SOTU Prediction

$10 says that Bush starts trying to insinuate the idea of "What's so bad about going to war for oil?" in his speech tonight, not so much because he thinks it'll have any effect in whatever debate occurs over escalation in Iraq*, as because of the need by his corporate sponsors to move the discourse in this direction, in the same way that they've been trying to normalize policies that previous administrations have tried to frame as nonexistent (torture) or unavoidable evils (aggressive war).

* Although I'm sure they know it'll feed the "realist" element of "the base" -- cf. Ann Coulter, "Why not go to war just for oil? We need oil. What do Hollywood celebrities imagine fuels their private jets? How do they think their cocaine is delivered to them?"

Reality TB

Yet another $1,000,000 idea:
You take a group of 10 or 12 regular average folks and expose them to tuberculosis. Then you tape little "up close and personal" sessions with them, have them dance, sing (better to do this part early in the season before they all start coughing a lot), etc., and you give Cipro to the one who ends up most popular with the audience.