William Bell offers these fine entries, with the comment:

Here are my Photoshop contributions. I thought you would enjoy hearing about the new Dreamworks animation movie starring Dick Cheney and friends. It is titled simply Dick and has our vice presidential hero made up in greenface for maximum cinematic wackiness! I included both the movie poster and a still image from one of the movie's uproarious scenes. Kids are sure to love Dreamworks' Dick, coming soon to a GOP theater near you!

This entry came with an elegant and simple comment: "dick cheney IS the puppetmaster!!"

A splendid blog reader with the e-mail name Fozzie Pumpah sends an entry with this note:

You shamed me into doing a Photoshop entry. I am sorry to see there are not more people submitting images. I agree, they are slackers!

Here is my lame pun-based entry: "Dick Chainey." This is representative of Dick's wonderful abilities as an escape artist. Whether he's avoiding having to disclose the advisors on his energy panel, winning no-bid contracts for his taxpayer-swindling Halliburton cronies, or dodging responsibility for outing Valerie Plame's undercover CIA status, Dick Chainey is one of the best escape artists of the modern era. David Blaine has nothing on the amazing Dick Chainey!

The UA softball team fought back after losing the first game of the Women’s College World Series, defeating the Lady Vols of Tennessee on both Tuesday and Wednesday to win the crown. Tuesday's game was a nailbiter of a pitcher’s duel that went 10 innings before Danielle Rodriguez squeezed across the plate just ahead of the tag on a sac fly by Adrienne Acton. In last night’s game, the Cats unloaded with a five-run fifth inning capped by Chelsie Mesa’s three-run homer.

The series featured an amazing pitching performance by junior pitcher Taryne Mowatt, who pitched every single inning of the Wildcats’ post-season. How’s this for astonishing: Mowatt, who set a record with 42 wins this season (suck on that, Big Unit!), threw more 1,000 pitches over eight games in six days.

Congrats, Wildcats!

So, it's come down to the last day of the official Dick Cheney Photoshopping Contest. I am sure we'll be flooded with entries today, considering that three members of our blog-comment family promised they'd enter, but have not yet done so. (*Ahem.*)

Thanks again to Max V. for his inspiring entries. I look forward to seeing the rest of them. And remember ... a cool prize awaits the winner. Seriously!

Here are a few events that were received too late for inclusion in our print issue.

• Saturday, June 9 at 11 a.m.

  SGI Center, 2540 E. 22nd St.

  Lungs of the World: The Amazon Jungle. Marty Drozdoff speaks about a visit to the Amazon and studying Kichwa language, culture and ethnobotany (healing herbs and plants). Free. Call Marty at 742-1019 for info.

• Saturday, June 9 at 7 p.m.

  Bentley's House of Coffee and Tea

  1730 E. Speedway Blvd.

  Ocotillo Poetry Slam. Sign up at 7 p.m.; Albuquerque poets Damion Flores and Adam Rubinstein at 7:30 p.m.; 12 poets battle it out at 8 p.m. Suggested donation $5. E-mail [email protected] or call Teresa at 256-4206 for info.

• Sunday, June 10 from 3 to 5 p.m.

  Metropolitan Grill

  7892 N. Oracle Road

  Wines From Down Under. Sample Australian wines and feast on a selection of Aussie fare. $10 per person. Seating is limited to 40. Call 531-1212 or e-mail [email protected] by Saturday, June 9 to reserve a seat.

• Wednesday, June 13 at 3 p.m.

  Freedom Inn at Ventana Canyon

  5660 N. Kolb Road

  Classical Guitarist. Wilson Hur will perform a free concert. RSVP to 577-6940.

Got this e-mail recently from Eric Greenberg ...

Thought some of your readers might be interested in a new podcast I did about The Baseball Bunch. If you're not familiar with the show, it was a kids series in the '80s hosted by Johnny Bench that tought kids about baseball and featured all kinds of great major league guest stars. Most importantly to your readers, it was filmed in Tucson.

This spring marks the 25th anniversary of the show and I recently put together a group discussion with three of the original kids on the series and the San Diego Chicken who was also on the show. Two of the kids I interviewed grew up on Tucson and were playing little league there at the time they were picked.

You can find the podcast here.

We have our first entries in our Dick Cheney Photoshopping Contest!

These came in this morning from Max Vectar.

The first is simply described as "Cheney in prison":

The second—and my personal fave—is described as "Here is Dick Cheney in the remake of Total Recall starring George Bush":

And finally: "This piece of lovely art (suitable for hanging in a hotel or doctor's office sitting room) is a landscape consisting of Dick Cheney's dignified mug in various charming expressions."

Thanks, Max!

The New York Times is reporting that Sen. Harry Reid wants to wrap debate and vote on the Kennedy-Kyl immigration package by the end of the week.

The Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, said Tuesday that he would try to force an end to debate on a comprehensive immigration bill, leaving the fate of the legislation in question.

Mr. Reid, Democrat of Nevada, said the Senate would vote Thursday on whether to limit debate, a process that requires 60 votes to succeed. He said he would pull the bill if he failed to get the necessary votes.

Seems a little unsettling to us that lawmakers are expected to essentially rubber-stamp the grand bargain--especially since the Congressional Budget Office has just managed to release its analysis of the bill. (If you don’t feel like reading it cover to cover, The Washington Post has a good breakdown.)

But hey: Why should senators worry about having time to digest the actual impact of the legislation?

Rasmussen Reports released a survey exploring how Arizona voters feel about the Kennedy-Kyl immigration plan today.

The numbers are pretty close to a Rasmussen nationwide survey released last week. Just 24 percent of Arizona voters support the bill’s passage, while half of them are opposed. More than three-fourths of those surveyed said it was “very important” to secure the border and 42 percent worry that the Senate plan will actually increase illegal immigration.

Sen. Jon Kyl has taken a hit for his support of the plan. While his 55 percent favorability rating is in line with his numbers before the 2006 election, he’s suffered a 10 percent drop—from 36 to 26 percent—among voters who view him “very favorably.”

The news is worse for Sen. John McCain, who is now viewed favorably by just 48 percent of Arizonans and unfavorably by 51 percent.

Rasmussen also notes that McCain has fallen to fourth place in the GOP presidential race since the immigration debate began. McCain, with the support of 14 percent of Republican voters nationwide, trails Rudy Giuliani (23 percent), newcomer Fred Thompson (17 percent) and Mitt Romney (15 percent).

More on the poll in this week's Skinny, available online in just 24 hours or so!