More tomorrow (probably). I'm still getting used to the new work schedule at the new branch, and that's causing me to spend less time online. However, I wanted to share my thoughts about the Kerry/Criminal Bush debate, even though I didn't actually see it. From what I can tell, from watching and reading the after-news, the two pretty much repeated the same thing over and over. Bush stuck to reminding everyone that Kerry had changed his position on key issues, and Kerry stuck to reminding everyone that Bush has been a crappy President. And, really, being a crappy President is a bigger disqualifier for being elected President again in my book than appearing wishy-washy.

My favorite part of the after-coverage, though (the morning after, actually), was this winning combo: seeing the Criminal Bush accusing John Kerry of sending "mexed missa... I mean mixed messages," and a White House press flack saying that the Criminal Bush clearly articulated... Well, actually, I stopped listening at that point, because the minute anyone talks about Bush clearly articulating anything, you know they're pretty much full of shit. I mean, this is a man who can't pronounce words and can't complete sentences. National policy aside, the teenager at the Burger King drive-thru near my house articulates more clearly than Bush.

It's saying this sort of stuff that gets the post office to "lose" packages, I'm convinced.

More to come in the next day or so, but...

Tomorrow night, on Cartoon Network, be sure to catch the Scary Godmother Halloween Special, or whatever it's called. No real idea if it's good or not (although Neil Gaiman says it is in his journal), but the comics that it's based on are fantastic.

Don't forget that October 2 is the deadline to register to vote in November's election!  (Well, you can register 10 days after that, if you go to the election board, but who wants to wait until the last minute?)

Comment: Film Four
I hadn't seen any of the comments about the pictures of the cast of the Fantastic Four movie anywhere, so this article was an eye-opener. First, let me go on record saying that I'm okay with Jessica Alba playing whoever, with whatever hair color she wants. But when I read about comics creators whose work I enjoy, like John Byrne, saying, "Personal prejudice: Hispanic and Latino women with blond hair look like hookers to me, no matter how clean or 'cute' they are. Somehow those skin tones that look so good with dark, dark hair just don't work for me with lighter shades," I get steamed.

(According to the article, Big Fat Hairy Knowles, the big fat hairy guy who runs the way-too-popular movie-geek gossip site Ain't-It-Cool-News, also thinks Jessica Alba looks too "slutty," but I suspect this has more to do with the boy's personal sexual issues than anything. I should point out that I stopped reading his web site years ago, when he wrote a far-too-enthusiastic multi-page essay enthusing about Godzilla tie-in chocolate bars.)

Okay, I realize that we're dealing with (in Byrne's case) a fat middle-aged guy who has spend his entire career telling superhero stories and who lives in Connecticut, but that's still no excuse for this sort of unthinking racist crap. (And while I'm sure his defense would be that he's just judging the aesthetics of skin tone vs hair color, he's the one who brings terms like "hooker" and "clean" into the discussion.) From here, it appears his issue isn't with her hair color, it's with her race, and what's more irritating, it's presented with the same sort of unthinking, casual dismissiveness that produces comments like, "I've got nothing against gay people at all, but they have no right to get married."

People wonder how racisim can continue to flourish in today's ostensibly broder-minded, multicultural society. It's because people keep making excuses for it and pretend its not there, and when someone does call someone else on it, they get accused of being "overly PC." Please.

Anyway, John Byrne currently writes and draws a comic I enjoy from DC Comics, Doom Patrol. And in it, he has co-opted an ostensibly Hispanic member of the Justice League of America to be on the team. So I'm going to write a letter to DC Comics, telling them that I read this quote on his web site, and that it bothers me that a person with this attitude is writing a comic with a Hispanic character. I'm not going to drop the book, but I'm going to urge them to keep an eye on how he treats her and her culture--if at all--because now I'm not sure I trust him to do right by the character as an artist.

So the winner--for now--in the Tuesday Night Battle between Veronica Mars and Clubhouse would seem to be Clubhouse. That's the show about the batboy for the New York "Empires," starring Christopher Lloyd, Mare Winningham, Dean Cain, and a bunch of kids. Yes, it's very much a feel-good sort of family drama, but I didn't find myself wanting to turn it off like I did the first episode of Veronica Mars. And that's always going to be a key factor in the shows I choose to watch: they have to be shows I'm not wanting to turn off.

The season premiere of American Dreams was great, too. Why this show doesn't get more attention... I mean, is there even any point to hyping yet another CSI or Law & Order spin-off? Why not shine some light on something that isn't getting noticed? (Something besides Arrested Development, I mean? Although, to their credit, TV Guide did feature American Dreams on their family page this week.)

And Jack & Bobby remains solidly unremarkable. Next week, Desperate Housewives, a weird soap opera-sounding thing premieres on ABC, and it's in the same time slot as Jack & Bobby and The Wire on HBO. And, I swear, if I didn't know I could catch The Wire later in the week, Jack & Bobby would be the one to go.