Patriot Act Suppresses News Of Challenge to Patriot Act

How would you feel about a person who thinks it is okay to grab your shirt and use it clean their eyeglasses?

The United States is preparing to significantly raise its estimate of the number of nuclear weapons held by North Korea, from “possibly two” to at least eight.

A damning new report reveals that the Bush administration has quietly removed 25 reports from its Women’s Bureau Web site, deleting or distorting crucial information on issues from pay equity to reproductive healthcare.

More on Kerry, medals, and the GOP attack.

Nader, everyone wants you to quit.

Democrats have seized on the White House’s requirement that the two men talk to the 9/11 commission jointly (rather than separately) as evidence that Cheney is Bush’s ventriloquist, and that after three-plus years on the job, Bush is still not up to the task. The issue of Cheney’s role – shadow president or just a helpmate with unprecedented influence? – has reached almost metaphysical levels of speculation. CSM looks at Cheney.

More on the UN corruption with the oil for food program: Annan on defensive over fraud charges in UN Iraq oil scheme

Wow, interesting work: DNA ‘Computer’ Able to Detect Cancer

Greenspan thinks high oil prices here to stay. Ruh-roh to all you SUV owners.

Lastly, Interest Growing in ‘Security’ Blimps. Uhg.

We got rear ended/bumped on the freeway this morning. Big old brown van gave us a nudge at 65, just before we turned off an exit. The other guy turned the other way, so it is a good thing there does not appear to be any damage. Uhg, what an idiot.

It is increasingly impossible to ignore that this White House disdains research that inconveniences it. Bush dunna like science!

Kerry rejects medals dispute – and hey, someone that was actually there: I watched Kerry throw his war decorations

Why has the Bush administration has engaged in a three-year fight (which reaches the Supreme Court today) to hide the details of a story whose broad outline we already know? The secrecy of the energy task force are “strikingly similar” to those it makes for its right to detain, without trial, anyone it deems an enemy combatant. In both cases, as Ms. Greenhouse puts it, the administration has put forward “a vision of presidential power . . . as far-reaching as any the court has seen.”

College leader “surprised and disappointed” by Cheney’s attacks on John Kerry during a speech that was supposed to be for a major foreign policy address.

AP: 10 U.S. Contractors in Iraq Penalized. “But it’s not the company’s fault if it has a dumb client. I’m not blaming the companies, I’m blaming the government”

Bush endorses Sharon plan – thought the US reputation couldn’t get any worse? Wrong.

The African foundations of New York – The remains of 20,000 African men, women and children have lain beneath the busy streets of New York for 300 years, waiting to tell their stories on the extent of slavery in the city.

Will the US like the smart car?