Can you hear me now? Bad.

The Bushies hoping to play up the turnout in yesterday's Iraqi election are being tripped up yet again by that darn reality. First of all, good for the 67% of Iraqi voters that got all inky yesterday. We won't know the results in Iraq for a few weeks, and even then it's going to be confusing for basically everyone. And the Bushies have no more artificially-manufactured deadlines anywhere on the calendar in Iraq. Anyone that cared to look beyond the pre-election propaganda knew that already. However, Dubya's signature on a program to spy on American citizens has spun this whole vortex into another direction. In short, the outright criminal nature of the NSA monitoring American citizens is a whole new bowl of wrong to munch on. So now Dubya's got Senators from his own Party calling for hearings while the din of shite-talking on the news channels out both sides of this horrid story has kidnapped the cycle. The details of this anonymously-sourced story are not even close to fully disclosed - that's what will keep it alive for the foreseeable future. Count the PATRIOT Act's indefinite extension out - this NSA story put a stake in that puppy. When we've got revelations that the NSA's tapping phones and reading emails from thousands of American citizens here at home...well, that's the sort of juice that will really light up the switchboards in the District.

Sadly, I'm short on time to bite into today's engorged newz cycle 'cause I'm taking Maya to one of Sarah's work Holidaze midday par-tays. Expect mucho pictures thereafter. Thanks for checking in. Rock on.