Kill Your Television

[dales]

Wis. man accused of shooting TV over Palin dance

By TODD RICHMOND, Associated Press

Wednesday, November 17, 2010
.

(11-17) 18:20 PST Madison, Wis. (AP) --

A rural Wisconsin man apparently enraged by Bristol Palin's "Dancing with the Stars" routine blasted his television with a shotgun, leading to an all-night standoff with a SWAT team, investigators said.

Steven Cowan, 67, was arrested Tuesday morning after officers coaxed him out of his house in Vermont, a rural community near Madison. Cowan, who is accused of threatening his wife with the gun after destroying the television, appeared in a Madison courtroom Wednesday on a charge of second-degree reckless endangerment. His bail was set at $1,500.

Cowan's attorney at the hearing, Jonas Bednarek, declined to comment.

Cowan's wife, Janice Cowan, told investigators that her husband suffers from bipolar disorder and had threatened her life in the past.

According to court documents, Janice Cowan said her husband came home Monday from the bar and had a beer with dinner before they settled down to watch "Dancing with the Stars."

When Palin, the 20-year-old daughter of tea party favorite Sarah Palin, began her routine, Cowan jumped up and began swearing, saying something like "The (expletive) politics." His wife said he was upset that a political figure's daughter was dancing on TV even though he felt she didn't have talent.

Janice Cowan told investigators her husband left the living room and reappeared 20 minutes later with his shotgun, "raging" with his face bright red, and blasted the TV. She said he then pointed the gun at her and told her to go fetch his pistols, and threatened to kill himself if she brought anyone back. According to the criminal complaint, Steven Cowan's daughter recently took away his handguns for safekeeping. It did not elaborate.

"He scared the bejebees out of me," she told detectives.

Janice Cowan fled the home and went to an attorney's office, where she phoned police.

She told officers that about 15 years ago her husband had threatened her with a machete when he couldn't find some ammunition and has threatened to shoot one of their cows.

She added he was under stress because of financial reasons, saying a doctor helping him with his mental health problems had suggested he temporarily turn over control of properties he rents out to the family's attorney. Calls on Wednesday to a number listed as the Cowans' could not be connected.

The Internet has been abuzz in recent days about how Bristol Palin, who has consistently landed at the bottom of the judges' leaderboard, has been able to remain on the ABC show. Some have suggested that voters — particularly supporters of her mother — have been voting in blocs and manipulating the system.

Both Palins have denied any organized vote-getting tactics. Bristol Palin says voters support her despite lackluster performances because she started the show with no dancing experience.



Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.c ... z15srfe7u1

[loCAtek]

Oh man, I don't normally or abnormally, watch that show,. but it's all over the news; so I checked out the clips, and yea- that chick can't dance.


...give it up; you ain't gettin' yer mama elected!!!!

[Sue U]

But it's all her mama's fans that are keeping her on the show. Because they think that keeping Bristol Palin stomping around on the teevee box is somehow sticking it to teh libruls. Whatev.

[Gob]

[Gob]

The producer of Sarah Palin's Alaska, Mark Burnett (whose past hits appropriately include both Survivor and The Apprentice), has declared that the series is ''completely nonpolitical''. It is in fact completely political: an eight-week infomercial that, miraculously enough, is paying the personality it promotes (a reported $US250,000 a week) rather than charging her. The show's sole political mission is to maintain the fervour and loyalty of the Republican base, not to win over Palin's detractors.

Thanks to the in-kind contribution of this ''nonpolitical'' series, Palin need not join standard-issue rivals such as Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, Haley Barbour and Tim Pawlenty in grovelling before donors and primary-state operatives to dutifully check all the boxes of a traditional Republican campaign.

Palin not only has TLC in her camp but, better still, Rupert Murdoch. Other potential 2012 candidates are also on the Fox News payroll, but Palin is the only one, as Alessandra Stanley wrote in The New York Times, whose every appearance is ''announced with the kind of advance teasing and clip montages that talk shows use to introduce major movie stars''. Pity poor Mike Huckabee, relegated to a graveyard time slot, with the ratings to match.

http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/politics/ ... 182hn.html

[loCAtek]

I haven't watched any episodes, since I've never had any interest in that kind of faux-reality TV, but I have seen the trailer online. It's hard for me to believe she's an 'aw-shucks' frontier mom, when she's been out of state, on the road, campaigning since 2008. Frankly, just from the clip, the whole series looks staged. (Who'd a thunk, that?) E.G. correct me if I'm wrong, but do you really want to park your fishing boat full of children within clawing distance of a grizzly bear with cubs? (Well, Sarah called them grizzly bears, they were actually brown bears.)

Maybe that was another thing lacking in her education;

Palin switched colleges 6 times in 6 years By NICHOLAS K. GERANIOS, Associated Press Writer Thursday, September 4, 2008

(09-04) 17:03 PDT Spokane, Wash. (AP) --

Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin seems to have switched colleges at least six times in six years, including two stints at the University of Idaho before graduating from there in 1987.

"Our office was not contacted by anyone," said Tania Thompson, spokeswoman for the University of Idaho in Moscow.

Palin, the governor of Alaska, was born in Idaho. Her family moved when she was only a few months old to Alaska, where she was raised.

According to a biography - "Sarah" by Kaylene Johnson - Palin and three friends went to the University of Hawaii at Hilo after graduation from high school in Alaska in 1982. But they left after a few weeks because of the constant rain there, the book said.

The registrar at Hawaii-Hilo has no record that she ever enrolled, school officials said Thursday.

Palin, then known as Sarah Louise Heath, and a friend then traveled to Honolulu and enrolled at Hawaii Pacific University, a private, nonsectarian school. She attended only as a freshman during the fall of 1982, school spokeswoman Crystale Lopez said.

She was in the business administration program as a full-time student, Lopez said Thursday.

"We're trying to track down someone who knew her," Lopez added.

From Hawaii Pacific, Palin transferred to North Idaho College, a two-year school in Coeur d'Alene, about 30 miles east of Spokane. She attended the college as a general studies major for two semesters, in spring 1983 and fall 1983, spokeswoman Stacy Hudson said.

"We were not able to track down club affiliations or anything," Hudson said.

The school identified one of her professors but he did not remember her, Hudson said.

Prior to her selection by McCain, the North Idaho College Alumni Association notified Palin in June she would be the recipient of its 2008-2009 Distinguished Alumni of the Year Award.

From North Idaho College, Palin transferred 70 miles south to the University of Idaho, the state's flagship institution. She majored in journalism with an emphasis in broadcast news. She attended Idaho, whose mascot is the Vandals, from fall 1984 to spring 1985.

She then returned to Alaska to attend Matanuska-Susitna College in Palmer in fall 1985.

Then she returned to Idaho, for spring 1986, fall 1986 and spring 1987, when she graduated. Despite her journalism degree, she does not appear to have worked for the college newspaper or campus television station, school officials said. She worked briefly as a sportscaster for KTUU in Anchorage after she graduated college.

The McCain campaign did not have an immediate comment on Palin's higher education record.

Palin's biography on her Alaska governor's website indicates only that she graduated from Idaho in 1987.


Read more: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_was_Sara ... z160z4X1hG

[Miles]

I had a biology teacher in high school who was dry firing a new .357 at his tv , you guessed it, there was a live round involved. Brand new colored tv reduced to junk.

[oldr_n_wsr]

I watched
S.P.'s Alaska only because I like Alaska. It did seem to be "staged". I have been to Alaska and you don't go anywhere near a mom bear and her cubs, not even in a boat. And if you see mom and her cubs, you back away as quickly as you can (without running).

[loCAtek]

But it's all her mama's fans that are keeping her on the show. Because they think that keeping Bristol Palin stomping around on the teevee box is somehow sticking it to teh libruls. Whatev.

Yesh poor Bristol, after that I watched a few more videos just to see if this was an early dance in the show to warm her up. Nope, she started out perky and is just getting more and more worn out. That Mark is outstanding in trying find something -anything that she can put some energy into; at times nearly carrying her around the dance floor. Bristol can't hide the look in her eyes that says, 'please just drag me outta here!'

[loCAtek]

And The Winner Is....

[Lord Jim]

But it's all her mama's fans that are keeping her on the show. Because they think that keeping Bristol Palin stomping around on the teevee box is somehow sticking it to teh libruls

WHAT ?!?!?!

Are you telling me that those dastardly Tea Partiers are undermining the integrity of a great and important American institution like Dancing With The Stars?

What is this country coming too...

I don't watch the show, (it's difficult for me to conceptualize a more vacuous format) but I've seen some clips...

I'll readily admit that my expertise in evaluating dancing is zero, but it didn't seem to me that she was any worse than any of the other ying yangs I've seen on dancing on the show....

[oldr_n_wsr]

My wife loves that show. I make a quick exit and head to my workshop when it comes on.

[Sue U]

Are you telling me that those dastardly Tea Partiers are undermining the integrity of a great and important American institution like Dancing With The Stars?

It would be voter fraud, except with respect to Teabaggers and DWTS that's just redundant.