IMUS: What did you make of the Ann Coulter deal?

MATLIN: I take her larger point that in the absence of being able to make persuasive arguments you throw out messengers that — can’t be — it’s politically incorrection to argue with, you know the verbiage is a little, a little stressful.

IMUS: So you thought her comments about these women…

MATLIN: I take her larger point, which is —

IMUS: Why can’t you comment on her calling these women harpies.

MATLIN: Because that’s not her point. That’s completely not her point.

IMUS: Well no, but saying that they were happy their husbands got killed and were going to divorce them. And yeah, that they’re getting long in the tooth. Maybe they ought to think about appearing in Playboy, which is an option.

MATLIN: What do you think about her point? Her point that you can’t — you know Cindy Sheehan — if you throw yourself in the political arena, then you should be able to address political issues, and people should be able to speak back to you.

IMUS: I agree with her point.

MATLIN: Well, then that’s what I agree with.

IMUS: But i think it’s repugnant and repulsive and gutless to, and cheap and cheesey to call these women all these names. I mean, whether it’s right or not, it’s just something there’s just. You don’t go there.

MATLIN: That’s her stock and trade.

IMUS: But i’m surprised that you won’t condemn her for these repugnant remarks.

MATLIN: I don’t know her. I haven’t read the book.

IMUS: You don’t have to know her. You know what Hitler did. Did you you him? You condemn what he did.

MATLIN: Are you comparing her to Hitler?

IMUS: No, I’m not. Of course not.

MATLIN: This is the point. This is complete the point she’s making. These lefty crazy people go around calling us [unintelligible] and Hitlers and Nazis and everything and nobody say anything. She calls somebody a harpy and you’d think that the whole world was on fire.

A California congressman said Thursday a House subcommittee he chairs would investigate whether there was a foreign connection to the 1995 bombing of the Oklahoma City federal building.

"We need to answer some very serious questions in order to have confidence that the truth of this monstrous crime is fully known," Republican Rep. Dana Rohrabacher said in a statement.

COSTS are rising everywhere for American corporations, from energy to employee health insurance premiums. Yet in their drive to cut expenses, most notably by moving factories and call centers to other countries, they are overlooking the escalating cost of the executive suite. It's time to apply market logic to this disturbing trend and begin outsourcing chief executives. This measure would unlock tremendous value for shareholders.

So far, outsourcing manufacturing and services has led to higher chief executive compensation, at the expense of shareholder profit. For example, I.B.M.'s chief executive, Samuel J. Palmisano, who has been moving jobs to India, last year saw his total compensation rise 19 percent to $18.9 million — even as the total return for his company's stock fell 16 percent.

That's proof that globalization hasn't gone far enough. China, India and other emerging markets offer shareholders a virtually unlimited talent pool from which to draw chief executives. With an increased supply of candidates, a truly independent corporate compensation committee would be easily able to hire superior leaders at salaries and benefits that are a small fraction of what their American counterparts in those fancy corner offices demand.

Several orders of magnitude separate the compensation of American and overseas chief executives; the Federal Reserve notes that while a typical American chief executive in 2004 got a compensation package 170 times greater than that of the average American workers, in Britain it was 22 times and in Japan 11.

But there are several benefits beyond the immediate savings. Major American corporations have been shifting their factories and labor force to China and India for some time now. It would make sense for the chief executive of an American corporation to come from, and be based in, those areas of the world where the potential for market growth is the greatest. It would be reassuring to have a chief executive who understood the local business practices, the country's cultural underpinnings and the language.

Also, given the importance placed on performing well in science and math in countries like China and India, it would be more likely that an offshored chief executive would have had a rigorous technical education instead of degrees in the "softer" management disciplines that are common at American business schools. Critics may question whether it is wise for an American company to have its chief executive in Bangalore or Beijing. But this is the thinking of a bygone era. More and more corporate chiefs say that they do not want their companies to be seen as American anymore. Cisco's chief executive, John Chambers, has declared, "What we're trying to do is outline an entire strategy of becoming a Chinese company."

Indeed, considering how the United States is perceived by the world these days, this is just smart marketing. And installing a foreigner from a developing country as chief executive would be a savvy move.

I realize it’s silly to let really stupid people upset you, but I have had it with the wingnuts who go about claiming that liberals are delighted about Haditha or want to use it for nefarious public relations purposes. Listen, twits, if you can’t stop your petty little partisan political games long to [sic] enough to recognize Sad when you see it, then shut up.

The U.S. military is conducting a propaganda campaign to magnify the role of the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq, according to internal military documents and officers familiar with the program. The effort has raised his profile in a way that some military intelligence officials believe may have overstated his importance and helped the Bush administration tie the war to the organization responsible for the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

The documents state that the U.S. campaign aims to turn Iraqis against Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian, by playing on their perceived dislike of foreigners. U.S. authorities claim some success with that effort, noting that some tribal Iraqi insurgents have attacked Zarqawi loyalists.

For the past two years, U.S. military leaders have been using Iraqi media and other outlets in Baghdad to publicize Zarqawi's role in the insurgency. The documents explicitly list the "U.S. Home Audience" as one of the targets of a broader propaganda campaign.

Some senior intelligence officers believe Zarqawi's role may have been overemphasized by the propaganda campaign, which has included leaflets, radio and television broadcasts, Internet postings and at least one leak to an American journalist. Although Zarqawi and other foreign insurgents in Iraq have conducted deadly bombing attacks, they remain "a very small part of the actual numbers," Col. Derek Harvey, who served as a military intelligence officer in Iraq and then was one of the top officers handling Iraq intelligence issues on the staff of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told an Army meeting at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., last summer.

In a transcript of the meeting, Harvey said, "Our own focus on Zarqawi has enlarged his caricature, if you will -- made him more important than he really is, in some ways."

"The long-term threat is not Zarqawi or religious extremists, but these former regime types and their friends," said Harvey, who did not return phone calls seeking comment on his remarks.

Bush said the death of the Jordanian-born Zarqawi "is a severe blow to al Qaeda," a victory in the war on terrorism, "and it is an opportunity for Iraq's new government to turn the tide in this struggle."

Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the al-Qaida-linked militant who led a bloody campaign of suicide bombings, kidnappings and hostage beheadings in Iraq, has been killed in a U.S. air raid north of Baghdad, Iraq's prime minister said Thursday.

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said al-Zarqawi was killed Wednesday evening along with seven aides.

The Jordanian-born militant, who was believed to have personally beheaded at least two American hostages, became Iraq's most wanted militant, as notorious as Osama bin Laden, to whom he swore allegiance in 2004. The United States had put a $25 million bounty on al-Zarqawi, the same as bin Laden.

LAUER: On the 9-11 widows, an in particular a group that had been critical of the administration:

"These self-obsessed women seem genuinely unaware that 9-11 was an attack on our nation and acted like as if the terrorist attack only happened to them. They believe the entire country was required to marinate in their exquisite personal agony. Apparently, denouncing bush was part of the closure process."

And this part is the part I really need to talk to you about:

"These broads are millionaires, lionized on TV and in articles about them, reveling in their status as celebrities and stalked by griefparrazies. I have never seen people enjoying their husband’s death so much."

Because they dare to speak out?

COULTER: To speak out using the fact they are widows. This is the left's doctrine of infallibility. If they have a point to make about the 9-11 commission, about how to fight the war on terrorism, how about sending in somebody we are allowed to respond to> No-No-No. We always have to respond to someone who just had a family member die--

LAUER: But aren't they in the middle of the story?...

COULTER: ...Because then if we respond, oh you are questioning their authenticity. No, the story is...

LAUER: So grieve but grieve quietly?

LAUER: What I’m saying is I don’t think they have ever told you, you can't respond.

COULTER: Look, you are getting testy with me.

Personal information stolen from the home of a Veterans Affairs employee included data on 2.2 million active-duty members of the military, the government said on Tuesday.

The veterans agency announced over the weekend that the theft last month involved data for only about 50,000 active-duty, National Guard and military personnel.

But the Defense Department said Tuesday that a comparison of records by the Pentagon and the veterans agency found that the stolen data theft may have included information on as many as 1.1 million active-duty service members, 430,000 National Guardsmen and 645,000 members of the Reserves.

When the government initially revealed the burglary on May 22, more than two weeks after it happened, it said the stolen data included the names, birthdates and Social Security numbers of up to 26.5 million veterans, and their spouses.

In a statement Tuesday, Jim Nicholson, the secretary of veterans affairs, said, "V.A. remains committed to providing updates on this incident as new information is learned."

A spokesman for the Veterans Affairs Department, Matt Burns, said the department had received no reports of stolen data being used for fraudulent purposes.

Over 5 1/2 years, Republican and Democratic lawmakers accepted nearly $50 million in trips, often to resorts and exclusive locales, from corporations and groups seeking legislative favors, according to the most comprehensive study to date on the subject of congressional travel.

From January 2000 through June 2005, House and Senate members and their aides were away from Washington for more than 81,000 days -- a combined 222 years -- on at least 23,000 trips, according to the report, issued yesterday by the nonpartisan Center for Public Integrity. About 2,300 of the trips cost $5,000 or more, at least 500 cost $10,000 or more, and 16 cost $25,000 or more.

"While some of these trips might qualify as legitimate fact-finding missions," the study said, "the purpose of others is less clear." In addition, the lawmakers' financial reports that disclose the details of the trips are routinely riddled with mistakes and omissions.

...

House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) proposed banning such travel [too his credit] soon after Abramoff's plea. But lawmakers of both parties and in both chambers of Congress quickly resisted imposing significant new restrictions on the trips, which are a much-prized perk of office. Rep. John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) won election to the post of House majority leader this year by running on a platform that included opposing the travel ban.

In a new jab at the Bush administration over its use of executive power, the Senate Judiciary Committee is demanding that the Justice Department explain the agency's investigations of journalists who publish classified information.

Specifically, Republicans and Democrats want to know more about the FBI's effort to obtain a half-century's worth of papers kept by columnist Jack Anderson - a member of President Nixon's ``enemies list'' - who died in December at 83.

Matthew Friedrich, the Justice Department's criminal division chief of staff, is facing a skeptical panel at a hearing Tuesday.

Chairman Arlen Specter, R-Pa., has chafed for months over President Bush's secretive domestic wiretapping and phonetapping programs, and maintained that national security may not justify such uses of executive power. He personally told President Bush earlier this year that ``the president doesn't have a blank check.''

Congress shall make no law ... abridging the freedom ... of the press...

He made the final decision only after telephone calls with President Vladimir Putin of Russia and Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, led him to conclude that if Tehran refused to suspend its enrichment of uranium, or later dragged its feet, they would support an escalating series of sanctions against Iran at the United Nations that could lead to a confrontation.

An extensive interview given by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to the Russian media, the full transcript of which has been seen by Asia Times Online, throws much light on the state of play in the Iran nuclear issue.

His remarks illuminate the paucity of options that the United States has left itself in dealing with the issue. Washington's May 31 offer to engage in direct talks with Tehran is in fact its only real option - in Lavrov's words, "a victory of common sense".

At the same time, Lavrov exposes as grandstanding many of the statements emanating from the administration of US President George W Bush about the talks offer. Moscow, it emerges, was not consulted on the matter, and is not party to any tacit agreement on imposing sanctions on Iran, despite Washington's spin to this effect. In other words, an increasingly isolated United States finds itself with very little room left to maneuver, let alone impose its will on an increasingly multipolar world.[emphasis mine]

US technology giant IBM said Tuesday it will triple its investments in India to six billion dollars over the next three years, reiterating India's dominance in the global outsourcing industry.

This defining down of American principles has not gone unnoticed by the rest of the world. They see a country famous for its embrace of freedom and individual rights spying upon its own citizens without warrants and locking away its own citizens without due process of law. They see a country famous for its humane treatment of captives building secret torture prisons, engaging in widespread abuse and humiliation of detainees, and using an off-shore prison at Guantanamo Bay as a way of circumventing its own laws and constitutional principles. And worst of all, they see a country that appears to have no more interest in leading by example, a country more concerned with getting itself out of prior commitments and finding ways to exempt itself from the rules. A reputation that took the better part of a century to earn may soon be little more than a memory.

SDS reports: Just called Lindsay Graham's office and asked if he was celibate. The girl who answered the phone got nasty and asked me if I was. I said no and then said I'm not a hypocrite. Also called Dole's office and asked for her views on adultery. No response from the secretary.

Bill writes: Just called Lamar Alexander, the staffer continually answered "that's not relevant" "these questions are not relevant, I won't answer."

Lily writes: I called the Senators office in Utah, and asked being that the Congress feels it it their duty to get into bedrooms and use the US Constitution to do it, the I would like to know if he and others are prepared to set an example and let the American people know about their indescretions ?

The secratary sho answered his phone said "You know what ma'am we do not take questions like that"

I said, "well if they are ready to get into legistate our personal sex lives, shouldn't they be prepared to answer"?

hehe.. She got all pissy and asked my zip, which I was happy to give to her.

Though Bush himself has publicly embraced the amendment, he never seemed to care enough to press the matter. One of his old friends told NEWSWEEK that same-sex marriage barely registers on the president's moral radar. "I think it was purely political. I don't think he gives a s--t about it.

The Pentagon has decided to omit from new detainee policies a key tenet of the Geneva Conventions that explicitly bans "humiliating and degrading treatment," according to knowledgeable military officials, a step that would mark a further shift away from strict adherence to international human rights standards.

The decision culminates a lengthy debate within the Defense Department but will not become final until the Pentagon makes new guidelines public, a step that has been delayed. However, the State Department opposes the military's decision to exclude Geneva Conventions protections and has been pushing for the Pentagon and White House to reconsider, the defense officials acknowledged.

I wanted to say something about the Umberto Eco quote that was used earlier from The Name of the Rose. That book fascinated me because in it, these people are killed for trying to get out of this library a book about comedy, Aristotle’s Commentary on Comedy. And what’s interesting to me is, one of the arguments they have in the book is that comedy is bad because nowhere in the New Testament does it say that Jesus laughed. It said that Jesus wept, but never did he laugh. But, I don’t think you actually have to say it, for us to imagine Jesus laughing. In the famous episode where there’s a storm on the lake, and the fishermen are out there, and they see Jesus on the shore, and Jesus walks across the stormy water to the boat. And St. Peter thinks, “I can do this. I can do this. He keeps telling us to have faith when it comes to anything, and I can do this.” So he steps out of the boat and he walks for—I don’t know, it doesn’t say—let’s say a few feet, without sinking into the waves. Then he looks down, and he sees how stormy the seas are. He loses his faith and he begins to sink. And Jesus hot-foots it over and pulls him from the waves and says, “Oh you of little faith.” I can’t imagine Jesus wasn’t suppressing a laugh. How hilarious must it have been to watch Peter—like Wiley Coyote—take three steps on the water and sink then, into the waves.

[snip]

...why have a two-time commencement loser like me speak to you? Well, one of the reasons they already mentioned...I recovered from that slow start. And I was recently named by Time magazine one of the 100 Most Influential People in the World! Yeah—give it up for me! Basic cable—the world! I guess they have more in Sub-Saharan Africa than I thought. I’m right here on the cover between Katie Couric and Bono. That’s my picture—a sexy little sandwich between those two.

But if you do the math, there are 100 Most Influential People in the World. There are 6.5 billion people in the world. That means that today I am here representing 65 million people. That’s as big as some countries. What country has about 65 million people? Iran? Iran has 65 million people. So, for all intents and purposes, I’m here representing Iran today. Don’t shoot.

But the best reason for me to come to speak at Knox College is that I attended Knox College. This is part of my personal history that you will rarely see reported. Partly, because the press doesn’t do the proper research. But mostly because…it is not true! I just made it up, so this moment would be more poignant for all of us. How great would it be if I could actually come back here—if I was coming back to my alma mater to be honored like this. I could share with you all my happy memories that I spent here in...Galesburg, Illinois. Hanging out at the Seymour Hall, right? Seymour Hall? You know, all of us alumni, we remember Seymour Hall, playing those drinking games. We played a game called Lincoln-Douglas. Great game. What you do, is act out the Lincoln-Douglas debate and any time one of the guys mentions the Dred Scott decision you have to chug a beer. Well, technically 3/5 of a beer. [groans from audience] You DO have a good education!

I wasn’t sure if anybody was going to get that joke.

I soon learned that a frat house—oops—divided against itself cannot stand.

How can I forget the cheering on the team—the Knox College Knockers? Oh, no it’s the Prairie Fire. Seriously, the Prairie Fire. Your team is named after something that can get you federal disaster relief? I assume the “Flash Floods” was taken.

[snip]

And when you enter the workforce, you will find competition from those crossing our all-too-poorest borders. Now I know you’re all going to say, “Stephen, Stephen, immigrants built America.” Yes, and here’s the thing—it’s built now. I think it was finished in the 70s sometime. From this point it’s only a touch-up and repair job. Essentially if Congress enacts it, soon English will be the official language of America. Because if we surrender the national anthem, the next thing you know, they’ll be translating the Bible. God wrote it in English for a reason! So it could be taught in our public schools.

So we must build walls. A wall across the entire southern border. That’s the answer. Obviously that may not be enough, maybe a moat in front of it, or a fire-pit. Maybe a flaming moat, filled with fire-proof crocodiles. And another across our northern border as well. Keep those Canadians with their socialized medicine and their skunky beer out. And because immigrants can swim, we’ll probably want to wall off the coasts as well. And while we’re at it, we need to put up a dome, in case they have catapults. And we’ll punch some holes in it so we can breathe. Breathe free. Time for illegal immigrants to go—right after they finish building those walls. Yes, yes, I agree with me.

There are so many challenges facing this next generation, and, as they said earlier, you are up for these challenges. And I agree, except that I don’t think you are. I don’t know if you’re tough enough to handle this. You are the most cuddled generation in history. I belong to the last generation that did not have to be in a car seat. You had to be in car seats. I did not have to wear a helmet when I rode my bike. You do. You have to wear helmets when you go swimming, right? In case you bump your head against the side of the pool. Oh, by the way, I should have said, my speech today may contain some peanut products.

[snip]

....even these ceremonies are too safe. I mean just this mortarboard...look, it’s padded. It’s padded everywhere. When I graduated from college, we had these edges sharpened. When we threw ours up in the air, we knew some of us weren’t coming home.

But you have one thing that may save you, and that is your youth. This is your great strength. It is also why I hate and fear you. It has been said that children are our future. But does that not also mean that we are their past? You are here to replace us. I don’t understand why we’re here helping and honoring them. You do not see union workers holding benefits for robots.

You seem nice enough, so I’ll try to give you some advice. First of all, when you go to apply for your first job, don’t wear these robes. Medieval garb does not instill confidence in your employers—unless you’re applying to be a scrivener. And if someone does offer you a job, take it. You can always quit later. Then at least you’ll be one of the unemployed as opposed to one of the never-employed. Nothing looks worse on a resume than nothing.

[snip]

I have two last pieces of advice. First, being pre-approved for a credit card does not mean you have to apply for it. And lastly, the best career advice I can give you is to get your own TV show. It pays well, the hours are good, and you are famous. And eventually some very nice people will give you a Doctorate in Fine Arts for doing jack squat.

Fifty-five National Guard members from Utah arrived in Yuma, Arizona, on Saturday as the first troops to be sent to the Arizona-Mexico border in a plan announced by President George W. Bush to crack down on illegal immigration.

The Utah troops were supposed to work on fences and other projects as part of the Guard's long-standing efforts at the Arizona border, officials had said as late as Wednesday.

But their mission has since been folded into Bush's plan to send up to 6,000 National Guard troops to the four southern border states to help federal immigration agents.

The Utah troops got word of the change Friday from Guard officials in Washington, D.C., said Maj. Hank McIntire, a spokesman for the Utah National Guard.

They were scheduled to be briefed on their mission Sunday and start their field work as early as Monday, McIntire said.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has said that Tehran will decide, on the basis of its national interests, on the proposals to be delivered by EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana over Iran's nuclear issue, the official IRNA news agency reported on Sunday.

"Iran is ready to hold fair and unconditional talks with the West on Iran's nuclear issue. Negotiations should not have preconditions," said the president.

Ahmadinejad underlined, "We will wait after they have put forth their proposals and after we have heard them, then, we will decide based on our national interests." [emphasis mine]

Meanwhile, the president stressed that Iran would reject any compromise on its absolute rights to uranium enrichment for peaceful purposes.

"We also regard the peaceful use of nuclear energy as our legitimate right and will not negotiate on our rights with anybody, " the president added.

He made the final decision only after telephone calls with President Vladimir Putin of Russia and Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, led him to conclude that if Tehran refused to suspend its enrichment of uranium, or later dragged its feet, they would support an escalating series of sanctions against Iran at the United Nations that could lead to a confrontation.

Even after Bush edited the statement Rice was scheduled to read Wednesday before she flew to Vienna to encourage Europe and Russia to sign on to a final package of incentives for Iran — and sanctions if it turns the offer down — Rice wanted to check in one more time.

She called Bush. Was he sure he was OK with his decision?

"Go do it," he responded.

She did, but the results remain unclear. Iran has given no indication it will agree to Bush's threshold condition, suspending nuclear fuel production. [emphasis mine]

More than 22,000 veterans who underwent prostate biopsies at veterans' hospitals across the country are being warned that improperly sterilized equipment may have exposed them to deadly viruses.

No patient is known to have been infected but the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs is offering free blood tests as a precaution, said VA spokesman Jim Benson. The prostate biopsy equipment includes a probe that, if improperly cleaned, could retain traces of body fluids containing the viruses that cause hepatitis or AIDS.

It's possible but unlikely that someone could get infected that way, said Michael Erdmann, chief of staff of the Milwaukee VA Medical Center.

"We're concerned for the safety of our patients, but really, the odds are really quite low," he said.

Facing a wave of litigation challenging its eavesdropping at home and its handling of terror suspects abroad, the Bush administration is increasingly turning to a legal tactic that swiftly torpedoes most lawsuits: the state secrets privilege.

In recent weeks alone, officials have used the privilege to win the dismissal of a lawsuit filed by a German man who was abducted and held in Afghanistan for five months and to ask the courts to throw out three legal challenges to the National Security Agency's domestic surveillance program.

But civil liberties groups and some scholars say the privilege claim, in which the government says any discussion of a lawsuit's accusations would endanger national security, has short-circuited judicial scrutiny and public debate of some central controversies of the post-9/11 era.

The privilege has been asserted by the Justice Department more frequently under President Bush than under any of his predecessors — in 19 cases, the same number as during the entire eight-year presidency of Ronald Reagan, the previous record holder, according to a count by William G. Weaver, a political scientist at the University of Texas at El Paso.

Scott Silverman, Chairman of the Board of VeriChip Corporation, has proposed implanting the company's RFID tracking tags in immigrant and guest workers. He made the statement on national television on May 16.

Silverman was being interviewed on "Fox & Friends." Responding to the Bush administration's call to know "who is in our country and why they are here," he proposed using VeriChip RFID implants to register workers at the border, and then verify their identities in the workplace. He added, "We have talked to many people in Washington about using it...."