Archive for: September, 2006

Have the netroots lost their mojo?

Sep 25 2006 Published by under Bloggers, Miscellany, Politics, The Internet

The most recent issue of Time magazine contains an article asking if the netroots have hit their limit that totally misses the point. This article seems to be the next logical piece to be written on netroots. In politics you’re either getting articles written because you are a rising star, or you’re getting articles written about your impending demise.

Leading up to the Connecticut primary, the liberal netroots were still rising (despite the fact that their track record up to that point was less than stellar). Since Lamont’s primary victory, and subsequently falling in the polls to Lieberman regarding the general election, the media is ready to bring them down. I disagree with the timing of this story, and have a feeling Time magazine felt it was due for one of those cute stories about online activists, so this is the apparent result.

To answer the actual question raised in the story, I don’t think the netroots are anywhere close to reaching their full potential; on the right or the left. Rome wasn’t built in a day. American Idol wasn’t as huge as it is now overnight. And some things just get better with time. The internet is no exception. The techology of real people advocating and achieving change via the Internet is still very new, and will take many more cycles before all the bugs can be worked out of the system. To throw judgement at the architects of this movement less than two cycles into the medium is premature. Additionally, I don’t think the real influence of online activists will be known until one side learns to adequately mesh together the grassroots component of campaigns with the online. That’s where the Republican’s are far superior than the Democrats, and that’s where we may see things start to take shape in 2008.

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What’s On TV

Sep 25 2006 Published by under Miscellany, Programming, Television

I’ve been somewhat remiss to comment on the new TV season. Between family events, the work on ABC PAC, constantly waiting to see what the Senate is going to do with telecom reform, and just trying to be a good dad to Little Quip, I have actually found time to TiVo and view most of the stuff I wanted to see this fall. Some of it is good, some of it is trite, but surprisingly, none of it has been downright awful.

As a service to my collegaues working insane hours on campaigns, I’d like to offer this brief (ok, not really) rundown of what you should be watching come November 8th. I’m breaking this down by day and I’m skipping Saturday and Sunday since those days are for catching up on TiVo’d programs, watching football, or generally not partaking in network programming.

Monday Night

The Fox lineup includes Prison Break and Vanished. They’re both decent shows with Prison Break entering its second season and Vanished debuting this fall.

Prison Break was actually getting kind of tedious last year with the network finding new and creative ways to make ten days in prison and one year on TV seem like a lifetime for viewers. This season continues that tradition with pretty much the same plot every week. Last season the plot was “How do we get out of prison, this season is how do we stay out. They seem to have misplaced the storyline about the Vice President’s brother being dirty and the framing of Lincoln, but they’ve added a bunch of personal lines, so this may be going the way of Melrose Place and 90210 – moving from story driven to personality driven.

Vanished has been pretty good so far, but given the same premise (kidnapped family of prominent individual) is being run Wednesday’s on NBC (see Kidnapped below) with a superior cast; the 9PM (8 Central/Mountain) time slot will pit Vanished against the eagerly anticipated NBC program Heroes, and those looking for comedy will likely flick to CBS, I suspect Vanished may disappear soon.

Over at NBC, Deal Or No Deal kicks off the night for the geriatric game show set. Honestly, I can’t see the appeal in that show. It’s followed by Heroes (which debuts tonight) and Studio 60 (think West Wing meets the set of Saturday Night Live). Those two shows will probably end up owning Monday nights if the dramas don’t split audiences to let CBS’ comedies win.

CBS is the only network with a slate of sit-coms on Monday night, and most of them (I’m reserving a final judgment on The Class until tonight) are good. The Class has an interesting premise (dork gets his third grade class together to celebrate his relationship with a classmate only to have her dump him in front of them all), but could go bad quickly. I can’t stand Julia Louis Dreyfus, so I’m also excluding her show. The only way she could be less appealing is if she teamed with Fran Drescher.

ABC, rounding out the night, has Wife Swap (which is another concept I don’t get seeing as it doesn’t involve actual swinging) and ABC tonight is trying the Anne Heche show Men In Trees in the 10pm slot. That’s not a bad show (think Northern Exposure meets Sex in the City‘s Carrie Bradshaw) but given the number of different time slots they’ve tested with it, they seem to be looking hard for an audience. Expect Anne to be unemployed again soon.

Tuesday Night

Last season Tuesday was sort of the big black hole of network programming. This season isn’t much better with a couple of notable exceptions. The Peacock network has lined up The Law and Order marathon on Tuesday nights, so if you’re into stories that are “ripped from the headlines” you’ll probably be ok on Tuesdays.

Fox lines up House (which I never really liked, but has a strong following) and a new show called Standoff. Standoff isn’t bad. Ron Livingston (of Office Space fame) plays a hostage negotiator who is sleeping with his partner. So far, it looks pretty good.

Over on ABC, Dancing with the Stars, a new Ted Danson project (yes he’s still alive and playing the same character for the 38th year running) called Help Me Help You, and Boston Legal make the night.

CBS offers up a stable of proven winners with CSI and NCIS returning and joined by the new show Smith. Smith (Ray Liotta of Goodfellas) is some sort of master criminal who is trying to balance being a rogue thief with the trials of being a family man. It’s like Analyze This without the funny little shrink. I suspect it’s going away soon, but the first episode wasn’t too shabby.

Wednesday Night

I know a lot of people who weren’t thrilled with the last season of Lost, and I suspect they’re going to be really unhappy this year. The show returns in October for six weeks, then disappears until spring. For a show based on a continual cliffhanger, a 3-4 month absence twice a year is awful. Only HBO seems to be able to pull that off.

Dancing with the Stars and 20/20 round out the ABC lineup (for tonight at least) and I’m not sure if/when Invasion is returning.

Over on NBC, it’s mucho, mucho grande hombres with two hours of Biggest Loser. If you don’t know the premise of Biggest Loser, think of it as a reality TV series based on a fat farm. That is followed by Kidnapped. With Timothy Hutton, Dana Delaney, Delroy Lindo, Jeremy Sisto and Mykelti Williamson, this has the stronger cast of the two serialized kidnap dramas this fall. It should last unless it goes head to head with Lost.

The Big Eye brings us Jericho. It’s a good show about a town dealing with the uncertainty of the world after nuclear bombs appear to have wiped out (at least) Denver and Atlanta and left the town’s citizens cutoff from the rest of the world. If you’re not into ballroom dancing and fat camp, Jericho should be the show for you. It’s followed by Criminal Minds and another CSI.

Thursday Night

NBC brings back much of its Thursday night lineup with The Office, My Name is Earl and ER returning. At least for tonight they’re joined by yet another episode of Deal or No Deal.

CBS has a pretty lame lineup with the highly promoted, but no longer watched Survivor, and yet another CSI. The one bright spot on Thursday for Katie Couric’s new network is the James Woods helmed Shark. Shark tells the story of a defense attorney who gets a wife beater off only to have him kill his wife that evening. After a crisis of conscience, he becomes a prosecutor to teach new ADA’s how to win against big league defense attorney’s. The first episode was pretty good, so I have hopes. ABC’s Ugly Betty and Grey’s Anatomy may end up owning the 8-10 slot with ER and Shark duking it out for the 10pm win.

I suspect the ABC drama Six Degrees will be pushed aside quickly. That’s unfortunate since the first episode was actually pretty decent. The cast of Six Degrees includes Bridget Moynahan (I, Robot and Serendipity), Dorian Missick (Two Weeks Notice), Campbell Scott (Singles), and Erika Christensen (Traffic). It’s a strong ensemble, but perhaps a bit slow moving.

Friday Night

Honestly, I don’t really know why I’m including Friday night. It’s really sort of a hodge-podge of repeat performances, game shows, news shows, and other assorted muck with only CBS offering a lot of original programming. CBS is bringing Ghost Whisperer, Numb3rs, and Close to Home back for another season.

Those show are greeted by another Deal or No Deal installment on NBC. Deal joins Law and Order which moves to it’s new Friday 10pm slot. (10pm Friday’s, Saturday prime time and Sunday nights are usually where programs go to die, so make your peace with Law and Order).

Repeats of shows from earlier in the week and news programs dot the schedules for Fox, NBC and ABC. Justice, a new show from Fox, is trying on a different time slot. The show is pretty good, but how many lawyer/cop dramas can one season stand. I suspect this one may go the way of last season’s ABC series Injustice.

Grey’s Anatomy fills space for ABC with 20/20 while Men in Trees airs an original episode. Celebrity Duets (ugh!) and Dateline round out the shows for FOX and NBC respectively.

So that’s what’s on TV. One thing that strikes me so far is the number of actors normally associated with the big screen who are making a transition to the small box. Delroy Lindo, Ray Liotta, James Woods, and others should throw some of the traditional guessing about which series will survive into a tailspin. How much fan loyalty do these guys have? Can they keep a show afloat, or are they doing TV because their fan base has dried up? It’s really kind of hard to say.

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DVD Review – The Sentinel

Sep 25 2006 Published by under Action Movies, Movie Reviews, Movies

I’ll be honest, I had less than no interest in seeing The Sentinel when it hit theaters. I actively tried to avoid it. That was still my plan until a guy on a plane from DC to Denver told me how good it was. I broke down and added it to my queue on NetFlix.

It’s not terrible, but it’s certainly not great. Keifer Sutherland as Jack Bauer David Breckinridge, turned in the same performance he’s given for the last three seasons of 24. Michael Douglas gave the same performance he gives in every single movie he has ever been in. Kim Baisinger proved, yet again, how totally one dimensional she is. Last but not least, Eva Longoria is completely useless. If standing around looking pretty was an Olympic sport, she might be a medalist; but I don’t see any Oscars in her future.

Despite the flattest cast in a movie that I have seen in a long time, the movie was surprisingly decent. It’s not going to win any Oscars either, but it’s probably an ok way to kill two hours without feeling cheated.

The story is rather thin and revolves around a plot to assassinate the President that involves a Secret Service agent. Michael Douglas is boning the first lady, and due to an inadvertent stop in the wrong coffee shop on the wrong day ends up as the prime suspect.

The premise was solid, but I would have liked a more suspenseful movie. You knew who the killers were, you knew that Michael Douglas was hiding the affair, and you knew the back-story on the tension between Douglas and Keifer in the first five minutes of the film. I would have preferred a script that let those details out gradually.

Tell me Douglas is having an affair, but make me think it’s with Sutherland’s wife before you reveal he’s actually banging the President’s wife. Better yet, make the affair the reason for the assassination attempt, but make the bad guy the First Lady. She could want to get away from the President, but not want a messy divorce, so she gets one agent to do the dirty work while she’s servicing Douglas. As it is, the plot involves some odd reference to the former KGB and a double agent that really falls flat 15 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall.

In the unlikely event the guy from Greeley stumbles upon my blog, I’ll say thanks for the tip. The movie did entertain me for a while, but that was largely due to my time spent thinking of ways it could have been better.

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Where Does Responsibility End?

Sep 22 2006 Published by under Bloggers, Candidates, Congress, Craziness, Elections, Government, Politics, Republicans, Society, Stuff That Sucks, The Internet

I’ve spent a lot of time in the last year thinking about the concept of endorsements and what constitutes one, and what doesn’t. This is mainly along two lines. First, if a political entity uses a particular technology (or even acknowledges the fact that it exists) does that constitute an endorsement of said technology. Second, if some random nutjob supports my party/campaign/product, and that fact becomes public knowledge, do I become tainted simply by association?

The first example I have covered before… And I’ve covered it again… Merely recognizing something as a physical reality is not, and should not be considered an endorsement. Let me give you an example – Mountain Dew. I have, by referencing it here, acknowledged the product. If you search Technorati for that term, you’ll likely turn up this blog. In politics, that is considered an endorsement.

The truth is I hate Mountain Dew. It tastes the way I imagine rat vomit would taste. I’d rather blow a goat than drink Mountain Dew. It’s vile and nasty. So the fact that I have recognized it’s presence in society as a product does not mean I think you should drink it… I don’t… Ever… Nobody should… It’s evil in a can or plastic bottle…

So let’s move on to the second kind of endorsement.

David Duke is apparently supporting Randy Graf in Arizona-08. That’s kind of apalling on the surface, but let me ask this… Who really cares? And would they know or care if not for the internet?

The Internet (let’s limit the definition to the “browsable” internet) has been around for about 12 years (ok, it’s arguable, but I’m using Andreessen’s browser as the start date, quibble in the comments if you must). Prior to that date, if some nutjob racist supported a candidate (D or R) you would probably never know. The campaign would probably never know, and it would probably not be an issue.

Today, however, is a different world. Today we encourage candidates to set up MySpace profiles to attract friends who can help the campaign. But it’s all BS given that oppo-research guys working for the other side will troll every one of your “friends” to find someone with something shameful they can use to attack your campaign. If you post on MySpace, beware. The guy or girl you are running against will be looking at every one who connects with you to find an embarrassing link.

So I was asked if I would be posting about Graf. Seeing as I savaged Laffey for his homophobic comments in college, it seemed I should beat up on Graf for the Duke connection.

The truth is I see these as two completely different cases. If Graf had made racist remarks, I would be all over him. But I don’t equate support from a racist to the candidate being racist. The first Graf knew of Duke’s endorsement was likely the first time the media called and asked about the blog post (assuming they have already).

I have plenty of reasons to oppose candidates based on their positions and personalities. I don’t need to lump them together with someone else to find a reason to like or dislike them. There are plenty of reasons to dislike people on an individual basis, and lumping them together with others in order to dislike them is no different from racism anyway.

All of this is my way of saying I think the current trend of “guilt by association regardless of how tenuous” is a dangerous slope. If we start down that road, it’s only a matter of time until candidates are attacked because their best friend’s neighbor’s sister’s dog walker once handed out copies of Mein Kampf. Given the power of the Internet, it would not be hard to track that information down.

The real power to make or break this cycle, however, lies with us and the media. As long as bloggers try to make these connections to score a political point, the reporters will treat it as news. And as long as the media reports things like the David Duke connection as news, the people who get their news in 10 second sound bites every night at 5:30 will think it’s valid political fodder.

So let me state right now, for the record, just because I mentioned Randy Graf, David Duke, racism, Mein Kampf, the 5:30 news, rat vomit, blowing goats, and MySpace does not mean I endorse any of them. What I do endorse is thinking for yourself, analyzing candidates based on what they believe, and voting against all incumbents just on general principles.

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X-Men: The Last Highlander

Sep 21 2006 Published by under Action Movies, Awful Movies, Craziness, Movie Marketing, Movies

Forgive me for writing this so late… Since Little Quip came into the world, I have only seen a couple of movies in the theater. I’m not the kind of guy that can easily ignore the disgruntled groans of my fellow movie-goers as my child cries or complains and I blissfully ignore him in favor of the big screen action. One of these days he may get to experience a first-run film, but I will settle for DVDs until that day. I also get to catch the occasional flick on a plane flight, which brings me to my current post.

While flying to Wyoming the other day, I was able to catch X-Men: The Last Stand. It was a decent flick, but may be one of the more inappropriately titled movies ever. Here are my two issues…

First, how can you get stabbed with several darts full of the “No Longer A Mutant” serum, and still have powers? Second, how can you have a movie subtitled “The Last Stand”, imply at the end that all is well and everyone is going to get along, and then blatantly leave the door open for a sequel? The least they could have done is put a question mark on the movie posters.

I realize this is all just formulaic Hollywood nonsense. They have to leave room in every action flick for a sequel just in case it’s a hit. If you tidy things up nicely at the end, and the movie kicks ass, it’s hard to make a sequel that isn’t completely laughable in its attempt to justify itself.

My favorite example of this concept going terribly wrong is Highlander, Highlander II: The Quickening, and Highlander III: The Final Dimension. They spent five years trying to figure out how to make “There can be only one” mean “There can be only one until more aliens come to earth and then there can be more than one until there is only one again” and finally ended up with “There never really was only one because there was this one guy who got locked in a cave so at best there were two and we’re not even going to try to address the whole alien angle in this movie because even we realize how stupid that was.”

There have been other examples like the Friday the 13th franchise and the Nightmare on Elm Street Franchise, but even they don’t come close to the ridiculousness of the Highlander series.

Anyway, I digress. My point is this, and I hope someone in Hollywood is listening, rather than spending years trying to come up with some bizarre explanation for why “The End” never actually means “The End”, why not invest that time and energy in creating new concepts? I realize it may be hard to think up new stories, but it can’t be any harder than trying to figure out ways to get out of the box you created.

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