Thursday, March 29, 2012

$540 Million and Climbing! Left and Right; A Difference? ObamaCare & RomneyCare; A Difference? Sgt. Bales & the Muslim Major! My 6th Anniversary

I am beginning this blog early Thursday evening, March 29. Our subscribers will receive this blog early Friday morning, March 30. March 30 is this blogs sixth anniversary. Where DOES the time GO?!?

The architect of this blog is long time Entertainment Tonight Producer-Director, Kevin Gershan. He did all the "building", I do all the writing and he solves "modern technology problems" whenever they rear their ugly heads.

I am constantly amazed at the "REACH" of this little blog. We do no promoting, I am not (by any stretch of imagination) a household name, like....Oh, I dunno...Limbaugh? Well, I don't insult women or minorities so I'll never be known like Rush is. Beck? I don't cry or make up stuff, so I'll never be known like Beck is. Olbermann? I don't terrorize my co-workers or my employers, so I'll never be known like Keith is. But for whatever strange reason I have had people from almost every state in America email me questions and or comments about something I've written or that they would LIKE me to write about. I've also received emails from people in several foreign countries. No, these are not readers who always agree with me. I love the back and forth dialogue. For example, there's a guy in North Carolina who (I think) has read every blog of mine and he's constantly telling me how wrong he thinks I am. I listen to him and everyone else because every once in a while I end up changing my mind about something. And here's another thing many readers do that I'm very grateful for. I'm often the recipient of something I hadn't heard about and I immediately look into it. One of the constant providers of information like this is a Missouri beauty queen who is politically to the right of Attila the Hun.

I could go on and on with examples of the kind(s) of readers who let me know they're "out there" and I big time appreciate it. Thank you very much, I love all of you, this is the first time I've written about an "Anniversary" and if I do it again, it will be when I'm writing about a TWELFTH Anniversary.

THE MEGA MILLIONS JACKPOT:

If you live in an area that sells Mega Millions lottery tickets (I do), you know that this particular jackpot is at a number that's NEVER been this high and it's climbing by the minute. The last number I heard was/is five hundred forty MILLION DOLLARS!!! The next jackpot drawing will be Friday evening, March 30. If you're the winner and you say you want a lump sum payment, you'll receive "ONLY" something in the neighborhood of two hundred seventy million or so. If the jackpot reaches six hundred million, that would be a lump sum possibility of three hundred million or so. If you win and choose to be paid in twenty six yearly installments, you would receive a check for more than twenty million dollars a year, minus taxes.

I live in the Los Angeles area and I watched a whole lot of people buying lottery tickets today. $20, $40, $100, more than $100, etc., etc. While watching this, my first thought was that three or four days from now, a lot of people are going to be saying to their wives or husbands, "What do you MEAN we don't have enough money for MILK?!?"

I wish good luck to all of you, buuuut....Be CAREFUL!!!!

POLITICAL "Left" AND "Right". A DIFFERENCE?

In a blog I wrote more than a year ago, I made the observation that we might be observing something that would appear to be beyond unbelievable. Many years from now, historians will have the final "say" on this, but have we been watching the two worst presidents in America's history, back to back.

I thought George W. Bush was the worst president I've seen in my lifetime and that's why, for the first time ever, I voted for a Democrat, Barack Obama. Hmmmm...Barack Obama, "Bush-Lite"?!? Or is it George W. Bush, "Obama-Lite"?!?

I mean seriously, folks. Think about it. Bush got us into that stupid-ass war in Iraq while spending our money like a drunken sailor and the only people who benefited were rich people. Obama continued the war in Afghanistan even AFTER he directed the assassination of Osama bin Laden, he's been spending our money like a drunken sailor and the only people who have benefited have been rich people.

Obama had what I thought was a pretty good idea regarding the health care thing he championed. If the Supreme Court ends up declaring this unconstitutional or any other reason to "kill" what is known (by most) as ObamaCare, it will probably be because he didn't "frame it" correctly.

Bush on the right, Obama on the left? Uh, huh. And the overall difference (if you allow your eyes to be open) isn't left or right. The numbers and actions, REAL numbers and REAL actions, speak for themselves. Black and white numbers. Or if you prefer, white and black. And yeah, we can have that conversation, too.

When I hear or read people saying (in essence) "Those blankety-blank LIBS!" or "Those blankety-blank right-wingers!", I want to puke. If you have to use LABELS to make your argument(s), what you're really doing is, "TALKING TO HEAR YOUR HEAD ROAR!!!"

This is America, people. We have problems. A lot of problems. That affect AMERICANS! Not "libs" or "right-wingers"! AMERICANS, damn it! AMERICA FIRST!

Mission statement: Cut out the childish bullshit and let's get about the business of solving some problems. TOGETHER!!!

One of the things we CAN'T do is to automatically cut our spending in half immediately. Anyone who thinks otherwise is an idiot. Do we have to cut and control our spending? Absolutely! We cannot control our spending by continuing to be the country that seems to always like being involved in wars and we cannot control our spending if we keep bending over for rich people, keep screwing the middle class and keep allowing lobbyists to control too many things. Things that they control by having politicians in their pockets. We absolutely MUST find a way to outlaw lobbyists.

Just sayin....Just askin....And now I'm out of breath.

Oh....While wearing my Columbo hat, I say, "Excuse me people, just one more thing." Why don't we call what Mitt Romney did in Massachusetts, "RomneyCare"?!? Hey, he's the father of ObamaCare. And yet, he continues to act like he's disowned his son. But that's typical Romney, isn't it? Stick your finger up in the air, find out which way the wind is blowing and VOILA....Mr. professional flip-flop has made his decision.
UNTIL....the wind is blowing in a DIFFERENT direction!

Hmmmm....Is it possible we're on the verge of possibly witnessing the THREE worst presidents in our history? Back to back to back?

Just askin'....And hopin'....I'm wrong.

Sgt. Bales and the Muslim Major:

I was asked about these two guys a couple of days ago. The concern in the question I was asked had to do with what looked like (to the reader) a whole of talking about putting Sgt. Bales on trial immediately and execute him while that infamous Muslim Major who killed (I think) close to 30 American soldiers here in America and no one seems to be anxious to even put him on trial.

To me, that's more nonsense that gets thrown around by people who think that Obama makes sure that Muslim bad guys are treated better than American bad guys. Obama ordered the assassinations of Osama bin Laden (Muslim) and that American citizen (Muslim) who was advocating terrorist strikes here.

Here's my take on Sgt. Bales and the Muslim Major. Sgt. Bales didn't allegedly kill anyone. It's pretty much agreed that he's responsible for 17 murders. Was he insane? I kind of think he might have been and perhaps still is. If that's the case, he figures to end up in a mental hospital of some kind. And maybe for life.

The Muslim Major? While killing all those American soldiers, he was saying or singing some kind of Muslim prayer or song before he was stopped by bullet wounds that caused him a great deal of pain.

I'm in no hurry to see this Muslim Major be executed. The longer I'm aware of him being in some kind of solitary confinement while experiencing severe pain, I feel that justice is being served. Does that make me a sadist? No it doesn't. It makes me (a military veteran) one pissed off S.O.B. at anyone who kills my brothers and sisters and I have no problem watching this Muslim Major suffer.

WHEW!!!!!!!

ENTERTAINMENT STUFF:

Magic Johnson being one of the new owners of the Los Angeles Dodgers is big news here in Los Angeles. The year that Jerry Buss bought the Lakers (1979), the year that Magic Johnson joined the Lakers and the year I arrived here and began covering the Lakers on radio and then television was the best trifecta I've ever been involved with. What was known as the "Showtime" era was fun, exciting, beyond exciting and what we all learned was that Magic Johnson was all about fun and winning. He's hands down one of the nicest people I've ever gotten to know. But to be fair, so was/is Jerry Buss. The Los Angeles Dodgers are very lucky to have a guy like Magic Johnson being their new "face".

Do you have any plans for April 4? In many cities all across America, a 3-D version of the great film, "Titanic" will be shown. For those of us who plan to see this special showing, I think we're all gonna mentally "FEEL" that water.

I did not see any of the new films this past week. I hope to see "The Hunger Games" sometime before the next blog.

TV shows: This past Sunday, "The Good Wife" introduced us to a new character that was played by Matthew Perry, a guy who in real life, is very good friends with Julianna Margulies, her own self. I thought Perry was terrific, all the other actors were terrific and when the show ended, I thought we had witnessed the best episode of "The Good Wife", EVER!!!

Unfortunately, we won't see the next episode until April 15.

Season ending episodes of "Shameless", "House of Lies" and "Californication" will be shown on Showtime this coming Sunday. It's been a very good season for all three of those shows and they've all been renewed for next season.

Goodbye "Luck"! I thought it was a good show, but most of America didn't agree with me.

I can't say enough good things about NBC's Monday night at 10 show. "Smash" is smashing good fun. Great story, great writing, great acting, cat fights, sneaky guys, affairs, I mean this show has EVERYTHING!

Tuesday nights on FX is fun because of the lead character played by Timothy Olyphant. I think the great writer Ken Levine refers to the Olyphant character as "The coolest cat on television!" Or something like that and I agree with Ken. "Justified" is the name of the show and your Tuesday nights will be justified if you watch it.

The show "Bones" returns to Fox this coming Monday night and it will be followed by the first of the final 8 episodes of "House". "House" has had one hell of great run, but nothing lasts forever.

Have you been missing the show "Glee"? Me too and it will finally return on April 10. They have a cliff hanger that will have to be resolved and this might be the episode that Lindsay Lohan will be guest starring in. If not, she'll definitely be in one of the later episodes. How old is Lindsay Lohan? 25? 26? Younger? Have you seen her lately? Once upon a time, Lindsay Lohan was drop dead gorgeous. She still has a great body, but when you look at her face, she looks like she's (at least) 20 years older and she's a walking example of what excessive drug consumption can do.

Did you see Wednesday (March 28) night's episode of "American Idol"? What is this? Their 11th year? I've seen almost every episode and Wednesday night's episode was the BEST episode I've EVER seen. And "American Idol" should figure out a way to use the famous singer Stevie Nicks more often. She gave those singers some terrific advice.

THOUGHTS 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. I respond to everyone except "Anonymous" emails. Those are ignored.

THE NEXT BLOG? Barring unforseen circumstances, next Thursday night, April 5 or very early Friday morning, April 6.

Meanwhile, I hope that all of you have a great weekend, a pleasant Palm Sunday and don't forget...

AMERICA FIRST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thursday, March 22, 2012

Freedom Of Speech?!? A Double Hate Based Presidential Election?!? The Birthers Are At It Again!!! Sgt. Bales Facing 17 Counts of Murder!!!

If you think the persistence of "Birthers" is a good thing because you think President Obama fits the description of a "Manchurian Candidate" or he's just flat out "ineligible" because you don't believe he was born here, I can't help but wonder if you think that "Birthers" having accusatory eyes on one of the other presidential candidates is also a good thing?

I'm not making this up. This particular group of birthers is active here in California. Gotta love the name of the birthers' lawyer. Gary Kreep. Lawyer? Well, we all know what that usually means, right? A lawsuit. The lawsuit has to do with Obama not being "eligible" and (also) Mitt Romney possibly not being "eligible" because of the alleged long time that Romney's parents lived in Mexico. In other words, this fine group of birther battlers are suggesting that both Obama AND Romney might be ineligible and if it turned out they were right, does that mean that Joe Biden would suddenly become our president and the next presidential election wouldn't be able to be held until sometime in 2013 because all of a sudden we wouldn't have any "approved of" presidential nominees.

I mean, can the collective mind of our great nation stay SANE if we were suddenly faced with what appears to be the (above described) possible IN-sanity of it all?


Okay...I plead guilty to doing a little tongue-in-cheek writing about this, but I'm not kidding about what this particular group of birthers is/are trying to do.


Oh...One other thing about the guy who is the birthers' lawyer. Gary Kreep is apparently the big boss man of group that calls itself The United States Justice Foundation and he's also the lawyer who handled the 2009 lawsuit against President Obama by Wiley S. Drake, a minister who once asked (or told) his First Baptist Church members to pray for Obama's death.

True story.

Hmmm...A minister of a church asking his congregation to pray for the death of The President of The United States? Or anyone else, for that matter? Wellll....When you hear or read something like THIS, I guess it's a little easier to understand the collective covering up of thousands upon thousands of children who........

You get my drift, right?

One more religion/religious thing...

Mitt Romney is a Mormon. Shoot, for a while, he was a Mormon Bishop and for all I know, maybe he's STILL a Mormon Bishop. I don't know and I don't care.

But here's what I DO know. A lot of very religious people think/believe that the Mormon religion is nothing more than a cult. Some seriously religious people have very bad thoughts about what the Mormon religion is all about. Hateful thoughts? If not, there are definitely some "suspicious thoughts". We all know there are some hateful thoughts directed at President Obama. And that leads me to the following question; Assuming that the birthers go nowhere with their lawsuits and our presidential nominees will be Obama and Romney, is it possible that this will be the biggest "hate election" in our history?

Just askin'...

One more thing. If it ever turns out that President Obama fooled us all and he really WASN'T born here? The first thing I would want done would be for every member of the Secret Service to be FIRED along with every other federal agent in Washington. WHY? Because when Hillary Clinton was Obama's main presidential competition, she and her husband had heard the same things about Obama possibly being a guy who wasn't born here. Her husband being, former President of The United States, Bill Clinton. As a former president, is there any doubt in your mind that he had the Secret Service and all other federal agencies looking into the "Was Obama born HERE?" question? And is there any legitimate doubt in your mind that the Secret Service and other federal law enforcement agents reported back with the words, "Mr. President, he (Obama) WAS born here!"?

Just sayin' and just askin'...

Freedom Of Speech:

There's a lot of talk about what Rush Limbaugh said about the female college student and what some local (Los Angeles) guys said on the same station that carries Rush's show here. Fans of their (at times) insulting and profane comments about minorities and women are defended with three words; "Freedom of Speech"!

Wrong arena, gang. In my 40+years associated with the broadcasting business, my peers and I always understood that TOTAL freedom of speech is something involving a book, a megaphone on the street, stuff taped or stapled onto a sign, etc., etc. On the air rules are known by everyone who ever got into this business. When there's a "crack in the (legal by law) armor", it generally has to do with management types who pretend they are deaf because the breaking of well known rules seem to be the primary reason that a lot of money is being made and ratings have gone up.

The REAL pros in this business, pros that I have been honored to work with are (or were) pros who knew how to (verbally) walk to the end of the ledge, but they never fell off a cliff.

"Sergeant Assassin" Will Be Charged With 17 Murders:

In last week's blog, I referred to him as "Sergeant Assassin" because we didn't know what his name was yet.

It turns out that in addition to being what appears to have been a killer of 17, Sgt. Robert Bales is a guy who was a pretty good soldier but we're learning some things about his private life that aren't so good.

Meanwhile, isn't it time for us (our troops) to get the hell OUT of Afghanistan?

Just askin'....

ENTERTAINMENT STUFF:

Happy Birthday, Bob Costas. Bob and I got our first "big breaks" when we both were hired at what was then the legendary radio station, KMOX in St. Louis. I ended up here in Los Angeles doing radio and television sports before switching to acting and writing and Mr. Costas ended up being a BIG STAR for NBC. And still is.

A big and personal shout-out to Hall of Fame Music producer and promoter, Don Graham! In addition to being a guy who likes this little blog enough to have talked a whole bunch of people into being subscribers to this little blog, Don Graham was kind enough to give me a box set of music that's titled, "Encyclopedia of Recorded Comedy Music, RAY STEVENS".

Ray Stevens is a comedic music genius. And has been for many years. All of his hits are in this set and if you like to laugh, I wholeheartedly recommend that you buy this set. Because of all the laughing you'll do and the smiles you'll see on the faces of your friends, the close to $80 this set costs, will be "chump change!"

Thanks again, Don Graham!!!

Tim Tebow:

He was very entertaining while he was in Denver. Wouldn't it be something if he somehow gets the chance and succeeds at being entertaining while he's with the New York Jets?

Films:

I saw two movies this past week. The first one was a 2005 film on Showtime that I saw for the first time. "Capote". It stars Philip Seymour Hoffman, Catherine Keener, Clifton Collins Jr. and some terrific supporting players. Hoffman won the Best Actor Oscar for this film, the film itself was nominated as was the director, Adapted Screenplay and Keener was also nominated. I thought Collins Jr. deserved a Best Supporting Actor nomination. Gang, if you haven't seen it, this film is most definitely worth your time. It's a heavy, heavy, heavy film, but there's a good reason for all the Oscar nominations this film received.

A couple of days ago I saw the film that sold the most tickets this past week. "21 Jump Street". This film stars Jonah Hill, Channing Tatum, Ice Cube and a cameo appearance by Johnny Depp. When Depp was asked to make the appearance (the "Jump Street TV show made Depp a star), Depp said he would make the appearance under one condition. If he got killed. Translation? He didn't want to make another appearance in what will probably be a sequel. I didn't think this was a great film, but I walked out of the theatre feeling I had been entertained. I have now seen three films in which Channing Tatum has been a lead actor. And I am convinced that this young man is going to have a terrific career.

TV Stuff: There are a lot of good shows on television these days. And that's because of all the good shows on cable which has forced the network stations to get good(er) shows to be produced. I wish I could tell you something about all the good shows, but I don't have the time to SEE them all.

Sunday's "The Good Wife" was (in my view) very, very good. Michael J. Fox guest starred again and he's always a terrific asset for that show. Matthew Perry will be added to the cast beginning this coming Sunday. And his character will apparently be the kind of character who will annoy and annoy and be a big time pain in the ass to "The Good Wife", her own self.

Showtime's Sunday showings of "Shameless" and "House of Lies" are, to me, big time fun to watch. Don Cheadle is the star of "House of Lies", but to me, the actor you can't take your eyes off of is the very sexy and beautiful, Kristen Bell. OW-WOOOO!!!!

"House" will soon end it's run on Fox, but it is going out with a bang! The other hot Fox show on Monday nights is "Alcatraz", a show I like a lot and it will be showing a 2-hour season finale this coming Monday.

If you haven't seen NBC's Monday night big hit, "Smash", you are soooo missing a terrific show. Former American Idol heart-throb, Katharine McPhee is outstanding on this show. As are all the other actors. Oh...
"Smash" will be back for a second season.

An absolutely wonderful season ending "Southland" was on TNT, Tuesday night. Hopefully, it'll be back next season. Another great Tuesday night for FX's "Justified". The main villain for the whole season on this show has been Neal McDonough and as far as villains go, they don't GET any better than Mr. McDonough.

Another great "American Idol", America's BEST music show last night and for the first time in a long time, I saw an episode of a show that's usually no lower than number 5 in the ratings. "NCIS", starring Mark Harmon. I picked a heck of a good episode to watch. Jamie Lee Curtis was the big guest star. She is still very beautiful, very sexy and the off the charts sexual tension between her and Harmon had me thinking those well known three words; "GET A ROOM!!!"


THOUGHTS AND OR COMMENTS? Please write to me at scottstjames@sbcglobal.net. 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 wouldn't be able to respond to you. All "Anonymous" emails are ignored.

THE NEXT BLOG? Barring unforseen circumstances, late Thursday night, March 29 or very early Friday morning, March 30.

I hope that all of you have a great weekend and don't forget...

AMERICA FIRST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thursday, March 15, 2012

"Sergeant Assassin"! "Game Change"! Drill baby, Drill or Frack baby, Frack? Santorum wants to ban Porn! Time to go all-in on oil extraction?

Hi Gang! And HEL-LO new subscribers!!!

Because of other obligations, I'm beginning this blog much later than I usually do. A lot of interesting things have happened since last week's blog was posted and I won't be able to discuss everything that's happened, but I AM going to get into some areas I've never gotten into before. Areas that might challenge your belief structure. Or it might challenge what you SAY you believe as opposed to what you (deep down inside) REALLY believe.

Yeah, I know. Where I seem to be going has "heavy" written all over it.

Hey, we don't use any bells and whistles here, we don't publish any emails you send at the end of each blog, but what we DO do is respond to every email you send with an email from me or sometimes I talk to you on the phone. And yes, once in a while we publish something you've written (with your permission) in the MAIN part of this blog.

I proudly refer to this blog as a blog for thinkers. I have no agenda. I am an equal opportunity criticizer. Our readers represent both sides of the aisle. We get emails from all across the country and from some foreign countries.

I know. Some of you are (right now) saying, "Where's he (me) GOING with this?"

OIL!!! GAS PRICES!!! THE ENVIRONMENT!!! GLOBAL WARMING!!! DO I REALLY-REALLY
CARE WHAT THIS PLANET MIGHT LOOK LIKE AFTER I'M DEAD OR DO I WANT WHAT I WANT RIGHT NOW AND I DON'T CARE HOW I GET IT!!!

Okay...Nobody I know likes high gas prices. Some of you think President Obama prefers high gas prices so he can push his "clean air", etc. agenda. Is he right about that or is this part of a theory he's enamored with?

We are told that we have to be very careful about drilling, fracking or anything else because of possible problems with our environment, global warming and for all I know, a hangnail or two. There are a lot of people, like three of our Republican candidates who say they believe President Obama is wrong and he's hurting Americans by being reluctant to do some drilling and or fracking in areas that our candidates (and others) say is something we need to do, it's safe, it will help our economy, a lot of Americans will get jobs and gas prices will go down. WAY down! But what about the environment? Supporters of drilling say it wouldn't be an issue. Same deal with global warming because they think that's a scam.

We hear a lot of talk about our children and grandchildren being stuck with a bill they'll have to pay because of all the spending that's been done by our government. What we don't hear a lot of talk about is what kind of environment are we going to leave our children and grandchildren with or what are we seriously going to do about how the planet would (supposedly) be affected by global warming?

I wake up in the morning and see that gas prices have gone up again. We hear horror stories about the possibility in the future of $8 a gallon, if not higher. Where I live, the price is almost $5 a gallon. When you go to the pump and before your tank is full, how many times have you been wondering if you have enough money to PAY for a full tank? And at that moment are you wondering about children, the environment and or global warming?

Just askin'....But you know what? I'm inclined to think you might be thinking about SURVIVAL! Financial survival.

So....Here's a question I'd like you to ask yourself. Do you want to wait until some sort of wonderful new fuel products come along, mass transit of some kind that gets you to your job and back in ways you never imagined and the wonderful way you'll feel about protecting the environment OR .....Do you deep down inside not care about environment and or global warming conversations or what the planet might look like after you die? I mean, would you really like gas prices to go down sooner, much sooner and for a whole bunch of drilling and fracking to take place? Like RIGHT NOW!?!

Just askin'. And if your answer is "YES!!!" then you should probably vote for whichever of the three Republican candidates becomes the GOP's nominee and hope they haven't been lying to you. And this advice I'm giving you is advice from a guy (me) who voted for President Obama.

Now if Obama were to change HIS mind and do a flip-flop like the master flipper and flopper, Mitt Romney?

Just askin'.

BRIEF COMMENTS ABOUT SEVERAL OTHER SUBJECTS BEFORE GOING TO THE ENTERTAINMENT STUFF:

Rick Santorum has announced that if he becomes our new President of the United States, he will try to get legislation passed that will outlaw Porn. Good luck with that, Senator. And you sure seem to like looking into our bedrooms, finding out what kinds of medicines women are getting for themselves, advocating a number of things that have to do with the bodies of women and a number of other things that should be none of your business. So... Senator Santorum, I have a question for you sir. If you can get out of our bedrooms for a minute, can you tell me how you plan to fix our economy if you become our next President of the United States? Uh, Senator?

Because of the American soldier that I'll simply refer to as "Sergeant Assassin" who went on a 16-person killing rampage in Afghanistan that involved killing mostly women and children coupled with the Koran books that have been peed on and or burned, Afghan President Hamid Karzai wants our troops confined to major bases which seems to be another way of saying he wants all the American troops "outta there". Yo, President Obama! Give President Karzai what he wants! Like right NOW!

Back to the guy I'm referring to as "Sergeant Assassin" for a minute. Three of our Republican presidential candidates are making noise about wanting us to be involved in MORE wars. Iran, Syria, etc., etc. And of course none of these brave candidates know the first damn thing about wars because none of them served in the military, but this "Sergeant Assassin" character is someone these wars and more wars supporters should take a long look at. This guy was deployed to Iraq three times before being sent to Afghanistan. He appears to be a guy who became a psychological MESS! I'm not defending what he did. But I am wondering why military doctors didn't see what this guy was becoming. And that has happened to a lot of soldiers who have had mulitple deployments. It's the same people doing the same dirty work in these wars all the time. If these wars are that damn important for our country, it's long past time for us to share the responsibility. You war hawks want more wars? Let's REINSTATE THE DRAFT!!! I'm just guessing here, but I get the feeling that if you were to try to get legislation passed to get that done, you'd find out the American people are tired of these wars.

Have you heard about these environmental friendly light bulbs that are now being sold? In addition to being expensive, they're also dangerous because of the mercury content. If you drop and break one of those suckers you have to be very VERY careful or you could end up being seriously injured. I've seen pictures of some of these injuries. Ghastly. We're told these bulbs last 40 years, but because I'm a suspicious kind of guy, I'd like to see the proof. For now, I'm very comfortable with the cheap 100 watt bulbs I've been buying like forever.

I thought that by now, the Rush Limbaugh complaints would have ended, but they haven't. Because of "Social Networking", the Limbaugh business is alive and while publicly stating otherwise, the Limbaugh people are concerned in ways they've never had to be concerned. More than 140 sponsors have made it clear they don't want to be on Limbaugh's show and thanks to a lot of fathers who have daughters along with women who are tired of fat old men telling them how they should be conducting themselves, the Limbaugh people have decided to try to save themselves by (also) using "Social Networking". In other words, the 2012 (verbal) version of "High Noon", "Gunfight at the OK Corral" and may the best networkers win.

Oh...Former presidential candidate Mike Huckabee will soon be a radio talk show host at the same time Rush is on the air. Right now, Rush has to be wondering how many different ways he's going to have to learn how to duck.

ENTERTAINMENT STUFF:

Because this is probably the longest blog I've ever written, I will try to make this segment as brief as possible.

"Game Change". If you love Sarah Palin, you probably didn't bother to watch this film but you told a lot of people how lousy it was/is. I saw the film. I liked it. A lot. It was the highest rated HBO original movie in eight years.

Yes, you see Sarah showing how much she didn't know about anything except Alaska, but there were a couple of instances I felt sorry for Palin. First of all, I thought Julianne Moore was terrific as Palin and I think Moore deserves an Emmy nomination. What I really felt sorry for Palin about was how much she was missing not having her baby with her and not being around her family as much as she wanted to be while the McCain camp was interested in one thing and one thing only. Winning the election. I came away from that film believing that no matter how much she didn't know about stuff she absolutely NEEDED to know if she was going to (possibly) be the Vice President of the United States, Sarah Palin, like her or not, was missing her kids, big time. And what that tells me is that she's a good mother and I think no woman with school age children (or younger) should EVER allow herself to be put through the rigors of what a presidential campaign is all about. No, I'm not being sexist. I'm being real.

In addition to Moore's performance, I think Emmy consideration should also be given to Woody Harrelson, Jamey Sheridan and Ron Livingston. I thought Ed Harris was good as McCain, but I didn't think he was on camera enough for Emmy consideration.

Quick TV stuff and one other film. "Love and other Drugs", 2010 film on Encore that starred Jake Gyllenhaal, Anne Hathaway and some terrific supporting players. This was the second time I've seen this film. I loved it the first time I saw it and loved it again because I'm easy to entertain when I'm looking at a good love story.

Because of three dead horses, HBO's "Luck" has been cancelled. Or, I guess one thing might be obvious which is that a racetrack story in which three horses had NO luck, it was a good idea to cancel the show before some kind of bad luck RECORD got set.

Sunday's "The Good Wife" got it's groove back...Sensational episode of NBC's "Smash" on Monday night. That show gets better and Better and BETTER!...The two very fine cop shows, "Justified" (FX) and "Southland" (TNT)
are about to wrap up their seasons...And another outstanding "American Idol" on Wednesday. And by the way, this is hands down Ryan Seacrest's best season so far. Same deal with two of the judges. It helps when you have terrific singers. A lot of music shows out there but none of them are close to the show that "American Idol" is.

I plan to see the new film "21 Jump Street" before next week's blog. The reviews are terrific.

THOUGHTS 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 there's no way for me to respond to you. I respond to all emails except "Anonymous" emails. They are ignored.

THE NEXT BLOG? Barring unforseen circumstances, late next Thursday night, March 22 or early Friday morning, March 23.

I hope you all have a nice weekend and a very nice St. Patrick's Day. Green beer! Yay!

And don't forget...AMERICA FIRST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thursday, March 08, 2012

Fathers Against LIMBAUGH!!! Sarah says, "I'm Available!!" George Clooney!! An email about Rush from a very conservative woman!! Annd,The "Apology"

El Rushbo, El Rushbo, El Rushbo!!!!!

What's up, bro! Anything new?

But seriously, folks...

If Rush Limbaugh's disgusting verbal attack on the female Georgetown student was a stunt designed to reverse the large loss of listeners he's been experiencing, mission accomplished. Hell, this even got ME to listen the last four days.

The above four paragraphs are whacha call a "tease". I'm not done with this subject. Not by a long shot. But firrrst....

A big shout-out to all the new subscribers of this blog known as "The Jammer With The Hammer"! A blog that will begin it's 6th YEAR after the blog three Thursday's from now gets posted.

If you aren't a subscriber and would like to get this humble little blog delivered directly to your email inbox for FREE, here's all you have to do. Use the convenient new subscription form, just below my 'About Me' Profile, to the right of this column. Just enter your email address in the box provided and click on 'Subscribe'. Then click on the confirmation link that will arrive in your email and you're good to go. Every time there's a new blog, it will automatically be delivered to you via email. No ads, no spam NO FEE! EVER!!! New blogs will appear in your email between 3 and 5 in the morning, Pacific Time.

Back to our lead story...

Rush Limbaugh began criticizing the female Georgetown student a day before last week's blog. I was aware of it, but initially, it was (in my view) simply Rush being his normal "Dinosaur self" picking on a woman when he's not picking on someone of color. But what he said about her last Friday was mean, meaner and mean-EST!!! And when I heard about that, I said, "WHOA!!!"

My first thought was that Rush had "lost it" and was trying to commit career suicide. Another thought was, is he popping PILLS again?!?

I wasn't the only one who was wondering what was going on. Rush Limbaugh comes across as a guy who is indestructible. And there are times when you hear some of the things he says, you can't help but believe he IS indestructible. A friend of mine wrote a column yesterday in which the conclusion was/is that Rush is, like the banks recently were, "Too big to fail!"

Buuuut....sometime on Saturday morning, Rush heard from an outfit called "Premiere" and I hope I spelled that correctly. They were concerned about what Rush had said and whatever it was that they told Rush, was something that caused Rush to issue an apology. I am safely assuming this because the "apology" was on a piece of paper that had the "Premiere" letterhead above it as opposed to Rush's name. Oh! Who is or are "Premiere"? Among other things, they're an outfit that gets worried, a little more than worried, and then they're angry when a bunch of sponsors have suddenly stopped BEING sponsors on a show they have an "interest" in.

My good friend Don Barrett, who is Owner-Publisher of the highly acclaimed LARadio. com, sent me a copy of Rush's "Apology" on that same Saturday. About a half hour or so later, I finished writing a response letter to that apology. It is a response letter that was sent to many people and was published by Don Barrett's LARadio.com and Jack Roberts' wonderful publication, "Hollywood Hills".

The reaction I've gotten is off the charts. I've had more emails sent to me about this subject than any other subject I've written about in the almost six years we've been doing this. I'm not going to include a copy of that letter in this blog, but if you would like me to send you a copy of it, all you have to do is ask for it at scottstjames@sbcglobal.net

When Rush Limbaugh did his show on Monday, I'm sure he was talking to the largest audience he's had in a long time. He said he was sorry for what he had said about the female Georgetown student. But it was a limited apology because he said he was sorry about two words he had used. Said words being, "Prostitute, Slut".

And before you could catch your breath, he was suddenly throwing blame for what he said at other people. I immediately wrote a note to Don Barrett; "Listening to this reminds me of what happens in every family that has children. Something unacceptable has been done by one of the children and their defense is to blame one of the other children."

But besides referring to the female Georgetown student as a prostitute and a slut, he also implied (in the form of a sarcastic question) that she had gotten birth control type products when she was in the 6th grade or Junior High School and also the fact that he wanted to see sex tapes of her. Yes, part of his short written apology was that he was joking.

Because Rush, (despite being married 4 times) has no children, here's something he's probably unaware of. There is (as a rule) a special bond between a mother and her son. There is also a special bond between a father and his daughter.

I have received emails from hundreds of fathers who have told me (in essence) that all they can think about is what they would do or want to do if the female Georgetown student who was verbally savaged by Rush had been THEIR daughter!

I haven't seen new numbers, but as of early this morning, 45 sponsors have made it clear they no longer want their commercials to be played on Rush's show.

Don Imus. Remember him and all the trouble he got into a few years ago? Imus said Limbaugh should have flown to meet Sandra Fluke (the Georgetown student) and apologize face-to-face, but instead he gave an on-air apology that proved he was "An insincere pig and a pill popping pinhead."

I am now going to print a note I got from married woman with two children who I have known for a long time. Politically, she's very conservative. Atilla the Hun conservative. And she often disagrees with me about things I've written.

Here's what she wrote: "I agree with you on this one Scott. It was a jerk thing to say. By the way, I wonder how many Viagra, Lavitra and Cialis commercials are played on his show. I am so sick of all those ridiculous commercials. And those meds for MEN are covered and paid for! I change the station faster than a hummingbird beats his wings!"

Thank you for your thoughts, long time friend. Oh, heck. Let me say thank you by using a nickname I've given you. Thank you, hourglass lady. And eat your heart out, Rush.

A Sarah Palin comment followed by the dumbest commercial I think I've ever seen:

Sarah Palin, thinking that maybe a Republican candidate won't have been chosen when it's "Convention time" has let it be known that she'll be "Available". And if I'm some kind of big deal Republican official, my immediate response to her announcement is to be very nervous just before I ask her, "Available for WHAT?!?"

Have you seen the Jack in the Box commercial that ends up with the words, "You may now eat the bride"?!? Am I the only one who thinks that's the dumbest commercial I've ever seen?

ENTERTAINMENT STUFF:

George Clooney. Everybody knows who George Clooney is, right. I've never met him, but I've liked many of his films. If you were to stop and think about it, you might be inclined to think that George Clooney has led and is leading a very charmed life.

Well guess what? Despite his fame and all the great looking women he's dated, he's as insecure as the rest of us. One of the magazines I subscribe to is called "THE WEEK" and what you're about to read is a word for word story titled, "Clooney's painful awakening". After that, some stuff about a film I saw recently and some television shows.

Here's the Clooney story: George Clooney is acutely aware of his own mortality, said Tim Teeman in the London Times. While shooting "Syriana", in 2005, the actor suffered a serious injury to the base of his neck, which left him in agony, with spinal fluid leaking out of his nose. Lying in a hospital bed, he considered suicide. "I was in real trouble," says Clooney. "For the first time, I contemplated whether I had accomplished all I wanted. I felt I was going to die or have to die; I felt I couldn't live with so much pain." He had three operations, but the pain is still with him. "I know when I wake up it will always feel like a hangover, but I can't mourn what I used to be." His health aside, Clooney is also aware that the clock is ticking on his Hollywood career. "There's only a certain amount of time"...about 10 years, he thinks...."when you get the keys to the kingdom. I'm terrified of the moment when you're the guy who goes to the studio and says, 'I've got this idea', and they're like, "Thanks for stopping by,' and you walk out and they roll their eyes."

When a big star like George Clooney has problems, we know that there's pretty much no such thing as having a stress-free ride doing ANYTHING, right?

Films & TV Shows:

I didn't see any new films this past week, but I did see a 2010 film on Encore a couple of nights ago. "Secretariat" which starred Diane Lane, John Malkovich and several terrific supporting players. It's based on a true story, I knew how it was going to end, but I enjoyed this film big time. It's a Disney film so there are no "bad words" or sex scenes. But if you like beauty, you will see a very beautiful Diane Lane who never seems to look like she's gotten older.

A lot of television shows are showing reruns, but of the shows I saw that weren't reruns, I thought Sunday night's "The Good Wife" was, for the first time, not an excellent episode. Hey, nobody's perfect, right? Hopefully, this coming Sunday's episode will be the kind of episode were used to seeing because that show has spoiled us. Another good Sunday night episodes of "Shameless" on Showtime and "Californication" on Showtime which featured a terrific but short performance by Rob Lowe.

A fabulous episode of "Smash" on NBC, Monday night. I'm tellin' ya folks. If you haven't checked out "Smash" yet, you're missing out on some fun television.

Tuesday night, great episodes of "Southland" on TNT and "Justified" on FX. Good news for fans of "Justified". There will be a fourth season.

Very good "American Idol" show last night (Wednesday) and it got terrific ratings. Meanwhile, am I the only one who thinks that Jennifer Lopez is the hottest 42-year old on the planet?

"Game Change" will be on HBO this coming Saturday night, Sunday night and Monday night. It stars Julianne Moore as Sarah Palin, Ed Harris as John McCain and Woody Harrelson as McCain's campaign strategist.

THOUGHTS 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 there's no way for me to respond to you. I respond to all emails except for "Anonymous" emails. They're ignored.

THE NEXT BLOG? Barring unforseen circumstances, late Thursday night, March 15 or very early Friday morning, March 16.

I hope that all of you have a very nice weekend, I hope that Rush decides to give that female Georgetown student the kind of apology she deserves and don't forget....AMERICA FIRST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!





Thursday, March 01, 2012

Legendary "Boss Radio" Engineer Speaks his Mind! Birth control fight more important than the economy? Koran defiling? Gallup's 2 worst Presidents!!!

Hi Gang!

Before we get into the serious stuff, did you enjoy the Oscar show? It got good television ratings, but most critics thought the show was boring. Wellll....I didn't think it was THAT bad! Some ideas were good, some not so good. I believe the head writer of the Oscar show, a writer who's been there a long time, is a guy who probably should have been replaced several years ago. There's one big thing that most critics said after the show ended that I totally agree with and that's the belief that a couple of years from now the general consensus will be that the film voted as the "Best Picture" was a mistake.

Can you imagine how much fun the Oscar show might have been if the female cast of "Bridesmaids" had been hosting the show?

Just askin'.

One other Oscar observation. I thought the choosing of Tom Cruise to be the guy who would name all the "Best Picture" nominees and then the name of the winner was a brilliant and somewhat "tongue in cheek" choice. For you see, Tom Cruise was the star of a film that not only wasn't nominated for anything but his film sold more tickets and made more money than all the nine nominated films COMBINED!

Just sayin'.

Before switching to the political stuff, here comes a reminder about a film that's politically connected. "Game Change", a film that will be shown on HBO, Saturday night, March 10 and I'm sure it will be repeated often. It stars Julianne Moore as Sarah Palin, Ed Harris as John McCain and Woody Harrelson as McCain's chief assistant. This film is about the behind the scenes stuff that took place before the presidential election that McCain lost and that Obama won. Most people who really follow this kind of stuff will (quietly) tell you that if McCain hadn't been pressured to accept Palin that he, McCain, would probably be our President instead of Barack Obama. While on the campaign trail she was fun to look at, her enthusiasm was "top of the shelf" enthusiasm but the McCain camp was blindsided by the fact she was probably the most ill-prepared top of the ticket candidate in America's history as she proved several times in interviews that were embarrassing to watch. If you've been paying attention, you know that the only people she (now) allows to interview her are people who work for Fox News which is also a place that pays Palin a lot of money for those interviews. Have you ever seen one of those interviews? First class journalism, huh?

KORAN or QUARAN DEFILING:

First of all, has anyone figured out why the Muslim "bible" is spelled two different ways? In this segment, I'm going to stick with "Koran".

You have probably heard about some U.S. soldiers who zipped down their flies and soaked a couple of Koran holy books in Afghanistan. Because people in that part of the world take their religion more seriously than (even) Rick Santorum does, some of our soldiers were killed. President Obama apologized on behalf of our country and the GOP presidential candidates criticized Obama FOR apologizing. Unlike the three who did the criticizing, I have served in the military and I understood why Obama did that. He was trying to prevent our troops from being in any more danger than they're already in. After the watering of the books happened, a number of other Koran books were thrown into cans and burned.

Okay. Sounds like school yard stuff, doesn't it? Well, it's considerably more dangerous than that, but I have to be honest with you. If I was in Afghanistan and knew in my heart of hearts that they (the majority of Afghans) didn't like me being there and I was continually hearing over and over again stuff about a religion (theirs) that I can't relate to at all, on top of hearing how much they hate Americans, I can easily imagine me, in a moment of frustration, seeing a Koran on the ground, on a table or in the crapper and me jerking MY fly down and pointing Mr. Happy at that Koran while giving it a bath.

Just sayin'.

Two quick hits before a commentary written by a reader of this blog:

This birth control fight. Is that more important than our economy? I ask this question because if any of our presidential candidates really believe that, I believe that American voters won't give them a ghost's chance in Hell to get elected.

Did you hear about this new Gallup poll showing the two best presidents in the last 40 years and the two worst presidents?

First, the two BEST presidents in the last 40 years? Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton.

The two WORST presidents in the last 40 years? Richard Nixon and George W. Bush.

As the late and great sportscaster Jim Healy used to say, "I don't make 'em up, pally!"

A GUEST COMMENTARY FROM LEGENDARY 'BOSS RADIO' ENGINEER, BILL MOUZIS:

Before getting started on what Bill has to say, let me tell you that I think the world of this highly decorated WWII veteran and a guy who became a legend while being the engineer and producer for some of the biggest names in the history of radio broadcasting.

Having said that, please know that I don't agree with everything that Bill wrote and that you are about to read. An example would be (is) that his opinion of Mitt Romney differs greatly from my opinion of Mitt Romney. I don't agree with a couple of other things he has written either but what's about to happen will not be a debate. You will read what Bill has written and then I will switch to "ENTERTAINMENT STUFF".

The Bill Mouzis commentary begins right now:

I keep wondering why Obama is so heavily favored to win the presidency, particularly if Romney is the Republican nominee. In my humble opinion this could be one hell of a close race. Remember Bush?

What has Obama done for the people, the true middle class? After almost four years in office the economy continues to struggle badly. Unemployment remains above 8% and people continue to lose their homes. Jobs continue to be shipped overseas.

Regardless of his stand on illegal immigration, employers continue to violate our laws by hiring them with impunity. Law and order is out of the corrective process completely.

Gasoline prices are now out of control in an economy that simply cannot absorb them. Obama shows no genuine concern when in fact there is plenty of oil supply and gasoline production, but too much of it being exported for higher prices. He obviously is careful not to bite off the hand that feeds him with campaign monies by going after the oil companies too hard---only passive reaction.

Banks are allowed to withhold lending money that was given to them by our government. Money that would help in revitalizing the economy.

Interest rates on credit cards are sky high while interest on savings accounts are reduced to the lowest level in modern times.

We continue to lose American lives in Iraq and Afghanistan while sabre rattling against Iran. The war lords want another war. Remember what President Eisenhower said about "The Military Complex"?

Our streets, highways, bridges and infrastructure continue to rot without any sign of improving them.

The mention of God is being removed from all government displays or functions. I suppose if we can't mention the Muslims we must ban all language relating to Christianity.

Whatever happened with all the promises Obama made when running for office? Nothing but talk and more talk. Obama must be returned to the classrooms, but we also need stronger candidates to fix a slipping ship of state. The Republicans haven't furnished one so we can only hope for some intervention from Above.

Obama has in reality produced no results, but plenty of rhetoric.

I reiterate that if Romney starts to carefully tailor his campaign speeches to attack these vulnerable faults of Obama effectively he can pull the upset of modern times in beating him. Also, Romney appears much more presidential in appearance than any of the others seeking the nomination, and much more than George W. Bush EVER did.

Unless Romney makes a complete fool of himself from here on out or stumbles badly, watch out for the surprise of your life...he will win.

Thank you Bill Mouzis.

ENTERTAINMENT STUFF:

First of all, R.I.P., Davy Jones. I began my radio career as a rock ' roll disc jockey and I remember those hit songs by the Monkees very well. Davy was the guy all the girls wanted and guy fans of the Monkees got as close to Davy as they could because....Well, leftovers ain't always a bad deal, right?

TWO NEW FILMS:

Yesterday, I had the pleasure of seeing "Safe House", starring Denzel Washington, Ryan Reynolds, Vera Farmiga, Sam Shepard, Robert Patrick, Ruben Blades and other very good supporting players. This is an action flick that has a lot of action and there's no way you'll be bored. I liked it a lot.

Today, I saw "The Vow", starring Rachel McAdams and Channing Tatum who play a young married couple who are involved in a bad traffic accident that results in the McAdams character having a serious memory loss that includes not knowing who her husband is. This is one of those "pull at the heartstrings" kind of film that features Wendy Crewson as the very sympathetic doctor, Jessica Lange as the McAdams character mother, Sam Neill as the McAdams character father, Scott Speedman as the guy who tries to make a very serious move on the McAdams character and Tatiana Maslany as the poor young woman who listens to the Tatum character talk about his broken heart while it's obvious the Maslany character wishes that the Tatum character would feel about her the way she feels about him.

Gang, if you like a very believable story (it's based on a true story) that is written, acted and filmed very well, you'll LOVE "The Vow". There's a reason this film has done very well at the box office. The best description I can give you about how I felt while watching this film is to simply tell you, "I laughed, I cried, I almost died!"

Television:

HBO's Sunday show, "Luck" continues to be better and better....Outstanding episode of Monday's "Smash" on NBC ....An off the charts season finale of Tuesday's "Parenthood" on NBC....Also on Tuesday, great episodes of "Justified" on FX and "Southland" on TNT....On a week in which all kinds of nice stories were written about ABC's new hit, Wednesday's episode of "Revenge" continued to "top itself". And now we're told we won't see another new episode until sometime in April.....And the first two new serious episodes of the 11th season of "American Idol" on Fox got "killer ratings". I saw some good talent on the Tuesday and Wednesday shows. It'll be interesting to see how things play out while the copycat music shows keep eating "Idol dust".

THOUGHTS 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 wouldn't be able to respond to you. I respond to all emails ASAP unless it's an "Anonymous" email. Those are ignored.

THE NEXT BLOG? Barring something unforseen, late Thursday night, March 8 or very early Friday morning, March 9.

I hope that all of you have a very nice weekend and don't forget..... AMERICA FIRST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!