hi christy

Bullzed to these Moguls!

Greed is so 20th Century.

Time to make note of advertisers now and notify that we will be tuning out the shows they sponsor? And tuning out their products?

okay, now i’ve read the post and signed the petition to comedy central noting that i wouldn’t buy any of their sponsors’ products til they came to a deal with the writers that honored their contributions.

Christy,

I don’t watch much TV, but I do go to movies. All I saw on the linked list was TV shows. Doesn’t this strike cover movie studios as well? I’d be willing to write to those if it does…

I’ve stopped watching TV. I can also stop going to movies. One more mind lost to propaganda.

How was your Christmas with your hubby and eldest? Sorry if you already commented, been out of the loop.

Incidentally, two Democratic strategists here in Cali, Bill Carrick and Kam Kuwata, were hired by the WGA. At least some of the consultant class know to enter on the side of labor instead of management. Unlike Chris Lehane.

very OT; please forgive me:

…is anyone here aware of the story about Bhutto claiming in an interview with David Frost a few months ago that Bin Laden was murdered by Omar Sheikh? it’s a fairly amazing claim, and I suspect that it’s been addressed/dismissed elsewhere. if anybody here could give me the shortform explanation, I’d really appreciate it. thanks!

Hartmann started discussing it at the end of last segment…

I signed the petition to Comedy Central. Told ‘em that Jon and Stephen put Comedy Central on the map, and they mess with them at their peril.

Jim, it was very relaxing, thanks for asking. I didn’t want them to go back…nor did they really want to, but they had to.

The firm estimates that the $120 million figure would carry an average impact of less than 1% on annual earnings per share for the media companies.

About what it costs to keep the pool clean.

It’s on you tube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UnychOXj9Tg

lots of other interview material with her too.

What a bunch of Commie Liberal Pinkos at Bear Sterns! Boycott Bear Sterns!

(I’m sure the above comment exists somewhere in wingnutosphere.)

The DGA making a deal first is never good for the WGA (it’s certainly not being brokered for our benefit). Directors have sold out writers before, setting templates that don’t work for us. The reason is that most DGA members are assistant directors who don’t get residuals. Residuals and intellectual property rights don’t matter to most DGA members. Also, there is conflict between the two guilds that won’t go away until directors stop taking the misleading “a film by” credit.

I couldn’t find anywhere else where SHE says that Omar Sheikh (who was involved in the killing of Daniel Pearl) was involved in murdering Osama bin Laden. Just this one interview. And she usually says in these other printed interviews or her own articles…that Ijaz Shah (the former military officer suggested in this interview) was known to have “mentored” Osama bin Laden. There are many statements by Bhutto supporters that Shah was bin Laden’s handler.

And although there are lots of references on the net to her statement about this…there are none that suggest BEFORE THIS INTERVIEW that Omar Sheikh “murdered Osama bin Laden”. Nor are there any statements before or after this by Bhutto that indicates that she believes bin Laden is dead.

I’d welcome any evidence to the contrary. Do you have any citations where she repeats the assertion?

I think that she just slipped up. She either misheard from a source that Ijaz Shah mentored OBL, and heard it as “murdered”, then confused that with Omar…or mixed up Daniel Pearl with bin Laden. Odder mistakes have happened in speeches and particularly unscripted interviews.

Here’s one that says Shah mentored bin Laden, which is why Bhutto didn’t want Shah handling her security.

http://www.indiaabroad.com/new…..9raman.htm

How can we possibly settle down and support striking writers when the world is being taken over by terrorist sunroofs?

Signed and sent about a dozen letters.. Including The Wire because I know Christy likes that show..)

Ha!! ABC is planning to replace “Pushing Daisies” with “Wife Swap” and they think we won’t notice…

It’s not about the money or anything else, IMO. It’s about power. How dare those puny writers try to force the bigwigs to do anything they don’t want to do. It’s greed for power and authority. It’s the reason Reid and Pelosi continually betray us–because we demand they do something that it becomes the one thing they won’t do. And it’s the reason I haven’t had a decent job since 1981. It’s rampant and disgusting.

Ok. Well maybe not the only reason but I believe it’s part of it.

I sense that no matter what thread gets posted in the near future someone will always be bringing it back to bhutto’s murder. And that this is a strong indication of a very personal and intuitive response toan event that somehow, although indefinable, affects us all. It will haunt us for some time i fear. The list of haunting items is long, true, but this one strikes at the heart of hope, for democracy, for women, for all of us. World’s goin to hell in a handbasket. tough times.

when the going gets tough….

when the going gets tough….
the corrupt get panicky.

Signed and sent about a dozen letters.. Including The Wire because I know Christy likes that show..)

Same. And Christy isn’t alone. Best show on TV. Not for the kids.

when the going gets tough….

The Shock Doctors up the dosage..

do you think there’s anything weird about the new osama audio tape’s timing? by that i mean, it seems to work against the notion of Al Q’s omnipotence. His new warnings to the west seems limp in comparison to recent events. I realize someone esrlier posted that his missives are courier delivered and therefore delalyed, but still, aren’t these guys more clever than that? something doens’t work here for me and i have no conspiracy theory in mind at all.

The strike will impact movie studios and their overpaid pampered stars greatly if it continues. It’s already got them fretting. The paradigm for this reads like one of Upton Sinclair’s novels.

Broadcast of Golden Globes in Doubt; Movies Starting to Feel It

OT-
Hey Christy!
Your post from yesterday,”Fourthbranch: The Misadventures Of Cheney And His Minion Squad” is jumping on Digg!

Why the hell doesn’t the stupid US with all the billions it wastes in Pakistan and Iraq ever follow the couriers? They aren’t arriving by space ship or moonbeam as far as I know. They deliver in countries where the US oil barrons are scrapping for the oil.

The writers have told the stars they will block them if they try to show up at the Globes, and the stars have responded bravely saying they won’t show (they are also members of the writers’ unions and they mostly thought delivering pizza to the pickets while they collect 20 million a picture was good enough.

NBC is bullshitting and says they’ll do the globes anyway, but the Hollywood Foreign Press Association knows that’s not going to happen.

That would mean that they might actually have a chance to catch Osama bin Laden. They’re not allowed to do that because Osama is a Bush Family Crony. Nothing will be done that risks the Bush Family gravy train.

hmmmm, that’s just too obvious for them. and , you know, maybe they don’t want to find him. But isnt that a great question for helen thomas if she ever gets called on again??

Sorry about the OT but…
Bush to veto defense bill

Looks like a those spineless Democratic Leaders got scammed again…..

OT: i’m frustrated trying to find a good set of headphones for use with my telephone that i can hear well out of and so can the person at the other end, that are easy to put on and comfortable to wear. if you know of some, PLEASE tell me the brand and model and where to get them so i can run right out and then be forever grateful.

It’s part of their strategy to provide the Republics with the “do nothing cogress” campaign issue for 2008.

Christy:

I got this email from you guys yesterday about the letters I already sent:

Thank you for sending emails to the network executives in charge of your favorite shows and letting them know that it’s time to give the writers a fair share. So far, nearly 20,000 emails have been sent. With the help of the fans who are willing to spread the word, the WGA can and will prevail in its struggle to win fair wages for working people from the AMPTP.

What can you do now?

Please tell your friends and family to send emails to network executives, too. The more people they hear from, the more they’ll know that people are aware of what’s going on, and they care about what’s at stake.

Do you want us to send repeat letters? Please advice.

I meant: advise…

This is a landmark strike, because of the times we’re in. I’m not sure what we can do right now to support the writers, other than morally. Maybe some bumper stickers might help. The Reagan 2-bush regime has pushed our country back to before the 1920s. It really is capital (rather I should say CEO salaries, since stockholders get ripped off, too) versus labour.

Furthermore if Omar Sheik murdered bin Laden he would have had an awfully short window of opportunity to do so. Omar Sheik was released from an Indian prison in the Air India hostage exchange in 2000. Turned over to Pakistani intelligence (ISI) he walked free. He then attempted to send Mohammed Atta some money (received, interesting, from the ISI) in early September 2001 from the United Arab Emirates.

He was arrested in February 2002 for the murder of Daniel Pearl. The murder occurred in early February after weeks of “seduction” by Omar of Pearl…who was trying to find ou the linkages between Al Qaida and ISI. I recall that the Taliban refused to turn over bin Laden for trial for several months after 9/11. So presumably OBL was still alive up through the months prior to Omar being arrested . Unless you believe that all the sightings and video tapes are faked, that is. But Omar would still have to enter Afghanistan and successfully foil bin Laden’s personal security, and then get out alive. But why?

It all seems to far-fetched…and based upon what?

someone had to sell out in in the 1st place. you don’t just all of a sudden get there. part of the industry sells their soul and throws the rest of the group out with the bath water. and then when you’re the only ones left, it’s tuff to find people to fight with you. most of the labor movement eventually get infiltrated and the leaders start living like kings and queens themselves and then the party is over.

OT:

Relates to previous thread. Here is a link to an AP article that is claiming to have the transcript of the Pakistani intercept of the Al Qaeda leaders responsible for the Bhutto attack. Link

This is a joke, right?

From Wall Street’s perspective, we estimate the impact of accepting the [writers’] proposal is largely negligible,” Bear Stearns wrote in a report last week.

it’s just like the supposed “tax cuts” for the wealthy, these are NOT supposed to give money to the wealthy, they are supposed to TAKE money from the middle class

same thing with these “entertainment consolidations”, they don’t give a flying turd about this money, what they want to do is make sure the money does not get in the hands of the lowly talent

because then that talent might one day be on the same level as they are

it’s class war not a money thing

Hey all — thanks so much for sending out the e-mails on this. Every contact helps bring the point home that viewers (as in the people you depend on to sell adspace during your shows) are paying attention.

If you’ve sent out e-mails before, see if there are any other shows you want to send them for and, if you don’t mind, forward the URL to friends and family who also might be missing their favorite shows.

One thing I know from hanging out in the science fiction and fantasy writing community is that the fanbase for that genre is very loyal and will stand up for the writers and actors. If you have a blog of your own, post a link. If you hang on a particular fansite for a show or movie or whatever, post a link.

Any pressure that we can bring to bear on the studios right now is critical. Now is the time to stand up for the writers — they provide some amazing entertainment and perspective when they do excellent work (which a lot of them do regularly), and we should have their back. Because the studios are trying to break the unions altogether, and they need to know we all know exactly what they are trying to do — and that we are NOT happy with it.

Thanks so much!

Maybe bin Laden isn’t all that up on what is happening in Iraq. So perhaps he got some information suggesting that Al Qaida Iraq was losing the support of their ostensible allies (the Sunni sheiks) and suggested something to AQI that then was rejected by them. Supposedly this new message reverses that message.

But it may simply be that they have little real influence over AQ in Iraq (that it’s almost an independent wanna-be group) and almost have to use these publicized tapes for communicating messages that would normally be carried privately by courier. AQ isn’t organized like some tight military system…it’s more like a franchise that has very loose control over the franchisees methods and style. They gave training, send an occasional veteran out to help, passed on a few places where there may be safehouses or contacts in cities, and maybe assisted with travel documents and money. On a rare instance they might send out a team with an actual plan. But today it’s mainly run through “affiliates” that were already around earlier (e.g. Jema’ah Islamiya in Indonesia; or the Moro Islamic Liberation Force in the Sulu/Mindanao archipelagos of the Philippines) or that have caught the militant Salafist bug since 9/11.

too bad our troops wont get raises like the congresscritterz

my god that reads like a bad hollywood script. somebody hired these guys??!! of course there will be no followup on who they are supposed to be, the assassins. but even if there were followup, where would that get us.?? (see oliver stone) i’m gonna go catch up on paperwork. jeez

From the NYTimes today:

LOS ANGELES — Hollywood’s glamour machine is stuck between a promise that the stars will still show up at next month’s Golden Globes and a threat that 3,000 picketing writers will chase them away.

Snagged on these conflicting assurances, thousands of party planners, stars, filmmakers, executives, celebrity hand-holders and others over the last few days have watched the industry’s deepening labor dispute, now in its eighth week, bring its annual movie awards race to a near halt. Indeed, whether the Globes will be broadcast has come into doubt.

i suppose you could be right. sure flies in the face of his omnipotent image though, doesn’t it? Also, i can’t translate arabic or whatever but he mentions the american israeli faction in his statement. i still think they got him when they bombed tora bora, which, by the way is the term we here at home now use to describe the tunnels our beloved gerbil makes with his fluffy.

I am curious how the networks are ‘forcing’ Stewart and Colbert, as well as other talkshow hosts back to work without their staff. Without the comedic bend that draws the big audiences.

The audiences will tune on, not find it as funny as before, and tune off. Possibly a good reason to ‘yank’ funnymen from networks altogether.

I know that Carson Daly came out and said he’d be let go if he didn’t return to work as well. So I don’t understand – The writers are protected for going on strike, but frontmen like Carson Daly are not? Can NBC legitimately cancel ‘Last Call with Carson Daly’ if he refuses to air without his writers??

Bwahahahahahaha….

So, d’ya think they all met at Shah what’s his name’s house???

Pl…eeeeeeaaase!!

“How are you?”

“Fine.”

Why do you think so? I wouldn’t trust ISI, and this could be something designed to produce a false set of suspects and deflect from the real perpetrators. But if authentic it could suggest an assassination. The honorifics at the beginning and end are actually quite common within devout Muslims…there is reference to individuals that bravely died, “don’t tell the families” yet, etc. They may have the names of the callers that link up with al Qaida. But ISI is so corrupt that I doubt that anyone in Pakistan will believe them.

cancercures — Yes, they could be fired for breach of contract. Hosts often have a dual role on those sorts of shows — they often have a comedy background, so they write some of their own material. And, in the case of both Stewart and Colbert who are WGA members, they are prohibited from pre-writing material for hosting throughout the strike. Their second role as performer/host (and/or producer as well, as a third role in a lot of cases) comes with contractual obligations separate and apart from the writing portion of duties.

With those obligations come contractual strings, and they could be sued and/or fined and/or fired under contract requirements. As I’m not privy to the details of the individual contracts involved, I can’t tell you what they’d be facing individually — but there are often pretty steep contract breach provisions put in just in case this sort of situation arises (doesn’t happen all that often, but an entertainment lawyer for the studios would be a dolt not to insist on some deterrent provisions in a contract of this sort).

Anyone with knowledge of the honorifics could make that shizzola up. It is made up. It is pure baloney. First of all, they would never name the people involved; secondly, they would never say where they were or where they were going, on the phone.

They make this stuff up by the batch whenever convenient.

The audiences will tune on, not find it as funny as before, and tune off. Possibly a good reason to ‘yank’ funnymen from networks altogether.

Not a chance. There was an NPR show a week or two ago about the strike, and one of the points made was that because “blockbuster” prime-time series are so expensive to make, and so hit-or-miss, late night talk shows are the most profitable segment for the networks. (All this information was coming from union reps or other guests sympathetic to the union; the moguls refused to send anyone to participate.) That doesn’t exactly apply to Comedy Central, but I’m pretty sure the picture there is the same for different reasons (low audience for other shows, rather than high cost.)

One percent? That’s it, one freaking percent?

CBS is trading around $27.29 today, down approx. 24% from its 52-week high.

Disney (ABC’s parent) is trading at $32.50, off 11% from its 52-week high (likely boosted by holiday season).

And GE, NBC’s owner, is off 11% as well; it’s a good thing it doesn’t rely on NBC for income.

If 1% is all that’s at stake, that’s chickenfeed. Studios are losing money not having fresh content, and the share prices we’re seeing aren’t yet showing the real cost to these corporations.

It’s bad business on their part to toss out so much shareholder value for such a nominal amount. Cripes, their travel and energy costs rose far more than 1% this year and you don’t see these studios whining about it!!

I say boycott all CBS, Disney and NBC products until they cough up this pittance of 1%. And dump their stock, too, especially if you need a loss before the end of the year (dialing spouse now and telling him to dump that pitiful GE stock in his portfolio…).

Exactly. And there is the simple fact that they said exactly were they were going to meet up. Ummmm, why didn’t they go and arrest them? More propaganda to try and blame the boogey men Al Qaeda.

ISI intercept made up or not? Well, even though an org like ISI has members of questionable ethics, there is bound to be a radical who takes the killing of Bhutto more serious than others.

Just like how we’ve seen renegades in the Justice Dept (Comey) and the CIA (Plame) in the past few years under Bush, is it possible that a renegade exists in the ISI who wants to release -anything- related to the assassination public?

OBL was never omnipotent…which was an image that the Bush Administration largely engendered. It was a group that largely could have been bottled up in Afghanistan. But there are lots of other groups that took to branding themselves with the same image after Bush invaded Iraq. Suddenly you had these guys everywhere…but they were only weakly affiliated with bin Laden. One can create (in ones psyche) all encompassing networks if you are obsessed with playing 6-degrees of separation. Find terrorist “A” and then try to find out his links to al Qaida…do enough work and you’ll find intermediate links. But those links may be accidental, not causal. But if one thinks that the intermediate individuals MUST be involved they become a “network”. One can then imagine their “roles” and arrest them, interrogate them, tap their phones, look at their hard drives. And those may offer suggestive links to OTHERS through oblique networks.

First off, the honorifics are standard. When someone said it sounded like a bad movie script I simply point out that Muslims DO talk this way to one another.

I also pointed out that ISI isn’t going to be viewed as providing legitimate information.

AAs far as the comments about the names …are the names real? Or aliases/codenames? Is there actually such a place?

Admittedly I would think that anyone legitimate would code up the message with words like “asparagas” or “Dhal”.

“The three sprigs of asparagas were very courageous” “The dhal boiled over, I was very happy”…”Let us meet at the place where they play cricket with the Turtle eggs”. Stuff like that. Makes it a lot less suspicious something is going on.

Good for Bear Sterns! And thanks for this post.

hawkseye36 — You are most welcome for the post. Here’s hoping the other studios follow Letterman’s lead and stop being such greedy asshats…if the WGA, DGA and SAG stay united, along with the production unions, it could be a very powerful leveraging force against studios.