How's that working for ya, NBC?

The whole thing was about cutting costs. And since Jay, who was supposed to retire from "The Tonight Show" didn't actually want to retire, and the powers that be at NBC/Universal didn't want Jay to go to another network, but Conan, the new guy, was already scheduled to take over from Jay, what was NBC/Universal to do? Hey, the suits thought, what about this? Let's keep Jay and give him a new weeknight show at 10 PM! Hey, that'll be cheaper! Why pay for 5 dumb 10 PM dramas? Why pay for 5 sets of actors, writers, directors, producers, staff and crew? Jay's show is cheap. He'll save NBC/Universal a lot of money, and drive the ad rates up! Less money out, and mo money mo money MO money coming in for NBC/Universal! (When the suits get excited, they sound like the guys from "In Living Color.")

That was their plan, but we all know what happened. Jay's show tanked, which made the local news tank, which didn't help build an audience for Conan, the new guy. Hey, the suits thought, what about this? Let's move Jay to another new show! A half-hour show that starts at 11:35! And we'll just bump all the other shows back by a half-hour! Hey, that'll work! Jay will get his old time slot back and he won't tank anymore, and Conan gets Jay as a lead-in, and even if "The Tonight Show" technically starts tomorrow, and who cares about the guy after that? And mo money mo money MO money coming in again for NBC/Universal!

But Conan said no. And then last Friday, Conan left the building. And dig this: if you take the 30 million NBC/Universal dollars that Conan walked away with, and add the $12 million he got for his staff (a way- classy move of Conan's, by the way); and add the millions paid to Jay to stay at NBC/Universal and do the new 10 PM show; and add the millions more they had to pay Jay to do the new "oops-our-bad" 11:35 half-hour show; and the additional millions they probably forked over to Jay to return to his old "Tonight Show" hour-long gig; and then add millions more NBC/Universal dollars they're feverishly throwing at writer/producers to create 5 new hour-long dramas, and could you write and produce them like, yesterday?

If you added up all of those millions, it would have been cheaper for NBC/Universal to do the 5 damn hour-long dramas in the first place, and for NBC/Universal to hire actors, writers, directors, producers, staff and crew, and they could have kept thousands of people employed.

Fascinating and stupefying.

I've got to get in on this "fail upward" track.

Dear Mr. President: Fire Rahm Emmanuel. Now.

Dear Mr. President:

Please fire Rahm Emmanuel.

He's not sharp, he's too centrist, and he's got that Clintonian stink (Hillary excluded). Sorry, the guy doesn't have your back, and between the conserva-dems that he helped elect in 2006 and the Veruca Salt "I Want It NOW" progres-a-dems that refuse to see the bigger picture, our party is imploding when it should be coming together on important issues like real health care reform. Single-payer health care reform. “Medicare-For-All” health reform. Real choices for Americans and ending the stranglehold of the health insurance industry. And I trace most of the difficulties in getting any health care bill passed to Rahm Emmanuel's ineffectiveness.

Next? As long as he's the Senate Majority Leader, force Harry Reid to take a public speaking class. (I'm not even going to deal with his "Negro dialect”/"light-skinned” remarks here.) He is a HORRIBLE public speaker and does not inspire confidence. He's dull, marble-mouthed, and looks ill. Not a good representative for anything. Good communication skills should be kept in mind when the time comes to choose the new Majority leader.

And I think that some Americans who don't have a real grasp of Wall Street see you (not George W., and his “no-regulation” boys) as the guy who "bailed out" Wall Street, with taxpayer dollars, while many of them are losing their jobs. And they are furious. They don’t understand how close this country came to an economic meltdown of monumental proportions. They’re just out of work, and pissed at rich people in general. And somehow the GOP, the very wealthy Rush and Glenn, and the nutty tea-baggers are “the people’s party." Yeah. Right. Unfortunately, that kind of simplistic thinking has gotten the most press coverage. Because it’s a great story. But it is a “story.” It’s simply not the truth.

Mr. President, it's obvious that you are trying to bring a spirit of bi-partisanship into the House and Senate, but the Republicans are in lock step and just reject everything you propose. Time to call them out on their opposition, and remind the public of exactly who they are.

The GOP is FOR the health care industry and AGAINST working class people. They are FOR the credit card companies and AGAINST consumer protections and reforms. They are, again and again, FOR the side of big-business and AGAINST the side of regular folks and the poor.

What gets me is that these are the politicians that crow about how “big government” doesn't work; yet THEY ARE the government, at least a part of it. And their very obstructionism is so often what keeps the government from moving forward. Good grief.

One more thing -- you've obviously got your hands full -- get Joe Biden out there every time the evil Dick Cheney (or his daughter, or Mary Matalin, or Rudy Giuliani) tells a lie, or tries to re-write history. Respond quickly to every ridiculous charge. And Vice President Biden can do this well. His remark during the campaign about Mayor Rudy using “a noun, a verb, and 9/11” was brilliant and illuminating. But Dick Cheney is a cut below that -- he's a disrespectful lout. What about inviting him to the White House? You know, the "keep your enemies closer" kind-of thing? If he refused, what an embarrassment to him. He may be a former Vice-President, but Cheney is a homegrown terrorist. By his criticisms of you and current U.S. foreign policy, he has given more aid and comfort to the enemy than any ex-anybody. He's a boil that needs to be lanced.

Anyway, Mr. President, thank you for taking this bizarre job, for being so classy and not losing your sense of humor, for caring about this country, and for making the United States look like it finally got smart.

Wishing you and your family a Happy New Year.

And please, stay safe.

Respectfully,

Nancy Giles

PS: Can't you strip Joe Lieberman of his chairmanship of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee? Or authorize, talk to, "lean on" the appropriate parties to do so? He's useless, he craves power and attention, and he's just not good people. Why should he head any committee? That he claims to be an "independent" is such a joke -- he's bought and paid for by the health insurance industry.

More later.

N.