Prediction: Ellen on Idol will help NBC more than it does FOX

This is my opinion of what I have seen so far of Ellen Degeneres' judging abilities on American Idol on FOX.

Like Mediaweek's Marc Berman and his Podcast co-hosts, I feel Ellen Degeneres does not belong on American Idol. I waited until the first same day taping episode which aired tonight to make a fair judgment about her judging abilities. Marc Berman and company are correct about that Ellen adds little or nothing to Idol. She seems to like repeat herself or just repeat what the other judges before her said. It is like she is trying too hard to think of something to say. She wasn't even funny for most of the program. The segment with Simon appearing to make unwanted advances at Ellen looked like a cheap Late Night Talk Show Segment.

Ellen did not seem to be able to connect with any of the contestant's stories other than what their ages were. Cowell made one good observation about one of the contestants being a glass blower and related it to how they performed the song. Ellen was probably there when the contestants rehearsed and still couldn't think of anything to say about the contestants based on their back stories.

I actually thought the most memorable joke of the night was not Ellen's but Simon Cowell's comment that Ryan Seacrest's first kiss was not memorable to either him or his girlfriend at the time. It is part of a longtime ongoing gag on Idol between Cowell and Seacrest to make fun about each other in rather harmless ways.

If some polling organization were to ask whether Ellen was a better Idol judge than Cowell, Randy Jackson, and Kara Dioguardi, I have a feeling she would get a high approval rating only because Cowell usually plays the brutal honest guy role, Jackson usually plays the unintelligible role because he uses so many words or terms that many people are not familiar with, and Kara is by far the least well known of the bunch, and because Ellen plays the Charity card and bribes people on her well known daytime talk show.

Ellen in my opinion was so poor as a judge that this might be the break NBC has been waiting for. NBC who has been doing great in the ratings due to the US dominance at the Vancouver Winter Games is going right back to 4th place and many of their shows will be DOA (which is a term Marc Berman uses which means Dead on Arrival). NBC is blowing their Post Olympics ratings boost with The Marriage Ref which is going to air immediately after the closing ceremonies of the Vancouver Games. The next night, Monday night, NBC is going with 2 Law and Orders and a Chuck episode. It doesn't take a Programming Expert like Marc Berman to know that Law and Order and Chuck are not going to attract the 20+ million viewers that they will have gotten the previous nights for the past 2 weeks before them when Chuck usually gets under 10 million viewers per episode.

But even with NBC's poor Post Olympic programming schedule, NBC could definately make gains on Tuesdays with Biggest Loser being consistently good for them and the uncertainty of how Ellen's performance on Idol will play out. I think Idol could lose viewers this year with Ellen's uninspired comments and hopefully they have a way to keep her from appearing on the show after this season. Only time will tell how Idol's ratings will hold up with Ellen as a judge.

Why no new posts in many days?

In one word, LIFE!!!

Recently a relative of mine who passed away not too long ago had their house broken into. What is really sad about the situation is that the Police seem to have no motivation to catch the thieves. What is even sadder is the fact that the thief or probably thieves live within a block or two of the theft. But the Police just can't go door to door and search every house in that neighborhood.

The place where this relative of mine lived is becoming more and more typical for that part of the state: Overrun with Hispanic families moving into the neighborhood who have young kids joining Hispanic gangs. I fear that my neighborhood will suffer the same fate as the Hispanics increase in population in this country.

What can be done about the problem? If I think of a viable solution I will let everyone know. Be back sometime soon I hope.

Anyone still remember the historic 2008 campaign season?

Sorry again for the long delay between posts.

There were 2 major shakeups since the last time I posted. One being Haiti, the other being Capitol Hill.

My opinion on Haiti is that we should pull out of the country very soon. President Obama promised the US would do everything it could to help out this country. But the President should have not made that kind of promise.

This is why:

Haiti has approximately 9 Million people which is only slightly more populated than the entire NYC area.

Despite President Bill Clinton's remarks that Haiti was in the best shape in its history before the quake, Haiti was still a poor country. Giving many kinds of aid financially is not going to make life better in the long term for these unfortunate people.

Haiti's population is already shrinking among the living. About 100 orphans are already headed to our country and what little they remember about Haiti will soon be a distant memory.

There are probably other reasons that I am not thinking about right now. Another troubling trend are the many people going down to Haiti from the US to do rescue and relief type operations in Haiti. I could understand doctors and food aid from Florida or Georgia, but why should people way up in Washington State help with this cause?

I am not trying to be mean. I am trying to be realistic here. We should only be providing immediate search and rescue support and first aid, and then help Haiti restore its medical facilities, and then just leave the country. Haitians need to ultimately rebuild their country themselves.

Now on to shakeup #2. Brown winning was kind of a surprise to me. I knew the country was beginning to turn on President Obama and the Democratic Majority in D.C. but didn't expect it to happen as soon as it did. The voters of Massachusetts have in my opinion let Washington D.C. know that NO ONE is SAFE whether you are Democrat or Republican.

I don't feel bad for President Obama, who made a silly arrogant remark about how Brown's truck may not take people where they want to go. Plus the fact the President had to campaign for Brown's opponent during the Haiti recovery and aid efforts. That was kind of classless for a President who campaigned on change.

The point I wanted to make is this: Is it just me or is President Obama acting like a completely different person with a temper now that Brown won in MA? I remember how people brought up McCain's temper, but I think Pres. Obama has now got Sen. McCain beat. So if the Press seemed to mention McCain's temper issue during the 2008 campaign season quite a bit, why is the Press not doing the same to President Obama who seems to be acting like an angry President in a matter of hours after losing a big key race?

Will somebody please point out what I am missing here?

Where is Harry Reid's "Teachable Moment"?

Sorry again for the long delay in between posts.

This time I want to talk about Senate majority leader Harry Reid from Nevada. Recently he made comments implying that President Obama does not have a typical African American sounding voice and that President Obama has light colored skin for an African American. I was paraphrasing in the previous sentence, but I feel it is for the most part an accurate paraphrase of what he said.

This incident reminded me of Professor Gates' incident several months ago. Remember Professor Gates? He was that African American Harvard Professor who was arrested because he came home and had to break into his own house because he accidentally locked himself out of his house. A passerby saw him and called the cops thinking someone was breaking into the house. When the police arrived Prof. Gates got angry and they arrested him because he was being very defensive and tried to accuse the police of being racist.

Because Gates was a friend of President Obama's, the President came to his defense. Then the President, Prof. Gates, and the officer who arrested him decided to have a meeting at the White House where they discussed the issue while they had some beers. This is what was then referred to as a "Teachable Moment."

So now back to Senator Reid from Nevada. The President quickly accepts Sen. Reid's apology as if nothing offensive was even said. Sadly the majority of Republicans had to criticize the Senator and President over the way President Obama and Senator Reid reacted to the situation. Sadly the majority of Democrats had to defend Sen. Reid, one of their fellow senators, on the Sunday morning talk shows. One news person on the Sunday morning talk shows even went so far to say that Sen. Reid's comments were NOT racist! Don't know what world that news reporter is living in.

My question to President Obama would be the following: "Where is Senator Reid's Teachable Moment?"

It all seems like politics as usual for President Obama who campaigned on change, as well as the Senators from both parties. However I have to side with the Republicans on this one. Referring to someone's skin color and dialect in the context that Sen. Reid did and using the word Negro and the fact this comment was made kind off the record are signs that this was definitely a racial comment by Senator Reid.

Anyone out there reading this want to let me know what they think?

NBC News already a disgrace in 2010 with "Today Show"

Happy New Year!!

I didn't expect to be blogging this soon into the new year, but NBC News has already proven in 2010 that they are constantly trying to fool the viewer into thinking their Today show is live or a same-day taping for us people in the Western United States.

I could tell within 15 minutes at most that today's show was taped some time ago and it is an insult for a news organization that people are supposed to be able to trust with facts, and not predictions presented as facts such as everyone celebrating on Times Square which was an event that NBC knew days ago in advance would happen.

I don't need to really go into details why I know for a fact that Jan. 1 episode of the Today was taped a previous day. Al Roker being on the Today Show in NY and then being on the Tournament of Roses Parade in CA the very same morning should be proof enough that the Jan. 1 Today show was taped. There is no possible way he could have gone 2500+ miles in under 4 hours. Plus the fact there was absolutely no mention on the Today Show that Roker had to catch a plane to California that morning.

I am sorry to say most critics who should be slamming NBC News for their decision of putting the Pre-taped Previous day Today Show and presenting it with the appearance of being live that day will probably turn a blind eye to this embarrassing event.

Where's Bill O'Reilly, Laura Ingrahm, Rush Limbaugh, Al Franken, Chris Matthews, etc. when you need them to point out and expose this shameful act by NBC News? And why should the morning's number one TV show have to pull a stunt like this in the first place? They are in little if any danger at all of falling to number two.

Hopefully 2010 will get better than this.

Last topic of 2009: President Obama's Disappointments

This is the last blog entry for 2009. I thought I would bring up a new topic. Lately I have noticed people referring to different parts of Washington State as being scary places such as Seattle, Spokane, Yakima, etc. The more I thought about it when people say a certain town or city is a scary place, the more I realize that the whole world is a scary place.

Will things be better in 2010? Not likely, since we currently have a President in Washington D.C., also referred to us Washingtonians as the "other Washington", who is making the former President look not so bad as we had previously thought.

President Barrack Hussein Obama, (yes I put the middle name in there to prove a point, not to suggest that he is a terrorist), has not really accomplished much in the first 11 months of the 48 months of his term.

Economy: Still bad.
Space Program: Going nowhere.
US Postal Service: Still in great debt.
Healthcare: Still no real improvements.
Education: Still high High School dropout rates and high teen pregnancy rates
Auto Industry: Saab brand going away even after the massive auto bailout speaks for itself.
Homeland Security: Still thinking inside the box rather than outside of it.
Free TV stations and many Newspapers: Future uncertain.

I could go on and on, but you get the point. Unfortunately if I had to help a grandchild do a report on what it was like during the term of President Barrack Hussein Obama, assuming I have any grandchilden someday, I would have to tell them the following:

President Barrack Hussein Obama was our first African American President. He was well liked by many celebrities such as Oprah Winfrey who had a popular talk show many years ago that ended in or around 2011. He was so well liked by the European crowd that he got a Nobel Peace Prize even though he did not really do anything to earn it.

I don't remember much about any of his policies because they were either defeated or were slightly altered versions of laws we already had. We had a few terrorist incidents here in the United States during his Presidency because the security members of his cabinet had bad intelligence and Obama did not focus enough on terrorism. So in other words he was a big disappointment as our first African American President.

OK, that isn't history yet, but if President Obama keeps on going down the road he is going down now it most likely will be history. The good news is that he can only serve the 2 terms as President. So if we can survive those 2 terms, we can then finally look forward to a President who might be actually able to get things done.

Happy New Year and see you in 2010!!

An Honest Review of Memorex PC Quick Wipes 50 Pack

Today I am going to review the Memorex PC Quick Wipes 50 Pack. These were available at Fred Meyer several months ago at a regular price around $3-$5 at the time. I purchased like 3 of them for about a dollar each when they were on sale. Since about that time I have not seen them at Fred Meyer since, but they most likely still sell these wipes at other retailers like Amazon.com, and Memorex still lists this product on their own website.

These wipes may work but there is a major issue with them

I bought these to clean off fingerprints and dust off of my monitor screen. They can also be used for other items such as PC keyboards, PC mice, and other Home/Office equipment. Memorex puts on the back label of the container, which you can't see without opening the product on the one I bought, that these wipes are NOT for cleaning CD and DVD discs since the wipes are pre-moistened.

These wipes worked pretty good ... for a while. Then they lose their moisture and they are completely dry after about a half a year even though I kept mine inside of the container with the lid closed. Memorex offers a 1 year warranty on this product but since Fred Meyer, where I bought these at, unlikely doesn't carry these anymore, I am just going to forget about the 1 year warranty and just try to find some way to use them before they lose their moisture.

Verdict

Unless you are buying these with the intention of using all 50 wipes within a couple of days, I would not recommend buying this product. Fred Meyer was probably wise to have discontinued this product from their electronics department. Go to Amazon.com and look this product up and you will see a couple of negative reviews on this product. If you want something to clean your computer and office equipment I would recommend looking elsewhere.