Tuesday, January 30, 2007

Recommended Viewing

Keith Olbermann discusses the claims George W. Bush made in his State of the Union address that four important terrorist plots have been foiled. Here's a link to the video, which runs a little under nine minutes.

• Posted at 7:26 PM · LINK

Another Plug For This

I know you'll all be spending tomorrow scurrying about your neighborhoods in your ape costumes, frightening small children and inducing coronaries in seniors, to say nothing of beating and pummelling anyone you encounter named Fester Bestertester. But if you pause for a moment in the day's occupation, you might want to tune in Shokus Internet Radio...say, between 4 PM and 6 PM for those of you on the West Coast or 7 PM and 9 PM for those on the other one. That's when Earl Kress and I will be guests on Stu's Show, taking your calls and discussing cartoons and animation and records about cartoon characters and all sorts of other fluffy topics. Our cordial host will be Stuart Shostak, who puts the "sho" in Shokus Internet Radio.

You can listen to Shokus Internet Radio by mousing your way over to the Shokus site and selecting an audio browser. And like I've been a'tellin' ya...don't wait 'til Earl and I are on to sample this fine station. Here's a link to the schedule.

• Posted at 2:20 PM · LINK

Recommended Reading

Eric Boehlert points out a very silly, inaccurate assertion that swept through the press recently. It was the claim that when John Kerry announced he would not be a candidate for prez in 2008, he teared up, sobbed, began crying, whatever. That's not what happened and Boehlert provides a link to a video that proves that isn't what happened.

So why did so many media outlets report that it had? There are two explanations — they didn't check or they just figured the readers wouldn't — and neither speaks well of the reporters. The same thing was true when there was that big, televised funeral for Paul Wellstone and it was reported as three hours of Republican-bashing. If you actually watched the video, you saw it wasn't. And it makes you wonder about the accuracy of reporting in the majority of cases. If they're that far wrong when there is a video record, what's their batting average like on stories where there isn't?

• Posted at 2:09 PM · LINK

The Latest on Max and Leo

There's talk that the Broadway version of The Producers will close in June. Business is way down from what it once was, and the St. James Theater may be needed to house the forthcoming musical version of Young Frankenstein.

If so, I'm a little surprised that there haven't been more attempts to pump up the box office by bringing in big stars...or at least, bigger than Tony Danza...although two biggies are being mentioned. According to this article, Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick, who opened the show, may return to close it. I don't know if there's any truth to this but the columnist is right. Those tickets would go for a lot of money, emphasis on "a lot."

• Posted at 1:58 AM · LINK

Recommended Reading

Scott Ritter on the current situation in Iraq and why he feels it must not also happen with Iran. Ritter is one of those folks who was right about the Iraq War from the beginning so, of course, he rarely gets on the news talk shows. It's more important to give maximum air time to the people who have been dead wrong at every turn.

• Posted at 1:44 AM · LINK

Today's Video Link

Clear the next seven minutes of your life. This is one of the best clips I've had up here.

The late George Carl had one of the most brilliant, hilarious acts I've ever seen in my life...and that isn't just my opinion. Johnny Carson once called it "the funniest twenty minutes in show business" and I think Carson knew a little something about funny acts. I only got to see Mr. Carl in person once — it was when he was in the Lido de Paris show at the Stardust in Vegas — but I'm still chuckling over his skills. He came out, immediately began getting a laugh about every eight seconds, and kept up that pace for the full time he was on stage. When he finished and it was time to bring out the beautiful topless women again, even my friends and I were disappointed.

Some time ago — in this posting — I linked to a clip of Carl performing and warned you that the vignette did not give you the full sense of how funny he was. Neither does this one but it's better. It's George performing on Mr. Carson's show around 1985 and part of the joy is how much Johnny enjoys the performance. You will, too.

• Posted at 12:57 AM · LINK

Recommended Reading

Jeffrey Toobin on what the Google folks are up to now and what it means.

• Posted at 12:52 AM · LINK