Let it snow! We're locked in by a fierce blizzard. Denver is shut down. Even the federal government has closed -- the Colorado Federal Executive Board has ordered all Federal departments and agencies to close. Hundreds of flights have been canceled. Boulder just announced it will be shut down through Thursday.

It's a winter wonderland.

From Media Matters:

A December 19 report on CNN's Lou Dobbs Tonight featured the graphic "Do-Nothing Dems?" But, as the report noted, Democrats will not actually assume control of Congress for a little over two weeks. . . . But rather than showing a clip of a Democrat presumably affirming Sylvester's lead-in, CNN cut to Rep. Tom Price (R-GA).

CNN also demonstrated their conservative bias, at least if you believe this "academic" I discussed, since they only cited the conservative "think" tank the Heritage Foundation.

The stupidity of the Media seems boundless.

Dem Senate leader Harry Reid on Bush and Iraq:

It's been two weeks since the Iraq Study Group released its plan to change the course and bring our troops home. Since then, the President has been on a fact finding tour of his own administration -- apparently ignoring the facts presented by those in the military who know best. The President needs to put forth a plan as soon as possible, one that reflects the reality on the ground in Iraq and that withdraws our troops from the middle of this deadly civil war.

In an interview with the Washington Post, President Bush admits for the first time we are not winning the war in Iraq.

So, is he ready to retreat? Of course not. He wants to add more troops to the failed extravaganza.

In another turnaround, Bush said he has ordered Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates to develop a plan to increase the troop strength of the Army and Marine Corps, heeding warnings from the Pentagon and Capitol Hill that multiple deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan are stretching the armed forces toward the breaking point. "

He seems to be willing to consider every option but the right one: Bring the troops home.

The New York Times published an article Monday on the broken military policing system in Iraq. Despite more than 20 reported cases of abuse, not one contractor has been indicted.

Today the Times has a damning editorial on the the broken system, Only the Jailers Are Safe.

Donald Vance, a 29-year-old Navy veteran from Chicago, was a whistle-blower who prompted the raid by tipping off the F.B.I. to suspicious activity at the company where he worked, including possible weapons trafficking. He was arrested and held for 97 days — shackled and blindfolded, prevented from sleeping by blaring music and round-the-clock lights. In other words, he was subjected to the same mistreatment that thousands of non-Americans have been subjected to since the 2003 invasion.

Even after the military learned who Mr. Vance was, they continued to hold him in these abusive conditions for weeks more. He was not allowed to defend himself at the Potemkin hearing held to justify his detention. And that was special treatment. As an American citizen, he was at least allowed to attend his hearing. An Iraqi, or an Afghani, or any other foreigner, would have been barred from the room.

Great reading -- Eric Boehlert on the warbloggers' obsession with the Associated Press.

Something doesn't add up here, and I assume it's something warbloggers don't want to address, as they cling to their anti-press fantasy to explain the Iraq debacle. Namely, if insurgents view journalists as their allies -- weapons in their sophisticated propaganda war against the United States -- then why are insurgents killing journalists at an alarming rate? The entire premise of the warblogger theory makes no sense.

With no facts to back up their allegations, warbloggers instead lean heavily on name-calling in their never-ending attempt to libel and smear journalists.

As Boehlert notes, pretty soon the warbloggers will claim it's the media's fault we lost the war in Iraq.

Bump and Update: DNC Chair Howard Dean now says he won't decide until early January. Why? Denver still has issues and New York doesn't want it badly enough.

********
Original Post:

Is One Local Union Holding Up the Denver DNC Bid?

The Rocky Mountain News reports that although Denver's Pepsi Convention Center has agreed to employ only union workers for the Democratic National Convention, one local stagehands union is refusing to sign a no-strike contract for the event -- in an attempt to get the Pepsi Center to agree to use union contractors.

That stinks, as I wrote at 5280 today. I hope this union falls in line. They will look very bad if we don't get the DNC contract because of them.

Andrew Cohen has a good Bench Conference today on last week's California federal court decision lambasting lethal injunction. And words of advice for Jeb Bush and officials in Florida.

Memo to Florida officials: Save your time and effort and money. Do not reinvent the wheel. Read and absorb the transcript of the lengthy and painstaking evidentiary hearing conducted earlier this year by Judge Fogel in the California case. And then implement the same changes that the judge has ordered California officials to implement before he will again allow executions in that state. It's clear what happened to Diaz. People who have no business executing someone were in charge of executing someone. And those people will screw up again if they are allowed to persist without proper oversight and regulation.

Maryland's courts weighed in today as well.

Ah, the new Iraqi democracy at work.

Thirteen men convicted of murder, kidnapping and other crimes were hanged in a Baghdad jail on Tuesday, lining up shortly before their execution in hoods and green jumpsuits, their hands bound behind their backs.

The government executed the 13 men after an appeals court and the presidency approved the verdict, said Busho Ibrahim, undersecretary of the Justice Ministry.

In other Iraqi death news:

Police said they found 53 bodies around Baghdad on Tuesday, apparent victims of sectarian violence between Sunnis and Shiites that has swept the capital this year. Many of the bodies showed signs of torture.

Donald Trump believes in second chances. He's not going to fire Miss USA Tara Conner for underage drinking. Instead, she's going to rehab and will retain her title.

Ms. Connor turned 21 a few days ago.

Maybe it's time to lower the drinking age to 18. That's what it was in New York when I was that age.

If you're old enough to sign a contract, get married and die in a foreign war, you should be old enough to have a drink.

It's official. Team Libby told the Judge presiding over his trial today he absolutely will call Veep Dick Cheney as a trial witness.

More information is available here, as well as last week's filings.

Update: Empty Wheel and Christy at Firedoglake share their thoughts.

Update: I'd love to see Fitz impeach Cheney at trial using Cheney's statements made in 2004 to federal investigators.

More on Cheney's involvement here and here.

Dick Cheney denies he shot and killed the deer, but what is it doing on his lawn? Wonkette explains.

The NY Daily News has more.

[Hat tip reader Scribe.]