Five websites you need to know
There's this great misconception that the Internet has made everyone more productive. If your workplace doesn't monitor your activity, it's like letting you hang out in a Borders all day. Here are five websites I visit every day. You should too.

1) www.bartcop.com -- Bart's a crazy Okie who used to sell cars and has a serious bug up his ass about GW Bush. By the way, BFEE stands for "Bush Family Evil Empire".

2) www.therandirhodesshow.com -- Randi's a radio host out of Florida who broadcasts M-F from 3 to 7 p.m. I listen to her stream over the internet every day. Her shows are usually archived within a day or two so you can listen to her anytime.

She used to be on at the same time as Rush in Florida and she used to wipe the floor with him. Rumor is Clear Channel was looking to syndicate her and Rush threatened to quit if they did, thus putting the kibosh on Randi going national. You have to listen to her if you want to hear a real liberal who's a fighter.

3) www.talkingpointsmemo.com -- Josh Marshall's site with some of the best political commentary available.

4) www.littlesteven.com -- Ever hear "Little Steven's Underground Garage"? (It's on in RI on Sundays from 8-10 a.m. on WHJY.) Steven, star of the "Sopranos" and Bruce's sidekick, plays the best garage music of today and yesteryear. You can listen to the archives of the show at his site. It's what I'm listening to right now.

5) www.abcnews.com -- Visit ABC News and go to the politics section. Click on "The Note" every day to get a compilation of the best political reporting from around the country.

There are a bunch of other sites to visit like www.buzzflash.com, www.smirkingchimp.com, and www.hoopshype.com, but these are my five favorite.

Sound-A-Likes?
Can any of you out there do a passable imitation of GW Bush, Arnold Schwarzenegger, or Rush? It's for a project I'm working on. I only need your voice talent; I don't care what you look like. Let me know!

Best seller?
There's always been a little controversy attached to best sellers from authors like Bill O'Reilly and Ann Coulter. Their names on the best-sellers list are often accompanied by a little cross, a symbol that indicates someone bought their book in bulk. Some suspect that a right-wing angel like Richard Mellon-Scaife buys thousands of these books to push up their sales.

There's a site called www.conservativebookclub.com that offers all the best hits of the right: books by the aforementioned O'Reilly and Coulter, but also lesser-lights like Hannity and Laura Ingraham. You can get these books on this site at the bargain price of: 3 for $3! That's $1 per book.

Is it any wonder they're zooming up the best-seller list? Someone try and find me Hillary's book on sale somewhere for $1.

Peek-A-Boob
Wow! Michael Powell, chairman of the FCC, has got his underwear in a bind over the Janet Jackson peek-a-boob during the Super Bowl halftime. Powell is promising to investigate this incident.

Excuse me, but during the game, there were approximately 5,000 ads for men who can't get an erection, an ad where a dog bit a man in the groin, and an ad where a horse farted on someone.

The best take I heard was on "Countdown" with Keith Olberman. He asked Village Voice music critic Michael Musto if -- after the Super Bowl mini-flash -- Janet was now the weirdest Jackson.

His response? "Not unless she has three breasts."

That's 20 for you...
Please stop telling me what a wonderful economy we have. Let's be frank. It sucks. I don't want to hear about the stock market. I don't want to hear about productivity. I want to hear about jobs.

There were the 1,000 jobs created in December. That's about 20 jobs for each state. Let the pigeons loose! Let's celebrate! 20 jobs in California! 20 jobs in Florida! 20 jobs in Texas! Happy days are here again!

Letters from beyond
I just picked up the latest "East Side Monthly" and there's an article in there from my late friend Ken Mahan. The last few months of his life, Ken wrote, I believe with some reluctance, about his struggles living with cystic fibrosis. He finally succumbed to the disease in December. Pick up "East Side Monthly" to read his piece. It's riveting, and I don't just say that because I miss him a lot.

Fried
It's offical: I am fried today.

As a New Englander, I'm excited about the Patriots' Super Bowl win, but today, it's over. There is another series of primaries tomorrow and Clark really need to win at least two states to have a chance at the nomination. Will he do it? I don't know. He's got a slim lead in Oklahoma and is trailing in Arizona. I hope he pulls it off, but it's going to be tough.

I'm usually such a political junkie but today, I can't get my excitement up. I am in charge of a Meet Up tonight for the Clark campaign so I better get fired up somehow.

Damn you Monday!

Out of Touch
I saw President Bush this morning talking about the new price tag for the Medicare prescription bill. The Congressional Budget Office estimated it would cost around $400 billion and now the White House estimates the price tag at $540 billion. Of course, you know it's going to cost way more than that in the end.

When asked about the increased price tag, Bush said, "Congress is going to have to work with us. They are going to have to make some tough choices to keep spending in line."

That's like being married and having two checkbooks in the house. The husband spends like crazy, buying a widescreen TV, a new sportscar, and a membership at a private golf club. When the wife goes to buy groceries, she gets a tongue lashing from the husband about using coupons and not spending over $20. That's how sick the President is.

I read a story in Friday's Boston Globe about President Bush's visit to a Fidelity Investment office in NH. Of course, there is no way Karl Rove will let him in front of a crowd that could ever potentially ask him a real question, let alone a difficult one. The story said there was one unscripted moment from a Fidelity employee, who was supposed to commend the President on his tax cut. As I read this, I got excited. Here it was. Bush facing a real person whose comments weren't scripted ahead of time.

She asked him who he liked in the Super Bowl.

And then, she made her pre-scripted remarks about the tax cut. Can you imagine the comedy if Bush had to ever actually answer to real voters the way the Democratic candidates are now?

One other thing: there is growing evidence that the Diebold electronic voting machines are seriously flawed. The latest evidence is a group of high school students who hacked into some of the machines and changed all the votes. Why the hell don't these machines have paper receipts?

In Georgia's election for governor, the Democratic candidate led comfortably in all the polls, before the election and in exit polling. His Republican opponent ended up winning.

Diebold machines were used in this election. If you love democracy, be afraid.

October Surprise, Baby!
Remember how the hostage crisis sunk Carter and how the incoming Reagan Administration traded arms to the Iranians in exchange for the hostages, who just happened to be released while Reagan was taking office? Reagan let Carter greet the hostages while he was being sworn in, which was all carried via a nice split-screen on American television.

Get ready for this year's October surprise -- the capture of Osama Bin Laden. There's no question that if we had devoted the manpower and resources that we have to Iraq, we would have caught Bin Laden by now. Now, the Administration is planning a spring offensive in Afghanistan, aimed at capturing Bin Laden and Mullah Omar.

This article, quoting a military spokesman, is pretty stunning. It's doubtful he would say he was sure unless they have a very good idea where he is now.

"The U.S. military is "sure" it will catch Osama bin Laden this year, perhaps within months, a spokesman declared Thursday, but Pakistan said it would not allow American troops to cross the border in search of the al-Qaida leader."

The article goes on to say the US will cross into Pakistan, whether we have permission or not. Good. We should. But why didn't we do it two years ago, instead of diverting into Iraq?

Another thing: the media loves to play "Gotcha!" with all the Democratic candidates. Twice in the last month, Pres. Bush has said Hussein wasn't allowing inspections and that's why we had to go in. There were inspections going on. They were stopped because we were getting ready to go to war. Why doesn't anyone call him on this?

By the way, remember how everyone used to make fun of UN Weapons Inspector Hans Blix because he couldn't find any WMD's. Pretty funny, now, huh?

Coalition of the willing.. uhh, sort of...
How about that kick-ass coalition we've put together in Iraq? The Japanese are so into it that they've hired Iraqi tribal leaders to protect their troops! This is not a joke. Here it is from a news article:

"The Japanese government is reportedly paying approximately 10 billion yen to Iraqi tribal leaders to provide bodyguards for the Self-Defense Forces in Iraq.

A spokesman for the Prime Minister's Office said: "It is rather cheap if we can buy security for our soldiers with that amount of money. In Iraq, oil money is distributed to those tribes. It is more important for the Japanese government to make one-time payments to the leaders than to pay them a salary. That will help their local economy and benefit Japan's foreign policy toward new Iraq."

The first contingent of Ground Self Defense Forces is already in Samawah in southern Iraq. The main force is scheduled to be sent either at the end of January or in early February.

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's main concern has been how to protect the lives of the SDF soldiers. One of the measures that the government initially took was to have Dutch forces guard the SDF.

Last year, Abdul Amir Rikaabi, the powerful leader of an Iraqi tribe, visited Japan and Koizumi made a confidential agreement with him in which Japan would pay a huge amount of money in exchange for protection, according to a source in the Prime Minister's Office."

What the hell is this... "My Bodyguard"?