DaytimeFan

Let's not pretend that Democrats never dished out character assassinations to disabled war heros. Do you remember when John McCain was trashed by the liberals for being a war monger, an old fart, a racist (Congressman John Lewis compared McCain to George Wallace), a homphobe, and a clone of George Bush? I discintly remember back in 2002 that Democrats compared the horrendous treatment Cleland received to that McCain got from Bush two years earlier. (And in 2004, John Kerry himself blasted any hardball criticism of war heros, and then mentioned that McCain--who by the way was his first choice for VP--and Cleland were his friends.) Yet, once the Arizona senator was no longer every liberal's favorite Republican, they attacked him just as viciously as they did "draft dodgers" Bush and Cheney. And what about Bob Dole, who was also ruthlessly attacked for his old age (with liberals laughing their asses off everytime a clip of him falling off that stage was shown), for being a Gingrich clone, for trying to rob seniors of their Social Security and Medicare, and (as Clinton put it) wanting to "build a bridge to the past."

Absolutely, let's not pretend that Democrats haven't got down in the mud with the best of them. But let's not pretend that a character assassination of a triple amputee war hero is in any way comparable to a ballot switcheroo. Not. Comparable. In. Any. Way.

You're right that they're not exactly the same thing, although they both were dirty tricks that party bosses approved of in order to gain control of the Senate. One could certainly argue that a vicious character assination of a triple-amputee war hero was worse than a ballot switcheroo. However, it is debateable if Cleland would have won re-election even if those ads handn't been run (given that his voting record was less conservative than most white GA Democrats, combined with the fact that GA was a lot more Republican in 2002 than in 1996). On the other hand, the last minute ballot switch very likely robbed the GOP of a senate seat (although I don't believe for one second that Torricelli would have actually lost by 15 points in such a Democratic state).

One could argue? Are you serious? They are oil and water issues. Unbelievably different. The only thing they have in common is they highlight how terrible American politics is and how little care is paid to issues that affect voters directly and who the best people are for the job.

When Lucille Bluth met Mitt Romney. Two peas in a pod.

http://www.uproxx.co...ing-for/#page/1

And the full Tumblr account for Lucille and Mitt:

http://lucilleandmitt.tumblr.com/

An absolute trainwreck.

Brilliant interview from 1988 on ITV's 'The Time, The Place'...the whole audience are Joan admirers and they ask her questions, fabulous. As usual Joan was far less guarded in her native London than how she was in America.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Y-oRZTo4gk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yAUJQF35-cc

Is there any truth to rumours that Barbara Windsor is set to return at some point this year?

The Jennifer Saunders spoofs really are amazing. I just love Joanna Lumley!

I love Downton Abbey as well, I sat down a few weekends ago and just watched it from start to finish and I cannot wait for the third series.

Last night's RHOA was way too Cynthia-centric. No Kandi til the party? No NeNe for the first 20 minutes? No Sheree til... Oh wait, she has no story.

Peter, aka Papa Smurf, is so classless the way he badmouths his sister-in-law in public like that. Meanwhile, the sister IS a tad bit too weepy. The mother, who looks like she's melting in the hot Atlanta heat, I'm surprised she would say "I'm shocked your marriage lasted a year" at the party, but I guess that's when the cameras were rolling so there ya go.

Then there's Marlo, who denies saying she used the F word. Girl please. It'll be interesting to see how she backtracks that one at the reunion show.

Phaedra has really grown to be my 2nd fave (NeNe will always be first). Alls you gotta do is shoot her going to the grocery store giving her opinions about foods, flavors, brandnames, etc. and it'll be amusing. She's got a quick wit like a comedienne.

I think Kim not attending Cynthia/Papa Smurf's party has less to do with the Africa comments and more to do with the fact that she just didn't feel like going. It looks like she just prefers being on camera when it's set at her house.

You know...as much as there's no story for Sheree I would miss not seeing her fake, broke ass on the show. There's something I like about her bullsh*t, perhaps that it's so obvious? It gives fodder to the sharper wives (ie: my love Phaedra).

Phaedra is so fabulous, she just KILLS. Never does a comment of her's fall flat.

Cynthia & Papa Smurf...he's a total bastard and I'm glad her family openly hates him. He clearly hates them, so there's no reason to fake it.

Kim avoiding that party...well she knows she isn't really welcome considering how Cynthia and Nene are BFF, she'd have to deal with Kandi...most importantly, she brought her own wine to Cynthia and Papa Smurf's wedding, she probably didn't feel like lugging a bottle of Chardonnay to another one of their shindigs.

Pat isn't Whitney's mother or legal guardian. She's her sister-in-law and manager.

It appears to me Pat didn't want her to go to the party, and she also may have been pissed off at her after the party. She may have been fed up with her on a whole. It's a very human reaction. She could have been dodging Whitney's calls for a week because she was pissed at her, it doesn't make Whitney's death her fault.

Like DF, I didn't find the description of her walking to the room odd either.

Also like DF, the only thing I fault Whitney's family with is, yes, being enablers. She was Whitney, she had money, she was giving or/and paying them money as staff - so it looks like they didn't as much as they could have to kick her a-- into submission. Not that I even can really judge them on thnat front. I don't know how much they did or did not do behind the scenes to get her help BUT I do know staying quiet and making up tales while she was tripping wasn't a good decision.

Exactly. The lies and the spin keep on coming because the truth isn't as easy as the lies. I heard a lot of easy answers from Pat, Gary and Bobbi Kristina, it would have been nice to hear the truth.

I think so much of Whitney's life was being used by other people so she used them right back. Really, I think everyone, including Oprah Winfrey, should be ashamed of themselves.

And Pat didnt know Whitney was in trouble at that party?? Doctor after doctor said she as a recovering addict she should not have been drinking yet she was and Pat was ok with it. Her revisting the day Whitney passed were weird too. I mean really someone you care for might be hurt or worse and you are walking slowly down the hall of the hotel?? Hell, I would be running as fast as I could to get there. I'm sure Whitney and Pat had an argument the night before after they left the party and that's why Pat wasnt going to see Whitney during the day. Either that or she knew Whitney was so wasted that she wanted her to sleep it off. I still say had Pat gone to see Whitney like she asked her to she might not be dead now.

That is a judgement that can't be made until the autopsy is complete. If Whitney's body just gave out no visit by anyone would have helped her. We already know she didn't drown, so being unattended didn't kill her.

Pat walking down the hall slowly was one of the only parts of the interview that I didn't find odd or calculated at all, it made sense to me. Pat knew the writing was on the wall so far as Whitney was concerned so she knew her death was coming. My problem with the Houston family is that they are a family of enablers who stood by Whitney as she made extremely destructive decisions that affected herself and her child.

The Oprah interview was shady. Shady, shady, shady.

Bobbi Kristina is a lost little girl. A child. And a foolish child. A foolish child who has been raised by enablers.

Pat Houston pimped her candle company, Marion P Candles, mentioning the infomercial Whitney was going to film for the company, several times verbally, plus a close up of the candle during the program and a bit of B Roll of Whitney and Pat holding a candle.

Gary Garland Houston, Pat's husband, was arrested for drug possession back in the day. Of course likes Bobby Brown. They're cut from the same cloth. Further, his singing was...bizarre. Breaking down right at the end of it...really?

Finally, Oprah's behaviour as the credits rolled...she doesn't care at all about these people, "I've done all I can take!" she said. "Thank you for getting through all that" she said to Pat Houston. This was a business deal.

Yet again, Whitney Houston was used by other people to further financial gain. She should be rolling in her grave.

Just caught up...

While I don't agree with what Sheree did, and I do think she exaggerated the whole thing ("black baby") --- I still feel like Kandi was at least implying SOMETHING when she said she couldn't see Kim in the orphanage or in Africa. Just like Kim said, WTF wouldn't she want to go to Africa or orphanages, if the timing was right? I'd think Kandi would know Kim better than that.

LOL at Phaedra and calling out all the flowers up to Kim's front door. "Impaaaatiens".

The OC was good --- excited for next week's showdown with Vicki and Gretchen. That gay guy was totally trying to start some shiz - I loved how he had his facts wrong and he looked stupid for it.

I absolutely agree and I think that's my problem with Kandi. She's stealth with how she stirs up bullsh*t between the women. Sheree absolutely lied to Kim's face, but I feel the same way you do, Kandi was implying something about Kim, not that she's racist, but that, perhaps, she's a snob or wouldn't feel comfortable being around the poor?

Kim's reaction, while melodramatic, I thought was genuine. Kim made a good point, she has worked as a nurse, nobody becomes a nurse if they don't have a part of them that feels compassion for other people. Kim worked in hospice care, the hardest job there is...even if she only worked that shift for a week, that's a week longer than most people ever do. Nursing is a selfless profession, nobody wipes someone else's behind just for the money. Kim also worked in the neonatal intensive care unit, another war zone, she would have sailed through that orphanage. Finally, look at how Kim is with her kids. Certainly, she's lazy and a sloth and a diva of epic proportions...but she also has a sense of humour and open communication with her daughters, she might be a bit more of a friend than a parent at times, but her kids are in their early teens, so it may be part of her strategy to remain 'in the loop' (in a serious way, not a desperate to be young way) with her daughters. Overall, Kim is a realist and I think she would have been a star at that orphanage and I think any suggestion to the otherwise is a needless shot at her character as a person.

Phaedra is second only to Lisa of BH in terms of my Housewife faves. Love her!

Feel a bit of sympathy for Vicki...only because she's a veteran fave, she's sort of insufferable, but looking down the barrel of the gun called "Your Daughter Might Have Cancer" is one I surely wouldn't want to face. Slade's an as$hole of epic proportions.

Please bring us back to the days of Nancy Reagan when those in power happily flaunted money instead of very transparently testifying about being from the real streets.

YES. Absolutely. I miss the days when the rich in Washington owned the fact that they were glamorous and had money and happily flaunted it. Nancy Reagan was the best at it. Love or hate the Reagans, but Nancy always looked fabulous and was a good image of the US for the rest of the world.

Michelle Obama does a beautiful job, she is inherently classy and dresses perfectly and is authentic, she isn't pretending to stoop like Mrs Romney or the Bush's did.

How will Joan Collins cope with an obese president in the White House? First off, fat presidents don't get elected in our modern media age, secondly, Joan will simply do what she always does: live in Los Angeles for 3 months out of the year and then high tail it back to London and St. Tropez for the rest of the time. Joan is above politics, she glides.

When it comes to Obamacare, the problem remains that it's about insurance. Again, the insurance lobby wins and the American citizen gets screwed in a big way.

What Americans need to realise is that Obamacare is not universal health care, it's simply a degree of universal insurance. There are still people who receive, far, far, superior treatment and people who receive blatantly disgusting medical treatment, regardless of their insurance cover.

Universal healthcare like in Australia, Canada, UK, Japan, Singapore, Germany, France ETC ETC ETC is just that: universal. It's paid through tax revenue. The only insurance people have is for extended costs like wheelchair rentals, bathroom fittings and some prescription drugs.

Obamacare is a poor substitute for real, meaningful, proactive healthcare that puts patients first. Sadly, it is the only option that has ever been credibly put forward by a sitting US president in the last 35 years. No Republican can claim that their party gives a flying damn about medical care in the USA because Ford, Reagan and both of the Bush presidents never touched healthcare.

And every American should be angry about that. Health care is NOT a political issue. It is a human rights issue.

And the health care plan that NIXON proposed is not that different from Obamacare... and every time I throw that in the face of conservatives, they remain strangely quiet. the thing is... insurance is a SHARED RISK POOL, and THAT is also socialism. People who don't get sick pay premiums, and make up for those who do get sick, and use more than thyev'e paid into. Except that conservatives have been duped into this idea that we need some bogus, money making middle man to administer it all.

And that's if you can afford to pay insurance.

Let's talk about the working poor. The people who hold down an honest job, pay their taxes and can't make it financially. They are on the lower end of the socio economic scale, they are also the people most likely to get seriously ill due to the fact that they eat poorly, are less educated about their health, don't have the time to exercise, are stressed to the max because they can't keep up with their bills and have less access to preventative health care.

These are the very people who universal healthcare is designed to help. The very people who can't afford to go it alone. The very people who need a safety net to catch them.

These are the very people who often constitute the base that votes in Tea Party and Republican Party candidates. The very same candidates who vote against and rail against universal healthcare, the very program that would benefit the very people who vote them into office.

And then we can discuss prescription medication, another route to bankruptcy for even middle class Americans. Medication is outrageously expensive in America because the legislature is bought and paid for by the pharmaceutical companies. I'm not anti-pharmaceutical, make no mistake. They save lives and work, I use them every single day in my practice. However, nobody will ever convince me that it is ethical to extend patents on medications that in Canada, UK, Australia, Germany, Singapore, France ETC ETC ETC are generic, very low cost and identical in effectiveness.

Americans need to wake up and realize that they are being used and abused by corporations and government agents that do not give one iota of care about them. Compassion is the only cure, for some it is a harsh medicine, but I assure you, it is effective and the patient requires it.

Conservative columnist David Brooks summed up the plight of the republican party in this week's Times:

David Brooks is right. It's really interesting how the Republican party has morphed, in a relatively short period of time, in comparison to other conservative parties around the world, from the classic conservatism that was focused mostly on fiscal policy and keeping small government, to an evangelical vehicle that no longer speaks to many of the people who used to identify with the party.

Love them or hate them , Nixon, Ford and Reagan wouldn't fit into the Republican party that exists now and America is all the poorer for it.

Some republican will show up to call you a socialist out to control our lives for saying this. In Sarah Palin's America it's every man for himself and if you need a doctor you can barter chickens for maybe some help. And if your daughter needs birth control tell her to hold an aspirin between her knees. As Rush Limbaugh informed us anyone who wants birth control is a slut and should run their sex tapes online so we can at least get something for our money for financiing their sex. Your high falutin' snobbish college grad socialist ideas (Rick Santorum told me all about you) are not welcome here, now quick pass me a semi automatic so I can go hunting. I know my rights!

LOL. Exactly. It's beyond logical reasoning. I love how police officers and fire fighters are never accused of being a socialist tool for controlling the masses, yet doctors and nurses and medical imaging departments, socialists if they're happy to help everyone.

Fortunately, I live outside the reach of the Republican party these days.

I wonder why nobody seems to be able to see that health insurance is a for profit middle man that is not neccessary to the equation of healthcare. Not when it can be done for less money by someone who doens't make a profit. And why should it be non profit? Because from my moral compass, I can't stomach the idea of making a profit off of someone else's pain and misery. A certain amount HAS to happen, because the doctors and nurses and hospital employees can't work for free... they have families to support. But the insurance agent don't need to make money off of you. To tell you the truth, the best thing that would even happen NOBODY has suggested, and that is to go direct from patient to doctor and hospital. Leave out insurance and government ENTIRELY, have hospitals offer memberships where you pay a monthly premium, and if you ever need care at that hospital (or any of it's affiliated hospitals), it's taken care of for free. Just like MAST ambulance service does with their yearly "memberships" here. Groups of Doctors could get together and act as their own insruance company... pay a monthly premium, and you can see any doctor in that network. Except the money goes DIRECTLY to the doctors and not to insurance companies, and that is naturally cheaper because you don't have to pay all these secretarties to handle all the insurance company billing. The hospital coverage could be required, and be on a sliding scale... so even the poor would pay a small amount, like 5$ a month, the top amount would be capped, so nobody would be paying 3,000$ a month or whatever. I also would like to see a mandate making all hospital be non profit. About 1/4 of them are already that way... everyone who works in them makes a salary, the institution itself doesn't need to make a profit off of people's sickness and misery.

You don't even need to innovate a new system. Canada, Germany, UK, Australia, Singapore, Japan, France ETC ETC ETC all have universal free healthcare. The United States of America is the *only* developed Western country that does not have it. It's all about the money that insurance companies make in America, they lobby the hell out of every member of Congress and Senate, lobby the doctors and nurses, lobby with the pharmaceutical companies etc.

Anyone who thinks it's about quality of care is delusional. It's about the money.

Joe Arpaio really needs to go away. The man has violated civil rights, I don't care that they're criminals, he dehumanizes people. He's what's wrong with the American Justice System.

That he has the gall to get involved in this birth certificate nonsense, which is what it is, nonsense, is ridiculous to a degree I can't even describe.

The Real Housewives of Vancouver starts April 4th --- looks to be of same quality and calibar as the US versions ( ):

http://www.calgaryhe...4387/story.html

How embarrassing for the people of Vancouver. These women are D Listers in this town and not at all indicative of the international community that lives here.

DaytimeFan, Jackie Collins was on WWHL last night!

She was?! Oh I hope that shows up on YouTube.

Just because...

AMAZING. Glamorous to the max.

Where is the "Don't Be A Bitch" one filmed? Is that Lisa's new house or a non RHOBH appearance>?

Unfortunately,Monte Carlo bombed in the ratings,which obviously made it harder for Joan to do other things apart from Dynasty.Her first mini series "Sins' had done well.

i wish the networks would take a chance on that genre again.

Monte Carlo didn't bomb, it didn't do as well as Sins and that was the problem for Joan, she didn't beat her previous success. She has said herself that Monte Carlo wasn't nearly as good as Sins and she accepted the job because it paid really well (a cool $1,000,000 just like Sins did, plus Joan ended up owning the rights to them) and filmed in the south of France.

Selfridges = my stomping ground. Wish I could run into Stephanie Beacham there.

The best department store in London is Selfridges with Peter Jones right behind (I love the John Lewis partnership stores, how I miss Waitrose!). Much as I like Harrods it's too over the top for everyday shopping. Selfridges is just right. It's owned by the Canadian Weston family, of course.

Here's Ali MacGraw speaking about her time on the show, very complimentary to Joan Collins and just what I've said about how she works with others, less complimentary about John Forsythe and Linda Evans, again what I've said all along:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R12I8De03K8

Barbara's a nasty old bitch who probably regrets cheapening her brand by slinging mud in daytime on The View...imagine if she'd never been on camera on the The View and had just been a producer, exclusively working with ABC News, doing her specials...not one of us could say anything about Barbara aside from how good she is at getting top drawer interviews and what a lifetime of class she has lived.

The View exposed all of Barbara's hideous bullshit. Every last shady inch of it.

Star is a lot of things, but what she isn't is shady. She's bold with her crap, bold with her edge. Ultimately, people respect that.

what spinoff pilot? Whats that about? Camille was a complete bore. I wouldnt even waste my time trying to get her. Kim leaving is for the best. Love that Brandi is returning!

Lisa secured a spinoff pilot. It would follow her and the people working in her restaurants. Apparently the pilot wasn't picked up by the Bravo people.

Loved Camille, I'm disappointed Taylor will be back. I have to give this season a pass because of her.