If I hadn't known the ad was coming, I probably wouldn't even have noticed it. Seems like there was all kinds of uproar in the week leading up to the Superbowl about the Focus on the Family "issue ad" featuring Tim Tebow and his mother, Pam.

On last week's Opinion pages, I included two columns about the ad -- one from each perspective.

Cal Thomas wrote that "Somewhere in the massive TV audience on Sunday will be a man, or a pregnant woman, who will hear Pam and Tim Tebow's message about the good that can happen if individuals don't try to play God."

Tim Rutten, on the other hand, wrote that CBS made a bad call in allowing the ad: "There ought to be places in our lives that are free from profound confrontation."

After watching the ad during yesterday's game, I think the entire situation was blown out of proportion. What did you think?

"I think it would be absurd to not consider what it is that I can potentially do to help our country," Palin said on Fox News. She said her decision would be based on whether running for president is the right thing to do for the country and for the Palin family.

Not surpringly, President Barack Obama has been the target of Palin's speeches. She mocked him in her Tea Party address Saturday, and also said Obama has a long list of broken promises in his first year in office.

Palin has strong support among members of the Tea Party movement and she has committed to making several speeches at future Tea Party events. Bloomberg news reports that Palin is scheduled to apeak at a Tea Party rally in March in Searchlight, Nevada, which is the hometown of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. The Democrat is up for re-election this year and faces strong opposition.

Some use these networks to promote their businesses. The Bee's opinion pages, for example, use Facebook, MySpace and Twitter daily to promote columns and editorials that run in the printer version of the paper and online. This makes good business sense because it extends our reach.

But the emerging technology has brought with it some downsides, including crooks prowling the sites for all sorts of reasons: gathering enough information from your profiles to steal your idenity or to burglarize your home when you announce on Facebook that you'll be gone to Hawaii for two weeks beginning Sunday. The key thing is to understand the technology and know what to put on the Web, as well as what should be kept private.

In today's Bee, reporter Ron Orozco explores the issue in a news story headlined, "Watch your step with social media." Click here to read the story. There are many good tips for using social media properly.

The plan is to air the debate on Univision (KFTV, Channel 21) from California State University, Fresno. April 10 is the proposed date. All this is contingent on Whitman and Poizner agreeing to debate here. Whitman so far has not debated Poizner during the campaign. But there's growing pressure on Whitman to meet Poizner in a face-to-face debate.

The group also wants to schedule a local debate in the general election between the Republican nominee and Democrat Jerry Brown, who does not have major opposition in the primary election.

I have some involvement with this debate proposal. I'm on a subcommittee that would help develop the questions that would be asked of the participants by the moderator from KFTV.

The main debate committee is chaired by Fresno City Council Member Larry Westerlund, and includes Fresno State President John Welty, UC Merced Chancellor Steve Kang, Mayor Ashley Swearengin, former Appellate Justice George Zenovich, west-side rancher John Harris, Fresno Bee publisher Will Fleet, businessman Fred Ruiz,, Sarah Reyes of The California Endowment, Greg Pruett of PG&E, Dora Westerlund of the Fresno Hispanic Chamber and Tim Rios, a senior vice president at Wells Fargo.

Whitman has been on the radio since last year and spent $19 million in 2009 on her campaign to win the Republican nomination in the June California primary election. Now she's going on a TV ad blitz. Can Poizner, who is far down in the polls, handle the latest onslaught from Whitman?

UPDATED

Poizner has responded to the news of the Whitman ad blitz with a statement pointing out news story that Whitman's ads exaggerate the length of time she's lived in California. Click here to see the Poizner statement.

Whether you agree with Isabel's perspectives or not, let's all keep her in our thoughts and prayers. As Kim Tanksley said, Isabel "has much more living to do."

Some say it's not the best time though:

Ten months before voters elect a new Congress, some Democratic leaders also were leery of trying to change the policy this year, when both sides concede Republicans are likely to pick up seats, especially after GOP Sen.-elect Scott Brown's surprise victory last month in Massachusetts.

Repealing don't-ask-don't-tell is not a winning campaign strategy for a party under siege especially in the South and Midwest.

I don't think we should tiptoe around this any more though. What do you think?

Those are not the kind of reactions that Poizner needs as the GOP primary campaign gets serious. He's way down in the polls -- the Field Poll released 12 days ago had Whitman up 45-17 over Poizner among likely Republican voters -- and he needs to look decisive and not appear to be a whiner.

While Poizner's charge that Whitman's adviser unethically (and illegally) tried to force him out of the race got him publicity, it's not the kind of press an underdog needs. At a time when Poizner should be showing voters he can de a decisive chief executive, he came across as a victim.

This is how it reportedly went down: Whitman adviser Mike Murphy told Poizner aides that if the insurance commissioner would drop out of the governor's race, Whitman would back him for the U.S. Senate in two years. If Poizner stays in the governor's race, Whitman would spend $40 million ripping him between now and June.

Poizner then called a news conference to reveal the threat and contacted the FBI, the state attorney general's office, the U.S. attorney, the California secretary of state and the state Fair Political Practices Commission. I'm not sure why he didn't contact the CIA and Homeland Security since he was calling in just about every agency that's in the news.

Poizner should be attacking Whitman for her unwillingness to debate him and show Republican voters why he would be a better nominee against Attorney General Jerry Brown, who does not have opposition in the Democratic primary. Poizner has a strong record as insurance commissioner and as an entrepreneur. But on this week's charge against Whitman, his judgment went on vacation to the Bahamas.

On Wednesday, the Senate Rules Committee will take up the Maldonado nomination. Both houses of the Legislature can weigh in on the nomination, or confirm him passively by doing nothing.

Here is how Maldonado explained it on Wednesday, according to the Sacramento Bee:

"The Legislature can vote to confirm, reject or not take any action on the nomination. If Maldonado is confirmed by Feb. 16, a special election can be set up to pick a successor in June. If the Legislature does nothing, Maldonado said, he becomes lieutenant governor at midnight on Feb. 21."

Maldonado was nominated to succeed Democrat John Garamendi, who gave up the LG job after he won a congressional seat in a special election.

Maldonado should be confirmed for two reasons:

1. The job isn't that important so why get so worked up about it?

2. The governor should have a lieutenant governor of his choice from his own party.

The Democrats should confirm Maldonado and move on to something important -- like balancing the state budget.

Can you go one week without cussing?

Read the details of the proposal by clicking here.

Now this is being called a mistake and Salazar has issued a statement clarifying the water allocation. But let's put aside for a moment the idea that the secretary of interior didn't understand this sensitive Valley subject. I have proof that Salazar and his staff knew exactly what they were doing, and this announcement was apparently an attempt to make the Obama Administration look good at a time when critics say federal water policy is being run by the environmental community.

Salazar got called on the clumsy announcement immediately by Rep. Jim Costa, D-Fresno, Valley water leaders and others.

So here's my proof that the Interior Department knew what it was doing in trying to spin this announcement:

Just before the news release went out on Tuesday announcing the fake water allocation, I got a telephone call from Salazar. This call had previously been arranged on a related subject. On the line with Salazar was David J. Hayes, deputy secretary of the U.S. Department of Interior. Hayes is Salazar's Western water expert. Salazar and Hayes told me that they were about to announce the water allocation. Salazar explained the move and emphasized that this would be "additional" water for the Valley. Hayes concurred.

It is one thing for Salazar not to know the specific details of water allocations given his many responsibilities running the Interior Department. But Hayes is intimately involved in the water negotiations, and has been assigned by Salazar to help solve the Valley's water problem. You'll recall that Hayes jumped to Salazar's defense when a Fresno Bee editorial criticized the secretary for stopping the Two Gates project for the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. Last June, Salazar was in Fresno and told farmers that he was committed to finding a water solution, and evidence of that commitment was personally assigning Hayes, his water expert, to handle the issue.

Tuesday's water announcement may have backfired on Salazar. But interior knew exactly what it was doing in trying to persuade the Valley that this was additional water. They just figured Valley folks weren't smart enough to figure out that it was a scam.

The original reason for my call with Salazar was to ask why the Interior Department is concerned about farm water pumping killing Delta smelt, but ignores the millions of gallons of treated sewage that is dumped daily into the Delta, and also kills smelt. In addition, invasive species also are killing threatened fish.

Salazar said the sewage and invasive species issues are being considered by Interior. I don't recall him ever mentioning that problem. He also said he is unaware that the city of Sacramento is asking for permission to increase the amount of treated sewage being dumped into the Delta. I forwarded documents to his office on that issue so he won't be caught off guard when Sacramento gets permission to increase its sewage dumping.

There is no doubt that pumping water to farmers kills smelt. But should the scientists at Interior take into all the factors that are killing smelt before issuing opinions on the issue? The ammonia in the treated sewage kills smelt, according to experts. Invasive species devour smelt. But so far, the only factor Interior mentions is the pumping.

The first question said: Do you generally identify yourself as a "conservative Republican," an "independent voter who leans Republican," a "moderate Republican," or a "liberal Republican." There was one final choice that said "other."

Wow. . . It seems the Census folks are only sending forms to Republicans (although in my case I'm a registered independent).

I read on and learned that for $25, $50, $100, $250 or $500 I could help strengthen the Republican Party, as well as participate in the Census. And if I could not give to the Republicans in the suggested amounts, I could send $15 to "help defray the cost of processing my Census Document." The 2010 Census has apparently been outsourced to the Republican Party.

So I guess I do have to pay to send in my Census documents this year. At the end of the documents, there was a nice letter to me from Michael Steele, the Republican Party chairman. How's that for the Census Bureau reaching across the political aisle?

What did you think about his saying that "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" must be repealed? Did you liek what he said about job creation? What about his support for building more nuclear power plants or his commitment to keep fighting for health care reform?

Share your State of the Union thoughts with us in the comments section of this blog.

On a lighter note, here's an article that talks about an Irish on-line betting service that is offering odds on the length of Obama's speech, the color of his tie, and which political cliche he will utter first.

The favored cliche, at odds of 4-to-1, is "heath care reform." The longshot, 500-to-1, is "always bet on black." (Oddly, the phrase "I won't seek re-election" is a mere 250-to-1.)

Red is the favored tie, while most gamblers peg the time of the speech at between 51 and 53 minutes.

Crews are working feverishly to repair potholes, which can knock out a car's front alignment, create unsafe driving conditions and threaten the long-term stability and structure of roads, officials said.

"A pothole that goes unfilled will cause a street to deteriorate more quickly," said Brian Russell, Fresno street maintenance manager. "So we want to repair potholes before they become larger problems."

Potholes start as cracks in the road. Rain seeps into and under the asphalt, which weakens with the constant pounding of traffic, officials said.

The pothole patches are only a temporary fix until the weather dries out, when maintenance workers can then make permanent repairs.

As you drive around town, are there any new or especially jarring potholes you've noticed recently?