Since I've been "out of the loop" for a few days, I thought I'd better try to catch up on what's in the news.  Problem is, I could have predicted nearly everything in Drudge's headlines!  For instance, is anyone surprised by this?

"PARIS (AP) — American cyclist Floyd Landis denied that he cheated to win the Tour de France, but said Thursday that his career will forever be stained by his positive test for high testosterone during the sport's premiere event.

"Unfortunately, I don't think it's ever going to go away no matter what happens next," Landis said during a teleconference."

The only suprise is that "his team reported".  I totally expected that there would be doping accusations, after all another blankety-blank-blank fricking American won the precious French title...duh.  Results pending.  [yawn]

Now this one should have been a surprise, but politics and the media being what it is, I can't say as I'm too shocked. 

"Contrary to a published report, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich is not plotting to have Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice transferred out of the State Department.

Gingrich spokesman Rick Tyler disputed a story from conservative magazine Insight on the News that said, “[C]onservatives, who include Newt Gingrich, Richard Perle and leading current and former members of the Pentagon and National Security Council, have urged the president to transfer Miss Rice out of the State Department and to an advisory role. They said Miss Rice, stemming from her lack of understanding of the Middle East, has misled the president on Iran and the Arab-Israeli conflict.”

Not true, said Tyler. “Newt is supporting Rice,” he told HUMAN EVENTS. “So far she is saying and doing the right things.”

Insofar as Dr. Rice and Prof. Gingrich are the top picks for GOP presidential candidates in '08, why wouldn't the lefty media types try to drive a wedge between them? 

And last but not least, for now, is this one.

"Al-Qaida's No. 2 leader issued a worldwide call Thursday for Muslims to rise up in a holy war against Israel and join the fighting in Lebanon and Gaza until Islam reigns from "Spain to Iraq."

In the message broadcast by Al-Jazeera television, Ayman al-Zawahri, second in command to Osama bin Laden, said that al-Qaida now views "all the world as a battlefield open in front of us."

Will someone please tell me, is this really "news"?  We've known this for a very long time, people!  Why is it news?  Oh, right.....I forgot.  You just have to give voice to the Islamofascists, don't you! 

I could go on and on, but that's it for now.  I'm going to take my grandsons out to dinner.  I'll be home Saturday, but for now my friends, Good Night!