wendellrobinson.com Blog

by Mansfield B. Frazier (Frazier is a contributor to The Silent Majority) 
A recent editorial in the Orlando Sentinel entitled “Why be so mean?” lambasted “American Idol” judges Simon Cowell and Randy Jackson for exhibiting an even meaner streak this season as they tear into untalented contestants with less mercy, pity, or leniency than they exhibited [...]

by Solvej Schou (from FOXNews.com)
LOS ANGELES —  I’ve been singing since I was 4 and performing in bands since 15. Nothing, however, could prepare me for auditioning for TV’s hit competition “American Idol.”
It was a chilly morning in August.
I slept through my alarm, set to 3:30 a.m. A friend’s call half an hour later woke [...]

by Wendell Robinson (from the wenBLOG)       
This just in, reality TV shows are becoming more and more like reality and viewers don’t like it. Recent feedback about the new seasons of two very popular reality franchises – Big Brother UK and American Idol – have met with disappointed critiques from their usually fawning fan bases. Apparently folks on [...]

By Tucker Carlson (from msNBC)
The following is a compilation of Carlson’s running commentary on the msNBC Hardblogger site during the 2007 State of the Union address
Kucinich Holding On – 9:40pm
Of all the Members of Congress Bush greeted on his way into the chamber, none held on longer than Rep. Dennis Kucinich, Democrat and vegan of Ohio. [...]

by Andrew Sullivan (from AndrewSullivan.com – The Daily Dish)     
10.02 pm. Brave but not so humble. The subway dude is spreading the love. I’m letting go and giving in. America! Yay!
10.01 pm. Baby Frigging Einstein?
10 pm. The NBA dude is next to the Asian heroine or whoever. There’s around six feet between his head and hers. [...]

by Mary Katharine Ham (from Townhall.com)
Why? Because I’m gonna watch it anyway, and Allah’s gonna need video tips.
I’ve always thought the SOTU calls for a drinking game. What shall my trigger be? Hillary Clinton’s sneers? Nah, I’d get alcohol poisoning. Mentions of the “first female Speaker?” Drink for a victory for women!
9:01: Laura looks fab [...]

By Michael Barone (from U.S. News World Report, Barone Blog)
The single most glaring defect in our mostly admirable political system is the presidential selection process. You can point to other defects—the equal representation of the states in the Senate, judicial usurpation of decision making on sensitive issues—but the downside risks are greater in the selection [...]

By David Nather (from CQ Politics . com) 

Late in the afternoon of Jan. 10, as the nation waited for President Bush to announce that he was sending more troops to Iraq, Barack Obama somehow managed to find a quiet spot outside the Senate chamber where he could make a cell phone call all by himself — [...]

by Earl Ofari Hutchinson (from The Huffington Post) 
A defiant Hillary Clinton claimed in her web message announcing her presidential bid that she knows how to beat the Republicans. They may be much easier to beat than Hillary. A CNN poll in 2005 was more a public referendum on voter perception of her than a poll. [...]

by Andrew Sullivan (from AndrewSullivan.com) 
One of the fresh tragedies of the Bush Iraq debacle is that the military team now finally preparing to try to calm Baghdad is, by all accounts, superb. I’ve tried to get a variety of experts to say something bad about Petraeus, but to no avail. He has swiftly assembled a [...]