CSPAN2 is now advertising Bill O'Reilly, Al Franken and Molly Ivins at 12:15 AM Eastern time, followed by Franken and Ivins at 1:30 AM. The network is broadcasting a number of panel discussions and interviews from the BookExpo now taking place down at the L.A. Convention Center, where I would have been today if my computer hadn't gone kablooey.

…but several folks e-mailed me to say that Bill O'Reilly and Al Franken got into a real yelling match this afternoon at a discussion that aired this afternoon on C-SPAN2. It apparently replays tonight at 9PM Pacific and Midnight in the East. I don't guarantee those times, or even that it's worth watching.

So what's up with those Weapons of Mass Destruction? Here's Fred Kaplan with a progress report.

Mostly reinstalling software. I had a system crash thanks to (apparently) a usually-reliable program that issued a buggy upgrade. It wiped out my registry and various backups thereof. This is so much fun. Anyway, when you see items begin appearing here on a regular basis, you'll know I have most of my software reinstalled and configured anew.

A few days ago, I posted a question from Rick Phillips about a movie he remembered seeing. I'm not sure if he was the first one in with this but Jeffery Sellers has what seems to be the right answer. The movie was Sky Bandits, directed by Zoran Perisic. I think.

Spinsanity sets the record straight on a number of contradictory press reports. Go here to read.

No, he's not the guy who fell down a lot on Three's Company. He's the former weapons inspector who was all over the newstalk shows a few months ago, arguing that we should not attack Iraq until we had a lot more solid proof of Weapons of Mass Destruction than the Bush administration seemed to be demanding. He also predicted — and it's starting to look like he was right — that none would be found. Most shows did not give Mr. Ritter much time to state his case but our pal Paul Harris — who's heard on KTRS radio in St. Louis — did in an interview you can hear on his website. You'll need to have the obnoxious software known as RealPlayer installed on your computer.

The late John Buscema was one of those people who are/were just born to draw. He was a wonderful talent — often a lot better than what you saw in the printed comic, where he'd be drawing some strip he hated, working on a tight deadline and being inked by Vince Colletta. (Mr. Colletta was kind of like the 99-Cent-Only Store of comic book inkers.) We are happy then that some of John's fans and friends continue to maintain The Official John Buscema Website.

Here, from The Comics Journal's ¡Journalista! weblog, is a more detailed explanation of the problems that Fantagraphics has encountered, and why this would be a good time to direct your patronage their way. It says the same stuff I said earlier but longer and in more complete sentences.

Are we ready for The Lord of the Rings: The Musical? I'm seeing Nathan Lane and Elaine Stritch…

This, as they say, just in…

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Baghdad bunker which the United States said it bombed on the opening night of the Iraq war in a bid to kill Saddam Hussein never existed, CBS Evening News reported Wednesday.

Here's the link to the whole piece. You know, when the Clinton Administration did stuff like this, it was not only called a lie but it was sold as proof of the low moral fibre of those in the White House.

Here's a handy list of quotes from officials in the Bush Administration stating how certain they are that Saddam Hussein has or had Weapons of Mass Destruction by the truckload. Has anyone asked any of these people, "If he had them — and if he was a barbaric madman as you say — why didn't he use any of them?" Someone at the very least owes Hans Blix an apology for all those jokes about how he couldn't find an elephant in a Mazda.

And Neal Pollack offers a very funny history of the life of a very funny man.

Canter's Delicatessen on Fairfax in L.A. is one of my favorite places to dine, especially on Wednesdays when they serve an incredible pea soup. Had dinner there last night with Sergio, in fact. Anyway, since I sometimes cover Vegas on this website, I thought I'd mention that Canter's has now opened its first outlet…at the Treasure Island hotel-casino in Bill Bennett's favorite town. I'm not sure why this is of interest but it felt like something I ought to mention here.

I'm still on the back-up computer so I can't write what I'd like to write about Bob "But I Wanna Tell Ya" Hope, who's celebrating his 100th birthday today…probably not by doing anything the rest of us would associate with the word, "celebrating." I guess when you hit the century mark, just breathing is a kind of celebration.

I have a couple of anecdotes about my exceedingly-brief encounters over the years with Mr. Hope but they seem especially trivial today, as those who knew him well are filling the papers and Internet with tributes and stories. So I'll just direct you to the best possible website to learn about the amazing career of the outstanding comedian of his generation. Here's the link to some online samples of the Bob Hope and American Variety Exhibition in the Library of Congress. Those pictures say more than anything I can write tonight…

…except to answer the oft-asked question I see on comic book discussion boards tonight: Who, apart from Mort Drucker, did the Bob Hope comic book that DC published all those years? Answer: The early issues were drawn by Owen Fitzgerald, who was followed by Mort Drucker and Bob Oksner. Near the end, there were a few issues illustrated by Neal Adams and one by Carmine Infantino. The later issues were primarily written by Arnold Drake. Before him, the main writer was Cal Howard, but it is believed that a few others were authored by Sy Reit, Jack Miller and even Bill Finger. It all made for an odd corner of Mr. Hope's illustrious career — but one that, oddly enough, is included in the above-linked Library of Congress display.