A few of the stories wending their digitized way around the blogosphere today:
Karl Rove is under investigation by the Office of Special Council (OSC) for possible violations of the Hatch Act, the missing emails and the alleged wrongful firings of US attorneys.
The new investigation, which will examine the firing of at least one U.S. attorney, missing White House e-mails, and White House efforts to keep presidential appointees attuned to Republican political priorities, could create a substantial new problem for the Bush White House….
Among other deaths in Iraq, nine American soldiers were killed by a suicide bomber, the single deadliest attack on US forces in over a year:
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Yesterday’s blast was the worst such incident for the US since 10 marines were killed by a roadside bomb while on a foot patrol near Falluja in December 2005. […]
Also yesterday, a British soldier from the 2nd Battalion the Duke of Lancashire’s Regiment was killed by gunfire in central Basra – the 145th member of UK forces to have died during operations in Iraq.
At least 48 Iraqis died in seven blasts around the country yesterday. Today, two car bombs exploded near the Iranian embassy in Baghdad, injuring six civilians.
The US Dollar continues to weaken against the Euro, the Yen, and sunk to its lowest levels in 26 years against the British pound.
Bill O’Reilly blames George Soros for funding a vast left wing conspiracy aimed at — you guessed it — Bill O’Reilly. Here’s his proof:
Further details on the Soros Conspiracy from Bill in Portland Maine:
Oh, but there’s more. George Soros is also funding a gaggle of far-left extremists and their radical agenda, including:
Bill Moyers at PBS
Jonathan Alter of Newsweek
Paul Krugman of the New York Times
Frank Rich of the New York Times
And…Rosie O’Donnell(No Keith Olbermann? Strange omission.)
And John Edwards is Soros’s pick for president because he (Edwards) will obey Soros’s every command automatically and without fail. […]
George Soros, according to the author O’Reilly had on (let’s call him Hack H. Hackerty), is the “Dr. Evil of left-wing politics.” His goal is to “buy the next election.”
George McGovern has high expectations for America’s future:
It is my firm belief that the Cheney-Bush team has committed offenses that are worse than those that drove Nixon, Vice President Spiro Agnew and Atty. Gen. John Mitchell from office after 1972. Indeed, as their repeated violations of the Constitution and federal statutes, as well as their repudiation of international law, come under increased consideration, I expect to see Cheney and Bush forced to resign their offices before 2008 is over.
Existing homes sales declined by 8.4% last month, and consumer confidence in the US economy also crumbled.
The New York-based Conference Board said its Consumer Confidence Index dropped to 104.0, in April, down from a revised 108.2 in March. Analysts had expected a reading of 105. The April reading was the lowest since August, when the index was at 100.2.
The Present Situation Index, which measures how shoppers feel now about economic conditions, decreased to 131.3 from 138.5 in March. The Expectations Index, which measures consumers’ outlook for the next six months, declined to 85.8 from 87.9.
Another Republican Congress person is supected by the FBI of possible corruption stemming from his ties to Jack Abramoff.
The FBI has asked U.S. Rep. Tom Feeney for information about his dealings with Jack Abramoff as part of its ongoing investigation into the lobbyist convicted of defrauding clients. […]
Feeney is one of three House members who accompanied Abramoff to Scotland on trips that included rounds of golf at the legendary Royal & Ancient Golf Club at St. Andrews.
The others are: former Rep. Bob Ney, R-Ohio, who is serving prison time for corruption, and former House Republican leader Tom DeLay, indicted in Texas for alleged improper fundraising, is under investigation.
Pat Tillman’s brother, Kevin Tillman, attacked the US military for lying about the circumstance of his brother’s death, at hearings before the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee.
“We believe this narrative was intended to deceive the family but more importantly the American public,” Kevin Tillman told a hearing of the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee. “Pat’s death was clearly the result of fratricide,” he said.
“Revealing that Pat’s death was a fratricide would have been yet another political disaster in a month of political disasters … so the truth needed to be suppressed,” said Tillman, who was in a convoy behind his brother when the incident happened three years ago but didn’t see it.
And we still don’t know what’s killing off the world’s honey bees.
Meanwhile, Harriet Meirs has re-surfaced again in the US Attorneys Scandal:
Former White House Counsel Harriet Miers discussed firing ex-U.S. Attorney Debra Yang, who was leading an investigation into lucrative ties between Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-Calif.) and a lobbying firm before she left her government post voluntarily last fall, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) charged in a hearing last week.
Feinstein has repeatedly questioned the circumstances surrounding Yang’s departure, but until last week she provided no reasons for her suspicions. Last Thursday, however, during the questioning of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales late in a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, Feinstein flatly stated that Miers had discussed “whether to remove Debra Yang from Los Angeles.” […]
Yang resigned last October, months before Democrats began reviewing the Justice Department’s decision to fire eight other federal prosecutors. According to a report in the American Lawyer, she was lured away by a $1.5 million-plus offer to become a partner at Gibson, Dunn and Crutcher LLP, which is defending Lewis in the probe.
Finally, NASA is sending a satellite up to investigate the causes of beautiful noctilucent clouds in the upper atmosphere, a phenomenon that has increased significantly in recent decades, possibly due to increased levels of CO2 in the atmosphere. At long last, a real (rather than imagined) benefit, if only an aesthetic one, to global warming:
NASA is launching a small satellite to take a closer look at these clouds at the edge of outer space and to try to understand why, in recent years, they are appearing more often over more parts of the world. They are also becoming brighter.
The clouds are called noctilucent or “night shining,” because from the ground they can be seen only at night as they float about 50 miles above the surface, illuminated by light from a Sun that has already set below the horizon. (That is essentially the same effect that makes moonlight.)
The clouds form in the polar regions from mid-May to mid-August in the Northern Hemisphere, mid-November to mid-February in the Southern Hemisphere.
“They’re beautiful,” said James M. Russell III, co-director of the Center for Atmospheric Sciences at Hampton University in Virginia and principal investigator of the NASA mission. “The pictures do a good job, but it’s not like seeing them.” […]
Since 1980, when regular space-based observations of noctilucent clouds began, their number has increased about 28 percent per decade, and they are reflecting more light, because the ice crystals are bigger.
“The most plausible and leading theory is CO2 buildup, which causes global warming,” Dr. Russell said.
Some images of noctilucent clouds follow:
