A HAND OUT INSTEAD OF A HAND UP?

Headline: Congress Inches Closer to Approving Auto Bailout

So Congress wants to give the Big 3 Detroit automakers $15 billion to help them out in these tough times? Are you fucking kidding me? I mean, REALLY?!

So that's $15 billion for Detroit, $700 billion or so for Wall Street, $300 billion or more to help Citibank and other lending institutions and...maybe another 3-4 million unemployed next year? I'm starting to think the Federal government really should have handed out these billions of dollars to us citizens since I doubt that we could have done any worse with the money than these hallowed institutions have or will.

What will we get for our money? How will it ever be returned to us? (That's right, that's our money being lent to Goldman Sachs and General Motors). What kind of safeguards are built in to require that the companies and firms that are receiving this money don't turn around and send more American jobs and capital overseas? It's all a little too vague and a lot too infuriating from where I sit and frankly, I'd like to not hear about any more "bail outs".

Unless it's a bailout for us.

Leno in Primetime

Tomorrow (Tuesday) NBC will announce that Jay Leno has signed a deal to host a prime time show at 10p Eastern time four or five nights a week. The show will premiere in the fall of 2009 and will be called The Earlier Tonight Show with Jay Leno. OK, I'm joking about that last part, but seriously if I were Conan O'Brien I'd be a little bit pissed. You finally get the big brass ring of The Tonight Show only to find out that NBC has turned it into nickel by doing basically the same show earlier in the evening with the guy you supposedly replaced. Yeah, lots of luck with that.

From a financial perspective, NBC will probably save tons of money doing five prime time shows with Leno as opposed to five different hourlong dramas even if they have to pay Leno $30-million a year. That's because the typical prime time drama costs a minimum of $3 million an episode even if it doesn't get any ratings and networks typically can count on no more than 22 to 24 episodes a season. Leno will give them 46 episodes at about a $1.5 million an episode with a pretty good chance at getting better ratings than for the drama.

Regardless of the numbers, it will be an interesting experiment. NBC's last foray into reviving the prime time variety show was an unmitigated disaster (thanks for playing Rosie - don't come again.) But with network audiences continuing to tank and the recession/depression looming ever larger, anything that can save the entertainment conglomerates big money in the long run is going to look pretty appealing.

Family Guy - What Drugs Are They On?

Catching up on some old reruns of Family Guy makes me wonder just how the hell the writers of that show are able to get away with all that (even if that broadcast network is the notoriously lax Fox). I mean, REALLY!

Peace.