Here is video of the complete season 8 preview shown at Comic Con last week. Some of it is shown sideways and part of it you can't see at all because the person taking the video had to be discreet.
But in this one you get to see quite a bit of the part showing the new CTU.
Link: YouTube
Friday, July 31, 2009
Village People...
it's fun to stay at the... YMCA!!!
I've reconsidered and I fully support Dale Francisco for mayor! JUST FOR THE ENTERTAINMENT VALUE! VOTE FOR DALE!! VOTE FOR DALE!! and I beg you to vote for Bob Hanson for City Council! Hanson knows how to push Dale's buttons and he's no dummy. 
He's a homeless advocate, and certainly not what well-scrubbed conservatives enjoy listening to...so when he came up to the podium to speak in the Public Comment section of the council meeting, he took Francsico to task for pandering to the News-Press! Francisco started squirming..and then exploded.. DALE has a short fuse, especially when being criticized!
While Hanson was speaking, DALE INTERRUPTED TO SCOLD HIM, pointed his finger at him with the ferocity of a chipmunk, and in an hysterically threatening manner, started shaking and
THREW A HISSY FIT! "Mr. Hanson.. speak to me outside of chambers! outside of chambers!" Was he challenging Bob to "step outside" to fight??!!
I'm laughing here..I'm laughing here...
WHAT A LITTLE HYPOCRITICAL PUSSY Francisco is! He could not sit still long enough to hear a little truth about himself, and tried to censor a public speaker! Unprecedented! Dale just violated the Brown Act by trying to stop a citizen from speaking! SUE HIM, HANSON!! oh wait, maybe the News-Press will!
The Brown Act allows anyone to speak freely and criticize any member of the council.....
Provide an opportunity for comment from members of the public to directly address the legislative body on any item of interest to the public on every agenda for regular meeting (§ 54954.3(a))Allow public criticism of the legislative body (§ 54954.3(c))
so, another rookie mistake by Francisco and he looks like an unprepared greenhorn...and a loose cannon...
I'm so happy I think I'm gonna cry......
He's a homeless advocate, and certainly not what well-scrubbed conservatives enjoy listening to...so when he came up to the podium to speak in the Public Comment section of the council meeting, he took Francsico to task for pandering to the News-Press! Francisco started squirming..and then exploded.. DALE has a short fuse, especially when being criticized!While Hanson was speaking, DALE INTERRUPTED TO SCOLD HIM, pointed his finger at him with the ferocity of a chipmunk, and in an hysterically threatening manner, started shaking and
THREW A HISSY FIT! "Mr. Hanson.. speak to me outside of chambers! outside of chambers!" Was he challenging Bob to "step outside" to fight??!!I'm laughing here..I'm laughing here...
WHAT A LITTLE HYPOCRITICAL PUSSY Francisco is! He could not sit still long enough to hear a little truth about himself, and tried to censor a public speaker! Unprecedented! Dale just violated the Brown Act by trying to stop a citizen from speaking! SUE HIM, HANSON!! oh wait, maybe the News-Press will!
The Brown Act allows anyone to speak freely and criticize any member of the council.....
Provide an opportunity for comment from members of the public to directly address the legislative body on any item of interest to the public on every agenda for regular meeting (§ 54954.3(a))Allow public criticism of the legislative body (§ 54954.3(c))
so, another rookie mistake by Francisco and he looks like an unprepared greenhorn...and a loose cannon...
I'm so happy I think I'm gonna cry......
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
President Obama’s Eligibility to Serve as President in Doubt
New doubts revealed in Obama's nativity story
School documents show mother left father within weeks of birth
More cracks have appeared in the official story of Barack Obama's family life, with the revelation in school documentation from the University of Washington that Ann Dunham most likely left her husband, Barack Sr., within weeks of the baby's birth.
The official story as presented in his autobiography, "Dreams from My Father," and in various accounts in newspapers and websites supporting Obama conflicts with the results of a careful analysis of the documentary evidence available.
For example, the official story claims Dunham relocated to Seattle late in 1962, but documentary evidence establishes she left Hawaii when she moved to Seattle in August or September 1961, only a few weeks after the birth of Barack Obama Jr.
Likewise, the official story describes how Dunham and Obama Sr. lived as man-and-wife in Hawaii until he left for Harvard to begin the fall term in September 1962. But the documents establish Dunham abandoned Obama Sr. when she left to begin school at the University of Washington in Seattle for the fall term of 1961, which began in September of that year.
The repositioning of the timeline revealed by the school documents may mask a yet undisclosed secret that lies at the heart of the Obama birth certificate controversy.
The Obama long-form original birth certificate continues to be hidden from the public by Obama despite a multitude of requests to make the document public.
But here are a number of critical dates documenting the birth of Barack Obama Jr. from available public records.
• Ann Dunham was born Nov. 29, 1942, according to her original Social Security Card. This would have made her 18 years old at the time Barack Obama Jr. was born.
• Barack Obama Jr. was born Aug. 4, 1961; this would put his date of conception at the earliest on or around Nov. 4, 1960, assuming there was a full nine months of pregnancy.
• Records provided to WND by Stuart Lau, university registrar in the Office of Admissions and Records at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, document that Ann Dunham's first day of instruction at the university was Sept. 26, 1960, less than six weeks before the earliest date Barack Obama, Jr. could have been conceived.
• Ann Dunham and Barack H. Obama, Sr.'s divorce decree states they were married Feb. 2, 1961, in Wailuku, Maui, Hawaii. This would mean Obama's parents were married approximately three months after Barack Obama, Jr. was conceived, if the baby went full-term.
• Instead of staying in Hawaii with her husband and new baby, Ann Dunham began classes at the University of Washington in Seattle in September 1961 for the autumn semester, less than two months after Obama was born. WND confirmed this date with Madolyne Lawson of the Office of Public Records at the University of Washington.
• Ann Dunham took up residence in Seattle at 516 13th Ave. E., according to the 1961 Seattle Polk directory. This residence was torn down in 1985 and is now replaced by twin Capital Park residential towers; the Seattle Polk Directory listing is for a "Mrs. Anna Obama," a variant of her name that most researchers have considered to be Ann Dunham.
• At most, Barack Obama Sr. and Ann Dunham lived together for approximately eight months, from Feb. 2, 1961, the date of their marriage, until September 1961 when Ann Dunham began her studies at the University of Washington. But there is nothing on the public record to suggest Ann Dunham and Barack Obama Sr. ever lived together again as man and wife.
• There is nothing on the public record to suggest that Ann Dunham's mother, Madelyn Dunham, accompanied her daughter to Seattle in September 1961, even though she was 18 years old and responsible for a baby who was less than two months old.
• There is no evidence on the public record that Obama Sr. ever joined his wife in Seattle. Instead, the public evidence is that Obama Sr. remained in Hawaii, while his wife and infant son established their residence in Seattle.
• Obama Sr. began studies at Harvard University in September 1962, which means Dunham did not return to live in Hawaii until after Obama Sr. had left the islands, never to return to Hawaii again as a resident.
• The same records show Dunham did not resume her studies at the University of Hawaii until April 1963 for the spring semester, when Barack Obama was approximately one year and five months old.
• Dunham and Obama Sr. were divorced Jan. 20, 1964.
The dates appear reliable, especially given the limited documentary evidence available about Barack Obama’s birth circumstances.
Timeline of President Obama's birth
The dates permit the construction of this timeline:
The timeline raises several questions:
1. Were Dunham and Obama Sr. ever very much in love, even at the beginning of their relationship, or was the marriage always one of convenience arranged to mask an inconvenient pregnancy?
2. Did Dunham and Obama Sr. ever live together as man and wife, and if so, what testimony is there from neighbors at the time that would establish their residence address?
3. Was Obama Jr. born in Hawaii, or was he born in Kenya? Could he have been born in Seattle or possibly even in British Columbia?
4. What hospital was Obama Jr. born in, and who was the attending physician? What official records establish these facts?
5. Who are Obama Jr.'s true birthright parents?
6. Why has President Obama prevented the release to the American public of his long-form original birth certificate listing the hospital of his birth, the attending physician and the identity of his parents, as recorded at the time of his birth? What information is on the original, long-form birth certificate that President Obama does not want the American people to see?
Many of these questions should be able to be answered if the American public could authenticate Barack Obama's original long-form birth certificate listing the hospital where he was born, the date and time of the birth, the attending physician and the names of the parents.
This leads to what is perhaps the key question: What is it the White House is determined to hide by refusing to release the president's original long-form birth certificate?
Moreover, while President Obama and his supporters have made many photographs available from his childhood, important gaps remain:
• No photographs have yet surfaced showing Ann Dunham pregnant in 1961.
• No photographs have yet surfaced with Barack Obama Sr. and Ann Dunham with Barack Obama Jr. as an infant in the hospital where he was born.
• No photographs have yet surfaced of Ann Dunham and Barack Obama Sr. with Barack Obama Jr. after the newly born infant was taken home from the hospital.
When and why did Barack Obama Sr. and Ann Dunham separate?
In his autobiography, "Dreams from My Father," Barack Obama Jr. tells the story that his mother and father first separated when Barack Obama Sr. left Hawaii to attend Harvard.
On page 10, Obama presents this version of the story, writing: "He [Barack Obama Sr.] won another scholarship – this time to pursue his Ph.D. at Harvard – but not the money to take his new family with him. A separation occurred, and he returned to Africa to fulfill his promise to the continent. The mother and child stayed behind, but the bond of love survived the distances …" (ellipsis in original)
The Seattle Times, reporting on the Obama family history in April 2008 when Obama was emerging as a frontrunner for the Democratic Party presidential nomination, disclosed that the family separated when Ann Dunham left Hawaii to enter the University of Washington in Seattle. But the paper incorrectly pushed Ann Dunham's relocation to Seattle to 1962.
In the published article, Seattle Times staff reporter Jonathan Martin wrote: "By 1962, Dunham had returned to Seattle as a single mother, enrolling in the UW for spring quarter and living in an apartment on Capital Hill."
This version allows a few more months for the young mother to care for her infant son while living yet with her husband in Hawaii.
On Oct. 21, 2008, the Seattle Weekly published yet a different version of the story: "But [Ann Dunham] returned to live in Seattle around 1962, after Barack was born in August 1961, leaving her husband, Kenya-born Barack Sr., and his newborn namesake in Hawaii."
The assumption in the Seattle Weekly story is that Ann Dunham left the baby with her parents, Stanley Armour Dunham and Madelyn Dunham, who ultimately raised the future president.
Nicole Brodeur, a Seattle Times staff columnist, interviewed Ann Dunham’s high school "best friend" Maxine Box in February 2008.
According to this version, Box last saw Ann Dunham in 1961, "when [Ann Dunham] visited Seattle on her way from Honolulu to Massachusetts, where her then-husband was attending Harvard."
Box also told the Seattle Times that Ann Dunham showed no interest in baby-sitting when they were in college, suggesting she was surprised when Dunham ended up pregnant only a year after graduating from Mercer Island High School.
"[Dunham] felt she didn't need to date or marry or have children," Box recalled for the Seattle Times interview published in March 2007.
Then, commenting on the birth of Barack Obama Jr., Box said, "I just couldn't imagine [Ann Dunham's] life changing so quickly.".
Unfortunately for Box, Barack Obama Sr. still was in Hawaii; he did not leave for Harvard until the following year.
In an unusual video now removed from the Internet, Ann Dunham's high school friend Susan Blake also claimed Dunham visited Seattle in August 1961 with her infant son. Blake said she changed the baby's diapers. The video is still noted and transcribed as footnote No. 21 in Ann Dunham's Wikipedia entry.
What Ann Dunham was doing in Seattle immediately after her baby was born is unclear, unless she was there to find an apartment so she could start school in September 1961 at the University of Washington.
Others have speculated that perhaps Barack Obama Jr. was born in Seattle, or possibly in Canada, allowing Dunham to be in Seattle immediately after the future president's birth without having to fly from Hawaii to the mainland sometime between Aug. 4, 1961, when the baby was born, and September 1961 when the fall term began at the University of Washington.
Barack Obama Jr.'s babysitter in Seattle
Mary Toutonghi, according to an interview published in the Seattle Chat Club blog, claimed to have baby-sat for the future president at Dunham's Seattle apartment in January and February 1962. The Toutongi interview provides no information about Dunham arriving in Seattle to begin classes in September 1961.
When asked why Dunham left her husband in Hawaii to come to Seattle with her infant son, Toutongi explained Dunham told her that she and the baby would be going to Kenya when she finished her education, as she had promised her parents when she was married.
Toutongi also added Dunham's explanation that her husband had an obligation to his tribe to take another wife that was a full-blooded Kenyan. Toutongi further commented, "I don't think I could have been that brave."
In an interview with WND, Toutongi said she baby-sat for infant Obama "for two or there months, when he was seven months old," adding "it was in the spring."
Given Obama’s birth on Aug. 4, 1961, this would put the dates Toutongi baby-sat infant Obama in February and March 1962.
"My daughter was 18 months old and she just had her 50th birthday this year," Toutongi recalled. "So, that would make the time around February and March 1962."
"Ann Dunham and the baby moved in while we were there," she remembered. "We managed the house and they had the rooms on the first floor to the right, immediately above the garage. Each of the rooms on that floor comprised a one-bedroom apartment. I can't remember when she moved in, but the baby was seven months old."
"It was kind of weird, but she never told me why she abandoned her husband," she commented. "I don't know if the courses she wanted were here. I couldn't figure out why she was here in Seattle while her husband was in Hawaii."
Did Barack Obama Sr. and Ann Dunham ever live as man and wife?
WND has previously reported the birth notices for Barack Obama Jr. that were published in the Honolulu Advertiser and the Star-Bulletin in 1961 do not provide solid proof of a birth in Hawaii because of uncertainties over the policies and procedures used by the newspapers at that time.
WND hired a private investigator in Hawaii to seek out neighbors who lived in 1961 adjacent to 6085 Kalanianaole Highway, the address listed in the newspaper published birth notices.
According to an affidavit filed with WND by the private investigator, Beatrice Arakaki was a neighbor who has lived at her current residence of 6075 Kalanianaole Highway from before 1961 to the present.
Arakaki did not recall the Obama family living in the neighborhood, and she was unaware of any young couple living at 6085 Kalanianaole Highway that met the Obama family description.
If Barack Obama Sr. and Ann Dunham lived at this address when Barack Obama Jr. was born, the original long-form birth certificate should confirm this address as the residence of the baby at birth.
The Hawaii short-form Certification of Live Birth lists no residence address information.
Obama's birth certificate is not the only document at issue. WND has reported that among the documentation not yet available for Obama includes his kindergarten records, Punahou school records, Occidental College records, Columbia University records, Columbia thesis, Harvard Law School records, Harvard Law Review articles, scholarly articles from the University of Chicago, passport, medical records, files from his years as an Illinois state senator, Illinois State Bar Association records, any baptism records and his adoption records.
Jerome R. Corsi, WorldNet Daily, 7/29/09
Desolation Row....
They're selling postcards of the hanging...
without even finishing his first term as councilmember, Dale Francisco has jumped into the mayor's race.. He says everyone he talks to worries the city is beyond repair..He says he'll be the one to save Santa Barbara!
this guy is owned by the News-Press...the sleaziest operation in town...and he marches to their orders...saying he won't take money from unions or developers means NOTHING..it's hocus pocus political slop! watch all the free promotion he'll get from Wendy! Let's see where Dale gets his money to finance the campaign...The law lets Joe Candidate, who campaigns against development, receive money from development interests after it has been sent through one or more PACs, and no one is the wiser.PAC-to-PAC transfers are a way for powerful special interests, in particular, to cover their tracks, even as they seek to influence an election and the candidate they want to win. If this sounds like a good way to fund an election, look at what GOP candidate Kay Ivey had to say. She likened the money transfers to "slipping hundred-dollar bills under the table."
First, Dale appears on Travis' radio show where Travis encourages him to run for mayor, then in his rush to get in the race, he holds a news conference under false pretenses. He was supposed to talk about the budget, instead he announces he's running for mayor! Bait and switch...a ruse! a lie! just like the News-Press!!
Then he pledges not to accept campaign money from 'anyone whose livelihood depends on decisions made by the City Council'...this was a political stunt but makes for some really good political theater ...first of all, the union knows you are anti-labor anti-working class, so they wouldn't give you a dime anyway..second, if you don't take money from developers, then you shouldn't take money from these: all the businesses in town; the non-profits that ask the city council for tax money; the renters, the home buyers; and everyone else who lives in Santa Barbara who benefits from city services and funds! and if you get a paycheck for being on the council, the city workers paid you with their taxes!
Do they count? Who does that leave to finance your campaign?.. the idle, rich conservatives!!??
HO HO HO..what a freakin jackass you are.. you're on a short leash...you've been duped by Travis! You're his puppet! You used all his anti- union editorial blather, which is full of lies, and based your announcement for a mayoral run on that??? It's a rookie mistake and now if you take money from ANYONE in Santa Barbara, you will contradict your own little platform policy!
oh boy, this race should be good...and I hope the voters won't let these rightwing political pests off too easy....make no mistake, Francisco is for the wealthy only and their interests...his party has driven America into the ditch for the last eight years..and now they blame city unions?? We need creative people on the council, not a News-Press pet!!
Remember the damage done by ex-supervisor Brooks Firestone to the county, Francisco could do likewise to the city...
and at least one drunk is out of politics! Gil Armijo, Joe Centeno's assistant, resigned and blamed everyone except himself for his predicament!
poor poor pitiful Gil.....
They're painting the passports brown
The beauty parlor is filled with sailors
The circus is in town
listen to Dale's big announcement! or as Travis calls him, "Dal" Francisco
daleandtravis
daleandtravis
without even finishing his first term as councilmember, Dale Francisco has jumped into the mayor's race.. He says everyone he talks to worries the city is beyond repair..He says he'll be the one to save Santa Barbara!this guy is owned by the News-Press...the sleaziest operation in town...and he marches to their orders...saying he won't take money from unions or developers means NOTHING..it's hocus pocus political slop! watch all the free promotion he'll get from Wendy! Let's see where Dale gets his money to finance the campaign...The law lets Joe Candidate, who campaigns against development, receive money from development interests after it has been sent through one or more PACs, and no one is the wiser.PAC-to-PAC transfers are a way for powerful special interests, in particular, to cover their tracks, even as they seek to influence an election and the candidate they want to win. If this sounds like a good way to fund an election, look at what GOP candidate Kay Ivey had to say. She likened the money transfers to "slipping hundred-dollar bills under the table."
First, Dale appears on Travis' radio show where Travis encourages him to run for mayor, then in his rush to get in the race, he holds a news conference under false pretenses. He was supposed to talk about the budget, instead he announces he's running for mayor! Bait and switch...a ruse! a lie! just like the News-Press!!Then he pledges not to accept campaign money from 'anyone whose livelihood depends on decisions made by the City Council'...this was a political stunt but makes for some really good political theater ...first of all, the union knows you are anti-labor anti-working class, so they wouldn't give you a dime anyway..second, if you don't take money from developers, then you shouldn't take money from these: all the businesses in town; the non-profits that ask the city council for tax money; the renters, the home buyers; and everyone else who lives in Santa Barbara who benefits from city services and funds! and if you get a paycheck for being on the council, the city workers paid you with their taxes!
Do they count? Who does that leave to finance your campaign?.. the idle, rich conservatives!!??
HO HO HO..what a freakin jackass you are.. you're on a short leash...you've been duped by Travis! You're his puppet! You used all his anti- union editorial blather, which is full of lies, and based your announcement for a mayoral run on that??? It's a rookie mistake and now if you take money from ANYONE in Santa Barbara, you will contradict your own little platform policy!oh boy, this race should be good...and I hope the voters won't let these rightwing political pests off too easy....make no mistake, Francisco is for the wealthy only and their interests...his party has driven America into the ditch for the last eight years..and now they blame city unions?? We need creative people on the council, not a News-Press pet!!
Remember the damage done by ex-supervisor Brooks Firestone to the county, Francisco could do likewise to the city...
and at least one drunk is out of politics! Gil Armijo, Joe Centeno's assistant, resigned and blamed everyone except himself for his predicament!
poor poor pitiful Gil.....
O' Style Change' with Brass Knuckles
SIX months into the Obama ad ministration, it should now be clear: Hope and Change came to the White House wrapped in brass knuckles.
Ask the Congressional Budget Office. Last week, President Obama spilled the beans on the "Today Show" that he had met with CBO Director Douglas Elmendorf -- just as the number crunchers were casting ruinous doubt on White House cost-saving claims.
Yes, question the timing. The CBO is supposed to be a neutral scorekeeper -- not a water boy for the White House.
But when the meeting failed to stop the CBO from issuing more analysis undercutting the health-care savings claims, Obama's budget director Peter Orszag played the heavy. In a public letter, he warned the CBO that it risked feeding the perception that it was "exaggerating costs and underestimating savings."
Message: Leave the number-fudging to the boss. Capiche?
Obama issued an even more explicit order to unleash the hounds on Blue Dog Democrats during his health-care press conference. "Keep up the heat" translated into Organizing for America/Democratic National Committee attack ads on moderate Democrats who have revolted against ObamaCare's high costs and expansive government powers over medical decisions.
Looks like there won't be a health-care beer summit anytime soon.
The CBO and the Blue Dogs got off easy compared to inspectors general targeted by Team Obama goons. Former AmeriCorps Inspector General Gerald Walpin was slimed as mentally incompetent ("confused" and "disoriented") after blowing the whistle on several cases of community-service tax fraud, including the case of Obama crony Kevin Johnson.
Walpin filed suit last week to get his job back -- and to defend the integrity and independence of inspectors general system-wide. But he faces hardball tactics from both the West Wing and the East Wing, where first lady Michelle Obama has been intimately involved in personnel decisions at AmeriCorps, according to youth-service program insiders.
Obama Treasury officials forced banks to take TARP bailout money they didn't want and obstructed banks that wanted to pay back TARP money from doing so. The administration strong-armed Chrysler creditors and Chrysler dealers using politicized tactics that united both House Democrats and Republicans, who passed an amendment last week reversing Obama on the closure of 2,800 Chrysler and GM dealerships.
At the Justice Department, Obama lawyers are now blocking a House inquiry into the suspicious decision to dismiss default judgments against radical New Black Panther Party activists who intimidated voters and poll workers on Election Day in Philadelphia. The DOJ is preventing Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Va.) from meeting with the trial team in the case. Wolf has been pressing for answers on what communications Attorney General Eric Holder and his deputies conducted with third-party interest groups and other political appointees about the case. So far: radio silence.
In the mafia culture, bully boys depend on a code of silence and allegiance -- omerta -- not only among their brethren, but also from the victims. The victims of Obama thugocracy are no longer cooperating. Perhaps it won't be long until some of the enforcers start to sing, too.
Michelle Malkin, NY Post, 7/29/09
War and Peace: Kiefer Sutherland, Mary Lynn Rajskub, David Fury, Freddie Prinze, Jr., Anil Kapoor Talk Day Eight in '24' Press Room
Written by Jace | Tuesday, July 28, 2009 |
Written by Jace | Tuesday, July 28, 2009 |
In the press room after the 24 panel at San Diego Comic-Con this weekend, David Fury tried to explain comments that fellow executive producer Howard Gordon made on the panel about the lack of female writers on the FOX series. Gordon had likened the dearth of women behind the scenes on 24 to the fact that the Rolling Stones didn't have any female members either.
"They call me the woman on staff because I've written female roles for several other shows," Fury told members of the press. "Do I miss having women on staff? I do. The women who have come on have not quite captured the show, I don't know why. There is a mentality that it's a men's show. I don't think it's a problem for the show not having female writers, the show has been through many different writers, very successful very good writers who have succeeded on other shows could not quite get through the mindset and for some reason a lot of writers have fallen by the wayside. There's a cigar room and I don't think a woman would like getting invited into that room except for Katee Sackhoff."
What other information did we glean from behind closed doors in the 24 press room? Let's discuss, though beware as there are SPOILERS for Day Eight ahead.
Kiefer Sutherland said that he believes Jack is "apolitical." Personally, he's absolutely against the death penalty and thinks it's morally reprehensible and is embarrassed it's still used, BUT he can't tell you what he'd do if someone ever harmed his child.
Sutherland said he has "absolutely no regrets" about playing Jack Bauer and really doesn't know if it's the last season. He always felt the show could go on without him, saying "The star of the show is the format and the idea. I remember I actually pitched Joel Surnow once in the very beginning of Season One. I said, You know, you could change it up every year. The next year could be the last 24 hours of Joan of Arc's life, the next year could be 24 hours in a firefighter's day, 24 hours of a woman who's pregnant whose car is broken down in a snowstorm and how she's going to save this baby. I mean, it was endless. The format was what was so intriguing so I've always felt that way."
Still, said Fury, there haven't been any decisions yet about whether this is the last season of 24. "There's no telling if this is the last season," he said. "Jack Bauer could die. Personally I don't think that's how you want to end Jack's story, but that doesn't mean he can't go out in a blaze of glory. We do know what Jack's journey will be this season."
So should viewers expect to see any familiar faces on Day Eight of 24 and could Mandy make a return engagement?
"We're only in first third of the season," said Fury. "We've been discussing characters who could return. Charles Logan? I helped champion keeping Tony alive last season. Tony could be pivotal. There's always Mandy... we talked about Mandy last year. There's a split in the writers' room with Mandy's character not being perceived as 24; she's sort of Alias. Tony's accomplice last season was Mandy at one point, but that went away."
"Renee will return within the first couple of nights," he said about Annie Wersching's FBI Agent Renee Walker. "She will be a different person than she was [last season]. Jack and she will be into the relationship we put forth in Season Seven; we'll follow through this season. The season begins with Jack in a happy place ready to start a new life and when Renee appears she's a damaged person. But she's someone he decides to be a part of his life. Jack is putting back together the life he had. The thing with 24 is when you put something together, invariably it's going to put it at risk and Renee is going to play a big part."
Viewers shouldn't expect to see Carlo Rota's Morris O'Brian. At least not at first anyway, said Mary Lynn Rajskub, who said that she hasn't seen any scenes with Morris in any of the scripts she's read so far. "Morris is somewhere but so far I don't see him in any scripts but he could come back at any moment," she said. "He's at home with the baby I think."
As for Chloe herself, Rajskub said that Day Eight finds her in some very different circumstances.
"Chloe is not up to speed in the new CTU, which is very different for her," explained Rajskub, who said that this pits Chloe against Katee Sackhoff's Dana Walsh, who is her new boss. "She kind of pats me on the shoulder and says, 'Don't worry, you'll catch up,' which is the worst moment for Chloe ever. Everything's changed at CTU and my bosses are looking at me like I'm not doing it right. But then something happens in the story where I think I know some information which puts me at odds with my bosses."
So there's definitely a CTU then next season? (Yes, and you can read more about what Day Eight's CTU looks like here.) And what's the timeframe of when Day Eight is taking place?
"President Taylor reinstated CTU after last season," said Fury. "She feels the country needs people like Jack Bauer to ferret out the conspiracies... Not sure if they'll specify the time lapse between Season Seven and Eight. But it's probably eight to nine months."
And, as we all know, Los Angeles and Washington D.C. are out as locations this season, which shifts to New York City for Day Eight.
"New York will be very big," Fury explained. "A lot [of it is] taking place at the UN. We don't have a White House this year. Anil Kapoor's character's story takes place at the UN. We've digitally recreated New York. We faked New York and it looks fantastic. We have a helicopter taking off a field in Santa Clarita that's suddenly on Roosevelt Island and there's Manhattan in the background and you buy it. It's incredible, feels like we're there and it really makes a difference."
So who is Kapoor playing then?
"Anil [Kapoor] is President of the Republic of... Kamistan?" said Fury. "I want to make clear it's not Iran. The UN was not happy about us doing anything [involving the] Iranian people or the government might take offense to, so we came up with a country. It was Iran for a long time in the script, but we decided it can't be. I think the spelling is Kamistan."
For Slumdog Millionaire's Kapoor, who plays Omar Hassan, the president of Kamistan, wanted to make sure he wasn't typecast in 24. Kapoor said that he liked that he could play the President of a Middle Eastern country as it was completely opposite to what he did in Slumdog. Of Omar Hassan, Kapoor said that he's a president and a good guy who's come to the US on a peace mission. "He's a peacemaker," said Kapoor. It was that fact more than anything that sold him on playing the role.
Also joining the cast for Day Eight of 24 is Freddie Prinze Jr., who plays CTU agent Cole Ortiz. Prinze said that he was a huge fan of the series, which he said has "always been a very character driven show."
As for Cole, he has something in common with Jack Bauer. "He's an ex-marine and Jack's an ex-marine," said Prinze, "He's heading up field ops, Jack used to head up field ops for CTU and this character knows Jack by reputation."
"There's a dark side to this relationship that you find out fairly quickly," said Prinze, whose character is engaged to Katee Sackhoff's Dana Walsh. "For a character like Cole who's someone who's very disciplined and substituted a lot of feelings that he had post-9/11 for the qualities that define a Marine, like self-respect, and dignity and honor. For someone like that to go through what this character's going to go through it's really going to turn his world upside down as far as the relationship goes."
Prinze also said that Cole is a guy who has to keep his emotions in check and is very hot headed.
Finally, Prinze confessed that he can't imagine anyone else saying each episode's "the following takes place..." except Kiefer Sutherland's Jack Bauer.
You and me both, buddy.
24 kicks off Day Eight in January, 2010 on FOX.
Link: Televisionaryblog.com
"They call me the woman on staff because I've written female roles for several other shows," Fury told members of the press. "Do I miss having women on staff? I do. The women who have come on have not quite captured the show, I don't know why. There is a mentality that it's a men's show. I don't think it's a problem for the show not having female writers, the show has been through many different writers, very successful very good writers who have succeeded on other shows could not quite get through the mindset and for some reason a lot of writers have fallen by the wayside. There's a cigar room and I don't think a woman would like getting invited into that room except for Katee Sackhoff."
What other information did we glean from behind closed doors in the 24 press room? Let's discuss, though beware as there are SPOILERS for Day Eight ahead.
Kiefer Sutherland said that he believes Jack is "apolitical." Personally, he's absolutely against the death penalty and thinks it's morally reprehensible and is embarrassed it's still used, BUT he can't tell you what he'd do if someone ever harmed his child.
Sutherland said he has "absolutely no regrets" about playing Jack Bauer and really doesn't know if it's the last season. He always felt the show could go on without him, saying "The star of the show is the format and the idea. I remember I actually pitched Joel Surnow once in the very beginning of Season One. I said, You know, you could change it up every year. The next year could be the last 24 hours of Joan of Arc's life, the next year could be 24 hours in a firefighter's day, 24 hours of a woman who's pregnant whose car is broken down in a snowstorm and how she's going to save this baby. I mean, it was endless. The format was what was so intriguing so I've always felt that way."
Still, said Fury, there haven't been any decisions yet about whether this is the last season of 24. "There's no telling if this is the last season," he said. "Jack Bauer could die. Personally I don't think that's how you want to end Jack's story, but that doesn't mean he can't go out in a blaze of glory. We do know what Jack's journey will be this season."
So should viewers expect to see any familiar faces on Day Eight of 24 and could Mandy make a return engagement?
"We're only in first third of the season," said Fury. "We've been discussing characters who could return. Charles Logan? I helped champion keeping Tony alive last season. Tony could be pivotal. There's always Mandy... we talked about Mandy last year. There's a split in the writers' room with Mandy's character not being perceived as 24; she's sort of Alias. Tony's accomplice last season was Mandy at one point, but that went away."
"Renee will return within the first couple of nights," he said about Annie Wersching's FBI Agent Renee Walker. "She will be a different person than she was [last season]. Jack and she will be into the relationship we put forth in Season Seven; we'll follow through this season. The season begins with Jack in a happy place ready to start a new life and when Renee appears she's a damaged person. But she's someone he decides to be a part of his life. Jack is putting back together the life he had. The thing with 24 is when you put something together, invariably it's going to put it at risk and Renee is going to play a big part."
Viewers shouldn't expect to see Carlo Rota's Morris O'Brian. At least not at first anyway, said Mary Lynn Rajskub, who said that she hasn't seen any scenes with Morris in any of the scripts she's read so far. "Morris is somewhere but so far I don't see him in any scripts but he could come back at any moment," she said. "He's at home with the baby I think."
As for Chloe herself, Rajskub said that Day Eight finds her in some very different circumstances.
"Chloe is not up to speed in the new CTU, which is very different for her," explained Rajskub, who said that this pits Chloe against Katee Sackhoff's Dana Walsh, who is her new boss. "She kind of pats me on the shoulder and says, 'Don't worry, you'll catch up,' which is the worst moment for Chloe ever. Everything's changed at CTU and my bosses are looking at me like I'm not doing it right. But then something happens in the story where I think I know some information which puts me at odds with my bosses."
So there's definitely a CTU then next season? (Yes, and you can read more about what Day Eight's CTU looks like here.) And what's the timeframe of when Day Eight is taking place?
"President Taylor reinstated CTU after last season," said Fury. "She feels the country needs people like Jack Bauer to ferret out the conspiracies... Not sure if they'll specify the time lapse between Season Seven and Eight. But it's probably eight to nine months."
And, as we all know, Los Angeles and Washington D.C. are out as locations this season, which shifts to New York City for Day Eight.
"New York will be very big," Fury explained. "A lot [of it is] taking place at the UN. We don't have a White House this year. Anil Kapoor's character's story takes place at the UN. We've digitally recreated New York. We faked New York and it looks fantastic. We have a helicopter taking off a field in Santa Clarita that's suddenly on Roosevelt Island and there's Manhattan in the background and you buy it. It's incredible, feels like we're there and it really makes a difference."
So who is Kapoor playing then?
"Anil [Kapoor] is President of the Republic of... Kamistan?" said Fury. "I want to make clear it's not Iran. The UN was not happy about us doing anything [involving the] Iranian people or the government might take offense to, so we came up with a country. It was Iran for a long time in the script, but we decided it can't be. I think the spelling is Kamistan."
For Slumdog Millionaire's Kapoor, who plays Omar Hassan, the president of Kamistan, wanted to make sure he wasn't typecast in 24. Kapoor said that he liked that he could play the President of a Middle Eastern country as it was completely opposite to what he did in Slumdog. Of Omar Hassan, Kapoor said that he's a president and a good guy who's come to the US on a peace mission. "He's a peacemaker," said Kapoor. It was that fact more than anything that sold him on playing the role.
Also joining the cast for Day Eight of 24 is Freddie Prinze Jr., who plays CTU agent Cole Ortiz. Prinze said that he was a huge fan of the series, which he said has "always been a very character driven show."
As for Cole, he has something in common with Jack Bauer. "He's an ex-marine and Jack's an ex-marine," said Prinze, "He's heading up field ops, Jack used to head up field ops for CTU and this character knows Jack by reputation."
"There's a dark side to this relationship that you find out fairly quickly," said Prinze, whose character is engaged to Katee Sackhoff's Dana Walsh. "For a character like Cole who's someone who's very disciplined and substituted a lot of feelings that he had post-9/11 for the qualities that define a Marine, like self-respect, and dignity and honor. For someone like that to go through what this character's going to go through it's really going to turn his world upside down as far as the relationship goes."
Prinze also said that Cole is a guy who has to keep his emotions in check and is very hot headed.
Finally, Prinze confessed that he can't imagine anyone else saying each episode's "the following takes place..." except Kiefer Sutherland's Jack Bauer.
You and me both, buddy.
24 kicks off Day Eight in January, 2010 on FOX.
Link: Televisionaryblog.com
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
OBAMA'S HEALTH-CARE DISHONESTY
BARACK Obama raised near-millennial expectations last year. If elected, he'd transform the dreary realities of Washington with his blazing freshness. He'd win over Republicans with his engaging post-partisanship. He'd solve long-standing national problems with his nonideological pragmatism.
None of this overpromising was ever very likely to come to fruition. But Obama has now fallen down on a much more elemental test of leadership: He can't tell the truth about his signature initiative.
Obama's health-care push has been the most dishonest White House advocacy in recent memory. What he says about reform bears no relation to the legislation he wants Congress to pass as soon as recalcitrant Democrats can be bludgeoned into line.
Obama says no one will lose his private coverage; costs will be controlled; and the legislation will be paid for. Obama must know that these are all politically necessary things to say, and also that none of them describes Nancy Pelosi's handiwork.
Obama can't bring himself to grapple with "reality-based" health-care reform, because it belies too many of his most essential sound bites. In the campaign, Obama said, "We need to tell people what they need to hear, not what they want to hear." On health care, Obama knows that if he doesn't keep telling people what they want to hear -- regardless of the facts -- all is lost.
The left branded George W. Bush a "liar" for making assertions about Iraq's weapons that were supported by the evidence, but turned out not to be true. Obama is saying things that aren't even supported by the evidence. They are routinely debunked by the independent Congressional Budget Office, which doesn't stop Obama from continuing to say them. It's as if the CIA issued reports every other week in 2002 explaining that no, Iraq didn't have a nuclear program nor any stockpiles of biological and chemical weapons, and Bush kept warning of the nonexistent WMD anyway.
Since the phantom cost-savings measures that Obama touts can't be detected by anyone else, including Blue Dog Democrats and the CBO, Obama's team came up with a deus ex machina. They'd create a council to come up with recommendations for Medicare. If Obama accepted them, they'd automatically go into effect unless Congress voted to block them.
The CBO looked at the council and estimated it'd only save a minuscule $2 billion during the next 10 years, adding that "the probability is high that no savings would be realized."
Will this stop Obama from selling health-care reform as a cost savings? Of course not. He can't admit that he is bending the famous cost curve upward, any more than he can admit that the House plan might throw millions of people out of their private coverage or that the bill will -- despite its raft of new taxes -- add another $239 billion to the deficit over 10 years.
In its latest missive, the CBO says the numbers get even worse beyond the 10-year window. So the entire budgetary rationale of ObamaCare -- improving the nation's long-term fiscal outlook -- has been obliterated.
Obama's plan is becoming one of the most implausible and thoroughly discredited free lunches in American history. Asked at his press conference last week what sacrifices people would have to make in the cause of reducing costs, Obama said, manfully, that "they're going to have to give up paying for things that don't make them healthier." As if the only factor adding to costs is greedy otolaryngologists extracting kids' tonsils unnecessarily, the strange anecdote of wasteful health spending that Obama invoked at his presser.
Surely, the public is beginning to miss Obama circa the fall of 2008. It voted for him because he seemed reasonable, different and moderate. He could recapture that appeal by pronouncing the health-care effort so far an unfortunate misfire and starting again on a truly bipartisan basis. But he prefers to risk going down fighting -- and dissembling -- on behalf of his grand, misbegotten scheme.
Rich Lowry, NY Post, 7/28/09
Mr. Potato Head...
Foodies..ya gotta love 'em..they get upset if there's sand in the sand dabs; a hot dog makes them lose control!
well,there's a little fight brewing over at Nippers..Christine called Nipper on his error prone $200,000 a year stooge gay/ Indian/ex-con editor who printed a story on the front page about the new Whole Foods store in SB ... The News-Press headline called it World Foods! Nipper calls it a typo!! and BTW, I'm not a homophobe! I used to cook at Sambos where the Spearmint Rhino is today..back then, the Pub, a gay bar was next door..the guys would come in after hours and I'd fix breakfast for them..sometimes after work, I'd have a beer in the Pub under the full protection of a few waitresses..waitresses were like angels..hot angels! anyway, back to Mr. Pototo Head: Nipper, back from another cruise with Wendy, got defensive and bitch-slapped Christine ..Christine got pissed and bodyslammed him! Better watch out Christine, you'll get banned from Nippers! HEY NIPPERITES here's an offer..you can comment about the News-Press right here...uncensored, just don't threaten to kill anyone...uncensored, you can say all the seven dirty words, uncensored, no bullshit allowed! You can email me a copy and I'll use it as a feature story/post or you can just comment..let 'er rip!! or not
and the News-Press just raised subscription rates by 25%! with no explanation!!
Nipper, your pals are getting hip to your sleazeball ways!!
nippers.com
trythis!
says Christine:
Hahaha.
I am so excited to see WORLD FOOD on the cover of the Newspress- can hardly wait for the store to open!!
How on earth does a paper let that slip by? Or is someone in the edit/printing dept letting out the big secret that no one is home?
I gave up my subscription when they showed the Buellton farmer "bundling hay"- my husband was being sweet this am by picking our family up a copy. Got a good hearty laugh...and then got sad that my paper has gone down the road of no return.... Christine
says Nipper/ Administrator 502 Posts Posted - 07/27/2009 : 11:10:45 AM
Christine:
No one likes typos but they do happen. While newspapers are closing their doors across the country we are lucky to still have one here in Santa Barbara. It is thanks to the paper's loyal subscribers and advertisers that we do.
In any case, this part of the web site is for restaurant discussions not debating off-topic subjects. For that please post on "Chat Central".
says Christine:
With all due respect Nipper- it was more than a typo- it was a glaring error. If the editor had just bothered to read the first line in the first paragraph- he/she might have caught it- as it said WHOLE FOODS in the very first line.
You should be thanking your loyal readers with better service than this- I am not sure if barely putting out a paper is better than shutting the doors. Just my opinion of course.
You are correct they should be posted elsewhere- next time I catch one I'll be sure to post it in most lengthy thread ever written on this site...the CHAT SECTION. If I can find it..
save the chuldren!
well,there's a little fight brewing over at Nippers..Christine called Nipper on his error prone $200,000 a year stooge gay/ Indian/ex-con editor who printed a story on the front page about the new Whole Foods store in SB ... The News-Press headline called it World Foods! Nipper calls it a typo!! and BTW, I'm not a homophobe! I used to cook at Sambos where the Spearmint Rhino is today..back then, the Pub, a gay bar was next door..the guys would come in after hours and I'd fix breakfast for them..sometimes after work, I'd have a beer in the Pub under the full protection of a few waitresses..waitresses were like angels..hot angels! anyway, back to Mr. Pototo Head: Nipper, back from another cruise with Wendy, got defensive and bitch-slapped Christine ..Christine got pissed and bodyslammed him! Better watch out Christine, you'll get banned from Nippers! HEY NIPPERITES here's an offer..you can comment about the News-Press right here...uncensored, just don't threaten to kill anyone...uncensored, you can say all the seven dirty words, uncensored, no bullshit allowed! You can email me a copy and I'll use it as a feature story/post or you can just comment..let 'er rip!! or notand the News-Press just raised subscription rates by 25%! with no explanation!!
Nipper, your pals are getting hip to your sleazeball ways!!
nippers.com
trythis!
says Christine:
Hahaha.
I am so excited to see WORLD FOOD on the cover of the Newspress- can hardly wait for the store to open!!
How on earth does a paper let that slip by? Or is someone in the edit/printing dept letting out the big secret that no one is home?
I gave up my subscription when they showed the Buellton farmer "bundling hay"- my husband was being sweet this am by picking our family up a copy. Got a good hearty laugh...and then got sad that my paper has gone down the road of no return.... Christine
says Nipper/ Administrator 502 Posts Posted - 07/27/2009 : 11:10:45 AM
Christine:
No one likes typos but they do happen. While newspapers are closing their doors across the country we are lucky to still have one here in Santa Barbara. It is thanks to the paper's loyal subscribers and advertisers that we do.
In any case, this part of the web site is for restaurant discussions not debating off-topic subjects. For that please post on "Chat Central".
says Christine:
With all due respect Nipper- it was more than a typo- it was a glaring error. If the editor had just bothered to read the first line in the first paragraph- he/she might have caught it- as it said WHOLE FOODS in the very first line.
You should be thanking your loyal readers with better service than this- I am not sure if barely putting out a paper is better than shutting the doors. Just my opinion of course.
You are correct they should be posted elsewhere- next time I catch one I'll be sure to post it in most lengthy thread ever written on this site...the CHAT SECTION. If I can find it..
save the chuldren!
Monday, July 27, 2009
The Shrinking President
Just as small men can be great, the important can be small. Barack Obama, who strode the political world last year as a new Colossus, is shrinking before our eyes. His proclamation that the Cambridge, Mass., police “acted stupidly” in arresting his personal friend, Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr., was one of those “teachable moments” the president is so fond of creating.
But the lesson of that moment is not the one the president apprehended. It is a lesson that proved how little the president appreciates the office he holds.
I use that term precisely: not in the sense that Obama doesn’t like the power he holds. He, more than any president in memory, takes personal enjoyment from exercising it. His lack of appreciation is a lack of understanding of that power and the limits on how it should be exercised.
Obama’s team orchestrates press conferences at an unprecedented level. They talk to reporters about questions to be asked, prepare Obama for his answers (displayed on a huge off-camera teleprompter behind the reporters where Obama can read from it) and only then does the president face his amen chorus of the media.
In the July 22 presser, Obama was asked about the disorderly conduct arrest of Harvard Professor Gates. Obama said:
Well, I should say at the outset that Skip Gates is a friend, so I may be a little biased here… Now, I don’t know, not having been there and not seeing all the facts, what role race played in that. But I think it’s fair to say, number one, any of us would be pretty angry; number two, that the Cambridge police acted stupidly in arresting somebody when there was already proof that they were in their own home; and, number three, what I think we know separate and apart from this incident is that there’s a long history in this country of African-Americans and Latinos being stopped by law enforcement disproportionately. That’s just a fact.
The official police report of the arrest says that Gates was loud, abusive and uncooperative with the investigating officer who was responding to a call about a possible break-in at the house. Gates reportedly shouted continuously at Crowley, accusing him of being a racist and telling him that he had no idea “who he was messing with” and that Crowley “…had not heard the last of it.” Apparently, Obama delivered on that threat. He spoke as if he were Jesse Jackson, not the President of the United States.
The arresting officer, Sgt. James Crowley, has a better and deeper understanding of the office of president than the man who holds it. He told a radio interviewer that Obama, “…was way off base wading into a local issue without knowing all the facts."
The American presidency is a national office, not that of a Chicago ward-heeler. A president’s words carry the weight and power of the nation. His constitutional charter makes him the chief administrator of law and policy as well as commander in chief. His charter does not extend to interfering in matters that are not within that charter.
There is no precedent for Obama’s intervention in the Gates arrest. Presidents do not interfere in law enforcement matters. That Gates is Obama’s friend makes it even worse. It’s perfectly right for a president to express confidence in an embattled cabinet member, though that’s usually done right before the guy resigns. It’s an abuse of power for a president to try to influence a law enforcement matter.
In short, Obama’s intervention was more than inappropriate: it was a wrongful exercise of the power of the office he holds. According to the latest Rasmussen poll, only 26% of Americans approve of the way Obama responded to the question about Gates’ arrest. It was a “teachable moment,” but the president didn’t learn from it.
Two days after the July 22 presser, Obama defended his intervention. He said, “There are some who say that as President I shouldn't have stepped into this at all because it's a local issue. I have to tell you that that part of it I disagree with. The fact that this has become such a big issue I think is indicative of the fact that race is still a troubling aspect of our society. Whether I were black or white, I think that me commenting on this and hopefully contributing to constructive -- as opposed to negative -- understandings about the issue, is part of my portfolio.”
Barack Obama’s political power shrank as he spoke, doubly so as he compounded the offense. Obama is a small man, as deeply shallow as Paris Hilton. But unlike the Euro pop-tart, Obama is shrinking in influence and stature at an accelerating rate.
Obama suffers from many things, not the least of which were the enormous expectations for his success. It’s not that long ago when Newsweek’s Evan Thomas said that he was, “above the country, above the world: he’s a sort of God.” As The Economist points out this week in a column entitled, “The Obama Cult”, at one time people were wearing t-shirts proclaiming Obama as “The One” and “Jesus was a community organizer.”
Underneath the glitter, there is no greatness. Barack Obama is a small man in a large and important job. He and his adulators have created a cult of personality that is already falling apart.
Obama speaks in broad terms, as presidents must, at first, before the details are managed. But Obama’s broad terms -- from the stimulus package to health care to “cap and trade” -- were never articulated, just outsourced to the liberals in Congress who have run riot. Even the House “Blue Dog” Democrats are walking away from the president’s signature initiative on health care.
Negotiations between the Blue Dogs and Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) broke down on Friday with the seven Blue Dog negotiators reportedly storming out of the session saying they’d been “lied to” and that Waxman wasn’t negotiating in good faith.
Rep. Mike Ross (D-Ark.), the leader of the Blue Dogs, said on Friday. “We are trying to save this bill and trying to save this party.” From whom?
Ross’s mission is to save the Democrats from Obama. He won’t succeed. The Democrats’ disarray -- in the House as well as in the Senate -- betrays Obama’s diminishing influence. But the hyperliberals such as Waxman and Pelosi won’t moderate the way Congress pursues Obama’s goals because those goals were theirs long before Obama was elected president. And he will sign any health care bill they send to him, no matter how radical or costly.
As Obama shrinks, so does his ability to affect events both domestically and internationally. His agenda -- especially health care nationalization and “cap and tax” -- is in real trouble. And so are our nation and our allies abroad.
On the July 26 edition of “Meet the Press,” Secretary of State Hillary Clinton proclaimed Iran’s pursuit of nuclear weapons “futile” and said to Iran, “…we're going to do everything we can to prevent you from ever getting a nuclear weapon.” Which contradicted directly Obama’s June 4 Cairo speech. In it, he said, “I understand those who protest that some countries have weapons that others do not. No single nation should pick and choose which nation holds nuclear weapons.” Obama green-lighted Iran’s nuclear weapons program, so no one in Iran will -- or should -- take Clinton’s words seriously.
As I write, a parade of top-ranking U.S. officials -- including Middle East Envoy George Mitchell, Defense Secretary Bob Gates and possibly National Security Advisor James Jones -- are flocking to Israel to try heal the breach between us and the Israelis over Obama’s demands to end West Bank Settlements and to stave off an Israeli attack on Iran. They will not succeed because Obama -- in his Cairo speech and in his demands of Israel -- threw away what little leverage he had.
Great presidents are like chess players: they see three or four moves ahead, sacrificing occasionally but moving only to better our nation’s internal strength and position in the world. Barack Obama is playing checkers.
Jed Babbin, Human Events, 7/27/09
how to talk to a public servant...
courtesy of Mike Self and Safe Streets ...(another fucking non profit! I think there's too many fucking non profits)
Getting your point across
Here are some guidelines for effective ways of talking with or writing to city officials or staff:
First, be courteous. We have reason and the facts on our side; it is our task to persuade and convince. An angry tone, personal insults, imputations of malfeasance or incompetence--all of these will cause your listener to stop listening. The vast majority of our public servants are trying to do what they think is best for the city. When they are mistaken about what is best or how to achieve it, we should speak to them frankly, but generously and with respect. When they right wrongs, congratulate them.
Second, be brief. City council members confront a staggering array of issues just at a single council meeting. Citizen review board members (e.g., ABR or HLC) will review thousands of projects during their tenure. Present your ideas clearly and simply, get to the point quickly. It's best to stick to one main idea, with solid facts to support it.
Third, be patient and persistent. Minds are not changed overnight. Policies in which people have invested many hours, weeks, or even years of effort will not be discarded lightly--nor should they be. Creating a sane transportation policy for Santa Barbara will be the work of years (though of course we at Santa Barbara Safe Streets are looking for initial victories sooner than that!).
Fourth, if all this phoniness fails, flip 'em the big middle finger..they don't really listen to you anyway..
Fifth, threaten to tell the News-Press that you got the goods on them!
Sixth, ask the guys on the council "is that a bulbout in your pants, or are ya just happy to see me?"
Seventh, sing Christmas carols! on the seventh day of Christmas my true love gave to me....
Eighth, start talking crazy like the first three guys in public comment..that's all the council understands!
Ninth,threaten to recall someone!
Tenth, and last...waste everyone's time by repeating what you said at the last council meeting!
adjourned..
Getting your point across
Here are some guidelines for effective ways of talking with or writing to city officials or staff:First, be courteous. We have reason and the facts on our side; it is our task to persuade and convince. An angry tone, personal insults, imputations of malfeasance or incompetence--all of these will cause your listener to stop listening. The vast majority of our public servants are trying to do what they think is best for the city. When they are mistaken about what is best or how to achieve it, we should speak to them frankly, but generously and with respect. When they right wrongs, congratulate them.
Second, be brief. City council members confront a staggering array of issues just at a single council meeting. Citizen review board members (e.g., ABR or HLC) will review thousands of projects during their tenure. Present your ideas clearly and simply, get to the point quickly. It's best to stick to one main idea, with solid facts to support it.
Third, be patient and persistent. Minds are not changed overnight. Policies in which people have invested many hours, weeks, or even years of effort will not be discarded lightly--nor should they be. Creating a sane transportation policy for Santa Barbara will be the work of years (though of course we at Santa Barbara Safe Streets are looking for initial victories sooner than that!).
Fourth, if all this phoniness fails, flip 'em the big middle finger..they don't really listen to you anyway..
Fifth, threaten to tell the News-Press that you got the goods on them!
Sixth, ask the guys on the council "is that a bulbout in your pants, or are ya just happy to see me?"
Seventh, sing Christmas carols! on the seventh day of Christmas my true love gave to me....
Eighth, start talking crazy like the first three guys in public comment..that's all the council understands!
Ninth,threaten to recall someone!
Tenth, and last...waste everyone's time by repeating what you said at the last council meeting!
adjourned..
Sunday, July 26, 2009
'24' Stars Offer New Season Teasers - 7/26/09
By William Keck July 26, 2009 09:36 AM EST
24 star Kiefer Sutherland says the new season, premiering in January 2010, is "the most realistic storyline I think we've done since season one. It centers around peace conferences taking place at the UN between the president of Iran and the President of the United States, which I believe is possible within the next few
years. Obviously there will be a lot of people who will want to fight that. This is about fighting off that threat to peace."
With four new episodes already in the can, I asked Kiefer's co-stars to clue me in on one special scene they've already shot.
MARY LYNN RAJSKUB (CHLOE O'BRIAN)
"Chloe is not up to speed in the new CTU, which is very different for her. Katee Sackhoff plays my new boss (Dana Walsh), and she kind of pats me on the shoulder and says, 'Don't worry—you'll catch up,' which is the worst moment for Chloe ever. Everything's changed at CTU and my bosses are looking at me like I'm not doing it right. But then something happens in the story where I think I know some information which pits me at odds with my bosses." Mary Lynn adds that the new New York City-based CTU looks "kind of like
a spaceship. It's sleek with a lot of glass, and underground with a tunnel you drive through to get into it. I feel kind of like Batgirl. And our computers are under glass and there's a huge screen with all the information on it that everyone can access."
FREDDIE PRINZE JR. (new CTU agent COLE ORTIZ)
"There's a moment between my character, who runs field ops, and Katee's character, Dana Walsh, who runs the tech side of things. They're engaged and it's difficult having a relationship at work when the stakes are so high. They're having some problems that I really can't get into. You see that somebody's holding things
back—maybe she has a secret which he has to concern himself with. He's a Marine and he bases
everything on having a plan with a coordinated attack. There's an interesting dynamic on how he's going to deal with her."
ANIL KAPOOR (Foreign Leader OMAR HASSAN)
"I have one scene in a car with my bodyguard, Tarin. Suddenly I'm sending messages to my country to say people (behind an assassination attempt on his character's life) have to be taken to task and arrested. I can sense that the bodyguard is uncomfortable and the way that the scene progresses is very dramatic. I speak about the peace process, my younger brother Akbar and my family. It's a catharsis for my character." By the way, Omar's loved ones include a daughter, a wife—and a girlfriend!
Source: TV Guide Magazine.com/Keck's Exclusives
years. Obviously there will be a lot of people who will want to fight that. This is about fighting off that threat to peace."
With four new episodes already in the can, I asked Kiefer's co-stars to clue me in on one special scene they've already shot.
MARY LYNN RAJSKUB (CHLOE O'BRIAN)
"Chloe is not up to speed in the new CTU, which is very different for her. Katee Sackhoff plays my new boss (Dana Walsh), and she kind of pats me on the shoulder and says, 'Don't worry—you'll catch up,' which is the worst moment for Chloe ever. Everything's changed at CTU and my bosses are looking at me like I'm not doing it right. But then something happens in the story where I think I know some information which pits me at odds with my bosses." Mary Lynn adds that the new New York City-based CTU looks "kind of like
a spaceship. It's sleek with a lot of glass, and underground with a tunnel you drive through to get into it. I feel kind of like Batgirl. And our computers are under glass and there's a huge screen with all the information on it that everyone can access."
FREDDIE PRINZE JR. (new CTU agent COLE ORTIZ)
"There's a moment between my character, who runs field ops, and Katee's character, Dana Walsh, who runs the tech side of things. They're engaged and it's difficult having a relationship at work when the stakes are so high. They're having some problems that I really can't get into. You see that somebody's holding things
back—maybe she has a secret which he has to concern himself with. He's a Marine and he bases
everything on having a plan with a coordinated attack. There's an interesting dynamic on how he's going to deal with her."
ANIL KAPOOR (Foreign Leader OMAR HASSAN)
"I have one scene in a car with my bodyguard, Tarin. Suddenly I'm sending messages to my country to say people (behind an assassination attempt on his character's life) have to be taken to task and arrested. I can sense that the bodyguard is uncomfortable and the way that the scene progresses is very dramatic. I speak about the peace process, my younger brother Akbar and my family. It's a catharsis for my character." By the way, Omar's loved ones include a daughter, a wife—and a girlfriend!
Source: TV Guide Magazine.com/Keck's Exclusives
Freddy and the Freeloaders...
the strange, creepy and lucrative world of non profits....
ever since the I exposed the Santa Barbara County Taxpayer Association strange and shady operations and politically incestuous relationship with the News-Press and volunteers exposed the mismanagement of the Botanical Gardens, non profits have been under scrutiny...and rightly so..some are good but some are bad or unnecessary..we got Heal the Bay, Heal the Ocean and Surfrider all collecting big bucks from the gullible public, but I'm not sure exactly what they all do that municipalities already do with my tax dollars!
here's some interesting figures of non-profits, ...these guys are raking in the money and they don't have to pay taxes! Churches don't pay and their charities don't pay..double dippers! There's more where this came from..this is the tip of the iceburg...why aren't these organizations taxed..what an obvious scam some of these are...no wonder people are scrambling to start non profits! EASY MONEY and NO TAXES!! what irks me is these people ask for money from city councils, prey on emotions and the council falls for it...why give my tax money to Peoples' Self Help Housing when they are worth 50 million dollars!! What a rip!!!
salaries of the CEOs and organization assets
Santa BarbaraMuseum of Natural History..Karl Hutterer $133000
assets $70,000,000
santa barbara foundation Charles Slosser $172900
assets $248,000,000
Center for Biological Diversity Michael Finkelstein $74000
assets $3500000
Defenders of Wildlife Rodger Schlickeisen $268000
assets $22,000,000
Surfrider Jim Moriarty $170000
assets $4,569,360
Heal the Bay Mark Gold $ 150000
assets $3,300,000
National Disaster Search
Dog Foundation in Ojai Debra Tosch $72000
assets $3,500,000
Catholic Charites LA/SB Rev. Monsignor Gregory A. Cox $28,080
assets $71,000,000
Nature Conservancy Steven J. McCormick President, CEO $427,465
net assets 47 BILLION!! ever since they've owned the Channel Islands, ecological disaster has occured! It's a Nature Con..
and here's a job from Craigslist:
Description: 501(c)3 or 4, start up Program Director for environmental green fuel consortium. Works with the Senior Managing Director to form, run, and operate day to day administrative and organizational functions. Special emphasis, expertise, and experience in member based political and/or environmental movements (MoveOn.org, etc). Works with designers to create the website and content, online message and media, grass roots membership base and databank as well as fundraising campaigns and special outreach. Handles the daily requirements for legal and accountancy records. Works with the Senior Managing Director in the development of the organization with centers of influence and the planning of events. Candidate should be a self-starter; computer, internet, tech literate; politically and environmentally savvy; strong administrative skills; knowledge and experience in fundraising and online movements; able to task building a start up non-profit helping reach its mission and objectives. Resume should demonstrate experience in these areas and specifics are helpful.
Location: Santa Barbara
Compensation: $60,000 per year plus medical.
This is at a non-profit organization.
Principals only. Recruiters, please don't contact this job poster.
Please, no phone calls about this job!
Please do not contact job poster about other services, products or commercial interests.
churches and non profits need to start paying taxes!!!
ever since the I exposed the Santa Barbara County Taxpayer Association strange and shady operations and politically incestuous relationship with the News-Press and volunteers exposed the mismanagement of the Botanical Gardens, non profits have been under scrutiny...and rightly so..some are good but some are bad or unnecessary..we got Heal the Bay, Heal the Ocean and Surfrider all collecting big bucks from the gullible public, but I'm not sure exactly what they all do that municipalities already do with my tax dollars!here's some interesting figures of non-profits, ...these guys are raking in the money and they don't have to pay taxes! Churches don't pay and their charities don't pay..double dippers! There's more where this came from..this is the tip of the iceburg...why aren't these organizations taxed..what an obvious scam some of these are...no wonder people are scrambling to start non profits! EASY MONEY and NO TAXES!! what irks me is these people ask for money from city councils, prey on emotions and the council falls for it...why give my tax money to Peoples' Self Help Housing when they are worth 50 million dollars!! What a rip!!!
salaries of the CEOs and organization assets
Santa BarbaraMuseum of Natural History..Karl Hutterer $133000
assets $70,000,000
santa barbara foundation Charles Slosser $172900
assets $248,000,000
Center for Biological Diversity Michael Finkelstein $74000
assets $3500000
Defenders of Wildlife Rodger Schlickeisen $268000
assets $22,000,000
Surfrider Jim Moriarty $170000
assets $4,569,360
Heal the Bay Mark Gold $ 150000
assets $3,300,000
National Disaster Search
Dog Foundation in Ojai Debra Tosch $72000
assets $3,500,000
Catholic Charites LA/SB Rev. Monsignor Gregory A. Cox $28,080
assets $71,000,000
Nature Conservancy Steven J. McCormick President, CEO $427,465
net assets 47 BILLION!! ever since they've owned the Channel Islands, ecological disaster has occured! It's a Nature Con..
and here's a job from Craigslist:
Description: 501(c)3 or 4, start up Program Director for environmental green fuel consortium. Works with the Senior Managing Director to form, run, and operate day to day administrative and organizational functions. Special emphasis, expertise, and experience in member based political and/or environmental movements (MoveOn.org, etc). Works with designers to create the website and content, online message and media, grass roots membership base and databank as well as fundraising campaigns and special outreach. Handles the daily requirements for legal and accountancy records. Works with the Senior Managing Director in the development of the organization with centers of influence and the planning of events. Candidate should be a self-starter; computer, internet, tech literate; politically and environmentally savvy; strong administrative skills; knowledge and experience in fundraising and online movements; able to task building a start up non-profit helping reach its mission and objectives. Resume should demonstrate experience in these areas and specifics are helpful.
Location: Santa Barbara
Compensation: $60,000 per year plus medical.
This is at a non-profit organization.
Principals only. Recruiters, please don't contact this job poster.
Please, no phone calls about this job!
Please do not contact job poster about other services, products or commercial interests.
churches and non profits need to start paying taxes!!!
Obama’s Version of Transparency: Dubious Czars
THE REAL POWER IN THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION IS UNCONFIRMED AND UNACCOUNTABLE
If you can't beat 'em, czar 'em. This is the standard operating procedure in Obama World. The time-honored Senate confirmation process proved to be a dangerous landmine for one too many of the president's picks. But the White House found the perfect cure for Obama Nominee Withdrawal Syndrome: Avoid future debacles by circumventing the nomination process altogether.
So far, czars have been installed in at least 35 posts through presidential executive orders that require no Senate approval. No Senate review, no questions. No questions, no problems.
The Obama administration has created a two-tiered government -- fronted by Cabinet secretaries able to withstand public scrutiny (some of them, just barely) and then managed behind the scenes by shadow secretaries with broad powers beyond congressional reach. Bureaucratic chaos serves as a useful smokescreen to obscure the true source of policy decision-making. Energy czar Carol Browner epitomized the secretive dealings of these offices when she advised auto industry executives this month to "to put nothing in writing, ever" about their meetings with her.
While past administrations dating back to the Nixon era have designated such "super aides," none has extended the concept as widely as Obama has. Currently, 35 out of 44 current "czar" slots are presidential appointments. They are among the highest-paid staffers at the White House. Most of Obama's key czars have Cabinet counterparts already in place.
It's not just the unprecedented quantity of White House-appointed bureaucratic commissars that galls. It's their shockingly compromised ethics and integrity. Here are three of Obama's most interest-conflicted, superfluous, and criminal czars and czarinas:
Nancy DeParle, Health Czar
Former Kansas Democrat Governor Kathleen Sebelius won Senate confirmation as Health and Human Services Secretary. But the real power lies with with newly-created health czar Nancy-Ann Min DeParle. Her official title: Director of the White House Office for Health Reform.
DeParle ran the behemoth Medicare and Medicaid programs under Bill Clinton. She parlayed her government experience into a lucrative private-sector stint. Over the past three years, she made nearly $6 million from her work in the health care industry. Despite President Obama's loud denunciations of the revolving-door lobbyist culture in Washington, DeParle's industry ties didn't bother the White House.
She served as an investment advisor at JP Morgan Partners, LLC; sat on the board of directors at Boston Scientific Corporation; and held directorships at Accredo Health Group Inc., Triad Hospitals (now part of Community Health Systems), and DaVita Corporation. In all, she sat on at least 10 boards while advising JP Morgan and working as managing director at a private equity firm, CCMP Capital.
From 2002 to 2008, while holding all those titles, DeParle also served as a member of the government-chartered Medicare Payment Advisory Committee (MedPAC), an influential panel that advises Congress on what Medicare should cover and at what price. Last month, former MedPAC member DeParle cozily announced that Obama was "open to making recommendations of [MedPAC] mandatory unless opposed by a joint resolution of Congress."
Obama famously signed an early executive order requiring appointees to pledge not to participate "in any particular matter involving specific parties that is directly and substantially related to any former employer or former clients" for a period of two years from the date of his or her appointment. But it's hard to imagine any health care reform-related issue that won't involve one of DeParle's former employers, clients, and corporate boards in the health care industry. She earned at least $376,000 from Cerner Corporation, for example, which specializes in health information technology. As health czar, DeParle has unmeasured clout in directing $19 billion of federal stimulus money earmarked for, yes, health information technology.
Last week, a Washington, D.C. citizen watchdog filed suit to force the White House to disclose which health care lobbyists and executives it had met with this year to discuss insurance takeover legislation. White House counsel Greg Craig refused to disclose which administration officials attended the meetings. But at least two of the industry visitors have ties to DeParle. William C. Weldon is chairman of Johnson & Johnson, which paid DeParle $7,500 for a recent speech. Wayne Smith is chief executive of Community Health Systems, which merged with Triad Hospitals - where DeParle served on the board of directors. DeParle's options were converted to cash payments worth $1.05 million.
Despite Obama's lip service to transparency, the public is in the dark about which assets DeParle has divested and how many times, if any, DeParle has recused herself from policy matters and meetings. Czardom has its privileges.
Adolfo Carrion, Urban Czar
Former Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrión Jr., the nation's "urban czar" is a man in Obama's own image: Son of immigrants. Charismatic. Ambitious. And embroiled in pay-for-play scandals that would make the Chicago political machine proud.
Carrion's official title: Head of the White House Office of Urban Affairs. But doesn't the president already have a Secretary of Housing and Urban Development? Yes. That spot went to Harvard grad and former Clinton HUD official Shaun Donovan, who moved up from his role as New York City commissioner of housing and development. Grievance groups, however, were miffed that the HUD job didn't go to a racial or ethnic minority. (Donovan is white; HUD is a notorious bastion of cronyism of color.) Enter Carrión.
As a reward for turning out the Latino vote, Obama gave Carrion the unprecedented power to shower federal dollars on urban areas and coordinate urban policy across several bureaucracies. In practice, the job empowers Carrión to carry out the kind of pay-to-play schemes that sullied his tenure in the Bronx on a nationwide scale. It's Obama-approved old school patronage dressed up as the new urban renewal.
As Bronx Borough president, Carrion took tens of thousands of dollars in donations from real estate firms just before and after the developers snagged lucrative deals or crucial zoning changes for their projects. In turn, he made millions in public tax dollars available to his cronies. And Carrion rubber-stamped three housing projects for an architect whom he hired to renovate his City Island Victorian home. It is illegal for an elected official to accept such a gift, but Carrión failed to pay the architect until after he was tapped for his urban czar post. The White House shrugged.
Similar arrangements involving home renovation freebies from corporate suitors resulted in multiple criminal convictions for entrenched Alaska GOP Senator Ted Stevens and forced the resignation of Republican former Connecticut Governor John Rowland. But there was barely a peep from the Beltway's clean government types about Carrión's smelly deals. He is also a lavish spender - squandering nearly $20,000 on a teleprompter, junkets to San Juan, and $50,000 on a going away party for himself. Viva la Hope and Change.
Vivek Kundra, Technology Czar
Who thinks putting a shoplifter in charge of the entire federal government's information security infrastructure is a good idea? The Obama White House has complete confidence in Vivek Kundra, the 34-year-old "whiz kid" named Federal Chief Information Officer in March 2009 despite his criminal history. As first reported by Ed Morrissey at HotAir.com, Kundra was convicted of misdemeanor theft. He stole a handful of men's shirts from a J.C. Penney's department store and ran from police in a failed attempt to evade arrest. Kundra was a 21-year-old adult at the time of his attempted thievery and attempted escape from the police. From the White House's pooh-poohing of the incident as a "youthful indiscretion," you might have thought the digits in his age were reversed.
Whitewashing the petty thief's crimes, Obama instead effused about his technology czar's "depth of experience in the technology arena." As the nation's CIO, Kundra "will play a key role in making sure our government is running in the most secure, open, and efficient way possible." But the aura of security and openness was further thrown into doubt in March when an FBI search warrant was issued at Kundra's office. He was serving as the Chief Technology Officer of the District of Columbia before moving over to the White House.
During the transition, two of Kundra's underlings, Yusuf Acar and Sushil Bansal, were charged in an alleged scheme of bribery, kickbacks, ghost employees, and forged timesheets. Kundra was put on leave for five days and then reinstated after the feds informed him that he was neither a subject nor a target of the investigation. Team Obama emphasized that Kundra had no idea what was going on in his workplace, which employed about 300 workers.
But if his claimed ignorance is supposed to exonerate Kundra, what does it suggest about his ability to police government technology operations across the entire federal government? And what responsibility and oversight exactly did Kundra have over the indicted employees in his office?
Veteran D.C. newspaper columnist Jonetta Rose Barras reported that Acar "was consistently promoted by his boss, Vivek Kundra, receiving with each move increasing authority over sensitive information and operating with little supervision." The raid was no surprise to city and federal watchdogs, who had identified a systemic lack of controls in the office. Now, Kundra promises to create "a culture of accountability and innovation" in order to prevent "theft and fraud." The anti-crime prevention strategy of Obama's technology security chief: Takes one to know one.
The czar explosion illustrates the first law of political physics: As government grows, corruption flows. Unchecked, these super-bureaucrats have the power to wreak major havoc on the economy and our lives. Who will stop them?
Michelle Malkin, NY Post, 7/26/09
Brooklyn Nurse Forced to Assist in Abortion Suing Hospital
A Brooklyn nurse claims she was forced to choose between her religious convictions and her job when Mount Sinai Hospital ordered her to assist in a late-term abortion against her will.
The hospital even exaggerated the patient's condition and claimed the woman could die if the nurse, a devout Catholic, did not follow orders, the nurse alleges in a lawsuit.
"It felt like a horror film unfolding," said Catherina Cenzon-DeCarlo, 35, who claims she has had gruesome nightmares and hasn't been able to sleep since the May 24 incident.
The married mother of a year-old baby was 30 minutes into her early-morning shift when she realized she had been assigned to an abortion. She begged her supervisor to find a replacement nurse for the procedure. The hospital had a six-hour window to find a fill-in, the suit says.
Bosses told the weeping Cenzon-DeCarlo the patient was 22 weeks into her pregnancy and had preeclampsia, a condition marked by high blood pressure that can lead to seizures or death if left untreated.
The supervisor "claimed that the mother could die if [Cenzon-DeCarlo] did not assist in the abortion."
But the nurse, the niece of a Filipino bishop, contends that the patient's life was not in danger. She argued that the patient was not even on magnesium therapy, a common treatment for preeclampsia, and did not have problems indicating an emergency.
Her pleas were rejected, and instead she was threatened with career-ending charges of insubordination and patient abandonment, according to the lawsuit, filed Tuesday in Brooklyn federal court.
Feeling threatened, Cenzon-DeCarlo assisted in the procedure.
She said she later learned that the hospital's own records deemed the procedure "Category II," which is not considered immediately life threatening.
"I felt violated and betrayed," she recalled. "I couldn't believe that this could happen."
A native of the Philippines, Cenzon-DeCarlo moved to New York in 2001 and started at Mount Sinai on the East Side as an operating-room nurse in 2004. During her job interview, an administrator asked Cenzon-DeCarlo whether she'd be willing to participate in abortions. She flatly said no.
The nurse said she put her beliefs in writing.
The day after the procedure, Cenzon-DeCarlo filed a grievance with her union. Later that week, she was cornered by two supervisors who told her if she wanted any more overtime shifts, she would have to sign a statement agreeing to participate in abortions, the suit says.
The next month, Cenzon-DeCarlo was assigned to one overtime shift, rather than the eight or nine she usually received, the suit claims.
Although the Brooklyn resident is still working at Mount Sinai, she's asking a court to order the hospital to pay unspecified damages, restore her shifts and respect her objections to abortion.
"I emigrated to this country in the belief that here religious freedom is sacred," Cenzon-DeCarlo said. "Doctors and nurses shouldn't be forced to abandon their beliefs and participate in abortion in order to keep their jobs."
Providing legal advice for her action is the Alliance Defense Fund, a Christian group seeking to put a national spotlight on the case. The suit also seeks to force Mount Sinai to give up federal funding it receives, because it failed to uphold a federal rule protecting employees who have moral objections to controversial procedures.
Mount Sinai said it would not comment.
Galen Sherwin, the director of the New York Civil Liberties Union's Reproductive Rights Project, said the case centered on whether a medical emergency existed.
"The law provides protections for individuals who object to performing abortions, but at the same time, health-care professionals are not permitted to abandon patients," Sherwin said.
Kathianne Boniello, NY Post, 7/26/09
Saturday, July 25, 2009
Comic-Con Backstage: Kiefer Sutherland discusses the possible end of '24'
Day Eight, currently in production, marks the end of Sutherland's current contractJack Bauer will return for another Day of "24" starting next January on FOX. That means that once again, Jack has cheated death. Even if we establish, though, that Jack Bauer is essentially a television immortal, time may still be running out for Kiefer Sutherland's gun-toting alter-ego.
FOX renewed "24" for two seasons back in 2007, a deal that simultaneously extended the show for the duration of Sutherland's contract with 20th Century Fox TV. At the time, "24" was coming off a critically maligned sixth season and an additional two seasons seemed like a realistic and finite duration.
After losing a year due to the strike, "24" returned this spring and while ratings weren't anywhere near what they were at the show's peak, it still continued to anchor FOX's strong Monday night and picked up six Emmy nominations (11 if you include the telefilm "24: Redemption"). As a result, Sutherland is far from committed to walking away next May.
"I don't know with regards to 'The Last Season' or anything," Sutherland told reporters backstage after the "24" Comic-Con panel on Friday (July 24). "I really don't. It is the last season that I've been contracted to do '24,' but I really don't know. We're so focused on making Season Eight. But obviously the requirements would be that the writers felt that they could really bang it out. If Howard [Gordon] came to me and say, 'The way I saw those last scenes play, I have an idea for Season Nine that would be unbelievable,' I would have to listen to him for that. I think we're all very away of wanting to protect what we believe is a very strong and important legacy that is '24.' All of those things. Again, the choices to do or not to do it have nothing to do with my contract, have everything to do with whether or not an audience still wants to watch it and cares and whether or not we feel we have something to offer."
In the immediate present, Sutherland and the "24" team are in production on Day Eight of "24," the show's first season in New York City (following its first day in Washington, D.C. this year). How will they top what was possibly the most tortured day of Jack Bauer's life? Or at least build on it? Well, at the Comic-Con panel, Sutherland and showrunner Howard Gordon echoed that this season's theme will be "peace" both in the main plot, which involves an assassination attempt that would jeopardize a historic summit between a Middle Eastern President (Anil Kapoor) and President Taylor (Cherry Jones), and for Bauer.
"My sense, and I think today kind of confirms it, I think fans kinda root for Jack and I think I kinda root for him as well and I think people would like to see him at least have the option to have a good life," Sutherland said. "We've stripped a lot of those components away over the years, by virtue of killing everybody, that whether he wants to live or die seemed to become kind of innocuous, like 'Who cares?' There was nothing really to live for. So what we did for this season is to really try to create something that would make Jack want to live. We started off with just this relationship between he and his daughter and his granddaughter and her husband and that family, because his family was literally torn apart after Season One."
Sutherland added, "For me as an actor and Jack as a character, the desire for Season Eight is to protect all of the things that would make living worthwhile and also live within the context of what he morally accept himself doing or not doing."
How will Sutherland react to the end of his run as Jack Bauer, whether it comes after next season or several years down the road?
"I think it's gonna be very complicated," he said." Whether this is our last season or next season's our last season, we certainly know we're on the shorter end of the stick than the longer one."
He continued, "In Season One and Season Two, it's such a shock to your body, the workload, that you can't wait for it to be done. And somewhere and somehow in the groove of everything, you start to get into a rhythm of it and you find ways to make it easier for yourself... I know for a fact that it's not gonna be 'Wahoo!' It's gonna be a combination of a lot of things and it's not gonna be easy."
Source: HitFix.com
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