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So I'm making some changes to my blog page. Who likes the new format and who doesn't? Let me know.

I was watching the daily round of nightly pundit shows tonight (Hardball, The Countdown, O'Reilly, Hannity and Colmes) trying to gain myself some more information about this whole Karl Rove leak to the press thing. I am not particularly fond of Karl Rove, but I want to gain more "facts" which in this age of blogs and "media biases" can be hard to find. It is clear that Rove told Matthew Cooper (of Time magazine) that Joseph Wilson couldn't really be believed because some of his info was error-laden or half-truths (which I believe is true) by saying that Wilson's wife who is with the CIA investigating WMDs headed the operation. Not entirely true. Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame, did not hire Wilson or head up his mission. Plame was also an undercover CIA agent (or we are led to believe...apparently you are no longer "covert" after five inactive years and it is possible that Plame was no longer under that cover). Anyways, what piques my attention to this is Why did Rove use Plame in discrediting Wilson? He could have done this without outing a suppposed undercover CIA agent (which is treason). I don't think Rove is guilty of that, cause even if he meant to, he actually didn't use the name "Valerie Plame." What he is guilty of though, in my opinion, is another round of dirty tricks. Rove may be the master of them and admittedly damn good at them too. I've read some allegations that he was fired from the Bush I/Quayle Re-election campaign because he planted a negative story with Robert Novak (suprise suprise! the same guy who wrote this Plame article) in 1992. Yet, he was brought back. The Bush II White House early on in this case (which has been going for a couple years now almost) said that if the leak came from within the White House that person would be fired. I highly doubt that "Bush's Brain" gets fired. Which is disturbing in its own right. I thought this administration was ethical and unlike the previous administration. The sad fact is that no adminstration is really that different from each other these days. Rove will keep his job and hailed as a hero for discrediting partisan hacks Joe Wilson and Valerie Plame.

What was interesting tonight though was the O'Reilly factor. They didnt cover it AT ALL! Instead they spent roughly 15 minutes of his hour long show (maybe more, 2 segments for sure though) on the Natalee Holloway case in Aruba. A story that is now two months old and now just repeating itself. I feel sorry for the Holloway family, but why all the attention? I think O'Reilly and Fox News just likes to pick on Aruba. No, their justice system isn't great, but we are the country that has OJ Simpson walking the streets. And, forgive me for this, no one has pointed out the obvious fact that Miss Holloway was by most accounts partying a little too much in a foreign country and going clubbing with boys from this country she had just met. I think I learned not to do that in 1st grade. That certainly doesn't make it okay for what happened to her to have happened. And those responsible will pay sooner or later. Hopefully for the sake of the family this all gets settled soon though, and I think the Aruban authorities are close...this Joran Van der Sloot is still being held in jail after a new court hearing today and will likely crack before long.