Either way, I feel I owe it to CJ's readers, or what's left of them, to explain.

I mentioned a couple of times here that my cousin, Kieran Lalor, had been considering a run for US Congress in New York's 19th Congressional District. Kieran's an exceptionally good guy, a Marine Corps veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom, an unapologetic conservative, and most importantly, a credit to his family. Kieran formally announced his candidacy last Sunday, November 25th, and he's asked me to work with his campaign. I'm honored to do so.

With an 8 month-old a host of other goings on, it strikes me that CJ is likely to remain on hold.

But Kieran's campaign is more than worth it. If you've visited this site, odds are good that you might be interested in Kieran's campaign. Take a few seconds to check out his site and if you're inclined, fire away a donation. This is a true grassroots campaign and will be a bellwether for Republicans in 11/2008. We need support from informed people who know what's what.

Kieran's also blogging here.

The incumbent in the 19th is a freshman Democrat, John Hall. Hall is a longtime associate of Jane Fonda, Susan Sarandon and others of their ilk. Though he's been trying to buttress his "pro-veteran" bona fides, but when it comes time to vote he's been unabashedly undermining the troops' mission in Iraq.

If you're interested in Kieran's campaign, drop me an email at william dot lalor at g mail dot com.

Boy was I wrong. As it turns out, not only is Stormy real, but so is Lauren Jones and the premise of the show: tacky California blond is hired at West Podunk, Texas to be a news anchor and reveals that news reporting really is 90% or so just reading from a teleprompter.

It'll take days, perhaps hours, for the cultural significance of Anchorwoman to ripple through a vacationing America. Or, it will take until the show's last episode, when the Internet-less masses find out whether Ms. Jones succeeds in her quest to switch bimbo careers.

But it's already thought provoking.

Wonder, for example, what Katie Couric thinks about Anchorwoman. Reportedly, Katie's big move into Dan Rather's big shoes revolved around her making the nightly news less nightly newsy. That didn't pan out, and Katie's folksy, bloggy, You Tubey gimmicks caused her to fall on her toothy face. Since then she has, more or less, been reading from the Dan Rather memorial teleprompter. And, let us bear in mind, this might be just what salvages her CBS career.

Anchorwoman (the show, not the Couric) seems destined to expose some hard truths about the reporting profession, foremost: one can be a stupid journalist and still a successful journalist. And no one will be more surprised, or upset, by this than journalists --specifically, the stupid ones. After all, when Anchorwoman mocks the gravity that CBS 19's intrepid Michele Reese assigns to her breaking story on some un-fixed potholes outside town on Route whatever, we are laughing because we have seen that story already: When it rains too much, the twenty-something chick from local Channel 5 is standing by the flooding river in duck boots; when it snows, there she is in front of the piles of road salt ([smiling] "...but the city says it's ready [!] for Hellblizard '07..." [back in the studio] "Take care out there Sally. That snow is really piling up!")[Flash Hellbilzzard graphic]. Etc., etc.

Even on the national stage, clowns like Matt Lauer pretend to tackle tough issues like donut addiction, child shyness, and X-Games accidents with a solemn tenacity. But again, it's the scripted questions and the host's unconvincing, feigned intellect that convinces us that, with better hair, some quality time with the teleprompter and a toothy, boyish smile, we, too, could read questions from cue cards and pretend to engage in hard-hitting debate. Or become CBS News anchors, with a little luck.

Of course, Anchorwoman isn't breaking new ground. The new ground - namely, that the old media is composed largely of gas bags - has been breaking more or less daily as the Internet has revealed scores of writers or reporters around the world who weren't really trained to write, or report, but who often out-report college-educated journalists. And, to make things entertaining, the citizen media often make the media look dumb, lazy, and dishonest in roughly equal does. Which is why no one gets news from the news anymore. It's like shopping at Sears.

I pretend to be a lot of things, including writer, attorney, blogger, and campaign consultant, among other things. But I do not pretend to be a television critic, so I won't venture any zany predictions about Anchorwoman - other than that it appears to be as compelling as some of the low brow, mundane nonsense that routinely makes new Fall lineups, at least for a while. The show features an exceptionally leggy blond who needs to be told to wear a blazer, if you catch my drift, which let's face it is a definite plus. Lynne Sullivant seems to be emerging as Jones's nemesis - Sullivant, a semi-young reporter who's worked the snow storm beat, etc., is actually a likeable sort, albeit predictably bitter (something like: "I could've been a model...but I wanted to use my brain so I became a journalist!"). Sullivant has some hard-hitting questions of her own about Channel 9's integrity and who can blame her? Then there's Michele Reese, who stars as the woman who will turn into her colleage Judy Jordan in about 20 years.

Anchorwoman may flop because it's degrading and crass. On the other hand, maybe it will wildly succeed for those reasons. At this stage, though, it'll be worth paying attention to the reception the show receives in the newspapers and other old media. And keep in mind the rave reviews The Office usually receives. The Office's kudos aren't without merit, but mockery of American business tends to be a favored theme. Let's see what happens now that journalists are in the crosshairs.

Coincidentally, New York City is dealiing with a similarly noxious problem. Last night, a Moose stunk up Yankee Stadium. Wakka, wakka.

I am going to stop talking myself out of it. Some people are always stupid enough.

That's Jason Mattera, spokesman for Young America's Foundation, responding to CAIR's attempts to uselawyers and threats to bully YAF into cancelling a speech by Robert Spencer.

Kudos to Mattera for taking a stand. We'll see what develops.

If you didn't just vomit in your mouth, that means you didn't go to law school. Read on. Otherwise, if you went to law school (especially if you just took the bar exam), go here.

...

The Bush administration has over four years lost essentially all credibility. Yet now the administration's critics, in part as a result, seem unaware of the significant changes taking place.

Here is the most important thing Americans need to understand: We are finally getting somewhere in Iraq, at least in military terms. As two analysts who have harshly criticized the Bush administration's miserable handling of Iraq, we were surprised by the gains we saw and the potential to produce not necessarily "victory" but a sustainable stability that both we and the Iraqis could live with.

It must have taken a lot of evidence to convince these writers to swim against the rising anti-war tide.

Merry Miller, who wraps up this mess of an ABC interview by directing viewers to NBC's website, has to be in the running to dethrone "Boom Goes the Dynamite" for putting together the most awkward television segment ever.

And to think she Merry only had four minutes to kill, so to speak - and a guest who spoke most of the time.

Nichols' argument has more holes than a beehive and swiss cheese sandwich. But for starters, what has happened to the "living" Constitution liberals so treasure? Is the Constitution "living" for purposes of privacy penumbras and idea-less speech, but a real Constitution where the Bush Administration is concerned?

Incredibly, as the Telluride Daily Planet reports, the White House did not return calls for comment.

In other news, Breckenridge declared war on nearby Copper Mountain.

N.B. Sharratt's comments about Rep. John Murtha and his disgraceful Haditha hysterics.