Why You Should Listen to Your Parents...

"Had we gone into Baghdad -- we could have done it, you guys could have done it, you could have been there in 48 hours -- and then what? Which sergeant, which private, whose life would be at stake in perhaps a fruitless hunt in an urban guerilla war to find the most-secure dictator in the world? Whose life would be on my hands as the commander-in-chief because I, unilaterally, went beyond the international law, went beyond the stated mission, and said we're going to show our macho? We're going into Baghdad. We're going to be an occupying power -- America in an Arab land -- with no allies at our side. It would have been disastrous."

George Bush Sr., 1998 speech to Gulf War Veterans

Thoughts on the 2006 Fall TV Season

It's finally time for me to share my thoughts on this year's fall TV premieres. After a weak fall season last year which saw only one decent show survive to a 2nd season (Everybody Hates Chris), the 2006 fall slate has several shows with the potential to be great and many more that are solid in their own right.

The best of the year is Ugly Betty, a risky adaptation of a popular telenovela. This original comedy turned into one of TV's most stylish and witty shows and doesn't look like it will slow down. Stepping into a very difficult lead role that could have easily been a dumb caricature, America Ferrara has been brilliant so far. Even better are the fantastic ratings in a competitive time slot. Good ratings for this show will hopefully lead to more original pilots next season, although that was unfortunately not the case following 2004's great fall season.

Heroes is the other great success of the fall season and has already been given a full 22 episode order. What makes Heroes great is the patience it displays in developing it's characters and storylines. Boasting a large cast of ordinary people with extraordinary powers, the show has kept the ensemble apart, slowly showing us how each of the individual heroes learn to deal with their powers. At times the show is slow moving, but you always get he feeling that it is buolding to something great, and there hasn't been something quite like that since the first season of Lost.

Other promising shows include Aaron Sorkin's dramedy Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, easily the most hyped show of the fall. While it does not quite rise to the level of Sorkin's previous work, it is definitely a watchable show with witty dialogue and a terrific cast. Ratigns have been unimpressive, but it will likely finish out a full 1st season before a deciusion is made on it's fate. The Nine is ABC's drama following nine survivors of a hostage crisis. The stunning pilot episode was my favorite of the season, but week two's overreliance on flashy directing tricks shows a lack of confidence in the story and will get old very soon. Stick to the interesting characters and leave the Michael Bay directing handbook at home. Also problematic are the terrible ratings, which could spell an early exit for the show. Brothers & Sisters is a serious family drama with one of the best casts on TV. Calista Flockhart leads the ensemble and her instant likeability is one of this show's great charms. ABC expected better numbers for this show, but if it maintains it's current level I think a 2nd season will be in store.

There's also the Tina Fey's 30 Rock, a wild comedy about a late night TV show; The chessy, but fun sci-fi drama Jericho; and the charming romantic comedy Men in Trees. It says alot about this TV season that even the disappointing shows (Six Degrees, Friday Night Lights) have hteir own merits and aren't completely unwatchable. Having said that, I chose not to see Justice, Happy Hour, Til Death, The Class, 20 Good Years, or Shark; any of which could have easily fit that description.

Television is currently owned by lame procedurals and endless reality shows. Two years ago, we saw the premiere of three very original shows (Lost, Desperate Housewives, Veronica Mars) and at least two of them were extremely successful. Unfortunately, that did not lead to much creativity in 2005's fall slate. Ugly Betty and Heroes are victories for original, creative programming. Let's hope that the networks take notice and give us more. Sure, the procedurals are easy money but so is prostitution.

This is what it took?

So the Democrats are on the bring of taking one or both houses of Congress in the November elections. Sadly, this is not happening for any of the following reasons:

1) No WMD's were found in Iraq.
2) Rumsfeld has horribly mismanaged the War in Iraq.
3) The numerous scandals in Iraq, including the Haditha massacre.
4) Bush and the GOP's numerous illegal dealings with Abramoff.
5) Bush's inept management of the Katrina disaster.
6) Bush's failed attempt to destroy Social Security.
7) Bush's veto of the Stem Cell bill.
8) Karl Rove and Scooter Libby leaking the name of a CIA agent.
9) Gas prices, budget deficit, No Child Left Behind, The Patriot Act
10) The GOP's successful attempt at blocking the minimum wage increase.
11) The recent relevations that Bush's team did not properly heed warnings about 9/11.
12) Bill O'Reilly.

Nope, it's none of that. And it's not for many of the other scandals that have happened under the Bush administration.

No, the Democrats will take control of Congress because a random Republican congressman tried to screw 16 yr old pages and GOP leadership tried to cover it up. While that's certainly bad, it isn't nearly as awful or dangerous to our country as the 12 items I listed.

The only reason this worries me is that the Democrats will need to keep control in 2008. I'm certain that the GOP will continue their fraudulent ways, but as we have seen, that alone is not enough. It takes a big juicy sex scandal to do anything. And how many Republican pedophiles can there be in Congress? 5-6 tops?

This Political Party Will Self Destruct in 10 Seconds

What a week it has been....

1) GOP Congressman Mark Foley is a real life sexual predator. (Gene Shalit, take note.)
2) Dennis Hastert and other GOP Congressman likely covered it up.
3) A combined intelligence report states that the Iraq war has increased the terror threat, despite Bush's claims that we're now safer.
4) Bob Woodward written a book about Bush's mishandling of the Iraq war, which points out several Bush lies and coverups.
5) Bill Clinton tore GOP Campaign worker (Or FOX News reporter, it's hard to tell) Chris Wallace an asshole for challenging the actions he took to capture Osama Bin Laden.
6) George Allen continues to lie himself into a corner about his racist past.

This has all taken the wind out of my sails. Hard to be outraged when the people you're pissed at are destroying themselves. It's like kicking a sick, rabid dog. That's just cruel.

So instead, I will turn my attention to Fox News reporter Brit Hume. In a discussion about the Foley scandal, Hume invoked the Clinton ex machina (n. device used by Republican politicians to make excuses for their own mistakes.) and made the observation that Mark Foley is a total disgrace to his party while Bill Clinton is still in good standing with Democrats.

Do we really live in a world where one of the top journalists for a news organization (insert joke here) will compare infidelity to pedophilia? I mean, what the fucking fuck? Does Hume honestly think that there are no Republicans that have had extramarital affairs? Mark Foley asked an underage kid if he was making him horny. Bill Clinton got a blowjob from an adult. I think any reasonable person can see that these two are wildly different situations.

The question is, how many reasonable people are there? With Fox News doing it's usual spin job for the conservatives, will enough people be outraged by this scandal (in conjunction with all the other shit I listed above) to have an effect on the November election? We all know that there are people so misguided that they would still vote for Mark Foley today as long as he promised to cut their taxes and put another pro-life justice on the court. How many of them are there? I guess we'll find out in November.

Speaking of the Lewinsky scandal, here is a interesting quote given by a GOP Congressman in 1998:

"It's more sad than anything else, to see someone with such potential throw it all down the drain because of a sexual addiction."
-Mark Foley