Hot hot green text on yellow action

Bullet points in the morning:

• According to this study, green text on yellow background is the easiest for people to read. So, like a good sheep, I'm following along. I'm not willing to put it in Times New Roman and make everything italicized, but I'm willing to try this out.
  
• Hey, Republicans, you wanted a true conservative candidate? Take a look. Just as Le Pen makes the French gaze into their national soul and consider what they've become, so should the rise of Tom Tancredo in America make us ponder what we really are, that the paragon of one of our national parties should be a xenophobe who calls Miami a Third-world country. Glenn Greenwald notes the true character of the post-Bush Republican party (way better than I could) here.

  Two of the three leading Republican candidates for President either embrace or are open to embracing the idea that the President can imprison Americans without any review, based solely on the unchecked decree of the President. And, of course, that is nothing new, since the current Republican President not only believes he has that power but has exercised it against U.S. citizens and legal residents in the U.S. -- including those arrested not on the "battlefield," but on American soil.

  What kind of American isn't just instinctively repulsed by the notion that the President has the power to imprison Americans with no charges? And what does it say about the current state of our political culture that one of the two political parties has all but adopted as a plank in its platform a view of presidential powers and the federal government that is -- literally -- the exact opposite of what this country is?

• CARDS LOSE CARDS LOSE! Cubs now 1/2 game ahead of Cardinals for first and probably only time in the season.
• Tribune bought? At $34 a share? What does this mean for the Chicago Trib and LATimes? What does it mean for the WGN Superstation? And most importantly, what does it mean for the boys in blue at Wrigley Field? I demand that the first question for Zell at the press conference be: "Will the Cubs go all the way?" (EDIT: Cubs for sale! Anyone have $440 million to spare? We'd better start pooling now; Cubs go on sale as soon as 2007 season over.)
  
• Can France stop pandering to dictators? Eh... probably not. Still, a look at the bizarre relationship between France and Sub-Saharan Africa at the BBC.
• I'm a straight-up Democrat, and Bush's horrendous legacy needs to be dismantled. At the same time, I find these bills to be counter-productive. Bush will no doubt veto them, and the Democrats won't be able to override. Meanwhile, as the HuffingPost is busy trumpeting the story as its top headline, the Democrats are going to continue squandering their post-election political capital on impossible wins. The Democrats' primary concern should be where it always has been: domestic programs that help working Americans. Presidents look best when fighting Congress, unless you can sell it as against children, against the elderly, and against everything good in America. If all the Democrats manage to get done is a bunch of symbolic bills that all get vetoed, we'll be looking at a Republican Congress next time around. And Bush's legacy will stay that way.