RIP, Paul Newman

Former Bush press secretary Tony Snow dies

WASHINGTON - Tony Snow, a conservative writer and commentator who cheerfully sparred with reporters in the White House briefing room during a stint as President Bush’s press secretary, died Saturday of colon cancer. He was 53.

“America has lost a devoted public servant and a man of character,” President Bush said in a statement from Camp David, where he was spending the weekend. “It was a joy to watch Tony at the podium each day. He brought wit, grace, and a great love of country to his work.”

Snow, who served as the first host of the television news program “Fox News Sunday” from 1996 to 2003, would later say that in the Bush administration he was enjoying “the most exciting, intellectually aerobic job I’m ever going to have.”

William F. Buckley Jr., who marshaled polysyllabic exuberance, famously arched eyebrows and a refined, perspicacious mind to elevate conservatism to the center of American political discourse, died Wednesday at his home in Stamford, Conn.

Once, during a CBS News interview, Buckley remarked: President Bush suffers from “the absence of effective conservative ideology,” and that on foreign policy “There will be no legacy for Mr. Bush….his legacy is indecipherable.”

Breaking:

Prominent former Illinois congressman Henry Hyde has died.

Update:

Wiki puts the time of death around 3:00am. More information still not available though, at this time.

The congressman was a “powerful defender of life”, with decades of maintaining a strong anti-abortion stance by crushing the rights of women everywhere.

As chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, in 1998 he led House efforts to impeach Clinton for allegedly lying about his affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky, and then in 1999 was the chief House manager in the unsuccessful bid to win a Senate conviction.

Millions of taxpayer dollars spent and so much time wasted on a farce. But he had the best intentions at heart.

Norman Mailer, shown in February, cultivated a streetwise, brawling, larger-than-life image.

Norman Mailer, the outspoken writer whose prize-winning works made him a towering figure on the American stage for more than 50 years, is dead. He was 84.