More catch-up items:

The NY Times mentions that with all this union fracturing the Dems will surely be hurt by it. I beg to differ. What's implied in this thinking is that union voters are predominantly under some kind of mind control by the labor bosses, who apparently shower their members with a variety of pro-Dem propaganda. Never mind the fact that most union members are within a demographic that would normally be inclined to vote Dem, not requiring the force-fed "education" from the union's powers-that-be. The labor bloc by definition of their income, race, etc. is simply going to vote more so Dem than GOP. And besides, where is it said that the newly formed union/coalition won't contribute just as much to the Dem Party?

Helen Thomas asks the obvious: "Two years and he [Bush] can't call Rove in and find out what the hell is going on? All he has to do is call him in?" And McClellan's non-answer: "Because there's an investigation continuing at this point, the appropriate people handling these issues are the people investigating this investigation." How is it the American public is standing for this bullsh*t?

I highly recommend listening to former CIA officer Larry Johnson on Al Franken's radio show. He's extremely well-informed and doesn't hold back on his comments.

I noticed the passing of the CAFTA bill was another past-midnight session. Recall DeLay did this to pass that rotten prescription bill. He's making a habit of breaking congressional tradition (being progressive?!) by doing whatever it takes to get bills passed that he and the White House favor. In this case, the bill squeaked by 217-215.

93% of Americans want government to develop new energy technologies and require auto industry to make cars and trucks that get better gas mileage. And yet, the auto industry successfully removed a measure in the latest energy bill that would've required increasing the fuel-efficiency of cars and trucks.