From Common Dreams
By Johnny Boyd

America has been subjected to more than our fair share of new words in the last few years. Stephen Colbert¹s new word “truthiness” has made waves mainly because he¹s been cannon-balling the kiddie pool to get credit from the American Dialect Society for coining it. Truthiness, according to Colbert, is a devotion to information that you wish were true even if it¹s not ­­ like an evening of viewing Faux News.

My Webster¹s (copyright 1970) doesn¹t mention it as a word. Moreover, while writing this column Microsoft Word redlined it as misspelled. Of course, Microsoft Word is as stupid as Stephen Colbert¹s show which, admittedly, I¹m addicted to. Colbert¹s contribution to the American lexicon might someday prove as popular as “brokeback,” but it won¹t win any Oscars. Heck, he can¹t even get credit from the ADS.

I Googled “truthiness” and found 1,510,000 hits for it. Google is another word no one had heard of just a few years back and for good reason. Barney Google and Snuffy Smith weren¹t that funny and were difficult to relate to unless you¹re from Arkansas.

New words are fun. Old words are better, especially with new meanings. Here are a few.

“Blacklist” as in George W. Bush shouldn¹t appear anywhere that the guest register includes a list of black people. Especially black people whose lives have been devoted to civil rights and improving the state of the world they live in. Actually, he shouldn¹t appear anyplace where the guests aren¹t vetted as lobotomized cheerleaders.

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From The Nation
By John Nichols

Vice President Dick Cheney, who was forced to leave Yale University because his penchant for late-night beer drinking exceeded his devotion to his studies, and who is one of the small number of Americans who can count two drunk driving busts on his driving record, may have been doing more than hunting quail on the day that he shot a Texas lawyer in the face.

Katherine Armstrong, the wealthy Republican lobbyist who is a member member of the politically connected family that owns the ranch where Cheney blasted his hunting partner, acknowledged to a reporter from the NBC investigative unit that alcohol may have been served at a picnic that was served Saturday afternoon on the dude ranch where Cheney shot Harry Whittington.

According to the report, which appeared briefly Tuesday on MSNBC, Armstrong peddled the line that she did not believe that alcohol played a part in the shooting accident. But, she admitted, “There may be a beer or two in there, but remember not everyone in the party was shooting.”

The MSNBC story, which appeared only briefly before the website was scrubbed for reasons not yet explained, has been kept alive by the able web investigators at TheRawStory and other progressive blogs. And so it should be, as the prospect that alcohol may have been involved in the Texas incident takes the story in a whole new direction.

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From SF Chronicle
By Nedra Pickler and Lynn Brezosky

Vice President Dick Cheney on Wednesday accepted full blame for shooting a fellow hunter and defended his decision to not publicly disclose the accident until the following day. He called it “one of the worst days of my life.”

“I’m the guy who pulled the trigger that fired the round that hit Harry,” Cheney told Fox News Channel in his first public comments since the shooting Saturday in south Texas.

Cheney has been under intense political pressure to speak out about the shooting incident, which has become a public relations embarrassment and potential political liability for the White House. Until Wednesday, Cheney had refused to comment on why he withheld information about the shooting, which prolonged the controversy and made him the butt of jokes.

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From Der Speigel Germany
By Charles Hawley

Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia seemed to cede much of its influence in the Middle East to the United States. No longer. Now, Moscow appears eager to present itself as a counterbalance to Washington in the region — with major geopolitical consequences.

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin is hoping to expand Moscow’s influence abroad.
News from the Middle East can be confusing. And that has been especially true recently. One day, we read that Iran is halting all talks concerning its controversial nuclear program. The next day, the Iranians have changed their mind.

One week we read that Hamas has won democratic elections in the Palestinian Authority. The next week, the US, Europe and Israel are refusing to speak with the terrorist group.

But their has been one constant: Russia. And Russian President Vladimir Putin’s attempt to increase his country’s influence in the Middle East.

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From BBC News
By Paul Reynolds

Abu Ghraib has come back to haunt the US government.

The latest pictures from the prison are another disaster for the image of the US presence in Iraq(formally an occupation at the time the photos were probably taken, in 2003).

They could hardly have come out at a worse time, amid the furore over the Danish cartoons and immediately after the emergence of a video showing British troops beating up Iraqi protesters.

The US government is taking refuge in declaring that these are images from some time ago, refer to isolated incidents which have been investigated and which are no longer taking place.

The pictures appear genuine in that some are very similar to the ones upon which convictions have already taken place. Some, though, are even worse and show several dead bodies, one with its heart removed, perhaps after a post-mortem.

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From UPI

A former NSA employee said Tuesday there is another ongoing top-secret surveillance program that might have violated millions of Americans’ Constitutional rights.

Russell D. Tice told the House Government Reform Subcommittee on National Security, Emerging Threats and International Relations he has concerns about a “special access” electronic surveillance program that he characterized as far more wide-ranging than the warrentless wiretapping recently exposed by the New York Times but he is forbidden from discussing the program with Congress.

Tice said he believes it violates the Constitution’s protection against unlawful search and seizures but has no way of sharing the information without breaking classification laws. He is not even allowed to tell the congressional intelligence committees – members or their staff – because they lack high enough clearance.

Neither could he brief the inspector general of the NSA because that office is not cleared to hear the information, he said.

Subcommittee Chairman Rep. Christopher Shays, R-Conn., and Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, said they believe a few members of the Armed Services Committee are cleared for the information, but they said believe their committee and the intelligence committees have jurisdiction to hear the allegations.

Read MoreViolations

From NY Times
By Maureen Dowd

Who did this old guy think he was, coming between Dick Cheney and his helpless prey?

The luckless 78-year-old Texas lawyer, Harry Whittington, is in intensive care after a heart attack, with up to 200 pellets riddling his face and body — one stuck in his heart — from Dick Cheney’s designer Perazzi Brescia shotgun. And still his friend, the vice president, is Swift-BB-ing him.

Private citizens have been enlisted to blame the victim. Maybe poor Mr. Whittington put himself in the wrong place at the wrong time. But he was, after all, behind Vice, not in front of him. And the hunter pulling the trigger is supposed to make sure he has a clear shot. Wouldn’t it be, well, classy for Shooter to express just a bit of contrition and humility?

Instead, the usual sliming has begun, with the Cheney camp trying to protect the vice president by casting a veteran hunter as Elmer Dud.
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From ABC News
Republicans Criticize the Bush Administration’s Policy in the Middle East

By Anne Gearan

Republican senators criticized the Bush administration Wednesday over its policies in Iraq, Iran and the Palestinian territories, as Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s first testimony on Capitol Hill in months exposed her to a hostile grilling from some members of her own party.

“I don’t see, Madame Secretary, how things are getting better. I think they’re getting worse in Iraq, they’re getting worse in Iran,” Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., told Rice as she appeared before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Rice also had a tense exchange with moderate Republican Sen. Lincoln Chafee, R-R.I., over the pace of progress toward Israeli-Palestinian peace and the implications of the Hamas victory in Palestinian legislative elections last month.

“We will continue to insist that the leaders of Hamas must recognize Israel, disarm, reject terrorism and work for lasting peace,” Rice said.

From The Times UK
By Simon Freeman

Five days after accidentally peppering a friend with birdshot, Dick Cheney today finally agreed to break his silence over the hunting mishap which has transfixed America.

Mr Cheney will address the nation in a pre-recorded interview to be broadcast on Fox News at 6pm EST (2300GMT). It will be, according to one senior Republican, his first press conference since 2002.

The Vice President has not spoken publicly about the accident at a south Texas ranch in which Harry Whittington, a 78-year-old Republican judge, was struck in the face neck and chest with birdshot.

At first Mr Whittington appeared to be recovering well, but his health – and the pressure surrounding Mr Cheney – yesterday took a turn for the worse when the victim suffered a minor heart attack, after one of the pellets lodged inside him reached his heart, restricting blood flow.

The interview is an indication of the growing political and public pressure building on Mr Cheney, who is famously reluctant to speak to the media. Although he professes to be untroubled by his own public profile, critics have warned that the controversy is now tarnishing the President.

Scott McClellan, the White House spokesman, yesterday tried unsuccessfully to deflect the simmering row with humour, suggesting that the bright orange school colours of a Texas football team visiting the White House might be confused for hunter’s safety wear.

Today the Press Secretary was playing things straighter. “(The interview) is an opportunity for the Vice President to talk about the questions relating to this issue and also to talk about his concern for his friend,” he announced.

Before Mr Cheney’s interview plans were disclosed, Nancy Pelosi, the highest-ranking Democrat in the House of Representatives, demanded that the he “come clean”.

“We have to break this habit of the administration, of closed government without the openness that is healthy to a democracy,” she said.

A number of President Bush’s fellow Republicans have also privately urged Mr Cheney to break his silence.

“I think Cheney operates in his own world and really doesn’t care what the press and the public think about him because he’s serving the president. But in this case, the strategy is beginning to damage the president,” a prominent Republican in Washington told Reuters on condition of anonymity.

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From LA Times
The vice president becomes a punch line for newspapers, blogs and comedians after he accidentally shoots a hunting companion.

By Matea Gold

Once it seemed clear that Austin, Texas, lawyer Harry Whittington would survive getting accidentally shot by Vice President Dick Cheney, the incident became instant fodder for headline writers and comedians.

The foreign press zeroed in on the shooting as a metaphor for Cheney’s political outlook.

The Herald in Scotland wrote, “Cheney Bags a Lawyer,” while the Sydney Morning Herald headlined its online story “Cheney Hunts Quail and Everyone Else Ducks.”

The blogosphere took its shots as well.

“Dick Cheney Finally Takes a Stand Against Trial Lawyers,” declared the political blog Wonkette.

The public health blog Effect Measure said: “After the incident, the Vice quit for the day, as he’d bagged his limit of rich Republican contributors.”

But it was the late-night comics who seemed like they couldn’t get enough.

“Good news, ladies and gentlemen, we have finally located weapons of mass destruction– . It’s Dick Cheney,” David Letterman said Monday on CBS’ “Late Show.” “We can’t get Bin Laden, but we nailed a 78-year-old attorney.

“The guy who got gunned down — he is a Republican lawyer and a big Republican donor, and fortunately the buckshot was deflected by wads of laundered cash, so he’s fine,” Letterman said.

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