Wednesday, November 23, 2011
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
Is Obama Admin's Lawsuit Against Arizona over SB1070 VOID -- in the wrong court?
Is Obama lawsuit against Arizona re: SB1070 immigration law INVALID -- can only be brought in the US Supreme Court? The Constitution says that when a STATE is sued, it must be in the US Supreme Court. Is Obama's lawsuit VOID, in the wrong court?
http://www.canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/25983
http://www.canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/25983
Saturday, July 10, 2010
Obama Administration Moves for Preliminary Injunction to Halt Enforcemnet of Arizona's SB 1070
The Obama Administration has filed a lawsuit to throw out Arizona's law SB1070 which fights illegal immigration.
This lawsuit is quite extroardinary. Of course, all lawsuits are phrasd as if they are obviously right and there could not possibly be any argument. If you read the lawsuit, it sounds convincing at first... as they always do.
But the reality of this lawsuit is unprecedent and incredible.
Under the US Constitution, Federal laws are "the Supreme Law of the Land." That is true. Regulations issued by Federal agencies are also the "Supreme Law of the Land" to the extent that they are authorized by Federal law. Congress delegates power to essentially "make law" using the power of Congress.
However, the lawsuit (which you can see at the link by clicking on the headline above) makes an extraordinary new argument. The Obama lawsuit against Arizona tries to make POLICY into the "Supreme Law of the Land."
The lawsuit is based on the claim that Federal policy to not enforce the law can be Supreme over the States. That is unprecedent.
Federal law and Federal regulations are the supreme law of the land. A policy to not enforce the law is not the Supreme law fo the land. The Obama lawsuit seeks to blur the difference between Federal law and the bureaucrats' decision not to enforce the law. The Constitution makes Federal law enacted by Congress and signed by the President the Supreme Law of the land. It says nothing about decisions of bureaucrats or even officials to ignore the law. The discretion of Federal bureaucrats and officials not to enforce the law does not have any special status in the US Constitution.
This lawsuit is quite extroardinary. Of course, all lawsuits are phrasd as if they are obviously right and there could not possibly be any argument. If you read the lawsuit, it sounds convincing at first... as they always do.
But the reality of this lawsuit is unprecedent and incredible.
Under the US Constitution, Federal laws are "the Supreme Law of the Land." That is true. Regulations issued by Federal agencies are also the "Supreme Law of the Land" to the extent that they are authorized by Federal law. Congress delegates power to essentially "make law" using the power of Congress.
However, the lawsuit (which you can see at the link by clicking on the headline above) makes an extraordinary new argument. The Obama lawsuit against Arizona tries to make POLICY into the "Supreme Law of the Land."
The lawsuit is based on the claim that Federal policy to not enforce the law can be Supreme over the States. That is unprecedent.
Federal law and Federal regulations are the supreme law of the land. A policy to not enforce the law is not the Supreme law fo the land. The Obama lawsuit seeks to blur the difference between Federal law and the bureaucrats' decision not to enforce the law. The Constitution makes Federal law enacted by Congress and signed by the President the Supreme Law of the land. It says nothing about decisions of bureaucrats or even officials to ignore the law. The discretion of Federal bureaucrats and officials not to enforce the law does not have any special status in the US Constitution.
Illegal Workers Swept From Jobs in ‘Silent Raids’
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/10/us/10enforce.html?_r=2&pagewanted=1&hp
By JULIA PRESTON
Published: July 9, 2010
BREWSTER, Wash. — The Obama administration has replaced immigration raids at factories and farms with a quieter enforcement strategy: sending federal agents to scour companies’ records for illegal immigrant workers.
While the sweeps of the past commonly led to the deportation of such workers, the “silent raids,” as employers call the audits, usually result in the workers being fired, but in many cases they are not deported.
Over the past year, Immigration and Customs Enforcement has conducted audits of employee files at more than 2,900 companies. The agency has levied a record $3 million in civil fines so far this year on businesses that hired unauthorized immigrants, according to official figures. Thousands of those workers have been fired, immigrant groups estimate.
Employers say the audits reach more companies than the work-site roundups of the administration of President George W. Bush. The audits force businesses to fire every suspected illegal immigrant on the payroll— not just those who happened to be on duty at the time of a raid — and make it much harder to hire other unauthorized workers as replacements. Auditing is “a far more effective enforcement tool,” said Mike Gempler, executive director of the Washington Growers League, which includes many worried fruit growers.
Immigration inspectors who pored over the records of one of those growers, Gebbers Farms, found evidence that more than 500 of its workers, mostly immigrants from Mexico, were in the country illegally. In December, Gebbers Farms, based in this Washington orchard town, fired the workers.
“Instead of hundreds of agents going after one company, now one agent can go after hundreds of companies,” said Mark K. Reed, president of Border Management Strategies, a consulting firm in Tucson that advises companies across the country on immigration law. “And there is no drama, no trauma, no families being torn apart, no handcuffs.”
President Obama, in a speech last week, explained a two-step immigration policy. He promised tough enforcement against illegal immigration, in workplaces and at the border, saying it would prepare the way for a legislative overhaul to give legal status to millions of illegal immigrants already in the country. White House officials say the enforcement is under way, but they acknowledge the overhaul is unlikely to happen this year.
In another shift, the immigration agency has moved away from bringing criminal charges against immigrant workers who lack legal status but have otherwise clean records.
Republican lawmakers say Mr. Obama is talking tough, but in practice is lightening up.
“Even if discovered, illegal aliens are allowed to walk free and seek employment elsewhere” said Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama, the senior Republican on the Judiciary Committee. “This lax approach is particularly troubling,” he said, “at a time when so many American citizens are struggling to find jobs.”
Employers say the Obama administration is leaving them short of labor for some low-wage work, conducting silent raids but offering no new legal immigrant laborers in occupations, like farm work, that Americans continue to shun despite the recession. Federal labor officials estimate that more than 60 percent of farm workers in the United States are illegal immigrants.
John Morton, the head of the immigration agency, known as ICE, said the goal of the audits is to create “a culture of compliance” among employers, so that verifying new hires would be as routine as paying taxes. ICE leaves it up to employers to fire workers whose documents cannot be validated. But an employer who fails to do so risks prosecution.
ICE is looking primarily for “egregious employers” who commit both labor abuses and immigration violations, Mr. Morton said, and the agency is ramping up penalties against them.
In April, Michel Malecot, the chef of a popular bakery in San Diego, was indicted on 12 criminal counts of harboring illegal immigrants. The government is seeking to seize his bakery. He has pleaded not guilty. In Maryland, the owner of two restaurants, George Anagnostou, pleaded guilty last month to criminal charges of harboring at least 24 illegal immigrants. He agreed to forfeit more than $734,000.
But the firings at Gebbers Farms shocked this village of orchard laborers (population 2,100) by the Columbia River among sere brown foothills in eastern Washington. Six months after the firings, the silence still prevails, with both the company and the illegal immigrants reluctant to discuss them.
Farm worker advocates said the family-owned company, one of the biggest apple growers in the country, did not fit Mr. Morton’s description of an exploiter.
“The general reputation for Gebbers Farms was that they were doing right by their employees,” said Matt Adams, legal director of the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project.
The Gebbers packing house is the center of this company town, amid more than 5,000 acres of well-tended orchards, where the lingua franca is Spanish. Officials said public school enrollment is more than 90 percent Hispanic.
Throughout last year, ICE auditors examined forms known as I-9’s, which all new hires in the country must fill out. ICE then advised Gebbers Farms of Social Security and immigration numbers that did not check out with federal databases.
Just before Christmas, managers summoned the workers in groups. In often emotional exchanges, managers immediately fired those without valid documents.
“No comment,” said Jay Johnson, a lawyer for Gebbers Farms, expressing the company’s only statement.
Many workers lived in houses they rented from the company; they were given three months to move out. In Brewster, truck payments stopped, televisions were returned, mobile homes were sold, mortgages defaulted.
Many immigrants purchased new false documents and went looking for jobs in more distant orchards, former Gebbers Farms workers said. But the word is out among growers in the region to avoid hiring immigrants from the company because ICE knows they are unauthorized.
“Many people are still crying because this is really hard,” said M. García, 41, a former Gebbers packing house worker who has been out of a job since January.
There was no wave of deportations and few families left on their own for Mexico. “They are saying, what’s going to happen to their kids?” said Mario Camacho, an administrator in the Brewster school district. “To those kids, this is their country.”
After the firings, Gebbers Farms advertised hundreds of jobs for orchard workers. But there were few takers in the state.
“Show me one American —just one — climbing a picker’s ladder,” said María Cervantes, 33, a former Gebbers Farms worker from Mexico who gave her name because she was recently approved as a legal immigrant.
After completing a federally mandated local labor search, Gebbers Farms applied to the federal guest worker program to import about 1,200 legal temporary workers — most from Mexico. The guest workers, who can stay for up to six months, also included about 300 from Jamaica.
“They are bringing people from outside,” Ms. Cervantes said, perplexed. “What will happen to those of us who are already here?”
Immigrant advocates said they are surprised and frustrated with Mr. Obama, after seeing an increase in enforcement activity since he took office. “It would be easier to fight if it was a big raid,” said Pramila Jayapal, executive director of OneAmerica, a group in Seattle. “But this is happening everywhere and often.”
By JULIA PRESTON
Published: July 9, 2010
BREWSTER, Wash. — The Obama administration has replaced immigration raids at factories and farms with a quieter enforcement strategy: sending federal agents to scour companies’ records for illegal immigrant workers.
While the sweeps of the past commonly led to the deportation of such workers, the “silent raids,” as employers call the audits, usually result in the workers being fired, but in many cases they are not deported.
Over the past year, Immigration and Customs Enforcement has conducted audits of employee files at more than 2,900 companies. The agency has levied a record $3 million in civil fines so far this year on businesses that hired unauthorized immigrants, according to official figures. Thousands of those workers have been fired, immigrant groups estimate.
Employers say the audits reach more companies than the work-site roundups of the administration of President George W. Bush. The audits force businesses to fire every suspected illegal immigrant on the payroll— not just those who happened to be on duty at the time of a raid — and make it much harder to hire other unauthorized workers as replacements. Auditing is “a far more effective enforcement tool,” said Mike Gempler, executive director of the Washington Growers League, which includes many worried fruit growers.
Immigration inspectors who pored over the records of one of those growers, Gebbers Farms, found evidence that more than 500 of its workers, mostly immigrants from Mexico, were in the country illegally. In December, Gebbers Farms, based in this Washington orchard town, fired the workers.
“Instead of hundreds of agents going after one company, now one agent can go after hundreds of companies,” said Mark K. Reed, president of Border Management Strategies, a consulting firm in Tucson that advises companies across the country on immigration law. “And there is no drama, no trauma, no families being torn apart, no handcuffs.”
President Obama, in a speech last week, explained a two-step immigration policy. He promised tough enforcement against illegal immigration, in workplaces and at the border, saying it would prepare the way for a legislative overhaul to give legal status to millions of illegal immigrants already in the country. White House officials say the enforcement is under way, but they acknowledge the overhaul is unlikely to happen this year.
In another shift, the immigration agency has moved away from bringing criminal charges against immigrant workers who lack legal status but have otherwise clean records.
Republican lawmakers say Mr. Obama is talking tough, but in practice is lightening up.
“Even if discovered, illegal aliens are allowed to walk free and seek employment elsewhere” said Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama, the senior Republican on the Judiciary Committee. “This lax approach is particularly troubling,” he said, “at a time when so many American citizens are struggling to find jobs.”
Employers say the Obama administration is leaving them short of labor for some low-wage work, conducting silent raids but offering no new legal immigrant laborers in occupations, like farm work, that Americans continue to shun despite the recession. Federal labor officials estimate that more than 60 percent of farm workers in the United States are illegal immigrants.
John Morton, the head of the immigration agency, known as ICE, said the goal of the audits is to create “a culture of compliance” among employers, so that verifying new hires would be as routine as paying taxes. ICE leaves it up to employers to fire workers whose documents cannot be validated. But an employer who fails to do so risks prosecution.
ICE is looking primarily for “egregious employers” who commit both labor abuses and immigration violations, Mr. Morton said, and the agency is ramping up penalties against them.
In April, Michel Malecot, the chef of a popular bakery in San Diego, was indicted on 12 criminal counts of harboring illegal immigrants. The government is seeking to seize his bakery. He has pleaded not guilty. In Maryland, the owner of two restaurants, George Anagnostou, pleaded guilty last month to criminal charges of harboring at least 24 illegal immigrants. He agreed to forfeit more than $734,000.
But the firings at Gebbers Farms shocked this village of orchard laborers (population 2,100) by the Columbia River among sere brown foothills in eastern Washington. Six months after the firings, the silence still prevails, with both the company and the illegal immigrants reluctant to discuss them.
Farm worker advocates said the family-owned company, one of the biggest apple growers in the country, did not fit Mr. Morton’s description of an exploiter.
“The general reputation for Gebbers Farms was that they were doing right by their employees,” said Matt Adams, legal director of the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project.
The Gebbers packing house is the center of this company town, amid more than 5,000 acres of well-tended orchards, where the lingua franca is Spanish. Officials said public school enrollment is more than 90 percent Hispanic.
Throughout last year, ICE auditors examined forms known as I-9’s, which all new hires in the country must fill out. ICE then advised Gebbers Farms of Social Security and immigration numbers that did not check out with federal databases.
Just before Christmas, managers summoned the workers in groups. In often emotional exchanges, managers immediately fired those without valid documents.
“No comment,” said Jay Johnson, a lawyer for Gebbers Farms, expressing the company’s only statement.
Many workers lived in houses they rented from the company; they were given three months to move out. In Brewster, truck payments stopped, televisions were returned, mobile homes were sold, mortgages defaulted.
Many immigrants purchased new false documents and went looking for jobs in more distant orchards, former Gebbers Farms workers said. But the word is out among growers in the region to avoid hiring immigrants from the company because ICE knows they are unauthorized.
“Many people are still crying because this is really hard,” said M. García, 41, a former Gebbers packing house worker who has been out of a job since January.
There was no wave of deportations and few families left on their own for Mexico. “They are saying, what’s going to happen to their kids?” said Mario Camacho, an administrator in the Brewster school district. “To those kids, this is their country.”
After the firings, Gebbers Farms advertised hundreds of jobs for orchard workers. But there were few takers in the state.
“Show me one American —just one — climbing a picker’s ladder,” said María Cervantes, 33, a former Gebbers Farms worker from Mexico who gave her name because she was recently approved as a legal immigrant.
After completing a federally mandated local labor search, Gebbers Farms applied to the federal guest worker program to import about 1,200 legal temporary workers — most from Mexico. The guest workers, who can stay for up to six months, also included about 300 from Jamaica.
“They are bringing people from outside,” Ms. Cervantes said, perplexed. “What will happen to those of us who are already here?”
Immigrant advocates said they are surprised and frustrated with Mr. Obama, after seeing an increase in enforcement activity since he took office. “It would be easier to fight if it was a big raid,” said Pramila Jayapal, executive director of OneAmerica, a group in Seattle. “But this is happening everywhere and often.”
Saturday, July 3, 2010
Monday, June 21, 2010
Hillary Clinton Decides (for Obama) to File US Government Lawsuit AGAINST Arizona's Illegal Immigration Law
HILLARY CLINTON -- NOT President Obama -- announces decision to file lawsuit against Arizona's new illegal immigration law
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2010/06/17/clinton_obama_administration_to_sue_arizona_over_immigration_law.html
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2010/06/17/clinton_obama_administration_to_sue_arizona_over_immigration_law.html
Sunday, June 20, 2010
Scenes (Video) from the SET of "RED DAWN" movie remake about China -- from the filming of the movie
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lAVDgUnmX1E
PONTIAC, Michigan
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6mM57La8NA&feature=related
ROYAL OAK Shoot -- Stunt Set Up
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fvrjSQSZnQo&feature=related
Preparing for CAR CHASSE in Royal Oak, Michigan
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqkKfvPv5L4&feature=related
CHINESE TANKS & SOLDIERS ATTACKING
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oy7OwCHeO78&feature=related
PONTIAC, Michigan
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6mM57La8NA&feature=related
ROYAL OAK Shoot -- Stunt Set Up
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fvrjSQSZnQo&feature=related
Preparing for CAR CHASSE in Royal Oak, Michigan
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqkKfvPv5L4&feature=related
CHINESE TANKS & SOLDIERS ATTACKING
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oy7OwCHeO78&feature=related
Saturday, June 19, 2010
Movie Trailer / Promotional Video for China "RED DAWN" movie
TRAILER #1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MeYCdp1ik_0&feature=related
TRAILER #2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=co0CopP1Vec&feature=related
TRAILER #3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YgW_0hTn5gE&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MeYCdp1ik_0&feature=related
TRAILER #2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=co0CopP1Vec&feature=related
TRAILER #3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YgW_0hTn5gE&feature=related
Obama cedes part of US to Mexico (Fox News)
This just in from Col. Norm Turner USAF (ret), and also retired Judge.
The Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge is three counties deep, and 80 miles into America—including portions that extend north of Tucson. Obama has, effectively, ceded the entire National Park to illegal aliens.
And, to help ensure the park’s transfer to illegal aliens, and according to Sheriff Paul Babeu, Obama suspended the fence construction on the park’s border with Mexico.
The park is a protected freeway for illegal aliens, whose numbers include many Mexican para-military units. And, Obama refuses the use of America’s military to help prevent the invasion, despite repeated requests by Arizonans, led by Governor Jan Brewer and Sen. McCain.
Instead of addressing the invasion, Obama has placed warning signs around the park to advise Americans not to enter this now-protected invasion trail.
As Sheriff Paul Babeu of Pinal County explains, “We, as the most powerful nation on earth, can win wars and liberate countries throughout our history, yet we cannot even secure our own border and protect our own family. And, this is why crime in Arizona is and has been among the highest in the nation. And We Need Help!”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPrl4P9AcrQ&feature=player_embedded
The Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge is three counties deep, and 80 miles into America—including portions that extend north of Tucson. Obama has, effectively, ceded the entire National Park to illegal aliens.
And, to help ensure the park’s transfer to illegal aliens, and according to Sheriff Paul Babeu, Obama suspended the fence construction on the park’s border with Mexico.
The park is a protected freeway for illegal aliens, whose numbers include many Mexican para-military units. And, Obama refuses the use of America’s military to help prevent the invasion, despite repeated requests by Arizonans, led by Governor Jan Brewer and Sen. McCain.
Instead of addressing the invasion, Obama has placed warning signs around the park to advise Americans not to enter this now-protected invasion trail.
As Sheriff Paul Babeu of Pinal County explains, “We, as the most powerful nation on earth, can win wars and liberate countries throughout our history, yet we cannot even secure our own border and protect our own family. And, this is why crime in Arizona is and has been among the highest in the nation. And We Need Help!”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPrl4P9AcrQ&feature=player_embedded
Friday, June 18, 2010
NY Times: Chinese Government Paying US Public Schools to Teach CHINESE LANGUAGE in American schools
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/21/education/21chinese.html
WASHINGTON — Thousands of public schools stopped teaching foreign languages in the last decade, according to a government-financed survey — dismal news for a nation that needs more linguists to conduct its global business and diplomacy.
But another contrary trend has educators and policy makers abuzz: a rush by schools in all parts of America to offer instruction in Chinese.
Some schools are paying for Chinese classes on their own, but hundreds are getting some help. The Chinese government is sending teachers from China to schools all over the world — and paying part of their salaries.
At a time of tight budgets, many American schools are finding that offer too good to refuse.
In Massillon, Ohio, south of Cleveland, Jackson High School started its Chinese program in the fall of 2007 with 20 students and now has 80, said Parthena Draggett, who directs Jackson’s world languages department.
“We were able to get a free Chinese teacher,” she said. “I’d like to start a Spanish program for elementary children, but we can’t get a free Spanish teacher.”
(Jackson’s Chinese teacher is not free; the Chinese government pays part of his compensation, with the district paying the rest.)
No one keeps an exact count, but rough calculations based on the government’s survey suggest that perhaps 1,600 American public and private schools are teaching Chinese, up from 300 or so a decade ago. And the numbers are growing exponentially.
WASHINGTON — Thousands of public schools stopped teaching foreign languages in the last decade, according to a government-financed survey — dismal news for a nation that needs more linguists to conduct its global business and diplomacy.
But another contrary trend has educators and policy makers abuzz: a rush by schools in all parts of America to offer instruction in Chinese.
Some schools are paying for Chinese classes on their own, but hundreds are getting some help. The Chinese government is sending teachers from China to schools all over the world — and paying part of their salaries.
At a time of tight budgets, many American schools are finding that offer too good to refuse.
In Massillon, Ohio, south of Cleveland, Jackson High School started its Chinese program in the fall of 2007 with 20 students and now has 80, said Parthena Draggett, who directs Jackson’s world languages department.
“We were able to get a free Chinese teacher,” she said. “I’d like to start a Spanish program for elementary children, but we can’t get a free Spanish teacher.”
(Jackson’s Chinese teacher is not free; the Chinese government pays part of his compensation, with the district paying the rest.)
No one keeps an exact count, but rough calculations based on the government’s survey suggest that perhaps 1,600 American public and private schools are teaching Chinese, up from 300 or so a decade ago. And the numbers are growing exponentially.
Thursday, June 17, 2010
UK's Guardian: Remake of "Red Dawn" with CHINA invading the United States
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/may/30/red-dawn-remake-china
Red Dawn is being remade, but China ousts Russia as America's new enemy
A remake of the 1984 cold war teen action film says much about America's fear of its declining influence in the world
Paul Harris
The Observer, Sunday 30 May 2010
The film was a classic piece of 1980s teen cinema framed against the paranoid geopolitics of the cold war. Red Dawn starred Patrick Swayze and Charlie Sheen as all-American teens leading an armed resistance movement against Soviet troops who had invaded the US.
Feeding on Hollywood's recent appetite for recycling old films, Red Dawn is being remade with a handsome new cast. But there is one vital difference: this time the invading communist army that takes over America is Chinese.
The new-look enemy reflects the changes that have swept the world since the fall of the Berlin Wall. First, the Soviet Union no longer exists, thus hampering any plot driven by its invasion of America. Second, a rich vein of paranoia about the rise of Chinese economic might now runs through American politics.
That would explain the viral spread of leaked stills from the movie showing mocked-up Chinese propaganda posters draped over a "Chinese/American Friendship Centre". The posters play on American fears about their nation's declining economic influence.
"Helping You Back On Your Feet" states one, showing a Chinese hand reaching down to pull up an American one. "Rebuilding Your Reputation" states another, with a Chinese communist star imposed over a map of America that has a large crack down the middle.
The film, due to be released later this year, is being shot on a budget of $75m and, like the original, features a roster of emerging stars rather than established A-list names. They include Connor Cruise, the son of Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman; Chris Hemsworth, who was in the last Star Trek movie; and Isabel Lucas, who starred in Transformers.
However, the appeal of the film lies not in its acting talent but, like the first one, in its ability to reflect the worries of a troubled nation. The original Red Dawn, written by John Milius, who wrote the original script for Apocalypse Now, was a huge hit on its release in 1984. Its hyper-patriotism and depiction of ordinary American teenagers fighting off the "red menace" chimed with the mood of Ronald Reagan's America. It might not have been subtle, but it was a box-office hit that went on to be named a favourite conservative movie of all time. The hunt for Saddam Hussein after the invasion of Iraq in 2003 was named Operation Red Dawn in tribute to the movie.
The new Red Dawn is expected to follow in those cultural footsteps, albeit with a different enemy and reflecting not a nuclear-armed global stand-off, but rather America's fears over economic decline. The plot appears fairly close to the original. The invading Chinese troops use the pretext of America's economic problems to invade. Patriotic young people fight back against China's People's Liberation Army and the collaborators who work with them.
The Awl, a New York-based satirical website, last week obtained a leaked early copy of the script, which contained numerous scenes of high patriotism and a soundtrack that featured country star Toby Keith singing the song Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue. That theme has been taken up by the Asian media too. "US paranoia seen in new Red Dawn," said a headline on the Asia Times's website. Writer Ben Shobert went on to note: "The movie and its villains say much about current insecurities."
But cultural paranoia is only effective if based on some level of reality, and there is little doubt that America now regards the rise of China as the next major threat to its global dominance. Over the past decade China has pursued an active foreign policy in Africa and Latin America. Its rapidly growing economy is quickly catching up with the United States and it has recovered much quicker from the recent recession, which the US is still feeling. Such things have led to a strain of anti-Chinese sentiment in some parts of American politics and the media.
Those themes are played on in the new film, especially when depicting the surprise Chinese military attack that takes over the country. Yet perhaps the strongest symbol of America's decline and China's rise in the Red Dawn remake does not come from the movie's sets or script or even its plot. It comes from the fact that much of the movie was shot in and around the battered industrial city of Detroit. The city's emptying streets and many abandoned factories were seen as the perfect real-life backdrop for the city's war scenes.
Red Dawn is being remade, but China ousts Russia as America's new enemy
A remake of the 1984 cold war teen action film says much about America's fear of its declining influence in the world
Paul Harris
The Observer, Sunday 30 May 2010
The film was a classic piece of 1980s teen cinema framed against the paranoid geopolitics of the cold war. Red Dawn starred Patrick Swayze and Charlie Sheen as all-American teens leading an armed resistance movement against Soviet troops who had invaded the US.
Feeding on Hollywood's recent appetite for recycling old films, Red Dawn is being remade with a handsome new cast. But there is one vital difference: this time the invading communist army that takes over America is Chinese.
The new-look enemy reflects the changes that have swept the world since the fall of the Berlin Wall. First, the Soviet Union no longer exists, thus hampering any plot driven by its invasion of America. Second, a rich vein of paranoia about the rise of Chinese economic might now runs through American politics.
That would explain the viral spread of leaked stills from the movie showing mocked-up Chinese propaganda posters draped over a "Chinese/American Friendship Centre". The posters play on American fears about their nation's declining economic influence.
"Helping You Back On Your Feet" states one, showing a Chinese hand reaching down to pull up an American one. "Rebuilding Your Reputation" states another, with a Chinese communist star imposed over a map of America that has a large crack down the middle.
The film, due to be released later this year, is being shot on a budget of $75m and, like the original, features a roster of emerging stars rather than established A-list names. They include Connor Cruise, the son of Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman; Chris Hemsworth, who was in the last Star Trek movie; and Isabel Lucas, who starred in Transformers.
However, the appeal of the film lies not in its acting talent but, like the first one, in its ability to reflect the worries of a troubled nation. The original Red Dawn, written by John Milius, who wrote the original script for Apocalypse Now, was a huge hit on its release in 1984. Its hyper-patriotism and depiction of ordinary American teenagers fighting off the "red menace" chimed with the mood of Ronald Reagan's America. It might not have been subtle, but it was a box-office hit that went on to be named a favourite conservative movie of all time. The hunt for Saddam Hussein after the invasion of Iraq in 2003 was named Operation Red Dawn in tribute to the movie.
The new Red Dawn is expected to follow in those cultural footsteps, albeit with a different enemy and reflecting not a nuclear-armed global stand-off, but rather America's fears over economic decline. The plot appears fairly close to the original. The invading Chinese troops use the pretext of America's economic problems to invade. Patriotic young people fight back against China's People's Liberation Army and the collaborators who work with them.
The Awl, a New York-based satirical website, last week obtained a leaked early copy of the script, which contained numerous scenes of high patriotism and a soundtrack that featured country star Toby Keith singing the song Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue. That theme has been taken up by the Asian media too. "US paranoia seen in new Red Dawn," said a headline on the Asia Times's website. Writer Ben Shobert went on to note: "The movie and its villains say much about current insecurities."
But cultural paranoia is only effective if based on some level of reality, and there is little doubt that America now regards the rise of China as the next major threat to its global dominance. Over the past decade China has pursued an active foreign policy in Africa and Latin America. Its rapidly growing economy is quickly catching up with the United States and it has recovered much quicker from the recent recession, which the US is still feeling. Such things have led to a strain of anti-Chinese sentiment in some parts of American politics and the media.
Those themes are played on in the new film, especially when depicting the surprise Chinese military attack that takes over the country. Yet perhaps the strongest symbol of America's decline and China's rise in the Red Dawn remake does not come from the movie's sets or script or even its plot. It comes from the fact that much of the movie was shot in and around the battered industrial city of Detroit. The city's emptying streets and many abandoned factories were seen as the perfect real-life backdrop for the city's war scenes.
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
China's Government-Run Newspaper Furious at "RED DAWN" remake portraying Chinese Invasion of the US
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/news/e3i9a9ec43069ab4f97784bd1acb15d858d
BEIJING -- An upcoming MGM remake of the 1984 film "Red Dawn" -- this time, with the Chinese and the Russians as the enemies -- has drawn sharp criticism from one of the leading Chinese state-run newspapers two days in a row.
"U.S. reshoots Cold War movie to demonize China" and "American movie plants hostile seeds against China," read the Monday and Tuesday editorials in Beijing-based The Global Times, whose daily circulation, in Chinese and English editions, is about 1.5 million.
Coming on the heels of secretary of state Hilary Clinton's recent China visit, the commentaries said the $42 million film directed by Dan Bradley and starring Connor Cruise (son of Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman), "is deeply rooted in Americans' fear of China's rise."
"Despite the world's focus on U.S.-China relations in the Strategic and Economic Dialogue and their increasing economic connections, China can still feel U.S. distrust and fear, especially among its people. Americans' suspicions about China are the best ground for the Hawks to disseminate fear and doubt, which is the biggest concern with the movie 'Red Dawn,'" one commentary said
China's media regulators long have bristled at politics in the movies and recently censored all mentions of Russia and Russians as villains from the Chinese theatrical version of "Iron Man 2."
On the flip side, director Lu Chuan's "City of Life and Death" was lauded last year by some for giving a human face to one of the Japanese soldiers depicted in his feature about the Nanjing Massacre in 1937, a hot-button anti-Japanese issue among common Chinese.
China's government, which tries to shield the population of 1.3 billion from too much foreign influence, limits to 20 the number of imported films allowed to take home a share of the boxoffice -- a cap the Motion Picture Assn. has fought for 10 years to change in hopes Hollywood studios might tap pent-up demand for entertainment.
With help from China's nascent middle class swells, the nation recently was the second-largest gross boxoffice market after the U.S. for Hollywood hits "Avatar," "2012," and "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen." Overall boxoffice gross here jumped 43% last year to $909 million and is tipped to climb more sharply still this year
BEIJING -- An upcoming MGM remake of the 1984 film "Red Dawn" -- this time, with the Chinese and the Russians as the enemies -- has drawn sharp criticism from one of the leading Chinese state-run newspapers two days in a row.
"U.S. reshoots Cold War movie to demonize China" and "American movie plants hostile seeds against China," read the Monday and Tuesday editorials in Beijing-based The Global Times, whose daily circulation, in Chinese and English editions, is about 1.5 million.
Coming on the heels of secretary of state Hilary Clinton's recent China visit, the commentaries said the $42 million film directed by Dan Bradley and starring Connor Cruise (son of Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman), "is deeply rooted in Americans' fear of China's rise."
"Despite the world's focus on U.S.-China relations in the Strategic and Economic Dialogue and their increasing economic connections, China can still feel U.S. distrust and fear, especially among its people. Americans' suspicions about China are the best ground for the Hawks to disseminate fear and doubt, which is the biggest concern with the movie 'Red Dawn,'" one commentary said
China's media regulators long have bristled at politics in the movies and recently censored all mentions of Russia and Russians as villains from the Chinese theatrical version of "Iron Man 2."
On the flip side, director Lu Chuan's "City of Life and Death" was lauded last year by some for giving a human face to one of the Japanese soldiers depicted in his feature about the Nanjing Massacre in 1937, a hot-button anti-Japanese issue among common Chinese.
China's government, which tries to shield the population of 1.3 billion from too much foreign influence, limits to 20 the number of imported films allowed to take home a share of the boxoffice -- a cap the Motion Picture Assn. has fought for 10 years to change in hopes Hollywood studios might tap pent-up demand for entertainment.
With help from China's nascent middle class swells, the nation recently was the second-largest gross boxoffice market after the U.S. for Hollywood hits "Avatar," "2012," and "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen." Overall boxoffice gross here jumped 43% last year to $909 million and is tipped to climb more sharply still this year
MGM's Financial Crisis will DELAY release of "RED DAWN" (China) Remake
http://www.collider.com/2010/06/16/red-dawn-cabin-woods-delayed-joss-whedon-mgm/
But many believe that Hollywood doesn't want a conservative movie to influence the November elections.... The November release date (with advertising ahead of the release date) would have been right in the middle of the election season.
But many believe that Hollywood doesn't want a conservative movie to influence the November elections.... The November release date (with advertising ahead of the release date) would have been right in the middle of the election season.
OFFICIAL Cast & Writers of new "RED DAWN" Remake re: possible Chinese Invasion of the USA
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1234719/fullcredits#cast
Is a Hollywood liberal conspiracy keeping 'Red Dawn' away from theaters?
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/the_big_picture/2010/06/is-a-hollywood-liberal-conspiracy-keeping-red-dawn-away-from-theaters-.html
Is a Hollywood liberal conspiracy keeping 'Red Dawn' away from theaters?
I hate to be the bearer of bad tidings, but I have grim news: "Red Dawn" isn't coming Nov. 24, as the conservative blogs have all promised. In fact, no one knows when the movie will ever be released. Although it sounds like yet another liberal Hollywood conspiracy, the movie (which was filmed in Detroit last year) is suffering from a far bigger problem: It was made by MGM, and MGM has run out of money. The troubled studio managed to make several movies recently, one that was already released ("Hot Tub Time Machine"), one that is being released next year by Sony ("The Zookeeper") and one, "Red Dawn," that is in the can but may stay there for quite a while, at least until someone buys MGM or provides the kind of big investment needed to market and distribute new films.
According to an MGM insider, the bloggers have a few other things wrong beside that release date. The film didn't cost $75 million. It was made for $42 million, thanks to a load of tax breaks from being filmed in Michigan. It doesn't have any music by Toby Keith, because no one has recorded any music for its soundtrack yet. (Keith's name was simply used as a reference in the script.) And Tom Cruise's son, Connor, isn't the star, simply one of an ensemble of young actors paying the roles handled by Patrick Swayze, Charlie Sheen and C. Thomas Howell in the original.
But yes, the Commies do get their butts kicked in the new film. So I guess conservatives do have something to look forward to. But if they want to do something constructive to ensure that "Red Dawn" makes it to theaters, I'd advise calling Rupert Murdoch and ask him if he'd spend some of the money he normally puts into the salaries for all those blond chicks on Fox News and give "Red Dawn" a nice slot on the Fox release schedule. After all the money he's made off of "Avatar" and its lefty propaganda about global warming, it's the least Mr. Murdoch could do to level the playing field.
Right now, if we could measure things on our trusty conservative ecstasy meter (which has just emerged from the repair shop after bursting into flames after Elton John performed at Rush Limbaugh's wedding), I'd say that the winner would be the news that Hollywood is about to release a remake of "Red Dawn," the 1984 John Milius Cold War fantasy-thriller about a courageous scrum of young patriots who fend off a Soviet invasion of America. The original film has long been a cult favorite among conservatives, who rarely find any movies to call their own coming off the liberal Hollywood assembly line.
So all across the conservative blogosphere, the word is out that -- miraculously -- Hollywood has made a $75-million movie about kicking Commie ass, with the Commies this time being of the Chinese variety.
Is a Hollywood liberal conspiracy keeping 'Red Dawn' away from theaters?
I hate to be the bearer of bad tidings, but I have grim news: "Red Dawn" isn't coming Nov. 24, as the conservative blogs have all promised. In fact, no one knows when the movie will ever be released. Although it sounds like yet another liberal Hollywood conspiracy, the movie (which was filmed in Detroit last year) is suffering from a far bigger problem: It was made by MGM, and MGM has run out of money. The troubled studio managed to make several movies recently, one that was already released ("Hot Tub Time Machine"), one that is being released next year by Sony ("The Zookeeper") and one, "Red Dawn," that is in the can but may stay there for quite a while, at least until someone buys MGM or provides the kind of big investment needed to market and distribute new films.
According to an MGM insider, the bloggers have a few other things wrong beside that release date. The film didn't cost $75 million. It was made for $42 million, thanks to a load of tax breaks from being filmed in Michigan. It doesn't have any music by Toby Keith, because no one has recorded any music for its soundtrack yet. (Keith's name was simply used as a reference in the script.) And Tom Cruise's son, Connor, isn't the star, simply one of an ensemble of young actors paying the roles handled by Patrick Swayze, Charlie Sheen and C. Thomas Howell in the original.
But yes, the Commies do get their butts kicked in the new film. So I guess conservatives do have something to look forward to. But if they want to do something constructive to ensure that "Red Dawn" makes it to theaters, I'd advise calling Rupert Murdoch and ask him if he'd spend some of the money he normally puts into the salaries for all those blond chicks on Fox News and give "Red Dawn" a nice slot on the Fox release schedule. After all the money he's made off of "Avatar" and its lefty propaganda about global warming, it's the least Mr. Murdoch could do to level the playing field.
Right now, if we could measure things on our trusty conservative ecstasy meter (which has just emerged from the repair shop after bursting into flames after Elton John performed at Rush Limbaugh's wedding), I'd say that the winner would be the news that Hollywood is about to release a remake of "Red Dawn," the 1984 John Milius Cold War fantasy-thriller about a courageous scrum of young patriots who fend off a Soviet invasion of America. The original film has long been a cult favorite among conservatives, who rarely find any movies to call their own coming off the liberal Hollywood assembly line.
So all across the conservative blogosphere, the word is out that -- miraculously -- Hollywood has made a $75-million movie about kicking Commie ass, with the Commies this time being of the Chinese variety.
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