The End of the Week Round-up: Kennedy, A Rejected Commercial, Real Grassroots and All You Can Eat Pancakes.

It’s Friday!

Time for our weekly dumping of news you may have overlooked this week. While the rest of the media was covering the death of Senator Ted Kennedy, there were several other news items that may have escaped your attention. As we wait to see if Washington takes a Friday News Dump, lets proceed with the roundup, shall we?

A little over a month ago, ABC News was happy to broadcast a one-sided, one hour infomercial on Health Care starring President Obama. No opposing viewpoints were going to be heard since ABC said they promised to be fair. This same network now refuses to broadcast ads from a group opposing the massive government bill on health care.

"The ABC Television Network has a long-standing policy that we do not sell time for advertising that presents a partisan position on a controversial public issue,” spokeswoman Susan Sewell said in a written statement. “Just to be clear,this is a policy for the entire network, not just ABC News.”

So in the interest of fairness, we present to you here the ad, no charge at all to the League of American Voters. (Next time, people, you gotta pay!) . Watch it, judge for yourself and should you feel the need, pass it along to others who might be interested.

I have a small kitchen…a very small kitchen. So small in fact that a loaf of bread takes up half the counter space. But if I had one of those large kitchens you see on The Real Housewives of Orange County (my wife watches it...not me. Really!) then I might just be tempted to pick up this little beauty. The Chefstack! It produces 200 pancakes per hour. I’d like to see your Prius do that! Actually, I’d like to see any car do that.

I just had to post this. It comes to us via Newsbusters. How are people reacting to the death of Senator Kennedy on Martha’s Vineyard? Here is Huffington Post blogger, Matt Cooper's reaction to the scene:

Yeah, that was exactly how I felt the morning of 9/11: Melancholy, but trying to enjoy the achingly beautiful day. Why just the other day, when my boat wouldn't start, I said to myself, “Gee, it’s a wonderful day to be out on the water, but I am stuck at home and it makes me feel like when I heard about Katrina hitting New Orleans". You too?

The protesters at the Town Hall meetings have been called everything from thugs to racists to shills of the insurance companies. (NOTE: If true, I’m still waiting for my payment). But the name that burns my gut is Astroturf, implying that our protests are not real, not “grassroots” enough. Over at Pajamas Media they did a little undercover work to see how the Party of the Community Organizer conducts a “grass roots” protest.

And finally, we welcome the DOJ.gov as a viewer of The Hippo’s Ass. That’s right, the Department of Justice has been looking at my blog. I guess they had a lot of time on their hands after dropping the Black Panthers’ Voter Intimidation Investigation or the Bill Richardson Pay-to-Play investigation (It was "killed in Washington.") In a sense, I feel honored: I average 75 viewers a day and the DOJ thinks I warrant watching.

If they are a fan, then welcome, come back often and leave a message, maybe even Digg or Reddit an article. If they are doing this to make me nervous, well, they’ve succeeded.

It does make me nervous.

Funny thing is, I didn’t do anything wrong, yet I’ve had the House.gov, Senate.gov. and now the DOJ.gov looking at my website.

When you start to feel nervous exercising your inalienable rights, then there is something seriously wrong with your government.

Have a nice weekend Department of Justice. The Hippo’s Ass will be watching you, too.

And while you are at it, look up “inalienable”.