Al-Qaida official seen as major catch for U.S.  —  Close confidant to bin Laden, al-Zawahiri headed for Guantanamo Bay  —  WASHINGTON - A senior al-Qaida commander who was handed over to U.S. custody this week is believed to be a close confidant of Osama bin Laden who has provided U.S. intelligence officials …

Justice Dept official resigns over investigation connected with Abramoff  —  WASHINGTON - A senior Justice Department official has resigned after coming under scrutiny in the Department's expanding investigation of convicted super-lobbyist Jack Abramoff, according to a Justice Department official with knowledge of the case.

Senior Official Linked to Escort Service Resigns  —  Brian Ross and Justin Rood Report:  —  Deputy Secretary of State Randall L. Tobias submitted his resignation Friday, one day after confirming to ABC News that he had been a customer of a Washington, D.C. escort service whose owner …

Oh, man.  You just have to listen to these caricatures of black pols that Rush Limbaugh is pushing right now.  They're quite — how should we put this — "racially charged."  —  You may already have heard the "Barack the Magic Negro" shtick that Rush sang on his show the other day (more on that in a bit).

Militia raid targets weapons  —  Explosives, ammo found; 6 men arrested  —  Simultaneous raids carried out in four Alabama counties Thursday turned up truckloads of explosives and weapons, including 130 grenades, an improvised rocket launcher and 2,500 rounds of ammunition belonging to the small …

The terrorism that dare not speak its name  —  Why is it that the media and the government never calls the "pro-life" groups who plant bombs at women's clinics what they are: terrorists?  —  From the AP article, entitled "Explosive found at Austin women's clinic": … Actually, I shouldn't say "from" the AP article.

Oversight Committee Invites Former CIA Director to Testify  —  A letter (pdf): … On Wednesday the Oversight Committee approved a subpoena for testimony from Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice regarding the assertion that Iraq sought to import uranium from Niger.

Truth's Consequences  —  Since the Moyers show, I have been thinking of many things that happened during that intense period in 2002 and 2003 when the political and media establishment seemed to lose its collective mind (again) and took this country into an inexplicable and unnecessary war.

The Real Jimmy Carter  —  I have known Jimmy Carter for years.  I first met him in the spring of 1976 when, as a relatively unknown candidate for president, he sent me a handwritten letter asking for my help in his campaign on issues of crime and justice.  I had just published an article …

Tag Clouds for the Democratic Debate  —  Janet Harris, a friend and Pollster reader, sends an interesting bit of analysis she did on last night's MSNBC Democratic debate.  Using the free site TagCrowd, she created a set of "tag clouds" that provides a visual depiction of the words used most often last night by each of the candidates.

DOJ Document Dump Muckraking Thread  —  A big new bundle of documents just got dumped by the Department of Justice.  Here's a link to the documents in PDF form at the House Judiciary Committee website.  As per our routine in recent document dumps, if you'd like to help us cull through the mails and reports …