According to The Washington Post, "Nearly every committee Republican appeared skeptical of Gonzales's handling of the firings and their aftermath." But yet, "Bush expressed 'full confidence' in Gonzales through a spokeswoman and praised his 'fantastic' service, in hopes of quashing speculation that the attorney general would be pushed out." I wonder if Gonzales will last the weekend?
"Joe Trippi, a Democratic political consultant who ran Howard Dean’s upstart presidential campaign in 2004, said Thursday that he had signed on with John Edwards in the 2008 race."
PA-08: Rep. Patrick Murphy the only Iraq War veteran in Congress. "At 6:12 AM this morning I got an email from Iraq, it was from a former cadet that I got to know, who lost his brother on 9/11. And he said to me, he said, 'sir, this is the first time I've ever written ya, but I want you to know there are legions, legions of junior officers, company commanders in Iraq and Afghanistan and all over this country that are watching you, that are watching this 110th Congress and that are saying thank God somebody is standing up and speaking truth to power.'" Murphy's interim campaign website is www.murphy06.net.
OR-Sen: The Portland Mercury has a write-up on the 2008 Oregon Senate race, The Plot to Take Down Gordon Smith: Democrats Line up to Stage a Blue Coup. The photo illustration is spot-on. The article focuses on Democrat Steve Novick — "the man described by many as one of the state's brightest political minds" and the "first candidate to officially announce". His website is www.novickforsenate.org.
Former Vice President Walter Mondale is set to become an honorary Park Service Ranger.
Bill Kaufmann of The Calgary Sun has a column about Al Gore visiting Calgary. Kaufmann writes, "Al Gore's coming to town — let the character assassination commence. It's a tactic Gore's become accustomed to, employed by increasingly desperate foes at war with reality." Notes "one of Canada's foremost climate scientists, Dr. Andrew Weaver at the University of Victoria," "Al Gore does merely reflect mainstream scientific opinion. Some might almost call his message conservative."
"The U.S. Department of Justice has joined three whistleblower lawsuits alleging that Hewlett-Packard, Sun, and Accenture paid and received kickbacks from IT partners in exchange for preferential treatment on government contracts, the DOJ said Thursday.... Millions of dollars of kickbacks were sought, received, offered and paid."
Yearly Kos: Court documents have been released with four decades of details of Chicago mob hits, "including the slayings of six men accused of robbing the vault of the Mafia's biggest boss." According to The Chicago Tribune, "with less than two months before the "Family Secrets" conspiracy case goes to trial, U.S. District Judge James Zagel ordered a redacted version of a legal document known as a Santiago proffer in the case released Thursday. The document, which provides a partial road map of the government's evidence of a conspiracy that led to at least 18 murders, had been filed under seal in March." And, yes, the Yearly Kos was meant as a joke.
Germany has endorsed the unsealing of a "storehouse of 30 million to 50 million pages" of Nazi concentration camp documents for scholarship. The U.S. Senate adopted a resolution introduced by Senator Joe Biden (D-DE) "urging" the remaining five countries who must agree to their archives opening to do so quickly.
Ted Haggard is moving to Phoenix. He plans to "join the same church that helped fallen televangelist Jim Bakker" too.
Russia Wants a Rail Link to North America "Moscow is promoting a new "megaproject" to link Asia with North America by train, pipeline, and fiber-optic cable across the Bering Strait. But skeptics suspect it may be just a bluff to scare Europe about the future of Russian oil and gas supplies."
The United Nation's Security Council has held its first ever debate on global warming. The debate was initiated by Britain. "Russia did not veto the debate, as it could have, but was not enthusiastic and the United States chose to stress the role that governments should play."
Vintage Sesame Street — Pinball Number Count. The Pointer Sisters' own Sesame Street song. "1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12!" This is a very trippy piece. No wonder I have such a short attention span.