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• CIA Said To Find North Korean Nuclear Advances (David E. Sanger, New York Times)

"American intelligence officials now believe that North Korea is developing the technology to make nuclear warheads small enough to fit atop the country's growing arsenal of missiles, potentially putting Tokyo and American troops based in Japan at risk, according to officials who have received the intelligence reports."

• No Hope Radio (Robert Christgau, Village Voice)

"Radiohead are beset not only by the usual wages-of-fame issues, which they're handling better than Nirvana, but by the reduced value of those wages in dollars and pence. When they surfaced 10 years ago, the record industry was a road to riches down which sped many estimable bands, all focusing on principle with stars in their eyes. Now the same industry is in a slump worse, perceptually, than any in living memory. With sales lagging and blame flying, intelligent guitar-toting white guys, a growth sector in grunge-besotted 1993, have been marginalized commercially by hip-hop, teenpop, adultpap, and Creed. No matter how far above the cash nexus the guitar toter stands—a vantage the five Oxonians can afford—this slump exacerbates the aura of crisis and anxiety that rock bands have made a currency since the Beatles got serious. If Radiohead don't keep the artistic faith while maintaining their cultural clout, it's gonna feel like doomsday—inside what remains of the biz's idealistic wing, and also among the vaguely oppositional student types who dominate the tastemaking sector of Radiohead's audience."

• Why Congressmen Want To Be Lobbyists (Timothy Noah, Slate Magazine)

"Today, it's different. House members actually leave Congress voluntarily, sometimes before serving out their terms, to become lobbyists. It isn't cause to feel sorry for them. It's usually just assumed they will stay in Washington, and as lobbyists, they will stand at the top of the heap. Today, members of Congress gaze out their windows and daydream about becoming lobbyists."

• Law Aims To Reduce Identity Theft (Robert Lemos, CNet)

"The Security Breach Information Act (S.B. 1386), which goes into effect Tuesday, requires companies that do business in California or that have customers in the state to notify consumers whenever their personal information may have been Compromised."

• Not Business As Usual: Cheney and The CIA (Ray McGovern, AlterNet)

"As though this were normal! I mean the repeated visits Vice President Dick Cheney made to the CIA before the war in Iraq. The visits were, in fact, unprecedented. During my 27-year career at the Central Intelligence Agency, no vice president ever came to us for a working visit."

• Vive the Liberal Media (Eric Alterman, The Nation)

"I f you want to date the beginning of conservative domination of the opinion media, you could do worse than to pick Election Day 1964. That's when Richard Mellon Scaife, later joined by many others, figured out that it was pointless for wealthy conservatives to pour money into the coffers of conservative candidates like Barry Goldwater without first investing in their own form of media through which to communicate their ideas."

The views expressed above represent the writer and not necessarily those of The Disinformation Company Ltd.