Rachel Maddow has been sounding off about politics on MSNBC so often she might as well have her own show, opines The Washington Post. And now she does, says the Daily Kos. She’s taking over the 9 p.m. slot following Keith Olbermann’s “Countdown.”

Until recently, she was an entirely new face to me … until I caught her subbing for Olbermann. She was nothing short of fabulous, so bright, articulate, unassailable.

I thought she might be a lesbian and I’m glad to find out she is.

Here’s what an excellent Nation article said about her: “Maddow didn’t get here by bluster and bravado but with a combination of crisp thinking and galumphing good cheer. Remarkably, this season’s discovery isn’t a glossy matinee idol or a smooth-talking partisan hack but a PhD Rhodes scholar lesbian policy wonk who started as a prison AIDS activist.”

But let’s just see her in action, shall we?

Christian activists are hoping to rescind marriage rights in California in the upcoming November election. One anti-gay rights lobbying group, the ironically named the American Family Association, have created a new propaganda film to compel their congregants to Vote “Yes’ on Prop 8. It’s as slick as it is sickening.

Created in a documentary style, it attempts to present the “culture wars” with “experts” explaining why two people of the same sex cannot really be a couple and how this alone will lead to the end of civilization as we know it. The horrible irony, of course, is that their divisive views and hatred toward people who don’t agree with them is what is tearing our culture apart. Not the homosexuals.

I understand how impossible it is for “good Christians” to view themselves as bigots, but there’s simply no other way to view the ideas put forth in this video. The video pits the will of the people (the right-thinking majority, as they see it) against the “activist judges” who cleared the way for gay marriage in the state. Only a generation ago the will of the people were in favor of miscegenation. This is the same, exactly the same. No matter how they try to position it, dress it up, or stick a big fat cross on it — bigots are bigots.
Here’s the video. Do not watch with a full stomach or you may lose your lunch.

Right now, New Jersey offers same-sex couples Civil Unions. But if the result of a Zogby Poll proves to be true, legal marriage for gay couples may be right around the corner.

The latest poll shows a majority of New Jersey favors marriage for same-sex couples over civil unions – and an even bigger majority is fine with public officials’ changing the civil union law to marriage equality, reports Garden State Equality (see the rest of their poll results here, it’s cool).

By 59 to 36 percent, New Jerseyans would be fine with public officials’ changing the civil union law to marriage equality. Indeed, when the poll goes out of its way to remind voters that New Jersey already has a civil union law, a majority of New Jersey still supports marriage for same-sex couples – 50.1 to 42.3 percent.

An astounding 69 percent of New Jerseyans say marriage equality is inevitable in the state.

Ah, if only California were as right-minded and progressive as the Garden State.

Did you see the Christian-sponsored “debate” with McCain and Obama? It’s stomach churning, as the audience congregation breaks into spontaneous applause when Obama said: “I believe that marriage is the union between a man and a woman.”

It was precisely what this enormous, Christian voting block wanted to hear: marriage is a sacred man-woman-only union, under god — and, by extension, gay people are not deserving of equal rights compared to heterosexual Americans because the bible says gays are an abomination.

Surely raising the ire of many of the devout bigots in attendance, Obama went on to say he felt it was acceptable for gays to have Civil Unions, but not Marriage [cue the applause] noting that gays “should have the right to visit each other in the hospital,” an example most loving Christians would consider, at the least, humane. Marriage: no; hospital visitation: ok. To say otherwise would be just, well, un-Christian.

But Sen. Obama turned magnanimous in his declaration: “My faith is strong enough, my marriage is strong enough … that I can afford those civil rights [civil unions and hospital visitation] to others even if I have a different perspective or different view.”

Goodness gracious, that’s mighty generous of you, Senator. I felt like I was listening to a Civil War-era “progressive” opine that blacks should be considered 3/5’s of a white man … and how that’s just the fair thing to do. Hell, that’s a good thing for the black man!

I’m heartsick that Obama is my only choice over McCain.

It’s an “Inconvenient Truth” for the economy, this new film called I.O.U.S.A., which examines the growing national debt and its consequences for the United States and its citizens.

A hit at Sundance (a hit, a palpable hit!), the trailer is chilling, elucidating and fascinating. It opens on Friday in the larger cities around the country, and looks like a must see (you can find where it’s playing here).

The ever sagely Andrew Tobias blogged about this and noted that there’s a special pre-opening, live event the night before it opens (this Thursday) in select theatres, that features the likes of Warren Buffett, CEO of Berkshire Hathaway; William Niskanen, chairman of the CATO Institute; Bill Novelli, CEO of AARP and other financial notables. (Anyone who doesn’t think Mr. Buffett is one of the greatest financial minds in this country may now leave this blog.)

Go to the I.O.U.S.A. Web site to get details about where and when. Looks to me like a gotta-go.

Jon Stewart is one of the most trusted men in America, according to a report in The New York Times citing a 2007 Pew poll. The comedian tied with all the other news anchors on TV in ‘07 (Brian Williams, Tom Brokaw, Dan Rather and Anderson Cooper).

Any regular reader of this blog knows I’m Jon Stewart’s humble servant — the man (and his writing staff) are brilliant, and deserve every Emmy award they’ve won (and will win). So, it doesn’t surprise me that people find him to be trustworthy, even in jest, especially in jest — any sentient human can recognize the truth(s) he exposes, this modern-day court jester.

Conversely, I’m shocked (shocked, I tell you!) that so many polled people found the other news anchors trustworthy at all (sorry Anderson, but you consistently toady up to guests and refuse to ask the hard questions). It looks, to me, like they’re reading news reports given to them, mere mouthpieces for the status quo.

Moreover, does anyone ever go the office the next day and say: “Hey, did you hear what Charlie Gibson said about Iraq last night?”

“The Daily Show’ is clearly impacting American dialogue” and “getting people to think critically about the public square,” noted the Times piece, quoting yet another study. (Here’s the whole article.)

Who else does this, I ask you?

Back in March, the “cold fighter” Airborne was in the throws of settling a class action lawsuit, which alleged the company misrepresented its product (namely that there was no scientific basis for its cold fighting claims and that their “clinical trials were bogus).

The settlement remedy prescribed by the FTC is for Airborne to pay consumers back for as many as six purchases, a nationwide total of as much as $30 million, reports The Washington Post. I used to use the stuff all the time and can’t say for sure that it ever prevented my getting sick while flying. I’d like to believe it did, however, therein lies the power of belief: I wanted to believe and that alone might have done the trick, n’est-ce pas?

Sales continue to be good, even after the bad press.

Before the suit, Oprah touted the product on her show, prompting annual sales to jump from $21 mil a year to more than $100 mil. There’s apparently plenty extra to spend to settle the suits.

From Bush’s point of view, everything looks looks great — the economy, the war et al. Here’s a brief 21-second clip of Bush on Countdown with Keith Olbermann, exemplifying Bush’s perspective.