Four weeks is good. Four weeks is long enough. Mary Norwood was already starting to self-destruct in the last couple of days before the Nov. 3 election for Mayor of Atlanta, but only those who closely follow politics -- and that's not very many people -- have seen it yet. Now, they will. Her miracle conversion from someone who literally said she could not remember if she'd ever voted for George W. Bush to a self-professed Obama lover who claims to have voted for Democrats in the last four presidential races is certain to stun her white, Republican power base -- unless, of course, they know better (wink wink) and assume she is lying about that in order to get more black votes. But don't take my word for it. In fact, don't take my word for anything, ever. Like all the other unedited drivel that bloggers spew across the internet, everything I have to say could be a big, fat lie. Kyle Wingfield, conservative columnist for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, reached much the same conclusion in his excellent analysis, which you can read here. Wingfield says Norwood has no one but herself to blame for alienating her GOP base. "But going out of your way to disavow the party of many of your supporters, and likening attendance at it's convention to experimentation with hard drugs?" Wingfield writes, incredulously. "That shows considerably bad political judgment." Finally. Even conservatives are catching on, although Norwood's "considerably bad political judgment" has been evident for some time now. The best coverage of the race, by far, can be found each week and online in Creative Loafing and the Sunday Paper -- intown "alternative" papers which are quick to criticize the administration of incumbent Mayor Shirley Franklin, yet which both have endorsed Kasim Reed while expressing growing horror as various truths about Norwood make themselves obvious. Especially recommended is this excellent column by Ramage, "Something About Mary," which details how Norwood wa

Q: How does Mary Norwood measure up to the other candidates for Mayor of Atlanta? A: By standing on a box. Meanwhile, pollster Matt Towery says Norwood's latest commercial is one of the most damaging he has ever seen -- to the candidate herself. Norwood, whose support from white, conservative Atlanta voters is so great Towery once thought she might win without a runoff, now says she has unnecessarily alienated her strong Republican base. In this column, Towery says Norwood's attempt to "renounce Satan" -- i.e., the GOP -- and her abundant praise of President Obama goes too far in the eyes of many whose votes she already had locked up. And if all of that is true -- if Norwood hasn't voted for a Republican in the last five presidential elections, dislikes the GOP and loves President Obama -- then how in the world does she explain her earlier uncertainty on the subject of whether she'd ever voted for George W. Bush? For details, click here.

Ok, we admit it. This video did makes us chuckle out loud a few times. However, nobody at "Certain Speculation" had anything whatsoever to do with making it -- and, frankly, we wonder who did. This actually would be funny were it not for the fact that Mary Norwood, the ditzy lady in the "commercial" you just saw, is leading in the polls and, conceivably, has a shot at becoming Atlanta's next mayor. How is such a thing possible? Well, she's white. That's how. It's an ugly truth that few of Norwood's supporters will admit, even to themselves -- but what we are seeing here in Atlanta is a sort of reverse version of the "Yes, We Can!" euphoria that put Barack Obama into office. Turnabout, they are saying (although not out loud), is fair play. Even if it tears the city apart. When the good white folk who support Norwood say they want "change" and that her opponents are "more of the same," what they are really saying is that Kasim Reed, Lisa Borders and Jessie Spikes are black. Atlanta has had black mayors for three decades. That's what "more of the same" means. And, by the way, Atlanta has done pretty darn well in those three decades -- including the last eight years, in which Shirley Franklin has been an exeplary mayor, despite various efforts to paint her otherwise. But, don't take our word for it. Here's a good article on the mayor's race -- with an emphasis on race -- from our friends at Creative Loafing. And both of Atlanta's major intown newspapers have denounced Norwood in the process of endorsing Kasim Reed as mayor. CL had this to say, calling Norwood "strikingly ineffective" during her two terms on the City Council. "She’s never chaired a Council committee; she endlessly laments her inability to gain access to city documents; she concedes that Mayor Shirley Franklin has spoken to her only a couple of times in eight years; and she complains that her legislation is often ignored by city department heads," CL says

Millions of people watched the saga of the kid in the balloon today -- to the point that Twitter crashed -- but I didn't pay that much attention until it was all over and discovered to have been a hoax. For some reason, the story bothered me right from the start, and only later in the day did I realize why -- but, at any rate, I was saved from being suckered in by a little kid named Falcon Heene. Now, Falcon, sit down. I'm not going to beat you, but I want to tell you something. I do remember what it is like to be six. Very, very well. In fact, that's exactly how old I was in 1963 -- when "Lassie" was must-see TV every Sunday evening. Most episodes of "Lassie" were self contained. However, that particular year -- the year I was six -- Timmy and Lassie got stuck in a runaway hot air balloon, and the story (brought to you by Campbell's Soup) was continued... and continued... and continued... for what turned out to be a total of five very long weeks. I can't tell you how distressing this was at the time. When the credits rolled at the end of a show, it wasn't like you could just forget the peril Timmy and Lassie were in until next week. The story didn't stop right then and pick up the following Sunday. It was as if they were up there in that balloon all week. The wait for the next episode was agonizing. It stayed on my mind. At one point, as I recall, the balloon brushed near a mountaintop and Lassie managed to jump out. So, then, Timmy was still stuck up there, all alone. That was upsetting, too. Because even though Lassie was the smartest, most loyal dog in the world, and you knew she was going to run for help, she was in the middle of nowhere -- far, far from home -- and likely to face a coyote or something but not likely to make her way all the way back to the Martin farm, where Timmy's parents knew how to speak collie: "What's that Lassie? Timmy's fallen in the old well over by Old Man Henderson's place? Is that what you're trying to tell us, girl?" G

So, now Barack Obama has been awarded the Heisman Trophy... At least, that's the headline of a satirical news story being forwarded like mad on Facebook. And, for those who missed it, here's Fred Armisen's take from the opening of this week's "Saturday Night Live." Forget about Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck, Ann Coulter and other right-wing lunatics. We can guess what they have to say before their mouths even move. But it's not just the "usual suspects" who think the Nobel Peace Prize is a joke. Let's start with a relatively sane conservative. And, no... there aren't a lot of them. But consider this column by Peggy Noonan, the former Republican speechwriter who coined the phrase "Morning in America" for Ronald Reagan. Noonan calls the Nobel decision "absurd" to the point it has seriously devalued a meaningful award. "He doesn't have a body of work; he's a young man; he's been president less than nine months," Noonan writes in the Wall Street Journal. "He hopes to accomplish much, and so far--nine months!--has accomplished little. Is this a life of heroic self-denial, of the sacrifice of self for something greater, of huge and historic consequence, of sustained vision? No it's not. Is this a life marked by a vivid and calculable contribution to the peace of the world? No, it's not." But, if you want to dismiss Noonan as too partisan, we can forget about her, too. How about Thomas Friedman? He's pretty liberal. Writes for The New York Times even. He's won three Pulitzer Prizes and likes Obama. So, what's Friedman think? Pretty much the same thing as Peggy Noonan, if this column is any indication: "The Nobel committee did President Obama no favors by prematurely awarding him its peace prize. As he himself acknowledged, he has not done anything yet on the scale that would normally merit such an award — and it dismays me that the most important prize in the world has been devalued in this way." Just in case Thomas F

Here's a great story from WMC-TV Action News 5... Great, that is, if you want to get shot in the head. One should be able to expect a responsible TV station to warn viewers that this approach might not always work. Not in Memphis. Instead, the gushing reporters rubber stamped this crazy old broad's gobbledygook as if it was... well... gospel: "92-year-old Pauline Jacobi reads her Bible everyday. Her strong faith keeps her going in life and may have saved it after she almost became the victim of a parking lot robbery." Apparently, the story aired a year ago, but it's being reposted on Facebook... so there's not telling whether Mrs. Jacobi is still around -- let alone anyone who followed her advice.

TV news in Tampa never disappoints. This shouldn't be funny at all, but... Somehow, it is not reassuring if your sheriff, knowing he is on camera, actually asks, "Even if we capture a lot of raccoons tonight, are they our suspect raccoons?"

Even without understanding a word of Romanian, this is a talk show I would watch every day. Talk Show Host Kicks Ass - watch more funny videos He still looks more stable than Glenn Beck and all those loons on MSNBC.

MARTA. It's so much more than transportation, it's also so... entertainment. Save the price of a movie and take a ride. Thanks to Steve Barnes for pointing this video out to us -- and bonus points to anyone who actually counts the number of times this lovely young ingenue yells, "I'm pressing charges!"

Hannah Giles, who quite effectively posed as a prostitute to expose corruption in ACORN, has been described as both an "aspiring" investigative reporter and a G.O.P. operative. Either way -- and one does not exclude the other -- she managed to pull off an eye-opening expose no one in the "legitimate media" would touch. So, let's lose the word "aspiring." She's there. Also, she is really hot -- in a Republican kind of way. But I digress. It is no secret that Hannah Giles is a conservative. She's the oldest daughter of Christian youth leader and columnist Doug Giles, who writes at Townhall.com, and an intern at the National Journalism Center. If you've never heard of the National Journalism Center, click here. You'll find it is part of the something called Young America's Foundation. Trust me, they're not hiding anything. "The Conservative Movement Starts Here," the organization proclaims, right at the top of its webpage. Next to it is a photo of Ronald Reagan. "Since 1977," the site explains, "the National Journalism Center has trained aspiring journalists in the values of balanced, responsible, and accurate reporting. Weekly seminars and on-the-job experience provide participants with the tools to become leaders in combating bias in the mainstream media." Oh, and apparently you get mentored by the lovely Ann Coulter. And, yes, I mean "lovely" the way you would use the word if you looked up and saw a giant, flaming meteor just as it was about to strike you. But, again, I digress. Here's the point: With so many news organizations out there "covering" Washington for us, why did it take a 20-year-old intern from the National Journalism Center to pull off the year's most spectacular piece of investigative reporting, when clearly the dirt at ACORN was there for to see if only anyone bothered to lift up the carpet and look underneath. Even worse, once this story broke, why was coverage of it non-existent or minimalized on nearly every major network an

Diane Sawyer will take over the ABC Evening News from Charles Gibson in January. If nothing else, it could prove to be a lot of fun. See below: