Another Fallen Star

Saturday, the music world lost another of it's icons. And much like Michael Jackson, the last high profile music superstar to pass on, many believe that drugs may have directly or indirectly played a role in her passing. As of Sunday night, the autopsy has been completed but put on hold pending results of toxicology test which could take up to eight weeks. In the meantime Jennifer Hudson will perform a beautiful and emotional tribute to Houston during Sunday night's Grammy Award telecast. In the days ahead, record sales will skyrocket as Sony Records plans how to move ahead previously planned efforts to market and re-release her entire catalog. That catalog includes 9 albums, compilations, and soundtrack recordings and is expected to be re-released ahead of the pre-planned release of the low budget film "Sparkle" that starred Houston.

Wall Street Journal music critic remembers Houston and talks about how Whitney came along at a time when the R&B genere wasn't getting a whole lot of attention.


As many others have documented over the last 36 hours, Whitney's stardom and influence spread well past music. In addition to the upcoming low budget "Sparkle" release, She starred in two other incredible Hollywood movies including Waiting to Exhale with Angela Bassett and the Bodyguard alongside Kevin Costner.

The final scene from TheBodyguard........


And as the final scenes in Whitney's life plays out in the court of public opinion much as they did with Michael Jackson, she will be remembered as a wonderful but tormented soul whose life came to tragic end much to soon leaving too many songs unsung.

Rest in Peace Whitney and remember
We Will Always Love You

......til next time

Slipped Another One By Us, November 06, 2006

Across America, people look at the state of California and just shake their heads. From Hollywood in the south to Berkley and San Francisco in the north, the state of California has some real winners breathing our air here in the "Golden State." No where is that more obvious than at the state capital in Sacramento. The people that the "left coasters" elect to the State Assembly and Senate are the best example I can give you of everything that is wrong here in California. We have assembly members who actually voted against a bill that would have made it a sex crime to posses even one child pornography picture. Then there is the assembly member name Gil "One Bill Gil" Sedeo. He has earned the nickname "One Bill Gill" because over the last few years, the only bill he has proposed in the assembly is one to give drivers licenses to illegals...repeatedly, year after year. It even cost one governor his job.

The list of goofy stuff our state assembly tries to shove down our throats is never ending. At times it's hard to even act suprised when it comes to some of their proposals. But I think they have finally found a way to top even the most bizzare of their past actions.

About eight weeks ago with virtually no publicity, Debra Bowen (D) Redondo Beach (yes the same Debra Bowen whose Voters Bill of Rights I wrote about yesterday) carried a bill in the state senate that, if signed into law, would give California's 55 Electorial College votes to the winner of the national popular vote in presidential elections. Her reasoning was that it would increase California's influence when it comes to who occupies the White House and therefore forcing candidates to spend more time in California.

What Ms Bowen, the bill's original authors, and its supporters aren't taking into account is precisely the potential senario that we have seen in the last two presidential elections. Let's say that California's 55 electoral votes go to the winner of the national poular vote. Let's also say that the final count is really, really close.....like it was in the 2000 Bush-Gore contest. Instead of having the fiasco of a Florida like recount, we would have the total unfettered chaos of a national recount. Imagine for a moment what that would be like. Lawyers in every polling place during the election, lawyers in every elections office after the election, months of recounting votes, and years and years of crying and whinning from the losers. Yes it would be chaos of epic porportions. Florida times 50.....

Secondly, there is the possibility that California's 55 electoral votes could end up going to a candidate that the majority of Californians would never support. So, in theory you could have a candidate that is extremely popular east of the Mississippi but maybe not out west. And if they won the popular vote, you could have all of California's electorial going to a candidate that only a minority of Californians voted for.

A huge portion of the country might chuckle at that prospect and say it serves California right, but before you laugh too loudly, there are 10 other states considering similar legislation including Colorado. Should this become a reality and if you live in a small or rural state this could be extremely bad news for you. This is nothing more than a power grab being played out by liberal leaning urban areas across the country who will stop at nothing to impose their will on the rest of us.

The Wall Street Journal did an excellent piece on this attempt at hijacking our electoral process. You can read about it here........... http://www.opinionjournal.com/columnists/pdupont/?id=110008855 Oh and by the way, don't forget to vote tomorrow!

Til next time..............

originally posted 11/6/06 on Yahoo 360