It's Richardson.

Barack Obama has decided on New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson for vice president.

Richardson is not on the list of headline speakers announced to address the convention so far.  

There is not, so far, a single Hispanic politician on the list of headline speakers.  

It is inconceivable that the nation's only Hispanic governor would not be a headline speaker at the Democratic National Convention.

Therefore, the only conclusion to draw is that Bill Richardson will be the Democratic vice-presidential nominee.

This is my official prediction.

Notes & Observations on the Post-Satirical Age

So much for "not until after July 4th".

USA Today's On Deadline blog reports the senate will debate the FISA capitulation, immunity and all, tomorrow.

The Senate has voted to start debating an overhaul of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act that would shield telephone companies and Internet providers from lawsuits for cooperating with government surveillance with a warrant.

On a test vote, 80 senators voted to advance the legislation and 15 voted to kill it by blocking debate. Final passage is expected tomorrow night. The House passed the compromise last week, and President Bush has said he will sign it.

The Caucus blog at NYTimes.com reports that Hillary Clinton's speech, as graceless, classless, and just plain horrible as it was, was actually toned down from the one she preferred to give.

Kate Seelye writes:

In a discussion on CNN about Mrs. Clinton’s speech, Carl Bernstein said Bill Clinton was very upset too, and "we’re in the midst of another Clinton family drama." He said that Mrs. Clinton did not concede because she wants to leave her options open — and doesn’t want to leave her husband’s legacy "where it is right now" (which is not good).

It's official.

Randi will be back on the air on Monday, April 14, on the Nova M radio network, home also to former Air America talker Mike Malloy.

The Nova M Radio Network is thrilled to announce the addition of "The Randi Rhodes Show" to its nationally syndicated talent offerings beginning this Monday, April 14, 2008.

Randi Rhodes is the #1 rated progressive talk radio host in the nation.

Nova M CEO John Manzo says, "I just can’t stop smiling - Randi is simply the biggest and the best.  Randi Rhodes and Mike Malloy under one roof – talk about TALENT!"

Randi Rhodes adds, "With Manzo at helm of Nova M, I am truly going to work for the best of the best.  He is radio elite...and I am too <laughs>.  I’m home, I’m home, I’m home!"

"The Randi Rhodes Show" will air live Mon-Fri from 3-6pm Eastern on The Nova M Radio Network.

The forces of ignorance and Big Oil have conspired to deny high school students in one Montana town the opportunity to hear from a world-class, Nobel laureate expert on climate change.

Professor Steven Running, a member of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with Al Gore, was scheduled to speak to high schoolers in Choteau, Montana.  Running was a lead author of the panel's global warming report.  

In what is emerging as a pattern for supporters of Hillary Clinton, former U.S. Sen. Bob Kerrey says he didn't mean any harm when he suggested that Barack Obama has a unique ability to reach out to the Muslim world.

"What I found myself getting into in Iowa — and it was my own fault — it was the wrong moment to do it and it was insulting," Kerrey told the AP. "I meant no disrespect at all."

Obama spokesman Bill Burton said the senator accepted Kerrey's apology, sent to the campaign in the mail and via e-mail.

First Iowa, where Romney was counting on winning; then South Carolina, where Fred Thompson was counting on winning; now Florida, where Rudy Giuliani was planning to rack up his first primary victory:

George W. Bush finally managed to do something to help his country, although he took a tragically circuitous route.

A new survey indicates the radical policies and rank incompetence of the Bush administration are driving young voters away from the Republican Party in droves.

New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson is asking public employees in his state to assist him with his primary campaign in Iowa [h/t TPM].  

State employees were invited to the lunch hour meeting by the campaign with messages sent to private e-mail accounts and, in some cases, private cell phones.

Among those who attended was Gilbert Gallegos, communications director in the governor's office.

U.S. Senator Mary Landrieu (D-LA) can expect a challenge from Louisiana State Treasurer John Kennedy, who changed his party affiliation recently from Democrat to Republican.

A message on Kennedy's website makes the announcement, accompanied with a plea for campaign donations.

The United States Supreme Court has agreed to debate the meaning of this sentence:

A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

A Bush administration spokesman has offered the mildest critique imaginable of a Saudi court's decision to have a 19-year-old rape victim flogged and jailed for having ridden in a car with a male non-relative prior to her attack.

In an earlier post on my own blog, I expressed the hope that President Bush might rebuke the Saudi government over this outrage.  After all, the president has long insisted that the liberation of Arab women is a cornerstone of his Middle East policy.  This being the case, it seemed unimaginable that the president would remain silent about the Saudi court's apalling decision.

A Saudi court sentenced a 19-year-old woman victim of gang rape to six months in jail and 200 lashes — more than double than in her initial sentence for being in the car of a man who was not her relative, a newspaper reported Thursday.

Sen. Chuck Hagel had better have his big-boy boxers on, and they had better be fire-retardant, at that.

Steve Clemons, of the Washington Note, has come upon a private letter from Hagel to President Bush urging the president to pursue "direct, unconditional, and comprehensive talks with the Government of Iran."

UPDATED

This gives a whole new meaning to the expression "Faux News."

The Bush administration has taken news manipulation to a new low.  The Washington Post's Al Kamen reveals that the "reporters" who lobbed softball questions at FEMA Deputy Administrator Harvey Johnson on Thursday were, in fact, employees of FEMA.

Stop me if you've heard this one.

Bill O'Reilly and Al Sharpton walk into a restaurant in Harlem.

No, that's not the opening line of a joke. Okay, it is the opening line of a joke, but not an intentional joke.  Bear with me.

Okay, so Bill O'Reilly and Al Sharpton go to a restaurant in Harlem.  O'Reilly looks around and notices something that surprises him.  Not only do restaurants in Harlem bear a remarkable resemblance to restaurants in other parts of New York City, but the diners in those restaurants actually behave like diners in other parts of the city. No, seriously.

Most astonishing to Bill-O is that black restaurant patrons aren't crazy, and don't use profanity when they order.  

After its now-famous "Betray Us" ad appeared in the New York Times, MoveOn.org endured savage, sustained criticism from the Right Wing Outrage Machine.  

Fox "News" and its crew of miscreants denounced the ad as, among other things, an example of the coarsening of our political dialogue.  You know, because they're always so classy over there at Fox "News."

Republican lawmakers introduced a resolution condemning MoveOn.

And on the campaign trail, presidential candidate John McCain even called for the group to be expelled from the United States.

So, how is MoveOn responding to the controversy?  By ramping it up.

Either way, he should be arrested for OUI (opining under the influence).

Without citing any empirical evidence whatsoever, Morris, blogging for The Hill, insists that a Bush Bounce is right around the corner.

Apparently, he thinks the president is having a great week.

Freddie K-Street continues to leave 'em snoozing in the heartland.

A campaign speech in Iowa failed to impress.

Fred  Thompson’s announcement speech Thursday in Des Moines was underwhelming.

The former U.S. Senator and movie actor formally announced his long-awaited candidacy for the Republican presidential nomination at the Des Moines Convention Complex. It wasn’t very impressive.

The crowd of a few hundred didn’t seem enthused.  Thompson’s oratory didn’t soar but was somewhat rambling.

[...]