McCain Wants Roe Overturned

Are you kidding me? Who is this guy anyway? If Kerry was a flip-flop, this guy is a full size sandal!

Politico.com

In the Closet?

I was flipping channels last night and came upon the beginning of a 60 Minutes story by sometime contributor (and CNN god) Anderson Cooper. He was interviewing Kenny Chesney. I didn't recognize him but my husband did. I only even know who the guy is because of Renee Z. Anyway, the interview went where it had to go and without Andy really even asking, Kenny said it: I am not gay. Whatever, I think he probably is and can't say it because he would lose his homophobic, hyper-religious, Country-Music-loving fans. I don't care either way. Peace and love to all, baby!

Here's the part I think is so funny. Here is Anderson (who is also rumored to be a closeted-gay) talking to this county guy who is also probably in the closet. At the very least, they both have rumors about their sexuality swirling around them. Too Funny! I wonder if I'm the only one who was having these thoughts?

Marty Kaplan: If We Fight Them Over There

Excerpted from Marty Kaplan's Blog:

"...In Dayton, Denver, Dallas and Des Moines, Islamic terrorists are planning to put anthrax in the water, sarin in the air, Semtex in the schools and suitcase nukes in the stadiums. But if Mitch McConnell's Republican filibuster can keep Harry Reid from bringing the debate on the resolution against the escalation to the Senate floor, then in a heartbeat, those sleeper cells are going to put down their terrorist plans and pick up The Measure of a Man by Mr. Sidney Poitier instead."

I'm so tired of this crazy argument about "emblodening the enemy" by discussing and debating the failed Iraq "policy" of this administration. That is what democracy is all about. Isn't this very "freedom" (at least one fot he reasons) what we're fighting for anyway?

Is God an English Major?

I just love Rosie's answer from r blog » ask ro:

Faith writes:
Do you see there’s a difference in praying to god vs to God? The difference is deeper than punctuation; I used 2 pray 2 god (he/she? didn’t know) God still answered. Then I was born again thank GOD

god doesnt care about typing

Cruise, Stiller Team for Hardy Boys Flick

Entertainment Weekly is reporting on this cool news. I think it sounds great. I used to watch the Hardy Boys on Sunday Mornings as a kid and loved it!

Hunger in Ohio up 71%

Dramatic jump in use of food stamps underscores troubling trend across state

The job and wage stagnation that have long plagued the northeastern and southeastern regions of the state seem to be reaching central Ohio, said Laura Holton of the Fairfield County Department of Job and Family Services.

Lisa Hamler-Fugitt, director of the Ohio Association of Second Harvest Foodbanks, said increases in the number of food-stamp recipients in Ohio and across the country "are mind-boggling."

As for the 132 percent increase in Delaware County’s food-stamp numbers, Reilly said she’s just glad the program is there.

Wow...at least the economy is going great, right W?

Wow, Good for Him

Talking Points Memo has this exchange. Wow. Not sure I'd have the guts...

At a farewell reception at Blair House for the retiring chief of protocol, Don Ensenat, who was President Bush's Yale roommate, the president shook hands with Washington Life Magazine's Soroush Shehabi. "I'm the grandson of one of the late Shah's ministers," said Soroush, "and I simply want to say one U.S. bomb on Iran and the regime we all despise will remain in power for another 20 or 30 years and 70 million Iranians will become radicalized."
"I know," President Bush answered.
"But does Vice President Cheney know?" asked Soroush.
President Bush chuckled and walked away.

Australian PM stands by Obama comment

CNN.com - CNN Political Ticker

CANBERRA, Australia (CNN) -- Australian Prime Minister John Howard Monday stood by his comments a day earlier in which he said a victory by U.S. Sen. Barack Obama and his Democratic party in America's next presidential election would be a boon for terrorists.Speaking to Australia's ABC News Radio, Howard said his comments were aimed at the Illinois Democrat's plan to withdraw U.S. forces from Iraq in March 2008."What I have done is to criticize Senator Obama's views on a particular issue and I don't retreat in any way from that criticism," Howard said. "I think if America is defeated in Iraq that will be catastrophic for the West and it will have tremendously adverse consequences for Australia."He blasted his critics for being hypocritical."Apparently it's all right for people in the (opposition) Labor Party to regularly criticize the Bush administration's policy on Iraq -- and they do that almost on a daily basis," Howard said. "Yet my criticism of the policy position of somebody who is not president -- and is not even the Democratic candidate for the presidency -- that is interfering in American politics and is absolutely to be forbidden."Some of Howard's critics have suggested that the prime minister's close alliance with U.S. President George Bush has distorted his judgment -- a criticism he brushed aside.White House aides expressed surprise over Howard's criticism of Obama, but one official weighed in with support for the Australian leader:"Prime Minister Howard knows that setting a timeline for a withdrawal sends the wrong signal to our enemies."

Well, what about all the Republicans who also want to end the war. What if they are elected president? Hmmm.

Soaps at Night?

SOAPnet Plans General Hospital Spin-Off Sudser. So very cool!!

BarackObama for President

BarackObama.com

Rep. Rohrabacher: Global Warming May Have Been Caused By ‘Dinosaur Flatulence’

This is what scientists and people who care about the future of the Earth are up against.

Weapons of Mass Distraction, Again

Harry Shearer blogs about the same thing I was saying yesterday.

While Keith Obermann blames the Republicans for seeking distractions (like carping about Nancy Pelosi's desire to fly nonstop) from their effort to block the Iraq war debate, his own MSNBC, joined by CNN, spent hours this afternoon on the sadly premature death of a notorious quasi-celebrity (name supplied on request), bumping the first feed of Hardball and its coverage of the Scooter Libby trial. News network, heal thyself.
Meanwhile, while highbrow journalistic institutions ponder the need for an independent investigation of the media's pre-Iraq war performance, the lessons remain resolutely unlearned. On CNN, Lou Dobbs led with a brace of stories on Iran, referring at one point in his own copy to "Iran's escalating nuclear weapons program". In case you weren't scared enough, Christine Roman's followup piece asserted that "America's enemies are challenging America's interests around the globe." That list of enemies, in addition to North Korea and Iran, included China and Russia. Has Dobbs been fed some fine custom-tailored intel that provides actual evidence of an "escalating nuclear weapons program"?
Or is he just uncritically repeating the assumptions of the administration?

Anna Nicole

Sadly, today Anna Nicole Smith died. The tabloid nature of it all was very alluring and CNN and MSNBC had it on solid from the start. FoxNews, to their credit, had it on and off. Then FoxNews moved on to, the PLANE debacle. As mediabistro.com: TVNewser report, Lou Dobbs on CNN refused to cover it.

As sad and interested in all this as I am, we have a war going on. We have big, real problems here in America and throughout the world. And we are covering this sad death solidly. The art of Distraction?

Afterall, I'm watching. What are our priorities when this is what sells? Hmmm.

The Art of Distraction

Losing a war? Losing the trust of the people? Corrupt? Distract!

CNN Political Ticker has the story of the RNC's problem with the BUSH ADMINISTRATIONS'S MANDATED military plane that Speaker Pelosi takes to go home for security reasons. Funny thing is, Bush is on her side!

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Bush White House and the Republican National Committee are known for their consistent coordination of message. But when it comes to the latest flap over House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's request for a military aircraft to take her home, the two GOP entities could not be further apart.

Updated 6:41 "Sergeant at Arms: I requested larger plane, not Pelosi"

OC and One Tree Hill to Soapnet!

Zap2it is reporting that 2 of my faviorite shows are going into reruns on one of my favorite networks, SoapNet.

Both "The O.C." and "One Tree Hill" are in their fourth seasons, and both shows attract young viewers that networks are dying to reach. They will air back-to-back on weekdays, with "One Tree Hill" at 5 p.m. ET and "The O.C." at 6 p.m.Their lead-in will be "Beverly Hills, 90210," creating a big block of high-school drama in the late afternoons.

Christian Talk

So, being a Christian myself, I look to Jesus as my guide in my life. I think that the Jesus I read about in my Bible is someone different than the Jesus Media Matters for America points out Pat Robertson follows.

Here's an exchange from today's edition of the 700 Club.From the February 7 edition of the Christian Broadcasting Network's The 700 Club:

ROBERTSON: You know there's a lady named Greta Van Susteren, who's on Fox.
WATTS: Yeah.
ROBERTSON: Got a very popular --
WATTS: Oh, I saw her.
ROBERTSON: She looked gorgeous last night, but she had a really serious facial deal. And it did a wonder --
WATTS: Sister needed help.
ROBERTSON: Sister got the help.
WATTS: Sister -- she needed some help, yeah.
ROBERTSON: But she got it. She just looks great, and she's so popular.
WATTS: But have you ever seen someone who got it too much, and so they come up to you, and they're like, "Pat, how are you doing? It's so good to see you."
ROBERTSON: Yeah, they got the eyes like they're Oriental, and, you know, it's all pulled. So, make sure you do it right. But -- it's -- that's one way you can go, but it'll cost you five or six thousand dollars probably. All right. What else?

Wow!

Bush, now and then

OK, so many people wouldn't vote for W today but he was saying these kind of things back in 1999. No excuses then, folks.

"'For those that are uninsured, many of the uninsured are able-bodied, capable people capable of buying insurance choose not to do so.'

- George W. Bush November 10, 1999 Comments made during an interview with WMUR in Manchester, New Hampshire."

Lowe's Yanks Ads From 'The O'Reilly Factor'

O'Reilly is always suggesting his viewers boycott companies. Now a company is boycotting him for his wild ideas on kidnapping victims.

Lowe's, the national home-improvement chain, has pulled its ads from Fox News Channel's The O'Reilly Factor after host Bill O'Reilly suggested that kidnap victim Shawn Hornbeck came to like his circumstances, according to the online Radar magazine. Radar quoted O'Reilly as saying on his Jan. 15: "The situation here, for this kid, looks to me to be a lot more fun than what he had under his 'old' parents. He didn't have to go to school, he could run around and do whatever he wanted." Radar cited the website News Hounds as saying that viewers who complained about O'Reilly's comments by email, received replies that Lowe's had pulled its ads as of Jan. 25. An FNC spokeswoman said that they had been shifted to other programming.

It's Called JOURNALISM

Anderson Cooper 360° shoots back at FNC and their silly ad calling Anderson Cooper the "Paris Hilton of News."

What would you do for a nice house?

ABC plans The Golden Cage, where contestants live like millionaires, have servants, prostitutes

ABC is producing The Golden Cage, a reality show that could run for years and will have contestants living in a mansion and, if the ABC is anything like the Dutch version, being serviced by prostitutes.
The series is produced by Big Brother creator John de Mol, and it borrows heavily from his baby. The 10 contestants will be housed “in a luxury mansion in which they live like millionaires — think servants, lavish parties and, in the case of the current Dutch skein, prostitutes,” Variety reports. However, they won’t be locked inside; instead, “[t]hey have limited contact with friends and family, winning visits or time out of the house via competitions.”
The last person standing “wins the house, as well as a major cash prize.” However, the series won’t have a set time limit. Instead, “contestants could end up staying in the house for months, if not years. The only way players are dismissed from the game is if they choose to leave, or if every other member of the house agrees to vote them off during twice-monthly ‘firings,’” Variety reports.

Why does it take so much money to run for president?

It seems to me that all this money has to have an effect on the way people behave and how they vote, the things that are important to them and the things they will fight for.

So far (from CNN)

DEMOCRATS:

Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-New York)Senate: Not available as of Thursday afternoon

Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Connecticut)Senate:Total Raised: $3,422,982.45Total Contributions: $3,250,481.02Total Spent: $353,031.31Cash on hand (as of 12/31/06): $4,925,913.07

Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio)Presidential:Total Raised: $11,088.22Total Contributions: $11,088.22Total Spent: $380.31Cash on hand (as of 12/31/06): $10,707.91House:Total Raised: $1,948.92Total Contributions: $1,860.00Total Spent: $27,348.27Cash on hand (as of 12/31/06): $32,255.48

Sen. Barack Obama (D-Illinois)Senate:Total Raised: $105,280.82Total Contributions: $98,157.80Total Spent: $344,424.33Cash on hand (as of 12/31/06): $516,553.08

Tom Vilsack (D-Iowa)Presidential:Total Raised: $1,165,075.99Total Contributions: $1,133,827.51Contribs. from candidate: $2,100.00Loans from candidate: $31,148.48Total Spent: $769,113.13Cash on hand (as of 12/31/06): $395,962.86

REPUBLICANS:

Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kansas)Presidential:Filed a note with the FEC saying that they did not spend funds towards a presidential campaign in 2006, and therefore was not required to file a year-end report.Senate:Total Raised: $49,084.63Total Contributions: $46,996.62Total Spent: $608,061.85Cash on hand (as of 12/31/06): $41,758.84

Rudy Giuliani (R-New York)Presidential:Total Raised: $1,406,563.00Total Contributions: $1,306,563.00Tranfers from other committees: $100,000.00Total Spent: $392,031.38Cash on hand (as of 12/31/06): $1,014,531.62Senate: Not available as of Thursday afternoon(Giuliani has an active Senate campaign account from his aborted 2000 Senate bid)

Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-California)House:Total Raised: $20.03Total Contributions: $0Total Spent: $22,371.68Cash on hand (as of 12/31/06): $53,379.37

Sen. John McCain (R-Arizona)Presidential:Total Raised: $1,711,053.23Total Contributions: $660,385.80Tranfers from other committees: $1,050,001.61Total Spent: $1,238,598.99Cash on hand (as of 12/31/06): $472,454.24Senate:Total Raised: $33,993.99Total Contributions: $4,144.50Total Spent: $1,128,022.95Transfers to presidential committee: $1,050,000Cash on hand (as of 12/31/06): $20,033.06

Mitt Romney (R-Massachusetts)Senate:(Romney has an active Senate campaign account from his failed 1994 Senate bid)Total Raised: $0Total Contributions: $0Total Spent: $0Cash on hand (as of 12/31/06): $20,159.89Debts owed (as of 12/31/06): $3,104,000

Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-Colorado)House:Total Raised: $5570.54Total Contributions: $3,597.07Total Spent: $153,479.07Cash on hand (as of 12/31/06): $189,092.12

Tommy Thompson (R-Wisconsin)Presidential:Total Raised: $500.00Total Contributions: $500.00Total Spent: $0Cash on hand (as of 12/31/06): $500.00

Iran, Iraq and Keith

How I love Keith Olberman. YouTube has the video from Countdown showing just how scary w is and just how scared we should be that we are heading towards war with Iran.

'It has been a haunting undertone to the new year. At moments, the start of 2007 has sounded like the end of 2002 or the start of 2003. It's been as if you could just substitute one letter; an 'n' for a 'q'. Like all that President Bush once said before he took us to war in Iraq was being recycled as what he's been now saying about Iran.'

watch