Will Obama's America Offer Real Solutions or More Slogans

In a measure of full disclosure I should first say I am a registered Republican. I did not vote for Barack Obama four years ago and do not plan to vote for him in two weeks. Although I really do not go around announcing my conservatism much lately because my party has become a party of nutjobs who spout the most unbelievable things like our president was not born in this country and is a Muslim (even though four years ago he was anti-American because his Christian minister once said negative things about this country). 2016: Obama's America is supposed to be the thinking man’s attack on the president. There are no accusations of being a Muslim or even being born in Kenya or even hints at them (it even points out two separate newspapers in Hawaii that announced Obama’s birth).

The movie is based on the book by Dinesh D’Souza, The Roots of Obama's Rage which he wrote in 2010. The tagline claims, “Love him, hate him… you don’t know him”. Except after watching the movie, there really was not much of the movie that I found new. There was one guy that Dinesh called one of Obama’s “founding fathers” (along with people like the 2008 buzz person Bill Ayers) who was a registered communist. Except like all the other “founding fathers” (aside from Reverend Wright) there are no pictures of Barry with any of these people (even the liberal communist were able to find one picture of George Bush with Jack Abramoff). If he was so close to these people to the point they shape his policy, why is he never pictured with them. And Dinesh sure likes his pictures because the one of Barry smoking (something) is shown multiple times.

Even in the film, D’Souza features a cable show where he tells some talking head that accusing Obama as a Muslim and a socialist have not worked, so he has moved to attack number three: Barack Obama is anti-imperialist. Who knew there were imperialists left to be anti to? (Ironically the day after I watch this movie, I read an article by conservative commentator Niall Ferguson reporting a story where Chinese nationalist surrounded the US ambassador to the nation chanting “Down with US imperialism!).

Why is Barack Obama an anti-imperialist? Because his father was Kenyan and Barack wants to continue the Mau Mau uprising that kicked out imperialist British Army. To all of the even keel thinkers out there that are wondering, “You mean that Barry, who was raised by two Kansas women, was influenced by a man that abandoned him and only met once in his life?” And before you suggest that abandoned sons usually distance themselves from their absentee father, Dinesh finds a psychologist who specializes abandonment where the two men, who never met Barack Obama theorize that he is the an exception to the rule. Keep in mind earlier in the film Dinesh theorizes what would have happened had he stayed in his native India where he thinks he would have had been in an arrange marriage and the like, yet Barack, growing up in America, still ended up like his Kenyan father that he barely knew.

The first anti-imperialist argument that D’Souza is that the first thing Obama did after being inaugurated was to return a bust of Winston Churchill that the White House had since the 60’s to England. Except the reality is that the bust from the 60’s is still there, and the bust that was returned was loaned (note loaned, not permanently given to) to George W. Bush after 9/11 and was cleared out of the Oval Office with all of the other art and furniture that Bush put in there during his two terms. Obama’s supposed anti- British streak continued when D’Souza says that Obama supports Argentina gaining control of the Falkland Island but when I did a simple Google search most articles I read said that Obama is neutral on the issue.

After an hour of Obama history, D’Souza finally gets to theorizing what 2016 will look like if we reelect the anti-imperialist Obama which includes a world where Obama gets rid of all of our nuclear weapons because he is on the record of wishing we could live in a world without nuclear weapons (confessed Reaganite Dinesh conveniently omits that Ronald Reagan said the exact same thing). He also theorizes that because of Obama’s foreign policy that in four years we may see “The United States of Islam” that would stretch from Morocco to Pakistan (surprisingly his map leaves out Obama’s ancestral home of Kenya) even though many of the countries in Islam Fantasyland hate each other as much as they hate us.

The only potential doomsday scenario that Dinesh exposes that I agree with is that our debt will bring down the country, though I disagree that Obama wants it to happen because of his anti-imperialism. But this is not a Barack Obama problem; both Democrats and Republican have a spending problem that they need to reign in. One of the commentators that D’Souza speaks to even dings George W. Bush for his overspending. Granted Dinesh does conveniently omit in his stat that Americans have lost a large percentage of their wealth since 2006 that two of those years were under Bush.

Politics aside, 2016: Obama’s America just looks just a step above student film with hilariously staged dramatization and bizarre sound choices. While talking about a debate he had with Jesse Jackson, the dramatization actually depicts a black dude walking into what looks like a biker bar where the white patrons give the black dude a birthday cake. But still is not as funny as Dinesh doing the hula while researching Obama’s past. And it was were in a taped phone conversation, which looked more staged than one on The Hills, the sound would inexplicably change depending if the camera was on Dinesh or the person he was talking to.

When it comes down to it, 2016: Obama’s America will only make the people who already have an irrational hated of Barack Obama crazier and will make Obama supporters laugh more than they did for this week’s episode Modern Family. While people in the middle will not bother to watch it unless their crazy uncle forces them to. Just take the movie as it is, just something Dinesh D’Souza put out to make money. Actually, Dinesh may have changed my vote, I had no intentions of voting for Obama, but now I kind of want to see how wrong his movie is. And since I live in Ohio, my vote may very well decide the election.


Full Discourse Notice: This DVD was given to me by Lionsgate for review.

57 Channels and Only This Is On - 6/30/12

Quote of the Week: How times can you hear Copacabana without totally siding with Rico? (Michelle, Bunheads)

Song of the Week: She's Gone – Hall and Oates (as tried to be sung by Peter, Franklin & Bash)

Scene of the Week:



Big News of the Week: Health Care for All, or Else: Who would have guessed it would have been the George Bush appointed Chief Justice John Roberts who would become the swing vote on the Affordable Health Care Act (known to its opponents as Obamacare nee Romneycare)? Of course he was able to get a little partisan jab in his decision saying the law was Constitutional because it was a tax and Congress is allowed to tax Americans even though one of president Obama’s biggest selling points was that it was not a tax. Oops. So if you do not buy health care in the next couple years you will be taxed for it (unless you are near the poverty line, then it is Medicare for you). Of course any so called heath care plan that does not treat carbonated soda and other sugary treats like tobacco is pretty worthless.

Preview Picture of the Week:



Falling Skies: This show and The Walking Dead both seem to suffer from the same problems, the characters are aimless. And whenever they get a destination to get to, another character comes in and says that place has been destroyed or overrun by non-humans. So I am very intrigued with the group heading down to the Continental Congress. Who know what will happen when they get there or if they get there (which may not end up being until the end of the season) but for first time in this series, I am interesting in where they are going with the story.
You can download Falling Skies on iTunes.

Pretty Little Liars: You would think after Mona blackedmailed herself as A, you would think the Liars would be highly suspicious of anyone else who is being blackmailed. Last week Jena said she continued to pretend to be blind because someone was after her. And this week Spencer’s sister claims she pretended not to be pregnant because someone was blackmailing her. I am guessing in the next episode we will learn that Hermy is being blackmailed too and that is why he is cranky. That and he was totally nailing Mona before she went into the nuthouse and is not getting any since then.
You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Pretty Little Liars on iTunes.

Dallas: What a cruel way to end the episode in mid confession. Thankfully TNT is airing a new episode on 4th of July because on their screeners they had no new episodes airing on the holiday. Granted since I had them at my disposal, I went ahead and watched the opening scene of next week’s episode which ended up playing out exactly how I expected.
You can download Dallas on iTunes.


Free Download of the Week: Brushfire Records Sampler (Noise Trade, e-mail required)

Deal of the Week: More $2.99 Albums: This week Amazon super-discounted some of my favorite albums (that I paid much more from) including The Black Keys, Mumford and Sons, The Civil Wars as well as the 24-song Led Zeppelin greatest hits package.



New Album Release of the Week: Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter Soundtrack

New DVD Release of the Week: The Hunter

Video of the Week: In Looper Joseph Gordon Levitt plays a young Bruce Willis who is supposed to kill his future self. Alrighty. I am all up for a weird science-fiction except when I checked out the trailer, Levitt looked nothing like a young Bruce Willis but looked exactly like a young Ed Norton to the point I had to wonder if Norton was originally cast as the older version. It was as if Willis replaced Norton at the last minute and JGL decided that he spent months perfecting his Ed Norton show he just went ahead and did it anyway.



Next Week Pick of the Week: Weeds, Sunday at 10:00 on Showtime: I have already previewed the final season of Weeds, so click the link to read that and be sure to check out the second season Episodes directly following.

57 Channels and Only This Is On - 1/16/11

Quote of the Week: Abrakazam jackass. (Beckett, Castle)

Song of the Week: Eric B. Is President - Eric B and Rakim (Glory Daze)

Big News of the Week: Obama Wrecks Havoc on Scheduling: No one should whine that a television show gets bumped by the president, but ABC could have done a better job with its programming when Obama’s address went long. Seriously, when it goes long, wouldn’t the smarter decision have been preempt Modern Family, and then do commentary until 9:30 and show the regularly scheduled Cougar Town at its regular time. And if you must air Modern Family twenty minutes late, at least repeat it later in the week instead of that horrible new doctor show (I feel bad that Matt Sarasan and Jane Tyler are slumming it on that crap) or on Friday or Saturday because I am sure a Modern Family repeat would do better rating than anything you had scheduled. Or even better yet ABC, how about putting Modern Family On Demand? Hurmph.

The Cape: I didn’t except much from the show because the promo made it look somewhat laughably bad, but thanks to those low expectation, I was actually entertained. Though it should probably not go two straight hours again and I hope that the other villains are more interesting than Cain. Plus I wonder if Vegas will let me bet on Orwell turning out to be Chess’s daughter. You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download The Cape on iTunes.

Greek: They are not even back together yet and I am already sick of Cappie and Casey. What I am not sick of, and hope not to ever be of is slyly-evil Dale. You can stream recent episodes on Hulu.



Castle: This episode got me wondering what exactly is Beckett’s conviction record. Considering the dude was one of the richest dudes in the world, frozen assets or not I am sure he could find a good lawyer that could talk him out of a flimsy, and coerced, confession. You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Castle on iTunes.

Parenthood: Did Parenthood, in its second season, really rip off a storyline from the final season of The Drew Carey Show? The dot com boss taking over the company seems really similar. And did Amber really fake see a movie she was actually in (the latest Michael Cera movie being Scott Pilgrim vs. the World in which she was one of the seven evil ex’s and was number on on my 25 Best Movies of 2010 list)? You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Parenthood on iTunes.

Glory Daze: And the least surprising plot twist of the week goes to Christy still having a copy of Joel’s notes / drawings. You can stream recent episodes over at TBS.com. You can also download Glory Daze on iTunes.

Also check out my Preview of Lights Out and television fans will want to check out my review of Clicker, the universal remote that you can open beer with.

Free Download of the Week: Frankie & Johnny - Jerry Lawson and Talk of the Town: Fans of The Sing-Off will want to grab this song for the low price of nothing.

Deal of the Week: Save up to 47% on Select Blu-ray (Love Actually, Inside Man, I Know Pronounce You Chuck and Larry)

New Album Release of the Week: Hard Times and Nursery Rhymes - Social Distortion

New DVD Release of the Week: Justified: The Complete First Season

Video of the Week: For anyone who has wondered how to pronounce “Golddigger” in sign language, here is someone performing a certain Cee-Lo Green song for their sign language class. Naturally not safe for work and doubly so if you boss knows sign language.



Next Week Pick of the Week: Comedy Night Done Right, All Night Thursday on NBC: After the Jay Leno Hour, it is hard to be surprised at anything NBC tries, but after Leno showed that comedy at 10:00 may not be the best idea, it is a little surprising that NBC is going three straight hours of comedy starting this Thursday (rumor has it they may be joined by ABC who may expand their Wednesday block to three hours also). We will have to wait to see how it plays out, but from the promo below it is clear what shows NBC are favoring. When it starts out talking about six people brought together, you would think it would be one from each show, but nope, it is Steve Carrell, Ed Helms (The Office), Alec Baldwin, Tina Fey (30 Rock), Amy Phoeler and Rob Lowe (Parks and Recreations). Sorry Community, Perfect Couples, and Outsourced, if (when) the network goes back to two hours of sitcoms, two of you are likely gone.

57 Channels and Only This Is On vol. XCVII

Quote of the Week: You can feed him in his wife beater onesy. (Tara – Sons of Anarchy)

Song of the Week: Welcome Daddy (Ashlee’s amended lyrics version) – The Sisters of ZBZ (Greek)

Big News of the Week: Politicians Behaving Badly: The week started off with the lames patrician bickering ever over Barack Obama’s speech to the nation’s children. Shouldn’t be something that all presidents to? But of course the religious nut jobs were all up in arms just like the liberal communists were back when the original Bush did. Sometime a speech to kids is just a speech to kids. But watching the speech, someone should have told Obama he was talking to a bunch of ten year olds because he sounded like he was giving one of his stump speeches. Granted he only has two gears of speaking, the stump speech and his bored out of his mind delivery.

That wasn’t the only speech Obama gave this week as he took yet another bite of primetime to pitch his health care plan. And like most addresses to Congress, the only reason to watch is to watch the unintentional comedy of the Congressmen like who gets caught sleeping because let’s face it, these addresses never actually say anything new. And the one on Wednesday didn’t disappoint. Usually the highlight is the parties trying to out cheer/boo each other at certain lines, but one Republican congressman went so far as to shout “You lie!” after Obama said his health care plan wouldn’t cover illegal immigrants. Classic. This overshadowed another Congressman who had in his lap a “What Bill?” sign. We are inching closer to the good old political days of Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton which I am all for.

Coalition Links of the Week:
It premieres and it sucked. We mean that in the best way possible when it comes to The Vampire Diaries. (TV Fanatic)

George's funeral, a married Alex and Izzie; BuzzSugar gets a peek at the upcoming sixth season of Grey's Anantomy. (BuzzSugar)

This week, Sandie interviewed Stana Katic who plays Detective Kate Beckett on Castle. (Daemon's TV)

Vance breaks down the new Fall 2009 TV shows and why he is or isn't going to watch. (Tapeworthy)

With your favorite season premieres just around the corner, we shared our Top 5 most anticipated new comedies and dramas. (The TV Addict)


Tool Academy: I am not sure who wins the Moron of the Week Award, the “Special” Tool for blurting out, “Okay, I (explicative deleted) her” in front of his girlfriend, all the other Tools and the entire VH1 viewing public, the Dancing Tool who tried to explain just how much he loves his girlfriend by saying that he is dating her and doesn’t even have a Asian fetish (and then continue to keep digging after that comment), or the Redneck Tool for bursting a condom on his head. And that still didn’t hurt as much as the beating he got from his girlfriend. Naturally the Rednecks would react as if they are on Springer. But after the “Special” Tool confesses comes the most bizarre segment ever where almost all the guys there started confession their infidelities one after other. You can stream current episodes over at vh1.com. You can also download Tool Academy on iTunes.

Greek: Here is where I usually start off the review with “Holy (insert a favorite character’s name here) sighting!” But who do I go with Dr. Harold Abbot or Dwayne Wayne? Although I am not ready for Dwayne Wayne to have a twenty year old daughter. I wonder if Whitley is the mother. You can stream current episodes on Hulu.



Leverage: Having Eliot just happening to be at the drop spot to keep Parker from being assassinated was a lame plot point, but I will forgive the show simply because the slo-mo lunge with the flowing hair was absurdly cheesy in a funny kind of way. You can stream current episodes over at tnt.tv. You can also download Leverage on iTunes.

You can also check out my First Impression of Sons of Anarchy 2.x and The Locator and Adoption Diaries.

Free Download of the Week: Community (Amazon Video on Demand): Community may not be the best new show or even the funniest new comedy of the fall season (that goes to Modern Family), but you can check out the first episode of the show before it airs.

Deal of the Week: Fall TV Event: $20-$30 (Rescue Me, Chuck (Blu-Ray), Mad Men, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip)

Video of the Week: One of the great things about Hulu is they occasionally add criminally underwatched show (Arrested Development remains one of the most watched show on the site). Thanks to the recent partnership with ABC, here is another show many of you didn’t watch the first time around but should check it out now: The Knights of Prosperity which recently ranked in at #21 on The 100 Greatest Television Shows of the 00’s. All thirteen episodes are available to stream, here is the first one. If enough people check it on Hulu, maybe we will be lucky enough to get the show in DVD for. Now if only NBC would do the same for Ed (#4) and I will be a happy camper which actually came from the same producers of Knights of Prosperity.



Next Week Pick of the Week: Survivor: Samoa: The granddaddy of reality show is back for its nineteenth and it looks like this will be a bells and whistles free season, they are even dumping Exile Island this go around. As for a preseason pick, I would go with John. He is a rocket scientist for goodness sake (granted the last one didn’t last long).

Around the Tubes vol. XV

I have gotten a plethora of cool press releases have been flooding my inbox recently that you may find interesting. This post will include blurbs on Wanted, Jay Leno, Three Sheets, Big Ideas, Taco Bell, Obama, House of Payne.

- NBC has a new controversial show called Wanted which is now streaming its first episode over at NBC.com.

- Also over at NBC.com they have set up a webcam as they build the new Jay Leno Show set. While there you can also check out two insiders blogs.

- For those that missed the season premiere of Three Sheets, you can currently download the episode for free on iTunes. This Monday, Zane Lamprey heads to Tanzania to taste the local drinks.

- GOOD Magazine and Babblegum has teamed up for a new weekly show for people that want to live well and do good called Big Ideas. including Grammy-nominated artist Imogen Heap, ESPN hosts the Sklar brothers, and author and journalist Matt Mason all submitted their own ideas, ranging from the ethereal (floating houses), to the irreverent and edgy (give animals their own weapons to even the odds), to those actually being created today (urban vertical farms).

- As you may have heard, the Taco Bell Chihuahua passed away this week, in her memory; TV Guide is running through the 13 Best Animals in Commercials. Also according to TV Guide, the TV watch public is growing tired of President Obama’s constant interruptions of the TV schedule with 61% wanting to watch regular programming. Keep in mind this poll was taken from online visitors to the site so this is a type of poll I like to refer as unscientific.

- Get ready for even more Tyler Perry as TBS has ordered up another twenty episodes of House of Payne in addition to the recent twenty-six episode order. For those keeping track at home, we will be getting at the very least 172 total episodes of the show as it now stands.

Around the Tubes vol. XIV

I have gotten a plethora of cool press releases have been flooding my inbox recently that you may find interesting. This post will include blurbs on Mercy, Naked Science: Living on the Moon, Three Sheets, Sons of Anarchy, Meteor, Are We There Yet, and Tom Cavanaugh.

- As you may already heard, Parenthood has been pushed back to midseason due to personal problems and thus Mercy has been promoted to the fall. Below is a promo for the show:



- Tomorrow is the fortieth anniversary of the moon landing and the National Geographic is celebrating tonight with Naked Science: Living on the Moon at 9:00. Check out a scene below dealing with populating the moon:



- I am not entirely sure if my cable provider has a channel called Fine Living, but considering they have a show called Three Sheets, I may have to look it up. The show follows comedian Zane Lamprey as he engages in drinking customs around the world and befriends the people who take part in them. The new season premieres this Monday at 10:00. Here is a sneek peak:



- Sons of Anarchy returns this fall and FX has already released some cool promos for the new season. Check out one below:



- That pesky Meteor is still threatening Earth over on NBC tonight. Here is a clip of wht you may expect:



- Can’t say that I ever saw any of the Are We There Yet? movies, but that isn’t stopping TBS from making it into a series. The show will star the always funny Terry Crews (Everybody Hates Chris) taking over the Ice Cube role who will be producing the show. Expect the show to air sometime next summer.

- For those that are fans of both Tom Cavanaugh and Notre Dame, JournalGazette.net has a treat for you with the former talking about the latter. Check out part 1 and part 2 of the interview.

- This week the seven top news stories of the week according to TV Guide included Weeds, Paul McCartney and somehow Barack Obama coming up short at the All-Star got titled “Best Pitch” despite Albert Pujols having to lunge to keep it from bouncing over the plate. If that was a best pitch, I would hate to see what a bad one was. Oh, wait, I guess that would be Marky Mark.

Previewing Heckle U

I may not have had a very good first weekend, but I can rest in the solace that I am beating Bachalk Obama. For those of you going through some March Madness withdrawal, staring at your clock hoping it is Thursday already, you will want to check out CBS’s new online series Heckle U. It is a mocumentary following two hecklers who couldn’t make it as athletes or even mascots. It stars Owen Benjamin (The House Bunny) as Chance, Kirk Fox (Forgetting Sarah Marshall) as Darrell, and featured Tom Arnold (Soul Plane) as Lou the Bartender. I laughed more during the first episode than I did during certain network sitcom debuts recently. Head over to CBS.com to see the first episode and check out three heckling rules presented by the duo below.










Please note Scooter McGavin or anyone at the 9th Green in no way endorses Head and Shoulders and did not receive any monitory or shampoo-type compensation from posting the banner above, but if anyone at Head and Shoulders is reading this, they are not above accepting any.

Best of the Week vol. XIII

Quote of the Week: Please, Dateline could use it to attract predators. (Howard; The Big Bang Theory)

Song of the Week: I Put a Spell on You – Creedence Clearwater Revivial (My Name Is Earl)

Big News of the Week: Is the Obama Honeymoon Over?: It seemed like the new president had a longer grace period than most considering our economic problem seems to get deeper and deeper. But it looks like people are realizing that Barack Obama is still acting like he is campaigning instead of actually being presidential by still touring the country with his Chicken Little routine about the economy, sharing his bracket with ESPN, and appearing on The Tonight Show where he made a not so funny joke about the Special Olympics bringing the ire of Special Olympian bowler Kolan McConiughey who responded, “I’ll beat you.” But Obama is spending less time in Washington than George Bush.

But all the extracurricular activities look like they are starting to backfire. In response to the president’s bracket, Duke Coach Mike Krzyewski responded, “Somebody said that we're not in President Obama's Final Four, and as much as I respect what he's doing, really, the economy is something that he should focus on, probably more than the brackets.” And speaking of the brackets, of which Obama spinelessly picked chalk which would have gotten him ruefully mock any pool across the country, he also shamefully favored swing state schools (according to FiveThirtyEight.com) the few times he took a higher seed.

And the networks are taking note of his affinity of appearing on television, the latest bumping the highest rated show on television this coming Tuesday. An unnamed source recently said, “These repeated interruptions, and the rumor of even more to come, really make it difficult to build audience flow and loyalty. We will all lose one or two million dollars for this." Another mentioned: “These frequent primetime requests are wreaking serious havoc with our schedule and our advertisers. Ratings are down everywhere and the airtime is costing us all significant dollars when we can least afford it.” And if Chuck does not come back next season, Ben Silverman says you have Obama to thank for killing its post-Super Bowl momentum. But Silverman is a douche, so take anything he says with a grain of salt.

And most damning is that people are actually putting two and two together and realizing something is fishy that AIG donated more money to the Obama than to all but one Congressman in the past twenty-five year and their employees just happened to keep their bonuses. And when it got out, he proposes an unconstitutional attempt of taxing those bonuses at 98% making it seem like he is upset but not actually being able to exact a punishment.

Coalition Links of the Week:
GMMR asked if you were a network exec and could program TV for only one hour out of each day, what would the TV schedule look like? (Give Me My Remote)

Vance is enjoying the shows no one is watching. Like newbies Kings and Better Off Ted or old faves Ugly Betty and Lost amongst many others. (Tapeworthy)

This week, Jace talked to Joss Whedon about his "Man on the Street" episode of FOX's Dollhouse, why Dollhouse seems to lack the funny, and whether he would be leaving television for good. (Televisionary)

Sara celebrated the fact that Chuck was back to wearing ascots on the latest episode of Gossip Girl. (TiFaux)

Jennifer contemplated why Ugly Betty Suarez is such a man magnet. (Tube Talk)

Steve got his hands on a copy of next week's Gossip Girl and recapped it for your spoilerly pleasure (TVFanatic)

Ben celebrated the enws that BBC3 had bought the UK rights to the new murder mystery Harper's Island and took a look at it spin-off web series Harper's Globe. (TV Spy)


Free Download of the Week: Goliath – Kings (iTunes) - The season premiere was an odd bag but mostly enjoyable. If you missed it you can download it for free either on iTunes or at Amazon Video on Demand (see right). And you can also check out my First Impressions of Kings.

Deal of the Week: Sci-Fi Television Favorites & More: Save up to 56% (Buffy, The X-Files, Angel)

Video of the Week: Last night saw the season debut of Head Case and the new show from Rob Thomas (not the singer) and Paul Rudd called Party Down staring Dick Casablancas Vinnie Van Lowe, and Bill Haverchunk (also look out for guest appearances from Logan Echolls, Dean O’Dell, Keith and Veronica Mars). Not that I saw either on account that I don’t have Starz (but look for a review of season one of Head Case coming soon). But if you do, they are on Fridays at 10:00 and 10:30 respectively (and I presume repeated throughout the week). Below is a clip from Party Down:

Party Down: Kyle Discusses the Perks of the Job


if you are like me and do not have Starz, they actually uploaded the whole premiere of Head Case and Party Down to its YouTube channel.

Next Week Pick of the Week: Survivor, Wednesday at 8:00 on CBS: Notice the special day for Survivor thanks to March Madness. I originally thought this was going to be a simple recap show but the description says another contestant will be voted off. And if we are lucky it will be coach in a blindside.

Around the Tubes vol. I

I never liked the name Cleaning Out My Inbox so I have tweaked its name. What remains the same is that a plethora of cool press releases have been flooding my inbox recently that you may find interesting. This post will include blurbs on Dangerous Encounters, Air Force One, Screen Actors Guild Awards, Battlestar Galactica, Scream, Late Show and Saving Grace.

- A big weekend over at the National Geographic Channel starting tomorrow, Saturday, with the final episode of Dangerous Encounters in this recent batch. And it goes out with a bang as Brady Barr goes back to cave where he was bitten last year. Will he be able to accomplish what be set out to do before getting bit in finding a twenty foot snake? Hint, look at the picture below and also check out a promo for the show:





- Then on Sunday at 8:00, you can get to know Air Force One just as President Obama gets his first peak of the presidential aircraft himself. That is directly followed by a special on Marine One, the presidential helicopter fleet. Head over to the official site for photos, videos, an interactive feature and even download a paper model of Air Force One.

- Also this weekend, on TNT and TBS, is the Screen Actors Guild (which has one of the worst acronyms ever). This year Forrest Whitaker will present the 45th Life Achievement Award to James Earl Jones. For more information on the show and the complete rundown of the nominations, head over to sagawards.org.

- Here’s a treat to all you Battlestar Galactica fans, here is a code to the Sci-Fi Channel Store (click on the link, then click on the store tab once you are there) where you can get 10% off any BSG items in the store (excluding QMx and Cylon items). Just enter BSGFAN in the coupon entry code place at checkout. The code expires April 15.

- Yesterday Whoopi Goldberg laughed a new video on demand series Scream launching on FEARnet’s website. The series will span six episodes and you can head over there now to watch the first episode or watch the trailer below to see if it’s for you:



- As you may have heard, in the run up to him taking over Late Night, Jimmy Fallon has to taken to the internet to get his feet wet. His latest interview is with Kevin Rose and Alex Albrecht of Diggnation to discuss the interwebs. Check it out on his website.

- Saving Grace returns to TNT March 2nd with guest star Christina Ricci. Be sure to mark your calendars.

57 Channels and Only This Is On vol. LI

The Big Bang Theory: Another reason this should be an all Sheldon all the time kind of show, whenever an episode focuses on Raj it just isn’t entertaining, except for Sheldon tying to smile. You can stream current episodes over at Innertube. You can also download The Big Bang Theory on iTunes.


Chuck: Chuck really needs to stop going to the Bryce Larkin well because the stories always suffer when he is around. Speaking of storyline suffering, I was really hopping Michael Strahan was going to pummel Morgan out of the show. Why can’t Strahan be Chuck’s new best friend. And speaking of Strahan, did they really need all those gratuitous close up of his gap teeth? You can stream current episodes over at NBC.com. You can also download Chuck on iTunes.

Heroes: Like the show really need help ruining it’s own storylines, but the promo monkeys really ruined the episode by revealing the Papa Patrelli pulling the strings. And what the frak was with Hiro killing Ando. Being Heroes he certainly won’t stay dead, I’m sure Future Hiro will go back in time and tell Ando to put a steel plate and exploding ketchup packages under his shirt, but still this is extremely lame. You can stream current episodes over at NBC.com. You can also download Heroes on iTunes.


Eli Stone: The whole Nate gets the aneurism thing was also fairly lame. I am glad they corrested that fairly early in the season. On the bright side it gave us the great line about being stalked by the other dude in Wham! And it was odd that the mother sided with Eli while the daughter decided to fight it so vigorously. Seemed a little out of chachter. But with that out of the way hopefully the show gets back to the stride it was hitting last season. You can stream current episodes over at ABC.com. You can also download Eli Stone on iTunes.

Pushing Daisies: After a pair of episodes that took way too much time trying to explain to people who haven’t seen the show before, this was the first episode that really clicked like last season. Maybe it was because the gang was all together trying to figure out. That and it was the first who did it that I didn’t figure out before hand (something I don’t think I did at all last season). That is what the show does best is coming up with this completely absurd explanation that actually makes sense in the context of the plot. You can stream current episodes over at ABC.com.



Survivor: How do you not out the Immunity Idol when you have the chance? The longer one has the Idol, the harder it is to get that person out. Best case scenario Sugar gets voted out and the Idol is put back in play. Worst case scenario Sugar plays it, GC is voted out and the Idol again is put back in play. It just blows the mind how stupid some of these Survivors are sometime. You can stream current episodes over at Innertube.



2008 Presidential Debates: Saturday Night Live right in that the winner was whoever you thought was going to win. And the post-debate coverage is the most bizarre thing ever. They actually interview people from something called “The Spin Room” which is like saying, “Let’s interview someone who will straight up lie to you and we won’t bother to call them out on their blatant lies. While all the pundits blow hard about who won, it is safe to say who the loser was: anyone who watched any of the debate. What is sad is that the very next night, John McCain and Barack Obama had this to say about each other:







Imagine how much more entertaining the debates would have been if that was how they went after each other.

Everybody Hates Chris: The guy who was trying to do Bill Cosby wasn’t very good. And wasn’t he Chris’ teacher at one point?

Chatting with Frank Caliendo

If you have been watching the baseball playoffs you have undoubtably know that Frank TV returns October 21 at 11:00 on TBS and I had a chance recently to chat with the Frank in Frank TV, Frank Caliendo. Here are some of the highlights:

Scooter: Seems like anyone has been talking about recently is politics, did you watch the debate last night?
Frank: No because they don’t say anything so I find it kind of a waste of time. But I’m sure McCain say my friends at least thirty times and Barack Obama talked about change, those two things happened. I haven’t really watched much lately. I have been working on both lately a little bit more. I really hadn’t worked on either that much that far out and the one reason for that comes down to one word and that is Dukakis. Nobody really care about Michael Dukakis anymore. Nobody really cares when you lose. Even John Lovitz has said, “I think that was a waste of time.” So I just been working on Barack more because that is the way it looks to be swinging. I do general stuff, I try to stay away from policies and whatnot anyways.

Scooter: Regardless of who you are going to vote for, do you have a rooting interest on who gets elected from a comedic standpoint?
Frank: I can pull off McCain quite a bit easier being a chubby Caucasian fellow. As far the gimicky goes, but on Frank TV we have Freddy Lockhart who does a doggone good Obama so we are covered either way. I have started working on that more and more, we will see what happens. I tend to wait it out, I’m kind of lazy. It’s like a book report. I’ll wait until the last thing and read the book and then write the book report the last night and that will be election night hopefully.

Scooter: I have seen the first three episodes of the new season and saw the Obama skit, I don’t want to say comedians are taking it easy on Obama, but he doesn’t seem as funny as Bush or Clinton. Is it hard finding that one thing?
Frank: I don’t think we have seen the real Barack Obama, I don’t think we have seen the real John McCain either. These are two guys are trying to get elected. Everything changes after you see them more. Eight years ago they said there was nothing to do with George Bush and we definitely found a lot of things to do there. I think it just takes time. Camera are constantly on people when they are not expecting them now. They are kind of in control of that now because the media is totally on their side, or at least I feel Barack is kind of that way, not so much with McCain. But the media takes it real easy on Barack Obama.
If you are president they start criticizing you. It’s like now you are there, what are you going to do? Everything changes, your game plan changes. The media tends to be a little more left than right. The Democratic candidate always tends to get it a little bit easier I think just by watching it. I have just been working with sports on NFL Fox and I am kind of used to that with the sports mentality. We can have a great week, and do a great comedy bit and next week they’ll go, well what’s next? It because sport, and even politics is “what have you doing now? You did that and that’s great but stop all the accolades and get onto the next thing.” That’s what Obama is saying about McCain, “Okay, we get what you’ve done, now what are you going to do?” I think that’s our society and I think that is what we look for, what are the answers. I don’t know if anyone has the answers right now and that’s why they keep trying to change the subject.

Scooter: Are you at all sad that you only have four more months left of Bush?
Frank: I will do him forever. I will do less but nobody’s going to forget him, he will be around. Jimmy Carter is still around. Bill Clinton is still around. They always find stuff to do. They are always in the limelight somehow. I think that is the funniest question I get, “What are you going to do now that Bush is out of office?” Do you think we are going to forget about him? Two term presidents are around for a long time. Their first term is always interesting, the second term is typically scandal. Because they open up everything they have done wrong in the second half of it, Clinton, Bush. I think he’ll be around for a long time.

Scooter: You have already taped episodes up until election night, are you at all sad that you will miss out on the Palin stuff if McCain loses?
Frank: No. I would not want to do anything right now anyways. I think Saturday Night Live has that, Tina Fey has that anyone else who is doing it looks like they are just copying that. Unfortunately that might not even be the case, but really Saturday Night Live has that cornered. You have millions of hits on YouTube and you have everyone in the media talking about one person’s impression, it would be kind of a waste to try and do it. I think that’s a bad move by some and I’m glad we’re not touching on Sarah Palin because I think it’s overdone already. Well not overdone, I just think Tina Fey has a hold on, I just think she got it as hers and people can try to do it ut they are not going to do it as well and the are going to compare them to Tina. So why even do it?

Scooter: Looking at the new season are there any new impressions you are doing?
Frank: There are a bunch of people haven’t seen before, James Gandolfini, John McCain, we do some other character in there near the end like the white Chris Rock of Finland. All the people Freddy and Mike (MacRae), the new cast members do all that stuff people haven’t seen any of it before. They have a bunch of new stuff but I really can’t remember what most we do, it all tends to blur to me.

Scooter: About how long does it take you to come up with an impression, from the first time you go I want to try out this guy to you are confident enough to show people?
Frank: Well it’s different. People when they think of impressions they think they have to be impersonations, but I really don’t think of it that way. I think if they are funny and they work well enough, that’s all it is. All you need to do is get the idea across. I don’t try to fool anybody, I don’t look like president Bush, I’m just Frank with a wig on. If it is part of my stand up act it is longer than something if we have a good premise for a sketch. It could take months and I can never get there, there are plenty of impressions that I can’t do.
Barkley took me three months, that was quicker. I have been working on the Barack hard for a week or two now and have been working on him a little for months. McCain went pretty quickly. John Madden, if you look at him six years ago and you look at me do it now, it really sucked six years ago. It’s interesting how different it is. My job is basically I get paid to practice. So I am always doing it on stage and whatever and it just gets better overtime. It is easier to get get into the voice and keep it there the more you do it.

Scooter: Speaking of Barkley, do you run into him at Turner office party or events?
Frank: There is a thing on YouTube with me and him talking on TNT (see below) and he’s a funny guy. Charles kind of likes me but he doesn’t think he acts like that. He really doesn’t act like that, the bit is really Charles says what he is thinking and in my bit it’s like taking Charles and making a little bit crazier and then saying what he’s thinking, that’s where the funny comes from is the goofiness of what he’s saying. Charles thinks of himself as a truth teller and I think as the Charles Barkley character that I do as a truth teller too it’s just that he’s a crazy truth teller.

Frank Caliendo Impersonates Charles Barkley


Scooter: How long does it take you to get into the Barkley character with the make up and everything?
Frank: Makeup’s probably three hours, it’s pretty much the same as Terry Bradshaw or Dr. Phil, anyone with a bald cap. What you don’t see is I’m really pretty pale, so any character is going to have a face whether it is Caucasian or an African American. They actually take about the same amount of time. People would think it would be different but it isn’t. It is really just a bald cap then putting on the makeup or other character it’s doing a nose or a beard. Charles has a little bit of a moustache, but that’s all we do with him.

Scooter: Do you have a favorite character that you do?
Frank: Bush, Madden, Pacino. Barkley is fun because I can just call people knuckleheads all day long. When they become more than impressions and they become these goofy character like Pacino to me is not about Al Pacino anymore, it’s about this crazy guy who is amazed by everything. Bush is like a little kid type character. Both characters are more fun because there is more to do and you can do different things as opposed to something from a movie or being the actor. Like when you do a Robin Williams sketch, it kind of hard to find a sketch because all you can really do is be all over the place. There is really no take on that other than be crazy and wild and annoy somebody. I love doing the Robin Williams impression but it is hard to find something different to do to make sense and be organic.

Scooter: Are there any impressions you may have tried in the bathroom and you just thought, this is never going to see the light of day?
Frank: Tons of them. I can’t even do a good Joe Pesci. I used to use Chris Berman as an example and now people go, (in a Berman voice) “Hey this is going to be a great football Sunday Jaws.” And they go, “well that was pretty good.” Well I can’t use that anymore. So there are plenty. Even like the Barack, it’s not that good yet. Do I do them in my act or on TV, no not really. Radio is really where I go to talk about it because you can bounce things off of people see what their reactions are and they can help you with it and actually structure and mold the impression kind of as you there like a work shop, sitting down with writers and making something better. Radio is really where I go to test things.

Scooter: What would you say was the easiest impression for you to get right off the bat?
Frank: Barkley as of recent, that only took a few months to get it to a point where people were like, “wow, that was really good.” Most of the one’s I’m known for like Madden, those took time to get there, they are so much better now then they were just a short time ago. Also Keenu Reeves, all you have to go it, “whoa, that’s totally cool.” Some just come about then on accident like Jim Rome I was just (starts getting into Rome) talking like this, not even trying to do it, guess what, became incredible. How great is that? (Back to normal voice) If the cadence is good, for some reason some cadences are just easier.

Scooter: What kind of television do you watch?
Frank: I seem to be attracted to death shows. I don’t watch any comedy really, I always watch legal things, Raising the Bar on TNT. I tend to watch the legal type shows, CSI’s, Law and Order’s, that kind of stuff. I like twists and plots and comedy, most of the time I can see most of what’s coming in comedy. Being in the business it is kind of a curse knowing how they are put together. That would be my answer, lots of old cartoons like the Super Friends can never hurt.

Pay Off Your Debts You Morons

It is never a good sign opening up an article entitled, Senate Sends Big Spending Bill to Bush with a picture of these goons attached. For those that cannot pick out their Congressmen in a line out, that is from left Ted Stevens, John Barrasso, Larry Craig, and Sheldon Whitehouse. What, was Mark Foley on the next elevator? And no, the bill had nothing to due with the much ballyhooed bailout package that has been talked about for the last week. Nope this is a separate bill that gives $25,000,000,000 of taxpayer money. Also included was a record setting 70,000,000,000 to the Pentagon while the Defense Department (um, isn’t the Pentagon defense?) got a six percent increase to 488,000,000,000. Gotta pay for those wars. And despite all the talk on earmarks on Friday, the bill also contained 2,322 pet projects costing taxpayers $4,900,000,000. The article also had this to say,

“Democrats also wanted to avoid an election-year clash with Bush that would have played in his favor. They are willing to take their chances that Democrat Barrack Abeam will be elected president in November and permit increases for scores of programs squeezed by Bush each year.”

And yes I copied and pasted that, the typo isn’t mine.

But I want to go on the record that I am completely against the bailout plan for Wall Street. You know, the one that was quickly thrown together by George Bush (who has been sporting an “Is it January yet” face all week) and the Senate Democrats. You know when those two entities agree on anything it cannot end well on principal alone. It was interesting that when John McCain called out Barrack Abeam for being the most liberal person Obama shot back that he was just voting against Bush’s boneheaded ideas yet he was quick to get on board with Bush on the most important legislation of his tenure in the Senate.

To get off track for a second, what is with this “call me if you need me crap”? Say what you want about John McCain but at least he showed up to do his job that he was elected to do. The people of Illinois, Arizona and Delaware did not elect these guys to run for president. Why is Congress the only place in America where if you do not show up for work not only do you not get fired but you may get a promotion for skipping. Congressmen have successfully cut their work week down to three days while taking six week vacations after every four weeks of work.

If you are running for president and are still collecting $169,300 of our tax payer money per year, you better show up for work. Which of course none of them actually do. In my life time only Bob Dole had the common courtesy to actually resign from the Senate to run. Speaking of Senators McCain and Obama doing what they are paid to do, both in the past days said they had previously warned on the floor of Congress of the impending economic crisis. Well you are both legislator, if saw this coming why didn’t you write any legislation to stop this from happening instead of grandstanding in front of Congress. Well I guess we know why Obama wasn’t willing to write legislation to regulate Freddie, Fannie and AGI because he was number two in donation received from both. Then you have Chris Dodd number one and he is the Finance Committee Chair who just happens to be the lead Senate Democrat in trying to rush bailing out those that were so generous to him.

But back to this horrendously stupid bailout plan. Having Bush and the Dems actually agreeing as a sign of a horrible things to come, I am against it because it benefit two types of people: the greedy and the stupid. The greedy is obvious, these fat cats gambling with your savings in hopes to buy a third yacht. But one group of people you don’t hear about is the stupid because the Congress doesn’t want to put blame the people that will be voting in about a month.

To clarify the stupid, these are the people that kept on accumulating debt (college loans, mortgage, car payments, credit cards) but instead of paying those off debts you thought that buying an HDTV, sound system and a Playstation 3 would be a better investment than paying off stuff you already owe. And because you all just had to have a bigger house than you could I am stuck with a $24,000 bill which is how much each American will have to pay when you divie up the 700,000,000,000 bail out figure tossed around, even though I paid off my student loans ahead of time, on the path to doing the same for the mortgage I’m paying, pay off my credit card in their entirety all the while being what the government likes to label as poor.

Seriously people, it is not hard to create a budget. The next (or first) time you buy a house take you current income, subtract all you monthly debt you may have (loans, credit card minimums), factor in monthly expenses like grocery and if the number is bigger than the suggest monthly mortgage payment then go ahead and buy. If not, keep house hunting for something more in your price range, and if that number turns out to be less than zero, it may be time to cancel your Netflick subscription and get out of the red (I know someone whose phone number changes every other month because she cannot pay the bill yet has yet to cancel her Netflick, so I know very well just how stupid people are when they come to their finances).

Keeping a budget is simple third grade math people, it isn’t hard. Or maybe this is why a show called Are You Smarter than a Fifth Grader is so popular. I do understand that some people were unable to keep up with their mortgages for various reasons and they do deserve help, but a majority of that 700,000,000,000 is just people who feel they should live in houses bigger than they can actually afford.

What is really scary is the people behind the bailout plan are keep on trying to sell their plan by saying that the American taxpayers can actually make money on all the bad mortgages over time. Are these people serious? This would be like losing your life savings at the blackjack table, having your parents bailing you out only to go to the roulette table and telling your parents they may get they money back with interest This bailout cannot happen and certainly cannot be handled by the likes of George Bush and Chris Dodd.

And just when you think it couldn’t get worse for Americans last week, on Thursday Fred Durst announce that he was getting Limp Bizkit back together. God help us all.

You Are a Horrible Person Claire McCaskill

There has been a lot a talk ever since the end of the conventions that the election has taken a negative turn, which is has, but compared to past campaigns this one had been relatively tame. C'mon, Aaron Burr shot and killed Alexander Hamilton over the governor race of New York. Yeah Barack Obama likes to play the victim card, but scanning fact check organization like fackcheck.org and politifact.com, he has given his fair share of half truths, barely truths, and complete falsehoods. But that is how political campaigns have been ran since the first election. To the people that said this campaign had gotten dirty I respond at least there hasn’t been anything as low as the Swift Boat for Truth. That was until this weekend.

Senator Clair McCaskill of Missouri , and Obama campaign co-chair was on This Week with George Stephanopoulos and had this to say in regards to Sarah Palin:

“(I am) uncomfortable with anyone, regardless of gender, that is going to be vice president to one of the oldest presidents we've ever had, that has never met a world leader.”

Yeah, some ageism, but nothing he haven’t heard before. What happened yet is when Senator Clair McCaskill hit an all time low in politics during my life time. George called McCaskill out on the ageism charge and gave her a chance to back off, but not only did she not back off, she went further:

“I think what we’re talking about is a reality. Other people talk about his melanoma. We’re talking about a reality here that we have to face.”

How dare you, Clair McCaskill suggested that a cancer survivor is unfit to be president. Today we face such statistics that half of men will be diagnosed with some sort of cancer while woman have a on in three chance. Are you are suggesting that these people should just give up and die? You are insulting all the cancer survivors out there, all the people currently fighting the disease and disgracing everyone who lost their lives to the horrible disease. And you insult people like me who spent eight years of their lives who were the sole care giver of a two time cancer survivor. Did I just waste eight years of my life?

Obviously you have never sat their, watching a love one lose their hair, and only get out of bed to puke, and that is if they actually make to the bathroom, otherwise you would have to clean it out of the carpet while trying to get them to stop apologizing for doing so. But eventually the nausea subsides and some, if not all of the hair grows back, and they finally make it outside and they should be applauded that they beat the disease not demeaned.

Luckily you, senator McCaskill, were not there when Lance Armstrong was battling the disease because with your negativity he may not have gone on to win seven straight Tour de France titles. Maybe Jon Lester would have never thrown a no hitter had he took your advice. Do you even suggest Ted Kennedy should step down from his senate seat to focus on sitting around doing nothing?

Clair McCaskill, you should be ashamed of yourself for suggesting such a vile thing. Missouri, you should be ashamed that you elected someone who says such insulting things. Barack Obama, you should be ashamed to have such a horrible person as you campaign co-chair. Add this to you already bad track record when it comes to cancer issues as you would rather give a speech to a bunch of German than to attend the LiveStrong forum on cancer. You should be ashamed of such a blatant disregard of cancer survivor, people living with cancer, those that have died and thier caregivers.