budget assumptions

* "Michael Kranish writes in the Boston Globe: "Analysts questioned a number of assumptions in Bush's budget, such as his assertion that the government will take in $4 billion over five years from oil drilling in the environmentally sensitive Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska. Congress has rejected the president's proposal for such drilling."(link)
the budget is *full* of nonsense.

* digby: "Dickerson says that this push-back by administration officials was highly unusual... According to Dickerson's recital, they were close to panic... What was it about Wilson that had them so spooked that they would break with their highly successful methods?... I suspect that it has to do with Niger forgeries, but that's a guess. The IAEA had long before debunked them, but considering the infighting, Wilson's connection to the CIA may have made them very nervous. " (link)
it really is the $64million question, huh? why did they kick back at Wilson so hard, and so amazingly ineffectively? i think i know the answer *cough* - nobody has come up with anything else that passes the sniff test in terms of justifying the relentless, focussed, orchestrated, desperate pushback by WHIG et al.

* larry johnson: "We will see what happens with Rove and the Vice President. Regardless of whether Fitzgerald can prosecute an Intelligence Identities Protection case, this much is clear--people who work for President Bush knowingly compromised an intelligence officer's identity. What is truly shameful are the prominent Republicans who are raising funds for Libby's defense fund. They are endorsing an act of treason and excusing it for political expediency. That may not be a crime, but it is wrong."(link)
people like, for example, dennis ross.

* "Dickerson adds that when he learned Plame's CIA cover had been blown, "[i]t seemed obvious that the people pushing me to look into who sent Wilson knew exactly the answer I'd find. Yet they were really careful not to let the information slip, which suggested that they knew at the time Plame's identity was radioactive.""(link)

* "The public is more critical of the Bush Administration on this measure. A majority --- 59% -- says the Bush Administration tells the truth only sometimes or hardly ever; just 39% say the Administration is truthful always or most of the time.""(link)