Wednesday, July 11, 2007

Another beauty queen with trashy pics, $7 million for doing nothing and another failure in Iraq...that would be #47,885

- All beauty pageant contestants should just release all the explicit, revealing and embarrassing photos of themselves prior to competing, because it seems like every day one of these girls is being dragged into some sort of controversy relating to sexually charged photographs of them that someone is distributing/threatening to distribute. Tara Conner was the first when she and the reigning Miss Teen USA were photographed making out, boozing it up and doing all sorts of other things unbecoming of a beauty queen, but Conner was allowed to keep her crown. There have been others since then, but the story of Miss New Jersey Amy Polumbo puts a new and interesting twist on the whole “skanky pictures of a beauty queen” scandal. Polumbo announced Thursday that someone was trying to blackmail her with old photographs and demanding that she give up her crown by Friday. The Wagner College (N.Y.) student has refused to step down and declined to comment further on the matter. Then on Saturday, Polumbo received a second package that her attorney says contained a threatening letter and possibly new photographs of the 22-year-old beauty queen. At present Polumbo is set to represent New Jersey in the Miss America pageant, something that isn't likely to change based on the stance she’s taking. Personally I’m down with all of this, because anything to spice up and sex up the Miss America pageant is good news as far as I’m concerned. Again, any time hot college chicks want to pose for suggestive pictures knowing that those pictures have a good chance of eventually making their way online or into the public view, it’s cool by me. Beauty pageants are too stiff and boring anyhow, so why not liven things up a bit? Whoever is trying to blackmail this girl needs to stop the posturing and threatening, because they’re not going to get what they want and what they will get is arrested and thrown in jail for blackmail when they’re caught. If this person would just release the pictures and stop the threats, we could all enjoy the images and no one would have to get hurt.

- Are you as stunned as I am to hear that the Iraqi government has failed to meet benchmarks and guidelines that the U.S. has set for the country in its rebuilding process? I mean, all of the competence, efficiency and shrewd management of the rebuilding process up to this point gave absolutely no warning that the Iraqis might be behind schedule. After all, they’ve pretty much quelled all violence, gotten all the dissident groups of their country in harmony and are speedily rebuilding all of……..oh that’s right, they’re not doing any of those things. The idealistic, naïve and just plain stupid plan that W. had tried to fleece the American public with in defense of the indefensible war in Iraq is failing and failing miserably, just like every other facet of this God-forsaken debacle has failed. An upcoming governmental report on the Mess O’Potamia will conclude that the U.S.-backed Iraqi government has met none of its targets for political, economic or other reform and the nasty rumor swirling around is that all of this will result in a vastly accelerated pullout of American troops from the country. Mmm hmmm……..yeah, we’ve heard that type of BS before. W. lies and deceives the American public nonstop about the war and suddenly he’s going to make good on a promise? Color me cynical, but seeing as how we’ve been in Iraq for more than four years, lost thousands of lives, seen things get progressively worse, failed to find the mythical WMD’s, etc., etc., I’m pretty sure the only way this morass will end is when we get us a new president, pardon my grammar.

- A big, hearty screw you goes out from me to the Pope on this day. Pope Benedict XVI had the audacity and ignorance to issue a new document stating that Catholicism is the only true path to salvation and that all other Christian communities are defective or not true churches. Hmm, lemme see, either follow the Bible, the Word of God, or follow some old dude in a funny hat and a dress who will die within a few years and be quickly and easily replaced by some other old dude who’ll put on the same funny hat and dress……I’ll go with Option A. Thanks, P., but I’ll stick with the many, many Protestant leaders who immediately came out against your asinine statement. Nothing like alienating and pissing off nearly every other religion in the world and doing so on the basis of a merit-less, flimsy claim.

- It’s Vice Lord of Darkness Cheney vs. the U.S. Senate, and the Democrats in the Senate just might be able to win this battle. In response to the Dark Lord’s refusal to comply with national security disclosure rules and pretty much any other rule in our nation that Cheney doesn’t agree with, the Democrats are moving to cut off funding to Cheney’s office. A senate appropriations committee headed up by Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., refused to fund the Dark Lord’s proposed budget until Cheney’s office complies with parts of an executive order governing its handling of classified information. Here’s hoping the senators hold firm on this and don’t buckle the way they did when they had W. over a barrel on the war-funding/troop withdrawal issue. Of course, I would strongly suggest to all members of this committee that they not accept any invitations from Cheney to go duck hunting any time soon, lest they be on the receiving end of an “accidental” shotgun blast to the face.

- Let’s say you were drafted as the second overall pick in the NBA Draft, barely played for two years with the team that drafted you and were then traded to another team. Suppose you had a mediocre season and a half with that new team and had anemic career high averages of eight points and five rebounds in your one full season with that team. What kind of contract might you expect if and when your team released you and you became a free agent? If you said an exorbitantly lucrative contract worth $7 million annually over three years, then DING DING DING!!!!! You’re a winner!!!! Darko Milicic, the arrogant young Serbian player who was drafted right behind LeBron James in the 2003 draft and has completely underwhelmed both the Detroit Pistons and the Orlando Magic to the extent that both washed their hands of him, has suckered the Memphis Grizzlies into giving him an inflated new contract. Other than standing 7’0 and breathing, Darko doesn’t appear to have any of the qualities that would normally earn someone $7 million a year, but maybe Memphis knows something I don’t. Oh wait, what they know is that they finished with the worst record in the NBA last year and just hired the former GM (Chris Wallace) of the team that finished with the second-worst record in the league last year. Forgive me for second-guessing the basketball Mensas in Memphis, my apologies guys. I’m sure you’ll do just fine with Darko………..

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