A short little diary on something I hope is still virgin topic matter.

Tonight, while zipping around doing stuff I should have done a long time ago, I overheard Joe Scarborough twice tease an upcoming story on how the LA Times was attacking Fred Thompson because he once played a white supremacist on a TV show.

I thought to myself, ‘Oh God no.’ Surely, a LA-based newspaper in the shadow of Ronald Reagan and Arnold wouldn’t do such a thing. My ears still ring from our collective howl over Senator George Allen’s desperate and ridicules attack on Jim Webb’s books for containing some very mature passages.

The fire's down below....

If you think a dairy redundant to another is a dumb diary, then you’ll think this is a dumb dairy. But it’s a smart dairy for a dumb man and I think I can make a point out of this.

Let me begin by debunking the notion that Newt Gingrich’s indiscretion was news. It was widely reported near seven years ago.

follow, please

It was all but certain to happen, but so vile and so fast? This email was passed to me from a Republican friend who’s on the verge of jumping ship. The good news is that I think this pushed her off the U.S.S. GOP; the bad news is that it would seem there’s a cyber-Klan rearing its ugly head. Read on...

Let me preface this by saying that I don't want our side to have a Fox News. All I ask is give it to me straight, and, yes, both sides of the story.

With that in mind, I was stunned tonight at Woodward's downright hostility toward the idea that anyone in Saint Dubya's White House might have done something wrong in the Plame affair.

Fitzgerald Issues Frog-Marching Guidelines

EWM - (October 18, 2005) In anticipation of imminent activity resulting from his two-year investigation into the White House leaking of undercover CIA operative Valerie Plame's identity, Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald has issued guidelines to FBI agents outlining the proper techniques to use when "frog marching" suspects.

It is clear that the ever thorough Fitzgerald does not want any missteps. Due to the historical nature of the upcoming frog marches, and the fact they will be replayed thousands of times on cable news networks, he issued a memorandum on the subject which EWM obtained through a double super-secret source...

Dr. Phil to Intervene in Troubled Republican Family

Program to air Sunday night on Fox

EWM- (October 12, 2005) Pop psychology guru Dr. Phil McGraw will conduct a live intervention Sunday night on the Fox Network in an attempt to pacify the feuding Republican Party. The program was hastily announced this morning as party leaders conceded that the internecine warfare over Supreme Court nominees, Iraq policy, corruption, out of control spending and general incompetence was about to go nuclear.

"These guys need more than a check-up from the neck-up. I'm going to have to do a full cranial colonic. I mean they got more troubles than a trailer park," said Dr. Phil.

AP -- Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers, who once owned a .45-caliber revolver, is not licensed to carry a concealed handgun in Texas. State officials refused Monday to reveal whether she has ever been licensed.

Miers' brother gave her the Smith & Wesson handgun when he was worried about her living alone in Dallas. Judge Nathan Hecht of the Texas Supreme Court, a longtime friend of Miers', has said she kept the gun for a long time...

EWM - (October 6, 2005) The scientific community was stunned today when famed French geophysicist Jacques Revanche published a study that concludes euthanizing right-wing talk show hosts would solve the global warming problem.

The report sparked a firestorm of controversy across the nation's airwaves, even as Revanche sought to downplay its findings. "It's true that if you wanted to stop global warming, you could, if that were your sole purpose, you could euthanize every right-wing talk show host in this country, and the global temperature would go down. That would be an impossible, ridiculous, and morally reprehensible thing to do, but your temperature would go down."

It is time to start the drumbeat for Robert Ney to step down. If you recall, the 1994 Democratic meltdown in the House was in many ways attributable to the perception or reality that the institution had become totally corrupt--from its leadership to its bank to its post office.

Well excuse the hell out of me, but the place is run by the House Administration Committee. And the activities of its chairman were profiled in "Second Verse, Same as the First".

   "As you are aware, it does not suffice for any House Member to assert that his or her actions violated no law...The House Code of Official Conduct broadly requires that every House Member, officer and employee "conduct himself at all times in a manner that shall reflect creditably on the House."  It is particularly important that members of the House leadership...adhere to this requirement scrupulously...  

Get ready for a blockbuster, multi-faceted, billion-dollar-plus campaign to get your kids to sign up to get themselves killed in W's Terrifying War on Terror.

This is straight out of Dr. Strangelove.

But something's changed. They are way off their game. These aren't the guys that buried Richard Clarke, skated on WMD and shoved a catastrophic fiscal policy up America's ass.

Today on EWM:

Pat Robertson Crashes Emmy Awards
"To Hell with Hollywood, I'll make my own shows!"

(Reuters) Diplomacy's most powerful woman, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, has turned down a dinner date with other female foreign ministers to discuss women's rights, citing a busy schedule...The other minister who could not attend was Roza Otunbayeva of Kyrgyzstan...

White House Bracing for Second Blow in Widening U.N. Potty Scandal.

While he's slipped out of mess after mess, this one feels different--and the polls are worse than Monica-bad.

The stars are aligned against him more than ever and one more blow (Rove indicted, Iraq constitution rejected, another horrific hurricane response, domestic act of terrorism] could be the start of another 1994. Thoughts?

DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff has ordered a new color-coded alert system for FEMA in the wake of its inept Katrina response. The top-secret codes will be communicated to FEMA personnel via GPS-controlled mood rings and the threat status will not be announced to the public.

New FEMA Color Codes