Tina Fey Wins Emmy for Sarah Palin Mock

Headlines (Scroll down for complete stories):
1. ‘Dancing With Stars’ Cheryl Burke Never Heard of Tom Delay
2. Ozzy Osbourne Chimp Ad Canceled
3. Tina Fey Wins Emmy for Sarah Palin Mock
4. Bill Maher Sees Racist People
5. Dems Protest Over Glenn Beck Tribute

1. ‘Dancing With Stars’ Cheryl Burke Never Heard of Tom Delay

Evidently, Cheryl Burke had never heard of Tom DeLay prior to the announcement that this season on "Dancing with the Stars" she’d be two-stepping with the Texas politician.

"I didn't really know anything about him. I'm not kidding," Burke told TVGuide.com.

The two-time champion of the hit TV show had to log onto the net and find out exactly why DeLay would be considered a “star” for the purposes of the program.

“I had to Google him actually,” Burke admitted and said, “So since I had to dance with him, I thought, 'Why not do some research?'”

After doing her research on the former House majority leader, Burke was hoping he would be a nice guy, and she wasn't disappointed.

"I was just hoping after he's gone through all that past stuff, that he's a really nice guy and he really is,” the dancer said. “He's a family man. He has a great family. They're so sweet. He's the grandpa you never had. He's not that grumpy old man that people might think he is. He's a really nice guy — just a normal, down-to-earth man.”

For those who might be upset at the GOP contestant pick, Burke admonished, "This is not a political show. This has nothing to do with politics. This is all about ballroom dancing and getting a celebrity to learn how to dance....I think people need to get over the fact about what he's done in politics.”

A program note: Delay's first dance on the show will be a cha-cha.

2. Ozzy Osbourne Chimp Ad Canceled

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) has scored a victory for the chimpanzee rights movement.

Ozzy Osbourne recently appeared in a Samsung smartphone commercial, which featured a performing chimpanzee. In the ad, Osbourne gazes at a rock musician chimp on a smartphone display.

Animal rights advocates at PETA lobbied to get the ad pulled off the air.

PETA told Samsung officials that chimpanzees and other great apes used in advertising are removed from their mothers as infants and routinely abused in behind-the-scenes training sessions.

Samsung execs apparently took PETA's words to heart and cancelled the television commercial.

A spokesperson for the group said, "PETA applauds Samsung's decision to distance itself from cruelty to apes who are used and abused in entertainment."

No doubt Cass Sunstein, the newly approved head of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs and radical extremist dunderhead who wants animals to be able to file lawsuits against hunters, is going bananas over the Samsung decision.

3. Tina Fey Wins Emmy for Sarah Palin Mock

The attack on Sarah Palin during the last presidential campaign was like a media tag team match.

The mainstream media would unleash a barrage of hit pieces on the GOP vice presidential candidate, and the entertainment media would launch a bunch of snarky Left Coast missiles.

But nothing was more undermining of Palin's standing as a serious candidate than Tina Fey’s “Saturday Night Live” impersonations.

Hollywood showed Fey its gratitude at the Creative Arts Primetime Emmys and gave an award to the actress-comedienne for best guest spot in a comedy.

As a television academy member, my suggestion was that the guest comedy Emmy go to Joe Biden. That didn’t go over too well.

Incidentally, in accepting the award Fey thanked "SNL" producer Lorne Michaels.

She also gave a shout-out to her parents "who are lifelong Republicans” and thanked them “for their patience."

4. Bill Maher Sees Racist People

Leave it to Bill Maher to deal from the bottom of the deck.

On his HBO "Real Time" show, the pretend psychologist claimed that an Internet headline showed an example of how "right-wingers are always dropping subliminally racist messages.”

Back in the late 1950s, a market researcher named James Vicary claimed that he had influenced filmgoers to buy more refreshments by flashing messages very quickly on a movie screen. He was the first to use the term “subliminal advertising.”

The problem is Vicary later admitted to lying about his research and falsifying results in order to boost his consulting business.

The headline that Maher claimed had a subliminal message was on the Drudge Report. It read as follows: “Poll Hell: Obama Negs Rise.

Maher apparently saw hidden meaning in the words and said, “I just think for a certain number of people, when they see 'Negs Rise'....”

Then the host paused to let the “Negs” word sink in with his audience, his facial expression, body language and timing playing for maximum effect subliminally and otherwise.

Interestingly, the practices of the then-candidate, now-president and the ring kissers in and out of his administration use things like Lincoln-esque stages, Greek Styrofoam columns, preacher prattle, press conference plants, town hall trickery and even State of the Union redos to craft impressions.

5. Dems Protest Over Glenn Beck Tribute

Bud Norris didn't realize what a firestorm he had created.

The Mount Vernon, WA mayor decreed that September 26 would be known as Glenn Beck Day. He also scheduled a ceremony to give Beck a key to the city that the Fox cable host was born in.

"I don't know if I expected the magnitude of resistance," Norris told CNN. But he also indicated that he has received "a tremendous amount of positive response."

Norris has known Beck since Beck’s parents owned a bakery in Mount Vernon. The city official feels as though Beck's success story should inspire all Mount Vernon residents regardless of their politics.

Evidently, some Dems disagree. Democrat groups have led protests in the city over the Beck salute.

Glenn Bordner, past chairman of the county Democratic Party, has suggested that Dems may even seek a censure of the mayor.

"This county is divided 50-50 between Republicans and Democrats. He doesn't represent even the Republicans here. They are Eisenhower-style Republicans," Bordner complained.

The local paper has gotten into the act with the launch of an editorial attack. The Skagit Valley Herald editorial board ran a commentary with a headline that read: "Honoring Beck One of the Mayor's Worst Ideas."

"An accident of birth and Beck's fame, or rather notoriety, hardly justifies the mayor's plan to exercise his authority to hand the key to the city to one of the most divisive voices in broadcasting," the column stated.

Mayor Norris has said that he has even received calls threatening a boycott.

Meanwhile a mayor from a nearby city has jumped in with an invitation of his own. Bellingham’s mayor has extended an offer to Comedy Central host Jon Stewart to come to town.

Mayor Dan Pike, who apparently went to high school with Stewart in New Jersey, claims that the comedian does a better job than Beck at presenting the news.

According to Pike, Beck "contributes to a pettiness of spirit" and thus "does not improve the public discourse."

There's currently at least one distinction in the city tussle, though. Beck has accepted his invite to appear in Mount Vernon but Stewart’s been mum.