Angie Harmon

She's a whole lot younger and prettier than I, but we do rather agree here.

Angie Harmon is not afraid to come out and say she doesn’t like how President Obama is handling the job — but she’s sick of having to defend herself from being deemed a racist.

"Here's my problem with this, I'm just going to come out and say it. If I have anything to say against Obama it's not because I'm a racist, it's because I don't like what he's doing as President and anybody should be able to feel that way, but what I find now is that if you say anything against him you're called a racist," Harmon told Tarts at Thursday’s Los Angeles launch of the new eyelash-growing formula, Latisse. "But it has nothing to do with it, I don’t care what color he is. I’m just not crazy about what he's doing and I heard all about this, and he’s gonna do that and change and change, so okay … I'm still dressing for a recession over here buddy and we've got unemployment at an all-time high and that was his number one thing and that's the thing I really don't appreciate. If I'm going to disagree with my President, that doesn't make me a racist. If I was to disagree with W, that doesn't make me racist. It has nothing to do with it, it is ridiculous."

Speaking of dislikes, the starlet has also had enough of the double-standards in the media.

"I do think McCain would have done a better job, only because I think he has more experience. I also think if W or John McCain or Reagan would have gone and done a talk show, the backlash would have been so huge and in his face, and ‘What is our president doing? How unclassy!’ But Obama does it and no one says anything," Harmon said.

And in spite of the scornful opinions most of her Tinseltown counterparts have shared on Gov. Sarah Palin, Harmon remains a true fan.

"I admire any kind of woman like her. My whole motto is to know what I stand for and know what I don't stand for and have the courage to live my life accordingly and she does exactly that. The fact that this woman has made the decisions she's made and literally lived her life according to that and takes heat for it is absolutely disgusting to me," she added. "People cannot look at this woman. I really think they're afraid of her and her morals, ethics and values and the fact that she hangs on them. Is she the most experienced person in the world? But she was running to be the Vice President, so we then put the most inexperienced person as the President. That didn't make any sense to me."

However Harmon is definitely in the Hollywood minority when it comes to her criticism of Obama as other lasses at the Latisse party were quick to advocate their unequivocal support.

That's not funny, that's sick....

Idiot.

DETROIT, March 28 (UPI) -- A lawyer notified a Michigan judge this week that former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick can pay only $6 monthly restitution, not $6,000.

The lawyer, Michael Alan Schwartz, who just joined the ex-mayor's legal team, told the Detroit Free Press he may also try to have Judge David Groner taken off the case. He said Groner has a conflict because his brother-in-law is chief assistant to Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy.

Kilpatrick was allowed to move to Texas after his release from jail and is working there as a salesman for a subsidiary of a Michigan company, Compuware.

In his court filing, Schwartz said Compuware pays Kilpatrick $10,000 a month. He detailed monthly expenses of $9,994, including $2,700 in rent and $900 for lease of a Cadillac Escalade.

"I don't think he was ordered to live a more modest lifestyle," Schwartz said. "Is it better Mr. Kilpatrick drives a beat-up Yugo?"

When he pleaded guilty to perjury, Kilpatrick agreed to pay the city $1 million in restitution. He admitted lying in a deposition about his romantic relationship with his chief of staff and their role in the firing of top police officers.

Sixth Sense

Watch this.

Sixth Sense Technology

I mean it. Watch it right now.

Asshattery

Barney Frank has gotten very full of himself. So full, in fact, that his memory isn’t working as well as it probably should. From the WSJ today (with some paraphrasing):

House Financial Services Chairman Barney Frank (D-Mass.) is pressing state and federal authorities to seek criminal and civil penalties on financial actors that helped cause the current crisis.

”Rules don’t work if people have no fear of them,” Frank said at a press conference Thursday.

He announced a hearing March 20 with Attorney General Eric Holder, bank regulators and the Securities and Exchange Commission as witnesses to discover what their plans are to prosecute irresponsible and in some cases criminal behaviors.

How about we start with this jackass:

A September report from the Business & Media Institute suggests one possible target for investigation: a senior member of the House Banking Committee. This congressman is a recipient of more than $40,000 in campaign donations from Fannie since 1989” and “was once romantically involved with a Fannie Mae executive.” The same congressman “was and remains a stalwart defender of Fannie Mae.”

In case you’ve missed it, that "senior member"; mentioned is House Financial Services Chairman Barney Frank (D-Mass.).

Asshat.

I'm passing it along...

Via Neal Boortz:

LETTER FROM A LAW STUDENT

Dear American liberals, leftists, social progressives, socialists, Marxists and Obama supporters,

We've stuck together since the late 1950s, but the whole of this latest election process has made me realize that I want a divorce. I know that we tolerated each other for many years for the sake of future generations, but sadly this relationship has run its course. Our two ideological sides of America cannot and just will not ever agree on what's right. So let's just end it right now while we can do it on friendly terms. We can smile, shake hands, chalk it up to irreconcilable differences and each go our own way.

So here's a model separation agreement.

Our two groups can equitably divide up the country by land mass, each taking a portion. That's going to be the difficult part, but I'm sure our two sides can come to a friendly agreement. After that, it should be relatively easy. Our respective representatives can effortlessly divide other assets since both sides have such distinct and disparate taste. We don't like redistributive taxes so you can have those. You are welcome to the liberal judges and the ACLU. And since you hate guns and you hate war, we'll take the firearms, the cops, the NRA and the military. You can keep Oprah, Michael Moore and Rosie O'Donnell. But you are going to be responsible for finding a biodiesel vehicle big enough to haul them around.

We'll keep the capitalism, the greedy corporations, the pharmaceutical companies; we will keep Wal-Mart and Wall Street. You can have the homeless, the homeboys, the hippies and illegal aliens. We will keep the hot Alaskan hockey moms, the greedy CEOS and all of the rednecks. We'll keep the Bibles and we'll let you have NBC and Hollywood.

You can be nice to Iran and Palestine and we'll retain the right to invade and hammer anybody that threatens us. You can have the peaceniks and the war protesters. When our allies or our way of life are under assault, we will provide them with security. You won't have to worry about it. We will keep our Judeo-Christian values. You are welcome to Islam, Scientology, Humanism and Shirley Maclaine. You can also have the UN, but we will no longer pay the bill.

We will keep the SUVs, the pickup trucks and the oversize luxury cars. You can have the compacts, the subcompacts and every Subaru station wagon you can find. You can give everybody healthcare, if you can find any practicing doctors. We will continue to believe that healthcare is a privilege and not a right. We will keep "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" and the national anthem, and I am sure you will be happy to substitute in their place "Imagine." I'd like to teach the world to sing "Kumbaya" or "We are the world." We will practice trickle-down economics and you can give trickle-up poverty your best shot. And since it so offends you, we will keep our history, our name and our flag.

Would you agree to this? If so, please pass it along other like-minded liberal and conservative patriots. And if you do not agree, just hit delete. In the friendly spirit of parting, I'll bet you ANWAR which one of us will need whose help in about 15 years.

Sincerely,

John J Wall

Law student and an American

P.S. You can also have Barbara Streisand and Jane Fonda

Norman Mattoon Thomas

Norman Mattoon Thomas (1884-1968), leader of the Socialist movement in the United States for more than 4 decades, was six times the Socialist candidate for president, as well as an author and lecturer. He was one of the most respected critics of American capitalist society.

Needless to say, I am not his supporter. However, he said a very true thing.

And it was:

The American people will never knowingly adopt socialism. But, under the name of "liberalism," they will adopt every fragment of the socialist program, until one day America will be a socialist nation, without knowing how it happened." He went on to say: "I no longer need to run as a Presidential Candidate for the Socialist Party. The Democratic Party has adopted our platform."

Val Kilmer - Boring and ignorant.

I just read an old article that fully explains to me why Val Kilmer is a non-entity in the real world.

Interviewer: You mean you think you literally had the same experience as Doc Holliday?

Kilmer: Oh, sure. It's not like I believed that I shot somebody, but I absolutely know what it feels like to pull the trigger and take someone's life.

Interviewer: You understand how it feels to shoot someone as much as a person who has actually committed a murder?

Kilmer: I understand it more. It's an actor's job. A guy who's lived through the horror of Vietnam has not spent his life preparing his mind for it. He's some punk. Most guys were borderline criminal or poor, and that's why they got sent to Vietnam. It was all the poor, wretched kids who got beat up by their dads, guys who didn't get on the football team, couldn't finagle a scholarship. They didn't have the emotional equipment to handle that experience. But this is what an actor trains to do. I can more effectively represent that kid in Vietnam than a guy who was there.

Anyone who still believes the old canard that the only men who served in Vietnam were poor, disadvantaged, and stupid should read Stolen Valor by B.G. Burkett and Glenna Whitley.

Kilmer, and those who think like him - pfffft.

What Rush Limbaugh Really Said....

Here’s what Limbaugh actually said on his Jan. 16 radio program:

If I wanted Obama to succeed, I'd be happy the Republicans have laid down. And I would be encouraging Republicans to lay down and support him. Look, what he's talking about is the absorption of as much of the private sector by the U.S. government as possible, from the banking business, to the mortgage industry, the automobile business, to health care. I do not want the government in charge of all of these things. I don't want this to work. So I'm thinking of replying to the guy, "Okay, I'll send you a response, but I don't need 400 words, I need four: I hope he fails.

Moment later, Limbaugh on that same Jan. 16 radio program, Limbaugh told his listeners that Obama’s “ideas and policies are what count for me, not his skin color, not his past, not whatever ties he doesn't have to being down with the struggle, all of that's irrelevant to me.”

The Main Stream Media is, collectively and singularly, idiotic.

Buca diBeppo's gets Bought Out and Sells Out.

My husband and I went to Buca's in Birmingham, MI tonight for my birthday and I have never been so disappointed in my life.

My husband and I have been going to this same Buca's for nearly a decade - through a beginning friendship, then courtship, to every birthday, anniversary, any celebration including our wedding reception where we hosted 25 people to share in our joy six years ago. We've gone there for every Valentine's Day, many of my children's and grandchildren's birthdays. I was never disappointed in the food or the service.

Tonight, all of that changed.

First, we were seated in the bar, which I did not ask for and really would not have preferred, but apparently our waiter didn't want to miss the Super Bowl.

Next, in the midst of eating our apple gorgonzola salad, I found a nice curly, black hair in my plate. The waiter, when I could get his attention, came and took the salad away. Yes, he took it off our bill, but amazingly enough, he didn't offer replacement appetizer of any kind or clean silver. I had to go, myself, to another table to get fresh utensils.

Next, I ran out of diet Pepsi - and when I tried to get the waiter's attention, it was virtually impossible because he was so entranced in watching the Super Bowl on the bar's tv. I finally just hollered across the room. Nice. Classy.

We tried to order, but as we went through the dishes we would have liked to have, our waiter told us, for instance, that the brushcetta sauce wasn't really any good any more. It used to be nice and thick, he told us, but now it's just like some chopped up tomatoes. Then we asked about various other dishes and were told that Buca's no longer used much garlic in anything, that fresh garlic was no longer used, that the sauces were all different than we were used to, but that, thank heaven, the chicken Marsala had the same sauce. He informed us that everything had changed since Buca's has been bought out by Planet Hollywood and I can see that this is true.

So we did intend to order a variety appetizer, but we settled for a small garlic bread, and we also intended to have frutti di mare (we usually get the large and take some home) but we settled for a side of fettucini alfredo and spaghetti with marinara sauce (which was downright mushy) and then ordered a large dish of chicken Marsala. We got the sides but we ended up receiving a small order of the chicken and when we asked him to correct that, he seemed quite confused.

At no time did he come and refresh our drinks without being asked or offer dessert. I had to flat out ask for it to be brought to us.

When I asked for the manager part-way through our meal, I had to go explain myself and still, he never sent the manager to our table! The manager did happen to come by - he was visiting all of the tables - but I truly do not think I need to explain myself to a waiter before I can speak to a manager.

In any case, the manager basically listened to me as I explained the various problems, but still never spoke to the waiter so we could get service instead of watching him watch the Super Bowl as he leaned on the bar. He did take my garlic bread off the bill, but as I explained, I didn't want money off, we wanted decent food and decent service, neither of which we got.

As we left our table and walked to the elevator, someone started screaming, literally screaming, "Hey!, Hey!" We tried to get on the elevator and go upstairs to leave, but the screams continued and finally, despite being in the elevator, I stopped it and hit the open door button. The waitress came running up to our door, still screaming, and then stopped as she saw that we were apparently not the person she was looking for. She told me that she thought we were her manager, a tallish black man. I am short, chubby white woman and my husband is an equally short Chinese man. Hard to mistake. What on earth she thought she was doing screaming like some kind of lunatic as she ran down this hallway behind us, I will never know.

The waiter's explanation of Buca's being bought out, of course, appears to explain everything and is the reason why I know we will, sadly enough, not be going back. We were used to excellent service, exemplary food, and good surroundings.

Instead, with the new owners, we got plunked down in the bar, got service I wouldn't accept at the local bar and grill, and food that was totally unsatisfactory and in fact, unsanitary.

We had intended to take my two lovely granddaughters with us, but they had a bit of car trouble and didn't end up joining us. I'm not thankful for the car trouble, but I am certainly glad they didn't have to sit through that mess.

I'll miss Buca's - as I said, we courted there, had our wedding reception there, have celebrated many good times there over the last decade, but I'm not interested in paying close to $100.00 for dinner for two and be as disappointed as we were this evening.

Well, that was quick - thankfully.

Blagojevich is out.

Blagojevich kicked out as governor, banned from holding any public Illinois office

By CHRISTOPHER WILLS
Associated Press

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — Gov. Rod Blagojevich was unanimously convicted at his impeachment trial and thrown out of office today, ending a nearly two-month crisis that erupted with his arrest on charges he tried to sell Barack Obama’s vacant Senate seat.

Blagojevich becomes the first U.S. governor in more than 20 years to be removed by impeachment.

After a four-day trial, the Illinois Senate voted 59-0 to convict him of abuse of power, automatically removing the second-term Democrat. Democratic Lt. Gov. Patrick Quinn, one of his critics, immediately became governor.

In a second 59-0 vote, the Senate further barred Blagojevich from ever holding public office in Illinois again.

“We have this thing called impeachment and it’s bleeping golden and we’ve used it the right way,” Democratic state Sen. James Meeks of Chicago said during the debate, mocking Blagojevich’s expletive-laden words as captured by the FBI on a wiretap.

Blagojevich’s ordeal is far from over. Federal prosecutors are expected to bring a corruption indictment against him by April, after which a trial date will be set.

Blagojevich, 52, had boycotted the first three days of the impeachment trial, calling the proceedings a kangaroo court. But today, he went before the Senate to beg for his job, delivering a 47-minute plea that was, by turns, defiant, humble and sentimental.

He argued, again, that he did nothing wrong, and warned that his impeachment would set a “dangerous and chilling precedent.”

“You haven’t proved a crime, and you can’t because it didn’t happen,” Blagojevich (pronounced blah-GOY-uh-vich) told the lawmakers. “How can you throw a governor out of office with insufficient and incomplete evidence?”

The verdict brought to an end what one lawmaker branded “the freak show” in Illinois. Over the past few weeks, Blagojevich found himself isolated, with almost the entire political establishment lined up against him. The furor paralyzed state government and made Blagojevich and his helmet of lush, dark hair a punchline from coast to coast.

One lawmaker after another rose somberly on the Senate floor to accuse Blagojevich of abusing his office and embarrassing the state. They denounced him as a hypocrite, saying he cynically tried to enrich himself and then posed as the brave protector of the poor and “wrapped himself in the constitution” by decrying the impeachment process as unfair.

They sprinkled in historical references, from Pearl Harbor’s “day of infamy” to “the whole world is watching” chant from the riots that broke out during the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago. They cited Abraham Lincoln, the Martin Luther King Jr. and Jesus as they called for the governor’s removal.

Not a single legislator rose in Blagojevich’s defense.

Blagojevich did not stick around to hear the vote. He took a state plane back to Chicago. Returning to his North Side home, he told reporters he planned to go jogging. But he had not left the house when the vote came down.

The verdict capped a head-spinning string of developments that began less than two months ago. It was widely known that federal prosecutors had been investigating Blagojevich’s administration for years — some of his closest cronies have already been convicted — but his Dec. 9 arrest by the FBI caught nearly everyone off guard.

U.S. Attorney Patrict Fitzgerald said prosecutors had no choice but to step in and stop a political corruption “crime spree” — one that was gaining speed before a tough new campaign finance law took effect Jan. 1.

The most spectacular allegation was that Blagojevich had been caught on wiretaps scheming to sell an appointment to Obama’s Senate seat for campaign cash or a plum job for himself or his wife.

“I’ve got this thing and it’s (expletive) golden, and I’m just not giving it up for (expletive) nothing. I’m not gonna do it,” he was quoted as saying on a government wiretap.

Prosecutors also said he illegally pressured people to make campaign contributions and tried to get editorial writers fired from the Chicago Tribune for badmouthing him in print.

Obama himself, fresh from his historic election victory, was forced to look into the matter and issued a report concluding that no one in his inner circle had done anything wrong.

In the brash and often theatrical style that has infuriated fellow politicians for years, Blagojevich repeatedly refused to resign, reciting the poetry of Kipling and Tennyson and declaring at one point last month: “I will fight. I will fight. I will fight until I take my last breath. I have done nothing wrong.”

Even as lawmakers were deciding whether to launch an impeachment, Blagojevich defied the political establishment and stunned everyone by appointing a former Illinois attorney general, Roland Burris, to the very Senate seat he had been accused of trying to sell. Top Democrats on Capitol Hill eventually backed down and seated Burris.

As his trial got under way, Blagojevich launched a media blitz, rushing from one TV studio to another in New York to proclaim his innocence. He likened himself to the hero of a Frank Capra movie and to a cowboy in the hands of a Wild West lynch mob.

The impeachment case included not only the criminal charges against Blagojevich, but allegations he broke the law when it came to hiring state workers, expanded a health care program without legislative approval and spent $2.6 million on flu vaccine that went to waste. The 118-member House twice voted to impeach him, both times with only one “no” vote.

By making a speech in the Senate chamber instead of testifying, Blagojevich did not have to take an oath or answer any questions.

In his plea, Blagojevich portrayed himself as a victim of retaliation from the Legislature for his efforts to help the poor.

He acknowledged the truth about his conduct is “maybe not flattering in some cases,” referring to the secretly recorded conversations. But he said the tapes captured something that “all of us in politics do in order to run campaigns and win elections.”

Seven other U.S. governors have been removed by impeachment, the most recent being Arizona’s Evan Mecham, who was driven from office in 1988 for trying to thwart an investigation into a death threat allegedly made by an aide. Illinois never before impeached a governor, despite its long and rich history of graft.

Blagojevich grew up in a working-class Chicago neighborhood, the son of a Serbian immigrant steelworker. He graduated from Northwestern University and earned a law degree from Pepperdine University in California.

Schooled in the bare-knuckle, backroom politics of the infamous Chicago Machine, he got elected to the Illinois House in 1992 and Congress in 1996.

In 2002, he was elected governor on a promise to clean up state government after former GOP Gov. George Ryan, who is serving six years in prison for graft. But he soon wound up in open battles with lawmakers from his own party, leading to gridlock. And scandal followed as well.

Antoin “Tony” Rezko, a former top fundraiser for Blagojevich, was convicted of shaking down businesses seeking state contracts for campaign contributions. Witnesses testified that Blagojevich was aware of some of the strong-arm tactics. Rezko is said to be cooperating with prosecutors.

Quinn, the new governor, is a 60-year-old former state treasurer who has a reputation as a political gadfly and once led a successful effort to cut the size of the Illinois House.

•Dec. 9, 2008: Federal agents arrest Blagojevich on corruption charges that include an alleged effort to sell or trade President Barack Obama’s vacant Senate seat to the highest bidder.

•Dec. 17, 2008: Illinois Supreme Court rejects state attorney general’s effort to remove Blagojevich from office. She had argued the governor’s legal and political troubles amounted to a disability.

•Dec. 19, 2008: Blagojevich proclaims his innocence, says he will not resign.

•Dec. 30, 2008: Blagojevich names former Illinois Attorney General Roland Burris to replace Obama in the Senate. Senators at first suggest they will block him, but he is later sworn in.

•Jan. 9, 2009: Illinois House votes 114-1 to impeach Blagojevich, first Illinois governor in history to be impeached.

•Jan. 26, 2009: Illinois Senate opens impeachment trial. Blagojevich, claiming trial is unfair, goes on media blitz in New York to proclaim his innocence.

•Jan. 29, 2009: Illinois Senate votes unanimously to remove Blagojevich from office and bar him from holding office in the future. Lt. Gov. Patrick Quinn sworn in as governor.