Thanks for Friends at Thanksgiving

I got text messages and phone calls. Others left voice mail messages at work, at home and on my cell phone. They were contacting me to wish me a Happy Holiday.

Never before have so many people wanted to wish me a Happy Thanksgiving. Yes, I said Thanksgiving, not Christmas or New Year's. Sure, people have wished me a Happy Thanksgiving throughout the years but only in person, face to face. Even then it was only a casual, rather automatic sentiment.

I even got Happy Thanksgiving cards.

Why, I wonder?

Could it be that people are just learning what to be thankful for? Or maybe my group of friends are getting older and are like me, fully understanding that it doesn't matter the size of your house or the model of vehicle you drive. Maybe it only matters that we live in the best country with the best form of government (not the best politicians, though) there has ever been since Adam and Eve and the creation of the Earth.

I like it. Thanksgiving has always been my favorite holiday of the year.

So, to Cheryl "Action Jackson" and Liz "Baby Girl" and Mary Beth "Strick 9" and Rae'Meka "Rae-Rae Yo Girlfriend" and Candy "Sweet Baby Sweet" and Lindsay "I'll Never" and Leisha "Loose Wheel" and Parker "Boy Band" and Michael "Write Boy" and many, many others ... especially Danny-boy.

Thanks for making me thankful on Thanksgiving.

My Facebook

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Thanksgiving at Aunt Dottie's

Boy, did I have a great time. We had plenty of food and drink. We went to Daddy's sister's house, my Aunt Dottie. We had tons of food and lots of good conversation. Aunt Dottie's chicken and dressing tasted like Mama Gladys's.

I miss my grandmothers so much. Mawmaw Young died in 1973 when I was too young to lose her and Mama Gladys died in 1986. Thankfully, Mama Gladys (Daddy and Aunt Dottie's mother) got to see and experience a lot of my accomplishments. I'm still mourning their losses.

However, I'm thankful for the Thanksgiving days I had with them. Now, more on my Thanksgiving trip to Aunt Dottie's ...

My cousin, Lanie (Shelaine) has done a fantastic job with her son Kyle. Intelligent, thoughtful, well-spoken, Kyle (right with Mom Lanie) has turned out to be a handsome, personable young man.


Lanie and her husband Stanley (below) have a farm not far from Tupelo where they have a corn maize open to the public each fall.

They've done a great job cutting themes into the corn each year.

Check out their web site:
http://www.wisefarmer.com/.


My cousin Shane (right), who is Lanie's "little" brother, has a gorgeous family.

Shane's wife Vicki (below) could be a model. (That's a New York Runway Walk if ever I saw one!)

This is Shane and Vicki's oldest child, Kenzie (right). Kenzie's only in the tenth grade but she could easily be America's Next Top Model ... except something tells me that Vicki and Shane would NOT let her be on Tyra's show, at least not at age 15 (even though she looks like she's 20).

Vicki and Shane have two more children (left) and they have their hands full with Abby and Lane. Lane is almost two years younger but as tall as Abby. These two clowns kept me busy Thanksgiving day. I loved it!


Here's Aunt Dottie's entire crew (below):



Mom and Dad (below) commented on the way back home how much we enjoyed spending Thanksgiving with Aunt Dottie.

Having these two as parents might explain why I'm so crazy!?!?!?!



Anyway, it's good to have family to spend the holidays with. Thanks for including us, Aunt Dottie. I love you.



Oh yeah, what would a Mississippi get-together
be without plenty of sweet tea?

That Magic Man Santa Is Back -- So Simon Sez

That funny, funny site is back for a lot of hours of holiday tomfoolery.

It's Simon Sez Santa, now in languages other than English. I typed in Spanish and French commands and it works!

This year, there are two more games you can play, Pimp My Sled and Magic Snowball. And, the creators have holiday hats for sale based on your holiday mood, Bah Humbug or Merry Christmas.

I think I'm tired of the holidays already. And before any friends email and ask, no that is not my boyfriend in the Bah Humbug/Merry Christmas Hat.

To buy a hat or to play Simon Sez Santa, visit this site: http://www.simonsezsanta.com/

Broken Arm - Why No Post In More Than A Month

Should a woman my age be skate boarding or beating up men on the softball diamond?

I wish I had a great story for how I broke my arm in three places, like one of the above. Instead, it was more like the beginning of a V.I. Warshawski evening...

It was a cold rainy night that I had spent alone in the office, laboring over files and plans that were due to a client the next day. The wind was howling as I finally closed up shop and headed out into the blistering rain that was coming down in sheets.

The dim parking lot was a precursor to an ominous thing about to happen. Gently sloping to the South, the lot was slick as glass and full of acorns that fat squirrels had already had too much of.

I took a few steps with hands full, a laptop bag dangling over my shoulder and an umbrella wedged between cheek and shoulder, doing no good to protect me from the sideways rain that felt like needle pricks to my exposed skin.

Then boom, I was down before I knew it. The result?

I laid in the emergency room for 4 (yes four) hours unattended with two breaks between wrist and elbow and a fracture of the tip of the elbow.


That was the worst physical pain I've ever endured. Worse than my kidney stone.

At any rate, I'm back, having gotten the cast and the sling off. And just in time for the holidays!!!

To Borrow A Larry Kudlow Phrase, Fred Thompson Is Right On The Money

Some believe the Second Amendment has different meanings for different places, and that the gun rights of citizens in big cities such as New York City and Chicago can be restricted more than the gun rights of those in Tennessee and Montana.

That, paraphrased, was the question put to FDT at a Friday public speaking engagement.
Thompson in non-politician speak responded as I had hoped.

"Nope. It's never seemed to me to be coincidental that the places that have the highest crime rates tend to be the places that have the most restrictions on gun ownership in America."

FDT, he's my man, if he doesn't do, I may have to move to France where Sarkozy is the next best bet over the current crop of losers running this country.

And as for Pseudo-christian James Dobson, who thinks Thompson is not a good choice for the Republican nomination, Dobson doesn't know enough about the Bible and Christianity to be correct on more than half the political points he comments on.

I don't care if Dobson does draw a radio audience in the millions, that just means he's perpetuating lies to millions of people just like Al Gore is doing with his inaccuracies on global warming.

Dobson is in a cult-like group of people that refer to themselves as Nazarenes, not Christians and claim to be part of a holiness movement. There's not a lot that's holy about James Dobson.

He claims the name Nazarene is an acceptable religious name to be called because Jesus was a Nazarene, referred to in Matthew 2:23. In context, this is in reference to Jesus's "homewtown" as I would be called a Memphian or Dobson would be called a Louisianan. If he can't get something this simple about Biblical context correct, how can his rhetoric be believed?

Dobson is one of a large group of Pseudo-christians in the ultra right wing, facist part of the Republican Party, of which FDT is not part.

Just another reason why I'm with Fred.

The Jack Russells of The Baskervilles

Hello, mon cher. I am Franklin D. Baskerville of the famous French Baskervilles. Shhhh! I listen for the evil one, known to mankind as Mr. Squirrel.


(Sniff, sniff) What is that inoucuous aroma? Is that his musk cologne I smell? Yes, he must be nearby!



What? There is a Mr. Squirrel in his house? I'd love to see how it's decorated.

Oh, I'm Boy George Baskerville in case you didn't know.




Ah, ha!! There he is, in the tree. Come down you, you coward!!

Mr. Squirrel must be French, also!











Does my tail make my butt look big?

Boy Took Beating From Jena 6 Like I Did From The Jr. High 3

There's so much news and misinformation flying around the Jena 6 that it has served in the last few days as a painful reminder of something that happened to me when I was in grade school.

Under court order, the public school system where I grew up was forced to integrate the white and black schools not long after James Meredith was the first man with dark skin to enroll in college at Ole Miss (technically, The University of Mississippi).

Meredith and I have this in common: We view ourselves as individual American citizens with equal rights.

I understood that when I was six (started school when I was barely five, already reading at a fourth-grade level). Meredith had to force the then President of the United States to acknowledge that Meredith had basic rights to go to any college no matter what color he was. He did this by demanding the Kennedy Administration -- wow, figure that out...a Democrat who had to be forced into helping a black man get into a college -- provide that recognition to him in a public way by protecting him as he enrolled at Ole Miss.

Meredith's quote, "And my objective was to force the federal government – the Kennedy administration at that time – into a position where they would have to use the United States military force to enforce my rights as a citizen," has been printed in numerous publications and books.

By the time I was in Jr. High, I was a pretty good athlete, only we'd integrated and a former all-black K-12 in an all-black neighborhood was now a biracial Jr. High. I made the basketball team. Only white girl to do so. Was a good point guard, made first string. Then the attacks started.

Up to that point in my life, I'd been taught that God loves us all. I have light skin and light brown-blonde hair but God did not love me more -- or differently -- than my friend Diane, whose skin was the color of crude oil with hair about that same color. He loved us both equally.

But girls the color of Diane daily hit me, pinched me, tried to knock me down in the halls between classes and jumped me outside one day after school had let out for the day. They beat me up real good.

Mother doctored the cuts and bruises and the dentist capped a broke tooth paid for out of Daddy's pocket because we didn't have dental insurance then. Daddy tried to reason with their parents and the school principal with no luck.

This is why you can't reason with terrorists and evil people. They don't care about right and wrong. They'd rather hurt or kill you to get their way and they have no respect for you or your rights.

If the majority of news accounts of the Jena story are correct, then:

The student who had asked to sit under the tree should not have asked unless he thought himself to be second class. He should have gone out there and sat down. He had the right to do that, especially if his parents are paying taxes in the community -- AND, without any retaliation from some people whose parents are bad people (because they obviously did not teach their children to be decent human beings rather than act like facist Nazis).

Those students who hung the nooses the next day from the tree should not have been dealt with so lightly. When there is no fear of a difficult punishment, there becomes no fear to make the next act a more heinous one. They should have been expelled from school for the entire year or allow me to pronounce punishment. I would have put them in day-custody of the sheriff's department on clean-up detail of everything and every place in that county and under house arrest at night seven days a week for the remainder of the school year and failed them for that year making them repeat the grade the next year.

Even if Justin Barker (the white boy that took the beating from the Jena 6) was mouthing off, it only showed that his parents had not taught him to be a civilized human being with respect for others and this fact did not give Mychal Bell the right to beat on him. Bell's criminal record prior to his beating of Barker simply shows he was not taught by his parents to be a civilized human being with respect for others, either.

Regarding my plight in Jr. High, I had to follow what I had been taught. This is what my parents taught me and why I did not retaliate that year for the beatings I received from those girls:

I will not strike back because the Bible tells me not to. Romans 12:19.

I will ask God to bless those who treat me unfairly or harshly because the Bible tells me to. Matthew 5:44.

I will forgive those who have hurt me because the Bible tells me to. Luke 23:24.

Too bad Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton don't know enough about the Bible (they claim to be ministers but obviously are not since they don't know the Bible) to tell everyone -- black and white, resident and visitor -- in Jena to do what the Bible says.

Jon, Jon, Jon. You've Got Moxie!

A few blogs back, I wrote about Jon Friedman's coverage of his own industry and some of the known liars that have tainted journalism during the last three or four decades.

I noted that Jon's column is fun and entertaining to read but also that Jon didn't just deliver softballs as if he were in a summer co-ed league. Jon has the chutzpah (we call it guts down South) to take someone to task, if need be.

He has done just that with today's column about Dan Rather's act of hubris in filing a lawsuit against CBS. (Click here for details.)

You might think Jon's criticism of Dan is because Jon's former employer was CBS MarketWatch -- now MarketWatch, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Dow Jones & Company -- but if you read his column regularly, and even today's column about the lawsuit, you'll see he is critical of CBS's flagging news efforts.

And they've been declining since, well, since Walter Cronkite retired.


Let's face it, Dan Rather was one of those people who left the basic tenants of journalism long ago in the pursuit of ratings, self-promotion and grandiosity and those should never be in the list of a journalist's attributes.

As poorly as she's doing, CBS is better off with Katie Couric than it was in Dan's last 10 years in the anchor seat.

Why dismiss someone who admitted he knew the reports on Bush's military service were unsubstantiated but reported on them anyway?

For the same reason The Washington Post fired Janet Cooke and The New York Times dismissed Jayson Blair and The New Republic canned Stephen Glass.

They dishonored the craft by (multiple choice, so you can match it with the goat who did it):

1. Committing plagiarism


2. Fabricating all or parts of stories


3. Lying

Journalism ethics and standards apply to all journalists, print and broadcast. Rather checked his set at the door when he and his team (also fired, forced to resign, told to take early retirement, whatever...) went ahead with the unconfirmed story on Bush.

Now retired Editor-In-Chief at CBS, Tony Burman, once said, “Every news organization has only its credibility and reputation to rely on.”

Rather tarnished CBS's rep and now it appears he wants to tank it with his vindictiveness.

In the meantime, I will continue to get my news from people and organizations who appear to be truthful, accurate, objective, impartial and fair. When Jon Friedman stops having these qualities, I'll write a blog entry on what a cad he is.

I have a feeling that blog may never get penned.

More Family - From The Photo Album

These are some of the Alabama slamma members of the family, the honest, upstanding ones.

Cousin Chan and her momma, Cousin Niter (Anita). Anita used to be a head seamstress for Tommy Hilfiger until he shut down his sewing mill in Alabama and moved it overseas for cheap labor. And Niter was a good seamstress and clothing designer.


Cousin Paisley

Mayoral Candidate Debate, Er, Ah Debacle

For outsiders reading in, we have an election looming next month.

It is for mayor of Memphis.

W. W. "Willie" Herenton is the incumbent and has been the mayor since he was sworn in, in 1991, as the first Black to be elected mayor of Memphis. Sixteen years and more than four consecutive terms in office is too much because if you know anything about the city, you know the problems we have here.

So, last Monday night, the really really smart people at News Channel 3 (the CBS affiliate) held the first televised debate opposite the Monday night NFL Football season kickoff double-header.

Thus, I had to record the debate.


After football, I watched.

I have to say these 3 guys did a much better job at talking than the 3 candidates opposing Herenton did in this mayoral debate!

This is Ron Jaworski, Mike Tirico and Tony Kornheiser.

They ask questions of each other and they try and give answers to the questions asked.

Not so with our mayoral candidates.


A few Bon Mots...

This is the illustrious (sic) group opposing incumbent Mayor Herenton, Carol Chumney, Herman Morris and John Willingham.

It seemed they all were coached by some PR idiots who told them, I imagine, not to answer the questions.

I could tell this from having worked on political campaigns, Thad Cochran's senate race in the 1980s, Don Sundquist's governor's race in the 1990s and many, many other state and local campaigns in Mississippi and Tennessee.

I've sat in rooms where higher level PR people coached candidates to ignore questions and get their points across. Only, they coached them explaining and showing how to use "bridging" words.

For example, the question might be posed, "What would you do your first 90 days in office?"

The candidate would have been taught, if he or she had no idea what they'd do in the first 90 days to "bridge" to a point they wanted to get across in this manner:

"I think the bigger question is what will Memphis face in the years to come regarding qualified leadership. I have 10 years of county commission experience and 12 years on the job as budget manager for the city parks and am the most qualified to lead the city in the years to come. Check my record of service and you'll agree."

See how easy it is NOT to answer a question?

Only, the three mayoral candidates didn't even use bridging words and phrases. They simply ignored for the most part the moderators and citizens asking the questions!!

On top of that, Willingham couldn't get out a simple thought in a complete sentence if it saved his life. And Chumney spent most of her time harping on her resume which related to almost none of the questions and Morris kept connecting himself to MLGW and thus connected himself to the fiascoes that happened under his tenure, including the infamous "VIP List".

Alas, incumbent candidate Herenton probably fared the best by not being there at all. No one but Chumney criticized him and only late in the game and ineffectively at that.

I fear for the city, no matter who gets elected.

Jon Friedman's Weavings Of His Media Web

With degrees in journalism, broadcasting, advertising, and public relations, it should come as no surprise that I'm a media junkie.

I also love to read the media that covers the media and one of the best and most interesting writers out there is Jon Friedman with CBS Marketwatch. I'll get back to Jon and some comments on him in a minute.

Now, you might agree that it's a bit oxymoronic to have the media covering itself. But I don't think so. Journalists shouldn't think they are beyond reproach because several have proven they aren't.

Immediately coming to mind are several who tarnished the reputation of "the public watchdog" including Jayson Blair, Jack Kelley and Stephen Glass. One that prompted me to lose heart about my beloved profession was Janet Cooke. People forget about her infraction and in my opinion, it was much more egregious than recent ones.

Cooke was the first perverter of journalistic integrity in my adult life of reading major dailies and picking up writers I fancied I'd be reading for a long time -- or working along side one day.

Cooke tarnished the pages of the famed Washington Post with lies.

BACK STORY:

In 1980, Cooke was hired at the Washington Post after working at the Toledo Blade. She went on to write a gripping story entitled Jimmy's World about an 8-year-old heroin addict. She was nominated and then won the Pulitzer Prize in 1981 for the story.

She had a great pedigree, or so thought HR at the Washington Post . She had on her resume, notation of her degree from Vassar College and that she studied at the Sorbonne in Paris and even that she was an award winner for her writing while at the Toledo Blade.

She was exposed for all of it as lies -- her background and the story on Jimmy -- and the nation was shocked back then. I can attest, the Blair et al scandals died down quite a bit faster than the one that became the vortex that Cooke got sucked into.

Which brings me to Jon Friedman.

FRONT STORY:

Friedman's last few columns have been about people in media positions that are issuing news to an information-obsessed world that are pithy, well angled, fact-filled and ... well, entertaining. Not really exposing or hard-hitting; not overly critical nor fault-finding. Take a look at the headlines and I think you'll agree. It's hardly sensational stuff.

Assessing Maria Bartiromo and Erin Burnett
Commentary: CNBC hopes it can accommodate two star anchors

Fox's Shep Smith takes the work seriously ...
Commentary: ... but doesn't get caught up in a news-star persona

Assessing Couric and Vieira after year one
Commentary: Tale of the tape shows that the winner is ...

Here's the thing.

I WANT Jon to be writing about the things he's writing about and not about media scandals where journalists are caught lying in articles. If there's anything I want to see in today's world, it's journalists that take their craft seriously, not themselves. It's competition among anchors for the better analyst and the one that delivers more complete information. Ones that people are trusting not because their ratings are going up, but through their demonstration of integrity, honesty and a take-no-prisoners-when-reporting-on-stuff-and people attitude -- no sacred cows. Lou Dobbs is a perfect example of what journalists and broadcasters ought to be.

And report cards. I like it when Jon takes a look and grades the media.

I also think that Jon can be tough, that he's willing and able to point out infraction, break a story or write some biting criticism if any journalist makes a misstep.

I believe Jon Friedman to be level-headed, principled and honest, and a good, solid reporter, even if he is a New Yorker. After all, he's from the capital of the news world.

What better credential than those two things to be a watchdog over the bulldogs?

For a slice of Jon Friedman's Media Web,
click here.

Steve Jobs For President

By now, most technology intellects and even tech meddlers know about the recent iPhone price reduction that caused a major brouhaha with Apple loyalists and lovers. Even if you are not a techno geek, or part of tech intelligentsia, or even tech aware – maybe you’re a technophobe – you still know about the Apple price reposition on the iPhone, if you are up on your news and current events.

Apple haters are calling it a gaffe. I don’t think it was a blunder or a mistake or anything Steve Jobs should have apologized for, but the bloody media love to beat up on underdogs like Jobs and Apple and kiss the feet of monolithic monopolies such as Microsoft and its Der Kommissar, Bill Gates.

Still, it made me think about the chain reaction Jobs set off when the company announced the drop in price of the iPhone by $200 just two months after it went on sale.

He and Apple were plastered with hundreds – maybe thousands – of emails from iPhone customers who were upset that they paid the Early Adopter price for an iPhone. I would have told the whiney babies to shut up. That’s what they get for not being able to delay gratification. They think they have run out, as if they were Paris Hilton and got their cha-ching from a family trust fund, and get every trinket and toy that comes along. Only, they don’t get their benjamins from sugar daddies or even off trees, so they’re whining.

It's simple. If you want to run with the big dogs and be an Early Adopter, that's okay. Just don't whine for paying the premium associated with being an Early Adopter. People with common sense can understand this concept. So should techno savvy people who feel the need to impress, pretend to be in the Hilton family, or need to be Early Adopters to keep or get friends.

Still, you must give Jobs a tip of the hat for his public apology (click here to read Jobs’ apology) and efforts to appease those whiney babies with a $100 store credit (I should get a $100 store credit. After pulling out every sales ticket from every Apple purchase I’ve made since 1984, I have spent WELL over $10,000 with Apple).

There are so many high profile people who are in leadership positions and capable of setting examples for how we're supposed to act that really should show humility as Jobs has done and apologize but are too stubborn to. One immediately comes to mind.

His name is George W. Bush.

Poppy and B.B.

FDT To Announce Today?

The Washington Post has spoken.

According to the Post website, "Fred Dalton Thompson will tell his supporters that he is running for president today in a 4 p.m. conference call with 800 to 1,000 elected and party officials from around the country, a source close to the campaign said today." Click for details.


On another note,
this guy had the same idea I did.

In another post on this site, I closed with the plea, "Run, Fred, Run!"

Things I Like About Fred

Fred Thompson has an opportunity to make a *REAL* difference because he's not exhibiting typical fence-straddling that most politicians do all their elected lives. He has the fortitude and the skills to bypass the politbureau ways of campaigning and the stupid line of questioning with which the media continually seems to be obsessed.

In this regard, he's like President Ronald Reagan.

These are a few things a like about Fred.
• Plain spoken
• A Federalist
• Not from privilege
• Doesn’t care for Ghandi (see here)
• Was born in Alabama
• Is a Southerner, by the grace of God
• Looks like a presidential candidate
• Is a good ole boy
• Recognizes he has to get the country “out of the ditch” Bush put us in

Look at it like this. Fred will be going from movies and TV (the real world according to Paris Hilton and George Clooney) to reality (the real world according to most Americans).

My Photography Pix For Today

My baby boy Frank

Momma 'n 'em at her birthday partay

Me

My azaleas

Hillbilly Deluxe

Dwight Yoakam has nothing on me.

In 1990, he released one of his best audiological efforts entitled "Hillbilly Deluxe."

I come from a long, long line of Irish Hillbillies.

Some of us are master's degree holders from major universities around the country. Others of us are masters are tending the land, being good to our neighbors, teaching our children well and being good to our animals.

This is Great Aunt Maudie and Great Uncle Roy. They're 95 and 93 and all that's left of my grandmother's siblings.

We put God first, country second, people in need a close third and ourselves last. My sorority little sister from college just remarked to me that she has never forgotten the kindness my parents showed her the first Thanksgiving she was forced to spend away from her family.

This is Cousin Rona and Cousin Kerry. (Kerry is Rona's nephew.) She's a retired schoolteacher and he's a railroad man.





Here's a bunch of Irish at one of the regularly scheduled family reunions!!


I love them with all my heart. More on the family later...

Arthur Frommer Is Wrong On This One

I'll admit it. I'm a talk radio junkie.

I listen to learn about new products and services, where to get the best deals, how to do things myself and as a result, I've saved myself a ton of money and a lot of headaches. Travel Guru Arthur Frommer is one of my favorites. His radio talk show has given me tons of vacation ideas and travel tips that have saved me mucho $$$$.


Saturday, he and a guest were using show airtime to rail on Disney about the park's recent increase in fees. He said Disney should have some type of price point for poor families who couldn't afford the daily fees or they should stop marketing to kids.

Mr. Frommer, I beg to differ.

First, I care not one whit about Disney, don't own the stock, have never been to either Disney Land or Disney World, as a child or adult, and have no plans to go. But this is a for-profit marketplace, a capitalist society, Mr. Frommer. And you are making tons of $$ off your travel books, your website, etc..., just like Disney is making $$ off entrance fees.

They're charging what the market will bare and I say to Disney, "Hey, why not up the adult, one-day pass to $100 a day from the $71 you raised it to a week or two ago?" See here for details.

Mr. Frommer has forgotten that there are no inalienable rights in this country for taking children to Disney Land or Disney World. Parents should explain to their children that they can't have everything, get everything, and go everywhere, especially if they have poor parents.

The problem with this country and liberals like Mr. Frommer is that we've stopped saying "No" to our children and as a result we are now in a second generation of slackers who think they're owed everything regardless of socio-economic situation.

Regarding marketing to children, again, parents need to take personal responsibility and explain to children why they can't have everything they want. And turn off the TV set once in a while!

For now, here's to Disney for raising prices. I hope they do it again soon.

Arthur Branch For President

How fortunate would we be to have a practical, common sensical tough-on-crime District Attorney from New York as our next POTUS?

If you're wondering how to separate Law & Order's DA Arthur Branch from Fred Dalton Thompson, it's really easy. Use a little common sense, people!

But you may not have to. This smart casting move by Dick Wolf to place Thompson, former U.S. Senator (R-Tenn.), in the role of Arthur Branch was no stretch for Thompson. He was well-suited, and the writers only reinforced that by showing the character almost as if it were Thompson himself.

Thompson said this past weekend he was considering vying for the Republican nomination. While he would likely only have to beat Guiliani to get it, I believe he can. Conservative and Republican Southerners -- according to several polls -- had all but resigned themselves to the fact that Guiliani would be the lesser of the evils (Romney, McCain) and the best chance to defeat hillary (lower case h intended).

Not now. Polls are showing many Southerners are stoked and patiently awaiting his official announcement. (No, one cannot win the Presidency of the United States without the South...I guess we have risen again.)

Yet not everyone is happy about Thompson's potential run...especially the flaming one-eyed Cyclops called the media.

The Nashville Tennessean, a floodingly liberal spigot of old newspaperism, claims Thompson getting in the race just shows how Repubs can't make a decision. Blah, blah, blah. Can't the Tennessean come up with something more original -- or at least pithier -- than that?

After George W. Bush et al, it's more likely that no one but Thompson has the Ronald Reagan attitude and public appeal this country's forgotten citizens are clamoring for. And, who really could go in with fervor and clean up Bush's messes (as egregious as the ones Peanut Carter left the country in -- dazed, in a drift, factioned by race and border issues, the stubbornness of an 'I've made no mistakes' attitude, a suspect economy screaming recession ahead and a SNAFU'd/depleted military)?

Not Mitt. He won't even defend his own religion ("I'm not running as a Mormon").
Not McCain. He can't decide pro or against abo. (1999 - "...I would not support repeal of Roe v. Wade."; 2007 - He said in a recent interview with Stephanopoulos he is for a constitutional amendment banning abo except certain cases [rape, incest, life of the mother]).

And so what if Thompson has a younger wife?

I don't see critical stories on Hugh Hefner (80-something) and his three twenty-something gal pals or Demi Moore and her much younger hubby, Ashton Kutcher from these people who claim to be journalists.

Let Thompson have his arm candy. Then we'll have a glamorous First Lady a la Jackie O in the White House again.

As for the twice-married thing reporters are in his grill over ... if you are not willing to write about and demand absolute morality from every elected official on every issue, then get off that dead horse, you intellectually infantile fault-finders.

Look at some of Thompson's career highlights:

He led the investigation of the Parole Board in 1977 that felled Tennessee Gov. Ray Blanton.

As a Howard Baker legal counsel during the Watergate hearings that toppled President Richard Nixon, Thompson was the one that asked the pivotal question of Butterfield, "Were you aware of the existence of any listening devices in the Oval Office of the President?"

This publicly exposed Nixon's taping system, as well as Baker's question, "What did the President know and when did he know it?"

Similarities to President Ronald Reagan?

Movies, of course. Politics of course (Reagan - 2 terms as Cali Gov; Thompson - 2 terms as U.S Senator). I think his time in Washington will serve Thompson better than had he say, been a 2-term Gov of Tennessee (Cali is like running a country; Tennessee is like running a huge -- really huge -- amusement park).

Here's the bombshell. I think Thompson is more like FDR than the second coming of Ronald Reagan. Why? He's got that 'I'm gonna make things better regardless of the naysayers' attitudes. I don't see Thompson paralyzed by popularity polls.

I expect he would provide decisive leadership on Iraq and be as aggressive on terrorism as FDR was on the Nazi movement. I think he would play a critical role, again a decisive one, on reunifying the world with us. I think he'd come up with a New Deal for America, one that really shakes up this country, and one that returns America to the will of the masses, those ignored people that financially support this country -- the middle class.

So, I'm having bumper stickers made. Stay tuned. I'll post the design and give you a chance to order your own.

For now, in the immortal words of Jenny (paraphrased, of course)...

Run, Fred, run.

Saving Grace May Be The Best TV Drama Ever

What can I say about Holly Hunter?

The woman knows her craft and short of Meryl Streep, she is one of the best actresses film and TV has ever had.

Grace Hanadarko joins two other HH aliases, Edwina "Ed" McDunnough and Jane Craig as simply the most intriguing and complex a female character there is in fiction. The hard-drinking, hard-charging, highly sexed and religiously negligent Detective Hanadarko is why you should WANT to watch television again, only not network boob-tubery.

When the emmy nominations come 'round next year -- the 60th annual Emmys -- there is no doubt in my mind HH will be nominated, along with The Closer's Kyra Sedgwick/Dectective Brenda Leigh Johnson and The Riches' Minnie Driver/Dahlia Malloy. This year both were nominated along with The Sopranos' Edie Falco/Carmela Soprano. If she were nominated again along with Damages' Glenn Close/Patty Hewes, then the theory I am about to share with you will be right.

Do you see the pattern developing here? Cable television has its finger directly on the pulse of what the "average American female" wants to see, much more so than the stuffy, stodgy old white-male-run original 3 networks (ABC, CBS, NBC). As a result, we're getting incredible female characters from the savvy and intelligent greenlighting of programs cable networks such as FX, TNT and HBO are doing.

Here's to some of the best characters on the smaller, yet very entertaining screen. These women are nipping at Holly Hunter's Heels...and along with her, are my 60th Annual Emmy nominations for Best Actress in a TV Drama:

Kyra Sedgwick aka Brenda Leigh Johnson


Minnie Driver aka Dahlia Malloy













Courtney Cox Arquette aka Lucy Spiller




Glenn Close aka Patty Hewes













Edie Falco aka Carmela Soprano

An Industry That Needs A Slap Across the Face

Hurricane Katrina brought to light for people in south Mississippi and Louisiana the ugly reality that insurance companies are happy as long as you're paying them but when they have to pay you, it becomes a different story.

Recently, an arsonist set my family's farm on fire and burned everything to the ground, the barns, the equipment, the farmhouse, everything. None of the animals died. We were able to hurd them to the farm down the road while the brave and galant men of the fire department cut a trench and filled it with water to serve as a breaker, thereby saving the next farm.

After 40+ years of paying premiums to Farm Bureau of Mississippi, our claim was denied because the "structures" on the farm were too far apart to insure. They continued to take our money throughout the years but never made us aware of this.

Now, my health insurance company, Aetna, has denied a medical procedure to determine why I can barely walk. My GP thinks I have a pinched nerve in my hip. He wants to do x-rays or an MRI. Aetna said request denied.

Why am I paying premiums for medical insurance that is of no use use to me? I guess my GP will have to continue guessing about my health and trying to treat me accordingly. Before you start to scream, "Hillary was right, Michael Moore knows best, socialized medicine is the way to go," I lived in England for a while and NO, socialized medicine is WORSE than the broken insurance system here is the U.S.

Why do stories similar to mine get told to me over and over and over?

Because we have a country that loves greed and in the words of Gordon Gekko, they believe greed is good. That coupled with politicians in Washington who get nice things from these insurance companies and you have an untenable situation.

As they laugh at Americans like you and me, it means we really don't get what we pay for.