Debates - In case you missed 'em last night (Catch the Dems tonight!)

I watched the Republicans debate last night and I agree completely with CNN Political Analyst Bill Schneider-- Huckabee scored points, Mitt defended himself well, and McCain came off petty and may have hurt himself. (Well, I think Mitt performed a little better in the debate than Bill says. There was no weaseling from Mitt last night.) But other than that I'm in complete agreeance, to use a W. word. See Bill's analysis here (It's a short article.)

Note: wonkette.com liveblogged the debate. Funny stuff. (That's where I got the picture.) Quotes: "They are sitting! They are serious! They are just saying 'Ronald Reagan' again and again." Also: "Do any of these tired old men want to be president? ... We might as well let Hillary and Obama run against each other in the General Election, for fun."

Don't Miss Tonight: Hill and Barry -- alone at last!! This might be a donnybrook. Must-see TV. The debate is at the Kodak Theatre-- the site of next month's Oscars (maybe) and news out of Hollywood is that the debate is the hottest ticket in town.

Other Random Political Stuff:

New fun term of the day: After receiving the Kennedys' endorsement, Barack's supporters are looking forward to Obamalot.

Yowza, Barry grows a set: Yesterday at a huge rally in Denver Obama had this to say:

"Democrats will win in November and build a majority in Congress not by
nominating a candidate who will unite the other party against us, but by
choosing one who can unite this country around a movement for change."

"It is time for new leadership that understands the way to win a debate with John McCain or any Republican who is nominated is not by nominating someone who agreed with him on voting for the war in Iraq or who agreed with him in voting to give George Bush the benefit of the doubt on Iran, who agrees with him in embracing the Bush-Cheney policy of not talking to leaders we don't like, who actually
differed with him by arguing for exceptions for torture before changing
positions when the politics of the moment changed..."

"I know it is tempting — after another presidency by a man named George Bush — to simply turn back the clock, and to build a bridge back to the 20th century..."

"... It's not enough to say you'll be ready from Day One — you have to be
right from Day One," he added in unmistakable criticisms of Clinton, who often
claims she's better prepared to govern, and her husband, who pledged during his
own presidency to build a bridge to the 21st century.

Hillary 08

The Big Game meets The Big Game

Too funny. Super-Duper Tuesday is two days after Superbowl Sunday. Both Superbowl teams need a traveling day after the game, so a victory rally would have to be on-- yup. So Hizzoner the mayor was trying to come up with a plan for a parade that wouldn't block four Boston precincts from getting to the polls-- walled off by "a million delirious knuckleheads with their faces painted red, white, and blue." But when Mayor Menino publicly mentioned the plan? You guessed it. He "may as well have suited up for the Giants," 'cuz now he's a jinx.

A quote:

Meanwhile, New York city officials are tight-lipped about plans for a
Giants victory march through the streets of Gotham.
“We in New York always
find a way to honor our teams, but we’re not going to jinx them by discussing
any plans beforehand,” Stu Loeser, spokesman for Mayor Michael Bloomberg, said
in response to a Herald inquiry.

Beautiful.

You can read the Boston Herald articles here and here. The picture is from the Herald, too.

Postscript: Menino v. Bloomberg Superbowl bet:

If (or when) the Pats win, Bloomberg will send a delivery to Boston that includes Manhattan clam chowder, pastrami sandwiches, New York pizzas, black and white cookies, New York steaks and a few gallons of lemon ice.

And in the unlikely event of a Giants victory, Menino will send a package with New England Clam Chowder, Dunkin’ Donuts coffee, Boston cream pies, chicken sausages and Brigham’s ice cream.

Barack and Hillary -- It's more personal than you think

The SOTU Snub

If Maureen Dowd's NYTimes op-ed piece is accurate, we'll never see them on the same ticket. (Click here.)

Just in Time for Superbowl Sunday

A new study shows that Seinfeld episode was right: double-dipping your chip is some nasty bidness. (See NYTimes article here.)

An excerpt:

[Food microbiologist]Professor Dawson said...“The way I would put it is, before you have some dip at a party, look around and ask yourself, would I be willing to kiss everyone here? Because you don’t know who might be double dipping, and those who do are sharing their saliva with you.”

Ewww. You might want to serve that dip with a serving spoon and some little individual bowls.

State of the Union Drinking Game

9:00 tonight! Time to brush up on the rules. Pick your version:

Drinkinggame.Us

Wonkette's State of the Union Drinking game

Bottoms up!

Speaking of Tom Cruise

This is priceless, but contains language not work-friendly and not for kiddies. If you're a grown-up, click here.

For me, it's all about KFC

If you liked Tom Cruise:



You'll love Jerry O'Connell:

Hillary Hillary Hillary

Sigh. She's losin' me. This battle with Barack.. the MadDog Bill tag-team. Her foregoing issues to instead attack on Obama during the last debate... It ticks me off. And I especially don't like it when their little tricks insult the voters' intelligence. Do they think we aren't capable of understanding what Barack was talking about in his Reagan remarks? (see here.)

She looks so competent when she sticks to the issues. But when she teams up and forms the Billary Monster, the nausea returns, and I remember why I wanted them out of Pennsylvania Avenue last time.

Oh well. Bye, Hill. I think I'm ready for Tsunami Tuesday.

MLK Day Democrat Debates

Last night's debate was harsh. Well, Hillary was harsh. She went on the attack with Barack, too much for my taste. In my view it took her down a couple of notches and elevated him, because boy was he cool about a lot of it. I was impressed.

But beyond the attacks, there were some good moments. My favorite answer of the night is on a video snippet at CNN (You have to click on the link, because CNN doesn't won't let me embed the video here.) Tell me Obama didn't handle this one well: click here. (Come back and discuss!)

William Jefferson Clinton has a dream, too.

Only his dream is about fluffy bunnies. Wearing berets and smoking cigars. Mmm. And with jelly donuts.



My favorite part is when he sits up, his eyes still closed, and nods his head in agreement. Total Simon move.

Dear Hollis

Dear All-Seeing and All-Knowing Hollis,

NY Giants kicker Tynes' game-winning FG the other night: Is that what they mean by the word "redemption?"

Lexiconically Challenged, Lexington


Dear Lexiconically Challenged,

Yes. The kicker is the loneliest position on the football team. The
300pound linemen look at them and think "we lost the game because of
this little soccer playing Nancy-boy." Tynes' story was truly one of Sally-made-good. But as warm as our hearts feel for Tynes now, we must be ruthless 2 Sundays from now. No matter if his house is burnt down or his pie crust comes out "squishy," he must miss any game winning field goals.

Hollis



Dear Hollis,

What are we to make of the video on CNN this morning of Tom Brady in a cast?

CindyLou Who, Whoville


Dear CindyLou,

The cast is a ruse...being used for 2 purposes:

1. To elicit Sympathy/solace from and to mollify fiery hot-blooded
girlfriend who is upset at his football-first attitude.
2. Intentional media diversion to siphon attention away from Moss and
his legal problems

Brady for President....

Hollis

The Onion Brings Tears to My Eyes

CIA Realizes It's Been Using Black Highlighters All These Years

U.S. Intelligence: Nukehavistan May Have Nuclear Weapons

And yeah, this is so incredibly wrong, but...

Redacted

Da stress. Da strain. Da Patriots.

I had to share this article from the Herald. This guy feels my pain: click here.

Anybody want to comment on the Randy Moss thing? I'm looking for guidance. I don't know what to make about the he said/she said. As a Pats fan, I want to call her a gold digger with suspect timing. As a woman, I worry about his past: Randy says that he has never laid a hand on a woman in his 30 years, but google informs me this morning that he did hit one-- a female traffic cop-- with his car. That story here. And then, since I'm a relatively new football fan, it was news to me that there is a phrase for such events:

Randy Ratio: the number of distractions Randy creates versus the number of touchdowns

We don't need this right now! Doesn't he understand that we fans are on the edge?! And this puts even more strain on female fans. There are women's advocacy groups calling for him to be benched with pay until the issue is cleared up. So now I must choose between Sisterhood and New England Patriotism.

A commenter on bostonherald.com said, "Randy I don't care if you beat up my sister. Keep winning." Sure. Real funny for the boys. But if a woman laughs at that, her uterus falls out. (Karmic law.)

Theatre Majors!

In the course of my surfing yesterday, I ran across a semi-bizarre Tom Cruise video. He's in the news right now, because of the release of a new unauthorized biography by Andrew Morton (the Princess Di biographer.) So this Scientology video surfaced, and was taken off YouTube and resurfaced elsewhere and finally here it is at Gawker, click here.

So I watched that video, and wondered about Tom. He seems really into it. There are claims that he's #2 guy in Scientology right now. That made me wonder about John Travolta. He's older, and he's a Scientologist, and to my mind, he's cuter, more charismatic, and a better actor. Why isn't he #2 guy in Scientology? So I tried to track this down, and that's when I fell down the rabbit hole. From a 1991 Time magazine article entitled, "The Thriving Cult of Greed and Power."

Sometimes even the church's biggest zealots can use a little protection. Screen star Travolta, 37, has long served as an unofficial Scientology spokesman, even though he told a magazine in 1983 that he was opposed to the church's management. High-level defectors claim that Travolta has long feared that if he defected, details of his sexual life would be made public. "He felt pretty intimidated about this getting out and told me so," recalls William Franks, the church's former chairman of the board. "There were no outright threats made, but it was implicit. If you leave, they immediately start digging up everything." Franks was driven out in 1981 after attempting to reform the church.

Huh? "Details of his sexual life?" What does that mean? So I surfed a little more, and... wait for it...



Dah!

There are many on the net who claim that John is gay, that his marriage is a beard, and that Scientology is using the situation to keep him in line. Here's how the Canadians cover it, click here.

I couldn't decide whether or not to blog about this. I decided to go for it, because it's all out there already and I think it's interesting-- the whole Scientology slash secret-life-except-for-those-millions-of-people-who-google-me thing. Besides, I probably would've told the four or five of you who are reading this, anyway. But if any of this is true, I really feel bad for the guy. So for the record, John is terrific and I'm a big fan! And I don't care if he's gay or not (sob!)

Weekend Fun! HairMixer.com! Hours of Internet-ainment for your inner nerd!

Here's my beloved as Hillary.

And as a buxom starlet...

Why is the Simon/Anderson Cooper Mix the most disturbing?

It's Here! It's Here! It's Finally Here!!

I was very surprised that day last spring when the kids came home from school excited to turn on cable access and watch their friends in the Lip Synch Show. We turned on Channel 3 and sure enough, there were their kindergarten through fourth grade friends on grainy video two-stepping and mouthing the words to such classics as "I'm Gonna Tell on You" and Chubby Checker's "The Twist." Adorable! Engaging! Cute as a bug on a button!

My kids could wipe the stage with all of them.

So, I've bided my time over the past year, waiting for that much-anticipated handout to come home-- and finally it did. "It's time to pick your partner and your music! Lip Synch rehearsals start the first Tuesday in February!"

It was Go Time. I gathered the girls and varied audio-visual materials and went to work on my pitch.

1.) Okay, kids, here's the plan: First we go to the thrift shop, and we pick up suit jackets and hats and dark sunglasses, and dress you like this:




2.) Then, we slit the back of the jackets, under which you will be wearing leotards, and to the back of the leotards we attach something like this:

3.) Then we learn a few moves:






And in the middle of what I thought was a thorough, informative and energetic demonstration for my six and eight-year-old daughters---a demonstration, I might add, that my three-year-old daughter very much enjoyed--- right in the middle, my eight-year-old raised her hand as she would in school, and when I paused to acknowledge her, she looked me right in the eye and said two words: "Mom. No."

"B-but it would be cute!" I stammered.

The six-year-old backed her up, "We don't want to."

And just like that, they left to play Webkins.

So I ask you: if children are not an excuse to hold weekly dress rehearsals for (Real or Imaginary) Variety Shows, why do we have them again?

Saturday Night's, Back-to-Back Republican and Democrat NH Debates

I sat down with a clipboard for THE BIG GAME, thinking I would jot down many bloggable notes. Turns out that the clipboard jotting down thing is trickier than it seems. I didn't get much. But what I got, I will share:

Republican debates- McCain, Thompson, Paul, Romney, Huckabee, 9iu11iani

Note #1: "I like this format." It was a conversational debate format, much better and more human than the usual format which turns the candidates into PolitiBots.

#2 "Smackdown Ron Paul." Boy those other candidates have no respect for the Paultard-in-Chief. (That's what Wonkette.com calls him. But since my wonderful husband likes Ron Paul, instead of referring to Ron Paul supporters as "Paultards," I will instead use "Intelligent, Hunky, Ron Paul Devotees Who Are So Helpful In The Kitchen."

#3 "Thompson-preemption." Charlie Gibson asked some really good questions. One was whether the candidates believe in preemptive wars. I thought for sure the Repubs would take the opportunity to distance themselves from the current administration here, but actually they didn't. In fact, Fred Thompson stepped up to the plate and strung together several cogent statements in support of preemption in this time of stateless war which although I may not agree with his views, I did give the "Huh."-pucker-with-impressed-nod look to the televised candidate. Again, I was surprised Old Fred was awake, but I'm starting to think he's a sneaky old fox, and he just might rack up a few points in the South.

#4 I asked my clipboard: "How old is Thompson, McCain, was Reagan?" And this morning wikipedia answered, "Fred Thompson will be 66 this year, McCain will be 72, Reagan was 69 in 1980."

#5 And lastly, I and my clipboard agree, "Mitt has stupid hair."

The Democrats: Edwards, Obama, Richardson and Clinton

#1 "Edwards and Obama team up on Hill?" - Edwards decides to do an us-against-her thing which was very noticeable. Interesting strategy. I wonder if he and Barack will be getting BFF (best friends forever) tattoos.

#2 "Bill Richardson smacks down Obama and Edwards on agents of change versus experience." Richardson seemed out of his depth in this crowd, but did manage a few great admonishments of the tag-team duo. Richardson still seems to be campaigning for Hill's VP (or Hill's valet. I'm not sure.)

#3 "Hillary: 'That hurts my feelings' - Obama: 'You're likable enough, Hillary.'" The question to Hillary was about her strategy in view of the fact that Obama comes out better in likability polls. Her quip, "Well, that hurts my feelings" got a good laugh. She went on (not exact quote) "He is very likable! But I'm not that bad am I?" to which Obama replied, "You're likable enough, Hillary." Only he didn't seem to mean it.

#4 "Hillary kicks maximum ass." I know, many of my friends and family do not want to see me say that. But I'll tell ya, when asked the tough questions about what-would-you-do-in-this-hypothetical-crisis, she gives the best, most complete, competent answers.

One last note: On Meet the Press yesterday, Tim had on a couple of veteran political strategists, a republican and a dem, neither currently affiliated with a presidential campaign. When asked who they thought would be the nominees, they both agreed: Obama and McCain. (Surprising, no?!)

[Which reminds me, hey, clipboard, is Tim Russert gay? Because I was finding him rather adorkable yesterday with his little puns and what not. I don't want to have my little crush crushed again by another closeted newsie...]