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Blog Posts from January 2009:

The 2008 Annie Award Winners are:

John Lasseter won the Winsor McCay Lifetime Achievement Award.

PRODUCTION CATEGORIES

Best Animated Feature

KUNG FU PANDA -- DreamWorks Animation

Best Animated Home Entertainment Production

FUTURAMA: THE BEAST WITH A BILLION BACKS -- The Curiosity Company in association with 20th Century Fox Home Ent.

Best Animated Short Subject

WALLACE & GROMIT: A MATTER OF LOAF AND DEATH -- Aardman Animations Ltd.

Best Animated Television Commercial

United Airlines HEART -- Duck Studios

Best Animated Television Production

ROBOT CHICKEN: STAR WARS EPISODE II -- ShadowMachine

Best Animated Television Production Produced for Children

AVATAR: THE LAST AIRBENDER -- Nickelodeon

Best Animated Video Game

KUNG FU PANDA -- Activision

INDIVIDUAL ACHIEVEMENT CATEGORIES

Animated Effects

Li-Ming Lawrence Lee -- KUNG FU PANDA -- DreamWorks Animation

Character Animation in a Feature Production

James Baxter -- KUNG FU PANDA -- DreamWorks Animation

Character Animation in a Television Production or Short Form

Pierre Perifel -- SECRETS OF THE FURIOUS FIVE -- DreamWorks Animation

Character Design in an Animated Feature Production

Nico Marlet -- KUNG FU PANDA -- DreamWorks Animation

Character Design in an Animated Television Production or Short Form

Nico Marlet -- SECRETS OF THE FURIOUS FIVE -- DreamWorks Animation

Directing in an Animated Feature Production

John Stevenson & Mark Osborne -- KUNG FU PANDA -- DreamWorks Animation

Directing in an Animated Television Production or Short Form

Joaquim Dos Santos -- AVATAR: THE LAST AIRBENDER "Sozin's Comet Pt. 3" -- Nickelodeon

Music in an Animated Feature Production

Hans Zimmer & John Powell -- KUNG FU PANDA -- DreamWorks Animation

Music in an Animated Television Production or Short Form

Henry Jackman, Hans Zimmer & John Powell -- SECRETS OF THE FURIOUS FIVE -- DreamWorks Animation

Production Design in an Animated Feature Production

Tang Heng -- KUNG FU PANDA -- DreamWorks Animation

Production Design in an Animated Television Production or Short Form

Tang Heng -- SECRETS OF THE FURIOUS FIVE -- DreamWorks Animation

Storyboarding in an Animated Feature Production

Jen Yuh Nelson -- KUNG FU PANDA -- DreamWorks Animation

Storyboarding in an Animated Television Production or Short Form

Chris Williams -- GLAGO'S GUEST -- Walt Disney Animation Studios

Voice Acting in an Animated Feature Production

Dustin Hoffman -- Voice of Shifu -- KUNG FU PANDA -- DreamWorks Animation

Voice Acting in an Animated Television Production or Short Form

Ahmed Best -- Voice of Jar Jar Binks -- ROBOT CHICKEN: STAR WARS EPISODE II -- ShadowMachine

Writing in an Animated Feature Production

Jonathan Aibel & Glenn Berger -- KUNG FU PANDA -- DreamWorks Animation

Writing in an Animated Television Production or Short Form

Tom Root, Douglas Goldstein, Hugh Davidson, Mike Fasolo, Seth Green, Dan Milano, Matthew Senreich, Kevin Shinick, Zeb Wells, Breckin Meyer -- ROBOT CHICKEN: STAR WARS EPISODE II -- ShadowMachine

Special juried awards honoring career achievement and exceptional contributions to animation were also awarded: Winsor McCay recipients -- Mike Judge, John Lasseter and Nick Park for career contributions to the art of animation; June Foray award -- Bill Turner for significant and benevolent or charitable impact on the art and industry of animation; and Certificate of Merit award -- Amir Avini, Mike Fontanelli, Kathy Turner, Alex Vassilev.

Congratulations EVERYONE...winners, crews, & nominees!
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In case you're curious, Who the heck are ASIFA? An offshoot of Hezbollah?

ASIFA-Hollywood: An Organization With A Purpose
ASIFA-Hollywood is the Los Angeles chapter of the international organization, ASIFA: The International Animated Film Society. Founded by a group of animators like John Hubley, Paul Grimault and Dusan Vukotic' in 1957, and chartered by UNESCO in 1960.

ASIFA encourages the art of animation and furthers international understanding and goodwill through the medium. Today, there are about thirty chapters of ASIFA all over the globe. ASIFA is a French acronym for "Association Internationale du Film D'Animation."

ASIFA-Hollywood was established over thirty-five years ago as a 501(c)(3) California non-profit organization. It is the largest chapter of ASIFA in the world. We are self-sustaining through our membership dues and the proceeds from our various projects and events.


January 31st, 2009 sat.
January 31st, 2009

I did an interview recently with Fulle Circle that has just been put up. check it out-

www.fullecirclestuff.blogspot.com

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Quiz: Thinking of modern problems, what U.S. President said to the CEO of U.S. Steel:” My father warned me that all businessmen were sons of bitches, but I never believed it until I met you!”

Yesterday’s quiz answered below: Why are chicken wings in spicy sauce called Buffalo Wings? Isn’t Buffalo more like Beef?
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History for 1/31/2009
Birthdays: Gouverner Morris, Zane Grey, James G. Blaine*, Franz Schubert, Tokugawa Ieyasu the Shogun, Sir John Profumo, Phillip Glass, Johnny Rotten, Ernie Banks, Norman Mailer, Nolan Ryan, Susanne Pleshette, Minnie Driver, Anthony LaPaglia, Tallulah Bankhead, Jean Simmons is 80, Justin Timberlake is 28, Portia DiRossi, Minnie Driver is 39

*James G. Blaine was a corrupt politician and failed presidential candidate that Thomas Nast loved to make cartoons of.

Today is the Feast day of St. John Bosco, patron saint of Catholic Schools (AAARRGH!)

Happy National Dress up in a Gorilla Suit Day. First advocated by Don Martin, cartoonist for MAD Magazine.

1606- Sir Guy Fawkes cheated the executioner by leaping off the scaffold and breaking his neck. Fawkes was convicted of the Gunpowder Plot, trying to blow up King & Parliament.

1839- Englishman William Fox Talbot says Frenchman Louis Daguerre is full of pate' when he announces he had invented photography (1/7/39). Talbot declares HE invented it first. Actually a Belgian priest experimenting with capturing light on chemically treated glass or paper as early as 1817, Thomas Wedgewood in 1770 and Louis Niepce, with whom both Daguerre and Talbot were familiar. While the principles of capturing a shadow had been known for some time, no one had worked out how to fix the image so earlier attempts faded away in a few hours. Niepce' work predates both Talbot and Daguerre by about 10 years and constitute the earliest "photographic" images still extant. But Talbot and Daguerre are considered the fathers of Photography, provided you like history Anglais or a’ Francais.

1843-The first recorded minstrel show. The mode became so popular that even black performers had to wear burnt-cork blackface makeup.

1876- The U.S. Congress ordered all remaining Indian tribes to move into reservations or be declared hostile.

1925- Scotch brand invisible tape introduced by the 3-M Company.

1933- New Chancellor Adolf Hitler promised he would respect Parliamentary Democracy. Uh, huh….

1940- Mrs. Ida Mae Fuller of Ludlow Vermont received the first Social Security check- $22.50.

1945- Private Eddie Slovik becomes the only U.S. soldier in World War II to be shot by firing squad for desertion.

1950- THE H-BOMB - Despite the unanimous recommendation of the civilian Atomic Energy Commission that a "Super" or Hydrogen Bomb "would not be a weapon of war but an instrument of mass genocide and calamity" President Harry Truman announced to the world that the U.S. was going to build one anyway. Physicist. I. G. Rabi said he was shocked that Truman should have announced a bomb we still didn't yet know how we were going to build ,and accelerate the arms race. When Dr. Robert Oppenheimer protested, Truman called him a “sissy-scientist.” Secretary of State Dean Acheson groaned privately to a friend: “What a horrible world we’re living in.”

1954- Howard Armstrong, the inventor of FM Radio, driven to despair by constant lawsuits with RCA Corporation over his patents, jumped to his death out of a hotel window. He first put on his hat, overcoat and gloves because he didn't want to be cold...(?) Armstrong loved heights and used to climb hundreds of feet in the air to meditate on top of his radio antennas. By 1977 his family won all the lawsuits. Today, most radio, television and air traffic communications are by FM band.

1958- The U.S. enters the Space Race with the launching of satellite Explorer- 1.

1963- U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara declared to the press:” The War in Vietnam is going quite well…”

1968- TET- The North Vietnamese army combined with the Viet Cong guerrillas surprise attack American Forces all over South Vietnam. Even the capitol Saigon and the American Embassy became battle zones. Despite an alert issued the night before, 200 US intelligence officers attended a pool party, and were as surprised as everyone else. Although all the Vietnamese attacks were defeated and the Viet Cong destroyed, the U.S. public was shocked that such an attack could happen from what they had been told was “ A defeated enemy” It was the turning point of the Vietnam War. The military of course, blamed the media.

1968- The Seattle city council concluded that there was no legal means to curb hippies hanging out in the downtown U- District.

1974- Apollo 14 blasted off for the moon. This voyage is chiefly remembered for Alan Shepard playing golf on the lunar surface.

1978- Polish director Roman Polanski fled the U.S. for exile after being charged for having sex with a thirteen year old girl in Jack Nicholson’s house.

1989- LaToya Jackson posed nude for Playboy.

1995- First Meeting of the WTO- World Trade Organization.

1999- The first episode of Seth McFarlane’s show Family Guy premiered.
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Yesterday’s question: Why are chicken wings in spicy sauce called Buffalo Wings? Isn’t Buffalo more like Beef?

Answer: Because they were invented in Buffalo NY. In 1964,Teressa Bellissima, the co-owner and cook of the Anchor Bar in Buffalo decided her patrons could use a warm finger food. She had lots of left over chicken wings. So she mixed the sauce and deep fried them and history was made.


January 30th, 2009 fri.
January 30th, 2009

Quiz: Why are chicken wings in spicy sauce called Buffalo Wings? Isn’t buffalo meat more like Beef?

Answer to yesterday’s question below: Former Gov. Rod Blogoyevich described the impeachment against him as “ The Fix is In.” Where did that term come from?
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History for 1/30/2009
Birthdays: Barbara Tuchman, Gene Hackman is 79, Walt “Moose” Dropo, Olaf Palme, Vanessa Redgrave is 72, Dick Martin, Louis S. Rukeyser, Dorothy Malone, Boris Spassky, John Ireland, Phil Collins, Christian Bale,

HAPPY DICK CHENEY DAY!Former VP Dick Cheney is 68

courtesy of uppitynegronetwork.com

1649- KING CHARLES I of ENGLAND BEHEADED-The Parliament, led by Oliver Cromwell condemns the King "That man of Blood" and abolished the English monarchy. As Charles laid his head upon the block he said:" I go from a corruptible crown to one which is Incorruptible." -Splat! Cromwell’s government worried that if the identity of the headsman was ever found out avengers may harm his family. They kept the secret so well that his name for a time was lost to history. His name was Richard Brandon. In Alexander Dumas' sequel to “The Three Musketeers”, he makes the executioner to be the son of Madame DeWinter and the Duc de Rochefort.

1661-HAVE YOU SEEN OLIVER CROMWELL'S HEAD? English dictator General Oliver Cromwell died of natural causes in 1659. After the restoration of the British monarchy a mob celebrated by breaking into Cromwells’ tomb and bouncing the corpse around, taking the head and putting it on London Bridge where criminals are usually exhibited. After the head fell off it's spike and rolled around on the ground a priest took it home and later sold it to a travelling circus.( It was a very popular attraction during the French Revolution: “Speaking of Heads! I just happen to have.....”)
Eventually it was donated to Cambridge University, to whom Cromwell had been a benefactor.
guess who..?

1790- Sir Malcom Greathead invented the lifeboat.

1835- THE FIRST PRESIDENTIAL ASSASINATION ATTEMPT -A lunatic named Richard Lawrence emerged from a crowd in the lobby of the House of Representatives and fired two pistols at President Andrew Jackson. They both miss. Jackson, an old army man who carried around two lead bullets in his body from Indian fights and duels, was so outraged that he grabbed Lawrence and started drubbing him on the head with his silver tipped cane. He beat him so badly that the Washington police had the strange task of saving the assassin from his intended victim.

1889- THE MAYERLING AFFAIR-Archduke Rudolf Von Hapsburg, heir to the Austro-Hungarian Empire, commits suicide with his mistress, a Bavarian baroness Maria Vestera. Rudolf was already married and even if he could divorce he could never marry so below his station. Some say that there was more intrigue to it, that German statesman Otto Von Bismarck had Rudolf murdered because Rudolph planned on challenging Berlin’s hold over German unity, but that conspiracy theory is a longshot. His family felt Rudolf was an emotionally disturbed man, who finally found a girl dumb enough to follow him in his suicide pact. The Baroness had taken poison and then Rudolf had blown his brains out. Austrian funerary makeup artists worked overtime to make the Archduke's shattered face fit for an open casket wake. His mother the Empress Elizabeth refused to go: "I won't go see that thing! It's head is made of wax !"

1931- Hollywood Premiere of Charlie Chaplin’s City Lights. Later at a dance at the Biltmore Hotel writer Herman Mankewicz (Citizen Kane, Duck Soup) got into a drunken fistfight with producer David O. Selznick (Gone With the Wind, Rebecca). You’ll never eat turtle-soup in this town again!

1933- HI-YO SILVER!! The Lone Ranger debuts on Radio. The Masked man was invented by the WXYZ station owner George Trendle and writer Fran Striker with absolutely no experience of cowboys or Indians. They just wanted a hero like Zorro with a strict moral code. He was later voiced by actor William Conrad who did the Rocky & Bullwinkle narration and the tv series Cannon.

1934- Artist Salvador Dali married Gala.

1933- ADOLF HITLER TAKES POWER. After a general election President Von Hindenberg was forced to appoint the Nazi Party leader Chancellor. Hindenberg had earlier growled” Chancellor? I’ll make him a postmaster so he could lick stamps with my face on it!” But he was forced to give in. Germans were fed up with skyrocketing inflation and political anarchy so they voted for the little man with the Charlie Chaplin mustache. The Nazis didn’t win by a landslide vote, it was a 37-42% majority, with the rest divided among splinter parties. The German Army at first didn’t cooperate with the Nazis. Their real power came when Hitler made a bargain with the major German corporations like Krupp, Seimans, Bayer and Daimler to take the ‘socialist” out of National Socialists and arrest all communists, unions and other bad-for-business types. All this was applauded by big business in the US like JP Morgan, Chase and Hearst who loaned money to German firms. With their new corporate clout and money the Nazis quickly called a new election to gain an overwhelming parliamentary majority in the Reichstag.

After ancient President Hindenberg died in 1934 the Reichstag voted dictatorial powers to Hitler making him Der Fuehrer.

1943- At Stalingrad as the freezing remains of the German 6th Army were wiped out by superior Soviet forces, this day Berlin received the last radio message from Field Marshal Von Paulus’ headquarters in the basement of a bombed out department store:” Russians at the door. We are preparing to destroy the radios. We are preparing…”

1946- The first US dimes with Franklin Roosevelt on the head were issued.

1948- 78 year old Indian leader Mohandas Gandhi the Mahatma, was shot and killed by Hindu extremist Nathuram Godse while walking to morning prayers.

1956- Elvis Presley recorded Blue Suede Shoes, written originally by Carl Perkins.

1960- STRAVINSKY SPEAKS OUT. For years after the making of Fantasia, critics had pondered Igor Stravinsky's cryptic reaction to Disney's portrayal of his "Rite if Spring". Disney p.r. said he was "speechless with admiration!"
Twenty years later in a Saturday Review article, Igor Stravinsky said Leopold Stokowski's editing of his music was 'execrable' and the visuals "an unresisting imbecility". His opinion still didn't stop him from selling the studio film rights to several other of his pieces including "The Firebird' in 1942. Igor needed the cash.

1961-H-B's the Yogi Bear Show.

1969-THE ROOFTOP CONCERT The rock band the Beatles last public appearance as a group. They tried to do a free concert in the London streets but were banned by police for fear of congestion and noise complaints. So they withdrew to a rooftop above their recording studio and played anyway. John Lennon ended the concert by saying: ‘Thank you very much on behalf of the band and myself and I hope we passed the audition.”

1973- White House operatives G. Gordon Liddy and James McCord were convicted of burglary in the Watergate break in. President Nixon hoped sacrificing these two small fish would end the investigation. It didn’t. Liddy did some jail time, and today is a highly paid conservative radio talk show host.

1976- George Bush Sr. became head of the CIA. Poppy Bush revived the organization which had been wracked by scandal after the Frank Church Congressional Committee revealed details of the Alende coup in Chile, overseas assassination, illegal surveillance of Americans and schemes to put chemicals in Fidel Castro’s food to make his beard fall out.

2002- President George W. Bush Jr salutes his Vice President Dick Cheney on his birthday by saying “You are the best Vice President this country has ever had!” He may have forgotten that his own father George Bush Sr was also once vice president. I’m sure his mom reminded him later.
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Yesterday’s Question: Former Gov. Rod Blogoyevich described the impeachment against him as “ The Fix is In.” Where did that term come from?

Answer: It was first coined about the rigged 1919 World Series, when mobster Arnold Rothstein bribed several key members of the Chicago White Sox to throw the series. When the pitcher Eddie Cicotte threw one of his first pitches and hit the batter between the shoulders, that was the signal to the gangsters that “ The Fix is In.”

If you don't like my animated cartoons, then Go F*%$# Yourself!!


Philip Glass pens Walt Disney opera
NYC Opera commissions composer
By GORDON COX
New York City Opera has commissioned composer Philip Glass ("Koyaanisqatsi," "The Hours") to pen an opera about Walt Disney, to be staged in collaboration with Brit legit troupe Improbable.

Opera, planned to kick off City Opera's 2012-13 season, will be based on Peter Stephan Jungk's German-language novel "The Perfect American." Story imagines the last months of Disney as seen through the eyes of a fictional Austrian cartoonist who worked for him.

Co-founded by the creators of "Shockheaded Peter," which played Off Broadway in 2005, London-based Improbable ("The Wolves in the Walls") recently staged a production of Glass' 1980 opera "Satyagraha" at the English National Opera and at the Met.

Preem of "American" is timed to celebrate Glass' 75th birthday. Before that, the composer's 1976 opera "Einstein on the Beach" will be staged by original helmer Robert Wilson during the 2009-10 season.



Commission was announced by City Opera's incoming general manager and a.d. Gerard Mortier, the current director of Paris' Opera National who will take the reins at City Opera beginning with the 2009-10 season.

Read the full article at:
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117993057.html

I can't wait to hear Alberich the Nibelung sing " Schlafst du, Walt Disney, mein Sohn?"


January 29th, 2009 thurs
January 29th, 2009

NOTE: I have returned from my deaths’ door sickbed, and with copious thanks to my long suffering spouse who substituted for me. So not unlike Atlas shouldering his globe, I resume my daily burden.

Quiz: Gov. Rod Blogoyevich described the impeachment against him as “ The Fix is In.” Where did that term come from?
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History for 1/29/2009
Birthdays: Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Thomas Paine, Oprah Winfrey, William Claude Dunkenfeld known as W.C. Fields, Victor Mature, Paddy Chayefsky, Tom Selleck, Heather Graham, Ed Burns, Greg Louganis, John D Rockefeller Jr., Claudine Longet, John Horsely (1817) the inventor of the Christmas Card-1842*

*Horsley was a Victorian artist at the Royal Academy in London who refused to draw nudes because it offended his morality. This earned him the nickname- Clothes Horsely.

1775-the COCKPIT TAVERN, or BEN GETS his ASS CHEWED- Benjamin Franklin was postmaster general of the American Colonies and was feeling pretty good about his ability to represent his homelands interests in London. He successfully argued the American's opposition to the Stamp Tax in the House of Commons. He offered to pay back exporters who lost money from the Boston Tea Party. On this day he was invited to the Cockpit Tavern for what he thought was a private party. He was ushered into a secret room where he faced the entire King’s Privy Council. The royal ministers spent the next 4 hours dressing him down. Prime Minister Lord North finished by shouting in 70 year old Ben’s face:" Spy, Traitor, Rebel, Thief! " He was fired as postmaster and ordered home to America before they threw him in prison. Ben Franklin entered the tavern a loyalist and left a revolutionary.

1813- Jane Austin’s novel Pride and Prejudice first published.

1820- After spending the last ten years of his long reign as a blind insane shut-in, King George III died at age 82. His son the Prince Regent finally became King George IV. Furniture from this period is known as Regency Period. Americans remember George III as the tyrant of the Revolution, but Britons truly loved their old monarch and his simple family-man tastes. While his German grandfather George II was barely mourned at all, all the Empire lamented the passing of Old Shopkeeper George.

1842- The Republic of Texas authorized the raising of a company of rangers to keep the peace- the Texas Rangers. Stephen Austin had commissioned rangers as early as 1833, but from this date on their regular service began.

1845- Edgar Allen Poe's poem the Raven first published. Nevermore.

1886-In Karlsruhe Germany, Dr. Karl Benz patented the internal combustion engine. To prevent gasoline explosions it utilized a fuel distribution system based on a ladies perfume atomizer spray ( the carburetor ). He called his horseless carriage at first a Motorvagen, but later names it after his partner Godfried Daimler’s daughter, Mercedes.

1891- After the death of King David IV Kalakoua, Lilioukalani was proclaimed Queen of Hawaii. Besides being the last monarch of Hawaii, Lilioukalani composed the song "Aloha-Oi, Aloha-Oi, Until we meet Again."

1920- Walt gets a job. Nineteen year old Walt Disney was hired by a local Kansas City commercial art studio to draw ads for newspapers and slides for theaters.

1935- The first inductees to the new Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown announced- Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb, Honus Wagner, Christy Matthewson and Walter Johnson. Hall of Fame dedication ceremony was on June 12th 1939.

1936- Dictator Benito Mussolini lays the first stone of Cinecitta’ Movie Studios.

1943- Fredrich Von Paulus was the commander of the German Sixth Army, now totally surrounded at Stalingrad. The few survivors were huddled in basements in the destroyed city, freezing, starving and being wiped out by superior Russian forces. Paulus and his men prayed for a miracle to save them. This day he heard via radio that Adolf Hitler had promoted him to Field Marshal, with a suggestion that no German Field Marshal should ever be taken alive…..

1957- Patsy Cline recorded "Walkin' After Midnight."


1964- Stanley Kubrick's nuclear comedy "DR STRANGLOVE –OR HOW I LEARNED TO STOP WORRYING AND LOVE THE BOMB." premiered. It was based Red Alert, a serious novel about the nuclear annihilation, that Stanley Kubrick decided to rewrite as a comedy. It's use of hand held camera for action sequences and cutting inspired by the European New Wave ushered in a new style in Hollywood cinema. So, who was Tracey Reed? She played Miss Scott, George C. Scott’s bikini clad secretary and the only woman in the entire movie.



1975- The Weather Underground set off a bomb in the US State Department. They were a violent offshoot of the Student Anti-Vietnam War protest movement,

1977- Comic TV. star of "Chico and the Man " Freddy Prinze (23) blew his brains out. Some said he suffered from a survivor's depression about why he had succeeded in life while all his friends from the Barrio were dead from gang killings or drugs. Family members said that he was just stoned on Quaaludes and was clowning around with a gun.

1979- President Jimmy Carter commuted the jail sentence of Patty Hearst.

2002-THE AXIS OF EVIL- In his State of the Union speech President George W. Bush coined the term " The Axis of Evil". He labeled as charter members Iran, Iraq and North Korea. Iran is a Shiite religious theocracy, Iraq a Sunnite secular fascist dictatorship and North Korea an atheistic Communist state- all with nothing in common and little mutual contact. The speechwriter originally wrote "Axis of Hate" but the Bush people like the Good vs. Evil thing. They also substituted North Korea for Libya because they wanted a non-Moslem power included so they didn’t want to seem biased.
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Questions and Answers will resume tomorrow.


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