Recommended Reading
Julia Turner gives us a summary of Richard Clarke's book. […]
Author: Mark Evanier
Posts by Mark Evanier
The Producers Movie
Will Ferrell as Franz Liebkind? That feels wrong to me. Franz ought to have that quality in his eyes that suggests he's crazy and not in a cute way. Will Ferrell always strikes me as crazy in a cute way. It might work but I'd have tried for someone like Jack Black or Dan Aykroyd. […]
One More Thing…
Two folks wrote to ask me if I really thought the Bush forces would be using Richard Clarke's testimony to defend their boss. Well, maybe not his testimony, though it was nowhere near as negative about Bush as the news briefs indicated. But the excerpts I read from Clarke's book were generally supportive of Bush's […]
Richard Clarke Again
Through the magic of TiVo, I'm watching Richard Clarke's interview last night on Larry King Live. Here, he pretty much says what I said he should have said in his testimony… I didn't praise them. What you're referring to is this background briefing that the White House leaked today in violation of the rules on […]
Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam…
It's getting harder and harder to tell the real world apart from a Monty Python sketch. Take a look. […]
More on Clarke
I watched about 25% of Richard Clarke's testimony Wednesday afternoon and made a mental note to try and catch the whole thing on some C-Span replay. On the evening's Daily Show, Jon Stewart raved about how fascinating it was, so I flipped over to C-Span, caught some more of it, then watched a little more […]
Accident Report
So I'm taking a walk in my neighborhood earlier this evening and — BAM! — I get sideswiped by a guy on a bicycle. He's a young guy, maybe in his twenties, wearing a helmet and the kind of togs I associate with competitive racing…only there's no race, nor is it the kind of area […]
Mercenary Message
Set the TiVo!
If your satellite or cable company gets The Travel Channel, you might enjoy a silly little show called Fun Food Factories that takes you on tours of the plants that manufacture things like Pez, Charms Blo-pops, Skippy peanut butter, Goldfish crackers, Snapple, Gummi Bears, Marshmallow Peeps and See's Candy. This installment airs again Thursday night […]
WGA Business
Daniel Petrie Jr., the newly-appointed President of the Writers Guild of America, west has sent out this letter to all members. Its summary of what has occurred appears accurate to me. Its optimistic tone about the negotiations (and presumption that challenges to the Guild's last election will go away) seem a bit too hopeful to […]
Today's Political Rant
I don't quite know what to make of this report that Richard Clarke, in August of '02, was telling reporters that Bush had ordered the vigorous pursuit of Osama bin Laden. On the one hand, if you're in his job and not planning to quit soon, that's the kind of thing you have to say, […]
Poll Dancing
A company called The Rasmussen Poll does daily tracking reports for the presidential election. Yesterday, they had Bush at 47% and Kerry at 45%. Today, they have Bush at 44% and Kerry at 47%. They've put out a news release about this dramatic change, and quite a few news or political sites are announcing it […]
Another Daily Show Clip
Jon Stewart and his crew are still producing the funniest, sharpest political humor I've ever seen on TV. Last week, Dick Cheney gave a self-congratulatory speech about the administration's efforts in Iraq and it wound up sharing a split-screen with the hotel bombing over there. Here's a clip of how The Daily Show presented this. […]
Dialogue With Doggie Daddy
My pal Earl Kress and I had a lovely chat last evening with Doggie Daddy. You remember Doggie Daddy: The Durante-style mutt who faithfully (often, thanklessly) raised his devoted son Augie in some of the funniest and warmest cartoons ever done for television. The late, great Daws Butler was cast as the voice of Augie…and […]
Recommended Reading
Are Richard Clarke's charges to be believed? Here, arguing for them, are Fred Kaplan and William Saletan. And here, arguing against them, are William F. Buckley and Mansoor Ijaz. Take your pick. […]