How Soon Before NBC Changes this Schedule?

The fall 2006 TV season was a record in some ways for NBC. One of the biggest things was that NBC was forced to change part of that schedule due to ABC's scheduling of Grey's Anatomy on Thursdays which NBC originally scheduled the now cancelled Studio 60 which was also slated to face CSI on CBS. Now here is the NBC fall 2007 schedule along with some of my comments. All network schedules this will will be posted at central/mountain US time.

New Shows: Bold
New Times: Italics

Sunday
6 PM: Football Night in America
7:15 PM: Sunday Night Football

Comments: No comment except to say that NBC does have better games this season including early season matchups involving Philadelphia, Dallas, Indianapolis, Green Bay, Chicago, and San Diego. Go to NFL.com for details.

Sundays after football
6 PM: Dateline NBC
7 PM: Law & Order
8 PM: Medium
9 PM: Lipstick Jungle

Comments: This is a schedule that might not see the light of day. Frankly there is little sense that both veteran shows would be able to stick it out on Sunday nights. As for Lipstick Jungle, that is a good way to kill one of your most buzzed about new series.

Monday
7 PM: Deal or No Deal
8 PM: Heroes
9 PM: Journeyman

Comments: Not a good Monday night. This schedule gives ABC a good excuse to keep Dancing with the Stars on the night. Journeyman may be a too confusing series on TV and NBC could still have problems at 9 PM Central.

Tuesday
7 PM: Biggest Loser 4
8 PM: Chuck
9 PM: Law & Order: SVU

Comments: I am not sure what flow NBC wants on the night. Biggest Loser fans are not going to stick around for Chuck while Heroes fans might be interested in the series. After about three weeks into the fall season, NBC might be wishing that they made that change.

Wednesday
7 PM: Deal or No Deal
8 PM: Bionic Woman
9 PM: Life

Comments: Can you say failure? Deal or No Deal will do ok, but the rest of the schedule will likely be history by midseason.

Thursday
7:00 PM: My Name is Earl
7:30 PM: 30 Rock
8:00 PM: The Office
8:30 PM: Scrubs
9 PM: ER

Comments: This is namely rerranging the deck chairs on the Titantic. At least Joey isn't still around.

Friday
7 PM: 1 vs 100/Singing Bee
8 PM: Las Vegas
9 PM: Friday Night Lights

Comments: This is a pretty good schedule except that NBC sentenced Friday Night Lights to die on Fridays. Meanwhile, I don't even see success for The Singing Bee while Randy Jackson's new World Moves competition will likely fail on Sundays at midseason.

Saturday
7 PM: Dateline
8 PM: Repeats
9 PM: Repeats

Comments: NBC will throw in a few movies but that is about it.

Another good Article on Gas prices

Here is another good article on gas prices.

http://www.ridgecrestca.com/articles/2007/04/27/news/columnists/colo02.txt

The gist is more proof that gas companies are gouging us at the pump. For the record, I sent an e-mail to the Saudi Arabian Embassy on the heels of arrests of 182 militants who were hell bent on attacking a Saudi oil field. This is the same attack which was followed up with a debate on Fox News where the Neil Cavuto asked if 10 dollar a gallon gas was in our future if the attack went out as planned.

Maybe We would have been better off Under Gore

Last month, I presented evidence that high gas prices were the result of actions to gouge the American people. The proof is in the pudding thanks to our friends at Gasbuddy.com.

This graph shows how bad gouging has been going on for at least six years starting right before 9/11. For the record, the spike near the beginning was the basic fear of gas shortages following the 9/11 terror attacks which were carried out by Vice President Dick Cheney using muslims as pasties. For the record, my stand on 9/11 would have to wait for another day. Still, that is the jumping off point for gas prices in the state and you can see how closely they are intertwined with the average price of gas in the US. Meanwhile, picture in your mind the events of the past six years as you take a look at the skyrocketing prices. It is clear that crude oil and gas prices only started to really rise when we invaded Iraq, got a major boost from Katrina, and thrive on the fact that Bush wants to invade a peaceful country that only wants to have nuclear power in order to better itself. But what Bush really wants is to destroy our navy fleet while ensuring the election of either crown prince Rudy Giuliani or princess Hillary Clinton. For the record, both fit the prototype of using fear in this country to get what they want.

Keith Obermann on crown prince Rudy

President Hillary Clinton wants to attack Iran

Examples of fear put fourth by the Oil industry

Sorrow at Virginia Tech

I would like to take this time to express sorrow at what happened Monday at Virginia Tech. You know what the news is, but here is a link that may shed light on what actually happened.

http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/april2007/170407Cops.htm

For the most part, the massacre is all about two issues after we get past the fact that police and school officials didn't do their jobs and should face discipline. The cops because they failed to protect students in danger, and school officials because they did too little to protect the students.

The first is gun control. Any sane person knows that any person armed with a gun wouldn't allow others to hurt them. For the most part, self-defense is a valid plea in court and any one of the 60 + shot in the engineering building including the 32 killed, should have been able to use a gun in self defense. The problem, you can't carry a gun on Virginia Tech's campus. And I doubt that any of them got the e-mail from administration about the gunman on the loose because most of them were either getting ready or already in class when he killed for the first time.

The second issue is the anti-depressant drugs that the gunman has been taking. Verbal warning signs not withstanding, the gunman was clearly drugged when he did what he did and some company will likely pay in the form of a lawsuit.

We have wide-open campuses in North Dakota too, but are they safe? It is a question that we need to ask ourselves, but instead of limiting access to grounds such as University of Mary, UND, or NDSU among others, we should allow our college students to carry guns as long as they don't show signs of violence. Virginia Tech University failed to do so and they have paid the price.

Real Reason Don Imus was fired update

This is an update of a post that I completed last night.

http://dakotacountryview.blogspot.com/2007/04/real-reason-don-imus-was-fired.html

The first link that I included in the post was proved to be a hoax. Still most of the post is pretty much true.

Here is the link to the Prison Planet story.

http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/april2007/160407pravdahoax.htm

Now for News you will not find in the Bismarck Tribune

On the record, the Bismarck Tribune is one of the best papers in the upper midwest compared to some other papers such as the Fargo Forum and Star Tribune (Twin Cities). But, here is one news item regarding RFID (Radio Frequency IDentification) chips. This past week, North Dakota put a new law on the books that bans the forced injection of these chips into any human.

http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/april2007/130407chipping.htm

The Real Reason Don Imus was Fired

Here is an article that I want to show to all of you.

http://english.pravda.ru/opinion/columnists/89728-0/

Believe it or not, I am a 9/11 Truther as well. A clue to this is the Prison Planet link that I have on the right. For the record, the fall of Don Imus was a lynching pure and simple and I cover it in a previous post.

For this one, however, this is most likely the product of elites that are so weak that Don Imus had to be sucker-punched. They can't attack him directly. Still, this is completely uncalled for according to the public at large and all polls that I have seen so far, show unprecedented support for Imus to the tune of almost 70% support for him. As I type this, I am listening to Matt Drudge on the radio and his introduction included 10-year olds playing the part of Imus on April 4. Since the folks at South Park can turn out a episode in less than a week, I believe that they will voice their comments on the issue. For the record, they started their current season last month with a episode targeting Jesse Jackson.

Don Imus vs Al Sharpton

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RF9BjB7Bzr0

This above You Tube link includes what former MSNBC and CBS radio host Don Imus said about the Rutgers Women's Basketball Team as he said it on April 4th 2007. Now there is one simple issue about this post and it is regarding racism. At first glance, it appears that Don Imus is the guilty party due to his saying of "Nappy Headed Hos." Now the simple definition of this phrase is simply dark haired prostitutes. Now we know that prostitutes are women who give themselves up for money, but the word prostitute and ho can be taken in different contexts. That what Don Imus was trying to establish with his comments and the final score, in which Tennessee won 59-46, backs him up.

Now the only thing that can realistically be racist is the comment about the tattoos which can be understood to have been said tattooed as in tattooed to the court by Tennessee. For the record though, tattoos are on many women nowadays. If you don't believe me, check out season one of Survivor in which Kelly has a tattoo down her back.

Now to get back to the comment, here is what I believe Don Imus actually said in the context of the Women's National Championship on April 3rd: "Those Rutgers girls, they were pretty sick last night (after the loss), they got tattooed , those are some dark haired prostitutes (In this case, they laid down to Tennessee which the sports media had them ranked #4 in the final poll of the season while Rutgers beat #1 ranked Duke 53-52 en-route to the final.

http://sports.yahoo.com/ncaaw/polls;_ylt=AlB8Vx8bOeW6h7_xZg_OK0dMvrYF

This above link means that Rutgers can beat good teams. Now I don't know Don Imus personally, but he might have liked Rutgers Women's basketball as well as all sports. For the record, Imus might also been lead on by one of his guests. Right before he said the phrase "nappy headed hos" one of his guests called them "Hard-core Hos," and Imus simply decided to stay away from calling them hard-core knowing they lost.

Now here are some links of Don Imus together with the "Rev." Al Sharpton, a few days later.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jknRJnuTCn8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qaftrHk0e1c

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJD1Pfqxk10

The first link in this group is simply a 4 plus minute clip of Don Imus with Al Sharpton on Sharpton's radio show. Here, Don defends himself yet again and Al calls for him to be fired. For the record, their meeting on Sharpton's radio show took place following the Easter weekend. Last I checked, Easter celebrates Jesus rising from the dead after paying for our sins including those of Don Imus and Al Sharpton. The second includes Imus asking forgiveness, while the third is Imus simply calling out Sharpton for the bully he is.

However, bully might be a too weak word to describe Sharpton, but here is a good compromise. Al Sharpton is a pig-headed, racist, bully. I arrive at this comment after asking myself What Would Jesus Do? When it comes to Don Imus, he asked for forgiveness and Jesus asks of us to forgive one another seventy times seventy. Now this is a super far cry from what Al Sharpton preaches which is hate while Jesus Christ, the living son of God, preaches love. God willing, Don Imus will come back and while I do hope he sues the living daylights out of CBS radio and MSNBC, it better be just for the pay that he lost during Al Sharpton's 2007 PC Witch Hunt.

The View from Dakota Country will continue to follow this story as it develops.

The True State of our Economy

For your reading pleasure today, here are three articles that tell the state of our economy as a whole.

http://www.bismarcktribune.com/articles/2007/04/05/news/state/131476.txt

This first one is about a company named Paladin Brands and their decision to close two plants. One in Minnesota and the other in Jamestown North Dakota. For the record, the Jamestown plant is one that produces a machine named the Harley Rake and thankfully though the operations aren't moving to China, they are leaving North Dakota for Dexter Michigan. Still it is troubling that this plant used to be family owned until they were bought out by Paladin Brands last year according to the Tribune story.

For the record, here is what a Harley Rake looks like.

http://www.ditchwitch.com/dwcom/Product/ProductView/10618

Now here is another and supposedly unrelated story.

http://www.bismarcktribune.com/articles/2007/04/07/news/local/131552.txt

This story details the complete and total discontent that our political leaders force on us. This time six "Republicans" joined with DemocRATS, by a 27-21 vote, to reject a property tax bill that would have put an substantial rebate into the hands of most North Dakota property owners. Well before this defeat, however, our city, town, and county governments have been increasing property taxes and the first comment to this article has stated that his/her property assessment has risen 100% "in one year." The good news is that both parties do know that there is a problem and that both Sen. Joel Heikamp (D) Hankinson and Dwight Cook (R) Mandan believe that a compromise could be reached. Still, this will not help Paladin Brands since they have already announced plans to ship their jobs out of state. One of the good things is that most people in this state know that property tax reform is needed instead.

Now here is another somewhat unrelated story.

http://news.bostonherald.com/politics/view.bg?articleid=192865

Nationally, the big issue here is that President Bush appointed Sam Fox his ambassador to Belgium without US Senate approval, and here is the issue surrounding his appointment:

Recess appointments are intended to give the president flexibility if Congress is out for a lengthy period of time, such as the four-week adjournment in summer. But Dodd said the law was not intended to circumvent lawmakers' approval.

"This is really now taking the recess appointment vehicle and abusing this beyond anyone's imagination," said Dodd, a candidate for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination. "This is a travesty."

Bush also used his recess appointment authority to make Andrew Biggs deputy director of Social Security. The president's earlier nomination of Biggs, an outspoken advocate of partially privatizing the government's retirement program, was rejected by Senate Democrats in February.

Presidents since George Washington have made appointments during congressional recesses to fill positions in the executive and judicial branches. Bush has used the authority more frequently than some — but not all — of his most recent predecessors, making 171 so far, compared with 140 for President Clinton over two terms, 77 by his father in one term and 243 by President Reagan during two terms.

Let's Keep in mind that Bush still has a little under two years left as President and that his recess appointment can stay in office until December of 2008. For the most part, this is an award for Sam because he helped fund the 2004 Swift Boat Veterans for Truth Campagin. However the real story is that he is helping to destroy our economy as the founder and chairman of the Clayton Missouri based Harbour Group which specializes in the takeover of manafacturing companies. He may have even helped Paladin Brands take over the entire Harley Rake operations both here in North Dakota and Minnesota. For more on this issue, I suggest you all read North Dakota Senator Byron Dorgan's new book "Take this Job and Ship it." It is a good read at a reasonable price, but here is one hint regarding this book, avoid Wal-Mart because you will not find a copy there.

Misleading Fox News Poll

The Fox News Channel show "Hannity and Colmes" published the following poll during last night's show.

Fox News/Opinion Dynamics Poll
Reaction if Hillary is elected
Enthusiastic-16%

Pleased-24

Neutral-16

Displeased-14

Scared-26

Of Registered voters
Taken March 27-28 2007
Margin of error Plus or minus 3%

Now I am not a Hillary fan (in fact, if I had a chance to answer this poll, I would have been one of the 26% scared of her), but co-host Alan Colmes introduced the poll by saying that a majority of Americans are scared of her. Needless to say, this caused me to do a bit of quick math and we can combine four of the five choices. Enthusiastic and Pleased become just Pleased while Displeased and Scared become just Displeased. No matter how you slice it, both choices come out to 40% each and 80% total. The one choice that can't be linked is neutral which comes out to 16%. For the record, most people would take Alan Colmes at his word and accept this poll, but while I understand that polls don't necessarily balance out at 100%, this one totals 96% and isn't in the margin of error at all. Something is fishy here. For the record, a majority of North Dakotans haven't voted for a Democrat for President since 1964, but we would at least like to be informed. Do the same poll regarding Barack Obama, Rudy Giuliani, or John McCain.

Retire Already Virgil

In his prime, attending a Virgil Hill boxing match in Bismarck was a treat. Not only because he was taking part in one of America's top sports at the time, but because he was Light-Middleweight Champion of the World. At that time, Boxing was the centerpiece of any Olympic primetime schedule in the United States as well as a major series on cable networks such as ESPN and USA Network.

Virgil Hill was, pound-per-pound, one of the best fighters in the world. Not because he made sure he had a homefield advantage for the majority of his fights, but because he would almost always knock somebody out in the first or second round of a fight.

As for the older, and shriveled up Virgil, it is clear that he should hang up his gloves. It is hard to talk about his financial situation, but Virgil's health is more important than his career at this point. Even if he has little education, he could be making money off a book deal and maybe opening up his own boxing school and training the next generation of North Dakota boxers. If that happened, Prairie Knights and Four Bears wouldn't have to spend as much money trying to lure music acts to North Dakota.

Virgil's most recent match was against a German named Henry Maske who he beat 10 & 1/2 years ago in a split decision, and forced into retirement. The decision this time around was a unanimous decision in which the scorecard most in favor of him belonged to the media. Granted Maske was getting up there in age at 43 years old, but their first bout was a 12 round affair that aired on a Tuesday night on USA Network. This past Saturday's bout wasn't hyped locally except for a few reports in the paper.

Despite his attempts at a comeback, Virgil has mostly failed but his appreciation night at the Bismarck Civic Center, during a Wizards game, will be a night to remember. The sad thing though is that Virgil may not be around for any of it if he dies while trying to stage a comeback.

What the Tribune doesn't Tell You

Sorry I haven't posted a lot, but I have been meaning to post but didn't have time.

In any case, this local story caught my attention recently.

http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/march2007/190307Dakota.htm

Quite simply stated, the bill in this article simply and completely makes implanting RFID chips in humans a felony in North Dakota. For the record, this must not fail due to the fact that RFID opens up Pandora's box if you will. Is this the dreaded mark that Jesus was telling us to avoid? Only time will tell, but if you go into your local CVS Pharmacy, you can't buy a sales item without the card.

Mandan and the Drive for Five

Mandan won its fifth straight girls basketball title tonight with a 58-51 win over Devils Lake. I am not going to bore you with the details of the game, but lets put it into perspective. First, winning state titles in girls basketball isn't anything that new for Mandan. The Braves won their first title in 1995 after falling short the previous four years.

What followed the next 13 years is that Mandan was in the title game for 12 of them losing out only in 1998 and holding an astounding 8-4 record in state championship games in that time span. Making that kind of record and holding it is hard, but it is easier to make it to state in North Dakota Class A Basketball than to make it in North Dakota Class B or any college or pro sport.

The requirements for making it to State in Class A Basketball are that teams must win two regional tournament games before losing two of them. There are only 18 Class A teams compared to over 100 Class B teams, and only eight spots per state tournament. In the meantime, Class B basketball regardless of sex must qualify for one of eight single elimination style regional tournaments through 16 District tournaments. As a result, only three different North Dakota Class A basketball teams, regardless of sex, have been able to stage a three-peat. The last boys team to do so was Bismarck High from 1957-1959 while Williston was the only girls team to do so before Mandan achieved the feat in 2005. No Class B team regardless of sex has been able to achieve a three-peat though the Bottineau Braves Girls Basketball team has a chance to do so next year.

Since it is almost a lost cause to compare the Mandan Girls dynasty to just North Dakota sports, we must do it on a national level in College and Pro Basketball. In the college game to the run that UCLA had under John Wooden in winning 10 titles in 13 years, 10 consecutive Final Fours from 1967-1976, a 38 game NCAA Tournament winning streak 1964-1974) (though UCLA didn't make the 1966 big dance), and a 88 game regular season winning streak from 1971-1974. On the Women's side, both Geno Auriemma (U-Conn) and Pat Summitt (Tennessee) would be amazed at what Greg Amundson has done at Mandan, and with less resources than what they had. And that does include John Wooden and his UCLA teams too.

With that, only one more team remains in Mandan's way and that is the Boston Celtics who won eight NBA titles from 1959-1966 under Red Auerbach and 11 titles in 13 seasons. While Mandan may have 5 straight titles, the Celtics streak is the longest in sports history and is the top of rarefied territory in which dynasties and all other teams aspire to pass.

Congratulations to the Mandan Girls on their fifth straight championship and good luck next season.

Welcome and Gas prices

Welcome to Dakota Country. I thank you for taking the time to read this blog. This blog will cover state, national and any world issue from the mind of a typical North Dakota resident. This will run the gamut from local issues and subjects of national importance to issues that interest me. This will include local, national, and international sports coverage and so on.

With that said, let's talk about Gas Prices. I was driving around Bismarck today and I noticed that gas prices were topping $2.59 while they were at $2.09 just six weeks ago. In the case of this person, it is clear that there is gouging going on and, with respects to Fox News Channel's Bill O'Reilly, the local stations are not doing the gouging. That problem can be traced all the way to the top to the Oil company executives and the US Energy department.

Proof can be found in the fact that the US Energy department announces the state of US Oil and Gas inventories in reports each and every single week. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070306/ap_on_bi_ge/oil_prices_35;_ylt=AueD1OBgxd6sxMWbwuJvjxOAsnsA

The total information regarding gas price hikes is paramount to other problems in the world, but a US Government that looks out for the little guy, us, should be able to predict that supplies dwindle when US Refineries are shut down for maintainance. Instead it is clear that they are looking out for their buddies at Exxon-Mobil, BP, Conoco, Arco, and Chevron among others. When these idiots get the lion's share of profits, it is clear that Bush and his friends are the ones doing the gouging, not your local gas station.