'Nuff Said

Yup.

Bad Music Awards 2014

She can sing damn good....

The Grammys 2014 - and the pop music scene in general - were (and are) so bad that I actually switched to see the Batchelor wedding of Sean and whatshername from time to time on ABC.  Even while the music scene has had its immeasurable lows recently you could almost always count on a great Grammy's show as they have strived to place great performances on stage - usually with impressive team-ups of performers you wouldn't expect to play together.  It wasn't all awful - but it was a pretty uninspiring bunch - and when a bunch of DJ's win best album - well what does that tell you?

But Taylor Swift was just fantastic.

Happy Thanksgiving: The Price of Politics



No joke: This is what you pay for...

I encourage everyone remotely interested in our country to review this article by Jay Cost entitled The Price of Politics.  Mr. Cost very neatly pinpoints the nature of today's politics as it has generally degenerated from the vision the Founding Fathers gave to us.  He says that since its inception every administration has tried in some way to trample on its principles and the very nature of what national government was supposed to be.  He argues that America was never set up to establish benefits for public welfare but over time that barrier has been pushed and pushed to a point now that we have the inevitable unworkable debacle - Obamacare.

His other major point is how politics today is not so much about "messaging" and "what voters in this part of the country think" or any other "political talk" that you will hear on the Sunday shows.  Its all about cutting deals with prominent stakeholders so that you can get whatever you want done. In this case Obama cut deals with unions, insurance companies, big Pharma, AARP, you name it.  They even lied to the American people so they wouldn't rise up en masse.  But who got cut our?  People who buy insurance on the private market.  They aren't "organized", so they didn't have to be paid off.  That is today's politics.

Mr. Consistent

And so what's the price for this?  Well look at what happened yesterday - we find out Obama lied again (man, he is nothing but consistent).  The nuke deal with Iran - that was trumpeted last weekend as a major breakthrough - well it really isn't a deal at all.  Iran is already saying that the US is lying about what they agreed about.  I remember seeing this news breathlessly broadcast on local TV like the Berlin Wall was coming down and fully understanding that no such breakthrough occurred.  Anyone following this knows that we did not win any major concession during these talks and it was just a 6-month respite before they started up again - all the while Iran keeps on doing what we are supposed to be arguing against - development of nuclear capability!  Well, its all a sham - just days after Obama declared this as a major achievement!

Yup, just like Obamacare.  He cut another bad deal so he would have something to get O-care out of the news (and for only a day). That's your price of politics - bungled  diplomacy with a terrorist state - just to mask your other disastrous failings.

Happy Thanksgiving everybody - Gobble, gobble!

The Peyton Pile On

Why does this guy get so plowed upon by the press?  Oh I get it.  He's a Republican.

Just kidding. But seriously.  The man has severe neck injuries - gets dismissed by the club he REMADE.  Has to go to another team - remakes them. And when he goes to play another team and has a win in his sites, he loses  again.  Doesn't matter that they lose because a guy misses a pass or a guy blows a punt.  Its all his fault.  And for some reason the press piles on him again and again and again.. And meanwhile Tom Brady is brilliant.  A guy who fumbled a ball in a playoff game and they gave it to him and called it the Tuck rule.

This is bullshit.  Period.

The Clueless President

"I didn't know...even though I campaigned every day on it..."

Last week the President of the United States gave a press conference where he discussed the shortcomings of his signature legislative achievement - Obamacare.  While trying to insinuate that this was a administration glitch that he would take full responsibility for - he prattled on in a rather startling display of seemingly unawareness as he conceded that 1) buying IT projects at the government level was an administrative nightmare, 2) building a website with multiple options was "hard" and 3) buying insurance "period" was "difficult". 

Gee Mr. Omniscient President, the "smartest man to every hold the office" - maybe that is something you and the rest of your Democratic cabal should have thought about before you tried to remake 1/6th of the nation's economy!  He then went on to say that there is no way he would have promoted the roll-out of the program if he knew the website had problems.  That is now, a week later, being debunked as well.  He basically said he was too smart to promote it if it wasn't working - so he could not know - but why wouldn't the most powerful man in the world know about the likelihood of his crowning achievement could work or not?  Inexplicable.

What is clear is that if the President isn't just blatantly lying, he is then unbelievably incompetent and frankly reckless with the goodwill of the nation's people who have blindly elected him twice based on his lies and the nation's general economic health as well.  In fact, the President may have just destroyed the health care system for at least the upcoming year with his unbelievable arrogance and inevitable narcissism.



2014 Campaign Poster

The Obamacare debacle just keeps getting worse by the day - and even Democratic supporters are now calling for its repeal.  This after years and years of conservative voices predicting how this was an unworkable premise. Even if you believed the idea of government run healthcare did you believe it could be put together by a ragtag bunch of politicos and lobbyist hacks?   And, you know, they only had three years. But no one every thought this rollout would be such a tremendous disaster of these proportions - we just learned this week that they haven't even developed a payment function for the website!  And still Obama seemingly ordered it to go forward on Oct 1 anyway. 

Liar?  Or incompetent?  Either is untenable for this great nation.

"There's Trouble in River City..."



"We got trouble, my friends..."
 

"There’s trouble in River City my friends – with a capital “T” and that rhymes with “P” and that stands for Pool.”  That was Professor Harold Hill’s plea to the good citizens of fictional River City when he started to sow the seeds of chaos, so he could eventually sell the gullible townsfolk band instruments to its kids before he skipped town with the loot.  And that of course is the plot from the infamous musical “The Music Man”.

 

Well, we have another professor trying to scam us now as well – and it is as obvious as hell.  And we have trouble my friends, with a capital “T” and  that rhymes with “P” and that stand for pathetic.

Find me one liberal out there that can defend this chaos – this pathetic level of incompetence.  Where are you – you know the ones that have the Obama stickers on their car, have his picture in their kitchens and maybe even posted his family’s picture on their website praying for all the good things they were going to do.  This man is incompetent.  And that starts with “I” and rhymes with “why”?

Why did you fall for this idiocy?  Oh we can throw a 1/6^th of the nation’s economy in the federal government and it will just be great!  We have HIGHER PRICES, less ACCESS, people KICKED OFF COVERAGE, insurance for services WE DON’T NEED, doctors FLEEING the system, growing DEFICITS, a dismal WEBSITE rollout and, wait for it…..DEATH PANELS!  Lets face it – it’s a disaster.  And this is after three years.  In fact it was supposed to roll out last year but they delayed it because Obama knew it was a disaster and didn’t want it to harm his election.  How obvious is this?  Even the liberal press is turning.

Obama promised you could keep you existing insurance – wrong.  300,000 just got kicked off their coverage in Florida alone.  Obama said you could keep your doctor – wrong.  Doctors are saying they will turn away many patients including Medicare.  Obama said your premiums would go down by at least $2,500 – wrong. In many cases the premiums have tripled along with increasing deductibles.  Obama said it would decrease the deficit – wrong.  The CBO said it would significantly increase the deficit and contribute to the national debt yearly.  None of our other entitlement programs are doing well – why are we adding another ill-managed one?

This man is incompetent – pure and simple.   And so is the complacent national media who have cheerleaded this disaster to reality.  Many are comparing his “infomercial” for Obamacare last week in the Rose Garden with the ShamWow guy – funny, I did that back in 2008.

You reap what you sow liberals.  Man are you guys dumb – with a capital “D”, and that rhymes with “P” and that stands for “Pool’!

Breaking Bad Finale

Go softly into the night Walter White....

Absolutely love this show.  It doesn't even matter what it was about.  The camera angles, the barren but ordinary nature of New Mexico, the pedestrian haunts, the foreshadowing of events, the music... all divine.  The fact of the matter is how this show - about a cancer-stricken chemistry teacher who decides to make meth to support his family in his dying days - captured the attention of this fairly attention-deficit-disordered populace is fairly impressive.

Someone said to me that they didn't see the show but heard it was too violent.  The show was not about violence per se, but about the transformation (as the ads during the weeklong marathon kept telling us) of a man who wandered into something out of necessity but then became a kingpin of its landscape - which was scattered with many who he would never have ever crossed paths with before.  But Walter White got to use his incredible smarts for something other than having to corral incorrigible students in chemistry class - he was able to create an industry in his neck of the southwest.  He became the man.  He was taking care of business. And, as he admitted in the final show, he liked it.  A lot.  "I was good at it" he told his wife before his final showdown the next day.

And the music - how many "blue" songs were there to reference the hue of the main product here (and some of my favorites - Crystal Blue Persuasion, Baby Blue......?)  I was just eating it up the final episodes.

Great show, great ending. Thanks Walt and Jesse. I'm going to go get my car washed now.

Et tu, Johnny Football?

It was just a friggin' 15-yard penalty.....

Johnny Manziel, Sophmore QB of Texas A&M and last year's Heisman Trophy winner finally got to play football again after a summer of much publicized events which pretty much accompany a freshman that wins that coveted award - oh, yeah, nobody has ever  done that before.  So he had pictures of him taken at parties et al. He hung out with a few celebs. Then there were allegations that he may have been paid to sign autographs - but there was no proof.  So the NCAA and A&M basically agreed to have him sit out the first half of their first game this season with Rice.

So while leading the game by a touchdown after halftime Johnny Football, as he is known, came in and threw 3 TDS and secured the game for the 7th-ranked Aggies.  However, he did get into a jawing session with one Rice player after a A&M TD that seemed to revolve around his apparent signature signing allegations.  Johnny got an unsportsmanlike penalty, didn't exactly talk to his coach as he headed to the bench and sat out the rest of the game.  Just for the record this happens in probably 1-in-5 college football games.

But man you wouldn't believe that if you listened to the talking heads at ESPN who somehow thought that Johnny Football leaked secrets about the NSA and fled to asylum in Russia (by the way I see no one on ESPN, or anywhere else frankly, foaming at the mouth about Edward Snowden's behavior ). Or maybe they were reacting to him like the three black kids who beat up an old WWII veteran because they "hate white people".  Nope he just got a penalty in a college football game.

But if you listened to Jesse Palmer, Lou Holtz and that other ass from Pitt on ESPN, they just laid into Johnny like he was a serial killer.  It was pathetic.  And, in fact in one segment, after lampooning Johnny and saying that his behavior was unwarranted even if he was just 20 years old, they did a segment on Dodgers outfielder Yasiel Puig's recent behavioral issues and responded in a totally different manner saying he just needed time and compassion and daisies to help him get through the day being "just a youngster".  Hmm, what a juxtaposition.  And what if Johnny wasn't white, by the way?

"Scoreboard!"

Thankfully a few morning ESPN'rs on First Look put it in bit more perspective after the holiday with one saying "man, some people are talking about him (Johnny) like he committed a crime - and of course that's not the case - we need to ratchet this talk back a bit and put it in better perspective".

Thanks Skip and Stevie - needed that.  And for the rest of you, bring it on, haters.

Loser

And people actually defend this guy?

Typical hypocrite democrat - as are his supporters.  The man never passed a meaningful piece of legislation and merely was a go-to guest on cable news for over-the-top, over -heated, outrageous commentary.  What a buffoon.

And to have his wife, Huma, Hillary Clinton's aide, defend him a second time is disgraceful not only for her but for all women.  There's a "Republican War on Women"?  More like a Democratic playbook for desperate Dem gals to hang on to their money ticket so they can cash in later.  Hillary is poster girl for this and apparently Huma has watched well from the sidelines.  Embarrassing.

Meanwhile, we have additional embarrassing behavior from the San Diego Mayor (stay classy San Diego) and of course our idiot President - who, since he can't work with Congress, goes out to the hinterland and gives vacuous speeches replayed from 2009.

God help us.

Royal Watch!: Obama Makes Prononuncement Regarding New Royal Baby...

But, no one asked you.  Again.

WHITE HOUSE (AP) - President Obama congratulated Prince William and Kate on the arrival of their new yet-to-be-named heir to the throne on Monday, but followed up with this admonition - "If I had a son, it wouldn't look like Will and Kate's..." 

In other related news, MSNBC's Hardball host Chris Mathews apologized to the black community for whatever the new heir might do in the future.

Now back to our traditionally slanted news.

Congrats Phil!

Phil came from five back with a 66 to win the British Open

Congratulations Phil on a great championship.  To come by five back to win the British Open by 3 is an amazing accomplishment.  Thanks for being a complete sportsman and advocate for the game.  It was great to see you high-fiving spectators and fans as you walked to the 18th tee.  I have followed you out here in at the Rivera and have seen the same stuff.  It seems to me you play for the fans besides yourself - and that is why many golf fans were smiling broadly in the States this morning.  Congrats.

And you know why else many like me root for you? Besides the fact that you are a true champion who does much for the game and its fans?

You're not Tiger.  And thank God for that.

America Screws Up Again

She was robbed.

Angie Miller, who had been a season front-runner of the show and presumed to be a shoo-in for next week's finale, was shockingly eliminated last night. on American Idol.  And no one knows why.  While fellow semi-finalist Candice may have earned some stripes last night to get into the finale both she and the other now-finalist Kree were in the bottom two several times the past few weeks.  One blogger said Kree's "backstory" which was filmed this week may have won her more sympathy votes, but who votes for a backstory on a singing show?

This is terrible - the only reason I watched this season was because of Angie.  She's the real deal.  If this is how America continues to vote we may wind up with a socialist golfer as President one day.

Barry & Hillary Lied - 4 Patriots Died

And these people are popular?

What more is there to say?  It's been obvious since the attack on our consulate in Benghazi, Libya last September (two months before the election) that this administration has lied about the attack  on the very anniversary of 9/11! They blamed "the video" put out by an American that got little play in Libya anyway.  They continued to lie while the caskets of our Ambassador and three other Americans killed in the attack were flown into Edwards AFB - they had a photo op where the "major" networks cut in to display the purported remorse that Barry and Hillary had for the deaths.  Barry & Hillary gave fake heartfelt speeches and told the fallen's family that they would "go get the guy who did the video".  And the families knew that Hillary was lying then.  They plain didn't appreciate it.  The bottomline was that this was a terrorist attack from the get-go but both did not want to admit it due to its incongruity with their campaign talking point that "Al-Queda was on the run".  What is more damning is that they may have left people to die to support that claim.

Today's congressional hearings, where three "whistleblowers" (long-time State Department employees) gave testimony on the events which killed our Libyan Ambassador, his aide and two Navy Seals who arrived on their own accord to rescue them, shed new facts as to this administration's incompetence and cover-up to their actions that night.  They prevented any resources from going to save them at Benghazi and refuted efforts by lower state officials and in-country officials who asked to send aid.  Then they conducted a propaganda campaign to keep their dual presidential aspirations alive.

They are liars.  And for some reason the American People re-elected these liars.  Why? Because the media doesn't care.  The media doesn't report news - it reports celebrity gossip. They are corrupt.  It's pathetic.  The terrorists have won.

Better Than Argo? End of Watch

More fact-based than Argo

By the way, know a 2012 movie better than "Argo" (besides "Silver Linings Playbook")?  Check out "End of Watch" , a pragmatic tale of two beat cops working South Central Los Angeles.  Shot from a realistic point-of-view (lots of hand-held camera action) it shows the two police pals live life and fight drug cartels in LA's finest slums. Very well done and innovative from a not-in-your face perspective. 

Much better than Argo - and probably a heck bit more factual.  Even Roger Ebert had it fourth on his end-of-year best movie list for 2012 after that Lincoln, Life of Pi and that aforementioned Affleck fantasy movie.

Oscars for the Low-Information Voter

The Academy Awards for No-Nothings....

I saw Argo last weekend.  It was a pretty entertaining show that  mirrored a bit of today's headlines.  Unrest in the Middle East, an ineffective US foreign policy, a befuddled White House.  Package that up with good editing, a decent cast, a humorous Hollywood angle and a taut dramatic ending and what more could you want?  Not to mention director and actor Ben Affleck's underdog status going into award season?

Argo poster

Well, it just wasn't true.  Pretty much all made up.  Oh yeah, CIA operatives created a backstory for six Americans suggesting they were part of a Hollywood movie production in order for them to get out of the country easier - but it was nothing like the movie depicted.  They created mutliple faux story lines to make it "more dramatic" - even though they claim this was a true story that no one knew until now.

BS.  In fact many of this year's contenders have flaunted history.


Fifteen minutes.

In December, I saw Lincoln, and as a Civil War buff, I was expecting it to be a sweeping epic of masterful proportions.  Ultimately, I thought it was a incredible bore of a movie (and that James Spader, as a colorful lobbyist, was really the only interesting character).  From the baffling opening sequence of Lincoln being blatantly scolded by a black Union infantryman for not getting paid as much as "white folk", you pretty much knew this was a Spielberg homage to leftism - even though it should have been a profile about a courageous Republican president.

Since it's release, historians have criticized the film for its other innacuracies including the final scenes revolving around the vote to abolish slavery.  Not only did they mischaracterize how certain congressmen voted "for dramatic effect" they also did not pay attention to the means of order on how each representative voted (by alphabetical order instead of by state) which has upset many states and heirs as to their historical place in this vote.  This was a film that many of its participants boasted of its historical accuracy and it basically goofs dramatically about the part of the Lincoln's legacy it strives to highlight the most.

Philadephia freedom...

And then you have Zero Dark 30 which has been shrouded in issues since its release.  The reality is that any Oscar based on actual facts should go to Silver Linings Playbook because as Maureen Dowd said "we all know how crazy Philadelphia Eagle fans are".  For once, I agree with her.

I understand dramatic license, but certainly in this age of low-information voters many people (i.e. votes) really do believe what they see on TV and the movies.  While the 300-page book Game Change covered Hillary's failed presidential campaign, John Edwards infidelity, and Bill Clinton's racism - the only context that was displayed by the HBO production was the 18 pages devoted to Sarah Palin.  And endless Hollywood awards.


D'oh

The national media is not only distorting recent political news, but also our treasured national history.  There is no award for that.


Danica Patrick Wins Pole for Daytona 500

She's finally on the pole....

And for more women in the news (besides a lying Hillary) - newly minted NASCAR driver Danica Patrick made history last Sunday by being the first female to qualify for the pole position for this weekend's Daytona 500.  In other words, it's the top starting positon for a field of 40+ cars commencing the race in rows of three.  Congratulations Danica. 

Go daddy...

Benghazi 2013: "What Difference Does It Make!?"

Seriously, what the diff....?  I have a campaign to run.

Indeed.  What difference does it make?  Four dead Americans.  A failed foreign policy on display a a mere days after the Democratic National Convention that droned on and on (no pun intended) about how Al Queda is "on the run" and Obama has conquered all.  Since then we have had nothing but lies and obfuscation from the administration about their failure to protect our embassies abroad on the 11th anniversery of September 11.  They did well to lie their way to a win in November, but the untruths keep coming in 2013.

First, we have last month's Hillary Clinton hearing before Congress where Democrats showered her with bon mots and Republicans were too busy making speeches that they never gave her the opportunity during those five-minute segments to let her hang herself on her own words - the very words we know lead to mistruths because she did nothing but purvey innacuracies about the incident since last September. 

Hillary inexplicably proclaimed that she never saw cables from the late-Ambassador asking for more security prior to September 11.  This is the Secretary of State (!) who is getting verbal kisses from Democrats for what a great job she did but she didn't know about "her dear friend" Ambassador Stevens impassioned pleas for help?  Or did she just not act?

Hillary claimed she had a "clear-eyed view" of the problems in the Middle East but she didn't review despairing cables from her dear friend?  When she did have time to answer questions (instead of time filled up by blustery, long-winded questions from Congressmen) she filled her bloviated answers with procedural nonsense and listing of long-worded-named agencies. And when she did become flustered upon the minimal direct questioning about her non-involvement in a 'state' activity she threw up her hands and exclaimed "At this point what's difference does it make!?"  Her testimony was dispicable and certainly untruthful.

Three weeks later, outgoing CIA Chief Leon Panetta said he did not talk to President Obama after his 5 PM meeting the day the Benghazi attacks occured.  He also said he did not talk to Hillary.  He claimed the State Department did not ask him to act.  Meanwhile the attacks went on for another 9 hours.  What were they doing?  No, what the f--- were they doing?!!!

Nothing to see here...it's all good.

A week prior to this admission, the CBS 60 Minutes program (long-known for its hard hitting investigative journalism) interviewed both President Obama and Hillary as an apparent homage to their unlikely Cabinet pairing after being bitter rivals for the presidency in 2008.  No questions were asked about Hillary's performance at the Congressional hearings or recent issues about Benghazi.  CBS's Steve Kroft just blew them kisses - and later admitted it.  Mike Wallace is rolling over....


"...like peas and carrots..."

While we have a complicit and immoral press, it is apparent that more Americans will die needlessly abroad and nothing will be done about it. The mainstream press refuses to ask questions.  Welcome back to the era of Yellow Journalism.

I Didn't Know That They Let Navy Play in the Title Game.....

Luck of the irish...?

Well, I sure enjoyed that Alabama - Navy game this past Monday. I thought it was supposed to be the National Champtionship game but somehow the BCS slipped the Middies in there instead. Well good for them. I'm glad they scored.

The Man is a Dictator

Meet the new boss...

According the the main stream press President Obama has emerged a "winner' on the fiscal cliff crisis.  With the House approving a bill today on New Year's Day that was hastily assembled on New Year's Eve and passed by the Senate, automatic income tax increases have been averted and taxes will rise on those families with income over $450,000.  The Republicans went along with it just to avoid tax increases for the rest of the 98% of those who make less strategizing that this was better than nothing.  It also avoids automatic budget cuts to the defense department which would have been devastating. 

Of course many on the right argue against this move saying it is against principle but in reality it really places Obama in a box.  Yesterday and today he went to the podium to lecture Congress that after this he would no longer agree to "cut our way to prosperity" and that any new deficit reduction (did any really occur here?) would have to be "balanced" with additional tax increases.  Well who is he going to tax next?  The "sort of rich"?  He even said he would go after "wealthy corporations".  When has a corporation been wealthy?  And won't those corporations shed jobs in order to pay higher taxes.  He just raised taxes on small business and now he wants to raise taxes on US corporations who have one of the highest tax rates in the world?

So "how did Obama win"?  What are mainstream pundits smoking (including Fox).  Obama brought potentially a little more into treasury (around $500 billion annually) but we have a $1 trillion annual deficit and $16 trillion in total debt!  This doesn't pay for squat - and this is a win?

As I have said many times, not only are the Democrats enemies of the state but so is the media which fails to articulate the mess Obama has brought upon this nation.  And it is obvious from tonight that he is not interested in leading - but in dictating.

White Christmas



"Snow, snow, ... snow!"

 To me, Danny Kaye makes the whole movie. 

Thanks AMC for looping this all weekend.