Phil_Shuman's Blog

Was at the Century Plaza last nite w/ several thousand of my closest friends.. watching a little .. oh what did they call it again ? HISTORY being made.  Everyone was so fired up it was really exciting.. when Obama made his speech from Chicago it was a real moment.. on 5 giant TV screens... everyone felt like they were there..   One thing struck me also, in watching it and the crowd... Mayor Villariagosa was up in the little tiny press area , being interviewed ( surprise ! ) by like everyone in at least two languages, when Obama came on... He stopped  and leaned on railing there and had a look of awe and admiration and wonder on his face.. i wanted to take a picture but i really didnt want to intrude... you might search the web for photos of him from that moment cause there were like a million photogs there.. at any rate.. i know he felt pride for Obama ( even though he was a friend of hillary) and i wonder if he was thinking .. '' that could be me someday...'.. i'll have to ask him that.  Anyway..  there was quite a positive young happy vibe in that giant ballroom... and seemingly everywhere else obamaniacs where watching.. if we could carry that feeling out to the rest of the country and the world maybe we'll have something going there !!!!

I had a dream.. check that.. a nightmare.. i was driving and all i heard on the radio were ads for propositions.. all the billboards on the side of the road were for propositions... i turned on the TV and all the programming had been suspended and proposition commercials were running back to back. The Dodgers used all the money they had to sign Manny and gave it to proposition backers. At Staples Center the Lakers and Clippers were sponsored by various propositions. The Laker Girls had props listed on their chests.. ( you know everyone pays attention to that ! ) Taxi drivers had those rooftop signs that were all about propositions. I ordered a pizza and it came in a box covered with ads for propositions. When i went to the airport, LAX's theme restaurant had a huge tent over it with ads for propositions.. When i went to the rest room and closed the stall door, on the back, well.. you get the idea. Has anyone said ''enough"'..i mean really.... it's not just that the ads are totally confusing misleading, propoganda, and ANNOYING after the 9 zillionth time.. it's that the process is so out of whack that anyone with a couple of million to spend or a cousin with a Sacramento based public relations firm can get something on the ballot. It's good idea that is totally out of control Think of the tens of millions, it not much much more that all of the various campaigns have spent,..( ''7 ''spent about 27 million alone of utility company money to knock that baby down...which i'm sure will be hidden in the fine print of the rate hikes on our subsequent bills) and .. you know what ? despite it all.....everyone's going to vote 'NO on all of ' em anyway ( except maybe 11 )... what a waste of money... That could've been used in SOOOOOOO many better ways..how about the propositions fund raisers raising that kind of money health care ? homeless ? education? donate it to cancer research for God's sakes. Legislators are the ones we pay to go to Sacramento and fight with each other until some laws are made that theoretically reflect what the public wants and needs... granted that is a FAR from perfect system..but hey, isn't that why we have elections ? I propose no more props for 25 years.. can I start a campaign to get that law passed ?

What should i know about Prop 4, .,. or was it 5, or was it 11,.... 9,... 7, did i mention 8 ? something about gay weddings ????  what are all of them  they and should i vote for em ? excellent questions.  if you're a responsible voter you have to read the thick ''voter election guide'' that comes in the mail to your house... that's really the best way to make a decision.. but i mean really, who does that ? aren't u swayed by the commercials ?? oh, you've noticed those, huh ? anyway, if you're confused and annoyed and perplexed by all these props.. take comfort in the fact that you're not alone... don't just vote '' no'' like a lotta people..that's too simple.. of course it might send a message... enough already ! 

Hit the Home Depot Center in Carson sat along with 15 or 20 thousand folks to hear and see and experience the Sarah Palin phenomenon first hand.. and let me tell ya she rocked the house. Now you can sit there in your ivory tower and lament her lack of experience and tsk tsk about how foolish John McCain was to pick someone 99 . 9 percent of Americans had never heard of.. but you're livin in the past baby.  this crowd loved this woman, with all her winks and droppin of ''g's'' and shout outs and gollys.... so if you think California is automatically in the Blue state as it's been every Presidential election for the past 16 years... think again my friend.. She has folks motivated.. fired up.. donating, volunteering, registering and switching.   Not sure exactly what ''it'' is but she has ''it'' .. it's one of those things.. you know it when you see it.  Can she run the country if need be ?   incredibly,not really an issue for the Palinites.... They just know she's ''one of them'' ,... they can ''relate to her ''.... she's ''honest'' and ''tough'' and will ''stand up to power'.. and of course she and John McCain are the ''m'' word.... it may in fact be true.. but it's also a demonstration of the great political theory that if you repeat something often enough, it BECOMES true... stay tuned though, golly gee.

I had low expectations for the Emmy show Sun nite and believe me I wasn't disappointed...rather, i was shocked at how pathetic it was. With all the funny talented clever smart people in the world of TV and entertainment, how is it possible to be so lame, stupid, unfunny, sexist, out of touch , boring, absurd, old, unimaginative , ( i could go on ) all in the same few hours ? Heidi Klum in particular should be embarrased. I mean.. rippig your clothes off ? Let's see how we can prolong sexy dumb blonde stereotypes shall we ? Can you wink at the cameras a few more times ? I mean give me a break. The producers of that show should resign from the business like immediately if not sooner. It was really just amazing... if I were one of those presenters I woulda run for the hills before I went out on that stage.  Who wrote that stuff ? 1st graders ?

     If you go to a police officer's funeral and don't at least tear up... you're not human.  At Spree DeSha's mass and ceremony today, the female LAPD officer who died on the Metrolink train ....there were a lot of tears ... cops know how to do funerals... unfortunately....the doves, the riderless horse, the missing man formation..the 21 gun salute, the honor guard,. the formality, the folded flag presented to the grieving parents... and spouse.. and in this case... the spouse of Spree De Sha was also  a 'she' .. or perhaps the correct term is 'life partner.''. and the great thing was.. it didnt matter.  The fact that an openly gay officer , and her partner, also an LAPD officer, was laid to rest with full honors as she should be and her sexual orientation just a fact along w/ her age and her years of service is a remarkable occurence in this organization.  As my colleage Tony Valdez put it while we were discussing this, the LAPD  , 'had to be dragged kicking and screaming'' down the road to gay rights and equality.   Not unlike many other macho organizations.. acceptance of gays in the ranks came w/ a considerable amount of , blood and tears and lawsuits ....I think of former LAPD cop Mitch Grobeson who may still be battling various appeals of his landmark fight against the LAPD for all i know... of the days when gay cops or cops even suspected of being gay would roll on calls and suddenly find themselve with no backup.  So when an LAPD Deputy Chief presents a flag and hugs the 'life partner ' of a late officer and no one blinks an eye.. that my friends is real progress.  I hope no neanderthals in the ranks were rolling their eyes. if they were, they need a vacation.. a permanent one. it's 2008. 

I like Harvey Levin a lot. He's smart and funny and hard working and helps old ladies across the street.. I don't however, like what he represents.. which is an increasingly intrusive 'gotcha' approach into any celeb or pseudo celeb or wanna be celeb who happens to be out to dinner or at the airport. I know he and the kids on his TMZ show and web site have 'fun ' with it and take a different , sarcastic approach ( which I actually love) but still..... enough..i mean.. who cares ???? ... can't Kanye West and his bodyguard/slash/manager get on a flight to Hawaii w/o cameras in their faces ? I know I know.. they wouldn't do it if there wasn't a demand for it.. the paparazzi have to make a living too..... and some ( airheads) like Paris and Britney and Kim seem to thrive on the ''attention' but enough is enough.... Having said that, by the same token, the celebs of the world are happy to come on all our news and semi-news TV programs to tout their latest movies and shows and have us fawn all over them and give them a fortune in free publicity.. that's OK for them.. cause it's on their terms... and they can sit in a studio somewhere with assistants bringing them lattes and cell phone msgs while they patiently answer the same inane questions over and over again via satellite for news teams from around the country ... ( so Mathew... did you have more fun making Surfer Dude or Tropic Thunder ..? . i really wanna know ! ) ...Yet a lot of these are the same celebs who object ( Mathew) to being photographed when they're out in public ...who don't want to be bothered.. who sometimes fight back.... who somehow draw a distinction between being a celebrity when they're ''on'' and being a 'regular person'' when they're at the beach ? i dont think so.... Yes.... they want it both ways.. maybe they'll get it that way someday... new laws ? new ''rules"" ... .. but not as long as we live in Harvey's world.

I wouldn't necessarily call him my 'friend' but i've become close with Brad Burlingame over the years.  We first me in 2005 in an '' anniversary'' story for 9/11.  Brad, who is the Pres. of the West Hollywood Visitors and Convention Bureau, is an outgoing smiling type who's world was shattered when the brother he idolized, "Chic'' died.. Chic was the pilot of United flight 77, which hit the granite walls of the  Pentagon at 500 miles per hour carrying 5000 gallons of jet fuel and 63 other people.  What's remarkable about Brad is how well he's dealt with this tragedy... in terms of being able to speak about what it meant to him and so many others.. and why we must never let down our guard.. and what kind of threat we continue to face.  

Many others are weary of the media and our  annual stories where relatives of victims vent...... and i totally understand that.. but Brad feels his brother would want him to speak out and continue to warn people to stay vigilant and stay strong.. and not just once  year.  He reminds us that there are people who don't like our freedom and way of life... and would love to hit us again... it's cold but it's true...  that's the bottom line.... and that's why Brad is doing his brother and 3000 others proud by carrying the flag, so to speak, loudly and clearly

 This year I made another visit to Brad's office... which  still contains a lot of momentos of his and his brothers lives... you can tell they had a lot of fun... Behind the LA County Museum of art is a grove of trees dedicated to United 77's crew... Brad helped get that planted .... and in North Hollywood Park.. the name '' Burlingame'' is one of many victims names inscribed on a stone monument amidst hundreds of trees planted there in honor of 9/11's California victims..   Brad isn' t  defined by 9/11, but he doesn't shy away from talking about it.. the loss.. and the warnings

( P.S)... in another tragic postcript.. Chic's adult daughter, and only child, died a year ago in an accidental apartment fire in NY . 
 

He nailed it.  Democrat, Republican somewhere in between or somewhere on the fringe, the overwhelming consensus here in St Paul is that John McCain gave the speech of his political life , in the clutch, following up his VP w/ just the right amount of passion, patriotism, and tough talk that will fire up his loyalists and maybe even convert some of the undecided.  When it was over I talked to a white man who served in Iraq.. a middle aged woman from Wash state.... a Latino man from NY, and an African American man from Virginia.. all of em were so pumped up they didn't need planes to fly home.   He even LOOKED great.. so did his 96 year old mother... (who couldn't love her ).....I'm sure there are those who are anti McCain no matter what ... but you have to give the guy his due at least for tonight, dontcha?.... he earned it.    So... your thoughts ?

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For a convention that started off on shaky storm battered ground.... wobbled w/ the teenage pregnancy-troopergate story... and then fired up slowly w/ Thompson and Lieberman... things are rocking now.  Everyone here ( read '' Republican " absolutely LOVED Sarah Palin, pit bull, lipstick,. hockey mom, tight skirt , designer eyeglasses..... the entire package... can't stop raving.... whatever your politics you gottta admit she did a nice job, under pressure, in the spotlight like never before... future son in law watching... i mean she.. as the athletes say.. 'stepped up',... now.. the focus shifts to the big guy.. metaphorically speaking.. Late last nite a new stage w/ a runway a la a fashion show was installed... today as i came into the fox mega mall tent, where Ron Paul supporters who just won't give it up still wave signs outside the rusty metal fence separates the credentialed from the masses....where my cubicle is famously close to Bill O Reilly's work space which he shares with some guy named Karl Rove who keeps wandering around here .... the video of Mccain ckg out the stage and doing a sound ck was on the gigantor Fox video screen playing outside our tent on the way into Excel.  I mean it's like the size of diamond vision at Dodger Stadium or whatever the McCourts call that now.... Tonite, John McCain will be the recipient of more love than has e ver been made in the history of Minnesota..... ( not sure how much that is) .. it's going to be great, poignant, gutwrenching ( the POW experience is just to horrifying to even comprehend ) and we'll be here live on fox 11 news at 10 and on my 13 news at 11 w/ the whole deal.... someone's making history.... hockey mom and navy captain... or the guy w/ the funny name and the old time insider..

(( p.s. click on this video link for a behind the scenes look at the  "Fox Experience" they now let selected people into the tent on the other side of a low wall to watch all the Fox people work and catch a glimpse of a TV star !!

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Who knew ??? Thompson and Lieberman hit em out of the park tonite at the excel center in st. paul.... They were the headliners of the now revitalized RNC ... no storm news today, no new unplanned pregnancies as far as we know...so the full focus was on the speakers.. if you have a chance to catch any of em , you should.. one of the 8 trillion instant experts here ( actually a really smart one ) told me that if thompson had given a speech like that during his alleged presidential campaign maybe he wouldnt have crashed and burned so badly.... tmrw nite.. perhaps palin.. likely Rudy who gave a sound ck today in the that almost caused fainting and heart attacks among his loyalists.. and he only said ''one two three'.... more later

>>Check out Phil's Photo Gallery of Crazy RNC Hats!!

 

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I saw Bill O Reilly before I saw John McCain... but i feel certain we'll be seeing mccain before the week is out.. here on day 2 which seems like longer... storms.. palin's troopergatepregnantdaughtergate... well....  as we wait for joe lieberman and fred thompson to rock the house... ( this is considered exciting at this point)  we here in the fox mega compound wander around from cubicle to cubicle table to table, food tent to restroom trailer and wonder if and when the real action starts..... no not at the souvenir counter where pins are 5 for ten bucks( you can even get pink 'women for mccain '' pins.. is that sexist ?    but on the stage.. where all that , you know, routine 'let's change the world stuff'.   happens... we're ready!

(Click on the pictures to see 'em bigger)

What can you say about Laura Bush and now Cindy McCain that hasn't ( Stepford) already been said ?

  I mean after a couple of days of storm dampened anticipation, they were the main draw here in St Paul.. the idea was now that the worst of the ( dont say the G word) has passed, the two of them are going to fire up the crowd... well.. that was the theory.  they took the stage in the Excel ( lack of ) Energy Center and underwhelmed.  They looked beautiful and they're obviously intelligent and charming and good Republican wives... but how about firing up the crowd a bit. They made a brief but impassioned ( boring) plea to donate to a web site for the gulf... introduced some lame video w/ gulf governors looking macho.. and were gone.. Everyone came streaming out of excel to see a giant ( and i mean giant) video screen screaming the negative Sarah Palin news..... it was like the crowd had gone to see Springsteen and got a little Peter Paul and Mary and then left to catch a glimpse of oh... say... the approaching end of the world as they walked outside the ugly gray steel perimeter fencing.. as the song goes.. " tomorrow.. tomorrow ..."

Should we feel bad for the Republicans ?   their party here in St Paul was spoiled by.... don't say it... the '' G ''' word.... John McCain and Sarah ( what's her name again?) were to have their moment in the sun, now it/'s their moment in the rain in the gulf.  Here in the Twin Cities area... the tears are flowing.. in private. publicly the 'party line'' is that the people of the gulf come first.. we're not republicans we're americans.. and all that which is very true but amounts to very unfortunate timing here.  Tonight.. everyone's really really excited about the possibility of Laura Bush speaking.. i mean i like her as  much as the next person... but really. The current pres. and vice pres cancelled over the wkend.... The candidates themselves may or may  not be here later this week.... depending on the storm.   Ironic that the terrible storm let Mccain do what he couldnt do on his own.. keep president bush and vp cheney far away from the convention
  We're in the hotel with the California delegation in nearby Bloomington, and I think they're now more excited about going to the famed "Mall of American'' which is about five min away than going to the almost empty Excel Center about 40 minutes away. I mean wouldn't you be... so stay tuned... that giant noise you may here in LA is the sound of all the wind being sucked out of the REpublican party in Minneapolis St Paul. 

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Outside the Excel Center in downtown St Paul, where the repubs were supposed to party, there's like a 50 foot tall video screen that all day long was on fox's coverage of gustav....sorry, st paul.  of course, to get to see that, you had to first navigate closed freeway exits, closed downtown streets,          

grimy  steel fences suitable for a WWE death match,

dogs, secret service, local cops... metal detectors.. and that's just to get inside the PERIMETER of the excel center.. once you're in the inner sanctum, you're still outside, and you gotta do it all again to actually get into the arena..... the claim to fame is that it's home to a professional lacrosse team  ( ok also an nhl team)... the point  is that conventions post 9/11 are just so security conscious that it's almost overwhelming and is certainly oppressive.  do we understand it ? yes.   is it too much ? perhaps... have things stayed safe due to security precuations ? yes.... so... let's just deal.. meantime, the manholes are sealed,

         

the credentialed are hologrammed, the machine guns are loaded, and sean hannity's hairspray  supply  has been re-stocked.. all is well....  (( see u tube)).  The hope here is that Gustav turns out to be meeker than expected and things can quickly get back to ''normal'' here where St Paulites are desparate to emerge from the shadow of their bigger, better known twin city... ( that would be ??? minneapolis )..... and yes.. st paul is where ''that mall '' is the 8 billion square foot Mall of America.. hope to get there for a story.. a convention related event was scheduled there for tues.. before everything was tossed up in the air.   more later