Jon Stewart Is "Most Trusted"

Give it up for one of my favorite guys on Television, Jon Stewart for winning the poll as most trusted newsmaker in America. Wow! In light of Walter Cronkite's passing (RIP), this poll was taken to see the pulse of who could replace the "anchorman's" legend. And most folks chose Jon Stewart.

Ok so, I've been a fan of Stewart since college. I normally have a good radar for folks who are full of B.S. and those who are authentic even if they are hosting a "fake news show" ( a la Stewart) and I pegged Stewart as the latter.

But many seemed to come to the game late up till oh about five years ago (2004 elections) when Stewart's star as they say in Hollywood really started to rise. And he served notice to the so-called news media that he isn't just a comedian but a brilliant guy who causes us not to take for lack of a better word, the B.S.

His memorable moments for me include his guest appearance on the now defunct program "CrossFire" with Tucker Carlson and Paul Begala, which many people believed got cancelled after Stewart's showed the ridiculousness of their "outrage" on things that don't matter to most Americans. And of course, the Daily Show coverage of the Katrina event. They (the crew and its host) deserved all the awards they got. Who was the one that found out Dubya hired a person who's only emergency experience was been over Arabian horses (here's looking at you Brownie) to put him as head of Homeland Security? The Daily Show NOT the regular news media!

At one time, the news media brushed him off as just the court jester but they forgot the history of the court jester - he normally had the ear of the King and the ear of the people. And he could show the King the errors of his ways in an amusing fashion when his dignitaries would only say things to tickle his ears. Now any Media personality who's worth his dough listens to Stewart and tries to be on program to get an audience. Oh the sweet smell of success. Kudos to you Stewart.

An Officer And A Gentleman

There's one advantage to switching more to a weekly blog cuz of my schedule and that is you have some time to look at some news story from various ends before writing your first reaction. But sometimes, I feel such advantage defeats the purpose of a blog - instant reaction.

What am I talking about? Oh the whole Skip Gates (aka Henry Louis Gates) and the Cambridge Officer, Sergent James Crowley incident. As a person who knows Boston quite well, let me say I'm not shocked by the incident. Just today, one of my Uncles told me a friend (who's black) of his gets stopped by the police most times he's going in to check on one of the properties he OWNS. I guess because they might not think a brother could won a property others rent from him.

Anyhoo, the story reached a bowling point when my President decided to answer the last question from the snoozefest (I mean the Healthcare Reform Press Conference) from Lynn Sweeney about Skip. Check it out:


But folks didn't hear the whole reasoning Obama made about racial profiling. What they focused on were two words: "Acted Stupidly" in relation to the Cambridge Police. I'm glad Obama didn't give a "politically correct" speech even though it would have served him better but the Cambridge Police did act stupidly if you slapped handcuffs on a 68 (not 58 per police report) year old man walking with a cane in his OWN HOME.

Now I truly believe that a little guilt should be given to Gates for overreaction but think about the irony of the situation, Skip is a Professor who's made his life's mission studying about race, tracing black folks' "roots," etc, to be the subject of what he's taught. I also believe that there was some serious EGO going on with Sergent James Crowley to make an example of Skip for standing to him which he had the right - it WAS HIS HOME. Do I think race played a significant role in all this? Well in the words of an Aunt: I don't care about the whole spin, all I know is if Skip was a white man, he wouldn't have been placed in handcuffs. And for me: I'll say in the words of the X-files - THE TRUTH IS OUT THERE.

Tags: Henry Louis Gates, Racial Profiling

Richard Jefferson's Foul Play

I'm an NBA fan (as followers of this blog know) but I wouldn't have thought during the off-season, many players (literally and figuritively speaking) would have much action going on off-the- court.

The news story that broke a couple of days ago was former New Jersey Nets and newly acquired San-Antonio Spurs player called a time-out on his $2 million wedding two hours before event. I remember thinking how did he break it off with the girl? Were both of them cool with it that the marriage wasn't going to work out? Then I thought, ok this doesn't go well with the "gay rumors" that have plagued Jefferson for a few seasons. In the words of "Seinfeld" - not that there's anything wrong with that! (Being gay that is)

Only to find out today, that this Negro broke up with the fiancee via e-mail 48 hours before the wedding but didn't tell his folks who were on their way to the wedding till two hours before the event. Now I cry FOUL to that move. I won't call him a punk, but that was a "punkish" move.

Let me go all Carrie on you from Sex and The City for a minute: When you become of age as a man, you need to learn the rules of the breakup. You need to learn how to be what's the word I'm looking for . . . CLASSY! Show that the person you were involved with (not to talk of about to marry) means something more to you than just a cheap thrill. And that means you don't break up with the girl with a phone, a stand off, an E-MAIL, text, or a "post-it" note. Get it?

And the nerve for you to buy her off (which you said wasn't so) with a "Six-figure settlement" afterwards when the news broke for her to "move on" is more CLASSLESS - what is she ? A high-priced hooker? Do these brothers think? Your defense was she's still one of your best friends. Huh! Gosh, I hate to think how you treat your enemies, if that was a "best friends" action.

In closing, my memo to you is to get your head together for yourself. Go see some therapist or something and learn why a 29-year old (ok, that's a year too young in my books to consider marriage for a guy) still doesn't know who he is - gay or straight.

Tag: Richard Jefferson calls off wedding

Project Runway Is Coming Back!

Oh yeah! Oh yeah! Lawsuit over, hello Project Runway! Will be back on my TV screen on August 20th. Y'all know I've lamented on one of my guilty pleasures on TV been gone for almost two years.

I have one more month to wait for Gunn's critical eye on the designers and folks who don't take his advise, might find themselves on the chopping block or hated by the TV viewers - what was that girl's name from the last season who only made "vintage" dresses with her signature feather hat and red lipstick? I can't remember but "that one."

And looking at Lifetime Promos for the show, I say eat your heart out "The Fashion Show." You can't touch this. The contestants have riveting story lines and I'm really going to see what innovation is all about.

Hopefully all the gang such as Michael Kors and Nina Garcia all make it back. It won't be the same without them.

The Question Is . . .

So in my extremely busy schedule, I managed to catch the highlights of the snoozefest (need those these days) called the SCOTUS confirmation hearings for Sonia Sotomayor. I get it that every nominee has to go through this protocol, what I don't get is that in the year 2009, with a historic President, I can still count on U.S. Senators to play up racial and sexist stereotypes during the hearings.

As a woman and a person of color, it made me wince when words like "major meltdown," "temparament," "got some 'xplaining to do" - I'm looking at you Sen. Lindsay Graham could perpetuate the ridiculous stereotype women (for the first two instances) and folks of color (showing you're hip with some colloquaism) have had to deal with.

Anyhoo, if you don't believe me, here are some highlights from the good folks of The Daily Show:

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
White Men Can't Judge - Sotomayor: Judgment Days
http://www.thedailyshow.com/
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Joke of the Day

Another point I want to make is why do we keep having these hearings when you will NEVER know how these nominees are really going to vote when they get to the Supreme Court? It's called the "Ginsberg Rule" - named after one of our nine SCOTUS, who will give vague answers about controversial topics such as gun laws, abortion, etc. And many nominees after her have followed the same rule. Use "hypothetical" "abstract" as words that say you can't give an opinion on an instance. So what these senators have is to go by their records - the cases they've already JUDGED on.

The person Sotomayor is going (SHE WILL BE CONFIRMED) to replace David Souter was known to have hoodwinked the Senators because former President George H.W. Bush nominated him and many thought he was going to be "CONSERVATIVE" that some Democrats fought his nomination but over 20 years in the Supreme Court, he was known as the court's most LIBERAL of the judges.

What's the lesson here amidst the ridiculous questions of her heritage, gender, etc. The lesson is as long as she's undeniably qualified (not like Dubya's Harriet Mayers he tried to nominate but never served on a bench) and wasn't a proven racist (a word some conservatives have just found) then just go right ahead and confirm her.

Tags: SCOTUS, Confirmation Hearings, Sonia Sotomayor

Palin Confuses Me

Hi Y'all, normally I don't post around this time but I betcha knew I wasn't going to let the bombshell from Wasilla, Alaska get away (wink). I'm talking about the hockey Mom Governor of Alaska resigning from her office when she still had 18 months left to go on her first term. What was that of a press conference?

I'll give Palin this: congratulations on confusing one of the most logical persons I know with that press conference; ME! I kept on wondering WHAT IS SHE SAYING? Why is she rushing through a press conference? And then she used the game of basketball (and no newsflash I'm a student of the game for over two decades) as an analogy and I was more befuddled.

The idea that a point guard (i.e. Palin) knew when to pass the ball to win the game. Yeah but the point guard doesn't leave the game without finishing the play and definitely not leaving in the middle of the season without some season/career ending injury. Oh! Is there some injury done to Palin she didn't want us to know about, so she has to get out of office. This is fishy.

Look, I'll respect her more if she just said "I'm tired of the mudslinging (even though she gives it more than she can take), I've got a multi-million book deal and I'd like to be the female-version of Rush Limbaugh where I can say things that is not founded on facts and be the darling of a certain group in the GOP." How tough is that . . . oh I'm sorry, that sounds too much like the truth - that can be tough.

Tag: Sarah Palin Resigns