Arthur Silber: Die In Agony--God Told Me You Should

July 9th, 2005

If George Bush and the theocrats have their way, there is no area of your life that will remain your own. And that most certainly includes the manner and time of your death, as Nick Kristof explains:

Jack Newbold is a 59-year-old retired tugboat captain who is dying of bone cancer. It’s one of the most painful cancers, and he doesn’t want to put his wife and 17-year-old daughter through the trauma of caring for him as he loses control over his body.

So Mr. Newbold faces a wrenching choice in the coming weeks: should he fight the cancer until his last breath, or should he take a glass of a barbiturate solution prescribed by a doctor and put himself to sleep forever? He’s leaning toward the latter.

Arthur Silber: Our Narcissistic, Self-Indulgent Public Polling

July 9th, 2005

Matt Taibbi:

Clearly, it’s that “pretty soft” other 40 percent that’s slipping. Those are the people I have a problem with, and it is with regard to those people that our polling system failed us two years ago and continues to fail today.

It seems fairly obvious that, in the course of the last few years, roughly 25-30 percent of the country has been influenced by the steady issue of news about increased violence and instability in Iraq. Apparently, a large percentage of Americans who supported the war two years ago have since become freaked out by the fact that, surprise, surprise, people are dying.

Arthur Silber: What We've Learned, Lesson One: The Self-Annihilated Mind

July 9th, 2005

As I indicated very briefly the other day, I have found it exceedingly difficult to begin any detailed analysis of the lessons that should be learned in the wake of the attacks in London. But it is more critical than ever that certain lessons must be learned and applied if we are successfully to minimize the terrorist threat to the extent possible, without further undermining the remaining liberties that we continue to enjoy. Because those liberties are under such serious attack and have been for some time—see here, here, here, and here for example—time is critical.

Arthur Silber: Attention Liberals And Democrats!

July 9th, 2005

Echoing my argument of several days ago, the LA Times has a few words about why Gonzales should not be viewed by anyone who cares about individual rights or the basic values of civilization as an “acceptable” choice for the Supreme Court:

Gonzales’ Fatal Flaw

Our reasons may differ, but add our vote to the chorus of social conservative groups clamoring against a possible nomination of Alberto R. Gonzales to the Supreme Court. Because of his central role in decisions taken by the administration to flout international law in pursuing the war on terrorism, Gonzales was a poor choice for the attorney general’s office — as we stated earlier this year — and he would certainly be a disastrous choice for the Supreme Court.

Arthur Silber: What We've Learned, Lesson One — Addendum

July 9th, 2005

I offer these observations in an Addendum to the major entry about Lesson One because they concern a distinct issue—one which still causes me profound regret, and a great deal of personal pain. That issue is Objectivism, the name given to Ayn Rand’s philosophy.

I have indicated in a few posts that I no longer call myself an “Objectivist” (see here, too), although I once did. If I had still entertained any remaining doubts about the truth of certain identifications I have made recently about the causes of the ultimate failure of Rand’s ideas, they would have been banished by the response of certain self-identified “Objectivists” to the tragedy in London. So that we have the relevant comments in one place, I repeat here part of what I said about Lesson One:

Billmon: The Enemy of My Enemy

Juan Cole has noticed something odd about the communique from the alleged perpetrators of the London bombing, Qaida al-Jihad in Europe: It includes a not-so-veiled appeal to Arab nationalism as well as to Islamic fundamentalism.

This may be nothing more than a blunder by a gang of Bin Ladin wannabes who know a hell of a lot more about killing innocent people with explosives than they do about the theology of the movement they claim to represent. But it could also be a sign that the tactical alliance between secular nationalists and religious fanatics formed to fight the Americans in Iraq is now being mirrored elsewhere – or, alternatively, that the jihadis now operating under the Al Qaeda brand hope to mirror it elsewhere, even if it means abandoning the doctrinal purity of the movement's founders.

Billmon: Death Wish

Experts were scarcely prepared for the shock that came from the Greenland ice plateau in 1993 . . . comparison between [ice] cores showed convincingly that climate could change more rapidly than almost any scientist had imagined. Swings of temperature that were believed in the 1950s to take tens of thousands of years, in the 1970s to take thousands of years, and in the 1980s to take hundreds of years, were now found to take only decades.

. . . Computer modelers, now fully alerted to the delicate balance of salinity and temperature that drove the North Atlantic circulation, found that global warming might bring future changes in precipitation that could shut down the current heat transport. The 2001 report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, pronouncing the official consensus of the world's governments and their climate experts, reported that a shutdown in the coming century was "unlikely" but "cannot be ruled out." If such a shutdown did occur, it would change climates all around the North Atlantic -- a dangerous cooling brought on by global warming.

Physics Today.org
The Discovery of Rapid Climate Change
2003

__________________________

If Bush is worried that Kyoto would "wreck our economy," he ought to think about what a 5-10°C drop in mean temperatures on the eastern seaboard and/or or a radical change in rainfall patterns in the Mississippi River valley might do to it.

Digby: Rights Of Passage

Wolcott writes:

Atrios asks: "Anyone else notice just how excited it seems to make certain members of our mediocracy?"

"It" being terrorism--the attacks in London and the prospect of similar attacks here.

I've noticed, big time. In fact, it seems like way more than "certain members"--with the sane exceptions of Michael Scheuer and Larry Johnson, nearly every guest and pundit on cable is trying to find their spot in the banshee chorus. When all of these "terror experts"--many of them affiliated with rightwing think tanks--pontificate and speculate (based on no real information) about who the perpetrators were and the nature of the long struggle we're in, they look and sound keyed-up, keen with anticipation, eager to entertain the worst.

Digby: The Answer

My wing-nut e-mailer weighs in with a solution:

We could keep playing the capitalist odds hoping it is our neighbors who get killed next or, very simply, we could demand that the enemy surrender. We would simply announce to the Muslim world that their support for OBL ( 52% of Muslims in London were not willing to condemn the 9/11 bombings in NYC) and his ideology has earned them the following ultimatum: change your ways and turn over OBL in one month or there will be a crater one mile wide round outside of Medina, with Gumbad-e-Khizra being precisely at ground zero.

TPMCafe: The Miller/Fitzgerald Backstory

By Josh Marshall

From: Politics

Don't forget: This isn't the first time Plame prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald has tangled with Judy Miller while investigating a leak out of the Bush White House.

A little more than a year ago, I reported on TPM how Fitzgerald had quite aggressively investigated another Bush White House leak in late 2001 and early 2002. Fitzgerald had been investigating three Islamic charities accused of supporting terrorism -- the Holy Land Foundation, the Global Relief Foundation, and the Benevolence International Foundation. But just before his investigators could swoop in with warrants, two of the charities in question got wind of what was coming and, apparently, were able to destroy a good deal of evidence.

Mystery of Karl Rove/Matt Cooper Connection Deepens

By E&P Staff

Published: July 08, 2005 10:00 AM ET
NEW YORK The mystery deepened today over top White House aide Karl Rove's involvement in the Plame case and how strongly special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald is interested in that. The Washington Post's Dan Balz reports today that Fitzgerald "still appears to want more answers about Rove's role" and apparently is "focused on" his conversations with Time magazine's Matt Cooper, who has now agreed to testify in the matter.

Iran Contra II?

Laura Rozen (3:43AM) link

My new story is up at the Washington Monthly, the first of a two-part investigation undertaken by me and my colleagues. And I can now say that I tracked down and interviewed the Iran Contra arms merchant Manucher Ghorbanifar for it, earlier this month. Why should you care? Because over the past three years, Mr. Ghorbanifar has been part of a secret back channel with a small group of neoconservative hardliners, including two who work for Doug Feith, the undersecretary of defense for policy. One of the Pentagon officials involved in the back channel, Larry Franklin, is now reportedly the subject of an FBI investigation for allegedly passing classified US documents to Israel, via the lobbying group, Aipac. Both the secret Ghorbanifar-DoD back channel, and the classified documents Franklin is alleged to have given the Israelis, concern US policy to Iran. Given that, the meetings we describe in the story have become the subject of great interest to FBI investigators and the Senate Select Intelligence Committee alike.

And Then There Was A Knock

The Strange Detention of a 71 year old Afghan Hindu Man and His 69 Year Old Wife

First comes the knock. There are two, maybe three, uniformed officers from the Department of Homeland Security. They tell the boy they want to take his parents in for questioning. Have them back in two to three hours. The father, Gokal Kapoor, is 71, his wife, Sheila Kapoor, 69. Old people. Hindus from Afghanistan. Two hours, they'll be back, see ya.

It takes several days and several lawyers to find out where they are. They're being held in Pamunkey Regional Jail, in Hanover, Virginia, a red and white brick structure at the end of a circular drive. The web page boasts "a state-of-the-art facility" with a housing capacity for 400 inmates. The jail serves the needs of all "user agencies, law enforcement, courts, attorneys, and community organizations." Mostly it's used to house criminals awaiting trial or convicted of misdemeanors serving less than twelve months. In Pamunkey there is a commissar, run by AraMark. If the prisoner has money in his or her account they can get Snickers bars and Pepsi, soap, feminine hygiene products, underwear. They can even get cups of noodles but not the kind in styrofoam; has to be in a see-through container. Also, no non-dairy creamer. Non-dairy creamer is flammable. There is separate housing for males and females. Male and female prisoners have no access to one another. So Sheila and Gokal don't see one-another anymore. The prisoners spend their time in their unit's day room. They can make phone calls, collect. Very expensive. Sheila's sister comes to visit, drives an hour, but she is turned away. She didn't fill out the paperwork correctly.

CNN video censored at Guantanamo prison

GUANTANAMO BAY, Cuba, July 7 (UPI) -- Taking up U.S. President George Bush's challenge for reporters to visit the Guantanamo Bay military prison in Cuba, CNN did, but its video was censored.

In response to allegations of prisoner abuse at the U.S. Navy base in Cuba, Bush made the challenge in June, and again Wednesday while in Denmark.

Rove makes pitch for president's Social Security plan in Bellevue

TIM ROHWER , Staff Writer

Over the years, Social Security has been a huge success, but the system has grown "creaky with age," said Karl Rove, deputy White House chief of staff on Friday.

Unless changes are made, it's only going to get worse and in a hurry, he said Friday in Bellevue, Neb.

"In 2008, we'll see the system go south," Rove said at the Ameritrade Holding Corp. facility at the Southroads Mall. "We've got to solve the problem now."

UK memo says US, UK readying Iraqi withdrawal-report

09 Jul 2005 23:20:28 GMT

Source: Reuters

LONDON, July 10 (Reuters) - A leaked document from Britain's Defence Ministry says the British and U.S. governments are planning to reduce their troop levels in Iraq by more than half by mid-2006, the Mail on Sunday newspaper reported. The memo, reportedly written by Defence Minister John Reid, said Britain would reduce its troop numbers to 3,000 from 8,500 by the middle of next year.

Welcome to MonaghanWorld -- Only Catholics Need Apply

Tom Monaghan is building homes in a Florida sanctuary for orthodox Catholics called Ave Maria, where there won't be any porn, condoms, or television smut

In late March, at the first annual Boston Catholic Men's Conference held at Boston College High School, Tom Monaghan, the founder of Domino's Pizza who has become a major league conservative philanthropist, was feeling the spirit. He triumphantly told the enthusiastic crowd of more than 2,000 men (including over 80 priests) in attendance that construction of Ave Maria University -- the first Catholic university built in 40 years -- was moving forward. According to published reports, "the $240 million first phase of the campus plans to be centered around the 'Oratory of Ave Maria,' a 60,000 square-foot church with aluminum and glass arches, and will include the nation's largest crucifix in stained glass with a 60 foot high bleeding Jesus.

Frank Rich: We're Not in Watergate Anymore

WHEN John Dean published his book "Worse Than Watergate" in the spring of 2004, it seemed rank hyperbole: an election-year screed and yet another attempt by a Nixon alumnus to downgrade Watergate crimes by unearthing worse "gates" thereafter. But it's hard to be dismissive now that my colleague Judy Miller has been taken away in shackles for refusing to name the source for a story she never wrote. No reporter went to jail during Watergate. No news organization buckled like Time. No one instigated a war on phony premises. This is worse than Watergate.

To start to see why, forget all the legalistic chatter about shield laws and turn instead to "The Secret Man," Bob Woodward's new memoir about life with Deep Throat. The book arrived in stores just as Judy Miller was jailed, as if by divine intervention to help illuminate her case.

'Squandered Victory' and 'Losing Iraq': Now What?

By REUEL MARC GERECHT

COULD the administration have chosen a different course in Iraq that would today have the country farther down the road to popular government and cost fewer lives? Two new books -- among the first ''insider'' accounts by former Iraq advisers -- find the White House guilty of an incompetent occupation. Representative government may, just possibly, still take hold in Mesopotamia, but neither Larry Diamond, a researcher at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University who was called by the national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, to temporary service in Baghdad in early 2004, nor David L. Phillips, a fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations who served as an adviser to the State Department before and after the fall of Saddam Hussein, are at all optimistic.

Jones Plans 'Big Show' at Clinton Library

This is pathetic. I wonder who would 'sponsor' her. Has Ms. Jones become addicted to the attentions of the media?--Dictynna

By The Associated Press
11 minutes ago

Paula Jones plans to make her first visit to the Bill Clinton presidential library a profitable one — she plans to wear a T-shirt emblazoned with a sponsor's name.

"I'm going to make a big show out of it," said her publicist, David Hans Schmidt. "Paula is basically going to go to the Clinton Library and go on a tour like the faithful taxpayer that she is."

The visit is expected to take place sometime later this month, and Schmidt said it would be followed by a news conference.

Jones accused Clinton of sexual harassment, saying he made an unwelcome sexual advance in 1991 in a Little Rock hotel room while he was Arkansas governor and she was a state employee. A federal judge dismissed the lawsuit against Clinton.

Bush Gives Global AIDS Fighters Ultimatum

- By JUAN-CARLOS RODRIGUEZ, Associated Press Writer
Friday, July 8, 2005

(07-08) 10:04 PDT WASHINGTON, (AP) --

U.S. groups fighting AIDS overseas are being given an ultimatum by the government: Pledge your opposition to sex trafficking and prostitution or do without federal funds.

The new rule has created confusion among health groups that wonder how it will affect them, and has drawn criticism from others who say it infringes on free speech rights and could do more harm than good.

A Place Where Women Rule

All-Female Village in Kenya Is a Sign Of Burgeoning Feminism Across Africa

By Emily Wax

Washington Post Foreign Service
Saturday, July 9, 2005; Page A01

UMOJA, Kenya -- Seated cross-legged on tan sisal mats in the shade, Rebecca Lolosoli, matriarch of a village for women only, took the hand of a frightened 13-year-old girl. The child was expected to wed a man nearly three times her age, and Lolosoli told her she didn't have to.

The man was Lolosoli's brother, but that didn't matter. This is a patch of Africa where women rule.

Business Pushes Its Own Brand Of Justice

Tough Lobbying For Court Seat

By Jeffrey H. Birnbaum and Thomas B. Edsall

Washington Post Staff Writers
Saturday, July 9, 2005; Page A01

Setting up a potential clash with religious conservatives, the national business lobby for the first time is marshaling its forces to persuade the White House to pick an industry-friendly Supreme Court nominee.

Usually, corporations duck Supreme Court fights. This time, with vital interests at stake, business advocates are raising millions of dollars, plotting major lobbying campaigns, and quietly working to influence the president as he ponders a replacement for Justice Sandra Day O'Connor.

Robert Parry: Lessons of the London Bombing

July 9, 2005

At about 9:30 a.m. on July 7, an overcast Thursday, I left a hotel in the Kensington section of London and walked – with my wife and 16-year-old son – toward the Earl’s Court subway station, planning to take the Piccadilly line to Heathrow Airport to catch a noontime flight back to Washington.

When we reached the Underground, we found a surge of people moving away from the entrance. We were told that the station was being evacuated because of some emergency elsewhere in the system, possibly an electrical explosion.

Daily Kos: Why Toyota chose Canada over Alabama/Mississippi.

Every American should be embarassed about this...especially those living in Alabama and Mississippi.--Dictynna

by wegerje

Fri Jul 8th, 2005 at 21:03:52 PDT

(From the diaries. More evidence that an educated workforce and government-subsidized health care are the best forms of economic development -- kos)

They got a $125 Million is subsidies from the Canadians. But that wasn't what sealed the deal, because several southern states offered nearly double the subsidies. What sealed the deal was the quality of education that their potential workers in Canada possesed.

[...]

He said Nissan and Honda have encountered difficulties getting new plants up to full production in recent years in Mississippi and Alabama due to an untrained - and often illiterate - workforce. In Alabama, trainers had to use "pictorials" to teach some illiterate workers how to use high-tech plant equipment.

"The educational level and the skill level of the people down there is so much lower than it is in Ontario," Fedchun said.

Daily Howler - July 8, 2005

GO BACK TO ARUBA! Joe Scarborough knew who to blame for the bombings. Is he the world’s biggest phony? // link // print // previous // next //

FRIDAY, JULY 8, 2005

GO BACK TO ARUBA: Last night, Joe Scarborough was plenty upset about those London bombings. Indeed, he offered a “special edition of Scarborough Country”—and quickly began to let us know who was at fault for this mess. For his first guest, he brought in “terror expert Steve Emerson.”

The Mahablog - July 9, 2005

IOKIYAR

Proving once again that righties hold other people to higher standards than they hold themselves ... via Daou Report, via World o' Crap, we find that Hindsniffer of Power Line is outraged that someone on DU message board wrote something cynical about Karl Rove vis a vis the recent bombings in London. "The posters at Democratic Underground represent the heart and soul of the left, and, arguably, of the Democratic Party," Hindsniffer sniffs.

Confusion

A new Harris Poll of opinions on evolution vs. creationism reveals that Americans are confused.

Only 38 percent of those polled believe that humans "developed from earlier species," yet 46 percent believe that apes and humans "have a common ancestry" and that "Darwin's theory of evolution is proven by fossil discoveries."

Mom, Who Lost Son In Iraq, Talks About 'Disgusting' White House Private Meeting With Bush

Posted on: 7/5/2005 9:21:00 AM - Columnist By Greg Szymanski

Cindy Sheehan has already had her heart ripped into a million pieces by the illegal Iraqi war, losing the son she loved more than life itself only five days after he arrived in Baghdad in April 2004.

There is nothing more painful or more heart breaking than a parent losing a child.

And for Sheehan to lose her 24-year-old son, Casey, must have been like someone taking her very own heart and soul and, without warning, ripping them out and throwing them into the depths of hell.

Daily Kos: Grand Moff Texan on Judith Miller

I wonder how much of this is true.--Dictynna

Judith Miller: 3 Decades of Disinformation

by Grand Moff Texan

Fri Jul 8th, 2005 at 13:00:32 PDT

The scenario sounds somehow familiar: in support of a somewhat loopy Republican president's campaign against an Arab dictator, Judith Miller was willing to plant official US disinformation in the New York Times.

The year was 1986.

• Diaries ::Grand Moff Texan's diary :: ::

Nine years into her tenure at the New York Times, she participated in John Poindexter's disinformation campaign against Libya for the Reagan administration. As Bob Woodward later revealed in the Washington Post, Miller planted Poindexter's propaganda in her own writings:
claiming that el-Khadaffi was being betrayed from within his own country, that he had sunk into depression, and that he had turned to drugs. Miller went on to claim Khadaffi had tried to have sex with her, but lost interest when she claimed Jewish heritage.

Juan Cole - July 9, 2005

London Bombing by Less Sophisticated Group

London began digging out on Friday, dealing with the aftermath of the attacks. AP reports:

' Much of London was eerily quiet. Bombed stations were shrouded in security curtains, and refrigerated trucks waited outside to carry away bodies. Bouquets of fresh flowers and cards scribbled with thoughts for the victims of London's worst attack since World War II piled up outside the stations near the bombed lines. "Yesterday, we fled this great city, but today we are walking back into an even stronger, greater city," said one card near St. Pancras Church, near where a bomb shredded the bus. "The people who did this should know they have failed. They have picked the wrong city to pick on. London will go on." '

Italians to Begin Withdrawal
Roadside Bomb Kills US Soldier in Iraq

Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi announced Saturday morning that the three thousand Italian troops would begin pulling out of Iraq in September. Some 300 will leave that month. The Italians have been stationed at Nasiriyyah, a Shiite area in the south that has been relatively quiet since the Sadrist uprisings of spring and summer, 2004. Italian commanders appear to be thinking as British ones are, that the Shiite south in Iraq simply no longer needs foreign troops to see to its security. Instead, the new, majority-Shiite government and the elected provincial councils should be able to maintain order, even if they have to rely on party militias.

Friedman Wrong About Muslims Again
And the Amman Statement on Ecumenism

Tom Friedman is a Middle East expert who knows a lot about Islam. Why, then, does he keep saying misleading things? He wrote in his latest column, "To this day - to this day - no major Muslim cleric or religious body has ever issued a fatwa condemning Osama bin Laden."

Iraq and State Dept. Terrorism Watch List

Intrepid readers write about the checkered history of the US designation of Iraq as a state sponsor of terrorism:

Tallking Points Memo - July 9, 2005

July 09, 2005 -- 02:44 AM EDT // link // print)

When last we updated the Duke Cunningham 'Livin' Large Free of Charge' chronicles (DCLLFCC) you'll remember that Duke was trying to offer advice on getting a presidential pardon to one Thomas Kontogiannis, a Long Island real estate developer who'd recently been convicted in a bribery, kickback and contract-rigging scandal and who'd apparently, as part of that scam, arranged pay-offs totaling roughly a million dollars to Queens school superintendent Celestine Miller, including some $80,000 into the coffers of her failed congressional bid in 1998.

Digby - July 8, 2005

Put A Bork In It

The Carpetbagger Report asks Since when did Bork become a martyr? --- and links to Jonathan Chait's column in the LA Times that explains why Bork actually was a completely unacceptable wingnut. Nowadays, of course, he's seen as the Joan of Arc if the right wing freakshow, but the truth is that he makes even Scalia look halfway reasonable. I recall him saying on Larry King one night during the Clinton panty raid that the president could be impeached for committing a depraved act --- oral sex. He's nutty as a fruitcake.

Thinking Ahead

"We know that after September the 11th, our country must think differently. We must take threats seriously, before they fully materialize."

Three weeks before London's bus and subway bombings, a Senate committee voted to slash spending on mass transit security in the United States, a decision sure to be reversed when Congress returns next week.

Send Him To The Naughty Chair

I'm tired of these Democrats acting like they won the election. Somebody needs to stand up and say, "When you win the election, you pick the nominees. Until then, shut up! Just shut up! Just go away! Bury yourselves in your rat holes and don't come out until you win an election. When you win an election, you can put all these socialist wackos, like Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer, all over the court, but until then, SHUT UP! You are really irritating me."

I'm guessing Rush is under some stress these days and I don't blame him.

Ouch

The PM was sipping tea at 10.30am when it was confirmed by his chief of staff Jonathan Powell that terrorists had hit London with force.

Mr Blair was given a chilling telephone briefing by Home Secretary Charles Clarke, who had just chaired a security meeting in a bomb-proof bunker under Downing Street.

Juan Cole - July 8, 2005

Death Toll in London climbing toward 50

The death toll in the horrible London bombings seems headed toward 50 or higher as some severely wounded passengers have succumbed.

The driver of the double decker bus that was bombed has given his account.

Iraq Comes to London
In Iraq, Car Bombs and Attacks Kill 24, Wound Dozens in 24 Hours

Al-Sharq al-Awsat reports that [Arabic URL] its contacts in the radical fundamentalist community of British Muslims maintain that the July 7 attacks on London were undertaken by one of several al-Qaeda sleeper cells in Europe, which had been planted there by Ayman al-Zawahiri and his lieutenants in preparation for a decades-long war with the West.

Cole at Salon.com, Beliefnet

My article at Salon.com, "The Time of Revenge Has Come, discusses the way Bush's incompetent crusade in Iraq has made us all less safe. Short excerpt:

"The United Kingdom had not been a target for al-Qaida in the late 1990s. But in October 2001, bin Laden threatened the United Kingdom with suicide aircraft attacks if it joined in the U.S. campaign in Afghanistan.

Japan in Iraq

Reposted by permission:

'Shingetsu Newsletter No. 33 July 7, 2005

Japan's GSDF mission to Samawa has continued to produce a steady drumbeat of news over the past two weeks. Picking up from where Shingetsu Newsletter No. 26 left off, the political responses to the June 23rd attack ultimately fell along expected lines. MOFA asserted that the attack was not "real terrorism" and that there was nothing to get excited about. Senior officials of the Koizumi administration echoed this same basic line.

The Mahablog: Imagination

Yesterday the cognitively challenged Andrew McCarthy wrote at NRO:

Amid the carnage today, Home Secretary Charles Clarke is talking about the people who carried out "these terrible criminal acts." That's an understandable reaction — and we shouldn't quibble too much over a choice of words by people who have been stellar allies, who are in the middle of a rescue effort, and who are unsure the bombing has actually stopped. But it is worth repeating that what happened today is not mere crime.

This is war. It can't sensibly be separated from Bali or Mombassa or Istanbul or Madrid or Baghdad or Virginia or lower Manhattan — or any of the other places where the enemy has attacked.

The only security — and an imperfect security it is — is to acknowledge that this is a war and fight it like a one. Prime Minister Blair has been a staunch ally after 9/11, but many in his country, and throughout Europe, have not grasped what we are up against.

Let's think about semantics and reality.

The Invasion of Falluja: A Study in the Subversion of Truth

by Mary Trotochaud and Rick McDowell

The illegal invasion, occupation, and subsequent violence perpetrated on the people of Iraq has lent considerable evidence to the assertion that truth is the first casualty of war.

It's hard to get past the US Administration's rhetoric that the siege of Falluja was an operation of pacification to ensure the Iraqi population's participation in free and democratic elections planned for late January. Is it not Orwellian that annihilation and occupation have been redefined to represent pacification and liberation? One wonders if the entire nation of Iraq isn't being destroyed in the name of saving it.

Talking Points Memo: Duke-Kontogiannis grudge match plays out!

The North County Times has obtained Coast Guard documents which show that in May Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham signed two registration documents attesting that he was the owner of the Kelly C when in fact it was owned by New York real estate developer Thomas Kontogiannis who paid Duke $627,000 not long after he was convicted of price-rigging and bribery back in New York.

Italy to Start Iraq Troop Pullout in Fall

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Published: July 8, 2005

Filed at 2:56 p.m. ET

GLENEAGLES, Scotland (AP) -- Italy plans to begin withdrawing some of its troops from Iraq in September, Premier Silvio Berlusconi said Friday.

Speaking at the end of the G-8 summit, Berlusconi said the withdrawal plans could change because they depend on security conditions on the ground and denied it was linked to any terrorist threats against Italy.

U.S. Job Growth Tepid, Jobless Rate Drops

By REUTERS

Published: July 8, 2005

Filed at 3:26 p.m. ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. employers added 146,000 jobs in June, below Wall Street's forecasts, but the unemployment rate fell to its lowest since September 2001 as few people joined the labor force, a government report showed on Friday.

Billions Needed to Improve Great Lakes, Coalition Says

By FELICITY BARRINGER

Published: July 8, 2005

WASHINGTON, July 7 - A coalition of government agencies, businesses and environmental groups on Thursday offered a blueprint for improving the deteriorating health of the Great Lakes, including spending $13.75 billion over five years to stop untreated sewage from overflowing into the lakes from aging wastewater treatment plants.

Paul Krugman: Free to Choose Obesity?

The obvious model for those hoping to reverse the fattening of America is the campaign against smoking. Before the surgeon general officially condemned smoking in 1964, rising cigarette consumption seemed an unstoppable trend; since then, consumption per capita has fallen more than 50 percent.

But it may be hard to match that success when it comes to obesity. I'm not talking about the inherent difficulty of the task - getting people to consume fewer calories and/or exercise more may be harder than getting people to stop smoking, but we won't know until we try. I'm talking, instead, about how the political winds have shifted.

Public health activists were successful in taking on smoking in part because at the time corporations didn't know how to play the public opinion game. By today's standards, the political ineptitude of Big Tobacco was awe-inspiring. In a famous 1971 interview on "Face the Nation," the chairman of the board of Philip Morris, confronted with evidence that smoking by mothers leads to low birth weight, replied, "Some women would prefer having smaller babies."

Aides ready for Rehnquist exit; CNN, press corps skeptical

RAW STORY

Expectation dims after Bush touches down

Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist's resignation is imminent--and he may have already issued his resignation to President Bush, senior aides say, but most no longer believe the resignation will be announced Friday.

RAW STORY has learned that senior reporters at CNN believe such reports are bogus, saying they feel that conservative columnist Robert Novak--who first floated such reports--is flat wrong. A Time Magazine reporter dispatched an email across the city at 4:30, asserting the White House has rescheduled Monday meetings for Tuesday to accommodate a retirement announcement Monday, though others on the Hill say the meetings were rescheduled earlier this week.

People Power

The terrorist plot to destroy democracy from within.
By William Saletan
Posted Friday, July 8, 2005, at 4:12 AM PT

"Britain is burning with fear and terror, from north to south, east to west," the Secret Organization of al-Qaida in Europe crowed after yesterday's London bombings. "We warned the British government and the British people repeatedly."

Sound familiar? In a video released four weeks after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Osama Bin Laden boasted, "Here is the United States. It was filled with terror from its north to its south and from its east to its west."

Iraq and Iran to co-operate over defence

Our (Iraqi) goose is cooked.--Dictynna

By Neil MacDonald in Baghdad and Najmeh Bozorgmehr in Tehran
Published: July 7 2005 19:01 | Last updated: July 7 2005 19:01

Former foes Iraq and Iran announced “a new chapter” in their relations on Thursday, including cross-border military co-operation, dismissing US concerns about Iranian regional meddling.

On his first official visit to Tehran, Iraqi minister of defence Saadoun al-Dulaimi asserted his country's sovereign right to seek help from wherever it sees fit in rebuilding its defence capabilities.

Bush has to review strategy, say US experts

By Guy Dinmore and Demetri Sevastopulo in Washington
Published: July 7 2005 18:16 | Last updated: July 7 2005 18:16

A constant theme of the Bush administration is that America and the world are safer because of the US invasion of Iraq and its anti-terror strategy.

That argument prevailed during the US presidential election campaign last year, despite even official US evidence to the contrary, but may have been finally buried by Thursday’s bombings in London.

Experts in Washington said following the blasts that it was time for the Bush administration to re-evaluate its strategy

'Morning-after' pill doesn't increase unsafe sex

Fri Jul 8, 2005 4:21 AM ET

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Allowing 'morning-after' contraceptive pills to be sold over the counter does not increase their use, suggesting that easy availability does not lead to an upsurge in unprotected sex, British investigators report.

Beginning in January of 2001, emergency contraception has been available without prescription in the UK, Dr. Cicely Marston and associates note in an online report from the British Medical Journal.

Fla. Drops Investigation Into Schiavo Collapse

Associated Press
Friday, July 8, 2005; Page A10

TALLAHASSEE, July 7 -- Florida's state attorney said there was no evidence Terri Schiavo's collapse 15 years ago involved criminal activity, and Gov. Jeb Bush on Thursday declared an end to the state's inquiry.

GOP Plots Court Strategy With Rehnquist in Mind

By Peter Baker

Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, July 8, 2005; Page A05

A week after Justice Sandra Day O'Connor announced her retirement, the White House and its allies are preparing for the possibility that Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist might soon follow suit, opening up a second vacancy to fill and scrambling the politics of this summer's brewing nomination battle.

Death Toll From London Blasts Rises

50 Killed in Attacks, 22 More in Critical Condition

By Glenn Frankel and Fred Barbash

Washington Post Staff Writers
Friday, July 8, 2005; 11:18 AM

LONDON, July 8 -- The death toll rose to 50 Friday morning as London police escalated what authorities described as the most extensive criminal investigation in British history to track down the perpetrators of Thursday's assault on the city's transportation system.

Billmon - July 7, 2005

Give it a Rest

I see from a stroll around the blogosphere that the conservatives aren't the only ones playing the blame game and sharpening the attack lines. And I just got an email from some allegedly left-wing son of bitch chortling about imperial chickens coming home to roost and Michael Collins raising a toast in hell.

London Calling

You knew it was coming even if you didn't know where it would hit. And while the shock isn't as great as 9/11 (how could it be?) the feeling of being trapped in a nightmare that just won't end is even stronger now. Because you knew.

Jail Bait

I've been holding off from commenting on the question of whether Judy Miller and Matt Cooper should be sent to cool their posteriors in the slammer until they're willing to give up Karl Rove to the special prosecutor. (Cooper's off the hook, thanks to his source, who at the last minute phoned in his/her permission to squeal. But Judy was sent to the big house today.)

Billmon - July 8, 2005

Little America

Via Jesus' General:

The Green Zone is a curious place. Next to the Republican Palace, leading to the little PX, the Burger King, the Pizza Inn and the crumby Romainian gyro shop, you find two large parking lots. They're guarded 24/7 by the Gurkha's, who, incidentally, live in squalid conditions in the part of the Green Zone that is most exposed to insurgent fire . . .

Every night there are high stakes poker games next to the pool. People with some time off covort in the pool, while down the street guys go out in various convoys, risking their lives. Go to the Assassin's gate and you'll see helicopter gunships dropping flares and sometimes hear small arms fire.

Rocky Mountain Low

If you want supporting evidence for my thesis that the American "marketplace of ideas" is in an advanced state of decay, you could do worse than read some of Liquid List's posts from the Aspen Institute's "Festival of Ideas" conference.

Digby - July 7, 2005

Rovedirt

A new story focusing on Rove in the WaPo:

Questions Remain on the Leaker and the Law

There's a lot of interesting info, most of which we who have been following the story know, but which has not been put all together in a mainstream story. It's quite provocative.

Faith Based Law Enforcement

The crippling reach of methamphetamine abuse has become the nation's leading drug problem affecting local law enforcement agencies, according to a survey of 500 sheriff's departments in 45 states.

More than half of the sheriffs interviewed for a National Association of Counties survey released Tuesday said they considered meth the most serious problem facing their departments.

Intellectual Compost

This is fascinating. Ben Adler asked a bunch of leading conservative intellectuals whether they believed in evolution. As far as I can tell only about half of them have any intellectual integrity whatsoever, and only one is definitively honest in my opinion: Charles Krauthamer, if you can believe that. Richard Brookheiser and William F Buckley get honorable mentions.

Big Man

"I was most impressed by the resolve of all the leaders in the room," Bush said. "Their resolve is as strong as my resolve. And that is we will not yield to these people, will not yield to the terrorists."

I'm sure everyone feels much beter knowing that the leaders of the G8 impressed the president with how much like him they are. Lord knows he's impressed with himself.

Roaring Back

Andrew Sullivan wrote:

"I wonder if this attack will be in some ways a reverse Pearl Harbor, when Britain rouses itself to a fuller commitment to the war that was already underway elsewhere, the way America finally threw its full weight behind Britain in 1941. Britain, of course, has already been deeply involved, in Iraq and Afghanistan. But this war has now struck home - in one of the most diverse and liberal and dynamic cities in the world. May the lion roar back."

Brave People

Londoners are no strangers to terrorism.

London terror attacks of the past 25 years

In the past 25 years London has been rocked by regular attacks, mostly by Irish republican groups but today's bombing is by far the most bloody with at least 33 people killed and hundreds injured.

Thickening

More interesting stuff on Plamegate from TalkLeft and O'Donnell. Both point to one interesting piece of evidence in the court documents that indicates Fitzgerald is actually pursuing a serious crime rather than some sort of "send a message" perjury rap.

Squealer

I think that David Corn may have nailed the Robert Novak conundrum.

That brings me to my best guess of what did happen: Novak told Fitzgerald a story that helps his sources.

The End Of The Rationale

So, we're fighting the terrorists in Iraq --- and London --- so we won't have to fight them here?

I think the flypaper's lost its stick.

Update: Kevin wishes that the blogosphere could not politicise this for just one day, out of respect for the dead, which I understand. I struggled with whether I should write this post for those very reasons.

But I don't think we have the luxury of doing that, sadly, because the Bush administration has made exploiting terrorism their primary mode of governance and because of that we continue to see horrific scenes like today. Bush and his spokesmen are wasting no time is spinning this terrible event to their advantage once again.

David Neiwert - July 7, 2005

One of the peculiarities of the way extremism works is that you'll often find bizarre confluences of the far right and far left, as in the cases of David Icke, Lorena Fulani and Lyndon Larouche.

A lot of people attribute this, mistakenly I think, to a kind of simplistic model in which the political spectrum becomes circular, and the far left come close to resembling the far right. That ignores an important reality: that the interests and motivations of left and right are definably distinct, even at the extremes. A better model might be a globe, in which the polar extremes do indeed resemble each other -- but nonetheless they remain a world apart. So in reality, these confluences are noteworthy just because they defy that underlying dynamic.

Text of statement delivered by Ken Livingstone, Mayor of London

Published: July 7 2005 18:04 | Last updated: July 7 2005 18:04

“This was a cowardly attack, which has resulted in injury and loss of life. Our thoughts are with everyone who has been injured, or lost loved ones. I want to thank the emergency services for the way they have responded.

Following the al-Qaeda attacks on September 11 in America we conducted a series of exercises in London in order to be prepared for just such an attack. One of the exercises undertaken by the government, my office and the emergency and security services was based on the possibility of multiple explosions on the transport system during the Friday rush hour. The plan that came out of that exercise is being executed today, with remarkable efficiency and courage, and I praise those staff who are involved.

Talking Points Memo - July 8, 2005

(July 08, 2005 -- 02:58 AM EDT // link // print)

Duke Shaken? Stirred? Or just poured down the drain?

Option number three, says George E. Condon Jr. of Copley News Service.

(July 08, 2005 -- 12:12 AM EDT // link // print)

Perhaps I'm not thinking this through clearly enough. So I'd be obliged to hear from others. But assuming that the rumors are true and that Chief Justice Rhenquist will announcement his retirement tomorrow, this seems like a good thing for the Dems, not a bad thing.

Juan Cole - July 7, 2005

Statement of Qaeda al-Jihad in Europe

This is my translation of the statement posted at the al-Qal3ah website claiming credit for the London bombings. - JRIC

---------------

' Thursday 30/5/1426 = 7/7/2005

The Group of the Secret Organization
The Organization of Qaedat al-Jihad in Europe

In the name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate. Blessings and peace be upon the mirthful warrior, our lord Muhammad--may the blessings and peace of God be upon him.

Implications of London Bombing

The attack on London is not something it is easy for me to talk about in dry analytical terms. I've lived in London, doing research, have often visited, and have many friends there. I know the tube or subway stops being talked about, and have ridden the double decker bus that plies the area around Russell Square and Bloomsbury. I want all my British readers and friends to know with what horror and solidarity I watched those images.

16 Killed, 39 Wounded in Guerrilla Violence
Foreign Jihadis Target Shiite Badr Corps

Al-Zaman: A statement attributed to Jordanian terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi has announced the formation of a radical Sunni "Umar Brigades" to target the Shiite "Badr Corps". His group also threatened to execute Egyptian diplomat Ihab Sherif for "apostasy" from Islam. (Radical Salafis accept the doctrine of Sayyid Qutb that secular governments like that of Egypt are "pharaonic" and working for them makes you "not a Muslim." In some versions of medieval Islamic law, having been Muslim and then deserting the faith incurs the death penalty.)

103 Iraqi Parliamentarians Demand Withdrawal of US Troops

Gilber Achcar kindly shares his translation of an al-Hayat article:

'[More than] 103 MPs Demand a Timetable for the Withdrawal of Foreign Troops

More on Exit Strategies

An informed reader writes, regarding the issue of an exit strategy from Iraq:

' First, most reasonable proposals run up against the immovable object of the Bush admin’s unwillingness to admit that it has been wrong about four things – its stated reasons for going to war, the evidence that it provided to support those stated reasons, the Rumsfeld military strategy, and the lack of any clear or consistent political strategy in Iraq. However, most writers seem to ignore the reason

What is done at Gitmo is done to you

July 6th, 2005

A few months ago, I wrote a lengthy essay titled, “Understanding the Significance of Guantanamo: The Symbol of Omnipotent Power.” At the conclusion of that piece, I wrote:

These are among the fundamental issues that neither the Bush administration nor its many defenders will ever acknowledge or discuss, and which our major media will never trouble themselves to explain to you. But such determined avoidance does not diminish the reality of these policies, or of their implications—and it does nothing to diminish the ungraspably great danger we now face, a danger, I stress, not from any external enemy, but from our own leaders.

The Mahablog - July 7, 2005

Those Righties Sure Know How to Fight Terrorism

Via Atrios,

U.S. reports major increase in worldwide terrorism

Brilliant. If we continue to fight terrorism the righties' way, in five to eight years we'll all be living in caves.

Lots of chest thumping on the Right today, of course. That's what they're good at. If only boasting and posturing and being obnoxious could combat terrorism ...

News from London

MSNBC is reporting that more than 40 people were killed in today's terrorist attacks in London, and as many as 300 were wounded.

Has President Bush issued a statement yet? Or is he still changing his pants?

Terrorist Attack in London

Tony Blair said today's explosions in London were an apparent terror attack, according to Reuters.

Witnesses saw the top was ripped off a double-decker bus near Russell Square close to King's Cross train terminal and the twisted wreckage of another in Tavistock Square nearby.

Several underground subway stations also were hit.

"It is reasonably clear that there have been a series of terrorist attacks in London," Blair told reporters at the [G8] summit. He said he would return to London.

Case bets on business to heal health care system

By Julie Appleby, USA TODAY

He admits that some people think he's crazy.

But AOL co-founder Steve Case is gambling that the current buzz on how to fix the nation's health system — more consumer choice and responsibility — is not a passing fad, but a long-term business opportunity.

Joining him today in launching a private firm aimed at buying up promising companies that offer a range of consumer-focused health services are several investors, including former secretary of State Colin Powell.

Called Revolution Health Group, it is the first public business venture for Powell since he stepped down in January. "There's no part of American life right now that is more in need of imagination and new ideas than health care," Powell said Wednesday.

Talking Points Memo - July 7, 2005

(July 07, 2005 -- 04:12 PM EDT // link // print)

A Few Thoughts on a Terrible Day

First a thought, or perhaps an affirmation. The only response to acts of indiscriminate murder such as those today in London is implacable resistance -- and such resistance means not only retaliation against those responsible and guarding against all possible similar acts, but implacable resistance to terrorists' desire and aim to disrupt the rhythm of our daily lives and our civilization itself.

(July 07, 2005 -- 01:29 PM EDT // link // print)

This is just a brief update on why -- among other things -- there are no posts on TPM this morning, particularly on the coordinated terror attacks today in London.

As you might have expected, the news out of London generated a wave of traffic to this and other sites. And that surge was particularly large at our sister site, TPMCafe. The site's been hard to access since roughly 10 AM this morning. And I've been busy since then working with our tech folks to deal with that -- thus the lack of posts here.

Senator urges moderate pick for high court

RENO GAZETTE-JOURNAL
7/6/2005 11:43 pm

U.S. senators should be considered by President Bush to fill the vacancy on the U.S. Supreme Court, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid said Wednesday.

Reid, D-Nev., also said he and Bush have talked privately to ensure that the appointment of the successor for Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor does not reach the level of partisan squabbling that has epitomized the debate over recent judicial nominations.

“I know that I won’t get someone who I will jump up and down and cheer for,” Reid told a group of employees at the Reno Gazette-Journal. “But there are many fine and conservative jurists out there.

“I had lunch at the Supreme Court 10 days ago and at my table were (associate justices) Sandra Day O’Connor, (Antonin) Scalia and (Stephen) Breyer,” Reid said. “They said what they would like to see is the president pick someone who has not been a judge. And what I have said to anyone who will listen is what I think he should do is pick one of the senators.”

Tulsa Park Board Reverses Decision On ' Creation' Exhibit At Tulsa Zoo

It was a packed house at a special meeting of the Tulsa park board Thursday morning, as they voted on whether to allow a Christian display on creationism at the Tulsa Zoo.

The controversy started when a Christian group noticed an elephant statue at the zoo, which they say represents the Hindu god, Ganesha. News on 6 reporter Steve Berg was at the meeting and says the zoo issue got a little wild.

Rehnquist may resign tomorrow

RAW STORY

Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist may resign as early as tomorrow, a senior senate aid tells RAW STORY.

Rehnquists' resignation would fall just days after the retirement of Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor.

Rehnquist's resignation was suggested earlier today by conservative columnist Robert Novak who, relies on a bevy of anonymous Republican sources.

Bush is biggest obstacle to a conservative court

July 7, 2005

BY ROBERT NOVAK SUN-TIMES COLUMNIST

Conservatives who have spent more than a decade planning for this moment to change the balance of power on the Supreme Court are reeling from blows delivered by two dissimilar political leaders: Edward M. Kennedy and George W. Bush. Sen. Kennedy has succeeded with the news media in establishing a new standard of ''mainstream conservatism'' for a justice. President Bush has put forth ''friendship'' as a qualification for being named to the high court.

Bush is by far the bigger obstacle in the way of a conservative court. While Kennedy's ploy presents a temporary problem, Bush's stance could be fatal. The right's morale was devastated by the president's comments in a USA Today telephone interview published on the newspaper's front page Tuesday: ''Al Gonzales is a great friend of mine. When a friend gets attacked, I don't like it.''

Saudis warn of shortfalls as oil hits $61

By Carola Hoyos and Neil Dennis in London
Published: July 6 2005 22:02 | Last updated: July 6 2005 22:02

Oil prices hit new record highs above $61 a barrel on Thursday, driven by short-term supply fears as the first hurricane of the season threatened crude production and refinery operations in the Gulf of Mexico.

But private warnings also point to a worsening long-term outllook, with Saudi officials saying that the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries will be unable to meet projected western demand in 10 to 15 years.

Sex and Significance

How the Heritage Foundation cooked the books on virginity.
By Jordan Ellenberg
Posted Thursday, July 7, 2005, at 3:48 AM PT

It's a confusing time to be a confirmed virgin in America. In March, the Journal of Adolescent Health published a paper by sociologists Hannah Brückner and Peter Bearman, which found that adolescents who pledged to remain virgins until marriage had STD infection rates as young adults that were statistically indistinguishable from those of nonpledgers. Last month, Robert Rector and Kirk Johnson of the Heritage Foundation delivered two conference papers and a press release that accused Yale's Brückner and Columbia's Bearman of reaching an "inaccurate" conclusion that "misled the press and public."

Multiple explosions rock London

Thursday, July 7, 2005; Posted: 5:38 a.m. EDT (09:38 GMT)

LONDON, England -- A bus was ripped apart in an explosion in central London today and several blasts rocked the Tube network leaving dozens of people injured.

The Tube blasts at the height of the rush hour on Thursday were initially blamed on a power surge.

But amid the chaos eyewitnesses reported that a packed double decker bus in the Russell Square area had been severely damaged in a blast.

How The Right Promotes Their Message

Frameshop | And I Quote

by Jeffrey Feldman

Wed Jul 6th, 2005 at 14:16:59 PDT

Hours after Justice O'Connor announced her retirement, The San Francisco Chronicle ran a story featuring quotes from two prominent U.S. Senators, a well-known legal scholar, and a guy named Gary Marx.

But how is it that a guy like Gary Marx ends up being quoted in a San Francisco Chronicle article?

Well, as much as Democrats (me included) would like to imagine a nefarious plot to deceive the public and pass off a fundraiser as an expert, the facts are much less sinister. It seems that the reason Gary Marx made it into the San Francisco Chronicle is because the GOP worked hard to get him there.

Iraq War Deserters Speak Out

By Paolo Pontoniere, Pacific News Service. Posted July 7, 2005.

Three young U.S. servicemen currently living in Canada explain why they refused to return to Iraq.

Jeremy Hinzman, 26

My name is Jeremy Hinzman. I was a specialist with the 82nd Airborne division.

I'm from South Dakota, from an area where there were not many jobs. I went through school believing that you got to be part of something bigger than yourself. I was also looking for structure and a sense of focus in my life. I didn't just want to make money; I wanted to do something meaningful, and the Army fit the bill on all of those accounts.

Who's Watching the Watch List?

By John Graham, AlterNet. Posted July 7, 2005.

My name is on a list of real and suspected enemies of the state and I can't find out what I'm accused of or why, let alone defend myself.

Heading for Oakland from Seattle to see my grandkids last week, the Alaska Airlines check-in machine refused to give me a boarding pass. Directed to the ticket counter, I gave the agent my driver's license and watched her punch keys at her computer.

Frowning, she told me that my name was on the national terrorist No Fly Watch List and that I had to be specially cleared to board a plane. Any plane. Then she disappeared with my license for 10 minutes, returning with a boarding pass and a written notice from the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) confirming that my name was on a list of persons "who posed, or were suspected of posing, a threat to civil aviation or national security."

Arthur Silber: The Moral Bankruptcy Of Our National Politics: The Power Of “No”

July 6th, 2005

Every time I begin to harbor the barest glimmer of hope that the Democrats might serve as a brake on the worst excesses of the increasingly contemptible and loathsome Bush administration, the Democrats act in a manner to confirm that they are almost the equals of Bush & Co. insofar as their complete moral bankruptcy is concerned. In the end, the Democrats consistently reveal that they possess no confidence whatsoever, and they they especially and most depicably lack moral courage in even the most minuscule amount—and that all they care about is political power.

Talking Points Memo - July 6, 2005

July 06, 2005 -- 05:22 PM EDT // link // print)

Ahhh, the intricacies of Aqua-Duke. This from Roll Call ...

Sure, now it’s called the “Duke-Stir.” But the 42-foot Carver boat — yeah, the one that was raided by federal agents on Friday, a fact first reported by Roll Call — had a different name when Rep. Duke Cunningham (R-Calif.) became its unofficial helmsman. The yacht used to be called “Bouy Toy,” so named by its former owners, a gay couple, according to sources at the Capitol Yacht Club.

(July 06, 2005 -- 02:40 PM EDT // link // print)

So Matt Cooper agrees to testify ...

I'll be curious to see what turn of events led to this or whether it was just the approaching prospect of a long stint in prison. In Cooper's case I'll give a strong benefit of the doubt till I hear otherwise, since he's one of the few people who's held his head high through this whole sordid and long-drawn-out affair.

(July 06, 2005 -- 09:35 AM EDT // link // print)

As near as I can tell, there's no major new Duke Cunningham scandal in the news today. And yet, it's still pretty early.

On the other hand, this gives me an opportunity to highlight the chart Bob Brigham posted yesterday over at the Swing State Project. Particularly if you're just getting started, it can help clear up all the players.

Learning lesson of Vietnam all over again

By JOSEPH L. GALLOWAY

Knight Ridder Newspapers

WASHINGTON - After a rousing July 4th holiday weekend, complete with flag-waving, fireworks, assorted burned meat products and a wealth of patriotic speeches, it is time to come back to the harsh realities of this earth and our role in it in the fifth year of this new century and new millennium.

Anyone who writes critically of the conduct of the war in Iraq is asked, over and over, why we focus on the bad news and never write the good news about that country, its people and our soldiers who are caught in the middle of a very bloody birth of some version of representative government.

That would be because there is a dearth of good news in Iraq. There are indeed occasional bright spots, like the January election, but soon enough they are pushed to the background by the steady tide of bad news.

The truth is that every time we sit down to analyze what is going on in Iraq the results are seriously depressing.

Cursor's Media Patrol - July 6, 2005

Even though President Bush insists that the Kyoto agreement "would wreck the U.S economy," 94 percent of Americans "said the U.S. should make efforts to limit greenhouse gas emissions, in line with other developed nations," according to a new PIPA poll.

The Washington Post reports on a new Pentagon strategy to expand U.S. military activity inside America, spelled out in a document that was released late last week "without the sort of formal news conference or background briefing that often accompanies major defense policy statements."

Ideology Mattters

Yesterday, both Atrios and Daily Kos note The Stakeholder’s astute assessment that conservatives are insisting upon an ideologically conservative judge while attacking Dems for discussing ideology.

Calif. guard unit's possible spying probed

By Don Thompson, Associated Press Writer | July 6, 2005

SACRAMENTO, Calif. --Military authorities Wednesday began investigating whether a California National Guard unit was created to spy on citizens, as dozens of demonstrators confronted Guard officials while armed soldiers stood by.

The federal probe of the nation's largest National Guard force involves the U.S. Army's inspector general, the federal National Guard Bureau's inspector general and the National Guard Bureau's legal division.

Drug firms spent more than $800 million on campaigns

RAW STORY

Pharma army: 1,300 lobbyists hired in last year

The pharmaceutical industry's run of success on Capitol Hill has benefited from the more than $800 million spent since 1998 on lobbyists and political campaigns, a political watchdog group told AP's Kevin Freking Wednesday. The trade group representing drug makers said the money helped patients. The following excerpts, acquired by RAW STORY, will run nationwide later tonight.

Billmon - July 6, 2005

Forever Blowing Bubbles

There is no doubt in my mind that the existence -- and seeming indestructibility -- of "analysts" like Jim Glassman is one of the key reasons why we have asset bubbles. Since the collapse of the Nasdaq bubble in early 2000, I've watched, first with amazement, then with a kind of morbid fascination, as Glassman has continued his flourishing and no doubt lucrative career as a financial pundit and supply-side snake-oil salesman, instead of being banished to the get-rich-quick infomercials on late night cable, which is where he belongs.

Daily Howler - July 6, 2005

WHAT A NOMINEE SHOULD BE ASKED! What should Bush’s choice be asked? Baker provides sheer confusion: // link // print // previous // next //

WEDNESDAY, JULY 6, 2005

WHAT A NOMINEE SHOULD BE ASKED: Holy cow! On today’s New York Times op-ed page, a fascinating look at one way (but only one way) to measure a Supreme Court justice’s “activism.” (By this measure, Clarence Thomas is the most “activist” current justice; Ruth Bader Ginsburg the least.) The authors, Perfesser Gewirtz and a bright young law graduate, offer a precise approach to a tired old, jumbled-up theme. Elsewhere, though, mainstream journalists muddy the waters, preparing the way for their favorite critter—a thoroughly incoherent debate about the next Court nominee.

Echidne: Mommy Lit

Over my feminist years I have read pretty much every single feminist and anti-feminist book on the politics of mothering and the work-home balance. Some of them were dreadful, some thought-provoking and some excellent, but one characteristic they all seemed to share was a certain...muddiness. Like walking around in a bog after dark, groping for some sort of a landmark and finding it changing all the time. Every step you take leaves your boots more caked with mud and the mosquitoes keep on biting. To finish a book like this brings great relief and a desire never to venture into mommy lit again.

Digby - July 6, 2005

Logline

Joseph Wilson writing over on TPM cafe about Judith Miller's incarcertaion frames the issue correctly.

It's about accountability and cover up:

President Bush’s refusal to enforce his own call for full cooperation with the Special Counsel has brought us to this point. Clearly, the conspiracy to cover up the web of lies that underpinned the invasion of Iraq is more important to the White House than coming clean on a serious breach of national security.

Syncope For The Devil

This is just weird. When are people going to start asking why the president falls down all the time? It isn't normal.

Scott confirmed that POTUS collided with a police officer during his bike ride. He was about 45 minutes into his ride, Scott said, when the accident occurred. The officer was in a security detail on the grounds of Gleneagles. The President slid on the paved surface, suffering scrapes on his hands and arms that later required treatment and bandaging by his White House physician. The officer was taken to a local hospital as a precaution, Scott said. The extent of his harm wasn't immediately clear, although he might have an ankle injury. The president had been riding -- speed undetermined -- on the road.