first draft, last chance

* "White House said it didn't know about key levee break in New Orleans when Katrina hit; records now show they did. Michael Brown, former FEMA Director, personally notified the White House of the news that night. See the details in this piece in tomorrow's Times." (link)

* "MR. McCLELLAN: Well, Iraq is the central front in the war on terrorism. All you have to do is look at the letter that Zawahiri sent to Zarqawi. They recognize how high the stakes are. So do we."
except that letter was a fucking fake. just like the binladen/zarqawi letter that safire got so excited about. i love it when they quote zawahiri/binladen/zarq - cos you know they are lying.

* "MR. McCLELLAN: It was Saddam Hussein's choice to make. He continued to defy the international community."
no. saddam couldn't disarm, and he already disclosed. 12,000 pages that the stupid egadmin refused to share with their allies - and even now the CIA "can neither confirm nor deny" that the document even exists. the theatre of the absurd. i bet that was ABC's martha raddatz asking the follow-up question - i cant find her email address, but i'd love to get her to ask scotty about the 12,000 pages - and about the CIA's response to our FOIA.

* i'm not sure whether the Headline of the Day goes to Holden for "Save the Liberry Tower!" or to Hotline for "Leaning Tower Of FISA"

* Business Week: "The contrast in President Bush's new budget could not be more stark. On one hand, he wants to eliminate what he likes to call the "death tax" -- a levy imposed on a handful of the nation's biggest estates. On the other, he wants to end Social Security's lump sum death benefit -- a $255 check that the families of many of the nation's poorest use to help pay for their fuerals." (link)

* Preznit Blinky speaks: "The tax relief on dividends and capital gains has also helped families that don't own stocks. And the reason why is people out here understand -- capital flows will tell you that cutting taxes on dividends and capital gains has reduced the cost of capital. That's economic talk for meaning the money that you borrowed doesn't cost you as much, and that helps investment." (link)
unless you are a student: "On July 1, the interest rate for Stafford loans will increase to 6.8% from 5.3% and the rates for a Plus Loan will increase to 8.5% from 6.1%." (link)