(drag your cursor under each question to highlight the answer)
Presidential Trivia
#1. Which President’s nickname was Bubba?
Bill Clinton
#2. Which President’s brother had his own brand of beer?
Jimmy Carter’s brother Billy
#3. Who parodied Gerald Ford on Saturday Night Live?
Chevy Chase
This week’s contestent, Mimi from North Carolina, was only able to get one out of the three questions (and truth be told Vinny Bondgave herthe one correct answer!) therefore she was a loser. But a loser at GetBack.com Pop Quiz trivia ONLY.
Otherwise, Mimi’s efforts in peppering the world wide web the message of peace through her Blog Blast For Peace initiative surely makes her a winner in our book!
Do you think that you’re an expert of the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s? Do you like to win great prizes? If so, click here to send an email signing up to be a future contestant on the GetBack.com Pop Quiz ONLY on Dr. Blogstein’s Radio Happy Hour.
John Bootie(left) describes himself as “the man who makes Rush Limbaugh look liberal” and he wants to be the next president of the United States. We’ll find out what he stands for, what he’s doing to get on the ballot and how he expects to get enough votes to win the White House when he’s only collected 52 friends on MySpace!
Also, essayist and storyteller Alaina R. Alexander (right) will bring some much needed intellect to the Radio Happy Hour. She has a rags to almost riches back to rags story to share. We may also get to meet her alter ego Lou-Lou who is famous for “telling it like it is.”
All that, plus Sara from “Blogger Idol” will tell us what “Blogger Idol” is, Vinny will give us his thoughts on the controversial Sopranos finale, Jane returns after a week off and, of course, your calls at 646-652-4804.
Let me get something out of the way before I begin: I realize that this will be my fourth consecutive post about something having to do somewhat with US politics. Normally, I like to spread my topics around so not to bore myself or my readers but I ultimately write about what I’m thinking about–and its hard not to think about politics before, on and after election day. So if you’re tired of the subject, go here and read about the Britney and K-Fed divorce, you loser.
Now that that’s been said, I think we need a fat president. Seriously, come 2008, I really hope there is a viable overweight candidate wanting to lead our nation.
Forget for a moment that our president is supposed to represent all Americans as a whole and if you look around you (or better yet, if you’re able to look around the people around you) you’ll see a ton (pun intended) of super sized citizens–push that aside for a moment–I’m just sick and tired of having a president that has enough time to work out. I am not the leader of the free world and I don’t have time to work out. (Truth be told, its the desire to work out that I lack, I have plenty of time that I just waste with you or my best friend the TV.)
But back to what I was saying, it irritates me to see the president jogging or riding a bike when he could be working. I want a president who doesn’t have time to leave his desk so he has to eat in the oval office. I want my president to eventually grow into the shape of the oval office.
We almost had it with Bill “Bubba” Clinton who got my vote simply because he loved McDonald’s. But just like all politicians, once he got elected, it was a whole new ball game. He eventually lost weight and took up running and got real fit.
In fact, we haven’t had a fat president since the back-to-back lard asses of Teddy Roosevelt and William H. Taft (left). Since then, its been all these athletic types. JFK who sailed boats and Gerald Ford who fell a lot and Ronald Reagan who rode horses.
Its time for a man to lead this great country of ours. A real man–a man who eats a big steak, a man who asks for a second helping and a man too busy to spend time on a treadmill. We need a man with guts and a gut! We need a fat guy to lead us!
If you want my vote in 2008, you best be skipping the gym to get some real work done. If you’re not huffing and puffing after walking up a flight of stairs, you’re probably not working hard enough.
**An all new Vince Flynn interview when he returns to the Radio Happy Hour on Tuesday night October 21 at 9PM Eastern. Just click –> Vince Flynn.**
You may remember me talking about the new book by Vince Flynn last week. Well, I have Act of Treason and while I haven’t finished it yet, I can tell you that it’s a real winner. But what I’ve come to realize this week, with Vince Flynn “on the stump” is how Flynn himself is a real winner.
The man is a straight talker. He tells it like it is. (Which is obviously the same thing as calling him a “straight talker”) He also carries himself in a very (dare I say) presidential way.
He calls himself a Republican, but also indicates that he’s pro-choice and that gays can do whatever the hell they want (my wording, not his!) He takes a real hard stance on national security. I have yet to hear or read an interview where he takes a stand on stem cell research, but so far, he’s right in line with my line of thinking. A presidential candidate with those views is a presidential candidate that I would vote for–heck, that I’d campaign for.
Its well known that President Dubya is a big fan of Flynn’s books (and no, they’re NOT picture books!) President Bubba is also a fan of the author’s series. Already, Flynn is bridging the political divide!
If you’re still not sold, check out Flynn’s appearance today on Fox News:
Am I wrong? He’s quite presidential if you ask me.
Now, our one obstacle is that I’m pretty sure that Vince Flynn has no intentions on running for office and why should he? He’s probably making millions on his books. I’m not sure how to overcome that, but what I do know is that he reads his fan site message board. So it is there that I choose to officially nominate Vince Flynn for President!
P.S. : If there are any computer savvy people out there who could make me a logo that looks like a campaign poster for Vince Flynn I will be indebted to you for life–or at least for October. UPDATE!10-14-06: The logo to the right is courtesy of the lovely Miss Cellania.
or click play below to listen to Dr.Blogstein’s June 24, 2008 interview with Brad Thor
Way back in late February, yours truly brought you the world’s first glimpse at bestselling author Brad Thor’s new thriller’s book jacket. And now, since I know my sophisticated audience would never dare judge a book by its cover, I bring you the very first interview with Brad Thor about his new book Takedown!
But before that, let me come clean: I am a huge fan of Brad Thor’s previous books, but then again I’m biased because I’m American and do not support terrorism against my country. If that describes you as well, then I’m fairly certain that you too will become a fan of Mr. Thor’s work.
All indications are that Takedown, the fifth thriller featuring tough-as-nails and sarcastic-as-Blogstein counterterrorism operative Scot Harvath, will be this summer’s hot read. You know, the one book you see every other person on the beach reading?
So, my tip to you is to get in on it early so you can take credit for discovering it–at least that’s what I intend to do.
The book comes out on May 30th but I just preordered it here.
And now, without Freddy Adu, we welcome Brad Thor…
Dr. Blogstein: Hello Brad, it is a true honor to have one of my favorite writers visiting the pages of Dr. Blogstein.
Brad Thor: It’s my pleasure, Dr. B. Thank you for having me.
Dr. B: If you had two or three sentences to convince me to read Takedown, what would you say?
BT: I know where you live, what kind of car you drive and where you get your shirts laundered. Read it or I’ll be in touch.
But if you aren’t the kind who bows to petty intimidation, then I’d say - this book is a white-knuckle thrill ride. It is easily my best work to date. The plotting is razor sharp, the chapters are fast as hell, the action never stops and the characters are based on real people who are out there kicking ass and taking hyphenated names on a daily basis.
Dr. B: Brad, you had me at “shirts laundered.”
According to your new book’s description on Amazon.com, terrorists attack New York City and “all of the bridges and tunnels leading into and out of Manhattan are destroyed.” Can something like this really happen in New York?
BT: If someone is willing to throw enough manpower at it, you bet it could.
Dr. B: The answer I was looking for was, “no.” Dude, you scare me.
In your expert opinion, is a terror strike similar to the one you write about in Takedown imminent? If so, can you tell me when to get the hell out of here?
BT: It’s funny you should ask. My wife jokes that I have some sort of bizarre ability to see into the future and write about events before they happen. I hope that isn’t true with New York, but what’s interesting is that Takedown is actually based on a very scary guy who went into hiding two days before the September 11th attacks. Not a lot frightens me, but this man is something to be seriously scared about.In my unending quest to have a fatwa issued against me, I used the guy’s real name in the book - and made him a pedophile to boot. As I neared completion on the novel, the CIA launched a missile strike inside Pakistan and nailed a bunch of bad guys. Supposedly, my guy was among them, so I decided to give the character a fictitious name. Two days ago an intel buddy of mine called to tell me that the scary guy is not dead and had managed to escape. I hope I’m wrong, but if I were you, Dr. B - I’d make sure I had plenty of canned tuna and powdered milk under the bed.And while you’re at it, keep that plastic sheeting and duct tape handy too.
Dr. B: Ummm, I could have used that plastic sheeting for my desk chair before you answered that question, if you know what I mean.
Are you ever afraid that you’re giving terrorists ideas?
BT: With all of the work I put into my novels (interviews, research, etc.), I come across a lot of information that for reasons of national security, I either change or omit altogether. I consider it my duty to be responsible. But am I ever afraid that I’m giving terrorists ideas? It does cross my mind from time-to-time.
Dr. B: To that point, according to “Page Six” in the New York Post dated July 2, 2005, the government put pressure on you to cancel interviews on your last book tour because “the D.C. bureaucrats are afraid Thor will give away secrets that might help the evil-doers.” If this is true, why did you get the memo and Scooter Libby didn’t?
BT: You know what, Scooter’s always been a rebel that way. He got the memo just like me, but a bunch of us suggested it might be funny if he blew it off and sure enough…
Dr. B: What makes Brad Thor novels so much fun to read is the tension of not knowing whether this is the book in which your hero, Counterterrorism Operative Scot Harvath, finally finds the letter “T” that’s clearly missing from his first name. Seriously, dude, what’s with your spelling of “Scot”?
BT: My brother’s name is Scot. My mother didn’t like the idea of three T’s lined up in Scott Thor, so she opted for Scot with one T. The character is based in part on him. That’s the truth.
BT: ROTFL. You’re a pretty funny guy, doc. Let me take these in order.
Josiah Bartlet couldn’t go a single round with President Rutledge. Who’s going to train him? Josh? CJ? Mrs. McKlusky - “He’s a wrecking machine, Josiah…”
Presidents Palmer and Rutledge, though, mano-a-mano would be a helluva fight. Plus, Palmer’s got that bad paw with all that funky skin. That would be pretty cool, but I’m afraid if things got too tough, he’d tried to tag out to Jack Bauer. ThenScot Harvath would have to jump in and the ass whoopin’ would begin. Bauer’d be hurtin’ for a lot longer than 24 hours.
And because I’d very much like to be invited back to the White House, I feel it necessary to point out that President George W. Bush is not a “fake” president.
Dr. B: That’s debatable.
Finally, Brad, if Takedown had a soundtrack what songs would be on it?
BT: What a great question. Let’s see here. In order of appearance they would be:
Senator Barack Obama
Condoleezza Rice
**An all new 
