"the chavez threat"

* cnn are doing a story on idiot pat robertson apologising - the graphic reads "the chavez threat"

* im not sure what the oddest thing about robertsons' assassination comment. is it that murder is illegal? that assassination is illegal? nah - its much worse than that. is it cos the assassination would probably not achieve what its apparently sposed to? maybe its that. or maybe its that the purported alternative to assassination is invading venezuela. yeah - thats probably it.

* modo: "For political reasons, the president has a history of silence on America's war dead. But he finally mentioned them on Monday because it became politically useful to use them as a rationale for war - now that all the other rationales have gone up in smoke.
"We owe them something," he told veterans in Salt Lake City (even though his administration tried to shortchange the veterans agency by $1.5 billion). "We will finish the task that they gave their lives for."
What twisted logic: with no W.M.D., no link to 9/11 and no democracy, now we have to keep killing people and have our kids killed because so many of our kids have been killed already? Talk about a vicious circle: the killing keeps justifying itself." (link)

* some (american - fwiw) website outed 76 mi6 agents - but it doesnt seem to be getting any attention. odd.

* houston chron: "The worst possible (plame-gate) scenario for the administration would be if it turns out that the Niger documents in question (which all now agree were forged) were fabricated by individuals who may have had a motive for getting us into the war. Shadowy figures previously linked to the Iran-Contra scandal have been mentioned as possible originators of the forged documents. (ledeen)
If there is any truth to these charges, the lid will blow off Washington — and the Bush administration will be history." (link)

* juancole: "The rule of law is no longer operating in Iraq, and no pretence of constitutional procedure is being striven for. In essence, the prime minister and president have made a sort of coup, simply disregarding the interim constitution. Given the acquiescence of parliament and the absence of a supreme court (which should have been appointed by now but was not, also unconstitutionally), there is no check or balance that could question the writ of the executive." (link)

* "Traces of bomb-grade uranium found two years ago in Iran came from contaminated Pakistani equipment and are not evidence of a clandestine nuclear weapons program, a group of U.S. government experts and other international scientists has determined.
John R. Bolton, now U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, served as the administration's point man on nuclear issuesduring President Bush's first term. He suggested during congressional testimony in June 2004 that the Iranians were lying about the contamination." (link)
of course, that won't change the egadminstrations certainty that they were right all along. or they will soon be right. or it was the iranians fault anyway. or something.

* i think blinky has stopped using the 'noble cause' rhetoric. yay cindy. although i did hear him say "the cause is just". the cause is just stupid.

* atrios: "NBC started their Robertson piece with "This was no extremist cleric issuing a death threat. This was Christian Minister Pat Robertson..."
So, it's a non-extremist cleric issuing a death threat. What do the extremist Christian clerics do?" (link)

* "Three Canadian warships were steaming through Arctic waters as Ottawa displayed a new and almost bellicose determination to protect the sovereignty of its northernmost boundaries."
thats from the independent! (link)

* the avian flu story seems to be growing scarier. lets hope that chickenhawks can catch it regardless of whether it fully crosses over into the human species (link)