I was just forwarded a chain email that has a list of questions beginning "Did you know..." followed by a claim of "good news" (which the terrible awful no-good very bad liberal media is keeping fom us). A quick search with The Google reveals that it has been around quite a while and while there were several sarcastic rejoinders, I failed to find a good rebuttal. I was also curious how these claims, most based on 2003-2005 information, stand up today. So I started some digging. And now I'm enlisting help to finsh the job. You game?

My field is academia and I have been involved in various groups and committees focused on the status of women in colleges and universities.  From these and my own experiences, I have developed a hypothesis of sorts that may explain the continued under-representation of women in my field:  a pipeline that selects for the very very best.  This phenomenon is in no way restricted to academia, however, or only to women. Rather I suspect this may well be true in a variety of organizational structures including government.  Follow me below for a fuller explanation...

This primary race can be shortened into one phrase:  It's the Women, Stupid!  Not the African Americans, not the Hispanics, not the Independents, not the young or the old. Women.

As much as passionate supporters of all sides want to see their candidate triumph, a step back to view the score shows that we are in the early innings of rousing ballgame - and the score is tied.

Tony Snow is continuing his post-White House era by waving one of the Right's most beloved Persecution Banners: The War on God. This war of misperception is, however, about far more than religious tolerance. It is about undermining education - higher education in particular - by fomenting a mistrust of colleges and universities. An integral component, it would appear, to their goal of creating the Permanent Republican Majority.

"Obama" "cocaine" - "BOO!"

Even after the depature of Shaheen, the Clinton campaign is still pushing the "Obama is a scary drug dealer!" story.  In an interview yesterday on Hardball, Clinton PR front man Mark Penn slid in yet another cocain reference - and then immediately denied having done so.

The WH response via Dana P regarding the NYT allegations that torture methods were broadly re-authorized by AG Gonzolas in 2005 are a study in circular reasoning. Summary:

We don't torture.
How do we know? Because torture is against the law, and we follow the law.
Therefore, we do not torture.