Thursday, October 27, 2016

WILL & GRACE

NBC's long running sitcom WILL & GRACE may be returning.

It would be for a ten episode season.

I would watch.

At its best, it was hilarious.

Megan Mullally was always hilarious as Karen after the first three or so episodes.  (She gets the character in the episode where she  and Jack go trick or treating.)

She was the true find of the show.

But everyone was good.

And there were some really great guest turns.

Demi Moore as Will's babysitter.

Michael Douglas as a cop with the hots for Will.

Madonna as Karen's new roommate.

Janet Jackson and J-Lo both did nice turns.

Gregory Hines in a multi-run as Will's boss Ben (who also dates Grace).

Ellen DeGeneres as a nun.

Debbie Reynolds as Grace's mom (my favorite moment, when Grace sings Barry Manilow's "Mandy" with "mommy" in the name instead -- Sara  Gilbert's also on that episode and Grace is hilarious saying "better him than me" over and over).

It was a great show.

NBC should have brought it back or done a Karen spin-off years ago.

If it does come back, there's talk that the ten episodes will be on NETFLIX.

I don't care how it comes back, I just hope it does.

That last episode was awful -- where Will and Grace aren't friends for like a decade and then become friends again only because their children end up at the same college.


Ava and C.I. nailed it in the May 2006 piece:


Thursday night, NBC's Will & Grace ended its eighth season and its series run.

For us, the funniest plot revolved around Rosario (Shelley Morrison) and Val (regular guest-star Molly Shannon). Having fought Grace, stalked Jack and been knocked out by Karen, it was past time Val set her eyes on Rosario.

"Hey, Nutso!" Rosario cried catching Val watching her wax the floors of Karen's mansion, "if you get off on household fluids, go stalk Mr. Clean!"

Of course Val did no such thing, but she did provide Rosario with a scheme to oust Karen (Megan Mullally) from the manse and make it her own. It was hilarious, and a long time coming, to see Rosario get the upper hand.

Meanwhile, Grace's water broke just as Leo (Harry Connick, Jr.) showed up and learned he was the father of the baby. Accompanying Grace (Deborah Messing) and Will (Eric McCormack) to the hospital and listening to them bicker throughout the labor, he finally had to face the reality that, while there was a place for him in Grace's life, the friendship bond between Will and Grace will never fade or die.

Jack rediscovered the joys of performing when a recently out of the closet Harlin (Gary Grubbs) returned to announce he's purchased a legitimate theater on Broadway which will be where Just Jack: 2010 will debut. "Oh my God," Jack will realize, "that only leaves me four years to pull my act together!"

Best line in the subplot was probably when Harlin explained to Jack why it took so long for him to realize his own sexuality, "I'm from Texas, Jack. We watch a lot of football. Took me forever to realize it wasn't the cries of 'Hut one! Hut two!' that were getting me excited. It was the the buns in the air on the guy crouched over --"

"That's great," Jack replied. "Now about my revue. I see sequins. I think it's important to sparkle when I move."

Which leads him to recruit Bobbie Adler (Debbie Reynolds) to help him with arrangements and choreography -- a post she readily accepts because she's determined to sabotage the production in order to take the lead in her own show Menopause or The Men All Paused: Bobbie Adler's Salute to Rocking Pop Classics of the '80s and Life Changes.

Best of all may be the moment when Rob (Tom Gallop) and Ellen (Leigh Allyn Baker) put Leo straight: Will and Grace and Leo, without the buffer zone of Will & Grace, is just Rob and Ellen.

"Long term marriage without the sex," Ellen explained.

"Long term marriage without the sex, Leo," Rob confirmed nodding agreeably.

"That's what I just said, Rob!" Ellen snarls at her husband.

It was hilarious. It wrapped up threads and points you might have feared were forgotten.

It was a classic series finale . . . if, like us, you provided your own finale.

If, however, you merely watched the two hours on NBC (one hour of tribute, one hour of show), you should probably immediately head for the nearest police station -- you were robbed.



That should have been the finale.  They should have had Ava and C.I. write it.

Going out with C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot:"

 
Thursday, October 27, 2016.  Chaos and violence continue, Elise Labot thinks she's going to land John Kerry and that this means she's now a State Dept press spokesperson, Iraq wants to sit on the UN's Human Rights Council, and much more.


Let's address Khizer Khan.

I didn't know his story, I didn't need to know it.

In fact, the election would be a lot better off if no one knew it.

He goes on stage at the Democratic Party's national convention and insults Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.

Donald responds in his usual over the top way -- typical Donald Trump.

And yet it will not go away.

Because Khizer Khan is a cry baby.

That's all he is, just a damn cry baby.

He wants to kick someone in the shins publicly and then he runs behind the American public hoping we'll save his ass from a beating.

Worse than that, he runs behind the American public and continues to stick his tongue out at Donald Trump.



Ben Finley (AP) reports -- I have no idea why -- that Khan's now taken to the mosque to attack Donald Trump and Trumps has responded.


"I wouldn't have been in Iraq," Trump said, once again falsely insisting he was opposed to the Iraq War before it started. "Had I been president, Capt. Khan would be alive today."
Fumed Khan, "This is the most cruel thing you can say to grieving parents."



For real?

"This is the most cruel thing you can say to grieving parents?"

How about this?

Why was your Muslim son in a war on Muslims?

Or this?

He died for oil and empire, he didn't die for freedom.

I can think of 8 million worse things that people have said in the last 13 years alone and I'm sure you can as well.


I'm sorry that Khan's been so pampered and babied by the press that he can't.

Cindy Sheehan got much worse in one day, in one hour, than Khan's ever gotten.

She didn't whine like a little cry baby.

But then she wasn't an idiot prattling on in public, trying to use their dead son to elect a woman who supported the war.

This is reality.

Khan has no meaning and no point of interest if you don't factor in his son.

He used that son to attack Donald Trump.

This is a fact that press continues to lie about.

AP today insists, "Khan first gained national attention from the podium of the Democratic National Convention when he paid homage to his son, Army Capt. Humayun Khan, who died in Iraq in 2004."



No, he did not pay homage to his son.

I didn't attend the convention.  I didn't watch it on TV.

I know (and dislike) Donald Trump.

I know that when he starts slinging mud, it's because others are slinging it too.

(He'd rather talk -- on and on -- about himself.  When other people pop up on his radar, it's either him talking about how smart they think he is or he's going after them.)

So I knew, without knowing Khan's speech, that Khan had been insulting.

Click here for the speech in full. Minus nine sentences, here it is:


If it was up to Donald Trump, he never would have been in America. Donald Trump consistently smears the character of Muslims. He disrespects other minorities -- women, judges, even his own party leadership. He vows to build walls and ban us from this country.
Donald Trump, you are asking Americans to trust you with our future. Let me ask you: Have you even read the U.S. Constitution? I will gladly lend you my copy. In this document, look for the words "liberty" and "equal protection of law."
Have you ever been to Arlington Cemetery? Go look at the graves of the brave patriots who died defending America -- you will see all faiths, genders, and ethnicities.
You have sacrificed nothing and no one.


First off, how is the Republican "party leadership" "minorities"?

I believe they are all Anglo White men -- so they don't qualify by race or gender -- and as members of Congress, they're part of the establishment, so, no they're not minorities.

Second, "all faiths, genders, and ethnicities."

What about race?

When I think of the Academy Awards and a speech -- a brave one -- a friend gave not that long ago only to be ripped apart for wording, I note that the same eagle eyes aren't working the beat when it comes to Khan.


Third, this crap about "if it was up to Donald Trump, he never would have been in America"?

This lie has been repeated over and over and over.

And you get that idiot in the Hillary commercial (which one! which idiot, which commercial!) saying Donald would throw her child out of the country -- her child wondered.

If you legally adopted the child, how is your child getting thrown out of the country?

And what kind of a parent can't correct that fear?

Khan and his family became American citizens in 1986.

What kind of idiot would say Donald Trump, if it were up to him, would kick them out?

Trump did not need lies to make him into a bad person.

He's spent his entire life making himself into a bad person.

All reporters had to do was report.

Instead, they lied and they gamed the system.

And you better believe that in doing that, they have created sympathy for Donald Trump.

Anyone who believes in fairness, has to roll their eyes over how the corporate media has painted Donald -- me included.

I have a friend who repeatedly calls when one of Ava and my media pieces goes up at THIRD and she says, "But we hate Trump!"  And, yes, I'm part of that "we."

I also hate liars.

And the press has lied repeatedly.

Khan got up on the stage and launched an attack on Donald Trump.

It's a free country.

He's allowed to do that.

But when Donald responds in kind -- probably responds in an overboard manner, that is Donald's style -- it becomes, "Oh, poor man, oh, he's being attacked, oh, this is so unfair . . ."

No.

You say something publicly, someone responds.

That's how the town square works.

And again, Cindy Sheehan took her lumps.  People called her vile things.  She didn't turn into a little cry baby whining in the public square.

But that's the difference: Cindy Sheehan's a grown up.

Khan needs to stop whimpering.

It's disgusting.

And let me also be clear, in a decade or so this may change, but right now, I'm really sick of fathers who never served in the military using their child's service to make themselves look better.

Mothers?

Women have faced restrictions in the US.  That's changing.

When it does, my view of mothers on this issue may change.


On Trump and immigration, he was referring to undocumented immigration in his speech announcing his bid for president.  At some point, grown ups will have to have a conversation.

And Hillary supporters who are little babies are going to be surprised to find that the actual immigration policies of Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton will not differ.

Grown ups will also have to face the fact that you either have rules for immigration or you don't.

If we want truly open borders, then let's vote for that on a referendum.

But I don't think that would pass.

The immigration issue is a serious issue.  And reducing it -- as the press has done -- to cartoon simplicity helps no one.

(I used undocumented worker, etc. so for those who don't know I support sanctuary cities and feel that a blanket amnesty should be pursued for those in the US currently. And I can make my argument for those positions.  I don't have to distort Donald Trump's views in order to voice my own.)


Khan doesn't appear to notice, but the Iraq War continues -- as does the suffering of those living through it.


Iraq's children MUSTN'T be forced to choose between being trapped and fleeing into gunfire:








As the suffering continues, so does the attempt to liberate or 'liberate' Mosul.

The issue was raised at yesterday's State Dept press briefing.



QUESTION: Okay. Can we stay on [the Islamic State] and the battle of Mosul?

MR KIRBY: Sure, sure.

QUESTION: Okay. Is it turning out to be like a slog, or how are things moving? How are they progressing?

QUESTION: No.

MR KIRBY: Elise, do you want to come take the podium?

QUESTION: Not today.

MR KIRBY: Not today, all right. Look, I mean, we’re how many days into this, Said? And now we’re already talking about slog? What’s the next thing we’re going to be asking about? Quagmire? I mean, this is --

QUESTION: Okay.

MR KIRBY: This just started. And we said all along that this was going to be, first of all, a long road to get to the operation, because it had to be done when the Iraqis were ready, and now they are. And we said even before, even while we were doing shaping operations, that taking back Mosul was going to be a tough fight and was going to take a while, and it was going to be ugly because of the terrain and because of the nature of the city itself and their presence in Mosul.
And so look, we’re only a few days into this. And actually, they are making good progress. They’re mainly still on the outskirts of Mosul, but they have achieved a measure of success. And oh, by the way, there’s been good coordination between the Peshmerga and the ISF, and there were people, critics, saying well, that’s never going to happen. Well, it’s happening.
So we’ve got to give them time and space to continue to execute their plan, but military operations are never clear-cut things. You’re going to meet resistance. The enemy gets a vote. Things don’t always go according to plan. I’m not saying that this isn’t; I’m just saying that we need to all be prepared to watch this on a daily basis and not get ahead of it.

QUESTION: Well, because of all these – all the different groups and all the moving parts in this thing, is the United States – is it maybe – has it made a mistake by not taking command and control of this operation? And perhaps because it has a better experience, and whether in the fight in Mosul in the old days, 2003 and 2004, and so on?

MR KIRBY: No, absolutely not. No, this – no, no, I couldn’t disagree more. I mean, we’ve also long said for going on two years now, that in order to achieve a truly sustainable defeat of this group, it has to be done with indigenous forces. Now, one of the lessons we’ve learned over the last 15, 16 years is yes, the American military can do a lot of things and do it very, very well, but the way to sustain a defeat against extremists on soil is to make sure that indigenous forces and secure – and a security apparatus is in place and capable of not only defeating, but then stabilizing afterward; that sometimes the presence of foreign troops alone can be – can be the irritant required to keep extremists interested in an area, that we can actually make the situation worse.
The second thing I’d say – I see you, Elise. Give me a second. The second thing I’d say is that we tend to forget Iraq is a sovereign country. I know we talked about Iraq for much of the last decade as if it was some – it was a territory. It’s a sovereign country and Prime Minister Abadi must maintain command and control over the forces inside his country, and he does. And we’ve long said that if you’re going to be involved in the fight against ISIL, we want all those things coordinated and under Prime Minister Abadi’s command and control.

That’s the way to achieve a lasting defeat against this group, which is why our role has been one – not just because we wanted it, but because Prime Minister Abadi wanted it – one of training, advising, assisting, helping improve their battlefield competency, confidence, and capability so that they could mount this – well, all these operations, but this one in particular – successfully, and then maintain the defeat of ISIL over time and stabilize Mosul going forward. That can’t be done by foreign forces. It needs to be done by Iraqi forces.



Let's just close in on one aspect of that:


QUESTION: Okay. Is it turning out to be like a slog, or how are things moving? How are they progressing?

QUESTION: No.

MR KIRBY: Elise, do you want to come take the podium?


That's Elise Labot who forgets she works for CNN -- she's convinced John Kerry's going to leave his wife for her (it's not happening, Elise) -- and not the State Dept.

There's Elise objecting -- that should read "No!" -- to the notion that the Mosul action is turning into a "slog."

One wonders why the biased and dishonest Elise is allowed by CNN to remain on the State Dept press beat.

But if she had any ethics, she wouldn't be trying to pursue a married man.



Meanwhile, the Iraqi government wants to be on the United Nations Human Rights Council.  The executive director of UN WATCH, Hillel Neuer, offers his thought on their campaign brochure.



1. Ahead of tomorrow's farce— elections to its Human Rights Council—I will now tweet out from 's brochure.






2. Iraq's absurd election campaign brochure actually invokes their minority—even though they've been subjected to genocide.







3. Iraq's absurd election campaign brochure also cites the happy condition of their minority—who have been decimated.







4. Finally Iraq's UNHRC election brochure says " have lived in Iraq for thousands of years"; right—but were all chased out decades ago.











Before the USA illegally invaded Iraq in 2003, there hadn't been a single suicide bombing in Iraqs history. The US create the terror!














The following community sites -- plus Jody Watley and BLACK AGENDA REPORT --  updated:


























  • iraq




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