YELLIN' AT HELEN

Everyone's Stopped Drinking the Kool Aid

Has it really been two weeks since I last blogged? Ugh, that's pathetic. I have no excuse either--I've been lazy. Okay, I've been putting in some major OT at the job, but so what? It's not exactly working at the coal mine. I am ashamed. But there's a lot on my mind now, for what it's worth. Take the President's news conference this morning. Dubya sounds very much like a cult leader that has started to believe his own lies. The press corps meanwhile, sounds like it has awakened from a drug-induced torpor and is now looking around the jungle blinking, a bit lost, but finally ready to kick ass and take names. (Yes, I am the king of both the tortured simile and the maladroit metaphor.)

The legendary Helen Thomas--God bless Helen Thomas, she's never given up asking the hard questions, even though this administration has stopped just one step short of exiling her to the gulag--asked a question about how Bush and his people have never been straight with the American people about why we invaded Iraq, and how every explanation and every reason has turned out to be false or at least misleading and how Bush has always maintained "it's not about the oil" but, Helen wondered, is it about the oil? After three years, what is Iraq about? And Bush, our fearless, twice unelected leader, turned red-faced and started spluttering this long-winded, semi-cogent answer about how after 9/11 he made up his mind America would never be victimized again, and how the U.S. tried oh so desperately to get the United Nations to enforce the sanctions (that was a real sincere ploy, wasn't it?) on Iraq and how if Saddam Hussein had just answered the questions and provided the documentation to prove he had no weapons of mass destruction, then the U.S. wouldn't have had to invade, and on and on and on and on, his voice rising in decibel levels and his posture becoming increasingly bullying as he went on, but he never ever quite answered the question because he knew, in the deep, dark corners of his heart, that Helen had him busted, that Iraq had always been a preordained power and oil grab for whic 9/11 merely provided the perfect framework, Bush knows that all those thousands of deaths both American and Iraqi have made a lot of people very rich and that it will continue to do so, long after Iraq has disintegrated into the Civil War that Dick Cheney keeps insisting will never happen.

If only all Americans could have seen how Bush recycled all of his previous Iraq speeches with anger, seen how obvious his discomfort was and how tortured his logic became in trying to answer the question. Tracy turned to me and said, "It's obvious he's lying. He's using anger as a cover," and she was completely right. What an affront that is to all the Cindy Sheehan's and other parents who have lost someone in this conflict--their anger is real and just and it goes unanswered by this administration, which instead would prefer that "we not focus on the bloodshed."

Oh, how I wish the calendar read 2008, and this murderous idiot had only a few months left to serve as Leader of the Free World.

A Couple of TV Notes

It's become clear from the first two episodes of this last Soprano's season, that when David Chase's mob soap is on it's game, it's far and away the best show on television. It's also still the most overpraised show on television, which is why it has way fewer Emmy awards than it deserves--let's face it, if you worked in the TV biz, and you were constantly hearing about what a masterpiece The Sopranos is, how it trumps everything else on television and most things in the movie theaters, and so on and so forth, it would be almost impossible for you not to resent the show just a little. Despite the existence of Michael Jackson and Joan Rivers, the entertainment industry is still full of (mostly) flesh and blood humans. So, it's only natural that maybe people in the television business won't fully give the show the love it deserves until after it's gone off the air for good. That's okay--we'll all treasure our DVD boxsets.

For a good show that's been a bit underpraised lately, and that may be airing it's last original episode tonight (renewal is up in the air), check out The Shield, my #1 TV show from 2005. This exploration of amorality in a besieged urban police precinct has had two superb years back to back, and it brings this especially juicy (although somewhat shortened) season to an end tonight with 90-minute finale. It takes the innovations in the cop show introduced by Hill Street Blues, NYPD Blue and Homicide and takes them to the next logical, gripping level--what about a documentary style look at a group of cops who aren't always good guys, who aren't always honest, who occasionally do get greedy and go into business with some of the bad guys they're trying to put away? An ensemble cast led by comeback-actor-of-the-decade Michael Chiklis gamely tackles the premise and runs with it; the writing staff writes dialogue that feels more real than anything else on television while coming up with plot turns and twists that may occasionally strain believability, but that always leave you wanting to see what's going to happen next. And this year's addition of Forest Whitaker playing the IAD cop trying to bring our antiheroes down was a stroke of casting genius. He's been nothing less than mesmerizing.

Here's hoping The Shield comes back for one more season--six seasons is probably about all you can squeeze out of this show before it runs out of juice--but if not, thanks for 60+ hours of quality basic cable drama.

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Now that I'm back, I have so much more to talk about. In the coming days I'll visit with cousin Braydon, review the new Prince album and explore how Howie Mandel may be on the verge of becoming America's greatest pusherman.

Peace...