The Bettys of the World and Other Thoughts

Is it possible for Bettys to Win?
After watching 'Clueless', I though a Betty was supposed to be a babe who got everything she wanted. Cher does point to her mother and call her a "total Betty". So you would think it is a good thing, but...

• Remember Betty? Cheerleader, honor student, blonde hair, great body (well for a cartoon character)? She was the All-American girl. Too bad she was always second best in Archie's eyes. Always second best to rich, snobby, pert-nosed Veronica. Instead of being the girlfriend, she was the girl friend. Archie's best friend, emotional crutch, and substitute date... and quite frankly she was second best in my mind. I always wanted to be Veronica. Betty while pretty and smart was boring, and she didn't get the boy.


• Apparently, things haven't changed that much because America's new, everywoman, (Ugly) Betty, can't seem to catch a break either. Her sister mocks her. Her crush has a girlfriend he won't dump. Her boss expects her to clean up all his messes. Her co-workers have a seemingly endless set of insulting nicknames they throw at her. To top it off, she isn't even as hot as cartoon-Betty. Not to mention Amanda ends up with all the best lines.

Early Onset Alzheimer's?
Alzheimer's is a neurodegenerative disease that's most well known symptom is memory deterioration. It typically occurs in the elderly, you have to be at least 65 or so. Imagine my surprise when Alberto Gonzales, apparently manifested a complete and utter loss of short term memory. So my question is this - if the man cannot remember, recall, or recollect major incidents that occurred over the last six months and is clearly suffering from dementia, should he really be AG? According to Bush - YES! Apparently memory deterioration is something that gives Bush confidence in his appointees... dear Lord! Maybe he should hire the Jokers from Arkham Asylum.

Random Aside
I watched Bill Moyer's "Buying the War" show on-line. It was nothing new, but it did irritate me beyond belief!

• Was no one home at The Times or The Post? Maybe they were just out to lunch? A really long multi-year lunch? Apparently, the only people who really tried to report the news and inconsistencies on the evidence leading up to the Iraq War were the journalists at Knight-Ridder, who didn't even have a fair chance, since their papers don't release do major markets.


• Did Big Media basically black out anti-war journalists? It has been awhile since Hearst used his media empire to foment the Spanish-American War. But since then, American journalists were supposed to be about truth - Watergate (though Woodward turned out to be all sorts of louse recently), Edward R. Murrow. But it seems that things have changed. Looks like MSNBC could not take the heat of old Phil Donahue poking holes in the case of the president and fired him.


• Goddamn Judith Miller. She is everything a journalist should not be. She was Cheney's little lapdog. She makes me want to puke. She makes me want to discontinue my subscription to the New York Times. But then where would I go. Fox News? Hells no.


• Incidentally, the show made me miss Dan Rather. I don't mind Charles Gibson, but I did grow up watching Dan give the news.

Saturday Commentary: football, hypocrisy, and politics

College Football
What weekend is complete without a little football? Well it looks like Ohio St. and UMich will stay on top. In fact, the divide between the best and the rest only seems to be growing. And as much as it pains me to see UMich as one of the best, I am proud of the Big Ten. If the BCS title game is between anyone other than UMich or OSU at this point, it will be an utter travesty!

Other potential contenders for a BCS title just do not stack up... here's why.

• N0. 3 Louisville: If only they hadn't lost to Rutgers. But even then, they did not deserve the chance. With the mess they made at the end of the game, and my generally low opinion of the Big East, Louisville just isn't a National Champion.
• No. 4 Texas: Texas could come back and beat Kansas state, but it'll be tough. And the fact that they are so far down, does not make them look like an attractive National Champion.
• No. 5 Auburn: Another one of those, if only situations, except this time I actually feel rather bad for Auburn. But their loss to Georgia was nowhere near close in my opinion.
• No. 6 Florida: With Auburn and Louisville's losses, Florida is likely to move up to either No. 3 or No. 4. But Florida already has one loss to Auburn, and barely got by South Carolina. If Auburn isn't good enough to play in the big game, why is Florida?
• No. 7 USC: It'll be interesting to watch what happens in their game against Oregon. But as before, I maintain that USC's schedule is far too easy, and they already lost to Arizona St. At least have the decency to lose to a ranked team.
• No. 8 Cal: While I am inclined to think Arizona just got lucky, Cal has had one too many losses. Multiple losses in the PAC-10 are certainly not acceptable.
• No. 9 Notre Dame: The Irish have definitely rebounded since the ass-whooping they got at the hands of UMich. But it's easy to stay unbeaten when you play the cellar-dwellers of all the major conferences. Besides which, I have serious questions about the quality of the ND defense. They beat Air Force, but allowed them to get 400yds of offense. Notre Dame's real test is coming up at USC.

So suppose, Ohio St. and Michigan meet next week and then again in the National Championship game. It is likely that they would split the games... and then who would be the Champ? It's one of those things that makes you go hmmmm...

Fat Suits and Fake Empathy
Tyra Banks tried this awhile back, and it annoyed me then too. (Check it out.) But I randomly had ET on , and they had Vanessa Minello (Nick Lachey's new girl) in a fat suit, dressed ala Ugly Betty. And poor Ugly Vanessa, she was crying and sad because people were not talking to her. The punch line was, "you shouldn't judge a book by it's cover". Are you for real ET? You are in the business of judging people for the way they look. And would Pretty Vanessa even consider dating a guy with questionable fashion sense who was carrying an extra hundred pounds. Talk about hypocritical!

Germany and the Donald
Poor Donald Rumsfeld. First, he is ignominiously fired by Bush, before Virginia is even conceded. Then he is forced to plaster a fake sort of Rumsfeldian smile on his face as Bush announces Gates as the new Secretary of Defense. Now he is facing potential charges in Germany for war crimes associated with torture at Abu Ghraib.

Now I am not a fan of Rumsfeld, but war crimes do seem to be a bit unnecessary, and more than anything a way for some German politicians to gain a couple points in the polls. And although Rumsfeld may have a head of stone, and be prone to idiocies including statements like "it [the war] is complex for people to comprehend" (see my older entry for more Rumsfeldisms), he is not the real problem. The Cheney-Rove duo is the real problem within this administration and this country, and sadly it looks like they are not going anywhere for the next two years.

Things That Make You Go...

Ugh!

• The Tigers for mucking it up yet again to go 1-3 in the World Series. In fact they were so bad that they were accused of playing like the "Michigan State football team". The next game is in Detroit, hopefully they will be able to pull something off.


• Republicans because they exist. In all honesty, it's really hard for me to think of a Republican I actually like amidst all this election year nonsense. Rarely are their ever any positive ads on TV, but I have found a few particularly annoying: Rick Santorum's new ads portraying Bob Casey as an Axis of Evil lover (because clearly all Dems are), Kerry Healey's ad against Devon Patrick is eerily similar to the Willie Horton ad the elder Bush used against Dukakis, the RNC ads against Harold Ford that are clearly in poor taste if not an attempt at race baiting (so much for the Republican outreach, apparently the Southern strategy is alive and well)


• Bill O'Reilly on Oprah! How can the Queen of Talk even consider giving him such a platform. I hope the audience gives it to him good!

Huh?

• Rick Santorum's Lord of the Rings analogy. I am confused. Bush and Cheney are Frodo and Samwise? which is which? Cheney probably bears more of a physical resemblance to Samwise. I wonder if Santorum has heard any of the discussion about Frodo and Sam's "relationship". It could offend his tender sensibilities. Also which character is he? and Ork? Check out Colbert's thoughts on it.

"As the hobbits are going up Mount Doom, the Eye of Mordor is being drawn somewhere else. It's being drawn to Iraq and it's not being drawn to the U.S. You know what? I want to keep it on Iraq. I don't want the Eye to come back here to the United States."

• The NFL in Los Angeles. The NFL wants a team to move to L.A. in order to keep the number of teams even at 24. Here are the critical questions in my opinions. Which team is going to move? What will their name be? What will their colors be? And what's the price tag? cuz I wanna buy. In all seriousness though, L.A. already has two basketball teams, an ice hockey team, and two baseball teams. They don't need anymore!

Yeah!

• Barney Frank for saying that when a party is in power for too long it tends to become corrupt regardless of whether they are Republican or Democrat.


• 'Ugly Betty' for being funny! My new favorite show