George and Jesse Sittin' In A Tree

Two interesting articles to pass along tonight ...

George Clooney has spent a fair amount of time -- along with others detached from reality in a place called Hollywood -- criticizing America (while bravely overseas), once famously saying that the United States couldn't "beat anyone anymore." But the guys over at Faces from the Front look at some of Clooney's movies and come to a surprising political conclusion:

So what is the Foreign Policy of George Clooney's movies?

It rejects Realism and maintaining the status quo. At one point it advocates the use of force to topple Saddam. It excortiates the optomism of getting Iranian Mullahs to accept liberty without force. It blames Realism for the malaise in the Gulf region by squealching those who would upset the status quo in favor of reform.

The foreign policy of Archie Gates and Robert Barnes could be implemented unilaterally and by force. It would not seek to maintain the status quo. It would export liberty, economic freedom and democracy or allow and encourage liberty, freedom and democracy, even if it may lead to unpredicatbility in the short.

The foreign policy of Clooney's charachters in Three Kings and Syriana is actually very similar to the one he and Hollywood often denigrate--neoconservativism.

That's right ... George Clooney, promoter of neocon ideas. (Hat tip: Instapundit)

And then there's our old friend Jesse Jackson. The Reverand Without a Church pisses all over Christmas and America by lecturing the United States about how awful we are:

Let us all remember the true spirit of Christmas this year. Protect the babies in the dawn of life. (BaT: Well, except for the aborted ones.) Care for the elderly in the dusk of life. Nurture the sick; shelter the homeless. Stop for the stranger on the Jericho Road. Work for the promise of peace. Surely that is what Jesus would want under his tree. Merry Christmas everyone.

Um, yeah, OK. Bad, greedy Americans! Bad!

Let me throw out a few figures. Americans contribute about $250 billion a year to charities. Not the American government. Just the Average Joes like you and me. Taxpayers also fund about $16 billion a year in developmental money, spread out around the world in humanitarian assistance programs like the World Bank. This is more than double the amount contributed by any European nation. Japan is second at around $9 billion annually. America is the largest contributor to the U.N. budget at 22 percent, or $317 million, in 2004. It gives over 56 percent of the World Food Program budget and $72 million and $94 million to the Food and Agriculture Organization and the World Health Organization, respectively. (Credit: The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank)

Of course, all of this from a man who ended a boycott of Budweiser after the company ponied up more than $500,000 to his organization and established a $10 million fund to help blacks purchase beer distributorships. (His sons purchased one of these distributorships worth more than $30 million and, mysteriously -- not! -- Jackson ended his boycott of the company.) We won't even talk about the half-million he used to pay off his mistress.

That sure would help a lot of strangers on the ol' Jericho Road, wouldn't it, Jesse? In other words, have a Coke and a smile and STFU.