Lots of people are wondering why the Bush, if that’s his real name, administration continued to focus on rogue states, such as Iraq, in the wake of 911, and why they continue to press forward on missile defense systems that won’t work even if they work. Lest we forget …

Intercontinental Ballistic Terrorists: The Real Threat?
By [...]

Most of the work done in Congress is the product of aides to the senators and representatives and aides to the committees populated by our elected officials. (I’m leaving lobbyists out of the equation for the moment, but they do a lot of work too).
It’s the committee staff and the legislative aides who iron out [...]

The White House just declassified and released a national security directive from president Bush, if that’s his real name, regarding plans to plan attacks against the Taliban and al Qaeda.
I’m not sure what’s up with this, as previous reports indicated that an actual plan for military action was on the president’s desk by 911, [...]

This appears to be a somewhat murkier version of the administration’s theory of relative secrecy, but the 911 commission is asking the White House why it has held back 75% of the Clinton administration documents that Clinton authorized for release to the commission.
The commission investigating the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks says it wants to [...]

AP ran an article yesterday describing a Government Accounting Office report on the percentage of US and foreign-owned corporations in the US paying no taxes between 1996 and 2000.
WASHINGTON (AP)–Most American and foreign corporations operating in the United States paid no income tax between 1996 and 2000, government auditors said Friday.
Using data collected by [...]

Nancy Pelosi says what a great many people are thinking:
WASHINGTON – House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi says it’s baffling and embarrassing that President Bush is appearing before the Sept. 11 commission with Vice President Dick Cheney at his side instead of by himself.
“I think it speaks to the lack of confidence that the administration has [...]

Stunned by implications that it isn’t cooperating fully with the 911 commission it has fought tooth and nail for the past six months, the White House announced last night that it’ll more or less let the commission see the 75% of Clinton-era documents the commission had requested but not been provided. White House spokesman Scott [...]

I read two or three articles about the surge in employment during March and not a one of them, including this 36-paragraph piece in the New York Times, mentioned that the gain was primarily in part-time and temporary positions. For that, I had to go to the San Diego Union-Tribune, and I wouldn’t even have [...]

According to the Guardian, which seems to know a heck of a lot about a massive Vanity Fair article due to hit the stands in a few days, Tony Blair and George Bush, if that’s his real name, pretty much agreed over dinner nine days after 911 to oust Saddam once Afghanistan was cleansed of [...]

here.

Once you learn how, you never forget.
NAJAF, Iraq (Reuters) – Spanish-led coalition troops in the southern Iraqi city of Najaf fired on Iraqi protesters, wounding about 40 of them, witnesses said on Sunday.
A Reuters photographer at the scene said troops fired from several directions and several of the wounded were seriously hurt, prompting clashes between [...]

If not now, when?
The Brazilian government has refused to allow U.N. nuclear inspectors to examine a facility for enriching uranium under construction near Rio de Janeiro, according to Brazilian officials and diplomats in Vienna, home of the International Atomic Energy Agency.
The IAEA and Brazil are at an impasse over the inspections, the diplomats said. Brazil [...]

It’s as though there’s a vacuum in Iraq and particles just collide now and then. Our press is so good at inventing narratives; where are they when there’s one that actually exists and needs relating? There really is a backstory here, and there really are plot points, and there really is conflict, and there [...]

a supporter of the Iraq invasion, to lay out the conditions under which he might change his mind about the worthiness of it all. Via Atrios via Billmon via Unfair Witness, this news:
US Apache helicopters sprayed fire on the private army of radical Shi’ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr during fierce battles today in the western Baghdad [...]

I really don’t understand why Bush* keeps repeating this and the press keeps reporting it.
CHARLOTTE, North Carolina (CNN) — President Bush on Monday said he looks forward to “sharing information” with the independent commission investigating the September 11, 2001, attacks and stressed that his administration had no indication hijackers would seize and deliberately crash four [...]

The LA Times gets five, the NY Times one, the Wall Street Journal two (neither for business reporting) and the Toledo Blade got the investigative prize for its series on Tiger Force war crimes in Vietnam. The Washington Post’s Anthony Shadid copped the international reporting award.
The awards weren’t yet posted on the [...]

An AP article in the Atlanta Constitution-Journal reports on a poll conducted during the last three weeks of February. The headline, which is actually AP’s and not AJC’s, reads:
Poll: Most Iraq Shia Arabs Oppose Attacks
Which is probably still true, but the lede goes on to say that “Shia Arabs in Iraq generally do not support [...]

It’s AP Day here at the ranch. Hear’s the lede from an AP article headlined, “ACLU to Sue Government Over No-Fly List:”
WASHINGTON — The American Civil Liberties Union is using a retired minister, college student and a member of the military to challenge the government’s “no-fly” list of people believed to be the greatest threats [...]

From the mini-news conference today …
Q Mr. President, in regard to the June 30th deadline, is there a chance that that would be moved back?
THE PRESIDENT: No, the intention is to make sure the deadline remains the same. I believe we can transfer authority by June 30th. We’re working toward that day. We’re, obviously, [...]

This repeats most of an earlier post but with more stuff.
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Yes, ladies and gentlemen, it’s official. According to president Bush*, we’ve handed US policy in Iraq over to the UN. Can you say, “New World Order?”
From the mini-news conference today …
Q Mr. President, in regard to the June 30th deadline, is there a chance [...]

That’s the headline from this Agence France Presse article.
We’re mulling.

Zalmay Khalilzad is the former US envoy and now US ambassador to Afghanistan. Yesterday he more or less explicitly threatened a US invasion of Pakistan’s border regions if the country didn’t straighten up and fly right. As one might expect, the Pakistanis weren’t particularly pleased.
Pakistan’s information minister, Sheikh Rashid Ahmed, said up to 50 soldiers [...]

Looks like Ralph’s support this year may be a bit soft.
Political observers had expected Nader would easily draw 1,000 supporters at a Monday evening convention organized for the purpose of making Oregon the first state where Nader would qualify for the 2004 ballot.
Only 741 people showed up to sign the petitions – about 300 short [...]

Shocking.
Republican leaders in Washington say they’re committed to reducing the federal budget deficit and will cut it in half, but an analysis suggests their plans would actually make the deficit bigger than if Congress and the White House simply did nothing.
The White House and Republican-controlled House of Representatives and Senate have offered budget proposals [...]

Bookmark it.

Maybe this story got buried because it came out on April 1. I hadn’t heard a word about it.
A lawsuit filed jointly by Judicial Watch and the Sierra Club got a significant lift last Wednesday when a federal judge ordered several government agencies to turn over documents associated with Dick Cheney’s energy task force. The [...]

After several days of maintaining disciplined radio silence, the Bush*Blog finally acknowledged today, through the medium of Bill Safire’s New York Times column, that an apparently bloodless two-front insurgency has broken out in Iraq.
Safire’s confidence remains unaffected by his near-perfect record of off-base predictions, which serves liberals well too. When the Bush*Blog says, “New York [...]

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Al-Sadr fighters battled American troops in the town of Baqouba, northeast of Baghdad, hitting a U.S. helicopter with small arms fire. The OH-58 Kiowa chopper was damaged and forced to land, but the two crewmembers were not harmed.
And Shiite gunmen drove Ukrainian forces out of the southern city of Kut — raising concerns over the [...]

Islam Online hasn’t in my experience been the most reliable of Middle Eastern news sources, so I don’t really know how much weight to give this article suggesting that some militant Sunnis are willing to align themselves with al-Sadr’s militia. It may just be a case of mutual cheerleading.
Al-Jajeera Monday quoted “resistance fighters” in Fallujah [...]

via Atrios … this is bizarre.
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*if that’s his real name
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edited for accuracy: “Brown People” was originally “Negroes”