"Mars is essentially in the same orbit . . . Mars is somewhat the same distance from the Sun, which is very important. We have seen pictures where there are canals, we believe, and water. If there is water, that means there is oxygen. If oxygen, that means we can breathe."

The Justice Department has informed former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas) that the government has ended a six-year investigation of his ties to the disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff, according to DeLay's lead counsel in the matter, Richard Cullen, chairman of McGuireWoods.

The investigation lasted through two presidents and four attorneys general. Its demise provides a stark footnote to the lobbying scandals that helped Democrats regain the House majority they held for 40 years and lost in the Republican revolution of 1994, which eventually made the pugnacious DeLay one of Washington's top power brokers.

"The federal investigation of Tom DeLay is over, and there will be no charges," Cullen said. "This was one of the longest and expensive and thorough investigations in recent memory. DeLay took a tack right from the start that he had nothing to hide, and we have been in a routine and constant dialogue with [prosecutors].

"I'm sure he wishes it didn't take six years of his life, with a cloud hanging over him. I am pleased with the outcome. They just took longer than we would have preferred. He said he was gratified and thanked us."

Cullen said he was pleased there were no leaks from the government as the investigation ground on. "They played fair," he said.

Meanwhile, yellow splotches and a thermal warning on my iPhone 4. Life on the bleeding edge. . .

23. Saul Alinsky (7)
    
23. Bill Clinton (7)
    
23. Hillary Clinton (7)
    
19. Michael Moore (7)
    
19. George Soros (8)
    
19. Alger Hiss (8)
    
19. Al Sharpton (8)
    
13. Al Gore (9)
    
13. Noam Chomsky (9)
    
13. Richard Nixon (9)
    
13. Jane Fonda (9)
    
13. Harry Reid (9)
    
13. Nancy Pelosi (9)
    
11. John Wilkes Booth (10)
    
11. Margaret Sanger (10)
    
9. Aldrich Ames (11)
   
9. Timothy McVeigh (11)
   
7. Ted Kennedy (14)
   
7. Lyndon Johnson (14)
   
5. Benedict Arnold (17)
   
5. Woodrow Wilson (17)
   
4. The Rosenbergs (19)
   
3. Franklin Delano Roosevelt (21)
   
2. Barack Obama (23)
   
1. Jimmy Carter (25)

Gingrich then went on to claim that "we would never accept the Japanese putting up a site next to Pearl Harbor."

"There is no reason for us to accept a mosque next to the World Trade Center," he said.

weeellll

An American flag waves briskly in the breeze beside a Shinto shrine on the major freeway leading from Honolulu to Pearl Harbor. Just five miles away is the spot where Japanese planes dropped their bombs on the American fleet.