Stopping the War:  When it comes to putting pressure on the White House to end the war in Iraq... Democrats in Congress would seem to have no problem with the first step: introducing measures that would bring the troops home.  The hard part comes in actually having the spine to pass the legislation once President Bush starts threatening to veto it, and generally bad-mouth the opposition when he does so.  Our fifth story on the Countdown: Stopping the war, take two...

Picadilly Bomb Scare:  The London bomb scare.  The intent was clearly the real thing.  But what these people put together and left parked, and, authorities say, twice failed to "go off"...Did it even constitute a bomb or would it have been at worst, a car fire?  The former State Department deputy head of counter-terrorism has his doubts...

ODDBALL:  The internets have had their way with that freaked out hamster, and elephants are cleaning up.

Mad Murdoch 2:  In 1976, Rupert Murdoch bought from its family ownership, what had been, for thirty years, the country's strongest, self-proclaimed liberal newspaper -- and promised not to change it.  It was The New York Post. It could now no longer be described, either as "liberal," or even as a "newspaper."  Our third story on the Countdown -- thirty one years later, Murdoch wants the Wall Street Journal, and is negotiating with it's family owners on editorial control.

I I, captain:   It's come to this.  The guy at the head of the line in New York City, waiting to buy his I-Phone at exactly 6 PM prevailing local time tonight, was an inveterate compulsive publicity hound, Greg Packer, known as New York's Official Man On The Street Interviewee.  But in Philadelphia, the third guy on the line there, had a little better resume.  Mayor John Street.

WORST PERSON IN THE WORLD:  Who else would take Friday honors, but our very own eye patch wearing conservative bomb thrower...enjoy.

Pets and the GOP:  No matter how grand its ambitions, politics often has the feel of a dog and pony show...So it's a good idea to be **kind** to the animals.  In our number one story on the Countdown... a disturbing trend: Good Ol' Pets -- and other animals -- mistreated by the Grand Old Party.  Most prominently, the case of presidential candidate and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney...

Some of what we're working on for tonight...

In his second full day in office, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown is dealing with his first crisis: a car bomb in Central London, not far from Picadilly Circus, that police were able to diffuse overnight. The timing, the BBC points out, comes not only in the wake of the transfer of power but also with the anniversary of the July 7 attacks approaching.

TURNING BACK HISTORY:  Two things seem certain in the wake of yesterday's Supreme Court decision to overturn Brown v. Board of Ed., the Justices having ruled that schools can no longer use race as a factor in fighting – of all things – discrimination: That Justice Anthony Kennedy is the court's new key swing vote, and that late Chief Justice Earl Warren is rolling over in his grave.

RACE AND THE RACE: The Supreme Court ruling, coincidentally falling on the same day as the first presidential debate designed to focus on minority issues. Of course, the train wreck quotient would have been a lot higher had the Republicans been debating instead of the Democrats.  Senator Barack Obama pointed out that he owed his entire candidacy to affirmative action: "If it were not for them," he said "I would not be standing here." But reporters in attendance say that, once again, Senator Hillary Clinton drew the biggest response, for her observation that AIDS had hit young African-American women particularly hard: "If HIV-AIDS were the leading cause of death of white women between the ages of 25 and 34" the former first lady said, "There would be an outraged, outcry in this country."

STOPPING THE WAR, TAKE TWO: The folks at the Politico report that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid are poised to announce another "coordinated effort" to end
the war in Iraq by forcing votes on the issue throughout July. Countdown would like to point out, in
advance, that voting would not seem to be the problematic portion of any Democratic effort on Iraq.
It's actually having a spine once the White House starts threatening vetoes on said legislation and
otherwise bad-mouthing the Democrats.

WEB OF INTRIGUE:  So if pro wrestler Chris Benoit didn't change his Wikipedia entry to mention his wife's death – hours before authorities discovered the body and that of their seven-year-old son – who did? Just the latest development in a story as fascinating as it is heart-breakingly sad.

White House In Crisis:  Loyal Olberfans will remember Keith's notable coverage of MSNBC's original "White House in Crisis" coverage...when management thought a little hanky panky in the oval office was worthy of an antire hour program every night.  Now that the White House is REALLY in crisis, Countdown turns back the clock and does an old timer's day with the graphic look and music of the original (originally laughable) White House in crisis.  David Shuster and John Dean help us out.

Re-Mission:  Dan Bartlett admits, on his way out the door, that he'd like to take back the 'Mission Accomplished' photo op the Bush admin staged on the deck of the Abraham Lincoln when we "won the war" all those years ago.  Richard Wolffe does the honors.

ODDBALL:  Perp and police get popped on the pavement, and the strange tale of a champagne room breaking out on a golf course.  Only in Oddball, folks.

Mad Murdoch:  Keith piggybacks on the excellent reporting the NY Times did re: Darth Vader (Emperor is probably a better analogy) of FOX News himself, Rupert Murdoch.  It's a well done spot that you should really check out.

Reunited:  The original "Big Show" tag team are reunited on television with David Letterman hosting the festivities (he called them Dan Olbermann).  It was great tv...again, don't miss it.

WORST PERSON IN THE WORLD:  A certain large headed FOX News host repeats with his second night taking home the dubious honor.

What Have We Learned?:  If Paris put you to sleep last night (insert bad joke here)...Keith and Michael Musto will jolt you awake with their hilarious Hilton stylings tonight.

Some of what we're working on for tonight...

 
Here's why many Republican senators on the Judiciary Committee might have voted to issue subpoenaes to the Bush administration, giving the effort broad bipartisan support. Previously, they may have been laboring under the misapprehension they hadn't been allowed to do so. Okay, not really, but in an interview with NPR this morning, Judiciary Committee
Chairman Patrick Leahy said that when Republicans had control of the committee last year, and then-Chairman Arlen Specter tried to issue subpoenaes in a similar
matter, Vice President Cheney paid a visit and told the Republicans on the committee they weren't ALLOWED to issue subpoenas, legally. Naturally, they caved under the pressure. Sen. Leahy also said that, by his count, the White House had ignored nine previous requests for documents related to President Bush's warrantless eavesdropping program.

If you think the White House is going to answer THOSE subpoenaes, today was the deadline for the White House to hand over documents linked to Harriet Miers and Sara Taylor in the firing over federal prosecutors. That deadline has come and gone. Guess what the White
House is asserting as its basis for withholding them? Executive privilege. Too easy.

One of the U.S. attorneys fired last year testified yesterday that Attorney General Gonzales considers 5 to 10 minutes an "extensive, unusual" amount of his time to devote to the decision of whether a man should be put to death. Even in a case where a body had not been recovered. That Mr. Charlton asked to meet with Mr. Gonzales, to ask him to reconsider, amounted to insubordination.

NICE WORK IF YOU CAN GET IT
Its Cheney series may be over, but in today's Washington Post we learn how a $2M no bid contract from the Department of Homeland Security ended up costing taxpayers $124M... all of it, going to the company Booz Allen Hamilton, that was merely supposed to fill a temporary staffing hole. This might have been the problem: The paper says taxpayers paid Booz Allen workers hourly rates that ranged from $42 to $383 an hour.

DAN'S DO-OVER
In an interview GQ magazine, outgoing White House counselor Dan Bartlett, with only one week left on the job, shares his one big regret: "There was never a more benign incident that turned into a bigger messaging problem than 'Mission Accomplished.' It set the wrong tone for what became a protracted, difficult mission. If there was ever a do-over, that would be
it." And as for what former Defense Secretary Rumsfeld has said about the phrase/banner? Bartlett continues: "There was a comment Rumsfeld made in one of those books where he claimed that he took the phrase mission accomplished out of the speech itself but that he
couldn't get the banner pulled down. That's just wrong. I went back and looked at every draft of the speech. That phrase was never in it." Countdown thinks many would argue with Mr. Bartlett on his assessment of the use of 'Mission Accomplished' as benign.

GRANITE STATE FOR GORE
Al Gore has the lead in the New Hampshire, and he isn't even running. As for the likelihood of a Gore candidacy, in the Sunday New York Times magazine last week, his daughter Kristin said he describes himself as "a recovering politician ... on Step No. 9 and he doesn't want to risk a relapse."

Among those definitely in the race, Senator Obama kept pace with Senator Clinton's fundraising prowess for the second quarter... something all but unthinkable at the start of this campaign.

WHY DO REPUBLICANS HATE THE TROOPS?
A House hearing yesterday investigating whether the surge in Iraq is working, instead became an excuse for Republicans on the committee to investigate whether Major General John Batiste is a true Republican, because he has criticized the war and their support of
it in tv ads for VoteVets.org. Looking out for the troops, nowhere near as important as looking out for number 1.

The Paper Chase:  If you're scoring at home -- or even if you're alone -- sharpen your pencil. The White House, now claiming it will not release documents related to the warrantless eavesdropping program... on the grounds that the executive branch has a right to receive confidential advice... While, at the same time, still refusing to comply with its own executive order regarding the safeguarding of classified documents... meant to apply to all entities within the executive branch.  In our fifth story on the Countdown... Something the White House might find more difficult to argue against: Congressional subpoenas.

Rudy Blames Bill:  Rudy Giuliani claims he knew that the 1993 attack on the World Trade Center was part of Osama Bin Laden's declaration of war on us...But then President Bill Clinton didn't see it.  Sheez, Rudy, maybe you couldn't mentioned it during those eight years between the attacks.

ODDBALL:  A Virgin Mary watermelon, a splodin' watermelon and some hanky panky on the links headline tonight's all star wacky video cavalcade.

The GOP Horserace:  It was one of the funniest videos on the internets this year. Will Ferrell, getting hassled for rent money by his foul-mouthed boozing landlady - Pearl.  The two year old daughter of Ferrell's comedy website collaborator Adam McKay.  Now in our third story on the Countdown - two months after Pearl debuted to the paranoid -- almost hallucinogenic -- cries of child exploitation by the likes of Bill Orally, she is back. And back for what is described as... her farewell performance. And back as... the ultimate bad cop.  The ultimate two-year old... bad cop.

TiVo Alert!  Much like Tony Blair hinting at retirement in 2005, making an official announcement in 2006, then finally actually stepping down today -- the release of the I-phone has been impending so long that it feels like it's already last year's technology.  But in our number two story on the Countdown -- the wait is finally... well nearly... over.  Apple's first cell-phone goes on sale this Friday.  And as our correspondent Jane Wells reports, people are already lining up for it.  Or at least, paying others to line up for them.  One caveat: I am not convinced that none of these people in line, are not shills of some sort.

WORST PERSON IN THE WORLD:  A FOX News trifecta vying for top honors tonight...you have to see this one to believe it.

Paris and the Sheriff:   The wheels of government turn slowly, particularly when the wrench thrown in them, is shaped like Paris Hilton.  In our number one story on the Countdown, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors was trying, yesterday, to address an inner city hospital so beleaguered, a patient died in it's Emergency Room lobby last month.  The Board eventually got around to its health care crisis, but not before facing Sheriff Lee Bocka... to find out why he initially released Ms. Hilton after just a few days in jail.  Meantime, Ms. Hilton has now described that jail-cell meltdown...

Here's the report filed by the associated press...rest assured we'll be all over this on tonight's show.

CAPITOL HILL (AP) - A Senate panel is demanding some documents from the White House and from Vice President Cheney's office.

The Judiciary Committee today issued a subpoena for documents related to President Bush's program involving eavesdropping without warrants.

The subpoenas also name the Justice Department and the National Security Council.

A congressional official says the panel is looking for documents that might shed some light on internal squabbles within the administration over whether the program is legal.

Some of what we're working on for tonight...

Yet another page out of the Cheney playbook: When attacked, keep changing your story. The Vice President's chief of staff, David Addington, has defended his interpretation of the Veep's office not having to comply with the executive order, by – this time – saying it's because Cheney's office isn't an "agency." The new twist on the legal argument came in a letter to Senator John Kerry that has been released to Raw Story.

""Dear Senator Kerry," Addington writes, "The executive order on classified national security information -- Executive Order 12958 as amended in 2003 -- makes clear that the Vice President is treated like the President and distinguishes the two of them from 'agencies.' The executive order gives the ISOO, under the supervision of the Archivist of the United States, responsibility to oversee certain activities of "agencies," but not of the Vice President or the President."

Of course, that isn't true either. The amended order, as the folks at TPM Muckraker pointed out yesterday, doesn't just deal with "agencies," it also deals with Executive Branch "entities."

In addition, there are new details in the final installment of the Washington Post's investigative series about Mr. Cheney. It is alarming the level of secrecy that has enveloped the Veep's death grip on the nation's environmental and energy laws – and yes, the two are linked. Christie Todd Whitman, the Post reports, forced out as EPA administrator because Mr. Cheney wanted to ease pollution rules for aging power and oil refinery plants. The Post also focuses on how Mr. Cheney was responsible for the largest fish kill the West has ever seen, all in the hope the Bush/Cheney ticket might be able to eke out a few more votes in Oregon in 2004. (John Kerry still won that state, 51%-47%)

For anyone who has payed any attention to the President's speeches on Immigration reform, you're familiar with the fact that the President is firmly against "amnesty".  He repeatedly says so here, here, here and about a bajillion other places.

His critics, and particularly those on his side of the isle, have decried his immigration bill as amnesty in sheep's clothing.  They say he's endorsing amnesty without calling it amnesty.

So, you'll imagine their amazement when in a speech on Tuesday, the President changed his position and said his bill calls for, let's all say it together, http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2007/06/20070626.html" target="_blank">AMNESTY.

You know, I've heard all the rhetoric -- you've heard it, too -- about how this is amnesty. Amnesty means that you've got to pay a price for having been here illegally, and this bill does that.

Oopsie.  The White House is now saying the President did not mean to say that, and they've linked to a correction on their whitehouse.gov transcript explaining what the President MEANT to say.   

Earlier today, in speaking about comprehensive immigration reform, President Bush misspoke. He told a group, "You know, I've heard all the rhetoric - you've heard it, too - about how this is amnesty. Amnesty means that you've got to pay a price for having been here illegally, and this bill does that." This has been construed as an assertion that comprehensive immigration reform legislation before the Senate offers amnesty to immigrants who came here illegally. That is the exact opposite of the president's long-held and often-stated position.

We're sure his opponents will resepect the mea culpa and not use this one against him...don't ya think? 

Sorry so late, folks...

Cheney World:  President Bush may be the decider, but his decisions are often filtered by the one and only man-branch Vice President Cheney.  Rep. Rahm Emanuel is on to chat with Keith over his efforts to have the VP's office defunded, since Cheney says he's not part of the executive branch.  It's a congressional purse strings thing.

Ex Lugar:  He's the latest Republican to break ranks and ask the President to bring troops home.  He says he took months to arrive at his decision...but he finally came around.  Gee, thanks.

ODDBALL:  Ooh, baby...don't miss tonight's oddball.  It was so great.  So SO great!

Factor Fiction:  Bill O'Reilly gets his lunch handed to him by a 16-year-old high school kid (for the second time in as many weeks).  We just can't pass up the opportunity to enjoy the moment.

Cruise Control:  The controversy over Tom Cruise's movie currently filiming in Germany.  The descendants of the German fella Tom is playing doesn't want a scientology guy pretending to be his dad.   

WORST PERSON IN THE WORLD:  Well, if you saw the show, you'll notice that our graphic producer used the wrong image of the ultimate worst for this fine Tuesday.  Worstie fans will know what we're talking about.

Viva Le Paris!:  She's sprung from the cooler, she looked fabulous and we wrapped up the day's ridiculous coverage with a redux of the get out of jail news and the one and only Michael Musto.   

Some of what we're working on for tonight...

Part Three of the Washington Post's investigative series on Vice President Cheney takes a look at his influence on the administration's domestic policy. Its thesis: That if President Bush is "the Decider" Mr. Cheney serves up his menu of options. For instance, Mr. Cheney led the group that narrowed down the list of potential Supreme Court nominees (we all know how that turned out.)

Mr. Cheney inserted himself in the investigation of Democratic Congressman William Jefferson, apparently as alarmed as Mr. Jefferson's colleagues were about the seizure of the congressman's files... what with being a member of the legislative branch and all. He presented Mr. Bush with the course of action that was taken - the files were placed under seal for 45 days. Lastly, but by no means all, Mr. Cheney has shaped tax cut policy.

The Post reporting that on a rare occasion when the president actually told his alleged second banana 'No' (on deep reductions on capital gains tax on investments) Mr. Cheney did an end run around Mr. Bush and successfully lobbied Congress for them directly. Not that the president will ever even find out about it. He doesn't read newspapers.

COUNTING DOWN TO SEPTEMBER:  Sen. Richard Lugar of Indiana has become the latest Republican to announce he doesn't believe the president's policies are working in Iraq. Countdown is still drawing a line between Republican senators who speak out against the president's policies in Iraq and those who actually do something about it. (Senator Warner, that means you.) The true test will come in September.

A FILIBUSTER IS A FILIBUSTER:  Speaking of which, Countdown is tired of hearing the term "procedural vote" used in reference to today's action regarding the immigration reform bill on Capitol Hill.  Before the Democrats took over the Senate, any attempt to prevent an up-or-down vote in that body was called a 'filibuster' loudly and often. Now that the Republicans are in the minority, much of the MSM seems to have abandoned that term.

How adept has the GOP become at blocking legislation, you ask? Let's just say the House has passed and sent 239 bills to the Senate - 239 - that, one way or another, haven't been heard from since.

The Cheney Presidency: If you are appointed by a Presidential candidate, to head a search committee to find him a Vice Presidential candidate, and the person you ultimately find, and endorse, is you... it should thereafter surprise no one, that you may be thinking you have completely gamed the system. Nonetheless it had been one of the most cynical jokes made by the critics of the current occupants of the White House: that this wasn't the "Bush Administration," it was really "The Cheney Administration." And yet imperical evidence tonight, that there may be no joke... or even worse... the joke is on us.

Mayor Culpa: The Republican who headed the environmental protection agency in 2001 may have finessed whether or not she was blaming Rudy Giuliani for the scandal over the quality of the air at Ground Zero. But she did not pull any punches, blaming him for putting appearances ahead of safety, during the anthrax nightmare. Christie Todd Witman's story and testimony is our Number Four Story.

ODDBALL: The world's ugliest dog is really kinda... ugly -- and when attending an air show in Galway, Irelan... don't let the door hit ya.

Murder in Ohio: The stomach-turning story from Ohio, turning again.     A married police officer charged in the murder of his girlfriend and their child, there is a third woman charged in the case, and the only witness is the two-year old son the dead woman bore him, who told police, "Mommy was crying, Mommy broke the table. Mommy's in a rug."

Hung Out to Dry:
53 million dollars for a pair of pants. This inflation is killing us. The lawsuit that rocked the dry cleaning world -- is over.

WORST PERSON IN THE WORLD: When getting your hair cut in Amsterdam, stare straight ahead, talk about the weather, do NOT anger the barber... a shocker, Senator James Inhofe is having some trouble keeping his stories straight... and  another Senator announces he's taking his policy cues from right-wing talk radio hosts. Your tax dollars in action.

Spoiler Alert! Our modern mythology... The Harry Potter books come to an end in less than a month, and Keith thinks he's figured out the conclusion. Who lives, who dies, and how. It's just an opinion, but you might want to take notes.

Might Hillary be ditching Celine Dion already? Not a bar of the French Canadian crooner's "You and I" could be heard at last night's campaign event for Senator Clinton in Manhattan. Instead, loudspeakers were blaring another (far more catchy) tune from the pre-approved list Mrs. Clinton's campaign had offered in its contest: KT Tunstall's "Suddenly I See." This helpful tip to the RNC's opposition research staff: Ms. Tunstall is Scottish.

P.S. Does this mean we get a new Sopranos spoof?

Some of what we're working on for tonight...

It's Dick Cheney's world. We all – including President
Bush – just live in it. For instance, if you really
want to know who the real Attorney General of the
United States is, look no further than Mr. Cheney's
Chief-of-Staff, lawyer, and general consigliere, David
Addington. Part two of the Washington Post's excellent
four-part series on the Vice President reveals Alberto
Gonzales is really no more than a Cheney (and
Addington) flunky. Part one revealed that Mr. Cheney even spies on other
senior members of the White House staff.

Thus, it should come as no surprise that Mr. Gonzales
apparently has done nothing to investigate the Vice
President's refusal to comply with that executive
order requiring all federal offices to comply with
reporting procedures on how they're safeguarding
classified documents. The Justice Department, even
going so far as to claim it has never even received
any letters about the matter. 
(In related news, the office of the nation's chief
executive appears to be trying to claim it isn't part
of the executive branch either. Please make the
madness stop.)

Finally, Rolling Stone points out that Mr. Cheney was
also in charge of the administration's campaign to
deny global warming. Forget the jokes - maybe the man
really is president after all.

MUDDYING THE WATERS
Another facet of the Bush administration's strategy
for undermining the September deadline for its
progress report to Iraq on Congress is taking shape:
More progress reports. Taking a page out of its
playbook from the release of the Iraq Study Group
report, the administration is commissioning other
assessments. A) We'll all have to wait for them to be
finished and B) Mr. Bush can pick and choose among the
many conclusions.

As Frank Rich of the New York Times points out, we can
be certain that any bad news from the administration
on Iraq, is certain to come on or as near to 9/11 as
possible, cloaked in as much irrational language about
the "consequences of failure" as possible. If you
believe such rhetoric isn't effective, Newsweek
recently discovered that "four in ten Americans (41
percent) still believe Saddam Hussein's regime was
directly involved in financing, planning or carrying
out the terrorist attacks on 9/11." Sobering figure,
aint it?  

The L.A. Times reports this morning that the Bush
administration is quietly coming around to the idea
that it both needs to "compromise" with Congress on
Iraq and that any solution for that country would need
it to be decentralized. Countdown wonders – How
quickly until the Democrats cave?

We know we've assigned a lot of reading for a Sunday - but this Rolling Stone investigation is required, sorry. The more articles like this we read, the more we realize that one of the men in the photo above is the President of the United States, and one seems to be not much more than our national mascot.

The Secret Campaign of President Bush's Administration to Deny Global Warming.

Cheney took full advantage of the president's cluelessness,
bringing the CEQ (the
Council on Environmental Quality, a policy arm of the White House) into his own portfolio. "The environment and
energy issues were really turned over to him from the beginning,"
Whitman says. The CEQ became Cheney's shadow EPA, with industry
calling the shots. To head up the council, Cheney installed James
Connaughton, a former lobbyist for industrial polluters, who once
worked to help General Electric and ARCO skirt responsibility for
their Superfund waste sites.

Industry swiftly took advantage of its new friend in the White
House. In a fax sent to the CEQ on February 6th, 2001 - two weeks
after Bush took office - ExxonMobil's top lobbyist, Randy Randol,
demanded a housecleaning of the scientists in charge of studying
global warming. Exxon urged CEQ to dump Robert Watson, who chaired
the IPCC, along with Rosina Bierbaum and Mike MacCracken, who had
coordinated the National Assessment

Exxon's wish was the CEQ's command. According to an internal
e-mail obtained by Rolling Stone, Connaughton's first order of
business - even before his nomination was made public - was to
write his White House colleagues-to-be from his law firm of Sidley
& Austin. He echoed Exxon's call that Bierbaum, the acting
director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy, be
"dealt." In the end, each of the scientists on Exxon's hit list was
replaced. "It was clear there was a strong lobby and activity
against me by some in the energy industry - especially ExxonMobil,"
says Watson.

Click here for a good summation at ThinkProgress.

Gitmo and Dick Cheney: If, after two years of planning and intent, the White House does not have an exit strategy for Guantanamo Bay... what are the chances it's going to pull one out of somewhere, for Iraq? 24-hours later, still more questions than answers, about the AP report that the Bush administration was nearing a decision to close the detention facility at the U-S naval base in Guantanamo Bay Cuba. Plus...a severe case of whiplash regarding who exactly this Dick Cheney guy is anyway. Today, White House Spokesperson Dana Perino revealed that Mr. Cheney has now evolved to a point where he is not just in the executive branch, but indistinguishable from the president himself.

Jewels of Denial: The CIA is about to catalog its own clandestine and illegal-in-multiple-nations activities. As our correspondent Pete Williams reports -- Central Intelligence is cutting out the middle-man... and passing the savings (and the secrets!) on to you!

ODDBALL: It's time once again to demonstrate the dangers of fireworks by blowing the crap out of fresh produce and department store mannequins... plus, voyeur video of a robot in the shower, and one airlines' way to"spice up" the friendly skies.

The GOP Horserace: When Presidential candidates show up at a memorial for nine firefighters who perished nowhere near the candidates' states or cities, is it paying respects...or playing politics? And why the firefighters had to ask Rudy Giuliani NOT to speak, when the Secretary of Homeland Security did, saying "the tragedy of monday reminds us that we live in a world in which danger is all around us from accidents to natural disasters to deliberate acts of terror."

Dangerous Imports:
It is not just that a hugely popular toy -- made in China -- is covered in dangerous lead paint. In our number two story on the Countdown, that toy may now become the unintended mascot for a larger problem, possibly unmasking our government's incapacity, or disinterest, in safety-testing all imports meant for kids.

WORST PERSON IN THE WORLD: The British Ministry of Defense says 'nothing to see here, nevermind those two-mile wide UFO's in the sky".... John Travolta takes the Tom Cruise approach to psychiatric medicine... and Glenn Beck does more to divide the country than the terrorists ever could.

The Paris Doctor's Padded Resume: The campaign to get Paris Hilton out of jail for psychological reasons, had one hidden flaw, just revealed: The psychologist wasn't quite who he said he was. Oh here we go.

The Supreme Court handed down a ruling yesterday that
could be bad news for Scooter Libby's attempt to argue
that his sentencing was unreasonable. In Rita v. U.S.,
defendant Victor Rita, convicted of perjury and
obstruction of justice, had been sentenced to 33
months in prison and had asked the court for a lighter
sentence, based in part on his service to his country,
in this case past military service. All in all, sounds
familiar, doesn't it? By an 8-to-1 vote, the Justices
held that criminal sentences that fall within
guidelines set by a commission -- while no longer
mandatory -- are not unreasonable and can be upheld.

Cue the chipmunk. 

THE WOMAN AND CHILDREN OF WAR
More problems for the U.S.-led coalition in
Afghanistan, in the wake of that attack last weekend
that killed 7 children. Last night some 25 civilians
were killed during a NATO air strike, according to
local police, with 3 children and 9 women among the
dead. The 25 civilians were "collateral damage" in the strike, which is said to have killed 20 Taliban fighters. NATO says the
"risk to civilians was probably deliberate," whatever
that means; The U.S. military says it has no comment.

DEAR JOHN...
What could be a one-two punch for the John Edwards
campaign for president or the third strike if that
$400 haircut was the beginning of the end. (It's
Friday - Countdown will resort to as many cliches as
is necessary to get the job done.) A report in today's
paper of record says it may have looked like, after
leaving the Senate, Mr. Edwards formed a non-profit
aimed merely at fighting poverty ... but the
organization -- which might still do very good work
for the poor -- was used to keep his political
operatives on the payroll until he could launch his
presidential bid. Mr. Edwards, "pushed at the
boundaries" of how much a non-profit can be used for
partisan political activities. As for the other bad
news, his campaign is also predicting a huge drop-off
in donations for the second quarter, putting him even
further behind Senators Obama and Clinton. 

GETTING DUMPED
Interesting that the Bush administration would choose
the night after a Gonzales-Gate hearing to time
another Monica Goodling document dump... What largely
seems merely to be more attempts at justifying the
firings of those nine U.S. attorneys after the fact.

THE SILVIO VOTE
Vincent Curatola, aka "Johnny Sack", apparently was
the understudy. Stevie Van Zant, who played Silvio
Dante, allegedly passed on a chance to appear in Hill
and Bill's "Sopranos" spoof because he is supporting
Barack Obama. Countdown will not rest until it has
brought you the endorsement of every Sopranos cast
member, no matter how questionable the source. This
election will be decided on nothing less.

Doug Mills/The New York Times

The New York Times reports...

For four years, Vice President Dick Cheney has resisted routine oversight of his office's handling of classified information, and when the National Archives unit that monitors classification in the executive branch objected, the vice president's office suggested abolishing the oversight unit, according to documents released yesterday by a Democratic congressman.

Read the full article here.

Closing Gitmo: The most notorious American prison since the Civil War is reportedly on the verge of being shut down by the Bush Administration after a summit meeting tomorrow. Bush, Cheney, Gonzales, Rice, Chertoff, and Pace among the attendees. What happens to the detainees? What happens to the prosecutions? And was the news of the meeting leaked in order to scuttle the plans to close the prison? The latest on the bombshell news breaking in Washington.

Cheney in Charge: How many branches of our government are there?    Three? Nope...four! The Executive, the Legislative, the Judicial, and...The Dick! The Vice President's office refuses inspection by the National Archives in the erased and illegal e-mails scandal, claiming that law doesn't apply to it -- the fourth branch of government.

ODDBALL: From England, the coolest sculpture ever...the most dramatic hamster ever...and the bizarre case of the missing lake.

Romney's Police Force: The campaign drives onward, but the Romney camp denies its security people pulled anybody over. A New York Times reporter says it did just that, and told him it had "run his plates" and he should stop following the campaign bus. And all that sounds pretty bad, and maybe illegal.

Keeping Tabs: From chihuahua poo... to the poo hitting the fan in the baseball steroids investigation. Jason Giambi's steroid admission... and Paris Hilton's pet problem.

WORST PERSON IN THE WORLD: The Prime Minister of France is afraid of Blackberrys... Delusional Bill is now imposing his own timetable for the War in Iraq... and Michael Graham goes on the Glenn Beck show to see he would have liked to see the Clintons murdered in that diner scene from Hillary's Sopranos spoof.

If He Did It: Just when the Paris Hilton story peters out, and the Anna Nicole Smith judge leaves for Hollywood... what could possibly fill the tabloid void? Excerpts from the OJ Simpson confession book! Oh here we go.

We'd be remiss if we didn't provide this link to the fine readers of The News Hole. Please feel free to send your suggested questions to Chris.

Keep 'em clean and be sure to post them in the comments section below as well.

From Talking Points Memo...

Rahm Emanuel's office just sent out a nifty chart illustrating Veep Cheney's latest. As you may have heard by now, Cheney reportedly exempted
his own office from the presidential order establishing government-wide
procedures for the guarding of classified national security info. He
reportedly did this by asserting that his office is not an "entity
within the executive branch."

Some of what we're working on for tonight...

Outgoing Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty will be the star (only?) witness, this afternoon at a House Judiciary Subcommittee hearing on the firing of those nine U.S. attorneys. You will recall that last month, under limited immunity, former Justice aide Monica Goodling accused Mr. McNulty of having provided inaccurate testimony to the Senate. As for what role Mr. McNulty played in carrying out the firings, Attorney General Gonzales first said he wished he'd relied more on his former deputy... only to do a 180 and later name Mr. McNulty as THE underling most responsible for the dismissals.

In related news (and what the Chicago Tribune calls "a perverse twist on the notion of a confidential
informant") the House Judiciary Committee has announced the launch of a website to collect information from Justice Department whistleblowers about incidents of politicized dept. operations. 

One for the files right here, to be labeled, 'If we didn't just read it we wouldn't believe it.' According to today's Washington Post, the then-acting Assitant Attorney General, Bradley Schlozman, once asked a colleague if even "a career lawyer who had voted for Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz), a one-time rival of President Bush, could still be trusted."

THE BLAIR NICHE PROJECT
President Bush is pushing hard to make British Prime Minister Tony Blair - who will be out of Downing Street next week - his special envoy to the Middle East. Well, not just the U.S.'s... also, the European Union's, Russia's and also the U.N.'s... but Countdown has gotten used to thinking of Mr. Blair as the American President's Mini Me. While all of this may seem like a new development, the Washington Post says negotiations have been going on behind the scenes for two months now. And the Los Angeles Times (quoting the BBC, which should know) says "it looks like this is going to be Blair's next job." If Mr. Blair wants the job, we say his American counterpart owes him and he should have it.

GOING NUCULAR
There is absolutely no news value to President Bush's visit to the Brown's Ferry Nuclear Plant in Athens, Georgia today. Countdown just very badly wanted to use the obvious headline. Many Thanks for your indulgence.

STAND OF LINCOLN
Anyone who witnessed the catcalls and booing that greeted Senator Hillary Clinton and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi at yesterday's "Take Back America"
conference knows how unhappy the liberal base of the Party is about the Democrats' stance on Iraq. The Chairman of the Armed Services Committee, Senator Carl Levin of Michigan, attempts to justify the lawmaker's strategy of opposing the war in Iraq - by still funding it - by saying Abraham Lincoln did the same thing. Countdown needs to check the history books before weighing in on the merits of the argument, but there is no doubt that it is ballsy.

SUMMER TIME
In case you hadn't checked the calendar, the clock or the thermometer, Summer begins this afternoon at 2:06pm Eastern. Happy Solstice, Everyone!

Three Dollar Bill knows what you need to know and what you don't need to know.

You don't need to know what's going on in Iraq on a daily basis. You don't need to see every "meaningless bombing in Tikrit". You don't need to see their identification. These are not the droids you're looking for.

Move along.

Watch this video to see what's really important to "the folks", then send it to everyone you know so we can all be as minimally informed as possible.

It's the War, Stupid: Hillary Clinton and other Democrats get a cool reception from the anti-war crowd, but what exactly were they expecting? Plus Countdown welcomes General wesley Clark to discuss the reality on the ground in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the coverage - or lack thereof - here at home

The Truth About Abu Ghraib: General Janice Karpinski joins Keith Olbermann to discuss the latest revelations about the Taguba investigation of violations of the Geneva Convention at the Abu Ghraib prison facility in Iraq.

ODDBALL: A dude in a Jeep sinks a three pointer at 35 MPH, and we think this video is a fake but we can't be quite sure.

Digital Grafitti: A lawsuit from two Yale students over slanderous items written about them on an internet messageboard could set a new precedent for liability on the world wide wild wild west web thingy.

Keeping Tabs: Hugh Hefner has an idea for post-prison Paris Hilton... meanwhile, she's busy making pen pals while in the pen...and Nancy Grace finds herself at the business end of a wrongful death lawsuit.

WORST PERSON IN THE WORLD: A bra and panties are two items that should never be flushed down a toilet...your own artificial leg should not be used as a weapon in the course of an assault... and lies about 9/11 should not be used to scare Americans about illegal immigrants.

The News According to Bill
: Bill O'Reilly says he's not covering the news from Iraq, because it's too hard, it helps the terrorists, and it's "meaningless". He says he covers what's important to Americans. We took a look at all the important news he's covered, just in the last week. It's MUST SEE VIDEO.

Some of what we're working on for tonight...

"Three Dollar" Bill O'Reilly has been spinning furiously for the weeks since a report came out demonstrating how little time the FOX Noise Channel actually covers the issue most important to Americans right now, the war in Iraq.

Bill has argued that MSNBC only covers the reality in Iraq as an attempt to embarrass the President, help the terrorists, make America look bad, crazy etcetera, crazy etcetera, crazy etcetera. He says his show covers what's important, such as "the bear issue", "Scientology and homosexuality", and the body language of Angelina Jolie.

His argument is an insult to the American troops fighting and dying in the middle east, and a transparent attempt to distract from the reality on the ground, by accusing real news organizations of being "jazzed" about the deaths of Afghan children, for example.

Tonight we'll talk to retired General Wesley Clark, former head of NATO, former presidential candidate, and now - former FOX Noise analyst (though you'd never know it by the amount of time they actually put him on the air). General Clark is now an analyst for MSNBC, and we'll give him the time that Billo never did.

We'll talk about the "value" of bringing the American public a true picture of the situation in Iraq, where American troops are still being killed, despite what you see on the "no spin zone".

Plus...

VETO HAT TRICK Cue the so-called "snow flake" babies. President Bush
is using his veto pen for a third time today - this
time to axe a bill that would have eased restrictions
on federally-funded embryonic stem cell research.
While Democrats on Capitol Hill had enough votes to
get the legislation passed, they do not have enough
votes in the Senate to stop the veto. Given that 70%
of Americans DO support stem cell research, Countdown
wonders why the votes aren't there for an override.


BOO YORK
Sen. Hillary Clinton took her turn addressing the
liberal "Take Back America" conference this morning.
Last year, they booed her for her votes on Iraq. This
year, when she started talking about Iraq again, more
boos - to be more specific, her line about how the
troops have "done what they went to do" prompted a mix
of boos and those trying to drown them out, according
to NBC's Carrie Dann who was there. Yesterday, this
same conference greeted Sen. Barack Obama like a rock
star. Just sayin'...

RUDY AWAKENING
Our political analyst Dana Milbank of the Washington
Post brought us word of this story last night: the
South Carolina state chairman for Rudy Giuliani's
presidential campaign, Thomas Ravenel, has been
indicted on cocaine charges. Now we have all the
details. Add in that current Mayor Michael Bloomberg's
defected from the Republican party to position himself
for a possible independent presidential bid, and a
morning that started off badly for Rudy seems to have
turned into a rather bad day overall.  

THE WAR ON TRUTH
Maybe the threat of a third party bid by Mr. Bloomberg
would be enough to keep this man out of the race.
Former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich is
spreading falacies about the 9/11 attacks in a new ad
linking the threat of terrorism to the immigration
debate. What Newt says: "Mohamed Atta, and several
other 9/11 hijackers were in the United States
illegally." What really happened: every single one of
the nineteen 9/11 hijackers entered this country
legally, on tourist or student visas.