Tagged: Barack Obama

Posted: December 9, 2012 at 9:39 am

For Your Consideration…Montana, the Oscars, and a Mistress

Today we have two hilarious and related items:

First, we go to Tinseltown.

The Hollywood Reporter is reporting that Montana’s own Gerald Molen, the producer of the right-wing documentary “Obama: 2016,” is complaining that his film has been snubbed by the Academy of Motion Pictures. The film, alas, was not nominated for an Oscar in the category of Best Documentary, as Molen thought it should be.

I can’t imagine why. Surely the Academy overlooked the high quality of this piece of fine art. This film, to refresh your memory, claims that Obama is a kind of Manchurian candidate, a militant African who has worked his life to achieve power in America so that he can now punish white people for the evils that white colonialist visited upon his African ancestors. Now that he is in his second term, the film posits, he will put in place the final solution, taking things from white people and giving them to dark people. If you are interested in getting a flavor for the movie, just watch this trailer, and get the basic idea as you watch shot after shot of hordes of impoverished dark-skinned people, taking to the streets, marching and rioting.

How could such a film not be nominated for an Oscar? It’s hard to believe.

The film got lots of ink during the 2012 presidential campaign. Molen thought that his film would help win the election for Romney, and timed the release of the film accordingly. But like Karl Rove, whose racist theories of how to win an election expired some time around 2004, Molen’s film probably backfired if anything. Inciting racist anger is no longer a viable strategy to win a national election. America has wised up, and the electorate also is a little less white than it used to be.

For being snubbed, Molen, who lives up in Kalispell, is accusing the Oscar committee of “liberal bias.” He says that his movie should have received a nomination simply because it grossed more money than any of the other documentaries that were nominated.

Meanwhile, the director and writer of the movie, and the author of the book on which it is based, has been caught with his pants down.

“Obama:2016″ was written and directed by Dinesh D’Souza, who based the film on based on his book entitled “The Roots of Obama’s Rage.” D’Souza is (or was) also the President of King’s College in New York, an evangelical university.

But now, the University has fired him. It turns out that D’Souza, who is 51 and married, made the mistake of bringing his mistress–a 29-year-old bleach-blond–on the road with him to an evangelical conference in South Carolina, where D’Souza gave the keynote speech. But unlike in Las Vegas, what happens at the evangelical conference does not stay at the evangelical conference. And so the University fired him for violating its mission statement, which is a “commitment to the truths of Christianity and a biblical worldview.”

As the New York Times recounts the incident at the evangelical conference, D’Souza got busted when a reporter for a Christian news service, who was covering the conference and the speech, saw D’Souza checking into his hotel with the young blonde. The reporter called D’Souza to inquire who the woman was.

Later that day, when he realized that the story was about to be published, D’Souza hastily filed to divorce his wife. He then tried to argue, in the press, that he did not violate Christian principles and thus should not have had to leave his job.

Posted: August 18, 2012 at 9:21 am

The Crew that Brought You the Iraq War, Hanging out in Whitefish

We now know that Karl Rove, the slob who helped bring us the George Bush presidency, two wars at a trillion dollars a piece, a giant deficit, and a giant economic mess, was in the Flathead last week for at least two purposes.

First, he was at a Whitefish fundraiser. The Huffington Post reports that he was raising money for Denny Rehberg and the Republican Party, with special guest Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. McConnell is the imbecile who said recently in a FOXNews interview that it should not be a concern at all that 35 million cannot afford medical care, to the shock of the FOXNews interviewer Chris Wallace.

The second thing Rove was doing was meeting with Ryan Zinke. Zinke proudly tweeted about this meeting of the minds. Zinke, who is coming off of a lopsided defeat in his campaign for lieutenant governor with Neil Livingstone (aka The Hooker Man), has started an organization called SOFA, for the purpose of attacking Obama over his management of the armed forces. He evidently was meeting with Rove to discuss strategy and perhaps get money.

Zinke is claiming that Obama failed our country by revealing the identity of the Seal Team that got Bin Laden (not the names of the individual seals, but rather, revealing that it was Seal Team 6). There are other theories about this you’ll want to read. Zinke also plans to try to convince Americans that Obama is taking personal credit for the raid. Zinke, who was a member of Seal Team six many years ago, intends to raise money to conduct a “swiftboat” type of attack on Obama regarding this matter.

You should appreciate the irony that Zinke was rubbing elbows with George Bush’s mastermind in Whitefish. Rove was the man who micromanaged the publicity event aboard the aircraft carrier, nine years before the Iraq war was actually ended (by Obama, thankfully), where the dunce George Bush (talk about trying to take personal credit) landed in a fighter jet beneath a banner declaring, in large letters, “Mission Accomplished.”

The mission was accomplished–by Obama in 2011, in Pakistan, when Bin Laden got wacked and dumped into the ocean. So you gotta love the idea of Zinke and Rove scheming together to try to take down Obama. For that matter, you gotta love Rehberg and McConnell being there two. Those two geniuses were among the herd that bought into the Iraq war, hook, line and sinker, and got so revved up about it that they basically were accusing anybody who opposed the war of “siding with the terrorists.”

The best news, I suppose, is that if Zinke’s new effort is anything like his campaign for governor, Obama has nothing to worry about.

Posted: August 14, 2012 at 10:08 pm

These Women are Concerned

The Concerned Women for America carpet-bagged through Montana today. A bus tour for the right-wing group stopped in Helena and other Montana towns following stops at Chick-fil-A restaurants and “parking lots near Chick-Fil-A”s in states with targeted U.S. Senate seats.

For those not yet familiar with this world-class organization, these women are concerned about some very important stuff, including United Nations conspiracy theories and promoting voter suppression/voter ID laws. Governor Schweitzer vetoed the voter ID law passed by the “Bat Crap Crazy” legislature during the last session, saying the law would have placed an “unnecessary burden on low-income, elderly, disabled and student voters.”

According to the watchdog group Right Wing Watch, the Concerned Women for America are also concerned that LGBT people hate American democracy and that President Obama wants communists to control America’s children. They also support laws that make it illegal to be gay and opposed the Violence Against Women Act.

In Helena, the bus of out-of-staters was met by local citizens who reminded them that this election is really about is jobs and the economy.

We do know however that at least one local Montana right-winger showed up: TEA Party legislative candidate and Concerned Man Mark Perea, who is pictured here. Mr. Perea is campaigning against Sen. Christine Kaufmann, D-Helena. The Billings Gazette has more.

Posted: July 30, 2012 at 7:23 am

Anti-Obama Movie, Produced by Kalispell Republican, Flops at the Box Office

There’s no business like show business, like no business I know

The opening when your heart beats like a drum

The closing when the customers don’t come

It was one of the most anticipated movies of the year–for angry right-wing moviegoers. But “2016: Obama’s America,” which I recently reviewed here, has flopped badly at the box office.

This film was based on a book called “The Roots of Obama’s Rage,” and was produced by a Montana resident, Gerald Molen, who once had a strong career in Hollywood including involvement in the movie Schindler’s List. But Molen now makes right-wing propaganda films. The apparent premise of this new film, if one views the trailer for it, is that America is about to fall to the masses of people of color, because Obama harbors a secret desire to avenge the transgressions visited upon his ancestral homeland of Kenya by white colonialists. The trailer for the film features mobs of dark-skinned people in poor countries, rioting, marching, protesting, appearing to overrun civilized society.

Fine cinema no doubt, which is why I am shocked that this film–which cost an estimated $4 million to produce and market–had grossed only $89,000 at the box office. Also, it has played so far in only four Texas movie theaters.

This is a major disappointment for Molen. Molen, sitting in his house in Kalispell and reading the wonderful coverage of his movie in such important newspapers as The Daily Inter Lake and Whitefish Pilot (both run by birthers), was probably growing a wild fantasy in his head that this racist film could create some buzz, and that he, in turn, would become part of the election narrative, his movie debated and discussed on cable news shows and the like.

But that’s doubtful now the the movie has bombed. And none of this is really a surprise. For Molen, perhaps unwittingly, has become a Montana GOP operative. Statistically, therefore, his scheme had a high likelihood of failure.

Posted: July 19, 2012 at 5:21 pm

GOP Legislator Arrested After Bizarre Incident

The Livingston Enterprise is reporting on the bizarre incident involving former GOP legislator Joel Boniek, (R-Livingston), that led to Boniek’s arrest.

Police allege that Boniek ran a road block and then

“allegedly argued with the officers and eventually ‘dropped his left hand near what looked like a holster’ before a deputy brought him to the ground….The deputy removed a loaded handgun from the holster, according to court documents.”

The only defense Boniek offered to the reporter who asked him about the incident seems to be that Boniek “was on a private road in a private vehicle.”

Boniek is the Montana Republican famous for defending his comparison of President Obama with Hitler by saying that “Hitler should be remembered for more than being a mass murderer.” He’s also known for showing up for work at the state capitol riding on a mule. He served in the 2009 Legislature, but was not re-elected in 2011.

UPDATE: A video of Boniek can be found on Youtube that shows him attempting to visit a jailed anti-government activist named Eric Newhouse. According to the Bozeman Chronicle article linked to, Newhouse compared his group, the “Sovereign Church of Christ,” with the Montana Freeman.

The group’s website said its members “stand above the United States Government and … its constitutions declarations, orders, rules, regulations and statutes.” The site threatened that “lost [sic] of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness will follow all those who trespass upon Sovereign Church of Christ citizens['] unalienable rights,” the Chronicle reported.

Posted: July 5, 2012 at 6:52 am

Obama’s Rage, Coming to a Theater Near You (if you are redneck)

Did you know that Obama has rage, and that this rage has identifiable roots?

I was unaware of Obama’s rage, so I hadn’t felt the need to investigate the roots of it. But thankfully, a right-wing Republican who was once a movie producer in Hollywood and now lives in Kalispell is producing a movie that will answer these important questions.

The movie is called “Obama 2016” and is based on a book, released last year, entitled “The Roots of Obama’s Rage.” The producer’s name is Gerald Molen. Recently Molen spoke to the GOP in the Flathead Valley where he lives. As the Button Valley Bugle reports, Molen described what he said is Obama’s “doomsday vision of the United States’ future” which includes “socialism” and “the end of America.”

This will be fine cinema no doubt, especially if the trailer for the movie (now on Youtube) is any indication. The trailer, from start to finish, is mostly a bunch of incendiary images of black people, shouting, jumping around, rioting and marching. Of particular interest to me is a clip of a bunch of young dark-skinned children, fighting over money and property on a monopoly board. The message, apparently, is that our great wealth is on the verge of falling to the masses of people of color. Obama’s rage could be to blame.

But fear not. This film is well sourced. Molen told a local newspaper that the film is “careful to avoid conspiracy theories.”

Obama’s “rage,” the trailer says, is rooted in his desire to “right the wrongs of white colonialism” that were visited upon African nations.

This blockbuster movie, according to the Flathead Beacon, will open in Houston July 13th and then “to a wider audience” on July 29th. Alas, the audience consisting of trashy white people with no teeth is pretty limited, so let’s wish Molen luck.

A few points of interest regarding Molen. First, his bio prominently states that he is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, meaning that he is likely coming out big for Romney and might have a religious basis for his advocacy.

Second, Molen was one of the producers of Schindler’s List, and won an academy award for his work on that film.

Molen may have done good work on the business end of Schindler’s List, but it’s clear that he was totally oblivious to what the story was about. The holocaust was a lesson in what happens when hate-mongers work tirelessly to persuade society that certain groups of people–ethnic, religious or other–are to blame for all of society’s problems. Molen might want to read a little history, as in, a history of Germany during the thirty years leading up to World War II. The people that did, in pre-war Germany, the kind of thing that Molen is doing now (inciting hatred via grand conspiracies) were called Nazis.

There’s one thing that is stated in Molen’s Wikipedia bio cannot possibly be true. The bio says he “works closely with Steven Spielberg.” He may have done so in the past, but not any more. Spielberg doesn’t hang around with the likes of Molen.

Posted: June 6, 2012 at 5:31 pm

A Deal, But At What Price?

Politico reported this week that President Obama was secretly in league with drug companies during the year-long debate over the passage of federal health reform in 2009, even while he was publicly posing as a populist enemy of the drug industry.

The Washington Examiner ran a similar story, and also pointed out that Max Baucus was a part of the plot in which the White House secretly agreed to massive concessions to drug makers, who in turn agreed to come out in favor of the Affordable Care Act, otherwise known as Obamacare.

These concessions are costly:in making them, the Obama White House reversed several positions that Obama took during his 2008 run for president. The Examiner reports that in the summer of 2009,

…the emails show, drug lobbyists, White House officials and aides to Sen. Max Baucus hammered out a deal that formed the backbone of Obamacare. The final bill would subsidize prescription drugs, force states to include drug coverage in Medicaid, and expand private insurance coverage of drugs. Also, the White House pledged to oppose policies that Obama had promised on the campaign trail: allowing reimportation of prescription drugs and empowering Medicare to negotiate for lower prices on the drugs Medicare is paying for.

In return for Obama giving away the farm, drug companies agreed to support passage of the Affordable Care Act and even run TV ads favoring it.

I don’t know what to make of all of this. There is no easy answer. The Affordable Care Act has many good components, and clearly you have to make deals to pass something big in Congress. But at what cost?

Also, the Examiner article fails to mention the most important concession by the White House: surrendering on the issue of a “public option” for U.S. citizens. This was Obama’s original proposal for a government-provided health insurance plan for purchase by citizens at a low price, which would have competed with private plans. The public option was (and is today) always popular, could have passed Congress easily with the President’s leadership if he had wanted to follow through with it, and would have been the best thing for the country. But it was never used as anything more than a bargaining tool by the White House, something to surrender as a concession. And now we learn about the many other giveways to health industry.

I suppose it is possible (although I believe improbable) that the final product and outcome were the only possible scenarios in which anything could have gotten through. The fact that Baucus was responsible for helping broker the deal (the least surprising aspect of this story) makes me wonder.

In the end, I fear that the famous mentality of White Houses past and present, of wanting to pass something, anything, at all costs just so that you can declare victory, appears to have prevailed here in these arrangements. In essence, the drug industry got whatever it wanted, and the price of it all was to simply support the legislation. That’s not exactly a hard bargain. It’s more like something out of the Devil and Daniel Webster.

Also, given that Obama’s health reform passed Congress with not a single Republican vote, what was the support of the drug industry really worth in the end? Was it even necessary? The Democrats who voted for the Affordable Care Act got slammed in the 2010 mid-term elections. In retrospect, would the 2010 mid-terms have been much worse if the drug companies, having been denied their bag of goodies by the Obama White House, had opposed the Affordable Care Act from the get-go? I doubt it.

Posted: April 20, 2012 at 5:37 pm

Republican School Superintendent Accuses Obama of Treason

A Montana Republican School Superintendent and County Treasurer is accusing President Obama of treason and calling for his impeachment.

Max Lenington (R), the elected County treasurer and school superintendent of Montana’s most populous county, wrote in today’s Billings Gazette that President Obama:

is assuredly the worst president in the 236 years of our existence, a term predicated not only on treasonous action, but impeachable activity as well.

He has made a mockery of our Americanism by his association with known derelicts, the breaching and ignoring of our Constitution, and belittling whomever differs with his impeachable political ideals.

Apparently Lenington has a lot of free time on his hands to write such letters. Word on the street in Billings is that Lenington has barely even been in to the school superintendent’s office in more than a year, leaving a woman in that office to do all of his work.

For a Yellowstone County elected official to refer to the President’s actions as “treasonous” without even specifically outlining any complaints, seems irresponsible. Especially in light of another Yellowstone County “Pillar of the Community,” Judge Richard Cebull, who forwarded a racist email from his work computer to some of his good ol’ buddies. The email contained a “joke” about Obama’s mother having sex with dogs.