“Director” on The Daily Caller

1.) FCIC dissenters defend bailing out Wall Street — Two reports will come out of the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission today. The one written by the panel’s liberal majority will blame lax regulation and the banking industry for the collapse of the housing industry. The other, written by commissioners Bill Thomas, a former Republican congressman from California, Keith Hennessey, former chairman of the White House National Economic Council under President George W. Bush, and Douglas Holtz-Eakin, a former director of the Congressional Budget Office, spreads the blame more broadly among “investors, creditors, regulators, homebuyers, and politicians,” all of whom must take “personal responsibility.” The dissenters also defended bailing out Wall Street: “For a policymaker, the calculus is simple: if you bail out AIG and you’re wrong, you will have wasted taxpayer money and provoked public outrage,” the paper reads. “If you don’t bail out AIG and you’re wrong, the global financial system collapses. It should be easy to see why policymakers favored action–there was a chance of being wrong either way, and the costs of being wrong without action were far greater than the costs of being wrong with action.” Thank goodness we didn’t destabilize the global financial system, which might have led to really scary stuff, like high unemployment. (more)

It’s that magical time of year again — when the rich and famous line red carpets to commend themselves on their works of genius and justify their enormous paychecks. Thankfully, though, another ceremony exists to remind us how studios conversely sink millions of dollars into films each year as well: the Razzies. (more)

1.) Obama’s jobs team gets green-washed — “President Barack Obama will name Jeffrey Immelt, General Electric Co.’s chief executive officer, to head his outside panel of economic advisers, replacing former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker,” reports Bloomberg News. “Immelt has sounded many of the administration’s themes: boosting jobs through U.S. exports, ensuring companies can compete with powers like China and India, and jumpstarting a clean-energy economy. Immelt wrote today that he and Obama ‘are committed’ to making the U.S. ‘the most competitive and innovating economy in the world.’” According to Bloomberg, “Immelt is among a group of executives — Boeing Co. CEO Jim McNerney; Motorola Solutions Inc. CEO Greg Brown, and Honeywell International Inc. Chairman David Cote — who have voiced support for Obama policies. The four serve on several of the president’s outside advisory boards”–and all four have made a killing on green jobs subsidies (more)

— “It is unlikely that House Republicans will take the vote to repeal the health care law, shrug their shoulders when it doesn’t reach the Senate, and move on,” writes The Daily Caller’s Chris Moody. “We aren’t going to just check the box off and say that we had one vote and we’re going to move on to other topics,” Rep. Michele Bachmann said Tuesday. Rep. Steve King echoed Bachmann’s sentiments, saying, “This is going to be a debate that goes on not just today and tomorrow and next week. It’s going to go on for the next year or two. It’s probably going to go on until we elect a president that will sign a final repeal of Obamacare. So this is an ongoing debate.” The GOP will fight, just like the Spartans fought at Thermopylae, until they are all dead of old age/exasperation, or until Americans return both the legislative branch and the executive branch to the second worst party in the country. In the meantime, House Republicans will build their own health care bill, starting with the key accomplishment of Obamacare: “A measure to restrict insurance companies from discriminating based on pre-existing conditions.” (more)

1.) Obama writes editorial against regulatory excess, can name only one excessive regulation — Overly schoolmarmish regulations have to go, Pres. Obama writes in an op-ed in the morning’s Wall Street Journal. In it, Obama pays lip service to America’s semi-free market system as the source of “dazzling ideas and path-breaking products” and “the greatest force for prosperity the world has ever known.” The op-ed is a curtain-raiser for this afternoon, when Obama will sign an executive order that “requires that federal agencies ensure that regulations protect our safety, health and environment while promoting economic growth,” as well as “a government-wide review of the rules already on the books to remove outdated regulations that stifle job creation and make our economy less competitive.” But do not get your hopes too high: Apparently, the only regulatory excessiveness that Obama could think of was artificial sweetener: “The FDA has long considered saccharin, the artificial sweetener, safe for people to consume. Yet for years, the EPA made companies treat saccharin like other dangerous chemicals. Well, if it goes in your coffee, it is not hazardous waste. The EPA wisely eliminated this rule last month.” Meanwhile, a spox for Rep. Eric Cantor wishes Obama had released this executive order in 2009, when House Republicans proposed it first. (more)

UPDATE (5:30pm): The Center for Public Integrity responds to inquires made by TheDC. (more)

1.) We will all die of old age before anyone cuts spending — After a largely symbolic repeal of Obamacare, what will Republicans do next to cut spending? Absolutely nothing, apparently. “Entitlement reform will only be done on a bipartisan basis. So we’re waiting for signals from the president as to whether or not that’s a discussion he’s willing to have,” said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Kentucky Republican, in a Thursday press conference. “The president must embrace it.” The Daily Caller’s Jon Ward writes, “House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, Virginia Republican, acted on Tuesday as if Obama was the one who was just elected based on promises to cut government spending” and that “House Speaker John Boehner, Ohio Republican, had no answer Thursday for NBC’s Brian Williams when asked to name ‘a program right now that we could do without.’” Head, desk. (more)

LONDON (AP) — He could have stayed in teaching. That’s what his parents wanted: it was the safe, secure route for a young man with working-class roots and a face few would describe as handsome. (more)

Midway through Philip Rucker and Paul Kane’s story about Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi’s transition to minority leader comes an interesting bit of news. The California Democrat, vilified by Republicans in the last election, has turned to director Steven Spielberg for help rebranding House Democrats. (more)

Over about two decades in movies, primarily as an Oscar-winning visual effects supervisor on films such as “Men in Black,” “Total Recall” and “Pearl Harbor,” Eric Brevig has worked with many big names in Hollywood. But his latest film gave him a unique chance to direct a childhood idol: Yogi Bear. (more)

YADKIN COUNTY, N.C. — Authorities in Yadkin County said they discovered a methamphetamine lab inside a room at the Yadkin Inn. (more)

A nightclub owner mentors a young dancer. With Cher, Christina Aguilera. Director: Steve Antin (1:54). PG-13: Sexuality, language, partial nudity. At area theaters. (more)

Getting down and dirty on screen takes a lot of concentration. Just not always on the things you might think. (more)

You want tears? You want convulsive sobs, weepy remorse, pleadings for forgiveness? Well, look elsewhere, because Eliot Spitzer isn’t going to give them to you. (more)

Mel Gibson reportedly has been ordered to fork over $60,000 in back child support to his baby mama — and to let her live rent-free in his Sherman Oaks, Calif., home with their year-old daughter. (more)

In “Morning Glory,” Rachel McAdams gives the kind of performance we go to the movies for. The rest of the film isn’t always up to her level, but it does provide genial entertainment until it runs out of steam. (more)

Interview with “Fair Game” director Doug Liman (more)

Do yourself a favor and don’t even bother going to the movies this November. Read more about why pretty much every movie coming out this month will suck below. (more)

There should be something for everyone this weekend at the multiplex as a new family animated film, a male-targeted comedy and a female-targeted drama from director Tyler Perry all have big expectations. If the movie industry gets its wish, it could be the biggest opening weekend in the month of November ever. (more)

Drama. Starring Naomi Watts and Sean Penn. Directed by Doug Liman. (PG-13. 108 minutes. At Bay Area theaters.) (more)