Cursor - 06/09/06

As Sen. Biden expresses hope that Zarqawi's death improves President Bush's approval ratings and "emboldens him to take bolder moves in terms of his policy in Iraq," the pro-war right in its 'last throes' is seen to imply "that our policy of trying to discriminate between civilians and terrorists is too restrictive."<>A report by the Council of Europe, which finds strong circumstantial evidence of "a global spider web" of secret detention centers and transfer points woven by the U.S. with the collusion of several European countries, is said to arouse only "a calculated treatment in the American media."

An amendment to close the "School of the Assassins," is debated in the House, as four South American countries refuse to send their military to this "US army-run Spanish-language military academy" which was the alma mater of at least 11 dictators.

The House 'increases indecency fines tenfold,' and passes "the most extensive telecommunications legislation in a decade" without net neutrality provisions, while the Appropriations subcommittee votes to cut $115 million from public broadcasting.

Media Matters catalogs some of the "numerous media figures and Republican strategists" who came to Ann Coulter's defense after her attack on the 9/11 widows, as NBC, despite concerns about "civility," refuses to rule out giving her a forum in the future.

As Billmon considers the implications of "the massive propaganda firepower being trained on one mild-mannered Middle East specialist with a blog," a conservative advocacy group founded by Lynn Cheney tries to paint the professoriate as "a beehive of swarming left-wing radicals," using the "metaphor of Ward Churchill."