Pop Culture Cuisinart

After the fun and excitement of the casual drug use of Miss USA, and the breast licking exhibitionism of Miss Nevada, the pregnancy of Miss New Jersey is somewhat less exciting. Ashley Harder has announced she will resign her crown because she is great with child, which is against pageant rules(though with a name like Harder I suppose it's no surprise she finds herself in this predicament). Pageant owner Donald Trump's response was a "terse" "I wish her well," delivered via a spokeswoman, for which the subtext is "How many times am I going to have to answer questions about this F-ing contest?" Even though she is quitting, Harder insisted she didn't do anything wrong and plans to give birth in August. "This isn't another scandal," Harder told the Philadelphia Daily News. "This is a baby. This is a life." Yeah, at least she didn't get naked in public, gotta uphold that Miss USA standard.

The judge and lawyers trying the Scooter Libby case, are having trouble finding jurors to deliberate the case. Quite a few jurors have had to be rejected for not being able to put aside their dislike of the Bush Administration. I hate to break it to the fine officers of the court, but with Bush's approval rating looking like a inverse graph of the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere; it may be difficult to locate a group of citizens willing to ignore the failings of the empty flightsuit in chief. I almost feel sorry for Scooter, taking the fall for Rove and the caged quail hunter. Of course he probably should have thought of that before he leaked Valerie Plame's name to Darth Novak.

Trial? I thought leaking a name would get me a medal.

Given our military's increasing dependence on satellite technology for everything from precision guided missiles to locating targets to aiding flight control; it couldn't have come as good news that the Chinese successfully shot down a low earth satellite with a ballistic missile. Personally I'd recommend a strong reprimand of the Chinese involving economic sanctions...oops I forgot the Chinese own 346 billion in US debt. Which if they decided to ask us to pay up, would make for a very unpleasent tax season for all. Isn't that a stinky floater in the public toilet of circumstance?

Michael Vick, displaying the kind of sound decision making that has led the Falcons to a collective 15-17 record over the last 2 years; tried to smuggle a water bottle with a hidden compartment through airport security that apparently contained traces of marijuana. An example of the bottle can be seen here. Now given the TSA's recent crackdown on all things liquid, it seems unwise to try to cart illegal substances around in something mimicing liquid. To add to his infinite wisdom, he then refused to give up the bottle thus arousing suspicions more. Perhaps next time he should just avoid the histrionics and just wear a shirt that says- I'm carrying something illegal, please search my luggage.

And why is he flying Airtran? You have like $200 million in the bank and you're taking a discount airline? You could probably smoke a bong on a private jet dude. Stay tuned for more updates on the brewing Weedwater scandal.

Go, there's nothing stopping you...except airport security.

With the 2008 election only 656 days away(ok, its not that close), it's never too early to start thinking about who has the best chance to be the next leader of the free world. As of right now these would be my picks, though obviously much can change with this much time left.

1. Barack Obama- He is the political equivalent of a rock star. Intelligent, handsome, sound on policy, and currently hitting all the right notes on Iraq. His negatives are minimal, and the only thing that really could derail him is another batch of "mislabled" press photos describing him as Osama.

2. John Edwards- Many felt his candidacy announcement in New Orleans over the holidays was a bad move, but it appears to have worked for him. The publicity of the announcement and subsequent talk show visits have put him back in the public eye, and making many take a second look at the man who probably should have been the nominee in '04.
If looking Presidential counts for anything, Edwards is in good shape.

3. Hillary Clinton- While the latest Rasmussen poll still has Hillary with a narrow edge among likely Dem. voters, her lead has been steadily evaporating as new candidates have emerged and as some of her negatives become a little clearer. Name recognition is both her blessing and her curse. She had ridden it to a substantial lead in early polling because she was the only candidate anyone had ever heard of. The problem is that EVERYONE has heard of her and have already made up their minds about her. She's as popular as she's ever going to get and no amount of campaign coin will change that. In addition since she brings out strong feelings on both sides of the fence she's also the candidate most likely to draw the strongest wingnut response in a general election and drive conservative turnout.

4. Al Gore- He's gone from insider politician, to Hollywood activist. And he's also happened to be ahead of the curve on the largest sleeper issue of the '08 campaign, global warming. He keeps insisting he won't run, but there are many who'd like him to. He's still eminently qualified, and there's no question the planet would have been very grateful if some geezers in Broward hadn't accidently voted for Pat Buchanan in 2000.
The most inconvenient truth is Al Gore should have won in 2000.

5. Bill Richardson- For brokering the Darfur treaty alone, he should get far more respect than he does. Add in the fact that he's a member of the fastest growing minority group in the US and the governor of a swing state, and he seems like electoral gold. Name recognition is an issue, and thus he probably tops out as the best Dem. VICE presidential candidate.

6. Wes Clark- I like him, but he still hasn't announced. And the longer he waits the more his base of support seems to be heading to Edwards. Like Richardson brings a fantastic resume to the table, and also would be a terrific vice presidential candidate.

7. John Kerry- He has lots of campaign cash. That's about the biggest positive I can come up with.
The only thing we have to fear is...another run by Kerry.

8. Tom Vilsack- As former Governor of Iowa, he'll have a crucial edge in the vital Iowa Caucuses. Unfortunately, he's also rendered them meaningless because all the pundits will affix any winning performance there with a big astrix.

9. Chris Dodd- He's building a strong netroots operation and obviously hoping to be this cycle's Dr. Dean. Unfortunately for him, there are already better candidates to be this year's Dean.

10. Joe Biden- I'm still trying to figure out why he's running. Stick to the Senate, Joe. You can't hang with this group.

11. Dennis Kucinich- Wait, he's actually running again. His politics are genuine, but his resemblance to Gollum is a minus.
Civil liberties are his precious.

won a huge SEC road game against the Arkansas Razorbacks in bball last night. They won it on senior forward Steve Newman's 27 foot 3 point shot with less than two seconds left in the game. It was such a dramatic finish it was named the number 1 top play on Sportscenter this morning, marking the first and probably only time that Steve Newman is a headline story on ESPN. For those who didn't see it, which is just about everyone since it was on ESPNU a channel that apparently has fewer subscribers than the Family Handyman; here is the highlight synced with UGA play by play man Scott Howard's terrific call.