The Weekly Poll
Results
The current question:
Who would make the best Secretary of State when (not if) Obama takes the helm in January 2009?
A. Hillary Clinton
B. Zbigniew Brzezinski
C. Bill Richardson
D. Chris Dodd
E. Evan Bayh
F. Your choice
The Results
A. Hillary Clinton -------------- 1
( Leland )
B. Zbigniew Brzezinski ------- 1
( rdmcd )
C. Bill Richardson ------------- 7
( Willow, postlwkr, joe b, maw, jzanich, Gary from Tijeras, BttbB )
D. Chris Dodd ----------------- 0
E. Evan Bayh ------------------ 0
F. Your choice
1.) Wes Clark -------------- 3
( lbradway, Joe S, forumvp )
2.) Dennis Kucinich ------ 1
( Sally P )
3.) Richard Holbrooke --- 1
(revart)
Thanks to all you responders! Yer the best, I'm tellin' ya...
BadtotheBoneBob
The Devil's Advocate Edition...
Ok, Pollfans, it's time to think contrary wise... It's time to pretend yer back in high school debate class. Remember when ya had to argue a position ya didn't agree with?
Huh? do ya? Remember how that irritated the bejabbers out of ya? Well, guess what?
It's that time again... Because the question is...
Who should have McCain have picked for VP instead of the 'Hockey Mom'?
Ya got the cojones to answer this, eh? Do ya? Bring it on, I'm sayin'!
Send your response to BadtotheBoneBob ( BCEpoll 'at' aol.com )
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Robert D. Novac: My Brain Tumor (creators.com)
The main reason I am writing this column is that many people have asked me how I first realized I was suffering from a brain tumor and what I have done about it.
Betty Bowers: Evangelicals Give Sarah Palin a "Get Out of Values Free" Card
While John McCain may be rethinking his lackadaisical decision to outsource the vetting of Sarah Palin to the more curious American press, I've really enjoyed watching all these surprising layers peel off of the panglossian pioneer we were introduced to only last week.
FROMA HARROP: Don't They Have Birth Control up in Alaska? (creators.com)
I had dinner last night with a Republican-leaning independent who was despondent over John McCain's choice of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate. She had been looking forward to supporting McCain as a fiscal conservative with a deep understanding of foreign relations. But all she could now see was that picture of Palin's pregnant 17-year-old looking defiant and stupid as she held mom's fifth baby.
SUSAN ESTRICH: Sarah's Choice (creators.com)
My first reaction to the choice of Sarah Palin was that she is no Hillary Clinton. ... But less than two years as governor? And before that, mayor of a city of about 7,000? Would any man with such a thin resume have made it to the top of John McCain's list? Dan Quayle in a skirt, one of my wittier and nastier friends e-mailed me - and he's a conservative.
Why McCain Shot Himself in the Foot with Palin (curvemag.com)
Are you thinking about voting for Palin just because she's a woman? Curve contributing writer Kristin A. Smith wants you to think again. Find out why the Governor from Alaska just isn't veep material.
FROMA HARROP: Blue Dogs Have Their Day (creators.com)
Hmmm, suppose there were a liberal Democrat as president but a more conservative Democratic majority in Congress. That could happen. As Democrats scoop up seats in traditionally Republican districts, they add members quite unlike their old-time lefties with a program for every plight.
Scott Burns: Taking Social Security Benefits Now vs. Later (assetbuilder.com)
Q. I'm 61 and will be eligible for Social Security benefits next year. From the numbers provided by the Social Security Administration, the difference between the age 62 payment and the full retirement (age 66) payment is about $595 per month. Would I not be wise to start withdrawal at 62 rather than wait until 66, given the benefits I will lose by delaying?
ROGER EBERT: Jay the Rat
An open letter to sports columnist Jay Mariotti, who resigned from the Sun-Times and lashed out during a TV interview announcing that newspapers were dead.
Simon Hattenstone: Laughter and loss (guardian.co.uk)
Richard Attenborough shares a wicked sense of humour with his brother David but feels 'totally unable' to overcome the death of his daughter and granddaughter in the Asian tsunami.
Richard Cork remembers Francis Bacon (timesonline.co.uk)
A loner who loved parties, an atheist obsessed with religion - Francis Bacon had as many facets as his tortured pictures.
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Cooling off a bit.
Not A Palin Fan
Bill Maher
Comedian Bill Maher says he's not normally the type to make political donations, but he was so moved by the words of Republican vice-presidential running mate Sarah Palin that he immediately cut a cheque - for her opponents.
"I tell you I do not ever make a habit of giving money to politicians, but when I saw her make that speech I ran to my chequebook and sent money to Barack Obama," Maher said.
"She is scary."
"It was like, wow, I will send (Obama) whatever I have to to keep this snarling bitch out of the White House."
Bill Maher
Russia Says Mr. Hankey's 'Extremist'
'South Park'
Prosecutors in Russia want to ban the award-winning satirical U.S. cartoon "South Park," calling the series "extremist" after receiving viewer complaints, a spokeswoman said on Monday.
"South Park," a cartoon aimed at adults and featuring a group of nine-year olds in a Colorado town, has courted controversy since its 1997 debut, lampooning celebrities, politicians, religion, gay marriage and Saddam Hussein.
But investigators have filed a motion after deciding an episode broadcast on Moscow television station 2x2 in January "bore signs of extremist activity," said regional prosecutors office spokeswoman Valentina Titova.
The episode, called "Mr. Hankey's Christmas Classics" on the cartoon's website www.southparkstudios.com, first aired in December, 1999, and features a singing piece of human excrement.
'South Park'
Jury To Decide Oscars Fate
Mary Pickford
A jury should decide whether silent film star Mary Pickford signed away rights to sell two Oscars she was awarded, a judge ruled Monday.
Three women who inherited the statuettes and a third one awarded to Pickford's former husband Charles "Buddy" Rogers had hoped to win a dismissal of a lawsuit filed by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. The academy, which each year awards film's highest honor, is seeking to block the public sale of the statuettes.
The women inherited the awards through Rogers' second wife, Beverly. They claim Pickford won her first Oscar before the academy's $10 buyback rule was enacted, but the academy counters that Pickford signed an agreement after she won her second Oscar that covers both awards.
Attorneys for both sides argued Monday over whether it is Pickford's signature on the documents.
Mary Pickford
Stockholm Names Street
Ingmar Bergman
Stockholm City Council has named a street and a square in the city after Ingmar Bergman.
Vice Mayor Mikael Soderlund dedicated a square near the Royal Dramatic Theatre as Ingmar Bergman's Plats Monday. Part of an adjoining road, Smalandsgatan, was also named Ingmar Bergman Street in the ceremony.
Soderlund says the Swedish film director used to stand there in the late evening waiting for a taxi after working at the theater. It is in Ostermalm, which is the area of Stockholm where Bergman grew up.
Ingmar Bergman
2008 Winners
MTV Video Music Awards
A complete list of winners of the 2008 MTV Video Music Awards:
• Video of the year: Britney Spears, "Piece of Me."
• Female video: Britney Spears, "Piece of Me."
• Male video: Chris Brown, "With You."
• Rock video: Linkin Park, "Shadow of the Day."
• Hip-hop video: Lil Wayne, "Lollipop."
• Pop video: Britney Spears, "Piece of Me."
• Dancing in a video: The Pussycat Dolls, "When I Grow Up."
• New artist: Tokio Hotel
MTV Video Music Awards
Brings Down The Curtain
'Rent'
They cheered, they cried and gave the show a standing ovation even before the first note was sung.
Broadway said goodbye Sunday to "Rent," 12 years and 5,124 performances after it first became a rock musical with a message for theatergoers of all ages.
"Like we did when we opened, we dedicate this performance to Jonathan Larson," said actor Adam Kantor, referring to the man who wrote the show's book, music and lyrics.
Then "Rent" was off and running toward its final curtain that had the last cast as well as members of its original company together on stage at the end of the evening to sing an electric version of "Seasons of Love," one of the show's best-known songs.
'Rent'
Wins Copyright Claim
J.K. Rowling
A judge ruled Monday in favor of "Harry Potter" author J.K. Rowling in her copyright infringement lawsuit against a fan and Web site operator who was set to publish a Potter encyclopedia.
U.S. District Judge Robert P. Patterson said Rowling had proven that Steven Vander Ark's "Harry Potter Lexicon" would cause her irreparable harm as a writer. He permanently blocked publication of the reference guide and awarded Rowling and Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. $6,750 in statutory damages.
"I took no pleasure at all in bringing legal action and am delighted that this issue has been resolved favorably," Rowling said Monday in a statement. "I went to court to uphold the right of authors everywhere to protect their own original work. The court has upheld that right.
The small publisher was not contesting that the lexicon infringes upon Rowling's copyright but argued that it was a fair use allowable by law for reference books. In his ruling, Patterson noted that reference materials are generally useful to the public but that in this case, Vander Ark went too far.
J.K. Rowling
And The Lies The MSM Pushes
Liars
John McCain and Sarah Palin criticized Democrat Barack Obama over the amount of money he has requested for his home state of Illinois, even though Alaska under Palin's leadership has asked Washington for 10 times more money per citizen for pet projects.
Obama hasn't asked for any earmarks this year. Last year, he asked for $311 million worth, about $25 for every Illinois resident. Alaska asked this year for earmarks totaling $198 million, about $295 for every Alaska citizen.
Palin has cut back on pork project requests, but under her administration, Alaska is still and by far the largest per-capita consumer of federal pet-project spending.
The governor did reject plans to build the notorious "Bridge to Nowhere" after Congress had cut off its financing.
Liars
Accused of Ripping Off Hitchcock
Steven Spielberg
Steven Spielberg and major Hollywood studios stole the plot from Alfred Hitchcock's classic 1954 film "Rear Window" in making last year's "Disturbia," a lawsuit filed in Manhattan federal court on Monday said.
Dreamworks, its parent company Viacom Inc, and Universal Pictures, a unit of General Electric Co's NBC Universal, are accused of copyright infringement and breach of contract for making "Disturbia" without first obtaining permission from the copyright holders, the suit said.
Spielberg is credited as executive producer of the film, which grossed about $80 million at the U.S. box office, and is named as a defendant.
According to the lawsuit, filed by the Sheldon Abend Revocable Trust, the basis for Hitchcock's 1954 film was "Murder from a Fixed Viewpoint," a short story by Cornell Woolrich.
Steven Spielberg
First To Go Digital
Wilmington, NC
With the flick of an eight-foot switch at midday Monday, this Southern city became the first market in the U.S. to make the change to digital-only broadcasting.
The switch wasn't really connected to anything, but it did serve as a centerpiece for a downtown ceremony at 12 noon EDT marking the moment that commercial broadcasters voluntarily turned off their old-fashioned, inefficient analog signals.
Wilmington volunteered to be a canary in a digital coal mine - a test market for the national conversion to digital broadcasting.
"This switch is the biggest change in television since it went from black and white to color back in the 1950s," Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin (R-Liar) told the ceremony at historic Thalian Hall in downtown Wilmington.
Wilmington, NC
Back when TV went to color, the system had to be compatable with black & white transmissions, and no expense was incurred by the viewer.
You know, back when the FCC was apolitical and charged with ensuring 'our' airwaves were operated in the public's interest, convenience and necessity.
Bible Belt Offer
Dothan, Alabama
Larry Blumberg is looking for a few good Jews to move to his corner of the Bible Belt. Blumberg is chairman of an organization offering Jewish families as much as $50,000 to relocate to Dothan, an overwhelmingly Christian town of 58,000 that calls itself the Peanut Capital of the World. Get involved at Temple Emanu-El and stay at least five years, the group's leaders say, and the money doesn't have to be repaid.
More Jews are living in the South than ever - about 386,000 at last count in 2001, according to Stuart Rockoff, a historian at the Goldring/Woldenberg Institute of Southern Jewish Life in Jackson, Miss. But young Jews are leaving small places like Dothan in favor of cities like Atlanta and Birmingham, Rockoff said, and dozens of small-town synagogues have closed.
"A lot of the older people have died, and not many of the younger ones have stayed," said Thelma Nomberg, a member of the Dothan temple who grew up in nearby Ozark, where she was the only Jewish student in public school in the 1940s. "We are dying."
Being outside the Christian majority was never a problem, Nomberg said, even six decades ago: She won the Miss Ozark beauty pageant at 14 and sometimes attended church with friends after sleep-overs.
Now a widow, Nomberg has watched two of her four adult children leave for Florida as Temple Emanu-El lost nearly half its membership, down to about 50 families. She can only hope the recruitment plan hatched by Blumberg Family Jewish Community Services of Dothan works for her synagogue.
Dothan, Alabama
French Trial
Scientology
The Church of Scientology is to be tried for fraud, and seven of its members for illegally prescribing drugs, legal sources said Monday, in the latest clash between French officials and the controversial religion.
The charges stem from a case taken by a woman who said she paid the church more than 20,000 euros (28,000 dollars) for lessons, books, drugs and an "electrometer," a device which the church says can measure a person's mental state.
Founded in the United States in 1954 by science-fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard, the Church of Scientology, which has attracted Hollywood stars such as Tom Cruise, was officially recognised as a religion there 20 years later.
But it is often accused in France and in other European countries, including Belgium, Germany and Greece, of exploiting its members financially.
Scientology
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington
Cheney Sued
A watchdog group sued Vice President Dick 'Go Guck Yourself' Cheney on Monday, seeking a court order that he comply with the Presidential Records Act.
The group that sued is concerned that Cheney will argue that his records are not subject to the post-Watergate law aimed at safeguarding White House records for eventual release to the public.
The lawsuit by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington stems from Cheney's position that his office is not part of the executive branch of government.
The lawsuit details Bush administration actions that raise questions over whether the White House will turn over records created by Cheney and his staff to the National Archives in January.
Cheney Sued
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