Any Given Sunday: Al Pacino- The Game of Inches

Source:Any Given Sunday- From Any Given Sunday, from 1999.

Source:The New Democrat

"Al Pacino - Any Given Sunday - Peace by Inches" 

From Any Given Sunday

Al Pacino from Any Given Sunday playing Miami Sharks head coach Tony Damato, which I believe was the name of his character, explaining to his football team that life isn't just a game of inches, but football is as well. And that every inch and every play is important and can end up being the difference between losing a game and winning the game. And the most important games are where each play in the game are that much more important. "What if  I only made that tackle, or made that block, or made that catch, saw that defender before I threw the ball and get it picked off".

Life and football perhaps especially is a game of inches and plays. Not one inch, or one play, but you add them all up and they become crucial. And the bigger the game is, or the situation in life, the better you have to play and the fewer plays you are able to take off. Because every mistake and come back and bite you in the ass and leave asking a bunch of what ifs. Which is why you have to play every play like it is not just important, but crucial. The difference between winning and advancing and losing and going home. And that was Tony Damato's message in this scene.

Conan O'Brien: White House Correspondents Dinner Featuring President Bill Clinton (1995)

Source:Conan O'Brien-

Source:The New Democrat 

To write a blog about 1995 or even a satire about it I really have to go deep into my memory bank to remember what I think about that year. I was only nineteen at the time for most of that year. President Bill Clinton and Bill Maher touched on Vice President Al Gore's reinventing government program that looked to save money in the Federal budget by making programs work better and consolidation. The OJ Simpson murder trial of course was big and if you watched anything on cable news that year, you would think that was the only story that year.

House Republicans wanted to gut PBS which the President touched on by saying that "PBS could only afford to send Jim Leher and not Robert McNeil because of the budget cuts". They were the co-hosts of the PBS NewsHour in the 1970s, 80s, and 90s. The 1996 presidential campaign was already going on with Bob Dole the Leader of the Senate already the GOP frontrunner for president. And the Leader proposing to move Congress's Senate sessions up to New Hampshire and Iowa so Leader Dole wouldn't have to fly back to Washington as much.

I could go into the government shutdown that happened in the fall of 1995, the Oklahoma City bombing that happened in April 1995, but those things happened after this dinner and the people who performed that night performed before those events happened, so I'm not going to go into that. But just the first few months of 1995 with a brand new Republican Congress the first one since 1953 and House Republicans donating their lives to passing their Contract For America, you knew this was going to be a fascinating year.
Source:Conan O'Brien

Mike Gardner: Democratic Response to President Ronald Reagan's 1985 State of the Union

Source: Mike Gardner & NBC News-

Source:The New Democrat 

This is where we start to see the Democratic Leadership Council the New Democrats in the Democratic Party starting to take over the Democratic Party after the Democrats had just lost 4-5 presidential elections starting in 1968. The McGovernites the New Left took over the Democratic Party in the late 1960s from the liberal and progressive establishment in the party. And as a result Democrats were seen as tax and spend, government can do everything for everybody, people shouldn't have to work and support themselves, soft of welfare, soft on defense, soft on crime. All the stereotypes that killed the Democratic Party at the presidential level in those four presidential election losses.

What the New Democrats were saying is "that we won't win the White House back and perhaps even come close until the change the image of the party and how we are presented. So we don't look like we want to spend most of the money that people make for them. That we will do what it takes to defend the country from domestic and foreign predators within the Constitution. That we'll use Welfare and other public assistance to help move people out of poverty instead of expecting nothing from them as so many other Americans struggle to just pay their bills through working and not collecting public assistance".

And by 1992 we saw the results with Bill Clinton being elected President of the United States with large majorities in Congress and by 1996 we saw most of the negative stereotypes disappear to the point that Americans trusted Democrats more than Republicans when it came to taxes, the economy, fiscal responsibility, crime, foreign policy and national defense. Because the New Democrats took control of the Democratic Party from the Mcgovernitegs.
Source:Mike Gardner

Sun News: Marc Emery Talks to Marissa Semkiw SUN NEWS

Source:The New Democrat

Marc Emery arguing that he's supporting Justin Trudeau the Leader of the Liberal Party in Canada because of marijuana and he believes the Federal Liberals in Canada are the best avenue to getting marijuana legalized in Canada. Leader Trudeau to me at least from what I've heard and read about him sounds like a centrist or a mushy middle moderate. So for someone like that to take a strong stance on marijuana legalization as in favor of it would be a big step for someone of that type of political background.

Jim Heath: ABC News: American Hostages Day 444

Source:ABC News- James E. Carter (Democrat, Georgia) 39th President of the United States (1977-81)

Source:The New Democrat 

"January 20, 1981.  Ted Koppel reports on the last minute efforts of president Jimmy Carter to secure the release of American hostages in Iran prior to the Inauguration of Ronald Reagan." 

From Jim Heath

The final insult from Iran to President Jimmy Carter was Iran not officially releasing the American hostages in Iran until the second or minute that Jimmy Carter was no longer President of the United States. And then the hostages were allowed to leave Iran for Algeria and then to Germany and then of course back to America. The Iranians kept these innocent American hostages who were only guilty of working at the American embassy in Iran longer than they had to just so Jimmy Carter who and his administration did all the work to get the Americans free and deserve all of the credit, but so they weren't officially released under their watch.

ABC News: Special Report: Iranian Hostage Crisis (12/03/1979)

Source:The New Democrat

The Shah of Iran was a major reason for why the 1979 Iranian Hostage Crisis came about in the first place. Because the Shah was a dictator and at times a brutal dictator even though he was moderate in other areas like in economic and foreign policy. But he used his vast powers to keep the opposition that was democratic and theocratic down with his Secret Police and arresting people without charges. And holding them indefinitely without trial. And as a result the Islamists in Iran woke up and fought back and took over the country.

ABC News: Iranian Hostage Crisis (11/11/1979)

Source:The New Democrat

The 1979 Iranian Hostage Crisis was the final nail in the coffin of a very horrible year for America and President Jimmy Carter. With all the bad economic news with the high cost of living due to the energy crisis, high interest rates and inflation, high unemployment. And an administration led by President Jimmy Carter not seeming to be able to adequately respond to any of these issues in an effective way and President Carter's approval rating taking a beating as a result.