Bush wants to bomb Al-Jazeera

* "Overall, 64 percent of Americans believe the Bush administration "generally misleads the American public on current issues to achieve its own ends" -- including 91 percent of Democrats, 73 percent of independents and 28 percent of Republicans." (link)

* "The real significance of these new allegations is not that the Bush administration was contemplating taking action against Al-Jazeera, for it is now abundantly clear that there has long been a concerted effort to intimidate and harass the Qatar-based news organization. Rather, this new bombshell demonstrates that this pre-existing agenda has its roots at the very top of the Bush administration, and that a major escalation of that operation was being contemplated. If it had been carried out it would have constituted an attack on a sovereign ally nation and almost certainly would have risen to the level of a serious violation of international law. Little wonder that Blair saw a need to talk Bush out of it." (link)

* "Scanlon could help investigators learn more about the purpose of gifts and nearly $3 million in campaign contributions Abramoff and his tribal clients lavished on members of Congress and their staffers
Scanlon may also be knowledgeable about Abramoff's direction of tribal funds to several charitable foundations and advocacy groups and tax-exempt organizations, including one run by anti-tax crusader Grover Norquist. E-mail shows that Scanlon was intimately familiar with some of the financial dealings of anti-gambling activist Ralph Reed, former executive director of the Christian Coalition." (link)

* froomkin: "I would like to see major news outlets dedicate at least one reporter exclusively to
investigating the White House. Doesn't that sound like a good idea?"
that does sound like a good idea dan.