LIBERADIO(!)

“When it was first reported soon after George Bush nominated John Roberts for the Supreme Court that, in November 2000, with the presidential vote in Florida up for grabs, Robert had flown to that state on his own dollar to “volunteer advice” to its governor — and presidential brother — Jeb Bush, I just assumed that howls of outrage would follow from the Democratic camp and that this nominee’s hopes would sink beneath the horizon.” Read more…

From ContactMusic: Simpson shellshocked: Jessica Simpson is speaking out about the shocking conditions she witnessed in Iraq earlier this year, while producing an ABC variety special with her husband, Nick Lachey. Though crews filmed some “harrowing footage” and “controversial moments,” the edited version of the ABC show retained little evidence of the harsh reality facing Iraqi citizens and soldiers. What is Simpson’s response to the network’s whitewashing? “It’s unbelievable. They didn’t show a lot of what really went on with the enemy attacks and the shelling. Somehow the tapes got mysteriously misplaced.” Simpson is convinced seeing the missing tapes would do the American public some good. “[Witnessing that] put everything in perspective for me. It really did teach me the definition of sacrifice. I can’t even fathom being out there right now. I was ready to come home.”

You GO, girl! But between this and your sinful “Boots are Made for Walking” video, your career is over. Hey fellas, when do we start burning Jessica Simpson CD’s?

Prosecutor In CIA Leak Case Casting A Wide Net (Washington Post) – “…special prosecutor Patrick J. Fitzgerald has asked not only about how CIA operative Valerie Plame’s name was leaked but also how the administration went about shifting responsibility from the White House to the CIA for having included 16 words in the 2003 State of the Union address about Iraqi efforts to acquire uranium from Africa, an assertion that was later disputed.” Read more…

$1.5 BILLION GIVEAWAY Secretly Slipped into Energy Bill, Waxman Says – In a letter to Speaker Denny Hastert, Rep. Harry Waxman writes that after the energy legislation was closed to further amendment in the recently concluded conference, a $1.5 billion provision benefiting oil and gas companies, Halliburton, and Sugar Land, Texas, was mysteriously inserted in the text. Read more…

New Evidence Links Gitmo, Abu Ghraib Torture Tactics (Washington Post) – Military interrogators at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq learned about the use of military working dogs to intimidate detainees from a team of interrogators dispatched from the U.S. detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, according to court testimony yesterday. Read more…

House Republicans are cooking up a bill to expand opportunities in higher education — for student loan companies. (TomPaine.com) – Last week, the House Education Committee passed a new version of the Higher Education Act, which sets the rules for college financial aid. The committee also passed up an opportunity to give students struggling to pay for college a helping hand. Read more…

Today’s Tennessean reports that Tennessee “has a higher-than-average number of children who grow up in single-parent homes and spend their teen years not working or attending school.” This information (based on a report card from the non-profit organization, Kid’s Count) illustrates the mistake we made in earmarking lottery funds for college scholarships. Only when Pre-K, Primary & Secondary schools are palaces and GOOD teachers are paid six-figure salaries (merit-based performance evaluation is a must but should include an appeals process), should we begin funding college scholarships.

As part of his platform for next’s year election, Harold Ford is touting a new national education policy based on the idea that the “best long-term predictor of student achievement is the quality of education the kid gets from birth to five.” It’s something to keep an eye on.

House Republicans are cooking up a bill to expand opportunities in higher education — for student loan companies (TomPaine.com) – Last week, the House Education Committee passed a new version of the Higher Education Act, which sets the rules for college financial aid. The committee also passed up an opportunity to give students struggling to pay for college a helping hand. Read more…

U.S. officials have decided to “retool” the slogan used to sell their war machine to the American people. Recent poll numbers show that support for GWB’s illegal war is on the wane so what’s a government to do? Repackage it!

So in the blink of an eye the “war on terror” becomes “a global struggle against violent extremism.”

“We need to dispute both the gloomy vision and offer a positive alternative,” offers Steven J. Hadley, the national security adviser.

“We must continue to be more expansive than what the public is understandably focused on now: the military actions in Afghanistan and Iraq,” says Lawrence Di Rita, spokesman for Donald Rumsfeld.

In other words, they need to change their marketing strategy.

And, although Gen. Richard B. Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, gets it right in saying that the fight against “violent extremism ” should be “more diplomatic, more economic, more political than it is military,” with almost 1800 Americans dead it’s a little too late for this kind of reasonable thinking. Anyway, the Bush administration can afford to listen to the voice of reason when it offers ideas that might help their poll numbers. Their self-service knows no bounds.

To listen to the audio version, click here

“We must put to bed the lie that she was not undercover. For starters, if she had not been undercover then the CIA would not have referred the matter to the Justice Department.” Read more…

It didn’t take long for the Republican smear-machine to start in on Mr. Johnson. From Crooks & Liars: The Weekly Standard fired the first shot today. Here’s Larry’s response.

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The Washington Post reports this morning that Supreme Court nominee John G. Roberts Jr.’s name appears in the Federalist Society’s 1997-1998 leadership directory. Previously, Roberts has repeatedly said that he has “no memory” of belonging to the Federalist Society, an influential and extremely conservative legal organization. Read more…

I said it before and I’ll say it again, if we’re not going to get the kind of democracy in Iraq that the neo-cons promised (“free-market, pro-American, Israel-friendly” and equal rights for all Iraqi civilians), and we know that we won’t, then why wait? We should get out now and let the Iraqi government fight their own battle for democracy…or not-a-democracy. Let Iraq’s free-marketplace of ideology sort it out.

John Burns in today’s NY Times makes this point more forcefully, illustrating Iraq’s rapid (as in the last 10 days or so) descent into civil war. He writes, “…American commanders have continued to hint at the possibility of at least an initial reduction of the 140,000 American troops stationed here by next summer, contingent on progress in creating effective Iraqi units. Some senior officers have said privately that there is a chance that the pullback will be ordered regardless of what is happening in the war, and that the rationale will be that Iraq – its politicians and its warriors – will ultimately have to find ways of overcoming their divides on their own.”

“America, these officers seem to be saying, can do only so much, and if Iraqis are hellbent on settling matters violently – at the worst, by civil war – that, in the end, would be their sovereign choice.” More here…

NEW YORK So what is shown on the 87 photographs and four videos from Abu Ghraib prison that the Pentagon, in an eleventh hour move, blocked from release this weekend? One clue…

PRESIDENT BUSH’S new Supreme Court nominee was a historic first after all: the first to be announced on TV dead center in prime time, smack in the cross hairs of “I Want to Be a Hilton.” It was also one of the hastiest court announcements in memory, abruptly sprung a week ahead of the White House’s original timetable. The agenda of this rushed showmanship – to change the subject in Washington – could not have been more naked. But the president would have had to nominate Bill Clinton to change this subject. Read more…