Bad news for the Tool/Tea Party, another Reggie Bush hater and Riot Watch! in China

- Uh-oh, Tool, er, Tea Party! One of your shining new faces, Senate candidate Christine O'Donnell of Delaware, has found herself in the crosshairs of a watchdog group that plans to ask authorities in Delaware to investigate her campaign finances. Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington wants O’Donnell investigated for more than $20,000 of spending in 2009 and 2010 that it claims was illegal. "It turns out Miss O'Donnell has treated her campaign funds like they are her very own personal piggy bank. She's used that money to pay for things like her rent, for gas, meals and even a bowling outing. And that's just flat-out illegal," said Melanie Sloan, the group's executive director. Now that certainly sounds incriminating and those are some inflammatory statements, but we are dealing with a watchdog group here and if nothing else, these groups are known for big talk and wild accusations, so unless there’s some hard proof here then this is nothing more than a rumor. But the exposing of all good scandals begins with one voice crying for a closer look at what went on and Sloan intends for CREW to be that voice. The quest will begin with the sending of letters to the U.S. Attorney's Office in Delaware and the Federal Elections Commission on Monday asking them to investigate. "For example, in 2009, Miss O'Donnell wasn't a candidate for anything, yet she had numerous campaign expenses, things like travel and gas, and yet she had no actual campaign," Sloan said. Details, details. O’Donnell has yet to directly address to allegations, although she did allude to them while speaking Friday afternoon at the Values Voters Summit in Washington. "Will they attack us? Yes. Will they smear our background and distort our record? Undoubtedly. Will they lie about us, harass our families, name call and try to intimidate us? They will. There's nothing safe about it. But is it worth it?....Are those unalienable rights worth a little alienation from the beltway popular crowd. Yes! I say yes, yes, a thousand times yes," O’Donnell said. Now, I will say that I’m sincerely hoping that CREW can prove these allegations because no one loves a good scandal like me. So if O'Donnell abused campaign funds for personal use and made false statements on forms she filed with the Federal Elections Commission, let the festivities commence. For über-conservatives who argue that CREW’s pressure on O’Donnell is partisan politics at its worst, Sloan countered that her organization had also recently called for Rep. Charles Rangel, D-New York, to step down after allegations of ethics violations. "We're about right and wrong and not about black or white, Republican or Democrat," she said. "And it is flat-out wrong for a candidate for the U.S. Senate to be stealing her campaign funds and be using them for personal use." Again, I’m not rooting for a winner in this battle, I’m simply rooting for the sh*t to hit the fan………

- Former USC assistant and current Washington coach Steve Sarkisian doesn’t sound like a big fan of former (and erased from the record books) Trojan running back Reggie Bush. Not that Bush has a shortage of detractors after being revealed as one of the biggest scumbags in the history of college athletics (okay, so that might be a bit harsh), having USC erase every trace of him from its campus and returning his Heisman Trophy only when he wanted to beat the Heisman Trust to the punch when they came to rip it from him, but no one close to the situation has openly ripped him quite like Sarkisian. "He had a chance to apologize, look like the good guy," Sarkisian said of Bush's decision to return the Heisman Trophy. "But in giving it back and not apologizing, he just looks like an idiot again." Well, then. For the record, Bush did look and sound like an idiot when he stated that his decision was "not an admission of guilt," just the best way to end the controversy that had engulfed him. Everyone quickly saw through the move as a public relations ploy to make Bush look good, or at least look better than he would have if the Heisman Trust had come knocking on his front door and looking to rip the trophy from his hands. However, not everyone had the kahones to openly blast Bush’s actions and especially no one who was as close to him as Sarkisian was during Bush’s heyday at USC. He also took the chance to praise the success that the team had with Bush on the field while simultaneously distancing himself from the man he had just glossed an idiot. "No matter how much money he got paid, that didn't affect how we prepared," Sarkisian continued. "We weren't the best team in football because of what he or his parents took." No, but now you’re the best team in football for a season in which your games were wiped from the record and have the distinct honor of suiting up the first player in college football history to return a Heisman Trophy that he won……….

- Okay, who had Sept. 16 in their Lindsay Lohan Relapse pool? Step up and collect your prize because the inevitable has happened and everyone’s favorite lush has admitted that she failed her court-ordered drug test via her Twitter page. Lohan confirmed her relapse just one day after reports surfaced that she had tested positive for drugs as part of her court-ordered rehab. “Regrettably, I did in fact fail my most recent drug test and if I am asked, I am prepared to appear before judge [Elden] Fox next wee as a result.” Judge Elden Fox would be the one who informed Lohan in late August that she could return to jail if she fails one of her post-rehab tests. But Lohan wasn’t done with her Twitter confession and went on, “Substance abuse is a disease, which unfortunately doesn’t go away over night. I am working hard to overcome it and am taking positive steps.” Call me cynical, but failing a drug test does not seem like a positive result. Either you are a moron or you have a serious, serious addiction because someone who admits that she is tested “every day” has to be either a complete idiot or in the grips of a major addiction to even be in the same area code as any drugs. “This was certainly a setback for me but I am taking responsibility for my actions and I’m prepared to face the consequences. I am a work in progress, just as anyone else. I am keeping my faith, and I am hopeful…Thank you all!!!”” Lohan Tweeted to cap off her social media cleansing. Somehow, I don’t think Judge Elden Fox is going to be in such a chipper mood when he comes face to face with Lohan again………..

- Riot Watch! Riot Watch! Everyone’s favorite watch of social dissidence worldwide is back and we’re celebrating the rare occurrence of someone - anyone - in China daring to protest or demonstrate in any way and not ending up beneath the wheels of a tank or in prison for life. Although this time, the protest was aimed at Japan, so that might explain it. These brave dissidents gathered outside the Japanese Embassy in Beijing on Saturday and proceeded to march through the rain-soaked streets to the Foreign Ministry on Saturday, loudly singing the national anthem as they went and chanting nationalistic slogans against "foreigners" and the Japanese to protest the detention of a Chinese fishing crew by the Japanese coast guard. The incident occurred earlier this month, when a Chinese fishing boat collided with a Japanese coast guard vessel off the disputed islands claimed by both countries and the Chinese crew was detained by Japan. While most of the crew has been released, the captain remains in Japanese custody and needless to say, the Chinese are pissed. Demonstrations in China are rare for the aforementioned reasons, so I’ll try not to be too hard on these dissidents, but by my traditionally high standards for riots and protests, this one was not a big success. Dozens of police looked on as the marchers did their thing and the entire protest looked more like a choreographed holiday parade than an act of social dissidence. To find any true dissidence, you had to look to the fringes of Saturday’s action and find China’s outspoken "netizens" who threatened to infiltrate the demonstration for their own purposes. Message boards posting threads about infiltrating the protest were either taken down or had their content erased. The government responded in predictably overblown fashion, ramping up security and warning one and all true dissidents to stay away. By the time the protest began, there was little to no evidence of anti-government sentiment. But a dud of a protest or not, there is no denying that anti-Japan sentiment is running high in China. It has seeped into trade activities and rekindled the fires of dispute over the islands in question. It has produced chants of "let's unite against the foreigners" and "crush the Japanese." The rainy day definitely dampened the mood as well, but I choose to revel in the fact that a protest took place in China and (as far as we know), no one was run over by a tank or thrown into a dungeon for their involvement………

- No official word has been given, but suppliers are reportedly gearing up in preparation for the next-generation iPad design, according to several display component vendors currently undergoing validation with Apple for involvement in the project. Those vendors and suppliers believe that the new and improved iPad will ship by the second quarter of 2011, although there remains the possibility that Apple could launch it sooner in order to capitalize on the holiday rush. The big news for the new iPad is FaceTime compatibility, which first launched with the iPhone 4 in June. Reports have identified TPK Touch Solutions, Wintek, Cando, and Chimei Innolux as suppliers presently working on “ultra-thin” touch panels using reinforced glass that could be part of a new iPad. What that means for users is that Apple is likely attempting to reduce the thickness of the iPad, just as it has done with the iPhone 4 and fourth-generation iPod touch. What may disappoint iPad fans is that a 7″ version of the tablet computer does not appear to be in the works. The components reportedly being tested for the new iPad model are for a 9.7″ screen size. Apple is well-known for updating its various desktop, laptop and now tablet models on an annual basis, so the temptation is to expect users to not be interested in upgrading every time a new device comes out. However, adding camera hardware and FaceTime compatibility to the iPad could make for a different story because the lack of sufficient camera hardware has been a primary complaint of iPad critics thus far. But maybe Apple is feeling the heat of added competition from tablets from Samsung, Cisco, and RIM, along with the pressure to live up to Steve Jobs’ promise that Apple would sell tens of millions of FaceTime-compatible devices by year’s end. To that end, the tech giant just released an updated iPod touch with a front-facing camera and FaceTime. Apple has maintained that the FaceTime standard would be an open standard that other device makers could implement, a promise it seems to be working towards honoring. Of course, I still believe the iPad is an overpriced, glorified iPod touch, but I can imagine that plenty of tech dorks will be eagerly awaiting its next incarnation………..