Glenn Greenwald has a good article up on Salon about today's court decision in the matter of wiretapping sans warrant. Here are two key paragraphs...
It is important to be clear about what this decision means and what it does not mean — particularly since the White House, among others, is already depicting this ruling as some sort of epic blow to the administration's efforts to fight terrorism. This ruling does not, of course, prohibit eavesdropping on terrorists; it merely prohibits illegal eavesdropping in violation of FISA.
Thus, even under the court's order, the Bush administration is free to continue to do all the eavesdropping on terrorists it wants to do. It just has to cease doing so using its own secretive parameters, and instead do so with the oversight of the FISA court — just as all administrations have done since 1978, just as the law requires, and just as it did very recently when using surveillance with regard to the U.K. terror plot. Eavesdropping on terrorists can continue in full force. But it must comply with the law.
In reading a lot of articles that abhor today's decision, I have yet to see anyone argue that the above is not what the judge's opinion says, nor have I seen anyone argue that this is a bad thing. The arguments all seem to be mounted as if the judge ruled that the Bush must stop all wiretapping, period. Guess that's easier to rebut or something.
So apparently the guy did confess — sort of but maybe not convincingly — to killing the little Ramsey girl, only now some observers are wondering if the confession is legit. At the same time, some others are wondering if the arrest and announcement were premature because the case hasn't been built yet and maybe it's even a stunt to smoke out the real killer and...
Stop.
I was kind of interested in this story the other day for a moment. It was a moment when it looked like all the folks who were damn sure (based on way too little evidence to be that certain) that Mrs. Ramsey killed her daughter were going to have to deal with being dead wrong. I'm not all that interested in who really killed JonBenet Ramsey...no more than you are in who killed a lot of people you didn't know. But I am fascinated by Denial of Reality, or at least by some folks' tendency to pluck opinions out of the ozone layer and then defend them to the death. I think our society abounds in way too many false conclusions.
I'm also interested in the press...in its uncanny ability to get things absolutely wrong and not get called out for it. So when the Ramsey story was briefly about that, I was also interested.
But now, it's all pulled a Geraldo and swung back into Tabloid Territory. We're in "We'll never know for sure" country. No matter what the disposition is of this John Mark Karr guy — even if he comes up with camcorder footage of himself strangling the little lady — there will always be those saying he's innocent, that he was framed, that there was a police conspiracy, yadda yadda yadda. Or if his innocence is proven beyond any reasonable doubt, there will be books about how that miscarriage of justice was engineered. Too many people have too much invested in varying accounts for any view to ever be buried.
So I'm getting off the train. I'll avoid the news stories as much as I can...which probably won't be enough. And I may grumble that, uh, American soldiers are dying overseas but that keeps getting booted off the CNN homepage by the latest Ramsey rumor. But I ain't following this one any more. To those of you who already came to this conclusion because you're smarter than I am: Pardon me for mentioning it at all. I don't know what came over me.
Veteran actor (and cartoon voice actor) Tony Jay died last Sunday following micro-surgery to remove a non-cancerous tumor from his lungs. His age is unknown but it is believed he was born in the mid-thirties.
Tony was an unusual player in the pool of voice talent. A former member of the Royal Shakespeare Company in England, he was the possessor of a magnificent baritone voice that he put to good use in countless commercials and cartoon shows. He was heard in hundreds of animated shows, features and video games, usually playing villains. The list includes Mighty Max, Tale Spin, Reboot, Buzz Lightyear, Bruno the Kid and the 1995 Fantastic Four cartoon series, for which he supplied the voice of Galactus. His standout role was probably that of the evil Judge Frollo (seen above) in the Disney Studios' version of The Hunchback of Notre Dame.
Tony also had a very busy on-camera career that included roles in movies (including Love and Death and Twins) and television programs (including Lois and Clark, Twin Peaks and Beauty and the Beast) but his greatest pride was in his numerous stage appearances.
I only knew Tony casually, meeting him twice under what were probably unfortunate circumstances. A few years ago in an interview, he was quoted as making some rather ungracious remarks about his fellow voice actors. I don't recall the specific lines but the essence of them — which Tony suggested was yanked out of the intended context — was that he was a real actor and the others voicing cartoons were in some lower sphere of talent. Both times I encountered him, I was in the company of another voice actor who'd taken umbrage at the quote and testy words were exchanged...though, I must say, in magnificent tones. Neither moment was, alas, a propitious one for getting to know Tony Jay.
You can get to know more about him — and hear some samples of what the man could do before a microphone — at his website. An obit notice appears on this page.
Did the suspect being held in Thailand confess to the murder of JonBenet Ramsey? Well, you can take your choice...
Bloomberg: American John Mark Karr admitted killing JonBenet Ramsey, a 6-year-old girl found slain in her family's basement almost a decade ago, Thai police said.
Associated Press: An American suspect arrested in connection with the death of 6-year-old beauty queen JonBenet Ramsey denied any connection to her murder when he was detained at his downtown Bangkok apartment Wednesday, police said. The suspect was identified as John Mark Karr, according to Lt. Gen. Suwat Tumrongsiskul, who heads the country's immigration police. Karr denied involvement in the slayings, another police official said.
So what do we think the story is here? I'm not asking whether the guy killed the little girl. I'm asking about the discrepancy in the news reports on whether or not he's confessed. Did one reporter get one story from one source within the police department while a different reporter heard the opposite from another source? Does the difference lie with the fact that the second story is quoting someone in the "immigration police," whereas the first account is from a different police department? Something's wrong here and I'm curious as to what it is.
Here's a clever idea. You can send someone an ad for the movie, Snakes on a Plane, which will arrive in the form of a personalized message from Samuel L. Jackson. Click on this link to go to the page, fill in some info and you're off! Thanks to Carolyn Kelly for the tip.
One of the most in-demand voiceover artists in the business is a gent named Maurice LaMarche. You may have heard him bust up the joint on one of the Cartoon Voice panels I moderated at the Comic-Con International in San Diego last month. Or you may have heard him on The Critic or on Futurama or even on Pinky and the Brain, where he provided the voice of The Brain, which I always thought was like Vincent Price doing an impression of Orson Welles. Actually, the guy's all over the place.
Anyway, Mo (as everyone calls him) is appallingly talented and the fine journalist/webguy Ken Plume has done a very long, very interesting interview with the guy. For those of you interested in how the world of voiceover works, I highly recommend all parts of it except the ones where Mo talks about how he isn't up there with the top guys. If he says that one more time, we're going to have him arrested for perjury. Sheesh.
I don't think the Post cereal people still make Crispy Critters but when I was a kid, they did...and their commercials featured Linus the Lionhearted, whose voice was supplied by producer-gangster Sheldon Leonard. Linus had his own cartoon show for a while (we showed you the opening here) and this is one of his catchier commercial jobs. Get ready to hum the Orange Moose song to yourself for the next few days.
August 18, 2006
