Odds and Ends

President Bush met with a number of top conservative journalists at the White House and told them that capturing Osama bin Laden remains a "low priority" for his administration. Weekly Standard editor Fred Barnes writes that emphasis on “bin Laden doesn’t fit with the administration’s strategy for combating terrorism.” As Atrios notes, President Bush has quoting bin Laden at length and comparing to Hitler and other historical villains, but capturing him? No, not interested. It would seem that he's too valuable as a rhetorical boogeyman to be removed from the equation.

If Democrats can't run with this, they need serious help. The President just said that the leader of al Qaeda, one of the architects of 9/11, is not a priority for his administration. He needs to be held to account for that position. Whether or not capturing/killing him will have an impact on worldwide terrorism (questioning this is a new GOP talking point) is irrelevant; this is a man who must be brought to justice. It has huge symbolic value in terms of restoring an image of American competence/seriousness in the world, and will allow us to move past 9/11 and move toward a serious, more realistic approach to combating terrorism. Just my two cents.

On a related note, author Robert Dreyfuss calls out the 'war on terror'.

And Sen. Feingold calls out President Bush on his inflammatory 'islamofascist' rhetoric.

Robert 'Douchebag of Liberty' Novak changes his story once again, this time blowing apart Richard Armitage's assertion his leak of Valerie Plame's identity was just harmless gossip. "Armitage did not slip me this information as idle chitchat, as he now suggests. He made clear he considered it especially suited for my column," Novak wrote.

In the Middle East, the situation in the Gaza Strip continues to deteriorate. "It is difficult to exaggerate the economic collapse of Gaza", writes the NY Times. Poverty and violence continue to rise.

Meanwhile, actor/activist George Clooney urged the U.N. to take serious action against "the first genocide of the 21st century", which is taking place in Darfur. Said Clooney: "[T]his genocide will be on your watch. How you deal with it will be your legacy — your Rwanda, your Cambodia, your Auschwitz."

Another Republican goes down... top representative Bob Ney pleads guilty for his role in the Abramoff scandal.

In what should be a warning to cocky Democrats, the Republican Party's voter turnout efforts in the Rhode Island primary suggests how well organized the party is going into the midterm elections. As turnout is key to victory, this is an area where Democrats need to play serious catchup.

Slate magazine looks at where key races stand by.

One blogger wants to know why we have all forgotten the 2001 anthrax attacks.

Finally, the Washington Post reports that "The amount of ice being formed in the Arctic winter has declined sharply in the past two years, a finding that NASA climate researchers say significantly increases their confidence that greenhouse gases created by autos and industry are warming the Arctic and the globe."

In related news, Mike Jackson, chief executive officer of AutoNation Inc, said that the U.S. should raise taxes on gasoline to encourage the development of more fuel-efficient technologies. 'We're at a tipping point here", he said.