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Monday, November 05, 2007

Monday Musings-


Pakistani President Asshole Musharref has invoked the name of our own Abraham Lincoln in his latest crackdown against protest, democracy, opponents and the courts. Although some historians have questioned a few of Lincoln's legal actions during the American Civil War what the asshole hiding Bin Laden Musharref seems to be missing is that in order to hold onto power at any cost he is invoking the name of a man who believed in the election process so deeply that there was never any question about whether America would have an election in the middle of a civil war, even though the sitting President fully expected to lose.

I didn't think anyone was capable of out-ironying Bush-Cheney, but the asshole hiding Bin-Laden Musharref seems to be doing it.

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I've re-designed Mulligrubbing Fudgenuts and posted new content, so go on over if y'all like (I mean, you know, puuuuhlease...).

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The writer's union in Hollywood went on strike today. The issue is internet revenues- the writers want their share of them. The studios say there is no money there, so why bother? Interesting question. I've got a relative who is involved in this question on the side of writers in the book-publishing industry, where the publishers are also trying to cut out the writers from any associated internet revenue. Here's my question-

I heard a spokesman for the studios say today that your average studio writer will lose more money in a week of striking than he would realize in years and years of internet revenue sharing. Well, ok, if that's the case (that there's very, very little money being made on the internet) why not give the writers their miniscule share? I mean, hey, 5% of nothing is nothing, right? Surely if there's no money being made, the studios can afford to cut the writer in for a small percentage of nothing, yes?

Cool! Problem resolved. Strike over. Unless, of course, the studios are lying...

Fay Wray says "that makes sense!"

22 comments:

Malach the Merciless said...

I'd go on strike, but I am not in the union and a scab

Phoebe Fay said...

The studios would lie to their writers?!?!

I'm shocked. Shocked, I tell you.

Commander Zaius said...

Seems like Bush's house of cards is falling completely apart. Everyone Bush takes a liking to ends up being a huge asshole. First he looked into the eyes of Putin liked what he saw and he has turned into a dictator. Bush all but kissed Musharref saying he was the best thing since sliced bread. Now Musharref's blatant power grab is a match being thrown onto a nuclear powder keg. Don't birds of a feather fly together?

Anonymous said...

That guy in Pakistan is quite the winner eh? Be thankful that we were born/live in a decent part of the world. Plus we don't have Bush as our leader!!

Mike said...

We will go after the terrorists and the countries that harbor terrorists

Remember that statement? Yeah, Bush said it. Pakistan's doing it, so why all this fuss about Iran?

here today, gone tomorrow said...

Well said, as always.

Forrest Proper said...

Malach: We should all go on strike anyway. It's raining and I don't feel like working today. I feel a "sympathy slowdown" coming on...

Phoebe: Like Rudy, I'm sure they're not lying. They're just re-aligning the facts.

Beach Bum: But who on earth could have forseen that trust placed in Putin and Musharraf would have been misplaced? Damn.

Sirdar: Well, we didn't technically really elect him either.

Mike: Because Osama's not in Iran.

HTGT: Thank you.

AngryMan said...

If there's no money in the internet, then why'd Viacom start pulling shit off of Youtube? Why are all TV shows doing it?

FreeOscar said...

I love how we stand up for democracy.

Forrest Proper said...

Angryman: High moral reasons and the goodness of their hearts?

C.rag: Clinton parsed the word "is", Bush parses the word "democracy" -remind me which one we impeached?

Kerstin said...

I don't have anything to add except, thank you. You know. For Fay.

Bruce, a work in progress said...

I agree on the writer's strike issue. It'll be interesting to see how the whole electronic media thing gets handles. My wife's a writer (books, not scripts) so we pay pretty close attention to these things. I'm sure the studios are every bit as generous as the publishers.

Anonymous said...

Ditto to Angryman!!!!

Tequila Mockingbird said...

what, the studios lie? i thought they had that solid studio code of honor...

Forrest Proper said...

Kerstin: For Phoebe? Don't know if I'd mentioned this afore, but I actually read Phoebe's blog for a week or so before it occured to me that she was somebody I actually already knew... I think it was the post about gerbil balls that tipped me off.

Bruce: Yeah, if we're talking about so little money to begin with, they can't lose much by sharing, right?

PrePonderings: " "

T-Bird: They do have a code of honor: Thou Shalt Not Tell a Truth.

Cissy Strutt said...

My union, the Australian Writers' Guild, is urging the membership not to break the US writers' strike. It would be as fast way to a Hollywood career, but even eleven years of the Coward Howard hasn't broken the Union spirit in this great land. We just don't like scabs.

Catalyst said...

I know a Hollywood guy who has been a screenwriter, now a producer, over there for 30 some years. When he first went over there, he was making a million dollars a year...JUST TO BE EMPLOYED BY A STUDIO. If he actually wrote anything, he got even more money.

While in recent years he has worked on "24" and "NCIS", he spent many years churning out ideas that either never got made or never got picked up or quickly got canceled.

Frankly, I can't find any sympathy for him. I tried to reach him yesterday to chat about the strike but find no telephone number or address anywhere for him and none of his former friends know how to reach him.

Guess he's in Tahiti vacationing.

Forrest Proper said...

Cissy- you go! Yeah, I'd give my right arm (not a problem- I'm left-handed) to be a screenwriter or script writer (ok, odd dreams, I'm an odd guy) but I'd never cross that picket line for 4 reasons- 1: I've never crossed a picket line and hope never to do so, 2: the strike is gonna be over sometime and then you have colleagues who think you're a rat, which you are, 3: the way things are going in the U.S., it's just the wrong thing to do, and 4: the fucking studios are wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong wrong!

so, yes, way to go, Cissy!!

Forrest Proper said...

Catalyst- oops, you came in while I was ranting. I dunno, I guess my thought is the same I have for overpaid Major League ballplayers- nobody is holding a gun to the head of the studio execs forcing them to pay that guy that much money. Presumably he has some kind of talent that they covet. Also, like actors, he is one in a thousand who makes that kind of salary. Most writers are treated less kindly.

My other insight comes from the aunt-in-law who is the one who works in publishing, and the publishers are really trying to screw the authors. I could very well be wrong, but from everything I have heard about studio practices, I'm not sure it's a different ballgame over there.

And I could always be wrong- but I'll never be as wrong as Bush! [<-insert evil laugh]

Cissy Strutt said...

Indded, if one wasn't concerned about the immorality of strikebreaking, one should consider how short-lived one's spanking new Hollywood career would be.

I'm safe, anyway. Hollywood won't be knocking on the doors of opera librettists, I wot.

FreeOscar said...

I love those eyes on your under your title.

Forrest Proper said...

Cissy: Hey, you never know- they may decide to bring back 'Cop Rock' (which, in case you missed it on the other side of the world, was a police show where the cops and perps broke into song every few minutes. It lasted, oh, about 3 episodes...).

C.Rag: The eyes are watching you...