On this Memorial Day (and every day) a big thank you to those who have served their country in the greatest way possible

Rock on.

Can you say, "Ripped From the Headlines"? Of course you can.

CSI, NCIS and L&O franchise writers must be totally bummed that this happened while they were on hiatus: Woman found dead in Hollywood Hills following alleged suicide pact.

According to a bulletin from the Hollywood Heights Association, Gutierrez made a pact with a man she met on a suicide website. The man passed out on the street and after regaining consciousness and seeing Gutierrez dead, he called 911

Maybe Dexter can do something with it.

Government Financial Follies of 2011

The government wasting money on ridiculous crap?  Broken political promises?  Obama getting a pass from the mainstream media?  YOU DON'T SAY!!!

On Drudge, a picture tells a thousand words.  The accompanying headlines tell a few thousand more.

<Obama voice>AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!</Obama voice>

Shrimp on treadmills?  Gelatin wrestling in Antarctica?  No wonder Hollywood loves these guys, at least they come up with original ideas.  Unlike some people we know.  As for "helping" five year olds sit still...not sure where they're going with that.  Horse tranquilizers, maybe?

The only way this could get any better is if Obama is confronted with the line-by-line thing and responds by looking confused and protesting, "But I did go line by line to make sure we're not spending unwisely.  What?"

AMPAS Screening Series: "Summer of Silents"

The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences presents Summer of Silents, a series of Photoplay Award winning films.

June 13 - Humoresque (1920)
June 20 - Tol'able David (1921)
June 27 - Robin Hood (1922)
July 4 - No screening
July 11 - The Covered Wagon (1923) with a surviving fragment of Abraham Lincoln (1924)
July 18 - The Big Parade (1925)
July 20 - COMEDY BONUS – The General (1927)
July 25 - Beau Geste (1926)
August 1 - 7th Heaven (1927)
August 8 - Four Sons (1928)

As usual, screenings at the Academy are more than just seeing a movie:

The nine evenings will feature the best available prints, music performed and composed by a variety of accompanists specializing in the period, a comedy short featuring a different silent screen comedian each week, and surviving fragments of lost films from the era, introduced by film historians including recent honorary Oscar recipient Kevin Brownlow. 

The Photoplay Magazine Medal of Honor was a Best Picture award that predated the Oscars and was voted on not by members of the industry, but by the public.

Beginning in 1920, Photoplay gave out what is considered the first significant annual movie award, the Photoplay Medal of Honor (later Gold Medal). An actual medallion produced by Tiffany & Co., it was voted on by the readers of the magazine and given to the producer of the year's best film, chosen with an emphasis on (according to Quirk) "the ideals and motives governing its production... the worth of its dramatic message." Though Photoplay only gave the single award for best film, its intentions and standards were influential on the Academy Awards founded later in the decade, and they overlap on Best Picture choices to some extent, though increasingly in the 1930s Photoplay's choices reflected its primarily female audience. By 1939 the Medal of Honor had declined in importance and the award was discontinued that year.

Tickets go on sale June 1.

As much as I hate the idea of being one of those people who juggle multiple blogs...

I'm thinking I need this blog for personal and creative stuff and a new one for politics that needs to be called "If A Republican/Conservative Did This He/She Would Be Raked Over The Coals" or something to that effect.  The wealth of material for a project like that has been overwhelming lately and has completely taken over my writing and my blog.

Or, in this case, "If A Straight Republican/ Conservative Did This He/She Would Be Raked Over The Coals": U.S. Rep Barney Frank admits he helped then-lover get lucrative government post.  Raise your hand if you already knew this, because it wasn't exactly a state secret.  Keep raising your hand if you're a Dem/lib and conveniently ignored it because it was one of your own and not one of those filthy Rethug/Conservative/Christian hypocrites.  Yeah, all of you.  I know you arm is getting tired, but that's your punishment for being PC and biased as opposed to honest.  It's more punishment than Frank is likely to get for his blatant and unapologetic lack of ethics.

Some choice quotes from Representative Frank (bold mine):

U.S. Rep. Barney Frank admitted he helped his ex-lover land a lucrative post with Fannie Mae in the early 1990s while the Newton Democrat was on a committee that regulated the lending giant — but he called questions of a potential ethical conflict “nonsense.”

“If it is (a conflict of interest), then much of Washington is involved (in conflicts),” Frank told the Herald last night. 

Actually, as stupid as those comments are in the real world where the rest of us live, to a privileged career pol like Frank it makes perfect sense.  Move along folks, nothing to see here, despite the fact that he is clearly guilty of using his influence to benefit his boyfriend, possibly to the detriment of a more qualified individual.  Not to mention that if this story was about a Republican representative, Frank and his fellow Dems - with a big assist to their enablers in the mainstream media - would probably hound the offending individual out of office.  Two wrongs only make a right when certain people are caught misbehaving and besides, rules are only for little people, not him.  Add in the additional PC protected class of him being gay and he's pretty much untouchable.

Maybe it's just coincidence that when Frank and the boyfriend split up, the boyfriend left the job Frank had helped him land. (bold mine again):

Moses, who lived with Frank in Washington at the time, worked for Fannie until 1998, when he left the mortgage behemoth. Moses, who could not be reached for comment, and Frank split up that year...

Frank was a junior member on the House Financial Services Committee at the time he helped Moses land the job and served on the committee, which regulates lenders, for the duration of their relationship...

In an interview Tuesday on WBUR’s “Fresh Air,” Morgensen said Frank “was very aggressive and really tough on those who were testifying in Congress about reining in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac” during hearings after Moses was hired. She said Fannie Mae “rolled out the red carpet” for Moses as part of a strategy to curry favor with Frank and other members of the Financial Services Committee.

Morgensen also noted that members of the committee raked in tens of thousands in campaign donations from Fannie and Freddie execs, including Frank, who received $42,000 in contributions from 1989 through 2008.

Nope, no conflict of interest at all.  But you just know if a Republican had pulled this shit he'd be in deep shit, and rightly so.  Since Frank is a Dem and gay to boot, I have a feeling this will be conveniently swept under the carpet and I think that's a shame.  It's not just Frank; I'd like to see the same standards applied to unethical and criminal politicians regardless of their party.  I'm a big fan of fair play and I'm also a big fan of seeing people get what they've earned and deserve, whether it's good or bad.  Plus, we're never going to have partisanship or the ability to truly work for the common good in our government if we have double standards for one party versus the other.  The sooner we hold all pols accountable, the sooner they remember who they really work for.

Maybe I'll call the new political blog "Double Standard" instead.  Says the same thing, but would be a lot easier to fit on the banner.

From the Department of Just Because You Can Doesn't Mean You Should...

Carrie remake.

Thin Man remake.

Neither of these films needs to be remade.  Seriously people, write something original.

 Now that Cahuenga Peak has been saved, somebody please save Hollywood!

Leader of the Free World as Comic Relief: A Jolly Good Twofer

Looks like I picked the wrong week to start jotting down Obamaisms!  On the other hand, I've been wanting a full time job and now it looks like I've found one, so maybe I should quit my bitching.

President Obama is visiting England and yes, hilarity has ensued.  First, he decided to immortalize his visit in writing at Westminster Abbey.  Big mistake.

It's one thing when I can't remember what day it is.  It's another thing entirely when the President of the United States doesn't know what year it is.

Although in his defense, May 2008 was a much happier time for him.  I can understand him wanting to remain in that moment.

And then he really fucked up:

Well that was awkward.

It pretty much goes without saying that if Bush had pulled either of these boneheaded moves he would have been raked over the coals as the most defective idiot ever to hold elected office...and rightly so.   Luckily for Obama, the bulk of the press gave him a lifetime pass some time ago.  57 states?  No problem!  No sense of protocol?  No problem!  Two major screwups in one day?  No problem, the media has his back!

Luckily for the rest of us, there's the internets.

All joking aside, that was a pretty scary face he pulled when he finally had to admit defeat and shut the hell up.  He knew he'd just totally humiliated himself big time and he wasn't happy about it.  Those Brits are lucky there wasn't a flamethrower within reach.  It could have gotten a lot uglier.  God save the Queen, indeed.

Isn't someone in Obama's position supposed to have people who are responsible for prepping him for events like this?  The average American can't really be expected to have a handle on British royal protocol, but the President isn't the average American.  Did he refuse to be bothered to learn this stuff or is his staff just that inept?  Either way, heads are gonna roll!  In fact, in my fictionalized version of this comedy of errors, post-humiliation he walks into a room of staffers and screams, "Off with their heads!" 

 

Does it count as political intrigue when everyone knows about it?

Look, I'm sure every campaign these days has this kind of thing going on: Obama re-election campaign digging up dirt on potential opponent.

Despite New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie's repeated pronouncements that he will not seek the GOP presidential nomination, Obama operatives are compiling a dossier of what they call "opposition research" -- material that could be used to damage Christie if he changes his mind, The Post has learned.

"Compiling a dossier" = "Digging up dirt" in political parlance. In other word, President Hopey Change is willing to play dirty to stay on top, if that's what it takes. I'm sure the MSM will be all over these shenanigans (snerk!)!

The Obama campaign is trying to keep its efforts from public view, concerned they would only elevate Christie's already impressive standing within the Republican Party, sources said. 

They've got that much right.  Playing dirty does have a tendency to make the other guy look good simply in comparison.  Seriously, these people make CREEP look squeaky clean.  Also, it's not keeping it from public view when the New York Post is writing about it and Fox News is discussing it on air.  Just an FYI, political geniuses.

Top Dems applauded Team Obama's preparation. 

"It would be irresponsible for them to not start looking at it," said a consultant who played a key role in Obama's 2008 campaign. "It would be malpractice for them not to."

"Preparation" = "Setting up a smear campaign".  To me, this is what you do when you can't beat them with your qualifications, experience and track record.  When you can't or won't take the high road, the only remaining option is the low road.  This kind of garbage may be politics as usual and SOP for these sleazebags, but the American in me still has the decency to be appalled by this kind of behavior.  And it certainly isn't going to get my vote.

The writer in me, on the other hand, is furiously scribbling notes:

Update: This guy is going to be very busy between now and November 2012.

The post is a new one for this White House. Rapid response has usually been outsourced to the Democratic National Committee (DNC), if not done on an ad-hoc basis by administration officials. And it signals that the White House will be adopting a more aggressive defense of the president and his policies as his re-election campaign gears up.

I'm guessing one of the qualification for this position was "must be willing to play dirty.  Chicago political background desirable but not required."  And apparently the new Internets Czar is relishing his aggressive new role - in his first official, on the job tweet he introduced himself by tweeting this image:

Michelle Malkin?  Terminated!  Ulsterman?  Terminated! Norma Jean Young?  Terminated!  Everyone in this convo?  Retroactively terminated to 2008!  Oh, and Hillbuzz, who had the nerve to point out this inconvenient truth about Jesse Lee's cool new job:

This position isn’t funded by the Democrat National Committee or Teh Won’s re-election campaign. It’s an official White House position, a government job, funded by the taxpayers of America, to stifle your First Amendment rights.

YOU ARE SO TERMINATED!!!

I guess I've answered my own question (posed in the post title).   Intrigue is all around us.  And it's very intriguing.

I can't take notes fast enough.

Dogs of Keauhou

My Mom and I spotted these adorable little guys as we left the KTA in Keauhou:

Pictures don't do them justice.  They were even more ridiculously cute in person.

A warrior and a sitcom character

That's what came to mind when I saw this photo comparison that Weasel Zippers used in their post about the Netanyahu/Obama "1967 lines" dust-up:

One of these things is not like the other...

My favorite comment:

This could absolutely go in the political thriller script.  Even dramas need an occasional moment of humor to give the audience a moment to catch their breath (and mislead them into thinking all is well *evil laugh*).  It's comical, but also sobering: It's not a world of men anymore. 

Either that or he would make an awesome goofy sidekick.  I mean, just look at him.

Photo snicked from the linked article.

Historic Hermosa Beach gets some love

I love anything to do with historic Southern California, especially L.A. and Hollywood.  This also applies to the beach cities.  I could live in the world in this mural:

Well done, Hermosa Beach!

Hello hangover!

After a week and countless fails ignored pleas for any sort of assistance or information, Blogger has restored image uploading.  Catchup posts now commencing.

Someday I will get back to L.A. and when I do one of the things I will miss most about Hawaii is shopping at the KTA in Keauhou.  Awesome store for so many reasons, one of which is that they are not only the people who brought us Spam-flavored macadamia nuts, but also Hello Kitty wine!

Apparently there's an Angelic Hello Kitty wine and a Lil' Devil Hello Kitty wine.

Best part: It was "marked down" to thirty bucks.  Seriously.  Marked down!

Such a bargain!

I took a pass on it.  Sorry, wine-connoiseur Bro!

How does this not have political intrigue written all over it? Someone get on this!

As I've probably mentioned before the political thriller is not my genre, although I'm beginning to think maybe it should be given the wealth of material that has been and will no doubt continue to be generated by the current administration.

Seriously, who would have ever guessed that with the sad tenth anniversary of 9/11 only a few months away anyone would have the gall to make this statement to the American people, much less our own President? (bold mine)

"As Americans have been seared by hostage taking, violent rhetoric, and terrorist attacks that have killed thousands of our citizens - a failure to change our approach threatens a deepening spiral of division between the United States and Muslim communities"

You know what causes deepening spirals of divisions?  Well for starters, there's hostage taking, violent rhetoric and terrorist attacks.  Maybe we aren't the ones guilty of "a failure to change our approach", Mr. President. 

For possibly the millionth time since November 2008 I find myself reading an Obama quote and wondering exactly whose side he's on.  If this guy was a legitimate plant by the enemies of the state he would have a better cover.  I find myself wondering how he sees the world around him.  That alone would be a ton of work in terms of character development (and by "character development" I mean the creating a fictional character kind, not the real life "personal integrity" kind).

Honestly, political thriller novelists, you're slacking, really you are.  Nevermind, I'll do it. *dashes off to jot down notes*

Still in Hawaii

I've now gone from being in Hawaii for an undetermined length of time due to an illness in the family to staying in Hawaii for an undetermined length of time due to a death in the family.  So far things are going a lot smoother than I would have anticipated, but then again I had no idea this would happen so fast and really had no idea what to anticipate.

I also have no idea when I will set foot in L.A. again but I have a feeling it won't be for a while.  However, if you have to be stuck somewhere under unpleasant circumstances, Hawaii is hardly the most awful place to be.  So in honor of my temporary home away from home here is the awesome Hawaii Five-0 theme performed by the equally awesome Brian Setzer Orchestra. (Note: may take a couple minutes to load)

Famous people make the news

Still can't post pictures on Blogger, so I'm reduced to this:

The Good:

Dirty Jobs host Mike Rowe on the importance of careers that require one to actually get off ones ass and work for 8 hours a day with little or no fanfare from the so-called "intellectually elite":

I'm here today because of my grandfather. 

His name was Carl Knobel, and he made his living in Baltimore as a master electrician. He was also a plumber, a mechanic, a mason, and a carpenter. Everyone knew him as a jack-of-all-trades. I knew him as a magician.

For most of his life, my grandfather woke up clean and came home dirty. In between, he accomplished things that were nothing short of miraculous. Some days he might re-shingle a roof. Or rebuild a motor. Or maybe run electricity out to our barn. He helped build the church I went to as a kid, and the farmhouse my brothers and I grew up in. He could fix or build anything...

Thirty years later in San Francisco when my toilet blew up again. This time, I didn't participate in the repair process. I just called my landlord, left a check on the kitchen counter, and went to work. When I got home, the mess was cleaned up and the problem was solved. As for the actual plumber who did the work, I never even met him.

It occurred to me that I had become disconnected from a lot of things that used to fascinate me. I no longer thought about where my food came from, or how my electricity worked, or who fixed my pipes, or who made my clothes. There was no reason to. I had become less interested in how things got made, and more interested in how things got bought...

Right now, American manufacturing is struggling to fill 200,000 vacant positions. There are 450,000 openings in trades, transportation and utilities. The skills gap is real, and it's getting wider. In Alabama, a third of all skilled tradesmen are over 55. They're retiring fast, and no one is there to replace them...

In general, we're surprised that high unemployment can exist at the same time as a skilled labor shortage. We shouldn't be. We've pretty much guaranteed it.

In high schools, the vocational arts have all but vanished. We've elevated the importance of "higher education" to such a lofty perch that all other forms of knowledge are now labeled "alternative." Millions of parents and kids see apprenticeships and on-the-job-training opportunities as "vocational consolation prizes," best suited for those not cut out for a four-year degree. And still, we talk about millions of "shovel ready" jobs for a society that doesn't encourage people to pick up a shovel.

Unfortunately, on the subject of honest, humble, hard work he wasn't exactly preaching to the choir.  Read the whole thing here: Mike Rowe's Senate Testimony.

The Bad:

From Yahoo: Celebrity tweeters risk boring fans.  Seriously, they just now noticed this?  I can't tell you how many famous people I followed early on in the mistaken belief they'd be as interesting on their own as they are scripted or edited down to short, snappy soundbites.  WRONG!!! 

Tweets on singer Katy Perry's page include: "What does it mean when you see the number 33 all the time? For instance, I've seen it over 7 times today."

While actress Demi Moore, one of Twitter's most prolific celebrity users with over 3.5 million followers, wrote on Friday: "Kind of digging soft curls with a side part. A good change from straight with a middle part?"

One of my earliest Twitter reality checks was when I realized indie-cool actor Steve Buscemi wasn't and he became one of my first unfollows.  It pained me to do that, really it did.

The Ugly:

The New York Post owes everyone a big bucket of brain bleach for this headline.   Seriously, no one wants that mental image.  Now having said that, when all other fishwraps have gone the way of dinosaurs, I wouldn't be surprised if the Post is still around with its un-PC, in-you-face, "Hey, we were all thinking it!" headlines.

And the just plain ridiculous:

Jennifer Aniston bought an NYC penthouse in her dog's name.  In fact, not just in the dog's name, but in the dog's trust's name.  Yes, her dog has a trust.  I hope thanks to the tax breaks that this stupid thing is no doubt meant to create means that Jen can avoid going broke and having to live out of her car, and ensuring that she can keep making bad movies that tank at the box office.  Seriously, who are these people who keep casting her?  She hasn't had a hit since Friends.

Blogging fail

Have a few things to update, but Blogger was down for an extended period yesterday and today it's not uploading photos.  At some point when Blogger gets its crap together there will be catchup posts.

Update: The problem with uploading pictures has not been resolved, so I guess I can't post the fabulous pictures of the Hello Kitty wine (yes, you read that right) I snapped at the KTA in Keauhou today.  Although based on this hot mess, not being able to upload pics is the least of Blogger's problems right now.  I'm not sure exactly what happened during yesterday's "maintenance", but today some Blogger accounts have gone missing completely and who knows if they'll get them back or not.  What really sucks is that I logged back on to Typepad today in case I need to switch TLAT back there and realized that once I got the Blogger version of this baby launched, I deleted the Typepad version of it.  This means that if Blogger doesn't get its shit together soon, I get to manually copy the entire blog post by post to another host for the second time in a month.  Joy.

Snarky awesomeness, celebrity style

Today's interwebz were an embarrassment of riches for my sleb-snarking self.  Consider the following developments.  I know I did.

CSI star Marg Helgenberger says two-time guest star Justin Bieber was an immature douchebag brat on set.  Stop hatin' on the younger chicks, Marg!  I kid.  Call the unprofessional ones like you see 'em, Emmy award-winning actress!  And CSI producers, seriously, stop stunt casting and start hiring professional actors.  Or just call it a day, if you're that desperate for attention.  Look, you've had your decade in the sun and your place in TV history is secure.  Bieber casting once just might be the television gods telling you it's over.  Twice the Bieber?  That's worse than the Grissom - Sara shark jump.  Hey, I'm not trying to be mean - just because I haven't watched in years doesn't mean I don't care.  If ever a show deserved to go out in shark-free style, it was CSI.  But Biebering isn't the way to go out in style.  On the other hand, this particular sad stunt casting gave the world this awesome death scene:

Okay, this might be a slight exaggeration.

Lakers crash and burn (don't care) and a sportswriterly type goes out on a massive limb and suggests that one of their players, along with his Z minus minus minus-list "celebrity" spousal unit and their lameass TV show might have had a less than positive affect on his play and his team.  No, really???  Because no one in L.A. saw that one coming. </sarcasm>  Although from that article, it does seem like soap-operaness abounds on the Lakers.  My guess is that there will be more Lakers related shitty TV before there's another title.  Don't care.  Better them than the Kings.

And finally, because I'm weird this way, I suddenly have an overwhelming urge to TP Sheryl Crow's house.  Why?  Because the genius who can afford a personal chef but thinks the little people should limit themselves to one sheet of the aforementioned TP per visit to the loo has "co-written" a...Wait. For. It...cookbook!  There's a secret ingredient joke in there somewhere.  Notice her hands are hidden on the book cover?  Also, "those pesky occasions" is my new fake band name.  In a perfect world, where I actually have some musical aptitude, Those Pesky Occasions would totally exist and totally rock the charts!  Please to be getting yourselves over to iTunes to BUY BUY BUY SO WE CAN HIRE PERSONAL CHEFS download our first hit, Don't Bogart That Toilet Paper.

Not bad for a Monday!

What I've been missing, courtesy of Hollywood Patch and Curbed L.A.

Still in Hawaii for ongoing family stuff.  Yeah, it's not the worst place to be stuck, but it's not home.

Luckily the internets are doing a pretty decent job of keeping me apprised of the goings-on back in the City of Angles so I don't feel so left out.  This is especially true of Hollywood Patch, which is rapidly becoming one of my favorite source for all things local.

Here are just a few examples of what's going on in crazy hometown in my absence:

Just another festive Saturday night in Hollywood: Shooting outside a Franklin x Cahuenga nightclub, pedestrian mowed down by party bus and left in grave condition, idiot runs out into lanes on the 101 and is left in dead condition.  People, if God wants you to be on the 101 he will put you in a car first and even then there are no guarantees.

Some friendly advice: Drunk in public is never going to work to your advantage and sex in a public place is a bad idea.  Not being a drunken slut willing to have sex in the Arclight garage would probably also help avoid awkward situations involving law enforcement, the media, and criminal misunderstandings.

How the heck did I miss this?  LAPD gun buyback program rewards include Ralphs and Visa giftcards.  I would rue not owning any illegal firearms but I would have missed it anyway.  I'll just have to continue have to pay for my groceries with cash and not by holding the place up.
Update: The buyback netted 2,000+ weapons, including "953 handguns, 688 rifles, 330 shotguns and 91 assault-style rifles".  That's a lot of giftcards.

The American Cinematheque is showing off its sense of humor with a Mother's Day screening of Mommie Dearest at the Egyptian this evening.  Tickets appear to still be available.

Via Curbed L.A. this happened at the Hollywood Roosevelt last week.  I'd have been there taking pictures if I'd been home, but instead we'll all have to settle for this awesome video:

It might have sucked to actually be in one of those rooms while this was going on, but I would have loved to have seen it.

On the upside, I also missed Jennifer Lopez at Hollywood & Highland, so I've got that working in my favor.

 

Home sweet home

Arclight rapist caught

Okay fine, alleged rapist.  Via Hollywood Patch.  Either way you call it, I'm just glad they got this guy off the streets.

Attention writer/directors: Screenwriting Expo adds film festival

This is for you:

In this festival, the writer-director is the entrant.  The director must be one of the writers. 

All the rules, regulations and other pertinent info are here.

So glad to be posting this and not spending the entire morning on a politically related long-ass post *fingers crossed*

How to make a story out of nothing

Talk about Much Ado About Nothing: White House asks teeny-tiny weekly California paper to remove perceived unflattering remark about Michelle Obama from an article about Marine One (the helicopter version of Air Force One).

She also wrote a sentence that the White House thought made FLOTUS look snooty.

“Basically the reporter said that the First Lady didn’t speak to the pilots but acknowledged them by making eye contact,” Allen wrote in her email.

Allen says she “complied” with the White House’s request “because it was not worth making a fuss over.”

She added, “I thought it was interesting, though, that the [White House] was concerned enough about image to contact a little weekly paper in Pleasanton.”

A sentence. All this fuss over a sentence. It wasn't like the article was a hit piece on FLOTUS, it was a fluff piece about a helicopter that mentioned her.

Replace "concerned enough about image" with "thin-skinned" and "hyper-sensitive" and I'm in. Seriously, remember all the unrestrained and at times hysterical criticism and crap President Bush took over every single thing he said or did and basically ignored it? It's called being an adult. And come on, isn't this Celebrity 101? You put yourself in the public eye, people are going to comment on you and it's not all going to be flattering. Besides, what happened to no such thing as bad publicity?

This is why people in the public eye have handlers. Anyone who put any thought into the situation could have advised that by doing this, you would draw much more attention to the article and the offending comment than if you just ignored it. If they hadn't, probably very few people outside of Pleasanton (population 69,000) would have seen it. Now it's on Drudge Report (population 40,788,912 in the past 24 hours) and it looks petty.

To me the bigger issue here is whether or not the reporter's observations were accurate. If not, then sure, ask that they be edited out because of their inaccuracy. But that doesn't seem to be the case here.

Also, consider that at times Michelle Obama has seemingly conducted herself like a queen. The White House didn't seem too concerned about the extravagance (real or perceived) of the infamous Spain trip, not to mention this is the same woman who put in an appearance at a food bank clad in $500 sneakers. Did the White House really think anyone who happened to be in the Pleasanton Weekly's limited readership (who also happened to find the prospect of a "soft feature" about the Presidential helicopter worth a read) would bat an eye at the idea of this woman only semi-acknowledging the hired help? Did they think anyone would?

As a writer I should be taking better notes on this president and everybody he surrounds himself with. By the time he's out of office I could redefine the political thriller as bumbling comedy.

I really hadn't meant for the blog to get all political lately, but when life gives you story material you write it down (or something like that, lemons and lemonade...) I think it might be because I dumped the Twitter and Facebook accounts recently so I have two fewer places to vent wax poetic about the world around me. The blog is pretty much it these days.

And story material is all around me. 

Everybody walks past a thousand story ideas every day. The good writers are the ones who see five or six of them. Most people don't see any. (Orson Scott Card)

More Bin Laden news

This just in: Osama Bin Laden is still dead.

Looking out for Numero Uno: Pathetic to the end, Osama used his wife as a human shield.  Update: The story now is that she either jumped in front of him or lunged at the Navy Seals in a threatening manner, rather than Osama using her as a shield.  Hopefully the story isn't being sanitized to spare the delicate sensibilities of The Dead One's fellow peace-loving Muslims.  Regardless of what happened, you would really think and hope our powers that be would have the story straight before revealing it to the world.

<Ricky Ricardo voice> Looks like Paaahkeeestaaan has some 'splainin to do! </Ricky Ricardo voice>

And from Twitter, this: OsamaInHell.  Some choice tweets:

 

In addition to giving voice to Osama In Hell, Twitter served as the most up to the moment source for ongoing news about the operation.

Speaking of Twitter, there was also this: The guy in Abbottabad who inadvertently live-tweeted the whole thing as it went down.

Watch your back in the Arclight parking garage

Via Hollywood Patch: Men sought in sexual assault in Hollywood parking garage.

Keep your eyes open, don't go out in deserted areas or structures at odd hours without backup and be safe everyone!

Invasion of the Bin Laden Snatchers

Forget Al Gore and Michael Moore - someone please give Barack Obama a well deserved Oscar for his performance yesterday as Warmongering Nazi George W. Bush in Death of a Terrorist Asshole.  Hopefully during his Academy Award acceptance speech PrezBo will remember to thank the Navy Seals who actually punched the trigger on Bin Laden's long overdue one way ticket to hell (after he thanks his fanbase, the mainstream media, of course).

I have to admit that speech last night was impressive as hell.  It was 100% pro-American and I didn't notice Obama so much as flinching in discomfort even once as he proudly announced the death of a monster responsible for thousands of deaths by terrorism man-caused disasters.   In fact his passionate, shameless patriotism in that speech would put your average Tea Partier to shame.

There was none of the usual bipartisan derision or snarky comments about those who don't agree with him on everything, and he hardly made it all about himself at all.  He certainly didn't downplay his role in this historic event, but when it was over he turned and walked away, leaving the American public to their exuberant celebrations and ongoing love affair with our military and everything they do for us.

I couldn't help but wondering where he got his new speechwriters (borrowed from Chimpy McBushitler?) or if he'd been replaced by an Invasion of the Body Snatchers-style pod Obama.  Seriously, it was like listening to President Bush cowboying up in the face of a cruel, vicious enemy.  In other words, it was like 2001 all over again, only without the horrifying images.

Speaking of Bush, I really need to listen to the speech again and much more carefully, to see if Obama gave the Kamikaze Cowboy credit for having the guts to launch the war on terror after the attacks of 9/11, especially after the criticism Bush was subjected to when he made his emotional statement about hunting Bin Laden ("I don't care.  Dead or alive.  Either way, it doesn't matter to me.")  Because when you get right down to it, we didn't care either.  Well, yes we did.  We preferred dead and it took nearly a decade, but we got it.  Right between the eyes, up close and personal.  I take great pleasure in knowing that the murdering bastard spent his last few moments knowing an American serviceman was about to put a bullet in him.  Cowboy up if you have a problem with that.  Live by the sword, die by the sword.  Bin Laden didn't get anything better or worse than what he deserved.

Biggest props of all go to the Navy Seals who selflessly and gladly put their lives on the line for this operation while the rest of us (especially our entitled, coddled politicians) were safe in our bubble at home.   Best of all there were no American casualties in the take down operation.  Score one for the good guys.

I also really hope this can give some comfort to the friends and loved ones of those who were needlessly slaughtered on 9/11 at the hands of Bin Laden and his fellow nutjobs. 

Of course Tinseltown has to get into the act.  It hasn't even been 24 hours, but is Hollywood suddenly jumping on the pro-America bandwagon?  Via Big Hollywood: Hunt for Bin Laden projects could be fast-tracked and Hollywood Reporter: Upcoming book on Navy Seals suddenly hot (bidding war for screen rights commences in 5...4...3...).

Lastly, because it's not just a major news story without this guy anymore, You Know Who responds to the death of Bin Laden:

Deadlines!

The Disney/ABC Writing Program is currently accepting submissions and applications.  The submission period is May 1 through June 1.

The Warner Bros. Writers' Workshop is accepting submissions beginning tomorrow through June 1.

The Screenwriting Expo Screenwriting Competition is currently open to entries.  Final deadline is July 10.  They have categories for feature, teleplay and short.  The Screenwriting Expo itself will take place September 15-18 at the Westin Los Angeles Airport Hotel.