Midday Open Thread

• Pew sez: "National Discontent Approaches 20-Year High, Bush Approval at 28%." That must be progress, right?
• According to Condi, war is hard. Who could have imagined that war in Iraq "would be this tough"? Seems to me that figuring out stuff like that would have been the job of people like the president's national security advisor.
• Tuscalloosa News reporter and blogger Tommy Stevenson on the Siegelman case:

  In a brief statement issued by the state GOP within the hour of the announcement that an appeals court was ordering Siegelman released late Thursday afternoon, Hubbard said that "the former Governor's release pending appeal does not change the conviction by a jury of his peers. It would be premature to turn this development into anything other than a formality."

  Formality? Tell that to Siegelman and his family who should be joyously reunited after nine months Friday. And what is a political party official doing issuing a statement that also said he was "disappointed" in the appeal court's decision?

• Is the Libertarian Party this season's new black? Gravel is going to have some competition for that nomination.
• ID-Sen: What is it with Republican carpetbaggers? Now it's the Senate seat Larry Craig appears to be vacating. The latest entrant (number 10? 11?) is a doozie:

  Hal Styles lives in Southern California, and he’s never been to Idaho. But he’s running in Idaho’s open Republican primary for United States Senate.... "The reason I want to be the U.S. Senator from Idaho?  It’s one of the western states and I must stay in the west, and everything I’ve heard about Idaho is beautiful and gorgeous, and I want to serve America, it’s in my blood...."

• Tomorrow is Earth Hour day.

  On March 29, 2008 at 8 p.m., join millions of people around the world in making a statement about climate change by turning off your lights for Earth Hour, an event created by the  World Wildlife Fund.... We invite everyone throughout North America and around the world to turn off the lights for an hour starting at 8 p.m. (your own local time)–whether at home or at work, with friends and family or solo, in a big city or a small town.

• Speaking of global warming, TPMMuckraker details how EPA administrator Stephen Johnson's latest stall tactic for issuing regs on greenhouse gases--requesting public input on a decision that has already been made.
• Greg Mitchell, editor of Editor and Publisher and author of the new book So Wrong for So Long,  (and Kossack) stopped by Second Life last night for a chat with Jay Ackroyd. You can hear the podcast (and catch the archived interviews) here.
• Federal protection for gray wolves in the Northern Rockies ended today with the delisting of the wolves from the Endangered Species Act, leaving them at the mercy of state "management plans" in Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming. A coalition of conservation organizations have notified the government that they will file suit to appeal the delisting within the next 60 days, and will also file an immediate injunction if state game officials start killing the animals before the suit is filed.