After word emerged over the weekend that Bush White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove is the confidential source of the information that resulted in the release of Valerie Plame's identity as a CIA employee, many critics complained that little attention was being paid to the story.

Now word has come down that the New York Times is planning a full-court press against Rove, with a front page spread in Tuesday's editions that ultimtely demands Rove's ouster.

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In an insult that isn't completely original (I've been hearing folks -- including my dad -- use the term for several years), Senator Hillary Clinton (Cthulhu-NY) took time out of a speech in Colorado yesterday to compare President George W. Bush to Mad Magazine mascot Alfred E. Neuman.

"I sometimes feel that Alfred E. Neuman is in charge in Washington," Clinton said during the inaugural Aspen Ideas Festival, organized by the Aspen Institute, a non-partisan think tank.

The former first lady drew a laugh from the crowd when she described Bush's attitude toward tough issues with Neuman's catch phrase: "What, me worry?"

Back in New York, Clinton was asked during a stop in Rochester if she felt some people might be offended by her comparing the president to Alfred E. Neuman.

"That is for people to decide, but I think if you look at the facts, the real concerns of the American public are not being addressed."

Asked if Bush had a "what-me-worry" attitude, she said, "I think Washington does."

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NAACP Chairman Julian Bond opened the NAACP's national convention in Milwaukee as he has other such gatherings in the past -- by attacking George W. Bush and other conservatives.

The NAACP's national confab got underway yesterday in Milwaukee. Bond took the opportunity to take swipes at Bush and others, of course, reserving special venom for black conservatives.

Bond opened with an attack, saying, "Milwaukee is the home of beer, of brats and the Bradley Foundation," and blasting Bush for failing to appear at the NAACP's annual convention for the fifth straight year.

Bond explained his reference to the Milwaukee-based Bradley Foundation later in the speech, saying it is among entities that fund what he called "fraudulent" civil rights organizations.

He charged that the organizations appear to back civil rights but push school vouchers, use legal means to assault affirmative action and try to redraw political boundaries in hopes of preventing people of color from being elected to office.

Such organizations have had black "hucksters" on their payrolls for 20 years, said Bond to thunderous applause.

"Like ventriloquist dummies, they speak in their puppet master's voice, but we can see his lips moving," he said.

Similarly, Bond fired at organizations that have tried to "seduce black clergy" to conservative causes and criticized what he said is an attempt by the Bush administration to replace vital public welfare programs with faith-based organizations.

He gave special importance to the continuing battle over Bush's judicial nominees, especially a replacement for retiring Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, saying the high court needs another independent-minded justice like her. Too many Bush nominees to federal judgeships have made rulings that hurt the civil rights movement, he said, calling newly named federal appeals court judge Janice Rogers Brown "the female Clarence Thomas."

The former Democratic Georgia state senator blasted the Republican-controlled U.S. Senate for failing to hold a roll call vote on a resolution apologizing for failing to enact an anti-lynching law first proposed 105 years ago. He named eight Republican senators who did not co-sponsor the resolution, saying, "If a United States senator in 2005 cannot apologize for that, what outrage is deserving of an apology?"

Targeting the Bush administration, Bond said it was "outsourcing torture" by sending terrorism suspects to foreign lands and backing economic policies that have created "an ownership society, where you're really on your own."

"They profess to being true believers, but they're really true deceivers," he said.

It's nice to know that his priorities are "in order" -- helping communities overcome social ills is not important in his mind. After all, he's more concerned about partisan politics.

Bond's statements continued to skirt the partisan line that has threatened to invite additional scrutiny by the Internal Revenue Service over the past several years. The NAACP has been placed under a magnifying glass by the IRS regarding it's tax exempt status. Ongoing investigations have examined whether or not the NAACP is a partisan organization, contrary to their stated non-partisan goals.

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Florida Governor Jeb Bush, while talking about the feeling of woe had by residents of the Florida Panhandle with multiple hurricanes targeting that portion of the state:

``I think there is a legitimate feeling, 'Why me? What did I do wrong?''' Florida Gov. Jeb Bush said.

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Underneath their lead headline about the approach of Hurricane Dennis, ABC News, in their infinte wisdom, has bannered a headline that reads, "Global Warming To Intensify Hurricane Fury," which, of course, would lead one to believe -- at least according to the "learned opinion" of ABC News -- that global warming is responsible for the ferocity of Hurricane Dennis, and it hitting the same area devestated by Hurricane Ivan last summer.

Once you pull the story up, you see that it's an add-on piece that helps to bolster their position that global warming will wreak havoc over the world's weather -- a position that not all scientists find valid, contrary to what many in the media would have us believe.

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Just got word that I'm going to be on The O'Reilly Factor tonight at 8 on Fox News Channel.

We'll be talking about a story from the first part of this week.

Overnight Monday night, a group of youngsters tossed rocks at a tanker truck, and one enterprising kid lobbed a bottle rocket into the cab of the truck. The tanker truck, carrying 7500 pounds of diesel fuel, went off the road and overturned. The driver was seriously injured.

Atlanta Police evacuated the Bankhead Courts housing project as a precaution, as there were fears of an explosion from the diesel fuel.

Police have arrested and charged an 18 year-old man with tossing the bottle-rocket, and they are close (at least in their words) to apprehending a second individual in the case.

The question - as O'Reilly's producer put it to me - is whether crime is out of control in Atlanta.

I told him that it wasn't, and that crime in Atlanta is no better nor worse than any other urban area of the country. This was the act of kids who had no business out at 2 in the morning, regardless of the notion of it being the night of the fourth of July. They were wrong, and should be punished.

The other point brought out by the producer - and presumably one that O'Reilly wants to pursue - is whether or not an increase in crime (there's that notion again) can be tied to the poor performance of the Fulton County DA, Paul Howard.

Howard, as far as I'm concerned, is an embarrassment. He has no business in the DA's office. The office, itself, needs an overhaul. That being said, the only thing that truly presents itself is the issue of a district attorney who botches high profile cases. Case after case, story after story, the one at fault becomes the DA. The APD does it's job -- I certainly can't fault the rank and file of the APD. (Management is another issue entirely, and one for another rant and another day)

On the other hand, the District Attorney's office has made a number of questionable decisions and had a questionable record in representing the people of Fulton County.

Others may point to the fact that Paul Howard ran unopposed in the last election, both in the primary as well as the general election. It's awful hard to get someone else to do the job when the guy who's there in the first place has no one to challenge him at the ballot box.

Anyway, that's what's on tap for tonight -- provided Hurricane Dennis' path of destruction and the impending retirement of Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist don't intrude.

Be there. Aloha.

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Rumors are flying fast and furious across the nation's capitol that Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist may be tendering his resignation this evening. Word is also coming in that once Air Force One lands later this afternoon at Andrews AFB near Washington, carrying President Bush back from Europe, that he'll announce the Rehnquist retirement then.

Stay tuned.

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Hurricane Dennis is a strong Category 4 storm with 150 MPH sustained winds. It's expected to reach Category 5 before it strikes Cuba later today.

The storm has been running parallel to the coast of the island nation, and raking it with hurricane-force winds. The US military base at Guantanamo Bay has received minimaal damange, however, a guard tower at the terrorist detention facility there was knocked down by the force of the storm.

Hurricane Warnings are up for much of Cuba, as well as the western Florida Keys and Dry Tortugas. The lower Keys are under a manditory evacuation order, and traffic up US 1 has been very heavy. North of there, along the Florida West Coast, a hurricane watch and tropical storm warning is in effect. This has residents in the Ft. Myers/Naples area very skittish, as they remember the disaster of Hurricane Charley last summer.

Once Dennis crosses Cuba and enters the Gulf of Mexico, it could land anywhere along the Gulf Coast, though forecasters are projecting a landfall in the vicinity of Mobile or Pensacola, where residents are stlll trying to recover from last summer's Hurricane Ivan and last week's Tropical Storm Cindy.

Hurricane City is streaming live coverage of this storm nightly from 8-11P ET. Their coverage includes calls from people in the affected areas, meterological professionals and others interested in the storm, along with live television and radio audio from the affected areas.

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At least nine explosions have been reported from central London within the past couple of hours, with sketchy reports of "major casualties" from wire services and other media sources.

Three explosions have been reported on buses, with at least two of those buses being destroyed; other explosions have been reported on subway trains, shutting down the entire London Underground tube network. Bus service in central London has been suspended as well. Wire service reports indicate at least 90 casualties, with reports still coming in.

Live audio via BBC Five Live (WMP).

UPDATE (8:30A): Total number of explosions are seven, as confirmed by Scotland Yard.

An Al Qaeda affiliated group in Europe has claimed responsibility for the blasts on an Islamic web site, according to the BBC and Sky News.

The number of casualties has been sketchy thus far, with as many as 90 dead at one Underground station being reported.

Prime Minister Tony Blair has left Gleneagles, Scotland, where the G8 Summit is taking place, and is headed to London to check on efforts first-hand. The meetings will continue, and Blair is expected to return later today.

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Rapper Lil Kim has been sentenced to one year plus one day in prison on a perjury charge stemming from a shooting outside New York radio station WQHT in 2001. She was also fined $50,000 along with the sentence.

The rapper told the grand jury she did not notice two of her close friends at the scene of the shootout -- her manager, Damion Butler, and Suif Jackson, known as "Gutta." Both have pleaded guilty to gun charges.

Jurors at Lil' Kim's trial saw radio station security photos that depicted Butler opening a door for the rap star, and two witnesses who once made records with Lil' Kim said they saw her at the station with Butler and Jackson.

The gun battle happened outside WQHT-FM, known as Hot 97, when Lil' Kim's entourage crossed paths with a rival rap group, Capone-N-Noreaga.

Lil' Kim's group confronted the others about the Capone-N-Noreaga song "Bang, Bang" that contained an insult to Lil' Kim from rival Foxy Brown. One man was hurt in the shootout that followed.

WQHT radio was also the scene of a gun battle between entourages belonging to 50 Cent and The Game this past January.

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A 43 year-old ex-convict has confessed to attacking and fatally stabbing a woman to death in a shopping mall parking garage, simply because she was white.

In a videotaped statement, convicted rapist Phillip Grant said that he had never met his victim, Concetta Russo Carriero, a 56 year-old mother of two.

"She was not innocent. She was white," (Grant said).

"All I knew was she had blond hair and blue eyes, and she had to die . . . I didn't care, as long as she was white," he said.

"I wanted to kill someone who represented the white lifestyle."

Grant said he became a racist after his July 2003 release from Sing Sing, where he spent 24 years for three Bronx rapes and for attacking another inmate with a pitchfork.

He said he was fighting a race war — and his only regret was that he didn't know anything about biological weapons.

Grant said he was prepared to die for killing Russo Carriero, a legal secretary who worked at a law firm across the street.

"There's a lot of white people that really need to die. I don't give a f - - - what public opinion is about that. They can go f - - - themselves. These people are sick, and they are getting away with it.

"I can't be around white people. I'm scared of white people," he added. "They forced me into a position where I'm racist.

"It was not a criminal motive. I'm really, really fighting a war on being attacked," he said.

Asked if he would kill again, Grant answered yes.

"My only regret is that I didn't have the means to do more," he said.

I don't see the reason for the "contemplation." He admitted to murdering the woman, in cold blood, simply for being white.

I'm sure there will be those who will wring their collective hands and insist that because he's black, Grant can't have committed a hate crime -- after all, in their petty little minds, it's not possible for a black person to be racist, present evidence notwithstanding.

And there's no way that anyone can excuse Grant's crime under some misbegotten notion of some black pseudo-trauma. But there will be those who try to do just that.

I don't feel sorry for him. Not one bit.

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The International Olympic Committee has awarded London the Games of the XXX Olympiad in 2012.

London edged out Paris in the final voting today in Singapore.

The other three finalist cities, Madrid, Moscow and New York City were eliminated in earlier voting.

Paris had been considered the front runner, and had received excellent recommendations from every corner of the Olympic community. However, London presented a strong case over the past few weeks, and won over the members of the IOC.

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Ted Kennedy (D-MA) went as far as to insist that he and his fellow liberals had an "obligation" to the American people to oppose any conservative nominee.

Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Edward Kennedy Friday praised retiring Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, but also threatened to oppose the choice of a replacement "if the president abuses his power and nominates someone who threatens to roll back the rights and freedoms of the American people."

If that situation develops, Kenndy warned, "then the American people will insist that we oppose that nominee, and we intend to do so."

"I proposed a summit where the president calls a wide range of senators and we roll up our sleeves, let down our tie and discuss things all day long."

if Bush were to nominate Brown -- the outspoken California judge recently named to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit -- "I could assure you that would be a very, very, very difficult fight, and she probably would be filibustered," Sen. Joseph R. Biden (news, bio, voting record) Jr. (D-Del.), a senior member of the Judiciary Committee, said on CBS's "Face the Nation."

It's gonna be a hot summer in Washington this year.

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Scrappleface has the details (albeit tongue-in-cheek details) of Senator Ted Kennedy (Boozer-MA) and his verbal attacks on the as-yet-unnamed person to be named by President Bush to replace retiring Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor.

Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-MA, today criticized President George Bush's as-yet-unnamed replacement for retiring Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor as a "brutal, Bible-thumping, right-wing ideologue who hates minorities, women and cocker spaniels."

"He or she is clearly outside the mainstream of American values," said Sen. Kennedy. "President Bush has again ignored the Senate's 'advice and consent' role, forcing Democrats to filibuster this outrageous nominee."

The Massachusetts Senator said his aides have already discovered "reams of memos" showing that the man or woman Mr. Bush will appoint has "a history of abusing subordinates, dodging military service, hiring undocumented workers, spanking his or her children and rolling back the clock on human rights to the days when the Pharaohs ruled Egypt with an iron fist."

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A huge column of steam is rising from the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Japan.

The coast guard sent helicopters to monitor the 1,000m (3,280ft) cloud, 1,120km (700 miles) south-east of Tokyo, and warned ships to stay away.

The team said the area around the site appeared to be red.

Japanese troops stationed on the island of Iwo Jima first noticed the cloud of steam on Saturday.

Television footage showed white smoke billowing into the sky from the brick-red water.

In all actuality, an undersea volcano is believed to be erupting in that spot. An undersea volcano erupted in 1986 in that same area.

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Legendary crooner Luther Vandross died this afternoon. He never fully recovered from a debilitating stroke that hit two years ago.

Vandross' songs and emotionally charged ballads carry a signature sound. During his four-decade career, Vandross sold more than 25 million copies, each one of his 14 albums achieving either platinum or multi-platinum status.

By the end of the 1980s Vandross had nearly two dozen smash singles, including "Give Me the Reason," "Stop to Love" and "There's Nothing Better Than Love," made with Gregory Hines. Arguably his most memorable hit was the 1989 classic, "Here and Now," which has become a wedding staple.

Vandross struggled with health and image problems, claiming that he lost 100 pounds -- 13 times. He suffered from hypertension and diabetes, which killed two siblings and his father, but refused to slow down until his stroke two years ago.

Of his 2003 hit, "Dance With My Father," he once said that title song "was very emotional for me and, yes, it is based on my own experience.

"It's not just about losing one's father, but about missing someone who is gone -- for whatever reason -- and the longing you feel for that moment in the past when you were together," he said.

Music fans everywhere are mourning his loss tonight.

Luther Vandross was 54.

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Quote of the week has to be from Jada Pinckett Smith during the opening monologue to the BET Awards this week.

"Do not thank God if you can't show or perform your work in church. Some of you just need to thank your manager and keep it movin'."

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Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor announced her retirement this morning, setting off more speculation than you can shake a stick at. President Bush did nothing to quench that speculation when he spoke at the White House, saying that he would nominate a justice who would "faithfully interpret" the laws of the land.

The laundry list of names includes recent Circuit court nominee Janice Rogers Brown, Edith Brown Clement, Edith Hollan Jones and current Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.

Washington sources are telling me not to be surprised if President Bush doesn't wait until after the August recess to name a potential successor. But then again, if I had a dollar for every time a "source" gave me information that wasn't quite correct, I'd be a very rich man indeed.

That being said, I don't think that anyone wants to toss the August recess -- August in DC can be very sultry indeed.

Senate Judiciary Chairman Arlen Spector (R-PA) said that he thought there wouldn't be a filibuster against whatever nominee the President selects, counting on the "Gang of 14" compromise that he was a part of during last month's judiciary fight. I'm not as confident.

With O'Connor having been one of the major swing votes on the Court, I'm fully expecting a partisan bloodbath -- especially if the President selects a strong conservative, as is expected.

Stay tuned. This ought to make for interesting television if nothing else. After all, the news networks have nothing else to talk about now that Michael Jackson's trial is over.

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Contrary to the nay-sayers on the left, black Republicans are not the lapdogs they would pretend we are. Black Republicans are gaining power and running for more visible state-wide offices across the nation.

In Maryland, Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania, black Republicans - all of whom have been groomed by the national party - are expected to run for governor or the United States Senate next year. Several other up-and-coming black Republicans are expected to run for lower statewide offices in Missouri, Ohio, Texas and Vermont in 2006.

"You've got a Democratic Party which I think has repeatedly demonstrated that it assumes it will win the African-American vote, but doesn't work for that vote," Ken Mehlman, chairman of the Republican National Committee, said. "It takes African-Americans for granted. And I think folks in the African-American community see that. There is a real opportunity here for the Republican Party."

The difference between many of today's black Republicans is that their message is being embraced by white Republicans. And the ranks of black Republicans are increasing.

There is room for a true two-party system in black America. And that will become a reality. Soon.

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