Huckleberry

Markos thinks he's "a scary good politician." What he means is scary-good. We think he's scary and good at politics.

Time to go

This war is a hopeless case:

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- Two Iraqi women were shot dead north of Baghdad after coalition forces fired on a vehicle that failed to stop at an observation post, the U.S. military said Wednesday. Iraqi police and relatives said one of the women was about to give birth.

We once had a colleague who was incapable of admitting a mistake. It was a minor irritant. In the preznit's case, it means that many more people will die needlessly.

Here we go again

Conason:

Of all possible explanations for the mainstream media’s preoccupation with the Clinton marriage, the most innocuous is nostalgia for a better time, when we were able to worry less about war, corruption, catastrophe and incompetence, and more about sex.

Lyons:

Who cares how often the senator from New York gets laid?
Maureen Dowd and David Broder, that’s who.

Episodes like this make us miss the horse.

Maxine died

NWATimes reports. Photo of Maxine's Tap Room; still looks exactly the same.

New Treasury secretary

The Note:

ABC News' Jessica Yellin reports a former Bush Administration official said this about the Paulson pick this morning: "Paulson is a fantastic pick. He has a keen, singular understanding of the financial markets. The markets will love the pick. His fingers are truly on the pulse of the global economy. He is held in the highest regard in the financial services industry and Wall Street. One of the world's most prominent investment bankers as Treasury Secretary is absolutely huge."

The markets show him the love.

Jimmy Hoffa

Still missing.

President Bigtime

Charlie Savage of The Boston Globe continues to lead on this:

WASHINGTON - The office of Vice President Dick Cheney routinely reviews pieces of legislation before they reach the president's desk, searching for provisions that Cheney believes would infringe on presidential power, according to former White House and Justice Department officials.
The officials said Cheney's legal adviser and chief of staff, David Addington, is the Bush administration's leading architect of the "signing statements" the president has appended to more than 750 laws. The statements assert the president's right to ignore the laws because they conflict with his interpretation of the Constitution. The Bush-Cheney administration has used such statements to claim for itself the option of bypassing a ban on torture, oversight provisions in the USA Patriot Act, and numerous requirements that they provide certain information to Congress, among other laws.
Previous vice presidents have had neither the authority nor the interest in reviewing legislation. But Cheney has used his power over the administration's legal team to promote an expansive theory of presidential authority. Using signing statements, the administration has challenged more laws than all previous administrations combined.

Still think W's "the decider?"

Carlos Hathcock, 1942-1999

Max posts a list of Arkansas miltary heroes who have been featured on a KUAR biographical series. Missing from that list is Carlos Norman Hathcock II, a Little Rock native and Silver Star-earner. From his Wikipedia entry:

Widely recognized as the Marines' most proficient sniper, Hathcock had killed a confirmed 93 North Vietnamese and Viet Cong personnel. His actual total is believed to be well over 100, which the official count does not reflect. North Vietnam even put a bounty of $50,000 on his life, which was far more than other bounties put on U.S. snipers -- typically only $50-$100. The Viet Cong called him Lông Trắng, "the white feather sniper," because he always wore one in the band of his bush hat and only removed it once while stalking an NVA general.
... Hathcock's career as a sniper came to a sudden end outside Khe Sanh in 1969, when the amphibious tractor he was riding on struck an anti-tank mine. Hathcock pulled seven Marines off the flame-engulfed vehicle before jumping to safety. As was his way, he rejected any commendation for his bravery. He came out of the attack with severe burns over 90 percent of his body, 49 percent of which were third-degree burns. He was evacuated to Brooke Army Medical Center in Texas, where he underwent 13 skin graft operations. The nature of the injuries left him unable to perform effectively in combat with a rifle.

Memorial Day

Herbert:

Reacting to the allegations about the murder of civilians, the commandant of the Marine Corps, Gen. Michael Hagee, went to Iraq last week to warn his troops about the danger of becoming "indifferent to the loss of a human life."
Somehow that message needs to be conveyed to the top leaders of this country, and to the public at large.

Amen.

There are alligators in Florida

This is apparently news to The Associated Press.

About Al Gore

Brrrrrr

Shrinkage.

'Cisco Pike'

Released on DVD, the LATimes tells us, although from the story it's unclear how we ever managed to see it -- on cable, we guess. Anyway, we loved this film, Kristofferson's first, as much as we loved Acapulco Gold. The Times piece is mostly about how Venice has changed. Here's a contemporaneous Ebert review.

Don't miss this

Best Media Matters ever. Everyone should read Jamison every week, even if you don't read all their other stuff, which can get formulaic ("Ignoring ...").

Black turbans

The Taliban are still around.

We saw this live

But we knew it would show up again somewhere. Watch Craig Cannon's dental bridge fall halfway out of his mouth in midsentence as he anchors the news.
via Jim Harris.

This is extreme

BBC:

The coach of Iraq's tennis team and two players were shot dead in Baghdad on Thursday, said Iraqi Olympic officials.
Coach Hussein Ahmed Rashid and players Nasser Ali Hatem and Wissam Adel Auda were killed in the al-Saidiya district of the capital.
Witnesses said the three were dressed in shorts and were killed days after militants issued a warning forbidding the wearing of shorts.

It was 102 degrees in Baghdad yesterday. Forecast for today, Saturday: 109.

Shrill

'This would be an atrocity'

NYT:

WASHINGTON, May 25 — A military investigation into the deaths of two dozen Iraqis last November is expected to find that a small number of marines in western Iraq carried out extensive, unprovoked killings of civilians, Congressional, military and Pentagon officials said Thursday.

My Lai writ smaller. Why?

Which came first?

The egg.

A step in the right direction

Senate panel OKs net neutrality measure.

Note to Ken Lay

God doesn't hang around much where you're going:

"We'll all come through this stronger and more reliant on God," Lay told his supporters. "God will answer prayers."

And He doesn't much like hypocrites -- or thieves, we're told.

Cloaking device

Cool.

A la carte cable

Kudos to John McCain.

Yikes

Bigtime might have to testify at Libby's trial.
Froomkin rounds up the coverage. (AP photo)

Now it makes sense

We wondered what was up with Hastert going to bat for Jefferson, who should have already resigned. Tomasky had a theory that sounded about right, that he wanted to make the culture of corruption look bipartisan. This is even better:

The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Dennis Hastert, is under investigation by the FBI, which is seeking to determine his role in an ongoing public corruption probe into members of Congress, ABC News has learned from senior U.S. law enforcement officials.

Maybe they can share a cell at Leavenworth.

Stranger than fiction

Funnier than The Onion.

Compare and contrast

NYTimes on Clintons' sex life. WaPo tongue bath for Frist. It's two and a half years until Election Day 2008.

Turning points, milestones

WaPo:

In his speech here, Bush tried to balance optimism with concessions of mistakes. "Yet we have now reached a turning point in the struggle between freedom and terror," he said.
... Bush has declared turning points and milestones in the war before. He called it "an important milestone" when a temporary governing council was formed in July 2003 and "a turning point" when sovereignty was turned over to the interim government in June 2004. Elections in January 2005, he said, were both "a turning point in the history of Iraq" and "a milestone in the advance of freedom."
He called it a "milestone" in October when Iraqi voters approved a constitution and "a major milestone" two months later when they elected a parliament -- a moment he also termed "a turning point in the history of Iraq, the history of the Middle East and the history of freedom." The selection of a prime minister last month was "an important milestone toward our victory in Iraq" and, a week later, "a turning point for the Iraqi citizens."

These are what they call "talking points," no?

Shorter Lyons, Conason

Gene: The GOP has a losing agenda if only Democrats can exploit it.
Joe: Al Gore is right -- and his critics wrong -- about climate change.

Pumpkinhead

What a tool.

'24'

That season-ender was a bit of a disappointment. We were looking forward to Jack torturing President Logan. And we were expecting to see Martha Logan in the shower after she had sex with the president. And we predicted that Jack would execute Henderson. And we knew when Logan admitted everything to Martha in that hangar that it was being recorded. Then we thought, surely all this hasn't escaped the attention of the Chinese, just before Jack was told his daughter was calling. Can't wait for next season, though.

Vargas out, Gibson in

You know, it's a good thing Elizabeth Vargas "is pregnant and goes on leave later this summer," otherwise people might infer that ABC had fired her ass.

Not Mullah Dadullah

U.S. military says.

Howler

We quit reading Somerby when he decided to write about education all the time. We're guessing his traffic shrunk or something, because he's apparently returned to press criticism, at least partly. Right on the money.

Waste of money

NYTimes:

WASHINGTON, May 21 — The Bush administration is moving to establish a new antimissile site in Europe that would be designed to stop attacks by Iran against the United States and its European allies.
The administration's proposal, which comes amid rising concerns about Iran's suspected program to develop nuclear weapons, calls for installing 10 antimissile interceptors at a European site by 2011. Poland and the Czech Republic are among the nations under consideration.

Why would the Poles and Czechs listen to such a proposal? They're soliciting a bribe. Why would the Iranians target Europe -- assuming they develop the capability? They wouldn't. The Europeans actually have something called diplomatic relations with Iran. This idea will be hugely unpopular across Europe.

Baghdad Zal

Zalmay Khalilzad:

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- The U.S. ambassador said Sunday that the next six months will be critical for Iraq as its new national unity government seeks to win public confidence and improve security so that American and other international troops can begin heading home.

He must be reading Tom Friedman.

Brill

Amen to the second part

AP:

"We have an entire generation who imagines their member of Congress in an orange jumpsuit," said Paul Light, a New York University professor of public service, referring to the common prison uniform. "It's like members of Congress don't have any shame."

We think it's at least two generations, maybe three, and not just "their member."

'Doughnut hole'

It's almost as if the GOP Congress sabotaged its own prospects. KR:

The timing couldn't be worse for the Bush administration and congressional Republicans who've spent most of the year defending the new benefit. In the heart of the summer and fall election season, throngs of seniors stuck in the doughnut hole will have a new ax to grind.
"You're likely to get a lot of folks hitting that doughnut hole after Labor Day and sometime right in front of the election, and that will certainly provide fodder for those who have criticized the benefit for not being generous enough," said Michael Frank, the vice president for government relations at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative research center.

Et tu, Heritage Foundation?

We're stuck with 5,000 trailers

Great:

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The government has no plans to move at least half of the 10,000 emergency housing trailers sitting empty in Hope, Ark., saying they may be needed for the 2006 hurricane season.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency detailed its plan to keep the trailers at the Hope municipal airport in a letter to Sen. Tim Johnson, D-S.D., who had asked that some of the trailers be used for American Indian housing.
What they are doing with the other half of the Arkansas trailers is unclear from the letter.

Oh my

E&P:

Former 'Weekly Reader' Editor Convicted of Soliciting Sex with Minor

Mullah Dadullah

If they've really captured the Taliban military commander, that would be a good thing. But there are a lot of one-legged men in Afghanistan. On the other hand, Dadullah has given TV interviews. If it is him, they'll try to rescue him before CIA straps him to a waterboard. Fighting season's just getting under way.

RIP 'Ramrod'

SFChron:

He was a psychedelic cowboy who rode the bus with Ken Kesey and took virtually every step of the long, strange trip with the Grateful Dead. Known to one and all solely as Ramrod, he died yesterday of lung cancer at Petaluma Valley Hospital. He was 61.

Photo oops

Remind you of anthing?

Leon

George's, Friday.

Iran and the bomb

This report from the Beeb sounds about right.

This WaPo writer gets it

A feature:

We Louisianans ... treat alligators with respect, and the occasional addition of sauce piquant. Alligator turns up frequently not only at backyard barbecues but on the menus of all the best restaurants in Louisiana.

At times like this, we're thankful we don't have CNN, which is apparently devoting way to much time and resources to the recent developments. We love gators. They're tasty.

NSA killed system that sifted phone data legally

This Baltimore Sun story should scuttle Hayden's nomination to head CIA, but of course it won't:

The National Security Agency developed a pilot program in the late 1990s that would have enabled it to gather and analyze massive amounts of communications data without running afoul of privacy laws. But after the Sept. 11 attacks, it shelved the project -- not because it failed to work -- but because of bureaucratic infighting and a sudden White House expansion of the agency's surveillance powers, according to several intelligence officials.
The agency opted instead to adopt only one component of the program, which produced a far less capable and rigorous program. It remains the backbone of the NSA's warrantless surveillance efforts, tracking domestic and overseas communications from a vast databank of information, and monitoring selected calls.

Still searching in vain for something these guys have done right.

Six Tom Friedman months

Equal two and a half years in the reality-based world.

Southern strategy revisited

Mike Huckabee calls this anti-immigrant current for what it is: racism. Cue Bill O'Reilly.

Telcos deny giving records to NSA

Of course, it's funny how it took several days for them to issue a denial. Think Progress finds evidence that they may be lying. They certainly have millions of reasons to do so. Greg Sargent parses their statements. And Art Brodsky makes a good case that they're already lying about net neutrality. It's up to the Senate to stop them from monopolizing the Internet.

This, AP makes a 'top story'

Idiots:

BRADENTON, Fla. (AP) -- A woman has shot an alligator that came into her home and attacked her dog.
The alligator was only 3 feet long, but Candy Frey wasn't taking any chances.

How long before they name a full-time, gator-attack correspondent?

Immigration

Lyons. Conason.

All-time low

WaPo:

Public confidence in Republican governance has plunged to the lowest levels of the Bush presidency, with Americans saying they now trust Democrats by wide margins to deal with Iraq, gasoline prices, immigration and more, according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll that underscores the fragility of the GOP's grip on power six months before the midterm elections.

So much for that permanent majority.

Awfully quiet today

They did catch one of the killer gators.

W's immigation speech

It's hard to figure out what President 32 percent hoped to accomplish, unless it was pissing off whatever allies he had left in the right-wing blogosphere, opinion journalism and the House.

Makes sense

Sign us up:

WASHINGTON — A lawyer who sued Verizon last week on claims it violated privacy laws by turning over calling records to the National Security Agency said Sunday that customers of AT&T and BellSouth want to join the lawsuit.

In light of this, add Cingular and the other cellular accomplices as well.

Thieves?

Plumbing new depths.
via Altercation.

Zero credibility

You cannot believe a word they say.

Summer of the gator

Here they come:

MIAMI (AP) -- Florida had seen just 17 confirmed fatal alligator attacks in the previous 58 years. In less than a week, there appears to have been three.

Ugh. There appears to be no editors at AP.
UPDATE: The NYTimes bites.

A river in Egypt