Odds and Ends

The NYC subway got flooded yesterday. Aren't NY summers great? Here's more news...

Stupid diplomacy, showing possible signs of progress: "The U.N. nuclear watchdog said on Wednesday that North Korea had shut down its nuclear reactor and four related facilities, a major step in efforts to get it to give up its nuclear weapons programs."

Rupert Murdoch's takeover of the Wall Street Journal gets another step closer.

Another day in the Bush administration, another example of using federal agencies for political purposes: "White House officials arranged for top officials at the Office of National Drug Control Policy to help as many as 18 vulnerable Republican congressmen by making appearances and sometimes announcing new federal grants in the lawmakers' districts in the months leading up to the November 2006 elections, a Democratic lawmaker said yesterday."

Meanwhile, Harriet Miers again defies a congressional subpoena. Time to press charges.

President Bush's Middle East conference is getting nowhere. Now Tony Blair will try his luck.

Speaking of the scary place... "President Bush’s top counterterrorism advisers acknowledged Tuesday that the strategy for fighting Osama bin Laden’s leadership of Al Qaeda in Pakistan had failed." Five years of spinning your wheels'll do that.

Speaking of the bad guys, Josh Marshall debunks the al Qaeda in Iraq myths/talking points.