Excellent piece at Celebrity Net Worth:

#1 Yoko Ono Net Worth - $500 million.

Ono stated “I love ‘Occupy Wall Street’! John is sending his smile to ‘Occupy Wall Street’. I am sending my love to ‘Occupy Wall Street’. We are all working together. ”

#2 Russell Simmons Net Worth - $325 million

Keep in mind that on top of being a hip-hop mogul Simmons is the founder of a high fee credit card company called UniRush Financial Services.

#3 Roseanne Barr Net Worth - $80 million

Roseanne thinks anyone with over $100 million should be beheaded. Interesting that her net worth is $80 million. I guess she doesnt make “the cut”.

#4 Deepak Chopra Net Worth - $80 million

Chopra said #OWS is turning anger into awareness. The fortune he has made off his fluff filled books has just turned me to anger.

#5 Kanye West Net Worth - $70 million

#6 Alec Baldwin Net Worth - $65 million

#7 Susan Sarandon Net Worth - $50 million

#8 Michael Moore Net Worth - $50 million

#9 Tim Robbins Net Worth - $50 million

#10 Nancy Pelosi Net Worth - $35.5 million

Much more here.

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.

On Wednesday night, Quentin Tarantino was roasted at the New York Friars’ Club. Some of Hollywood’s most famous and talented stars were on hand, many of who did the actual roasting. Among them Samuel L. Jackson, Jerry Lewis, Sarah Silverman, Rob Schneider, Eli Roth, and Neve Campbell. One shameless roaster named Whitney Cummings, often seen on Chelsea Lately, delivered the most buzz-worthy/cringe-worthy line of the night:

[Tarantino has] produced more retarded things than Sarah Palin’s vagina.

Somewhere out there, Andrew Dice Clay is blushing. Not because the joke is off-color, he doesn’t care about that. He’s flushed because it’s unfunny, stolen hackery.

Let’s deal with the unfunny part first: Who is the butt of this joke? A toddler who suffers from down-syndrome and the mother that chose not to destroy him while he was in the womb. Yikes. Regarding Trig: Lay. Off. The. Kids. Okay? Regarding Mama Palin: Is it possible to write a more obvious joke on a more obvious target? I’m sure Ms. Cummings fancies herself irreverent; what would be truly irreverent is if she would harness a little of that hate that dwells in her dreary heart and direct it toward someone who is actually in power. Here are some possible targets she may want to consider: Barack Obama, Michelle Obama, Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, or Joe Biden (notice how I’m not mentioning Obama’s children?). If she insists on resorting to humor that’s main attribute is shock-value, why not try a target that might actually shock someone?

Now let’s deal with the hackery part. It’s one thing that Whitney Cummings is mean-spirited, vulgar, and boring, but it’s quite another that she stole this joke. Here’s a super-NSFW clip of Louis CK on Opie and Anthony going on a jag against Sarah Palin that ends with him referring to her vagina as a “retard-making cunt.”

You mean Whitney Cummings isn’t the first to make a “Sarah Palin’s vagina produces retarded things” joke?!? Waaahhhh?? Actually, she’s not even the second. Here’s a joke from the popular comedy site eBaum’s world:

What is the difference between Sarah Palin’s mouth and her vagina?

Not everything that comes out of her vagina is retarded.

John Nolte has thoroughly detailed that the depraved Louis CK took the gold at the Degenerate Olympics for his attempt to induce vomiting with a single phrase, but I think Cummings did him one better. At least when CK savaged Trig Palin and Sarah’s birth canal, his idea was probably original.

Meet Whitney Cummings: the up-and-coming comic who rips-off other people’s jokes about handicapped babies and the moms who choose not to abort them. The University of Pennsylvania must be proud of their alumnus.

I reached out to a stand-up comedian friend to verify my observation that this might not have been her joke, and he confirmed “it’s a steal.” Apparently this isn’t the first time either: “She’s stolen more jokes than Rickey Henderson stole bases,” he said. “She’s Carlos Mencia with a penis.”

Furthermore, telling a joke that isn’t your own at this particular venue is incredibly stupid. This isn’t the junior high school cafeteria and she’s not getting yucks from the cool kids by regurgitating Deep Thoughts she’s memorized. Cummings shared the stage with some of Hollywood’s biggest names, only to tell and take credit for a joke that’s shamelessly derivative at best and plagiarism at worst. The depravity of the joke is only surpassed by the arrogance of it.

But unfortunately, this is likely the last you’ll hear on this topic—NOW will be AWOL and we all know that hate and bullying directed toward Sarah Palin and her family isn’t the type of hate and bullying the NO H8/anti-bullying crowd cares to fight. (This is particularly telling of how backwards the Left’s priorities are, because unlike helpless Trig Palin, gay teens and adults are fully capable of defending themselves against bullies.)

So the Left’s obsession with Sarah Palin’s vagina and uterus continues and classless comedians still single out Trig as the only mentally challenged baby in America that’s fair game for public ridicule. While the smiley-faced Palins soldier-on, fending off horrendous indignity after horrendous indignity, joyless, joke-stealing scolds like Whitney Cummings continue to speak truth to out-of-power in the cheapest, laziest, and ugliest ways possible.

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.

And get this: According to the Wall Street Journal, during the few days the bill was debated in the House Energy Committee, Republicans put forth amendments to suspend the program if gas hit $5 a gallon, if electricity prices rose 10%; and if unemployment hit 15%.

The Dems smacked that down.

Ah, the spirit of working together.

Which means: cap and trade would have passed – until, the American public made a stink over health care. Obama expended so much capital and good will on that fight, that it cost him the midterms, and the worst piece of legislation on earth.

With no opposition party in place, it was the sign-waving folks in those tri-corn hats who did the heavy lifting.

God bless ‘em.

And if you disagree with me, you’re a racist, homophobic tricornophobe.

GREAT SHOW TONIGHT:

Stephen Kruiser!

Anna Gilligan!

and Terry Shappert!

fun fun fun!

In his seminal book, “The Souls of Black Folk,” NAACP co-founder, W.E.B. Dubois describes awakening to a morning “when men ask of the workmen, not ‘Is he white?’ but ‘Can he work?’ When men ask artists, not ‘Are they black?’ but ‘Do they know?’”

Sadly, the NAACP has veered far from Dubois’ vision and the realization of the principle of racial non-discrimination. The NAACP is now a defender of a system of racial spoils, a champion of big government, and a promoter of progressive politics. In short, the organization has been transformed into an enforcement arm of the Democrat Party. And that enforcement is achieved through the use of race as a weapon.

The NAACP’s recent report on racism within the Tea Party is a rather clumsy attempt at wielding that weapon in order to demonize political opposition to the Democrat agenda. It is also dangerous because it undermines black political and cultural progress.

The Tea Party has steadfastly held to a few core principles: limited government, fiscal responsibility, and free markets. The NAACP leaders have made it their mission to paint these objective and decidedly race-neutral positions into “white-supremacist beliefs.” The difficulty, of course is that there has never been a sign on the Tea Party door saying “whites only.” There is a difference between a blocked door and a door through which one refuses to enter. Woe to any people who adopt as a measure of ethnic authenticity the belief that limited government, fiscal restraint on the part of the federal government, and free-market capitalism as antithetical to their ultimate success, and who further come to believe that those principles are, in fact, the tools of their oppressor.

Sadder still is when that misguided vision becomes a form of political and cultural indoctrination. Consider what I witnessed while attending an NAACP youth council luncheon.

After the luncheon program, the local NAACP director rose to deliver her closing remarks. She began by discussing the plight of a death-row inmate in Atlanta. She then asked the children if lynching in America was still going on. In one loud voice the children answered YES! The director then proceeded to warn the audience that the Ku Klux Klan and other racial hate-groups were on the rise. I sat in a bit of a daze. My first thought was, “This organization is living in a time-warp.” Yes, racism still exists. Yes, idiocy still exists; I suspect hatred and bigotry in some form will always exist. If, however, the NAACP leadership still believes that the KKK is the chief impediment to black success, then as leaders, they have defined themselves as irrelevant. The fact that the organization would teach black children that black people are despised means the organization has sold-out its original charter and is now worthless!

Perhaps, it is time for the NAACP to change its moniker. I will leave it up to the members of the former august organization to choose its new name. I would, however, like to suggest that they consider “The National Association for the Advancement of Progressive Politics Everywhere” or NAAPPE. The members of the new organization could then rewrite their charter to reflect the true aims of their political advocacy.

For instance, NAAPPE would be very candid in its belief that white racism is the primary cause of black wretchedness. For this reason, NAPPE must have as its main occupation the sniffing out of every last vestige of racism in America. Like hound-dogs, NAAPPE members will sniff through the cultural and political landscape and point when they pick up the scent of racism, especially when that scent seems to emanate from the ranks of all those who oppose the Democrat Party and its national agenda, or who oppose those political groups allied with the Democrat Party.

Unlike NAAPPE, the NAACP simply can’t have it both ways. The organization can’t profess that it is the last word on civil rights and at the same time be an arm of ANY political party. Its moniker can’t announce that it is fighting for racial advancement and at the same time the body remains ambivalent about a policy that results in the death of more black people than heart disease, cancer, strokes, accidents, diabetes, homicide, and chronic lower respiratory diseases combined. The NAACP can’t claim the leadership of the black community and then stand idly by while members of the Congressional Black Caucus garner favor (and campaign donations) from the teachers unions, while selling-out the interests of black schoolchildren in Washington D.C. And it can certainly no longer claim to be a civil rights organization while at the same time it advocates a system of governance that relies on redistributing the fruits of one man’s labor in service of other men.

It is not a political party.  Tea Parties are political gatherings in which concerned and outraged American citizens express their outrage at government spending and crippling legislation and reaffirm collectively their devotion to American Constitutional values.

But there is no Tea Party, there is no Conservative Party, and there is no Liberal Party.  We have basically a two-party political system, the Democrats and the Republicans.  All other ‘parties’ act as spoilers in political elections.  Third party candidates end up swaying election results as to hurt the very people they were hoping to help: themselves.  They split the vote.  Witness two past presidential election votes in which Ross Perot split the Republican vote, awarding both elections to the Democrat, Bill Clinton.  Ralph Nader has been a thorn in the Democrats’ side with his Green Party…or is it the Peace & Freedom Party…or was it the Nutjobs & Pudwhacks for Mindless Change Party, I don’t remember.  Anyway… There is no Tea ‘Party’.

But there is a Libertarian Party.

So it’s funny how a cheery promise to a friend to speak at some dinner made six months ago swings around annoyingly to be suddenly at hand…and I have to scramble to throw together some semi-cogent phrases on paper.   Add to this that I found out, pretty much at the last second that the audience consisted mainly of ‘hard-core Libertarians’… Oh great, I thought.  Spoilers.

I have many core agreements with Libertarians…but as I am a Conservative, I don’t see the efficacy of forming the Conservative Party.  That would be a lunacy guaranteeing Democrat domination for endless dark years to come.  Are you listening, Libertarian Party and all other disgruntled arrogant spoiler parties?   (As a friend quipped, “Oh yeah, libertarians – basically atheist conservatives!”

Maybe not a bulls eye, but not far off.

Yep – some members of the Libertarian Party asked me to be a speaker at an awards dinner last weekend.   I stood and delivered, and I hope that most found my remarks at least semi-cogent and that I at least semi-rocked.  I heard no Boo’s and no food or flatware was hurled, which is always a good thing.  And so here it is then, for your dining and dancing pleasure…

—–

Good evening.  My friend asked me to get up and say a few words about a no less weighty topic as HOW FILM IN HOLLYWOOD CHANGED THE WORLD.   And I agreed to that.  And so I’m up here speaking before you.  But as someone who has worked in Hollywood thirty-some-odd years, I’ll let you in on a secret of the craft:  Once you’ve got the gig, you do whatever the hell you want. So I’m not gonna talk about HOW FILM IN HOLLYWOOD CHANGED THE WORLD.  I’ll leave that to some boring pontificating film historian who’s spent a lifetime in academia, never made a movie, never been on a film set and wouldn’t know the difference between the global historical impact of Hollywood and their rectal orifice.

No, what I’d like to talk about is the following topic:  HOW THE WORLD GOT SO DAMN SCREWED UP AND WHAT WE IN THE FILM BUSINESS CAN DO TO HELP UNSCREW IT.

And speaking of the internet (?)…I found this –

The economy is so bad that…

I got a pre-declined credit card in the mail.

I was at McDonald’s the other day and I ordered the Quarter-Ouncer with cheese.  The kid behind the counter asked, “Can you afford fries with that?”

CEO’s are now playing miniature golf.

If the bank returns your check marked “Insufficient Funds,” you call them and ask if they meant you or them.

Parents in Beverly Hills fired their nannies and learned their children’s names.

A truckload of Americans was caught sneaking into Mexico.

Motel Six won’t leave the light on anymore.

The Mafia is laying off judges.

And, finally…

I was so depressed last night thinking about the economy, wars, jobs, my savings, Social Security, retirement funds, etc.., I called the Suicide Lifeline. I got a call center in Pakistan, and when I told them I was suicidal, they got all excited, and asked if I could drive a truck.

But I digress…  The world’s pretty screwed up and I don’t think I need to list the evidentiary bullet points of the world’s screwed-up-ness.  We all read the papers, we watch the news, and it’s all over the Internet.  With today’s technology and the phenomenal micro rates of news dissemination, and the incredibly varied and diverse news outlet resources… man, if you don’t know what’s going on, within a few hours, or even moments of its happening… hey, you’re just asleep.  This brings me to my Three Basic Types of People.  The first type ignore what’s going on around them, cuz the party’s always raging and they say “What’s happening!”  The second type of person is engaged and intrigued by current events and asks questions, combs news outlet resources and seeks diligently to find out what’s happening in the world.  The Third Type of person is blissfully and intentionally ignorant of world events, cause/effect relationships, economic systems and patterns… and when their bliss ends suddenly and dramatically as world events steam roll over them, they shake their dazed heads and cry, “What happened??”

I believe I’m addressing a roomful of the Second Type.  You folks are involved – intellectually, passionately, and spiritually.  In this world…and the way things shake out…you are involved.  You love your families…you love your communities…you love your country.  And let me go further…I believe you love your world.  We are all similar, we humans.  We basically want the same things – travel the world, check it out, people are all basically the same.  When you get past the idiocies of some of the governments.  And even some of the religions.  We’re the same – we’re joined at the species.

Which is all the more frustrating for those of us who see our leaders, rather than trumpet America’s success and hold our system of freedom and self-rule out to the world, not as an unattainable trophy demonstrating out superiority…but merely as a gift.  A gift, offered with open hand…that whoever wants our sort of peace and strength and prosperity…and freedom… all they have to do is accept it.  You want our kind of success – adopt our kind of system.  Freedom…capitalism…responsibility… Liberty.

America, even with all her faults…a comparatively short list which, though the current bunch in D.C. scamper like rodents to shove through more horrid freedom-squelching legislation,  grows longer as I speak…even with all our faults… America is still that ‘shining city on a hill’…beckoning to all… that brave and enduring torch of liberty.  And the promise – that if a man or woman is willing and honest and works hard, that his success is limited only by the grit of his aspiration and the sweat of his brow.

So…given how our great nation was started… how the hell did we get to where we are now?   Well it started with a single lie.  One lie, probably floated as a trial balloon by some lazy, dishonest dickwad who thought he’d run a scam up a flagpole, see if anyone saluted.  He thought he’d see if he could get something for nothing.  He thought he’d see if he could get away with not working…while convincing those around him that even though he didn’t work for something, he deserved it nonetheless.  Because you see…that thing he wanted…he didn’t just want it…he needed it.  It was a ‘need’.

And…no doubt the people around him promptly kicked the livin’ crap out of him.  But when he healed, he moved on.  He found a new group to listen to his idea.  That he had needs…and they probably had needs to.  And it’s just not right…that some people have things they don’t.  It’s not right.  Because those people who have things that they don’t, those rich people… why, they probably got those things by cheating.  By cheating good needy folks like themselves.  And now I know that ain’t right!

It’s just not fair.

So these people who needed things… they got a few spokesmen.  Some fast-talking, smooth salesmen.  Some ‘community organizers’.   And they started floating the notion that people who work and risk and persevere in life…really are just takin’ advantage of the ‘lesser among us’.  They were personally profiting from the American capitalistic system, so obviously they were evil ‘greedy fat cats’.  Never mind the amazing prosperity, community development, and standard of living upgrades these entrepreneurs and industrialists were providing the communities…  no.  They were “getting rich off the back of the poor”.

Goebbels had it right – “If you repeat a lie often enough, it will be taken for the truth.”

Well… this lie grew and grew.  Because more and more community organizers ran for and got elected to public office.  And getting elected became easier and easier.  All you had to do was promise people goodies.  And the goodies were paid for by the Booty.  The Booty, better known as the federal budget was money that was taken from the people who earned it, better known as taxes.  Nobody liked to write a big check to the government to pay their taxes, so the government figured out a way to ‘assist’ the taxpayer by conveniently removing the tax from the person’s paycheck before they even touched it.  Wasn’t that thoughtful?

Don’t you love how the IRS…has the balls to call it a ‘service’??

I’m just getting’ warmed up.  I could go on all night, but I’m not gonna.  Legalized theft has been the M.O. of the Left in our government for some time.  And as we slowly slide from being a Republic…into something…dark and dank…and well…I don’t want to throw up so, suffice it to say… this great nation has slipped from its moorings.  This great nation has forgotten what it is…because we have forgotten who we are.  People in this country have forgotten what it is to be an American.

America is not a place to sneak in to and break the law – and then be rewarded with taxpayer-provided goodies.  It is not a place that you come to so that you may be taken care of.  America is not this big slush fund, feeding trough for all the little piggies to sidle up to and squirm into getting the biggest mouthful of freebies.

America is none of that!  America is an ideal.  Of freedom.  And responsibility.  And opportunity.  We are…or should I say were…a free people.  And the government works for…or should I say worked for…us.  We the people.  Not the other way around.

But every time I watch a movie depicting American values as simplistic, hedonistic aberrations of the reality I’ve grown up with and lived in my years, I want to grab the closest “progressive” and throttle him.

When the world was in turmoil, and entire continents were in danger of falling to evil tyrants…America tipped the scales for freedom.  When cataclysmic disasters over take a land, America is there with overwhelming support and resource.  And if America is so awful, why to so many people risk their lives to come here?  That must tell the world, and us, something about what America is.

We’re the good guys.

So what do we do?  Well we’re doing it.  We educate ourselves on the issues and we get involved, and get increasingly involved with the process of electing our government.  We get vocal.  We no longer let the Left control the narrative.  We stand up for reason and truth.   And we vote — and encourage others to educate themselves and vote as well.

And more – let’s get creative.  Let’s write books…let’s write scripts…let’s make TV shows, let’s make films, sing songs, put on plays….that remind us and inform the world of the simple fact of who we are.  We’re the good guys.

We’re America, damn it!

—–

As these awful leftists preen with a moral superiority they think they’ve discovered in a new-found respect for religious rights, these same moral cowards never mention the victims of 9/11 or the families of the victims who oppose this mosque. Well, at least not by name. But every time these demagogues lash out at Ground Zero Mosque opponents as bigots or anything else, the 9/11 families are the collateral damage in their unforgivably divisive, hateful and racially-charged demagoguery.

The board members of Keep America Safe, Liz Cheney, Bill Kristol and Debra Burlingame announce the release of “We Remember,” an ad featuring first responders and family members of the victims of the terrorist attacks of 9/11 who are speaking out in opposition to the proposed Ground Zero Mosque. We believe their voices should be heard throughout our country and we encourage you to pass their message along.

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) – When President Obama took to the stage at a Beverly Hilton ballroom on May 27, 2009, to raise money for the Democratic National Committee, it was a victory lap of sorts for the 250 studio executives, directors and stars who had paid $15,200 apiece to dine on kabachi ravioli as they listened to their newly elected leader.

“If it weren’t for you, we would not be in the White House,” the president told DreamWorks Animation chief Jeffrey Katzenberg, going on to recognize the deep pockets of other showbiz contributors who had put millions into his campaign coffers.

Tonight, a little more than a year later, Obama arrives in Hollywood again to meet and greet industry heavy hitters. This time, the feelings of many in the crowd are more complicated. Obama has faced criticism from the left about unfulfilled campaign promises ranging from the closure of Gitmo to the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.

This evening’s fundraiser featuring Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi takes place at the Hancock Park home of “ER” and “The West Wing” executive producer John Wells and benefits the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. The usual gang of Hollywood A-listers will be in attendance: the host committee includes J.J. Abrams and wife Katie McGrath, Alan and Cindy Horn, Barbra Streisand, the Katzenbergs, and Kate Capshaw and Steven Spielberg.

With rising “wrong track” poll numbers and mounting criticism by donors and supporters over the administration’s Afghanistan policy, compromises in the health-care bill and lackluster Wall Street reform, it’s painfully obvious that many Hollywood natives are getting restless.

Obama has not cozied up to the industry and, indeed, has told insiders he feels uncomfortable schmoozing with show business bigwigs — a big departure from Bill Clinton.

Read the whole story here.

Prescott, AZ July 25, 2010.  

I find myself in a storybook Town Square.  A perfect pillared 1800’s courthouse surrounded by ancient trees and a Sound Of Music gazebo. Across the street is The Palace, a famous bar that people like Wyatt Earp haunted back in the Gold Rush days. A giant poster of Junior Bonner starring Steve McQueen proves the movie was shot in this bar.  I do a handstand in front of the Old West re-enactors.

(I have a Handstand Collection: photos of me holding a handstand in every city I’ve ever visited since childhood.) 

Victorian houses dot the hills and the Arizona sunset sucks me in. I am sunk. I love Prescott. They all warned me I wouldn’t want to leave. 

I just did a radio show with the nicest man, Dr. Terry Lovell.  I sang him my “There’s a Communist Living in the White House” song. He hadn’t heard it yet.

The Federal Government doesn’t want to protect AZ from illegal immigrants, so it’s a good thing the citizens are legally allowed to carry concealed weapons. I’m told that everyone here is “packin’.” I have a 10 a.m. appointment in the Town Square Gazebo with Quang, a Vietnamese immigrant. He has been highly recommended.  I’m late and he is waiting there with his family.  I want to know why he is involved with the Tea Party Movement. 

The first minute you meet Quang and his family you fall in love with them.  They are genuinely happy, peaceful, loving and smart.

Quang has a message. His message is that he is grateful to be an American and he is concerned with the Communism that has crept into our country.  He is a legal immigrant.  He is grateful to the Vietnam Vets for fighting for his freedom. 

—–

He arrived in the U.S. at age 13 sans parents.  He waited eight years to become a legal citizen.  He learned English, went to college and has his own small business. He is concerned that the Communism he witnessed creeping into his homeland of Vietnam, is creeping into his new homeland of America. He lists three ways that a country is taken over by Communism; 1) De-Educate.  Our present generation has no knowledge of our country’s founding fathers or the Constitution.  2) Take away guns.  This 2nd Amendment right is continually being threatened by Liberals. 3) Poverty. Keep a nation hungry and they will obey the Government. Obama’s Administration has been purposefully collapsing our economy since 2008.  They are succeeding. Excessive taxation destroys the middle class and creates a welfare state.

Connie and I keep checking our microphones and camera equipment hoping we are capturing this moment of truth.  This 2nd American Revolution, like the first one, is operating on a shoestring  budget.  It is so grassroots that we do things in “one take.”    We don’t get paid.  Pete, the guy who brought me to Prescott, is asking for donations literally with a hat, at the event.  People donated my hotel room, my food, and they threw in a free recording session at the local “Studio U.” Mark Barry made me this CD  (*Available soon here) I’m just hoping they’ll give me enough to pay my dog sitter. 

When this Freedom Rally, or Tea Party, whatever it is begins, fifteen hundred people appear out of nowhere.  We are outside a movie theatre.  A few Christians walked the outdoor mall earlier in the day and prayed for the event.  We have asked God to attend.  When the protesters, a handful of uninformed twenty-something’s show up with a “Racist” sign, we ignore them and two policemen on Seque’s shoo them away. 

The event begins.  Why are we here? What can possibly be accomplished by a guy, a guy, a blonde, a blonde, a Mexican rapper, a mixed race singer, a Vietnamese and a gospel trio talking into a microphone? 

              Magic.

The program builds as each person speaks truth from their heart and the climax is Quang.  My eyes won’t stop tearing up as he speaks and I look at his proud wife and children in the crowd.  A standing ovation. A moment I will never forget as Quang acknowledges his friend who left his leg in Vietnam so that Quang could have freedom.  Quang asks all the Vietnam Vets to stand.  There are several.  He asks all the Veterans to stand. There are many. Waves of applause shatter the air as the Arizona sun sets and the moon rises.  Russell Pearce who wrote the famous AZ Bill SB1070, stands and explains that his own son was shot by an illegal immigrant.  David Saucedo a.k.a.”Politik” raps, “Fiscally responsible…that’s the Tea Party….Limited Government…that’s the Tea Party…”

As I hear Dwayne LaSassier beautifully sing the 4th stanza of the National Anthem, my heart fills with love for God and my fellow man…all of us here, flawed sinners saved by grace and leaving the comfort of our homes and our routines, to assemble in an effort to save our country from Tyranny.

Pete hands me a reimbursement check. I appreciate it. I don’t have any health insurance, I have a daughter still in school, a mortgage I can’t afford, and a dog sitter. 

So what do we do with all this concern and fire and passion? 

VOTE. 

Your Nov. 2 vote starts now.  Inform yourself on the issues and the candidates.  Register by getting a form from the post office or public library.  Easier still become a P.A.V., a Permanent   Absentee Voter and vote from the comfort or your couch. (Forms available here, click on Tea Party Resources).

You know, people should be required to take a test before they can vote.  Informed voters are what we need, not just voters.

This political stuff is getting exhausting.  The check didn’t bounce. I get home and pay my dog sitter, Linda.  She does a great job with Peanut, Buddy and Daisy. She feeds them, waters them, hugs them, and leaves Fox News on for them. They are Conservative Dogs. 

They especially love Hannity and Beck. Woof! Woof!

I guess I’ll have to move back to FL.  I love LA. But, my family needs me in FL. I don’t seem to be getting many acting roles. Maybe this deep tan will help.  I squish a big, red ant with my shoe.  I wipe the sweat mixed with sun block from my under eyes and pick up my paperback of “Mere Christianity.”  I have a stack of books next to my arm, near my Coffee Nips.  Nick Popaditch’s book, “Once a Marine,” and Frank Pastori’s “Shattered.”  I used to read the Tabloids a lot but none of my friends are in them anymore…just reality stars I don’t recognize. I’m listening for the UPS man.  I really don’t want him to see me.  “Big, fat, ex-SNL star sunbathing naked!”   

King Obama is trying to eliminate Freedom of Speech by silencing conservative talk radio, TV and Internet.  His plan involves fees and fines. I’ve done research.  The Federal Trade Commission had a conference last month where they decided to “Redefine Journalism.”  Their plan is to have the Government pay the salary of journalists.  This will ensure complete control of the media. Yikes!  Kerry and Pelosi think the (Un) Fairness Doctrine could do this.  Mark Lloyd, Diversity Czar (whatever that is?!) way back in 2007 started encouraging small groups to protest local conservative radio stations by accusing programs like Rush and Hannity of “hate speech that incites violence”!  A group called CCAM in Fresno just obeyed this command. 

I can’t keep up with him. 

King Obama bribed his Socialized Medicine disaster through Congress and destroyed the greatest medical system in the world. 

I can’t keep up with him. 

King Obama is insidiously creeping into my very own personal life.  I don’t have health insurance anymore because of lack of work. Last month, I was shocked to see a TV commercial about Obama Health Insurance. It strangely said that there was a 2,000 caller a day limit?!  I called the number out of curiosity/research.  The recording said that the 2,000 quota had been reached.  After two days, this commercial disappeared, but yesterday I got an email from King Obama offering me Government health insurance.  I felt sick to my stomach.  I won’t even take unemployment checks, based on the principal of the thing.  But…I did start thinking…what if I need … help…someday…I shuddered…NO!  NO!  Go Away!!  I will not succumb to your sneaky attempts at turning me Communist!  

I can’t keep up with him. 

On the Fourth of July I was marching down the street with a group of Patriots chanting, “We’re an Angry Mob!  Have a Nice Day!  Read a History Book!  Have a Nice Day!”  We were walking the last mile with Matthew Perdie, a 23 year old who has just walked across America, from Long Island, NY to Santa Monica, CA, from sea to shining sea, carrying a flag.  It took him a year.  His message?  ”Fiscal Responsibility in the Government.”  

Thousands of well fed Mexicans were shuffling past us on the Pier completely oblivious to our Celebration of America’s Independence from the King of England in 1776.  King Obama will take care of them.  If they are illegal, and paying no taxes, the middle class tax payers will continue to support them…until the middle class is on welfare.  I can’t keep up with him. 

I can’t keep up with him.

The election in November of 2010 will determine whether America dies or lives.  Simple as that.

My good friend John Colbert-R is running for Congress, in CA 29th District against the liberal incumbent Schiff who voted with King Obama, and would not answer one Health Care question asked at his Townhall.  Schiff is a fraud.  He doesn’t even live in his district.  I told John Colbert’s amazing wife Tamara that I would do anything to help John win.  He’s the cream of the crop!  He’s a genuine, honest non-politician.  He was a cop, and then he invented computer software that catches bad guys.  He sold his company for a lot of money and was living the American dream.  But when this King took over our freedom, John Colbert put his life of ease on hold to run for office and save our nation.  I am now doing phone calls for him. I am walking the Precinct.  I didn’t even know what that meant two months ago. 

My hero Nick Popaditch-R is running for House of Representatives in CA 51st District.  I met him at Troopathon.  He was muscular and had a black pirate patch over his eye. Now, being around Hollywood, one always assumes “fake.”  But, Nick handed me his book, “Once a Marine,” and after meeting his wife April, I slowly realized this was the real deal. I asked Nick to show me his eye.  He lifted the patch and there was a glass eyeball with the Marine symbol in the center.  I had never met a soldier who was wounded for me,  for my Freedom.This was my Soldier Awakening Moment. War is not a movie.  Real men die for us. Real men go to wars to keep the American Dream alive. They don’t argue over whether or not their President is good or not. They trust the American system and they fight for the civilian’s freedom, even those who do not notice their sacrifice. 

My new friend Steve Smith is running for Congress in the 31st district against an incumbent who voted for all of Obama’s socialism/communism.  We are working on a campaign song for him.

My other new friend Sharron Angle is in a very important race against the evil Harry Reid in Nevada.  I just donated. 

I’m praying for 140 days along with Rev. Charles Stanley who just suggested a country wide call to prayer for our country.

 As I said before, I don’t really like sunbathing.  I just have no work.  And, I thought it might make me look thinner.  I use the time to read and think and pray.  

I see a bee buzzing near me.  I shush him away. 

I see a king ruling over me.  I vote him away. 

I see the King watching over me.  I bow my head and pray.   

(Um…it’s not a sin to be sunbathing naked if no one but God is watching, right?)