OMG. Michigan's former Rep. Pete Hoekstra, running to unseat Sen. Debbie Stabenow, has come up with the most breathtakingly dumb, lame and offensive political ad, ever. See his Super Bowl ad with the Chinese gongs and rice paddies and pidgeon-speaking young Asian woman! See his mock website - lanterns! dragons! the Great Wall of Debt! - blasting - seriously? - "Debbie Spenditnow." Despair (briefly) for our nation.

"You borrow more and more from us. Your economy get very weak. Ours get very good. We take your jobs. Thank you, Debbie Spenditnow.”

Children's art from Gaza - aimed at helping heal Palestinian kids traumatized by Operation Cast Lead, but censored after pressure from Jewish groups - is now in a searing book, "A Child's View from Gaza." Born of a Middle East Children's Alliance project, the book features drawings from kids who survived the Israeli assault, but still see its planes and guns and death everywhere. With a fierce forward by Alice Walker. Buy this book, help these kids.

"I realize it's hard for grownups to accept that we've had a hand in making a small child armless, legless, eyeless. We want to keep thinking Americans are generous (people) who draw the line, collectively, at child abuse. At child murder. That image was never true, and it certainly isn't now....We can encourage ourselves, and our children, never to be afraid to feel. No one dies from compassion."