You may have noticed...

... that I've been playing around with the site, adding some graphics.

The newest one, to Howard's right up top, is for the Velvet Revolution, a non-profit organized to bring together the many disparate elements calling attention to election irregularities that began in 2000, and specifically regarding the questions surrounding paperless electronic voting machines.

One of the warriors of that cause lost his battle with pancreatic cancer last night, and the little flag link above is my small tribute to his tireless efforts.

RIP, Andy. The fight goes on.

From an e-mail between friends

... one of whom lives in the United Kingdom:

It's ironic that acts of terrorism encourage international warfare to defeat terrorism, and of course that has the effect of increasing the numbers of terrorists.

And also increases the number of acts of terrorism, I might add (despite the efforts of Condoleeza Rice to suppress the truth).

So, with George W Bush leading us around in this circle, we should be due for another war shortly ...

Rehnquist pulls the chain tomorrow?

World Net Daily, via Kos, breaks the rumor. A formal announcement to come Friday morning.

If the chief justice steps down, it would create the first simultaneous high court openings in 34 years. In 1971, President Nixon appointed Rehnquist and Lewis Powell when Justices Hugo Black and John Marshall Harlan retired.

More:

In his column, Novak said a Rehnquist retirement would enable President Bush to nominate Attorney General Alberto Gonzales despite fierce opposition from the president's own political base.

It's going to get a little hotter this summer (for everybody).

Update (7/9): Even the conservo-blogs grow weary of the "now he will, no he hasn't yet" chatter.

Sympathies to Londoners (and all Brits)

... for the tragedies today.

The Supreme Court front-runners on Roe

As referenced previously, Slate has the best synopsis of what's doing with the Supreme Court, and this rundown of the prior expressed opinions of those on the short list regarding Roe v. Wade tells us all we can hope to know (and if you haven't done your homework yet and don't know these names, well, there's no time like right now). Conclusions:

You can never say for sure how someone will vote when they get to the Supreme Court—that's the beauty of judicial independence and life tenure. But based on their past statements and decisions, Roberts, McConnell, Garza, and Jones look like good bets to vote to regulate abortion more tightly and, if they get the chance someday, perhaps to overturn Roe v. Wade. Alito would probably do the same. How far Luttig would go is less clear—his statement of respect for Casey is clinical and drained of emotion, which makes it harder to tell. Gonzales' opinions in the Texas cases suggest that he doesn't much like the idea of teenagers having abortions without telling their parents. But in those cases and others, he has been inclined to respect previous Supreme Court decisions. That makes him the potential nominee most likely to follow O'Connor when it comes to Roe—and it explains why religious conservatives are so hostile to his potential nomination.

I have written elsewhere that I thought that Abu Gonzales might be the best we can expect from this President. As revolting as it would be to consider the apologist of torture for the Bush administration as Justice, the truth is he's not been nearly as inimical to women's reproductive freedoms as just about all the others on this list.

Hopefully Bush is seriously considering this man.

Update: Harry Reid signals to Bush that AG is OK.

Rumors on the Internets: a Rove indictment "late this week or early next week"

From Josh Frank at Dissident Voice:

Occasionally I get emails from Washington folks who work on the Hill claiming to possess juicy insider digs on our public servants and their corporate paymasters. I usually delete said emails, as I don't want to be responsible for propagating dirty rumors or false information that can't be corroborated. I'd rather let Judith Miller and the New York Times do that. Nonetheless, in the past 24 hours I have been contacted by three separate congressional Democrats in Washington, by email and later phone, who all say the same thing: Karl Rove is about to be indicted.

All this comes on the heels of events that transpired over the weekend, as two different individuals, journalist Michael Isikoff and political commentator Lawrence O'Donnell, both claimed that Karl Rove was responsible for leaking the identity of an undercover CIA officer's identity to Marc Cooper of Time magazine. As Isikoff of Newsweek wrote on July 3:

“The e-mails surrendered by Time Inc., which are largely between Cooper and his editors, show that one of Cooper's sources was White House deputy chief of staff Karl Rove, according to two lawyers who asked not to be identified because they are representing witnesses sympathetic to the White House. Cooper and a Time spokeswoman declined to comment. But in an interview with Newsweek, Rove's lawyer, Robert Luskin, confirmed that Rove had been interviewed by Cooper for the article.”

If what Isikoff and O'Donnell claim is indeed true, it still does not necessarily mean that Rove was also Robert Novak's inside guy, although it surely raises suspicion. The indictment, as I am told, will most likely be of felony weight. In fact, Karl Rove may be accused of perjury, as Bush's top strategist told a grand jury that he was not responsible for leaking Plame's identity to Time. So the charge may not be for leaking top-secret information to the press, but for perjuring himself.

Sources also all say that this indictment is likely to come down either late this week or early next week. Of course Rove's lawyer denies that his client ever “knowingly” handed over classified information to the media, or is the “target” of any investigation. Perhaps Rove “unknowingly” leaked the information, and he's the “subject” rather than a “target” of an investigation. Time will tell.

Apparently, I'm not the only one who has been leaked this information either. Over at Redstate, a right-wing Internet blog, one member who calls himself “Ohsure”, also claims that “[four] Great sources confirmed” the matter, and later added: “I not only don't do this, I have never done this. But here it is; ‘Karl Rove will be indicted late this, or early next week.’ I'm trusting a source. So either I am made a [sic] into an overzealous horses a**, or..., I have good sources and may be more trusted to get these things right.”

Ditto.

And as my friend PW has surmised, the fact that Bush has apparently counseled with and considered retaining a private criminal defense attorney with a specialty in defending Republican scofflaws suggests there's a pony buried somewhere underneath all this manure.

In a holding pattern

While we wait for L'affair Rove to develop a bit more, and while we wait for indictments to be released in the TRMPAC case, and while we wait for Bush to nominate a Supreme Court justice -- and we could be waiting longer than you think (see the sixth graf up from the end) -- I thought I would share a picture of tortilla Jesus:

I guess some blessed burrito-eater got the message from our savior as he was about to prepare some grub: “My little lamb, don’t eat this quesadilla, learn my ways, be kind to others, I died for your sins -- oh and sell this on eBay for personal profit.”

There's also a sour-cream-and-onion-potato-chip Jesus which fetched $260 at auction.

True believers should drop to their knees and pray, and then click over to e-Bay to check the seller's similar items ...

Deep Impact

You'll be able to see a spacecraft the size of a washing machine collide with a comet the size of a city at about 1 a.m. (Houston time) tomorrow morning.

NASA's Deep Impact mission is scheduled to crash an 820-pound Impactor probe into Comet Tempel 1 and record the event via a Flyby mothership, orbital observatories like the Hubble and Spitzer space telescope, and a myriad of ground-based telescopes from around the world. The impact is expected to take place at 1:52 a.m. EDT (0552 GMT) on July 4.

You can also watch a webcast here (starting about one hour before impact). There's a hundred excellent links, including still images from observatory telescopes at Kitt Peak, Keck, and Dyer at this page.

So, just as Joe Wilson said...

... it was Rove all along.

And Judith Miller, who never even wrote a word about it, may still go to jail while Bob Novak skates? (Talk Left answers my question, and points out that Rove lied to the FBI. That just happens to be a Martha Stewart-style federal crime.)

For Chrissakes, Peter Fitzgerald, will you just hurry up and bring the indictments, please?

Update: Lawrence O'Donnell speaks...

I revealed in yesterday's taping of the McLaughlin Group that Time magazine's emails will reveal that Karl Rove was Matt Cooper's source. I have known this for months but didn't want to say it at a time that would risk me getting dragged into the grand jury.

McLaughlin is seen in some markets on Friday night, so some websites have picked it up, including Drudge, but I don't expect it to have much impact because McLaughlin is not considered a news show and it will be pre-empted in the big markets on Sunday because of tennis.

Since I revealed the big scoop, I have had it reconfirmed by yet another highly authoritative source. Too many people know this. It should break wide open this week. I know Newsweek is working on an 'It's Rove!' story and will probably break it tomorrow.

Things you can do RIGHT NOW

At the request of Daily Kos, I'm posting the following action guidelines for making sure our voices are heard as Bush decides on his nominee to the Supreme Court:

• If you have a cell phone, sign up for People at the American Way's Mass Immediate Response site. This way you'll be able to receive text message action items instantly as events break. (If you signed up during the nuclear option fight, you'll need to re-sign up.)
• Also sign up with Save the Court, another PFAW website devoted specifically to this issue.
• Recruit friends and family members to the cause.
• Write to the President, telling him he should choose a consensus candidate to replace O'Connor. Contact your Senators to tell them the same thing.
• Sign MoveOn's "Protect Our Rights" petition.
• Contact members of the media and tell them you think Bush should nominate a consensus candidate. Please be polite, brief (200 words or less), and don't copy-and-paste -- put it in your own words.

Sandra Day O'Connor

beats William Rehnquist to the finish line. Statement from Bush in about a half hour, but apparently he won't name a replacement until he returns from the G8 next Friday at the soonest.

I don't think he can appoint the same person he's already got picked out to replace the Chief; an ultraconservative for an ultraconservative is one thing, but an ultraconservative for the Court's most important moderate and swing vote is something else entirely. Among many other ramifications, any nominee put forth who has the approval of James Dobson means that Roe will be, in short order, overturned.

Speaking for everyone on my side of the aisle, we cannot allow that to happen. So this will probably be the biggest battle of the summer (not to mention our lifetimes and that of our wives, sisters, and daughters).

So much for light blogging over the holiday ...

You know, this Live 8 is really going to be huge

I confess that I only paid attention a little when Bono succeeded in getting the developing nations' debt cancelled, but the Chronic has a rundown of the concerts:

On Saturday, stages in Philadelphia, London, Edinburgh, Paris, Berlin, Rome, Barrie (a city in Ontario, Canada), Moscow and Johannesburg will be joined by an estimated 1 million fans and 2 billion viewers. It's almost easier to list artists who are not playing on one of the stages than to name all who are involved.

Stateside, the bill at the Museum of Art in Philadelphia boasts Alicia Keys, Black Eyed Peas, Bon Jovi, Dave Matthews Band, Def Leppard, Destiny's Child, Jay-Z, Josh Groban, Kaiser Chiefs, Keith Urban, Linkin Park, Maroon 5, P. Diddy, Rob Thomas, Sarah McLachlan, Stevie Wonder and Toby Keith.

And that's just one city. U2, Coldplay, Mariah Carey, Snoop Dogg, R.E.M., Pink Floyd, Elton John and Madonna are just a few of the artists playing elsewhere.

G8 leaders meeting in Scotland will -- maybe -- take note. Andrew will liveblog it (or at least take some pictures; Chris Bowers will be there also, but Annatopia is missing out). One.org has an action alert for us to click. And if all you want to do is watch the music, there's eight hours' worth on MTV starting at 11 a.m. CDT tomorrow and highlights on your ABC affiliate from 7-9.

Update (7/5): In the comments, Albert points out I got his name wrong. And Chris B.'s pictures turned out really good.