Aipac Shakur

* "Fred Fleitz was in a position to know about Plame and disliked Joe Wilson's findings. Fleitz was a top-notch "cherry-picker" of intelligence and combined in league with Bolton, the pair made a Dynamic Duo in pounding the intelligence establishment to give them the intel they wanted for ideologically pre-determined policy positions they wanted to articulate and pursue.
Was Bolton's office responsible for initiating the leaks of Valerie Plame's identity?" LINK

* "The FBI arrested a Pentagon analyst Wednesday on charges that he illegally passed classified information about potential attacks against U.S. forces in Iraq to employees of a pro-Israel group... The people at the lunch were employees of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee... a search of Franklin's West Virginia home that turned up 83 classified documents... He formerly worked in the office of policy undersecretary Douglas Feith... The case appears to bear no resemblance to that of Jonathan Pollard, the former civilian intelligence analyst for the Navy who pleaded guilty to conspiring to spy for Israel in the 1980s." LINK
ha ha - thxn AP - gotta love that last sentence.

* watch out for media that uses 'American Israel Public Affairs Committee' rather than the more familiar AIPAC

* " A raid on (frankilns) home turned up 83 classified U.S. government documents [.pdf]. According to the indictment, "approximately 38 were classified 'Top Secret.' 37 were classified 'Secret,'" and "approximately 8" were marked "Confidential."
The real stunner: "The dates of these documents spanned three decades."
This, I think, gives us some indication that Franklin's arrest is about to dredge up something much larger than anyone now imagines. Remember, the FBI counterintelligence stumbled on Franklin in the course of a much more extensive investigation that has been going on for at least two years... " LINK

* " it is still hard to say whether there was a sting operation or whether it was a real passing of information. It is still not at all clear why Franklin bothered to pass on the Iraq information to AIPAC if it had nothing to do with Israel." LINK

* some guy got manhandled and arrested for asking coulter: "What about marriages where men just fuck their wife the ass?" - this question (and the oral sex question) should be asked at each of these events, like it was with scalia. if it is sexually deviant to engage in such sodomy outside of marriage, then it is surely equally deviant within marriage - the spermatazoa will still go to hell. if they wanna defend it, then lets hear it from the horse's mouth. apparently there are distinctions in some states where such behavior is deviant or not, depending on whether you are married... lets strip out that distinction from the law - then highskool kids wont be able to read any supreme court arguments.

* "The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe has been monitoring elections in emerging democracies ever since the fall of the Berlin wall, but now it has done something different and uniquely controversial. It has turned its attention to the United States, issuing a report that highlights numerous areas in which this past November's presidential and Congressional elections failed to meet international standards... the report has not generated a single column inch in any US newspaper... OSCE sources complain that US officials made "inappropriate" phone calls in the run-up to the report's publication, in the hope that its conclusions would not come down too hard on the dysfunctions of its electoral system." LINK

* everyone is agog at Pat Robertson remarks on ABC's "This Week". apparently people havent been paying attention thus far... (heres the vid in case u missed it - apparently even the freepi are pissed at him)

* in other news, "The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled a Virginia county can refuse to let a witch give the invocation at its meetings by limiting the privilege to clergy representing Judeo-Christian monotheism." LINK
thats incredible - they use wicca as a wedge precedent to banish muslims et al. sweet.

* i long for the good old days when they srgues that they should be able to hang the ten commnadments everywhere because they are 'historical'

* "The focus of the drug war in the United States has shifted significantly over the past decade from hard drugs to marijuana, which now accounts for nearly half of all drug arrests nationwide... But increasingly, some experts have begun to argue that the U.S. drug war, which costs an estimated $35 billion a year, has had a minimal impact on consumption of illicit substances... In addition, the study showed that although African Americans make up 14 percent of marijuana users generally, they account for nearly a third of all marijuana arrests." LINK
i need a drug habit.

* "Republicans backtracked in an ethics controversy Wednesday for the second time in two weeks, deciding that two GOP members of the ethics committee should withdraw from any investigation of Tom DeLay because they contributed to the majority leader's legal defense funds." LINK
wow. are times really changin? it was only a few weeks ago that they changed the rules, simply because they could. and then stacked the panel with DeLay contributors - just because they could. whats their left hand(s) doing?

* chrisfloyd takes a look at why newpope is in biz with the BFEE


* "Washington says it is important not to promote prostitution, and does not want any of its funds to be spent on treating prostitutes.
US President George Bush has allocated $15bn to the worldwide fight against Aids. Much of the spending is being channelled to programmes that advocate abstinence, rather than condom use, and cannot be used for abortions or to treat prostitutes.
Brazil turned down US funds (around $40m) because of a clause in the agreement condemning prostitution." LINK

* stuff that i havent mentioned:
1. 13y.o. fl girl can get an abortion after much ballyhoo LINK
2. 2 amjets went down in iraq. it didnt seem to get much attention. whats $100m between friends?
3. some journos tried to get recruited by the military and were told how to mask their drug use and create a fake diploma.
4. if u get raped, catholic hospitals will take a urine sample and if u are ovulating, they wont tell u about emergency contraception. if u arent, they'll probably offer u a coathanger

* "President George Bush has waded into a bitter historical row between Russia and its former imperial vassals the Baltic states, putting the Kremlin's nose out of joint just days before he visits Moscow.
To compound Russia's discomfort Mr Bush has also decided to combine his Moscow visit with tub-thumping pro-democracy tours of two countries that the Kremlin regards as staunchly anti-Russian: Georgia and Latvia... "It's about the same as if Putin would go to Washington with a stopover in Havana, and after that he would fly to Pyongyang."" LINK

* "But social conservatives are anticipating from conversations with Frist’s staff that the controversial (nuke option) move will take place next week and are predicting a conservative backlash if Senate Republicans delay any longer... “I believe it’s concrete,” Miranda said. “It must happen next week. It would be considered intolerable to delay any further than next week... In terms of maintaining grassroots intensity, people have to see progress being made"" LINK
if u promise an inch... (btw - miranda is the memo-gater in chief. (whatever happened to *that* investigation?)

* "Some Republican strategists said delaying the constitutional or nuclear option has provided a political benefit. The continued filibuster of judges along with staunch opposition to the president’s plans to reform Social Security makes it easier for Republicans to argue that Democrats are obstructionist." LINK
the only problem with this logic is that everyone except the fetusfreaks *wants* the dems to slow down the runaway train. the dems should start calling themselves obstructionist - wouldnt that be delish :-)

* as ive mentioned before, the funnest moment would be if the repugs reached for the nucular option, but didnt have the votes. thats still my preferred option. the question remains as to whether frist would be forced to pull the trigger to assuage the fetusfreaks even if he knew he didnt have the votes. possible holdouts seem to "include Dick Lugar of Indiana, Ted Stevens of Alaska, John Warner of Virginia, Thad Cochran of Mississippi and Pete Domenici of New Mexico." (yep - even the farking AEI dont want the nucular option)

* "Don't let anybody fool you into believing that the nuclear option is nuclear because of what the Democrats say they'll do in response. The nuclear option is nuclear because it's the ultimate "Go [Cheney] Yourself. "It's a declaration by Dick Cheney that the law is what he damn well says it is." LINK

* g hung out with Monica Lewinsky on mon. im. trying. to. resist. making. any. comment. cos. i. cant. think. of. anything. clever. and. new. to. say.

* amazing effort by liverpool over 2 legs. acmilan kinda seemed lucky over two legs.