from Rolling Stone Music........and some very interesting comments about San Diego.........
TV News, San Diego Radio, Politics and News, Sewing--The Sewing Herald Tribune....we need contributors, Travel.... Agree or Disagree....Please feel free to comment.....all comments appreciated and thank you for your time..... and food,dogs and cats...... let's sit down at this cafe, have a cup of coffee and talk about politics.
Dec 29, 2012
Gosh, Everyone is Searching Mick Taylor
Rolling Stones Rock New Jersey With Mick Taylor and John Mayer
from Spinner..........
Dave Allocca, AP
For the first New Jersey stop on this very-limited, very-pricey victory lap of a tour, the Rolling Stones not only didn't disappoint, they outclassed 50 years of successors, including rightful ones. Frills were few: John Mayer hopped on early to roast his axe on "Respectable," and Mick's mysteriously quick costume changes from sparkly to sparklier jackets barely distracted from the well-aged thunderous canon (more like canyon) of hits. Only the Stones could toss off Richter-scale levelers like "Gimme Shelter" and "Paint It Black" in the first few numbers.
After Mayer's swift exit the band wasted no time bleeding every poignant note of "Wild Horses" raw and covering Chuck Berry's "Around and Around" for the first time since 1977. The garage-y new "Doom and Gloom" held its own with "One More Shot," and an extra-funky "Miss You" provided some respite as an extended jam. Mick performed a swiveling dance in the breakdown as both the snake and the charmer, attempted to help the beer-guzzling crowd through those "woo-hoo-hoo-oo-hoos" and yelled "where'd you get that New Jersey?" before Bobby Keys' sax did its thing.
Jagger and Ron Wood circled the coincidentally-or-not mouth-shaped stagepath. "Honky Tonk Women" was the only tune upstaged by the backing-screen visual: An animated X-rated King Kong with the woman replacing the ape as the role of skyscraper-climbing monster and fighter-pilot monkeys trying to shoot her down. But as Keith took the stage for the impressively-sung "Before They Make Me Run" and ageless "Happy," the night never again turned its attention from the music.
The biggest story is of course Mick Taylor, who appeared and ripped an elongated "Midnight Rambler" to shreds in a giant onstage guitar huddle. The whole night tumbled into a vortex of great rock history from there: "Start Me Up," "Tumbling Dice" and "Brown Sugar" all in a row, impossibly hard-hitting even five decades on, with Mick prancing around like he's 29 in a ridiculous blue waistjacket, bantering a flag about and returning in a gigantic cape of fur spaghetti to play Mr. D as the opening shakes of "Sympathy for the Devil" took hold. Keef's solo suddenly sounded a few decibels louder than any of his other playing Thursday night.
Not ones to waste time at this age, or as pleasing and demanding showmen, the Trinity Wall Street Choir was quickly hustled up onto either side of the stage for a tremendous encore of "You Can't Always Get What You Want," for which Jagger strapped on an acoustic. Again, his purple sparkling grandeur clashed with the natural musical forces thundering throughout the Prudential Center, but the Stones invented rock's absurdly sized contradictions if anyone did. But the sheer overtaking pleasure of these classics at this point didn't require answers, just dancers. Jagger won the crowd's participation after a particularly torrential Wood solo and a rare bish-bash climax from the normally fantastically controlled Charlie Watts.
Then without further ado, rock achieved middle age, came full circle, lined up the planets, etc., -- whatever monster-truck metaphor have you. The finest rock band in the world did "Satisfaction," the greatest rock song. And to their credit, they still sound hungry. "All I hear is doom and gloom," rightfully mocked Jagger's newest lyrics of the night. These titans have been providing an alternative for half a century, and there's no reason to think they'll stop now.
Dec 28, 2012
Rush Limbaugh Celebrates Completion of 12 Step by Agreeing to Ride in Rose Parade
update 12-28-12: Well, everyone knows I have always loved waving and riding--especially when the focus is on me!!.......rush replied when questioned about the exciting news!!!
and what are ROWGS, asked one of the reporters at the press conference......Oh--that was the rich old white guys, but they're not in style any more. You know, at one time they ruled the world, but now they don't....and this is sort of a celebration.
10-17-12
Sean Hannity: I'm Just So Angry With Rush Right Now!
Highlights of the story:
Rush Limbaugh's secret phone call to Bill Clinton.
rush limbaugh gets his ya ya's out then washes Whoopi Goldberg's feet in hopes of redemption.
Yes, rush, you were very naughty and now it is time for your discipline!
My liberal limbawdian fantasy by Chloe Louise Langendorf Louis.......
rush, you portrayed your activities of "watching" as normal while you debased the activities of young women as vulgar and street worthy. In my dream your punishment will be allocated by Whoopi Goldberg--she said in her television special she's willing to talk about it--she is willing to have a conversation about race and I am including women--she doesn't mind if there is a disagreement. She is willing to answer questions.
The limbaughing of limbaugh...............
Now--we'll begin by sitting down and having a talk. In retribution you will get down on your knees and wash Whoopi Goldberg's feet and listen politely as she takes her valuable time to explain to you where you have gone wrong with women, racial slurs, the tea party, with President Obama--and with your life in general.
You'll act interested. You will be a guest on THE VIEW and tell the women of America what you learned and how lucky you were to have the opportunity to have a chat with Whoopi. It turned into a really enlightening experience. Barbara Walters will interview you with heartfelt questions and you will cry to show you're sorry and your sincerity.
You'll do "Oprah's Next Chapter" and discuss your new hobby of flower arranging and your new life, in general. A serious discussion will continue on how getting in touch with your feminine side has had positive effects on all of your relationships. You will say that health care is a right of every human being in each appearance--not something to be bought and sold and bantered about as an election talking point.
CNN will pick you up for a new show about multi-cultural women in the United States and around the world. You will feature Cooking With Alia to showcase strong young women around the world. You like it as a business model and you have always wondered about the proper use of Moroccan spices. You have Glen Beck and Bill O'Reilly on your new show and try to chat with them about the possibility of changing their ways--have they ever just thought about being a Democrat?
You will be heralded for developing a 12 step program for R.O.W.G.'s to promote the betterment of all people and relationships in the United States and around the world. Your crowning glory will be to write a column for drudge to promote equal rights for women.
You disclose to Oprah in a soft voice that the giant hole in your heart has closed and you are finally able to give up food and pills as a crutch. You also reveal you are actually enjoying your new humility--you never thought you would be able to say that. Driven by fear and insecurity about your own masculinity you were hiding behind the arrogance and the pretense was becoming a burden. You will also confide to Oprah on national television that you have secretly always been jealous of Bill Clinton and you went home with a stomach-ache after that time you made fun of Hillary's hair.
Sean Hannity finally challenges you to a face-off in disgust. You reveal to Sean, you had been looking to Bill Clinton for diet and health advice for a long time. As you and Bill eventually became friends, it was hard at first, you realized that he was a great world leader and you asked him if you could make a large financial contribution to is humanitarian causes.
Bill agrees to keep your new life private but urges you to publicly add your name to his cause--you finally give in and your name is glorified with other world leaders.
Sean remains angry and mystified and continues to suffer from the disease of chronic and incurable self-righteousness.
Rush finally concedes to Leslie Stahl in CBS Sunday Morning exclusive, "I looked in the mirror one day and said, I'm large! and not just in radioland; frankly, Leslie, I was feeling jowly." "I heard Bill C. say he only eats things that are grown--no faces--my face was giant, and I did not want someone to eat me!"
Rush Limbaugh and Nancy Pelosi will ride together as Grand Marshall's in the Rose Parade in a final celebratory jubilee. You were honored because of the success of your anti-bullying campaign in America. And Rush Limbaugh and Nancy Pelosi and Barbara Walters and Whoopi Goldberg all lived happily ever after and Rush ended up being a frequent guest on The View.
......3 months later--bill, glen and drudge couldn't help but notice Rush's new found popularity with women (and higher ratings) and finally joined the 12 step program as followers and the world became a better place*
......rush asked Leslie Stahl after the interview lights went off---did she know of any classes about making jewelry, earrings specifically, he loves color and wants a couple of pairs of earrings like hers--one for himself and one for his wife, too.
and what are ROWGS, asked one of the reporters at the press conference......Oh--that was the rich old white guys, but they're not in style any more. You know, at one time they ruled the world, but now they don't....and this is sort of a celebration.
10-17-12
Sean Hannity: I'm Just So Angry With Rush Right Now!
Highlights of the story:
Rush Limbaugh's secret phone call to Bill Clinton.
rush limbaugh gets his ya ya's out then washes Whoopi Goldberg's feet in hopes of redemption.
Yes, rush, you were very naughty and now it is time for your discipline!
My liberal limbawdian fantasy by Chloe Louise Langendorf Louis.......
rush, you portrayed your activities of "watching" as normal while you debased the activities of young women as vulgar and street worthy. In my dream your punishment will be allocated by Whoopi Goldberg--she said in her television special she's willing to talk about it--she is willing to have a conversation about race and I am including women--she doesn't mind if there is a disagreement. She is willing to answer questions.
The limbaughing of limbaugh...............
Now--we'll begin by sitting down and having a talk. In retribution you will get down on your knees and wash Whoopi Goldberg's feet and listen politely as she takes her valuable time to explain to you where you have gone wrong with women, racial slurs, the tea party, with President Obama--and with your life in general.
You'll act interested. You will be a guest on THE VIEW and tell the women of America what you learned and how lucky you were to have the opportunity to have a chat with Whoopi. It turned into a really enlightening experience. Barbara Walters will interview you with heartfelt questions and you will cry to show you're sorry and your sincerity.
You'll do "Oprah's Next Chapter" and discuss your new hobby of flower arranging and your new life, in general. A serious discussion will continue on how getting in touch with your feminine side has had positive effects on all of your relationships. You will say that health care is a right of every human being in each appearance--not something to be bought and sold and bantered about as an election talking point.
CNN will pick you up for a new show about multi-cultural women in the United States and around the world. You will feature Cooking With Alia to showcase strong young women around the world. You like it as a business model and you have always wondered about the proper use of Moroccan spices. You have Glen Beck and Bill O'Reilly on your new show and try to chat with them about the possibility of changing their ways--have they ever just thought about being a Democrat?
You will be heralded for developing a 12 step program for R.O.W.G.'s to promote the betterment of all people and relationships in the United States and around the world. Your crowning glory will be to write a column for drudge to promote equal rights for women.
You disclose to Oprah in a soft voice that the giant hole in your heart has closed and you are finally able to give up food and pills as a crutch. You also reveal you are actually enjoying your new humility--you never thought you would be able to say that. Driven by fear and insecurity about your own masculinity you were hiding behind the arrogance and the pretense was becoming a burden. You will also confide to Oprah on national television that you have secretly always been jealous of Bill Clinton and you went home with a stomach-ache after that time you made fun of Hillary's hair.
Sean Hannity finally challenges you to a face-off in disgust. You reveal to Sean, you had been looking to Bill Clinton for diet and health advice for a long time. As you and Bill eventually became friends, it was hard at first, you realized that he was a great world leader and you asked him if you could make a large financial contribution to is humanitarian causes.
Bill agrees to keep your new life private but urges you to publicly add your name to his cause--you finally give in and your name is glorified with other world leaders.
Sean remains angry and mystified and continues to suffer from the disease of chronic and incurable self-righteousness.
Rush finally concedes to Leslie Stahl in CBS Sunday Morning exclusive, "I looked in the mirror one day and said, I'm large! and not just in radioland; frankly, Leslie, I was feeling jowly." "I heard Bill C. say he only eats things that are grown--no faces--my face was giant, and I did not want someone to eat me!"
Rush Limbaugh and Nancy Pelosi will ride together as Grand Marshall's in the Rose Parade in a final celebratory jubilee. You were honored because of the success of your anti-bullying campaign in America. And Rush Limbaugh and Nancy Pelosi and Barbara Walters and Whoopi Goldberg all lived happily ever after and Rush ended up being a frequent guest on The View.
......3 months later--bill, glen and drudge couldn't help but notice Rush's new found popularity with women (and higher ratings) and finally joined the 12 step program as followers and the world became a better place*
......rush asked Leslie Stahl after the interview lights went off---did she know of any classes about making jewelry, earrings specifically, he loves color and wants a couple of pairs of earrings like hers--one for himself and one for his wife, too.
Dec 27, 2012
from Sten Martin: The Romantic Bride--my sewing obsession--I want to sew like Sten Martin
this photo is beautiful!
A romantic fitting! The bride seen through her veil. (The pinned excess fabric at center back will be replaced with buttons.)
from Sten Martin: The Romantic Bride--my sewing obsession--I want to sew like Sten Martin!
Gun Facts: Is the UK Real or a Disney Fairy Tale
I think part of the problem is that there is a certain group of the
American public that wants to keep us, the United States, as if we are still the wild, wild
west. I f you follow Piers Morgan at all, the gun people will not even
listen when he tries to talk about gun facts in the UK.
My OR co-workers from the UK stated they simply did not have gun shot wounds there in their ER. At the time we had a 15 year old with a gun shot wound. The trouble is when Piers says "UK" I feel like people think that may be talking about a UFO or another planet.
If you listen to the right wingers not only do they think America is a great country but they think it is the only country and when anyone says anything about Europe they act like its just silly info.
One talk show host here in San Diego said if he ever went to England he is going to go there and spend American dollars. I guess he had not heard of the pound or the Swiss Franc or the Euro. He said American money is what everyone wants and that will trade anywhere. Just this morning another conservative host was giggling about facts from the Daily Mail about less violence in Europe.
It seems like they simply refuse to believe the truth. I don't think they think Europe is real. They act as if it is a Disney fairy tale.
My OR co-workers from the UK stated they simply did not have gun shot wounds there in their ER. At the time we had a 15 year old with a gun shot wound. The trouble is when Piers says "UK" I feel like people think that may be talking about a UFO or another planet.
If you listen to the right wingers not only do they think America is a great country but they think it is the only country and when anyone says anything about Europe they act like its just silly info.
One talk show host here in San Diego said if he ever went to England he is going to go there and spend American dollars. I guess he had not heard of the pound or the Swiss Franc or the Euro. He said American money is what everyone wants and that will trade anywhere. Just this morning another conservative host was giggling about facts from the Daily Mail about less violence in Europe.
It seems like they simply refuse to believe the truth. I don't think they think Europe is real. They act as if it is a Disney fairy tale.
Dec 24, 2012
Mick Jagger-Mick Taylor--Two Beautiful Micks
for those people who really like this song I will suggest this website:
this is the you-tube channel of kleermaker 1000:
https://www.youtube.com/user/kleermaker1000
Dec 21, 2012
Rolling Stones with Mick Taylor
kleermaker1000·116 videos
311 views
4
0
Published on Jul 31, 2012
Newcastle, September 13 first show
A less sound quality, especially compared to the two former and popular London versions, but though.
A less sound quality, especially compared to the two former and popular London versions, but though.
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Category
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License
Standard YouTube License
Dec 19, 2012
The Beautiful and Talented Mick Jagger...and Mick Taylor, too.
Dec 18, 2012
Bloomberg on Gun Control
Bloomberg pressures President Obama to 'lead from the front' on gun control
By Jonathan Easley
-
12/18/12 09:50 AM ET
Bloomberg, the co-chairman of Mayors Against Illegal Guns, has emerged as one of the foremost advocates of stricter gun laws in the wake of last week's rampage at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. that left 20 children and six adults dead.
Bloomberg argued that regardless of whether a proposal from the president had a chance of becoming law, it was Obama’s duty to get something out there.
“I’m not unsympathetic to the realities of getting things through Congress, I’m not unsympathetic to the fact that the press calls an elected official a failure if their legislation doesn’t get passed,” he continued.
“But you have to stop and think — what’s the difference between a legislator and an executive? A legislator’s job is to sort of split the baby … make sure everybody gets something. That’s not an executive’s job. The executive says, ‘this is what we’re going to do’ and then convinces people to come along. Leads from the front and not from the back.”
Specifically, Bloomberg pointed to the Department of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, which has been without a director for six years, and said Obama should fill the slot in a recess appointment if Congress threatened to block a potential nominee. He also said the federal government should go after rogue gun dealers, and should prosecute those who lie on gun applications.
On Sunday, President Obama gave a personal and emotional speech in Newtown at an interfaith vigil for friends and families of the victims. The president didn’t specifically call for new gun-control legislation, but signaled he would support an effort pledged by Democratic lawmakers to restrict the sale of assault weapons and high-capacity clips of ammunition.
“In the coming weeks I’ll use whatever power this office holds to engage my fellow citizens from law enforcement, mental health professionals to parents and educators in an effort aimed at preventing more tragedies like this,” Obama said.
On Monday, the White House looked to mobilize public support for the president’s efforts by using the Obama campaign’s email list, sending supporters a message directing them to a video of the president’s speech.
In the email, senior Obama campaign adviser David Axelrod called on supporters to “consider how each of us can play a part in making our country worthy of the memory of those little children.”
Also on Monday, the president directed Vice President Joe Biden to lead members of the Cabinet in proposing measures to help reduce gun violence.
Here is Don Lemon on guns and my letter to President Obama on gun control
Here is Don Lemon on guns:
I sent and e-mail to President Obama about Don Lemon.....
Dear President Obama: I think you may know Don Lemon from CNN. I admire him very much. I am sending you a link about his thoughts on gun control. I do not like guns and I do not want to ever carry a gun. I think you are doing a very, very good job, particularly on health care which is a difficult problem--health care should be a right of everyone but then the problem is paying for it--not putting the cost to a business or raising taxes. I have written about you in my blog, The Ronnie Republic, many times...Ronnie is my dog. Good luck to you and keep up the good work. chloe louise
http://theronnierepublic.blogspot.com/2012/12/hee-is-don-lemon-on-guns.html
e-mail to President Obama........this is the e-mail form on the White House website...it is very easy to use if you want to send a message to President Obama.
Dec 17, 2012
“Killing Kennedy”: Bill O’Reilly wimps out
Monday, Oct 8, 2012 2:48 PM UTC
copied from SALON.......recommended from KNAPP'S NEWS listed on the COAST TO COAST website......cl
copied from SALON.......recommended from KNAPP'S NEWS listed on the COAST TO COAST website......cl
“Killing Kennedy”: Bill O’Reilly wimps out
Believe it or not: Bill O'Reilly once showed guts reporting on JFK. His new insta-history shows a bulldog gone weak
By David Talbot
Topics:
Books,
Fox News,
Bill O'Reilly,
John F. Kennedy,
Bill O'Reilly Killing Kennedy, Entertainment News
Once
upon a time, Bill O’Reilly had balls when it came to investigating the
Kennedy assassination. Back in 1991 — as a reporter for the tabloid TV
news show, “Inside Edition” – O’Reilly had the guts
to track the epic crime all the way into the dark labyrinth of the
CIA. Following up on the important work done by investigators for the
House Select Committee on Assassinations in the late ‘70s, O’Reilly
boldly told his “Inside Edition” audience that there were “crucial”
links between alleged assassin Lee Harvey Oswald and the CIA. O’Reilly
also reported that the CIA had infiltrated the office of New Orleans
District Attorney Jim Garrison, who brought the only criminal case in
the JFK assassination to trial, in an effort to sabotage Garrison’s
investigation.
That was then – when O’Reilly was a scrappy reporter for low-budget syndicated TV. But now, of course, he’s BILL O’REILLY – Fox News icon, a lavishly paid centerpiece of the Murdoch empire. Everything he says – every windy pontification and dyspeptic remark – is writ LARGE. He can no longer afford to have the courage of his suspicions. In O’Reilly’s new ideological mold, the CIA is not the incubator of an unspeakable crime against American democracy – it’s the defender of the greatest nation in the world.
And so we have the Fox News star’s latest instant bestseller, “Killing Kennedy: The End of Camelot,” co-written by Martin Dugard, who collaborated with O’Reilly on his earlier runaway success, “Killing Lincoln.” There is almost nothing in this Kennedy for Beginners book that indicates O’Reilly once did some original research on this murky and still deeply haunting subject. Most of this surprisingly dumbed-down book is a biographical rehash of the Kennedy story that will contain nothing new for even casual readers of People magazine and viewers of Kennedy soap opera biopics over the years. Once again, we get the story of JFK’s PT-109 heroics in the South Pacific; the lurid tales of Jack’s womanizing and Jackie’s anguish; the requisite cameos of Sinatra, Marilyn and the Mob; the familiar snapshots of a deeply disgruntled Lyndon Johnson, continually humiliated by the Kennedy brothers and their elite Harvard crowd. None of this is worth the book’s $28 price of admission.
Salon founder David Talbot is the author of the New York Times bestseller, “Brothers: The Hidden History of the Kennedy Years,” and most recently, “Season of the Witch: Enchantment, Terror and Deliverance in the City of Love.”That was then – when O’Reilly was a scrappy reporter for low-budget syndicated TV. But now, of course, he’s BILL O’REILLY – Fox News icon, a lavishly paid centerpiece of the Murdoch empire. Everything he says – every windy pontification and dyspeptic remark – is writ LARGE. He can no longer afford to have the courage of his suspicions. In O’Reilly’s new ideological mold, the CIA is not the incubator of an unspeakable crime against American democracy – it’s the defender of the greatest nation in the world.
And so we have the Fox News star’s latest instant bestseller, “Killing Kennedy: The End of Camelot,” co-written by Martin Dugard, who collaborated with O’Reilly on his earlier runaway success, “Killing Lincoln.” There is almost nothing in this Kennedy for Beginners book that indicates O’Reilly once did some original research on this murky and still deeply haunting subject. Most of this surprisingly dumbed-down book is a biographical rehash of the Kennedy story that will contain nothing new for even casual readers of People magazine and viewers of Kennedy soap opera biopics over the years. Once again, we get the story of JFK’s PT-109 heroics in the South Pacific; the lurid tales of Jack’s womanizing and Jackie’s anguish; the requisite cameos of Sinatra, Marilyn and the Mob; the familiar snapshots of a deeply disgruntled Lyndon Johnson, continually humiliated by the Kennedy brothers and their elite Harvard crowd. None of this is worth the book’s $28 price of admission.
When
it comes to the assassination of President Kennedy, these days Bill
O’Reilly embraces the lone nut theory, pinning sole blame on Lee Harvey
Oswald. But his case against Oswald is feeble, and he’s obviously still
haunted by the suspicions of the younger, freer Bill O’Reilly. In
“Killing Kennedy,” he can’t help returning to those earlier suspicions,
in fleeting moments of the book, as if darting a tongue at a nagging
tooth.
O’Reilly floats the name Allen Dulles, the CIA spymaster who became deeply embittered toward Kennedy when the president fired him in the wake of the spy agency’s disastrous 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba. He also throws out the name Curtis LeMay, the Strangelovian Air Force chief who was willing to risk doomsday by launching preemptive nuclear attacks on Cuba and the Soviet Union – and who considered JFK weak for putting the brakes on the military. And he considers the Mafia, whose godfathers expected lenient treatment from the Kennedy administration, after their cozy relationship with family patriarch Joe Kennedy, but instead came under relentless pressure from the morally fervent young attorney general, Robert F. Kennedy.
But, in the end, O’Reilly returns to the safe path, following the hapless young ex-Marine Lee Harvey Oswald on his trail toward infamy. O’Reilly cuts back and forth between the JFK story line and Oswald’s. If his portrayal of Kennedy is at least reassuringly conventional, his portrait of the accused assassin is hopelessly muddled and confusing. O’Reilly tries to make a case for Oswald as a “crack shot,” a man supposedly capable of pulling off the magical act of marksmanship in Dealey Plaza. But then he acknowledges that Oswald couldn’t even hit an easy sitting target, when he allegedly took an errant shot at former Army general Edwin Walker, while the reactionary military man was huddled over his taxes in his Dallas home.
O’Reilly seems intent on building a profile of Oswald as a bitter loser who resented JFK for everything from his sex appeal to his war on Castro’s Cuba. But, in the end, O’Reilly – who employs a weird use of the present tense that is more corny than dramatic — concedes that “Oswald does not hate the president … in fact, Oswald would very much like to emulate JFK.” O’Reilly observes that Oswald was so smitten by Kennedy that he checked out JFK biographies and the president’s bestseller, “Profiles in Courage,” from the New Orleans Public Library.
Predictably, O’Reilly then makes a stab at tying Oswald into a vague communist plot. “Castro definitely wants [Kennedy] dead,” he flatly asserts, without offering a shred of evidence. In fact, in the months before the president’s assassination on Nov. 22, 1963, Kennedy was sending out peace feelers to the Cuban leader, to the great alarm of Washington national security hard-liners when they found out. As news of JFK’s violent death reached Havana, a deeply unnerved Castro blurted out, “Everything is changed,” according to a French journalist who was interviewing him at the time. Castro predicted that the post-Kennedy U.S. government would make life much tougher for him.
In the end, O’Reilly is at a loss to explain Lee Harvey Oswald. The Fox News anchor is clearly unsettled by the fact that Oswald never proudly took credit for the assassination, as do most slayers of kings and presidents, including John Wilkes Booth (“Sic semper tyrannis!”), the villain of his last book. In contrast, Oswald proclaimed his innocence to the end, shouting out to reporters in the Dallas police station, “I’m just a patsy!” O’Reilly finds the remark “tantalizing,” but does nothing to follow it up.
O’Reilly continues to be intrigued by a key player in the Oswald story, an elegant, White Russian, globetrotting oilman named George de Mohrenschildt. In his new book, O’Reilly writes that de Mohrenschildt “may have CIA connections.” But back in his “Inside Edition” days, the TV newsman was more definitive, calling him “a crucial link between the CIA and Lee Harvey Oswald.” In fact, de Mohrenschildt was a CIA contract agent with long family ties to Allen Dulles – the man who perhaps looms largest in the Kennedy assassination drama. Even after he was fired by JFK as CIA director in 1961, Dulles continued to play a subterranean role in U.S. intelligence that was unknown by Kennedy. And following the assassination, Dulles took the dominating role in the Warren Commission investigation, carefully guiding the panel away from CIA-related areas he found too sensitive.
Many Kennedy assassination researchers have concluded that de Mohrenschildt acted as Oswald’s CIA “baby sitter,” when the young man returned to Texas from the Soviet Union, after a “defection” that observers in the U.S. embassy in Moscow found oddly “staged.” Later, de Mohrenschildt introduced Oswald and his Russian wife, Marina, to another young Dallas couple, Michael and Ruth Paine, whose family also had deep personal and business connections to Dulles. It was Ruth Paine who would find Oswald his job in the Texas Book Depository a month before the gunfire erupted in Dealey Plaza.
O’Reilly waits until the end of the book to break his only bit of news. In the afterword, he reveals that in March 1977, as a young TV reporter, he tracked de Mohrenschildt to a home in swanky Palm Beach, Fla., and was knocking on the door to interview him when a shotgun blast exploded inside. Authorities later declared that the mysterious de Mohrennschildt, who had been subpoenaed to testify by the House Assassinations Committee and was a figure of growing interest in the JFK case, had taken his own life. But some assassination researchers who looked into de Mohrenschildt’s death, like attorney Mark Lane, insisted that the former CIA asset had been silenced because he knew too much. Again, Bill O’Reilly – the tough guy who prides himself on his bulldog news instincts – leaves this story dangling. He has nothing new to add to this perplexing Kennedy footnote.
In a reader’s note that prefaces “Killing Kennedy,” O’Reilly comments that the tragedy of John F. Kennedy is “somewhat personal for me … my Irish-Catholic family had deep emotional ties to the young president and his family.” But there is nothing to indicate the tribal toughness of the Irish in this weak and limp effort. O’Reilly’s book simply exploits the public’s powerful curiosity about the assassination without offering any fresh insights into the monumental crime. With friends of the Kennedy family like Bill O’Reilly, who needs enemies?
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O’Reilly floats the name Allen Dulles, the CIA spymaster who became deeply embittered toward Kennedy when the president fired him in the wake of the spy agency’s disastrous 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba. He also throws out the name Curtis LeMay, the Strangelovian Air Force chief who was willing to risk doomsday by launching preemptive nuclear attacks on Cuba and the Soviet Union – and who considered JFK weak for putting the brakes on the military. And he considers the Mafia, whose godfathers expected lenient treatment from the Kennedy administration, after their cozy relationship with family patriarch Joe Kennedy, but instead came under relentless pressure from the morally fervent young attorney general, Robert F. Kennedy.
But, in the end, O’Reilly returns to the safe path, following the hapless young ex-Marine Lee Harvey Oswald on his trail toward infamy. O’Reilly cuts back and forth between the JFK story line and Oswald’s. If his portrayal of Kennedy is at least reassuringly conventional, his portrait of the accused assassin is hopelessly muddled and confusing. O’Reilly tries to make a case for Oswald as a “crack shot,” a man supposedly capable of pulling off the magical act of marksmanship in Dealey Plaza. But then he acknowledges that Oswald couldn’t even hit an easy sitting target, when he allegedly took an errant shot at former Army general Edwin Walker, while the reactionary military man was huddled over his taxes in his Dallas home.
O’Reilly seems intent on building a profile of Oswald as a bitter loser who resented JFK for everything from his sex appeal to his war on Castro’s Cuba. But, in the end, O’Reilly – who employs a weird use of the present tense that is more corny than dramatic — concedes that “Oswald does not hate the president … in fact, Oswald would very much like to emulate JFK.” O’Reilly observes that Oswald was so smitten by Kennedy that he checked out JFK biographies and the president’s bestseller, “Profiles in Courage,” from the New Orleans Public Library.
Predictably, O’Reilly then makes a stab at tying Oswald into a vague communist plot. “Castro definitely wants [Kennedy] dead,” he flatly asserts, without offering a shred of evidence. In fact, in the months before the president’s assassination on Nov. 22, 1963, Kennedy was sending out peace feelers to the Cuban leader, to the great alarm of Washington national security hard-liners when they found out. As news of JFK’s violent death reached Havana, a deeply unnerved Castro blurted out, “Everything is changed,” according to a French journalist who was interviewing him at the time. Castro predicted that the post-Kennedy U.S. government would make life much tougher for him.
In the end, O’Reilly is at a loss to explain Lee Harvey Oswald. The Fox News anchor is clearly unsettled by the fact that Oswald never proudly took credit for the assassination, as do most slayers of kings and presidents, including John Wilkes Booth (“Sic semper tyrannis!”), the villain of his last book. In contrast, Oswald proclaimed his innocence to the end, shouting out to reporters in the Dallas police station, “I’m just a patsy!” O’Reilly finds the remark “tantalizing,” but does nothing to follow it up.
O’Reilly continues to be intrigued by a key player in the Oswald story, an elegant, White Russian, globetrotting oilman named George de Mohrenschildt. In his new book, O’Reilly writes that de Mohrenschildt “may have CIA connections.” But back in his “Inside Edition” days, the TV newsman was more definitive, calling him “a crucial link between the CIA and Lee Harvey Oswald.” In fact, de Mohrenschildt was a CIA contract agent with long family ties to Allen Dulles – the man who perhaps looms largest in the Kennedy assassination drama. Even after he was fired by JFK as CIA director in 1961, Dulles continued to play a subterranean role in U.S. intelligence that was unknown by Kennedy. And following the assassination, Dulles took the dominating role in the Warren Commission investigation, carefully guiding the panel away from CIA-related areas he found too sensitive.
Many Kennedy assassination researchers have concluded that de Mohrenschildt acted as Oswald’s CIA “baby sitter,” when the young man returned to Texas from the Soviet Union, after a “defection” that observers in the U.S. embassy in Moscow found oddly “staged.” Later, de Mohrenschildt introduced Oswald and his Russian wife, Marina, to another young Dallas couple, Michael and Ruth Paine, whose family also had deep personal and business connections to Dulles. It was Ruth Paine who would find Oswald his job in the Texas Book Depository a month before the gunfire erupted in Dealey Plaza.
O’Reilly waits until the end of the book to break his only bit of news. In the afterword, he reveals that in March 1977, as a young TV reporter, he tracked de Mohrenschildt to a home in swanky Palm Beach, Fla., and was knocking on the door to interview him when a shotgun blast exploded inside. Authorities later declared that the mysterious de Mohrennschildt, who had been subpoenaed to testify by the House Assassinations Committee and was a figure of growing interest in the JFK case, had taken his own life. But some assassination researchers who looked into de Mohrenschildt’s death, like attorney Mark Lane, insisted that the former CIA asset had been silenced because he knew too much. Again, Bill O’Reilly – the tough guy who prides himself on his bulldog news instincts – leaves this story dangling. He has nothing new to add to this perplexing Kennedy footnote.
In a reader’s note that prefaces “Killing Kennedy,” O’Reilly comments that the tragedy of John F. Kennedy is “somewhat personal for me … my Irish-Catholic family had deep emotional ties to the young president and his family.” But there is nothing to indicate the tribal toughness of the Irish in this weak and limp effort. O’Reilly’s book simply exploits the public’s powerful curiosity about the assassination without offering any fresh insights into the monumental crime. With friends of the Kennedy family like Bill O’Reilly, who needs enemies?
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