Miley Cyrus throws Amanda Seyfried under the bus for her messed up lines at the Oscars. Amanda and Miley presented together and it didn’t go so smoothly…so of course there is blame!

More pictures of Miley and Amanda after the finger point…
 Miley does a lot of these awards shows, so she is a seasoned presenter. Not [...]

For your own good.

Of course McConnell has the Democrats best interests at heart:

As Republicans work to prevent a health-care bill from reaching President Obama, they are scrambling to exploit divisions between Democrats in the House and the Senate.

Speaking to reporters Tuesday, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) warned House Democrats that they would be taking a colossal risk if they approved the Senate’s version of health-care legislation before the Senate had acted to remove some of the bill’s most contentious provisions …

“House Democrats will have to decide whether they want to trust the Senate to fix their political problems,” McConnell said.

Note to House Democrats: working to prevent a health-care bill from reaching President Obama is the actual basis for McConnell’s concern. FYI.

For students, the end of winter quarter means not only final exams and spring break plans, but also course evaluations, those thrice-yearly surveys in which students rate their classes in exchange for an earlier glimpse at their grades.

For p…

Nice.

Faculty Council approved a resolution to give benefits to same-sex domestic partners and discussed a future diversity course requirement at its meeting Thursday.

The council voted unanimously in favor of same-sex domestic partner benefits and…

(No, it didn’t actually happen. It’s The Onion, of course! But apparently that didn’t stop some Palin fans from believing it was the real deal!)

OU will offer a new course designed and proposed by an OU freshman in spring 2011.

Antonin Fusco, University College freshman, brainstormed the idea for a course examining men’s and women’s attitudes toward each other while chatting with frie…

AP:

Sen. Jim Bunning has again blocked the Senate from extending unemployment benefits and health insurance subsidies for the jobless.

[...]

Bunning has been single-handedly blocking the stopgap legislation since Thursday, to the increasing discomfort of Republicans like [Sen. Susan] Collins. Frustrated Democrats have been lobbing attacks at Bunning and his fellow Republicans for days.

Geez, I wonder what that “increasing discomfort” is like. Maybe it’s like the “increasing discomfort” of telling your kids they’re eating cereal for dinner because there’s no more money for hot food.

Yes, Jim Bunning has been continuously objecting to unanimous consent requests from Democrats that the temporary emergency extension be passed by unanimous consent, because he demands there be a debate on the spending.

So when Republican Susan Collins asked unanimous consent this morning that the Senate proceed immediately to that debate, Bunning of course… objected.

UPDATE: Republicans squirm. But not all Republicans!

What is surprising is that Trey Grayson and Rand Paul, the leading Republicans to succeed Bunning, jumped on his one-man band wagon.

Both of them applauded Bunning’s actions. Paul’s campaign even announced that it will hold a rally supporting Bunning’s blockade of aid to the unemployed.

And of course…

Limbaugh: “Jim Bunning is a hero to people”

By Capt. FoggIt’s funny how the things that characterized the United States in its best and most prosperous years are being characterized as bad for the country and a one way valve in the sewer pipe that leads to Marxism, while the days before we ha…

If you have any expectations for the healthcare summit bringing men (mostly) of good faith together to do their job of making good policy for the American people on a bipartisan basis, you can pretty much give up on all that. Better to go into this one with very low expectations. Why? Because the Republicans are showing up.

But let’s back up just a little to set the stage in hcr news today. First, there’s Joe Sudbay’s report on a CREW review showing that “since 2005, health care special interests have invested at least $28 million in the campaigns of House and Senate leaders, chairs and ranking members of committees with primary jurisdiction over health care legislation.” In other words, the summit attendees.

There was also an update on WellPoint’s profit growth: “For the year, WellPoint earned $4.7 billion, or $9.88 a share, nearly double the previous year’s profit of $2.5 billion, or $4.76 a share.” They did sell off a subsidiary, NextRX which accounts for part of that profit, so if you take that out they just made $3 billion in profit. To put a bullet point on this, the House Energy and Commerce Committee had WellPoint executives in the hotseat today: “Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif., said his panel’s investigators had received internal company documents showing that in 2008, 39 company executives received salaries of $1 million or more. And in 2007 and 2008, it spent $27 million for executive retreats, which Democrats said included stays at fancy resorts in Hawaii and Arizona.”

On the other hand, 1,124,457 (the point at which they turned off the counter) American citizens called, faxed, or e-mailed their representative and senators, calling for real reform and sending Congress “scrambling”. Answering that call, Sen. Carl Levin became the 24th signer to the Bennet public option/reconciliation letter. And, of course, Keith Olbermann made a powerful and empassioned plea for the attendees of the summit to remember why they are there.

It seems unlikely that Republican attendees will live up to that wish. They spent a great part of Wednesday railing against reconciliation, calling it the “nuclear option.” Which of course anyone with a memory that extends back five years knows is untrue. Reconciliation is, of course, a regular tool of the Senate, one by which almost all healthcare legislation has passed. And which several of the Republican attendees have full-throatedly supported, when they were in the majority, of course. “A consistent Senate tradition,” John Cornyn called it in 2005. The same year Judd Gregg said: “The point, of course, is this: If you have 51 votes for your position, you win…. We are using the rules of the Senate as they are set up to be used. And that happens to be the rule of the Senate.”

Republicans have also already provided their seven reasons for the illegitimacy of the summit: if Obama were sincere, he’d be willing to start from scratch; Obama released a plan, instead of a “blank sheet of paper;” the plan is too short; the summit is just intended to make Republicans look bad (as if they needed any help on that one); governors weren’t invited; state legislators weren’t invited; and, it’s a waste of the taxpayers’ money (as if they are actually earning their salaries).

Then of course, there is John Boehner, who took it upon himself to demand the White House invite Bart Stupak–as a member of the Republican invitees, a move which Stupak said was done not just without his consent, but without his knowledge. And speaking of attendees, Ron Wyden was added as a last minute Dem attendee. For the sake of parity, the White House also extended an invitation to Olympia Snowe, which she declined. And with that refusal, any lingering hope of bipartisanship.

The Logistics

The summit runs from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., EST. The first four hours will be broadcast on MSNBC, they will switch to Olympics at 2:00, EST. Live C‑SPAN coverage begins at 9:45am ET on C‑SPAN3, C‑SPAN.org</a? and C‑SPAN Radio. It will be streamed live on <a href=”http://whitehouse.org/”&gtwhitehouse.org. I’ll be updating with posts and video supplied by Jed throughout the day.

Below the fold are is the list of attendees, via Jon Cohn.

From The Activist
Brooklyn-based Doug Henwood has been among the few articulate voices on what Perry Anderson likes to call “the vanquished left.” Doug has been publishing an irreplaceable newsletter, Left Business Observer, which examines politics and economics with a scientific rigor and without the moral exhortations or hyperbolic spasms of his contemporaries, since 1986. [...]

Billy Corgan was rumored to be dating Jessica Simpson for the past few months, but of course he says this isn’t the case. In an upcoming interview, Corgan compares the Jessica Simpson dating rumors to something “out of a cartoon.” Of course, this isn’t surprising. We thought a Billy/Jessica mash-up was the oddest of pairings.

more [...]

(Note: Uncited, unlinked text in blockquotes below are from an earlier post of mine on a slightly different topic – Play it as it lays – and replace your divot, please.)

Golf Etiquette 101
Unlike many sports, golf is played, for the most part, without the supervision of a referee or umpire. The game relies on the integrity of the individual to show consideration for other players and to abide by the Rules. All players should conduct themselves in a disciplined manner, demonstrating courtesy and sportsmanship at all times, irrespective of how competitive they may be. This is the spirit of the game of golf.

There are no goals scored in golf.

There is grass of different kinds, sand, water, taller grass, trees, and eighteen holes. Wind. Rain at times. There’s the foursome of drunken, potbellied executives ahead of you on the course who’ve lost control of their golf carts and whose every shot is in the rough or the woods.

Enveloping every physical aspect of the game is the meta – the knowledge of distance, what club to use from any angle on the fairway, how heavy the air is and what ball compression to use.

If you don’t play golf, it must be hard to imagine the amount of mental involvement there can be in calculating how far back to draw your putter along an imaginary line and then scribe it through that silent, still round white object that must glide its way through the manicured slick of bentgrass into a maliciously placed hole surrounded by sinister green.

A golfer can believe for a moment, a day, a game, that the meta is mastered. But the next day on the course brings the lie to any sense of control.

The meta incorporates the etiquette of the golfer, at least for those who compete. In this sense, meta is the unspoken knowledge of how you handle yourself on a golf course, developed over years of training by those you learn from and along with those you compete. Golf is at its best and worst a sport of mental constraints. Bound by rules. Even for those who are not professional golfers, or low handicappers, knowing those rules are as important as the finest swing, the most expensive equipment, the most challenging course.

Etiquette was drilled into me on a golf course.  As a young golfer, I learned more about the proper way to compete on the golf course, and perhaps in life, and how to act when things are not going your way, than from any other activity I’ve ever been involved in.
I learned how not to block someone’s line when they are eyeing their putt to the hole on a green. Not proper etiquette.  I learned when to be quiet. I learned it’s never acceptible to throw things (not that I was ever like that, but there were others who did and they were promptly castigated).  Just not done. When I caddied occasionally during the summer, I learned how and when to give advice. When I competed, I learned how to analyze how someone else played the game. And how to look ahead and see what holes I might be able to gain advantage on, given my own strengths and weaknesses.

In life as in golf, weaknesses are revealed at those moments, those points, within the tempo of a swing you think you have already conquered. I suspect this is why the life of Tiger Woods is such fodder.

He thought he could control the course, dominate with the consistency of his presentation, and above all, win. He was formed to win and accorded the rewards of a conquering hero with each cup, each jacket, each top prize achieved.

I was wrong. I was foolish. I don’t get to play by different rules. The same boundaries that apply to everyone apply to me. I brought this shame on myself. I hurt my wife, my kids, my mother, my wife’s family, my friends, my foundation, and kids all around the world who admired me.
Tiger Woods, February 19, 2010

Yeah, he was wrong. We all agree, why shouldn’t we?

The wrongness has nothing to do with golf. It has everything to do with how Tiger chose to play his own game. We, too, were foolish, foolish fans. We perceived the quality of his talent as a reflection of his character. In life, as in golf, losing is often a better teacher. A fall from grace holds lessons for us all, in what we expect from others and what is expected of us.

I can verify that the sleaziest characters often have great golf talent. But I was also taught to play by some of the most honorable men and women who worked secretarial jobs by day, or pulled green chain at local lumber mills five days a week, or drove logging trucks, and stayed happily married for decades. These were folk who shed weekday working-man personas, put on pastel golf sweaters, tailored beige slacks, and laced up their polished spiked wingtips for the two-ball foursome tournament every Friday night. Their etiquette and character remained balanced on both course and in daily life.

Play the course, not your opponent, not yourself. Play each shot for its own value; read the fairway from start of shot to where you want the ball to land. Don’t look ahead, just play the shot you are on. Feel your hands as they hold the grip of the club –it’s like holding a live dove – you should have the lightest touch, coupled with the firmest grip, but do not hold it tightly. If you hold the club too tightly, the bird will either die or struggle to escape.

That is the way you hold a golf club.

Find the tee in your pocket. Drop the ball into the palm of your hand. Slip the tee between index and middle finger, pointed end out. Ball on tee, slide into the ground just so.  Measure it, feel the placement of the ball as you puncture the turf, bend your knuckles slightly with the knowledge that the height of the ball is critical if your swing is to connect the dimpled surface in exactly the right, sweet spot. Is it a cold day, is it a warm day? Is the compression of your ball the right one, pressurized precisely for that trajectory punch through space? Don’t overextend your swing and try to keep that left elbow straight as you draw your hands back.

Look behind you, release yourself from distractions. Check your stance. Ignore that cart going by on the opposite fairway. The group ahead is nearly off the green now.

Deep breath, quiet your mind.

Golf is a game of degrees. From tee box to next shot. From shot to shot. From pitch to putt. And then you start over again. Each hole is different. With each hole you get another chance (unless it’s match play).  There is finiteness to it from the first hole; after that you know you have only 17 more chances to make it right on that day. When the game is over, you sign your score card. Your signature implies your honesty in verifying the score of your game.

It’s your turn at the tee.

Show me a hero and I’ll write you a tragedy.
– F. Scott Fitzgerald