Very good analysis by Sid Blumenthal, via TalkingPoints Memo.

Paul Wolfowitz’s tenure as president of the World Bank has turned into yet another case study of neoconservative government in action. It bears resemblance to the military planning for the invasion of Iraq, during which Wolfowitz, as deputy secretary of defense, arrogantly humiliated Army chief of staff Eric Shinseki for suggesting that the U.S. force level was inadequate. It has similarities to the twisting of intelligence used to justify the war, in which Wolfowitz oversaw the construction of a parallel operation within the Pentagon, the Office of Special Plans, to shunt disinformation directly to the White House, without its being vetted by CIA analysts, about Saddam Hussein’s alleged ties to al-Qaida and his weapons of mass destruction, and sought to fire Mohamed ElBaradei, director of the United Nations’ International Atomic Energy Agency, for factually reporting before the invasion that Saddam had not revived his nuclear weapons program. Wolfowitz’s regime also uncannily looks like the occupation of Iraq run by the Coalition Provisional Authority, from which Wolfowitz blackballed State Department professionals — instead staffing it with inexperienced ideologues — and to whom Wolfowitz sent daily orders.

Wolfowitz’s World Bank scandal over his girlfriend reveals many of the same qualities that created the wreckage he left in his wake in Iraq: grandiosity, cronyism, self-dealing and lying — followed by an energetic campaign to deflect accountability. As with the war, he has retreated behind his fervent profession of good intentions to excuse himself. The ginning up of the conservative propaganda mill that once disseminated Wolfowitz’s disinformation on WMD to defend him as the innocent victim of a political smear only underlines his tried-and-true methods of operation. The hollowness of his defense echoes in the thunderous absurdity of Monday’s Wall Street Journal editorial: “Paul Wolfowitz, meet the Duke lacrosse team.”

Superficially,

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The Niece will be interested in this story. The core finding:

Across all occupations, on average 47 percent of those surveyed said they were satisfied with their jobs and 33 percent reported being very happy.

Here are the Top 10 most gratifying jobs and the percentage of subjects who said they were very satisfied with the job:

• Clergy—87 percent
• Firefighters—80 percent
• Physical therapists—78 percent
• Authors—74 percent
• Special education teachers—70 percent
• Teachers—69 percent
• Education administrators—68 percent
• Painters and sculptors—67 percent
• Psychologists—67 percent
• Security and financial services salespersons—65 percent
• Operating engineers—64 percent
• Office supervisors—61 percent

A few common jobs in which about 50 percent of participants reported high satisfaction included: police and detectives, registered nurses, accountants, and editors and reporters.

From Associated Press, via TalkLeft:

Within hours of Pat Tillman’s death, the Army went into information-lockdown mode, cutting off phone and Internet connections at a base in Afghanistan, posting guards on a wounded platoon mate, and ordering a sergeant to burn Tillman’s uniform.

New investigative documents reviewed by The Associated Press describe how the military sealed off information about Tillman’s death from all but a small ring of soldiers. Officers quietly passed their suspicion of friendly fire up the chain to the highest ranks of the military, but the truth did not reach Tillman’s family for five weeks.

The clampdown, and the misinformation issued by the military, lie at the heart of a burgeoning congressional investigation.

“We want to find out how this happened,” said Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., chairman of the House oversight committee, which has scheduled a hearing for Tuesday. “Was it the result of incompetence, miscommunication or a deliberate strategy?”
…
The day after Tillman died, Spc. Jade Lane lay in a hospital bed in Afghanistan, recovering from gunshot wounds inflicted by the same fellow Rangers who had shot at Tillman. Amid his shock and grief, Lane noticed guards were posted on him.

“I thought it was strange,” Lane recalled. Later, he said, he learned the reason for their presence: The news media were sniffing around, and Lane’s superiors “did not want anyone talking to us,” he said.

Inside Forward Operating Base Salerno, near Khowst, Afghanistan, a soldier heard the dreaded call come across the radio: “KIAs.” There were two killed in action, one allied Afghan fighter and one Army Ranger, identified only by his code name.

The soldier checked a roster and discovered the fallen American was Tillman. He rounded up four others and broke the news but withheld Tillman’s name.

Had this soldier wanted to share the news outside the tactical operations center, it would have been difficult. “The phones and Internet had been cut off, to prevent anyone from talking about the incident,” he told investigators.

Nearby on the same base, a staff sergeant was in his tent when a captain walked in and told him to burn Tillman’s bloody clothing.

“He wanted me alone to burn what was in the bag to prevent security violations, leaks and rumors,” the staff sergeant testified. The superior “put a lock on communications” in the tent, he testified. Other Army officers said this was probably a directive to the staff sergeant to keep the conversation to himself.

More at the link.

I use Evernote quite a bit, and I highly recommend it. It was James Fallows who wrote an article that pointed me to it. Now Version 2.0 is out. Windows only, though. From an email:

We are excited to announce the availability of EverNote 2.0!

For the first time on the market, the EverNote Team brings to your PC search for printed and handwritten text in images! Seamlessly find your scanned receipts, forms and records; camera phone snapshots of price tags, whiteboard brainstorms, and much more! Experience our unique AIR-search technology!

EverNote Plus 2.0 also includes handwriting recognition, shape and chart recognition and keyword search in handwritten notes captured on Tablet PC or other pen-enabled devices.

We worked hard to implement multiple new features and improvements requested by EverNote users. The new version includes:

• Improved UI - Note List with automatically generated titles, multi-color Flags, Embedded To-Dos
• Advanced capturing of content and portions of your screen via new Universal Clipper
• Greatly improved category management:
  • Keyword search in categories
  • New time categories
  • New category stamp dialogs
• Enhanced backup system and more…

Click http://www.evernote.com/en/downloads to download free, time unlimited version of EverNote 2.0 (does not include search in images, synchronization and handwriting recognition). [The "Plus" version does have these goodies, but instead of being free, costs $30. - LG] You can use our special discount until May 31, 2007.

Best regards,

- The Evernote Team

Via Kevin Drum, Dahlia Lithwick passes along an interesting diagram that came up in the hearings yesterday:

The chart compares the Clinton protocol for appropriate contacts between the White House and the DoJ on pending criminal cases with the Bush protocol. According to Whitehouse, the Clinton protocol authorized just four folks at the White House to chat with three folks at Justice. The chart had four boxes talking to three boxes.

Out comes the Bush protocol, and now 417 different people at the White House have contacts about pending criminal cases with 30-some people at Justice. You can just see zillions of small boxes nattering back and forth. It seems that just about everyone in the White House, including the guys in the mailroom, had a vote on ongoing criminal matters.

Sen. Pat Leahy, D-Vt., calls this “the most astounding thing” he’s seen in 32 years.

As Drum writes, “Gee, I wonder why the Bush White House feels the need to exercise such tight control over the Justice Department’s handling of criminal cases? Hmmm. Any ideas?”

Proof copy of book just arrived. Beautiful, if I say it myself. This weekend, I’ll read through and upload corrections, and then order another proof copy, and then…

Charles Krauthammer is exceptionally unpleasant and dishonest in print (and, I’ve read, in person as well). Glenn Greenwald takes just one pungent and crystal-clear example of Krauthammer’s dishonesty and tacks it up where we can all see. It’s astonishing that Krauthammer is still given a pundit pulpit from which to deliver this drivel.

I used Mitchell’s Wool Fat Shaving Soap this morning, applied with the Finest brush. Great lather, and then I used my Schick Injector Dial razor (dialed to 5 of 9) to shave. Shave was okay, not great. I occasionally get an exceptional shave with the Schick, but IMHE (in my humble experience) I find it easier to get an extremely good shave with a DE razor. YMMV.

Alum bar and Pashana.