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.