• France recommits larger number of soldiers, takes leadership of the “United Nations Interim Force of Lebanon.” [WP, W$J]

• Rep. Christopher Shays (R-Conn.) has eyes opened during 14th trip to Iraq, says we need “to have a timeline for troop withdrawal.” [WP]
• Bush spends this week fishing with family in Kennebunkport, hiding from Cindy Sheehan, and covering up his New England roots. [WP]
• Emergency contraceptive “Plan B” approved by FDA, to be available in pharmacies without a prescription by the end of the year. [WP, NYT]
• All the big names are going to Iowa pretending to fundraise for mid-terms, but it’s really about 2008. [NYT]
• Kentucky Governor signs plea deal in hiring scandal; Kentucky Attorney General holds press conference, respects seersucker Thursday. [NYT]
• State Department secretive about investigation into Israel breaking secret agreements and secretly using restricted bombs. [NYT]

• British Deputy PM calls Bush administration, “crap.” Dick Cheney’s heart warmed by the innocence. [The Independent]

• Sneaky Canadians confuse American governors with their sneaky Canadian jokes. [Boing Boing]
• Willie Nelson makes a non-smokable donation to Cindy Sheehan’s “ranch.” [KCEN-TV]
• Orrin Hatch admits Democrats will take control of Congress, just like their terrorist masters want. [The Carpetbagger Report]
• TSA now targeting people who “looked pissed off,” everyone in the security line at Dulles to be arrested. [NYT]

powered by ODEO MORE »

• An Egyptian conspiracy-theory music video with cartoon representations of America and Israel is the depressing comic gold Ionesco warned us about. [Andrew Sullivan]
• Novelist Frederick Forsyth loves global terrorism, couldn’t pay mortgage without it. [Galleycat]
• Iraq party scene soon to explode, and not with bombs this time. [Mother Jones]
• Crawford, TX has a new fake ranch owner. [Star-Telegram]
• Fred Phelps has a son, and that son has a cute ass. [You Tube]

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• CIA confirms it’s still the evilest motherfucker on the block by firing DC blogger “Econo-Girl” for a post stating, “torture is wrong.” [Econo-Girl]

• The Brookings Institute focuses the full intellect of their army of PhDs and comes up with “it sucks to be poor.” [NYT]
• Cynthia McKinney and Cindy Sheehan: who got served? [Sweetness & Light]
• Web-editors of Hezbollah’s official website live in fear that one day they will forget to put “Israel ” in quotation marks, and find an envelope on their desks with more than a pink slip in it. [ Alghaliboun.net]
• Annoying Emergency Broadcast System “beeeeep” to be replaced by whatever annoying ringtone you happen to be using. Which actually might not be a bad idea. [WFMU; The Local]
• Why does the government spend so much money? You gotta pander to win. [Heritage.org]

All images: AP
So I guess there’s totally something up in Korea, because I saw all these protestors on TV. I didn’t really pay attention to what they were demonstrating about, though, because I kept getting distracted by their beautiful modernistic signs and their snappy protest outfits. They wear ties! They’re clean! And then I got sad because I started thinking about our dumpy ol’ protestors with their ugly Sharpie-scrawled signs, like that dowdy mother lady and all those Greenpeace interns, and, who knows, maybe even sign-wavers sporting “miniskirts, stiletto heels, low-cut spandex tops” and, God forbid, flip-flops like the Washington Times tried to warn us about the other day.

Let’s take a cue from our Korean friends and tighten-up a little, shall we? More good-looking signs and the people who wave (and burn) them after the jump.

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• Reliable Source: Tipper Gore at the premiere of “An Inconvenient Truth”: “It ends with a message of ‘we can do it.’ [Al] doesn’t want people to go from denial to despair.” Moby, Lynda Carter, and Queen Noor were in the audience. . . Euan Blair is reportedly deciding between Yale and Harvard graduate programs. . . Ted Kennedy, Mary Cheney, Barack Obama, Tim Russert, Gary Hart, Pat Buchanan, Ariana Huffington, Karenna Gore Schiff, Cindy Sheehan, and Jim McGreevey are all making appearances at BookExpo 2006. . . Sean Penn to play Richard Clarke in upcoming film. [WP]

• Rush & Molloy: Halle Berry on Barack Obama: “I so love what he stands for and respect him so much that when I met him, I was a bit shaky.” [NYDN]
• Cindy Adams: Chelsea Clinton was seen paying for her dinner with a “tall, lean dude.” [NYP]

* According to David Brooks, many pundits correctly predicted the direction the Iraq war would take. But not David Brooks. [Radosh.net] MORE »

* Captain Ed begins the petition for convert’s sainthood, then pees on Edward Gibbon’s leg: “Muslims have always been singular in their use of violence to both convert and to keep their own from converting . . . ” Then we piss on the captain’s leg by quoting him out of context: ” . . . religious freedom only belongs in Europe and the Americas.” [Captain's Quarters]
* Howie wonders why Jesus isn’t super cool anymore. His commenters tuck him in, then blow shit up. [The Jawa Report]
* Frank J.

* FEMA and the White House knew of levee failure earlier than previously disclosed; also, “officials knew long before the storm showed up on the radar that 100,000 people in New Orleans” had no exit strategy. [NYT, NYT]
* Former top CIA official accuses the administration of “cherry-picking” intelligence to justify war against Iraq and suppressing warnings about post-war conditions: “It has become clear that official intelligence was not relied on in making even the most significant national security decisions, that intelligence was misused publicly to justify decisions already made, that damaging ill will developed between [Bush] policymakers and intelligence officers, and that the intelligence community’s own work was politicized.” [WP]
* Lewis Libby says “supervisors” authorized leaks of classified documents about Iraq’s weapons programs. [NYT, W$J]
* Bush defends eavesdropping by citing foiled terror plot against Los Angeles: “We cannot let the fact that America hasn’t been attacked in four and a half years since September 11, 2001, lull us into the illusion that the threats to our nation have disappeared. They have not.” [WP, NYT, USAT, WT]
* Jack Abramoff says he met with Bush in “almost a dozen settings” over the last five years. [WP, NYT]
* Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) received about $68,000 from Abramoff’s firm; ties found between lobbyist and Reid’s staff. [WP]

MORE »

* Washington Whispers: George and Laura like their food to be organic. . . Ten Democrats are acting interested in ‘08. . . Sens. Frist and Brownback test lines for ‘08. . . Condoleezza Rice loves her job. . . Nixon’s political strategy revealed. [USN&WR]
* Rush & Molloy: Cindy Sheehan receives standing ovation from Ron Howard, Marisa Tomei, Sally Field, and others. [NYDN]
* Names & Faces: Rep. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) is briefly hospitalized after collapsing from influenza. [WP]