So we’ve got a president who doesn’t read newspapers or watch the news. And Secretaries of Defense and Homeland Security who don’t use email. Should we just shut off the power and turn the capitol into Amish country? It’s ironic that the Bush administration argues that it needs to bypass the courts when wiretapping Americans in order to save time, yet two of its key members are apparently still relying on the telegraph and the pony express. Maybe we should fact-check which decade we’re in, but what other white-collar job in the country would hire employees who don’t use email? It’s disconcerting that our nation’s security is in the hands of people who don’t read. Much less understand what all the hoopla is about when it comes to this internet thingamajiggy. But on the other hand, maybe email is just a fad, like TV and rap music.

Click image for a larger version. And like Cheney, we figured we’d wait five days until commenting on the shooting. Care of Animal New York.

A belated shout out for, um, us. New York Magazine has a great article on blogging this week and they were kind enough to mention us. [from NY Mag]:

FREE WILLIAMSBURG
What Is It? Hipster heaven
Who’s Behind It? Robert Lanham, 34
Based Where? Williamsburg (of course!)
Rank: No. 6,885
The site covers things ‘burg locals are interested in‚Äîindie music, being ironic, and knowing which hipster events to bring their PBR to. The blog doesn’t earn Lanham much spending cash, but it has given him some breaks. ‚”I secured my first book deal when an agent stumbled upon an abbreviated version of The Hipster Handbook I’d posted on my site back in ’99.” Next up: a redesign of the site and a third book.

In addition to the $250,000 given to Armstrong Williams to promote No Child Left Behind, here’s what you money bought [from Adweek]:

A Food and Drug Administration contract had the objective of warning the public about the “consequences and potential dangers of buying prescription drugs from non-U.S. sources.”
“expert advice and support in the development of several marriage-related research initiatives”
an educational campaign regarding the “Medicare Modernization Act, and its coverage and benefits”
a contract regarding “message development that presents the Army’s strategic perspective in the global war on terrorism”

A big thanks to RBALLY, who has lots of new live MP3′s available on his blog. He’s got everyone from Cat Power to Art Brut to Sleater Kinney. Here are some highlights from recent BBC performances [Via BrooklynVegan]

Belle and Sebastian on BBC
The Blues Are Still Blue
Dress Up In You
Funny Little Frog
To Be Myself Completely

Jenny Lewis on BBC
Intro
Interview Part One
Rise Up With Fists
Interview Part Two
You Are What You Love
Interview Part Three
Melt Your Heart

This is either the best idea ever, or the worst. Maybe both:

Point Break LIVE!, the absurdist stage adaptation of the 1992 Keanu Reeves extreme-sports blockbuster, surfs into Galapagos for an exclusive one-month engagement.
The show, which garnered a ‚”Seattle P-I Best of Seattle 2004″ award, as well as rave reviews across the nation, tells the story of former College football star Johnny Utah—Keanu Reeves in the film—in pursuit of the bankrobbing, skydiving, bare-hand-fighting adrenaline-junkie-cum-Zenmaster Bodhi Sattva (Patrick Swayze—here played by Gearick Matthies), and features armed robbery, big-wave surfing, car chases, explosions, and no less than two extended skydiving sequences. Best of all, the starring role of Keanu will be selected at random from the audience each night, and will read their entire script off of cue-cards!

At Galapagos (directions)
2.10 8:30pm $10 in advance, $12 at door
Also 2/11, 2/17, 2/18, 2/24, 2/25
You can get tix here.

Brooklyn Rock is offering a 3-day festival of music next week. The line-up includes lots of under the radar local favorites. Best of all, they are offering a free one-year subscription to TimeOut for anyone who buys a $10, one-day ticket. Sign up here. See the schedule here.

It was Cheney who authorized the leaks.

Vice President Dick Cheney’s former chief of staff, I. Lewis (Scooter) Libby, testified to a federal grand jury that he had been “authorized” by Cheney and other White House “superiors” in the summer of 2003 to disclose classified information to journalists to defend the Bush administration’s use of prewar intelligence in making the case to go to war with Iraq, according to attorneys familiar with the matter, and to court records.
Libby specifically claimed that in one instance he had been authorized to divulge portions of a then-still highly classified National Intelligence Estimate regarding Saddam Hussein’s purported efforts to develop nuclear weapons, according to correspondence recently filed in federal court by special prosecutor Patrick J. Fitzgerald.
Beyond what was stated in the court paper, say people with firsthand knowledge of the matter, Libby also indicated what he will offer as a broad defense during his upcoming criminal trial: that Vice President Cheney and other senior Bush administration officials had earlier encouraged and authorized him to share classified information with journalists to build public support for going to war. Later, after the war began in 2003, Cheney authorized Libby to release additional classified information, including details of the NIE, to defend the administration’s use of prewar intelligence in making the case for war.

Having no logical defense against his illegal wiretaps, Bush decides to rely on what always works best for his administration. Good old-fashioned fear.

Huff Post currently has this as their top story, but we thought we’d run it too since it’s been buried elsewhere:

DeLay, R-Texas, … claimed a seat on the subcommittee overseeing the Justice Department, which is currently investigating an influence-peddling scandal involving disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff and his dealings with lawmaker

Can anyone say “conflict of interest.” To make matters worse, Repubs have also given Delay a cushy seat on the Appropriations Committee. Bill Burton, spokesman for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, has this to say:

“Allowing Tom DeLay to sit on a committee in charge of giving out money is like putting Michael Brown back in charge of FEMA ‚Äî Republicans in Congress just can’t seem to resist standing by their man,”

Evidently, the GOP doesn’t remember that Delay was just arrested, fingerprinted, and released on $10000 bail for conspiracy charges related to his own appropriations. Read the whole, disturbing article here.