Obama supporters have complained bitterly about Left Blog criticism of Obama being punked by Bush on Iraq. Do you think they are going to complain about David Ignatius taking the same "AP falsehood" and pouring some love on Obama for it?

A glimmer of hope that U.S. politicians haven't all lost their minds was a statement this week by Barack Obama challenging his party's extreme wing. "I think that nobody wants to play chicken with our troops on the ground," he said in an interview with the Associated Press. "I don't think that we will see a majority of the Senate vote to cut off funding at this stage."

Well Obama supporters, any outrage at Ignatius? He reaches the same factual conclusion on the AP story, but likes Obama getting punked. Some of us do not like it. Ignatius thinksa this is a good time for pushback not against Bush but against the Left:

If Obama is in fact ready to challenge his party's most partisan activists, perhaps he is a man who can meet Hamilton's test [of Beltway Broderism BS "Bipartisanship.]

Ignatius is a Beltway Idiot of longstanding. That he thinks these ridiculous things is not new. Is this now Obama's target audience?

Chris Bowers, writing about the stupid blogrolling dispute (easy for me to say right? TalkLeft is linked, thanks to J.), actually stumbles into interesting ground:

What are individual bloggers trying to accomplish? What is the blogosphere in general trying to accomplish? . . . I am not saying I know the answer to those questions. I'm just saying that before anyone is accused of anything, people should explain their motives for blogging, ask others to explain their motives, and then see if those motives intersect.

Explaining motives, disclosure of conflicts, etc., is all important stuff and something the Netroots need to do better, but I am still much more interested, in another part of what Chris writes:

[A]s an activist blogger, I seek ways to help make progressive political machinery more effective.

Does that describe how the "Netroots leadership" generally have functioned on Iraq and the Iraq supplemental funding bill? I think the answer is obviously no. I have written a lot on why I think so but I will remind everyone on the flip.

Things didn't go too well after Karl Rove's appearance at American University in Washington Tuesday night.

Rove was on the campus to talk to the College Republicans, but when he got outside more than a dozen students began throwing things at him and at his car, an American University spokesperson said.

The students then got on the ground and laid down in front of his car as a protest.he students said security officials picked them up and carried them away so Rove could leave.

There were no arrests and police described the protest as "peaceful."

The former FBI agent who is missing in Iran has been identified as Robert Levinson. He also worked for the D.E.A.

Retired from the FBI for over a decade, the agency says he was not working for the Government. A U.S. official says it was unlikely he was working on a political project.

OUT Magazine has named the 50 most powerful gays in America.

#2 is CNN's Anderson Cooper.
#19 is the blogosphere's John Aravosis
#43 is actress Jodie Foster

New York Magazine has the entire list.

FBI and CIA Agents have been interrogating terror suspects in Ethiopian secret jails.

CIA and FBI agents hunting for al-Qaida militants in the Horn of Africa have been interrogating terrorism suspects from 19 countries held at secret prisons in Ethiopia, which is notorious for torture and abuse, according to an investigation by The Associated Press.

Human rights groups, lawyers and several Western diplomats assert hundreds of prisoners, who include women and children, have been transferred secretly and illegally in recent months from Kenya and Somalia to Ethiopia, where they are kept without charge or access to lawyers and families.

The detainees include at least one U.S. citizen and some are from Canada, Sweden and France, according to a list compiled by a Kenyan Muslim rights group and flight manifests obtained by AP.

The U.S. defends the interrogations.

More...

House Judiciary Chair John Conyers and subcommittee Chair Linda Sanchez have written Monica Goodling's lawyer saying they don't think she has a good faith basis for invoking her 5th Amendment privilege against self-incrimination. First off, they say Goodling has to appear and invoke the privilege on a question by question basis.

Then, they write,

The fact that a few Senators and Members of the House have expressed publicly their doubts about the credibility of the Attorney General and the Deputy Attorney General in their representations to Congress about the U.S. Attorneys' termination does not in any way excuse your client from answering questions honestly and to the best of her ability. Of course, we expect (as we are sure you do) your client to tell the truth in any interview or testimony. The alleged concern that she may be prosecuted for perjury by the Department of Justice for fully truthful testimony is not only an unjustified basis for invoking the privilege and without reasonable foundation in this case but also so far as we know an unwarranted aspersion against her employer.

More...

Law Professor Doug Berman at Sentencing Law and Policy and Capital Defense Weekly believe there is a de facto policy underway by Bush and Alberto Gonzales to suspend federal executions. Prof. Berman writes:

Does the Bush Administration or some DOJ officials seriously question the constitutionality of its lethal injection protocol? If it doesn't, why agree to these stays? It is quite puzzling that the same administration and Justice Department that so steadfastly defends its procedures for GITMO detainees is not actively defending its procedures for executing convicted murderers.

This is the way to step up:

The Feingold-Reid Bill helps Congress finally put the brakes on the Administration's failed Iraq strategy, and serves notice to the President in terms he can't ignore. "It sets forth a new direction that will require the Iraqis to take responsibility for their future by mandating the safe, phased redeployment of US combat forces from Iraq, with a hard date for completing that redeployment. It also very responsibly provides for a continued, very limited role for US troops who remain in Iraq -- equip and train Iraqi security forces, carry out limited counter terrorism operations and protect US personnel and infrastructure. I am pleased to join with Senators Feingold and Reid as a co-sponsor on this important legislative initiative. I would urge the President to embrace the new direction set forth in the bill.

Thank you Senator Dodd. Senator Clinton? Senator Obama? And how about some statements of support from Edwards and Richardson?

Senator Russ Feingold reminds us:

The amendment offered by Sen. John McCain on Oct. 15, 1993, would have eliminated funding for operations in Somalia immediately, except for funds for withdrawing troops or for continuing operations if any American POWs/MIAs were not accounted for. The mostly Republican senators who supported the McCain amendment were not disregarding the safety of our troops, or being indifferent to their need for guns, ammunition, food and clothing. They were supporting an appropriate, safe, responsible proposal to use Congress' power of the purse to bring an ill-conceived military mission to a close without in any way harming our troops.

Think the Media will include THAT in its reporting? The point is simple, when the Congress believes a military operation should end, it is well within its rights, indeed, it is its duty, to NOT FUND said military operation. Whether it is Somalia, or Iraq.

On March 23, Stephen Griles, former Deputy Secretary of the Interior during Gale Norton's tenure, pleaded guilty to providing misleading information to Senate investigators about his relationship with Jack Abramoff.

Now, Italia Federici, Griles former girlfriend who "co-founded CREA, a conservative-leaning environmental-advocacy group, in 1997 with Gale Norton, who became secretary of the Interior Department in 2001" has received a target letter.
CREA stands for Council of Republicans for Environmental Advocacy,

“The investigation is focused on the allegedly illegal manner in which you operated the Council of Republicans for Environmental Advocacy,” wrote Stephanie Evans, a trial attorney in the department’s Tax Division.

Griles acknowledged at the time of his plea,

... that because of his romantic relationship with Federici, he “gave Abramoff more credibility as a lobbyist” and “distinguished him from other lobbyists.”

Federici is under investigation for potentially violating five statutes:

More...

Update [2007-4-3 12:44:16 by Big Tent Democrat]: See also Glenn Greenwald on Dictator Rudy, who also believes the President has the power to imprison American citizens without due process. A dangerous lunatic is Giuliani.

Via Matt Yglesias, Rich Lowry describes Rudy Giuliani endorsing dictatorship:

Rudy . . . began to muse about, after a veto, "would the president have the constitutional authority to support them [the troops], anyway?" . . . He seemed to suggest that Bush could fund the Iraq war without Congress providing funding. . . [He] said, since the war had been authorized by Congress, the president has "the inherent authority to support the troops." But he added, "You have to ask a constitutional lawyer." . . . I asked Rudy whether he was saying Bush could veto the supplemental and, in the absence of a deal with Congress, fund the troops in Iraq under his own authority. "If he vetoes it, he's going to have to find a way to support the troops," Rudy said. "They have given him the authorization to fight the war," and "Bush has the power to redirect the money and time to work something out" with Congress. . . .

This is blatantly unconstitutional. It advocates for dictatorship in wartime. It is a great example of what Rudy Giuliani is.