Mining of Data Prompted Fight Over Spying  —  A 2004 dispute over the National Security Agency's secret surveillance program that led top Justice Department officials to threaten resignation involved computer searches through massive electronic databases, according to current and former officials briefed on the program.

Partisans Gone Wild  —  A funny thing is happening in American politics: The fiercest battle is no longer between the left and the right but between partisanship and bipartisanship.  The Bush administration, which has been notorious for playing to its hard-right base, has started reaching across the aisle …

In reviewing Ian...  CONFLATING ALL OUR ENEMIES INTO ONE  —  In reviewing Ian Shapiro's new book, Containment: Rebuilding a Strategy Against Global Terror, Samantha Powers emphasizes a point that has been completely lost on Republican presidential candidates (and the man they hope to replace):

Hate-crime arrests in Quran desecrations at Pace University  —  NEW YORK (AP) _ A 23-year-old man was arrested Friday on hate-crime charges after he threw a Quran in a toilet at Pace University on two separate occasions, police said.  —  Stanislav Shmulevich of Brooklyn was arrested on charges …

Iraqi leader tells Bush: Get Gen Petraeus out  —  Relations between the top United States general in Iraq and Nouri al-Maliki, the country's prime minister, are so bad that the Iraqi leader made a direct appeal for his removal to President George W Bush.  —  Although the call was rejected …

Fewer See Balance in High Court Decisions  —  Growing Numbers In Poll Say Bench Is 'Too Conservative'  —  About half of the public thinks the Supreme Court is generally balanced in its decisions, but a growing number of Americans say the court has become "too conservative" …

What Beltway media stars mean by "centrism" and "extremism"  —  As always, when wielded by Beltway media stars, the terms "centrist" and "moderate" and "mainstream" mean "whatever views I personally happen to hold on a topic, regardless of how many Americans actually share it."

Paradise: Baghdad...  I am not sure if I should be excited about this but; recently, I have found myself waking each morning most anticipating two daily events: time spent in the gym or running and the authoring of this Blog.  —  In anticipation of writing tonight's post, I had developed two separate topic pieces.

The Saturday Cartoons  —  And here's Mark Fiore with an animation on the Bush administration dealing with the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina: "Pickling The Poor" with your host, Buzzie the Fly.  —  Click on the screenshot above or go here to see it.  —  All cartoons are posted with the artists' express permission to BobGeiger.com.

In the '60s, a Future Candidate Poured Her Heart Out in Letters  —  They were high school friends from Park Ridge, Ill., both high achievers headed East to college.  John Peavoy was a bookish film buff bound for Princeton, Hillary Rodham a driven, civic-minded Republican going off to Wellesley.

MoveOn Gets Someone to Bite on Faux Fox Protest  —  Liberal Coalition Mimics Right-Wing Groups  —  Taking a page from Don Wildmon's American Family Association, MoveOn and other liberal groups are going after marketers who advertise on Fox News.  And just like the AFA's claims that large portions …

Press Reports: Another Apparent Iraq Vet Suicide  —  NEW YORK One of the least covered aspects of the fallout from the Iraq war is the rising toll of suicides, both near the battlefield and back home.  —  Latest official figures released by the Pentagon reveal at least 116 self-inflicted fatalities in Iraq.

The Centrists Didn't Hold  —  NOT very long ago, the Democratic Leadership Council was a maker of presidents — or, at least, the maker of a president.  In 1991, Gov. Bill Clinton of Arkansas, then the council's chairman, elucidated the "New Democrat" ethos and previewed the themes …

U.S. Plans New Arms Sales to Gulf Allies  —  $20 Billion Deal Includes Weapons For Saudi Arabia  —  The Bush administration will announce next week a series of arms deals worth at least $20 billion to Saudi Arabia and five other oil-rich Persian Gulf states as well as new 10-year military aid packages …

Soltz: Bush Needs To Resolve Whether Pat Tillman Was Killed For His Political Views  —  Yesterday, Iraq war veteran Jon Soltz wrote on ThinkProgress about Pat Tillman: "Was the man the White House used to promote the war ordered to be killed because he was becoming increasingly critical of the war in Iraq?"