The Festival Schedule
The 7th Annual Moeller Television Festival commences at noonish, Saturday, November 22nd, at my residence: 700 15th St. #6, Des Moines, IA 50314. All are invited. Food and drink will be provided, as well as free off-street parking. With all in agreement, a Lou Rawls compilation CD I just purchased will provide auditory atmosphere during the scheduled screening breaks and discussion periods. "Open Remote" slots are still available for
your programming suggestions. Please send these, as well as your requested RSVPs to
christophermmoeller@msn.com and/or
atmoeller@hotmail.com.
The following is this year's screening schedule. Please disregard the previously-posted hints in reference to content. A number of editorial changes and thumb-wrestling matches followed the original posting...
"Episode 9" Extras #9 9/28/06
"The Life of Jack Benny" The Jack Benny Program #36 11/28/54
Open Remote
"The Best of Triumph the Insult Comic Dog" Late Night with Conan O'Brien ('90s-'00s)
"Mister Emily Hartley" The Bob Newhart Show #32 11/3/73
"I Enjoy Being A Guy" Newhart #22 4/10/83
"Happy Anniversary" The Cosby Show #27 10/10/85
"Chevy Chase/Billy Joel" Saturday Night Live #58 2/18/78
"Greenzo" 30 Rock #26 11/8/07
Sad clown
It's a shame Major League Baseball has surrendered its public relations operation to Fox Television and ESPN because they're delivering a great product this post-season. What a marvelous World Series matchup between two teams that are not the New York Yankees or Boston Red Sox.
I'm not sure America realizes the extraordinary spectacle they're witnessing. The Philadelphia Phillies, 9 outs away from a world championship as I write this, have been in the National League since 1883. They won 17 of 98 games that first year, and it was downhill after that. They've managed five league pennants, but only one World Series Championship. That was in 1980, when they became the last of the original 16 American or National League teams to claim a title. Last summer, the franchise became the first in the history of the world in any sport to lose 10,000 games.
Across the infield from the Phillies are the Tampa Bay Rays, who averaged 97 losses a season over their first ten years of existence entering this year, but in 2008, lost just 65. In 2006, only two years ago, they were zombies, going 3-33 on the road after July 1st. They have still never had a pitcher win 14 games in a single season. But in one year, their bullpen went from having the worst earned-run average in the majors in 50 years to the fourth lowest batting average allowed this century.
We're experiencing another golden age for parity in baseball, mirroring the 1980s, but Major League Baseball hasn't been tending its garden in public relations. They've marketed maybe 7 of their 30 teams to a national public, and since none of those seven made it to the World Series this year, nobody's there to watch. Have you seen the credit card commercials? It's merchandise only for the Yankees, Red Sox, Cubs, Cardinals, Dodgers, Giants, and the Mets. This is typical. Fox promotes only its favorites for its game broadcasts, and ESPN's Sportscenter is an unmitigated disaster in the way it reports on everything baseball through the prism of the Yankees/Red Sox rivalry. The NFL never, ever has this problem. They have no small markets, no neglected franchises, and, it also seems, no business recessions.
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Is it really the best idea to let fans do the voting on
this?
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Sad clown: New York Magazine has
an interview with the talented and underappreciated Tracy Morgan.
The family hustle
"It's bizarro-world Marxism, where workers own the banks until they are restored to profitability. Socialize debt and privatize profit: call it the Paulson doctrine"-- sportswriter Dave Zirin, yesterday.
It turns out that Henry Paulson, United States Treasury Secretary and author of the recent $700 billion taxpayer bailout of Wall Street, has a son who doesn't fall far from the family grifting tree. Thirty-five-year-old Merritt owns the Portland (Ore.) Beavers, a minor-league baseball team, as well as the local MLS soccer team. He
just finished pushing for $85 million in taxpayer money for both a stadium upgrade (for soccer) and a new ballpark (for baseball) in his home city. This is despite the fact that his old man, the minority owner of the franchise, is worth $700 million alone, the city of Portland is still paying for the last stadium upgrade, and 16 percent of Portland children live below the poverty line. The funds for the ballpark would come from state income taxes and would be redirected from monies targeted for urban-renewal. Hard to dispute-- the kid's got some balls on him.
Meanwhile, 3,000 miles away, Major League Baseball's CEO took advantage yesterday of the first-ever World Series game played in St. Petersburg, Florida to publicly suggest that the area's residents pony up for a new ballpark to replace Tropicana Field. Judging from history, this suggestion should be considered more of a threat. The Tampa/St. Pete community has admirably supported a team that
averaged more than 97 losses a season during its first decade, but I hear Portland might be getting a new stadium.
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In case you don't want to stay up tonight to watch the repeat, here's
the clip of Pete Seeger on Letterman from last month.
Autumn thoughts
Isn't it a kick to watch the World Series with a pair of fresh, unfamiliar teams on the diamond? Having Game 1 start on a Wednesday night was a great idea. There's a cold rain falling in Des Moines tonight and the conditions are perfect for baseball watchin' on the tube. I'm betting we're in for a terrific, extended series this year.
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The CM legislative campaign rolls on. It's reaching a level I wasn't sure it could. Last night, I participated in a public forum sponsored by
Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement, and I thought it went great. The people were engaged and persistent in their questioning of the candidates. There were about 50 people in attendance, and I got to meet my opponent for the first time. The topics were tailor-made for the Moeller Campaign-- public financing of elections, universal health coverage, mandating a living wage, and local control over large-scale hog lots. (Favor, Favor, Favor, Favor). And I don't regret for a minute my decision to couple each of my answers with a recently-perfected voice impression of Sarah Palin.
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Check us out at
http://www.standingforvoters.org/. In response to the disenfranchisement of voters in Florida and Ohio in recent cycles, I've pledged to my supporters that if defeated, I'll wait until all votes are counted before conceding to my opponent. After Florida's rigged election in 2000, Al Gore conceded defeat and conceded to an orchestrated right-wing attack on voter rights despite reports and claims by many of his supporters that voter rolls had been purged, votes had not been counted, ballots had been disqualified on technicalities, and that voting machine ballots had not been clear. It was the beginning of eight years of capitulation to George W. Bush. "Now the political struggle is over," Gore proclaimed in his concession speech in 2000. For Democrats, it seems it was.
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I had the chance this week to meet
this remarkable woman.
Come one, come all to Moeller TV Fest 7!
It's been a busy autumn, but priorities are priorities. The 7th Annual Moeller Television Festival will be held Saturday, November 22nd, at my home in Des Moines, Iowa-- 700 15th St, Penthouse Unit #6. Similar to the World Series, Des Moines has had home field advantage for numbers one, two, six, and seven. (We went on the road to Cedar Rapids for numbers three, four, and five.) And like the 1982 World Series, when the Brewers' Pete Vukovich battled the Cardinals' Joaquin Andujar, Aaron and I both have our aces ready to go for Game 7.
The day long schedule is only half completed, and already the festival promises to showcase at least five full-length television programs never before featured at an MTF. As always, food and drink will be entirely complimentary and the Moeller twins invite you to email your "Open Remote" episode suggestions to
christophermmoeller@msn.com or
atmoeller@hotmail.com. We have positive RSVPs already from as far away as Peoria and Kansas City, and proceeds will go to the paying off of delinquent campaign debt. Here are some hints as to what's in store in 2008:
1) the FBI
2) Ray Charles
3) Bill Murray
4) a television icon who died this year
and 5) a famous consumer advocate.
The screening schedule will be revealed before November 2nd.
Rockers in revolt
The rock band The Foo Fighters have joined a growing list of musicians that have asked John McCain to stop using one of their songs ("My Hero") at his political rallies. Back in August, Van Halen criticized the Republican presidential nominee for using their song "Right Now," and the pop-rock band Heart was furious when the '80s hit "Barracuda" was co-opted as the introductory rally tune of Sarah Palin, who played high school basketball back in the day under the alleged nickname "Sarah Barracuda."
The list goes on. U.S. Representative John Hall of New York, a former member of the band Orleans, issued a cease-and-desist when he caught word that McCain was waving and nodding on stage to their wedding anniversary classic "Still the One," and John Mellencamp asked the Arizona Senator to stop using both "Our Country" and "Pink Houses." Attorneys for Jackson Browne filed a lawsuit when "Running on Empty" was incorporated as background during campaign ads about high gas prices.
This type of thing has been going on for a quarter century or more. Bruce Springsteen was pissed when Ronald Reagan turned "Born in the U.S.A." on its thematic ear back in 1984. Misuse of copyrighted music and failure to give musical artists their rightful financial compensation is a serious issue, but often the corporate rights holder is just as guilty for failing to make adequate remuneration for services rendered. In ranking legal priority, restoring the original music to "WKRP in Cincinnati" DVDs should be issue one, presidential politics a distant second.
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Howard Zinn, author of "The People's History of the United States," lends
some historical perspective to the Wall Street bailout.
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The nation's best political writer, Matt Taibbi, tackles Sarah Palin and
leads with his helmet.
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On all-too-rare occasions, in public service, this blog takes a moment to recognize
the most underappreciated player in baseball.
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Funniest joke in movie history: Woody Allen as the title character in 1983's "Zelig"--
I have to get to masturbation class. If I'm late, they start without me."
Moeller TV Listings 10/13/08
Letterman's on a hot streak.
Bill Murray was his guest last Thursday. (Sound warning on the link.) Funny ladies Sarah Silverman tonight and Amy Sedaris tomorrow. Hall-of-Fame talk show guest Marty Short on Wednesday. John McCain's well-publicized mea culpa on Thursday. And Tina Fey on Friday.
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Memo to Major League Baseball: Both League Championship Series have been wildly entertaining to date, but could we please lose the "God Bless America" during the 7th inning stretch of all of these postseason games? The traditional stretching song since 1910 has been the unparalleled Tin Pan Alley strain "Take Me Out To the Ballgame." I've attended more than 150 big league games during my lifetime, and I've noticed that people seem to like it. It's upbeat, it's fun to sing with a group, and that part where we count strikes near the end is a gas. I miss it. What say we kick the somber, deflating, jingoistic Irving Berlin banality to the curb and dance with the song that brung us? If we're going to be forced to endure "God Bless America" during each post-season baseball game until we've won the War On Terror, we'll also need you to lift the 7th inning "last call" at the ballparks.
Nader's energy
Ralph Nader was in Des Moines Friday, and the Chris Moeller Statehouse Campaign was there. My comments during a conversation with the Register's Marc Hansen filled up two pages in the columnist's notebook, but alas, none of those comments came to print. Still, he wrote one hell of
a good article.
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Wendy Barth is the Green Party candidate for Congress in Iowa's 2nd District. She's holding the Democratic incumbent's
feet to the fire for his financial bailout vote earlier in the month. Barth has been a selfless advocate for progressive action and we've never needed her in Washington more than right now. Remember to show Wendy the love on November 4th if you're a resident of the 2nd District. If you live in Cedar Rapids or Iowa City, this means you.
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One of the most important St. Louis Cardinals in history died this week. George Kissell, 88, had been a player, coach, and instructor in the Cardinals system for 68 years. He helped convert Mike Shannon from an outfielder to an infielder in the mid-60s, transformed Joe Torre from a catcher to an MVP thirdbaseman in the early '70s, and in 1977, suggested to a minor-league middle-infielder named Tony LaRussa that he consider becoming a manager.
His obituary was published in the New York Times on Wednesday.
House District 66 in the spotlight
The Des Moines Register published
a profile of my legislative race today with a feature article that covered a solid portion of page 2 of the Metro/Iowa section. I was tickled with the size of the story and the reporting was solid and accurate, though the editor's headline was pretty plain and probably didn't grab much attention from online readers.
Naturally, there are things I wish hadn't been omitted from my interview with Daniel Finney. A $10 minimum wage is not a radical idea... because, factoring inflation, it's equal to the federal minimum wage in 1968, a very prosperous economic period in American history. Voters today have little perspective on how far workers have fallen behind in claiming their share of the pot, and that comparison to a wage level forty years ago doesn't even factor in the rise in measured productivity in the period since.
The incumbent was given the last word in the article-- oh well, but the candidate Q&A, which didn't appear in the out-of-town print editions of the paper, had my written, emailed reponses published without edit, for which I'm slightly surprised, and the text of that section is almost three times larger than the actual article so we covered some ground there.
I fared much better in my treatment by the Register than the poor
Libertarian Party candidate running in House District 60 in the western suburbs. Russ Gibson wasn't even invited to the joint meeting between the major party candidates and the newspaper's editors and political reporters. It's hard to believe the same thing wouldn't have happened to me if there had been a Republican candidate running in District 66, even though I could wipe the floor with a GOP candidate head-to-head in this district. Gibson should be boiling over his exclusion, but others should be also. At least 50 residents of District 60 signed a petition this summer in support of Russ Gibson's name appearing on the ballot November 4th. There has been no polling, organized or otherwise, that indicates he's a less viable candidate than two favored schmucks touting the same shallow rhetoric about lower taxes, higher standards for schools, and help for small business. If there was an objective standard used to arrive at the decision of Gibson's exclusion, the Register should tell us what that was.
Five score and one
One of the flowers of my life is rooting for a baseball team whose chief rival hasn't won the World Series since before the death of Red Cloud. It leads to a general feeling of harmony with the natural world. But it doesn't mean that I take any comfort in the team's individual misfortunes or the pain felt by its fans. I've got friends over there, as White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen assured us on Sunday.
"It's Gonna Happen," fans were promised by the Chicago Cubs' marketing staff in 2008, and boy, they were right. The team delivered 97 regular-season wins, then seven walks by their starting pitcher in the first game of the postseason, 4 fielding errors in the second, and a 1 for 11 hitting performance with runners in scoring position in the concluding third. The club has now dropped nine straight post-season games dating back to 2003 and the game immediately preceeding the Bartman adventure.
If it makes Cubs fans feel any better (and their kind is always looking for sympathy from Cardinals fans), no one is laughing at you or your team. The rest of us are all too hung up in existential quandary right now to be laughing. Rationalists are recanting. (Has Bill Maher ever seen the Cubs play?) It's just too bizarre. I do feel a sense of relief with the championship drought intact and the world continuing to spin on its axis, but maybe in time I'll also find the humor in all of it.
Fans of the Small Bears can find solace though in the, uh... in the... in something, I'm sure. Oh yeah, they have good players signed to long-term deals, very long in some cases. And the team's about to be sold. Perhaps to one of the most flamboyant, committed executives in professional sports-- Mark Cuban, owner of the NBA's Dallas Mavericks. Cubs fans in Des Moines and Central Iowa are especially fortunate in that they can look forward to seeing a lot of Kosuke Fukudome in person next summer. The outlook for the team is still potentially bright. Anybody can have an off-century. "Wait 'till next year" still applies. Like the one-for-14 slugger, Alfonso Soriano, said after the team's elimination Saturday night-- "Keep patient."
The streetwalker
Last weekend and today, I spent the afternoons canvassing Iowa House District 66. I recommend it as a way to get to know your neighbors. I came bearing gifts, of course-- campaign literature promoting my Green Party legislative bid. Last weekend, I managed to cover basically the northeast quadrant of the district, an area directly north of the State Capitol and east of the Des Moines River. Today, I was in my own backyard, dear old Sherman Hill, where I was able to cover the entire neighborhood in little more than three hours.
I've worn in callouses on the heels of both feet, but I think that has more to do with the fact that I spent the summer wearing flip-flops. People have been overwhelmingly nice. Mine is mostly a hit-and-run operation. Time does not permit to knock on every door, and most of my work has been on Friday afternoons when few people are home. I had a particularly nice chat today with an older woman who liked my idea for a $10 minimum wage, and who would love to see a woman "get in there" at the federal level, but she's not sure about Sarah Palin at all. A fellow just down the block from her walking path invited me to tour the current renovation of his property, and I look forward to seeing it soon on the Sherman Hill Walking Tour. Up and down the hill I went today, and I discovered that a disproportionate number of beautiful women live on Des Moines' 19th Street. (Note to self: they all apparently get off work at 4 o'clock on Fridays.)
Canvassing etiquette, from my perspective, requires respecting lawns and closed fences and nodding to or acknowledging the neighborhood mail carrier in some small way. Today I saw the same drivers education vehicle parallel park three times. I also shared the streets this afternoon with Obama supporters promoting their vote early agenda. Unbeknownst to these other walkers, the mail carrier helped me determine which houses were occupied, and the Obama gang tipped off the registered Democrats-- and there are many.
There's no style of door knob that I cannot conquer.
This is an example of the best kind of knob because I can simply curl my campaign card in a u-shape inside the handle and go on my merry way. Another of my favorites is seen
here. Again, it's a simple curve. I can work with a knob like
this, but its effectiveness depends upon the door frame darting out, as shown in the linked photo. With the frame for support, I can curve my card into a complete circle, and nestle it between the knob and the frame. Without the side support, I'm left to look for a crevass in the door itself, or with any luck, deposit it between a mesh screen and the structure of the door.
These photos will give you some idea of my drop potential with screen doors. (Wow, I had no idea how expensive they can be.) But stay out of the mailboxes, by all means, despite the wicked temptation. That's a violation of federal law, and this campaign can't afford to spend like a drunken Clinton.
I'm not shying away from dropping literature at any home, provided that it looks lived in. When walking for Democratic candidates in the past, I skipped by homes that had Republican signs in the yard, but not anymore. Republican voters don't have an option of their own in this race, and who knows how Democrats, too, will vote when they don't have to resolve for themselves that a vote of conscience is somehow impractical in support of the progressive cause. I likely won't be canvassing again until next weekend, but I already feel a sense of improvement in my technique. I'm meeting more people, and covering more territory at the same time. If you live in the Fightin' 66th, keep a light on for me. My literature box is still half-full. (I'm an optimist.)
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Wasn't that Sarah Palin "folksy" last night during the AT&T/Wachovia Vice Presidential Debate? "I love talkin' directly to the American people," she said. "John McCain is fightin' for ya." Palin dropped more 'G's' this week than the federal treasury.
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I'm not joking-- last night's debate sponsors were actually AT&T, the company that gave us warrantless wiretapping, and Wachovia, the financial securities company federal regulators pressured to put up for sale this week to avoid collapse. Reality has officially murdered satire.
No tycoon left behind
The Center for Responsive Politics reports that lawmakers who voted in favor of Monday's bailout bill have received an average of 51% more in campaign contributions from the FIRE industries than those who voted against it. (FIRE stands for finance, insurance, and real estate.) On the Democratic side, the 140 representatives that voted yes collected an average of 78% more than those Democrats who opposed.
Finance committee chairman Barney Frank (D-MA) has accept $800,000 in FIRE contributions this election cycle alone, and the ranking Republican committee member Spencer Bachus (AL) has collected $822,000 and $3.7 million since 1989.
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Tonight, the Senate passed a very similar version of the same bill the House rejected Monday by a vote of 75-24. (Only one-third of Senate members stand for re-election November 4th.) In an effort to lure disgruntled House Republicans, fear-mongerers the likes of Obama, McCain, and Biden goosed the House offering by signing off on the extension of popular tax breaks that will ultimately place an even greater financial burden on the American people.
It's a bribe, people! Don't fall for it! Hold your Congressional rep to task in November! Wall Street CEOs still get their golden parachutes under this measure, homeowners get no new protection or industry re-regulation, and Main Street gets no economic stimulus. The only leverage the American people hold to rein in the nation's lawless banking industry might be pissed away before we reach the end of the work week. Mark these words-- if this no-strings Senate-approved giveaway passes the House, taxpayers will find themselves grabbing ankle again within two years.
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Last night was opening night for the stage musical "Church Basement Ladies" at the Hoyt Sherman Theater two blocks down the hill. A total of seven additional shows run between tonight and Sunday. The role of the minister is being filled by none other than William Christopher, television's most popular member of the clergy as Father Francis John Patrick Mulcahy during 11 seasons of "M*A*S*H." Jocularity! Jocularity!
