Via Skippy, Conservative billionaire Richard Mellon Scaife, Clinton foe and huge funder behind Whitewater and other Clinton investigations, is having major divorce woes -- police were called to his estate when a major tussle developed over custody of the family dog. Details of the wife's alleged assaults on the housekeeping staff are here.

And, get this: He has no pre-nup. He must be really distraught because he's even talking to the press, something he rarely does. He says, "Wish me luck."

Right. He also says, of wife and the dog incident, "They led her away in handcuffs." But the news articles say his wife wasn't arrested.

• Nora Ephron at Huffpo

• Bush Twins to Enlist in High Tech Air Force Unit

First daughters Jenna and Barbara Bush will be assigned to a high-tech unit in Iraq, the Air Force Human Resources Command has confirmed. Having finished basic training at the Officer Training School (OTS) at Maxwell Air Force Base in Alabama, they are scheduled to receive advanced training in telecommunications at the School of Information Technology before deployment overseas with the USAF Information Operations Squadron. For security reasons, the exact dates have been withheld.

• Students for A Sensible Drug Policy: Congress Forces People with Drug Convictions to Attend College - Law that Stripped Aid from 200,000 Students Reversed

In a stunning reversal of federal policy, Congress passed a law yesterday that not only repeals the Higher Education Act Aid Elimination Penalty that has denied financial aid to nearly 200,000 students with drug convictions, but actually mandates that people with drug convictions attend college and that the federal government foot the bill.

For more information on the new law, have a HAPPY APRIL FOOLS DAY!!! If you would like to find out more about the real campaign to repeal the HEA Aid Elimination Penalty, please visit here.

When one person does it, it's interesting. When two people do it, it's noteworthy. When three people do it, it may be the beginning of a movement.

Grant Urry

Of Winchester on January 04, 2006. Husband of Lillian (Alibertini) Urry. Father of Lisa Urry of El Cerrito, CA, Meg Urry of Guilford, CT, Serena Urry of Detroit, MI and Anthony Urry of Livonia, MI. Grandfather of Amelia, Lily, Sophia, Alex, Grant and Evan. Brother of Zada Christiansen of Salt Lake City, UT and Daniel Urry of Birmingham, AL. Also survived by many nieces and nephews. Ph.D. from University of Chicago 1953. Professor of Chemistry (retired) at Tufts University. There will be no Funeral Services. Friends are asked to remember him by voting Democratic.

[Hat tip to Grant Urry's son Anthony who sent this in to TalkLeft.]

Jerry Falwell gets further and further out there. His latest knucklehead theory is that Jews and Muslims can't go to heaven.

While I am a strong supporter of the State of Israel and dearly love the Jewish people and believe them to be the chosen people of God, I continue to stand on the foundational biblical principle that all people -- Baptists, Methodists, Pentecostals, Jews, Muslims, etc. -- must believe in the Lord Jesus Christ in order to enter heaven. -Jerry Falwell

Blogger Jason Weisberger at Just Plain Bother has co-opted Falwell's comments and urges you to click here and demand Falwell apologize.

For an extra hoot, check out this paragraph from Falwell's auto-biography about his crazy, cruel father. Your family values at work.

by Last Night in Little Rock

On Thanksgiving, Talkleft saw the Rolling Stones in Denver. For those of you in big cities, no big deal. For those of us in the hinterlands, the Rolling Stones hitting town is a big deal. This is their second time in Little Rock. In 1995, they sold out 50,000 seats in eight hours. Ticket prices: $55 & 30. It was the best show I'd ever seen. The only other time I saw the Stones? 1967 in Syracuse NY. Tickets were $8. They were the counterpoint to the Beatles back then.

In August, tickets went on sale for March 9th's show. Ticket prices: $300, $150, $90. So I paid for these tickets six months ago.

This is near the end of the tour, and we are an add on, just like the shows in Australia and Indonesia in three weeks.

We Baby Boomers are a target, and a big one indeed.

by Last Night in Little Rock

Pat Robertson was defeated for re-election to the Board of National Religious Broadcasters. His spin was that he was too busy to attend but one meeting in 30 years anyway, and his departure was amicable. On AOL News, however, it was noted that there were 33 vacancies and 38 candidates, and he was running for re-election.

Apparently the membership was tired of his antics:

NRB President Frank Wright said there was no broad effort to distance the group from Robertson. But ''there was broad dismay with some of Pat's comments and a feeling they were not helpful to Christian broadcasters in general,'' he said in Wednesday's Washington Post. In the past few months, Robertson suggested that Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez should be assassinated and that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's stroke was divine punishment for pulling out of the Gaza Strip.

by TChris

Here's a funny lesson in how not to get a job in the legal world (at least, not in the private sector).

by TChris

Fill your tank today. You can bet that gas prices will be higher tomorrow.

Oil prices rose 2.6 percent today after a series of violent attacks by militants in the Niger Delta that shut down nearly a fifth of Nigeria's oil production.

UPDATE: The president assures us that he's on top of the whole energy thing. Don't even worry about it. You'll be driving a battery powered car before you know it. Heck, don't even pay attention to how much ExxonMobil siphons out of your wallet this winter, because we're "on the threshold of new energy technology that I think will startle the American people." Any day now, Bush tells us, we'll see "some amazing breakthroughs" with, you know, energy stuff, like solar panels that'll give you more energy than you need. And this will all happen, um, really soon.

Today's version of the Bush administration's energy policy: just wait for something good to happen.

by Last Night in Little Rock

Today is Super Bowl Sunday. This is Super Bowl XL. (Is that extra large or 40 in roman numerals? Will the Super Bowl in 2206 be 2XL?) I remember watching "the Super Bowl" in my college dorm in 1967. They hadn't yet had to number them.

This will be at least the 30th consecutive year I have not watched the Superbowl. It's always a good time to go to a movie and not worry about crowds.

I know: I'll miss the allegedly great commercials and Janet Jackson's boob. I can catch them on the Internet later.

by Last Night in Little Rock

This is somewhat off topic, or is it? You are reading this on a computer. Therefore, you get spam. Spam is a fact of Internet life. Therefore, you are interested in this:

Remember the "'Net Lore" false urban legend of "Bill 602P" that would impose 5 cents postage on all e-mails, and you should write your Congressman?

Tomorrow's NY Times, posted on its website this afternoon, has an article that AOL and Yahoo! are on the verge of selling a spam filter avoider to mass e-mailers for 1/4 cent per e-mail.

Coretta Scott King has died. May she rest in peace. Firedoglake has a nice tribute.

by TChris

Strangest statement by an Idaho bureaucrat so far this week:

"The result in Idaho is that you could theoretically be a convicted cannibal and still have a hunting license," said Ed Mitchell, a spokesman for the Idaho Department of Fish and Game in Boise. "But if you are a convicted cannibal, you cannot legally own a bent BB gun in the state of Idaho."

Do a large number of convicted cannibals apply for hunting licenses in Idaho?