At the same time Republican Senate Intelligence Committee chairman Pat Roberts appears set to run away from his responsibility to investigate President Bush’s secret warrantless wiretaps on American citizens, a federal judge has ordered the Bush administration to cough up documents on the program to the Electronic Privacy Information Center. EPIC appears to have some good resources available on Bush’s domestic surveillance.

I believe Media Matters is an accurate site, but it certainly has a bias (deservedly so, imho) against Fox News. With that in mind, put this in the “interesting if true” category:

Fox News’ Special Report with Brit Hume showed an edited video clip of Rev. Joseph Lowery’s remarks at Coretta Scott King’s funeral, during which he mentioned the failure to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Lowery’s remarks were greeted with 23 seconds of applause and a standing ovation, but the clip Fox News aired presented nine seconds of applause and little hint of the standing ovation without noting that the clip had been doctored. After seeing the clip, Roll Call’s Morton Kondracke concluded that the audience “wasn’t exactly uproarious in its response” to Lowery.

That’s pretty low even for the folks at Faux News. Editing the footage, then airing commentary that is based on a perception created by the editing? Not cool.

Hunter over at Daily Kos offers up another epic installment. This time, he takes aim at John Gibson and the nimrods at Faux News and their credulous reaction to bin Laden’s latest.

My favorite passage:

And so Gibson shows the last refuge of an armchair patriot, a man whose love for his actual country extends no further than his own arms, his own pockets, his lapel pin, and the sound of his own voice. I hardly need such urgent, bulbous threats as Gibson’s to see where the terrorists can gain their moment of advantage; I can merely turn on cable television, and see the pronouncements of the Fox News foppery, humping the so-called War on Terror with the jiggling gracelessness of a dog wooing a well-worn couch, and know that the ultraconservatives of all involved countries are the ones who have spent the most spittle on these fights, to the least service.

For those of you who loved Zork (or other interactive fiction computer games) and dislike our Iraqi policy, the Defective Yeti has Iraqi Invasion: A Text Misadventure.

A sample:

> EXAMINE DESK
It is a large, oak desk, with several drawers.

In one drawer you find a bag of pretzels.

> EAT PRETZEL.
I don’t think the pretzel would agree with you.

> INVADE IRAQ
You are not able to do that, yet.

> INVADE IRAQ
You are not able to do that, yet.

> GO RIGHT
Far-Right
You are on the far right of the political spectrum.
Jesse Helms is here.
John Ashcroft is here.

> GO RIGHT
Radical Right
You are on the extreme right of the political spectrum.
Dick Cheney is here.
Pat Robertson is here.

> INVADE IRAQ
You are not able to do that, yet.

> TAKE VACATION
Taken.

> INVADE IRAQ
You are not able to do that, yet.

> SCORE
Your favorablity rating is 58% out of a possible 100%.