The administration is focusing on helping its Hollywood pals make even more money. The Department of Homeland Security is stepping up its seizure of websites trafficking in illegal movie downloads (yep..the Department of Homeland Security. After all, who needs to care about Islamic extremism or terror attacks because, by definition, Islamic extremism does not exist and terrorism only exists in the Tea Party movement). But there is more, much more.
Business Week reports:
Hollywood may also get a big win in the pending financial reform legislation expected to pass later this summer that will reshape the regulation of derivatives. Tucked into the current version of the bill is a ban of futures markets in box-office ticket sales such as one planned by securities brokerage firm Cantor Fitzgerald. Hollywood fears such a market would harm the financial fortunes of some films.
"We feel like we've got the wind at our back," says Warner Bros. (TWX) Chairman Barry Meyer, one of Hollywood's advocates of tougher actions on piracy. "We're getting a good hearing on the issues that matter to us."
This is a change from the last Bush Administration, which focused on concerns over indecent television programming and resisted efforts by cable TV operators to raise prices. Such issues haven't been a priority for FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, a Harvard Law School classmate of Obama's, who until 2005 served as general counsel for IAC (IACI), an Internet company headed by former Hollywood executive Barry Diller.
Why the rush to help Hollywood? Well , midterms are approaching, the Democratic Party is held in high disregard by many Americans, and the fundraising is reflecting its bad poll numbers. So why not go where the money is? This is Cook County pay-to-play politics writ large.
Major movie studios and the industry's lobbying group have been generous Democratic Party campaign contributors. The motion picture industry gave $14.1 million to federal candidates for the 2008 election, with 90 percent of that going to Democrats, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. "A lot of Hollywood types and companies came out pretty strongly for Obama" during the Democratic primaries in 2008...
Rahm Emanuel's brother is Hollywood super agent Ari Emanuel (purportedly the role model for the character Ari Gold in the HBO series Entourage. Even leftists Senator Pat Leahy is in the picture, sort of speak. He is devoting some time as head of the Judiciary committee to ending movie piracy. One would think that bigger issues might receive his attention (and that of the administration, as well).
But these Democrats are more focused on rewarding friends and donors that defending our nation and helping the nation prosper. Why is Leahy involved? Perhaps he is just thanking Hollywood for giving him his own moment on the silver screen..a bit part in the Batman movie "Dark Night". Come to think of it..maybe Hollywood could do us all a favor by taking having Democrats toil in Hollywood rather on jamming Obamacare, cap and tax, card check, and other "
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