Maddow made a point to mention that she reached out to all thirty senators who voted no on the bill amendment for comment - and none of them responded. Maddow also asks Jones and Kelly directly about their thoughts on the senators that voted no, and Session's accusation that this was "a political move."

Jones:

"Hopefully the thirty senators will have a change of heart [...] Maybe if they tried to understand how they would feel if their daughter or wife or somebody was in my position, how they would feel if it was to go in front of an arbitrator, maybe they'd change their position in it."

Kelly:

"If this amendment had been in place when Jamie went to Iraq, her rape, most likely, would have never have happened. [...] [Companies like Halliburton/NBR] are only going to implement [rules and protections] if their actions are exposed to the light of day.

Earlier: Sen. Franken Fights KBR On Behalf Of Rape Victims
Republicans: Defending Rape Victims Is A "Political" Move

Here are some highlights from this year's report:

• The lead article, "Females Make Inroads Into Conducting," is actually rather depressing. Few women have ever conducted orchestras in the U.S. or abroad. Though a handful of female conductors have been making headway since the '70s, no female conductor has ever been named artistic director of one of the top-tier American orchestras, and less than 12% of orchestras of any size are headed by women in the U.S. In March, Chinese-born conductor Xian Zhang was named musical director of Milan's Giuseppe Verdi Orchestra, becoming Italy's first high-profile female conductor, and in the U.S. women have recently been named artistic director at three smaller regional ensembles: the Reno Philarmonic, the Berkeley Symphony, and the Flagstaff Symphony. "There's still a lot of sexism in this field, though it seems to be changing, albeit slowly," says Atlanta Symphony Orchestra music director Robert Spano. "Apparently, we can have female prime ministers abroad and female secretaries of State, but not female music directors. It's been quite discouraging."
  
  
• It seems Mad Men's January Jones has taken Tracy Jordan's advice to "live every week like it's Shark Week" to heart. She was honored for her work as Oceana's celebrity spokesperson for decimated shark populations. She grew up in landlocked South Dakota and was fascinated by the ocean. "I had shark book and every documentary I could get my hands on. I think they're incredibly beautiful and prehistoric," she says, "Without sharks, there is no ocean life." Jones is filming PSAs for the group and later this month she'll head to D.C. to fight for a bill that would stop finning, the process of removing a shark's fin for food then letting it die a slow death in the ocean. "You already can't bring sharks without fins intact into the Atlantic coast. This (law) would expand to the Pacific, effectively stopping finning in American waters," she says.
  
  
• Maria Bello, who has starred in A History of Violence and ER was honored for her work with the Save Darful Coalition. "In 2003, when the genocide started happening, I thought it was my duty and my right and my privilege as a human being, as a woman living in a democracy, and as a public figure to speak out and use my voice to talk about the injustice," she says, "I found out through being a part of Save Darfur that it is the women and mothers who are transforming and changing the face of the peace process in Darfur and in other countries. We're working on creating a council of women from D.C. and the media and business — real women leaders who can work to promote issues of social justice and be involved from the ground level up."
  
  
• Sigourney Weaver was recognized for her work with The Flea Theater in New York City, an Off Off Broadway theater that produces noncommercial work in a professional atmosphere, and gives young thespians the opportunity to work with established artists in various workshops and productions. "I went to arguably one of the better drama schools in the country (Yale) in the 1970s, and I came out of that school not really knowing very much," Weaver says. "I found that working in Off Off Broadway shows was a real artistic home. I learned on my feet working with new plays and writers; that's where my true training really began."
  
  
• It seemed a little odd that Tina Fey was left off last year's list, but now it seems it was for the best. Did Variety predict that Fey hadn't reached her peak yet, even before the world became aware of a certain Alaska governor? Since Fey's responses to the standard set of questions Variety asks all the women in the report are culled from previous interviews, we'll assume she's been so bombarded with accolades this year that she didn't even bother to respond. The same goes for Kate Winslet, who is recognized for finally winning an Oscar this year. Variety reports that her "career mantra" is "There's more to life than cheeckbones," which is actually just something she told Rolling Stone... in 1998.
  
  
• Alice Ripley won a Tony this year for her performance as Diana, a bipolar wife and mother who undergoes drug and shock therapy in Next to Normal. She says, "The role takes a woman onstage in a musical to a place she has never been, and takes the audience as well." Variety asks about her "philanthropic passion" and she makes a rare admission for an actress: "I don't honestly have the time or energy to support anybody else's cause but my own, which is self-expression. So I guess if I had a cause it would be education."
  
  
• Southland executive producer Ann Biderman says, "I'm just writing about people that I care about... I don't believe in those restrictions that say men are interested in copshows and women are interested in romantic comedies. In [Southland] there's this huge struggle between chaos and control. Those life-and-death stakes will always be intriguing."
  
  
• Many people were shocked that The Hurt Locker, a film about the war in Iraq, was directed by Kathryn Bigelow... a woman. "Of course I find gender typecasting more than a little old-fashioned and dated, but it doesn't bother me," she says. "Honestly, more than anything, I'm happy if people like the film. I've been around long enough to know it doesn't always go that way."
  
  
• Jane Campion, whose latest film Bright Star is about the romance of Fanny Brawne and John Keats says, "I was familiar with Keats, as many people are, as someone from long ago, dusty history, school... You don't really understand it, you don't know much about it. And I was really shocked reading Andrew Motion's Keats biography a few years ago when it came to the love story, because I found it completely compelling — mostly because of the letters from Keats to Fanny. I felt terribly touched with the tragedy and the beauty of that first love; there was something so tender about it for me. That's something I like in this world, tenderness. Something I wanted to share."
  
  
• Twilight director Catherine Hardwicke says she refused to do the sequel New Moon even after the film had the biggest opening weekend for a film by a female director ever. She explains that she's always turned down sequels but, "when Twilight made all this money my agent said, 'Maybe they'll really let you do what you want and give you more time.' I knew Chris Nolan had three years between 'Batman' movies, Jon Favreau had two years between 'Iron Man' movies." However, "Since the kids are not supposed to age they wanted to release the new movie a year to the date of the first. So I would have had less prep time than I had on the first one."
  
  
• Nora Ephron says despite her many successful films including this summer's Julie and Julia she still doubts herself sometimes. "I'd always wanted to have the career of someone like Woody Allen," she says, "but I don't know how he does it. I could never produce multiple films a year every year. Even if they paid me huge amounts of money and let me use all the unfinished scraps I have in my closet."
  
  
• CNN's chief international correspondent Christiane Amanpour will begin hosting her own Sunday news show on the network this month called, Amanpour. "We'll tackle the big issues of our time in terms that are relevant and understandable," she says, adding, "I'm apprehensive, of course... It's completely different for me."
  
  
• When asked about her "leisure pursuits" Rachel Maddow says: "I drink. I'm a hobbyist bartender. I make pre-Prohibition, classic American cocktails."
  
  
• "I think 'nice' is a very effective way to do business and always pays off in the long run," says Andrea Wong, Lifetime's president and CEO. Apparently Wong wasn't following this rule when she poached Project Runway from Bravo, but she explains she wanted the show because it's "the perfect fit for where I wanted to take this network." JoAnn Alfano, the network's executive VP of entertainment says, "Everyone knew the Lifetime name, but we had become so synonymous with victim movies that if a woman was experiencing a bad situation, people would say, 'You sound like a Lifetime movie.' Look, it's a marathon, not a sprint. Changing that perception will take time."
  
  
• In addition to making Joan Holloway and Betty Draper look fabulous on TV, Mad Men costume designer Janie Bryant's work is so popular that "Mad Men style" has crossed over into real life. We've noticed the show's huge influence on women's clothing, but didn't realize it's having an even bigger effect on men's fashion, which usually changes very slowly. Arthur Wayne, director of communications for Brooks Brothers, says menswear is "more evolutionary than revolutionary, but for the last two years we have seen a real shift in men wearing slimmer suits. I think what Janie has done for the show plays right into that." Brooks Brothers made some of the suits worn on screen in season three and Bryant designed a "Mad Men edition" suit for the store. It comes out later this fall and is expected to be a big hit with both men, and women forcing their significant other to dress like Don Draper.

Women's Impact Report '09 [Variety]

Earlier: Variety Honors, Offends Women In Entertainment

In the clip above, Rachel Maddow explains that while every major breast cancer advocacy group in the country is in support of health care reform, the IWF wants Americans to think that women will not have access to life saving drugs and techniques if more people are allowed access to quality care. The organization is so serious about this premise that it has spent close to two million dollars to air the ads in eight battleground states.

Here is the full segment:

Butch Voices founder Joe LeBlanc says he saw the conference, held in Oakland, as a way to help butches "have the hard conversations that we never seem to have otherwise [...] because were so divided across race, divided across gender identities, pronoun choices." Described as "4 days of workshops , entertainment & bonding for Butches, Aggressives, Studs, & Allies," the conference included segments on such topics as "Taking it On: Dealing with Our Internalized Misogyny," "Butch Survival: Mentoring Gender Nonconforming Youth," and "Butches Having Babies." Logistics coordinator Krys Freeman also described the conference as a place for butches to meet people they share aspects of their identity with, outside the context of a bar.

NPR guest host Jennifer Ludden spoke with both LeBlanc and Freeman, and the whole interview is worth listening to. One of the highlights comes near the beginning, when LeBlanc says butches are "supposed to be these silent, cool types that don't talk or only are about how we look." He implies that butches are not only expected to conform to stereotypes about masculinity — being "strong and silent" — but are vulnerable to a stereotype more traditionally associated with femininity as well. That butches "only are about how we look" echoes assumptions about looks-obsessed women, but also the idea that LGBTQ identities are an act, something people put on, like drag. LeBlanc points out that some people both identify as butch and wear makeup, and part of the point of Butch Voices was to address the fact that gender identity is more than skin-deep.

LeBlanc, Freeman, and Ludden discuss class stereotypes too. Freeman says strangers don't expect her to be educated, "just based on my appearance," and LeBlanc says that "butch [...] is a very class-oriented identity, from the history of it, it's a very working class, a very white stereotype." On the Butch Voices website, conference co-chair Adrienne "Aj" Davis addresses these issues head-on. She writes,

I am black, I am butch, and I am an intellectual. I use that term in the classical sense of one who lives for the life of the mind and for ideas. I am happiest when I am either reading something that makes my brain hurt or engaging in a fast-paced discussion about politics or some arcane subject. It took me a long time, over a decade, to become truly comfortable with this fact about myself. In part this is because there were (and still are) precious few depictions of butch intellectuals in lesbian literature or film. We work with our hands, we shower after work, we have callouses and steel-toe boots. What we don't have are jobs where we sit and do mental work all day. For some odd reason that is supposed to be the province of femmes.

She also mentions that "the TV host, Rachel Maddow, is really the first acknowledged butch intellectual I've ever seen." Maddow notwithstanding, it's interesting to note that the idea of intellectual endeavor as somehow effeminate affects butch people as much as it affects male-born men. All these assumptions — that masculinity is about strength, silence, and steel-toed boots, or that being butch is all about "how you look" — stem from the idea that of gender as unitary, inflexible, rule-bound. But according to Freeman, Butch Voices showed that identity is actually much more expansive. She says,

What this conference brought out for me in particular is that people do form identities. [...] All these things are constructed, they're made by us and made by the influences the people in our lives have on us.

One lesson of Butch Voices is that gender identity isn't a set of rules imposed from outside — instead, it's something people build for themselves, consciously or unconsciously. If we are aware of this building process, we can understand that our particular gender expressions are just one possible construction — and respect other people's constructions as well. As the Butch Voices website explains,

The point is, we don't decide who is Butch, Stud or Aggressive. You get to decide for yourself.

A Conference For 'Butches' [NPR]
To Be Black, Intellectual And Butch [Butch Voices]
Butch Voices [Official Site]

Tomorrow, we will post a live chat with Angie Holan of Politifact to go over this more in depth, but in the meantime, let's break down what is actually happening.

What's In the Bill

Politifact actually did a nice breakdown of the major components of the bill, which include:

• Leav[ing] employer-provided insurance in place. Close to three-quarters of the country gets health care through work, and studies show many people like their coverage. A House version of the bill seeks to broaden that coverage by imposing new taxes on large employers who don't offer health insurance.

• [Creating a]Health insurance exchange. To help people who have to go out and buy insurance on their own, the plan creates an exchange, a virtual marketplace where individuals and small businesses can comparison-shop. The government would regulate the exchange so that insurance companies can't discriminate against people with pre-existing conditions, or charge wildly different amounts for similar coverage. (They will be able to set rates based on age, however.)

• More for the poor. The plan expands eligibility for programs like Medicaid and the State Children's Health Insurance Program. Some people of modest means will receive "affordability credits" to buy plans on the health insurance exchange.

• Electronic records. To reduce inefficiency and duplication of services, the government will invest in electronic health records, so doctors can see which tests and procedures patients have already had.

• Research on better treatments. A comparative effectiveness research center will conduct and publish scientific research to find which treatments are the most effective. The government hopes easy-to-access information for doctors, patients and insurance companies will reduce procedures and treatments that don't really work, wringing waste from the system.

• Medicare. The bill makes many changes to how Medicare pays doctors and other health-care providers. Taken as a whole, the new rules aim to pay doctors for good patient outcomes instead of paying them per procedure, also called "fee-for-service."

But there's a glaring, enormous red flag here:

• An individual mandate . This requires people to buy insurance, unless they qualify for a hardship exemption. The expectation is that everyone will be covered, either through their employer or through the exchange. People who don't buy insurance will have to pay a penalty on their taxes.

So, wait, those of us who can't afford health insurance are about to be penalized for walking around without it? Wait, wait, wait - where was the discussion of this? And what makes it even worse is that the lowest cost option may be completely off the table.

What's Currently In Negotiation

• Obama has backed away from a public coverage option. I first heard about this on Meet the Press yesterday, when Texas Representative Dick(face) Armey brought up his opposition to it. First, though, he had to try to get in some lies, which co-guest Rachel Maddow quickly shut down:

FMR. REP. DICK ARMEY (R-TX): Not, not whatsoever. Not when you see the kind of extreme thing you just saw, the-you know, I had my differences with President Bush, George W. Bush, there's no doubt about it. They were well aware of that. But when moveon.org ran those ads that compared President Bush with, with Adolf Hitler, I thought it was despicable.

MS. RACHEL MADDOW: They never did that.

REP. ARMEY: They did do it. I'll show you the ad.

MS. MADDOW: They didn't do that. They never ran an ad that compared...

REP. ARMEY: All right. Anyway. All right.

MS. MADDOW: MoveOn never ran an ad that compared Bush to Hitler.

REP. ARMEY: All right.

Then, Rep. Liar-Liar-Pants-on-Fire decided to explain that we wouldn't need a public option if we were simply able to buy insurance across state lines:

REP. ARMEY: It's an unfair fight. If you read the bill, they've built in taxes, regulations, administrations, requirements, fines, penalties that discourage the private option. But we have 1300 private insurance companies in America. If you want competition in the purchasing of insurance, just listen, just listen in to Congressman Shadegg from Arizona and let people buy across lines. Why can't I live in Texas, buy my insurance in Oklahoma? What if I were-Michigan passed a law that says if you live in Michigan you can't buy a car made in Alabama? You'd think me silly. But what you have now-so the fact of the matter is, let us have fair competition, my freedom to choose among the 1300 already existing private companies. The government is what prevents that from happening.

Luckily, Ms. Maddow don't play that:

MS. MADDOW: I don't know what state in the country has secretly more awesome health care than every other state in the country. I sort of feel like every state in the country is in the same pickle when it comes to out-of-control costs, dissatisfying coverage and a huge number of uninsured people. That's not going to be made better by allowing insurance to be bought across state lines. I think that the private insurance companies would be really, really, really excited if what came out of this debate was a requirement that Americans buy more private insurance that they were dissatisfied with, that allowed them to be dropped for-precluded from pre-existing conditions all the other things they do. There needs to be serious reform of private insurance, and the only way to get that is to have a public option that people can choose if private insurance continues to not insure our needs as a country.

This one goes out to Rachel Maddow:

On a side note to President Obama: No bitchassness. (For clarification, we are using definition one, specifically, "overall stank actions towards others through words, facial expressions, and/or song [...] throwing large amounts of shade").

The crisis in heath care isn't only that it's prohibitively expensive. It's how many Americans are subsequently uninsured because of the cost/lack of availability of heath care. Estimates vary, but at a minimum, 29 million Americans are uninsured, and a maximum number is close to 44 million.

Without a public option, what are we left with? While digital options like the exchange and streamlining billing will help cut costs, where does that leave those without the means to pay for insurance? Or the working poor, who may be offered insurance, but can't afford that kind of expense?

(Example - when I was 19, I worked at a restaurant. The average worker brought home maybe five or six hundred dollars a week. Our employers decided to offer coverage - at the rate of $300 a month. What did we get for the $300? Nothing. High co-pays, high deductibles, and a lot of things that weren't covered. One of my coworkers remarked he'd rather roll the dice in the emergency room, since it would probably end up cheaper.)

What We Don't Have a Clear Idea On

As the debate rolls onward, there are a lot of questions still pending, but the major one is how are we going to pay for this? Politifact says:

• Cost: The plan doesn't come cheap. Covering millions of people who are now uninsured will cost billions more per year. As a way to raise revenues, Obama has proposed reducing the deductions that the wealthy are allowed to take on their taxes. The House of Representatives rejected that, deciding instead on a new tax surcharge for the wealthiest households. We're still waiting to see what kind of tax measure the Senate will consider. [...] What kind of new taxes will be used to pay for health care? The Senate seems unlikely to go along with the House idea to put a surcharge on the wealthy. The Finance Committee has considered all sorts of ideas, including taxes on soda pop or capping the tax-exempt status of employer-provided insurance. What they will finally decide on is one of the great unknowns.

Aside from cost and coverage, what is the point of healthcare reform if it just plays the shell game with what we already have on the table? Obviously, if Dick(face) Armey's "1300 private companies" were doing something correct, we'd all be clamoring to join the ones that work.

But the non-partisan group over at the Institute of Medicine warns that our outlook is so grim, even existing coverage is under siege:

A number of ominous signs point to a continuing decline in health insurance coverage in the United States. Health care costs and insurance premiums are growing substantially faster than the economy and family incomes. Rising health care costs and a severely weakened economy threaten not only employer- sponsored insurance, the cornerstone of private health coverage in the United States, but also threaten recent expansions in public coverage. There is no evidence to suggest that the trends driving loss of insurance coverage will reverse without concerted action.

Overall, fewer workers, particularly those with lower wages, are offered employer-sponsored insurance, and fewer among the workers that are offered such insurance can afford the premiums. Moreover, employment has shifted away from industries with traditionally high rates of coverage, such as manufacturing, to service jobs, such as wholesale and retail trades, with historically lower rates of coverage. In some industries, employers have relied more heavily on jobs without health benefits, including part-time and shorter-term employment, and contract and temporary jobs.

In addition, early retirees are less likely to be offered retiree health insurance benefits than in the past. The states and the federal government have increased substantially health insurance coverage among low-income children and, to a lesser degree, among adults in the last decade. While these coverage expansions have mitigated the overall numbers of uninsured, many states are now under extreme economic pressures to cut their recent expansions of public programs.

Ultimately, we need to stay engaged with this issue up to the very end. After all, we've already lost end-of-life counseling and a public option - what will be sacrificed next on the altar of bipartisanship?

The Truth-O-Meter On Health Care: Our Greatest Hits, Vol. 1 [Politifact]Health Care Reform: A Simple Explanation [Politifact]
White House Backs Away From Public Health Care Option [Politico]
Transcript: Meet The Press [MSNBC]
Definition: Bitchassness [Urban Dictionary]
Comparing Federal Government Surveys that Count Uninsured People in America [rwjf.org]
America's Uninsured Crisis: Consequences For Health And Health Care [Institute of Medicine]

The "One Poll," whatever that is, asked "2600 lesbians " who their hero was. No word on whether they were given free choice or given a list of "popular entertainers," although some of the picks have us leaning towards the latter. Anyway, the world's prom queen, Angelina Jolie, was rated #1, "due to her figure, physique and fashion sense. " One more hurdle cleared in the path to world domination?

The entire "top 20" list is as follows:

1. Angelina Jolie

2. Madonna

3. Pink

4. Martina Navratilova

5. Ellen DeGeneres

6. Kylie Minogue

7. Lady Gaga

8. Annie Lennox

9. Beyoncé

10. Germaine Greer

11. Liza Minnelli

12. Gwen Stefani

13. Cher

14. Janet Jackson

15. Tori Amos

16. Britney Spears

17. Cyndi Lauper

18. Scarlet Johansson

19. Sarah Jessica Parker

20. Dolly Parton

Listen, we defend any lesbian's right to lionize an asinine group of people - and hell, who doesn't love Dolly? - but we must confess to a little surprise that a list of lesbian heroes contained only two, you know, lesbians. And no offense to any of them, but we find it a little hard to believe that Sarah Jessica Parker, Liza, and ScarJo - what, no Katy Perry? - beat out the following:

- Rachel Maddow. C'mon now. Maybe it's a British poll, but we like to think some things transcend a common language. Cher did! And maybe more straight women would sleep with Angelina (since these polls are always forcing them to pull a Katy Perry), but more smart straight women would choose Maddow. And wait for it - we'd also hang out with her platonically!

- Wanda Sykes. Out, proud, ballsy, funny? We see your Britney Spears (wtf?) and raise you.

-Sandra Bernhard. You want icons? We personally think she should knock Madonna down several rungs.

-Beth Ditto. Pink's fine and all, but here's an actual activist who also happens to write her own music, be a fashion icon, and rock.

-Jeanette Winterson. We're glad Germaine Greer made the cut, but Winterson's that rare thing, a smart bestseller.

And if we want classics, sure you need Ellen and Martina, but seriously, people - what about Melissa Etheridge?

(Oh, wait, Angelina Jolie's flack just appeared at the door with a gun. We take it back.)

Angelina Jolie Is Ultimate Lesbian Heroine [Telegraph]

Maddow began by discussing the pro-life extremists who want to use Dr. Tiller's murder as a rallying point for their movement:

Mr. Troy Newman told "The Associated Press," quote, "I would love to make an offer on that abortion clinic and some of the discussion that we are having."

So, the official reaction of the super right-wing fringe to the assassination in its name, of its cause, is to make George Tiller‘s place of business a triumphant symbol for themselves, a symbol of their victory over the murdered doctor.

Maddow went on to interview Jennifer Boulanger, the director of the Allentown Women's Center, about threats the organization has received recently. Last Saturday, a man reportedly walked up to a volunteer working at the Allentown clinic and asked her, "How do you prefer to die, by knife or by bullet?" Boulanger says that since Tiller's death, she's been seeing more incidents like this:

We‘ve had malicious calls. Not a bomb threat but calls similar to the one you played in Texas. We‘ve had-we‘ve been targeted by a number of malicious calling events. We‘ve been targeted since the beginning of the year. I think abortion providers across the country have been targeted since Obama was inaugurated.

But now, since Dr. Tiller has been murdered, it‘s just-they feel even more empowered and we‘re seeing an anger that we‘ve never seen before.

But many pro-lifers don't seem too worried about the increased threats of violence being leveled at clinic workers. Yesterday afternoon, anti-abortion activist and former Operation Rescue leader Randall Terry hosted a press conference, complete with hot wings and beer, to discuss the pro-life movement, the murder of Dr. George Tiller, and the "role" of the Obama administration, which Terry says makes extreme and violent acts "inevitable." He expresses his hopes that Tiller's tragic slaying will "propel the movement forward and not backward, but it in part depends upon us" (full audio here, if you can stomach it). TPM reports:

Terry spent much of his presentation drawing a tortured analogy between abortion and slavery. Pro-life Americans, Terry said, are the ethical heirs of Northern abolitionists, who refused to flinch when the violent Nat Turner rebellion sent Southern slave owners into an angry panic. Tiller's murder, he reasoned, was like the Turner rebellion—the sort of event that becomes inevitable when systemic injustice thrives. "They want to blame our rhetoric," Terry said. "They don't want to face that child killing has something so insidious inside of it that it will boil over and create havoc and heartache and violence."

Right. So a woman's right to choose is somehow analogous with the institutionalized torture and bondage of sixty million and more who suffered under slavery? Okay.

And in other bad news, the Arizona Senate may pass legislation that would further restrict the availability of abortions. The two bills, which have been recommended for passage, would require women to undergo a 24-hour waiting period before undergoing the procedure, and would increase penalties for performing late-term abortions. The bills have already received tacit support from Republican Gov. Jan Brewer.

Rachel Maddow uncovers new threats on abortion clinics [Crooks and Liars]
Terry Says Obama Makes Attacks Inevitable; Also Serves Beer, Wings [Talking Points Memo]
Abortion bills progress in Arizona Senate [UPI]

• Hillary Clinton is having a lottery to retire her campaign debt — and the prizes are a day in New York with Bill, one in D.C. with James Carville, or American Idol tickets. [Washington Post]

• Karl Rove called Vice President Joe Biden a serial exaggerator, a liar and a blowhard. Apparently, Rove sees Mr. Biden in the mirror every morning. [Politico]
• Rove also had a run-in at a restaurant with former Congressman Tom Feeney's former chief of staff. Rove said that Feeney lost his re-election because he was stupid, his staffer took exception and Rove admitted he has a file of everything Feeney ever said that disagreed with Bush. Is it just me or does Karl Rove actually seem more evil and crazy now than he used to? [Politico]
• Alabama Congressman Spencer Bachus has a list of all the Socialists in Congress. Spencer Bachus sees Karl Rove being chased by Bolsheviks in his mirror every morning. [Huffington Post]
• Conservative blogger Erick Erickson thinks Levi and Mercede Johnston are fucking. Some people write about politics, other people write about their masturbatory fantasies. [Huffington Post]
• Bill O'Reilly really hates the Eminem video portraying Sarah Palin because it features neither loofahs nor falafel. [Us Weekly]
• Barack Obama himself prefers pizza. [People]
• And Obama wants more money to finish up those Iraq and Afghanistan wars. [Washington Post]
• And, finally, the best and possibly only good thing about the day: watch Rachel Maddow say "teabagging" over and over again, only to be joined by Ana Marie Cox, who then says "teabagging" over and over again, and Maddow only loses it once. That's a news professional, or Howard Stern's sidekick, for you.

• Joaquin Phoenix's rap career: An elaborate hoax? Sort of.

More of an "art project," in which he's pretending to have a meltdown and change careers. While bro-in-law Casey Affleck films it all. [EW]

• Amy Winehouse. Topless. Playing Scrabble. [The Sun]
• Oh no: Nancy Cartwright, the voice of Bart Simpson, is making robocalls for Scientology. Using Bart Simpson's voice, and saying, "Hey, this is Bart Simpson — Just kidding!" This is bad news bears. [Perez]
• Gary Oldman has a simple explanation for how he came to accept Heath Ledger's SAG award: "We went for a wonderful meal with [Heath's] family in New York, we got on very well. [Later] they called and said, 'Would I pick it up for [Heath] if he won?'" [Mirror]
• Did Kate Winslet "blow her chance" to win an Oscar by forgetting Angelina Jolie at the Golden Globes? [Telegraph]
• The parents of two kids in Slumdog Millionaire claim the movie may be making millions, but they continue to live in "grinding poverty." One father says: "I am very happy the movie is doing so well, but it is making so much money and so much fame and the money they paid us is nothing." [Telegraph]
• More Slumdog issues: A social activist in Mumbai has filed a complaint in a local court against director Danny Boyle, saying the film's title is damaging and discriminating. The guy has also named some stray dogs after the Danny Boyle and the stars of the film. He explains: "When the British ruled India, they called Indians 'dogs'. Why do we want to call these poor children 'dogs' 60 years after we got independence?" [Yahoo News via Reuters]
• Jessica Simpson's workout 2005 video was squashed by Big Daddy Joe Simpson, but if you follow this link you'll find a clip from the tape and audio from Jessica's business manager, in which he calls Jess a bitch and Joe an asshole. [Defamer]
• Guy Ritchie's dad, John, is pretty damn pleased his son is not with Madonna anymore. He tells In Touch: "The worst thing would be if they reconciled" and he's happy Madge has "lots of boyfriends" since it means she'll leave Guy alone. He also says: "There are no big arguments between them. All they discuss is the children." [Perez]
• Will Paris Hilton hit on Prince Harry now that he's single? "I think he's a nice guy, I love Chelsy though - I think she's so sweet - so I wouldn't try anything." [Telegraph]
• Why did Prince Harry and Chelsy Davy break up? Maybe time and distance pulled them apart. Maybe the relationship had "run its course." [People]
• Wait a minute: Kate Middleton is allergic to horses? Does polo-playing Prince William know? Does the Queen know? [Daily Mail]
• Whoa: Kelly Rowland has fired manager Matthew Knowles, who's always been like a dad to her. Was she sick of playing second banana to Beyoncé? [Bossip]
• Michael Jackson has serious, serious problems, including massive debt and, um, the Thriller musical. [Fox 411]
• Salma Hayek and Harvey Weinstein threw a Hollywood Hills bash to honor Penelope Cruz's Oscar nod, and everyone was there: Scarlett Johansson and hubby Ryan Reynolds, Ashton Kutcher and wife Demi Moore, Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones, Antonio Banderas and wife Melanie Griffith, Charlize Theron and partner Stuart Townsend, and Angela Bassett and hubby Courtney B. Vance. Oh, and Colin Farrell. And Prince. ScarJo has dark hair now. [Gatecrasher]
• Catherine Zeta-Jones has homegrown kitchen beauty secrets: Honey and salt to exfoliate; beer shampoo; apple or strawberry for toothpaste. [Daily Mail]
• Apparently, when Jessica Alba called Bill O'Reilly "kind of an a-hole," he shot back and called her a pinhead for telling a reporter to "Be Sweden about it," assuming she meant Switzerland. Alba blogged on her MySpace: "Last week, Mr. Bill O'Reilly and some really classy sites (i.e.TMZ) insinuated I was dumb by claiming Sweden was a neutral country. I appreciate the fact that he is a news anchor and that gossip sites are inundated with intelligent reporting, but seriously people... it's so sad to me that you think the only neutral country during WWII was Switzerland." Turns out Sweden was neutral and Alba was right. And O'Reilly is an a-hole. [MSNBC]
• Who comes from royalty? Whose family owned slaves? Sarah Jessica Parker and Susan Sarandon will star in NBC's genealogy reality series Who Do You Think You Are? Lisa Kudrow is executive producing the show, which explores celeb ancestral histories. [Reuters via Hollywood Reporter]
• The ladies pictured with Russell Brand yesterday have spoken to the press. "Russell took his clothes off as soon as we got through his front door. He was definitely wanting a threesome — and he thought he was going to get one," says the one who was wearing a blue onesie and white stilettos for the night. The women left because they "had a photoshoot." Russell gave the paper a different version of events: "Those women were at Brand Towers as they assured me they were qualified engineers and could fix my washing machine. I only took my clothes off 'cos I wanted to bung a load in. The washing machine is still broke but my clothes are remarkably unstained." [Daily Mail]
• Keith Olbermann, Tyra Banks, Suze Orman, Gus Van Sant, k.d. lang, Ellen DeGeneres and Rachel Maddow: All nominated for GLAAD awards. [Page Six]
• NYC socialite Olivia Palermo wants to be a serious actress. That's why she is on The City, a "reality" show. [Page Six]
• Blind item! "Which married Oscar winner was caught pants- down in a club closet, getting naughty with a tranny? The waitress who walked in on the pair was so stunned, she dropped her drink tray." [Gatecrasher]
• Hotel mogul and Las Vegas billionaire Steve Wynn has split with his wife Elaine. [Page Six]
• Private Practice/Grey's Anatomy crossover alert! Kate Walsh, Audra McDonald and Taye Diggs will be on the February 12 episode of Grey's. [UPI]
• Kylie Minogue has recorded a song with kiddie band The Wiggles, because she has a 2-year-old nephew she wants to impress. "Now Charles really will think I’m cool," she says. "I hope he likes the song. It was fun to do. I might even grab a shirt and go on tour with the boys. I’m not sure what colour I will be." [The Sun]
• Debbie Matenopoulos's ex-husband claims she "pays for nothing" related to their multimillion-dollar Los Angeles home. He's demanding that she help pay the mortgage, agree to refinance, or move out and sell the home. He also admits that they both "continuously lived beyond our means during our marriage." Messy business! [People]
• Paul McCartney's publicist on the Paul McCartney wedding rumor: "No truth to it." [Yahoo News via E!]
• 50 Cent's manager is among the many who lost money via Bernie Madoff. How much? "Nothing to talk about. It's not life-threatening." [Page Six]
• Lauren Hutton was seen yelling at her help. [Page Six]
• Gene Simmons has signed on with Universal Music Canada and created his own record label, Simmons records. He writes: If you’re reading this and you’re in a Canadian band (only!!!)….and you believe you’re the next Elvis or Beatles (don’t we all…)…go to SIMMONSRECORDS.COM and we will tell you how YOU can submit your electronic demo. This is serious.” Well okay then. [Rolling Stone]
• Noel Gallagher says Oasis saved him from a life of crime: "There’s one less criminal in Burnage because I picked up the guitar. There’s one less shoplifter in Manchester." [The Sun]
• Michael Crichton left money to tons of people in his will. [TMZ]
• Isla Fisher has joined the cast of Rango, a Gore Verbinski-directed animated flick about a pet who goes on an adventure; Johnny Depp is the lead voice and Abigal Breslin has also been cast. [Variety]
• Chic people like Liz Goldwyn, Emmanuelle Seigner and Lou Doillon were at the Givenchy show in Paris, and you were not. [WWD]
• What do we think about Solange covering a Coldplay song? [Concrete Loop]
• This was bound to happen: Kanye West has changed his name. You may now call him Martin ‘Louis’ The King Jr., because he has his own Louis Vuitton shoes now. [Pop Crunch]
• "Love and light is mentioned a lot on the album. Parts of it are dark and edgy. It could be because I’ve been through a dark place. I am a man who needs love. Every man needs love, guys like romance. I do anyway." — Paul McCartney on his latest album, and maybe that "dark place" is the soul of Heather Mills. [The Sun]
• "That sweat is real and there is a lot of it. I said, 'Listen, we're going to show me exactly as I am and I'm going to sweat. Just towel me up.' Luckily, I had good waterproof makeup on and my hair stayed looking kind of cute. But that's the real deal. I'm sweating like a pig." — Lisa Rinna on her workout DVD. [Parade]
• "For five seasons I was stuck doing this character. It was kind of hard always having to play that character when it's not who I am… I just say jokes but people think I'm serious which I think is funny and I think I kind of play up to the image sometimes because - whatever - it's entertainment." — Paris Hilton. [Mirror]
• "My typical morning these days would be to get up at 6:30am, make breakfast, get Beatrice up, get her dressed and watch some TV. I don't have a nanny I do all the regular stuff myself. I take her to school, talk to all the mums, talk to the teacher then pick her up from school. I love every second of it and I'm not exhausted at all. People say, I'm up at 6:30am, what is going on? But I genuinely love it. It's a thrill bringing up a young kid, it's such an education. I am a different dad now but it's good." — Paul McCartney, 66, on life with a five-year-old. [Telegraph]
• I am completely disgusted by the headlines concerning my sister's weight. A week after the inauguration and with such a feeling of hope in the air for our country, I find it completely embarrassing and belittling to all women to read about a woman's weight or figure as a headline on Fox News. All women come in different shapes, sizes, and forms and just because you're a celebrity, there shouldn't be a different standard. Is this something you would say to your wife, daughter, mother, grandmother, or even a friend? I seriously doubt it. How can we expect teenage girls to love and respect themselves in an environment where we criticize a size 2 figure? Now can we focus on the things that really matter." — Ashlee Simpson. [ONTD via MySpace]

On MSNBC, Chris Matthews, who can go from curmudgeon to emo in 2.4 seconds when he's excited about something, couldn't stop gushing about our new First Couple, discussing their romance with Jezebel Girl Crush, Rachel Maddow:

MATTHEWS: It’s what my wife calls…She has a term for it. I can’t think of what it is now. It’s different than that. But I must say something, James Carville said politics is Hollywood for ugly people. These people, the actors they hired to play them couldn’t be better looking. I can say that of both families today. This is an incredibly glamourous bunch of people we watched in the reviewing stand today. Extraordinarily so. This picture would be hard to beat if Hollywood replicated it…

RACHEL MADDOW: They are modeling a married romance, that is moving…

MATTHEWS: Looks like two people on top of a wedding cake. Look at this stuff…

MADDOW: They are teasing each other. They are tender — beautiful.

MATTHEWS: This is not a political marriage, per se. No comment further…

At first, I laughed, as it seemed like a very Matthews-in-gushy-mode thing to say. But Rachel's comment about "modeling a married romance" really stuck with me, and when I tried to think of another famous couple in recent years that has really presented a believable and natural sense of true love and romance, it was hard to come up with any.

I always feel weird commenting on the President and First Lady in this way: there is a public interest in this presidency that hasn't been there in some time: we have a rock star leader, a celebrity, a glamorous pair whose every fashion choice seems to be documented. There's a disconnect between the President and his wife and the rest of the celebrity couples out there: celebrity couples often give off a sense of desperation, calculation, and it's hard to believe that any of them will last. The Obamas have already been together for 16 years, before the campaigns and the fancy balls and the international celebrity. And unlike Brangelina or some such, where the speculation and the gossip drowns out any sense of reality, one gets the sense that the Obamas truly are in love.

So the notion that the Obamas are, in fact, modeling a "married romance" doesn't seem too far off the mark. Which is a bit sad if you think about it: in this insanely wedding-obsessed culture we live in, the focus seems to be on the ceremony, and not the marriage itself. We hear all about wedding plans and sappy honeymoons, but rarely do we see an example of a couple who has stood the test of time and still appears to be madly in love with one another, at least not on an extremely public scale.

It's strange to read comments about the Obamas, in that people seem genuinely moved and excited at the prospect of a couple who are still, quite clearly, in love with one another, who still blush when they are dancing, who still smile as if they just met, who still hold hands in public and hold each other's attention, even when the entire world is screaming their names. Perhaps it speaks to a generation such as mine, which was filled with the divorces of many of our parents, that hey! married people can actually make it, that love doesn't necessarily die out or fade away. And while the Obamas certainly never asked to be the symbol of "married romance" perhaps, without even trying, and just by being themselves, they are once again giving off tiny rays of hope.

Matthews: Not A Political Marriage [Columbia Journalism Review]

A well-placed source at 30 Rock (the building, not the television show) tells us that when Maddow arrived for her fitting, she was shown to the Vogue closet — and a row of Louboutins that our source was dying to pet. As you can see, however, Maddow insisted on sticking to her standard Converse, wearing a Jil Sander suit that wouldn't seem out of place behind her desk and keeping on her sexy librarian glasses. (Our source also confirms Maddow's claim that Page Six made up the story about MSNBC trying to de-dyke her.) So much for the worries about Andre Leon Talley — who our source says is such a huge fan of Maddow's (and Olberman's) that he chatted with her about the last three days' worth of shows.

Fashion aside, Maddow's not planning on turning into a loyal Democratic sycophant when Obama takes office. She told Vogue:

"I guess I'm interested in making fun of bad ideas, regardless of who has them," she says. "Obviously you don't want to randomly scour the world for bad ideas. You want to respond to influential bad ideas. So if you end up in a situation where there isn't a loyal opposition, where the Republican Party is in disarray and isn't really surfacing in the discussion, then they won't be the people I'm making fun of. I will be making fun of the Democrats or the supposed experts."

And although Maddow isn't the type to get girly in order to get ahead in broadcast news, she's not totally immune to reactions to how she looks, either.

Tonight, Maddow is feeling exhausted, having spent the last month inventing The Rachel Maddow Show, and is concerned about last night's show, given some chatter about her tiredness. She turns to Mikula.

"It was all over the Twitter feed, man!" she says.

"It was obvious. I'm sorry," says [her partner Susan] Mikula.

"In the way that I looked, or the way that I was behaving?"

"You had visible black under your eyes."

"How was I tonight?" Maddow asks.

"You looked fresh as a daisy."

The rest of the piece concern Katie Couric and Campbell Brown, the other break-out anchors of the campaign. Couric, who's been in the spotlight the longest, has also had more than her share of ups and downs in the anchor's chair, from being criticized (by Nora Ephron) for her makeup to being lambasted for having the audacity to try to change the crappy format of the dying evening news program.

"I've had some pretty down days," Couric admits. "One thing I didn't realize when I talked about getting out of your comfort zone is that sometimes you're uncomfortable." Pat Mitchell, a friend and former anchor who now runs the Paley Center for Media, remembers, "At one point she said to me, 'I haven't changed. What changed here?' "

Katie Couric, in effect, went to being everyone's sweetheart on Today to being thought unqualified for her job and her salary despite her decades of media experience.

Campbell Brown, too, recognizes sexism when she sees it (or, more likely, experiences it). She went from NBC to CNN, rising quickly due to commentary that managed to be insightful without being too politically biased — and, god knows, we all liked seeing her rip Tucker Bounds a new one and asking the McCainiacs to free Sarah Palin. Although Vogue doesn't ask her whether her marriage to Republican strategist Dan Senor insulates her, to a degree, from the rapid right-wing attacks faced by other media types when they criticize Republicans, the magazine does ask her about what it's like to be the one in the middle, politically speaking.

The other cable news shows on Fox and MSNBC are clearly defined outlets of the left and the right. "My competition have an automatic punching bag," Brown says, "and an audience that wants their opinions validated each night. We finally learned to articulate things; I found a freedom because I am able to do commentary at the beginning." She does not attack, but she challenges. To Elizabeth Dole, on the occasion of her "Godless" ads against her opponent: "We're fighting two wars, our economy is a disaster.…Cut it out, reclaim your dignity. Please, please, just tell us what you think you can do to help get this country back on track."

Shaping the News [Vogue]

Related: Way to Skirt The Issue [Page 6]
Rachel Maddow: ‘It’s Hilarious That ‘Page Six’ Just Runs Stuff That They Make Up’ [Daily Intel]

Earlier: Rachel Maddow: Mag Hag
CNN's Campbell Brown Turns McCain's Accusation Of Sexism On Its Head

• Now that it's been a full year of shitty economic news, we are officially in a recession and have been for a year. Aren't you glad to know? [MSNBC]
• The market is not glad to know, and it slid almost 700 points after learning the obvious. [NY Times]
• In other obvious news, Condoleezza Rice doesn't plan to give much advice to Hillary Clinton. What advice she does give, we're guessing Clinton doesn't plan on following. [MSNBC]
• Bill Clinton is pretty happy about Hillary's nomination, though. [Real Clear Politics]

• White people at CNN just don't know 'bout Susan Rice, our soon-to-be Ambassador to the UN. [Think Progress]
• Joe Biden gave his first post-election speech today, so people wouldn't forget that he's about to be VP. [Politico]
• Palin talked, too, at a rally for Saxby Chambliss, so people wouldn't forget that she wanted to be VP before she wanted to be President. [Politico]
• Saxby Chambliss pervily grabbed himself some incestuous tween side-boob in a new commercial. [Indecision 2008]
• The Department of Homeland Security is more fucked up than watching Saxby Chambliss feel his tween granddaughter's breast. [Boston Globe]
• LGBT rights organization Impact-Florida plans to protest Governor Charlie Crist's (fey, if not gay) marriage this weekend, because protesting breeder weddings is a good plan to get more voters on your side. [The Sun Coast News]
• The cherub-faced Chairman of the FCC, Kevin Martin, wants to force the winner of a new wireless auction to set aside a portion of its win for free, porn-free wifi. Apparently, Republicans are all into not regulating the market until it comes to porn, when they get are regulatory up in there. [Silicon Alley Insider]
• Former Clintonista Phil Singer thinks Chris Matthews should get off the air if he's going to start campaigning for Arlen Specter's Senate seat. [Politico]
• Tina Brown thinks Rachel Maddow should get the coveted Meet The Press chair, among other, non-boring people. [Daily Beast]
• With Hillary Clinton's imminent resignation from her Senate seat, two names keep popping up: New York Attorney General Andrew "Shucking And Jiving Is Not A Racist Term, I Swear" Cuomo and Bill Clinton. And you thought nothing could get you to vote for Bill again. [The Hill, CNN]

When Left Is Right [Newsweek]

Is 'Senator Palin' A Possibility? [The Rachel Maddow Show]

• Only a few more days until the election, and Barack Obama is doing us a solid by appearing with two of our favorites: Rachel Maddow and Jon Stewart.
• You know who is so not our favorite? Former Ms. editor turned turned Palin proponent Elaine Lafferty.
• John McCain is also on our shit list for his female-unfriendly health plan.
• However, we are totally in love with this Price Is Right-inspired Marie Claire fashion spread. Childhood nostalgia come on down!
• But truly, nothing says nostalgia like these pictures of our childhood Halloween costumes.
• Also making us nostalgic: thinking about raiding our moms' closets.

• Like the timelessness of our mothers' garments, the grossness of American Apparel founder Dov Charney will last forever.
• At least his name's not Tucker. He's got that going for him!
• A better kind of American apparel: Michelle Obama's J. Crew duds inspiring a shopping spree.
• You guys, it's Friday. So replay the Obama infomerical and cry big, hopeful tears. You deserve it!