Really?

Anne Hathaway and James Franco are the hosts of the Academy Awards? What is this a romantic comedy - without the comedy?

I think the Oscar producers had three goals. 1) To try and get a younger audience as Hathaway is 28 and Franco is 32. 2) To get two hosts who will stick to the script and not create a cringe worthy moment and 3) Give some star power to a year with no Avatar, when all of the expected movies and actors will be critically acclaimed, but seldom seen.

I hope it works because Hathaway and Franco seem nice enough. But I doubt it will.

Why not Justin Timberlake? Probably because he turned them down.

I know there is a lot of gamesmanship on BOTH sides. But I am disappointed in the Republicans in Congress.

I am in favor of putting the brakes on spending - on smaller government - on lowering the deficit - BUT - we also must bring the economy back and create jobs.

So, I am disappointed in the hypocrisy of voting AGAINST an extension of unemployment benefits, but FOR the extension of the Bush tax cuts for those making over $250,000 a year. I think they both should be extended, as the money is direct stimulus.

But if you are serious about NO increases in spending and reducing the deficit, than vote against both - you can't have it both ways. It is B.H. - Blatant Hypocrisy

That's all it is tonight. I talk about Tom Brady's hair. He looks like Justin Beiber

If they are plugs (on Brady), they are great. I want some.

Then I talk anout Lady Gaga and this video -

My only problem with the video is the line - "Senators, you have been put on notice by me." Really? That is a little bit of self-dellusion. The Generals, the President and now 70% of the military want the lasw changed. But now that Gaga wants it changed - well - I'm sure we will see some action!

Finally, the great Leslie Nielsen -

If I would have thought of it earlier I would have changed the name of my feature from "You're Kidding Me Right?" to "Surely You Can't Be Serious." Rest in Peace Leslie Nielsen. Thank you for the laughs.

He has the name of a villain from the Die Hard series - Julian Assange. I should have known

After publishing over 600 thousand US military and Government documents, I still defended the WikiLeaks Founder. It was his First Amendment Right - but then he crossed a line. WikiLeaks was knocked off the Internet by American Servers who refused to be responsible for his recklessness.

Then he set up shop in Sweden and threatened the United States that if they arrested him or shut him down again, he would release a "poison pill." 100's of his followers have encrypted video and documents that would damage the United States and companies like BP and Bank of America. He would simply send out a password and they could release the damaging information.

And that is where Mr. Assange crossed the line. That is extortion and it's time for the FBI to pick him up. He will be easy to find - he'll be in jail.

This was sent out tonight by the Associated Press:

Julian Assange's lawyer was arranging to deliver the WikiLeaks founder to British police for questioning in a sex-crimes investigation of the man who has angered Washington by spilling thousands of government secrets on the Internet.

Lawyer Mark Stephens told reporters in London that the Metropolitan Police had called him to say they had received an arrest warrant from Sweden for Assange. Assange has been staying at an undisclosed location in Britain.

"We are in the process of making arrangements to meet with police by consent," Stephens said Monday, declining to say when Assange's interview with police would take place.

The 39-year-old Australian is accused of rape and sexual molestation in Sweden, and the case could lead to his extradition. He has denied the accusations, which Stephens has said stem from a "dispute over consensual but unprotected sex." The lawyer has said the Swedish investigation has turned into a "political stunt."

The pressure on WikiLeaks mounted from other quarters Monday: Swiss authorities closed Assange's bank account, depriving him of a key fundraising tool. And WikiLeaks struggled to stay online despite more hacker attacks and resistance from world governments, receiving help from computer-savvy advocates who have set up hundreds of "mirrors" — or carbon-copy websites — around the world.

In one of its most sensitive disclosures yet, WikiLeaks released on Sunday a secret 2009 diplomatic cable listing sites around the world that the U.S. considers critical to its security. The locations include undersea communications lines, mines, food suppliers, manufacturers of weapons components, and vaccine factories.

Pentagon spokesman Col. David Lapan called the disclosure damaging and said it gives valuable information to the nation's enemies.

"This is one of many reasons why we believe WikiLeaks' actions are irresponsible and dangerous," Lapan said.

WikiLeaks has been under intense international scrutiny over its disclosure of a mountain of classified U.S. cables that have embarrassed Washington and other governments. U.S. officials have been putting pressure on WikiLeaks and those who help it, and is investigating whether Assange can be prosecuted under espionage law.

In what Assange described as a last-ditch deterrent, WikiLeaks has warned that it has distributed a heavily encrypted version of some of its most important documents and that the information could be instantly made public if the staff were arrested.

For days, WikiLeaks has been hounded by governments, hackers and companies that have forced it to move from one website to another. WikiLeaks is now relying on a Swedish host. But WikiLeaks' Swedish servers were crippled after coming under suspected attack again Monday, the latest in a series of such assaults.

It was not clear who was organizing the attacks, but WikiLeaks has blamed previous ones on intelligence forces in the U.S. and elsewhere.

WikiLeaks' huge online following of tech-savvy young people has pitched in, setting up more than 500 mirrors.

"There is a whole new generation, digital natives, born with the Internet, that understands the freedom of communication," said Pascal Gloor, vice president of the Swiss Pirate Party, whose Swiss Web address, wikileaks.ch, has been serving as a mainstay for WikiLeaks traffic.

"It's not a left-right thing anymore. It's a generational thing between the politicians who don't understand that it's too late for them to regulate the Internet and the young who use technology every day."

Meanwhile, the Swiss postal system's financial arm, Postfinance, shut down a bank account set up by Assange to receive donations after the agency determined that he provided false information regarding his place of residence in opening the account. Assange had listed his lawyer's address in Geneva.

"He will get his money back," Postfinance spokesman Alex Josty said. "We just close the account."

Assange's lawyers said the account contained about $41,000. Over the weekend, the online payment service PayPal cut off WikiLeaks and, according to his Assange's lawyers, froze $80,000 of the organization's money.

The group is left with only a few options for raising money now — through a Swiss-Icelandic credit card processing center and accounts in Iceland and Germany.

Monday marked the first day that WikiLeaks did not publish any new cables. It was unclear whether that had anything to do with the computer attacks.

John Feal, the 9/11 First Responder who is the hero of all other 9/11 First Responders, told me yesterday about the First Responders of Pearl Harbor. Congress passed a bill to help those men and their families one year after the attacks of December 7, 1941. It's been atenolol years now and Congress still has not passed a bill to help the 9/11 First Responders. The bill will get a procedural vote tomorrow. 988 of the heroes of the attacks have died waiting for the bill to pass. We need the Senate to Remember Pearl Harbor and let history be their guide.

You can see my full interview with John Feal by clicking here.

He is in Washington tonight with a busload of First Responders awaiting tomorrow's vote. Good luck and God bless all of you.

I am live tonight in the newsroom. I was waiting for the cloture vote on the 9/11 First Responders Health and Compensation Bill. Busloads of First Responders went to Washington for the vote to watch in the gallery above the Senate floor. Yesterday it looked like the vote to avoid a Fillibuster was a certainty to pass But Politics took over and the Republicans are united in blocking all bills until the Bush Tax Cuts are xtended.

And so the 9/11 First Responders are on their way home once again. We learned tonight that three more have been killed - brging the number of 9/11 heroes to die from the toxins of Ground Zero to 990.

The Senate should be ashamed.

The Bus Tax Cuts Extended!

Estate Tax Cut!

Payroll Tax Cut!

Unemployment Beneifits Extended!

A compromise between The White House and Republicans would have pumped almost a Trillion dollars into a stumbling economy and now DEMOCRATS are blocking it - defying the President - the leader of their party!

Thoughts?

At some time in our lives we all need a Second Chance.

I know there are many families devastated by the recession who could use a Second Chance right now.

I'd like to help. Write to me at FamilyProject@pix11.com and share your story. If you can, send a picture of your family.

Now we are not going to just hand you Money and it won't be easy. You are going to have to earn your second chance. But we will gather a team of experts to show you the way. And as you earn your second chance you'll be teaching others how to earn theirs

These are hard times and we're all in this together. With the Holidays approaching Wpix wants to give you a precious gift that can last forever - a second chance

Tomorrow Cam Newton, the Auburn University Quarterback, will win the Hesiman Trophy as the best player in college football. His father will not be there. He asked at least one University for money up front for his so to play.

Becauise of that many sportswriters have announced they will not vote for Newton. He will win anyway, but not by the margin he should.

The fact is, Cam Newton should get paid. So should all college athletes in major sports who need money.

From TV rights to its men's basketball tournament, the NCAA averages better than half a billion dollars a year in revenue. That does not include payouts from the 28 football bowls, which exceed $184 million and go to the conferences.

Given those numbers, why aren't athletes in revenue-generating sports such as men's basketball and college football paid?

Athletes see what's in it for everybody else. They see their jersey numbers on the racks of the campus bookstore, but they don't see any share of the profit. They see their coaches drawing million-dollar salaries and their schools and conferences taking cash from corporate sponsors, but they don't get a whiff of the action.

The coaches make millions. So why not the athletes?

In 2009, FBS schools spent nearly twice as much on salaries for men's coaches ($6.4 million) as they did on the many athletes who play for them ($3.4 million). The more profitable the football program, the greater the gap between what the department and its coaches earn (such as Alabama football coach Nick Saban and Texas' Mack Brown and their $5 million salaries) and what players receive (roughly $25,000 to $50,000 per player annually in tuition room and board depending on the school).

A few college football players would be worth far more on the open market than their scholarships reflect, yet they are all but forced to go to school due to NFL rules requiring them to wait three years after high school to enter the draft. Newton, for instance, would be worth $3.5 million in gross revenue to Auburn this year, according to an analysis in Sports Illustrated by a University of Chicago economist.

Colleges' push for greater revenues has spurred the NCAA to broaden the rules governing when players' likenesses can be used in promotions and advertisements -- even though the players themselves are prohibited from receiving a cut of that revenue.

It is the apparent contradiction between the NCAA seeking to profit more directly from players' popularity and the group's prohibition of players from doing the same that inspired a pending class-action lawsuit. Former UCLA basketball player Ed O'Bannon and about a dozen other former basketball and football players seek compensation for the NCAA's use of their likenesses on commercial products -- notably highlight videos and video games.

It is wrong and hypocritical that athletes, many of them poor, do not see more of that money. It would have to be controlled. But to do nothing is just wrong.

Now it is a moral imperative that we are there for them when they need us.

This is a note from First Responder John Feal of The Fealgood Foundation -

It is not one’s willingness to get involved that shows their true character. It is their willingness to push on and show true grit, never giving up when the job gets tougher and defeat is knocking.

The Feal Good Foundation knows this, believes this and shares this with so many great Americans who have shown their support by traveling with us on long bus rides, by writing us good wishes, contacting Senators and of course through financial support.

We are determined and steadfast in our belief that the James Zadroga Bill will pass, and will pass unanimously. Because it is the right thing to do! It is the Patriotic thing and the American thing.

We will keep fighting, keep showing up in Senator’s offices and keep filling buses with First Responders who are ill, but not ill enough to turn away like we know some Senators wish they would.

We implore of Senator Brown, Senator Collins, Senator Kirk, Senator LeMieux, Senator Murkowski, Senator Snowe and Senator Voinovich to vote with their consciences. We ask them to do the right thing and we know, in our hearts of hearts that they will.

Below is the contact information for the Senators we strongly believe are in need of your call or note. Please call them, or write them and let them know who you are. While we ask you always to be respectful because we will not let down our guards as Americans and act un-American; that doesn’t mean you can’t speak your mind. Let them know your story, the story of your loved ones and the importance of this bill.

Pick up that phone, grab hold of that keyboard or just grab a broken pencil and CONTACT THESE PEOPLE NOW!

Thank you!
THE FEALGOOD FOUNDATION

SENATOR PHONE E-MAIL

SCOTT P. BROWN (202)224-4543 abby_kral@brown.senate.gov

SUSAN COLLINS (202)224-2523 jessica_baetjer@collins.senate.gov

MARK KIRK (202)224-2854 shauna.mccarthy@mail.house.gov

GEORGE LeMIEUX (202)224-3041 michael_thornberry@lemieux.senate.gov

LISA MURKOWSKI (202)224-6665 edward_hild@murkowski.senate.gov

OLYMPIA SNOWE (202)224-5344 amy_pellegrino@snowe.senate.gov

GEORGE V. VOINOVICH (202)224-3353 karen_mcmanus@voinovich.senate.gov

To read more from me about the First Responders Holiday Party - click here.

=

Everybody talks about it but nobody really does anything about it. There is hope that may change with the new Congress. I'll believe it when I see it.

I am sorry that I have not been able to post for a couple of days. We had a sudden death in the family and I am now in Chicago for the wake and Funeral of Don Stensland. There will be an outpouring of love and a large Firefighter's procession today for the former Deputy Chief of the Department.

There is a pre-holiday desperation to Congress as they deal with bill after bill that they ignored for the past ten months. And it is all because of the oncoming political storm.

Democrats are racing to cram as much through the post-election lame duck session as possible, before their majority turns into a pumpkin when Republicans take control of the House of Representatives in January.

Republicans are grumbling about all the rush, but President Barack Obama went to their pond with some bread — tax cut extensions for the wealthy, a cut in the estate tax and a cut in the payroll tax — so they aren’t quacking too loudly.

The lame duck session of Congress has produced — tax cut extensions have been signed into law, the repeal of “Don’t Ask , Don’t Tell” to allow gays to serve openly in the military will be signed into law tomorrow, and the START treaty is moving toward ratification.

Republican Senator Lindsey Graham said he was “baffled” as to why Senate Democrats can’t wait a month, when MORE REPUBLICANS are seated, to take up START. Really? Baffled? You answered your own question.

Congress failed to pass any of the appropriations bills to fund the U.S. government for the year, but is expected to approve short-term funding until early March.

“The lame duck has not been very lame at all. In fact it has been very productive,” House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said.

The 9-11 First Responders bill was expected to be voted on in the Senate tomorrow. It has been cut by over a Billion dollars and still Republcans are trying to push back the vote. If the bill passes tomorrow (and it will if it gets on the floor), the House would have to come back in session before January 4 to vote for it.

Republucan Senator Tom Coburn has come out against it. He is a doctor and from Oklahoma, the site of a horrible domestic terrorist account. He should know better. And Republican Senator Scott Brown from Massachusetts has also come out against the bill, after telling the First Responders he was behind them. His state is home to over one thousand First Responders of 9/11.

The good news is that New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, a fiscal conservative star of the Republican party, came out FOR the bill today. Maybe he can talk to his Republican friends. Better yet - you can call. Here are some phone numbers - give 'em hell.

Scott Brown ( R ) Massachustetts
DC 202-224-4543
email http://scottbrown.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/contactme
Boston 617-565-3170
DC fax 202-228-2646


Tom Coburn (R) Oklahoma
DC 202-224-5754
Oklahoma 918-581-7651 and 405-231-4941

I am not doing any commentaries next week, but wanted to make certain I took the time to tell all my blog friends how much I have appreciated your comments, your insights, your humor and your friendship.

It has been a great first year at WPIX. The crowning moment of the year was the long deserved passage of the 9/11 First Responders Health and Compensation bill. I couldn't be happier that these men and women, whom I have got to know, have been given the respect and dignity they deserve.

I am looking forward to talking with all of you more in 2011. I will make it a point to be on here everynight and maybe I can lure kman back.

To all of you - thank you for making me feel so welcome. Please keep giving me suggestions - keep challenging me - and encouraging me.

See you next year. I can't wait.

So much for the vacation!

I made it in today to edit the Second Chances video. So glad I am getting to do this project. We gave some gifts to our family for the Holidays, but that is not what the project is all about. We are going to teach three single mothers how to rebuild their lives - and outr hopes that others will learn as well.

Tell me what you think.