update While I stand by the conclusion of this diary -- i.e., that the timing (and here I am not referring to the necessity of the surgery just its timing -- i.e., whether to do it in March or June) of Snow's surgery was aimed to get him out of the hot seat right now.  Please unrecommend it.  I never intended for it to make the rec list.  It was a theory that I felt should not be left fall by the wayside.  FWIW.  Now, it hasn't been.  I really don't see it as a recommended diary, myself, but it was more than a comment's worth of ideas.  I just don't put anything past Karl Rove and I don't think you should either.  He is a master at cynical manipulation.

But when a big fish disappears before our eyes, nobody pays attention.  Or rather, no one questions his departure -- for "elective surgery" on a tumor that he has known about since September and which has already tested benign.  No one would dare question it in light of Elizabeth Edwards' revelation of the day before? Exactly the cynical calculation this administration Karl Rove is counting on.  

My theory...

I did not see this up yet, but if there are a lot of other diaries by the time this one is posted, I will delete this.  

AP has reportedly been advised by Air America that it has filed a petition for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection today.  It was apparently unable to come to terms with a creditor that the article describes the creditor as one from the "early days" of the network.  

For the many avid listeners, you should rest assured that thee Chapter 11 filing does NOT mean that AAR will go off the air.  Bankruptcy will give the network protection from its creditors while it re-structures.  As part of that re-structuring, Scott Elberg has been named CEO.  

I am tired of hearing about the Democrats' lack of a "plan".  Let's turn that question around for a change.  What will America look like after Republicans have had their chance to change it?  What do they want to accomplish as they govern our country?  So far, my answer would be: they want to make it a law that a man and a woman marry, have monogamous sex and birth as many children as "god blesses them with."  Then they go to church on Sunday and thank God for those blessings.  That is the Republican platform in a nutshell.  Another way of saying it, might be that families should go back to the way we never were in the 1950s.  

These are just some unformed thoughts that have been rolling around in my head.  They come from trying to make sense of the Right  -- trying to see their "big picture".  Tell me what you think.    

These were the headlines on the CNN front page as I began writing this (some have changed since then -- this list is just illustrative anyway, so the exact stories do not matter):  

11 cousins have stomachs removed in survival bid
Report: Al Qaeda planned N.Y. subway attack
Yellowstone tourist dies in 500-foot fall
Troops scour Iraq for missing U.S. soldiers | Watch
Personal data for 13,000 DC employees stolen
Mid-air crash kills pilot before air show
Elevator crushes child visiting his grandmother
Couple finds cat playing with 7-foot-long snake
92-year-old jumps out of plane
Episcopal bishops vote amid gay controversy
World's most expensive lemon?
Teacher in trouble over topless shots, but is it art?
SI.com: A grumpy co-leader | U.S. Open leaderboard

Just how much of this is actually national news?  

 Bush told the media that he had learned of the Haditha massacre from reporters' questions.    

Washington Post reports Bush knew of the massacre since March 11.  

he would tell us what happened -- first hand.  

As I was reading a Washington Post story about a bird hunter who almost killed his dog, I realized what bothers me about the whole Cheney hunting accident.  It was this:  If Cheney had even a scrap of concern for the American people, he would get in front of a microphone and tell us how sorry he is about what he did to his friend.  He would use this terrible -- unfunny -- accident as a lesson about gun safety.  

Immanuel Wallerstein argues that Bush has lost the confidence of key elements of his party, the electorate and the world over the past year.  

But Bush spent all of his "political capital" before the first year of his second term was out.  Now what?

The myth of George W. Bush was created atop the mound at Ground Zero where he vowed to avenge the US on the men who brought the Twin Towers down.  

I have always believed that the man shouting at Bush from the crowd was a Rove creation who helped the President enact a pre-scripted drama.  The result saved Bush II's first term and gave him a second -- but that is a story for another diary.  Right now I want to focus on the myth of George W. Bush, the protector.  

There was a book published in the 1980's called the "One Minute Manager" that said a person could get the skills to manage people in no time at all.  That book comes to mind when I try to understand how the Myth of George II came about.

There are not a lot of interesting offices on the ballot, but there are some important state-wide initiatives that will be close.  This is what I have decided so far. I assume you, the reader, have some familiarity with them.

Statewide.

Initiatives:  912, 330 and 336.  I oppose 912.  If enacted, 912 will put Washington state in a position like New Orleans -- waiting for disaster to happen.  Money is needed to fund infrastructure repair and maintenance.  Taxes are needed to provide that money.  Let's keep the tax and fix the viaduct and other road repairs.    

We talk a lot on Daily Kos about reproductive rights, family planning and abortion, but seldom in the context of the Third World.  NYT Columnist Nicholas Kristof gives us a look at the reality some rural African women face.  Here is a reprint of the NYT column at truthout.org.

The Bush administration's policy against funding the UN Population Fund has real consequences for these women, according to Kristof:

Every fall, my mother would refuse to let my sisters and me play in the back yard.  It was deer hunting season and you just never knew what those city folks from Chicago or Milwaukee would do when they were let loose in the "wilds" of southern Wisconsin cornfields.  I grew up hearing the stories....

The NYT has a a front page article that is a must read for anyone interested in the realities of reproductive choice in America.  The reporter visits an Arkansas abortion clinic and talks to real patients who find themselves in need of an abortion.  There is a woman in for her third abortion.  There is a 17 year old high school student whose mother threw a stool at her and kicked her out of the house when she revealed that she was pregnant.  There is an army sergeant returning from Iraq whose boyfriend beat her up rather than offering her marriage as she had hoped.    

There are patients' stories as well as those of the aging physicians who perform the abortions.  Take a look.

I was 14 when Roe v. Wade was decided and abortions became legal.-- old enough to know what it meant, but young enough never to have seriously thought about needing an abortion.  Before Roe  - in my small town in the Midwest - if you got pregnant, you got married to the putative father - whether it was a good idea or not.  I knew lots of people who "had to get married" - my mother, my oldest sister and my 15 year old cousin down the street among them -- all married because they had gotten pregnant.  In my cousin's case, she dropped out of high school to become a mother and never went back.  

There is lots of talk about circular firing squads and Vichy Dems and how NARAL has betrayed itself by supporting Republicans for office.  But I don't hear much discussion of how we all come together.  Usually it is:  those guys are so stupid... why are they destroying the party... NARAL is stupid.  Etc.  I am having a hard time seeing how this kind of talk gets us anywhere.  It just starts another round of firing.    It makes me wonder what it mean to be a loyal Democrat and how we can get there.