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Rita Wilson says her love of music -- and ability to sing -- "was kind of a private thing I kept to myself. You don't want to be that person who's like, 'Oh yeah, and now I'm a singer... And yet, here I am, I guess." Wilson, who's acted in nearly 30 films and produced "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" and the film adaptation of "Mama Mia!," releases her debut album, "AM/FM," on May 8. It's the result of a turn as Roxie Hart in "Chicago" on Broadway during the summer of 2006 that she says "reignited the love that...

Since this is an AP wire, I believe we are allowed to post links only, right?

Temptation and the Shadow- a meditation James 1:19-25 Remember this, my dear brothers: be quick to listen but slow to speak and slow to rouse your temper; God's righteousness is never served by man's anger; do away with all bad habits that are left in you-accept and submit to the word which has been planted in you and can save your souls. But you must do what the word tells you to, and not just listen to it and deceive yourselves. To listen to the word and not obey is like looking at our own features in a mirror and...

First lady Michelle Obama tells Barbara Walters in a 20/20 special that it is "practical" for her to put her self highest on her priority list. Obama says she found her self slipping "pretty low" on her own priority list because she was "so busy caring for everyone else." Michelle Obama says she spends time with girlfriends and going out in her attempt to put herself higher on her priority list. Transcript below. Barbara Walters, ABC News: "Mrs. Obama, you've recently said something that I thought was very interesting for other women to hear. You said 'you put your own...

Here’s the news people on Twitter are buzzing about from tonight’s raincheck interview with the Manchester Union-Leader. We already knew this, though — sort of. Cain told Wolf Blitzer on Monday, before we had heard Ginger White’s name, that his wife didn’t know White. (Skip to 7:30 of this clip.) That’s ever so slightly different from saying his wife didn’t know about White or that he was sending her cash, but c’mon: If she did know that, don’t you think he would have mentioned it to Blitzer as proof that their friendship was no secret? Cain said that in about...

Contentions - Obama the Ineffectual!!! It just wasn't a bad speech. It was a glaringly ineffectual speech!!!

Newt Gingrich vowed on Friday to campaign for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination on his own terms, saying he would do “whatever it takes” to remain in the race despite the exodus a day earlier of nearly his entire senior staff. “There is a fundamental strategic difference between the traditional consulting community and the kind of campaign I want to run,” Mr. Gingrich said. “Now we’ll find out over the next year who’s right.” Even as some prominent Republicans, including Gov. Terry Branstad of Iowa, questioned his viability, Mr. Gingrich made plans to deliver a foreign policy speech in Los...

Newt Gingrich's presidential dreams are in tatters this afternoon after his entire high command resigned in a mass exodus today. The Republican hopeful's campaign manager, senior strategists and key aides in early delegate-selection states all walked out this afternoon, but refused to say why - other than a 'difference in direction'. Rick Tyler, Gingrich's spokesman, said he, campaign manager Rob Johnson and senior strategists were among those who had resigned. 'When the campaign and the candidate disagree on the path, they've got to part ways,' Mr Tyler told the Washington Post this afternoon.

Newt Gingrich was on Meet the Press this morning in his first Sunday show appearance since announcing his intention to… challenge President Obama for the Democrat nomination, apparently. Andrew Stiles at NRO has the details: Newt Gingrich’s appearance on “Meet the Press” today could leave some wondering which party’s nomination he is running for. The former speaker had some harsh words for Paul Ryan’s (and by extension, nearly every House Republican’s) plan to reform Medicare, calling it “radical.”

This morning Republicans are just beginning to assess the damage that former House Speaker and current presidential candidate Newt Gingrich has done to the GOP budget plan currently before Congress. On "Meet the Press" Sunday, Gingrich denounced House Budget Committee chairman Paul Ryan's plan to restructure Medicare, saying, "I don't think right-wing social engineering is any more desirable than left-wing social engineering. I don't think imposing radical change from the right or the left is a very good way for a free society to operate."

If you wish to be a success in the world, promise everything, deliver nothing. (Napoleon Bonaparte)I have written on this general theme before, but let me discuss how Scientific Birtherism provides a window in Obama’s soul. I have long held that the REAL Birther Question is WHY Obama does not resolve this matter by providing a copy of his long form birth certificate. I answer that question with the KISS Matrix which provides a framework of possible reasons which analyze WHY: 1. KENYA. He is born in Kenya, or there is something embarrassing on the long form. 2. IGNORANT. Obama...

Phoenix, Ariz., Apr 2, 2011 / 07:32 am (CNA).- A onetime supporter of the excommunicated and laicized priest Dale Fushek says that his former pastor's new memoir doesn't tell the real story of the man he knew – who began as a “faithful” and “holy” priest, but was led astray by a sense of self-importance. Fushek has accused Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted of Phoenix of wishing for his death and forcing him out of the Church because of a personal grudge. In his new memoir “The Unexpected Life,” he defends his decision to found a non-Catholic “worship center,” which caused...

Beck, 47, is not expected to have his contract renewed after 2011 and reportedly wants to start his own channel. He is considering a partial or wholesale cable channel takeover, or an expansion of his online subscription video service, sources told the New York Times. The controversial conservative has been criticised for his attacks on liberals and his outlandish statements, including the suggestion last week that the Japan earthquake might be a "message from God". He has also said that Barack Obama has "a deep-seated hatred of white people". But after he oversaw the loss of one million viewers from...

Ashton Kutcher says that former President George W. Bush snubbed him at the Super Bowl XLV last Sunday. The actor was sitting directly behind the former President in a luxury suite, but the two didn't exchange any kind words. "He just was not very nice to me. He just kind of snubbed me a little bit," Kutcher told BBC Radio DJ Scott Mills on Thursday. "The Bush, he kinda just turned around and really just gave me this scowl." "I think I said some mean things [about Bush] during the election about him," Kutcher said. "I feel like he probably...

What’s it like inside the Obama White House? A lot like what you’d guess from outside the Obama White House. In “Revival: The Struggle for Survival Inside Obama’s White House,” MSNBC analyst Richard Wolffe, a writer sympathetic to the president, reports the prosaic backroom details of the White House struggles from early this year, but occasionally stumbles upon an off-the-cuff revelation that’s much more interesting. One staffer was conspicuously overweight. The president, in an incident that Wolffe believes proves how caring the man is, took it upon himself to present the aide with a salad for lunch — “then listened...

"That's all right, all of you know who I am," President Obama joked last week when the presidential seal fell off his podium during a speech in Pittsburgh. Even though the incident made headlines for no discernible journalistic reason, it was noteworthy as a succinct example of Obama's arrogance problem. Rather than make a self-deprecating joke, he opted instead to make a self-inflating one, as if to say that the title mattered less than the man. The good news is that it's apparently not racist to call Obama arrogant anymore. Not long ago, Keith Olbermann and other gargoyles on the...

“Her unabashed liberal opinions often lead to some heated debates with her ‘View’ co-hosts, especially with the politically conservative Elisabeth Hasselbeck. Where did this liberal streak come from?” “It comes from umm, from being smart”

JUST LET THE WOMAN SPEAK! He's becoming unbearable, it's just annoying as hell when he won't let her (Sarah Palin) or ANY GUEST HE HAS ON get a word in. It's just annoying as hell when he won't let people get a word in. Sarah Palin couldn't get a word in edge wise... . I think she should stay off his show.

Remember NASA? It once represented to the world the apogee of American scientific and technological achievement. Here is President Obama's vision of NASA's mission, as explained by administrator Charles Bolden: Excerpt - - Read the rest here.

oil crisis: delayed beyond comprehension.. couple of weeks to respond criticism of him: instant response. why someone got fired!

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – Dressed in his Sunday red shirt, Tiger Woods bowed his head and sat in silence in front of his locker. He was supposed to be on the ninth hole at The Players Championship. In another stunning twist for someone whose life used to be so predictable, Woods withdrew suddenly with neck pain that he fears might be a bulging desk.

Much attention has been given to President Obama's persistent use of "I" when giving speeches to sell his administration's agenda. Is he taking responsibility -- or, as his critics say, is he still in campaign mode? FoxNews.com is tracking the president's speeches all this month and will report back after each to see whether The "I's" Have It. Today's Speech: Opening remarks before town hall-style meeting at the University of Tampa in Tampa, Fla. Subject: Jobs, the economy and health care reform Speech Length: 3,399 words Number of "I" References: 96

There's a story of an ex hausted tenor at La Scala who, facing repeated cries of "Encore," responded that he couldn't go on. A man rose in the audience to say, "You'll keep singing until you get it right." That seems to be the defining principle of the Obama administration -- whose response to every problem, every setback, every hiccup and challenge has been, simply, "more Obama." Indeed, for people who aren't sticklers for political jargon, it will be a shock that last night was Obama's first State of the Union Address, since it was his third formal address to...

Any speech from President Obama is guaranteed to include numerous references to himself, blaming George Bush, and creating straw men. Wednesday night's State of the Union was no different. By my count from watching the speech, here is a numbers breakdown of Obama's first State of the Union:

I have heard many folks openly observe that all members of Congress must live in a different world than we live in. I have pondered this oft heard statement and I must concur. I have a direct sense and understanding of these, now particularly odious folks, with a story of life as we knew it around the Beltway of Washington. Back in the late 1980's we were assigned to the D.C. area due to military posting. It was a cultural shock to the entire family. In part, the disparity was due to having lived in Germany for four wonderful years...

PRESIDENT OBAMA was too busy to attend the celebrations in Germany this week marking the fall of the Berlin Wall 20 years ago. But he did appear by video, delivering a few brief and bloodless remarks about how the wall was "a painful barrier between family and friends" that symbolized "a system that denied people the freedoms that should be the right of every human being." He referred to "tyranny," but never identified the tyrants -- he never uttered the words "Soviet Union" or "communism," for example. He said nothing about the men and women who died trying to cross...

Obama’s swelling ego By Jeff Jacoby, Globe Columnist | November 14, 2009 PRESIDENT OBAMA was too busy to attend the celebrations in Germany this week marking the fall of the Berlin Wall 20 years ago. But he did appear by video, delivering a few brief and bloodless remarks about how the wall was “a painful barrier between family and friends’’ that symbolized “a system that denied people the freedoms that should be the right of every human being.’’ He referred to “tyranny,’’ but never identified the tyrants - he never uttered the words “Soviet Union’’ or “communism,’’ for example. He...

Check out my latest video! How many times does He say the word 'I'? I lost count! Watch as our Narcissist-in-Chief makes EVERYTHING, from His inaugural address to Memorial Day to Ramadan to His address to school children to the Fort Hood terrorist attack, all about Him. -Palm Tree Doc (http://palmtreedoc.blogspot.com)

Balloon dad says he has something to day according to reports

Already, President Obama has been compared to a Colonial Despot and Richie Cunningham. But you can't understand anything about his leadership until you know, that if nothing else, Obama is a Player (or, ‘playa,' if you will). For those who don't know, the movie, "How to Be a Player," with Bernie Mac and Bill Bellamy, explains the game. Players have a ‘steady' (a faithful, trusting girlfriend or wife) and then all their other girls on the side. Using deceit and flattery, the Player tries to balance all his love affairs at once. For Obama, the American people are his ‘steady'...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Not only is it a Black Friday for Democrats, hell, it's a Black Friday for the media. These people are in absolute shock. They have been exposed; their corruption has been caught live, in the act. And who knew, who knew that the Olympic committee was a bunch of racists?RUSH: Oh, man, oh, man, oh, man. The worst day of Obama's presidency, folks, the ego has landed. The world has rejected Obama! Chicago, the least number of votes, first elimination in the round of voting for the Olympics in 2016. When you stop to think about it,...

Have you ever wondered why our Barack Obama, not noted for devotion to hard work in his previous jobs as a law associate, community organizer, state senator, and U.S. senator, raced around America, risking life, limb, and laryngitis, crying "change we can believe in," and begging the voters to send him to the White House as the President of the United States? It wasn't because Mr. Obama wanted to be the first African-American chief executive, and his wife to be the first African-American First Lady. It wasn't because the job paid $400,000 a year. It wasn't because he wanted to...

After flying through the night for seven hours aboard Air Force One, nobody would blame President Obama for being at least slightly groggy when he arrived in Copenhagen, Denmark, for a quick four hours to make the final pitch for Chicago to host the 2016 Olympics. Maybe that explains why the president seemed to snag the silver medal while first lady Michelle Obama, who's been in Copenhagen a couple of days, clearly took the gold with an emotional speech focused on her family's roots in the South Side of Chicago, Illinois, and her late father's battle with multiple sclerosis.

The City of Chicago was eliminated in the first round of voting, before any host city was selected. An expert called it the "biggest shock in IOC history." Supporters gathered in Chicago were equally shocked. Many left the rally in tears.

We all know that President Obama has a Republican problem, namely the 200 or so Republican members of Congress who refuse to go along with his health care reform plans. However, I think he might also be developing a republican problem. Namely, I think he is having trouble keeping his ego within the boundaries of an office that fundamentally reflects the republican quality of this country.

What's driving the great health debate of 2009 is not a popular clamor for universal insurance. "Many Americans are balking again at the prospect of health care reform," writes pollster Andrew Kohut of the Pew Research Center. A new Wall Street Journal poll found 41 percent of respondents opposed to President Obama's proposals and 39 percent in favor (the rest were undecided). The underlying driver is politicians' psychological quest for glory. "My colleagues, this is our opportunity to make history," implored Chairman Max Baucus as the Senate Finance Committee last week opened consideration of his bill. Politicians, in their most...

CHATTANOOGA — With children and other onlookers holding umbrellas, Sylvester Kitchens stood in the flooded street, laughing and bragging he could swim an overflowing Chattanooga storm ditch outside their house. Wearing shorts and shirtless, the 46-year-old Kitchens dared onlookers to bet him $5 he couldn't do it. Even when nobody showed any money, Kitchens jumped in. After bobbing along in the gushing water about 150 feet late Sunday afternoon and grabbing a chain link fence above the ditch, Kitchens lost his grip as family members tried to toss him the end of a water hose. He washed away into an...

Obama's biggest character flaw James Lewis The President of these United States recently expressed his love for "the Urdu poets," a piece of inspired BS that nobody in their right minds believed for a second. But then the P was narrowcasting to Pakistan, he thought, and Americans weren't supposed to be listening. Yet character is revealed in those little snippets of Obama's mind -- his glorious fantasy life, his everlasting hope that somebody will fall for another piece of schtick, and his essential fraudulence as a human being. Obama's biggest audience is himself, and no doubt he preened and pranced...

The President of these United States recently expressed his love for "the Urdu poets," a piece of inspired BS that nobody in their right minds believed for a second. But then the P was narrowcasting to Pakistan, he thought, and Americans weren't supposed to be listening. Yet character is revealed in those little snippets of Obama's mind -- his glorious fantasy life, his everlasting hope that somebody will fall for another piece of schtick, and his essential fraudulence as a human being. Obama's biggest audience is himself, and no doubt he preened and pranced in his mind's eye when he...

The President of these United States recently expressed his love for "the Urdu poets," a piece of inspired BS that nobody in their right minds believed for a second. But then the P was narrowcasting to Pakistan, he thought, and Americans weren't supposed to be listening. Yet character is revealed in those little snippets of Obama's mind -- his glorious fantasy life, his everlasting hope that somebody will fall for another piece of schtick, and his essential fraudulence as a human being. Obama's biggest audience is himself, and no doubt he preened and pranced in his mind's eye when he...

As the father of two young girls who have shown such poise, humor, and patience in the unconventional life into which they have been thrust, I mark this Father's Day—our first in the White House—with a deep sense of gratitude. I observe this Father's Day not just as a father grateful to be present in my daughters' lives but also as a son who grew up without a father in my own life. My father left my family when I was 2 years old, and I knew him mainly from the letters he wrote and the stories my family told....

Believe it or not, this isn’t the most foolish comment from Kareem Dale at the Atlantic Council awards last week. Dale takes his job as Minister of Culture in the Obama administration a little too seriously. He rails against the supposed “second class” status given the arts in America:

When a foreign journalist asks the president of the United States a chuffy question about American exceptionalism, one would expect either a quick, sharply worded dodge or a long, diplomatic evasion. What no president before the current one would have attempted was to take up the issue like a professor leading a seminar on foreign affairs. But that’s just what Obama did at a NATO news conference. Commenting on American exceptionalism is like trying to tell a friend about a complex movie or a great meal. You’re bound to get something wrong, and you’ll certainly leave out important parts. Presidents...

The last time a Democratic President asked a New Hampshire Republican to serve in his Cabinet, a move was made at the next Republican National Convention to formally run the fellow out of the Grand Old Party. Cooler heads prevailed. We don't expect the same fate to befall Sen. Judd Gregg, but he may want to keep history in mind. Frank Knox was the New Hampshire Republican in question. His party bona fides were unquestioned up until the call from Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1940 on the eve of World War II. Four years earlier, Knox had been the Republican...

Roland Burris, Gov. Rod Blagojevich's controversial choice to replace President-elect Barack Obama in the US Senate, has already begun work on his memorial in Oak Woods Cemetery on Chicago's South Side. His tombstone boldly proclaims, "Trail Blazer" and includes a list of his accomplishments. See the memorial for yourself and tell us what you think it should say in light of recent Blago-related events.

By Mary Beth Sheridan Washington Post Staff Writer Monday, December 22, 2008 Officials are casting doubt on an early projection that 4 million to 5 million people could jam downtown Washington on Inauguration Day, saying it is more likely that the crowd will be about half that size. D.C. authorities said the earlier estimates, provided by Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D), were based on speculation surrounding the historic nature of the swearing-in of Barack Obama as the nation's first African American president. After weeks of checking with charter bus companies, airlines and other sources, they're reassessing. "It's more of an...

Senior Clay Edwards’ photo won’t be in this year’s Bracken County High School yearbook. He’ll be listed as “not pictured.” For Edwards it wasn’t missing picture day or a case of the flu that kept him out of his last yearbook and the class of 2009 composite – it was a dog collar and makeup......

As I sat through another interminable middle school award ceremony that lasted longer than the contest itself, I pondered how the self-esteem movement has wrecked this country. I had plenty of time since well-meaning adults were handing out participation medals to every eager participant. This current financial calamity is the logical result of the self-esteem movement. Don't get me wrong, I think self-esteem is wonderful when sprung from a healthy self-image and buoyed by real accomplishments. But like diversity, it is worthless when pursued for its own sake. Presidents Clinton and Bush were full of self-esteem as terrorists plotted the...

The Making of an American DictatorAll the ingredient are here:_____________________________________ His own personal Army:Obama Vows To Create 'Civilian National Security Force'...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tt2yGzHfy7s "We cannot continue to rely on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives we've set. We've got to have a civilian national security force that's just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded."_________________________________ Denying the right to self-defense:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EhuVu42MwCM _____________________________________ Disarming the population:“I don’t believe people should be able to own guns.”- Obama to prof. John Lott http://johnrlott.tripod.com/MedvedShowLott1.mp3 Watch this video if you don't think it's possible: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eG1ANlNgztM&feature=related _____________________________________ A tremendous arrogance for power:'I WILL CHANGE...