A few years ago, I heard Al Franken speak at an event. Actually, he was interviewed by Rob Reiner but it was the same thing. I came away from the hall convinced not only that Franken's political aspirations were serious but that voters could do a lot worse than put a guy like him into office…and usually have. In his Saturday Night Live days, he had a rep in the industry as a smartass punk and a lot of people disliked him. A lot of people dislike him now but for different reasons, having more to do with his politics. He seems to have outgrown the frat boy smarminess and the times I've seen him lately, he's been gentlemanly and surprisingly cordial to and about his detractors.

So I'm kinda happy to see him be a Senator, even in a squeaker, and I find it hard to believe that Norm Coleman thought he was doing anything other than to delay the inevitable. I followed the recount and I not only never saw that Coleman had a case, I never saw him take a position that was not a reversal of a previous position. It was kind of like, "The election should be voided because the ballots were pink." And then when the authorities refused to overturn things for that reason, it was, "The election should be voided because the ballots were not pink." The argument that he "stole" the election seems predicated on the assumption that voters could not possibly have elected someone like Al Franken…or maybe that since recounts sometimes yield a different outcome, the one you don't like must, by definition, be bogus.

I watched Franken today as he joined the dinner theater, playing to the cameras while pretending to question Judge Sotomayor. The man seems to have learned that if you're a politician, you can never miss a chance to mention your family, growing up in your home state and how long you've been married. That all seems to carry more weight with some voters than anything you might actually do in office.

Franken picked up on Sotomayor's earlier comment to someone that she decided she wanted to be a prosecutor after watching the old Perry Mason show. Al Franken the Comedy Writer would have used that to ask, "Why? Because you enjoy losing every week?" That's how you structure a joke off that…but it might have made the nominee look silly or stumped her for an answer. So Al Franken the Senator instead brought up their mutual love of Perry Mason, noted how the prosecutor always lost and then said something about how it was a testimony to her character and determination that she wasn't dissuaded by that example. Or something like that. I do recall noting that he didn't go for the joke at her expense. I thought that was kinda interesting.

Bill Clinton, the man who signed the Defense of Marriage Act, has sorta/kinda come out in favor of Gay Marriage. What has changed, apart from the fact that it's becoming a much safer position, and that neither he nor his wife are likely to be running for any offices soon, if ever?

Just remembered that Dallas McKennon was the voice of both Courageous Cat and Minute Mouse on the show of the same name. That's worth a mention.

We've lost another great cartoon voice actor. Dallas McKennon has died at the age of 89. He would have hit ninety this Sunday.

Dallas did so much that it's hard to list it all. He worked a lot for Disney in movies including Lady and the Tramp, 101 Dalmatians and Mary Poppins. He's heard all over Disneyland. When you get on the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad ride, a recorded voice calls out, "Hold on to your hats and glasses! This here's the wildest ride in the wilderness!" That's Dallas McKennon. He also recorded voices for the Haunted Mansion and the Country Bear Jamboree and many other attractions. Or if you go to Epcot and you hear the animatronic figure of Benjamin Franklin…well, that's Dallas McKennon, too.

He was in a lot of Walter Lantz cartoons, usually playing villains like Buzz Buzzard or Wally Walrus. He was in a lot of George Pal productions, like The Seven Faces of Dr. Lao and Tom Thumb.

He was the voice of Archie Andrews (and several other characters) on Filmation's long-running Archie cartoon shows. He was the voice of Gumby.

Dallas also had a good career as an on-camera actor, usually playing an old prospector or cowboy. His most notable credit was in Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds. He was the cook who yells, "Don't throw that match!" in the gas station scene. He had a recurring role as Cinncinatus, the old storekeeper on the Daniel Boone TV series. He had a bit part in the Elvis Presley movie, Clambake, which explains the above photo.

For years, he also worked with studio audio departments developing sound effects, some of which were wholly or partially created in his throat. He did, without any audio trickery, an uncanny rooster crow that became a part of many studios' sound effects libraries and which has probably been used in thousands of TV shows and movies. He did it for years in commercials as the rooster on the Kellogg's Corn Flakes box and Dallas claimed, probably rightly, that it was his crowing that opened up the original Huckleberry Hound cartoon show each week.

He was a nice man…very generous with his talents and willing to lend them gratis to student films and to mentor others. A bunch of us spent a lovely, lively evening with him a few years ago when he was visiting from his home in Oregon. We were all very happy to meet him and I'm sure we think of that event whenever we hear his voice.

Three Congressional committees working together have formulated a proposal called America's Affordable Health Choices Act. They always name these things so that if, for example, someone finds anything wrong with the proposal, they can say, "What? You're against Americans having choices of affordable health care?" But on first glance, this one looks like it might live up to its name.

Here's a website that will tell you all about it. There may or may not be problems with the plan but if this thing goes like the Hillary Clinton plan of '93, there'll be opponents who'll go on news shows and say, "This bill would allow doctors to punch your grandmother in the stomach," because they figure neither you nor those who interview them will actually look at the bill to check if that's so. There was an awful lot said about "Hillarycare" that was just flat-out lying.

They just removed another screaming protester from the Sotomayor hearings. Since the advent of television and other mass media, has anyone ever advanced their cause one millimeter by disrupting things like that? I mean, it's a great way to make your position look like the mission of rude, crazy people but does it ever lead to meaningful change? I suppose there may be examples but they're probably not too plentiful.

In the meantime, I'm not sure which kind of questioner seems phonier to me: Democrats lobbing softballs that they know Judge Sotomayor can answer…or Republicans trying to show constituents that they can be tough and maybe cause some discomfort to this nominee they ain't gonna block. I did kinda enjoy the exchange where Senator Sessions was trying to draw a contrast between Judge Sotomayor's philosophy and that of a Judge Cedarbaum…and Sotomayor responded by noting that her friend Judge Cedarbaum had come to the hearing to be with her today.

Hey, you'll want to check out Fancy Fast Food. They take your basic fast food items and give them a makeover into meals that look like they might be served in a very swanky restaurant.

The long-range weather forecast for the Comic-Con International (July 23-26) calls for Mostly Sunny during the days with highs around 72°. Evenings, it'll be Partly Cloudy and get all the way down to 66° – 68°.

And for those of you who still think the con should move to Las Vegas, the forecast for that town for those dates calls for highs around 110°, lows around 86° and unusually high (for Vegas) humidity. Still wanna go there?

If you haven't seen it, we highly recommend Role Model, a one-hour special produced for Turner Classic Movies. It's Alec Baldwin interviewing Gene Wilder and it's one of the best conversations I've ever seen about an actor's career. Mr. Wilder is disarmingly candid and frank…and I don't know how many questions Mr. Baldwin asked which were edited from the show, but all that were included elicit pretty interesting responses. If you've ever liked Gene Wilder in anything — and I don't know how you couldn't — you'll enjoy this very much.

It runs on TCM this coming Saturday, July 18. It's on at 4 PM on my satellite dish but your cable company or source may have other ideas.

I just checked to see if the Turner folks were running this in conjunction with some Gene Wilder films, which is how they usually program such things, but no. Earlier, they're running a bevy of Dick Tracy movies from the forties, culminating in the 1990 flick starring Warren Beatty. Afterwards, they're going Jonesing as they run Tom Jones, Carmen Jones, The Devil and Miss Jones (the 1941 film with Jean Arthur, not the similarly-named porn epic) and Cinderella Jones. Oh, well.

I get disappointed a lot by public officials, both Democratic and Republican…and not just because, for example, Democrats I vote for don't all act like Democrats. I get disappointed in them as human beings of integrity and candor. What's more, I'm disappointed in people who don't get disappointed in the kind of bull they get from the candidates they voted for, or who refuse to admit it. I could understand you voting for George W. Bush but not to you pretending he was pretty much the kind of president you hoped you were getting.

Bill Clinton disappointed me because I thought he was smarter on a personal basis than he turned out to be. Al Gore has sorta/kinda disappointed me because all his talk about saving the planet, though it's done much good, has more or less turned out to be a way for Al Gore to have a career in the public arena without running for anything. John Kerry has somewhat disappointed me by being John Kerry. I think all three of those men made (or would have made) better chief execs than the men they ran against but given the quality of their opponents, that's not a huge compliment.

And no one's disappointed me more than John McCain, who once upon a time was a Republican I could have seen myself voting for. I'm still not sure how much he's changed and how much the mask has slipped, though I'm sure it's some of each. There was a time when his rep for "straight talk" (or at least, straighter talk) was somewhat deserved and he seemed willing to occasionally call bullshit on his own party where warranted. The "maverick" brand did apply, at least a little.

Yesterday, he was on Meet the Press and he delivered a performance that was to Partisan Hackery what Nadia Comaneci was to the uneven parallel bars. Did you know Sarah Palin didn't "quit?" She just changed her priorities.

Here — watch it at this link. I can't bring myself to embed it here.

I don't know John Ostrander all that well. He's written some terrific comic books and the few times we've talked, he's seemed like a pretty good guy. So I sure don't like hearing that he's been battling glaucoma and that he's racked up some huge bills (medical and travel) in an attempt to save his eyesight.

As I understand it, John has health insurance. When we hear the sad fact that 86.7 million Americans have no health insurance, we often make the mistake of assuming those are the folks at risk; that everyone else is protected. Well, guess again. One of the umpteen reasons the system has to change is that even a lot of folks who have Blue Cross or Aetna or Some Color Shield or one of those other plans can wake up one morn and discovered their continued existence depends on treatments and medicine that are Not Covered.

But I'm not here to turn John's plight into a commercial for Health Care Reform. I'm here to turn it into a commercial for John. A number of his friends have formed comix4sight, an endeavor that is collecting donations and running auctions to raise the necessary funds. Go to that webpage and see what you can do to help. Please.