THE TENSION: The Decline and Fall of Western Civ for 13 Oct.

After reading: wash, rinse and repeat.

The traditional media may soon be on life support. According to Reuters, media outlets are finding it harder to protect the privacy of the politicians and stars they cover without losing scoops to blogs and other competitors, the editor of online magazine Slate said on Thursday. The following quote sums of the decline and fall of traditional (I call it legacy) media who freely admit they no longer exert full control over the folks:
"I very much agree that we need to have standards, but I think that in practical terms, we don't control what people find out anymore," Slate Editor-in-Chief Jacob Weisberg said at a Reuters Newsmaker event.

Because the legacy media is falling (as I have noted above) in its efforts to control news flow, the blogosphere continues to expose Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid's questionable (if not illegal) land dealings. Calling for Reid to step down from his leadership position and undergo a full investigation of his activities, the Strata-Sphere blog details the case -- including exhaustive government records of land deals.

Chris Cillizza, writing in the Washington Post, says former Virginia governor Mark R. Warner's decision to bow out of the 2008 Democratic presidential race yesterday left the remaining candidates scrambling to fill the ideological and electoral void left by the candidate long considered a leading alternative to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's presidential bid. Warner's campaign was to be built around the idea that in an age of polarizing netroots politics, voters are looking for an alternative to the far-left elements taking over the Democratic party. Gossip Web-rag Radar says D.C. insiders are speculating that his surprise pull-out may have been sparked by concerns that alleged past sexual indiscretions could derail his campaign—especially in the midst of the Mark Foley feeding frenzy. It's interesting to note that the "pull-out" is a traditional Democratic manoeuvre, starting with former President Clinton's stain making move and still in vogue today with those who want to pull-out of Iraq.

Air America Radio, a liberal talk and news radio network that features the comedian Al Franken, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, a network official told AP. Click here for the filing. Air America proved correct many conservative critics who pointed out the network's business plan (or lack thereof) relied on revenue of contributors, which made the network more like a PAC than a commercial venture for profit.

Though it goes against the conventional wisdom of anti-illegal immigration supporters, those who enroll the poor in the federal food stamp program say they've struggled for years to get immigrant Latino families signed up. The LA Times reports a Spanish-language news report and television ad campaign have spurred thousands of immigrants in Orange County over the last several weeks to contact a nonprofit organization that offers a Spanish-language class called "Food Stamps in Four Hours."

British Muslim terrorist mastermind Dhiren Barot, 34, faces life in jail after he admitted plotting a radioactive 'dirty bomb' attack in the UK and a string of devastating atrocities in the USA, reports the Daily Mail. Barot planned to kill "as many innocent people as possible" by blowing up some of the world's largest financial institutions including the New York Stock Exchange, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.

The latest Sacramento resident to be questioned by federal agents in possible threats against President Bush is 14-year-old Julia Wilson who is passionate about liberal politics, according to the Sacremento Bee. Beneath the words "Kill Bush," Wilson posted a cartoonish photo-collage of a knife stabbing the hand of the president. It was one of a few images Julia said she used to decorate an anti-Bush Web page she moderated on MySpace.

AP reports a teenager who put her bra on a car antenna before it flew off and led to a highway accident will be charged with littering, a prosecutor said. Emily Davis, 17, of Bowling Green, told investigators she took her bra off while her friend was driving on Interstate 75.

Pillaging, plundering and grog, sweet grog; James Hill is happy to discuss the finer points of pirate life. But first, you'll have to hear him out on lobbying reform, reports AP.

"Lobbying should be illegal," said Hill, a self-professed "drunken pirate" who is running for Congress as an independent in Iowa's 1st District. "It amounts to taxation without representation."

Officials are trying to track down the origins of a mummified human skeleton that a Michigan woman tried to sell on eBay, reports AP. The St. Clair County medical examiner's office confiscated the mummified remains Tuesday from the home of Lynn Sterling.

Sterling, 45, told police she got the remains from a friend who works in demolition and said he found them in a Detroit school he helped tear down nearly 30 years ago, police said. She said she had contacted an attorney before posting the remains for sale.