The Federal Emergency Management Agency shines again. I hadn't heard about this until now. Apparently, Tuesday's FEMA press conference about the wildfires had no press at it. After FEMA's statement, questions were asked by FEMA staff posing as journalists.

FEMA's excuse:

FEMA announced the news conference with 15 minutes' notice and provided an 800 number for reporters, but it was not set up to take questions. When no reporters showed up, FEMA provided stand-ins to ask questions and a video feed. Several channels broadcast parts of the event live.

"FEMA's goal is to get information out as soon as possible, and in trying to do so we made an error in judgment," Johnson acknowledged in a statement. "Our intent was to provide useful information and be responsive to the many questions we have received. We are reviewing our press procedures and will make the changes necessary to ensure that all of our communications are straightforward and transparent."

Why did they have to use the question-and-answer format at all? If they knew that there was information to give out, why wait for planted questions?

Both the White House and DHS have expressed their displeasure at the charade. It's unlikely that FEMA (or any other agency) will do it again.

Overall, this wasn't a giant mistake. But we certainly don't want government agencies to get in the habit of faking press conferences. The White House and DHS condemnations are well made.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 04:48 PM | Comments (24)
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[Jack, Suzanne called me this afternoon and asked if I'd post this one at her behest. She's a sweet kid and I agreed, I hope there's no hard feelings brothaman].

Dear Jack M.

Please stop.

Honestly, I thought it was just a cute blog thing, until now. Now you haunt me. My security people tell me I can't afford to treat this unseriously.

I thought it was kinda funny, ok that's not fair, I never heard of this AoSHQ place until Andrew brought it up.

I didn't know. I still don't know, what is it, no, wait, don't answer. Don't reply at all please.

So I'd just like things to be friendly, I hope you don't write anything bad about me in your column.

And, uhm,

stay away.

way back.

I insist.

I don't want to put my name on this, I hope you understand.

Oh, and Dave in Texas, thank you so, so much. I am indebted to you, you cutie Texan you!

and check out my website!

[Dave in Texas] dude, sorry. She's just so, so f'n' cute. A little pixy!

I apologize.

Posted by: Dave In Texas at 02:39 PM | Comments (39)
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William Shatner thinks Star Trek fans have a fever and there’s only one cure: more Shatner.

"I couldn't believe it. I'm not in the movie at all. Leonard, God bless his heart, is in, but not me," Shatner, 76, told The Associated Press on Thursday. "I thought, what a decision to make, since it obviously is a decision not to make use of the popularity I have to ensure the movie has good box office. It didn't seem to be a wise business decision."

Is Shatner really serious or is there any chance that he was just kidding? I mean anyone who can do this to Rocket Man has to have a keen sense of humor, right?

Posted by: DrewM. at 02:06 PM | Comments (37)
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William Shatner thinks Star Trek fans have a fever and thereÂ’s only one cure: more Shatner.

"I couldn't believe it. I'm not in the movie at all. Leonard, God bless his heart, is in, but not me," Shatner, 76, told The Associated Press on Thursday. "I thought, what a decision to make, since it obviously is a decision not to make use of the popularity I have to ensure the movie has good box office. It didn't seem to be a wise business decision."

Is Shatner really serious or is there any chance that he was just kidding? I mean anyone who can do this to Rocket Man has to have a keen sense of humor, right?

Posted by: DrewM at 02:06 PM | Comments (37)
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Consider this a Public Service Announcement. (Hey..the judge says it counts towards my "community service" obligation.)

My favorite show (and yours, if you were cool) Red Eye w/Greg Gutfeld has had an additional time-slot added to the schedule.

While the show will continue to be broadcast at 3:00 AM EST on weekdays, FOX has added a new 11:00 PM EST broadcast date for Saturdays.

The first of these Saturday broadcasts airs tonight. It is a new show, not a repeat of one that has previously aired.

My source at FOX (alas, not Miss Suzanne Sena....this time) tells me that this extra time slot for the show will exist at least until January. If the ratings hold up, this could become a permanent thing.

So watch, willya? It's the closest you are ever going to come to having one of the Fox Hotties in your home after dark.

Well, except for Bill Schulz, who I understand is more than happy to pay you a noctural visit. Preferably in leather chaps.

Now back to your regularly scheduled blog festivities, in which Ace bores you with more painfully pedantic profiles of extinct French theatre styles.

He's a regular dramaturgist of Notre Dame, he is.

UPDATE:

Posted by: Jack M. at 01:03 PM | Comments (35)
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A lot of you might know. I didn't. I've read the term so many times to know basically it meant "a luridly horrific tableaux," or something along those lines. But what it referred to precisely I never knew, until I looked it up five minutes ago. As Halloween's coming, seems like it's worth a post.

It was actually a theater (stage) in Paris that specialized in graphically violent, amoral, and often sick-minded horror plays from the 20's until the early 60's.

Le Théâtre du Grand-Guignol was founded in 1894 by Oscar Méténier, who planned it as a space for naturalist performance. With 293 seats, the theater was the smallest in Paris. The building was a former chapel, and the theatre's history showed in the boxes, which looked like confessionals, and in the angels over the orchestra.

The theater owed its name to Guignol, a traditional Lyonnaise puppet character, joining political commentary with the style of Punch and Judy.

The theatre's peak was between World War I and World War II when it was frequented by royalty and celebrities in evening dress.

more...

Posted by: Ace at 12:27 PM | Comments (26)
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Eh, why not.

This is cute: Fred Thompson answers "lazy" charges, and Jimmy Kimmel provides a spoof commercial.

Posted by: Ace at 11:21 AM | Comments (23)
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"Don't blame the fire victims," they say.

Fair enough.

But if the LAT is really concerned about extreme polticization of a disaster, perhaps they can spare a paragraph or two to chastise Air America hosts Malloy and Rhodes for claiming "the Bush crimefamily" and Blackwater for started the fires to either 1) build a new complex or 2) "distract" us.

Otherwise people might get the idea that the LAT is as guilty of using tragedy for political purposes as anyone else.

No, really. They said that. That's not spin and it's not distorting their comments. Rhodes claimed Blackwater started the fires to build a new corporate HQ, and Malloy claimed "elements of the Bush crime family" set the fires to "distract" us, I guess from all the good news coming out of Iraq.

Posted by: Ace at 10:28 AM | Comments (21)
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Even with all the cursing taken out. I forgot how good this movie is. It's on the ragged edge of absurd but Denzel Washington is awesome and, God help me for saying this, so is Ethan Hawke.

"You've been planning this all day."

"I've been planning this all week, son."

The ending is pretty dodgy, I'm remembering now. But that "arrest" and execution scene? Awesome.

Posted by: Ace at 09:38 AM | Comments (28)
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In no particular order:

1. You have cribbed one of Jack M's epic love poems and sent it to an online paramour.

2. You know more than five words of a made-up sci-fi language like Klingon, Goa'uld, Fremen or Danish.

3. You've ever had to use the phrase: "It's not a comic book. It's a GRAPHIC NOVEL!"

4. You've ever used a movie quote in an uncomfortable context. Sure, quotes from the Holy Trinity ("Caddyshack", "Fletch", "Animal House") are comprehensible by 98% of the people in the free world, but a gutbuster laugh line from "Repo Man" or "Let It Ride" might draw blank stares from a crowd of people with real lives. (*)

5. You think that the "Highlander" movie franchise went off track in the first sequel, and the whole story line would be better off if they had inserted some Broadway musical numbers instead of all the fighting.

6. You took an old girlfriend to a movie on Valentine's Day. The Movie? "From Dusk 'til Dawn" (substitute "The Exorcist", any of the "Saw" movies, or "Brokeback Mountain" depending on your age). Bonus points if you ended up married to this woman.

7. You convince yourself that the "Ron Paul 2008" bumpersticker on your '98 Subaru Outback makes you look like a real constitutional scholar.

8. You lie in bed late at night pondering your future when the words "I always knew I'd die alone" pop into your head. You're immediately shaken by the heavy truth in that statement, and lie there wondering where your life went wrong for at least a half hour... until you remember that this little bit 'o wisdom is a quote from Captain Kirk taken from the 5th Star Trek movie.

9. Instead of getting a 23-year old stripper girlfriend, hairplugs & a convertible for your midlife crisis, you immerse yourself in "World of Warcraft" or one of it's equivalents.

10. You find yourself working bizarre internet inside jokes into conversations with your real-life friends. Phrases like "puppy blender", "Stuff Jefferson Said", "I'll make you into an Internet Verb", "beclown yourself" or "It's Hobo Stranglin' Time!" don't go over too well at suburban barbecues, especially when they come up abruptly in conversations about the last PTA meeting or the upcoming bond issue for the new aquatic park.

11. You've ever bought an old CD on impulse. Not because it's a great disc, but because the one kinda OK track on the whole disc was playing in the background that time back in college when that drunk brunette let you touch her Hoo-Hahs at 3am in a booth at Subway during your big post-Finals Week celebratory drinking binge.

Just a sample list. Feel free to add your own ideas.

(*) Quotes from "Office Space" are exempted from this rule, because anyone who hasn't seen that movie isn't worth having a conversation with anyway. Unless it's your gramma or mother, in which case let the bitch know that she's on effing notice & encourage her to get with the program and see the movie already.

Posted by: Russ from Winterset at 09:13 AM | Comments (55)
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