Odds and Ends

Lot of news in the past week, here's a quick roundup of the big stuff...

Groundbreaking begins on the Martin Luther King memorial on the National Mall.

President Bush, proving once again he has a disturbingly distorted view of what kind of nation we are, said in his weekly radio address that Americans "can take pride" that we held an election "even in a time of war". Yea, thanks for not cancelling them, George. I assume this radio address is probably closer to how he is really feeling.

Oh, and that liberal media? Nope, still not liberal.

Speaker-to-be Pelosi is asserting herself into the Majority Leader race by publicly backing Rep. Murtha (for his early stance for withdrawal from Iraq) against the safer candidate, Rep. Steny Hoyer. Pelosi is also under scrutiny for saying she won't name as chair of the House intelligence committee Rep. Harman, who is the ranking Dem on the committee, in favor of another controversial candidate. This is being watched closely by the media, waiting not-so-patiently for the Dems' first screwup so they can pounce.

Senate Democrats, however, have already selected party leaders. Full leadership lineup- here.

Joe Lieberman, who will caucus with the Democrats (if only for his own self-interest), is still playing games, hinting he wouldn't rule out switching sides. And some are wondering what kind of oversight Sen. Lieberman is planning for the administration he has supported so much, now that he will be chair of Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. Likely answer? Not much.

The NY Times, meanwhile, thinks Sen.-elect Tester is really awesome. I concur.

Over at the RNC, they have selected the next party chairman: Sen. Mel Martinez of Florida, who will remain in the Senate as he does this job. Little history note... Sen. Martinez's office was responsible for the spring 2005 memo to Republicans instructing them on taking advantage of Terri Schiavo for political gain. Keep up the great work!

The person responsible for sending "suspicious white powder to celebrities and U.S. politicians" (Jon Stewart, David Letterman; Keith Olbermann, Nancy Pelosi, and Sen. Charles Schumer) has been caught. It was Chad Castagana of California, who apparently frequented numerous right-wing websites (surprise, surprise).

Elton John says that religion sucks.

Finally, in that pesky ol' war, gunman have kidnapped at least 150 people "in a lightning raid on a Baghdad higher education office" today. Meanwhile, at "least 82 people were killed or found dead in murders, bombings and clashes nationwide." Sounds like a place we should be staying indefinitely.