Sunday, May 29, 2005

Weekend Update

SNL aired The Best of Alec Baldwin last night. I predicted they would show the monologue from when Paul McCartney was the musical guest. Some sketches were predictable and reminded me of the days when SNL was funny!

Politically speaking, Kentucky is in a mess. This is why I decided, ultimately, to stay out of politics. There's too much corruption. I'm not talking about Star Wars when I say that either!

The Red Sox blew out the Yankees yesterday with a score of 17-1 with 27 hits!

Friday marked the first day that the St. Louis Cardinals took on a team from Washington, DC in their 113-year-old history. Jeff Suppan is a mensch. He is donating $50 for every strikeout to Intrepid Fallen Heroes. Cardinals care will match Suppan's donations.

Patrick Swayze did attempt to save Chris Farley. Unsuccessful. There was too much of John Belushi in him.
Swayze and Farley became unlikely friends when they teamed up for a famous dancing skit on comedy show Saturday Night Live, and the actor knew the comic was headed for a tragedy - but could do nothing about it.

Swayze recalls, "Chris and I got to be really close. It broke my heart when he died. "I actually saw him the night before he died and I tried to talk to him but he was in that kind of moment, gone, not here.

"That's the scary part about stardom; it can take you down dark places...You're paid to go to these dark places and you should have guidance to go there.

"You use characters to try to work your way through it but when you come out on the other side you're a much bigger person hopefully."
Farley was only 33 when he died in 1997.

Backstage profiles Danielle Panabaker. She is a very talented actress.
It's become cliche to talk about how young actors seem wise beyond their years, but Danielle Panabaker is living proof that sometimes old chestnuts ring true. When viewing her performance in the HBO miniseries Empire Falls (beginning Sat., May 28), one is immediately taken by her preternatural talent as she portrays sensitive teen Tick Roby, the beloved daughter of a divorcing couple played by Ed Harris and Helen Hunt. The film was shot in the fall of 2003, when Panabaker was only 15 years old, and the actor more than holds her own against her famous onscreen parents and an impressive cast that also includes Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward, and Robin Wright Penn.[...]

Panabaker and her family moved to Los Angeles three years ago, after she and her sister Kay (a regular on the WB's series Summerland) convinced their parents they should pursue acting full time. There was little doubt the two were serious about their work. "The first year we were here, we were taking acting classes seven days a week," she says. "We took them from anyone who would accept us. We spent our days doing school, afternoons auditioning, and evenings going to class." She still tries to take classes when she has time, citing Marnie Cooper and Warner Laughlin as two local favorites. She adds that she also took something away from the bad classes. "You can always learn something," she notes. "Maybe it's a technique you don't like; maybe it's a style. But you learn different things."

Up next for Panabaker are two big Hollywood films: In this summer's Sky High, she plays a superhero who can control nature, and in Thanksgiving's Yours, Mine, and Ours she plays the eldest daughter of Rene Russo. The Sky High job came about as a direct result from her screen test for Disney's Freaky Friday, a role that eventually went to Lindsay Lohan. Panabaker recalls being crushed when she didn't get the Friday job, but the producers remembered her when casting Sky High. "They had me in mind ever since they saw me test," she says, "which was so nice to hear."

Panabaker, who graduated high school at 14 and has been taking college courses ever since, is thinking of attending UCLA in the fall as an English major. "I know enough about the business to know what a difficult and crazy business it is, and I love being a part of it right now, but who knows? Five years, 10 years, maybe even two years down the road, it may be too overwhelming or too something, or I could just not like it anymore, at which point I would definitely quit," she says. "I've always said if this becomes too much of a job, I'm just not going to do it, because there's no point. There are so many other people who could be doing this and who have the passion for it, that me taking up space is no good. I love it, and I'll do it as long as I continue to love it."
Uh, Ernie, your facts are wrong. Stumbo is running for re-election, not Governor.
"My assessment as we look at this and what is it all about, I think it's pretty clear this is the beginning of the 2007 governor's race is what this is about" Fletcher, a Republican, told reporters Friday.

"By saying that this is the beginning of the 2007 governor's race, I think it's pretty clear what I mean by that," he said.
Jim Edmonds has hit 99 HR's at Busch Stadium as of Friday night.

Northern Kentucky's Most Influential People: #11, Dick Murgatroyd

Northern Kentucky's Most Influential People: #9, Trey Grayson

Ex-Secretary of State Colin Powell to drive pace car today.
The traditional whiteness of the crowd is nearly as well known as the race itself. Shortly after it was announced that Powell, a former secretary of state, would drive the pace car, a comedy bit on The Daily Show had Jon Stewart saying: "Becoming the first ex-Cabinet official to drive the pace car is one of many firsts Powell will accomplish at Indy." The Speedway entrance was shown with the banner: "WELCOME, BLACK GUY!"
Evan Bayh avoided the filibuster fight.
Larry Sabato, political science professor at the University of Virginia, said the judicial nominee issue was too important to those at the core of the Democratic Party for Bayh to risk irritating them.

"If he had been one of the seven-plus Democrats involved in the negotiations, then many of the liberal interest groups would have crossed him right off the list permanently for 2008," Sabato said.

Bayh's spokesman said the senator is a strong opponent of changing the rules for judicial filibusters "because he believes that more than a simple majority should be required for confirmation to lifetime appointments to the courts of appeal or the Supreme Court."

"The deals that were being discussed included confirming judges to the appeals court who were unable to get more than a simple majority in the Senate," said spokesman Dan Pfeiffer.
Religious conservatives were losers in the filibuster fight.
•A bill that President Bush threatened to veto, that the GOP leadership denounced, that deep-pocket interest groups opposed was passed out of the Republican-controlled House. It would expand federal research on stem cells, a prospect opponents called morally wrong (Rep. Mike Pence) and the same as abortion (Rep. Mark Souder), yet which a majority of the country supports.

•A group of seven Democratic and seven Republican senators found a way to defuse the nuclear option in the Senate despite pressure from the ideological right to vaporize the filibuster.

In both cases a minority of congressional Republicans refused to go along with the religious right, which pressured hard. The stem cell debate was fraught with the language and emotion that is normally associated with abortion.
Must I remind readers that Judaic law allows for stem cell research.

State employees are avoiding personal emails at all costs. Most are resorting to cell phones now that they lost their Blackberry's due to Stumbo's investigation.
Secretary of State spokesman Les Fugate hadn't seen a computer floppy disk in "forever" when a co-worker brought one to his office the other day.

And then Fugate noticed e-mail traffic to the office plunged by half, but phones were "ringing off the hook" and more people wanted to talk with him in person.

Why this sudden return to the modus operandi of the 1990s?

Fugate said the answer is Attorney General Greg Stumbo's merit hiring investigation, with its court-ordered access to state workers' e-mails.

The court has ruled sensitive policy files off-limits, but Secretary of State Trey Grayson's employees and advisers are "just afraid" to use government e-mail, Fugate said.

"They were afraid that something might happen and the AG's office would have access and it's just falling into the wrong hands politically," said Fugate, who was a bit bemused by his colleagues' reactions. "There's an unnecessary shroud of protectiveness."

It's just one sign of state government under siege.

While Stumbo and Gov. Ernie Fletcher's administration focus on the investigation, officials said the business of state government has slowed in certain agencies.

Because of the demand for documents to feed three independent investigations and an internal review, the Personnel Cabinet burned through six months' worth of supplies for blacking out sensitive personal information in the first two weeks of Stumbo's inquiry.

Some officials are using their personal cell phones, after the attorney general seized their state-issued Blackberry personal digital assistants.

Dozens of employees working to comply with subpoenas have had to shunt aside routine tasks.
Free credit reports are available to Kentuckians. You can read more at the Compassionate e-Community. I'm still getting used to that name. Thankfully, a 2003 law enables consumers to get the report for free.

David Wells goes against Mike Mussina tonight. As of tonight, Boston will have played 30 games on the road with only 19 games played at home. This is unjust! Also, David Wells and Edgar Renteria are switing uniform numbers. Renteria will take #3 and Wells #16.

St. Louis's current team ranks #2 all-time as of 48 games. Jim Edmonds has joined Mark McGwire (119) and Ray Lankford (123) with regards to the 100 home runs at Busch Stadium club.

Campbell County Democratic Chairman Ken Mullikin released a statement through the electronic mail today:
On Saturday it was reported in the local print media that Gov. Fletcher has a new take on his hiring scandal. "My assessment as we look at this and what it is all about, I think it's pretty clear this is the beginning of the 2007 governor's race is what this is about," Fletcher said.

Lloyd Rogers, former Campbell County Judge, sees it differently. Commenting on the Hayden part of the scandal in The Sunday Challenger Rogers says, "The creditability of Gov. Ernie Fletcher is at stake and he doesn't seem to understand what is happening. A second term for him does not look very likely."

I never thought I would see the day when we needed to help Rogers prove himself right, but thanks to Fletcher, that is where we find ourselves. After winning our county races next year, we must do everything possible to end Fletcher's time in Frankfort. That is unless his time ends earlier, remember Nixon said he knew nothing of his scandal either. We all know what happened to him.

Also in the Challenger on Sunday Vicki Prichard notes that the Republicans are "eating their own" over the Hayden appointment. Prichard hasn't been covering politics in No. Ky long, but she seems to have figured out how the Republicans work. Keep an eye on her column each week in the Challenger.

Has anyone seen or heard form Senator Stine since the hiring scandal broke. I am starting to worry about her. Let me know if you have seen her. Joe Fischer has been missing also, but that is not unusual.
Some of Lloyd Roger's comments:
Gov. Ernie Fletcher named Mark Hayden to be the Campbell County Commissioner taking the place of the deceased Bill Verst. A considerable number of people in Campbell County are scratching their heads, trying to figure out what qualified Mark Hayden to be County Commissioner? It was nothing but pure politics.

Mark Hayden came on the scene suddenly and ran for State Representative against Dennis Keene and lost two years ago. But one must look deeper than that to see the reasoning. Mr. Hayden works for a law firm, Greenebaum, Doll and McDonald, where it just so happens the governor's son, Ben Fletcher, is employed. Do you see a connection here?

The present judge-executive of Campbell County, Steve Pendery, made it known to the right people that he wanted Mark Hayden for the job. Recently, Judge Pendery and the fiscal court hired Greenebaum, Doll and McDonald to give legal advice on the transportation bill. I always thought that the county attorney was elected to advise the fiscal court, and I think County Attorney Justin Verst is qualified to do so. A recent payment to Greenebaum, Doll and McDonald of approximately $38,000 from the Campbell County Fiscal Court makes me wonder, what's going on here?[...]

With all the publicity lately about the political favoring in hiring, one would think the governor would cease this practice of hiring individuals based on whom they know rather than their qualifications.

One can only hope the governor will issue a statement of why and how this decision was made. Don't hold your breath while waiting for this statement. Did it have anything to do with the governor's son and Greenebaum, Doll and McDonald?

The credibility of Gov. Ernie Fletcher is at stake and he doesn't seem to understand what is happening. A second term for him does not look to be very likely.
Roger's is the former Republican Judge-executive of Campbell County. It is fishy when they turn against their own. Several turned against Bunning over his behavior and Bush over disagreements with the war.

The Sunday Challenger has ranked the top 50 influential people living in Northern Kentucky. Many names are familiar to me.

#1 Jim Votruba, NKU President
#2 Ralph Drees, Kenton County Judge-executive
#3 Bill Butler, founder of Corporex
#4 Jerry Carroll, Real Estate
#5 Wayne Carlisle, businessman
#6 Ed Hughes, founding president of Gateway Community and Technical College
#7 Nancy Kremer, senior vice president at St. Luke hospitals
#8 Gary Toebben, Businessman
#9 Trey Grayson, Secretary of State
#10 Katie Stine, Republican State Senator
#11 Dick Murgatroyd, Deputy Chief of Staff for Governor Fletcher
#12 Atsushi Niimi, President and CEO, Toyota Motor Manufacturing North America
#13 Paul Hemmer, Jr., CEO of the Paul Hemmer Companies
#14 William T. "Bill" Robinson, Managing Member, Greenebaum Doll & McDonald PLLC
#15 Bishop Roger Foys, Diocese of Covington
#16 John Domaschko, Kentucky Educational Television (KET) board member at large
#17 Father Bill Cleves, President Emeritus and Vice Chancellor, Thomas More College
#18 Fred Buttrell, CEO, Comair
#19 Joseph Gross, President of St. Elizabeth Hospital
#20 Dick Roeding, Republican State Senator
#21 Steve Pendery, Campbell County Judge-executive
#22 Bob Zapp, Bank of Kentucky President
#23 Judy Clabes, Scripps-Howard Foundation, Forward Quest Founding Member
#24 Gary Moore, Judge-executive, Boone County
#25 Jim Bunning, U.S. Senator
#26 Jim Huff, Founder, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman, Huff Realty
#27 Oakley Farris, Philanthropist and Landlord
#28 Chris Goddard, Health Point HealthPoint Family Care CEO
#29 J.R. Cassidy, Kentucky Symphony Director
#30 Fred Bassett, Superintendent, Beechwood Schools
#31 Kevin Canafax, General Manager, Fidelity Investments
#32 Phil Ciafardini, City Manager, Newport
#33 John Stanton, Fletcher NKY representative
#34 Geoff Davis, Congressman
#35 Jack Moreland, Superintendent, Covington Schools
#36 L.D. Campbell, Pastor/teacher
#37 Alex Edmondson, Covington City Commissioner
#38 Greg Popovich, Camobell District Judge
#39 Frank Sommerkamp, Crestview Hills city councilman
#40 Bryan Blavatt, Boone Co. Superintendent
#41 Greg Shumate, Kenton Co. GOP Chair
#42 Dan Tobergte, CEO of Tri-County Economic Development Corporation
#43 Alice Sparks, University of Kentucky Board of Trustee
#44 Susan Cook, Kenton Co. Superintendent
#45 Jon Draud, State Representative
#46 Shaun Alexander, football player
#47 Ken Shields, former NKU Basketball coach
#48 Jay Fossett, City Solicitor
#49 Sister Margaret Stallmeyer, Thomas More College President
#50 Bennie Doggett, Eastside Neighborhood Association President

I'd prefer him over Ernie any day of the week, but I'd prefer Jonathan over either any day as well.

I think that's enough reading for now.

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