Blogger Josh Marshall discovers that official Republican photographers deleted pictures from their website of the president and the disgraced lobbyist. | post
The Daily DeLay reports that the president of that photographic company is a Bush contributor. | post
Sketchy U.S. operators of “tough love” schools skirt American regulations by operating in other countries. Sorta like sketchy U.S. corporations that skirt American taxes by having mailboxes in other countries. AlterNet’s got the goods.
Pulling this off would be the ultimate hat trick. Republicans reportedly need only one more Democrat on their side to force a vote. | story People for the American Way are supplying a form letter urging key senators to join Kerry in his filibuster.
The high school course on the Bible’s influence on society would be an elective. story It’s such an obvious end run around the Constitution’s Establishment Clause that we’ll hold fire. But check this: The course textbook contains a boxed feature that shows how the Bible was used “to justify and even encourage anti-Semitism.” Wow! A whole boxed feature? We wonder if there’s a footnote about that whole Spanish Inquisition thing….
The White House rejected a 2002 Senate proposal to ease surveillance warrant restrictions, saying such a move would probably be unconstitutional. The Washington Post picks up the story blazed by Glenn Greenwald.
Turning conventional wisdom on its head (see The Earth, flat; Bush, compassionate), a new study shows that Internet tools like e-mail, webcams and instant messaging actually bring people closer together. | story
Former FEMA head Mike Brown stayed on full salary as a consultant in the wake of his disastrous disaster leadership. But now that he’s cashed his checks, he won’t cooperate in the Senate investigation. | story Perhaps he’s too busy mucking out Arabian horse stalls....
With America sticking its guns in the eyes of so many Arabs, is it any wonder that Muslim hard-liners have gained so much popular support? Do we need any further proof of the neocon fallacy of Rumsfeld-style shake-n-bake democracy? | story And with right-wing pretenders lingering over Sharon’s deathbed, have prospects for peace in the Mideast ever looked more distant?
In a radical reversal, the talk show host drops her loyalty to Frey on live television and says he “betrayed millions of readers.” During an interview the author admits fictions and confesses that he “made a mistake.” | story
An audit of American rebuilding projects in Iraq turns up millions of dollars stuffed into footlockers, a U.S. soldier gambling away Iraqi money, and other inspiring tales of the same ilk. | story
Whoa, whoa, whoa, dock those Swift Boats! It’s not a liberal Democratic senator making the charge. It’s a retired Army officer working for the Pentagon. | story
Two real-life characters from James Frey’s “A Million Little Pieces” can’t corroborate details about stories in his disputed memoir. | story
Hey, if you can’t trust a drug addict…
Yahoo’s chief financial officer says she’d be happy just to “maintain our market share.” | story Even though it’s been “Game Over” in the search wars for quite some time, it’s still shocking to hear the No. 2 company be so blatant about it.
Newsweek’s Michael Isikoff confirms it, and he speculates: “Maybe [Abramoff] wants something from somebody at the White House, or he wants someone at the White House not to do something.” | story
Bush said no one “anticipated the breach of the levees.” Well, actually, 48 hours before the storm hit, the Dept. of Homeland Security sent the White House a memo warning exactly of that. | story
A former counselor at James Frey’s rehab clinic told Oprah’s producers three months before the show that the memoir was full of B.S. | story Editor’s note: We feel confident of both the “essential” and actual truths of the above item.
The American interrogator sat on the general’s chest and covered up his mouth—both of which were apparently approved techniques. The defense claimed that the actions did not directly cause the general’s death. | story We can’t help but suspect that much of the Arab world might come to a different conclusion.
The president is now calling it the “Terrorist Surveillance Program.” | story OK, Mr. Bush, but what about the non-terrorists being swept up in your nets? Not that we’re surprised by the new moniker; this is the guy who legalized an increase in air pollution and called it “Clear Skies,” and labeled a tree-slashing program “Healthy Forests.”
Jed Bartlett’s presidency often felt like the one we wished we had in the real Oval Office. | story But the truth is that we stopped watching when creator/writer Aaron Sorkin quit after season four.
Corporate Farmer Calls Upon Sen. Feinstein to Influence Environmental Dispute
