How convenient: Scooter’s day in court gets pushed off until after the midterm congressional elections because one of his lawyers has a “scheduling conflict.” | story UPDATE: New documents shed more light on Libby’s perfidies. | report
Walter Pincus, one of the best-informed national security reporters in the country, offers a video critique of the Senate appearance of the nation’s new spy chief. | video
The “In the Cut” actor and the Pentagon Papers whistle-blower speak out in support of the “World Can’t Wait--Drive Out the Bush Regime” march in Washington on Feb. 4 (podcast available for Ruffalo).
PublicCampaign.org puts out a tip sheet showing how Rep. Boehner, like DeLay, collects money from the industries he regulates, and how both are knee-deep in the “K-Street Project.” | post
Mexican drug cartels have helped make California the largest domestic supplier of pot in the nation. Seventy percent of the plants are growing in state and national parks. zReportage magazine has an eye-opening photo essay and story.
All six Joint Chiefs of Staff write a very rare letter to the editor of the Washington Post, protesting an editorial cartoon by Tom Toles, which they say demeans wounded American soldiers. | story (Broken by AMERICAblog) Well, despite the fact that Toles has a valid satirical point to make about the Pentagon’s overextension of troops in the field, we have to wonder: With the insurgency gaining strength every day, and reconstruction efforts crippled by high-level incompetency, this cartoon is what’s upsetting our nation’s military leadership?
In his first-ever interview with a Western publication, Iran’s foreign minister vows immediate retaliation over a move to refer his nation’s nuclear weapons activities to the United Nations Security Council. | story Well, at least we can count on the support of the newly pro-West Iraqi government to back us up if things get messy next-door. Oh, wait....
The retired U.S. senator, diplomat and Episcopal priest is counting on “nausea” to sour people on evangelical politics. | story To that, we can only say “Amen!”
The “Million Little Pieces” memoirist appears to apologize in an author’s note. But he still tries to push that “subjective truth” crap. Hey James, feelings are subjective; thoughts are subjective; calling a two-hour stay in jail “three months” is objectively BS. story / Frey’s note or publisher’s note (both .pdf files) Also, Warner Bros. may back out of the film version. | story
One day after Bush pledged to reduce Middle East oil imports 75% by 2025, his energy secretary and national economic advisor tell reporters that the president misspoke. Their clarification is a bit confusing. | Read on to figure it out. Regardless, Reuters is reporting that Bush’s energy “plan” (skepticism ours) will not meaningfully reduce our dependence on foreign crude. | story
The Government Accountability Office slams Bush and the Homeland Security chief for inaction and incompetence when the hurricane struck. | story or go straight to the GAO report
Russia’s leader answers mostly tough questions for three and a half hours without the aid of notes or alcohol--a new personal record. | story Of interest: He doesn’t regard Hamas as a terrorist organization and won’t support cutting off its funding.
The famed novelist, playwright and social activist continues his 30-year-old tradition of delivering his own State of the Union address. | streaming media and transcript at Democracy Now!
In an exclusive Truthdig podcast, Rep. Dennis Kucinich swings away at the president. Excerpt: “[Bush] hasn’t gotten the message that all his underpinnings of the war have been knocked out. They’re standing totally on lies.” | podcast and transcript
“Brokeback Mountain” may be topping the Oscar charts, but its success has just as much to say about America’s homophobic tendencies as it does our homophilic ones. Check back Wednesday for a major new essay on that topic by Truthdig’s Larry Gross, a pioneer in the field of gay and lesbian studies.
The American College of Physicians says that the business of administering routine physicals and treating minor problems could fall apart without immediate reforms. | story
Both Republicans and Democrats are canceling meetings with lobbyists in the wake of the Abramoff scandal. | story Pardon our cynicism, but as long as lobbyists have money to dole out, lawmakers will find a way to the trough. Any lobbying-reform legislation that results from this scandal will be rendered moot as quickly as you can say “McCain-Feingold.”
Jill Caroll, 28, appears pleading and weeping in a newly released tape. | story Truthdig says: Al Jazeera won’t let us hear Carroll’s voice because it would be too “upsetting” to viewers. CNN CNN’s “The Situation Room” won’t even show a clip. What exactly is going on here? Why not let us, the viewers, decide what’s too “upsetting”? How is this any different from Bush’s censorship of coffins returning home from Iraq? We’ve watched jetliners packed with innocents crash into our Twin Towers. We’ve watched Iraqi civilians bombed in real time by our own forces. Since when did we become unable to judge for ourselves what we need to see to make sense of the world around us?
Two years ago, the attorney general dismissed questions about warrantless spying as “hypothetical.” In fact, the program was already in place. | story Sorry, but what’s the difference again between “intentionally misleading” and “lying”?
The Senate confirms Alito as the nation’s 110th Supreme Court justice after the hastily conceived filibuster attempt of Sens. Kerry and Kennedy. | story Buzzflash: “There is no ‘center’ support for Alito’s actual positions.... There’s just support for an image the Republicans created...of a harmless guy with a wife driven to tears.” | editorial
New commander plans to emphasize improving Iraqis’ quality of life, rather than fighting insurgents. | story Presidential advisor Karen Hughes’ disastrous “listening tour” across the region last year proved that this is a tough sell, to put it mildly.
A Brown University professor writes: “Every aspect of Iran’s current nuclear development was approved and encouraged by Washington in the 1970s.” | column
The new edition of a book by a London University professor claims that the prime minister was prepared to join the war even before the second U.N. resolution in January 2003. | story We’re shocked, SHOCKED to learn that the U.N. gambit was apparently a ruse.
Bailout or Bust: How to Save the Big Three From Themselves
