Off With Their Heads!

This article appears in The Advertiser. Whomever does not show up for this bus trip should be drawn and quartered and fed to crawfish.

What the hell are these people paid for? Perhaps they could use several feet of salt water infused with marsh mud, marsh grass, and unknown forms of bacteria swirling through their precious homes for two days in 90+ degree heat and humidity, followed by spending the next several days discarding nearly EVERYTHING they own into a pile outside their house and be forced to look at it for weeks on end because FEMA has its head so far up its ass, they couldn't coordinate a bake sale.

Otherwise, flood their offices with emails and phone calls as to how disgraceful they are. Let's hope the press keeps tabs on who does not show up.

To borrow a line from Faye Dunaway's character in "Network": "...I'll sack the fucking lot of you."

Rg

My Library

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Color Me Barbra

If you think the era of the television musical special was over, there's always PBS.

Several months ago Great Performances ran "My Name Is Barbra", Barbra Streisand's first television special originally broadcast nearly forty years ago during the waning days of TV's golden era, as part of its pledge drive coinciding with the DVD release of a collection of Streisand's television specials.

This past week Great Performances continued with "Color Me Barbra", her second special and first to be broadcast in color, at the time a still-burgeoning format.

As I was with the first special, I was once again stunned by the phenomenal talent that emerged during the mid-1960's.

In the first set Ms. Streisand wanders through Philadelphia's glorious art museum, becoming and singing as the character in various works of art. Two standouts are when she charges through the modern art section with "Gotta Move" decked out in a hip, multi-color dress, her trademark eye-makeup encrusted with sequins; and then as an Egyptian royal contemplating an exquisite "Where or When" to a bust of an Egyptian king.

She begins the second set introducing us to her dog, which was a gift from the cast of Funny Girl and recalls that when she opened the box she "thought, terrific a warm hat! Then the hat got up and walked under the couch!" Her recitation of her affection for animals leads into a frolic through a circus tent filled with baby animals, singing a medley of songs while she rhumbas with a baby elephant's trunk to "Were Thine That Special Face" and observes 'We have so much in common...' from Gypsy's "Small World" with an anteater. As we discover the whole sojourn was just a fantasy she wonders if "I Stayed To Long at the Fair" then segue ways into a ringing "Look At That Face" as she sings to her dog.

The third and final set is in front of a studio audience and includes a sensuously driving "Where Am I Going" from Sweet Charity, and concludes as she soars into the majesty of Maltby and Shire's "Starting Here, Starting Now". She's accompanied throughout the show by astonishing arrangements performed by an orchestra of a scale and extravagance that's nearly extinct on national television.

Viewing this show gives one pause, recalling what television used to be.

Rg

Like I said...

"My God, they're going to kill us all!"

That phrase by the way is what the late Texas Governor John Connelly screamed while seated in front of President Kennedy in the limousine in Dallas on November 22, 1963 when shots rang out in Dealy Plaza.

Once again there is proof via the Associated Press:

Tape: Bush, Chertoff Warned Before Katrina

Jon Stewart of "The Daily Show" was on "Larry King Live" the other night and eerily uttered a phrase I used in a prior email on this subject: "What else is it going to take?"

Four days after Katrina hit Louisiana and Mississippi, Bush, in an interview on ABC, claimed that nobody anticipated the breach of the levees. And just the other day in another interview on ABC, Bush said he did not have "situational awareness" as his reasoning for the woeful federal response to the aftermath and the suffering of thousands.

This tape shows that Bush obviously lied to the nation on two occasions.

Or since he decided to go to parties and fundraisers in California and Arizona while New Orleans was drowning, perhaps he forgot?

He claims he didn't know about a deal to transfer ownership of managing some of our ports to the United Arab Emirates - a country which supported the Taliban, refuses to recognize Israel's right to exist, and has a spotty record on control of terrorism financing - until members of Congress finally decided to do their jobs?

Dare I use a line from the film "All the President's Men" and suggest that somebody "follow the money"?

The Republican members of Congress were so hell-bent on impeaching President Clinton for lying about sex under oath, even though they knew removal from office was impossible. And by the way, Kenneth Starr's allegations of lying under oath and obstruction of justice were achieved by a discrepancy in testimony regarding whether or not Bill Clinton fondled Monica Lewinsky's breasts. He said he didn't, she said he did. Whatever!

The author Norman Mailer was on "Hannity & Colmes" on the Fox News Channel last night and declared that half this country was stupid. Hannity called him an "elitist snob" for that remark.

Yesterday a study was released that found that less than 1% of respondents could name all five points covered in the 1st Amendment to the United States Constitution, and that a much larger percentage could name all the characters of "The Simpsons" and all three judges on "American Idol." And since all the broadcast and news networks chose to devote an extraordinary amount of time covering Anna Nicole Smith's sojourn to the Supreme Court, my conclusion is...

Yeah, half this country is stupid, or maybe ignorant is a kinder term.

How much longer are we going to put up with this?

Rg