Okay

• Bush approved warrantless spying on US citizens.

Excuse me for asking, but this administration believes it doesn't have to obey the laws of the Space-Time continuum; whatever gave anyone the impression they were concerned with what mere words mean?

• New York Times sat on the story for a year before publishing it.

I think I've said this before, but if your car won't start and you take it to a mechanic who finds that the battery is dead and tells you to come back in an hour, and you do but then he tells you the alternator is bad, too, you'd chalk it up to bad luck. If you went there daily for two years and every single time the simple problem had a much more expensive problem behind it you might get suspicious. Why does anyone bother asking Bill Keller for an "explanation" at this point, when the process involves shouting into Karl Rove's pocket so Keller can hear you?

• Keller: "It is not our place to pass judgment on the legal or civil liberties questions involved in such a program ."

That's funny, it seems to me that sitting on the story is the one way you're guaranteed to be passing judgment. I thought your news reporters were highly trained in reporting stories without passing judgment. At least I think that's what I've heard. You can lower the pocket flap now, Mr. Rove. Thanks.

• Via Julia, John Harris, Bill Keller without the competence, in his online chat: "I did refuse to answer questions posed by a blogger named Brad Delong [sic] asking whether I knew that one of the people on record complaining about the confusion over White House Briefing was affiliated with Republicans."

Saying Patrick Ruffini is "affiliated with Republicans" is like saying Ronald Reagan "had a little trouble with forgetfulness."

• Digby: Tom Brokaw is on Matthews boo-hooing that this NSA story stepped on Junior's wonderful Iraq triumph. He explains that when you are at war you need to do things that are difficult and believes that most people in the country will agree that the administration needed to spy on Americans after 9/11.

That would be the same Tom Brokaw who met with Judy Miller in her cell? The Tom Brokaw who's a member of the Committee to Protect Journalists? The one who said, "I really thought that was outrageous that she was jailed and we needed as journalists to draw a line in the sand in a strong but thoughtful way," ? I thought so.

• Bob Novak to leave CNN, join FAUX.

First, let's take a moment to consider the innocent victims in all this: without Novak around CNN will probably have to lay off a couple of lawyers, three staff psychologists, and at least one janitor. Second, you gotta love how FAUX has become for "journalists" what VH-1 is for Z-list "celebrities": a place to go and pick up the last few bucks you can squeeze out of the spectacle you've made of yourself. And finally, it's amusing to note that there exists a network where the addition of Bob Novak to the staff actually makes it skew more centrist, not to mention the humanizing factor.

• Tobin guilty in New Hampshire phone jamming case; Cato Institute senior fellow Doug Bandow resigns after admitting he took Jack Abramoff's money to write op-ed pieces favorable to his clients (again via Julia); and from Lawyers, Guns and Money, Big Pharma PR flacks are ghostwriting an increasing number of medical journal reports.

Are you starting to get the feeling that Republicans have been consciously trying to fill up every available space in our nation's prisons the last twenty-five years so there'd be no room left for them?