Today, lawyers for Stanley "Tookie" Williams delivered their arguments on why their client should not be executed next Tuesday.

I would argue he shouldn't be, but that's primarily because I'm opposed to the death penalty. The state shouldn't take peoples' lives as punishment for a crime.

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Seth Mnookin, author of Hard News -- an account of the Jayson Blair saga at the NYT -- will have a feature on the Judith Miller case in next week's Vanity Fair.

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CBGBs, the legendary New York underground club that launched the Ramones among others, gets to stay put for the time being.

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A paean to Mallomars, also known as Whippets.

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The Toronto Star's Antonia Zerbisias bemoans the fate of a critic in a very converged Canadian media universe.

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While the Pulitzer Prizes aren't creating an online category just yet, they are broadening how they deal with the online component of a newspaper's entry.

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Columnist Rosie DiManno writes in today's Toronto Star that the paper won't send its reporters there.

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"Hi, is this ... Bill Dopkotch?" (female)

Me (tonelessly, physically stiffening as I suspect I'm now about to have precious seconds of my life pissed away by a telemarketer): Yes

"How are you!!" (very bubbly in tone)

Me (continuing with the toneless voice): Fine

"You have a great voice!!" (almost flirty)

Me (losing patience): Who are you and why are you calling?

"I'm calling on behalf of the Association of Retired Gazelle Gutters, and ..."

Me (with a bit of an "a-HA!"-driven inflection): "Thanks very much for calling!"

Click.

From the wires:

Director Rob Reiner says he won't run for governor of California in 2006.

That puts to rest rumours of a potential "Meathead versus Terminator" showdown with Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.

WASHINGTON, DC—Telephone logs recorded by the National Security Agency and obtained by Congress as part of an ongoing investigation suggest that the vice president may have used the Oval Office intercom system to address President Bush at crucial moments, giving categorical directives in a voice the president believed to be that of God.

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Our old friend Ayman has made a new video postcard. He says Osama is doing great, that AQ is bigger and better than ever and if you could blow up a few oil refineries in Muslim countries, that would be great, because most of the money goes to the enemies of Islam.

Full story at BBC Online.

Muriel Degauque's life began as a Roman Catholic in the coal fields of Belgium, and ended in a self-detonated blast in Iraq. There are potentially many more like her.

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William F. Buckley looks back on what he might have said had he responded for Sen. Joe McCarthy to CBS's Edward R. Murrow.

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James Buchanan, Abraham Lincoln's predecessor, is largely considered to be the worst president in U.S. history.

But could Dubya be giving Buchanan a run for that dubious title?

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OK, the Register started the ball rolling in October, but the NYT is now on the case!

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The NYT's Adam Cohen on how some religious conservatives are pushing hard against retailers who don't use the phrase "Merry Christmas."

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Generally speaking, I don't buy lottery tickets (I view them as a tax on the stupid, and in that regard, I've paid my share).

When I waver is when I start thinking about how I'll ever afford a home in an area I like in this very expensive (by Canadian standards) city.

But every once in a while, a story like this comes along to remind me that a lottery win isn't a ticket to happiness. In fact, it could provide passage on a very dark journey.

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For starters, let's acknowledge the passing of The King -- For the first time since I started this blog in August 2004, my posting on Elvis's Death Day isn't in the top 10 (it's #11).

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NYT public editor Byron Calame on how the paper covers itself.

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Attentive consumers of Toronto news media products may recall the bust of some DVD pirates last week, with more than 150,000 DVDs reportedly seized.

Well, it appears that monster has more than one head. Walking up Spadina from Dundas St. Friday afternoon, I saw about three little freelance DVD stands hawking the latest in pirated discs.

Do with this information what you will.

From the NYT:

The military acknowledged Friday in a briefing for a ranking Senate Republican that news articles written by American troops had been placed as paid advertisements in the Iraqi news media and not always properly identified.

 Senator John W. Warner of Virginia, who heads the Senate Armed Services Committee, told reporters after receiving a 25-minute briefing from officials at the Pentagon that senior commanders in Iraq were trying to get to the bottom of a program that apparently also paid monthly stipends to friendly Iraqi journalists.

Here's Friday's NYT story on the Senate asking for an explanation.

Bell Globemedia -- the parent company of my employer, CTV -- saw some changes Friday at the ownership level.

BCE has cut its share to 20 per cent. Woodbridge Co. Ltd., the Thomson family's holding company, boosted its share to 40 per cent. And TorStar (which publishes the Toronto Star) and the Ontario Teachers Pension Fund now each have 20 per cent stakes.

Here is some Globe and Mail coverage (note: The Globe is also a Bell Globemedia paper):

The deal

Embarking on Project Odyssey's Stormy Waters

Minor stake keeps its toe in the pool

More deals in the works

There is some commentary as well, which isn't available online to mere mortals.

I'm thinking that as a headline writer, what topic offers a better opportunity for bad puns and other word play than a story about anti-impotence drug sales not meeting expectations in the U.S.?

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To see my CTV.ca election blog posting headlines without actually going to that blog, I have them on my politics page.

Aeon Flux is a new sci-fi thriller starring the stunningly beautiful Charlize Theron (appearing in this role in black hair).

I was toying with the idea of seeing it, but I wanted to see a review first.

At RottenTomatoes.com, there wasn't much posted, but there was this little note:

Charlize Theron has her Oscar. Now she has her Catwoman.
-- David Frese, KANSAS CITY STAR

Ouch.

There's no review in the Star or Globe and Mail. In email correspondence with a friend of mine, supercritic Joe Morgenstern of the Wall Street Journal said the studio declined to make a review copy of the film available.

I'm presuming this must be a deliberate strategy to try and salvage some revenue.

A.O. Scott of the NYT appears to support that theory.

Had Bob Marley written about Rosa Parks, he would have probably sang: Get down, sit down/ sit down for your rights.

On this day in 1955, Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat to a white man in Montgomery, Ala. -- leading to her arrest and the birth of the U.S. civil rights movement.

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A CBC Radio report cited an immigration lawyer as saying poor Conrad could conceivably be barred from re-entering Canada after he goes to Chicago and does his perp walk thing later today.

This lawyer (sorry, name escapes me) said it's entirely up to the discretion of the immigration officer. They could decide that the charges hanging over Black are enough to bar a non-citizen like him from the country.

Update: Conrad did show up in court today and pleaded not guilty. Let the games begin! And on Saturday, Immigration Minister Joe Volpe said the government wouldn't bar Black from re-entry to the True North Strong and Free.

Since it worked so well in the U.S., the American occupation forces decided to do a little image-burnishing by buying off Iraqi newspapers to plant good-news stories.

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OK, a bit wordier than "Mission Accomplished," but Dubya now hopes to build on that historic achievement of the world's mightiest war machine smacking down a sanctions-depleted army in only three weeks!

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The legendary reporter spoke Tuesday with Democracy Now! to elaborate on an article in the current New Yorker: Up in the Air: Where is the Iraq war headed next?

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