TW3

Anyone out there old enough to remember TW3? That Was The Week That Was? David Frost hosted; he's now with Al Jazeera, interestingly enough.

As promised, a list of some good in-depth stories that have either gone under-reported in the headlines, or just flat-out un-reported.

NSA EAVESDROPPING
Doncha just love that the media is using this term and not buckling to the Rovian euphemism of “terrorist surveillance”? Without question, the best in depth coverage of the issues regarding the laws, the actions, and especially the administration’s arguments, comes from Glenn Greenwald. It’s worth the time to read through his unassailable points, as they might be your only comfort in the face of this chilling reality I thought I heard Gonzo alluding to (by avoiding it) in the Senate hearings. At least a couple of FISA judges objected, but we should not be surprised, given the old TIA intentions.

McCAIN HEARTS OBAMA…NOT!
No doubt you were immediately numb to this whole idiotic mess, but it’s a real curiosity as to just why Johnny boy would bother to pull such a bully move. To get the unflappable Obama flapped? To diminish a top contender for the Democratic VP slot in ’08? To impress W? Who knows? But soon enough it was revealed that our good bud, Joe Lieberman, was the only other Dem in the room for the meeting, so bets were flying as to how long it would be before the Joker stabbed his Party colleague in the back. To get the real flavor of how weird this whole thing was, first see just how big an ass McCain made of himself, and then see the Joker kiss it.

THE BLUDGET
It’s truly impossible to believe the extent to which the WH hutzpah leaps beyond credibility with their new budget. The entire document is so in-your-face, it’s hard to take it seriously. But of course, we all know better. Still, humor might be the best curative, at least in the initial stages, and no one does that better than Molly.

LEAKGATE
Ok, I hate the –gate thing, too. But there are just too many scandals; one needs shorthand. A couple of nice little plums came in this week on this particular pudding. One, reporter John Dickerson gives us some insight into just how the WH set up the leak; bunch of cagey bastards, they are. And two, Murray Waas points out Cheney's role in the conspiracy.

…AND IN OTHER SCANDALS
In a laughable move to negate any punishment for Hammer of the House, Tom DeLay managed to finagle his way into two crucial committees, House Appropriations (where he’ll have control of money going to NASA in his district) and oversight of the Justice Department, which is of course investigating Abramoff, who insists via emails that Bush must recall their many meetings, and whose investigation now involves the WH since they’re refusing to give up documents.

GOOD NEWS?
It’s all relative, of course. But our hero John Conyers made yet another plea for a Congressional investigation into the many scandals surrounding Iraq, the indefatigable Brad Friedman reports on the downsizing of Diebold, and Charlie Cook looks at numbers that show the Dems could have a shot at the House this fall.

FINALLY, THE NATIONAL GUARD
Funny, but just yesterday I have been wondering whatever happened to those CBS stories on Bush's AWOL status, and this morning Amy Goodman interviewed Mary Mapes, who lost her job at CBS over that fiasco. The interview is in two parts, so the rest will air tomorrow, 8 AM EST.

Democracy Now deserves a plug here. Just the BEST TV/Radio news show going, bar none. Great archives, too, and excellent website for the streaming. And if you're interested, you might want to look into requesting your local public access channel put it on their schedule. I'll have a piece on public access TV (speaking of McCain) next week.

dr. elsewhere