BBC NEWS

No one but the BBC is talking about this yet, maybe it's an everyday occurence.

BBC NEWS | Middle East | Israel struck by Lebanese rockets

WaPo Doublethink, amateur edition

What Wittgenstein might have had to say about this:

"Traffic experts say so many drivers avoid rush hour this weekend, that it's the perfect time to go."

Head for Beach at Rush Hour? Might Work

O to be a traffic expert, now that spring is here.

Onions that won't make you cry:

See It Now

Insight

Not exactly sure why this: Insight is on top of Huffpo, but check this out, Laura Bush re Gay Marriage:

"People, I have found, over the country don't want the governor of Massachusetts or the mayor of San Francisco to make the choice for them - the courts of Massachusetts, I should say," the first lady told Fox News. "So I think it deserves debate. I think it's something that people want to talk about."

Isn't she wrong both times, though? Wasn't it was the legislature that debated and enacted whatever version it was of gay marriage that they did?

Also, as far as what Laura seems to learn "over the country," just last week we heard that Laura doesn't believe the polls when they show GWB at 30 percent, because the "people she meets" love George.

Maybe she just needs to meet some new people. What are the odds of that happening in the next 2.5 years?

For those wot enjoy a good larf

Headline of the Day - Wonkette

O, Big Brother, Where Art Thou?

In every AT&T office, apparently. You either think this stuff is important or you don't, so no commentary necessary here: Wired News: Whistle-Blower's Evidence, Uncut

Also on point, Sy Hersh in the New Yorker: See It Now

(Although perhaps on the bright side, maybe the energy of Orwell perpetually spinning in his grave could be harnessed to solve our energy problems.)

Wonkette’s Week in Review: No Standing Eight Count - Wonkette

Wonkette never included us in the 'week in review' before, but they also never made fun of us for it in the headline.

Wonkette’s Week in Review: No Standing Eight Count - Wonkette

(That's it, our crush on Ana Marie is officially ove... oh who are we kidding, no one will buy that.)

Is this funny or sad?

From NEWSMAX (so go wash your hands after,) October of last year:

Was Karl Rove Indicted Too?

The lede: " Yes, a big blow to the Bush White House - but not as big as feared for if Karl Rove had been indicted, the Administration would be today teetering on a total meltdown."

Actually that's prescient. Maybe NEWSMAX isn't as vile as I thought.

ROVE INDICTED?!? THIS IS THE BIG ONE!!!

Holy cow! It's Fitzmas in May! He came in in the middle of the night when no one was looking!

But it's from a source that we aren't 100% sure we can trust! We'll know soon enough whether this guy (J. Leopold, Standy winner and potential new Carl Bernstein/new Jayson Blair,) is Fitzy Claus' best little elf or if we're being punk'd. And guess what? This potentially tremendous news does us the honor of being OUR ONE HUNDREDTH POST!! So it's gotta be true, right?

Karl Rove Indicted on Charges of Perjury, Lying to Investigators

(Oh, pretty please.)

Spy Game Dame

Must-read from the WaPo.

Fired Officer Believed CIA Lied to Congress

Recently canned CIA bigwig (Inspector General,) Mary McCarthy is, through her "friends," revealing that she thinks, well, that CIA lied to Congress, as the headline indicates. No point putting pull quotes here, it's all equally important if you care, unimportant if you don't.

The important thing to remember is that this is all tied to Goss/Foggo and Hookergate, which in turn is all tied to the White House's paranoid delusion that the CIA is out to get them. (Yet at the same time, it's not hard to see why they might think that.)

And all too creepily reminiscent, at least in our imagination, of

what we know to have been going on in the embittered, embattled Nixon Oval Office.

The Missing Link Missing the Point

File this under D for "Democratic Response comma Poorly Delivered:"

"The state Democratic chairman, Joe Turnham, said the party became aware of some of Darby's views only days ago and was considering what to do about his candidacy.

"Any type of hatred toward groups of people, especially for political gain, is completely unacceptable in the Alabama Democratic Party," said Turnham. See It Now.

Was the "especially for political gain," part really neccessary? Or Appropriate?

The rest of the story is pretty easy to ignore.

Orwellianalysis

Best dissection we've found today of the canonball-splash NSA story (again, it's not really an NSA story, it's a White House story.)

Consortiumnews.com

(Standing Eight is getting very close to it's hundredth post...)

What does a defunct basketball league have to do with anything?

Bush nominee found unfit, but the surprise is that this finding of unfitness came before the confirmation, for once. If only the ABA had been asked to sign off on Mike Brown, or Porter Goss, or Scott McClellan, or Scooter Libby, or let's face it, GWB himself.

Nominee Rated 'Unqualified' By ABA Panel

NB: "But the White House stood by Wallace. 'We disagree with the ABA and reject their rating,' said Bush spokeswoman Erin E. Healy. 'Mike Wallace is a well-respected attorney with extensive experience in constitutional and commercial law.'"

So when the ABA vote is for Roberts, Alito or even Harriet Meiers, then the White House wants to shout it from the hilltops, but if the vote goes against our guy, then the ABA is a worthless lobby of slimy 'trial lawyers,' is that what we are to understand?

What's the strict legal term for that? Hypocrisy? Pandering? Republicanism as usual?

(And why do they call them 'trial' lawyers, isn't that redundant? Is there some set of 'non-trial' lawyers out there that Republicans approve of?)

That's some catch, that catch-22

The no-nonsense lede says it all: "The government has abruptly ended an inquiry into the warrantless eavesdropping program because the National Security Agency refused to grant Justice Department lawyers the necessary security clearance to probe the matter."

See It Now (via Raw Story)

So, as we predicted in one of our first posts, Chex and Balance are now mere breakfast foods, and no longer a system by which democracies can protect themselves and their citizens. Perhaps we accidentally exported so much democracy that we ran out here at home. Some sort of rationing may be in order. Fear not, you can trust the Bush Administration to oversee such a rationing effort fairly and with your civil liberties well in mind.

We'd say write your congressman to complain, but while you were sleeping congress was done away with and 535 executive-branch androids were installed in their place. So now writing to complain will only get your name put on Santa Bush's naughty list, which of course is maintained by the uninvestigatable NSA. And should you end up on that list a lump of coal will be the least of your worries. Think Gitmo.

We'll ask again: what are they teaching in 8th grade civics classes this year? How do the teachers preach three-branch, checks-and-balances accountability without bursting into tears?

What people who aren't us are thinking

And how for the first time in a long time, more of them agree with us:

The New York Times > Washington > Image > Graphic: Public Perceptions of the President and the Parties

That old noir magic

If any economic analysis can be called "hilarious," then this is the one.

You know how to add, don't you? - Los Angeles Times

Best lines:

1) "That's right," she purred. "I need to know why GDP is up 4.8%, the strongest quarter since 2003, yet real wages are falling." Yeah, I thought, you and everybody else who works for a living.

"Why the interest?" I shot back. She didn't look like a Democrat.

"I wish I could tell you. But I work for some powerful people" — now I knew she wasn't a Democrat — "and they'd be very upset if they even knew I was here."

2) "Why should I?" she said, finally showing her true colors. "Any intervention would just cuff the invisible hand, doing more harm than good." She was Milton Friedman with the body of Scarlett Johansson. I had to get outta there.

Link Sausage

Items of interest from the past 36 hours:

1) Idle speculation about hookergate via Kos (hint: in the absence of the proverbial "dead girl" start looking at/for the ubiquitous "live boys") See It Now

(NB: In general you won't find a lot of hookergate news here, since pointing out Republican hypocrisy at the expense of being hypocritical to ourselves isn't worth it, and we don't find prostitution as morally repugnant as most republicans claim to, just kind of icky. Still it's nice to see them hoisted on a petard of their own moral making.)

2) Although the headline reads "US defends new internet wiretap rules in appeals court," the real story is that the judge literally laughed the US out of court: See It Now. Just one more example of failing to let the headline punishment fit the journalistic crime.

3) One more month where the jobs created fail to keep up with population growth, and yet the White House can't seem to figure out why they get no cred for the booming economy: See It Now. It's the jobless recovery, stupid! The only people feeling Bush's 'economic turnaround' are the investors who already loved him anyway. When Joe Thirty-Six Pack isn't afraid to go look for a job, then you get credit.

4) Miss Molly on the "sleeping giant" (o, "el gigante dormido,") she believes the republicans have awakened. See It Now.

5) GWB goes off script, creates a week's work for his own communications shop: See It Now.

Next Week: "Indict we trust" (?!? Knock wood?)

Alarming News: Workers Getting Paid More

That's Kevin's title over at:

The Washington Monthly

(Check out the David Sirota link at the bottom, too.)

What we're fighting for

Ain't it grand?

UK Gay News - Iraqi Police Execute “Gay” Child in Baghdad

While this story remains unverified in the US press, it has appeared in The Independent, "where more liberal Americans get their news that any native source."

Hungry Hungry Hypo(crisy)

Boy, calling these dweebs on their hypocrisy is still loads of fun, but it's starting to be like shooting fish in a barrel. The prez's firmest answer in years to any question, a solid jigoistic no to the Spanish version of our national anthem, undercut by...his own performance of same at Hispanic campaign stops in 2000.

Think Progress » McClellan Asked About Bush Singing National Anthem In Spanish

If it gets too much easier we might have to thank Bush for making our blogging lives so easy. But then he'll have won our thanks! (He's so devious)

(PS: Someone dared us to use the word 'dweeb' in a post, as part of a larger and dumber conversation about various similar words.)

‘Mission Accomplished’ By The Numbers

Perhaps the sign should have said 'Mission: Impossible.'

‘Mission Accomplished’ By The Numbers

Note that Think Progress cites their sources, by making each category title a link. Lest you think liberals are as brazen as neocons W/R/T pulling numbers out of their asses.