All about Frasier

I love the Internets! Here's the story behind the pilot episode of the greatest sitcom of all time, as told by one of the show's creators Peter Casey: How FRASIER came to be, More FRASIER, and FRASIER starring Lisa Kudrow??.

Great line of the day

From Maccabee's diary at Kos - Bush Has No Idea How Much Trouble He Is In:

[Neocons] fought no wars, worn no uniforms beyond Cub Scouts, know no Arabic, and are truly impressed with their knowledge of history. . . . These folks are exactly like the anti-Communists after McCarthy. They cannot let go of their addiction to boogymen philosophies: Communism ...Atheism ...Homosexuality ... and now ... Islamism.

Emphasis mine

It is shameful

So this is Christmas
And what have you done?
Another year over
And a new one just begun

This story made me weep.
Why can't Canada do better than this? No Christmas lights or indoor plumbing make for grim Yule on reserve:

. . . "The conditions in Pikangikum would not be tolerated in our suburbs or rural areas," said Dr. Pete Sarsfield, medical officer of health for the Northwestern Health Unit based in Kenora, Ont. "It simply would not be allowed."
"What are they reviewing, the font?" he asked in an interview Tuesday when told that Indian Affairs is still studying the damning 18-page report dated last September.
The report included photos of a frozen outhouse smeared with overflowing human waste, and the plastic containers many of Pikangikum's 2,200 residents use to store untreated lake water for cooking and bathing. Many people can't get to taps for clean water from the reserve's treatment plant because they live too far away, says the report.
Just 43 of the 431 homes located 250 kilometres north of Kenora have running water or indoor toilets, says Susan Bertrand, a spokeswoman for Indian Affairs.
Work to connect the remaining homes has been stalled since 2001. That's when the former Liberal government took over the band's finances - which were in order - citing its failure to deal with a daunting range of social problems. The Federal Court later ruled in Pikangikum's favour but the matter is still before the courts.

And, of course, God forbid any bureaucrat could ever provide some project funding for septic tanks or portable toilets until every last court case is settled -- why, the Auditor General might complain!
Here are some photos of this reserve and its people -- they're working hard to resolve some awful social problems, like high suicide rates, while also trying to promote economic development.
Wouldn't it be nice if the people of Ontario and of Canada could stop getting in their way and give them a bit of a hand for a change, eh?
















Here is the photo credit for the last photo

The Milgaard case

There are three problems with this wrap-up story about the Milgaard inquiry -- problems I fully expect to see repeated in the final report:

In the late 1990s DNA proved that the rapist, Larry Fisher, was indeed the real killer. Fisher had lived in the basement of the home Milgaard was visiting on the morning of the attack.
The inquiry has heard how police originally considered that the then unidentified rapist could have killed Miller, but when one of Milgaard's friends came forward pointing the finger at Milgaard, that lead was never followed through.

Well, it was perhaps a little more than just not following up on a lead.
When Fisher was caught for the Saskatoon rapes a year later, he was put on trial. In Regina. For an inexplicable reason that nobody at all, at all can remember.
And as a result, the Saskatoon media never knew that Larry Fisher existed or that he had raped several women around the same time that Miller was killed or that he lived near the murder scene or that his apartment was in the basement of the house where Milgaard had been visiting that day.
Then there is this:

[Milgaard's lawyer ] Wolch's comments were dismissed by lawyers representing police and prosecutors at the inquiry.

They have consistently "dismissed" the Milgaard side. This has been seen from the beginning as an adversarial proceeding -- two years ago, the Inquiry was almost derailed when it began, in effect, to try to put Milgaard on trial again, just to demonstrate how awfully guilty he looked and how the police and prosecutors really couldn't be blamed for thinking Milgaard was guilty.
And finally, we're supposed to feel sorry for the prosecutors and police, rather than for Milgaard:

Knox called it a "campaign of character assassination." Most of the allegations [of police and prosecutorial targeting] have not been borne out in the evidence brought forward at the inquiry.
Garrett Wilson, the lawyer acting on behalf of Serge Kujawa, the director of public prosecutions who handled Milgaard's original appeal, also took issue with Milgaard supporters and their "shotgun approach" to criticizing justice officials as they tried to get the case reopened.
"That (prosecutors) could be accused of deliberate deception in the conduct of their responsibilities as members of the justice system of Saskatchewan is horrendous, monstrous," Wilson said.

If Milgaard's mother hadn't made her explosive accusations of cover-up and malfeasance, the media wouldn't have played up the story the way they did. And I don't think Milgaard would ever have been freed.
It was Milgaard who spent two decades in jail for a crime he didn't commit. So, no, I don't feel any particular outrage at the "horrendous, monstrous" accusations which the Milgaard supporters made over the years. Comes with the territory, folks.
And we still need an explanation for wisking Fisher down to Regina for that trial.

I read the news today, oh boy

So the Pickton trial is supposed to last a year? How ridiculous, for six charges -- what possible justification could there be to take any more than two weeks per murder, 12 weeks tops, to hear the evidence? He only has to be found guilty of one or two anyway. Prosecutors better watch out that they aren't being played here, with the goal of being able to appeal based on the jury being prejudiced against the defendant.

Here's a 'pot calls the kettle black' story -- Bush Aides Seek Alternatives to Iraq Study Group’s Proposals, Calling Them Impractical. Yeah, like Bush's plans for the war have been the height of rationality and focus. And here's an analogy I've never seen before:

The report’s authors say their strategy will work only if taken largely as a whole; Mr. Baker warned against treating it like a “fruit salad,” picking the juiciest pieces. The White House, however, appears to be groping for the right fork to do exactly that.

Rick Salutin calls it Canada's own "hanging chads" scandal -- the emerging storyline that the RCMP used a big public announcement of the income-trust investigation last December to make sure Paul Martin's Liberals were defeated and Steven Harper's Conservatives were elected.

Colbert responds to the news that "truthiness" is dictionary publisher Merriam-Webster's word of the year:

"Though I'm no fan of reference books and their fact-based agendas, I am a fan of anyone who chooses to honour me. And what an honour. Truthiness now joins the lexicographical pantheon with words like 'squash', 'merry', 'crumpet', 'the', 'xylophone', 'circuitous', 'others' and others."

Wasn't truthiness also some linguist association's word for last year, too? The way the world is now, I guess it could stand for more than one year.

Finally, how about this? Now, I've been to the occasional restaurant that I WISHED was darker, but...

The Coolest 8 Year Old In The World Talks About O'Reilly

This was from Al Rodgers' diary on Kos. It's passing strange but strangely fascinating.

Great Line of the Day

From Meteor Blades:

. . . If the current fatality rate holds [in Iraq], more Americans will die this month than any previous month since the war began.
If Russ Feingold’s August 2005 proposal for withdrawal had been adopted, the last American troops would be leaving Iraq in a couple of weeks. . . . But Feingold’s, and the proposal by Brian Katulis and Larry Korb, and John Kerry’s, and Jack Murtha’s and Wes Clark’s have all been ignored. So, the skulls are stacked, American, Iraqi and others, the bloodbath goes on, and the dithering ceases not. With no end in sight.

Emphasis mine.

It was 26 years ago that John Lennon died

For me, this was the day the music died. Read this Kos diary about that terrible night.
Don't you wonder what songs he would have written?

To the barricades!

In his post titled The principal sin of the Baker-Hamilton Report, Glenn Greenwald says it took less than a month for the Washington Gang of 500 and the Wise Old Men to repudiate the November election results and decide that the US should stay in Iraq -- ignoring the fact that six out of ten Americans want the American troops out of Iraq by next June.

. . . They now recognize that Americans have given up on the war but they believe that that view is rash, uninformed, emotional -- "precipitous," to use the condescending label assigned to that view by the [Baker-Hamilton] Report. The crazed and lowly masses need the steady, sober hand of the Washington Establishment . . . before the ink was dry on the Report, all of the entrenched propagandists for the Washington Establishment fell all over themselves praising its great wisdom and pronouncing it to be the solemn duty of all serious people to endorse it.
. . . We just had an election where Americans repudiated this war and made clear that they want to withdraw. Yet somehow, within a matter of weeks, Washington power circles were able to shoo that election result away like the annoying mosquito that it is and supplant their own pro-war judgment as the "mainstream" view to which all serious people, by definition, pledge their allegiance.

Its time for 60s deja vu -- when the "establishment" won't listen, man, ya gotta hit the streets -- again!




Photos from Marcin Fuchs' archive.

Depends what the meaning of "temporary" is

The US military bases in Iraq are the 800 lb gorilla -- no matter how bad things get for Iraqis, no matter how violent the civil war becomes, no matter how disfunctional the government, no matter how much the war costs or how many US soldiers die, the Bush administration simply does not want to give up those bases.
LiberalOasis notes the little dance that the Iraq Study Group is doing around the military base question -- "permanent" bases bad, but "temporary" bases OK:

RECOMMENDATION 22: The President should state that the United States does not seek permanent military bases in Iraq. If the Iraqi government were to request a temporary base or bases, then the U.S. government could consider that request as it would in the case of any other government.

In the context of a report that does not envision any sort of timetable for withdrawal, and does envision the "imbedding of substantially more U.S. military personnel in all Iraqi Army battalions and brigades, as well as within Iraqi companies," for "some time," "temporary" can easily be perceived by the Iraqi people as a cloak for "permanent." . . . back in March, AP described what the Americans are doing:

The concrete goes on forever [at Balid air base], vanishing into the noonday glare, 2 million cubic feet of it, a mile-long slab that's now the home of up to 120 U.S. helicopters, a "heli-park" as good as any back in the States.
At another giant base, al-Asad in Iraq's western desert, the 17,000 troops and workers come and go in a kind of bustling American town, with a Burger King, Pizza Hut and a car dealership, stop signs, traffic regulations and young bikers clogging the roads.

And this pool at the Balad air base north of Baghdad is certainly not an inflatable:

Move along, move along

Coming soon to a peaceful demonstration near you -- the US military's new 'Goodbye' weapon which makes you feel like your skin is burning up thus forcing you to run away from the police as fast as you can -- but, they tell us, don't worry; its all completely harmless -- hey, didn't somebody say that about the taser, too?

I read the news today, oh boy

Pressure mounts on RCMP chief -- as well it should. Mahar Arar's attorney says:

“. . . If [RCMP commissioner Zaccardelli] knew [that Mahar Arar was innocent], he remained silent and didn't do anything to protect an innocent man for over a year. But if he didn't know, which is what he's saying today, then this leads to a whole series of questions. Who's running the RCMP?”

Over at the Wheat Board, Measner's firing is a not-subtle message to every civil servant in Ottawa -- if you want to keep your job, you must back the Conservatives ideologues, especially when they are lying to the public. The Conservatives pretend to be the party of principles, but they can't defend their policies. Stahl can fire Measner in a fit of pique, but if he tries to abolish single-desk wheat marketing without a producer vote, he'll be tied up in court for the next five years.

Vancouver health clinic wonders how to pay bills without charging patients. Well, I'll just bet they're wondering now -- the tone of this piece implies we should all feel sorry for this medical clinic, but shouldn't the clinic owners have checked this out a little better before they bought all that state-of-the-art equipment?

Looking south, Swopa writes about Cheney's recent summons to Saudi Arabia and points out that the United States is between a rock and a hard place in Iraq --

So the Saudis (and the Sunnis they back in Iraq) say X is unacceptable, and the Shiites (backed by Iran) say that anything besides X is unacceptable. Good luck finding a solution to that problem, Dick.

And does anyone else agree that Bush Sr. seems to be cracking up?

"Strategizing" equal rights?

If Dion lets the Conservatives win any vote on same-sex marriage, no matter how harmless the motion appears to be, just because he is trying to pander to his caucus -- well, then, he might as well quit right now.
For the Liberals to throw gay rights under the first bus to pass them by would mean either that the Liberal caucus members are gutless when faced with any kind of organized lobby group, or that Dion himself is too gutless to lead the caucus in a controversial question. Either way, they're toast.
The Liberals are running the "free vote" idea up the flagpole as a "strategic" question. This is fine, I guess, as long as gay marriage itself doesn't lose in the process:

Liberal Leader Stephane Dion is poised to allow his MPs to vote freely on the question of reopening the same-sex marriage debate, musing that imposing party discipline would only hand the Conservative government more leverage on the issue . . . if the question was strictly on striking down the right of gays to marry [Dion]would in fact insist on voting the party line.
But Dion said for now it's important to think strategically.
"If we have a party vote, he'll say that I muzzled my MPs and that if I had let them vote freely the motion would have passed," Dion said of Harper.
"Maybe from a strategic point of view, it would be better to have a free vote."
Dion is doubtless also trying to avoid conflict on his first week on the job. A handful of Liberal MPs are in favour of revisiting the same-sex issue, and would have to be disciplined if they acted out of step with a whipped vote . . .
. . . there seems almost no chance the vote will pass in the Commons, with the Bloc Quebecois and the NDP both imposing party discipline, and the vast majority of Liberals against reopening the debate.
A number of Conservatives, including cabinet ministers John Baird, Jim Prentice, Loyola Hearn and David Emerson are also expected to vote against the motion, along with a number of other Tory MPs.

But how much "leverage" would Dion and the Liberals have if a majority in the Commons actually did vote to re-open the gay marriage issue -- just because everyone was too busy strategizing and pandering and triangulating and all that, and didn't get an accurate count?

Great line of the day

From Ken Levine:

I read where clown Emmet Kelly Jr. passed away, a sad event, and my heart goes out to his family and friends. But I just can’t help imaging the funeral procession – one hearse filled with two hundred mourners.

I read the news today, oh boy

Police identify woman, child in deadly plunge -- It is a tragedy when society cannot intervene in time to stop a person from committing suicide, but I sometimes wish we could start a group or a movement or a poster campaign or something called "Don't Take Your Children With You".
Tori Spelling To Pen Memoirs -- that will be a short book, won't it?
Bush: 'I'm not happy' about Bolton's resignation -- well, I am. The "quintessential kiss-up, kick-down sort of guy" and "serial abuser" of subordinates is toast. And some of the news stories aren't just mindlessly repeating the White House lie that the Democrats cost Poor John his job; they are actually reporting the truth, that his nomination was derailed by several key Senate Republicans. The Galloping Beaver has a good take on the whole thing, too.
3 members of missing family found alive -- so they drove off through mountains in the winter with a toddler and a baby, and no extra food or water or clothing, and apparently without telling anyone their route. But its hard to be too critical, I guess -- they were from San Fransisco, and may not have realized that winter weather kills unprepared people. Even here in Saskatchewan, it seems like somebody freezes to death every winter just because they took off driving somewhere without giving the weather a moment's thought.
Echidne of the snakes writes about the Fear of Insufficient Womanliness Test and the Fear of Excessive Womanliness Text applied to women in politics. "Just imagine if men like Tony Blair or George Bush would have to pass a similar Excessive Manliness Test where they'd have to prove that they won't suddenly go all red-faced and bulgy-eyed with anger, that they won't get carried away with penis-comparisons, that they won't fail to see social cues in the behavior of VIPs from other countries." Or, I suppose, start any illegal, unprovoked and unnecessary wars just to prove what Real Men they are...