Lawrence Wilkerson, retired Army colonel, one-time chief of staff to former Secretary of State Colin Powell, discussing the sitting vice president in "Colonel of Truth," by Mark Follman, published today at Salon (subscription or free day pass required):

I don't know Dick Cheney as intimately as [Brent] Scowcroft does, but I did see him as secretary of defense and now as vice president. I can tell you that 9/11 made him a paranoid, to the extent where I'm not sure his exercise of power carries with it reason.

(For an interesting take on the subject of the increasingly odd mind-set of the Bush White House, see "Bush in a Bubble: Is He Cut Off from Political Reality?" by political analyst Dick Polman in today's edition of the Philadelphia Inquirer.)

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(I've got to get back to reading the obituaries more regularly, as I missed an important one, from nearly a week ago.)

Theodore Draper, Princeton, N.J.: investigative historian, outstanding writer, and barely rivaled polemicist, 1912-2006.

[Post-publication addendum (February 28): Watch for a lengthy hatchet job in Commentary within the next few months, most likely written by one of the magazine's current editors or perhaps by a former editor with one great big NonPareiled chip on his shoulder.]

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Philadelphia Inquirer writer Karen Heller ought to be a little bit more careful doling out her tsk-tsks.

In "'Mrs. Harris,' Prescription for Wit Well-filled,", her review of Mrs. Harris, the HBO movie, which premiered last night, about the shooting of the so-called Scarsdale Diet Doctor, Dr. Herman Tarnower, by his girlfriend, Jean Harris, Heller picks a few nits with the production, presenting, in her own words, "a few quibbles," including this one, of local interest:

In the 1960s, Harris was head of Springside School's middle school in Chestnut Hill, though it's identified here as Springside Academy.

Oh my, such a horrible error!

And yet that comes just three paragraphs after Heller herself wrote (tortured syntax in original):

Upon learning that Tarnower had replaced her with Lynne Tryforos in his will, Harris drove five hours from Virginia to Scarsdale with a pistol in her handbag.

Sorry, Karen, wrong!

On that fateful night Miss Harris drove not to Scarsdale, N.Y., the village in which Dr. Tarnower's medical practice was located, but instead to Purchase, N.Y., where the physician lived and where the shooting actually occurred.

You can look it up.

Heller could have looked it up.

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I can't be the only person who is tired of the "local news leader," radio station KYW (Philadelphia, 1060 AM), getting it wrong, every single time, when their reporters refer to "the deal" for what they have taken to calling "the United Arab Emirates-based company" [Emphasis added.] running critical American seaports, when the reality is that the company in question, Dubai Ports World, is owned by the government of the U.A.E.

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If you've been following, or at least have taken an interest in, the plight of the hundreds of dogs recently taken into custody from a pair of suspected puppy mill operators operating in this city's western exurbs, be sure to pick up a copy of tomorrow, Friday's, Philadelphia Inquirer, or look for the paper on line.

Those of us trying to keep tabs on developments in the case are expecting a follow-up article by Bonnie Cook, who wrote the paper's initial piece, "Two Chesco Men Accused of Cruelty Involving 337 Dogs," published there on February 16.

I have heard the Inquirer took several photographs of the dogs, which are now in the care of the Chester County SPCA (DONATIONS: 1212 Phoenixville Pike, West Chester, Pa., 19380), though how many, if any, of these images might be published tomorrow is at this point uncertain.

[Post-publication addendum (February 24): And here is Cook's article from today's paper: "Aid Pours in for Dogs Rescued from Kennel."]

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Maybe, just perhaps, there's a little bit of blogger fatigue that explains the thinness of activity here in recent days, but mostly I'm blaming Blogger, the "supporting" software employed at this site, as I've been hit lately by what I think should be called the "rolling blog-outs" involuntary imposed on the service's users in recent weeks, including many well-known users who were badly affected long before I was.

Hang in there, we're all doing our best. Many bloggers are searching for alternatives. It all just sounds a little too complicated, a bit too daunting, for me. We'll see.

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I'm sort of sittting here wondering why the inestimable contributors to the indispensable GFY haven't yet taken it upon themselves to apply their finely honed critical skills, normally directed at Hollywood types, toward participants in the Winter Olympics in Turin, particularly the figure skaters.

I realize the women skaters have yet to start, but if Johnny Weir (whom I respect greatly by the way, brushing aside the sideline carping posted by otherwise respected bloggers) is thought, along with his competition, by GFY to provide no decent fodder, well, then the girls at GFY are either just amateurs or way off their game this week.

Still, you gotta luv `em.

[Post-publication addendum: And I think the GFYers know, by now, that this is all meant as a compliment and is all in good fun.]

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Readers looking for the latest on Jennifer Anyango, the Ugandan girl viciously wounded by rebels in the country's civil war, should head toward the web site maintained by "Radio Times," the outstanding public-radio program produced here in Philadelphia, at WHYY (90.9 FM), and hosted by Marty Moss-Coane.

Late Thursday night I caught the rebroadcast of the second hour of the day's program. The rebroadcast began at 11:00 p.m., already an hour past my bedtime, so I listened only to the first half-hour. Fortunately, you and I can hear the entire program by tapping into WHYY's web site by clicking here (look for "Hour 2").

It's a fascinating program, one that features Carolyn Davis of the Philadelphia Inquirer editorial board, who has spearheaded the effort to bring Anyango to the Philadelphia area for her much-needed, and repeated, medical treatments.

I very highly recommend the program.

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It's nice to learn Philadelphians aren't merely friendly, good-looking, intelligent, and sophisticated, but also quite generous.

The Philadelphia Inquirer reports today that contributions to the American Red Cross for Hurricane Katrina relief from in and around the city came in at an estimated $39 million.

On a per capita basis, the Philadelphia region ranked fourth-highest among the nation's metropolitan areas, tied with New York, but behind leaders Seattle, San Francisco, and Boston, in that order.

Damn Blue Staters, wreaking havoc on the kinder end of the curve for the rest of the country.

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Does the whole Dick-Cheney-wouldn't-speak-with-authorities-until-Sunday thing remind anyone else of the Lizzie-Grubman-see-you-tomorrow-but-not-tonight thing?

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No, this post is not here to serve as a gratuitous opportunity to write about my bulldog Mildred, but rather to commend the Pennsylvania Bureau of Dog Law Enforcement and the Chester County SPCA for shutting down, at least temporarily, a suspected puppy mill operated by Michael Wolf and Gordon Trottier, who were charged with 402 counts of animal cruelty involving hundreds of dogs following raid on Friday in Lower Oxford Township, Pa.

According to the Philadelphia Inquirer ("Two Chesco Men Accused of Cruelty Involving 337 Dogs," by Bonnie L. Cook), Wolf and Trottier were running an illegal operation called Mike-Mar Cavaliers and marketed pappillons, Cavalier King Charles spaniels, and English bulldogs through a web site called pets4you.com.

Chuck McDevitt, spokesman for the Chester County SPCA, says in the Inquirer article that his agency had not handled a case involving so many animals since its inception in 1929.

The Inquirer also reports:

Humane officers, acting on a tip from a customer at the kennel, conducted a raid Friday and said they found dogs stacked in crates and standing in their own waste. Others were sick or had untreated broken bones, McDevitt said.

"One had no fur, was covered with mange, and was trembling," McDevitt said. "He's afraid. When you see that, you want to pick the dog up and let it know, it's OK. A few minutes later, you're feeling anger that a living, breathing being was uncared for."

Of the cruelty charges, Wolf was cited with 337 counts, Trottier 65. They are summary offenses, similar to a traffic ticket, although penalties can include a fine and forfeiting the animals. […]

Animal handlers removed 337 dogs, four cats, and a parrot from the kennel. All were being evaluated at the Chester County SPCA.

Those that needed medical care were taken to local veterinarians, McDevitt said. By Saturday, 137 dogs had been handed over to other shelters throughout the region, leaving the Chester County SPCA with 200 dogs.

No dogs were euthanized, McDevitt said. The animals will remain in SPCA custody until the cases against Wolf and Trottier are decided.

The Philadelphia Daily News also covered the arrests ("Kennel Owner Charged With 337 Counts of Animal Cruelty," by Gloria Campisi and Simone Weichselbaum), with quotes from one of the accused:

Kennel owner Michael Wolf, 65, said yesterday the pooches were living in crowded circumstances because of renovations to the quarters where some would normally be housed.

He said complaints of odors were because it was winter. "If you have a lot of dogs under one roof, you're going to have an odor." He denied they were living in filthy conditions.

Wolf, who said he had raised dogs since he was a child, admitted he had more dogs "than I should have." But he said he would fight to get his dogs back, "if I have to sell my house.

"They took my little friends. These dogs were cared for," he said, noting that some of them were even fed strained baby food. "We love them. We played with them all the time."

Although he advertises pups on the Internet, authorities said Wolf's kennel license was revoked two years ago.

That last point, I think, gets to the heart of the state's case against these two, no matter what public defense they might offer.

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So Vice President Dick Cheney has decided to go public, or at least break his silence, about the weekend shooting incident by, get this, appearing on Fox News.

No, no press conference, just an interview with the most administration-friendly news outlet in the world.

Even by the standards set by this regime, Cheney's cynical disregard for the public interest is appalling.

[Post-publication addendum: Fox News teases the interview, conducted this afternoon by Brit Hume -- Why didn't I see that coming? -- on its web site.]

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One Christopher Capozzola, an assistant professor of American history at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, reviews A Godly Hero: The Life of William Jennings Bryan, by Michael Kazin, in "The Hero That Time Forgot," in Tuesday's edition of the Christian Science Monitor.

[Post-publication addendum (February 21): Kazin has an op-ed in today's Philadelphia Inquirer, "What Would Bryan Do?"]

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Ever since the news broke, or seeped out, that Vice President Dick Cheney shot a friend of his over the weekend, right wingers have been urging all of us not to have a heart attack over it.

As it turns out, Harry Whittington, Cheney's victim, intended or otherwise, did just that this morning.

This story just gets better and better, or worse and worse, depending upon your perspective. And from Whittington's, it's clearly worse; let's hope he pulls through.

Meanwhile, the account of this morning's White House briefing provided by Dana Milbank of the Washington Post, in "McClellan Takes Aim at Cheney," suggests an event that was nothing less than surreal, though sadly comical and infuriating in the lack of responsiveness might also be offered as descriptive phrases.

A few pull quotes:

Terry Hunt of the AP wanted to know if President Bush has spoken with the shooting victim (he hasn't) and how often Cheney goes hunting ("on a fairly frequent basis.") CBS's Bill Plante asked if Cheney's office would be providing a fuller account of what happened over the weekend. "I think we pretty much covered it all yesterday," [press secretary Scott] McClellan said.

Really? Is McClellan referring to the same briefing we all saw on the evening news and read about in today's papers, or was there another event we haven't heard about?

NBC's Kelly O'Donnell wondered if Cheney would be offering any statement himself, even one of regret for the shooting. "You've heard from the vice president's office," McClellan replied. […]

Here's one of the best parts:

The New York Times's Elisabeth Bumiller tried to sort out the shooting timeline. "Why didn't the vice president call the president?" she pressed. "I don't get it."

"Karl [Rove] spoke with the vice president."

"He's not the president."

Last we checked, anyway.

The New York Post's Deb Orin, no Cheney antagonist, tried to sum up what "we're all trying to get at" with the questioning. When Bush accidentally shot a protected bird called a Kildee, he took immediate and public responsibility. Orin wondered why "the vice president has failed in any way to stand up and say, 'I made a mistake.' "

"He has commented through his spokeswoman," McClellan offered, his orange tie failing him.

"But why haven't we heard from him?" interjected Plante.

"I don't think he had any public events scheduled," McClellan replied.

And then everybody, having had a few good laughs, just called it a day.

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Vice President Dick Cheney was out shooting people in Texas this weekend, CNN.com reports. Okay, just one person, and he was trying to shoot quail, but you get the picture.

[Post-Publication addendum (February 13): See also "Cheney Shoots Fellow Hunter in Mishap on a Texas Ranch," by Anne E. Kornblut in the New York Times, and "Cheney Shoots Fellow Hunter in Texas Accident," by Shailagh Murray and Peter Baker in the Washington Post.]

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You may remember this case. I know I'll never forget it.

Vanessa Jackson, Collingswood, N.J., was sentenced yesterday to seven years in state prison after pleading guilty to one count of endangering the welfare of a child, a massive understatement of what most observers believe she did to the four adopted children placed in her care amid an incredible failure of supervision by state authorities.

For local media coverage, see "'You Took My Childhood,'" by Kristen A. Graham in the Philadelphia Inquirer; "Brothers Vent Their Righteous Anger," by Inquirer columnist Monica Yant Kinney, which starts strongly with this lead: "So this is what judgment day looks like: Four innocent kids, starved by their own mother, finally getting a chance to turn the tables on the woman who wouldn't let them eat at one."; "7 Years in Prison for Starving 4 Boys," by Geoff Mulvihill of the Associated Press in the Philadelphia Daily News; and "Mother Gets 7-year Term for Neglect," by Lawrence Hajna in the Camden Courier Post.

Unfortunately, most of the links do not provide the photographs we have seen here in Philadelphia starkly comparing the condition of the oldest boy in Jackson's care, Bruce Jackson, now 21 years old, found two years ago weighing in at a clearly starved weight of just 45 pounds, with his current condition. We see in these images both the boy who appears to have been raised in a concentration camp and also what now finally appears to be a healthy, but stunted, young man, one who cannot be but badly scarred, mentally and physically, for life.

Unbelievably, Vanessa Jackson, who was passionately -- and shamefully and shamelessly -- defended in court yesterday by her obviously well-fed daughter LaRae Jackson, will be eligible for parole in just two years.

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I came home tonight and turned on the radio, set to the local NPR affiliate, WHYY (90.9 FM, Philadelphia), which at the time was broadcasting a program offering a lengthy, fascinating, and brilliant portrait of former Democratic Texas congresswoman Barbara Jordan.

"Oh no," I said, almost aloud. "How sad. Did she pass away today?"

Wait, I thought. She passed away a while ago, my mind continued. Didn't she?

Well, yes, she did. I checked in with the invaluable, and to my experience so far, always accurate web site, Dead or Alive, which reports she expired on January 17, 1996, nearly ten years ago.

WHYY was broadcasting "Rediscovering Barbara Jordan," a special program produced by KUT (90.5 FM, Austin, Texas).

So I haven't completely lost my mind.

Regardless, it was a terrific program. Keep an eye out for it. Or, as they say, check local listings.

By the way, I could listen to that woman's voice all day long.

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I was still trying to figure out what the phrase "skeleton" meant, at least in terms of winter sports, when I learned Zach Lund, a "skeleton racer," which apparently refers not to his physical build but to his athletic endeavors, was banned from the 2006 Olympic Games in Turin, Italy.

Something to do with drugs, or male-pattern baldness, or both.

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President Look the Other Way earlier today decided this day, today, was the very best day ever to tell the American people what the New York Times and other media mouthpieces are calling "new information" about an asserted Al Qaeda plan to attack the U.S. Bank Tower in Los Angeles, a building we are always reminded when the subject arises, including in the Times, is "the tallest building west of the Mississippi," by which we must assume west of the Mississippi in the United States and no farther.

Timing, of course, is everything in the Rove White House, and so it's par for the course to see the Times report, by the occasionally useful Elisabeth Bumiller and David Johnston, inform readers:

Mr. Bush and his counterterrorism adviser, Frances Fragos Townsend, made no claim on Thursday that the eavesdropping program, conducted by the National Security Agency, had helped to foil the 2002 plot. But in a conference call with reporters, Ms. Townsend did not rule out the program as a factor in discovering the plan.

"We use all available sources and methods in the intelligence community, but we have to protect them," Ms. Townsend said. "So I'm not going to talk about what ones we did or didn't use in this particular case."

Don't worry, Fran, we see where you're going with this. We get it. We get it so well we can see right through it.

(Note: See also, "Bush Says Cooperation Foiled 2002 Terrorist Scheme," by William Branigin of the Washington Post.)

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This sentence, pulled from "Telegram Falls Silent Stop Era Ends Stop," by Shelly Freierman in yesterday's New York Times, stopped me in my tracks:

At one point, according to Amy Fischer, the company historian for Western Union, employees would attend major sporting events, sending play-by-play via a telegraph machine to an announcer at a radio station. [Emphasis added.]

So, I have to ask, Is that a full-time job?

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Courtesy of Jacob Weisberg, who collects "Bushisms" for Slate:

"I like my buddies from west Texas. I liked them when I was young, I liked them then I was middle-age, I liked them before I was president, and I like them during president, and I like them after president."—Nashville, Tenn., Feb. 1, 2006

Yes I like them, Sam I am.

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Rosemary Woods, please call your office. Miss Woods?

Oh, wait, she's dead, but her spirit lives on in the Bush White House.

I caught this in "Will Scooter Libby Graymail the CIA?" a blog post about the possible defense strategy being pursued by former vice presidential (i.e., Dick Cheney) chief of staff Scooter Libby written by The Nation's David Corn (February 6):

Last week, Ted Wells, one of Libby's attorneys, said that "thousand and thousands and thousands" of pages of evidence have been withheld by [special counsel Patrick] Fitzgerald. The special counsel disagreed. By the way, Fitzgerald recently sent a letter to Libby's defense team noting, "In an abundance of caution, we advise you that we have learned that not all e-mail of the Office of Vice President and the Executive Office of the President for certain time periods in 2003 was preserved through the normal archiving process on the White House computer system." Hmmmm. The White House has lost chunks of email from Cheney's and Bush's offices for 2003, the year Bush invaded Iraq, the year of the CIA leak. Must just be an accident, right? [Emphasis added.]

According to a Google News search, only a smattering of news organizations have devoted any attention at all to this strange and mysterious event.

Media Matters for America, it turns out, was talking about this nearly a week ago, and in an item published today, again raises the question why this story continues to fly under the media’s collective radar.

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It was painful, that's really the only word, to read and hear today's media coverage of Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales trying, without benefit of having been sworn beforehand, to defend before the Senate Judiciary Committee, the Bush administration's secret, and so obviously illegal, warrant-free domestic wiretapping program. (See, among many others, "Defense of Eavesdropping Is Met With Skepticism in Senate," by David Stout in the New York Times, and "Gonzales Defends Legality of Surveillance," by William Branigin in the Washington Post.)

There's some special type of gall at work when the attorney general asserted media accounts about the program have been "in almost every case, in one way or another, misinformed, confused or wrong," without explaining how so, and, best I can tell, not having been asked to explain how so.

Even more painful was hearing Republican senators falling all over themselves and each other to defend the White House and the Justice Department, with Sens. John Cronyn (Texas) and Orrin G. Hatch (Utah), happily taking the booby prizes.

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Surely by now you've heard of this disgrace, reported, among other places, in "Heroin Implants Turned Puppies Into Drug Mules, U.S. Says ," by Al Baker and William K. Rashbaum, in today's New York Times:

A Colombian drug trafficking organization was readying purebred puppies as drug couriers by surgically implanting large packets of liquid heroin into their bodies to ship them to the United States, federal officials said yesterday.

Ten puppies, including several Labrador retrievers, were discovered on a farm in a makeshift veterinary clinic in Medellín, Colombia, during a raid about a year ago, said John P. Gilbride, the special agent in charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration's New York Field Division. He said surgical tools and a table for operations were found in the clinic. […]

"Throughout my 25-year career, this is one of the most outrageous methods of smuggling that I personally have encountered," Mr. Gilbride said.

A law enforcement official said the puppies were going to be presented as show dogs to get them past Customs inspectors at airports in the United States. In reality, their fate appeared grim.

Asked how the drugs would be extracted from the puppies, one law enforcement official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the investigation was continuing, said, "I don't think there was any real indication, but I don't think they were going to be real careful."

What shall we call this? A crime against caninity?

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In today's Philadelphia Inquirer, in an article, "'Silver Spoon' vs. Gold Standard," by Dianna Marder, Maria Fulginiti, a 70-year-old Italian American from South Philadelphia, takes on The Silver Spoon, the world-famous cookbook recently translated into English, and wins.

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From Brokeback Mountain producer James Schamus, reacting to talk that Academy Award best actor nominee Heath Ledger was "so brave" to take the role of Ennis Del Mar in that film:

To me, there are worse jobs than kissing Jake Gyllenhaal.

Well, yes. And better jobs, too. Like kissing Heath Ledger.

Meanwhile, if you can take any more commentary about Brokeback Mountain, you should spend a few minutes with "A Picture of Two Americas In 'Brokeback Mountain'," by Stephen Hunter in today's Washington Post.

Pull quote, one of just many worthy potential excerpts:

Finally, the inevitable tragedy and the realization by one man [Ed.: Del Mar] of what a misspent life he's had. How he should have to his own self been true; how happiness has evaded him forever. It's hard to argue that the movie constitutes any kind of threat, or pro-gay propaganda. For one thing, there's too much authentic pain in it, it's too bloody sad. The final image of the aloneness of the survivor is heartbreaking. He was never a crier, of course, but you know inside he's sobbing. The film shows, convincingly, that love comes from the heart, not the glands, and if the heart is engaged, the body follows.

There but for . . . Not really, but you know what I mean.

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Ward Sutton's latest strip, "Dude, Where's My Party?", is excellent.

Sutton's comparison of the Democratic and Republican Parties is best `round about the middle, which I'll tease with the following:

Republicans: When they're in the wrong, they attack. Democrats: When they're in the right, they surrender.

Republicans: Promote their most outspoken and aggressive members. Democrats: Sabotage their most outspoken and aggressive members.

Republicans: Adept at making their unpopular positions appear "mainstream." Democrats: Adept at making their popular positions appear "loony."

Sutton's strips, by the way, may be read locally in the Philadelphia Weekly, though not, unless I'm missing something, on the paper's web site.

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Brokeback Mountain garnered eight Academy Award nominations, and film historian and blogger David Ehrenstein is still talking about it, today in the Los Angeles Times, with "'Brokeback's' Tasteful Appeal."

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