Here's a piece by the Spinsanity crew that strikes me as a fair overview of the "Bush in the National Guard" flap. My interest in this one is low but it does fascinate me that so many folks on both sides are throwing out incomplete, arguable hunks of "evidence" and then saying, "This proves we're right. Case closed."

Here's a good profile of a very fine actor named David Paymer. I worked with David on a series a few years ago and thought he was an absolute joy.

One of the great unsung comic books of the past is Little Archie, as written and drawn by Bob Bolling. At arm's length, it seems like a dumb idea for a comic. To the extent the teenage Archie, Jughead, Betty, Veronica, Reggie and the rest of the gang were entertaining, it was because they dealt with all the travails of their age bracket: Dating, high school, cars, etc. And of course, there was always the fact that the girls, especially as drawn by Dan DeCarlo, were so gosh-durn sexy. So you'd figure the kiddie version, which loses all that, would be a quadruple snooze…and in the hands of anyone other than Bolling, yes, that's what it would have been. But using a few remnants of the teen formula, Bolling managed to craft a very personal little franchise, occasionally generating actual, on-the-page suspense. Through sheer cleverness and dedication, he managed to make his characters very real and avoid the "generic" feel that so many Archie comics had in script and art. It's really a body of work deserving of more attention.

And this week, it's getting some over at Scott Shaw!'s beloved Oddball Comics page at Comic Book Resources. All week, Scott spotlights Little Archie in all his glory. Good stuff.

Two things distress me about these rumors that John Kerry had an affair with an intern, and neither makes me more or less likely to vote for him. One is that it's only February. Kerry doesn't even have the nomination and the attacks have already reached this level. I hate to think what we're going to be hearing about him and his running mate by October, especially if they're ahead, and I'm no more thrilled about the quantity of mud that will be lobbed back at Bush-Cheney or Bush-Whoever. (I'm guessing we haven't heard a lot of Democratic attacks on Cheney lately because they want to wait until it's too late to dump him from the ticket before they launch the TV spots that say, "Our men and women are dying in Iraq because of inadequate equipment while Cheney and Halliburton line their pockets with money from the Defense Budget." Anyone think we won't be subjected to that sales pitch?)

The other thing that bothers me is that the rumors about Kerry and this lady seem to have come out of absolutely nowhere. There are no secret tapes, no stained dress, no appointment logs that show Kerry and this woman in the same location at the same time. I'm not even sure there are any witnesses who ever saw them together. Someone somewhere said Kerry was involved with an intern and that was enough for some folks to run with it. On some of the Conservative sites, it's now an accepted truth…and if it's denied by everyone involved or can't be proven, well, that just shows what Kerry's money and power can accomplish.

I'm always suspicious of any charge that (a) serves the cause of the parties doing the charging and (b) is configured such that it can never really be disproven. How does Kerry prove the charge is bogus? Come up with a photo of them not having sex?

The charges that George W. Bush was AWOL in the National Guard have occasionally dipped to the same level. Yeah, there's some paperwork (and therefore, potential proof) there but the people pursuing the story seem unwilling to consider, for example, that government files and paperwork could be legitimately missing. Or that some of the data on the records that do exist might just be wrong. Certainly, some of the witnesses who are coming forth to confirm or deny Bush's version of things are exhibiting a shaky, though perhaps earnestly-believed grasp of dates. I wish politics could mature beyond the level where if someone says something that hurts your guy, he's obviously lying…and if someone says something that hurts the other side, it's an established, incontrovertible fact.

Some ambitious folks are attempting to catalog every TV and film appearance of every DC comic book character with what they call The DC Live Action List, even though it includes cartoon voices. Whatever, it's a valuable resource.

Here are Eric Alterman and Michael Tomasky discussing how reporters ought to actually be doing some reporting instead of taking dictation from those in power.

One of the things Bill Clinton did that I didn't like was his embrace of the "V-Chip." Nice to see that now that they're required on all TV sets, almost no one's using them.

Some time ago, I recommended you waste a few hours of your too, too-short life on an online game. Over at the Garfield website, you can play Garfield's Scary Scavenger Hunt. And then, after you agonize your way through that puzzle, you can throw good time after bad and play Garfield's Scary Scavenger Hunt II. I enjoyed both enough to write up little walkthrough solutions. If you need one, drop me an e-mail. But try to solve it yourself before you do. Neither is that difficult and you'll be happier if you figure them out for yourself.

Tuesday night, TV Land is running four hours of shows produced by my occasional employers, Sid and Marty Krofft…segments of Sigmund and the Sea Monsters, H.R. Pufnstuf, ElectraWoman and DynaGirl and others. I wrote none of these so like you, I can enjoy them as they regress me to an earlier age. You can get the schedule over at this page and they have interviews with Sid and Marty, and with the wonderful Billie "Witchiepoo" Hayes on this page, though I wasn't able to get them to play. There's an article about these shows over on the New York Times but it's written by a lady who doesn't know what she's talking about so I'm not going to link to it.

Nice piece on Julie Schwartz on CBS Sunday Morning. You can nitpick little almost-errors in these things but the overall effect was something that would have pleased Julie greatly. Also, Alan Brennert informs me there was a nice Schwartz obit on ABC's This Week With George Stephanopoulos.

And here's a link to a good column by Andrew "Captain Comics" Smith, though I will nitpick a few points: He says, "Schwartz (with John Broome and Carmine Infantino) introduced a brand-new Flash in Showcase No. 4." Broome was the most important writer of that incarnation of The Flash but the introductory story was written by Robert Kanigher. There were four Showcase issues of the character and each had one story by Kanigher and one by Broome. Julie also — and I made this mistake, myself — did not introduce H.P. Lovecraft to the world. He sold a few of Lovecraft's last stories. But all in all, it's another tribute that would have delighted its subject.

By the by: Amidst all these obits, there seems to be some argument over whether Julie lived to be 88 or 89. I just did the math. Julius Schwartz was born on June 19, 1915. He died early the morning of February 8, 2004. Therefore, he was 88 years, 7 months and 20 days old. I may have contributed to the confusion because I told a story involving Julie last year and said he was 88 at the time…but that story occurred after that year's birthday.

I'm surprised there hasn't been more talk about two Tonight Show appearances this past week by men ostensibly running for the Democratic Presidential nomination. I say "ostensibly" because Dennis Kucinich's on Thursday night seemed like such a desperate bid for attention. He came on, not to discuss politics or what he'd do as Chief Exec, but to participate in a sketch. They did The Dating Game with bachelor Kucinich picking from three celeb bachelorettes — Jennifer Tilly, Kim Serafin and Cybill Shepherd. Radio talk show host Serafin gave some anti-Democrat responses and Shepherd was acting boisterous, so Kucinich chose Tilly…for a "dream date" at a Vegan restaurant in Santa Monica. Jay Leno kept thanking the Ohio congressman for being a good sport, which is always a tip-off that someone is being demeaned. It should have been, "Thanks for coming here and sacrificing the last scraps of your image as a serious politician so we could do this during Sweeps Week." More humbling was that elsewhere in the show, Leno talked about how much he was looking forward to chatting with Senator John Edwards the following night. In other words, at this key time in the primaries, Edwards would be coming on to boost his candidacy and speak about a few issues, whereas Kucinich was only welcome if he let them poke fun at his height, diet and lack of spouse.

It's hard to say what was on Kucinich's mind. It's long past the stage where he can have any delusions about being this year's Democratic nominee, and I haven't heard anyone mention him for the veep slot. Like Al Sharpton from the start, he's running to enhance his profile as a statesman, perhaps for future candidacies, and also to get his message out. I don't see that playing The Dating Game does either of those things. He looked awkward and not thrilled to be there, and I can't imagine one viewer coming away from the experience more likely to mark his name on a ballot…not even Jennifer Tilly. That Kucinich was ever even marginally a contender came from the fact that he's a good, fiery orator with the ability to mobilize an audience. When they don't let him do that, he certainly doesn't look like leadership material.

The following night, John Edwards did. Sitting (unlike Kucinich) in the guest chair, the Senator was folksy and managed to get in a lot of personal anecdotes that suggested he was "one of us" but still managed to hit a few issues. He said flatly that he was for letting individual states decide on the matter of gay marriage…and it wasn't so much his position as the fact that he said it so clearly that may have impressed some voters. Much has been made of the fact that Edwards is from the South, and some believe a Democrat cannot win the presidency without some Southern support…but what struck me was that Edwards' real strength may be that he's just plain a better, more interesting speaker than anyone else in the contest, except maybe Sharpton who, of course, isn't really in. Kerry seems to be racking up delegates in landslide numbers but I suspect that's mostly a matter of him being the front-runner at a time when people who hate George W. Bush are eager to get behind a Democrat. I can't help thinking that most of them are buying Kerry but would be happier with Edwards.

As umpteen e-mails inform me this A.M., the piece on Julie Schwartz did indeed air on CBS Sunday Morning. It's about 46 minutes into the show, I'm told. I have it on my TiVo and will watch it later.

Vince Waldron suggests that I was deficient (or maybe he was too polite to suggest, foolish) in not providing Amazon links to the DVD recorder I was just discussing. They have the Panasonic DMR-E80H for around $512, which is a pretty good price.

In reciprocation, I plug Vince's website (where you can order his must-own book on sitcoms) and his comedy improv troupe (where you can laugh your buttocks off). I am nothing if not fair.

The fellow who was assembling the story on Julius Schwartz for CBS Sunday Morning said he'd call to let me know how likely it was to air tomorrow. He hasn't called, which I guess confirms that you can't trust CBS News. I've set my TiVo just in case but I suspect it either won't be on or won't be very long.

Here's Larry David (Yes, the guy from Curb Your Enthusiasm) on his wartime experiences.