prick me

AMDOM
* Amy Goodman: "Kevin Martin, Bush's newly appointed FCC chairman, will, according to an FCC insider, be even worse than Powell. Leading conservative and right-wing religious groups have been quietly lobbying the White House for Martin to chair the FCC. Martin voted with Powell on key regulations favoring media consolidation, and in addition has been a self-appointed indecency czar. The indecency furor conveniently grabs headlines and pushes for the regulation of content, while Martin and the media moguls plan sweetheart deregulation deals to achieve piecemeal what they couldn't push through all at once." LINK

* one of the most interesting fun questions for me about DeLay is whether the davidbrooks column was an attempt to save DeLay, or the beginning of the end

* heres a good summary of DeLay on demnow LINK

* "Tom DeLay, R-Texas, stepped up his attack on federal judges Thursday, telling a gathering of religious conservatives that the judiciary has "run amok" and demanding that Congress assert authority over the courts." LINK
keep yer foot on the accelerator you moron.

* steve clemons: " I had been hearing that people were lining up to share with the media, or potentially with Senators, the "inside scoop" on John Bolton's expulsion of an intelligence analyst from his morning briefings; his extraordinary vindictiveness towards and punishment of those who questioned the quality of WMD intelligence in not only the run-up to the Iraq War but also with regard to North Korea, Iran and Cuba; and his defiance of State Department protocols in keeping the Niger-Uranium story alive after the State Department's and CIA's intelligence analysts had vigorously rejected those claims. In this latter case, Bolton then used secrecy classifications to cover his tracks and seemingly had his staff lie to Congress about his involvement... This line-up of opposition testimony to Bolton is an extraordinary event." LINK
i still think that the confirmation of bolton is largely irrelevant wrt the UN. the signalling of the nomination is all that matters. *however*, if boltons nomination gets blocked, and lots of dirt comes out in the process, then we can add that to the long list of disgusting nominations by the egadmin and paint the picture in broad strokes. gonzales had trouble getting thru, as did condi, and wolfowitz. and then theres kerik. at least there'll be a narrative to paint in retrospect.

* i cant quite work out what happened with the sandy berger thing... heres one take: "Perhaps the prospect of Berger's going public with just how much info the Bush administration chose to ignore about a looming al Qaeda offensive prodded Justice into deal-making mode. " LINK

* " The CIA and members of Congress said they want to know how a presidential commission unearthed details on intelligence failures about Iraq's prewar weapons programs that previous investigations missed." LINK
may the farce be with you.

* "Rep. Walter B. Jones Jr. is a conservative Republican from North Carolina who voted to authorize the use of force in Iraq. So it jarred all the more yesterday when Jones turned his fury on Richard N. Perle, the Pentagon adviser who provided the Bush administration with brainpower for the Iraq war." LINK
ouch. go read this by millbank. id love to have seen the hearings. and id love to see perle in orange.

* "The Pentagon can resume giving anthrax vaccinations, but only to troops who volunteer for them" pick me! pick me! prick me! prick me! (its amazing we havent had (or at least heard) of fragging incidents given the anthrax shots. here's something i didnt know " hundreds of people have been kicked out of the military for refusing them." LINK
u can now kiss goodbye to that exit strategy when they institute the draft... get gay quick. tell, tell, tell.

* "a senator threatened to block the nomination of Stephen L. Johnson to lead the Environmental Protection Agency and two Democrats said they were blocking the confirmation of the nominee to lead the Food and Drug Administration." LINK

* "The most underreported political story of recent years has been that of the grass-roots revolt against the Patriot Act." LINK

* theres some noise going on that the Plame investigation is largely complete. except i dont know what that means.

* "Vincent Cannistaro, the former CIA head of counterterrorism operations and intelligence director at the National Security Council under Ronald Reagan" LINK (virtually) fingers 'Harder-Please' Leeden for making the nigeranium documents. i hate leeden. we can blame the next 2 wars on him too.