Free Republic

The Barack Obama budget document just released is not a budget. It is a work of literature. It is Barack Obama’s published apologia for a second presidential term, in which—as the budget and its tax proposals make clear—he will reset the historic balance in America between the public sector and the private sector. This reset will require large wealth transfers—from individuals and companies to the government, and from the government back to the people. The Obama budget is described everywhere as a “political document,” but it is more than that. Mr. Obama hasn’t assembled these ideas just to get elected....

A Fistful of Rebates It’s halftime. Both teams are in their locker rooms discussing what they can do to win this game in the second half. Diagramming plays. Texting their agents and German supermodel wives. Reviewing Belichick's aerial spy photos. It’s halftime in America, too. People are hurting, and it isn't because of towel snapping and the ol' Kramergesic-in-the-jockstrap prank. They’re beat up and bruised, and wondering what they’re going to do to make a comeback. We’re all scared, because this isn’t a game. And because we're up against the Dragons and their all-Asia linebacker Hong Kong Chong with his...

Clint Eastwoods Halftime in America Chrysler propaganda commercial is taken apart by the great one. Mark Levin.

Clint Eastwood says his recent Super Bowl commercial wasn’t about politics. Chrysler Group LLC aired a two-minute television commercial called “It’s Halftime in America” during Super Bowl XLVI that featured the veteran actor and director. Some pundits have argued that the tone seemed to favor the re-election of President Obama.

It is mostly unanimous that Clint Eastwood's Super Bowl ad appearance was a stirring and emotional tribute to America and Detroit. The ad was heartfelt, despite the fact that bailed out Italian-owned auto company, Chrysler, paid for it. Unless NBC offered some significant discounts to their ad rates, the ad cost Chrysler about $14 million. Considering the political nature of the ad and the fact that Chrysler vehicles were not touted in the ad, I must ask the cynical question; what's in it for Italian-owned Chrysler? Chrysler CEO, Sergio Marchionne, is a pretty smart guy. I don't think he...

The creative minds behind the ad are in the agency’s Portland, Ore., branch. Aaron Allen designed a poster for the 2008 Obama campaign and Jimm Lasser designed a basketball sneaker called the “Obama Force One,” with an image of the president on the soles and the message “A Black Man Runs and a Nation Is Behind Him.” Lasser displayed the shoe in a 2008 gallery exhibition with the tagline “The Dunk on McCain.”

If Clint Eastwood narrated “The Cat in the Hat,” the words of Dr. Seuss would instantly take on a menacing authority. He could read the latest worthless United Nations condemnation of Syria and make Bashar Assad tremble. So if you’re Chrysler and want to air a propagandistic advertisement implicitly touting your government bailout as what’s best about America, Eastwood is a natural frontman. The movie tough-guy and former Republican mayor of Carmel, Calif., will make everyone take notice. He will dare you not to believe him. He will invest a sugarcoated narrative of Detroit’s comeback with every bit of his...

Make no mistake about it. The "halftime" referred to in the Super Bowl halftime ad correlates to Obama's re-election strategy. It is 100% an Obama propoganda taxpayer paid ad for his sole benefit, not Chrysler. "Halftime" being referred to is 1/2 of a two term Presidency, and to sell the idea that he is only halfway done and he needs a 2nd term. Thoughts?

When it comes to the current crop of Republican presidential candidates, if Eastwood is enthusiastic about anyone, it’s Herman Cain. “I love Cain’s story,” he says. “He’s a guy who came from nowhere and did well, obviously against heavy odds. He’s a doer and a straight-talker, which I don’t see enough of from either party.”

In a very bizarre turn of events, it seems that the Federal Bureau of Investigation is all riled up over Clint Eastwood's latest movie, J. Edgar. Which, of course, stars Leonardo DiCaprio as the FBI's founding director, J. Edgar Hoover. So when the bureau's not chasing down Scarlett Johansson's nude pics, it's all up in Clint's business! What's up with the FBI going all Hollywood these days? Color us not surprised it has everything to do with Eastwood's portrayal of The Hoov. And remember we first criticized Clint for failing to make the character "gay-enough." Now it seems the FBI...

Clint Eastwood's new film about J. Edgar Hoover which stars Leonardo DiCaprio as the storied FBI Director declines to expressly address his sexuality, and leaves it to viewers to draw their own conclusion about his relationship with Associate Director Clyde Tolson. * * * M. Wesley Swearingen, an agent from 1951 to 1977, writes in FBI Secrets about the long-standing rumors within the Bureau concerning Hoover and Tolson which include allegations that the FBI Director ignored the Mafia for decades because the wise guys had incriminating goods on the supposed lovers. * * * The allegations were fleshed out --...

5:30 pm A Fistful of Dollars An amoral gunman (Clint Eastwood) works both sides of a divided Western town. 8:00 pm For a Few Dollars More Two gunmen form an uneasy alliance to hunt down an outlaw. 11:00 pmThe Good, the Bad and the Ugly A drifter (Clint Eastwood), a bandit (Eli Wallach) and a bounty hunter (Lee Van Cleef) want gold.

According to a recent interview, Clint Eastwood who is promoting his new movie Hereafter has revealed that he is not a fan of President Barrack Obama. In his interview with CBSN News, Eastwood stated that he thought that Obama was doing everything that he could to stay in power, but that he was not really governing. The interview was supposed to be for Eastwood to plug his latest movie, Hereafter but it quickly turned into a political conversation. Two years ago, Eastwood said that he had supported Republican John McCain. However, he has also supported Democrat Gray Davis, so he’s...

Video at link. A personal legend and icon to the author, Clint Eastwood speaks his mind. Eastwood to me is the civilian version of Lt. Gen. Harry W.O. Kinnard who famously responded to the Germans "Nuts" when they demanded his surrender at the 1944 Battle of the Bulge. When Eastwood spoke of Spike Lee "A guy like him should shut his face." He was referring to Spike Lee's criticism of his Film "Flags of Our Fathers," which chronicled the men who raised the flag on Iwo Jima for not having any African American Actors. Eastwood acknowledges there was a detachment...

The Looking Spoon is a conservative humor/satire/art/commentary blog, visit www.thelookingspoon.com to see more posts and art

Clint Eastwood, 80, 'one of the greats' Happy birthday Eastwood as acting legend turns 80Old is Gold- ‘Dirty Harry’ star Clint Eastwood turns 80 todayClint Eastwood Turns 80, But Refuses To Celebrate His Birthday IMDbWikipedia

The green army locker in the basement filled with old war souvenirs is a classic Old School Man possession. And Walt is no exception, he has his War Chest filled with great B&W pictures of him in Korea with his Army buddies, metals and the guns he was issued. As expected his grand-kids don’t even know about his service (their grandfather was awarded the Silver Star and they don’t know!!) or even where Korea is.

As hard as it is to imagine today, Clint Eastwood was once a little boy. And a pretty unexceptional one at that. 'I always joke that back then my teachers were like, “Mrs Eastwood, your son, he is just slow”,’ Eastwood tells me. The actor, writer and film-maker will be 80 in May, yet the man sitting in this Los Angeles hotel room could easily pass for a young-looking 65. His crinkly skin is slightly leathery in texture − courtesy of a life spent on film locations and golf courses − but his blue eyes are bright and, at a...

“Invictus” means “unconquered.” The poem of that name, by 19th century Scotsman William Ernest Hensley, is said to be Nelson Mandela’s favorite. As the title of Clint Eastwood’s new film, which opened last week in the U.S., the word has a dual significance. Mandela, played to perfection by Morgan Freeman, claims that it helped carry him through his 27 years of incarceration at the hands of the Apartheid. When Mandela writes out the verses and gives them to Springbok team captain Francois Pienaar --- another perfect portrayal, this by Matt Damon--- they become the symbol and inspiration for the South...

South Africa is plagued with astonishing levels of crime and poverty, its peoples segregated and suspicious of one another. But the new Clint Eastwood-directed movie Invictus says that’s all okay, because the country’s rugby team won a few games in 1995. Coming off last winter’s excellent and far more challenging Gran Torino, Invictus is shockingly pedestrian and cliché-ridden. Its level of racial naivety makes it a sort of Driving Mr. Damon, with Morgan Freeman accepting a demotion from his usual roles as God or the president of the United States. This time he merely plays a saint — Nelson Mandela....

PARIS — French President Nicolas Sarkozy made American actor and director Clinton Eastwood a commander in the prestigious French Legion of Honor on Friday. The citation for the highly coveted decoration said Eastwood, 79, was honored for his body of work, his longevity and his ability to delight audiences around the globe. Former French President Jacques Chirac had honored Eastwood as a knight of the Legion of Honor two years ago, and Friday’s decoration was a step up for Eastwood to grade three on the legion’s five-grade scale. Speaking in English, Eastwood thanked Sarkozy and the French people.

Bollywood star Saif Ali Khan, who is ready with his debut production venture Love Aaj Kal, was inspired by Hollywood actor Clint Eastwood to get into the business of making movies. Saif is a huge fan of the Hollywood legend and is quite fascinated by his work. "Once, when Saif was reading Clint's interviews, it was mentioned that he was planning to start a production house. When Saif read this, he was quite inspired by it. He was shooting outdoors and in the middle of the night he called up Dinesh Vijan and told him about the whole idea of...

Clint Eastwood and Minorities Mix Like Fire and Gasoline: Clint Eastwood is a man I can respect. A living movie legend, Clint Eastwood has directed dozens of classic movies and starred in many more films. For years he played the grizzled, nameless cowboy in the "Dollars" series and countless other Spaghetti Western shooters. He was also the titular hero of the "Dirty Harry" series. Today he continues to contribute to the movie industry by directing movies about flags and very expensive babies. So what does Clint do when old age has weathered his skin and bones? He knees Death in...

Clint Eastwood thinks political correctness has ruined society’s sense of humor. And he was just warming up. He also accused younger generations of wasting their time trying to avoid being offensive. He told the Daily Express that he should be able to tell harmless racial or ethnic jokes without being branded “a racist”...

To my Conservative Friends: Just a few weeks back, I went to see one of the best movies I have ever seen in my forty years. I enjoyed it so much that I veered off my political ranting and liberal tooling for a day to write a review of the film, Gran Torino and to give our man, Clint Eastwood, a pre-congratulatory pat on the back for his inevitable, long overdue Oscar win (you can read my review by clicking HERE). Clint gave an amazingly real, heartfelt performance as Korean War Veteran Walt Kowalski in what was widely viewed by...

This year's Oscar story lines have already been etched in stone — Mickey Rourke as the comeback kid, Slumdog Millionaire as the art-house wunderkind, Milk as the timely social commentary (released three weeks after Proposition 8 passed in California). Yet while the critics have been fussing over wrestlers and Mumbai quiz shows, audiences have been flocking to Gran Torino — an Oscar outcast that's been doing laps around the competition at the box office. At some point this week, the Clint Eastwood drama will pass the $100 million mark, easily surpassing the box-office receipts brought in by not only some...

With all the productions made by Hollywood's leftist actors and filmmakers, it's often easy to overlook Conservatives in the industry. With the widespread release of "Gran Torino," Clint Eastwood's first acted film in four years, the public will receive a bold reminder of a filmmaker who has managed to both act and direct in films with conservative themes for 40 years. "Gran Torino," also directed by Eastwood, features the iconic actor as Walt Kowalski, a retired autoworker and Korean War veteran recently widowed. The traditional Kowalski is perpetually scowling at the world in which he finds himself. He's disgusted by...

During the post-Vatican II push for more "relevant" religion classes, students in my high school "Theology of the Film" course trooped off to see Dirty Harry -- the 1971 drama starring Clint Eastwood as the police lieutenant who violates the law, including the torture of suspects, to protect San Franciscans from a wily serial killer. Afterward, we held the requisite classroom debate on whether Harry was justified in taking the law into his own hands. Most of us teenagers didn't quite understand the point of the discussion -- Harry did what he had to do, right? But our teacher, a...

After going into a coma when Obama won the Presidency, Ed Anger, the original conservative commentator, has been revived by his hatred for the Big Three CEOs and their execution of the auto industry.

DHP Review: Gran Torino Clint Eastwood’s hinted that Gran Torino might be his last turn in front of the camera. If that’s true, he could not have chose for himself a more fitting farewell. Without a hint of the self-referential, Torino touches on the many iconic moments of both his best genre pictures and more serious fare. Most of all, he’s masterfully blended both into a hard-hitting, supremely satisfying story that carries big themes with a deft gentleness. Working from a superb script by relative newcomer Nick Schenk, Gran Torino opens in just the kind of Catholic church you expect...

DHP Review: The Changeling Posted by Dirty Harry Friday, October 31st, 2008 I’ll tweak this into a right and proper review this weekend but let me warn off some of you who might be considering a plunk down of ten bucks. The Changeling lacks story focus and at two hours-twenty minutes is about 40 minutes too long. What opens as an intimate, period piece about a mother searching for her lost son slips a gear and goes all Bette Davis with an unexpected change of scope to a much broader palette involving a gruesome child murderer and police corruption. This...

The United Nations, a body devoted to peaceful resolutions to conflict across the world, may regret appointing the actress Angelina Jolie as one of its Goodwill Ambassadors. In an interview in the current issue of Entertainment Weekly to promote her latest film Wanted, in which she plays a hired killer, she says that she advocates political assassination in extreme cases, a complete no-no as far as the UN is concerned. "I am a strong believer that without justice there is no peace," she says. "I'm somebody who's very curious about the International Criminal Court and supportive of following through on...

(Cut) Eastwood, who turned 78 on Saturday, has become an American filmmaker of the highest order -- he first rode to fame as a rangy, amoral redux of John Wayne but, somehow, came back from the desert as a latter-day John Ford. With that career trajectory, it wouldn't be surprising if Eastwood turned his back on Callahan, whose darkly whispered one-liners (". . . You've got to ask yourself one question: 'Do I feel lucky?' Well, do ya, punk?" "Go ahead, make my day") were long ago drained of any real danger by stand-up comics, politicians and bumper stickers. It's...

<p>Eastwood has no time for Lee's gripes. "He was complaining when I did Bird [the 1988 biopic of Charlie Parker]. Why would a white guy be doing that? I was the only guy who made it, that's why. He could have gone ahead and made it. Instead he was making something else." As for Flags of Our Fathers, he says, yes, there was a small detachment of black troops on Iwo Jima as a part of a munitions company, "but they didn't raise the flag. The story is Flags of Our Fathers, the famous flag-raising picture, and they didn't do that. If I go ahead and put an African-American actor in there, people'd go, 'This guy's lost his mind.' I mean, it's not accurate." Lee shouldn't be demanding African-Americans in Eastwood's next picture, either. Changeling is set in Los Angeles during the Depression, before the city's make-up was changed by the large black influx. "What are you going to do, you gonna tell a fuckin' story about that?" he growls. "Make it look like a commercial for an equal opportunity player? I'm not in that game. I'm playing it the way I read it historically, and that's the way it is. When I do a picture and it's 90% black, like Bird, I use 90% black people."</p>

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger proved this week that nobody is safe when it comes to government appointments - not even relatives or fellow movie stars. The governor refused to reappoint his brother-in-law Bobby Shriver and fellow acting icon Clint Eastwood to the State Park and Recreation Commission, where both had served for several years. The move stunned park advocates and other members of the commission, who said the two men were outspoken champions of the beleaguered state parks system and had disagreed with Schwarzenegger on a project he had championed. A spokesman for Schwarzenegger said Eastwood and Shriver weren't reappointed because...

Clint Eastwood once said, "I feel very close to the western. There are not too many American art forms that are original. Most are derived from European art forms. Other than the western and jazz or blues, that's all that's really original." People these days don’t really care for westerns anymore, unless Hang ‘Em High is on AMC or something. No one has made a decent attempt at a true western in a number of years. Sure, perhaps we get a Kevin Costner film every few years that takes place in the old west, but it’s not a western. Those...

For those Forum Members who have expressed an opinion on the movie Letters from Iwo Jima, please allow me to share how I re-acted to this film. For lack of a better way to begin, let me say, What “Nice Guys” the Japanese Soldiers Were. It was obvious to me that the Japanese soldiers who fought the Americans on Iwo Jima were not the same soldiers who fought the Americans on Bataan, or were they? As a survivor of the Bataan Death March, I can tell you for certainty, the Japanese depicted in “Letters From Iwo Jima” were in no...

Hollywood icon Clint Eastwood has said he opposed the United States' decision to go to war in Iraq but said he admired the "tenacity" of President George W. Bush. In an interview with Fox News, Eastwood, who has been nominated for a best director Oscar at this month's Academy Awards for World War Two movie "Letters from Iwo Jima", said he was against the US-led 2003 invasion of Iraq. The United States' goal of trying to impose democracy on Iraq was flawed, the 76-year-old said. "I wasn't for going in there," Eastwood said. "Only because democracy isn't something that you...

Michael Medved, on his radio show just now, gave Clint Eastwood's "Letters From Iwo Jima" 4 stars - the highest rating.

Clint Eastwood, formerly a Hollywood favorite among American patriots, is taking some heat for fictionalizing scenes in his latest movie "Letters From Iwo Jima" – scenes that made the Japanese soldiers look more humane than their American GI counterparts. Perhaps the sharpest criticism has come from nationally syndicated talk-radio host Michael Savage, who compared the director unfavorably to Tokyo Rose, the World War II-era Japanese radio propagandist. "The astonishing transformation of Clint Eastwood, from his 'Dirty Harry' days, cannot be more forcefully understood than by appreciating the level to which he has gone in order to appease the liberal gods...

At the link

On February 19 1945 Thomas McPhatter found himself on a landing craft heading toward the beach on Iwo Jima... Sadly, Sgt McPhatter's experience is not mirrored in Flags of Our Fathers, Clint Eastwood's big-budget, Oscar-tipped film of the battle for the Japanese island that opened on Friday in the US. While the film's battle scenes show scores of young soldiers in combat, none of them are African-American. Yet almost 900 African-American troops took part in the battle of Iwo Jima, including Sgt McPhatter...

Flags of Our Fathers Print the Legend Clint Eastwood strips away the myths surrounding the Greatest Generation A single photograph, we're told early on in Clint Eastwood's Flags of Our Fathers, can win or lose a war. But sometimes that photo shows us only part of the story, whether it's the part we don't want to see -- slaughtered villagers at My Lai, tortured prisoners at Abu Ghraib -- or the part we do, with heroes front and center and the carnage out of view. In Flags, the image under scrutiny is one of the most iconic in American photojournalism:...

What a great movie. Clint Eastwood has done a masterful job showing the terrible struggle we faced at Iwo Jima. It focuses mainly on the three men who were on the war bond tour after the flag was planted. This film should be nominated for Best Picture. Go see it this weekend.

Just caught a trailor - online - of Flags of our Fathers. At the beginning of the trailor, a narrator says "people were tired of war." My question, was that true for back then? Or is that some current crap thrown in?

Buono, il brutto, il cattivo, Il (1966) If this western isnt your cup of tea, then on channel 7 is Pearl Harbor. Or on channel 13 (PBS) is the britcom "Keeping Up Appearances", followed by another britcom called "As Time Goes By". After that, still on PBS, will be the Doris Day movie, "The Glass Bottom Boat" at 9pm (EST)

George Clooney is being hotly-tipped to play Magnum PI in a new movie. Film bosses believe the handsome star would be perfect as the suave private investigator, played by Tom Selleck in the classic TV show. A source is quoted in Britain's Daily Star newspaper as saying: "He is a big fan of the original series. The part is his if he wants it." Meanwhile, George - who split from on/off girlfriend Lisa Snowdon last year - recently revealed he thinks 2006 will be the year he settles down. The 44-year-old heartthrob - renowned for keeping his romantic life under...

“Then what is it you want?” “I want, what they want, and every other guy who came over here and spilled his guts and gave everything he had wants! For our country to love us as much as we love it. That’s what I want!”Such were the words of Vietnam War veteran and American icon John Rambo at the end of Rambo: First Blood Part II, the second highest grossing film of 1985. But despite the boffo success of Rambo and a few other summer flicks, Hollywood 1985 suffered through the biggest box office slump ever recorded. Until now that...

Please view the link for my article regarding Clint Eastwood and military veterans in popular entertainment.

Please view link for my article: "Hollywood's Military Veterans"