Everybody's Linking for the Weekend

For a change of pace, I figured we could do this link roundup on a Saturday afternoon-we're all inside freezing anyway, we might as well get some good reading done!

In Politics...

U.S. Senator Brian Schatz (D-HI)

Washington Post: Philip Rucker takes a look at the complicated issues driving the Hawaii Senate race.  As I've mentioned before, there are a few different factors that are driving me to support Schatz in this primary, principally his incumbency, his longtime support for gay rights, and his exemplary leadership on the environment.  However, the good news here is this not a Christine O'Donnell sort of situation-whether Schatz or Hanabusa make it through to be the general election candidate, they will handily win in November.

The Hayride: Proving that in Louisiana, anything can happen, former Gov. Edwin Edwards (one of the most colorful and corrupt politicians in the Bayou State, and that's saying something) is considering a run for Rep. Bill Cassidy's open sixth district.  Edwards, despite his many run-ins with the law (he needs a pardon to ever run for state office in Louisiana again), is still fairly popular in the state and could well make it to a run-off if he were to run.  Also potentially in the race is anti-gay activist Tony Perkins (running for the GOP), setting up perhaps the oddest House race of the cycle.

SaintPetersBlog: In probably the best news for Democrats this week, former Florida CFO Alex Sink (D) raised a stunning $1.1 million in the special election to replace the late Rep. Bill Young (R).  Her fundraising eclipsed both of her top Republican challengers (combined), and she is starting to look like a frontrunner to pickup this seat, which would make the Democrats only sixteen seats short in the U.S. House.

Washington Blade: Former American Idol runner-up Clay Aiken is considering a run for Congress against Rep. Renee Ellmers (R-NC), and seems relatively serious about his intentions.  This district has a PVI of R+10, and while it isn't impossible to win (considering Ellmers may lose in a primary from a Tea Party challenger), Aiken is not the candidate to do it.  The Democrats would be far better off with former NC Commerce Secretary Keith Crisco as their standard-bearer.

In Entertainment...

This past week the WGA and PGA Award nominees were announced, and we learned a bit more about the race in terms of Oscar.  While it's never a good idea to take the WGA Awards at face value (for example, 12 Years a Slave, Philomena, Fruitvale Station, and Short-Term 12 were all ruled ineligible based on the difficult to comprehend rules of the guild), it's note-worthy that they found room for some screenplays that are at the fringes of a nomination (Dallas Buyers Club, Before Midnight, Her), one film that no one is talking about in this category (Mark Wahlberg's Lone Survivor, which feels like it will be cited for something on the 16th), and had a couple of extra snubs (Inside Llewyn Davis and The Butler both were eligible and missed).

Oscar-nominated producer Megan Ellison

At the PGA Awards, the big story continues to be the way that Harvey Weinstein can't get any traction this year.  After a solid performance at the SAG Awards (two Best Ensemble nominations, along with five individual nominations), he's been on a bit of a slide, and couldn't get any of his four pictures into this year's PGA race.  It's worth noting that if you add Harvey's films onto the list, as well as Inside Llewyn Davis and combine it with the PGA list you have the fifteen films with a shot at an Oscar nomination in the top category, but which will actually make the cut?  Also worth noting: Megan Ellison could well be the next Harvey (two nods at the PGA Awards, a year after she scored with Zero Dark Thirty and she has Bennett Miller's Foxcatcher as a shot next year).  Lastly, Dallas Buyers Club and American Hustle are currently the only two films that have scored with all of the "Big 4" guilds (the DGA hasn't announced yet): could this mean that DBC is a likely nominee for Best Picture and that perhaps Ellison will add a trophy to go with her nominations?  We shall soon see...

ABC: Three-time Oscar winner Saul Zaentz has passed away at the age of 92.  Zaentz had a legendary career as a producer, winning Best Picture Oscars for One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Amadeus, and my personal favorite of his films, The English Patient.  He won the Irving G. Thalberg (AMPAS's lifetime achievement award for producing) in 1996.

Boy Culture: There are just ten women who were leading ladies in Hitchcock films still with us after the recent passing of Joan Fontaine.  Take a look, and see how many you've seen!

Thompson on Hollywood: Though I got a bit lost in this article (I have not, nor will I ever be, an accountant), this is an interesting article for people who are curious about what it takes to be nominated for Best Picture.

Just One More...

LA Times: Australia has announced that its athletes will not be leaving Sochi or vacationing across Russia during the Olympic games, yet another setback as Russia is about to take the world center stage with the upcoming Winter Olympics.  Every day it seems more and more bad news is coming out of the Olympics, with world leaders (amongst others, Barack Obama, Angela Merkel, Stephen Harper, David Cameron, and Francois Hollande) all announcing they will not attend the Games, and with escalating safety concerns in Russia, it seems that questions about whether certain athletes (such as reigning Olympic gold medalist Torah Bright) will even attend have become the topic of conversation.