Helen Mirren Stands Up for Women

Whoopi & Joy Behar Walk Off The View Set During O'Reilly Rant

GOOD FOR THEM!!! Joy Behar is correct in saying Bill O'Reilly is a pinhead! I'm so glad the women walked off the set. O'Reilly was being an a**hole.

Television Characters Women Want

My friend Jennifer Posner, appearing on Today, talks about what kind of female characters women want to watch.

Excuse me while I get the drain cleaner for my arteries

KFC "Double Down" Sandwich Replaces Bread With Fried Chicken

Could this be why Americans are so uninformed? Just Sayin'

Robert Novak, Conservative Columnist, Dies at 78

Conservative columnist Robert Novak will likely be remembered for publicly identifying CIA operative Valerie Plame.

His July 14, 2003, column was printed days after Plame's husband, former U.S. ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV, publicly claimed the Bush White House had knowingly distorted intelligence that Iraq tried to obtain uranium from Africa.

The column triggered a lengthy federal investigation into the Plame leak and resulted in the 2007 conviction of a top vice presidential aide, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, for perjury and obstruction of justice. Bush later commuted Libby's prison term.

Novak was accused by prominent journalists of being a pawn in a government retribution campaign against Wilson.

Novak died today at his home in Washington of a brain tumor first diagnosed in July 2008.

Are You Sitting Down? I Agree with Sarah Palin

Sarah Palin and I disagree on almost everything -- except I do think she is correct in her criticism of jokes David Letterman made recently. I think it is inappropriate to make "rape" jokes about young girls. I think it does feed a culture that thinks it's okay to demean women and girls. And I think we need to call it out when it happens.

I disagree with Sarah Palin on most social justice issues, but on this matter I think she is right.

It's Getting Closer!

Watch CBS Videos Online
I see gay people!

Wanda Sykes Rocked the White House Correspondents' Dinner

And the President Wasn't Bad, Either!

Hey DeMint: "What The Hell Does That Mean"

This is a bit dated, but I've decided to go ahead and post it for your viewing pleasure! Take a look at back-to-back video of an exchange between CNN's Rich Sanchez and GOP Senator Jim DeMint -- with a little Jon Stewart thrown in for fun! DeMint is seriously out of touch with reality!


The complete interview:

Lindsay Lohan: You Go Grrl

It's got to be exhausting being Lindsay Lohan, but she seems to be keeping her sense of humor about it all. Dorothy Snarker writes:

They say looking good is the best revenge. I'd like to amend that to say being hilarious while looking good is the best revenge. Newly single and re-redheaded Lindsay Lohan made light of her recent split from celebrity DJ Samantha Ronson with a parody eHarmony commercial for funnyordie.com.

Instead of hiding from the rumors or slinking away brokenhearted, La Lohan is using laughter as her breakup medicine. And after watching her fake eHarmony video, I would say this course of treatment is just what the doctor ordered.

Cute, self-deprecating and — best of all — funny, her mock personal ad is a refreshing reminder that there's still a talented person behind all those screaming headlines. Lindsay pokes fun at her hard-partying past, brushes with the law, supposed money problems and recent breakup woes.

I thought the paparazzi treatment Brittney Spears endured was pretty disgusting. Let's hope an "out for blood" media doesn't get the best of Lindsay. You go grrl!

Jon Stewart Eviscerates CNBC; Letterman Calls Limbaugh Bonehead Gangster

Unanimous Supreme Court Decision Protects Employees

Yes, you read the headline correctly. Could this be a payback from Chief Justice John Roberts for flubbing the presidential oath? If it is, great!

The Supreme Court today unanimously held that federal anti-discrimination laws protect employees from retaliation when they cooperate with internal investigations of alleged harassment.

The court sided with Vicky S. Crawford, who said she was fired from her longtime job in charge of payroll for the Nashville school system after she answered questions about what the court termed the "louche goings-on" involving her boss.

The supervisor, Metro School District employees relations director Gene Hughes, was not disciplined for the alleged actions, but Crawford and two others who testified against him were later fired for unrelated charges.

Lower courts said Crawford was not protected under the federal anti-retaliation law, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, because she had not "instigated or initiated" the complaint, but merely answered questions in a case already underway.

The Supreme Court said the district court and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit misread the law.

"Nothing in the statute requires a freakish rule protecting an employee who reports discrimination on her own initiative but not one who reports the same discrimination in the same words when her boss asks a question," Justice David H. Souter wrote.

The case is Crawford v. Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County.

What also must be noted is the gender difference in reporting this decision. CBS Network news airs before NBC in the DC area, so if I'm home I try to catch both. CBS anchor Katie Couric reported the story. Guess who didn't? That's right the male anchor Brian Williams on NBC.

The minute I read the report of this in the Washington Post I knew it would probably have greater impact, and meaning, for women. Looks like Couric agrees.

Gay Bishop's Invocation Missing from HBO's 'We Are One' Concert

It seems in HBO land 'We Are NOT One' ... at least not if you are lesbian or gay. HBO not only omitted the invocation by Bishop Gene Robinson, but neglected to introduce (or identify) the Washington DC Gay Men's Chorus while they were onstage. What's up with that HBO?

Joe.My.God writes:

After days of controversy and outrage from the religious right, openly gay Episcopal Bishop Gene Robinson opened Barack Obama's inauguration concert on the National Mall today with a request that the nation pray for "understanding that our president is a human being and not a messiah."

But only the people AT the concert heard that, because HBO did not televise Robinson's message. Who engineered this blackout of Robinson? I suspect we'll hear lots about this in days to come.

UPDATE: The 7PM rebroadcast of the show was identical, no Gene Robinson.

UPDATE II: The full text of Robinson's prayer is here. If you'd like to express your unhappiness to HBO, you can do that here.

President-elect Obama included gays when talking about various groups that comprise the fabric of this country. So what's the story HBO?


** UPDATE **

Here is what you missed if you only saw the concert on HBO:



**UPDATE 2**

The rebroadcast of the HBO special "We Are One" now includes the invocation by Bishop Gene Robinson. We the people were heard!

Change still needed

The buzz is that Sen. Hillary Clinton will be offered, and will accept, the position of Secretary of State in the Obama administration. She certainly earned it.

What is still missing, however, is a national discussion on sexism.

"This is the most underwritten story of this campaign ... by the press ... by the media. [...] Nobody understood the agony that women, particularly of my generation, were undergoing about this ... issue ... and to this day, it has been swept under the rug and been forgotten because she didn’t win. [...] We did not examine the fact that we didn’t get, we haven’t gotten nearly as far ahead as we thought we were about equality between the sexes. And that ought to be revisited as a result of what happened ... and it happened to Sarah Palin too." -- Howard Dean

Dean is right. We haven't yet address the issue of sexism, and until we do we will continue to see women abused by the media, corporate America, and certain religions.

A good start would be to never again have an all-male panel discussing issues of the day.


h/t to egalia at Tennessee Guerilla Women

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Helen Thomas Returns to White House

WELCOME BACK!


Helen Thomas has been part of the White House Press Corp for seven presidents. President Elect Barack Obama will be her eighth. I know I feel more comfortable knowing she is there asking the tough questions. Good to see you back!

Letterman Mocks McCain Cancellation

Sen. John McCain was scheduled to appear on Latenight with David Letterman tonight ... but it seems the Senator won't be there.

David Letterman tells audience that McCain called him today to tell him he had to rush back to DC to deal with the economy.

Then in the middle of the taping Dave got word that McCain was, in fact just down the street being interviewed by Katie Couric. Dave even cut over to the live video of the interview, and said, "Hey Senator, can I give you a ride home?"

Earlier in the show, Dave kept saying, "You don't suspend your campaign. This doesn't smell right. This isn't the way a tested hero behaves." And he joked: "I think someone's putting something in his metamucil."

"He can't run the campaign because the economy is cratering? Fine, put in your second string quarterback, Sara Palin. Where is she?"

"What are you going to do if you're elected and things get tough? Suspend being president? We've got a guy like that now!"

.

Where's Andrea? My Favorite RNC Moment

MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell ... what a trooper!

Gov. Sarah Palin Comes Out Swinging

Prime time viewers got their first look at Republican VP designate Gov. Sarah Palin -- and she came out swinging.

I'm really surprised at the attacks Republicans are leveling at the media. Gov. Palin went after them tonight, and Sen. McCain and his spokespeople earlier. McCain has always seemed to receive pretty favorable coverage from the media, but for some reason the campaign has now decided to go on the attack.

I think it's more in response to the great speeches we heard from the Democratic convention last week. Clearly the Republicans have to try and hide from the past eight years, so maybe the best way to do that is to try and play "the victim" card and claim the media is biased.

Joe Klein posted a pretty strong response to this:

The story of the day out here in Minneapolis is the McCain campaign's war against the press. This has been building for some time. Those of us who have criticized the candidate--and especially those of us who enjoyed good relations with McCain in the past--have been subject to off-the-record browbeating and attempted bullying all year. But things have gotten much worse in recent days: there was McCain's rude, bizarre interview with Time Magazine last week. Yesterday, McCain refused to an interview with Larry King, for God's sake, because Campbell Brown had been caught in the commission of journalism on CNN the night before, asking McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds what decisions Sarah Palin had made as commander-in-chief of the Alaska national guard. (There was an answer that the unprepared Bounds didn't have: she had deployed them to fight fires.) [...]

There is a tendency in the media to kick ourselves, cringe and withdraw, when we are criticized. But I hope my colleagues stand strong in this case: it is important for the public to know that Palin raised taxes as governor, supported the Bridge to Nowhere before she opposed it, pursued pork-barrel projects as mayor, tried to ban books at the local library and thinks the war in Iraq is "a task from God." The attempts by the McCain campaign to bully us into not reporting such things are not only stupidly aggressive, but unprofessional in the extreme.

Good for you, Joe!

I also have to comment, however, on the apparent awakening the media has on the issue of sexism. CNN's Campbell Brown, who just yesterday took on McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds in what some are describing as 'finally doing her job', has suddenly decided that sexist comments are really offensive. Apparently a spokesperson for Sen. Harry Reid described Gov. Palin's speech as "shrill." Brown, looking to Gloria Borger for affirmation, commented that shrill is never used to describe men, only women. Gee, I wonder why she didn't think of that when it was being leveled at Sen. Hillary Clinton? Come to think of it, a lot of the commentators have suddenly decided that their might be sexism in some of the coverage of women candidates. Get outta town!

I hope the MSM will heed Klein's advise and not let up on the McCain/Palin ticket. The public needs to know exactly how they plan to dig the country out of the mess left behind by George W. Bush.

Hey Sen. McCain, if you can't take the heat ...

I was truly amazed to see this interview by Campbell Brown. She has, in the past, appeared to tilt toward the right. Notice how McCain spokesperson Tucker Bounds never answers Brown's question. He is excellent at spin, but it was refreshing to see Brown take him to task.


Now it appears that Sen. McCain cancelled an appearance on the Larry King show because of it. Think Progress reports:

Yesterday, Sen. John McCain’s (R-AZ) campaign spokesman Tucker Bounds appeared on CNN for an interview with Campbell Brown. Brown was tough on Bounds, refusing to let him spout typical campaign talking points. She repeatedly pressed him on Palin’s foreign policy experience and qualifications, asking him to name one decision that she made as commander-in-chief of the Alaskan National Guard. Bounds was unable to do so.

Today, CNN’s Wolf Blitzer revealed that because of that tough interview, the McCain campaign has canceled the senator’s appearance on Larry King Live tonight:

The McCain campaign said it believed that exchange was over the line and as a result the interview scheduled for Larry King Live with Sen. McCain was pulled. CNN does not believe that Campbell’s interview was over the line. We are committed to fair coverage of both sides of this historic election.

You go Campbell!