The continuing fall out of John Edwards' 2006 affair may cost Democrats in Texas big time. John Baron was the Finance Committee Chairman for the Edwards' campaign. And he has benn identified as person who paid so-called hush money to the affairess. How does this lose local Texas races for the Democrats? It's all about the effect of not having public financing of election campaigns.

The FBI and IRS raided the offices and homes of a Cuyahoga (home county of Cleveland, OH) County Commissioner and Auditor on Monday. It is a sad comment on how low Bush and Rove and Cheney and the Bushites have degraded the Dept of Justice that it's just as likely that this raid on Democratic office holders is following the standard Rove script as it is that the FBI and IRS really have reason to do the raids in the first place

I am urging Daily Kos readers to suggest a name for a new show on CNN that promises to bury the former shadow of a reputable news organization even deeper in right wing muck. CNN has announced that concurrent with Super Tuesday Primary day Campbell Brown will begin hosting a new show with the assumed current working title of "The Campbell Brown Show". You might remember Ms. Brown, she was the perky, if somewhat conservative dim-bulb on the Today Show last year.

Rendition is the movie about CIA kidnapping of an innocent man because his cell phone is accidentally rung by a cell phone that might be one used by a terrorist. It hasn't been very succesful at the box office even though it is a wonderful movie with great acting, truth in how Washingon works, and wonderful cinemaphotography. A review here on Daily Kos panned it for not having a "satisfying" ending.

It's the old saying that if you see one roach there's a thousand more nearby. Well three recent roach (Republican) sightings in NorthEast Ohio tell me that Ohio is not out of the Roach Motel zone yet.

I think my tailored Tin Foil Helmet is actually intensifying those CIA waves because I have solved the problem that invalidates most conspiracy theories. That's how to keep all of those involved in the evil doing to STFU.

An article by Newhouse News Service describes new Medicare and Medicaid regulations that will stop payment to hospitals for treating  infections that occur as complications of medical procedures. Or as the Center for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) call them hospital mistakes. Supposedly the withholding of payment will make the hospitals clean up their procedures and keep these infections from happening in the first place. Some of the practices that contribute to the infections are due to cost cutting measures already in place. So for those hospitals where profit trumps care it will be cheaper to under treat those people that do develop infections with the result that the morbidity and mortality will increase for Medicare and Medicaid recipients. Of course the private health insurance industry has expressed interest in following suit.

The usual way the differences between MySpace and Facebook are framed is which one is cooler or how do advertisers target their desired targets. But Danah Boyd and her essay"Viewing American class divisions through Facebook and MySpace ." look at the two social networking sites in a new way.

Michael Moore couldn't cover all that is wrong with the pay-for-play protection racket called Health Insurance but if he had included insurance coverage for psychiatric conditions it would have taken another movie.

The same Journal that brought you Teens and Condoms also carried a paper from the Columbia University of Public Health titled The Inevitability of Infidelity: Sexual Reputation, Social Geographies, and Marital HIV Risk in Rural Mexico. This article shows that the Bush doctrine of abstinence only HIV programs has wasted a billion dollars in our tax money on a quixotic moral quest.

There are many news stories detailing how each state or electoral district is improving its voting infrastructure so there won't be any problems in the 2008 Presidential election. But how many are going to be able to positively say that they are prepared to prevent electoral mischief during the Presidential Primaries. Not even speaking of those districts (like in central and southern Ohio) that are now planning how to get away with election fraud when somebody IS watching. Now get your fitted Tinfoil hat and wonder WWRD (What Would Rove Do).