The home office is in shreds: papers tossed all over the place, files stacked everywhere, a year’s worth of receipts ever-so-carefully arranged in logical stacks between cold coffee cups and drained martini glasses, rabbits cowering in their hiding places, fearful that they, too, may be next in line for stacking, filing, or shredding. That’s right, it’s tax time, and everyone in the Richard household (rabbits included) are in a grumpy mood. Therefore, blogging could be spotty over the next several days as home computer time becomes a precious commodity indeed.

Ian at Expose The Left has the goods on NBC White House correspondent David Gregory, whose recent tirades and foolish shenanigans during White House press briefings has revealed himself to be nothing more than a shrill elitist Beltway crybaby when it comes to the President (his “Mr. Bush”) and his administration. Ian has circulated a petition calling for Gregory’s firing, and his buds in the mainstream media seem less than pleased about it.

So let me see if I’ve got this straight:

* A leading Senate Democrat wants to censure the President over the NSA surveillance program.
* The ACLU has filed suit to have the NSA reveal the specifics about its anti-terror surveillance program.
* Hundreds of thousands rally across the western U.S. to protest plans to reform our immigration policies and tighten our border security.

Then today, we hear Al-Qaida conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui testify that he and fellow wacko/convicted shoe-bomber Richard Reid were supposed to hijack a fifth airplane on Sept. 11, 2001, and fly it into the White House. I’m just wondering: when will this nation start taking seriously the forces of evil we find ourselves up against in this clash of ideologies and civilizations? How many innocent people will have to die before we realize you can’t defeat an enemy – one whose hatred for you runs so deep, they are willing to kill you and as many others as possible – with partisan bickering, tepid legislation, and legal shenanigans?

Well, this was bound to happen sooner or later: US forces in Iraq have started going after the thugs in radical Shiite cleric (are there any other kinds?) Moqtada al Sadr’s army. If you want to get the real story behind the story, you can do no better than The Belmont Club for great commentary and must-see links.

National Review Online’s Jonah Goldberg just returned from Vegas and has some less-than-complimentary things to say about Mandalay Bay:

The rooms were nice, the pools were mostly closed due to construction and the dealers were among the nastiest people I’ve ever encountered in a service industry like that. Yes, there were one or two exceptions. But all in all we were stunned by how surly and rude the dealers tended to be. There were 16 of us, and most of us had been to Vegas and to other casinos many, many times. And yet, to a man, we all kept having the same experience. The dealers at the Mandalay bay were, simply, rude. This isn’t sour grapes about losing money. I’ve done that plenty of places. And I’m not even really angry about it. But it was just, well, weird. Vegas is designed to make people feel good while they lose their money to the house. The dealers acted like they were doing you a favor just letting you sit at the table. And — even weirder — it was really, really hard to get a drink at the casino (except on Saturday night). It was so un-Vegas.

Hey Jonah, perhaps you’d like to join the Goodboys the next time you venture out to “Sin City”. While Red Square (and, perhaps, Aureole), are OK, I think you’d find the more upscale Mandalay Bay no match for our ever-so-slightly-less-so Mirage headquarters, with its friendly table dealers and bar staff. Then, win or lose, you can either lick your wounds or share the love with an after-action cocktail-slurping, people-watching stint at the Kokomo’s Bar. You’d be more than welcome, Jonah – as we GBs say, the more the merrier!

UPDATE: That was a couple of hours ago. To show you the power of the blogsphere, Jonah recently updated his original post with this:

Behold the power of the Corner. A senior executive of Mandalay Resort & Casino contacted me and we had a nice conversation. He apologized profusely and — I believe — sincerely. It was a nice and appreciated gesture.

Just goes to show that the savvy executives at Mandalay Bay know just how competitive things are out there, and how fast news can travel on the Internet. Smart move.

Kudos to LSU making the Final Four. Rob and his Crab Apple Lane blog faction will be pleased to know that every obnoxious local-yokel sports radio talk show host out here in Phoenix not only gave the Tigers no chance – and I mean NO CHANCE – to beat Texas, they weren’t just satisfied dissing the round-ballers, they were taking shots at LSU’s football prospects this fall as well. As Rob would say, “Geaux Tigers!!”

Finally, just sos you know I’m big enough to admit when I make a mistake, I’m officially and forever off the Sergio Garcia bandwagon. And yes, Sergio – I am questioning whether you have the heart of a champion. What Stephen Ames did yesterday – THAT’S how champions perform in high-profile tournaments and majors. Sure any player (well, perhaps not The Great White Shank) can win a Buick Open or Taco Bell Invitational, but when it comes to the main stage, all you ever do is play 2 or 3 great rounds, get close, then fall off the face of the earth on the final day. And it’s not just your putter – don’t go blaming that – it’s your lack of heart, pure and simple. You want to stop that 10,000 lb. monkey from sucking on the back of your sun-burned neck? Do what Phil Mickelson did, set some quality time aside for you and your game, and focus-focus-focus. Once you win one, the rest is easy. Until then, don’t come calling for The Great White Shank’s help and support.