Obviously you haven't seen any of his movies. That was vintage Dirty Harry. Academy Awards anybody?

Almost bit.... fingers poised over the keyboard.....No...No.... TROLL ZONE

DO. NOT. FEED. THE. TROLLS.

Thank you for visiting and have a nice day.

@Cindy, obviously @Sick and the rest of us have seen his movies. That wasn't Dirty Harry. That was an old man rambling. Which is cool if he's your grandpa, but not so cool if he's your Special Guest Speaker.

There's stuff you can find out about an actor as a person whose work you appreciated that pretty much ruins their movies for you thereafter. Mel Gibson and Harvey Keitel being prime examples. But for others, I can just shake it off.

I always liked Charleton Heston, scenery chewing and all. I've come to prefer to just put the hard right turn by a guy who was once a well-known liberal there at the end down to early onset Alzheimer's and let it go.

Likewise, Eastwood's always been a California Republican. One of those people like Ahnald who somehow manage to stay aligned with a party that would gleefully purge them if they weren't famous, serenely unaware of the fact that the Rockefeller wing of the party was purged from national politics years ago. And this is just . . . well, it's just an old white guy being an old white guy and you do what millions do at Thanksgiving when they say "yes gampa, thanks for sharing. Pass the mashed potatoes please. HEY, SIS! COULD I GET A REFILL ON MY WINE HERE?"

And, of course, the fact that he pretty sucked every last molecule of oxygen out of the MSM's attention to Mitt's speech makes me think well of it as well. Between Hurricane Isaac and Santa Ana Clint, Mitt is firmly ensconced as the weirdo nominee of the weirdest political convention in this country in decades.

Cindy

I have seen every movie he ever made or stared in. Actually had the opportunity to meet him this summer. While he was filming a movie near where I live. I've always loved and respected Clint. Right up to the point where he suggested that the POTUS told someone to go f*ck themselves.

Regardless of who is in the White House. Regardless of the Political Party lives in 1600 Penn Ave. To stand on a National Party's Stage at their convention. And belittle, demean not just the person but the entire Office of POTUS. Is beyond inappropriate. It's down right despicable.

I thought for the most part every ones speeches we good. The general theme of giving Mitt a real personality was a good and effective in parts. Mitt gave the best speech I've ever seen him give in the 10 years I've started paying attention to him. And for the first time this since running for POTUS. He actually looked like a real person and not a Gordon Geko or some kind of Robot.

But even as good as Mitt's speech was (for about 3/4 of it anyway). Most people are going to talking about not Mitt's performance. But WTF was Clint thinking and doing. Because to even suggest that it wasn't political. As the Romney cam is. And it was on the largest Political Stage, by an Actor who is known for being a life long member of the Rep Party, is ridiculous. I can't believe that they vetted everybody elses speeches. But had NO IDEA what Clint was going to do. Because somebody knew and thought it was ok. Because somebody had to bring the chair out on the stage!

Cindy, I got your sarcasm! Shocked that others didn't but then again everyone is on edge and afraid of who our next president could be.

Clint appears to have dementia. How sad to have him taken advantage of in this way at the RNC debacle!

Well said. Anyone who really knows Eastwood's work had to feel badly for him. He was used.

No, what you saw was vintage Clint Eastwood. Look at his films. I personally love "High Plains Drifter," in which he avenges the death of his brother. He convinces the town power structure that he is a friend and ends up killing them and setting the town on fire. Look at what a skilled actor who knows about acting and directing did. He put down Romney and the Republicans. He left with the place smoldering. There was nothing ad-lib about it. It wasn't disresprectful to Obama at all. Look at the script. (Eastwood knows a thing or two about writing and acting out scripts.) Everything he acted out (and he did it magnificently) poked fun at the Republicans. So give Clint credit. All of us who are proud Americans should raise our glasses in a toast to a great performance.

I'm a lifelong Dem who is committed to PBO winning in November. That said, I didn't mind Clint's performance—not really a speech—at all. Sure, the chair thing was shticky and irreverent, but no more so than Leno, SNL, or Colbert. Still nowhere near Rush calling PBO a "little punk."

So he rambled and searched for words a bit. But there were moments that were funny, inspiring, and genuine—unlike Romney's vague platitudes, pie-in-the-sky promises ("A unicorn in every garage!") and mechanical delivery. It was also a welcome respite from Ryan's lies and Mrs. Romney's over-rehearsed "You can trust this man" speech.

And so informed by FoxFacts that it was ridiculous.

This might make you think twice about his actual intentions at the RNC

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10021243131

Oh. My. Gosh. o.O I hadn't had the chance to see this last night. I'd seen some reviews and heard a bit about it today, but this was my first chance to actually see it. I'd thought that it couldn't possibly be as bad as so many people were saying it was - I mean, I might disagree with him politically, but it's Clint Freakin' Eastwood, right? I've always enjoyed his film work, both as an actor and as a director. And I expect I still will.

So, how bad could it really be? Wow. That bad. Old man yells at clouds a chair. I guess this is what happens when you let an actor write his own script. One of the funniest comments I saw somewhere else (wish I could remember where now) suggested that when the imaginary President apparently asked Clint to tell Willard to do something, and Clint said Willard couldn't possibly do that, he was actually asking for the release of Willard's tax returns!

Vulture/Voucher 2012
Proving Two Rights DO Make a Wrong!

;-)

A twitter friend wanted him to come to his Passover Seder and talk to Elijah's chair. It might be more appropriate, and certainly less sad. What was Romney's staff thinking- oh, sorry, making assumptions again ... ... .

Today I was "Eastwooding" w/ Clint, "Dirty Harry" himself, my Undone Movie Hero. He joins the list of Undone Heroes who, for one reason or another, tarnished their image with fans. People like Mark McGuire, Mel Gibson, Pete Rose, O.J. Simpson, Jose Canseco, and Lance Armstrong. We were discussing possible titles for his next film...we narrowed it down to our top 5 possible titles, but would like your vote to help decide which one to go with (just type the # you like best):
1. "The Senile, The Bad, and The Ugly"
2. "A Fistful of Aricept"
3. "Magnum Farce"
4. "In The Line Of Ire"
5. "Any Gig For A Few Dollars More"

Word of note: The entire Republican party lives in a world of magical chairs.

"Magic Underwear" too. And it will take a lot more than GOP "magic" to solve the crisis that America is facing now.

Maybe the invisible President carried it out. Remember--he is to blame/responsible for everything.

20 million unemployed and it's no ones fault except of obummer! He promised jobs and made it worse. Can't blame anyone but the dems!

At what point does he take responsibility for the state of the nation? By this logic, Bush Sr takes credit for what happened under Clinton. I'll bet that you would not agree with that...

He's still big, it's the Party that got small!

I've heard of a basketball player not being able to guard a chair. I'd not heard of a someone debating a chair before. And losing.

Classic.

Senile, just like Reagan was WHILE IN OFFICE!

on point!

You must not be very smart, fallen Hollywood icon??? Well we at least know you don't know much about Hollywood or how people really feel. Being an independent gave me something last night I did not see in awhile, honesty. Moral Compass, are you kidding? If you listed he was talking about how he felt, how people he knows feel and did it all off the kuff, because like a lot of us who voted for the current President we are PISSED OFF. Get and talk to people other than democrats, I do. This is not about political parties it's about having the right opportunity to move forward and get results. I am sorry if all of you cannot see it but you can't blame the Bush anymore. I sat there in Grant Park thought I was apart of something bigger than I thought and now it was just a big movie that sucked you and now you feel like this is it, what the hell did I just watch. The attacks you reference if you remember first came from the pres people with Bain and what do you want the guy to do not say anything? Vision is leading, leading with vision if being prepared and then executing on your plan. I don't think playing over 100 rounds of golf and being on every major talk show and slow jamming your policies is being prepared...I might like you but I don't want buddy in the White House I want a man to be prepared, lead by example and do what he SAID HE WAS GOING TO DO!

This was Romney's idea, so that gives you some pause as to how he would run the country.

cripes, stoli you are quite a nut. Sorry, but Obama has done much of what he said he was going to do. The stuff he didn't? Stoli, yuo must have missed Civics when they explained on how the US gov't works. It's not by executive fiat as you seem to think it is. Alas, it doesn't even work on simple majority. Yuo seem to only want ot make the perfect the enemy of the good in an excuse to vote in a man who is nothing more than an inept liar with no vision he's willing to share with anyone.

Stoli, I gotta wonder who you're pissed off at. Is it the Democrats who have tried to deal with Republicans, only to be shot down? Is it the Republicans, who got into office 2 years ago on JOBS! JOBS! JOBS! and gave us Anti gay, Anti abortion, Anti women only bills? Is it Obama, who has bent over backwards trying to compromise with what Republicans wanted, and watched the Republicans move the line once he compromised? Because from where I sit, and I don't talk with many Democrats, the ones who have done their best to screw Obama's administration has been Republicans. The same idiots who said it best on day 1: Let's make sure it's a one-term President. Tell me again now, just who are you pissed off at?

Ok, let's get one thing straight. The president I voted for had his control the first two years, everything got passed. My business had a increase of 16% on his tax policies and secondly he is promising a tax break for small businesses with $250K or less in revenues??? Are you kidding me, my sales last year where over 3 million and I had 15 employees. I don't care about this war on women, anti abortion crap, women have the right to choose and everyone who is normal knows that. I care about how his policies have screwed me and other small business owners I know and we all agree if he does get elected we are screwed. It really bothers me that many people get their news from 30 second sound bites and do not research why people are suffering or me as a business owner, who yes, busted my ass cannot hire more people, I CANT because I cannot afford to and I cannot afford to send my son back to school this year and yes he has to go to community college, so feel sorry for me but I am keeping the people i do have employed. So if I am upset its because of his policies that will effest many business owners like myself.

That really was an astonishing display of self-obsessed whining and yet completely effing hypocritical. Obama did not have control for 2 years, the Senate had a late election and the seat that was won by Scott Brown made it possible for the GOP to filibuster everything that moved...and they did. That was a few months in. Not 2 years. But, yeah, continue to whine about how OTHER people don't do research.

You don't care about the war on women? Well, gee thanks. You really turned me around on wanting to support YOUR cause now. Explain exactly how a woman gets to choose when the GOP throughout the country, including the GOP candidates, HAVE and WILL make new laws that defacto make abortion illegal or otherwise impossible to choose?

Are you kidding me? Did you make 3 million bucks or was that just what you took in as compared to your overhead? Obama's plan taxes your PROFITS, not your sales figures. Get educated before you vote, please. And if you made 3 million dollars profit in this land of opportunity, you owe this country a hefty tax in its time of need.

Stoli...you might be a good person to ask...what policies that Obama put into place has crippled your business? I have been asking this question but have failed to get an answer. Do you know?

To Stoli

I think if your business is suffering it is from lack of demand. i can't comment on the regulatory side as i do not know what your business is.

As to being disappointed w/ the President, I am sure your reasons are sound. You can not be taken seriously when you talk about him playing golf and being on talk shows. As a business owner I know you do something to recharge your batteries when you have a chance. Being on talk shows is part of the business of being President and I think you know it.

So give us your sound reasons for not backing the President anymore and we can enter into a debate. Otherwise your frustration from your business not performing the way you know it can is effecting your judgement. the result is you come off petulant and whiny.

I love it when a supposed independent automatically assumes a person is a Democrat simply because that person disagrees with what the supposed independent is saying.

6 weeks Obama had the super majority. 6 weeks. That was it.

Yes , you are really hurting , and its all Obamas fault , we got it

I find it perplexing that a person can think of personal gain while voting for tpous ( velkyn's post ), another example of the 1980's me me me generation , Like the band Cracker sings " I HATE MY , GENERATION!!!!!"

You see these types of people being interviewed all over the msm , they really like putting them on tv , instead of level headed people who can actually come up with a real reason to oppose Obama and the dems

Obama has cut business taxes even more than bush , but some how he managed to raise your taxes , next joke

@Stoli1995 You are so right. I don't blame bush (lowercase intended) anymore. I blame a filibustering Senate sent to Washington for the sole purpose of sabotage. 241 filibusters would keep any president from implementing change. The thing is they don't want change. What they want is to maintain the status quo and that did begin fully under Bush. Now they want to up the ante. That is why they will not clarify their vision for America.

Obama said he would change things and he has tried. Change requires participation and the only thing we are getting from the Republican/Teatards and the Democrats that are angry that they cannot slip their pet projects into legislation is obstruction. Pelosi and company should be ashamed, and this convention was one big shame!

You can't afford to hire people because people can't afford to buy your product/services because they're unemployed because the Republicans block every attempt at stimulus.

You're blaming the wrong party.

poor stoli,still more baseless claims. It's a shame that you think that no one will notice that you are totally unable to cite one single "policy" to show how President Obama has harmed your business. All we see are vague whines. Nope, I need actual facts, not just lies from you. And you have yet to provide anything.

It's so cute to watch you whine about Obama when the Republicans are those who keep your son and others from getting a good education. Boo-hoo, he has to go to community college. Why,golly gee, Stoli, why doesn't he borrow money from you since that 's what Romney et al thinks everyone can do?

@stoli1995

As a fellow business owner I'm at a complete loss to understand your numbers.

If you have a $3 million gross sales business you are creating $250,000 per month and about $12,000 in gross sales per business day each month. With 15 employee, your per employee productivity is $200,000 a year. That is impressive. Congratulations on creating a business with that kind of cash flow.

Now how come you have yet to understand business accounting? EBIT includes deductions for all overhead and salaries. You do not pay taxes on money you use to employee people, it is exactly the opposite. Want to reduce your "tax bill", hire someone full-time, temporary or as a contractor - they are all tax deductions.

If you offer healthcare with less than 50 employees, it is now a tax credit, that is a credit on your taxes not a deduction - hint that is even better.

Now let's talk about your margins. If you are like most businesses you earn between 5% and 15% profit before taxes. If it is 7.5% profit then you have $225,000 in taxable profit. The first $50,000 is taxed at the rate of 15% for all business as C corps. If you are using a pass-through then you are paying the same rate as simple income for every American.

There have been zero increases in corporate tax rates since 1993. There have also been zero increases in personal income tax rates since 2004. There are however temporary decreases in payroll witholding taxes.

So what taxes could have gone up by 16% as you say.

BTW: My business has similar metrics but I always look for ways to build my business so as long as I invest in my business, my employees or future growth - that is all tax deductible, as is savings for retirements. And the IRS has special set aside rules for business owners to allow us larger deductions for retirement than average workers.

Finally you should seriously learn about ESOP. As an owner you can convert the ownership of your business, for retirement planning, as a tax deduction - transferring the ownership to your employees allows you to take the money out as equity payments and that money can flow into other open market stock purchases to diversify your holdings without capital gains. This is the best way to turn a $3 million business into a wonderful asset for retirement.

So if you are lucky enough to have a growing business in this economy, congratulations!

If you are ill-informed enough to think that any policies the Obama administration has enacted are creating new taxes for you, then you need to find a new accountant and crack a book on financial accounting - because you clearly don't know what you are talking about.

Oh and lastly, the President can only sign tax laws passed by Congress, he can't raise revenue - per the Constitution - directly. So you might want to take it up with your Congress people, but they haven't raised any taxes in recent history.

@ Steve Eldridge.

That was a superb reply to Stoli. I see how they have disappeared now that they have been shown the error of their ways.

So many loopholes though, still. Do you agree?

you are so right, human league. steve eldridge response to stoli was excellent. thanks to him and all the others who rebutted stoli,

Great response, but Stoli no more has a company with $3M in revenue than he/she voted for Obama. The "100 rounds of golf" comment was a dead giveaway.

Nah....that's not possible

He really said that. I love it, Clint Eastwood as anarchist performance artist. About another of his out-of-the-blue points -- about the moment we voted for Obama being the most exciting, why shouldn't it have been? The hard work and forced compromises with tea partiers like Ryan came next, that's not exciting but essential.We didn't vote for Obama so that he'd "excite" us all the time, Clint, that's what movie stars are for, when they're good, anyway....

Those people were cheering the sound and fury of their own insanity.

Here, Here, AxelDC. Well said.

Sorry....a fine job does not include the reference to go f&ck yourself coming from the President of the United States. He wasn't quite as bad as some of the blogs have made it sound, but he was obviously ill-prepared to speak. He referenced too many things about the Romney campaign that was contrary to their beliefs. And, he looked uneasy.

He was addressing a very friendly audience

A banana may get old and over-ripe, but a room full of monkeys will still approve of and fawn over it.

KJ, CR,IA . . . that made me laugh out loud. Thanks!

A banana may get old and over-ripe, but a room full of monkeys will still approve of and fawn over it.

pure perfection.

I am glad I did not see it also, his films are favorites but it sounds like he is aging poorly.

But it's Ideologically Sound senility, and that's all that matters to those on the right.

I understand people can be sincerely convinced Obama is the right man for the job, and Romney is evil. I disagree though. To me, Obama seems too far to the left, to comfy with enlarging State power. He campaigned as a centrist, and I had hopes for him on that basis. I could have supported him if he'd governed more like Bill Clinton. Factcheck.org, certainly not a right wing website, says that GWB increased the national debt $5 trillion in two terms, and that Obama has increased the national debt $5 trillion in one term. I wasn't happy with GWB's profligacy, and I'm less enamored of Obama's supersized version. I've also supported school choice for thirty years or more. School choice is especially important for poor kids in failing State schools. But the Democratic Party, whatever virtues it might have, is in the pockets of the teachers union bosses -- and so the Democratic Party naturally circulates among the rank and file a lot of false and self-serving arguments for why families -- even poor families -- should not have school choice. What's behind that is simply that the teachers union bosses see it as their responsibility to protect and enhance as much as possible the economic perquisites of their members, whether it's good for poor kids or not. And the Democratic Party rejects choice in a number of other fields -- though not in the area of abortion.

I'm not convinced that Obama really understands that what drives an economy to prosperity is the creativity of individual entrepreneurs -- I suspect he thinks enlightened State planners are the key element. I think he's at best a democratic socialist, at worst, a closet doctrinaire Marxist. Either way, I expect I'll be voting for Romney, who to me is much more of a centrist than Obama. Michael Novak once wrote that he was a member of the Democratic Party, which he called the second most capitalist party in the world. I could support such a Democratic Party. I don't ask for the end of the social safety net, or the elimination of all regulation. But I want politicians to have a bit more skepticism than Obama seems to have toward the State and State interests. And I reject socialism, whereas I'm not convinced Obama rejects it. Those of you who support Obama and are convinced he is not any kind of socialist, democratic or otherwise, feel free to post your evidence. I'm interested. Evidence will influence me.

@traeh

If evidence will influence you, and you have been reading Maddow's Blogs (or have taken the time to go back and read them), and you still support Mitt, then you are boldly lying about the fact that evidence will influencing you.

With the possible exception of the early days of the new state of Israel, there is no such thing as a purely socialist society, not even Soviet Union or early "Red" China. Nor can I think of a purely capitalist society outside of the pages of Ayn Rand. So what we're talking about is a question of degree. I find that my Republican friends and I disagree on much less, and much less vehemently, than the politicians who are paid to mostly say "Hurray for our side."

Obama supported a second round of bailouts, and continues to work with Wall Street. Are consumer safeguards, limiting financial manipulation and making sure everyone buys insurance from private companies socialism? I don't think so. Nor do I see any real evidence he believes "enlightened State planners are the key element" to prosperity.

Also note not only the oft-repeated causes of the Bush deficits—wars and tax cuts, guns AND butter—but also note that classic economic theory is to run surpluses when you can afford it, like Clinton, and deficits when you need to stimulate the economy. But George comes along and says, "It's your money, and I'm givin' it back to ya." I call that clueless pandering.

One more thing... "Union bosses?" Really? This phrase, of course, is used as a tired code-word in campaign ads by opponents of organized labor—overwhelmingly, Republicans—in an attempt to resurrect the ghost of Jimmy Hoffa or evoke the plot of On the Waterfront.

Union heads are presidents elected by their members. Do their presidents tell them what to do, demand kickbacks, decide who can work and who can't—you know, like mob-connected "union bosses" did? Again, I don't think so.