My God, can two people be more clueless than Frist and Hastert?? They apparently couldn't care less about the fact that the CIA has created a network of secret jails with little or no oversight -- no sirree, what we need to focus on is who told the Washington Post all about it. If ever there was a clear picture of totally LAME Republican leadership at it's finest, surely this would be it!

What's puzzling to me is why in the world did Cheney spill the beans about these prisons at a lunch meeting? Is he even more clueless than Frist and Hastert? Did he perhaps think that the Senators who attended this meeting would then get behind his push to have the CIA exempted from torture prohibitions if they knew the CIA was holding countless prisoners in secret prisons? If so, I have to conclude that Dick Cheney thinks those Senators are as corrupt and without conscience as he is. (And if it turns out that it was one of those senators who leaked the story to the Washington Post, then isn't it nice to know that at least 1 Republican Senator may have a conscience after all?)

As noted in Tim's article, this latest poll was taken BEFORE the bombings in Jordan yesterday. I, for one, can't help but wonder if Bush's approval ratings would have gone up or sunk lower if the poll had been taken just AFTER news of the bombings. How many Americans just starting to see George Bush for what he is would revert to their feeling that we'd be SAFER with George Bush running the show and how many will finally admit that George Bush's policies on the war in Iraq and on torture will ultimately result in more terrorist attacks, not less.

And if George Bush no longer has any coattails for Republicans to grab on to, let them start grabbing at his chest hair - then when you saw him grimacing at least you'd know why (and you'd smile :-).

As usual, Heather has this season's Amazing Race nailed. Like HH, I was also sorry to see the Paolo family get eliminated, which is a pretty sad commentary, indeed, on the quality of this Race's participants since the Paolo sons showed less respect for their parents than I show to my 3 Irish Setters.

Although the other Race contestants refer to the Weavers as the "Praise-Gods", a friend of mine and avid Salon reader came up with an even better name for them - "The Holy Rollers in Hot Pants". (Please God let this race be over with already and please don't let the Weavers win.)

It's bad enough that Jean Schmidt did directly refer to John Murtha in her little tirade on the House floor, but, adding insult to injury, according to a front page article in today's Cincinnati Enquirer the Ohioan she quoted is disputing her comments.

Danny Bubp, a freshman state representative who is a colonel in the Marine Corps Reserve, told The Enquirer that he never mentioned Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., by name when talking with Schmidt, and he would never call a fellow Marine a coward.

"The unfortunate thing about all of that is that her choice of words on the floor of the House - I don't know, she's a freshman, she had one minute."

"There was no discussion of him personally being a coward or about any person being a coward," Bubp said. "My message to the folks in Washington, D.C., and to all the Congress people up there, is to stay the course. We cannot leave Iraq or cut and run - any terminology that you want to use."

It's also worth noting, I think, that contrary to Schmidt's inference, Marine reservist Danny Bubp has never served in Iraq.

On a brighter note, Paul Hackett, whom Schmidt barely beat in a heavily Republican district near Cincinnati earlier this year, is now hoping to unseat Ohio's senior Republican Senator, Mike DeWine. God knows Hackett will have MY vote and, barring any more voting "irregularities" here in Ohio, I'm predicting he's going to win handily!

"If the president's "inherent" authority as commander in chief allows him to ignore the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act during times of war, what other laws is he free to ignore, rewrite or violate at his pleasure?"

Why use the current tense here ("is")?? What other laws has he already ignored or violated and when, if ever, are we going to find out about it? Every time Bush or one of his henchmen make mention of this country's "war on terror" they're simply hammering home to the American people the fact that the constitution says the president is commander-in-chief and, since we're at war, the commander-in-chief clearly has the power and authority (no, let's make that the OBLIGATION) to ignore laws and the constitution (after all, it "just a goddamned piece of paper"). The "war" on terror is never going to be won but by the time most of the people in this country realize that there'll be precious few civil liberties left for the government to take away. (After reading some of the right-wing blogs this morning I think you'd probably have to hijack most of the Bushies, transport them to a gulag and water-board them until they looked like prunes before they might protest that perhaps the government has gone a bit too far.)