now famous

MORE RANDOM STUFF
* the local tv news here carried a long-ish piece from cbs calling blinky a lame-duck.

* "The disconnect between Rose Garden optimism and Baghdad pessimism, according to government officials and independent analysts, stems not only from Bush's focus on tentative signs of long-term progress but also from the shrinking range of policy options available to him if he is wrong. Having set out on a course of trying to stand up a new constitutional, elected government with the security firepower to defend itself, Bush finds himself locked into a strategy that, even if it proves successful, foreshadows many more deadly months to come first, analysts said." LINK

* syria's ambassador is on cnn's insight: 'its prepostrous to think that we assassinated this journalist in lebanon. he has been bashing us for 20 years while we were in lebanon - why would we do it now, after we have left lebanon, and bring the worlds spotlight on us? its ridiculous. the western press doesnt hesitate to blame us, but it just makes no sense' - of course, haririkiri can be viewed thru the same lense.

* fauxnews: 'amnesty's use of the word 'gulag' will lead people to discount the group, and not just the report.' the thought-controllers have no shame. they simply assume that the word nullifies the report, and (try to) inoculate themselves against any bad news in the future. incredibly, the egadmin seems to be quite happy screaming "we are not a gulag" at every opportunity, and giving the head amnesty guy plenty of tv time to debate the issue. if the head of uzbek was on the tv every day screaming that he doesnt run a gulag, people would probably start to wonder - but the egadmin appears impervious. its really quite amazing to watch.

* gee, i hope we catch another top al-zarqawi aide today.

* amygoodman does TheMemo (about 30min) LINK

* "The Bush exploitation of late Friday afternoons was, at first, almost amusing. The White House was embracing a long-held practice in Washington: release bad news when reporters are less likely to be working, the night before the week's least-read edition of the newspaper.
But what was comical then became annoying. Then outrageous. Then scandalous." LINK
i remember reading an article over the weekend about the urine-splashing at KR (i think) and the last line of the story simply read 'the report was released late on a friday' - lol. they didnt leave it at 'late on friday', but 'late on 'a' friday'. funny.

* will america boycott the paris2012 olympics?

* "“William Donaldson "quietly has let it be known to the White House that he would like to remain as the nation's top securities cop" but "the business lobby fed up with what it believes is ... a chairman who has been a tougher regulator than expected has made it equally clear that it would like nothing more than to see Mr. Donaldson gone.”" LINK

* "On top of confirmation fights waged by liberal Democrats, President Bush now faces trouble from a potential conservative Republican presidential candidate.
Sen. Sam Brownback of Kansas has quietly put a hold on Bush's nomination of Julie Finley to be U.S. ambassador to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe because of her fervent support for abortion rights." LINK
its hard to know where to start with this. brownback is a nutter. i think his logic is something like 'all pro-lifers deserve an up or down vote'. or some such.

* "MR. RUSSERT: Let me turn to the now-famous Downing Street memo. " LINK
now famous??? if only.

* "Now comes a new Army directive that attempts to alleviate the personnel crunch by retaining soldiers who are earmarked for early discharge during their first term of enlistment because of alcohol or drug abuse, unsatisfactory performance, or being overweight, among other reasons." LINK

* "The White House is preparing to send a raft of new judicial nominations to the Senate in the next few weeks, according to Republican strategists inside and outside the administration -- a move that could challenge the durability of last week's bipartisan filibuster deal and reignite the political warfare it was intended to halt." LINK

* "Ney, 51, has hired a criminal lawyer and is preparing for a grueling inquiry by the House ethics committee. His name also appears frequently in e-mails being studied by investigators at the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, which is looking into lobbyists' dealings with gambling-enriched tribes...
Another Republican in the Democrats' sights is Rep. Tom Feeney (Fla.), who as a state official was an aggressive advocate for Bush during the presidential election recount fight of 2000, and has been a key DeLay supporter. Like DeLay, Feeney accepted a trip to South Korea from a group that later declared itself a foreign agent, which would have made the group ineligible to fund trips for lawmakers. Like DeLay, Feeney traveled to Scotland and played golf, accompanied by Abramoff." LINK

* "Billionaire financier and philanthropist George Soros has joined Washington entrepreneur Jonathan Ledecky's bid to purchase the Washington Nationals" LINK
priceless

* "Newsweek should apologize for retracting their story" LINK

* coingate looks like it could explode. wouldnt that be fun. they must have had a mighty big bed for them to all jump in together - and enough baby-oil that even i'd be embarassed... id love it if the whole election fraud thing turned on a bad coin deal. fun. the groovy thing about this national stench of corruption is that while much of it looks systemic, you kinda get the sense the scandals are interlinked through some pretty specific channels. imagine if blackwell squealed. or abramoff. or judymiller. or notgannon. you'd prolly be able to solve 10 scandals in a day.

* "Rosanna Maietta, Newsweek’s Washington media relations manager leaves the magazine to join a public relations firm as Vice President for the White House's Anti-Drug campaign tomorrow" LINK

* SCOTUS says sick people cant smoke pot. im never gonna get sick.

* " A Los Alamos lab whistleblower scheduled to testify before Congress about alleged financial irregularities was badly beaten outside a bar — an attack his wife and lawyer believe was designed to silence him." LINK
and so it goes.

* justin on aipac. again. LINK

* " among the 15 most independent-rich states, ten belong to the Democrats — big ones like Connecticut, Illinois, Michigan, and Virginia. Two of them swing. The other three are tiny." LINK

* im watching nicholas burns (? - maybe mann?)- undersecretary of state (?) on hardtalk. ive never heard of him. he is totally scary in a pious, stepford, honey-voiced, whispery, evangelical kinda way. i think he said 'its absurd to suggest that the middle east is more volatile'. he is totally spooky - keep an eye out for him.