Nobody puts Baby in a Corner, after all. Congratulations, Jennifer and Derek.

Bristol Palin on DWTS tonight: Winning "would be like a big middle finger to all the people out there that hate my mom and hate me."

Time to drive that truck back home to Alaska. No trophy for you. Or your mother or her rabid fans.

Update: Disaster averted. Jennifer Grey wins.

Update: Sarah Palin, despite earlier reports to the contrary from TMZ, is a no-show. She's peddling her book in Phoenix. Probably avoiding the huge boo-ing that would ensue if Ms. Log to Broom actually won.

Update: 9:46 pm: Bristol scores the lowest again with the judges. Report: She was her usual wooden-legged self, getting pulled along by her partner. Jennifer gets a perfect 30, Kyle and Lacey 26. My latest prediction: DWTS will "adjust" the viewer votes if necessary rather than let Bristol win and destroy the show's reputation for future seasons. The bigger question is whether they'd admit they had to do that.[More...]

Why do a million things that require immediate attention always happen right before a big holiday?

In case I only have time DWTS tonight (which I will put on other threads) here's an open thread for all other topics.

Update: President Obama said tonight the U.S is going to hold "joint military exercises" with South Korea and is sending a carrier to the region. The purpose is to deter N. Korea attacks and " to signal to China that unless it reins in its unruly ally it will see an even larger American presence in the vicinity."

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Are we going to enter yet another war? President Obama today addressed the crisis in South Korea. Does he mean diplomatially or militarily? So far, no troops have been repositioned. But, Obama wouldn't speculate on U.S. military options.[More...]

The jury in Tom DeLay's money laundering trial had a lot of questions for the judge today. The judge isn't happy. He thinks they are focusing on things outside the trial.

"I'm afraid you may be getting away from the decisions you must make," Priest told the jurors.

What kind of answer is that? Team DeLay views the questions as a good sign:

"They are zeroing in right on the weaknesses of the state's case," said Dick DeGuerin, DeLay's lead attorney.

[More...]

Here's the latest on DWTS. The two hour finale starts at 8:00 p.m. MT. Last night's show brought in the biggest numbers yet: 23.7 million views. It beat the football games both Sunday and Monday nights. And almost half of the viewers were women over 50.

The “Dancing” hosts labeled this edition of the show as the most controversial in its history, referring to an outcry among some viewers at Ms. Palin’s continued survival, thanks to support by viewer votes. ...almost half the audience for the show consisted of women over 50. The median age for “Dancing” was 56.9, the oldest for any show on the networks Monday night.

To make tonight's final winner even more unpredictable, ABC's voting system got overwhelmed last night, with people getting busy signals. ABC put out this statement:

I'm quickly losing interest in political discussion. Maybe it will snap back soon.

Friday, which will be a big day in deciding who plays for the BCS championship, I will post a rant about the BCS and the need for a college football playoff system.

Other than that, I got nuthin.

Open Thread.

A face in the crowd:

Velma Hart, who told President Obama she was "exhausted" of defending him and became the face of disappointed Americans this fall, has lost her job. [. . .] A spokesman for AmVets confirmed that Ms. Hart's layoff was "an economic decision that had nothing to do with her job performance."

Ms. Hart spoke for many when she asked President Obama whether this was the "new reality." I'm not sure what the Obama Administration has to offer:

Former Congressman Randy "Duke" Cunningham is speaking out from prison. He regrets his guilty plea. His lawyers took advantage of his weakened state in getting him to sign the plea agreement. (Translation: He didn't get as much of a sentence reduction as he hoped for.)

[T]he former congressman now says that at the time he was physically weak from having dropped close to 100 pounds from cancer treatments and other maladies. He said he had not eaten for two weeks when his lawyers came to him with the proposed 33-page plea agreement.

He said he balked at first, but lawyers Mark Holscher and K. Lee Blalack told him if he challenged the charges it would cost him millions to fight the case, and he would risk spending the rest of his life in prison.

Now, he realizes his votes for tougher sentencing as a Congressman were misguided, and he plans to make up for it once he's released. For example, he now thinks the severe crack cocaine penalties were wrong: [More...]

Charlie Sheen is fighting back. Via TMZ, he has filed a lawsuit against Capri Anderson for extortion and theft. He alleges Anderson, whom he refers to a p*rn star, demanded a million dollars not to go on national TV with her claims of what happened in a NY hotel room a few weeks ago. Sheen also says she threatened to try an have his probation revoked if he didn't pay. The demands were made by her lawyer. You can read the colorful complaint here.

Sheen says Anderson is a liar, and she admitted to police and others he acted like the perfect gentleman. He says she's a long time p*rn star in LA and had money troubles, so she moved to NY to become an escort (and, according to Sheen, a hooker.) [More...]

The Wall St. Journal reports on new regulations Colorado lawmakers are putting the final touches on, for medical marijuana:

The regulatory system — more rigorous and comprehensive than in any other state — will likely require pot growers to place tags on every plant and train security cameras on their cultivation rooms around the clock.

...Cannabis dispensaries, meanwhile, will likely be required to record high-resolution video of every customer's face and photo identification and then link that footage to a computer record of each purchase. Even the moment when the dried weed is weighed for sale will have to be captured on video, according to draft regulations now being finalized.

Cops can demand to see the tapes at any time, without a warrant.

"We don't ask. We just go look," said Matt Cook, senior director of the state's medical-marijuana enforcement division...."You give up a lot of your Fourth Amendment rights when you're dealing with a controlled substance," Mr. Cook said.

[More...]

Update: The Washington Post and ABC News conducted a poll. Results; Majority said Bristol Palin is still on DWTS because of "large-scale voting" by fans of her mother.

The poll was conducted among a random national sample of 514 adults, and interviews were conducted on conventional phones and cellphones. The results have a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 5 percentage points.

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DWTS says we shouldn't complain if we don't bother to vote. So I voted by text. I voted for the best dancers. Jennifer Grey knocked the socks off the competition. Kyle Massey was terrific and a solid second. Here's the numbers: [More...]