Over the past week, the Texas Democratic Party has released a Top Ten list of the biggest blunders of Governor Rick Perry's tenure. You could go to their site to check out all ten -- or you could get the executive summary of Perry failures in their under-two-minute YouTube clip:

The speech is being called by many one of the best of his career. Watch the full speech here, courtesy of MSNBC, along with our take on what it means for health care reform and for his presidency.

Multiple news sources are reporting that Senator Edward Kennedy, Teddy to his family and Ted to most of us, passed away early this morning after a long struggle with brain cancer. He was 77.

As nice as it would be, we don't always have time to catch every big story that hits during a week. So here's a roundup of the notable events of the week.

CBS anchorman Walter Cronkite passed away yesterday at the age of 92. Dubbed "The Most Trusted Man in America," the Edward R. Murrow recruit made a name for himself, among many other things, by having the courage to report, against the U.S. military's line, that the Vietnam War was unwinnable. Glenn Greenwald at Salon speaks to why Cronkite's passing is such a tremendous loss, and why no one in the mainstream media grasps the enormous irony of their eulogizing him. His article is an absolute must-read. If you want the takeaway, you can get the general idea from the two quotes he uses to lead off his article:

The New York Times is reporting that CIA director Leon Panetta has informed the House and Senate intelligence committees that the CIA hid from Congress a secret counterterrorism program by direct order of then-Vice President Dick Cheney.

I've always believed that forced arbitration agreements are one of the most stark displays of unchecked corporate power beating down The Little Guy. The idea that companies that are big enough and that supply services that one will nearly inevitably need -- for example credit card companies, cell phone companies, home builders, and other such industries that are never very popular with consumers -- can by merit of their size and the standards of their profession avoid all accountability in the judiciary, the one institution designed to be the protector-of-last-resort of the rights of the few, is appalling to me. But I was left numb by the idea that it was even possible that forced arbitration be enforceable in a rape case.

EDIT: 6/2/09: After receiving care at an Austin facility for a life-threatening heart attack, Rep. Kuempel returned to the House yesterday, to everyone's relief. We are very glad to hear of his recovery.

Representative Edmund Kuempel (R-Seguin) was found collapsed and unconscious in a Capitol elevator by a House sergeant-at-arms late last night, the Austin American-Statesman reports.