Phoenix Woman

Oil prices spiked yet again, this time to $126 a barrel, upon the publication of an article from the Murdoch-owned Wall Street Journal that "unnamed senior US officials" say that Scary Evil Guy Hugo Chavez may be out there scarily arming the scary FARC rebels in Colombia, a country whose rulers are just about the only ones left in Latin America that are Bush-aligned fascist thugs. Funny thing: Similarly-scary stories were told back in March, and were summarily debunked by Greg Palast. Ooops.

Last Monday I did a piece on how the AP has joined the local media in the Twin Cities in enabling a certain paid Republican operative and blogger named Michael Brodkorb, treating him as respectfully as they do Matt Drudge, even though (like Drudge) he's known for spewing bogosities. And like the national press, the Twin Cities press isn't as deferent to non-conservative bloggers; the same media that cites Brodkorb by name as an honest and "independent" source seem to suffer memory lapses where the contributions of lefty bloggers are concerned.

It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on his not understanding it. -- Upton Sinclair, on numerous occasions. This could be why it's so difficult to get accurate mainstream reporting on Republican activists nowadays.

Two cities, both touched by disasters of one form or another, seek similar ways to rebirth themselves -- and serve as models of sustainable living.

Awwww. I see that our illustrious governor, Smilin' Tim Pawlenty, has already done a Lieberman and whispered into his would-be running mate's ear, because John Sidney McCain III's doin' the ol' walkback again -- this time with regard to his asinine comments about what he thinks caused the 35W bridge collapse. Just keep diggin', Johnny!

One of the few mainstream journalists whose output is always worth the reading is the Washington Post's Dan Froomkin. And he's just getting better: It wasn't just his wistful words about magic wands that made President Bush's talk about lowering gas prices at his press conference yesterday feel particularly unrealistic.

The primary scheduling battles faced by both the Democrats and Republicans are of long standing. As Kos pointed out the other day, back in 2004 Michigan's Carl Levin tried to cow then-DNC Chair Terry McAuliffe into letting Michigan hold an illegally-early primary, only to be forced to back down by McAuliffe. There is a way to put a stop to the greed and insanity: The American Plan.

The WaPo's Dana Milbank lets us know about a family that wanted the world to see their son, husband and father laid to rest -- but was thwarted by the Pentagon: Lt. Col. Billy Hall, one of the most senior officers to be killed in the Iraq war, was laid to rest yesterday at Arlington National Cemetery. It's hard to escape the conclusion that the Pentagon doesn't want you to know that.

The story so far: Jimmy goes to meet with Hamas, saying that the Bush people didn't object. Condi sez they did. Jimmy sez Condi's lying. Who should we believe? Judging from Condi's track record, it sure as hell ain't her.

One of my best friends was on a flight out of DC the other day. He had a chance to listen in on an interesting conversation between a former Judge Advocate-General and the JAG's two friends; all of them were West Point grads. The reason the JAG is a former JAG is this: That particular JAG was sickened at what has happened to the armed forces in the last few years, especially the last two.