I'm Keeping You Safe, But You Should Remain Terrified. White House officials claim Al Qaeda is showing new signs of life and may conduct a massive preelection attack in August or September. Or they could assassinate a US or foreign leader. But these officials also say they have no evidence of any such plans and no evidence of plans to attack financial buildings, although startling warnings about that very threat were issued about two weeks ago. ... (P.S. I guess Kerry is leading the polls in Ohio.)

Bush flip-flopped this past week on a national sales tax, first saying it's "an interesting idea that we ought to explore seriously" and then having an aide quickly deny that Bush was seriously considering such a tax. By the way, I wonder how that "man to Mars" project is coming along. ... In Albuquerque, Bush praised an American Indian housing program, but forgot to say that he was cutting its funding from $5.3 million to $1 million. ... Bush also said higher taxes on the wealthy don't work because "the really rich people figure out how to dodge taxes anyway."

Congressman Porter Goss, nominated as the new CIA director, told Michael Moore last March: "I couldn't get a job with CIA today. I am not qualified." The White House dismissed the interview as "ridiculous hearsay". What they meant is that you can click and hear him say it. ... I have a question for Goss: Why were you and Bob Graham meeting with the Pakistani ISI general on 9/11? The FBI determined very quickly that this general (Lt. Gen. Mahmood Ahmed) had wired $100,000 to Mohammed Atta, but was then allowed to quietly retire about three weeks after the attacks. What did the three of you talk about?

The Washington Post admits that it underplayed stories questioning White House claims regarding Iraq's alleged WMDs. Pentagon correspondent Thomas Ricks: "Administration assertions were on the front page. Things that challenged the administration were on A18 on Sunday or A24 on Monday. There was an attitude among editors: Look, we're going to war, why do we even worry about all this contrary stuff?"