I guess we're to give Scooter the benefit of the doubt an account of his poor waspish prep school upbringing. NOT! I think there's something telling of Ol' Scooter's pathology that a middleaged man agreed to such a moniker as bequeathed to him by the likes of Cheney and Dubya. Definitely the Old Boys Club at work tho' it's obvious who has the upper hand in the relationship. "Good boy, Scooter. Fetch. Sit. Roll over. Play dead. Bye now"

You know everything about that story seems to point at the weird misunderstanding of our responsibiliy toward the displaced people of Iraq and that sense that they should be infinitely grateful for our bungling mismanagement because y'know, "we mean well". Totally fuck up their country, dismantle their police force, fuck up security and bungle the rebuilding of their basic infrastructure, give them choas but hand them out inflated soccer balls with the attitude of, "Fuck 'em. Don't they know that we're doing this out of kindness?"

We should be hanging our heads in shame over this.

One of the reasons that I find Cintra Wilson's musings about the pitfalls of fame so beguiling is her willingness to imbue her subjects no matter how tragic with a sense of their frailties and she always manages to get at our insatible appetite for comeuppance from those who dare to tread the limelight, asking to be worshipped. Anna Nicole may have been a minor annoyance in the media, but she certainly has much competition from many who willingly and much more cynically embrace the media machine that is so willing to exploit them. Some manage to ride it out with some success, (but very seldom with dignity). Others never seem to be in command and the talking heads, the punditry, the spokesmodel-showpeople who make their living off of these stories never seem to be able to muster much in the way of sympathy for someone like Anna Nicole who was seemingly so ill-eqipped for the journey. She never seemed to be able to shed that sense of being at heart, a buxom small-town waitress who made it big or of being capable of parlaying those qualities into a marketable persona that we could pretend to heap praise on. She always remained vulnerable which is an unpardonable sin. She was neither Courtney Love nor Pam Anderson. I can't say that I'll miss her, but that in some ways makes her passing even sadder to me.

Rush as president and Ann Coulter as Vice President...they've shot their wad. That was the money shot there. The entire cannon of "conservative humor" is in evidence in this "skit". My, my, my...

Perhaps the only thing about the Oscars that I heartily anticipate anymore is reading Cintra's response. She's usually entertaining as hell and spot on regarding the overall tone and presentation and is usually good for a great bon mot or two. Who else would find Gwyneth Paltrow to be, "...ivory, orange and brightly refreshing, like the world's most expensive Creamsicle" ? She was absolutely right on about Ellen's relentless "folksiness" and the psuedo-humility on display throughout that almost made the shopworn spectacle a bearable, if not very exciting event for a change.

About the only thing that I disagree with her about are the relative merits of Jennifer Hudson and I am inclined to agree with James Wolcott's assessment regarding the overwrought tendencies of today's fifth-generation Arethas when he wrote , "... I really can't abide this American Idol caterwauling in which every song has to be wrestled like a crocodile into thrashing submission." And as far as DreamGirls is concerned, any tribute based in part as an homage to Motown oughta have something more memorable than a slightly funkier version of Andrew Lloyd Webber for songs, y'know? But quibbling aside, nice work once again!

this absurd list should permanently put to rest any notions about the actual validity of the Rock 'n Roll Hall of Fame. You could put a gun to my head and I still wouldn't buy a Celine Dion album - let alone Kenny G.

SHANIA TWAIN ,GREASE (or for that matter any other soundtrack listed save for maybe "Saturday Night Fever"), MEATLOAF. COLDPLAY, KID ROCK, PHIL COLLINS,

FAITH HILL, LINKIN PARK, MATCHBOX TWENTY, CREED, CELINE DION, NELLY,TLC, KENNY G, MARIAH CAREY,R KELLY, OASIS, CHRISTINA AGUILERA, ALICIA KEYS,

ENYA, LIONEL RICHIE, WILL SMITH, BOYZ II MEN, AVRIL LAVIGNE, STONE TEMPLE PILOTS, SHAKIRA,LIVE, GEORGE BENSON, ( what the f**k are jazz artists doing on a rock n roll list anyway?- I mean, I like Miles, Coltrane and Brubeck as much as anyone but really, put them on a jazz list), SADE, BEYONCE, BARBARA STREISAND,

LL COOL J, ANDREA BOCELLI. These are just the most egregious examples. That said, almost everyone's suggestions so far are worthy of consideration on some level and further prove how lame the "actual " list is...

You know, in some ways it's comforting to know that the right still doesn't understand "funny" and the left has not lost it's santimony. We can pretend to be outraged with the best of them...

Seeing as how I've always felt that "Born to Run" was a rather overblown arrangement without much of a song, (seriously, take away the glockenspiel and Clarence's sax and you have pretty much a tuneless piece with silly lyrics about teenage redemption -or something), and that U2 are a series of anthems wrapped around the same 3 or 4 songs, that leaves Radiohead for The Arcade Fire to do battle with. Seeing as how I've never listened to "O.K. Computer" from beginning to end, I guess that pretty much excludes me from being able to have any kind of valuable opinion on this otherwise deeply serious matter...never mind.