What’s with Hollywood?

I just read a story about the weekend opening of the new George Clooney movie, “Leatherheads”. They’re calling it a flop because it only took in $13.5 million on the first weekend. ONLY… The story said how disappointed they were for Mr. Clooney because the movie is such a failure and were wondering “what went wrong”…

Are you kidding me??? $13.5 MILLION is a failure? What standard of measure does Hollywood use anyway? I don’t know about you, but $13.5 million seems like a pretty good haul for one weekend to me.

The really stupid part about the story though is that they also talked about the movie with Jodie Foster in it, “Nims Island”, and how they are pleased with the results of that release. Here’s the stupid part: it only took in a fraction more than Leatherheads. In fact, the article said the takes for both movies are so close, the final tally isn’t in as to which one took in the most.

The article also said that the movie “21” was a monumental success saying it “kept up it’s winning streak” and “stayed on top of the box office” by taking in $15.1 million.

Seems like a fairly narrow criteria there, don’t you think? $13.5 million is a failure and a flop but $15.1 million is a huge success. The whole spectrum between total failure and top of the heap is a mere $1.6 million. OK… now I got it…

I guess I’ll feel sorry for George Clooney. He just didn’t make the cut. Too bad his movie couldn’t eek out that extra pocket change to make it to success…

I’ll also feel sorry for the studios and the Hollywood set in general because their business is slow. They're complaining that revenues are down. They only took in $80.9 million for the top 12 movies released this year. Such a shame… Their total revenues for the year are a mere $2.24 Billion. How depressing… ONLY $2.24 BILLION for the whole first quarter of the year… I don’t know how they will make it. Maybe they should all file for welfare and apply for food stamps to get by…

I guess they can’t understand why people that are spending more of their income on frivolous stuff like food and gasoline and are maybe even facing foreclosure don’t want to run out on the weekend to buy $10 movie tickets. Yeah, let’s spend $60 to take the family to the movies, we’ll worry about groceries later…

You think that maybe the rich Hollywood set are as out of touch with reality as our politicians are?

Give us a break...

Enough already. I don't know about you but I'm sick of hearing all the whining about the Michigan and Florida delegates and whether they will be seated at the convention. Both states are in a mess of their own making. They broke the rules and now they want to be forgiven and have their votes count.

The whiners say that it's not fair that the people won't have their votes count for anything. Well boo hoo. You shouldn't have broken the rules!

If you want to talk about what's fair, let’s take a look at the situation. The candidates weren't allowed to campaign in either state and Obama wasn't even on the ballot in Michigan. So who in their right mind would consider the elections valid at all?

Neither state can say that the votes cast under those conditions would be a fair accounting of the "will of the people" at that time.

Neither state is willing to pay for a re-vote to have a fair election now.

The DNC is not willing to pay for re-votes in either state nor should they even consider it. They didn't screw up - Michigan and Florida did.

So what's the answer?

There's a very simple solution to this problem. One that will be very easy to accomplish. One that will not cost the taxpayers one penny. One that will let the delegates be seated at the convention and placate the whiners.

Split the delegates 50-50.

Do it and shut up... Please...

Big problems for Obama...

I saw in the news that some people are claiming that the press is guilty of “character assassination” in their coverage of the Reverend Jeremiah Wright’s words from the pulpit in the church that Barack Obama attends. I’ve heard some say that he was taken out of context. I’ve also heard arguments to the effect that he should be cut some slack because he is speaking to the “angry blacks” in America and that people just don’t understand “black preaching”.

I’m sorry but none of these are valid arguments. As a matter of fact, there is no valid excuse for anything he said. He was speaking as a radical black, white hating, racist pure and simple and he was preaching this to his congregation – leading his church to think like him. That’s what preaching is, is it not? You speak to your congregation to persuade them to the ideas that you want them to believe in. In most churches, it has something to do with what is in the bible. That’s clearly not the case here though.

This man stood at the pulpit and called on God to damn America. He said that rich white people run the country and intentionally released the HIV Virus into society to kill blacks. This is what he preaches. These statements weren’t taken out of context. It wasn’t a slip of the tongue. It was part of a sermon that was very much a racist rant against whites and America in general.

I think this is a major problem for Obama. His speech today helped but didn’t answer the question about his 20 year association with this type of man as his close spiritual advisor and someone he says is like family to him. I just can’t understand why someone would remain close to a man that harbors these kinds of racist, hateful views.

Why would a man continue to go to a church where the pastor is spewing this kind of hate and racism? A pastor preaches sermons to lead his congregation. How can a man participate in a church where the pastor is leading his congregation down this path if he doesn’t agree at least to some degree?

Would you sit there week in and week out listening to man you don’t agree with? Wouldn’t you change churches if you heard your pastor shouting “God damn America” and preaching hate against people of a different color from the pulpit? Would you take your children to hear a man preach this kind of hate?

I’ve heard people say that it shouldn’t matter, it’s only his pastor and he doesn’t agree with what he says but I was always taught that a person is judged by the friends that they keep. People tend to become friends with people that they have a lot in common with and have similar views with.

Barack Obama claims to want to bring America together and that he is the candidate that transcends race but one of his closest friends and someone he supposedly looks up to and respects is the exact polar opposite of his views, a racist that uses his position as a so called religious leader to spread the gospel of hate.

I hate to say it but I think a lot of voters are going to wonder that after 20 years of a close personal relationship, there isn’t just a little Rev. Wright lurking inside Mr. Obama.

This may very well be the beginning of the end for his run at the White House. He’s already dropping in the polls.

At least he’ll still have his spiritual advisor to console him…

John McCain is Right!

Well, I just have to say I wholeheartedly agree with John McCain when he says that Congress is “disconnected” from Americans.

Congress has lived up to there reputation of self interest and voted down the earmark spending ban co-introduced by Senator McCain. This bill would have ended earmark spending for 1 year. Instead, members of the Senate decided they couldn’t do without pork-barrel spending for even 1 year. Only 29 members voted for the bill while 71 voted against the will of the American people to maintain the wasteful, pork laden, special interest spending of our tax dollars.

Of the 29 who voted in favor, only 6 were Democrats but it included both Obama and Clinton. How ironic that both of them are two of the biggest users of earmark spending. Mrs. Clinton received $342 MILLION in earmark spending last year alone which ranks her the 10^th largest spender in the Senate. Obama got $98 MILLION for special interests in his state for fiscal year 2008 and requested $330 MILLION in fiscal year 2007.

For those of you that are reading this and you don’t know what “earmark spending” is, it’s basically a request by a Senator for federal tax money to go to some project or industry within that Senator’s state. In most instances, these projects should be paid for by the people of the state that reaps the benefits and NOT by federal tax money.

Since a bill for the spending would have to go through the normal process and probably wouldn’t have the merit to stand on it’s own and get passed, they attach it as a rider onto a piece of legislation (oftentimes totally unrelated to the earmark) that has a good chance of passing so when it does, their spending gets passed right along with it. Sort of like a Remora that attaches itself to a shark. It takes advantage of the shark’s skill to get food. The rider depends on the bigger bill to get passed but it’s our taxpayer dollars that they are feeding on.

Congress feeds on tax dollars and Obama and Clinton are some of the biggest gluttons at the trough. So why did they vote for the bill that would ban earmark spending for a year? Did they change their minds? NOT ON YOUR LIFE. The reason is very simple - they are trying to get the nomination for President. They realize that if they voted against it, it wouldn’t look good to the voters. So why did they suck so much from the trough before? Because they were already elected to the Senate and part of the “tax and spend” mentality that the Democrats subscribe to.

Last year, Congress passed 12,884 earmarks to the tune of more that $18 BILLION. Yes, that Billion with a B… that’s 18,000 million of your tax dollars being spent by these clowns.

Friends, I am here to tell you that this system is broken. We need to do something about it. We need to vote these fat-cats out of office and start voting for people that will fix the problem.

1. We need to ban earmark, pork-barrel spending.
2. We need to end the lobbyist system of influence in Washington.
3. We need the line item veto.

Just so you know, John McCain wasn’t my first choice for the Republican nomination but you know what?

He has NEVER requested an earmark for his state.

That shows me he not only talks the talk, he walks the walk.

Right now, he has my vote.

Politics -- getting pretty funny now

You know, I don’t usually talk about politics that much but it seems like in this particular campaign, things are happening that just beg to be talked about.

Here are a few things that have given me a laugh in the last few days.

First I have to say something about Hillary mentioning that Obama would be a good VP for her ticket. I just had to laugh. It just seemed such an arrogant thing for her to say. She would LET the leading presidential candidate be HER Vice President. Gee, I wonder why he didn’t jump at THAT offer… Pretty funny Hillary – you should go on the road with that act…

Actually, it was pretty calculating on her part. She hoped to snow the undecided voters into thinking that if they voted for her they would get both candidates in the end. It was a pretty obvious tactic that didn’t work for long since he didn’t want anything to do with it. Big surprise there… She ended up looking pretty pitiful actually.

Speaking of VP’s, I found it interesting that Romney made it public today that he would be interested in the VP spot with McCain. I had the opinion after he dropped out of the race so abruptly that it was do to a deal being made. He drops out in exchange for the VP spot. Kind of makes you wonder, huh? Things that make you go hmmmm...

The thing that has really been giving me a chuckle though is this whole flap over the Michigan and Florida primaries. What a 3-ring-circus this is. What really cracks me up is when the respective governors keep talking about how the voters deserve to have their votes counted. HELLO!!! Are you kidding me? It’s your fault their primaries don’t count. Each of you could have prevented the primary dates from being moved up and the rules being broken. But did you? NOOOOOOOOOO!

The rules were in place and the Democratic National Committee made it clear that if Florida and Michigan moved their primaries up, their delegates WOULD NOT be seated. You can’t be any clearer, but both governors chose not to do anything and now they are both crying after the fact. Well, duh…

They are trying to lay the blame on the DNC, but it’s not their fault at all. It’s all the fault of the political hacks in Michigan and Florida that allowed it to happen. In my opinion, the DNC should stick to its guns and let them stew in their own juice. They broke the rules so they don’t deserve to get their way now. They should also stand up and take the blame for their own screw up and apologize to the people of their respective states for rendering their votes meaningless. I don’t think either of them will have the guts to do that though.

They are trying to get the ok now to have new primaries, at a cost of millions of dollars – MILLIONS of dollars! Of course they want anybody else to pay for it but them. Any way you look at it, taxpayers are going to foot the bill for their mistakes. I’m sorry but these two idiots should be run out of town on a rail. They are entertaining though. Every time they appear on TV running their mouths, it gives me a good laugh.

I’ve got to watch the political scene every day now. It’s almost an addiction. I have to see what’s going to happen next in this combination of soap opera and sitcom.

Then there’s Geraldine Ferraro… The liberals are feeding on themselves and the media is at the head of the table. I love it.

Just sit back and enjoy the show.

He didn't waste any time...

Well, I'm actually impressed. Spitzer announced today that he was resigning. He did the right thing and even managed to do it with a little class.

Probably the smart thing for him to do actually. Now he can concentrate all his efforts on his legal defense without all those pesky duties of being governor getting in his way. He's already assembled a high powered legal team consisting of numerous attorneys.

Ever notice how when someone that has money gets into it deep, they don't just hire a lawyer, they hire a whole team of lawyers. I wonder if taxpayers are paying for that...

Politicians...

Well, I just had to blog about this…I read the stories today about New York Governor Spitzer being linked to a high dollar international prostitution ring and possibly money laundering and I just couldn’t help but laugh about yet another politician going down in flames.

What was he thinking? How can someone that is in his position, not just as governor but as someone who many thought of as a future contender for the White House, so callously put his career in jeopardy? At what point does someone in a position of power think that they can’t be touched? Why do they think they can get away with it? You would think that someone that has what it takes to get into a high position in government would have more intelligence than to do something that stupid wouldn’t you? Guess not…

Then I heard some of the Democrats talking about how he can weather this and not have to resign. Their rationale was that Larry Craig didn’t resign and Bill Clinton survived a sex scandal while in office.

Well, even though then-President Clinton used incredibly poor judgment and what he did was morally wrong, he didn’t actually break any laws. Craig’s situation was more embarrassing than anything else and even though he was arrested for lewd and lascivious behavior, it’s not a crime of the caliber we’re talking about with Spitzer.

Prostitution is against the law and is routinely prosecuted. His exact involvement with the prostitution ring hasn’t been made clear as of yet, as is any part he played in the money laundering operation, which is a serious crime and a career killer for a politician. Any wrongdoing involving money pretty much flushes ones political aspirations.

It’s not just a question of a person being caught breaking the law either. Not in my mind anyway. To my way of thinking, a person that holds a position in government has the public trust. He is elected and put into the office that he holds based on that trust. The acts that he willfully committed are a monumental disregard for that trust. It is a betrayal and an insult to the people of New York and the United States. He is not worthy to hold the office of governor. Period.

What really annoyed me though was his half-hearted apology, which was obviously written by his lawyer. He basically didn’t say much at all. He certainly didn’t admit to anything. He made it sound like all he did was do something to embarrass his family and his office. He said he acted “…in a way that violates my obligations to my family, that violates my or any sense of right and wrong…"

Well duh… if you get involved with prostitutes in any way, it kind of violates your obligations to your family. That’s kind of a no-brainer there…and you could say that anyone with half a brain would know that his acts would fall on the “wrong” side of right and wrong too.

Gee, thanks Governor for that heart-felt pouring out of your soul to the people you lied to and betrayed. I can tell you really mean it. Yeah right…

If he would have come out and said what he really meant, it would have gone something like this: “I’m not admitting anything but I’m sorry for something that I may or may not have done but the details haven’t been made public yet so I’m not going to say what it is until I know how much the cops know because there just might be a remote chance that I might be able to save my ass. But just in case I’m going down the tubes I’m going to give this lame, generic apology so I can later say I showed some remorse over my actions which may or may not have been criminal and that I may or may not have committed but I’m not saying I did at this point because it may be used against me later in court…” You get the gist.

In my opinion, he should show a little respect to the people he works for, the people of New York, and resign. Anything else is just making a bad situation worse. Somehow I don’t think he has the character to do the right thing though.

I guess he’s already shown that…