Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Silda Spitzer linked to prostitution ring ?

It’s absurd that they ask for his resignation IN A PROSTITUTION RING! It’s not like he politicized the justice department, suppressed scientific data, illegally spied on citizens, or engaged in a war based on faulty intelligence. No, nothing like that. He just paid for sex. Besides he’s governor, not some deity incarnate.This country has some pathological detachment with sex that leads people to believe a person is inherently bad because he slept around and paid for it.

Elliot spitzer, Emperors club vip Prostitution

Spitzer Is Linked to Prostitution Ring

Spitzer has been an excellent Attorney General and Governor of New York.The way I look at this - Bill Clinton got caught with his pants down and when his term was up it was hard for Al Gore to be elected - because people were really “upset” with his behavior. Yet, overall, Clinton was an excellent president who expanded the economy and created a lot of jobs and prosperity. Sure, he had some lapses - but, at the end of the day, they’re minor compared to what others have done, after him.If we had to pick morality - I’d take an excellent governor who had a lapse in judgement/behavior any day over someone who is an out and out hypocrite (and there’s enough evidence of that all over the place - one doesn’t even have to look far or hard).

It’s was on my mind - and I wonder if anyone has done this yet - to come up with the number of indictments per administration with The Worst President in History? article in Rolling Stone in 2006 - and here’s a TalkingPoints Memo that gives a list of indictments for the current administration (but I was looking for something that goes all the way back to George Washington). That would be interesting metrics - indictments per administration - we can even get a percentage of the indicted - point being that you can’t have high numbers of indictments without something being fundamentally wrong with how members are chosen.

Wednesday, March 5, 2008

David Hernandez, American Idol Stripper

American Idol contestant was a stripper for three years up until September 30, 2007, according to his ex-manager, Gordy Bryan. Evidently he was a male stripper in a Phoenix night club where the majority of his clientèle was male. Apparently Hernandez fit in rather well according to Bryan, “He had the look and the type that people like, so he made pretty good money here.”

Those in fear of not seeing Mr. Helicopter Hernandez again after this news leaked, don’t worry, he will be back on Tuesday as planned.

Now, think back to previous American Idol scandals, “In 2003, finalist Frenchie Davis was dismissed because of her appearance on an adult Web site; but last year, Antonella Barba remained in the competition after racy photos of her surfaced on the Internet.” What on Earth is the difference between these three cases? No clue, American Idol is pretty random on this subject. But then again it is up to the public to see how far these contestants go after they pass the AI test. Will the public vote more or less for Hernandez after they learned he did the helicopter on stage?

Ohio Primary results 2008

The pollsters are proclaiming a dead heat between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama in Ohio. Rush Limbaugh is urging people to vote for Hilary. Will there be enough new voters voting for Obama? Will enough people vote for Hilary to stop Obama? As soon as the results are clear, they will be posted here.

Here are some comments from AOL Hot Seat:

“Truthfully, I think that History will tell our posterity that 2008 was the year that “America Woke Up” and realized, you can’t keep electing Liberal Socialist Demoncrats into office and allowing them to keep waving the American Flag, while they are constantly empowering Government to regulate our thoughts, actions, and desires, with absolutely no ability of freedom of choice in how we will live!

New Amsterdam, TV Show

New Amsterdam, which premieres tonight on Fox after American Idol, is going to be a huge hit or a huge flop. It has quite a few things working in its favor: an attractive star (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau), an intriguing premise (detective will remain immortal until he finds true love), and a plum time slot for its premiere.

On the other hand, I found the first episode of the show to be utterly ridiculous. Again, that's not necessarily a bad thing; as I noted in my Pilot Watch last Summer, the show didn't work for me as a drama, but I thought it was an outstanding comedy. Or, upon further reflection, maybe I should have called it an outstanding soap opera. Every plot twist was so telegraphed, and every development so utterly unrealistic, that I couldn't help but be sucked in. Really, the guy's been living in New York for 400 years and nobody's realized that he still appears to be a strapping 40-something for all eternity?

Top 16 Guys American Idol 7

So, here’s my ranking of how the guys did tonight:

1. David Cook
2. Danny Noriega
3. Jason Castro
4. David Archuleta
5. David Hernandez
6. Michael Johns
7. Chikezie
8. Luke Menard

Luke Menard started off the night with an upbeat “Wake Me Up Before You Go Go”. At least it wasn’t as embarassing as his sister dressing him up like a ballerina. Actually, I didn’t think it was horrible. I think fluffy pop suits him better than slow, in a way. Randy was on the fence about the performance, and Paula liked it (she liked everything tonight, by the way, so I’ll just tell you that now). Simon thought it was weak and girly— what do you expect from a Wham! song?

Up next was David Archuleta, whose most embarassing moment was when his Mom had to finish a song for him during a concert. He sang Phil Collins’ “Another Day in Paradise”. I don’t think this was a particularly song for Phil Collins, so I definitely didn’t think it was the smartest choice of songs for David. I’d like to see some variety in his choices. It’s okay to sing a song just because it’s fun and entertaining— not everything needs to make a poing. Randy was on the fence on this one, as well. Simon thought it wasn’t as good as past performances and that David runs the risk of being a bit gloomy.

The lamest embarassing moment goes to Danny Noriega who once tripped down the stairs at the movie theater— I have a hard time believing that’s REALLY Danny’s most embarassing moment. 80s night was pretty much made for Danny, and I really liked his performance of “Tainted Love”. The judges were split on him tonight. While Randy and Paula liked him, Simon thought everything about it was horrible. Why don’t you tell us what you really think, Simon?

David Hernandez had one of the better embarassing moments. He did a photo shoot and only learned when he got the proofs back that he had a huge booger hanging out of his nose the entire time. That makes you wonder why the photographer couldn’t have pointed that out, doesn’t it? He sang a song that I associate with Celine Dion, although Meatloaf sang it, as well, so I guess it’s not completely girly: “It’s All Coming Back To Me Now”. It was just okay for me. It showed off his voice, but something about it was weird to me. All of the judges liked it, although Simon said it wasn’t as good as last week.

David Cook was supposed to go next, but when they returned from the commercial break it turned out he was having guitar issues, so Michael Johns got bumped up in the lineup. He once did a gig as a kangaroo mascot and got beat up in front of 20,000 people by some guys who jumped the fence at the game. That’s a pretty good one. Tonight he chose to sing “Don’t You Forget About Me”. Something was still off about this to me. Something about his vocals and his performance just seems out of synch to me. Randy seemed to mistakenly attribute the song to INXS when he compared Michael Johns to famous Australian Michael Hutchence. I suppose it’s possible that’s not what he meant, but that’s how I took it (it’s a Simple Minds song, by the way). Other than that, all the judges liked it for the most part. (For the record, I thought Michael Johns SHOULD have sung an INXS song.)

After the break, we finally got to David Cook. When he was a kid he was in a talent show and forgot the second verse of a song. Instead of skipping the verse, he just stood there frozen. Fortunately, tonight’s performance of “Hello” went much better than that. It was a really interesting song choice that I questioned at first, but it was very, very good. I think David Cook is one of the only ones who really knows who he is as a musician. He’s always going to bring himself to the songs, which is great. Rand and Paula were enthusiastic about his performance and, surprisingly, so was Simon. He said it was very brave, and he LOVED it!

Jason Castro was up next. Once on a date, he accidentally ripped off a dreadlock. So, is that more embarassing because you have to eat dinner holding a braid or because you have to admit to your date that you have fake hair? He sang “Hallelujah” without the guitar tonight. I thought it was a good song, but I didn’t think it had a lot of spark. The judges LOVED it, though. Simon even called it brilliant! Well, I don’t know about that.

The final singer of the night was Chikezie. He spent the first several weeks of high school going to a very clean bathroom that turned out to be the girls’ bathroom— oops! He made the same mistake that Syesha made last week, choosing to sing a song that was readily recognized as being recorded by the opposite gender. He sang a song made most famous by Whitney Houston: “All The Man That I Need”. Like last week, I wasn’t really bothered by this. It’s not really my favorite kind of music, but I thought he sang it well. Randy and Puala weren’t bothered, either, but Simon really hated it.

Rob dyrdek Big Season

Texas primary results

Right now, it is showing John McCain with 54.92% and Mike Huckabee with 33.26%. The total vote count is at 1.88%. You can see the complete breakdown on the website I provided. I know it is early, but CNN has already called Texas and the GOP nomination for John McCain.

When you look at the actual delegate count, I honestly do not see how they can do that, without counting the unpledged delegates, plus the delegates that belong to Mitt Romney. I think they need to go back to school and take some more math.

Don’t Forget About Me by Michael Johns

Michael Lee Johns sings Simple Mind’s “Don’t Forget About Me.”

I like the song — it reminds of my teenage years and all of the John Hughes films set in the Chicago suburbs that were popular in the 1980s.