Christopher Hutsul: Cast a vote, win a million.If an Arizona man has his way, every person who votes in his state will automatically have his or her name entered in a in draw to win $1 million. Mark Osterloh, an Arizona physician and attorney, is proposing a state law that would act as an incentive to increase voter turnout. [Toronto Star]
AP - Comcast Corp. and Sony Pictures Entertainment will unveil a new horror and thriller network this Halloween through video-on-demand, the first collaboration between the two companies under a deal to create new cable channels.
The Sopranos starts now. It looks like tonight is going to feature Meadow and her fiancee, but the actual description says. “Johnny files a petition to attend his daughter’s wedding and Tony hires a new bodyguard.” It’s called “Mr. & Mrs. John Sacrimoni Request.”
I think last week’s was the best of the season so far — so did several commenters. Let us all know what you think of tonight’s show. And if you’re not into the Sopranos, please just scroll on by.
Reuters - Rather than share the
sponsor spotlight like it must on “American Idol,” Coca-Cola
North America opted to create its own music program. Taking the
concept even further, the soft drink giant is bypassing
traditional television to get “Stageside” out to its target
audience.
Raw Story has a scoop on an article to appear in tomorrow’s New York Times:
“Just months ago there was cause for optimism about the spread of democracy in the Arab world, with elections held in Iraq, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the Palestinian areas,” the New York Times plans to report in Monday editions, RAW STORY has learned. “But the momentum is fast ebbing, with delays in reform efforts, legal maneuvers and official changes of heart throughout the Middle East.”
“The unexpected rise of Islamists, the newfound power of Shiites in Iraq with the implication of growing Iranian influence, and the sense among some rulers that they can wait out the end of the Bush administration — which has begun facing domestic and Republican criticism for its focus on forcing democracy — have all put the brakes on democratization, analysts and officials say.”
Reuters - Comcast Corp. and Sony
Pictures Entertainment are scheduled to unveil a joint venture
to launch a horror/thriller-themed cable brand at the National
Cable & Telecommunications Assn. convention on Monday.
teeto writes to tell us The International Herald Tribune is reporting that the European Space Agency is planning to send a spacecraft to peer at Venus.” From the article: “If the robot craft pulls off the complex maneuver of slowing down enough to swing into orbit, scientists hope it will help solve the mystery of how the shrouded, churning atmosphere of Venus formed and how it maintains the planet’s broiler-like temperatures.”
BuzzShout, which went live yesterday, is a collaborative review site for new web companies. Some people are going to think this is useless, and a few will have a ton of fun with it. If you have something to say to or about a web 2.0 company, this is the place to do it.
Anyone can […]
AP - Stack a quarter for every obituary written about the network evening newscasts and soon there would be enough to pay Katie Couric's salary at CBS.
Ice Age: The Meltdown fell nearly 50 percent to an estimated $34.5 million, but handily topped the weekend, while The Benchwarmers was a heavier hitter than expected and Take the Lead swung out…
Filed under: Drama, HBO, The Sopranos
The pressure that Meadow is now being hit with from her father
with regard to getting married and having children came out this week, something I’d been expecting. Tony is very much
looking forward to being able to bounce his grandkids on his knee, and doesn’t seem like he thinks he might make it
that far along. Carmela has gone from looking rough with her husband in the hospital to flat out glowing this week.
She’s not only glowing at Tony, but seems more and more confident now that he’s up and at ‘em.
As far as what I’m so excited to see get some progress, Vito getting snagged by a few of the boys at a
homosexual club was not how I thought this would go down, but that’s what happened. The writers, of course, threw us
all for a loop showing him leave the house with his gun, and his call to Sil in the middle of the night to "check
on things" can’t bode well for him. He’s already got Tony on his ass after what Carm said last week about
"keeping an eye" on him, and now he’s not around when the boss has rolled into the office. He’s not one to
make it much longer, and I most certainly hope that he doesn’t take the easy way, like Eugene. His statement of
"it’s a joke!" to the crew while he was seen in his leather gear was possibly the dumbest excuse I’ve heard
for anything, making me think way too much of Shaggy’s "It Wasn’t Me."
Melfi is racking up the
visits from the Soprano clan, with Tony being in her office twice in one episode. The quote of the season so far has
got to be "I’m going to ask this up front. Any chance of a mercy f*ck?" and I’m not sure anything could
possibly top it. Even better was the look on his face when he says it.
The up and down of this week was
curious, with Tony looking weak at the beginning of the wedding ceremony when he almost faints outside the church, and
his coming back to power as Johnny backs down in basically begging Tony to whack Rusty, and culminating with his loud
crying as he is walked down the driveway with the U.S. Marshals. Tony finishes that flip-flop when he whips his new
bodyguard’s ass, only after staring at the non-buff bodies in his crew, contrasting with the new guy’s ripped biceps.
Is he forseeing the various lack of respect conversations that he’s had (including Christopher’s commentary about the
outsourcing of Rusty’s hit to some Naples boys) as something he needs to head off, perhaps showing his old self coming
back.
If the whole crew isn’t going to be seeing an early demise, with Vito’s probable death and Paulie’s
likely problem because of his treatment of the Barone kid, then it’s going to be some rough going for a while. Johnny
looking to pawn off a hit on his own crew to the Jersey boys probably won’t work out well, and it should be a reminder
to all of you that Furio Giunta is from
Naples - where Tony has asked for the hitters to be called in from. I won’t take too much of a flyer on his return, but
this would knot up nicely should he make it back to the States.
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UK Times Online: Prosecutors have no interest in demolishing MoussaouiÂs extraordinary confession as the self- proclaimed al-Qaeda terrorist seems to have done their job for them. It does not appear to matter to them that MoussaouiÂs testimony contradicts their own evidence. [Bandelier]