The Week In Review - Sunday Comics

Finish line. We made it through another week. I got my computer back from the shop, and I was still able to maintain Blasphemes somehow. Mr. Obama was accused of not communicating with his base...
Mr. Goodwrench got his walking papers this week.
Nancy really does have a screw loose... and the Democrats who are agreeing to keep her as their leader must be insane. Even Representative Heath Shuler said that his fellow Democrats should learn from his failed N.F.L. career and replace their quarterback, Nancy Pelosi. Question there is, is Nancy the Offensive Coordinator, or the QB? Either way, it would have been a better move to marginalize her.
But look on the bright side of QE2... everything is half off! I'm sure that's why the Chinese are getting more than a bit pissed off for extending the credit of their best customer. Unfortunately, that customer is Norm Peterson.
TSA is getting out of hand... no, they're getting a little too handy - in the grab hands... er - okay, I'll admit I'm missing the funny headline here, but there's really nothing funny about what's been going on at the airports lately. There's a story of a TSA agent practically molesting a child at the airport the other day.
And if you thought that the only winners last Tuesday were the Republicans, you may want to check on what Hillary's up to. There's now open talk of a primary battle.
Oh, and Mr. Bush came back in the news for a week. His feud with Kanye is finally over... And he wrote a book. I think it really should be placed in the fiction category.
Well, that's this week, let's see if we can make it to the next? See you there.

Sunday Comics: Week in Review

Ah the week that was. Snow in all 50 States - yes, even in the higher mountains of Hawaii. The bonus of it all is that the Federal Government was more paralyzed than normal: Federal offices were shut down for 4 full days. Snow obviously votes Republican
Meanwhile the rest of the country is freaking out about snow. And frankly, I used to laugh about the South closing schools on the anticipation of snow. But when you break it down, the folks down there don't own shovels - they don't even really know what to do with the stuff. There are zero snow plows and no salt or even a salt truck to salt one road, let alone a fleet. So if you're going to make fun of the Southerners in snow, make fun of their survivalist runs on the 7-11 bottled water and grape Pop-Tarts. That's funny.

Meanwhile, the owners of Toyota vehicles and stock didn't have a good week. That's two in a row. And the media and government seem to be extra probing into this story - mainly because the media are all Toyota owners, and the government needs to sell more GM products. If I'm not kidding, prove me wrong. It does seem that Toyota might have held off such a recall until they had to... but I always think about Fight Club. The narrator (Edward Norton) was an automobile company employee who travels to accident sites to perform product recall cost appraisals. There was a magic number of deaths before they'd issue a recall. I'm thinking the number wasn't high enough.
Iran. I ran so far away. They're giving Mr. Obama's open hand of friendship the middle finger. The Iranian government executed some protesters, tear gassed the rest, and told the world they've enriched uranium. Mr. Obama's open hand has failed to end Iran's human rights abuses and also their nuclear ambitions. The response from the US? Go right back to George Bush styled sanctions. No hope. Zero change.
Speaking of zero hope. How about that NASA program. Looks like the 60's are finally over. Unless there's a great profit motive to get there for a US corporation, it looks like the next man on the moon will be a Chinese citizen. Which is fine, except I fear it'll be a Chinese soldier - and he'll be aiming missiles back at the blue planet where he came from.
Sarah Palin wrote some crib notes on her hand. Obama supporters were quick to make fun of her. I'd like to point out that her other hand was stretched out with a purse full of cash. Her profit motive to leave her office and hijack the tea-bag movement, and ultimately the GOP - should be much more troubling then her short term memory of talking points. Both ideologies should be concerned.Speaking of the Tea Baggers [and again, guys, you HAVE to pick a new name!] they've been called the Know-Nothings. This is extremely dangerous and has connotations that are even more dangerous. I prefer the cartoon's description that these folks are Libertarian in heart - and they feel that the Federal, State and Local governments were the right size before. Gigantic, and with all kinds of programs that they like - but they don't want to see it get any bigger. And as their States and Local governments are crying poor, raising taxes to support programs and pensions that they cannot possibly fund - the government is getting larger and spending even more - with money it doesn't have. This is where their anger stems. It's not because Mrs. Pelosi is a woman or Mr. Obama has tan skin - it's because Mrs. Pelosi, Mr. Reed and Mr. Obama aren't listening, and don't care. To dismiss the Tea Baggers as racist is dangerous because to ignore their concerns leads the movement toward radical elements and radical solutions. It would be much more beneficial to recognize their fear and anger. The alternative is President Palin... and if that's not scary, then we can discuss how Napoleon and Mussolini came to power.

Obama Caption Contest

And let me be clear... it's you're, not your. And it's lose not loose. Fixed that for ya' operator.

Post Office Analogy Fail

Obama: "UPS and FedEx are doing just fine. It's the Post Office that's always having problems." ...Which is exactly why we need government-run healthcare? Oppps



Yes! Yes, by Jove, I think he's got it! That's why all us Un-American idiots are against his plan to nationalize 19% of our GDP.

Oh, and Mr. Obama? You might want to repair your Teleprompter for future Town Hall meetings.

Uncle Walter Newsreader Died

This July 1, 1952 file photo provided by CBS shows TV Washington newsman Walter Cronkite. Famed CBS News anchor Walter Cronkite, known as the 'most trusted man in America' died, Friday, July 17, 2009. He was 92.

As anchor and managing editor of the "CBS Evening News" from 1962 to 1981, Cronkite's masterful, disciplined stewardship helped television news come of age. He was arguably the most respected and recognizable media figure of his time.

Okay, so, what's the big deal? He was a news reader. That's right. He simply read the news to a camera. For you youngsters out there, this was the era of not just newspapers, but two editions. One in the morning, and one at night. And some cities had more than three or four papers. No, really.

Also, in the olden-days most events and news items were shot on film. So if there was rioting or a dead body, CBS would have to get a camera guy out to the scene. Shoot a couple shots, then he'd have to race the film back to the office. They'd have to develop the film, edit the film and then finally show the film. It was a laborious, time consuming process. There were extremely strict deadlines. You'd be lucky to get day old news by 11 EST.

What Walter was known for, among other things, was that the concept of the 'anchor chair.' The idea was built around him. He would set up and toss the story to the person in the field covering it. When over, the reporter would toss it back to the studio - it's a concept that's been used ever since the convention of 1959. If you've ever watched a television news cast, you get the concept. Back in the olden-days, the golden age of television - a news cast was someone reading the newspaper into a microphone. Very classy. Boring, even for the radio generation. The anchor - in today's terms - would be the Home Page or the news agitator that you would return to after reading the story you were kind of interested. Like the Reddit or the Fark Main Page. Walter didn't invent it, but it happened around him.

Walter was "the most trusted man in America" for a time. That's scary. However, you must also note that there were only three sources for television news for his entire run. Three. And that's not MSNBC, FOX and The Weather Channel - it was three network news shows. And Walter owned it for two decades straight. Why? Because he had an awesome baritone voice that was easy to listen to. Cronkite had a comforting Midwestern accent and an everyman likability. He came off as everyone's "Uncle Walter," an image he fostered by leaning back in his chair and fiddling with a pipe at the end of nightly broadcasts. When he signed off the news with "And that's the way it is," many Americans believed him.

Some would say that when Cronkite said America couldn't win the war in Vietnam - it was at that point that we lost. Did he have that much pull? Maybe it just took someone like him to finally say what everyone already knew. The difference is, that in the Iraq war, everyone on television was saying that to get the Cronkite vibe - but they all said it three days after the shooting started, and hardly anyone said it BEFORE. Sigh.

Walter sat in his chair like a king, and ran the CBS News as well. He witnessed some amazing things and told America about it... JFK Assassination, Apollo 11, MLK Jr, Vietnam, up to the US-Iranian Hostage crisis. He left the chair at the early years of the Reagan Administration and gave it up to Dan Rather, a biased newsman, who then gave it up for Katie Couric who just reads off the Teleprompter.

Oh, one note, the obituaries that you'll see all day on CBS and probably all the 523 other cable 'news' outlets have had his 'obit package' sitting on a shelf since before he left CBS. They have those things already produced and ready to air for just about every major celebrity. It's awesome creepy.

And that's the way it is.

Teleprompter Fail

Obama's Teleprompter "Falls Apart" During His Speech. Actually, a screw was probably not secured. Either way - watch how he looks to his left again, expecting it to still be there. I thought that was kind of funny.