Monday, May 26, 2008
More Obituaries.
Director Sydney Pollack, 73, who directed the Oscar-winning Out of Africa, has died of cancer.
As a filmmaker, Pollack had a reputation for being a painstaking craftsman -- "relentless and meticulous," screenwriter and friend Robert Towne once said.
"His films have a lyrical quality like great music, and the timing is impeccable," cinematographer Owen Roizman, who shot five films directed by Pollack, including "Tootsie" and "Havana," said in 2005 when it was announced that Pollack would receive the 2006 American Society of Cinematographers Board of Governors Award for his contributions to advancing the art of filmmaking.
"He is never satisfied. . . . His passion is contagious. It inspires everyone around him to dig a little deeper," Roizman said.
Film critic and historian Leonard Maltin said "the hallmark" of Pollack's career "has been intelligence, both in his approach and his selection of subject matter."
1977 Belmont Stakes.
Seattle Slew became the first undefeated horse to win the Triple Crown by winning on an off track at Belmont Park:
Unfortunately, Slew lost his very next race, the Swaps Stakes, to J.O. Tobin.
1995 Belmont Stakes.
Thunder Gulch won this running, fighting like hell for the win against Star Standard:
Thunder Gulch won the Kentucky Derby that year.
A "Fair" Proposal?
Lanny Davis tries to propose a reasonable solution to the Florida and Michigan delegate situation:
The Rules Committee has several options. The fairest would be to allocate those 57 pledged delegates, to Clinton and Obama by the same ratio of their standing to one another in the average of the most recent Michigan statewide polls prior to the Jan. 15 primary. Or perhaps one Solomonic compromise, more generous to Obama than to Clinton, would be to divide the remaining delegates approximately 50-50 between the two of them, 28-27 (giving Clinton the extra delegate since she led in all the latest statewide polls prior to Jan. 15).
The Michigan solution is very simple to me: Seat all of the delegates, give those committed to Clinton her share and leave the rest uncommitted, just as they were on the ballot. None would go to Obama since his name was not on the ballot, but if they wanted, the uncommitted delegates could choose him at the convention.
It's very simple. But ALL of the delegates MUST be seated.
Why is that so hard to understand?
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More Campaign Notes.
John McCain will be in town not only for the fundraiser of local fat cats, he will also host a town hall meeting open to the public on Wednesday morning.
I plan to be there with cameras in tow. Doors will open at 8:30, and the event is supposed to take place at 10:45.
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The New York Post tries its damnedest to trash Hillary Clinton with its bullshit story of unnamed Kennedy family and "insider" "sources" saying they are pissed off over the nonstory of Clinton's RFK remarks.
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Bill Clinton, January 13, 2008.
He spoke at Truckee Meadows Community College in Reno, Nevada, for about an hour. There are five parts (actually six, but there's only 44 seconds in the sixth clip) I have uploaded here. It took over ten hours to upload them on YouTube. I have so many political videos I made of candidates. I don't have video stills or whatever they are on the screens and haven't figured out how to put them up yet, but the videos come in great. I was just off to the side of the former president during his remarks, hence a virtually unobstructed view.
Part One:
Part Two:
Part Three:
Part Four:
Part Five:
This video, without the video stills, is really good quality.
Here is a Good Panel
discussion about sexism and misogyny by the media against Hillary Clinton:
Marie Cocco really hits the "liberal" or "progressive" blogs and their commentators for their filth.
Miscellaneous.
A dire cancer diagnosis didn't prevent Senator Edward Kennedy from entering a sailboat competition.
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Since I don't have cable or dish service right now, I didn't catch the Dateline NBC program about that horrific Michigan murder case of Janet Chandler, about as bad a murder case as there has ever been because there had been so many people involved and not one came forward until police some twenty-five years later nabbed them. It shouldn't have been just the four people convicted and sentenced to life without parole and the other two, including the actual killer, who received reduced sentences; everybody who even witnessed the rape, torture, and death of her should have been charged and imprisoned. Just horrible.
Janet Chandler has a page on Find a Grave.
Campaign Notes.
There is something seriously wrong with a system where the winner of caucuses winds up with fewer delegates than the loser.
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Not only are the media trying to force Clinton out of the presidential race, now they are trying to force her out of the Senate.
Even Paul Krugman has fallen for the "Obama is the nominee" bullshit.
The campaign isn't over with, by the way.
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As long as Michelle Obama is going around the country campaigning for her husband, she is fair game.
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Campaign Follies.
Of course it is the Obama campaign which has exploited Clinton's RFK remarks for political gain.
When a candidate is being hyped with bullshit about being the second coming of RFK rather than the second coming of Warren Harding, and that candidate is in danger of going down in flames, naturally the campaign will throw the kitchen sink at their opponent, no matter how absurd or false the charges.
And don't expect Keith Olbermann to apologize for blatant lying and demagoguery of Friday night.
Sunday, May 25, 2008
Belmont Stakes.
If Big Brown isn't 100 percent sound, then he should NOT be entered in the Belmont Stakes.
Buckpasser back in 1966 missed the Triple Crown because he suffered from a quarter crack.
More Campaign Notes.
You better believe no candidate has been treated as badly as Hillary Clinton has been treated during this primary season:
Clinton spent more than six minutes calmly discussing what he called a "frantic effort to push her out" of this race, saying that no one asked Ted Kennedy, Jesse Jackson or Gary Hart to end their presidential campaigns early.
Clinton also spoke against bullying superdelegates to make up their minds, saying, "I cant believe it. It is just frantic the way they are trying to push and pressure and bully all these superdelegates to come out. 'Oh, this is so terrible: The people they want her. Oh, this is so terrible: She is winning the general election, and he is not. Oh my goodness, we have to cover this up.'"
And it is all for truly mendacious reasons. The media and the GOP have to have Obama in order to destroy him against McCain.
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Snow White tries to "kiss" Tony.
I took the dogs out for a walk this afternoon, and I thought I'd get a picture of Tony with his "girlfriend," a large dog named Snow White.
Miscellaneous.
A lawsuit has been dismissed involving a movie made about the racehorse Ruffian.
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A congressional subcommittee wants to look at thoroughbred breakdowns, drug use, and breeding.
The drug use can be dealt with, but breeding sound horses is a much tougher task and could take a couple of generations at least to correct it.
Even then breakdowns will happen, just as people get hurt in athletic events.
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A giant panda missing since the Sichuan earthquake has been found.
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Speaking of the earthquake, an aftershock has left two dead and 70,000 homes destroyed.
The death toll so far from the earthquake of two weeks ago is over 62,000.
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As everybody knows, but I am the last to note, the Phoenix lander plopped itself on the north pole of Mars today. This photo, a screen grab from NASA TV, shows what the area looks like.
More.
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Hillary Clinton
explains why she is continuing to stay in the race despite the intense pressure by the GOP-leaning media (which knows Obama is corrupt to the gills and seeks to exploit it) and by many Democratic Party regulars (for reasons that cannot be explained).
link
I realize that any reference to that traumatic moment for our nation can be deeply painful - particularly for members of the Kennedy family, who have been in my heart and prayers over this past week. And I expressed regret right away for any pain I caused.
But I was deeply dismayed and disturbed that my comment would be construed in a way that flies in the face of everything I stand for - and everything I am fighting for in this election.
Clinton is much too gracious to say it, but the media have used this merely to force her out in favor of a general election loser.
Clinton gives several reasons why she is staying in the race, but for yours truly it is plainly obvious why she is there despite immense pressure for her to quit. She's in the race because she HAS to be in the race to prevent a complete disaster befalling the Democratic Party. It is that simple.
Jimbo Eruptions.
A divorce is one thing, but dispute over whether the divorcing First Lady of Nevada should remain in the governor's mansion has rendered the state a laughingstock.
It already was with the election of her carousing, corrupt husband, but this makes it more obvious.
Jimbo, by the way, denies having another romantic relationship despite rumors he has been seen with another woman around Reno.
But according to this editorial of a few days ago, he's screwing around with the wife of a Reno doctor.
This editorial is very supportive of Dawn Gibbons:
As our scandal-laden governor pushes to have his soon-to-be former wife of 22 years evicted from the governor's mansion, citing tax dollars as his primary motive, the Nevada media has shown remarkable restraint on just what it has to say about what will undoubtedly be an ugly, bitter affair.
Affair is a good word to use here. The governor's spinmeisters have all but painted first lady Dawn Gibbons as a distraction, that their marriage crumbled because the thrill is gone after more than two decades.
Gang Gibbons would have us believe the marriage simply disintegrated, grew stale, lost its spice. So why the need for a closed courtroom during divorce proceedings? What's to hide? Is this even constitutional? If so, how many other high-powered people will seek closed hearings to hide their dirty little secrets?
The governor has been involved with the wife of a Reno doctor. She shall go unnamed to save her husband public humiliation. Team Gibbons will say she's simply a friend. A friend he spends an inordinate amount of time with, a friend who asked her husband for a divorce a few months before the governor dropped the bomb on Dawn - and a friend who looks a lot like a certain Las Vegas cocktail waitress that accused Jim Gibbons of assaulting her in a hotel parking garage in 2006, when he was locked in a tight gubernatorial battle with Democratic State Sen. Dina Titus.
Stay tuned.
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Campaign Notes.
With all due respect to former president Carter, he really needs to keep quiet about the campaign.
The superdelegates should do absolutely nothing about the contest. Besides it WILL go to the convention.
Obama is totally tainted and CANNOT under any circumstances be the nominee.
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In this article from a month ago, Michael Lind, who wrote the excellent Up from Conservatism, explains what Obama's problem in a nutshell is. He represents the interests of the elites of the party rather than the working class, and he will not do a thing to repair the rift.
Hell, by the time the GOP gets done with Obama, if he gets the nomination, the elites and the working class will unite by voting for McCain or not voting at all.
Obituaries.
The NYT has its obituary up on Dick Martin, who died last night at the age of 86.
Apparently he suffered from tuberculosis when he was a teenager and this kept him out of the military. Although the article doesn't specifically say it, I assume the TB is what caused permanent damage to his right lung.
Here is a YouTube of a clip from Laugh-in:
This is a very funny "blooper" clip:
Saturday, May 24, 2008
Obituaries.
Evidently this just came through the wire services: Comedian Dick Martin of Laugh-in fame has died of respiratory complications at the age of 86.
His partner, straight man Dan Rowan, died many years ago back in 1987.
Rowan & Martin's Laugh-in (1968-1973) was considered a landmark television series, what with its topical humor and blackout sketches. It also made stars of Goldie Hawn and Lily Tomlin, to name just a few of the many regulars.
This is from the NYT's Rowan obituary back in 1987:
''Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In,'' which aired on NBC from 1967 through 1973, mixed the frantic low humor of vaudeville with freewheeling political satire and scattershot, psychedelic topicality. Its blitzkrieg format - sight gags careening off one another like bumper cars, overlapping sketches, bold graphics, a seeming determination not to leave the screen each Monday night when the allotted 60 minutes were up - appealed to a generation that had been weaned on ''The Ed Sullivan Show'' and raised on the music of Bob Dylan and the Jefferson Airplane.
''The show was new and fast,'' Dick Martin, Mr. Rowan's partner, said yesterday in a telephone interview from his office in Los Angeles. ''We had people doing cameos who just had no idea what they were getting into.'' Among the cameo performers were former President Richard M. Nixon, Billy Graham and Douglas Fairbanks Jr. More prominent was a regular supporting cast of nascent comedy stars, among them Lily Tomlin, Goldie Hawn, Arte Johnson, Henry Gibson, Ruth Buzzi, Pigmeat Markham, Eileen Brennan, Richard Dawson and Judy Carne.
From the Encyclopedia of Television:
While Laugh-in lacks the satirical bite of later series such as Saturday Night Live, SCTV or In Living Color or of That Was The Week That Was (to which it was often compared by contemporary critics), Laugh-in brought many minority and female performers to mainstream audiences, helping to broaden the composition of television comedy. Its dependence upon stock comic characters and catch-phrases was clearly an influence on the development of Saturday Night Live, which by comparison, has a much more staid visual style and more predictable structure. Unfortunately, Laugh-in's topicality, even its close fit with 1960s aesthetics, has meant that the program has not fared well in re-runs, being perceived as dated almost from the moment it was aired. However, the on-going success of Laugh-in alums such as Hawn, Tomlin, or even gameshow host Richard Dawson point to its continued influence.
Here is an obituary of Martin:
In addition to a 25-year career in nightclubs and the success of Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In, Dick Martin began a second career as a television director in 1976, starting with The Bob Newhart Show. He was the chief director of the 1980s sitcom Newhart as well as the host of the short-lived Mindreaders game show in the late 1970s. By the time he retired from his second career, he had directed over 200 hours of television.
He married Britain’s first Playboy Playmate Dolly Read (Dolly Martin) in 1971. Dolly Read had starred in the cult classic feature film Beyond the Valley of the Dolls. Martin was formerly married to Peggy Connelly. He has two sons, Richard Martin and Cary Martin.
He lost the use of one lung when he was in his teens; only in his final years did he require oxygen. He lived a long time with that disability.
Miscellaneous.
It is quite obvious why it is Chinese schools crumbled so easily while government buildings and buildings belonging to international corporations fared so well; in fact, you might even say it is representative of just what is important to Chinese officials.
What's a few million dead Chinese anyway, even if they are children, when there are millions more to exploit?
I Don't Think
I linked this long article about the problems with Barack Obama by one Evelyn Pringle, but it is worth looking at as he gets closer than he should to the Democratic nomination.
(Update: There are two more installments of the above linked story here and here.)
I've never seen anybody so totally flawed as to be almost a Republican-created caricature of a Democrat as Obama.
I think I linked one of Pringle's articles before; I can't remember where out of the 32,000 posts I have written on this blog since 2002. However, I have a tag with her name on it, so I think I've linked the first article before.
In any case this sums Obama up:
John McCain is just drooling waiting for Obama to become the nominee so that he can come out with the trail of dirt that the Democratic party is too afraid to reveal this late in the in the game. If nominated, Obama will not survive a month when faced with the Republican attack machine.
If he becomes the nominee, the web of corruption leading to Obama's rise to power that this investigative journalist was able to untangle in less than three weeks, will be front page news right up until election day, handing the Republicans their only chance in hell of winning the White House.
Instead of the leaders of the Democratic party doing their homework, a small group of investigative reporters in Chicago will be credited with exposing the corrupt backbone of Obama political career and the mainstream media need only follow their lead if the Democrats hold him out to be a viable candidate.
However, the national media REFUSED to vet Obama and for quite obvious reasons.
Also by Pringle is a series of articles about "curtain time" for the Audacity of Hype:
Part 1.
Here is Part 2.
Part 3.
Part 4.
And the final chapter of this lengthy series of articles.
These articles are mostly about Obama's shady connections centering on Rezko and his trial, which has gone to the jury. Most of this information has been out there for a while, and because of these sordid connections, Obama has no business running for dogcatcher, let alone run for president. He will be lucky if he isn't indicted before long.
I mean it's really bad shit, and Pringle brings all of that information together and connects the dots.
Pringle explains here how and why she started investigating Obama's sordid Chicago past.
2004 Belmont Stakes.
One of the biggest upsets was the 2004 Belmont Stakes, where previously undefeated Smarty Jones lost his first race to longshot Birdstone, owned by Mary Lou Whitney, who was actually sad for Smarty Jones and practically apologized for the win:
The winning jockey, Edgar Prado, practically apologized too, saying he had to do his job.
Smarty Jones never raced again. He was retired that August with a record of 8 wins and 1 second. He currently stands at stud at Three Chimneys Farm in Midway, Kentucky, and lives in the stall once occupied by Seattle Slew.
1993 Belmont Stakes.
One of the saddest races ever run, this was the race where Preakness winner Prairie Bayou broke down in the backstretch, I believe it was, and he had to be put down.
It was an extremely tragic Triple Crown that year. In the Preakness, Union City had broken down and had to be euthanized. I will never forget how sad the owners of winner Prairie Bayou felt when they won the Preakness trophy. Who would have guessed their own horse would suffer the same fate three weeks later?
The winner of this race, Colonial Affair, was the son of 1981 Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner Pleasant Colony. His jockey, Julie Krone, became the first and so far only woman to win a Triple Crown race.