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President Bush wants sanctions in order to deal with Dafur . It's about three years late, but any international call is welcome.

Media Matters takes a look back at how the press treated President Bush when he said " major combat operations in Iraq have ended ."

With a month to go before hurricane season, Senators say FEMA should be dismantled and rebuilt into a new organization . Because there's no doubt this new organization would be up to snuff once the hurricanes get a'going, right?

Nepal's parliment meets after a 4-year "break."

After giving a little speech about America's addiction to oil, House Speaker Dennis Hastert is caught on film . Ah, closet addicts.

Charley Rosen thinks Carmelo Anthony is developing a dangerous habit .

Mick Jagger and The Rolling Stone leave President Bush out in the cold .

That appears to be President Bush's general mindset, and his approach to foreign policy matters , according to writer, historian and former JFK advisor Arthur Schlesinger Jr. The bottom line: using the doctrine of "preventive war" allows Bush to start wars whenever he feels like, and it excuses him from providing valid, solid reasons for attacking foreign countries. God only knows where he'd get enough troops to "liberate" Iran; we barely have enough for Afghanistan and Iraq. There's the issue with building a proper coalition. Oh, and of course, the little constitutional snag that says only Congress can declare war (although I'm sure the White House will use any recent anti-terrorist legislation to justify another invasion). But really, what can the Bush Administration point to and say "See, this strategy works?" The torture stories? The civil unrest? The bad intelligence ? The fractured government? The fact Osama bin Laden is still alive a...

Dr. Wenyi Wang ( aka Wen Yi Wang) was arrested a few days ago for shouting at Chinese President Hu Jintao during his visit to the White House. She's been charged for heckling, which in this particular case is " a federal misdemeanor punishable by six months in prison and a fine of $5,000 ." Dr. Wang received her press pass from the The Epoch Times . While the CNN story claims she is a journalist for them, I couldn't find any articles she wrote for them. But there is proof that she is connected: the statement released by the paper today : Dr. Wang attended this event on Epoch Times press credentials. However, her actions were her own. In protesting in this manner, she did not act on behalf of The Epoch Times . Moreover, she had not consulted any of her Epoch Times colleagues beforehand about her staging this protest. If The Epoch Times had known of her intention to use this event to protest, we would have seen that her press credentials were withdrawn. But wait, there...

Wanna buy a house in Iraq? Because many Iraqis have decided to pack up and leave . Not that I blame them; it hasn't been the safest place sense...

The WashPost graphically explains why oil/gas prices are increasing. Couldn't they have just linked here ?

Will Smith visits soldiers, take a tour and... crashes a party ?

For most of the White House, the agenda yesterday was talking to China . VP Dick Cheney decided to catch up on his "Z's." But aides tell the New York Post that he was reading . I guess that means that Rumsfeld was praying, then? You be the judge. (HT to ThinkProgress )

The WashPost says that all the changes in the White House this week signifies a sense of survival . Funny, considering people at CNN considered one of the ousted staffers was an out-and-out truth teller . I'm going to agree with DU and say it's just another Sonny Corleone " panic reaction ." Moving your second and third bananas up to first banana status isn't a real shakeup, unless you're bananas. You gotta add some apples and oranges. I'll stop the fruit metaphor now; it's making me hungry.

You would think that Hollywood's heavy hitters would have weighed in on the immigration issue by now. You would think . Considering their influence in the past (they did help take down George H. W. Bush, afterall) it's striking how quiet this traditionally outspoken group has been.

Iran:" don't start none, won't be none ."

Better late than never, I suppose: 1,200 children later , the Pentagon works on dealing with the offspring of troops killed in the Afghanistan/Iraq wars.

We now know why Paris Hilton is so skinny: she feeds her food to other people. This feeding just happened to take place at a Laker's game. I think we've finally found Sally Struthers' replacement. In other news: the Lakers , Bulls and Wizards clinch a playoff spot.

Despite playing Iran war games with the US two years ago, Tony Blair and Great Britain will not be joining America in the real thing .

Guess how many trained suicide bombers Iran has (right now) to repel a US/British invasion. If you said 40,000 , give yourself a cookie.

VA Republicans have begun their courtship of ex-Redskin great Darrell Green, according to the WashPost. I can't really say I'm surprised. Green is black (always a plus for a party still accused of being discriminatory), religious (all the better to promote the party's "moral" image), and a local hero (something that can always be guaranteed to garnish votes from people who would normally be apathetic). The question is: what if he decides to run as a Democrat? Would the praises lavished upon him by Republicans in this story change?

Over the pass 14 months or so I'm come to realize that actor Jamie Foxx and actress Reese Witherspoon are big-time Hollywood ass-kickers. Their respective awards confirmed it, but I've had some sense for awhile that their versatility and down-to-earth nature would help them shine on the big screen. Jamie (I swear) seems to picking up where Denzel left off (let's be honest; with the exception of Training Day Denzel's been cashing in on being named "Denzel" since Malcolm X . That's not to say he hasn't been good, but if you took any character from that span and switched it with another one, would people notice? I thought not). The guy can play a hero, villain, flawed character, you name it. He can be funny or serious. If they ever make a Bad Boy 3 (God I hope not) you'd have to think that Martin Lawrence gets bumped for Foxx, right? Who's gonna pass up an opportunity to match up Will Smith and Jamie Foxx? And like Smith, Jamie has crossover a...

The DNA test for the Duke lacrosse players came back negative , but the prosecution isn't stopping .

Kinda late, but still worth mentioning: Busta Rhymes can be a real jerk sometimes.

Over the weekend, New Yorker investigative journalist Seymour Hersh reported that nuclear weapons may be used against Iran (like the Bush Administration was going to take Iran's missile testing lightly). President Bush's supporters wasted little time in attacking the messenger ( again ). To his credit, Bush has called the story " wild speculation ." However, it's not like he's been talking about the diplomatic inroads he's been making. Remember what bad poll numbers can make people do .

The Christian Coalition 's tab is getting bigger, but their membership is shrinking . According to the WashPost, the core reason for the organization's decline is the departure of is founders: Pat Robertson and Ralph Reed . Well, too things. First, if people are leaving because Robertson and Reed left, what kind of Christians are these people? They don't think Roberta Combs can carry the water? Was this really a religious organization, or a stepping stone for Robertson and Reed to get into the political arena? I mean, shouldn't faith play a part here somewhere? Second, you would think membership would go up after people like Robertson and Reed left. Reed's employed smut lovers (despite saying he's against that sort of thing), been a self-proclaimed corporation humper and is involved in the Abramoff Scandal . And Pat Robertson? Well, he's called "radical" Muslims satanic and said they want to rule the world , he supports "holy hotties...

President Bush can make all the speeches he wants and his supporters can pass as much blame around as they like, but this whole mess is Bush's own fault. Before we went to war in Iraq, Joe Wilson wrote an article saying that the Niger yellowcake story (that Bush included in a State of the Union address) was false. We now know that Bush was behind the drive to discredit Wilson. While this isn't an impeachable offense, it lead to the tactics that resulted in the NYT story that outed Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame . So while Bush might not be indicted for outing Valerie Plame, he is certainly not helping his credibility . Why, because he has repeatedly said that he's not fond of leaking or leakers . Now, if this particular leak is a good one, like some claim , what was its purpose? Even Bush's defenders can't seem to get their facts straight on this one. Shouldn't there be a difference between declassified information and leaked information? Looking at some of ...

The Smoking Gun has the goods on the Duke Lacrosse Team Scandal.

Bill O'Reilly seems to think he knows black people. In his own words : I -- I have always believed -- always believed -- that the mainstream African-American person, the person who goes to work, gets up, doesn't live in the ghetto , lives in a, you know, in a working class neighborhood or an affluent neighborhood is conservative at heart. Their value system is church. A big church-going population among African-Americans, particularly female, if you look at the polls, they're against gay marriage; they're against far left political thought. You don't see a lot of African-Americans, you know, running around with Jane Fonda. You see a lot of African-Americans going into the military. Where do I begin? How about if people like O'Reilly weren't so dead set against Affirmative Action, we'd have more black people going to work and not "living in the ghetto"? Or that black people as a whole were involved in on of the most "politically left"...

Say it ain't so. Well, if I did, I'd be lying. The man once known as a "Maverick Republican" (aka, Republican who didn't kiss Bush's backside) continues his fall. As if the Falwell backtracking wasn't bad enough. See, McCain was giving a speech to the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce Legislative Conference on immigration reform (here's his most recent press release on the subject) . He was speaking to the AFL-CIO 's Building and Construction Trades Department . Highlights from the whole ordeal : The first questioner seemed to challenge his commitment to organized labor. When McCain started to praise a particular labor group in Arizona, the crowd booed again. "Stop!" he said with a smile, drawing laughter from the crowd. "I surrender." But he took more questions, including a pointed one on his immigration plan. McCain responded by saying immigrants were taking jobs nobody else wanted. He offered anybody in the crowd $50 an hour to pi...

At least that's the way Media Matters sees it . I'm inclined to agree; the explanations I've heard for why it's been like this since the late 90's is pretty cyclical. See, during Bill Clinton's term, there needed to be balance, so the networks decided (and cable) to invite people from the conservative side of the political spectrum. Now, with a Republican Congress and a Republican President, the conservatives are the insiders; so who better to give perspective of what's going on? And for some reason, people are taking offense because Media Matters is stating the obvious. The critics should be happy that Media Matters hasn't yet added this caveat: that many members of the media have become as conservative as the guests they bring on.

From the New York Times : " The government of Sudan has blocked Jan Egeland, the United Nations' top emergency aid official, from visiting the western Darfur region this week, prompting Mr. Egeland to accuse Khartoum of trying to hide the dire conditions there. The Sudanese government offered various explanations for its decision not to allow Mr. Egeland, the under secretary general for humanitarian affairs and the United Nations' emergency relief coordinator, to visit Khartoum, the capital, or Darfur beginning Monday ." If you can't see the NYT, go here , they have the story as well.

Former Iraqi weapons inspector Hans Blix says Iran is far away from having nuclear weapons . If true, that means that the only threat they pose is their army and conventional weaponry .

From MediaMatters: Rush decides to blame the victim of the Duke Lacrosse Sex Scandal.

Iran fires another torpedo . According to their state's TV report, " Revolutionary Guard naval forces a few minutes ago test fired a powerful torpedo in the Strait of Hormuz. This torpedo is capable of destroying enemy warships and submarines at any depth and moving at any speed ."

That quote came from Richard Clark , who was comparing Iran's (three) terrorist networks to the one made famous by Osama bin Laden. He's a consultant to abcnews right now, and he's given a pretty blunt assessment of what going to war with Iran means for the US . It's not rosy. Considering our relationship with Iran up til this point, the last thing we need is war against the world's sixth largest military (we are currently at #2 ), especially after they have just tested a naval missile . I really hope the Bush Administration knows the magnitude of what they are doing. It's not like Iraq were Saddam (at best) teased President Bush and (at worst) threatened the United States. Iran has gone on record as saying that the world will suffer if they are invaded. But looking at how everything is going with Iraq, I have to be skeptical. And looking at things that have happened with Iran and this administration, I'm even more skeptical. And to be fair, I'm just goi...