That Man Ray... Lets See The Picture From Your Pakistani Vacation!!

President Obama, save yourself  lots of grief (see long birth certificate) and let the American people decide for themselves if they want to see Bin Laden's; my late night date with the U.S. Navy Seals photos.  It's the people's choice... because it's America and we're all about that. Bin Laden screwed up our great, old way of life, and we're still pretty pissed about it (and it's not going back to the way anytime soon.) Because after the destruction of our Twin Towers, The Pentagon, and freakin' two wars and I don't know how many dead & wounded Americans (not to mention, two terms of Bush, Cheney & Rumfeld!)... it's all been well, just a little anti-climactic for us. Damn, I should be on your staff!

ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER: THE FAVORNATOR… Hasta La Vista, Baby!

Núñez & Schwarzenegger: "Don't worry Fabby baby, your kid will be out in less than three years!"

Okay, I’m one of the dumb Californians who voted for Arnold Schwarzenegger (twice!) for Governor. I fell for that whole jive, that he was a man of the people. He was a wealthy man, so he was his own man! Well so much for this phony Teddy Roosevelt wannabe… Arnold was defiantly no Colonel Teddy! But it was such a great story; Austrian immigrant comes to the United States, with nothing but a suitcase and a dream and with only a couple words in English. He makes his way to Venice's famed Muscle Beach and against all odds becomes Mister Universe. And even crazier than that, he becomes a gigantic movie star (not to mention a very savvy business man.) It seemed like a man could do know wrong? Wrong! In 2003, Arnold shook the entertainment industry when he made the jump from movies to politics, defeating incumbent California Governor Grey Davis in a historic recall election. There was a new sheriff in town; Arnold was going to straiten out the state with his non-partisan politics… he was going to clean up Sacramento! Well Arnold, you should have kept his day job, you was adequate at best? So much for Venice, California’s number one adopted son saving California! You left us in worse shape than ever.

So right before he left office earlier this month (replaced with reto-Governer Jerry Brown) Arnold really showed that he was no better than any cliché politian, when he reduced  former California State Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez’s, 22-year old son Esteban's, sixteen year manslaughter prison sentence to eight… with time served & good behavior, what are we looking at three years maybe? Arnold gave the Sacramento political gravy-trainer and his punk ass kid, a blatant favor… No if, ands or buts about it! 

I've sold out!

The crime was a 2008 incident, when Núñez and his pals (they called themselves “The Hazard Crew”) took a party road trip from Sacramento to San Diego, where they attacked a group of strangers with knives after being denied admittance to a collage party. The aftermath left one person dead and one person seriously injured. The man Núñez stabbed was lucky enough to live, but that’s not the point (even though Arnold disagrees.) The punk-ass posse high-tailed it back to Sacto and quickly destroyed the evidence… but luckily the law soon caught up with The Hazard Crew. The little shit Núñez told his crew that his dad would get them out of this mess. Núñez's political hack pals (including sadly, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa) wrote letters to the judge on this punk ass kids behalf. Well, his dad and our so-called action hero governor, Arnold kinda did. Originally, to escape a murder trial, Núñez and his friend Ryan Jett agreed to plead guilty to voluntary manslaughter. The judge even told Nunez during sentencing that his actions after the crime showed a "callousness to human life -- evil."

Fresh Meat on the Cell Block! Come & Get it While You Can!

I don’t write too much political stuff (yet!) But this crime against justice really stuck in my craw… I couldn’t sit on my hands any longer. I’m don’t consider myself, conservative or liberal… I just like what’s right and fair (I’m a dreamer right?) And this just was so; “you gotta be kidding me or he did what?”  What was the saying... and justice for all!

Rightly so, the parents of Luis Santos, the 22-year-old college student who was killed in the confrontation is suing former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in Sacramento on Thursday, claiming he violated their constitutional rights under the state’s Victims' Bill of Rights. And last I heard Santos’s parents were going to sue the father and son team of Estaban and Fabian in a civil suit… good for the Santos family. Even though they’ll never retain what they’ve lost, at least they’re not going to go away quietly! When you’ve been dealt a dirty hand, kick over the table and let the chips fly!

The Victim: Luis Santos

I know how it feels to have family member fall to the hands of violence (several times over, I might add) and I know the anguish it casts, the giant shadow of sadness that always looms over a family after such a tragedy . So yeah, I’m feeling really betrayed by Arnold “Mister Action Hero” Schwarzenegger. Even after he was a wash out as the governor, I still felt that I could at least sit through one of his movies… I saw the film, The Expendables last year, and I enjoyed the little tongue and check scene with him, Stallone and Willis. But, I don’t think I can even do that now?! Was this Núñez punk worth ruining my enjoyment of; Conan the Barbarian, Predator or T2?  Whose ass are you kissing Arnold? You’ve really put a giant monkey wrench into any thought of a future movie career!

Stay Hungry

 Back in 1976, my dad had a cinema class at Santa Monica College. I remember him taking me and my pal Robert to see a preview of a film at MGM in Culver City. The picture was about body building, called STAY HUNGRY, starring Jeff Bridges and Sally Fields. After the film was over there was a Q & A with director Bob Rafelson, Sally Fields and (in his first major Hollywood film) Arnold Schwarzenegger… so I’ve kinda been following (and pulling) for Arnold’s career since I was a 14 years old kid, way back when he was in his body building prime… and this is where our road together ends, pal! And who would have thought,  after all these years, Jeff Bridges of all people would become the mythical lawman Rooster Cogburn? And you, Arnold would become the un-upholder of the law? Arnold, you really let me (and a lot of people ) down, man! Well, Sacramento can lay claim to you now! And please whatever you do California; DO NOT EVER VOTE "POLITICAL HACK" FABIAN NUNEZ BACK INTO OFFICE! Oh, and one more thing, Arnold do yourself a favor and stop dying you hair orange! On second thought, that’s the right color for a damn clown! Where's Charlie Bronson when you need him!

Every November... I Get The JFK Blues

President John F. Kennedy

Fifty years ago today, President John F. Kennedy was ambushed and killed in broad daylight as he drove with the First Lady through Dealey Plaza, Dallas, Texas. On that fateful day this country lost something... and has been haunted by it ever since.

Dallas

I believe somehow, if you’re an American, whomever was President was when you’re born puts some kind of stamp on you, It did for me… so my President was John F. Kennedy. Sure, I was a just two years old when he was assassinated on November 22, 1963… but somehow what happened on that day long ago in Dallas haunts me forty-eight years later… in fact it makes me want to howl at the moon sometimes. Every year right before Thanksgiving, I get a little melancholy, it never fails. Why you might ask? For younger generation the question who shot J.F.K. might mean as much to them as Who Framed Roger Rabbit?  With short attention span theater of the mind, many don’t even remember that Americans are still fighting not one, but two wars as I type this blog… why would they care about a president who was around during the time when televisions used rabbit ears (many would even ask what are rabbit ears?)  Because we’re Americans and I think what happened that day ripped into the red, white and blue, and we really never really recovered from it… I speak in the big picture of things. It was a domino effect that has somehow brought our country into the mess we’re in even today!

David Ferrie

“Oh man, why don't you fuckin' stop it? Shit, this is too fuckin' big for you, you know that? Who did the president, who killed Kennedy, fuck man! It's a mystery! It's a mystery wrapped in a riddle inside an enigma! The fuckin' shooters don't even know! Don't you get it?”  That’s a piece of dialogue said by Joe Pecsi when he portrayed David Ferrie in the film J.F.K.. David Farrie was one of the cast of bizarre characters that somehow seemed to be involved in the plot to murder the President… great dialogue that pretty much sums up this gigantic cover up that has loomed large over America the beautiful for almost fifty years.

As I grew up, I remember feeling the silent reverence of my parents and the older generations, the deep feeling of disbelief of what had happened to President Kennedy. It was something that was talked about in hushed tones; it was something so horrible that a child’s ears should be covered; spared from the horror of what happened… it has been like an opened wound for so long. Then the assassinations of Reverend Martin Luther King and the President’s brother Senator Robert Kennedy only made things even more surreal; it was like stir up the pot and get blown away by a lone gunman! For those like myself, we're not buying into it anymore; at least not the Warren Commissions report of what happened; a crazed lone gunman named Lee Harvey Oswald is going to protect the United States from a rouge president by blowing his brains out… and then the gunman himself is shot dead (on live TV no less) by shady nightclub owner named Jack Ruby… WTF?! Then Ruby dies in prison just when he wanted to spill his guts. How did this happen? I need answers! One of my biggest fears is to leave this good earth without getting them fucking answers! I'm sure that dogs who did this most surely are all dead... they lay still under cold marble... but the truth remains, waiting to be uncovered. J.F.K. wasn't a saint... we now know. But it truly seemed that he wanted what was best for America. And he was starting to push the envelope. It's been noted that J.F.K. wanted to withdraw the military advisers from Vietnam (that never happened and look what happened!) J.F.K. also wanted to do a major shake up (or even more drastic, the removal ) of The Federal Reserve (the private bankers who masquerade as a branch of the U.S. Government) who many believe rule the roost to this day... Kennedy pissed people off... a lot of people wanted him gone. But who really had the power to remove the President of the United States?

I remember back in the 70’s the theories about a conspiracies started popping up with guys like comedian Mort Sahl; who pretty much stopped being a comedian (and was black-balled when he tried to shed light on this murderous act of treason.) Still this considered a fringe group, not to be taken seriously… after all how could it be? Yeah, every President since George Washington has had his enemies, John Kennedy was no exception; Cuba, the mob, white supremacists...  But you really have to have some dark powers to kill the President of the most powerful country in  the world… a man who only 13 months before brought us back from brink of nuclear war with the Soviet Union? Does the Mafia have that kind of juice? I doubt it? Only New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison had the balls big enough to try and uncover this crime (his story was the basis of Oliver Stone’s J.F.K. fill) and to bring a case against someone who might have been part of the cabal to kill the President. That man was New Orleans business man Clay Shaw (he unfortunately was acquitted and his story was almost entirely forgotten for almost twenty years, until Stone’s film.) So many conspirators, so little time.

Clay Shaw

Thank God for the famous Abraham Zupruder film…the wild card, which was something that whoever killed President Kennedy didn't count on. Zupruder was a private citizen, who just happen to be filming the president motorcade that fateful day and caught the assassination in his little movie camera lens…(and for that I think he should have been buried at Arlington National Cemetery with all the other men American heroes.) Amazingly the Zupruder film was not shown to the public until 1975! But when it was, we started to realize how ridiculous the Warren Commissions Report really was. Oswald was right, he was a fuckin’ pasty!

In my lifetime we've had the breath knocked out of us three times; J.F.K., 9-11 and the devastation of New Orleans during hurricane Katrina (Pearl Harbor and the assassination of President Lincoln, the other two great tragedies that have momentary knocked our great nation to her knees.) For me the murder of J.F.K. doesn't leave my consciousness… it's in me, it will always be with me… every November it haunts me like a ghost.  Say what you will about Oliver Stone’s 1991 sensory overload film; which if nothing else kicked up the dirt again and asked again those questions about November 22, 1963. Do you care? You should… as Garrison says in Stones film. 

Jim Garrison

Jim Garrison: All these documents are yours. The people's property, you pay for it! But because the government considers you children who might be too disturbed or distressed to face this reality, or because you might possibly lynch those involved, you cannot see these documents for another seventy-five years. I'm in my early forties, so I'll have shuffled off this mortal coil by then, but I'm already telling my eight-year-old son to keep himself physically fit, so that one glorious September morning, in the year 2038, he can walk into the National Archives, and find out what the CIA and the FBI knew! They might even push it back then, hell it may become a generational affair, with questions passed down from father to son, mother to daughter, but someday, somewhere, somebody will find out the damn truth.

Yeah maybe it’s too big, and maybe David Ferrie was right? Maybe I’ll take the big sleep and never know? But I’m gonna give it a shot and try and stick around as long as I can, and maybe someone will crack this mystery once and for all? 

NBC: LENO - CONAN AND NOW ROCKFORD??

I think NBC is on acid? Because they are really trippin' hard! Sure we all know about the late night wars with Jay Leno & Conan O'Brien. With Leno out of his weekly 10 PM slot, the need for the peacock to fill that time void with some new content is at defcon 5.  Now, I just heard that they intend to fill an hour of it with a new version of (can you believe this?) ... THE ROCKFORD FILES!!?? One thing I can say is, "ARE YOU GUYS NUTS?" You can't do the Rockford Files without the legendary JAMES GARNER (not to mention writers, Roy Huggins & Stephen J. Cannell!) Didn't you guys waste loads of money trying to bring back THE BIONIC WOMAN & NIGHTRIDER??? I hear the guy who created HOUSE is gonna be the showrunner on this bad, bad idea! Look, they tried to remake, THE NIGHT STALKER & THE FUGITIVE, without Darren McGavin & David Janssen and guess what?  Just admit it, you guys need to remake yourselves..."Hey, I'm just sayin?"

2010

It's 2010! What does that mean? Ain't that a Roy Scheider movie? For a guy who was born at a time when men still wore fedoras, it's pretty strange. I can't believe it's been ten years since the year 2000! Y2k was a washout thank goodness, but a lotta bad shit did go down in those past ten years... Billy Joel could write another WE DIDN'T START THE FIRE song about them!
Most of us have been lucky enough to somehow make it to 2010 ( sadly a few did not.) I was once told "I was a man of the past and the present", I guess that's right. The future is "scary" and it only makes me "older" ... not crazy about that either.
But, I was fortunate enough to ring in New Years Eve with some dear friends (I'm the cat in the Stewart Granger safari jacket) and even lucky enough to kiss a beautiful woman at midnight... what could be better than that? So 2010, I say; if you can't get out of it... get into it! I wish us all well, Robert De Niro had a great line in the movie, BRAZIL ( he played a swashbuckling plumber) "we're all in this together." Amen to that brother Bob.