Canned! MSNBC drops Imus!

Nothing like standing by your man.

MSNBC caves into the pressure and cancels Imus in the Morning from their television programming schedule.

Personally, I am just in awe at the amount of outrage that this incident has generated…and most of it perpetuated by Al Sharpton, who if a black rapper had said something derogatory about another human being who wasn’t black, would not have had one word to say about the matter…period!

When I look back on the subject of controversial people with big mouths who happen to be radio personalities, the first person who comes to mind is Howard Stern.

The so called ” King of All Media ” has probably been just as controversial as anyone I can remember, and yet in the end Howard is a mega star, with a new ( well maybe not so new anymore ) show on Sirius Satellite Radio. Now you have to remember that this is a guy who had strippers on his television show and did all kinds of outrageous stuff with these girls, and with girls on his show in general!

And got away with it!

Look, I know that Don Imus is no saint, and when it’s time to go to heaven, I think the angel Gabriel will probably punch his lights out!

But this is what Imus has done all his radio career…been a loud mouth, been controversial, and while his ratings haven’t been the best over the past few years, I’m not sure that he deserves this type of drastic response ” NOW ” to behaviour he has been exhibiting for I don’t know how many years.

I think that MSNB has made a terrible mistake, and has shown that they have no loyalty toward their on camera personalities, and can be persuaded by certain political groups of people who become outraged over what can only be deemed as ” Thoughtless ” and ” Insensitive ” comments.

But I am very sorry to say that the hypocrisy, which is just blatant in this matter shows that we are not really a free society at all, but a society built on the promise of free speech….until certain civic groups get involved in matters of said free speech, and suddenly, free speech is not so free anymore.

Imus Suspended!

As I stated in yesterday’s post, I don’t listen to the I Man, with any regularity, but the last couple of days I have been listening in on my daily drive to hell, oopps I meant work ( same thing ) and I have to say that Don sounds genuinely distressed over these comments.

Quite frankly, I think this is just an instance where, you have to first, look at the source of the comment….come on folks, the times when I have listened in on this show, I have heard alot of ” Stereo type “, ” Minority Bashing ” in the bits that have been done, and I must say, they got me to laugh ( and ask anyone who knows me, that’s pretty tough ) they have been harmless, plain and simple. That’s it! It’s comedy folks, and it’s Imus. I have heard alot of discussion on both sides of this (non) issue over the past few days, and I have decided that I think it’s enough that the I Man be suspended. That’s enough in my book.

There have been in times past, much greater wrongs, said and done not just towards African Americans ( and I just censored myself as I was typing African American, I want to be politicly correct here ) but I personally feel that anything more than the suspension is just too much and you folks need to take a funny pill!

I was listening to the Shawn Hannity radio show yesterday, and I don’t remember the name of the ( oh,the heck with it ) BLACK comedian that was one of the guests talking about this issue, but this guy was able to be objective and honest about this and he was not offended by what Imus said.

I think the real issue here is that Imus, with his ” Imus Ranch “, does alot of really good work for kids with Cancer, ALL THE TIME, and I think you need to weigh this against what can only be termed as Imus being Imus on his morning show and you need to deal with it.

As we are always told, if you don’t like what you are listening to and or watching, there is something called the ability to decide, which in this case would be maybe, just change the channel and get over it.

Imus ” Too Much In The Morning ?”

I have been an irregular listener at best to Imus in the Morning, and this latest outburst from the mouth that roared really shouldn’t surprise anyone. Imus has always steered his own ship, sans any apologies. And any apologies that come are usually after the fact, as in this case.

My only real question here is really aimed at Al Sharpton….where are you when Imus’s mouth is insulting another Caucasian, of any decent? If this had been said in reference to some other group of people, not of African heritage, I have to question just how civic minded you would have been in that same instance?

The Obama Watch

I first spoke about who to watch for in o7 as far as politics goes, and I guess that what I said about Obama was right on target. If you have been keeping up, you may have noticed the fact that the Hillary train to Washington may have hit the Obama bump in the road, and I for one couldn’t be happier about it!

I know that we still haven’t heard enough about Obama, but I still think that this story isn’t over yet. Even if Obama doesn’t get the Democratic nod this time around, he most certainly will in the future. But I will not say more about this for now other than to say, it’s along way off for the election, and there still is not a favored front runner for the dems yet, and so the drama continues on!

A matter of American Conscience

Conscience in American today can mean many things to many of us. It could be in reference to the Iraq war or to the Anna Nicole disaster. In the end, it’s all subjective at best isn’t it?

Well, in my post today, it refers to the media ( all media, I don’t care which and what station or newspaper! ) you’re all just as bad in this instance. I am speaking of American sensationalism and the media. And all you have to do is look at all of the items listed above( yes I realize that I have only listed two things there, but the diversity there should speak volumes ) and how the media reports these little tidbits to their adoring public, which is just as guilty in this case because we perpetuate the need for this type of reporting. As a matter of fact, we can’t seem to live without it!

Well, I hae had enough of it. I didn’t need to know all the particulars of Anna Nicole’s death, the fight over who would get the body, where it would be buried, and who is the actual father of her baby.

Personally, I didn’t care. And I didn’t need to know either.

And as far as Iraq goes, I’ve had about all I can stand of this fiasco also. Everyday, I get to hear both sides of the never ending battle of the ” Fores vs the Againsts ” as far as the war goes. And both sides have valid points and issues, but isn’t time to stop the over publicizing of it already?

And lets not forget Brittany and her shaved locks and her revolving door rehab visits!

Wouldn’t it be nice if the news outlets and the media outlets where we get all this info from, would just inform us, rather than just try to make Brittany’s rehab nightmare take on a 3d life of it’s own thru our televisions and the newspapers and tabloids?

Oh and this post is 100% non-sensationalized!

Looks Like the Party’s Over in Washington

This is just a short post.

The president gives his last State of the Union address this Tuesday, and for the first time ever, he will have to utter the words ” Madame Speaker “. This will probably be the last civil words that come from his mouth toward the new speaker and to a Democrat majority in the congress.

While the new congress was aplauding itself for it’s first 100 hour agenda to get certain legislation passed, the real battle in Washington has only just begun.

With his ” Troop Surge ” initiative already started ( the Congress be damned ) the president will face an uphill battle dealing with both parties within the congress, due to the fact that there are senators in both parties who are against the president’s troop initiative.

To finish this short post, I just want to point out that as I stated in an earlier post , there really will never be a

” bipartisan ” work ethic in the congress because there are ( in my opinion ) alot of the ” Old Guard ” on both sides of the isle, that will always point fingers at one another that causes the real alienation in Washington.

What we really need are young, fresh voices, that do not want it to be ” Politics as usual ” in Washington, and want to steer the country in a new direction.

And on that note, watch out Hillary, and all of you talk radio Conservatives who think that Barack Obama is young and untested. The country is tired and we want a change in the good old boys in Washington, and we want it fast.

24: Art Imitating Life? Making the case for the Bush war on Terror?

Had a hard decision this evening…..watch ” Shawn’s Hannity’s America ” with ” The Donald ” or watch the two hour premier of 24…what to do, what to do?

As I stated in my post about Hannity’s show, I probably would not catch too many of them so the decision was easy in the end.

24 delivered the goods, but I really cannot help but notice the scenario here ( by the way if you haven’t seen tonight’s episodes and are going to, than you might want to direct your browser to another page right now! ) and the scenario is pretty much why I have the Long Winded title above….

real terrorists exploding bombs here on US soil, and I don’t mean one or two. The scenario is actually pretty scary here….the idea that a terrorist organization would be able to at will, just detonate bombs here, anywhere they wanted to, and good old US intelligence would be just as stupid as usual, what is America to do?

In steps the hero of 24, Jack Bauer to save the day.

The real short point here folks, is that in this case art isn’t imitating life….yet.

But while the scenario shown tonight on my television screen isn’t happening here yet, it doesn’t mean it won’t in the future. This scene is real and taking place in the middle east, and also in whatever select countries that terrorists decide to bomb this week!

Could we be next?

I don’t know?

Whose to say?

Certainly not you or I, but I will Burn The Candle here, and just say that there are two sides to every issue, and certainly after 911 and the lives that have been lost since, terror is certainly not something we can continue to ignore any longer, and when we all go to bed this evening, feeling safe and snug as a bug in our blankets, remember we could wake up tomorrow to another 911….what’s that you say….that can’t happen again….

Just remember, we never thought that type of thing could ever happen here in America to begin with, let’s hope that this WAR ON TERROR, isn’t all for naught.

Bush’S Quagmire…Iraq ! Part2

Good afternoon to you all.

In case you haven’t been paying attention………

The president gave his speech about his troop surge as part of his new Iraq plan.

The results at this have been…..

a) Protests by groups that are against the war

b) Congressman Charlie Rangle re-stating his intent to institute the ” Draft “, and his comment about this was that he felt that if this were to become a reality, there would not be such a rush to send more troops to Iraq because there would be no exception to the draft ( not entirely true of course ) and that some of the congress who are for this troop surge would do ( dare I say this ) a ” Flip Flop ” on their stand if their child would be placed in peril. I just want to say to Charlie, that this is not the best reason to institute this measure, and quite frankly, I’m a little surprised thast you would even state this fact on television. Not the best way to ingratiate yourself with the voters.

c) Condolizza Rice having her head handed to her in  front of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Thursday.

In the end, the president will be sending more troops to Iraq, and other than the occassional protest, all the American people can do is continue to sit back and watch the carnage.

I do have to give the president credit, I really do believe that he in his heart believes in  this course of action, stands by it for better or worse, and really believes that this is necessary to protect America, not withstanding his personal crusade on terror.

I can say that in the last presidential election and the one before I did not vote for bush, and I am not sorry about this decision.

I can only hope that when this war has ended ( which in my opinion will be long after Bush is out of office ) that the next president can find a way to take us out of the quagmire that Bush will have left us in, and do so while leaving some sort of democratic government still standing in Iraq, without any further need of a US military presence there to help it keep order.

Hopefully, it will be a government with it’s own military that can stand on it’s own, because if not………..

it will be the real failure of Bush and his administration, and it will also be his everlasting legacy of shame and failure.

Bush’s Quagmire…Iraq part 1

I just have a little time this morning to write this piece, so I will be doing a part 1 and 2 to this post…..

I told my wife at dinner last night that I was going to be watching the president’s speach last night and she asked me why and I replied to her that I had to hear how he intended to plead his case for the need of more troops in an area of the world that we never belonged in in the first place and that thru his myopic vision of what that country should be, has turned it into a quagmire thru his doing, and that American soldiers now find themselves hopelessly stuck in.

For what it is worth, I can understand why the president would want to stay the course at this point…he is the commander and chief of the military and even thou he has admitted to making mistakes so far in this war, he has entrenched the country so deeply in this conflict that in order to save face, he has to continue on the course that he mistakenly believes is correct, even thou there have been many in the military who have said that this is the approach and that sending more troops into this conflict will only result in the eventual loss of more Iraqi and American lives.

Aside from all the theories about why we find ourselves in this god-forsaken country so many years later, the fault of this lies not just with the president but with the american people, and the media also……and yes I will explain my twisted statement in the second part to this post

The GOP and the Plot to get Oil?

In trying to be fair and unbiased in my political blogging on these pages, I was listening to a show on what might become the short lived ” Air America ” liberal talk radio station, and the show in particular was the ” Randy Rhodes ” show from three to six pm Monday thru Friday.

What really caught my attention on this particular day was a theory that the Iraq war was started by the USA and it’s ally Great Britain, so that both parties would eventually be able to own the oil wells in Iraq!

The talk was that, after the US wins this war, American and British oil companies would have contracts with the Iraqi government ( one that we helped or forced to establish depending on your point of view) and own the oil wells.

Now it would be damn interesting if any of what I heard today could be proved with hard facts that are on actual pieces of paper!

This would definitely be an IMPEACHABLE OFFENSE!

I mean, in my own educated opinion, this would be a much worse offense than say….having sex with a Washington Intern. Now this being said …….

The idea that ANY US president, would ever knowingly place American soldiers in harm’s way, because they might have something to gain personally and or be able to profit from ,would definitely soil the office of the presidency.

While I personally believe that Iraq will become president bush’s Vietnam, I would hate to believe that the real reason we found ourselves in Iraq in the first place was because there was profit to be made…..

And that it was made just by sacrificing a few thousand American soldiers….wouldn’t you?