Dude, Where's My Teleprompter? (Part 2)

TOTUS has gone missing:

Did President Obama Throw His Attorney General Under the Bus?

That tiresome cliche "throwing [some specific person] under the bus" has spread like a virus. According to Wikipedia, it emerged in sports journalism in 2004 and became even more prevalent during media coverage of the 2008 presidential election cycle. The site also indicates that the expression's origins could date back to the late 1980s or early 1990s.

This CNN snippet seems to suggest that the presidential timeline doesn't match that of Attorney General Eric Holder in regard to the Fast and Furious scandal.



In the following clip, DOJ whistleblower J. Christian Adams discusses the corruption in Holder's radicalized Justice Department concerning Fast and Furious along with its unwillingness to prosecute voter intimidation and vote fraud.



[h/t Breitbart.tv]

Was the Hoover Dam a Shovel-Ready Project?

President Obama's campaign headquarters, otherwise known as the ratings-challenged MSNBC network, is running a lame "lean forward" (whatever that means) promotional campaign with the Hoover Dam as a backdrop, as Jonah Golberg writes at National Review Online, featuring MSNBC host Rachel Maddow (and others) "waxing poetic on the glories of government and liberalism."

But as Goldberg in effect explains, Hoover--we have a problem:

The reason the ad is so funny is that nobody thinks liberals such as Maddow would support anything like the Hoover Dam today. The Hoover Dam is a marvel. But by today’s green standards, it is a crime against nature. If you tried to build it, the Natural Resources Defense Council and Greenpeace would be in court tomorrow blocking it, with Ms. Maddow cheering them on.

Indeed, look at all the activists attacking the proposed construction of an oil pipeline from Canada to the Texas coast. It would create thousands of construction jobs and yet liberals oppose it for the usual petrophobic reasons. Ironically, liberals love building highways and bridges, but loathe making it affordable to drive on them. This is just a small example of the Catch-22 liberalism has found itself in.

We're currently reading Goldberg's informative and well-researched book Liberal Fascism which is highly recommended.

Hollywood's Obama Rescue Mission?

There were a lot of raise eyebrows when it was revealed that the White House is partnering up with the producers of a Hollywood movie on the raid on Osama bin Laden's compound. If, as the producers claim, it isn't an infomercial for the president's reelection, why not simply postpone the film's release until after the November 2012 election?

In any event, here is the take of Taiwan CGI Studio Next Media Animation:

Obama Administration Tries Stealth Amnesty

The vast majority of Americans regardless of demographic group want the border secured and existing immigration laws enforced before considering any proposed reforms to the process. So in response, the administration is apparently going the way of backdoor amnesty for illegal aliens, those who are supposedly fit into the so-called "noncriminal" category, according to the Houston Chronicle:

The Department of Homeland Security is systematically reviewing thousands of pending immigration cases and moving to dismiss those filed against suspected illegal immigrants who have no serious criminal records, according to several sources familiar with the efforts. Culling the immigration court system dockets of noncriminals started in earnest in Houston about a month ago and has stunned local immigration attorneys, who have reported coming to court anticipating clients' deportations only to learn that the government was dismissing their cases.

Reflecting the feelings of the average American, the Heritage Foundation had this to say:

 Obama shows a pattern of refusing to enforce laws (or refusing to permit states like Arizona to enforce them).  When he dislikes our laws, Obama forces change by dictate rather than seeking legal change through the political process.  Congress gets bypassed. Those benefiting can claim a new category of legal immunity:  FBO’s–Favored By Obama. Selective enforcement is being taken to new extremes.  Furor would follow any straightforward official announcement that Obama is forgiving thousands from deportation, so the new amnesty policy is coming to light gradually, memo by memo and place by place.

In a related development, the Washington Post reports that the union representing ICE officers have issued a vote of no-confidence in ICE Director John Morton over his lackluster at best approach to enforcement.

"Whatever Works" Doesn't

[owing to other commitments, posts have been sparse lately, but we will attempt to get back on track.]

We recently watched the DVD of Woody Allen's 2009 film Whatever Works, starring Curb Your Enthusiasm star/creator Larry David. Curb has been a great show, so if the HBO series is considered a day job, David should keep it. David's embarrassing attempt to channel the neurotic Allen persona just appears as if he is reading lines without any real conviction. And what's with those shorts?

It's not just David's performance as the curmudgeon in chief, however, that is the issue; it is really the over-politicized and (if we can use this term) mean-spirited script itself, which apparently was written many years ago, but recently dusted off.

David, in a part that Allen likely would have played himself in his slightly younger days, is a repulsive brainiac professor who unbelievably hooks up with a beautiful young woman from Mississippi (Evan Rachel Wood). Her equally "unenlightened" parents arrive on the scene later in the film.

The main theme of the cliche-ridden film seems to be that conservative hicks from the south can only find true happiness if they give up their faith, family, and their guns and pursue a libertine/bohemian lifestyle ("whatever works") in New York City. While the the movie has a few (very few) funny lines, it's a poor substitute for Allen's classic comedies such as Annie Hall, Broadway Danny Rose, and Radio Days that were funny, touching, generally non-political, and sentimental all at the same time.

Stereotyping/demonizing people from the south may have been considered edgy in the 60s or 70s, but it's just comes across as oh so lame now. By the way, what about the millions of people who are happy in a Christian lifestyle; isn't that also a component of whatever works, too? Moreover, what about all so-called right wingers, many from the south, who served in the military and/or law enforcement to preserve the First Amendment freedoms that have allowed Allen to pursue a long career in the arts?

In earlier sequences in the movie, the script allows the red state folks to refute the Allen's/David's snobbery, so there could be an argument made that Allen is mocking both the phony New York intellectual and the ignorant red state hick. Based on the Allen's left-wing political pronouncements in many interviews, such as recently advocating an Obama dictatorship of all things, however, this seems unlikely.

BigHollywood.com's JohnNolte sums it up well:

Allen’s writing is shockingly lazy. The dialogue plays like something from a high school play with every on-the-nose scene stiffly performed as if over-rehearsed. The characters are worse; paper thin. Other than Rachel Wood, who summons more depth than the script deserves, the usually terrific Clarkson and Begley Jr. [parents] seem satisfied playing caricatures, which should come as no surprise. Hollywood bigots, never shy about granting terrorists, Nazis, rapists and child molesters some level of depth and dimension, refuse anything of the kind for us Wal-Mart shopping, Jesus-lovers.

Shakedown At The Border?

What's the best use of Justice Department resources when you have a border overrun by drug gangs, human traffickers, potential terrorists, and other violent criminals? Well, it is to sue the state of Arizona, of course, over SB 1070, even though the Arizona law is a mirror image of federal immigration law.

In the meantime, RedState.com broke the story that per U.S. Senator Jon Kyl, Obama is using border security as a bargaining chip to get comprehensive, so called, immigration reform through the Congress. Sen. Kyl says the administration is holding its constitutional duty to secure the border "hostage" for political reasons. The idea that this administration would politicize national security as if it's merely another shakedown, another Chicago-style deal like the "cornhusker kickback" or the "Louisiana purchase," speaks for itself. Here's the video featuring Sen. Kyl at a town hall meeting:The White House has denied the senator's claim, but Kyl, who has no reputation for grandstanding, isn't backing down.

Weekend At Barry's

The irony: The White House criticizes BP's lame CEO for attending a yacht race while Obama heads to--where else--the golf course.

Canada Free Press columnist Judi McLeod has an interesting take:

Is the soon to be 49-year-old President Barack Obama himself a victim of the Leftwing’s Public School Emasculation of the Schoolboy? How about British Petroleum chief honcho, Tony Hayward, 57?

Both Peter Pan boy types display little sympathy for those left to live lives in disaster zones.

We all know how it takes months for Obama to tear himself away from shooting hoops and playing golf in times when tragedy strikes...

The left’s emasculation of the entity known as the schoolboy was in full swing when Obama and Hayward went to school.

Metrosexuals and pantywaists who graduated this system are long on poetic double speak, short on decisive action...

"Obama Snoozed, Oil Oozed"

We've blogged previously about the huge media double standard when it comes to Bush vs. Obama, but Boston Herald columnist and talk show host Howie Carr really nails it in today's edition:

...Criticizing Bush - the highest form of patriotism. Criticizing Obama - hate speech. Who caused Bush’s problems? - Bush. Who causes Obama’s problems? - Bush.

...Bush playing a rare round of golf - complete video coverage, showing his utter indifference to the suffering of the American people.

Obama playing one of his endless rounds of golf - only still photos allowed, yet another glowing indication of our dashing president’s youth and physical fitness.

...Bush tapping the phones of foreign terrorists with congressional authority - fascism. Obama’s continuing attempts to rein in free speech on the Internet - good public policy.

...Popular Bush-era rhyme - Bush lied, people died. New rhyme - Obama snoozed, oil oozed.

 Related posts:
Media Bias and The Sounds of Silence--And Crickets
Part II: Media Bias and The Sounds of Silence--And Crickets

Napolitano, Obama at Odds Over Arizona Licensing Law

Janet Napolitano, the placeholder at the Homeland Security Department, is as you know the former governor of Arizona. While she opposes Arizona Senate Bill 1070 and just about anything else involving actual border security, as governor she signed a law that gave her state the authority to suspend or terminate business licenses of those employers who hire illegal aliens. Federal law does not preempt states from imposing licensing restrictions on those business who hire undocumented workers.

Her new boss, however, wants the U.S. Supreme Court to throw out the measure, even though it was upheld by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, considered the most far-left appellate panel in the federal system. "The Obama administration apparently worries letting that law stand would leave in place a precedent that states have a legitimate role in enforcing immigration laws – a notion the administration fiercely opposes," FoxNews.com reports.

Is the Obama Presidency Unraveling?

Earlier this month, when the news broke that the Washington Post was putting Newsweek up for sale, Erick Erickson (the boss at RedState.com) wrote the following:

 Jon Meacham, the overly pretentious editor of Newsweek, has finally succeeded. He has driven Newsweek into the ground.

Meacham and the rest of the Newsweek gang decided to turn Newsweek into leftwing political pornography in order to get access to Barack Obama. Increasingly, their audience has shrunk to a few blocks on the Upper West Side, various newsrooms, Democrat offices in Washington, and some college libraries.

The rest of the world jumped to Time, which still at least pretends to be unbiased, or got off the weekly circuit altogether.

Now comes word that Christopher Ruddy, the proprietor of Newsmax.com, is apparently one of the bidders for the failed magazine. Even if you're right of center, NewsMax content may not be your cup of tea.

Against the backdrop of the BP disaster, Ruddy just penned a column that reminds us how Joe Biden predicted the inexperienced president would be tested by an international crisis within the first six months of his term (this was after Biden said that Obama was unqualified to be president):

Biden was wrong on the timing, but prophetic on the point.

Our president has been tested by al-Qaida, which apparently has tried to pull off two major terror attacks in the past year alone, first with the Detroit plane incident and recently in Times Square.

 Obama also was tested after the Fort Hood incident, again treating this case as a criminal matter. His chief law enforcement officer, Attorney General Eric Holder, won’t even say that these terrorist incidents could be linked to “radical Islam.”

Since Obama has taken office, he has been tested consistently by the Iranian regime, which flouted free elections to keep its radical president in power. Once again, Obama was timid and delayed in his response to this outrage.

And his administration has looked silly as Iran has refused continually to comply with international demands that it stop its nuclear weapons program.

Obama has failed another test, this time from Iran’s rogue ally North Korea.

Since North Korea’s brazen act of war with its torpedo attack on a South Korean vessel, President Obama has appeared feeble.

This is no time for such weakness coming from the leader of the free world.

My God, Joe Biden was right. We elected a 47-year-old senator who has no real-world experience, and he is being tested by our enemies. They are seeing his true mettle.

Ruddy also asserts that "What we are witnessing is harsh reality bumping up against President Obama’s façade and shattering the glass — a glass image created by oratory, image and an adoring press."

Ruddy's Newsmax colleague, John LeBoutillier, doesn't hold back either:

The Obama presidency is finally being exposed for what it is: an empty vessel piloted by a guy who can’t speak without a teleprompter and who just follows the Western European anti-American, anti-free enterprise, liberal socialistic model.

And some months ago, William Katz of Urgent Agenda, wrote the following:

And so we still ask: Who is the president? We will get an inkling in the coming months as he deals with Iran, perhaps the biggest foreign policy challenge of 2010. Our answer to the question will decide Barack Obama's future, both as president and as potential (but not definite) candidate in 2012. This is political theater, and very good theater at that. And it requires acting. Ronald Reagan was a real actor, and a distinguished statesman. Barack Obama is a fake actor, with statesmanship yet to be assessed.

If the Obama administration is coming apart at the seams, should we be surprised?

Arizona Enforces Immigration Law Because Obama and Napolitano Won't

Virtually every country in the world, including Mexico, controls its own border. If you don't have secure borders, you really no longer have a country. Out of control immigration is one of the major issues in Thursday's parliamentary elections in the UK, where the Conservatives are projected to capture about 300 seats. Here, the federal government--under President Obama and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano--has failed in its responsibility, so the state of Arizona enacted a statute to give the police additional authority. Predictably, the usual open-borders advocates went completely bonkers. One of the bill's authors responds in the New York Times:

On Friday, Gov. Jan Brewer of Arizona signed a law — SB 1070 — that prohibits the harboring of illegal aliens and makes it a state crime for an alien to commit certain federal immigration crimes. It also requires police officers who, in the course of a traffic stop or other law-enforcement action, come to a “reasonable suspicion” that a person is an illegal alien verify the person’s immigration status with the federal government...

In sum, the Arizona law hardly creates a police state. It takes a measured, reasonable step to give Arizona police officers another tool when they come into contact with illegal aliens during their normal law enforcement duties.

President Obama and the Beltway crowd feel these problems can be taken care of with “comprehensive immigration reform” — meaning amnesty and a few other new laws. But we already have plenty of federal immigration laws on the books, and the typical illegal alien is guilty of breaking many of them. What we need is for the executive branch to enforce the laws that we already have.

Unfortunately, the Obama administration has scaled back work-site enforcement and otherwise shown it does not consider immigration laws to be a high priority. Is it any wonder the Arizona Legislature, at the front line of the immigration issue, sees things differently?

President Signs Patriot Act Extension

"Date Night" is an odd time to sign a one-year extension of the Patriot Act, isn't it? Unless you were hoping no one--such as your media sycophants--would notice, perhaps.

Provisions in the measure would have expired on Sunday without Obama's signature Saturday....

Three sections of the Patriot Act that stay in force will:

-Authorize court-approved roving wiretaps that permit surveillance on multiple phones.
-Allow court-approved seizure of records and property in anti-terrorism operations.
-Permit surveillance against a so-called lone wolf, a non-U.S. citizen engaged in terrorism who may not be part of a recognized terrorist group.

Obama's signature comes after the House voted 315 to 97 Thursday to extend the measure.

Remembering President Reagan

Ronald Wilson Reagan, the 40th president of the United States, would have be 99 years old today. In drawing a contrast between President Reagan and the current occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, William Katz of Urgent Agenda aptly wrote the following:

And so we still ask: Who is the president? We will get an inkling in the coming months as he deals with Iran, perhaps the biggest foreign policy challenge of 2010. Our answer to the question will decide Barack Obama's future, both as president and as potential (but not definite) candidate in 2012. This is political theater, and very good theater at that. And it requires acting. Ronald Reagan was a real actor, and a distinguished statesman. Barack Obama is a fake actor, with statesmanship yet to be assessed.

Dude, Where's My Teleprompter?

One late night, years ago, we were channel surfing and stumbled across of all things a rerun of Barbara Walters interviewing former President Reagan about his Hollywood career. Okay, it was fluff, but enjoyable. Why? Perhaps because deep into the Clinton administration, seeing the former president--a respected statesman with a unique and rich background in both the private and public sectors--seemed very reassuring.

Recall that the media bias in favor of the Clinton candidacy was palpable in 1991. In many ways the media gave the relatively inexperienced governor from Arkansas a free ride. Perhaps if the media, for example, examined the allegations detailed in Roger Morris' book Partners in Power, there never would have been a Clinton presidency.

But the dominant media cheerleading (which also extends to Hollywood, academia, and elsewhere in the information stream) for Obama in 2008 was like a free ride on rocket fuel. Journalists who, for instance, had no problem finding their way to remote areas of Alaska didn't lift a finger insofar as the Chicago candidate's background, qualifications, or agenda.

As we noted in a previous post, this celebrity- and media-driven candidacy turned the presidency into an entry level job for a fundamentally unqualified, albeit charismatic individual. Forget political party or ideology, if any; the American people deserve a highly experienced man or women in the White House. A big spending, limelight-obsessed machine politician--enabled by a large staff and a compliant media--on the ultimate ego trip...what could possibly go wrong? Well, we've already seen many miscues and broken campaign promises by this president and his roster of ineffective bureaucrats. The London Telegraph points out that during the campaign, Obama's campaign speeches evidently convinced crowds that he could make the world a better place, "while giving precious little indication as to how precisely he intended to achieve this messianic goal." [Television news bias is pervasive in the UK (and elsewhere around the world), too: See The BBC can't kick its addiction to bias.]

Apparently many voters were drawn in merely by Obama's powerful but non-substantive oratorical skills. There is a lot to be said for the rhetorical presidency, the bully pulpit, and all that--provided there is substance to back it up. But when the American Spectator website published an item that Obama can't or couldn't make a move without instructions from his teleprompter, even during campaign town hall events, we thought (actually hoped) the Spectator was exaggerating.

But news reports about Obama's inability to function on his own at the podium have gone mainstream. So it turns out that all that soaring oratory is also a sham; just marketing. As someone said on another blog, the clothes have no emperor.

We can, however, look forward to a series of taxpayer-underwritten photo-ops, such as the superficial and gushing reporting of the president's recent European trip. There are even suggestions that Obama's meeting with the troops in Baghdad was rigged.

If the British press is to be believed, President Sarkozy of France (for his own reasons, of course) was able to see through the mist:

Mr Sarkozy is pouring cold water on President Obama's efforts to recast American leadership on the world stage, depicting them as unoriginal, unsubstantial and overrated. Behind leaks and briefings from the Elysée Palace lies Mr Sarkozy's irritation at the rock-star welcome that Europe gave Mr Obama on his Europan tour earlier this month…."The [French] President is annoyed by what he sees as the naivety and the herd mentality of the media," said a journalist who is privy to Elysée thinking.

Question: Would a first-term U.S. Senator without any real-world work experience have even qualified for, let's say, The Celebrity Apprentice?

Update: Subsequent to this posting, Donald Trump entered "the No-Spin Zone" and claimed he would hire Obama in an economic or financial capacity. Despite the name of the venue, we think that Trump was indeed spinning--perhaps to preserve his organization's viability for a future federal bailout or some other consideration from the administration.

Switching gears slightly, but not entirely...For a compelling portrayal of the obsessive quest for fame and the associated bankruptcy of the media, we give you the wonderful, but short-lived HBO comedy series The Comeback, starring Lisa Kudrow.

Kudrow (who created the show with Michael Patrick King) plays Valerie Cherish, a semi-delusional former TV star who is trying to revive her career with a minor part in a mindless sitcom. We've been told by a television industry insider that the series gives a very accurate picture of what really goes on behind the scenes in a sitcom production.

The twist is that Cherish is also being shadowed by a TV crew filming a reality show about her comeback efforts. It quickly turns out that Cherish only got the part on the sitcom to provide fodder for the so-called reality series. The reality show producers in turn heartlessly seek to manipulate events to make the content more provocative and heap further humiliation Cherish in the process. And Cherish makes it very easy for them!

The HBO summary describes the television environment as follows: "wrenchingly 'real' and ridiculously surreal, it's a world where success and failure are often determined by age, looks, and (perhaps less frequently) sheer determination."

Kudrow's character played is her own worst enemy. The hilarious and simultaneously sad events in the series practically make your skin crawl. Her efforts among other things to ingratiate herself with the cast and producers who tend to disrespect her, and to attract media attention to her new career aspirations, usually blow up in her face.

The self-important Cherish is oddly likeable yet infuriating at the same time. (Out of the blue, there is one bit of compelling dialogue in which Kudrow's character says she attended every field hockey practice in high school despite an injury that kept her off the playing field. But she almost breaks into tears on recalling that she wasn't allowed to appear in the team picture.)

So in the face of numerous humiliations on and off the set, the character keeps plugging away. As Wikipedia describes, the Cherish character "is willing to completely sacrifice her dignity to return to the spotlight."

Kudrow gave an outstanding and dare we say it, nuanced, performance, as did the many excellent supporting players, particularly "Mickey" (Robert Michael Morris), Valerie's loyal and eccentric hair stylist/gopher.

Sadly, The Comeback was not renewed for a second year, but the entire 13-episode run is out on DVD.

Further update: Obama's teleprompter crashes: