In a stunning turn of events Roger Ailes, the genius behind Fox News network and the Godfather of the conservative movement in America journeyed to the ABC This Week news round table Sunday, a program hosted by Barbara Walters of The View fame and keeper of the faith for liberals in America.
As you may recall, President Obama journeyed to the Lion's den just last week to meet with Republican lawmakers without Nancy Pelosi or the White House gang and his appearance caused quite a stir. We ran a story on the meeting last week.
This time it was Ailes who journeyed to the bowels of liberaldom to confront the enemies of reality, the masters of deception, the pyramids of the pariah and the fountain of negativity and nitpicking. Well, maybe that gives Barbara Wawa a bit too much credit since she seems to be shying away from awful controversy she began hosting the View with the wall of liberal defenders.
Still, she was able to draw the Big Bear Ailes from his mountaintop, she describes him as a friend, one of her millions I guess, and it was still a memorable experience. It was the Sunday after the President's State of the Union and the Ailes interview dominated the media Sunday which is just what Roger expects Fox to do. I'm sure the White House staff were disappointed that Ailes knocked the president out of the lead stories but Fox seems to make a habit of doing that.
Waiting for him at the table was The Huffington Post's Arianna Huffington, a more worthy protector of the liberal line could not be found. A few fireworks began to ignite when she interrogated Ailes but his legendary wit and brutal honesty were no match for the leftists.
She challenged him on having an extremist like Glenn Beck on Fox and Roger simply responded we are after the ratings and we are number one.
When she asked how he could possibly have someone like, ugh, Sarah Palin as a network news commentator he replied I was the only network to have the only Democratic VP candidate, Geraldine Ferraro, on TV for ten years and now I am the only network to have the only Republican VP candidate on the air. We are Fair and Balanced.
Huffington huffed a few times but got none of the adoration she gets from all the liberal shows where she normally appears and the series of exchanges finally gave us a break from all the politicians polluting the airways.
I must say when she was challenging the Fox efforts to polarize the public Ailes calmly mentioned that her very own blog has used equally inflammatory language about him, she promptly claimed it was a comment from a reader, but a fact check showed it was in a Huffington story. Chalk another one up to Roger. Perhaps that is why Fox buries the liberal media in popularity.
Now if these peacekeeping efforts by Obama meeting the Republicans and Ailes meeting the liberals are a sign of things to come then there is an outside chance civility may return to the political scene. However, it is not something I would count on as it takes more than words to mend fences.
Besides, we have a long ways to go before we have thrown out all the rascals in politics and since they have no guilt over stretching the truth to defend their horrid records then tough talk may be the only way to get them out of office where they belong.
Just watched the Grammy awards and saw Beyonce win six (most by a female at one show in history) and Taylor Swift win four awards (including youngest female to ever win album of the year). It was a weird night with some pretty good performances. My favorites were Lady Gaga and Elton John, Pink sailing above the crowd in a quite pleasing performance, Green Day with the Cast of a new Musical performing their song 21 Guns, and Bon Jovi from New Jersey proving that the Jersey talent continues to run deep.
Perhaps the reason album sales in America have collapsed the last decade is because so many songs are so over-produced they simply engulf the listener in a wall of sound that makes the words impossible to understand and the instrumental mix a clutter of competing sounds. Maybe the lyrics are over-powered by the music because the story line is inferior. Crisp lyrics, strong arrangements, diverse orchestration and a mix that made you appreciate each of these factors made music much more enjoyable in the past.
In 2000 there were 785 million albums sold in America. In 2009 there were just 374 million sold, a loss of over 52% in record sales during the decade. Record labels say it is because of the Internet and theft from downloading but I believe it is because the record buying public thinks so much material is terrible they won't waste their money.
Back to the Grammy awards, the worst performance was by Taylor Swift, whose album Fearless was named Best Album of the Year. Her duet with Stevie Nicks was hard to listen to as the young pop princess again proved singing live is her Achilles heel. Don't take it from me, here is what the expert critics said.
Los Angeles Times - Ann Powers
The most telling statement of the night, in fact, came from comic Stephen Colbert, who told the crowd that the Grammys were "the highest honor that the music industry can bestow, other than your song being covered by the cast of 'Glee,' " the popular TV show about a high school choir. Today's most powerful songs often reach listeners as ads -- the specialty of the Peas -- in YouTube video tributes, as with Beyonce's "Single Ladies," which won song of the year, or in other "nonmusical" contexts.
And more than ever, today's biggest stars are those who embody powerful archetypes so well that a misplaced note or two may be kindly overlooked. That last situation applies to Taylor Swift, who continued her winning streak by taking home album of the year for "Fearless," a recording that has seemingly won every available prize in the last year. Swift, 20, is a songwriter; she thanked her record label for "letting me write every song on my album" while accepting one of her awards.
But as well-crafted as her platinum-selling tales of suburban high school life are, it's Swift's persona that really sells. This smart young woman comes across as a perky, living American Girl doll, and that appealing version of traditional young womanhood, not her music, is at the heart of her stardom.
Her singing certainly can't be credited. Appealing enough on record, it always seems to let her down live. Swift gave a strikingly bad vocal performance at Staples Center on Sunday, sounding tinny and rhythmically flat-footed as she shared the microphone with the distinctive Stevie Nicks. Swift's inability to match or support Nicks as they worked through a medley of each woman's hits stood in stark contrast to the evening's other pairings, particularly soul man Maxwell's sensitive response to Roberta Flack and Lady Gaga's bravado turn with Elton John.
"For me, genres have really become something that I don't think people focus on anymore," Swift said backstage. "Country music is my love. [But] when you're making music, I think the healthiest thing to do is remove titles or stereotypes from what you're trying to do. It's not country versus rap . . . it's not anything you don't make it. It's about trying to make an album you hope is good enough to win album of the year."
MLive.com - Jessica Nunez
Taylor Swift with Stevie Nicks Poor Stevie Nicks. She's long proved herself in the music world and delivered once again last night on a trio of Taylor Swift songs. But Swift, who won four Grammys including Album of the Year, proved once again that the stage is not her friend. Nicks' raspy voice combined with Swift's pitchy performance was almost cringe-worthy. Taylor Swift is cute and her songs are catchy, but it's just plain hard to watch her live.
Green Day
One of the better performances was by Green Day and the Cast of a new Broadway musical of their album American Idiot. Check it out. This punk band trio from California has matured and evolved into a versatile singer/songwriter group.
Susan Boyle missing in action
Snubbed by the Grammys but loved by the world is Susan Boyle of Scotland. Her debut album, I Dreamed A Dream, was beat out by Taylor Swift by 100,000 sales for best seller of 2009 but wait a minute, all is not as it seems. Taylor Swift released Fearless in November, 2008. Boyle released Dream on November 23, 2009. Swift's was on the market over a year and one month while Boyle's just five weeks and still they almost tied.
Does that seem fair? By the end of January Boyle had caught up to Swift and worldwide has sold an amazing 8 million copies, in just 9 weeks. Still she was snubbed with no Grammy nomination. What is it about this strange 48 year old from Scotland? I say Boyle is the Sarah Palin of the music industry, a fan favorite while being snubbed by the critics.
Ironically Boyle has no regrets about the Grammy snub and as a lifelong Catholic her goal this year is to appear before the Pope when he comes to Scotland this fall. Of course she will also be taking America by storm with her first world tour.
This is what Laura Ferrerro had to say about Boyle on the PopEater blog.
Scottish songstress Susan Boyle seems poised to conquer the world. The unassuming 'Britain's Got Talent' star has already sold more than 1.8 million copies of her debut album 'I Dreamed a Dream' in its first three weeks of release in the U.S. (not to mention the millions she's sold worldwide). She also set an impressive record for the best first-week sales of any woman since SoundScan started tracking in 1991. If Boyle continues to sell albums at this pace, she'll likely steal Taylor Swift's crown as top selling artist of 2009.
So what is it about this homespun 47-year-old charity worker who lives alone with her cat that has us running to our nearest record store to pick up her debut album? We at PopEater checked in with some renowned pop music critics to see what all the fuss is about.
It's Boyle's "every woman" quality that's so appealing believes Aidin Vaziri, San Francisco Chronicle's Pop Music Critic. "She's ordinary. She's like us. People can relate to her," he says. "When she got onstage to face Simon Cowell she brought a million office workers' daydreams to life. I think everyone who saw the ('Britain's Got Talent') video felt moved by it wanted to be part of the story and make sure it had a happy ending."
It's Boyle's "underdog" status combined with our obsession with reality show sagas that has us rooting for her says Gaylord Fields, Senior Editor of AOL Music. "Susan Boyle's story is a classic underdog tale -- yet one that played out in front of the entire world," said Fields. "It embodies a couple of popular reality-show trends in one: it's a music competition coupled with a makeover story, with a hint of medical program savant syndrome thrown in."
"Shows such as 'American Idol' and 'Britain's Got Talent' are as interested in a potential star's looks as much as their talent," said pop music critic Stephen Humphries. "Boyle managed to up-end all that. Dowdy and close to age 50, she seemed to have no right to be trying out for a market most interested in youth and sex appeal. But her voice trumped all that. I think the fact that Boyle isn't a particularly self-confident or precocious person only added to her underdog appeal."
Fields concurs that it is these personal attributes that make Boyle so relatable. "The juxtaposition of Boyle's one-in-a-million voice with her modest looks and her seeming simplicity and innocence add up to something unique -- and ultimately relatable," he says.
What am I trying to say you might ask? Let me tell you, I have not been particularly kind to the Obama administration although I do have the utmost respect for the president. On the other hand, I have been as pointed toward the White House staff under Obama and the Democratic leadership in Congress as I was with the Bush advisors and Congress.
It is now clear after listening to Obama have a question and answer session with the Republicans in Congress, a first for his presidency, that he really has his hands full. Politics, and nasty politics runs deep in our nation's capitol. A sad but true situation. It is fueled by the news media and lobbyists who take sides with their mouths and money.
Obama has been criticized for being too much of a teacher and not enough of a leader. Yet my many articles over the years have pointed out that the problem in Washington is so deep that it encompasses both political parties, both houses of congress, the news media, the political commentators, and especially the White House staff.
This was the Republican chance to show that unlike the White House staff and Democratic Leaders in Congress they were willing to listen to the people and make a sincere effort to work on a bi-partisan agenda with the president and the Democrats for the good of the nation.
About half of those asking questions did that to some degree. The rest fell back into the same old sniping and politicking that has disgusted the public and makes all politicians look bad. So when a question was asked to make political hay the president shot back to set the record straight.
There is a lot the GOP and president agree upon. Even those present had to agree. But if Obama is honest and really sees the light and need for bi-partisan work, he has really got his work cut out. He is surrounded by ideologues on the left and right, Democratic and Republican partisans, media maniacs, conservative and liberal fanatics and political jerks in the White House.
I am beginning to believe none of them really want him to succeed. Even the Democratic leadership has done everything to inflame relations between the president and Republicans. His own staff cannot help offering a daily dose of negative nitpicking about conservatives, Republicans, Sarah Palin, Fox News or who knows what else.
Obama will have to be the best teacher in history to pull off teaching this class. Bringing peace to these polarized barbarians will be like converting cannibals to vegetarians. I'm beginning to think Coltons Point, where I live should not secede from the Union but should lead a national referendum to force Washington, DC to secede and take with it all the White House staff, Democratic and Republican politicians, media, lobbyists and special interests.
If we really wanted to defeat the terrorists we would send the Democrats and Republicans in Congress and the White House staff and Washington media to the war zone and you can bet every terrorist in Afghanistan and Pakistan would be consumed by the bickering, badgering and bullsh-- spewed across the landscape. Maybe it is a good thing Obama is like a teacher although it might even be more important to be a psychiatrist, wizard and sorcerer to try and tame this crowd.
Today Obama justifiably got a little testy at some of the pointed questions and nonsensical commentary before questions were asked. His White House staff said in advance that he was going to teach the Republicans a lesson. A typically stupid move. Give him an A for trying, a B for listening, a C for his comments and an M for martyr for entering the Coliseum to face the lions nearly naked.
All of Washington has demonstrated over and over again that they intend to ignore the people and they have disenfranchised the voters in the process. Many of these old politicians will be retired this fall and that is a good thing. Many more should be. It is a real shame we can't vote on the media and White House staff because then the needed housecleaning would be thorough and complete.
For those of you interested and open minded there has long been a fascination with UFOs in America, ever since the ancient Indian petrogliths depicted strange creatures and space ships thousands of years ago. The Rosewell incident in the summer of 1947 heightened the interest and the USA space program has added to the mystery.
In my work with the Hopi Indians over the years numerous elders and wisdom keepers made casual reference to me of these Blue People who came many centuries ago and have helped the Hopi over the centuries. In fact there is a grave of one such person I was shown in Arizona. The wisdom of the Hopi, the truth of the spiritual leaders, and the ancient prophecies of the Hopi give far more truth to what they say than our government.
Last fall I was shooting photos of the unusual circle formation at the top of this story from my porch at Coltons Point. I then zoomed in on the contrail cutting across the circle and got the two shots showing some kind of a sphere crossing the circle. At the same time I took a photo of another contrail showing a plane and the aircraft were clearly distinguishable from spheres.
Ironically one of the greatest series of sightings in American history took part in the Washington, DC area in the 1950's, confirmed by officers at Andrews Air Force base, and spheres were reported in the sklies south of our nation's capitol. Coltons Point is south of Washington, DC.
About ten years ago I was at a base in the frontier outside of Moscow, Russia reviewing secret KGB film archives and came across many Soviet government photos of ufos. Interviews with former Soviet officials indicated the existence of ufos was accepted by the Soviet Union and encounters were well documented.
In my years in various US government offices I interviewed many people from the armed services and associated with Project Bluebook, the alleged government cover up of ufo activity. The private acknowledgement of the officials was in sharp contrast to the official denial of ufos.
This past week a video was shot in Dublin, Ireland with night vision and it showed the following.
As a reporter one must remain open to truth. Signs and symbols seem to indicate there is a great deal more truth to the statement we are not alone than many might suspect and there is reason to believe such truths may be proven in the very near future. You might want to consider the possibility.
After jet setting around the world for eight years in his private jet, former vice presidential candidate Al Gore finally found a sympathetic voice for his lonely cause to awaken the people to the end of the world. The world's most famous terrorist and architect of 9-11, the legendary and somewhat mythical Osama Bin Laden, joined Gore today in saying America is responsible for global warming.
Certainly Osama has done more than anyone to stop the American economy, the machine behind global warming according to Bin Laden and Gore, than any other person as his attack on New York sent the world into a decade long economic collapse. While Gore was making a hundred million dollars for himself Obama was spending a hundred million to stop America and global warming.
Other than the hundred million there is not much similarity between these odd allies. Bin Laden has been on a survival diet while Gore seems to have been on a Big Mac diet. Gore lives in million dollar mansions and flies in private jets. Bin Laden lives in caves and travels by horseback. Gore has partners on Wall Street like Goldman Sachs while Bin Laden tries to destroy Gore's partners on Wall Street like Goldman Sachs. Gore sells alarmist books while Bin Laden sends out underwear bombers.
Still there are a few similarities. While Gore warns of the end of the world Osama does his best to bring it about. Gore wants global warming to be a war while Osama already made it a war. Both used to be on the government payroll, Gore in Congress and the White House and Osama for the CIA. I suppose that makes them both eligible for Obama's health care and government pensions.
Most important both figured out a way to use the sinister action by Clinton officials at the end of his term, action that led to the housing, oil and economic crisis that nearly destroyed the world, to advance their causes. Gore rode the ushering in of a decade of greed to a personal gain of $100 million and billions more in potential income from Obama's cap and trade while Osama rode the decade of greed into undermining the world economy.
If it all sounds like a surreal movie then reality follows fiction more than we might think. Maybe the Nobel Peace prize committee in Oslo will decide that Osama has just as much potential to bring about world peace as Barack Obama, and Al Gore, two former winners of the world's strangest awards show, and give it to Osama to encourage him like they did our president.
In the meantime the newest winner of the Nobel Peace prize, President Barack Obama, will continue his massive military build up in Afghanistan with 100,000 US soldiers now committed to killing Osama Bin Laden. Somehow it would only be appropriate to give it to Bin Laden. I mean look at all Gore and Obama have done to advance the cause of peace.
It is times like this when I think we really do live in an alternate universe, like Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland, where nothing is as it seems.
Obama talks for 70 minutes, people are still not sure what he said. But he did smile a lot, tell a few jokes, lecture the public, scold the Supreme Court, castigate an inept Congress and hijacked a bunch of Sarah Palin's agenda that he condemned so viciously last year.
So now, will the liberal elite who buried Palin in insults and smears claiming she was too inexperienced to be babysitter let alone president when she was really running for vice president, now apologize to her since the Chosen One has now seen the light and co-opted her platform and that of the Tea Party? Why he didn't even credit the source of the ideas.
Off shore oil drilling, business tax credits, eliminate capital gains taxes, hiring credits, more nuclear plants, coal and natural gas production, he used a whole lot of the Palin platform to try and win back the independents and people who expect government to be competent. You don't think it has anything to do with the polls do you?
Just so you know he was not completely out of form, as the original Obama was quite the entertaining speaker, he did point out that recent letters he has received from people tell him of the suffering and pain Americans feel about jobs, housing, healthcare and education. You would think after campaigning for president for two years and being president for one year he would have known how bad people were suffering but at least he reads the mail.
Did he hear anything the people told him? Guess not as he said the anti-Washington feeling sweeping across the nation and sweeping politicians out of office was the same wave he rode on his surfboard. I don't think so Mr. Obama. How in the world could someone with all the experience you had as United States Senator and community organizer make you an outsider? Anyone mistaking Obama for anything but a Washington insider would be the same people who mistake Bambi for a serial killer.
Anyway his long and often used "outsider" pivot is another area where he ripped off Sarah Palin who really was an outsider and did fight the political establishment. Heck, Obama even made reference to the bank bailout being like a root canal. Does that mean he ripped off Palin once again with her "drill baby drill" mantra during the campaign? After all the flip flops and absconding of Palin's agenda and platform he would have been a lot better off to have had Palin as VP and kept Biden in the doghouse.
Okay, then there were the 66 references to the almighty "I", another consistent Obama trait that leaves one wondering if the virtue of humility has any place in our young president's worldview. I'm beginning to think he has no foundation to his worldview but snatches the last argument he heard about what to think, whether it came from Sarah Palin or South Park. Then he throws out all he stood for in the campaign which seems to upset those liberal groups expecting socialism to already be here.
Did Obama pivot on his policies like he did his Palinesque rhetoric? Let's see. He still wants his health care bill, cap and trade legislation, pending jobs bill, maybe another similar stimulus since the first one did not do what he wanted, and he now has better ideas for the Tarp funds repaid by the big, bad banks. One might have thought the bank payments would go to reduce the deficit but not our president.
Overall there is one difference between what Obama proposes and what Palin, the Republicans or the Tea Party people would want. I'm sorry Mr. President but you are not the poster boy for the Tea Party and you are most certainly not the Washington outsider you claim. You made the deals to bailout out the banks, insurance companies, auto companies and save the unions and Goldman Sachs from huge losses for irresponsible investing.
You along with most of the politicians in Washington take the money from the lobbyists, banks, insurance companies and every other group like trial lawyers and pharmaceuticals and stick it in your campaign coffers. Some outsider. If you could just tell us the truth and say you will stop being a politician we might believe you. But you act as if you are disgusted by the very practices you encourage behind the scenes and behind closed doors. Where I come from that is being a hypocrite.
Beyond the rhetoric and entertainment there were a couple of ominous signs that would scare the hell out of any God fearing, patriotic American but our adoring media seemed to not notice, and they all too often seem to not notice when Obama makes no sense. This time he made sense.
First he threatened Congress when he said if they didn't give him a bill he wanted he would just sign an executive order and eliminate the need for Congress to act. So the Executive branch can eliminate the need for the Legislative branch to perform their duty. It has already happened under Obama with the cap and trade fiasco demonstrating a distain for such Constitutional principles like the separation of powers and checks and balances between the Executive and Legislative branches.
The House passed the Al Gore/Goldman Sachs cap and trade carbon emissions retirement bill but the Senate wants to think about it, so it spins in the wind doing nothing while others investigate it. Obama's Environmental Protection Agency then decides it knows how to cut Congress out of the decision by declaring carbon dioxide a toxic gas thus making it subject to federal regulation with no action by Congress. One again the Administration has demonstrated a disregard for the Constitutional separation of powers between the Executive and Legislative branches.
My advice to EPA is to go out and arrest all the trees of the world because they emit carbon dioxide when they are cut down. Forget about the fact they also absorb nearly 40% of all carbon dioxide through their natural photosynthesis process. Arrest all the people burning wood for heat because they are directly polluting our atmosphere. And arrest the oceans while they are at it because the sea both generates carbon dioxide and absorbs it to the tune of 60% of all emissions.
The Obama Administration disregard for our Constitutional protections, ones which our forefathers warned us about, is quite disturbing. Why do they think they can ignore elements of the Constitution that guarantee the separation of powers and assure the checks and balances between each division of our republic? Not content with ignoring the separation of powers with the Legislature, he then took aim at the third division of government, the Judiciary.
He scolded the Supreme Court, condemning their decision on corporate free speech, and seemed to try and embarrass them as they sat in the front row watching his speech. One was visibly upset, not by the criticism but by the fact Obama did not even tell the truth about the decision. Obama said the court action will allow corporations, including foreign corporations, to own the US election process. Well foreign corporations are prohibited from contributing to our campaigns and the Supreme Court decision had nothing to do with that.
Obama also forgot to mention he and the Democrats already have taken millions of dollars from corporate executives while the political parties take money directly. He also forgot to mention that anytime Obama and Congress want to fix the system of campaign financing they can do it if they have the guts. However, corporations are betting millions that Obama and our political leaders in the capitol will do nothing.
The thought that a president thinks he can ignore the Constitution if the Legislature and the Judiciary fail to do his bidding is very scary. Finally, his criticism of both parties for not doing what he wanted is a joke as he was the one who refused to work with both parties choosing to work directly with the lobbyists of the special interests. His approach resulted in a new meaning for pork barrel as he gave away $60 billion to the unions without Congressional approval, tens of millions of dollars to the people of Nebraska and Louisiana to bribe their Senators, and billions in protection to the pharmaceutical companies.
Well, he can say what he wants but it sure seems to me as if politics as usual is alive and well in the back rooms of our nation's capitol from the White House to the Halls of Congress. Don't be fooled by the rhetoric. Don't be fooled by the pivots. Don't be fooled by the new found or born again populism. No one in Washington, including our Ivy League educated president, is a friend of the people over special interests or Wall Street.
