• Kenneth Lay’s death “effectively voids the guilty verdict against him,” though his assets will be fought over in court by the various people suing him. [NYT]

• An FBI consultant hacked FBI computers, just for a laugh. He learned the passwords of 38,000 employees and gained access to Witness Protection Program records. [WP]
• North Korea says they’ll continue launching missiles. President Bush faces an increasingly “bleak foreign policy landscape.” [WP, WP]
• President George W. Bush is 60 years old today. [NYT]
• The House Government Reform Committee subpoenaed the Pentagon seeking information on a soldier who claimed he suffered “reataliation” for reporting on abuses at Abu Ghraib. [AP]
• The Navy is reintroducing Vietnam-style swift boats in Iraq. [LAT]
• Hillary Clinton faced a difficult decision on the Joe Lieberman campaign, and despite her equivocal support, there’s no bad blood between them. Unless there is. [NYT]

• North Korea launched its 7th test-missile in 48 hours this morning. The long-range Taepodong-2 missile, designed to reach as far as Alaska or even the west coast of the US, failed within a minute of launch. The White House said the missiles pose no threat to the US. [WP, NYT, AP]

• In the still-disputed Mexican election, Felipe Calderón’s lead over Andrés Manuel López Obrador has shrunk to 0.64 percent. Obrador supports suspect foul play, Calderón’s supporters fear violence. [WP, NYT]
• The Space shuttle Discovery, the first shuttle launched on Independence Day, arrived safely in space yesterday. [WP]
• Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton announced that she will not support Joe Lieberman’s Senate campaign if he loses the Democratic primary. [WP]
• President Bush, to the relief of Republican members of the House, is suggesting a new willingness to embrace “enforcement-first” immigration reform. [NYT]

July 3, 2006: Top Stories:

• North Korea: Still have nuclear weapons, still want to bomb the shit out of us.

• Al-Zarqawi: Still dead, still causing trouble.
• Sy Hersh: Still concerned about how we want to bomb the shit out of Iran.
• Space program: Still pointless, dangerous joke.

We admit, we’ve been big fans of indulging in complete flat-out panic these last couple days since the Hersh piece dropped. Mostly ’cause, you know, it’s just more interesting than the simmering nihilistic disgust that’s been our constant, monotonous companion lo these last few… years, really. A little Cuban Missile Crisis Last Night on Earth adrenaline spices up a midterm election cycle otherwise full of phone-jamming and lobbying and ethics violations. MORE »

Oh no! Rhetoric!
Condi, we know you’re trying to be tough and all, but we’re still pretty close to tagging this as “holy shit” — Sy Hersh just gets us a little skittish when he starts talking about “tactical nuclear weapons,” and, well, we already kinda know how your boss feels about “diplomacy.” So we urge you, Condi, to learn a little more about Iran before you take it to the Security Council — get to know them, you know? We think we have a lot in common, after all. Like, for example, they have crappy and incomprehensible kids websites too:

Yeah. That’s the Space Shuttle up top there. No, we don’t know why. It kinda freaks us out a little, but those stock photography kids at the top make us feel a little better. This was the only thing we could find in English. Any Persian speakers out there want to tell us what the hell is going on? With this site or with the forthcoming nuclear apocalypse, either one will do. MORE »

Oh, hi there, famed investigative reporter Seymour Hersh. What’s up? MORE »