The Jammer With The Hammer

CHINESE workers taking jobs from Americans IN America?!? Another fun GOP debate! Gabrielle Giffords! Pat Sajak! OSCAR picks!!!

2012-01-26T20:36:00.000-08:00

If you watched and or listened to President Obama's speech on Tuesday night, you heard him doing a lot of talking about giving tax incentives to American companies who have outsourced jobs to foreign countries if they bring the jobs back to America so our horrible unemployment situation can begin to get better.

In other words, President Obama was (in essence) saying what I say at the end of each blog; "AMERICA FIRST!!!!!"

I bring this up because it's only two days later and a long time friend of mine in St. Louis sent me a video from an ABC newscast in which Diane Sawyer was telling a story about three thousand (3,000) or so Chinese workers hired by Chinese firms who are doing construction related jobs in New York, Alaska and here in California. No, these Chinese workers aren't American citizens. And they've apparently been hired and brought here because they're (supposedly) willing to work for a whole lot less money than American workers would work for. In that news story we were told that the New York and Alaska bridges and roads work involves hundreds of millions of dollars. The California bridges and roads work (supposedly) involves seven point two BILLION dollars. Money that could have gone to American workers and money that would have been spent IN America.

Yes, I SAW Diane Sawyer saying these things on this video that was sent to me, but because not one word about this was spoken at the Republican debate tonight, I HAVE to believe there's MORE to this story or (I would think) that a whole lot of hell would be being raised about this.

Needless to say, I will be looking into this story and MARILYN? Thank you very much for sending me this video.

Speaking of Obama's speech.....

I honestly thought this was the best speech he's given since he was elected. He talked about a lot of serious stuff, but I think we will all agree that the highlight that night was seeing Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and the wonderful way she was welcomed. For those of you with short memories, Ms. Giffords is the woman who was shot in the head by a lunatic and the fact that she's functional at all, is off the charts amazing. She looked (looks) great but she was there to say goodbye to everybody because she feels she needs more time to be completely healed. If you were watching this on television, I'm sure your reaction was the same as mine; Something got caught in your throat and a tear or two was shed.

TONIGHT'S REPUBLICAN DEBATE:

I've seen all the debates and (to me) they've all been entertaining. Tonight's debate was no exception. A lot of "in your face" stuff from Romney to Gingrich and vice versa. But because of those two getting after each other, the other two (Santorum and Paul) ended up looking very good and in one case, presidential tonight. No, I don't think either one of those guys will be our next president, but ONE of the other two guys would figure to be the nominee unless an "11th hour candidate" like Jeb Bush or Mitch Daniels throws THEIR hat in the ring. I bring this up because of how tonight's debate ended. All four of the candidates were asked to say why HE would be the BEST candidate to beat Barack Obama? That's something that all four of those guys should have been able to "hit out of the park", right? Ron Paul was the first to speak and he gave a good answer that included specifics. Romney, Gingrich and Santorum (to use another baseball term) "struck out!" I mean, they spoke words, but they said NOTHING!!! And the first thing I thought was, "No wonder the G.O.P. big boys and girls are seriously thinking about getting a NEW candidate!"

And by the way, the next scheduled debate will be in Mesa, Arizona on February 22.

How 'bout dem oil companies?!?

New profit numbers have been revealed. Best ever. I mean BEST EVER!!!!! And we continue to give these oil people humongous tax breaks because....???

ENTERTAINMENT STUFF:

You know who Pat Sajak is, right? And Vanna White? The hosts of "Wheel of Fortune"?

They've both been on that show for many years. I knew Vanna when every hound dog in L.A. was chasing after her and I knew Pat when he was a hound dog.

For whatever reason, Pat has decided to let everyone know that he and Vanna used to have quite a few drinks to the point of being drunk when they were taping "Wheel of Fortune" shows. Pat says they've been totally sober for many years (I'm guessing he changed his ways about the time he got married) but what possessed him to tell us this is puzzling to me. Doesn't this fall under the category of T.M.I., otherwise known as "Too Much Information?!?" But Pat, thanks much for giving me something to write about.

OSCAR NOMINATIONS:

Did your favorite film and favorite actors get nominated? You'll be able to find out if your favorites WON on the evening of February 26.

I'm about to tell you who I think will win and in a couple of cases I'll tell you who I WANTED to win.

Best film: "The Artist" will probably win, but I would have chosen one of five other films, including a film that wasn't nominated, "Bridesmaids".

Director: I'm picking Martin Scorsese ("Hugo") because the guy I wanted to win wasn't nominated. David Fincher, ("The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo")

Supporting Actress: I'm picking Octavia Spencer ("The Help") because the actress I wanted to win wasn't nominated. Evan Rachel Wood ("The Ides of March")

Supporting Actor: I'm picking Christopher Plummer ("Beginners") but the guy I wanted to win wasn't nominated. Albert Brooks ("Drive")

Lead Actress: Viola Davis ("The Help")

Lead Actor: George Clooney ("The Descendants")

OTHER CURRENT FILMS:

Because of my fractured right foot (it's healing), I haven't been able to see some new films the last few weeks. Bob Fox is a guy who used to own some radio stations here in the Los Angeles area. Because of some nice money he made when he sold the stations, he's been living the good life. He's also a reader of this blog and he watches a lot of films. A few days ago, Bob was kind enough to tell me what he and his family thought about some films I haven't had a chance to see so that I could tell you his very educated critical conclusions about six films you might be thinking about seeing. Five of these films were nominated for "Best Picture".

"War Horse": "Boring, my daughter went to sleep."

"The Descendants": "Excellent!"

"We Bought a Zoo": "A lot of fun!"

"Hugo": "A lot of fun!"

The two BEST films that Bob and his family saw? "The Artist" and "Midnight in Paris".

Bob Fox, thank you very much!

A FEW FILMS I SAW ON CABLE:

A 2003 film on HBO. "House of Sand and Fog". Wow, wow-wow, wow-WOW! This is a film that stars Jennifer Connelly, Ben Kingsley, Ron Eldard, Francis Fisher and two other fine supporting actors. Kingsley was nominated for an Oscar. This is a film about about "problems". Serious problems. And you won't be able to take your eyes off the screen. Without giving anything away, I can tell you that this film has a very unusual ending in the sense that five people that you will care about are all affected in a BAD way.

A new film starring Rob Lowe was shown on the Lifetime channel a few days ago and it's being repeated. "Drew Peterson: Untouchable". You've probably heard about that smooth talking police officer (Drew Peterson) who is now in jail because he allegedly has this bad habit of killing women he marries. Rob Lowe is excellent as the slimy killer and the next time you're in the mood for a good popcorn flick, this is a good film to see.

A 2010 film on Showtime. "Blue Valentine". It stars Michelle Williams and Ryan Gosling. These are two very good actors, but to me, this is NOT a very good film. I was big time disappointed.

TELEVISION STUFF:

A lot of shows have been "taking a break", but I think most of them will resume showing new episodes beginning Sunday. Have you seen the previews CBS has been showing to tease you into watching a new episode of "The Good Wife" this coming Sunday? It looks like this will be an episode featuring "big trouble" for Alicia, who in case you didn't know, IS "The Good Wife".

Great episodes of "Southland" on TNT this past Tuesday and "Justified" on FX this past Tuesday.

The new Kiefer Sutherland show, "Touch" made it's debut Wednesday (last night), on FOX. Strange show. Because it's Sutherland, I will watch the next episode.

This coming Sunday, a new show will make it's debut on HBO. "Luck", starring Dustin Hoffman, Nick Nolte, Dennis Farina and Jill Hennessey. Michael Mann is the director and David Milch ("Deadwood") is the writer. On paper, there's no way this show can be anything but good, right?

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 can't respond to you. All "Anonymous" emails are ignored.

THE NEXT BLOG? Barring unforseen circumstances, late Thursday night, February 2 or very early Friday morning, February 3.

I hope that all of you have a great weekend and don't forget; AMERICA FIRST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Will Jeb Bush be an 11th hour G.O.P. pick? Will Hillary be an 11th hour VP pick? Sarah Palin is angry and Paul McCartney is happy!!!

2012-01-19T20:57:00.000-08:00

Hi Gang!

Seeing as how Tim Tebow won't be playing, do we care about the two NFL games this Sunday? For those who do care and would like to know what an expert thinks, the closest we can come to that is John Madden's XBox football games. They have been played and the results of those games were/are, Baltimore over New England, 24-7 and the 49ers over the Giants, 17-9.

I met John Madden in January of 1980 when he was here in Los Angeles getting ready for the Super Bowl game between the Steelers and Rams. He was one of the television announcers for that game and I was the halftime and postgame radio guy for that game. I have all the respect in the world for John Madden, but I respectfully disagree with the results his XBox game is predicting. I think that the winners this Sunday will be the Patriots and the Giants.

Before switching to some political stuff, I have a question for you; If you're not a subscriber, would you like to have this little blog delivered to your email inbox? For FREE? Everybody likes free stuff, right? Just below my 'About Me' Profile (which is to the right of this column), enter your email address in the box provided and click on 'Subscribe'. Then click on the confirmation link that will arrive in your email. It's as simple as that. Every time there's a new blog, it will be automatically delivered to you via email between 3 and 5 in the morning, Pacific Time. It is now 9:30 pm on Thursday, January 19. If you're a subscriber, you'll receive this on Friday (tomorrow) morning, January 20 between 3 and 5 in the morning. The blog will always be free and you'll never get spam, ads or anything else (from me) EXCEPT the new blog. We have a lot of subscribers and we'd be delighted to have you join us.

POLITICAL STUFF:

I've seen all the G.O.P. presidential debates and I think the last two debates, Monday the 16th and tonight's debate, have been the two best debates. If you watched tonight's debate on CNN, you know that the first question asked by the moderator was directed to Newt Gingrich. And after the question was asked, you could have heard a pin drop. While Gingrich was seething before he opened his mouth, I couldn't help but think of the old Country hit song, "The Fightin' Side of Me". The question had to do with what one of Newt's ex-wives told ABC about Newt saying to her (while they were still married) that he was having an affair and he wanted an "open marriage".

This was something that was on all the newscasts and like it or not, it was a legitimate question to ask because of the evangelical folks (voters) and their "religious views", views that have nothing to do with supporting people who are cheating on their spouses. Even if they're "honest" enough to admit it to their spouses while requesting permission to have "an open marriage". I don't know about you, but doesn't that sound a little like what many of us thought (think?) a lot of Mormons do or have done?

Just askin'.

After cooling off, Gingrich performed pretty well during the debate. In fact, all four of the remaining candidates performed well EXCEPT the guy so many people believe will end up being the Republican nominee. Mitt Romney had a tough time declaring when or if he will make his income tax returns available for all to see. No big deal? Actually, it kind of was. Because of the booing Romney got from the audience.

Is Romney hiding something? I don't know the answer to that question. But I DO know the answer to another question which is, "Will the eventual Republican presidential nominee be one of the four guys we saw tonight?" The answer is, probably, more than likely, etc., etc., but because so many Republican big shots think these are four WEAK candidates, two people are being schmoozed to the point where if either would agree to throw their hat in the ring, they're pretty much guaranteed to BE the nominee. One is Jeb Bush and I think I know who the other one is, but I need more verification.

And speaking of 11th hour (possible) decisions...

Would anyone REALLY be surprised if Hillary turns out to be Obama's running mate?

SARAH PALIN LETS US KNOW SHE CAN READ ANNND SHE'S ANGRY!!!

Uh, oh! Mama Grizzly? Angry?

We all remember the interview Sarah Palin had with Katie Couric, right? When Sarah couldn't think of anything that she was a reader of? Apparently, Mama Grizzly read a story in the new Newsweek and that made her mad or maybe she read the headline on the cover of the new Newsweek and THAT made her mad. When we're dealing with brainiacs (did I just now invent a word?) the likes of Mama Grizzly, one can be hard pressed to keep up with her. Or to understand her. Because between all of her "simple me" way of presenting herself, none of us have ever figured out why she really quit her job as Governor of Alaska. Karl Rove is a pretty savvy political guy, but even he recently said, "She has never made it clear about why she quit."

Okay. Back to Mama Grizzly being ticked off at Newsweek. Here's the headline on the cover of the January 23rd issue; "Why are Obama's critics so dumb?"

And who's the only big time public figure who responded to that headline and let it be known how angry she was/is?

I really don't have to write anything else about this, do I?

Just sayin'.

THE NEXT DEBATES:

Monday, January 23, 6 pm (Pacific Time) on NBC and Thursday, January 26 on CNN with the start time to be determined.

ENTERTAINMENT STUFF:

Before getting to my thoughts about a few television shows, I'd like to tell you people here in the Los Angeles area and people who might be here from out of town on February 10th about a big event you might be interested in attending.

Paul McCartney has been named the 2012 MusiCares Person Of The Year. This event will take place on the evening of February 10 at the Los Angeles Convention Center. This is a wonderful charity event that will feature a 5:30 pm cocktail reception and silent auction, a 7:30 pm gala dinner and a 9 pm concert and award presentation. Two nights later McCartney will be at the 54th annual GRAMMY Awards where he'll be singing two songs from his brand new CD. Annnd...Coldplay and Rihanna will perform live together for the first time.

But back to the MusiCares Person Of The Year event. If you'd like to attend, call MusiCares for ticket information at 310-392-3777. Who knows? You might meet Sir Paul. Parking? $12, no valet available, you'll be walking distance from the event and when you call MusiCares at 310-392-3777 for tickets, they'll tell you all you need to know about parking, etc.

And hey....If you want to also go to the GRAMMY show, ask those nice MusiCares people if they can tell you who to contact.

Golden Globes:

Did you see that show last Sunday? I did. Some people didn't like it much, but I laughed a few times and overall found the show to be especially entertaining in a few spots. Like....That cute song that Felicity Huffman and William H. Macy sung. In addition to being great actors, they're husband and wife. The Morgan Freeman tribute. Ricky Gervais until it seemed like he'd been neutered. George Clooney's acceptance speech after he was given the Best Actor award for his performance in "The Descendants". It is my view that Clooney's acceptance speech should be put into textbooks for all actors who ever get nominated for an award in case they're lucky enough to win.

TV Shows:

Because of my (still healing) fractured foot, I didn't see any new films this past week, but as usual, I did see some television shows and I have some observations and information about a couple of other things.

If you saw this past Sunday's episode of "The Good Wife", I think you'll be in agreement with me when I tell you that the worst thing that could ever happen to "The Good Wife" would be if the actress who plays the role of Kalinda ever decided to leave that show. DAMN, she's good! And sexy!

On Monday, did you see the 2-hour series opener of the new Fox show, "Alcatraz"? My initial reaction was, "Wow!", "Strange!" and I LOVED it! The stars in this show are the creepy Sam Neill, the cute and sexy Sarah Jones, the calm Robert Forster and the good looking JeffreyPierce who is one of many strange characters in this show. I think this is going to be a big hit, gang. Next Monday, it will be a 1-hour show and it will be on right after "House" on Fox.

A very good night for television this past Tuesday. "Glee" has been struggling, show-wise, but they had a very good episode on Fox. Another outstanding episode of "Parenthood" and two shows presented their first episodes of the season. "Justified", starring Timothy Olyphant along with a terrific cast of supporting players on the FX channel annnnd....Thanks to long time blog reader and political junkie Patrick Gallagher, I was talked into seeing the first episode of the new season of the TNT show, "Southland" , which stars a whole bunch of good actors. Loved it! Thanks Pat!

Wednesday night (last night) the 11th season of "American Idol" began. Two-hour show of which I saw only the first hour (it was good) because during "American Idol's" second hour, I watched a very good episode of "Harry's Law" on NBC. That show won't show another episode until their new night and time. Sunday, March 11, 8 pm, on NBC.

And that wonderful to watch "Revenge" featured another great episode on ABC. Twists and turns on top of twists and turns which resulted in all of us being pleasantly exhausted when the episode ended. We are told that two of our favorite villains will be returning soon and a big time veteran actor will be joining "Revenge" soon. William Devane, an actor who was outstanding all those years he starred on "Knott's Landing".

Were you a Kiefer Sutherland fan all those years he starred as Jack Bauer on "24"? I ask that question because Sutherland will be starring in a new series on Fox beginning next Wednesday, January 25. The show is called, "Touch". And sometime in April, Sutherland will begin shooting a film version of "24" that figures to be in our favorite theatre sometime next year.

QUESTIONS AND OR COMMENTS? Please write to me at scottstjames@sbcglobal.net and I will respond to you, ASAP. And yes, I respond to everyone except people who are "anonymous". Don't write to the blog because there's no way for me to know your email address so I won't be able to respond to you.

THE NEXT BLOG? Barring unforseen circumstances, the next blog will be written and posted late Thursday night, January 26 or early Friday morning, January 27.

Meanwhile, I hope the NFL teams you're rooting for are winners and don't forget...AMERICA FIRST!!!!!!!!!

A Romney nomination might backfire Big Time! Eliminate the oil tax breaks! Let's deport CEO's who outsource! If it wasn't for bad luck...

2012-01-12T19:10:00.000-08:00

Hi Gang! Are you ready for some FOOT-BALL!!! Do most of you care about any of these games except for the Denver at New England game that will be on CBS, Saturday evening at 5, Pacific Time? I mean, how about that Denver-Pittsburgh game last weekend? The "Jesus Guy", Tim Tebow was heroic again. After being terribly UN-heroic in his previous three games. Look, he's not the only one who has religious beliefs, right? I'm willing to bet that the vast majority of the people who read this blog have religious beliefs of one kind or another. Do you publicly remind people of that?

I didn't think so.

And ya know what? I tend to agree with that All-Pro defensive player for the Baltimore Ravens who, along with other NFL players that are saying they would like to see Tim Tebow dial down his multiple public declarations showing him to be "The religious guy". Do you see people doing that in their places of work? No, they don't. Unless they feel a need to do it in a private space.

Just sayin'.

As far as the game itself goes? I'm rooting for Tebow and the Broncos. If Denver beats New England and Baltimore beats Houston, that would mean that Denver would then play at Baltimore and the winner of that game would be going to the Super Bowl. But during that Denver-Baltimore game, the very good defensive player for Baltimore who has criticized Debow will/would be lined up close enough to Tebow for Tebow to see the fire in the eyes of the defensive player who would be trying very hard to knock Tebow to the ground.

THE REPUBLICAN DEBATES:

Three of them before next week's blog is written and posted.

This Saturday, January 14 at 5pm (Pacific Time) on FOX....Monday, January 16, 6pm (Pacific Time) on FOX....And Thursday, January 19, time to be determined, on CNN.

I've lost track of how many debates there have been so far, but these guys continue to put on a good show for us, don't they?

As this is being written, a few of the candidates are attacking Mitt Romney, the candidate who has gotten the most votes so far. Romney is looking more and more like the guy who will be running against Barack Obama. But is Romney the candidate who has the best chance of beating Obama?

I ask this question because this little blog has a lot of readers who are not afraid to share their opinions with me. Most of our readers who have spoken up are readers who don't want Barack Obama to serve a second term. And most of these readers who have spoken up are people who don't want Mitt Romney to be the Republican nominee. WHY? Most seem to feel that Romney is a money hungry empty suit who would enter the White House without any agenda except to see to it that his rich benefactors are taken care of and covered like a blanket.

Hey, that's what he was good at doing when he was working in that so-called "private sector" he keeps bragging about. Seriously folks, is there anything in Mitt Romney's record that leads you to believe that anything he says is something you can count on? I can think of one thing. If you're rich, he'll take care of you. But beyond THAT?!? Gang, Mitt Romney has proven over and over and over again that something he claims to believe in can change immediately. And that happens because? I think it's just in his DNA. It's like he sticks his finger outside, sees which the way the wind is blowing and just like that (for example) he's AGAINST abortion after telling everyone he was in favor of a woman's right to choose.

I'm not in FAVOR of abortion and frankly, I don't know anyone who is. But I do believe in a woman's right to choose.

I would have no problem if the rules regarding abortion were tightened to the point where contraception usage would be encouraged greatly for those women interested in having recreational sex. And having those women demanding that their sex partner(s) use contraception as well. Under a new law, If a woman having recreational sex gets pregnant, getting an abortion would be a legal problem for that woman.

But here's what else I would want in a new law about abortion. If a pregnant woman's life is in danger, she would be entitled to have an abortion, no questions asked.

If a woman has become pregnant after she was raped and she wants an abortion, she gets one, no questions asked.

If a woman has become pregnant because of incest (usually her father) and she wants an abortion, she gets one, no questions asked.

When I see these holier than thou candidates say "No abortion no matter what the circumstances are!", I demand to get an answer to any of these three questions; If she will probably die if she doesn't have an abortion, why are you insisting on her death?

If she's pregnant because of a rape, why should she have to carry the results and the reminder of that rape in her body for many months? The woman's mental health is big time in play unless she chooses for whatever reason to give birth to a child who's father is a rapist.

And if she's pregnant because of incest? Why should she be forced to carry THAT memory with her? Isn't the act itself MEMORY ENOUGH?!?

Just askin'.

GAS PRICES AND OUTSOURCING:

In case you hadn't noticed, our gas prices are rising again. And at a fast rate. Here's what one of the big reasons for the price hikes are. Thanks to national reporter Ron White, we're told that U.S refineries exported a record amount of refined fuels in 2011 to markets in South America, Central America and Europe.

We give oil companies great tax breaks. And I think that's stupid. What they did in 2011 (last year) is a glaring example of our stupidity. We give them huge tax breaks and they sell a big bunch of fuel to other countries while we Americans pay more and more and more? ENOUGH!!!! Time to (higher) tax those greedy bastards!!!

One of the big reasons we're in the middle of this economic mess is because of American CEO's, etc. who have made themselves a ton of money by outsourcing jobs to foreign countries. President Obama is trying to offer incentives to get this turned around. Here's an incentive that I think would work immediately if there's a legal way to make this happen. And the THIS I'm referring to is.....Any CEO who outsources American jobs gets outsourced his ownself. In other words, he or she gets deported.

Unfair? Harmful? I would answer that by saying, "How unfair and or harmful is it for Americans to lose their jobs because OTHER Americans are allowed to send those jobs to other countries while the American CEO's get billions of dollars of blood money that has been drained from the backs of (now) out of work Americans.

Hey, the current administration has shown future administrations how large numbers of illegal immigrants can be deported because (among other things) they're a drain on our economy. So are greedy bastard CEO's who do all the outsourcing. If those CEO's aren't talked into changing their greedy ways at the expense of American workers, let us shout the AMERICA FIRST mantra and deport these ungrateful so-called Americans. YO, CONGRESS!!!! Can you PLEASE make that HAPPEN?!?

ENTERTAINMENT STUFF:

Because of an unfortunate accident I had a few days ago, I didn't see any new films this past week. Yeah, I've had a little bad luck lately. Remember that old Country song that had the line, "If it weren't for BAD luck, I'd have NO luck at all"?!? Well, that's me, gang. I wanted to see a film that will apparently be nominated for an Oscar this year. "The Artist". While walking, I tripped over a step, had to do some serious body balancing to keep myself from falling head first, but after I was seen by my doctor, I was told that I had fractured my right foot. The good news? I'll have time to read a lot of things I've wanted to read for quite a while because I'm told I'll be inactive for at least 6 weeks.

This Sunday, Ricky Gervais will be hosting the Golden Globes again and a lot of people will be tuning in just to see what Ricky says. The show will be televised by NBC.

This past Sunday, "The Good Wife" came back with a bang. That show is soooo good!

It was also new season openers for "Californication" and "Shameless" on Showtime along with a new show, "House of Lies" which stars Don Cheadle and Kristen Bell along with some good supporting players. I'm a fan of Cheadle's, I think Kristen Bell is gorgeous and I'm looking forward to seeing every episode of all three of these shows.

Another great (Tuesday) episode of "Parenthood" on NBC, I enjoyed the new (Wednesday) episode of "Harry's Law" on NBC and another off the charts fun (Wednesday) episode of "Revenge", a good show that gets better and better and better.

Because I have the cable option of "On Demand", I plan to see tonight's episodes of "Person of Interest" on CBS and "The Firm" on NBC.

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. All "Anonymous" emails are ignored.

THE NEXT BLOG? Barring unforseen circumstances (like another accident), I'll begin writing a new blog after the Republican debate on CNN, Thursday evening, January 19.

I'll end this blog with the quote of the week: "I like being able to fire people!" If you don't know who said that, you haven't been paying attention.

I hope that all of you have a great rest of the week, the weekend, the holiday on Monday and that all the NFL teams you're rooting for are teams that become winning teams!

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

What Obama DID wrong, What the GOP candidates are DOING wrong, Two more debates this weekend and NO more debating if Tim Tebow fails again!!!

2012-01-05T16:53:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year, everybody! Is 2012 feeling better for you than 2011 felt?

Me neither.

Did you have a nice holiday season?

Me too.

Because this is a "leap year" and if my math is correct, we have 361 more days of 2012.

Things HAVE to get better! DON'T they?

Before getting into some political stuff and at the end of this blog, more entertainment stuff than usual, I want to remind you about how easy it is to have every new blog sent to your email inbox for FREE! There's a subscription form just below my 'About Me' Profile to the right of this column. In the box provided, enter your email address and click on 'Subscribe'. Then, click on the confirmation link that will arrive in your email. Every time there's a new blog, it will automatically be delivered to you via email. It is now Thursday evening, January 5. Subscribers will receive this blog tomorrow morning, between 3 and 5, Pacific Time. This will always be FREE and you'll never get ads, spam, NOTHING, except the blog itself.

And by the way..... A big WELCOME to all you NEW subscribers! Yes, there hasn't BEEN a new blog for three weeks because I took a little vacation.

Big weekend coming up. A G.O.P. presidential debate on ABC, Saturday evening at 6, Pacific Time and another debate on NBC, Sunday MORNING at 9. There will also be four NFL playoff games. Games that will include the Pittsburgh-Denver game, Sunday afternoon on CBS.

Denver quarterback Tim Tebow has been a very interesting and inspirational story for the last couple of months. But for the last three weeks, Tebow's luck, good play and or "divine intervention" seem to have "left the building". I know a little about professional sports and you can take what I'm about to tell you, "to the bank". If Tim Tebow continues to play on Sunday the way he played the previous three weeks, the "Tim Tebow Story" will end up being another sad story about "Discovery".

Are you ready for a little political stuff?

Let's get busy.

WHAT OBAMA DID WRONG:

If you (like me) voted for a Democrat for the first time ever when you voted for Obama, you did it because he "dazzled you". What we've learned is something we should have known; Barack Obama has been a "O.J.T." president. O.J.T. as in, "On the job training". That's an okay way of doing things at "Jack in the Box", but as Commander in Chief of the United States?!? Maybe not so okay, huh?

Look, nobody with half a brain thinks this guy is an idiot. You might not like him because he's black or you think his wife spends too much money, but an idiot? No.

And let's face it. EVERYONE who gets elected president for the first time is a person who becomes a "O.J.T." president. No one but no one knows what that job is about until they get behind closed doors with a bunch of well meaning experts in all the areas he'll have to make decisions about.

I've heard all the grumbling about Obama since before he got elected and after he got elected. I agree with some of what's said and I disagree with some of what's said.

In my view, Obama's biggest mistake was a mistake he made almost immediately. All the time he spent on trying to get what is known as "Obamacare" passed, was noble in the sense that in the long run it's probably something that would be good for our country, but he stopped fighting for a couple of key things that should have been included and what we ended up with was/is NOT "As good as it gets".

Meanwhile, while spending more than a year or so on health care reform which in the final analysis wasn't as good as it could have and should have been, he completely ignored what he should have fighting for.

Ignored WHAT you might ask? JOBS! THE ECONOMY!

Look, I'm all for him getting us out of Iraq, I wish he'd get us out of Afghanistan and I'm very happy he was(behind closed doors) involved with the assassination of Osama bin Laden.

But health care reform? He should have focused totally on the jobs and the economy and made health care reform something to go after if he were to be elected to a second term.

Readers of this blog live all over the United States and in different parts of the world. I know that I will get emails and phone calls from Obama supporters who will tell me I'm wrong and my observations are unfair. And I will respectfully disagree. In my heart of hearts, I believe that if he had spent as much time on the economy and jobs as he did on health care reform, the Tea Party wouldn't have become as influential as they did and a bunch of Democrats in the House and Senate wouldn't have lost their jobs. And it would have been nice if Obama hadn't let lightweight Republicans push him around like we used to see bullies do in high school.

WHAT REPUBLICAN CANDIDATES ARE DOING WRONG:

Have you been watching the Republican debates? With one exception, I've seen every minute of every debate. As I mentioned earlier, there will be two debates this weekend. Saturday night at 6 (Pacific Time) on ABC and Sunday morning at 9 (Pacific Time) on NBC.

The candidates who will be debating are the candidates who are still candidates. Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum, Ron Paul, Newt Gingrich, Rick Perry and Jon Huntsman.

I think Jon Huntsman would be the candidate that would give Republicans the best chance at winning the election, but so far, Huntsman has not been able to resonate with the Republican "base".

Let's have a show of hands, folks. How many of you think that jobs and the economy are the two most important things we should be talking about?

I already told you that I think Obama's biggest mistake was to go in different directions other than jobs and the economy. I'm not saying he ignored those two subjects but I am saying he should have DEVOTED himself to those two subjects.

But ya know what? In these debates, every time that a question about the economy and or jobs is brought up by one of the moderators, the person being asked the question mumbles something about (what is virtually) nothing and then goes off on a rant about how if they're elected president, they'll get rid of Obamacare and or a rant about Obama "apologizing" to other other countries about America. There is no documented evidence of that load of horse manure ANYWHERE unless it's falsely positioned in one of those wack job places that Michele Bachmann must have been getting HER "information" from.

But because I don't believe in kicking someone while they're down, Ms. Bachmann, I apologize because the guy I'm specifically targeting is Mitt "flip-flop" Romney.

Every time this guy barks about his private sector experience and that HE's the guy who has gotten more jobs for Americans and he's the guy who can GET more jobs for Americans because of all the experience he has had, experience that's "foreign" to Barack Obama.....

Let me catch my breath, here.....

Under the category of "The devil's in the details!", any legitimate examination of Mitt Romney's private sector experience comes down to this; Mitt Romney is an expert at going to companies and making himself and the people above him, richer than what they were or he was before he showed up. Mitt Romney doesn't have a history of getting jobs for the middle class. Mitt Romney has a documented history of putting large numbers of the middle class "On the STREET!"

Okay....Near the end of the year, we will have a presidential election. Right now, all the candidates have dropped the ball regarding ideas about jobs and the economy. I think that the reason they've ducked and run from the subject when it's brought up is because they're basically clueless.

Now if referring to them as being "clueless" is considered to be too harsh by some of you readers, I would be happy to publicly apologize after any of them get on television and give us some solution specifics that they have in mind. But until then? I believe they're clueless. Except when it comes to benefitting themselves.

ENTERTAINMENT STUFF:

Between the three weeks ago blog and this blog, I had the pleasure of seeing a few films and a few television shows that knocked my socks off. I doubt that I'll mention all of them, but I'll begin with three shows that had their season ending shows. "Boss" on STARZ ended well, "Homeland" on Showtime ended very well and "Dexter" on Showtime had a shocking ending. The cliff hanging episode showed Dexter's sister seeing him in the process of murdering a guy.

Because of the holidays, most shows were showing reruns and some shows are still doing that. A new episode of "Parenthood" was shown on NBC this past Tuesday and the episode was terrific on many levels. Gang, if you haven't seen that show, you are depriving yourself of some first class entertainment.

Same deal with "Revenge" which aired a new episode on Wednesday night. What is so cool about this show is that every time a character who is a bona fide "snake" gets arrested or gets killed, ANOTHER "snake" gets added to the cast.

I think we'll finally get a new episode of "The Good Wife" this coming Sunday.

Before I tell you about some films I saw, I'll tell you about some information that (tonight) was passed along to me by Nikki Finke who is the Founder and Editor in Chief of "Deadline Hollywood". She is reporting that Oscar winning director Kathryn Bigelow's new film about Navy SEAL Team 6's killing of Osama bin Laden is on track to be released on December 19 and that the very "On fire actress" (my term) Jessica Chastain has been added to what is described as an "ensemble cast".

I am now going to tell you about a few films I saw that are currently on the cable circuit. Then I'll tell you about two new films.

"The Company Men", a 2010 film that's on Showtime. It stars Ben Affleck, Chris Cooper, Tommy Lee Jones, Craig T. Nelson, Kevin Costner, Maria Bello and an outstanding performance by Rosemary Dewitt who plays Affleck's wife. This is a gut wrenching story about our lousy economy that shows people losing their jobs, the pride that's associated with that, suicides and how everyone but the richest of the rich are harmed by this economy. Gang, this is a VERY good film!

"Jolene", a 2008 film that's on TMC. I think this was Jessica Chastain's first film. She plays a woman who knows how to "play" men. She is aided by a great supporting cast that includes Dermot Melroney, Michael Vartan, Chazz Palminteri, Theresa Russell, Frances Fisher and Denise Richards. Good film and worth your time.

Speaking of current stars and their first films...."The Professional", a 1994 film that's on Encore. Jean Reno is "The Professional" and terrific supporting contributions are made by Gary Oldman, Danny Aiello and Oscar winning actress Natalie Portman who was 12 or 13 when she made this (her first) film. And she was flat out OUTSTANDING!!!

"F/X", a 1986 film that's on Encore. It stars Brian Dennehy and Bryan Brown with Jerry Orbach contributing a terrific supporting role. Speaking of Orbach, I recently watched a few episodes of "Law & Order" that were episodes that the late Orbach was starring in. That's when "Law & Order" was REALLY good, gang! "F/X" is a fun non-stop thrill ride.

Two NEW Films:

"Mission Impossible--Ghost Protocol" (otherwise known as "MI-4"). It stars Tom Cruise and the very beautiful Paula Patton. This film has already made more than 360 million dollars world-wide and the day I saw the film, people in the audience gave it a standing ovation when it ended. I liked the film a lot.

"The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo". This film stars Daniel Craig and Rooney Mara and is directed by David Fincher, the same guy who directed "The Social Network". Rooney Mara is in a very early scene of "The Social Network" and there's no way I would have recognized her from that role if someone hadn't told me. This is a very good film and they're already getting ready to shoot a sequel. Actually, two sequels. The Craig/Mara chemistry is terrific and I am very much looking forward to seeing those two being together again.

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. All "anonymous" emails are ignored.

THE NEXT BLOG? Barring unforseen circumstances, the next blog will be posted late Thursday night, January 12 or early Friday morning, January 13.

Meanwhile, I hope your favorite NFL teams win their games, I hope we all hear some "economy solution" ideas in the upcoming two Republican debates and I hope that we will all soon see some signs of "recovery" from this mess we're in.

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

Karl Rove says, "Enough with the debates!" Done with Iraq? A good idea from Rick Perry! Ryan Seacrest, Tim Tebow and Ron Paul!!!

2011-12-15T16:32:00.000-08:00

This will be my final blog for 2011. We will return with a new blog on Thursday night, January 5, 2012.

We're getting lots of new subscribers and if you'd like to join this growing crowd, it's free and it gets delivered to your email inbox every time there's a new blog. For example, current subscribers will get this blog between 3-5, tomorrow morning, Pacific Time. How do you subscribe? Use the convenient subscription form just below my 'About Me' profile (to the right of this column). Enter your email address in the box provided and click on 'Subscribe'. Then, click on the confirmation link that will arrive in your email. This will always be free, you'll never get ads, no spam, nothing except the blog. New blog delivery to your email inbox will always be between 3 and 5 in the morning, Pacific Time.

Republican Debates:

Did you see this past Saturday's debate? I did. Am I the only one who thought that at the beginning of the broadcast that Diane Sawyer sounded like she was auditioning for a dramatic stage play of some kind? To be fair, as time went on, she "dialed it down", but....

After last Saturday's GOP debate, Karl Rove decided he'd seen and heard enough and he wrote a column for the Wall Street Journal about his complaints. For those of you who don't know, Karl Rove was a trusted associate of George W. Bush when Bush was serving two terms as president. Sean Hannity refers to Rove as "The Architect" as in, being the brains behind Bush's successes. Laura Bush has publicly stated a different view. When asked about how Rove has been described, she said, "He (Rove) likes to think he was."

Except for one of the debates, I've watched every minute of all the other debates and I will be watching tonight's debate as well. If there is something worth mentioning after the debate has ended, I will add it to this blog before it gets posted.

Governor Perry's Idea! An Idea That Deserves Being Listened To and Debated!

As most folks know, GOP candidate, Governor Rick Perry has had some tough moments during these debates, but in the last couple of debates, he's come up with something that I think is worth taking a serious look at. If I'm understanding him correctly, in essence, he's saying that if he is elected to be our next president, he will be trying to turn members of the House and of the Senate into part time workers and I think he's also advocating term limits. When he said these things, no moderator or other candidate asked a question or made a comment about his idea. Maybe the moderators and candidates took the position that it was simply some other dumb thing that Perry had said and decided to ignore it. It's also possible and perhaps probable that the candidates and moderators didn't hear what Perry said because it wasn't about THEM and they were too busy thinking about what THEY were going say.

I respectfully disagree with that kind of thinking. Something needs to be done in the way of a "Gee, no one ever EXPLAINED it to me that way before!" to make these House members and Senate members feel like they've gotten an attention getting hot poker shoved up their backsides so they'll (hopefully) decide to quit doing things for manipulative cash carrying LOBBYISTS and get BACK to doing things for the American people who voted for them!

Gang there's a reason that the people who are lowest in the polls are members of the House and members of the Senate. And isn't it long past time to pass legislation that prevents lobbyists from being allowed within 500 yards of an elected politician. You know, like lawmakers do to stalkers?!?

Just sayin'. And just askin'.

And How About That Ron Paul?

76 years old, still kicking up a storm, has a ton of young people who like what he has to say and he's beginning to climb up in the polls. Gang, I interviewed Ron Paul a few times on a radio show of mine a few years ago. He's a very interesting guy, he is an "America First" kind of guy (as am I), he's against the wars (as am I), but like a lot of other people, he has some declared views in his past that to me, are troubling. No reason for me to get into those "views" unless he becomes a more of a "contender" than he is now, buuuut....
Just sayin'.

TONIGHT'S GOP DEBATE:

I just now finished watching the Republican debate(s) from Iowa on the Fox News Channel.

I think this was the best debate show of them all.

Yes, Governor Rick Perry brought up his idea (again) about reigning in House members and Senate members and it elicited one small and unimportant response/question from one of the moderators. To me, this is a subject that deserves serious discussion(s). Perry also seemed to be the most relaxed that he's ever been and he had the two funniest lines of the night.

I know that Michele Bachmann is a big "believer" in what she says, but because she has said so many things BEFORE these debates began that were wrong, wrong, wrong, (and continues to do so) she, more times than not, comes across as a pleasant wack-job.

As of now, I don't see Santorum, Bachmann or Huntsman being around much longer unless they're able to miraculously pull a whole bunch of rabbits out of hats. Buuut, we've all been surprised, haven't we?

THE IRAQ WAR:

A war that never should have happened has (allegedly) ended. Thousands of Americans troops were killed and more thousands suffered permanent life changing injuries. For WHAT?!? Weapons of mass destruction? DIDN'T EXIST!!! Because Iraq had something to do with 9/11? TOTALLY BOGUS!!! So why did we send troops there and spend billions on top of billions of dollars? And we will continue to spend billions of dollars because of all the severe injuries troops will need lifetime care for. And I again ask the question, FOR WHAT?!? If there really is an afterlife presided over by a God, I would expect that God to ask George W. Bush and Dick Cheney that same question. Same deal with this stupid war we're involved with in Afghanistan.

ENTERTAINMENT STUFF:

Tim Tebow. What he's been doing is about as entertaining as it gets, isn't it? This Sunday, on CBS, Tim Tebow and the Denver Broncos will be playing against the great Tom Brady and the New England Patriots and I think this will be the highest (television) rated football game of the year.

Ryan Seacrest. Most of you have heard about him, right? The host of "American Idol", the Rockin' New Years Eve" show, the producer of the Kardashian shows, his radio show, etc., etc. We are now being told that some NBC executives are kicking around the idea of Seacrest taking Matt Lauer's place on The Today Show late next year. A number of NBC people are complaining about it because they can't imagine a guy like Seacrest having what it takes to be the host of a show like The Today Show. I don't know if he would be a successful fit, but I do know that he's been successful at everything else he's tried. Meanwhile, the new season of American Idol will begin soon.

In other television news, Chris Meloni has found a new job. Meloni played the role of Detective Elliot Stabler for many years on "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" until he was offered a pay cut for a new contract that he declined. Meloni has been hired to be a series regular on the new season of HBO's "True Blood". Meloni will be playing an ancient, powerful vampire who every one of the show's major characters will have to answer to.

Another great episode of "The Good Wife" this past Sunday. It was nice to see the characters played by Julianna Margulies and Chris Noth being assertive again. The Noth scene was especially powerful.

"Boss", starring Kelsey Grammer and a bunch good supporting characters, wrapped up their first season last Friday with one of the main characters getting killed.

A 90-minute season finale of "Homeland" will be shown on Showtime this Sunday. "Homeland" is a GREAT show and it along with several of the actors, figure to get serious award nominations. A 60-minute season finale of "Dexter" will also be shown on Showtime this Sunday.

The Fox show "Glee" presented a wonderful Christmas show this past Tuesday. If you missed it, but you have "On Demand" privileges, I highly recommend you taking advantage of it and watching the "Glee" show.

A lot of shows are on hiatus because of the holidays.

I saw one film this past week. "The Mechanic", a 2011 film on Showtime. It stars Jason Statham, Ben Foster, Donald Sutherland and Tony Goldwyn. Non stop action film. Great popcorn flick.

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. All "anonymous" emails are ignored.

THE NEXT BLOG? Because of the holidays, this will be my last blog until Thursday night, January 5th. Meanwhile, I hope that each and every one of you have a very Merry Christmas (or any other celebration you have) and a very Happy New Year! Hey, 2012 HAS to be better than 2011, DOESN'T IT?!?

AMERICA FIRST!!!

'Tis the season...Woe is me...Romney's history has nothing to do with job CREATION...No more next day mail? Obama's birth STILL an issue?!?

2011-12-08T16:15:00.000-08:00

A reminder...In addition to subscribing to this blog for free, you can now follow me on Twitter. @scottstjamesla

How do you subscribe? Use the subscription form just below my "About Me" profile which is to the right of this column. All you have to do is enter your email address in the box provided and click on 'Subscribe'. Then click on the confirmation link that will arrive in your email. Everytime there's a new blog, it will automatically be delivered to you between 3 and 5 in the morning, Pacific Time. This is free, it will always be free and you'll never get spam or anything except the new blog.

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Before getting into a couple of political things and the entertainment stuff, are you getting "Holiday Fever", yet? Christmas, New Year's, lots of other religious holidays on the horizon which leads me to....

It's beginning to look a lot like....Go ahead and finish the song yourself.

And speaking of singing....

Hall of Fame music guy Don Graham sent me a couple of new Christmas songs I'd like to tell you about that are available on iTunes and Amazon.com.

"O Holy Night", sung by Nathan Pacheco and Katherine Jenkins. This new version of an old song is SOOO good that big time radio consultant Bob Hamilton is saying that ALL the radio stations he consults will be playing this song. I listened to this song several times in my car yesterday and if I was still doing radio stuff, I would definitely be playing this.

Same deal with the other Christmas song that Don Graham sent me. "Mistletoe & Holly", which was originally sung by Frank Sinatra on his 1957 Christmas album, "A Jolly Christmas". This new version of "Mistletoe & Holly is sung by the great actor, Robert Davi who, among other things, has an album of Sinatra songs that he sang. Davi's version of "Mistletoe & Holly" will be available for purchase next Tuesday, December 13 on iTunes and Amazon.com. The price is only 99 cents and 100% of Davi's proceeds will be donated to The Salvation Army's 120th Red Kettle Campaign which provides emergency assistance to the millions of families in need this Christmas. As you can see, in addition to being a great actor, Robert Davi is also a great humanitarian. While I am writing this blog, I am listening Davi's "Mistletoe & Holly" on my CD player here in my office.

POLITICAL STUFF:

Who is going to end up being the GOP's presidential candidate? It's pretty much down to two people, isn't it? Unless someone unexpected decides to throw his or her hat in the ring? I suppose one of the current candidates besides Romney and Gingrich could end up surprising us, but right now it's pretty safe to say that would be a BIG surprise.

As of now, the leader in the polls is the talking out of both sides of his mouth and multiple adulterer, Newt Gingrich. Old news, you say? Perhaps, but so is the saying about a leopard never changing his spots. Newt Gingrich has, in the past, been supportive of issues that are considered to be liberal issues. For the purposes of ingratiating himself to money people and religious leaders who seem to (at times) wish they could somehow turn the clock back to the 50's, Gingrich now pretends he never had those previous beliefs. How does he get away with it? Probably the same way he got away with convincing previous wives that they should believe him instead of their eyes.

Mitt Romney is now in second place in the current GOP polls. Romney's past flip-flopping is something that pretty much everyone is aware of. But whenever he's asked about it, the only things he seems to be able to say that he hasn't flip-flopped on is the church he attends and the only wife he has ever had.

Okay. Let's say for the sake of argument that politics is a blood sport and there are times you have to change some publicly stated beliefs. In Romney's case, that's a LOT of publicly stated beliefs, but hey, if you're slick enough.....

Gang, here comes something that Romney should NEVER be allowed to slither away from. In the debates, he likes to say that because of all the time he spent in the private sector, HE'S the best candidate to solve our unemployment problem(s) because of all the job creating he did IN the private sector.

And when he says that, someone should be yelling, "Stop, that's bullshit, STOP!!!"

None of the current GOP candidates have been responsible for more people LOSING their jobs than Mitt Romney. When he was working for the Bain folks, he was responsible for getting rid of thousands of workers so investors would make more money and Romney would make a lot more money.

Just sayin'.

Okay, somebody's going to end up running against President Obama. And that somebody might win. In a very recent speech, Obama said something about the "trickle down" theory espoused by so many on the "right". Obama said it doesn't work and it has never worked. And he's right. David Stockman is the guy who famously talked Ronald Reagan into supporting the trickle down nonsense and a couple of years ago, Stockman publicly admitted he was wrong. George Bush Senior once referred to Stockman's idea as voodoo economics and Bush Senior was right. Yes, Bush Senior served only one term because of doing the right thing when it needed to be done. And that was to raise taxes.

Back to Obama for a second....Donald Trump will soon host a GOP debate and I bring this up because "The Donald" is still bringing up stuff about Obama's birth. GOP candidate Rick Perry also brings it up from time to time and Perry says it's fun to stir things up.

REALLY?!? Isn't it interesting that no president in our history has ever been challenged about whether or not he's an American citizen? Except Obama? And had there been any truth to these trumped up allegations, don't you think some hot shot Secret Service Agent or some other kind of police guy or woman would have come up with the EVIDENCE?!?

Just askin'.

Woe is me...annnd YOU:

Me first.

Earlier this week, we had some very cold weather here in the Los Angeles area. Rain or shine, I do a 7-days a week 3-5 miles health walk. Day before yesterday, I did see some ice patches on the sidewalks and I did a good job of avoiding them. Until...I was almost home, I got distracted, and the next thing I knew, I was on the ground. OUCH!!! As a guy I used to work with liked to say, "I hurt all over more than anyplace else!"

Woe is me! And YOU!

Have you heard about the Post Office business that we're all in danger of being hit with? Two or three months from now, we might be looking at the end of "next day mail". More like three days and things like magazines taking 7-9 days. Also the possiblilty of no more Saturday service and a lot of Post Office buildings being shut down.

If some or all of this happens, it'll be, "Woe is ALL of us!!!"

ENTERTAINMENT STUFF:

Have you seen the film, "Ides of March"? It came out a few months ago, I saw it, liked it a lot and wrote about it in this blog. Oscar nominations will be announced soon and there seems to be a pretty good "buzz" about "Ides of March".

A few days ago, I saw the new NC-17 film that's been in the news. I saw "Midnight Cowboy" when it came out and was rated "X" many years ago. When I saw it, I wondered why such a prohibitive rating had been attached to this film. A film that made stars out of Jon Voight and Dustin Hoffman.

"Shame" is the name of the NC-17 film that I saw. It stars Michael Fassbender and Carey Mulligan. Carey Mulligan is one of my favorite actresses and while I admit to not being familiar with Michael Fassbender, he did a good job (acting wise) in this film. As did Mulligan. Yes, this is a film about sex and problems (or not) that the Fassbender character has. I don't think this is a great film, I don't think it will get any big Oscar nominations, but the film isn't boring by any stretch of the imagination. This is by no means a porn film, but it is an adult film and I'm glad I saw it.

I REALLY enjoyed a film on HBO a few nights ago. It came out earlier this year and it stars Matt Damon and Emily Blunt with terrific supporting performances from ("Mad Men's) John Slattery, the world class actor Terence Stamp and other fine actors. "The Adjustment Bureau" is the name of this film and it is a film I didn't see in my favorite Cineplex because the previews I saw led me to believe this wasn't much of a film at all.

Boy was I wrong about THAT! This is a love story with high drama elements that make you desperately want the Matt Damon and Emily Blunt characters to end up "winning" the battle they find themselves in the middle of. As of this moment, Emily Blunt is my new fantasy love object. I thought she was flat out adorable in "The Adjustment Bureau" and I LOVED this film!

Television stuff? Because of football and some music shows, some of our favorite regular shows weren't shown this past week and it's going to be like that until sometime in January.

But regarding the ones I (we) COULD see, I thought Sunday's episode of "The Good Wife" was that show's best episode this season. I don't know about you, but I can't get enough of the character "Kalinda" who plays the investigator.

Another terrific episode of "Revenge" on ABC last night. The twists and turns that show takes are fun to watch.

Only one more episode of "Boss" on STARZ, tomorrow night. And yes, it will be shown again many times on the different STARZ channels throughout the week. The show has been renewed so we'll see more episodes in a few months. Meanwhile, this has been a terrific showcase for star, Kelsey Grammer. He plays a ruthless Chicago mayor who is also hiding a deadly disease. In this past Friday's episode, his daughter went to jail, another politician was forced to talk to the Grammer character while he was on his knees and the previews for tomorrow night's season ending episode lead us to believe he plans to do something in a revenge sort of way to his wife. This show's first episode had a lot of people believing (and I was one of them) that this show might not be very good. I'm glad I didn't give up on "Boss" after that first episode. I expect that Grammer will get an Emmy nomination and there might be four other actors on "Boss" that will get nominated. A guy who plays a Chicago reporter who is out to "get" the Grammer character, a politician who was going to go after the Grammer character's job as mayor until he was forced to his knees and two terrific actors who work for the Grammer character. One of them, a woman, exudes a sexual vibe that's irresistible.

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. All "anonymous" emails are ignored.

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

Here's a heads-up. Another Republican debate will be held this Saturday on ABC at 6pm, Pacific Time.

Meanwhile, I hope that you and yours have a terrific weekend.

And don't forget....

AMERICA FIRST!!!

AMERICA FIRST! To hell with foreign countries! Are ANY of these candidates worth voting for in the next presidential election? And THANKS!!!

2011-12-01T19:02:00.000-08:00

I've said it before and I'll say it again; We need to concentrate on the United States of America because we have a lot of problems that need to be fixed. Some OTHER country has problems? Let THEM take care of those problems. Too many times, our tax money has been used to solve problems in other countries and way too many times and for way too many years, our tax money has been used for us to be the self declared "POLICEMAN of the WORLD!!!"

ENOUGH!!!!!

AMERICA FIRST!!!!!!!!!

And how about these presidential candidates we have to choose from?!? Mitt Romney? Does anyone know what he REALLY believes in? About ANYTHING?!?

Newt Gingrich? Another guy who talks out of both sides of his mouth. Fire the "Fanny" folks? Put their leaders in jail? Oops! He was given 1.6 or was it 1.8 MILLION DOLLARS by the "Fanny" folks because of advice he was giving them? "I love you!", he has said until he has gotten a new mistress. More than once!

Would anyone like to guess what Newt Gingrich really believes in? About ANYTHING?!? Except for the fact if he was elected President he would apparently be offering amnesty for millions more illegals than Reagan did and what Reagan did was disgusting enough.

Herman Cain? Well, I kind of think we DO know what HE believes in. And can you imagine what would probably happen if somehow Cain was elected President and Gingrich was elected Vice President or the other way around? The White House would figure to become a "playground", wouldn't it? Just a couple of aging frat boys who never got around to growing up.

Rick Perry? I think I might like hanging out with him, but I wouldn't want him anywhere near the White House. Forget about what he might or might not believe in. Does Rick Perry KNOW very much about ANYTHING?!?

Michele Bachmann? One mistake followed by another mistake followed by.....TOO MANY MISTAKES!!!

I mean is she worst presidential candidate we've EVER had when it comes to factual errors?!?

Ron Paul? I like some of his ideas, but his ideas that I don't like keep me (and most of America) from thinking he's a candidate to be taken seriously.

Rick Santorum? Seems like a nice guy, but his mind is stuck in the 50's.

Jon Huntsman? This is a guy who I think should be the best Republican candidate of the bunch, but for whatever reason, he hasn't been able to communicate a message that has traction. He still has time to figure out HOW to do that, but not MUCH time.

The next Republican debate will be this Saturday, December 3 and it will be hosted by Mike Huckabee on FOX at 8pm Eastern, 5pm Pacific. Six of the candidates are confirmed. The two who aren't confirmed are Cain and Huntsman. And yes, I know what some of you are thinking. Huckabee shouldn't be the HOST! He should be a CANDIDATE!

And yes, there is one other candidate I haven't mentioned. Barack Obama.

The current (so far) "Disappointment President". He wants four more years.

Barack Obama is the first Democrat I've ever voted for. His opponents don't want to acknowledge how "tough" his policies have been in Pakistan and Afghanistan. A hell of a lot tougher than George W. Bush's policies were.

But on the domestic front, he appears to have allowed himself to be kicked around by Mitch McConnell, John Boehner and the rest of the bought and paid for gang like the unelected Grover Norquist and other "wonderful citizens" just like Norquist.

This makes Obama appear to be weak. If he's not willing to fight (I mean REALLY fight) for what he supposedly believes in, why should anyone else fight FOR him?!?

And then we get to a question that is bothersome to many of us when we say, "Do we know what Barack Obama BELIEVES in? I mean REALLY believes in? And is he WILLING to fight for what he believes in? Or doesn't he really believe in ANYTHING?!?

Yes, things can change, but as of now, here's what we see and hear with our own eyes and ears; Not one of the candidates who say they would like to be President of the United States in 2013 has given us a good reason to believe that they have ANY ideas about how to get us out of this economic ditch the majority of Americans are in. The Republican candidates seem to want to do one thing. Make sure that rich folks don't have to pay more taxes and yes, some of them want to give amnesty to illegals.

The Democrat candidate, Barack Obama, wants rich folks to have to pay higher taxes, but other than that, he hasn't put up any kind of fight to get things done that would involve real job creation.

Okay....Republican candidates? Nothing! The Democrat candidate? Nothing!

AND YOU WONDER WHY THE "OCCUPY CROWDS" ARE RAISING SO MUCH HELL?!?

OTHER STUFF:

I was going to do a "number" on Rush Limbaugh's recent claim that First Lady, Mrs. Obama was guilty of being "Uppity". The word has racial leanings, he was raised in an area that probably causes him to not know any better, I remember when he was begging to be hired by KMOX in St. Louis about the time I was there many years ago, but legendary GM Robert Hyland knew what Limbaugh was and wanted no part of him. Things have changed, Hyland died and eventually Limbaugh was hired by KMOX and he's still there. Upon reflection, I decided to pretty much ignore Limbaugh for what is simply one of his many "interesting" comments over the years.

Bad move by Jimmy Fallon's music people for playing an instrumental version of a song called, "Lyin' Ass Bitch" when Michele Bachmann walked on stage to have a conversation with Fallon. Because it was an instrumental version of a song very few people were/are familiar with, pretty much no one knew what had been played until Ms. Bachmann was told about it after the Fallon show had ended. And she raised holy hell about it. And I don't blame her. Fallon called her, apologized profusely, Ms. Bachmann says she believes Fallon was sincere. An NBC executive called her, apologized and said the band had been punished, but Ms. Bachmann was ticked off about that call because she felt the president of NBC should have called her. And ya know what? I think she's right.

Have you heard about the Iowa Republican folks who are trying to get Sarah Palin to change her mind and become a presidential candidate? I know that there are a lot of Sarah Palin fans out there, but one thing these fans need to understand is that Palin was never going to be a serious candidate. Sarah Palin is showing all of us that what she wants is a lot of money and she doesn't want to have to work much to get it. If you've been paying attention, thanks to FOX, mission accomplished.

And how about that Lindsay Lohan? She's supposedly getting paid something in the neighborhood of $700,000 or so for taking her clothes off for Playboy Magazine. That shouldn't be too hard to do, right? Well, as we've all learned, nothing seems to be simple for Ms. Lohan. After the pictures were taken and Lohan had left the building, Hugh Hefner looked at the pictures and demanded that she come back and pose again.

If you think YOU have it bad, stop and think about this; A so-called sexy beauty can't take her clothes off and be sexy, properly? Or is this a case of Mr. Hefner not realizing what most folks have noticed. She ain't as hot as she used to be, Boss Bunny. And hasn't been for a while.

ENTERTAINMENT STUFF:

Only two more episodes of "Boss" on STARZ. This Kelsey Grammer show has been renewed for a second season and I can tell you this very serious show has gotten better and better in every new episode. This last episode which can be seen (again) tonight, was/is a terrific episode. The next new episode will be shown tomorrow night, December 2, at 10.

It's been a tough season for "Glee", but this week's new episode was the best episode of the season. And another GREAT episode of "Parenthood" on NBC was shown this past Tuesday.

On Fox last night, "I Hate My Teenage Daughter" had it's premiere episode. Jaime Pressley and Katie Finneran are the moms, Aisha Dee and Kristi Lauren are the daughters and the co-creators are Sherry Bilsing-Graham and Ellen Kreamer. The show featured some good laughs and I liked it.

After a slow start, "Dexter" has gotten good again and the new show "Homeland" continues to be terrific television.

I saw one film this past week. "Autumn in New York", a film that came out in 2000 and is currently on the STARZ circuit. It stars Richard Gere, Winona Ryder and an all star cast of supporting players. This film is what I refer to as a "weeper", I'm a sucker for good "weeper films" and I liked this film a lot.

I'M ENDING THIS BLOG WITH A COLLECTIVE

THANK YOU!!!

This is going to be about some things that I would normally be writing about at the end of the year. Instead, I'm doing this on the first day of the last month of 2011.

Times have been tough for a lot of folks during the last few years and things might have been toughest for most folks THIS year.

This year has featured a number of tough spots for me. I was blind-sided when I found out I was going to have undergo three surgeries, surgeries that resulted in my losing out on two film opportunities and along the way I had my heart broken on several other possible projects. At one point, I couldn't help but wonder when the "bad luck" was going to end. In other words, I went through one of those "woe is me" stages.

Which as we all know, is a big waste of time and things do change.

Over the last couple of months, I've been humbled by very nice things being done for me and said about me and I'm going to mention a few names of people I want to publicly thank.

And in no particular order....

The legendary radio writer, Claude Hall and the very nice things he's said in his weekly Radio Daily News Sunday columns.

LARadio.com owner-publisher Don Barrett for the nice things he's written when he should have allowed himself to be retired.

The Orange County Register's brilliant and long time radio columnist, Gary Lycan.

The excellent piano player and photographer, Alan Ascher.

Entertainment Tonight's long time Producer-Director, Kevin Gershan. I've known Kevin for more than 30 years, this blog was his idea, he wrote the short bio that you see to the right of each new blog and he has helped me in more ways than I can count. Yes, he was (also) the late radio Hall of Famer Robert W. Morgan's producer.

My mother. If I mentioned what she's done lately, she would be embarrassed.

Jack Roberts and his very nice words about me in his terrific Hollywood Hills daily column. He also provides a link to this blog.

Don Graham. The best music promoter in the world. He has also been a big cheerleader for this blog. I have no idea how many people he's recommended this little labor of love to. Don is also the very proud father-in-law of Sherry Bilsing-Graham who's new show, "I Hate My Teenage Daughter" debuted on Fox last night.

Marilyn. I'm not going to mention her last name because her husband isn't the friendliest guy in the world, but Marilyn, your job opportunity ideas are very much appreciated.

I'm sure I've accidentally forgotten some names, but the point of this is that no matter how bad things might get, things tend to change. Quickly. I want all of you who are struggling to remember that. Meanwhile, to the folks who have been so very kind to ME? Thank you, thank you, thank you.

QUESTIONS AND OR COMMENTS? Please write to me at scottstjames@sbcglobal.net and 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 something unforseen, late Thursday night, December 8 or early Friday morning, December 9.

Meanwhile, I hope that all of you had a very nice Thanksgiving and that you have a very nice weekend.

And don't forget....

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

NEXT BLOG WILL BE POSTED LATE THURSDAY NIGHT, DECEMBER 1 OR EARLY FRIDAY MORNING, DECEMBER 2!!!

2011-11-28T02:52:00.000-08:00

Hi Gang,

By now, you know there was no new blog on Thursday, Thanksgiving Day.

And I hope that you and yours had a very pleasant Thanksgiving.

Among other things, here's a partial list of subjects that will be covered in the next blog. And in no particular order....

Rush Limbaugh's verbal shot at First Lady, Mrs. Obama by referring to her as being "Uppity" and some things I know about Rush's background.

Fox News' boss being ticked off at Sarah Palin.

More and more people telling me they feel we have NO reasonable choices to be our President beginning in 2013. Not Obama or ANY of the Republican candidates. And right now, I'm AGREEING with all of these people.

The sudden interest in Newt Gingrich and how it doesn't surprise me because long time readers of this blog know that I might have been the first person to point out this sudden interest and why.

Lindsay Lohan's inability to pose nude properly.

Why "Lyin' Ass Bitch" isn't Michele Bachmann's favorite song.

Some early holiday and end of year thanks from me to some very special people who have been off the charts kind to me recently.

ENTERTAINMENT STUFF.

And More!

All of our SUBSCRIBERS will have this little message in their email inbox early this morning.

You're not a subscriber? It's easy to become one and it's FREE!!!

All you have to do is use the convenient subscription form just below my "About Me" profile which is 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. That's all you have to do. Whenever a new blog is posted which is usually late on Thursday nights or very early Friday mornings, you can expect to receive the blog between 3 and 5 in the morning, Pacific Time. This blog will ALWAYS BE FREE and you will never get spam or anything else from me. Just the blog.

Meanwhile, I hope that all of you have a great week!

Most sincerely,

Scott "The Jammer with the Hammer" St. James

Budget Cuts You Can BELIEVE In! The GOP Candidates! Regis Philbin! Jimmy Kimmel & Facebook!!!

2011-11-17T17:24:00.000-08:00

Our Republican candidates for the presidency have made it clear that if they're elected, they will be on a mission to be doing some serious budget cutting. We've also heard a lot about the Fanny and Freddie folks seeming to be out of control and they should be eliminated. The fact that wasn't done earlier is apparently a very good thing for one of the loudest candidates calling for the "Off with their heads!" solution. That would be Newt Gingrich who we now learn has collected close to two million dollars from the "Freddie" folks. WHY?!? According to Gingrich, it was for advice he had given them.

Hmmmm....

And while you think about that, please know that candidate Michele Bachmann has been all over Gingrich about this and she's accusing Newt of "hypocrisy".

Newt Gingrich? A hypocrite?!? The same Newt Gringrich who was screaming about the lack of family values being shown by (then) President Bill Clinton and while Newt was doing his pious preaching, ol' "family values Newt" was cheating on his wife while she was in the HOSPITAL?!?

Say it ain't so, Newt! But you can't! And ya know what? Most folks probably wouldn't have cared that much if you had kept your mouth shut about Clinton and didn't expose yourself as just another two-bit family values phony.

And now this "Freddie Mac" business? As Governor Perry might say, "Oops!"

Say "Good night!" Newt!

BACK TO THE BUDGET CUTS BUSINESS:

Mike Baker, a Bay Area reader (San Francisco area) was kind enough to send me some money numbers we might all be interested in.

Retired U.S. Presidents: $450,000 a year for life!

House/Senate members: $174,000 For Life!

Speaker of the House: $223,500 For Life!

Majority/Minority Leaders: $193,400 For Life!

Average salary for a soldier deployed in Afghanistan: $38,000

Average income for seniors on Social Security: $12,000

Reader Mike Baker then adds these words: "I think we found where the cuts should be made."

And Mike Baker, I think you're right!

THE "OCCUPY" CROWD:

Gang, you regular readers know that I began telling you about the quiet "drum beating" that I had been made aware of several months ago. That quiet drum beating has turned into the "occupy" crowd(s) that we've been hearing a lot about. A few days ago, city officials in a number of cities decided to get tough and "move" these Occupiers.

Does anybody really think that these "Mad as hell and I'm not gonna take it anymore!" people are just going to meekly walk away?

Serious business, folks. And if our so-called political leaders don't begin to "get this", we are definitely gonna have whacha call, "Trouble in River City".

NEXT REPUBLICAN DEBATE?

This coming Saturday, November 19 and it won't be on television. You can watch at http://www.citizenlink.com/ Three days later (November 22) another Republican debate will take place on CNN.

THE SUPREME COURT:

You've probably heard about this, but in case you haven't.....A few months from now, the U.S. Supreme Court is going to listen to arguments for and against what most folks refer to as "Obama Care", but is in fact, the "Affordable Care Act". A ruling figures to be made a few months or so before the next presidential election. How's THAT for high drama?!?

JIMMY KIMMEL AND FACEBOOK:

In case you hadn't heard, Jimmy Kimmel is encouraging his fans to "lose" a large number of "friends" on Facebook because it's a monumental waste of time and no one, but no one has "two thousand friends".

Short commentary: Amen, A-Men, AMEN!!! Full disclosure: Yes, I've had the privilege of participating on that fun show of his several times, but I would be doing the "Amen" thing even if I had never done a few "bits" on his show.

THE MORE I THINK OF THIS PENN STATE BUSINESS....

Children, a much older assistant coach, a legendary head coach who did virtually nothing as simple as calling the police, higher-up Penn State officials who seemingly did nothing while some very wrong things seem to have been allowed to occur and re-occur....Am I the only one who's thinking vigilante solutions? Yes, I know that would be wrong, but I'll guaran-damn-tee-ya that a father or two of those kids is thinking thoughts like that.

ENTERTAINMENT STUFF:

Demi Moore has announced that she is divorcing Ashton Kutcher.

We told you last week that we thought this was going to happen, but Billy Crystal being the host of the Oscars for the 9th time is official.

Here's something we didn't think would happen; Ricky Gervais will be brought back as host of the Golden Globes on January 15.

More terrific episodes this past week of "The Good Wife", "Homeland", "Boss", "Dexter" and especially "Parenthood" and "Revenge". The shows "Homeland", "Boss" and "Revenge" are new shows and they've all been renewed for a second season. Gang, I know that there are a lot of other good shows on television, but to me, the six I've mentioned here are the "gold standard" shows.

Last night, I saw a 1995 film on Encore that I hadn't seen since I saw it in a theatre. "The American President" starring Michael Douglas, Annette Bening and Martin Sheen. I loved it in '95 and I loved it again last night.

I'm a huge Clint Eastwood fan, but I'm sorry to say that I was disappointed when I saw his latest film a couple of days ago. "J. Edgar" is about the legendary FBI Director, J. Edgar Hoover who is played by Leonardo DiCaprio. An outstanding supporting cast of actors are all good (as is DiCaprio), but the film "isn't", in my view. I can't help but think of the line, "If it ain't on the page, it ain't on the stage" and I believe that's the problem with this film. We're told it cost only 35 million to make this film and I can't help but wonder if this film will break even.

Meanwhile, George Clooney's new film, "The Descendants" opens tomorrow and it has gotten great reviews. Many critics are saying this is Clooney's best film performance ever and some critics are saying a 19-year old actress named Shaileen Woodley who plays Clooney's 17-year old daughter, steals the show with her "big chip on her shoulder" attitude.

My closing topic is Regis Philbin:

As you probably have heard, tomorrow (Friday, November 18) will be Regis Philbin's final show on ABC. He leaves the show with a record that will probably never be duplicated. Most hours on television.

Regis Philbin was the first guy who put me on television. It was a small game-show that he was hosting in St. Louis. Early 70's. Why did he put me on his show? Who knows. Fast forward 8 years or so and I'm in Los Angeles which is where I still am. I was the nightly sports anchor on a television station here. It was the first of two stations here that I did sports anchor work at. Regis Philbin was also here in Los Angeles and he was hosting a very popular television talk show. Soon, he would move to New York and do a lot of shows with Kathy Lee Gifford and a lot of shows with Kelly Ripa. From his studio here in Los Angeles, he decided to call me. He congratulated me for the work I was doing but he wanted to let me know something that needed fixing. He said I wasn't being "lit" properly and he told me exactly what to tell the person who was responsible for the "lighting". I gently brought it up to the "Light Guy", he agreed with Regis's observations and my reaction was, "Wow!". I mean, Regis Philbin taking the time to do that for me? WHY? It was simply a case of Regis being Regis.

Gang, I've been here in Los Angeles doing the show biz thing for more than 30 years. There are a lot of "poseurs" in this town and they're pretty easy to spot. The real deal performers aren't that easy to spot because their "goodness" is a constant. I am very proud to say that I experienced the goodness of a real deal guy twice! I have no idea what Regis Philbin will do next, but Regis, whatever you choose to do or not do, I am one happy camper who will always be grateful for you coming into my life.

THOUGHTS AND OR COMMENTS? Please write to me at scottstjames@sbcglobal.net and 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? Good question. Next Thursday is Thanksgiving Day. As of now, I might write a new blog then, but if I don't, the next new blog will be Friday, November 25th or Thursday, December 1st.

Have a great weekend everybody and I hope all of you have a very Happy gobble-gobble Thanksgiving!

GOOD LUCK, REGIS annnd

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

SCARY gas prices are on the horizon!!! What Clint Eastwood thinks of Mitt Romney!!! Billy Crystal, Herman Cain and "Princess Nancy"!!!

2011-11-10T16:50:00.000-08:00

Because most of you won't see this blog until tomorrow, which is Veterans Day, to all my brother and sister veterans, HAPPY VETERANS DAY and thanks for your service.

Before going any further, let me get some very bad news out of the way. Oil companies. You know, those very rich companies that get all those tax breaks from us? We're being told that on or about the beginning of 2012, we can expect gas prices to rise to heights we've never seen before.

And we give those greedy bastard oil companies great tax breaks because....WHY?!?

Last night's Republican debates:

Did you see them on CNBC? I did. Except for that one loud-mouth host (who was admittedly entertaining), I thought the rest of the CNBC hosts did a terrific job by "calling" candidates on their "ducking" of questions by filling the airwaves with baloney until the hosts gave them one additional shot at addressing what they'd been asked and if the baloney kept flowing, they went to a different candidate.

In our last blog, I mentioned all the Republican candidates and pointed out why I didn't think any of them are coming across as serious candidates because none of them have come up with serious ideas on how to get our economy back on track. And yes, between now and the day one of these people gets nominated, it's possible we will hear some serious "solution ideas" from (hopefully) at least ONE of these candidates.

Oh...what was that? Did I hear someone mention Mitt Romney as someone who should be taken seriously as an electable candidate?

Clint Eastwood. I think we all know who HE is, right? Mr. Eastwood has a new film that's probably at your favorite movie theatre. It's about the late J. Edgar Hoover who is played by Leonardo Dicaprio.

We know that Mr. Eastwood is an Oscar winner and we've heard all the nice things that actors have said about him after they've had the pleasure of working with him, etc., etc.

Do you know anything about Mr. Eastwood's politics? Conservative. Very conservative. And his views were expressed freely during a very interesting conversation he had with Patrick Goldstein, the L.A. Times' long time star entertainment reporter a couple of days ago.

Mr. Eastwood was asked what he thought about Mitt Romney and the possibility he could be our next President of the United States. I don't have the Eastwood quote in front of me, but what I'm about to tell you will be very close to being exactly how Mr. Eastwood feels about Mitt Romney. He said if he was looking for someone to play the President of the United States in a film he was directing, his first choice would be Mitt Romney because he "looks good".

And as to Romney being a real President of the United States? "Next question, please." Or something like that.

Herman Cain:

He got off easy on the sexual harassment questions. Buuuut....Under the category of, "Open mouth, insert foot", Cain, while answering a question about a different subject, decided to take a shot at House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi by referring to her as, "Princess Nancy".

Okay....We have a candidate that several women are saying is a guy who has treated them like second class citizens. His response is to deny, deny, deny. Okay. Until we see some solid proof showing this guy in a negative light.....

He said, WHAAAT?!?

Folks, like it or not, it's time to realize we're looking at a loose-tongued, loose cannon who is living in a dream world as far as presidential aspirations go.

And speaking of dreamers...

Governor Rick Perry. Even if you didn't see Perry's mind cramp moment, I'm sure you've heard about it. His inability to come up with the third of three departments he said he would eliminate if he becomes our next president. It was embarrassing. The other candidates tried to help him, but he had one of those moments that many of us have experienced, but not in situations where the stakes are so high. And after the debates had ended, pretty much all the "talking heads" declared that Perry is now "done".

If you read my last blog, you know that I referred to Governor Perry as being, "All hat and no cattle".

I'm still inclined to believe that, but I don't think the mind cramp he had was that big of a deal as long as he handles it properly. Tonight, he is scheduled to be on the David Letterman show to do the show's "Top Ten List". Perry was not a scheduled guest before he had his mind cramp. I think it's a stroke of genius on Perry's part to offer to do the Letterman thing about what happened last night and to continue to make fun of himself until it's time for the next Republican Debates. Which will be this coming Saturday in South Carolina and televised by CBS beginning at 5pm, Pacific Time.

JOE PATERNO:

What an idiot! He gets told a bunch of years ago that a coach of his was seen doing criminal things to a child and after telling his boss (which was the right thing to do) but then not following up with a call to the police when he realized his boss didn't call the police, was out and out stupid.

JOE FRAZIER:

Back in the day, he was a terrific boxer. A boxer who in his retirement years, was a bitter boxer because of how he thought he's been treated by Muhammad Ali.

I knew Joe. The last time I saw him was in 1979, just before I moved to where I am now. I listened to him go on a long rant about Ali. I listened and I felt sorry for him. I hope he can now rest in peace.

ENTERTAINMENT STUFF:

It's not official, but it looks like Billy Crystal might be the host of the Oscars (again) in a few months. Eddie Murphy was the scheduled host but he backed out because the guy who hired him got fired.

And speaking of Eddie Murphy, I saw "Tower Heist" yesterday. Murphy's in it along with Ben Stiller, Alan Alda, Tea Leoni, Casey Affleck and some other fine actors. You really have to accept something that's preposterous near the end of this film for you to enjoy it, and I did accept which means I did enjoy "Tower Heist".

"Love and other Drugs" is a film that came out last year and is currently on the HBO circuit. It stars Anne Hathaway and Jake Gyllenhaal. I saw it last year and loved it. I saw it again a few nights ago and loved it again. This film is (to me) a very charming love story. Yes, you see a lot of the beautiful Ms. Hathaway in this film, but this film is a lot more than Hathaway's skin. I think "Love and other Drugs" was last year's most underrated film of the year.

Speaking of underrated, why does the television show, "Parenthood" have such lousy ratings? I think this is a terrific show with a whole bunch of terrific actors and it's produced by Ron Howard and his "disciples". In addition to the great acting being done by this ensemble cast, these are actors who are also "easy on the eyes".
I'm only going to mention three of the "head turners", but head turners, they are. Bonnie Bedelia, Joy Bryant and Sarah Ramos. "Parenthood" is shown by NBC on Tuesday nights. I know. It's up against that NCIS juggernaut, but believe me when I tell you that if you give "Parenthood" a look-see, you'll be thanking me.

Like all you folks who have thanked me for recommending "The Good Wife" which is shown by CBS on Sunday nights.

Another great show is "Revenge" which is shown by ABC on Wednesday nights, but it wasn't shown last night because of the CMA Awards show. "Revenge" star Emily VanCamp was an awards presenter last night, but the highlight of last night's show (to me) was the very nice tribute the CMA folks put together for Glen Campbell.

THOUGHTS AND OR COMMENTS? Please write to me at scottstjames@sbcgloblal.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. All "Anonymous" emails are ignored.

THE NEXT BLOG? Barring something unforseen, next Thursday night, November 17 or early Friday morning, November 18.

I hope you all have a very nice weekend and to you veterans, HAPPY VETERANS DAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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

Is Herman Cain Still a Legitimate Presidential Candidate? Justin Bieber: Daddy? Rape Victim? Both? Sunday, Turn Your Clocks Back 1 HOUR!!!

2011-11-03T19:45:00.000-07:00

Because I've been busy with meetings and a very pleasant visit with my family in Arizona, this figures to be a pretty short blog. Shoot, I've even been unable to watch some of my favorite television shows this week. GRRRR!!!

I know. Poor me.

Speaking of poor... Poor Texas Rangers, poor Herman Cane, poor Justin Bieber, poor Lindsay Lohan, poor Kim Kardashian, poor Republican Party, poor radio industry....

And that's where I'll start.

In last weeks blog, I wrote a commentary about the sorry state of the radio business and why. Radio is a subject I rarely comment on in this blog even though I spent many years in that business. The commentary hit a nerve with a lot of people, many of whom weren't readers of this blog, but were tipped off about what I wrote by people like Don Barrett who recently received a Lifetime Achievement Award for his wonderful work as Owner/Publisher of LARadio.com. Karl Southcott, son of legendary radio performer and program director, Chuck Southcott, liked what I wrote enough to post it on Facebook. Between the thousands of readers Don Barrett has and who knows how many readers Facebook has, a whole bunch of new people became aware of this little blog known as, "The Jammer with the Hammer".

Don and Karl, I owe you. Big time! Thank you very, very much.

And here's a reminder to all you new readers. You can get this blog sent to your email inbox for FREE! Just use the convenient subscription form below my 'About Me' Profile to the right of this column. Enter your email address in the box provided, click on 'Subscribe' and 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 be automatically delivered to you via email between 3 and 5 in the morning, Pacific Time. This is a free service, it will always be free and no, you won't be sent any ads, spam or ANYTHING...except the new blog. Oh...In addition to subscribing to my blog on this page, you can also follow me on Twitter:@scottstjamesla

HERMAN CAIN:

He's had a heck of a ride, hasn't he? A guy who has never been elected to anything, but a few days ago, he was the leading Republican presidential candidate in many polls. I've seen every minute of every Republican debate and you had to be blind and or deaf to not realize you were looking at a very charismatic candidate every time he opened his mouth.

But something strange began happening a few weeks ago. He was still charming and charismatic, but it seemed as though he didn't know some things that anyone running for the highest office in our land SHOULD know. And some positions he took on things began to be changed by him, over and over again. I mean, we KNEW Mitt Romney was/is like that, but HERMAN CAIN?!? And we couldn't help but wonder.....
Is Herman Cain NOT who he appears to be? The charming, confident man who just might be the "breath of fresh air" we need in Washington?

A few days ago, those of us who had taken a liking to Herman Cain heard a story which became Stor-IES about WHAAAAT?!? Allegedly paying off one, which became two, which (so far) has become three women to be quiet about charges of some form of sexual harassment?!? One woman was allegedly given $35,000, another woman was allegedly given $45,000. The alleged 3rd woman? We don't know. Yet. Herman Cain has been married for more than 40 years and his wife was scheduled to be a guest on FOX tomorrow night (Friday, November 4) to "stand up for her husband", but earlier today, it was announced that Mrs. Cain has decided to NOT be a guest on Fox tomorrow night. WHY? As of now, we don't know. Nothing about sickness, a death in the family or anything like that. She certainly wouldn't have a reason to be worried about facing a tough host on FOX, but even a softball throwing host would be asking basic questions and Mrs. Cain has bowed out? Hmmmm....

Here's the deal, folks. If you're a candidate for the highest office in our land (President of the United States), you don't get a "PRIVACY PASS". Like it or not, your life now and your past life is an "open book". And if YOU don't open it, someone else WILL.

I don't pretend to know how this will "play out", but my guess right now is that Herman Cain is done as far as being a candidate for the office of president or vice president UNLESS... he can use his very good communication skills to convince all of us (or enough of us) that what we've heard are over the top exaggerations about what were at worst, dumb jokes stated by Cain.

Like I used to say on the radio, "Stay tuned!"

WHAT ABOUT THE OTHER REPUBLICAN CANDIDATES?!?

I ask this question because as I've stated in long ago previous blogs, I've been a lifetime Republican who voted for a democrat for the first time when I voted for Barack Obama. I voted for him because our previous president and his administration presided over our economy while it got buried in a ditch. My view was that ANYTHING would be better than "more of the same" which I figured we'd get with McCain and Palin.
Sadly, it appears that we HAVE gotten "more of the same" from the Obama administration. The bailouts which began with the Bush administration, all the money we've spent on stupid wars that began with the Bush administration, etc. on top of etc. And yes, it was the Obama administration that got Osama bin Laden, something these "candidates" refuse to acknowledge and that killing (to me) was a good thing because he was the so-called architect of 9/11. I also supported the Obama administration's decision to assassinate that turban wearing American citizen who was plotting bad things against us. Overall, Barack Obama has been a big disappointment to me. "Change we can believe in"? WHAT change? To me, Barack Obama is "Bush Lite" except for some military successes he's had as opposed to what the Bush administration didn't have. But the one thing I really don't like about Obama is his (seeming to be) reluctance to FIGHT for things he supposedly believes in. And then I can't help but wonder, what DOES he REALLY believe in?

Just askin'.

Back to the Republican candidates.

Do any of you honestly believe that what you've seen and heard from these candidates that ANY of them would give you a warm and fuzzy feeling if one of them became our next President of the United States?

Seriously. Ron Paul? I love his ideas about taking care of America as opposed to spending so much of our money on stupid wars and the billions on top of billions we give to countries that don't even like us. But except for that, is there any other reason you would vote for Ron Paul?

Rick Santorum? Puh-Leez!

Michele Bachmann? Rick Santorum in a skirt.

Rick Perry? All hat and no cattle.

Jon Huntsman? Possibly the brightest candidate of them all, but it's easy to see why he worked for Obama because Huntsman doesn't seem to be a fighter either.

Mitt Romney? Which Mitt Romney are we talking about? There seem to be several Mitt Romneys in the same body. Flip, flop, flip, flop.

Herman Cain? If he continues to be a candidate, based on what you've heard and seen from him recently, would you think he is someone you would vote for?

And then there's Newt Gingrich. Probably the most qualified of all the Republican candidates. He strikes me as having more good ideas than all the other Republican candidates combined. But oh, the BAGGAGE that comes with Gingrich. It is baggage that doesn't bother me like it bothers the people who preach hard line "family values", etc. and I think that's why even though he would be the Republican's BEST shot, his "baggage" makes him a LONG shot.

If I'm right, what does this leave the Republicans with? The necessity to find ANOTHER candidate or Obama will win by default.

Just sayin'.

OTHER STUFF:

Am I the only one who's tired of hearing anything about the Kardashian family or the Lohan family?

Daylight Saving Time ends this Sunday. Remember the old saying, "Spring Forward, Fall Back"? That means that this Sunday you need to remember to move your clocks and watches BACK one hour. Yay! An extra hour of sleep!

Have you heard about this Justin Bieber business? We're being told he might have had sex with a woman when he was 16? And she was 19? And the baby she now has was allegedly fathered by Bieber? And if true, this could result in some kind of rape charge against the woman? As my long time friend Don King might say, "Only in America!"

TELEVISION STUFF:

I didn't see as much television this past week as I usually do for reasons explained at the beginning of this blog, but here are a few comments about some shows I DID see.

I saw the second episode of "Boss", starring Kelsey Grammer on STARZ this past Friday and I liked it a lot. The first episode didn't grab me that much, but I'm glad I checked out episode #2. It is obvious that this is going to be a very "heavy" show, but "heavy" can be very good if you have the right writers and the right actors. It looks like "Boss" has both.

I thought the Sunday episodes of "The Good Wife" on CBS and "Homeland" on Showtime were both shows' BEST episodes so far. I love both of those shows.

And Tuesday, another terrific episode of "Parenthood" on NBC. Folks, if you haven't checked out "Parenthood" yet, do yourself a favor and become as addicted to that wonderful show as I am.

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 there's no way for me to respond to you. All "Anonymous" emails are ignored.

THE NEXT BLOG? If I continue by recent consistency, late Thursday night, November 10 or very early Friday morning, November 11.

Meanwhile, I hope that you and yours have a terrific weekend and don't forget to turn your clocks and watches back one hour this coming Sunday.

AMERICA FIRST!!!!!!!

The GOP continues to bow to the rich! Uh, oh! China's bubble like OUR bubble? Radio's Armageddon! The 7 billionth person is about to be born!

2011-10-27T16:25:00.000-07:00

Hi Gang! I'm getting this blog started earlier today because I have a very busy next few days on my plate. And that means this blog might be a little or a lot shorter than it usually is.

A reminder that if you'd like to get this little blog delivered to your email inbox for FREE, it's easy to do. Use the subscription form just below my "About Me" Profile, to the right of this column. 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. Again...This is a FREE service! And it always will be. And no, when you sign up, you won't be getting any kind of Spam from me or from anyone else. EVER! Subscribers will get delivery between 3 and 5 in the morning, Pacific Time. In addition to subscribing to my blog on this page, you can now follow me on Twitter. @scottstjamesla

Before getting into the subjects you see in the headline above, I'd like to send a "Thank you!" shout out to long time and big time radio veteran, Jack Roberts. He writes a terrific daily entertainment column in his Hollywood Hills section and he wrote a very nice column about me in his October 26 posting. You can find him and his column by Googling, www.hollywoodhillsgroup.com. Jack also provides a link to MY blog under the weekly blog written by legendary radio columnist, Claude Hall. Jack, when you put me within smelling distance of the great Claude Hall, I am happier than a pig in slop.

AND SPEAKING OF RADIO.....

I spent a lot of years as a radio rock 'n roll music guy, easy listening music guy, urban music guy and talk show guy. And along the way, I was kind of the "boss" at a couple of the places I worked at.

So yeah, I know a little bit about the radio business.

I seldom (VERY seldom) write anything about radio in this column unless it's in reference to a former or current successful radio person who has written a political rant of some kind. As you long time readers know, this is primarily a political based column along with entertainment stuff at the end. Buuuut.... because of what happened yesterday, this former radio veteran (me) feels the need to do a little "popping off".

It was President Bill Clinton who signed into legislation what has become to be known as "Consolidation". To most of you, that means nothing. But this was a big deal to the radio community because it marked the beginning of a lot of "changes", most of which were ill advised and pretty much all of which were based on greed.

The "housing bubble" wasn't limited to home owners. Home owners who had no business buying homes with no money down, etc., were home owners who had dollar signs dancing in their heads because they were imagining all the money they'd be making once they sold their homes.

Unfortunately, most of these home owners have either had their homes taken from them because they couldn't make the payments or they're on the verge of losing their homes.

What have these "pie in the sky" home buyers learned? The same thing most folks have been told but chose to ignore. "If it looks too good to be true, it IS!!!"

In the radio business when the consolidation thing got passed, some so-called "genius" and slick entrepreneurs decided to buy a lot of radio stations. I mean a LOT of stations. And these amateur jerk-offs began what appears to be the absolute destruction of a business that used to be fun (and profitable) to be a part of.

These geniuses decided that one person being the General Manager of a radio station and one person being the Program Director of a radio station was/is cost-inefficient. News flash: Operating and or programming ONE radio station, is HARD WORK!! At first, it was a General Manager and a Program Director being responsibe for two radio stations instead of one! Slowly but surely, General Managers and Program Directors were being responsible for three stations, then four stations, do I hear six stations (suddenly I'm feeling like an auctioneer), and yes, six was a number and in some cases the number was more but....

I am now being told by a very "connected" guy in the radio world that after what happened yesterday, which in my view was the beginning of Radio's Armageddon, these "geniuses" are about to have tons of radio stations that have NO Program Directors! And General Managers, unless they're related to one of these "geniuses" are now "on notice" as well. Unless no one has told them the "news" yet.

And by the way, WHAT happened yesterday was a whole lot of firing. And we're told that's just the beginning. Hundreds upon hundreds that will probably become thousands of radio people will be fired in the near future. And yes, television is being affected as well, but I don't want to get too far away from what we're usually talking about here which are things that lobbyist controled Congress people legislate. Stuff that in the final analysis, benefits the well-to-do while the rest of us are invited to "Eat Cake!"

That's exactly what's happening to the radio business. With rare exception, the entertainment we used to get from radio shows is virtually non-existent. I mean, 8, 10, 12 commercials in a row? Minor leaguers on the air instead of professional and entertaining communicators. Minor leaguers who have no security and who have no business being in a radio station unless they're there to clean it.

And con men radio bosses who know nothing about how a radio station should be run except for the brown-nosing they do while trying to impress the "geniuses" above them about how good they are at firing people.

Mark it down, folks. Yesterday was the beginning of Radio's Armageddon!

Unless.... Someone in a radio power position wakes up and has the authority to put the brakes to this nonsense!

Like the singer once sang, "If I can dream...!"

WHEW!!!

I promise. It figures to be quite a while before I do a radio rant again, but what has happened to that business is something I'm taking personally.

QUICK HITS...

My thanks to Time Magazine for pointing out something that is happening in China. Yeah, the same China that we owe all the money to. We are told that China's current hot economy grew on real estate mania and easy money. We are also told we should be very afraid of "The China Bubble". And if that sounds familiar, it should. That's how OUR economy got thrown into the ditch.

The 7 billionth person figures to be born by October 31st. Halloween. And yes, we should be concerned. And scared. Birth control, anyone? Religious zealots keep us from providing birth control stuff for poor people in other countries and for that matter, what about poor people HERE! Should they have or continue to have babies when they can't AFFORD them?!?

Just askin'.

Did you hear about the proposal from "Super committee" Democrats that would have reduced our deficit by 3 trillion dollars? Republicans are saying "NO!" because the proposal would include tax hikes for the rich. Give 'em credit for being consistent. And obedient to their lobbyist masters.

If you're like me, you think the Republican debates have been entertaining. And we're not alone. The TV ratings for the Republican debates have been terrific. The next debates will be Wednesday, November 9 and will be televised by CNBC.

And speaking of "entertaining", it's time for our

ENTERTAINMENT STUFF:

How about that World Series, huh?

Lindsay Lohan is going to try to entertain us by posing nude for Playboy magazine. What is she? 25? Isn't she the oldest looking 25-year old you've ever seen? Her father was arrested again today. Her mother brokered the Playboy deal. That's a heck of family environment she's been exposed to, huh?

Because of the World Series, some of the television shows weren't showing new episodes this past week, but among those that WERE shown, here are some opinions....

Lisa Edelstein is beginning to fit like a glove on "The Good Wife", Sunday nights on CBS. Love that show.

Speaking of Sunday nights....In addition to "The Good Wife", I'm enjoying "Dexter" on Showtime and "Hung", "How to make it in America" and "Boardwalk Empire" on HBO.

"Homeland" is also on Showtime on Sunday nights and I absolutely LOVE that show. Take a bow Claire Danes, Damian Lewis and an outstanding supporting cast.

Another Sunday night show I saw was the premiere episode of "Once Upon a Time" on ABC. I've had a television crush on Jennifer Morrison (yes, she used to be on "House") for a long time. The show got terrific ratings and congrats to Jennifer, Ginnifer Goodwin and the supporting players.

Wednesday nights on ABC is a show that if you haven't seen it, you're missing out on a treat of the first order. I'm talking about "Revenge" which stars Emily Van Camp and a group of characters that you'll have an opinion about. This is classic night time Soap Opera stuff and it gets better and better and BETTER each week. Last night's episode wore me out. Yes, it was that good and the episode ended with a cliff-hanger that will be resolved next Wednesday night.

The new Friday night Kelsey Grammer show, "Boss", on STARZ? I had a so-so reaction to their premiere episode.

A 2003 film, "Owning Mahony" is on the HBO circuit now. It stars the great Philip Seymour Hoffman who is supported terrifically by Minnie Driver and John Hurt. This film is about a degenerate gambler who can't quit when he's ahead or quit when he's losing. This film (to me) was breathtakingly riveting.

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. All "Anonymous" emails are ignored.

THE NEXT BLOG? Barring something unforseen, next Thursday night (late), November 3 or very early Friday morning, November 4.

Meanwhile, I hope you all have a very pleasant weekend.

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

Herman Cain & 9-9-9! Rick Perry's Flat Tax! Mitt Romney & Illegal Immigrants! A Short Essay From One Of Our Readers! And Lindsay Lohan!!!

2011-10-21T03:25:00.000-07:00

Because of other things on my "plate", here comes another blog that I'm beginning a little after 3:30 in the morning (Pacific Time), on Friday, October 21. Unless this blog is shorter than usual or I end up writing real fast, you subscribers won't get this until tomorrow morning around this time.

Speaking of subscribers...If you would like to have this blog automatically delivered to your email inbox, all you have to do is use the convenient new subscription form, just below my 'About Me' profile to the right of this column. Enter your email address in the box provided, click on 'Subscribe', then click on the confirmation link that will arrive in your email and you are good to go. Every time there's a new blog, it will automatically be delivered to you via email. It's free, it will always be free and I will never send you spam or any other annoyances. "Delivery time", as a rule, is between 3 and 5 in the morning, Pacific Time.

In addition to subscribing to my blog on this page, you can now follow me on Twitter:
@scottstjamesla

And speaking of Twitter, I'd like to welcome a political action committee that has joined us.

AND THAT LEADS TO A SHORT ESSAY WRITTEN BY ONE OF OUR LONG TIME READERS:

Those of you who have been with us for a while are familiar with the name, Bill Mouzis. Decorated WWII veteran, a patriot of the first order and a guy who became a legendary Engineer-Producer for Bill Drake, Ron Jacobs, Robert W. Morgan and The Real Don Steele during "Boss Radio's" glory days on KHJ here in Los Angeles. I had the pleasure of working with Bill at Gene Autry's KMPC here and I'm proud to call him a friend.

Here's his very topical essay:

At a time when the average citizen has little chance of finding affordable work, our jobs continue to be exported overseas. The unemployed are forced to seek help from our government in order to simply survive. This is the only option available in an economy of high prices and unmitigated greed. Citizens protesting on the streets of America are labeled "Socialists" and Communists" as corporations callously ignore their plight. Many of these business entities pay little or no taxes, and reject the premise that the cost of doing business in America carries with it an obligation to further the welfare of its citizens. To ignore this basic tenet is to ignore our brave service-people returning home from protecting these democratic principles.

Thank you, Bill Mouzis.

I've said it before and I'll say it again; To ignore everything that the Occupy Wall Street protesters and the Tea Party protesters are complaining/concerned about is to do so at your/our peril. None of us were alive when (many years ago) concerned Americans were grumbling quietly about how our political leaders weren't paying attention to their concerns. Then the grumbling got louder. And STILL our political leaders weren't paying attention to their concerns. And that led to.....Americans shooting at and killing each other during what was called our "CIVIL WAR"!

As I pointed out in last week's blog, we have an income/wealth disparity in America that no other country is even CLOSE to. I have no problem with people (our very wealthy citizens) being as successful as they can be while as the great Casey Kasem might say, "Reaching for the stars", but when they're doing this by outsourcing millions of American jobs to foreign countries and quietly encouraging the arrival of illegal immigrants that can be turned into "keep your mouths shut slaves" while taking MORE jobs from LEGAL Americans, we have whacha call, "A Problem"!

When millions of Americans WANT to work, but CAN'T work because millions of jobs have been sent by rich American CEO's or COO's or whatever their titles are (I don't know about you, but "greedy bastards" works for me) and you add the illegal immigrant "slave employment" problem, what you/we are then looking at is "Trouble in River City". And the only way you can't see that is if, like the ostrich, you choose to keep your head in the sand.

AND WHAT ARE OUR POLITICAL LEADERS DOING ABOUT THIS PROBLEM?!?

Did you hear ANYTHING in the recent Republican debates that made you feel "warm and fuzzy" because you had the feeling that if one of those people becomes our new president, our problems will be solved?

I didn't.

Have you heard ANYTHING from the Obama administration that makes you feel "warm and fuzzy" because you have the feeling THEY'LL solve our problems?

I haven't.

But in my heart of hearts, I believe that the way to BEGIN the solving of our problems involves a two-word solution: AMERICA FIRST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

To hell with these stupid wars! We will have a lot of money to spend on America if we bring our troops home. I know. Some of you think we'll be setting ourselves up for some kind of vicious attacks if we bring our troops home. With all due respect, thinkers like that are idiots. No one but no one has the amount of lethal bombs and bullets that we have. Do you honestly think some other country would risk becoming "Japan"?!?

Deport American corporation chiefs who have moved millions of jobs once held by Americans to foreign countries. Yeah, I know. To be "fair", we give them a chance to bring the jobs BACK to America first and....
Wait a minute. That's what I've been saying! AMERICA FIRST!

And can we please stop screwing around with this illegal immigrant business? Despite assertions by "bleeding hearts", illegal immigrants aren't the victims. WE are the victims! LEGAL American tax paying citizens are paying for all the free stuff that those (poor baby, wahhh!) illegal immigrants get. Before she retired, my sister was a big deal nurse at a hospital in Arizona and she told me all kinds of horror stories about what she had to put up with from people who shouldn't even be here. Illegal immigrants! Bleeping law breakers! And why are they here? Because our political leaders, many of them who are bought off by lobbyists representing corporate titans who WANT the cheap slave like labor that illegal immigrants give them....Excuse me, I'm about to throw up....

Anyway....Our political leaders talk the good talk about doing something about the illegal immigration problem, but then....? They do absolutely NOTHING!

Except take the money from the lobbyists who got the money from Wall Street and Corporate titans and of course the money that gets handed out to our so-called political LEADERS isn't just for looking the other way about illegals, it's for looking the other way about lots of other stuff and then we wonder why the Occupy Wall Street and the Tea Party People are letting the rest of us know they're mad as hell and aren't going to take it anymore?!?

AMERICA FIRST, people! AMERICA FIRST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Other Stuff:

Mitt Romney's excuse for firing illegal immigrants who were doing lawn work for him was disgusting. He said he had to get rid of them because he was "running for office". No, Governor. Your answer should have been because they were ILLEGAL!

Herman Cain's 9-9-9 plan? I'm all for a flat tax if it's put together properly. On the surface, it looks like Herman Cain's 9-9-9 plan is not a plan that will benefit most folks except for rich folks. And when one considers the fact that Herman Cain is tight with the Koch brothers, one shouldn't be surprised that Cain might be inclined to do their bidding.

Governor Rick Perry says that HE will soon be presenting HIS flat tax idea.

It's tough, it's hard, some say it's brutal, but I like Alabama's illegal immigrant law. And yeah, a certain group of people are calling upon Congress and the courts to do something about overturning Alabama's law. Gee, who do you think THAT might be?

Sarcasm intended.

LINDSAY LOHAN:

Lindsay Lohan has nothing to do with politics or illegal immigrants, but am I the only one who thinks it's long past time for her to learn her actions have consequences? I used to feel sorry for her, but not any more. She apparently thinks the "rules" don't apply to her or all the alcohol and drugs she has consumed have made her insane. Solution? Give her several months of hard time in prison or lock her up in a mental institution until she is cured.

Sudden thought: I'm coming across as a real hard-ass today, aren't I?

THE WORLD SERIES:

Game 3 won't be played until tomorrow (Saturday, October 29) in Texas, but we couldn't have asked for more than the Rangers and Cardinals gave us in the first two games, could we? Both games were very well played and both games ended up being won by 1-run.

TELEVISION STUFF:

I saw every minute of the Republican debates and I thought they were very entertaining. Nice job, Anderson Cooper.

Television shows that I am continuing to like a lot are "The Good Wife", "Homeland" and "Dexter" on Sunday nights.

"Parenthood" on Tuesday nights.

"Harry's Law" and "Revenge" on Wednesday nights. "Revenge" gets better and better and better....

"Prime Suspect" and "Person of Interest" on Thursday nights.

And I'm very much looking forward to the first episode of a brand new show that will air on STARZ tonight and every Friday night. Kelsey Grammer will not be playing a funny guy in THIS show, a show called, "Boss".

Progress reports on two well-known shows....

I think that most viewers of "House" (Monday nights on Fox) would agree that "House" was whacha call, "off it's game" last season. They have made some cast changes this season and so far, things (to me) look hopeful. Lisa Edelstein is no longer with the show because she refused a salary cut. Trust me when I tell you that a lot of television actors have accepted salary cuts. Olivia Wilde has also left "House" because of her many film obligations. I'm going to miss her because I thought she was terrific on that show. New cast members include Odette Annable who has done very good work on other shows and she is also whacha call "easy on the eyes", but it is the other new cast member who has the potential of "stealing" this show as time goes on. Her name is Charlyne Yi.

We couldn't help but hear about "Two and a Half Men" (Tuesday nights on CBS) because of all the public complaining Charlie Sheen did before he got fired. The new season got off to a great start, but for four weeks in a row, "Two and a Half Men" has lost more than a million viewers each week. Why? Some folks think it's because of stale writing. As a lot of show business people will tell you, "If it ain't on the page, it ain't on the stage!" And there are some folks who are saying that Ashton Kutcher might not be the guy the producers thought he'd be.

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 there would be no way for me to respond to you. All "Anonymous" emails are ignored.

THE NEXT BLOG? What can I say. This is two weeks in a row that I've begun a new blog around 3 or 4 in the morning. I'm assuming the next blog will be written Thursday night (late), October 27 or Friday morning (very early), October 28.

I hope you all have a great weekend and remember;

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

9-9-9??? "Occupy Wall Street"! "Tea Party"! Shocking Wealth Distribution Numbers! Anybody Got Any Jobs Ideas? And Our Next President Will Be?

2011-10-14T05:24:00.000-07:00

HEL-LO, new subscribers!!! In case you hadn't heard, this little blog will be sent directly to you by email if you subscribe as opposed to having to "look for it" each week. The subscription is free and all you have to do is go to the new subscription form which is just below my "About Me" profile which can be found 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 are "good to go". Everytime there's a new blog, it will automatically be delivered to you via email between 3 and 5 in the morning, Pacific Time. Because I'm beginning THIS new blog a little AFTER 5 in the morning, you probably won't get this one until 5 TOMORROW morning (Saturday, October 15) but this is highly unusual. I usually begin writing these blogs in early or late evenings.

9-9-9!

Or put another way,

NINE-NINE-NINE!

I'm assuming that most (if not all) of you have heard of this, right? If you watched the Republican debates this past Tuesday, you know that "9-9-9" was brought up a lot.

It is the brainchild of Republican presidential candidate, Herman Cain. Or is it the brainchild of the people who invented a popular video game from a few years ago? I never thought we'd see the day when something like a "9-9-9" political gimmick would be controversial in the sense that it's (possibly) not as original an idea as we're being led to believe it is. Is this another example of "The Devil's in the Details" kind of deal? Like the announcer once said, "Stay tuned!"

Because of what appears to be the simplicity of "9-9-9", Herman Cain's proposal has hit a positive nerve with Republican voters. HOW positive? As of early Friday morning, October 14, positive enough to (in some polls) making him the Republican LEADING candidate. As we all know, that can quickly change for any number of reasons, but right now, Herman Cain has a lot of people talking about him and his proposal which has prompted a lot of other people to do some "examining" of "9-9-9" as it "appears to be". And yes, Herman Cain might soon tell us some things we don't know about his "9-9-9" proposal, but until that happens, here are a few observations from ME!

No one, but no one is more in favor of a "flat tax" than I am. And yes, when it comes to taxes, I prefer simplicity which is something we don't have now. In fact, what we do have now is something that overwhelmingly benefits the "haves" as opposed to the "have-nots".

We are told by Cain that his "9-9-9" proposal will be further explained as time goes on, but right now, here's what we know; If his proposal was approved by Congress, there would be a 9% corporate tax, a 9% federal tax and a 9% national sales tax.

On the surface, that sounds pretty good, doesn't it?

As Cain has said, he'll give us the full explanation of his proposal sometime in the near future. Meanwhile, some other "experts" are telling us that "on the surface" Cain's proposal would benefit rich folks a hell of a lot more than it would most folks and those of us in the "middle" and "below" would get financially whacked by this proposal.

AND THAT CAUSES ME TO BRING UP THE "OCCUPY WALL STREET" and "TEA PARTY" crowd:

Yes, these two protesting groups of American citizens have different things they're pissed off about, but one of the things they have in common is what they see as the overall way they're being screwed, wealth wise.

They have come to the conclusion that things like the so-called "Laffer Curve" and "Trickle-down" theories are theories that have benefitted only one class of people. And it ain't you and me, folks. David Stockman, the guy who sold Ronald Reagan on his "trickle-down" nonsense is now admitting that he was wrong.

But what I'm about to show you is a set of numbers that will let you better understand why there's a growing amount of people, people like you and me, who are quietly "mad as hell and don't want to take it anymore", but who are also (quietly) thinking and speaking "revolution thoughts". None of us were around when the Civil War was fought in our country, but this "mad as hell" talk I'm hearing is what makes me wonder if this was the kind of stuff that was taking place before Americans turned on each while wearing "blue" and "gray" many years ago.

Just askin'.

Okay. Here come those numbers I was referring to.

A "Ratio of Pay Chart" has been released and like with all "charts" it can change, but as of the last sets of numbers tallied, here's the difference between what average workers were paid compared to what the people at the top (CEO's etc.) of the income chart got.

Needless to say, the big numbers represent those at the top.

Japan, 11-1

Germany, 12-1

France, 15-1

Italy and Canada, 20-1

South Africa, 21-1

Britain, 22-1

Mexico, 47-1

Venezuela, 50-1

United States, 475-1

As my friend Don King likes to say, "Only in America!"

OTHER STUFF:

Jobs! Foreclosures! Two biggest problems we need to have solved. Did you hear ANY substantial talk about those subjects during Tuesday's Republican debates? I didn't.

Wait a minute. Am I the only one who thinks that "Drill baby, drill!" has a nice ring to it and could be a great step forward for all of us during these terrible economic times? If this drilling would cause the demise of a small fish or bug, etc., would you care? Hey, dinosaurs got eliminated, didn't they? In the final analysis, didn't that turn out to be something that helped the world move forward and prosper?

Just askin'.

During those Republican debates this past Tuesday, it was Governor Perry who brought up the "drill baby, drill" proposal. I don't think I would want him to be our next President of the United States, but I DO like his "drill" proposal.

We hear a lot of talk from these candidates about cutting our spending, etc., etc.

Have you heard ANY of these candidates talk about all the "off the books" billions on top of billions we're spending on these stupid wars we're involved in?

I mean, just THINK of the money that could be used HERE to help America get out of the economic ditch we're in if we would quit being the "Policeman of the WORLD!"

Damn it, AMERICA FIRST!

And how about all those billions on top of billions we give to other countries who then turn around and vote against us 67 to over 80% of the time at United Nations' meetings?

Think about all the money we could have to spend HERE if we weren't giving all that BRIBE money to other countries who not only don't like us, but who won't EVEN honor a BRIBE!

I mean, if we're going to get into the gutter with these countries and they STILL screw us, isn't it time to let these ungrateful bastards know that, "Your free bank has been CLOSED!"???

Just askin'.

If you could vote now, your choice in the next presidential election would be....???

Just askin'.

ENTERTAINMENT STUFF:

Because of the baseball playoffs, I didn't see as many of the TV shows that I usually see or watch or as many of the new films I sometimes see.

"The Ides of March": I liked this film a lot! And maybe I liked it because I'm a political junkie who has had the privilege of seeing some behind the scenes rough and tumble stuff the likes of which are portrayed in this film. But this ain't just a political film, folks. There are some very serious other twists and turns that will keep you interested. George Clooney produced, directed and starred in this film, but when all is said and done, this is a Ryan Gosling and Evan Rachel Wood film that puts the George Clooney character stuck in the middle. There are four other outstanding actors in this all star cast; Philip Seymour Hoffman, Paul Giamatti, Marisa Tomei and Jeffrey Wright. A hundred million dollars worth of talent in a film that cost only12-million to make. I can't guarantee that you'll like it, but I CAN guarantee that you won't be bored.

Television? Another sensational episode of "Parenthood", Tuesday nights on NBC.

I'm tellin' ya, gang...."Revenge", Wednesday nights on ABC is a "killer" in more ways than one.

Same deal with "The Good Wife", Sunday nights on CBS.

New season of "Dexter" began this past Sunday on Showtime. Yay!

"Harry's Law", Wednesday nights on NBC is a show I've liked from the first day it was aired. After another very good episode this past Wednesday, the final few minutes were devoted to an "original series regular" who was/is leaving the show. That would be the "Jenna" character and the way this was written and portrayed caused tears to flow unless you tend to be an unemotional kind of person.

Two shows that were recommended to me are shows that I'm glad I was tipped off to; "Person of Interest", Thursday nights on CBS and the show "Homeland", Sunday nights on Showtime.

"Homeland" knocked my socks off. So far, I am absolutely LOVING this show!!!

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 know your email address which means I won't be able to respond to you. All "Anonymous" emails are ignored.

THE NEXT BLOG? Welll...I was a day late with this one, but hopefully, the next blog will be written and posted late Thursday night, October 20 or very early Friday morning, October 21.

Meanwhile, I hope that all of you have a terrific weekend.

AMERICA FIRST!!!!!

A quote to live by from Steve Jobs! Chris Christie! Sarah Palin! Governor Perry's Rock! Hank Williams Jr.! G.O.P.???

2011-10-06T15:34:00.000-07:00

First of all, I'd like to welcome you new subscribers. I've been writing this blog for several years and this subscription-option idea was presented to me by long time "Entertainment Tonight" Producer-Director Kevin Gershan. This BLOG was also Kevin's idea. I met Kevin 33-years ago when he was the producer of the Robert W. Morgan radio show here in Los Angeles and I was on the air with Robert W. I have never asked to be paid for this blog and I never will. If you choose to subscribe, it costs you nothing, you'll never have to put up with ads because you subscribed, you won't get any spam because you subscribed, but what you will get is my new blog everytime I write one that will be delivered to you via e-mail between 3 and 6 in the morning.

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STEVE JOBS:

He had quite a life, didn't he? I could sit here and write all the things he was responsible for, but that's unnecessary because not only do you know these things, the odds are that you have bought stuff that constantly remind you of Steve Jobs.

So instead, I'm going to write something that Steve Jobs once said and I want to thank the great Don Graham for passing this along to me. I know. Some of you are thinking, "Don Graham"? Great for WHAT?!?"

Wellll....As CRN owner Mike Horn might say, "Don Graham is to music (record) promotion as Marconi is to radio!"

This quote from Steve Jobs that I'm about to write is something that I think will "touch" all of you.

Steve Jobs once said, "Almost everything--all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure--these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart."

Words to live by, huh? And for some of us, it's about time, right?

Long time blog reader and former radio guy Jeffrey Leonard chimes in with; "How true is THIS? Ten years ago we had Steve Jobs, Bob Hope and Johnny Cash. Now we have no Jobs, no Hope and no Cash!"

Amen, Brother Jeffrey!!!

Next Republican Debates:

They will be held next Tuesday, October 11, the day after Columbus Day. The subject will (supposedly) be only ONE subject. THE ECONOMY and what each candidate would do to fix it if they were elected. If these candidates are going to be "specific" about our economy, the jobs situation, etc., that will be beneficial for all of us because up to now, we haven't heard anything but a whole lot of "name calling" from both sides of the political aisle. Let me repeat that.

We Have Heard NOTHING but a bunch of amateurish finger pointing!!

Just sayin'.

What Sarah and Chris are sayin':

By now, I'm sure you've heard that Sarah Palin has said she will NOT be a candidate and New Jersey Governor Chris Christie has said (for the umpteenth time) that HE will not be a candidate.

As I've told you in the last two blogs, some big money G.O.P. movers and shakers are very concerned about this current group of candidates and their ability to beat President Obama and they are sorry they weren't able to talk Governor Christie into changing his mind. I'm told that he (Christie) might have changed his mind if the big money boys and girls didn't want Christie to publicly change HIS mind about a few things he believes in. The "Purity Test" these candidates are mandated to pass might end up biting them in the butt big time if Obama ends up winning a second term.

Just sayin'.

What Rick and Herman are sayin'.

Governor Rick Perry is pretty much not saying anything about that big rock of his. But he seemed to be in trouble BEFORE the "rock revealing", wasn't he?

Just askin'.

Herman Cain is now in a virtual first place TIE with Mitt Romney?

Wouldn't it be a mind blower if the next presidential election ends up being between a former "Community Organizer" and a former "Pizza King"?!?

Just askin'.

And as long as we're focused on Republicans:

Do you know what G.O.P. stands for? Besides being something that has to do with the Republican party? A survey was run about this a few days ago and it turns out that most folks don't know what G.O.P. stands for. Here are three of the guess answers; "Gauntlet of Power", "God's Own Party" annnnd..."Grumpy Old People".

What G.O.P. really stands for is, "Grand Old Party".

A Possible U.S. Senate Republican Candidate:

Hank Williams Jr.

I'm not making this up. He's been talking about this (somewhat quietly) for quite a few months. To be a Tennessee U.S. Senate candidate.

He's certainly going to have a lot more time on his hands now that he won't be Monday Night Football's pre-game singer anymore.

Something that President Obama doesn't seem to get credit for:

He has pretty much been doing the same things that President Bush was doing regarding these two wars we're involved in, but his (Obama's) "kills" have been more impressive than the "kills" under Bush's administration. Two examples: Osama bin Laden and the treasonous American citizen who were assassinated thanks to the "go ahead" orders issued by Obama.

Here are some other things that Bush was doing and that Obama has continued to do. Two wars that because we weren't asked to pay any kind of war(s) tax have been big time responsible for our deficit rising the way it has risen and the continuing of the bail-out business that began under the Bush administration. Specifically, Bank of America who, after taking our (taxpayer) money so they could get "well" again, are now adding fees that their customers are being hurt with along with virtually no help for home owners who are trying to keep their homes from being taken from them through foreclosure.

We taxpayers give Bank of America, etc., our money and they give US , what?!?

The"FINGER" is what they give us!!!

What can we DO about it?

Take all of our money OUT of Bank of America and any other ungrateful financial institution and put that money into CREDIT UNIONS!!!

Repeat after me; I'm mad as hell and I'm not gonna take it anymore! I am taxpayer, hear me ROAR!!!!!

ENTERTAINMENT STUFF:

Because of all the baseball playoffs action, I didn't see a new film or films this past week. Sometime in the next few days I plan to see the new George Clooney film that's getting terrific reviews, "The Ides of March".

Sorry to hear that a new show I liked has been cancelled already. "The Playboy Club". I saw all three episodes, but just like that it's gone.

All the other TV shows I saw this past week were shows that (to me) featured some terrific writing to go along with good acting.

"The Good Wife". More great acting, more great writing.

"Law & Order: SVU". Week after week after week that show has great writing.

"Harry's Law" began their new season with a 3-episode story line featuring Jean Smart as a great guest star villain and an ending that was terrific.

Another OUTSTANDING episode of "Parenthood". That show gets better and better and better every week.

Fine, fine episode of "Glee". Now they'll be on hiatus because of baseball.

The season opening episode of "Hung" was good as was the season opener for "House", but gang, if you haven't seen "Revenge" yet, you're missing one heck of a good show. This is a show you have to focus on because of flashbacks and other things that are happening, but the person with "Revenge" on her mind is brilliantly played by Emily VanCamp and I'm enjoying this as much as I used to enjoy shows like "Dynasty" and "Dallas".

THOUGHTS AND OR COMMENTS? Please write to me at scottstjames@sbcglobal.net and I will respond to you ASAP. Please 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?

Well, the next Republican debates will be next Tuesday, October 11 and the next blog figures to be written next Thursday, October 13 and yes, I'll definitely be writing about those debates. It'll probably be written and posted late that night or early the next morning.

Meanwhile, I hope that all of you have a great weekend!

AMERICA FIRST!!!

What the I.R.S. says the 400 wealthiest Americans REALLY pay! Governor Christie and the GOP's "Purity Test"! Brutal Health Care Insurance Rates!

2011-09-29T19:03:00.000-07:00

But first.....

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And now, we begin THIS blog!!!

In our last blog, we told you that some influential Republicans are of the opinion that none of the current presidential candidates can beat President Obama in the next election. And that's why they've been trying to talk New Jersey Governor Chris Christie into being a candidate. So far, Christie is saying what he's been saying all along; "NO!", but these influential Republicans are still trying to talk him into it and they're letting him know that he'll have plenty of money for his campaign if he will please say, "YES!"

Buuuuut....Under the category of "Be careful for what you wish for", Newsweek Magazine's Howard Kurtz points out (in essence) that one can't help but wonder about the GOP's stringent "Purity Test". And in case you're wondering WHY in the last debates all the candidates said nothing when the gay American soldier in Afghanistan was booed for asking a question, that was because the current candidates were showing allegiance TO the "Purity Test". Same deal in the previous debates when the crowd yelled "YES!" to the idea of a sick 30-year old who doesn't have health insurance being left to die.

What does the Republican "Purity Test" have to with Governor Christie if he decides to become a candidate?

Wellll....Among other things, Christie has been quoted as saying "Climate change is real" and "Human activity plays a role in those changes." Annnd....That he was/is "Tired of dealing with the crazies" and that "This Sharia law business is crap!"

Ooops! That's definitely not "Purity Test" talk, Governor Christie. But for the record, I agree with him about "climate change/global warming" and I most definitely agree with him on Sharia law being nothing we need to be concerned about because there's no way in hell that would ever have any "traction" in America. And people who try to make the weak-minded among us BELIEVE Sharia law is something we should be worried about are those "CRAZIES" that Governor Christie is referring to.

Back to that gay combat soldier in Afghanistan being booed and we (the television audience) not hearing one dissenting word from ANY of these gutless and phony "We love the troops" Republican presidential candidates!?! Another example of the GOP's "Purity Test", folks. Sudden thought. I don't know about you, but in these most difficult times for Americans, I'd like to hear some "OUT of the Purity box/test thinking." Wouldn't YOU? And by the way, didn't a German leader in the 30's and early 40's have that "purity thing" going, too?

Just askin'.

Oh...In case you didn't know, the next Republican debates will be Tuesday, October 11 and we're told it will be a One-subject debate(s). The condition our economy is in and what these candidates, if elected, plan to do to FIX our economy.

And ya know what? I kinda think that raising or not raising taxes for the richest of our citizens will be a part of those debates. And if the candidates stay true to their "Stringent Purity Test" they will all say that they wouldn't raise the taxes of the richest among us because they are "job creators, etc." and besides, they pay enough taxes already.

Truth alert, truth alert, truth alert:

According to the 2008 adjusted gross income numbers the IRS says that average tax rates paid by those of us making $500,000 to $1 million was 24%. Those making $1 million and up, 23%. The 400 wealthiest Americans? 18%

My thanks to Time Magazine for getting those numbers.

I don't know about the rest of you, but the last big money job I had wasn't a million dollar job, but it was pretty darn good (money wise) and I know the percentage I paid was more than 18%, more than 23% and more than 24%.

ONE MORE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE RUMOR:

In addition to all the talk about Governor Christie possibly deciding to become a Republican candidate, there is also this whispering that's been going on about Hillary Clinton ending up being the Democrat candidate for the presidency. Anything's possible, folks.

HEALTH CARE INSURANCE:

Have you noticed the way the Health Care Insurance bandits have been jacking up rates? I mean, when I first started hearing about this latest "greed move" of theirs, my first thought was, "Who do these people think they ARE?!? OIL Barons?!?" Brutal, brutal, brutal, folks. And what they're doing is cheaper for us than what Obama Care would be?

Just askin'.

ENTERTAINMENT STUFF:

Does it get more entertaining than those Wild Card baseball games Wednesday night? Which teams will end up in the World Series? Yankees, Rangers, Tigers or Tampa Bay in the American League? Phillies, Brewers, D-Backs or Cardinals in the National League? On paper, you'd think it would be the Yankees against the Phillies, but they don't play these games on paper. Highly unlikely, but would it really surprise anyone if Tampa Bay ended up playing the Cardinals in the World Series? I think the two most dangerous teams are the Rangers and the D-Backs.

Bye-bye, Andy Rooney. Have you heard about this? He will end his 33-years run on "60 Minutes" this Sunday.

And welcome back, Kiefer Sutherland. Yep, the Jack Bauer guy of "24" fame on Fox, will return to Fox next Spring in a new series called, "Touch". His co-star will be Danny Glover.

Have you noticed how many films that Rashida Jones has been in lately? Am I the only guy who thinks that in addition to being a very good actor she's also HOT?!?

One new film to tell you about. "Moneyball", starring Brad Pitt, Jonah Hill, Robin Wright and the great Philip Seymour Hoffman. This is not just a baseball film, folks. It IS a very entertaining film-film, if you will. I liked it a lot. And I think Brad Pitt will get some Best Actor Oscar votes, but will he get enough of them to be in the top-five that he would have to be to get nominated? We'll know in a few months.

On the television side of things, Sunday night football is killing a lot of good shows ratings wise. Shows like "Desperate Houswives", "CSI-Miami", "The Good Wife" and the brand new "Pan Am".

I watched "The Good Wife" and loved it. And I think ABC's new show, "Pan Am" has the potential to become a very good show.

Have you seen the new NBC show, "Prime Suspect", Thursday nights. Maria Bello is terrific as a police detective and her boss is played by the very good film actor, Aiden Quinn. Yes, I know that Ms. Bello is known as a film actor as well. I've seen their first two episodes and this show has "big hit" written all over it.

As does ABC's new Wednesday night show, "Revenge", starring the very eye pleasing and fine actress, Emily VanCamp.

Another great, great 3rd episode of "Parenthood" on Tuesday night as well as the 2nd episode of "Glee" that night.

Another good night for the new "Two and a Half Men" without Charlie Sheen and for "Harry's Law" with Kathy Bates and the great Jean Smart playing adversaries. I had the pleasure of meeting Ms. Smart and playing a small role in a film she was the star of several years ago. Nice lady, great talent, good looker.

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. All "Anonymous" emails are ignored.

THE NEXT BLOG? Barring unforseen circumstances like film auditions, etc., I'm figuring late night next Thursday, October 6 or early morning next Friday, October 7.

Meanwhile, I hope that you and yours have a terrific weekend.

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

THEY'RE ONLY MARGINALLY WORSE THAN McCAIN AND BUSH!!!

2011-09-23T18:22:00.000-07:00

The statement in the above headline is a quote from "The Weekly Standard" which is arguably the most influential and important conservative publication in America. After last night's Republican Debates in Orlando, Florida there were some late night and early morning conversations involving Weekly Standard and Wall Street folks and they were/are in agreement that as of now, none of these people could beat President Obama. And that's why they're putting big pressure on New Jersey Governor, Chris Christie to change his mind and become THE candidate that in their minds CAN beat President Obama. Some big money Republican donors think so as well and now Christie, after saying over and over again that he would NOT be a candidate is now saying he will tell top Republican donors what his plans are in a few days.

I'm now reminded of an old saying; "Money talks and bullshit walks!" Republican BIG money is talkin' now and as my long time friend Don King would say, "Only in America!"

So.....What's gonna happen NOW?!? I don't pretend to know the answer to that question, but here's what I DO know. Unless one of the current nine candidates suddenly impresses these behind the scenes power brokers, all the money will go to Christie if he says, "YES!". But what happens if he ends up saying, "NO!"?
Good question.

Would the money guys then go after Sarah Palin? I doubt it because I think they're too smart for that. There are quite a few reasons for them to whacha call "hesitate" when it comes Ms. Palin, but because I'm sure they've read the recent things that I've read, like what the National Enquirer is reporting.....

Now before you laugh, here's a couple of things you need to keep in mind. There was a time when most folks didn't believe much of anything the Enquirer wrote until....They were the first to print a whole bunch of correct information about the O.J. trial. Those disclosures were followed by other accurate disclosures up to and including them being the first to have the (former presidential candidate) John Edwards' scandalous story, a story that might end up being the reason John Edwards could end up in prison.

What does any of this have to do with Sarah Palin? The Enquirer is saying that her husband is making serious noises about "divorce" because of things in the new book about her that he either believes and or other things that he knows are true and he's tired of being made to look like a fool.

Yes, that's speculation on my part.

But what I'm about to write now, isn't speculation. Sarah Palin on the campaign trail constantly having to hear questions about things in the new book, things that have allegedly been said by her husband, the big question about why she REALLY quit her job as Governor of Alaska, etc. on top of etc.

You catch my drift, here?

Would you put up YOUR money to help finance a campaign that would be full of the "BAGGAGE" she would be carrying?

Just askin'.

Whew!

Hey, it's a Friday night, I, like you, am looking forward to a fun weekend, so I think the rest of this blog will be short items.

And let's if I can really make THAT happen!!!

QUICK HITS:

Is it possible that President Obama is a "Closet Republican"? I mean, some of the decisions he's made...
Think about it.

Deficit, deficit, deficit. The so-called Republican and Conservative Democrat geniuses bark about cutting this, cutting that, cutting some more of this, more of that, etc., BUUUUUT....there's something most of them NEVER talk about when it comes to discussing expenditures that have REALLY jacked up our deficit. These two (will they ever END) idiotic wars that our genius leaders never set aside a DIME in real money for. Yes, I'm talking about YOU, President Bush! Yes, I'm talking about YOU, President Obama!

You wanna cut the deficit? I mean, REALLY cut the deficit? BRING THE TROOPS HOME!!!!!

AMERICA FIRST!!!!!

Am I the only one who is hearing the quiet whispering being done by scared and frustrated Americans who are fed up to HERE with the economic condition our condition is in and what they're whispering about are "Revolution Thoughts"?!?

Pay attention, American leaders or so-called leaders. Most of America is sick and tired of all the outsourcing our so-called leaders let happen....All the talk about illegal immigrants being able to get money for stuff that Americans CAN'T get....Yeah, you so-called leaders have gotten some things done, but all of a sudden, American citizens who have been asleep, are now waking up and they see that so MANY of the things that our so-called leaders have gotten done are things that seem to have benefitted only ONE class of Americans. The "CONNECTED" class!!! A lot of people out there. Mad as hell and don't want to take it anymore.

You better wake up, so-called leaders. Because the rest of America IS waking up.

AMERICA FIRST! And not just a SMALL part of America!

Mad as hell.....

Oh....Did you see the story about one of our big shot Admirals saying that Pakistan government people were responsible for substantial recent deaths of Americans? Man, I've been yelling about those Pakistan pirates not being real allies of ours for YEARS! They screw us, screw us and screw us some more while we have continued to give them billions of dollars. You think our deficit might go down a little if we stopped doing that. How about all this money we give to other countries who don't (really) love us or even LIKE us!

AMERICA FIRST!!!

ENTERTAINMENT STUFF:

Well, what I'm going to write as my lead entertainment story isn't entertaining, but it does fit into my entertainment section because it's about something that's related to radio. In this case, it's Los Angeles radio because this is where I live and have had an address for almost 33-years.

Most of you listen to the radio sometimes, right? But not as much as you used to, right?

I used to be a radio guy. For a lot of years. I played what used to be known as Top-40 music, later what was known as M.O.R. music, followed by what was known as Urban music and then I became a talk show guy. General information talk and sports talk. Hell of a ride. And in between that, I had a fun ride being a TV general information talk guy and a nightly sports anchor.

Something called "Consolidation" was forced upon us (Thank you, Bill Clinton) and things changed. Dramatically. And not for the better!

A little more than 20-years ago, a lover of Los Angeles radio wrote the first of what would be several books about the history of radio in Los Angeles and the people who helped MAKE that history. Said "lover" was a guy named Don Barrett. A guy who had just finished a many years run being the P.R. star for the three biggest motion picture companies in the world.

A little more than 15-years ago, Don Barrett began writing a column about people he would describe as being a L.A.R.P. Which stood/stands for, Los Angeles Radio People (or person).

I mean you talk about a labor of love. At times, I'm sure he felt like he had invented a 24-hours a day job for himself. He was the owner, publisher and janitor for something that became a daily must-read that was called, LARadio.com.

At the beginning, his 5-days a week (sometimes 7-days a week) columns were available to anyone and everyone for free. He had no other source of income, so a few years later, he charged a small fee. I was a subscriber from day one.

This was during a time when a lot of LARP's were experiencing the fallout from this new thing called "consolidation". And the experience for many, wasn't pleasant.

Don Barrett, who is also a licensed therapist found himself giving free over the phone therapy to LARP's who had become depressed because of what was happening to radio in general.

Did he write about any of that in his columns? Absolutely not. In fact, what made Don Barrett's column so popular was all the POSITIVE news regarding LARP's. When he thought something being done at the management level was in some way HARMFUL to LARP's, there was a good chance he would write something about that and then listen to an offended management person chew him out on the phone for (in some cases) an hour or more.

I could go on and on with stories about Don Barrett and his love for LARP's, radio in general and his reluctance to challenge people who he knew were using passwords belonging to someone else instead of paying a yearly fee of less than $40.

And it was because of the stealing resulting in not enough income to continue, that Don Barrett published his FINAL LARadio.com column today, September 23, the first day of Fall (Autumn).

I wrote a commentary about this that Don Barrett published this past Wednesday. That commentary was different than this commentary, but one thing I wrote I will now write again; "We're really gonna miss this guy!"

NEW TV SHOWS, ONE NEW FILM, ONE (not so) OLD FILM:

"Hereafter", a Clint Eastwood directed film that came out last year and is currently on the cable circuit. Heavy film about life and death starring Matt Damon, Bryce Dallas Howard and Jay Mohr who delivered the best performance I've ever seen him deliver. I liked the film.

A film that's showing in your favorite Cineplex now is "Drive", starring Ryan Gosling, Carey Mulligan, Bryan Cranston and Albert Brooks. I think Brooks might get an Oscar nomination because the bad guy role he played in this film is not what we expect from Albert Brooks. The riveting few spoken words and long pauses by Gosling and Mulligan were off the charts terrific. I liked this film a lot.

Great ratings for the new "Two and a Half Men". It'll be interesting to see if the big ratings continue for that show.

Lousy ratings for the new "The Playboy Club", but I liked it.

"New Girl", starring Zooey Deschanel looks like a big hit. I liked it a lot and it got good ratings.

Simon Cowell's "The X-Factor" got disappointing ratings for a Simon Cowell show, but let's see what happens down the road. I saw (only) the first hour on Wednesday and some of it was good, some not so good.

Emily VanCamp's new show, "Revenge", Wednesday night's at 10 on ABC has the potential to be a BIG hit! I liked it a lot.

"The Good Wife" shows it's premiere (for this season) episode at a new day and time. This Sunday at 9 on CBS.

And "Boardwalk Empire" returns to HBO this Sunday night at 9 and reruns of that episode will be shown all week long.

THOUGHTS AND OR COMMENTS? Please write to me at scottstjames@sbcglobal.net and I will repond to you ASAP. Don't write to the blog because there's no way for me to know your email address so I won't be able to respond to you. All "Anonymous" emails are ignored.

THE NEXT BLOG? Barring something unexpected, Thursday the 29th or Friday the 30th. Meanwhile, I hope that all of you have a terrific weekend.

A Slight Delay!!!

2011-09-23T05:15:00.000-07:00

Hi Everybody!

Because of a couple of show business obligations, the new blog, scheduled for late last night or early this morning has been delayed. A new posting will be made sometime this weekend. That could be later today (the first day of Autumn) or tomorrow.

Subjects to be covered will include:

Thursday night's Republican Debates.

Mistakes that were made by the candidates and the hosts.

The number one deficit problem that Republicans and most Democrats refuse to talk about.

The latest on Sarah Palin's will she or won't she, "teasing tour".

Is President Obama a "Closet Republican"?

Revolution whispers by scared and frustrated Americans who are fed up to HERE with the economic condition our condition is in.

A local story (here in Los Angeles) about today's ending of Don Barrett's 5-days a week LARadio.com publication after 15+years of offering hope for an industry that's in more trouble than they admit to being in.

Annnnd some thoughts about some of the new television shows that aired this past week.

Thanks for your patience and I hope that all of you have a nice weekend.

Most sincerely,

Scott "The Jammer with the Hammer" St. James

Life & Death! The Republican Debates! In the new book about Sarah Palin, we learn what she reads! The proposed "Honor" for President Obama!

2011-09-15T18:25:00.000-07:00

Do you ever have one of those days when you find yourself thinking about stuff that you ordinarily wouldn't be thinking about?

While doing my daily 3-5 miles walk today, instead of wondering if I should be bold and hit on the pretty woman in front of me with the shortest of shorts and a halter top that would ordinarily make me walk faster, I suddenly thought about death. And what happens when THAT happens?!?

We really don't know, do we? Yeah, yeah, yeah...If we were brought up in a religious family (and I was), we were told that a place called Heaven awaits us and we live through that experience forever. In other words, we're never really dead-dead.

Do YOU believe that? Do you sometimes wish someone could/would come back from Heaven and (in essence) assure us of what it is we can look forward to. Hell, I'd be just as happy if a guy or gal could/would come back from HELL and tell us what those eternal living conditions are like. And that's assuming we really do have an eternal life situation of some kind that won't be good if we've been bad, but will be good if we've been good!

I know. We're supposed to have "faith" that that's our destiny once the coroner takes control of our body. But while remembering Peggy Lee and the song, "Is that all there is?" wouldn't it be a darn shame if our life on earth is INDEED "All there is"?!?

Just askin'.

Yeah, I know. I should have hit on the sexy babe with the short shorts and halter top and put a "halt" to those serious thoughts I was having this morning.

BUT SPEAKING OF "LIFE & DEATH"...

Were you watching the second Republican Debates show when Governor Perry was talking about all the people who have been executed while Perry has been governor and a lot of the people in the audience cheered?

For the record, I'm not against the death penalty. And I definitely have no sympathy for people who have committed heinous crimes. In fact, I want people who have committed heinous crimes to suffer and I think getting the death penalty gives them an easy way out. But if they're sentenced to "Life without parole", that, to me, is a "suffering" penalty and I want those kinds of criminals to suffer.

Let's go back to all those people in the audience who cheered when the large number of executed people were mentioned. Did you have any thoughts about that cheering?

I did.

And my thoughts were...about what the television ratings would be if executions were televised. I know. The executions would have to be on cable because terrestrial stations (ABC, CBS, etc.) would "take the high road" and choose to not televise executions, but they would continue to air shows like "Desperate Housewives in Montana" and "The Kardashians".

Back to what kind of ratings televised executions would get? At least triple the ratings any Super Bowl would get. How do I know that? Watching the Republican Debates have taught me well. And because I've watched every minute of the three Republican Debates so far, I've learned something else. All eight of the candidates have made a lot of noise about our bad jobs situation and they should be making noise about that subject. But they should also be offering solutions. In the three Republican Debates so far, not one solution has been proposed. Oh, there's been a lot of bragging from current and former governors about how a lot of jobs were added to their states', but not one word from any of these people has been uttered about how they would get the millions of jobs that Americans need.

Don't get me wrong. President Obama hasn't done any better than these candidates have.

I have an idea about how we could get lots of jobs for Americans, but I'm afraid that politicians of all stripes are too scared to try what I would propose because they don't want to upset the corporations who give them millions of dollars for their campaign war chests.

I would tell every one of these American corporations who have outsourced millions of jobs to foreign countries that effective immediately, these corporations will be taxed out of business here unless they return those jobs to Americans IN America!!!

I can't help but wonder if I've missed something. While I wasn't looking or listening, did the words, "America First" become obscene words? They aren't to ME!

One other solution I would propose would be to get legislation passed to make it a federal crime for any lobbyist who tries to have a conversation with anyone in the White House or anyone in the Halls of Congress.

Am I proposing unheard of and very EXTREME solution-proposals?

YOU BET YOUR SWEET ASS I AM!

And correct me if I'm wrong, but with multi millions of Americans out of work and the multi millions of Americans who are classified as "poor", isn't it long past time for SOMEONE in the White House or the Halls of Congress to come up with extreme proposals which lead to extreme legislation?!?

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

Speaking of leadership that we desperately need, I received an idea for an "honor" that should be given to President Obama from a long time friend of mine.

My friend's name is Ron Rice. He probably agrees with (maybe) 5% of what I write in these blogs but that doesn't stop my friend from telling me what pisses him off, etc.

Ron Rice lives in a mansion in Ormond Beach, Florida which is walking distance to the Atlantic Ocean. I know that because whenever I was there, I used to do my jogging on that beach.

He was able to buy his mansion because he is the guy who invented Hawaiian Tropic which (in case you didn't know) is a world famous suntan lotion. Before the lousy economy Bush years put us into a ditch, Ron Rice saw the economic "writing on the wall" and he sold Hawaiian Tropic. Another example of the rich getting richer, folks. At the moment, he's a little "retired" while letting all the pretty women who show up know he can still "deliver" (he used to be known as the "Hugh Hefner of Daytona Beach") and he still has lots of money.

Many years ago, I was interested in writing and producing a film about Ron, his beauty pageants and his lifestyle. His vision was a little different than my vision so it never happened, but during the 80's and early 90's, trust me when I tell you that no one had more fun that I did when I showed up at a Ron Rice party and or pageant.

Okay...Back to the "honor" idea for President Obama that Ron sent me and here it is, word for word;

Where, oh where...to put Obama's picture.

George Washington, our nation's first president and leader of the American Revolution!

Abe Lincoln, honorable leader who pulled our nation through its darkest time!

Alexander Hamilton, Founding Father, first Secretary of the Treasury and leader of the Constitutional Convention!

Andrew Jackson, "Old Hickory" fought the British in New Orleans!

Ulysses Grant, Union Army General, led the North through the Civil War!

Ben Franklin, genius inventor, political theorist and leading author of the Constitution.

All of the above mentioned patriots have their pictures on our currency. No other pictures of patriots will be placed on our currency.

The Good news is that finally, we have someone to put on the Food Stamp!!!

Obama's policies have put more people on welfare than any president before him, so this placement is most appropriate. Unlike the Nobel Peace Prize, for which he did nothing, this is an "Honor" he richly deserves.

Thank you, Ron Rice.

AND AS LONG AS WE'RE TALKING ABOUT HIGH PROFILE POLITICIANS...

You've probably heard about the new Sarah Palin book that'll be in all the book stores in the next day or so. I'm not going to mention the "juicy stuff" that's in the book, but in the spirit of "fairness", I want to clear up something for Ms. Palin regarding a question she had trouble with when she did that long ago interview with Katie Couric. You might recall that Ms. Palin's excuse for the trouble she had was because she claimed that Couric had hit her with a "Gotcha!" question. And that question was, "What do you read?"

Wellll....Thanks to this new book, I'm happy to tell you that we now know that Ms. Palin reads "People Magazine". And don't we all?!? Another example of that "common sense" stuff that Ms. Palin preaches to us.

ENTERTAINMENT STUFF:

The first "entertainment" item I want to mention is the 3rd Republican Debates show that took place in Tampa, Florida a few days ago and were hosted by CNN's Wolf Blitzer. I thought that Wolf Blitzer was a terrific host because he made sure that all the candidates got a chance to make contributions and it's a darn shame that Wolf Blitzer won't be the host for all of the remaining Republican Debates shows. And I refer to these debates as "shows" because they're entertaining as well as being informational.

If you've been a fan of HBO's "Entourage" for the last seven years, you know that their series ending show was aired on Sunday night and it's being shown all week on HBO. In my view, this was an off the charts WONDERFUL episode to say "good-bye" on. Good-bye until they make the movie and I can already hardly wait for THAT!

The new television season is getting underway now. The show that I think is the best show on television is "The Good Wife" and that show has been moved from Tuesday night at 10 to Sunday night at 9 on CBS. And that means I can now watch my second favorite show on television which is "Parenthood" on at 10 Tuesday nights on NBC. They had their new season opener this past Tuesday and it was terrific. They have an all star cast that's being presided over by an all star producer-director. A guy named Ron Howard.

There are a lot of new shows that will be on television this season, but an old show, with a new lead actor, is a show that a lot of people will check out on Monday night, the 19th when "Two and a Half Men" starring Ashton Kutcher will be shown. Also on the 19th will be the new show, "The Playboy Club" on NBC, starring Amber Heard.

On Wednesday, the 21st, two new shows will have my attention. "Revenge", starring Emily VanCamp and Madeleine Stowe on ABC and "The X Factor", starring Simon Cowell and Paula Abdul on Fox. By the way, Emily VanCamp was a terrific cast member on the recently cancelled show, "Brothers & Sisters".

On Thursday, the 22nd, the new "Charlie's Angels" will make it's debut on ABC. I don't think any three women can replace the three women that made that show a monster hit many years ago, but these three will try; Rachel Taylor, Annie Ilonzeh and Derek Jeter's ex-girlfriend, Minka Kelly.

Also on Thursday, the 22nd, the 4th Republican Debates will be shown on (I think) Fox.

ONE NEW FILM TO TELL YOU ABOUT:

"Contagion". I saw it a couple of days ago. All star cast and a film that kept me riveted from beginning to end. This is a film about a contagious disease that causes a lot of trouble and yesterday, a bunch of scientists said that what this film describes is something that could actually happen.

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. All "Anonymous" emails are ignored.

THE NEXT BLOG? Seeing as how the next Republican Debates will be next Thursday, unless something unexpected comes up, I'll probably write a new blog that will be posted on Thursday night the 22nd or early Friday morning the 23rd, which will be the first day of Autumn.

Meanwhile, I hope that all of you have a very nice weekend.

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

The Republican Debates, The Speech, Religion & Politics and The Very Unpopular Congress!!!

2011-09-08T20:11:00.000-07:00

First of all, as a lot of you readers know, I wrote a short blog a few days ago to promote the blog I'm about to write tonight. I never know what's going to strike a nerve, but one of the things I wrote in that short blog resulted in a lot of very well thought out comments from you folks. I responded to all of you and in future blogs, I might mention some of the points you made.

Right now I have the Republican debates fresh on my mind.

President Obama's speech.

The 9/11 anniversary threat.

The U.S. Postal Service on the verge of going broke.

And another high profile presidential candidate who felt it necessary to allow himself to be "grilled, interrogated, rubber-hosed, etc." by religious leaders for five evening hours and then five hours the following morning about what his "beliefs" are and if his "beliefs" match their "beliefs".

Okay, I made up the "rubber-hosed" part, but...

What the hell is going on, folks? We have some never elected to anything lobbyist who has the power to force members of Congress to sign a pledge that states they'll never vote for a tax increase of any kind for anything and now we have hot shot radical religious leaders demanding that presidential candidates need to prove to them (the radical religious leaders) that the candidate(s) can "pass" their "religious TESTS?!?"

The most recent presidential candidate I'm referring to is Governor Rick Perry. This took place August 26 and 27 and among the radical religious leaders doing the questioning were, Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council, American Values president Gary Bauer and former Focus on the Family big boss, James Dobson.

Hmmmm....Separation of Church and State? Can you imagine the Holy Hell that would have been raised if a bunch of Catholic Bishops and or Cardinals had demanded that JFK submit to religious interrogations. First of all, JFK was a certified war hero and one is inclined to think he would have kicked those leaders out of his office if they had made a demand like that. I'm sure it would have been a gentle kick, but a kick it most assuredly would have been.

At this point, let me be very clear about something. I have no problem with God being on our money, people believing in God and hoping they'll be accepted into Heaven, saying the word "Christmas", going to churches, etc., etc. If people get comfort from believing a huge higher power is looking out for them, no one but no one should ever interfere with that.

Someone much smarter than me told me that stating your opinions about religion and politics is dangerous because more often than not, it will cost you friendships and or jobs even though the employer would never admit that.

As a (mostly) political writer, I'm going to write political opinions because that's one of the reasons people like you read my musings. While recognizing my bringing up the subject of religion in any kind of negative way can cause people to get big time pissed off at me, I feel it necessary to take a deep breath and challenge anything religion-related when it has to do with going against the "Separation of Church and State".

And there are at least two Republican presidential candidates who seem to think that Church and State should be embraced, policy wise. Uh, huh. You mean like what most Muslim countries do?

THE REPUBLICAN DEBATES:

Did you watch them? I did. Governor Rick Perry has run for office, what? 10 times? 11 times? Did you know that he has never LOST an election! To underestimate a guy like that is to do so at your peril. He took some "hits" on Wednesday night, but he delivered some, too. To me, Governor Perry seems like a guy you'd like to have helping you if you were outnumbered in a bar fight.

After the debates had ended, most of the pundits thought that Perry and Governor Romney had shined the most. A number of people think that Michele Bachmann's performance was weak and the same could be said for all the other candidates. I'm not a Michele Bachmann fan, but I'm not ready to write her off yet. There's one other Republican candidate who certainly has the smarts and the experience to make him a very serious candidate, but he's going to probably have to "go for broke" in the next Republican debate. I'm referring to Governor Jon Huntsman.

PRESIDENT OBAMA'S SPEECH:

As most of you know, the NFL's season opener was played tonight. With that in mind while also being mindful of the fact that President Obama hasn't shown serious passion about anything recently, he's been spending a lot of time giving in to Republicans who have been acting like Obama is their bitch-boy and he (Obama) hasn't been FIGHTING for ANYTHING..... Anyway, I couldn't help but think of that (late) Dallas Cowboys quarterback who went on to become (arguably) the most popular character ever on Monday Night Football and words that he would sing when things had gotten hopeless for one of the teams that was playing that night. Remember? "Turn out the Liiii-GHTS, the par-ty's OVER!"

Before President Obama delivered his speech, I was convinced that my headline for this blog was going to be those words that Dandy Don used to sing because of all the "negatives" I mentioned at the beginning of this subject.

In fact, I was also thinking it might be time for leaders of the Democrat party to try to talk Hillary Clinton into challenging President Obama for the 2012 nomination.

When President Obama's 32-minute speech ended, I found myself thinking what I would later hear Lou Dobbs say which was, "I think this was the best speech Obama has ever given!"

And yeah, as much as it might hurt people who hate this guy, the fact is, he wasn't "bitch-boy" today. I heard one of the pundits say that a lot of Democrat leaders are probably wishing that Obama showed this kind of passion a number of months ago. True, but if he continues to show this kind of passion and if what he said about his proposals being paid for can't be challenged, he then goes from being "Dead Man Walking" to very serious candidate for re-election status. On the other hand, if he wasn't being truthful about his new idea policies being (already) paid for, a future blog headline will be Dandy Don's words.

Oh....Did you know that as bad as President Obama's poll numbers are that the poll numbers for Congress are worse? A LOT worse!

TWO OTHER THINGS WE NEED TO BE CONCERNED ABOUT:

Have you heard about this 9/11 anniversary threat? Serious, serious business, folks! Police and Homeland Security officials have descriptions of who two of the alleged bad guys are and by the time you read this, they will hopefully have been captured or killed.

Have you heard about the U.S. Postal Service problems? A 10-billion dollar net loss this fiscal year that could result in 120,000 workers having to be laid off, no more mail deliveries on Saturdays and thousands of local post offices being closed.

Sudden thought: Won't it be nice when we have some GOOD news again?!?

ENTERTAINMENT STUFF:

Eddie Murphy? The next Oscar host? Apparently so and we're also led to believe that Billy Crystal will have a major role as well.

Are you a Conan O'Brien fan? His ratings on TBS are down 60% since last autumn.

Films that are currently on the cable circuit I want to call your attention to:

"Maid in Manhattan", 2002 film that's on Encore. Jennifer Lopez, Ralph Fiennes, Stanley Tucci and outstanding supporting players. I liked it in 2002 and I liked it again.

"Unstoppable", 2010 film that's on HBO. Denzel Washington, Chris Pine, Rosario Dawson and some good supporting players. Good popcorn flick.

"Color of Night", 1994 film that's on TMC. Bruce Willis, a very sexy Jane March and the always entertaining Leslie Ann Warren. This film isn't for everybody, but I liked it a lot.

"Country Strong", 2010 film that's on STARZ. Gwyneth Paltrow, Tim McGraw and good supporting players in a film that to me was okay, but not terrific.

Three films that are still in your favorite Cineplex.

"Cowboys and Aliens". I don't consider this to be a great film, but you won't fall asleep. Lots of action and good performances from Daniel Craig, Harrison Ford, Olivia Wilde and a very good supporting cast. The Olivia Wilde role is bigger than I thought it would be and she played the role very well.

"Your Idiot Brother". Paul Rudd plays the "Idiot Brother" and he's so good at it, I wanted him to "back off" at times, but I guess if someone really is an idiot, "backing off" isn't in their genes. The women in the film are all good, Rudd is good, but the movie itself, to me, was just so-so.

"Columbiana". Zoe Saldana ROCKS in this film. This is not a great film, but it is a very entertaining film and the reason it's entertaining is because of Ms. Saldana, an actress who was also very entertaining as a "blue creature" in the film, "Avitar".

THOUGHTS AND OR COMMENTS? Please write to me at scottstjames@sbcglobal.net. I will respond to you ASAP. If you write to the blog, there's no way for me to know your email address so I won't be able to respond to you. I respond to everyone except "Anonymous" writers. Those folks are ignored.

THE NEXT BLOG? I'm figuring Thursday, September 15 or Friday, September 16 unless something unexpected comes up.

Meanwhile, I hope that all of you have a very nice weekend, please think good thoughts for the 9/11 victims and let's also think good thoughts for law enforcement folks who are trying to track down those terrorists who have let it be known they'd like to cause us a little trouble this coming Sunday.

The Next Full Blog Will Be Written And Posted, Thursday Night, September 8th!!!

2011-09-03T08:34:00.000-07:00

Hi Gang,

First of all, I hope you all have a Happy Labor Day weekend.

The next full blog will be next Thursday evening, September 8.

I'm holding off on writing a new one until I have watched the Republican debates on September 7 and President Obama's "jobs speech" on September 8.

Other things that will be covered are....

What exactly are the Republican plans to get us more jobs if a Republican ends up being our next President of the United States? So far, as of today, September 3, the main contenders seem to be talking mostly about religious related stuff.

When will Sarah Palin stop dancing? I mean, if she's going to really be a presidential candidate instead of the dancing tease she seems to enjoy being, why are we paying any attention to her? Yes, I know she's charismatic, but....

When will we see President Obama fight for something he believes in instead of letting radical Republicans who seem to have NO ideas regarding ways to fix our jobs problems, push him around like you might do to your baby brother, Buuuut... They have lots of ideas about religion, protecting the "advantaged" while savaging the "disadvantaged" and coming up with new and creative ways to say, "NO!" to our president and to show no respect at all to the OFFICE of our president.

Just askin'.

In addition to the above subjects, we'll also address Big Oil getting away with murder with their latest budget bustiing hikes in gasoline prices which do nothing but make the vast majority of us suffer tremendously, but WE CONTINUE TO GIVE THOSE GREEDY BASTARDS UN-BLEEPING BELIEVABLE TAX BREAKS?!?

WHY?!?

Again...Just askin'.

Yes, we'll also lighten up with our last topic on Thursday night when we tell you about some new and old films we've recently seen along with other entertainment related news.

Be strong, gang!

Scott "The Jammer with the Hammer" St. James

A New Blog On A SUNDAY? Yep, a different day for a different kind of blog!

2011-08-28T07:23:00.000-07:00

I think most of you readers would agree with my observation that if you take the time to read the kind of stuff that's written HERE, with all the "opinion" aspects, etc., YOU are proudly what I refer to as the deep THINKERS among us. And I don't say this because all of you agree with me all of the time because nothing could be further from the truth. After every blog that's written and posted, I have email and phone dialogue with many who DISAGREE with what I've written and that dialogue is encouraged by me. While you might be small in numbers compared to so much of the "fluff" that's out there, not to mention diatribes written by intelligent radical minds who zero in on our nation's simplest of minds (whew!), to keep it "simple", I'm talking about the whack-job religious radicals who preach the "Us versus Them HATE" doctrine that's very effective. When times are tough, the simple minds among us are willing to respond favorably to any "Carnival Barker" type who preaches the gospel of "Lashing Out" as opposed to "Looking Within"!

Because I've lived (here) in Los Angeles for more than thirty years, I'll give you an example of what I mean; Many years ago, I was a radio and television sports guy here. In a moment of frustration, the very personable manager of the Dodgers, (and eventual Baseball Hall of Fame member) Tommy Lasorda lashed out by yelling, "It ain't MY bleepin' fault! CAMPANIS is the bleepin' guy!" Tommy was referring to Al Campanis who was the then General Manager of the Dodgers. The Dodgers were going through some difficulties at the time and Tommy wanted everyone to know that none of what was happening was his fault.

And he wanted us to believe that.

Sound familiar?

The United States of America and most of the rest of the world, are going through some very tough economic times right now.

If you're older (like I am), it's easy to "give up" trying to find a job because you've convinced yourself that people of our age aren't even being "considered". Soooo, with the help of the "carnival barker hate mongerer's", we begin to believe it's the Black Guy's fault, it's the Mexican's fault, it's the gay people's fault, go to the Bible, get more guns, etc., etc.....Buuuut....We, the older folks who haven't let the thinking part of our brains get hijacked by the "Hate Preachers", suddenly take note of the fact that YOUNG PEOPLE can't get jobs, either.

In other words, we're ALL in the "SAME BOAT", people!

And what do we do when we're in the same boat while we're having some fun with family and or friends in the water? We row in the same direction, TOGETHER!!!

But what are so many of us doing NOW? Thanks in part to hate spewing carnival barker types and phony hate spewing preachers who claim to be representing God when in fact they're representing the Devil, the hands down best country in the world, The United States of America, is rapidly becoming the "Country of NO!". As opposed to the country I grew up in, loved and served in the military for, which used to be the "Country of YES!", which is what MADE us the greatest country in the world.

As we approach the anniversary of "9/11", Labor Day and memories of what Dr. King stood for, I find myself remembering a film. "Network". A film written by Paddy Chayefsky, a guy who has since been proven to be either a psychic, a prophet or both because of things that happened AFTER this great film was released. And who will ever forget the words that were screamed by the fictional character, Howard Beale which resulted in an Oscar being awarded to the actor who played Howard Beale, Peter Finch. And those words were, "I'm mad as hell and I'm not gonna take it anymore!"

On this, the 28th of August, 2011, I'm mad as hell, too! Will you please join me in the boat that will have us all rowing in the same direction. Which is the direction of, "YES!"

I don't know about you, but I've had it up to HERE with this phony carnival barker, radical religion phony preacher crowd who have their simple minded followers believing "NO" is the way to go.

Do you remember what the late NRA President Mr. Heston said (in essence) about him being willing to die for his right to "bear arms"? I'm a long time NRA member and I agree with what Mr. Heston said.

I also agree with (unlike most Muslim countries) our country's "Separation of Church and State" which I'm also willing to die for.

How about it, gang? Are you with me on wanting us, The United States of America to become the proud country of "YES!" again?

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. All "Anonymous" emails are ignored, but everyone else is responded to by me.

THE NEXT BLOG? First of all, the next blog will have some entertainment stuff at the end of the blog like it usually does. I will mention one entertainment item that I forgot to mention when I wrote about the new film, "The Help"in the last blog. I forgot to mention the very fine performance of Jessica Chastain in that film. In addition to her good work in that film which could get her Supporting Actor Oscar consideration, Ms. Chastain has six other films she's starring in that haven't been released yet.

Next blog? Hopefully a week from now, but because of the upcoming Labor Day thing, the next blog might not be until a couple of Wednesdays from now.

Meanwhile, I hope that all of you have a great week. YES!!!

Where Should I Begin?!?

2011-08-19T16:05:00.000-07:00

I'm serious! Where should I begin?

I mean, I haven't had a chance to write a new full blog since just before the Republican debates were held in Iowa. And just when I think I know what I'm going to write about, something else happens. And then something else-ELSE happens. And most of these "something else's" are BAD!!!

Let me put it this way; Do you know anyone who isn't a little scared about the condition of the condition our COUNTRY is in right now?!?

And the best way I can describe how bad things REALLY are is by saying there are some people who think Michele Bachmann is a LEGITIMATE presidential candidate!

PUH-LEEZE!!!

So this is where I'll begin.

First of all, I thought the Republican debates were big time entertaining. The next Republican debates will be September 7th. I watched the whole two hours of those debates. I think it was about two hours after they ended that one of the debaters decided he didn't want to be a candidate anymore. Bye, bye T-Paw! I thought all of the debaters said at least a few interesting things and some of the debaters came to fight! T-Paw, while saying some things about Michele Bachmann that she didn't like and a good number of people in the audience didn't like, put T-Paw in a defensive position and Bachmann ended up looking the better of the two by using strategy once used by the great Muhammad Ali; Rope a dope. And T-Paw never knew what hit him.

Newt Gingrich came to fight. But the fight he picked wasn't with any of the candidates, it was with Fox's Chris Wallace. After he stopped barking at Wallace, Gingrich said some things that were worth listening to. Candidate Rick Santorum came to fight, but the fight he picked was with another crowd favorite who was also the oldest candidate, Ron Paul. Not a good strategy, Rick. Candidate Jon Huntsman didn't say much, but what little he did say, was to me, impressive. But earlier TODAY, Jon Huntsman took the gloves off and fired off three verbal rockets in the direction of late arriving candidate, Rick Perry and some might suggest that what Huntsman said today could have been directed at Bachmann as well.

I'll tell you what those three things were in a minute, but let's talk a little about Bachmann and Perry.

Both of them are so-called Tea Party "darlings".

Perry likes to refer to himself as a patriot along with other self aggrandizing descriptions. I don't have a problem with that. When you're trying to become our next President of the United States, you gotta spin the "positive" about yourself. Buuuuut....Isn't this the same guy who, not too long ago, was making noises about Texas seceding from the United States of America and that he, Governor Rick Perry was prepared to be the leader of that movement?

Uh, Governor Perry? Would or could you please explain to us about how patriotic it is to even TALK about something like that? And while you're at it, if somehow you were to get Texas to secede, Texas would then be what? Another country in the middle of the United States of America, the same USA you claim to be a patriot of? And Governor Perry? Can you explain to us why we shouldn't just think you're bleeping CRAZY for coming up with ideas like that? And I mean, DANGEROUSLY crazy?!?

Oh, uh....Governor Perry? What's up with this fundamentalist movement known as "Dominionism" that we are told you are "connected at the hip" to? A movement which says (among other things) that "Christians should rule all earthly institutions". In other words, Christians should rule the world.

Governor Perry, thanks to our Constitution and Freedom of Expression, all of us are entitled to believe in anything we want or choose to believe in. But riddle me this, Governor Perry; Isn't the opposite true for hard-line Muslims? And aren't most of us AGAINST that belief? Just asking, Governor. Just asking.

At the risk of sounding like that wonderful character, Columbo that was played so brilliantly by the late Peter Falk, "Excuse me sir, just one more thing." Governor Perry, if you were to be elected our next President of the United States, will you be trying to get our "Separation of Church and State" OVERTURNED?

Just askin', Governor. Just askin'.

Back to Michele Bachmann for a minute.

She is also friendly with the "Dominionism" crowd. And yes, if she got the nomination, I would be asking her the same questions I'm asking Governor Perry except for the Texas secession business. Other questions I would ask Congresswoman Bachmann?

WHERE do I BEGIN?!?

I mean, she pretty much says something damn near everyday that we all want to ask her about, don't we? Sudden thought: I think that after the next presidential election, a new rule should be made. A quota rule. In the future, every presidential candidate will be allowed to make only so many misstatements. If anyone goes over that number, they can no longer be a candidate.

How many misstatements has Congresswoman Bachmann made in just the last few months? Incalculable. So I'll just bring up a couple of them. While campaigning, she has raised a lot of hell about Government "handouts". Oooops! Turns out that she and her husband have been accepting Government handouts for a good number of years. There are financial statements that people have to fill out after they have accepted Government money. Even when faced with the evidence, she still barks negatively about "handouts" and acts as though the truth is false. Yes, I know that's a confusing sentence I just wrote, but Congresswoman Bachmann is more often than not, a confusing woman. How about what she said yesterday!?! That a few months after she becomes President of the United States, gas prices will drop to TWO DOLLARS A GALLON!!! Say, whaaaat?!?

I could go on and on about Mrs. Bachmann and the "interesting" things she says, but I don't want to come across as someone who's "picking on the girl". Whether it's by design, meaning this is some kind of strange strategy she has, or it's because she has made herself believe some of these wacky things she says, I'll give her this; She's very entertaining.

BACK TO REPUBLICAN CANDIDATE, JON HUNTSMAN:

Earlier in this blog, I mentioned how quiet Mr. Huntsman was during the Republican debates last week. I also mentioned how LOUD Mr. Huntsman was TODAY!

On a day in which three things that Governor Perry has expressed opinions stating he's either against or doesn't believe in were being discussed, Mr. Huntsman threw three verbal rockets stating he totally disagrees with Governor Perry. Perry seems to not believe in evolution and global warming and he seems to be against anything having to do with gay people having the opportunity to be legal couples. Huntsman said, loud and clear, that he's a believer in evolution, a believer in global warming and he believes in same sex civil unions.

A long time Republican and former presidential candidate was heard saying, "He's (Huntsman) CRAZY to be running as a REPUBLICAN!"

A guy who's apparently thinking about becoming a Republican presidential candidate is Congressman Paul Ryan. Politics is a blood sport and if Ryan does indeed become a candidate, he will face questions about things he now disavows. Like the auto bailout he voted for and TARP. He'll also catch heavy heat regarding his ideas about watering down Medicare.

WARREN BUFFETT FOR PRESIDENT?

If you care, you know that the very rich Warren Buffett has publicly stated all this howling coming from Republican politicians about raising taxes on the rich will hurt job creation is absolutely BOGUS!

Buffet is what? The 3rd richest guy in the U.S.? The world? Whatever. He's in the very rare air of the uber-rich. After he made his case in a commentary he wrote for the New York Times, a few Republicans made wise cracks about him but none of them were stupid enough to argue with him because if Republican politicians are consistent with anything, they are most definitely consistent with bowing down to rich guys.

Here's a word for word quote from Warren Buffett: "I have worked with investors for 60 years and I have yet to see anyone....not even when capital gains rates were 39.9% in 1976-77....shy away from a sensible investment because of the tax rate on the potential gain. People invest to make money, and potential taxes have never scared them off. And to those who argue that higher rates hurt job creation, I would note that a net of nearly 40 million jobs were added between 1980 and 2000. You know what's happened since then? Lower tax rates and far lower job creation."

If you didn't read his commentary, there's a lot more than what I chose to use, but nothing that he wrote was contradictory to what you see above.

Several people, including my former great radio producer, Jeanette Grider have suggested that maybe Warren Buffett should be a presidential candidate. If he won, he'd have to take a hell of a pay cut, but none of those lobbyists that Washington is full of would have one second of "Bribe time" with him! In fact, a guy as rich as Buffett is, would be the perfect guy to let all lobbyists know they are no longer welcome in Washington. Think about it. A lot of (mostly Republican) politicians are bitching and moaning about the "deficit"! If lobbyists were outlawed in Washington what kind of deficit reduction would THAT result in?!?

Warren Buffett for President? Like Elvis once sang, "If I can dream....."

ENTERTAINMENT STUFF:

Have you heard about this Billy Crystal rumor? That he might be the host of the next Academy Awards show? Crystal has let it be known he's interested in doing that gig again and now we'll find out how badly (or not) Academy officials would like to see ratings for that show go UP!!! Again.... "If I can dream...."

I've seen a lot of movies (mostly on cable) since the last blog, but I'm only going to mention three. A film on cable I was very disappointed in....A film on cable that surprised me big time....And a new film that deserves serious, SERIOUS Oscar considerations.

"How do you Know", a 2010 film that's currently on the STARZ circuit. This film was directed by the great James L. Brooks and it featured an outstanding cast. Reese Witherspoon, Owen Wilson, Paul Rudd and the great Jack Nicholson. On paper, it's impossible to screw up a film with that kind of cast and director, but screw it up they did. Major, major disappointment.

"Gigli", a 2003 film that was BARBECUED by the critics. And the critics were barbecuing this film long after the film wasn't being shown anywhere. It's currently on the Encore circuit and I have no idea why I decided to try watching this film. I believed the critics. They couldn't all be wrong, could they? Under the category of "Different strokes...", I ended up being very, very surprised. I thought there were a couple of short weak stretches, but overall, I liked this film. This is a film that starred Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez when they were dating and talking about getting married to each other. I didn't know that the great character actor Christopher Walken was in this film and I never heard anything about Al Pacino being in this film. Well, he was and as usual, he was damn good. Justin Bartha, an actor I had never heard of, played a handicapped guy and he was outstanding in this role. And as usual, the chemistry provided by Jennifer Lopez is terrific. No matter what one might think of her, one thing can't be taken from her. When she's on the screen, you can't take your eyes off of her. I know. I might be the only critic in the world who said something nice about this film. Check it out. You might end up being as surprised as I was.

Have you heard about this new film, "The Help"? This past Monday, my long time friend Kevin Gershan who is also a long time Producer-Director for "Entertainment Tonight" told me I should see this film. The next morning (this past Tuesday), I went to an 11:30-am showing of this film. 11:30 in the morning and the theatre was almost packed.

Some people are referring to "The Help" as a Chick Flick. The morning I was there, the gender breakdown was pretty much 50-50.

"The Help" is a film based on a best selling book about African American maids in White households in Jackson, Mississippi in the early 60's.

Great cast. Emma Stone plays the role of "Skeeter" and Allison Janney plays her mother. You might remember Janney from all the episodes of "The West Wing" that she was in. Sissy Spacek and Mary Steenburgen have good supporting roles. Three other stars in this film are Viola Davis as "Aibileen", Octavia Spencer as "Minny" and Bryce Dallas Howard as "Hilly", a character that made me think of Michele Bachmann.

Gang, you'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll almost die. That's how good "The Help" is. It is two hours and seventeen minutes of superb film-making. Viola Davis, Emma Stone, Octavia Spencer, Bryce Dallas Howard, Director Tate Taylor and film itself are all deserving of Oscar consideration and multiple Oscars being won wouldn't surprise me at all. Because of a scene near the end of the film that will bring tears to your eyes unless your blood is made of ice, Allison Janney might get a nomination as well.

"The Help" doesn't need MY help because it's brilliance speaks for itself. Check it out and when you do, you'll thank me.

THOUGHTS 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 which means I wouldn't be able to respond to you. With the exception of "Anonymous" emails, I respond to everyone. "Anonymous" emails are ignored.

THE NEXT BLOG? The way things have been going lately, we're never sure, right? Hopefully, sometime next weekend which means August 27, 28 or 29.

Meanwhile, I hope that you and yours have a terrific weekend.

ANOTHER DELAY!!!

2011-08-18T00:31:00.000-07:00

Hi Gang,

My intention was to write a new blog on Tuesday or Wednesday (August 16 or 17), but because of a job playing a college professor that I booked, the new blog will hopefully be written and posted tonight, August 18) or tomorrow, August 19.

Some of the things that will be covered in the new blog will be thoughts on the Republican debates that were held last week and Warren Buffet's comments about why he thinks big time rich folks like him should pay more taxes and how the excuses against that idea posed by bought and paid for congress people are bogus.

Also covered will be Michele Bachmann and Rick Perry's connection to a fringe fundamentalist movement known as "Dominionism" which says Christians should rule all earthly institutions. And while the belief here is that everyone is entitled to their own beliefs, I can't help but wonder if that isn't the same thing that radical Muslims believe about their faith? And aren't most of us critical of that? Just askin'.

Another question that will be posed has to do with Tea Party backed presidential candidates and whether or not one of their missions has to do with making "The Separation of Church and State" a target? In other words, somehow getting it "struck down"?

I'll also be telling you about a so-called "Chick Flick" I saw yesterday, a film that is anything but that and has the potential of being a big time Oscar candidate.

And speaking of the Oscars, will Billy Crystal be the host of the next Academy Awards show?

All the above and more sometime tonight, August 18 or tomorrow, August 19.

Again...Sorry about the additional delay and thanks for your patience.

Scott "The Jammer with the Hammer" St. James

Warren Buffett for President? Are the Tea Party candidates hoping that if elected, they'll be able to eliminate the Separation of Church & State?!?

2011-08-15T20:18:00.000-07:00

Interesting stuff coming up in our next blog, gang. My intention was to have our new blog posted sometime tonight, (Monday, August 15) but because of show business obligations, I won't be able to get the blog posted until tomorrow night, August 16 or Wednesday night, August 17.

Oh, have you ever heard of "Dominionism"? I hadn't. Until today. And now I know of two people who know what "Dominionism" is and they both seem to be fans of it. Hello Michele Bachmann and Rick Perry.

More on this when I write the new blog either tomorrow or Wednesday.

Thanks for your patience.

Scott "The Jammer with the Hammer" St. James.

The Jackie Robinson-Barack Obama comparison and from the grave, is Jackie about to get even with JFK & LBJ?!?

2011-08-08T13:14:00.000-07:00

I think that in a previous blog, I might have made some slight mention of the comparison associated with President Obama and Jackie Robinson. I know that I have spoken by phone about this with some of you readers and there have also been email conversations about this.

For those of you who might not know, Jackie Robinson was the first African American to play on a major league baseball team. The Brooklyn Dodgers. As we all know, Barack Obama is the first African American President of the United States.

When Jackie Robinson was given this opportunity, he was told by Dodger bosses that a whole lot of people wouldn't like it, he would be called names by fans in the stands and also by players in the opposing dugouts, some of whom might try to injure him with their spikes when they were on the field with Jackie. He was also told that he could not retaliate. Verbally or physically. Because if he did retaliate in any way, shape or form, he would hurt the chances of any other African American baseball player who was good enough to play in the major leagues.

Looking back, people are amazed at what Jackie Robinson put up with for many years while showing on the field talents that would eventually gain him entrance into baseball's Hall of Fame.

After retiring from baseball, he then became a very successful businessman. Some would say, a somewhat bitter businessman because of all the abuse he had to endure while playing baseball. And he ended up dying at a relatively young age.

Buuuuut.....Because he understood the importance of how he conducted himself 24/7, more and more and more players of color were allowed to participate at a major league level in what was then, America's favorite sport.

Do you see where I'm going with this?

Barack Obama.

On this, the 8th day of August, 2011, a whole lot of people who voted for Obama are big time troubled by the fact that a pattern they're seeing from their (our) president is a pattern they don't like at all. In fact, a good sized number of people who voted for Obama are now letting it be known that they want Hillary Clinton to challenge Obama again for (this time) the 2012 nomination! WHY?!? The "pattern" I mentioned that people who voted for him are troubled with is a pattern that seems to show him being unwilling (or unable) to FIGHT for what he believes in. One frustrated 60+ male Obama supporter was recently heard yelling, "I want to see BLOOD on the floor!!!" A 67-year old female Obama supporter was heard yelling, "Obama has no spine and no balls!!!"

Did you watch or hear Obama's short speech this afternoon about the S&P downgrade and the 30 soldiers in the helicopter who were killed in Afghanistan? And while he was speaking we could watch "stock market tanking" updates?

Were you inspired by what you saw and or heard?

I wasn't. And as I've written (here) in the past, I'm a lifetime Republican who voted for Obama. But unless he (all of a sudden) dials up the volume and lets everyone know he IS The Commander in Chief and he DOES have a plan to get us out of this mess annnnd....He IS prepared and willing to FIGHT and FIGHT and FIGHT for what he believes is RIGHT (no pun intended) and if this were to cause him to lose the election, so be it.....Well, if he doesn't do that, no way in hell does he get my vote again.

But back to the Jackie Robinson comparison.

If anyone thinks that our first African American President wouldn't have to walk a little softer than every other president we've had, you're living in a dream world. One thing in particular jumps out at me. Do you remember when the Dean Martin wannabe, otherwise known as the Speaker of the House, John Boehner refused to take a phone call from Obama and then refused to call him back?

Yo, Mister Speaker Dean Martin wannabe!!! The President of the United States? And you don't take his call or call him back? Is that because he's.....and you (maybe) grew up and or are surrounded by people who look more like you who have decided THIS president......?!?

Here's a newsflash, Mister Speaker Dean Martin wannabe. Dean Martin would take Frank Sinatra's call and he would call Sinatra back if he missed a call from Sinatra. Why? Because in the real Dean Martin world, Frank Sinatra was The Chairman of the Board.

Mister Speaker John Boehner, here's your real world. Like it or not, you are outranked by the President of the United States. ANY President of the United States. You take the call, you return the call. Otherwise you come across as a punk who would have been chewed out by any other President of the United States.

And now does everyone understand what I mean by the Jackie Robinson-Barack Obama comparison?

Having said that, YO!!! MISTER PRESIDENT!!! Take the gloves off, Mister President. Take the gloves off and come out swinging. President Bush Senior did that and it cost him a second term. He will always have my admiration because what he did (it had to do with taxes) was what he felt was the right thing to do even though it was the unpopular thing to do. That's what we want to see from you, Mister President. Between now and the 2012 election, FIGHT for what you think is RIGHT! And if enough voters agree with you, you'll win a second term. If not, you walk away with your head held high.

OTHER QUICK ITEMS...

Texas Governor Rick Perry will reportedly announce his candidacy for president this coming Saturday. Yes, he's a Republican.

Donald Trump said some things I wholeheartedly agreed with earlier today. It was about the obscene low taxes that Oil Companies pay while they're raking in billions and billions of dollars that are profits. Trump also pointed out how our oil companies are in cahoots with OPEC.

The rich get richer, don't they? They also have great lobbyists.

Did you hear about this Jackie Kennedy private tapes business? Tapes that Caroline Kennedy gave to ABC in exchange for ABC refusing to air a produced television series about the Kennedy's that starred Tom Cruise's wife as Jackie Kennedy. Among other things said by Jackie in these tapes are (allegedly) Jackie admitting that she had affairs with actor William Holden, some rich car guy and maybe others as a way to get back at JFK for all the cheating he was doing on her. Jackie also (allegedly) says in these tapes that she believed that LBJ (who became President LBJ after the assassination) and some Texas businessmen were responsible for the death of JFK. We will (allegedly) be able to hear those tapes during an ABC special in September that will feature the 50-years since JFK's inauguration.

ENTERTAINMENT STUFF:

As if the Jackie tapes won't be?

Have you ever watched the HBO show, "Entourage". I'm a big fan and this is their final season. So far, it appears as though they plan to go out with a "bang". You can see these final episodes on Sunday nights and the rest of the week.

HBO's "True Blood" is having another good season as well. Also on Sunday nights and the rest of the week.

A couple of days ago, I saw the new film, "Rise of the Planet of the Apes". This is billed as a prequel to the "Planet of the Apes" films in which Charlton Heston, Roddy McDowell, etc. participated in.

When I went to my favorite Cineplex to see this film, I didn't know what to expect, but what I ended up seeing, I didn't expect.

And with the exception of what I thought was a Golden Gate Bridge scene that was too long, I liked this film a lot. James Franco plays a sharper than nails scientist, Freida Pinto plays his love interest and the great John Lithgow plays the Franco character's father.

But the actor who flat out STEALS this film is Andy Serkis. Serkis plays an ape named Caesar andI believe this is the coolest ape that's ever been featured on film. Check it out!

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 and that means I wouldn't be able to respond to you. I write back to everyone except for "Anonymous messages". They are ignored.

THE NEXT BLOG? Probably early next Monday morning or later that day.

Meanwhile, I hope that all of you have a great week and that President Obama becomes what people who voted for him wanted. And that's for him to become "Presidential"!!!

SCOTT ST. JAMES’ BLOG ‘THE JAMMER WITH THE HAMMER’ HAS A NEW 'FREE' E-MAIL SUBSCRIPTION FEATURE!

2011-08-01T10:13:00.000-07:00

Want to receive updates to my blog, delivered directly to your email inbox? There is a new subscription form, just below my 'About Me' Profile. Just enter your email address, in the box provided, and click on 'Subscribe.' Then, click on the confirmation link in your email and you are good to go. Every time there is a new blog, it will automatically be delivered to you via email. No new content, no email for you. No ads, no spam. Just new content when published. What a country!

A Federal Debt Ceiling Agreement Appears To Have Been Made!

2011-08-01T02:00:00.000-07:00

After this blog gets posted sometime (early) this morning, we might learn that a so-called debt ceiling agreement has fallen apart, but as of now, we're led to believe that an agreement (of some kind) has been made.

Serious business, folks. It looks like some people are in danger of being seriously screwed. Like senior citizens who played by the rules and paid for things like Social Security and Medicare. The (mostly GOP) Tea Party crowd has been demanding draconian spending cuts and no tax increases, but no mention has been made about wars that have had a serious effect on our current economic situation.

I know. Details, details. If you want to keep your heads in the sand like the creatures you seem to relate to most (ostriches), it's easy to ignore things like expensive wars that include off the charts medical costs and the fact that the Bush tax cuts have resulted in NO "jobs creation". None, zip, Nada. In fact, this tired argument about lower taxes leading to economic growth is something that has absolutely nothing to do with the truth. Economic growth comes into play when a variety of things happen, things that occur right after taxes have gone up or taxes have gone down.

Again...Details, details.

Trust me, folks. I don't want higher taxes. But even a dumb guy like me can figure out if we're involved in wars, we gotta pay for 'em. I mean, these (in my view) stupid wars we've been involved in and continue to be involved in are wars that have lasted....what? 10-years? Longer?

I've said it before and I'll say it again. Please, please, PLEASE bring back the "military draft". You think we'd still be in Iraq and Afghanistan if the "draft" was in play. Do you think we would have even gone to Iraq? Afghanistan? In Afghanistan's case, I think the answer would have been "Yes!" because of what appeared to be a direct connection to 9/11 involving where Osama bin Laden was reportedly hiding. And because the vast majority of 9/11 murdering hijackers were from Saudi Arabia, an argument could have been made for us to go to war in that country.

THE OVERALL "TEA PARTY" RADICAL EFFECT AND THE GROVER NORQUIST "PLEDGE PUPPETS"

When we first started hearing about the Tea Party crowd, I was pleased. I'm all for people who get involved in our political process as opposed to bending over and accepting what is foisted upon us.

But some of this Tea Party crowd has become scary. I mean, big time scary. I think Michele Bachmann and her husband are scary. I don't doubt for one minute that both of those people are smart and I'll even go so far as to say that (unlike Sarah Palin) when Michele Bachmann spouts off something that isn't even close to being true, I think she knows it isn't true, but what it is, is great speech material. But upon close examination, we note the hypocrisy associated with the Bachmans, too. Like being against government handouts and we discover that the Bachmann family has had no trouble at all accepting government handouts. And this position they take regarding the gay community? Look, I know that a lot of the "radical" Tea Party crowd would like us to be like they thought we were in the 50's, but here's a newsflash, Bachmann family; It's 2011! Deal with it or go back to your (I think now former) hate mongering pastor, your efforts to get a pardon for a ponzi schemer and your conversations with....Well, they're conversations we'll just simply have to take your word for, won't we?

Speaking of scary and hypocritical, have you heard about Republican Congressman, Joe Walsh who has been ranting and raving about us (America) needing severe spending cuts because he's worried about his children having to pay for all the spending we've been doing. Upon first glance, that's a reasonable argument until...ooops...We learn that Congressman Walsh is more than $117,000 behind in his child support payments and is showing no signs of rectifying his hypocritical position.

And then there's Grover Norquist. A lobbyist who has never been elected to anything. A lobbyist who has gotten all but six of the current 240 Republican members of the House and all but seven of the 47 Republican Senators to sign a "no-tax pledge". (thanks to Time Magazine's Joe Klein for this info) What's going on? Are you Republican office holding officials POLITICAL PUPPETS?!? I mean, what happens if something serious happens? Something that's even more serious than this "debt ceiling" business? (Yes, sarcasm intended.) Because you've signed this "no-tax pledge" that means you have to abide by that pledge no matter what?!?

Look, I know you people like to keep things simple. And it looks like you've gotten simple-tons to be your water carriers.

Speaking of simpletons....Rupert Murdoch and Fox News.

Murdoch has been keeping things simple for many years and he got very rich doing that. But he recently became a news maker when charges of possible criminal behavior reared it's ugly head.

As you long time blog readers know, I don't publish comments from readers at the end of my blog like most other writers do. From time to time, I will print comments from readers in the main part of this blog. I have had friendly debates regarding something I've written from a good number of readers. And yes, people who read these musings are people from different parts of the country (in some cases, the world) who agree and disagree with thing they read here. One of our long time readers is a guy who (maybe) agrees with 10% of what I write, but he is constantly sending me information that is greatly appreciated along with his opinions. Hello, Patrick Gallagher. Pat sent me an early story about Murdoch's current situation and included his thoughts about how people (like maybe me) might approach this regarding Fox News regarding their "fair and balanced" political slant, etc. He wrote this on July 17 and I responded immediately.

Hi Pat,

As far as Murdoch and the way he does business goes, I hearken back to something said by someone much smarter than me when he said, "If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck and quacks like a duck, it's probably a duck."

That has always made a lot of sense to me and heavy thinking is not required in this case.

When I finally get around to writing a new blog, among other things, I will point out four people that Fox's Sean Hannity has "hitched his wagon" to. Sean "Mr Principles" Hannity worships at the alter of a guy who, back in the day would have been a firing squad candidate for being involved in the "cover blowing" of a CIA agent, a family values hypocrite who has cheated on multiple wives, a convicted federal lawbreaker who needed a pardon to "escape" and a homophobic presidential candidate who has a husband who redefines the description of being "interesting".

Quack, quack.

OTHER STUFF:

If you're looking for ideas about spending cuts, here's one. How about all the wasted money we've spent on "The Drug Wars". Multi billions of dollars have been wasted.

Have you heard about this new political party, "Americans Elect", that is trying to get going? What is making them particularly interesting is the fact that no one seems to know who's financing "Americans Elect".

Details, details

A lot of stuff about political figures in this blog, so I'm going to share with you a story about a possible political figure who didn't become one.

Me.

Back in the 70's when I was working as a radio host in St. Louis, I was approached by a representative of a big union who was offering me serious financial support if I would be interested in running for the office of U.S. Senator from Missouri.

I never talked about it on the radio while I was considering their offer, but after a long conversation I had with the son of the then Mayor of St. Louis (who I was friends with), I decided to decline their offer. There were complicated reasons associated with my decision that had to do with things that wouldn't matter (for example) NOW! I'm reminded of this because of some of things that have been written about in this blog. During my discussions with the union officials, among other things, the subject of the party I'd be representing was discussed. When they said something about me running as a Democrat, I quickly told them that I was a lifetime Republican. Their response? "Scott, we don't care what you ARE, but what you're going to RUN as, is a DEMOCRAT! After you get there, you can do what you want or need to do."

The height of cynicism? Perhaps, but I've never forgotten that moment and I believe that stuff like that probably goes on all the time.

And speaking of that, do you know what else I believe? That in the recesses of his soul, Barack Obama is a moderate Republican.

ENTERTAINMENT STUFF:

Because this is the first blog I've written in a month or so, I'm not going to deal with specifics regarding the many films I've seen in the last month.

Keeping it simple, I'll tell you that if you get Encore, HBO, STARZ and Showtime, you know that there are a lot of good films you can watch.

I'm going to mention two films I saw on cable and one film that is relatively new.

"The Kids are all Right". This film got Annette Bening an Oscar nomination and it also featured very fine performances from Julianne Moore and Mark Ruffalo. I liked it.

"Burlesque". This stars Cher, Christina Aguilera and a terrific supporting cast. The reviews for "Burlesque" were not good and the film didn't do well at the box office. I was prepared to watch a few minutes of it and then look for something else. Instead, I was pleasantly surprised. Cher isn't in the movie much, but she does more with silent expressions than most actors do with thirty pages of dialogue. To me, "Burlesque" is a very underrated film. Check it out!

"Friends with Benefits". Wow, wow, wow, wow-wow!!! I absolutely LOVED this film!!! Justin Timberlake is becoming a major movie star and so is Mila Kunis. I thought Kunis deserved an Oscar nomination for "Black Swan" and I thought Timberlake deserved an Oscar nomination for "Social Network". In "Friends with Benefits", the chemistry between Timberlake and Kunis is off the charts charming and they are assisted by an "A"-group of supporting players.

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 would be no way for me to respond to you. Everyone who writes to me directly is responded to by me. All "Anonymous" emails are ignored.

THE NEXT BLOG? Hopefully, a week or so from now. I've had a number of computer problems recently, problems that seem to have been eliminated (knock on wood) thanks to great help from my mother, Kevin Gershan and John Clemens.

Meanwhile, I hope that all of you have a great week and that things get better for all of us, jobs-wise and otherwise.

Finally: A new blog will be written in the next few days!

2011-07-29T09:47:00.000-07:00

Hi Gang!

I haven't written a new blog in quite a while because of monster computer problems that have been corrected (thank you John Clemens and Kevin Gershan) and some health issues that have been corrected.

A lot of stuff has been going on in and around Washington, huh?

Among other things, I'll be writing about Rupert Murdoch and his fair and balanced Fox News. Also...A lobbyist who has never been elected to anything, but has somehow gotten new GOP Tea Party people doing everything he tells them to do in the form of "pledges". What's up, Tea Party People? You don't have minds of your own?

Speaking of the Tea Party....Michele Bachmann....God talks to you? Wow! Is it possible you could tape your next conversation with God so we could all hear it? Michele, if you really believe that God is the creator of all people, what's your beef with gays? And that husband of yours? Marcus? Interesting dude, huh? And aren't you two against so-called "government handouts"? But you have been the recipient of "government handouts"? What's up with that?

And how about this gamesmanship that's involved with this "debt ceiling" business.

All the above and more, including some entertainment stuff will be posted (hopefully) on Sunday night/early Monday morning.

Thanks for your patience.

Scott "The Jammer With The Hammer" St. James

If you voted for Obama (like I did) how's that "Hope and Change" thing working for you?!?

2011-06-19T16:53:00.000-07:00

And because I'm in the frame of mind the above headline suggests, I'm writing this with larger "letters" than I usually do.

First of all, sorry for the delay. In a short blog note that was posted a few days ago, I told you that because of an off the charts computer problem that I thought was going to force me to buy a new computer, I couldn't write this blog on Wednesday which I had planned to do. As it turns out, the computer apparently just needed some "rest" and after quite a few hours of being turned off, when I turned it back on, it was (knock on wood) in operational order again.

Okay....

Between the time the last blog was written and now, many things have happened and I'm hard-pressed to....

I mean, the Republicans had their "debate" last Monday....Iraq is claiming that we are responsible for more than $17,000,000,000 (and counting) that was lost or stolen from cargo planes used by the Bush Administration....Our wonderful "ally", Pakistan arrested 5 CIA informants who helped us find Osama bin Laden....While claiming that the rest of us need to accept cuts in Medicare, Social Security, etc., for the good of our country, Conservative darling, Paul Ryan, like so many of his ilk, (on both sides of the aisle) has been exposed as being a guy who has personally made good money because of other "proposals" he's championed....American troops in Afghanistan are wondering if they can now go home because the original reason for us being there was to capture and or kill Osama bin Laden, but Defense Secretary Robert Gates is telling them, "It's too early to end this war!" and MY response is, WHAAAAT?!?....

Yeah, there was the Anthony Weiner nonsense and a few other things, but let's move on....

And I'll begin with the headline that you see above. For you readers who are relatively new and you haven't had the time to read previous blogs, let me state something that long time readers know about me. I'm a lifetime Republican who voted for Barack Obama. He is the first Democrat I've ever voted for.

Because we never know what's going on behind closed doors at the White House (no matter who the president is), if we've been around long enough, we understand that the president shouldn't get all the credit when good things happen and the president shouldn't get all the blame when bad things happen. But we also need to remember what the very good President Truman once said; "The buck stops here!"

I don't blame President Bush for our horrible economy which pretty much exploded publicly shortly after he won a second term. I think this was simply a case of President Bush being "in over his head".

That's one of the reasons I voted for Barack Obama.

But two years later (as in NOW) I believe that as opposed to being the "Hope and Change" president, President Obama is being exposed as the "BUSH-LIGHT" president.

I mean, look at what he's doing. He has continued Bush's wars. He has continued Bush's tax cuts. He tried to come up with a much needed health care plan that would benefit all of us except for the health insurance fat cats who bleed us dry on a daily basis and he "caved" on the one aspect that would have made this new law a terrific new law as opposed to what it looks like we might end up with. And that's if we end up with anything new at all, besides a plan that will hurt seniors down the road. A plan that was ridiculed by none other than Newt Gingrich until he was shouted down.

Gang, we hear a lot of talk about our "deficit". Yes, we need to do something about our spending. Or if we absolutely need to spend some serious money for something we think is important to all of us, then we need to understand that we'll have to pay a "tax" for that until we get America's finances in order.

And because I'm a guy who believes in "sooner" rather than "later", let's have a tax for these wars we're in. If we think these wars are important, let's pay for them. And THAT ladies and gentlemen is how you begin to decrease our deficit!

Here's another example. Remember when President George H.W. Bush said, "Read my lips! No new taxes!"?!?

When he realized that the Reagan adminstration's economic policies (the trickle down nonsense) that H.W. referred to as "voodoo economics" before Reagan asked H.W. to be his running mate, were proven to be "voodoo economics" while H.W. was president, he raised taxes and that cost him any chance of being elected to a second term.

If President Obama is any kind of "real deal", he needs to see to it that we pay for things like these three wars (don't forget Libya) and other high-ticket deficit adding items we're involved in. If because he's more interested in getting a second term than doing the right thing economically, he will prove to have deserved the nickname I've given him which is, "Bush-Light"!!!

The June 13 Republican "Debates":

Did you watch them? Two hours of entertainment. In fact, they were so entertaining, Michele Bachmann was considered by many to have been the most impressive debater that night. On a positive note, here's what a lot of people need to remember about Congress-woman Bachmann. She has lost only one election (I think it was a school board thing) and she has won (I think) as many as six elections. She has also never "quit" something she was elected for. Michele Bachmann is a big hit on cable shows and as a public speaker because she's apt to say any number of outrageous things that more often than not aren't truthful, but because they're entertaining and she's cute, she gets a "pass" for a lot of her "statements". But Ms. Bachmann is not a stupid person. And anyone who thinks she is, is underestimating her (big mistake) and I think she (at times) plays off of that like I'm sure she did when she was in high school and boys were hitting on her. Buuuut....If Michele Bachmann were to become a candidate who might become the GOP nominee, she will be getting questions the likes of which she hasn't had to deal with yet. Questions about her husband, Marcus, come to mind. Marcus, in addition to being Michele's "chief of staff" so to speak, is also someone who works as a Christian Therapist. I had honestly never heard of that "title" until now, but the fact that Christian Therapist Marcus Bachmann seems to believe that "gay people" can be "cured", is whacha call, interesting. And if she becomes a serious candidate, I'm sure someone will ask Ms. Bachmann if she agrees with her husband. There would also figure to be some questions about a guy who is a well known believer in "White Supremacy" that she has been friendly with. There's also something that's been floating around out there about a son of hers, and if that was brought up in an interview or a debate, she would need to have an explanation ready.

Translation: Politics is a "blood sport", folks. Especially at the level she says she wants to play in now. And only the strong survive.

THOUGHTS and or COMMENTS? Write to me at scottstjames@sbcglobal.net and I will respond to you A.S.A.P.

ENTERTAINMENT STUFF:

Since the last blog, I've seen quite a few television shows, films that are currently on the cable circuit and two new films that I would like to tell you about.

But first, did you see and hear Mark Anthony's singing of our National Anthem prior to game 6 of the NBA Finals that Dallas ended up winning? While watching and listening to Anthony's outstanding performance, I couldn't help but think how blessed this guy is! He's married to Jennifer Lopez, one of the most beautiful women on the planet, she gave him twins, he's a big time singer, she's a big time singer, American Idol judge and actress and that leads me to her latest film that is now on the cable circuit. "The Back-Up Plan", a 2010 film now on Showtime. This film didn't do well as a theatrical release. Her co-star is Alex O'Loughlin along with the cutest little dog you'll ever see. What this film is about is Lopez's character wanting to have a baby and she went through one of those artificial procedures so she could get pregnant. All of a sudden she meets this guy who knocks her socks off. But the "artificial" get pregnant procedure kicks in faster than she thought it would and she is stuck with trying to figure out how to tell the Alex character about something he definitely will have to know.

Yes, there are problems when she drops this on him. But when he's okay with it, she doesn't believe him and we have more conflict.

There are some slow moments in this film, but because Lopez and O'Laughlin have such great chemistry together, you can't help but be happy for them when they're happy, sad for them when they're sad, etc., etc. Gang, I liked this film and the next time one of the Showtime channels shows it, do yourself a favor and check it out. Do you remember that film that Jennifer Lopez did with George Clooney? A film that a lot of people think was the best film either one of them has been a part of? That was the same feeling I had while watching "The Back-Up Plan". Translation: If you have Jennifer Lopez or George Clooney in a film, they'll provide "chemistry" for you. If either of those actors hook up with another actor who can go toe to toe with them chemistry-wise, you're going to be watching some fun entertainment.

Onward....

How many years has "The Mentalist" been on CBS? A show that stars Simon Baker and Robin Tunney? A few days ago, I saw two rerun episodes on TNT. It was the first time I had ever seen that show. My bad! That is a heck of a good show.

Long time blog reader Alan Ascher (who is also a terrific piano player and photographer who took the picture you see to the right of my latest blog) sent me a note asking me if I had ever seen "Men of a Certain Age" because I had never written anything about it. No, I hadn't and again, my bad. This show is on TNT, Wednesday nights and it stars Ray Romano, Andre Braugher and Scott Bakula. Because I had the pleasure of spending a week as a Guest Star on "Everybody Loves Raymond", I should have known that anything Ray Romano would be involved with figured to be good. And now that I've finally seen "Men of a Certain Age", I can tell you that this is an off the charts terrific show and I recommend it highly.

Couple of other films currently on the cable circuit...

"Valentine's Day", a 2010 film on HBO directed by Garry Marshall ("Pretty Woman", etc., etc.) that has darn near every major actor in Hollywood in this film. I did a lot of smiling while I watched this and I think you will as well.

"Simone", a 2002 film on Encore that stars Al Pacino, Catherine Keener (I'm madly in love with her), Evan Rachel Wood (now that she's an adult, I'm madly in love with her as well), Winona Ryder and Rachel Roberts who plays the role of "Simone". This film has a very interesting twist to it and that's all I'm going to tell you except that if you decide to check it out, I think you'll like it.

"Power", a 1986 film on Encore that stars Richard Gere, Julie Christy, Gene Hackman, Denzel Washington, Kate Capshaw, and E.G. Marshall.
I've seen a lot of Richard Gere films, but I hadn't seen this one. It's a political thriller that had me riveted.

And speaking of Richard Gere....One of my dear friends is the actor, Harold Sylvester who starred in the film, "Officer and a Gentleman" with Richard Gere and he has said nothing but very nice things about Richard Gere to me. I've never met Richard Gere, but I had a brief encounter with him. Like everyone else, I had heard those bogus on top of bogus rumors he dealt with for a while. I never believed any of the rumors, I turned out to be right and I've often said it's a shame he hasn't gotten nominations for films he has starred in, films that have generated Oscar nominations and in some cases Oscar wins for other actors who have been in films with Gere. Puh-Leeze! Gere didn't have something to do with the success of those films?

Okay...Here's my brief encounter story with Richard Gere. 23 or 24 years ago. Maybe 25. Whatever. Late at night. I had just parked my car in the lot of a high end restaurant here in Los Angeles. I was with a young woman I was dating at the time, a former Miss Hawaiian Tropic. We were walking toward the entrance to the restaurant when a man who was walking to his car came towards us. It was Richard Gere. When he got close to us, his eyes went to my date and then back to me and he gave me smile and a wink. One of those "I wish you well with the beauty" winks. We all kept on walking and for one of the very few times in my life, I was tongue-tied. Fast forward to many months later when I found out that was the same night he had been with the ex-wife of a very famous person and who had gotten angry with Gere because after having "the pleasure of her company", he didn't spend the night with her. How do I know this? She wrote about it in a book she wrote.

Two NEW films:

"Super 8", a film about a group of young people who are in the wrong place at the wrong time when a train accident happens, an accident that turns out to more than just an accident. It stars (among others) Kyle Chandler, Joel Courtney, Riley Griffiths, Elle Fanning, Ron Eldard and Bruce Greenwood. It's directed by J.J. Abrams and produced by none other than Steven Spielberg. In today's Los Angeles Times, the great Patrick Goldstein is "on the money" when he makes the point that the first half of this film is better than the second half. While I agree with that, please know that the second half of the film kept me very interested, but that first half was really something special.

"Bridesmaids", a film about an upcoming wedding, problems involving pre-wedding stuff that causes a falling out between the future bride and her best friend and domination of the pre-wedding stuff by an insecure "poor little rich girl".

Gang, I think that "Bridesmaids" is an EXCEPTIONAL FILM!!!

The "Oscar" folks seldom take a film like this seriously when it comes to handing out awards.

"Bridesmaids" is very funny at times, sad at times and at times, it drives you crazy.

And I think it deserves a "Best Picture" nomination at the next "Oscars" show. In fact, of all the films I've seen so far this year, I think "Bridesmaids" should WIN an "Oscar" for Best Picture!

This film stars Kristen Wiig, Maya Rudolph, Rose Byrne, Melissa McCarthy and in what was her final film, Jill Clayburgh.

I think that Kristen Wiig is deserving of a Best Actress "Oscar" nomination, and Best Supporting Actress "Oscar" nominations should go to Rose Byrne and Melissa McCarthy.

Yeah, you can say I liked "Bridesmaids" a lot. Hell, I LOVED "Bridesmaids"!!!

Thoughts and or Comments? Please write to me at scottstjames@sbcglobal.net and I will respond to you as quickly as I can. Please don't write to the blog because there's no way for me to know your email adress which means I wouldn't be able to respond to you. All "Anonymous" emails are ignored.

The next Blog? Good question, huh? The way things have been lately? Hopefully, in a week or so.

Meanwhile, I hope all you dads had a great Father's Day and I hope all you moms made certain of that.

And here's hoping that we all have a great week!

ANOTHER DELAY!!!

2011-06-16T10:13:00.000-07:00

When I was about to begin writing a new blog last night, everything "crashed" and quite frankly, I was afraid I was going to have to buy a new computer.

Sometime after 11 last night, I turned the computer off. Sometime after 5 this morning, I tried turning it back on and it was (seemingly) working fine again.

Barring any recurrence of problems, sometime before the weekend has ended, a new blog will be posted.

Among other things, some of the topics will be "Hope and Change"...This past Monday's Republican Debate that was pretty much two hours of "Bad Obama This" and "Bad Obama That" while coming up with no sensible solutions for the problems we have...Another reason to not do business with Pakistan...The more than 60 billion dollars in cash that the Bush administration sent to Iraq that no one seems to be able to find...Michele Bachmann and some of her wacky "beliefs" like her claim that "Gay people can be 'cured' from being gay"...And what's up with that white supremacy guy she seems to admire so much?...In "Entertainment Stuff", we'll be mentioning two films worth watching that are currently on the cable circuit and two new films that I think are worth seeing, one of which I believe deserves serious "Oscar" consideration(s)...

Thanks for your patience, a new blog will be written and posted in the next couple of days and I hope that all of you have a great weekend.

Most sincerely,

Scott "The Jammer with the Hammer" St. James.

America Is In A Ticked Off Frame of Mind!!!

2011-06-05T20:27:00.000-07:00

"Ticked off"? That's putting it mildly, gang. According to a brand new poll, most of us are very upset about the condition our condition is in!!!

Check out these poll numbers....56% of Americans are losing sleep over this! (I admit to being one of them!) 63% of Americans say they've experienced a lower sex drive! 68% of Americans believe that the bought and paid for (by lobbyists) Congress people are wrong about reducing taxes for the rich as a way to balance the budget! 68% and climbing! More on that coming up later in this blog. 70% of the American people are nervous about their retirement! (As am I!) Because of this economy, 57% of Americans say their relationship with their spouse has become worse! 50% of Americans think President Obama has no real plan to balance the budget! 40% think he does. (I'm in the "don't" category!) So this all means big time "love" for Republicans, instead? Ain't there! 58% of Americans say the GOP is just laying the blame on Obama rather than making their own proposals! 29% of Americans have "love" for the GOP. 67% of Americans are mad at God for this economic mess of ours! (You know Americans are big time ticked off when they start blaming GOD!)

There is more in this poll, but I'm not leaving out anything that would make the GOP or Tea Party people happy.

I have some possible solutions and I'll tell you the kind of country we might have if ultra conservatives had their way, but first, I'd like to share a letter to the editor that was written by highly decorated WWII veteran and "Boss Radio radio legend, Bill Mouzis.

"Let me see if I have this right. The Republicans get us into the worst recession of our lives and now they are campaigning on the grounds that Obama has done nothing to get us out of it?!? Also, with high unemployment rates continuing to drag down the economy, one has to wonder where are the jobs that were to be created as a result of the massive tax cuts for the "wealthy" engineered by Bush and his merry band of bandits, Cheney and Rove."

Thank you, Bill Mouzis! Ah, yes! Those tax cuts for the rich! The "Big SOLUTION" for our economic mess. More of that trickle down nonsense that has never worked for anyone BUT the rich! The first President Bush had it right when he referred to that kind of thinking as "Voodoo Economics"! The architect of the "trickle down" theory, David Stockman, has since stated (publicly) that he was wrong.

What I'm about to write now are (in my view) a few possible solutions for the mess our country is in, a policy statement regarding opinions expressed on this blog and what might possibly be the type of country we'd end up with if ultra conservatives had their way.

Opinions and or endorsements stated by me are not bought and paid for by anyone! Never have been, never will be! While working with the great broadcaster Joe Benson here in Los Angeles, Joe, while smiling, once referred to me as a "contrarian". I accept that description. A description that has cost me previous broadcast employment and advertising revenue for this blog by people who want "A voice" in the opinions I express here.

I don't pretend to have all the answers required to get us out of the economic mess we're in, but I do have a few ideas that if implemented, would in my view, get us started on the right track back to solvency.

Medicare and Social Security are labeled by many on the "Right" as being "expensive albatrosses" that must either be ended and or totally revamped.

Counter argument: The fact that a lot of that money that we (the workers) put into those systems was used by Congress people for other things is a glaring reason that we have a "trouble revenue problem date" that is a lot earlier than it should be.

A solution that (sadly) might be too late: MAKE IT A FEDERAL CRIME TO REMOVE ANY OF THAT MONEY FOR ANYTHING OTHER THAN WHAT IT'S MEANT FOR!

Our deficit problem, a problem that could lead America into bankruptcy.

Yeah, that's serious business, folks. But do you see who or what gets blamed for this? The usual kinds of folks or "safety net people" who can't fight back.

And I'm not referring to illegal immigrants who "game" our system and cost us billions of dollars. The fact that our government has allowed this to happen is a crime unto to it's ownself. We're told that it would be impossible to deport all these illegal immigrants, but I would have no problem if we at least tried to do that. More on the illegal immigrant thing later in this blog.

Back to our deficit problem and a few things NO one talks about regarding how we got into this deficit problem mess.

Iraq, Afghanistan and recently, Libya.

We've had troops in Iraq and Afghanistan for what? 10-years and counting? Countless numbers of our troops have been killed and or returned home with one or no arms, one or no legs, a combination of those horrific injuries, off the charts mental injuries, etc., etc. The injuries requiring treatment will be paid by us for the rest of their lives. And let us not forget death insurance we pay for those killed in the line of duty. Let is also not forget the massive amounts of equipment, planes, helicopters, ammunition, etc., etc. that we are continually paying for.

And HOW have we been paying for all of this during the last ten years or so? By "credit card"! Trillions of dollars. You think THAT might have something to do with our deficit? I do! And from day one of the Afghanistan and Iraq "adventures", I have felt like a lone voice while stating in essence, "If these wars are so important, why aren't we adding a tax to pay for them and or why aren't we considering a reinstatement of the military draft and find out how important the rest of America thinks these wars are!"

And now Libya. Also on the "credit card". And our deficit continues to rise.

FOREIGN AID: We're going broke and we continue to give foreign countries billions upon billions of dollars in cash and equipment? When the White House recently announced that they were giving billions to Egypt, I felt like puking.

What do you think giving billions upon billions to foreign countries is doing to our deficit?

But no, the people with the loudest voices say (in essence) the biggest deficit problem we have is associated with Social Security, Medicare and anything else that smacks of being a "safety net" of some kind for people who aren't wealthy.

I'll be happy to listen to that argument once you tell me why wars get a free ride, it's okay to steal money that is meant for Social Security, Medicare, etc., etc., illegal immigrants get a free ride and foreign countries (with their hands held out) get a free ride.

REDUCE THE DEFICIT? Yes, I'm in favor of that. But I'm not in favor of reducing taxes for the wealthy while we need to reduce the deficit. I'm not in favor of outfits like the former Blackwater crowd getting billions from us for our war activities while we show no desire to have all of America participating in the cost of these adventures.

And let me fast forward to what kind of country we could become if we were to take the direction as suggested by our extreme Tea Party, Conservative and Liberal "bought and paid for" types. Pakistan. Want a cool homework assignment? Check out their tax situation, how they feel about religion, gays, bending over for the rich, let the down and out have to fend for themselves, etc., etc.

Thoughts and or comments? Write to me at scottstjames@sbcglobal.net and I'll respond ASAP. All "Anonymous" emails are ignored.

Other quick stuff:

Are we tired of Weiner Gate, yet?

Will former Senator John Edwards end up going to jail?

Have you heard about "Mama Grizzly" being upset with the new close male friend her daughter Bristol now has? She's quoted as saying that relationship could make the family "look bad", but Bristol has reportedly told Mama Ex-Governor to "Back off and let me lead my own life!"

I stated earlier in this blog that there would be something else relating to illegal immigrants that I would write. What you're about to read is a letter a North Hollywood reader sent to the Los Angeles Times that was printed yesterday:

"What is it with our elected officials and police chiefs who make reference to illegal immigrants who should not be deported because it may cause hardships to them and their families? So what if they didn't commit any serious crimes. For starters, what about illegally entering the country?

Silly me, I thought elected officials and all law-enforcement officers swore an oath to uphold and enforce all laws. They should not exclude those crimes that may provide political or other advantages.

I guess selective law enforcement is the new standard (except for my parking tickets--no selectivity there)."

Short commentary: Amen, Brother!

ENTERTAINMENT STUFF:

James Arness! The lawman we loved to watch. For 20 years on the television show, "Gunsmoke"! He was 88-years old when he died two days ago. As you probably know, Arness wasn't the first choice for this role. The network and the producers wanted John Wayne. Wayne wanted nothing to do with the hours that are associated with a television show and he was also a friend of the man who would eventually be known as, "Marshal Dillon". Wayne recommended Arness, but Arness had just begun a little bit of a film career that included working on four films with John Wayne, but Wayne talked Arness into taking the role and the rest, as they say, is history.

P.S. Before the first episode of "Gunsmoke" aired, an on camera announcement was made. By none other than John Wayne, who at that time was the biggest star in Hollywood. Wayne told the audience that, "I knew there was only one man to play in it, James Arness. He's a young fella and may be new to some of you. But I've worked with him, and I predict he'll be a big star. So you might as well get used to him, like you've had to get used to me."

Can you imagine what the introduction from John Wayne must have felt like to the (then) very young James Arness?

You done good, Mr. Arness. R.I.P.

One new television show and two films to tell you about....

"Franklin & Bash", Wednesday nights on TNT. It stars Mark-Paul Gosselaar, Breckin Meyer, Malcolm McDowell, Reed Diamond and some terrific supporting players. Fun show.

In 2009, the film, "Brooklyn's Finest" was released. I saw it on cable a few nights ago. It stars Richard Gere, Don Cheadle, Ethan Hawke, Wesley Snipes, Vincent D'Onofrio, Will Patton and Ellen Barkin. This is a dark drama that I couldn't take my eyes off of. Heavy stuff, folks, but these fine actors make the viewing worth your time. If you haven't seen it, check it out.

"Takers" is a film that made it's television debut on STARZ last night. It was released in 2010 and stars Matt Dillon, Paul Walker, Chris Brown, Hayden Christensen, Michael Ealy, Idris Elba, T.I., Zoe Saldana, Marianne Jean-Baptiste and Zulay Henao. This is about a gang of upscale criminals who are very good at what they do. Matt Dillon plays one of the detectives who tries to catch these guys. A lot of "cat and mouse" kind of stuff and near the end, a whole lot of ammunition is used. In between the action are a couple of very interesting side issues that keep our attention. This is a good popcorn flick and when you're in that kind of mood, I highly recommend this film.

QUESTIONS AND OR COMMENTS? Please write to me at scottstjames@sbcglobal.net and I will respond to you as quickly as I can. Please don't write to the blog because there's no way for me to know your email address so I won't be able to respond to you. All "Anonymous" emails are ignored.

The Next Blog? I'm shooting for next Sunday, but things have been a little crazy lately, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed. If for whatever reason I have to delay, I'll write a short blog stating that and what the new date will be.

Meanwhile, I hope that all of you have a great week!

"American Idol" finished their season with a BANG!!! Is Rush Limbaugh's future that of a bed pan salesman? And the failure of Bush's tax cuts!

2011-05-25T23:15:00.000-07:00

I am beginning this blog almost an hour and a half after "American Idol" presented their season finale. I've been on the phone talking with friends of mine about that show. "Spectacular" doesn't begin to describe it.

I don't think I've ever begun a blog with a story having to do with "entertainment", but I'm making an exception here. Fear not, loyal readers. We're gonna have plenty of political stuff that you're used to reading about.

The 10th season of "American Idol" ended tonight. Before this season began, a lot of people thought this would be the final season for "American Idol" because of the loss of Simon Cowell and an audience that was shrinking.

It was Cowell's idea to leave because of a new show that he'll be putting on Fox. Upon reflection, it appears that Cowell's departure was good for "American Idol" because in fact, after the first few weeks, he wasn't missed at all. I was very much in favor of getting Jennifer Lopez on board before she was hired, but quite frankly, I didn't think Steven Tyler would be a "fit" for this show at all. And I was dead wrong. These two new judges along with what was arguably the best group of singers "Idol" has ever had, led this season's American Idol to be the best season in the show's history. And tonight's season finale put a capper on this great season. The final two contestants were 16-year old Lauren Alaina who had the privilege of singing on stage with Carrie Underwood tonight and 17-year old Scotty McCreery, who had the privilege of singing on stage with Tim McGraw. Scotty McCreery ended up being the guy who got the most votes, so he's the new "American Idol", but you had to love the respect and good feelings both of those contestants had for each other and you can't help but believe that those two will be friends forever. If not (possibly) lovers sometime in the future.

Also on stage tonight were a parade of some of the biggest and well known singers in the world. And they all turned in terrific performances. But it was the last performer who "stole the show". Steven Tyler, who began his performance by playing a piano and then while standing, hit high notes that people were shocked that a person in their 60's could do what he did. But do it he did and somewhere, people are still cheering his performance. I mean, you talk about "Rockin' the HOUSE!" Bravo, Steven Tyler and all the other performers on what was truly a magical night.

We'll have more "entertainment" stuff at the end of this blog, but now,
THE SERIOUS STUFF:

A lot of things to cover and picking what should be first is next to impossible, sooo....In no particular order, here goes...

"The Rapture": Harold Camping, the 89-year old religious zealot who started all this, now says the earth will be obliterated on October 21. Why didn't this happen on May 21, the day he said it would happen? The righteous preacher says he got the math screwed up. He also says that 200 million Christians will be taken to Heaven before this catastrophe strikes our planet on October 21. Short Commentary: And we thought the religious whack jobs were mostly in Muslim countries?!?

But the "Rapture" might have affected three radio whack jobs who preach "Us against them" fear nonsense.

I'm referring (specifically) to Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Mark (or is it Marc?) Levin. New radio ratings show that Rush has lost 33% of his audience while Hannity and Levin have lost 28% of their audiences. These are numbers that to me, have been slow in coming. The "Angry White Guy" act is an act that got "old" quite some time ago, but ratings services have been historically slow to pick up on what is happening whether it's higher or lower ratings. The key things for advertisers, unless they're supportive of the "fear mongering" act, is if the host they're supporting is able to "sell" their products. Some experts seem to feel that Rush's best product to sell would be/is, bed pans.

Over the top tax breaks for oil companies:

Polls show that the vast majority of Americans think that outrageous tax breaks given to oil companies should end because of the obscene amount of money they make from Americans who don't get kissed by these oil companies, but they (we) most definitely get screwed by these oil companies. When this was recently brought up by the Senate, bought and paid for U.S. Senators said, in essence, "Let's let our oil company 'friends' KEEP all their tax breaks because they will continue to fill OUR pockets while continuing to EMPTY the sucker citizen's pockets!"

And those "sucker citizens" are? That would be you and me, folks.

SPEAKING OF TAX BREAKS:

The Bush tax cuts for the rich? We are told over and over again by people who should know better that these tax cuts are important for us because those Bush tax cuts for the rich will benefit all of us.

REALLY?!?

Let's examine that argument for a second. If the Bush tax cuts for the rich are so beneficial for the rest of us, why did our country collapse during the Bush Administration?

I know that Bush tax cuts for the rich believers don't want to hear this, but as the late sportscaster Jim Healy used to say, "I don't make 'em up, pally!"

But President Obama is money-stupid, too:

As those of us who pay attention know, the idea of "economic stimulus package" money began with the Bush folks just before he left office. These "economic stimulus packages" continued with the Obama administration. Again....For those of you who are paying attention, we have now learned that a whole lot of "stimulus money" was given to thousands of government contractors and nonprofit organizations. It turns out that way too many of these outfits owed millions in back taxes. One example is an engineering firm that got a $100,000 stimulus contract, but it's recently been learned that the firm owed $6 million in taxes.

Yo, President Obama! You gotta get your act together regarding this "stimulus money". There is absolutely no excuse for this!

One more money item:

We're giving more billion dollar handouts to Egypt? I don't know about you, but hearing this makes me want to PUKE!!!

We're giving billions upon billions to foreign countries (while we're going broke) because of the excuse, "It's in our best interests"?!?

Bullshit, bullshit, bullshit!!!

I've said it before and I'll say it again....Until we get OUR house in order, we absolutely HAVE to stop giving away money or anything else to ANYONE else until we get AMERICA "fixed"!!!

Sarah Palin:

In a recent conversation with Greta Van Susterin on Fox, Sarah Palin said (Sarah speaks only to Fox people), that she has "Fire in my belly for 2012", but is wary of "scrutiny". And that "scrutiny" would be what, "Mama Grizzly"? Like maybe why you really quit your job as Governor of Alaska? Meanwhile, we learn that Ms. Palin might have purchased a new home in Arizona where she might decide to launch a campaign to become a U.S. Senator from that state. But we're also hearing that a new film about her that was produced and directed by a fan of hers may soon be released for the purpose of showing (in essence) why she is presidential material.

Sarah Palin, a presidential candidate? God, I hope so, because she would be great blog material.

Oh...Did you hear about the huge story about Fox News that was printed in the latest New York Magazine? Most of the story was about Roger Ailes, the long time big boss of Fox News and a guy who fancies himself as being a Republican "King Maker". The magazine states that while he was a big admirer of Sarah Palin when he hired her, after seeing her "in action", he now thinks "she's an idiot". A spokesman for Fox News says Ailes didn't say that. Overall, this New York Magazine (long) story is a story very much worth reading. I mean, Fox News likes to say, "Fair and balanced". Well, this story about Fox News IS "fair and balanced". In fact, it's so "fair and balanced", the only thing Fox News is challenging is Ailes' statement (or not) regarding Palin (in his view) as being "an idiot".

And speaking of things idiotic:

Are haters of Obama still referring to him fist bumping people as being a "terrorist fist bump"? I bring this up because that characterization is mentioned in the New York Magazine story about Fox News. I would think that the only people who could possibly think that would be Rush Limbaugh's bed pan people, but in case there are others, "fist bumps" are given to each other by all American people of all ages and races. I say this because I see it being done all the time.

I will lead into our "entertainment stuff" with this final observation about President Obama. Do you remember what one of his campaign promises was, a campaign promise that was recently accomplished? It was, dear reader, the promise to get Osama bin Laden. And if I recall correctly, I don't think he said anything about Osama bin Laden having to end up being alive.

ENTERTAINMENT STUFF:

At the beginning of this blog, I wrote about American Idol's great season finale. Other season finale's that I liked a lot include the "Glee" finale, the "Chicago Code" season and (sadly for me) series finale, the "House" season finale which also featured the last time we will see Lisa Edelstein on "House". She played the role of House's boss for all seven years of the show and why she's leaving, isn't clear. Do you remember the first time you saw this fine actress? I do. When she was playing a hooker that Rob Lowe's character on "The West Wing" liked.

I enjoyed the final episode of "Law & Order-Los Angeles" and I also enjoyed the season finale of "Law & Order-Special Victims Unit". We knew ahead of time that this would be the final episode of "Law & Order-LA", but we did NOT know ahead of time, that the season finale of "Law & Order-SVU" would be Christopher Meloni's final appearance on that show. He, along with Mariska Hargitay have been the two main characters since that show came on the air. There have been no reasons given for Meloni's departure.

I would also like to tell you about a couple of films I saw recently...

The 1992 film, "Jennifer Eight" which is currently running on the TMC circuit. This is a terrific high stakes drama that stars Andy Garcia, Uma Thurman, John Malkovich, Kathy Baker and an outstanding supporting cast. I saw it in '92, I'm glad I saw it again and if you get a chance to see it on TMC, I highly recommend it.

The other film I saw is a new film that is currently on the HBO circuit. "Cinema Verite", a docudrama about the first reality show that was ever aired. It stars Diane Lane, Tim Robbins and James Gandolfini in a film I was actually reluctant to watch. For some reason, I thought I wouldn't like it. Boy, was I wrong. I believe that Lane, Robbins and Gandolfini should all get Emmy nominations and quite frankly, I think all three should be Emmy winners for their performances in this made for television film. Check it out!

Couple of final thoughts:

Memorial Day is Monday, May 30. Please pause and think good thoughts for our veterans.

This coming Friday, I plan to make another appearance with CRN owner Mike Horn and CRN program director Paul Stern for another no holds barred and fun radio experience. There will be lots of laughs along with an occasional serious subject on what to me is the fastest hour on radio. 4-5 pm, here in Los Angeles, 6-7 pm Central and 7-8 pm Eastern. The show will be repeated throughout the weekend. If you'd like to listen (and we hope you do), click onto www.CRNTalk.com

And our heartfelt thanks to legendary radio writer, Claude Hall who gave us a nice "shout-out" in his must read Sunday column that can be found at Radio Daily News. For many years, Claude Hall was Billboard Magazine's radio writer and everyone in radio used to read that column.

THOUGHTS AND OR COMMENTS? Please write to me at scottstjames@sbcglobal.net and I will write back to you ASAP. Please 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? Hopefully, next Wednesday night, June 1. If there's an unavoidable delay, I'll write a short blog on or about June 1 explaining what's happening.

Meanwhile, I hope that all of you have a great rest of the week and a terrific weekend.
I am beginning this blog almost an hour and a half after "American Idol" presented their season finale. I've been on the phone talking with friends of mine about that show. "Spectacular" doesn't begin to describe it.

I don't think I've ever begun a blog with a story having to do with "entertainment", but I'm making an exception here. Fear not, loyal readers. We're gonna have plenty of political stuff that you're used to reading about.

The 10th season of "American Idol" ended tonight. Before this season began, a lot of people thought this would be the final season for "American Idol" because of the loss of Simon Cowell and an audience that was shrinking.

It was Cowell's idea to leave because of a new show that he'll be putting on Fox. Upon reflection, it appears that Cowell's departure was good for "American Idol" because in fact, after the first few weeks, he wasn't missed at all. I was very much in favor of getting Jennifer Lopez on board before she was hired, but quite frankly, I didn't think Steven Tyler would be a "fit" for this show at all. And I was dead wrong. These two new judges along with what was arguably the best group of singers "Idol" has ever had, led this season's American Idol to be the best season in the show's history. And tonight's season finale put a capper on this great season. The final two contestants were 16-year old Lauren Alaina who had the privilege of singing on stage with Carrie Underwood tonight and 17-year old Scotty McCreery, who had the privilege of singing on stage with Tim McGraw. Scotty McCreery ended up being the guy who got the most votes, so he's the new "American Idol", but you had to love the respect and good feelings both of those contestants had for each other and you can't help but believe that those two will be friends forever. If not (possibly) lovers sometime in the future.

Also on stage tonight were a parade of some of the biggest and well known singers in the world. And they all turned in terrific performances. But it was the last performer who "stole the show". Steven Tyler, who began his performance by playing a piano and then while standing, hit high notes that people were shocked that a person in their 60's could do what he did. But do it he did and somewhere, people are still cheering his performance. I mean, you talk about "Rockin' the HOUSE!" Bravo, Steven Tyler and all the other performers on what was truly a magical night.

We'll have more "entertainment" stuff at the end of this blog, but now,
THE SERIOUS STUFF:

A lot of things to cover and picking what should be first is next to impossible, sooo....In no particular order, here goes...

"The Rapture": Harold Camping, the 89-year old religious zealot who started all this, now says the earth will be obliterated on October 21. Why didn't this happen on May 21, the day he said it would happen? The righteous preacher says he got the math screwed up. He also says that 200 million Christians will be taken to Heaven before this catastrophe strikes our planet on October 21. Short Commentary: And we thought the religious whack jobs were mostly in Muslim countries?!?

But the "Rapture" might have affected three radio whack jobs who preach "Us against them" fear nonsense.

I'm referring (specifically) to Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Mark (or is it Marc?) Levin. New radio ratings show that Rush has lost 33% of his audience while Hannity and Levin have lost 28% of their audiences. These are numbers that to me, have been slow in coming. The "Angry White Guy" act is an act that got "old" quite some time ago, but ratings services have been historically slow to pick up on what is happening whether it's higher or lower ratings. The key things for advertisers, unless they're supportive of the "fear mongering" act, is if the host they're supporting is able to "sell" their products. Some experts seem to feel that Rush's best product to sell would be/is, bed pans.

Over the top tax breaks for oil companies:

Polls show that the vast majority of Americans think that outrageous tax breaks given to oil companies should end because of the obscene amount of money they make from Americans who don't get kissed by these oil companies, but they (we) most definitely get screwed by these oil companies. When this was recently brought up by the Senate, bought and paid for U.S. Senators said, in essence, "Let's let our oil company 'friends' KEEP all their tax breaks because they will continue to fill OUR pockets while continuing to EMPTY the sucker citizen's pockets!"

And those "sucker citizens" are? That would be you and me, folks.

SPEAKING OF TAX BREAKS:

The Bush tax cuts for the rich? We are told over and over again by people who should know better that these tax cuts are important for us because those Bush tax cuts for the rich will benefit all of us.

REALLY?!?

Let's examine that argument for a second. If the Bush tax cuts for the rich are so beneficial for the rest of us, why did our country collapse during the Bush Administration?

I know that Bush tax cuts for the rich believers don't want to hear this, but as the late sportscaster Jim Healy used to say, "I don't make 'em up, pally!"

But President Obama is money-stupid, too:

As those of us who pay attention know, the idea of "economic stimulus package" money began with the Bush folks just before he left office. These "economic stimulus packages" continued with the Obama administration. Again....For those of you who are paying attention, we have now learned that a whole lot of "stimulus money" was given to thousands of government contractors and nonprofit organizations. It turns out that way too many of these outfits owed millions in back taxes. One example is an engineering firm that got a $100,000 stimulus contract, but it's recently been learned that the firm owed $6 million in taxes.

Yo, President Obama! You gotta get your act together regarding this "stimulus money". There is absolutely no excuse for this!

One more money item:

We're giving more billion dollar handouts to Egypt? I don't know about you, but hearing this makes me want to PUKE!!!

We're giving billions upon billions to foreign countries (while we're going broke) because of the excuse, "It's in our best interests"?!?

Bullshit, bullshit, bullshit!!!

I've said it before and I'll say it again....Until we get OUR house in order, we absolutely HAVE to stop giving away money or anything else to ANYONE else until we get AMERICA "fixed"!!!

Sarah Palin:

In a recent conversation with Greta Van Susterin on Fox, Sarah Palin said (Sarah speaks only to Fox people), that she has "Fire in my belly for 2012", but is wary of "scrutiny". And that "scrutiny" would be what, "Mama Grizzly"? Like maybe why you really quit your job as Governor of Alaska? Meanwhile, we learn that Ms. Palin might have purchased a new home in Arizona where she might decide to launch a campaign to become a U.S. Senator from that state. But we're also hearing that a new film about her that was produced and directed by a fan of hers may soon be released for the purpose of showing (in essence) why she is presidential material.

Sarah Palin, a presidential candidate? God, I hope so, because she would be great blog material.

Oh...Did you hear about the huge story about Fox News that was printed in the latest New York Magazine? Most of the story was about Roger Ailes, the long time big boss of Fox News and a guy who fancies himself as being a Republican "King Maker". The magazine states that while he was a big admirer of Sarah Palin when he hired her, after seeing her "in action", he now thinks "she's an idiot". A spokesman for Fox News says Ailes didn't say that. Overall, this New York Magazine (long) story is a story very much worth reading. I mean, Fox News likes to say, "Fair and balanced". Well, this story about Fox News IS "fair and balanced". In fact, it's so "fair and balanced", the only thing Fox News is challenging is Ailes' statement (or not) regarding Palin (in his view) as being "an idiot".

And speaking of things idiotic:

Are haters of Obama still referring to him fist bumping people as being a "terrorist fist bump"? I bring this up because that characterization is mentioned in the New York Magazine story about Fox News. I would think that the only people who could possibly think that would be Rush Limbaugh's bed pan people, but in case there are others, "fist bumps" are given to each other by all American people of all ages and races. I say this because I see it being done all the time.

I will lead into our "entertainment stuff" with this final observation about President Obama. Do you remember what one of his campaign promises was, a campaign promise that was recently accomplished? It was, dear reader, the promise to get Osama bin Laden. And if I recall correctly, I don't think he said anything about Osama bin Laden having to end up being alive.

ENTERTAINMENT STUFF:

At the beginning of this blog, I wrote about American Idol's great season finale. Other season finale's that I liked a lot include the "Glee" finale, the "Chicago Code" season and (sadly for me) series finale, the "House" season finale which also featured the last time we will see Lisa Edelstein on "House". She played the role of House's boss for all seven years of the show and why she's leaving, isn't clear. Do you remember the first time you saw this fine actress? I do. When she was playing a hooker that Rob Lowe's character on "The West Wing" liked.

I enjoyed the final episode of "Law & Order-Los Angeles" and I also enjoyed the season finale of "Law & Order-Special Victims Unit". We knew ahead of time that this would be the final episode of "Law & Order-LA", but we did NOT know ahead of time, that the season finale of "Law & Order-SVU" would be Christopher Meloni's final appearance on that show. He, along with Mariska Hargitay have been the two main characters since that show came on the air. There have been no reasons given for Meloni's departure.

I would also like to tell you about a couple of films I saw recently...

The 1992 film, "Jennifer Eight" which is currently running on the TMC circuit. This is a terrific high stakes drama that stars Andy Garcia, Uma Thurman, John Malkovich, Kathy Baker and an outstanding supporting cast. I saw it in '92, I'm glad I saw it again and if you get a chance to see it on TMC, I highly recommend it.

The other film I saw is a new film that is currently on the HBO circuit. "Cinema Verite", a docudrama about the first reality show that was ever aired. It stars Diane Lane, Tim Robbins and James Gandolfini in a film I was actually reluctant to watch. For some reason, I thought I wouldn't like it. Boy, was I wrong. I believe that Lane, Robbins and Gandolfini should all get Emmy nominations and quite frankly, I think all three should be Emmy winners for their performances in this made for television film. Check it out!

Couple of final thoughts:

Memorial Day is Monday, May 30. Please pause and think good thoughts for our veterans.

This coming Friday, I plan to make another appearance with CRN owner Mike Horn and CRN program director Paul Stern for another no holds barred and fun radio experience. There will be lots of laughs along with an occasional serious subject on what to me is the fastest hour on radio. 4-5 pm, here in Los Angeles, 6-7 pm Central and 7-8 pm Eastern. The show will be repeated throughout the weekend. If you'd like to listen (and we hope you do), click onto www.CRNTalk.com

And our heartfelt thanks to legendary radio writer, Claude Hall who gave us a nice "shout-out" in his must read Sunday column that can be found at Radio Daily News. For many years, Claude Hall was Billboard Magazine's radio writer and everyone in radio used to read that column.

THOUGHTS AND OR COMMENTS? Please write to me at scottstjames@sbcglobal.net and I will write back to you ASAP. Please 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? Hopefully, next Wednesday night, June 1. If there's an unavoidable delay, I'll write a short blog on or about June 1 explaining what's happening.

Meanwhile, I hope that all of you have a great rest of the week and a terrific weekend.

I am beginning this blog almost an hour and a half after "American Idol" presented their season finale. I've been on the phone talking with friends of mine about that show. "Spectacular" doesn't begin to describe it.

I don't think I've ever begun a blog with a story having to do with "entertainment", but I'm making an exception here. Fear not, loyal readers. We're gonna have plenty of political stuff that you're used to reading about.

The 10th season of "American Idol" ended tonight. Before this season began, a lot of people thought this would be the final season for "American Idol" because of the loss of Simon Cowell and an audience that was shrinking.

It was Cowell's idea to leave because of a new show that he'll be putting on Fox. Upon reflection, it appears that Cowell's departure was good for "American Idol" because in fact, after the first few weeks, he wasn't missed at all. I was very much in favor of getting Jennifer Lopez on board before she was hired, but quite frankly, I didn't think Steven Tyler would be a "fit" for this show at all. And I was dead wrong. These two new judges along with what was arguably the best group of singers "Idol" has ever had, led this season's American Idol to be the best season in the show's history. And tonight's season finale put a capper on this great season. The final two contestants were 16-year old Lauren Alaina who had the privilege of singing on stage with Carrie Underwood tonight and 17-year old Scotty McCreery, who had the privilege of singing on stage with Tim McGraw. Scotty McCreery ended up being the guy who got the most votes, so he's the new "American Idol", but you had to love the respect and good feelings both of those contestants had for each other and you can't help but believe that those two will be friends forever. If not (possibly) lovers sometime in the future.

Also on stage tonight were a parade of some of the biggest and well known singers in the world. And they all turned in terrific performances. But it was the last performer who "stole the show". Steven Tyler, who began his performance by playing a piano and then while standing, hit high notes that people were shocked that a person in their 60's could do what he did. But do it he did and somewhere, people are still cheering his performance. I mean, you talk about "Rockin' the HOUSE!" Bravo, Steven Tyler and all the other performers on what was truly a magical night.

We'll have more "entertainment" stuff at the end of this blog, but now,
THE SERIOUS STUFF:

A lot of things to cover and picking what should be first is next to impossible, sooo....In no particular order, here goes...

"The Rapture": Harold Camping, the 89-year old religious zealot who started all this, now says the earth will be obliterated on October 21. Why didn't this happen on May 21, the day he said it would happen? The righteous preacher says he got the math screwed up. He also says that 200 million Christians will be taken to Heaven before this catastrophe strikes our planet on October 21. Short Commentary: And we thought the religious whack jobs were mostly in Muslim countries?!?

But the "Rapture" might have affected three radio whack jobs who preach "Us against them" fear nonsense.

I'm referring (specifically) to Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Mark (or is it Marc?) Levin. New radio ratings show that Rush has lost 33% of his audience while Hannity and Levin have lost 28% of their audiences. These are numbers that to me, have been slow in coming. The "Angry White Guy" act is an act that got "old" quite some time ago, but ratings services have been historically slow to pick up on what is happening whether it's higher or lower ratings. The key things for advertisers, unless they're supportive of the "fear mongering" act, is if the host they're supporting is able to "sell" their products. Some experts seem to feel that Rush's best product to sell would be/is, bed pans.

Over the top tax breaks for oil companies:

Polls show that the vast majority of Americans think that outrageous tax breaks given to oil companies should end because of the obscene amount of money they make from Americans who don't get kissed by these oil companies, but they (we) most definitely get screwed by these oil companies. When this was recently brought up by the Senate, bought and paid for U.S. Senators said, in essence, "Let's let our oil company 'friends' KEEP all their tax breaks because they will continue to fill OUR pockets while continuing to EMPTY the sucker citizen's pockets!"

And those "sucker citizens" are? That would be you and me, folks.

SPEAKING OF TAX BREAKS:

The Bush tax cuts for the rich? We are told over and over again by people who should know better that these tax cuts are important for us because those Bush tax cuts for the rich will benefit all of us.

REALLY?!?

Let's examine that argument for a second. If the Bush tax cuts for the rich are so beneficial for the rest of us, why did our country collapse during the Bush Administration?

I know that Bush tax cuts for the rich believers don't want to hear this, but as the late sportscaster Jim Healy used to say, "I don't make 'em up, pally!"

But President Obama is money-stupid, too:

As those of us who pay attention know, the idea of "economic stimulus package" money began with the Bush folks just before he left office. These "economic stimulus packages" continued with the Obama administration. Again....For those of you who are paying attention, we have now learned that a whole lot of "stimulus money" was given to thousands of government contractors and nonprofit organizations. It turns out that way too many of these outfits owed millions in back taxes. One example is an engineering firm that got a $100,000 stimulus contract, but it's recently been learned that the firm owed $6 million in taxes.

Yo, President Obama! You gotta get your act together regarding this "stimulus money". There is absolutely no excuse for this!

One more money item:

We're giving more billion dollar handouts to Egypt? I don't know about you, but hearing this makes me want to PUKE!!!

We're giving billions upon billions to foreign countries (while we're going broke) because of the excuse, "It's in our best interests"?!?

Bullshit, bullshit, bullshit!!!

I've said it before and I'll say it again....Until we get OUR house in order, we absolutely HAVE to stop giving away money or anything else to ANYONE else until we get AMERICA "fixed"!!!

Sarah Palin:

In a recent conversation with Greta Van Susterin on Fox, Sarah Palin said (Sarah speaks only to Fox people), that she has "Fire in my belly for 2012", but is wary of "scrutiny". And that "scrutiny" would be what, "Mama Grizzly"? Like maybe why you really quit your job as Governor of Alaska? Meanwhile, we learn that Ms. Palin might have purchased a new home in Arizona where she might decide to launch a campaign to become a U.S. Senator from that state. But we're also hearing that a new film about her that was produced and directed by a fan of hers may soon be released for the purpose of showing (in essence) why she is presidential material.

Sarah Palin, a presidential candidate? God, I hope so, because she would be great blog material.

Oh...Did you hear about the huge story about Fox News that was printed in the latest New York Magazine? Most of the story was about Roger Ailes, the long time big boss of Fox News and a guy who fancies himself as being a Republican "King Maker". The magazine states that while he was a big admirer of Sarah Palin when he hired her, after seeing her "in action", he now thinks "she's an idiot". A spokesman for Fox News says Ailes didn't say that. Overall, this New York Magazine (long) story is a story very much worth reading. I mean, Fox News likes to say, "Fair and balanced". Well, this story about Fox News IS "fair and balanced". In fact, it's so "fair and balanced", the only thing Fox News is challenging is Ailes' statement (or not) regarding Palin (in his view) as being "an idiot".

And speaking of things idiotic:

Are haters of Obama still referring to him fist bumping people as being a "terrorist fist bump"? I bring this up because that characterization is mentioned in the New York Magazine story about Fox News. I would think that the only people who could possibly think that would be Rush Limbaugh's bed pan people, but in case there are others, "fist bumps" are given to each other by all American people of all ages and races. I say this because I see it being done all the time.

I will lead into our "entertainment stuff" with this final observation about President Obama. Do you remember what one of his campaign promises was, a campaign promise that was recently accomplished? It was, dear reader, the promise to get Osama bin Laden. And if I recall correctly, I don't think he said anything about Osama bin Laden having to end up being alive.

ENTERTAINMENT STUFF:

At the beginning of this blog, I wrote about American Idol's great season finale. Other season finale's that I liked a lot include the "Glee" finale, the "Chicago Code" season and (sadly for me) series finale, the "House" season finale which also featured the last time we will see Lisa Edelstein on "House". She played the role of House's boss for all seven years of the show and why she's leaving, isn't clear. Do you remember the first time you saw this fine actress? I do. When she was playing a hooker that Rob Lowe's character on "The West Wing" liked.

I enjoyed the final episode of "Law & Order-Los Angeles" and I also enjoyed the season finale of "Law & Order-Special Victims Unit". We knew ahead of time that this would be the final episode of "Law & Order-LA", but we did NOT know ahead of time, that the season finale of "Law & Order-SVU" would be Christopher Meloni's final appearance on that show. He, along with Mariska Hargitay have been the two main characters since that show came on the air. There have been no reasons given for Meloni's departure.

I would also like to tell you about a couple of films I saw recently...

The 1992 film, "Jennifer Eight" which is currently running on the TMC circuit. This is a terrific high stakes drama that stars Andy Garcia, Uma Thurman, John Malkovich, Kathy Baker and an outstanding supporting cast. I saw it in '92, I'm glad I saw it again and if you get a chance to see it on TMC, I highly recommend it.

The other film I saw is a new film that is currently on the HBO circuit. "Cinema Verite", a docudrama about the first reality show that was ever aired. It stars Diane Lane, Tim Robbins and James Gandolfini in a film I was actually reluctant to watch. For some reason, I thought I wouldn't like it. Boy, was I wrong. I believe that Lane, Robbins and Gandolfini should all get Emmy nominations and quite frankly, I think all three should be Emmy winners for their performances in this made for television film. Check it out!

Couple of final thoughts:

Memorial Day is Monday, May 30. Please pause and think good thoughts for our veterans.

This coming Friday, I plan to make another appearance with CRN owner Mike Horn and CRN program director Paul Stern for another no holds barred and fun radio experience. There will be lots of laughs along with an occasional serious subject on what to me is the fastest hour on radio. 4-5 pm, here in Los Angeles, 6-7 pm Central and 7-8 pm Eastern. The show will be repeated throughout the weekend. If you'd like to listen (and we hope you do), click onto www.CRNTalk.com

And our heartfelt thanks to legendary radio writer, Claude Hall who gave us a nice "shout-out" in his must read Sunday column that can be found at Radio Daily News. For many years, Claude Hall was Billboard Magazine's radio writer and everyone in radio used to read that column.

THOUGHTS AND OR COMMENTS? Please write to me at scottstjames@sbcglobal.net and I will write back to you ASAP. Please 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? Hopefully, next Wednesday night, June 1. If there's an unavoidable delay, I'll write a short blog on or about June 1 explaining what's happening.

Meanwhile, I hope that all of you have a great rest of the week and a terrific weekend.
I am beginning this blog almost an hour and a half after "American Idol" presented their season finale. I've been on the phone talking with friends of mine about that show. "Spectacular" doesn't begin to describe it.

I don't think I've ever begun a blog with a story having to do with "entertainment", but I'm making an exception here. Fear not, loyal readers. We're gonna have plenty of political stuff that you're used to reading about.

The 10th season of "American Idol" ended tonight. Before this season began, a lot of people thought this would be the final season for "American Idol" because of the loss of Simon Cowell and an audience that was shrinking.

It was Cowell's idea to leave because of a new show that he'll be putting on Fox. Upon reflection, it appears that Cowell's departure was good for "American Idol" because in fact, after the first few weeks, he wasn't missed at all. I was very much in favor of getting Jennifer Lopez on board before she was hired, but quite frankly, I didn't think Steven Tyler would be a "fit" for this show at all. And I was dead wrong. These two new judges along with what was arguably the best group of singers "Idol" has ever had, led this season's American Idol to be the best season in the show's history. And tonight's season finale put a capper on this great season. The final two contestants were 16-year old Lauren Alaina who had the privilege of singing on stage with Carrie Underwood tonight and 17-year old Scotty McCreery, who had the privilege of singing on stage with Tim McGraw. Scotty McCreery ended up being the guy who got the most votes, so he's the new "American Idol", but you had to love the respect and good feelings both of those contestants had for each other and you can't help but believe that those two will be friends forever. If not (possibly) lovers sometime in the future.

Also on stage tonight were a parade of some of the biggest and well known singers in the world. And they all turned in terrific performances. But it was the last performer who "stole the show". Steven Tyler, who began his performance by playing a piano and then while standing, hit high notes that people were shocked that a person in their 60's could do what he did. But do it he did and somewhere, people are still cheering his performance. I mean, you talk about "Rockin' the HOUSE!" Bravo, Steven Tyler and all the other performers on what was truly a magical night.

We'll have more "entertainment" stuff at the end of this blog, but now,
THE SERIOUS STUFF:

A lot of things to cover and picking what should be first is next to impossible, sooo....In no particular order, here goes...

"The Rapture": Harold Camping, the 89-year old religious zealot who started all this, now says the earth will be obliterated on October 21. Why didn't this happen on May 21, the day he said it would happen? The righteous preacher says he got the math screwed up. He also says that 200 million Christians will be taken to Heaven before this catastrophe strikes our planet on October 21. Short Commentary: And we thought the religious whack jobs were mostly in Muslim countries?!?

But the "Rapture" might have affected three radio whack jobs who preach "Us against them" fear nonsense.

I'm referring (specifically) to Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Mark (or is it Marc?) Levin. New radio ratings show that Rush has lost 33% of his audience while Hannity and Levin have lost 28% of their audiences. These are numbers that to me, have been slow in coming. The "Angry White Guy" act is an act that got "old" quite some time ago, but ratings services have been historically slow to pick up on what is happening whether it's higher or lower ratings. The key things for advertisers, unless they're supportive of the "fear mongering" act, is if the host they're supporting is able to "sell" their products. Some experts seem to feel that Rush's best product to sell would be/is, bed pans.

Over the top tax breaks for oil companies:

Polls show that the vast majority of Americans think that outrageous tax breaks given to oil companies should end because of the obscene amount of money they make from Americans who don't get kissed by these oil companies, but they (we) most definitely get screwed by these oil companies. When this was recently brought up by the Senate, bought and paid for U.S. Senators said, in essence, "Let's let our oil company 'friends' KEEP all their tax breaks because they will continue to fill OUR pockets while continuing to EMPTY the sucker citizen's pockets!"

And those "sucker citizens" are? That would be you and me, folks.

SPEAKING OF TAX BREAKS:

The Bush tax cuts for the rich? We are told over and over again by people who should know better that these tax cuts are important for us because those Bush tax cuts for the rich will benefit all of us.

REALLY?!?

Let's examine that argument for a second. If the Bush tax cuts for the rich are so beneficial for the rest of us, why did our country collapse during the Bush Administration?

I know that Bush tax cuts for the rich believers don't want to hear this, but as the late sportscaster Jim Healy used to say, "I don't make 'em up, pally!"

But President Obama is money-stupid, too:

As those of us who pay attention know, the idea of "economic stimulus package" money began with the Bush folks just before he left office. These "economic stimulus packages" continued with the Obama administration. Again....For those of you who are paying attention, we have now learned that a whole lot of "stimulus money" was given to thousands of government contractors and nonprofit organizations. It turns out that way too many of these outfits owed millions in back taxes. One example is an engineering firm that got a $100,000 stimulus contract, but it's recently been learned that the firm owed $6 million in taxes.

Yo, President Obama! You gotta get your act together regarding this "stimulus money". There is absolutely no excuse for this!

One more money item:

We're giving more billion dollar handouts to Egypt? I don't know about you, but hearing this makes me want to PUKE!!!

We're giving billions upon billions to foreign countries (while we're going broke) because of the excuse, "It's in our best interests"?!?

Bullshit, bullshit, bullshit!!!

I've said it before and I'll say it again....Until we get OUR house in order, we absolutely HAVE to stop giving away money or anything else to ANYONE else until we get AMERICA "fixed"!!!

Sarah Palin:

In a recent conversation with Greta Van Susterin on Fox, Sarah Palin said (Sarah speaks only to Fox people), that she has "Fire in my belly for 2012", but is wary of "scrutiny". And that "scrutiny" would be what, "Mama Grizzly"? Like maybe why you really quit your job as Governor of Alaska? Meanwhile, we learn that Ms. Palin might have purchased a new home in Arizona where she might decide to launch a campaign to become a U.S. Senator from that state. But we're also hearing that a new film about her that was produced and directed by a fan of hers may soon be released for the purpose of showing (in essence) why she is presidential material.

Sarah Palin, a presidential candidate? God, I hope so, because she would be great blog material.

Oh...Did you hear about the huge story about Fox News that was printed in the latest New York Magazine? Most of the story was about Roger Ailes, the long time big boss of Fox News and a guy who fancies himself as being a Republican "King Maker". The magazine states that while he was a big admirer of Sarah Palin when he hired her, after seeing her "in action", he now thinks "she's an idiot". A spokesman for Fox News says Ailes didn't say that. Overall, this New York Magazine (long) story is a story very much worth reading. I mean, Fox News likes to say, "Fair and balanced". Well, this story about Fox News IS "fair and balanced". In fact, it's so "fair and balanced", the only thing Fox News is challenging is Ailes' statement (or not) regarding Palin (in his view) as being "an idiot".

And speaking of things idiotic:

Are haters of Obama still referring to him fist bumping people as being a "terrorist fist bump"? I bring this up because that characterization is mentioned in the New York Magazine story about Fox News. I would think that the only people who could possibly think that would be Rush Limbaugh's bed pan people, but in case there are others, "fist bumps" are given to each other by all American people of all ages and races. I say this because I see it being done all the time.

I will lead into our "entertainment stuff" with this final observation about President Obama. Do you remember what one of his campaign promises was, a campaign promise that was recently accomplished? It was, dear reader, the promise to get Osama bin Laden. And if I recall correctly, I don't think he said anything about Osama bin Laden having to end up being alive.

ENTERTAINMENT STUFF:

At the beginning of this blog, I wrote about American Idol's great season finale. Other season finale's that I liked a lot include the "Glee" finale, the "Chicago Code" season and (sadly for me) series finale, the "House" season finale which also featured the last time we will see Lisa Edelstein on "House". She played the role of House's boss for all seven years of the show and why she's leaving, isn't clear. Do you remember the first time you saw this fine actress? I do. When she was playing a hooker that Rob Lowe's character on "The West Wing" liked.

I enjoyed the final episode of "Law & Order-Los Angeles" and I also enjoyed the season finale of "Law & Order-Special Victims Unit". We knew ahead of time that this would be the final episode of "Law & Order-LA", but we did NOT know ahead of time, that the season finale of "Law & Order-SVU" would be Christopher Meloni's final appearance on that show. He, along with Mariska Hargitay have been the two main characters since that show came on the air. There have been no reasons given for Meloni's departure.

I would also like to tell you about a couple of films I saw recently...

The 1992 film, "Jennifer Eight" which is currently running on the TMC circuit. This is a terrific high stakes drama that stars Andy Garcia, Uma Thurman, John Malkovich, Kathy Baker and an outstanding supporting cast. I saw it in '92, I'm glad I saw it again and if you get a chance to see it on TMC, I highly recommend it.

The other film I saw is a new film that is currently on the HBO circuit. "Cinema Verite", a docudrama about the first reality show that was ever aired. It stars Diane Lane, Tim Robbins and James Gandolfini in a film I was actually reluctant to watch. For some reason, I thought I wouldn't like it. Boy, was I wrong. I believe that Lane, Robbins and Gandolfini should all get Emmy nominations and quite frankly, I think all three should be Emmy winners for their performances in this made for television film. Check it out!

Couple of final thoughts:

Memorial Day is Monday, May 30. Please pause and think good thoughts for our veterans.

This coming Friday, I plan to make another appearance with CRN owner Mike Horn and CRN program director Paul Stern for another no holds barred and fun radio experience. There will be lots of laughs along with an occasional serious subject on what to me is the fastest hour on radio. 4-5 pm, here in Los Angeles, 6-7 pm Central and 7-8 pm Eastern. The show will be repeated throughout the weekend. If you'd like to listen (and we hope you do), click onto www.CRNTalk.com

And our heartfelt thanks to legendary radio writer, Claude Hall who gave us a nice "shout-out" in his must read Sunday column that can be found at Radio Daily News. For many years, Claude Hall was Billboard Magazine's radio writer and everyone in radio used to read that column.

THOUGHTS AND OR COMMENTS? Please write to me at scottstjames@sbcglobal.net and I will write back to you ASAP. Please 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? Hopefully, next Wednesday night, June 1. If there's an unavoidable delay, I'll write a short blog on or about June 1 explaining what's happening.

Meanwhile, I hope that all of you have a great rest of the week and a terrific weekend.
I am beginning this blog almost an hour and a half after "American Idol" presented their season finale. I've been on the phone talking with friends of mine about that show. "Spectacular" doesn't begin to describe it.

I don't think I've ever begun a blog with a story having to do with "entertainment", but I'm making an exception here. Fear not, loyal readers. We're gonna have plenty of political stuff that you're used to reading about.

The 10th season of "American Idol" ended tonight. Before this season began, a lot of people thought this would be the final season for "American Idol" because of the loss of Simon Cowell and an audience that was shrinking.

It was Cowell's idea to leave because of a new show that he'll be putting on Fox. Upon reflection, it appears that Cowell's departure was good for "American Idol" because in fact, after the first few weeks, he wasn't missed at all. I was very much in favor of getting Jennifer Lopez on board before she was hired, but quite frankly, I didn't think Steven Tyler would be a "fit" for this show at all. And I was dead wrong. These two new judges along with what was arguably the best group of singers "Idol" has ever had, led this season's American Idol to be the best season in the show's history. And tonight's season finale put a capper on this great season. The final two contestants were 16-year old Lauren Alaina who had the privilege of singing on stage with Carrie Underwood tonight and 17-year old Scotty McCreery, who had the privilege of singing on stage with Tim McGraw. Scotty McCreery ended up being the guy who got the most votes, so he's the new "American Idol", but you had to love the respect and good feelings both of those contestants had for each other and you can't help but believe that those two will be friends forever. If not (possibly) lovers sometime in the future.

Also on stage tonight were a parade of some of the biggest and well known singers in the world. And they all turned in terrific performances. But it was the last performer who "stole the show". Steven Tyler, who began his performance by playing a piano and then while standing, hit high notes that people were shocked that a person in their 60's could do what he did. But do it he did and somewhere, people are still cheering his performance. I mean, you talk about "Rockin' the HOUSE!" Bravo, Steven Tyler and all the other performers on what was truly a magical night.

We'll have more "entertainment" stuff at the end of this blog, but now,
THE SERIOUS STUFF:

A lot of things to cover and picking what should be first is next to impossible, sooo....In no particular order, here goes...

"The Rapture": Harold Camping, the 89-year old religious zealot who started all this, now says the earth will be obliterated on October 21. Why didn't this happen on May 21, the day he said it would happen? The righteous preacher says he got the math screwed up. He also says that 200 million Christians will be taken to Heaven before this catastrophe strikes our planet on October 21. Short Commentary: And we thought the religious whack jobs were mostly in Muslim countries?!?

But the "Rapture" might have affected three radio whack jobs who preach "Us against them" fear nonsense.

I'm referring (specifically) to Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Mark (or is it Marc?) Levin. New radio ratings show that Rush has lost 33% of his audience while Hannity and Levin have lost 28% of their audiences. These are numbers that to me, have been slow in coming. The "Angry White Guy" act is an act that got "old" quite some time ago, but ratings services have been historically slow to pick up on what is happening whether it's higher or lower ratings. The key things for advertisers, unless they're supportive of the "fear mongering" act, is if the host they're supporting is able to "sell" their products. Some experts seem to feel that Rush's best product to sell would be/is, bed pans.

Over the top tax breaks for oil companies:

Polls show that the vast majority of Americans think that outrageous tax breaks given to oil companies should end because of the obscene amount of money they make from Americans who don't get kissed by these oil companies, but they (we) most definitely get screwed by these oil companies. When this was recently brought up by the Senate, bought and paid for U.S. Senators said, in essence, "Let's let our oil company 'friends' KEEP all their tax breaks because they will continue to fill OUR pockets while continuing to EMPTY the sucker citizen's pockets!"

And those "sucker citizens" are? That would be you and me, folks.

SPEAKING OF TAX BREAKS:

The Bush tax cuts for the rich? We are told over and over again by people who should know better that these tax cuts are important for us because those Bush tax cuts for the rich will benefit all of us.

REALLY?!?

Let's examine that argument for a second. If the Bush tax cuts for the rich are so beneficial for the rest of us, why did our country collapse during the Bush Administration?

I know that Bush tax cuts for the rich believers don't want to hear this, but as the late sportscaster Jim Healy used to say, "I don't make 'em up, pally!"

But President Obama is money-stupid, too:

As those of us who pay attention know, the idea of "economic stimulus package" money began with the Bush folks just before he left office. These "economic stimulus packages" continued with the Obama administration. Again....For those of you who are paying attention, we have now learned that a whole lot of "stimulus money" was given to thousands of government contractors and nonprofit organizations. It turns out that way too many of these outfits owed millions in back taxes. One example is an engineering firm that got a $100,000 stimulus contract, but it's recently been learned that the firm owed $6 million in taxes.

Yo, President Obama! You gotta get your act together regarding this "stimulus money". There is absolutely no excuse for this!

One more money item:

We're giving more billion dollar handouts to Egypt? I don't know about you, but hearing this makes me want to PUKE!!!

We're giving billions upon billions to foreign countries (while we're going broke) because of the excuse, "It's in our best interests"?!?

Bullshit, bullshit, bullshit!!!

I've said it before and I'll say it again....Until we get OUR house in order, we absolutely HAVE to stop giving away money or anything else to ANYONE else until we get AMERICA "fixed"!!!

Sarah Palin:

In a recent conversation with Greta Van Susterin on Fox, Sarah Palin said (Sarah speaks only to Fox people), that she has "Fire in my belly for 2012", but is wary of "scrutiny". And that "scrutiny" would be what, "Mama Grizzly"? Like maybe why you really quit your job as Governor of Alaska? Meanwhile, we learn that Ms. Palin might have purchased a new home in Arizona where she might decide to launch a campaign to become a U.S. Senator from that state. But we're also hearing that a new film about her that was produced and directed by a fan of hers may soon be released for the purpose of showing (in essence) why she is presidential material.

Sarah Palin, a presidential candidate? God, I hope so, because she would be great blog material.

Oh...Did you hear about the huge story about Fox News that was printed in the latest New York Magazine? Most of the story was about Roger Ailes, the long time big boss of Fox News and a guy who fancies himself as being a Republican "King Maker". The magazine states that while he was a big admirer of Sarah Palin when he hired her, after seeing her "in action", he now thinks "she's an idiot". A spokesman for Fox News says Ailes didn't say that. Overall, this New York Magazine (long) story is a story very much worth reading. I mean, Fox News likes to say, "Fair and balanced". Well, this story about Fox News IS "fair and balanced". In fact, it's so "fair and balanced", the only thing Fox News is challenging is Ailes' statement (or not) regarding Palin (in his view) as being "an idiot".

And speaking of things idiotic:

Are haters of Obama still referring to him fist bumping people as being a "terrorist fist bump"? I bring this up because that characterization is mentioned in the New York Magazine story about Fox News. I would think that the only people who could possibly think that would be Rush Limbaugh's bed pan people, but in case there are others, "fist bumps" are given to each other by all American people of all ages and races. I say this because I see it being done all the time.

I will lead into our "entertainment stuff" with this final observation about President Obama. Do you remember what one of his campaign promises was, a campaign promise that was recently accomplished? It was, dear reader, the promise to get Osama bin Laden. And if I recall correctly, I don't think he said anything about Osama bin Laden having to end up being alive.

ENTERTAINMENT STUFF:

At the beginning of this blog, I wrote about American Idol's great season finale. Other season finale's that I liked a lot include the "Glee" finale, the "Chicago Code" season and (sadly for me) series finale, the "House" season finale which also featured the last time we will see Lisa Edelstein on "House". She played the role of House's boss for all seven years of the show and why she's leaving, isn't clear. Do you remember the first time you saw this fine actress? I do. When she was playing a hooker that Rob Lowe's character on "The West Wing" liked.

I enjoyed the final episode of "Law & Order-Los Angeles" and I also enjoyed the season finale of "Law & Order-Special Victims Unit". We knew ahead of time that this would be the final episode of "Law & Order-LA", but we did NOT know ahead of time, that the season finale of "Law & Order-SVU" would be Christopher Meloni's final appearance on that show. He, along with Mariska Hargitay have been the two main characters since that show came on the air. There have been no reasons given for Meloni's departure.

I would also like to tell you about a couple of films I saw recently...

The 1992 film, "Jennifer Eight" which is currently running on the TMC circuit. This is a terrific high stakes drama that stars Andy Garcia, Uma Thurman, John Malkovich, Kathy Baker and an outstanding supporting cast. I saw it in '92, I'm glad I saw it again and if you get a chance to see it on TMC, I highly recommend it.

The other film I saw is a new film that is currently on the HBO circuit. "Cinema Verite", a docudrama about the first reality show that was ever aired. It stars Diane Lane, Tim Robbins and James Gandolfini in a film I was actually reluctant to watch. For some reason, I thought I wouldn't like it. Boy, was I wrong. I believe that Lane, Robbins and Gandolfini should all get Emmy nominations and quite frankly, I think all three should be Emmy winners for their performances in this made for television film. Check it out!

Couple of final thoughts:

Memorial Day is Monday, May 30. Please pause and think good thoughts for our veterans.

This coming Friday, I plan to make another appearance with CRN owner Mike Horn and CRN program director Paul Stern for another no holds barred and fun radio experience. There will be lots of laughs along with an occasional serious subject on what to me is the fastest hour on radio. 4-5 pm, here in Los Angeles, 6-7 pm Central and 7-8 pm Eastern. The show will be repeated throughout the weekend. If you'd like to listen (and we hope you do), click onto www.CRNTalk.com

And our heartfelt thanks to legendary radio writer, Claude Hall who gave us a nice "shout-out" in his must read Sunday column that can be found at Radio Daily News. For many years, Claude Hall was Billboard Magazine's radio writer and everyone in radio used to read that column.

THOUGHTS AND OR COMMENTS? Please write to me at scottstjames@sbcglobal.net and I will write back to you ASAP. Please 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? Hopefully, next Wednesday night, June 1. If there's an unavoidable delay, I'll write a short blog on or about June 1 explaining what's happening.

Meanwhile, I hope that all of you have a great rest of the week and a terrific weekend.
I am beginning this blog almost an hour and a half after "American Idol" presented their season finale. I've been on the phone talking with friends of mine about that show. "Spectacular" doesn't begin to describe it.

I don't think I've ever begun a blog with a story having to do with "entertainment", but I'm making an exception here. Fear not, loyal readers. We're gonna have plenty of political stuff that you're used to reading about.

The 10th season of "American Idol" ended tonight. Before this season began, a lot of people thought this would be the final season for "American Idol" because of the loss of Simon Cowell and an audience that was shrinking.

It was Cowell's idea to leave because of a new show that he'll be putting on Fox. Upon reflection, it appears that Cowell's departure was good for "American Idol" because in fact, after the first few weeks, he wasn't missed at all. I was very much in favor of getting Jennifer Lopez on board before she was hired, but quite frankly, I didn't think Steven Tyler would be a "fit" for this show at all. And I was dead wrong. These two new judges along with what was arguably the best group of singers "Idol" has ever had, led this season's American Idol to be the best season in the show's history. And tonight's season finale put a capper on this great season. The final two contestants were 16-year old Lauren Alaina who had the privilege of singing on stage with Carrie Underwood tonight and 17-year old Scotty McCreery, who had the privilege of singing on stage with Tim McGraw. Scotty McCreery ended up being the guy who got the most votes, so he's the new "American Idol", but you had to love the respect and good feelings both of those contestants had for each other and you can't help but believe that those two will be friends forever. If not (possibly) lovers sometime in the future.

Also on stage tonight were a parade of some of the biggest and well known singers in the world. And they all turned in terrific performances. But it was the last performer who "stole the show". Steven Tyler, who began his performance by playing a piano and then while standing, hit high notes that people were shocked that a person in their 60's could do what he did. But do it he did and somewhere, people are still cheering his performance. I mean, you talk about "Rockin' the HOUSE!" Bravo, Steven Tyler and all the other performers on what was truly a magical night.

We'll have more "entertainment" stuff at the end of this blog, but now,
THE SERIOUS STUFF:

A lot of things to cover and picking what should be first is next to impossible, sooo....In no particular order, here goes...

"The Rapture": Harold Camping, the 89-year old religious zealot who started all this, now says the earth will be obliterated on October 21. Why didn't this happen on May 21, the day he said it would happen? The righteous preacher says he got the math screwed up. He also says that 200 million Christians will be taken to Heaven before this catastrophe strikes our planet on October 21. Short Commentary: And we thought the religious whack jobs were mostly in Muslim countries?!?

But the "Rapture" might have affected three radio whack jobs who preach "Us against them" fear nonsense.

I'm referring (specifically) to Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Mark (or is it Marc?) Levin. New radio ratings show that Rush has lost 33% of his audience while Hannity and Levin have lost 28% of their audiences. These are numbers that to me, have been slow in coming. The "Angry White Guy" act is an act that got "old" quite some time ago, but ratings services have been historically slow to pick up on what is happening whether it's higher or lower ratings. The key things for advertisers, unless they're supportive of the "fear mongering" act, is if the host they're supporting is able to "sell" their products. Some experts seem to feel that Rush's best product to sell would be/is, bed pans.

Over the top tax breaks for oil companies:

Polls show that the vast majority of Americans think that outrageous tax breaks given to oil companies should end because of the obscene amount of money they make from Americans who don't get kissed by these oil companies, but they (we) most definitely get screwed by these oil companies. When this was recently brought up by the Senate, bought and paid for U.S. Senators said, in essence, "Let's let our oil company 'friends' KEEP all their tax breaks because they will continue to fill OUR pockets while continuing to EMPTY the sucker citizen's pockets!"

And those "sucker citizens" are? That would be you and me, folks.

SPEAKING OF TAX BREAKS:

The Bush tax cuts for the rich? We are told over and over again by people who should know better that these tax cuts are important for us because those Bush tax cuts for the rich will benefit all of us.

REALLY?!?

Let's examine that argument for a second. If the Bush tax cuts for the rich are so beneficial for the rest of us, why did our country collapse during the Bush Administration?

I know that Bush tax cuts for the rich believers don't want to hear this, but as the late sportscaster Jim Healy used to say, "I don't make 'em up, pally!"

But President Obama is money-stupid, too:

As those of us who pay attention know, the idea of "economic stimulus package" money began with the Bush folks just before he left office. These "economic stimulus packages" continued with the Obama administration. Again....For those of you who are paying attention, we have now learned that a whole lot of "stimulus money" was given to thousands of government contractors and nonprofit organizations. It turns out that way too many of these outfits owed millions in back taxes. One example is an engineering firm that got a $100,000 stimulus contract, but it's recently been learned that the firm owed $6 million in taxes.

Yo, President Obama! You gotta get your act together regarding this "stimulus money". There is absolutely no excuse for this!

One more money item:

We're giving more billion dollar handouts to Egypt? I don't know about you, but hearing this makes me want to PUKE!!!

We're giving billions upon billions to foreign countries (while we're going broke) because of the excuse, "It's in our best interests"?!?

Bullshit, bullshit, bullshit!!!

I've said it before and I'll say it again....Until we get OUR house in order, we absolutely HAVE to stop giving away money or anything else to ANYONE else until we get AMERICA "fixed"!!!

Sarah Palin:

In a recent conversation with Greta Van Susterin on Fox, Sarah Palin said (Sarah speaks only to Fox people), that she has "Fire in my belly for 2012", but is wary of "scrutiny". And that "scrutiny" would be what, "Mama Grizzly"? Like maybe why you really quit your job as Governor of Alaska? Meanwhile, we learn that Ms. Palin might have purchased a new home in Arizona where she might decide to launch a campaign to become a U.S. Senator from that state. But we're also hearing that a new film about her that was produced and directed by a fan of hers may soon be released for the purpose of showing (in essence) why she is presidential material.

Sarah Palin, a presidential candidate? God, I hope so, because she would be great blog material.

Oh...Did you hear about the huge story about Fox News that was printed in the latest New York Magazine? Most of the story was about Roger Ailes, the long time big boss of Fox News and a guy who fancies himself as being a Republican "King Maker". The magazine states that while he was a big admirer of Sarah Palin when he hired her, after seeing her "in action", he now thinks "she's an idiot". A spokesman for Fox News says Ailes didn't say that. Overall, this New York Magazine (long) story is a story very much worth reading. I mean, Fox News likes to say, "Fair and balanced". Well, this story about Fox News IS "fair and balanced". In fact, it's so "fair and balanced", the only thing Fox News is challenging is Ailes' statement (or not) regarding Palin (in his view) as being "an idiot".

And speaking of things idiotic:

Are haters of Obama still referring to him fist bumping people as being a "terrorist fist bump"? I bring this up because that characterization is mentioned in the New York Magazine story about Fox News. I would think that the only people who could possibly think that would be Rush Limbaugh's bed pan people, but in case there are others, "fist bumps" are given to each other by all American people of all ages and races. I say this because I see it being done all the time.

I will lead into our "entertainment stuff" with this final observation about President Obama. Do you remember what one of his campaign promises was, a campaign promise that was recently accomplished? It was, dear reader, the promise to get Osama bin Laden. And if I recall correctly, I don't think he said anything about Osama bin Laden having to end up being alive.

ENTERTAINMENT STUFF:

At the beginning of this blog, I wrote about American Idol's great season finale. Other season finale's that I liked a lot include the "Glee" finale, the "Chicago Code" season and (sadly for me) series finale, the "House" season finale which also featured the last time we will see Lisa Edelstein on "House". She played the role of House's boss for all seven years of the show and why she's leaving, isn't clear. Do you remember the first time you saw this fine actress? I do. When she was playing a hooker that Rob Lowe's character on "The West Wing" liked.

I enjoyed the final episode of "Law & Order-Los Angeles" and I also enjoyed the season finale of "Law & Order-Special Victims Unit". We knew ahead of time that this would be the final episode of "Law & Order-LA", but we did NOT know ahead of time, that the season finale of "Law & Order-SVU" would be Christopher Meloni's final appearance on that show. He, along with Mariska Hargitay have been the two main characters since that show came on the air. There have been no reasons given for Meloni's departure.

I would also like to tell you about a couple of films I saw recently...

The 1992 film, "Jennifer Eight" which is currently running on the TMC circuit. This is a terrific high stakes drama that stars Andy Garcia, Uma Thurman, John Malkovich, Kathy Baker and an outstanding supporting cast. I saw it in '92, I'm glad I saw it again and if you get a chance to see it on TMC, I highly recommend it.

The other film I saw is a new film that is currently on the HBO circuit. "Cinema Verite", a docudrama about the first reality show that was ever aired. It stars Diane Lane, Tim Robbins and James Gandolfini in a film I was actually reluctant to watch. For some reason, I thought I wouldn't like it. Boy, was I wrong. I believe that Lane, Robbins and Gandolfini should all get Emmy nominations and quite frankly, I think all three should be Emmy winners for their performances in this made for television film. Check it out!

Couple of final thoughts:

Memorial Day is Monday, May 30. Please pause and think good thoughts for our veterans.

This coming Friday, I plan to make another appearance with CRN owner Mike Horn and CRN program director Paul Stern for another no holds barred and fun radio experience. There will be lots of laughs along with an occasional serious subject on what to me is the fastest hour on radio. 4-5 pm, here in Los Angeles, 6-7 pm Central and 7-8 pm Eastern. The show will be repeated throughout the weekend. If you'd like to listen (and we hope you do), click onto www.CRNTalk.com

And our heartfelt thanks to legendary radio writer, Claude Hall who gave us a nice "shout-out" in his must read Sunday column that can be found at Radio Daily News. For many years, Claude Hall was Billboard Magazine's radio writer and everyone in radio used to read that column.

THOUGHTS AND OR COMMENTS? Please write to me at scottstjames@sbcglobal.net and I will write back to you ASAP. Please 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? Hopefully, next Wednesday night, June 1. If there's an unavoidable delay, I'll write a short blog on or about June 1 explaining what's happening.

Meanwhile, I hope that all of you have a great rest of the week and a terrific weekend.