Our magic word for today is “imaged.” For some reason that made me think of the old Star Trek ep where they transport into the Bizarro Universe and meet the Spock with the Beard and Uhura is dressed even hotter than usual, complete with dagger in a leg holster. From, as usual, Your Daily Froom:

In a letter to the House oversight committee, the Republican National Committee turned over a heavily caveated list with 37 names on it. It was described as a “current list of users who we believe are or were White House employees using RNC accounts for whom we have been able to identify active e-mail data on operational RNC servers.” The RNC said more names may well show up later.

The RNC says it is “working diligently to identify and preserve all potentially relevant data that may exist” and has already gathered 25.5 million kilobytes of e-mail from the 37. It has also hired a computer forensics firm that has “imaged” several RNC computers and blackberries that are currently being used by White House employees.

The Associated Press has an annotated version of the list. The most prominent name on it, other than Karl Rove of course: Presidential counselor Dan Bartlett.

Are there any contests currently running for “greatest number of weasle words that can be squeezed into one sentence”? If so I have a nominee.  Read more 

Popcorn is one of the essential elements of Constitutional restoration, consumed in vast quantities by those who abjure Cheetos as they would the Devil in an earlier time. But like anything else, you gotta watch yer ass in an day when corporatism owns the food chain:

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Labor Department on Tuesday said it was increasing inspections to address potential health hazards to workers at plants that make microwave popcorn with butter flavorings that contain diacetyl.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s program will call for more inspections in places that make butter-flavor popcorn, a spokeswoman for the department said. Diacetyl is an artificial flavoring.

Nobody is saying you have to give up your microwave and go back to Jiffy-Pop (anybody remember that?) or finding one of those metal baskets used to pop it over an open fire. This one is easy—use non-flavored popcorn and add yer own butter!  Read more 

Warmed by the increasing heat from below, the sluggish national media begins to take notice of the campaign to run the country of the Republican Party, by the Republican Party, for the Republican Party, that it might not perish from the earth (the rest of us of course can submit or go to hell). Via LA Times:

When Karl Rove and his top deputies arrived at the White House in 2001, the Republican National Committee provided them with laptop computers and other communication devices to be used alongside their government-issued equipment.

The back-channel e-mail and paging system, paid for and maintained by the RNC, was designed to avoid charges that had vexed the Clinton White House — that federal resources were being used inappropriately for political campaign purposes.  Read more 

Sen. Pat Roberts (Fucktard-KS) issued a thunderous statement today to which we will give a ringing endorsement:

”We cannot continue to operate in a system where the government takes steps to counter terrorism…without any regard for protection of lives, sources and legal methods,” said Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., who as intelligence chairman has been briefed extensively on the efforts.

In a letter, Roberts asked National Intelligence Director John Negroponte to order an assessment of damage caused by…the government’s most classified programs. He said he was particularly interested in the impact of…the Bush administration’s warrantless surveillance program and its program to monitor terror finances.

Minor editing to remove superfluous verbiage and emphasize the important points. We will get firmly behind Sen. Roberts and push for just such an investigation….as soon as he actually asks for it.  Read more 

Murtha’s appearance seems to be The Big Story out of the Sabbath Gasbags this time around. Before the show was even off the air (CDT anyway) I was seeing it in the “AP Reports” box most papers carry. I found the appearance remarkable—not for the Haditha Massacre & Coverup story itself, which blog readers have known for a week or more—but the fact that it could be discussed for ten solid minutes at least and the words “My Lai” never once get mentioned. What an exquisite squeeze the Bushits are in: Murtha can say, and others pick up and repeat, that this Haditha incident is “worse than Abu Ghraib” and the only line the warmongers could possibly come back with is “Yeah, but it’s not as bad as My Lai!”  Read more