By Steve Clemons

I can’t attend today, but Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman General Peter Pace are giving a media briefing at 1:15 p.m.

Today in a long interview session with a number of Associated Press correspondents, former State Department Chief of Staff Lawrence Wilkerson offered important commentary on the White House’s role in establishing a permissive environment that led to detainee abuse and torture.

I thought that Frank Gaffney’s outrageous comments last week that, under certain circumstances, it would be laudable for U.S. forces to bomb Al-Jazeera’s Doha headquarters were the first time he had suggested destroying this important Arab media network.

The repugnant Duke Cunningham — who was involved as well in the old Tailhook scandal — has finally resigned his House seat after admitting that he took bribes. An Associated Press report just posted on the New York Times website: Rep. Randy ”Duke” Cunningham pleaded guilty Monday to conspiracy and tax charges, admitting taking $2.

I think that they hate us for not making clear that “their” lives matter. Read this clip in the Sunday Telegraph that only compounds the damage done by prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib. It looks like private defense contractors under contract with the United States government have serial killers out just randomly shooting people.

John Bolton is having a public feud with Great Britain over his effort to withhold the UN’s budget until various reforms are adopted. This was a classic Jesse Helms tactic of the past and shows that Bolton is tipping towards bludgeoning the United Nations rather than using diplomatic skill to achieve his objectives.

The Los Angeles Times editorial page is sizzling with anger today about the Bush administration’s missteps in Iraq.

. . .but two quick items. First, I posted this short piece on Joe Biden’s Washington Post oped this morning over at TPM Cafe. Also, I don’t know what to think of this, but check out the Durex global sex issues survey.

Fascinating. A British Parliament Member has offered to do jail time to get the controversial Bush/Al-Jazeera memo into public view. Someone please slip him a copy.

Yesterday in a Wall Street Journal article, “Plan for Iraq: Shareholders Don’t Shoot Each Other,” Charles Wolf, Jr.