You've most likely seen this by now, but it's really quite extraordinary: the White House is literally paying a right wing talk show host to parrot the party line. Which immediately brings to mind the question: what other right wing talkers are collecting taxpayer funds? Inquiring minds would really like to know.

You know how a lot of right-wingers keep telling us that the torture allegations are no big deal, just the work of a few bad apples, etc.? How their narrative needle seems to have gotten stuck on "One Wacky Night at Abu Ghraib" and keeps going around and around on a single verse?

Well, the question for me in such cases is always simple: are they stupid, or lying?

The answer here appears to be stupid. Very, very stupid.

Usually, I think real-time blogging is little more than wankery, but this looks worthwhile: the Gonzales hearing is being blogged by Avi Cover, who, I am informed...

...was the author of the Human Rights First report that examined Gonzales’ record and was also a part of the legal team for Rasul, the main plaintiff in the Guanatanamo Bay Supreme Court case decided in June 2004.

Here.

But I think it's going to take awhile to get this blog up to speed. I've got too many cartoon-related program activities to work on, as I get back into gear...and honestly, I'm a bit burned out on blogs at the moment. We'll see how long that lasts. (Edited for crankiness.)