…then read this.

…but has it gotten to a point where they’re really apples and oranges? UPDATE: So, yes, there are a ton of polls and on the NSA controversy we’re getting seemingly contradictory signals. From our emails we see that each time we run a poll some readers assume that’s our view on that given poll as well. But you’ll notice a LOT of hedging on the conclusiveness of polling data so far — even in updates on some of the links provided within the post that we linked to...

Well, not always...

Arizona Senator John McCain is continuing his tightrope walk aimed at the 2008 Republican presidential nomination — a walk made difficult since he has to maintain his independent-thinker image and embrace the GOP establishment at the same time. This process began in earnest during the 2004 campaign (with a counterpoint provided by former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who has quietly been doing the same thing) when McCain figuratively and literally embraced President George Bush. Now, this...

…would it have looked like THIS?

The great, serious debate continues HERE.

….but out of office.

You truly do have to wonder what’s going on between God/The Universe/Fate (pick one according to your beliefs) and the Kennedys: A plane carrying U.S. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy from western Massachusetts to his home on the coast was struck by lightning Saturday and had to be diverted to New Haven, Conn., his spokeswoman said. The eight-seat Cessna Citation 550 plane lost all electrical power, including communications, and the pilot had to fly the plane manually, according to spokeswoman Melissa...

TMV will be on the road the next two days in his other incarnation — driving some 1100 miles between now and Monday night and doing a batch of shows. His own posts will continue but they may not appear immediately if there is breaking news. Some of his posts will actually be place on this site via a timer. BUT our always independent co bloggers may have something to say so keep checking back.

It’s interesting how one name seems to figure in some of the Bush administration’s most controversial policies and actions: But N.S.A. lawyers, trained in the agency’s strict rules against domestic spying and reluctant to approve any eavesdropping without warrants, insisted that it should be limited to communications into and out of the country, said the officials, who were granted anonymity to discuss the debate inside the Bush administration late in 2001. The N.S.A.’s...

READ THIS FIRST BEFORE CLICKING: We were sent the link to this mystery video. We believe it shows Ted Koppel visiting the White House press room. Newly appointed White House Press Secretary Tony Snow (whose name Koppel gets wrong) is wearing a hat and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (who Snow calls by his nickname) is clad in his characteristic attire. They are seen interacting with the White House press corps which sings Koppel’s honors. At least that’s what we think it is (we...

You’d think he’d be working out of Flushing, N.Y. but he works out of KITAKYUSHU, Japan. His job is to prevent a pain in the ass: Darting through the 3:30 p.m. passenger rush at a new airport here, a hurried 35-year-old in a gray business suit made a beeline for the men’s room. Heading for the nearest open stall, Kyoji Asada threw aside his briefcase and quickly got down to business — a spot inspection of the toilet bowl. For more than a decade as a top designer for Japan’s...

If you go back and read the stories on Mel Gibson over the past few years, they’ve assumed that he was a supporter of President George Bush. WRONG, apparently, because this sounds like The Passion of The Bush Opponent: Film star and director Mel Gibson has launched a scathing attack on US President George W Bush, comparing his leadership to the barbaric rulers of the Mayan civilization in his new film Apocalypto. The epic, due for release later this year, captures the decline of the Maya kingdom...

A new Newsweek poll has come out indicating a majority of American’s don’t like the way the Bush administration is expanding federal powers to fight terrorism — a poll that contradicts an earlier Washington Post poll, although the wording of the polls and the times they were taken may not be the same. First, the news from Newsweek: Has the Bush administration gone too far in expanding the powers of the President to fight terrorism? Yes, say a majority of Americans, following this...

Travel back to the 50s and see Lucy and Ricky demonstrate a model that vanished: the Ford Retractable Hardtop.

We’ve said repeatedly in our posts that a key problem with the Bush administration is its nonstop, growing credibility crisis. It’s a huge underlying factor in the current uproar over the collection of phone call data by NSA — a controversy that actually swirls on several other, more evident fronts. One is the privacy issue. One is the legality issue. Those are and will be debated further in many forums in coming weeks. But the larger issue is the one that poses the most danger...

…different strokes for different folks…

Judge: Have you ever been indicted? Defendant: Not since I was a baby, your honor…. That (old) joke may be a laughing matter (actually, given the quality of the joke, it isn’t) but some dead serious predictions are now being made about the legal fate of White House political guru Karl Rove. Truthout.org goes out-on-a-limb on this one: Within the last week, Karl Rove told President Bush and Chief of Staff Joshua Bolten, as well as a few other high level administration officials, that...

A Washington Post/ABC News poll finds widespread support for the NSA’s phone data collection program: A majority of Americans initially support a controversial National Security Agency program to collect information on telephone calls made in the United States in an effort to identify and investigate potential terrorist threats, according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll. The new survey found that 63 percent of Americans said they found the NSA program to be an acceptable way to investigate...

Egads, we get emails . But, alas, TMV himself will be out of pocket much of today(which means we can’t post and that includes links sent to us for today). But keep checking back since our talented co-bloggers should have some things to say.

So Rush Limbaugh reportedly said Iran’s President’s letter to President George Bush had “the Democratic talking points, other than Israel, and even there… even some liberal Hollywood Jewish people talking point.” Now, aside from Rush deciding to use a letter from Iran’s President to demonize an entire political party (read that meaning “stir up hatred of”), this is veering into new terroritory that has to be called for it was: intentional or otherwise,...

…about anything.

With each week seemingly taking President George Bush’s political poll numbers to a new low, the latest controversy over the disclosure that the government has secretly collected data on phone call records of millions of Americans comes when Bush is not at his optimum political strength. Or enjoying optimum credibility except among his most steadfast supporters. Part of the problem is that in his speeches Bush has framed the kinds of surveillance the government was doing as efforts only aimed...

Democrats and Republicans in the Senate are seemingly saying “We feel your pain” to both sides of the immigration issue as they get read to pass a compromise measure. But will it actually become law? That depends on what happens in the House, which is far more problematical. The Washington Post: Senate leaders announced Thursday that they have a deal on how to proceed next week with a sweeping measure to overhaul the nation’s immigration system. The accord, if it holds, could pave...

President George Bush’s polling numbers have now dipped below 30 percent in one key poll — a political milestone: President Bush’s job-approval rating has fallen to its lowest mark of his presidency, according to a new Harris Interactive poll. Of 1,003 U.S. adults surveyed in a telephone poll, 29% think Mr. Bush is doing an “excellent or pretty goodâ€? job as president, down from 35% in April and significantly lower than 43% in January. Roughly one-quarter of U.S. adults...