Life is a Highway

Life is a Highway
Source: QuoteAddicts.com

Tuesday, August 28, 2012

MLB Productions: MLB 1967- World Series Game 1- St. Louis Cardinals @ Boston Red Sox: Highlights


Source:MLB Productions- St. Louis Cardinals 1st or 3rd Base coach. You make the call.

"1967 World Series Game 1: Cardinals vs Red Sox" 


The Red Sox had a great team in 1967 but so did the Cardinals, which is what made this World Series great. Carl Yastrzemski had two great opportunities to win World Series with the Red Sox in 1967 and 1975 but they played two great teams, Cardinals with Bob Gibson, Orlando Cepeda, Lou Brock and others in 1967. And the Big Red Machine Cincinnati Reds in 1975 led by Sparky Anderson, with Johnny Bench, Joe Morgan, Pete Rose, Tony Perez, and others. And lost both times in very close seven game series that we're decided by a matter of plays, rather than games.

Monday, August 27, 2012

Howard University: 'Griffith Stadium: A National Ballpark'


Source:Howard University- one of the players from the early days of the Washington Redskins.

"Griffith Stadium (2011)" 

From Howard University

Back in the 1930s, 40s, and even 1950s, you had a lot of NFL teams playing their games in baseball parks, like the Redskins at Griffith Stadium, but the Chicago Bears at Wrigley Field, and the Detroit Lions at Tiger Stadium, the New York Giants at Yankee Stadium, the Philadelphia Eagles at Shibe Park. 

You had these NFL clubs playing football at baseball parks, because Major League Baseball is older than the National Football League and the fist professional sports stadiums that were designed America, were designed primarily for baseball. Griffith Stadium was officially a multi-purpose stadium, but only because the Redskins played their home gams there. But it was a beautiful baseball park.

Sunday, August 26, 2012

America Experience: The President's- Jimmy Carter

Source:PBS- American Experience: Jimmy Carter.

"Jimmy Carter's story is one of the greatest dramas in American politics. In 1980, he was overwhelmingly voted out of office in a humiliating defeat. Over the subsequent two decades, he became one of the most admired statesmen and humanitarians in America and the world. Through interviews with the people who know him best, Jimmy Carter traces his rapid ascent in politics, dramatic fall from grace and unexpected resurrection, including Carter family home movies and a rare film sequence of Carter's final hours in the Oval Office, when he and his advisors waited in vain for the release of the Americans who had been held hostage in Tehran for 444 days.

Carter was the first president to confront the challenge of militant Islam, then embodied by the Ayatollah Khomeini, leader of the Iranian revolution. Carter was also the first president to embark on what would prove to be the excruciating road to peace in the Middle East. But in the end, his presidency was undone by his failure to secure the hostages' release and by a plummeting economy. Yet the memories of his presidency — gas lines, inflation, recession, the Iran hostage crisis, an ineffectual and fractured administration, and the so-called national malaise — would be eclipsed, finally, by his post-presidential successes as a peacemaker in the world's most troubled areas, and his emergence as a champion for the poor in his own country." 


"American Experience: Jimmy Carter. Airs Tuesday, June 25th at 8pm on PBS 6." 

Source:Arizona Public Media- American Experience: Jimmy Carter.

 
Had it not have been for 1974 and the Watergate scandal, Jimmy Carter doesn’t get elected President of the United States, at least in 1976. He probably runs for reelection for Governor of Georgia in 1974 and probably gets reelected and waits for 1980. And looks at his options then. Jimmy Carter, basically was in a time that was perfect for someone like him, after Watergate and President Nixon resigning in 1974. Americans were looking for decent honest person to lead the country.

Gerry Ford was, a good, honest man, but American voters were also looking for an outsider and a new voice that was not from Washington. Not a cabinet official, or someone in Congress, but a breath of fresh air, someone who wasn’t an elitist and someone who spoke their mind and could take the country on a different course. And perhaps end the gridlock in Washington and to a certain extent. That’s what President Carter brought to Washington. He was able to pass a lot of legislation out of Congress.

Yes, President Carter, had a Democratic Congress with large majorities, including a 3-5 majority in the Senate his first two years. But he was also able to get a lot of Congressional Republicans to vote for his legislation, because he worked with the Republican Leadership in the House and Senate. He probably actually had more Republican allies in Congress, than Democratic allies. He had problems with Congressional Democrats. The Democratic Party in Congress (especially in the House) was not the Democratic Party that John F. Kennedy had in the early 1960s. 

National Democrats were moving way to the left and looking more for a George McGovern Democrat, than a Center-Left Democrat (which is what Jimmy Carter was) to lead them. Which made it difficult for President Carter to work with his own party in and outside of Washington. 

Former Senate Republican Leader Robert Dole (Republican, Kansas) said that Jimmy Carter was the smartest President that he ever served with. Senator Dole was in Congress during the entire Carter Presidency and served as Ranking Member of the Finance Committee during that time, but the reason why Senator Dole became Chairman of the Finance Committee in 1981, is because Ronald Reagan defeated President Carter and Republicans win back the Senate in 1980. 

Jimmy Carter had a great feel for policy and issues and was very intelligent, but he didn't have much a political touch and vision to take the country in. He was better suited running a cabinet department, than leading an entire administration and country in a certain direction.   

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Saturday, August 25, 2012

Lifetime: Jessica Savitch- Intimate Portrait: The Queen of Nightly News

Source:Pearl Guthrie- Intimate Portrait Jessica Savitch.

"This show about Jessica Savitch [1947-1983] aired in 1995. 

Almost Golden_ The Jessica Savitch Story Almost Golden_ The Jessica Savitch Story Almost Golden_ The Jessica Savitch Story. 

Jessica Savitch goes on a tirade. Don't know if she's totally in the wrong though, after all the anchor is the one that ends up looking silly, even if its everyone . 

Here's a mostly complete NBC News Digest with Jessica Savitch. This is notable for being one of her last appearances on television before her untimely and . 

By request: Jessica Savitch's three appearances on Late Night: 1. February 22, 1982: for three segments. 2. August 11, 1982: for one segment (sorry about the...


"Jessica Savitch accomplished her goal of becoming a network anchor by the age of 30, but at tremendous personal cost. A long-term abusive relationship, a brief, loveless first marriage, and a melodramatic second marriage that ended in her husband's suicide are some of the traumas with which she dealt. Meanwhile, she skyrocketed through the ranks of broadcast journalism when women were practically nonexistent in the field. This 45-minute video, augmented by interviews with Savitch's sister, biographer, and several coworkers and by much broadcast footage, makes the argument that Savitch's troubles began long before the start of her landmark career. As Savitch's drug use spun out of control, so did her career, culminating in the famously disastrous footage (included here) that led to her firing from NBC. Her accidental death shortly after ended her unrelentingly tragic trajectory. The contrast of Savitch's broadcasts with early black-and-white home movies makes for a hauntingly visual telling of this pioneer's story." 

Source:Amazon- Intimate Portait Jessica Savitch.

From Amazon 

This is from the cover photo of the Lifetime Intimate Portrait documentary about former NBC News anchor Jessica Savitch. But the video that this photo is from is not currently available online.

Source:Lifetime- Intimate Portait Jessica Savitch.

Jessica Savitch before she tragically died in 1983, was the weekend anchor of NBC Nightly News. Only behind Tom Brokaw at NBC News as far as their anchors and when she died was considered the most trusted news anchor in America. Essentially replacing Walter Cronkite with that title. 

Jessica was both gorgeous and adorable, but very intelligent and worked very hard at her craft. A true news junky, which is what you almost have to be to be a successful news anchor, as well as a political junky. All traits I love as someone who shares these same traits and she picked up these traits very early on in life, as being the daughter of a news and political junky her father, who she was very close with.

I wasn't born until 1975 so almost everything I've seen from her have been old news footage of her, actually a lot of it on YouTube. And she became a star in network news by the late 1970s, a very turbulent time in America with an energy shortage, a weak economy, with high interest, inflation and unemployment rates, the Jonestown tragedy in 1978, the Iran Hostage Crisis, America seeming to be in decline by the summer of 1979 and Jessica Savitch was covering all of these stories.

Jessica Savitch was ahead of her time, because she made it to the top, or very close to it by the late 1970s. When network news was still dominated by men and when women were still coming up in this business and had she not died in 1983 tragically, maybe she's the lead anchor of one of the network newscasts for 15-20 years. Like Tom Brokaw, Peter Jennings, or Dan Rather. She was too big and too good to the weekend anchor indefinitely and could've gone a lot further, if she just had the time to do it. 

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Republican Party: '1940 Campaign Film Exposes "The New Deal"'

Source:Republican Party- with a 1940 film about the New Deal.
"This film is a republican campaign video for  Wendell Willkie who ran against Roosevelt in 1940.   This film brings out allot of New World Order information we need a Wendell Willkie today in the here and now.   I can't help but wonder where we would be had he succeeded in his bid for office.  Enjoy....
Michelle. You can see the full film in it's original at this link:Archive."

Source:Ming Thoughts

This 1940 Republican Party film arguing that the New Deal is costing America its national defense. Arguing that money that went to deal with the Great Depression, poverty, Social Security, Unemployment Insurance, is money that should've went to our national defense. 

But if you are familiar with President Franklin Roosevelt, who of course was a Progressive Democrat, but he was anything but soft on defense. America became a world economic and military power, as well as the leader against communism under President Roosevelt's and later President Harry Truman's watch. So you can take this Republican film anyway you want, but these are the facts.

Friday, August 24, 2012

Ron Paul: 'GOP Establishment Fears Ron Paul Upset at the Convention'


Source:Ron Paul- From a video about why the GOP is scared of U.S. Representative Ron Paul and his presidential campaign.
"Ben Swann Reality Check takes a look at how the RNC is attempting to change the 5 state rule and decredential the entire Maine delegation only 4 days before the Republican National Convention."

From Ron Paul

Back in August during the GOP Iowa straw poll, Representative Ron Paul finished 2nd behind what's Representative Michele Bachmann. I've been trying to forget about Representative Bachmann after she did America the public service of ending her presidential campaign, Ron Paul finished 2nd with something like 200 votes and a percentage point behind Michele Bachmann. I had actually predicted that Representative Paul would win the Iowa straw poll and came damn near close. Not to pat my own back, but I have an itch.

But who was FNC's and the GOP establishment promoting after the straw poll, Bachmann obviously. Every mental patients and conspiracy theorists presidential candidate. Governor Rick Perry who was enjoying his fifteen minutes of fame and looked like was going to be the Tea Party candidate, but his presidential campaign bombed as bad as a Jean Claude Van Damn movie festival. Mitt Romney the aka Flip Flopper himself seen as the electable presidential candidate.

And there was some talk about Rick Santorum the former U.S. Senator and Representative who lost reelection in the Senate in 2006, but in a close call 18 points. They were saying about Senator Santorum that considering how he lacked campaign funds only because most Republicans believe that he can't win. That he had a strong showing in the straw poll, getting around 12% of the vote.

You know how about the guy who finished 2nd in the straw poll and almost won the damn thing. Where's the respect for Ron Paul, oh wait he's a Libertarian Republican who actually takes individual liberty, limited government and the U.S. Constitution seriously. Unlike the Christian-Conservatives/Christian-Nationalists who run the GOP today, so he doesn't get any until recently.

What does a man have to do to get a little love in the Republican Party? This is a Party that speaks about individual liberty, limited government and the U.S. Constitution all the time. But actually speaks in favor of those things, but scares the hell out of the GOP base because those things are just things to say in order to get elected.

If voters learned about what Christian-Conservative/Christian-Nationalist Republicans wanted to do once they were in office, which is what the American people finally woke up to in 2006, Republicans couldn't get elected to anything other than dog catcher outside of the Bible Belt in America. And even then they would probably have to steal those elections as well.

So when someone like Ron Paul comes around who has a thirty year history of doing and saying what he believes in, it scares the hell out of the GOP establishment because they know the man and know that he actually believes in what he says.

And thats what scares the hell out of the GOP establishment and everything they've worked to accomplish. No more Patriot Act, no more indefinite detention, no more corporate welfare, individual liberty for real. No longer government trying to protect people from themselves because all these things goes against today's GOP Bible, of national security and national morality. Which for them trumps individual liberty, limited government, and the U.S. Constitution.

The modern Republican Party is a party that wants people to be free, as long as they are living their lives as Christian-Conservatives (Christian-Theocrats, in actuality) want them too. Which goes against everything that Ron Paul stands for.

CBS Sports: FBS 1985- Notre Dame Fighting Irish @ Miami Florida Hurricanes: Full Game


Source:CBS Sports- graphic from this game.

"MIAMI VS. NOTRE DAME NOV 30TH,1985 FULL GAME MICHAEL IRVIN JIMMY JOHNSON" 

From Lubbock Texas

You can make a pretty good case that this is the game that started the Notre Dame/Miami Florida rivalry because Miami was about to become the college football program of the 1980s. Notre Dame replaces Gerry Faust with Lou Holtz, who simply wanted to bring a national championship back to Notre Dame and make them a national football power again. And the Hurricanes simply dominated the Fighting Irish in this game 58-7. You had to think that Lou Holtz pointed to this game and to use it as the marker, the team (meaning Miami Florida) that the Irish have to beat to get back to the top of college football again.

Thursday, August 23, 2012

Universal News: 'Know Your Candidates (1964)'

Source:Universal News- 1964 film about that presidential election.

"Released on October 22nd, 1964 & reporting on the Goldwater & LBJ Presidential Campaign." 

From CSPAN

"Election USA 1964: Goldwater vs Johnson"

Source:Malanda TV- President Dwight D. Eisenhower (Republican, Texas) 34th President of the United States. 
Source:Malanda TV

1964 was one of the clearest choices for President that Americans have ever had.

The challenger was Senator Barry Goldwater for the Republican Party who was what we would call today a Conservative Libertarian or Constitutional Conservative. ( A real Conservative ) But who back in the 1960s that term hadn't been invited yet, or certainly wasn't well-known. 

In the 1960s Barry Goldwater was a get big government out of of our wallets, bedrooms, boardrooms, and classrooms, as well as a 10th Amendment Conservative Republican. Which was how Conservatives were defined back then and even by the mainstream media back then. Before the Christian-Right took over the Republican Party, as well as the Dixiecrats moving over from the Democratic Party.

On the other side you had the Democrat Progressive President Lyndon Johnson, who was a real Progressive. Who gave us our civil rights laws, who expanded the safety net for deal with poverty in America which is known as the Great Society programs. Who was anti-Communist cold warrior Progressive Democrat. 

LBJ was not a Socialist who didn't see communism as a threat or who didn't even have a problem with communism. Which is how a lot of so-called Progressives (Socialists, in actuality) get defined today, since the Democratic Party now has a large socialist faction in it. In many cases social democratic, but in some cases just pure socialist. Who mix in social democracy with communism as far as their own politics.

1964 is what American politics should be about as far as political choice and allowing for Americans to have real choices and clear differences between their political candidates, but people who don't look at politics and democracy as war. But as a competition where you're not trying to destroy your opponent even by making up negative information about your opponent. But by running your own campaign and explaining why you're the best choice for the office that you're running for based on your political philosophy, accomplishments, and qualifications. Not because your'e trying to convince American voters that they should hate your opponent more than yourself. Which is what the Goldwater-Johnson election gave us in 1964.

Monday, August 20, 2012

CBS News: '1968: A Year That Changed America'


Source:Bob Parker- from CBS News's 1978 documentary about the year 1968.

“1968 A Year that Changed America with Harry Reasoner. A look back on the year 1968, produced by CBS News in 1978.”

From Bob Parker 

“Time Magazine January 11 1988 1968 The Year That Shaped a Generation ”

Source:Amazon- TIME Magazine's cover about the year 1968.

From Amazon

I think one thing that separates America and makes us stronger than anyone else is that we can go through a year like 1968 and get through it and survive it and still remain one country. Unlike other countries that tend to go through such division between the people and their government and overall establishment of the country in one year and you see them come apart. With the government falling and perhaps even leading to some type of civil war. Egypt comes to mind pretty fast and what is going on in Syria and Venezuela right now are other good examples.

Having said all of that, it’s hard to find anything good about 1968 other than maybe the music and the fact that we started to get along better as far as race relations. Where racism and other types of bigotry started to really go out of style. And bigots were left to hide their bigotry or pay serious prices for it. But other than that 1968 was one big disaster after another. A year full of violence with murders and assassinations, the President of the United States deciding not to even bother running for reelection because there were so many people who literally hated him in both parties.

And that is just about the domestic scene in America, but then you go to the Vietnam War itself with Americans finally figuring out that we are not just losing the war, but it is probably lost. And we started seeing all of those dead American soldiers coming home from it.

I guess one good thing about 1968 is that Americans finally woke up and figured out that their government not only doesn’t always tell the truth, but they even lie to their people. The Johnson Administration saying that they were making progress in Vietnam when they knew the opposite was true and that Communist Vietnam was getting stronger.

1968 represents the 1960s as well as it could possibly be. A year of revolution, protest, violence, people coming together from multiple races to be part of the same movement. Where millions of Americans became free to be themselves and no long feel like they had to live a certain way of life in order to fit in or even be good people.

1968 was a shakeup of the entire United States and perhaps was something that the country needed. Even with all the violence and the lost of lives in that decade so Americans would know about the problems in the country, but also what could be done about them. And what also makes us great as a country which is our freedom and diversity.  

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Sunday, August 19, 2012

The Onion: 'GOP Trying To Keep Elderly Voting Base Alive Until November'

Source:The Onion- Flip Flopper (also known as Mitt Romney) looking to keep dinosaur Republicans  alive.
"Republicans are reminding seniors to take their blood pressure medication, hoping they won't die before voting on Election Day." 

From The Onion 

If Mitt Romney with his political background and his father's background as a Center-Right, but Progressive Northeastern Republican, was kidnapped and forced to run for Senate as a Republican in Massachusetts and then later Governor of Massachusetts, and then of course President of the United States as a Republican from Massachusetts and his kidnappers told him: "You have to run for office from office as a Republican in the modern Republican Party, not your father's party" then I might feel sorry for him. But of course that didn't happen, otherwise The Onion would be on top of that and it would be in their breaking news coverage. 

Mitt Romney is dependent on senior voters and in some cases ancient voters who still think it's 1955 and perhaps even in the 1920s, because they haven't gotten the memo (perhaps because they can no longer read) that it's 2012 and they've missed the last 57 years culturally, because if Mitt tries to reach out to voters who didn't grow up with Leave it to Beaver and Ozzie and Harriet and Howdy Doodie, who if anything are cool with the 1960s, he would have better chance of winning 50 state lotteries all on the same day, than the Republican nomination for President. 

The Republican Party is now the Grand Old People's Party (that's not a Communist or Socialist party) and they're dependent on these voters to win anywhere in the country, because they missed the Cultural Revolution and haven't gotten the memo about the American melting pot. (Again, because perhaps they can no longer read) And if any Republican who even considers expanding the Republican base generationally, culturally, racially, or ethnically, they risk throwing their political career down the toilet. 

David Von Pein: 'The Zapruder Film is Shown on Goodnight America With Geraldo Rivera- MARCH 6, 1975'

Source:David Von Pein- Geraldo Rivera, host of Goodnight America, in 1975.
"Assassination of John F. Kennedy, mortal shooting of John F. Kennedy, the 35th president of the United States, as he rode in a motorcade in Dallas, Texas, on November 22, 1963. His accused killer was Lee Harvey Oswald, a former U.S. Marine who had embraced Marxism and defected for a time to the Soviet Union. Oswald never stood trial for murder, because, while being transferred after having been taken into custody, he was shot and killed by Jack Ruby, a distraught Dallas nightclub owner."  

From Britannica  

"This is a segment from Geraldo Rivera's late-night ABC-TV talk show "Good Night America", where Abraham Zapruder's famous home movie depicting President John F. Kennedy's assassination in graphic detail is shown to an American audience for the very first time. Robert Groden is one of Rivera's guests...  

From David Von Pein

I don't believe there is any question who assassinated President John F. Kennedy. That man is obviously Lee Harvey Oswald. He had the access, the motive, the ability, his gun was the gun that killed President Kennedy, his fingerprints were on the gun. If he ever made it to trial he would have had to pleaded guilty to have any shot in hell (where he's currently residing) to have any shot in hell of avoiding the death penalty. 

That is not the question as far as who actually killed President Kennedy. And for anyone who disagrees with that, you really should treat them as if they're mental patients, or liars like Roger Stone (to use as an example) whose probably made millions from his books with his own JFK assassination conspiracy theories.

The only question for me is did anyone else put Lee Oswald up to the assassination  and then used him as their patsy. Knowing he was going to get caught and probably given the death penalty as a result, but Oswald agreed to do it anyway. 

Jack Kennedy, had a lot of enemies in Texas and Dallas perhaps especially both on the Far-Left where Oswald represented as a Marxist. But on the Far-Right for his support for civil and equal rights for African-Americans. And for his economic liberalism and wanting to use government to create new economic opportunity for people who needed it. 

Organized crime in Dallas especially the Italian Mafia, because of his administration's crackdown on organized crime. Jack Ruby, who killed Oswald had organize crime connections as well. Which just ignites the organize crime theory behind the JFK assassination.

We know, at least anyone who both has a brain and is sane at the same time (which is an accomplishment unfortunately for too many Americans) who assassinated President John Kennedy. The question was there anyone else involved or not. Was this something that was just put together by a highly intelligent and sharp man who was also deranged and a loser all in the same person. Or did he not only have help as far as actually pulling off the assassination with a second shooter and have people behind them that put the hit out and hired them to do it. 

Was Oswald the lone shooter, but was hired by others to assassinate the President. These are the questions that I at least and a lot of other intelligent sane Americans don't have the answers to yet. Which is why speculation in this case still goes on. And how the Roger Stone's of the world make their money. 

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Friday, August 17, 2012

History Day: 'Iran Hostage Crisis Documentary 4th in State'

Source:History Day- President James E. Carter (Democrat, Georgia) 39th President of the United States (1977-81)

“The Iran Hostage Crisis: Successes and Failures of American Diplomacy
individual documentary
junior division”


What a crazy time for America and Iran. The Iranian people were fed up with their dictatorial authoritarian government that they had in Iran under the Shah that both the United Kingdom and United States backed for almost forty years and even installed in Iran. So what you had was a bunch of Islamic theocratic revolutionaries under Ruhollah Khomeini decided to stand up and the Shah knew he no longer had the authority to lead his country and decided to leave his country. Which left a power shortage in Iran with a new Islamic theocratic government under Supreme Leader Khomeini coming into place.

And because America had backed the Shah for so long and President Jimmy Carter saying that the Shah was such a fine leader and good man for Iran, these Iranian revolutionaries decided to take out their frustration and anger on what was left of American involvement in Iran which was our embassy there. And took about hundred American U.S. embassy employees hostage. Which is how the Iranian hostage crisis started. Which was essentially the end of Jimmy Carter as a strong leader in America, or even having the potential of being a strong leader of the United States. Because now America looked weak compared to a third-world country and was held hostage. 

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Saturday, August 11, 2012

Theodore White: The Making of The President (1963)

Source:Amazon- from Theodore H. White.

“In the 1960s, writer Theodore H. White changed journalism forever by putting the campaign for the White House under a microscope. The first of his bestselling series on presidential elections, The Making of the President, 1960, earned a Pulitzer Prize and became a TV documentary that won four Emmys®, including program of the year. This collection brings together three television adaptations of White’s influential books for a full, in-depth account of presidential politics during the tumultuous 1960, 1964, and 1968 elections.

Produced by Oscar® nominee David L. Wolper (Roots), these programs feature White’s insightful scripts and rare film footage that reveal the winners and losers in unguarded, behind-the-scenes moments. All the backroom deals, convention-floor drama, and campaign strategy come alive again in three historic races: Kennedy-Nixon, Johnson-Goldwater, and Humphrey-Nixon-Wallace. From preprimary jockeying to the final vote tally, these spellbinding narratives dissect the inner workings of our democracy and trace the path to power.

Journalist and author Theodore H. White served as China bureau chief for Time and as correspondent and editor for The New Republic, The Reporter, and Colliers. He won numerous writing awards, including a Pulitzer Prize and two Emmys.” 

From Amazon 

“David L. Wolper’s documentary film “THE MAKING OF THE PRESIDENT 1960”, narrated by Martin Gabel, gives viewers a close-up look at the inner workings of the 1960 campaign for President of the United States, a hard-fought struggle which was won (just barely) by Massachusetts Senator John F. Kennedy.

The film made its debut on ABC-TV on December 29, 1963, just a month after JFK’s death.

Directed by Mel Stuart, who also helmed another very fine David Wolper-produced film about President Kennedy — 1964’s “Four Days In November.” 
Source:David Von Pein- from Theodore White.


ABC News broadcasted this Theodore White documentary about the 1960 presidential campaign on the ABC Network in 1963 and then the A&E cable network re-showed this documentary in the 1990s, perhaps 1995. And I believe that's the documentary that this photo is from.

Source:A&E- think this is from A&E. But it might be from ABC News.

The 1960 United States presidential campaign was one of the best ever, because of who ran for President. The Democratic Party nominated the best person they had in Senator John Kennedy and the Republican Party nominated the best person they had in Vice President Richard Nixon. It was literally the best vs the best. Two men that represented the now and future of their party, who were the leaders of their party. It gave American voters a clear choice in who to select to be the next President and who to be the next President early in the Cold War with the Soviet Union.

The 1960 election gave people another choice as well:Do we want to continue to do what we were doing as a country, have the Federal Government stay the course and not make any big changes, or do we want to try a different path. Senator Kennedy tried and I believe was successful in making the argument that America was stagnating not moving and advancing as fast as it could. And that Vice President Nixon represented this conservative approach of not moving real fast, staying back and seeing how things develop. Where Vice President Nixon tried to make the argument that America wasn’t ready to chart a different course.

Dick Nixon didn’t want to chart a course with a somewhat young and inexperienced Senator that had never been an executive before. Thats the choice that America had for President in 1960. What Jack Kennedy represented for the country was a true vision of where he wanted to take the country and how we would get there. Making the argument that America was sitting still in the 1950s under President Eisenhower who was somewhat conservative. And that the country wasn’t advancing fast enough. And sitting still and even falling behind.

The recession of the late 1950s helped Senator Kennedy make the case that it’s time to move again. And Dick Nixon President Eisenhower’s loyal and influential Vice President represented the conservative wing of the Republican Party.

Vice President Nixon I believe didn’t do much to counter this Democratic argument or defend himself. But what he did instead was try to make this campaign about Jack Kennedy’s youth and inexperience. Even though they both came to Congress the same time in 1947 to the House and were friends there. And remained friends when Nixon became Vice President in 1953 and Kennedy was elected to the Senate the same year. And Nixon was only four years older and we’re in the same generation, both men were also Irish.

One difference between Jack Kennedy and Dick Nixon, was that Kennedy did offer the country a change of course, that would finish off what was created in the 1930s with the New Deal. But in a different way, focusing on health care, civil rights and tax cuts. Making the case the country was overtaxed.

I believe Nixon didn’t have what’s called the vision thing, at least in 1960. He developed that by 1968 when he was elected President. But 1960 for him was: “This is what’s been working, so let’s continue what we’ve done.”

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Friday, August 10, 2012

Icna Chicago: 'The Life of Malcolm X'

Source:ICNA Chicago- from a documentary about Nation of Islam Minister Malcolm X.

Source:FRS FreeState 

“America needs to understand Islam, because this is the one religion that erases from its society the race problem.” Malcolm X

Islamic Learning Foundation* Presents:

THE LIFE OF MALCOLM X… a class
Taught By: Imam Siraj Wahhaj

Saturday February 3rd ~ 11:00 AM – 5:00 PM
Location: Islamic Foundation 300 W. Highridge, Villa Park, IL 60181
Register: http://www.ymsite.org/mx or http://www.ICNAchicago.org
Registration Fee: $10 Student, $20 Adult
Includes course materials, multimedia presentations, lecture, food, interactive web forum, and articles.

Details: Covering the life of Br. El-Hajj Malik el-Shabazz (Malcolm X), with special emphasis on his last years and some of the many lessons we need to extract from his life.

S p o n s o r e d b y :
-Islamic Learning Foundation islamiclearningfoundation.org
-Young Muslims http://www.ymsite.org
-ICNA Chicago: http://www.icnachicago.org

“I am and always will be a Muslim. My religion is Islam.” Malcolm X
“Education is our passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to the people who prepare for it today.” Malcolm X

*Islamic Learning Foundation is a department of ICNA and Young Muslims”

From ICNA Chicago 

Malcolm X, represents to me many ways what the American Dream and what that is and should be. Someone who started from very rough beginnings, essentially came from nothing and worked his way up in life. And got so far, that people actually saw him as a threat, or his message of freedom and responsibility, not just for African-Americans, but for all Americans, as threats.

By the time Minister Malcolm died, he believed that people should be judged as people. Who moved towards Dr. Martin King when it came to civil rights. By the time he died, even as a young man he was in prison and at one point was even a racist who saw all Caucasians as racists or “White Devils”, and not just as people and not just the people. And not just the racists, but all Caucasians.

But once Malcolm left prison and left the Nation of Islam, he got himself educated and started hanging out with Caucasians that weren’t racist and believed in similar things. And learned better and that perhaps he could work with them so they could all accomplish the same things. That all Americans should be treated equally under law and not be held down because of their race.

I wrote a post arguing that Malcolm moved to believing in racial tolerance a few months ago. But Malcolm X’s message was about freedom and responsibility, that people shouldn’t expect to be given things, that if we wanted to achieve anything in life and be successful, that we had to go out and achieve those things and not settle for failure.

Malcolm believed that people, shouldn’t settle for poverty, or anything else. That the way to avoid these things, we’re to go out and get ourselves educated, work hard and be productive. Rather than expect government, or anyone else to hand us those things. Which is why I believe if Malcolm X were alive today, he would be a Classical Liberal Democrat or Conservative, not exactly registered to either party. But he would have that mindset, that people shouldn’t expect government, or other people to take care of themselves. But they needed to be able to do that for themselves, if they expected to be successful in life.

Had both Malcolm X and Martin King lived a natural life (meaning they didn’t die at a young age and lived into their senior years and not have been murdered, or killed, but died through natural causes) America would be a much different country and not just for African-Americans. Both of them would’ve helped a lot of people who weren’t free to live their own lives. Be able to achieve those things for themselves by preaching the message of individual freedom and personal responsibility through education.

Sunday, August 5, 2012

The Criterion Collection: Chris Hegedus & D. A. Pennebaker- The War Room (1993) Documentary

Source:Roger Ebert- the cover of The War Room film.

“The 1992 presidential election was a triumph not only for Bill Clinton but also for the new breed of strategists who guided him to the White House—and changed the face of politics in the process. For this thrilling, behind-closed-doors account of that campaign, renowned cinema verité filmmakers Chris Hegedus and D. A. Pennebaker captured the brainstorming and bull sessions of Clinton’s crack team of consultants—especially James Carville and George Stephanopoulos, who became media stars in their own right as they injected a savvy, youthful spirit and spontaneity into the process of campaigning. Fleet-footed and entertaining, The War Room is a vivid document of a political moment whose truths (“It’s the economy, stupid!”) still ring in our ears.” 


“The 1992 presidential election was a triumph not only for Bill Clinton but also for the new breed of strategists who guided him to the White House—and changed the face of politics in the process. For this thrilling, behind-closed-doors account of that campaign, renowned cinema verité filmmakers Chris Hegedus and D. A. Pennebaker captured the brainstorming and bull sessions of Clinton’s crack team of consultants—especially James Carville and George Stephanopoulos, who became media stars in their own right as they injected a savvy, youthful spirit and spontaneity into the process of campaigning. Fleet-footed and entertaining, The War Room is a vivid document of a political moment whose truths (“It’s the economy, stupid!”) still ring in our ears.” 

Source:Pennebaker Hegedus- James Carville was Bill Clinton's 1992 presidential campaign manager.

From Pennebacker Hegedus 

In 1991-92 I guess was the time that I started getting into politics to the point that I was actually following the news about it. I was 16 and a sophomore in high school and I saw a speech I believe on C-SPAN. I became a political junky pretty early in life and I was actually watching C-SPAN and saw a speech from then Governor Bill Clinton from Arkansas and he was talking about how we could make college more affordable in America, an issue we are still talking about twenty-years later.

And Governor Clinton was talking about an idea called AMERI-CORE, where people would get tax credits, or be able to go to college at no financial cost to them, if they serve their country. They work in community service, join the military, become a teacher, work in law enforcement, become a doctor etc. In other words, be able to go to college if they give back and serve their country. And this program that was enacted shortly after he became President in 1993 and he was able to inspire thousands if not millions of Americans to volunteer for their country and in return would be able to go to college. And when I heard this speech, it gave me the sense that Bill Clinton was a winner, a Democrat who could actually get elected President of the United States.

Listening to Bill Clinton’s speech and following his presidential campaign, gave me the idea that Bill Clinton was a different Democrat. Someone whose called a New Democrat, someone who doesn’t just believe in growing the Federal Government and raising new taxes to pay for it and by doing this, that would automatically solve whatever problem the program was intended to solve. But that you had to make the Federal Government work and be able to reform or eliminate things in the Federal Government that wasn’t working.

That Clinton’s presidential campaign was about the people not government. How do you make government work for the people, so it empowers the people who need to be empowered. Not growing government to take care of people but using it in a way so the people who need it can take care of themselves instead, which are two different concepts. Americans were looking for a change in 1992, that’s clear with a bad economy, lack of economic and gob growth.

Americans saw President Bush as out of touch and not up to the job of turning the country around and were looking for a change. But weren’t sure they were ready to turn it over to the Democrats. People who have been stereotyped as big government tax and spenders and weren’t interested in seeing new tax hikes, but wanted to go back to work and take care of themselves. And what they got from Bill Clinton was a new Democratic voice, someone who could talk about progressivism and communicate it in a way that made it about people and not government.

Bill Clinton had this saying that people who collected public assistance will no longer be able to get it for free in a Clinton Administration. That people on public assistance were going to be expected to use that time to prepare themselves to go to work and serve their communities.

Bill Clinton’s political hero is Jack Kennedy, same as mind along with Bill Clinton and a few other people. And of course one of President Kennedy’s famous lines is, ask not what government can do for you, but what you can do for your country. And I believe Bill Clinton took that to heart and made that a big part of his presidential campaign and a bigger part of his presidency and it worked very well.  

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Saturday, August 4, 2012

Cindy De La Hoz: ‘Marilyn Remembered: The Official Treasures 1926-1962’

Source:ABE Books- Cindy De La Hoz's book about Marilyn Monroe.

“On 5 August 1962 the world lost one of its brightest stars when Marilyn Monroe died. Fifty years after her death, however, she remains one of the most recognized icons of all time. “Marilyn Remembered: The Official Treasures 1926-1962” traces the classic rags-to-riches tale of the child abandoned by her mother who became a sparkling Hollywood star, winning hearts through her intelligence, humor, and acting skills as well as her beauty. It follows the ups and downs of her life through three marriages and reveals her experiences on the set of some of the greatest films ever made. This special edition is a celebration of the screen goddess’ life featuring over 200 stunning photographs and 20 items of facsimile memorabilia from her personal papers.

About the Author:
Cindy De La Hoz is a film historian who has written extensively on cinema and legendary cinematic figures. Her books include Lucy at the Movies; A Touch of Grace: How to Be a Princess, the Grace Kelly Way and Lana: The Memories, the Myths, the Movies, which Leonard Maltin called “one of the best books about a star I have ever read”. Cindy also wrote Marilyn Monroe: Platinum Fox.”

From ABE Books

“Matt LeBlanc, Lucy Liu, Carrie-Anne Moss, Kristin Kreuk, Lisa Kudrow, Dennis Quaid and Michael Chiklis reveal their feelings about Marilyn Monroe’s legacy on the eve of the 50th anniversary of the star’s death. (Aug. 1)”

Source:Associated Press- Actress Lucy Liu talking about Hollywood Babydoll Marilyn Monroe.


I don’t think Marilyn Monroe is the best looking of all-time, or even the best looking woman in the history of Hollywood. She’s certainly one of the cutest, most beautiful, one of the best bodies and perhaps the original denim diva sporting skin-tight Levi’s jeans in the 1950s when it was culturally unacceptable for any woman in America to wear tight pants made from any material, especially denim. But Marilyn has a goddess image that can’t be ignored and it’s well-deserved with all sorts of photos like this that make her look like she’s royalty.

Source:The Daily Press-  Hollywood Babydoll Marilyn Monroe. But she looks like a Goddess in this photo.

If you are going to look at the life of entertainer Marilyn Monroe who died at the very young age of 36, (the same age I am today) and you can get past the goddess parts of Marilyn Monroe (which I admit is very difficult) you are talking about one of the sexy babies of all sexy babies. (Sexy Baby: sexy, baby face woman) A sexy baby that all sexy babies are measured by: hot, baby-face adorable, didn’t even look 36, more like 16.

And Marilyn of course with one of the greatest if not greatest bodies a woman has ever had. She looked like an athlete like a tennis player or something. But if you are able to get past all of that (perhaps with professional help) I believe you’ll see a very talented, but somewhat lost woman, who lacked self-confidence and perhaps was never very happy. Which is interesting to me because she married someone who had similar issues in Joe DiMaggio, who is one of the top 3-5 baseball players of all time, but who perhaps never appreciated that.

Marilyn Monroe wasn’t a bimbo, perhaps not very knowledgeable or very interested in things outside of the entertainment industry. But someone who was very good at her craft who didn’t work very hard at it. She was famous for missing rehearsal’s, not showing up for events. Not being very professional, but she was very good at her craft. She didn’t have to work very hard at it. She was someone who was very funny like in the movie The Seven Year Itch.

Marilyn was very funny in person as well (intentionally and unintentionally) and she could also act. Either be a comedian or a dramatic actress and she could also sing and perform. She wasn’t an actress or a singer, but an entertainer, perhaps too good at her craft. And then you throw in her physical attractiveness, she seemed to have everything going for her. But apparently there was something missing that she wasn’t able to accomplish which is what brought her down.

They say geniuses are somewhat troubled because as brilliant as they are about somethings. They devote so much time those direct areas that they don’t have much else going for them and seem very mediocre in other areas. Like a nerd who knows everything about let’s say chemistry, but couldn’t tell you their favorite movie or something because they don’t have one or don’t watch any movies or something and seem somewhat unsatisfied. I’m not saying Marilyn was a genius, but she had some of those characteristics. 

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