The Envelope for Pushing The Envelope Goes To …

I will be live-blogging the Academy Awards tonight, and it appears that this will be a long, long night — the Academy has removed speech restrictions for the Oscar winners for the first time in recent memory. Odd, don’t you think, or perhaps the Presidential election has something to do with it?
7:25 – Catching the pre-awards show, and it’s as lame as ever. I felt sorry for Nicole Kidman and Renee Zellweger, who were cursed to sit on either side of Billy Bush and forced to respond to his inane non-question commentary. As if that wasn’t bad enough, he then re-enacted the “Uma-Oprah” debacle from several years back. I’m sure that the Academy appreciates that walk down Memory Lane …
7:35 – The opening sequence rocked! Loved the elephant stepping on Michael Moore as he protested the Battle of Gondor, and Jack Nicholson made a great Gandalf. Seriously. Somehow, though, I feel it will be downhill from here …
7:44 – All right, the opening songs were terrific, too. [Dammit, I liked Clint Eastwood in Paint Your Wagon!] …
7:50 – The first award was announced at the 20 minute mark. And you wonder why this show takes so doggone long? Best Supporting Actor: Tim Robbins, who seems a bit rattled to have won; normally he’s a better speaker, even if his material stinks. Nothing political, just a good plea for abuse victims to seek counseling…
7:59 – Angelina Jolie onstage to “Wild Thing”. Okay … First Oscar to Lord of the Rings: Art Direction.
8:05 – Finding Nemo for Best Amimated Feature — coooooool. Sweet moment in the speech, too, although I think his wife was embarassed. (Hi, Linda!) …
8:12 – 2nd Oscar for Lord of the Rings: Best Costumes …
8:20 – No surprise: Renee Zellweger wins Best Supporting Actress for Cold Mountain. She was terrific, and of course she was expected to win this one…
8:27 – A very nice tribute to Bob Hope and his Oscar presentation career. It would have been nice to show how his work on screen, where his legendary approach to comedy could be appreciated by a new audience … Mickey Rooney’s still with us! I agree with Linda — it’s good to see him …
8:34 – I guess there IS a time limit on speeches tonight, and even that brown-nosing didn’t give the Best Live-Action Short winner a break …
8:58 – Bily Crystal has it working tonight. Great little bit about what’s going through people’s minds! Lord of the Rings wins #3 for Visual Effects, the second year in a row they won …
9:03 – For such an accomplished comedian, Jim Carrey has lousy timing tonight … Linda notes Carrey’s huge ears, which his shaved head highlights. I’d have said something first, but my ears are just as bad, which is why I don’t shave my head …
9:07 – Funny wheelchair gag. I didn’t see that coming! …
9:14 – Make sure you visit Linda’s terrific blog. Great design and use of color, and Linda writes well …
9:18 – Lord of the Rings wins #4: Makeup. Scarlett Johanssen needs to get a cup of coffee and wake the hell up …
9:22 – Lord of the Rings wins #5, Sound Mixing, and the comedy definitely suffers whenever Billy Crystal isn’t involved. John Travolta did well, but Sandra Bullock’s portion was a dud. The audience is starting to look uncomfortable during these sketches. Who’s writing these — Saturday Night Live? …
9:43 – Errol Morris makes the first political speech of the night, but his claim of “millions died” could also be said of our departure from Southeast Asia as well …
9:52 – Great commercial take-off on Caddyshack, with Tiger Woods in the Bill Murray role. Why didn’t American Express use that during the Super Bowl?? …
9:57 – Lord of the Rings #6 – Best Score. Looks like a Rings night to me …
10:00 – LotR #7: Film Editing. New Line Cinema brings you the Academy Awards — not that I’m complaining, mind you! …
10:07 – I’m going to predict that “A Kiss At The End of The Rainbow” wins the Best Song Oscar, but I liked “Belleville Rendezvous” the best …
10:14 – I’ve changed my mind — the Oscar should go to “You’re Boring”, by Jack Black and Will Farrell, who sang it beautifully! One the best moments of the night. Instead, it went to LotR — #8 — for Into the West. Lesson for the night: Don’t bet against the Rings juggernaut …
10:21 – Thanking the Academy for not making LotR eligible for the Foreign Language category was the highlight of acceptance speeches thus far …
10:30 – LotR #9, Best Adapted Screenplay, and if there was one nomination that had to be a lock for LotR, this one was it. First appearance of Peter Jackson on the stage, and hopefully not the last …
10:33 – Is Susan Sarandon having a wardrobe malfunction? And welcome to Ian of Pinwheels and Orange Peels, another great blog. Sofia Coppola won her first Oscar for Best Original Screenplay. She’s more animated than she was in the entirety of Godfather III …
10:39 – If you’re not in the Twin Cities, you’re probably not seeing an exceedingly lame ad for Eyewitness News starring Ed Asner as Lou Grant. I mean, how pathetic is that? Three decades later and he’s using that persona to shill for a local news show. Just remember that Ted Baxter used to be his anchorman …
10:42 – LotR #10, Peter Jackson, for Best Director, and he gets a (very) chaste kiss from Liv Tyler. Is it too late to go to film school? Dang …
10:48 – I knew Charlize Theron would win, but I loved Adrien Brody’s breath freshener …
10:54 – I’m predicting that Bill Murray wins in an upset for Best Actor, while Ian wonders why Diane Keaton keeps dressing like she’s nominated for that category …
11:00 – This is why I don’t gamble in Vegas. Sean Penn won for Best Actor, made a dumb WMD reference, and then gave a gracious speech about the quality of the work from everyone that was and wasn’t nominated, followed by the thank-yous. Probably the last opportunity for political speechifying, and it seems like there just won’t be much this year. Anyone taking bets for Best Picture? …
11:05 – LotR #11 and a “clean sweep,” as Steven Spielberg exclaimed as he announced the Best Picture award. 11 Oscars ties Lord of the Rings with Ben-Hur and Titanic, and also marks the first time a fantasy movie has won the top prize. A very funny moment during the acceptance speeches, when producer Barrie M. Osborne revealed that he had once dated Billy Crystal’s cousin, apparently to Crystal’s surprise.
Great finish — and the show wrapped up at three hours, 39 minutes. Not too bad, and a relatively entertaining experience, if short on stars embarassing themselves politically. My film won all of its nominations, so how can I complain?
Thanks to Linda and Ian and everyone else who checked in tonight. Don’t forget the caption contest and come back soon!

When Blogs Attack!

No, this isn’t a new Fox entertainment special, although the thought of, say, Lt. Smash pre-emptively striking Atrios does have its charms. [Would it look like the “Crimson Permanent Assurance” segment of Monty Python’s Meaning of Life? Probably, except that Smash would have a younger crew and an armor-plated building with night scopes — Ed.]
Yesterday, I wrote a post about the Iranian Pashtun-service radio report that claimed Osama bin Laden had been captured by American troops “a long time ago” and that he was being held secretly until the election. To me, this ludicrous piece of propaganda — even their one named source claimed he’d been misquoted — was yet another example of a clumsy attempt by Iranian hard-liners to influence an American presidential election. They had tried in 1980 to claim that they would never negotiate with a Reagan administration, to no effect; and a couple of weeks ago, tried to claim that the Kerry campaign would have much more effective diplomatic results in the Middle East and produced an e-mail, supposedly from the Kerry campaign, to prove it. My point was not that Kerry had really sent the Guardian Council an e-mail or that Kerry loved Iran more than the US; it was that the Iranians had a deep interest in getting George Bush out of the White House in order to turn our national policy on terrorism from war to law enforcement.
However, and perhaps predictably, once Instapundit linked to it (and thanks for the link, Glenn!), a left-wing blogger linked it and characterized my post as an attack on Kerry’s patriotism. (The blogger also impugned my intelligence, and if I had feelings, they’d be hurt, I assure you.) I replied in kind in an update on the original post. I’ve received several comments from readers of his blog, and I thought I’d respond to them here. A couple of them contained substance and actual argument — perhaps Quicksauce more than any — and those readers are always welcome. I may not agree with the argument, but at least it’s honest debate.
Some of the rest, however …

Me: And here I thought it was the Republican party who had the history of dealing with the Iranian government to rig elections.

Hee hee! Me — who couldn’t be bothered to use his real name or give an e-mail address — also doesn’t bother to provide any evidence for the thoroughly debunked “October Surprise” story to which the Carterites have been desperately clinging. Get over yourself, pal, and reread the post. I’m not claiming Kerry has anything to do with Iranian machinations.

Jesus: You are an intellectual midget.

It’s nice of Jesus to take some time off of his publicity tour for his new film, but anyone whose e-mail is jesussaysyousuck@hotmail.com, whether real or not, is not a very reliable source on anyone’s intellect. Great debate method, too. Don’t argue the facts or the conclusions — just toss an insult. Very convincing.
We have two people who love photography:

photoshop Tennis: i’m waiting for the vets against kerry authentic photo of kerry and osama playing shuffleboard together on the deck of the USS Arizona, while in the background john mccain gives bill clinton a blowjob.
instapundit rules! [I agree with this much, anyway.]
Pat Fornler: When Osama is captured, I hope Bush makes the announement in his flight suit. He’s awesome in the flight suit. Did you know he personally pulled Saddam from the spider hole? They keep it quiet, he’s modest. But if you look at the pictures, you can see Bush is the guy on the right.In an Army suit, not the flight suit.

Again, thanks for advancing the debate while demonstrating your keen abilities to grasp the concepts. It’s good to know the Iranians aren’t completely wasting their time by spinning lunatic conspiracy theories. At least Pat had the guts to put his/her real name and e-mail address on the post.
But one of the commenters nailed me — and I deserved it. Here’s the one that found the stupid weak spot I left in my response when I was irritated by the “patriotism” red herring:

Carleton Wu: No one doubts that John Kerry loves America, although he sometimes doesn’t seem too fond of Americans. But his inconsistent stands on the war and his track record of opposing military spending reflects bad judgement, not a lack of patriotism. Why do Kerry supporters screech about his patriotism every time his voting record and policies get debated?
Wow. Most conservatives wait at least a paragraph before contradicting themselves in such a painfully obvious manner.
I mean, the rest of your BS is just the party line (eg does the fact that Kerry voted against a specific Defense appropriations bill mean that he wanted to abolish the Armed Forces?), but if your going to get all weepy about how you’re being accused of questioning Kerry’s loyalty to Americans, you ought to remember to edit out the dumbass joke about how Kerry doesn’t like Americans…
Smarter monkeys, please.

I’ll own that one. To be honest, I was trying to be funny. I was reminded of a Peanuts cartoon where Lucy tells Linus that he would be a lousy doctor because he doesn’t love mankind. Linus responds, “I love mankind — it’s people I can’t stand!” So, Carleton Wu, you were right and I was wrong. I don’t have any proof that Kerry doesn’t love Americans, and in fact I’m sure he does. The Captain accepts the 10 lashes with the whip, held in the left hand, and promises not to do it again, or if so, to at least write something funny.
Finally, Mark wrote and actually asked me a direct question:

Where did you hear about this story? And what do you have against Kerry? Or has Bush really fought to improve your way of life? I’d like to hear from you Ed.

I heard about the Iranian radio report from several news sources. I read a number of on-line news sources every day (and no, not Fox News except on occasion). The rest is my opinion. As for what I have against Kerry and why I support Bush — that I will address later today, directly. It’s a fair question and you deserve an answer.
I hope you will return to read it.

LA Times Endorses Schwarzenegger’s Referenda

In an unusual twist, today’s Los Angeles Times endorsed both Propositions 57 and 58, the twin budget-rescuing referenda pushed by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. The Times still thinks that tax increases will be necessary, but at least agrees with Arnold that the road to fiscal sanity starts on the March ballot:

Even with Proposition 57 and Schwarzenegger’s proposed cuts, the state still faces a deficit of $6 billion or so in its next budget. Schwarzenegger, unlike most of the Legislature’s Republicans, has never said “never” to taxes. His next campaign may be inside the Capitol, persuading members that more cuts and a modest temporary tax are unavoidable. But Proposition 57 and its companion, Proposition 58, must pass first to clear the decks.

Schwarzenegger clearly said to Tim Russert on last week’s Meet the Press that he would only consider new taxes in an emergency, and ticked off a few that the previous Republican governor, Pete Wilson, faced during his tenure: earthquakes, floods, forest fires, and riots. Absent any of that, Arnold said, and he would not support new taxes. He pointed out that in the previous five years, California tax revenue increased 29%, only to be outstripped by a spending increase of 43%.
Taxes are clearly not the solution as revenues are clearly not the problem. Profligate spending has brought California to this pass, and now, with the worst bond rating of any state in the nation, their hopes are tied to a bonding issue that will only increase their debt. It’s still the right move, but the Times and everyone else should realize by now that you can’t spend your way out of debt. California must be made to live within its means. That includes reducing an oppressive worker-comp regimen so that small business can thrive and create jobs, and entitlement spending must be corraled and brought under control.
Unfortunately, politicians don’t get elected by telling people “no”, except under unusually bad circumstances. Let’s hope that Arnold sticks to his “no” and gets California back on its feet again.
UPDATE: Lt. Smash has the low-down on the California referenda here.

Brilliant Stewards of Money

In yesterday’s Los Angeles Times, David Pierson wrote about the re-election campaign of Assemblyman Ron Calderon, a first-term Democrat representing southeast Los Angeles County, including some of my old stomping grounds. Calderon apparently has interesting notions on how to spend his campaign money, something my fellow Angelenos should consider at the voting booth:

California Assemblyman Ron Calderon has obliterated his campaign war chest months before he faces an opponent in November, spending the money on Las Vegas hotels, restaurants and cigars, according to campaign spending reports. Calderon, whose 58th Assembly District encompasses southeast Los Angeles County communities, including Whittier, Downey and East L.A., raised $342,600 last year in contributions and spent $427,300, according to financial records filed with the California secretary of state.

Having been born, raised, and lived most of my life in that general area, I’m not too sure about how relevant Las Vegas hotels are to East LA County. Of course, the gaming industry has made inroads in places like Bell and Hawaiian Gardens, although the article doesn’t mention anything specific about that. Vegas junkets for his staff weren’t the only drain on Calderon’s campaign budget. Other expenses:
* $20,000 to his sister-in-law’s campaign for Montebello USD in November
* $60,000 in consultant fees to his brother in 2002
* $6,100 to Celebrity Connection, a celebrity look-alike entertainment agency
Calderon’s contributors don’t understand what’s happened to the money they intended for an actual political campaign. Paul Smith, VP of the California Grocers’ Association, expressed dismay at Calderon’s failure to build a war chest, saying, “I was hoping he would be stockpiling his money.” No one talks of pulling their support yet, but now Calderon faces debt of almost $100,000, and it will take a whole heap of donations to make it back to zero, let alone build war chests.
Of course, Calderon is running unopposed in the primary and faces a rookie Republican in a district where Democrats outnumber the GOP 2-1, again demonstrating the political trainwreck that reapportionment has become for Californians. Calderon’s family has held this seat in the Assembly for 16 of the last 22 years, and it’s so safe that the Democrats don’t bother to groom better candidates for the general election. Building safe districts only creates terrible candidates and officeholders, and Calderon is just one example of many.
With free-spending incumbents like these, is it really any mystery why California has a $15-billion deficit and has increased its budget by 43% over the past five years?

Airheads, Continued

We are seven days away from the launch of the Northern Alliance Radio “Network” show here in Minnesota, and we’re all gathering at the studio for a dry run today, as almost all of us have never worked in radio before. The folks at AM 1280 The Patriot have been very hospitable in allowing us to descend on them today and will be teaching us the equiment and the timing of hosting a talk show. Next Saturday, we will be going live on the air here in the Twin Cities (pray for their inhabitants, the poor souls) from noon to 3 PM.
The group of us, who can be found in my blogroll on the left — the only place you’ll find them on the left, by the way — are still ironing out format and scheduling. We hope to eventually have a live streaming Internet link through The Patriot’s website so that all of you can listen in on what happens when bloggers try radio. Mitch Berg of Shot In The Dark has been working on a central website for the group, too, so that you can check for updates there as well as on our individual blogs. You’ll hear more about this as we move forward with the program.
Stay tuned!

David Almasi: Even Family Shows Push The Envelope

In the furor over the FCC’s decision to put more effort into enforcing its own regulations on decency, NCPPR exec David Almasi speaks out against a more subtle but pervasive issue, published in Amy Ridenour’s excellent NCPPR blog:

While listening to the radio on the way into work Friday morning, I heard a real concern that so far seems to be flying under the radar. Tonight’s “George Lopez” on ABC (a Disney-owned company) features a guest starring role by socialite/heiress/amatuer porn actress Paris Hilton as “a beautiful tutor for [George’s son] Max.” The clip they played in the radio commercial had Max learning algebra, with Paris’s character telling him he needs to “find her X.” Max responds that he felt a chill when she said that, and laughter ensues. Upon reaching the office and cracking open the paper, I saw a photo of the same scene — and Max appears to be 10-12 years old.
“George Lopez” is marketed as a family show. It airs at 8pm. There’s no doubt in my mind that Hilton got the job because she is provocative. Stern was booted from Clear Channel, by the way, for statements made while he was interviewing the man who is selling a video of himself and Hilton having sex. She is there to titillate. And her foil is a young boy.

I watch “George Lopez” regularly (7 PM in the Midwest) as the First Mate is a big fan of the show, but I missed this particular episode. No doubt, ABC chose Hilton for her, ah, notoriety and not her acting chops. I also find it appalling that in what’s billed as a family show — it’s part of the ABC “TGIF” lineup targeted at kids and their parents — the producers saw fit to put leering sexual innuendo involving one of the young children in the show. In all of that, I agree with Amy and David, as I usually do.
However, I don’t think this falls under an “indecency” umbrella at all. [Full disclosure: the Captain is related to an employee of Disney, and that’s as specific as I’ll get.] From the description, it appears to me that no indecent words were said, nor any “wardrobe malfunctions” aired. There’s a difference between bad taste and indecency. It’s not the job of the FCC to police for taste. Specifically, it’s not in their charter nor in their mandate from Congress, nor should it be. “Indecent” incidents should be specific and as objectively judged as possible, and the rest should be left to the market.
I do agree with Amy and David that the producers of the “George Lopez” show should not have used the character of a prepubescent boy for sexual innuendo, at least not in a prime-time show marketed at young families. I would encourage those who feel strongly about it to make their objections known to the producers and their sponsors and to tune to another show if it continues. I’d prefer that the FCC focus on the plethora of examples of prima facie obscenity that airs on broadcast TV and radio instead of becoming the taste police.

Remember This When Hollywood Speaks Out

In an election year — and are we having any other kind of years lately? — we regularly get a large dose of insufferable condescension and demagoguery from our entertainers in Hollywood about how we should think, vote, and live our lives. Luminaries such as Barbra Streisand, Susan Sarandon, Tim Robbins, and Sean Penn instruct and scold us on issues such as foreign policy and law enforcement without a whit of common sense or personal experience. Sean Penn travels to Iraq as a guest of the genocidal government and wonders why we want to get rid of Saddam Hussein.
For those still inclined to see Hollywood as a place where people go to become enlightened, a sort of Taos On The Sea, this article from today’s Telegraph should disabuse you of any notion of intelligence among the power brokers and talent elite:

Few seemed dulled by the alcohol they had already consumed and it was clear why. Little plastic bags were being thrown on top of table tops, their contents dirty white crystals, the flakes far bulkier than the powdered cocaine that had become an all too familiar sight at any LA event with its inevitable gaggle of talkative coke addicts.
This was crystal meth, the latest drug to sweep through Hollywood’s entertainment industry and draw with it an ever-expanding band of adherents loving its long-lasting high, weight-losing side-effects and – most depressingly of all – the knowledge that they were doing the latest cool thing, whatever the catastrophic effect it would have on their bodies. … It was suddenly available everywhere and it is the fashionista who have embraced it – producers, agents, writers, actors – many for the most base of reasons: that it is something new.

Oliver Poole writes about his personal experiences with the people in Hollywood and their patterns of drug use, noting that the trends at the industry parties get reflected on the silver screen. When heroin was chic, Leonardo DiCaprio starred in The Basketball Diaries, and before that, it was cocaine in Bright Lights, Big City and Less Than Zero. The past few years, Ecstasy was the drug du jour and played out in films like Groove, Bad Boys II, and Millenium. Now crystal meth has swept through the entertainment industry, and we’re seeing it in films like Mickey Rourke’s Spun and The Salton Sea.
Poole quotes a mother who has tried an intervention with her 22-year-old daughter that explains the issue succinctly:

“It destroys lives,” she said. “It destroyed my family and now it’s infected Hollywood. And Hollywood creates trends. It determines what is cool. They will be smoking meth across the country soon. Then watch out for London because it’s going to start being seen as cool there too. That’s fashion for you and trends start here.”

I love movies; I watch all kinds, and I enjoy most of them. I appreciate artistry in cinema. But I don’t take the mainstream entertainment industry seriously when it comes to anything else except the example they provide, and by any measure that is nothing but failure. Keep this in mind when you are watching the Oscars and the few who are lucky enough to win an award for their talent put their ignorance on display during their acceptance speeches.
UPDATE: Glenn Reynolds suggests more reading along these same lines, a new book called Hollywood, Interrupted. I may add that to my ever-growing reading list. Publisher’s Weekly didn’t think too highly of it, but Amazon’s readers give it five stars…

Add Captain’s Quarters to My Yahoo!

Via Buzz Machine and Hoder, Yahoo now offers an RSS reader for members to display the latest headlines on their My Yahoo page. All that is required is a Yahoo membership (free) and an RSS feed from your favorite blogs. Users can set up the function to display up to 10 posts as far back as a week, and it will display either the headlines or an excerpt of each post, along with the timestamp of the last update.
How does this help you? For one thing, rather than loading up each blog individually, you can just check a single site to determine if anything has been updated. You can also check to see if you’d be interested in the new posts. If you’re working with access restrictions, My Yahoo at least gives you an idea of what’s going on with your favorite blogs.
I’ve already set my Yahoo membership to display Instapundit, Blogs for Bush, Power Line, Andrew Sullivan, and Captain’s Quarters. The URL for my RSS feed is in the right column at the end of the links, if you’d like to do the same. Give it a whirl and see what you think.

Kerry’s Number One!

Drudge reports that the National Journal has ranked John Kerry’s 2003 Senate voting record as the most liberal of all, outdistancing Hillary Clinton and even Ted Kennedy:

The results of Senate vote ratings show that Kerry was the most liberal senator in 2003, with a composite liberal score of 96.5 — far ahead of such Democrat stalwarts as Ted Kennedy and Hillary Clinton.
NATIONAL JOURNAL’s scores, which have been compiled each year since 1981, are based on lawmakers’ votes in three areas: economic policy, social policy, and foreign policy. “To be sure, Kerry’s ranking as the No. 1 Senate liberal in 2003 — and his earning of similar honors three times during his first term, from 1985 to 1990 — will probably have opposition researchers licking their chops,” NATIONAL JOURNAL reports.

For the fourth time in 19 years, Kerry’s record reflected the most radical agenda in the Senate, in this instance while he knew he would be running for President — and he calls George Bush extreme?