Welcome to Wednesday, the middle of the week, and the day Fox News, the most watched channel on television, references the "lame-stream news" for the 38,478,593,729,384,572 time. One second, need to insert commas into that number. That's more than the national debt, right? Maybe we should just tax Fox a dollar every time they, the most watch channel on television, use that line.

Or maybe we could remind them that Fox is indeed, THE MOST WATCHED CHANNEL ON TELEVISION! Personally, I favor Conan. Thankfully he is no longer on NBC. Damn liberals.

Alright, got that off my chest. Except one more thing: It worries me that this is the first time I've sided with this man, but Pat Buchanan absolutely wiped the floor with the entire MSNBC Morning Joe set this morning on immigration. It was embarrassing. The guy has ideas and knows what he's talking about. Most of his ideas are wildly ridiculous and he is the worst communicator of all time. But he knows what he's talking about.

Moving on.

In case you didn't see my rambling, overly cheery or praising post last night, some pretty cool/sad news (depending on who are) out of UW yesterday, that President Mark Emmert, head of the university since 2004, has accepted the position of Chief Executive of the NCAA. Much congratulations to Mark, who I personally think left UW in a much better place than he got it, despite the economic situation. This decision is a good one for the NCAA. If there is one department at UW he really left far better than he got it, it is one of the nation's premiere athletic departments.

During his tenure national championships became commonplace. The defending national champion Washington softball team sits atop the rankings still, a position they have held this entire season. In 2008-09 alone the program won two national titles and finished 11th in the Director's Cup standings. During my time at UW I witnessed three national championships, a Sweet 16, the best rowing program in the country and so on. All of that while maintaining some of the highest graduation rates in the country.

So congratulations to Mark, who leaves UW for a major position, but not without having made the school better during his time. In addition to the previously mentioned accomplishments, I would be remiss by not mentioning these: the $2.8 billion fundraising campaign that concluded in 2008, and the nation's top-ranked primary care medical school and top-ranked nursing school.

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Washington is a little crazy right now. Yesterday there was a marathon hearing in the Senate, where a panel of Goldman-Sachs executives were drilled by members of Congress. At one point, in quoting an email, Senator Carl Levin used the word "shitty" about 50 times, guaranteeing that Fox would cover nothing else about the hearing. But seriously, there was hostility from the Senate panel, something we don't often see.

At the same time the Senate continued work on a financial reform bill, sort of. For the second straight day the cloture vote failed. Again, the voted against voting. You have to love the U.S. Senate. Senator Ben Nelson (D-NE), famous for the infamous "Cornhusker Kickback" from the health care debate, is taking hits from both sides right now, despite voting against cloture. Even Republicans are calling him out for his apparent heeding of Warren Buffett, who is based in Omaha. Hey, he is a constituent, right?

Oh but there's more. Apparently Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid rejected a proposal that would have fast-tracked immigration reform through the committee process, in an effort to get an energy bill to the floor. It looks like Reid would rather see a bill go through the normal committee process, which one would think will take even longer. The proposal estimated that immigration would come up in November. I honestly could not tell you what Reid's plan is right know, which puts me in the majority of people.

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One of the bigger stories from yesterday took place in a different capitol, in the state of Oklahoma. That is where lawmakers overwhelming overrode the governor's veto to pass new abortion policy into law. Two measures were passed, both aimed at seriously restricting abortion.

One forces women to undergo an ultrasound, while listening to a detailed description of the fetus - arms, legs, head, etc - before getting an abortion. No exceptions are made for rape or incest victims. The second prevents women who have a disabled baby from suing a doctor for withholding information about birth defects while the child was in the womb.

For his part, the governor of Oklahoma, Brad Henry, not only vetoed the bills, but spoke out strongly against them.

It is unconscionable to grant a physician legal protection to mislead or misinform pregnant women in an effort to impose his or her personal beliefs on a patient.

Unconscionable is probably the right word. Unless you're an Oklahoma congressman.

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- Electoral politics, as always, are in play right now. Here is how the Washington Post sees things. At this point it appears they see Senator Patty Murray as safe. We'll see what happens with Dino Rossi.

Finally, check this video out. Heard it went viral yesterday: