June 23, 2006
Another 9/11 Movie
Oliver Stone has written and directed an upcoming film called "World Trade Center" based on the true store of two Port Authority officers rescued from the WTC rubble. A Yale University graduate student, Chris Moukarbel, got a copy of the script and made a short film out of it, which he had offered freely on his web site. Paramount, which has sunk $100M into Oliver Stone's efforts, sued to have the student film removed from the Internet. According to a lawsuit filed by the studio:
Large numbers of people will see the Moukarbel film first for free and determine, based on this poor-quality copy, that they do not want to pay to see the remainder of the WTC Film at a theater when it is released.
Well, if that's their beef, they should also sue Oliver Stone for making Alexander, Any Given Sunday and Natural Born Killers, which might have the same deterrent effect on the movie-going public.
Posted by Winston Smith at 08:26 AM | Comments (1)
March 07, 2006
Go See "V for Vendetta"
Piss off a Freeper.
Official Movie Site.
Posted by Winston Smith at 09:54 PM | Comments (0)
October 12, 2005
Sign Of The Times
My kids will not be getting this toy under the tree this season.
Thanks to Atrios.
Posted by Tom White at 06:35 PM | Comments (0)
May 23, 2005
Fox News in "Death Spiral" Ratings Plunge
Finally some good news about Fox News. Several sources confirm that Fox News' viewership is plunging, down to under 500K from over 1M in Oct. 2004.
April '05 marks "the sixth consecutive month where FNC declined versus prior month in M-F, primetime P25-54 (every month since Nov '04)," CNN's press release says. The 25-54 demo is coveted by advertisers. One insider called it a "downward spiral." FNC still has more demo viewers than CNN, though (443k vs. 304k in April). Here are FNC's month-by-month weekday primetime averages in the 25-54 demographic:
- Oct. 04: 1,074,000
- Nov. 04: 891,000
- Dec. 04: 568,000
- Jan. 05: 564,000
- Feb. 05: 520,000
- March 05: 498,000
- April 05: 445,000
Also: In April 2005, FNC's weekday primetime demo average decreased 25% compared to the year-ago, while CNN increased 27%.
Looks like the newspeak filters are failing -- time to launch more orbital mind control satellites.
Posted by Steven at 12:44 PM | Comments (1)
April 15, 2005
A Piece Of The IT Pie
Which is, of course, getting smaller. Troubled by the IT industry? Particularly because you work there? So is Pat Helland, who worked for Microsoft for a long time (and apparently is doing OK with Amazon, but I didn't thoroughly scrutinize his blog). So he wrote these lyrics, set to Don McLean's American Pie. Or you can watch the video (click on the picture, Windows Media). And maybe, for a few minutes, you'll smile rather than weep.
Posted by at 02:40 AM | Comments (1)
March 10, 2005
Goodbye Gonzo
Death of a Gonzo Reporter. Frank Rich's essay in The New Times lamenting the death of Gonzo journalism and the general state of malase in the Press.
TWO weeks ago Hunter S. Thompson committed suicide. Next week Dan Rather commits ritual suicide, leaving the anchor chair at CBS prematurely as penance for his toxic National Guard story. The two journalists shared little but an abiding distaste - make that hatred in Thompson's case - for the Great Satan of 20th-century American politics, Richard Nixon. The best work of both was long behind them. Yet memories of that best work - not to mention the coincidental timing of their departures - only accentuate the vacuum in that cultural category we stubbornly insist on calling News.What's missing from News is the news. On ABC, Peter Jennings devotes two hours of prime time to playing peek-a-boo with U.F.O. fanatics, a whorish stunt crafted to deliver ratings, not information. On NBC, Brian Williams is busy as all get-out, as every promo reminds us, "Reporting America's Story." That story just happens to be the relentless branding of Brian Williams as America's anchorman - a guy just too in love with Folks Like Us to waste his time looking closely at, say, anything happening in Washington.
But even Thompson might have been shocked by what's going on now. "The death of Thompson represents the passing from the Age of Gonzo to the Age of Gannon," wrote Russell Cobb in a column in The Daily Texan at the University of Texas. As he argues, today's White House press corps is less likely to be invaded by maverick talents like a drug-addled reporter from a renegade start-up magazine than by a paid propagandist like Jeff Gannon, a fake reporter for a fake news organization (Talon News) run by a bona fide Texas Republican operative who was a delegate to the 2000 Bush convention.
Though a few remain on the case - Eric Boehlert of Salon, mediamatters.org, Joe Strupp of Editor and Publisher - the Gannon story is fast receding. In some major news venues, including ABC and CBS, it never surfaced at all. Yet even as Mr. Gannon has quit his "job" as a reporter and his "news organization" has closed up shop, the plot thickens. His own Web site - which only recently shut down with the self-martyring message "The voice goes silent" - has now restarted as a blog with Gonzo pretensions. The title alone of his first entry, "Fear and Loathing in the Press Room," would send Thompson spinning in his grave had he not asked that his remains be shot out of a cannon.
As a blogger, Mr. Gannon's new tactic is to encourage fellow right-wing bloggers to portray him as the victim of a homophobic left-wing witch hunt that destroyed his privacy. Given that it was Mr. Gannon himself who voluntarily exhibited his own private life by appearing on Web sites advertising his services as a $200-per-hour escort, that's a hard case to make. But it is a clever way to deflect attention from an actual sexual witch hunt conducted by his own fake news organization in early 2004. It was none other than Talon News that advanced the fictional story that a young woman "taped an interview with one of the major television networks" substantiating a rumor on the Drudge Report that John F. Kerry had had an extramarital affair with an intern. (Mr. Kerry had to publicly deny the story just as his campaign came out of the gate.) This is the kind of dirty trick only G. Gordon Liddy could dream up. Or maybe did. Mr. Gannon's Texan boss, Bobby Eberle, posted effusive thanks (for "their assistance, guidance and friendship") to both Mr. Liddy and Karl Rove on Talon News's sister site, GOPUSA, last Christmas.
Mr. Gannon, a self-promoting airhead, may well be a pawn of larger forces as the vainglorious Mr. Liddy once was. But to what end? That Kerry "intern" wasn't the only "news" Mr. Gannon helped stuff in the pipeline during an election year. A close reading of the transcripts of televised White House press conferences reveals that at uncannily crucial moments he was called on by the White House press secretary, Scott McClellan, to stanch tough questioning on such topics as Abu Ghraib and Mr. Rove's possible involvement in the outing of the C.I.A. spy Valerie Plame. We still don't know how this Zelig, using a false name, was given a daily White House pass every day for two years. Last weekend, Jim Pinkerton, a former official in the Reagan and Bush I White Houses, said on "Fox News Watch," no less, that such a feat "takes an incredible amount of intervention from somebody high up in the White House," that it had to be "conscious" and that "some investigation should proceed and they should find that out."
Given an all-Republican government, the only investigation possible will have to come from the press. Which takes us back to 1972, the year of Thompson's fear and loathing on the campaign trail. That was no golden age for news either. As Thompson's Rolling Stone colleague, Timothy Crouse, wrote in his own chronicle of that year, "The Boys on the Bus," months of stories by Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein failed to "sink in" and only 48 percent of those polled by Gallup had heard of Watergate by Election Day.
Some news organizations had simply ignored The Post's scoops "out of petty rivalry," wrote Mr. Crouse. Others did so because they "feared the administration or favored Nixon in the presidential race." Others didn't initially recognize the story's importance. (The New York Times played the Watergate break-in on page 30.) The White House's pathological secrecy and penchant for threatening to use the Federal Communications Commission as a battering ram on its broadcast critics took care of the rest. According to a superb new history of the Washington press corps, "Reporting from Washington," by Donald A. Ritchie, even Mr. Rather, then CBS's combative man in the Nixon White House, "left the Watergate story alone at first, sure that it would fade like 'a puff of talcum powder.' "
Today you can't tell the phonies without a scorecard. Besides the six "journalists" we know to have been paid by the administration or its backers, bloggers were on the campaign payrolls of both a Republican office-seeker (South Dakota's Senator John Thune) and a Democrat (Howard Dean) during last year's campaign. This week The Los Angeles Times reported that Arnold Schwarzenegger's administration, "taking a cue from President Bush's administration," had distributed fake news videos starring a former TV reporter to extol the governor's slant on a legislative proposal. Back in Washington, the Social Security Administration is refusing to comply with Freedom of Information Act requests for information about its use of public relations firms - such as those that funneled taxpayers' money to the likes of Armstrong Williams. Don't expect news organizations dedicated to easy-listening news to get to the bottom of it.
Posted by Steven at 11:27 PM | Comments (0)
March 02, 2005
Nice Shoot'n, NBC
How NOT to be seen. The Daily Show pointed out that, in an attempt to get the 'scoop' on the judicial assassination in Iraq yesterday, they inadvertantly named the wrong judge as the assassination target. Then they showed the man they thought was dead on the bench before Saddam Hussein, with his face unblurred.
If there was any confusion about his identity, I'm sure NBC has settled it.
The judge is probably a dead man walking at this point in the game.
Nice shoot'n, NBC.
Posted by Steven at 11:57 PM | Comments (0)
January 04, 2005
2005 Off To A Rotten Start
Just a day after losing Kelly Freas, we learn that Will Eisner has also passed away. Best known for his character The Spirit, Eisner was an enormously influential comics artist for well over half a century.
This is probably the worst start to a year in regards to popular art in memory. And if such things really do come in threes... nah, I'd rather not think about it.
Posted by at 05:31 PM | Comments (0)
January 03, 2005
Frank Kelly Freas, RIP
Renowned sci-fi illustrator Frank Kelly Freas passed away this past Sunday. He produced countless beautiful works, not just illustrating SF books, but in many fields, including the 1973 Skylab I mission patch (second from left). Once again we lose one of the good ones. Thanks for gracing our world, Kelly.
Here is an interesting article by Freas about designing the patch. Artwork is work!
Posted by at 07:16 PM | Comments (0)
January 02, 2005
France un, Etats Unis zero
I read comic books. I don't read nearly as many as I did in my misguided youth, partly due to time constraints, more due to the dual filtration mechanism of me being a more discriminating reader today and the available material being sorely misaligned with my interests. I won't say comics suck today, because a lot of them don't (some do, of course), but in general (and particularly in the superhero genre) comic books are aimed at younger readers. Which is fine.
Marvel Comics has been around for a long time, going back to the late 1930s if we count predecessor publishers like Timely. Marvel has a lot of stuff in the company archive, but now it's a bit less. They've donated tons of comics to the National Center for Comic Books and Images -- which is in France. (The website is in French, apparently without translations, so I couldn't get a lot out of it; I can stumble through a tiny bit of French and I'm familiar with a lot of the American-produced material so I was able to enjoy reviewing some small parts of the collection index. The entire collection, I expect, must be amazing.)
Marvel's donation -- which was, by request, reduced from the original bequest due to it being simply overwhelming (nearly one million books) -- will total about 300,000 books. Most of these books were published from the early 1950s to the late 1970s -- which was a seminal period for Marvel. The early 1960s alone saw the creation of Spider-man, the Fantastic Four, the Incredible Hulk, Daredevil, the X-Men, and more. These are some of the most enduring and significant characters in the history of comics. Archival copies of origin and other early issues can be valued in the tens of thousands of dollars. Marvel will, no doubt, reap a huge tax benefit for this largesse (which is fine). And it is all to the good that these materials will be made available for public access. It does make me sad, however, that apparently there is no similar institution in the States that would have made a worthy accession site. Here, comics are still looked upon as second-rate, juvenile entertainment; trash, basically. And that's grossly unfair to the medium. C'est la vie.
The donation agreement "allows the museum to destroy duplicate copies, but it cannot barter, trade, sell or give any away". This amazes me. It's pretty difficult for any museum in America to disperse any of its collection -- I don't know about France -- and this is a fair exchange for some of the special statuses that museums enjoy. But allowing for destruction (which I would hope would not come about) instead of other potential dispersal methods -- some of which could be used for exchange-driven collection expansion or even fund raising -- strikes me as very odd. And given the historical value of many of the books (some issues are duplicated into the hundreds of copies), many collectors are up in arms. Which, right now, is for nothing. The Museum is planning on creating five identical collections from the entire donation, keeping two for itself and lending the other three collections. But if the Museum decides at some point to destroy surplus copies, well, let's hope justice prevails. As it should.
If I ever get to France, I gotta visit this place.
Posted by at 01:44 AM | Comments (0)
October 30, 2004
"Still the One" --- NOT!
John Hall, of the band Orleans, has requested that the Bush Team stop playing his 70's hit Still the One at rallies.
John Hall, a former Democratic county legislator in upstate New York, co-wrote the song and recorded it with his band Orleans in 1976. He complained Friday morning about the campaign's use of the song at the president's events.The cheery pop tune opened and ended a Bush campaign rally in New Hampshire Friday, then was to have vanished from the political playlist.
"Out of deference to Mr. Hall's views, the song will no longer be played," Bush campaign spokeswoman Nicolle Devenish said. She said the song had been included in a catalog of music that the campaign's licensing company used to provide music for events.
Hours after she spoke, however, the song popped up again on the sound system in Columbus, Ohio, as Bush rally organizers tried to warm up a crowd of thousands. A campaign spokesman said the song was piped inadvertently into the arena as part of a video montage.
Out of "deference"? How about, in lieu of a lawsuit we're dropping it. I was appalled when I heard it on the CNN report on TV last night. I couldn't believe Hall would allow it. Turns out, he doesn't.
Posted by Steven at 02:39 PM | Comments (0)
October 29, 2004
Zogby on The Daily Show
John Zogby (the pollster) announced on The Daily Show that John Kerry will win the election next Tuesday. He pointed out the fact that all political junkies already know, namely that undecides break 2 for 1 to the challenger. This is just simple human nature -- if they were in favor of the incumbent, they wouldn't be undecided.
The audience roared, and even Stewart was a bit surprised.
VOTE KERRY on TUESDAY !!!
Posted by Steven at 08:29 AM | Comments (0)
October 28, 2004
"One-Fingered Victory Salute"
President Bush has an important message for those remaining Kerry voters:
Read the Salon story here.
Posted by Steven at 12:02 AM | Comments (0)
October 27, 2004
Dallas: Reunion Opportunity for Bush
CBS is producing a Dallas reunion episode that will air in November. If I was Shrub, I'd be angling for a spot as "J.R."'s evil son. God knows he's got the chops (the hideously mangled accent, the record of corporate asslicking, etc.) and would fit right in. Hell, the entire White House could do a good version of the "Ewings".
Read about the reunion here.
Posted by Steven at 08:33 AM | Comments (0)
October 24, 2004
Eminem Dooms Bush
Wow, Eminem says, "Bush is not my homie."
The infamous 18 to 24 year voter will now move, herdlike, to the polls and remove Bush from office. Right.
At least the blonde rapper's heart is in the right place.
Posted by Steven at 11:00 PM | Comments (0)
October 15, 2004
Note To Sinclair Broadcasting
The infamous documentary that Sinclair Broadcasting is airing is a pack of lies. ABC's Nightline did some actual journalism (horrors!) visiting the village that Kerry fought in and asked the actual witnesses what happened.
According to the after-action report, after beaching the Swift boat, Kerry "chased VC inland, behind hooch, and shot him while he fled, capturing one B-40 rocket launcher, with round in chamber."None of the villagers seems to be able to say for a fact that they saw an American chase the man who fired the B-40 into the woods and shoot him. Nobody seems to remember that. But they have no problem remembering Ba Thanh, the man who has been dismissed by Kerry's detractors as "a lone, wounded, fleeing, young Vietcong in a loincloth." (The description comes from "Unfit for Command," by Swift boat veteran John O'Neill.)
"No, this is not correct," Nguyen Thi Tuoi, 77, told ABC News. "He wore a black pajama. He was strong. He was big and strong. He was about 26 or 27."
Tuoi said she didn't see Ba Thanh get shot either, but she and her husband say they were the first to find his body. They say they found him a good distance from his bunker, though she could not confirm that Kerry -- or anyone else -- had pursued him into the bush.
Her husband, Nguyen Van Ty, in his 80s, had a slightly different account of how Ba Thanh died.
"I didn't see anything because I was hiding from the bullets and the bombs," he said. "It was very fierce and there was shooting everywhere and the leaves were being shredded to pieces. I was afraid to stay up there. I had to hide. And then, when it was over, I saw Ba Thanh was dead. He may have been shot in the chest when he stood up."
He also said the Swift boats were coming under attack from the Viet Cong fighters on shore. "We tried to shoot at the boat," he said, "but we didn't hit anything."
Kerry's citation says he "uncovered an enemy rest and supply area, which was destroyed," but according to the villagers, the Americans missed the military supplies. In fact, Vo Ti Vi said, just a few weeks after the attack, the Viet Cong raided a U.S. base stealing weapons and ammunition. The weapons remain in Nha Vi all these years later, she says, buried under her garden.
Back in Tran Thoi, villager Nguyen Van Khoai said that about six months ago he was visited by an American who described himself as a Swift boat veteran and told him another American from the Swift boats was running for president of the United States. Nguyen said the man was accompanied by a cameraman.
"They say he didn't do anything to deserve the medal," Nguyen said. "The other day, they came and asked me the questions and I said that the recognition for the medal is up to the U.S.A."
He said that, after they met, the Swift Boat veteran and the cameraman turned around and went back down the river. "Nightline" has not been able to identify the men.
These Rove tactics are going to backfire this time because of efforts like ABC's.
Posted by Steven at 11:42 PM | Comments (0)
October 11, 2004
We Have The Boss
Well, if you missed the Sundance channel's broadcast of the "Vote for Change" concert in Washington D.C. then I hope it was because you were there. Hours long, the show was crammed with so many pop stars, they frequently ended up sharing the stage. Such was the case with the legendary Bruce Springsteen, who joined R.E.M. for their final number, "Man on the Moon."Eddie Vedder also joined R.E.M. for a number, but later returned with his band, Pearl Jam, for a full set that included a crowd-pleasing cover of "The New World" by the celebrated L.A. folk-punk band, X:
X: The New World(Yes, this is the preferred formatting)The song was performed with actor Tim Robbins singing high harmony.
"honest to goodness the bars werent open this morning they must have been voting for a new president of something do you have a quarter?" i said yes because i did honest to goodness the tears have been falling all over the country's face it was better before before they voted for what's-his-name this is s'posed to be the new world flint ford auto mobil alabama windshield wiper buffalo new york gary indiana don't forget the motor city baltimore and d.c. now all we need is don't forget the motor city this was s'posed to be the new world all we need is money just give us what you can spare twenty or thirty pounds of potatoes or twenty of thirty beers a turkey on thanks giving like alms for the poor all we need are the necessities and more it was better before they voted for what's-his-name this is s'posed to be the new world don't forget the motor city this was s'posed to be the new world!
The concert openned with a surprisingly crisp and rousing short set by John "Don't Call Me Cougar" Mellencamp who culminating in "Ain't That America." This was followed by a cameo by Kenny "Baby-Face" Edmonds, the legendary singer/songwriter/producer who performed the song he wrote for Eric Clapton that helped Clapton secure "Album of the Year." Following Edmonds was a combo fronted by Jackson Browne, Bonnie Raitt and Keb Mo' who sang a classic folk-rolk set including a blues-rock rendition of "Stop, Children!" The show departed from a rather white-bread lineup when, Jurrassic 5 took to the stage with a politically-slanted hip-hop set.
Following Pearl Jam's turn, James Taylor took the stage playing a couple of numbers solo before bringing on his "backup band," the Dixie Chicks, who filled out quite a soulful rendition of "Sweet Baby James". Taylor's flawless, Chick-backed reprises of his old standards were interspersed with the best banter of the night:
I'm tired of people who say, "You shouldn't change horses in mid-stream." Look, if your horse can't swim... and he's in over his head... and there's a perfectly good Democratic mule available...After a few more of his own pieces, Taylor left the stage and the Dixie Chicks did a short set of their own material.
This is what I tell undecided voters: look at both candidates, learn as much as you can, and then pick the smart one.
Drawing in the barely-old-enough-to-vote crowd was The Dave Matthews Band. In fact, during the intermission, Sundance played some interviews with a foursome of drunk college girls, two of whom insisted that they were Republicans, attending only to see Matthews:
We're not here to support John Kerry. We just want to see Dave Matthews. Yeah, we're here to support the Republicans... well, I guess we're not supporting the Republicans...Morons.
Anyway, after Dave Matthews and crew belted out a half-dozen earnest guitar-rock anthems, they were effectively wiped from stoner memory by the next act: Bruce Springsteen and the E-Street Band (you didn't think Bruce was going to show up just to sing backup for R.E.M., did you?), or "Bruce Springstreet...een and the E Street Band," as they were introduced by an obviously intimidated Matthews.
The Boss kicked off his set with a jangly power-chorded Star Spangled Banner wrenched with signature Springsteen sincerity out of an accoustic 12-string guitar. Bruce then restored relevance into his anthem, Born in the U.S.A. that it lost years ago, when it became a jingle for pickup trucks. On their fourth number, the E Street Band was joined by one of the greatest songwriters in American popular music history, John Fogerty, who sang his new anti-war piece, "Deja Vu." Of course, they couldn't let Fogerty off the stage without a reprise of "Fortunate Son." Then, completing his boyhood Springsteen fantasy, Michael Stipe came on stage to sing Because the Night with The Boss. I have to say, this is the first time I've ever seen Stipe look like he actually wanted to be on stage.
Springsteen closed the evening with one of his characteristic half-sung voice-overs urging vote for change, etc. etc.
The bottom line is that while the Rabid Republicans may have all the Bread, we have all the Circuses — fuck — we have The Boss.
Posted by at 11:18 PM | Comments (0)
October 07, 2004
AMERICA (the Book)
Quickie review of The Daily Show's America (THE BOOK).
This book is being touted on Comedy Central (in the U.S.) by none other than the author (John Stewart, et. al.). I found a copy at Newberry Comics tonite.
I expected this to be another loose collection of essays and silly charts/graphics. No, they went much, much farther than that. Imagine The Onion writing a high school American History textbook. Now imagine it just a little bit more serious. That's American (THE BOOK).
The book is hilarious, scathing, scandalous, rude, crude and surprisingly clever and even brilliant at times. Published and printed to look as much as possible like a real textbook (including the "THIS BOOK IS THE PROPERTY OF" printed on the inside cover like the typical school district stamps), it could easily pass for the real deal, until you get to the chapter about the Supreme Court featuring nude cutouts of the current court justices and cutout robes for them on the opposite page.
The book features a huge pull out chart titled "Shadow Government", and yeah, Halliburton is on it.
You'll have to ask for it from behind the counter at Borders or Barnes and Noble, but it's worth a look and definitely worth a read.
Posted by Steven at 07:40 PM | Comments (0)
October 04, 2004
"The Passion of the Bush"
No, it's not a porno starring the President.
That's not to say, however (editorializing here) that it's not pornographic.
Frank Rich reviews the sycophantic George W. Bush: Faith in the White House.
Of the many cultural grenades being tossed that day, though, the one must-see is "George W. Bush: Faith in the White House," a DVD that is being specifically marketed in "head to head" partisan opposition to "Fahrenheit 9/11." This documentary first surfaced at the Republican convention in New York, where it was previewed in tandem with an invitation-only, no-press-allowed "Family, Faith and Freedom Rally," a Ralph Reed-Sam Brownback jamboree thrown by the Bush campaign for Christian conservatives. Though you can buy the DVD for $14.95, its makers told the right-wing news service WorldNetDaily.com that they plan to distribute 300,000 copies to America's churches. And no wonder. This movie aspires to be "The Passion of the Bush," and it succeeds.More than any other campaign artifact, it clarifies the hard-knuckles rationale of the president's vote-for-me-or-face-Armageddon re-election message. It transforms the president that the Democrats deride as a "fortunate son" of privilege into a prodigal son with the "moral clarity of an old-fashioned biblical prophet." Its Bush is not merely a sincere man of faith but God's essential and irreplaceable warrior on Earth. The stations of his cross are burnished into cinematic fable: the misspent youth, the hard drinking (a thirst that came from "a throat full of Texas dust"), the fateful 40th-birthday hangover in Colorado Springs, the walk on the beach with Billy Graham. A towheaded child actor bathed in the golden light of an off-camera halo re-enacts the young George comforting his mom after the death of his sister; it's a parable anticipating the future president's miraculous ability to comfort us all after 9/11. An older Bush impersonator is seen rebuffing a sexual come-on from a fellow Bush-Quayle campaign worker hovering by a Xerox machine in 1988; it's an effort to imbue our born-again savior with retroactive chastity. As for the actual president, he is shown with a flag for a backdrop in a split-screen tableau with Jesus. The message isn't subtle: they were separated at birth.
"Faith in the White House" purports to be the product of "independent research," uncoordinated with the Bush-Cheney campaign. But many of its talking heads are official or unofficial administration associates or sycophants. They include the evangelical leader and presidential confidant Ted Haggard (who is also one of Mel Gibson's most fervent P.R. men) and Deal Hudson, an adviser to the Bush-Cheney campaign until August, when he resigned following The National Catholic Reporter's investigation of accusations that he sexually harassed an 18-year-old Fordham student in the 1990's. As for the documentary's "research," a film positioning itself as a scrupulously factual "alternative" to "Fahrenheit 9/11" should not inflate Mr. Bush's early business "success" with Arbusto Energy (an outright bust for most of its investors) or the number of children he's had vaccinated in Iraq ("more than 22 million," the movie claims, in a country whose total population is 25 million).
If you really believe in this, you're clearly insane.
Posted by Steven at 08:43 AM | Comments (0)
September 29, 2004
Cowardly Broadcast System
Salon has an exclusive story that is essentially a retelling of an Ed Bradley piece that 60 Minutes has "spiked" (i.e. dropped from broadcast) thanks to the Rather screw up.
One measure of the debacle is a "60 Minutes Wednesday" segment that millions of viewers now will now not see: a hard-hitting report making a powerful case that in trying to build support for the Iraq war, the Bush administration either knowingly deceived the American people about Saddam Hussein's nuclear capabilities or was grossly credulous. CBS news president Andrew Heyward spiked the story this week, saying it would be "inappropriate" during the election campaign.The importance that CBS placed on the report was evident by its unusual length: It was slated to run a full half hour, double the usual 15 minutes of a single segment. Although months of reporting went into the production, CBS abruptly decided that it would be "inappropriate to air the report so close to the presidential election," in the words of a statement that network spokeswoman Kelli Edwards gave the New York Times.
Posted by Steven at 09:34 AM | Comments (0)
September 21, 2004
Kerry's Top Ten List
John Kerry was on Letterman last night. His Top Ten List is:
10. No estate tax for families with at least two U.S. presidents.9. W-2 Form is now Dubya-2 Form.
8. Under the simplified tax code, your refund check goes directly to Halliburton.
7. The reduced earned income tax credit is so unfair, it just makes me want to tear out my lustrous, finely groomed hair.
6. Attorney General (John) Ashcroft gets to write off the entire U.S. Constitution.
5. Texas Rangers can take a business loss for trading Sammy Sosa.
4. Eliminate all income taxes; just ask Teresa (Heinz Kerry) to cover the whole damn thing.
3. Cheney can claim Bush as a dependent.
2. Hundred-dollar penalty if you pronounce it "nuclear" instead of "nucular."
1. George W. Bush gets a deduction for mortgaging our entire future.
Posted by Steven at 08:55 AM | Comments (0)