This morning's top-of-the-hour capsule reports on NPR also failed to mention Cunningham's party affiliation. Is NPR moving to the right, or is this par for the course in short, capsule stories? I honestly don't know.

I'd give Fox the benefit of the doubt, if that hadn't already proven themselves to be craven partisans. But what do we make of NPR's failure to mention Cunningham's party affiliation in their capsule? It should be noted that NPR did mention his party affiliation in a longer story on the subject.

Oh.. Nope. Sorry. My bad. You didn't forget.

OK. Frey is no innocent lamb. He's a fraud. But he's a minor blip. History will forget him. What's going on with Frey has little to do with Frey, and everything to do with the Culture of Lies in which we live. Frank Rich is dead on in his assessment. From the 'little white lies' of 'reality' TV, to the big, bald-faced lies of the Bush Administration, we are lied to everyday, and none of these lies would stick if we didn't want to believe them.

James Frey has become the sacrifical lamb to help us all pretend like we value the truth. The outrage at James Frey is really outrage at our own credulousness and apathy in the face of lies that ACTUALLY HAVE CONSEQUENCES. But once we're done with Frey, we'll be mollified, and ready to forgive ourselves for not doing anything when we hear, once again, the lies that things are going really well in Iraq, that the President is safeguarding our civil liberties, that Sam Alito will not overturn Roe, that Brownie is doing a heck of job, that Abramoff is a bi-partisan scandal, that God loves only heterosexual, white Americans, and that writing little rants in the "comments" section at Salon makes a difference.

Knowing the cost of this trip would be a pretty potent metaphor for folks to know what their vote is "Worth."

Just kidding. It wil be interesting to see if Taylor dishes dirt....but given the fact that pictures of Rumsfeld and Saddam barely made the news during a prolonged and ongoing conflict in Iraq, it's hard to imagine that anyone will pay attention to what was going on with an African warlord in the 90s. Nobody pays attention to Africa, anyway. Darfur anyone?

I've wondered in the past whether it would be better or worse for the American worker if minimum wage increases were pegged to Congressional Salary increases.

According to the numbers quoted here in War Room, Congressional Salaries have increased about 23.6% since 1997. A 23.6% increase in the minimum wage would raise the minimum wage from $5.15 to $6.37. But it's worth noting, as McJoan does on DailyKos: "the minimum wage in 1968 would be worth $9.09 today, 75% more than the current wage."

In any case, it is appalling that Senators and Congressmen can vote themselves raise after raise without any regard for the working class. MAybe if the working class were at least getting free golf trips they'd have a case for keeping the minimum wage low.

This raises a potentially problematic perception: If Dems can't be creative, effective and efficient in campaigns, will they be creative, effective an efficient in governing, if they do manage to win?

I want Dems to win in '06 and '08, but dammit, I want results in office, too. I'm hopeful about Dean's 50 state plan and the emerging netroots movement, but if and when Dems get control of Congress, they'd better be ready to LEAD.

I see several other commenters have said the same thing: STOP TALKING ABOUT ANNE COULTER. She is not worth the time in any way shape or form. She thirives on outrage, so JUST STOP. It's barely worth the time to make this comment, but I'm not writing out of my outrage over Coulter, I'm writing over my outrage over War Room covering her. STOP IT.

Not sure which is more disturbing...a new secret government spying program, or the fact that Orrin Hatch is unironically referred to as a songwriter in the NYT piece.

I think we all agree that BushCo's smoke and mirrors are political tools that obfuscate the facts for their own political gain. So, in the interest of getting a clear picture, perhaps Salon and/or ThinkProgress would also offer some data on the largest deficit numbers when adjusted for inflation, and as a perecentage of GDP.

I'm much more eager to engage in a discussion of the facts than to trumpet big numbers as proof of BushCo's ineptitude. It seems to me that the big numbers offered by ThinkProgress are simply the flip side of the smoke and mirrors game, and I'd feel more comfortable engaging with my republican friends and family over this issue if I had confidence in the numbers.

Thanks!

Stop talking about Ann Coulter.

No amount of righteous indignation at her antics justifies talking about her. She is a publicity whore who makes outrageous comments to keep her name in the news and her books selling. The solution is not to point fingers and bask in the schadenfreude of her possible felony, her voting problems, or whatever the subject du jour is; the solution is to stop talking about her.

Ann Coulter is the living embodiment of the old question: How long have you been beating your wife? To respond to the question (even an emphatic denunciation of the quesiton) is to validate the question and the questioner. The proper response is the zen response of "Mu" which translates roughly as "unask the question."

Please stop reporting on Ann Coulter.