Doomsday Plan (and other miscellaneous news): How's this for ominous? The U.S House of Representatives has quietly passed a "doomsday provision" that will allow a handful of congressmembers to declare war in the event of "catastrophic circumstances." It used to be that a majority of house members--218 lawmakers or more--had to be present for the body to function, but the new plan says that a majority of congressman present at any given moment can pass laws or declare war (if you know anything about how the Republicans plan midnight debates so that news cameras aren't on and many legislators aren't around, you'll be very wary).

Armstrong's bad day: Armstrong Wiliams, the conservative journalist secretly paid a quarter-million dollars to hype No Child Left Behind, had a coupla rough days: after his payments from BushCo were revealed, he walked out on a scheduled interview for MSNBC's Scarborough Country and his column was dropped from syndication by Tribune Media Services.And: More on Armstrong's brand of ethics.

"Corporate paranoia" from Apple: Should bloggers have the same protections as journalists? Apple says no, but the Electronic Frontier Foundation says yes. It's representing bloggers at AppleInsider and PowerPage who are facing a subpoena from the computer maker to reveal the identies of sources that leaked details on a product code-named "Asteroid." "I am very disappointed by Apple's behavior and its new policy of issuing legal threats to its best customers," added Jason O'Grady, publisher of PowerPage. "Is corporate paranoia really more important than the First Amendment?"

Gather no Moss: OK, so my team lost, but at least we don't have one of these (er, that's Vikings wide receiver Randy Moss air-mooning the crowd then rubbing his keister on the goalpost).