Brian
Administrator
Posts: 3,800
|
Post by Brian on Nov 1, 2008 23:16:15 GMT -8
Just watched John McCain open "Saturday Night Live" with Tina Fey as Palin in a parody of a home shopping channel infomercial, all he could afford to counter Obama's.
He was good, resembling the man who guest hosted the show back in 2002, when McCain still had a soul. This weekend, from what I've seen and heard, he's gotten over his cold and he's acting pretty determined but relaxed in the face of defeat, reminding me of George McGovern when he told a young Nixon supporter to kiss his ass at the end of the 1972 campaign.
He hawked McCain Fine Gold Jewelry, with a cameo by wife Cindy, then his running mate went rogue, displaying a Palin 2012 sweatshirt. The best line: "Would I rather be on three major networks? Of course. But I'm a true maverick, a Republican without money."
Ben Affleck was the guest host. After reciting all the Democrats he's worked for since Carter's campaign in 1980, he endorsed McCain in the opening monologue.
|
|
Brian
Administrator
Posts: 3,800
|
Post by Brian on Nov 5, 2008 22:09:43 GMT -8
It's weird. I don't watch as much television as many do, but after months and months of many anxious or happy hours filled by politics and baseball, I cannot find much worth seeing tonight.
Right now on C-SPAN is a rerun of today's quiet victory speech by Norm Coleman, looking beat up while lying and whining about a recount, which he invites Al Franken to turn down to save the taxpayers money although his winning margin is so slim that a recount is mandated by law. I wonder who might have won if Democrats hadn't nominated a comedian.
Earlier, I caught Michael Moore on "Larry King Live." He said something profound that I hadn't realized: Obama is the first president-elect who ran as an anti-war candidate during a war.
Sometime I'm going to have to address the big reading pile that has accumulated on the coffee table. Read or recycle the magazines on the bottom, at least. Maybe reminisce about this wonderful campaign year.
|
|
anni
Administrator
Administrating Designer
Posts: 1,608
|
Post by anni on Nov 9, 2008 17:22:50 GMT -8
And I watch more than my share of OLD television, new television and endlessly bad television in an attempt to shave points from my IQ. Do I think one can have a deficit IQ? I'll let you know. I'm now admitting to the guiltiest of all pleasures: "Real Housewives of Atlanta"...oh dear.
No I'm not even kidding...gotta go...
|
|
Brian
Administrator
Posts: 3,800
|
Post by Brian on Nov 20, 2008 7:11:20 GMT -8
Heard Bill Maher on "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" last night summing up and nailing down the legacy of the Bush Administration:
"We didn't torture Nazis to win World War Two and we didn't wiretap Americans to beat the Soviets in the Cold War."
|
|
Brian
Administrator
Posts: 3,800
|
Post by Brian on Nov 22, 2008 2:35:44 GMT -8
C-SPAN 3 is showing an incredible newsreel of its 2000 Florida recount coverage from election night to, just a few minutes ago, Nov. 22, when Dick Cheney suffered chest pains and admitted himself to the hospital to undergo a "procedure." I did not remember that!
It already seems like all of this stuff occurred a century ago. Geez-us, now here's Katherine Harris on Nov. 26 signing reams of paper in Tallahassee to certify a 500-vote Bush victory and looking like she's been drugged. David Boise speaks for Gore, sounding reasonable, if not reassuring. Then James Baker, co-author of an ignored report named after him and Iraq six years later, who had already aimed his decisive shot toward the U.S. Supreme Court. I remember watching this, but was it a dream?
Or is our long national nightmare finally over?
|
|
anni
Administrator
Administrating Designer
Posts: 1,608
|
Post by anni on Nov 22, 2008 8:05:44 GMT -8
Chilling! I believe there is so much work to do (in recovery), we're not going to have time to sleep, much less, nightmare!
|
|
Brian
Administrator
Posts: 3,800
|
Post by Brian on Nov 24, 2008 0:07:27 GMT -8
Deprived of baseball games then election coverage on TV, I cling to the Sunday rebroadcast of "Meet the Press" on MSNBC at 11 p.m.
Tom Brokaw led the show with James Baker proposing that Obama and Bush calm the financial markets in the two months before the inauguration by meeting to issue a joint short-term plan.
Later, Joe Lieberman was more specific: they should collaborate on a stimulus package now. Otherwise, one initiated by Obama on Jan. 21 wouldn't pay until the second quarter.
It was surreal seeing two of my favorite people from the five-week recount in 2000 -- fresh in my head from a wonderful highlight reel on C-SPAN -- echoing what I've been writing since the election. That Bush, never an attentive president (think "My Pet Goat"), has to make way for Obama immediately for the good of the country. Best if both he and Cheney resign at once and let Nancy Pelosi speed the transition.
Oh, Brokaw also read part of Tom Friedman's column in the Sunday New York Times saying that Bush should nominate Obama's Treasury secretary.
|
|
Brian
Administrator
Posts: 3,800
|
Post by Brian on Dec 3, 2008 0:05:43 GMT -8
My idea of Thanksgiving Day is another big feast of Nixon's tapes served by the National Archives. After relishing the soundbites of Dick assessing contemporary pornography on the phone with Chief Justice Warren Berger and hearing him bury George McGovern's career in the Oval Office with Chuck Colson, I flipped to C-SPAN 3 for a panel discussion in 2005 about that year's tapes which included Bob Woodward, who had just donated his papers to the University of Texas.
I still haven't gotten over Watergate. Maybe because we as a nation never learned nor applied its lessons about abuse of power and secrecy. But Dick Cheney, who began his career in the Nixon Administration, sure did.
Thanks to the tapes, we understand more about Nixon and his actions 35 years later. How will we ever know everything that the Bush Administration pulled for the last eight years without documentation like that? And do we even want to know?
|
|
anni
Administrator
Administrating Designer
Posts: 1,608
|
Post by anni on Dec 3, 2008 18:21:44 GMT -8
I'm sure it is more than a belly full, but, yes, I would like to know. Mmmmmm, am I willing to get that dirty? I'll get back to you when I'm more stable.
You've really said a mouthful, Brian.
|
|
Brian
Administrator
Posts: 3,800
|
Post by Brian on Dec 21, 2008 1:10:55 GMT -8
Tonight I stumbled late onto a KCET pledge drive presentation of "Smothered," a documentary about "The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour" and its censorship battles. Tom and Dick were in studio, looking and sounding great. You probably have to be at least as old as me, 50, to remember their show on CBS. Our family watched it every week, proud that they went to Verdugo Hills High School. I found proof -- scroll down to the Famous Alumni List: openschooldirectory.org/index.php?title=Verdugo_Hills_Senior_High&redirect=no&printable=yes A Martinez was almost a contemporary, a great guy and someone I met after he got an acting gig on the ABC series, "The Cowboys." But I didn't know about Jaye P. Morgan from "The Gong Show" or our illustrious Congressman Buck McKeon. Anyway, we watched the Smothers Brothers when I was 10 instead of "Bonanza" and were shocked when CBS canceled their show. They paved the way for "Saturday Night Live" and "The Daily Show" after winning $776,000 in federal court from CBS. And now you can get the censored material as a premium from KCET for donating $200.
|
|