The Clinton/Obama debate tonight in Philadelphia at 8pm EST will not be broadcast on the west coast until 3-hours later.

And to make this all more annoying if you're a political wonk - junkie - where waiting a whole three hours feels like millennia because it's the internet age and now we're super dramatic about time delays - ABC will not allow clips of more than 30-seconds on the internet until the next day.

Miffed, Patt Morrison wrote today:

Not only is ABC broadcasting the debate on time-delay to us here on the West Coast -- making the debate far less important, evidently, than the Oscars, which get broadcast in real time everywhere in the world.

But ABC is banning any other broadcast news or Web outlets from using more than a single 30-second clip from this presidential debate until the morning after it's over: "We have an obligation to our West Coast affiliates," a spokesman said, "to not make chunks of the debate available until their viewers have had a chance to see them."

Their viewers? Their viewers are American citizens, entitled to take free and unfettered part in the electoral process which -- at last reading -- is not a moneymaking opportunity, but a civic duty.

Go get 'em, Pat.

Like we announced earlier FBLA should be getting our comments enabled by early next week. But until that happens, one of our readers, former columnist at Hartford Courant, Amy Pagnozzi sent us this which we thought was worth posting:

I have no idea where to post comments or letters to editor so please forward mine: Randi Rhodes, 'Disappeared by Air America: No Business Sense, No Vision. While I understand that Randi Rhode's crass remarks -- made during a stand-up comedy act to benefit an AA affiliate -- were a short-term liability, long-term, the loss of her voice there is a loss to the Progressive Movement. As the Right Wing well knows but the Left never learns, it takes extreme voices at the end of the spectrum to to move the middle where you want it. The side that defines 'Centrist' is the side that wins. It's that simple. Charlie Kireker and Mark Green's graceless statement, leaving out the the setting of Randi's lapse, reducing her central role in AA's survival to 'past services,' underscores their lack of vision. Abusive? Randi? Hell, yeah, in terms of language. But let's not lose sight of the real abuses, and abusers, she railed against, and the Left's collaboration with them: Mark Green's long strange trip from Nader's Raider to flakking for the Pro-Foreclosure, Pro- Cluster Bomb candidate is just one tragic example. (see Hillary Clinton's Hawkish Record and Why Pretend That Hillary Clinton Is Progressive? Funny, aint it? Green entitled his latest book, in 2006, "Losing Our Democracy". Guess that's what they mean when they say the one who smelt it, dealt it. Love & Peace, Amy Pagnozzi

As we have been reporting - Randi Rhodes is not a stand up. She did stand up and it shattered her career...we've compared it to Micheal Richards. He wasn't a stand up. Did stand up. Now he'd be lucky to open for Gary Coleman in a truck stop lounge in Truckee. Not to put down truck stop lounge acts in Truckee...

Moral of the story is: Stand up comedy is best left to the professionals.

However, lowly stand ups, the usual red-headed step-children of the entertainment industry, are having a good day on top of being smug about their craft. Huffpo is reporting that their own (cough) Richard Belzer will be replacing Rhodes at Air America.

And then there is Al Franken's actual serious real - no joke - sober - stern run for the US Senate. And The Atlantic Monthly did a piece on it. But of course, no story about Franken can pass up a chance to mention Franken Berry Cereal. With the resemblance there's just no way:

Beneath the Franken Berry box lies a manila folder containing the biographies and phone numbers of dozens of local luminaries he must call or write before turning in for the night. This is the unglamorous, unfunny reality of running for public office that has consumed much of his past year-the endless series of bean feeds, spaghetti dinners, precinct meetings, obscure county fairs, and phone calls that constitute true political organizing. It's why so many celebrities who muse about running for this or that rarely follow through. But tonight, as he does practically every night, Franken eventually picks himself up, plops himself down at the dining-room table, and reaches for the phone.

Salon's Camille Paglia answers one of the most pressing questions of our time:

What kind of person would go to work for a Clinton in the first place?

Chris Richard of Agora Hills wants to know why Hillary Clinton is surrounded with such beta-males. La Paglia answers:

I agree that the male staff who Hillary attracts are slick, geeky weasels or rancid, asexual cream puffs. (One of the latter, the insufferable Mark Penn, just got the heave-ho after he played Hillary for a patsy with the Colombian government.) If I were to hazard a guess, I'd say Hillary is reconstituting the toxic hierarchy of her childhood household, with her on top instead of her drill-sergeant father. All those seething beta males (as you so aptly describe them) are versions of her sad-sack brothers, who got the short end of the Rodham DNA stick.

Of course, her husband, Bill Clinton, is both a slick weasel and a rancid, sexy-as-hell cream puff. Best of both worlds.

And for seconds of fun: the Hillary Tall Tale Generator.

Paul Slansky, who's much too clever to be writing for free at the Huffington Post, points out that Hillary's pop culture references are now and forever will be, older than dirt. One of his quotes from the future:

The way some of you people talk about her, you'd think she was Nurse Ratched.
--A red-faced Bill Clinton complaining to reporters about coverage of his wife's campaign, April 10

The Nurse Ratched comparison has been dogging the former First Lady for decades, as Media Matters found out last winter.

Air America host and stand-up Randi Rhodes, however, called Clinton (and "happy to be back in the news" Geraldine Ferraro) "fucking whores" and promptly got suspended. Ferraro wants her to be fired, like Don Imus.

Stephanie Miller, who we used to like, tells Larry King and former ABC anchor Carol Simpson:

I'm a woman. I don't want to turn in my vajayjay for not supporting Hillary Clinton. I just think that she just can't win.

If you want to refer to your vagina on national television, and you'd rather not use the C-word, please find an alternative expression. Personally, we'd refer to our ovaries. Because we're una mujer de verdad.

As is Nora Ephron. Even though we make fun of her, and her fluctuating hormones, she's got Hillary's number:

I think she was once a truthful person and her lying skills were forged in the early years of her marriage, forged in the crucible of Bill's infidelities and in her role as point person in dealing with them. This is what happens when you marry a narcissist: he spills the milk, you clean it up and your love grows. And then you end up a liar, just like him.

In case you missed it - Dana Perino was on the Daily Show on Thursday. Confirming that the Iraq War is going so well that the White House Press Corps stopped asking about it and her president can fly.

We think she has a calling as a used - cough - pre-owned - car salesperson.

It's sad when your t-shirt is funnier than you are.

Mike Huckabee's Iowa campaign manager Eric Woolson sent out an email blast hocking deeply discounted tees.

From The Caucus Blog at NY Times:

It comes as no surprise to most of you who know me: My office is a mess. The problem is, it's my company office, not a campaign headquarters, and that big stack of "Huckabee for President" T-shirts is one reason why. So, to make sure we find good homes for all those shirts in short order - and my office space gets back to normal - we're having a blowout sale this week only.

All "Huckabee for President" T-shirts in my office are now just $5 plus $1 for postage and handling. (You can't even buy two gallons of gasoline for that price - and think how much longer this wonderful souvenir of Governor Huckabee's campaign will last.)

He continues:

Members of the media: I have a SPECIAL OFFER for you! All shirts are just $35.00, $7.50 postage and handling. Just kidding! You receive the SAME GREAT DISCOUNT as everybody else. I know you can't wear one in public, no matter how good your heart is - and I know you all have very, very good hearts. But you will want one of these high-quality, comfortable white 100-percent cotton T's with that familiar campaign logo you know and love as a cherished keepsake of your time covering the the campaign you loved best.

To be fair, Huckabee's entire campaign was a discount bargain. He raised the same amount of money as Joe Biden and stayed in longer than Mitt Romney.

This was, after all, a guy that while governor lived in a mobile home. Using the quip "It's not a trailer. It's a triple wide."

There was a little goof in the frenzy of Eliot Spitzer coverage.
From AP:

CNN said it shouldn't have used a former U.S. attorney who quit his job after allegedly biting a stripper as an analyst about New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer's prostitution scandal.

No mention of Kendall Coffey's past was made when anchor Tony Harris interviewed him Tuesday on the legal questions surrounding Spitzer's case. Coffey quit his job in May 1996 after being accused of biting a topless dancer on the arm during a visit to an adult club after losing a big drug case.

Coffey talked on CNN about what kind of charges the New York governor could face. Spitzer is accused of having a high-priced call girl visit his hotel room during a visit to Washington last month.

Hey, if Dr. Phil can be a diet guru - we don't see the big deal there.

Spitzer resigned today. The LA Daily News used the AP story to plug their own blog. Apropos? Sure.

Bonnie Fuller flaps her gums about Eliot Spitzer's daughters.
Fuller, under the guise of "caring", names them, and gives some quotes from hack pop psych types. At least she doesn't give their Facebook pages. She's so far gone, she has no idea what a troll she is.

And Sildal Spitzer must regret doing the house tour for Domino's green issue. Voyeurs will be disappointed--there's no tour of the master bedroom.