Stand up, you're rocking the boat
Welcome to New York City. Check your values at the door.It sounds like the subtitle of a sermon at a fundamentalist church, but it's actually the first thought that came to my mind when I read accounts of baseball slugger Carlos Delgado's first meeting with his new employer. Delgado, you see, is one of the vocal critics of the war in Iraq, and in protest, has refused to stand for the playing of "God Bless America" the last two years as a member, first, of the Toronto Blue Jays, and then, of the Florida Marlins. Last week, Delgado was dealt to the New York Mets as part of the Marlins' latest shameful fire sale, and, in a press conference yesterday, said he would follow the Mets' policy of standing for the song, not causing "any distractions for the ballclub."
Eleven months ago, upon his arrival in Miami, Delgado was singing a different tune. "The reason I didn't stand for 'God Bless America' was because I didn't like the way they tied 'God Bless America' and 9-11 to the war in Iraq, in baseball," he said.
Here, here. The slugger is also opposed to the U.S. military's long-time use of his native Puerto Rico and the island of Vieques for biological weapons testing.
Most chilling Monday were the fascist comments made by Mets COO Jeff Wilpon: "He's (Delgado) not going to put himself before the team. So he's going to have his own political views, which he's going to keep to himself."
Brrrrrrr! I don't remember the Mets telling Al Leiter he couldn't campaign publicly for President Bush, or their refusing to sponsor his
"job swap" with an Air Force boom operator. No one in baseball told Curt Schilling or Roger Clemens that they had to keep their political views to themselves. Drayton McLaine(Hou) and Bill DeWitt (StL) are among the large number of franchise owners across the game who were major fundraisers for President Bush. Rafael Palmeiro and Arizona's Luis Gonzalez were among the players who contributed the maximum amount, by law, to the President's 2004 campaign, and both made public appearances on his behalf. An
whopping number of players make
religious gestures
on the field.
As for the issue of team distraction, his Toronto mates accepted his right to express his opinion. In fact, he had explained himself to them and been exercising the protest for a full month before the local newspaper even picked up the story. Fans didn't react until the story reached the New York Times, and Delgado was booed at Yankee Stadium. The burly firstbaseman didn't seem to care. He had donated $50,000 to New York City police and firefighters in the wake of the World Trade Center attack, he stood for the song during the period between 9-11 and the Iraqi invasion, and he's been correct to point out that the playing of the song had disappeared from ballparks early in the 2002 season and didn't return until the bombing of Baghdad began in '03.
The Mets clearly don't care about Delgado's personal beliefs, but it's really dishonest for the brass to pin the issue to fan reaction or the rights of Delgado's teammates to effectively pursue the pennant. This is about the Wilpons' personal beliefs. The family has never had held publicly-political partisans, but Jeff's father, Fred, the Mets' Chairman and CEO, maxed out his personal contributions ($2,000) to Bush/Cheney '04. Jeff has worked closely with the old man. He toiled for the dad's equity company in Manhattan before joining the front office of dad's baseball team. The son's very active-- and nepotistic-- role with the Mets caused Fred's former partner, Nelson Doubleday, to seek Jeff's removal from the field, dugout, and clubhouse in the late 1990s. It eventually contributed to the dissolution of the team partnership.
I sense that yesterday's announcement is the same kind of political grandstanding that the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY engaged in in 2003 when Museum President Dale Petroskey
cancelled a 15th anniversary celebration of the film "Bull Durham" when its stars, Susan Sarandan and Tim Robbins, voiced public opposition to the Iraqi invasion. Naturally, the cancellation was announced just weeks after the museum had welcomed to its convention facility a gathering of the New York State Republican Party, and just a year before and after Petroskey himself contributed financially to partisan political efforts ($300 to House Republican candidate Sherwood Boehlert in both 2002 and 2004.)
In 1996, the NBA suspended Denver Nuggets star Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf without pay for refusing to face the flag during the national anthem because of his self-described "Muslim conscience." His protest was more visible (although equally valid, in my eyes.) He would turn his back from the court and raise his palms to his face, for my-described "solemn religious reflection." Abdul-Rauf believed that the flag and the anthem symbolized tyranny and oppression. The end result of the story was his blacklisting from the league.
There's obviously a legal protection in place for majority-held religious expressions in professional sports. NFL players engage in pre- and post-game prayers. Even public high school and college prayers have only been limited when they've been found to be coupled with "no pray/no play" guidelines, such as those alleged by Memphis State football players in 1984. Shouldn't expressions of a civil and political nature be equally protected by law? They should be-- and are.
Delgado has evidently agreed to this compromise with the Mets, one in which he's the only party asked to compromise, but it sticks in my craw that he seems to have made such a complete about-face in just one year's time. Last winter, when he had the leverage of free agency on his side, he reportedly spurned the Mets after discussing the issue with Wilpon, and then getting an impression during negotiations with GM Omar Minaya that he was only being pursued because of his marketing appeal to Hispanics living in the Big Apple. Now he's been traded (shades of Curt Flood when he fought the Reserve Clause in the early '70s,) and I fear that he feels he needs to make the best of a less than ideal situation. That stinks. His rights never interfered with the rights of his employer or his co-workers, and I hope Jesse Jackson and Ralph Nader will voice their public support for the universalism of Delgado's liberty in the same manner they did for Terrell Owens.
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Speaking of Owens, I hope professional football players realize how rotten their union is. I can understand sports fans cursing the baseball players' guild for its constant stubbornness during labor disputes, but it would be refreshing if the athletes in these other sports realize the sacrifices long-ago baseball players made to achieve the rights they have today.
The latest evidence of a putrid league labor policy is Terrell Owens' benching. Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Specter voiced support for the Eagles' receiver today, but the matter would have to reach the antitrust subcommittee of the Senate Judiciary Committee for him to do anything about it. An independent arbiter has already upheld the penalty as consistent with the labor guidelines.
I've been a critic of Owens, and I admired the Eagles' courage in suspending their disruptive receiver, but suspensions have limitations, and now that Owens has served the league's maximum for his offense, it is downright unfair, even un-American, for the Eagles to deprive the wide receiver of his right to take his services elsewhere, rather than to remain inactive. As Specter points out, Owens hasn't committed a crime, only a breech of contract.
This is just one of the many fiascos caused by the NFL's weak collective bargaining agreement. Veteran players and all of the owners wind up rich, thanks to a lucrative TV deal, so you don't hear many complaints about it, but hundreds of lesser-skilled players are being deprived of their share of the pot while still risking life and limb. Some earn just a few thousand dollars in brief careers, but face high rates of disability and premature death. No NFL contracts are guaranteed, and an immediate end is always one tackle away, so we see a slew of contractual holdouts in training camp each year, leading to poorer play results for teams and fans. The players have to grab
what they can,
while they can, and with just a little bit of luck, they won't become a
Mike Utley or a
Korey Stringer.
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What a day! Baseball, football, and now, basketball.
ESPN.com has assembled their all-time teams for 64 college basketball programs. Aside from the fact that then pitting the assembled teams against one other is really stupid, and that they embarassed themselves by putting Iowa in their NCAA tourney and Iowa State in their NIT, they did a pretty good job. (
Half the NIT bracket could beat that collection of Hawkeye talent.) The Final Four is comprised of Alcindor's UCLA, Jordan's North Carolina, Ewing's Georgetown, and Maravich's LSU. (If I were Kentucky, Indiana, or Kansas, I would be pissed. Kentucky, seeded
eleventh?)
My all-time Cyclones team would be the same as theirs:
Point guard- Jamal Tinsley 1999-2001
Shooting guard- Jeff Hornacek 1983-86
Small forward- Jeff Grayer 1985-88
Power forward- Marcus Fizer 1997-2000
Center- Don Smith 1965?-68
One final note, in case you inspected the lists on-line: I fully respect Smith's right to change his name later in his life to Zaid Abdul-Aziz. I even think it 's cool. But he was Don Smith when he played in Ames. It's political correctness run amuk that Iowa State honors him as Abdul-Aziz in their list of retired numbers. Don Smith was too great a player to be forgotten. UCLA still refers to Kareem as Lew Alcindor. This is because Alcindor, the player, was legendary.
Also, they don't change the name of female basketball stars if they wind up getting married.
Happy days are here again
Rational thought emanated from Ames, IA this afternoon, making state and local headlines. Iowa State University President Greg Geoffroy announced that the school's annual VEISHEA festival will not have any special alcohol restrictions placed upon it, a reversal of a policy in place since 1998 that outlawed all drinking on campus during that weekend, even by students above the legal age. The largest student-run festival in the nation has been marred by violence and riots in recent years. It was cancelled last year in the wake of the latest riot, but is returning in April of '06.
It never made sense to outlaw alcohol on campus during the event, whether it be in the residence halls, or food establishment facilities, such as the Maintanance Shop in the Memorial Union. Put aside for the moment the facts that students are only rebelling for rebellion's sake and that creating this additional rule only creates one more for students to break, the direct consequence has been that parties became fewer, but much larger, and moved off-campus.
I partook of the after hours festivities as a student, drinking underage in violation of the state's-- and the nation's-- archaic alcohol laws-- much as I drive 75 in a 65 mile-per-hour traffic zone, but I was always mildly annoyed that university students couldn't get worked up to protest any issue of more importance than preserving their right to rock and roll all night, and party ev-ah-ree day.
The glorification of youth and a fear of aging are largely accountable for the students' behavior. Fellow alumni and students often point out the coincidence that the riots seem to occur every four years. Not really. Every four years there's an entirely new batch of students on campus (along with them, a new batch of old high school friends from out of town,) and many have it on their life's list of goals to acquire colorful stories for sharing in their golden years-- maybe not stories of having thrown fiery garbage cans into the street, but to have been there when it happened.
My VEISHEA of Wine and Roses was in 1994, near the end of my freshman year. There was no riot and no tear gas that year, but we did lay claim to the one and only murder in festival history-- a nineteen-year-old out-of-towner bludgeoned to death on the front lawn of a fraternity house. My friends and I still talk about it, though I always viewed it as more of a random slaying, along the lines of the double murder at the State Fair in the late '90s. No one thought to cancel the Fair after that crime.
Ames police deserve their share of the blame for past problems. I've never understood why the violations of noise ordinances and underage drinking statutes warranted an attack by tear gas, anyway, but in 2003, for example, police arrived at an off-campus party, already donned in the city's newly-purchased riot gear, and began hosing the crowd with pepper spray before any of the eventual property damage had taken place.
The new policy puts the responsibility of student conduct back where it belongs-- on the shoulders of students. Adult students (meaning those over 21, I guess) will be free to pursue their pastimes, and hopefully, tragic consequences for the rest can be minimized with a few public pleas for safety and respect for public and private property. That's the best we can reasonably hope for until we repeal a law that turns the average American teenager and 20-year-old into a bootlegger and a criminal.
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Baseball's puffed-up steroid scandal is probably the reason that retired players like Kirk Gibson and Roberto Clemente have been on the cover of Wheaties' boxes in recent months. General Mills doesn't want to guess wrong.
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I'll bet Angelina is feeling threatened by Jennifer's new image.
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Quote of the day: FOX Football's Terry Bradshaw, on this week's Monday Night Football game,
"This idea the (unbeaten) Colts need to lose a game so they can concentrate on winning a Super Bowl is like me saying I'll just go ahead and get another divorce so I can focus on my next marriage."
The Song Is You
I missed an important birthday. This past Saturday would have marked the 100th birthday of jazz trombonist and big band leader, Tommy Dorsey, who died suddenly in his sleep in 1956. Dorsey played with all the greats, from Paul Whiteman to Louis Armstrong, and teamed with his brother, Jimmy, to lead the Dorsey Brothers Orchestra in the early '30s. His greatest link to the cosmos, though, would come leading his own band, and hiring away a skinny Italian baritone from the Harry James band in 1939 named Frank Sinatra. The Chairman credited Dorsey's skill with the trombone as the inspiration for his unique breath control, and together, they recorded such World War II classics as "I'll Never Smile Again" and America's definitive interpretation of "I'll Be Seeing You." Sinatra went out on his own-- with some eventual success :) -- in 1943 after a tough but fair negotiation. He
did not wiggle out of the deal in such a manner as Michael Corleone describes in reference to Johnny Fontaine in Mario Puzo's entirely fictitious novel "The Godfather."
Buy
this CD.
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My time-consuming defense this week of the United States' illegally-detained and tortured free range turkeys is going to mean a premature end to holiday blogging. I leave you with the best known words of minister John Bunyan's 1678 prayer,
The Pilgrim's Progress:
A man there was,
Tho' some did count him mad
The more he cast away
The more he had
Employment update- Temping across the heartland
I'm been working in the ceramic tile trade for the last week, having found temporary, but gainful and honest employment up until the Thanksgiving holiday at the knee of a skilled tile craftsman- my father. We've been building a shower in an interesting farm house near Iowa City, IA, not far from the Herbert Hoover Presidential Museum (and Library?) in West Branch.
The woman who lives in the house had a book on her end table about the Underground Railroad, and I got to thinking about how I could have almost guessed that she would be interested in that topic just from the other clues I had collected snooping around the house. She works in a public advocacy position (small claims consultant or some such) and she lives in a generations old farm house with a cluttered basement and her husband's modern art work adorning the walls.
Would others be able to deduce my reading list based on some simple knowledge of my work experience and a handful of vital statistics? During my work "vacation," I've been reading a biography of 1930s populist politician, Huey Long, and I like to flatter myself that people could guess it (I've become a big fan,) but deep down, I think we all fear that we're one of Jerry Lewis' autobiographies.
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Last week, the National Toy Hall of Fame-- ?-- added the cardboard box to its list of enshrined items, joining other such items as Barbie, Lincoln Logs, and Play-Doh. "It's that empty box full of possibilities that the kids can sense and the adults don't always see," said museum curator Christopher Bensch. Not to mention a cost-effective way for the unemployed to Christmas shop for their baby siblings.
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I'm really in the dumper about "Arrested Development"'s diminished episode order and inevitable cancellation. I feel like giving up on network television completely. It's not that "Arrested" is the only good show on the big four networks. Then again, it might be. I just can't deal with being jerked around anymore. The show has been in a different time slot each of its three years. This year it moved to Monday at 7 pm central- a most ridiculously inopportune time for me, as well as the majority of the show's potential-- younger skewing-- fans. If I miss an episode, which, by the way, I haven't, I have no chance of seeing it again until that season's DVD is released. My anger is now getting occasionally misplaced as well. I found myself cursing Ron Howard and the show's entire production team recently for having sold the show to FOX to begin with. If "Arrested" had debuted on HBO or Showtime, I'm convinced that it would have been a gigantic hit by those networks' relative standards. Full season episode orders would be assured, at the very least, and you could watch any given episode at four or five different times during the week, beginning with a consistent slot on Sunday nights. Why bother anymore with the fossil networks? I deserve as much from my television as I put into it.
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Iraqi leaders in the Arab League-- Sunnis, Shiites,
and Kurds-- are now calling for a timetable for U.S. military withdrawal. What more are we waiting for?
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Finally, Happy 85th Birthday to baseball legend Stan Musial. Long before The Great Pujols reigned from his Redbird perch high atop the National League, or had become universally regarded as "El Gringo,"
Stan was "
The Man."
Musial's presence was low-key at recent Busch Stadium retirement festivities because his salad days preceeded the ballpark, but I was thrilled to see Stosh pull off his old uniform number (6) in mid-September as part of the great stadium countdown. His health has had its ups and downs (as has each of ours,) but he was still quite spry, to my observance, as he leaped from a speeding golf cart that day to fulfill his duty along the outfield wall-- and from the side of Lillian, his blushing bride of more than 65 years.
My favorite Musial story involves Lil. They each have told the tale of how the affable Stan-- the
Andy Taylor of baseball-- once had particular difficulty denying the request of one of his many legions of fans. On this evening, the swarm of admirers grew too aggressive, and a fan carelessly knocked Lil to the ground. She stood up and angrily pushed the fan in retaliation, shouting, "What did you do that for?" Later, when the Musials were alone, Stan admonished his wife, "You shouldn't have done that. That was my fan!"
Stan was the ultimate player for the fans. I attained his autograph in 1996 at the Iowa State Capitol when he was an honored guest of the Governor. Knowing the preceeding story, I got a boot out of the way he signed the card-- "To Chris,
A Great Fan."This is what I believe to be a biographical account of Stan's fabulous career, published in the Musial family's native language of Polish. And if that irons your shorts, take a look at
this list of the honored guests at 2002's White House State Dinner for the touring President of Poland. Mike Krzyzewski was invited, too!
Happy Birthday, Mr. Musial-- and please accept this fondest wish-- from just one of your many fans-- for 85
more wonderful summers.
Stanowi Musialowi, the Greatest Cardinal of Them All!
Headliners and Meatheads
Movie producer, activist, and parent Rob Reiner has the ball rolling on a June 2006 ballot initiative in California that should have little trouble passing. Every four-year-old in that state would be guaranteed free enrollment in any public or private preschool that met quality standards. Preschool for all would be funded by a 1.7% tax increase (9.3% to 11%) on the top 1 percent of wage earners in the state-- individuals making more than $400 thousand; couples making above $800 thousand. The numbers are staggering. That modest tax hike, in California alone, would generate $2.3 billion annually. Reiner estimates the average effected taxpayer would ante up $8,700 more per year after factoring in tax deductions. That same person received a $76,000 tax cut from President Bush.
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It's not too late to get your name on Bill O'Reilly's political blacklist. Add it
here.
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Roger Ebert and Oprah-- on a date!
It happened.---
Old feuds never seem to die in the NFL, and I never cease to be amazed at their pettiness. The still-classic example is the league's current ban on "team celebrations" passed in 2000, specifically geared at eliminating the St. Louis Rams' "Bob and Weave" endzone scrum. It fits, of course, that a league that tolerates the ridiculous, often prop-enhanced, antics of Terrell Owens, Chad Johnson, and Randy Moss would draw the line at teammates dancing in a circle. Of course, the three coaches who served on the Rules Committee in 2000 were the Vikings' Dennis Green, the Buccaneers' Tony Dungy, and the Titans' Jeff Fisher; and the three teams the Rams beat in the previous post-season? The Vikings, Buccaneers, and Titans.
Now, Commissioner Tagliabue has awarded a Super Bowl to Kansas City, contingent on the building of a roof over Arrowhead Stadium. Doesn't Tagliabue know that St. Louis, on the opposite coast of Missouri, already has a domed stadium, one that has housed major college and professional football conference championships and the Final Four? Think maybe he still grinds an axe against Georgia Frontiere and the Rams for relocating to St. Louis from Los Angeles a decade ago?
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Upon the release of the new Johnny Cash film bio, "Walk the Line," the Village Voice has republished its Cash
obit from 2003.
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TBS's "Earth to America" comedy special airs at 7pm central Sunday night. It features Larry David, Will Ferrell, Jack Black, Steve Martin, and Triumph the Insult Comic Dog. Check it out.
Democracy pandemic in Congress
On Friday night-- after two and a half long and devastating years-- an implosion of the warmongering United States Congress began. Angry Democrats, galvanized by Thursday's stunning Iraq withdrawal proposal by ex-Marine and ex-hawk John Murtha (D-PA,) stood in almost united, oratory defiance of the illegal, immoral, falsely-advertised, mishandled, and now seemingly uncharted war in Iraq, just as the embattled Republican House leadership surrendered almost complete strategic control of its caucus.
Representative Jean Schmidt (R-PA,) the most junior member of the Congress, infuriated the Democrats by telling of a phone call she'd just received from a serviceman in her district, with the message, "Send Congressman Murtha a message: that cowards cut and run, Marines never do." Democrats protested loudly, and Rep. Harold Ford of Tennessee had to be restrained from charging across the chamber's center aisle.
Shortly thereafter, Republicans definitively overplayed their hand- executing a vote on a symbolic alternative to Murtha's resolution, one that re-worded the Congressman's call for military withdrawal, distorting his intent (i.e.- a thoughtful, six month withdrawal,) attempting to force Democrats into an unappealing political position before ultimately failing.
Damage done.
The Republicans can't help themselves. As they did with Super-activist Cindy Sheehan earlier this year, attempts at demonization only led to lionization. They took a forthright and respect-worthy American, in both cases, and, inadvertently, vaulted him or her into a position of high-profile public opposition to the war. Progressives couldn't handpick better spokespersons for this cause than Sheehan and Murtha. One is a passionate Gold Star parent, the other, a decorated war hero tight with the Pentagon.
The Republicans' alternate resolution arrived at a recorded vote just after eleven o'clock, Washington time. It was preceeded by a couple hours of debate on the merits of the resolution, then an additional hour on the resolution itself-- an hour in which Murtha defended his original proposal, and neither side put forward either a minority or a female speaker-- or for that matter, I think, even a speaker who had failed to serve in the military. (Didn't the Founding Fathers specify armed services led by a civilian? But I digress.)
By intention, the measure failed overwhelmingly, although three courageous lawmakers-- Jose Serrano (NY,) Robert Wexler (FL,) and Cynthia McKinney (GA)-- voted for withdrawal, while another six voted 'present,' presumably to deprive Republicans some satisfaction from their grandstanding stunt.
The hawks are beginning to feel the heat of a developing groundswell. The death toll in Iraq- Americans alone- stands at over 2,000; the cost tops $200 billion; and each and every member of the House stands for re-election within 12 months.
Congressional Democrats need to continue pushing for accountability on the part of the executive branch, and they need to continue to put forth their own time tables for military withdrawal. We need them to publicly condemn the cowards in their ranks, such as Rahm Emmanuel of Virginia, who said Thursday that Rep. Murtha "went out and spoke for John Murtha," then added, "At the right time, (Democrats) will have a position" on withdrawal.
All Congressional representatives need to be reminded of the catalytic role that the activists, bloggers, marchers, and angry military families played in propelling this nation towards its call for peace,
and the level of power that that loose coalition still wields. We've been winning the debate for withdrawal throughout America, and now that it seems that they're determined to have that same debate in Congress, we can win it there, too.
Either you know it or you don't
RIP, Arrested Development.
He got it!
Albert Pujols is your National League MVP- the first Cardinals player in 20 years!
Here's how fans across America would have voted.
It's great to live in a green state.
Christmas is coming...
Don't know what to buy for that special blogger in your life? Check
here.
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I went to the Iowa State football game in Ames, IA on Saturday night. You might have read about it. A tornado caused the evacuation of the stadium,and destroyed about sixty homes in a neighboring town, killing an elderly woman. My friend and I ducked the storm admirably. We had not been tailgating early in the day, and we were enjoying Jimmy John's sub sandwiches during the 45 minutes or so when the threat rolled through. Seeing a cyclone on your way to an Iowa State game ranks somewhere between seeing a cardinal on your way to a St. Louis game and seeing a wolverine on your way to a Michigan game.
One thrill-seeker with a camcorder captured the tornado on tape in the badly-damaged town of Stratford. He's lucky he didn't get a street light stuck through his abdomen. I have now seen his video on all four of the local news stations, CNN, Keith Olbermann on MSNBC, and The Weather Channel. Now I don't fault the guy too much for his storm spotting and his disobedience towards the safety experts at the National Weather Service. It's human nature, perhaps even a protective nature, to want to know where the storm is and what it's doing. I roll my eyes, though, when I listen to the news anchors issue their liability warning-
We don't recommend that you do this... - just before or after they air the video.
Regular readers know that I will attempt to make any issue apply to baseball and steroids, and that's what I'm going to do now: The media is so quick to pass judgement on people just as they cash in the story themselves. Lives may be lost by failing to heed safety warnings, but here's the amateur video we attained that was collected in just that manner, and, by the way, it's just in time for November sweeps. The television news director is not going to reject that juicy weather video anymore than a hypocrite sportswriter like Mike Lupica will give back the money he made on his book,
Summer of '98.
The clever-est of the jackal pack
George Clooney's new film, "Good Night, and Good Luck," about the mid-1950s showdown between CBS news reporter Edward R. Murrow and Senator Joseph McCarthy has a quiet power and is compelling from start to finish. It's a bio-pic of sorts, but one that is limited to a time and place. It's not the "Great Man"-style biography that attempts to capsulize an entire life, or searches for formative occurrences in its subject's childhood.
Clooney-- box office idol-turned-producer/director-- has vowed to begin a series of socially- and politically-relevant films, and this, the first picture, indicates that the coming productions will be those of Clooney's specific vision-- independent film in the purest sense. Clooney has enlisted wealthy patrons who share his worldview to help finance the films, which is why you see fellow filmmaker Steven Soderbergh and Dallas Mavericks' owner Mark Cuban listed among the "Good Night" producers. Clooney also grew up the son of 1950s and 60s Cincinnati television broadcaster Nick Clooney so he has a true affinity for the journalistic heroes of that time and of this film.
"Good Night" is very romantic, shot in glorious black and white-- romantic in style and romantic about that entire era of a more principled journalism. Though his moral thesis is accurate, the film is not the indictment of the modern era that I expected to be, nor the one that many critics have accused it of being. It's sophisticated enough to know that quality journalism is not about objectivity, it's about fairness and occasionally having to advocate for a side of the story that's not being advocated. The factors that stifle the news gathering and reporting process today also stifled it then. After watching the film, one gets a fuller impression of Clooney's antagonistic relationship with Bill O'Reilly. He doesn't begrudge the broadcaster his right to muckrake, only his tendency to back the powerful over the powerless.
Senator Joseph McCarthy is too easy a mark for Clooney's journalistic indignations, say some critics, so it's worth pointing out the revisionist public support the red-baiter has received since the debut of this film. One of the Senator's vocal supporters at the time, cited in the film, was William F. Buckley, who is still the editor of perhaps the most influential right-wing periodical in the country,
The National Review, and
U.S. Representative Steve King of Iowa recently called McCarthy a national hero.
Clooney made a wise decision not to cast the part of McCarthy. While other players in the drama, such as CBS President William Paley and Murrow producer Fred Friendly appear opposite the almost-fabled newsman (Clooney portrays Friendly,) McCarthy is seen only in actual film footage of the era. This was wise because any remotely accurate portrayal of the rampaging McCarthy would have been universally judged as over-the-top. In either event, McCarthy is not the real antagonist of the film. The real enemy is censorship. Alcoa, the sponsor of Murrow's program, "See It Now," had major military holdings, and McCarthy's investigation into Communist "infiltration," at that particular time, targeted, not Hollywood or any radical political organization, but, specifically, the United States Army. Paley also feared the loss of network affiliates still in their infancies, and the loss of broadcasting licenses approved through Congress.
Although other reporters were also standing up to McCarthy by the Spring of 1954, Clooney has chosen to focus his narrative specifically on Murrow and the team at CBS. It
was Murrow, after all, who drew the Senator onto national television for a direct rebuttal in front of the American people. In the rebuttal, which appears in its entirety in the film, McCarthy singles out Murrow as "the clever-est of the jackal pack," before questioning the newsman's patriotism, and falsely linking him, years before, to the socialist organization, the International Workers of the World.
I love movies that have the courage to go without music. In "Good Night, and Good Luck" (which, incidentally, was Murrow's standard broadcast endphrase,) there are just a few interludes of jazz music (performed by vocalist Dianne Reeves.) They never track over the Murrow telecasts, however, which is where the real power of the film lies. David Strathairn is an uncanny double for Murrow, despite the fact that I can detect no additional makeup or prosthetic having been added since the actor appeared as Carmela Soprano's paramour in the fifth and most recent season of "The Sopranos." As Murrow, Strathairn's news reports and editorials delivered directly, and with great command, into the eye of the CBS camera are mesmerizing. Clooney and Strathairn have stripped Murrow's craft and this mission down to their barest essentials. It's a captivating and resonant film.
Run back to the movement, Jesse
Jesse Jackson is speaking out on behalf of Terrell Owens, and I shudder at the hideous plummet into irrelevance of one of our once-great public advocates. One of our great fighters for economic empowerment now stands beside a spoiled, selfish athlete who has never used his own privileged public platform for anything more than the re-negotiation of his multi-million dollar contracts. As one black columnist already put it months ago, "Jesse has gone from 'Keep hope alive' to 'Keep the cameras rolling.'"
Over the course of almost two decades since his strongest bid for the White House in 1988, Jackson has morphed from a progressive social activist into a surprisingly conservative shill for traditional and so-called "family values," an opportunist as likely to offer a scathing critique of ghetto culture as he is to ally with phony populist, pro-war Democrats like Bill and Hillary Clinton, Al Gore, and John Kerry. His political organizations, the Rainbow Coalition and Operation PUSH, have remained firmly entrenched behind the corporate-owned Democratic party despite numerous betrayals dating even further back than Bill Clinton's
direct slap at Jackson-- the politically-calculated and callous welfare reform legislation signed into law just before the 1996 election. The party, in return for Jackson's support, effectively marginalized him.
True Progressives could just shake their heads with disbelief this past March when Jackson protested, along with Rick Santorum and Tom DeLay, outside a Florida hospital in which Michael Schiavo attempted to give his brain-dead wife a dignified death.
My heart sank the deepest for Jackson's legacy this summer when I read, in an
Esquire profile, that Jackson was betraying even the cause of Civil Rights in his latest stump speeches. The Reverend can easily muster the courage to champion the liberties of Terrell Owens and Michael Jackson, but he apparently draws the line with gays and lesbians when he feels it necessary to incite and mobilize a gathering of bigoted minorities. "How many of you knew someone at your church who got married to someone of the same sex? Raise your hands," he demanded to know of his summer audiences, who were often rural and Southern. No hands would go up. "How did that get in the middle of our agenda? Where did that come from? That's somebody else's agenda giving us some false sense of morality when we need
jobs. Say jobs!"
False sense of morality? It speaks to an inherent- and in many ways, tragic- consequence of a movement for Civil Rights married for decades to the church. Progressive faiths infused feelings of moral strength into the cause, along with the empowerment that comes from the promise of everlasting salvation through the pursuit of justice, but that same faith now also offers extreme paralysis and polarization to an increasingly-demoralized movement.
Jackson has lost his compass. If he can see a public relevance to removing a work-related suspension of a high-profile and wealthy professional athlete, than he has to see the even more relevant and far-reaching implications of recognizing and respecting same-sex rights. And if he wants to put himself back on the frontline of the battle for
racial and
economic justice, he should bail out of the corporate suite used today in Philadelphia and set up semi-permanent residence in New Orleans or Biloxi.
The War to end all Wars
I will come to a time in my backwards trip when November 11th, actually my birthday, was a sacred day called Armistice Day. When I was a boy, and when Dwayne Hoover was a boy, all the people of all the nations which had fought in the First World War were silent during the 11th minute of the 11th hour of Armistice Day, which was the 11th day of the 11th month.
It was during that minute in nineteen hundred and eighteen, that millions upon millions of people stopped butchering one another. I have talked to old men who were on battlefields during that minute. They have told me in one way or another that the sudden silence was the Voice of God. So we still have among us some men who can remember when God spoke clearly to mankind.
Armistice Day has become Veterans' Day. Armistice Day was sacred. Veterans' Day is not. So I will throw Veterans' Day over my shoulder. Armistice Day I will keep. I don't want to throw away any sacred things.
What else is sacred? Oh, Romeo and Juliet, for instance.
And all music is.
Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.,
from "Breakfast of Champions"
Moeller TV Listings 11/11/05
I shit you not. Tonight on "Dateline NBC" -- The Birth of Jesus. "The story you thought you knew."
Are the "Girlie-men" fighting back?
Arnold Schwarzenneger still has trouble avoiding references to his film career, but he's now starting to express
some major regrets about ever seeking the Governorship of California.
I never opposed the special election of 2003, even though it was engineered by high-powered, low-principled political operatives. The result, it seemed, was an accidental outbreak of democracy and representative accountability.
But Golden State residents should have backed
Arianna.
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Another safeguard against American-applied torture is being peeled away. The U.S. Senate voted Thursday to strip "enemy combatants" of their right to challenge their detention in U.S. courts through lawsuits. If the move is approved by the House, the law would nullify a 2004 Supreme Court decision, as well as deny GitMo inmates access to any federal court to challenge the rationale for their detention. (Who needs checks and balances when you have the frathouse fun of Abu Ghraib?)
The vote passed the Senate 49-42, due specifically to the support of five Democrats. They are: Mary Landrieu (LA), Ben Nelson (NE), Kent Conrad (ND), Ron Wyden (OR), and Joe Lieberman (CT).
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Enjoy
this dissection of the comedy and First Amendment heroism of Sarah Silverman. Funny lady, as that baffoon Larry King would say.
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Three cheers for Chris Carpenter, 2005 National League Cy Young winner! (Applause break.) Chris becomes the first Cardinal to win since Bob Gibson in 1970, and by my count, the first National Leaguer, at least, to win it pitching with a reconstructed shoulder.
Two other elements about the voting please me: 1) Voters presumably accounted for the fact that Carpenter had gone 18 consecutive starts without losing, and his team had won the last 17 of his starts at the time they clinched the division. His last four starts in September were meaningless. For once, the watered down Wild Card playoff system didn't bite the Cardinals in the ass. 2) Someone... anyone... on the Cardinals has been rewarded for the fact that the team has won 205 regular season games over the last two years. Tony LaRussa's apparently not the reason. Albert Pujols? We'll find out next week.
I love the '80s
What's your favorite era of "Saturday Night Live?"
TV Squad has conveniently divided the show's history into seven distinct periods. I quibble a little towards the end- I would classify the first two years of the current era as among the cream of the crop, but the last couple years have been in the toilet.
Here's my ranking based on their list...
1) Carvey/Lovitz/Miller/Hartman/Myers (1986-91)
Is it just the fond remembrances of youth? Even the Victoria Jacksons and Kevin Nealons were knockouts. They had it all- every personality was distinct.
2) The present cast (2002- )
Overlooked because the women are dominant- Tina Fey, Rachel Dratch, Maya Rudolph in full flower.
3) Will Ferrell/Cheri Oteri (1995-2001)
Ferrell combined Carvey's energy with Hartman's versatility, but this cast had too many recurring characters (cheerleaders, etc.)
4) Billy Crystal/Martin Short/Christopher Guest (1984-85)
Doesn't even seem like SNL now, with all the video segments. Brilliant cast, good season, but too short-lived.
5) The original cast (1975-80)
Deserves points for setting the early pace, but I've always felt that the show's ascension was not as revolutionary as Baby Boomers would have us believe. And this stuff's simply not funny anymore. Maybe I should try acid.
6) Eddie Murphy/Joe Piscopo (1981-84)
Ugly.
7) Sandler/Spade/Farley (1991-95)
Cringe-inducing.
Saturday Night Live- The Junior High Edition.
Road blogging
I'm blogging to you today from my parents' home in Iowa City, IA where I will be dog-sitting for the balance of the week. It will not be long-term employment, but expenses are covered.
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I was googling Frank Sinatra's first wife, Nancy-- that sounds dirty-- to check on her age and health status when I came across
this interesting collection of celebrity wills.
If you're a Sinatra fan like me, but want to cut to the chase,
here's E! Online's summary of the document, and some added context, from 1998.
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A key spending bill will reach the House floor as early as Friday. The measure would reduce Medicaid spending by $11.9 billion, cut child support programs by $4.9 billion, and make $844 million in cuts to projected food stamp spending. It also includes the much-discussed provision that would open up oil drilling in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi has said she expects all 202 House Democratics to vote against these targeted GOP budget cuts. So do I.
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Big Oil's corporate chiefs were called before a Congressional committee today to explain the industry's record 3rd Quarter profits and the fact that, as Sen. Barbara Boxer points out, executives are reaping multi-million dollar bonuses on top of multi-million dollar salaries as "working people struggle"' to pay for gasoline and home heating. What did the executives have to say for themselves and their companies?
Who cares? The Republicans saw to it that they didn't have to take an oath. Apparently, what's good even for Mark McGwire, Rafael Palmeiro, and Curt Schilling is not good for the leaders of the nation's energy cartel. Shouldn't these executives
want to be placed under oath?
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HBO has announced it will go three months without original programming between the December 4th season finale of "Curb Your Enthusiasm," and the new season debuts in March of "The Sopranos" and "Deadwood." Scheduling concerns involving the Winter Olympics and the Sunday night awards show season are listed as the key reasons. The return of "Entourage" and the debut of two new series are scheduled for June, "The Wire" returns in September, and Season 6, Part 2 of "The Sopranos" airs beginning in January 2007.
Here's a picture of the smokin' babes of "Deadwood" and a link to some of the show's press clippings to hold you over until winter.
The people's priorities
According to a new
poll, "eliminating poverty" is more important to most Americans than "fighting terrorism" or "establishing democracies" in the Middle East. You'd never guess it if you listened to our politicians.
It's surely safe to assume that the recent Hurricane Katrina disaster helped draw pollees' attention to the issue of widespread poverty, but disaster victims make up just a small percentage of the more than 37 million Americans living below the poverty line, according to the U.S. Census.
The best news contained in the New American Media poll is the evidence of a strong national concensus that something should be done about it. Even two-thirds of
whites-- a more conservative majority-- agree with the statement that government "should do everything in its power to eliminate poverty."
The best news
not contained in the poll is that something
can be done about it. We are still the wealthiest nation in the world, with high per capita productivity and an abundance of food, technology and capital.
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Are you an
old school sports fan like author and
Esquire contributor
Chuck Klosterman?
---
I'm a passionate St. Louis Cardinals fan, but I have no use for the
stadium urinal used by the players.
I should say I have no
need for it. I have a biological
use for it.---
I participated in an on-line vote for the LA Times earlier today, but I don't know what exactly to make of the results:
Q: Do you believe female members of the group Breasts Not Bombs (in action today in Sacramento, CA) should be allowed to go topless in public protests?
49.0% (10314 responses) - Yes, it's free expression
51.0% (10755 responses) - No, it's offensive
Today's random thoughts
--- Americans should be paying close attention to the unrest in France. The violence and widespread material destruction was born of the neglect of the immigrant communities and the
lack of hope therein.
--- My long-awaited hope for a Warren Beatty political career appears to be becoming
a reality.
--- The
first wrecking ball hit Busch Stadium this afternoon at 3:08 cst.
-- What was it the NFL said a couple years ago about the accuracy of the ESPN TV series, "Playmakers?" I can't speak directly to the show's depictions of brawling, greed, sex, and general debauchery, but based on the stories we've read about the league the last couple of weeks, I find it difficult to believe basic cable could have done justice to the reality.
--- Enough about Terrell Owens. The guy hasn't finished in the top 10 in receiving yards in at least three years, and his team marched through the playoffs last year without him. Shed no tears for the Philadelphia Eagles, either. They knew what they were getting into when they signed him, and they play in front of sports' most vulgar and despicable fans. This was the extraction of a tumor from the anus of the National Football League.
--- Thanks to all who ventured out this weekend for the Moeller Television Festival. A good time was had by some, and reports of an E. Coli outbreak have yet to surface.
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Hijacked joke of the day: What's the difference between a drunk and an alcoholic? A drunk doesn't have to go to all those damn meetings.
Bush v. Geneva Convention
I'm having difficulty connecting the dots here. Upon public disclosure that the CIA is operating secret prisons for suspected al Qaeda operatives in Eastern Europe, President Bush said today that the U.S. does not engage in torture. Yet, his administration continues to threaten a veto of John McCain's Senate bill that would specifically ban the practice already forbidden by international law under the 1949 Geneva Convention. McCain's bill passed the Republican-controlled Senate by a vote of 90 to 9, but the White House seeks an exemption in the ban for CIA officials. Hmmmm.
In the coming weeks, Bush attorneys will also defend, before the Supreme Court, the Administration's policy of using military tribunals, rather than U.S. or international courts, to try terror suspects. The terms and conditions of the tribunals are fully subject to the whims of the President, with death sentences possible. The challenge to the policy is being brought by attorneys representing inmates at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba-- inmates who were initially
denied the rights to an attorney and to challenge their imprisonment, and one specifically who has been imprisoned without a hearing for 21 months.
Speaking in Panama City this morning, in the midst of large scale protest demonstrations over this and other issues related to the U.S. President's abuse of wartime powers, Bush promised that "we will aggressively pursue (the enemy,) but we will do so under the law." And yet simultaneously, and also quite aggressively, he pursues the dismantling of such human rights guidelines.
Retiring Supreme Court Justice-- and Reagan appointee, Sandra Day O'Connor, wrote in response to an early round "enemy combatant" case last year that "a state of war is not a blank check when it comes to protecting the rights of the nation's citizens." I would add that this protection should extend to foreign citizens, as well, consistent with the international laws that the U.S., itself, was instrumental in creating, and that the people's representatives in Congress have recently and overwhelmingly endorsed.
It's hard to believe that the American people are even having to discuss this.
MoDo
Is that a Pulitzer in my pocket, or am I in love?
The link.
Coming soon to a blog near you
Do you like your news delivered by a cartoon character? No, not Geraldo Rivera. I'm talking about a literally-animated news anchor. If you do, check out WHO-TV anchor and Sherman Hill, Des Moines neighbor Erin Kiernan on
www.whotv.com. The clever cats at 1801 Grand have found a unique way to work around the no-compete clause in Kiernan's contract that will keep the former KCCI-TV- Des Moines reporter-- and wife of Councilman Mike Kiernan-- off your television set for another 7 months. Too gimmicky? Nah.
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If the steroid-obsessed Congress insists on keeping Major League Baseball's feet to the P.R. fire, we would all be better served if they focused on
this issue.
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Schools are finally reaching their boiling point with prom night misbehavior, and
Slate has the story. Why didn't I know about "Captain Jim's booze-cruise" when I was in school?
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Chicago Sun-Times sports columnist Greg Couch believes Rafael Furcal would have a
unique, yet all too familiar problem if he signs a free agent deal with the Cubs.
And I ask again, why will no one share the juicy details of "Kyle Farnsworth's nightlife?"
That sleeping giant to your left
Democrats are on the offensive this week in Congress, where they've grabbed control of the Senate and forced a closed session on the Bush Administration's handling of intelligence before the war in Iraq. It was a desperate, petulant maneuver that was as long overdue as it was highly effective, as Republicans promised to speed up the official inquiry yesterday.
What continues to pain me, however, is the overriding belief in some Democratic circles that weapons and terrorism exaggerations, coupled with White House obstructions and perjury, should provide enough political shelter for Senate Democrats who initially voted in favor of the war. This is absolutely not the case.
War has not been sanctioned by Congress, as required by Constitutional law, since December of 1941. So by turning over military authority to the President, as they did by roll call vote in 2003, Senate Democrats made themselves jointly responsible for this fiasco in Iraq. They knew the implication of their vote going in. The war lingers on-- with undocumented progress and mounting casualties. A firm majority of Americans now oppose our involvement in it. Yet, to my knowledge, only Sen. Russ Feingold of Wisconsin has laid out a specific time table for U.S. withdrawal.
In a leadership role, Harry Reid deserves a modicum of credit for thumbing his nose at parliamentary procedure and finally displaying public distrust towards his Republican colleagues-- and in a way that his predecessor, Tom Daschle, never did. But where are the admissions of culpability by Presidential aspirants on the Democratic side of the aisle, especially by party standard-bearers like John Kerry, who still says he would have voted for the war (and who, not coincidentally, would still lose an election to the President-- only this time with Bush's approval rating having sunk below 40 percent,) or Hillary Clinton, who's hiding from the entire debate like a sniveling coward.
Ms. Clinton is going to find she has a major problem on her hands in 2008 if she stays the course of her campaign strategy, which is to blame and deflect responsibility. That problem will be anti-war superstar Cindy Sheehan, who stands to cut directly into Clinton's base support, and who has vowed to never again support a pro-war Democrat. She has already
described Clinton as "a political animal who believes she has to be a war hawk to keep up with the big boys."
Millions of uncommitted voters and millions more
uninspired voters are expecting to hear the same two sets of empty promises in 2006, but before then, they're looking for something more defiant than the cave-ins on the war or recent economic bills like bankruptcy "reform." Surprise them. Bush and the Republican Congress have been faltering. They're bungling natural disasters, dodging indictments, and fighting amongst themselves. Yet, there's no indication from recent polls that Democrats are benefiting from their opponents' malaise. This is because the Dems have yet to learn the most important lesson of campaigning-- voters
cannot be fooled or underestimated. I've heard dozens of Democrats-- elected officials and voters both-- who say that they hold America's mainstream values, but that the party does a lousy job of explaining what those values are. Wrong. Americans know what the Democrats stand for, and they refuse to be fooled by words that don't match behavior. They want the action, and they want it born of conscience and courage.
The Bluth Company Newsletter
Production of "Arrested Development" has recently shut down again, this time due to leading man Jason Bateman's surgery to remove a benign polyp from his throat. The show will go on temporary hiatus, but ultimately return, according to the show's creator. I thought they were on hiatus already. FOX hasn't aired a new episode since October 3rd. Like a certain professional football team that I root for, and its head coach, it's also conceivable that a health scare could serve as an excuse to cut ties.
The show is scheduled to run on Monday nights throughout November, with finished episodes already in the can. Meanwhile, non-fans like
these are starting to backlash against the constant demands of Arrested fans that they patronize and support the show. I even read a political pundit last week who linked America's "rejection" of this show to a rejection of Hollywood's elitist worldview and its mocking of family values. Everybody's got an agenda to push.
Frankly, I don't care if your taste runs to the traditional television form or the revolutionary shows for "snobs." I will say this, though. It reminds me of the reader who wrote to Roger Ebert's "Movie Answer Man" last year and chided him for always praising black and white movies, which the reader viewed as evidence of the critic's pretentiousness. Ebert's response: Who's more pretentious, a person who watches all movies, or one who only watches those in color?
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"Curb Your Enthusiasm's" Susie Essman appears on Conan O'Brien Tuesday night. Her character, Susie Green, just started an
advice column on hbo.com.
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Quote of the day: D.L . Hughley on "the Daily Show," discussing outed spy Valerie Plame--
If your wife was a CIA agent, that would be the coolest thing in the world-- she could never talk about work.
