Don't let Monstro-Reagan kill me!

You know what kids love?  Really cheap computer animation, especially if it's confusedly espousing a mean-spirited political philosophy!

This is from a conservo-educational series of cartoons about a group of multi-ethnic kids traveling back in time to all the important events in the history of the U.S.A.  And what's one of the most important events of history, in a totally-not-bad-way?  The election of Ronald Reagan:

Savor the ugly animation, the stiff and didactic narration, and the bizarre image of a black girl talking about her grandparents watching (and apparently enjoying) Ronald Reagan movies (though she's never heard of him being president?)!  Enjoy the amateurish voices (especially the 'country boy' in overalls)!  Imagine what kind of weirdos felt driven to produce this, and why they though anyone could watch it seriously!  At least it's shorter than Christmas With a Capital C...

Yep, I still hate him

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Starring Yaphet Kotto as Idi Amin

Over the weekend, I watched (via Netflix streaming) this well-made TV movie from 1977.  I remember hearing about it when it was originally on (5th grade), but didn't see it at the time.  And back then, you only got one chance!  I got interested because the hijacking and rescue was referenced in a circa 1980 British TV series I like, The Sandbaggers.  Raid on Entebbe does what I like a good political/action thriller to do--take its time to set up the story, keep the action grounded in real life, and have a high level of tension.*  Since I knew some details of the real-life story, I knew that it would have a fairly upbeat ending, so it wasn't really an unpleasant experience.  It's also got a great cast, with the great Martin Balsam, one of my favorite B-movie stars, John Saxon, and especially Yaphet Kotto in the choice role of General Idi Amin Dada, who he plays accurately as cuckoo, dangerous, and extremely annoying.  The film has great production values, and by virtue of being made contemporary to the actual event, is chock full of seventies verisimilitude.  It was much better than I expected it to be--highly recommended to those who like that kind of thing.

*The first two of these qualifications are largely lost today, due to the need to keep everything on a video game level of excitement and physical implausibility.  The third qualification (high level of tension) is often killed by movies failing to take some time to breathe and let the audience build up a feeling of dread.

Guess who has a new autobiography?

Looks fascinating. Are you going to read it?

Grab it while you can!

This is one of my favorite albums of all time, but it's never been issued on CD. I don't know why, because every song is pretty great, and everyone loves Johnny Cash these days. But a French (I think) blogger posted the whole out-of-print album a week ago here. I found a copy on vinyl about 20 years ago, but it got away from me at some point. Check it out!

The Man With a Plan

Tina Brown was on NPR this morning talking about recent political memoirs, and reminded us of this classic moment of the 2008 presidential campaign:

In the Wall Street Journal on Feb. 6, former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson published an exerpt from his new book, On the Brink: Inside the Race to Stop the Collapse of the Global Financial System. It describes the scene at the White House in September 2008, after Sen. John McCain dramatically suspended his presidential campaign and flew back to Washington, calling on all political hands to join him in rescuing the collapsing U.S. economy.

"It really was, I thought, a riveting account," Brown says. "There is a great scene in here, where McCain finally gets this meeting that he's summoned. And then what Paulson gives is an account of how, in the meeting with the president, with all the players assembled including [then-candidate] Obama, McCain had absolutely nothing to say. It was like, 'I'm here to stop the fire! Uhhhhh, yeah: Well, maybe I'll just stand here and wait for a pail.' And finally Obama says loudly ... 'I'd like to hear what Sen. McCain has to say, since we haven't heard from him yet.' "

Writes Paulson:

As [McCain] spoke, I could see Obama chuckling. McCain's comments were anticlimactic, to say the least. His return to Washington was impulsive and risky, and I don't think he had a plan in mind. If anything, his gambit only came back to hurt him, as he was pilloried in the press afterward, and in the end, I don't believe his maneuver significantly influenced the TARP legislative process.

It's a revealing look, Brown says, at an "amazing moment in politics, completely subsuming any real care for this crisis that the country was in at the time." Better yet, it's a startlingly direct-seeming bit of reportage — in a partisan era, from a Republican-appointed Treasury secretary — on an incident that left a Republican presidential candidate looking less than presidential.

"I think that, to me, is what's authentic about it," Brown says. "It did feel like a real piece of reporting, which I didn't expect."

Beebo and Foulard

Here's a photo of Beebo and Foulard at the Obama-Clinton rally in Unity, N.H. in July 2008. Beebo is the one in the green print dress with the umbrella. Foulard is next to her wearing a brown t-shirt (it had a picture of Obama and says 'UNITY' on the other side--a lucky coincidence).