WRITETHRU: President Obama accepted the Shoah Foundation’s Ambassador of Humanity Award from Steven Spielberg tonight during a ceremony at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza. Following some jokes from host Conan O’Brien and acoustic takes on set from Bruce Springsteen (“The Promised Land” and a haunting “Dancing In The Dark”), Spielberg presented the president with the honor, after which Obama gave a heartfelt and somber speech before a crowd of about 1,300, according to the White House pool report. He didn’t touch on any subjects directly related to the entertainment industry, but the crowd that included many Hollywood heavy-hitters was moved by its universal themes of violence, war and intolerance. “The work of this foundation,” he said, “the testimonies of survivors like those with us tonight, also remind us that the purpose of memory is not simply to preserve the past; it is to protect the future.” It was the second stop on the president’s visit to Los Angeles. Earlier in the evening, he spoke at a Democratic National Committee fundraiser hosted by Alan and Cindy Horn at their Bel-Air home. The mood was much lighter for the roughly 90 guests, including Jeffrey Katzenberg and Barbra Streisand, who shelled out $64,800 a couple. They heard the president give what amounted to a stump speech that also eschewed any mention of showbiz. Obama will stay overnight before leaving for San Diego in the late morning. A full transcript of his Shoah Foundation speech is at the bottom of the original post.
Related: Obama Rips Cable News & Joel McHale Bombs At White House Correspondents Dinner
4TH UPDATE, 10:15 PM: Host Conan O’Brien kicked off the Shoah Foundation event where President Obama was being honored with a few zingers. “Whoever Steven [Spielberg] suckered to tell jokes at this event is a true idiot,” he said in his opening remarks. The late-night host teased Obama about the traffic gridlock his visit caused. “You left Washington six hours ago, but I left Burbank seven hours ago.” But O’Brien got one of
the night’s biggest laughs when he mentioned Spielberg’s efforts to record Holocaust survivors and other victims of genocide. O’Brien said the filmmaker “was recording evidence of intolerance long before Donald Sterling’s girlfriend.” Obama was seen laughing at the remark. The TBS host also acknowledged the philanthropists and other humanitarians in the room before reminding everyone of the true nature of Hollywood. “I’m also told there are some people from CAA here, so that evens it out,” he said to a huge laugh. “They don’t represent me, so I don’t care.” He then introduced Bruce Springsteen, who played a couple of acoustic numbers including a haunting version of “Dancing In The Dark.” As he introduced Spielberg after the performance, O’Brien recalled a lunch they’d had when he first moved to LA in 2009 for what ended up being a short stint hosting The Tonight Show. “Steven took me on a tour of his awards,” he said. “It took 5 hours.”
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Spielberg then took the podium. “Everywhere from Syria to southern Sudan, the world has yet to learn the lessons,” he said of genocide and war during his introduction of Obama.”This program exists because we know the future can be re-written.” Then he introduced the president, who gave a somber and heartfelt speech that ran about 15 minutes.
“Memory has become a sacred duty of all people of good will,” Obama said after accepting the Ambassador of Humanity Award from Spielberg. The president passionately praised genocide survivors in the packed ballroom as “inspirations of hope.” He also praised the foundation’s work capturing on video the survivors’ stories “Recording the memories that would be lost to time. … They turn never forget into never again.”
He later said, “It’s up to us to search our own hearts for those stories that have no place in our world.” The president asked the crowd to “erode” the destructive forces of anti-Semitism and other bigotry and injustice. “Drop by drop by drop … never forget, never again,” said Obama, who mention in closing the abduction of hundreds of schoolgirls in Nigeria and the civil war in Syria.
3RD UPDATE, 8:11 PM: The White House pool report says President Obama’s motorcade arrived at the Shoah Foundation at 7:50 PM. Obama now is at Hyatt Regency Century Plaza to accept an Ambassador of Humanity Award from Steven Spielberg. Conan O’Brien and Bruce Springsteen are his warmup acts. The president entered the ballroom around 8:10 PM accompanied by Spielberg to huge applause. Obama shook hands and greeted people in the VIP tables. He also reached out to nearby Samuel L. Jackson for a long handshake, and some words between the two men that left POTUS laughing as he walked away.
Earlier tonight he spoke for about 15 minutes at the DNC fundraiser hosted by Alan and Cindy Horn. The roughly 90 guests included Jeffrey Katzenberg, Barbra Streisand and James Brolin. He gave what amounted to a stump speech, talking about the midterm elections, jobs, the Affordable Care Act, energy, the Middle East, equal pay, climate change – but nothing about Hollywood or show business (or, say, the Sultan of Brunei or Donald Sterling, for that matter). “Well, let me start by thanking Cindy and Alan for the incredible hospitality,” Obama said. “We are so grateful to you — and arranging this nice weather. It’s a little cool for L.A. I know we’ve got some folks in blankets here, but for a Chicagoan, it feels pretty good. It’s pretty balmy.”
There are a number of Hollywood heavy hitters at the Shoah event, including Fox Filmed Entertainment CEO Jim Gianopolus, NBCU Vice-Chairman Ron Meyer, Universal Filmed Entertainment Chairman Jeff Shell, 21st Century Fox Co-COO James Murdoch, Katzenberg and his political adviser Andy Spahn, Netflix Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos, Everybody Love Raymond creator Phil Rosenthal and Octavia Spencer.
Schlinder’s List actor Liam Neeson started off the evening with remembrances of the making of the 1993 film and how it lead to Spielberg forming the Shoah Foundation the next year. A short video was screened about the early years of the Foundation and its efforts to film Holocaust survivors’ stories and the stories of survivors of more recent genocides for future generations to learn from.
2ND UPDATE, 6:08 PM: The president has arrived at Alan and Cindy Horn’s house in Bel-Air for the $64,800-a-couple DNC fundraiser. About 90 guests are expected. (Check out the invite that went out last month here.) Here’s a snippet from the White House pool report:
The motorcade wound its way toward Bel Air along Beverly Glen Blvd. There were huge crowds along the route at several intersections, as well as a few onlookers on their lawns in the residential neighborhood of Beverly Glen.
UPDATED, 5:13 PM: Air Force One was wheels down at LAX at about 4:45 PM, and the street closures for President Obama’s visit are in effect — just in time for rush hour. Roads are closed until 6 p.m. in the areas near Motor Avenue and Pico Boulevard. Beverly Glen Road and Santa Monica Boulevard also are affected. Closures will hit the areas around Sunset Boulevard and Beverly Glen from 6-8 PM and around Santa Monica Boulevard and Avenue of the Stars from 6-11 PM. The president was greeted by LA Mayor Eric Garcetti, who was in D.C. on the weekend for the White House Correspondents’ Dinner. Obama arrived at his first destination via Marine One at 5:14 PM: a softball field in the tony town of Cheviot Hills. His motorcade now is en route to the Horn fundraiser.
PREVIOUSLY, 3:34 PM: As the midterm elections start to come into view, President Obama is heading to LA today for a series of fundraisers to fatten the Democrats’ war chest and pick up an award tonight from Steven Spielberg in front of a Hollywood heavyweight crowd at USC Shoah Foundation’s 20th anniversary gala.
Obama is scheduled to land at LAX around 5 PM and start his overnight visit
with a $64,800-a-couple DNC gathering at the Bel-Air home of Disney Studios chairman Alan Horn and his wife Cindy. With his last visit here for fundraisers and a stop at top bundler Jeffrey Katzenberg‘s DreamWorks Animation campus in November, this marks Obama’s 17th trip to LA since taking office in early 2009. Going where the money is — and where traffic congestion is sure to follow on the Westside — this is the 14th SoCal swing by the President to get dough off his loyal Hollywood constituency since moving into the White House.
Obama is bringing part of the Blue State band with him today. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi will join the President at the Horn event for the bluntly titled “House Senate Victory Fund.” Obama has a $32,400-a-ticket intimate roundtable fundraiser scheduled for tomorrow morning at the Beverly Hilton as well before getting back on Air Force One for more fundraisers in San Diego and San Jose. All in all, sources tell me the Democrats hope to raise more than $6 million off the California swing. (We’ll update throughout the night)
Related: Obama Teases Katzenberg During DreamWorks Animation Speech
Of course this visit by POTUS isn’t all just a cash grab.
Tonight’s fundraiser will be followed by Obama speaking and being honored at the USC Shoah Foundation’s Ambassadors for Humanity gala tonight. Spielberg, who founded the organization to document the video stories of Holocaust survivors after making his Oscar-winner Schindler’s List, will be presenting Obama with the group’s Ambassador For Humanity Award at the TNT-sponsored event, which comes one day after Israel celebrated its 66th Independence Day. But there will be a lot of other power players in the room. The event is co-chaired by DWA boss and big time Obama supporter
Katzenberg and his wife Marilyn, David Geffen, Star Wars creator George Lucas and wife and DWA board member Mellody Hobson and NBCU Vice-Chairman Ron Meyer (who was at the WHCD this past weekend) and his wife Kelly. Everybody Love Raymond creator Phil Rosenthal and his wife Monica are also co-chairs as are Friends co-creator Marta Kauffman and husband Michael Skloff. Rosenthal held a DNC fundraiser featuring First Lady Michelle Obama at his home in late January while Kauffman was set to host a fundraiser in September of last year that kept getting postponed and eventually moved to Rosenthal’s due to world and Washington D.C. events.
With tickets going from$1500 for a single to $100,000 for a 1-seat VIP table, the gala comes just days after the White House Correspondents’ Dinner and the train wreck of a routine by headliner Joel McHale. Set to speak around 8:30 PM or so, Obama will be reunited tonight with last year’s WHCD star Conan O’Brien. The TBS late nighter is set to host the USC Shoah event. Schindler List lead Liam Neeson will be there and Brice Springsteen will perform at around 7:30 PM.
Even with the Boss stepping to the mic, there’s a lot more real star power is off stage with Disney boss Bob Iger and wife Willow Bay, who is slated to head USC’s School of Journalism, serving as a Vice-Chairs. They are joined as Vice-Chairs by fellow big Democratic contributors JJ Abrams & Katie McGrath, IAC boss Barry Diller, Moneyball producer Sidney Kimmel and his wife Caroline, Barbra Streisand and James Brolin and Participant Media’s Jeff Skoll, the company’s CEO Jim Berk and his wife Jane among others. The Shoah gala’s benefit committee is no less wattage with Rupert Murdoch, Sumner Redstone, Viacom CEO Philippe Dauman and wife Debbie, Fox Filmed Entertainment CEO Jim Gianopulos and his wife Ann, Paramount’s Brad Grey and wife Cassandra, Warner Bros CEO Kevin Tsujihara and wife Sandy, WB Chair Barry Meyer and wife Wendy all on board. DreamWorks Co-Chair/CEO Stacey Snider, LucasFilm President Kathleen Kennedy and producer Frank Marshall, Tom Cruise, Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson, Tyler Perry, Robert Downey Jr and producer wife Susan are also on the Benefit Committee as is TriStar Productions boss Tom Rothman, who Obama named to the National Council of The Arts late last year, and his wife Jessica among others.
Here is the transcript of the president’s speech tonight at the Shoah Foundation event:
Thank you so much. (Applause.) Thank you. Thank you so much. Please, please, everybody have a seat.
Well, thank you, Steven, for your incredibly generous words, for this great honor, for your friendship, and most importantly, for the extraordinary work which brings us here all tonight. To Robert Katz and all the members of the board and staff of the Shoah Foundation; to President Max Nikias and everybody at USC; to all the distinguished guests and to all the friends that I see in this audience — it is an incredible honor to be with you as we pay tribute to a remarkable institution and one that makes claim on our moral imagination.
Being here with you tonight, I’m taken back to the visit to Buchenwald that I took in the very first months of my presidency. And I was there with my dear friend, Elie Wiesel. As most of you know, he who had endured that camp as a teenager. And we walked among the guard towers and the barbed wire. We saw the ovens and the crematorium. We saw the memorial to the prisoners, a steel plate heated to the temperature of the human body, as a reminder of our common humanity. And at the end of our visit, as we stood outside the place where his father and so many other souls had perished, Elie spoke these words — he said: “Memory has become a sacred duty of all people of goodwill.” Memory has become a sacred duty of all people of goodwill.
And that’s what brings us here tonight. That’s the duty that Steven and all of you embrace — the sacred duty of memory.
Now, just a few decades ago, many survivors of the Shoah were reluctant to share their stories. But one survivor living here in Los Angeles, a leather goods merchant named Poldek Pfefferberg insisted on telling anybody who would listen about the man who had saved his life — a man named Oskar Schindler. And thanks to Poldek’s persistence, Schindler’s story was published as a novel, and the world eventually came to see and understand the Holocaust like never before — in Steven’s remarkable film, Schindler’s List, brought to life in a masterful way by Liam Neeson. And we were reminded that the Holocaust was not a matter of distant history or abstract horror. The voices — the memories — of survivors became immediate, and intimate, became a part of all of us.
I loved what the teacher said in the video about how it entered into our DNA. That’s what stories do. We’re story-telling animals. That’s what Steven does. That’s what Bruce does — tells a story that stitches up our fates with the fates of others. And that film gave us each a stake in that terrible history, and a stake in ensuring such atrocities never happen again.
Now, if the story had ended there, it would have been enough — dayenu. But Steven didn’t stop with Schindler’s List, because there were too many other stories to tell. So he created this foundation to undertake what he called “a rescue mission” — preserving the memories that would otherwise be lost to time.
Over the past two decades, you’ve recorded tens of thousands of interviews in dozens of countries and languages; documented the experience not only of the Holocaust, but of atrocities before and since. As you heard tonight with Celina’s incredible eloquence, you freed voices that could tell their own story in their own way. And as Michelle Clark described so powerfully this evening, you’ve turned that testimony into tools that can be used by scholars and students all around the world.
Now, Steven, I know that for you — like so many here — this is deeply personal. You lost distant relatives in the Holocaust, and heard your mother pass on stories told by survivors. And as you said just a few days ago, the story of the Shoah is the story that you were put on this Earth to tell. So, to you, to everybody at the Shoah Foundation — and for all that you’ve done, for setting alight an eternal flame of testimony that can’t be extinguished and cannot be denied, we express our deepest gratitude. (Applause.)
Of course, none of these stories could be preserved without the men and women with the courage to tell them. And I think sometimes how hard it must be to return to those moments, to remember those darkest of days, to recount how loved ones — husbands, wives, sons, daughters — were taken away. And as Steven mentioned, my great-uncle was a soldier in the 89th Infantry Division, helping to liberate Ohrdruf, a part of Buchenwald. And what he saw during the war left him so shaken that, upon his return to the States, he could not speak of his memories for years to come. We didn’t have a word for it back then, but he returned and closed himself off for months, so shaken was he just to witness what had happened, much less experience it.
So I want to say a special word to the survivors who are with us this evening — not just to the Holocaust, but as Steve noted, survivors of other unimaginable crimes. Every day that you have lived, every child and grandchild that your families have brought into this world has served as the ultimate rebuke to evil, and the ultimate expression of love and hope. And you are an inspiration to every single one of us. And on behalf of all of us, thank you for the example of your lives, and sharing your stories with us and the world. Thank you. (Applause.) We are grateful to you.
Now, let me add that, as Americans, we’re proud to be a country that welcomed so many Holocaust survivors in the wake of World War II. As President, I’m proud that we’re doing more, as Steven noted, to stand with Holocaust survivors in America. We announced Aviva Sufian as our first-ever special envoy to help support Holocaust survivors living in the United States. I’m pleased that Aviva is here tonight. (Applause.) We’ve proposed a new Survivor Assistance Fund to help Holocaust survivors in our country live in dignity and free from poverty. We’re already working with members of Congress and many of your organizations on this project, and tonight I invite more of you to join us. We need to keep faith with these survivors who already have given so much.
The work of this foundation, the testimonies of survivors like those with us tonight, also remind us that the purpose of memory is not simply to preserve the past; it is to protect the future. (Applause.) We tell stories — we’re compelled to tell stories — they’re stories that bring out the best of us, and they’re stories that bring out the worst. The voices of those recorded and unrecorded, those who survived and those who perished, call upon us — implore us and challenge us — to turn “Never Forget” into “Never Again.”
We only need to look at today’s headlines — the devastation of Syria, the murders and kidnappings in Nigeria, sectarian conflict, the tribal conflicts — to see that we have not yet extinguished man’s darkest impulses. There are some bad stories out there that are being told to children, and they’re learning to hate early. They’re learning to fear those who are not like them early.
And none of the tragedies that we see today may rise to the full horror of the Holocaust — the individuals who are the victims of such unspeakable cruelty, they make a claim on our conscience. They demand our attention, that we not turn away, that we choose empathy over indifference and that our empathy leads to action. And that’s not always easy. One of the powerful things about Schindler’s story was recognizing that we have to act even where there is sometimes ambiguity; even when the path is not always clearly lit, we have to try.
And that includes confronting a rising tide of anti-Semitism around the world. We’ve seen attacks on Jews in the streets of major Western cities, public places marred by swastikas. From some foreign governments we hear the worst kinds of anti-Semitic scapegoating. In Ukraine, as Steven mentioned, we saw those disgusting pamphlets from masked men calling on Jews to register. And tragically, we saw a shooting here at home, in Overland Park in Kansas.
And it would be tempting to dismiss these as isolated incidents, but if the memories of the Shoah survivors teach us anything, it is that silence is evil’s greatest co-conspirator. And it’s up to us — each of us, every one of us — to forcefully condemn any denial of the Holocaust. It’s up to us to combat not only anti-Semitism, but racism and bigotry and intolerance in all their forms, here and around the world. It’s up to us to speak out against rhetoric that threatens the existence of a Jewish homeland and to sustain America’s unshakeable commitment to Israel’s security. (Applause.) And it is up to us to search our own hearts — to search ourselves — for those stories that have no place in this world. Because it’s easy sometimes to project out and worry about others and their hatreds and their bigotries and their blind spots. It’s not always as easy for us to examine ourselves.
Standing up to anti-Semitism is not simply about protecting one community or one religious group. There is no such thing as “targeted” hatred. In Overland Park, a man went to a Jewish Community Center and a nursing home named “Village Shalom” and started shooting — and none of the people he murdered were Jewish. Two were Methodist. One was Catholic. All were innocent.
We cannot eliminate evil from every heart, or hatred from every mind. But what we can do, and what we must do, is make sure our children and their children learn their history so that they might not repeat it. (Applause.) We can teach our children the hazards of tribalism. We can teach our children to speak out against the casual slur. We can teach them there is no “them,” there’s only “us.” And here in America, we can celebrate a nation in which Christians and Muslims go to Jewish community centers, and where Jews go to Church vigils — a nation where, through fits and starts, through sacrifice and individual courage, we have struggled to hear the truth and live out the truth that Dr. King described — that “injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere, that we are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny.”
By keeping the memories alive, by telling stories, by hearing those stories, we can do our part to fulfill the mitzvah, the commandment of saving a life. I think of Pinchas Gutter, a man who lived through the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, and survived the Majdanek death camp. Today he serves as a volunteer educator at the Shoah Foundation. “I tell my story,” he says, “for the purpose of improving humanity, drop by drop by drop. Like a drop of water falls on a stone and erodes it, so, hopefully, by telling my story over and over again I will achieve the purpose of making the world a better place to live in.”
Those are the words of one survivor — performing that “sacred duty” of memory — that will echo throughout eternity. Those are good words for all of us to live by.
I have this remarkable title right now — President of the United States — and yet every day when I wake up, and I think about young girls in Nigeria or children caught up in the conflict in Syria — when there are times in which I want to reach out and save those kids — and having to think through what levers, what power do we have at any given moment, I think, “drop by drop by drop,” that we can erode and wear down these forces that are so destructive; that we can tell a different story.
And because of your work — because of your work, Steven, and the work of all who supported you — our children, and their children, and their children’s children will hear from the survivors, but they’ll also hear from the liberators, the Righteous Among the Nations. And because of your work, their stories, years and decades from now, will still be wearing down bigotry, and eroding apathy, and opening hearts, drop by drop by drop.
And as those hearts open, that empowers those of us in positions of power — because even the President can’t do these things alone. Drop by drop by drop. That’s the power of stories. And as a consequence, the world will be a better place and the souls will be bound up in the bonds of eternal life. Their memories will be a blessing and they will help us make real our solemn vow: Never Forget. Never Again.
So thank you, Steven, for your incredible work. God bless you. God bless the United States of America. Thank you. (Applause.)





Whoopie!
They can fire up all the money they want but people are writing checks they didn’t dream of writing before they voted.
IT’S shameful that President Obama was given such an award he doesn’t deserve, like the Nobel Preace prize he received for just “sneezing”. It was a cynical event to take the graves of 6 million Jews just for Hollywood to peddle their drugs, violence, pornography, radical liberal agendas, etc… only for money. There’s a limit how much Hollywood thinks they can pull the wool over our eyes. We all know it’s all about money, tax breasks, (an Illinoi senator already was arrested for receiving bribes to vote for tax film credits)etc. Obama is the most anti Israel president in US history. He has done nothing to stop the hundreds of thousands of atrocities in Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa, Syria, Uganda, Phylippenes etc. Thank G-d we have brave talk show hosts like Dr. Michael Savage who speaks out the real ugly truths. Shame on Obama, shame on Hollywood and shame on the Shoah Foundation for insulting our 6 million Jews who perished.
Aaron Seruya, San Francisco
Just when I thought W was the worst since Carter. All we can count on from this “leader” is traffic on the west side.
Yes, because an afternoon of traffic is just like starting a war.
This is LA. Every afternoon of traffic IS war.
Obama has gotten us into more wars than Bush.
You mean he inherited the wars Bush started, in addition to resist the neocon war cry to strike Syria.
You mean that illegal war Ovomit started in Libya and then lied about? Bush 43 got Congressional approval, Obumbles just plays general. You voted for a fraud, a liar, and a serial narcissist.
Can you give us a list of these wars? Because other than the ones he got from Bush and Cheney I didn’t realize he had gotten us into any.
If you’re still touting the non warlike nature of Obama vs. Bush you’re either A) not paying attention or B) willfully ignorant. Obama has continued Bush’s wars and expanded his Patriot Act and NSA policies. Obama may avoid “putting boots on the ground” but he sure as hell is willing to drop some drone strikes on people’s heads and sure is willing to arm Al Queda in Libya and the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt.
But please, tell us more of how evil Bush was. The fact that you are still fixated on a president from six years ago with the complete disaster we currently have in office is solid proof of your sycophantic mind controlled status as a drone for the administration and an Obama boot licking lemming.
The war on America.
The Shoah award to the most anti Israel administration in the history of the founding of the Jewish state. This has the same laugh ability as the Noble Peace prize to a man who has killed more innocent people with drowns than ever before, spies on all Americans, lies consistently about absolutely everything to the point that 61% of us don’t believe a word he says.
This is an insult to all the Jewish people that lost their lives in the Holocaust
Let’s be honest this has nothing to do with humanity or the Holocaust. The Hollywood elites are asking for billions in tax credits from Obama, including you David, just have the b-lls to speak the truth and don’t make complete asses of yourselves. Today because of the unions in California there are more movies being made in Louisiana than California. They just want to take tax payer money to pay the union workers, not out of their profits however!!! OMG the hypocracy.
READ ABOVE RUBE
Yeah because Saddam Hussein was a good guy.
I don’t know how you can even defend BO anymore. If all you have is a guy who was president what, six years ago, then you have nothing because everything has gotten worse in this country since then.
Obama has murdered more American citizens with drone strikes than Bush ever did. But that’s ok for hypocrites like you.
I’m sure ‘pete’ was fair and balanced in his criticisms when a Bush or Reagan came to L.A. and snarled traffic.
Right? Yeah, right………….
Christians are being slaughtered by Muslims on 3 continents and this empty shirt is getting a humanitarian award?
Amazing how stupid leftist celebs are these days.
A leftist still chanting Bush while sycophantically worshiping at the alter of Obama’s failures. Pathetic.
Why is he getting something from the Shoah foundation? That’s a holocaust memorial foundation. He’s been awful for Israel, the country which was founded for Jews after the Holocaust so something like that does not happen again. What are these Jews doing? Are they self-hating?
…you’re just out of your mind.
Obama and his SOS John Kerry have shown nothing but contempt for the state of Israel. But none of that is realized by Spielberg, who only gives awards to other leftists regardless of how vapid and shallow they are.
If McCain or Romney had been elected, America might already have been at war with Iran, causing them to start a war with Israel. So in that case, Obama is doing a pretty great job when it comes to Israel.
U do know congress has to issue a declaration of war. What makes u think that congress will allow war if McCain or Mitt is in office?
So you are so defensive you have to create a bizarre, made-up scenario to comment on instead of actually addressing any degree of reality? Sorry, but that is not just avoidance, it is delusional. Take a look at Iran, Russia, Syria, Ukraine, North Korea, Brazil, Sudan and China… Obama’s international policy is nothing short of a disaster. But instead of acknowledging any degree of reality, you are commenting on comic book scenarios. Wow.
Yeah.
Obama is doing SUCH a great job.
At everything.
Which explains why he is so often on the west coast ‘fundraising’.
The guy needs to learn that he should be in DC, “GOVERNING”. But then that is not really something that falls within his capabilities, is it? No.
“Community activists” are good for about one thing: Handing out pamphlets to invite rabble to the next “demonstration”. That’s all.
They produce nothing. The community-activist-in-chief has produced nothing but a downward spiral for this country.
But then, he is really just a puppet. Who is pulling his strings?
Israel receives $3 billion in aid from the U.S. annually. Has that changed?
Who’s calling the shots here? Why should the U.S. cater to Israel’s interests, and not the other way around?
Good Question. Why IS he getting something from the Shoah foundation? Because he’s the President and he can get whatever the power brokers who put him in office want him to get. Hollywood has always been a propaganda machine for the government. Shills and Tools. Watch the movie “Wag The Dog” with Dustin Hoffman. You’ll get the picture.
Hell, Obama got a Nobel Peace Prize for barely stepping into the White House. Undeserved awards are what liberals do to make themselves appear important. Obama is a bigger fraud than Bernie Madoff
Why did he get the Nobel Peace Prize? He’s a pathetic excuse for a leader that’s good at two things. Taking vacations and accepting awards for things he hasn’t done.
This award to Obama does seem peculiar. Comments attacking your comment confirm that, as they employ absurd logical fallacies.
It’s also disturbing not only that Obama seems to weigh in on every pop cultural scandal, but that he (and other pols) unblinkingly endorse not just the government spying on its people, but now people spying on each other.
What this article sadly proves is how upper-income Jewish-American power-players (especially those in the Hollywood scene) are one of the most rabidly liberal and biased demographics in the country.
Talk about group-think…
Wow. Racist much?
No, IRON WILL is right! Get the facts at info wars.com! Please, all you liberals; get informed!
Jewish is a religion, not a race.
Wow, comprehend much?
LOL this is the internet… your race card has no power here
Just like the lawyer for the Boston Bomber trying to claim racism because the Joker was treated harshly. Last I checked he is a white male.
It seems the libs want to give us a whole new class of people who qualify for AA.
Why not mention the facts about Benghazi in this article? In the tank much?
Liberals man.
Demand the truth.
No one gives a crap about Benghazi. It’s a entertainment industry news related website for cripessakes. The president has come to entertain us, so go peddle your conspiracy theories elsewhere Drudgebot poser.
~
Coat
The Benghazi thing is so over the top. We’ve had 13 investigations and 25,000 pages of documents.
That’s 12 more investigations than we ever got from Reagan over the bombings on the marine barracks in Beirut that killed more than 200 people. That’s more than we ever got from the fake WMDS that led us into Iraq, more than we ever got from the dozens of attacks on the Green Zone that killed hundreds of people. That’s probably even more than we ever got from 9/11, a terrorist act that killed 3000 people on our own soil.
And all you want to talk about is whether Obama used the proper talking points. WTF is wrong with you people?
Investigations by Eric Holder and his In-Justice Dept. It would be the same as asking Matt Damon to investigate Ben Affleck. LOL
What is wrong with you? You sound like Nixon just before the whole story about Watergate came out. People actually were killed by terrorists in Benghazi.
Do you realize what happened last week? Do you realize the WH withheld that email re-Benghazi? How many more have been withheld? So what if they have turned over only information that helps them hide from what they did. We need the rest of the emails that showed what they actually did. We also just found out last week Obama was definitely not in the war room, but we still do not know where he was.
What he said.
The Beverly Hilton? Is he unaware of the boycott? I guess POTUS gets a pass for some reason?
You thinks he cares about that? All he wants is your money.
The useless, misguided boycott is for the outstanding Beverly Hills Hotel, not the almost-outstanding Beverly Hilton.
The boycott is happening at The Beverly Hills Hotel, not the Hilton.
Good question…why is he visiting the Beverly Hilton???
Wrong hotel Dumbo. Bev Hilton is not being boycotted – that is the Bev. Hills hotel and Belair Hotel. As for the traffic – yes, friggin crazy bad – but most of us are still in our offices at this hour so what’s the difference.
The boycott is of the Beverly Hills Hotel not the Beverly Hilton.
I am at the Beverly Hills Hotel right now and it is packed. If there is a boycott, it’s not taking.
Beverly Hilton and Beverly Hills Hotel are not the same thing…
Is this FOX News, just finding any stupid reason to stick it to the President. Who the hell cares? Stick to TV ratings and movie box office news.
Obama lives for these visits he loves mingling with showbiz elites and he loves their money. He’s the most elitist president ever he spends so much time with wealthy elites it’s disgusting.
I challenge ‘anonymous’ to re-post his complaints when President Bush(s) or Reagan were “mingling with showbiz elites and (loving) their money.”
Let’s see ‘em. Or, are you just being a one-sided hypocritical ditto-head?
You want him to go back in time?
No, he could just copy-paste. Or, just provide a synopsis of his bitching and moaning. I’m sure he was just as even-handed and not just making political points against one side or the other.
Now, back to “breaking Bengazi news on Fox!”
More elitist than someone who actually WAS a Hollywood actor, or wants tax cuts for the rich and not the middle class, or the many presidents who only thought land-owning white males could vote? Riiiight.
Please tell us, you whiny little victim, what modern president has wanted only white land-owners to vote? Give me a quote please. Or are you too busy blaming the fact you are nothing but an insecure loser on others?
Glad to see so much support for our president from the entertainment community. Obama rocks!
You are so stupid. I am laughing at you right now.
I have some nice weed too.
Did no one tell him that “The Tonight Show” moved to New York?
Good one.
With all of the difficult challenges our country faces is this really a prudent investment of our Presidents valuable time?
Like Bush playing golf during the Iraq war? Or spending entire months pretending to be a rancher on his fake farm?
That’s just mindless drivel. Obama SUCKS – own it already.
SUCKS is a compliment in Hollywood. Think about it.
Bush stopped playing golf after we went to war. You are getting your Presidents mixed up, I think you were thinking of Obama. BTW how old were you when Bush was first President? 10?
So you are admitting Obama is no different than Bush.
Not sure what is more frustrating being stuck on Wilshire and Beverly Glen for an hour or finding out my Dr only take CASH and not Blue Cross since the Afforadable Care Act …
Welcone to LA Obama
Horn must feel like a popular kid now that he hosted the cool party
If Obama called for “equal pay” – as in “Barbara Streisand and Jeffery Katzenberg earn the same paycheck as everyone else in America” – they’d throw him out into the street.
I can’t believe I used to like Bruce Springsteen. What a rube. The guy probably still thinks Hope and Change isn’t a feckless liar with series narcissism issues.
It is nice to know that the little people do not matter with this man.
It’s nice to know that Drudge still cares about Hollywood articles.
Check your facts… the President wants to sign a bill giving unemployment insurance to more Americans and the Republicans in the House won’t pass that bill. And 8 Million Americans (and counting) now have health insurance and will live longer and healthier lives because of this President. So yes, he cares about the “little people”… who he calls “Americans.”
Wow, you are seriously one gullible libtard…
You really must be a drooling kool-aid drinker. How does having health insurance translate into a guarantee of living a longer, healthier life? People with health insurance still drink or eat or smoke themselves to death. There is absolutely NO correlation that exists between those two states. One could live an extremely long, healthy life without ever owning health insurance. And, as far as unemployment insurance goes; maybe he should point his “laser focus” on jobs instead of handouts. This guy is an abject failure as President. He really should go back to community organizing.
I’m not that much of a internet reader to be honest but your blogs really nice, keep it up!
I’ll go ahead and bookmark your website to come back down the road.
Cheers
Obama is such a huge disappointment! At least he could stay in DC.
The most anti-Israel president we’ve had showing up at the Shoah Foundation?
If you wrote this nobody would believe it.
It really speaks volumes about O’Brien’s (and the audience’s) puerility and lack of moral imagination that he should liken the Nazist atrocities to what some senile octogenarian said – mind you: what he said, and never really acted upon. Quite the opposite, in fact – so much so that NAACP would give Sterling a “2014 Lifetime Achievement Award” in exchange for his donations to multiple programs addressing black grievances. When the scandal broke, NAACP changed his mind, I reckon.
Back to O’Brien: I can’t believe there was no one in the audience who did not protest, or did not feel offended, or at least refrain from participating in “the night’s biggest laugh” at his stupid joke, that trivializes the meaning of the Holocaust, which should be the mission of the foundation to assure no one does.
That’s not surprising, though, that Spielberg doesn’t get it and laugh along – he’s the one who can, on one hand, make movies about the Holocaust and, on the other, come back from a visit to Cuba in starstruck awe of Fidel Castro, a truly Hitler epigone.
He wasn’t. Conan was likening the octogenarian’s mistress-with-a-microphone to the teams of students that Spielberg’s Shoah foundation sent all over the world to record the memories of Holocaust survivors.
And this boneheaded analogy is better how?
None of these people seem aware that 750,000 Palestinians were forced off their homeland by the Zionist Jews who took over Palestine and changed its name to Israel. That was a holocaust they call it the Nakbah but it’s never mentioned by anyone who’s Jewish as if it never happened. There is more protest about Israel’s militaristic occupation in Israel than you would ever see here in America. These wealthy limousine liberals are so disgusting they literally don’t care enough to learn about the violent history of how Israel was founded. Terror tactics were used to drive Palestinians off their land that they lived on for centuries. It’s shameful how Obama and his rich Jewish benefactors literally don’t care about this they ignore it and that makes them hypocrites.
No one mentions it? The Arab world has used it as a rationale for killing thousands of innocent Jewish people around the world at the World Trade Center, the Olympics, and countless airplanes, schools, universities, Passover seders, and airports. In the Arab world, this is the biggest tragedy of all time – bigger than the 200,000 Syrians killed in the last three years.
Of course no one mentions that from 1948 to 1960 Arab countries kicked out over 1 million Jews who had been livng in their countries for hundreds, if not thousands of years. Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Algeria, etc. all forced our their Jewish communities and siezed their properties. When will the Arab world compensate these Jews for this atrocity?
Yeah, the President has to get an award so that he can recognize the Shoah again when the Syrians, Palestinians, Libyans, Pakistanis or Iranians do it again… because of his incompetent foreign policy.
When I read such articles as this one, I am always left questioning the reason for it. What exactly has Obama done that people rush out and give him awards; such as winning the Nobel Peace Price for getting elected President??? People should really vote policy and not party.
It’s always entertaining to see a room loaded to the rafters with hypocrites patting themslves as they proselytize about the very issues they themselves have encouraged as well as profited from.
The endless speechifying and fundraising among the glitteratti no longer resonates with ordinary Americans, millions of whom had originally hoped for an exciting presidency to lead us to prosperity in a less race conscious society. As it turned out, the man is inept and incompetent and is focused on unwanted transformations that all have onerous unwanted consequences. He has not been truthful with the citizens, has used federal agencies as partisan criminal organizations, and failed to support our friends overseas. The smooth talk can’t overcome an utterly failed presidency. Hollywood, as ever disconnected from reality, swoons while the President’s ratings and stature shrink. He is literally an unbelievable man, except to the dream weavers and true belivers who have as their faith progressive ideals and multicultural utopia. It is the policies, stupid…not race or even his party.
What does Harry Reid have to say about these “millionaires/billionaires” donating to advance the cause of liberalism, progressivism, by any other name, socialism? He is a hypocrite and reprehensible for his speeches on the Senate floor denouncing individuals for exercising their political rights just as these Hollywood lemmings do. But I digress from the topic. This extravaganza allows this group of mainly white egotistic actors and actresses to honor their “Messiah” who represents their “hope” for the socialist cause, but actually allows them to feel better about their liberal “white guilt” because they, as racists need an outlet show the world we are not racist. Obama and the Democrats suck the funding out of these overpaid zealots of the left, just as they do the giant tech company ex3ecutives and then throw them under the buss when campaigning. I love how these super rich liberals are used and abused in the name of “economic fairness and opportunity”. Hate abounds in the liberal, Democrat circles and these outward displays of self-congratulations are for their consumption. What a sham and hoax is being perpetrated upon the taxpayers by these rich idiots.