Sunday, May 4, 2008

Go Watch It (Maybe)

I have not had the chance yet to read The Ten Cent Plague, a new book by David Hajdu that chronicles the "horror comic" scare of the fifties. I will get to it, I'm sure, when deadlines ease. In the meantime though, I wanted to mention that Mr. Hajdu was interviewed this weekend on C-Span's Book TV and I think I've found an online link that will actually work if you want to watch it that way. The C-Span site seems to be Mac-friendly and usually doesn't like showing anything to any of my PCs. But this link just might get you a watchable stream.

And then again, it might not. Not only does C-Span apparently only have one cameraman with one camera but they seem to be expecting that guy to fix their website in his free time.

• Posted at 7:31 PM · LINK

Go Read It!

My buddy Paul Harris is a great broadcaster who's currently between gigs but never mind that. I found this story through his weblog and I think everyone oughta go read it. You'll see why.

• Posted at 11:38 AM · LINK

Today's Political Comment

A number of blogs are quoting writer Henrik Hertzberg's summary of John McCain's strategy for dealing with Iraq...

McCain wants to stay in Iraq until no more Americans are getting killed, no matter how long it takes and how many Americans get killed achieving that goal — that is, the goal of not getting any more Americans killed. And once that goal is achieved, we'll stay.

Given McCain's recent speeches, I don't think that's an inaccurate representation of the man's position. If it isn't, McCain needs to say something more substantial.

• Posted at 9:27 AM · LINK

The Show That Closes Like This

The Las Vegas production of Spamalot — which as you may recall, I didn't think was very good — is closing July 13. That's a little more than a year after it opened and that's probably a big disappointment to the folks behind it. It's also a disappointment to those of us who've watched one Broadway-type show after another not do well in Vegas. Mamma Mia is still running and so is the Vegas remodel of Phantom of the Opera, but pretty much everything else has crashed 'n' burned. Jersey Boys opened there last night and we'll see how that one does.

In the past, I've suggested that one of the problems is that people who want to see Broadway shows don't want to see the truncated versions that Vegas offers. That may drive off a few patrons and the quality of some productions may keep others away. But the more I think about it, the more I think there's more to it than that. Maybe people who visit Las Vegas have so many other options...and a yearning to do the things one can only do in Vegas. I'm going to think about this some more and write a piece here one of these days about it.

• Posted at 1:58 AM · LINK

From the E-Mailbag...

From Alex Pascover...

I'm sure I'm about the hundredth person to email you about this, but I wanted to comment on your post regarding the presidential vs. congressional disapproval numbers. First, I'm not sure it's correct that as many people disapprove of Congress as Bush (as opposed to people who simply do not approve), but maybe it's so. Regardless, the disapproval of Congress is bifurcated — there are those who disapprove of Congress from the right; there are many more of us who disapprove of Congress from the left because they haven't acted decisively enough to end the war or implement the (progressive) domestic policy proposals that swept them into office. (Of course, this is overwhelmingly laid at the feet of Senate Republicans who have filibustered literally every single piece of domestic legislation this year, but poor press coverage of what's happening in Congress means that this is not widely understood.) That's not the case with the president — most everybody hates him for about the same reasons.

Moreover, disapproval of the president means something much more significant than disapproval of Congress simply because he's a single person. You can disapprove of Congress as a whole still liking your representatives — indeed, that's the case for most people. And it's why most members get re-elected. (Unlike you, I don't think this is a bad thing, although it will be better a year from now when the Democrats' margin in the Senate and a friendly president will make the GOP intransigence unsustainable.) But that doesn't make sense with the president, where the man and the institution are the same guy. For this reason, the measurement scales are way off — Bush's unpopularty numbers are historic. Congressional unpopularity — even if the numbers are the same — is just high; it's nothing like a record. And that's because these institutional reasons put a lot of downward pressure on Congressional approval numbers and a lot of upward pressure on the president's in any situation. It's astounding that Bush is so unpopular that he's managed to overcome the significant positive bias in these kinds of polls for a president.

Obviously, these numbers would make more of a difference if Bush were running again, but as you said, McCain is basically running for the a third Bush term (except, mind-bogglingly, with even an less consistent policy agenda), so it still has some predictive value.

Yeah...I think McCain's current popularity is because people keep hearing the word "maverick" and not realizing that his most recent pledges are essentially to do everything Bush has done wrong except to do more of it. There's also a great personal affection for McCain. He's charming at times and funny and a genuine American hero, even if he can't currently bring himself to actually vote against the torturing of others. I expect the nation's view of him to change before November, especially if he keeps having these "senior moments" that are causing even some who like him to wonder if he's up to the job. The way it seems to be going is that on odd-numbered days, he says something painfully honest and damning to his own stated platform and then on even-numbered days, he goes out and "clarifies" that he meant something else.

But you're right. People on the right don't like Congress because it's controlled by Democrats and it keeps refusing to do what Bush wants. People on the left don't like it because it isn't actively undoing much of what Bush has done. Folks in the middle look at all that gridlocking and political tap-dancing and just moan at what an inefficient body we have there. I think the knee-jerk tendency to return all those people to office is a bad thing but you're right. We hate Congress as a whole and often love our own reps. I'm very happy with my Congressguy, Henry Waxman; not so thrilled with either of California's senators.

I am not, by the way, in favor of term limits for any office. I think that if we want to elect the same person over and over until they drop, we should be able to do it. I just think we shouldn't do it as often as we do already.

• Posted at 12:24 AM · LINK

Today's Video Link

Tom Lehrer with a rousing song that's guaranteed to cheer you up...

• Posted at 12:08 AM · LINK