FBI Papers Indicate Intelligence Violations; Secret Surveillance Lacked Oversight By Dan Eggen, Washington Post Staff Writer The FBI has conducted clandestine surveillance on some U.S. residents for as long as 18 months at a time without proper paperwork or oversight, according to previously classified documents to be released today. Records turned over as part of a Freedom … [Read more...] about WP: FBI Probes Lacked Oversight

Today's NPR Talk of the Nation (TOTN) - Guests were Former Sen. John Danforth, Rep. Thomas Tancredo (R-CO) and Sen. Joe Lieberman (D-CT) Faith-based initiatives, school vouchers — and now the Harriet Miers nomination. President Bush speaks often about the role of religion in his life, and translates that into public policy. We discuss religion and politics. … [Read more...] about Mixing Politics and Faith in the White House

Breaking news: President Bush nominated today Ben S. Bernanke, his top economic adviser, to replace Alan Greenspan as chairman of the Federal Reserve Board. Calling Mr. Bernanke the "right man to build on the record that Alan Greenspan has established," Mr. Bush emphasized the nominee's "record of excellence as both an academic and policy maker." He spoke at the White House … [Read more...] about BERNANKE TO SUCCEED GREENSPAN

On a lighter (maybe) note, there's been another Sign of the Apocalypse: Cameron Diaz lecturing at Stanford. How exactly does this contribute to academic excellence? … [Read more...] about Professor Cameron Diaz

And prepares to head up the East Coast (click image to expand). For all the latest, see StormTracker's update: Overnight Wilma has strengthened into a major hurricane, despite having a large and ragged eye... Satellite imagery indicates that Wilma has been weakening over land. (Not that this comes as a surprise.) However, Wilma's eye remains intact which could allow for … [Read more...] about Hurricane Wilma smashes through Florida

Taking a short break from the politics of the day: This site (from Australia, the first line of which is, "Welcome to my site about the Energia Heavy Lift Launch Vehicle (HLLV). ) makes a compelling case for the superiority of the Energia/Buran system over the US Space Shuttle. The only improvement I can see would be in putting the Buran shuttle on the top of the stack rather … [Read more...] about Lost opportunities

UPDATED ON TUESDAY MORNING: A Special Report from The Toledo Blade: PART I: Ohio, California take divisive redistricting wars to ballot box Voters in California and Ohio, two states with rich histories of gerrymandering, could bulldoze the national political balance this fall if they decide to write politicians out of the redistricting business... PART II: Complex reforms … [Read more...] about Redistricting Wars

Joe did a great round-up yesterday (see below). For those of you who are interested, I've also got the second part of my Miers Withdrawal Watch at The Reaction. Check it out. I won't repost the whole MWW2, but here's my reaction to George Will's latest critique of the Miers nomination in The Washington Post: I'm hardly a conservative critic of the Miers nomination, but Will … [Read more...] about Miers Withdrawal Watch — Part 2

(Cross-posted at The Reaction.) Thanks to Steve Clemons at The Washington Note, we have this: Jeffrey Goldberg has written a critique in The New Yorker of the Bush White House that equals Ron Suskind's devastating critique of Bush before the last election titled "Without a Doubt." In "Breaking Ranks: What Turned Brent Scowcroft Against the Bush Administration?", Jeffrey … [Read more...] about Brent Scowcroft on George W. Bush

...here at The Moderate Voice, an interesting analysis of the "house effects" titled "Which way do polls lean?" is well worth reading. A second, longer discussion can be found at this link, with the following listed as the conclusions: Specific polls do appear to have consistent biases on specific questions. The amount of lean can exceed the nominal MoE (margin of error), … [Read more...] about Since opinion polls tend to be a topic of discussion…

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist has long harbored aspirations to make the move up from Congress to the White House, but the ongoing SEC investigation into his sale of hundreds of thousands of dollars in stock in a company run by his brother is casting a shadow on these ambitions. Jeffrey H. Birnbaum's front page article in tomorrow's issue of The Washington Post does little … [Read more...] about Frist’s Stock Problems Cast Doubt on Presidential Ambitions

As Republicans battle via the Harriet Miers nomination to define the kind of party they are, the Democrats are seemingly going through an identity crisis as well. Democrats are often blasted by GOPers (and some independents) as a party that seemingly knows more what it doesn't want, versus what it specifically wants. So this post by Oxblog's David Adesnik should be of special … [Read more...] about Trying To Discern What Democrats Believe

This will be a BIG WEEK in the Plamegate scandal: by the end of the week we'll know whether there will be indictments — and in a development that should outrage ALL Americans, some GOPers are already putting out the new line that if it's a "perjury technicality" it somehow doesn't matter. Didn't it seem to matter a LOT — to Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Republicans … [Read more...] about Would Plame Leak Case Indictments Be “Perjury Technicalities?” (UPDATED)

Due to logistics (a 500 mile drive and a packed morning and early afternoon schedule) TMV's own postings will start late today — later in the afternoon. BUT as readers of this site have noticed, our perceptive and independent-minded co-bloggers often have a lot to say. So make SURE you stay tuned. And check back often. ALSO: if there are breaking developments on Harriet … [Read more...] about TMV’s Own Posting Will Be Limited Today BUT…

So what happened with Congress on the gun liability issue? Was it bad? Was it good? Were the issues a bit more complex than at first glance? Here's one take on it..... … [Read more...] about Congress And The Gun Lobby

And some of them rap. … [Read more...] about Bloggers Sometimes Get A Bum Rap

How much has Judith Miller's status now sagged within The New York Times? Read this freebie link to sister Times writer Maureen Dowd (normally, now, you have to pay big bucks to read Ms. Dowd's words of wisdom):An Associated Press story yesterday reported that Judy had coughed up the details of an earlier meeting with Mr. Libby only after prosecutors confronted her with a … [Read more...] about Judith Miller: Quit Your Day Job

Question: Have they no shame?Five wanted terror suspects have been arrested in overnight searches conducted by the IDF in a village north of Nablus in the early hours of Saturday. In a house where the suspects were hiding 10 Kg (about 22 pounds) of explosives were found. An extensive search of the house revealed that the wife of one of the suspects had hidden a hand-grenade … [Read more...] about This Baby’s Diapers Were REALLY Loaded

Amid apparent rumors and seeming trial balloons that the White House is looking for a way to withdraw the nomination of Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court, the political equivalent of the La Brea tarpits continues to ensnarl the Bush administration. For instance, this Knight-Ridder story alleging Texas just happened to overpay Miers' family for a land sale is not going to … [Read more...] about Miers Morass Continues Amid Withdrawal Rumors And Trial Balloons

Just under a month ago, word leaked out of the bowels of the bureacracy that former FEMA chief Mike Brown would temporarily continue to receive a salary from the federal government despite having resigned. But an item in the 30th graf of a Los Angeles Times article by Mary Curtius raises some questions as to just how temporary Brown's payments are.Brown is still on FEMA's … [Read more...] about FEMA Extends Brown’s Contract