Today’s edition of quick hits.<\/p>\n
* House Democratic Caucus Chairman Rahm Emanuel had a great response to news that the Petraeus\/Crocker report would be written by the White House: “After years of slogans and soundbites Americans deserve an even-handed assessment of conditions in Iraq. Sadly, we will only receive a snapshot from the same people who told us the mission was accomplished and the insurgency was in its last throes. We’ve spent hundreds of billions of dollars and lost thousands of lives in Iraq. An honest report from our generals and diplomats about the status of the war isn’t too much to ask.”<\/p>\n
* TPMM<\/a>: “Here’s something that comes to us via very-alert DailyKos diarist drational. The day after Alberto Gonzales and Andrew Card ran to John Ashcroft’s hospital room to have him overrule acting attorney general James Comey’s determination that the administration’s warrantless surveillance program was illegal, the White House gave a briefing on the super-secret program to none other than Tom DeLay. Practically no members of Congress knew about the surveillance.”<\/p>\n * HuffPost<\/a>: “The man who will oversee the federal government’s investigation into the disaster that has trapped six workers in a Utah coal mine for over a week was twice rejected for his current job by senators concerned about his own safety record when he managed mines in the private sector.”<\/p>\n * WSJ<\/a>: “The U.S.’s top intelligence official has greatly expanded the range of federal and local authorities who can get access to information from the nation’s vast network of spy satellites in the U.S. The decision, made three months ago by Director of National Intelligence Michael McConnell, places for the first time some of the U.S.’s most powerful intelligence-gathering tools at the disposal of domestic security officials. The move was authorized in a May 25 memo sent to Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff asking his department to facilitate access to the spy network on behalf of civilian agencies and law enforcement.”<\/p>\n * Spencer Ackerman<\/a>: “It wasn’t long ago that the White House couldn’t find anyone to become its ‘war czar,’ a brand-new position created in the spring by President Bush to oversee interagency coordination for Iraq and Afghanistan. Now, the war czar has an apparent under-czar<\/i>.”<\/p>\n * If Jim Webb isn’t a “Daily Kos Democrat<\/a>,” I don’t know who is. * Right-wing pundits Charles Krauthammer and Fred Barnes conceded last night on Fox News that the Bush White House doesn’t have a policy agenda<\/a>. Some of us realized that a year ago, but I’m glad they’re acknowledging reality.<\/p>\n * Rick Perlstein reported today<\/a> that the FBI-California Highway Patrol Joint Counter-terrorism Task Force wants to use one of David Horowitz’s hyper-conservative videos, “What Every American Needs to Know About Jihad,” as a training film. That’s really<\/i> not a good idea.<\/p>\n * The recently-passed FISA revisions expire in six months, but Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid wrote letters to the Intelligence and Judiciary Committee chairmen yesterday, explaining that he’d like to see senators reconsider the issue starting as early as September<\/a>.<\/p>\n * USAT<\/a>: “A federal crackdown on corruption involving U.S. contracts in Iraq produced a record number of criminal and administrative cases last month — including the largest bribery case.”<\/p>\n * It’s not enough that far-right media personality John Gibson is an oaf; he also has to be an oaf with a victim’s complex<\/a>: “[On the August 14 broadcast of his Fox News Radio show, John] Gibson claimed that ‘[t]he war on Gibson is real’ and that ‘it is pursued everyday by the people who just can’t abide by what you hear on this radio program.'”<\/p>\n
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\n* Rumsfeld resigned shortly before the election<\/a>, but it wasn’t announced until the day after. If there’s a logic to the White House’s reasoning on this, I don’t see it.<\/p>\n