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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The Vietnam Memorial, known for being the only war memorial in the country not inspired by Albert Speer, will be getting a much-needed facelift! Ground will be broken soon on a $999 billion (or something, we didn’t read that closely) “visitor center” that’ll bring some much-needed family entertainment to the dour ol’ granite wall. Take at look at just a few of the kick-ass plans: MORE »

It’s been a slow news week, so this morning I was all, like, OMG, do I really have to read the entire new Charles Krauthammer column in the Washington Post to eke out an item? Happily, no! All you have to do is get one line in to discover that in Krauthammerland there were no significant wars for, like, most of the 20th century:

1861. 1941. 2001. Our big wars — and the war on terrorism ranks with the big ones — have a way of starting in the first year of a decade. Supreme Courts, which historically have been loath to intervene against presidential war powers in the midst of conflict, have tended to give the president until mid-decade to do what he wishes to the Constitution in order to win the war.

Interesting opener, isn’t it? What about that war that had Loretta Swit and Alan Alda in it? I seem to remember that one got totally good ratings. And there was a later one, too, I’m pretty sure, and it had awesome guest stars like Tom Cruise and Christopher Walken and Martin Sheen. No? Pffft, Charles Krauthammer doesn’t want to hear about your girly wars. MORE »

• 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]

Congratulations to John Kerry for coming up with a sensible Iraq policy worthy of a loyal opposition party, only 17 months after it would’ve been useful. Great work, John! The plan: GET THE HELL OUT. But, you know, give ‘em another month to get ready. Honestly, Iraq has already turned the lights on and started picking up the bottles, and here’s America, asking if there’s any beer left and still trying to find someone to go home with. But John, let’s see what you have to add to the debate: MORE »