And Second Prize Is Two Speeches From Obama

What if they gave a "Win A Commencement Speech From Obama" contest and nobody came?

The White House is ramping up an effort to promote a nationwide competition to decide which high school wins a commencement speech by President Obama.

An internal White House memo indicates that the White House is facing a shortage of applications less than a week before the deadline.

The competition was extended from the February 25 deadline until Friday, March 11 after few schools met the original application deadline. CBS News has learned a White House Communications Office internal memo dated February 22 noted "a major issue with the Commencement Challenge."

"As of yesterday we had received 14 applications and the deadline is Friday," the memo said. The memo also urged recipients to, "please keep the application number close hold."

A follow-up memo on February 28 reported receipt of 68 applications. Noting the competition among more than 1,000 schools last year, the memo said, "Something isn't working." It called on staffers to ask "friendly congressional, gubernatorial and mayoral offices" to encourage schools to apply.

"Something isn't working".  No kidding.

Comments

[pagar]

Instead of: "Something isn't working", I believe that should read "Nothing is working".

[Threadkiller]

My understanding is the winner is picked through a lottery. Since lotteries are a tax on the poor, it only seems fitting.

[PD]

Something isn't working? I'll say; that golf swing is atrocious.

[MarkJ]

Looks like His Majesty needs to start passing out some "walking around money" to the high-schoolers. Hell, Gaddafi is offering $400 per family to stay in power, so Obama should be able to pony up that much for the little twerps to sit still and listen to him.

[Danube of Thought]

Remember when he was a rock star? Seems like yesterday...

[Ignatz]

--And Second Prize Is Two Speeches From Obama--

Credit to bgates?
Or did TM miss his one-liner and come up with it independently?

[Murgatroyd]

I'm in favor of President Obama giving lots of speeches to American high school students.

Think of all the far more harmful things he might otherwise be doing during that time.

[Sue]

Bwahahahaha....something isn't working...incredibly funny.

[Jane (sit on the couch or save your country)]

Hmmm Iggy, what if TM IS BGates?

[bgates]

I'm not from Connecticut.

If a kid from the lucky high school shows up at commencement with a big "WTF" sign, does he get suspended, or put up on stage?

[Ignatz]

Phil Klein at AmSpec sees more signs Haley Barbour is running. I'd love to see Barry debate Barbour. That slow drawl conceals a very nimble mind. The contrast of a competent, folksy, rumpled, fat, experienced southern governor vs the haughty, faux-high-brow, self regarding cold arrogance of Barry-on-high would make a pretty tough playing field for the current Gipper in the WH, IMO.
I suspect if it was close the left would push Barbour over the top with unhinged race baiting.

[Ignatz]

--I'm not from Connecticut.--

That's a bit ambiguous. Is TM "from" Conn or does he just live there and the same for bgates, if bgates is your real name. Seems kind of unlikely that its anyone's real name now that I think about it.

[Melinda Romanoff]

O/T-

"That's not the Tony Rezko I know..."

[PD]

You mean he's NOT Bill Gates?

[Danube of Thought]

At this point I'm guessing that a huge majority of high schools would prefer Charlie Sheen to Obama as a commencement speaker.

I'm loving the Sheen rants. The most recent one seems to be a perfect cross between Dennis Hopper in Apocalypse Now and Charles Manson.

[narciso]

TM's from New Jersey, but lives inConneticut, bgates lives near the Great Mouse, as I understand it.

[Janet]

Who is the Great Mouse? (I'm probably against him/her/it!)

[DebinNC]

I'd gladly vote for Barbour. Loved watching him on the Sunday shows during Clinton's reign.

Re Obama's commencement speech problem, another example of his profound narcicissism: After picking last year's subjective winner from a group of six finalists, he promised the "losers" that he'd be sending cabinet members to speak to them in his place. Maybe a fear of getting stuck with Turbo Timmy or Ray Lahood partially explains the lack of participation.

[narciso]

Mickey, he's in Central Florida, So, Glenn Greenwald's former associate in the Matt Hale case, is the attorney of record, against Rezko.

[Sue]

DoT,

I don't understand Sheen's family. Where is his father? His mother? Someone needs to do an intervention or their son, brother, husband, is going to be dead. Did I pick Charlie Sheen in Jane's dead this year pool? I can't remember.

[nofly]

If he had to apply he'd be turned down.

[Neo]

Newly uncovered documents show that as early as 2006, the Department of Homeland Security has been planning pilot programs to deploy mobile scanning units that can be set up at public events and in train stations, along with mobile x-ray vans capable of scanning pedestrians on city streets.

... they ain't doing mammograms

I can see it now .. designer clothes that use metalized Mylar patterns to make it look like you have a Star Trek phaser or Kar'takin under your clothes

[Jane (sit on the couch or save your country)]

I too love Barbour. And boy they will do anything they can to say he is a racist, and has a bad school system. Plus he has to deal with that drawl. But I still love him.

[Comanche Voter]

Give it a year---in 2012 there will be 2 applications for the "honor". And the principals in both schools will be morons.

[Jane (sit on the couch or save your country)]

Apparently Ron Schiller came to NPR from the University of Chicago and is about to leave NPR for the Aspen Institute.

I wonder if they will still want him after this.

[Janet]

I don't understand Sheen's family

His family has done lots of interventions. He is a grown man & an alcoholic.

[Porchlight]

And Second Prize Is Two Speeches From Obama

I tell you, no one can write a headline like the great Tom Maguire.

[C.R.]

Sue,

What can Sheen's family do to help him? I would assume that all the normal steps have been taken. He's been to rehab several times, but has no interest in sobriety. He's absolutely bent on self-destruction. He has too much money and too many lawyers for them to be able to do anything.

[Jim Ryan]

This NPR O'Keefe punking (lvi) shows that you can be a top executive at NPR and be unable to perceive reality without hallucinating. This top newsman's perceptions of the tea party are bizarre.

[Jane (sit on the couch or save your country)]

Schiller is leaving NPR to work with his lover at the Aspen Institute, I guess. This from the NPR press release when they hired him:

He will maintain his residence in Aspen, Colorado with his partner Alan Fletcher, an accomplished composer and President of the Aspen Music Festival and School, and will commute regularly to Washington, DC.

[Jim Ryan]

no one can write a headline like the great Tom Maguire

So, you're agreeing with the theory that bgates is TM?

[narciso]

One recalls Robert Downey Jr, had a similar trajectory, but he had to hit rock bottom, before he pulled himself out of the ditch

[Rob Crawford]

This top newsman's perceptions of the tea party are bizarre.

No less bizarre than his views of himself.

He believes he's absolutely not a bigot, unlike those gun-toting, mouth-breathing, high-school-educated, not-worshiping-Gaia-or-Allah Tea Partiers.

[PD]

And the principals in both schools will be morons.

Especially after they win and have to listen to the speech.

[Porchlight]

Aha, I see bgates got to it first...

[Sue]

I'm just thinking of Brittney Spears family and what they did.

[Rob Crawford]

I'm just thinking of Brittney Spears family and what they did.

Raise a young woman to become a drug-addled pop-tart?

[Sue]

Never mind. At some point you just need to let it go.

[Porchlight]

So, you're agreeing with the theory that bgates is TM?

Actually I totally missed bgates' comment...just checking in for the first time today and haven't caught up!

[narciso]

Here's the likely runner up, if Obama doesn't get the nod, in the LUN. It's a beaut from Ezra Klein, at IOTW.

[clarice]

The NPR tape is unbelievable and couldn't come at a better time for the opponents of continued federal funding of the scam.

I didn't see he was leaving..but the damage is already done I should think..Make sure that tape goes viral if you hate NPR.

[Dave (in MA)]

Jughead is swinging by a Boston high school today for another photo-op after doing one in Virginia yesterday. When their motorcade inevitably effs up traffic (although how would you even tell the difference?) I trust that the local hammer and sickle bunch will be just as butt-hurt about it as they were in those pre-Otopian days whenever Bush or Cheney would similarly intrude.

[clarice]

From the Daily Caller:
"Later in the lunch, Schiller explains that NPR would be better positioned free of federal funding. "Well frankly, it is clear that we would be better off in the long-run without federal funding," he says. "The challenge right now is that if we lost it all together we would have a lot of stations go dark."

When one of O'Keefe's associates asked, "How confident are you, with all the donors that are available, if they should pull the funding right now that you would survive?," Schiller answered this way: "Yes, NPR would definitely survive and most of the stations would survive."

That is precisely the opposite answer Schiller's boss, NPR CEO Vivian Schiller (no relation), gave at a press conference Monday in Washington. "We take [federal defunding] very, very seriously," she said. "It would have a profound impact we believe on our ability - of public broadcasting's ability - to deliver news and information."

At the Café Milano lunch, Schiller said he's "very proud of" how NPR fired Juan Williams. "What NPR stood for is non-racist, non-bigoted, straightforward telling of the news and our feeling is that if a person expresses his or her opinion, which anyone is entitled to do in a free society, they are compromised as a journalist," he said. "They can no longer fairly report."

With that, Schiller once again directly contradicted NPR's public statements. At her Monday press conference, Vivian Schiller apologized for the way it handled the Williams matter. "We handled the situation badly," she said. "We acted too hastily and we made some mistakes. I made some mistakes"

[RichatUF]

bgates has had some comments posted at Instapundit. He got this gem published a few days back:

MORE: The inevitable followup email:

I know somebody who knows a guy who can get you a great deal on a sturdy 40 year old model that can handle superscripting.

Courage,
Dan Rather

Heh. (Via Brian Gates.)

And I didn't get to thank him for his bit about Friedman on the MENA protests. Friedman a few days later puffed up Obama's Cairo speech and the Chinese Olympics as causes. One could see Friedman in a Tunisian bazzar having the best hummus in town.

[Rob Crawford]

Ya know what I think should be one of the big pull quotes from the latest O'Keefe tape?

Schiller: The Zionist or pro-Israel even among funders. … I mean, it’s there in those who own newspapers obviously, but no one owns NPR. So actually, I don’t find it.

NPR: Believers in the Zionist-controlled press!

[Danube of Thought]

Won't those TSA people be great once they unionize?

[DebinNC]

Reposting PD's excellent AP link re private employees' growing anger toward public employees' outsized benefits..dubbed "pension envy". Those opposing the union giveaways are a St. John labor/employment prof, a 76yo teapartier in NJ where property taxes are 3.5 times the national average, A Methodist minister who works w/"struggling immigrants", and an elected NJ Dem in "union heavy" Camden. Not expressing pension envy - a 38 yo stay-at-home dad whose teacher wife deserves every penny and more, and a CWA union official.

[Jim Ryan]

Ha. From a commenter at Vodkapundit: "Living Constitution" really means "zombie Constitution".

[Danube of Thought]

Barrypopik.com:

The old quiz show joke goes that first prize is one week in Philadelphia and second prize is TWO weeks in Philadelphia. The Philadelphia joke version has been the most popular and appears in print in October 1957, described then as a “current” joke about Philadelphia.

[narciso]

So they all go work for Al Jazeera, then, when their NPR gig falls through.

[MayBee]

Sue- it does seem the Brittney Spears option would be available to the Sheens. As far as I know, she is still under the conservatorship of her father.
Perhaps Charley has too many good lawyers.

[clarice]

Penn State's Climate Gate Whitewash.

http://pajamasmedia.com/tatler/2011/03/08/penn-state-and-its-climate-gate-cover-up/

[Jim Ryan]

"Brian". Aha!

[Rob Crawford]

Just sent to the contact person for the Aspen Institute:

What does Aspen Institute President Walter Isaacson think about Ron Schiller's recent comment about "Zionist control of the media"? Specifically, from a recent video he made:

Fake Muslim: I’m not too upset about maybe a little bit less Jew influence of Jewish money into NPR. The Zionist coverage is quite substantial elsewhere …

Schiller: I don’t actually find it at NPR.

Fake Muslim: What exactly?

Schiller: The Zionist or pro-Israel even among funders. … I mean, it’s there in those who own newspapers obviously, but no one owns NPR. So actually, I don’t find it.

Thank you!

[Rob Crawford]

And, ya know, I really wouldn't feel at all bad if this Schiller twerp were rendered unemployable. Is that bad of me?

[narciso]

Meanwhile, irony is for 'breakfast, lunch and dinner' with regards to the King hearing and Schiller's memes

http://jammiewearingfool.blogspot.com/2011/03/homegrown-jihadi-reportedly-killed.html

[Pagar]

"What NPR stood for is non-racist, non-bigoted, straightforward telling of the"

How can you do that if all you do is read whatever leftist Democrat propaganda that is handed to you?

[Running Bear]

Robert Downey Jr. had a spiritual awakening and took a solemn vow never to drink or use again lest his continued self-destruction damage and injure his loved ones.

Charlie is not into living. He could be shocked into it. Downey hit rock bottom but that wasn't enough. What he saw that other inmates had, inmates who weren't getting out anytime soon, he wanted. He was given the terms for getting it and he took them to heart. He continues to honor what he pledged. Doing time and learning how God heals All Who Seek Him (in the sweat lodge where he was doing his prison time)was what lifted Robert up. Hitting bottom assures nothing. Surrender is the key.

Sheen's experience is completely different. He's avoiding the DUI trap that usually flings the abuser into the ring with the courts, legal battles that wear them down. Downey burned all of his rope and did time, with some not very nice people.

Most rehab programs are a joke if the participant isn't there to recover and heal. Charlie is acting like the high school punk who faces consequences he can handle. Downey faced consequences that scared the crap out of him. He was lucky to not end up wearing makeup where he did his time.

Downey was ready to heal and was healed. Without the spiritual experience, Sheen will go down in flames--- an accidental death or overdose, heart attack, choking on his own puke...something beyond his control, and certainly undignified. Right now he is fighting everything for control over the one thing he does control and that is where the next jigger of booze and line of blow is coming from.

I like Charlie. I like his family. Something is broken. If he doesn't face it and fix it, he dies. Alone.

Best wishes, Charlie. You are still God's Son.

His addiction is speaking to him every morning the way his Brother Emilio did as Billy the Kid in "Young Guns": "I coulda killed ya, Dick. I coulda killed ya." Alcoholism will get him in the end because he's lost all sense of balance and self-control.

He uses dope to get himself out of the depressive spiral all the booze is putting him through. As of now it is just a mathematical equation as to how long he will last. I can't imagine what kind of pain he is in, doing this to himself.

There but for the grace of God go you or I.

[Frau Gesundheit-und-ein-langes-Leben]

TM - seen the article about the billionaire who wants to celebrate his 125th birthday?

[PD]

Apparently the Milwaukee teacher's union is giving up its lawsuit to get taxpayer-funded Viagra back.

[glasater]

Here's more of the "NPR sting" if anyone is interested.
It's a little like watching paint dry and why editing is worthwhile however watching more of the body language is interesting.

[Frau Gesundheit-und-ein-langes-Leben]

Capt. will be happy to hear that former-Buckeye Hugh Hewitt was steaming and railing yesterday with an audio clip of Vivian Schiller. Hugh said it was obvious that NPR could go it alone and taxpayers should not foot the bill for the leftist carp. Hugh was with PBS for over 10 years and knows the beast from the inside.

[peter]

OT- maybe a health thread about this? LUN

[Jim Ryan]

I didn't watch the video. Was O'Keefe wearing an arab head covering, a kefia (Hamas scarf whatever they're called), sporting a fake mustache and beard, and calling Schiller "sahib"?

[Jane (sit on the couch or save your country)]

Rob,

Schiller's boyfriend is the president of Aspen Institute so I suspect they will ignore your letter. I had the same instinct about the "unemployable" thing, so I looked it up.

[jimmyk]

I suspect deep down the NPR folks are more upset about Schiller saying they'd be better off without federal funding than about his political comments on Zionists running the newspapers.

I also note that with all their protestations about the feds only providing 1-2% of their funding, they gloss over the fact that member stations get state and local funding. What's that all about? That should be the first thing on the cutting room floor for state budgets.

[DebinNC]

The Obama commencement speech finalists are chosen on the basis of submitted videos and scores on "achievement" tests. This story from Michigan about standardized test cheating, unaddressed by MI authorities when discovered, puts in question, perhaps undeservably, last year's winner... from MI.

[Danube of Thought]

Martin Sheen is a recovering alcoholic. I am pretty sure that he was unable to begin filming Apocalypse Now because he was on an extended life-threatening bender from which he had to dry out. Not sure how long he's been sober.

The alcoholic will either stop drinking or he will die as a result of alcohol abuse. The cause of death may be heart or liver failure, auto accident, a fall, drowning (a large majority of US drowning deaths are alcohol-related), household accident or any one of myriad other problems directly related to his alcohol abuse. It is extremely unlikely that he will die from a cause unrelated to that abuse.

Although interventions are sometimes useful in starting the recovery process, loved ones need to come to grips with the fact that in the final analysis the alcoholic must do it on his own. None should feel the slightest guilt if their efforts fail.

[Rob Crawford]

Schiller's boyfriend is the president of Aspen Institute so I suspect they will ignore your letter. I had the same instinct about the "unemployable" thing, so I looked it up.

Their failure to respond is also a response.

I understand they're another "Open Society" funded group, so I suspect the Soros dollars come with a judenhass requirement.

[Jane (sit on the couch or save your country)]

WEll Eric Canter says they aren't getting any funding going forward, and I doubt the dems will put up a big fight.

One down.

[Porchlight]

It's a little like watching paint dry and why editing is worthwhile however watching more of the body language is interesting.

My guess is that they deliberately included the paint-drying portions so people couldn't claim "selective editing!" like they did with the Sherrod tape.

[Danube of Thought]

Clarice once did a comprehensive unbundling of their financing and came up with the total percentage of it that comes from the taxpayer. Perhaps she can refresh us as to the number--I'm pretty sure it was on the order of 25%.

[Army of Davids]

Here's and idea for NPR idiots racist smears. No taxdollars for you. Pay your own damn way. And if the rent is too damn high. That's just too damn bad.

[Melinda Romanoff]

DoT-

It's the remote stations that rely on the Fed $$ and pass them "upstream" in the form of "programming purchases".

If the affiliates get cut off, the big-un goes under.

I thinks that's what I remember from the last time I looked at it. At least that's what sticks in my mind.

[Danube of Thought]

Concur, Mel. And the big-un always cites only the number that it gets directly.

[Pagar]

Just knew there would be a worse example today.

Education in this country has gone insane.

[DebinNC]

If they didn't get public funds, they'd lose the "P" in PBS, which gives them the little legitimacy they still have. Also, isn't it the "P" that makes the somberly intoned supporting foundations tax deductible? If money were the issue, PBS should replace Best of Broadway pledge-athons with a Ken Burns v. Bill Moyers Cage Match and watch the $$$ flow in.

[bgates]

What DOT says:
It is extremely unlikely that he will die from a cause unrelated to that abuse.

What Charlie Sheen hears:
All I have to do is continue to keep the booze and drugs from killing me, and I'll be immortal.

Winning!

[jimmyk]

I suspect they could keep the tax-deductibility without the public funding. It would just have to be non-profit non-commercial, and in a qualifying category like "educational." They would have to keep up the pretense of being apolitical.

From IRS.gov:

The exempt purposes set forth in section 501(c)(3) are charitable, religious, educational, scientific, literary, testing for public safety, fostering national or international amateur sports competition, and preventing cruelty to children or animals. The term charitable is used in its generally accepted legal sense and includes relief of the poor, the distressed, or the underprivileged; advancement of religion; advancement of education or science; erecting or maintaining public buildings, monuments, or works; lessening the burdens of government; lessening neighborhood tensions; eliminating prejudice and discrimination; defending human and civil rights secured by law; and combating community deterioration and juvenile delinquency.

I like that "lessening the burdens of government." Can we make the tea party tax-deductible?

[Gmax]

Something isnt working. It would be funny if it werent so damn serious. How about some more 2000 page legislation, some more moratoriums and sprinkle on a little CO2 limitations. What could go wrong?

[Neo]

doomsday ...May 21

[Thomas Collins]

Corporation For Public Broadcasting is included in IRS Publication 78, which lists organizations contributions to which are deductible under Section 170(c) of the Internal Revenue Code (which in CPB's case would mean that it is a 501(c)(3) organization). See LUN.

The tea party itself intervenes in political campaigns, so it could not achieve 501(c)(3) status. Tea party flavored folks could form charitable organizations and achieve 501(c)(3) status if such organizations complied with the political campaign prohibition and the limitations on lobbying under Internal Revenue Code Section 501(c)(3).

[daddy]

Concerning the big topic of the day---Racist, delusional NPR.

I find this interesting. I just googled "NPR's Schiller."

The part that jumps out at me on that page is not the number of stories about it that pop up, but that not a single story about it on that page is from the MSM. It's all the blogosphere. The Blogosphere is doing the castigating and investigating on this story.
Well okay, we do have Byron York from the Washington Examiner. My point is that simply backtrack this same episode back 15 years to pre-Blog days and and we wouldn't have heard a word about it.

To me this is a beautiful example of who now is driving the narrative.

Now what I want is someone somewhere to put a microphone in the face of the second NPR exec at that meeting who hasn't yet been fired and lets get her on record about Schiller.

[Sandy Daze]

DebinNc:

PBS - P = BS Truth in labeling !

Gmax:

How about Nitrogen limitations ?

Take good care.

[MayBee]

Regarding Obama's contest-
I've said this elsewhere, but I don't know where this administration gets the idea that schools have a lot of extra time to engage in this little project.

Our school district is asking parents to make a cash contribution this year to make up for funding losses. Do I really want to see the cash-strapped school taking the time to cough up statistics and essay answers and video for what is essentially a political project? No.
If I'm going to pay to keep the school open and the staff employed, I'm going to do it so kids can pass their AP tests and get their transcripts sent to the right place at the right time.

If Obama wants to talk at a school, I'm sure the Department of Education is just full of people who can provide him statistics that will help him select a school to offer his services to.

[jimmyk]

TC, I was of course not being serious about the tea party as a 501c(3) organization. But I do wonder what "reducing the burdens of government" might mean, and whether an organization dedicated to that (in the tea party sense) could obtain 501c(3) status.

[MayBee]

It did not seem to be alcohol that Charlie Sheen was on last night.

[Extraneus]

The tea party itself intervenes in political campaigns, so it could not achieve 501(c)(3) status.

Am I the only one who winces when someone says "the tea party," or especially "the Tea Party"? There are tea parties, and people who go to tea parties (who are "tea partiers" or "tea party-goers"), but there's no Tea Party, right? (Not picking on you, TC, just a good opportunity to bring this up.)

[Boatbuilder]

bgates--about the high school kid who holds up the WTF sign--it will depend on whether the kid adds a question mark.

[nocatzone]

O s crack is good crack, just like the dope(he was really working for the police after he got busted).He should volunteer at foreign high schools like kenya and indonesia or universites and be an example of a good dog.

[Jane (sit on the couch or save your country)]

Ex,

WEll there is a Sturbridge Tea party - which is pretty much just a Sturbridge Tea party, which is also tied to other tea parties, but not officially.

[Extraneus]

What is it, exactly, Jane? Is it an incorporated non-profit? Not a real "party," though, right? Or is it?

[DebinNC]

Isn't this station "lobbying"?

[Jane (sit on the couch or save your country)]

It's not anything yet. There is some talk among tea partiers of non-profit v profit. I think I'll have to make an appointment with TC at some point - he'll be able to figure it out.

It's certainly not a political party. More like an organization

[clarice]

DoT--I don't remember but it was way more than the 1-2% that Vivian Schiller said in arguing it shouldn't be cut off and was a minimal amount and more important than foundation Schiller said when he was cutting his throat--and NPR's

'That not a single story about it on that page is from the MSM. It's all the blogosphere. The Blogosphere is doing the castigating and investigating on this story."

O'Keefe just released the tape. It probably will be mentioned tomorrow. As I was dashing about, I heard my local NPR station reporting the story but I had to leave the car before I heard much of what they told their readers--something about Schiller being critical of conservatives is all I heard.

[Thomas Collins]

Oh, you can pick on me all you want, Extraneus. Why should you be different from my family, other friends and work colleagues? :-))

I realize my use of "tea party" is a gross generalization, and that the political activism is no doubt carried out through different organizations and through individuals not affiliated with an organization. I was just using the term
as shorthand for the aspect of intervening in political campaigns, which 501(c)(3) organizations may not undertake.

Jimmyk, an example of reducing the burdens of government would be a housing organization providing affordable housing. Another example would be a charitable trust funding maintenance activities on public land.

[Thomas Collins]

See LUN for an article on lessening the burdens of government in the context of whether an organization qualifies for 501(c)(3) status.

[narciso]

How did we end up losing to this guy, in the LUN, 'the Dick Smothers character in Casino

[Dave (in MA)]

bum link narc

[Sara (Pal2Pal)]

I don't know about Sheen's drinking, but I read that he is having daily drug tests to establish an official record that he is clean and sober. I don't know how reliable those reports are. I've known a couple of people that were heavy coke/crack users and woke up one day and said I've had enough and just quit. Cocaine isn't like heroin where the withdrawal nearly kills you.

One of the guys I knew who quit cold turkey said that one of the things he did was remove himself from temptation. He was a party guy like Sheen, in the music industry, had lots of money, and his apartment was the hang out spot with lots of after hours partying going on every night. He put everything he owned in storage and moved into his Mom's 2nd bedroom. It kept all the hanger's on at bay, so they had to find a new party house. He ended his association with the recording industry, he was a music producer, and after a couple of months to totally clean up and get healthy, he went out and got a very good suit and tie job with normal business hours. No more 2 am drug runs, etc.

So, I have no doubt that Sheen can do it on his own, if he is motivated to do so, but I have serious doubts he can maintain without making some other choices that eliminate those around him who might tempt him.

The man has about $88 million in the bank, so it isn't as if he will end up on skid row if he never works again, but something tells me, he will work and continue to rake in the big bucks.

As to why his parents don't do anything. Martin Sheen and Emelio Estevez have been all over the news lamenting Charlie's behavior. But, I'd like to know what people think they can do. Charlie is 45 years old. Britney was barely 20, Lindsey Lohan is 24, but her troubles started long before she was over 21.

I would normally ignore this story because I don't give a damn about Charlie Sheen, have never watched his show, and have no interest in him whatsoever ... except that Shep wants him tarred, feathered, and run out of town forever. If Shep is against Charlie, then I'm for him.