And yes, I do think that [special prosecutor] Patrick Fitzgerald's boys will probably be paying JimJeff another visit. Sadly, I think it's entirely likely that they didn't know about this until today. It is impossible to believe that the secret service and the FBI would allow a known prostitute to have access to the White House after 9/11. If they did, then our national security is in very deep shit. Come to think of it, it's also pretty scary that they didn't know. What's up with that?

The simplest explanation is usually the correct one, but I find it very complex to believe that the Secret Service and FBi did not know who Guckert was, especially after 11 September 2001. We have to believe one of the following two scenarios:

• The people responsible for protecting the security of the President of the United States could not perform a simple background check on a guy whose seedy past bloggers uncovered in a matter of days, or

• Someone with enough authority in the Bush administration ordered Guckert to be admitted to the building, and the press room, despite his background. After all, if the President of the United States wants to meet with you, the FBI isn't going to tell him that he can't see you.

Which do you think is simpler, more likely, and more realistic?

Our friends at the Center for Science in the Public Interest (so hated by the food industry, by the way, that the chain restaurant industry created fake CSPI-style domain names to insult CSPI as the "food police") want Johnson & Johnson to stop advertising Splenda as "made from sugar."

Only 8 percent of the respondents correctly believed that it was made from sugar and chlorine. The sucralose in Splenda is, in fact, a synthetic chemical that contains chlorine, something that no natural sugar contains.

"Made from sugar," certainly sounds better than, say, "made from chlorinated hydrocarbons," or "made in a laboratory," or "fresh from the factory." Splenda's artificiality may present a marketing challenge, but that's not an excuse to confuse consumers and lead them to believe that Splenda is natural or in any way related to sugar. I hope that McNeil starts marketing Splenda honestly

Unfortunately for CSPI, Splenda actually is made from sugar that's processed with chlorine to replace three hydroxyl groups with chlorine. CSPI believes it's safe, but never objects to more testing.

My question: would it be OK to describe Splenda or sucralose as "chlorinated sugar?"

"Unix permissions and a powerful multiple-level font architecture are bad because I don't understand them. Down with progress!"

No, literally: he's been renting himself out to gay men in the DC area for years for $1200 per weekend, or $200 per hour. The same guy who got into the White House Press Room under an assumed name, with the administration's approval, for at least two years. AMERICAblog has him nailed (so to speak):

Why does it matter that Jeff Gannon may have been a gay hooker named James Guckert with a $20,000 defaulted court judgment against him? So he somehow got a job lobbing softball questions to the White House. Big deal. If he was already a prostitute, why not be one in the White House briefing room as well?

This is the Conservative Republican Bush White House we're talking about. It's looking increasingly like they made a decision to allow a hooker to ask the President of the United States questions. They made a decision to give a man with an alias and no journalistic experience access to the West Wing of the White House on a "daily basis." They reportedly made a decision to give him - one of only six - access to documents, or information in those documents, that exposed a clandestine CIA operative. Say what you will about Monika Lewinsky - a tasteless episode, "inappropriate," whatever. Monika wasn't a gay prostitute running around the West Wing. What kind of leadership would let prostitutes roam the halls of the West Wing? What kind of war-time leadership can't find the same information that took bloggers only days to find?

None of this is by accident.

Someone had to make a decision to let all this happen. Who? Someone committed a crime in exposing Valerie Plame and now it appears a gay hooker may be right in the middle of all of it? Who?

Ultimately, it is the hypocrisy that is such a challenge to grasp in this story. This is the same White House that ran for office on a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage. While they are surrounded by gay hookers? While they use a gay hooker to write articles for their gay hating political base? While they use a gay hooker to destroy a political enemy? Not to mention the hypocrisy of a "reporter" who chooses to publish article after article defending the ant-gay religious-right point of view on gay civil rights issue.

Anyone, anyone who tries to write this off but voted to impeach Bill Clinton should be run out of office.

The campaign worked! 2090 donors, and $100,000.04 raised in under 48 hours, just from progressive blogs and their readers - over a weekend! Fantastic!

Ignoring the Valentine issue for the moment, I must say, shredding is fun. We got a small hand-me-down shredder for the office a few months ago, and it was so effective that in January, we replaced it with a big 15-sheet model that crosscuts through credit cards, CDs, DVDs, and every piece of junk mail we've thrown at it.

We shred all those damned annoying credit card offers (even the ones with fake cards designed to make you open them so you can shred the plastic) without even opening the envelopes. We shred old Tiger and other pre-release DVDs, we shred AOL CDs, we shred every damn bit of paper that people send us against our wishes, and it's soooooo much fun.

Everyone should have one.