Congratulations to Miss Oklahoma, Jennifer Berry, who was crowned Miss America on Saturday.

You're not going find any argument here.

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Despite Variety's predictions that "Brokeback Mountain" could reach as high as number two this weekend, the film barely finished at number five ahead of Jim Carrey's remake of "Fun With Dick And Jane" but behind the new Queen Latifah comedy "Last Holiday". The indy love story about two gay cowboys isn't exactly "on fire" despite garnering so many Golden Globe awards last week.

If fact, the number one film this weekend, "Underworld: Evolution", earned more in its first three days than "Brokeback Mountain" managed to gross after five weeks of release. The reason? Kate Beckinsale is smokin' hot! That's what guys want to see.

Look, your average straight male isn't going to go see "Brokeback". And the critics will say it's due to homophobia. But the reality is that it's due to indifference. Your average Joe Six-pack just has no interest in seeing any love story, much less one that looks like a sausage convention. For all the buzz about this film, it's really nothing more than a chick flick. It's one for the wife or significant other to go see with her friends. Fair is fair. Would she go along with you dragging her to see "Hostel" (which BTW has also grossed more than "Brokeback" in less than half the time)? I don't think so.

Hey, do you have any idea what it takes for the Mrs. to drag me to ANY movie that's billed as a love story? If I'm going to go through the aggravation of getting a sitter, dealing with the crowds and plopping down $19 for us to go to the multiplex, it damn well better feature a sweet-looking lead actress (and a couple of decent-looking supporting actresses as well).

It should come as no surprise that "Brokeback" has limited appeal. But try as they might, the Hollywood elite are not going to convince the vast majority of men that they should appreciate this kind of film and if they don't that there is something wrong with them. One thing you can count on, however, is that the more the box office returns continue to underwhelm, the more likely that "Brokeback" is guaranteed an Oscar for "Best Picture".

That'll show those knuckle-dragging Neanderthals! Whatever, dude.

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That is, the President from the land of make-believe, Josiah Bartlett - aka lefty moonbat celebrity Martin Sheen.

Hey, when you're Hollywood and your political heroes disappoint you, you can always write a better story. Which is what happened seven seasons ago. In the wake of Bill Clinton's disgraceful second term, Liberal writers decided to huddle together and create for the viewing audience a vision of what the Clinton Presidency could have been.

It started off as a pretty popular show, but Americans eventually got tired of "The West Wing" and its ratings tanked. Now, NBC will be cutting this once-Emmy winning series from the line-up. Often referred to by Conservatives as "The Left Wing", the writers found they couldn't create Republican characters that weren't blatant stereotypes so they would often invite real-live Republicans in as consultants. Sometimes it worked. Most times it didn't.

The show apparently jumped the shark a while ago but you know that a series is on life support when it resorts to putting Janeane Garofalo in as a guest star.

R.I.P.

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1 Wordsmith from Sparks from the Anvil sent me over here as I had written a similar entry. Your entry is much more entertaining!

Posted by: Anna at January 22, 2006 11:18 PM (x5M7p)

2 ...you know that a series is on life support when it resorts to putting Janeane Garofalo in as a guest star Like Seinfeld in 1996. Or Law & Order in 1997. Or the Sopranos in 2000. Life support, yes, got it.

Posted by: Pepe at January 25, 2006 06:51 PM (eV6hb)

3 Aww. Isn't that cute. You learned how to use the Internet Movie Database website. Prior to 2001, she was actually funny. Then she caught a wicked case of BDS (Bush Derangement Syndrome) and went full-fledged moonbat. Nowadays she's the joke.

Posted by: Gary at January 25, 2006 07:25 PM (7uJxH)

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By the MSM, that is.

Spc. Phil Van Treuren has a new feature at Camp Katrina - the Weapens Cache Databank.

Updated daily, it keeps a current tally of every weapon, bomb and gun that our military takes out of the hands of the terrorist insurgency in Iraq. You'll have to go here to check it out because you won't hear about it from the Old Media.

Excellent work, Phil!

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I missed this story when it broke on Thursday (too busy trying to narrow down which Elisabeth Shue pictures to use, I guess). But when Deborah Howell wrote a column about Jack Abramoff linking Democrats to his money, the Left went absolutely nuts. She mistated only technically that Democrats in Congress received Abramoff money. No, they didn't receive it directly. It was actually laundered through various Indian Tribes first. But they got the money nonetheless.

Anyway, the Washington Post site was slammed with hateful, vulgar comments against Howell, the Post and the MSM in general. It got so bad that the Post had to shut down that portion of the website. As Howell writes:

But there is no doubt about the campaign contributions that were directed to lawmakers of both parties. Records from the Federal Election Commission and the Center for Public Integrity show that Abramoff's Indian clients contributed money to 195 Republicans and 88 Democrats between 1999 and 2004. The Post also has copies of lists sent to tribes by Abramoff with his personal directions on which members were to receive what amounts.

Michael Crowley of the New Republic said in his blog that "while for all practical purposes this is indisputably a Republican scandal, the narrow liberal-blogger definition of whether any Democrats took money 'from Abramoff' -- which neatly excludes contributions he directed his clients to make -- amounts to foolish semantics.''

These facts have been reported many times in The Post and elsewhere. So why would it cause me to be called a "right-wing whore" and much worse?

Witness three printable examples:

"Yes, the WAPO needs an enema, and Howell should be the first thing that gets medicinally removed."

"You Deborah Howell, stop lying about Democrats getting money from Abramoff. Democrats do not control anything in Washington, so why would he waste money bribing them. Think and do your research, and stop being an idiot."

"This rag must be something that I pulled off a barscreen at a sewage treatment plant. Howell is simply a paid liar. How this creature endures itself is something I don't understand. What a piece of flotsam."

There is no more fervent believer in the First Amendment than I am, and I will fight for those e-mailers' right to call me a liar and Republican shill with salt for brains. But I am none of those.

My career has been a public one in journalism. You can find my biography and much of what I stand for on the Internet. You can ask anyone who worked with me in Minnesota and at Newhouse News Service what kind of journalist I am. I have spent my life working for rational reporting and passionate and reasonable opinion.

So is it the relative anonymity of the Internet that emboldens e-mailers to conduct a public stoning? Is this the increasing political polarization of our country? I don't know.

What Howell fails to recognize is that this isn't a problem of American politics in general. It's a problem with the angry, unhinged Left and and is born out of the frustration that comes with their political impotence. They've been reduced to acting like petulant children who aren't getting their way. No real ideas to speak of, no vision and no strategy beyond attack, attack, attack. When you think about it, isn'tt this really just the political equivalent of "your momma" and "I know you are but what am I?"

And they wonder why they keep losing.

Oh, and despite the continued one-star ratings given to Kate O'Beirne's book by Lefty kooks who've never actually read it, it's still holding strong and an average three and a half stars.

Heh.

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This week's 80's Crush is: Elisabeth Shue

Nickname: Lisa
Birth Date: 10/6/63
Age Today: 42
Birthplace: Wilmington, DE

80's Crush Because: In 1984, Lisa played the beautiful blonde love interest of Ralph Macchio in "The Karate Kid". She was definitely a girl worth getting your ass kicked over. Four years later, she was the one bright spot in the Tom Cruise stink-bomb "Cocktail". To this day, every time I hear the Beach Boys song "Kokomo" the image of her walking along a Jamaican beach in a sarong pops into my head.

Other Notable Roles: Lisa played Marty McFly's girlfriend/future wife in the "Back To The Future" sequels, replacing actress Claudia Wells who was unable to reprise the role due to unspecified health problems. In 1995, her performance as a down-on-her-luck hooker opposite a suicidal alcoholic played by Nicolas Cage in "Leaving Las Vegas" earned her a Best Actress nomination.

Most Recent Media Appearance: She played the mother of Dakota Fanning's character in the Dreamworks film, "Dreamer", about a family who nurses an injured race horse back to health.

Distinguishing Feature: That All-American Girl-Next-Door Look

Career Moment She'd Probably Like To Forget: In 1986, she played an animal research assistant terrorized by an Orangutan gone wild in the movie "Link".

Interesting Factoids: Lisa got her start in acting doing commercials for Burger King, DeBeers diamonds and Hellman's mayonnaise. Transferring from Wellesley College, she attended Harvard University but dropped out in 1985 to pursue her acting career - one course shy of graduating. In June of 2000 she went back to Harvard and earned her undergraduate degree in Government.

Still Crushin'?: Enough so that I would see a movie she was in that I otherwise wouldn't.

Crush Meter: 9 out of 10

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Return of the King, Book Six, Chapter Two is posted.

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Another perspective on the latest tape from OBL over at Froggy Ruminations:

It is unexpected events such as these that demonstrate the ineffectiveness of a Party whose only policy contribution is capitulation and obstruction. For the President, having your arch enemy admit his weakness while making vague threats is a tremendous political opportunity. Bush is already leaving no stone unturned as far as repelling AQ attacks, and this reminder that our enemy continues to resist us will likely go a long way to shoring up support for the electronic surveillance programs that have drawn liberal ire of late. That is not to say that the moonbats will cease and desist- far from it- but their vocal objections from here on out will ring even more hollow in the ears of the American people. As usual, the hard left will turn out to be their own worst enemies as the 70% of non suicidal Americans will quickly grow weary of hearing that the President is an evil dictator for having protected us so effectively thus far.

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On Sunday, I posted about an attempt to drive down the Amazon rating of Kate O'Beirne's book "Women Who Make the World Worse". Left-wing kooks were rejoicing that they had driven the average rating down to 1.5 stars.

Just as an update, if you go check it out now it's back up to 3.5 stars, and rising.

Heh.

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Having seen this (note: change skin to "Theuriau Lusters") from the Llama Butchers.

That's right, I'm out. I'm out of the contest.

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Twenty-five years ago today, Ronald Wilson Reagan took his first oath of office and the Conservatives came to town.

That day represented the high-water mark of Democrat control in Washington, D.C. For Democrats, it all went down hill from there. It was a gradual process, granted. And power shifted back and forth for a while, ebbing and flowing until 1994 when the GOP firmly took over both chambers of Congress.

During those twenty-five years, a shift occurred among the American electorate. Conservative ideas were listened to and, in many cases, accepted. The editors of OpinionJournal.com take a look this morning at the lasting effect of the ideas once derided as "Reaganomics" that have since been vindicated by a quarter century of evidence.

The Gipper's critics have written an economic history of the 1990s that they portray as a repudiation of Reaganomics. In this telling--known as Rubinomics--the Clinton tax hikes of 1993 ended the budget deficit, which caused interest rates to fall, which produced the boom of the mid- to late-1990s. In fact, the budget deficit hardly fell at all in the immediate aftermath of the tax hike, and while long-term interest rates fell in 1993, they shot back up again in 1994 almost precisely through Election Day (rising by some 230 basis points from October 1993 to November 1994).

On that day, voters repudiated the Clinton tax hikes and the specter of HillaryCare and gave Republicans control of Capitol Hill to govern on the Reaganite agenda of lowering taxes and shrinking runaway government. Both the stock and bond markets turned upward precisely on Election Day in 1994, beginning a whirlwind six-year rally. By 1998, growth and fiscal restraint delivered a budget surplus for the first time in nearly 30 years. In 1997 President Clinton signed a further reduction in the capital gains tax, which propelled investment and the stock market to even greater heights.

The latest chapter of this story is the 2003 income and investment tax cuts enacted by the current President Bush. As in 1981, opponents insisted those tax cuts would harm the economy by increasing the deficit and driving up interest rates. But in the two and a half years since those tax cuts passed, the economy and tax revenues have both surged.

Where Republicans have most strayed from the Reagan vision has been on controlling federal spending. But most still adhere to his tax-cutting lessons, with a few prominent exceptions (notably Senator John McCain). They should all recall the Gipper's words in his inauguration speech 25 years ago: "It is no coincidence that our present troubles parallel and are proportionate to the intervention and intrusion in our lives that result from unnecessary and excessive growth of government."

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ABC's "Commander-In-Chief" is sliding in the ratings. Despite starting off hot and notwithstanding the Golden Globe award won by its star Geena Davis, the series isn't holding onto the audience that the network had hoped for.

The series' downturn has industry insiders wondering whether its primary cause is the regime change that occurred behind the scenes after only six episodes were completed. Series creator and executive producer Rod Lurie was replaced as showrunner by veteran TV producer Steven Bochco, reportedly to quell ABC's concerns over production delays.

I have never watched this show, but my guess is that a lot of people tuned in because of the novelty of the premise. While it will still probably have a following among the "anti-Bush" contingency, it looks like most viewers have had a look at the train wreck and have "moved on" to shows more worthy of their time.

Drudge proclaims "Brokeback Mountain" to be the number one movie in America. Of course, that was on Wednesday, when most people with actual lives are too busy to go to the movies. And its $735,000 take for the day was 40% less than Monday's earnings (which was $1,236,425). Forty-one days in the theaters and all it has mustered is $33 million. Contrast that with "The Chronicles Of Narnia" which had the same release date and has earned $265 million domestically ($586M if you throw in the overseas box office gross).

Now Variety is predicting that it could get to number two for this weekend. Big whoop. It garners a cache of Golden Globes this week and the best it will do is Number Two? Again, I haven't seen the movie, but then neither has most of America. Not surprisingly it seems like the media is going to great lengths to convince people that this is a film that an audience outside of an independant film festival would enjoy. I'll take a pass.

Turns out that digital music downloads have become a $1.1 billion dollar business. Do you think Napster is kicking themselves now that they've realized that people are actually willing to pay to download a song that they can't get out of their heads or cherry-pick their favorite tracks off an album? And they would have avoided all that litigation, too. Didn't mom tell them it's not nice to steal? Gotta give Steve Jobs a lot of credit for coming up with iTunes.

And lastly, we mourn the passing of R&B legend Wilson Pickett who died yesterday at the age of 64. Yes, that's right before there were "The Blues Brothers" and "The Commitments" there were pioneers like Pickett. Most famous for belting out such tunes as "In The Midnight Hour" and "Mustang Sally", he died of a heart attack.

R.I.P.

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BullDogPundit reports from sources in New Hampshire that some Conservatives in the GOP are beginning to look at Sen. John McCain as an option in '08. He, like myself, is skeptical, though:

Well one thing is for sure, if the right wing blogosphere is any indication of the grassroots conservative movement, then the source is all wrong. Yes, McCain is great on spending, but there's a whole lot more anger with him for CFR, and his hesitancy on tax cuts, the "Gang of 14" deal (as well as his media preening) than there is praise for him on the spending issues. Who knows, maybe it's us in the blogosphere that are in a bubble, but for some reason I don't think that's the case here.

We shall see.

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Listen up, Moonbats:

"There is nothing patriotic about hating your country, or pretending that you can love your country but despise your government. There is nothing heroic about turning your back on America, or ignoring your own responsibilities."

- Bill Clinton, May 5, 1995

H/T: James Taranto, Best of the Web

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I'm not making this up. Al-Jazeera aired a tape that is supposedly Osama Bin Laden. In it, he is offering a deal:

"Based on what I have said, it is better not to fight the Muslims on their land," he said. "We do not mind offering you a truce that is fair and long-term. ... So we can build Iraq and Afghanistan ... there is no shame in this solution because it prevents wasting of billions of dollars ... to merchants of war."

Oh please, please, please let the Democrats suggest accepting this offer. Oh, please, please, please!

h/t: Ankle-Biting Pundits

UPDATE: Rick Moran thinks that tempting Democrats is exactly Bin Laden's strategy. I tend to agree.

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Return of the King, Book Six, Chapter One is posted.

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One of the earliest political ads I can remember was in 1980 when, in the face of discontent against a Democrat-controlled Congress, a GOP ad asked voters to "Vote Republican...For A Change." It had a double meaning in that it meant Republicans would bring change to the Legislative body and that people who were tired of pulling the lever for Democrats should try voting for Republicans for a change. It worked.

In 1994 the GOP again took control of the Congress and, while I'm doubtful that Democrats have a real chance to take it back this year, Republicans in the House have a real opportunity to elect a new Majority Leader to bring change to an institution that is spinning out of control. That new Leader should be John Shadegg of Arizona.

Shadegg, who came in with the GOP sweep of 1994, is not only unconnected to the current political scandals but he has a real committment to the principles on which Republicans won 12 years ago. The editors of TownHall.com agree:

John Shadegg would change the way things are done on Capitol Hill. He would shed light on the insidious game of congressional earmarking by requiring members to be honest with the public about the projects that they sneak into appropriations bills. Along similar lines, Shadegg wants to require the posting of all legislation three hours before a vote so that the public can finally see what their elected representatives are up to in Washington.

He also wants to lead his caucus in an effort to get tough on immigration by among other things, building a fence along the Mexican border. He would repeal the unconstitutional provisions of McCain-Feingold. He supports oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, and he is rock-solid in his commitment to the War on Terrorism and finishing the job in Iraq.

I would urge all Republican members of the House to do right by their constituents and vote for John Shadegg for Majority Leader. Vote for integrity...for a change.

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Remember last week when the Senate Democrats were praising Sandra Day O'Connor as the thoughtful "moderate" swing vote on the Supreme Court who would be sorely missed? Well I wonder what they have to say about her now.

Despite reservations, the Court just ruled to affirm a NH "parental consent" law. O'Connor, on behalf of the Court, wrote that getting in the middle of this matter "may call for a far more serious invasion of the legislative domain than we ought to undertake".

Essentially, the Court dodged the issue by telling the lower courts to look at it again. But in the meantime, they ruled that the same lower court could not block the law that requires a parent to be notified when a minor daughter seeks an abortion.

The real irony here is that the plaintiff is seeking to have the law overturned on the grounds that it conflicts with Roe v. Wade, a decision that many legal scholars contend is itself a "serious invasion of the legislative domain."

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Back in September, I posted a list of TV shows I planned to watch this season and why.

Now that we've hit the mid-point, I thought I'd revist that post and grade them. Click "more" to read. more...

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Not the awards show, I'm mean these babies right here:

If they had an award for "Best Rack", Scarlett Johansson would win hands down.

"...and you know what I'm talking about!" - HRC

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