The Sound of the Crowd

I’m not as crazy about Michael Moore as some of my liberal brethren–I think there’s a little too much of the “professional liberal” in him, and that his act contains too much “Hey, dig me, ain’t I cute?” to have as powerful an effect as I’d like. Not to mention those nagging little questions about inaccuaracies in his books and the flustered way he flaps his wings like a goose whenever somebody mentions them. But say what you will–and I have–the man knows a great comic strip when he sees one. I’ve been saying for months if not years that the Boondocks deserves a Pulitzer Prize as much as Doonesbury ever did.

…you’ve been too much of a media whore, it’s a sign of something.

This is the kind of story that just makes my morning.

There’s a lengthy–I mean lengthy, I’m talking 14 pages–transcript here of a panel discussion with several TV writers including my man Aaron Sorkin and moderated by Dennis Miller, who used to be my man before he turned into a Bush-loving, FOX-commentating, war-mongering conservative. But enough about that. Hey, at least he’s happy. He says so. I’d be happy too if…but I’m getting started again. Forgive me.

It’s well worth a glance, but make sure you have a few minutes to spare. Meanwhile, everybody out there keep those fingers crossed like a cricket–I’m getting ready to send out another couple of plays of my own.

I don’t know why Dennis Miller insisted on calling Aaron “Sorks” and
“Sorky,” but maybe he didn’t mind. Also dig what Aaron says his first offer was after he left WW…

How’d they get this Ms. Lohan to commit to the film? They said they’d give her “anything you want…$100 dollar bills.” If you get that reference, say so in the comments.

I repeat, this is only a test.

Much as I might like to see 2-D animation get a boost, I’m not optimistic that Brother Bear is the film to do it. Granting that I haven’t seen it and don’t plan to, so I may be wrong about this. But it sure looks like one of those films that even if you haven’t seen it, you’ve seen it. But like I say, maybe I’m wrong and this weekend box office grosses will prove me wrong. I’ll keep a light on in the window for traditional animation anyway–I rented the new Looney Toons DVD set this week and so far it’s gorgeous, although there are one or two annoying errors in the supplemental material (my favorite: in the commentary track for a ‘toon which features caricatures of Al Jolson, Jack Benny and other celebs of the day, Bing Crosby is identified as Bill Cosby. That’s an easy mistake to make…). Anyway, USA Today has an article on the uphill clmb faced by 2-D at the moment.

1. Bush is a “chickenhawk” who avoided service.

2. But he has no compunction about sending other people’s children to die.

3. He is dishonoring the memory of those children and their living families.

Sometimes I really miss that man…as must the press and the GOP. There’s an excerpt here from a longer interview he did with The American Prospect in which he talks about the passitivity of the former and the sneakniness of the latter, and does it all in complete sentences, too. And it seems like a good time to mention that after a highly-motivated prosecutor spent billions of our dollars and years of our country’s time looking for criminal behaivor on the part of this President, they found jack.
Would anyone like to to bet me that if we gave someone Kenneth Starr’s funds and power they wouldn’t find anything about the “president” we have now? That’s what I thought. Sleep tight, Bush voters.

Pretty terrific article about Alex Ross, whose name will be known to the comic book fans amongst you, and a halloween party he threw, in The New York Times today. Since its the NY Times, you do need to register to read.

You’re going to be seeing a lot of headlines about an economic boom today, and a lot of conservatives are going to be using this as an excuse to shout down what they’ll call pessimistic liberals. Conservatives like excuses to shout at people–cough, Bill O’Reilly, cough. And sure enough, assuming that I understand numbers–always a dangerous assumption–the last quarter of the economy is looking pretty good, relatively speaking. But it may or it may not be a boom, and if any of your Republican friends are inclined to gloat about it, feel free to remind them that it doesn’t come even remotely close to the seven years of prosperity under Clinton.

But, it does mean those Democratic candidates may have to work a little harder…good.