Month: November 2006

I found them both to be really good.

It is interesting to note that these two titles had the same penciler but the looks were totally different.

Kath

Whatever else you do in the off-season, you must–MUST–make arrangements for John Hall and Stephen Colbert to sing the National Anthem on opening day, 2007. Their perfectly harmonized performance was one of the best renditions of “The Star Spangled Banner” I’ve ever heard. They’re two New York guys, the Mets are the division champs…it’s just got to happen.

PAD

We attended United Fan Con in Springfield, MA, this past weekend. A very smoothly run, very “personable” (if that word applies) convention. In attendance were old friends Jewel Staite and her husband, Matt Anderson, Claudia Christian, Peter Tork and Davey Jones of “The Monkees,” two of “The Lone Gunmen,” and Grace Park of BSG. The most high-profile guest, however, was William Shatner. When I was fifteen years old, Shatner was in a play at a theater in New Jersey. My father, a reporter, pulled some strings so that I could interview Shatner for my school newspaper. Now, with Ariel the same age as I was, I managed to do the same thing so that she could interview him for her school newspaper. Worked out great. One has to admire UFC’s efficiency in siphoning a huge number of people through both for autographings and picture taking. Credit Shatner for handling it all: Having just flown in to Boston Airport and limoed out, he was clearly running on fumes, but still managed to fulfill all his obligations.

Met a lot of fans, many of whom were pleasantly surprised that I wasn’t charging for autographs.

PAD

Gotta give Bush credit: He made the exact right move at the exact right time. Ditching Rumsfeld, the single most visible symbol of the Iraq debacle short of Bush himself, was perfectly timed. Had he dumped Rummy shortly before the election, it would have been seen as a desperation move. I suppose there’s a possibility that it might have changed the outcome, which has been seen as a voter repudiation of the war. But I don’t think it’s a sizable chance, and probably would have been seen as a case of “too little, too late.” In this instance, though, it managed to grab headlines from the Democratic triumph back to the White House. Bush has snared the spin cycle before the election dust has settled. He did the right thing in getting rid of an advisor who has given him nothing but bad advice and been a PR catastrophe on more than one occasion, and he did it at a time when his support base is at an all-time moral low. He has sent a definite message: He’s not going to be spending the next two years with more of the same and staying the course, steering the remainder of his presidency into irrelevancy.

With a smartening-up Bush and a newly energized Democratic majority, let’s see if the government finally gets on the right track.

PAD

The people have spoken. They have put the Democrats back in charge of the House, and–as of this writing–are two seats away from retaking the Senate. Furthermore, on the state level, another attempt at banning gay marriage was voted down, along with a ban on abortion and a nod for stem cell research. Virtually all of this can be attributed to Bush’s policies on everything from Iraq to science to morality.

President Bush, the acclaimed uniter, not divider, now has a choice: To honor the will of the people and do everything he can over the next two years to work with the new political landscape and try to give the people what they want and need. Or to do everything possible to block any and all progress on any number of issues the Democrats may try to make while foisting the blame for gridlock onto the Dems in an attempt to put the GOP in position to retake their power base in the next election.

I have every confidence in which direction he’ll go.

PAD

As the voting unfolds, I figured I should just have a separate place for folks to discuss the results. So far the Democrats seem to be kicking ášš and taking names, despite the GOP’s desperate attempts to turn John Kerry into a cause celebre.

Looking forward to the Daily Show’s live episode. It’ll be interesting to see Colbert’s reaction if it’s a Democratic sweep.

PAD