“for the possible possession of illegal prescription drugs,” according to South Flordia’s CBS4 News.

UPDATE: The AP has more: “Rush Limbaugh was detained for about three-and-a-half hours Monday at Palm Beach International Airport after authorities said they found a bottle of Viagra in his possession without a prescription…the sheriff’s office plans to file a report with the state attorney’s office.”

UPDATE II: Sheriff’s office believes “there may be a second degree misdemeanor violation, which is possession of certain drugs without a prescription, because the bottle does not have his name on it,” a spokesman said.

The Democratic Policy Committee held a hearing this afternoon to examine the manipulation of pre-war Iraq intelligence. Rep. Walter Jones (R-NC), who previously disavowed his vote for the war, attended the hearing and asked the panelists why a small number of individuals in the administration “had more influence”¦than the professionals.” Lawrence Wilkerson, former chief of staff to Secretary of State Colin Powell, said he only needed three words. Watch it.

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Warren Buffett, the world’s second-richest man, announced this week that he plans to give away 85 percent of his $44 billion fortune to charity. Buffett explained his motivation in today’s New York Times:

“I love it when I’m around the country club, and I hear people talking about the debilitating effects of a welfare society,” he said. “At the same time, they leave their kids a lifetime and beyond of food stamps. Instead of having a welfare officer, they have a trust officer. And instead of food stamps, they have stocks and bonds.”

It’s hardly a suprise, then, that Buffett also opposes repealing the Estate Tax (aka the Paris Hilton Tax), a “graduated inheritance tax on big fortunes“:

Mr. Buffett said repealing the estate tax “would be a terrible mistake,” the equivalent of “choosing the 2020 Olympic team by picking the eldest sons of the gold-medal winners in the 2000 Olympics.” …

“We have come closer to a true meritocracy than anywhere else around the world,” he said. “You have mobility so people with talents can be put to the best use. Without the estate tax, you in effect will have an aristocracy of wealth, which means you pass down the ability to command the resources of the nation based on heredity rather than merit.” [NYT, 2/14/01]

Buffett was also opposed to President Bush’s dividend and income tax cuts for the wealthy. “If class warfare is being waged in America,” he wrote, “my class is clearly winning.” Congress ought to listen.

different from the Iraq timeline proposed in the Senate last week? Tony Snow offers a crystal clear explanation.

This morning, President Bush was asked whether he believed global warming was a “real and significant threat to the planet.” Bush claimed there is still a real debate over the cause of global warming. Watch it.

Despite Bush’s repeated efforts to muddy the picture, there is no real scientific debate over whether global warming is manmade or naturally-caused. Most recently, the National Academy of Sciences has unequivocally stated that natural causes cannot explain the unprecedented warmth over the last 400 years. Rather, “human activities are responsible for much of the recent warming,” the report states. The failure to acknowledge this scientific fact prevents Bush from taking the necessary actions to regulate carbon dioxide emissions, which he once pledged to do.

Full transcript below: Read more

President Bush today called the New York Times story revealing the administration’s monitoring of bank records “disgraceful,” and said the decision to publish details of the program “does great harm to the United States of America.”

Press Secretary Tony Snow followed up with another attack at today’s press briefing:

[T]he New York Times and other news organizations ought to think long and hard about whether a public’s right to know in some cases might override somebody’s right to live, and whether in fact the publications of these could place in jeopardy the safety of fellow Americans.

Watch it:

Asked whether the White House attacks on the New York Times represented an effort “to create a chilling effect on media outlets,” Snow responded, “I don’t think so.”

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President Theodore Roosevelt, who “vigorously led Congress and the American public toward progressive reforms,” shares a lot in common with President Bush, according to Karl Rove. The Plank’s critique: “Notice Rove’s emphasis on either character and form rather than substance.”

Indicted Gov. Ernie Fletcher (R-KY) has touted himself as a steward of the environment and a champion in the fight for fitness:

“We want our citizens to excel in efforts to improve Kentucky’s environment. … to reach beyond the legal minimum to do more for our environment than what our laws and regulations require.” [10/25/05]

“Exercise is just as essential as eating. … It needs to be stressed just as much.” [4/28/06]

But in reality, Fletcher is all talk. On Sunday, the AP reported that Fletcher wastes energy and key calorie-burning time by riding in a Lincoln Town Car to and from work each day:

Gov. Ernie Fletcher finishes a day at the office, but instead of walking through the idyllic scene across the street to the Governor’s Mansion, he gets into a Lincoln Town Car to be chauffeured to his door. In Kentucky, the lawns of the Capitol and the mansion are separated only by a narrow tree-shaded street, but Fletcher routinely rides to and from his office.

Here’s a map of the distance from the Governor’s Mansion to the Capitol building — a distance of under 150 yards:

Click here for full image.

UPDATE: We have updated the map to reflect the actual mansion, rather than the street address.

CNBC anchor Joe Kernen used Richard Lindzen’s grossly inaccurate column in today’s WSJ to repeatedly claim there is “no consensus” on whether global warming exists. Kernen suggests that “as old as the planet is” there is no way “puny, gnawing little humans” could change the climate in “70 years.” Watch it:

Kernen also claims that “99 percent” of the media is sure that global warming is real. Actually, “53 percent of articles in the mainstream media” cast doubt on global warming science. None of this doubt is express in peer-reviewed scientific literature.

Transcript: Read more