18,000 people spied on?

* apparently 18,000 people have been spied on in snoopgate

* tom engelhardt has a good article looking at the response to the anthrax attacks: "As it turns out, the Bush administration acted in response to 9/11 in every wild and extraordinary way – and in response to the anthrax attacks in next to no way at all. Put the two together and what you can see is the degree to which the costs of 9/11, whether in Iraq or at home, are the responsibility not of the attackers, whose damaging acts were violent in the extreme, spectacular, and limited, but of the Bush administration."

* "Writing in Psychological Bulletin, published by the American Psychological Association, they concluded that "chronically happy people" were generally more successful in many areas of life than less happy people." (link)
georgew bush makes us unhappy. if repuglicans help impeach him, the economy will be stronger as people become more successful.

* juancole: "In other words, the Shiite fundamentalist parties have won again. The secularists lost badly. Allawi and Chalabi are out of the game. The question is only whether the Shiites align with the Sunnis or the Kurds, or both. " (link)

* " Jack Abramoff, the Republican lobbyist under criminal investigation, has been discussing with prosecutors a deal that would grant him a reduced sentence in exchange for testimony against former political and business associates, people with detailed knowledge of the case say." (link)
sing loud, sweet chariot.