Via BuzzMachine, The Empire - Fox? - Strikes Back!

Fox added an important observation — as Mediaweek did yesterday — about the tactics of the Bozell complaint factory: “Only one complainant professed even to have watched the program.” Exactly. The FCC does nothing to confirm that these alleged complaints come from citizens or that they watched the show. Bozell apparently pays lackeys to ferret out “filth” and then uses his cult members and his FCC bitches to do is bidding. And media follow right along without asking the right questions.

Also, I never reported the audience size for this allegedly indecent show before. Fox says that 5.1 million households watched (which means more viewers than that). So it’s 5.1 million vs. 3.

And, no, I still haven’t forgiven FOX for cancelling Firefly - and I never will.

Some people just don’t know when to quit.

Annan said he plans to concentrate on reform of the United Nations in the last two years of his term, a process that began last week with the release of a report by a high-level panel that analyzed global threats and made 101 recommendations on how to tackle them.

“I have quite a lot of work to do and I’m carrying on with my work,” Annan said when asked when he would respond to those calling for his resignation. “We have a major agenda next year, and the year ahead, trying to reform this organization. So we’ll carry on.”

Even the DLC has joined in the act, although following an Instapundit post, they did later clarify that “in calling for the secretary general to “step aside,” we meant to convey that he should remove himself from any involvement in the oil-for-food investigation, and let Paul Volcker, a man of unquestioned integrity and ability, conduct it independently, and publicly release his findings. We deeply regret this error.”

Anyway, they had this to say:

Unfortunately, the United Nations’ credibility has been steadily eroded by its own misdeeds, with a burgeoning scandal over its incompetent and sometimes corrupt management of the Iraq oil-for-food program being the most damaging example. Last week it was reported that the son of U.N. secretary general Kofi Annan received a series of payments from a Swiss firm that won a lucrative contract under the oil-for-food program. This development has fed growing doubts that the United Nations will be able to own up to its problems or reform its operations so long as Annan remains at the helm.

But mismanagement, corruption, and manipulation of the program by Saddam Hussein allowed his regime to amass at least $21 billion outside of the United Nations’ control, with the great bulk of that sum — $17.3 billion — pilfered between 1997 and 2003 on the secretary general’s watch. In effect, the United Nations colluded in Saddam’s successful evasion of U.N. sanctions. The most damning charge so far — that a former chief of the oil-for-food program, Benon Sevan, accepted bribes from Saddam’s regime — was made in October by former U.N. weapons inspector Charles A. Duelfer, who led a Senate investigation into the scandal. The program is now the subject of at least four congressional investigations, three U.S. federal investigations and the U.N.-appointed commission of inquiry led by former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker.

If the United Nations wants credibility, it needs to get rid of Kofi Annan. I just don’t see any way that it could work.

Rockstar Mommy is a little surprised to find out that society’s standard of beauty has now translated to the Playstation 2.

Real quick here:

Star Wars: The Clone Wars Vol. I will hit DVD March 22nd.

Also sci-fi related, Paramount is releasing a Special Edition of Star Trek First Contact next year, tentative street date 3/15.

Also, Paramount is releasing the first four seasons of Enterprise in 2005. According to the Digital Bits, “Season One of Enterprise is tentatively expected to street on 5/3/05, with Season Two following on 7/12/05, Season Three on 9/6/05 and finally Season Four on 11/1/05.”

You can also see some high-res images of the box sets here.

Can ya’ tell I’m a geek?

Sixty-Three years ago, the Japanese sneak attack at Pearl Harbor provoked the United States to enter World War II.

Yesterday, December 7, 1941 - a date which will live in infamy - the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan.

-Franklin Delano Roosevelt, speaking to Congress on December 8th, 1941.

Here’s a quickie before I go to bed —

Here we have someone who enlisted in the military, and now doesn’t want to fulfill his half of the bargain because he now has a “direct role in the war.”

“I’m going to throw my ID in the water and say that I’m no longer part of the military,” said Petty Officer Third Class Pablo Paredes, 23. “I want to make a statement, and I want it to be heard.”

“I don’t want to be a part of a ship that’s taking 3,000 Marines over there, knowing a hundred or more of them won’t come back,” he said. “I can’t sleep at night knowing that’s what I do for a living.”

So, if you don’t do it, someone else now will have to. And look, personally feeling opposed to something is one thing - but what the hell would’ve happened if everyone in the military had said “this is dumb” about the US intervention in Kosovo?

It isn’t for the soldier, sailor, airmen, or Marines to determine when they will go to war. Rather, it is on their shoulder to conduct themselves with the very best traditions of this country, and to hold their comrades-in-arms to those same principles.

More than that, the military provides valuable programs in education and training to those who serve. But those programs are offered in return for a very serious consequence: that a person may be placed in harm’s way and even be killed. To fail to do an individual’s duty before the end of a commitment is like running out on a contract - no, not “like” — it is absolutely like that.

I don’t agree with the War in Iraq. But Paredes’ actions will simply force another sailor to take his duties aboard ship, to place another individual in harm’s way so that he can keep his conscience clear. What a hero he is.

Paredes’ case does, of course, illustrate why it is so vitally important that we pick the fights we enter, not based on deception and half-truths, but on cold hard facts. And when we enter these conflicts, that we did so with competence and a willingness to learn from our mistakes. Sadly, the Bush Administration continues to blindly stumble on, and I’m sure that by the day more and more servicemen and women question the judgement of the country’s leadership.

This brings up a related bit, however. When you HAVE served your term of duty (I thought it was only four years, did that change recently?), does the military have the right to drag you back into service? I would say no. But that’s just me, and not these guys.