TPMmuckraker Reader CK sent in this improvised photo from a construction site in DC:

Lurita Doan is the GSA chief whose memory of briefings Karl Rove’s White House political shop have been hazy. Very, very hazy.

Former Attorney General Dick Thornburgh testifies tomorrow on the curious case of forensic pathologist Dr. Cyril Wecht.

Close viewers of last Friday’s White House press briefing caught it, and so did the chairman and ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

In explaining why the White House gave the Senate intelligence committee long-sought documents on warrantless wiretapping but not the Judiciary Committee, which subpoenaed them months ago, spokesperson Dana Perino seemed to make the document production contingent on support for telecom immunity.

Sens. Leahy and Specter–still waiting on those documents–were none too pleased to hear of that condition and have fired off a letter complaining to White House counsel Fred Fielding.

The other day I reviewed at length Sen. Jay Rockefeller’s capitulation on telecom immunity and suggested that this was one of several instances where Rockefeller had been steamrolled by his GOP foes. The most notable of those other instances was when, as the then ranking member, he failed to push for and get completion of the so-called Phase II investigation into intelligence during the buildup to the Iraq War. Time and again, then-Chairman Pat Roberts (R-KS) stalled and delayed the report. By the time Rockefeller took over as committee chair in January, Phase II still had not been completed. Ten months later it still isn’t, and as CQ‘s Tim Starks reports, it’s the Republicans who are now complaining.

Obama campaign refuses to disavow association with an antigay crusader who has railed against “the curse of homosexuality.”

Late Update: Obama has now issued a statement strongly denouncing his views. — gs

Huh. Turns out that the SBA is shooting down Blackwater’s explanation for the tax issue being scrutinized by Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA).

I’ve sort of gotten tired of explaining that, no, the Founding Fathers actually weren’t all born-agains and bible thumpers. Not hardly. (Probably better to say that the great majority ranged from believers in an entirely impersonal God — Deists — to believing Christians who nonetheless viewed popular religious enthusiasm with a polite and paternal disdain.) But presidential candidate and former Arkansas Governoer Mike Huckabee, himself a Baptist minister, actually told a crowd yesterday that “most” of the signers of the Declaration of Independence were “clergymen.”

As these folks at Politifact.com point out, one out of 56 were clergymen.

It’s a creative definition of ‘most’.

Did you know it was Islamofascism Awareness Week? And have you thought about what you’re going to do to raise awareness about this concept the loss of which would be such a devastating blow to the vanity and intellectual pretensions of countless right-wing bloggers and editorialists throughout the English-speaking world?

Yes, it’s Islamofascism Awareness Week, Oct. 22nd – 26th. So I’m afraid National Breast Cancer Awareness Month will have to step aside for a week. And, yes, perhaps needless to say this is yet another confection of David Horowitz.

In case you’re not familiar with Horowitz, he’s probably most charitably described as a rather entrepreneurial self-promotion artist, though perhaps more accurately as one of the great buffoons of the modern American soapbox. I should probably say, as a matter of disclosure, that I’ve had a couple run-ins with Horowitz, one in person. And he’s probably one of only two people I met in Washington, or really in any of my dealings with people through TPM or any other professional writing I’ve done, who was just as nasty and whacked in person as anything you see on TV. It’s no act.

Horowitz’s basic MO is finding the silliest opponents he can find, goading them into a shouting match and then working himself into a frenzy about how the “left” is out to get him and then taking the moment of attention to shake the trees for some more right-wing money for his next show. Money, that is, for his Center, the Center for the Study of Popular Culture, which I only found out today he has recently had renamed in honor of himself.

In any case, the promotional material for Islamofascism Awareness Week promises that the “nation will be rocked by the biggest conservative campus protest.” And if you’re on campus and want to get involved, definitely check out the Students Guide to Hosting Islamo-fascism Awareness Week.

Actually, in all seriousness, I strongly recommend that you take a few moments and check out one or more of the “feature presentations” listed on this page of Horowitz’s “terrorism awareness project” website. Not because you’ll be outraged or offended but because they are so clownish and ridiculousness that you may actually find them entertaining. I did. Take a look and tell me what you think. And do your part for Islamofascism Awareness Week!

For those of you interested in all that intel and rule of law stuff, Charlie Rose has CIA Chief Michael Hayden on his show tonight. Here’s an advance transcript.

A much more canny take on what Putin was doing in Iran, not surprisingly from the Israeli press (Ha’aretz), which paradoxically is much less whacked on this issue than the American.