The gay guy loses again. Coincidence?

Gary Kamiya's article about getting sucked in to Idol because of Lambert was great. I hope he intends to write something today about the "upset" as well.

No tears for Adam. He'll be fine.

But the editor needs some basic firearms training.

"but as far as I could tell, in this showdown, one guy had a Glockenspiel and the other had a squirt gun."

It's a nice vision - a man with a squirt gun facing down another armed only with a portable xylophone. It's a Glock - the cops' sidearm of choice.

Other than that, your story sounds like you've been reading my mail. Nice job.

I missed an entire season of "American Idol" and no one told me???

What happened to that guy's hair?

Who got more votes, the acoustic strummer, the glam rocker, or Barack Obama?

Let's put the winner in the White House and see if we can get some change.

Exactly what I was thinking.

rather than Rush Limbaugh's ass.

I am pretty certain Steve Jobs feels the same way.

Ok, I may be a little paranoid here but I don't think it was just the tween vote. When Fox news does a piece specifically about someone's sexuality I think the gay guy is in trouble. It was important to them that Adam not win. The show lost a little more credibility (not that it's got a lot left). But that's ok.

It's ok because Adam's career is now wide open. No limiting, nasty Idol contract for him. He can get a contract, and he will get a contract, with anyone he wants. He's a star, and everyone who has seen him is looking forward to whatever he does next. :)

Good. Now maybe I'll stop hearing about it.

(Seriously, who gives a shit?)

It had barely anything to do with him being gay. Are tweens, the one who will actually buy the albums, interested in listening to shrieking? Not really.

And I expected the backlash. They crowned Adam weeks ago. I liked Adam but even I was sick of the constant adoration -- he had some pretty crap performances and they still slathered him with praise.

Kris is marketable. Adam is someone you think is a god when you're kind of drunk at a bar.

As the parent of one of these tween girls (age 11 1/2), I think you totally nailed it. I have been surprised in the last few weeks by her intense hatred of Adam Lambert. "He screams too much," was her musical analysis. Although she liked Kris Allen, I think she would have been equally happy had Danny Gokey won. Just so long as it wasn't Adam Lambert.

When people listen to music at home, THIS is what they listen to? I understand the success of the show. It's cheesy and interactive, mindless and soapish...but come on, does anyone call what parades across that stage "talent"? People would actually put this crap on their ipod? I know I'm kind of a music snob, but I just don't get the attraction beyond the the reality show element to American Idol.

Pity we can't harness their power for something more useful than texting or phoning in votes for a TV show. Like cleaning up their rooms for instance.

On the Tuesday night performance finale, Allen followed up Lambert's thrilling, feverish rendition of Sam Cooke's "A Change Is Gonna Come"

Uh, no -- I liked Adam ok, and would have been fine with him winning, but that was not a good version of that song -- he went into Screechy McScreechy mode and came very close to ruining one of the best popular music songs of all time.

Whether you like the show and reality format or not, a significant number of the contestants do have real talent (defined as strong singing ability).

Your favorite band sucks.

If this were a religion thing, surely Danny Gokey, the widower whose last gig was with a church, would have won. I don't think it's a gay thing either. I think there are two factors here:

-The audience is more interested in soft rock than glam rock.

-Kris is the better musician.

I voted for Kris for the second reason. He's a better singer, he plays instruments and he does his own arrangements. Brooke with her piano and David Cook with his guitar raised that bar.

That, and I'll never forgive Adam and Simon for that awful rendition of "One". For me, the judges gushing over that travesty was a new low water mark for Idol.

...of the Idols have been from the South. Adam challenges too many preconceived notions to make people comfortable.

I think you hit it on the head in other ways. "Glambert" was too big, his voice too good, his manner too professional and gracious, his attention to the band and the whole performance too exceptional.

'Mericans don't like anyone who threatens their ego. They want an Idol who sings just a little better than their cousin who sings. They want a predictable, package-able product.

Lambert is so much better off, and as you also said, he will not have to sing that absolutely heinous song for a whole year.

And this is the lead story because?........

Idol's arrangement with the phone companys encourages re-voting, which puts 'ca-ching' in their pockets. While the judges and anyone who can hear might be disturbed about this result, the accountants at Idol are high fiving each other over nearly a "100,000,000 votes!" Now we know one hundred million people - a 1/3rd of the population - did not vote. But the little Tweeny boppers redialed and texted hundreds of times a piece.

So the crappier, duller singer won. Idol made money. And the selection process is a joke. Until Idol removes the ability to text message or redial any number of times, this show is just a vote, like a vote for class president is a vote ... in the 6th grade.

Tween girls are the fuel of the "American Idol" mothership; they are the ones who jam up the voting lines, texting until their fingers bleed, and they are no small part of the reason 23-year-old Kris Allen -- supremely crushable, pocket-size, deeply religious, utterly unthreatening Kris Allen -- became the "American Idol" winner in the biggest upset in the show's history.

Let's be frank here. It is no mystery Lambert is gay and given the "tween" input, that's what did him in based on his perceived inaccessibility.

OTOH, Allen, being a standard hetero, could still inspire dreams of future romance and improbable relationships in the tweenies' febrile brains.

A damned shame, because Lambert really deserved to win it. (Not that I watch, my wife keeps me informed as it's her favorite show)