Friday, August 4, 2006

Bob Thaves, R.I.P.

Cartoonist Bob Thaves, best known for his Frank and Ernest strip, has died at the age of 81. A multiple winner of National Cartoonist's Society awards, Thaves is said to have been the first cartoonist to do a single panel cartoon in a horizontal strip format. Frank and Ernest began in 1972 as an outgrowth of his magazine cartooning work and became a very popular feature. In the late eighties, Thaves launched a second strip — King Baloo — which did not fare as well.

His family announced his passing in this message on the Frank and Ernest website.

• Posted at 8:59 PM · LINK

High Crimes

Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee have released a report that basically indicts the Bush administration on an array of power abuses and violations of Constitutional law. You can read it here and marvel that these allegations do not (yet) warrant the filing of a Bill of Impeachment. It's especially amazing when you consider how low Republicans set the bar when they had feeble evidence that William Jefferson Clinton had fudged the truth in a deposition over a matter that had nothing to do with presidential power or getting people killed.

• Posted at 5:33 PM · LINK

Today's Political Thought

Why are so many people of all political stripes calling for Donald Rumsfeld's resignation?

I'm not asking why they think he's a failure in his job. That should be obvious by now. I'm asking why the demand isn't for George W. Bush to fire the guy.

A Secretary of Defense serves at the pleasure of the president. If I were in the Cabinet and I one day realized I was screwing things up beyond belief, I'd go to the Chief Exec and tell him how I felt...and then I'd resign if and when he told me it was the right time. He might not agree I'd messed up, in which case I would certainly not ignore his opinion. Or he might concur but feel that my resignation should wait until things were more stable or a suitable successor was in place or certain events had occurred. Whatever, I'd quit when he felt it was best for the country.

Public figures as disparate as Hillary Clinton, William Kristol, John McCain and Michael Moore have said that Rumsfeld should go. I get the feeling that even most folks who want to "stay the course" think Rumsfeld has made too many clumsy, untrue predictions and statements to be effective in his position and would welcome a fresh face there. It's hard to believe Bush is even keeping him there for any reason other than to avoid the admission that major mistakes have been made.

But ultimately, isn't it Bush's call that we need a new Secretary of Defense? And if he doesn't think so, isn't that the problem?

• Posted at 5:26 PM · LINK

Released Jokes

In the thirties, Variety used to have a column called "Released Jokes." It was an ongoing list of jokes that the paper's reviewers felt should be retired because they had just been repeated too many times by stage performers. Legend has it that the column was eventually removed from the paper because the editors realized that too many new comedians were getting their material from it, thinking that the name meant these were jokes that had been "released" into the public domain or something of the sort.

It was a bad title but a good idea. There are some quips that I'm just tired of hearing...so I'm going to start listing them here. These are jokes that were once clever and funny but have simply been done to death. I'll start with three...

• The most dangerous place in the world is not [name of war-torn locale]. It's anywhere between [name of publicity-seeking celebrity] and a camera. (As in: "The most dangerous place in the world is not downtown Baghdad. It's anywhere between the Reverend Al Sharpton and a camera.")
• Person A asks about something that's supposed to be a secret. Person B replies, "I could tell you but then I'd have to kill you!"
• Squirrel nut double-entendres. (As in: "It was so cold, I saw a squirrel warming his nuts" or "It was so hot, I saw a squirrel packing his nuts in ice.")

And while we're at it, I'm also tired of political comments that use the phrase, "At the end of the day," as in, "At the end of the day, the voters will decide" or "At the end of the day, Bush is still president." What about the beginning of the day? What about the middle of the day? Doesn't it matter what happens then?

More of these as they occur to me or you send them in.

• Posted at 5:04 PM · LINK

Today's Video Link

Don't be too quick to click on this one. It runs 27 minutes so you might want to wait 'til you have the time to watch a long interview with comedian Lewis Black. This is an episode of the PBS series, InnerVIEWS with Ernie Manouse. It's a serious chat and a good one.

• Posted at 12:14 AM · LINK