The Chicago Tribune reports more turbulance for Air America Radio, now in its fifth week on the air:

In yet another sign of trouble for Air America Radio, the liberal talk network's co-founder and chairman, Evan Cohen, resigned Thursday along with his investment partner and vice chairman, Rex Sorensen. The company also failed to make its scheduled payroll Wednesday, leaving its staff of roughly 100 writers and producers unpaid until Thursday.

We're on a wild ride," said Jon Sinton, the network's president, acknowledging that Air America has suffered "the typical bumps and bruises faced by any start-up." "But the bottom line," he said, "is that we are on the air to stay."

From Yale Law Prof Jack Balkin at Balkanization:

The Administration, and particularly Defense Secretary Rumsfeld, have been cavalier about American obligations under international law, including the Geneva Convention. International law and transparency, we are told, are unnecessary because, unlike all of the other countries in the world, we are Americans, and we naturally believe in human rights and the rule of law. We need no special incentives to be good. But if history teaches us anything, it is that when governments, no matter how well they think of themselves, decide to free themselves from constraints, they become unconstrained, and when they refuse to make themselves accountable, they abuse their power.

The only thing that has been lacking until now has been the proof of what everyone should already have known: that unchecked power leads to hubris, hubris leads to corruption, and corruption leads to violations of human rights.

Americans are proud of their devotion to democracy, human rights, and the rule of law. But these cannot exist without institutional preconditions: they cannot exist if government officials insist on complete secrecy, mock international covenants, and refuse to allow their actions to be tested and constrained by law. This Administration wanted secrecy. It wanted to be free of legal constraint. It wanted to do whatever it wanted whenever it wanted without ever having to be called to account for it. Now it is reaping what it has sown.

[link via Atrios]

Wonkette makes us laugh every day.

You can ask the White House anything, and sometimes they answer:

Q: Tom from Camano Island, WA:
How could this Country who is supposed to represent all that is right in the World allow the treatment of prisoners to happen as reported in our newspapers today? Swift and sure action must be taken to correct this situation (if true).

A: Dr. Condoleezza Rice, National Security Advisor:
. . . Those pictures were awful because America -- American men and women in uniform, active and reserve, are serving in Iraq at great sacrifice. People are losing their lives. We came there to help to liberate the people of Iraq. We came there to build schools, and to build clinics, and we want very much that the images of Americans should be the images of helping the Iraqi people.

You hear that? Someone screwed up and released the wrong images. It's like during the civil rights movement. The protesters kept emphasizing the lynchings and the angry mobs; they never showed photos of the terrific restrooms and water fountains the white folks so thoughtfully provided. You can see how people got the wrong idea.

White House Interactive [WhiteHouse.gov]

Wonkette rules DC.

Via Media Matters, this comes from the she-pundit with long blond hair (really, who else could have said it?)

I think the other point that no one is making about the abuse photos is just the disproportionate number of women involved, including a girl general running the entire operation.I mean, this is lesson, you know, one million and 47 on why women shouldn't be in the military. In addition to not being able to carry even a medium-sized backpack, women are too vicious. [FOX News Channel, Hannity & Colmes, May 5]

[For newer TL readers, we try not to use her name so as not to contribute to a rise in her google popularity. Please just use her initials in comments]

Two prison guards at Guantamo have been disciplined for abuse . The offenses don't sound as bad as those committed by the soldiers in Iraq, but then again, we have no pictures from Guantanamo, only information the military decides to release.

This is a strange story. Portland lawyer Brandon Mayfield has been arrested on a material witness warrant because his fingerprints were on "materials related to the Madrid bombings." When we first read the article, we thought it said his fingerprints were on the bomb-making materials, as in materials used to make the bomb. It doesn't say that. It says "material related to the bomb." That could be anything from letters, to books, to internet articles. Mayfield's wife says he has never been to Spain.

In another twist, the article says Mayfield once represented one of the Portland terror defendants in a custody case. But authorities could find no links between Mayfield and any of the other Portland defendants.

Mayfield, a native of Oregon, converted to Islam in 1989. He served as an Officer in the U.S. Army.

Manish of Damn Foreigner: May 2004 Archives discusses what the U.S. should do to clean itself up after the Iraqi prisoner abuse --after the obvious steps of cleaning up the prisons and investigating and prosecuting the wrongdoers:

Get out of the business of incarcerating Arabs and Muslims. Any perceived benefit from taking certain people off the streets is easily negated by the pictures that we saw which will inflame those on the outside.This includes a few things..

First Gitmo has to go. Either charge people or release them. We are supposed to be a shining example of freedom and democracy, this doesn't help. The possibility that something like the photos of Abu Ghraib getting out of Gitmo also exists. And quite frankly, lets do this before the Supreme Court makes a decision on this case. Next, we have to release people in Iraq who haven't been charged with a crime. Holding people because we think they might do something bad is simply wrong and un-American. It violates constitutionally protected freedoms that we should be spreading, not suppressing at every chance.

Stakeholder, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee's weblog, is circulating this petition to bloggers for the removal of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

Help us spread the word and garner a response that will overwhelm the administration and knock them on their heels. With your reach and capability for rapid response, you are in an invaluable position to help us achieve this. It is also an opportunity to demonstrate the power of the blogosphere as an active and engaged community to the Democratic establishment both here and throughout the Hill, and to help cement a strong relationship of mutual respect.

Move-On adds:

Please call President Bush now, and urge him to fire Rumsfeld. Bush has already taken the unusual step of publicly disclosing a reprimand of Rumsfeld. But he's got to go further, and dismiss him.

White House comment line 202-456-1111 or 202-456-1112

Please also call your Senators and Representative and let them know it's time for Rumsfeld to go. Then go here and let MoveOn know you've done so.

Go spread the word.

With the President of Jordan at his side, President Bush issued an apology for U.S. soldiers' abuse of Iraqi prisoners. John Kerry responds:

As president, I will not be the last to know what is going on in my command," Kerry said. "I will demand accountability for those who serve and I will take responsibility for their actions. And I will do everything that I can in my power to repair the damage that this has caused to America to our standing in the world and to the ideals for which we stand."

Kerry also called for Rumsfeld to resign:

It's the way it was handled. The lack of information to the Congress, the lack of information to the country, not managing it, not dealing with it, recognizing it as an issue. But look this is, this is the frosting," Kerry said. "I think Iraq and the miscalculation and the overextension of the armed forces and the entire way in which they rushed the nation to war under these assumptions that he was making - which were incorrect - is a huge, historic miscalculation and I thought he should have resigned then."

Bush says Rumsfeld will remain in his cabinet. Just another reason to Boot Bush. Give today.

Reuters reports the Arab media reacts to Bush's statements on Arab tv yesterday by saying " too little, too late."

We were excited yesterday to receive an invitation to apply for press credentials to cover the Democratic National Convention in Boston this summer. We submitted our application immediately to the DNCC and the Periodical Press Galleries. Today, were received an e-mail from the Press Galleries turning us down. Our offense? We lobby/tesify to Congress on proposed and existing legislation. True enough. Here's the rule:

.... they shall declare that, while a member of the Galleries, they will not .... become engaged or assist, directly or indirectly, in any lobbying, promotion, advertising, or publicity activity intended to influence legislation or any other action of the Congress, nor any matter before any independent agency, or any department or other instrumentality of the Executive branch; and that they will not act as an agent for, or be employed by the Federal, or any State, local or foreign government or representatives thereof; .....

Now our hope lies with the DNCC--unless we can get a cable tv news station, newspaper, online news service or magazine to sponsor us.

Enron wife Lea Fastow has been sentenced to 12 months in jail on her misdemeanor plea. She will get no good time and have to do the full 12 months. Last week, she signed on with the Government as a cooperating witness, as did her husband, former CEO Andrew Fastow, several months before.

Why would she sign on as an informant now? We think it is to enable the Government to file a "Rule 35" motion in a few months seeking a post-sentencing cooperation reduction to get her back to the five months the Government originally agreed to. Clearly, the Judge is not happy with the Prosecution for dismissing six felony counts and allowing Ms. Fastow to plead to a misdemeanor:

Before sentencing her, Hittner lambasted the government for recommending that she be sentenced on a misdemeanor tax charge after originally being charged with six felony counts. "The Department of Justice's behavior might be seen as a blatant manipulation of the federal justice system and is of great concern to this court," he said.