Overnight - A roundup of news items that you might have missed

It's Friday, and you know what that means another administration lackey has resigned, skulking away under a cloud of suspicion and illegality. Filipe Sixto, a special assistant to the president for intergovernmental affairs, is accused of misusing USAID grant money when he was employed by an organization that promotes Democracy in Cuba. He must be pretty damned guilty of what he is accused of, because the Department of Just Us is even weighing criminal charges - and he's a Republican!

Rudy for Governor? If newly-sworn-in New York Governor David Paterson is forced to resign, and a special election is held, Rudy may make a run for the mansion in Albany. Of course, it's all academic at this point - because no one seems to care that the new governor has a libido or that he smoked pot and did a couple of lines when he was a young man. When he commenced with the pulling back of the curtain, New York shrugged and said "So?"

Close Guantanamo That was the unequivocal position taken yesterday by five former Secretaries of State- Henry Kissinger, Warren Christopher, James Baker, Colin Powell and Madeline Albright - during a University of Georgia roundtable discussion billed as "The 16th Report of the Secretaries of State," which offered "bipartisan advice to the next administration." Powell (who still has a lot of rehab to go through) was the first to call for the closure of the tropical gulag. He was quickly joined by the others.

Obama back in the lead I don't put a lot of stock in tracking polls, but this one is interesting. It has Obama pulling ahead nationally, so maybe the reverend Wright flap didn't hurt him as badly as a select few hoped it would. Seems like most folks shrugged and said "So?"

Rice shortages means fear of unrest in Asia As prices rise and fears of scarcity grow, rice-producing nations are moving to place severe limits on exports of rice, the basis of diet for half the worlds people. In the last three months, the price of rice on international markets has doubled, straining the budgets of poor Asians and sparking fears of civil unrest.

War on drugs, anyone? Mexican president Phillipe Calderon has ordered troops to the border with Texas to battle drug gangs that have ratcheted up violence in recent months and sent shockwaves throughout the country.

Crime does pay! KKKarl Rove has new digs - a million dollar cedar-and-stucco house in Rosemary Beach Florida, along the Emerald Coast.

I wonder if he will invite Don Siegelman over for dinner? Don Siegelman walked out of prison today, free on bond while his appeal is pending. He served nine months in prison while his attorneys appealed a Federal Judge's decision to send him to prison while he appeals his conviction on bribery charges. On the telephone outside the prison today, Mr. Siegelman said he had confidence that the federal appeals court, which will now consider his larger appeal, would agree with his view of the case — that he was convicted for a transaction that regularly takes place in American politics...Otherwise, Mr. Siegelman said, “every governor and every president and every contributor might as well turn themselves in, because it’s going to be open season on them.” Siegelman is more convinced than ever that Rove is the one who was pulling the strings because they couldn't beat Siegelman fair and square.

You gotta Check this out! My friend and co-blogger Pale Rider left a comment at Pat Lang's Sic Semper Tyrannus, and one of the few folks he and I consider a hero did not just publish the comment, he put it up as a stand alone post. (We may not be in the same league as Pat Lang, but at least we aren't out of place in the stadium. Way to go PR! I'm kvelling!)

Wow!!!!! Charlie Rose is interviewing Chuck Hagel right now and he damned near endorsed Obama! Check back later - I'm going to try to find the video, and make sure I heard what I think I heard.

Let me state again, just for the record, that we aren't endorsing anyone, we are endorsing the eventual Democratic nominee, and there will be no archive of us trashing either of the two Democrats still standing. We might as well load a hand gun and give it to a drunken monkey. The hysterical and desperate movement conservatives and their easily led, and easily scared, white brethren on the lower half of the economic ladder will be parsing our words like it was last week and they were Fox interns who were just handed Jeremiah Wright videos to pore over. Frankly, I plan to be busy this fall working to get Democrats elected from top to bottom, not wasting my time defending against manufactured issues by those nitwits.