BREAKING: AFTRA Accepts Contract — SAG In Trouble

Dave McNary of Variety is just reporting that Members of the American Federation of Television & Radio Artists have ratified the union’s primetime deal, spurning SAG’s avid campaigning to vote down the contract.
AFTRA said 62% of those voting supported the deal. Announcement came Tuesday evening following a month of bitter battling between the thesp unions.

The ratification was not a surprise due to the faltering economy and the lingering impact of the 100-day WGA strike. Terms in the AFTRA pact mirror those in the contracts signed by the WGA and DGA, along with the majors’ final offer to SAG.

The results represent a slap to SAG leadership, which has held out for a better deal with the implied threat of a strike. SAG has yet to take a strike authorization vote and - given the AFTRA vote — it’s highly doubtful that it could achieve the needed 75% endorsement for a work stoppage.

SAG had been hoping that a defeat of the AFTRA deal would give it the increased leverage it needs to obtain better terms. Instead, it now faces the unsavory prospect of AFTRA signing up new shows shot on digital - an area of shared jurisdiction - with the new contract.

Ballots went out to all 70,000 AFTRA members, including 44,000 SAG members who belong to both unions. Alec Baldwin, Sally Field, Tom Hanks and Susan Sarandon backed the AFTRA deal while Viggo Mortensen, Jack Nicholson, Nick Nolte and Martin Sheen endorsed SAG’s anti-AFTRA stance.

The Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers broke off negotiations by delivering the final offer on June 30, a few hours before SAG’s feature-primetime contract expired. Actors have been working since on some TV programs under terms of the expired deal; SAG’s also granted waivers to over 355 indie features.

The AMPTP announced Tuesday morning that the meeting with SAG had been set and added, “The Producers remain hopeful that SAG will accept our final offer.” SAG will meet with the AMPTP on Thursday afternoon.

There are now two possible scenarios at play; SAG’s negotiating team could cave and accept the last offer from the Producers or hold a strike vote.

As I wrote in a previous post: Screen Actors Guild Has No Act To Follow

The failed and inept leadership of SAG by it’s President Alan Rosenberg and National Executive Director, Doug Allen has no more moves to make.

Hopefully Alan Rosenberg will either be told to resign or be voted out of office. Let’s see how well he does in the free market of auditions and acting again.

The 100,000 plus below the line artists deserve a stable working environment. We represent less than 10% of the total budget of feature films and television shows.

Posted: 1915PT 07/08/08
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Democratic Party Blows Convention Budget — And You Want Them To Run The Country?

Oh those Democrats.

Convention organizers hired the first-ever Director of Greening, longtime environmental activist Andrea Robinson. This was because Denver’s Democratic mayor, John Hickenlooper, challenged his party and his city to “make this the greenest convention in the history of the planet.”

Ms. Robinson hired an Official Carbon Adviser, who will measure the greenhouse-gas emissions of every placard, every plane trip, every appetizer prepared and every coffee cup tossed. The Democrats hope to pay penance for those emissions by investing in renewable energy projects.

There will be a 900 volunteer trash brigade who will hover at waste-disposal stations to make sure delegates put each scrap of trash in the proper bin.

Also No fried food and “at least three of the following colors: red, green, yellow, blue/purple, and white.” At least 70% of ingredients should be organic or grown locally, to minimize emissions from fuel burned during transportation.

All this comes at a cost and Sunday’s New York Times writes, Delays and Rising Costs for Convention Raise Worries for Democrats.

The renovations at the Pepsi Center are already 6 million dollars over budget. Their problems range from the serious — upwardly spiraling costs on key contracts still being negotiated — to the mundane, like the reluctance of local caterers to participate because of stringent rules on what delegates will be eating, down to the color of the food.

The Democratic National Convention Committee decided not to take cheap office space and instead rented top-quality offices in downtown Denver at $100,000 a month, only to need less than half the space, which it then filled with rental furniture at $50,000 a month.

The DNC is concerned that all these missteps will not only cost them lots of money, but will reflect badly on the party and raise questions about Democratic management skills. You think?

Just look at how well they’ve run Congress.

What is immediately apparent to me is the Democratic Convention is a microcosm of how the Democrats will try to run the country:

• Overbudget
• Over regulated
• Failed unrealizable plans

And you want them to run the country?

I think not.

Posted: 0130PT 07/07/08
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Happy July 4th - Let’s Celebrate Our Freedom!

What an incredible day this is, not only for Americans, but the entire world. On that July 4th in 1776 when those 56 brave men signed the Declaration of Independence they were committing a treasonous act in defying King George and Great Britain, then the most powerful nation on earth.

They knew full well that they would be going to war against one of the greatest armies and navies. They risked everything and despite the overwhelming odds they won.

In that victory we established a unique system of government that still inspires people in other nations, 232 years later.

It inspired me, even though I was born and raised in Canada, I still needed the incredible sense of freedom one has as a United States citizen.

So on this July 4th, I thank this nation for everything it has given me; great opportunity in the pursuit of life, liberty and happiness and most importantly, FREEDOM.

Posted: 1545PT 07/04/08
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Screen Actors Guild Has No Act To Follow

UPDATED 1932PT (bottom of post)

With their contract expiring at midnight Tuesday, July 1st, the Screen Actors Guild is on it’s 42nd day of “negotiations” with the AMPTP.

Let’s put these marathon and fruitless days of bargaining in their proper perspective. The WGA took 23 days to reach a deal, the DGA only 8, AFTRA’s “Network Code” 14 days and AFTRA’s “Primetime contract” 17 days.

The problem here is SAG has inept leadership led by President Alan Rosenberg and it’s hired gun, National Executive Director, Doug Allen.

Rosenberg is an actor with an un-spectacluar career and knows little about contract negotiations because his agent was the one who negotiated all his deals. Doug Allen knows even less about the entertainment industry because for twenty years he was the Assistant Executive Director of the National Football League’s Player Association!

The only skills Rosenberg and Allen bring to the table is that Rosenberg can read a script and Allen can kick the proverbial football around a lot.

Due to SAG’s procrastination many films have delayed their start of production and television shows are either taking the month of July off or delaying their filming well into August or September.

Los Angeles is going through a de-facto strike after just starting to gear up again after the disastrous four and a half month WGA strike.

The Milken Institute reported that the WGA strike will cost the California economy a projected 37,700 jobs and $2.1 billion in lost output through the end of 2008. The Los Angeles Economic Development Corp. estimates when factoring the multiplier effect the total loss amounts to $8.2 billion.

The AMPTP as well as the Intl. Cinematographers Guild have accused SAG of stalling — and here’s the reason why: SAG has embroiled itself in a bitter intra-union fight with AFTRA. The two unions used to negotiate their contracts in tandem over the last thirty years. However in March, when SAG’s Board of Directors showed little interest in sitting down and bargaining, AFTRA decided to go their seperate way.

The result was that AFTRA successfully negotiated a new contract and it’s membership is likely to ratify it when their vote results are announced on July 8th. SAG does not want AFTRA to approve the contract and has spent lots of money and mostly time devoted to it’s defeat.

ICG president Stephen Poster, in a letter to his members sent Friday, said,

“SAG has not brought anything new or promising to the bargaining table and a factional riff within SAG’s membership is threatening to not only damage the union itself, but the industry as a whole,” Poster denounced the guild leadership as “dysfunctional” in describing what he termed “the sad state” of SAG’s negotiations.

Daily Variety writes, “SAG’s blamed the AMPTP for the lack of progress at the negotiating table but its opposition to the AFTRA deal has been widely perceived as a way for SAG leaders to take the temperature of their members and their willingness to strike — without the downside of taking a strike authorization vote.”

That’s leadership for you!

Just last week Tom Hanks signed a letter about the SAG-AFTRA brawl. Hanks has joined the pro-AFTRA forces in an endorsement of the smaller union’s primetime deal. He added his name to a list of more than 100 signatures as part of a campaign encouraging AFTRA’s 70,000 members to vote yes on the pact over SAG’s strident opposition. The pro-AFTRA letter blasts SAG’s recent anti-AFTRA campaign and accuses SAG leadership of clinging to unrealistic contract demands that are “hold(ing) us all hostage.”

SAG President Alan Rosenberg said on Sunday, “We have taken no steps to initiate a strike authorization vote by the members of Screen Actors Guild.” The process to authorize a strike would take about three weeks.

Meanwhile my show has stopped shooting for the month of July and the film industry is suffering as the incompetents at SAG keep reading from the wrong script.

News on SAG contract talks as it happens.

UPDATE: From the Hollywood Reporter: As the clock ran down Monday, the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers took their last shot: a final offer worth more than $250 million in additional compensation to SAG members.

“Our industry is now in a de facto strike, with film production virtually shut down and television production now serious threatened,” the AMPTP stated. “In an effort to put everyone back to work, the AMPTP today presented SAG our final offer — a comprehensive proposal worth more than $250 million in additional compensation to SAG members, with significant economic gains and groundbreaking new media rights for all performers.”

The offer signals the end of formal talks between the AMPTP and SAG. After this, the AMPTP will not accept any new proposals or bargain on existing proposals by the actors’ union. The AMPTP has agreed to meet with SAG on Wednesday at 2 p.m. to answer questions about the offer, but that’s it, sources said.

“If our industry shuts down because of the unwillingness of SAG’s Hollywood leadership to make a deal, SAG members will lose $2.5 million each and every day in wages,” the AMPTP said. “The other guilds and unions would lose $13.5 million each day in wages, and the California economy will be harmed at a rate of $23 million each and every day.”

Posted: 1425PT 06/30/08
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Obama’s Tax Plan — Ouch

Critics of Barack Obama keep pointing to his questionable friendships with terrorist Bill Ayers, convicted felon Tony Rezko and the 20 year association with Rev. Wright. While it’s important to vet anyone aspiring to be President we should also be looking even closer at his economic polices.

Obama’s Tax plan would boost the top marginal rate to well over 55 percent—before the inclusion of state and local taxes—resulting in many individuals seeing their marginal tax rate double.

Obama would end the Bush tax cuts and allow the top two tax rates to return to 36 and 39.6 percent. He also would allow personal exemptions and deductions to be phased out for those with income over $250,000. The real kicker, though, is that Senator Obama would end the Social Security payroll tax cap for those over $250,000 in earnings. (The cap is currently set at $102,000.) These individuals will then face a tax rate of 15.65 percent from payroll taxes and the top income tax rate of 39.6 percent for a combined top rate of over 56 percent on each additional dollar earned.

Senator Obama’s new tax rate would give the United States one of the highest tax rates among developed countries. Currently only six of the top 30 industrial nations have a tax rate for all levels of government combined of over 55 percent. Under Obama’s tax plan, the United States would join this group and have a higher top rate than such high-tax nations as Sweden and Denmark. The top marginal rate would exceed 60 percent with the inclusion of state and local taxes, which means that only Hungary would exceed Senator Obama’s new proposed top tax rate.

Senator Obama’s tax rate would be the highest individual tax rate since the Jimmy Carter days. Tax shelters and tax avoidance strategies were common when the top marginal rate was 70 percent or higher. This new top tax rate will again encourage these gimmicks, reducing investment and economic growth as resources are squandered in an attempt to avoid punitive taxation.

The left beleives that the Bush Tax Cuts have only helped the rich — but their calculation is purely political. Higher tax rates will slow the economy.

If Barack Obama is elected President in November it will cost every American big time.

The Heritage Foundation has Obama’s Tax Plan spelled out in even more detail here.

Posted: 1915PT 06/27/08
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The Democrats Plan On Oil Prices: Nothing

The Democrats rode to a majority in November of 2006. One of the top pieces of their agenda as stated by House Majority Leader, Nancy Pelosi was,

“Democrats have a commonsense plan to help bring down skyrocketing gas prices by cracking down on price gouging, rolling back the billions of dollars in taxpayer subsidies, tax breaks and royalty relief given to big oil and gas companies, and increasing production of alternative fuels.”

So what happened? When the Democrats achieved their majority, the retail price of regular reformulated gas was $2.22, according to data compiled by the U.S. Department of Energy. This week, the price is more than $4.00.

They have had the legislative majority to do something about oil prices, yet have done nothing in the 18 months in power.

They even scheduled a news conference on Capitol Hill today to discuss gas prices - but it was cancelled That’s because the Democrats do not have an energy policy or any means to fix the problem.

Majority Leader Harry Reid spoke from the same script as his House counterpart, Nancy Pelosi, “we cannot drill our way out of this problem,” That was in response to John McCain’s call to open open up offshore drilling.

Instead the Democrats proposed that the oil companies already have leases on 68 million acres that they’re not tapping. So their plan is a demand that the oil companies begin drilling before the end of the year - or loose their leases.

Republican Senator Saxby Chambliss counters, “There are areas under lease, but the geologists will tell you that there’s no oil where they had the lease.”

Here are the estimated untapped oil reserves that are beneath American soil:

• The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, with recoverable reserves estimated at 10.3 billion barrels.
• Offshore areas, with reserves estimated at 18 billion barrels.
• Oil shale stores in the West. In Utah, Colorado and Wyoming, representing reserves of 800 billion barrels.

We consume approximately 22 million barrels of oil a day or about 8 billion barrels of oil a year. We import over 60% of the supply. If we removed the restrictions to allow the drilling of our reserves we could stop importing oil and this would effectively drive down prices.

This would help to stabilize our economy and give us time to develop alternative methods that would secure our future.

But no, the Democrats are silent on this, stalling until the election in hopes that we suffer higher oil prices as punishment for having a Republican in the White House.

Unfortunately Barack Obama and the Democrats have no energy policy, so it might be up to John McCain to solve the problem for them.

While the nation fumes over oil prices the Democrats can only point fingers and scribe a big 0.

Posted: 1650PT 06/25/08
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Left Leaning Media: All The News That Gets Obama Elected

There are so many main stream media outlets that are trying to will Obama into the White House. They are writing fiction to make him win the Presidency.

Take CNN for example, who are now saying this: Poll: Obama leads McCain in swing states

They use unreliable polling data from a Quinnipiac University poll released Wednesday that says, “Ohio, a state Obama lost to Sen. Hillary Clinton by 10 points in March, he’s leading McCain 48 to 42 percent.”

What make this poll suspect is the fact that it took place over 8 days, “from June 9 - 16″. These statistics fly in the face of more trusted and reliable polling by Rasmussen which polls daily.

The Rasmussen Report says, “John McCain and Barack Obama remain in a statistical dead heat in the key swing state of Ohio, according to the latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey in the Buckeye State.

McCain holds a statistically insignificant one-point lead over Obama, 44% to 43%, among likely voters. Seven percent (7%) favor a third-party candidate and 7% are undecided.

A month ago, when Hillary Clinton was still in the Democratic race, McCain also held an insignificant one-point lead over Obama and the GOP hopeful actually polled 7% lower than Clinton among Ohio voters. Clinton defeated Obama in the Ohio Primary by 8 percentage points.”

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Wednesday shows Barack Obama attracting 45% of the vote while John McCain earns 41%.

When “leaners” are included, Obama holds a three-point advantage, 48% to 45%. Both results reflect a single point gain for McCain and a continued fade for Obama’s bounce. Today’s results are the closest the race has been in polling conducted since Obama clinched the Democratic Presidential Nomination.

Here is something the left will not report:

“New data released today show that Congressional ratings have fallen to an all-time low —most Americans now say the legislature is doing a poor job. Thirty percent (30%) believe that most members of Congress are corrupt.“

The Obama media band wagon includes MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann and Chris Mathews, NBC News and CNN. ABC’s “The View”, CBS “Early Show”, The New York Times, especially reporters Michael Powell and Jodi Kantor and of course The Chicago Sun Times.

A complete and daily tracking of the Left’s Obama love-fest can be seen at NewsBusters

Here’s a sampling of posts: “Obama Advisor’s Dog-Ate-My-Transcript Dodge”, “NYT’s Powell Defends Michelle Obama on MSNBC”, “Us Weekly: Michelle Obama ‘Down-to-Earth Mom’ Who ‘Shops at Target’”, “CBS’s Tough Look at Obama: Loves Scrabble, Doesn’t Like Ice Cream” and “Obama on Terrorist Rights: Joe Calls Out Mika on ‘Moral Choices’”

It is nearly impossible to get a “fair and balanced” view of politics from the “Fourth Estate” in the United States. The term Fourth Estate refers to the press, both in its explicit capacity of advocacy and in its implicit ability to frame political issues. The term goes back at least to Thomas Carlyle in the first half of the 19th century.

The constant “good news” on Obama has the same effect as the media’s Global Warming hysteria and bad Big Oil. It distorts the public’s perception when it only sees and hears one narowly focused point of view.

Isn’t that just like the old Soviet Union, Mao’s China and Fidel’s Cuba?

Also see Flopping Aces: Florida Poll: McCain By 8. With Drilling Proposal, Lead Grows to 11

Posted: 0145PT 06/19/08
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Happy Father’s Day New York Times Style: “Will Dad Ever Do His Share?”

Well Happy Father’s Day to all. Unfortunately the left, led by the New York Times thinks that fathers are not only useless lugs, but expendable too.

“When Mom and Dad Share It All” — The article’s author Lisa Belkin attempts to make it a study of how well Mothers and Fathers share the parenting duties. She gives examples of couples who have elaborate charts of parenting duties and how Fathers try to share the load.

But according to her the couples who do the best job of co-parenting are Lesbians.

“Heterosexual couples can learn from gay couples about sharing housework and child care,” says Esther D. Rothblum, a professor in the women’s studies department of San Diego State University whose comparative study of the relationships of 342 couples — lesbian, gay, heterosexual — was published in the journal Developmental Psychology in January. “They are good role models.”

Like I said, Fathers are just not needed in 2008. Just look at the number of women who are deciding to have children and raise them on their own. The CDC reports that 40% percent of births were to unwed mothers. …And Baby Makes Two

The media has glamorized the lives of Hollywood actresses with unwed pregnancies like Jamie-Lynn Spears, Jamie Pressly, Angelina Jolie, Selma Hayek and Halle Berry.

Television has it’s share of “Idiot Fathers”; Al Bundy of “Married With Children”, Homer Simpson of “The Simpsons”, Archie Bunker of “All In The Family”.

You can also blame the Women’s Liberation movement of the late 60’s.

Lisa Belkin throws another dart at Dads by saying,

“Where the housework ratio is two to one, the wife-to-husband ratio for child care in the United States is close to five to one.
“The most striking part,” Blair says, “is that none of this is all that different, in terms of ratio, from 90 years ago.”
Back when women had to tend fires to cook and put clothes through the wringer and then onto the clothesline, they spent 50 hours a week on housework and men spent 20. (A ratio of 2.5 to 1.) And back in the 1950s, when no one was even bothering to measure how many hours men spent on child care because it was thought to be negligible, the average mother spent 12 to 15 hours caring for her children — the same as they spend today.”

Okay, points for trying to share the load of household chores and the duties of caring for the child. Mothers need a break — but let’s not minimize what Fathers represent to a child’s development.

Michael Lamb is one of the world’s foremost researchers on fatherhood. His book, “The Role of the Father in Child Development” brings together the world’s best investigators in the field.

In a nutshell he says the effects of father absence are:
psychological maladjustment
academic / school under-performance
antisocial behaviour
difficulty establishing and continuing intimate relationships

“On average, children raised without fathers are more likely to show signs of psychological maladjustment, they are more likely to have difficulties at school, difficulty in getting even to underperform, or to drop out of school early, to have less school completed. They are more likely to be represented in the statistics on delinquency and unconventional social behaviour, and they seem to have difficulty establishing and maintaining intimate relationships, particularly heterosexual relationships once they move into adulthood.”

I am a Father and anyone who tries to minimize my importance in my children’s lives better take a big step back!

I have two male friends that have bucked the trend and raised their daughters solely on their own while juggling careers. They’ve done amazing jobs in a world that really doesn’t value men raising children single handed. I applaud them, I respect them and I’m a little jealous.

Those two Dads have raised great kids who will reflect their Father’s values all their lives.

So hats off to all the Fathers in the world and Happy Father’s Day!

Posted: 06/14/08 2210PT

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America Get Ready To Pick Your Poison This November

On Election Day this November you will have the choice of voting for Barack Obama, a committed leftist, with strong socialist leanings or John McCain a committed centrist with strong Democrat leanings.

Either choice is lousy. There is nothing to distinguish the Presidential candidates except for one issue: the War in Iraq. Apart from that you’d swear there were two Democrats running this time.

Obama’s one note message about change is a bumper sticker with no meaning or real policy. “Change We Can Believe In”? Obama will disappoint so many when they see that he will not be able to deliver on his promises.

Obama is already sticking his foot in his own mess. He promised to stop the oceans from rising and bring peace to the whole world. It’s a tall order and shows how misinformed he is. He and some of his worshippers may believe he’s the messiah — but Congress will pop that balloon real quick.

John McCain blends the platforms of both Democrats and Republicans into one confusing mess. He sounds like another Democrat. Maybe he’s crossed the aisle one too many times to act like a true Republican.

McCain’s stance on big business, the environment and especially illegal immigration puts him squarely in the Democrat column.

I am an Independent voter — this year’s field sure makes me happy I belong to neither party! I was a registered Democrat for many years until the primaries of 2006. I re-registered as a Republican but abandoned my membership in the Republican party last summer during the Shamnesty fight.

I am thoroughly disgusted by the fat cat elitists in Congress. Obama and McCain are two Senators who exemplify exactly what is wrong with Washington.

Neither gets my vote in November.

I want a strong leader who will protect our sovereignty and defend our constitution. A President who leads the nation by example and keeps entitlements down to a minimum and the government’s hand out of my pocket.

This election cycle will be ugly and either choice for President will require holding your nose.

Read what Mark Steyn says in: Obama, Political Viagra

Posted: 02:05 PT 06/07/08
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Obama Proves He Is A Typical Politician

My first reaction is what took him so long to finally resign his membership from the Trinity United Church. If he were a great typical politician — he would have resigned from the church six months prior to running for President. But Obama’s arrogance is so great he really can’t believe he should be scrutinized at all.

He stood there at his press conferance still defending his church and Reverend Wright and Moss — but stated he’s resigning from the church because, well it’s just not helping his campaign. That’s it — a typical political move but proving once again he lacks the clear judgement to lead our nation.

Did you hear that Democrats? Your vaunted messiah is a phony — but you knew that already and just want to hear his benign phrases to lull you to sleep. Do you really believe this inept but calculating individual can lead the United States to greatness?

Obama will continue to weave and bob, lie and obfuscate to get elected and then take this nation down the road of socialism.

Beware — he is no good for the country — but you already know that and still want him to be president. You Democrats are filled with too much guilt and anger.

The chickens will definitely come home to roost this November.

Photo: AP

Posted: 1720PT 05/31/08
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