"Of the 4 counter terror claims the President made, he went 0 for 4. We cannot know the full extent of the attacks that we and our allies have prevented, Mr. Bush noted. But here's some of what we do know....."

The groups presented a survey that shows two in five of the 279 climate scientists who responded to a questionnaire complained that some of their scientific papers had been edited in a way that changed their meaning. Nearly half of the 279 said in response to another question that at some point they had been told to delete reference to "global warming" or "climate change" from a report.

At the Waxman hearing, the two advocacy groups said their research - based on the questionnaires, interviews and documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act - revealed "evidence of widespread interference in climate science in federal agencies."

"Truth is stranger than fiction" is a phrase you often hear tossed around. I'd add a corollary to it: truth can be funnier than fiction, too.

Such was the case on tonight's "Hardball" where host Chris Matthews got so excited with his quest to blame the Bush admin for the Valerie Plame kerfuffle, he actually started drooling about it on the air, going past anything that "Saturday Night Live" actor Darrell Hammond has ever done in parody.

Watch the video of the drool: WMV RealPlayer

Fitzgerald said Judith Miller was to take the stand Tuesday, the first time the former New York Times reporter has testified publicly against the man she went to jail to protect as a source.

Prosecutors say Libby discussed Plame - the wife of prominent war critic Joseph Wilson - with Miller three times. Two of those conversations occurred before Libby says he first remembered learning Plame's identity from another reporter, NBC newsman Tim Russert.

Libby now says his memory failed him when he spoke to Russert. Russert said Monday that he did not tell Libby about Plame. "I was not and never have been the recipient of the leak," Russert told an audience in Oklahoma City.

President Bush, on a collision course with Congress over Iraq, said Friday "I'm the decision-maker" about sending more troops to the war. He challenged skeptical lawmakers not to prematurely condemn his buildup.


"I've picked the plan that I think is most likely to succeed," Bush said in an Oval Office meeting with senior military advisers.

"I know there is skepticism and pessimism and that some are condemning a plan before it's even had a chance to work," the president said. "They have an obligation and a serious responsibility therefore to put up their own plan as to what would work."

In the first such account from Vice President Dick Cheney's inner circle, a former aide testified Thursday that Cheney personally directed the effort to discredit an administration critic by having calls made to reporters in 2003.

Cheney dictated detailed "talking points" for his chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, and others on how they could impugn the critic's credibility, said Catherine J. Martin, who was the vice president's top press aide at the time.

"There is no strategy. This is a ping-pong game with American lives," Hagel told fellow members of the Senate foreign relations committee. "These young men and women that we put in Anbar province, in Iraq, in Baghdad are not beans. They're real lives. And we better be damn sure we know what we're doing - all of us - before we put 22,000 more Americans into that grinder."

"I think all 100 senators ought to be on the line on this. What do you believe? What are you willing to support? What do you think? Why were you elected? If you wanted a safe job, go sell shoes."

"When I hear, on both sides of this argument, impugning motives and patriotism to our country, not only is it offensive and disgusting but it debases the whole system of our country and who we are," said Hagel. "My goodness. Can't we debate the most critical issue of our time, out front, in front of the American people? They expect it. Are we so weak, we can't do that?"

"I'm to blame. Every senator who's been here the last four years has to take some responsibility for that," said Hagel, who is weighing a potential presidential bid. "Maybe I'll be wrong (on Iraq). And maybe I have no political future. I don't care about that."

"Congress should not legislate a particular numeric fuel economy standard;" instead "these amounts are based on an assumption that on average, fuel economy standards for both light trucks and cars are increased 4 percent per year..." (italics in original.) Note, this assumption is not a promise -- not even a weak, weasely one.
LINK

"the administration estimates that 3 to 5 million people will benefit from this proposal.... We've got 46.6 million uninsured. That's going to leave 42 or 43 million still uninsured. This is not a real step toward universal coverage in any way shape or form."

"About 95 percent of the uninsured would not benefit substantially from the tax deductions.... More than 55 percent of the uninsured have such low incomes that they pay no taxes, while another 40 percent are in the 10 to 15 percent tax bracket." Therefore, the proposed help in the form of tax breaks would not reach this population.
WashPost

Most of the uninsured will still not be able to afford insurance, and those who do will still also have to find money for deductibles and co-payments, said Ron Pollack, executive director of Families USA, a healthcare consumer advocacy group.

"It's like throwing a ten-foot rope to someone in a 40-foot hole," he told United Press International. "It simply won't help."

Because the proposal includes a tax deduction and not a tax rebate, it will also help wealthier families - those with higher marginal tax rates -- more, he said. "The higher the tax bracket, the bigger your tax benefit.

"It seems perverse in a time of fiscal austerity to spend more than twice as much for people in higher tax brackets."
Science Daily

"Wolf, Wolf, I simply don't accept the premise of your question. I just think it's hogwash."

Cheney said the administration is committed to moving ahead with its plan to send more troops to Baghdad, even if Congress passes a resolution in opposition. "It won't stop us," he said.

Had Hussein been allowed to remain at the helm of Iraq, "he would, at this point, be engaged in a nuclear arms race with [Iranian President Mahmoud] Ahmadinejad, his blood enemy next door in Iran."

I think, frankly, you're out of line with that question.

Prosecutor says Libby destroyed Cheney memo
Fitzgerald says VP told his former top aide about CIA agent's identity

WASHINGTON - Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald used his opening statement in the CIA leak trial Tuesday to allege that Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff lied and destroyed a note showing Cheney's early involvement.

Fitzgerald said Cheney told his chief of staff, "Scooter" Libby, in 2003 that Wilson's wife worked for the CIA and Libby spread that information to reporters. When that information got out, it triggered a federal investigation.

"But when the FBI and grand jury asked about what the defendant did," Fitzgerald said, "he made up a story."

Fitzgerald alleged that Libby in September 2003 "destroyed" a Cheney note just before Libby's first FBI interview when he said he learned about Wilson from reporters, not the vice president.

Scooter

The 2007 State of the Union Drinking Game

The general rules of this game are no different from any other drinking game. A drink is either a shot or a good gulp from a beer (or cider). Different events call for different numbers of drinks and all you do is watch the speech and play along. If all goes well, you'll be unconscious by the time they show the other party's response.

GAME TIME
This year, President Bush's State of the Union address is scheduled for Tuesday, January 23, 2007 at 9pm (Eastern). It should be broadcast on all major networks and cable news/political networks.
For online coverage, go to CSPAN

Reactions from those who've played in the past:

• "Oh, God. I wouldn't remember a lot of last night had I not been online, too. And had "friends" print out a transcript. I couldn't feel my face...that was the most hilarious thing I've ever seen."
• "[This game] is a danger... holy s**t. 5 beers in a half hour and I'm *behind*. BEHIND....Damn you!...*shakes fist*"
• "25 minute into speech and slipping beneath tabl3, thanks for great game. Sent out ot F&F cros country and feed(drink?)back very [positive. Sorry about what spel chk did not catch, you inderstand tho'."

The intensity of sentiment has grown: Fifty-one percent of Americans now "strongly" disapprove of Bush's job performance overall, a majority for the first time. Just 17 percent strongly approve - a 3-1 negative ratio.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is pulling in 54 percent approval (among men and women equally), with just 25 percent disapproving. Newt Gingrich, the last incoming speaker when House control switched, never saw better than 41 percent approval.

Ted Haggard Says Evangelicals Have the 'Best Sex Life'

Jan. 22, 2007 - Much has been made of America's so-called religious divide, but few of the discussions and debates resemble Alexandra Pelosi's new film, "Friends of God."

"You know all the surveys say that evangelicals have the best sex life of any other group," he says.

In the documentary, Haggard asks an evangelical next to him how often he has sex with his wife. The man replies, "Every day." Haggard then explains that evangelicals have a lot of love and says to Pelosi, "You don't think these babies come out of nowhere?"

Cornhole

The former music director of a church where former President Bush once worshipped pleaded guilty on Monday to possessing child pornography.

Robert F. Tate, 64, of Greenwich, admitted possessing between 150 and 300 pornographic images of children, some engaging in sexually explicit conduct. Prosecutors said some children in the images were younger than 12 years old.
Newsday

Gates said at the outset of his weeklong overseas trip that he realized the security situation in southern Iraq is different than in Baghdad, where the U.S. is building up its troop strength.

Gates was meeting with Gen. George Casey, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, as well as Maj. Gen. Jonathan Shaw, the newly arrived commander of British forces here. Later Gates was to meet with commanders from Poland, Australia, Denmark and Romania, and have lunch with coalition troops who are training the Iraqi army.

The last of "Six for '06" bills that Democrats promised voters in the fall passed shortly after 6 p.m. Thursday, about 87 hours after the 110th Congress opened Jan. 4.

"This was only the beginning," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said at a news conference hailing her party's accomplishment more than two hours before the final vote, which came on an energy bill.
Wash Post

A new Bloomberg/Los Angeles Times poll shows positive views of Pelosi, 66, climbed over the past month and are considerably higher than the marks Americans gave one of her highly publicized predecessors, Republican Newt Gingrich, in the first weeks of his tenure as speaker in 1995.

The poll conducted Jan. 13 to 16 showed even more support for the party's early priorities.

• Inspecting more of the cargo that comes into our ports
• Raising the minimum wage
• Expanding funding for stem-cell research
• Allow Medicare to bargain for lower prices with drug companies
• Lower interest rates on student loans
• Repeal tax breaks for oil companies, and collect the royalties they owe to the government for drilling on public lands

Not a bad start, if you ask us.

McCain no longer rocks in Granite State

As Mitt, Hillary, Barack and a dozen others jump into the presidential stampede, something interesting is happening in New Hampshire.

For seven years, conventional wisdom has said that the state's pivotal independent voters would line up behind maverick Sen. John McCain, as they did so famously in the 2000 GOP primary. But new polling data, to be released later this week, will suggest that might no longer be the case.

Manchester, N.H.-based American Research Group finds that McCain's popularity among New Hampshire's independent voters has collapsed.

"John McCain is tanking," says ARG president Dick Bennett. "That's the big thing [we're finding]. In New Hampshire a year ago he got 49 percent among independent voters. That number's way down, to 29 percent now."

Bushlover

Vice President Dick Cheney on Sunday defended efforts by the Pentagon and the CIA to obtain financial records of Americans suspected of terrorism or espionage, calling the practice a "perfectly legitimate activity" used partly to protect troops stationed on military bases in the United States.
But the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee expressed concern over the expansion of the military's domestic intelligence collection efforts and pledged that his committee will investigate how the Pentagon is using its authority.

(snip)

Since the Sept. 11 attacks, the Pentagon has issued hundreds of letters to American banks and other financial institutions seeking information about suspects in counterterrorism or counterespionage investigations.

(snip)

The efforts have been criticized by civil liberties organizations, which say the Pentagon is using "force protection" to spy on Americans and collect information on groups like war protesters.