Karl 
STATE OF THE UNION: Jib-Jab, of “This Land” fame, has President Bush recap the year “205.”
YOUR MOMENT OF CHRISTMAS SITH: Chewbacca sings!
MY KIND OF TOWN: So the elevated train carrying Santa, a dozen elves and their sleigh derailed last weekend. No harm, no foul, right?
PHIL SPECTOR, currently facing a murder rap, probably should not have called ex-wife Ronnie and threatened to kill her.
JENNY LEWIS of Rilo Kiley talks up her upcoming solo album at Filter. Rabbit Fur Coat boasts plenty of cameos, including co-producer M.Ward, Death Cab for Cutie’s Ben Gibbard, Maroon 5’s James Valentine and Mickey Madden, the Watson Twins and Bright Eyes' Conor Oberst (who is releasing the album on his new label).
CONSUMER GUIDE: Robert Christgau lists his current high-grading box sets, in several genres.
THAT AIN'T WORKIN': Handin' out the pink slips at the MTV.
SEASON OF THE LIST: IGN has a number of “best of” awards, including “Best Comeback Album By A 70s Icon,” “Best Album To Have Along on A Long Road Trip” and “Best Dark Fairy Tale Album Artwork.” Filter has new Top Tens from Tegan & Sara and Tim Burgess of Charlatans. Prefix rolls out a Top 50, plus staff picks. online radio station WOXY has “The 97 Best Of 2005,” 'cause it used to be 97 on your FM dial, natch. And Pitchfork rolls out its Top 50 album list.
AMERICAN ANALOG SET: In the Village Voice, James Hunter writes that the band's sixth album “achieve(s) an exhilarating authority, a resonant completeness.” You can download demos at the band's website or stream older stuff at My Space.
RYAN ADAMS' latest, 29, scores a 67 at Metacritic, but you can stream the whole thing for yourself via AOL Music.
ELLIOT SMITH: More unreleased tracks are leaking on the Internet.
JIM RYAN, one of Chicago's top rock poster artists, is profiled in the Sun-Times, with a few nice-sized reproductions.
ANNIE LENNOX denies reports she snubbed Orlando Bloom at a movie premiere, claiming that she sat next to him at the movie.
JACKO is reportedly in default on a 2.2 million loan secured last April with his family’s estate in Encino, CA. And TMZ reports that Debbie Rowe, Michael Jackson's former wife and the mother of two of his children, filed legal papers accusing the singer of abducting the children.
STEREOGUM IN THE USA: Scott Lapatine is interviewed in USA Today's pop culture blog.
GWEN STEFANI is following up her first solo album, Love.Angel.Music.Baby. with a baby, likely a collaboration with hubby Gavin Rossdale.
BRITNEY SPEARS is suing Us Weekly over a column in its Oct. 17 issue that said Spears and husband Kevin Federline feared “raunchy footage” of their bedroom exploits would be made public. The lawsuit notes that Us previously has stood behind the story and declined to retract it. Seems inspired by Teri Hatcher's recent legal win, but Ms. H first brought suit against a British tabloid — and the libel laws are more plaintiff-friendly there. ALSO: Brit may be back home with her trashtastic husband — nicknamed “Spenderline” by her pals — but the two are still fighting in public. Spenderline and his pals were also recently caught roughing up a tiny New York Times reporterette.
TOM-KAT UPDATE: Cruise's onetime alternative medicine consultant is the subject of a six-month investigation by the LAPD who are asking the DA to indict her and a colleague for fraud, grand theft and malpractice. Meanwhile, last weekend, Cruise and Holmes celebrated her 27th birthday, keeping his pregnant and visibly exhausted fiancee out until 2:30 a.m. at a Miami nightclub.
MADONNA goes Sideways. I can't help picturing Paul Giamatti trying to guzzle a vase full of it.
GEORGE CLOONEY, ROBERT DE NIRO and JOE PESCI have reportedly been interviewed by federal agents during an ongoing investigation into an alleged Vegas racketeering scandal. You think that's funny? Funny how?
CHRISTINA APPLEGATE and JONATHAN SCHAECH: First it was her rumored affair; now it's his turn for rumors. You have broken her heart, Mr. Schaech.
THE SMOKING GUN is sending out its topical brand of hot sauce for the holidays.
JESSICA SIMPSON: After filing for a divorce, her handlers are taking the offensive in bashing Nick Lachey in an attempt to resurrect her image.
BRADGELINA UPDATE: We all sorta knew that Jolie likes to kiss her brother a little too much for comfort. Now we know that her estranged father, Jon Voight, likes the look of Pitt.
VAUGHNISTON: Shirley MacLaine is taking the rap for Vaughniston's recent near-DUI run-in with the cops in AZ: “I'd like to confirm that Vince Vaughn prefers older women and that Jennifer is just my beard. It was me in the car with Vince in Arizona and I was looped.” Was?
CHARLIZE THERON is turning down the chance to be the next Bond girl. Feeling the sting of Aeon Flux, are we?
KEIRA KNIGHTLEY has signed up for another period piece — this time based on the Italian novella Silk.
QUENTIN TARANTINO is retiring… from acting, that is. Oh, well… we will always have The Golden Girls.
SCARLETT JOHANNSON says Woody Allen and John Travolta are fascinated with her love life. So I should mention that she has moved in with Josh Hartnett in TriBeCa. She also embraces the English custom of afternoon teas, after filming two back-to-back movies in London. She seems to favor jam, but what about the clotted cream?
IRAQ: Sunni Arabs, a key secular party and even the Kurds — the junior partner in the current government — charged Tuesday that parliamentary elections were tainted by fraud, and demanded an inquiry into preliminary results showing the governing Shiite religious bloc with a larger than expected lead. The charges generally involve low numbers for the secular coalition of former prime minister Iyad Allawi. At Iraq the Model, Omar blogs that some of the preliminary figures are “ridiculous” and that the election commission is already making corrections, but he believes that many parties and candidates were marginalized and betrayed by the election commission. AFP reports on the growing split between the governing religious Shiites and the Kurds, which may be a cause of or an ultimate fix for any election irregularities. The Christian Science Monitor reports that in the Sadr City section of Baghdada, the Army is more often cheered than jeered, but that the reconstruction projects helping change local minds are also causing rising expectations. And in north-central Iraq, US soldiers dug up more than 1,000 aging rockets and missiles buried in the desert, on a tip from locals that may suggest the Sunnis there are beginning to warm up to coalition forces.
NSA INTELL: Some people claim that Pres. Bush's authorization of surveillance of international telephone calls violates the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). This overlooks that US wiretap statutes — including FISA –have no extraterritorial application. Thus, when such surveillance occurs outside the US, FISA is not applicable, and there is no requirement of prior judicial authorization. This is why the Echelon program I mentioned yesterday collects its information overseas. It is no surprise that Pres. Bush stressed that “these calls are not intercepted within the country.” Many might be inclined to disbelieve Pres. Bush, but it seems logical that the surveillance here would be done through the Echelon system (outside the US). Echelon already sifts through a ginormous amount of data by keywords, names and telephone numbers. So it would probably be easy to modify to look for international calls from phone numbers recovered from al Qaeda agents. And this may be why former Sen. Bob Graham came out of the initial briefing on the program “with the full sense that we were dealing with a change in technology but not policy.” Ars Technica has a piece on what that change in technology might look like.
25-YEAR-OLD PANDA: I mentioned Bas's extraordinary birthday yesterday, but now I have the picture. That can't be healthy, but when you've lived double your life expectancy, why not live it up?
SNOW LEOPARD CUBS made their public debut at Sydney's Taronga Zoo yesterday, after it took two years for their parents to get busy. Awww…
THE CAT PROTECTION LEAGUE is overrun with mice in Dundee, Scotland, proving the sloth of cats worldwide.
ARMY OF THE APES: What? You thought totalitarian Communism was Stalin's worst idea?
SHARK: If you don't want to live with your own toilet waste, you're gonna need a bigger boat.
