They’re back and they’re writing songs that would have been structurally perfect for Hall and Oates, but making them better. Check out their new single, “Makes Me Wonder.” Total #1 song here!

And not to be unprofessional, but Adam Levine, whom I’ve seen in person from about 10 feet away, actually looks like a model in the video. Way to clean up and polish the act, fellas. Sssssmokin’…

Our favorite gay conservative, Andrew Sullivan, was on “Countdown with Keith Olbermann” the other day. I missed it live because Dave and I were enjoying peoplewatching at the White House fence and a short trip around the Tidal Basin to view the fully blooming magnolias and dogwoods teasing the cherry blossom buds. But it’s always good to see someone who actually gets it. Dave’s got a copy of Sullivan’s “The Conservative Soul” that he’s working his way through. I get to read it next…

I actually found myself staring Andrew Sullivan in the face a month or so ago on campus at GW. I was heading to class and he was being accosted, hopefully by a fan. I sent him an email later that evening asking if it was him and he actually took the time to respond, which was very sweet. As a self-confessed, quasi-Goldwater conservative with liberal social stances, I enjoy Mr. Sullivan’s perspective, even when I disagree.

If you’re a superfan of anyone, put yourself in my shoes and don’t make any jokes right now, thank you.

UPDATE: 5:03pm — Publicist Raymone K. Bain denying to Fox that Michael’s in the hospital at this point. Bain is a partner at Davis, Bain & Associates here in D.C., just a couple blocks from Dave’s office. Story developing…

UPDATE: 6:21pm — Michael’s publicist confirmed to Fox News that Michael and his entire family fell ill in Japan a couple weeks ago and that she is “not sure what the diagnosis is. It could be pneumonia,” she told the network this evening.

Bain denied that the singer had been hospitalized though, but other sources close to Jackson told Fox he has definitely been in the hospital in recent days.

UPDATE: 9:12pm — Michael’s publicist sent out the following press release:

Thursday, 29 March 2007
For Immediate Release Contact: Raymone K. Bain
March 29, 2007

RUMOR REGARDING HOSPITALIZATION OF MICHAEL JACKSON NOT TRUE

Washington, D.C. ……. In response to media inquiries, Mr. Michael Jackson is not currently in the hospital nor has he been hospitalized with pneumonia.

Thank you for your inquiries and your concern.

Source: Raymone K. Bain

Christina Aguilera’s impression of Kim Cattrall is one of the best in the show’s history. It’s dead on!

H.R. 1591, an emergency supplemental appropriations bill for the end of the fiscal year, includes several interesting provisions also known as the U.S. Troop Readiness, Veterans’ Health, and Iraq Accountability Act of 2007, the Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2007, and the Small Business Tax Relief Act of 2007.

The most astounding provisions of the bill are the portions that “direct the President to transmit to Congress by specified dates certain determinations and certifications with respect to conditions to be met by the Government of Iraq” (the timetable clause) and “require redeployment of the armed forces from Iraq if any of such conditions is not met.” This is an incredible move by Congress to check the President’s traditionally held war powers as commander-in-chief. Unprecedented and overdue!

The legislation also “directs the President to appoint a Coordinator for Iraq Assistance, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate.” This is a further check on the executive specific to the War in Iraq, and an impressive one at that. Congress is beginning to micro-manage this conflict and, given the questionable justification for the conflict in the beginning and its clumsy execution over the last four years, this action would seem to be both constitutionally supported and, as I already mentioned, overdue!

But wait…there’s more!

H.R. 1591 also includes the Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2007, legislation promised by Speaker Pelosi at the start of the new Congress. It “amends the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 to increase the federal minimum wage to: (1) $5.85 an hour, beginning on the 60th day after enactment of this Act; (2) $6.55 an hour, beginning 12 months after that 60th day; and (3) $7.25 an hour, beginning 24 months after that 60th day.”

The President is probably going to veto H.R. 1591 because of the Iraq withdrawal provisions above, but the added bonus of vetoing the new minimum wage act should be extremely unpopular nationwide. It will behoove the Dems to emphasize that Bush has simultaneously refused accountability in risking American lives AND blocked a pay raise for America’s working class.

So, if the House accepts the Senate’s amendments to the bill and passes this version, H.R. 1591 will go to the White House. Assuming that the Democratic Party does what it should here and publicizes the fact that the President is vetoing the minimum wage increase and withdrawing our troops from Iraq, Bush should see new record lows in his approval rating.

If you wanna be a hater, check the list of all the folks who voted against this bill. Of course, they’re all Republicans except for Joe Lieberman.

Are your senators among them? Both the Republican senators from my home state of North Carolina apparently don’t believe that working people deserve to take home more than $5.15/hr before taxes. And one of my senators here in Virginia, John Warner, showcases his ambivalence towards our servicemen and women and the working class by ticking off a NAY vote. I’m so proud.

Gay couple denied hotel room

COLUMBIA, SC (WLTX-CBS) – A gay couple looking to rent a hotel room say they were turned away because of their sexuality.

“She wasn’t discreet about it,” said Jason Pickel, referring to a hotel employee. “She was not apologetic. She just said, ‘We do not rent to gay people.’”

For the past two and a half years, Pickel and Darren Black Bear have been in a committed relationship. During a search for a temporary home, the couple says it went to Affordable Suites of America, a long-term stay hotel located on Gion Street in Sumter.

“We were inquiring about the price, deposits, extra person fee, and she asked who the room was going to be for, and I said for my partner and I,” Pickel said. “She said, ‘Oh we don’t rent to multiple people of the same sex.’ I said, so you don’t rent to gay couples? She said, ‘No, we don’t rent to gay people at all.’”

The website for Affordable Suites of America states the company does not allow children or pets in its suites, but there is no mention of same sex couples.

News19 contacted the hotel, posing as a potential renter, and inquired about two men staying in the same room. The receptionist who answered the phone told us the following: “Our policy is we don’t rent to two people of the same sex if we only have one bed.” “Is that your policy,” we asked. “That’s corporate policy because they only have one sleeping area.” We then asked, “Okay, but they can’t share the bed?” “I suppose they could, but most men don’t want to,” she said.

However, when News19 called the owner of the hotel, Carroll Atkisson, he says there had been some confusion. He says any couple can come to the place and they will rent to them, period. Atkisson says the policy was not mean to target homosexuals. He says they were just trying to stop two single people from being in the same bed.

Pickel and Black Bear say they still plan to seek legal action. “Everyone is floored, shocked and outraged,” said Pickel. “We have contacted some of our friends who are activists.”

Currently, there is no state law preventing a hotel from refusing service to a same-sex couple. However, it is illegal to discriminate on the basis of race, creed, color, national origin, gender, disability, or marital status.

“If they have a policy, it has to be maintained fair and equitably,” says Tom Sponseller, President of the Hospitality Association of South Carolina. “At the beach, for example, because there are different bike weekends at the beach, that policy has to be enforced, and consistent.”

There is currently a bill in the State Senate that addresses this issue. The measure, proposed by Charleston Democrat Robert Ford, would expand the Lodging Establishment Act to include prohibition of discrimination because of sexual orientation or gender identity.

The Washington Post via MSNBC.com is finally reporting what the rest of us have been talking about for weeks: former Senator Fred Thompson (R-TN), who’s been playing Arthur Branch on “Law and Order” for several years, may run for the Republican presidential nomination.

It’s pretty late in the race to enter with this kind of not-so-impressive name recognition. Al Gore could jump in the race in June of ‘08 and still do better than this guy.

Thompson’s got to play fundraising catch-up, he’s got to play campaign network catch-up, and he’s got to pre-empt the inevitable conception that he abandoned conservatism for Hollywood when he signed up to play a New York District Attorney. In that respect, he’s already lost the South.

Btw, shame on MSNBC for not mentioning that Fred Thompson, whom they’re covering in this article, is currently an employee of their parent network, NBC. Considering how much the article talks about television stations pulling Reagan movies off the air while he was running for office in 1980 and 1984 to comply with “equal time” rules, I’m kind of surprised nobody at their internet newsdesk saw the glaring need to recognize that there might be a perceived conflict of interest in the network utilizing its news website to cover (and therefore promote) a particular candidate also on their entertainment payroll.

If the ratings aren’t higher for the next episode of “L&O,” I will be shocked. SHOCKED, I TELL YOU!

Max posted this on his livejournal the other day. I actually watched it live on Saturday, but last night I showed it to Dave who was out of town at a wedding and it has just gotten funnier with time. I decided to post it here too. Check this clip out if you haven’t seen it:

Per the recommendation of a Mr. Douglas Davidson, I have gotten my hands on Jamie Lidell’s 2005 album, “Multiply,” and it’s quite good. He mixes it up a lot and comes off as a British, blue-eyed Sam Cooke. I totally dig it. Check out the video for the title track below.

Here’s a side-by-side (by-side-by-side) comparison of this evening’s breaking news headlines out of the Senate on the Iraq war spending bill.

CNN: Senate votes to keep a non-binding call for a troop withdrawal deadline in an Iraq war spending bill, despite GOP efforts to kill it and a White House promise to veto it.

MSNBC: Senate votes to keep withdrawal timetable in Iraq funding bill

ABC News: On a vote of 50-48, Senate supports Iraq withdrawal legislation in war spending bill; President Bush vows veto

Fox News: Senate Rejects Amendment Stripping Iraq Withdrawal Timeline From Supplemental Bill

CNN’s quick to point out any detail that makes the Republicans look bad and uses a ton of space to do it. Fox News uses confusing negative language to avoid reporting the fact that the Republicans didn’t succeed and that there will be a timetabled withdrawal. ABC News opts to pick its villain more safely and focuses on Bush, who has been somewhat abandoned by his party. But MSNBC wins this round, reporting only the bare facts and provoking the reader to investigate further.

Considering how early it is in the election, simply asking someone whether they would vote for her if she was the nominee captures a very unsolidified political ethos in the electorate right now. I imagine if her running mate was Barack Obama and her opponents were Rudy “Gay roommates, secret marriages, let’s shoot all the black people and disrespect 9/11 victims” Giuliani with Mitt Romney on the ticket, the numbers would be quite different. I see Hillary as the candidate whose ideology most people get utterly wrong and whose personality they know almost nothing about. She’s a lock as long as Gore doesn’t enter the race or Edwards finds a way to become the health care candidate (which he’s certainly justifiably poised to do at this point).

WASHINGTON, DC (The Hill, 3.27.2007)–Half of voting-age Americans say they would not vote for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) if she became the Democratic nominee for president in 2008, according to a Harris Interactive poll released Tuesday.

More than one in five Democrats that participated in the survey said they would not vote for Clinton. Overall, 36 percent say they would vote for the former first lady and 11 percent are unsure of their top choice.

Forty-eight percent of Independent voters also said that they would choose another candidate over Clinton, the poll, which surveyed 2,223 potential voters, states.

Fifty-six percent of men said that they would not vote for Clinton, while 45 percent of women said that she would not be their pick. In addition, 69 percent of those 62 and older said that they would not vote for Clinton.

Nearly half of the respondents said that they dislike Clinton’s political opinions and Clinton as a person. Fifty-two percent of people also said that “she does not appear to connect with people on a personal level.”