The Senate approves a $120 billion war funding bill, sending the hotly debated measure to the White House for President Bush’s signature.

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…and they’re the cutest ones of all. Check out these three photos of Raph and his daughter. I didn’t post them before because I wanted to get his permission first (because, unlike the shots of people walking across the stage with their kids, these are of a more private moment), but he said it’s fine, so here you go:

Seriously: Awwwww.

I knew there were a ton of Angelinos in denial about the fact that the Raiders are no longer in L.A. I didn't realize they had whole stores devoted to the delusion. :)

In case anyone missed it, Jordin Sparks won American Idol last night.

Congrats to Jordin, and congrats also to Mark Gardner, winner of the BrendanLoy.com American Idol pool. Gardner tied Jay Johnson and me (i.e., Brendan Loy) with 17 points out of a possible 34, but wins because of the tiebreaker rule that “if there’s a tie, the person who erred less recently will win.” Gardner is the only contestant with 17 points who got the last two weeks right. (In fact, he got the final six consecutive evictions right!)

Here are the final standings, with point totals in boldface, followed by the number of weeks the contestant actually submitted a pick for, in parentheses. (Some contestants joined late, while others missed a few weeks.)

1. Mark Gardner 17 (14)
2. Jay Johnson 17 (13)
3. Brendan Loy 17 (14)
4. Marty West 16 (13)
5. Toni Namnath 14 (14)
6. Melissa Clouthier 12 (12)
7. Rebecca Loy 12 (13)
8. Jen Featherston 12 (13)
9. Vicki from NJ 11 (13)
10. Kate Spitz 11 (12)
11. Scott Fort 8 (12)
12. Kevin Hauschulz 8 (7)
13. David K. 7 (12)
14. Derek Walden 7 (9)

The Binghamton Mets beat the Connecticut Defenders 5-2 yesterday, thanks to a triple play off Newington’s own Joe Serfass in the top of the seventh, and a grand slam by teammate Caleb Stewart in the bottom of the seventh.

Jack Martzell, a Double Domer who became a high-profile New Orleans trial lawyer representing such clients as Muhammad Ali and the founder of Popeyes chicken, was found dead in his home yesterday. He was 70.

This one’s for fans of The Office. We all know that Steve Carell’s character of Michael Scott is the bumbling, incompetent manager based on Ricky Gervais’s character of David Brent in the original British version. Having watched both, I think the writers have better served Michael than David with a touch of character depth that explains why Dunder-Mifflin kept him around long enough to get a promotion to manager: he’s an amazing salesman. In the few episodes where he’s needed to make a pitch to a major client, his means may have always exasperated Jan, but the story usually ends with him nonchalantly mentioning that, oh, by the by, he landed the account. In one episode, he even gets a chance to shine when he roundly condemns Ryan’s criticisms when Ryan hasn’t made a single sale and expands upon his philosophy of sales being based around people. Via the Peter Principle, he simply got promoted to his level of incompetence and nobody ever demoted him back to his level of competence. It’s like if Admiral kirk never got demoted back to captain. I think, whenever The Office goes off the air, the perfect happy ending would have Michael Scott go back into sales.

That’s my two cents.

We’re here. Quote of the day: “I know I’m in L.A. because suddenly, even the ugly girls look pretty.” -Becky

I’ll be on a flight to L.A. when the American Idol finale airs tonight, so I’m posting this now. Leave your Idol-related comments here! That includes NDLauren’s all-important comment just after 9:00 PM EDT, announcing everyone’s picks. :)

Readers on time zones other than EDT who don’t want to see spoilers, please don’t read the comments on this thread (or view the recent comments page) after 9:00 PM EDT (6:00 PM PDT). Commenters, please don’t say anything about the result anywhere other than in this thread until after 1:00 AM EDT (10:00 PM PDT). Same goes for guestbloggers writing about the result on the main page.

Heh.

Well, it may be the subject of a legal dispute, but at least the iGasm isn’t banned in Cyprus!

OMG, so sleepy. What a 4-day stretch: packing, graduating, moving & unpacking, all in 96 hours. And tomorrow, to L.A.! But now, to bed.

This is it! The American Idol finale is about to wrap up. Results will be announced tomorrow night. Who will win? Jordin or Blake? And more importantly: Mark, Jay, Marty or me? :) Contestants in the BrendanLoy.com Idol pool, please e-mail your picks to laurenelizabeth [at] alumni.nd.edu by 9:00 PM EST Wednesday!!

Also, looking back to my first post about the Idol pool, when I asked after the Top 24 show who people thought would win… nobody picked Jordin (only Becky had her in the Top 3), but one contestant — Derek Walden — picked Blake, so he is the only person who still has a chance to win that portion of the contest. (But Becky gets credit for having both Blake and Jordin in the Top 3, though she — like so many others back then — though LaKisha would win.)

Current standings of the week-by-week contest after the jump.

(more…)

Mr. and Mrs. Loy finally got to meet Logan!

Apparently the Drudge Report has been taken over by comic-book writers:

Heh.

(The referenced story, of course, is the McCain-Romney war of words over immigration. Not to be confused with the McCain-Cornyn war of words over immigration.)

The Penske is unpacked.