We learn:

The town of Vulcan, hidden among oil wells, wheat fields and cow pastures of western Canada, is aiming to host the world premiere of the latest Star Trek movie, a spokeswoman said Friday.

The film, to be released in May 2009, will be the 11th installment of Gene Roddenberry’s fictional Star Trek universe, most featuring the adventures of Captain James T. Kirk and the starship Enterprise crew.

We’ve had many thoughts about Dennis Kucinich over the years — but too Hollywood?

Glory be.  That’s a new one on us.

Apparently, though, it’s a huge worry in Kucinich’s Cleveland congressional district, where he faces a tough primary.  What’s one of the obstacles he must overcome, according to the Washington Post?  Get a load of this:

“He doesn’t want to be our congressman anymore. It’s clear he’s left the building. The guy’s got Hollywood fever, and that would be fine if he was using his national stature to actually get things done,” City Councilman Joe Cimperman, Kucinich’s main opponent, said in a telephone interview. …

Cimperman also showed up at Kucinich’s home with local pastries, sausage, Stadium Mustard and a map of Ohio, accusing the lawmaker of abandoning his roots in favor of “eating sushi with Sean Penn.”

What a great name for a Kucinich movie: “Desperately Seeking Sushi.”  Surely Sean Penn would prefer to remember Madonna that way.

If you’re a fan of David Simon’s “The Wire” and don’t want the ending of the season finale episode spoiled, don’t read any further.  But if you just can’t wait … Extreme Mortman has obtained footage of the final scene.  Here it is:

If you base fictional politicians on real-life politicians, are you allowed to flip-flop on the issues — just like the real guys do?

Apparently so if you’re David Simon, creator of the mega HBO hit “The Wire.”

Consider today’s Yeas & Nays item on Simon:

Just in case there was any doubt where David Simon got all those searing storylines about big-city politics, “The Wire” creator left no doubt at a Q&A on Wednesday night at the National Cable and Telecommunications Association headquarters.

Simon made clear that when fictitious Baltimore Mayor Tommy Carcetti cooked the crime numbers to get elected, it was rooted in what he said was former real-life Mayor Martin O’Malley massaging his own crime stats in preparation for his run at the Maryland governor’s mansion.

“That was all O’Malley,” Simon told the VIP crowd, which had just gotten a sneak peek at the series’ penultimate episode.

Now, consider Simon’s November 2006 interview with Campus Progress:

How literally should we take parallels between current Baltimore Mayor Martin O’Malley and Tommy Carcetti [the white mayoral candidate in The Wire]?

It’s not O’Malley. He was one of several inspirations, but [story editor] Bill Zorzi has covered politicians in Annapolis and Baltimore for his whole career. We were stealing stuff from guys whose names you wouldn’t even know.

In other words, Simon was against O’Malley before he was for him.

Don’t tell Lou Dobbs that a buncha foreigners done swept the Academy Awards.  He might demand a security fence be built around the Oscar accounting firm PriceWaterhouseCoopers.

But even was more enjoyable than watching liberal Hollywood weep while hearing an acceptance speech in Spanish (presumably before returning home to their mansion-full armies of Spanish-speaking servants and contractors, with nary a tear in sight), is this pivot by former high ranking Clinton Administration official Hillary Clinton:

The senator from New York has tried to distance herself from NAFTA, which is unpopular among workers in manufacturing who believe the deal has contributed to the movement of jobs overseas. In Ohio on Saturday, Clinton argued that while NAFTA “passed” during husband Bill Clinton’s administration in 1993, President George H.W. Bush actually “negotiated” the deal. Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland (D), a Clinton backer, told Bloomberg News this weekend that Bill Clinton told him Hillary Clinton had opposed NAFTA in 1993.

Now there’s an acting performance worthy of an Academy Award.

With all the plagiarism charges swirling around Barack Obama, that’s the only explanation we could come up with for these thoughts from Susan Sarandon (supplied by Tim Graham in Newsbusters):

Well, I’m going to back Obama. But I hope — I think that he, as a symbol, has really excited people, and he’s definitely confusing to everyone who really hates America for hating Muslims because a name like Obama and a black man, they’re probably going to go “Oh, wait a minute — What?” It’s kind of like when you’re out on the line for freedom to have an abortion and you’re incredibly pregnant. They just can’t quite figure it out.

So I think he definitely has convinced people that he stands for change and for hope, and I can’t wait to see what he stands for.

We recently noted the Britney Spears economy — and the mandate for doing our war-time part by continuously searching for and clicking on Britney Spears-related articles on the Internet.  After all, we’re fighting evil-doers, doncha know.

Well, a loyal Extreme Mortman reader tells us that if we really do want to make a difference and turn around our economy, we need to expand our economic duties by also mentioning Kristy Lee Cook.

Now, truth be told, we don’t really understand the whole Kristy Lee Cook-Britney Spears issue.  We just know that there’s a John McCain angle, which makes it fair game for a political blog.  So in the interest of brevity and clarity — and keeping with our fervent belief that, heck, free content is free content — we’ll just cut-and-paste in real time what our correspondent informs us:

Here’s something that should get some traffic, given the interest in American Idol and Britney Spears, and a follow-up to your Britney item of a week ago:

From the Hollywood Gossip Blog:

“The new season of American Idol is less than 24 hours old. So how can there already be controversy over the results?

Here’s why: the singer considered to be most impressive last night,Kristy Lee Cook, was under contract with record company Arista Nashville in 2001, and even inked a deal as the debut artist in Britney Spears‘ (now defunct) production company.”

Here’s that link:

http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2008/01/kristy-lee-cook-the-american-idol-controversy/

Kristy Lee Cook is the Antonella Barba of American Idol Season 8.  Already, google her name and  you get over 600,000 hits.  When she auditioned a few weeks back in the Philadelphia edition, a google search turned up 3,000 hits the next morning.

Plus, given you PA roots, she’s  your ‘home girl’ for AI8!

Here’s Kristy Lee Cook’s Philly audition:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p8hxo–7ehU

Also, there’s this press release from BMI Records linking Britney and Kristy Lee Cook:

http://www.bmi.com/news/entry/233653 

OK, here’s the John McCain/Britney Spears/Kristy Lee Cook hook:

First, there’s Kristy Lee Cook singing the National Anthem:

That’s here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8xvS-uZoXI

Next, attached photo is a snapshot from the first and only music video put out by Kristy Lee Cook, a final 24 contestant on “American Idol” Season 8.

Seems Kristy Lee Cook was signed by Britney Spears’ now-defunct music label, B&L.

Cook even performed a personal concert for Spears at Cowboys Red River outside Dallas.

That’s here, under the ‘Concerts’ section:

http://cdbaby.com/cd/kristylee

How’s John McCain figure into this?

See this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MbnbAHS4auw

Well, the target audience for Cook’s CD, sold at CDBaby.com and Amazon.com, was young males from the South.

Hence the Confederate flag in the background of one of the scenes (1:30 into the video).

So who’s going to be the first journalist to ask John McCain about his view of the Confederate flag in Kristy Lee Cook’s video?

Pheewww.  We’re winded just by copying and pasting all that.  Yeah, what he said! But we must admit, it’s a whole lot easier to save the economy this way than by cutting interest rates.

GOP reaction to Barack Obama’s Grammy win yesterday?

Alex Conant, spokesman for the Republican National Committee, put out this statement:

“I imagine Obama’s Grammy will look nice on his mantle next to his ‘most liberal’ senator award. Glowing Hollywood endorsements and awards won’t translate into votes this fall.”

It’s Obama’s second Grammy.  Here he is the first time.

We learn from Fishbowl/Wilshire & Washington that Wolf Blitzer’s favorite movie is “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.”

Bueller?

We’ve been so caught up in the presidential campaign delegate selection process — you know, winner take all versus proportional — that we completely missed Britney Spears somehow getting in the news.  How rare.
Our favorite item from recent days: Portfolio reporting on the $110-$120 million Britney Economy.  Including this:

The Media
If it seems like every time you see a newsstand, Britney is on the cover of another magazine, that’s only because…she is. A celebrity tabloid with Britney Spears on the cover sells 1.28 million newsstand copies, some 33 percent more than the average. Between January 2006 and July 2007, Britney was a cover subject of People, Us Weekly, In Touch, Life & Style, OK!, or Star a total of 175 times in just 78 weeks. During that period, newsstand sales of issues with her on the cover amounted to a staggering $360 million. She’s also topped the annual Yahoo Search rankings in six of the past seven years, slipping to No. 2 only in 2004, when Paris Hilton briefly stole her crown. Searches for Britney were up 60 percent in 2007, the year of her divorce, shaved head, and car wreck. “If there was no Britney, would all Web traffic stop?” asks Vera Chan, senior editor at Yahoo. “I would hesitate to give her that much power, but it’s hard to argue with the facts.”

Estimated average annual take: $75 million.

So it seems our patriotic duty — like it was during the Whip Inflation Now days of Gerald Ford — to write something about Britney Spears, so that all the folks Googling and Yahooing her have something to find.  C’mon people — everyone chip in.  Search “Britney Spears.”  If this were World War II, you’d do it for Rosie.