Late Thursday night, AP issued the following statement after a day-long discussion of the DMCA takedowns issued to the Drudge Retort that reached all the way up to the company's top management.

Two stories come to my attention: One can't seem to go away soon enough, the other, well, they state what we've known for some time, and for an odd reason, these two seem to compliment the other...

...in that Twilight Zone kind of way, yes....

The Associated Press claims that Drudge Retort users linking to its stories are violating its copyright and committing "'hot news' misappropriation under New York state law." An AP attorney filed six Digital Millenium Copyright Act takedown requests this week demanding the removal of blog entries and another for a user comment.

On Monday, the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform released its report titled JACK ABRAMOFF'S CONTACTS WITH WHITE HOUSE OFFICIALS. Interesting reading; if you haven't already looked at it, follow the link in the last sentence.

The political world, especially at the right end of the spectrum, is full of "support our troops" mantras, supplemented by the millions of Americans whose cars & trucks sport magnets bearing the same slogans. Needless to say, slogans don't particularly help our troops, being incapable of restoring health, supplying food and shelter, or finding jobs for the vets. And it looks like, once again, those who scream "support our troops" the loudest have missed another opportunity to render support beyond words and magnets.

Well, well and well: Apparently we've got an investigation going: Are oil speculators to blame for current crude prices?

Cat got a climbing gear?

I'm currently reading What Happened, former White House press secretary Scott McClellan's 323-page stab in the back to the Bush administration. The book wasn't supposed to be out until June 1, but the publisher lifted the embargo yesterday and I grabbed a copy at Barnes & Noble. Current and former Bush administration officials are playing dumb on McClellan's motive for writing the book, but he makes it crystal clear in the preface: Valerie Plame leakers in the White House used him to pass along lies to hide the truth and save their own asses, and Scotty don't play that way.

Well, if the racial shit hasn't yet hit the 2008 election fan, it's certainly close enough for the fan to smell the stink. Here's what Weekly Standard blog poster Gary Andres had to say yesterday about the Gallup Poll showing that Clinton fares considerably better among white voters than does Obama:

It's ironic that a candidate such as Obama -- whose rhetoric and strategy relies so much on building unity -- generates such stark racial cleavages among Americans.

Jeff Masters, a meteorologist with the web site Weather Underground, has uncovered an amazing story related to the cyclone that killed thousands in Burma: The government buried a warning of the impending storm on page 15 of a state-run newspaper.

Turns out that the federal prison racket...sorry, the Federal Prison Industries (FPI), which operates under the brand name Unicor, is all a-tizzy over the audacity of congress in requiring that federal agencies put their contracts for office furniture and the like out to bid rather than giving their business solely to FPI.

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