New York Times

Unless you've been living under a rock for the last few days, you probably know that warmer air hasn't brought any relief from winter storms to Washington State.

Instead of record snow, we're being soaked with unending downpours - and rivers everywhere are flooding their banks.

Rising water and mudslides have shut down Amtrak Cascades service between Portland and Seattle. A twenty mile stretch of Interstate 5 in Centralia and Chehalis is closed (Milepost 68 to Milepost 88). And all three of the state's major passes - Stevens, Snoqualmie, White - are also closed, leaving only one road open across the state: U.

I've long held out hope that John McCain would become the better man he used to be before he set his sights on the presidency once Barack Obama defeated him. It doesn't look like I'll get my wish - logging in today, the first thing I saw on Google News was an article from the New York Times titled McCain starts 'Country First ' PAC. The author writes:

Less than two weeks from the inauguration that he hoped would usher in his own presidential administration, Senator John McCain announced the formation of a new political action committee that will work to promote Republican causes.

John Edwards admission that he lied and dismissed reports of an affair with Rielle Hunter, a filmmaker hired to cover his presidential campaign, may have ended his public life, but did it also signify an end to the era in which the mainstream media controlled the agenda for national political journalism?