In the wake of a nationwide petition drive by evangelicals, sectarian prayer and other such divisive elements are creeping back into the service. | story
An investigative report by The Independent (of London) concludes that a critical rise in world temperatures is now unavoidable. Comparing notes with leading scientists, the newspaper discovered that we’ve already apparently passed the point of no return. | story
The former CIA official who coordinated America’s intelligence in the Middle East accused the Bush administration of misusing prewar intelligence to hype the Iraq threat. | story This is a big deal: it’s the same unnerving story we heard firsthand from Richard Clarke when he left the White House.
Michael “Heckuva Job” Brown departs from the shameful “we didn’t know” defense regarding the breach of the levees, saying: “For them to claim that we didn’t have awareness of it is just baloney.” story
The decision over whether to republish controversial images of Muhammad has caused intense debates in the editorial board rooms of news organizations across the country. Truthdig offers its readers a primer.
The former president criticizes “political shots” taken at his son by former President Jimmy Carter and the Rev. Joseph Lowery during the Coretta Scott King funeral last week. Bush defends the administration’s domestic spying program, tritely invoking 9/11 as a blanket justification for trampling constitutional freedoms. Story | Listen Interview.
Bush’s spokesman shows a remarkable knack for being able to pounce on new information when it may hurt Democrats, and for being unable to process new information when it may be damaging to the president. | video and transcript
Vice President Cheney’s indicted former top aide, Scooter Libby, has told a grand jury that his “superiors” granted him permission to give secret information to reporters to help bolster the White House’s case for war on Iraq. | story
Leahy, exasperated at Alberto Gonzales’ refusal to answer questions about Bush’s spying program, lets rip a Jon Stewart-quality zinger: “Of course, Mr. Attorney General, I forgot. You can’t answer any questions that might be relevant to this.” | video
America’s former top spy for the Middle East accuses the White House of “cherry-picking information” to justify a decision it had already made to go to war. | story Who wants to bet on how long it will take the CIA to start swift-boating this guy?
Remember when Bush said that he hadn’t heard about the devastating levee failure in New Orleans until the day after the hurricane hit? Well, now it turns out that former FEMA Director Michael “Heckuva Job” Brown had told the White House about the breach the night before. | story
Remember when the neocons boasted that invading Iraq would be good for Israel? The chief of Israel’s domestic security agency, Yuval Diskin, begs to differ. Diskin said in a secretly taped speech that a “strong dictatorship would be preferable to the present ‘chaos’ in Iraq.” So much for making the Middle East more stable.
The president put in the $700-billion proposal without announcement or fanfare. | story Perhaps he thought no one would notice? Maybe he missed the standing ovation Democrats gave the sinking of that scheme during his State of the Union speech? | video
He recommended that the prime minister try to undercut the $6-billion-per-year black market, and to free heroin users from having to commit crimes to buy their drugs. | story Hey, at least it’s more progressive than N.Y. state’s draconian and racist Rockefeller Laws.
ThinkProgress surfaces e-mails from the disgraced lobbyist that reveal a fairly intimate relationship with the president: “The guy saw me in almost a dozen settings, and joked with me about a bunch of things, including details of my kids.” | story Also, The Nation has a great piece on Abramoff’s Evangelical Soldiers (Ralph Reed & Co.)
Jeff Chester at The Nation has an eye-opening report on how big telcos are trying to transform the “free, open and nondiscriminatory Internet of today to a privately run and branded service that would charge a fee for virtually everything we do online.” | story
The new House majority leader is renting a D.C. pad from a veteran lobbyist whose clients have direct stakes in legislation Boehner has co-written. | story So this is the hope of the new scandal-free House of Republicans?
A landmark study has concluded that a low-fat diet does not reduce the risk of getting cancer or heart disease. | story or read the reports Don’t start mainlining lard just yet. The next study is surely just around the corner....
Paul Wolfowitz, one of the architects of the Iraq war, has appointed many apparently unqualified Republican loyalists to high positions at the international agency. “The bank is stewing with discontent.” | story
Unsettling prospects: “If the Jewish state were to annex all of the Jordan Valley, which is dotted with small settlements, it would leave a future Palestinian state on the West Bank entirely surrounded by Israel and without a direct link to neighbouring countries.” | story
The 24-year-old presidential appointee tried to hush up a top climate scientist and add the word “theory” to mentions of the Big Bang. | story Also, he lied about graduating from Texas A&M. | blog
Chevron in the White House
