While perusing showbiz headlines in the service of an easier blog reading experience for you, I came across this salient screed/posting from someone named “SoCalDem,” over at the Democratic Underground board.
Germane to many below-the-line issues, the comment is reproduced here for your general perusal and rumination:
The “Hollywood” diversion
“Republicans are slavering and blathering about that one in the stimulus..
The entertainment industry is an INDUSTRY.. They make a PRODUCT.
For every fat-cat producer with a stogie & a diamond pinkie ring, there are THOUSANDS of people just eking out a living…doing hair & makeup, sewing costumes, scrounging for props, scouting for locations, rigging lights & cables…and thousands of other necessary jobs associated with the INDUSTRY..
Shame on the scaredy-cat dems who go along with the “hollyweird” mantra that republicans have pushed for decades.. They smile and guffaw along with them and hint that “those things will come out” of the bill..
The movie/entertainment industry is a vital part of California’s economy…just as the cruise lines & hotels & theme parks ar of Florida’s.
The media, along with their republican pals have painted THAT kind of entertainment as “worthy” of assistance since it’s “family”-centric, and California’s entertainment industry is always portrayed as somehow seedy & decadent..
California has HIGH state income taxes, and many communties have levied their own income taxes..we pay sky-high property taxes, fuel costs, rents, food costs..you name it..and we have a high sales tax too..and even with all this, we still generate a LARGE percentage of this country’s economy..
I’m tired of whiny-crybaby-shit-pants legislators from the vampire states going on tv and complaining about how funding of the arts, is somehow NOT a stimulus.
Tell that to the crafts-services guy with 3 kids to support, or to the lighting person..
Florida especially should STFU, since they refuse to institute a state income tax, and yet need hurricane assistance EVERY f’ing year because they refuse to halt issuing building permits in dangerous coastal areas (although this downturn may solve some of that)…and they offer up themselves as a haven for crooks who need to protect their ill-gotten money by building mega-mansions that are somehow off limits when their scams are found out..
At its heart, this whole “issue” is the fact that our entertainment industry is mostly UNION..
