy meeting with the G-8, McCain was on his front porch in Arizona, waving at cars.

Conan O’Brien also seems to like the ageist jokes, claiming that John McCain is using twitter, only he’s twittering on his garage door opener. With all the McCain material, and the dearth of Obama jokes, you’d almost think John McCain won the election. According to Craig Ferguson, when Palin resigned, John McCain said, “Who?”

Most Overused Person as a Punchline: Sarah Palin for her resignation. Letterman claimed she blamed the media, and was spotted in a helicopter shooting Wolf Blitzer. Conan said America was just ranked the 114th happiest nation,in the world but when Palin resigned it moved up to 17th. He also suggested she might be doing a TV show for viewers that find Paula Abdul too coherent. Letterman claimed the Governorship now passes down to Miss Congeniality, Ferguson claimed it goes to Chillee Willee.

Writers over Shoulders Award: This week it goes to to all three Late Nights. O’Brien, Letterman, and Ferguson each did a  play on Tina Fey’s old joke about Sarah Palin seeing Russia from her house. (I believe we’re coming up on the one year anniversary of that one.) Conan claimed that while Obama was in Russia, he could see Palin cleaning out her office. Craig Ferguson did a version of the joke, claiming he wouldn’t use the room she stayed in during his USO tour because he didn’t want a room where he could see Russia. Letterman claimed that while Barack was in Russia, Sarah Palin waved at him. He was actually so enamored with that joke he used it four times on three different nights. On Tuesday he actually used it twice in the same monologue.

But Letterman’s favorite joke he used most every night was, “Mosquitoes mate and breed in standing water, kinda like my in-laws.” A couple of times he also told a joke about his mom thinking the Fourth of July fireworks were an attack from North Korea.

Oldest Presidential Joke of the Week: Even though Letterman and Ferguson both made Clinton jokes, this week’s award goes to Conan O’Brien for telling a Classic Bob Hope Presidential Library joke: “Saddam Hussein’s gun will be displayed in George Bush’s Library, right next to the book.”

Funniest Obama Line of the Week: Goes to Conan O’Brien who claimed that when Barack was in Moscow he gave a speech to an economics class entitled, “Can we borrow 4 trillion Rubles?” Runner up also goes to Conan who claimed that Obama was in Italy because the Italians were great allies of ours, excepting anytime we’ve gone to war. Conan also did the only mention of the famous photo saying that the only ass Obama was looking at, was Joe Biden. (It seems there’s still much hesitation to use Obama as the actual victim in the jokes.)

Angriest White Man: Again David Letterman who’s still griping about having to apologize to Sarah Palin. On two separate nights he wondered aloud whether it was his joke that might have caused her to resign.

The Most Interesting Interview: Bob Newhart on Conan. He’s been at it for almost 50 years now, and is still able to do panel. He had some great stories about the old “Tonight Show” that really made me long for Golden Age of Late Night, back before it got so personal.

Not so fast, my friends. Since we’re all engaged in wild speculation, allow the reading of one more set of tea leaves, if you please.
 
You can roll your eyes and tease Palin’s supposed lightweight intellectual status. You can bury your head in shame when Charlie Gibson peers down his nose through his reading glasses and stumps her with international policy questions. You may say she had no business on the national stage from the get-go last fall when John McCain announced her as his vice presidential pick. But what you cannot ignore, nor take from her is what she is about to seize on in a big way.The dirty little secret is the 2010 and 2012 Republican candidates in both houses of Congress need Palin now more than ever. They need her just as John McCain needed her. Conservative voters both independent and Republican don’t trust the crew in Washington. Historically it is true they never have when asked. But this is not your typical “throw the bums out” mentality fomenting at tea party protests of late. This is a time when long term blue dog Democrat and Republican moderate office holders are nervously wondering, “Just how real IS the anger?” Bailouts, takeovers, stimulus spending, aggressive energy taxes, and nationalized health care have this electorate frightened and angry. The public is paying attention to their every vote, and those that are on the side of the American taxpayer will be rewarded in coming elections.
 
Then there are those politicians who got it right most of the time, but voted to bail out car companies because, “American car companies going bankrupt would signal the end of our economy.” Or a personal favorite, “Well, sure, I voted to bail out Wall Street and the banks, but, can you imagine the kind of trouble we’d be in today if I hadn’t?” One shudders to think. (Tongue firmly buried in cheek, or course.)
 
Americans aren’t buying what Washington’s selling anymore, and politicians know it. Especially wary of this fact are the damaged Republicans who bought into the economic Chicken Little routine last fall. So just how does a Republican candidate whip up a base of support when voters are angry or suspicious of their voting history? Enter the most powerful motivator and fundraiser in all of Republican politics today. 
 
Name a Republican today who could draw a larger crowd, and encourage more checks to be cut to a political candidate than Alaska’s governor. Ex-presidents don’t count, by the way. But even if you included George Bush – I think she’d give him a race for the dollar. That said – go ahead, try it. Cheney? Romney? Pawlenty? Jindal? Rove? Steele? Rice? Powell? McCain? Huckabee? Ron Paul? Nope. None of them touch the pull of Palin. Remember, it’s not about whom you like personally. It’s who can raise the most money and draw the biggest crowd that matters most in this game.
 
You don’t have to like the unseemly truth of what Reagan called “the second oldest profession.” You don’t have to like Palin’s magnetism. Heaven knows many of the names just mentioned don’t. This one-term pony from the sticks is stealing their thunder. Plain and simple, this woman is not only a license to print money; she is the belle of the ball – the envy of the Republican political establishment. Palin has achieved a level of authentic, average-Joe appeal unmatched by any Republican on the national stage since Reagan and that is sexy as hell to a party who needs money and excitement now more than ever.
 
No, they’ll not say it publicly. In fact, they’ll dismiss her influence altogether if asked. But I’ll bet my house that the weekend voice mailbox of Governor Palin was full of begging, pleading Republican Senate, House, and gubernatorial candidates humbly requesting this “erratic, irrelevant, lightweight” to come stand at their side during their upcoming picnic/potluck/town hall/ cocktail fundraiser.
 
Perhaps the political chattering class is correct. Maybe Sarah Palin isn’t electable anymore. It’s highly doubtful that even came close to the top of her list when weighing the option of resigning last week. Sarah Palin knows she holds something more powerful than elected office right now. She has a consistent, unwavering commitment to celebrating American exceptionalism, freedom, and less government in the lives of every American. She now has the ability to hold each and every politician who calls on her for help to rise to her standard and maintain the integrity of the conservative movement. Put plainly, she will now determine the standard, direction, and message of conservatism going forward if they want her help. And there can be no doubt they crave her help.  
 
She holds popularity, trust, interest, and an excitement with a sizable national constituency who listen to her more than any public official today. She can write a best-selling book, turn out big donors, and virtually steal the spot light from anyone who shares the stage. Not bad for an “erratic, lightweight, quitter with no political future.”

Sarah Palin will be around and relevant long after those quietly begging her to save their political lives today. When she leaves office in a couple of weeks, she assumes the role of the Republican’s titular kingmaker. Call it “Palin’s Green Party.” Green – the color of envy and the color of money and oh, how she’s going to create both.

“You think maybe you would have edited that, David?” Mr. Carson asked, standing in the lavish bathroom.

“I mean your producer had the time. They could have cut it, right?”

Carson looked very young. Circa ‘66 young.

Letterman was incredulous.  “Johnny… what the heck are you doing here, how can this be possible?” the aging late night host queried.

“I am here to see you, Letterman,” Johnny said, flicking some lint off his attractive form-fitting suit. “You always made a big deal about honoring me, and uh, flattering me with your praise. I feel I owe it to you… in your time of trouble… to try to help you out.”

“Johnny, come on, you’re a class act, this ghost business is beneath you… and why haunt me, are you one of them now? Are you a conservative operative?”

“Class act?  What would you know about class these days, David? You’re an entertainer and you’re acting like a nut on a crusade to destroy the Republican Party.

This stuff ain’t funny, David, shame on you, not so much for the specific comments, but for abandoning your talent as a comedian and crossing over to become a wacky pundit like that Olbermann bozo.

And speaking of clowns, David, it’s always so sad when a clown gets old, but it’s pathetic when the clown gets old and mean.”

Letterman looked at Carson with anger now and Carson seemed to be bizarrely morphing between younger Johnny and the older retired-age Johnny. Letterman shook his head and chuckled, “Wow, the band must have slipped me some funny stuff…”

“Ah yes, the band/drug shtick,” Johnny smiled, “That stuff always worked.”

“David, you’re getting close to retirement. Your legacy should have been, ‘Funny man retires, wow what a great run,’ but now I fear soon it’s going to be, ‘Nasty late night host retires.’ The way you viciously attacked McCain, now Palin, what gives, man? It’s just plain mean. Why are you so angry?”

“Okay nobody talks to me like that, not even you, Johnny.  I’ll have to ask you to leave now,” Letterman said without looking Carson in the eye.

“I will, David, but just indulge me for another moment; I am here because of you, you called me. Maybe the younger you. You can chase me, but you might also be chasing the only one who can help you now; the comedian who knows when he’s made a mistake and can laugh at himself. If you forget to laugh at yourself, my friend, you will surely leave that job to others.

Using her daughters in that way is just wrong. It stinks, man. It’s just plain ugly… and mean.

David, I am going, but remember the younger man who used to be funny over at NBC called me. Search your soul, I think you’ll find him there, let him out, I think he may want to make a real apology.”

With that, the steam from the shower seemed to form a flowing curtain behind Carson. Johnny then started walking stage right, faked a trip, smiled, waved, and faded into the morning light.

While volunteering for the McCain Campaign last year, I ran across a display of quotes by former President Ronald Reagan… One of them touched my heart so deeply that it inspired me to sit down and start writing a song as a tribute to our men and women in the United States Military.

The quote said… 

“We all share the love of peace, but our sons and daughters must learn two lessons men everywhere and in every time have had to learn:  that the price of freedom is dear, but not nearly as costly as the loss of freedom – and that the advance and continuation of civilization depend on those values for which men have always been willing to die for…” 

While some of our brave men and women in uniform have made it safely back home to their loved ones, others have come home wounded – their lives forever changed.  Yet still, there are those who have gone on to another home – paying the ultimate price for freedom… with their lives… 

May we always remember and NEVER forget… Freedom Isn’t Free. 

FREEDOM ISN’T FREE 

Freedom isn’t free – It takes a sacrifice
The courage to believe – In doing what is right
Protecting all that’s dear – Through the blood, the sweat, the tears
No, freedom isn’t free 

Freedom isn’t free – It takes a sacrifice
The willingness to love – And fight for what is right
Protecting all that’s dear – Should be clear to you and me
That freedom isn’t free 

From the halls of Montezuma – To the shores of Tripoli
We will fight our Country’s battles – In the quest for liberty
Over hill and dale and sky and sea – Freedom’s price is dear
But greater is the cost – To see our freedom lost 

Oh say can you see – By the dawn’s early light
America, America – Is shining bright
And to all those who fought – For the Home of the Brave
We thank you, thank you – For all you gave 

Freedom isn’t free – It takes a sacrifice
A daughter or a son – A husband or a wife
A sister or a brother – A father or a mother
No, freedom isn’t free 

Freedom isn’t free – It takes a sacrifice
A daughter or a son – A husband or a wife
A sister or a brother – A father or a mother
A neighbor or a stranger – To keep us safe from danger
Protecting all that’s dear – Through the blood, the sweat, the tears
No, freedom isn’t free 

Protecting all that’s dear – Through the blood, the sweat, the tears
No, freedom isn’t free 

Protecting all that’s dear – Should be clear to you and me
Through the blood, the sweat, the tears – We will fight for liberty
And with faith in God above – We’ll preserve this Land we love
Though freedom isn’t free 

Make no mistake about it – You wouldn’t want to live without it
But freedom isn’t……….. Free

Copyright -Chele Stanton 2009

FOR ALL THOSE WHO SERVE AND HAVE SERVED
THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
THE LAND OF THE FREE AND
THE HOME OF THE BRAVE

WILLINGLY… COURAGEOUSLY… SACRIFICIALLY… 

THANK YOU… THANK YOU…
WE ARE FOREVER GRATEFUL

Reagan, Judy Garland, Henry Fonda, Boris Karloff, Gene Kelly

This rare date night out without the various Spawn of Konig, naturally coincided with a gig for me: as my wife was settling into the Director’s Guild Screening Room on W. 57th. 72nd street performing a comedy sketch with TV host extraordinaire Bill Boggs in his live show Talk Show Confidential. The cue for my sketch with Bill is the end of his Richard Nixon anecdote. Boggs tells a very funny story of being a teen-aged intern in the 1960s on a talk show, and the guest is Richard Nixon. Boggs is assigned to Nixon, to make sure Nixon gets to the set on time. En route, Nixon makes a pit stop. Young Boggs is then confronted with his first major, television talk show crisis: how to tell the imposing former Vice President that he’s not only about to go on camera with his fly open, but it’s a “Grand Mal Unzipping,” the kind where your shirt tail is hanging out of the fly.

It’s a funny story, and Boggs tells it well. So, Nixon unzipped, we do our sketch, I hop a cab to the screening – just in time to hear emcee Monica Crowley tell the second funny Nixon anecdote of the evening.

It’s now thirty years post Grand Mal Unzipping. Young Monica Crowley is an intern for former President Nixon at his Saddle River, NJ home / office. Former President Ronald Reagan pays a visit. Monica gets the rare opportunity to be photographed standing in between two presidents. Just before the cameraman shoots, our impetuous young Monica seizes both the opportunity and the aging presidential buttocks, and gooses Nixon and Reagan! The result: a photo of a young, grinning Monica and two very surprised old presidents (or, as Reagan inscribed the photo: “To Monica, a rose between two thorns”).

After the screening, we had a great time hanging out with an actress friend who I’ve known twenty years – but never knew anything about her politics. Turns out she’s a big Reagan fan, and a lifelong Republican. I asked her if she talked politics at auditions or on the set. “Well, I don’t avoid it…But, if I’m in a room full of true believers, what’s the point? I was doing a voice over job last year that had to be rescheduled because I was out of town on the first date they wanted to use me. I was in Minneapolis at the Republican National Convention. The next week at the job, the director was incredulous: ‘Why were you at the Republican Convention? What were you doing there? You mean you’re supporting McCain??’ I said: ‘Okay, let’s just do the work…’”

The documentary, by the way, was very good. I particularly enjoyed the emphasis on how Reagan’s experience negotiating contracts with the studios as president of the Screen Actors Guild directly influenced his negotiating tactics years later with the Soviet Union and the Democratic congress. A couple of things Reagan learned as SAG president: “The purpose of negotiating is to get a deal” and “I’d rather get 80% of what I want then to go off a cliff with my flag flying”.

Ahem. Maybe the current SAG president could learn a thing or two from the old conservative?

And so, with our stomachs bloated with delicious hors d’oeuvres, clutching our gift bags with free Ronald Reagan coffee mugs, our big date night completed, the lovely Bride of Konig and I returned to the Palatial Konig Estates, relieved our brilliant teen-aged daughter of her duties babysitting for her younger brothers, watched the Mets drop another one to the Dodgers, and went to sleep.

This is a common tactic I see in modern debate, and it’s closely related to the “who are you to judge” fallout from our post-modern generation. The implication is that if you look for a fault and find it, we collectively lose the ability to call it wrong if we also practice it. If I claim your candidate is a liar, you just Google a quote where my candidate told a lie and suddenly telling a lie is off the table. Stupid, I know. But that’s where we’re at.

Given this standard, nobody can really preach about anything because none of us have perfectly acted out our values. I don’t believe in lying, but I’ve obviously lied before. Perhaps even today. But that doesn’t mean I can’t speak against lying. I’m selfish, and I teach my kids to try not to be selfish as much as possible. Even when I know our nature makes us selfish. We fight because it’s right, not because our record is perfect.

I was at a men’s Bible study where half of us were conservatives and half were libs. They asked how I could support a disingenuous guy like McCain and I said that I thought he would be best about expanding the rights of the unborn. The libs came up with quote after quote, even emailing me YouTube links where McCain was soft on abortion, plus he was a hypocrite because he would expand the Iraq war for 100 years and kill many innocent people.

Liberals love the hypocrite game more than conservatives because liberals learned that by promoting no standards of personal behavior, they can never be caught fighting against them. Liberals judge positions not standards of personal behavior. If you hold the wrong position on Global Warming, you’re not a hypocrite, you’re evil. It doesn’t even matter how you act, as we see when the leaders of their movement ride in jets that aren’t made of organic hemp. You can actually act with hate, as long as you don’t come down on the side of “h8te” on certain issues.

Conservatives think hate is an action, Liberals think hate is a position. Likewise, if a conservative takes a certain view on Embryonic Stem Cell Research we’re called anti-science, never mind that it’s anti-science to pretend the lab is empirically clear on the philosophical value of an unborn human.

The Republicans of the last eight years did act as fiscal hypocrites and deserved to lose their credibility on the subject. I hope our guys reform and see the real fallout that will only happen to Republicans when we’re caught saying we’re for small government while actively expanding it. President Obama can claim to be against big government while tripling down on his massive expansion and it will never occur to Libs that he’s a hypocrite. His intent is in the right place after all.

Philosophically, it’s easier to be a liberal than a conservative. We don’t hold liberals to a high standard because only conservative standard claims are taken seriously. So you can only have conservative hypocrites, which is why we so rarely hear about liberal hypocrites though most of us know better.

I don’t think our Republicans look better because the Obama administration fails. If that’s what we’re counting on then we’re screwed. I hope we don’t have a bunch of Republicans running on “The failed policies of the last four years.” When Obama did that I smelled a fraud and to not use the same standard on Republicans would be hypocritical.

Republicans need to make a positive case for a conservative view of politics. Our liberty is God-given and doesn’t need a government to make it so. Our government should be restrained, limited and pushed out of our lives unless our life, liberty and pursuit of happiness is at stake.

Big Lie:  “Weimar-like rage at McCain-Palin rallies”

In his October 11th column, Theatre-boy Frank cites, “At McCain-Palin rallies, the raucous and insistent cries of “Treason!” and “Terrorist!” and “Kill him!” and “Off with his head!” as well as the uninhibited slinging of racial epithets…”.  I’ve included all of his links so you can hunt them down yourself.  I find it interesting that his three sources are Dana Milbank of the Washington Post, MSNBC and The Huffington Post.  What happened to the paper of record as a source for news?  Are you really citing another opinion columnist, a left-wing blog and MSNBC as your news sources?

The great John Leo unmasks the lie behind these statements and then concludes: (by the way, I get the irony of linking to his post at the HuffPo considering I just lambasted Rich for sourcing HuffPo, but it’s John Leo for crying out loud, and I’m not the NY Times!)

By the time the outrage on the left reached Frank Rich’s Sunday column, the narrative line about two-person abusive crowd was set in cement. At Rich’s hand, the one racial remark in Clearwater became “the uninhibited slinging of racial epithets.” The one shout of “Kill Him!” aimed at Ayers after Palin’s description of his bombing career became “raucous and insistent cries of “terrorist’ and “Kill Him!” All untrue. This is a classic example of awful journalism. Adam Clymer, the former New York Times reporter and Congressman John Lewis both issued statements alleging that the Palin crowd in Clearwater reminded them of George Wallace. Lewis, who also accused McCain, pointed out that Wallace never killed anyone; he just set the stage for the Birmingham bomb that killed three black children.

But don’t take his word or mine, the Secret Service investigated the “Kill him” remark and concluded:

The agent in charge of the Secret Service field office in Scranton said allegations that someone yelled “kill him” when presidential hopeful Barack Obama’s name was mentioned during Tuesday’s Sarah Palin rally are unfounded.

See what they did there?  It says “when presidential hopeful Barack Obama’s name was mentioned,” but reread Dana Milbank’s description of what happened:

“One of his earliest supporters is a man named Billayers,” she said. (“Boooo!” said the crowd.) “And, according to the New York Times, he was a domestic terrorist and part of a group that, quote, ‘launched a campaign of bombings that would target the Pentagon and our U.S. Capitol,’ ” she continued. (“Boooo!” the crowd repeated.)

“Kill him!” proposed one man in the audience.

Clearly, even if you take the report from Milbank as fact, the “Kill him” remark was directed at William Ayers.  But by the time Theatre-boy Frank “reported” it, it was right out of Nazi Germany.

Please take a look at the pattern here.  Left-wing blogs misunderstand or, in some cases, purposely misrepresent a comment or event and start to spin a tale that paints Republicans in the standard, racist, bigoted, sexist, fascist, homophobic way.  It spins on the web for a week or so, and then Theatre-boy Frank puts it in the paper of record and it becomes mainstream media Gospel.

But, at the heart of it is a half-truth and in some cases a lie.  And when a voice as powerful as Frank Rich’s in a paper as influential as the NY Times repeats lefty BS from the Huffington Post, it’s worse than sloppy journalism, it’s a Big Fat Lie.

Stage Right is on Facebook.

UNLESS you work for the RNC.  In that case, you old dinosaurs, you must watch soberly.  You have to sit through the whole self-congratulatory festival of “we-were-once-the-ones-the-One-said-we-were-waiting-for-but-now-everything’s-just-awesome-and-look-at-all-the-famous-people.  Watch and weep at the pretentiously magnanimous interviews and the well-shot “candid” appearances of celebrities.  Witness Bruce, Garth, The Jonas Brothers, and the thousand other young artists you could neither name nor get on the phone.

Don’t just kid yourself that it’s all because he’s black.  No sir, don’t you turn off the TV and pour yourself a nice single malt, muttering, ‘it’s a moment in history, what could we do? We’ll be there again in time.’  Because we won’t at this rate, since you are killing us.  Inside the big tent I hang out in, conservatives of all stripes agree on one thing: You don’t get it.  So television this weekend is a horror you have to live through to understand why it’s all happening.  We need you to need you to watch the egobamarama and learn.  HBO will run it again, so no excuses…

The Republican National Convention, which I somehow attended this past August, was at times pathetic – and I mean that in the true sense of the word because I was rooting for the home team.  Here are two words to keep in the front of your mind from now on: PRODUCTION VALUES.  Letting the music trail out to silence after the applause had died down while McCain was still on stage waving to the crowd after his acceptance speech?  Unacceptable.

The effective “green screen” behind him in the beginning of his speech?  Really?  Because MSNBC didn’t make enough fun of him in Louisiana for that?  Was there no director?  Were there no rehearsals?  And you didn’t clear the picture…is that true?  Can people actually be fired in your organization, or is it even more like community theater than we already fear?

I don’t blame the guy running the sound board (those guys are my friends, and are almost never wrong!), because he or she was part of a team, and probably overworked.  As a local audio guy from St. Paul told me while we shook our heads at yet another shrieking feedback one afternoon, “this whole thing was f*#$%d from the beginning.”  That should never be the case again.

Productions of large scale events run well all the time.  Ever heard of these things called arena rock tours?   No, how about Disney Whatever-on-ice?  Might it have been worth a call to the production team behind, oh, say, Faith Hill’s tour?  A little more Gene Simmons, a little less Gene Krupa -am I speaking your language here?

Who. The. Hell. Is. Advising. You?  You understand that real production is a big deal and that we usually get what we pay for, right?  When we’re trying to put forward a man as the leader of the free world, it would help if we went ahead and hired the A-team on every front.  Whoever bought Sarah Palin’s wardrobe should be put in charge of more stuff, because the Governor looked great on the campaign trail.  Whoever was “handling” her, by which I mean muting the great instincts of a political natural, and allowed the 150k to linger as a talking point…back of the bus.

Let me tell a secret to your ossified ear.  Some of the artists who were otherwise inclined to help out by performing at the convention or on the trail balked for fear of being left hanging while onstage with bad sound, etc.  In other words, the atmosphere is not exactly what we call “cool” when we’re hanging around the cool constituents clubs you don’t frequent.  Shouldn’t people be clamoring to share the stage with you?  Somehow, you created an atmosphere about as comforting and natural as Cindy McCain standing in camera shot during every McCain speech.  As for me, I’m still reeling from the news that my old group, the LowStars, may be singing my song, Calling All Friends, somewhere at an Obama event this weekend.   (I’d request they change the lyric to “Calling Some Friends” as a courtesy, but I imagine the die is already cast.  You’re wondering not only who the hell am I, but who the hell are they (hi guys)?  And yet, there they are, along with every other musician who can make it, flocking to the Orgybama and they are welcomed with open arms.  The DNC speaks their language and it has a universal appeal: we make each other look good.  Can you say the same?

Remember, back when he was still a conservative, how Schwarzenegger declared his candidacy?  The Jay Leno surprise and the perfectly lit press conference, outside the next day?  Across the hum of his orange glow, you could almost hear the other guys wives telling them that they still loved them, so why not step out of the race and let’s go have a nice life, honey, while the media professionals show us how it’s done?  It was all over but the shots.  The broom, the whole bit.

That’s the level Obama will continue to play at.

Look, it’s easy to play Monday morning pundit, and I know you were saddled with the Ancient Mariner, but come on.  The Right isn’t going to become cool just because we start saying we want to be.  It only worked that way in “Revenge of the Nerds” movies, and even then I’m pretty sure they triumph only when they embrace their dorky selves.  Some stuff you have to pay for.  You find the cool people and get their help, just like in “Grease.”  You, the RNC, are Sandra Dee, and you need to be tarted up.

Here’s my proposal.  Come to Hollywood and meet with some of the people on and around this blog.  If you’re a Rep. or a Governor with higher ambitions, get away from your local handlers (or bring ‘em along) and come speak with the pros. There were directors and producers Godfathering many aspects of the Obama sweep to total media domination (you think a few community organizers pulled that off?).  Your pickings will be VASTLY slimmer, but it’ll be worth it.  Come out, speak, and network.  You cannot just hire out all this stuff at the last minute.  On their blackberries, your staff should have the phone numbers of film production people from the land of make-believe, not just AV guys from your local yellow pages.  You should be clued-in before press campaigns for films you might find common cause with.  You need to be more familiar with the video game developers, the tech community.  It goes on and on.

Besides, some of you could use more than a little help with your hair and make-up.  I’m just saying.