America’s Got Punting

Coming into last night’s Semi-final, it was announced, the top 3 acts would move on to the Finals, and #4 and #5 would face the judges.

America cast some interesting votes that suggested perhaps the show might need to be renamed, “America Lacks Good Taste”  and #4 and #5 standing before the judges were young singing group Voices of Glory and cloggers The Fab Five.

After a three minute break, the judges came back and Sharon Osbourne declined to make a decision. Then so did David Hasselhoff. The whole thing went into a huddle and Piers Morgan announced that there would be no judge’s choice and that both Voices of Glory and Fab Five would go to the finals. A happy non-competitive soccer ending to the whole saga that played out on national television.

As happy as I am for both groups, this leads me to think that America’s Got Talent Examiner Michael Ross may have a point when he calls for all the judges to be fired. Or get sacked as two of them would better understand it. Fundamentally, the judges abdicated their only basic role at this stage of the game.

As successful as the show is, it pales in comparison to Britain’s Got Talent.  Other than Kevin Skinner with a Cockney accent, it’s hard to imagine any of the acts that will compete in the Finals from tonight’s show making it through to the final on Britain’s Got Talent.  BGT has more the feel of a genuine talent contest, while on AGT, the whims of the judges reign supreme, and it’s a circus of egos. The sad thing is that there are talented people whose time is totally wasted by the judge-inflicted nonsense.

Putting that aside, I do understand why it was hard for the judges to pick between Fab Five and Voices of Glory (though I believe making tough decisions is what they’re paid to do.)  Both will make interesting Finalists. Fab Five is-well-fab, at what they do. But I don’t think any clogging will be victorious.

Voices of Glory do have a shot at winning this thing. Their problem has been that one of the things the judges have told them they need to do, they’re not willing to do. After their Quarter Final, Piers Morgan told them that they needed to let the younger Sister, Nadia take the lead on the singing. In the semi-finals, they split up the vocals pretty much evenly, and they ended up falling behind Kevin Skinner and the Texas Tenors.  The boys voices are not up to the level of their little sister on these big songs they’re performing. Their harmonies worked great on, “God Bless America” in the audition. But, they’ve gotten so far on her talent, and they’re chemistry. In the finals, the brothers need to step back if they want to win this thing in two weeks.

More thoughts follow on the rest of the evening’s contestants. 

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America’s Got Talent: The Final Semi-Final

America’s Got Talent’s final semi-final is over. In some ways this show was unfair because of how much talent was in this show. It really was a matter of luck for many of these acts. Had some of these eliminated acts appeared in Week 2 or Week 1, they may have gone  on.

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Judges Don’t Dance Around Good Talent This Week

Wednesday was the third quarter final results show in America’s Got Talent.  And rather than last week’s doggy fiasco, the judges addressed a tough choice in a fairly non-controversial manner.

The FootworKINGz were a dynamic group of young male dancers from Chicago. Pixie Mystere were a group of grade school dancers. The talent was slightly on FootworKINGz side plus the fact that America is unlikely to send elementary school girls off to do a Las Vegas show, the logical choice was clear.

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General Welfare Queens

When challenged to explain what part of the Constitution gives them the power to even pass health care reform, I’ve heard at least a couple liberal talk radio callers rest their defense in the Preamble to the Constitution’s use of the term “General Welfare.”

But does General Welfare really mean that health care reform is constitutionally permitted? Well, as it happens the Father of the Constitution, James Madision, became President and was presented with a public works bill which he vetoed and in that veto message he addressed the meaning of the General Welfare clause…

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Minnick Digs In: High Marks on Pork Issue

I know a lot of my fellow conservatives have high hopes of recapturing Idaho’s First District.  I have to say that even if there’s a national wave, Rep. Walt Minnick (D-Id.) may not be easily dislodged. With the exception of his votes on SCHIP and the Hate Crimes bill, Minnick is voting like a Republican in a way that maddens Idaho liberal bloggers, but has got to make Minnick’s constituents comfortable.

The latest example, the Club for Growth RePork Card based on 68 anti-Pork Amendments. Minnick scored a perfect 100% on the scorecard. On the pork issue, that’s to the right of Former Congressman Bill Sail (R-ID) who scored a 94% which was one of the highest scores in Congress.

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