Sunday, April 23, 2006

Today's Political Thought

A week or two ago in a monologue, Jay Leno mentioned some new bit of bad news for the White House and he said, "My God, that's the worst thing that's happened to the Bush administration all day."

That's kind of how it's been going lately: Every day or so, there's a new poll or a new revelation or a new document or a new general or former supporter calling for big changes. I'm starting to feel sorry, not so much for Bush and his crew, but for all the people who supported them in good faith. I've backed politicians who turned out to not be as competent or honest as I once thought. It's not a pleasant realization.

The latest blow is tonight's 60 Minutes interview with Tyler Drumheller, who was once the highest-ranking CIA officer in Europe. He says there was plenty of accurate intelligence on Iraq and its alleged weapons and its supposed attempts to acquire yellowcake uranium. The White House, he claims, simply ignored the good intelligence because the flawed reports fit their agenda. This will not come as a surprise to anyone but it adds to the pile-on.

And the week is just starting...

• Posted at 8:06 PM · LINK

And Now For Something Completely Frozen...

Okay, we've had Monty Python TV shows, movies, DVDs, records, books, concerts and a Broadway show. What's next?

How about Monty Python ice cream?

(By the way: They don't seem to sell this flavor in their parlors but Tuesday is Free Cone Day at all Ben and Jerry's Scoop Shops.)

• Posted at 7:26 PM · LINK

Comic Book Biz

Comic book creators are getting better deals these days. This article explains.

• Posted at 3:36 PM · LINK

Today's Video Link

I don't drink beer or have much to do with horses. Still, for some reason, I'm a sucker for the Budweiser Clydesdales and the commercials they appear in. Don't ask why. I don't know.

Here's kind of a nice one. (This is an ifilm embed and they don't seem to work with as many browsers as the others. So if it doesn't play for you, go to this page. You may have to sit through a commercial to see a commercial, though.)

• Posted at 12:56 PM · LINK

The Numbers

As you may recall, NBC abruptly pulled the final two episodes of Celebrity Cooking Showdown from their Thursday night and Friday night schedules, substituting reruns of other shows.

Looking at it just in terms of immediate ratings, that may or may not have been a good idea. The Deal or No Deal rerun that ran Friday in place of the last episode of the cooking series won its time slot by a hair. Its first half hour got a 5.0 and the second got a 5.9. Would Celebrity Cooking Showdown have done better there? We'll never know but it doesn't seem likely. Clearly, not much of America got hooked on the bake-off to the point of following it every night. Then again, the finale of a reality show usually does better than an average episode, and the competition on other networks that night wasn't strong.

Saturday night, NBC had a stealth airing of the last two installments of Celebrity Cooking Showdown. Nobody knew they were on and each hour got around a 1.8 rating, which is about as poorly as one can do on a major network. In the TV departments of all the Wal-Marts across the country, there are usually enough sets tuned to NBC to get a 1.8. Had they aired the shows on Thursday and Friday, they might not have done as well as the reruns put in their place but they'd sure have done better than a 1.8. I'm curious if the folks at NBC think it was a good trade-off.

• Posted at 12:37 PM · LINK