Dick Martin, a veteran nightclub comic who with his partner, Dan Rowan, turned a midseason replacement slot at NBC in 1968 into a hit that redefined what could be done on television, died Saturday in Santa Monica, Calif. He was 86 and lived in Malibu, Calif.
... The show, partly the brainchild of the producer George Schlatter (who would later get into a court battle with Mr. Rowan and Mr. Martin over the rights to it), pushed the envelope of topical humor, something "The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour" had begun doing the year before. "Laugh-In," though, was more interested in creating a frenetic pace than in creating controversy. To do so it relied on a cast of young, largely unknown comics like Judy Carne, Henry Gibson and Jo Anne Worley — a risky approach that one writer who logged time on the series, Lorne Michaels, would use when he shook up television anew in 1975 with "Saturday Night Live." And, just as with the "S.N.L." cast, a few "Laugh-In" alumni went on to impressive careers, most notably Goldie Hawn and Lily Tomlin.
"Laugh-In" stayed No. 1 through its first two seasons, garnering 11 Emmy nominations in 1969 for Season 2. The novelty, though, began to wear off, and by 1973 it was no longer on the air.
Oregon's got a notoriously active political blogosphere, but Minnesota's got a "mob," and some of it's Republican goons have Democratic Senate candidate Al Franken in their sights.
On a laptop at a kitchen table in this cheery Twin Cities suburb, headlines ripping into Al Franken, the satirist whose campaign for the United States Senate is seen as one of the most competitive in the nation, are written up day after day for “Minnesota Democrats Exposed,” a political blog created by a former Republican Party researcher.
...What Mr. Franken’s circumstance has proven, though, is that no Minnesota candidate this fall can afford to ignore Mr. Brodkorb, or the rest of the state’s vast universe of Web sites devoted to local politics. Experts here say the abundance of these blogs is a mirror onto this state, its partisan split in recent years and its long tradition of intense political activism (by some measures, voter turnout here was the highest in the nation in 2006). That said, they are anything but Minnesota Nice.
Eric Pusey’s liberal-leaning "mnblue," for instance, tracks Mr. Coleman’s moves on a "Weasel Meter." Some blog live from the smallest of political meetings and the forgotten campaign stops. Enough of these writers have cropped up here now to make a Minnesota Organization of Bloggers, better known here as the Mob. "We’ve kind of got a center of gravity going on up here," said Mitch Berg, one in a group that started a "True North" Web site in 2007.
UPDATED: As noted in the comments below, the Minnesota Organization of Bloggers is a group that includes all sorts of bloggers, not just political bloggers or Republicans.
Looks like I'm gonna be able to get some mileage out of this cartoon -- about Rep. David Wu from Oregon's 1st Congressional District -- every two years or so.
Mr. McCain repudiated the Rev. John C. Hagee, a televangelist, after a watchdog group released a recording of a sermon in which Mr. Hagee said Hitler and the Holocaust had been part of God’s plan to chase the Jews from Europe and drive them to Palestine.
Later in the day, he also rejected the endorsement of the Rev. Rod Parsley of the World Harvest Church of Columbus, Ohio, whose anti-Muslim sermons were broadcast on ABC’s "Good Morning America" on Thursday.
Controversy has dogged the Hagee endorsement since Mr. McCain announced it at a February news conference, and just last week Mr. Hagee issued a letter expressing regret for "any comments that Catholics have found hurtful."
So McCain decides to cut ties only when Hagee is caught saying God wanted six million Jews efficiently murdered, but this influential conservative preacher has a long history of revealing kooky end-of-times yearnings most Americans would find abhorrent. For example, check out this short video featuring some of Hagee's follower/donors:
Yet McCain appeared on stage to accept the TV evangelist's endorsement, knowing full well of the, eh hmmm, pastor's extreme beliefs.
McCain's delay in doing the right thing seems similar to an episode in 2000 when he adamantly refused for three days to apologize for saying "I hate gooks."
McCain, a former Navy pilot who spent five years in a Vietnamese prisoner of war camp, was questioned about the language because of a story last month in the Nation magazine reporting his continued use of the slur.
Since then, reports of McCain's language have been circulating on Internet chat sites and e-mails among Asian Americans, many of whom find the the term offensive and inappropriate for an elected official.
...McCain made no apologies yesterday.
"I was referring to my prison guards," McCain said, "and I will continue to refer to them in language that might offend some people because of the beating and torture of my friends."
...The horrors of the past cannot be an excuse for hurting people in the present, said Guy Aoki, president of the Media Action Network for Asian Americans, an anti-defamation group.
"If Sen. McCain had been captured by Nigerians, could he call those people `niggers' and think he wasn't going to offend everyone who is black?" Akoi asked. "We can all feel for what he went through, but if that's his level of sensitivity, I'm very disappointed."
So it's not the first time Grandpa Straight Talk has steered his Express off the tracks and into the ditch. We've seen that kind of leadership in the White House long enough.
The Oregonian's Steve Duin hit the nail on the head with this take on Steve Novick's concession speech, which closed out his unsuccessful primary campaign (45-42% to Jeff Merkley) that could have put an honest-to-God (and much needed) iconoclast in the U.S. Senate.
An Eloquent, Graceful Exit
At the bittersweet end of an audacious campaign, Steve Novick gave the most entertaining and uplifting concession speech I've ever heard.
I've been in a lot of hotel ballrooms when pathetic candidates heard the death rattle they so richly deserved, and campaign staff and the obligatory lobbyists, embarrassed to be seen with one another, melted into the nearest bars. That was not the mood at the Benson Tuesday night when Gov. John Kitzhaber introduced Novick, even as the jukebox cranked out, "I Fought the Law and the Law Won."
With 30 of his most fervent supporters, including his parents and girlfriend, on the stage behind him, Novick received an electric ovation, prompting him to quote an ol' Mo Udall line: "If this goes on much longer, I might have to accept the nomination.
"Well, my friends," Novick continued, "we thought we were going to stick it to the man. But in the end, as usual, the man stuck it to us. But for a while there ..."
He was the Democrats' best hope to unseat Sen. Gordon Smith in the general election, and in the end, it took hundreds of thousands of national Democratic Party dollars to turn the tide of the primary toward his opponent, the lifeless Jeff Merkley. "The last days of the campaign reminded me of nothing so much as the last scene of 'Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,'" Novick said. "A couple of outlaws against the entire Bolivian army. But now we're hearing the endless rattle of gunfire ... and the movie is over." (emphasis mine)
Novick expressed the hope that his supporters would be proud of being part of a campaign that would "go down in history with the great losers of all time ... like the 1975 Boston Red Sox." Underdog campaigns like his, Novick reminded a room still filled with several hundred supporters, are "a self-selective community. You didn't join this campaign out of resignation, because it was what you had to do."
No, as Kitzhaber said, people supported Novick because he "had a message, a heart and a brand," or everything that Merkley lacks. And they remained with him to the end.
Novick likened his supporters to "a group of guerrillas who came down from the mountains and almost took out the establishment. This group made me feel like Castro. The young Castro."
And he expressed the hope that in years to come, those guerrillas -- whose efforts helped Novick carry Multnomah County and the city of Portland -- would still feel a bond with one another "when you realize you were both for Novick in 2008."
I don't know a single Novick supporter who isn't extremely proud of having been a small part of Novick's campaign. He made us proud of our support right through to the end.
Novick and his competent, creative crew almost pulled it off, despite the stacked deck.
Hey, we're overachievers -- although I would have preferred that "the movie" end at this scene (below), with Novick's "couple of outlaws" overcoming the seemingly insurmountable...
...But we all know the movie didn't end that way. And so it was with this campaign. We got this (below) at the end instead ...
...A great old tune, for sure, but as Duin wrote, bittersweet. So all that's left is to slice up a lime, crack open some of the remaining Left Hook Lager and, of course, a salute: Here's to ya, Steve. Thanks for a great ride. You can bet we'll be there for the next one!
UPDATE; 10:09 a.m. Looks like the folks at MTV News are feeling it as well.
Steve Novick was brief but witty Tuesday night during his concession speech to Jeff Merkley, winner of Oregon's Democratic U.S. Senate primary. Here are a few minutes of video recorded by The Oregonian:
More national news coverage for Steve Novick. MSNBC talking head Chris Matthews, host of Hardball, took notice of Oregon's fighter with a hard left hook.
Oregon itself is getting top billing from the international press covering the 2008 Mt. Hood Cycling Classic, which started Tuesday in Portland with a prologue time trial and will finish Sunday with the Downtown Hood River Criterium.
The Beaver State stole the show at Friday's Scenic Gorge Time Trial, which sent the riders down an 18.5 mile course that started in The Dalles, ascended the Rowena Loops into Mosier and then traversed five miles of the Historic Columbia River Gorge Highway that have been set aside for bike/pedestrian use.
Sutherland, Goldstein take control in gorge(ous) Hood time trial
The course itself was the true headline story of the day, easily overshadowing any performance. The nearly 18 mile point-to-point course was an equally beautiful and challenging parcours that snaked along the clifs of the Columbia River. Stone fencing along the cliff edges overlooked beautiful wild flowers and spectacular vistas.
"It was beautiful," said (Australian stage winner Rory) Sutherland. "It is definitely up there as the most interesting and beautiful TT courses. We never get enough of a time to look around but this whole area is amazing."
The road itself was two-lanes of perfect pavement that used to be the main road before the interstate highway was built. The final few miles of the course turned onto the more historic section of the road that has since been designated a national landmark and converted into an almost too-good-to-be-true bike path.
"Who the hell has a bike path like that in the middle of nowhere," asked Sutherland. "I'm pretty damn impressed with this little piece of paradise. I'm hoping to find some time to come back and spend a few days here and just look around."
In fact, Zalewski reported that racer Chris Wherry (left), who finished 87th among the 119 starters in the pro men's field and was no doubt saving his energy for Saturday's brutal Wy' East Road Race, took the time to stretch his arms upward and remark to the photographer, "Isn't this absolutely beautiful," as he passed.
I'm sure the unseasonably warm weather helped the riders' perceptions. There may have been quite a different feeling about the place had the racers been asked to fight a typical full-on Columbia Gorge headwind with accompanying sideways rain.
The boys from Bissell (above) tried protect their teammate Benjamin Jacques-Maynes' yellow race-leader jersey by setting a blistering pace at the front, but Toyota-United's Aussie rider, Hilton Clarke, won the day and the overall lead.
In the peleton Fred Rodriguez (above center, obscured) -- three-time US Pro Road Racing champ and lead-out man to the stars in the big European races across the pond -- waits for his chance. He's back in the states as his career winds down. Rodriguez finished sixth on the day and stands 12th overall.
The six-day stage race now heads back toward Mt. Hood for Thursday's Cooper Spur Circuit Race, Friday's Scenic Gorge Time Trial, Saturday's Wy' East Road Race and Sunday's Downtown Hood River Criterium.
Dick Martin, a veteran nightclub comic who with his partner, Dan Rowan, turned a midseason replacement slot at NBC in 1968 into a hit that redefined what could be done on television, died Saturday in Santa Monica, Calif. He was 86 and lived in Malibu, Calif.
"Laugh-In" stayed No. 1 through its first two seasons, garnering 11 Emmy nominations in 1969 for Season 2. The novelty, though, began to wear off, and by 1973 it was no longer on the air.
