In remembrance of Jack Anderson

Former columnist and muckracker Jack Anderson has died. He was 83, and suffering from Parkinsons.

From Joe McCarthy to Richard Nixon, he took on all of them, and was, despite all his shortcomings, when it came to his journalism, fearless. In the current day as the public has pushed back against insider, access journalism-- whether it be that of Bob Woodward, Judith Miller, or Robert Novak-- Anderson understood it was his role to be an outsider, not just in regards to the politicians he covered, but also to the established order of journalism, which has always been part of the problem.

More.

It's a great day for America

The LA Times has a good article about the Late, Late, Show with Craig Ferguson, a show I usually enjoy, and specifically about the hosts's unique way of delivering a monologue.

My word!

So. Apparently, there's a Pitcher for the Mets named Kris Benson. I say "apparently" because, as is well-nigh legendary amongst my friends, I am almost completely ignorant of sports figures. Someone in that field has to be pretty famous for me to know who they are. It can be safely assumed, then, that Kris Benson is not really all that famous.

This lack of fame is presumably why the Mets are trading him. This seems to upset his wife, Anna, no end.

"We would never, ever have signed with New York if they had said they were going to trade us," said Anna Benson, 29. "I was Miss [Politically Correct] for the Mets the entire time I was there.

She's apparently now freed from the shackles of political correctness that so constrained her while "they" were under contract with New York. Mrs. Benson, on whom the only thing lower than the cut of her neckline is her brow, had this to say about Michael Moore recently.

"...Forget about how un-American you are, how politically retarded you are, or how fat you look while slobbering your political garbage all over everyone, mainly, I despise you for the fact that you make money off of influencing the young minds of America to be Bush-haters."

"You are a selfish, pathetic excuse for an American, and you can take your big fat ass over to Iraq and get your pig head cut off and stuck on a pig pole. Then, you can have your equally as fat wife make a documentary about how loudly you squealed while terrorists were cutting through all the blubber and chins to..."

Gad, how I wish the Democrats would stop lowering the bar for civilized political discouse in this country.

We really liked it...we wished we'd seen the first two

In firedoglake, Redd Hedd has the clearest piece I've found yet about the president authorizing spying on Americans without providing good and sufficent cause. Here's how it begins. See if you can read this and not want to read more.

How does one sit down to write about the deliberate circumvention of law in a nation of laws by the Chief Executive? Especially, when the actions taken by that executive ignore the lessons that were hard learned and codified into law for the express purpose of preventing the very actions taken?

The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 (or FISA) provides the framework for how surveillance by covert agencies may or may not be done. The Bush Administration has put forth the argument that FISA had to be circumvented due to immediate need for surveillance of subjects in the aftermath of 9/11 due to urgent national security concerns. But this is a lie.

ETA: And Josh Marshall adds this little wrinkle:

Setting aside all the particulars noted below about the NSA wiretapping story, the most dangerous aspect of this case is the legal theory on which the president was reportedly acting.

According to the original Times article and subsequent reports, the president's authority to override statute law comes from the 2001 congressional resolution authorizing the force to destroy al Qaida.

By that reasoning the president must also be empowered to override the new law banning the use of torture, thus making the McCain Amendment truly a meaningless piece of paper.

John Spencer: NY and LA Times obituaries

NY Times:

By the late 1990's, Mr. Spencer had so deeply ensconced himself as a sharp-witted public servant that he was cited as a model for the chief of staff on "The West Wing." Aaron Sorkin, creator of the series, recalled last night: "I said to the casting director, 'We need someone like John Spencer.' And the casting director said, 'What about John Spencer?' And I said, 'We will never get John Spencer.' " But Mr. Spencer said yes.

LA Times:

"We're shocked and deeply saddened by the sudden death of our friend and colleague," Aaron Sorkin and Tommy Schlamme, executive producers of "The West Wing," said in a statement. "John was an uncommonly good man, an exceptional role model and a brilliant actor."

David E. Kelley, a writer and executive producer on "L.A. Law" when Spencer joined that show in 1990, was too upset to speak but issued this statement: "We are all deeply saddened."

Aaron Sorkin, who created and wrote most of my favorite TV series ever. David E. Kelley, who created and writes most of one of my favorite shows right now ("Boston Legal"). One actor.

Are you beginning to get why this is a big deal?

It's awards season

The Kippies. Go vote. This blog supports:

• Jonah Goldberg for Chickenhawk of the Year
• Harriet Miers for "The Fluffy"
• Bill O’Reilly for The Purple Teardrop with Clutched Pearls cluster
• War on Christmas for the Soggy Biscuit Award
• Ann Coulter for Wank of the Year
• O'Reilly again for The Coveted Palme d’Hair

What John said

First fire Karl, then get back to us about your "outrage" over people leaking
by John in DC - 12/17/2005 11:59:00 AM


Your top aide is a leaker, so shut up.

"As a result, our enemies have learned information they should not have," [Bush] said. "The unauthorized disclosure of this effort damages our national security and puts our citizens at risk."

--AmericaBlog

John Spencer update

Thanks to Deborah Lipp for linking to my obit. She has her own kind words about the actor here, and also talks about the oddity of being so affected by the death of someone we never knew or even met.

In my case some of it is certainly because I loved "The West Wing" so much. But it was also because Leo, as a character, was such a survivor. As Martin Sheen says of him in one episode, "Leo's made of leather. Leo comes back." I guess I unconciously assumed it was true about the actor, too.

And personally, he was one of those actors I sometimes fantasized about meeting and working with...writing for. I allowed myself the daydream of his playing Ian Colley if I ever got this damn story of mine made.

He was just so good.

Not a bad day for truly patriotic acts, really

The Senate blocked an extension of The Patriot Act. It probably didn't hurt that the day of the vote, it was reported that the Bush administration has been secretly spying on Americans without having to present good and sufficent cause.

Russ "Foresight" Feingold, the only Senator to vote against The Patriot Act after 9/11, when even I was giving Bush the benefit of the doubt, had this to say to his fellow senators just before the vote:

I don’t want to hear again from the Attorney General or anyone on this floor that this government has shown it can be trusted to use the power we give it with restraint and care. This shocking revelation ought to send a chill down the spine of every Senator and every American.

Makes you want to spit in the face of anyone you know who voted for Bush, doesn't it?

Oh, no, this is terrible

The actor John Spencer, who played chief of staff Leo McGarry on "The West Wing", has died at 58 of a heart attack. Most of you know that the first four seasons of that show stand as my all-time favorite dramatic television series, and Spencer was responsible for so many moments...

Moments that were given to him by Aaron Sorkin & the writing staff, and that he was helped with by Tommy Schlamme & the directors. But what he gave back was the kind of pure acting they give Emmys for.

He received five nominations for his work on the series. And won for the episode "Bartlet For America," which tells (in flashback) of his character's relapse into alcoholism during the first Bartlet campaign. At the conclusion of the actor/writer/director commentary for that episode on the third season "West Wing" DVD set, you hear him saying, his voice choked with emotion, "That's the kind of writing and directing an actor waits most of his life for."

So many moments. So many moments that prove that as much as Spencer thrilled, as most actors would, to be speaking Sorkin's unparalleled dialogue...he didn't always need it. As a writer with a gift for dialogue myself you will not often hear me saying an actor doesn't need it-but John Spencer didn't. Not always.

I'm thinking of Leo quietly watching his friend the President almost have a breakdown when he learns that American solders have walked into a trap, on his order, and been killed. Leo grinning and turning his face away when Charlie subtly zings the President. Leo's face when he first sees Bartet in the hospital after the President's been shot. Leo when he learns that without being aware of it, he had committed a war crime while serving in Vietnam.

Of course, when he had that dialogue tossed at him, Spencer knew, like every single member of that fine ensemble cast, how to hit it out of the park. Possibly my favorite:

"I'm tired of it. Year after year after year, having to choose between the lesser of who cares. Of trying to get myself excited about the candidate who can speak in complete sentences. Of setting the bar so low I can hardly stand to look at it."

Aaron Sorkin has spoken of Spencer's face having a map of the world on it, and he gave that line to Martin Sheen in the Leo's flashback episode as well. His face was extremely memorable and expressive.

I'd stopped watching "L.A. Law" before Spencer became one of the stars of that series, but I tuned back in one night because they were going to deal with the Rodney King verdict riots. Spencer, playing a character I'd never seen before and in whom I had no investment, had a moment that I've never forgotten, when a woman showed him the scar from where, IIRC, she'd been shot. Just his face as he gazed at her. It was amazing.

Like others in the "West Wing" cast, Spencer was one of those actors who once you're made especially aware of him, you see him in a lot of old movies you never realized he was in. He played a lot of cops in movies of the '80s and '90s, from "The Negotiator" to "Hiding Out."

I don't know what else to say except that this is a terrible loss to those of us who admired him. I hope his friends and family take at least some comfort and solace (someday) in the knowledge that he died having done great work, and acknowledged by his fans, critics, and his peers as among the best of the best.

He also spoke the last words of any of the "West Wing" regulars in any Aaron Sorkin-penned script. They were, after Bartlet has invoked the 25th Amendment, stepping down rather than let his country suffer while he is in a personal crisis-his daughter has been kidnapped:

"You're relieved, sir."

You're relieved, John.

2005 Weblog Awards-Results

Like it says up there, the votes are in for the 2005 Weblog Awards. Let's see how yours truly did in picking favorites.

Best Blog-Daily Kos. Not much of a surprise-pretty much the "King Kos" of blogs.
I voted for-Talking Points Memo, which came in fourth, after Kos, Atrios and (grimace) Michelle Malkin.

Best New Blog-Yellow Dog Blog.
I voted for-Yellow Dog Blog. Hey, I picked a winner!

Best Group Blog-Hit and Run. Never heard of them. I'll get back to you. Ok, just glanced at it. It's the blog of the Reason Magazine staff. Doesn't look like much.
I voted for-the women of Pandagon, who came in fifth, after H&R, RedState, Think Progess, and TPM Cafe.

Best Humor/Comics Blog-Jesus' General.
I voted for: Jesus' General! Another winner.

Best Liberal Blog-AmericaBlog
I voted for: AmericaBlog! I'm three out of five!

Best Media/Journalist Blog-Michael Yon. Another one I seem to have missed.
I voted for-James Wolcott, who made number three after Yon and The Raw Story.

Best Technology Blog-Engadget.
I voted for Slashdot, the only tech blog I read even though I understand less than 10% of the items posted on it daily.

Best Culture/Gossip Blog-Oh No They Didn't! Which I'll be checking out shortly, I assure you.
I voted for-Dlisted, which made it seventh, but that's ok, I was already over them. Blogs that beat them include Pink is the New Blog, Conv. Famous People, Go Fug Yoursels, Perez Hilton and The Superficial.

Best LGBT Blog-Pam's House Blend
I voted for-Pam's House Blend. I'm back in the saddle again!

Best Video Blog-Crooks & Liars
I voted for-Crooks & Liars! Was there ever any doubt?

Best UK Blog-normblog. Don't know it.
I voted for-Tim Worstall, who scored worst of any of my choices with a dismal ninth place, after normblog, The Daily Ablution, Samizdata, Biased BBC, Harry's Place, Melanie Phillip's Diary, Slugger O'Toole and London Underground

Cato! You imbecile! Not now!

I have a friend who really likes and respects the Cato Institute. And even I've been known to call it one of if not the only conservative "think tanks" worth a damn. "One of the good ones," in other words.

There are no good ones:

A senior fellow at the Cato Institute resigned from the libertarian think tank on Dec. 15 after admitting that he had accepted payments from indicted Washington lobbyist Jack Abramoff for writing op-ed articles favorable to the positions of some of Abramoff's clients.

I guess this is what happens when you name a "think tank" after Clouseau's ever faithful and attacking manservant...

What's your favorite color, baby?

Green You are a very calm and contemplative person. Others are drawn to your peaceful, nurturing nature. Find out your color at Quiz Me!

The description sounds all wrong, but that is my favorite color...

This can't be right

American Cities That Best Fit You:

65% Atlanta

60% Portland

60% San Diego

55% Honolulu

55% Las Vegas

Which American Cities Best Fit You?

Atlanta? And San Francisco isn't even on the list? On the bright side, niether is Seattle. And if any city in Tennessee had come up I would, of course, have had to kill myself.

Things that make you go hmmmm...

About that business of douche bag for liberty Robert Novak saying we should ask Bush who the leak is...Jane at firedoglake and one of her commenters sniffed around and came up truffles:

Number one—Novak does not lob a grenade like that casually, despite Kate O’Bierne’s protestations tonight on Hardball to that effect...Number two—Novak knows who he works for, Karl Rove. Why would Rove want that out there and Bush on the hot seat like that? Well the answer of course is that I have no idea. But the best guess came from Frank Probst today in the comments:

I think Rove is nervous, and he’s prodding Bush (via Novak) into saying something like, “I don’t know who the leaker was.” Or “Karl Rove has my complete support.” Bush knows damn well that Rove leaked this. This is Rove fishing for a public defense from Bush. He has to tie himself to Bush in order to save himself. Because he knows that if he doesn’t, his career—and possibly his freedom—is about to end.

And—voila!—today, like a trained monkey:

In an interview with Fox News, Bush said his relationship with Cheney had “only gotten better,” and he remained “very close” to Rove, who could face charges in the criminal investigation into the leak of CIA operative Valerie Plame’s identity.

“We’re still as close as we’ve ever been,” Bush said of Rove, brushing aside reports he was angry at his deputy chief of staff, who initially denied any role in the Plame leak. “We’ve been through a lot. You know, when we look back at the presidency and my time in politics, no question that Karl had a lot to do with me getting here, and I value his friendship.”

Update: What Kevin said.

CONTEXT....George Bush gave a speech Wednesday in which he acknowledged that we got lots of bad intelligence about Iraq's WMD before the war but failed to take any personal responsibility for demanding that very intelligence in the first place and ignoring all dissenting views. Of the major news outlets, only Knight Ridder bothered to point that out:

"It's true that much of the intelligence turned out to be wrong," Bush admitted — omitting that he and top aides had ignored warnings from midlevel intelligence agents that some of the evidence was suspect....

See how easy that is? Why can't they all do this?

Is it just me, or does anyone else think that when George W. Bush dies, Lincoln, FDR and Jefferson are going to be waiting on the other side...to beat the hell out of him?

ETA: And speaking of when Bush dies...here's how he sees his legacy:

I hope that first, as a person, I'll be remembered as a fellow who had his priorities straight: his faith, his family and his friends are a central part of his life.

"Secondly, I hope to be remembered, from a personal perspective, as a fellow who had lived life to the fullest and gave it his all. And thirdly, I'd like to be remembered as the president who used American influence for the good of the world: bastioning freedom and fighting disease and poverty, by recognizing to whom much is given, much is required and that -- that I wasn't afraid to make a decision."

For the good of the world? Really? Have you told the world? Not afraid to make a decision? Well, maybe not...even when it's a dumb one. But this reminds me of one of the dozens of things I will never understand about the way the Democrats ran their last campaign. Why didn't they simply buy air time to run the footage of Bush frozen in the classroom, reading along to My Pet Goat, when America was under attack?

Not afraid to make a decision? Right, George. When Karl the organ grinder plays and you know what dance to do. Dance, monkey, dance.


ETA, again: What? Also from The Washington Monthly...

Asked about the idea that our soldiers would be 'welcomed as liberators' in Iraq, President Bush said:

"I think we are welcomed. But it was not a peaceful welcome."

"That girl liked that I was raping her, your honor. Oh sure, you couldn't tell from the way she was kicking and screaming, but..."

Vote for me, I'm greedy

It's time for the Wampum blog's annual Koufax Awards again.

At the core, the Koufax Awards are meant to be an opportunity to say nice things about your favorite bloggers and to provide a bit of recognition for the folks who provide us with daily information, insight, and entertainment.

I'm eligible in several categories, so if you've a minute to spare, why not stroll over there and vote for me a couple of hundred times? You know I'd do it for you.

Frosty, the snow-

"We got some calls that people thought it was offensive," said New Windsor police Chief Michael Biasotti. "We assumed it was some kids who did it."

Officers found no one home. Assuming the snow sculpture was more prank than nod to Christmas' pagan roots, the police knocked it down. Beat it down with shovels, actually.

"We probably weren't 100 percent correct in going on the property and knocking it down," New Windsor Town Supervisor George Meyers said. "But our intentions were pure. Some people were offended. There are school buses going by there all day."

Many scholars, of course, trace the origin of the modern-day yule log to ancient pagan totems to virility and sun-god worship. Is that what [19-year-old scuptress Jessica Sherer] was going for?

"We just did it because we were really bored, and we thought it'd be funny," she said. "It was huge."

Happy birthday!

Via Shakespeare's Sister, who adds,

Seriously, I can’t remember a time in my childhood I would have been traumatized by a snowpenis. Collapsing into a fit of giggles, maybe.

I'm guessing Shakes didn't grow up in Ohio.

All right...

Accuracy in Media editor Cliff Kincaid is the fella who decided the reason why Tucker Carlson's show wasn't getting the ratings was because they regularly feature a short-haired lesbian.

Now he has a new campaign, for the good of us all. From Media Matters via AmericaBlog...

"Quit Gay Sex" Campaign
By Cliff Kincaid December 14, 2005

It appears that the homosexual lifestyle is as addictive as smoking.

Have you noticed that many news organizations, in honor of former ABC News anchorman Peter Jennings, have embarked on a quit smoking campaign? So why don't our media launch a campaign advising people to quit engaging in the dangerous and addictive homosexual lifestyle?

You know who I don't love as much as some people?

Margaret Cho. In the media and most liberal web sites Cho is quite well-loved; the following quotes come from her website:

Brilliant. One of the funniest comedians in America. - NY Times

Not since Richard Pryor..., has a comedian made me laugh through the tears the way Margaret Cho has. -3blackchicks.com

The most hilarious movie - the most hilarious thing - on planet Earth. - The Bergen Record

Gut-bustingly funny. - Variety

Surely every one of Cho's blow jobs is a blow for freedom. - Toronto Eye

...and I'm sorry, I just don't see it. Almost every time I've seen film of Cho's stand-up, she seems to me to be essentially just telling her audience what they want to hear: Right wing conservatives should be bitch slapped, racism and homophobia is bad, she shouldn't have been made to feel fat. It's not that I don't agree with any or all of that-which I hope is obvious-but I don't remember seeing her doing that many jokes about them.

I've probably said this one or two many times too many. But one of the reasons, I feel, that The Daily Show and Doonesbury have justifiably won so many awards and grabbed so many viewers/readers, is that they don't just tell their audience what they want to hear; they flame-broil sacred cows from the right or left.

It's easy (relatively) to get laughs hitting the other person's gang, can you get laughs hitting your own gang? In the films that I've seen, Margaret Cho's loving audience responds not with laughter, but with applause.

Well, shit, I could get applause going onstage and taking a few cheap shots at the approved targets of a self-selected audience of liberal weenies too. (Jeff Foxworthy says you shouldn't make fun of rednecks unless you are one. About the term "liberal weenies"...I are one.)

To me, truly brilliant comedians don't seek applause. You'll rarely see Jon Stewart more uncomfortable than when the studio audience reacts with applause rather than laughter. And I don't recall Richard Pryor's concerts being interupted by it too many times either.

It's not that nothing Cho has ever said has struck me as funny, it has. And as an actress she was part of the fine ensemble cast of one of my favorite movies, It's My Party. It's just that the hype of her as a social commentator/comedian seems to me way out of proportion to her actual gifts.

If you're wondering what brought this on, tonight I picked up the new issue of Bust magazine because I'd heard there was a profile of Samantha Bee of The Daily Show in it. Quick sidenote: The profile is excellent, and recommended to fans of Bee/TDS. Plus, I don't know about you, but I like a visibly pregnant woman-Bee-who poses for magazine pictures with a cigarette and glass of wine in her hand. (Feet on a stepladder...in heels, yet...can of beer on the top step, other cans strewn on the floor and counters of a sloppy kitchen.)

But anyway, elsewhere in the issue there's a short review of Cho's new book. The reviewer says Cho is "brutally honest" and "absolutely hilarious." And as I say, she's hardly alone in thinking that. But the first example she quotes is:

"Strange, there's so much religion in the world, but only enough to make us fight over who's right, not enough to make us love one another."

Funny, insightful, and clearly the work of one of the foremost satirists in the English language, yes? You're so right. It was even moreso when Jonathan Swift said it in 1711.

That's just one small fraction of the main attraction

According to a behind-the-scenes book about the making of the Terry Gilliam bomb "The Brothers Grimm," Gilliam clashed with the infamous Harvey Weinstein about many things. Especially what actress to cast in the female lead of the picture.

It seems that Gilliam, along with his stars Matt Damon and Heath Ledger, wanted Samantha Morton, but Weinstein forced Lena Headey upon them on grounds that Morton wasn't "fuckable."

Charming, no? Ironically, perhaps, when I saw the movie last August, I said of it here:

The main thing I came away with is a desire to see more of one of the supporting players, Lena Headey, an actress whose face is new to me...she seems, inasmuch as you can tell, to have the chops to embody a better character than this one. But although she starts out well and strong, in the end the film forces her into a box.

Far be it from me to take the side of Harvey Weinstein over Terry Gilliam; I just agree Headey is a very attractive woman. But there can be virtually no argument that Morton has more, or at least more proven, "chops." And not to put too fine a point on it...I would.

Would she have saved the film? I'm inclined to think not; it had more problems than just the director and stars second choice being cast in a key role.

But this definitely leaves me anxious to read the book, which has so far been published just in the U.K.