This is a LIVEBLOG of tonight's show.  I will comment every five minutes or so of the prefight, then I will comment round-by-round during the fight.

Let's get this started.

My picks are Peter and Alfonso.

The show starts in 10 minutes.

8:06 - a HUGE Crowd.  Eddie Murphy, Brook Burke, James Caan, etc.  Has to be about 10,000 at Caesar's.  Also a good video spot to start the show.  Stallone and Sugar Ray are in the ring with the commentator (Al something) to start the show.

8:14 - They just showed clips of Sugar Ray giving the fighters advice on how to go forth with their preparations for the fight; what to eat, how to get mentally prepared, etc.  Afterwards they showed the press conference, and there was a pretty big crowd for that.  All of them thanked everyone for coming out and acknowledged their families, and threw a little bit of smack talk at each other, but nothing too dramatic.

8:25 - After the commercial they focus on the consolation fight, Alfonso vs. Jesse.  They talk about Alfonso's heart and how he set the pace for the competition, and then showed his progress through the competition.  Afterwards, they show the Jesse's video, where they talk about his fights and his sense of humor.  They stress his power and tenacity in the ring.  Stallone says Jesse's fight tonight is about redemption. 

UGH...the consolation fight has already happened and has been prerecorded.  Dammit.  That means more than likely they've edited it.

8:31- The fight is on.  Sugar Ray is in the booth with Al.  Alfonso starts out working the jab, and Jesse responds with a pretty good right.  Jesse is tagging him with good shots.  Alfonso doesn't move much, and that works into Jesse's favor.  They finish the round toe-to-toe.  Jesse won the round in my favor.

8:35 - Round two saw a more active Alfonso.  Jesse looked like he was taking a break in that one.  Alfonso won that round.

8:37 - Both of them come out banging, and Alfonso is getting the better of the exchanges.  Jesse probably hasn't fought someone that comes forward and never takes a step back, so he doesn't know what to do.  This fight looks like it's going in Alfonso's favor, but let's see how he enters those final rounds.  Alfonso won the round.

8:43 - They need to take Stallone off of the mic.  They should have considered hiring some professionals, because they're starting to remind me of Thunderboxx.  For those that don't know what I'm talking about, that isn't a good thing.

Bombs were thrown throughout this round.  Jesse was not only hurt, but also fatigued throughout the round.  He threw maybe one good shot, but Alfonso absorbed it and threw bombs at the end of the round.  Jesse's gonna need a knockout.

8:47 - This is only a five-round fight.  Alfonso is actually moving around bobbing and weaving, something that he wasn't doing at the beginning of the fight.  Jesse looked as if he didn't have anything left in the tank.  Alfonso keeps peppering him with blows, and Jesse can't answer.  But at the end of the round, Jesse tries to step it up a notch and ALMOST KNOCKS ALFONSO DOWN.  Fight's over though.  Decision in a few minutes, but I'm sure Alfonso will get it.

8:51 - Man where in the hell do they keep finding these women?  Alfonso's girl (she must be new because they didn't show her during the show) was HOT.  Anyway, Alfonso won by unaminous decision with one judge giving him four rounds to one, and the other two gave him three rounds to two.

They go back to live coverage with Alfonso joining Sly, Sugar, and Al and he talks about the fight.  He knew he could push the issue against Jesse, and became more confident as the fight went on.  Afterwards, they hype the Contender Championship fight and show Peter's video.

9:00 - After Peter's video they talked about his second shot, and how much his pride and heart helped him to get to the championship fight.  Afterwards they show some shots of Sergio in the locker room getting prepared.  Sergio's speed could dictate the fight.  They air Sergio's video, and they stress Sergio's ability and speed.  He's probably the most talented fighter in the competition, in my opinion. 

The Championship fight is next.  Although it's doubtful that either fighter gets knocked out, what will NBC do to make up for the time?  There's still an hour left.  Hmmm.

9:10 - They come back and show the families in the locker rooms giving the respective fighters encouragement.  Afterwards, the ring announcer comes out and starts it up, and they do a quasi-music video with some guy named "Hush".  I have no clue who he is.  Doesn't sound bad tho.  Latino rapper, but doesn't rap in Spanish.

Peter comes out first.  It's kind of funny, because after he comes out the door Roman guards follow him up the aisle.  And then Peter stops and gets into the same stance.  Hilarious.  Peter seems relaxed and confident.  Sergio comes out as well, with the Roman guards in tow.  He seems a little more serious, but as we know Sergio's a smart fighter and can keep his head.  The announcer mentions that Sergio is the only fighter never to hang up his gloves.  He's also undefeated.

In the Senate, Priscilla Owen nomination received cloture and will move forward.  According to Powerline, the vote was 81-18, with all of the far left advocates voting to filibuster.  The senators who voted yes were Biden, Boxer, Cantwell, Corzine, our own Mark Dayton, Dodd, Dorgan, Feingold, Kennedy, Kerry, Lautenberg, Levin, Lincoln, Murray, Reed, Sarbanes and Stabenow.

In the House, they are voting on using federal funds for stem-cell research as I post this.  This is a very tight vote, and more than likely it's passage will come down to a handful of votes.  I'm monitoring the numbers on CSpan, and right now the supporters lead in voting.

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UPDATE:  the stem-cell bill will pass the House.  It passed 238-191, with about 40 Republicans voting yes.  And since we know it's a virtual guarantee to pass in the Senate, the heat is on Bush to veto the first bill of his presidential term. 

I just want to remind everyone that I will be liveblogging tonight's live Contender finale.  It starts tonight at 8:00 on NBC.  I hope all can come back to this site and follow along with the show.

There shouldn't be a question in anyone's mind as to what this joke of a compromise will bring for the Republican Party and the conservative movement.  The ramifications of last night will be felt for possibly the rest of George W. Bush's term.

The Republicans simply do not have the backbone to stand up and fight for what they believe in.  This wasn't some simple legislative vote that they were defeated in; they allowed seven party members to undermine the other fourty-eight with a backroom deal.  Such behavior should never be tolerated within the party, and as soon as it was announced the seven should have been immediately rebuked for those tactics.

- John McCain

- John Warner

- Lindsey Graham

- Lincoln Chafee

- Susan Collins

- Olympia Snowe

- Mike DeWine

According to Ed Morrissey, those are the Seven Republicans that agreed to this pathetic deal.

A deal has been reached.  14 Senators in all will attempt to undermine the Senate majority.

Any Republican or Southern Democrat who reached this compromise should be targeted for opposition when they come up for reelection.  I am sick and tired of these flavor-of-the-month politicians that constantly place their own career ambitions for what's right.
UPDATE:  The Associated Press is reporting that in exchange for promising not to end judicial filibusters, the Democrats promised not to support any filibuster unless for an "extraordinary circumstance".  The AP also states "there is no guarantee" to allow the up and down" votes.  That's a crock of bull.

However, Reid said on CSpan 2 that Henry Saad will still be filibustered. 

Frist is speaking on the floor of the Senate.  The Republicans have been railroaded.  Only Owen, Pryor, and Brown get votes for sure, Myers and Saad are guaranteed to be filibustered.  The others are still "up in the air".  I wouldn't hold my breath on those.

I WANT TO KNOW WHO THE 14 SENATORS ARE!  Let's see em.

Michelle Malkin:  "With this pathetic cave-in, the Republicans have sealed their fate as a Majority in Name Only."

That's what their new name should be:  The MINO's.

The Senate is planning an all-nighter.  The Democrats will have to hold the floor all night long.

The blogosphere is setting up for it as well.  I'm usually up at that time of the night, so I'll tune into the webcast online and may post if anything happens.  The Kossacks are getting their troops in order.  Michelle Malkin has commented on it, but she hasn't stated whether she'll tune in or not.  She's usually a night owl like me, though.

I'll probably take a nap in a little while, so I'll have enough juice to see this out.

I was willing to give Newsweek the benefit of the doubt over their botched story last week.  Although they should have confirmed the story with multiple sources, I wasn't willing to blame them for the deaths due to riots last week, and by most accounts Michael Isikoff is a pretty straightforward journalist that doesn't show extreme bias in his articles.

However, this is over the line:



According to the Japanese blogger Riding Sun, the headline (writing in white) reads "The Day America Died".  And as you can see, the American flag has been stuck in a trash can.  This cover appeared in the Japanese edition of Newsweek on February 2.

Now I'm not one to get salty at someone because they disrespect the American flag, because when it comes down to it, it's a piece of cloth.  Patriotism and love of country and region comes from the heart, something that people can't burn or abuse. 

But the International and American covers of Newsweek were different than the Japanese one.  I won't post those because the photos are on his server (or, well, Blogger's) server and I'm sure enough bandwidth has been used from people hotlinking them to last a lifetime.  

But here's the International version.  It's a photo of Bush with the headline "America Leads, But Is Anyone Following?"  Both the International and Japanese versions have the lead story by Andrew Moravcsik; the International version was titled, "Dream On, America" and it was titled in the Japanese version, "America, the dream country, is rotting away."

But the American version was totally different.  Not only did they not have the anti-American sentiments of the other versions, but they didn't publish Moravcsik's article either.  The cover featured Oscar winners Jamie Foxx, Hilary Swank, and Leonardo Di Caprio.  And note: Moravcsik is a professor at Princeton University.  Why would Newsweek choose to publish an American writer in their International and Japanese versions, yet not in the American one?

Newsweek didn't because they KNEW they would catch heat in this country for that edition, especially if they would have placed the Japanese cover with the flag in the garbage can.  So they only left that and the article in the International and Japanese versions.  It's one thing to actually pull a stunt like this, but it's totally another to do it where you will get less heat from the ones you know will criticize you the most. 

Newsweek's stunt was cowardly, and if it wasn't for a blogger who noticed it, they would have gotten away with it.

(Photo:  Yahoo's The Contender Page)

Last week we saw a rematch of the ages, as an extra two rounds were enough to make Peter the first entrant into the finals at Caesar's Palace.  This week, Jesse Brinkley takes on Sergio Mora to find out who will join Peter.

The show before the fight was nothing that important; rehashing Peter/Alfonso II, hyping up this fight, stressing how much was on the line, thus there isn't any specific reason to go into details.

In the first round, Sergio showed a very unorthodox style.  He isn't afraid to lunge with that jab.  They kept a steady pace, which turned out to hurt Jesse more because it gave Sergio more time to strike.  He really does move like a snake.  Jesse should have pushed the envelope here in order to get inside, because he won't win if he allows Sergio stay at a distance.  Sergio wins the round.

Tommy yelled at Jesse to go to work, and that's precisely what he did in the second round.  Jesee was a little more attentive to Sergio's movements, and once Sergio lunged forward, Jesse took advantage by getting in some good body shots, and his patented uppercuts.  Remember; he knocked out Anthony Bosante with a couple of those a few weeks ago.  Jesse did a good job tying up Sergio long enough to get in some good combinations.  Round goes to Jesse.

For some reason, Jesse didn't continue with what he was doing.  Once again, he tried to match punches with Sergio and let him dictate the fight.  Sergio stood there for a second, and at the right opportunity he lunged in with a short uppercut that stunned Jesse with a great right cross.  Sergio would follow up on that with a good combination, and before you know it, Jesse has lost the round. 

In Round 4, Jesse starts off doing the same thing, and this time Sergio throws a great right hand that hurts him.  Sergio follows that up with a barrage of punches.  Jesse gets his marbles back and gets inside and throws a couple of body shots and an uppercut, but I don't think it was enough to win the round.  Another round for Sergio.

Now Jesse starts to realize he must make this a brawl, and starts going after Sergio.  Sergio's accuracy is so sharp though, and Sergio is getting the better of the exchange.  However Jesse gets in a good jab and follows it up with a combination that sends Sergio to the ropes.  Jesse showed his power here, and it'll make Sergio think twice about mixing it up again.  I got this as a 10-10 round; it could have went either way.

Just as I stated, Sergio keeps his distance from Jesse.  He told Jeremy, his corner, that Jesse punches very hard.  He goes out in round six and works his magic, getting some good jabs in and striking from a distance.  Jesse once again does not try to force his way into Sergio, and a decent flurry at the end of this round locks it up for Sergio.  Jesse's going to need a knockout.  He's needed a knockout before in a fight, and we know what happened then.

The difference between a winner and a loser is how you finish the fight.  A winner knows when he's winning the fight and acts accordingly.  Anthony Bosante didn't fight like he was winning and was knocked silly.  Sergio however fought a smart last round, stayed away from all of Jesse's power shots and dodged around the ring, just taking a punch when needed. 

So Jesse won the round, but it was obvious to everyone in the arena that Sergio won this one on points.  And he did through a unaminous decision.  The fact is, Sergio won by fighting his kind of fight.  Jesse never fought his, and never tried to.  Sergio was able to stand back, take his time and think about what he was going to do, and was able to outbox Jesse with his speed.  Sergio knew as the fight progressed what he could and couldn't do.  Jesse never adjusted, and fought the same way in the first round that he did in the seventh.

At Caesar's, Sergio's going to have problems with Peter.  Peter's not known for his strength, but he's going to push the envelope every round, and Sergio's conditioning will come in play.  Sergio won't have time to step back and flick the jab or lunge in with an uppercut or cross because Peter will already be on him.  Sergio does have a little power behind his punches, so he's going to have to sting Peter in order to limit his advances.

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The Contender $1,000,000 finals bout is TUESDAY NIGHT on NBC.  I question the logic of having this two hour special at the same time as the American Idol finals, but I guess since The Contender has not been renewed for next season NBC doesn't really care about the number of this final and figures no one will watch it.  That's a shame because despite the low numbers I have enjoyed these fights.

And remember, it's two fights, as Jesse faces Alfonso for the "bronze".  That should be a decent fight.

I will LIVEBLOG the Final. Come back to my site while you're watching the fight, or feel free to check out what I think about the show afterwards.  It should be a good night and some good fights.  Also, we finally get to see unedited fights.  Thank goodness.

And what a shot it was.

David Okrent has been their public editor since the Jayson Blair scandal, and in his last column for the Times, he decided to address some of the columnists and the editors:

Op-Ed columnist Paul Krugman has the disturbing habit of shaping, slicing and selectively citing numbers in a fashion that pleases his acolytes but leaves him open to substantive assaults. Maureen Dowd was still writing that Alberto R. Gonzales "called the Geneva Conventions 'quaint' " nearly two months after a correction in the news pages noted that Gonzales had specifically applied the term to Geneva provisions about commissary privileges, athletic uniforms and scientific instruments. Before his retirement in January, William Safire vexed me with his chronic assertion of clear links between Al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein, based on evidence only he seemed to possess.

No one deserves the personal vituperation that regularly comes Dowd's way, and some of Krugman's enemies are every bit as ideological (and consequently unfair) as he is. But that doesn't mean that their boss, publisher Arthur O. Sulzberger Jr., shouldn't hold his columnists to higher standards.

I didn't give Krugman, Dowd or Safire the chance to respond before writing the last two paragraphs. I decided to impersonate an opinion columnist.

Daaaaamn.  I bet that hurt.  But for the Times to be such a top notch paper, their columnists are lame and often make weak arguments.

What a way to go out, huh?