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Walt Hawkins: Why I Love Howard Stern And You Should, Too!

2012-02-11T02:26:00Z

The Howard Stern Show has been an integral part of my morning ritual since I moved to New York City in 1994. I began listening upon my arrival here, when the show was on regular FM radio. Fortunately, I was already a Sirius subscriber when Howard made the transition to satellite, and the show has gotten even better in a dramatically more lenient medium. When a radio program can consistently make me laugh that heartily as I prepare myself for another soul-corroding day in the workplace, listening is more than a pleasure; it's an absolute necessity.

I'm always surprised by the reaction I get when people find this out about me, especially from my fellow gays. While most of them have never even heard the show, they insist that Howard is anti-gay. I have found the exact opposite to be true. Howard has been outspoken about his support for marriage equality and is a staunch proponent of equal rights for LGBT people. Never has this been more evident than on Stern's show the morning of Monday, Feb. 6, 2012.

Howard and his longtime sidekick, Robin Quivers, started out the show by discussing the previous day's Super Bowl broadcast. After about 15 minutes, Robin mentioned that department store chain JCPenney had recently announced that they had tapped Ellen DeGeneres to be their new spokesperson, and that it had caused somewhat of a backlash. A group calling itself "One Million Moms," which is an offshoot of the notoriously anti-gay American Family Association, demanded that JCPenney rethink its decision and fire DeGeneres because she does not represent "traditional" families. Howard spent the next 20 to 30 minutes of airtime expressing his outrage over this issue. Although he has never been a fan of DeGeneres' humor, he said that no one has a right to, in any public forum, say that DeGeneres doesn't represent them and their families. Howard insisted that everyone on the planet has a gay relative or friend, whether or not they are consciously aware of it, and that he will defend, to the end, DeGeneres' right to earn a living and not be treated like less of a person because of her sexuality.

Stern then referenced an article in the latest issue of Rolling Stone magazine entitled, "One Town's War on Gay Teens." The article details how evangelicals in the town of Anoka, Minn., in Rep. Michele Bachmann's home district, have succeeded in creating an extremely anti-gay climate among residents. This has led to a rash of suicides among gay teens that have been relentlessly bullied and tormented by their classmates. Having been bullied as a teen himself, Howard expressed his dismay and recounted how it felt going to school every day, sick with worry, anticipating the inevitable confrontations. Stern said that he has been watching the Republican debates and is offended by the things Michele Bachmann and Rick Santorum have said about gay people. He opined that the bigotry they promote is as outrageous as anything Hitler ever said. Stern said that it would be "glorious" if Bachmann and Santorum were booed off of the stage rather than applauded, and shunned in public. He also called them both hypocrites, reiterating that Santorum undoubtedly knows gay people, and Bachmann loves to parade around in suits that were, most likely, designed by gay men. Stern then went on to praise Newark Mayor Cory Booker for his recent statement in response to Governor Chris Christie's proposal that same-sex marriage be put to a popular vote in New Jersey. Howard posted a video of Booker's statement, entitled "Cory Booker Nails Marriage Equality in 5 Minutes" to his own Twitter feed. Stern's ranting ended with him posing the question, "What do you want, for all gay people to die -- to just go away?" Sadly, I think the answer to that question would be a solid "yes."

I know Howard Stern can be lewd, provocative, and insensitive. I don't agree with everything he says, and there are times when I cringe while listening to his show. Overall, however, I find his honesty and brilliance to be refreshingly entertaining. And, let's face it: the gay community needs all the passionate allies we can get, especially the ones whose words have the ability to impact millions of people. Thank you, Howard Stern. And, Baba Booey to all of you!

WATCH: Laura Ingraham Crushes On Arianna Huffington

2012-02-11T01:16:28Z

WASHINGTON -- Conservative radio host and Fox News contributor Laura Ingraham was a featured speaker at the 2012 Conservative Political Action Conference. She told HuffPost's Zach Carter and Howard Fineman on Friday that she's also a big fan of our boss, Arianna Huffington.

In an interview after her speech, Ingraham told Carter and Fineman she appeared on our live video stream "only because I love Arianna, because she's my friend for so many years I can't even count."

Ingraham went on to joke "I'm a total liberal."

She also ribbed Fineman: "Ever since I met you, I've been turned left."

"Wait until you get to know Zach," Fineman said.

"No, Zach has pushed me over the edge," Ingraham said.

Watch the banter and Ingraham's take on this year's convention.

Cloudy With A Chance Of Awesome: Goofy Weatherman 'Just Havin' Fun Out There'

2012-02-11T01:09:00Z

Forecaster Tom Murphy isn't satisfied with just standing in front of a green screen and reading temperatures off a teleprompter. He got into this business to keep people informed, to make them smile, goshdarnit, and to push a little love for the New York Giants on ... Northern Michiganders?

At least, that seems to be the attitude of the weatherman for Alpena Mich.'s WBKB. Murphy slips in references to rappers Drake and Snoop Dogg and even the Loony Tunes character Foghorn Leghorn -- all in a day's forecast. This recent highlight reel shows Murphy giving a shout-out to his "friends in Jerz" and explaining he why he can't come up with a good joke to make about temperatures in the mid-30s.

WATCH:

His official WBKB profile says Murphy's favorite musical artists are "Outkast, Lil Wayne, Jay-Z, U2, Otis Redding and Bruce Springsteen," though we'd have pegged him as more of a Nelly fan. (At one point in the real, he calls the hip-hop artist a "great poet and philosopher.")

Murph -- his station nickname -- grew up in Morristown, N.J., (that explains the Giants fandom) and graduated from the University of Miami.

His extra effort and attention to Northern Michigan's weather -- and his good looks -- have already gained him nearly half a million YouTube views. Some fans are even saying Murph should move to a bigger market.

New Zealand Man Plans To Dump Wife On The Radio

2012-02-11T00:40:36Z

A quick listen to the radio around Valentine's Day proves there's no shortage of Romeos looking to dedicate a slow jam to the one they love.

But next week -- on V-Day -- a New Zealand man plans to use the airwaves for a darker purpose: to tell his unsuspecting wife that he wants a divorce, the Herald Sun reports.

The man, identified only as a 31-year-old named Sam, is the winner of New Zealand radio station The Rock's "Win a Divorce" contest.

In exchange for the on-air divorce announcement, the radio station will provide Sam with a free divorce, provided there are no children involved.

The Rock has been dodging criticism from family groups since announcing the radio stunt, which the station claims is aimed at "poor blokes" who married "Satan in a dress."

"Divorces are difficult enough, but to cheapen it to a radio stunt is tacky," Bob McCoskrie, National Director of Family First NZ, said in a statement. "The radio station is simply feeding off the misery of others. They are willing to pay for the divorce -- will they also pay for the counseling which may be required as a result of this stunt?"

It's not the first time The Rock has run into controversy over its Valentine's Day programming. Last year, the station sponsored a "Win a Wife" contest, which gave the winner a membership to a Ukrainian matchmaking site.

According to Australian newspaper the Courier-Mail, The Rock's station manager has no plans to nix this year's controversial segment.

Sam won't be the first man to make a public divorce declaration. In 2008, a man at a Saudi Arabian mall grabbed a cashier's microphone and announced that he was divorcing his wife, after he found a slip of paper in her purse with another man's phone number on it.

Barbara Walters Vs. JFK Alleged Mistress On 'The View'

2012-02-10T23:51:45Z

Mimi Alford, the former White House intern who claims she had an 18-month affair with President John F. Kennedy, sat down for an interview with "The View" (weekdays on ABC) Friday that turned surprisingly combative. Barbara Walters grilled Alford about her motivations for writing about the relationship and criticized her for hurting the Kennedy family.

Walters, who admitted to having an affair with then-married Senator Edward Brooke in early '70s, began the interview by detailing the sexual exploits Alford wrote about in her book "Once Upon a Secret: My Affair with President John F. Kennedy and Its Aftermath." "The View" co-host pointed to a passage where Alford describes giving oral sex to JFK's friends and younger brother on a dare. Alford pushed back on the notion that she was coerced, but expressed some regret about it. "What mortifies me today is that I accepted the dare," she reflected.

When Alford explained that she didn't intend to hurt anyone by writing the book, Walters interrupted: "I know, but you know it must hurt that family." Alford pushed back against the criticism, explaining that the book was her way of telling her story, and that she needed to write and talk about the experience after keeping it a secret for so many years.

Earlier in the week, Walters' colleague Whoopi Goldberg expressed skepticism about the timing of the book's release and threatened to not show up for the interview. But the present Goldberg took the opportunity to ask Alford, "Why now?" Alford explained that after she was named in a 2003 JFK biography, she felt the desire to tell her own her own story, rather than leave it in someone else's hands.

At that point, Walters interrupted again, making the point that the affair was only mentioned in one paragraph of that biography. "Nobody even remembers it. You could have let it go," Walters suggested. But Alford once again defended taking ownership of her story, and simply said, "That secret affected my whole adult life."

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Michael Meyers: Racial Politics and the Non-White Vassals of White Politicians

2012-02-10T22:49:48Z

I am cussin' every time I turn on the TV and hear liberal pundits accuse the GOP Presidential candidates of outright racism and of the use of racial code words. It's as if we're existing in a pre-civil rights revolution time warp instead of the 21st century where race in America ain't what it used to be.

The charges of racism are interspersed with accusations of class warfare inasmuch as Mitt Romney, the pundits say, admitted to being unconcerned with the very poor, they who have a safety net, according to Romney. Conservatives, too, bandy about bold allegations of class warfare, when they criticize President Barack Obama's campaign rhetoric, accusations which the liberal pundits cite as further examples of race-baiting by white conservatives against America's first African-American president.

Say what?

When it comes to racial paranoia MSNBC is in a bizarro world of its own. Andrea Mitchell, among others, decried Newt Gingrich's racial overtones as "dog whistles" aimed at white voters. Chris Matthews piped in, accusing The Newt of the racially charged use of "Juan" when Gingrich answered a question from journalist Juan Williams during the South Carolina debate. And MSNBC star host Rachel Maddow inveighed that Gingrich, when he chastised Obama as "Entertainer-in-Chief -- for Obama's having crooned at the Apollo Theater--was depicting Obama as a minstrel; she said Gingrich's criticism was sheer race-baiting, an example of Gingrich's "calling out to minstrelsy."

Obama as minstrel.

Obama as shirker.

Obama as incompetent -- these are, to the liberal pundits, all racial code words -- examples of GOPers vying for his job engaging in modern-day racism.

It's as if every critical word of Barack Obama is to be dissected for proof that the GOP candidates running for President are crude or subtle racists; and their non-white backers and party members are castigated as mere vassals of the white power structure, and as traitors to their race. The harshest calumny has been aimed at GOP Congressman Allen West; but Herman Cain, Ron Christie, and South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley have been ripped too by malicious name-calling based on their race and their political persuasion. The noisy whisper is, "How can any self-respecting black, Latino or Asian front for this crop of Republicans who are so hostile to civil rights and who use racial coda to appeal to an angry white electorate?"

I am a civil rights specialist and I know something about racism -- in its overt and subtle forms -- and many guises. But I am still waiting for hard evidence that Newt Gingrich, Mitt Romney, Ron Paul, and Rick Santorum are running a Southern strategy for the White House prize -- seeking and intending to divide the electorate along racial lines, passions and fears. Yes, yes, yes, I know, the "historian" Gingrich has accused President Obama of being the "food stamps president," but that was a laughable moment, not racial coda. Everybody knows, except the "historian" Gingrich, that LBJ was our "food stamps president." It was Johnson, the former segregationist, who established the federal food stamp program as a response to a national hunger and malnutrition crisis. In fact, as everyone knows, most Americans on food stamps are whites, not blacks.

Still, the pundits at MSNBC assure me that Gingrich is race-baiting when he calls Obama "the food stamps president," and that Romney, the patrician, is out of touch with black and poor folks because he is, after all, a very wealthy man. But wasn't also JFK, and Nelson Rockefeller, and FDR? Wealth alone is not the litmus test for being "out of touch." Nor is double speak, constant compromise, or pretense at caring for the downtrodden sure signs of progressive politics.

And what about this charge of minstrelsy? More than black politicians have been singing for votes. He was off-key, but we all heard Mitt Romney sing "America The Beautiful." And Herman Cain, until his voice grew hoarse from denying sexual harassment allegations sang gospel. "Amazing Grace" made a comeback as an American standard more than a few times when Cain took the stage. I saw none of this singing as racial much less the criticism of it as racial coda, no more than I interpreted the many charges harassment charges against Cain, from white and black women, as "racist."

Obama, as a "minstrel," is MSNBC's invention.

Now, I know that racists, racial buffoons, and race hustlers come in many shapes and guises, but I need firmer evidence that the current field of GOP candidates -- backed up by their non-white supporters -- are running the old race game on us. Yet the only thing MSNBC keeps putting in our face and harping on is their bottom line, seemingly, that a black man who is president can't get no respect.

Of course, I know that we have not yet stamped out racism completely in America. That is exactly why it is so important not to trivialize racism by calling things racist that they are not. False accusations repeated again and again do not make a truth. Liberals should know better than to keep crying racism, falsely. because we need everyone on board and everyone's attention when we spot and fight real outbreaks of racism and skin color discrimination.

I just don't fancy Newt Gingrich -- he's wrong, wrong, wrong -- and block-headed and intemperate on so many issues. His meanness turns me cold -- but isn't that enough of a criticism of him? Do we need go "there" -- that is, conjure up that he is being racist whe he is talking plainly and acerbically?

If the insinuations and outright accusations of GOP racism are real -- that the GOPers seeking to evict the first African-American President from the Oval Office are racist, and they are trying to return America to its antebellum period of race relations, then why haven't the journalists at MSNBC asked a single salient question of the "historian" Newt Gingrich, and of Ron Paul, and the others, about race prejudice and discrimination in America? Such a question is not about food stamps. The genuine article of a question -- which should have been asked in South Carolina -- on the night of Martin L. King, Jr.'s birthday -- is this: "What would you have advised President Eisenhower to do with the Supreme Court's unanimous decision to outlaw public school segregation -- a decision that overruled many Southerners' concept of states' rights? Would you have urged President Ike to ignore the decision? Would you have had the nine justices hauled before the Congress to explain themselves? In your vision of federalism, is the federal law and the Constitution the supreme law of the land, which trumps claims of states' rights, those who said states had a right to deny persons because of their skin color equal protection under the law?"

Newt Gingrich's reply to such a real question would have been telling; he would have, I suspect, had to backtrack on his absurd declaration of war on the federal judiciary. Even Ron Paul, who laments the 1964 Civil Rights Act, would not today urge its repeal. That's because they know America is finished with racial segregation of old. We can't go backwards on race relations and fundamental civil rights protections -- and every candidate, white and black, who wants to get elected, knows that.

We're a lot more advanced on the race question than the MSNBC pundits give us viewers and Americans credit for.

It's also sad that MSNBC's pundits don't yet get that not every white conservative is a racist at heart and that not every black or non-white looks or thinks alike. There are some non-whites who side with Romney; others (including youths) who salute Ron Paul; and some who say amen to Rick Santorum's candidacy. Likewise, Gingrich is drawing support from those citizens and immigrants who think like Gingrich has the right idea about not deporting the undocumented. These GOPers and independents are of different faiths, various skin colors, and ethnicity.. They include Herman Cain, who backs Gingrich, and Nikki Haley, who backs Romney, and the youths who back Ron Paul. They do not think of themselves as turning back the clock on civil rights because of their political views and personal choices. The suggestion that they are either modern-day "racists" or enablers of turning us back to our discredited racial past is sheer racial rhetoric and poppycock.

The GOPers plainly and simply have a different view of things than most of us liberal Democrats. But even I can understand their frustration with big government, high taxation, and the broken promises of the DC establishment. They, and I, are beet red angry. We want things to change for the better. We long for JFK's rising tide lifts all boats. But if that adage still holds, we haven't seen or felt that as yet. Hence, that is why we do see a rising chorus of minorities who are criticizing Obama, the incumbent, and who are breaking party ranks, and joining forces with others, black and white, also are fed up with government as we have known it. And they too also recoil at the rehtoric of Herman Cain about how blacks are on the Democratic Party plantation. That's utter nonsense and he knew it when he uttered that hyperbole. People don't want to be labeled black or white or as "vassal" or "slave master;" that's old-hat now as well as rancorous racial bluster.

The rainbow of divergent opinions about what we should do to fix things is healthy, not symptomatic of going backwards on race. Labeling blacks and Latinos and Asians who support the party of Lincoln "today's Uncle Toms" does not advance us one whit.

I strongly disagree with Congressman Allen West, ex-businessman Herman Cain, Senator Marco Rubio, and SC Governor Nikki Haley, but they're entitled to their viewpoint and their choice of Presidential candidate and political party without being written off as traitors to their race and people.

Those more certain about the manifestations of racism than me -- such as the MSNBC pundits -- may think they know better than me and the rest of us who is and who isn't "authentic" and who is and is not black or Latino or Asian. But I regard the rage of white liberals at MSNBC over the skin color of those who back limited government, low taxation, and who back GOPers over Obama, as singularly regressive, contrived and mischievous. Just because a man shares my skin color -- or doesn't -- tells me no more than that; skin color in America today is not a proxy for anything solid and meaningful by way of prediction or evaluation of efforts. That's what Dr. King struggled to achieve; and that's what we have accomplished-in our victories over racial prejudice -- the right of blacks and all who constitute racial minorities to be treated and regarded as individuals.

Let's all take a deep breath and acknowledge: We have come a mighty long way as a nation in turning the corner on "race." As we evaluate President Obama, and his GOP rivals -- let's ask ourselves -- What does the candidate's race really have to do with anything? MSNBC's pundits may posit otherwise, but what do they really know about race?

Former Wall Street Journal Columnist, Best-Selling Author Dies

2012-02-10T22:39:07Z

DETROIT — Best-selling author Jeffrey Zaslow was killed Friday when he lost control of his car on a snowy road after promoting his latest book in northern Michigan. He was 53.

Zaslow, co-author of the million-selling book "The Last Lecture," was also a former columnist for The Wall Street Journal and former advice columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times. Zaslow, who had an affinity for stories of heroism and resilience, worked on memoirs of U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and airline pilot Capt. Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger.

"Jeff was a beautiful writer, wonderful collaborator, loving husband, father and friend," Sullenberger, who was praised for his skill after safely ditching a plane in the Hudson River in 2009, said in a written statement Friday. "Our whole family loved him dearly and he will be sorely missed."

Zaslow was killed in an accident Friday morning in Warner Township, about 160 miles northwest of Lansing, according to the Antrim County sheriff's office. Zaslow's car slid into the path of a semitrailer. He was killed on impact.

The sheriff's department did not release the name of the victim, but literary agent and friend Gary Morris confirmed Zaslow's death. Morris said he was told of Zaslow's death Friday evening by the author's wife.

Zaslow was in northern Michigan speaking about "The Magic Room: A Story About the Love We Wish for Our Daughters." The book, based on a Michigan bridal shop, was published in December.

"His great talent was to find stories that had heart that people could relate to," Morris said.

Morris said Zaslow's first book was based on a 2007 column he wrote for The Wall Street Journal. "The Last Lecture" was published in 2008 and has been translated into 40 languages. It was inspired by Carnegie Mellon University professor Randy Pausch's "last lecture" of his life's lessons. Pausch died in 2008 of pancreatic cancer.

"He was the most industrious and hardest working author I know," Morris said. "He never turned anything in late. He turned in the cleanest copy. It really was ethics. He was completely selfless in the writing of his own books and collaborations with others."

Zaslow was a writer for The Wall Street Journal when he was selected by the Sun-Times in 1987 to write a column to replace Ann Landers. Zaslow and Diane Crowley, daughter of the original Ann Landers, wrote side-by-side columns. Zaslow wrote the column, called "All That Zazz," until 2001.

Zaslow, a native of Philadelphia, lived in the Detroit area. He is survived by his wife, Sherry, and three daughters, Alex, Eden and Jordan.

Dr. Boyce Watkins: Has the Obama Administration Hijacked Black Leadership in America?

2012-02-10T22:06:15Z

In a recent article in Diverse Issues in Higher Education, Professor Cornel West "went H.A.M." on Tulane University Professor Melissa Harris-Perry.

In what might be his strongest public comments yet, West referred to Harris-Perry as a "fake" and a "fraud" for allowing herself to be used by the liberal establishment to shoot down his critiques over our nation's decision to overlook racial inequality and poverty.

I was quoted in the article, but only as a supporter of Dr. West.Â Anyone who evaluates Cornel West's track record will see that he has consistently advocated for Black, Brown and poor people long before "hope" and "change" slogans were thrust on to our TV screens.Â In fact, Dr. West and Pastor Jeremiah Wright serve as our strongest modern-day embodiments of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Similar to King, both of these men must endure the public volatility that comes with not running in lockstep with any flashy political trend.

When I heard what Cornel said about Melissa, my neck snapped like Nene Leakes bumping into a bill collector at a night club.Â I was both impressed and shocked that West had been so strong in his position on Harris-Perry, and I was glad to see that even millionaires aren't afraid to tell the truth.

Sometimes when diplomacy fails and your people are being attacked, it's time to go to war.Â When Cornel West spoke up honestly about the challenges of poor, Black and Brown people, alarm bells went off in liberal elitist America. Â As a professor at an elite university, West was supposed to do what the other elites have done: Â consider the poor only as an afterthought to planning your next vacation at Martha's Vineyard.

In the cute and contrived world of academia, poor people are only secondary theoretical constructs that you discuss during research symposiums; they aren't real human beings that you should actually fight for in public.

West had run off the plantation by speaking freely, not as an enemy of the Obama Administration (he campaigned heavily for the president), but as someone who demanded that we give a voice to the voiceless. Â But when you have 96 percent of the Black vote, there is almost no incentive to do anything for Black people, especially those who are poor or in prison.

It's much easier to convince Black people to be quiet by using political goons to terrorize any voices of dissent. Â I can just hear someone at a closed-door meeting making the statement, "The negroes are getting upset, what do we do?Â Perhaps we should find one of our personal negroes to fight him."

Well, in full overseer tradition, the Democrats have created well-paid African-American attack dogs willing to defend their actions at any cost.Â Since Harris-Perry and her friends had no legitimate defense to the critiques of Dr. West, they presumed that it would be easier to simply discredit him.Â You see, if you kill the messenger, you never have to deal with the message itself.

Harris-Perry allowed herself to be used by the liberal establishment and their media channels to paint Professor West as irrelevant, petty, and ignorant in his critiques.Â She never actually addressed the issues that Dr. West brought to the table.Â That's like my doctor saying, "Boyce, you're gaining weight" and me responding with, "You're just a quack divorcee who doesn't know how to raise his kids."

If I want to honestly confront my doctor's argument that I've gained weight, all I'd need to do is stand on a scale -- unless I am afraid to do so. Harris-Perry knows that Cornel West was right about poverty and inequality. Â But because she is a highly paid scholar who doesn't have to confront the issues being brought forth by Dr. West, she likely sees poor Black families as an acceptable casualty to her own political ambitions.

Let's be clear:Â Disagreeing with Cornel West is not a crime.Â Supporting the Obama Administration is just fine.Â But avoiding the issues of racial inequality and poverty by simply discrediting anyone who brings the topics to the table is pathetically harmful to millions of Black families that are affected by economic inequality, poor educational systems, and mass incarceration.Â Â Someone has to speak up for these people, even at the expense of their own career opportunities, and we should all be thankful that Cornel West has the integrity to lose important friends in order to do what is right.

His willingness to do that which is unpopular (as Dr. King did before his death) will put Cornel West in the history books as a visionary activist and scholar; Melissa Harris-Perry will simply be remembered as another talking head.

In the worst African dictatorships, European corporations seeking to drain a country's resources realized this simple fact:Â Â There is no need to compensate a country's citizens for their resources if you can simply pay off greedy dictators and figureheads who control what the people think and do.Â As a result, there are countries where billions of dollars in oil are extracted every year, yet the majority of the country's citizens remain in poverty.

In the Black community, leading Democrats have learned the dictator lesson well: If we hijack a few figureheads in the Black community and convince them to always speak in support of our agenda, we don't actually have to do very much for Black people themselves.

It's much easier to take care of the Head N*gger In Charge (HNIC) than it is to take care of the people they represent - just give them big media guns and have them aim those guns at any of the field negroes who choose to participate in the rebellion. That's what makes Melissa Harris-Perry so harmful.

Dr. Boyce Watkins is a Professor at Syracuse University. To have Dr. Boyce commentary delivered to your email, please click here.

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Westminster Dog Show's 'New Direction' Axes Pet Adoption Ads

2012-02-10T21:32:00Z

NEW YORK -- Pet lovers won't have to look away anymore when those heart-wrenching TV ads appear during the Westminster dog show – the ones with the pitiful little faces peering out from behind those rusted bars of a cage and wondering "how I ended up in here."

Happy dogs will rule the air waves this year, thanks to a new sponsor for America's most prestigious dog competition and a decision to air ads that shift the focus away from sad-eyed animals in need of adoption.

"The feedback we got from our primary audience was that they were seeing commercials that made them want to turn the channel," Westminster spokesman and longtime TV host David Frei said Thursday.

Nestle Purina PetCare is the new sponsor for America's most prestigious dog competition that begins Monday at Madison Square Garden, replacing Pedigree after 24 years. The switch will bring a shift in the tone of the television commercials that drew nearly as much attention as who won best in show.

Gone will be the haunting music and woeful pictures of dogs with pleading eyes wasting away at the pound, hoping to be adopted. Instead, Purina's main spots will feature dogs running on the beach, catching a Frisbee, frolicking in the snow and riding a surfboard.

Frei said he thought the Pedigree commercials took the wrong approach, backed by viewers who either muted the spots or flipped the channel and didn't turn back.

"Show me an ad with a dog with a smile. Don't try to shame me," he said. "We told them that and they ignored us."

He added: "Our show is a celebration of dogs. We're not promoting purebreds at the expense of non-purebreds. We celebrate all dogs," he said. "When we're seeing puppies behind bars, it takes away from that. Not just because it's sad, but it's not our message."

More than 2,000 purebred champion dogs are entered in the 136th Westminster Kennel Club show, with the winner to be chosen Tuesday night. Each evening at the Garden, an announcement is read over the public-address system encouraging people to visit shelters and adopt a pet.

The commercials air on USA Network and CNBC, which share coverage of the event. About 3.4 million viewers watched last year when a Scottish deerhound called Hickory won.

Pedigree was "surprised and disappointed" when it was dropped by Westminster, senior brand manager Lisa Campbell said.

Campbell said Westminster had made it clear in recent years "that we had become too focused on adoptions." She acknowledged that the ads struck a nerve and said there are other ways to encourage pet adoption.

She was certain, though, that the ads were effective. Campbell said shelters around the country had thanked Pedigree for raising the plight of homeless dogs. She said 4 million dogs get put in shelters each year and only half make it out. Among those who found a home was Sweet Pea, the pug mix she regularly takes to work with her.

"Westminster has been a great platform for us," she said. "We were able to tap into a dog-loving audience."

Melissa Martellotti, spokeswoman for parent company Mars Petcare US, said Pedigree had contributed $7 million to the pet adoption cause since 2006.

Frei said Westminster has input into the commercials Purina will show during its multiyear deal as a sponsor. He said Westminster had the same understanding with Pedigree, "but things that ended up on the air were not what we were led to believe."

Purina had long maintained a presence at Westminster and became a partner last June. Candy Caciolo, the company's portfolio director of specialty, breeder and pet acquisition, arrived in New York on Thursday, minus her two standard poodles, Peaches and Anne.

The companies and show officials declined to say how much Purina or Pedigree paid to secure advertising rights.

Caciolo said next week's ads had been in development for quite a while. While Purina was aware of the reaction Pedigree's commercials elicited over the years, "it wasn't really an issue for us," she said.

Purina's ads are based on a theme: Inside every good dog is a great dog. Its main 60-second spot shows lots of wagging tails – there are therapy dogs, rescue dogs, guide dogs, show dogs, household pets and a playful pooch greeting a serviceman.

Said Caciolo: "We're unleashing a new direction."

WATCH: What Do A Bureaucrat And Ellen Have In Common?

2012-02-10T21:20:17Z

Those who think bureaucrats live dull lives might want to think twice. Jon Juane, a marketing officer with Service Canada, is trying to dance his way onto Ellen DeGeneresâ popular daytime talk show.

The comedian is calling on her viewers to send in âhiddenâ dance videos and the Canadian public servant hopes his YouTube hit, posted on Wednesday, will make it onto The Ellen Show.

âI'm pretty sure this is what I was destined to do,â Juane wrote in the videoâs description. âThanks Ellen for giving me an opportunity to respond to my calling in life.â

The video shows the bureaucrat â whoâs sporting a bright blue and green sweatshirt â grooving to a Michael Jackson classic in Ottawaâs Rideau Canal (which is transforms into a giant skating rink during the winter).

Juane then decides to show some Canadian pride by dancing to a CÃ©line Dion song while everyone around him seems to be oblivious to his moves. He takes things a step further during the final act and dances likes thereâs no tomorrow right behind a guard.

Robert Greenwald: Lobbyist Poses as Mechanic in Anti-Union Super Bowl Ad (VIDEO)

2012-02-10T21:02:50Z

America just got rickrolled.

There we were last week, innocently partaking in the annual testosterone-fest that is the Super Bowl, when we were treated to an ad featuring a group of supposed auto mechanics lamenting that they never voted for the union they're in. But look closely. One of these "mechanics" is sporting a gold watch, manicured hands, and a brand new shirt. That's because he's not a mechanic, or even an actor.

He's Washington lobbyist Rick Berman.

Berman is a gun-for-hire -- nicknamed Dr. Evil -- who specializes in creating nonprofit front groups to push corporate interests. His clients have included the likes of Phillip Morris, Coca Cola, and Tyson's Foods. But you wouldn't know it hearing the names of the organizations he starts. The Employment Policies Institute? They fight minimum wage increases. The American Beverage Institute? They go after Mothers Against Drunk Driving. And the gem of an organization linked to the Super Bowl ad is the Center for Union Facts.

Like other Berman fronts, the Center for Union Facts lists no staff on its website. But it does offer up a lot of false information about labor unions, using distorted statistics to paint their staffers as a bunch of corrupt thugs out to steal workers' hard-earned money. No mention is made of the better wages and benefits union members receive relative to their non-union counterparts, nor of the far more pervasive acts of corporate corruption and coercion that go on in American workplaces. Without a union, workers are left to fend for themselves against employers with unchecked power.

So Rick Berman is not quite the salt-of-the-earth mechanic that Super Bowl fans were supposed to find relatable while being fed anti-union propaganda. Indeed, he appears to be a master of the bait and switch: He creates fake nonprofits to lure Americans to corporate propaganda, and occasionally he shows up posing as an ordinary American in those groups' ads.

Americans who want the real facts on unions -- fakery-free -- will have to go somewhere other than the Center for Union Facts to find them.

'Downton Abbey's' Valentine's Day Cards

2012-02-10T20:58:13Z

Express your feelings for a loved one and "Downton Abbey" all at once with these printable Valentine's Day cards from artist Chad Thomas.

Thomas was inspired to create the "Downton Abbey" cards after marathoning the show with his wife.

Falling for somebody? Show them how you feel with the Bates and O'Brien card. Feeling more sinister? There's the Thomas valentine for that occasion!

Thomas created other cards featuring Mary, Sybil and Branson. Check them out below and head over to Thomas' site for full-size downloads.

Mark McLaughlin: Occupy Wall Street: RIP

2012-02-10T20:14:02Z

Occupy Wall Street is not a political movement. OWS is a satire created by a Canadian media property that exploited blogs, social media and mainstream news media to generate momentum. The movement may never die. RIP refers to the mainstream attention that the media and politicians gave to this movement.

The Beginning

The OWS idea was created by Adbusters in July of 2011.

This is a Canadian magazine that spoofs commercialism and promotes anarchy. Many news articles attribute the creation of OWS to Adbusters. For example, MSNBC wrote... "First proposed by anti-consumerist magazine Adbusters earlier this year, the Occupy Wall Street movement started gaining notable Internet "buzz" on Sept. 10..."

The Search for "One Demand"

The magazine is the parent of a blog that signs off with "for the wild, Culture Jammers HQ" -- all of the blogs from this group are content within the Adbusters magazine website.

These self-named Culture Jammers posted a blog on July 13, 2011 announcing the Twitter hashtag "#occupywallstreet" and launched the movement with this idea: "are you ready for a Tahrir moment?" The headline defined the reader the blog was targeting: "Alright you 90,000 redeemers, rebels and radicals out there..."

The goal:

On September 17, we want to see 20,000 people flood into lower Manhattan, set up tents, kitchens, peaceful barricades and occupy Wall Street for a few months. Once there, we shall incessantly repeat one simple demand in a plurality of voices.

The self-stated plan was to build momentum and then figure out what the "one simple demand" would be in time for the first demonstration.

... we zero in on what our one demand will be, a demand that awakens the imagination and, if achieved, would propel us toward the radical democracy of the future ... and then we go out and seize a square of singular symbolic significance and put our asses on the line to make it happen.

The Event Without the One Demand

The buzz around "Occupy Wall Street" took off around Sept. 10.

On September 15, 2011, with the event just two days away, the blog wrote an open letter to "patriots, rabble-rousers, revolutionaries." The title was "Hey President Obama, Get Ready for our One Demand." The problem was that nobody had yet come up with the "one demand" that would rationalize the rebellion.

What if, try as we might, we just can't come up with only one demand? Well, then maybe we can decide together on an END THE MONIED CORRUPTION OF AMERICA MANIFESTO -- a rousing compendium of our most urgent demands. And on the seventh day of our occupation we publicly deliver our manifesto to the White House and to the American media, letting Obama know that we won't leave Wall Street until he responds.

The OWS movement shifted towards coming up with the "one demand" AFTER everybody was embedded in their tents. The Canadian Culture Jammers caught fire with people who wanted anarchy for the sake of anarchy.

Zucotti Park Becomes Counter-Culture Chic

OWS became cool. Media coverage exploded. Politicians started to co-opt OWS for their own agenda. Yet, each politician and pundit who dove in, seemed to back away quietly.

Even Michael More backed away. On December 1, one of the bloggers on Mr. Moore's website who was "embedded" in Zucotti park wrote about a girl named Ketchup:

Ketchup, a petite 22-year-old from Chicago with wavy red hair and glasses with bright red frames, arrived in Zuccotti Park in New York on September 17. She had a tent, a rolling suitcase, 40 dollars' worth of food, the graphic version of Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States and a sleeping bag. She had no return ticket, no idea what she was undertaking, and no acquaintances among the stragglers who joined her that afternoon to begin the Wall Street occupation. She decided to go to New York after reading the Canadian magazine Adbusters, which called for the occupation, although she noted that when she got to the park Adbusters had no discernible presence.

Uh oh! This embedded journalist who was there to promote OWS was posting blogs that actually brought the whole purpose of the protest into question.

We are the 99%

During these weeks, this tiny slice of the population stumbled onto the notion that "We are the 99%." On October 7, a website went up that re-crafted the Declaration of Independence into "The 99% Declaration." This manifesto is the only after-the-fact rationalization for OWS. The irony of this small group calling itself the 99% is satire at its very best.

Things Get Ugly

Zuccotti Park became a tent city with health risks, violence, drug use, exploitation and rape. OWS became an endorsement that this kind of behavior was just what America needs.

Zucotti park was cleaned out early in the morning on November 15th. Protestors were going to be allowed back in quickly after the clean-up but the protestors got a court order that delayed their own return.

Mayor Bloomberg declared:

In the future, protesters and the general public will be welcome there to exercise their first amendment rights and otherwise enjoy the park but will not be allowed to use tents, sleeping bags, or tarps, and going forward must follow all park rules.

The protestors reaction was to go to court because they claimed that all of their behavior, like using tents, was protected under the 1st Amendment.

The next day, November 16, 2011, the Culture Jammers issued "Tactical Briefing #19":

"Now begins the second, visceral, canny, militant phase of our nonviolent march to real democracy."

It takes a great satirist to put "militant phase" and "nonviolent march" into the same call-to-action. This sentence is so beautifully crafted that few readers noticed the oxymoron.

The blog went on to say... "We will turn this winter into a training ground for precision disruptions -- flashmobs, stink bombs, edgy theatrics -- against the megacorps and the unrepentant 1%." The vast majority of Americans are being encouraged to terrorize a tiny minority part of the population for no clear reason.

OWS now occupies the courts with individual cases too numerable to track. These are trials where individuals are defending themselves or law suits because the police acted without sufficient provocation. The foundational court case about free speech has been quietly withdrawn without fanfare.

Occupy Wall Street: RIP

RIP is a misnomer. Adbusters is targeting rebels, redeemers, radicals, rable-rousers and revolutionaries. Their audience has found something that they feel legitimizes their instincts to act out without a clear purpose. They are never going to go away as the latest blog from Culture Jammers HQ confirms. It's called "Tactical Briefing #25, Showdown in Chicago."

Here's the warning for Chicago:

And if they don't listen... if they ignore us and put our demands on the back burner like they've done so many times before... then, with Gandhian ferocity, we'll flashmob the streets, shut down stock exchanges, campuses, corporate headquarters and cities across the globe... we'll make the price of doing business as usual too much to bear.

RIP is about the end of the desire by mainstream media pundits and politicians to stay on board. The creators of the movement were satirists who are very talented at farce and this is a tribute to their talent. But, that is what OWS is.

The term for phony grass roots movements is Astroturfing. OWS was one of the best Astroturfing campaigns of all time.

It's unfortunate that the farce continues to propagate real violence. OWS events must dissolve into violent clashes or run the risk of being like the tree that falls in the woods.

The hangover we are left with is a new impulse to divide the U.S. population up into a group that is 1% and another group that is 99%. One of the brilliant aspects of the construction of the Constitution is that it protects the rights of minorities. It seems that minority rights no longer apply to people who fall into an unpopular "1%."

The OWS story is a story about modern media in all of its messy glory. Adbusters has raised the art of lampooning to a level that Mad Magazine or even Saturday Night Live never imagined.

WATCH: Coulter's Obama Joke Falls Flat

2012-02-10T20:00:55Z

Ann Coulter compared President Obama to rapper and reality star Flavor Flav at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference on Friday.

The inflammatory line was one of several Coulter sprinkled throughout her speech, a version of which she reliably gives at CPAC
every year. The 2012 edition of the address did not contain any outright shockers, such as when she called John Edwards a "faggot" in 2007. She did, however, stay current by making a very crude joke about Bill Clinton.

Her Obama line came during a series of riffs about the president. She alleged that the mainstream media "is gaga" about him, and said that he would make "a lovely next-door neighbor, as long as you're not Chinese cause then he'd be constantly borrowing stuff" -- a joke that received loud applause.

Then, she dropped her piÃ¨ce de rÃ©sistance. "Voters with forty years of politically correct education are ecstatic to have the first black president. They just love the idea even if we did get Flavor Flav instead of Thomas Sowell." Unfortunately for her, the joke fell pretty flat; there seemed to be quite a few more groans that laughs. Coulter quickly moved on.

The 2012 Speculatron Weekly Roundup For Feb. 10, 2012

2012-02-10T20:00:36Z

Fans of the National Basketball Association have a saying about the league's playoff series: It's not a competition until the visiting team shows up and beats its opponents at home. This week, the 2012 race for the GOP nomination finally got interesting in the same way. It's not much of a surprise that former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum won -- in the end -- the Iowa caucuses. He'd camped out in that state all year. In South Carolina, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich demonstrated that he knew just what buttons to push to turn the voters on and get them out to the polls. And former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney was well at home in places like New Hampshire -- where he actually lives -- and Las Vegas, where he drew on the support of the state's large Mormon community.

This week, it was anticipated that Santorum was going to have a decent night on Tuesday. There was a mostly meaningless "beauty contest" primary in Missouri that only he was taking seriously, and in Minnesota, the social conservatives who form that state's conservative base were more Santorum's flavor. But when Santorum completed the sweep that night by notching a win in Colorado, that got people's attention. Romney was not supposed to lose that state. Sure, Santorum's success in the Centennial State was due in large part to the fact that Romney hadn't bothered to turn on his super PAC Money Spigot Of Certain Death, but the story remained that Santorum had stolen a win away from the presumed front-runner on Romney's home turf.

But the changes wrought in the past week weren't limited to the horse race. A far more interesting dynamic surfaced in the national news cycle, where a range of events -- the Komen/Planned Parenthood kerfuffle, the Proposition 8 ruling, and the hot controversy over the Obama administration's ruling on contraception coverage -- brought the 'culture war' back in a big way. As NBC's First Read put it: "You know the economy must be improving when cultural and social issues come roaring back into the national spotlight." And over at Business Insider, Michael Brendan Daugherty took it a step further, cautioning readers to "forget jobs" as an election year issue:

Everyone thought that the 2012 election would be about jobs, jobs, jobs.
They were wrong.

First corporate profits went up. The market has been strong for almost two months. Unemployment is falling. And there are even signs of life in the housing industry.

Yes, America still has long term debt problems. And Americans are saddled with lots of household debt.

But the last three weeks prove that what gets Americans really fired up is the culture war.

The confluence of Santorum's success and the rise of culture war issues raises an interesting question. If the economy actually improves, does Romney still have an argument for why he should be president? And if events require the GOP contenders to earn the nomination based on fealty to true red-blooded conservatism, isn't Santorum in a better position? Can Gingrich earn the mantle based upon his past triumphs? Or is Texas Rep. Ron Paul already using his well-trained army of supporters to steal enough delegates to earn a seat at the table?

And in a wonderful example of serendipitous timing, the week has swung from the midwestern nominating contests back to Washington, D.C. and the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC). At CPAC, the vagaries of the economy never matter much. Whether the economy is booming or breaking down, at CPAC you're always supposed to lower taxes on the wealthy, gut government programs and slash entitlements. All of that is a given. When candidates come to CPAC, they're coming to the Temple, to prove that you deserve to be ordained in the spirit of Saint Reagan. And at CPAC, these culture war issues matter greatly in how well you're received, and how much support from the conservative movement you're likely to take with you as you return to the trail.

Romney, Gingrich and Santorum all made the pilgrimage to CPAC. Paul didn't make the trip, opting instead to keep working on the trail. (CPAC is old hat to Paul, so the decision to keep working at winning votes on the trail is the smart play.) We invite you all to follow our CPAC coverage by clicking here, and here. And, of course, we invite you all to enter the Speculatron for the week of Feb. 10, 2012.

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