From the summation of Obama's speech today :

What has always united us - what has always driven our people; what drew my father to America's shores - is a set of ideals that speak to aspirations shared by all people: that we can live free from fear and free from want; that we can speak our minds and assemble with whomever we choose and worship as we please.

This is a declaration of Obama's - and America's - new Self for the world...

This is a crummy brief diary but that is because what I have just seen makes me litrrally sick.

The Times of London has posted a story with a video tape showing the appalling depth of corruption of this, the most corrupt administration in history. A Bush pioneer is shown trading access to Cheney, Rice, Stephen Hadley, and others, as well as positive public policy statements, in exchange for cash "donations" to the Bush Library and the guy's own firm, Worldwide Strategic Partners.

It's one thing for me, as well as others, to continually assert that the Bush administration is nothing but a criminal enterprise designed to extort and steal cash. "

Just when you thought you couldn't swear more profusely and violently than you have...

BBC Panorama tonight reveals what Henry Waxman calls quite possibly "the largest war profiteering in history."

At least 23 billion dollars. Billion. Not million. Billion. 23 Billion dollars to private contractors - Halliburton apparently number one on the list of more than 70 companies.

And why is it the BBC covering this major theft from Americans, instead of WaPo or the NYT or any one of our other media outlets? Because the Bush administration has placed a gag order on the discussion.

In a rare interview on the BBC today, Antonin Scalia said that torture may be constitutional. He argues that it would be "ridiculous" to disallow evidence gathered through torture in the "ticking bomb" scenario.

Tucker Carlson appeared with Joe Scarborough last night on Dan Abrams' MSNBC Live (click thru for video) to discuss Larry Craig's speech. Normally I rarely watch Tucker; he never fails to irritate. But Abrams' program is frequent evening viewing for us, as he directly follows Olbermann, and Olbermann is a must-see (my teenage son loves his show especially}.

Carlson finished the segment by bragging about gay-bashing someone when he was in high school. Tucker relates a story about how he was approached, as a high school student, by a gay guy in a mens' room in Georgetown. Carlson described how he left the room, got a friend, and they proceeded to return to the mens' room and beat the man up.

And then Abrams - MSNBC's feckin' News Director! - and Scarborough and Carlson all had a good chortle about it!

When did committing a hate crime become a amusing anecdote to brag about on a national cable news cast?

Tucker Carlson should be FIRED  by MSNBC ,and Abrams should have to explain why on national tv. One man admits committing a hate crime. The others laugh like it's all good fun and and the victim got what he deserved.

... if you're going to the dKos convention this weekend.

Here's his invitation. He wants to interview you as part of the in-depth coverage TPM will be providing.

Josh wants to reveal the "hate" for all to see. I think that between Kos, Hunter, NYCEve, Clammyc, and Dood Abides he should be able to get enough money-quotes to last at least an hour.

I watched the speech last night, and almost fell asleep. "Democracy"... yawn"...terrorists"..yawn.. "insurgents".. "clear and hold" bigger yawn.. liberty...low snoring.

Why all this commotion about this speech? There seemed to be nothing new. All the Big News - "20,000 new troops" - had already been leaked. So where was the magic New Strategy?  That's the question on every pundit and news commentator's lips this morning.

Well, there is a big New Strategy. It's in the speech, but it's been purposely hidden by the use of soporific language  cliched phrases designed to make you tune out, as well as misdirection and euphemisms. That's because the Bush administration doesn't want you to know what it intends to do, but wants to be able to claim that it informed you once the bombs begin dropping. It's this year's version of "There are no war plans on my desk."

So as Bush was in the air today, on Air Force One winging to Amman, Jordan, to meet with Iraqi Prime Minister Malaki, he got a call: the meeting had been cancelled.

It will occur tomorrow, says the State Department.

Speculation is running across the board. Was the last-minute cancellation an intentional snub? Is Malaki miffed about the Hadley memo that had been leaked this morning?

White House spokesmen say that today's scheduled meeting was "just a social call", and the really important event will still occur tomorrow. But rumors are apparently circulating through the Green Zone as to the real reason Maliki suddenly cancelled.

The top ten speculations as to why Maliki cancelled his meeting with Bush, after the jump...

Have you been waiting for Seymour Hersh's insights into the Israel-Lebanon War? It's up this morning on the New Yorker website.

His assertions: Israel had this war planned for at least a year (as has already been reported). They simply waited for a provocation use the plan. The Pentagon worked in close co-ordination with the Israeli Air Force in the planning. The White House blocked all early attempts to get a ceasefire. Why?

Because it's a test case of the way that the Bush White House is planning to attack Iran.

When Bush goes on vacation, the world quakes in fear. This time, the fear is of what would truly be another World War. Sidney Blumenthal reports in today's Salon:

The National Security Agency is providing signal intelligence to Israel to monitor whether Syria and Iran are supplying new armaments to Hezbollah as it fires hundreds of missiles into northern Israel, according to a national security official with direct knowledge of the operation. President Bush has approved the secret program.

(You'll have to watch a brief commercial to read the whole piece.)

Someone presently inside the Bush White House is convinced that the NeoCons are determined to attack Syria and Iran. Whoever this person is, he or she is extremely worried. And Blumenthal is not the first journalist they approached.- just the first person in the MSM with the guts to take the story public.

More after the jump -

Remember the self-congratulatory claptrap about "protecting the American people" spewed by the Bushies and Congressional Republicans after Patriot Act renewal was signed on March 9? Bush had been forced by Congressional filibuster to accept new curbs on law enforcement investigations. Even with the deal, the vote was 280-138, just two more than needed under special rules that required a two-thirds majority - and that vote was held on the day before the Act expired.

But those curbs designed to safeguards civil rights? Just hogwash, according to the signing statement Bush inked after the press had left the room.

More after the break...

On WNYC's Brian Lehrer show this morning, Steve Clemons of the Washington Note stated that Raw Story will be breaking the story later today that Valerie Plame's unit was tracking and investigating the dealings of the  A Q Khan's international nuclear weapons marketing venture. (Clemons has been working with Raw Story on this one.)  A Q Khan was dealing nuclear secrets out of Pakistan, protected by our "best ally in the region".  Clemons said that this revelation of Plame's unit has done the US almost uncalculable harm.

And to this day, Porter Goss's CIA has not done a formal damage assessment (contrary to what Bob Woodward may have reported.)

After today's blistering interview with Ray Nagin, you knew that the Bush administration would have to respond - and they have. The Framing has been rolled out in the Katrina horror:

It's all NO Mayor Ray Nagin's fault.
And this photo proves it:

The new question: Why didn't you deploy the buses, Mayor?

The midnight news from WABC last night (yes, I know, but it's the news of the Other Side, and we should hear it) gave the lede that "Bush has made his Supreme Court selection!"

It then led into an brief interview with Arlen Specter, who was called away from a "Capitol Hill softball game" to meet with Dubya about the choice.

We're all munching the popcorn watching the Big Production in the media this week: What is Karl Rove's future?

Kossacks, newspaper editors and leading COngressional Democrats are all calling for Rove to resign.

I'm a ferocious Democrat, but I don't want Karl to go.

A few papers - the Guardian included - ran the story of the torching of six miles of vendors shacks in Zimbabwe on Monday. The Zimbabwean forces have arrested over 23,000 people in the past two weeks. At the end of the Guardian article is this paragraph:
Meanwhile, in the eastern city of Mutare, police said they arrested an American, identified only as Howard Smith Gilman, under media laws for allegedly covering the destruction of 9,000 illegal structures there. Zimbabwe's media laws make it illegal to operate without a license.

Who is Howard Gilman, I wondered. Is he a free-lance journalist? Who does he work for?

 In yesterday's presser with Karzai, McClellan had the following exchange:

Q: One other question. Karzai was quite definite in saying that he didn't believe that the violence in Afghanistan was directly tied to the Newsweek article about Koran desecration. Yet, from this podium, you have made that link. So --

McCLELLAN: Actually, I don't think you're actually characterizing what was said accurately.

So far, the response to this has been: Look! McClellan lied to the press! But this exchange shows exactly how badly the Bush facade is slipping.

Markos is talking live with Brian Lehrer on WNYC right now. [The segment ended up 11 am, but you can here it again at the website.] For those of you not familiar with Brian Lehrer, this is a great opportunity to become familiar with the smartest interviewer in current events.