White House officials are telling Fox News that Bush has decided on Condi Rice to replace Colin Powell as Secretary of State.

Update: The Washington Post says the appointment of Rice as Secretary of State is a cementing of the hawkish approach to foreign policy endorsed by Cheney and Rumsfeld.

Our question: If Cheney resigns for health reasons, will Bush appoint Rice as VP?

Two more top level CIA resignations today--in the clandestine unit. Rebellion over Porter Goss taking the reins?

Stephen Kappes, deputy director for operations, and his deputy Michael Sulick submitted their resignations after confrontations with Goss's chief of staff, intelligence sources said. Critics say while Goss as the new spy chief has every right to make changes, he is not communicating his intentions clearly and directly. Instead, he has delegated too much power to his senior advisers who came with him from Capitol Hill.

One of them, Patrick Murray, who is chief of staff to Goss, has faced criticism in the agency for what is seen as an abrasive style and lack of respect for senior officers.

A feud between the Director of Operations and the Director of Intelligence within the agency does not bode well. Why is Bush not able to control this? John McCain, by the way, is backing Goss.

by TChris

Members of the extreme right are fond of labeling judges as "activists" -- at least if the judge refuses to favor the government in criminal cases, the interests of big business in civil cases, or the narrow-minded agenda of the right in civil rights cases. But judges who interpret state and federal constitutions aren't "activists" for doing so -- they're just doing their jobs.

Last year's decision of the Massachusetts Supreme Court to protect gay marriage as a matter of state constitutional law has been so upsetting to the right (none of whom are actually being forced to enter into a gay marriage) that other state judges may fear to exercise the independent judgment that their jobs require.

Some legal observers say the backlash over the Massachusetts court's decision on gay marriage could have a chilling effect on other state courts.

Still, Chief Justice Margaret Marshall makes no apologies -- nor should she.

"I think judges play an important constitutional role, and the label that somebody puts onto that is one that varies from time to time. ... I -- like, I think, 350 other judges -- do the best they can to uphold the constitution, and the statutes and the common law in this commonwealth," she said, "and then we move on to the next case."

Eric Alterman is angry at Gary Hart for giving Eric's book, When President's Lie, which Eric spent ten years writing and researching, a less than favorable review in the New York Times. Here's the letter to the editor exchange, one by Eric, one by Hart, that followed the review.

I hate it when two people I respect have a public tiff. I hope they make up soon.

President Bush has selected Ken Mehlman to head up the RNC. Mehlman was Bush's campaign manager and is a protege of Karl Rove.

There has been speculation in the media that Mehlman, who is 37 and single, is gay. He won't say.

When asked if he was gay last week, Mehlman hung up the phone. Deputy communications director Steve Schmidt, reached by telephone, asserted that Mehlman was not gay but refused to say so on the record.

AmericaBlog asks:

by TChris

Having chased the "insurgents" out of Falluja, the U.S. military dropped two 500-pound bombs on Baquba, where "insurgents attacked a police station and U.S. troops at a traffic circle." Violence has spread to other cities, as well.

Earlier in the day, gunmen stormed the police station in the nearby town of Buhriz using machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades, police said. A gunbattle ensued and four police cars were burned, police said.

Explosions and sporadic gunfire rang out across Mosul on Monday, a day after Iraqi and U.S. troops battled to retake a police station overrun by insurgents. Violence has also spiked in Samarra and Baiji, both Sunni cities north of the capital.

New York Senator Charles Schumer announced today he will not run for Governor in 2006. That leaves the way clear for New York Attorney General Elliott Spitzer to run on the Democratic ticket. Spitzer has long been considered a favorite of Dems for the race.

Schumer will head up the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee through 2006. He also has been given a seat on the Senate's Finance Committee, considered one of the most powerful in Congress.

by TChris

Deborah Trautwine didn't mean to commit a crime when she paid for her purchase at a Pennsylvania Fashion Bug using a $200 bill bearing the picture of President Bush. According to her attorney, Trautwine didn't know that the bill wasn't actual legal tender.

Neither did the clerk, who gave Trautwine $100.58 in change.

The back of the phony bill depicted the White House with several signs erected on the front lawn, including those reading "We Like Broccoli" and "USA Deserves A Tax Cut."

Charges against Trautwine were dropped after she paid for her clothes with real currency.

The Supreme Court today threw out a Texas death sentence in the case of Smith v. Texas, 04-5323. There were two dissenters: Anton Scalia and Clarence Thomas.

The problem in the case was that under Texas law at the time, the jury was not allowed to consider all of the evidence in determining a life or death sentence. The Supreme Court ruled that the jury should have been allowed to consider Smith's learning disability and other mitigating evidence.

Smith argued that jurors weren't allowed to consider evidence including that he was 19 at the time of the Taco Bell robbery, that he had a troubled home life and that he had a low IQ and learning disabilities. A Texas court rejected the claim, saying that wasn't relevant because there was no link between the murder and his diminished capacity.

... "There is no question that a jury might well have considered (Smith's) IQ scores and history of participation in special-education classes as a reason to impose a sentence more lenient than death," the court wrote in Monday's decision

Texas has since modified its statute and now allows for juries to consider such evidence. But, we're told, over 100 prisoners were executed under the old, now unconstitutional statute. [we'll try and find a link to support this.]

Via Cursor, check out these profiles of five new Republican Senators who "hope to make your worst nightmares come true."

• Tom Coburn (OK): Keeping us safe from condoms and the ‘gay agenda’
• Jim DeMint (SC): ‘The Family’ values, homophobia, and tax chicanery
• David Vitter (LA): Putting young men and women in harm’s way
• Richard Burr (NC): Corporate errand boy scoops up PAC money
• John Thune (SD): A simple-minded campaign of flag-waving and heterosexuality

Secretary of State Colin Powell has submitted his resignation to President Bush. So have Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman, Education Secretary Rod Paige and Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham.

Powell is expected to leave when Bush names a successor. He could leave in January. The names under consideration so far: Condi Rice and U.N. Ambassador John Danforth.

Update: Reuters reports Condi Rice is the White House favorite replacement candidate.

Bump and Update: Via Cursor, Christian Parenti in the Nation charges that Bush has made a deal with the Afghan warlords in exchange for their support of Hamid Karzai that allows them to continue trafficking.

**********************

U.S. troops in Afghanistan are about to get new marching orders: Assist law enforcement in fighting heroin trafficking by providing intelligence information and airlift support and increasing border security.

The cost? $700 million, to be taken from other programs. The amount spent in 2004 by the Pentagon and State Department was $123 million.

We wonder, will the troops also be recruited as jail guards for the newly snagged Afghan drug offenders?

At least we're not sending the troops in as drug cops, which is what some members of Congress had pushed for: