The White House released some military pay records for President Bush today, claiming they support his contention that he fully completed his military duty. Do they? Calpundit is all over this story.

Update: Here's an AP timeline of Bush's military service

Update: Reuters reports Bush's military record shows gaps.

Martha Stewart's assistant today testified Martha altered her phone log.

Martha Stewart altered a log of a phone message left by her stockbroker about ImClone Systems stock, then ordered her assistant to change it back, the assistant testified Tuesday.Stewart sat down at the assistant's desk and changed the message from ''Peter Bacanovic thinks ImClone is going to start trading downward'' to ''Peter Bacanovic re ImClone,'' assistant Ann Armstrong testified.

The message referred to a call placed by Bacanovic, Stewart's broker, just before Stewart sold 3,928 shares of ImClone on Dec. 27, 2001. Armstrong said Stewart altered the message on Jan. 31, 2002, just days before she was first interviewed by investigators about the ImClone trade.

But Armstrong said Stewart quickly ordered her to restore the original message. ''She instantly stood up, still standing at my desk, and told me to put it back to the way it was,'' Armstrong said.

This is old news and we think Morvillo will be able to spin this in her favor. Will he say it was a fleeting thought, corrected before she ever met with investigators? We don't know, but by focusing on the correction, rather than the alteration, he may score some points with the jury about Martha's ultimate honesty.

The Supreme Court rejected a petition from the California Attorney General's office to revoke a stay of execution issued by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in the Kevin Cooper case.

The 9-2 ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals in San Francisco left Cooper's fate up to the U.S. Supreme Court, which had the power to lift the appeals court's stay of execution. Even before the appeals court acted, California Attorney General Bill Lockyer's office asked the high court to undo a temporary stay of execution that the appellate court had imposed Monday morning.

The appeals court ordered the case returned to a federal judge in San Diego for Cooper's lawyers for testing of evidence that, Cooper claimed, would demonstrate his innocence.

"No person should be executed if there is a doubt about his or her guilt and an easily available test will determine guilt or innocence,'' the court majority wrote, adding that the tests should be conducted promptly.

Update: What's next for Kevin Cooper? Criminal Appeal has some thoughts.

How scary is this?

An American Airlines pilot terrified passengers when he asked Christians to identify themselves and allegedly went on to call non-Christians 'crazy'. Some passengers on the flight from Los Angeles to New York were so worried they tried to call relatives on their mobile phones.

The pilot, whose name was not released, asked Christians on Friday's flight to raise their hands. He then suggested non-Christians talk to the Christians about their faith. ...He continued to say, 'Well, you have a choice: you can make this trip worthwhile, or you can sit back, read a book and watch the movie',' ...The pilot also told passengers he would be available for discussion at the end of the flight...Flight attendants notified ground control.

American Airlines spokesman Tim Wagner said the incident was being investigated. 'It falls along the lines of a personal level of sharing that may not be appropriate for one of our employees to do while on the job,' he added.

Personal sharing? Sounds like a nut job to us.

[link via Nitpicker]

Bush's press secretary Scott McClelland announced today that he has testified before the grand jury investigating the leak of the identity of CIA operative Valerie Plame:

I'm doing my part to cooperate, as the president directed all of us to do," McClellan said aboard Air Force One during Bush's trip to Springfield, Mo.

Now, that's what we call spin.

Update: The New York Times has these details of the grand jury investigation:

In addition to the grand jury appearances, which are believed to include other Bush administration officials, prosecutors have conducted meetings with presidential aides that lawyers in the case described as tense and sometimes combative.

Armed with handwritten White House notes, detailed cellphone logs and copies of e-mail messages between White House aides and reporters, prosecutors have demanded explanations of conversations between aides and reporters for some of the country's largest news organizations that under ordinary circumstances would never be publicly discussed. So far, no reporter has been questioned or subpoenaed.

One set of documents that prosecutors repeatedly referred to in their meetings with White House aides are extensive notes compiled by I. Lewis Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff and national security adviser. Prosecutors have described the notes as "copious," the lawyers said. In addition, the prosecutors have asked about cellphone calls made last July to and from Catherine J. Martin, a press secretary for Mr. Cheney.

Check out this flattering profile of Teresa Heinz Kerry . She's definitely not from the cookie-cutter mold. She's unconventional and says what's on her mind.

On the trail, she alludes to her background, raised under a repressive dictatorship in the Portuguese colony of Mozambique and schooled in racially segregated South Africa.

Mrs. Kerry, 65, admits she is hardly the stereotypical political wife, but said if voters couldn't accept her, she would have heard about it by now. She can be outspoken, disclosing her Botox injections, her prenuptial agreement with Kerry and the fact that he was in the bathroom when he got word of his wins in Iowa and New Hampshire.

She was a registered Republican and voted for former President George Bush, but not his son, the current president.

One of her frequent comments:

'I want to know why it is when men express an opinion its fine. When women express an opinion they are considered to be opinionated."'

Talk about biting the hand that feeds you.....Joe Trippi is now discussing what went wrong with the Dean campaign--he lays much of the blame on the Internet campaign.

Internet activism that thrust up the Howard Dean U.S. election campaign later hobbled the organization's ability to respond to criticism in the weeks before the primaries, Dean's former campaign manager said on Monday.

Joe Trippi, who resigned after defeats in Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire Democratic presidential primary, said the direct involvement of so many Internet supporters deprived the campaign of the traditional weapon of political surprise.

Some of what Trippi says makes sense. So, it just may be that the Internet is a great vehicle for raising campaign funds but not for spreading the word about the candidate's message or planning strategy. Can it be that simple?

Update: Dean now says he will stay in the race even if he loses Wisconsin.

Software engineer Maher (Mike) Hawash was sentenced to seven years today for his role in the Oregon 7 terror case.

There were no crowds or demonstrations at Monday's sentencing, but several of his staunchest supporters submitted letters to the court attesting to his good character. A letter from Maher's wife Lisa called the event "an aberration in his otherwise good and generous life. I can look into his eyes and see the sadness and remorse. It is truly genuine."

Hawash, a U.S. citizen for 15 years and apparently a model suburban dad, told the court that he is proud to be an American, recalling his pride when he voting in his first election. He attributed his crime to religious and emotional confusion in the highly charged times after the hijack attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001, but added, "I do not blame anybody but myself."

Background on Mr. Hawash is here. All of our coverage of his case is accessible here.

Update: Jeff (formerly known as Emma) at Notes on the Atrocities has a local perspective and a last word on Mr. Hawash.

Eric Alterman does it again--check out the website for his new book, co-authored by Mark Green, The Book on Bush :

The Book on Bush is the first comprehensive critique of a president who is governing on a right wing and a prayer. In carefully documented and vivid detail, Eric Alterman and Mark Green, two of the leading progressive authors/advocates in the country, not only trace the guiding ideology that runs through a wide range of W's policies but also expose a presidential decision-making process that, rather than weighing facts to arrive at conclusions, begins with conclusions and then searches for supporting facts.

Order now.