PunditGuy

Via the Boston Globe:

The nation’s new education secretary denounced PBS yesterday for spending public money on a cartoon with lesbian characters, saying many parents would not want their children exposed to such lifestyles.

The not-yet-aired episode of “Postcards From Buster” shows the title character, an animated bunny, on a trip to Vermont — a state known for recognizing same-sex civil unions. The episode features two lesbian couples, although the focus is on farm life and maple sugaring.

A PBS spokesman said late yesterday that the nonprofit network has decided not to distribute the episode, called “Sugartime!,” to its 349 stations. She said the Education Department’s objections were not a factor in that decision.

“Ultimately, our decision was based on the fact that we recognize this is a sensitive issue, and we wanted to make sure that parents had an opportunity to introduce this subject to their children in their own time,” said Lea Sloan, vice president of media relations at PBS.

Bravo.

THANK YOU MARGARET SPELLINGS! It’s about time a secretary of education moves to combat the elitists that spend our tax dollars to run PBS as a vehicle to indoctrinate our children with a radical agenda that is out of step with a majority of Americans.

Margaret, while your at it, NPR and the NEA need some cleaning too.

Via CNN:

When two men walked into a popular country store outside Atlanta, announced a holdup and fired a shot, owners Bobby and Gloria Doster never hesitated. The pair pulled out their own pistols and opened fire.

The armed suspect and his partner were killed. The Dosters won’t be charged, according to local officials, because they were acting in self-defense.

“I just started shooting,” said Gloria Doster, 56. “I was trying to blow his brains out is what I was trying to do.”

And that’s the last time the Dosters will ever be robbed. God Bless ’em.

Note to future convenience store robbers…steer clear of hitting any store in the deep south. Chances are good that the owner is packing anything from a .44 or .45 semi-automatic to a bazooka, and they aint gonna ask any questions first.

Via Drudge:

ANOTHER COLUMNIST WAS PAID TO PROMOTE BUSH PROPOSAL
Tue Jan 25 2005 20:13:59 ET

In 2002, syndicated columnist Maggie Gallagher repeatedly defended President Bush’s push for a $300 million initiative encouraging marriage as a way of strengthening families.

But Gallagher failed to mention that she had a $21,500 contract with the Department of Health and Human Services to help promote the president’s proposal, reveals Howard Kurtz in Wednesday runs of the WASHINGTON POST.

“The Bush marriage initiative would emphasize the importance of marriage to poor couples” and “educate teens on the value of delaying childbearing until marriage,” she wrote in National Review Online, for example, adding that this could “carry big payoffs down the road for taxpayers and children.”

Gallagher explains to Kurtz: “Did I violate journalistic ethics by not disclosing it? I don’t know. You tell me.” She said she would have “been happy to tell anyone who called me” about the contract but that “frankly, it never occurred to me” to disclose it.

National Review Editor Rich Lowry said of the HHS contract: “We would have preferred that she told us, and we would have disclosed it in her bio.”

Forget for a moment the whole issue of disclosure, etc. Yes, I know that’s the meat of the story, but when I read this, one thing came to my mind. Why is it that when caught with a hand in the cookie jar, the first instinct is to say something like “No one asked me, so I didn’t say anything”? Explanations like this never cut it. In PR terms, this is a no no. It’s better to just shut up and not comment. Then, she makes matters worse by saying, “frankly, it never occurred to me” to disclose. This is like spoon feeding the critics.

Gallagher has made her bed.

I’m watching Sky News in my London hotel room right now (5:09 PM GMT), airing live the arrival of the Royal Air Force cargo plane carrying the four British detainees. I’ve been amazed at the anti-American comments made by the various reporters and guests that Sky News has had on during the live coverage, which hasn’t been all that exciting really.  One thing is clear – they’re completely disgusted by the way the men had been held in Guantanamo Bay. They are insinuating that the U.S. has betrayed the UK, their prime ally, by treating these British citizens wrongly.

Whatever.

The new president of Ukraine has a blog, and an RSS feed.

Update: OK, so it’s not EXACTLY a blog, but hey, just a personal story or two and it’ll qualify.

More: A potential New blog entry?

Still More: Here’s the English edition.

Giving the symbolic Dukakis “Kiss of Death”, Clinton worshiper Susan Estrich writes that Hillary Clinton may be the only way the Democrats can regain the White House.

As some of you already know, I’m in the UK on business – so, today I’m doing meetings and such which means that the bloggin is taking a back seat. I’ll check in later.

Via the San Francisco Chronicle, Verne Kopytoff interviews a few bloggers (including yours truly) about blogs as an emerging source of news.

Leave it to Arthur Chrenkoff to put together a very helpful guide to the major players in the upcoming Iraqi election. This is a great primer for those of us who find it difficult to keep all the parties and peoples straight.

Apparently, today is the worse day of the year, so says a University of Cardiff Professor who has put together a formula that points to the 24th of January as the most depressing day out of the 365 for the year. They’re making a huge deal out of this in the UK. This morning, each of the dozen or so morning news programs had some segment on it, interviewing the “classes” of people. The general consensus is, if you’re working class, you’re depressed. If you’re upper class, you’re tolerating it, and if you’re super class, EVERY DAY IS WONDERFUL. Heh.