Things That Happened This Weekend

Was a fairly slow weekend news-wise, but here's the most interesting stories...

Mayor Ray Nagin wins reelection in New Orleans. Conservatives expressed confusion at how someone with such a poor track record could win reelection, even after having having failed to provide leadership in a key crisis. I refer to them to the encyclopedia under "2004 President Election" for the answer. Right-wing bloggers in particular were upset, often making borderline racist jokes in the process, yet are now pretending to be angry at allegations that the national DNC may have worked against Nagin's reelection. Me? All I care about is whether anyone is aware that hurricane season is not far away.

Citing national security reasons (what else?), Attorney General Gonzales reiterated the administration's belief that they should prosecute journalists who publish leaked government information. He also denied that they "engage in domestic-to-domestic surveillance without a court order" in efforts to find journalists' sources, but one wonders if they consider the type of phone record spying that ABC News reported as 'surveillance'. Meanwhile, ABC's Brian Ross warns of the dangers of the administration's actions. Finally, Geoffrey Stone has a great post at the Huffington Post on the issues between freedom of the press and national security.

Sen. McCain gives the commencement speech at NYC's New School and is met with protests from the students. Said one student puzzled by the choice of speaker, "we're graduating, not voting". National Review's Rich Lowry was appalled that the New School students would treat a war hero so poorly. As the students should know, only Republicans running a presidential reelection campaign are allowed to malign war heroes.

Rep. William Jefferson (D- LA) is caught on tape accepting $100,000 in bribes. Adios, loser.

Fox News' Brit Hume states that "I think everything we’ve seen so far has shown that the Iraqis continue marching on politically down the road toward democracy in spite of the violence and... perhaps to some extent because of it." Well, good news then! Dozens of Iraqis were killed or wounded in a new wave of insurgent violence over the weekend.

Gen. Hayden- CIA nominee- doesn't just support domestic spying, he supports torture too.

Finally, the GOP's election year immigration stunts are turning off Hispanic voters.