* Official “How’s Tim Johnson doing?” spokesman Harry Reid says, “Just fine.” [WP]
* Colin Powell faces the nation, calls for new strategy in Iraq that incorporates full withdrawal by 2007. Also notes, “there really are no additional troops” to send to Iraq, so there better be another plan. [WP, NYT]
* Somalia’s Islamist government just dying to get on the wait-list behind Iran and Syria. [WP]
* Newt Gingrich wants to join the has-beens, also-rans, and have-rans in 2008. [WP, NYT]
* Evan Bayh, on the other hand, is happy to watch Obama and Clinton slug it out from the comfort of his living room. [WSJ]
* Administration plans to stiff pharmacies on Medicaid, just to save a lousy $5 billion. [NYT]
* Military espionage program started by Donald Rumsfeld to get “close scrutiny” by Robert Gates. [NYT]
* “I’m gonna get that wascally wabbit!” exclaims Margaret Spellings as PBS’s lesbian-friendly Buster Baxter returns to the air. [NYT]

As usual, the Liberal Main Stream Media wants to keep the dirty bloggers from getting the exit poll info. It’s so nice of them, to keep us in the dark until 11:28 p.m. or whatever. Also, fuck those people. MORE »

We were hoping somebody would ask this question at Rumsfeld’s press conference today, but no such luck, as usual. (Wonkette doesn’t even have the Pentagon clearance for Craigslist booty calls.)

Here’s what little we know: Late Friday, a crazy six-alarm fire gutted the three-story Building 54, where the 902nd Military Intelligence Group did its special work. That work included infiltrating a group of Quaker pacifists, running allegedly-banned Total Information Awareness and TALON surveillance monstrosities that DARPA was forced to hide somewhere else, and conducting “counterintelligence activities in support of Army commanders and to protect Army forces, secrets and technologies by detecting, identifying, neutralizing and exploiting foreign intelligence services and international terrorist threats.”

We’ll see if this has anything to do with that Pentagon vs. CIA vs. NSA secret war we keep hearing about, after the jump. ECNATSNEPPAH SI ECNO …

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Turns out the dashing young CNN star and former host of “The Mole” had a very interesting summer job during his Yale years.

Anderson Cooper worked for the CIA.

Following his sophomore and junior years at Yale — a well-known recruiting ground for the CIA — Cooper spent his summers interning at the agency’s monolithic headquarters in Langley, Virginia, in a program for students interested in intelligence work. His involvement with the agency ended there, and he chose not to pursue a job with the agency after graduation, according to a CNN spokeswoman, who confirmed details of Cooper’s CIA involvement to Radar.

Well, isn’t that special?

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• Godspeed You! Black Emperor offshoot Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra and Tra-La-La Band (same as A Silver Mt. Zion) is very dark, awesome. Even their website is enjoyable. With Black Ox Orkestar. $12 at 8:30PM. Black Cat. [Black Cat]

• Gordon Lightfoot no longer in a coma tour. $22- $38 at 8PM. Wolf Trap. [Wolf Trap]
• International Spy Museum hosts panel called “Propaganda and Persuasion: Psychology’s Use in Intelligence.” Was JFK killed by the CIA? Did AIDS originate in a lab in Maryland? These questions will be answered for only $12 at 6:30PM. [Spy Museum]

• Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky is completely right, we must “plug the donut hole.” [Hill Blog]

• CNN is there for you, no matter how bad it gets. [Drink At Work]
• A little ditty, bout Jack and Dan - two American has-beens, doin’ the best they can. [Newsmax]
• Any government employee who says they do it for their country is lying, it’s all about the foreign poontang. [Girls Are Pretty]
• Jim Kolbe spends worthwhile money, not no tens and twenties. [CNN Money]

The Associated Press reports that nefarious Pepsi double-agents have been busted for stealing secrets from Coca Cola. They reveal:

The suspects include an executive administrative assistant at Atlanta-based Coke, Joya Williams, who is accused of rifling through corporate files and stuffing documents and a new Coca-Cola product into a personal bag.

After which, presumably, she slogged through three miles of swamp and underbrush, dodged terrifying hails of Orange Crush bullets and fell bleeding and exhausted at the feet of the suspiciously-named Pepsi CFO, Indra K. Nooyi. When the soft-drink world is at war, can any of us feel truly safe? MORE »

Remember the pneumatic hammer attack last week that shut down the entire Capitol complex? Turns out, not a hammer: leftover War of 1812 grudge. MORE »