—- It’s always sad when a good blog hangs up their hat and Southern Appeal is no exception. I always enjoyed reading the blog posts of Steve Dillard and the other contributors to the SA blog. While I’m saddened to see them closing up shop, I wish them well in all of their future endeavors.

—- Tom Maguire has a prediction posted about the Duke lacrosse case: DA Mike Nifong will drop all the remaining charges against the three accused Duke players on or by the Feb. 5th hearing.

—- Target Corp. has pulled their Che Guevara CD cases out of their stores after business columnists at Investor’s Business Daily and the Wall Street Journal made a stink about the cases bearing the image of the Commie-Marxist. (Hat tip: Tom Blumer)

—- Senator Byron Dorgan (D-ND) and Rep. and senator-elect Sherrod Brown (D-OH) have an opinion piece in today’s WaPo explaining why they believe free trade hurts.

—- The liberal Media Matters has named ABC “Misinformer of the Year.” Brian at Iowa Voice blogs about why that’s so laughable.

—- The Associated Press has a rundown of strange seasonal crimes that have been committed over the last few weeks. The one I just blogged about apparently didn’t happen before the deadline for that piece

—- In the middle of his heated feud with “The View” co-host Rosie O, giving Miss USA a second chance, as well as approving the firing of Miss Nevada over some uh - shall we say “risque” - photos taken of her at a club - photos that were unbecoming of a Miss Nevada, Donald Trump has found the time to sue Palm Beach, FL in dispute over a supposedly too-tall (to Palm Beach) flagpole he has the US flag hanging on at his Mar-a-Lago Club.

—- Josh Trevino, guest blogging at Hugh Hewitt’s blog slams Senator John Kerry’s latest op-ed - and Kerry - here. OUCH.

—- Jim at bRight and Early wonders why a certain ’spying’ program has been allowed to continue on for generations in this country without investigation or oversight … make sure to read that one very carefully