Quick Round-Up

-We're up to six generals calling for the head of Don Rumsfeld. Larry Johnson says this is the end of the road for Rummy, who will be asking rhetorical questions elsewhere. You know it's getting very near the end when Bush gives you a vote of confidence. Digby puts it in perspective:

It's obvious to me that this call for Rumsfeld's resignation by six generals is about stopping this operation in Iran first and foremost. It is not a coincidence that the first salvo came from Sy Hersh last Sunday.

He recalls that Sy Hersh called the Iran battle over a year ago. (But according to everyone on the right, he always gets it wrong! Who to believe?) He also described the importance of Rumsfeld in the second term, as he would be given basically all of the intelligence controls and given the authority to run whatever covert ops were at his whim. Then we get the report I mentioned about our using a terrorist group in operations inside Iran. It all fits together. This transcript from CNN today suggests very strongly that there's already a secret war in Iran.

- More bad news for Rummy, as a separate report details his personal involvement in authorizing the harsh interrogation tactics that led to Abu Ghraib, particularly one Al Qaeda detainee known as "the 20th hijacker." I'm getting images of Christopher Guest's character in "The Princess Bride."

-Here's some major bullshit. The Republicans are trying to claim, and have made Spanish-language radio ads to this effect, that the Democrats are to blame for the term "felony" appearing in the House bill. Here's what actually happened. Republican Sensenbrenner wrote the bill with clear language making illegal immigrants subject to felony charges. Once the fallout from Latino and immigrant rights groups started, they offered language changing it to a misdemeanor. Democrats in the House didn't support criminal penalties for immigrants or those who help them, so they voted it down. The bill then passed on a party-line vote with the "felony" language still in there. The GOP made their bed on immigration, and now they're trying to sneak their way out of it. Don't let them. This is classic GOP bamboozlement meant to muddy the waters. It's "Abramoff gave to both sides" all over again. Follow the action steps in the above link.