Quick Hits

Very happy to have Wi-Fi on this shoot. Not that I'm needed much for it anyway, so it gives me something to do. Here's a check of the news:

• Thailand was actually the first foreign country I ever visited, outside of Mexico and Canada. So I tend to follow the situation over there a little bit, and it kind of came as a shock to me when I heard about the coup going on there today. My impression was that the Prime Minister survived the recent election and, despite his relative unpopularity, he would continue. Thailand typically has so many US visitors, I hope the State Department is on this making sure our nationals are safe.

• Hungary's rioting too. Who knew that citizens would be moved to demand a leader's resignation after he admits lying to win an election?

• From the folks that brought you "Man Vs. Beast" and "Temptation Island," it's FoxFaith!

The home entertainment division of Rupert Murdoch's movie studio plans to produce as many as a dozen films a year under a banner called FoxFaith. At least six of those films will be released in theaters under an agreement with two of the nation's largest chains, AMC Theatres and Carmike Cinemas.

The first theatrical release, called "Love's Abiding Joy," is scheduled to hit the big screen Oct. 6. The movie, which cost about $2 million to make, is based on the fourth installment of Christian novelist Janette Oke's popular series, "Love Comes Softly."

"A segment of the market is starving for this type of content," said Simon Swart, general manager of Fox's U.S. home entertainment unit.

I wouldn't say "starving," Christian rock is huge, TBN and EWTN and CBN are mammoth. This is just a corporation jumping on that bandwagon. It's funny that it happens to be the one most associated with depravity and humiliation (and Page 2 girls, in London).

• CT-SEN: Does Joe Lieberman ever bother to show up for work? I know politicians spend more time fundraising than governing, but the Medicare bill might have been one you wouldn't want to skip. Especially the votes that sought to close the odious donut hole, which is catching up to seniors right about now, forcing them to pay full price for the same services they got at a discount earlier in the year.

• I dissed Barack Obama yesterday for refusing to show his principles, and instead telling Democrats what their principles should be. But he nails it in this speech from Louisville last week.



• NJ-SEN: Robert Menendez is the Republican's only hope, really, to pick up a Senate seat. So the New Jersey US Attorney Chris Christie, a Bush Pioneer and general counsel to Bush-Cheney 2000 in New Jersey, has set out to character assassinate by opening subpoenaes into 12 year-old Menendez cases.

True to form, Menendez did not mince his words on Friday when speaking to the State Democratic Convention, stating emphatically, “This is an inquiry into a lease that was executed 12 years ago for a building I sold three years ago. This lease was approved in advance by the House Ethics Committee. Suddenly 61 days before an election a prosecutor appointed by George Bush decides to take an interest, and not coincidentally, leaks to the press follow immediately. There are serious questions about the timing of this inquiry and I will not allow an orchestrated concerted effort to smear and personally destroy those who oppose this administration.”

How many times are we going to see Republican officials with clear conflicts of interests inserting themselves into electoral battles?

• I'm with Chris Bowers and I said this the other day; the media is covering the GOP pie fight without understanding that Democrats are the actual opposition here, and they represent the overwhelming majority of people against the President's sanctioning of torture.

We form the vast majority of the opposition to a piece of legislation, and the AP never quotes a single Democrat, instead portraying Republicans as the opposition to Bush .I'm sure it isn't a coincidence that Republicans around the country are doing everything they can to distance themselves from Bush and try to make themselves look Independent after six years of rubberstamping Bush administration polices. The AP is handing Republicans their desired storyline for this election on a silver platter, and ignoring Democrats altogether.

Democrats deserve equal time in these AP articles, and I am not talking about a token quote here or there. Since four Republicans were quoted in the article on torture legislation, since we form the vast majority of the opposition to the legislation, an equal number of Democrats should be quoted as well. When there is an article about war profiteering, it shouldn't take until the 15th and final paragraph to mention that Democrats are conducting hearings and investigations into these abuses. And at least one Democrat should be quoted when this happens.