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Friday, November 20, 2009 @ 8:57amA billion dollar combination
Oprah has announced that her show as we know it will end in 2011. -- And that THIS is such a big story shows again how remarkable her career has been. Her mother was an unwed teenager. AT age nine she was raped. But her father felt education was important. She got into radio, got a TV anchor job at age 19 -- got into trouble because during tragic stories, she would cry on the air. Billion dollar tears. I remember her publicity tour for the Color Purple, when she came into my studio to plug this little talk show she was syndicating. I would never have predicted she'd become the most powerful PERSON in Television. But she did. And why? Because she's a survivor, and because you know her. And even if you don't REALLY -- you THINK you do. And because she's a friend -- you want to read the books SHE reads. If she can lose weight so can you. If she can find hope in a candidate -- so can you. Who cares if she's a billionaire? For an hour you and your TV are on a first-name basis, and you will sit through a commercial break of any length to keep that feeling. And you know who understands this as well as anyone? People say I'm nuts for thinking Sarah Palin has a future. But she can make people THINK they know her. And with every media put-down, she can paint herself as a survivor. And that's a billion dollar combination. Thursday, November 19, 2009 @ 9:03amWe need a game-changerThe health care debate moves to the Senate... -- more numbers, more abortion arguments. We need is a game-changer. And Steve Forbes, former Presidential candidate, has it. He's written a book called "How Capitalism Will Save Us" and it includes a truly dramatic health care reform idea: "Why in the world are we going to a 1935/1955 Socialist mindset in health care? Why can't we realize the glory of Henry Ford who took a toy for the rich 110 years ago. Cars were once the cost equivalence of $150,000? He even invented the assembly line and made the car affordable for every working person. Why can't we do that in health care?" He's got a point. When I had my operation a few weeks ago, they had to lift me from the bed to the gurney, then manually push me to the operating room. Henry Ford wouldn't have done that. He'd have had the gurney right there in the lobby, where a nurse would hook it to a cable: -- They pull you past the insurance bay, put the O-K stamp on your arm, then into the specially-chilled stripping chamber to remove your clothes, into the sedation bay for the propofol, the disinfectant spray-down, then into the cutting room for the incision, surgeon snaps in a standardized part, the stitchers sew you together, the finishing room which dresses you, attaches a tube so you can pee without slowing down the line, then slaps on a sticker showing when your next maintenance is due. Then they rivet a name plate to your forehead and unhook you on the loading dock for just-in-time pick up by your family. Fast, efficient, and completely socialism-free. And NEVER a second sticker. Although I have this funny lump which feels a little like a wrench. Wednesday, November 18, 2009 @ 8:12amWill no one rid us of this annoying Constitution!
The attorney general is sticking to his decision to try 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Muhammad in New York. But people are worried: Will it will make New York a target. Could some clever defense lawyer get him off on a technicality. Here's the latest CBS poll: "54-percent - most Americans - think that suspected terrorist should be tried in a closed military court." Rudy Giuliani agrees: "If there was no other choice and they had to be tried in New York, of course they should be tried in New York. But the reality is there is another choice." Actually -- why have a trial at all! We all know he did it! He himself has admitted it. And listen to what the President said: "I don't think it will be offensive at all when he is convicted and the death penalty is applied to him." See? Why try him! The President already has him convicted! Let's just cut to the execution! Well, because once again we have come face to face with that nagging document called the Constitution, a document FULL of legal rights that apply not just to the good guys, but to the BAD guys. Apparently the founders of this country were actually less afraid of bad guys than they were of a powerful government. Remember the tea parties? Warning us that health care reform is about to drag us into goose stepping communism? And yet when it comes how we go about actually EXECUTING someone, we're going to trust the government to decide in secret? And as for the trial being a target -- if America is REALLY worried about terrorists making NY a target, why are we building a gigantic new skyscraper at ground zero? Tuesday, November 17, 2009 @ 8:19amFacebook friends foreverPresident Obama promises China we will never Unfriend them: "China's partnership has proved critical in our effort to pull ourselves out of the worst recession in generations." China now holds about 24% of US Treasury securities, and about 100% of all cheap Christmas toys. But for those who like to say they OWN us... Let me point out that they couldn't un-friend US EITHER, even if they wanted to. Because Americans have one skill that can't be replaced. Something no other nation can do on the scope that we do it, and that is -- BUY CRAP we don't need. You might say, Dave, that's easy -- but it's not. It's taken us YEARS to learn. My parents generation bought stuff because they needed it. When they bought a new refrigerator, it was to replace the one made of wood. When they bought a TV, it was because the radio wouldn't pick up I Love Lucy. MY generation had to teach ourselves to buy new stuff to replace things -- that were working perfectly. -- To buy a TV not because the old one broke, but because you can't appreciate the Mentalist unless you have five speakers. To buy a new microwave because the old one didn't automatically sense what kind of food you just put into it which forced you know what it was you were about to eat. So yes, the Chinese may make noises like they might stop lending us money -- but the fact is, they can't quit us, because the sex is just too good. "Given that interconnection I do not believe that one county's success must come at the expense of another." That's what I meant to say. Monday, November 16, 2009 @ 8:13amWhat is Sarah Palin thinking!Sarah Palin's Going Rogue is finally here. And when a politician releases a first book, could she be thinking Oval Office? "She's a joke, the idea that this potential talk show host is considered seriously for the republican nomination - believe me it will never happen. Republican primary voters are just not going to elect a talk show host." "One of the most substantive policy books I've read." And then there's former second daughter and world-class twitterer Liz Cheney who says people like David Brooks are sexist: "She was our vice presidential nominee in 2008, and I think that it would be nothing short of sexist to say that simply she's not a serious candidate. Once you've been the vice-presidential nominee you are a serious candidate." Here's what I think: the people who relate to Sarah Palin relate not in spite of the jokes, but BECAUSE of them. WE all know how it feels to be ridiculed by people who think they're smarter than you. But no one knows it better than women who've worked in an office run by men. Many women may not support Palin's politics, but when she talks about the McCain campaign telling her to shut up, they know exactly what she means. Palin 2012 a crazy idea? It sets up a contest between the smartest man in the room, and the woman who's tired of being ridiculed. And you know what she's thinking? Bring it on. Sunday, November 15, 2009 @ 9:23amAre the aliens already among us?Carrie Prejean -- who lost her crown as Miss California for taking a strong Christian stand against gay marriage -- is on her book tour. And it went very well with Sean Hannity: "This is you sending video of yourself to your boyfriend." "Right. I was all by myself." "A boyfriend you love?" "Right. And no one was in the room with me. I was not having sex with anybody." She explains to Sean the sex tape that was recently leaked was one of those perfectly normal sex tapes, embarrassing but understandable. But it did not go so well on Larry King: "I'm sure that you, Carrie, have got great gay friends that helped you. What would you give them as advice if they wanted to get married?" "Did you hear the question Carrie? You took the mic off. If you put the mic on we can hear you." "Yeah, I think you are being extremely inappropriate right now and I'm about to leave your show." Now why would you go on a book tour, promoting a book which only exists because you took a stand on gay marriage, and walk off during a question about gay marriage? And then it came to me -- I've seen this before: "Just be sure not to ask us anything that would paint us in a negative light." It's another scene from V -- the sci-fi series! She's like Anna, the beautiful mini-skirted alien who doesn't want any negative questions: "I'm a journalist. It's my job to ask questions, even if they make the other person uncomfortable." "That was not my understanding." "I'm afraid I don't have a choice." "This interview is now canceled." I'm telling you, they're already among us! Friday, November 13, 2009 @ 7:51amWe know the how, but not the whyThe King County Prosecutor said yesterday in announcing the charges against Christopher Monfort that we know the how -- we know how he allegedly set the bombs and how he killed officer Brenton -- but we don't know why. We know he was out to get cops any way he could. But what exactly set him off remains a mystery. I read the interview with Monfort's mother in the Seattle Times: he was an only child who was into scouts, baseball, football, later scuba diving, painting -- all sounds completely normal. Why did he develop his hatred of authority? No idea. Now we have this arsonist -- a person of interest arrested near the Shoreline fire (he moved up the street once the heat was on in Greenwood?) And even before we know his name, we have a profile of him (thanks to the coincidence of the International Arson Investigators holding their conference here -- you'll never forget this convention!) An angry young white male, maybe a sex offender, who's been in jail before. We'll see. But what's the "why?" There's this theory that the wackos move west. The jet stream may blow to the east, but theory is that historically in America the wacko stream blows west -- as the misfits moved from town to town, they finally bumped up against Puget Sound, and so a lot of wacko DNA has ended up here, fueling these all-too-frequent eruptions of anarchy. Maybe one of them is listening, so let me just point something out. I know your DNA is screaming at you to lash out. But if you play out your hatred for the cops by shooting cops -- you're just gonna get more cops! The rest of us will demand it! If you're the angry-white-male-undereducated arsonist who's been in jail before and wants revenge -- do you think setting fires is somehow going to make us want to build FEWER jail cells? Think about it. And then -- buy a ticket to go back east. Thursday, November 12, 2009 @ 8:19amI've changed my mind about "V""V" is the new sci-fi series about flying saucers coming to earth and offering universal health care. But before I get to that -- an update on the President's Afghanistan decision: he still hasn't made one. Just as reporters were picking up leaks that he HAD made one, he got a prickly message from his Ambassador in Afghanistan, who was also once the top military commander there, which I'm guessing said you'd have to be INSANE to send in 40,000 more troops, because the government is corrupt, the elections were a sham, and the people hate us enough as it is. I also see that the troop plan would cost as much as 50 billion dollars, whereas Afghanistan's entire GDP is only 22 billion. Which means it would be cheaper to keep the troops at home, and just put every man, woman, and child on the US payroll. You would still have enough left to buy up the ENTIRE poppy crop, thereby de-funding the terrorists without firing a shot. Which brings me to "V" -- the story about the alien Visitors with big promises: Think about it -- this high-tech civilization from far away -- hovering over the cities, promising protection with superior technology/ Promising peace. ...promising peace but then, as we saw in Tuesday's episode, sending out these killer drones to vaporize the insurgent earthlings who don't want alien domination even if it DOES mean free health care with no co-pays. What if the analogy ... is Afghanistan! What if the flying saucers ... are us. 1
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Audio Highlights
Dave's Photo Galleries
Seattle gardenDaniel Sparler and Jeff Schouten are neighbors with Seattle's Seward Park. Seattle Parks and Recreation argue their property encroaches on park land and they must remove certain constructed improvements. 
Your flag picturesWe'd like to document the spirit of patriotism by posting your flag pictures. 
Dave at the RNCDave Ross from the Republican National Convention. 
Dave at the DNCA look at the world of the Democratic Convention through Ross colored glasses. 
Hiking in Glacier National ParkDave goes hiking on his vacation. 
Photos: Dave's 30th anniversaryRelive some of Dave's most memorable moments. |
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