A Few Brief Notes About Celebrities:
Cher - Who the fuck would have thought that not only does the last functioning gay icon (Liza Minnelli doesn't count) have a political soul, but that she's willing to bare it in the way she has bared her ass so many times before? Here she is, on C-SPAN, no less, talking about her visit to wounded soldiers at Walter Reed Medical Center. And she has the balls to openly criticize Bush, Cheney, and the band about not visiting wounded soldiers. Unlike, say, Lincoln, Truman, and other Presidents, the wounded for Bush are like the crazy, deformed nephew you keep in the cellar, hoping he can survive on rats and trash and hoping the neighbors don't find out about him. And the returning dead are like so much dust swept under the rug. Cameras and press are not allowed to cover the return of dead soldiers. And, unlike, say, Schwarzenegger, here's Cher, a celebrity willing to be questioned, be honest, and be a goddamned American citizen.

Kobe - You know, the Rude Pundit generally doesn't give a damn about sports. The Rude Pundit doesn't give two shits about celebrity trials. The Rude Pundit believes that such things are corporate-created distractions from the real problems of the country, like, say, health insurance or unemployment. But something here bears comment: Who knows if Kobe raped the woman in Colorado? Right now, only Kobe and the woman can be sure. And, fuck, it doesn't mean that Kobe should be fired or hated or anything at the moment. But, c'mon, when the crowd at a Vegas exhibition game cheered, fucking cheered when Kobe walked out, when people in the crowd "greeted him with signs proclaiming his innocence on rape charges," something is seriously wrong with the culture. The intensity of sports worship is so strong that it doesn't matter that Kobe may have raped a woman? Man, the Rude Pundit hopes the people who hoisted those signs high will feel suicidally depressed if it turns out Kobe did it. Because what they did at that point was cheer a rapist. And that's just so goddamn sad it's not even worth getting sarcastic about it.

Barbara Bush - The Rude Pundit always knew the President was a son of a bitch, but who knew that his mom would go to such lengths to prove it?