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

Royals in first with just 159 games to go! It's not really "news" but I have to crow a little bit...The steroid-free Kansas City Royals were supposed to be extras, space-fillers, bit players, really - in the roll-out of Detroit's awesome offense, but someone forgot to tell the Royals how it was supposed to play out. They swept the three-game opening series. Pitcher Zack Grienke turned in a second stellar pitching performance, giving up only one run in the first seven innings.

Randi Rhodes suspended by Air America after calling Senator Clinton and former Congresswoman Ferrarro "whores" at a public appearance in San Francisco on behalf of the radio network. "What a whore Geraldine Ferraro is! She's such a fucking whore!" Rhodes remarked. "Hillary is a big fucking whore, too" to a mixed audience reaction. "You know why she's a big fucking whore? Because her deal is always, 'Read the fine print, asshole!'" Air America acted quickly. "Air America encourages strong opinions about public affairs but does not condone such abusive, ad hominem language by our Hosts," company chair Charlie Kireker said in a statement. What an insane political season this is. Just a year ago I was crowing about our deep bench. Oy. Is it August yet?

Was he late for Happy Hour? I bet the rest of the worlds leaders will be glad to see his back the last time. They will break out the bubbly and party 'til dawn. Angela Merkel will be able to drop her guard and she and Gordon Brown will dance the Cha-Cha while Rudd and Zapatero play quarters by the keg! The revelry will be palpable when they are rid of the idiot son. Yesterday, he hijacked a press conference. Today, apparently bored with the proceedings, aWol abruptly got up and left the days final meeting, leaving Bob Gates to represent the United States at the days proceedings, and raising the average IQ in the room by a full 12 points per person simply by exiting. Can it be January now?

Opposition offices raided in Zimbabwe The secretary general of the opposition party reported today that the party offices were raided in what he characterized as the beginning of a crackdown on opposition. Police in riot gear also raided a hotel used by foreign journalists in Harare and took away several reporters.

Because it all went so swimmingly in Basra Maliki is now vowing to take his crackdown show to Baghdad. He singled out Sadr City and Shula, Jaish al Mahdi strongholds, as likely targets, needing liberation from "criminal gangs."

And while we are on the subject of Iraq Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi warned the Man-God Petraeus of the rank of General not to come to D.C. next week blowing smoke up her skirt. “I hope we don’t hear any glorification of what happened in Basra,” she warned. I would add that he would do well to heed her advice, since Congress has the power to review his retirement and reduce his rank, and as far as I am concerned that is an oversight role Congress needs to resume.

Not so fast...Surrogates have been engaging in much hand-wringing of late, claiming that the youth vote will not turn out unless Obama is the nominee, but that isn't likely to be the case. The under-30 vote has been trending upwards for years, and they vote Democratic overwhelmingly. "Whether or not Obama's in the race, the youth vote is going to go up, it looks like," said Karlo Barrios Marcelo, a researcher at the nonpartisan Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning & Engagement at the University of Maryland. "The question is: How large will the margin be?"

Is Barr their Nader? Former Congressman Bob Barr is running to be the Libertarian nominee for president. With conservatives unhappy over McCain being the nominee anyway, a Libertarian bid by the conservative former congressman and NRA board member could siphon off critical votes from McCain in November. Go, Bob! My donation to your campaign is in the mail!

Maybe Ledra Street will open again after another forty years? Greek and Turkish Cypriot authorities tore down the barricades that closed off Ledra Street in Nicosia, Cyprus on Thursday. Cypriots celebrated in the streets. But the revelry was short lived. Within hours the street was closed down again. Sigh. One Cyprus really is enough.

Edwards would decline VP slot After delivering a keynote speech at a convention and Vegas, he was asked in the Q&A afterward if he would consider running at the bottom of the ticket again, and he responded succinctly..."No," was all he said.

I tried to write an in-depth post about this, but I couldn't stifle the rage enough. Read it. You'll see what I mean.