Yeah, yeah, yeah...Dan Rather on The View. (He's great because he never fails to send notes of praise to the little old lady in question, Barbara Walters, according to the little old lady, herself). But because we don't care about anything to do with righteously disgraced newsman Rather, we turn back to little-old-lady-in-chief, the name dropping, diminutive dominatrix of The View, Ms. Barbara Walters. Today we feel compelled to send out our sympathies to Whoopi Goldberg and Elisabeth Hasslebeck, two lovely ladies with strong views who make up half of the panel of four, the former of whom is paid to be moderator of the show. Today Ms. Goldberg wasn't even allowed to do her job.

In case you don't know, long time TV news woman Barbara Walter is proprietor of The View. She no longer appears daily, but she drops in with some regularity when the coast is clear. She seems to have some kind of regular if undiscernable schedule, but she also drops in to plug her other projects, like her recent snoozefest of an after Oscars special. (She also often shows up to to serve as unofficial cheer leader for some rich celebrity who's in need of a quick PR face-lift because of negative press or legal trouble, as in the cases of Paris Hilton and Britney Spears when she passed on incorrect, self-serving info from the Hilton camp and then from Sam Lufti, respectively). But lately, when she does show up, she has begun to reign like a dotty tyrannical Queen of Hearts to Mrs. Hasslebeck's put upon Alice and Miss Goldberg's deeply witty, no longer amused Cheshire cat.* Unfortunately, because of Ms. Walters' frequent rude silencing, neither seems to be smiling very much. One wonders why they bother to ask for Elisabeth's opinion if she has to shut up the moment she tries to voice it. Or why the unseemly rude verbal slapping down of Miss Goldberg by Ms. Walters is allowed to continue and escalate. It may be Ms. Walters show, but ABC must be aware how unpleasant it appears to the viewers.

In summation: yes, Ms. Walters owns the joint, but although she's been filmed holding hands with Fidel and batting her eyes at Hugo, although she seems to thinks she's the Queen of Bulgaria, and acts like the Empress of the Western World, she's not. (One might even go so far as to suggest that she's creating a hostile atmosphere in the workplace). Although the on air talent of The View may be mere employees of Ms. Walters and ABC, they are not French peasants and Ms. Walters isn't the Queen of France. If Ms. Walters continues to flounce in pulling rank and wantonly disrespect the more regular members of the panel with whom the audience has a rapport and to whom they have a certain loyalty, the audience may end up revolting.

*We're not mentioning the new gal, audience favorite Sherry Shephard, because after a rough start with lots of piling on, they seem to be implementing new a hands off Sherry policy. Neither do we refer to the fourth and longest serving member of the panel,Joy Behar, because she's rarely disrespected on camera by Ms. Walters. Our rude ageist reference to Ms. Walters is pertinent, because her incivility seems to derive from a combination of condescending personality, position of power and advancing age.

Today's installment on the trial of Barack Obama crony Tony Rezko here, via Lucianne.

New Will.i.am video for Barack Obama, via Michael Medved.

Pardon us while we go have a pacemaker installed. (The beat-y Obama chant inspired a bit of sickening arhythmia). Or was it the yucky reminder of a stadium full of catatonic Germans chanting seig heil ? (That always makes the heart race and the stomach turn).

Link.

Check out this organization that uses contributions to provide homes for wounded veterans.