Morning News Roundup (08 Feb)

• Karl Rove wants you to think only unpatriotic Democrats are questioning the wisdom behind BushCo's warrantless wiretapping. Well, here's another Republican voice--Representative Heather A. Wilson of New Mexico, chairwoman of the House Intelligence Subcommittee on Technical and Tactical Intelligence--calling for an inquiry into the matter (NYTimes). Talking Points Memo has a bit more on where this position might stem from.
  
  
• Four more die in Afghanistan in yet another Danish cartoon protest (BBC).
  
  
• Another budget factoid: BushCo proposes to do away with the $255 lump sum Social Security death payment (AP/Yahoo!).
  
  [UPDATE - 1:45pm PST] John Gilliom over at The Gadflyer notes: Depending on where you live, that $255 is between a quarter or a half of the cheapest cremation; it's about a 20th of typical funeral costs.
  
  
• Wall Street Journal notes that the Abramoff scandal will continue to bedevil the White House, with a court case bringing "fresh attention to the case of former White House aide David Safavian, who is charged with lying in connection with a golf trip Mr. Abramoff arranged" as well as attention to Karl Rove.
  
  
• "Singles" are a hit again, thanks to digital downloads available from sources such as the iTunes Music Store (WaPo):
  

  Though sales of full-length albums were down 7.2 percent last year, the digital singles market grew by 150 percent, with 352.7 million individual songs sold online, according to Nielsen SoundScan. It was by far the highest figure for singles sales in any format since 1973, the first year for which Recording Industry Association of America shipment data are available for singles. In late December 2005, weekly singles sales topped CD sales for the first time, as American consumers -- many of them flush with holiday gift cards and loading new MP3 players -- purchased 19.9 million digital tracks but just 16.8 million albums, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

  My latest digital single purchase--I'm Moving to Wales / Love Your Bum by Eberg (link requires Apple iTunes software).