The Rule of Law
After seven years in prison without so much as even being charged with anything, ‘enemy combatant’ Ali Al-Marri is finally going to be given a criminal trial.

That sudden lightness you felt was one of the giant sacks of national guilt, well, not exactly falling off your shoulders, but at least shifting to a more comfortable place.

Jane Mayer of The New Yorker dropped by to talk with Rachel about how the downside of this is that now we won’t get a Supreme Court challenge to the notion that a President can just declare someone an enemy combatant and banish him to the Phantom Zone forever.

So, yeah… Maybe just get some nice fleece padding for those guilt sacks.

The President’s Priorities
Obama has submitted his first budget, and Rachel is apparently doing her part to make sure that the United States chew toy industry does not go under.

Other than Rachel’s dog, this year’s budget winners include scientists, the police, and high-speed rail. And Hollywood, because I would totally go see that movie.

Rachel welcomed surprisingly good-humored Director of the Office of Management and Budget Dr. Peter Orszag, who noted that our budget looks sort of different when you actually put our two giant wars in it, and seemed only mildly baffled that pundits are so surprised by Obama doing exactly what he said he would.

Orszag apparently has an aide or an intern who was hip enough to let him know that he should invite the pyrotechnically inclined Rachel for a fireside chat. He made a good defense of his fire safety precautions, and emphasized that his dabbling in the combustive arts “was only smoke.”

Current odds of Orszag secretly being The Human Torch: 1 in 8.

Ms. Information
Rachel looked at the case of former Executive Director of the CIA Kyle “Dusty” Foggo, who is clearly still using his made-up spy name.

Foggo North, Decoder has just been sent to jail for several kinds of evildoing, some of it the kind of hilarious sexy evildoing that makes Rachel get all embarrassed. It’s worth looking up, but maybe not at work. Unless you work for Discreet Professional Hot Tub Cleaning Escorts, Inc., and are looking for innovative marketing ideas.

GOP in Exile
If those of you in the D.C. area have noticed a certain festive feel in the air, you’re right: the Conservative Political Action Conference is in town!

This is where a couple of years ago Ann CoultNoIWillNotGiveHerTheGoogleHit called John Edwards a British cigarette, and while I understand why Rachel used that remark as a way to illustrate the tone of the event, I wish that people would stop putting her on television entirely.

This looks like kind of a difficult year for CPAC, since they’re regrouping after a tough loss. Not to mention trying to figure out what to do now that the Rovian tactics that had been working for so long have not only lost them huge amounts of political power, but also sold out actual conservatism along the way.

I was feeling sort of bad for them until I saw that some CPAC speakers are still throwing around – and getting applause for! – the “Obama is not really the President because he’s actually a scary scary African” thing.

Iraqui Spy Story
Turns out Rachel’s budget also has significant earmarks for cloak-and-dagger stories. She went all Bond girl for a minute to let us know that there’s a spy manhunt in the news!

She tells it better than I would, and, yes, I would see that movie too.

Back home, there is considerably less special effects-worthy intrigue, but quite a bit of talking about the 50,000 “residual” troops that will be left in Iraq after we’re, um, gone.

Paul Riekhoff of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America came on to mention that as a former troop himself, he’s not crazy about the way our government officials seem to have been causally tossing random numbers around.

He also brought up the fact that we can’t just pretend that the wave of troops who are coming home will get visits from the Job Fairy. OK, so maybe a fleece lining and an attractive harness for the guilt sacks.

Until tomorrow, keep your disguises on and your hot tubs sparkling.