Saw this op-ed regarding The Beatles in the WaPo this morning, and couldn't resist posting a Beatles YouTube.  This is a live performance of Revolution from David Frost's show, and it is still as fresh watching it today as it was hearing it for the first time when I was a kid.  Enjoy!

– Just a quick note that I'll be on Sam Seder's Show on Sunday beginning around 5 pm ET, along with Glenn Greenwald and Dr. Ron Daniels.   We'll be having a 45 minute panel discussion on the issues of the week.  Should be a good discussion, and I wanted to give everyone a heads up on this.  (Someone remind Jacqrat to pop this on her calendar — she scolded me last time I didn't tell you guys early when I had a radio gig.  *g*)

– Dan Bartlett is leaving his post as communications director at the White House.  The creepiest thing about the AP article (via NYTimes) is that WH Chief of Staff Josh Bolten describes Bartlett as one of the few people in the WH who can speak candidly with President Bush and tell him bad news…as if that is a good thing by comparison to the rest of the yes-man, rose-colored-bubble people who work in the building.  Blergh.  UPDATE:  Atrios has a weird David Gregory quote from MSNBC's report on Bartlett's resignation, praising Barlett's oppo skills in manipulating the press against Gore during the 2000 campaign.  Good to know that in Gregory's mind this is laudable.

– Via RawStory, I find that the WaTimes reports the RNC has had to lay off 65 phone solicitation workers due to lack of funds.  (H/T to egregious for the link.)

There has been a sharp decline in contributions from RNC phone solicitations, another fired staffer said, reporting that many former donors flatly refuse to give more money to the national party if Mr. Bush and the Senate Republicans insist on supporting what these angry contributors call "amnesty" for illegal aliens.

"Everyone donor in 50 states we reached has been angry, especially in the last month and a half, and for 99 percent of them immigration is the No. 1 issue," said the former employee.

The RNC spokeswoman denied that the committee has seen any drop-off in contributions.

"Any assertion that overall donations have gone down is patently false," Miss Schmitt said. "We continue to out raise our Democrat counterpart by a substantive amount (nearly double)."

Yes, I always find that a sudden mass employee firing is a good indicator that donation solicitations and operations are going swimmingly, don't you?

– Speaking of angry Republicans, Peggy Noonan continues down her path of "blame the Bushies, but not the GOP."  My favorite bit comes at the end:

Bush the younger came forward, presented himself as a conservative, garnered all the frustrated hopes of his party, turned them into victory, and not nine months later was handed a historical trauma that left his country rallied around him, lifting him, and his party bonded to him. He was disciplined and often daring, but in time he sundered the party that rallied to him, and broke his coalition into pieces. He threw away his inheritance. I do not understand such squandering.

Now conservatives and Republicans are going to have to win back their party. They are going to have to break from those who have already broken from them. This will require courage, serious thinking and an ability to do what psychologists used to call letting go. This will be painful, but it's time. It's more than time.

Oh, Peggy, you and every other loyal GOP true believer enabled his idiocy from day one, refused to criticize his failures or hold him to account for mistakes — for years. And it is only now, when you are facing horrid electoral numbers and the defection of independents and former self-described conservatives in droves, that you falsely claim to "see the light." What that really means is that you are going to change your rhetoric to suit the public mood, but that is only because you all got caught with your hands in the cronyism and corruption jar. 

Here's the word of the day for you:  complicity.  And while you may try your snow job rhetoric on the public that Bush isn't really a conservative and that this is all his fault and blah blah blah, it will not work:  for we have been given a glimpse of what your party is at its core for the last six years, and it is not pretty — and it was soundly rejected in the last election, with a soured electorate who is even more disgusted with you by the minute.  Enjoy reaping what you have helped to sow for six long, painful years.  And either start doing the work that needs to be done and making amends to undo all of this failure and damage, or get the hell out of the way.  (H/T to Oliver Willis for the link on this one.  And to reader "boxer," who linked this up in last night's comments.)

– Larry Johnson (posting at DKos) has some news on the obstacles that Valerie Plame Wilson is having to overcome to be able to write a book about her experience in government.  Amazing stuff, especially given how much detail we know about her work publicly — and that the vast majority of that information has come out of other people's mouths.  Valerie deserves an opportunity to present her side of the story.  Period.

– The folks at C&L have a great piece on the latest global warming tug of war at NASA.

– Digby has a great piece on members of the press proving Al Gore's point on the insipid nature of punditry, while trying to play gotcha with him in interviews asking questions about his weight. 

– Taylor Marsh breaks down the latest flap about the Edwards "did he or didn't he" NIE business.

– Wolcott has a fabu neocon smackdown.  Just go read it, you'll be happy that you did.

– Finally, do not miss the photo of Rupert Murdoch at the NYTimes regarding the meeting he'll be having with the family owners of the WSJ.  It's Dr. Evil meets Mr. Burns.  Priceless.  (H/T to twolf1 for the link on this one.)

So, what is catching your eye this morning in the news or on the blogs?

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