Friday, April 06, 2007

American Idol, The Phillies and Pelosi Oh My!

You know, I swore I would never get sucked into American Idol. And for the longest time, I've been successful at watching the early shows, cause it is truly hilarious watching all the dipshits who think they have talent and then tuning out until the either, the next season, or at most the finale. But this year is different. I'm actually tracking the show (thanks to TiVo) and paying a modicum of attention. For instance, this week, I listened to the show from my home office while it played on the TV in the living room. I cannot say why. Honestly, maybe it just that I've been able to watch many of the shows with my wife, and that we'll argue/critique the performances.

I did stumble across this great article about American Idol from this week's TIME.
Its actually one of the best articles about Idol I've read.
And I can't believe Sanjaya is still on the show. Heck he wasn't even in the bottom 3 the past two weeks!

Next up: What the hell is up with the Phillies? I thought they were supposed to be good this year. I heard all this talk about them (not that I pay much attention to baseball chatter), and read Jimmy Rollins little "we're the team to beat" spiel. So what happens...the bullpen falls apart two nights in a row, the hitters start cold, and all the talk about the team understanding the necessity of rolling - if not hot - start goes down the friggin' drain with a season opening sweep at the hands of the Braves....way to go fellas.....and don't plead with the fans to "stay with us" as described by Sam Donnellon - just friggin' win and you don't need to worry about hearing E-A-G-L-E-S chants at the ballpark.

Finally, I'm not sure what the hub-bub about Nancy Pelosi's Middle East trip is all about...IHT (the international arm of the NYT) talks about the President criticizing the trip, and I've seen a lot of comments about it, pro and con. But while a lot of the media concentrates on the brouhaha, they don't talk about the other delegations that have talked with Syria the past, or heck even the present. Yes, Pelosi outranks them all. But I don't see that as particularly damaging to our cause. I think the Republicans just don't want to see the nation highest-ranking Democrat going out and possibly not following the administration's lead. In that sense, I can see how a reasonable argument could be made, IF, afterwards, her actions demonstrably undermined the U.S. - AND NO, simply going and talking does not qualify in my mind. We talk with everyone. Whether we want to acknowledge that or not. If Chris Hill can represent the President in talks with Kim Kye Gwan (who represents North Korean despot Kim Jong-il) in Beijing, then I think the country will survive a few moments of sweet talk between Nancy Pelosi and President/King Assad of Syria.

Media Matters is chronicling the criticism, legit and facetious, of the Pelosi trip. Mostly they take the media to task for misrepresenting the trip and not being equally critical of a Republican entourages' trip to Syria.

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