“Before his swearing-in, Bilbray said he looked forward to replacing the images of airplanes that used to decorate the walls with photos of surfboards and sailboats." — USA Today

Unfortunately, the immigrant-bashing Brian Bilbray wasn't talking about decorating his dorm room. California's newest congressman is moving into the Rayburn House Office Building, specifically the office vacated by Randall “Duke" Cunningham, bribe taker extraordinaire, who is now serving eight years in prison. Bilbray edged past Democrat Lorraine Busby in a special, allegedly closely watched election on June 6, allowing Republicans to hold the 50th District in traditionally conservative San Diego County.

And the folksy detail about Bilbray's taste in poster art, in lieu of reportorial outrage, seems to signal that, once again, America has moved on from a shoddily conducted election — making Congress seem about as trustworthy as a New Orleans rebuilt atop the toxic waste stirred up by Hurricane Katrina. Somebody's going to get sick from this sooner or later.

Indeed, the “democracy extremists" out there — the ones who take

You have to hand it to Karl Rove. When he finds something that works, he sticks with it. While the president was conducting his symbolic Iraq war strategy summit on Monday, the newly energized, indictment-free chief political operative outlined in his game plan for November, borrowing heavily from his '04 playbook. The overall theme: Iraq is a success. The Busheviks and Repugs can take the credit for this progress. We just killed Abu Masab al-Zarqawi, which is another huge milestone. The Democrats are weak pansies who run from war and would not protect Americans from terrorism. Sound eerily familiar? What's scary is how well this crap worked the last time. Can it work again?

Kadiatou Diallo is an ingenious Foulah descendant of West African Kings and healers. Born in 1959, she was traditionally raised in turbulent Republic of Guinea during the long dictatorship era of late President Ahmed Sekou Toure. Guinea is situated on Africa’s West coast, flanked by Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ivory Coast and Senegal. Its population is 8,800,000 and ruled by Iron-fisted leaders since independence from France in 1958. After independence, it severed relations with France and turned to then Soviet Union. Its mineral resources potentially places Guinea among one of Africa’s richest nations, though its people are among the poorest in West Africa, plagued by a culture of dictatorship, a controlled economy and rampant corruption in the society.

AUSTIN, Texas -- Iraq and the media, the media and Iraq -- over and over. Last week was supposed to be a good media week for Iraq -- Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was dead. Taken out, we said, by a combination of American and Iraqi troops with Jordanian intelligence.

The churlish might note this was the second time the American military had announced Zarqawi's death -- but, hey, we've announced the capture of Osama's No. 2 guy at least seven or eighth times. Others claimed Zarqawi was never that important to begin with, indeed had been built up by our side. Still, that's a goal for our side, as they say in World Cup play.

Then reality got a bit bumpy. Zarqawi wasn't exactly dead when we found him. We put him on a stretcher and cleaned him up -- the fog of war intervened.

Editor’s note:With the attacks coming fast and furious from the mainstream corporate press and their apologists like Farhad Manjoo of salon.com, the Columbus Institute for Contemporary Journalism/freepress.org continues to do the difficult work of counting ballot by ballot, precinct by precinct in Ohio. The more we count on the precinct level, the more Robert Kennedy, Jr.’s thesis in the Rolling Stone article is confirmed. As pollster Lou Harris informed us, once the precincts are counted in the “rural and exurbia areas” of Ohio, the more readily apparent the election theft becomes. The Free Press will have shocking information within the next few months, that is being verified ballot by ballot as I write. I’ve enclosed the latest research from Richard Hayes Phillips, Ph.D. from his recent trip to Warren County. Recall Warren County called a bogus Level 10 terrorist alert on Election Day and diverted the ballots to an unauthorized warehouse under the control of a Republican operative. Remind people that this is exactly the type of research that Manjoo and other apologists and deniers refuse to do.