Quick Hits

This is the only way I'm going to catch up here.

• The President will veto the emergency supplemental on Iraq on Mission Accomplished Day. Nice little dig by the Democratic Congress. Bush says he wants to work with Democrats on a new bill, according to the headline of this piece. Here's what that "working with the Democrats" actually means:

Bush said that once he vetoes the bill, he's ready to work with Democrats on a new version that provides funds without strings attached.

Work with me to do everything I want!

• Virginia Governor Tim Kaine closed the loophole that allowed Seung-Hui Cho to buy the guns he used to kill 32 people at Virginia Tech despite mental illness. I think this episode is a testament to the importance of implementing laws and not just making them. Many state gun registries are woefully incomplete and don't coordinate with the national registry.

• Wolfowitz says he's being smeared and won't resign. Gonzales got heckled at his law school reunion and won't resign. There is a certain divorce from reality here.

• Good coverage from the SF Chronicle about bloggers at the CDP convention, except for one blind quote that warned about blogger's incivility and anonymity. The funny part is that it was a BLIND QUOTE warning about bloggers because they're anonymous!

• In addition to Randall Tobias, there was another big-time resignation on Friday that could be even more important:

A senior Justice Department official has resigned after coming under scrutiny in the Department’s expanding investigation of convicted super-lobbyist Jack Abramoff, according to a Justice Department official with knowledge of the case.

Making the situation more awkward for the embattled Department, the official, Robert E. Coughlin II, was deputy chief of staff for the criminal division, which is overseeing the Department’s probe of Abramoff.

He stepped down effective April 6 as investigators in Coughlin’s own division ratcheted up their investigation of lobbyist Kevin Ring, Coughlin’s long-time friend and a key associate of Abramoff.

So Coughlin was working in the division working on the Abramoff investigation, and yet he had to resign for being involved in the Abramoff investigation? The in-breeding in this Administration has reached Royal Family levels.

• Sadly, another one of the resolutions that went down to defeat this weekend was one to stop the construction of Blackwater West, an enormous mercenary training facility, in San Diego County. They didn't get the resolution constructed in time to put it through. Courage Campaign has the best information on this issue.

• If I thought Obama having Steve Westly in his camp, or Richardson having the Jane Harman people, was troubling, Hillary having Mark Penn as her de facto campaign manager is downright disqualifying. This article is a real wake-up call on the philosophy of that campaign.

• We heard staggeringly little about this incident of domestic terrorism. It's disgusting that it's ignored despite being an orchestrated effort to kill people for their beliefs.

A package left at a women’s clinic that performs abortions contained an explosive device capable of inflicting serious injury or death, investigators said today.

“It was in fact an explosive device,” said David Carter, assistant chief of the Austin Police Department. “It was configured in such a way to cause serious bodily injury or death.”

The package was found Wednesday in a parking lot outside the Austin Women’s Health Center, south of downtown Austin.

Nearby Interstate 35 was briefly closed, and a nearby apartment complex was evacuated while a bomb squad detonated the device.

• The New York Times has decided it might not be a good thing for journalism to sit and yuk it up with the same people you have to challenge the next day. Good for them for finally getting it.

• A fully functional version of Noah's Ark has been built by a Dutch creationist. I'm lobbyist to get my dog to be one of the two allowed passage.