JIM PINKERTON GETS CREDIT for pointing out a fascinating and, one would think, conflicting set of references in the latest Memorandum to Opinion Leaders by the Project for the New American Century‘s Gary Schmitt.

JOSH MARSHALL DOES NOT NEED REFERRALS from my site. I owe him a great deal for giving the world some notice of what I’ve been doing. That said, I really like his post today exploring the ethics of journalistic discretion about sources.

THE IRS SHOULD DISENFRANCHISE CHURCHES that comply with the Republican National Committee’s requests to turn over parish rosters and contact information. The blurring of the lines between the religious and the secular didn’t start with the Bush administration, but they have certainly taken this to new heights of sophistication and systemization.

TO GET TO MY SMALL VACATION CABIN at Deep Creek Lake, Maryland — right at the very tip of the Maryland pan handle and bordering West Virginia and Pennsylvania, I drive through the Allegheny mountain town of Cumberland, Maryland.

WALTER F. ROCHE JR. HAS AN ILLUMINATING PIECE TODAY in the Los Angeles Times on the clan Woolsey — exposing some of the Iraq contract connections of Suzanne Woolsey, the former CIA Director’s wife. In January 2004, she became a director of Fluor Corporation, which has $1.6 billion in Iraq related contracts.

I FEEL SORRY FOR DC TAXI CAB DRIVERS. If I am driven from where I live in Dupont Circle, near U Street, to the U.S. Capitol, I’ve stayed in one taxi cab zone, and the fare is just $5.00 during non-rush hour times.

THE FLORIDA REPUBLICAN NATIONAL CONVENTION DELEGATION members are being kept secret. A UPI newstrack story reports that Florida Republicans have refused to release the names of the state’s delegates to the national convention in New York.

RICHARD HAASS IS A NO NONSENSE REALIST about foreign policy issues. He is as blunt and straight shooting as they come and has on many occasions had no problem admitting his errors — or alternatively taking credit for a successful policy he designed.

THUS FAR, THE COST FOR INVADING AND OCCUPYING IRAQ (not counting lives lost) is approximately $166 billion.

JAMES WOOLSEY IS AT IT AGAIN. He is now spearheading the revived Committee on the Present Danger which was a mainstay of national security hawks during the Cold War and served as the platform for the late Senator Henry M. “Scoop” Jackson‘s iconic ascent as the Democratic Party’s toughest national security voice.