Send In The A-Team!

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Today, still wanted by the government, they survive as soldiers of fortune. If you have a problem, if no one else can help, and if you can find them, maybe you can hire…

Starring:

  • Colin Powell as Col. John “Hannibal” Smith
  • Madeleine Albright as Sgt. Bosco “Bad Attitude” Baracas
  • Alexander “I’m In Charge Here” Haig as Capt. HM “Howling Mad” Murdock
  • Robert McNamara as Lt. Templeton “Face” Peck

I could hardly believe it this morning when I heard it on National Public Radio. The latest in this month’s continuing PR blitzkrieg, former Cabinet members from several different Democratic and Republican administrations were in a meeting at the White House with Bush and the Scooterless Gang. Meanwhile, about a hundred hundred and thirty more Iraqis died in suicide bombings, and just now at the Pentagon press conference, we learn that successful elections certainly hurt Al Qaeda in Iraq.

That is, of course, if Al Qaeda is actually IN Iraq, and not just taking credit through its connections with Zarqawhi.

Okay, okay, this is what it really looked like:

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Among those at the meeting Thursday were several former Clinton administration officials: Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and defense secretaries William Cohen and William Perry. Perry helped develop Sen. John Kerry’s foreign policy positions during the Massachusetts Democrat’s campaign against Bush last year.
The others from previous Democratic administrations were Harold Brown, defense secretary under former President Carter, and Robert McNamara, the Vietnam-era Pentagon chief under presidents Kennedy and Johnson.

Those from Republican administrations were Colin Powell, Rice’s predecessor under Bush; former secretaries of state James A. Baker III, Lawrence Eagleburger, Alexander Haig and George Shultz; and former defense secretaries Frank Carlucci, James Schlesinger and Melvin Laird.

Hee hee hee! See how Maddie Albright is looking off to her left? I bet she doesn’t like what they’ve done to the place. She had pretty tart words for Our Leader:

WASHINGTON, Jan. 5 – Colin L. Powell said nothing – a silence that spoke volumes to many in the White House on Thursday morning.

His predecessor, Madeleine K. Albright, a bit stirred up after hearing an exceedingly upbeat 40-minute briefing to 13 former secretaries of state and defense about how well things are going in Iraq, asked President Bush whether, with the war “taking up all the energy” of his foreign policy team, he had let the nuclear programs in Iran and North Korea spin out of control and allowed Latin America and China policy suffer by neglect.

“I can’t let this comment stand,” Mr. Bush shot back, telling Ms. Albright and the rare assembly of her colleagues, who reached back to the Kennedy White House, that his administration “can do more than one thing at a time.” The Bush administration, he insisted, had “the best relations of any country with Japan, China and Korea,” and had active programs to make alliances around the world.

Boy, that guy just never goes off script. How does he do it? Cochlear iPod? I predict that “cannot/will not let (it) stand” will be the scriptlet of the month on countless blogs and talkers. Meanwhile, good for you, Maddie! Kudos for counting a little W coup.

Now, if only I had the wherewithal to do a little Photoshopping…maybe later.

Cough It Up, Harry Reid

Denny Hastert (R-IL) has his problems, along with all the other rascals that accepted Abramoff-tainted fundage. One of the more prominent names on the list is Senator Harry Ried, (D-NV). He accepted tribal money and claims he doesn’t know Abramoff from Adam.

Chicago Tribune | Abramoff’s plea renews focus on Hastert’s ’03 casino letter

Sen. Harry Reid of Nevada, the Democratic leader in the Senate, and Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D-R.I.) also were among recipients of large contributions from tribes represented by Abramoff. Asked about Abramoff, Reid told the Las Vegas Sun, “I don’t know him. I don’t want to know him. I know nothing about it other than what I read in the newspaper. … This is a Republican scandal.”

No, Harry, it’s just a SCANDAL. The more you deny it, the worse it looks. If you accepted money from tribal representatives that were clients of Abramoff’s, it’s tainted, and you have to give it back or donate it to a charity.

Apollo Crashes, United Left Holding Bag

Chicago Tribune | Computer failure disrupts United flights worldwide

Hee hee! I’m on SABRE. However, this impacted us anyway, because no record locators were coming back on our bookings, and we couldn’t issue tickets on UA. So they had to issue a blanket fare waiver today, and we had to issue tickets and store the fare manually. Which was a bummer, but hee hee! SABRE makes that kind of thing easy.

Airline Passengers Sue for False Imprisonment

Angry passengers sue after plane delay – Yahoo! News

BERLIN (Reuters) – Six German airline passengers who said they were being held against their will on an aircraft stuck on the runway for hours during a snowstorm have filed “false imprisonment” charges, German police said Saturday.

The passengers filed charges against the pilot of a British Airways Berlin-London flight that sat on the runway for seven hours before it could take off, a federal police spokesman said.

The general consensus around here is if an airline can at least push back, they get paid. Otherwise, if the flight continues to be delayed, they might end up paying to rebook people on another carrier. Disgusting, but true. I remember when something like this happened on a Northwest flight some years ago.

Cheney Bombed Out Back In December

Remember Vice President Cheney’s “surprise” trip to Iraq in December? He gave a speech then in a thinly veiled attempt to cheerlead the troops into believing that everything was just fine and they were risking their lives for the right cause.

However, it didn’t work out quite as he intended. He was peppered with rather tough, serious questions in a round-table discussion, and during his speech it was clear he was working a tough room when he got to the sure-fire, killer sound bite designed for maximum network impact:

Star-Telegram | 12/19/2005 | Cheney talks of progress in Iraq

Shouts of “Hooah!” from the audience interrupted Cheney a few times, but mostly the service members listened intently. When he delivered the applause line, “We’re in this fight to win. These colors don’t run,” the only sound was a lone whistle.

Listen… hear that? Crickets?

Of Interest Only To Mythbusters Fans

Team Deadblow Crew

grant imahara, designer, machinist, financier & driver

in real life: animatronics engineer and modelmaker for George Lucas’ Industrial Light & Magic, installed electronics in R2D2 units for Star Wars: Episode 1 and 2, and supervisor for the Energizer Bunny crew, also based out of the ILM Model Shop. Also lit the engines of the Protector and the sickly green lights of the Sarris Ship on Galaxy Quest. Occasionally portrays the “classic” gold suit C-3P0 (yes, in the suit) for charities, special appearances and commercials when Mr. Anthony Daniels is unavailable.

jamie hyneman, mechanical design

in real life: owner of M5, the effects shop behind Team Blendo. His diabolical mechanical genius has spawned an electric bicycle that beat a Harley in a drag race and rollerblades with Bosch drill motors attached.

adam savage, pit crew & fabrication

in real life: modelmaker and member of the original Team Blendo. If you look closely in the cargo bay of the space shuttle in Space Cowboys, you’ll see some payload modules that say “Savage Industries” – that’s for Adam.

Oh, that is so cool! That’s what happens when you start thinking about an obscure Discovery Channel show and go spelinking (new word! I just made it up! Shiny!).

David mentioned the other day that Mythbusters was going to be showing a marathon. After a little checking around at a fan forum, I ran across the Deadblow site. David and I already knew that Grant, one of the on-screen crew members on the second season of Mythbusters, had formerly run a winning entry on one of those “robot wars” shows. Now I see that both Jamie and Adam were part of that, too. Plus, they all have really interesting SF cred.

In addition to some fun details, there are a lot of “outtakes” videos at the Discovery Channel site that are a lot of fun to watch. It’s not all beer and skittles busting myths – it’s a lot more plywood and pelicans.

According to the fan site, the third season starts this month. Yaaaayyyyyy!

Joss Whedon Prognosticates

Insider – [TV Guide Online]

The networks will all be creating exciting, innovative new spin-offs of today’s shows. Approximately 67 percent of all television will be CSI-based, including CSI: Des Moines, CSI: New York but a Different Part than Gary Sinise Is In and NCSI: SVU WKRP, which covers every possible gruesome crime with a groovin’ ’70s beat. (Jerry Bruckheimer will also have conquered Broadway with the CSI musical “FOLLICLE!” starring Nathan Lane as a frenetic but lovable blood spatter and Matthew Broderick as lint.)
Lost has that one-of-a-kind alchemy that really can’t be copied. Therefore, look for the original series Misplaced, as well as Unfound, Not So Much with the Whereabouts and Just Pull Over and Ask!

First of all, I would totally watch NCIS:SVU WKRP. Also, I’d probably give Just Pull Over And Ask! a whirl.

Serenity (Widescreen Edition)

But really, Joss is right. And by the way, the DVD for Serenity is out now (he’s just as shameless as ever).

David brought the Serenity DVD home and we’ve watched a couple of times. You know you’re a weird fangeek when you watch a movie with the commentary track on – not even with the actors, the one put on by the producer and/or creator. Joss’ commentary track is not bad but like many of its ilk, he spends a lot of time waxing lyrical about his cast and crew.

They must sell lyrical wax by the barrelful in Hollywood, just to make interviews and commentaries and sound bites all shiny.

He drops a couple of off-hand comments about visible bloopers that were inadvertently left in, but mostly he layers on the lyrical wax pretty heavily. After watching and listening to the whole thing, I concluded that he’s actually in love with Summer Glau’s feet, and he’s pretty crazy about his lighting/photography guys, too.

Did you know that Summer Glau’s feet are actually the 11th character? I knew that the ship was the 10th, but actually her feet do get a lot of cherishing in both the series and the movie. She has nice feet. She must spend a fortune on pedicures.