Zarqawi Zapped.

I was traveling yesterday during the big news: With the aid of cellphone surveillance and an Al Qaeda informer who suggested tracking “spiritual adviser” Sheikh Abd al-Rahman, the US military dropped two 500-lb bombs on Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leading Iraq insurgent (and Al Qaeda poster boy for the administration.) Undoubtedly good news for our efforts in Iraq (and, lord knows, Dubya needed some good news in the worst way, particularly in the wake of Haditha.) Still, this big kill obviously doesn’t answer the big questions about Iraq’s stability, or our continued involvement in the region: “‘The immediate aftermath of this will probably be an upsurge of violence’ as Sunni insurgents hurry to show that Zarqawi’s killing has not broken the resistance, said Michael Clarke, an expert on terrorism at the International Policy Institute of King’s College London. ‘In the medium term, in the next month or two, it will probably help to downgrade sectarianism,’ Clarke said by telephone. ‘But the dynamic of sectarian violence is probably past the point of no return.’” And, of course, while this strike will hopefully be a stunning blow to Al Qaeda in Iraq, what of the original Al Qaeda in Afghanistan and around the world? We’re nearing five years since 9/11, and Osama’s still out there…

Banking on the Bigot Brigade.

“‘He couldn’t not do it,’ explained Richard Viguerie, a prominent conservative activist who believes that gay marriage will not have much of an impact in 2006. ‘He’s got an election coming up and he is 30 percent in the polls. Nothing, Dr. Samuel Johnson told us, focuses the mind like an impending hanging.'” The conservative coalition collapsing in historic fashion around their ears, Dubya and Rove invoke an old standby and attempt to shore up the bigot vote in November by publicly coming out for the anti-gay marriage amendment. Unfortunately for them and the GOP, the same old freak-baiting trick — however carefully worded — doesn’t seem likely to catch fire amid all the war and scandal, and the Senate, as well as GOP moderates, want none of it. Update: As expected, the Senate spike the amendment, with 2 Dems (Byrd, Ben Nelson) backing the bigots and 7 Republicans (Chafee, Collins, Gregg, McCain, Snowe, Specter, Sununu) joining the rest of the Dems in voting against the measure.

Judge Dread.

“‘There’s been a quiet, silent revolution going on,’ Carp said in an interview. ‘If you’re a conservative, you’re going to say, “Thank God.” If you’re a liberal, you’re going to put your hands over your head and say it’s a nightmare.’” By way of my friend Mark, CQ’s Kenneth Jost laments the Dubya judiciary.

Regrets, We’ve Had a Few.

“Saying, ‘Bring it on’; kind of tough talk, you know, that sent the wrong signal to people. I learned some lessons about expressing myself maybe in a little more sophisticated manner, you know. ‘Wanted, dead or alive’; that kind of talk. I think in certain parts of the world it was misinterpreted. And so I learned from that.” In a joint press conference, Dubya and Tony Blair own up to some mistakes in Iraq, including Abu Ghraib — “the biggest mistake“, according to Dubya — and de-Baathification, according to Blair. “The prime minister’s examples appeared to be a direct rebuke of both the Pentagon’s insistence that a detailed “nation-building” plan was unnecessary before the invasion and the push by key members of Bush’s administration for broad de-Baathification.“

Lay Down / The Skilling Moon.

“‘Enron is one of the great frauds in American business history,’ said James Post, a professor of management at Boston University. ‘But it is also a symbol of a particular era of management practice.’” In a strange confluence of ill omens for the current administration, a jury finds finds Enron heads Ken Lay and Jeff Skilling guilty on multiple counts of conspiracy, wire fraud, and securities fraud, with sentencing set for 9/11. For their part, Lay and Skilling immediately began talking appeal, but perhaps that’ll be unnecessary. After all, surely “Kenny-Boy” can wrangle a pardon from his boy Dubya, particularly after he spent all that time crafting Dubya’s energy policy.

Embezzle for Freedom.

“Unbeknownst to almost all of Washington and the financial world, Bush and every other President since Jimmy Carter have had the authority to exempt companies working on certain top-secret defense projects from portions of the 1934 Securities Exchange Act. Administration officials told BusinessWeek that they believe this is the first time a President has ever delegated the authority to someone outside the Oval Office”. In related news (and as seen at Ed Rants), Dubya has apparently, on the sly, “bestowed on his intelligence czar, John Negroponte, broad authority, in the name of national security, to excuse publicly traded companies from their usual accounting and securities-disclosure obligations.”

Hail Mary for the Chief.

“‘The president’s run into a perfect political storm where the confluence of natural disasters from last fall, gasoline prices, staff changes, the continuing war in Iraq, all are giving conservatives a defensive fatigue,’ said Kenneth Khachigian, a California GOP strategist who served in Ronald Reagan’s White House. ‘And let’s put immigration in there, too…There’s just wave after wave washing over them at this point.’” In another of their semi-weekly reports on Dubya’s lame duck quacking, the WP reports that the administration is looking to the November midterms as their last, best hope for a turnaround. But, unfortunately for them, more and more “safe” GOP districts are now in play as a result of the growing anti-Republican mood across the nation. “‘In a nationalized election, the typical laws of gravity get thrown out the window…Under-funded candidates beat better-funded candidates, and entrenched incumbents lose to first-time challengers.”

UN: Do As You Say, not as you do.

“The State party should cease to detain any person at Guantanamo Bay and close this detention facility, permit access by the detainees to judicial process or release them as soon as possible, ensuring that they are not returned to any State where they could face a real risk of being tortured, in order to comply with its obligations under the Convention.” A day after an ugly prisoner uprising, the UN Committee Against Torture implores the US to close the prison at Gitmo. The report (PDF) also calls for the US “to expressly ban controversial interrogation techniques, and to halt the transfer of detainees to countries with a history of abuse and torture.“

Oh, those records.

“Everybody knew that Judicial Watch had gotten the shaft. It just wasn’t clear how. Well, here’s how: the Secret Service doesn’t have the records – the White House does. That’s because the Secret Service transfers their more comprehensive visitor logs, called WAVES (Workers Appointments and Visitors Entry System) records, to the White House every 60 days.” TPM‘s Paul Kiel explains why the Secret Service records of Abramoff came up basically blank. (Via Now This.)

Senate Fencing.

“What we have here has become a symbol for the right wing in American politics, a fence between America and Mexico.” Following up on Dubya’s speech Monday night (which, to be honest, I totally missed — late night at the library), the Senate wrangles over immigration reform, voting, as per conservatives’ wish list, “to build 370 miles of triple-layered fencing along the U.S.-Mexico border and to block access to a new guest-worker program by lawbreaking illegal immigrants, even those guilty of misdemeanors or ignoring a deportation order.”