It's All the Media's Fault

"Under a secret Bush administration program initiated weeks after the Sept. 11 attacks," says the New York Times , "counterterrorism officials have gained access to financial records from a vast international database and examined banking transactions involving thousands of Americans and others in the United States, according to government and industry officials."

But at least "government officials say" the program only affects people suspected of having ties to al-Qaeda.

But hey, what about those WMD? Professor Bainbridge isn't buying:

"In the midst of fighting an election campaign, Senator Rick Santorum announced intelligence data allegedly showing that:

"Since 2003 Coalition forces have recovered approximately 500 weapons munitions which contain degraded mustard or sarin nerve agent.

"Everybody knows Saddam used chemical weapons on the Kurds and in his war with Iran. It would be astonishing if we hadn't found some munitions. But there's nothing new here to suggest that Iraq had a WMD program sufficiently threatening to justify the war . . .

"Why is a politico in the middle of the election fight of his life making this announcement instead of the Administration? It looks like more GOP politicization of intelligence.

Salon's Gary Kamiya finds new evidence of Bush mendacity:

"If there are any observers who still deny that the Bush administration is the most secretive, vengeful, reality-averse, manipulative and arrogant government in U.S. history, they will have a lot of fast talking to do after reading Ron Suskind's new book, 'The One Percent Doctrine.' A meticulous work of reporting, based on interviews with nearly 100 well-placed sources, many of them members of the U.S. intelligence community, Suskind's book paints perhaps the most intimate and damning portrait yet of the Bush team.

"At this point, one could forgive readers for asking, 'How many more damning portraits of the Bush administration do we need?' From yellowcake to Joe Wilson to Abu Ghraib, the list of Bush scandals and outrages is endless, but nothing ever seems to happen."

HuffPoster Alex Koppelman tries on the garb of the Angry Left:

"I don't need coffee to wake up in the mornings anymore. As a member of the mainstream media ('MSM,' for those in the know) I have an internal alarm clock. My all-consuming hatred for President Bush -- my 'Bush Derangement Syndrome,' if you will -- and the consequent desire to see the United States lose in Iraq in order to embarrass the president, gets me going. It's been great -- I save at least $6 a day on Starbucks.