Lynne Cheney's "Sisters"

Our Second Lady, as many will know, penned a bit of lesbian soft pron several years back. Excerpts are available on whitehouse.org. An excellent review appeared at Democratic Underground a few days ago. Now it looks like the whole turgid mess is available online.

British Embassy sounds alarm over growing dangers in Iraq

Reuters: Disintegrating security in Baghdad was underlined in a sombre warning yesterday from the British embassy against using the airport road or taking a plane out of Iraq.

The embassy says a bomb was discovered on a flight inside Iraq on 22 November. It shows that insurgents have been able to penetrate the stringent security at Baghdad airport. The embassy says its own staff have been advised against taking commercial planes.

The warning is in sharp contrast to more optimistic statements from US military commanders after the capture of Fallujah in which they have spoken of "breaking the back of the insurgency".

The embassy says that the road between Baghdad and the international airport, perhaps the most important highway in the country, is now too dangerous to use. The advice says starkly: "With effect from 28 November, the British embassy ceased all movements on the Baghdad International airport road."

The airport road is littered with evidence of previous attacks: the twisted cars used by suicide bombers and craters from roadside bombs.

There are no safe havens. Since March, 14 British civilians have been killed. Not only have insurgents proved capable of putting a bomb on a plane, but on 14 October two suicide bombers entered the heavily fortified Green Zone and blew themselves up, killing five people and injuring many more.


Like Soviet citizens 30 years ago, we had better start getting used to sourcing our news from the foreign press, because what we hear from domestic sources bears little semblence to reality, and that situation will only get worse. Radio Free Canada, anyone?

Iraq Oil Infrastructure Losing Billions

Between August and October, Iraq lost $7 billion dollars in potential revenues due to sabotage against the country's oil infrastructure, according to Assem Jihad, spokesman of the Oil Ministry.

An estimated 20 oil wells and pipelines were bombed or set abalze this month in northern Iraq alone, according to an official of the Northern Company. Iraq has oilfields in the north around Kirkuk and in the south near Basra.
...
Maj. Gen. Anwar Mohammed Amin, chief of the Iraqi National Guardsmen in Kirkuk, said that Erinys hires tribes to guard oil installations. For guarding pipelines, he said the going rate is $1,100 per mile secured.

"The tribes are fighting over who wins the largest number of contracts," Amin said, adding that the losers "blow up the pipelines and oil wells in retaliation."

Tribesmen who own land through which the pipelines pass sometimes break them to steal oil for sale.

Short of bringing in an extra 100,000 or so armed guards, there does not seem to be an obvious solution to this problem. And if the insurgents have unlimited weapons (from the ammo dumps we chose not guard) and easy access to oil, which is easy currency, they should be able to soldier on for years.

Give "marriage" to the churches

from Daily Kos
Arguments against gay marriage are predicated entirely, 100 percent, on emotion. And the vehicle for those emotional appeals are the word "marriage". A mere semantic.

Or it would be, if government rights and benefits weren't predicated on that single word.

So let's gift the word "marriage" to the churches, grant themexclusive use, and get the government out of the realm of "marriage". That way, churches could define whatever it was they called "marriage" (you know, that thing with a 50 percent success rate), and leave the government to certify legal "unions" -- you know, those things between people who love each other.

That way, the churches could find ways to really save marriage, by figuring out how to keep their flocks from divorcing, cheating and abusing their spouses.

Exactly.

Personal use pot argued before the Supremes

If medical weed is ever gonna get the blessing of the highest court in the land, now is the time. This case involves personal use only, and the figurehead plaintiff is pretty sympathetic. There has been an elegant inversion of the normal alignment of law and fact -- the pro-toke folks are using a states' rights argument. And of course, the conservative Chief Justice is battling cancer, and may even be going through chemo.

The feds are trotting out a parade of horribles they want the Court to focus on.

A loss for the government, on the other hand, could jeopardize federal oversight of illegal drugs and raise questions in other areas such as product safety and environmental activities. A Bush administration lawyer told the justices they would be encouraging people to use potentially harmful marijuana if they were to side with the women.

"If they're right, then I think their analysis would extend to recreational use of marijuana, as well as medical use of marijuana, and would extend to every state in the nation, not just those states that made it lawful," said Paul Clement, acting solicitor general.

I'm normally skeptical of slippery slope arguments, but this one gives me some pause. Will Texas try to opt out the the Clean Air Act if the Court allows California to opt out of the federal program here? What if Alabama opts out of civil rights legislation?

In our desperate attempts to make lemonade out of our electoral lemons, liberals have talked a fair amount about going our own way via states' rights arguments. I think we will need to really think that one through before we head down that road.

In this case I think a narrow decision in favor of medical Mary Jane is possible. The basis for damn near all federal legislation is something called the Commerce Clause, and it has been twisted beyond recognition over the years, but the Rehnquist court has tried to put some limits on it. I think the Court could reasonably find that federal law can't reach the home-grown personal stash of these patients. Of course, from the perspective of the feds, this could mean they can't reach your personal homegrown stash, either.

Complicated, ain't it?

Apologies Accepted - the world's answer to sorryeverybody.com

Touching, but still sad. Because evil will still this way come, and that way go.

Quietly released Pentagon report contains major criticisms of administration.

From the Christian Science Monitor:

Late on the Wednesday afternoon before the Thanksgiving holiday, the US Defense Department released a report by the Defense Science Board that is highly critical of the administration's efforts in the war on terror and in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

'Muslims do not hate our freedom, but rather they hate our policies [the report says]. The overwhelming majority voice their objections to what they see as one-sided support in favor of Israel and against Palestinian rights, and the long-standing, even increasing, support for what Muslims collectively see as tyrannies, most notably Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Pakistan and the Gulf states. Thus, when American public diplomacy talks about bringing democracy to Islamic societies, this is seen as no more than self-serving hypocrisy.'
...
The report also takes the administration to task for talking about Islamic extremism in a way that offends many Muslims. "In stark contrast to the cold war, the United States today is not seeking to contain a threatening state empire, but rather seeking to convert a broad movement within Islamic civilization to accept the value structure of Western Modernity – an agenda hidden within the official rubric of a 'War on Terrorism.'"
...
Wired News reported the board as saying, the US has not only failed to separate "the vast majority of nonviolent Muslims from the radical-militant Islamist-Jihadists," but American efforts may have "achieved the opposite of what they intended."


Looks like it is time to clean house over at the Pentagon too, eh George? Mix up another batch of that Kool Aid, Dick.

Crooked Timber: Fighting Inflation as Class Warfare

Great discussion of the politics of macroeconomics.

Macro has always been the messy part of economic theory. Reality is much more complex than any workable model could ever be. This state of affairs has had the salutary (for economists, anyway) of letting some pretty silly theories maintain a veneer of legitimacy long past their sell-by dates. Remember Arthur Laffer? He was the guy who said that Reagan's tax cuts would shrink the deficit. Despite the evidence to the contrary, he still has adherents, because, natch, they can read the data any damn way they please. Perhaps the best statement of the realities of macro came from my macro professor. When a student pointed out that a theory the prof had just explained was refuted by the evidence of the real world, he replied, "The real world is a special case, which need not concern us here."

The linked posting casts inflation in class terms, and makes a pretty good case. The interesting question is, of course, about what happens next. Bush's fiscal policies are setting us up for big jumps in interest rates, and inflation was rolling at 20% annulized clip last month. But given the over-leveraging ofthe American consumer, a big boost in interest rates is likely to bring a wave of foreclosures, bankruptcies and other fun happenings.

U.S. may go it alone on Iran sanctions

(Reuters) - Iran has escaped U.N. censure over its nuclear programme but Washington, which accuses it of seeking an atomic bomb, says it reserves the right to take the case to the Security Council on its own.

I am reminded of those stupid cartoons that seem to appear every December with an old, haggard guy with the year about to end written on him handing off to a baby labeled with the new year.

Iraq is so last year. So let's wipe it off the front page with this year's model. The hymnal will probably open to the right page of its own accord by now.

New (Testament) Math

Dubya's least favorite philosopher would undoubtedly be Nietzsche, because Fred considered Christianity a religion of slaves. (Although to be fair, there are things Dub might grossly misinterpret to his advantage in Beyond Good and Evil). But Dubya's allies are certainly doing their part in pushing Nietzsche into Nostradamus-land as predicter par excellence.

The linked blog posting from the most excellent Jesus' General contains excerpts from a recent Inquisition-approved textbook provider. Lots of righteousness on display. Check out the math test questions at the end of the entry.

If our schools churn out enought students taught this way, we will indeed be a nation of slaves -- slaves to our Chinese and Indian masters, who use numbers for things other than references to King James-version pages.

Federally funded faith-based mentoring

The Madison-based Freedom From Religion Foundation is suing to halt direct federal funding of a Christian child-mentoring program in Arizona that has its mentors "share the good news of who Jesus is and how he can provide a future of hope for anyone."


MentorKids USA of Phoenix, Ariz., has received a $225,000, three-year grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, according to the federal lawsuit filed here.

The Arizona group's Web site says: "We are a faith-based organization working in partnerships with churches and local Christian community to enlist, train and support Christian mentors."

According to the lawsuit, MentorKids gives all mentors a faith statement which says: "The Bible is God's authoritative and inspired word that is without error in all its teachings, including creation, history, its origins, and salvation, and Christians must submit to its divine authority, both individually and corporately, in all matters of belief and conduct."

That statement also says "all people are lost sinners and cannot see the Kingdom of God except through the new birth. Justification is by grace through faith in Christ alone."

In the new America, this kind of thing is going to be ubiquitous, and Nino Scalia's Supreme Court will do nothing to stop it. We didn't need an Establishment Clause anyway.

End of the Line for Nightline?

Reports are circulating that ABC's Nightline could soon be relegated to TV history and replaced by Jimmy Kimmel's talk show, which would move up in the lineup and compete directly against NBC's Jay Leno and CBS' David Letterman.

Such rumors made their way into print last week in a Wall Street Journal report about the resignation of Leroy Sievers, Nightline's co-executive producer, considered the driving force behind the late-night half hour.

Sievers told the Journal that he and Nightline were parting company because of the "fundamental changes and direction of the series."

In case you hadn't seen any signs of the end of the world over the current holiday, here you go. Nightline did a great piece debunking the Swift smear about a week before the election. It appears that thequid for that quo was not long in coming. Ted, since you are the last journalist to leave, please turn out the lights.

Weekend Diversion

LA Kobes at 7-6. Dropped one to Sacramento on Friday, despite Kobe Bryant's 40 points and another two from Kobe "Flop" Divac. Change the name of the opposing team and we can run this one nearly every week through April.

I used to enjoy this game. Now thinking about the NBA is too much like thinking about politics.

A year after his Thanksgiving in Baghdad, Bush phones it in

(Reuters) - President Bush made Thanksgiving Day calls from his Texas ranch to U.S. troops abroad on Thursday, a year after he made a secret trip to spend the holiday with soldiers in Iraq.
"The president wanted to express his gratitude for their service and sacrifice and to wish them a happy Thanksgiving," said White House spokeswoman Claire Buchan.


Shrub is going to be phoning in lots of things now that the election is behind him. Especially the compassion stuff.

Man says fish stick has Jesus' face

If the Virgin Mary on grilled cheese went for 28 large, the mind boggles at the prospects for Jesus on a fish stick.

Who knows where this will all lead -- the Ten Commandments in a bowl of Alpha Bits?

No ebay auction yet, as far as I can tell.

Study: Cigarettes Cost Society $40 a Pack

In Econ 101, there was a short footnote that talked about the concept of "externalities." This is the concept that the price of a product or service does not always reflect all of its costs. The trivial example used is the case of a beekeeper next to an apple orchard. The price of apples does not include the cost of pollination, which the orchard gets for free; the price of honey does not include the cost of the pollen the bees pilfer from the apple trees.

That one is trivial, in part because positive externalities are as rare as hen's teeth. Negative externalities are things like pollution, and they are everywhere.

Classical economics spends little time talking about externalities. Not because they are unimportant, mind you -- they are hugely important. Economists ignore them for two reasons -- first, because they are difficult; calculating the true cost of, say, the price of a gallon of gas, is very complicated, and requires wading into a lot of discussions that economists find messy. The other reason is that economists don't like where this line of thinking takes them, because a market economy frankly does a piss-poor job of dealing with them, and getting serious about externalities requires you to acknowledge that there are some things you need a strong government to do -- and market economists would rather eat worms.

Boilingmad.Blogspot.com: The Enlightenment of the Founding Fathers

On this day of giving thanks, it is worth reflecting on the kind of thanks our founding fathers might have given, and to whom they would have given them. As previously discussed, the Right Reverend Antonin Scalia would have us believe that those good 'ol boys were early members of Jerry Falwell's flock. So the quotes gathered at boilingmad would give him pause, were he capable of honest thought on such matters. Two samples:


"The question before the human race is, whether the God of nature shall govern the world by his own laws, or whether priests and kings shall rule it by fictitious miracles?"
-John Adams, letter to Thomas Jefferson, June 20, 1815

"The day will come when the mystical generation of Jesus, by the supreme being as his father in the womb of a virgin, will be classed with the fable of the generation of Minerva in the brain of Jupiter." -Thomas Jefferson, letter to John Adams, April 11, 1823

There you have it: two founding fathers, both elected President. If their heresies caused any political difficulties 200 years ago, I never heard about it. Yet both would be precluded from running for dogcatcher today by their blasphemy.

Vietnam veteran, 53, called to active duty

More than three decades after he was last in combat, a Vietnam veteran has been called to active duty in Iraq.

Paul Dunlap, 53, of Pleasant Unity, will leave for Fort Bliss, Texas, on Monday after being called up as part of Operation Dragoon.

Dunlap, a first sergeant in the Army National Guard Company C 28th Signal Battalion out of Torrance, Westmoreland County, hasn't been in combat since he was a 19-year-old Marine and served 11 months in Vietnam from 1970 to 1971.


Did you think it was strange that we were fighting the Viet Nam War again during the recent political season? Did you think it was odd that there were rumors of a draft in certain circles?

Well, now we are drafting Viet Nam vets to fight a whole new Viet Nam. Can call-ups of Korean War vets be far behind?

Afghan Opium Cultivation Reaches Record High-UN

Afghanistan's opium cultivation jumped 64 percent to a record 324,000 acres this year and drug exports now account for more than 60 percent of the economy, the United Nations drugs office said Thursday.

"This year Afghanistan has established a double record -- the highest drug cultivation in the country's history, and the largest in the world," Antonio Maria Costa, executive director of the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime, told a news briefing.

Opium, the raw material for heroin, was grown in all Afghanistan's 32 provinces this year. Ten percent of the population, or 2.3 million people, helped farm it because grinding poverty made it more attractive than other crops.

"Cultivation has spread ... making narcotics the main engine of economic growth and the strongest bond among previously quarrelsome peoples," Costa said. "Valued at $2.8 billion, the opium economy is now equivalent to over 60 percent of Afghanistan's 2003 gross domestic product."


We can be very proud of the thriving market economy we have created in Afghanistan. And what with thousands of Americans getting wounded in Iraq, we are doing our part to help stimulate demand for their goods.

U.S. Threatens Punitive Steps Over Ukraine Election

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States on Monday threatened to review its relationship with Ukraine and to take punitive steps if the Ukrainian government fails to investigate allegations of fraud and abuse in its presidential election.
...
"The United States is deeply concerned over the elections in Ukraine," State Department spokesman Adam Ereli told reporters. "We call on the Ukrainian authorities to curb additional abuse and fraud, to uphold its international commitments to democracy and human rights and to act to ensure an outcome that reflects the will of the Ukrainian people.

"Should, in the final analysis, this election prove to be fundamentally flawed and tarnished, we would certainly need to review our relations with the Ukraine and consider further steps against individuals who had engaged in fraud," he added

Ironic commentary seems utterly superfluous here.

Virgin Mary In Grilled Cheese Final

The auction ended last night. It went for for a mere $28,000. The winner? According to AP, GoldenPalace.com, an online casino. A quick visit there confirms the story. You can even watch a video

The file is called "grilled mary."

Religious icons. Gambling. Pasteurized imitation cheese food products. Only in America.

Federalism my ass

An anti-abortion provision with potentially widespread impact will remain intact as part of the Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Appropriations Bill for 2005, in spite of efforts by pro-choice Senators to block the measure. President Bush is expected to sign the omnibus spending bill.

On Friday, nine female Senators, including Olympia Snowe (R-ME), sent a letter to chair of the Appropriations Committee Senator Ted Stevens (R-AK), requesting that the language of the clause be changed and protesting the fact that the Federal Refusal Clause had not been discussed in committee, nor had it been put to a vote on the Senate floor. According to the women Senators, the clause, sponsored by Rep. Dave Weldon (R-FL), would “allow a broad range of health-care companies refuse to comply with federal, state, and local laws and regulations pertaining to abortion services. Should this provision become law, federal, state, or local governments may no longer require any institutional or individual health-care provider to provide, pay for, or refer abortion services. This will mean that medical providers in hospitals and clinics across the country will likely be victims of demonstrations and intimidation as this provisions allows that they be forbidden from providing abortion care to women who need it, and also to deny women referrals to another provider.”


Those who speak of federalism as the antidote to a federal government run amok have missed an essential point: using the logic of the Right against them won't be effective if they see themselves as immune from the constraints of logic. So making a states' rights argument in support of the right to choose will be ineffective. Appealing to the tooth fairy might do better.

Newsday.com: Scalia says religion infuses U.S. government and history

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia said Monday that a religion-neutral government does not fit with an America that reflects belief in God in everything from its money to its military.

"I suggest that our jurisprudence should comport with our actions," Scalia told an audience attending an interfaith conference on religious freedom at Manhattan's Shearith Israel synagogue.
...An "originalist," Scalia believes in following the Constitution as written by the Founding Fathers, rather than interpreting it to reflect the changing times.

"Our Constitution does not morph," he said Monday, deadpanning, "As I've often said, I am an originalist, I am a textualist, but I am not a nut."

Earlier this year, Scalia cast one of two dissenting votes in a 7-2 Supreme Court ruling that states may deny taxpayer-funded scholarships to divinity students.

At the time, Scalia wrote: "Let there be no doubt: This case is about discrimination against a religious minority."


I saw Scalia speak several years before he became a Supreme. His views on the way our government is supposed to work scared the bejeezus out of me. He was a hard-core majoritarian -- in other words, whatever the majority wants, it should get. The whole concept of the Constitution as a bulwark against the power of government was utterly foreign to him. And that was definitely NOT the intent of the framers.

And yeah, he is a nut.

Sixth Iraq oil well set ablaze by saboteurs

From AFP (French)Saboteurs set ablaze another well in Iraq's northern oilfields overnight, bringing to six the number firefighters are trying to extinguish in the region, security guards said.


But U.S. news sources won't report it, so it isn't happening.

Poll: Creationism Trumps Evolution

(CBS) Americans do not believe that humans evolved, and the vast majority says that even if they evolved, God guided the process. Just 13 percent say that God was not involved. But most would not substitute the teaching of creationism for the teaching of evolution in public schools.

The rejection of evolution by mainstream America isn't news, course. But what is interesting here is the fact that these self-proclaimed believers don't want the truth as they see it taught in school. That is a remarkable bit of cognitive dissonance. I cannot imagine saying, "I think evolution is supported by an overwhelming mountain of evidence, but I think my kids would be better off if you taught them a different theory based on a story written thousands of years ago and contradicted by every bit of scientific research accumulated over the last 500 years or so."

George W. Bush: Our leader --Clear Channel political public service billboard

Raw Story reports that those guardians of liberty at Clear Channel have put their money behind our Maximum Leader by plastering his face on a billboard with the caption "Our Leader."

I guess that obviates the need for scrutiny or a recount in FL and OH, doesn't it?

Justice Dept. Defends Civil Rights Record

Guardian Unlimited | World Latest | Justice Dept. Defends Civil Rights Record

via the Guardian:
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Justice Department on Monday defended its record of prosecuting criminal civil rights cases after an independent study concluded the number of prosecutions had dropped significantly under President Bush.

The analysis by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University found that the number of criminal civil rights defendants prosecuted had dropped from 159 in 1999 to 84 last year.

After initially declining comment on the study, the Justice Department said Monday the research was ``incorrect'' and the true number of defendants prosecuted last year was 151, actually higher than the 138 it said were prosecuted in 1999.

``This administration believes in and has vigorously enforced the criminal civil rights laws,'' said Justice Department spokesman Eric Holland.

David Burnham, a co-author of the study at TRAC, said the research was based entirely on numbers provided under Freedom of Information Act requests by the Executive Office of U.S. Attorneys, a part of the Justice Department.

The same information, Burnham said, is used in the department's reports to Congress and to investigative agencies such as the Government Accountability Office. It was backed up, he said, by similar downward trends in civil rights enforcement TRAC found in records kept by federal courts.

The Justice Department also said TRAC was mistaken in saying it had received about 12,000 civil rights complaints each year, including 2003. The number of complaints last year was about 9,500, officials said.

However, the Justice Department's own Internet site on Monday continued to say it receives ``approximately 12,000 criminal civil rights complaints annually.''

Happy happy fun

Istook is the charming gent who slipped the right to pull your IRS file into the recent spending bill. This puts it all in context. Nice crowd he runs with.

Bush's slapdown for Blair on climate change

News
President Bush has reprimanded Tony Blair for sounding the alarm over global warming and pressing for international action to combat it, senior Washington sources say.
Bad doggie! Bad, bad doggie.

I'm sure this will be a real shot in the arm for Blair in his looming impeachment proceedings.

Schwarzenegger Fakes Hydrogen Hum Job

The AP ran a great story about California's smoke-and-mirrors Governator, though their headline -- AP Wire | 11/17/2004 | Schwarzenegger Has Knack for Stagecraft-- is a bit of a joke.

The moment seemed to capture perfectly Arnold Schwarzenegger's pledge to make hydrogen a viable fuel source for California's cars and trucks. The tanned and smiling governor parked a hydrogen-powered Hummer - a specially made version of his signature vehicle - and hopped out to slide a hydrogen fuel station's nozzle into the gas tank.

But the moment was all about appearances.

No fuel actually came out of the pump. The Hummer's builders would later acknowledge that it could only travel 50 miles between refueling. And despite the day's alternative-fuel theme, Schwarzenegger left in a gas-powered SUV that gets about 15 miles to the gallon.


Now we know what he has in common with Team Bush -- their integrity and grounding in reality.

Falwell's school joins others in teaching law to their flocks

The LA Times viaThe Smirking Chimp

Want to see the next step in the takeover of secular society by th religious right? Welcome to the new law school at Liberty University, a Baptist college founded in 1971 by the Rev. Jerry Falwell. It is small so far, but if they can re-write science, the law should be a piece of cake.

...by teaching law from a Christian perspective, Falwell hopes to train a cadre of Christian lawyers to fight what he sees as the growing secularization of public life across the country.

And the school plans to offer select students hands-on experience with a law firm that takes on constitutional issues. That would occur when Liberty Counsel, a legal organization in Orlando, Fla., that focuses on cases involving religion and traditional values, moves its legislative arm to the campus.

Best known for establishing in 1979 the Moral Majority, one of the first evangelical efforts to affect political discourse, Falwell sees the law school as an extension of his mission.

"We certainly are training Christian activists," Falwell, who this month announced the creation of a 21st century version of the Moral Majority that aims to re-energize religious conservatives, said in an interview last week. "We're turning their attention to understand the Bible is the infallible word of God, that the American Constitution is a sacred document and that the Christian worldview is their matrix of service."

"Re-engergize?" I guess flagging energy is a real problem when you are winning a blow-out.

Remember Valerie Plame?

Good summary of the absurdity of the government's handling of the whole sordid mess. But of course the hounding of reporters other than Robert Novak (the only so-called reporter willing to be the Administration's bitch on this one) is not incompetent: it is part of the same mailicious intent that created the leak in the first place. The junta has no interest in punishing THESE leakers -- they want to intimidate anyone who dares to leak or publish non-sanctioned disclosures. They know this is important given the mass exodus of competence and principle in the rolling putsch at State, Langlely and who knows where else. They need to put the fear into all who might be tempted to sing.

Militant groups control 60 percent of Fallujah: witnesses

:: Xinhuanet - English ::

This report comes form a questionable source -- but then again, so does everyhting we hear from the US media.

I expected the insurgents to cede Fallujah for now, and keep playing whack-a-mole with the U.S. military by popping up in a different city every week or so. This story, if true, suggest that they are either a stronger or a lot dumber than expected.

Church air is bad for your health, new study

To be snarky, or not be....

Violence Breaks Out All Over Baghdad

Baghdad exploded in violence Saturday, as insurgents attacked a U.S. patrol and a police station, assassinated four government employees and detonated several bombs. One American soldier was killed and nine were wounded during clashes that also left three Iraqi troops and a police officer dead.
...
The spasm of violence came a day after Iraqi forces backed by U.S. soldiers raided the Abu Hanifa mosque — one of the country's most important Sunni mosques — as worshippers were leaving after Friday prayers in the Azamiyah neighborhood.


The operation appeared to be part of a government crackdown on militant clerics opposed to the U.S.-led attack on Fallujah. Witnesses said at least three people were killed and 40 others arrested.

Congregants at the Abu Hanifa mosque said they heard explosions inside the building, apparently from stun grenades. Later, a reporter saw a computer and books, including a Quran, scattered on the floor of the imam's office near overturned furniture. U.S. soldiers were seen inside the mosque compound.

U.S. and Iraqi forces launched an offensive that they say has secured most of Fallujah, hoping to tame the insurgents' strongest bastion ahead of January elections. But many militants are believed to have fled the city to continue attacks elsewhere — and the operation risks alienating Iraq's Sunni Arab minority, whose participation in elections is seen as key to legitimacy.

Insurgents have carried out a wave of violence across Iraq coinciding with the Fallujah offensive. Mosul — Iraq's third-largest city with more than a million residents about 225 miles north of Baghdad — has been a center of violence.



At least we controll Fallujah. Today.

weekend distraction

Yeah, so there were some questionable high-sticking calls in Auburn Hills last night, and Ron Artest will have to spend part of the next game in the penalty box. Welcome to the East.

Meanwhile, in the futility league, the Los Angeles Kobes have moved slideways to a stellar 5-5 record. Last night head Kobe heaved the rock 33 times en route to a 29 point night and a loss to the Suns. Nothing says "me me me me" like more shots than points.

A .500 record in the west was not good enough to make the 2nd season last year. So maybe they will end up a lottery team this year. You go, girl.

This is guilt-free rubbernecking for me.

Bush to California: Drop Dead, Part 12

Calif. to Sue Over Sierra Nevada Logging Expansion

On Thursday, the head of the Department of Agriculture's Forest Service affirmed a plan announced in January that would allow four times more wood to be harvested from the Sierra Nevada than in 2001. The approval to permit logging of 700,000 acres over the next 20 years was described as a move to curb wildfires.

No wilderness, no wildfires. Simple, really.

Wrist Best Spot for Angioplasty in Elderly

Gee, I always thought the heart was the best place to do an angioplasty, but who am I to say?

House GOP Leader DeLay Delights in Rebuke of Accuser

A Texas congressman who brought a successful ethics complaint against House Majority Leader Tom Delay was himself rebuked by the ethics panel for violating the rules in the way he brought the complaint.

Delay, seizing on the committee's criticism on Friday, suggested that Rep. Chris Bell, a Texas Democrat, pay his legal expenses.

Tom Lehrer said that satire died the day Henry Kissinger won the Nobel Peace prize. It just got deader. With this crowd, it will have more deaths than Rasputin.

Sen. Introduces Bill to Protect Reporters

OK, so maybe satire isn't dead. Senator Dodd is just showing us how it is really done.

This one will pass right after the bill recognizing the ability of pigs to fly.

Motion to impeach Blair gets go-ahead

Since we are part of the same coalition, and we are so good at outsourcing, maybe we could ask the British to also impeach our leader while they are at it. Economies of scale and all.

Source of Powell's Iran intelligence under scrutiny - Nov 19, 2004

Deja vu: that strange feeling...

Source of Powell's Iran intelligence under scrutiny

Deja vu -- that strange feeling....

Virgin Mary In Grilled Cheese Update

The price is down to $3000. The auction ends next Monday.

At this rate, the price ought to be down to a loaf of Wonder and a 12-pack of Kraft Singles by then.

House Ethics Panel Rebukes DeLay Accuser

The House ethics committee Thursday night turned the tables on Majority Leader Tom DeLay's accuser, rebuking Rep. Chris Bell (news, bio, voting record) for exaggerating misconduct allegations against the GOP leader.

While the complaint by Bell, D-Texas, led to an ethics report that admonished DeLay, Bell nonetheless violated a rule barring "innuendo, speculative assertions or conclusory statements," a committee letter said.

The committee's Republican chairman and senior Democrat used the four-page letter to Bell to warn lawmakers that making exaggerated allegations of wrongdoing could result in disciplinary action against the accuser.


I'm running out of ways to express outrage. Which is probably just as well, because we may be running out of room to express it.

Robert Parry on the gelding of the CIA

George W. Bush has been criticized for disdaining fact in favor of faith in his own instincts. But he is savvy about the dangers that information can present to his authority over the government and the American people.

That is why the first priority of his second term has been the elimination of the few government sources of information that could challenge the images he wants to project to the public. Bush doesn’t want the State Department or the Central Intelligence Agency portraying his Iraq and other foreign policies as abject failures or reckless adventures.

So, by attacking these remaining pockets of analytical resistance, Bush is moving to ensure that his administration can keep much of the U.S. population seeing a near-empty cup as almost entirely full, a concept known in the intelligence world as “perception management.”

...
In other words, conservative commentators were afraid that plainly accurate analyses by CIA officials represented a threat to Bush’s power and justified his exacting retribution against these out-of-step analysts. It seems that no matter how much power Bush and the Republicans amass, their media apologists always make them out to be the victims.

It’s also a misunderstanding of history to claim that the CIA exists to “serve the president.” While it may be true that the “operations directorate” was created as a secret paramilitary arm for the U.S. executive, the CIA’s analytical division was established to provide unvarnished information to both the president and other parts of the U.S. government, including Congress.

Even at the height of the Cold War in the 1950s and 1960s, the CIA’s analytical division took pride in telling presidents what they didn’t want to hear – such as debunking Eisenhower’s “bomber gap” or Kennedy’s “missile gap” or Johnson’s faith in the air war against North Vietnam.

Worth a read.

Media complicit in spreading false GOP smear of DeLay

Media complicit in spreading false GOP smear of ... [Media Matters for America]

See, now this is the stuff that keeps me awake at night. Rational analysis confirms that the "politically motivated" angle is false. But our media no longer engage in anything so jejune as analysis. They got the Porter Goss memo, too: they are supposed to support the boss. The Republicans say the looming indictment of Tom DeLay politcally motivated, and that's good enough for them.

If there is no feedback loop in the form of a reality check, there is no limit to what these thugs will say or do. And right now there is no feedback loop.

1,420 calories in America's new monster hamburger

The Monster Thickburger is nothing less than a "monument to decadence", declares Hardee's, the chain pandering to the country's worst instincts for greed and gluttony.

Hardee's new offering: 'not a burger for tree-huggers'
The burger, which packs a bulging 1,420 calories and 107 grams of fat per portion, also bucks the trend of fast-food restaurants offering healthier alternatives.

"It's not a burger for tree-huggers," said a Hardee's executive, rejoicing in their defiance of the fad for salads and "Atkins-friendly" menus.

Yeah, but if you buy enough of 'em, I 'll bet you will see the Virgin Mary...

Melting Glaciers Threaten World Water Supply

Mountain glaciers, which act as the world's water towers, are shrinking at ever faster rates, threatening the livelihoods of millions of people and the future of countless species, a scientist said Thursday.
...
Studies show that Africa's highest peak, Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, may lose its ice-cap by 2020, while the Glacier National Park in the northern United States could well be looking for a new name by 2030.

Nope, nope. No such thing. Not happening. And we have to study it some more. And it might cost jobs, or lower the price of oil, or something.

Virgin Mary In Grilled Cheese update

Price back down to $7600.00. 40-odd (indeed) bids ranging from $13,000 to $99 million have been mysteriously cancelled. Could it be that they were not from serious bidders? Not sure of the Dairy Council or the Catholic Church should be more concerned.

Bush tax overhaul would penalize companies for providing healthcare, benefit investors

The Bush administration is eyeing an overhaul of the tax code that would drastically cut, if not eliminate, taxes on savings and investment, but it is unlikely to try to replace the existing tax code with a single flat income tax rate or a national sales tax, according to several sources familiar with ongoing tax deliberations.
...
The administration will also push hard for large savings accounts that could shelter thousands of dollars of deposits each year from taxation on investment gains, according to White House economic advisers who have been involved with the planning. And any tax reform, according to Treasury Department officials, would likely eliminate the alternative minimum tax, a parallel income tax designed to ensure that the rich pay income taxes but one that increasingly ensnares the middle class.
...
The changes are meant to be revenue-neutral. To pay for them, the administration is considering eliminating the deduction of state and local taxes on federal income tax returns and scrapping the business tax deduction for employer-provided health insurance, the advisers said.

The elimination of the deduction for state income taxes is pure fuck-the-blue-states retribution -- it will make the biggest difference in places like Califonria and New York. The elimination of the deduction for employer-paid health care is an outrage, and singles out that cost of doing business as categorically worse than such necessary and favored expenses as buying a Hummer. And taking savings and investment out the tax base is a simple way of updating Marie Antoinette: "let the poor pay taxes."

Specter Wins Support for Chairmanship

Sen. Arlen Specter on Thursday won the support of the Senate Judiciary Committee's Republicans to be their chairman next year, surviving complaints from abortion opponents who lobbied to skip over him in favor of a conservative.

"I have assured the president that I would give his nominees quick committee hearings and early committee votes," Specter said at a news conference where outgoing chairman Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, said the panel's Republican were unanimous in backing the Pennsylvania moderate.

President Bush assured Specter that the Senator was welcome to come to the White House anytime to stare at the mantle on which the jar containing his manhood would be kept.

Goss-stepping through Langley, Part 2

Yahoo! News - Goss Isn't Done With Housecleaning at CIA
In the wake of high-level departures in the CIA's clandestine service, intelligence officials are bracing for an even more aggressive overhaul of the agency's analytic ranks by Director Porter J. Goss.
...
One criticism of Goss has been that in clashing with top officials in the CIA's clandestine service, he has focused on the wrong target.

"The directorate of operations … is not the crowd that wrote the national intelligence estimate on Iraq that was wrong, and it's not the crowd that lost the clues leading up to 9/11 either," Rep. Jane Harman, the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said in a television interview this week.


It occurs to me that since 9/11 we have been throwing around the term "actionable intelligence" quite a bit. Well, boys and girls, now we are going to get a lot more "actionable," and a lot less "intelligence."

Texas Officials Wary of Plan to Hunt by Internet

Yahoo! News - Texas Officials Wary of Plan to Hunt by Internet

A controversial Web site, http://www.live-shot.com, already offers target practice with a .22 caliber rifle and could soon let hunters shoot at deer, antelope and wild pigs, site creator John Underwood said on Tuesday.
...
(A)n estimator for a San Antonio, Texas auto body shop, has invested $10,000 to build a platform for a rifle and camera that can be remotely aimed on his 330-acre southwest Texas ranch by anyone on the Internet anywhere in the world.

Who says they don't embrace hi tech in the red states?

Russian Officals Call U.S. Electoral System Flawed

Russia’s Central Electoral Commission, headed by Alexander Veshnyakov who monitored the U.S. elections in California, cited numerous flaws in the U.S. electoral system, including equipment breakdown, unreliable protection of the electronic system, and the fact that some states refused to let OSCE observers into polling stations.

Of course, you can't trust what you read in Pravda -- them Rooskies don't have a vibrant free press like we....

Oh.
Nevermind.

Baghdad Burning

One of the reasons our picture of the horrors of Iraq is distorted is that western reporters are either (a) in-bedded with the military, and thus obviously affected by the Stockholm Syndrome, or (b) hiding in their hotel rooms in the increasingly dangerous Green Zone.

A poignant alternative is Baghdad Burning Blog, written by an articulate Iraqi woman living through the nightmare. Important though painful reading.

Goss-stepping in Langley

From the NYT:

Porter J. Goss, the new intelligence chief, has told Central Intelligence Agency employees that their job is to "support the administration and its policies in our work,'' a copy of an internal memorandum shows.

"As agency employees we do not identify with, support or champion opposition to the administration or its policies," Mr. Goss said in the memorandum, which was circulated late on Monday. He said in the document that he was seeking "to clarify beyond doubt the rules of the road."

Facinating. Especially in light of the Agency's public mission statement:

Mission
We are the eyes and ears of the nation and at times its hidden hand. We accomplish this mission by:

--Collecting intelligence that matters.

--Providing relevant, timely, and objective all-source analysis.

--Conducting covert action at the direction of the President to preempt threats or achieve United States policy objectives.

Somehow I missed the part in there about being Bush's apparatchiks.

Louisiana: Boys must register for draft to apply for driver's license

Everett Bonner, state director of Selective Service, said information collected by the Office of Motor Vehicles is forwarded to a federal data management center in Chicago.

''They do accept it. I can promise you. They do not process it until the young man turns 18,'' he said.

He said registering young men when they get their drivers' licenses is a convenience and a way to help those who don't know they must register. Anyone failing to register is ''considered a felon without conviction,'' he said, and may lose opportunities and benefits. Chevalier questioned how the state can force a minor child to ''sign on the dotted line'' without his parents' consent.

New turn on an old saying: a Republican is a Democrat who has never been drafted.

Raw Story: TiVo will no longer skip past advertisers

Digital Video Recorders were a cool idea for about 2 years. Now they set to become evil in a way your TV alone could only dream of.

Expect an arms race a la police radar vs. radar detectors. Expect the good guys to lose.

Virgin Mary In Grilled Cheese update

the auction is now restricted to pre-approved bidders. the listing does not say what criteria the seller applies. however, this harsh frontier justice has reduced the top bid to a mere $20,000,100.00. Have no fear; the auction runs for another five days.

Inside the DNC

eBay update - Virgin Mary In Grilled Cheese

current bid: $99,999,999.00, which appears to be eBay's limit. But fear not -- paypal offers financing.

National Book Award Finalist: The 9/11 Commission Report

I have to think that someone at the National Book Foundation remembers Woody Allen's mid/late-60's stand-up routine in which he says he is working on a non-fiction version of the Warren Report, yet they inexplicably classified this new whitewash as non-fiction...

House GOP May Change Leadership Rules to Protect DeLay

House Republicans were contemplating changing their rules in order to allow members indicted by state prosecutors to remain in a leadership post, a move designed to benefit Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) in case he is charged by a Texas grand jury that has indicted three of his political associates, GOP leaders said today.


In a related move, House Republicans are also considering officially moving their offical chamber to the James Allred Prison facility near Wichita Falls, Texas, in order to allow DeLay to continue in his post after his conviction.

(OK, that last part isn't true. Yet.)

Iraqi Gov't Warns Press

Yahoo! News - Press Watchdog "Deeply Disturbed" by Iraqi Regime's Media Threat

Citing the 60-day state of emergency declared by Allawi on the eve of the U.S. offensive against insurgents in Fallujah, ... [a government] directive said news media must differentiate between “innocent citizens” of the city and the insurgents.

It warned that journalists should not attach “patriotic descriptions to groups of killers and criminals,” and urged the media to “set aside space in your news coverage to make the position of the Iraqi government, which expresses the aspirations of most Iraqis, clear.”

“You must be precise and objective in handling news and information,” according to the statement, which was reported by Associated Press and Reuters. “We hope you comply …otherwise we regret we will be forced take all the legal measures to guarantee higher national interests,” it said, without elaboration.



Freedom is on the march. In jackboots.

Scientist warns: Human extinction within 100 years

A top New Zealand researcher is using a prestigious award ceremony in Christchurch to warn that humans face extinction by the end of the century.

Professor Peter Barrett will be presented with the Marsden Medal tonight for his 40-year contribution to Antarctic research, latterly focusing on climate change.

The director of Victoria University's Antarctic Research Centre expects to use his acceptance speech to warn climate change was a major threat to the planet.

"After 40 years, I'm part of a huge community of scientists who have become alarmed with our discovery, that we know from our knowledge of the ancient past, that if we continue our present growth path, we are facing extinction," Barrett said. "Not in millions of years, or even millennia, but by the end of this century."



Optimist.

eBay: Virgin Mary In Grilled Cheese NOT A HOAX ! LOOK & SEE !

Just the facts, ma'am.

We inform, you decide.

For Sale on eBay: Virgin Mary on grilled cheese sandwich

I am trying. It might not always look like it, but I am trying, like the boy who said "there must be a pony in here somewhere," to find the upside in our steaming national turd pile. I am trying to find things I have in common with my red state brethren and sistren.

But what am I to do when my Dr. sends me this:

The Internet auction house eBay Inc. reversed itself Tuesday and is allowing bids for half of a 10-year-old grilled cheese sandwich that its owner says bears the image of the Virgin Mary.

Diana Duyser, of Hollywood, put the sandwich up for sale last week, drawing bids as high as $22,000 before eBay pulled the item Sunday night. The page was viewed almost 100,000 times before being taken down.

An e-mail Duyser received from eBay said the sandwich broke its policy, which "does not allow listings that are intended as jokes."

But Duyser, a work-from-home jewelry designer who has bought and sold items on eBay for two years, said the grilled cheese wasn't a joke.

I am having trouble relating here. It has been many years since I ate a grilled cheese sandwich. It has also been many years since, hypothetically speaking, people I knew might have known other people who had friends who might have ingested substances known to cause symptoms like seeing religious icons on grilled cheese sandwiches. But more to the point, I am reasonably certain that I do not know a single human being in my blue world who would pay $22,000 for half (dare one ask what happened to the other half?) of a decade-old grilled cheese sandwich with the image of the Virgin Mary.

If you have suggestions as to how this gap can be bridged, please do pipe up. So to speak.

Wired News: Senate May Ram Copyright Bill

Mr. Bluememe has more experience with intellectual property law than he would wish on all but his archest foes. So he feels competent to pontificate on this subject despite a complete failure to research it this time.

Criminalizing common behavior has been a dismal failure pretty much every time it has been tried. Prohibition, the 55 MPH speed limit, etc. -- people vote with their feet, their stills, their peer-to-peer networks. Anyone remember the skull and bones plus cassette (remember those?) icon above the words "home taping is killing music" on LPs (remember those?)...

Now our red-storm Congress is set to kiss the Hollywood Liberal Elite's blue ass yet again.

Several lobbying camps from different industries and ideologies are joining forces to fight an overhaul of copyright law, which they say would radically shift in favor of Hollywood and the record companies and which Congress might try to push through during a lame-duck session that begins this week.

The Senate might vote on the Intellectual Property Protection Act, a comprehensive bill that opponents charge could make many users of peer-to-peer networks, digital-music players and other products criminally liable for copyright infringement. The bill would also undo centuries of "fair use" -- the principle that gives Americans the right to use small samples of the works of others without having to ask permission or pay.

Sound like fun? It gets better.

The bill would also permit people to use technology to skip objectionable content -- like a gory or sexually explicit scene -- in films, a right that consumers already have. However, under the proposed law, skipping any commercials or promotional announcements would be prohibited.

So you will be able to zap objectionable stuff like the booty in Schindler's List, but you head off to your own prison camp if you try to zap Viagra ads.

Two Top CIA Officials Quit

The top two officials at the CIA's clandestine unit resigned on Monday after clashing with the new management of the agency at a time when it is fighting terrorism and supporting U.S. operations in Iraq.

Hell, we don't need the CIA to do actual spook work anymore anyway. How many agents do we need to say "Yes Mr. President, whatever you say, sir. Now that you mention it, the Democratic party has been taken over by Al Qaeda."

US Soldier shoots wounded, unarmed Iraqi inside Mosque

That will go over well on Al Jazeera.

What the soldier did is wrong, of course. But this is what happens in war. We turn ordinary people into killing machines. Incidents like this are inevitable. Which is why smart leaders avoid making beasts of men unless there is no other choice.

TomPaine.com - The Perfect Election Day Crime

TomPaine.com - The Perfect Election Day Crime

Good discussion of one of the less-discussed aspects of the taking of Election 2004 -- the deliberate reduction in the number of polling machines in minority districts.

OK, now you can begin to panic

Joe Lieberman this Sunday: "I hope that in the second Bush term that President Bush will develop a kind of consultative relationship, certainly with Democratic leaders like Harry Reid.

And I think that will help avoid the kinds of filibusters that really a lot of us moderate Democrats — and we talked about this just last week when we had a phone conference — don't want to be involved in."


If the Republicans can co-opt just a handful more wobbly Dems like Joe, we are off to hell in a handbasket.

Red Crescent denied permission to bring aid to Fallujah

The U.S.-led forces in Al-Fallujah allowed the convoy to enter the general hospital grounds on the western edge of the city on 13 November, but -- citing safety reasons -- refused it permission to go further.

No aid has reached civilians in Al-Fallujah since the fighting began. Aid agencies describe the situation as a humanitarian disaster, but U.S. military officials and Iraqi government officials disagree.

Sorry, no snarky comments. Too awful. Too horribly wrong.

Colinectomy

Yahoo! News - Powell and Three Others Leaving Cabinet

Powell checked out two years ago; it is amazing how long he was able to collect a paycheck without doing diddly.

Ashcroft left the polarizing figure he came in as. The world is united in its view of Powell today as it was in 2000. The difference is that he was one of the most widely admired and respected men in America four years ago; he leaves to universal scorn. The neocons now see him as an ineffective obstructionist; the left charges him with the greater crime of knowing the truth and being silent. Somewhere along the line, the good soldier became a good German. In the end, he was a tiny fig leaf for an administration that felt no need for one.

Loyalty oaths: not just for ordinary folks anymore

Pro-Choice Senator Must Back Bush -Senate Leader

A Republican senator who has questioned whether an abortion opponent could win approval to the U.S. Supreme Court must agree to back President Bush's nominees if he is to head the committee acting on those nominations, the Senate's Republican leader said.


The only question is whether Bush will get to keep the jar containing Specter's testicles after Frist has removed them.

CIA plans purge

Newsday.com: CIA plans to purge its agency
"The agency is being purged on instructions from the White House," said a former senior CIA official who maintains close ties to both the agency and to the White House. "Goss was given instructions ... to get rid of those soft leakers and liberal Democrats. The CIA is looked on by the White House as a hotbed of liberals and people who have been obstructing the president's agenda."

How we got here: Administration draws curve, asks CIA to plot fictional points. CIA refuses. Administration creates own "intelligence" group, Doug Feith's Pentagon-based Office of Special Plans, which delivers requested WMD justification for invasion of Iraq. Administration invades; cooked intelligence debunked; Administration blames CIA. CIA realizes it has been made Bush's patsy. CIA strikes back by trying to get a modicum of truth to public.

Where we are: the CIA as potential independent source of facts is no more. (It may never have been, but back in the Bay of Pigs/Allende/Shah days, agency and bosses were all reading from the same misguided page.) Porter Goss will preside over the conversion of the CIA into another branch of the Ministry of Propoganda.

Our best hope is that somebody pays attention to the coming flood of tell-all books from the putsch victims. Team Bush will try to do to each of them what it tried to do to Richard Clarke, but maybe there will be more leaks than they have fingers.

Weekend distraction

I became a serious LA Laker fan when I moved to Southern California in 1986. It was the height of the Showtime Dynasty, and the NBA was on an upward arc that seemed like it would never end. Watching Magic Johnson choreograph in real time was a privilege that no other sporting event has lived up to since for me. I admired Michael Jordan's skill and dominant competitiveness, but Magic's sheer joyfulness and improvisational brilliance set him apart.

I rooted for them in the lean years that followed, and of course during the Shaq-Kobe-Phil championship years. The style of play could not have been more different, and at times it reminded me of the uglyball played by the Larry Bird-era Celtics, but it was still fun.

Last year they put together a team for the ages -- four certain Hall of Famers, two of them at the top of their games. They seemed to alternately sleep and fight their way through the regular season, but I was sure they would be able to turn it up for the playoffs. They did, but not by enough, and they were embarrassed by a blue-collar Piston line-up that just plain wanted it more.

The team splintered within days after the end of the season. The strained relations between Shaq and Kobe came to a head, a power struggle ensued, and owned Jerry Buss chose the younger star. Shaq and Phil Jackson moved on.
What is left is a team I don't recognize and, after nearly 20 years, can no longer root for. Friday night's line: Kobe Bryant, 41 points on 14 of 31, Lakes lose 122-113 to Magic, and drop to 3 and 4. They won't be a lottery team, but they won't make it past the first round, either.

I blame Kobe. Remember, Phil Jackson was good enough at dealing with head cases that he won rings with Dennis Rodman. But Kobe had alreay won; he wanted to be the star of his team. He got his wish, but he is now going to live Michael Jordan's life backwards -- starting with a string of championships, ending with highlight reels and lots of free time in May and June.

Baghdad airport shut indefinitely- Allawi -

Freedom is on the march. It has to be -- all flights have been grounded.

Dutch troops to leave Iraq in March.

"We've had conversations about deployments like this with the Dutch Government over the course of time," said State Department spokesman Richard Boucher.
...
Mr Boucher also sought to minimise the impact of a withdrawal of Dutch or any other forces from the US-led coalition in Iraq.

"Certainly, (at) any given moment there are people coming, there are people leaving," he said.


Mostly leaving.

Yeah, it was the gay marriage thing

James Dobson - The religious right's new kingmaker

... in the late 1990s Dobson began to grow disenchanted with Republican leaders in Congress for not pushing the Christian social agenda harder. In the 2000 campaign his tepid support of Bush may have helped dampen turnout among evangelical voters, a disappointment Karl Rove dwelled on for four years.

It was the gay-marriage debate that finally hurled Dobson into politics wholeheartedly.


James Dobson is Mr. Focus on the Family, and arguably the other architect of Bush's victory. In a sense he is even more dangerous than Rove, because that architect is about power for its own sake. Dobson is only a team player so long as the team plays his game and by his rules.

But there are some persuasive reasons why folks like Rove might not want to give the Squad everything they want -- once abortion and gay marriage are banned, and church and state are one, the evangelicals will cease to be Rove's take-it-to-the-bank constituency. So if we are really lucky, we could have the exquisite pleasure of watching this marriage made in heaven turn into "Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolfe?" before our very eyes.

Police Lose Control of Mosul Amid Uprising

Police in Mosul largely disappeared from the streets, residents reported, and gangs of armed men brandishing automatic weapons and rocket-propelled grenade launchers roamed the city, 225 miles north of Baghdad. Responding to the crisis, Iraqi authorities dismissed Mosul's police chief after local officials reported that officers were abandoning their stations to militants without firing a shot.


Elsewhere, insurgents shot down a U.S. Army UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter near Taji, 12 miles north of Baghdad, wounding three crew members, the military said. It was the third downed helicopter this week after two Marine Super Cobras succumbed to ground fire in the Fallujah operation.

The only thing that is remotely surprising about this is the speed with which the insurgents have been able to operate.
Now you know why they waited until after the election for this. Bush needed the fodder units to vote for him before putting them into wooden boxes.

Big Dick

Milwaukee Magazine

Not touching this one, literally or figuratively.

Ashcroft Condemns Judges Who Question Bush

In his first remarks since his resignation was announced Tuesday, Ashcroft forcefully denounced what he called "a profoundly disturbing trend" among some judges to interfere in the president's constitutional authority to make decisions during war.


"The danger I see here is that intrusive judicial oversight and second-guessing of presidential determinations in these critical areas can put at risk the very security of our nation in a time of war," Ashcroft said in a speech to the Federalist Society, a conservative lawyers' group.




Add "rule of law" to the Geneva Conventions and those other "quaint" concepts the Bush Administration wants to dispense with.

The very first case taught in law school, the bedrock on which our entire system of government operates, is Marbury v. Madison, an 1803 case that established that "It is emphatically the province and duty of the judicial department to say what the law is. Those who apply the rule to particular cases, must of necessity expound and interpret that rule. If two laws conflict with each other, the courts must decide on the operation of each."

Chief Justice Marshall did not say anything about a "time of war" exception. And for 200 years that case has prevailed. Is this seminal decision now considered "judicial activism?"

I am just fascinated to learn that the 'intent of the framers" was totalitarianism. If the right would just come out and say so, it would sure streamline the indoctrination process.

The Poor Man: Kaye Is Lord

I have always prided myself on my finely honed ability to alienate others with sarcasm. But I just handed my pinball crown to him. Brilliant stuff, and read it while you can, because the right is going to stone him or nail him to a few 2x4s or something.

Secret Service Cracks Down on High School Band

Two secret service agents paid a visit to Boulder High School Thursday to investigate rumors that a high school band had been practicing a song that contained lyrics threatening President Bush.

The band, which had planned to call itself "Tali-Banned," was set to play a cover of Bob Dylan's Masters of War at the school's "Talent Expose" Friday. The final verse of the song includes the words "Your death will come soon." During the song, the students planned to use images of President Bush and war in the background.


Fine, sure, fine. Just so long as they don't stick their noses in stuff where important constitutional rights are at stake, like bringing a bunch of guns to Columbine High.

Green in Blue

New York, Eight Other States May Act Without Feds to Limit Greenhouse Gases

Individual American states are putting together a system to cap and trade greenhouse gas emissions, despite the Bush administration's opposition to the Kyoto protocol on global warming. Such a measure was backed by John Kerry during the recent election campaign.

The regional-level initiative, led by the Republican governor of New York, George Pataki, aims to be able to announce the details of a scheme by April next year. Nine north-eastern and mid-Atlantic states are taking part, with several other states and some Canadian provinces involved as "observers" in the process.
...
The nine states in the project, which is known as the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), are Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island and Vermont. In addition, Maryland, the District of Columbia and Pennsylvania are "observers" in the process, as are some eastern Canadian provinces.

This is a surprising and heartening development. Everybody who does not directly profit from burning fossil fuel more or less gets it about global warming. For a Republican governor to take the lead on giving Bush the finger on this issue is a beautiful thing indeed.

It could also be a major gambit in the coming war between the states. For more than 150 years, the deep south has championed "state's rights" as a way first to justify slavery and later to oppose civil right legislation. California went this way a year ago; if these nine states do so as well, a huge chunk of the US economy will have voted with its pocketbook for stewardship and against the oillpatch president - using the red states' favorite line of reasoning.

How bad? Truth from the foreign press

Asia Times - Asia's most trusted news source for the Middle East

Massive US military might is useless against a mosque network in full gear. In a major development not reported by US corporate media, for the first time different factions of the resistance have released a joint statement, signed among others by Ansar as-Sunnah, al-Jaysh al-Islami, al-Jaysh as-Siri (known as the Secret Army), ar-Rayat as-Sawda (known as the Black Banners), the Lions of the Two Rivers, the Abu Baqr as-Siddiq Brigades, and crucially al-Tawhid wal-Jihad (Unity and Holy War) - the movement allegedly controlled by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. The statement is being relayed all over the Sunni triangle through a network of mosques. The message is clear: the resistance is united.
...
There are at least 120 mosques in Fallujah. A consensus is emerging that almost half of them have been smashed by air strikes and shelling by US tanks - something that will haunt the United States for ages. The mosques stopped broadcasting the five daily calls for prayer, but Fadhil Badrani, an Iraqi reporter for BBC World Service in Arabic and one of the very few media witnesses in Fallujah, writes that "every time a big bomb lands nearby, the cry rises from the minarets: 'Allahu Akbar' [God is Great]".
...
The Iraqi resistance does not care if thousands of mujahideen are smashed to pieces: it is actually gearing up for a major strategic victory. The strategy is twofold: half of the Fallujah resistance stayed behind, ready to die like martyrs, increasing the already boiling-point hatred of Americans in Iraq and the Middle East and boosting their urban support. The other half left before Phantom Fury and is already setting fires in Baghdad, Tikrit, Ramadi, Baquba, Balad, Kirkuk, Mosul and even Shi'ite Karbala.

Frist "urges" Democrats to stop filibusters

Frist previously has advocated changing Senate rules to make it more difficult to continue a filibuster. While the idea went nowhere in the current Congress, Frist raised it again in his speech, saying that judicial filibusters were "nothing less than a formula for tyranny by the minority."

"The Senate now faces a choice: Either we accept a new and destructive practice or we act to restore constitutional balance," he said.

Frist's memory is conveniently spotty. The filibuster was the bulwark used by conservatives against the perniciousness of civil rights legislation in the 60s, so it is absurd to call it new.

Where will this go? I expect that the Dems will have to filibuster a Republican attempt to change the rules against filibustering.

New Zealand News: Odds heavily against US counter-attack succeeding

Because you won't get anything remotely resembling truth from US news sources:

Even as US troops were advancing into Fallujah, there were reports of insurgents arriving in the neighbouring city of Ramadi and taking up positions to secure the centre there. Fallujah may have become a symbol of the insurgency, but it has never been the only rebel stronghold.

But the Americans have more fundamental problems. The truth is they don't know how many insurgents there are, who they are or where they are. If they did they could launch more pinpoint attacks. They are mounting a full-scale assault that risks massive civilian casualties which would only turn Iraq against them more completely than ever.

This can only end badly, unless you ask Fox News, of course. The futility of the exercise is being ignored by both Fox and the other Fox (CNN).

CIA "Anonymous" breaks cover

US News Article | Reuters.com

Remember "Imperial Hubris: Why the West Is Losing the War on Terror," the CIA expose' published this past summer by a CIA agent under the nom de guerre "Anonymous"? It should have caused a furor (which, of course it didn't). The author has now gone public, and is schedule to be on 60 Minutes. Now that there is a face and a name attached to his charges, it should get some real play (which, of course, it won't).

Yes, by all means let's reach out to our Red-state brethren

Especially the ones who voted down a ballot initiative seeking to strike segregationist language from the Alabama state constitution.

Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of Alabama of 1901, to repeal portions of Section 256 and Amendment 111 relating to separation of schools by race and repeal portions of Amendment 111 concerning constitutional construction against the right to education, and to repeal Section 259, Amendment 90, and Amendment 109 relating to the poll tax. (Proposed by Act 2003-203)

Separate but equal. Poll taxes. And WE are the ones creating two Americas.

Sidney B. at Salon.com | Crossing the church-state line

Read, and weep. The man gets it.

Syria: Jihad Without Borders, or more applied economics

The insurgents are recruiting willing foot soldiers from neighboring Syria. How? Well, there is the chance to kill Americans, of course, but supply and demand apply here, too.

Two months ago, after the shooting stopped in Najaf, many of the Lebanese fighters volunteered for service against the Americans in Fallujah. As insurgents, they were earning $800 a month—three times an Iraqi policeman's salary.

Base pay for a Private in OUR Army is about $1000/month, which is a bit less than your average cop makes, and cops get to sleep at home.

Re-writing history: We never said storming Fallujah was going to be effective...

Old story: Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said this week success in Falluja "will deal a blow to the terrorists in the country and should move Iraq further away from a future of violence to one of freedom and opportunity for the Iraqi people."

Then, wonder of wonders, all their high-value targets disappeared.

New story: "That's the nature of an insurgency, you know, where people can fight one minute and then blend into the surroundings the next minute," said Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the U.S. military's Joint Chiefs of Staff.

"If anybody thinks that Falluja's going to be the end of the insurgency in Iraq, that was never the objective, never our intention and even never our hope," Myers told NBC's "Today Show."

And they never said there were WMDs, either.

Insurgents Launch Attacks in Mosul

Duh.

All of the U.S. military spokesmen talk about the goal in Fallujah as one of controlling territory. What towering, tragic stupidity. The insurgents are fighting a classic guerrilla war -- that is, they don't give a rat's patoottie about holding territory. Iraq is a big country. It will take us several years to level all of it. They have enough looted high explosives and missiles to last even longer. And how many young Fallujans became candidates for the role of suicide bomber this week?

Unless we put another two or three hundred thousand troops into Iraq (which would be its own kind of nightmare), this kind of self-defeating tail chasing is our lot in Iraq.

Iraqi Shell Game

Iraqi rebels seized the centre of the city of Ramadi and attacked police stations elsewhere as US-led troops continued their Falluja assault.
Armed insurgents in Ramadi moved in when US troops withdrew from the Sunni city, a former rebel stronghold.

So the insurgents were in Falluja, see? And we were in Ramadi, which is maybe 20 miles from Falluja. So we send an eviction notice over to the insurgents, and pull out of Ramdi to drive them out ouf Fallujah, and surprise, surprise, surprise... they occupy Ramadi.

That worked out well.

Draft coming, students told

If (when?) the draft begins, there will be boatloads of I-told-you-sos from the left, and properly so. But an aspect of this that had not occurred to me before is the way in which a draft is a repudiation of the free market the Republicans claim to hold so dear.

The reason we are talking about a draft is, of course, the fact that we simply don't have enough troops to occupy Iraq and do the other things the Adminstration wants to do. In other words, we have a shortage.

The economics of shortages are well understood -- the stuff of Econ 101 classes. An economist understands a shortage as an imbalance between the supply of a good and the demand for it. In a free market, these kinds of problems are supposed to self-correct, because when demand exceeds supply, the price rises, and the higher price stimulates increased supply, bringing things back into balance.

Applied here, the obvious solution to the shortage of troops is to offer more for their services -- increase pay and/or benefits. Any economist will tell you that there is a price at which we can have exactly the number of troops needed. Judging by the huge risk premiums being paid to our private army (the folks with Halliburton on their business cards), that price is high and rising. But our Capitol Hill capitalists are likely to show that they are summer soldiers in the war for free enterprise. The draft is a form of price control -- Big Government at its most interventionist. It uses the threat of jail to artificially increase supply -- anathema to those who benefit from restricted supply, like big pharma, for example. But the right only objects to interventions that gore their own oxen. Imagine the uproar if the Bush Administration claimed that it needed to conscript, say, oil wells into the war effort. It is pretty simple folks -- if you damn labor unions as a distortion of the market, you can't be in favor of the draft.

Free market for me, but not for thee.

Falwell Plans for 'Evangelical Revolution'

Seeking to take advantage of the momentum from an election where moral values proved important to voters, the Rev. Jerry Falwell announced Tuesday he has formed a new coalition to guide an "evangelical revolution."
(snip)

...a decision by the Massachusetts Supreme Court allowing gay marriages "helped energize our people," Falwell said.

And when San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom began performing gay marriages, it "really caught the attention of people of faith in this country, and what we have been saying could happen actually happened," he said.

"The timing could not have been better. That, along with the abortion issues and the terrorism issue, helped us to get our people awakened."

The God Squad sure isn't waiting long to call in its markers. Even if by some bizarre coincidence Bush wanted to move toward the center, Rove knows that his plans for a thousand-year Reich depend on continued support from the evangelicals. So they know they have the entire government by the short hairs.

Sorry Everybody

I don't know if this is constructive in the long run, but it does make me feel a little better.

Sorry Everybody

Kiss your ANWR Goodbye

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham said on Wednesday he was optimistic the new Congress would vote next year to allow oil drilling in an Alaskan wildlife refuge.

With Republicans in next year's 100-member Senate increasing their majority to 55 lawmakers, President Bush has his best chance yet for winning approval of a key part of his national energy plan -- opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) to drilling.

Destruction of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge now seems as inevitable as our eveloving failure in Iraq. A 1 MPG increase in the American auto fleet would save more oil in 5 years than ANWR will produce over its miserable life. But so-called conservatives are, of course, allergic to actual conservation.

Where are we headed? Ask Grover Norquist

AlterNet: Election 2004: Norquist Gets Candid

The Washington Post quotes him saying after the election: "Once the minority of House and Senate are comfortable in their minority status, they will have no problem socializing with the Republicans. Any farmer will tell you that certain animals run around and are unpleasant, but when they're fixed then they are happy and sedate. They are contented and cheerful. They don't go around peeing on the furniture and such."

What Karl Rove is on the political side, this charming fellow is on the policy side. Be afraid. Be very afraid.

Anti-war protest in L.A. gets response with tanks

AlterNet: Election 2004: Anti-war protest in L.A. gets response with tanks

LOS ANGELES, November 9, 2004 - At 7:50 PM two armored tanks showed up at an anti-war protest in front of the federal building in Westwood. The tanks circled the block twice, the second time parking themselves in the street and directly in front of the area where most of the protesters were gathered. Enraged, some of the people attempted to block the tanks, but police quickly cleared the street. The people continued to protest the presence of the tanks, but about ten minutes the tanks drove off. It is unclear why the tanks were deployed to this location.



How stupid are we? We don't let others impose Augusto Pinochet on us; we elect him.

Religion v. Science, Part XXV

(from AP):WASHINGTON - Women seeking abortions in Mississippi must first sign a form indicating they've been told abortion can increase their risk of breast cancer. They aren't told that scientific reviews have concluded there is no such risk.
Similar information suggesting a cancer link is given to women considering abortion in Texas, Louisiana and Kansas, and legislation to require such notification has been introduced in 14 other states.
More than a year ago, a panel of scientists convened by the National Cancer Institute reviewed available data and concluded there is no link. A scientific review in the Lancet, a British medical journal, came to the same conclusion, questioning the methodology in a few studies that have suggested a link.

What do women's bodies and Iraq have in common? They are both battlegrounds, and truth is the first casualty in each case.

I Heart Climate Change

(Reuters) - A faster-than-expected thaw of the Arctic is likely to open legendary short-cut routes between the Pacific and the Atlantic but experts say icebergs and high costs will prevent any trans-polar shipping boom.

See -- global warming is a GOOD thing. And the terrorists don't like the cold, so as we abandon the increasingly hot regions of the world to them, we can all go live in Greenland.

Shelling of Falluja Resumes

Let's review, shall we? It was reported earlier that the bulk of the high-value targets had slipped out of Falluja even before the onslaught began. We've learned that the Sunnis are so pissed about what we are doing there that they are jockeying to torpedo the January elections.

Now we have gone back to bombardment. You don't bomb cities in countries that are about to have elections. You don't bomb cities in a country you claim to have under control.

If most of the so-called insurgents (and I am increasingly uncomfortable with that terminology -- it is their country, dammit) have in fact vamoosed, then who are we bombing? My guess is there are only a handful of fighters left, but they seem perfectly capable of tripping up the U.S. military. If so, we are going to be repeating this charade ad infinitum.

It is starting to look like everything the military feared about fighting an urban war is coming true. Good thing we have Rummy and Condi to sprinkle pixie dust on everyone.

Bush re-election beats up alternative energy shares

No surprise here -- The price at the pump, as high as it seems, is far below the real cost. Nobody wants to talk about the myriad ways in which we subsidize oil prices, from the highway system to the wars in Iraq. Kerry would have only nibbled at the margins of that infrastructure (thus making alternatives more cost-competitive), but Team Halliburton don't play that. So solar, hydrogen, wind -- everything that isn't based on a few players owning the raw materials and the means to deliver them -- go out the window. And the price of gasoline will be blamed on our tree-hugging opposition to drilling ANWR.

From Specter to Spectre

Specter, Opponents Press Senate Leaders

I called this one yesterday -- Arlen's cherished chairmanship of the Senate Judicary Committee is simply not going to happen, unless of course, he so prostrates himself that "Welcome" is tattooed on his back. He could have some minimal value to the wingers as a fig leaf, but at this point I don't think most of them think they have any need for one. We like moderates under our tent, sir.

GOP sees Florida's Democratic Senator Nelson as 2006 target

"And as the lone Florida Democrat holding statewide office, Nelson is wearing a huge target on his back.

Republicans, emboldened by Election Day victories across the South, are already seeing Nelson's seat as one they could put in GOP control in 2006."


I think this is going to be an essential element of the Republican ground game, for two reasons. First, they are obviously not content with their gains, and will not stop until the oppoistion has been ground into so much dust. But perhaps more importantly, they know that the Democrat's best hope for the future is another good old boy from Jesusland. If they pick off the few remaining Democratic Senators and Governors from the South, the next potential Bubba never makes it to the national stage.

Halliburton Paid Bribes on Cheney's Watch

But, of course, senior management had no knowledge of the wrongdoing. Of course. Cheney's word is good enough for me.

10x10 / 100 Words and Pictures that Define the Time

Not sure this news GUI is going to be useful or have much of a shelf life, but it is a novel way of interfacing with the news, and is the product of some kick-ass web programming. Worth a look.

Oceans to Rise by 1M (that's more than 3 feet, America)

Global warming is melting the Arctic ice faster than expected, and the world's oceans could rise by about a meter (3 feet) by 2100, swamping homes from Bangladesh to Florida, the head of a study said on Tuesday.

That's one way to turn Florida blue, I guess....

Sunni Clerics Call for Elections Boycott

Yeah, SURE there will be elections in Iraq in two months...OK, perhaps there will. They won't be up to the lofty standards of American tampering and exclusion, but hey, Allawi doesn't have any relatives who are governors, and it takes time to establish a corrupt infrastructure.

25 Police killed in Baquba

The violence has moved to new locations in Iraq.... gee, who could've anticipated that, right Condi? But hey, I'm sure the pea will be under the next shell.

Falluja Vu all over again

If you were the Iraqi "insurgents" who controlled Falluja, would you be hanging out waiting for Uncle Sam to bomb the crap out of you? Or would you melt into the background, knowing that the capture of Falluja itself is meaningless, and that you will be able to lead Donald Rumsfeld around by the nose indefinitely?

This song is going to be in heavy rotation for, say, the next four years.

Vig collects his vig

News

"I don't know if we're going to abolish the prescription drug benefit [for senior citizens], but we'd like to. It's just an expansion of government," the Republican strategist and direct-mail guru Richard Viguerie said over the weekend. "We'd like to see oil and gas exploration increased in the continental United States. We want a constitutional amendment on marriage. We want the culture of life expanded."

He's going to get it, too. And then some.

Great insight from nomoremrniceblog

"I'm supposed to be scouring exit polls looking for reasons for the Kerry loss, but I think Kerry had a problem that isn't going to show up in any exit poll -- a problem he shares with most Democrats.

I call it the Protocols of the Elders of Liberalism.

That's not really an accurate name -- it isn't a document. It's more like a collection of urban legends -- urban legends that an awful lot of people actually believe.

The Protocols of the Elders of Liberalism say that Democrats (who are all presumed to be liberal) devote their lives to destroying the nation with Kafkaesque government bureaucracies, high taxes, wasteful spending, unilateral disarmament, and vile popular culture. Never mind that Clinton balanced the budget and ran surpluses during an economic boom, while Bush runs up deficits that sap our economic strength almost as much as Reagan's did. Never mind that Bush's prescription-drug benefit is bureaucratic and bewildering (as were the heartless HMOs that rose in the wake of Hillarycare's demise). Never mind that gangsta rap and country music improve the bottom lines of the same corporations, or that Rupert Murdoch is one of the world's top sleazemongers. The Protocols tell us: If something stinks, it's Democratic, and if something's Democratic, it probably stinks.

The Protocols have been a staple of virtually every GOP campaign speech dating back to Reagan, if not to Nixon and Goldwater. The Protocols are the source of much of the ranting on talk radio and Fox News. Ann Coulter's books are paraphrases of the Protocols.

Kerry's health plan wasn't socialized medicine -- but Bush said it was, citing no evidence, and lots of people presumably believed him. What was his evidence? The Protocols. Kerry said he wouldn't raise taxes on the middle class and would cut the deficit, and he said he'd focus on capturing or killing members of al-Qaeda. Bush said, in effect, that Kerry was wrong about what Kerry himself intended to do -- Bush said Kerry would be a tax-and-spender and would make the country vulnerable and weak. How could Bush know all this? And why did voters believe it? Simple -- it's all in the Protocols. They've heard the Protocols for years. When it comes to Democrats, they know the truth.

Kerry lost because he started at a disadvantage, one he never understood: that, just by dint of being a Democrat, he was seen by much of the population as a conniving plotter against America's best interests, as a man whose values are diametrically opposed to those of decent Americans.

There are ways to confound the Protocols if you're a Democrat. You can respond to a Protocols accusation immediately and forcefully, telling voters that Republicans are trying to scare them. (This makes the Republicans look like the tricksters.) You can anticipate an attack based on the Protocols and preempt it months in advance. You can make voters realize you're not a monster by turning on the humanity.

Bill Clinton did all three. Bill Clinton won two presidential elections.

We have to talk about the Protocols. We have to neutralize the Protocols."

Good take on the great divide

The Observer | Comment | Those New York blues: "As long as subtlety looks like indecision to most Americans, equality and justice are a lost cause. The Daily Show writers put their finger on it when they drew diagrams of left- and right-wing brains: what is grey matter in a Democrat is 'black and white matter' in a Republican. The Democrats may be smarter, but to the majority, it's all so very unclear. "

Wondering what Bush's mandate means?

It means the freedom to generalize the denial of reality to any issue, of any size.

Bush advisor claims climate change conspiracy

We are winning in Iraq. Freedom is on the march. 75% of Al Qaeda has been killed. There is no global warming.

My God kicks your God's ass

Marines turn to God ahead of anticipated Fallujah battle

Cool, dude. Another, like, crusade, only without the VD and shit.

Brits moving to Impeach Blair

Fascinating. I've actually been to England, and yet I had no idea they play hide the sausage with interns there, too. I mean, that IS the only reason to impeach your chief exec, right?

red rover, red rover, send Arlen over

John Thune, the right-winger taking over Tom Daschle's seat, has already joined the crowd spanking Arlen Specter for committing that most treasonous act, voicing moderation. Specter's chances of chairing the Judiciary Committee are now circling nil.

If the radicals abandon him, we should adopt him. There could be other strays: Lincoln Chafee is already threatening to run away from home. There are likely to be others, like Olympia Snow. We will only need a few more to be reverse boll weevils to change control of the Senate, which would bring proper investigations, which could change everything.

Karl Rove is hell-bent on making "moderate Republican" an oxymoron. Let's help.

The Dark Ages Express

Scopes Monkey Trial redux.

More in some future rant about the absurdity of creationism v. science. But you can expect to see a tidal wave of this nonsense over the coming months.

measured, temperate response

Gee, watching the news and reading the paper, I never got the sense that anyone else was angry...

Real Timed Out

Pretty much all you need to know about what life will be like after election '04 was on display on the last Real Time of the season. The tenor of the show was rather different from the pre-election shows, as you might expect. The scary part was the anger and vicousness of the conservatives. A foul-mouthed Alan Simpson became Zell Miller, browbeating Maher, ignoring his questions and essentially threatening him. And Andrew Sullivan, whose relatively moderate blog I had been reading, was strident and nasty, falling over himself to show his Republican bona fides. The more liberal voices were generally subdued. By the end of the hour the air was completely out of the balloon. It would not surprise me if the show does not come back, or if they give it to Dennis Miller next time around.

angry

pissed. frustrated. perplexed. but mostly pissed.