Monthly Archives: September 2006

Bill Clinton is being interviewed this weekend on Fox News Sunday. The show has already been taped and during it, Clinton verbally lashed out at some of his foes and at the interviewer, Chris Wallace. Some are characterizing it as Clinton "losing it" or "freaking out." Others say he spanked Fox News and right-wingers but good. One weblog has posted a rough, obviously error-strewn transcript of the most explosive section.

The 2006 Comic-Con International in San Diego ended on July 23rd. Since then, Peter Sanderson has been reporting on it for Quick Stop Entertainment. He has finally reached the end of his diary with this installment which includes a nice report on one of my two voiceover panels. Earlier columns, all of which are well worth your attention, may be accessed from this page.

Next year, Peter plans to see if he can complete his report on the 2007 convention before the 2008 convention. I wouldn't bet the rent money on it.

The other day, George W. Bush said, ""If they [meaning Democrats] get control of the House of Representatives, they'll raise your taxes and it'll hurt our economy." I assume you'll believe he said that but just in case you don't, here's a link to a news story.

Now, I think it's questionable that raising taxes hurts the economy. I think it depends on how you raise them and how much you're spending at the time and where you're spending it. But let's leave that aside for now.

Here's what I want to know: How could the Democrats raise taxes if they get control of the House of Representatives? Just how could they do that?

Wouldn't they have to get control of the House and the Senate? Doesn't a bill still have to be passed by both chambers?

And then, doesn't that bill then have to be signed by the President…who, for the forseeable future, will be George W. Bush? Wouldn't he veto a tax increase bill?

In order to raise taxes, wouldn't the Democrats have to not only win both the House and the Senate and win them both by such overwhelming majorities that they could override a Bush veto? And is there a single human being on this planet who thinks there's a chance of that happening?

More and more, I do not understand what Bush says. And I wonder if anyone does or if it even matters any longer.

This morning, Presidential Press Secretary Tony Snow was asked if it isn't true that it's the Supreme Court that's supposed to decide if something is constitutional. His reply was as follows…

No, as a matter of fact, the president has an obligation to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States. That is an obligation that presidents have enacted through signing statements going back to Jefferson. So, while the Supreme Court can be an arbiter of the Constitution, the fact is the President is the one, the only person who, by the Constitution, is given the responsibility to preserve, protect, and defend that document, so it is perfectly consistent with presidential authority under the Constitution itself.

Ergo, when the Supreme Court — in its role as "an arbiter" of the constitution — ruled unanimously against Richard Nixon on the Watergate matter, Nixon should have said, "Well, thank you for your opinion but you're wrong" and ignored them. And when they ruled against Bill Clinton on the Paula Jones matter, he should have issued a signing statement or otherwise overruled them. If and when they rule against George W. Bush, it will mean he's right and they're wrong.

Yeah, I think that's how our nation is supposed to work.

In case you don't want to take the nine and a half minutes to watch the following video, I'll summarize for you: A group of scientists at Princeton demonstrate that it's pretty darn easy to infect a Diebold voting machine with a virus that will take votes from one candidate and give them to another candidate. Here's the video if you want to watch…

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is back with another article in Rolling Stone to suggest that past elections have been decided not by the voters but by the programmers of the voting machine…and he cautions that future elections will be even more crooked. Here's a link to his first work on the topic — an article that brought a lot of rebuttals and claims of inaccuracy. I read as many of these pieces as I could endure and came to the following conclusion. Kennedy failed to convince me that he had nailed down solid proof of rigged elections…but he sure cast a lot of reasonable doubt where there shouldn't be any at all. His new article goes even further in that direction.

I recently took this photo of two possums on my back steps eating Friskies Ocean Fish Flavors cat food.

According to Wikipedia, where anyone can claim anything is true, the Virginia Opossum (Didelphis virginiana) is the only marsupial found in North America. A solitary and nocturnal animal about the size of a domestic cat, it is a successful opportunist and is found throughout North America from coast to coast (introduced to California in 1910), and from Central America and Mexico to Southern Canada and seems to be still expanding its range northward. It is often seen near towns, rummaging through garbage cans, or dead by the side of the road.

I have just fulfilled this weblog's educational content requirement for fiscal year 2006-2007. Thank you.

This will mainly interest folks in the Southern California area. KDOC Channel 56, which broadcasts out of Orange County, has just added Johnny Carson to its schedule. Monday through Thursday evenings at 11:00 and 11:30, they're running episodes of Carson's Comedy Classics. The station's website and official schedule refers to the program as Johnny Carson or The Best of Johnny Carson but what they're running is Carson's Comedy Classics, a package of half-hour excerpts from The Tonight Show that was originally syndicated in 1983. Someone went through the tapes in the Carson vault and pulled out comedy sketches and desk spots, mostly from the late seventies, assembling them into half-hours. I suspect that the fragmented nature of the presentation was the main reason these clip shows didn't do all that well.

Several people, including Carson's old producer Fred DeCordova, told me that Johnny was determined to find some way to market his old tapes. He owned hundreds and hundreds of hours and didn't want to see it all disappear down the old memory hole. Somehow, the idea of just syndicating whole Tonight Show episodes was rejected. Most of the attempts have involved repackaging the programs by yanking out the comedy sketches and/or star performances by now-famous comedians and music acts. I still wish someone would try airing the shows in their original form, maybe with a little intro by someone explaining some of the topical references. I'm not sure a lot of the material even works out of the context of a free-wheeling, quasi-live show.

KDOC actually has a great schedule if you like infomercials and reruns. The list of the latter they broadcast includes The Twilight Zone, Night Gallery, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Perry Mason, The Untouchables, Becker, Mad About You, The Nanny, Cheers, Charlie's Angels, Magnum P.I., Hawaii Five-O, Quincy, Matlock, Little House on the Prairie, The Rockford Files, Hogan's Heroes, Combat, McHale's Navy, Rat Patrol, Mission: Impossible, In the Heat of the Night and Kojak. There must be one or two shows in there that you like.

Hey, remember how a few days ago here, I was talking about the play, Merrily We Roll Along, in which the action takes place in reverse? Well, Michael Kinsley makes reference to it in his latest column. It's about how George W. Bush is fighting the Iraq War in reverse.

It's time to Sing Along With Cap'n Crunch! (And with Daws Butler, Bill Scott and June Foray, who did the voices in this commercial.)

Lisa Girion with a long article about recent cases in the area of health insurance. I'll give you the one sentence summary in case you're busy: A number of big health insurers are trying to weasel out of paying hefty medical bills for folks they insure. Anyone surprised by this? Anyone?

As I mentioned here earlier, a mass of Writers Guild members rallied yesterday to support striking writers on America's Next Top Model. Not that this could be the main reason but I wonder if any of the producers of alleged "reality shows" are balking at the WGA contract because they think it will harm their shows to even have writer credits, thereby admitting or suggesting that the "reality" is created. Money, of course, is the real reason…just as it's the real reason why most things are done the way they're done in the industry. It will cost more money to credit the folks who create the scenarios as writers and to compensate them accordingly…but somewhere, someone has to be thinking like some comedians did back in the early days of radio. When Jack Benny became the first comedy star of radio to credit his writers, several of his fellow stars went to him and said, "You can't do that. The public wants to believe we make all this stuff up, ourselves."

How many writers marched this morning? The L.A. Times says "more than 700," Hollywood Reporter says 800 and Daily Variety says 900. From where I was — in the midst of it — it looked like well over a thousand…but why quibble? It was a good turnout and the mood was very upbeat and positive and rife with solidarity.

The crowd also seemed to be full of what some call, with varying degrees of sarcasm, "working writers." One significant factor in WGA politics and policies is that we have here a union that includes a number of folks who write movies and run shows and make millions of dollars a year. We also have a certain, not-inconsequential number who aspire to that level but who make, quite literally, nothing a year as writers. They sold something in order to attain Guild status and if they continue to not get work, they will eventually be moved to inactive or non-voting status. But still, at any given time, you have a lot of Haves and Have Nots in the same bargaining unit and it's sometimes tough to get both groups to agree on priorities and what is lost or gained by striking. It's easier to walk out on your job when you don't have one…but then again, when we strike, many of the "working writers" have millions in their bank accounts, as well as residual checks rolling in.

In times of striking (or threatening to strike), writers of both stripes are usually good about linking arms and pledging loyalty to their common cause, even if they disagree about some issues. And those who oppose the strike, whether from inside or outside the Guild, are usually bad about recognizing that. In every WGA strike of my lifetime, they have spread the always-untrue calumny that "working writers" — the ones really writing the shows and movies — are not behind the Guild's efforts; that the strike is the construct of guys who weren't working anyway so who cares about them? "Radio Shack Writers," some called them in '88, meaning that they claimed to be professional writers but actually worked at Radio Shack. The folks I marched with yesterday morning spanned the full range of the writing community. I'm sure there were some who don't, at the moment, support themselves with their writing…but there were also those who make fortunes, large and small, with their labors. And to the writers, at least on issues of Guild Support, the difference doesn't matter that much. One bonding thing about them is that most are well aware that any day now, they could be in that other caste.

It's late so I'll write more about this in the coming days. I'm generally pessimistic about what will happen in the looming negotiations of '07, when the issue of compensation for home video and new methods of delivery stands to cause serious bloodshed. But I felt a little better about it after that rally yesterday morning. My Guild has the capacity to be its own worst enemy and to divide and conquer itself. Since we're currently only warring on one front that doesn't affect many directly, unity of purpose is easy…but we seem to be more "together" and better organized than we usually are. That doesn't hurt.

I got two messages today from folks asking me if Garfield and Friends (a show I done wrote years ago) is coming back to TV. It's back…on the Boomerang network. Every weeknight at 8 PM on the East Coast, 5 PM on the West. Yes, they're still only running 74 of the 121 episodes but they're back on the air. All 121 are available on five DVD sets and some selected episodes will soon be available on single DVDs. Fox Home Video is currently assembling two discs that will be issued separately, though they haven't told me when. One will be called All About Odie and will include episodes that spotlight the empty-headed pooch. The other will be made up of the episodes in which Garfield lectures about how cartoons are made. This one is going to be called something like Behind The Scenes With Garfield but it should be titled Garfield: The Episodes They Didn't Like Over At The Network.

It's two nights ago at the Dodgers-Padres game, bottom of the ninth. Padres are ahead, 9-5. So you figure the Dodgers are through, right? I mean, they're not going to make up four runs in one inning…are they? Here's a short video of the legendary Vin Scully calling the plays as the L.A. team gets four consecutive home runs to tie it up and another in the tenth inning to win.

Do you recall this news story I linked to? Don't bother clicking. I'll refresh your memory: A lot of our troops in Iraq, and other military folks serving our country, are being gouged by predatory loan sharks who take advantage of how poorly we pay soldiers.

Here's the latest development. A bill has been introduced which would cap high interest rates for folks in the military at "only" 36%. That's an obscene amount to charge someone but it's still not high enough for Rep. Geoff Davis from Kentucky. He's leading the charge to block this bill. And it's just a coincidence that one of his top campaign contributors is a loan company. Read all about it.

And this time, we're bringing you an old commercial with Top Cat and his pal Fancy Fancy selling Kellogg's Corn Flakes. Arnold Stang provides the voice of Top Cat…or T.C., as us close friends get to call him, providing it's with dignity. John Stephenson is Fancy Fancy, and the actress who did the girl cat's voice is a lady who went by several names. She appeared in a bevy of early sixties sitcoms where she was variously billed as Sallie Jones, Sally Jones and Sallie Janes. Remember the episode of The Dick Van Dyke Show where Rob got temporary amnesia and wound up at a party where he met a cute blonde and told her he was Antonio Stradivarius? Sally/Sallie played the cute blonde. Kudos to Earl Kress for making that identification. Now, does anyone know whatever happened to Ms. Jones or Janes or whatever her name is?