Quick Hits

-William Weld gives up in his attempt to become governor of a second state, this time New York. Instead John Faso will earn the right to be slaughtered by Eliot Spitzer.

Since Clinton panty-sniffer Patrick Healy wrote the article, how come no reports on Weld's marriage in this?

-There must be an election coming up if we're getting booga-booga-terror alert reports like this. The sad thing is that the Republican'ts played so much politics with homeland security in 2004 that we can't trust any of this stuff anymore.

-More pushback from the Senate Judiciary Committee over the attempt to criminalize freedom of the press, but it'd be nice, as Peter Daou says, to see the press actually stand up for themselves. They're cowering in the corner like a wounded puppy, and seem to have no integrity, no willingness to "stand up to the rightwing smear machine and condemn the maligning of their patriotism and of their values." I see no stomach for this with the possible exception of Tim Rutten.

-Another milestone for the media: they're now giving out cash rewards to reporters that write the most "talked-about" stories, even if what everybody's talking about is how completely wrong the story is. I guess there's no such thing as bad publicity for the AP. Greg Sargent has much more at his excellent blog, The Horse's Mouth.

- Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is pressing ahead with a referendum that would tacitly acknowledge Israel's right to exist. I'll believe it when I see it, but this would be a giant leap forward. Of course the problem is determining whether or not Abbas has any real power now that Hamas in in charge of the Parliament.

-This just came to my attention:



It's the notes of a DoD staffer on 9/11, made during a conversation with Donald Rumsfeld, obtained through an FOIA request by this guy.

Transcript:

Best info fast
judge whether good enough
Hit S.H@ same time -
Not just UBL

Tasks Jim Haynes to talk w/ PW
for additional support v/v Usis &
connection w/ UBL

[REDACTED (N.R. stands for Not Relevant)]

- Hard to get a good case

- Need to move swiftly -

Near term target needs -
- go massive - sweep it all up
- Things related & not

[ARROW]
Need to do so
to get anything
useful"

Presented without comment. Do you really need to comment on something like this? By the way, that guy being quoted there, Mr. "Sweep it all up," is Still. In. Charge.