On Law and Order, and Presidential Politics

Much has been made recently about the coming candidacy of former Tennessee Senator and Hollywood know-it-all Fred Thompson. He has announced that he will announce his intentions for the Presidency of The United States of America sometime after Independence Day. One of my favorite new features of this Presidential election is the need to have your official announcement of your candidacy 14 separate times. Thompson has the punditocracy absolutely aflutter, and he has stormed to double digit showings in most primary states having not spent a dime. The sheer skill and timing of his campaign reeks of the legendary figures of professional politics. When back rooms where still filled with smoke and intrigue and you could enter the race after the first primary had already been staged. But as much as I have tried to pillory the fraud that is Mitt, I have to say to look deeper is impossible because there is no substance to Senator Thompson.

To start, his positions are almost in lockstep with the inept and hated boy king in the White House. Let's accept Iraq as the 51st state and Scooter's lying to a grand jury shouldn't mean jail, it should mean a raise. He also has barely six years in any elective office, and he's a lawyer from Hollywood. I've read many blogs that have made the point of the rank hypocrisy from the right when it comes to Hollywood. They are rich, and spoiled, and should just keep their mouth shut. Yet if you put an R next to your name they'll actually put you in charge of actual shit. If Carl Weathers is a republican they'll jump at the chance to make him the third cast member of Predator to be a Governor. Maybe he can replace that whiny pussy Kansas Governor who complained about the disaster relief equipment being in Iraq. Tornadoes are avowed America haters.

The real reason for the rock star treatment of Thompson boils down to the awkward group that are declared for the nomination now. A cross-dressing gay-loving New York City Mayor? A Mormon Massachusetts Governor who tried to out liberal Ted Kennedy when he tried to unseat him? Or maybe the man against torture who still has the bruise from Dubya's cock slapping him in the face so many times? Seems strange that Thompson is the answer. I would have thought that the Republicans would have strayed from the "pretty name and face" candidate considering how it turned out the last time.

All this could be upset by the decision of Michael Bloomberg to change his affiliation to unaffiliated. If he's leaving the Republican party that he joined just to become Mayor, but did not return to the Democrats, that means he's toying with the third party run jive. That could cause the whole dynamic to turn, 15 months before we should be bothering with this.

The Chairman of the Board on the man upstairs

" I believe in you and me. I'm like Albert Schweitzer and Bertrand Russell and Albert Einstein in that I have a respect for life--in any form. I believe in nature, in the birds, the sea, the sky, in everything I can see or that there is real evidence for. If these things are what you mean by God, then I believe in God."

-Francis Albert Sinatra

When was the last GOOD series finale?

I sat with a group to watch the last episode of The Sopranos tonight. This group was made up of two dedicated fans of the show, and my sister. Like my sister I have never had an interest in the show, but I watched last week and had a vague interest because of the hype. I've never bought into the orgiastic delight that most public figure use to discuss how "brilliant" the show is, but with that said it is a good show. The show does build to a good climax, and then just ends with a blank screen. The first thing I thought of was the Seinfeld finale. Everybody was so incensed about how bad it was. Now it was a piss-poor episode, let alone a series finale, but I think much of the consternation was just over-expectation. Well sure enough the finale of The Sopranos was a news story on The ABC Nightly News. That's a little much. But as I read tonight, the HBO website has crashed due to angry fans of the show. Fan sentiment will be bad. It's all just a lead in to a Sopranos movie, and I can't blame them. The show must go on, but it does come to an end. As all good things do.

TSE Commentary: The Paris Hilton Affair, day 4

As I came in to work word spread that some Hotel heiress had been let out of jail after having served a very short sentence. I also have it on good authority that this woman is known to have had sexual intercourse on the internet. That's good enough to be famous in the greatest country on earth. I had the opposite reaction to most of the members of the "water cooler" gang. I was kind of annoyed at the fact that this was a subject of conversation. There are plenty of rich, vapid whores getting away with murder in this country. To fixate on this particular silicon receptacle is just nakedly shallow. American men are being slaughtered on the other side of the planet and we are concerned by this. Conservatives are fond of saying, "if this were during World War II." If this were then FDR having a good morning constitutional would be news above this. This is Huxley's vision come true and Neil Postman was right. We are amusing ourselves to death.

When talk shows made sense

If daytime talk shows were still like this I would have it set for automatic record. Richard Bey now guest hosts a liberal political satellite radio show. Here he reveals his dislike of his competition. I miss this guy.

The War On Terror, and Howie Mandel

How can we as a society hope to win the hearts and minds of the world back after the disaster of the Bush administration, while millions of us watch Deal Or No Deal. This shows more than any of the many myriad examples of cultural rot, that we have given up as a society. We don't even care any more. That waste of shaving products Howie Mandel, a man I thought we had left of the cultural dust heap of the 1980's, stands there and has people pick out briefcases with models standing next to them. I'm shocked that they even bother to clothe them. Why not light the briefcases on fire. The screaming family members and the I.Q drain that is Mandel may make for drama for some, but they are missing valuable time that they could be finger painting and we shouldn't keep them from that. I think if we follow the natural progression that took us from the Price is Right to Deal or No Deal it means that soon we'll all be riveted to the new game show where two people scream at each other, and the one that screams the loudest wins a million. At least I have a shot of winning that.

I Mail Myself The Constitution : The Sushine Empire Celebrates 300 Posts

The TSE gets sucked into talking about Sanjaya, but still refuses comment on Imus.

I fully believe the terrorists have won. How could I come to such a position? The below video is why. This girl is doing this over a stupid fucking singing contest. These are the same people that made Jessie Ventura the Governor of Minnesota and Arnold Schwarzenegger the Governor of Kali-fonia. I mean why not, their work in Predator just made you walk away and say they needed to be leading the Governments of major states. Yet as my good friend Biggus Rickus observed, "I just figured she was doing it to lose weight."



Please laugh at her.

Birthday

I hope you will join us in pausing for a moment to pay respect to one of the most legendary actors of any generation, whose birthday is Saturday. Of course I'm talking about James Garner. Who else could have given us such American treasures like Rockford Files. So think about that on April 7Th. I know I will.

The Word

American Scientific Advancement

Academy Awards Live Blog

Ok, it's not really live, and I'm not really paying attention. An assortment of things have struck me thought. I am happy that Little Miss Sunshine has won some awards. I was with my sister and she was watching the pre-show show on E, with pan-sexual tool Ryan Seacrest. Every single person he spoke to no matter who it was, was treated to at least 17 mentions of American Idol before he got to the movie stuff. "So when are you going to come on Idol Mr. O'Toole?" They have basically taken everything that makes up a typical football game broadcast and applied it to the Oscars. They had people with telestrators in the pre-broadcast. Betting lines, and half naked women. It's all there. Clint Eastwood was drunk. I still hate Jodi Foster. And sadly, Don Knots is dead. Whatever may come, I've lost my appetite for celebrity in general.