Today’s edition of quick hits.<\/p>\n
* Details are still a little sketchy, but Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts was taken to the hospital<\/a> this afternoon after falling at his summer home in Maine. A spokesperson for the court said the hospital visit was just a “precaution.”<\/p>\n * The O’Hanlon\/Pollack op-ed<\/a> that we talked about earlier is continuing to cause quite a stir. In an interesting twist, the scholars at the Brookings Institution appear to have contradicted the data<\/a> on Iraq produced by — you guessed it — the Brookings Institution. In fact, much of the discouraging data on the war comes from the Brookings Iraq Index, which is overseen by Michael O’Hanlon himself.<\/p>\n * On a related note, Jonathan Schwarz reminds us of this classic Pollack quote<\/a> from 2002: “Saddam has a twenty-eight year pattern of aggression, violence, miscalculation, and purposeful underestimation of the consequences of his actions that should give real pause to anyone…. Even when Saddam does consider a problem at length…his own determination to interpret geopolitical calculations to suit what he wants to believe anyway lead him to construct bizarre scenarios that he convinces himself are highly likely.”<\/p>\n * It hasn’t generated a lot of attention, which is a shame, but BlogHer, a national feminist blogger conference, kicked off today in Chicago. Regrettably, the presidential campaigns are not<\/a> taking the event particularly seriously — only the Edwards and Clinton camps sent representatives to the conference.<\/p>\n * As part of his new-found obsession with the Daily Kos, Bill O’Reilly will reportedly go after the site (and, presumably, Markos) again tonight<\/a>. This time, the Fox News blowhard will apparently show viewers some kind of ugly, photoshopped image that will reportedly “bury” the Kos website. An O’Reilly lackey even emailed Democratic presidential hopefuls, seeing “statements.” Markos added, “O’Reilly now has people contacting Democratic presidential candidates to ask them what they think about random pictures<\/i> posted by random users<\/i> of a website<\/i>? Are we serious?” It’s almost as if O’Reilly wants to be a pathetic joke.<\/p>\n * On a related note, David Neiwert has done some interesting research on hate speech on O’Reilly’s show — from the host<\/a>, not the guests. * On a related note, did Dick Cheney send Gonzales<\/a> into Ashcroft’s hospital room?<\/p>\n * Late last week, Jim Mills, a congressional producer for Fox News, announced<\/a> he is leaving the Republican network for a Republican campaign, joining Fred Thompson’s communications team. Insert joke here.<\/p>\n * As much as I appreciate Sen. Chuck Schumer’s (D-N.Y.) leadership on the Senate Judiciary Committee, he really<\/i> shouldn’t write a book about the importance of taking care of the middle class, and then advocate<\/a> a twisted tax provision that benefits hedge-fund billionaires.<\/p>\n * Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen is helping finance<\/a> a documentary film about the Dover intelligent-design creationism case from last year. Sounds cool.<\/p>\n * Murdoch hasn’t<\/a> quite wrapped up his WSJ purchase yet. (thanks, SKNM)<\/p>\n * Bush’s proposed arms deal with Saudi Arabia isn’t exactly going over well<\/a> on the Hill.<\/p>\n * Iraq’s Interior Ministry is about as chaotic<\/a> as, well, the rest of Iraq.<\/p>\n * On a related note, the NYT has a fascinating piece<\/a> today on Baghdad’s “legal Green Zone,” where even judges and defendants are housed to prevent them from being killed.<\/p>\n
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\n* Anonymous Liberal, who’s been doing some terrific work on Alberto Gonzales and his recent deceptions, has another gem<\/a> on getting additional information on the NSA surveillance programs by pursuing perjury charges.<\/p>\n