Phil_Shuman's Blog

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 ?

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 !!

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!!

 

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. 

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

     I am generally fascinated by airports and the way they work.   It’s amazing given all the crowds and the often absurd rules and regulations post 9/11 that anybody gets anywhere close to on time and relatively sane. Having said that, I started things off on a bit of the wrong foot today at LAX en route to the Republican Convention.    After paying to check a bag, and waiting for like an hour at the bottom of the staircase in Terminal 2 while some robotic TSA employee SLOWLY checked ID’s against boarding passes ( more on that later )   and even shined some kind of James Bond flashlight at the drivers licenses… it was time for the real fun… the metal detector.  Huge line there….

Then… all of a sudden two well dressed gentlemen simply stepped into line at the front.. bypassing dozens of us patiently being herded down the chute.  This proved to be a bit too much for me.  “Uh, excuse me, the end of the line is over there “ I politely offered… The gentlemen told me they were instructed by ‘’the lady’’ to go where they did.. even said I could  ask her if I wanted.  I politely declined.  One of the two, wearing cool sunglasses and preppy blazer… graciously insisted I go in front of him… very nice.  “Are you going to the convention  ?” I asked, somewhat chagrined.  “Yes” was the tight reply.   I’m thinking they’re like Secret Service agents or Air Marshals or something cool.  Only a few minutes later, grabbing some food so I didn’t starve en route to Minneapolis St Paul  ( licorice , $3.00 no kidding, ) did I realize I was talking with none other than United States Congressman David Drier and one of his friendly staffers. The staffer  recognized me and explained who was who. The fact that someone recognized me was an additional surprise.. I mean.. if you’re recognizing me , I say ‘get a life’…. (Kidding). I have been on TV in LA since like the first Reagan Administration) . Oh well, I apologized profusely for not recognizing the Representative him as I boarded ( he was at least in coach too ).  So that was amusing….  On board lots of time to read more about McCain and the surprise # 2 Palin.  Talk about gambles… Of particular amusement was McCain aide Steve Schmidt ( himself quite the character) that Palin is by any objective measure more qualified to be President than Barack Obama. We’ll have to talk about that.. I mean she seems great….but Alaska ?  At least it’ll make the convention A LOT more interesting.  Did you know she used to wk in TV ? Can’t be all bad.

                

Before I go though please let me revisit an issue that is always   perplexing to many.. at the airports, why the constant and repetitive checking of ID’s against tickets and boarding passes.  I forget the exact # but most s of the 9/11 hijackers were flying w/ their true names and tickets… There is no point in checking id’s against tickets.  If you’re willing to die , you’ll use your own name … if you’re trying to board you aint gonna have a license that doesn’t match your ticket, unless you’ve been on Mars for the past ten years.. If someone has an explanation for this procedure, I’m all ears…. Airport security is a huge challenge and must be done, but since we’re in the political convention season, maybe Obama or McCain could include in their parties platform a pledge to re-evaluate the whole airport security process ( even though they all fly on private planes now .) I’ reminded of a quote from an Israeli aviation security expert post 9/11 .  “The  Americans look for the bomb.. the Israelis look for the bomber''

Let's be clear.. John Schwada is way more funnier and smarter than I is. That's why they sent him to the Democratic Convention... the main story line there seems so obvious that it takes a political operative like him to figure out what the hell is REALLY going on... as one of my old news directors told me once... ''when everyone is going in the front door.. you go in the side''..... if there's a side door to explore our man John will do it.. of course in that scenario he might get shot by the Secret Service, so i hope he''s careful. I am loving John's blogging and his reporting... I hope you are too.. cause, seriously, the man knows his stuff. Most of us TV types are real shallow... so his print background really shows. My print background is a 9th grade report on Rabbits for the Junior High Biology Newsletter ( I did get an A )

On Saturday, I will be heading to St Paul , Minneapolis w/ my friends and colleagues John and Greg to do our thing w/ the Republicans... John McCain is preparing for this by going on the "Tonight Show'' which of course is now standard operating procedure if you're a candidate.. something seems odd there.. you have to show that you can joke around to be taken seriously . The story line from the Republican convention, ( once he picks a VP) is a little less straightforward. McCain seems to be positioning himself as the underdog going up against the media darling.... so what if he doesn't know how many houses he has ? Good for him if he has a lot...So what if he's 90. he has a young blonde trophy wife... He complains about Obama being an 'elitist" yet tonite after the Jay Leno deal he's going to a Beverly Hills fundraiser himself.. So.... all this is, as we might say '' hot air.. and yes... the conventions are pre - ordained political theater.. but hey.. i love the theater... so i' m fired up. any thing you have in mind is should do in the 'Twin Cities'' that's suitable for a family newscaset, let me know... ttyl.

Dear Ben Stiller..
BLet me just say right off the top that I love you... I love you, your wife, I even love your Mom and Dad...Anyone named Stiller.. i'm laughing...So it is with great regret that I say I have to object to some of the humor in you latest smash hit... Tropic Thunder.   I dont think i'm the first to say that it's tough to make jokes about war and death when we're, i think. in a war ?  The scene that i'm referring to that really really made me uneasy was ( spoiler alert) when the director stepped on a mine and was unexpectedly and suddenly and loudly blown to smithereens.  It was supposed to be funny... and there were indeed some laughs in the theater... but my laugh kind of got caught in my throat because i couldnt help thinking of all of our men and women in Iraq and Afghanistan who have died from being blown up from IEDs.... i know it's ''just a movie'' but jesus have some common sense Ben... you did well enough offending mentally handicapped and african americans... you gotta piss off the families of soldiers too ?:      call me if you need script advice on your next project...

Phil