Short takes

I'm already overblogged here today so I'm just going to throw up a few links I'm not going to get to but are worth reading.

Nitpicker, who worked as a press liason, in Afghanistan has a fascinating account of his experiences with Fox News reporters. [via]

Steve Benen makes mincemeat of Fred Barnes' lame defense of the Bush in the attorney purge scandal. This one is hilarious, even by Fred's usual low standards. I especially like this knee slapping quote.

What should Bush have said when Democrats first took after the firings? Something like this: “It’s an outrage that Democrats would attack, solely for political gain, a president’s constitutional authority to name U.S. attorneys and remove them from office. President Clinton removed all 93 federal prosecutors in 1993, as was his right. I have removed 8, none of them for political reasons. That Democrats are now willing to play political games with our criminal justice system is a shame, and I will vigorously oppose their efforts.”

You want to call Barnes and say, um Fred, that's exactly the lie Bush told. The scandal arises from the fact that he's been exposed as a liar.

Capt. Fogg reminds us that Bush has his own little private army at his beck and call that is "loyal only to the highest bidder and restrained by no law or treaty." They call it Blackwater.

In light of the latest chlorine bombs being set off in Iraq, T.A. Frank reminds us again that our own chemical plants are unsecured and the Bush administration refuses to do anthing to secure them. Be sure to click the links on this one.

I join Michael van der Galien in congratulating Capt. Ed on his new gig. I have to admit I had my doubts about Ed's integrity when he had that tete-a-tete with Rove back in 04, but he's since proven himself to still be one of most reasonable conservatives in the Blogosphere. I've put him back on my blogroll.

And finally a plug for my long time commenter Lester, who has engineered a debate on the new Blogtalkradio between "an observant shia muslim and a lamentable right wing blogger." The show will air on Wednesday, 9:30am CST. Should be interesting. Be sure to tune in if you can.