Senator Max Baucus not drunk on Senate Floor

There's a video going around that claims Montana Senator Max Baucus is drunk on the floor of The Senate as he spiritedly takes on Mississippi Senator Roger Wicker in a talk about Health Care Reform.

Senator Max Baucus (D-Montana)

In fact, the video that started the Conservative's nasty attack on Baucus is from Think Progress, which pointed to Baucus' articulate claims of Republican partisanship"

I want to tell the Senator that that is not what happened. I was in the room constantly, constantly. I talked to those Senators many many times. That is not what happened. I”ll tell you what did happen. Your leadership pressured them, pressured them, pressured them not to work together. There is no European style effort in that room, that is a totally untruthful statement. Totally untruthful statement. None whatsoever….That assertion of working towards a European solution is entirely untrue. It’s entirely false.

Now, if you can read that, and you can, then you have to agree Baucus was not "slurring" or "drunk" , or "slobbering" when he was speaking. Otherwise he could not have got off such a great blast against Wicker.

And Conservatives know it.

Rather, Baucus was just plain tired and really angry. The product of long hours of debate against Republicans who just don't play fair at all.

Baucus made a great point. People like Maine's Republican Senator Olympia Snowe were really interested in passing health care reform, but were relentlessly pressured into not doing so. Personally, I think they're on the wrong side of history.

Stay tuned.

Does Janet Napolitano own the Oakland Raiders?

Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano was on CNN this morning and said that "The traveling public - and this is my message for you, Candy - The traveling public is very, very safe in this air environment. And while we continue to investigate the source of this incident, I think the traveling public should be confident in what we're doing now."

That was a mistake. Does Janet Napolitano own the Oakland Raiders? Is she invisible to what happened or is she talking about "The Greatness of The Raiders" in the wake of six straight losing seasons? (And the Oakland Raiders lost to the Cleveland Browns today, 23 to 9.)

My issue with what Secretary Napolitano said is that she didn't use words that acknowledge what happened. What she should have said is "There has been a security breach that we will close. We will work to make you safer." Or words like that.



The reality is the people on Northwest Flight 253 were safe in this case because of other passengers, not primarily due to the Federal Government.

Just something that continues the Obama Administration's objective of open, honest, no-spin communication where issues of national security are not being shared.

Now, President Obama must take time to make a public statement if only to set the Nation at ease about what's happened: two problems with "disruptive passengers" in three days, one labeled a terrorist.

Stay tuned.

Rachael Ray racy sexy photos? Sex symbol? What?

This is crazy! Rachael Ray has racy sexy photos? She's a sex Symbol? What? When I think of Rachael Ray, I think of food, not sex. But apparently, Rachael did a photo shoot for FHM Magazine in 2003 in next to nothing, and her racy images have resurfaced in FHM's 100 Sexiest Women 2009 Edition. Unfortunately, she's not in the Top 10, but given the buzz created by her publicist, she should be. She's ranked 100.

The Top 100 ranked list features in no particular order Hilary Duff, Megan Fox (number one), Kate Hudson, Evangeline Lilly, Elisha Cuthbert, Adriana Lima, Vanessa Hudgens, Diora Baird, Lindsay Lohan, Madeline Zima, Ashley Tisdale, Iron Man 2's Scarlett Johansson, Heidi Montag, Frieda Pinto, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Anne Hathaway, Liv Tyler, and Anna Faris.

In March 2009, Rachael Ray said she'd do the whole thing again, even with the controversy it sparked for her at the time. Even her mother took issue with her decision.

But once again, the photos and the buzz they create show that for women in fashion and media, sex sells. It's an important aspect in the development of a "Q-Rating". Some take extreme measures of expression, using sex tapes, others racy photos, but the formula of getting one noticed works. What separates the success of one actress or model from the other is what the person does with that platform.

For example, even with all of her fame, Former Miss California Carrie Prejean is not on the list.

Politics?  I think so. It's obvious Carrie's being punished for her recent behavior.   I still think had she carried herself with a quiet dignity on CNN's Larry King Live, she would have gotten a second wind in pop-culture.

Stay tuned.

Charlie Sheen update - Charlie and Brooke Mueller Sheen get counseling

This Charlie Sheen update. According to People Magazine, Charlie and Brooke Mueller Sheen are to get marriage counseling.

Wow.

A quick recap if you don't know the story. Charlie Sheen was arrested and placed in the Pitkin, County Jail in Aspen, Colorado on Christmas morning after having been charged with, according to the Aspen Times, a class-four felony charge of second-degree assault and a class-five felony charge of menacing. He was also charged with a misdemeanor count of what is called "criminal mischief."

District Judge James Boyd presided over a hearing called Friday, Christmas night. The Judge issued a mandatory protection order against Sheen; he can't have contact with Brooke Mueller Sheen. He posted bond, set at $8,500 and was released.

Charlie Sheen and Brooke Mueller Sheen

According to TMZ.com, Brooke Mueller Sheen was legally drunk at the time she called 911 to report that Charlie allegedly attacked her. Then Brooke Mueller Sheen recanted the story of her 911 call. On Saturday, she rejected the re-interview request of the Aspen, Colorado Police Department.

Now they're talking marriage counseling. But the other problem is if Brooke Mueller Sheen filed a false report, it's likely Aspen, Colorado law enforcement would file charges against her.

Stay tuned.

Ann Marie Cox is top blogger on Bing - but no blog!

You know what gets me? How some people in media new and old really play fast-and-loose with the truth. Take Bing x-Rank. In fact, you should.

Bing x-Rank has a listing for "top bloggers", which caught my attention for obvious reasons. TBing x-Rank lists the following bloggers in the order presented (as of this writing):

Gizmodo
Michelle Malkin
Perez Hilton
Aaron Gleeman
Alex Ross
Ally Carter
Ana Marie Cox
Andrew Keen
Andy Stern
Arianna…

Huffington.

Ok. Now, one would expect some kind of ranking system, right? One would also think each blogger had a blog they were editing or at least writing on, right?

So it was interesting to me that Ana Marie Cox, who's certainly a legendary blogger in history, was listed as a "top blogger" without any numerical data to defend the choice for a person who's not with the blog she's listed as writing for!

Wonkette.

Yes, she's the founder, but I mean everyone knows it's not her blog anymore and she's not writing on it. Ana Marie will tell you herself she's a "Wonkette emerita". She's tops on Twitter - in part because someone at Twitter put her on their "Suggested Users" list, which caused her follower count to just zoom.

For that reason, in part, Twitter's "Suggested Users List" is no more.

Now I'm not picking on Ana Marie Cox - this could have been true for any blogger who did not have an active blog.  (In fact, note that I'm not picking on Michelle Malkin, ok?)  When I see "top bloggers" I don't expect a list just made up from the whim of the web master, even if it's Bill Gates.  

Especially if it's Bill Gates.

I expect to see a numbers graph.  I expect to see displayed traffic measures.

Think about this. Some of the people responsible for this arbitrary selection would be the first to say they're not biased at all. Yes, I'm going there. I'm pretty hot about this. In New Media the idea is for the best or top of whatever to get their because they have measurable traffic and readership. When the numbers change, the blogger's ranking changes. Right?

Keep prejudices out of it.

This display of arbitrary selection of "top bloggers" on the part of Bing is no better than it was over at Twitter.

It's really got to stop.

Emerald Bowl - USC tops Boston College with officials help

Yes, USC beat Boston Collage 24-13 in the Emerald Bowl in San Francisco, but I've got to believe something really awful in media's going on when the mainstream press doesn't point out the obviously really questionable calls in this game, and it takes a blog like The Bleacher Report to tell it like it is:

It was almost like watching professional wrestling in that the fix seemed so clearly to be on.

Why is Google allowing a really imaginary hierarchy between "news" and "blogs" when all news articles do is express someone's opinion without using the term "I"? But I digress.  If TMZ's the only blog considered reliable, they need to hurry-up with TMZSports.com.

The NCAA  and Congress should conduct an investigation for having a bowl game that had two calls that looked like - to me - the officials were in on some kind of fix. How else can one explain a long pass in the second quarter that was obviously caught out of bounds as a catch?

How can anyone say that a video which showed a ball bouncing into the foot of a USC player on a punt turn, as that player was pushing the Boston College punt defender, was USC's ball because the USC person was blocked into the ball?

It's right there on the video - unless the video was destroyed.  Did anyone make a video of the game?

Wow.

Sorry. For the media not to question what's in their face and with outrage is outrageous. I'm happy the Pac-10 won a 2009 bowl game, but come on! Not this way.

Anytime one can go to a Cal Football forum and see that fans know the officials were making "pro-USC" calls, you know there's a problem. Say, even though Cal fans are USC rivals, we're supposed to root for the Pac-10 in bowl games. I expect to see the complaint at a Boston College forum, and I did, but Cal too?

This is a matter of right versus wrong. It really hurt to watch that game.

USC was not playing much better than Boston College until after that punt return call, which could have and would have changed the momentum of the game and given Boston College the ball at the USC 30.

Didn't happen.

The refs spent a good five minutes "coming up with the wording" as one ESPN annoucer put it, to explain the call they were about to make. Even ESPN's Rod Gillmore was aghast, asking anyone why they were taking so much time.

The 2009 Emerald Bowl will go down as a game that did not show NCAA College Football at its officiating best.