"For those about to rock, we salute you!" As if he read my latest blog entry, tagging Reid and the Dems as "soggy wet noodles," Harry goes ahead and shocks the hell out of me by shocking the entire Senate. Hopefully this closed door session act marks the birth of the new revitalized and empowered opposition party. (Click here to read Reid's statement).

Although Bush claims to have killed something like thirteen #2 Al-Qaeda operatives (?), at least one has escaped.

Kevin Drum has an excellent post on the filibuster. It's become a game of chicken or dare, with the GOP having much to lose in the long-run. I agree with Kevin's assessment:

One of the drawbacks of the filibuster is that it prevents the American public from understanding what each party really wants to accomplish. Without a filibuster, Republicans would no longer have an excuse for failing to pass the legislation that the Christian right has been demanding for years. So they'd either have to pass it, and lose a huge chunk of middle America, or vote it down, in which case they'd lose their right-wing support. Right now, the political cover provided by the filibuster is probably the only thing keeping them in power.

Rather then "go nuclear," it should be called "go naked."

I recently wrote, "GW will likely replace existing charlatans with new charlatans." Well, while it appears Bush is not likely to replace anyone (!), Cheney did go ahead and replace one charlatan with two. These guys are so knee-deep in slime they can't bring in new fresh blood; it all must stay within the family.

Some segments from a great Bob Herbert column:

Who knows why Mr. Libby did what he did. Misplaced loyalty? An irrepressible need to be punished for his sins? Maybe he's just a dope. Of greater consequence for the republic is the fact that Mr. Libby is no hapless functionary who somehow lost his way. He's a symptom, the hacking cough that should alert us to a dangerous national disease, and that's the Bush administration's culture of deceit.

Scooter Libby was the main man of the most powerful vice president in the history of the United States. The most important aspect of the prosecution of Mr. Libby for perjury and obstruction of justice is the tremendous spotlight it is likely to shine on the way this administration does its business - its relentless, almost pathological, undermining of the truth, and its ruthless treatment of individuals who cling to the old-fashioned notion that the truth matters.
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That's the game plan of this administration, to fool the people as much as possible (not just on the war, but on taxes, Social Security, energy policy and so on) and punish, if not destroy, anyone who tries to counter the madness with the truth.
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It should tell you something that the administration's resident sleazemeister, Karl Rove, who is up to his ears in this mess but has managed so far to escape indictment, continues to be viewed not as an embarrassment, but as President Bush's most important and absolutely indispensable asset.