Arianna Huffington

LOS ANGELES - Arnold Schwarzenegger, the former Mr. Universe who became a millionaire superstar in Hollywood action movies, announced yesterday that he would run for governor of California, setting the stage for a tumultuous two-month campaign to unseat Democratic incumbent Gray Davis. The Republican actor, best known for playing a killer robot in three Terminator movies, opened his campaign with a raw display of the extraordinary national media platform at his disposal, announcing his candidacy on NBC's Tonight Show With Jay Leno.

Whatever the ultimate impact of AOL's $315 million acquisition of the Huffington Post on the new-media landscape, it's already clear that the merger will push more journalists more deeply into the tragically expanding low-wage sector of our increasingly brutal economy. That's a development that will hurt not only the people who gather and edit the news but also readers and viewers. To understand why, it's helpful to step back from the wide-eyed coverage focused on foundering AOL's last-ditch effort to stave off the oblivion of irrelevance, or Arianna Huffington's astonishing commercial achievement in taking her Web news portal from startup to commercial success in less than six years.

For the past couple of weeks, the Sundance Channel has been dedicating Monday nights to two of my favorite things: politics and documentaries. It has a couple of excellent films tonight. Up first is Blog Wars which tracks the explosion of political blogs. Director James Rogan focuses on such blog giants as Markos Moulitsas (Daily Kos) and Arianna Huffington (The Huffington Post) as 2006's hotly contested midterm elections get under way. (Sundance Channel, 8 p.m.) *** The Third Monday in October follows with a delightful look at 11 middle-schoolers as they campaign to lead their student governments.

The Sundance Kid himself will be among the slew of glitterati stopping off in Baltimore next month to speak at the annual convention for Americans for the Arts. Robert Redford is among a roster of famous folk including filmmaker John Waters, avant-garde theater and opera director Peter Sellars, and blog founder Arianna Huffington scheduled to attend the convention sponsored by the advocacy group, Americans for the Arts, from June 24-27. Unfortunately, fans will have to be content with spotting the stars from the distance.

I resolve not to participate in a presidential election all year. No new tattoos. I resolve not to purchase any new technology until I gain an understanding of the old technology. I resolve to follow a low-carb, low-protein, low-salt, low-fat, nonadditive, high-fiber, all-natural, nonprocessed, locally grown, gluten-free, certified organic, noncaffeinated, multicolored, fortified, nutritious diet. This year, I will watch less broadband, narrow-cast, issue-oriented, politically filtered "fair and balanced" infotainment, and continue to boycott "America Idol."

The Sundance Kid himself will be among the slew of glitterati stopping off in Baltimore next month to speak at the annual convention for Americans for the Arts. Robert Redford is among a roster of famous folk including filmmaker John Waters, avant-garde theater and opera director Peter Sellars, and blog founder Arianna Huffington scheduled to attend the convention sponsored by the advocacy group, Americans for the Arts, from June 24-27. Unfortunately, fans will have to be content with spotting the stars from the distance.

YOU CAN fool all the people all the time if the advertising budget is big enough," says Ed Rollins. Mr. Rollins happened by Michael's cafe this week where I was lunching with speechwriter-columnist Peggy Noonan. We greeted the genial Ed, who had worked for Ronald Reagan and other Republicans, including Christine Todd Whitman and the unelectable Michael Huffington. Rollins became famous at the end of the latter's campaign, saying: "In three decades as a political junkie, I never worked a more miserable, depressing, or rotten race than the 1994 Huffington Senate campaign.

WASHINGTON -- The brutal ugliness of presidential campaign politics has already begun, judging by the manufactured indignation of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's critics over her "plantation" crack. In case you have not heard, the New York Democrat and, lest we forget, former first lady, rallied a mostly black crowd in a Harlem church on Martin Luther King Jr. Day by saying the House of Representatives "has been run like a plantation, and you know what I'm talking about." For this, Mrs. Clinton has been getting hammered with brickbats by voices on the right ("I think it's ridiculous - it's a ridiculous comment," said First Lady Laura Bush)

In more than 30 years as a writer, social commentator and political gadfly, Arianna Huffington has set her steely, hazel-eyed gaze on everyone from Pablo Picasso to Dick Cheney. Few have emerged unscathed. "Chutzpah doesn't even begin to describe the vice president of the United States suggesting that the outcome of the Connecticut primary might embolden `al Qaeda types,'" she wrote recently on her Web site, HuffingtonPost.com, about Sen. Joseph Lieberman's loss to an anti-war challenger.

BOSTON -- Uh oh, Arnold. What happened to the "Oprah" strategy? Wasn't that you sitting on Ms. Winfrey's sofa a couple of weeks ago talking about family? And weren't you the guy who bragged that he loved to shop for his wife? Weren't you test driving the newer, softer you to woo women voters all over the left coast? After all that effort, Arnold, it probably wasn't the best idea to tell Arianna Huffington, "I have a perfect part for you in `Terminator 4.'" I mean, even those who never saw Terminator 3 (or 2 or 1)

I resolve not to participate in a presidential election all year. No new tattoos. I resolve not to purchase any new technology until I gain an understanding of the old technology. I resolve to follow a low-carb, low-protein, low-salt, low-fat, nonadditive, high-fiber, all-natural, nonprocessed, locally grown, gluten-free, certified organic, noncaffeinated, multicolored, fortified, nutritious diet. This year, I will watch less broadband, narrow-cast, issue-oriented, politically filtered "fair and balanced" infotainment, and continue to boycott "America Idol."

For the past couple of weeks, the Sundance Channel has been dedicating Monday nights to two of my favorite things: politics and documentaries. It has a couple of excellent films tonight. Up first is Blog Wars which tracks the explosion of political blogs. Director James Rogan focuses on such blog giants as Markos Moulitsas (Daily Kos) and Arianna Huffington (The Huffington Post) as 2006's hotly contested midterm elections get under way. (Sundance Channel, 8 p.m.) *** The Third Monday in October follows with a delightful look at 11 middle-schoolers as they campaign to lead their student governments.

YOU CAN fool all the people all the time if the advertising budget is big enough," says Ed Rollins. Mr. Rollins happened by Michael's cafe this week where I was lunching with speechwriter-columnist Peggy Noonan. We greeted the genial Ed, who had worked for Ronald Reagan and other Republicans, including Christine Todd Whitman and the unelectable Michael Huffington. Rollins became famous at the end of the latter's campaign, saying: "In three decades as a political junkie, I never worked a more miserable, depressing, or rotten race than the 1994 Huffington Senate campaign.

In more than 30 years as a writer, social commentator and political gadfly, Arianna Huffington has set her steely, hazel-eyed gaze on everyone from Pablo Picasso to Dick Cheney. Few have emerged unscathed. "Chutzpah doesn't even begin to describe the vice president of the United States suggesting that the outcome of the Connecticut primary might embolden `al Qaeda types,'" she wrote recently on her Web site, HuffingtonPost.com, about Sen. Joseph Lieberman's loss to an anti-war challenger.

WASHINGTON -- The brutal ugliness of presidential campaign politics has already begun, judging by the manufactured indignation of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's critics over her "plantation" crack. In case you have not heard, the New York Democrat and, lest we forget, former first lady, rallied a mostly black crowd in a Harlem church on Martin Luther King Jr. Day by saying the House of Representatives "has been run like a plantation, and you know what I'm talking about." For this, Mrs. Clinton has been getting hammered with brickbats by voices on the right ("I think it's ridiculous - it's a ridiculous comment," said First Lady Laura Bush)

BOSTON -- Uh oh, Arnold. What happened to the "Oprah" strategy? Wasn't that you sitting on Ms. Winfrey's sofa a couple of weeks ago talking about family? And weren't you the guy who bragged that he loved to shop for his wife? Weren't you test driving the newer, softer you to woo women voters all over the left coast? After all that effort, Arnold, it probably wasn't the best idea to tell Arianna Huffington, "I have a perfect part for you in `Terminator 4.'" I mean, even those who never saw Terminator 3 (or 2 or 1)

PHILADELPHIA - Sen. John McCain tested his stump speech for George W. Bush yesterday before a gathering of disaffected voters who in other days might have had nothing but cheers for McCain's outsider message. This time, McCain had to speak over scattered boos and hisses. Participants at the alternative "Shadow Convention," an eclectic gathering for self-described reformers, jeered when McCain, Bush's former rival for the Republican presidential nomination, expressed his "sincere conviction" that the Texas governor was the right choice for president.

LOS ANGELES - Arnold Schwarzenegger, the former Mr. Universe who became a millionaire superstar in Hollywood action movies, announced yesterday that he would run for governor of California, setting the stage for a tumultuous two-month campaign to unseat Democratic incumbent Gray Davis. The Republican actor, best known for playing a killer robot in three Terminator movies, opened his campaign with a raw display of the extraordinary national media platform at his disposal, announcing his candidacy on NBC's Tonight Show With Jay Leno.