It seems BushCo is flip-flopping on yet another issue, this time its promise to protect medical privacy. In this article on Alternet, Michael Ventura details how "The Bush-Ashcroft Justice Department is attempting to force hospitals and clinics to turn over medical records on thousands of abortions. " Regardless of your stance on abortion, this could set a horrible precedent; if the government can invade your privacy looking for information on abortion (a LEGAL procedure), they could invade it to look for any information they want, for any purpose they want. BushCo has demonstrated a definite lack of tolerance of dissent of any kind, to the point where they outed an undercover CIA operative to get back at her husband, so it's not a stretch to assume that they're capable of invading medical privacy for the purposes of trashing anyone who disagrees with them. One of the scariest things about this issue is the lack of attention by the media; Ventura points out that the New York Times ran a story about it on March 6th, buried on page eight beneath a rather bland headline. Nice to know they're spotlighting the important issues!

Josh Marshall has some great analysis and commentary this week on the Richard Clarke accusations, the 9/11 Commission, and BushCo's spin-doctoring. I highly recommend checking out his site, as well as Blah3.com and Atrios who are doing a great job as well.

Quote for the Day: "It was as if Osama bin Laden, hidden in some high mountain redoubt, were engaging in long-range mind control of George Bush, chanting 'invade Iraq, you must invade Iraq."--Richard Clarke

Idiotic Quote for the Day: "at some point we may be the only ones left. That's OK with me. We are America."--George W. Bush