Saturday, October 02, 2010

Denard Robinson of Michigan Is Michael Vick Without The Dogs

Denard Robinson of Michigan is a one-man show that single-handledly beat previously undefeated Indiana 42 to 35 Saturday.

This blogger was going to refer to him as the next Michael Vick, the great quarterback who's rehabilitated his career with the Philadelphia Eagles, after a two-year stint in prison for being involved in the business of dog fighting. But in not mentioning dog fighting, someone would have filled in the blank for me, thus the line "Michael Vick Without The Dogs."

Regardless, Denard Robinson is something special.

The current leading 2010 Heisman Trophy candidate had 494 yards of total offense all by himself. He was 10 of 16 for 277 passing, and 19 rushes for 277 yards according to ESPN. For those who say he's more of a runner than a passer, those statistics show he can do it on the ground and in the air.

The Quarterback Of The Future

Denard Robinson is the Quarterback of Of The Future, today. Just as Michael Vick is, especially now that he's with a coach in Andy Reid who knows how to employ his talents. These players are true double-threat players who are hard to defense. To think of putting Denard Robinson at any position other than quarterback is purely insane.

Stay tuned.

Oakland Female Bartender Competition This Tuesday, Oct 5th

The long-awaited first all-femele bartender competition is this Tuesday, October 5th at 6:30 at Pican Restaurant in downtown Oakland.

This blogger is one of the sponsors of the event, and the main sponsors are Pican in Oakland and Grand Manier, the ultimate liquor.

As of this writing, there are nine women bartenders who represent great Oakland bars and restaurants like Pican, and Room 389 on Grand Avenue.

Stop by and witness a first in Oakland, if not the San Francisco Bay Area. The first person to say they found out about it on Zennie62 will win a bottle of Grand Manier.

Here's the details:

Pican Restaurant: 2295 Broadway, Oakland, CA 94612
Tuesday, October 5th, From 6:30 PM to 9:30 PM PDT.

See you there.

Old School Horror With Hatchet II - Movie Locations By City



Hatchet II is out and it gets an overall review of 37 percent positive by critics like Roger Ebert. Ebert, the most famous of all movie critics, said this about Hatchet II:

Man, Adam Green must have run up a bill at the local butcher. Hundreds of dollars worth of sweetmeats, livers, gizzards, hearts, lungs and other organs of animals (none of them human, I trust) are seemingly ripped out of Crowley’s victims, while blood helpfully obscures our view of the details of these eviscerations.

And that's the point: Hatchet II is a movie designed to be so bad it's good. It does have a story, but the effects and scenes are so gross-out bad you laugh at the same time you're scared.

 The point of the movie is what the trailer says: to give you buckets and buckets of blood.

This blogger enjoyed Hatchet II and being with Danielle Harris, Kane Hodder, and the cast at Comic Con 2010.

Here are the locations where you can see Hatchet II:

UPDATED THEATER LIST:

ALABAMA
Eastern Shore Premiere Cinema (30500 State Highway 181 Spanish Fort, AL)
Tannehill Premiere Cinema (4801 Promenade Parkway, Bessemer, AL)
Gadsden Premiere Cinema 16 (1001 Rainbow Drive Suite 2 Gadsden, AL)

ARIZONA
TUSCON:
· AMC Foothills 15(7401 N La Cholla Blvd)

CALIFORNIA
LOS ANGELES:
· AMC Universal CityWalk 19 (100 Universal City Plaza)
· AMC 30 at The Block (20 City Blvd Orange, CA)
· AMC Ontario Mills 30 (4549 Mills Circle Ontario, CA)
· AMC Burbank Town Center 8 (201 E Magnolia Blvd, Burbank)
· AMC Norwalk 20 (12300 Civic Center Dr, Norwalk)
· AMC Covina 30 (1414 N Azusa Ave Covina, CA)
· MANN Chinese 6 (6801 Hollywood Blvd)

SAN FRANCISCO:
· AMC Bay Street 16 (5614 Shellmound Street, Emeryville)

SAN DIEGO:
· AMC Palm Promenade 24 (770 Dennery Rd)


CONNECTICUT
· AMC Plainville 20 (220 New Britain Ave, Plainville, CT)

FLORIDA
MIAMI / FT LAUDERDALE:
· AMC Mall of America (19501 Biscayne Blvd)
· AMC Sunset Place 24 (5701 Sunset Dr South Miami, FL)
JACKSONVILLE:
· AMC Regency 24 (9451 Regency Square Blvd.)
· AMC Orange Park 24 (1910 Wells Rd Orange Park, FL)
ORLANDO:
· AMC Pleasure Island 24 (1500 E Buena Vista Dr Lake Buena Vista, FL)
· AMC Universal Cineplex 20(6000 Universal BlvdOrlando, FL)
TALLAHASSEE:
· AMC Tallahassee Mall 20 (2415 N Monroe St)
TAMPA:
· AMC Veterans Expressway 24 (9302 Anderson Rd)
· AMC Regency Square 20 (2496 W Brandon Blvd Brandon, FL)

GEORGIA
ATLANTA:
· AMC Barrett Commons 24 (2600 Cobb Place Ln NW Kennesaw, GA)
· AMC Southlake Pavilion 24(7065 Mount Zion CirMorrow, GA)



ILLINOIS
CHICAGO:
· AMC Crestwood 18 (13221 Rivercrest Dr, Crestwood, IL)
· AMC Pipers Alley 4 (1608 N Wells St)

LOUISIANA
NEW ORLEANS:
· AMC Elmwood Palace 20 (1200 Elmwood Park Blvd)
· AMC Westbank Palace 16 (1151 Manhattan Blvd Harvey, LA)


MASSACHUSETTES
BOSTON:
· AMC Boston Common 19 (175 Tremont St)
· AMC Liberty Tree Mall 20 (100 Independence Way, Danvers)
· AMC Methuen 20 (90 Pleasant Valley St, Methuen

MARYLAND
BALTIMORE:
· AMC Owings Mills 17 (10100 Mill Run Cir Owings Mills, MD)

MICHIGAN
DETROIT:
· AMC Livonia 20 (19500 Haggerty Rd Livonia, MI)
· AMC Southfield 20 (25333 W 12 Mile RdSouthfield, MI)
· AMC Great Lakes 24 (4300 Baldwin RdAuburn Hills, MI)

MISSOURI
ST. LOUIS:
· AMC West Olive 16 (12657 Olive St Creve Coeur, MO)

NEW YORK / NEW JERSEY
NEW YORK CITY:
· AMC Empire 25 (234 W 42nd St)
· AMC 34th Street 14 (312 W. 34th St.)
· AMC MJ Harlem 9 (2309 Frederick Douglas Blvd)
· AMC 84th Street 6 (2310 Broadway)
· AMC Village 7 (66 Third Ave)

NEW JERSEY:
· AMC New Brunswick 18 (17 Route 1 New Brunswick)
· AMC Jersey Gardens 20 (Jersey Gardens Mall Jersey City, NJ)
NEW YORK STATE:
· AMC Palisades Center 21 (4403 Palisades Center Drive West Nyack)


NORTH CAROLINA
CHARLOTTE:
· AMC Carolina Pavilion 22(9541 South Blvd)
· AMC Concord Mills 24 (8421 Concord Mills BlvdConcord, NC)

OHIO
CINCINATTI:
· AMC Newport on the Levee 20 (1 Levee WayNewport, KY)


CLEVELAND
· AMC Ridge Park Square Cinema 8 (4788 Ridge Road, Brooklyn)

COLUMBUS:
· AMC Easton Town Center 20 (160 Easton Town Center)
· AMC Lennox Town Center 24 (777 Kinnear Rd.)

PENNSYLVANIA
PITTSBURGH:
· AMC Waterfront 22 (300 Waterfront Dr W Homestead, PA)

PHILADELPHIA:
· AMC Cherry Hill 24 (2121 Route 38 Cherry Hill, NJ)
· AMC Hamilton 24 (325 Sloan Ave Hamilton, NJ)

TEXAS
AUSTIN
· AMC Barton Creek Square 14 (2901 South Capital Texas Highway)

HOUSTON:
· AMC Studio 30 (2949 Dunvale Rd)
· AMC Gulf Pointe 30 (11801 S Sam Houston Pkwy E)
DALLAS:
· AMC The Grand 24 (10110 Technology Blvd E)
· AMC Mesquite 30 (19919 Lyndon B Johnson Fwy, Mesquite)

VIRGINIA
HAMPTON, VA
· AMC Hampton 24 (Town Center Way)

WASHINGTON
SEATTLE:
· AMC Alderwood 16 (18733 33rd Ave West, Lynnwood)
· AMC Uptown 3 (511 Queen Anne Ave N)

WASHINGTON DC
· AMC Hoffman Center 22 (206 Swamp Fox Rd Alexandria, VA)
· AMC Potomac Mills 18(2700 Potomac Mills CirWoodbridge, VA)

WISCONSIN
MILWAUKEE:
· AMC Mayfair Mall 18 (2500 N Mayfair Rd Wauwatosa, WI)


CANADA
TORONTO:
· AMC Yonge & Dundas 24 (10 Dundas Street East)
MONTREAL:
· AMC Montreal: Forum 22 (2313 Ste-Catherine Ouest)

Donovan McNabb vs. Michael Vick - Charles Barkley Picks McNabb

On Sunday, Philadelphia Eagles Quarterback Michael Vick will play against his friend and mentor Washington Redskins QB Donovan McNabb in a much-anticipated NFL Football game.

First, it is so because Donovan McNabb was the Eagles long-time starting quarterback last year until he was traded to the Skins.

Second, McNabb lobbied for the then-recently-released-from-prison Vick, who played for the Atlanta Falcons, to join the Eagles.

Third, it's the first time in NFL History that a big game featured two well-known black quarterbacks. Can the Super Bowl be far behind?

And NBA Legend Charles Barkley is picking McNabb

According to a radio interview at WIP Philadelphia with Howard Eskin and Ike Reese, and transcribed by Sports Radio Interviews.com Barkley said

"I can’t wait to get to the game Sunday and I wanna personally thank Mr. Daniel Snyder for sending me my Donovan McNabb Redskins jersey. I cannot wait. I’m a little disturbed because I’m pulling for Michael Vick, but I always have said that Donovan never has gotten the respect he deserves in Philadelphia and before Michael Vick got into the game I did not know that. But I’m wearing my Donovan McNabb jersey and I can’t wait till Sunday at 4:15 Eastern."


Asked why he believed McNabb would win, Sir Charles said this:

"It’s called karma. It’s called karma Howard. Donovan has never been treated good and it’s karma. The football gods are going to rise up and this is going to get the Redskins season started."

Someone should tell Sir Charles of Barkley that the game's in Philadelphia, not in Washington DC.   I'm picking Michael Vick because the Eagles have a faster team and they're at home.  But it will be close too, because McNabb knows too much about his former organization.

Friday, October 01, 2010

CNN Fires Rick Sanchez - What's Your View? A Poll



CNN fired Rick Sanchez Friday after the famous and popular news show host got on Pete Dominick's radio show and said that CNN was "ran by Jews," in addition to saying that The Daily Show Host Jon Stewart was a "bigot." (Oh, and since Jon is also Jewish, do you think, reversely, that Sanchez, was saying CNN's bigoted too?)

Since that action, CNN has removed Rick Sanchez blog page (see) and failed to allow the long time broadcast journalist anything like a graceful exit.   Meanwhile Rick Sanchez stopped tweeting on Twitter and went into hiding.

Reaction To Firing Of Rick Sanchez

As of this writing, "Rick Sanchez" is the 2nd most popular search on Google. People are hungry to read about what happened and why, looking for any clues to his sudden disappearance Friday, and any other news of what behind-the-scenes actions led to his ouster.

This blogger wonders if Rick Sanchez was drunk when he made his semi-Mel Gibson rant. That would explain how stupid he was to get on a radio show and make comments like those he came up with. In listening to him, and watching his show, it seems he became a bit bitter of late. Why, is not known. What is known is that observers and commenters are shocked - some happy and some sad.

At Mediaite the comments largely add up to the idea that Sanchez will land at Fox News.  Others loved that he was fired - in fact, there's not a dry eye around the Internet.  But there are people, including this blogger, that are surprised CNN let him go and want to know what happened.  There are others who use the moment to share their own race hatred, but they're few

Maybe. Unless one goes over to Stormfront.

CNN acted too fast; some words had to have been exchanged.  CNN seems bent on ridding themselves of Rick, even yanking down any online mark of him with them that they have control of.

Something happened internally.  But what would you have done with Rick Sanchez?

create a free poll on pollsb.com

99ers Union Co-Founder Gregg Rosen on Fox News today



99ers Union Co-Founder Gregg Rosen on Fox News today, argued extending unemployment benefits is not a government handout, but an investment in the country. But the ignorant Fox host of the Varney & Company show wouldn't have any of that.
Fox is often referred to erroneously as a news network, when actually they have demonstrated time and again they are simply the air wave cable puppet for Republican talking points.

Gregg told the San Diego Unemployment Examiner, "When it was all said and done, when Mr. Varney asked me the following question, 'You think if we extend unemployment insurance for more than 99 weeks, that will put money into people's pockets, which they will then spend, raising demand?' I felt I could not have said it any better myself. He had just described the U.S. Economic System of Supply and Demand."

At the end of the interview, Varney refers to UI benefits as welfare, and Gregg promptly corrected him.

It is hard for anyone with a real message or someone talking on any subject that is not about improving the bottom line of the richest in America - to get a fair shake on Fox. Mr. Varney knows well the bedrocks of economic principle, yet still chose to abandon what he knows to be true, in favor of keeping his own job and spewing the lame, worn out Republican talking points.

>

99er NOVO member Mignon Veasley-Fields renders Ed Schultz speechless



99er NOVO member Mignon Veasley-Fields rendered Ed Schultz speechless yesterday, blaming both the Democrats as well as the Republicans for the mess the 99ers find themselves in today.

In recent weeks, a group of the longest term unemployed has emerged called the 99er NOVOs, who are so angered by Washington inaction on a Tier 5 that they were refusing to vote at all in the upcoming elections, unless S3706 (The Americans Want to Work Act) was brought to the Senate floor for a vote first.

Mignon Veasley-Fields is a 61-year-old Los Angeles grandmother who has been out of work since June 2008. Her unemployment benefits ran out over three months ago.

On Thursday's "Ed Show," Schultz did his best to get Veasley-Fields to encourage the NOVOs to cast ballots for Democrats in November despite their economic woes. Since the NOVO agreement was to halt their plans not to vote, if the bill was brought to the floor, Mignon assured Ed that the NOVOs would indeed keep their word. Unfortunately, the 99ers are not all on board with this decision.

"Well Ed, yes, we have committed that we are going to encourage our fellow 99ers to vote for either party that their choice. However, 

Ed, yesterday was very disappointing for us. And even though we are trying to tell them to vote, many of them are not going to vote even though the No NOVO says to go ahead and do this. They were disillusioned by what they saw on the Senate floor yesterday. We were grateful for Senator Stabenow for her effort, but we thought it was just sort of put together really quickly like a dog and pony show in order to get us to vote for them. This is a sentiment across this nation." Ms. Fields told Ed.

Schultz countered: "But if the Republicans, but Mignon, if the Republican Senator had not stood up, this would have gone through, and you would have had the votes, and you would have gotten an extension. It's the Republicans. Why take it out on the Democrats, the majority Party that time and time again has been there for the unemployed?"

To which Mignon replied: "Well you know, Ed, we have gone back in the history of the tiers. We as 99ers have tried to figure this out ourselves. What has happened is we can remember the time in which the Republicans said, "Sure, get another tier. Use the stimulus funds. And the Democrats said, 'No, we need to find sourcing for unemployment.' So now we're thinking back on that, and we're realizing it's not the Republicans. It was the Democrats that caused us to be in the situation that we're in. We want the Democrats to come back before this election, and we want them to come back and rectify this, Ed."

Of course, Veasley-Fields was right. The Republicans for over three months have stubbornly insisted that any additional tier be paid for either with stimulus money or some other part of the budget rather than just added to the growing deficit. Even while they demand the extension of the Tax cuts for the very rich, which would not be paid for and would add trillions to the deficit over the next 10 years.

So even as the Democrats are surely the lesser of the two evil choices Americans have this election day, it is very difficult for millions to get excited about voting when going hungry and homeless in droves every day.

Earlier in the video segment below, Ed calls upon President Obama to talk directly to the 99ers, saying: "Mr. President, you've got to speak directly to the unemployed. Directly to the unemployed. The people that don't have a job. the people that don't have benefits. the people that have been shafted by the republicans in recent weeks.” Shultz also pointed out: "I think if the Democrats, the majority party, think that 15 million unemployed voters can't make a difference in November, i think you've got another thing coming."

You can watch the full segment in the video below.

Rahm Emanuel Leaves Obama White House, Replaced By Pete Rouse



President Obama officially announced the worst kept secret in Washington, DC: that White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel is resigning his post "to explore other opportunities." Namely, to run for Mayor of Chicago, Illinois.

Rahm, or "Rahmmy" as he's called, is an energetic, engaging, and effective public official. He's steered very important legislation to passage, including the historic Health Care Reform Bill.

This blogger personally met Mr. Emanuel during the 2008 Democratic National Convention in Denver. Rahm threw a giant party at Faldo's in downtown Denver that drew 1,000 people. I talked with him then, and then again at Pepsi Center twice. At that time, he was a Congressman; he gave up his position to help President Obama in the White House.

The man who will replace him, Peter Rouse, has the title of "Interim White House Chief Of Staff." Let's see how long that will last. Rouse is well respected and has a different style, shall we say, than Rahm.

I like Rahm and think he will be an outstanding Mayor of Chicago. But he's got to get elected first.

More on this soon.

Rick Sanchez Fired From CNN After Comments About CNN and Jews

Rick Sanchez has been fired from CNN.

Just four minutes after this blogger posted a follow-up entry on Rick's silence on Twitter, a Google Search and dig threw the news area revealed that Rick Sanchez was fired according to The Huffington Post.

CNN issued this short statement.

Rick Sanchez is no longer with the company. We thank Rick for his years of service and we wish him well.

And that ends a long career with CNN and Turner Broadcasting for Rick Sanchez. Rick is on his own "List You Don't Want To Be On."

Frankly, it's sad because Rick didn't have the chance to walk back his statement. Or, something happened where he was asked to do something he didn't want to do.

Maybe it was to apologize.

Frankly, what he did was stupid: getting on a radio to trash his company as being "ran by Jews" which isn't true and moreover, if it was true, so freaking what? It's not a bad thing.

Dumb. Just plain dumb.

It's not over.  Stay tuned.

Rick Sanchez Fired? Not On Show Or Twitter After "Jews" Comments

One sign that CNN's Rick Sanchez is in trouble not so much after his blasts against The Daily Show's Jon Stewart, but after his rant about how he thinks CNN's "ran by Jews," is that Rick's issued one tweet on Twitter on Friday and did not appear on his show, Rick's List.

If Rick Sanchez is fired, CNN's keeping the issue quiet. Emails on this have not been answered as of this writing, and may go unanswered. The kind of attention Rick brought to himself is not one CNN wants its sensitive stable of advertisers to be exposed to.

If you missed what Rick said, here's a YouTube video of his comments on Jon Stewart, who he think is a bigot but it doesn't include the CNN "Jews" rant. The talk is on Pete Dominick's SiriusXM Radio Show that was broadcast out of Atlanta. Here's the Stewart rant:



And while this YouTuber seems to agree with Rick, it's the only available video with the dialog on it.



Rick Sanchez Not On Twitter

Whatever CNN's going to do with Rick, one thing's clear, he's stopped using Twitter, at least for today, Friday. Sanchez issued one tweet 19 hours ago as of this writing. This one:


ricksanchezcnn Rick Sanchez
great shows today, last night on air... great numbers... yeah


And given its time, that must have been in the wee hours of the morning.

That output is odd for a person who tweets as much as 20 times or more per day. Rick Sanchez has went silent today. The question is, was he fired, told to go under ground, or just taking a sunny Georgia day off.

Stay tuned.

CNN's Rick Sanchez Says John Stewart Bigot, CNN Ran By Jews?

CNN's Rick Sanchez got on the radio show called Stand-Up With Pete Dominick (Dominick is a stand-up comic) and in a long conversation with the host, called Jon Stewart of The Daily Show a bigot, and said that CNN is "ran by Jews."  But in all of the controversy over what Rick Sanchez said, the host of Rick's List is telling some truths.

Two of the truth's he's telling is that Jon Stewart does have a staff that's not diverse, and thus does leave himself open to being called a "bigot." The other is that Jews, while the victims of heavy Worldwide discrimination, are not powerless.

As a former member of the local Hillel chapter and because of my last name (Abraham and a long story), the wonderful aspect of Jewish Culture is the practice of helping each other and society. That leads to the power of a social network that leads to being able to make sure friends get employed, even if they're not Jewish.

All of that was lost in the presentation of Rick's clumsy talk, which reflected more of a hateful bias than a loving one.

Pete went to Atlanta to do his SiriusXM Radio Show, which is where the interview took place. According to Pete Dominick's own site, Sanchez "railed" against Fox News and MSNBC, the two competing cable news networks, for their right and left news bias.

Then Rick turned his lather toward Jon Stewart: I think to some extent Jon Stewart and [Stephen] Colbert are the same way. I think Jon Stewart’s a bigot." And from that point, Rick and Pete got into a discussion of what Rick meant by that.

But the question is, is Rick correct? Well, yes and no.


The Daily Show's Problem

Yes, because while The Daily Show has women writers, its reported that the men hold the best jobs and they're white. What Rick was saying is that Jon has a bias in that he has people who tend to have his skin color around him. That can't be said, for example, for Jimmy Fallon of Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, who's white, but has two African American male writers, Bashir Salahuddin and Diallo Riddle (in the front row in the photo at left).

The photo here, from a meetup panel discussion on late-night comedy writers, is a good illustration. In the front row, Salahuddin and Riddle are sitting next to Jason Ross and J.R. Havlan, both of The Daily Show, and both part of a stable of white male writers. A group that drew major criticism in the wake of the David Letterman Sex Scandal, where David admitted to sleeping with his assistant Stephanie Burkitt.

All of this doens't mean Jon Stewart is a bigot.  Trying to find people who are good and of color is a task worth taking - Jimmy Fallon has done it.  But it means that Jon may have an old man's view of American Culture that causes him to turn a blind eye toward black-influenced American Culture.  That means his blinders can be removed; not so for a bigot.


CNN Ran By A Mix Of People

From the perspective of a person - this blogger - who's had a lot of experience with CNN and Turner Broadcasting, it's safe to say it's not "ran by Jews."  Even with its unfortunate focus on the Tea Party Movement, CNN's staff has a healthy mix of talented women and men of all colors.  CNN, for me, has been a positive experience and a wonderful organization.  

More on this later.

Blake Lively owns 'The Town' By Nikky Raney





Blake Lively is known for The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants and Gossip Girl - although Serena of Gossip Girl may get herself into some situations both roles are squeaky clean compared to the role Lively plays in The Town.

Photo Courtesy of Fanpop.com
When Lively first appears on the screen it looks as though she has been replaced with some evil twin - the total opposite of what fans are used to. The girl with the perfect make-up, sweet voice and stylish wardrobe has now transformed into a young woman with the messiest face, strong Massachusetts accent, skimpy clothing. She guzzles a beer and at that moment it is clear that Blake Lively will not be type-casted as the sweet girl - she is a versatile actress who shows that she can play different roles and succeed.

At first it is strange seeing the different side, but it is believable. Lively does an amazing job portraying Krista Coughlin - who goes from having a drunken sex scene with Ben Affleck's character Doug MacRay to taking care of her daughter.

The movie is about Doug and his three friends who rob banks together and get themselves into situations which lead to dramatic irony. The audience is on the edge of their seats waiting for the characters to find out the twists and turns.

Although Lively is not the main character this movie is a big step in her career. Everyone knows Ben Affleck can act - it was undeniable that he would do a great job, but having Lively break away from the stereotypical roles she plays and go in a completely opposite direction is worth focusing on.

Lively will be given many more opportunities for diverse roles due to how well she played her role as Krista. Had Lively bombed the role she probably would not be given a second chance to break out from her tame roles.

The things that Serena goes through on Gossip Girl is nothing compared to what Krista has to go through in The Town. The movie as a whole is brilliant and the plot will really grab the attention of the audience - it is unpredictable and suspenseful. Four and a half stars out of five, only because the ending could have been done better.

By Nikky Raney
Journalist & Blogger