Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Don't Touch My JUNK? Former CNN Anchor, Patrick Emory Has A Solution!!!

And by the way, Happy Thanksgiving!!!

You have obviously seen the headline above before reading what you're reading now.

Let me tell you a little something about Patrick Emory.

I met Patrick when he was leaving a radio station in San Jose, California (KLIV) and I was just beginning. That's right. Same day. He took one look at me and said, "I'm outta here!"

That turned out to be a great decision for Patrick Emory because he was born to be on television. I might not be familiar with all the places he anchored television news at, but I know for certain about three such places. St. Louis (when I was there), here in Los Angeles and he was known nationally for many years while anchoring news for CNN during their "glory days".

When he showed up in St. Louis in the late 70's, I was on the radio in that city. In fact, we were in the same building. Patrick was on the television floor and I was on the radio floor. Both stations were CBS stations.

Patrick Emory was an instant hit in St. Louis. Especially with the women. He had movie star "looks" and every guy in town did their best to keep their women out of sight range of this guy. Because Patrick, before he settled down, was a bit of a "hound dog man". Well actually, a little more than "a bit". Okay, a lot more!

I didn't see Patrick while we were both in St. Louis because shortly after he arrived, I left there to come here to Los Angeles.

Looking back and remembering the San Jose days and then the St. Louis days, it seems that Patrick Emory and I had an "inner feeling" that we were probably unaware of that stated (in essence) that whatever town we were in wasn't big enough for both of us.

Many years have passed since those San Jose and St. Louis years. He's happily living in Florida, I'm happily living here in Los Angeles and we are constantly in touch with each other, email wise. He's on one end of the United States, I'm on the other end and we get along famously.

There has been a lot of talk recently about search procedures at airports. As we all know, one guy got famous for telling a human body scanner to not "touch his junk" or there would be hell to pay.

A few days ago, Patrick Emory sent me what he thinks would be the perfect solution to all the controversy over full-body scanners at the airports and I agree with Patrick Emory. If this idea he sent me would be implemented, I believe this is something we would all be thankful for on Thanksgiving Day and every other day.

There are rumors about this idea having been perfected by and used by other countries already, but after doing a lot of checking up on this, I have found no credible evidence to back up those rumors.

Here's hoping that this will become a reality. And here comes what that "this" American airport security idea is.

Have a booth that you can step into that will not x-ray you, but will detonate any explosive device you may have on your body. It would be a win-win for everyone and there would be none of this crap about racial profiling and this method would eliminate a long and expensive trial. Justice would be quick and swift. This is so simple that it's brilliant. I can see it now. You're in the airport terminal and you hear a muffled explosion.

Shortly thereafter an announcement comes over the PA system: "Attention standby passengers. We now have a seat available on flight number 4665. Paging Maintenance. Shop Vac needed in booth number 4."

Sure sounds like a win-win to ME!!!

And me too, Patrick Emory.

Okay, I want to be clear on something here. I'm not saying this is Patrick Emory's idea or that it isn't Patrick Emory's idea. I don't know and I didn't ask him. What I do know is that he sent this to me and I LOVE the idea. Is there a realistic chance of an idea like this being approved?!? Honestly, probably not. Buuuut....If the people who have the authority to implement this idea would sell it in a way to convince people that everyone would be warned over and over again that if they're going to try to board one of our planes that they will have to go into one of our special booths before they board. And if they're carrying explosives even in places like in their stomach or in their rear ends (as in assholes), the machine in the booth will know and will automatically react. And after the reaction? A vacuum cleaner will remove the body dust.

Short Blog this week and here are some "quick hits":

If a person comes to an American airport and he is wearing a turban and a beard, don't you think he should be "profiled"?

Why is it that it seems like we're always hearing new ways to give free stuff to illegal immigrants, but there don't seem to be new (or old) ways to get them the hell out of this country?

First there was the con-man known as "Curveball" who suckered the Bush administration into spending who knows how much money for a fraudulent war in Iraq. Including, of course, money for him, "Curveball". That was bad enough, but now another con-man in Afghanistan who claimed to be a high level Taliban Commander, seems to have suckered the great General Petraeus, Afghanistan President Karzai and people in the Obama adminstration. In addition to spending who knows much money on this idiotic war for more years than any war we've ever been in, this con-man has been getting money and free plane trips from us for convincing our people that the war was about to end and we (our troops) will soon be able to go home.

Question: What the hell has happened to what used to be known as a great "intelligence operation" in our country? Have they all gotten suddenly dumb or are they being overruled at the top by people who are dumb and dumber? And if that's the case, it's no wonder that some people think Sarah Palin would be a good president.

Speaking of the Palin's....Bristol didn't win "Dancing with the Stars" and did you pick up on what Bristol said would be super cool for her if she won the "Dancing with the Stars" competition? She said something about how it would be like a large middle finger directed at all the people who hate her mom and all the people who hate her (Bristol) if she won.

Yep, more of that good ol' "family values" thing we keep hearing about from the mouth of "Mama Grizzly".

And how about that new story about Willow Palin? No, I'm talking about the story after the story in which she did the Facebook thing.

Tightrope walkers and train wrecks. It's impossible to keep our eyes off them.

ENTERTAINMENT STUFF:

Television wise, it was another great week for "Dexter" on Showtime, "Glee" on Fox and "The Good Wife" on CBS.

There are only 2 or 3 episodes remaining for "Dexter" this season. This has been a great season for "Dexter". I mean a GREAT season!

Same deal(s) with "Glee" and "The Good Wife", but those shows still have multiple episodes before their season ends.

New Movie Alerts:

"Love and other Drugs", starring Anne Hathaway and Jake Gyllenhaal is now in your favorite Cineplex and so is "Burlesque", starring Cher and Christina Aguilera. I'm very much looking forward to seeing "Love and other Drugs", but something tells me that "Burlesque" is a film that isn't very good.

"How do you Know", starring Reese Witherspoon, Paul Rudd, Owen Wilson and Jack Nicholson will open, December 17. The previews look great and I definitely plan to see it.

"Country Strong", starring Gwyneth Paltrow and Tim McGraw will open, December 22. I thought McGraw was terrific in "Blindside", I'm a big fan of Paltrow's work and I'm looking forward to seeing this film.

Same deal and same opening day (December 22) for "True Grit", starring Jeff Bridges, Matt Damon and Josh Brolin.

Questions and or comments? Write to me at scottstjames@sbcglobal.net and will respond to you ASAP. Please don't write to the blog because there's no way for me to know your email address and that means I won't be able to respond to you. Again... scottstjames@sbcglobal.net
and I will respond to you as quickly as possible. All "Anonymous" emails are ignored.

The next Blog? Barring unforeseen circumstances, Late Wednesday night, December 1 or early Thursday morning, December 2.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Sarah Palin Says She's Thinking About Running And That She Could Beat Barack Obama In 2012!!!

I have honestly been thinking about stepping away from this "labor of love" of mine that's called, "The Jammer With The Hammer". In fact, I was thinking about making next Wednesday's blog (the day before Thanksgiving) my last blog for a while or perhaps permanently.

I've been very pleased with the results of a couple of recent film things I've been involved with, including a film I finished working on yesterday. I spend a lot of time reading and doing research for this blog and I think I should probably spend more time focusing on sharpening my acting skills.

And yeah, there are some people who would like me to get back into the radio arena because of the once a week stuff I've been having a good time with on CRN.

Where was I?

Oh, right. I was telling you why I've seriously been thinking about possibly ending, "The Jammer With The Hammer".

You have seen the "headline" above today's blog, right?

Welllll.....Thanks to Ms. Palin, I might have to seriously reconsider my thinking.

By the time you read this, you will have probably already heard about it, but in case you haven't, IN AN INTERVIEW WITH BARBARA WALTERS THAT WILL BE SHOWN ON ABC, DECEMBER 9, SARAH PALIN SAID SHE IS CONSIDERING A PRESIDENTIAL BID AND BELIEVES SHE COULD BEAT BARACK OBAMA IN 2012!

And after hearing THAT, I'm going to stop writing this blog?!?

Decisions, decisions.

This is the first time that Sarah Palin has made a public statement like this. A lot of reporters think she's been thinking these thoughts a long time and that's why they constantly ask her questions about it, but now that she's said this publicly....

I know. She didn't say she will run, she's just thinking about it, but this will get everyone's attention. Big time! Especially the part about her believing she would beat Barack Obama in 2012, if she decided to run.

Short Commentary:

Yo, Sarah, the Quitter! I know you got yourself a new "shot of confidence" because of the more than five million people who watched your Alaska reality show this past Sunday night. But Sar-ah, which is what your under 10-year old daughter, Piper called you on that show. Sar-ah, you better talk to "experts" about this show of yours and if you do, you will probably be told that the audience liked Piper more than they liked you. And yeah, there were a few party poopers who wondered why she didn't call you, "Mom", but I guess that must be one of those "Mama Grizzly (or is it, Grizzlie?) things that make you and your family unique, huh?

Governor Palin, even though you unceremoniously quit your Governor's job and in the process, disappointed a lot of people who voted for you, I really hope that you do decide to be a presidential candidate in 2012. During that process, we would (I think) find out why you really quit your job as Governor of Alaska.

But even if we don't, or if we do and we find out that you quit so that you could make some serious money while people like Rush and the whole Fox network fawn all over you, most folks won't suggest there's anything wrong with that.

It will simply be described by your fans as being all good and all legal. And all real.

But Governor Palin, here's something else that's real; Unless you get yourself politically prepared a hell of a lot more than you were while you were John McCain's albatross around his neck, you will have no chance at all against Barack Obama.

And let me tell you something else, Governor Palin. If I ran against you and you weren't ten times more prepared than you were a couple of years ago, you wouldn't win. All it would take would be one debate. You have no idea how kind Joe Biden was to you during that debate.

God, I hope you run. I'm in the entertainment business and I LOVE a good SHOW!!!

DIFFERENT SUBJECT, SAME FAMILY!!!

BRISTOL PALIN:

Have you been watching "Dancing with the Stars". Bristol Palin, daughter of Sar-ah, has reached the finals of that show. The professional judges have consistently voted in a way that tells us they don't think Bristol is a good dancer. Or at least not a "high level" kind of dancer. But voters calling the show have consistently been numerous enough to keep Bristol on the show and now she's in the position of possibly winning this competition.

If she does end up winning, good for her and those of us who are fans of "American Idol" know that the best singer doesn't always win, either. Sometimes, you just can't overcome people who have powerful and fast dialing fingers.

But every once in a while when a person who doesn't have much talent continues to survive in spite of their shortcomings, someone else gets seriously pissed off.

Did you hear about the viewer in Wisconsin? The other night while Bristol Palin was dancing, Wisconsin resident Steve Cowan got so pissed off, he blasted his television screen with a shotgun.

He scared the hell out of his wife who called the police. If you think Mr. Cowan was pissed off before, check out what he's pissed off about now! He had to put up $1500 for bail money, it'll cost him 2 or 3 grand (if not more) for a new television and he figures to have pay stratospheric money for his wife's therapy.

Ah, yes. Our new uniters are on the horizon. The Palin family.

Two other Palin Related Stories:

It looks like Lisa Murkowski has won the Alaska U.S. Senate race over the guy Sarah Palin endorsed, Joe Miller. Miller has some questionable ethical issues, but that didn't seem to bother the former governor.

Another person Palin endorsed, but who won, is Minnesota's Congress-woman, Michele Bachmann. Another person with ethical issues. She's the one who started the rumor about how much it was costing American taxpayers for President Obama's trip to Asia. CNN's Anderson Cooper had her on as a guest when she told him and his audience that Obama's trip was costing us taxpayers TWO HUNDRED MILLION DOLLARS A DAY and that Obama was bringing more than 2000 people on the trip. Carnival barkers like Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck and Michael Savage picked up on Bachmann's lie and "reported it" over and over again. None of these professional clowns tried to verify the story. They just talked about it, talked about it and talked about it some more. Until a day or so later, someone finally told them it wasn't true. Did any of these paragons of journalism ever tell their listeners or viewers that this wasn't true? Not that I'M aware of. Did Michele Bachmann ever apologize for her lie? Not that I'M aware of.

I've never met her, but I'm told that Ms. Bachmann is cute. Is that why Sean Hannity gave her a $5000 campaign donation? I'm not making that up. Wellll....If Ms. Bachmann is cute and she likes to lie, I'm reminded of girls like her when I was in high school and some young actresses I've worked with. They are known as bimbos. Is this what the state of Minnesota has decided is the kind of person they want to represent them in Congress? An attractive woman who has the very dangerous talent of being a believable liar?

Just askin'....

Oh....The $200 million dollar a day lie? For a trip to Asia? It costs about $190 million dollars a day for everything our troops are doing in Afghanistan. That gives you an idea as to how big a lie it was that Ms. Bachmann told Anderson Cooper. The lie about 2000 or more people that were joining Obama on the trip? The real number is closer to 200 and they were all business people who were hoping to make "deals". To Cooper's credit, he DID try to verify what Ms. Bachmann told him and when he found out she had told him and his CNN audience a falsehood, he corrected it on the air.

ENTERTAINMENT STUFF:

This first item is personal. My sincerest of thanks to Producer/Director James Brandenburg and his wonderful cast and crew who helped make my appearance in their film, "Chinese Takeout", the off the charts fun experience that it was for me. I was given a lot of freedom to add stuff to this character I was playing and an actor always appreciates that. Of course if it doesn't "work", you (the actor) will get reined in quickly, but more often than not, you (the actor) aren't given the opportunity to "try". In a few months I think I'll have some clips of what we did that I can show you on the internet. Thanks again, Mr. Brandenburg.

Showtime's "Dexter", just gets better and better. This past Sunday's episode (which gets repeated often) was sooo good. Special Guest Star, Julia Stiles is brilliant and another Guest Star, long time character Peter Weller is playing a "snake" kind of role that is slimy with a "capital" S!

Sunday's "Brothers & Sisters" on ABC continues to be disappointing. Once upon a time, that show was GREAT!!!

Tuesday's episode of "Glee" on Fox was especially enjoyable for me. I've seen every episode of this show, so you know I'm a fan. But this past Tuesday, Oscar winning actress Gwyneth Paltrow was their Special Guest Star and she was very good. In fact, she was WOW good. She was singing, dancing and when she wasn't doing that, you had the feeling she would be a great new love interest for the leader of the "Glee" club, but then you realize there's no way in hell the show could afford her. And yes, we know she did this "Glee" show as a way to pump up interest for a new film that will be coming out soon in which she plays a troubled Country singer.

Tuesday night's episode of "The Good Wife" on CBS was exceptionally good for a lot of reasons. How they get so much good stuff on the screen in less than 45 minutes is mind boggling.

QUESTIONS AND OR COMMENTS? Please write to me at scottstjames@sbcglobal.net and I will respond to you, ASAP. Don't write to the blog because there's no way for me to know your email address which means I won't be able to respond to you. Again... scottstjames@sbcglobal.net and I will write back as quickly as I can.

THE NEXT BLOG? Barring unforeseen circumstances, late Wednesday night, November 24 or early Thursday morning, November 25, which is Thanksgiving Day.

Get ready to gobble, gobble and have a great weekend everybody!

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

If Our New Majority Politicians Want To Repeal Something, I Have A Better Idea Than The New Health Care Bill

Squawk, squawk, squawk!!!

Like a bunch of angry parakeets and or parrots, the new and orange Speaker of the House and his Tea Party Revolution wannabes are pretty much mouthing the same daily rhetoric; Let's make sure that Obama doesn't get a second term and let's repeal the new health care bill which they sarcastically refer to as Obama care.

Yo, orange guy! Yo, Tea Party Parrots! And speaking of parrots, how about that Tea Party darling, Michele Bachmann, the rocket scientist who lied up her skirt with the bogus rumor that Obama's trip to India was involving more than 3000 people at a cost to the American taxpayers of 200 MILLION DOLLARS A DAY!!!

This same dodo, who got Sean Hannity to donate $5000 to her campaign and is also demanding the number 4 leadership position in the House. Yes, (surprise, surprise) Bachmann is another one of these characters supported by Sarah Palin. I'll give Palin this; The ones she tends to support are easy characterize. Dumb and dumber.

And then there's Rush Limbaugh. No, he's not dumb or dumber. He's what he's always been. A slick con man. And he used Bachmann's "$200 million dollars a day" lie as cover for Limbaugh to roar to the heavens that Bachmann's lie was "gospel" and hinted at racial reasons as to why Obama would be spending this kind of money. And that reason was (or is), according to Limbaugh, because the Obama's (it suddenly became plural) felt "entitled" or that it "was owed to them" or some other imagined (by Limbaugh) nonsense. And by the way, the amount of people on this trip were the Obama's, about 200 business people looking to make deals in India and the normal amount of Secret Service folks. The amount of money this trip is costing? Nowhere near the "fear figure" thrown out there by the dodo and Rushbo.

But back to the new health care bill. Or Obama care bill. Whatever. The primary argument posed is that this bill will cost too much. And one of the primary missions of these new elected officials is to come up with ways to reduce costs or some way to improve the economic condition of our American citizens.

I'm definitely all for that! I have thought all along that it was a huge mistake to get involved in two wars and not require the American people to have to do some sacrificing financially to pay for those wars. Of course if that had been proposed, the odds are pretty good we'd have gotten out of those wars a long time ago. Like the man once said, "The Devil's in the DETAILS!"

Okay...We need to do something or some things to cut costs which will help cut the deficit and we need to come up with ANYTHING that will help individual Americans, financially.

Politicians learned a long time ago that the easiest way to become an EX-politician is to be messing around with and or making noises about cutting Social Security and Medicare benefits. Political suicide.

So what can we do that would big enough to have an impact and it would also benefit Americans in countless numbers of ways?

ELIMINATE THE LOTTERIES!!!

If someone made an honest assessment, they couldn't honestly come up with anything that's overall good about all of these lotteries that have popped up since about the time President Reagan was in the White House.

I know. There would initially be a lot of over the top screaming about how money from lotteries help the schools. My answer to that? HORSE SHIT!

If these lotteries were so damn helpful to schools, then why are schools constantly crying for more money?

The worse that economic conditions become, the more desperate our citizens become. And those are the people who spend the most on lotteries. Those are people who are among the first to file for bankruptcy. Those are people who resort to crime to get themselves bailed out of economic difficulty. Those are people....

You get the idea and I know you can come up with more examples than the ones I mentioned.

If you make it impossible for people to be able to walk a block or two from home and spend "food money" on lottery tickets, the economic condition of the United States of America would rise. Big time! I guaran-damn-tee-it!!!

Drastic measure? As Ms. Palin might say, "You betcha!" Because desperate times call for desperate measures. Measures that we can live with. And we can damn sure live without lotteries.

OTHER ITEMS:

President George W. Bush's book tour has been getting a lot of news coverage. I haven't read his book yet, but I will. The one thing that stands out to me is the fact that President Bush is relaxed and has gone back to being that "guy" that Bob Costas once told me that if I ever met President Bush, I would really like him. I don't doubt that. He strikes me as a guy I would probably (if given the chance) enjoy hours of his company. But that wouldn't change my mind about what kind of president he was.

Have you been following the Keith Olbermann story? We're told that he was suspended without pay for a couple of days by MSNBC because of political contributions he gave to three candidates. NBC has a rule against doing that. Buuut....LARadio.com Publisher-Owner, Don Barrett reported that an "insider" is saying the primary reason Olbermann was suspended had to do with money and Olbermann refusing to take a pay cut. Pay cuts are something that everyone in the broadcasting business (and pretty much every other business) are having to deal with. EVERYONE!!!

A lot of folks think that unless Olbermann agreed to some kind of pay cut during the last few days, he will be hit with a significant pay cut when his new contract is up for renewal and if he doesn't "play ball", he'll be gone.

I don't think Keith is that stupid. In fact, I happen to think that Keith Olbermann is smart, talented and an emotional train wreck. I somehow get the feeling that Bob Costas wouldn't try to convince me that if I ever met Keith Olbermann, I would really like him.

But a guy I really DID like....

Was Charlie O'Donnell. Most recently, the off-stage announcer for "Wheel of Fortune", a job he held for many years. Charlie O'Donnell passed away a little more than a week ago and this morning his funeral was held at St. Charles Borromeo Catholic Church in North Hollywood, California. This is a huge church and the space was needed because of all the people who came to pay their respects. I mean we're talking about a whole lot of past and present game show hosts, radio personalities and show business executives. It was an absolutely wonderful service. R.I.P., Charlie O!

ENTERTAINMENT STUFF:

Sarah Palin's reality show, "Sarah Palin's Alaska" begins this Sunday night on TLC.

After a great opening night, Conan lost a third of his viewers on his second night.

Showtime's "Dexter" continues to look more and more like that show's best season ever. And you can credit this season's new big Guest Star, Julia Stiles for that. It's beginning to look more and more like a romance will develop between Stiles and Dexter. And if I'm right, this will be a complicated romance in the sense that it would involve a professional killer and a person who's learning how to be a killer. And you thought YOUR past or current romances are or were complicated?!?

Sunday's episode of "Brothers & Sisters" was the worst episode of that show I've ever seen. For the first many years of this show's existence, "Brothers & Sisters" was my favorite show! When they started using less and less of Rob Lowe (who finally quit) and focused on other story lines, the show began to tank. Pretty soon, unless they get things turned out, "Brothers & Sisters" will need a resuscitator in order to survive.

Tuesday night's episode of "Glee" was extra terrific because of the performance turned in by the new actor who is playing the football coach. An actor who got that job thanks to the agent who is the agent I've had for many years, Sid Levin.

Tuesday night's episode of "The Good Wife" featured an absolutely terrific Guest Star performance from Michael J. Fox. As we all know, this very likeable actor has a physical handicap he has to overcome every time he performs. It's obvious that a handicap hasn't been invented that can keep Michael J. Fox from acting at a high level. "The Good Wife" is, in my view, the best show on television and last night's "The Good Wife" might have been that show's best episode of the season in a season that has featured great episodes EVERY week!

Personal show biz note: Monday, the 15th, through Tuesday, the 16th, I'll be performing in a low budget film that is currently titled (sometimes these titles change), "Chinese Takeout". I'll be playing a cranky old guy in a hospital who farts a lot and makes sexual harassment comments at a nurse who adores him, in spite of his crankiness. In the second scene that I'm in, I get killed. So much for adoration, huh?

CRN Plug: Once again, I'll be on the air with CRN owner, Mike Horn, this Friday afternoon from 4-5 PM, Pacific Time. The show will run several times throughout the weekend. If you'd like to hear what we're doing, all you have to do is click on http://www.crntalk.com/

QUESTIONS AND OR COMMENTS? Please write to me at scottstjames@sbcglobal.net and I will respond as soon as possible. Don't write to the blog because there's no way for me to know your email address and I won't be able to respond to you. Again... scottstjames@sbcglobal.net and I will respond to you, ASAP. All "anonymous" emails are ignored.

THE NEXT BLOG? Barring unforeseen circumstances, late Wednesday night, November 17 or early Thursday morning, November 18.

Tomorrow, November 11, is Veterans Day. To my brother and sister veterans, I say, HAPPY VETERANS DAY!!! And thanks for your service!


Wednesday, November 03, 2010

Some "WHY?" thoughts about SARAH PALIN!!!

WHEW!!!

Aren't we glad the elections are over? Yes, I know that some counting is still being done in a few places, but we won't have to worry about hearing or seeing political commercials that told us nothing about what the candidates would do if they got elected. But they did tell us more than we wanted to know about every nasty thing they could think of about the person they were running against.

In last week's blog, I made only one reference to the (then) upcoming elections. "I hope the voters are smarter than the radicals. Especially those voters in Alaska, California, Delaware and Nevada."

Wellll....Here in California, Meg Whitman and Carly Fiorina were beaten. I live in California and I'm very glad they didn't win. Both of these women were promising to get us jobs if they got elected, but while they were working in the private sector, Meg Whitman got more than a hundred million dollars in bonuses for outsourcing thousands of jobs to foreign countries and Carly Fiorina got something close to a hundred million dollars for doing the same thing. But we, the California voters were supposed to believe Whitman and Fiorina would get jobs for us if we elected them? "Fool me once, shame on YOU! Fool me twice, shame on ME!" We weren't fooled and they didn't get elected.

Okay that's California. The other states that I mentioned in last week's blog? In Delaware, the extremely unqualified Christine O'Donnell lost her bid to become a Senator. In Nevada, the very dangerous (if she had gotten elected) Sharron Angle lost her bid to become a Senator. And in Alaska, the votes are still being counted, but if there is "justice" in the final vote count, Lisa Murkowski will beat the ethics challenged and Sarah Palin recommended, Joe Miller. In fact, Sarah Palin supported all the losers I've mentioned here. Yes, she supported some winners as well, but what I'm getting an extra kick out of is listening to all these people who wonder if Sarah Palin will be a presidential candidate soon.

And I think. And I ponder. And then I throw my hands in the air and say...

What makes anyone think this woman is qualified to be PRESIDENT?!? Hell, she QUIT her job as Governor of Alaska! And we've never gotten a good answer as to WHY she quit! But no matter what the reason was, how can a "quitter" be remotely considered for what is arguably the most important job in the WORLD!

Katie Couric had the right idea when she asked Sarah Palin what kinds of books and magazines she reads or has read and what are/were the Supreme Court decisions that she (Palin) disagreed with. Sarah Palin stumbled, fumbled and mumbled all over those three questions. The books and magazines questions had to do with what Palin "might be made of". The Supreme Court questions had to do with what she had popped off about while she was on the campaign trail with John McCain.

What did we learn about Palin while she was giving her vocal support to candidates in this just concluded group of elections? Well, here's what I learned. She still has a weak command of basic English, she says things you can read on bumper stickers and she has become (or maybe she has always been) a big time ball breaker.

I will give Sarah Palin this; I do indeed recognize her charisma. I know that many people like her a lot because she decided to give birth to a "special needs" child. As opposed to aborting that child. I give her "props" for that, too.

But you know what I'm beginning to think people like about Sarah Palin the most? What a whole lot of folks don't like about Barack Obama is that he comes across as being too smart. I think that most folks who like Sarah Palin like her because deep down inside they think they're just as smart or smar-TER than Sarah Palin. And that fits what we keep hearing from people who think highly of her which is, "She's just like ME!" Or, "US!"

But in conclusion, I have to ask, "Doesn't it bother you at all that she QUIT her job as Governor of Alaska? Or that her answers to questions seem to be the same answers no matter WHAT the question is?"

Just askin'. It's what I do.

Other Stuff:

For those who agree with talk hosts and media celebrities that we should have more of a "religion/God" thing going on in our government as opposed to this "Separation of Church and State" thing? My answer to that is in the form of a question; How do you think that Church and State connection is working out in Muslim countries?

Now that Republicans have more seats in the House, we are hearing talk about the return of deregulation and how wonderful that would be for us. Well, if the "us" that's referred to is the richest of the rich, then that kind of thinking is true. But here's also what's true. Deregulation is the hands down biggest reason we're in the economic mess we're in.

The National Enquirer is going to file for bankruptcy.

Short commentary: When you can no longer make money by writing lies about famous people, you know our economy is in the toilet!

Charlie O'Donnell!!!

For those who don't know, Charlie O'Donnell was the announcer for "Wheel of Fortune" for almost 30 years. He was also Dick Clark's original sidekick on "American Bandstand". He was the host of lots of other shows, but what he was best at was being the human being that he was.

I say "was" because the guy who (to his friends) was known as "Charlie O", died in his sleep this past Monday.

LARadio.com owner/publisher Don Barrett sent the bulletin out on Monday and when I saw the bulletin, I was shocked.

Charlie O and I were both working on television news shows during the 80's and we used to make the legendary Los Angeles watering hole/eating establishment, Martoni's, our first stop when we got off the air. Over the close to 30 years I knew him, we talked about many things. One thing I never heard him say was something bad about anyone! I know a lot of people and I can honestly say I don't know anyone else who has never said something bad about someone. And that includes me! I mean, who the hell doesn't say SOMETHING bad about someone?!? Charlie O didn't.

Charlie O sent me a note less than a week ago telling me (among other things) how much he looked forward to reading this little blog every week. I'm sure he sent notes like that to a lot of people because that's the kind of considerate guy he was.

I'm not a funeral attending kind of person, but in this case I'm going to make an exception. A week from today I'll be at a church in North Hollywood, California along with a lot of other people who experienced the "goodness" that epitomized, Charlie O'Donnell.

R.I.P., my friend.

ENTERTAINMENT STUFF:

The Porn Star who was with Charlie Sheen a week or so ago is making noises about wanting to cause some trouble for Mr. Sheen. Trouble that could involve a judge and a jury. If a settlement isn't reached (it's always about the money, isn't it?), can you imagine being a member of the jury who would be asked to "pick a side"? I mean, you would have Charlie Sheen and his notorious rap sheet showing him to be a "bad guy" and a Porn Star who was paid 12-grand to be with Charlie that night. She doesn't seem to have physically been hurt. I'm sure her feelings got hurt because she somehow got locked into a bathroom or something, buuuut....

You know what? If I was on that jury, I'd be very surprised if anyone in the jury room with me could honestly rule for or against either of those two. And I believe at the end of the day, we would be tempted to tell the judge, "Your Honor, why are we here? For crying out loud, this is Charlie Sheen and a Porn Star!!! People like these two DESERVE each other!"

A few days ago, I saw a film on TMC that came out last year. "Crossing Over", starring Harrison Ford, Ray Liotta, Ashley Judd and a hot young actress I had never seen before, Alice Eve. It's a film that's mostly about illegal immigration. There are a couple of points when the film tends to "drag" a little, but overall, I thought it was entertaining.

A new film that will open this Friday is a film I'm very interested in seeing. "Fair Game", starring Sean Penn and Naomi Watts. It's based on true events that involved deep cover CIA Agent, Valerie Plame and her husband, Joe Wilson. The term "Fair Game" was supposedly said by Karl Rove to MSNBC's Chris Matthews and that term was used to describe Valerie Plame. If it could have been proven that Rove "outed" Plame, that's a big time criminal offense that would have resulted in a jail sentence for Rove. The guy who took the fall, was Scooter Libby, a man who was very close to Vice President Dick Cheney. Libby had his jail sentence commuted by President Bush, but he wasn't given a pardon.

Two quick items about the television shows, "Brothers & Sisters" and "Dexter".

As far as "Brothers & Sisters" goes, I thought they were on the right track when it looked like they were about to end the Kevin-Scotty relationship. If they're not, they're making a mistake.

If you're not familiar with "Dexter", it's a show on Showtime about a serial killer who works for the Miami police department and who (during off hours) kills bad guys. One of the great things about this show is the kind of "Guest Star" they have each season. A "Guest Star" who usually gets killed by Dexter in the final episode of the season. This season's "Guest Star" is Julia Stiles and like all the previous "Guest Stars", she is terrific. But will this "Guest Star" end up being killed by Dexter? Ya gotta wonder, because Julia Stiles is playing the role of a victim. A victim who's big time pissed off and wants to do some "get even" killing. Needless to say, this is making Dexter's complicated life even more complicated.

QUESTIONS AND OR COMMENTS? Please write to me at scottstjames@sbcglobal.net and I will respond to you as quickly as I can. Don't write to the blog because there's no way for me to know your email address and that means I won't be able to respond. Again... Write to scottstjames@sbcglobal.net and I will reply A.S.A.P.

THE NEXT BLOG? Barring unforseen circumstances, Wednesday evening, November 10 (the day of Charlie O'Donnell's funeral) or early Thursday morning, November 11.

FYI...I'll be on CRN this Friday (again) with CRN owner, Mike Horn, from 4-5, Pacific Time in the afternoon. The show that we'll do will be repeated several times during the weekend. If you'd like to hear it, please click on www.CRNTalk.com

DON'T FORGET TO CHANGE YOUR CLOCKS AND WATCHES THIS SUNDAY MORNING.

Do you remember the phrase, "Spring forward, Fall back"? It's time to "fall back" this coming Sunday morning. Move your clocks and watches "back" an hour.

I hope that you and yours have a great rest of the week and weekend!