corporate welfare

Phillips: Hearings On Oil Company Subsidies Just Like Soviet Show Trials

Submitted by Brian Tashman on Friday, 5/13/2011 11:40 am

The Tea Party movement is frequently criticized for hyperventilating about the threat of encroaching Communism while advocating for Corporate America. Then people like Tea Party Nation president Judson Phillips come around and confirm those exact charges.

In a letter to his fellow Tea Partyers, Phillips accuses Senate Democrats of admiring Joseph Stalin and leading a “Democratic Senate show trial” straight “from the Stalin handbook.”

Who are the victims of this outrage? Oil companies like Exxon Mobil, BP, Chevron and ConocoPhillips, who were asked to testify about the massive subsidies they receive from the federal government. Apparently while Phillips has a problem with government involvement in the economy, he has no beef with corporate welfare.

Responding to Democratic plans to reign in subsidies for the oil giants, Phillips slams Democrats as “Marixsts and the brain dead” and calls Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) a “Joseph Stalin fan boy and dim bulb”:

Soviet dictator and mass murderer Joseph Stalin has always been an inspiration to liberal democrats. Once again, they have taken a play from the Stalin handbook.

One of the hallmarks of Stalin was his famous show trials and Democrats in the United States Senate, eager to show they had learned from him, staged a show trial.

Five executives from big Oil were summoned. Make no mistake; it was a summons, complete with subpoena, served by a United States Marshall.

…

Senator Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia won the booby prize for the really dumbest comment of the day, when he said the executives of Big Oil were “out of touch” with the American people.

Joseph Stalin fan boy and dim bulb Bob Menendez, who gave Rockefeller strong competition for the dumbest comment of the day, whined that the oil companies were making profits. He wants $2 billion from the oil companies so he can squander that money. He claims the Oil Companies will make $125 billion in profits this year and they can give up a couple of billion.

This is what happens when you put Marxists and the brain dead in charge of the country. Menendez is clearly a lost ball in high weeds. He has no clue where profits go.

…

Of course, the CEO’s have it lucky. They only had to deal with verbal abuse at the Democratic Senate show trial.

Stalin shot the stars of his show trials.

Bill Donohue’s Lesson from Tucson: More Censorship, More Smears

Submitted by Brian Tashman on Thursday, 1/13/2011 6:05 pm

Catholic League President Bill Donohue’s time in public life has been centered on pushing anti-gay bigotry, ridiculing progressive Christians, and promoting censorship and boycott campaigns. He most recently won a notable victory when, with the help of GOP leaders and other social conservatives, he convinced the Smithsonian to censor an exhibit on the marginalization of gays and lesbians in America. The Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery removed a film by the late artist David Wojnarowicz exploring the suffering of people with HIV-AIDS because the video, which included a short clip of ants crawling on a crucifix, might “spoil the Christmas season.”

Rattled by the Smithsonian’s decision to censor its exhibit, other museums began screening the film. Today, the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) announced that it has acquired Wojnarowicz’s banned film, A Fire In My Belly, leading to a swift and ugly response from Donohue and the Catholic League.

In a statement released today, Donohue tried to use President Obama’s speech in Tucson, which called for greater civility and dialogue in American politics, as a reason for the MoMA to keep challenging and provocative artwork such as Wojnarowicz’s film out of the public eye. (Of course, there is a very significant difference between the violent imagery and incendiary rhetoric that the President criticized and the intense, but nonviolent, debate that the artwork in question might engender.) And then, after misusing the President's call for civility, Donohue switched gears and engaged in the same gutter politics and hate mongering, even calling MoMA director Glenn D. Lowry a “corporate welfare queen,” that have long-defined his career:

In Tucson, President Barack Obama correctly noted that "our discourse has become so sharply polarized" that it has disfigured our society. He made note of the "lack of civility" which marks our culture, beckoning us to "sharpen our instincts for empathy." And just one day later, MoMA announced that he was wrong. It wants a sharply polarized society; it delights in incivility; and it abhors empathy. That is why it has decided to assault Christian sensibilities by hosting the vile video.

"We really do live in a time when anything can be hailed as a work of art. This has naturally led to a proliferation of pretentious and often pathological nonsense in the art world." Those words were penned ten years ago by noted art critic Roger Kimball. As evidenced by the reaction to this "artwork" by the artistic community, nothing has changed.

Unlike the Smithsonian, which is federally funded, MoMA is largely supported by fat cats like Glenn D. Lowry, the museum's director, thus alleviating some of our objections. Lowry makes over $2 million a year and lives for free in a $6 million condo atop the museum. Unlike the rest of us, he pays no income tax on his housing.

Looks like the artistic community got fleeced twice: once by embracing the "pathological nonsense" of this masterpiece, and once by the corporate welfare queen who runs—and lives in—the joint.

Bill Donohue’s Lesson from Tucson: More Censorship, More Smears

Submitted by Brian Tashman on Thursday, 1/13/2011 6:05 pm

In Tucson, President Barack Obama correctly noted that "our discourse has become so sharply polarized" that it has disfigured our society. He made note of the "lack of civility" which marks our culture, beckoning us to "sharpen our instincts for empathy." And just one day later, MoMA announced that he was wrong. It wants a sharply polarized society; it delights in incivility; and it abhors empathy. That is why it has decided to assault Christian sensibilities by hosting the vile video.

"We really do live in a time when anything can be hailed as a work of art. This has naturally led to a proliferation of pretentious and often pathological nonsense in the art world." Those words were penned ten years ago by noted art critic Roger Kimball. As evidenced by the reaction to this "artwork" by the artistic community, nothing has changed.

Unlike the Smithsonian, which is federally funded, MoMA is largely supported by fat cats like Glenn D. Lowry, the museum's director, thus alleviating some of our objections. Lowry makes over $2 million a year and lives for free in a $6 million condo atop the museum. Unlike the rest of us, he pays no income tax on his housing.

Looks like the artistic community got fleeced twice: once by embracing the "pathological nonsense" of this masterpiece, and once by the corporate welfare queen who runs—and lives in—the joint.