Independent candidate Arianna Huffington dropped out of the California recall race on Tuesday, saying it was her best hope of preventing Arnold Schwarzenegger from becoming governor.

You gotta love it. Arianna runs because of the “good she can do for the state of California”, which I understood to be “Gray Davis has done a bad job, please elect me”.

“I’m pulling out and I’m going to concentrate all my time and energy in the next week working to defeat the recall because I realize that’s the only way to defeat Arnold Schwarzenegger,” Huffington said as she made the announcement on CNN’s “Larry King Live.”

Ahh, so now it’s all about “defeating Arnold” rather than “what’s best for California”.

It’s not like I didn’t think she was fickle anyway.

Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat appears to have recovered from exhaustion.

Palestinian sources said Arafat was concerned that he had been poisoned as part of an assassination plot by Israel and the United States. They said that Arafat sent for a medical team from Jordan when his own physicians could not determine his ailment.

Personally, I think if he was poisoned, he would not be around to “wonder” if he had been poisoned.

“He was very tired and alarmed that he had been poisoned,” a source said. “After a few days of arrest and a thorough examination, he’s back at work again. The crisis is over.”

Damn.

I am not a Catholic, but I think this is a time when we, of any faith, should pray.

A top cardinal called on the world’s one billion Roman Catholics to pray for Pope John Paul, who he said was in “a bad way.”

“We should pray for the Pope,” Ratzinger told Germany’s Bunte magazine in an interview conducted last Monday. The Polish pontiff is suffering from Parkinson’s Disease and missed a general audience last week which the Vatican insisted was due to a “minor” intestinal problem.

A frightening crash sent Elliott Sadler flipping five times into the grass on lap 182 of the EA SPORTS 500 at Talladega Superspeedway on Sunday.

Did you see that wreck? It looked to be as bad as Ryan Newman’s wreck earlier this season.

Sadler was running in the top 10 when he ran out of room in Turn 3, making contact with Kurt Busch before flipping end-over-end in his No. 38 Ford.

Sadler was alert throughout the entire crash, which brought out the red flag. He was transported to UAB-Birmingham Medical Center for observation. He was evaluated and released.

Glad he was okay.

Do you remember the story about the Nigerian woman sentenced to death by stoning, in August of 2002?

An Islamic court in northern Nigeria ruled on Monday that a young woman must face death by stoning according to Muslim law for having a child outside marriage.

Well, I guess they had a change of heart (or should I say, they finally buckled to worldwide pressure?).

Nigerian single mother Amina Lawal was cleared of adultery by an Islamic court, releasing her from a sentence that she be stoned to death.

Lawal’s supporters hailed the majority ruling, which split a panel of Katsina State’s top Islamic lawyers four to one, as a vital step forward in ensuring the legal rights of Nigeria’s more than 60 million Muslims.

A good step indeed.

I can’t believe I missed this one.

Rock singer Robert Palmer, known for his sharp suits and hits including “Addicted to Love,” died Friday in Paris of a heart attack, his manager said. He was 54.

In the 1980s, Palmer became a superstar with singles which also included “Simply Irresistible” ? accompanied by slick videos featuring the smartly dressed Palmer with a back-up band of attractive women, all in black outfits and glossy makeup.

Rest In Peace, Mr. Palmer.

old people should NOT drive…

“I was turning in here, a car hit me, and I came in here, and I lost control,” said driver Nellie Butler, 82, of Rochester.

Police said Butler made an illegal turn in front of another car. She crashed into seven cars in the new car lot–one was pushed into the glass window of the Vision Hyundai showroom.

How many of these incidents have to happen before something is done about it.

The world lost one of the greatest entertainers ever.

Entertainer Donald O’Connor, who combined comedy and acrobatics in the show-stopping ?Make ‘Em Laugh? number in the classic movie Singin’ in the Rain, died Saturday. He was 78.

Mr. O’Connor, who had been in declining health in recent years, died of heart failure, his daughter, Alicia O’Connor, said.

Rest In Peace, Donald.

Hold the phone! Consumers who thought they would get a reprieve from telemarketing calls starting next week may have to wait for some peace and quiet.

Telemarketers who say the list would devastate their industry convinced U.S. District Judge Lee R. West that the FTC had overstepped its authority. West said the Federal Communications Commission, not the FTC, can operate a national do-not-call registry.

Well, um… If more than 50 million people have signed up for the list, do you really think those 50 million people will EVER buy anything from a telemarketer?

The Do-Not-Call List will NOT devastate their industry. Plain and simple.

Barbra Streisand says she finds listening to her own songs is so boring that it was one of the reasons she gave up public performing three years ago.

“Really, I just get sick of it. That’s why I gave up concerts — in addition to having stage fright and the exertion of singing 30 songs a night. It’s boring to sing your own songs,” she said.

Po’ little Babs. Gettin’ bored singin’ her own songs.

“It’s fun to create a show and direct it and conceive it — except that you have to do it, you have to perform it. I never think of that until it’s too late,” she said.

Of course not.