Have you noticed that nothing in Bob Novak's statement rules out the possibility that his source was... Dubya himself?

"Asked if that was a 'yes' or a 'no' answer to the question, Hadley said: 'It is what it is.'"

Oh my, doesn't that depend on what the meaning of "is" is?

Too bad that pic earlier this week of Jessica Valenti with Bill Clinton wasn't taken with that camera: it would have made her breasts smaller and Ann Althouse wouldn't have had as much to complain about....

Heather asks: "The question is, why do the writers think that the stakes are automatically high when there's torture involved?"

I'm kind of surprised that no one here has pointed out that 24's principal Executive Producer is Joel Surnow, who is also the creative wizard behind Fox News' latest atrocity "The Half-Hour News Hour" with guest stars like Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter.

What the heck do you expect out of it? Yah, Monday's twist of Jack risking "world war 3" just to free Audrey (as many of us asked, who let her out of the bank?) was surprising, but actually the biggest twist was in making it clear that VP Cheney, er um, I mean Daniels gets to be President for the rest of the season *because* that incompetent President is "blackmailing" him (just like Scooter!). Yep, while its held back from going full-blown wingnuts (probably because those liberal advertisers would unfairly punish them!), Joel is as far as you need to look to explain a lot of the stupid right-wing-friendly plot features.

Yes, its been the consensus for a while that 24 has "jumped the shark" (check out Tim Goodman's blog at the SF Chronicle where its been a hot discussion topic), but that happens to most series after 6 or 7 seasons. Its really hard to be a Gunsmoke or Simpsons...

I recommend Gina Arnold go meet up with Aidin Vaziri in a dark place and contemplate Nirvana and discuss how superior and wise they are than the rest of us hillbillies.

I introduced my 12-year old to Sgt Pepper about 4 months ago and she has been playing it non-stop on her iPod ever since. I can't think of better proof of how well it has aged....

It always amazes me that the right wing that both puts Cheney on a pedestal and at the same time rabidly fights even the most reasonable controls on guns seem to be blithefully unaware that Cheney's arguments give complete cover to Obama to start confiscating all guns of "potential terrorists." "Terrorist" defined of course by the "I know them when I see them" definition that could be applied to anyone that the President or any of his designees personally deemed to be sufficiently "threatening."

Having trouble seeing your own self-interest Mr. Gun Nut?

Has the right completely forgotten the Law of Unintended Consequences?

Heather, your perception that it's all about what you think of the Allman Bros. is quite correct.

I'm surprised though by your implication that they're aligned with those muscle-car, rebel-flag-and-baseball-bat wielding good-ol-boys that you remember from your youth. Sure they're from Georgia, but they're the antithesis of Lynerd Skynerd: I'd call them about as archetypically southern as the B-52s who also hail from Georgia.

What SOA *is* is typical of California biker gang ethos: except for a strong streak of distaste for the anti-war aspect of hippiedom, they are in general exceptionally liberal and libertarian.

Do they objectify women? Yep. Not much different than your average white-collar executive or Jersey mafia type though: in fact unlike those comparisons, diss *these* biker chicks and you're a dead man.

Oddly enough, I'd rather be Gemma than Carmela....