No, not Lord of the Rings ... Bolo Boffin a hobbit with big things to say. Interesting reading on religion, politics and recently on how to add up Fearless Leader's National Guard Points. Great stuff...now go! (But please come back ... we'll get lonely without you)

Early fishing yields some interesting results. Had not seen this before. Worth the price of a ticket to Davos. Betting Snake-Handler Johnny is not the next Paul O'neil or John D'Iulio, but this is interesting:

US Attorney General, John Ashcroft, delivered an address to the World Economic Forum in Davos Switzerland last week that included what was ostensibly a call to arms against international corruption, however the text could have been perceived as a scathing assault on the Bush administration cronies and in particular Dick Cheney’s former employer Halliburton.

Ashcroft warned that “when governments play favorites - when they award contracts and make decisions based on corruption that favors the connected, rather than competition that favors the citizenry - freedom is stymied.

Well, the Snake-Handler has a long way to go to earn my respect and admiration trampler of the Constitution that he is, but it's an interesting note to see one of the 1600 Crew minions actually say what we are thinking.

Where saying one thing and meaning another is just, well, National Policy (in that we have any at all). Seems that India is more than a little upset about pending legislation concerning outsourcing certain types of Federal work there (OK, help me here, what FEDERAL jobs need to be outsourced anywhere outside the government? Tax Return processing, Visa request filing? What? I'm puzzled here.). But that's not the funny part. The humor here (such as it is) is in the reaction of an Indian Minister to the 1600 Crew.

Arun Jaitley, India's minister for trade and commerce, said he would raise the issue with Robert Zoellick, the US trade representative, who had last year assured him he would oppose similar measures that had been tabled in some US state legislatures.
...
India believes that the largely symbolic measure could pave the way for more substantial protectionist moves unless it is vigorously contested. "This measure sends a far from insignificant signal," Mr Jaitley told the Financial Times.

"Here you have a country whose main mantra [at the World Trade Organisation] is 'market access' and whose argument is that opening markets to competition is the solution to poverty in countries like India. And then they enact something like this".

Morford for the weekend. Now this might make you a vegetarian ...

Are the dark ages returning ... magic "8" ball says ... stay tuned. A woman in the Boston Area is on trial for starving her infant son to fulfill a prophecy made by her sister-in-law.

A woman accused of starving her baby to death to fulfill a religious prophecy broke down in tears Friday as she listened to a defense psychologist recount her description of desperately trying to breast feed her son in the final days of his life.
...
Robidoux was a member of a tiny, Attleboro-based religious sect called ''The Body,'' which rejects modern medicine.

Ebert said Robidoux told him she began withholding solid food from her 10-month-old son Samuel after her sister-in-law told her about a message she received from God: Karen was ''too vain'' and God planned to punish her by killing one of the twins she believed she was pregnant with at the time.

Several months later, Robidoux gave birth to a baby boy; she had not been pregnant with twins.
...
But Ebert said because Robidoux was pregnant, she was producing only trace amounts of breast milk. She told him she continued to try to breast feed Samuel every hour, as called for by the prophecy. He said that Robidoux told him that Samuel became gaunt and weak, and was so hungry that he was literally eating flesh from her nipples.

Ebert said Samuel's starvation came after years in which Karen Robidoux was frequently berated by other members of the sect, including her husband, Jacques Robidoux. He said other sect members thought she was too thin and too pretty, and was not raising her children properly.

I'm sort of surprised they did not just cut out the middle-man and build a giant fire-god representation and start feeding it small animals and unruly children.

No we are stupid. It seems that the Completely Stupid Masses in Georgia, or the republican party want the word "evolution" dropped from their curriculum because it's all ... icky and un-biblical and stuff.

Georgia students could graduate from high school without learning much about evolution, and may never even hear the word in class.

New middle and high school science standards proposed by state Schools Superintendent Kathy Cox strike references to "evolution" and replace them with the term "biological changes over time," a revision critics say will further weaken learning in a critical subject.
...
"Just like any major issue people need to deal with, you need to know the facts," said David Bechler, head of the biology department at Valdosta State University. A member of the committee that worked on the biology standards, Bechler said he was stunned to learn that evolution was not in the final proposal.

"Whether you believe in creationism or not, evolution should be known and understood by the public," he argued.
...
"The students from other states always perform better in my classes, and that's a real indictment of the state educational system," the professor said. "North Carolina, another very conservative state, adopted all of the benchmarks. If they can do it in North Carolina, why can't Georgia do it?"

I want to personally thank Ms. Cox for removing Georgia public-school students from the group of people my kids will have to compete with for things like Med School, anything relating to science and most likely anything requiring a college degree. After all, schools like MIT/Stanford/Harvard and Yale won't be having special "remedial biology" classes to help the dumb ass Georgia crackers learn about Darwin. All the kids want to do is get educated (for the most part) all the parents want to do is stay "right with Pat", courtesy of Ralph Reed who now runs the Georgia republican party.

Once again, the republican christo-fascist agenda leads us on the road to being a global laughingstock. Nice work. Next in the redoubtable republican curriculum change: Classical Physics - there are no immoveable masses or frictionless surfaces ... see, because only god can make those.

If you want to log into the article, try gorevidal@gorevidal.com password gorevidal. Thanks to someone for thinking of us.

From the New Yorker:

The truth is that at this point no one can be sure whether the Iraq war, in its over-all effect, will turn out in the end to have helped or hindered the larger campaign against Islamist terrorism. What does seem fairly clear is that Iraq’s biological, chemical, and, especially, nuclear weapons did not exist. Public and congressional support for the war, as well as the scattered international support it enjoyed, was therefore purchased falsely and, to a degree not yet known, dishonestly. There has been a serious breach of trust, which cannot fail to have damaging results. “For diplomacy to be effective, words must be credible, and no one can now doubt the word of America,” the President said in his speech, and for a moment one couldn’t be sure one had heard him right. Was he speaking ironically? America’s word—the present Administration’s, anyway—has in fact been cast into the deepest doubt, and that is one of the reasons its diplomacy has not been effective.

How sad to be living in a world where a lying, pin-headed, arrogant turd has ruined the reputation of my country.

If there were ever a "blue ribbon" commission that needed to call Emergency Services, it's those folks being blindsided by the 1600 Crew 24/7. In 1600 Crew speak they're just doing a fine job ... in other words, staying away from the truth; as far away as we can keep them.

Long-simmering tensions with the commission investigating the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks became a more immediate problem for the White House this week as the panel released a series of damaging revelations about missed opportunities to stop the al Qaeda hijackers and opposed the administration by asking for more time to complete its work, according to panel members and political experts.

The developments represent a political problem for the Bush administration, which objects to granting the commission a later deadline and has long sought to play down criticism of the government's performance before the terrorist strikes. The administration has also not agreed to the panel's requests for direct testimony from President Bush and Vice President Cheney.

Bush spokesman Scott McClellan said yesterday that "this White House is committed to making sure the commission has all the information that they need to do their job," but that "it's important that they move forward as quickly as they can to complete their work."

If even the most hardened of the Miserable Failure supporters can't see that he's blocking the 9-11 commission from doing it's job, then they need to re-think their blind and undying support for the the Chimp in November. The 9-11 Commission is simply trying to get to the truth and let the chips fall where they may. The 1600 Crew knows that the chips will be falling ... well in places they'd rather not have made public, ever. Lying, double-dealing and decitful. Tune in tomorrow and I'll tell you how I really feel.

Sullivan complains (again) about John Kerry being "all over the map". On everything. Of course this comes from a person who describes himself as "fiscally conservative and socially liberal" and is a gay, republican, catholic. Yeah, I'd say the Duchess owns a single spot on the planet (barely), and is certainly knowledgeable enough to recognize someone who is "all over the map".

Is this the best Stanford can do? Seriously folks, I think she got that job for some other reason, perhaps her corporate connections (well, Chevron was going to name a super-tanker after her) for fund-raising.

If there is tons of intelligence to show that we were justified for invading Iraq, you'd think Condi would be parading around like a $2 crack-whore in Northwest. But I do a disservice to $2 crack-whores here.

President Bush’s national security adviser acknowledged Thursday that some prewar intelligence about Iraq was flawed but brushed aside calls for an independent investigation.

Condoleezza Rice, in a series of television interviews, defended Bush’s decision to go to war and said the United States may never learn the whole truth about Iraq’s weapons capabilities because of looting, which U.S. forces failed to stop immediately after the invasion.
...
Rice said the administration wanted to get all the facts to compare what the White House thought would be found in Iraq and what was actually found.

“Nobody will want to know better and more about what we found when we got to Iraq than this president and the administration,” she said.

Whatever the outcome, Rice said, the administration would not change its position that Saddam had to go.

Fearless Leader decided long ago to topple Saddam, probably when he was sober enough to find Iraq on a map and learned that his daddy's face was on the floor of a big Baghdad hotel. You know, it's that Texas Honor thing ... where you get mad, and someone else has to pay for your rage. In this case it was Preznit Give me Turkee and brave soldiers. Can he please go back to drinking again? Maybe he's less stupid drunk, certainly he has to be less dangerous.

It's not enough that Richard "Swine" Perle runs a counsulting biz to help clients who can pony up the dough, make money off the Mess in Mesopotamia in the long run, after more American Troops have given their lives there. Now he's making money in speaking fees from a group of Saddam-related Irani Terrorists who want "regime change" on their terms in Iran.

Pentagon adviser Richard Perle, a strong advocate of war against Iraq, spoke last weekend at a charity event that U.S. officials say may have had ties to an alleged terrorist group seeking to topple the Iranian government and backed by Saddam Hussein.
...
"All of the proceeds will go to the Red Cross," Perle said. Informed that the Red Cross had announced before the event it would refuse any monies because of the event's "political nature," Perle said: "I was unaware of that." Perle declined to say how much he received.
...
Jacki Flowers, a spokeswoman for the Red Cross, said the relief agency had been contacted by the sponsors about receiving funds raised at the event several weeks before it took place. But the Red Cross decided to reject the proceeds once it became aware that the event was "political in nature," specifically the promotion of regime change. She said accepting the funds would "compromise our fundamental principles of neutrality and impartiality."

An editorial in the WaPo today makes an interesting point about the growing acceptance of "surveillance" by third parties in our lives.

By reality TV, I don't mean C-SPAN's coverage of Congress. Rather, it's programs such as "Survivor" and "Joe Millionaire" (which scores of Americans watch for dating tips and a soap opera-like fantasy) that soften us up to accept increasing levels of governmental surveillance and that chip away at our belief in the sanctity of privacy. Strange as it sounds, "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy" may be doing some of John D. Ashcroft's dirty work.

As most of us are well aware by now, surveillance cameras are everywhere. In fact, the American Civil Liberties Union found that as early as 1998, about 2,400 cameras were recording New Yorkers in a multitude of parks, stores and other public places. Recent estimates say the number of cameras has reached 7,200.

All over the place, that's our boy. He's discovered that the his paper of choice the NY Times is hiring a columnist to watch the conservatives ... the real reason he notes this fact is the reference to Judge Reinholt masturbating in the column in the Observer, and reading their column, I'm not sure they ever saw the movie.

Next the princess moves on to the Scandanavian countrires where he finds all the words for "marriage" in all the tongues of those countries. Seems that the degree of how married you are is a different word, if you're living together it's one word ("samboerskap" in Norway, "samboskap" in Sweden, "samboskab" in Denmark) and if you are all formally married it's another ("ekteskap" in Norway, "äktenskap" in Sweden, "ægteskab" in Denmark). I suggest "Sullyslap" for hanging with a bear-loving bar-hopper who can't converse on the radio without pouting. Now who would that be?

Finally in further Andrew Antics we find that the Duchess of DuPont Circle has still not been able to reconcile the fact that Krugman was up front about once consulting for Enron (he's a two-faced liar don't you know?), but that Cheney who ran the company and is still getting paid by them may be truly ethically challenged. He says that the left is "shrill" in it's attacks on Cheney. Hey, Andrew. Pot ...Kettle ... Black. Familiar?

Awwww, say it ain't so. Here all the republican spin has led me to believe only evil Democrats break the law. Seems Herr Gropenfuhrer made a little mis-step while running to be the Governator.

A last-minute, $4.5 million bank loan Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger used to finance his own campaign in the days before he was elected was illegal, a Sacramento Superior Court judge ruled Monday.

Judge Loren McMaster's ruling finds that Schwarzenegger violated Proposition 34, which prohibits a candidate from lending more than $100,000 to his or her campaign.

I guess he'll just have to go make another bad flick to pay off the fines. Oh, wait he already has.

The new "CAPPS II" system is supposed to make everyone safer when they fly by screening out certain individuals and keeping potential "threats" off of commercial flights. Unfortunaltely, two MIT students have already proven that the system can be gamed, so what's the point?

The privacy concerns of "CAPPS II" are monumental. Everything any marketer wants to know about you is going to be in there. Everything anyone with a grudge and access to the system is going to be in there; and we all know how user-friendly the TSA and Fatherland Security Office are for appealing wrongheaded nonsense. Additionally, what's to keep some minimum-wage employee of some agency or company with access to this data from selling it off for a nice little chunk of change?

The CAPPS system is slated for an overhaul and this summer a prototype of the new system, CAPPS II, which draws information from various public and private databases to better flag potential threats to airline security, will be tested by the Transportation Security Administration. The system is controversial and has drawn criticism from privacy advocates because of the amount of personal information it uses from private databases to help profile passengers.

Reader Jim Price, another former Naval Aviator has this to say in the comments (scroll to the end) about Fearless Leader:

It seems to me that the point being over looked in the Bush AWOL debate is not whether he was absent for either seven or seveteen months of his obligated service. The fact is he simply didn't do what he took an oath to do and that is serve as an interceptor pilot with the Air National Guard.

So Cheney meets the pope ... Hollywood has a new movie here, "Just a Couple of White Feebs, sittn' around talkin'". No, seriously, VP Angina goes to Aviano Air Base in Italy and tells the troops this:

"The mission going forward is still difficult, still dangerous,” Cheney told soldiers and military family members in a crowded hangar on Aviano Air Base in northeast Italy. “We will remember every life lost with honor.”

Right after the speech, the L'il Dick hurried over to the base credit union and cashed his check from CheneyBurton Int'l so he could buy Lynne more books with Ben Franklin quotes in them when he got safely home.

Either this is the most back-handed of compliments or Porter Goss is on crack. It was my understanding that the CIA estimates and intelligence showed that Bad, Bad Saddam had no WMD's and had had none for a while. So what's this fool talking about?

The chairman of the House Intelligence Committee said Tuesday that resigned U.S. weapons inspector David Kay is doing the nation's intelligence system a favor with his harsh criticism of the CIA's flawed prewar estimates on Iraq's weapons capabilities.

House Intelligence is now and oxymoron too, how sad.

Someone needs to send him home to Missouri with a dollar-a-month pension and a clue. If there were any more divisive and clueless 1600 Crew official, I'm not sure who it would be, other than Preznit Give me Turkee.

“Weapons of mass destruction including evil chemistry and evil biology are all matters of great concern, not only to the United States but also to the world community. They were the subject of U.N. resolutions,” he said.

Ashcroft also called terrorism “the antithesis of freedom” and said it remained a global menace. “We see no nations as immune to the al-Qaida terrorist threat,” he said.

As for terrorism being the "antithesis of freedom", I think that the Patriot Act fits that description quite well, thank you. Why does John Ashcroft hate America?

The Supremes who reviewed the executions of mentally-impaired persons and found it lacking as a constitutionally sanctioned act have decided to take a look at the awarding of the death penalty to kids under the age of 18.

The Supreme Court, which two years ago abolished executions for the mentally retarded, said Monday it will now consider ending the execution of killers who were under 18 when they committed their crimes.
...
The court agreed to hear the case of a Missouri man who was 17 when he robbed a woman, wrapped her head in duct tape and threw her off a railroad bridge in 1993. The state Supreme Court declared it unconstitutional to send people to their deaths for killings committed when they were younger than 18.
...
The court majority said, in effect, that times change and that the constitutionality of such executions changes with them. The 6-3 ruling drew fierce dissents from the court's three most conservative members, who view the Constitution as a more rigid document.
...
Only the United States and a handful of other countries allow execution of juvenile killers, and death penalty opponents argue that such executions violate not only the Constitution but an international treaty signed by the United States.

Our more ethically challenged member of the Supremes, Fat Tony will probably need another hunting trip with VP Angina to know exactly how to he and 10-Watt should vote to keep the 1600 Crew happy.

I never learned this part in civics class ... guess I was a left-behind child, eh?

A Colorado republican county official was having sex with a subordinate, and refuses to step down.

Arapahoe County officials on Friday released 101 e-mails sent between Clerk and Recorder Tracy Baker and his assistant chief deputy, some of which suggest the pair had sexual relations at work, the county said.

One e-mail said, "Had (redacted) not joined us I would have finished teasing you and masturbating for you..." Other e-mails suggested Baker used county equipment, staff and time for his re-election campaign, the county said.
...
County spokeswoman Andrea Rasizer said officials are paying the legal fees for Mary Whitley, Baker's former chief deputy, in hopes of avoiding larger damages later.

Whitley filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in 2002 alleging she was forced to witness inappropriate sexual behavior by Baker.

Wes Clark tells it like it is, again. Bringing the light of the truth to the stage, Clark has (rightly) pointed out that the whole "missle defense" program is just an attention-distracting sham.

Democratic presidential hopeful Wesley Clark on Sunday said President Bush preoccupation with a missile defense program distracted him from the threat of al-Qaida before the 2001 terrorist attacks.

"One of the reasons we had 9/11 is because this president spent too much time worried about national missile defense and not enough time worried about the greatest threat to this country," Clark told supporters and undecided voters in a crowded living room two days before New Hampshire's primary.

"He was told when he came to office that al-Qaida was the greatest threat and he didn't pay attention," Clark said.

It's a sure bet that their preoccupation with the whole missile defense program is just another way to funnel tax dollars into the pockets of campaign contributors. It's all junk science that's driving the program which for the 1600 Crew is OK, since junk science is their most authoritative source of scientific information. How sad. I wonder which Friday the press release comes out stating that the earth is flat and the sun revolves around the earth. Probably before there's peace in Iraq.

I just had to smile over this one:

"Two years from now, spam will be solved," he told a select group of World Economic Forum participants in Davis, Switzerland. Gates said his company is working on a "magic solution" based on the concept of "proof" - identifying the sender of the e-mail.

I just can't stop laughing.

Colin Powell (R-Formerly respectable guy) has begun to backpedal from the official 1600 Crew line about the WMD in Iraq. Not so fast, Mr. Gen Powell sir. If you have been carrying the water of known liars, cheats and thieves isn't it about time to regain some honor before history relegates you to the list of "mighta-beens"?

The material I will present to you comes from a variety of sources. Some are U.S. sources. And some are those of other countries. Some of the sources are technical, such as intercepted telephone conversations and photos taken by satellites. Other sources are people who have risked their lives to let the world know what Saddam Hussein is really up to.

I cannot tell you everything that we know. But what I can share with you, when combined with what all of us have learned over the years, is deeply troubling. What you will see is an accumulation of facts and disturbing patterns of behavior. The facts on Iraqis' behavior--Iraq's behavior demonstrate that Saddam Hussein and his regime have made no effort--no effort--to disarm as required by the international community. Indeed, the facts and Iraq's behavior show that Saddam Hussein and his regime are concealing their efforts to produce more weapons of mass destruction.

Secretary of State Colin Powell held out the possibility Saturday that prewar Iraq may not have possessed weapons of mass destruction.

Powell was asked about comments last week by David Kay, the outgoing leader of a U.S. weapons search team in Iraq, that he did not believe Iraq had large quantities of chemical or biological weapons.

Colin Powell, a man who traded an honorable life to become a shit stain. I really thought more of him than that. Too many years inside the Beltway, I guess.

I never wanted to see.

My thanks to Kevin Hayden.

Wasn't that the theme of the republicans during those eight mizzerable years of [gasp] peace and prosperity of the Clinton Adminstration? Jeebus, as far as they were concerned, if Clinton was breathing he was lying.

Contrast that to Chimpy and Dickless Cheney

“It’s going to take some additional, considerable period of time in order to look in all the cubby holes and the ammo dumps and all the places in Iraq where you might expect to find something like that,” Cheney said in an interview with National Public Radio. “It doesn’t take a large storage space to store deadly toxins, or even just the capacity to produce it.”

President George W. Bush, in his state of the union address on Tuesday, claimed that Mr Kay's cautiously worded interim report last year had "identified dozens of weapons of mass destruction- related programme activities and significant amounts of equipment that Iraq concealed from the United Nations".

That was followed by vice-president Dick Cheney, who said in an interview with National Public Radio on Thursday: "I believe they had programmes designed to produce weapons of mass destruction. We still don't know the whole extent of what they did have."

Mr Kay, who was appointed in June 2003 to head the search, told Reuters on Friday that he did not think the US would make any significant new discoveries. "In terms of understanding that programme, we're well on our way, almost at the end."

He said that Iraqi stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons were destroyed after the 1991 Gulf war and not rebuilt. Regarding the country's nuclear programme, he said: "There had been some restart of activities, but they were rudimentary."

Meanwhile, five more GI's were killed today in Iraq. Supporting 1600 Crew's search for "Weapons of mass destruction-related program activities."

I'm sure that the families of soldiers in Iraq are much more understanding after the LoTU speech. It just all make sense after about a quart of kool-aid.

I'm blushing.

I mean it. Two of you, BudMan and Cowboy Kahlil, nominated DemVet for Koufax Awards for Most Humorous (huh?) and Best Design. Thanks, guys, I'm honored.

If there was a category for the Hardest Working Blogger on the Left, I'd have to nominate the ol' Cowboy ...he's been responsible for Open Source Politics and The American Street and doing some blogging himself.

And more on the Michael Moore thing from the Princess. Andrew says this about Moore:

Michael Moore: a man who never without an excuse for keeping murdering tyrants in power

While Andrew was a post-pubscent nobody, there was this little event occuring between two unidentified persons of no import. How convenient it is to forget unpleasant things at need. Must be the steroids.

So now the Buzz is back to Preznit Give me Turkee and the whole AWOL/Desertion thing. Seems that Wolfie and other alleged "journalists" are now all over Wes Clark (and John Kerry) for not refuting Michael Moores assertions of Fearless Leader being a deserter while he was in the Texas ANG.

Among the blogs, skippy (who has been all over the aWol thing since I started blogging) points to the Wolfie ignorance of the facts. Dave Niewart at Orcinus has a nice piece on the subject, and one of the smartest guys I have corresponded with Mark Kleiman, has something to say on the subject too...then there are the comments at Atrios (where else?).

The wing-nuts/freepers have their own spin on this too, it never happened. Let's for a minute concede that. A far more serious (for an officer) and more overlooked offense is the failure by 1st Lt Bush to obey a direct order to get a flight physical and which would return him to flying status. As an ex-military pilot (and CO of a reserve unit) I can assure you that the powers-that-be do not take disobedience of direct order with too much good grace, nor are they too happy about "rated aviators" who not only let their flight status lapse, but refuse to obey an order to become current again. Fact. No wiggle room. None. You obey or you don't, if you don't you pay. If one of my enlisted troops had been so flagrant about violating a direct order, I would have at least had him/her at an Article 15 hearing (Captains Mast), if it had been an officer, I would have had their nuts. Period.

Copies of the orders released by the ANG to 1st Lt Bush, telling him to get the physical are pretty strong evidence of "direction" from superior officers. For whatever reason the golden boy ignored them, and that should give everyone pause to consider whether or not he's a man who deserves "blind" obedience and the title of "Commander in Chief", when he could not follow orders himself.

Some of the staunchest defenders of this preznit are folks who have never served, and seem to be more than willing to criticize and belittle those of us on the left (even vets who have a clue) because they believe the Wurlitzer's spin on this issue unconditionally. I guess sitting at a keyboard all day can distort your sense of reality ... it certainly shows, especially when there is a prima facie case for disobeying a direct order in black and white, from the Air National Guard. Hard to refute real evidence, it's too bad the statute of limitations has tolled on that offense.

Janklow of South Dakota. Truly Disgusting. He kills a guy, has multiple speeding offenses and gets this:

Bill Janklow, who dominated South Dakota politics for three decades as governor and then congressman, was sentenced to 100 days in jail Thursday for an auto accident that killed a motorcyclist and ended Janklow’s career in disgrace.

After 30 days behind bars, Janklow will be allowed to leave jail during the day for up to 10 hours to perform community service. After he completes his jail term, he will be on probation for three years, during which he will not be allowed to drive.

Martha was a Democratic donor in New York, Janklow is a "Family Values" Republican Convicted Killer from the "Heartland". I hope that civil litigation brought by the relatives of the victim leave Janklow with a roll of toilet paper and a can of dog food.

As Arlo Guthrie said, "just another case of American Blind Justice".

Every once in a while, after I get done reading all the especially great mail and comments I get I have to share comments that are attached to old posts ... here's a classic from a reader named "cycle john"

5000 years ago Moses said, "pack your camel, pick up your shovel, mount your ass, and I shall lead you to the Promised Land."

5000 years later, Franklin D. Roosevelt said, "lay down your shovel, light up your camel, sit on your ass, this is the Promised Land."

With Bush he will take your camel, sell your shovel, kick you in the ass and tell you there is no Promised Land."

Here's another from Andy Sullivan, an actual reporter, yes a working Journalist as opposed to someone else who only plays one on the internet ...

Hey, can you try to call him ANDREW, rather than ANDY Sullivan? That's my name, dammit. What if my Mom decides to Google me?

I work as a reporter for Reuters and use my Web site to post music: www.andysullivan.com.

Thanks!
Posted by Andy Sullivan at January 22, 2004 11:47 AM

See how much fun blogging can be? And to think my mom said I'd never amount to anything.

Science was the class that President Ground the Hubble skipped between recess and PE?

Saw this story a few days ago. Really did not believe it, but after last nights LoTU address, and President Lucky Sperm's implied FMA support, this just seems so, well, interesting.

Mr. Bush met Mr. Reid earlier this week at the summit in Monterrey, Mexico, just after the President's breakfast with Mr. Martin.
...
The President chuckled. "Well, you got a pretty face," he told the surprised Mr. Reid. He wasn't done. "You got a pretty face," he said again. "You're a good-looking guy. Better looking than my Scott anyway."
...
"But I'll take what I can, I guess," he joked. "When a Texas Republican says you've got a pretty face, then I guess there is just no way around it."

This can't have fit into Unka Karl's Big Book of Political Calculus. The wife of Mitch McConnel (R- Kentucky Horses Ass), Elaine Chao (who said nepotism was passé) has refused to delay the implementation of the changes to the new and improved business-friendly overtime rules.

Labor Secretary Elaine L. Chao yesterday denied a public request by Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) to delay until September the department's business-backed plan to overhaul overtime rules.
...
...She said employers are spending $2 billion a year on "needless litigation" by workers seeking overtime pay. The lawsuits diverted money from "job creation and better pay and benefits," Chao said.
...
Employer groups applauded Chao's decision to push ahead with the revisions.

"It's a very favorable sign for employers," said employment lawyer Camille A. Olson. "She refused to delay the implementation."
...
The department has emphasized the portions of the regulations that would benefit low-wage workers. The new rules would make anyone earning less than $22,100 automatically eligible for overtime pay, up from $8,060, a figure last revised in 1975. But critics have noted that the rules would also exempt from mandatory overtime pay anyone "in a position of responsibility" or earning more than $65,000 a year.

"Without any hearings, with the stroke of a pen, the secretary of Labor is about to adversely affect the lives of millions of Americans," said Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.).

Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the No. 2 Republican, listed mutual funds and a home owned by his wife, Labor Secretary Elaine Chao, worth more than his own.

...Elaine Chao, Secretary of Labor and wife of Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY) is the most affluent woman in the cabinet. She reports holdings of $100,000 to $500,000...

Roger Ailes (the good one) caught this:

The Phrase of 2004

"Weapons of mass destruction-related program activities."

I could not watch it, I wanted to toss things at the TV and the family was not happy with that behaviour. So I settled for the transcript. The best synopsis so far has to be SK Bubba's.

Now what's up the Prisoner Release thing ... this from the Executioner of Texas? Has Chuckles Colson gotten deeper into White House Policy than any convicted felon should? And why are we going to spend more time and effort on screwing with the constitution over Gay Marriage than we should? Is Bush like still in the closet or something?

The pitiful insistence on Abstinence Education is another point that's a sop to the christo-fascists. A recent study of them god-fearin' Minnesotans showed that parents wanted Sex Ed and Abstinence education taught, because no one approach is a panacea.

Overall, if this is the creature facing Clark, Dean or Kerry in November, it's gonna be a win. Not a walk, but a win. He's an empty suit folks, just read the transcript.

Motto for 2004: No Republican Left in Office.

Sullivan on freedom for me, and not for thee:

Sullivan: I despair. For me, it revealed that the primary motivation of the far Left is hatred of the United States. And the soft Left is too cowardly in many instances to expose and oppose this.

I hardly think cowardice is the issue here; it's the disgust with extremists of any stripe, which certainly seems to include one Andrew Sullivan.

Now I know why Andy hates America, because when he looks out the window, at the end of the day, he does not see a country filled with right-thinking Andrew Sullivans.

I'm not sure that I can take it tonight. I may have to watch until my eyes bleed. Just because I'm that much of a masochist. However, to make it all a bit more palatable, I direct you to SK Bubba's SoTU drinking game variant, which donates money to a good cause for certain expressions that the Drunken Fratboy Cheerleader is sure to use at some point. SKB is going to donate to Habitat for Humanity instead of doing shots (although I am not sure that doing both might not be appropriate).

I wanna play too, so every time that Chimpy mentions

"gratitude towards our troops" that's worth $10
"rape rooms" that's worth $10
"Syria, Ghaddafi or the Axis of Evil" that's worth $5

to Amnesty Interational.

Oh, and if the Miserable Failure mentions discretionary spending requirements that need to be increased during the LoTU address tonight, I'll donate $50 to Sullywatch! to continue watching that idiot ...

I'm not crying over Kerry getting like 38% of the votes in Iowa tonight. but I'm pretty freaking happy to see Lieberman with a big, fat ZERO. Can I get an "Amen" for that little bit of Iowegian Mischief? I guess that they too were telling him that it's not a republican event.

Thank you Iowa. Go Home Joe.

Did a little blogroll doctoring lately. Added a new category to the Pond: Swimming Belly Up for quiet/hiatal blogs ... with a little TLC maybe they'll be back in the Pond someday, but for now they're getting the best Ichthyo-Vet care they can.

Also, like to welcome fellow Navy Vet, The Chronic Curmudgeon to the Pond. Stop over and pay him a visit.

Back to Iowa. On to New Hampshire!

Our culturally liberal, fiscally conservative pundit (what, is that like Tom Delay dressed up like Candy Crowely?) "opined" that Al Gore's endorsement of Howard Dean was the kiss of death, jsut 'cause Andy said so.

As I seem to recall, the Princess of P-Town instinctively thought back before 2001 that Chimpy would be the panacea that mended our National Fences after low-lifes like him almost brought down the republic over a blow-job. So, forgive me if I give Sullivan's instincts a pass here. Perhaps when he grows up, we might be able to afford him some air-time.

Culturally Liberal, Fiscally Conservative: what in the hell is that really, a gay catholic republican in search of absolution? Guess so.

As the caucuses run into the night, my favorite part of the whole media circus so far had to be Anderson Cooper on CNN telling Wolfie something like "I don't really understand how it works, but it looks interesting."

Jeebus, no wonder Howard Dean is "angry".

Speaking of angry, it looks like those Club for Growth ads have done their work. Does the GOP/RNC consider it sure-thing smackdown if they have to face Kerry?

The talking-point blast-fax lies have already started about Clark ... Karl Rove's greatest nightmare has to be a Clark - Bush Debate ... that might be reason for the GOP and Tom Delay to try and cancel the election.

For all of those who are my age, which is about at the top of any advertisers "target demographic" you remember the "New Math". I was never quite sure why it was new, but I was pretty sure it was math. Some things never change, unless of course you are a math (or English impaired) republican.

So, as we head into the new millenium, you know the one where "No Child Will be Left Behind" but might be left in Iraq, we find "New English"

At many schools, 6-year-olds don't compare books anymore -- they make "text-to-text connections." Misbehaving students face not detention but the "alternative instruction room," or "reinforcement room," or "reflection room." Children who once read now practice "SSR," or "sustained silent reading."

And in Maryland, high schoolers write "extended constructed responses" -- the essay, in a simpler time.
...
...At school board meetings, stakeholders gather to align curriculum to content standards. Teachers learn to vertically articulate and differentiate instruction and give authentic, outcome-based assessments.
...
...A second-grade teacher announces "modeling efficient subtraction strategies" as the task of the day, while "selected response" has taken the place of "multiple choice."

"These are terms that will drive anyone to complete hysteria," said Robert Hartwell Fiske, publisher of the Vocabulary Review and author of the forthcoming "Dictionary of Disagreeable English.

I'm pretty sure that kids and parents who are not buying into this (eg those in private schools and districts that are beginnig to refuse the NCLB strictures by refusing federal dollars) have a term for those school board and districts opting in to this nonsense: Coitally-challenged mentally-impaired persons or Fucking Idiots.

What a Senator with a brain says

Hussein's brutal regime was not an adequate justification for war, and the administration did not seriously try to make it one until long after the war began and all the false justifications began to fall apart. There was no imminent threat. Hussein had no nuclear weapons, no arsenals of chemical or biological weapons, no connection to Sept. 11 and no plausible link to al Qaeda. We never should have gone to war for ideological reasons driven by politics and based on manipulated intelligence.

Vast resources have been spent on the war that should have been spent on priorities at home. Our forces are stretched thin. Precious lives have been lost. The war has made America more hated in the world and made the war on terrorism harder to win. As Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge said in announcing the latest higher alert: "Al Qaeda's continued desire to carry out attacks against our homeland is perhaps greater now than at any point since September 11th."

The most fundamental decision a president ever makes is the decision to go to war. President Bush violated the trust that must exist between government and the people. If Congress and the American people had known the truth, America would never have gone to war in Iraq. No president who does that to our country deserves to be reelected.