I can totally relate to the football comment of "excuse me". I live in the Bay Area and hang with the usual collection of artsy types, intellectuals and academics. If I'm somewhere and a college football conversation breaks out, the few involved literally say, "we're going to geek out for a few seconds, excuse us", and we give a dopey smile.

The thought behind this is, "yes, this is dumb, sorry for excluding you for a few moments."

The thing is, I've heard the same thing about shoes and spas from very strong feminist women.

Again, it's not about the subject, but rather the exclusion from conversation that gets the apology. It's called being polite.

Yeah, George Walker Bush reads...he was reading to 3rd graders when the 2nd plane hit the Twin Towers, and he just kept reading.

From there it went downhill.

George the Plunderer...worst.president.EVER.

I'm all for ethnic pride. It's healthy, I do it. There's a little too much projecting here going on.

For one, how does everyone know your booty is as fine (or not) as Michelle's or vice versa? Okay, I'm kidding...I don't really care.

I mean why not talk about the Obama's greatness, merit and history making ability or is that not fun, sexy and enabling?

Mostly however, talking about the First Lady's butt (and your own) seems pretentious and shallow because there's a lot more going on here besides booty. Yes, it's nice to know someone has a booty like yours but you're better then that, and the Obamas are better then that too.

Beyond that, enjoy your booty while you have it. Eventually it will get saggy and old, history however will not.

Let me be clear, Joe Lieberman is a slimey, self-serving, swarmy, duplicitous SOB. Inferring that Barack Obama and now president-elect was a socialist/terrorist is inexcusable. That stuff remains on video tape, forever.

Still, Lieberman does vote with the democrats 90% of the time. If he continues with this and helps create change, fine. Politics is a dirty business.

I'd simply use Joe Lieberman for now and when 2010 rolls around, back a real Democrat with a lot of money.

Rising star, under 40. Stanford, Rhodes Scholar, Yale Law, constitutional scholar.

Indeed, if Bush can appoints youth, Obama should as well.

As for John Kyl, it appears Stevens just lost, so that's 58 Democratic seats. Between the moderate Senators of Maine, and perhaps Al Franken, there's 60 fillbuster proof seats.

I despise Joe Lieberman. Someone really should kick him in the groin and throw him to the curb. That's my visceral reaction.

On the flipside, my intellectual and pragmatic side says differently. Lieberman votes 90% Democratic and his public thank you (and ass kissing, so typ of him) means the Dems and Obama owns Joey Liebs.

With 58 seats and maybe 2 more coming, and 2 moderate GOP Senators from Maine, the Dems are very close to a fillerbuster proof bloc of 60. Given this, yeah, let Liebs back in. The Dems will roll on the GOP.

Bills related to the economy, healthcare, the environment, Supreme Court appointments just got way easier. Yup, this is high level horse trading but I don't care. I want change and Liebs seat help this cause regardless how reprehensible he happens to be.

Denis Leary's career is largely based on plagiarism. He ripped off Bill Hick's red meat, chain smoking bah-humbug persona but without the insight or intelligence.

Since that time he's tried to keep the shock value at a maximum to keep the persona rolling but it rings hollow, lacks irony.

"Matt Dillon Is a Giant Fag" is a perfect example. It's there to get attention, not to make a point or find a deeper truth. Many people see this as aloof but if you look deep inside there's nothing.

Leary has the same phoniness in his persona that Tom Cruise has with women. Perhaps he now has something of value to say but it's wrapped in fraud and thus it can't ring true. His false outrage is fake, shallow and dumb. He's a fake.

Hillary Clinton has the resume, name rec and clout to do this job. I hope she does well.

Still, if the drama (perhaps not to her doing) surrounding this process and her campaign are examples of how things work around her, the election of Obama was the right thing.

Sadly, no other first family and POTUS is going to have the same security concerns as the Obamas. I'd pick a school that has some experience with this over another if it were my kids.

Everyone knows the headline is rhetorical but the point is apt.

George W. Bush, after plundering the country on so many fronts has gone into hiding yet again while the economy fails beneath us.

It's a cliche but when the going gets tough, the tough get going.

I applaud Barack Obama for stepping up early. He obviously has the courage to face trouble and he obviously wants to solve problems.

It's reassuring to know the right man was elected. Finally a President with some guts and intelligence.

GM has benefited greatly from Canada's universal healthcare system for decades and decades. In Canada, GM even touts this as a good thing as it saves billions and billions of dollars each year.

The question is -- why hasn't GM in the U.S. lobbied for a similar system, in self interest? It's heartening to read that John Dingell and his father pushed for it...but where were the Big 3 on this?

It's this inability to see beyond the old capitalist/corporate construct (and vote down universal coverage) that has landed not only the Big 3 in trouble, but all of corporate America.

By not backing universal coverage, American based corporations are at a huge disadvantage. Passage of universal coverage would result in a near immediate double digit benefit.

It's truly amazing corporate America votes against universal coverage year in and year out. Only idiots vote against self-interest.