Jim (Con't): Okay, getting started with Allyson who asks why we all ignored the mining rescue. She notes that Stan and Betty both wrote about the miners during the ordeal but the rescue was ignored by one and all.
Stan: Betty and I talked about covering it and decided not to. We felt it was being over-covered and that it was being badly covered. We didn't want to add into that.
Betty: Stan and I are on the phone with each other before we blog each night. And Stan had done a much better job with the mining story than I had. But the coverage in the media shifted with the rescue and it was just embarrassing. We had no reason to cover it. There were other things we wanted to talk about.
Jim: Okay and anyone else? Allyson noted that no one covered it.
Ava: Let me jump in. I know Marcia and Wally and Cedric were hitting hard on the Don't Ask, Don't Tell decision and that there were other issues to cover. But C.I. and I do a piece this edition on what we're calling Crazy Thursday -- a TV meltdown that took place last week. There is not enough room in our piece -- and it's long -- to cover everything on the morning meltdown and on the evening meltdown shows. One of the things we don't cover about The View is the nonsense those idiots served up about the mining disaster. It was a disaster. Yes, all the miners are alive. That is good news. But to hear Barbara Walters, Whoopi Goldberg, et al tell it, it was a story of greatness and heroism and blah blah blah roll the Touchstone Disney logo already. The story is about mine safety and no one wanted to talk about that. They got very lucky, the company, because no one died. Very lucky. This was treated -- by the media last week -- as if Baby Jessica fell into the well. This wasn't anything like that. This is a safety story and safety was missing from the coverage. I completely understand why Betty and Stan took a pass.
Jim: Okay. That's good. TV coverage. Stan, we've got an e-mail about your coverage of the ABC show No Ordinary Family. Specifically, it's about the issue of the daughter. The reader says the character is weak and wonders why you're not using that to make a point since you're already pointing out that the wife gets trivial storylines while the husband gets to fight crime?
Dona: Jumping in before Stan responds. The TV show, hour long action and possibly comedy, is about two parents and their two kids who end up with super powers. The father's able to jump great lenths and is apparently indestructable -- meaning he got two powers -- while the wife can run fast, the son is a brainiac and the daughter is able to read minds. Stan, go ahead.
Stan: Okay. Honestly, I don't know if the actress is an adult or not, playing the high school daughter. I'm falling Ava and C.I. in terms of not criticizing actors who are children while they're children.
Jim: And Dallas informs that she's 20 years old. Kay Panabaker who plays Daphene is 20. And thank you, Dallas, for that.
Stan: Okay. Well, it's badly written part. Daphene's is horrified by her powers. While her father's trying to figure out how to use his for his amusement and heroics and the son's doing something similar. Why is it that this is happening? Rebecca, on Heroes what happened to the women?
Rebecca: NBC's Heroes started off a strong show but the women were repeatedly trashed. A woman with super powers was a danger. Sometimes to herself. When there was a 'cure' for super powers, the only hero who wanted to do it was a woman. A woman with strength was freakish on that show. Plus the women tended to have passive powers.
Stan: Right. It's a long, long way from Buffy the Vampire Slayer to the crap that was Heroes and that I fear is No Ordinary Family. I'm trying to hang in for three more episodes. I'm trying to give it that but it's getting worse each week.
Jim: Alright. Still on TV. Mike, you're covering Fringe. Rebecca, you were covering Lone Star before it was cancelled. Betty, you're covering Desperate Housewives. Brandon wonders, "With all the good shows on this year, does anyone else plan to blog about one TV show on a regular basis?"
Cedric: Just to correct something there, Mike covers Fringe and he covers Chuck.
Jim: You are correct. My bad.
Ruth: Betty and I have talked about doing Cougar Town. A number of us wanted to do Parks and Recreation but of course it is being held until the mid-season for airing.
Rebecca: I'm thinking about finding a show I hate and blogging about that with the hopes that if I blog about it, it will be cancelled. That happened with Heroes and with Lone Star.
Marcia: Blog on Undercovers. That show needs to be cancelled. Even more so after the actor Boris Kodjoe started pimping last week that he adn Mbatha-Raw are African-American. She's British, he's Australian. And what is that? There aren't any good African-American actors who could've played these roles? That's really offensive when you grasp that both performers are from Europe but playing African-Americans. What is that? We're not smart enough to be cast in those roles? Back to the point, for me, and this is something that Stan, Betty, Ruth and I have all talked about, for me, what's the point? I loved The New Adventures of Old Christine and CBS killed that show even though it was funny, even though it was recognized as a solid show and even though it got good ratings. So for me, I'm just not into it. And I'll note The Ghost Whisperer as well. That show did great and it got the axe, so what's the point?
Mike: And what's the point with Matt Damon? I wouldn't bring this up if it were in Ava and C.I.'s piece but they ignored Damon's two scenes on 30 Rock this week so I'll note it here. Does he just sit around all day eating? He was overweight. Not chubby, overweight. He had multiple chins. What gives with that? I'm not real fond of either of my two shows after last week. Fringe is doing an episode in this reality, an episode in the alternate one, back and forth and back and forth. Olivia's trapped in the alternate and fake Olivia's on this one pretending to be Olivia. We don't care about fake Olivia. We're interested in Olivia. This is getting exhausting. As for Chuck, too much time is spent on non-essential characters.
Ty: Kyle e-mailed wanting to know exactly who is voting Green in the mid-terms.
Betty: I'm voting Green. Except for Lt. Governor. I'm voting for Gavin Newsom there.
Jess: I'm voting Green.
Mike: I am as well when there's a Green running. No Green? I may not vote.
Ann: Like Jess, I'm a Green. I will be voting Green.
Dona: I'm voting for Laura Wells for governor and I'll vote for Gavin but other than that, I don't know. I may not vote in some races. I can't vote for the Republican candidate but I can't vote for Barbara Boxer either so I'll probably leave that blank. I'm considering voting for John Dennis for House Rep. Ava and C.I.'s piece on a reality show peaked my interest, Cindy Sheehan noting he was against the wars also did and Jim and I went to one of his campaign events to check him out. He said a few things that resonated with me and I can't stand Nancy Pelosi and her lies.
Rebecca: I'll vote Green in races where there's a Green.
Ruth: I am going to vote for Richard Blumenthal. He is a Democrat and I am not pleased with the party but I feel that his remarks have been distorted by the media and I will be voting to reject the Chris Matthews of the world as well as because I do believe Blumenthal has served my state well as Attorney General.
Cedric: I'll probably vote straight ticket Dem. Does anyone else have something?
Trina: I haven't decided yet. I just wrote about that recently. I haven't heard anything to make me want to vote, to be honest. There's nothing positive that I'm hearing, no plans that I'm hearing that sound feasible to me and I am just not being reached in the current campaigns.
Cedric: Okay, I think that's everybody that's planning to weigh in. So my question is, Jim, are you thinking of voting for Dennis?
Jim: I don't know. He seems nice enough, he seems to have a few things worth praising. I don't know. I can't vote for Nancy Pelosi but I just might not vote in that race. My first non-Democratic vote, and only thus far, is in 2008 when I voted for Ralph Nader for president. That was a big step for me.
Kat: If I could add something, I haven't decided on my votes yet. I'll vote for Gavin but otherwise, I don't know. But we -- Wally, Ava, C.I. and myself -- are on the road during the week speaking and what Trina just said is really important because I hear that over and over regardless of the state we're in. People wonder where the plans are and where the positive message is? That's not me screaming, "Stop the attack ads! Don't call out your opponent!" That's me noting that people of all political stripes are expressing the opinion often that there is no positive message from candidates this election cycle. So I just want to really be sure everyone reading caught Trina's point.
Wally: I would agree with Kat. And we do hear that over and over on the road. The feeling is that it's ugly campaigning and that it's because nobody has any answers. Not everyone says that but a significant number of people are saying it and I'd say it's more often said by people who self-identify as independent. That's been my own personal observations. I think Trina's got a really important point there because it's probably not a sentiment a lot of us have expressed but it is a very common one.
Jim: Interesting. Trina, do you want to explain what you're talking about?
Trina: I think Kat and Wally have covered it but I'll just note that the attacks are all I'm hearing in the commercials. Attack, attack, attack. And the impression it leaves me with is that no one's got anything to present so they'll just keep ripping each other apart.
Jim: On elections, Brady e-mailed to note Mike was supposed to cover something -- a screw up -- Friday but he didn't. Mike?
Mike: Actually, that's something that C.I. pointed out to me, the screw up. I forgot Friday. I'll cover it Tuesday. C.I. can bring it up now if she wants. She's the one who caught it.
Jim: And she's shaking her head no. Ava and C.I. take notes for this transcript piece. Isaiah, I'll toss to you for a subject of your choice to close us out.
Isaiah: Okay. I guess, I guess I just don't feel it, the need to vote. In 2006, I gladly went to the polls to vote for people who told me they would end the Iraq War. They did not. In 2008, they again told me they would end it. They did not. And now they're whining that they need votes yet again. They were given control of both houses of Congress in 2006. In 2008, they also got the White House. Their excuses are hollow and tired and, honestly, I have a busy life and I don't see any need to go to the polls to keep liars in place so they can lie to me again.
Jim: Well said. On that note we will wrap up. This is a rush transcript. Our e-mail address is thirdestatesundayreview@yahoo.com.