We know you can't wait for the upcoming HBO film on the 2000 Bush-Gore finish, aptly titled Recount, but here's a preview - coming in The New York Times Magazine this Sunday.

Director Jay Roach (previously known for Meet the Parents and Austin Powers films) says Democrats who hear about the film "always" ask him, "Can't you change the ending?"

Despite his prankish film background,  he says Recount is "not a comedy at all" and does not feature any new catch-phrases such as "yeah, baby, yeah."

Many of you might not be aware of my personal political history. I was volunteer on Gary Hart's 1984 Presidential campaign. When he dropped out of the 1988 race, the first time, I discovered the upstart candidacy of Michigan congressman Jack Tanner. Though Rep. Tanner was unable to break through against Democratic heavyweights like Michael Dukakis and Jesse Jackson, Tanner made a big impression on me and a lot of other Democrats, with his intelligence and integrity. Most of all, we admired his independence and his audacity...and we longed for progressive politics. The excitement of his candidacy was captured in the ground-breaking insider's look provided us by filmmaker Robert Altman, in Tanner '88.

As the Democratic race this year has become increasingly nasty and divisive, I have come to the conclusion that the Party needs Jack Tanner more than ever. That's why I'm proposing the formation of a Draft Tanner movement. I know a lot of you don't know Jack. America never really got to know Jack Tanner. For those of you who really don't know Jack, I'd like to introduce you to Jack Tanner.

First of all, this is my first diary (although I'm a long-time reader and let an old ID lapse) and secondly, I'm NOT in any way affiliated with HBO or anyone associated with the film. Also, I apologize if this for some reason isn't an appropriate diary, but here goes.

I recently saw the upcoming HBO feature "Recount" about the 2000 Florida recount, starring Kevin Spacey as Ron Klain, Denis Leary as Michael Whouley, Laura Dern as Katherine Harris (worth the price of a month of HBO right there) and other great actors. The reason I saw it is that I wrote up an interview with Spacey for a television magazine, which is something I do periodically for kicks.

Being a huge basketball fan myself, I've written previously about how important basketball is to Obama's life. Obama has spoken out on the subject and how basketball influenced his early years in Hawaii, as well as his time leading up to meeting and marrying his wife. Real Sports interviewed Obama recently on how basketball influenced him, and tagged along with him to watch him on the court.

People live blog all sorts of things here and I can't be one of the only people around that looks forward all week to Bill Maher's Real Time.

Tonight we have actor Jason Alexander, national security expert Richard Clarke, and journalist Dana Priest on the panel. Plus, via satellite, biologist Richard Dawkins (this should be interesting) and Rep. Joe Sestak (D-PA).

Follow me below the fold for some banter, review and comment, and I can only assume a little snark on tonight's show.

David McCullough's Pulitzer Prize-winning book "John Adams" has been on my long list of "books to read" for quite awhile now. Luckily for all of us, award-winning Executive Producer Tom Hanks has turned the book into a mini-series for HBO.

McCullough's book was written from the reams of correspondence between Abigail and John during the many years of separation while John was with the Continental Congress in Philadelphia. (As McCullough says in an interview, if you lined up all the microfilm containing all of their correspondence, it would stretch for 5 miles.) As a result, we have a very detailed look at how this country was built from two of the builders as well as a future President. (It is pretty well-accepted that John Adams would never have been successful without Abigail's influence.)

Crossposted from http://howtheuniversityworks.com

John Adams goes to war on behalf of the professional-managerial class.

The first two segments of the HBO miniseries "John Adams" screened last night, featuring the title character as an unwilling professional-managerial incendiary.

Repelled by the melodramatic "join or die" rhetoric of the Sons of Liberty and not entirely unaware of the advantages of currying favor with the administration, Adams enters the picture deeply invested in colonial shared governance, declaring "The crown is misguided, but it is not despotic—I firmly believe that."

The most compelling aspect of the character in these segments is the movement from this faith in shared governance to outraged revolutionist. Professorial in demeanor and temperament, Adams’ personal journey to democracy is perhaps farther even than his journey to dissent.

I am not a crying man, though I once was.  I could shed tears on any pretext, from a sunset to a Chick Corea composition.

Certain events, mostly of my own making, drained my tears to near dry.  The details are none of your business.  Since then, there have been few times I've cried, and those times have not been events of a trickling tear or two, but weeping beyond my control.  The death of my cat in my arms as I crooned to her.  Some stupid, self-congratulatory DJ playing "Do You Know What It Means" as we drove from Austin to Crawford after hearing that the 17th Street Canal floodwalls had failed and my city was doomed to drown.

My tears don't come cheap as they did once.  They don't come often.

Full Lineup and other goodies below...

Ok- it's not really a diary about The Wire- it's a diary about how depressed I am The Wire is almost over.

I was just wondering if anyone else tried to watch episode sixty last night on HBO On Demand and was disappointed to find we have to wait until next Sunday night to watch it.  Sheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeit.

I'm kind of happy in a weird way- I don't want it to be over, and once I watch the last episode, it will be over.

Geez! Weren’t there two (three?) diary bitch sessions re: Bill Maher’s "Realtime with Bill Maher" 2/22 show?

I download the show here in Taiwan, and was curious what the hubbub was about. I just got back from a "Visa run" to Hong Kong, and finally finished procuring this most recent installment.  I watched it with some trepidation. So, was it true? Did Bill whimp out? Betray progressive ideals?

More after the fold.

It is a sad, a very sad day, when the most stellar political commentary is done by the likes of Jon Stewart and Bill Maher. Last night Bill ended his HBO show with:

In his new ad Mitt Romney warns us that Islamic terrorists are the worse threat we've ever faced. More then the Nazis? The Russians? The Red Coats?

He warns us that they want to establish an Islamic nation, to cover the whole world, including America. Well I want to be adopted by Angelina Jolie.

And you thought that people that were scared of gays and Mexicans were paranoid. Islamic terrorist taking over America, they can barely get across the monkey bars. Our defense budget is $600 billion a year. They're using guns they took off a dead Soviet in 1981. I think we can hold Charleston.

And Bill was just getting started ..........

I admit that this isn't actually a diary, but is rather more an advertisement.

But hey

Anyway; I just saw a commercial on HBO that stated that LIVE tonight October 19, 2007 John Edwards will be on Bill Maher.  Whether or not he is on the panel or talking to Bill via satellite feed is anyone's guess.

(Update) Bill Maher airs Live tonight at 11:00 p.m. eastern time with a reairing at 1:00 a.m. and subsequent reruns throughout the week.  Check your local listings for the channel that HBO is on in your area.

This article will also be published at blogcritics.org. By Heloise

Genre: Review and opinion on Emmy Award 59th

I just finished watching James Gandolfini's Documentary "Alive Day Memories: Home From Iraq
This is must see, for anyone wanting to go to war, any flag waver addicted to John Wayne or Rambo, hell anyone wants to know what is war.

By now, you may have noticed the ads here at DKos and Huffington Post for this Sunday's James Gandolfini-produced "Alive Day: Home From Iraq"

Between the police and court harrassment over which freaking adhesive to use to put up posters for a protest in D.C. and which type of table to use at a press conference publicizing the event, and the comments of Gen. Patraeus that the surge hasn't "worked out as we hoped" (no fucking duh surprise), and Bill O'Reilly's braindead mouthing off, and having predicted all this outcome in 2003, wondering why there were no stories in the corporate war-mongering media about what was going to happen when the wounded started coming home, I'm already pretty worked up with anger and righteous disdain again tonight. And then I click on the ads and website for this documentary.

You want some perspective on how absurd this country is in September 2007, the month of the "Well, Let's Check In On the Iraq Occupation Once Again To See How It Is Going & Then Play More Games" report? Go to the HBO website. You will see photos like this...

"I was like, ‘Oh, we got hit. We got hit.’ And then I had blood on my face and the flies were landing all over my face. So I wiped my face to get rid of the flies. And that is when I noticed that my fingertip was gone. So I was like, ‘Oh. O.K.’

"So that is when I started really assessing myself. I was like, ‘That’s not bad.’ And then I turned my hand over, and I noticed that this chunk of my hand was gone. So I was like, ‘O.K., still not bad. I can live with that.’

"And then when I went to wipe the flies on my face with my left hand, there was nothing there. So I was like, ‘Uh, that’s gone.’ And then I looked down and I saw that my legs were gone. And then they had kind of forced my head back down to the ground, hoping that I wouldn’t see."

The words above appear in today's NY Times column by Bob Herbert, entitled War's Chilling Reality.  They were spoken by James Anders, a 25 year old Army Sergeant being interviewed by James Gandolfini.

It isn’t that I don’t appreciate Bill Maher on his HBO show taking time out from his distinguished panel discussing Iraq, Genocide, Global Warming, and the Meltdown of American Democracy, to worry about where we gays are going to cruise after the tragic Griffith Park fire.  It’s just that Maher has exposed his smarmy homophobic side before, all in the service of getting a few snickers from the lower order of his audience.