Townhall.com, Where Your Opinion Counts
Talk Radio:   Bill Bennett   Mike Gallagher   Dennis Prager   Michael Medved   Hugh Hewitt   
BREAKING NEWS  LeftArrow - Townhall.com : Conservative, Political, Republican   RightArrow - Townhall.com : Conservative, Political, Republican  
Columns, funnies & more in your inbox!
  • Check the boxes and send us your email address to receveive your free newsletter
  • Your daily must-read of conservative columns, cartoons and news. Coulter, Sowell, Krauthammer and more.
  • Townhall.com’s weekly inside scoop on what’s happening behind the scenes in the world of politics. When news breaks, we report.
  • Signup to receive the latest daily Townhall cartoons
Thursday, April 02, 2009
Cal  Thomas :: Townhall.com Columnist
Invasion of the Corporate Snatchers
by Cal Thomas
Vote on It:
Average Vote:
[+] Text [-]
 
Poll
Will the Dems' health care Christmas Present to America be an improvement or detriment to our health care system?


The plot of the 1956 cult classic "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" seems remarkably similar to the storyline of the Obama administration, which is invading, and appears eager to take over, corporate America. Unfortunately, the reality of the threat to American corporations is far creepier than any science-fiction film could ever be.

Here's Wikipedia's plot summary of "Body Snatchers," with my editorial additions in parentheses: "Set in the fictional town of Santa Mira, Calif., (Washington, D.C.), the plot centers on Dr. Miles Bennell (Rush Limbaugh), a local doctor (radio talk show host), who finds a rash of patients (Americans/listeners) accusing their loved ones of being imposters (collectivists).

"Assured at first by the town psychiatrist, Dr. Dan Kaufman, (Barack Obama), that the cases are nothing but 'epidemic mass hysteria,' Bennell (Limbaugh) soon discovers, with the help of his friend Jack Belicec (Sean Hannity), that the townspeople are, in fact, being replaced by simulations grown from plantlike pods (socialism); perfect physical duplicates who kill (regulate) and dispose of (bankrupt) their human (corporate) victims. The Pod People (duped Americans who know little about capitalism and who have fallen for the "punish the rich" class warfare line) are indistinguishable from normal (free market capitalists) people, except for their utter lack of emotion (the modern version is that Obama supporters respond only to emotion and care little about substance). The Pod People (the duped Americans, who have now become socialists without realizing it) work together to secretly spread more pods (socialism) -- which grew from 'seeds drifting through space (Russia) for years ' -- in order to replace the entire human (capitalist) race (system).

"The film climaxes with Bennell (Limbaugh) and his former sweetheart, Becky Driscoll, (Laura Ingraham) attempting to escape the Pod People, intending to warn the rest of humanity (America). They hide; Driscoll (Ingraham) falls asleep and is subverted. With the Pod People close behind, a seemingly crazed Bennell (Limbaugh) runs onto the highway frantically screaming of the alien force that has overrun Santa Mira (Washington) to the passing motorists and then looks into the camera and yells, 'They're here already! You're next!'"

The government, which is decreasingly capable of running itself, will now dictate to corporate America how to run companies. The Obama administration has even promised that government will insure any warranties that might be in jeopardy should GM and Chrysler declare bankruptcy. It is a dangerous precedent that should frighten all of us into opposing the administration's plans with every fiber of our still free beings.

President Obama says the American auto industry will not be allowed to "simply vanish." No, but the direction in which it is heading will require what's left of the companies to manufacture cars even fewer people want to buy, thus requiring the effective nationalization of the automobile industry. If people aren't buying cars from GM and Chrysler in sufficient numbers to make a profit today, why would they buy them when they are even less attractive?

Obama is Jimmy Carter's second term. In 1977, Carter went on television in the midst of an "energy crisis." Wearing a cardigan to signal that it, not natural gas or heating oil, was the best way to keep warm, he spoke to the American people as if our best days were behind us.

Like President Obama, Carter said we had to sacrifice and "learn to live thriftily," no longer spending or consuming as we had been. It was the year the musical "Annie" became a smash hit on Broadway with its optimistic message, three years before Ronald Reagan won the Republican nomination for president, rejecting Carter's pessimism and instead telling Americans that our best days were yet to come.

That's the message needed today. Government can't revive anything. You might as well ask the dead to get up and walk. Americans must revive themselves with the same vision and purpose that has worked in the past. If we don't want an America that resembles the system we worked 70 years to defeat, we had better get to work quickly, because the socialists are already here and they are plotting which companies to target next.

A bigger political voice than talk radio hosts must carry this message. Is there anyone like Reagan out there? Please call immediately before any more companies are snatched away, taking our freedoms along with them.

Share:
Vote on It:
Average Vote:
 
About The Author
Cal Thomas is co-author (with Bob Beckel) of the book, "Common Ground: How to Stop the Partisan War That is Destroying America".
 
TOWNHALL DAILY: Be the first to read Cal Thomas' column. Sign up today and receive Townhall.com daily lineup delivered each morning to your inbox.
Torrence
A government that grabs private companies, regulates finance to the detriment of small business, subsidizes commodities to keep out small business is "Statist" or "Fascist".

Read history. Look at the headlines.

Not much difference.


SteveL
"and the price of energy from fossil fuels will rise sharply as global warming constraints kick in."

Only if the US is stupid enough to go along with this fairy tale. What will cause the price to rise is demand from places that don't care about the myth of global warming--China and India. Prices are low now because China and India's economies have taken a hit too. When their economies recover, so will the demand and the price increases.

Personally, I wish there was global warming, I'd love north Georgia to be USDA 9 instead of what it is 7B. It got down to 10 degrees at my house this winter and an hour east of me in NE Georgia they got 6 inches of snow. If we get any more of this global warming, we are going to all freeze.

"Body Snatchers" works but...
...I have another movie analogy.

What we have here, folks, is our very own "Mr. Potter" (aka "Obama Bin Biden"), sitting in Washington, spinning his little webs and thinking the whole world revolves around him.

Like Potter in "It's a Wonderful Life" when he took over the bank at the start of the Great Depression, Mr. OprahBama has taken control of GM and Chrysler (God only knows who/what's next)!! The "George Bailey"s of my little vignette, aka: Hannity and Limbaugh, are trying to get folks to get wise, wake up, and see what is going on...unfortunately, like the people who lined up outside Bailey's Building and Loan offices waiting for George to open the coiffers and give them back their measley savings all at once, the sheeple voters are blind to the warnings, voted for "Saint Barack" and are now looking to him to provide them with a measley bit of cash. Of course, George spends his honeymoon money (aka: SOMEONE ELSE'S MONEY!) to placate his customers, and they all run away happy.

Meanwhile Potter (Obama) sits at his desk, the scurvy little spider, and waits for it all to collapse at his feet.

Unfortunately it's not a movie anymore...it's real...and it's happening right before our very eyes!

I'm dying to find out exactly how the Oblaba take-over of 2 of our biggest corporations will be spun as a good thing by the Hal Dunce-ahues and Wobbies and Wills and PhyLOSERs of the world. This oughta be good!!

Stupid is as stupid does
Well obviously the Pods got Torrence

Silliness!!
This article was a waste of time. How do you get paid for what you do? Bill and Hard Thought: Statism? Fascism? Stalinism? Socialism? If republicans would stop using these ridiculous "isms" in their conversation you might be taken seriously!!! How about Middleclassism. I like that!!!

Wrong, all wrong
If GM and Chrysler don't want the Government telling them how to run their businesses, then they should simply return all the Government bailout money and do the right thing--honorable bankruptcy.

Notice that Obama isn't telling Ford what to do, because Ford isn't demanding to be bailed out by Obama.

If we taxpayers are going to pay our tax dollars to an ailing company, we have every right to ask for whatever strings we want on that money. We can ask that every female employee at GM give us taxpayers free lap dances if we with. Again, if GM doesn't like those terms, let them return the bailout money to us taxpayers and go bankrupt.

I wish Obama had insisted on GM and Chrysler going into managed bankruptcy. But he didn't, so us taxpayers should make the most of the deal.

High gas-mileage cars are indeed the wave of the future. The price of oil will continue to rise, and the price of energy from fossil fuels will rise sharply as global warming constraints kick in. For many years, the Big Three automakers tried to insulate themselves from these realities, unlike their foreign competitors. And now they're behind the 8-ball. I have no sympathy for them, none at all.

Stalin
said that it doesn't matter how many people vote, what matters is who counts the votes.

Look at the Minnesota Senate race for an example, or Washington State's governors race of four years ago.

This grab for control of industry is classic fascism. Fascism and statism are different names for the same thing. Primacy of the state over the individual.

Grabbing GM is just another example of Statism.

We do need a Reagan
But, unlike Carter, it is clear that this new rascal will do everything he can to make honest elections a thing of the past by the next election cycle.

In fact, we may have already elected America's last president and its first dictator-for-life.

an afterthought
Unless the various industries (GM now, and other industries soon to be revealed) take steps to do away with employer provided health insurance, Obama and his band of cutthroats will stay on them like stink on farts. His plan is to orchestrate things such that his universal health care plan has no opposition. It won’t matter what plan GM comes up with, it will fail the Obama test until it necessitates the implementation of the “ObamaCareNetwork.”

Once the “ObamaCareNetwork” is in place, Obama himself will then be able to dictate who lives and who dies, not just in the womb, but in all stages of life; sounds like Hitler’s Nazism to me.

Get ready folks, we’re in for one wild ride… if we survive!!

$.02
Socialism is rooted in controlling the means of production, ultimately working toward a planned society. By controlling the means of production and the means of financing that production the socialist then gains control of society. This is the mindset of today’s community organizer; controlling society.

Obama has his hands into the financial market up to the armpits and as it turns out many have been overrun by force with the help of the Bush administration. As well, we see Obama commanding the management of GM.

Planned economy, planned production, planned society all from a man who has never done anything that he can point to and say “I did this, this is my accomplishment.” That is until now. Now he can point, with head held high, to a worldwide depression and the resulting suffering of humanity and say “I did this.”

re:Statism!!!!
This sir is nothing more than communism and you know it, stop with the sugar coating and the milk toast ladeda!!! START GETTING TOUGH WITH THIS CRAPPY RUINING OF AMERICA!!!!

"Body Snatchers" is spot on
"Invasion of the Body Snatchers" was a good film and is a perfect analogy to the Kool Aid drinkers who bought the class envy argument and put Obama in office. Some of them are beginning to wake up and I hope to God it's not too late to save our country from the socialists/marxists.

My Tingless Leg Syndrome

It seems to me everyday that the Goobermint says one thing and does another is April Fool's Day!

I have Tingless Leg Syndrome for Politicians:

Who read the Constitution?

Who read a bill before passing or signing it?

Who actually PAY taxes?

Who keep campaign promises?

Who actually cuts both the budget and deficit?

Who don't interfere in private enterprise?


My leg is tingling in hope for ONE man or woman to do the right thing for a change!

And Another Thing
The original version of the Body Snatchers was actually a social commentary of the times in America. Then the comfority and blind allegiance to society norms was on the right, especially when everyone feared being labeled a communist for any sort of non-comfority.

Toward the end of the movie, when only the doctor and his girlfriend were human and were being chased down by the pod people in the town, they were being assured by the pod people that if they simply gave in, submitted, and didn't resist, all of their fears would be allayed, their wants and needs would be met.

Ironic, isn't it, that today the left, the gorup that still whines about the excesses of the McCarthy era, is now the tyrant, is now telling Americans the same thing. Stop resisting! Believe in us. We'll feed, clothe, shelter, and cure you. Just give you your freedoms and your wealth. Don't struggle any more. Stop being an individual. Conform to the community. The community is everthing, the individual nothing.

A litttle pessimism...
A few people are awake but not nearly enough. When things start going bad, modern Americans look to the state for relief. The state intervenes, making it worse, and we ask for even more state relief.

From there it either spirals on down or a charismatic firebrand arrives to save the day, ala Adolph Hitler.

Face facts. Americans are no longer fiercely independent pioneers. We are naive, foolish, whining babies with the attention span of a puppy. We have given away most of our rights and all of our wealth. We now have the government and the country we deserve.

My Thoughts
I don't mourn the downfall of these CEOs. They deserve the harsh treatment and humiliation. I'm sure most of them voted for Obama. They're products of modern corporatism. By the time any CEO of a large corporation has floated to the top, he's been sterilized and plasitsized with all of today's therapuetic, PC nonsense that's he merely a shell of a man.

Did you see how these cuckolds behaved as they were being mocked by the politicians at the show trials in congress? Big smiles, singing the praises of Obama, dancing and sitting prety like circus animals, and politely wiping Barney Franks AIDs infected spit off their cowardly faces and asking for more? Pathetic!

These are the captains of industry and finance? These are the "men" who commanded so much respect and admiration?

We saw something lower than an American elected to high office, once thought to be lower than snail crap. American CEOs are now the lowest form of life.

I hope the next round of CEOs are forced to appear before congressional hearings in their underwear and after they've been fired have to have apples cramed in their mouths as they kneel on all fours in horse drawn waggons, pulling them around town for public amusement.

Eventually such treatment may grow spines in the rest of them and give at least one the guts to confront our petty tyrants in office.

But I doubt it.


OUR LADY OF THE MANY BREASTS
As government is God for Obama and the Left did you ever wonder what this deity would look like if it assumed a physical shape? Well the ancient Ephesians provided the answer in the form of Our Lady of the Many Breasts. Click ApolloSpeaks and take a peek at Diana of Ephesus: Goddees of the Nanny State. You will be appalled.

Next, in order to favor the UAW Obama
will let GM sell all govt. vehicles. It is a stacked deck in favor of the UAW and Obama seems to think no one is watching.

Don Jones
TownhallPlus.com

One thing that has become
painfully apparent is that the republican party isn't up to the task. Hell, they don't even try to fake it any more.

Either the constitution or libertarian party comes to the forefront or it's over.

Unfortunately, if the people were stupid enough to elect Obamessiah, I don't see them waking up anytime soon. I forget, was there ever a cure for the PODS?

Life and art.

The "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" is indeed a great cult classic. And one of my favorites.

What always struck me every time I saw the film again, is how people simply refused to believe what was actually happening... in spite of what was going on.

When the film was over, I remember thinking to myself, "Sure glad I don't live there".

Well, Cal... seems I was wrong.

Time to warn the folks...

Tea parties, April 15th.


Sign Up to Post Your CommentsSign Up to Post Your Comments
If you are already registered, click here to login. Otherwise, please take a few seconds to register with Townhall.com. Once you sign up, you’ll be able to post your comments immediately, use the action center, get podcasts, and more!
Note: Fields marked with a red asterisk (*) are required.
Salutation:
First Name:
*
Last Name:
*
Email:
*
Nickname:
*
Note: Nick name will be shown when you post comments.
Address 1:
*
Address 2:
City:
*
State:
*
Zip:
*
Phone:
      
Your daily must-read of conservative columns, cartoons and news. Coulter, Sowell, Krauthammer and more.
(Bi-Weekly) We highlight the best opportunities from our partners for surveys, action items and more.