Republicans are in a pickle. Gee…this is fun to watch.

WaPo reports:

Staging a convention during a major natural disaster would be a public relations challenge for either political party. But GOP officials say the burden could be especially heavy for their party, whose reputation was tarred by the Bush administration’s bungling of Katrina and its aftermath in 2005.

A hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico could also cast unwelcome attention on the offshore oil rigs that McCain has championed as a solution to rising gasoline prices — they are now being evacuated in the face of the coming storm.

Fiasco. Tee hee.

Anthony Pellicano and attorney Terry Christensen were convicted of illegal wiretapping by a federal jury in downtown LA today.

Guess Pellicano was just ‘well-known’ and not ‘famous’ because the famous get a walk. The well-know get convicted.

Huffpo had this. Keith Olbermann got his dander up over what the Associated Press ran about the Barack Obama speech.

On the other side, there are reports of reporters cheering during Obama’s speech at the DNC.

Beauty queen (Miss Congeniality actually), TV sports reporter, two year governor of Alaska Sarah Palin, has been chosen by John McCain for a VP.

Drudge was ‘whispering’ in red about Tim Pawlenty. We knew she was on the short list – but this makes his run for president a little more interesting.

McCain has done very well for himself ditching the ahem ‘more experienced’ loyal, if you will, people in his life (think the woman who stuck with him when he was a POW) and choosing a hot young thing.

If there hasn’t already been a movie about Palin (To Die For) starring Nicole Kidman…they will be…Okay she totally reminds us of a Nicole Kidman character. Doesn’t she? Vehement, slightly creepy with amazing skin.

Sarah Palin: Stepford Wives meets Cold Mountain!

We’ve been reading the punditry about Sarah Palin this morning, and our favorite bit comes in the L.A. Times Top of the Ticket blog. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (whose name had been floated as a possible McCain sidekick) told Don Frederick:

“I don’t know too much about her, but perhaps that’s the good news,” Hutchison said.

Good news? If John McCain wins, he’ll be the oldest person ever elected president … and you think putting some unknown stunt candidate a heartbeat away from the Oval office is “good news?” For whom? Democrats?

This caught our eye on Craigslist:

Writers Needed for a Weekly Column

Reply to: gigs-817483816@craigslist.org

Date: 2008-08-28, 6:04PM PDT

So… Please read through before sending us resumes.

We are looking for writers to start an online weekly trade.
The trade is for the entertainment community.
You can pick your subject: career advice, movie reviews, or anything else that comes to mind and suits our site.

Please note that we are looking for writers who love to write and not just doing it for $.
We are a non profit site, so this is a non paid gig. The only thing we do promise you is over 50.000 readers a month. So the benefit would be major exposure.

Our plan is to go on paper within a year. Writers who would stick with us will then get paid contracts.

Please send us some writing samples and the subject you would like to write about.
Actors, casting directors or other industry professionals are welcome.

Sincerely,

Allen

http://www.ActorsPages.org

Here’s something you’ll never hear,”Please note that we are looking for janitors who love to clean and not just doing it for $.”

Yeah, it could be the only profession where the desire to be paid for it is considered a moral liability. Well, this and hooking…

Oh and cheap and/or broke is not the same as non-profit. Maybe they can find an accountant who loves to set up 501(c)(3) and not just doing it for the $.

How excited are you to find out who will be McCain’s veep?
( polls)

The rumor is, ahem, Drudge is reporting that John McCain‘s veep choice may be leaked today. Today around 3pm PST.

We think he should wait for a slower news day. Maybe a day when 15,000 reporters aren’t knee deep in donkey drama in Denver. But what do we know. We know alliteration. That’s what we know.

They call this video “DNC Street Vendors”. We call it,”We Went to the DNC and All We Got Was This Lousy Video of T-Shirts”.

Stuart Shepard of Focus on the Family made a “Praying for Rain” youtube video. He asked his followers(?) to pray for rain at Mile High Stadium during Barack Obama’s acceptance speech because he disagrees with his politics. “If God decides that rain of biblical proportions would be a good and proper meteorological condition for that evening,” He says on the video. “We’ll see it and we’ll say that it is good.”

Yeah, Focus on the Family should try focusing on their family and retire from rain dancing. Because it’s 80 degrees and sunny in Denver today.

Either way it makes Stuart Shepard look like an ass.

Anyway, Joe Strupp at E&P brings us a story of the Times-Picayune looking at the three year anniversary of Katrina tomorrow while bracing for Gustav.

“Keeping a watchful eye on Gustav has caused people to be less-conscious of the anniversary than they would have been,” Peter Kovacs said. “There is a sort of nervousness of ‘no, not again’.”

Reuters reports that some New Orleans residents may get evacuations orders by tomorrow. The storm could hit the gulf coast by Monday. That would make it make land fall the first day of the Republican National Convention.

Ouch.

The Greater Los Angeles Area office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations has asked Warner Brothers and Warner Independent Pictures to change the title of their upcoming release Towelhead.

The trailer for the film can be found here.

It’s not exactly a movie about race relations. It’s secondary at best. It’s about a 13 year old girl, who happens to be of a race. So, FBLA caught up with Hussam Ayloush, Executive Director of CAIR in LA and asked him why he thinks the studio chose to use that title in this market.

“The film title is based on a book with the same title.” Said Ayloush. “However, the film was released in Canada under a different title: “Nothing is Private”. I guess WB felt that the US market is more accepting of such language.

We think it’s funny that the title for a Canadian release would get translated – interpreted into their language.

Ayloush said that although Warner Bros. executives have made it clear they intended no offense, the use of such a derogatory term by a major film studio will serve to increase its acceptability in public discourse.