Homes Of The Progressive And Occupy Protest Minded

Robin Leach, after reviewing the photo slideshow of the home of the progressive and occupy movement arrested, would wonder where's the script for the next show of the "Lifestyles Of The Rich And Famous"! Image Credit: wikipedia.com


Homes Of The Progressive And Occupy Protest Minded
If one reviews the public information available through arrest records, one finds out that folks who get arrested at an Occupy Movement protest rally might be good candidates for a reality TV revival of Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous.

In an investigative report and slideshow originally issued by the Daily Caller, it becomes pretty eye-opening to see just who the self-called 99% of the people really are if arrest records are any gauge.

District of Columbia: An Occupy Wall Street protester arrested on October 1 — presumably penniless and from a blue-collar family — lives in this $850,000 home in the nation’s capital. Caption and Image Credit: Daily Caller

This excerpted and edited from the Daily Caller -

NYC arrest records: Many Occupy Wall Street protesters live in luxury
By Will Rahn - Published: 12:45 AM 11/02/2011 | Updated: 10:32 AM 11/02/2011

For each of the 984 Occupy Wall Street protesters arrested in New York City between September 18 and October 15, police collected and filed an information sheet recording the arrestee’s name, age, sex, criminal charge, home address and — in most cases — race. The Daily Caller has obtained all of this information from a source in the New York City government.

Among addresses for which information is available, single-family homes listed on those police intake forms have a median value of $305,000 — a far higher number than the $185,400 median value of owner-occupied housing units in the United States.

Some of the homes where “Occupy” arrestees reside, viewed through Google Maps and the Multiple Listing Service real estate database, are the definition of opulence.

Texas: This mansion has five bedrooms and, from the looks of it, plenty of space for a drum circle. Its economically disadvantaged occupant was arrested while “occupying” Wall Street on October 5. Caption and Image Credit: Daily Caller

Using county assessors and online resources such as Zillow.com, TheDC estimated property values and rents for 87 percent of the homes and 59 percent of the apartments listed in the arrest records.

Even in the nation’s currently depressed housing market, at least 95 of the protesters’ residences are worth approximately $500,000 or more. (RELATED SLIDESHOW: Opulent homes of the ’99 percent’)

The median monthly rent for those living in apartments whose information is readily available is $1,850.

Of the 984 protesters arrested, at least 797 are white. The median age of “Occupy” protesters taken into custody is 27 years.
[Reference Here]

New York: The pricey brownstone with the red door on a street where homes go for $850,000? It’s home to an impoverished Occupy Wall Street protester arrested on October 15. Caption and Image Credit: Daily Caller

Exposed to this type of eye-opening information, one could easily project that this Occupy Movement is NOT what the protesters say it is about. This protest action is just Progressive Chaos Creation 101 for a big, bigger, biggest federal government thanks to the SEIU, AFL-CIO, any public sector union, community organizing groups formally known as ACORN, and the Democrat Political Party. This is just another episode in the Lifestyles of the Progressive And Occupy Protest Minded rich people!

Socialistic "champagne wishes and caviar dreams" ... where is Robin Leach when we need him?


<Article first published as Homes Of The Progressive And Occupy Protest Minded at Technorati>

Herman Cain Accused ... It Is Time To "Occupy Politico"

Fearing the message of Herman Cain who is shaking up the political landscape in Washington, Inside the Beltway media have begun to launch unsubstantiated personal attacks on Cain. Since Washington establishment critics haven't had much luck in attacking Mr. Cain's ideas to fix a bad economy and create jobs, they are trying to attack him in any way they can. Caption Credit: hermancain.com | Image Credit: Politico.com

Herman Cain Accused ... It Is Time To "Occupy Politico"

We have seen this type of dust up before, remember Clarence Thomas about twenty years ago?

The internet political news source, Politico (not known for a fair and balanced stance) broke a story of sexual harassment by Herman Cain that happened while he was the head of the National Restaurant Association in the 1990s. According to the Jonathon Martin of Politico, at least two female employees complained to colleagues and senior NRA association officials about inappropriate behavior by Cain, according to Martin, multiple (unnamed) sources confirm to Politico the following happened.

"The women complained of sexually suggestive behavior by Cain that made them angry and uncomfortable, the sources said, and they signed agreements with the restaurant group that gave them financial payouts to leave the association. The agreements also included language that bars the women from talking about their departures."
[Reference Here]

Politico states that it has confirmed the identities of the two female restaurant association employees who complained about Cain but, for privacy concerns, is not publishing their names.

In America, except in politics, people have the right to face their accuser. If Herman Cain can not have the right to meet his accusers, voting people from the Tea Party, to independents, to just plain Herman Cain supporters should stand at the door of Politico and "Occupy Politico" until the people behind these accusations are revealed. The sources that disclosed this information to Politico, the two female restaurant association employees who complained about Cain, and the full disclosure of what actually happened needs to come to public light just as the Congress forced the American people to witness nearly 20 years ago with the "High Tech Lynching" accusations of Clarence Thomas as he was being confirmed as a Supreme Court Justice.

The Congress and Anita Hill could not prove that Clarence Thomas was a pervert and it is suspected that these accusations of Herman Cain would amount to be as consequential and valid as the accusations on Thomas.

It is time to refuse to play this Inside the Beltway media game. Demand the sources, demand that the accusers reveal themselves, demand the evidence ... "OCCUPY POLITICO"!


<Article first published as Herman Cain Accused … It Is Time To “Occupy Politico” at Technorati>

Good Morning America Asks Will Obama's Lower College Loan Payments Plan Help?

Good Morning America (GMA) is an American morning news and talk show that is broadcast on the ABC television network; it debuted on November 3, 1975. The weekday program airs for two hours; a third hour aired between 2007 and 2008 exclusively on ABC News Now. Its current one-hour weekend edition debuted in 2004. Image Credit: ABC News via ShareTV.org


Good Morning America Asks Will Obama's Lower College Loan Payments Plan Help?
or ... Why Corporate Media Gets It's Label "Lame Stream Media" - Polling Question Analysis

About 20 hours ago, Good Morning America posted up this question at the polling centered social web portal known as SodaHead:

Obama Unveils New Plan to Lower College Loan Payments. Will It Help?
by Good Morning America - Posted October 26, 2011 (20 hours ago)

The answers were posed/written as follows:

Yes, I think it will make a difference to students. - 1,917 responses

No, the plan doesn't go far enough! - 1,562 responses
[Reference Here]

A SodaHead "Thumbs-Up" graphic that people click on if they like an answer to a poll question. Image Credit: SodaHead

The most popular answer to a question as per the number of "thumbs up":

By - Tinka123 (edited) / 19 hours ago

Q) No, the plan doesn’t go far enough!

A) These answers aren't skewed. I guess we know what answer Good Morning America wants - too bad they didn't include us [people who are not liberal or progressive] in their poll. How about NO - it won't work?

A YES answer offered this opinion (it was the only opinion left by a YES answer respondent out of 26 total opinions offered in 3479 total poll answers):

State Street / 19 hours ago

Yes, it will help tremendously. Education should be affordable to everyone. A society that's healthy, educated, and confident is harder to control than one that isn't. That I believe is why there are many elements on the right that don't want something like that to come to fruition.

One person decided not to answer but just leave a comment on someone else's NO answer as a REPLY:

Lanikai / 7 hours ago

I refused to pick one of the two BIASED answers. So I am tagging on you, if you don't mind. The break down I saw this morning on MSNBC, showed that a $212,000.00 private college education for 4 years, would mean the student eventually paid back just under $29,000.00 and the taxpayers eat the rest. UNFAIR on every level.

What is SodaHead? - SodaHead informs and entertains a loyal and passionate following that visits our site to discover, debate, and discuss the day's hottest issues. We offer marketers new and innovative ways of engaging with young, hip, and digitally savvy consumers. We enable partners to leverage SodaHead’s product suite to enhance their offerings. Image Credit: SodaHead

We, at MAXINE, left the following response to the Good Morning America Poll:

I voted NO ... but it is not a matter if The Executive Branch's plan goes far enough or not.

Instead of punishing banks and other money lenders of student loans … make the Colleges issue a REBATE – on behalf of those having trouble meeting the terms of their loans – to the Banks! Isn’t it time that the real gougers of students/society be made to pay for their own action of pricing themselves out of a formally stable market?

Instead of punishing banks and other money lenders of student loans … make the Colleges issue a REBATE – on behalf of those having trouble meeting the terms of their loans – to the Banks! Isn’t it time that the real gougers of students/society be made to pay for their own action of pricing themselves out of a formally stable market?

Just asking.

Hey, ABC! … Nice posed/written poll answer choices … NOT!


[Article first published as Good Morning America Asks Will Obama's Lower College Loan Payments Plan Help? at Technorati]

Tea Party, Or Progressive Agenda Movement Declaration Document?

A flag is waved during a rally Saturday at Los Angeles City Hall where "Occupy LA" activists protested Wall Street practices and the distribution of wealth in the United States. The demonstration was modeled after a similar movement in New York that has been staging a sit-in on Wall Street for almost two weeks ... without much incident. Image Credit: Christina House / For The Times / October 1, 2011

Tea Party, Or Progressive Agenda Movement Declaration Document?

This weekend, some noise and attention was trying to be made here in Los Angeles. Just as some organized people were trying to make for the last couple of weeks or so in New York. This organized group of people are also attempting to create the look of a grassroots movement - much like the Tea Party Movement evolved - but this creation is, in fact, a creation of people who have a decidedly different '60's radical agenda.

One might call this a "put up" job in order to manipulate folks into acts of chaos and agitation ... but I will let the reader decide what to make of this declaration of accusations and indictment.

Are these points of declaration from Tea Party politicos who are amazed at how the U. S. Government has grown out of control or are they connected directly to an organization that is backed by the efforts of a major politically progressive stalwart as an American labor union showing a decided dislike to Corporations in general ... judge for yourself.

Loki Freeman, left, and Brad Baudot participate in a demonstration at Pershing Square. Which organizations are stronger here ... the Corporations or the United States Government? Has anyone seen the new GE microwave oven with a USDA "My Plate" button programming selection? Image Credit: Christina House / For The Times / October 1, 2011

This excerpted and edited from "Declaration of the Occupation of New York City" -

Start each sentence with "They Have":

• taken our houses through an illegal foreclosure process, despite not having the original mortgage.
• taken bailouts from taxpayers with impunity, and continue to give Executives exorbitant bonuses.
• perpetuated inequality and discrimination in the workplace based on age, the color of one’s skin, sex, gender identity and sexual orientation.
• poisoned the food supply through negligence, and undermined the farming system through monopolization.
• profited off of the torture, confinement, and cruel treatment of countless nonhuman animals, and actively hide these practices.
• continuously sought to strip employees of the right to negotiate for better pay and safer working conditions.
• held students hostage with tens of thousands of dollars of debt on education, which is itself a human right.
• consistently outsourced labor and used that outsourcing as leverage to cut workers’ healthcare and pay.
• influenced the courts to achieve the same rights as people, with none of the culpability or responsibility.
• spent millions of dollars on legal teams that look for ways to get them out of contracts in regards to health insurance.
• sold our privacy as a commodity.
• used the military and police force to prevent freedom of the press.
• deliberately declined to recall faulty products endangering lives in pursuit of profit.
• determine[d] economic policy, despite the catastrophic failures their policies have produced and continue to produce.
• donated large sums of money to politicians supposed to be regulating them.
• to block generic forms of medicine that could save people’s lives in order to protect investments that have already turned a substantive profit.
• purposely covered up oil spills, accidents, faulty bookkeeping, and inactive ingredients in pursuit of profit.
• purposefully kept people misinformed and fearful through their control of the media.
• accepted private contracts to murder prisoners even when presented with serious doubts about their guilt.
• perpetuated colonialism at home and abroad.
• participated in the torture and murder of innocent civilians overseas.
• continue[d] to create weapons of mass destruction in order to receive [or issue] government contracts.

[reference here]

END

Ok, here are the goods ... as it were. The fact of the matter these declaration points were issued in a document entitled "Declaration of the Occupation of New York City" by a (they would have you believe) two week old Occupy America Movement - right now it is recognized by the name "Occupy (insert name of city here)" like Occupy Wall Street, or Occupy Los Angeles, Occupy Hawaii, and etc.

This groundswell of haphazard activity is the supported brainchild of a high official in the SEIU labor union who is known to be a major supporter of the Democrat Political Party and progressively socialist political views by the name of Stephen Lerner (the one source that had been able to get the word out on this movement was cultural and political observer Glenn Beck who originally reported this information back in March 22, 2011).

Tim Ottman of Los Angeles prepares to participate in the demonstration. At City Hall, protesters set up an open microphone and speakers took turns urging one another to take action against government policies and to pressure lawmakers for reforms. Image Credit: Christina House / For The Times / October 1, 2011

This excerpted and edited from The Blaze -

Who Is Behind the ‘US Day of Rage’ to ‘Occupy’ Wall Street this September 17th?
Posted on August 19, 2011 at 11:20am by Tiffany Gabbay

A US Day of Rage is the title given to a day of ostensibly “non-violent” civil disobedience orchestrated by a group of radicals — that reportedly include SEIU’s Stephen Lerner and ACORN founder Wade Rathke (who, coincidentally, formerly served as president of SEIU’s local New Orleans branch) — targeting Wall Street and U.S. capitalism.

It’s worth noting that the title of the movement — if its intentions are indeed non-violent in nature — appears to contradict itself slightly.
----
You may recall that back in March The Blaze exposed Lerner for stating his aspirations to destroy JP Morgan Chase and cause the collapse of the entire stock market.
----
Some Day of Rage organizers are even calling on activists to squat in Manhattan’s financial district for months at a time. The Blaze’s report on Lerner, who serves on SEIU’s International Executive Board, caught the union agitator stating:

"So, a bunch of us around the country are thinking about who would be a really good company to hate? We decided that would be JP Morgan Chase. ….

And so we’re going to roll out over the next couple of months what will hopefully be an exciting campaign about JP Morgan Chase that is really about challenge the power of Wall Street.

And so what we’re looking at is in the first week of May, we get enough people together – we’re starting now – to really have a week of action in New York with the goal of … I don’t want to go into any details because I don’t know which police agents are in the room, but the goal would be that we would roll out in New York the first week in May."

[Reference Here]

This weekend's crowd that gathered from a metropolis of about 8 million people who rallied at the Occupy LA event was maybe 50 to 100 or so people. The media is reporting this activity as if it is credible.

Do you think it might be that people know a single U.S. Government has more power than even a whole industry of connected corporations … that within the Obama Administration, THEY HAVE taken over corporations (GM & Chrysler) and turned over ownership of the assets to Labor Unions in the face of established business law?


[Article first published under Tea Party, Or Progressive Agenda Movement Declaration Document? at Technorati]

MSNBC's Programming Double Down - Up With Chris Hayes, Weekends

UP with Chris Hayes - ctrl-click image here to see a 9 minute and 14 second opinion piece conducted by Chris on Solyndra entitled - Why the Solyndra failure isn’t a “scandal”. Image Credit: thepoliticalcarnival.net



Here, at MAXINE, we are prone to fall asleep with the TV on. It is a habit groomed from a life with frequent travel and a desire to keep up with information that might be developing during the night ... if we happen to wake up. In the early ninties we had live reports from Gulf War I on CNN. The growth of Cable TV and Gulf War II just cemented this habit not to mention that once this process was embraced, every hotel room around the world was comfortable with the same type of background noise as a home bedroom no matter the outside ambient difference.

This morning, however, was a little different - Oh, to be rudely woken up to the sound of the voice of new TV opinion show host, Chris Hayes - a self-described Communitarian & Egalitarian ... read this as 60's radical socialist, as he puts forward his unchallenged logic followed by a cast of talking-heads that would make an echo chamber shatter was too much for a half-awake, personal-freedom focused 4:30am PT brain could take.

This penchant for some Cable TV "News" stations to construct a monolith of liberal talk shows with hosts who have a progressive agenda (examples - CNN's Anderson Cooper 360 and Fareed Zakaria GPS - Global Public Square and author of "The Post-American World", MSNBC's Morning Joe ... that's pretty much it for this outlet) is not new, but most, at least try to bring a shadow of an alternative balance of opinion with the dais that joins the host in a discussion ... even if it is to only give another point of view the grace of being mentioned. Do not expect this on "UP, with Chris Hayes".

This excerpted and edited from The Huffington Post -

Chris Hayes, the Washington editor for "The Nation" and a longtime contributor to MSNBC, is getting a weekend morning show. Hayes made the news official on Twitter on Monday, and MSNBC released its official announcement shortly after.

The show starts on September 17. It will air on Saturdays from 7-9 AM and on Sundays from 8-10 AM. Alex Witt, MSNBC's regular weekend anchor, will see her show pushed back on both days. The launch of the show marks another attempt by MSNBC to successfully program weekends—something it has not been known for in the past.
[Reference Here]

The round table of talking-heads included:

Reihan Salam, Columnist - The Daily.com / National Review Online - Salam is an unorthodox conservative. He has written that he intends to "pump ideas into the bloodstream" of American conservatism." ... read this as a person who has very little problem with a big, bigger, biggest government approach and will consider looking into, and discussing changes in the Constitution. He advocates policies that strengthen traditional family structure but has supported gay marriage for years.

Anne-Marie Slaughter, Princeton University International Affaires Professor - Former Director of Policy Planning for the United States Department of State in the Obama Administration from 2009-2011 (more on her POV below having to do with the petition by the Palestine Authority to become a recognized state by the United Nations).

Liliana Segura, Columnist - The Nation - this, from the About on her blog - I'm an independent journalist and editor with a focus on social justice, prisons & harsh sentencing.

Ezra Klien, Columinst - The Washington Post - In February 2007 Klein created a Google Groups forum called "JournoList" for discussing politics and the news media. The forum's membership was controlled by Klein and limited to "several hundred left-leaning bloggers, political reporters, magazine writers, policy wonks and academics."Posts within JournoList were intended only to be made and read by its members. Klein defended the forum saying that it "[ensures] that folks feel safe giving off-the-cuff analysis and instant reactions". JournoList member, and Time magazine columnist, Joe Klein added that the off-the-record nature of the forum was necessary because “candor is essential and can only be guaranteed by keeping these conversations private”.

Topics Covered:

Topic - The Politics Of Tax Raises - about 3 segments - Not one comment about the possibility that the size and scope of Federal Government ... ANY government ... might be too large and out of control on how it manages its charter and the spending of tax monies collected.

Topic - Killed By The State - at least 2 segments - A pure anti-death penalty discussion that surrounded the execution of Troy Davis. They lamented that this execution may not be a game-changer for the death penalty but they wanted it to become part of a growing conversation about ensuring that innocent people aren't killed or die in prison. A good question is - Why have a justice system with 12 jurors and several automatic judicial reviews and retrials before a sentence is carried out if there is no final justice ... the justice of a sentence carried out?

Topic - GOP 2012 - 1 segment focused on Perry's statement on immigration and heart. Actual citizenship of the United States did not seem to have any weight in this conversation at all. Further, it was stated and the view was shared by all sitting around the table that they were surprised that some in the audience of Conservatives would actually BOO soldiers in the military when some in the crowd gave a less than accepting response to a YouTube question about upholding the elimination of Don't Ask Don't Tell if they became President. None of these folks ever came to the conclusion that the Conservatives in the audience were booing the policy ... not the solider.

Topic - The State Of Palestine - Change in contributors - Anne-Marie Slaughter plus via remote, Diana Buttu The Dubai Initiative, Harvard University. Highlight - the former Obama State Department official, Slaughter, stated that the Palestine leadership had every right to ask the UN for a ruling on a declaration of Statehood / the Obama Administration has not been able to bring the parties to the table - the UN should not take the petition for a vote but use it to get the parties back to the negotiation table. - 1 segment

Topic - Israel & The GOP ... Word Cloud which had Israel as the largest word - derided as identity politics and as the only international relations topic covered in the debate, Reihan brings on the historic point of the previous Republican debates on the Panama Canal during the end of the Carter era ... Slaughter smiles with glee at the comparison and dilution of the topic through the linkage. - 1 segment

Topic - Update (a short segment on corrections in statements made on a previous show - this probably could at least be an hour of a show in itself if they actually understood what the definition of counterpoint was).

Topic - "Now We Know", subtitle - What We Do Know Now We Didn't Know A Week Ago - Highlights snark points about anything non-liberal like the Koch Brothers new increased ranking in the list of America's richest people ... right, no mention of the fact that George Soros also had an increase in ranking and broke into the top 10 for the first time since he has been on this list. Coming in at No. 7, Soros had a fortune of $22 billion after adding $7.8 billion to his net worth thanks to investments in gold and related securities as well as equities. Soros switched to cash in the spring, allowing him to preserve his gains and miss market turmoil caused by the sovereign debt crisis in Europe.

END ... thank, God.

One more note in fairness - Fox News has a round table hour that replaced Glenn Beck called "The Five". This show has at least one committed Democrat liberal on the dais at all times.

Also - do not confuse political opinion shows that are headed by a single personality like Glenn Beck (who now has moved on from Fox News to internet subscription streaming with GBTV.com), Chris Matthews, Rachael Maddow, Bill O'Reilley, Sean Hannity, Larry O'Donnell, and the like because these are pure personality driven, subject exploration shows with some of these programs making it a point to interview people from all different points of view regardless of the POV of the personality.

Question: Why was the bedroom TV on MSNBC (BSLSD - self-explanatory) at all?

Answer: Must have rolled over on the remote and reset the channel.


(Article first published as MSNBC's Doubling Down - Up With Chris Hayes, Weekends at Technorati)

"Restoring Courage" - Glenn Beck Launches A Week Of Rally Events From Israel

Glenn Beck Launches "Restoring Courage" Week Of Rally Events From Israel - These photos are from the first night of events on Sunday 8-21-2011 [ctrl-click image above to see videos of event]. Image Credit: The Blaze


"Restoring Courage" - Glenn Beck Launches A Week Of Rally Events From Israel

Last year before the 2010 elections, those who were paying attention to movements in our American Culture were treated to an exhibition of the power of like-minded people gathering just to recognize and affirm that this American concept of self-rule was still alive.

Glenn Beck held a rally entitled "Restoring Honor" on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, situated at one end of an area in Washington D.C. known as The Mall. On August 28, 2010, people came from all over the country to stand and listen to Glenn Beck and others talk about Restoring Honor and raise money for scholarships to be applied to the children left behind by their fathers who had died defending our country.

Glenn Beck Launches "Restoring Courage" Week Of Rally Events From Israel - These photos are from the first night of events on Sunday 8-21-2011. Image Credit: The Blaze

What was one of the most amazing elements of this Restoring Honor (honor equals TRUTH) rally is that it was estimated, through aerial photography of The Mall, that this crowd of like-minded people gathered around the Reflecting Pool and the adjacent open field was at least 500,000 people strong.

This year, Glenn Beck has taken his awareness show on the road, as it were, to Israel in the form of a week of themed presentation/rallies entitled "Restoring Courage". Glenn announced this effort soon after he split with Fox News and it is suspected that this world outreach effort may have been the main point of the split between the news channel and the one hour daily program they aired featuring Glenn Beck. Roger Ailes, the General Manager and one of the architects of Fox News, stated at the time that they wanted to broadcast ... personalities that wanted to deliver a daily hour show on a weekly basis.

Glenn Beck Launches "Restoring Courage" Week Of Rally Events From Israel - These photos are from the first night of events on Sunday 8-21-2011. Image Credit: The Blaze

The event, “Restoring Courage,” serves as a step forward from last summer’s “Restoring Honor” rally held on 8/28 in Washington, D.C.

Said Glenn Beck at the time of the announcement -

“I believe I’ve been asked to stand — in Jerusalem,” Beck told his audience recounting a list of times in history when people and nations failed to stand with the Jewish people. Beck explained, as he has often in the last year, how the life and thinking of the German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer has influenced him: “He asked people to stand for the Jewish people.” He told of Bonhoeffer’s call for pastors to stand with him. Only six did.

Glenn Beck Launches "Restoring Courage" Week Of Rally Events From Israel - These photos are from the first night of events on Sunday 8-21-2011. Image Credit: The Blaze

Beck detailed current challenges facing the nation — “Things in Israel are going to get bad…it’s only a matter of time.”

“They are going to attack the center of our faith, our common faith, and that is Jerusalem. And it won’t be with bullets or bombs. It will be with a two-state solution that cuts off Jerusalem, the old city, to the rest of the world.”

“It is time to return inside the walls that surround Jerusalem and stand with people of all faiths all around the world.”

Glenn Beck Launches "Restoring Courage" Week Of Rally Events From Israel - These photos are from the first night of events on Sunday 8-21-2011. Image Credit: The Blaze

The "Restoring Courage" week of presentations and gatherings will be broadcast on GBTV, a subscription internet television service. Last night, as the sun eased it’s way into the Mediterranean horizon, Glenn Beck greeted an enthusiastic crowd of over 3,000 at the Caesarea Amphitheater: “Welcome to the land of milk and honey!”

Beck’s week of “Restoring Courage” events began Sunday with a religiously themed evening entitled “The Courage to Love.”

Read More Here



[Article first published as "Restoring Courage" - Glenn Beck Launches A Week Of Rally Events From Israel on Technorati]

Senna - Dirty Champion?, You Decide!

Three-time world Formula One driving champion Ayrton Senna, as he sits in his Williams F1 racing machine. Image Credit: Working Title Productions

Senna - Dirty Champion?, You Decide!

Senna, the documentary-style movie, is a beautiful work of taking existing film footage and piecing together a seamless reflection of the passionate pursuit of a talented race car driver. It exposes us to a life pursuit where driving, and winning at the highest pinnacle of a discipline, is the only thing that mattered to a life couched in a strong spiritual connection with GOD. In Ayrton Senna's case, rightfully so.

This excerpted and edited from the producer's release notes -

For producer Eric Fellner, co-chairman of Working Title, SENNA proved a true labor of love and added a new dimension to the company by being the first documentary it would make.

"I used to be a fan like a lot of people and then lapsed, but from this period in the mid-1980s to mid-1990s, I was absolutely fascinated and intrigued by Formula One," he says. "I just really wanted to make a film about that world and had met with Bernie Ecclestone to try to find to find a way in and couldn’t. We have never done a documentary before but this seemed the best medium to make a film about Formula One."

When the producers brought director Asif Kapadia on board, they knew they were hiring a talented filmmaker. The director of BAFTA winning feature ‘The Warrior’ and the thriller ‘Far North’, Kapadia is a graduate of the Royal College of Art, and has an eye for exquisite composition. Pandey says, "We interviewed a lot of directors for this. There was a lot of interest to do this project, but Asif got it right away."

Kapadia, while a sports fan, was not an F1 enthusiast and proved to have a completely unbiased approach to the producers’ subject matter. "Before the film, I had never read a book on Senna, never looked at one motor sports web site and never read a book on Formula One," begins the director. "I had never been to a race. So that’s where I came in to it – having a fresh set of eyes on the material."

"I could see that Senna was an amazing driver and had this deep spiritual side, which was really fascinating, and it became all about paring the film down to the bare minimum so that somebody who has never heard of Senna will get the film, understand the character and actually be moved by his story." He smiles. "It’s all about character."

"His story is amazing, and we have this great three-act structure to work with," says Kapadia. "You have his rise, his success, and then the challenges he faces when he gets to the top. There is the ‘bad guy’ Jean-Marie Balestre (France’s head of F1 racing), and the rival with four World Champion titles Alain Prost. Then there’s Senna’s personal side – his family, his girlfriends, the relationship he has with Brazil. There’s tension, drama, tragedy. It is absolutely what films should be, and it is all real."

"If you had written this story as fiction, you would say that it is a clever piece of writing," smiles the director. "One year Prost crashes into Senna at the slowest point of the track, in such a way that his own car was not even damaged. The following year, Senna crashes into Prost at one of the fastest points of the track, saying, ‘I don’t care what happens, I am going for it.’ It is very interesting how you are what you do and Senna and Prost’s characters are revealed by these two accidents."
END

A re-creation of a Senna helmet design sighted at the pre-premiere pizza party put on by MAZDASPEED Motorsports. The helmet was the work of Scott A. Crawford - SAC Design. Image Credit: Edmund Jenks (2011)

Before going into last night's pre-release screening of Senna at the EDWARDS WESTPARK8 in Irvine (arranged by Dean Case and the folks at MAZDASPEED Motorsports), one conversation that was overheard stated that it was too bad that Ayrton Senna needed to intentionally take out Alain Prost in order to achieve a world championship in the last race of the season at the Japan GP ... it was a dirty move. This was a remarkable statement to overhear going in ... because it expressed the passion of someone who had decided exactly what had happened on the track during the second contact accident the two rivals shared.

The surprise and artful twist in this presentation brings this perception into question - Was Senna a dirty champion, or not?

There is an sage and age old adage in Hollywood that states ... "the camera never lies!" This adage, of course, is based on non-CGI (computer generated images) and relates to the truth that film images can, and will deliver.

Senna is a very wonderful movie and story well told, especially when one considers all of the film images that were gleaned from archives (the on-board shots were gold) in order to make this 104 minute PG-13 movie. Go see Senna for yourself and at the end, after seeing the film images, development, and exposure of the three time Formula One world champion, ask yourself ... Was Ayrton Senna a dirty champion? ... then decide!

You will never regret the experience.

Set for release in specific theaters on the following schedule:

August 12 - Los Angeles, CA - The Landmark

August 12 - New York, NY - Landmark Sunshine Cinema

August 19 - Austin, TX - Violet Crown Cinema

August 19 - Berkeley, CA - Landmark Shattuck Cinemas

August 19 - Cambridge, MA - Landmark Kendall Square Cinema

August 19 - Chicago, IL - Landmark Century Centre Cinema

August 19 - Detroit, MI - Landmark Main Art Theater

August 19 - Irvine, CA - Edwards Westpark 8

August 19 - Miami, FL - AMC Sunset Place 24

August 19 - Nashville, TN - Belcourt Theater

August 19 - Philadelphia, PA - Landmark Ritz at the Bourse

August 19 - San Francisco, CA - Landmark Embarcadero CTR

August 19 - San Rafael, CA - Rafael Film Center

August 19 - Washington, DC - Landmark E Street Cinema

August 26 - Atlanta, GA - Landmark Midtown Art Cinema

August 26 - Dallas, TX - Angelika Film Center

August 26 - Denver, CO - Landmark Chez Artistes

August 26 - Indianapolis, IN - Landmark Keystone Art Cinema

August 26 - Minneapolis, MN - Landmark Uptown Cinema

August 26 - Palm Springs, CA - Cinémas Palme d'Or

August 26 - Palo Alto, CA - Aquarius Theater

August 26 - Portland, OR - Regal Fox Tower Stadium

August 26 - San Diego, CA - Landmark Hillcrest Cinema

August 26 - Scottsdale, AZ - Harkin's Camelview 5

August 26 - Seattle, WA - Landmark Varsity Theater

September 2 - Charlotte, NC - Park Terrace

September 2 - Knoxville, TN - Regal Downtown West Cinema

September 2 - St Louis, MO - Landmark Tivoli Theater

September 16 - Kansas City, MO - Tivoli Theater

September 16 - Las Vegas, NV - Regal Cinemas Village Square

September 16 - Milwaukee, WI - Landmark Downer Theatre

September 23 - Santa Fe, NM UA - DeVargas Mall

For more information, go to - http://sennamovie.com

Universal Pictures and Producers Distribution Agency Present
in association with ESPN Films
a Working Title Production
in association with Midfield Films

SENNA

Directed by Asif Kapadia
Written by Manish Pandey

WINNER
Audience Award World Cinema Documentary
2011 Sundance Film Festival

WINNER
Audience Award for Best International Feature
2011 Los Angeles Film Festival

Trailer: www.youtube.com/sennamovie

... notes from The EDJE


[Article first published as Senna - Dirty Champion? You Decide! on Technorati]

In Iowa, Barack Obama Ups His Game

President Barack Obama talks with patrons during a stop for lunch at Ross’ Restaurant in Bettendorf, June 28, 2011. Image Credit: Official White House Photo by Pete Souza

In Iowa, Barack Obama Ups His Game

This week saw the President of the United States travel to Iowa for a fund raiser over the same time period the loyal opposition of the Republican party were campaigning to become the choice of the American people to unseat him.

Barack Obama scheduled this manufacturing plant speech for his run to get re-elected over the same time he is wanting to up the nations debt ceiling so that he, and the Democrat party can saddle the American citizenry with more Government spending and debt.

In the speech he came to Iowa to deliver, he made this statement, "You [Alcoa Davenport Works] had to up your game. And that’s what we’ve got to do as a country as a whole."

Before Barack Obama admonished the people of the United States for not playing hard enough and taking their life situations seriously enough, he showed his commitment to his wife's agenda for all Americans to eat healthier by dropping by for lunch at Ross’ Restaurant in Bettendorf.

My Plate replaces the food pyramid as the symbol of Government guidance on eating. Image Credit: choosemyplate.gov

This excerpted and edited from the Des Moines Register -

Obama makes good on promise to stop at Iowa diner
Des Moines Register - 1:47 PM, Jun 28, 2011
By Ed Tibbetts, Quad-City Times

The president then made good on a 2008 campaign promise today, making a quick stop at Ross’ Restaurant in Bettendorf. The diner is off Interstate-74 on the way to Alcoa, which is in nearby Riverdale.

Three years ago, Obama talked with an owner, Cynthia Freidhof, at a town hall meeting, in August, 2008, and pledged to come here.
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“You are so awesome,” Cynthia told the president as they hugged.

The president explained what had happened at the town hall, and that he’d been told about the Magic Mountain.
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The president ordered four Magic Mountains and two Volcanoes. A Magic Mountain has grilled loose meat hamburger on texas toast, covered with french frieds and cheese sauce. Topped with onions, which is called a “snowcap on the mountain.” It becomes a volcanoe by adding chili on the top.

“I think he’s a man of his word, always, and he’s doing the very best job that he can and I just can’t believe he’s here, but it’s real,” Freidhof said.

The president challenged the press with him to eat a Magic Mountain, saying he’d buy it if they ate it. (I’m not sure if anyone took him up on it). The president said the orders he placed were for people on the plane[as if!] .
[Reference Here]

So the President upped his game on eating poorly (or just feeding his staff poorly) in Iowa against the lecturing of his wife's, Michelle, My Plate Campaign upon which the USDA invested over $2,000,000 on the website alone. One has to ask themselves, why did we throw away the food pyramid in favor of a multi-million dollar USDA eat healthy campaign just to have it officially ignored by the people who choose to shove this agenda down our throats? ... all the while being admonished and told to "UP OUR GAME".

Two words:

Up Yours!

Oh! ... and stop (EPA up 125% alone since Obama took office in 2009), STOP spending our money.

(Article first published as In Iowa, Barack Obama Ups His Game on Technorati)

Mitt Romney 2012: A Company Man In A Field Of Mortals

For a candidate already having trouble rallying the Republican base, Mitt Romney seems to have no fear of being labeled a RINO. Speaking at a town hall in New Hampshire, the 2012 candidate came clean with the fact that he believes in the unproven concept of man-made global warming. Between this and “Romneycare,” these are shaping out to be some rather rough primaries for the former Massachusetts governor.Image Credit: mittromney.com

Mitt Romney 2012: A Company Man In A Field Of Mortals

Last presidential election cycle, many were taken by the candidate who possessed the best record of success showing executive leadership turning poor leadership around in both the private business sector and public trust situations. But, alas, even though Mitt Romney was the most popular single candidate the Republican party had for the 2008 election cycle, he was done in with the popularity of two candidates, John McCain and Mike Huckabee, who conspired to topple his effort and end with the best the Republican "Ruling Class" had to offer.

Romney gets vanquished, Huckabee drops out, and John McCain looses to Barack Obama in a contest of Progressive versus Progressive Lite because no one likes a half measure of anything ... even disaster.

After 40 or 50 years of an overriding progressive political culture and agenda by the ruling class based in Washington DC, the progressives finally got their non half-measure leader and our country is rupturing.

We all know the statistics ... 9.1% unemployment after assuring the country that if we use over 860 billion dollars in taxpayer debt the unemployment rate would not exceed 8%, we could keep our doctor with ObamaCare, after ObamaCare passed Congress with a single party majority (Democrat) over 2,000 waivers to comply with the law were issued to save those companies who were favorable to this Government the economic pain of implementation, an outright attack on capitalism beginning with the takeover of a large manufacturing segment of our economy (General Motors & Chrysler) in order to restructure a bankruptcy process that placed the legitimate primary investors to the back of the line to give that position to the AFL-CIO Union in partnership with the Government, and ... you get the idea. Business-as-usual in Washington on steroids.

This excerpted and edited from Pajamas Media -

Islam for Pols: a Primer
June 18, 2011 - 8:31 am - by Roger Kimball

The trouble is, business-as-usual in Washington is the problem, not the solution.

Romney would not be the grade A disaster that Barack Obama has been. But he lacks the gumption to challenge the status quo and make fundamental changes to the way government has been deployed recently in the United States. “I’m from the government and I’m here to help.” Ronald Reagan said those were the scariest nine words in the English language. Government has its place; but it must also be put in its place. Mitt Romney is quintessentially the man from the government incapable of understanding that (in Thoreau’s formula) the government that governs best governs least.

We need more intelligent government, to be sure, but we also need less government: less regulation, fewer programs, fewer bureaucrats, more local, more individual, initiative.

Mitt Romney is a company man at a time when our problem is the company. We can do better. Let’s hope we do.
[Reference Here]

As Roger Kimball so keenly points out, "Company Men" need not apply because it's the "Company" that is our problem.

The company men who are lining up to replace Barack Obama does not end with just Mitt Romney, we need to add to this company man calculation Newt Gingrich. Further, if Jon Huntsman (a Bush family favorite who plans to announce this week) as well as Mike Huckabee jump in, they'd have to be counted as well.

All other candidates - to date, former Gov. Tim Pawlenty (MN), former Senator Rick Santorum (PA), Congressman Michelle Bachmann (MN), Congressman Ron Paul (TX), businessman Herman Cain, and if they throw their hats into the ring, Governors Rick Perry (TX) and Chris Christie (NJ) - would have to be classified as "Country Class" (versus "Ruling Class") or outside of Washington DC beltway mortals.

If we are honest with each other, the only way we can arrest or stop this downward spiral in America and American values of personal freedom and entrepreneurial opportunity, is to change the leadership and culture of the "Company"!

[Article first published as Mitt Romney 2012: A Company Man In A Field Of Mortals on Technorati]

The Barack Obama Economy - Greece-ing Our Skids

President Barack Obama delivers remarks during the Official Arrival Ceremony for Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany on the South Lawn of the White House, June 7, 2011. Image Credit: Official White House Photo by Chuck Kennedy

The Barack Obama Economy - Greece-ing Our Skids

Yesterday, the United States stock market dropped about 1.5% on fears of extreme unrest in Greece on the news that the citizens there, who have lived in an entitlement/socialist society for decades, have nearly bankrupted the country and can no longer receive the supports to their lifestyles they were accustomed to.

Greece is struggling with a nearly half a trillion dollar debt load, and is working to avoid having to restructure, or worse, default on its debt. However, the Greek public has protested deep spending cuts and austerity measures to save their economy, and plans to privatize government-held entities have fallen far short of the necessary capital requirements.

Last week, President Barack Obama met with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and one of the issues they discused was this ongoing problem of the Greecian economy. Greece has already received $161 billion in European bailout assistance, largely orchestrated by Merkel. Now, European finance ministers and international lenders are working on a second round, on the order of an additional $1l7 billion to $146 billion.

After his meeting with Merkel, Obama said the U.S. would participate in the bailout on condition that Germany takes the lead. In a sense, as the largest contributor to the International Monetary Fund, the United States is already participating.

This excerpted and edited from CNBC's moneycontrol.com -

US is in even worse shape financially than Greece: Gross
moneycontrol.com - Published on Tue, Jun 14, 2011

When adding in all of the money owed to cover future liabilities in entitlement programs the US is actually in worse financial shape than Greece and other debt-laden European countries, Pimco`s Bill Gross told CNBC Monday.

Much of the public focus is on the nation`s public debt, which is USD 14.3 trillion. But that doesn`t include money guaranteed for Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, which comes to close to USD 50 trillion, according to government figures.

The government also is on the hook for other debts such as the programs related to the bailout of the financial system following the crisis of 2008 and 2009, government figures show.

Taken together, Gross puts the total at "nearly USD 100 trillion," that while perhaps a bit on the high side, places the country in a highly unenviable fiscal position that he said won`t find a solution overnight.
----
Should the debt problem in Greece explode into a full-blown crisis-an International Monetary Fund bailout has prevented a full-scale meltdown so far-Gross predicted that German debt, not that of the US, would be the safe-haven of choice for global investors.
[Reference Here]

We, at MAXINE, are compelled to ask: Why are we bailing out Greece when we should be bailing out ... ourselves?

This is not the time to approve an increase the debt ceiling as the President insists on having the Congress and the Senate agree with him to do. Our country is already way too much in debt on un-funded liabilities alone.

It's time to hit the spending brakes and stop this skid into Government entitlement oblivion.

One Week Later ... UBL Is Still Dead!

Last known image of UBL just after Seal team #6 visits his compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan. Image Credit Edmund Jenks (2011)

One Week Later ... UBL Is Still Dead!

... but the information he left behind lives on.

Also, the Obama Administration believes it is O.K. to Kill Bin Laden ... just don’t Waterboard him as discovered by Chris Wallace on Fox News Sunday.