• Madonna's daughter Lourdes, who is 12, was featured her "Celebration" video, which was released yesterday, but there is apparently another version in which Lourdes is dressed up in her mom's wedding dress outfit from "Like A Virgin." [Daily Mail]

• Katherine Heigl is taking a five episode hiatus from Grey's Anatomy to film the romantic comedy Life As We Know It. This is the first time the producers have allowed her to leave the show for an extended amount of time. [Entertainment Weekly]
• Michael Jackson will be buried tomorrow in a private sunset ceremony at Forest Lawn Memorial Park. He'll be interred in the cemetery's Great Mausoleum, where Clark Gable, Jean Harlow, and Carole Lombard were laid to rest. [AFP]
• DJ AM didn't have a will according to documents filed by his mother and she is listed as his sole heir. The documents say his income was more than $3.5 million, but his debts added up to $2.9 million. [TMZ]
• DJ AM's mother was named special administrator of his estate so she can finalize the sale of her son's house in Los Angeles, which he was in the process of selling. [TMZ]
• DJ AM will be buried at 3 p.m. today at the Hillside Memorial Park and Mortuary in West Los Angeles after a private funeral. [E!]
• In his interview with ABC News next week Jon Gosselin says of Kate Gosselin, "I took a lot of abuse from her. I was put down. She'll call me, almost like a lame fish. Like I wasn't going anywhere." But Jon didn't take kindly to being a house husband. He says, "Well, excuse me, I'm taking care of the kids. She's on book tours, she's doing all these thing. You know she's gone a week ... comes back. Packs up and leaves again." [People]
• Jon also says during the interview, "What began as friendship has grown into something more. I know that my decision to appear publicly with Hailey this weekend will be scrutinized, but I hope that people can see I'm a regular guy who is going through a very difficult time in life and wants to move forward." [Perez Hilton]
• Florin Cioaba, Romania's self-proclaimed "King of the Gypsies" praised Madonna for speaking out on behalf of Gypsies during a concert, saying, "Madonna is the only international personality to have raised the problem of discrimination against the Roma in Europe." [AP]
• Lily Allen will guest star on as herself in an episode of the Australian soap Neighbours. [Daily Mail]
• Whitney Houston left her Good Morning America concert after singing only four songs saying, "I'm so sorry. I did Oprah. I've been talking for so long. … I talked so much, my voice," she said. "I shouldn't be talking. I should be singing." [People]
• Hayden Christensen's brother, producer Tove Christensen, was arrested this morning for felony assault with a deadly weapon because he allegedly dragged his girlfriend 30 feet while she hung on to the side of his car. [TMZ]
• Sharon Osbourne has been accused of trying to run over a court official while he delivered legal papers to her house. Megan Hauserman says the official was trying to give her documents related to her lawsuit against Sharon for allegedly attacking her during Rock of Love: Charm School. [The Sun]
• You can listen to the 911 call made after Joe Francis allegedly attacked Playboy playmate Jayde Nicole here: [Radar Online]
• Police are reviewing security camera footage taken in the Hollywood club where Joe Francis allegedly assaulted Jayde Nicole. [TMZ]
• Here are some tips for a happy marriage from the Duggars, in case you're having a hard time coping with your 18 + children. [People]
• A chef is suing Simon Cowell and ex-girlfriend Terri Seymour because she claims when she auditioned to work for them they made her change into clear-bottomed sneakers and she left her shoes with $500 orthopedic insoles in their house. [TMZ]
• Boy George's ankle monitor has been removed and his curfew has been lifted. He posted a picture of his foot with the message "In the words of John INman, "I'm free!'" on Twitter. [The Sun]
• A spokesman for the Rolling Stones is denying the rumors that drummer Charlie Watts has left the band. [The Mirror]
• Joyce DeWitt of Three's Company has been charged with DUI over her drunk driving arrest on July 4. [TMZ]
• Lil Mama has apologized to GLADD for making fun of a transgender dancer while judging America's Best Dance Crew this weekend saying, "Leiomy, come on. Your behavior ... it's unacceptable ... You were born a man and you are becoming a woman. If you're going to become a woman, act like a lady ... It gets too crazy and it gets confusing." She said in the statement, "My remarks were never meant to be disrespectful regarding Leiomy's gender nor offensive to the LGBT community, which has been a community that has supported me in all my endeavors. However, in hindsight, I recognize that my words may have come across as hurtful. I spoke with her privately after the taping to express that it was not my intent to offend her or any member of the transgender community." [TMZ]
• An source claims he saw Eric Dane and Rebecca Gayheart using cocaine at a Hollywood party late last year. "I think Eric and Rebecca were there to get high. It didn't take long before she asked where the coke was. They went into another room and started snorting lines of cocaine. I watched them do it," said the source.
  [National Enquirer]
• The prosecution has finished presenting witnesses in the case of the woman accused of sexually abusing six teenagers at Oprah Winfrey's school for girls in South Africa. [CBS News]
• Justin Timberlake made a surprise appearance at a club in Las Vegas last night and gave everyone a free shot of 901 tequila, saying, "Me and my buddy started a homegrown tequila down in Mexico and I wanted to make sure you guys got a taste, so I bought everyone in the bar a shot." He toasted, "We should all believe in something and I believe it's time for another shot of tequila." [People]
• Cindy McCain is speaking out about her severe migranes, which she says she's suffered with for 15 years but never discussed before. She says she was hesitant to mention how much they hurt because of John McCain's experience as a POW. "There were times when I felt a little bit inadequate with my pain problem," she said. "But I had to get over that because I didn't live in John's shoes and he didn't live in mine. He doesn't always understand [migraines] but he knows they are real." [People]
• Travelodge's released a ‘books left behind index' of the 7200 books abandoned in its UK hotel rooms by its customers in the past year. Jordan's autobiography tops the list. Also in the top 10: John Grisham's The Appeal and The Magic and the Madness, J. Randy Taraborrelli's Michael Jackson biography. [Telegraph]
• Tim Burton says of Johnny Depp, "It's very nice to have someone that you can have a completely abstract conversation with and leave the room, feel like everything's fine, and then realize that if you pick it apart, you have absolutely no idea what either of you said." [MTV]
• "Living with Hef brought down my self-esteem a lot. I was comparing myself to the other girls. You have to look a certain way at the mansion." — Holly Madison [Newser]
• Jerry Seinfeld says of the old Seinfeld set being recreated for the cast's appearance on Curb Your Enthusiasm, "The best analogy is a snow globe. You're walking into a miniature fake environment that has been recreated. As I told people about it, I could go back in your life 10 years and recast your friends, recreate where you live, everything in it exactly how it was, and now somebody with a headset points at you and you walk in now, and there it was, and you go, ‘Jesus Christ, this is my old life!' We all felt like it was a very special experience. Just to go back in time in life is a fantasy." [Hollywood Insider]
• "I've never been the kind of person out on the prowl bedding different girls every night. I went through a two-week phase, but it was really awful. The ‘man about town' thing is so clichéd; I'd hate to think that I was subscribing to any idea of what someone in my position should be like. There's also the slight problem that the type of girl [I] go for would be way less likely to like me because I'm Mark Ronson. They'd much rather be talking to a Klaxon in the corner." — Mark Ronson [Telegraph]
• "What I can't figure out is why I wasted time worrying about my looks. I am a comedian. I'm not on the runway in Milan," says Kathy Griffin. "Believe it or not, people don't come to see me really thinking I'm going to look like Jennifer Aniston." [People]

And, if you hadn't guessed it already, it's Beyoncé. They already know what song, but they're not saying! It's a pretty good guess, though, that it's not "Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It)," especially if you've seen Barack dance.




One person who probably won't be showing off her gams in 2009 is Cindy McCain, who was, reportedly, in talks with the producers of Dancing With The Stars but whose star turn was vetoed by her husband. I mean, we all know how he feels about too much make-up on a woman. Senator Claire McCaskill, though, doesn't care, she wants to be able to take her damn mascara on the plane so she can touch up and doesn't understand why she can't.

Speaking of made-up, President Bush yesterday declared this Sunday "National Sanctity of Human Life Day," which means no abortion for you, you slut! And the cops are going to stop by to take your birth control, too, since that's killing potential sanctified lives as well. It's an all-anal Sunday, courtesy of the President. He got started with the rogering a little early, giving his Farewell Address to the nation last night. I'll admit that I drank my way through it at a bar with a friend, so we missed most of it but it sure did numb the pain in my ass when he said this as part of the defense of his legacy:

“As the years passed,” Mr. Bush said, “most Americans were able to return to life much as it had been before 9/11. But I never did. Every morning, I received a briefing on the threats to our nation. And I vowed to do everything in my power to keep us safe.”

Um, actually, asshole, plenty of Americans in New York and DC — and elsewhere in this country — didn't go back to living their lives the same way and MAYBE if you had received morning briefings about the threats to our nation and done something about them before September 11th, none of us would have had to worry about it.

Anyway, he said a bunch of other stuff, but I don't like reliving that kind of trauma, which is why I drink.

Back to the news of change, Attorney General nominee Eric Holder sat for his confirmation hearing, where Pennsylvania Arlen Specter — who, for craven political reasons, received the backing of the AFL-CIO in 2004 helping propel him to re-election in 2004 over Democratic Congressman Joseph Hoeffel and denying the Democrats one more Senate seat — drew some blood in his repeated questioning of Holder's integrity and previous stint as a political appointee at the Justice Department. Holder did, however, say that he's willing to try some of the Gitmo detainees here and that waterboarding is torture, which I should know.


In the mean time, Janet Napolitano's confirmation hearing on her nomination to head the Department of Homeland Security and Susan Rice's hearing on her nomination to be U.S. Ambassador to the UN both went swimmingly, because that's what you get when you nominate awesome qualified women for important jobs. And, in the scheme of things, it seems like Tim Geithner won't face much different at his hearing despite his little tax scandal — the Republicans will just wait 6 months to use it against him when he does something they don't like.

While all this was going on, Obama and Joe Biden headed off to meet with the Supreme Court only to be snubbed by Samuel Alito, which, you know, so much for Bush's intention to take politics out of the Court. Rick Warren is still on his gay apology tour, but that's probably just to get in on Tuesday's orgies. Hillary Clinton gave her final Senate speech and seemingly teared up a little but didn't choke up and then headed off to make history. And Democrats proposed a $825 billion stimulus plan that still probably won't be enough to get us out of the shit. So, there's that.

In contrast to the rest of the White House gang, says Varadarajan, Laura Bush will be missed. No one's ever really minded Laura Bush much; in fact, she's been noteworthy for the lack of strong feelings she's elicited. Sure, "Stepford" has been tossed around — but she was never Cindy McCain fun — and with her vaguely not-anti-choice sentiments and "stand" against the Burmese junta, she's not so gung-ho ideological as a Palin. And let's face it, given what she was allied with, plenty of people would have kept a low profile. This, in Varadarajan's view, were her strengths: those of an "old-fashioned First Lady" who took a back seat to her husband's antics. Did she deceive a nation into war? Well, no. And subvert the justice system? Not as such. Did she oversee the biggest financial meltdown in history? Negative. Well, when you put it that way, you're right, she's great! Hence, one of the most patronizing paragraphs ever written:

Laura Bush was self-effacing by choice, and by an exquisite understanding of her role in the White House...Mrs. Bush is of a certain American type: wholesome, inclined to good works, a homemaker and mother, a supporter of the man she married, a smiling hostess. She is not flashy or colorful, overly intellectual or palpably shrewd, demonstrably independent or politically aggressive.

Which, he feels, is how a First Lady should be.

My guess, as America changes, is that the Laura Bush type will fade away, and that more and more first ladies will be (however one interprets the phrase) "people in their own right"—and thus, potentially, a huge pain to the body politic. (Think Cherie Blair ...) There is some danger that Michelle Obama, a forthright and independent woman, could hew more to the Hillary model than to the Laura Bush way —although her demeanor in the election campaign suggests that she's not unaware of the public boundaries that Hillary, as first lady, failed to respect.

If Varadarajan is hoping the tragically "forthright and independent" Michelle Obama will hew to the Laura Bush mold, he's in for a rude shock. First Ladies are, I fear, very much "people in their own right" and, dare I say it, we take this into account when we cast our ballots. (If he wanted to get into a serious discussion of the real issue of partnership and responsibility in a more complex age — which he obviously does not — I'd argue that the very "shrewdness" and personality he bemoans has, not shockingly, correlated with an increase in public exposure. No one is being "tricked" into a puppet government here.) Because, it may appall him to know, some people like the idea of a leader whose marriage allows for partnership and mutual influence.

In an ideal world, yes, we could patronize First Ladies — the international model, in some ways, for American women — who hewed to the "certain American type" of docile dim-wits he seems to have derived vaguely from 1950s sitcoms. Because, while, as he tells us, this is how First Ladies have been for the past 60 years (neatly stripping them of any struggles, strengths and personality), a First Lady unwilling — or unable — to involve herself with her husband's government is, tragically, probably a thing of the past. Which is too bad: the Bush presidency, helmed by this archetype, turned out so well!

In Praise of Laura Bush [Forbes]

One of Cottle's colleagues saw an advertisement for it while watching Thelma and Louise on Lifetime (a reason he prefers to stay anonymous) and discovered that Trojan can't sell it in Alabama, Colorado, Georgia, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas, and Virginia. Well, "can't" might be a strong word (and more on that after the jump), but Cottle wonders if this is the reason for so much of the red state frustration on display at Palin rallies.

But, first, to the law. Following a 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling this past February that struck down Texas' sex toys ban and, by extension, Mississippi's, Alabama is the only state remaining in which selling sex toys is illegal. Crusading Alabama legislator John W. Rogers is, however, trying to fix that with legislation but faces an uphill crime because people like Dan Ireland, the executive director of the Alabama Citizens' Action Program, says the ban is needed "to protect the public against themselves."

Trojan's list of states where it cannot sell the fingertip massager — including my current state of residence, Virginia — seems a little off to me. Consulting with a lawyer that prefers not to be named, it turns out that Virginia (and the other states) don't restrict the sale of these products but do require that they be kept out of sight of minors — which means off the shelves of your local pharmacy and next to the condoms where Trojan wants to display them. (Side note: one local grocery store in my area carries Trojan's Elexa vibrating cock ring in apparent violation of state law.) So, you can walk into your pharmacy and up to the condom section and freely peruse the condom selection, many of which contain explicit diagrams on the packaging of how to place a condom on a penis, but a tastefully packaged, miniature vibrator that bears no resemblance to a penis has to remain behind the counter or at a sex shop with the smutty videos. Nothing unequitable about that at all.

So This Is Why Red-Staters Are So Angry [The New Republic]

Related: Federal Appeals Court Overturns Texas Sex-Toy Ban [Fox News]
Fighting for Our Rights in Alabama [Wonkette]

Election Night:
Michelle Obama gets a slinky dress that shows off her awesome clavicles in Democratic blue.

For Cindy McCain, how about a frilly, ruffled number that says: "Don't worry, I've got my own stuff going on"?

Sarah Palin gets a plain, fitted black dress so that she can stay on message, you betcha.

Inauguration Day:

For Michelle Obama, a shift with a floral print. White House rose garden, here we come!

For Sasha and Malia Obama, pretty cardigans and skirts to complement mommy's dress.

Cindy McCain would rock the hell out of this Republican red shift dress.

Sarah Palin never really wears patterns, but she could pull off this snow leopard print dress. It's not real snow leopard, but with her, you never know!

I'm seeing little Piper Palin in velvet.

Willow Palin gets a youthful plum silk chiffon.

Preggers Bristol Palin needs an empire waist dress to accommodate that belly.

As for Barack Obama, Joe Biden, John McCain, Todd Palin and any Biden/Palin/McCain sons, J. Crew offers this:

Just add tie. And pants.

J. Crew [Official Site]
Michelle Obama Shops At J. Crew, Buys Online [AP]
Michelle Obama: We Buy the Clothes We Wear [People]

Cindy McCain Claims She�s �Just Like Any Other Female Human�

• Were you — like Glamour editor Cindi Leive wondering how Sarah Palin managed to spend so much money on her wardrobe? By the way, the suit she wore at the debate was Tahari, one of my favorite affordable suit makers. [New York Times]
• Well, it turns out that she might not have really ended up with all $150,000 of it, as some of the purchases included ripped T-shirts and clothing for a 2-year-old. [New York Times]
• She might have to claim the clothes as income for tax purposes, though, and a formal complaint has been filed with the FEC about the clothes. [Andrew Sullivan, Politico]
• Oh, and she got pissy with the SNL costume people because the matching suits they had her and Tina Fey in weren't in keeping with her "new" image. [Huffington Post]

• In actual news, the chairwoman of a New Mexico women's GOP group, Marcia Stirman, wrote an OpEd in which she called Obama a "Muslim Socialist" and declared all Muslims "our enemies." That's what the McCain camp needs right now, definitely. [Salon]
• Someone (or a group of someones) has been vandalizing the Minnesota homes of the entire Congressional delegation. [Pioneer Press]
• Air America's Mark Maron went to a Palin rally in Colorado springs, didn't find hate but did get a shiny copper penny from an old guy. [The Guardian]
• The Washington Post's Dana Milbank went in search of the Real Virginia and found that it's voting for Barack Obama. [Washington Post]
• The FDIC may start to insure your mortgages as well as your bank deposits in the hopes that lenders will stop foreclosing, but they probably won't because they're dicks and they all live in Delaware. [Washington Post]
• Like most Americans, Alan Greenspan is really sorry that he thought The Market was self-regulating. [New York Times]
• The McCains and the Obamas would save money under either candidate's tax plan, but the McCains would save $732,000 under his plan. Yowza. [Think Progress]
• And in awful news, a 20-year-old woman was mugged and then, when the mugger noticed her McCain bumper sticker, maimed. He carved a "B" in her face. Barack Obama's campaign (and everyone else in this country) wants the sick fuck brought to justice. Not in our names, dude. [WTAE, Politico]

• Remember how Sarah Palin sold the governor's plane to save money? Well, to make up for it, she insisted on using the Public Safety Department's plane (the one for police missions and search and rescue) and used to get pissy when she couldn't just use it. As it was, she accounted for 20 percent of its time. [MSNBC]
• By the way, her personal shopper is also the guy behind the Obama-Ayers robocalls she supposedly hates, and her vocal coach was expensed as a "Get Out The Vote" effort by the campaign. Is there anything she won't try to pull? [Huffington Post, Politico]
• Radar is shopping a new movie idea to help turn out Jewish voters for McCain: Woody Palin. Dick jokes welcome. [Radar]
• Speaking of dicks, McCain foreign policy hacks Jim Woolsey and Randy Scheunemann want you to believe that when al Qaeda operatives say they want McCain to win, they're trying to fool you, but when other terrorists support Obama, you should vote against terrorists. Up is the new down, people. [Washington Independent]

• If you thought McCain wouldn't just casually drop the word "cunt" in front of a crowd, watch as he does it on stage. Even Cindy takes a step back, because that's what she usually does when he yells the word "cunt." [YouTube]
• Speaking of, Michelle Bachmann is trying to use her Hardball appearance to raise money, possible because the RNC is pulling their money out of her race in the wake of her comments that liberals should be investigated for their un-American views. [Politico, Huffington Post]
• And Ellen DeGeneres is not a fan of Sarah Palin's idea of getting a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage or pretty much anything else Sarah Palin thinks about all the gay people she tolerates. Who is, really? [Huffington Post]

John McCain's first wife, Carol, was quite popular on Capitol Hill, and many, including Nancy Reagan, never forgave McCain for leaving her. As the Times notes, "Carol McCain was still a presence on the social scene, working in the Reagan White House and as an events planner. Everyone knew her story: she had stood by her husband during his captivity in North Vietnam, never passing word of a debilitating car accident, only to discover, a few years after their reunion, that he was leaving her for a younger, richer woman."

What happened between John, Carol, and Cindy McCain is nobody's business but their own. But the public perception, and the Washington opinion, was quite clear: the Washington wives loved Carol McCain, and Cindy Hensley was no Carol McCain. Rejected, Cindy headed back to Phoenix. “I think Cindy made an intellectual decision: I could stay here and fight this, or I could go and do more productive things,” her friend Barbara Ross told the Times.

The article goes on to touch upon Cindy's pill addiction, her role in the Keating Five scandal, and notes that "those close to Mrs. McCain say she aspires to be like another blonde, glamorous figure married to an older man: Diana, the Princess of Wales. Mrs. McCain sought out the same mine-clearing organization that the princess supported, joining its board and traveling to minefields, just as her role model had. Mrs. McCain recently told British reporters that as first lady, she would take her cues from Diana, throwing herself into international philanthropy."

The article also touches on the blurry sides of Cindy's story, how even her own recollections don't always seem to add it. "Whatever stumbles she may have made in telling her story," the article notes, "Mrs. McCain has exhibited the signal trait of the political spouse: a burning desire to win."

The McCain campaign clearly does not like this story: "gutter journalism," apparently, is a look inside the life of a woman who has been shunned, hurt, and confused. The article, though quite unflattering to Mrs. McCain, also paints her in the most sympathetic light I've ever seen her in. It is perhaps the most humanizing piece out there, in regards to giving the public some insight into what's going on behind that icy expression and platinum blonde hair, but apparently John McCain thinks otherwise. I consider John McCain to be a bit of an expert in gutter journalism, but this piece doesn't fit the bill. It isn't "gutter journalism" to point out that even a potential first lady has problems, even a Senator who preaches family values might have some messed up family issues, and that no matter what happens to these families in November, they are, in the end, human after all.

Behind McCain, Outsider In Capital Wanting Back In [New York Times]
Make-Believe Maverick [Rolling Stone]
'NYT' Profile of Cindy Draws Angry McCain Response — Including Release of Email and Facebook Message [Editor and Publisher]

Michelle talks about specifics, always turning back to hard facts and Barack's policy:

We've talked to mothers whose salaries can't cover the cost of groceries—but if they take a second job, they can't afford the additional cost of child care. More than 22 million working women don't have paid sick days. Millions of women are doing the same jobs as men—but they're earning less…The struggles of America's families aren't new to Barack. He was raised by a single mom who put herself through school and built a career that she loved while still finding time to read to him each morning. So, he knows how heroic America's parents can be. That's why he is committed to restoring the middle class, cutting taxes for 95 percent of all working Americans, establishing pay equity for women, and expanding family leave. He also knows that when our military goes to war, their families go with them. He's a strong advocate for predictable deployments and for better healthcare—including mental health care—for returning servicemen and women.

Cindy, on the other hand, goes for more ethereal rhetoric, and rarely refers to her husband's plans:

Opportunities to serve do not end at our borders, and I'll champion those working to create brighter futures for people lacking the many blessings we enjoy in America. I look forward to traveling abroad with groups that are engaged in efforts to reduce disease, repair war-torn countries, and alleviate extreme poverty. To take one example, millions around the world today—and especially pregnant women and children—suffer from easily preventable nutritional deficiencies. I'll work with the private sector and with our citizenry to help fix this. We know how to alleviate these problems. It is only a matter of resources and will. America, abundant in both, can tackle such problems, and I will welcome to the White House workers and donors taking on such great challenges.

Obviously I am outlandishly biased, but to me it was striking that Cindy would write such an essay when our country is in such dire economic straits. She does not once mention the economy in her essay, and like her husband, she doesn't go near the phrase "middle class." Yes, volunteering abroad and helping war torn countries and children with cleft palates is important, but the opportunity to do so is not something the average American will ever encounter. I do think that the scrutiny of first ladies in the modern political world is out of line, as your marriage is not necessarily reflective of your ability to govern a nation, but Cindy is so out of touch with the struggles of everyday citizens that it's impossible not to notice.

Cindy McCain: As John’s First Lady, I Would Help Find Opportunities for People to Serve [US News & World Report]
As Barack’s First Lady, I Would Work to Help Working Families and Military Families [US News & World Report]

Almond argues — as I have — that McCain's supposed sense of humor is indicative of a larger problem with women. Who finds rape jokes funny, let alone what Presidential candidate is so tone-deaf that he things putting off answering a question with "And I stopped beating my wife just a couple of weeks ago..." is smart, funny or in good taste? Almond asks, and rightly so, whether Barack Obama could in a million years crack a joke about a woman enjoying being raped by a gorilla without a mainstream media uproar, as opposed to the shoulder-shrug that McCain got. And the answer, we all have to concede, is no — and not just because of his age.

But Almond's got other evidence, garnered from that scathing Rolling Stone profile of a few weeks ago, which detailed how a younger McCain cursed out two women that didn't appreciate being hollered, his profligate adultery, and how he lived with his wife for months before taking out a marriage license to marry Cindy — which, naturally, occurred before McCain divorced his first wife. There is, of course, the obligatory mention of when McCain called his wife a "cunt" in front of reporters and the joke about a teenaged Chelsea Clinton being ugly (daughter Meghan would have been just reaching puberty herself at the time). All in all, it's not an unknown record, but it's not a pretty one.

Steve goes a step further, though, and asks us to view the Palin nomination in context of McCain's many infidelities, misogynist jokes and ugly temper. He'd like us to have another look at the interview with Katie Couric where John McCain interrupts Sarah Palin and Katie Couric and talks over them about Pakistan and "gotcha" journalism, as well as the way he and his staff have attempted to shield Governor Palin from the press and keep her from answering tough questions and then ask ourselves: does John McCain respect Sarah Palin? Does he respect women voters (let alone male voters) with this choice? Would he have picked her if she looked like the much-maligned Janet Reno? I think those are all legitimate questions, and I'd add one more. When you're hugging a work colleague — if you tend to hug work colleagues — how many times do they wrap their arms fully around you if you're just grabbing their shoulders before you start to get freaked out?

McNasty? [Nerve]

Related: What John McCain's Jokes Say About His View Of Women [Glamocracy]
Make-Believe Maverick [Rolling Stone]

McCain took his lumps on the View just like he did from Ellen, and Bill Clinton also faced the female firing squad of Whoopi, Joy, Elisabeth, Sherri and Babs. Though we all love to rag on Elisabeth, I think Sherri, whom Trasiter calls "increasingly radicalized," is perhaps the most interesting part of the View's particular alchemy. A Salon commenter articulates Sherri's growth during this election really well. "Although people over on the Huffington Post frequently deride Sherri Shepherd for some of her naive pronouncements, I find it fascinating to watch someone in the process of trying to work out a political worldview," writes a commenter named Benthead, "In particular, her attempt to negotiate her religious belief with a commitment to civil rights and pluralism."

Obviously, a huge part of the appeal of The View is that the women on the panel are much more accessible to the viewing public than a wonky news anchor on CNN or even the more partisan MSNBC and Fox News. The one danger — and this is a criticism I've heard aimed at satirical shows like The Colbert Report and The Daily Show — is the possibility that a show like The View is a person's only source of political news. However, I'd imagine that anyone who looks to Babs and the team for their sole political fix probably wouldn't be reading anything about the election otherwise, so perhaps it's better that they get information in a less than serious way than not at all.

How The Election Ate Daytime Television [Salon]

John McCain Goes Through A Gauntlet Of Tough Broads On The View
Sherri Shepherd Unleashes Rubber-Necking Rage On Elisabeth Hasselbeck

• A new poll shows that 55 percent of Americans think Obama cares more about people like them. No, they didn't show anyone this picture first. [CNN]
• They also didn't show it to the white women surveyed by Rutgers University’s Center for American Women and Politics who helped show that Palin's nomination hasn't disrupted the traditional gender gap between Republicans and Democrats on a long-term basis. [Politico]
• And obviously no one showed it to the guy who accused Obama of treason at a Palin rally, because, really, even Norman Rockwell would throw up his hands and turn to abstract art if he saw this picture. [Huffington Post]
• But back to the whole accusing the other guy of your own missteps meme, Cindy McCain says that Obama has "waged the dirtiest campaign in American history." Riiiight. [Huffington Post]

• Fox News would like you to know that "facts are not irrefutable." Man, they really are just becoming the Ministry of Truth. [Huffington Post]
• The media would like you to know that they might get cussed out by Republicans at Palin rallies all the time, but it's much rarer that anyone uses racial slurs. Rare is good. It's just not as good as "not at all." [Politico]
• Oh, and if McCain would like to keep talking about Bill Ayers — and he does — he might want to check out the former lyncher and heroin trafficker, James Fowler, he used to be associated with. And then he might want to shut the fuck up. [The Anniston Star, via Andrew Sullivan]
• By the way, a federal judge ordered the release of 26 Chinese Uighurs from Gitmo because the evidence against them is unreliable and the government decided to hold onto them anyway. [Washington Post]
• Which is sort of the only good news because the Dow lost another 500 points today. [NY Times]
• Well, that and I'll be live-blogging tonight's Presidential debate. The thread starts at 7:30 ET, my liveblog starts just before 9:00 ET.

Sadie sadly got the short end of this particular stick, as I would suggest that platinum blonde is probably not her shade. But, she does get the most jewelry of any of us.

Actually, tangerine looks kind of good on Jessica, and the Hillary-do isn't completely terrible.

Dodai is much, much prettier than Palin and takes no photos of herself winking. She also doesn't need to tease up the back like that.

I'm just too fair to pull off the dark hair, I think, but I was about the right amount of happy to be up on stage next to Obama. [Hands off, lady. -Ed.]

Hollywood Hair Virtual Makeover [InStyle]

Speaking of YouTube, Meghan has been able to utilize new media, something her old-as-dirt daddy has pretty much avoided. Slate's Malone notes that after a gaffe on the Today Show, (Meghan said "No one knows what war is like other than my family. Period.") Meghan went straight to her blog to qualify her words.

Meghan has obviously hit a nerve with more than a few women, and Malone parses Meghan's appeal quite accurately. Where I disagree with Malone is in her description of the "mini-generation gap" between 28-year-old Chelsea Clinton and 23-year-old Meghan. "At Stanford, Chelsea was largely able to escape from the press. Most of Meghan's time at Columbia took place in the Facebook era, when politician's children's pages were suddenly fair game. Seriousness was rewarded for Chelsea and her cohort," Malone writes. "But it's been attention-grabbing that has thus far been rewarded for younger women like Meghan—and me—who've grown up in a post-YouTube, post-Britney era. We've been shown that it pays to behave like permanent teenagers, and Meghan has slickly figured out a way to get the most out of this."

Indeed, by talking to the press, Meghan has received far more attention than the notoriously guarded Chelsea. But I'd argue that the difference between Meghan and Chelsea is more personality based, and less micro generational. In addition, the sort of "attention grabbing" that is allegedly being rewarded for Britney and her discontents has almost entirely negative results. Yes, Britney made a lot of money and was splashed over many headlines, but she also went batshit insane. And yes, Meghan McCain's oversharing gets her attention and a certain amount of stars-are-just-like-us acknowledgment, but is that really going to translate into votes for her dad? I know many non-Democrat women, definitely of my mother's age, but also of my own age, who were appalled at the way Bristol Palin has been thrust into the campaign spotlight, and I'd imagine they'd be similarly appalled by the awkward lunches between Meghan McCain and Hills doyenne Heidi Montag. But maybe I'm wrong, and Meghan's "haute-trashy" look, saccharine blogette and downplayed Columbia degree are exactly what will get her father votes. If that's the case we might as well pack it in and revive our livejournals.

Blogette Girl [Slate]
McCain Blogette [Meghan McCain]

Earlier: Meghan McCain Will Not Date Journalists
New Yorker Profile Shows Cindy McCain Is A Nouveau Betty Draper

• We've gotten a lot of emails this week whining about the excess of Palin coverage. But you know what Palin hates more than anything — whiners! If you whine, the terrorists win…Or something. Anyway, check out what Judge Judy thinks about Sarah Palin.
• Also check out what American Wife author Curtis Sittenfeld thinks about Sarah Palin!
• Don't forget about comparing her future potential reign to Margaret Atwood's Handmaid's Tale!
• With all of this nonsense, we almost forgot it was FASHION WEEK! Check out Dodai's Project Runway Bryant Park show live blog and the rest of our fashion week posts.

• And now for something completely different! Our ANTM girlcrush, Sheena.
• Check it: The 8 Worst Hairdos A Man Can Have.
• Are those more, or less offensive than the worst of the fall magazine ads?
• The worst of all: Teen Vogue's awesome new eating disorder.
• But you guys. It's Friday. So rock out those bad hairdos, shut off the CNN, and don't let anyone spike your drink with sexactivator.