Jennifer Garner Has A Baby, Probably

Jennifer Garner has more reason than most to celebrate 2009 - and not just because it's a year potentially free of Gary Busey's pervy spittle. No, apparently Jennifer Garner is having a baby. Or she's had a baby. Or she's about to have a baby. Nobody really seems to know. Jennifer Garner checked into a hospital on New Year's Eve with Ben Affleck, and she's darned if she's not coming out without a baby. So congratulations to Jennifer Garner. And double congratulations if the baby ends up more like you than Ben Affleck. And triple congratulations if he's not the father. Happy new year! When it comes to heavy, almost overbearing symbolism, giving birth to a baby at the start of a new year is about as good as it gets. Both signify a fresh start, a blank canvas on which it seems that anything is possible. Both come with a mixture of excitement and trepidation for the future. And, a few months in, you'll be chronically sleepless, covered in shit and wondering what the fuss was all about. They're identical. So with that in mind, we should all be jolly envious of Jennifer Garner, because if she hasn't had her new baby already, then she's going to have it any minute. According to reports, Garner and husband Ben Affleck have been holed up in a Los Angeles hospital waiting for the baby since New Year's Eve. The San Francisco Chronicle reports: Actress Jennifer Garner has sparked reports she's planning to ring in the New Year with a new baby after checking into a California hospital. The star is nine months pregnant with her second child, and she and husband Ben Affleck were spotted entering Los Angeles' Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. Lucky old Jennifer Garner, we can totally relate to what she's going through - although Ben Affleck has only ever caused us to scream and writhe around in agony for hours on end that time we thought we decided to try and watch Bounce all the way through in one go, not because he knocked us up with an actual baby. Of course, this won't be the first time that Jennifer Garner has given birth to one of Ben Affleck's children - back in 2005 she gave birth to their first daughter Violet - but it is the first time that we've doubted Affleck's paternity. Sure, Jennifer Garner and Ben Affleck might be in a loving, monogamous relationship - but wasn't it just over nine months ago that Gary Busey drooled across Jennifer Garner's neck on the Oscars red carpet? Doesn't she realise that one atom of Busey dribble is more potent than an entire ocean of human sperm? If we were her we'd keep a hammer by the side of the bed, just in case the baby comes out with big buck teeth, weird googly eyes and a horrifying lack of self-awareness. You can't be too careful. So Jennifer Garner has either had a baby or she's about to - that's the good news. The bad news is there's now another mouth to feed and Ben Affleck isn't exactly going to be able to provide for everyone by directing surprisingly decent but barely-watched arthouse movies about abducted children all the time. So this time next year when Changing Lanes 2 is rush-released, remember that it wouldn't have happened if it weren't for Ben Affleck's randy loins, OK?

People Who Are Dead: Bernie Hamilton

Actor Bernie Hamilton, who played the no-nonsense police captain on the 1970s TV series "Starsky and Hutch," has died. He was 80. Hamilton died of cardiac arrest Tuesday night at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, said his son, Raoul Hamilton. Born in Los Angeles in 1928, Hamilton ran away from home as a teenager and wound up staying in someone's garage and attending Oakland Technical High School, where he played football and got involved in acting. Hamilton appeared in more than 20 films, including "The Young One," "The Devil at 4 O'Clock," "Synanon," "The Swimmer," "Walk the Walk" and "The Organization." He also had guest appearances on television series before becoming a regular on "Starsky and Hutch," the ABC police drama starring Paul Michael Glaser and David Soul. Hamilton played the brusque, by-the-book Capt. Harold Dobey, a role that gave him wide recognition to this day, his son said. After "Starsky and Hutch," Hamilton spent the next 20 years in the music business producing R&B and gospel records under the record label Chocolate Snowman.

Virginia Tech crushes Cincinnati in the 75th edition of the Orange Bowl

Darren Evans gained 153 yards and a touchdown on 28 carries and Cody Grimm had the game-sealing interception, as No. 21 Virginia Tech crushed 12th-ranked Cincinnati, 20-7, in the 75th edition of the Orange Bowl. Virginia Tech, which is 8-14 in postseason play, was making its second straight appearance in the Orange Bowl as champion of the ACC for a second consecutive season. The Hokies dropped a 24-21 decision to Kansas in last year's Orange Bowl. Tyrod Taylor threw for 140 yards and was picked off once on 13-of-22 passing and rushed for 47 yards and a score on 15 carries for the Hokies (10-4), who won their final four games to record their fifth straight 10-win season, a current streak only matched by Texas and Southern California. Danny Coale had 52 yards on three grabs in the win. "I think this is the best football 'team' we've ever had," said Tech head coach Frank Beamer. "We had some tough losses [this season], but no one slipped up. We hung in there together. We always practiced hard. I can't say enough about our players and our coaches. "We have [had] some great, great seasons here at Virginia Tech. But I believe this is the best team we've ever had." Tony Pike threw for 239 yards with a TD but was picked off four times on 16- of-33 efficiency for the Bearcats (11-3), who saw their six-game win streak come to an end. Jacob Ramsey tallied 34 yards on four touches while Mardy Gilyard logged 158 yards and a TD on seven catches for Cincinnati, which registered 11 wins for the first time in school history. The Bearcats were playing in their first January 1st bowl since 1951 after capturing their first-ever Big East title and subsequent BCS Bowl bid. Cincinnati was playing in its 11th bowl game all-time (6-5) and had been solid in the postseason, winning three straight bowl games coming in, including last year's 31-21 decision over Southern Miss in the Papajohns.com Bowl. "You work out in the summer and preseason camp to get an opportunity to get to this point," said Cincinnati head coach Brian Kelly about his team's season. "But you want to finish it off, so there's a lot of disappointment, obviously, in our locker room." The Hokies got the ball first in the third quarter and drove all the way from their 14 to the Bearcats 18, where the drive stalled. Dustin Keys then snuck a 35-yard field goal inside the left upright for a 13-7 lead with 8:32 left in the frame. The teams traded punts and Cincinnati took over at its own 14. Isaiah Pead rushed for three yards on first down but Pike was picked off on second down and Tech started at Cincy's 10. It took Evans three plays to find the end zone as his six-yard score with 11:29 left in the game put the Hokies up 20-7. The Bearcats then drove from their 40 all the way down to the Virginia Tech red zone and Pike converted on 4th-and-5 from the 11 with a seven-yard pass to Dominick Goodman. Then, on 4th-and-goal from the one, Pike was stopped and Virginia Tech took over on downs. The Hokies were held to a three-and-out, but John Goebel was called for roughing the kicker on fourth down and Virginia Tech got a new set of downs at the 21. The team was eventually stopped and Cincinnati got the ball back at its own 48. However, Grimm picked off Pike on first down to all but seal the deal. "We didn't score enough points," Kelly added. "We moved the ball, did the things that we wanted to do, but didn't put points on the board. Seven points is not enough to win against any team." The Bearcats' opening possession went six plays, spanned 72 yards, lasted just under two minutes and resulted in a 7-0 lead. Pike hit Gilyard twice on the drive, the first time for a 38-yard gain and the second for a 15-yard touchdown. Each school registered a missed field goal and a punt on the next four possessions, and the Hokies took over at their own 27 on a drive that bridged the first two quarters. Taylor closed out the nine-play, 73-yard trek with a 17-yard scramble through the Cincinnati defense and into paydirt to tie the game with 13 minutes left in the half. The next five drives produced little offense and Keys hit a 43-yard field goal as time expired to give Virginia Tech a 10-7 lead at the intermission. Game Notes Virginia Tech snapped the ACC's eight-game losing streak in BCS bowls...These teams had met eight previous times and the series was knotted at four wins apiece coming in. The last meeting took place in 2006, as the Hokies posted a 29-13 at home.

Castro warns of US threat to Cuban Revolution

President Raul Castro on Thursday warned that the US "enemy will never stop being aggressive, dominant and treacherous" on the 50th anniversary of Cuba's Communist Revolution led by his ailing brother Fidel. The 77-year-old president also said there were tough challenges ahead, with Cuba hard hit by the global economic crisis and the aftermath of three hurricanes in 2008 that caused some 10 billion dollars in damage. Despite high hopes for improved relations with Cuba's northern neighbor and decades-long foe after the US election of Barack Obama, Raul Castro warned future leaders against softening toward Washington. "One after the other, all the North American administrations have ceaselessly tried to force regime change in Cuba," Castro, clad in an olive green military uniform, said in a speech in Santiago de Cuba, the city where Fidel proclaimed victory over US-backed dictator Fulgencio Batista in 1959 after 25 months of fighting in the Sierra Maestra mountains. In the 50 years since, Communist Cuba has outlasted 10 US presidents, faced a missile crisis that brought the world to the brink of nuclear war, endured the collapse of its main benefactor, the Soviet Union, and saw many of its citizens flee. "Resisting has been the pledge and the key of each of our victories during this half-century of tough fighting," said Raul, who officially took over from his 82-year-old brother last February. Fidel, who has not appeared in public since undergoing major surgery almost two and a half years ago, sent a brief, signed greeting to the Cuban people in Granma, the Communist Party newspaper. But his image dominated giant banners and billboards in somber celebrations amid a grim economic outlook. "The next 50 years ... will also be of permanent struggle," Raul Castro said in a 40-minute speech to a crowd of some 3,000 people. Cuba's Revolution -- led by a young Fidel Castro and legendary Argentine guerilla Ernesto "Che" Guevara -- took on Marxist overtones in May 1961, one month after the attempted invasion of the Bay of Pigs by CIA-backed Cuban exiles. Then-US president John F. Kennedy declared an economic embargo in February 1962, eight months before the Cold War confrontation known as the Cuban missile crisis brought the world to the brink of nuclear war. A White House spokesman Wednesday said Washington "will continue to seek freedom" for the people of Cuba, without elaborating. But Obama, who takes over from President George W. Bush on January 20, has promised to ease some rules limiting travel by and remittances from Cuban-Americans. Raul Castro has said he is ready for talks with Obama without "carrots or sticks." The Cuban president has also promised "structural reforms" -- a departure from his older brother and leading members of the Communist old guard. But the global economic crisis may impact the pledged changes, as the president signaled in July when he announced greater government control of revenues and tighter agricultural management. The Caribbean island still officially operates in the Special Period in Peacetime, an extended economic crisis that began in 1991 after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Life is tough for most of Cuba's 11.2 million people, who earn an average of 20 dollars per month and lean on a parallel economy. "The Revolution has given us a lot. I'm communist but I wish there were changes in the economy, that's where the problem is," said Pedro, 65, at Thursday's celebrations. "The situation is really bad. Salaries are not enough to live off. They've made a lot of mistakes," said 41-year-old Joel Romero, who gave up his job as a health worker to rear pigs. Branded US puppets by Havana, Cuban dissidents say there are 219 "political prisoners" on the island. During his decades in power, Fidel Castro expropriated foreign companies, jailed political enemies and drove well over a million Cubans into exile. But he also introduced historic reforms, including major education and health care access advances. The 50-year celebrations coincide with recent moves by Cuba to broaden its international ties. Chinese President Hu Jintao and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev sent congratulatory messages Thursday. Leftist Latin American leaders heaped praise on Cuba's past half-century. Oil-rich Venezuela, Cuba's main business partner, held a special ceremony to commemorate the anniversary. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, also a major US foe, called Cuba's revolution "the mother of all the revolutions going on in Latin America and the Caribbean."

NEW Corporate Visions Positioning Approach Takes Marketing Brand Messages to Sales Street Level

You've spent thousands of dollars on outside agencies, voice-of-the-customer segmentation research and offsite meetings to create your company's brand message. Now what? How are you going to translate the 30,000-foot brand message into something that resonates at the 3.0-foot level -- the distance between your sales people and your customer? The brand to field sales messaging problem Corporate Visions® Inc., announces the latest release of its Power Positioning 2.0 series, a systematic approach for developing messages and tools that sales people will actually use to deliver your brand more consistently at the all-important point of sales interaction. Blend creativity and discipline Traditional marketing messaging efforts fall short in helping sales people help customers make decisions about your products and services. The challenge is that messages are either too high-level and fail to speak to the customers' challenges, or too low-level and filled with product or service details. As a result, customers have trouble seeing your real value. Power Positioning™ provides a disciplined process that starts and ends with the customer, is synchronized to the customer buying process, and produces messages that can be used consistently and powerfully in customer conversations -- whether used in person, over the phone, on the web, published in marketing communications, in a tradeshow, or promoted in story form by your executives and leaders. "Power Positioning blends creativity with discipline in a cross-functional workshop setting bringing together product, marketing and sales subject matter experts to create a customer-focused field message," says Tim Riesterer, Corporate Visions' CMO and SVP of Strategic Consulting Services. "You'll create a message that your sales team can't wait to tell, your customers want to hear, and your competition can't touch." Through a series of interactive, industry-proven methodology, your sales and marketing teams will create differentiated Power Positions™, develop Conversation Roadmaps™, and construct sales tools and message objects that align with specific sales activities in the customer buying cycle. "Traditionally, corporate branding, marketing communications, and sales training have been managed in silos. Today, companies are aggressively seeking better alignment between these groups to improve performance," says Joe Terry, President of Corporate Visions. "Our latest release of the Power Positioning™ series integrates the messages, tools and training companies need to be different where it counts - in their customer message."

US readying south Afghan surge against Taliban

The U.S. is preparing to pour at least 20,000 extra troops into southern Afghanistan to cope with a Taliban insurgency that is fiercer than NATO leaders expected.

The new troops will augment the 12,500 NATO soldiers — mainly British, Canadian and Dutch — in what amounts to an Afghan version of the surge in Iraq.

New construction at Kandahar Air Field foreshadows the upcoming infusion of American power. Runways and housing are being built, along with two new U.S. outposts in Taliban-held regions of Kandahar province.

And in the past month the south has been the focus of visiting U.S. and other dignitaries — Sen. John McCain, Defense Secretary Robert Gates, U.S. congressional delegations and leaders from NATO headquarters in Europe.

For the first time since NATO took over the country in 2006, an experienced U.S. general, Brig. Gen. John Nicholson, is assigned to the south.

He says U.S. Gen. David McKiernan, NATO's commander in Afghanistan, has made the objectives clear in calling the situation in the south a stalemate and asking for more troops, on top of the 32,000 Americans already in Afghanistan.

"By introducing more U.S. capability in here we have the potential to change the game," Nicholson said.

The Army Corps of Engineers will spend up to $1.3 billion in new construction for troop placements in southern Afghanistan, said the corps commander in Afghanistan, Col. Thomas O'Donovan.

Violence in Afghanistan has spiked in the last two years, and Taliban militants now control wide swaths of countryside. Military officials say they have enough troops to win battles but not to hold territory, and they hope the influx of troops, plus the continued growth of the Afghan army, will change that.

U.S. officials hope to add at least three new brigades of ground forces in the southern region, along with assets from an aviation brigade, surveillance and intelligence forces, engineers, military police and Special Forces. In addition, a separate brigade of new troops is deploying to two provinces surrounding Kabul.

Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said last month that Afghanistan could get up to 30,000 new U.S. troops in 2009, depending on the security situation in Iraq. Col. Greg Julian, a U.S. military spokesman, said Monday that one ground brigade should arrive by spring, a second by summer and a third by fall.

Nicholson said he expects the U.S. forces to be deployed in Kandahar city and along vital Highway 1, which links Kandahar to Kabul, and in neighboring Helmand province, the world's largest producer of opium poppies for heroin.

NATO forces are well positioned in three key areas of northern Helmand, said British Lt. Gen. J.B. Dutton, deputy commander of the NATO's Afghan mission.

"What we have not yet achieved is to join those areas up, so there is a security presence that allows locals to drive safely between those areas. That's the sort of thing we are going to want to improve," he said.

Since 2006, the U.S. has concentrated its forces in eastern Afghanistan, along the border with Pakistan, while the south is policed by 8,500 British troops, 2,500 Canadians and 2,500 Dutch.

Their overall commander is Dutch Maj. Gen. Mart de Kruif — who would also have command of any incoming U.S. forces in the south next year. By the fall of 2010 the top officer in the south will be American.

The infusion of U.S. power risks Americanizing a war that until now has been a shared mission of 41 coalition countries. But Dutton, the British general, suggested there was no choice. "It has to do with national capacity and a number of political considerations in those countries," he said.

In Canada and many European countries, governments face low public support for keeping troops in Afghanistan combat zones.

Dutton said the British contribution is "significant," as well as that of Canada, which he noted has lost more troops per capita in Afghanistan than any other nation.

Nicholson, the U.S. general, said the Canadians have fought "heroically" but simply don't have enough forces to secure all of Kandahar. The Canadian Embassy declined to comment.

More U.S. troops — 151 — died in Afghanistan in 2008 than any of the seven years since the invasion to oust the Taliban, and U.S. officials warn violence will probably intensify next year.

"If we get the troops, they're going to move into areas that haven't been secured, and when we do that, the enemy is there, and we're going to fight," said Nicholson, who spent 16 months commanding a brigade of 10th Mountain Division troops in eastern Afghanistan in 2006 and 2007.

That fighting should eventually clear the way for security and governance to take hold, he said.

"If you want to summarize that as it's going to get worse before it gets better, that's exactly what we're talking about," he said.

Muslims Removed From Airplane

Officials ordered nine Muslim passengers, including three young children, off an AirTran flight headed to Orlando from Reagan National Airport yesterday afternoon after two other passengers overheard what they thought was a suspicious remark.

Members of the party, all but one of them U.S.-born citizens who were headed to a religious retreat in Florida, were subsequently cleared for travel by FBI agents who characterized the incident as a misunderstanding, an airport official said. But the passengers said AirTran refused to rebook them, and they had to pay for seats on another carrier secured with help from the FBI.

Kashif Irfan, one of the removed passengers, said the incident began about 1 p.m. after his brother, Atif, and his brother's wife wondered aloud about the safest place to sit on an airplane.

"My brother and his wife were discussing some aspect of airport security," Irfan said. "The only thing my brother said was, 'Wow, the jets are right next to my window.' I think they were remarking about safety."

Irfan said he and the others think they were profiled because of their appearance. He said five of the six adults in the party are of South Asian descent, and all six are traditionally Muslim in appearance, with the men wearing beards and the women in headscarves. Irfan, 34, is an anesthesiologist. His brother, 29, is a lawyer. Both live in Alexandria with their families, and both were born in Detroit. They were traveling with their wives, Kashif Irfan's sister-in-law, a friend and Kashif Irfan's three sons, ages 7, 4 and 2.

AirTran spokesman Tad Hutcheson agreed that the incident amounted to a misunderstanding. But he defended AirTran's handling of the incident, which he said strictly followed federal rules. And he denied any wrongdoing on the airline's part.

"At the end of the day, people got on and made comments they shouldn't have made on the airplane, and other people heard them," Hutcheson said. "Other people heard them, misconstrued them. It just so happened these people were of Muslim faith and appearance. It escalated, it got out of hand and everyone took precautions."

Hutcheson confirmed that it was ultimately the pilot's decision to postpone the flight. But he said the pilot was influenced not only by the complaints from passengers but by the actions of two federal air marshals on board, who had learned of the incident and reported it to airport police.

As a result of that report, federal officials made the decision to order all 104 passengers from the plane and re-screen them and their luggage before allowing the flight to take off for Orlando -- two hours late and without the nine passengers.

Ellen Howe, a spokeswoman for the Transportation Security Administration, said the pilot acted appropriately.

"For us, it just highlights that security is everybody's responsibility," Howe said. "Someone heard something that was inappropriate, and then the airline decided to act on it. We certainly support [the pilot's] call to do that."

Howe added that the TSA's involvement was limited to conducting a security sweep of the plane after the passengers were removed. Airport police officers' only involvement was to hold the passengers in custody until the FBI arrived, said Tara Hamilton, a spokeswoman for the agency that runs the airport.

Hutcheson said AirTran is not likely to reimburse the passengers for the additional cost of their replacement tickets on USAirways. He said they were given a full refund for their AirTran fares and may fly on the carrier now that the investigation is complete.

The detained passengers said that is not likely.

"It was an ordeal," said Abdur Razack Aziz, the family friend who was also detained. "Nothing came out of it. It was paranoid people. It was very sad."

First-Ever Masonic Inaugural Ball to be Held

William R. Singleton Hope Lebanon Lodge #7 is hosting the first-ever Masonic Inaugural Ball in honor of President-elect, Barack Obama and Vice-President Elect Joseph Biden. Tickets are limited, so you are encouraged to purchase yours quickly. Masonic Inaugural Ball This first-ever event will be held at 8:00 p.m.: Stars Bistro 2120 P Street, NW Washington, DC While other inauguration balls are costing $125-$500 or more per ticket, we've arranged for an evening with some amazing food, a great DJ, and brotherhood, all for $65 per ticket, we've also included an incentive to help pay the baby sitter, couples may go for just $120 a piece. All proceeds from this event will be donated to the Masonic Foundation of the District of Columbia. For more information, or to purchase tickets, visit: http://singletonlodge.org/home/inaugural-masonic-ball/ Directions: Traffic will be difficult to get through the District of Columbia. We are recommending that people take metro. Stars Bistro is conveniently located west of the Dupont Circle Metro Station (exit north.) There will be valet parking available for those choosing to drive.   Tickets are now on sale for the first-ever Masonic Inaugural Ball held in Washington, D.C.