Sierra reports on a push by U.S. energy companies to have Urenco, the Dutch company that A.Q. Khan stole nuclear secrets from, "build the same type of uranium-enrichment plant in New Mexico that Iran wants, using a technology so dangerous that the U.N. has proposed a worldwide five-year ban on it..."

The article cites a call by the head of the IAEA for countries to honor the proposed ban, and quotes a chronicler of the disarmament movement as saying the U.S. "is determined to have other governments bend to its will when it comes to proliferation but is not willing to accept the same standards for itself."

Opponents of the plant have been stymied by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which is identified in a Boston Globe article as being one of the federal agencies "sweeping vast amounts of public information behind a curtain of secrecy in the name of fighting terrorism."

Rolling Stone reports on what it calls 'Bush's Most Radical Plan Yet,' a three-sentence proposal tucked away in the federal budget that "would enable the Bush administration to achieve what Ronald Reagan only dreamed of: the end of government regulation as we know it."

'Friendly Fire 2' A report from "the latest in a series of U.S. military investigations into killings by American forces in Iraq to have found no wrongdoing by soldiers" is said to have come at an awkward time for the Italian government.

Fantasy Island Inhabitants of the maze of "concrete slabs, razor wire and bunkers" known as the Green Zone often fantasize about entering "the red zone, known to inhabitants as the rest of Iraq," writes the Guardian's Rory Carroll. Plus: A tough commute.

From airmen driving convoy trucks to sailors guarding oil wells, the Boston Globe reports that "at least 3,000 Navy and Air Force personnel ... trained mainly in noncombat specialties such as mechanics and construction," serve "on the front lines of the Iraqi insurgency" and may "lack the skills to protect themselves."

Slacktivist Judges? The U.S. Supreme Court is said to have "heeded the advice of the Bush administration," and spared it from "having to go before the justices to argue against American POWs who were tortured" in the 1991 war, by turning away their final bid to hold Iraq liable.

Financial Times reports that Iraq's new defense minister will be a Sunni Arab, and cites a legislator as saying that Sunnis continue to want "at least six cabinet seats, as well as a deputy prime minister post."

As U.N. Ambassador-designate John Bolton is accused of having 'Inflated Syrian Danger,' and of having "no diplomatic bone in his body," Helen Thomas says that President Bush should withdraw the nomination "the sooner, the better."

A Washington Post analysis says that 'Foreign Policy Disputes Are Subtext in Battle Over Bolton,' as "allegations that Bolton has been abrasive have become a metaphor for the broader problem of the United States' image abroad."

Junk Math USA Today reports on a new study from PoliticalMoneyLine, which shows that since 2000, members of Congress have reportedly taken 5,410 junkets worth $16 million, half of it paid by undisclosed nonprofits and the bulk of the rest by corporations and trade associations.

The ethics woes of House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, who ranked 28th among recipients of privately-funded trips, have reportedly triggered a 'Rush to Refile' travel and campaign records among lawmakers. Plus: DeLay's newest junket "taking loyalty to a new level."

After a Roll Call article described "a major rift" among Democrats over "the recent bankruptcy bill, in which 73 Members ... sided with the GOP," San Rosenfeld finds it "very hard to countenance the moderates' argument" for backing "the kind of corporate whore legislation that Republicans don't even make a big public spectacle out of supporting."

Addressing what he calls the 'Mystery of the Democrats' New Spine,' Robert Parry attributes the Democrats' "turnabout" -- at least in part -- to "the rise of progressive media, most notably progressive AM talk radio."

Telling the Washington Post that "we can pass this law" in any state where "John Kerry held a shotgun," the NRA's Wayne LaPierre praised a Florida gun bill "approved 94 to 20 in the state House, with nearly a dozen Democratic co-sponsors."

Summarizing coverage of "Justice Sunday," CJR Daily wonders why "reporters consistently rely on the tired construction of framing most political stories as simple partisan squabbles. It's obvious that more than just 'liberals' and 'Democrats' oppose the nuclear option ..." Plus: Bush nominee declares 'war.'

Simulscam? Organizers said the event "reached 61 million households," reports Knight Ridder, "which if accurate would put it on a par with the first presidential debate last year, which was broadcast on all the major television and cable networks and drew an estimated 61.5 million viewers."

Focus on the Family, which denies having organized a protest against the Dairy Queen owned by Sen. Ken Salazar's wife, is being targeted for early May protests by groups on both sides of the gay issues debate. But James Dobson will reportedly be attending a National Day of Prayer event in Washington D.C.

A Saudi spokesman was quoted in the Washington Post as saying that there was "nothing sexual whatsoever" when President Bush and Crown Prince Abdullah demonstrated 'A New Twist on The Grip-and-Grin.'

April 25

Iraqi forces are reportedly deserting their posts as car bombs kill 25 amid escalating violence in Iraq, where "the highest casualty rate of any company in the war" is found among Marines forced to deploy "dummy marines from cardboard cutouts" due to a shortage of armor, men and planning.

Secretary of State Rice and Vice President Cheney get personal with Iraqi leaders, who fail again to form a government, while 'Rebels thrive as politicians dither.' Plus: 'Prime Minister Chalabi?'

President Bush is said to be 'more certain than ever on Iraq war,' as insurgents shift to large-scale attacks on U.S. military installations.

'Investigate Rumsfeld, Tenet for Torture,' says Human Rights Watch, observing an anniversary and one day after an Army inspector general report's senior accountability moment. Plus: 'Rumsfeld cheered at Grand Ole Opry,' gets 'slideshow' treatment on Yahoo!.

On the cusp of another anniversary, the Christian Science Monitor reports that although the Pentagon Channel "looks and sounds a lot like CNN and C-SPAN," the Rumsfeld aide who oversees it defends the channel as "simply offering a form of corporate communication."

Newsweek's Fareed Zakaria writes that in the "new' Iraq, "for the first time since ... A.D. 740, an Arab country will be ruled by Shiites." Plus: 'Islamic Activists Sweep Saudi Elections.'

Political opponents of Egyptian President Mubarak are complaining about a six-hour interview airing on state-controlled television, in which he "appeared to kick off a re-election bid." The AP report quotes an opposition leader as asking: "Who paid for the film? And will this opportunity be given to others?"

An estimated 1.2 million people, which would be "the largest march for democracy in Mexican history," rallied on Sunday in support of Mexico City's mayor. Other reports put the crowd size at "hundreds of thousands." Earlier: 'As democracy goes south of the border, the Bush administration is notably silent.'

A hidden army of girls is fighting around the world, with almost all forced to be "sex slaves or 'wives' of commanders," says a new report by Save the Children. More on 'the forgotten victims of war.'

USA Today reports that hundreds of police officers, including those who "advise their departments on what equipment to buy," moonlighting for weapons suppliers.

The WSWS finds it "remarkable" that, as first reported in Congressional Quarterly, a Homeland Security terror threat list "does not include extreme right-wing groups, some of which have ties to the Republican Party."

As Senator Bill Frist tries to shift coining of term "nuclear option" to Democrats, the Family Research Council claims that its "Justice Sunday" simulcast "made its way into 61 million households." A conservative columnist previewing the event called it "a woeful tactic based on a false premise."

Frank Rich wrote that "It will give you an idea of the level of Mr. Perkins's hysteria that, as reported by the American Prospect, [the FRC head] told a gathering in Washington this month that the judiciary poses 'a greater threat to representative government' than 'terrorist groups.'"

The Los Angeles Times reports that "leading business lobbying associations ... have told senior Republicans that they would not back the Frist initiative to force votes on President Bush's judicial nominees," and refers to internal GOP polling data that prompts the question, 'Filibusted?'

Writing that "Since November's election, the victors have managed to be on the wrong side of public opinion on one issue after another," Paul Krugman asks, "What's going on?" Plus: 'Unexpectedly, Capitol Hill Democrats Stand Firm.'

Former Howard Dean strategist Joe Trippi is quoted as saying that a serious third party candidate who knew who to use the Internet could "raise $200 million and have 600,000 people on the streets working for them without any party structure in the blink of an eye."

The Nation editorializes that embattled House Majority Leader Tom 'DeLay Must Go,' but Jonathan Alter argues 'Why We Need DeLay to Stay.'

Editor & Publisher picks up on a Raw Story report in an article headlined, 'Jeff Gannon Exposed: In Doonesbury and in New Documents.'

A lawyer for the three people removed from a President Bush town hall meeting in Denver said he's seeking to identify who escorted them out "because we're going to sue." The Secret Service has reportedly opened a criminal investigation into the incident, as "The White House stonewalling continues."

'An Embarrassment of Arnolds' James Wolcott weighs in on a Los Angeles Times article -- "The best deadpan coverage of Arnold Deflated" -- describing a sparsely attended "Thank Arnold" rally featuring Gov. Schwarzenegger's friend and fellow "actor," Tom Arnold.

April 22-24

"Democracy Now!" hosts a debate centered on issues raised in Chris Mooney's "Some Like It Hot" article, which reported on ExxonMobil's funding of a network of groups that challenge the existence of global warming.

'Paying to Play' Bill Berkowitz discusses "privatization on America's public lands" with "old-school activist" Scott Silver of Wild Wilderness, who says that "land management leadership in the current Bush administration is jam-packed with hard-core, pro-privatization ideologues."

President Bush cancels an Earth Day photo op at the "most polluted park in the country," Outside says "it's time to meet the winning side in America's new green wars," and Grist calls for "a revolt, not a celebration."

As oil prices top $55 a barrel, a Guardian report predicting that 'The end of oil is closer than you think,' quotes one U.S. analyst as saying, "Just kiss your lifestyle goodbye."

Former Secretary of State Colin Powell's office denies reports that he "reached out" to "wavering Republican senators" in private conversations regarding U.N. Ambassador-designate John Bolton. More on Powell's role, and "Thanks a lot for that speech, John."

Republicans send judges Priscilla Owen and Janice Rogers Brown to the full Senate for confirmation, setting the stage for what one observer predicts will be "an amazing one-stop shop for shameless displays of modern conservatism's New Left-style identity politics."

As several major Protestant denominations urge one of their own to drop out of "Justice Sunday," Sen. John Kerry asks: "We're going to allow the majority leader to invoke faith to rewrite Senate rules?" Plus: Evangelicals taped discussing ways to 'strip courts' funds.'

Sen. Ken Salazar, who campaigned promising support for an "up-or-down vote" on all judicial nominees, responded to a Focus on the Family ad campaign against him and other senators by calling the group "un-Christian," and "a wing of the Republican Party."

'Swiftboating Hillary' Jamison Foser uses the "extraordinary attention" paid to "The Truth About Hillary," which won't be published for five months, to illustrate "how right-wing attack books ... get so much attention and gain so much influence." Earlier: ' Arthur Finkelstein is Hunting Hillary Clinton.'

In 'The New McCarthyism,' Juan Cole describes the "witch hunt" against Columbia professor Joseph Massad, "and the New York Times' disgraceful support for it." Earlier: 'Smearing Joseph Massad.'

Responding to Sen. Jay Rockefeller's call to investigate the detention and interrogation practices of U.S. intelligence agencies, Sen. Pat Roberts said: "I am fast losing patience with what appears to me to be almost a pathological obsession with calling into question the brave men and women on the front lines of the war on terror."

Arguing that "What is considered 'terrorism' by the Bush administration is perceived as something completely different around the world," Pepe Escobar cites a Jordanian poll showing that in four Middle Eastern countries, 85 percent said that "the U.S. war on Iraq was an act of terrorism."

Bob Harris writes that a unanimous Iraqi National Assembly vote to demand an apology for an assault on one of its members by a U.S. soldier is getting "a big symbolic middle finger" from Washington and media attention "across the Arab world."

As Iraq war costs surge past the $300 billion mark, the Brookings Institution's Michael O'Hanlon, who compiles the Iraq Index, which is "based primarily on U.S. government information," estimates that between 500 and 1000 Iraqis per month are still being killed.

A helicopter crash survivor is 'shot dead on video' as the Pentagon acknowledges "an uptick" in violence in Iraq, while the Los Angeles Times reports that a "flow of corpses" in the Tigris dates back almost two months.

John Pilger writes that the British electorate is feeling "a familiar, if desperate media push" to "put aside considerations of basic morality" and "walk over the corpses of at least 100,000 people" to vote in what he calls 'Britain's Absurd Election.'

"The reasons are unclear." An Army-sponsored RAND study finds it puzzling that "all other things equal, combat arms soldiers have higher attrition and lower reenlistment rates than do soldiers in other occupations." A poster at This is Rumor Control offers to help them out.

Debating whether U.S. troops should withdraw now from Iraq, Naomi Klein said that the U.S. is already "abandoning Iraq ... to violence, to daily humiliation, and checkpoint killings." Earlier: Klein on 'The Rise of Disaster Capitalism.'

Iraq's oil ministry reportedly gives 450 the sack as 'Corruption Drains Iraq's Oil Industry.'

As Pope Benedict XVI condemns a Spanish government bill allowing homosexuals to marry and adopt children, AlterNet's Lakshmi Chaudhry reasons that 'A Pope Is a Pope Is a Pope.' Earlier: 'Seeing Smoke.'

Editor & Publisher reports that Time "continues to be criticized" for its Ann Coulter cover story, FAIR joins the fray, and Yeats is invoked. Plus: ... "when Time was what Fox News is now."

April 21

A retired general just back from Iraq warns of "spectacular large-scale attacks" by insurgents who "have the capacity," and a suicide bomber fails in an effort to assassinate outgoing prime minister Iyad Allawi.

In what would be "the first time insurgents have succeeded in bringing down a civilian aircraft in Iraq," a Russian-made helicopter carrying U.S. Defense Department contractors was reportedly shot down by a missile, killing 11, including six Americans.

A Washington Post reporter on a Triangle of Death ride-along watches "the vehicle I had been riding in 10 minutes earlier" get blown up by a road bomb, killing a "gung-ho private fresh out of training" who was "blasted from the Humvee along with the gun turret."

A Post profile of a onetime gang member who 'applies rules of street' in Iraq, "serves to both justify and promote a colonial and homicidal mentality" among U.S. troops, argues a WSWS analysis. And in response to Dana Milbank's 'Bias for Mainstream News,' Nicholas von Hoffman asks: 'Guardians of the truth, or protectors of privilege?'

'Will Media Probe Why?' With a new Gallup poll finding that 53% of Americans says the Iraq war was not worth it, Editor & Publisher notes that "there has been very little press coverage of why, in light of some positive developments in Iraq, this is true."

Andrew Bacevich examines the origins of what he argues is "the American public's ready acceptance of the prospect of war without foreseeable end," in an excerpt from his book, "The New American Militarism, How Americans Are Seduced by War."

Happily Ever After In a pre-publication review of the book, Paul Craig Roberts quoted Bacevich on the "marriage of a militaristic cast of mind with utopian ends" that has "committed the United States to waging an open-ended war on a global scale."

Iranian militants claim that "some 440 volunteers, most of them women," have signed up in Iran for suicide attacks in Iraq and Israel.

The decision by the Senate Foreign Relations committee to delay voting on the nomination of John Bolton as U.N. Ambassador is dedscribed as a 'blow to Bush,' while the president urged the Senate to "put aside politics" and give him his man.

A GOP offer to investigate House Majority Leader Tom DeLay "isn't good enough," says a Washington Post editorial. Plus: DeLay tackles DeLay before moving "closer to God"

Joe Conason accuses "Justice Sunday" participants, "Mr. Perkins, Mr. Dobson and Mr. Frist," of "exploiting religion to advance an agenda that has nothing to do with Christianity and everything to do with the Chamber of Commerce." Find a simulcast venue near you and read about who's meeting up.

The U.S. is reportedly lobbying to block the World Health Organization from endorsing two abortion pills which could save the lives of an estimated 68,000 women who die from complications of unsafe abortion each year.

The San Francisco Chronicle's Mark Morford offers '14 Thoughts For The New Pope,' calling on Benedict XVI to "do something about Christian rock" and to explain what's wrong with "The West Wing's" Kristin Chenoweth. Plus: Bush and Benedict as 'Holy Warriors.'

A Texas Senate committee hears testimony about the possibility that the state executed an innocent person. Earlier: John Dean on Alberto Gonzales' 'Texas Execution Memos.'

A lawsuit against the Department of Education alleges that No Child Left Behind has left the nation's schools to face "multibillion-dollar national funding shortfalls."

As the U.S. economy gets "the most negative rating in two years of monthly polls," a Washington Post analysis notes that "the only economic bills signed into law this year have tilted against the little guy."

While signing the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention, Consumer Protection Act, President Bush said that "if someone does not pay his or her debts, the rest of society ends up paying them."

The House of Representatives voted to allow drilling in ANWR, along with "$8.1 billion in tax breaks ... to promote coal, nuclear, oil, and natural gas energy industries," just in time for Earth Day. Plus: A "rock-bottom deal" on corporate greenwashing.

A South Carolina state representative said, "I wanted to offend that snippy reporter," after he was asked whether the legislature was "valuing a gamecock's life over a woman's life" by moving to make cockfighting a felony while allowing domestic violence to remain a misdemeanor.

Citing Carl Bernstein's "idiot culture" observation, The Daily Howler asks: "What are 'the consequences to our society' from the press corps' idiot culture? In the campaign which transformed our national politics, they worked for two years to make Gore seem crazy. Now, they're working to make Coulter seem sane."

In an interview with CJR Daily, Time's John Cloud, who wrote the cover story on Ann Coulter, 'responds to his critics,' including Eric Alterman and Media Matters, who return the response.

April 20

"My conscience got me," declared Senator George Voinovich, prompting the Senate Foreign Relations committee to postpone voting on the nomination of John Bolton as U.N. Ambassador, and almost immediately becoming the newest target of a right wing ad campaign, after an "amazing afternoon."

The Los Angeles Times editorializes that 'Bolton Should Step Aside,', suggesting that "Maybe there is a consolation prize the White House could offer him. How about ambassador to France?"

'Is the House of Bush Collapsing?' Stewart Nusbaumer argues that President Bush "barely squeezed through the door of a second term" and is "very close to having his entire presidency blowtorched by history," although 'Democrats must change everything.'

With 'An economy going nowhere,' a housing boom threatening to become a housing bomb, cities facing a 'crushing debt burden' and real wages "falling in the middle of a recovery," thanks to globalization and deunionization, Harold Meyerson asks, 'Remember the Raise?'

Rep. John Conyers called the first hearing of the Commission on Federal Election Reform "at times, outrageous," the Washington Post reported that witnesses "provided a dizzying list of electoral problems," and the commission's executive director claimed that e-mails complaining about James Baker as co-chair constituted "harassment."

The Village Voice's Sydney Schanberg calls for "journalistic civil disobedience," as a response to an administration that "has raised secrecy and information control to a level never before seen in Washington."

Synthesizing accounts of a talk given by Karl Rove, "The Polarized Press: Media and Politics in the Age of Bush," Dan Froomkin writes that "Rove was blunt: It's all the press's fault." Plus: 'Rove's Reading: Not So Liberal as Leery.'

Andrew Sullivan finds a political analogy involving Rove in the elevation of Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger to the papacy, as AFP recalls how the 'new pope intervened against Kerry in U.S. 2004 election campaign.'

Antiwar's Justin Raimondo leaps to Benedict XVI's defense contra Sullivan, calling the pontiff 'a champion of peace,' while Bill Berkowitz questions the new pope's qualifications.

Wolf Blitzer "sounded like a little kid watching a circus parade," writes Tom Shales. "At the sight of Ratzinger himself in his new papal garments, Blitzer went bananas: 'Here he is! There he is! That's Pope Benedict XVI!'"

"Anti-Semitism and other forms of religious harassment" are said to be pervasive at the Air Force Academy, where the commandant is a born-again Christian and evangelical groups see "anti-Christian bigotry developing."

Both Shiites and Sunnis are reportedly "sharpening their knives" in Iraq's Assembly, as 'dozens of bodies' are found in the Tigris river and in a soccer stadium.

Robert Dreyfuss explores 'Iraq's Catch-22,' which has Iraq's new government leaders "stuck in a fatal embrace" and resistance groups changing tactics "to draw the United States out of its foxhole." Plus: How tribes and bribes trump merit in government hiring.

David Corn reports that at the Ron Ridenhour Awards luncheon, at which Seymour Hersh received the Courage Award, Hersh said that "there is no hope for Iraq."

Pepe Escobar describes popular reaction to 'the shadow Iraqi government,' summed up as "Bush equals Saddam because the same people who repressed us are back."

Cyrille Cartier, freelancing from Iraq for Womens eNews, reports from a women's shelter that the residents, who "represent a microcosm of Iraq," aren't "expecting new protections from domestic violence." Plus: AlterNet interviews Baghdad Burning's Riverbend and excerpts her new book.

The Seattle Times reports that oil pumped from the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge could end up being sold to foreign consumers, after being touted as reducing America's dependence on foreign oil. And 'Some Like It Hot' author Chris Mooney details Sen. James Inhofe's 'Cherry-Picking Accident.'

'The Corporate Co-Author' An article published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine explains that pharmaceutical PR flacks often ghostwrite medical journal articles signed by doctors.

Pay To Say The Wall Street Journal exposes the practice of 'TV experts' taking money from companies to plug their products during interviews with local-TV stations, in shilling that often extends to network TV appearances. Howard Kurtz follows up. Plus: 'The Zombie That Won't Die.'

The Washington Post's Al Kamen finds the Joint Chiefs busy capitalizing on the War on Terrorism. [Scroll down]

April 19

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