UPDATE: Listening to Barack now. Ah, the sweet sound of intelligence. Now he sounds presidential.

Thinking must be collapsing pretty bad as Bush holds a surprise news conference. The market drops below 10,000 and someone nonsense being spouted from the White House is "supposed to calm nerves." There are only nerves because Bush is still in the White House.

He is now babbling about the FDIC protecting deposits. Bush is now answering questions. How pathetic.

BY THE WAY: Need more reccs to keep the discussion on top of the diary list. Rec away.

Today I think we can finally say goodbye and goodnight to Air America. I have been an enthusiastic supporter of the network since it first aired. The talent was amazing. Marc Maron in the morning was frenzied and outrageous from his takes on politics to his life with his wife and cats. Rachel Maddow and Lizz Winstead were next, and they had an awesome show. Then came Al Franken, the best part of the day, with his sidekick Katherine Lanpher. His bits with Katherine were great. Then Randi Rhodes was up next. She was smart and entertaining. It was a full day of smart, funny, entertaining radio.

I'm listening to Rachel Maddow take apart Pat Buchanan over health care for kids on Hardball. And she points out, not enough for my taste, that it's disingenous for the Bush administration to claim fiscal responsibility while they are throwing billions away on the war in Iraq. Let's face it, according to the Republicans, we never have enough money for the health and welfare of the people of the United States even when we have enough money for the health and welfare for the people of the United States.

With the failures in the subprime markets now roiling the global economy, what did the leader of the Federal Reserve Board have to say about it? Like the rest of this administration, it held closely to a reality devoid of facts. There was nothing that the markets can't handle and laissez-faire economics was the philosophy of the day. Here are some of Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke's quotes from the New York Times:

This letter just went to my senators. By snail mail. To politicians, they listen to snail mail the most. The more letters, the more political pressure. Let's be relentless. For a start, save and erase this letter, drop it into your word processing program, print it out, mail it. Addresses are easily availble on the Net, of course. Send the letter, add a comment here.

From the Sunday L.A. Times

BAGHDAD — Kareem Yousif knew it would be a rough day when armed men tried to abduct four of his employees as they rode to work in a company van. The Radio Dijla staff members escaped unharmed, but the maverick news-and-talk station did not.

Hours after Thursday's foiled abduction, editors, security guards and other radio staffers battled with dozens of gunmen who stormed the building, killing one guard and wounding two others. They drove off the assailants, but the next night, arsonists returned to finish the job.

By Saturday, the station was a smoldering, looted ruin, one more casualty in a war in which independent voices face deadly repercussions.

Yousif, the station's acting director, and Ahmed Rikabi, its founder, blamed groups linked to Al Qaeda for Thursday's attack, which occurred on World Press Freedom Day.

"We're a symbol of unity. What we were doing is absolutely against their thinking," Rikabi said.

From the New York Times

LONDON, March 23 — Fifteen British sailors carrying out a routine inspection in the Persian Gulf were captured at gunpoint and taken into custody by Iranian forces on Friday morning, the British Ministry of Defense said.

The foreign secretary, Margaret Beckett, summoned the Iranian ambassador here to demand their immediate release.

In a statement, the Defense Ministry said that the sailors had been conducting "routine boarding operations of merchant shipping in Iraqi territorial waters" and had just finished an inspection of a merchant vessel "when they and their two boats were surrounded and escorted by Iranian vessels into Iranian territorial waters."

The statement continued: "The British Government is demanding the immediate and safe return of our people and equipment."

Get load of this story from the AP on the N.Y. Times Web site.

The headline? Gonzales offers mea culpa to attorneys.

Well, you can't get more pathetic than this. First Alberto Gonzales fires 8 of his prosecutors for political reasons. Then he lies about it to Congress. Then it comes out he was going to fire all 92 prosecutors.

OK. You are a US attorney. You're probably not stupid. In most cases, you are doing a fine job. And I imagine its hard enough sometimes to maintain a bipartisan stance. And then this comes out, making you look like a partisan hack.

Also, if you are part of the surviving 84, you know that you were almost fired. And then the guy who was part of the plot,and the guy who is supposed to be on your team, calls you together for a pep talk? Gee, how much bitterness to you think was on the other side of that conference call.

OK, so we know about the meltdown at Walter Reed Army Hospital and that the VA hospitals are a mess. We know we have to send the troops toothpaste, Kool-aid and deodorant. What's this about underwear for wounded troops?

There is a Web site, www.operationundergarment.com, which claims that soldiers who have been wounded get their clothes cut off, of course, but don't get much to replace them.

It's interesting how statements about one issue can trip you up on another. More precisely, it's interesting how Dick Cheney's statements on fighting terror today destroys the house of cards used to justify the Bush administration slow reaction to 9/11 and its total lack of preparedness.

At what point to we label this a "rogue" administration?

The definition of rogue: no longer obedient, belonging, or accepted and hence not controllable or answerable; deviating, renegade: a rogue cop; a rogue union local.

Sound familiar? Before this year, the Bush administration had it's way. It had a compliant Congress and election wins in its pocket. It was pretty hard to call it a rogue administration when Congress failed to do its job.

Fox News Sunday
Vice President Dick Cheney joins 'FOX News Sunday' for an exclusive interview with Chris Wallace  

What's on the Sunday news shows for Jan. 14? I did a quick spin around the network Web sites. The highlight, of course, is the Fox exclusive interview of Dick Cheney by Chris Wallace. Will he has him about the Murray Waas article that Libby was actually covering for him? Will Wallace ask Cheney how much of a driving force he was behind the Iraq escalation? Or getting Negroponte out of the Intelligence seat and putting his own yes-man in there? It will be more interesting to see how Wallace avoids the questions or how he turns them into softball questions. Maybe we will be treated to how the insurgency is still in its last throes, if you will.

From Roll Call by way of Raw Story:

A well-placed GOP source says that Pelosi, in a random act of bipartisan kindness that will surely irk Members on both sides of the aisle, has decided to reward Hastert with the plush and coveted Capitol office suite now held by retiring Ways and Means Chairman Bill Thomas (R-Calif.).

In other words, while Hastert won’t have a balcony any more, he still will enjoy a gorgeous view of the National Mall, courtesy of Pelosi.

Pelosi made the hush-hush agreement to give H-163 and H-164 to the outgoing Speaker, our source says — essentially "rewarding the person who had the most to do with making her Speaker."

Neither Pelosi’s office nor Hastert’s office would comment on the supposed move. But expect some major complaints to be lodged by other Members of the leadership of both parties, and maybe even a reshuffling of Hastert to a more, shall we say, pedestrian office space.

You know, I just don't get this crap.

It's Christmas time when we decorate our houses for the holidays. Let's use our front windows to send a message. I was thinking to just post the number of our troops killed in Iraq. Just 4 big numbers "288.7" We can change them daily.

Or maybe just "Bring our troops home." Surround it with lights.

It just seems to be that President Bush, aka Alfred E. Newuman,  still hasn't gotten the message. Even though the Iraq panels says to get out by 2008 and the Iraqis are saying June 2007.

Bush is getting to remind me of the SNL skit with John Belushi as "The Guest That Wouldn't Leave." Anybody remember that?

Anyhow, it seems we need to ramp up the anti-war movement. Thanks for listening. AT 2:35 a.m. Eastern time. Yawn.

OK, so No. 1 one is the Midterm Midtacular. What else goes on the list? This is my favs. List has been updated.

1. Midterm elections. House, Senate control gone.

2. October Iraq death toll hits of U.S. troops hits 100, highlights war right before elections.

3. Foley scandal.

4. "State of Denial" released

5. Israel, Hezbollah war. Bush administration gets killed for not trying to stop violence.

6. Abramoff pleads guilty.

7. North Korea detonates A-bomb, blows huge hole in Bush foreign policy.

8. DeLay resigns. House loses Dr. Evil.

9. Bush fires Rumsfeld, gets killed by GOP for not doing it sooner.

10. Retired generals come out against Rumsfeld.

I don't have a good reference. This is what I remember. Anybody have additions?

Well, I haven't seen the request for haikus posted recently, and with all of the shirt rolling downhill on the Republicans lately, it might be time to break into verse.

Now, this is not a celebration, although it could be. It's kind of making sense in verse as to what is happening. And having some fun.

For rookies, the haiku is composed of 3 lines of 5, 7 and 5 syllables. It's something like this

Dick Cheney still thinks
We are winning in Iraq
Soldiers still dying

In the New York Times today, Bush is using his rose-colored glasses again. But this time, instead of looking at Iraq, he's looking at the November elections. Take a look at what the White House is doing:

 

The capital is filled with Republicans convinced that they will lose the House and maybe the Senate. So last week, the White House and party leaders convened a "friends and allies" teleconference to dispute what Ken Mehlman, chairman of the Republican National Committee, considers flawed conventional wisdom.

For 20 minutes, Mr. Mehlman and the White House political director, Sara Taylor, tried to lift the cloak of gloom that has descended on the top ranks of Republican strategists, using what one of the dozens of lobbyists, donors, party aides and other supporters who listened in later called "happy talk."

Despite the "happy talk," the faithful aren't convinced:

*But were afraid to ask.

This is from the web site of Congressman Henry Brown of South Carolina. Two things of note:

The Board consists of two Members from the Majority party selected by the Speaker, one Member from the Minority party selected by the Minority Leader, the Clerk of the House and the Sergeant-at-Arms of the House.

and

Pages sponsored by the Majority report to the Majority Chief Page, and those sponsored by the Minority report to the Minority Chief Page.

Also

While there are over 400 Members of Congress wishing to recommend a young person for a Page position, there are only about 66 Page positions available. This narrows opportunity considerably. All students must be sponsored by a Member of Congress to become a Page.