Melder's Musings

As this is my blog, I'm going to turn away from politics briefly to post information that brings more joy to my life than any Republican scandal. As many of you reading this know, I am a type 1 diabetic. As such, the information I'm about to post is a source of hope in what often seems a hopeless pursuit--a cure for type 1 diabetes.

As reported by Diabetes Focus magazine, "British researchers are working on a vaccine to prevent type 1 diabetes. If successful, the vaccine would stop the immune systems of people with diabetes from destroying their own insulin-making cells."

For those that don't know, type 1 diabetes is also known as juvenile diabetes. It is usually diagnosed before the age of 20 and most of its victims remain insulin dependent for their entire lives. Insulin, by the way, is basic life support. Much as an accident victim requires a feeding tube or respirator machine to live, most type 1 diabetics require insulin to live. Insulin is not a treatment or a cure.

With that said, I eagerly await the latest developments on this front and will continue to post them as they become available.

This post will deal with two legal developments.

First, three state legislatures, Illinois, California, and Vermont, have now introduced resolutions to send petitions to the U.S. House of Representatives to initiate impeachment proceedings against Bush (and, in the case of California, Cheney too).

Second, several members of the House are joining a number of watchdog groups in filing a lawsuit against the administration. It seems that President Bush and Congressional Republicans have forgotten that we have a system that requires both houses of Congress to pass a bill (in this case, the budget) before the President signs it. If they didn't forget it, then they simply ignored it.

As Congressman John Conyers of Michigan said, "the House and Senate passed different versions of [the budget]. House Republicans did not want to make Republicans in marginal districts vote on the bill again, so they simply certified that the Senate bill was the same as the House bill and sent it to the President. The President, despite warnings that the bill did not represent the consensus of the House and Senate, simply shrugged and signed the bill anyway. Now, the Administration is implementing it as though it was the law of the land.

Conyers goes on to say that by doing what they did, the Republican leadership deprived House members of their constitutional right and duty to vote on a revised version of the budget. That gives House members grounds for the lawsuit.

Stay tuned.

The Los Angeles times is reporting that the FBI is using it's powers under the Patriot Act to spy on thousands of Americans. I hate to say I told you so.

As the Times reports, "the FBI issued thousands of subpoenas to banks, phone companies and Internet providers last year, aggressively using a power enhanced under the Patriot Act to monitor the activities of U.S. citizens, Justice Department data released late Friday showed. According to the new report, the FBI issued 9,254 national security letters in 2005, covering 3,501 U.S. citizens and legal foreign residents."

The Cleveland Plain Dealer also reports the troubling news. As the Plain Dealer tells us, we may never know how many people the FBI has watched, as Friday "was the first time the Bush administration has publicly disclosed how often it uses the administrative subpoena known as a National Security Letter, which allows the executive branch of government to obtain records about people in terrorism and espionage investigations without a judge's approval or a grand jury subpoena."

So the FBI knows that I bought a Diet Pepsi at the Texaco on Highway 7 last week. Awesome. Meanwhile, does anybody know what's in the 80% of cargo containers not inspected at the Port of Houston? No? I didn't think so.

To continue my list of Republican scandal du hour, there could be new developments in the Valerie Plame case. To be fair, I will call this post nothing more than speculation. That said, it's speculation worth repeating.

Journalist Jason Leopold spent two years covering California's electricity crisis as Los Angeles bureau chief of Dow Jones Newswires. Leopold has spent the last year cultivating sources close to the CIA leak investigation that led to the indictment of Vice President Cheney's former Chief of Staff "Scooter" Libby.

Yesterday, Leopold reported that an indictment of Karl Rove could come as early as next week. Leopold wrote that "the special counsel leading the investigation has already written up charges against Rove, and a grand jury is expected to vote on whether to indict the Deputy White House Chief of Staff sometime next week."

Stay tuned.

He's also doing a "heckuva" job. Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour gets some face time with President Bush. Were they discussing impending scandal investigations? (White House photo)

I used to think the Republicans could be tied to a scandal du jour. Now it seems they can be tied to a scandal du hour.

Having recently survived a storm of nature, Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour finds himself on the verge of a storm of controversy. The former RNC Chairman gave the start-up money to a telemarketing firm that is the center of at least two criminal investigations into dirty tricks during the 2002 elections.

As ABC News reports, the firm received over $250,000 thanks to Barbour and the money made him part owner of the company. The dirty tricks involved phone jamming that sidelined the Democratic Party's GOTV efforts. In other words, phone lines that elderly and disabled people would call to arrange rides to the polls were clogged with fake, GOP-generated telephone calls. ABC's Biloxi, Mississippi, affiliate, WLOX-TV has this report.

DNC Chairman Howard Dean, to no one's surprise, is not silent on this matter. He continues to urge current RNC Chairman Ken Mehlman to divulge his role in the illegal phone jamming. Phone records show that calls made by the companies in question were made to Mehlman's former White House office on Election Day.

Knowing Barbour, he'll probably brush this off as the investigation continues. He is, after all, the candidate who wouldn't have his picture removed from the Council of Conservative Citizens website. Lest their name fool you, the CCC proudly proclaim their opposition to "all efforts to mix the races of mankind, to promote non-white races over the European-American people through so-called "affirmative action" and similar measures, to destroy or denigrate the European-American heritage, including the heritage of the Southern people, and to force the integration of the races." In other words, they're racists. They're racists that Barbour doesn't mind being associated with. Why would he let a little election fraud bring him down?

Call him the "Top Gun" of scandal. Former Republican Congressman Randy Cunningham is already facing prison time for bribery. Now he's wrapped up in a prostitution investigation. (AP photo)

The Republican scandals just get better...and dirtier. Where is that moral majority now?

Disgraced former "Top Gun," Randy "Duke" Cunningham, former Republican Congressman from California, is already facing an 8-year prison sentence for taking more than $2 million in bribes from defense contractors. Many of the lavish furnishings he bought and received as part of the bribery have recently been sold at auction.

As if that wasn't embarrassing enough for Cunningham and the rest of the GOP, the case is taking a sexy new twist--prostitutes. As the Washington Post reports, "Federal authorities are investigating allegations that a California defense contractor arranged for a Washington area limousine company to provide prostitutes to convicted former congressman Randy 'Duke' Cunningham (R-Calif.) and possibly other lawmakers, sources familiar with the probe said yesterday."

To add to the novel-like feel of this story, it's all going down at that infamous den of other Republican scandal--the Watergate Hotel. As the Post reports, "The Cunningham investigation's latest twist came after Mitchell J. Wade, a defense contractor who has admitted bribing the former congressman, told prosecutors that Wilkes had an arrangement with Shirlington Limousine, which in turn had an arrangement with at least one escort service, one source said. Wade said limos would pick up Cunningham and a prostitute and bring them to suites Wilkes maintained at the Watergate Hotel...the source said."

Other media, including CBS and MSNBC are also reporting the story.

Meanwhile, Editor and Publisher awaits a new Woodward and Bernstein.

In absence of a caption, I'll say that this picture pretty well speaks for itself. This person is obviously participating in one of the numerous protests against President Bush and the war in Iraq. Perhaps she's right. If lying to Congress to start a war, leaking the name of a covert CIA agent, and abandoning the population of a major city after a natural disaster won't get a president impeached, there's always that other option.

The Associated Press is just now breaking the news that Rush Limbaugh is under arrest. Limbaugh has reportedly turned himself in to the Florida Attorney General's office.

Some media speculation says that this arrest is part of a plea deal worked out with the Attorney General following a lengthy investigation into drug charges against Limbaugh.

More news will be posted here as it becomes available.

We've heard it many times before. Democrats have no plan. All we can do is criticize the GOP. I will devote more of my blogging efforts to show that to be untrue. Democrats do have plans. Granted, we can't shrink them down to 30-second soundbytes as well as the Republicans, but we've got them.

One plan I'm glad to be passing on is our plan for higher education funding. In spite of a massive lobbying effort by student groups, the Republican House pushed through a $12 billion cut in federal student aid, the largest cut in history.

By 2020, the U.S. is expected to experience a shortage of up to 12 million college-educated workers, yet that didn't stop the Republicans from making their $12 billion cut in federal student aid programs. The cuts will help finance tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans. As I said earlier, this was the single largest cut in the history of financial aid programs. Democratic leaders have now introduced legislation to "Reverse the Raid on Student Aid."

Congressman George Miller and Senator Dick Durbin have stepped up to the plate and introduced the 'Reverse the Raid on Student Aid' bill that would:

• Cut interest rates in half for the borrowers in most need--on subsidized student loans--from a fixed rate of 6.8% to a fixed rate of 3.4%; and,
  
• Cut rates on parent loans for undergraduate students from a fixed rate of 8.5% to a fixed rate of 4.25%.
  

Under this bill the typical undergraduate student borrower, with $17,500 in debt, would save $5,600 over the life of his or her loans.

I encourage you to read the bill. You can also read the report by the Democratic Caucus of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce.

If you want to take action on this issue, consider the following:

• sign an online petition endorsing the Durbin-Miller bill.
• submit written or video testimonies to the ­­­­E-forum. Current college students and parents should send written or video testimonies sharing their experiences in financing a college education and their thoughts about what Congress can do to improve college access and affordability for all Americans. Testimony can also be sent by e-mail.
• add your personal student debt to the total to the State PIRG's Student Debt Clock.

So there is is. A Democratic plan for education.

"Larry the Cable Guy" is Rick Perry's new Education Adviser. (Publicity photo)

Texas Governor Rick Perry watches too much television. As reported by the Austin American-Statesman, Perry chose to answer questions about the current special legislative session on education funding with a familiar one-liner.

Perry was expressing his optimism that the Senate would pass his proposed business tax plan recently passed by the House. "There is a renewed spirit of optimism in this building as this plan gathers momentum. I am confident the Senate will seize the opportunity before us and pass this bipartisan plan. As ol' Larry the Cable Guy says on a regular basis, it's time to 'get 'er done.'"

I'm not sure what this actually tells us about Perry. Knowing the Governor, it could be a vain attempt to appeal to certain Texas voters. After all, he will probably face Kindy Friedman on the November ballot.

The Senate is expected to hold hearings on Perry's business tax plan this weekend. Perry said the plan could allow $15 billion in cuts in local school property taxes by replacing the corporate franchise tax with a broader business tax tied to gross receipts.

This isn't Perry's first time to quote a fictional character. Last week, Perry copied hamburconnoisseurseur "Wimpy" (of Popeye fame) by saying he'd pay Tuesday for a hamburger delivered today.

Bill O'Reilly thinks high school students should be given a basic civics test. If they fail that test, he thinks they should be sent to Canada.

On Tuesday's edition of his radio show, O'Reilly said that "most high school kids in this country couldn't pass a civics test. They don't know what's going on. They don't know what the House of Representatives is; they don't know what the judicial branch is. They don't know anything."

"So, I have a bill that would throw all those kids out. All right? Let's do that. Let's get rid of all these dopey kids. OK? Y'all with me on that one? Can't pass the civics test, Seymour? Say hello to Canada."

Unfortunately for O'Reilly, this was the same show in which he showed his own ignorance of American Civics. O'Reilly, in a tirade about the U.S. Department of Energy, incorrectly identified the Secretary of Energy.

"Spencer Abraham doesn't understand it. He is -- in case you didn't know, because nobody does -- he is the secretary of energy. Spencer Abraham. And he's the invisible man. Only his hat shows up for work. He sits at a desk and all you see is the pen. You can't see him, he's invisible. But he did make a statement."

O'Reilly then played an audio clip of Samuel Bodman, the actual Secretary of Energy. Even after playing the clip, O'Reilly continued to incorrectly identify the Secretary of Energy as Spencer Abraham.

"But Spencer Abraham is not a leader. He doesn't know what he's doing. You know, he has no agenda here. Yeah, OK, refinery capacity is tight. What have you done about it for five years, Bush administration? Nothing."

Sometime later in the show, after realizing his error, O'Reilly attempted to correct himself, but also suggested (hopefully in jest) that the two are actually the same man.

"I am a pinhead. There's no question about it today. Spencer Abraham is the former secretary of energy. Samuel Bodman is the current. Now, I made the mistake because they're the same person. They are. People don't know that, but they are. Have you ever seen them together?"

"Spencer Abraham and Samuel Bodman -- really, the same guy. It's just they changed -- they had a name change when -- because they -- now, nobody on earth knows that the energy secretary is Samuel Bodman. Why? Because Samuel Bodman is the invisible man. That was the riff I was doing. Who is he? Nobody knows, and he doesn't know he's energy secretary and that's the tragedy."

This is not O'Reilly's first display of ignorance this week. On Monday's radio show, he blasted the New York Times for it's reporting on Mary McCarthy. McCarthy is the CIA agent fired for leaking information to the press. O'Reilly suggested that the Times was biased toward McCarthy because she leaked information to them.

"You may have heard this CIA officer, Mary McCarthy, is fired because she was leaking stuff to the press about the CIA. And, of course, on Sunday, The New York Times had a glowing article about Mary McCarthy, what a great patriot she is, because she was leaking stuff to them."

In fact, McCarthy gave information to the Washington Post.

Also on Monday, O'Reilly told radio listeners that the Federal and State Governments make more money as gas prices rise, suggesting that federal and state taxes are a percentage of retail prices.

"Now there is a legitimate argument about the government, both state and federal, taxing gasoline, which they do all over the place. So, of course, they're making more money, the government's making more money now that the uh, gasoline prices are higher, because their tax goes up. Percentage of money they get goes up. So maybe that's factoring into it. I don't know."

In fact, the tax levied by the federal government remains constant. Currently, the federal tax on gasoline is 18.4 cents per gallon, and the federal tax on diesel is 24.4 cents per gallon.

According to the American Petroleum Institute (API), 38 states have no percentage-based gasoline tax, opting instead for set taxes automatically factored into the retail price of gas. So, for the federal government and the majority of states, gasoline-tax revenue will remain constant, regardless of the retail price of gasoline.

The week did not begin well for O'Reilly. Monday brought him another "Worst Person in the World" award from MSNBC's Keith Olbermann. Olbermann awarded O'Reilly the dubious honor for O'Reilly's declaration that he only trusts war information from military analysts that work exclusively for Fox News. Olbermann reminded viewers of some of the gross mistakes made by those analysts.

"Like the guy, [retired] Colonel [David] Hunt, who mocked the idea that there weren't enough armored vehicles in Iraq, or [retired Lieutenant Colonel] Oliver North, who said Saddam Hussein would be killed within three days of any invasion by his own people? Or [retired Lieutenant] Colonel [Robert] Maginnis, who said that the reality is we're not going to see thousands of American deaths? Those guys? Those geniuses?"

Tuesday's show brought more outright Hypocrisy from O'Reilly. O'Reilly was complaining about the way former Fox News Commentator-turned White House Press Secretary Tony Snow can have his words used against him. After announcing that "the smear stops here" on his Monday radio show, O'Reilly called Democrats and the rest of the media "Nazis."

"So, you got these smear merchants on the Internet and they operate through some newspaper people and a couple of television people who just parrot what they give them. They're despicable human beings, these smear merchants on the -- on the net. And the press is even worse. It just spits out their propaganda. I mean, these are Nazis. These are Joseph Goebbels people."

O'Reilly doesn't like to have his own words repeated to him. Perhaps this will land me in his new "Hall of Shame," also announced on Monday's radio show. I'm sure he's already reserved a special place for the folks at Media Matters for America, the same folks to whom I must credit most of the information contained in this post.

David VanOs speaks with other Democratic Party leaders at the Texas State Capitol in Austin.

The Texas Legislature began its fifth special session on school finance Monday, and the hardest working man there isn't even a member.

David VanOs, Democratic candidate for Texas Attorney General, is conducting his second "Citizens' Filibuster" from the Capitol grounds, speaking for 24 hours on what's wrong with the current Attorney General, what's wrong with our state's education system, and other serious issues facing the people of Texas.

In David's own words, the filibuster will demand "a just and Constitutional system of free public education for all Texas children, like our forebears demanded when they declared independence from despotism in 1836, and like every generation of Texans has demanded ever since. Like every fight I take on, I'll fight this one 'till hell freezes over, then I'll fight it on the ice."

The filibuster got underway at noon Monday, and Rachel VanOs (David's lovely wife) provided supporters with a report on her attempt to exchange greetings with Republican Governor Rick Perry. As you might expect, our Governor was less than friendly.

"Unfortunately...not much got done today in the Capitol...but we met lots of Texans who are fed up with this current administration and who want to fight back."

"We even had the pleasure of seeing the great Governor...but he paid us no attention...I must say he's quite rude. I tried to get his attention to merely say hello, but he refused to look at me or acknowledge me and I got no smile, no eye contact, nothing!"

"I even called his name. First I said 'Governor,' and then 'Governor Perry,' then 'Rick,' next 'Hey Richard' and then...'Dick'...but still no response!"

"I then said to the Governor, 'don't you acknowledge your constituents, the citizens of Texas,' and before I knew it he slid off to the opposite side of his [Chevrolet] Suburban just to avoid me."

"I found out later that he was in a hurry because he was hosting a lavish [barbecue] on the lawn of the Governor's mansion...I also was very amused when I realized that his residence is so close to the Capitol. I thought he might have walked home or walked to and from work just to save a little gas, but I was wrong."

"Can you imagine living two or three doors down from your office and having someone drive you to your office door? Just imagine getting into your car for about 29 seconds and then parking your vehicle at work!"

"The actual first day of session, as reported by citizens who came in and out, said that all they saw today was a lot of awards and ceremony...for all that they think that they do...another wasted day in Texas. I pray our children will get a fair and decent education."

"Today we had Kathy Thomas stop by. She is running against State Senator Wentworth (R-San Antonio) and our newly elected Democratic nominee for Lieutenant Governor, Maria Luisa Alvarado...two great women with vision, hope and passion."

You can read the latest from the campaign trail as it happens on David's blog. You can also watch what goes on during the special session in the House or the Senate.

It's been a while since we've noticed that familiar whistle, but probably because we just haven't been paying that much attention. Anything you see all the time is less likely to stand out.

That said, Texas Democrats have a damn fine candidate in the race to oust Republican Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison. Houston Attorney Barbara Ann Radnofsky will give Hutchison a race for her money, mainly because Hutchison has such a shoddy record to run her race on. Between now and November, I plan to devote a lot of space on this blog to Hutchison's history in the Senate. It won't be pretty. Let's start our look at that history now.

It seems that the Senator has a different outlook on a particular crime, depending, of course, on who's committing it. I take the following from an e-mail exchange I was part of earlier today.

Republicans ran on ad nauseum about truth, integrity and morals when it came to Bill Clinton. They asserted that telling the truth during investigations is such a serious concern that it is necessary to impeach a sitting president in order to protect the rule of law. Even though the investigation was really about an affair with an intern, Republicans insisted it was necessary to establish morals and pursue any possible infraction of law in order to retain equal protection.

How things have changed! Now that it is the ethics of Republicans are being examined, we find them singing a very different tune. On February 12, 1999, Hutchinson was specific in her condemnation of Clinton, speaking quite forcefully about perjury, honesty and truth. Ascribing to herself the importance of morals and consistency, Kay Bailey Hutchison said the following about perjury and obstruction of justice.

"The concept of equal justice under law and the importance of absolute truth in legal proceedings is the foundation of our justice system in the courts. To say otherwise would be to severely lower the moral and legal standards of accountability that are imposed on ordinary citizens every day. The same standard should be imposed on our leaders. If only the President had followed the simple, high moral principle handed to us by our Nation's first leader as a child and had said early in this episode 'I cannot tell a lie,' we would not be here today."

When asked about the possibility of perjury and obstruction indictments against Republican Scooter Libby, Hutchinson said the following on NBC's "Meet The Press" on October 23, 2005.

"And secondly, I certainly hope that if there is going to be an indictment that says something happened, that it is an indictment on a crime and not some perjury technicality where they couldn't indict on the crime and so they go to something just to show that their two years of investigation was not a waste of time and taxpayer dollars. So they go to something that trips someone up because they said something in the first grand jury and then maybe they found new information or they forgot something and they tried to correct that in a second grand jury."

When it was Clinton, Hutchinson piously insisted it was necessary to protect the rule of law and impeach Clinton for the offenses of perjury and obstruction of justice. When it comes to Republicans like Libby and Karl Rove, Hutchinson suddenly "thinks" perjury and obstruction of justice are "technicalities".

Let's recap. Lying about blowjobs is bad. It deserves impeachment. Lying about national security is cool. It was probably a "technicality."

Once again, all of this begs the question: do you feel safer? I don't.

It's Monday...well...actually Tuesday morning as this is written, so that means it's time to begin another week of irregular-at-best blogging.

What better way to start then the usual? That's right, kids, another edition of the Top Ten Conservative Idiots.

This week's edition is one of the best I've read in a while. It does an excellent job of laying out the latest GOP lies (and this week, they're outright lies) while also laying out how the Pentagon has been busy spying on gays while Afghan warlords buy Defense Department harddrives on the black market (complete with American intelligence).

As you'll read, the President is not down with White House leaks...unless they're his own doing.

You'll also read that the "Intelligence Community" knew well before the war that those trailers Saddam was supposedly cooking up WMDs in were...completely harmless. Meth trailers in Mississippi (or Crawford, Texas, for that matter) are far more dangerous.

All of this begs the following question: with the President continuing to lie, and with the military spying on gays, and with terrorists buying American military secrets for $50, do you feel safer? I sure don't. Well-informed warlords commanding suicide bombers are a far greater threat than any gay agenda (which, by the way, I've yet to see a copy of).

Political operatives at the Bush White House continue to rack up flagrant violations of the law.

As if there aren't enough current and former White House staffers under indictment or investigation, the number of Bush campaign surrogates is just as striking.

The latest news in the growing swirl of Bush scandals involves illegal telephone jamming and election fraud (which is nothing new for the Bushies). As reported by the Associated Press via Yahoo! News, "key figures in a phone-jamming scheme designed to keep New Hampshire Democrats from voting in 2002 had regular contact with the White House and Republican Party as the plan was unfolding, phone records introduced in criminal court show."

"The records show that Bush campaign operative James Tobin, who recently was convicted in the case, made two dozen calls to the White House within a three-day period around Election Day 2002 — as the phone jamming operation was finalized, carried out and then abruptly shut down."

If you're still not convinced that military folk will actually vote for Democrats, consider the following.

As part of the Democratic National Committee's commitment to reaching out to and supporting America's veterans and military families, DNC Chairman Howard Dean today announced the appointment of regional members of the Democratic National Veterans and Military Families Council and unveiled the Council's new website highlighting the campaigns of more than two dozen Democratic veterans running for Congress.

Dean announced the new Council members during a conference call with retired Army General Wesley Clark, former DNC chairman and decorated Army Reserve veteran Don Fowler, and retired Marine Lt. Colonel Andrew Horne, an Iraq war veteran who is running for Congress in Louisville, Kentucky.

"America's veterans and military families share many of the core values of the Democratic Party—including a commitment to service and a profound belief that every American who works hard should have the opportunity to succeed," said Dean. "We want to send a clear message to our troops—we stand with you while you are serving, and we'll stand with you when your service is done by making sure you and your families get the benefits you earned. This Council will help us communicate that message to our troops, our veterans and their families."

The Council—co-chaired by retired Lieutenant General Claudia Kennedy, the highest ranking woman in Army history, and Fowler, a thirty-year veteran of the active and Reserve components of the Army—will seek ways to support a strong national defense, help Democratic veterans running for office, and serve America's veterans and military families. The Council will also help mobilize veterans in communities across the country to help elect strong Democratic leaders at all levels of government.

Dean also unveiled the Council's new website, which includes a section on the more than two dozen Democrats who have served their country in the armed forces and are now seeking to continue their service by running for public office, including Lt. Colonel Horne. Almost every Iraq and Afghanistan war veteran running for Congress this year is running as a Democrat because they share the Democratic Party's bold vision for ensuring homeland and economic security for every American.

Among those appointed to serve as regional members of the Democratic National Veterans and Military Families Council is a Texan. Larry Romo is a USAF Reserves Lieutenant Colonel and USAF Academy Admissions Liaison member.

Old ladies that don't like Tom DeLay could get beat up for their discontent, and at least one did.

More on that is coming soon. I'll also recap the race to replace him.

Another retired member of the military brass is now calling the Iraq war a mistake.

As reported by the New York Times, "the three-star Marine Corps general who was the military's top operations officer before the invasion," expressed his frustration and regret over the war in a Sunday essay.

I think the Times article, and the General's words, speak for themselves.

Lt. Gen. Gregory Newbold, who retired in late 2002, also called for replacing Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and "many others unwilling to fundamentally change their approach." He is the third retired senior officer in recent weeks to demand that Mr. Rumsfeld step down.

In the essay, in this week's issue of Time magazine, General Newbold wrote, "I now regret that I did not more openly challenge those who were determined to invade a country whose actions were peripheral to the real threat -- Al Qaeda."

The decision to invade Iraq, he wrote, "was done with a casualness and swagger that are the special province of those who have never had to execute these missions -- or bury the results."

If you work for the Faux News Channel, the answer to that question would appear to be a resounding "yes!"

The network that parades as being "Fair and Balanced" and being "America's Newsroom" (as if to suggest all others are part of some foreign government conspiracy), seems to believe that the American people ought not hear from the man representing America's-Plumber-in-Chief.

After official court documents revealed that President Bush may be the source of the leak that resulted in the indictment of Scooter Libby (Vice President Cheney's former Chief of Staff), White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan took some heat about the apparent hypocrisy in the President's actions.

Normally, FNC carries McClellan's press briefings live as they happen, especially if he's pimping the Iraq war. The particularly heated briefing about the leak, however, got no live coverage. Other networks, meanwhile, carried the briefing live as usual. It's one of those things that makes a viewer go "hmmm...".

In addition to ignoring the press briefing, FNC went out of its way to play down the story. FNC's DC guy, Brit Hume, got mad at a member of the technical crew. FNC's justice gal, Greta Van Susteren, said she decided to let other media outlets cover the story.

To borrow an old phrase, let's roll the film.

The fishbowlDC blog has insight on FNC's lapse.
The TV Newser blog has more on Hume and Susteren.
The Crooks and Liars blog has footage of Hume and the sheep in his audience.
The Media Matters for America website has a complete rundown. In an example of actually being "Fair and Balanced," Media Matters also goes after CNN's David Ensor.

To sum it up, I'm going to make another play on an FNC slogan. They didn't report, because they've already decided.

It's how I usually reintroduce myself to regular blogging, so why not do it again?

It's Monday, so let's take a look at this week's Top Ten Conservative Idiots.

This week's edition features a number of GOPers on the run...more so than usual. As always, my thanks go to the folks at Democratic Underground for putting the list together.

The news is flowing hard and fast in the wake of Tom DeLay's stunning announcement. Most is coming to me from the Associated Press and KTRK-TV. Time magazine is said to have broken the story.

Here is the latest:

• DeLay is not just exiting the campaign. He's resigning his seat in Congress. This could be effective as soon as May.
  
• He is moving his official residence to Virginia. This allows the Governor and the Texas GOP to replace him in Congress and on the ballot.
• The Governor will appoint someone to fill his seat until a special election.
• The Governor will call that special election for someone to fill the remainder of DeLay's current term.
  
• This election will not have a primary and is open to anyone, regardless of their residence within the district. Legally, I could run.
  
• The mayor of Sugarland, Texas, will run in the special election.
• Former Congressman Nick Lampson, who would have faced DeLay in the general election, will likely run in the special election. A victory would make him the incumbent in November.
• The latest polling done by DeLay's campaign puts him in a 50/50 race against Lampson.

More details will be posted as they become available.

As was apparently broken by CNN, Congressman Tom DeLay is dropping out of his re-election race. This story is being confirmed by KRIV-TV, the Fox-owned station in Houston. The other Houston stations are only minutes away from their 10:00 p.m. newscasts.

DeLay is reported to have told his Capitol Hill staff this afternoon.

Perhaps the most interesting part of this story is that DeLay is less than a month past a resounding victory in the Republican primary. The party's options to nominate a replacement remain unclear.

Stay tuned.