With Francine Busby polling ahead of Brian Bilbray in a once Republican "shoo-in" district she may actually win her election on the 6th. At the very least she'll come close. Independents are already trending heavily her way, an indicator that has national implications.

As if that wasn't enough, on the SAME DAY the Republican Senate has decided to further demonstrate how corrupt and out of touch it is by holding debate and a vote on a federal amendment to ban gay marriage. This at a time when millions of Americans are uninsured or underinsured, when we are in desperate need of new ideas for energy, when wages are stagnating, there is no Congressional oversight WRT the debacle in Iraq, you name it! There are so many more salient issues for average Americans right now.

Here is how the piece is described on the npr site:

All Things Considered, January 10, 2006 · As Judge Samuel Alito testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Robert Siegel talks with Alito's contemporaries -- those who are 55 or so -- to see how much they and their views have changed since they were 35. In his testimony, Alito has said his views have changed since 1985.

Siegel talks to Judy Carter, who performs corporate comedy; Patrick Michaels, a University of Virginia professor and a senior fellow at the Cato Institute; Arianna Huffington, editor of the Web site The Huffington Post; Carl Rohde, an entrepreneur and part-time actor from Greenwich, Conn.; and Alan Ito, who works for the California Department of Toxic Substance Control.

NEW YORK - Cuba won't be allowed to send a team to next year's inaugural World Baseball Classic, the U.S. government told event organizers Wednesday.

The decision by the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control was conveyed to Major League Baseball on Wednesday, according to Pat Courtney, a spokesman for the commissioner's office.

The rest of the article can be found here.