Things that are important

But I'm too busy to blog about:

Saudi Arabia allegedly is working with Pakistan on a nuclear weapons program. This, if true, could be huge. I can't imagine that Bush will be able to look the other way (like he did with India) on this one. His base won't let him for one. What recourse would he have, though? Sanctions might work, but if gas goes way up, he's pretty screwed. And it's not like the rest of the world (read: China) is going to stop buying up all that oil just because the U.S. doesn't like Saudi Arabia's weapons program. And for some strange reason, the rest of the world isn't about to go out of its way to help us right now. Good strategery, Dubya.

Attywood reports on Howard Kaloogian, Republican looking to be elected to Duke Cunningham's old seat, who tried to pass off a picture of the streets of Turkey as one of the streets of Iraq to prove that things aren't as bad there as the big bad liberal media makes it look.

We took this photo of dowtown Baghdad while we were in Iraq. Iraq (including Baghdad) is much more calm and stable than what many people believe it to be. But, each day the news media finds any violence occurring in the country and screams and shouts about it - in part because many journalists are opposed to the U.S. effort to fight terrorism.

Too bad it's actually a picture of a Instanbul Suburb.

The AP reports that Arlen Specter's sometimes independent Judiciary Committee has broken ranks with the administration:

Five federal judges gave a boost Tuesday to legislation that would bring court scrutiny to the Bush administration's domestic spying program.

At a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing chaired by Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., the judges reacted favorably to his proposal that would require the secretive Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to conduct regular reviews of the four-year-old program.

[The Judges} said the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court has operated capably for 28 years and is fully able to protect civil liberties and give the administration all the speed and flexibility it needs to execute the war on terror.

Of course any hope this might create will be squelched in about a week when Specter abruptly stops thinking for himself and gets back in lockstep.

And finally, two gubernatorial polls:

In New York, Eliot Spitzer is a 500 pound gorilla. He leads Thomas Suozzi 69% to 14% for the nomination and "holds huge leads over every possible Republican who might face him in the general election."

In Wisconsin, Gov. Jim Doyle (D) is ahead of Rep. Mark Green (R-WI), 45% to 40% according to the newest Rasmussen Reports poll.