News updates: Impeachment, NSA and Egypt

1. John Conyers' op-ed in the WaPo demonstrates that the influential Democrats are all determined to defuse impeachment as a 2006 campaign issue and to give the Administration every opportunity to formally respond, rather than proceed with their (already more than adequate) current evidence. So much for my idea of getting started on it now, when it still might mean something. I'm back to considering it pointless.

2. Interesting new news about the NSA that could feed the nascent trend toward finding fault with General Hayden's actual record, rather than opposing him based on faulty hypotheticals like "militarizing the CIA." (Thanks to Sauron at Freethought Forum for the tip, who got it from Talking Points Memo.

3. Egypt ramps up its brutal repression. Hundreds of demonstrators for judicial independence were beaten and arrested, one of the two particular judges in question was disciplined, and an court denied Ayman Nour's appeal of his five-year sentence.