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   Now in our tenth calendar year!
   PCR #492 (Vol. 10, No. 35). This edition is for the week of August 24--30, 2009.

MOVIE REVIEW
"The Time Traveler's Wife"  by Mike Smith
RETRORAMA
Forgotten Horrors: A * P * E  by ED Tucker
MUSICAL MUSINGS
Music In Your Lifetime  by Bobby Tyler
THE ASIAN APERTURE
Last Life in the Universe  by Jason Fetters
STATE OF THE NATION
Medicare Cuts For 2.5 Trillion Obamacare? .... Maher: We're Still Stupid .... Townhall Jokes .... Get A New Ev .... The Charming Liar .... .... Girl Flees Honor Killing .... Ted  by Brandon Jones
SPORTS TALK
Bucs Record .... Burress .... Massive Video Board .... Vick .... .... .... ....  by Chris Munger
MIKE'S RANT
2 Dog Night .... And Now A Brief Commerical Message .... Movie Notes .... Passing On .... .... .... .... .... My Favorite Films, Part 2...  by Mike Smith
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State of the Nation


Medicare cuts for 2.5 trillion Obamacare?
This Week: The President is a "charming liar"...Bill Maher: America is still stupid...More protests a month away & Townhall chaos updates...Big Wind sponsoring Global Warming...Obama Zombie and Goodbye Teddy

But first, let's go to Colorado to get the real skinny on Healthcare Reform and the proposed Obamacare.

Rep. Betsy Markey pulled back the curtain on Wednesday "There's going to be some people who are going to have to give up some things, honestly, for all of this to work, but we have to do this because we're Americans."

"If it's going to be on a level playing field with insurance companies, then I can support that," Markey said."I think it's a good way of bringing competition to the insurance companies. But until we reform Medicare and Medicaid, which is going to go bankrupt in less than a decade, I wouldn't support opening it up to new people."

Has she read the bill?

Do your part America: It's time to be patriotic and jump in to help the collective. I wish they'd just revamp the old Dr. Pepper ads:

"I'm a socialist, you're a socialist, don't ya wanna be a socialist too?"

Reuters did a great piece on scenarios as the 2.5 TRILLION bill remains the focus of the political landscape.

Yes, you read that right: 2.5 trillion is the new number.

Wasn't it $1 trillion a week or so ago?

Maher: We're still stupid
Still Stupid?
Bill Maher makes a living shocking people, similar to Rush Limbaugh or Bill O'Reilly. He stated that America is stupid because of the countless supporters for Sarah Palin -- she "could" be President, so we're a stupid country. Watch the video from CNN here, because Maher's opinion is news to CNN.

This week Maher invited himself over to Conan O'Brien to spit at America once again. I don't care about his partisan attitude, his criticisms of "birthers" or his rails against Palin.

No, I despise his contempt for Americans and our country which grants him freedom of speech:

"...they're (Democrats) talking about 60 votes they need. Forget this stuff, 60.... You can't get Americans to agree on anything 60 percent. Sixty percent of people don't believe in evolution in this country.

He just needs to drag them to it. Like I just said, they're stupid. Just drag them to this. Get health care done, you know, with or without them. Make the Gang of Six an offer they can't refuse. This Max Baucus guy? He needs to wake up tomorrow with an intern's head in his bed."

Maher wasn't done:

"I'm serious. You know, this is where, I said this months ago and people criticized me, this is where the president needs to be a little more like Bush. Bush had horrible ideas -- torture, deregulation, massive tax cuts for the rich, preemptive war -- horrible ideas.

But you know what? He had that swagger that said, 'I'm just gonna get it through. Suck on it, America, if you don't like it.'"

Finally Maher finishes with:

"Obama should do. He should wake up tomorrow and say, 'Jesus told me to fix health care.' I'm certain about it. Seriously.

Like Jon Stewart, Maher speaks to millions and millions of drones that align themselves with this damaging mindless attitude on the left. Maher is intellectually corrupt because he fails to admit the shortcomings of Obama's socialist agenda. Arrogant, condescension is part of their agenda and we're just the ignorant plebes who need to follow their directions.

Healthcare Debate on Vacation

The President vacations as the healthcare debate cools a bit before Congress returns in a few weeks. Our "charming liar" (not my words, hear it for yourself from Air America), has betrayed Medicare patients with back door deals with drug companies while trying to paint Republicans as the ones corrupt on the issue.

Saving 2% off of $3.6 trillion -- the "charming liar", "cult of personality", "the One", the Messiah may have to come back to earth soon. People, even his supporters, are waking up to the lies and corruption.

Obama Zombie
I recently challenged someone who was blaming Bush for the failed economy, so I began by asking if they thought it was getting better - like the stock market. "Of course", look at what Obama has done - "like what?" I asked?

Like a typical Obama supporter, the cult of personality allegiances take over, and nothing convincing Obama zombies of his greatness have any validity.

Failures closing Gitmo and a lack of effort to reverse the Bush Patriot act headline a list of loopholes in the talking points of "Hope and Change" and Obama's campaign. That's before we even analyze the failed Stimulus Bill or our unemployment levels.

By the way, the stimulus money spent has mostly to entitlement programs such as unemployment benefits, while 10% or more of the funds to Medicaid have been tied to fraud.

You can't blame Bush only for the bad and Obama for the good and retain credibility.

Some proclaim unemployment under Bush was never 4-6% because the books were cooked with improper rules to falsely lower the figures. Those same "talking heads" (and supporters) now believe the calculated data below 10%?!?!

Townhall jokes
9-12 & Townhall updates

Heading towards the anniversary of September 11th, as well as, the 9-12 Project announced protests, we'll likely here exaggerated reports of chaos, racists and more Nancy Pelosi "astroturf" references.

The Townhall meetings have exposed the members of Congress as the spineless hollow suits many believed them to be. Eric Massa admitted to ignoring the will of constituents for the greater good. The healthcare bill has ignited a fuse releasing the frustrated masses against their public servants.

We still have unanswered questions, so expect more Townhall fervor.

Let's go to Texas

Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee took a cell phone call during a Townhall meeting. The video shows Lee taking the call right in the middle of a question/statement from one of her constituents, (Tracy Miller, a cancer survivor). You can hear someone say "She's not even listening." While on CNN, Rep. Lee stated she wasn't taking a call, but rather "calling a congressional hotline that helps lawmakers answer questions about health care."

Back in 2007, Rudy Guliani's NRA speech was interrupted by a call from his wife in which he sent her his love and explaining he was speaking before the NRA.

Disrespectful?

Well, Rep. Lee added some dishonesty to the Townhall experience identifying primary care physician Dr. Roxana Meyer, who stood up and praised the President's health care plan for overhauling a broken system. Meyer said: "I don't know what there is in the bill that creates such panic." Lee requested applause for the doctor, hugged her and then asked "How long have you been practicing?", Meyer answered "Four years," (more applause) and a grin on the Meyer's face.

What's the problem? Roxana Meyer is not a doctor, but rather an Obama campaign delegate. The story unravelled the spring of accusations of Obama plants at these meetings to speak positively of the Healthcare reform.

The grass roots movements have been dismissed with the focus group buzzword "Astroturf", so what should we label the Organizing for America volunteers, the SEIU members and other Obama supporters who attend meetings with blind allegiance?

Get a new EV
Green car update

The Mini-E, made by BMW, looks like a mini-Cooper but comes with a battery pack instead of a backseat. To participate in this pilot project, you'd commit to an electronic diary logging regular feedback. The $850 per month, one-year lease includes insurance. Charging the Mini-E requires 24 hours on the standard household 110V connection or installing a 220-240 amp charging box at your home. BMW has announced that "most" of their 450 initial customers are satisfied with the Mini-E. Most complaints were minor and the automatic vehicle shutdown when the battery temperature triggers a safety sensor has been remedied.

Each charge yields approximately 100 miles of driving in the zero emissions, 100% electric Mini-E.

GM's Volt seems to be right around the corner. With a three-hour charge time, the Volt runs exclusively on the battery for the first 40 miles then a small combustion engine raises to totally capacity to 300 miles. For $40,000 it appeared as though GM was in a prime position to take the lead in the electric vehicle market.

Nissan Leaf = 367 mpg, no tailpipe, and no gas required. Oh yeah, and it'll be affordable too!

The Nissan's Leaf countered the projections of the Volt and others with an all-battery, five seating sedan. The high capacity charger yields a 100-mile range for only $30,000 (or less) and Nissan is looking to develop charging centers in different cities around the country.

There is always the sporty Tesla if you can manage the $100,000 price tag.

So buckle up to save money at the pump with the new era of EV (Electric Vehicles), which are sustainable and practical. Even if these vehicles roll to market next year or so, their price tag is still quite out of my range. If gas were to rise to $5 per gallon, driving 15,000 miles per year in an old car that gets only 15mpg, you would $5,000 a year. Six years for the Leaf, longer for the Volt still don't seem like a practical investment.

Wind powering CNN?

CNN has long abandoned an objective news approach to journalism, yet maintains credibility. CNN's "Planet in Peril" series is sponsored by a wind turbine manufacturer. Denmark's Vistas began their partnership with CNN in 2007. Peter Kruse, the Vistas head of communication and investor relations said:

"We are glad to gain access to CNN's audience of opinion leaders and decision makers through Planet in Peril. We are also delighted that we can point out ways in which the world can collaborate to implement changes, and the significant role that modern energy can play globally as a clean, independent and rapidly growing energy source in the current and future energy context."

Translation for the communications and investment czar as Vistas, "we are happy to gain access to this advertising opportunity where we can demonize fossil fuels and promote our products and technology on a news channel giving us immediate credibility and stifling questions and concerns."

GE's NBC promoted green week, so I guess it was inevitable that a wind conglomerate would invest in the mass media campaigning on our news channels.

The Charming Liar
Signs are everywhere that the recession is over. The "Charming Liar" has stated as such. So, let's look at some of these signs.

The state of Rhode Island will suspend government operations for 12 days to save $68 million. Yes, you read that right. The report is that the state is so broke, that it will SHUT DOWN to save money.

You'll hear economist dismiss the ridiculous unemployment numbers as NOT being a good indicator, but in the article:

"Rhode Island's tax revenues have fallen in part due to the unemployment crisis. At 12.7 percent, the small New England state has the second-highest unemployment rate in the country after Michigan."

Let's do the math: higher unemployment = LESS tax dollars.

So, shut down the government. Maybe we could get the federal government to do that - at $11 trillion, they shouldn't have to work for a couple of years.


Beck boycott tied to Green Czar?

The Color of Change advocacy group promoted a Glenn Beck advertising boycott after Beck referred to President Obama's comments and actions over the Professor Gates arrest as "racist."

Color of Change was co-founded by now Green Czar, Van Jones, who had been under attack by Beck prior to the boycott. Jones has been an aggressive liberal, proud to be a crowd stirring community organizer, describing himself as a progressive radical or a "roudy black nationalist". Whether he's in his "Kanye was right" t-shirt (see here) or musing Marx and Lenin, Jones has (at times) embraced his "revolutionary communist" label. The former member of STORM, whose ideals has been characterized as third world Marxism, has transitioned from a red revolutionary to a green activist.

Besides founding Color of Change, Van Jones' resume includes a board position on the Apollo Alliance who helped write the stimulus bill. He named his newborn son Cabral after the Marxist leader Amilcar Cabral.

I think that Beck hit a soft spot and Czar Jones called in a favor or two to motivate Color of Change to spring into action. Fortunately, there's been an equal amount of support for Beck and I'm sure his 2nd ranked show will continue.

Girl flees Honor Killing
US Honor Killings?

Fathima Rifqa Bary is a 17-year-old Christian convert who abandoned her family in Ohio to flee to the support of a church in Orlando. Bary is fearful, even claiming her father threatened her, of an "honor killing" as she has left her Muslim roots.

The story has broken nationally as the Orlando court is granting her protection (for now) as her family fights to have her sent back to Ohio.

A TIME magazine article even examined the story has the facts unravelled. There were two sisters from Dallas that fell victim to there "honor killings", so this is indeed serious business. That incident was in 2008.

Some are questioning the involvement and motivations of the church who have supported the girl, first through Facebook, and now as an asylum. The church poses such a threat that CAIR is now involved with a coordinated media strategy geared to slander the girl.

Even in peaceful factions of Islam, we have stories like this of extreme violence and archaic laws. No Islam leader in the US have spoken out to support or condemn the girl, her new church or her family.

Ted
R.I.P Senator

Democrats idolize the Kennedys and the Republicans mocked the late Senator for all of his shortcomings. Drunken personifications were common amongst comedians and even Newsweek once described Ted as "the living symbol of family flaws."

I'm become less and less of a fan/supporter over the years. He represents the long term polarizing politician that IS the problem NOT the solution.

Recently Kennedy moved to changed the Massachusetts constitution to prevent then Republican governor Mitt Romney from replacing John Kerry if he'd won the presidency in 2004. Now, seeing his own vacancy and a Democrat in the White House, Teddy was pushing to reverse HIS OWN legislature.

In the late 80's Kennedy exhibted dispicable behavior towards Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork.

"Robert Bork's America is a land in which women would be forced into back-alley abortions, blacks would sit at segregated lunch counters, rogue police could break down citizens' doors in midnight raids, schoolchildren could not be taught about evolution, writers and artists could be censored at the whim of the Government, and the doors of the Federal courts would be shut on the fingers of millions of citizens for whom the judiciary is..."

Always a partisan politician, even at the expense of our nation. At least the man is no longer suffering from his illness.

Quote of the Week
"I met all these young radical people of color -- I mean really radical, communists and anarchists. And it was, like, 'This is what I need to be a part of.' I spent the next ten
years of my life working with a lot of those people I met in jail, trying to be a revolutionary. I was a rowdy
nationalist on April 28th, and then the verdicts came down on April 29th, by August, I was a communist." -- Van Jones


"State of the Nation" is ©2009 by Brandon Jones.   All graphics this page, except where otherwise noted, are creations of Nolan B. Canova.  All contents of Nolan's Pop Culture Review are ©2009 by Nolan B. Canova.