Pundit Dick Morris says that passing Health Care Reform will destroy the Democratic Party. Joe Conason reminds us that when Dick Morris makes a prediction, you can just about bet the farm that the opposite will happen.
The fact that Morris still has a job says a lot about what our "news" media has become on both the left or right. It's not about telling us what's going on. It's not even about telling us what's going to happen. It's about telling a target audience what it wants to hear.
We have long groused about the inefficiency of the C-Span website and how their video clips were great except for the teensy-tiny problem that you could never get any of them to play. Well, someone there may have redeemed themselves because they've now set up a whole online library of darn near every video clip they have lying around. What's more, it's easily searchable so you can just lose yourself for days, weeks, months watching politicians speak out of both sides of an online player. I haven't even begun to dig around in there…but if you find a great clip, send me a link to it.
Their embeddable player is, as you can see below, a little large for its size but I thought I'd give it a try here. This is an 8-minute press conference conducted by Stephen Colbert on October 28, 2007 when he was presented with the key to the city of Columbia, South Carolina…
Fred Kaplan goes after the charge that Obama has turned against Israel.
Matt Taibbi points out that a lot of the "talking points" about the evils of the Health Care bill can be disproven merely by reading the bill. Just because someone tells you that at page 14, line 31 there's a clause that would make it mandatory for everyone in America to dress up as Charo and dance the Macarena doesn't mean there's anything at all in the bill about Charo or the Macarena. There may not even be a line 31 on page 14.
As warned here, tickets for Thursday at the Comic-Con International in San Diego this July are all gone. It won't be long before Sunday will be sold out, too.
Tomorrow at 9 AM Pacific, the hotel reservations desk opens up and there'll be a mad crush, folks stampeding for rooms like a pack of pitbulls on a pork roast. I'm told there will be many more spots in many more hotels available than ever…but someone's gonna get shut out, at least for a while until more rooms get added. If you're among those who don't get what you want right away, remember the following: I cannot help you. Writing or calling me is an enormous waste of time. I do not work for the convention. Also remember that while it may look bleak in March, these things have a way of working themselves out before July.
Folks are already writing me to ask what panels I'll be doing down there and when they are. Your guess, as the saying goes, is as good as mine. I usually do a Sergio-Mark panel on Thursday, a Golden Age panel on Thursday or Friday, Quick Draw! and one Cartoon Voice panel on Saturday, another Cartoon Voice panel and a Jack Kirby panel on Sunday…and various "spotlight" panels on other days. But it'll be a month or two before planning commences so right now, that's all I know — and do note the use of the word "usually" in that sentence.
Lastly, I have this joke I do here every year. Around about May, I write, "If you want to find a parking space down there, leave now." I was thinking of moving it up to mid-April this year but the way tickets have been going, I'm thinking I may already have missed the moment.
Yesterday's video link reminded me of this film that I linked to four years ago but have never embedded. It's the full version (I think) of Truth in Advertising, a short film made in Canada back in 2001. A gentleman named Tim Hamilton directed and co-wrote this look at the inner workings of the advertising industry…and some of you will recognize Colin Mochrie in one of the lead roles. I should warn certain readers of this site that it contains some naughty language, and that's about all you need to know…
Tim Dickinson discusses how the Republicans' comeback is predicated on whipping people into a panic over Barack Obama. Here's a key paragraph…
The GOP's resurrection has not come on the strength of transformative ideas that can actually solve the nation's problems: Republicans continue to peddle warmed-over Bush — from bankruptcy-inducing tax cuts to the privatization of Social Security. Instead, it has been achieved through what one party strategist admits is "tactical small-ball." The GOP game is as simple as it is hypocritical. First: Reject every Democratic proposal — including some of the exact same initiatives that Republicans championed under Bush — while branding the consensus-seeking Obama as a radical leftist. Second: Stoke populist fury over exploding deficits, even though they're the fallout of eight catastrophic years of Republican rule. (President Bush inherited a projected surplus of $5.6 trillion and left behind a forecasted deficit of $3 trillion.) Three: Promise to fix what's wrong with Washington — despite having waged an all-out war to make government appear as broken as possible.
That's it in the nuttiest of nutshells. Read the whole article if you have the time.
Sez here that Mel Brooks is writing songs for a possible Broadway musical of Blazing Saddles. Why am I imagining an orchestral number, staged around the campfire, with the melody delineated by the sounds of flatulence?
You probably think it's St. Patrick's Day and in some senses, it is. But it's also Freberg Day over on Shokus Internet Radio. This afternoon, my friend Stu Shostak is welcoming Stan and Hunter Freberg to Stu's Show, two hours of great conversation heard live from 4 PM to 6 PM Pacific Daylight Time. I often recommend this program to you but I especially recommend it this week.
Stan Freberg is, of course, one of my great heroes and I still can't quite believe he's my pal. I first discovered his brilliant comedy records on the old Soupy Sales Show when Pookie and Hippie would mime to them. I guess I was around nine or ten at the time but I somehow figured out that they were records and my father helped me figure out that they were by someone named Stan Freberg. He took me up to a record store up on Westwood Boulevard — located where Junior's Delicatessen now stands, in case anyone cares. I went up to the clerk at the front and said, "Stan Freberg, please." He directed me to the comedy albums, I bought one and my life changed a little that day. Other folks made funny records, of course…but Stan's were hipper and more memorable. Later, I learned he was also a voice actor in many of the Warner Brothers cartoons I loved; that he'd originated the role of Cecil the Seasick Sea Serpent on Time for Beany; that he practically invented the funny commercial…and so much more. He'll probably talk about all those things on Stu's Show today.
His partner/wife of the last nine years, Hunter Freberg, will also be heard…and Stu could easily fill two hours with this amazing lady. She's been a corporate placement exec, a TV host, a lecturer, a producer…and now she and Stan jointly run his career and life. He's madly in love with her…and the feeling is mutual and easy to understand.
Hunter and Stan will be Guests of Honor at WonderCon in San Francisco April 2-4 and if you're there, make sure you stop by and meet them. If you can't…well, you can meet them from afar today on Stu's Show. As I said, it airs live beginning at 4 PM Pacific Time. You can figure out when that is in your time zone. Then go to Shokus Internet Radio and click where they tell you to link.
I'm supposed to be there as co-host…not that I'm needed. And though I'm busy, I'm going to try to make it because, well, it's the Frebergs. If I'm not able to participate, it will still be a great show. Tune in and listen — and if you can't do that tomorrow, it reruns for six days after, usually in the same time slot. Consult that website for more details.
Jeffrey Toobin profiles Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens, who is apparently planning to retire while Barack Obama can still appoint his replacement. Yet another reason to be glad John McCain is not president. We all saw how good he was at picking running mates.
And now, a trailer for an Academy Award-winning movie…
Sorry I haven't written anything real today here. If it's any consolation to you blog readers, I haven't written anything that mattered for my career today, either. Now, around the time the phone stops ringing for the day, I'm settling down to try to do that. I'll be here way into the A.M., enjoying what is increasingly becoming My Time of Day.
Today was busy but okay. I took time out to lunch with cartoonist Carol Lay at my friendly neighborhood Souplantation. Good cartoonist, good Creamy Tomato Soup. And remember: We're halfway through March, the month when Souplantation (and its sister chain, Sweet Tomatoes) features my fave soup. Go try it if there's one near you…and you can find that out on this page. Also while you're on that page, should you locate an outlet you may be visiting, sign up for this thing they have called Club Veg. It gets you a steady stream of e-mailed discount coupons that will save you a buck or three. I do not own stock in this company.
Hey, if you live in L.A.: The evening of April 12, Jules Feiffer will be appearing at a Writers Bloc event where he'll be interviewed by none other than Carl Reiner. I would imagine someone there will also be selling Mr. Feiffer's new book and he'll be writing his name in copies. Here's how you can be there.
Not long ago, we were all disheartened when Mad magazine was cut from monthly to quarterly. We are therefore heartened to hear that it has now been upped to bi-monthly, which ain't that much less than the eight-per-year status that it enjoyed for much of its past existence. The new issue, by the way, is very funny. I do not think that the sales decline of Mad is due to its quality. I think it's due to its being a magazine.
Okay. My Time of Day is fleeting. Gotta get back to work. I'll take a break in about an hour and post a great video link.
The folks at Shout Factory are about to release a Tom Lehrer boxed set that contains one CD and one DVD. If you're a Lehrer fan, you may have all or most of what's on the CD, though there appear to be a few obscure recordings on there. The DVD, however, looks like it'll be worth the price all by itself. I don't think any of these performances have ever been available on home video ever. Here's the link to pre-order. If you got one of those $25 credits from Amazon because they couldn't sell you all the Marvel Omnibus books for three dollars, this might be a peachy thing to use some of that money on.
Actor Peter Graves has died at the age of 83. I never met Mr. Graves nor have I ever heard any interesting anecdotes about him. Still, he was in some fine things, including the TV show, Mission: Impossible, and the movie, Airplane!. I always thought Airplane! was the quintessential example of a film that couldn't be appreciated unless you saw it in a theater with a large, hip audience. This is the trailer for it. There isn't a lot of Peter Graves here but you do get to hear him deliver his famous line and get one of the biggest laughs in the history of the cinema…
I don't know how much of this you'll feel like following but here it is…
From what I can see, the C.B.P.P. is winning this argument handily…but read the back-and-forth and decide for yourself.