Today’s photo of the day shows  the winnners of MTV’s Making The Band 4. As I predicted, Diddy went with 5 members instead of 4. He did, however, throw a monkey wrench in my plans my picking someone I didn’t expect. What do y’all think?

Today’s video of the day comes from the Miss Teen South Carolina pageant, where Lauren Caitlin Upton gave one of the most embarrassing answers in pageant history.

Mr. Vick, Please Take Time to Reflect and Atone for What You’ve Done – and Not Just for Show
By Deborah Mathis

Despite reassurances that pit bulls are not innately vicious and violent but have to be trained to  become so, I have yet to tackle my prejudice against the breed, having heard one too many stories about a maiming or killing attack on others in the animal kingdom, including human beings.

A man in an accountant’s office once ridiculed a bunch of us waiting for service as we recoiled when he showed off his pit bull puppy.

“You people,” he said dismissively as he cuddled an, admittedly, adorable pup.

Funny, I was thinking the same thing. You people with your pit bulls — what are you going to do with them? Breed them to be fighters, to be killers, to scare the daylights out of your neighbors? What’s this, a warning? A threat? Did you choose that particular dog because of a real affinity for them? Or do you have something else in mind?

I don’t loathe them as much as fear them. Even so, I would never harm one except to defend myself or someone else.

Apparently, Michael Vick, erstwhile quarterback of the Atlanta Falcons, loved them, really loved them. But it wasn’t for their winsome ways. Apparently, the ferocious quality that makes me and so many other folks turn away from the breed is the very thing that attracted Vick, some of his relatives and friends.

For the rest of the story, click here. 

Hey, Dems: Run against Bush — and toughen up — or lose in ‘08
By Alex Koppelman

Fifteen months before the 2008 election, the Democrats are odds-on favorites to put one of their own into the White House. A solid majority of the country rejects the Bush administration and the war in Iraq he initiated. But psychologist Drew Westen says Democrats could lose yet again if they don’t learn how to stand up for themselves and connect with voters emotionally.

Westen is a clinical, personality and political psychologist and a professor in the departments of psychology and psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Emory University in Atlanta. He’s also a political consultant whose bestselling book, “The Political Brain: The Role of Emotion in Deciding the Fate of the Nation,” published in June, is a clarion call to Democrats to change the way they appeal to voters. Westen thinks the Democrats need to rely less on logic and more on emotion, and they need to understand that strength is less a function of defense policy than of backbone.

For the rest of the story, click here. 

Travelocity Fined For Cuba Trips

Internet travel site Travelocity was fined $182,750 for booking trips to Cuba in violation of a 45-year-old embargo. What do you think?

Doug Harford,
Systems Analyst
“Doesn’t the Treasury Department know you can get much better fares to enemy nations on Priceline?”

Leslie Doniacz,
Plumbing Apprentice
“As long as we’re on the subject, should we just go ahead and fine them for booking trips to Topeka? I have never visited a hotter, more boring city than Topeka, Kansas.”

William Kern,
Gem Cutter
“I was one of the people who booked a trip and even if I have to pay the whole fine, it’s still cheaper than having my surgery done in the States.”