What's So Funny 'Bout Peace, Love & Understanding? (Live by Request, A&E)

Bill Maher was on "Hardball" today to talk about the Republican presidential field and made a hysterical crack about Fred Thompson that got Matthews giggling like crazy off camera.

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The part about Thompson comes at the 4:19 mark. I included the entire interview because Maher makes alot of funny and witty points about the myriad problems the Republicans have with their frontrunners. The part about Reagan is hysterical and the part about the "strong-on-terror" myth surrounding Rudy is dead on.

Campaign for America's Future:

I'm privileged to be able to call William F. Buckley a friend. Once he even invited me to one of his fortnightly dinner parties for National Review staffers and friends. (I made an ass of myself, spilling Scotch on one of his heirloom rugs.)

Today he gets something off his chest: thanks to the war in Iraq, there are "grounds for wondering whether the Republican party will survive."

I think we're going to see more and more Republicans and conservatives try to disassociate themselves from Bush as we get closer to the election. Don't let them do it. Their sycophantic cheerleading and Swiftboat-like smears of any other voices is exactly what got us in the position we're in.

Speaker Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Reid addressed the media today to respond to President Bush's excuse for vetoing the Iraq spending bill and the will of the American people. It also appears like the Democrats are reading the blogs. As Nico did earlier today, Nancy Pelosi quoted 1999 George W. Bush where he called on President Clinton to lay out a timetable for removing troops from Kosovo.

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I would have included President Bush's remarks, but it was the same old tired song and dance -- "artificial timetables," "micromanaging the war," "embolden the enemy," etc. etc. Just go back and look at any of his speeches/press conferences.

UPDATE: (Nicole) Here's transcripts of Reid's statement; Jim Webb also has a few things to say (video up at dKos)

And you thought the editorial page was conservative before....

WaPo:

Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation media empire has made an unsolicited takeover bid for Dow Jones & Co., which publishes the Wall Street Journal.

The bid, first reported this morning by CNBC and confirmed by Dow Jones, is a cash offer of $60 per share, a premium of nearly twice the stock's trading value. Dow Jones stock, which closed yesterday at $36.33 per share, shot up to more than $57 in late-morning trading. With 63 million shares of Dow Jones stock outstanding, Murdoch's bid would be worth at least $3.8 billion.

The News Corp. bid came two weeks ago in a letter to Dow Jones's board, the company said in a statement. Like The Washington Post Co. and the New York Times Co., Dow Jones has a dual-class ownership structure that allows the Bancroft family, longtime owners, to control the company while holding a minority of the stock. News Corp. has offered to buy all outstanding shares of Dow Jones's common stock.

ABC News:

Steve Yount, president of the union and representing 2,000 reporters and other employees at Dow Jones, called ownership by Murdoch "a disaster," particularly for The Wall Street Journal.

"This is a premier publication and everything that News Corp. brings to the table runs the risk of tarnishing that reputation," said Yount.

Ya think?

Murray Waas has found a blockbuster...

In the order, Gonzales delegated to his then-chief of staff, D. Kyle Sampson, and his White House liaison "the authority, with the approval of the Attorney General, to take final action in matters pertaining to the appointment, employment, pay, separation, and general administration" of virtually all non-civil-service employees of the Justice Department, including all of the department's political appointees who do not require Senate confirmation. Monica Goodling became White House liaison in April 2006, the month after Gonzales signed the order.
The existence of the order suggests that a broad effort was under way by the White House to place politically and ideologically loyal appointees throughout the Justice Department, not just at the U.S.-attorney level.

Let's hope this article makes its way to the Senate committee before Goodling's date to testify. I see a very interesting line of questioning here.

NY Times (reg. req'd.):

Government investigators said Monday that byproducts from pet food contaminated with wheat gluten imported from China were used in chicken feed on some farms in Indiana.

The latest revelation came as part of the investigation into imported rice protein concentrate and wheat gluten that have been found to contain melamine and melamine-related compounds. Pet food contaminated with melamine has killed at least 16 cats and dogs and sickened thousands of others.

The Agriculture Department and the Food and Drug Administration said that some 30 broiler poultry farms and eight breeder poultry farms in Indiana had received contaminated feed in early February and fed it to chickens within days of receiving it. All of those potentially affected chickens have since been processed.

The two agencies said they believed the likelihood of illness to people eating contaminated chicken was low because the contamination was most likely diluted. Without evidence of harm to humans, the agencies said they were not issuing recalls of any of the processed chicken products.

Why do I not feel comforted by the assurances from the federal agencies? At this point, I wouldn't be surprised to hear that Soylent Green is in the food.

BREAKING: Americans ate 3 million melamine-tainted chickens!