"You think it's all over, but..."

Andrew:

...there is a difference between good faith mistakes and a criminal conspiracy to violate and make a mockery of the rule of law. That's why a real investigation of all of it - including the alleged results - needs to take place and take its time. Give it two years to report, to allow emotions and tempers to cool. Then and only then make a decision on prosecution, so that there is no scintilla of haste or heat.

One more suggestion: ask Patrick Fitzgerald to run it.

Or barring that, we could always go back to my "Bush vs. Jigsaw" idea.

The games have just begun.

Save an Unusual Terminator's Life

The Zap2it site is running a "Keep 'em or kill 'em?" poll for 28 "on the bubble" TV shows, including "The Unusuals," "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles" and "Life."

As you see over to the right, I've embeded the relevant polls there as widgets, or you can click on the link above if you want to see all the possibilities.

All "my" shows were ahead when I voted and left a couple comments just now. Who the hell knows if this'll do any good, but it's taking positive action, and I think Zap2it does tend to be one of the sites that the networks do pay attention to...

A silver lining?

The Star suggests that one or two

low-rated shows [like Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles?] might get a reprieve this season due to the downturn in the economy. It costs less to keep an existing show on the air than to try and launch a new one.

Get yourself for this one, god

Golden Girls star Bea Arthur dead aged 86

Arthur, the star of television shows Maude and The Golden Girls has died, aged 86

Arthur's apokesman Dan Watt told AP the actress had died at home early on Saturday. He said she had cancer, but e declined to give further details.

The tall, deep-voiced actress won Emmy Awards for The Golden Girls


and Maude


as well as a Tony Award for her role in the musical Mame.

And if they gave awards to best voices for femputers...

Just cute & dreamy...or AMAZING?

You make the call.

George Lucas shows he either doesn't understand his own characters, the Bush administration, or both

Maureen Dowd liked to refer to the former vice president as "Darth Cheney." She recently asked George Lucas if that comparison was a mischaracterization:

Anakin Skywalker is a promising young man who is turned to the dark side by an older politician and becomes Darth Vader. "George Bush is Darth Vader," [Lucas] said. "Cheney is the emperor."

Amy Davidson, at the New Yorker's News Desk, is having none of it:

Other than being the father of twins, Anakin Skywalker, born a slave, with extraordinary abilities (the "best pilot in the galaxy"), has almost nothing in common with Bush, born to privilege and not much of an advertisement for the notion of a natural aristocracy. Is Jenna going to be Luke and bring him back from the Dark Side? If we are going to play this game, Bush has more in common with Count Dooku, the Jedi dropout turned warmonger, or, better yet, Jar Jar Binks, who, after a buffoonish youth, improbably rises to a prominent political position and obliviously fronts for the soon-to-be emperor in getting the "Star Wars" equivalent of the Patriot Act passed.

Via scanners.

Well, I'm glad to see someone is finally speaking up.

Via The Daily Dish:

Peggy Noonan, chief worshipper at The Church Of Ronald Reagan, on the value of being a nation of laws; not a nation of humans:

...the pursuit of justice is the business of a great nation. In winning this point, they caught the falling flag, producing a triumph for the rule of law, a reassertion of the belief that no man is above it, and a rebuke for an arrogance that had grown imperial,"

Of course, she was talking about Clinton in 1998.

In 2009, on the subject of the president committing war crimes, she said (infamously),

Sometimes in life you want to keep walking.

Don't let the door hit you on the way out, Peg.

I suppose it wouldn't have been right if they'd just pretended to treat him...

Man pretending to fall off bridge actually falls

Police said a 23-year-old man is in stable condition after he pretended that he was falling off a bridge over the Minnesota River, then actually fell off the bridge. Police got a call just before 5 a.m. Sunday from a 21-year-old man who said his friend fell off the Highway 77 bridge and into a marshy area about 30 feet below.

For number one, I went with Limbaugh, which seems to be a popular choice

Media Matters is conducting a poll to name the worst "media moment" of President Obama's first 100 days. Among your choices (with some commentary where appropriate):

Limbaugh on Obama: "We are being told that we have to hope he succeeds, that we have to bend over, grab the ankles ... because his father was black"

(This is the one that I decided on...when I voted, it was leading the pack by some 12%)

Beck has car idled outside of studio during show to "do our part for global warming"

In CNBC host Cramer's "U.S.S.A.": "Comrade[]" Obama is a "Bolshevik" who is "taking cues from Lenin"

I had to do a double-take on this one...it means CNBC host Cramer is taking his ideas from Adam Ant lyrics. There have been times when Ant is one of my favorite pop stars...but that's just crazy (to be fair, so is Adam).

Limbaugh on EFCA: "One day Tony Soprano will walk in with a lead pipe and he will start beating people upside the head to vote to unionize"

Morris: "Those crazies in Montana who say, 'We're going to kill ATF agents because the U.N.'s going to take over' -- well, they're beginning to have a case"

Glenn Beck mocks Obama's aunt's "limp"

Beck imitates Obama pouring gasoline on "average American"; says: "President Obama, why don't you just set us on fire? ... We didn't vote to lose the Republic"

Beck: "You can't convince me that the founding fathers wouldn't allow you to secede"

Enjoy!

If they throw in an Ann Coulter sodomy booth, they might have something

Hannity Offers To Be Waterboarded For Charity (By Charles Grodin!)

Oh, well. This is, I believe, a "golden moment" in the history of televised media. Sean Hannity had actor Charles Grodin on his show tonight, and the two men actually had some genuinely good natured sparring with each other over the news of the week.

GRODIN: Would you consent to be waterboarded? We can waterboard you?

HANNITY: Sure.

GRODIN: Are you busy on Sunday?

HANNITY: I'll do it for charity. I'll let you do it. I'll do it for the troops' families.

Or the third option...

Hilzoy sez:

I do not want a world in which members of my government can break the law with impunity. I do not want a world in which some people are above the law. In a perfect world, we would not need to prosecute people to achieve these results. But the past eight years have shown us that we don't live in that world.


As I said, I don't care about the prosecutions of the CIA officers. But I care immensely about prosecuting Cheney, Addington, Yoo, Bybee, Bradbury, and people like them. And I care precisely because I am looking to the future. We can choose to be a nation of laws in which criminals of any station are held accountable, or we can just hope that no one like George W. Bush is ever elected again.

It hasn't been on long enough for me to attach to it the way I did to, say, Life.

But The Unusuals is my latest proof that the best shows don't do well in the ratings. ABC aired a special Tuesday episode last night (as opposed to the usual Wednesday timeslot). It was in place of the recently revived Cupid, which I've given up on, along with most viewers and (I imagine) soon enough, ABC. Something I only discovered in the last 5-10 minutes.

Fortunately, here in the 21st century, television network shows have websites and those websites have full episode players so you can catch up, which I have. First of all, let me say that having tried Fox and NBC's players, ABC's is by far the best. The reason I say it's the best is because it let me watch the episode without having to wait through a long connection process like the others do.

Also I liked this third episode more than last week's second, it was funny and surprising.

The show's probably never going to dominate the ratings like Law & Order: CSI (those are the same shows, right?) but from my selfish POV, that's a good thing. On the few occasions when I've tried that show (seriously: It is the same show...?) I've found it boring and dull and oppressive; a sterile wasteland.

The Unusuals probably won't prompt much more from me than a "tsk-tsk, that's a shame," if and when it gets cancelled, which seems to be the road it's on.

But it's a good show. I like it.

Oh, and Miley, I forgive you for that "Alice in Wonderland" crack, too

I basically have no use for Miley Cyrus. Frankly, wouldn't it be creepy if I did? She did do good voice work in Bolt, tho, it must be said. And now she's spoken out on gay rights. So while I still expect to have little or no use for her, she's ok by me.

As a LiveJournaler put it:

...when the most popular teen star in the world says something like this, millions and millions of LGBT rights supporters are born."

It's raining gays. Hallelujah.

A Gaythering Storm from Jane Lynch

For Jason, lest he forget

His wife will thank me when he returns...

Yes...yes they will

Via The Daily Dish, the Republican NRO on why they cannot lose "the marriage debate."

After gay marriage, the most religiously committed Americans will be effectively marginalized as a public force—because they cannot act or support the idea that gay unions are marriages. Such people will, if we lose the marriage debate, be treated the way we treat bigots who oppose interracial marriage.

I'd say this one has a 50/50 chance

There's a few people in it who I like--Kristen Bell, Danny DeVito, Anjelica Huston--but they don't always have the eye for a good script.

The director is Mark Steven Johnson. Now, I happen to have liked Ghost Rider but that, along with the rest of his filmography (Elektra, Simon Birch) doesn't eaxctly fill one with confidence in his romantic comedy skills.

Neither do the credits of the screenwriters (Evolution?). One of the producers is a producer of Wedding Crashers, though, which I'll bet you they mention in the ads...

Caption this photo Again

"Swanee! How I love ya, how I love ya. My dear old swanee..."

There's only one way to go out...

Good times, good times...

Sigh...it really is too late for a third season, isn't it?

But a man can dream though, oh yes, a man can dream...

The most thought-provoking and engaging of the new narratives is the “Terminator” TV series, which just ended its second season last week. ...only “Terminator” has built a truly diverse community of machines — with multiple agendas, multiple desires — without resorting to some type of spiritual mythology to explain their existence.

I know I use this word a lot; I might as well admit it, I'm trying to bring it back.

Awesome.