tony snow: We have lots troops. elsewhere

* ken:

"More significantly, I'm told that Michael Kostiw, senior adviser to Goss, is also being pushed out. Kostiw was the only Gossling that was thought to have performed well, and a number of senior agency officials urged Hayden to keep him on. However, the source told me, Kostiw ran afoul of Hayden’s boss, Director of National Intelligence John Negroponte. It appears that Kostiw's grim assessment of the situation in Iraq, where he traveled regularly over the past several years, displeased Negroponte, who “wasn't happy with his criticism,” said the source. “He said [Kostiw] wasn't being supportive enough of the policy.”"

* froomkin:

"Asked about the possibility of sending U.S. troops as part of a United Nations peacekeeping force in Southern Lebanon, Snow first danced around the question then uttered what will likely become a memorable phrase:
"Q So what about troops?
"MR. SNOW: We have lots of them. They are elsewhere.""

* froomkin:

"And Time TV critic James Poniewozik , in his blog, calls attention to the first part of the now-infamous sentence, which of course went like this: "See, the irony is what they need to do is get Syria to get Hezbollah to stop doing this shit, and it's over."

Writes Poniewozik: "Personally, I could care less that a grown man used a swear word when speaking to another grown man. I'm more disturbed that the President used 'irony' to describe what seemed to be an entirely unironic situation. Have we learned nothing from Alanis Morrisette?""

(i made the same point yesterday)

* billmon:

"When an establishment drone like David Brooks starts sounding like the speaker at a five-minute hate, but on Quaaludes, it shows that the neocon version of Minitrue is pulling out all the stops."

* demnow:

"Lebanon’s Information Minister Ghazi Aridi has accused Israel of using banned weapons in violation of international law. Reports in the Lebanese media have claimed that Israel has used phosphorus incendiary bombs and vacuum bombs that suck up air and facilitate building collapses. The use of incendiary weapons against civilians has been banned since 1980. The U.S. military used similar phosphorous weapons during the siege of Fallujuah in Iraq."

* demnow:

"In Britain, officials have decided not to press to prosecute any of the police officers involved in the shooting death of Jean Charles de Menezes. He was the innocent Brazilian man shot in the London subway last year after police mistook him to be a possible terrorist."

* feingold at dkos:

"Hamdan underscores how this Administration has played fast and loose with the Constitution and the law, and why the President should be censured for authorizing the illegal wiretapping program, for misleading the public both before and after it was revealed, and for failing to inform the appropriate members of Congress about it, as required by law. We have to demand that this Administration, and this President, protect our Constitution and our values as we protect our country. I am going to keep raising this issue - in fact, I plan on asking the Attorney General about it this morning when he comes before the Senate Judiciary Committee. So stay tuned and thanks to all of you for keeping the heat on this Administration to own up to its mistakes and abide by the rule of law."