On Monday, the women continued their “Hot Topics” by delving into whether or not progress has been made for people of color in the United States. I apologize for their lack of clarity but really, I have no control over it...

Whoopi asked whether or not, 40 years after Martin Luther King’s death, there are still little things that people need to talk about?

BW: Obama has talked about race the most- Barack Obama, when he was talking about Rev. Wright and where he said he really disagreed with him is that there has been so much progress all over the country…there was a statement that MLK said in 1967 “I’m sorry to have to say that the vast majority of white Americans are racist either consciously or unconsciously.”  Do you think that is still true?

Joy thinks we’ve made progress.

EH puts on her deep thinking face and says that people just hide it better now and wonders if maybe that’s worse…

If all that has been published about the Jena situation is accurate, all in America should be outraged. A quick note to SS: there is a least a decent possibility that some if not much of what she has heard about the Jena, LA events were distorted by activists whose goal is to promote racial conflict.  Perhaps she should read the article at http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/1024/p09s01-coop.html to learn there may be more to the Jena story than she knows…

Whoopi acknowledges that progress has been made but then expresses concern about the ongoing economic challenges in the black community and “There is still a lot of problems that we need to deal with to balance it out.”

How exactly would she propose we balance out the economic problems in the Black community? Are these issues Whoopi alludes to really connected to race or are they socio-economic realities faced by people of all races? There are far too many young people of all races moving towards adulthood whose parents failed them.  Perhaps their parents were too young, or uneducated, or connected to or influenced by a drug culture. Perhaps their parents demonstrated a limited desire to lead a “better” life. There is a growing segment of our society that accepts living conditions that most of us wouldn’t dream of tolerating. There are even those people who acknowledge their choices are counterproductive to living a healthy, stable life but decide to accept the consequences of those decisions. Many of these people face the ongoning challenges related to a fractured familial support system.

What can we do to stop young people of all races from making choices that almost guarantee they will live a life of poverty?  What can we do to ensure that young children of every race start school fed, ready to learn and well-rested? What can we do to ensure that parents living in poverty do all they can to offer their children support at home and access to the tools, often available through schools, social service agencies and non-profit groups, to become successful adults? What can we do to ensure that all of our daughters grow up to believe they deserve to be loved and respected? To ensure they will have the strength to recognize and turn away from all who would do them any harm? How can we ensure that our sons grow up to believe in their ability to contribute to society and their families? To believe that they are important? That they must respect their neighbors, their girlfriends, their wives, their children?

The truth is we cannot force people to make good decisions and society in general has made the decision to not hold parents accountable for the educational, environmental and developmental neglect of their children. As long as individuals are allowed, in fact encouraged by a patronizing government system, to behave in ways that harm children there will be no solution to these problems.

Whoopi seems to suggest that the government needs to make amends. Neither governments nor communities build strong families.  Strong people create strong families. Strong families work to build strong communities. We have turned our system upside down and we need to begin to right it again.

Whoopi then says: And I think the idea that people are finally able to say, without getting jumped, “yes this is how I feel about x, y and z” that’s a huge leap to me and for that I am grateful to Barack Obama.

Sherri chimes in with: Martin Luther King, they called him a rabble rouser too.

She then quotes him, , saying “And you know what: a nation that put as many Japanese in a concentration camp as they did in the 40s will put Black people in a concentration camp and I am not interested in any concentration camp. I’ve been on a reservation too long now.”

Although I haven’t found this quote anywhere but in a LA Times story and a couple of blogs, it seems that, if he spoke these lines, they were spoken towards the end of his life, in a sermon. My guess is that one of her assistants forwarded her the LATimes article http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-dyson4apr04,0,1840793.story  or one of the 2 blog posts that quoted it.  She, in an effort to be a good talking head, copied it onto her little card and read it dutifully… It seems that putting forth this line, compared to the endless quotes http://www.quotationspage.com/quotes/Martin_Luther_King_Jr.   (click here for some examples) about nonviolence and the rejection of anger and hate, to justify the years of hate spewed by Wright is very disrespectful of Martin Luther King, Jr.

Walters is unbelievable. After Whoopi raises a question about whether or not Condoleezza Rice would be a possibility as a VP candidate, Barbara demonstrates her ignorance:

BW: Let’s face it- they get a Black and a woman, alright- if they have her as a Vice President. I think that’s the major thing. Other things he has to worry about- will the vice president bring a particular state? You know that’s very important. Will it bring a more conservative point of view because McCain needs to get that conservative vote? But if you talk about Condoleezza and you have a Black candidate and you have a female candidate on the democratic side you get two for one (she pounds the table for emphasis)

Is BW so out of touch that she is oblivious to the efforts of many individuals and groups who tried to convince Dr. Rice to run for the presidency? These efforts began long before Obama was on the scene running against Clinton. These efforts began because anyone who has ever actually listened to Rice speak, or read her work, realizes her potential to lead has not yet been realized.

This woman, who has been vilified by liberals for being conservative while Black, is dismissed by the likes of the far less educated women of the View. 

In short, Obama has found success for a simple reason: The Democratic Party decided in 2004 to push Obama as a national candidate. While a relative unknown, he was given an incredible opportunity to speak at the national convention, setting him up for his Senate run in 2006.  His speech opened the floodgates for donations and media attention. Obama had not earned that speaking slot- he was selected because those in power thought he would appeal to the Democratic audience.  That’s politics.

Hillary Clinton would have never been elected to the Senate if she were not the wife of Bill Clinton. That is reality.

If you added the accomplishments of Clinton and Obama together and then doubled them, they still wouldn’t equal those of Condoleezza Rice before she became the Secretary of State.  Rice did not rise to power because of her race- she built a career that did not culminate in being a law professor- she was Stanford University’s Provost for six years and oversaw a budget of $1.5 billion and 1400 faculty members. (Let us not pretend either that Stanford University is a conservative institution or that Rice could have successfully handled this position without an amazing amount of talent.)

Neither H. Clinton nor Obama have any executive experience or achieved any accomplishments that seem worthy of the most important job in the world. How sad that in the United States, today, nearly half of our country seems unable to tell the difference between merit and media hype…

Joy then, in her infinite wisdom throws out: What is the Ku Klux Klan going to do in this election?

Whoopi- trying to sound intellectual asserts that she can’t understand why they would do this because “It would be quite transparent.”

Elisabeth tries to correct the record: Don’t shortchange her either in terms of qualifications.  She’s been a woman who is incredibly powerful and I’m sure has a lot of information than maybe another candidate would in terms of the Democratic, I mean Republican, Vice Presidential seat. She’s been there, I mean look, if you’re going to take away from her qualifications I don’t think you can just say “It’s good because you would have a Black person and a woman.”

A brief biography of Dr. Rice- who has a master’s degree from Notre Dame and her Ph.D. from the University of Denver- can be found by clicking here.

I now remember why I started to blog on these people’s “Views” and am sorry I stopped…

The View is back from summer break and today, so am I .  Catching up on Mon and Tues-

Monday was a “book” show with Whoopi and Sherri Shepherd guest hosting

Hot topics: 

They talked and talked and talked about dieting…

Shepherd is going on the no chewing for 21 days and weekly colonics- really is this what they have come to?

Al Gore’s kid got picked up going 100 mph.  Joy referred to him as “a little pest” but they did note at least he was driving a Prius...

Then they chose to tread where no ignorant liberal should dare to go:

******

Joy notes: Paris got more time than Scooter Libby
Whoopi: Don’t get me started on Scooter
Elisabeth: Now wait a minute
Joy: One of them lies under oath and goes free the other one drives drunk a couple of times but doesn’t hurt anybody
E: Did he lie under oath or did he not remember something about a crime that he didn’t even commit?
Joy: Oh, oh, oh okay
Whoopi: But here’s the real question- will we ever actually get the information because Scooter is not going to say where he got that information from and you know if it’s the big guy you know he’s definitely not going to say it. You know what happens top people who talk- look at that old man- went huntin’ with him (shaking her head and her pointer finger) I’m just sayin’…

*********

Does Whoopi not read the papers? Newsflash for her: There is no missing information.  Valerie Plame was not an undercover agent.  Libby was not even charged with a crime in relation to Plame.  The prosecutor knew before he even interviewed Libby that Libby did not leak anything- he knew the leaker was Dick Armitage. (Click here for MSNBC story)

The prosecutor proceeded to interview Libby repeatedly, for no legal reason. Eventually, Libby was caught up in not remembering trivial details that were irrelevant to the matter because there was no issue to investigate. Libby couldn’t remember things then did remember things as he was repeatedly questioned but then, because of his change in answers he was accused of committing perjury.

Lord help any person interviewed by the FBI on multiple occasions and also brought before a grand jury repeatedly.  If  a prosecutor wants to manufacture a perjury charge, just keep interviewing the person until some little remembrance varies slightly and it is done.

I wonder what Whoopi thinks about the “I did not have sexual relations…” statement that was not an “I can’t remember” but a straight lie…  Or of Hillary’s assertion that a “right wing conspiracy” was to blame for her poor innocent, loyal, faithful husband’s plight when she knew that he was an adulterous man-whore.  (If she didn’t know he was lying to the country, how could she ever be fit to be President? If she knew he was lying, their cover-up cost the taxpayers untold millions of dollars and international embarrassment.  What patriots!)

In  terms of the VP accidental shooting of a long time friend, where was I when it was determined that Cheney shot the old man because he has spoken about an issue? Silly me, I thought it was an accident.

How irresponsible for Whoopi to imply that the accident was an intentional act on the part of the Vice President.  She may not like him but she shouldn’t lie about him.

More recap to come...

Commentary on June 20th show, continued

Bloomberg has left the Republican Party.

Where is Joy’s talk about Hookerville when we need it…

First he was a Democrat wanting to run for mayor in New York but recognizing that there were too many Dems in the race for him to break out of the pack. He switched parties to get himself in the race, which he ultimately won; partly because he had so much money to throw at the election he could have outspent anyone but Bill Gates.

Bloomberg spent $74 million dollars to buy the 2001 election and $66 million to buy the 2005 election. Billionaires get to avoid playing by the rules because they use their own money to get elected.

His switch is not ideological, it is practical.

The women discuss whether or not he will run for President. That has to be his motivation here. They recognize his ability pay his own way. Bloomberg wants to play- his ego is driving him and his money is the fuel.

He has a very tall girlfriend who is in banking. BW wonders whether they would need to get married. Elisabeth points out she could be the First (legitimate) Girlfriend. Sort of funny…

The truth about Bloomberg: No self-respecting Republican outside of New York would believe he is conservative. The Democrats in the pool don’t want to swim with him - he has Republican cooties.

That leaves the Independents- the people with no party for a variety of reasons.

Switching offers him a ticket to the game. His money will help him be a contender.

Hookerville. Definitely Hookerville…

commentary on the June 20 show

Gayle King guest hosted

They opened with a discussion of the Clinton spoof on the Sopranos: Hillary as Tony? She orders Bill carrots? Chelsea is parallel parking? Who did their makeup? Couldn’t their friends in Hollywood have given them some acting tips?

The women all think she was very clever. I wondered who she has had whacked…

Celine Dion wrote the song that will be Hillary’s campaign song so Joy wonders if this matters. Should the song be by an American?

***

Joy asks: Who is more American than Celine?”

***

Let’s see: Every American.

BW moves on to the “I’ve got a crush on Obama” song being viewed on YouTube. They play a clip and then talk about the woman, Amber Lee, who was hired to sing the song.

Apparently the woman’s name reminds Joy of a porn name. Because the woman has said she doesn’t know who she is going to vote for in the election Joy says

***
Joy: You know I read she’s not even going to vote for him. She doesn’t know yet who she’s voting for, you now what I mean? That’s real hookerville.

***

The song was not written by the bimbette in the video- she was hired to lip sing to it and dance around. The song was written by Ben Relles an ad guy who used the video to launch his website barelypolitical.com. It seems as though his intentions are to publicize political videos that show some skin- get it: BARELY political…

I think someone with musical ability should write a song with lyrics about Crushing Obama: A GI Joe, maybe looking like Romney, should pummel a Ken like Obama into the ground. If only I had the lyric writing ability to do it.

Just what this country needs, people voting for President based on which song had the cutest actress dancing around in trampy clothes…

Rosie Update:

Rosie posted a home made movie on her blog on Friday, June 15th, Daytime Emmy night.  I am guessing she was celebrating the View's loss on the one hand and wishing they had won so she could take credit on the other.

The intro shot of the video is of Elisabeth sporting a T-shirt with the words "Be Ugly" but the message is much louder.  (click here to see Rosie's movie)

Clearly, Rosie had access to many clips of Elisabeth but chose this one for a reason- she believes Elisabeth is an ugly, disloyal person.

Her attempts to be cute to her followers are really a pathetic example of her lack of class. Behavior like this will only affirm the opinions of those who see Rosie as a sad, angry figure.
 
Rosie's need to continue the jabs is indicative of her state of mind.  She really should spend some time alone, thinking about where she wants to go with her life and her relationships.  She sets a poor example for her children when she allows her mental health issues to control her.

I appreciate Elisabeth's efforts to say only positive things about Rosie since the split screen.  I hope Rosie can move in the same direction.

Commentary on June 19^th Continued

After the break, they resume their talk with Barbara leading a discussion of the Forbes lists about Presidential candidates: Hillary and Gore are the most boring. The creepiest: Newt, HRod, Gore, Romney and McCain. Thompson is the least creepy.

Joy thinks Thompson is the most creepy because he has jowls. Elisabeth thinks Kucinich is the creepiest but Joy counters he isn’t creepy, he is just short. To ease Barbara’s confusion about what creepy actually means- Elisabeth explains bears are scary and lizards are creepy.

Barbara seems shocked that Elisabeth would equate Hillary and Al Gore to lizards.

Back to Thompson- Parker tries to explain why people like Thompson- they watch “Law and Order” and he does a good job. The third of the people that might think he is creepy would never vote for a conservative so he shouldn’t waste his time on them.

I wish all conservatives would understand this point. Sacrificing principle to appease your foe doesn’t get you anywhere but further away from your goals.

In the middle of this discussion, Joy again patronizes Parker with the comment:

***

Joy: Down girl, down

***

It’s really not funny. Joy has had enough and goes on a mini-rant:

***

Joy: You know what Star? 70% of Americans want the war in Iraq to end. 70% of Americans want insurance health care to be universal. We’re going to be talking to Michael Moore all about health care in this country. These are the issues that Americans care about. They don’t care if they are creepy. They don’t even care of they believe in the Bible these days.

EH: That’s not true. 91% of voters want someone that has a sense of faith or a greater being

Joy: If I am starving I don’t care. I want food. And if I am getting shot at in Iraq I want that to be over before I talk about anything else.

***

First- there is no way that 70% of Americans want the Iraq war to end with American soldiers returning to the U.S. with their proverbial tails between their legs. The American people would like to see a victory over the insurgency in Iraq and a strong and stable Iraqi government as soon as possible.

Second. There is no way that 70% of Americans want universal health care. Many Americans agree there are m any reforms needed to streamline healthcare delivery in the U.S. but implementing the current government healthcare programs on a scale 10 times the size should horrify every taxpaying citizen in the United States.

They go on to discuss the intent of the Framers to have three branches of government each checking the other. Parker understands how it is supposed to work. Barbara and Joy are clearly so clueless about the structure of our government it is actually embarrassing. At some point the producers should just have a show to discuss government with the hosts and the audience.

***

Joy: This administration has taken over the executive, the legislative and the judicial branches of government. We do not have three

EH: Wait a minute- did they take over or did the individual people in the country elect them?

***

Silly me- I missed the coup d’etat!

Hard to believe but it does get worse:

***

Joy: The Alberto Gonzales case shows you that a lot of this is coming from the White House and it’s got to do with his will.

***

Joy, please, please, please. You need to understand that when George Bush was elected President, he was supposed to take over the Executive Branch. That is what a President does.

Next, the Legislative Branch is being run by Pelosi and Reid. These two DEMOCRATS might be a little shocked to learn that Bush is their puppeteer.

Finally, while I know it is confusing to have the Attorney General serve in the Executive Branch, he does. Gonzales is not a part of the judicial branch. You can stop worrying about it.

I think Joy took lessons in government from Rosie when she was there because Joy is now recycling Rosie’s positions.

Barbara can’t take the conflict so she stepped in to change the subject to Angelina Jolie…

June 19, 2007

Star Parker guest hosted. After a week of boring, the show finally has some substance.

***

What an intro by BW: This is a woman who had 4 abortions, stole, did drugs, was on welfare is now a conservative, heads a conservative think tank. How did you turn your life around? That is quite a (unintelligible)
SP: I needed a lot of help.

****

She explains some about her past and tried to explain that the pressure to live the life she had been leading was great:

***

SP: In our community you are not supposed to mainstream your life

***

She explained how she tried to earn money to supplement her welfare check but the people she approached wouldn’t pay her under the table. They challenged her to turn her life around and encouraged her to go to church with them until she finally agreed:

Funny comment by Parker:

***

SP: Had I known a lawyer from the ACLU I may have sued them for religious harassment but I didn’t known any lawyer so I ended up at their church

***

As they try to have a serious discussion about Parker’s conversion to Christianity, Joy has to break in with a joke:

***

Joy: Being born once was enough for me. What does it mean to be born again? Does it hurt?

***

This show was an opportunity for Parker to offer her experiences as a Black woman in America as an example of how a woman can turn her life around. Joy’s bias against evangelical Christians is painfully obvious at times like this. She really can not imagine how a woman with Parker’s background could possibly be a conservative. It is as though the slowly turning wheels are saying to her- “she’s been brainwashed” over and over again.

Parker, being very tolerant of the patronizing tone, says:

***

SP: Yes, it does hurt. You have to change your world view.

***

Parker goes on to explain, in terms that Joy might understand, how she came to believe what she does and how she lives her life making choices every day to do the right thing. She sees the tragedies in her life as a gift from God, and that her suffering will lead her to other opportunities.

When asked by Barbara if she was conservative Parker explains she is extremely conservative. Joy then has to throw out the most controversial issue she can:

***

Joy: What do you think about gay marriage? That’s a family value- when two people love each other they get married
SP: That’s not a family value. That’s not what family is. When you talk about
Joy: Why not?
SP: lets take biblical world view versus secular world view: That’s probably the struggle we have in our society today. Those that come from the biblical world view say “I believe that these 10 things I should try to live up to” well when it says “Honor your father and your mother” he’s talking about a household here. When Jesus said “For this reason a man leaves his father and mother and cleaves to his wife” we’re talking about family development and the people who come from a biblical world view have to take that seriously.
Joy: There are things in the bible that

***
They all talk over each other

***
EH: That is something that I often times struggle with because I think okay the first law of the Bible is “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, love your neighbor as yourself.” Love is the ultimate I think law in terms of the Bible itself so I see that is loving another person truly for who they are- I don’t see it as anything better than that.
SP: That is New Testament

***

Then they all talk over each other so Barbara takes over and moves on to a different subject, abortion:

***

BW: Do you think women have the right to choice?
SP: No and I believe that we have done a disservice to them not to tell them their full choice. I work with Carenet and
Joy, interrupting before Parker can explain her position: How about birth control? How do you feel about that?
SP: No-
Joy again interrupting her: That’s not allowed either
SP: Allowed? What does that mean? We were talking about me and my personal choices and a biblical world view does not include birth control according to the way that I interpret
EH: Ideally
SP: Ideally because you are to be fruitful and multiply n the context of marriage

***

They all talk over each other so Barbara again changes the subject:

***

BW: Do you believe in evolution?
SP: Do I believe in evolution, like did we evolve from apes? How can I believe that when I believe scripture that says God created? Why would I believe evolution?
Joy: People say they can believe in both. I have heard that from many people
SP: I am thinking now how in the world do you do that? If you really sat this is my world view this is what I am going to do- This is my faith. Of course I won’t know until I cross over
BW: So do you think the world is 5000 years old?
SP: I haven’t thought about adding it up. I know one thing- there is a scripture that says “A day is like a thousand years and a thousand years is like a day” so I think that God has time that we can’t even relate to. I know another thing that when he thinks about our lives he thinks about our lives over our lifetime not just one little part of it So you know there are issues that we all work through but once you make the decision that

***

They talk over each other and then Joy with a deep thought:

***

Joy: It’s interesting that you went from one extreme to the other- there’s no middle ground
SP: Who says they’re both extremes? There isn’t middle ground for people that choose
EH: It’s interesting that when you talk about the whole abstinence thing I think that’s a huge hot button with most people because you think about practically speaking alone, abstinence works better than anything else- 100% secure right so why won’t people take that and say this works?
SP: They don’t want to do it That’s why- it’s hard
Joy: But wait a minute- if you’re abstinent, according to the Bible, you can’t even masturbate. Now I don’t understand that at all. If you’re gonna be abstinent, at least love yourself.

***

The conversation begins to take a turn but Parker gets back on track:

***

SP: Sex ed works. When we started sex ed in our schools 20% of kids were sexually active. Today they’re at 50%. You keep this sex ed stuff up and eventually 100 % will be sexually active and the next thing you know they’re gonna be at the junior high
Joy: So ignorance is bliss according to you
SP: No ignorance is about
Joy: According to what you’re saying it is

***

Barbara then breaks in because Parker is being put in the hot seat repeatedly

Parker explains people can read about her life and views in her two books: “Pimps, Whores and Welfare Brats” and “Uncle Sam’s Plantation” and furthers tries to make Joy understand that the problem facing people today is the politicization of the issues they are talking about.

She makes a good point- there used to be right and wrong. Then people began to push the limits of morality. When others pushed back questioning those decisions, the Democratic Party began the call to arms. Conservatives, trying to slow the slide towards immorality became labeled as judgmental, biased…

If something is morally wrong, it is wrong. No amount of political pressure, no Supreme Court decision and no law can change the wrongness of an act.

Commentary on June 18th

Margaret Cho guest hosted.

First- who dresses these people- It is unbelievable some of the getups they come up with.  Joy had Cho show everyone her outfit- really, she shouldn't have...

The Hot Topics started out not so hot again today.

Cho compliments Joy on what a great stand-up she is and then promotes the True Colors Tour to benefit Human Rights. Cho talks about missing her dogs more than her husband and then explains she wishes they had dog prostitutes...

Onto the Emmys: Cho asked if they won.  I think she really had no idea, which is interesting because one would think if you were guest hosting on the show, you might brush up on it just a little.  Barbara then explained that they lost to Ellen Degeneres in both categories.

***
BW: We are a very controversial show, evidently.
Joy: We are a very controversial show.  People feel they hate us sometimes.

***

Joy has a theory about why they don’t win: there is always at least one of them the judges don’t like. Barbara makes a good point- maybe the judges don’t like any of them. She also thinks it’s easier to vote for one person than it is to vote for four people.

Who knows why they didn’t win again? Maybe they should work harder to actually discuss real issues in a challenging manner.

The show did win for hair and makeup.

Then they moved onto Barbara's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. A lot of people were there. Joy cracked a joke about the mayor of Munchkin Land- Johnny Grant- giving her the award. I don't get the joke (Click here for his bio) Is he short?

Brief talk about how people can't tell the difference between any of the Asian actresses.  If people can't tell the difference between Cho and Lucy Liu or Lisa Ling then I don't know what to tell you...

After the break, BW raised the issue of body image and Cho's history of weight loss to play herself. Some discussion about growing issues related to bulimia, binging and the new diet pill Alli that can cause diarrhea.

From there we go to the hot topic of some new reality bachelor show "The Age of Love" in which a tennis star- ranked 114th in the world- is going to choose between a bunch of women. The twist in this show: the bachelor didn't know he would be dating women in their 40s.  The 40 year olds didn't know they would be competing against 20 year olds and the 20 year olds are happy because they think that half the women aren't really competition anyway.  These young women ought to hope their bodies hold out because in the end, their ability to engage in meaningful conversation will far outweigh the importance of their looks.

Who is kidding who here? This sort of "reality" tv has nothing to do with reality.  What a waste of air time. I would have expected more from the guy who is married to Kelly Ripa but...

After talking about Barbara's star during the Hot Topics segment, they now spend an entire segment on it. They showed a clip of her giving her acceptance speech: "To me this award is an Emmy, an Oscar and a Tony all in one.  I will walk a little taller and prouder from this day on. Thank all of you."
 
After the ceremony, they showed Elizabeth sporting a microphone at a party at Wolfgang Puck. Kathy and Nicki Hilton were there, missing poor Paris, offering BW their congrats. She deserves kudos for her contributions to the industry. Congratulations to her.

Next topic.

Kyra Sedgwick came on to talk about her show.   She has been married to Kevin Bacon for almost 20 years and has a kid going off to college.  It was a really quick segment.  They talked about nothing of interest other than Sedgwick's belief that women get sexier as they get older. 

Experience and self-acceptance do contribute to a person's attractiveness.  A confident, intelligent woman has more to offer, across all areas of living, than a 20 year old bimbo.  The 20 year old bimbos should realize that a new crop of bimbos is always just behind them.  For men interested in a bimbo, age matters.  For men interested in finding a smart, interesting partner, bimbos are a joke. (Actually, bimbos are always a joke.)

Congrats to Sedgwick on her show and on her success in her personal life.  She and Bacon are exceptional in Hollywood.

Then they go on to Mario's Daytime Emmy Wrap-Up:

"Hello Losers!"

His first tip: in order to win the awards, you must be lesbian!  He may be right...

He moves on to their outfits- Elisabeth and Barbara are feminine and Joy in her pantsuit is moving in the right direction.  He then compares Ellen's outfit to Pinocchio and says: "I'm going to grow up someday and be a real boy." Very funny.  Something a straight person couldn't joke about. 

Ellen's speech talking about the View was a back-handed compliment.  She is going to start a segment called Hot Pockets because Hot Topics is so successful...

Mario pointing out that The View's win in hair and makeup should be taken with a grain of salt was hysterical- they beat out bald Dr. Phil's hairstylist...

Last weeks Thursday and Friday episodes were prerecorded so didn't touch on current issues.

Grace is getting potty trained, BW was getting her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and author Michael Smerconish talked about his book that came out one year ago.  Joy made a couple of gratuitous sex jokes about Monica...

On  Friday it was more of the same with the Hot Topics- dieting, pregnancy, eating during pregnancy and cleavage during pregnancy. Some brief discussion about Joy's sex life with Steve...

Jessica Alba was on- which only left me wishing the tabloids spent more time on her and less on the trio of tramps.  Alba seems bright and well-pulled together.  She has a stable family, a single boyfriend, six movies coming out and no obvious drug problem.  Why would she be a role model?

Then the women had on Grace Ann and Ted Koppel.  Grace Ann has a chronic respiratory condition that went undiagnosed because doctors didn't give her a simple breathing test.  She nearly died as a result.  She now works an advocate educating doctors and patients on the importance of pulmonary function testing for people over 40 with shortness of breath or a lingering cough.

I was surprised to see Ted Koppel behavior- he walked out on stage in front of his wife with no regard as to where she was.  As she brought up the rear, he was busy talking to Barbara.  He didn't even give her a hand up on the platform...

Maybe they should spice up the Friday shows by inviting a panel of four guest hosts to duke it out rather than pre-record the episodes on Wednesday.  It could be an interesting experiment.

 Wednesday, June 13th, continued

Jacque Reid- brings up Gore and Joy responds:

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Joy: Al’s gonna win the Nobel prize and then he’s gonna come in- just watch

**

As I’ve noted before, I think he wants in and if he can get Obama to be the VP they would be very tough to beat.

Gore still thinks he was robbed and most Democrats agree. He has worked hard to reinvent his image.  Liberals and the media are all over global warming: Gore has become a sort of czar of environmental issues. 

This race is going to be fascinating...

Commentary, Wednesday, June 13^th

Jacque Reid guest hosts

BW opens Hot Topics with a discussion about Fred Thompson, who hasn’t announced his candidacy but already leads everyone but Giuliani. She explains we don’t know much about him yet, other than he is conservative. Joy with a one-liner:

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Joy: He wants to do everything a President can do- like start a war

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Joy is really funny- too bad for him Bush already started the war…

The women talk about how conservative he is: he’s opposed to Roe v. Wade and against gun control. BW noted he said that Hollywood seemed more real than DC. That is sad, if true.

The conversation deepened: Elisabeth is concerned that when a candidate has to appeal so much to the base to get the nomination, it can be difficult to then be attractive to the general population.

Joy gets the A+ for the day. As she explained, politics is “tricky” because you have to appeal to the base to get the nomination and then you have to sell your message to the general population. It is difficult.

They are right, it is difficult, especially if the voters of the base or of the general public begin to feel that the candidate is shifting positions for merely political reasons.  If the conservative candidates stick to their conservative beliefs, their positions are not hard to sell to the general public.  Sure, the far left won't buy in, but they wouldn't vote for a conservative, no matter what.  

The left leaning democrats are in the same position.  The difference is, far left positions are less palatable to the average person then are conservative positions.  Democrats can continue to delude themselves that the country has shifted left.  America is not a far left country.  There were a number of reasons Republicans got spanked last year but adherence to conservative positions was not really at the top of the list.

While candidates may wide ranging views on different issues, and may deviate from conservative values on certain issues of particular importance to themselves, we should all hope conservatives have faith in these principles, generally, and adhere to them throughout the primary season through the general election.

June 12th show cont

Barbara saved us from the incessant Couric talk by segueing to Hillary Clinton's support amongst certain women.

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BW: By the way talking about women we have always heard that women do not support Hillary Clinton but now it comes out that at the moment she has a 15 point lead over Obama in support from women.  They don't know what this means in the national election but it seems that women do like her. It seemed they also say that it is the less educated women who seem to like her more- maybe they appreciate her spirit or the fact that she (unintelligible) or her courage.  But that's interesting because we always hear they don't like her
Joy: The more education they have the less they like her
BW: Sort of
Joy: That's odd, isn't it
BW: The more educated they are the more they SEEM to like Obama
Joy: They like Obama more when they have more education

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This is really priceless:  Less educated women like Hillary better. Why could this be? Could it be that the very fact they are less educated means they have NO IDEA why they like her? As soon as women start learning facts about Hillary, the smart ones run the other way.  Is it because they are more likely to have a wandering husband or boyfriend so they have empathy for her?  If this were a poll of conservatives and a group liked a white person better, there would be questions about the tendency of the group to harbor racial bias. Could uneducated women be more racist than educated women?

They go on:
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EH: Obama matches up better against the Republicans then Hillary does in most polls.  He actually- against Guiliani- She actually falls by like 10% but Obama actually has a closer number to Guiliani in polling so Obama seems to be the better candidate versus a Republican.
BW: And then we have Fred Thompson who is getting closer to Guiliani who most people know from Law & Order television
Joy: Well we have to scrutinize Fred Thompson. We haven't been able to do that yet because he hasn't really said he's running

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I must have missed the scrutiny of Obama because he is running and rarely has Joy commented on his previous work.  I wonder if Joy has looked at his resume and compared it to previous Presidents.  Let's see: community organizer, civil rights attorney, eight years as a state senator and two years as a U.S. Senator.  Most of his experience has been as a follower- perfect for the committees in the Senate. No grown-up executive experience.  No leadership positions of any depth. Other than being the first African American to be President of the Law Review- he has no real noteworthy achievements on his bio page of his Senate website.

Pretty scary that a guy with as little experience as Obama can be in the top tier of candidates for President. 

Back to the View:

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EH: That's tactical, pretty much but um Hillary is doing an interesting thing trying to go after these women because I think that there are t 21 million under the age of 44 who are not registered to vote so if she can get them to actually- she's making it very easy for them to register- her campaign is so they can register them and actually get them to the polls, that 54% of women that showed up that last election will go up, probably in her favor.
BW: Whatever you feel about the parties, Democrat, or whatever you feel about the general stance, you've got to give this woman credit. She is the first woman running for president.  it is a courageous thing to do
EH: Absolutely
BW: She has a lot of knowledge. I mean you know.
Syler: She really is making a concerted effort to go after women of color because they are having a big pow wow and they are getting like 300 women of color to go out in their neighborhoods and bring these women- the women that she is doing very well with are women they call "women of needs"- the lower socio-economic groups that you were talking about.
Joy: Why? They think that she will help them in their real lives
Syler: Well like Barbara said, her spirit
Joy: Well because of her politics in New York state.  She is more interested in the lower echelons than she is in giving tax breaks to the rich.
EH: She also fails to understand sometimes in her politics: There is capitalism and if there is no profit there is going to be a lack of jobs so if you look in some of her policies or some of her idealistic policies they may not actually serve those who need to be working in those entry level jobs

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As Syler points out, Hillary needs to court the support of people who are uneducated about her, and often about politics, economics and social policy, if she hopes to be a viable contender for the Presidency.

Why is it worse to seek the support of a corporate executive who runs a business employing hundreds or thousands of people or the support of a self-employed business person who works a sixty hour week to keep the business afloat than it is to pander to uneducated women who are dependant upon the business person for their own survival? Elisabeth tried to make the point that these "women of need" need the capitalists to secure jobs and an income.  If these women don't work, then they need those people to pay taxes so they can be taken care of by the government.

Hillary seeks the support of these women through promoting false notions of classism and racism.  There is an undercurrent in democratic party positions that suggests that conservatives are racist.  (Last week Kathy Griffin stated that no black woman could be a Republican because the Republican agenda doesn't support Black women.)

Women of Need:  BEWARE!  Hillary does not want you to become educated because she knows you will be lost to her if you do.  She needs you to remain a woman of need.

Women of need must become women of action.  They must begin to take control of their own lives and teach their children to do the same.  They must teach their children to dream big and then help them take the steps to achieve those dreams.  Success will not come in the form of a government handout.  It will come as a result of their sweat, and their perseverance and it will be worth it.

Women of need, send Hillary home! Her product is toxic to you, your family and your community.

June 12 show cont.

Joy is really upset about this Couric thing.  Now she has to drag Bush into it:

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Joy: Yeah, but it is so sexist of Dan Rather. I mean every man on every channel talks about a smackdown and we're gonna go get them and Bush is the most macho.  Nobody really goes after them in this way. It's sexist.  They're not saying "Oh Bush is butching up the war" do they? No. They say "She's tarting up the news." I think that is very rude of Dan.
Syler: Yeah but one person said it. That's not (people talking over her)
BW: Go ahead
Syler: I was just going to say, one person has said that- it's Dan Rather. It's not like I think everybody is out there going "Yeah, Yeah, Yeah! She was tarting it up." 
BW: She's been working very hard.  She comes in everyday and she does her job. It is very hard to change viewing habits and it is mostly older people who watch the early evening news and whatever and I know what Katie's gone through- I went through some of it myself years ago when I first came to ABC as the first co-anchor of a network news program and it's tough and I give her great credit and she handles herself with charm
EH: And I think a statement like this is you know in a funny way he's trying to make a statement about Katie and in fact tells more about him than it does about her

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I would love to have heard Elisabeth ask Joy what news anchor, on Fox or any other news show, EVER either used the word smackdown in terms of the war and referred to Bush as macho?  She should have to name names on those points.  Every man on every channel? What men on which channels? RIDICULOUS!

I don't think Rather's statement says anything about Dan Rather- it makes an honest statement about news anchors.  They aren't necessarily deep thinkers but they do need to be able to listen to voices in their ears and talk at the same time (that leaves Joy out of the running) and be attractive.  Is that really shocking to Joy?

Surely Barbara and the others understand that it does not matter how hard someone works if they don't get results.  People who don't perform get let go.  I am surprised CBS has hung on to Couric this long.

While it is true that Dan Rather doesn't speak for the masses, his point should not be missed.  CBS thought Couric would be attractive to a larger segment of possible viewers and that her lighter, fluffier daytime approach to news would be appealing to that audience.  CBS was wrong, or at least wrong about Couric being the woman who could dumb it down, tart it up and bring in a larger audience.  Maybe the hiring folks at CBS should turn on Fox news and try to recruit some of the women from its news desk. Oh wait- he said they want to dumb it down? Go to CNN and start over...