Posted 2:13 PM by Gene

Forbes.com readers and editors rank Gerard Swope as the 20th most influential businessman of all time....

As president of General Electric, Gerard Swope expanded GE's consumer product offerings: The company sold its first electric clothes washer and refrigerator under his leadership. GE's foray into home appliances paid dividends for generations. He also oversaw the creation of the GE Credit Corp. to help finance the sale of appliances. GE Credit paved the way for consumer lending in the U.S., growing into GE Capital, now a $64 billion financial services giant. But his major legacy was in labor relations: Swope instituted "corporate welfare," a widely replicated program in which workers were offered benefits such as profit sharing.

Somewhere LEGENDARY WELCH is having INDIGESTION.

Posted 12:14 PM by Gene

Hmm, seems that DreamWorks KGB Animation has a friend in DVD "shortfalls."

Posted 12:00 PM by Gene

Science: Planet Discovered with a Massive Core

Hey GEEKS! Do you think they'll ever discover a planet with MULTIPLE CORES?

Pffh-hh-hh!

Posted 11:31 AM by Gene

IWantMedia.com is going on another of its long summer breaks -- and threatens us with a redesign thereafter. Please dont let it be worse! I depend on it!

Posted 10:54 AM by Gene

Having just finished an alleged SMASH (which may not be as smashy as the news hacks would have us believe) Luke Spielberg flexes His muscles and creates POLITICAL ART, which with luck (of which Luke has TOO MUCH) will be a critical and box-office bomb, and sully His rep.

But don't forget the cravenness of ad-blurb copywriters -- and editorial boards.

Meantime this press release bursts with Jews -- JUICE:

Indeed, the movie's terrain is so packed with potential land mines that, associates say, Mr. Spielberg has sought counsel from advisers ranging from his own rabbi [GOD needs a RABBI?!?!?] to the former American diplomat Dennis Ross, who in turn has alerted Israeli government officials to the film's thrust. Mr. Spielberg has also shown the script to Mr. Ross's old boss, former President Bill Clinton. Mr. Clinton's aides said Mr. Spielberg reached out to him first more than a year ago and again as recently as Tuesday. Mr. Spielberg is also being advised by Mike McCurry, Mr. Clinton's White House spokesman, and Allan Mayer, a Hollywood spokesman who specializes in crisis communications.

Is somebody running for PRESIDENT?

Mr. Spielberg's advisers [TRANSLATION: PRESS AGENTS?] say he is studiously avoiding the most glaring potential trap: drawing a moral equivalency between the Palestinian attack and the Israeli retaliation.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!!

Posted 10:50 AM by Gene

For years the business hacks told us we're saving too little. Now BusinessWeek (DilbertSpell) tells us we may be SAVING TOO MUCH.

There's no satisfying some people, is there.

Posted 10:42 AM by Gene

Kissinger 'Regrets' 1971 Comments on India

TRANSLATION: He "CONSULTS" for companies that outsource, or companies that do outsourced work, OR BOTH.

Hey SOB! I've found you a rival in COWARDICE, STUPIDITY and MENDACITY!

Posted 10:38 AM by Gene

Bad news, SOB -- part of THE NINE FINGERS' LIBERAL BLOC IS RETIRING!

Time for MORE TRUTH -- or AG WHO?

Posted 10:19 AM by Gene

And the SOB pulls one off to rival Sir Walter Raleigh in "1601":

The crucial difference between Vietnam and Iraq is that there is no Cronkite to call Bush's bluff.

There's one other crucial difference, SOB. There are PLENTY of people to call YOUR bluff. So anytime you BIAS to the HEAVENS, or sell us the NEXT SHOW-BIZ MIRACLE, there will be PLENTY to let the world know YOU'RE FULL OF IT.

And speaking of:

[W]ar is hell, [and] we must fully support our servicemen and women and put their lives at risk only for honest and just and noble causes.

That's why I'm convinced the best way to support our troops in Iraq is to bring them home. Sooner rather than later.

So! We support our soldiers, so we must send them home, and let Iraq go to pieces, with maybe a SUPERCALIPHATE in its place, that will launch NUKES AGAINST ISRAEL, and perhaps against US, which may require the deaths of A LOT MORE THAN A FEW SOLDIERS.

SOB, go back to your room and masturbate.

P. S. "1601."

Posted 10:14 AM by Gene

Bob Geldof, the Irish rocker who is organizing Live 8, said Thursday that this weekend's concerts in 10 cities across the globe will be the "final push" in getting the world's richest leaders to come to the aid of impoverished Africa.

We're glad, Bob. Any more of these and the WHOLE CONTINENT may starve.

Posted 9:14 AM by Gene

DAVID HALBERSTAM ERUCTS:

"It [presumably he refers to the mythical TIME INC., which certain pretentious NEWS HACKS STILL call by that name though it vanished FIFTEEN YEARS AGO] is a strange company and it is a different company now, and it is really part of an entertainment complex. The journalism part is smaller and smaller. There is a great question out there: is this a journalistic company or an entertainment company?

Considering that Time has ALWAYS been about ENTERTAININGLY SKEWING the news, considering that it really broke into the big time in theaters and radio with THE MARCH OF TIME, considering that the GREAT Hank Luce wanted to purchase what is now the ESPNCorp Television Network, considering the outfit owned TV stations and FOUNDED HBO, considering how many of its writers have graduated to type BAD SCREENPLAYS, I'd say it's ALWAYS BEEN AN ENTERTAINMENT COMPANY.

Posted 9:03 AM by Gene

Why would any IDIOT want to bring Abe Lincoln into TODAY's political controversies? Isn't the CIVIL WAR still contentious enough?

P. S. I'd like to lock those intolerant bigots RALPH NEAS and JERRY FALWELL in a room for an hour with instructions to have at it. After an hour one would open the door and find nothing left.

Posted 8:54 AM by Gene

Hey InkyDinkyDooDoo! Seems THE WORLDSAVER BOB saved the "BIGGEST" LINE-UP for LONDON! SO THERE!

And half of them might classify as past their prime but NEWS HACKS ALWAYS WANT THEIR TICKETS.

Posted 8:37 AM by Gene

Now ya done it, NINE FINGERS -- you made Democrats AND Republicans MAD!

Posted 8:16 AM by Gene

GM Hasn't Made Case for Health-Care Cost Cuts, Union Chief Says

Maybe if your employer goes broke?

Posted 8:15 AM by Gene

G.O.P., Democrats in Its Sights, Is Grooming Black Candidates

And let me guess, Pinch -- THEY'RE ALL UNCLE TOMS!!!!!

Sighhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

Posted 8:12 AM by Gene

We expect politicians and news hacks to say one thing one time and another thing another, and never acknowledge they've changed their positions -- or even that they're human. We stopped regarding politicians and news hacks as human a long time ago.

Posted 8:03 AM by Gene

Rehnquist's court, but liberals gain

Do I hear news hacks cheering? When do we not?

Posted 12:21 PM by Gene

Hey LORD STRINGER! THIS will help your TENURE:

Report: PS3 to sell for $399, cost $494 to make

Thank you, SLASHDOT!

Posted 12:19 PM by Gene

Just when you thought your home theater was up to snuff, even higher definition TV sets are arriving. Mitsubishi on Thursday unveils the first consumer HDTVs to come to market capable of displaying a format called 1080 progressive — 1080p — considered the high-definition holy grail because it provides twice the resolution of most current sets.

GEEKDOM COMES TO THE LIVING ROOM!

Posted 11:03 AM by Gene

After five years as Roger Ebert's movie-reviewing partner on the nationally syndicated "Ebert & Roeper," Richard Roeper isn't being called "the new guy" quite as often anymore.

And with the signing this week of a new three-year, seven-figure renewal with Buena Vista Television (via agent Todd Musburger), Roeper can claim impressive longevity in his own right.

IT PAYS TO PRAISE!

He's represented by BRENT "CHEVALAY" MUSBURGER'S BROTHER, figures.

Posted 10:52 AM by Gene

Ex-Hostages Say Iran Leader-Elect a Captor

I'd say he has a PR problem, but if I know the ARAB WORLD millions have their fists in the air.

Posted 10:11 AM by Gene

Show-biz fundraisers are all hubris. It wasn't always thus. The first big one was the great all-soldier revue This is the Army, which the War Department ASKED Irving Berlin to write on the strength of his WWI revue Yip, Yip, Yaphank. (This according to The Complete Lyrics of Irving Berlin.) It played on Broadway and then toured three years on the fronts, Berlin slogging along, and earned millions for the Army Emergency Relief. It also had the tremendous distinction of helping to integrate the military.

Hubris kicked in when "celebrities" like Milton Berle and Dennis James held tacky telethons to raise money for the Disease of the Month. This led to the notorious Muscular Dystrophy tearjerker, whose chief purpose seems to be to get Jerry Lewis nominated for the NOBEL PEACE PRIZE. BOB'S ERADICATION OF HUNGER is a direct descendant, and every bit as morally dubious, the only real purpose to aim praise right at the organizer.

In Ethiopia, do the underfed masses know who the hell BOB GELDOF IS?

Posted 10:05 AM by Gene

Dubya very magnanimously wants to help Africa.

Here's the $64,000,000,000 question: how much of it goes to Robert Mugabes and Swiss bank accounts?

HUH, BOB GELDOF?

P. S.

Hunger still hovers over the landscape despite the nearly $1 billion in foreign aid Ethiopia has received each year during the past decade, according to a report published for the World Bank last year.

THOUGHT YOU SOLVED THAT, BOB!

Posted 10:03 AM by Gene

Larry Klayman gets himself a JOB -- and NEWSMAX!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! helps drum up business!

Posted 9:36 AM by Gene

Okay, what happened to Michelin was a once-in-a-lifetime "disaster," but is there really that great an upside to wasting company money on people like, say, KENNY ROGERS?

Posted 9:17 AM by Gene

Famous last words for the greatest medium ever known to man:

The biggest questions, however, remain unanswered: "What are these people doing on television?" for one, and that American mantra "What else is on?" for another.

Posted 8:58 AM by Gene

A fifth-rate terrorist-appeasing nation legalizes gay marriage.

WHOOPEE.

Posted 8:56 AM by Gene

"Kenny is having anger issues right now."

Kenny is having some making-too-much-money-on-too-few-brain-cells issues right now.

Posted 8:34 AM by Gene

Big-city booms now look like blips

So much for CONDOS AND RESTAURANTS.

Posted 8:32 AM by Gene

One of LEGENDARY WELCH's disciples switches from 3M to Boeing, which I guess means you can't rule the universe with Scotch tape.

Posted 8:30 AM by Gene

Bank of America to buy MBNA for $35 bln



CAPITALISTS OF THE WORLD, UNITE!

Posted 8:25 AM by Gene

Hoo-boy:

It's been a bad week for Russell Crowe.

First came word of an impending lawsuit from the waiter he hurled his phone at in a Manhattan hotel. Now, the AMC theater chain says it'll offer full refunds to moviegoers who don't enjoy his film "Cinderella Man." AMC says the offer is to encourage audiences to see what it calls "one of the finest motion pictures of the year."

I don't know that I'd do that. If the biz took up money-back guarantees it would give back more than it takes in.

Posted 8:22 AM by Gene

Another heavy thought from ROMY:

Is it wrong for a sports editor to cheer for the home team?

I think we already know the answer. It's YES.

Posted 8:09 AM by Gene

Today our local news monopoly, KNIGHTRIDDER's InkyDinkyDooDoo, that loathsome mixture of left-wing dogma and Babbittry, sends a guinea pig to Ghana to tell us maybe The West isn't so helpful after all, and to make sure nobody can accuse it of running millions of column-inches of unreadable PR.

Meantime the ad-blurb copywriters drool over their front-row seats and thousands have already evacuated, and the millionaires at the Tower of Babble prepare to wrestle the word HISTORIC to a fare-thee-well.

P. S. In more CIRCULATION-BUILD...HISTORIC news:

A PRODUCTION MEMO LISTS KEITH URBAN GOING ON AT 10 A.M., FOLLOWED AT 11 BY SARAH MCLACHLAN AND JOSH GROBAN, BON JOVI AT 12:15, ROB THOMAS AT 1:20 P.M., DEF LEPPARD AT 2:10 P.M., TOBY KEITH AT 4 P.M., WILL SMITH AT 4:50 P.M., KANYE WEST AT 5:55 P.M., LINKIN PARK AND JAY-Z - NOW THAT'S A COMBO!!!! - AT 7 P.M., AND STEVIE WONDER AT 8:05 P.M.!!!!!

SATURDAY - THE DAY OF - SOUND CHECKS ARE DUE TO BEGIN WITH DESTINY'S CHILD AT 7 A.M. THEN IT'S JARS OF CLAY (7:30), DAVE MATTHEWS (8), ALICIA KEYS (8:30), KAISER CHIEFS (9), AND BLACK EYED PEAS, WITH THE MARLEYS (9:30). THE BIG SHOW IS TO START AT NOON!!!!!!!!!!

I concede these are BIG NAMES!!!!! to the Losing-My-Hearing-with-My-iPod set, but given the much bigger names before them there might have been a day when they couldn't have made it past the guards. Plugging these BIG NAMES!!!!! allows us to do our HISTORIC shtick, however, and PULL ANOTHER ONE ON OUR READERS.

Posted 9:34 AM by Gene

The U.S. refinery venture owned by Saudi Aramco and Royal Dutch/Shell Group is studying a plan to double the size of its plant in Port Arthur, Texas, in response to rising demand for fuel and record prices....

No new refinery has been built in the U.S. in 29 years, and the expansion of existing facilities has failed to keep pace with demand. While the country's refining capacity has risen 0.7 percent per year during the past five years, consumption of gasoline and diesel has grown by 1.8 percent annually over the same period, according to the U.S. Energy Department.

Who'll complain this time?

Posted 9:13 AM by Gene

President Nixon referred privately to Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi as an "old witch" and national security adviser Henry Kissinger insulted Indians in general, according to transcripts of Oval Office tapes and newly declassified documents released Tuesday.

Tricky Dick claims another victim.

Where's the GREAT STONE FACE of ANNOYING TV ADS?

Posted 9:11 AM by Gene

Russian President Keeps Super Bowl Ring

Maybe he thought it was a BUG.

Posted 9:01 AM by Gene

Now the STRIB's accused of CIRCULATION INFLATION!

Talk about sex and violence!

Posted 8:58 AM by Gene

The brilliance of AD AGE continues:

Much like an audience that’s been desensitized by too much sex and violence, media and marketing executives are becoming inured to the frequent declarations of the death of the 30-second spot.

We needn't add that lots of 30-second spots help pay for the desensitization of...but that's ANOTHER story.

Posted 8:51 AM by Gene

How TOTALLY unexpected:

Despite the whirlwind of publicity generated by its Paris Hilton ad, the controversial spot does not appear to have significantly increased Carl's Jr. restaurant sales.

The chain posted a 1.7% gain in same-store sales for the four weeks ended June 20, while sibling chain Hardee’s posted a 0.7% gain. Both chains are operated by CKE Restaurants of Santa Barbara, Calif....

Analysts and industry watchers were expecting much higher returns....

They ALWAYS do -- which explains why they ALWAYS pull stunts like this.

Posted 8:32 AM by Gene

And speaking of the TRIB:

Editor's note: This is the Chicago Tribune's review of the 1953 "War of the Worlds," produced by George Pat, directed by Byron Haskin and starring Gene Barry (as the flowing-tie-wearing chief scientist), Les Tremayne and Ann Robinson (as the hand-wringing heroine). The review, which appeared on Oct. 16, 1953, and matter-of-factly gives away the ending, was written by an unknown Tribune critic who wrote under a pseudonym, which was the custom back then, as was the unorthodox spelling of "thru."

Thankfully we now know how to spell "through" -- and as OUR OMBUDSMAN can prove, we're more ORTHODOX than ever.

Posted 8:30 AM by Gene

Smart thinking:

Chicago's sales tax going up

I guess the increase will pay for social services for all the unemployed salespeople.

Posted 8:28 AM by Gene

Newspapers may switch to a lighter stock.

Charmin's still MUCH better.

Posted 8:27 AM by Gene

The SHARD gets SKINNIER.

Posted 8:23 AM by Gene

OR:

In a time when some polls show the popularity of the news media to be even lower than the approval rating for Bush's conduct of the war [PFFH-HH-HH!!!!!], the managements of the networks may have feared hostile reaction if they didn't air the speech live. Political conservatives keep up a steady drumbeat of hostility against the media, something the Bush administration does nothing to discourage. Refusing to air the speech probably would have led to unpleasantness -- or at the least given the new subculture of bellicose bloggers another alleged media conspiracy to shriek about.

ROMY no doubt sees a CONSPIRACY in THAT.

Posted 8:16 AM by Gene

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

Bush Criticized for Linking 9/11 and Iraq

OR:

LAST NIGHT WE SAW THE INGREDIENTS COME TOGETHER THAT, FOR THIS PRESIDENT, MAKE A GREAT PRIME-TIME APPEARANCE!!!!!

WE HAD HOPED HE WOULD RESIST THE TEMPTATION TO RAISE THE BLOODY FLAG OF 9/11 OVER AND OVER AGAIN TO JUSTIFY A WAR IN A COUNTRY THAT HAD NOTHING WHATSOEVER TO DO WITH THE TERRORIST ATTACKS!!!!!

I guess it's back to the usual finger-pointing, demagoguing, screw-the-peopling.

Posted 8:10 AM by Gene

Somehow a story like this does not surprise me:

A former Newsday publisher who once served on a state education board has been charged with possessing child pornography taken off the Internet, authorities said Tuesday.

Considering how the GLIBERALS paint PORN as MANKIND'S SALVATION we should not wonder that a few of the hacks and their bosses should partake of it.

Posted 8:07 AM by Gene

A. O. with B. O. calls it "lesser Spielberg."

One may wonder after what He's done to movies if ALL Luke Spielberg is lesser.

Posted 2:46 PM by Gene

What the great Thoreauvian beggars do:

Food not enough

Once when I was in Suburban Station, I was approached by a woman who asked for a dollar to get something to eat. I gave her $1 in hopes that she'd go away. Instead, she asked for another dollar. When I told her I needed what I had to buy a train ticket she replied indignantly, "Well, I have to have something to drink!"

- Jeanne Aldworth, Frankford

Posted 1:55 PM by Gene

I see Mr. Lileks has initiated a new blog within a blog (!), and if he keeps it up like today I may put him on my very short recommended list.

On the other hand, I don't know what's happened to Terry Teachout -- he's been giggling a lot at Our Girlfriend lately. Maybe he's been too busy with his Satchmo bio. Hope he gets back on track soon.

Posted 1:49 PM by Gene

Two-thirds of the states use consultants to help them get more federal Medicaid money, often by using "questionable billing practices," and then reward those consultants by giving them a share of the money as a contingency fee, Congressional investigators said on Monday.

Hey if doctors can do it, why can't we GOVS?

Posted 1:36 PM by Gene

ROMY's unbiased face turns red as he finds an unbiased commentator from unbiased NPR who comes to the unbiased conclusion that cable news spends too much time on "missing white women" -- as opposed to the CONSPIRACY that led to an UNJUST AND EVIL WAR. Let us just say that cable news spends too much time not minding its own business, and be done with it -- and unbiased commentators from unbiased NPR.

Posted 1:20 PM by Gene

The shrinks might be on stronger ground if they hadn't practiced some pseudo-science of their own.

Posted 1:06 PM by Gene

Which comes first, the student achievement or the test results?

Here's another place where self-serving plutocrats can use stats to defend themselves.

Posted 12:16 PM by Gene

The VERY glibly written Media Life offers stats from a TWXSTER insisting TV viewing has gone UP. Possibly it has (although the TWXSTER uses a base of 2001, which may not be the best year for comparison), but possibly we could find stats from a leading chemical firm saying chemicals don't cause pollution, or from a leading auto firm saying internal-combustion engines don't cause greenhouse gases. This is the kind of egregious annoyance that occurs too much on the Web, and a site putatively aimed at professionals should know better -- but being on the Web, it doesn't have to.

P. S. to the TWXSTER: 1. What was the last prime-time entertainment to get a 30 RATING -- not share, RATING? 2. When was your stock last worth $90 a share?

Posted 10:36 AM by Gene

"It is my opinion that closing the detention camp at Guantanamo Bay would result in less accountability in the treatment of prisoners, not more," Wyden said. "The question we have to ask is who do we trust more to treat these prisoners humanely — Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Egypt or the United States?"

That question answers itself: anybody but U. S.!

Posted 10:24 AM by Gene

Another con-SER-va-tive casus belli: SUGARED CEREALS!

Let them eat FROSTED FLAKES!

Posted 9:58 AM by Gene

Speaking of Brits, Citigroup enhances its stellar rep by paying $25 million for doing business with "DR. EVIL."

Since when?

Posted 9:51 AM by Gene

Speaking of RUPERT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!, Britain's perennially-adolescent PM shows two new ways in which he refuses to grow up.

Posted 9:40 AM by Gene

Want to wave bye-bye to some hard-earned excess profits? Invest in a "musical."

Invest in a GREAT "musical."

Hey Ben Brantley! You have NOTHING on Mike Riedel. He closes shows BEFORE they open!

P. S. Beware directors named Jerry.

Posted 9:30 AM by Gene

One of the great inside-baseball players of show-biz swallows hard, and --

Not every movie can be an artistic triumph, but moviegoers deserve better. They're already beginning to demand it. CNN did an online poll Friday, asking what movie people were most likely to see over the weekend. The new films "Herbie," "Bewitched" and "Land of the Dead" received 27% of the vote. The landslide winner, with 73%, was "None, I'd rather rent a DVD of something good."

Isn't it wonderful when a business has so many satisfied customers?

Hey you guys of the press have been satifying customers too for decades. Don't talk.

Posted 9:16 AM by Gene

Seems like AMD has a case against Intel, but remember, this is the computer biz, the high-tech version of La Cosa Nostra.

Posted 9:05 AM by Gene

It's official: it matters not where or when they stage this pitiful excuse; Miss America's just another Lego brick in some cable network's schedule.

Posted 8:53 AM by Gene

This is why a columnist like Richard Cohen hardly matters. Yes, right-wingers have their infernal crotchets, like their money worship; and as I've noted before, Free Republic is one of the great day care centers of the Web for all its tantrums. But leftists have their infernal crotchets too, like their tolerant bigotry, and their Free Republics as well -- several serve in the Senate. So we really don't need a lefty to tell us of the evil of righties any more than we a righty to tell us the evil of lefties, for in the end, these tantrum throwers can all go to Hell.

Posted 8:23 AM by Gene

Smile, Russell! YOU'RE ON CANDID CAMERA!

Posted 3:08 PM by Gene

It's not a very mirth-provoking gag, but should a man be sent to jail just for wearing military medals that weren't his to fulfill his inner Walter Mitty?

Posted 12:57 PM by Gene

The demise of the Carsey-Werner sitcom assembly line moved a contributor to THE CORNER to insist:

I love when people say, give us a great movie with an original story and good acting, and we'll go to it. As if everyone out here hasn't thought of that. "No more originality!" says big studio exec. "Let's remake some crap!"

It's not on purpose, folks. Everyone is doing their best. Every studio that makes a movie out of a sitcom is also developing a hundred other "original" ideas. It's just that they thought the sitcom one would appeal to people. The simple fact is this: every single person in the entertainment business would love to do a breathtakingly fresh, breakthrough film or TV show. But it's VERY VERY HARD!

Pardon us while we laugh. There are many inducements for not trying at all. The automatic funding of DVDs and the American Society of Willfully Ignorant Advertisers means you don't have to work to raise the dough. Jack's Alphabet Soup with its several different flavors of botulism means you don't have to use your imagination to be in good taste; when after three seconds you run out of witty things to say (this happens quite readily with quarter-wits, aka "scenarists") you can fall back on Grand Guignol or sex scenes or four-letter words. When you run out of those there's always the stuntmen, or the geeks in special effects, who may not know plot or dialogue but sure do know their crowd-pleasin' filler. When you run out of those you're not completely hopeless -- there are the ad-blurb copywriters, with their reverse snobbery and what JOHN PODHORETZ called "grading on a curve," who can save your meretricious property with chants of "dark" and "edgy." When that fails you have focus groups and market research and Nielsens and b.o. to "prove" there'll always be fans for basest junk. And when all these things don't work, there's your own superiority to the audience.

Posted 10:37 AM by Gene

Nixon, Brezhnev, the Clintons...with his constant fanny kissing Billy Graham provides an unfortunate argument for keeping religion out of public life.

Big caveat -- this is NEWSMAX!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Posted 10:16 AM by Gene

The NINE FINGERS point BOTH WAYS on RELIGION in COURTS!

ANOTHER COURAGEOUS DECISION!

Souter was joined in his opinion by other members of the liberal bloc....

YOU'RE NOT SUPPOSED TO SAY THAT!

Posted 10:01 AM by Gene

Honorary Mayor Mike -- raising money from DEMS?

Why not? He's an HONORARY REPUBLICAN too.

Posted 9:56 AM by Gene

Bad news, Hollywood Stenographer: Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeee-oh is down overseas too!

It's all those GREAT MOVIES!

Posted 9:54 AM by Gene

Here's a product for eBay: spray your license plate -- RUN RED LIGHTS!

Maybe ZONNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN can get the company as one of His sponsors.

Posted 9:42 AM by Gene

Our RENDELLTORIUM, supposed MAGNET OF MONEY to pay for RESTAURANTS and WAITERS and JANITORS and MAIDS and BUSBOYS, is laying off a dozen workers, closing a gift shop and will run a $3 MILLION DOLLAR DEFICIT. WHEN will idiot pols learn YOU CAN'T MAKE GOBS OF DOUGH with SYMPHONIES AND BUS-AND-TRUCK COMPANIES?

Posted 9:02 AM by Gene

ANOTHER ARGUMENT NEWS HACKS CAN'T LOSE: Republicans think the hacks knock America, but not so many Democrats, and it seems enough Democrats allege the press is too soft on Dubya, so the hacks can say it's a PARTISAN thing, a DIVISION thing, a RED-STATE-BLUE-STATE THING, ANYTHING that can get them to keep from acknowledging their biases and prejudices, and they can keep pulling that old gag, IF EVERYBODY HATES US WE'RE DOING A GREAT JOB. NO YOU'RE NOT.

Meantime, ROMY (who posted this) regales us today with the story of a paper that can't verify an ex-columnist's sources, proof the HACKS continue to work overtime at being devious.

Posted 8:34 AM by Gene

"I had strippers on my show, I had porno stars on my show," he recalls, saying the novelty has worn off. "They really have nothing to say."

AND NEITHER DO MOST SHOCK JOCKS.

Posted 8:31 AM by Gene

My monitor came damaged so I guess it'll be another two weeks before I can post on weekends. It's gotten to the point I don't think I care.

Posted 8:23 AM by Gene

Chief Justice WHO?

Caveat: it's BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOB.

Posted 8:19 AM by Gene

You gotta BELIEVE, brothers and sisters, you gotta BELIEVE!!!!!

The prognosticators of doom have been beating the drums of disaster of late, but as history has noted, the industry has more than bounced back from those ruts of yesteryear and will most likely do so again. Using 2004 numbers, annual admissions have increased by a stout 45% since 1985.

News hacks will almost never tell the truth about three things: real estate, autos and show-biz. When the hacks work for a trade rag, the desire to obfuscate is magnified. Okay, flacks, maybe we're comparing apples and oranges, but let's not forget the rotten fruit the audiences of late have thrown at the screens.

P. S. If the Census Bureau is to be believed, judging from your numbers (and what do you mean by admissions? Bodies in seats or dollars? You won't tell us? Par for the course) the moviegoing crowd has increased a not-so-stout just-over ONE PERCENT A YEAR. And God knows how many figures in show-biz are MADE UP.