Bush is the biggest spender since LBJ  —  WASHINGTON — George W. Bush, despite all his recent bravado about being an apostle of small government and budget-slashing, is the biggest spending president since Lyndon B. Johnson.  In fact, he's arguably an even bigger spender than LBJ.

Chris Dodd's leadership vs. Clinton and Obama's game playing  —  (updated below - Update II)  —  Chris Dodd appeared yesterday for a speech and Q&A session sponsored by FireDogLake regarding his commitment to doing everything possible to prevent telecom amnesty.  It can be viewed in its entirety here.

SHOCK DOCS: THE NEW REPUBLIC 'SHOCK TROOPS' STORY COLLAPSES  —  The DRUDGE REPORT has obtained internal documents from the investigation of THE NEW REPUBLIC'S "Baghdad Diarist", Scott Thomas Beauchamp, an Army private turned war correspondent who reported tales of military malfeasance from the Iraq War front.

Comedian Colbert Reaches Double Digits As Third-Party Candidate  —  Comedian Stephen Colbert is not a threat to win the presidency, but the odds are that that his satire will win plenty of laughs and maybe even some votes.  —  A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey found that Colbert …

MEDIA MYTHS ABOUT THE JENA 6  —  A local journalist tells the story you haven't heard.  —  Republish  —  JENA, LA. - By now, almost everyone in America has heard of Jena, La., because they've all heard the story of the "Jena 6."  White students hanging nooses barely punished …

Former Sen. Rick Santorum Gets 'Philadelphia Inquirer' Column  —  NEW YORK A press conference will be held at 1:30 this afternoon at the Philadelphia Inquirer to announce that it has added former Sen. Rick Santorum to its stable of columnists.  —  Also hired is George Curry, the former editor of Emerge magazine.

Remember Iraq  —  Boy, am I glad we finally got out of Iraq.  It was so painful waking up every morning and reading the news from there.  It's just such a relief to have it out of mind and behind us.  —  Huh?  Say what?  You say we're still there?  But how could that be — nobody in Washington is talking about it anymore?

Democrats' DREAM Act is a Nightmare  —  Coyotes are the men who prey on illegal aliens, helping illegal immigrants return to the U.S. over our southern border, sometimes after these immigrants have been deported, two, even three or more times.  Apparently our Democratic friends in Congress …

Romney's Slip of Tongue Blurs Osama and Obama  —  Senator Barack Obama rallying a global terror movement?  Mitt Romney might have still been a bit bleary-eyed on Tuesday morning when he twice confused Mr. Obama with Osama bin Laden when referring to the latter's new recorded message for jihadists to fight in Iraq.

O'Reilly: J.K. Rowling Is A 'Provocateur' For 'The Gay Agenda' Of 'Indoctrination'  —  Last Friday, Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling revealed that one of the central characters in the series, Hogwarts headmaster Albus Dumbledore, was gay.  Though Rowling says her books are a …

Tilting the Scales of Justice  —  Every time we take a look at the United States attorney scandal, more evidence emerges that Alberto Gonzales politicized the Justice Department to the point where it sometimes seems like a branch of the Republican National Committee.

Is this the Syrian nuke reactor bombed by Israel?  —  Some clever soul used the info from this morning's WaPo story about photographs of the reactor circulating among intel types to try to find it on Google Earth.  With possible success: follow the link in Dan Riehl's post and see for yourself.

Blue Dogs refuse to pony up for DCCC  —  A large group of "Blue Dog" Democrats has refused to give money to the party's campaign committee so far this cycle, underscoring simmering tension inside the Caucus and concerns about the caustic language of at least one anti-war Democrat.

Wilton: Romney endorsement a mistake  —  SPARTANBURG, S.C. (BP)—South Carolina pastor Don Wilton said Oct. 23 he made a "personal error" in agreeing to support the campaign of Mitt Romney for president.  —  The pastor of First Baptist Church in Spartanburg and a former president …

Harry Reid Blames California Wildfires On Global Warming...Before He Denies He Said It.  —  After a closed door policy meeting with other Senate Democrats, Majority Leader and utter buffoon Hary Reid of Nevada took to the microphones just outside the floor of the United States Senate, and fielded questions.

CA Guard Warned Of 'Less Effective Response' To Fires Due To Equipment Shortages Caused By Iraq  —  The San Francisco Chronicle reported last May that the California National Guard had been depleted and warned that severe "equipment shortages could hinder the guard's response to a large-scale disaster," such as a "major fire":

Heavy Editing Is Alleged In Climate Testimony  —  Testimony that the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention planned to give yesterday to a Senate committee about the impact of climate change on health was significantly edited by the White House, according to two sources familiar with the documents.

Fox News: Al Qaeda is causing the CA wildires.  —  This morning on Fox News, hosts of the show Fox and Friends blamed the wildfires in California on a new culprit: al Qaeda.  They pointed to a 2003 FBI memo, which raised the possibility that al Qaeda may try to set wildfires around the western United States.

Palestinian 'torture widespread'  —  Amnesty International has accused Hamas and Fatah of widespread human rights abuses, including torture, arbitrary detention and other ill treatment against each other.  —  The rights watchdog on Wednesday released a report criticising the Palestinian governments …

Santorum says Islam 'not just something you do on Sunday'  —  A year ago at this time, Rick Santorum was a two-term senator and possible presidential candidate.  Yesterday, he was at Penn State as a guest of David Horowitz, as part of the absurd "Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week."