Newsmax reaches for the bottom of the barrel, and comes up spades.
It is bad enough that I linked to this, and The Rude Pundit certainly expresses my feelings admirably.
Let me just add that Newsmax, and the people who write this bile are scum. They really don't even deserve the scorn that should be heaped on them by the bucketful.
Atrios find Bill O'Reilly's list.
As of today there are only three items.
In the middle of a laughable column defending Wal-Mart's labor practices, Mallaby calls a decorated Vietnam War veteran a traitor:
Furman advised John "Benedict Arnold" Kerry in the 2004 campaign and has never received any payment from Wal-Mart; he is no corporate apologist.
I am the victim, as I was on the road when this delicious piece of irony occurred:
A basketball-sized piece of marble molding fell from the facade over the entrance to the Supreme Court Monday, landing on the steps near visitors waiting to enter the building.
No one was injured when the stone fell. The chunk of Vermont marble was part of the dentil molding that serves as a frame for nine sculptural figures completed in 1935. The piece that fell was over the figure of Authority, near the peak of the building's pediment, and to the right of the figure of Liberty, who has the scales of justice on her lap.
From today’s White House pool report:
Scott gaggled on AF1 and yes, he gave a preview of tomorrow’s speech on the war. Among the hightlights [sic], the WH will be releasing an unclassified “National Strategy for Victory in Iraq.” He said they hope to have it out by 6:30 a.m.
Well, after a harrowing 18 hour drive to get out of the blizzard like conditions that Eastern Colorado, and Western Kansas saw, I arrived weary but safe home in Austin yesterday. The downside being that I missed 20 inches of new snow for snowboarding.
Ah to be able to live the life of the idle rich and ski when the snow is right, rather than when I can get time off from work.
*sigh* (start daydream sequence where David is wealthy, and packs off on a ski vacation at a moments notice)
OK, dream sequence over, back to the real world.
*sigh*
Of all the things that have been happening, I find this to be hilarious:
Making abstinence prostitution.
Apparently in Iowa, the Iowa Abstinence Mission is telling teen to wait until they get "The Bling" before having sex.
In other words, don't have sex until some guy pays you for it.
I thought Nevada was the only state where prostitution was legal?
Colorado Road Conditions
I-70 Vail Pass East Bound:
Existing Conditions: (snow)(icy spots)(snowpack spots)
Restrictions in Place: Chains all commercial vehicles, including buses, vans 16+ capacity.
Comments: Mile marker 180 to summit
Due to snow covering both Vail Pass and Tennessee Pass into Leadville, Colorado I am stuck in Aspen for another day. If I wasn't so worn out from the past 4 days snowboarding, I would go hit the slopes for another day, as conditions are probably excellent on the mountain.
If you are out driving today, be careful. Today is the second heaviest travel day, as everyone is trying to get home from the Thanksgiving Holiday. I will be on the road all day tomorrow trying to get home.
The White House decides that Rep. Murtha's Sen. Biden's Iraq withdraw plan, is similar to the plan they just made up:
The White House has for the first time claimed ownership of an
Iraq withdrawal plan, arguing that a troop pullout blueprint unveiled this past week by a Democratic senator was "remarkably similar" to its own
Because the Bush Administration doesn't value freedom properly, they ramp up domestic spying.
The real thing that changed on 9/11 was that some people were given free reign to act out their police state desires.
Sony goes afoul of Anti-Spyware laws.
Good. Texas should sue.
So should every other state, or city, or even country who have laws that make it a crime to install spyware.
$100,000 per violation, with thousands of reported violations.
"The man who insists on seeing with perfect clearness before he decides, never decides."
--Henri-Frédéric Amiel
or not, as it turns out.
Without providing the media outlet by media outlet breakdown of how many FOIA requests were made, suffice it to say, there is a distinct lack of curiousity about what the government, and specifically the Pentagon is doing.
Kind of sad, isn't it.
"No good deed goes unpunished."
--Clare Booth Luce
This is one of those statements which plays itself out nearly daily.
Regular posting will resume on Monday.
"Trying to determine what is going on in the world by reading newspapers is like trying to tell the time by watching the second hand of a clock."
--Ben Hecht
On that note. Tomorrow is Thanksgiving in the US.
Happy Thanksgiving you and your family.
"Democracy means that anyone can grow up to be president, and anyone who doesn't grow up can be vice president."
--Johnny Carson
"A synonym is a word you use when you can't spell the word you first thought of."
--Burt Bacharach
In the latest sign that up is down, and the Republican Party is careening towards a cliff, Rep. Steve King of Iowa wants to be the next Joe McCarthy:
But it's also worth noting that congressional Republicans seem to be taking these inconsequential votes more and more seriously. About two months ago, Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) wanted to name a post office in Berkeley after a 94-year-old former city councilwoman. Rep. Steve King of Iowa accused the woman, Maudelle Shirek, of having communist ties and he led a fight to defeat Lee's measure. Accused of engaging in blatant McCarthyism, King said, "If [Lee] studied her history, she'd recognize Joe McCarthy was a great American hero."
"Grown-ups never understand anything for themselves, and it is tiresome for children to be always and forever explaining things to them."
--Antoine de Saint-Exupery
I hate it. Whether I am driving, flying, taking the train, whatever.
But, I am doing it. I am off for a skiing holiday during the Thanksgiving break.
Accordingly there will be lite posting, unless I am able to glom onto somones wireless network where I am visiting, as I will be operating on dialup.
Conversely, I will be in the Aspen/Basalt area, and if anyone has any tips for restaurants, or anything else to do (in the winter), that may be a bit off the beaten path, I certainly would enjoy hearing about them.
I would, but no one who makes those decisions listens to me.
Stupid Slogan:
So here's the story. A message team responsible for developing a unifying new theme for the party had come up with multiple slogans -- including "America Can do Better" (the "Together" was added later) and "A Stronger America Begins at Home" (and variants such as "Security Begins at Home"). Greenberg Quinlan Rosen Research was then hired to try out the competing slogans and see how people reacted.
According to a high-ranking party insider, "A Stronger America Begins at Home" tested 10 point higher than any other entry. So how did the Dems end up going with a losing slogan?
I am sure that many potential targets of the Fitzgerald investigation into the leak of CIA operative Valerie Plame's identity were thinking that the investigation was winding down, with the indictment of Scooter Libby. Not so say Patrick Fitzgerald:
Special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald said in court filings that the ongoing CIA leak investigation will involve proceedings before a new grand jury, a possible sign he could seek new charges in the case.
In filings obtained by Reuters on Friday, Fitzgerald said "the investigation is continuing" and that "the investigation will involve proceedings before a different grand jury than the grand jury which returned the indictment" against Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, Lewis "Scooter" Libby.
"People who have what they want are fond of telling people who haven't what they want that they really don't want it."
--Ogden Nash
Last night, Republicans secured passage of their budget cutting bill.
This article does make a passable attempt at explaining what will be cut:
The bill, passed 217-215 after a 25-minute-long roll call, makes modest but politically painful cuts across an array of programs for the poor, students and farmers.
[...]
The broader budget bill would slice almost $50 billion from the deficit by the end of the decade by curbing rapidly growing benefit programs such as Medicaid, food stamps and student loan subsidies. Republicans said reining in such programs whose costs spiral upward each year automatically s the first step to restoring fiscal discipline.
[...]
To win House approval, Hastert ordered modest concessions on plans to limit eligibility for food stamps and require the poorest Medicaid patients to pay more for their care. He ordered killed a provision to deny free school lunches to about 40,000 children whose parents would lose their food stamps.
Former Christian Coalition director Ralph Reed claimed in a 2001 e-mail to a lobbyist that he choreographed John Cornyn's efforts as Texas attorney general to shut down an East Texas Indian tribe's casino.
[...]
"We have also choreographed Cornyn's response. The AG will state that the law is clear, talk about how much he wants to avoid repetition of El Paso and pledge to take swift action to enforce the law," Reed wrote. "He will also personally hand Ed Young a letter that commits him to take action in Livingston."
Cornyn, now a Republican U.S. senator, had filed a lawsuit in 1999 to shut down a casino operated by the Tigua tribe in El Paso, saying it violated the state's limited gambling laws. In 2002, federal courts shuttered the Tiguas' casino and Cornyn used that ruling to shut down the Alabama-Coushuttas' casino.
From The Agonist we find this viral advert for 42 Below Vodka.
Let's leave it at, I had a really good laugh. The reference to Gallipoli just made it all that much more funny.
42 Below's website
E&P:
Washington Post Ombudsman Deborah Howell has received hundreds of calls and e-mails from readers since yesterday's revelations about Bob Woodward's involvement in the Valerie Plame case, and none of them are positive.
"I am getting a lot of reaction and, from readers, it is all bad," Howell told E&P today, referring to the fallout from Woodward's disclosure that he spoke to a confidential White House source about Plame in 2003. "We are being barraged with calls. They think it was wrong for him not to tell his editors and wrong for the Post not to tell readers."
The ombudsman also pointed out that the e-mails "are all very different. I have not seen [an organized] campaign."
CNN continues the theme that Woodward's 'revelation' about his knowledge of Valerie Plame's identity impacts the case against Libby:
Woodward's disclosure raises questions regarding when Plame's name was first leaked to the press.
Because Libby is charged not with leaking Plame's name but with lying about his conversations with three other journalists -- NBC's Tim Russert, Time's Matt Cooper and former New York Times reporter Judith Miller -- the relevance of Woodward's testimony on Libby's case is uncertain.
Keep coming off.
Poor Denny Hastert. He can't seem to keep his grand coalition together anymore:
In a dramatic rebuke of conservative leadership, the House has defeated the Labor, Health and Human Services and Education spending bill for Fiscal Year 2006. This year’s bill, which contains one-third of all domestic spending, calls for deep cuts in critical government programs.
"The war in Iraq is not going as advertised. It is a flawed policy wrapped in illusion. The American public is way ahead of us. The United States and coalition troops have done all they can in Iraq, but it is time for a change in direction. Our military is suffering. The future of our country is at risk. We cannot continue on the present course. It is evident that continued military action is not in the best interests of the United States of America, the Iraqi people or the Persian Gulf Region.
[...]
"My plan calls:
- To immediately redeploy U.S. troops consistent with the safety of U.S. forces.
- To create a quick reaction force in the region.
- To create an over-the-horizon presence of Marines.
- To diplomatically pursue security and stability in Iraq.
"This war needs to be personalized. As I said before, I have visited with the severely wounded of this war. They are suffering.
"Because we in Congress are charged with sending our sons and daughters into battle, it is our responsibility, our obligation, to speak out for them. That's why I am speaking out.
"Our military has done everything that has been asked of them, the U.S. can not accomplish anything further in Iraq militarily. It is time to bring them home."
"If you don't know what to do, call the media and at least give the appearance of doing something."
--David Peterson
Barbara Radnofsky (finally) formally announced her candidacy for the U.S. Senate running against Kay Bailey Hutichson. Radnofsky has been attacking Hutchison for some time on her positions, many of which were not in Texas' best interests.
During the "will she or wont she" debate about Hutchison announcing her intention to run for Governor against Rick Perry, the RNC got involved and made some promises to her, if she stayed in the Senate. Now it is up to Texas Democrats to try and ensure that the RNC is not able to fufill their promises to Hutchison, by sending her back home.
Part of this promise from the RNC, I am sure includes money for her campaign fund. If we are to successfully oust, Radnofsky is going to need some help. As we enter the campaign season, bloggers are going to be asking for your help. How nice it would be to deliver a Texas shocker. You can help through Actblue, or through Barbara Radnofsky's campaign web page here
In a report two days ago, [Inspector General, Kenneth] Konz said Tomlinson broke federal laws and internal rules by hiring corporation President Patricia Harrison, a former Republican National Committee co-chairwoman, based on her Republican ties. The report discussed the e-mails but didn't identify Rove as one of the people involved.
``I didn't see anything coming out of the White House showing that they instructed him or ordered him what to do,'' Konz said in the interview.
Tomlinson also improperly helped develop ``The Journal Editorial Report,'' a conservative talk show, for public TV, the six-month probe found.
The issue was ``the use of political tests that were seeking people from one party or from a conservative viewpoint,'' Konz said yesterday.
Konz said he tried to interview Rove and two other White House officials who engaged in e-mail exchanges with Tomlinson about Harrison's hiring and other matters.
President George W. Bush pushed back hard against his critics in a Veterans Day speech at the Tobyhanna Army Depot in Pennsylvania.
Bush reprised the address at Elmendorf Air Force Base in Alaska on Nov. 14, three days later, just as Senate Republicans were gearing up to attach an amendment critical of the Iraq war to a defense bill.
Neither speech got him much. What Bush did in both instances was engage in deception to defend himself against charges of deception.
There's been no Senate investigation exonerating the administration on prewar intelligence. The Senate investigators specifically kicked the question of the who and the why of intelligence failures down the road as too politically radioactive.
[...]
What Bush's latest effort reflects is the exhaustion and fear of a White House staff that would let the president go public with so feeble and transparent a case. With one top aide indicted and the leak investigation continuing, staffers are no longer willing to work behind the scenes to smear, deride, and muzzle critics, even family friend Brent Scowcroft. So Bush has to do his own dirty work, personally, in broad daylight.
Bush's ``everyone knew what he knew'' argument was being undermined even as he was making it by new information brought to light by Senator Carl Levin on Nov. 4 and reported in the New York Times on Nov. 6. The recently declassified information puts a lie to the administration's reason for going after Saddam, one pumped directly and repeatedly into the American bloodstream by the president himself.
[...]
Should Democrats have pressed harder for more proof and pursued every footnote and caveat buried in the intelligence they did get access to? Yes. But to sweep them up in the ``everyone believed as Bush believed'' argument is to blame the victims of a misinformation campaign conducted at the highest levels of the U.S. government.
``Everyone does it'' is a weak enough excuse when invoked by a teenager caught drinking by his parents. From the commander-in-chief of the world's most powerful nation, it's pathetic, so obviously so that Bush immediately shored it up with his default argument that anyone who criticizes him is ``deeply irresponsible'' and sending ``the wrong signal'' to the troops, as well as providing solace to the enemy.
Critics do no such thing. And Levin isn't a partisan taking potshots at the president. He's a public official putting out documents from Bush's own hand-picked intelligence officials bent on giving him a slam-dunk case.
But they couldn't. Bush and Cheney and their acolytes knew this. Everyone else didn't.
President Bush's positive job rating continues to fall, touching another new low for his presidency, the latest Harris Interactive poll finds.
Bush's current job approval rating stands at 34%, compared with a positive rating of 88% soon after 9/11, 50% at this time last year, and 40% in August.
Cheney comes out of his crypt to attack Democrats for daring to challenge him. Reid launches a counter attack:
Washington, DC – Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid gave the following speech on the Senate Floor tonight.
Remarks as prepared for delivery:
“Tonight the Vice President has come out of his bunker and is speaking at a gathering of Washington DC insiders, which is closed to the press.
“Unfortunately, he brought his bunker mentality with him. He is repeating the same tired attacks we’ve heard from administration officials over the last two weeks.
“In the last 24 hours, 10 of our brave soldiers have been killed in far off Iraq. On such a night, you would think Cheney would give a speech that honors the fallen and those still fighting by laying out a strategy for success.
“Instead we have the Vice President of the United States playing politics like he’s in the middle of a presidential campaign.
“Yesterday, a bipartisan majority of the United States Senate gave the administration a vote of no confidence for its Iraq policy. We said the era of their “No Plan, No End” approach is over.
“Apparently, the White House didn’t get the message. The Vice President’s speech tonight demonstrates once again that this Administration intends to “stay the course” and continue putting their political fortunes ahead of what this country needs –a plan for success.
“Our troops and the American people deserve better.
“The White House needs to understand that deceiving the American people is what got them into trouble. Now is the time to come clean, not to continue the pattern of deceit.
“So again, I ask Vice President Cheney to make himself available and answer the American people’s questions.
“If he has time to talk to DC insiders… oil executives… and a discredited felon – Ahmad Chalabi - who is under investigation for giving this nation’s most sensitive secrets to Iran, he has time to answer the questions of the American people.
“The Vice President needs to stop stonewalling and hold a press conference.
“Finally, I would urge the members of the Bush administration to stop trying to resurrect their political standing by lashing out at their critics. Instead, they need to focus on the job at hand – giving our troops a strategy for success in Iraq.
“Just this week, we’ve seen Stephen Hadley… Donald Rumsfeld… President Bush… and Vice President Cheney lash out at their critics….yet they all remain silent when it comes to giving our troops and the American people a plan for success in Iraq.
“Tired rhetoric and political attacks do nothing to get the job done in Iraq.
“America can do better.”
The Senate Appropriations Committee removed earmarks for two controversial "bridges to nowhere" in Alaska: the Gravina bridge, which would connect Ketchikan to an island of 50 people, and the Knik Arm bridge, which would link Anchorage to a sparsely populated area. The projects have been the subject of strong criticism because of the general backlog of existing roads and bridges in desperate need of repair, especially those affected by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. According to the National Association of Civil Engineers, one in four bridges nationwide is structurally deficient or functionally obsolete, not including the damage from Katrina and Rita.
There is a lot of talk all over the left side of blogtopia today about Bob Woodward's revelation that he knew Valerie Plame's status long before Novak published his column revealing her identity.
What does this mean for the Fitzgerald investigation?
Who was the unidentified source?
What is WaPo going to do about Woodward keeping this information secret?
Just how bad is Woodward's reputation tarnished?
The main thing, is that Woodward was one of the very vocal critics of the Fitzgerald investigation. He was constantly saying how this wouldn't amount to much, etc. This, with his knowledge that the information was released, and released to him. Woodward says he wanted to 'protect his source', 'maintain confidentiality', etc. His claims hold no weight with me, however. They hold no weight, because he is involved. He is in the middle of it.
I thought journalists weren't supposed to be the story, only report it.
"Everything happens to everybody sooner or later if there is time enough."
--George Bernard Shaw
So, let's take their money away:
Congressional budget negotiators have decided to take back $125 million in Sept. 11 aid from New York, which had fought to keep the money to treat sick and injured ground zero workers, lawmakers said Tuesday.
New York officials had sought for months to hold onto the funding, originally meant to cover increased worker compensation costs stemming from the 2001 terror attacks.
But a massive labor and health spending bill moving fitfully through House-Senate negotiations would take back that funding, lawmakers said.
"It seems that despite our efforts the rescission will stand, very sadly, and that is something of a promise broken," said Rep. Vito Fossella, R-N.Y. "We will try hard in the coming weeks, but ultimately Congress will have something of a black eye over this."
A spokeswoman for Rep. John Sweeney, R-N.Y., said the congressman also had been told New York would lose the funding in whatever compromise version of the spending bill finally reaches the floor.
I wish I could say I am surprised about this.
But, based on the total incompentence of everything the Bush Adminstration does, I'm not.
That is the greatest shame.
I just saw a segment on Countdown with Keith Olbermann, about this song, which purports to spread the "TRUTH About Iraq". It is from RightMarch.com, where their tag line is "Patriotism in Action"
There is the truly, truly crappy song and propaganda video that they are trying to get air time on the radio, and ultimately TRL on MTV.
Like Keith said, the song wont get played, and the group will say it is due to political opression (or some such nonesense). The fact is, the song sucks.
There is a sample of the song available on their website.
Go listen, if you have the stomach for it.
So the news is out from the Post now -- both in a statement from Bob Woodward and in an article from the Post. The details still seems sketchy and I suspect we're going to find out a lot more in the next few days. But it now seems that Woodward -- who has long been publicly critical of the Fitzgerald investigation -- has been part of it from the beginning. Literally the beginning. From the Post account it appears that Woodward was told of Valerie Plame's identity before any other journalist by an as-yet-unnamed senior administration official who is not Karl Rove or Scooter Libby.
Argh:
"What [Alito] said was, 'It was different then. I was an advocate seeking a job. It was a political job,'" the California Democrat said.
She said Alito said 1985 was a "very different" time, when he was an advocate for the Reagan administration. As a judge for 15 years, he looks at legal matters differently.
"I don't give heed to my personal views. What I do is I interpret the law,'" she said, quoting the 55-year-old judge from New Jersey.
Feinstein said she believed Alito was sincere.
This article from Sunday's Washington Post Magazine is the second major attempt I've seen in the last few months to separate Donald Rumsfeld from the Iraq war. (Here's the other.)
The idea, basically, is that Rummy was more fixated on modernizing the military than invading any country. Iraq just happened to be the country that the President wanted to wack.
Sony Rootkit Allegedly Contains LGPL Software
According to this Dutch article the Sony DRM software (or rootkit, if you may prefer) contains code from the LAME MP3 encoder project, which is licensed under the LGPL. However, the source code has not also been distrbuted, hence breaching the license
Of course Tom DeLay is involved:
And this all happens just after we find out that Tom DeLay asked Abramoff to raise $150,000 from his Indian-gaming clients through a private "charity" run by Abramoff, the Capital Athletic Foundation.
So once again we have the unholy alliance -- DeLay, Abramoff, Griles, and now Norton -- exchanging money and peddling influence hither and yon, using non-profit organizations for purposes that appear to have been anything but non-profit, and generally running amok. Nothing in CREA's charter makes Indian gaming a legitimate part of its mission. It wasn't even registered as a lobbyist. And what does the Capital Athletic foundation have to do with DeLay's need for $150,000 for unspecified purposes?
Alito responds to his job application under Reagan:
It was different then. I was an advocate seeking a job. It was a political job.
In a strange turn of events. Sony admits that their DRM scheme wasn't a good idea.
Not only that, you can get your XCP protected CDs exchanged for non XCP CDs. You can get the list of CD's that had this copy-protection on them here and here.
Sony will be releasing information on how to get your CDs exchanged. So, do the right thing, if you have one of these CDs, contact Sony, and get them replaced.
Wow, I am late on this.
Right now Pink Dome is accepting nominations for Texan of the year. Although I am a Texas blogger, I don't really blog much on Texas issues (for many reasons, which I won't get into here).
Nevertheless, eventhough I am not really a part of this, it is still something any of my Texas readers should participate in.
You can find more info at the link above, or send your nomination here with an explanation why you think this person should be Texan of the Year. Nominations will be accepted until 23 November. On 1 December, the person chosen will be revealed.
The Bush Administration continues to lead the way, when it comes to extreme incompetence. Yesterday it was the total disaster that was the Hurricane Katrina response. Today it is the lack of flu vaccine:
Once again the country is facing a flu vaccine shortage, but it has gotten little attention from the Bush administration. Health care facilities, schools, and supermarkets are canceling flu vaccine clinics in Arizona, California, Texas, New York, D.C., and elsewhere. As Hillary Clinton noted on November 10, the American Lung Association’s Flu Clinic Locator Web site has been rendered almost useless because so many clinics have been canceled around the country.
Last week administration officials started downplaying the shortage and assuring people that there will be adequate supplies eventually. Centers for Disease Control Director Julie Gerberding claimed the shortage would be temporary; she said it may in part have been triggered by greater demand this year than last, but admitted she had no data to support that. Gerberding announced that 71 million doses had been distributed as of November 10, with a total of 81 million expected by the end of November. The good news, she said, is that so far there have been relatively few flu outbreaks this season.
The manufacturing problems that triggered last year’s shutdown of the plant were known to FDA officials at least as far back as 2003, when the FDA inspected the facility. If the FDA had forced changes at the plant back then, it might have been ready for full production this flu season.
But the FDA didn't force Chiron to correct its problems in 2003 because its oversight powers had been seriously weakened by the FDA's then–chief counsel, Daniel Troy. Before coming to the FDA, Troy, the first political appointee to hold that post, had spent years suing the agency in an effort to curb its authority.
[...]
But when the inspectors wanted to issue a warning letter to the company, an action that would have told the company it urgently needed to correct problems or face the prospect of the FDA shutting down all manufacturing at the plant and seizing any existing product, they were not allowed to do so. Such a warning would have required not only immediate corrective action by the company, but another FDA inspection in a year to make sure the problems had been resolved.
Instead, senior officials at headquarters decided not to take official action. The company was told it could handle corrections on a voluntary basis, and an FDA inspection was not scheduled for two years.
Tis thusly that we are entering the new phase of Operation Iraq War Justification:
President George W. Bush has suddenly shifted rhetoric on the war in Iraq. Until recently, the administration's line was basically, "Everything we are saying and doing is right." It was a line that held him in good stead, especially with his base, which admired his constancy above all else. Now, though, as his policies are failing and even his base has begun to abandon him, a new line is being trotted out: "Yes, we were wrong about some things, but everybody else was wrong, too, so get over it."
No one in the media, or apparently in the government is making any effort to ensure that the reconstruction of the Gulf Coastal region is going according to any plan.
Fortunately someone has decided to take that task on: Gulf Coast Reconstruction Watch.
Hopefully the media will soon catch on and pay attention to what is happening.
I won't hold my breath though.
I’m glad the smear sites made a big deal out of it. Now we can all know who was with the anti-military internet crowd. We’ll post the names of all who support the smear merchants on billoreilly.com. So check with us.
I have had a personal boycott of Target over their policy regarding the dispensing of emergency contraceptives. But now, Target has raised the ante, by playing the hurt party in the Planned Parenthood campaign against Target, and those pharmacists who would deny emergency contraception to women based on the pharmacists personal views:
We're surprised and disappointed by Planned Parenthood's negative campaign. We've been talking with Planned Parenthood to clarify our policy and reinforce our commitment to ensuring that our guests' prescriptions for the emergency contraceptive Plan B are filled. Our policy is similar to that of many other retailers and follows the recommendations of the American Pharmacists Association. That's why it's unclear why Target is being singled out.
Apparently the stench of George is too much for a run in 2008:
Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, the brother of U.S. President George W. Bush, ruled out running for president in 2008 but left open the possibility of a subsequent bid in an interview with a German magazine published on Sunday.
... that Roe v Wade will be overturned:
Judge Samuel A. Alito Jr., President Bush's Supreme Court nominee, wrote that "the Constitution does not protect a right to an abortion" in a 1985 document obtained by The Washington Times.
"I personally believe very strongly" in this legal position, Mr. Alito wrote on his application to become deputy assistant to Attorney General Edwin I. Meese III.
In an important clarification of President George W. Bush's earlier statement, a top White House official refused to unequivocally rule out the use of torture, arguing the US administration was duty-bound to protect Americans from terrorist attack.
The comment, by US national security adviser Stephen Hadley, came amid heated national debate about whether the CIA and other US intelligence agencies should be authorized to use what is being referred to as "enhanced interrogation techniques" to extract from terror suspects information that may help prevent future assaults.
"Ahhh. A man with a sharp wit. Someone ought to take it away from him before he cuts himself."
--Peter da Silva
KKK remarks get laugh.
To summarize. Mitt Romney was at a fundraiser. Speaker says Democrats are just like the KKK. Mitt thinks that is so funny he thanks speaker for that "very generous introduction".
However, he then decided it wasn't so funny. Govenor Romney, you're right. It's not funny now, and it wasn't funny then.
However, unlike the rest of civilized America, Romney obviously needed to be told it wasn't funny.
"A nation is a society united by delusions about its ancestry and by common hatred of its neighbors."
--William Ralph Inge
Some people certainly believe this more than others.
As a veteran of the U.S. Army, I am familiar with the sacrifices an all volunteer military makes that is similar, yet different from a draft era military. The major difference being that the sacrifice goes from being one of expectation to one of choice.
I cannot adequately put in words what I feel it means. I served in the U.S. Army during the 1980's, having been stationed in South Korea during the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, South Korea. I was never one to parade around yelling "U.S.A., U.S.A.", but being a member of the U.S. Army, imbued me with a certain pride that many who never serve can truly understand.
There are plenty of people who mouth platitudes at our soldiers, marines, airmen, and sailors, who think they know what it means to serve. However, when I see the "Support Our Troops" magnets, or hear people say things like "honor our troops", yet never consider enlisting, or discourage their children from enlisting, I feel a sense of betrayal.
I have promoted the cause of Operation Yellow Elephant here in my little corner of blogtopia. But, I have done it because those who cheer the loudest at sending my brothers and sisters in the military off to fight, and possibly die in far off lands, are the least willing to do the same. People like Jonah Goldberg, and the Young College Republicans, who hold "pro-military" rallies, exoriating people like me for being "anti-American" or "anti-Military" because I dare to question the rationale for sending the military to fight in a war of dubious causes, if not outright lies, makes me sick. Not because I think they love America any less than I do, but because they would so callously send Americans into war, because they want war.
My political experience pre-military was extermely liberal. My grandfather lead the GAIU, and was a VP in the AFL-CIO. He was on Nixon's enemies list, and witnessed some of the worst that our government dealt out to political foes. My father was, and still is, a professor at the university level. The morality that I was taught growing up (pro-worker, pro-education, etc.), taught me that everyone deserves and opportunity to succeed. When I joined the Army, straight out of high school, I was taught so the importance of team work. Nothing mattered more than your buddy. There was the person whose back you covered, and you could depend on that person to do the same for you.
However, one part of the military indoctrination, which gets glossed over, is that you lose your political identity. Political identity doesn't matter. Religious identity doesn't matter. These divisions that define people don't matter when you are in the military. The only things that matter are your buddy, your unit, and your immediate commander. You rely on them, and they rely on you. That is the only way you can expect to survive in combat.
In the civilian world, however, the divisons are much different. Your political identity matters. Your religious identity matters. You don't rely on someone else.
What does any of this have to do with Veterans Day?
Ultimately nothing.
What matters is that those men and women who have served our country, be it voluntarily, or because they were drafted, deserve nothing but our respect.
Our respect means that when they are sick, or wounded, or psychologically troubled, they will get whatever they need. Costs be damned.
Veterans did what was expect of them.
We should do everything within our power to repay them.
"Paradise is exactly like where you are right now... only much, much better."
--Laurie Anderson
Oops:
The last-minute negotiations between the lawyers and Texas prosecutor Ronnie Earle were arranged after DeLay made what Earle considered a seriously damaging admission about his fundraising activities during an Aug. 17 meeting with the prosecutor in Austin.
At that session, DeLay acknowledged that in 2002 he was informed about and expressed his support for transfers of $190,000 in mostly corporate funds from his Texas political action committee to an arm of the Republican National Committee in Washington and then back to Texas, according to the sources, who spoke on the condition that they not be named.
Those transfers are at the heart of the prosecutor's investigation of the alleged use of corporate funds in the 2002 Texas elections, in violation of state law. In the prosecutor's view, DeLay's admission put him in the middle of a conspiracy not only to violate that law but also to launder money.
On Tuesday — three days before Veterans Day — House Veterans’ Affairs Committee Chairman Steve Buyer (R-IN) announced that for the first time in at least 55 years, “veterans service organizations will no longer have the opportunity to present testimony before a joint hearing of the House and Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committees.”
House Republican leaders scuttled a vote Thursday on a $51 billion budget-cut package in the face of a revolt by lawmakers over scaling back Medicaid, food stamp and student loan programs.
I know I am a very small fish in the blogging ocean, certainly as compared to Atrios, Kos, Red State, and most others. But I want to add my voice (small though it is) to the growing cacophony against H.R. 4194.
Mike Krempasky of Red State and I have jointly signed a letter (PDF) urging the U.S. House of Representatives to reject H.R. 4194 -- a stealth effort to regulate online political voices by pretending to defend them.
When Alito became a federal appeals court judge in 1990, he promised to recuse himself from cases involving Vanguard mutual funds, because he had personal investments through the company. Yet he participated in a case decided in 2002 involving Vanguard.
According to the poll, Bush’s approval rating stands at an all-time low of 38 percent, a one-point decline since October; in fact, this is the third consecutive NBC/Journal survey showing Bush at an all-time low on his job approval. And it doesn’t stop there: Approval for his handling of the economy (34 percent), foreign policy (35 percent), terrorism (39 percent), and Iraq (32 percent) have all hit rock bottom.
"She had a pretty gift for quotation, which is a serviceable substitute for wit."
--W. Somerset Maugham
Feeling emboldened by successfully preventing gay couples from getting married in Texas (which they already couldn't do), the Religious Right thinks they can fix the divorce rate in Texas:
Rep. Warren Chisum, who wrote the amendment, Proposition 2, endorsed by Texas voters by a ratio of more than 3-1, said Wednesday that it's too easy for spouses to split up. The state should consider repealing or modifying its no-fault divorce law, the Pampa Republican said.
"Gee whiz, our divorce rate's higher than New York," Mr. Chisum said. He proposed that between now and their next regular session in 2007, lawmakers study ways "to make marriage thrive more in our state."
The chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence told Senate leaders yesterday that Congress should hold off on a probe of the disclosure of classified information on secret prisons to The Washington Post until the Justice Department completes its own inquiry.
Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.) said he will "respectfully" request that Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) back off a strongly worded request that a bicameral investigation into the disclosure be convened immediately. Frist spokeswoman Amy Call said the majority leader had not decided how to respond. "He always takes what his chairmen say into consideration," she said.
Frist and House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) surprised both Roberts and House intelligence committee Chairman Peter Hoekstra (R-Mich.) with a joint letter demanding a House-Senate inquiry after the Nov. 2 publication of a Post article detailing a web of secret prisons in Eastern Europe and elsewhere, maintained by the CIA to detain suspected terrorists.
US Army Admits Use of White Phosphorus as Weapon:
"WP [i.e., white phosphorus rounds] proved to be an effective and versatile munition. We used it for screening missions at two breeches and, later in the fight, as a potent psychological weapon against the insurgents in trench lines and spider holes when we could not get effects on them with HE. We fired 'shake and bake' missions at the insurgents, using WP to flush them out and HE to take them out."
The New York Times and Judith Miller, a veteran reporter for the paper, reached an agreement today that ends her 28-year career at the newspaper and caps more than two weeks of negotiations over the conclusion of a tumultuous episode.
Is apparently the new rallying cry in the White House bid to save Cheney's reputation:
With Vice President Dick Cheney under mounting fire, his office together with the White House and the Republican Party responded with a coordinated counter-attack on Tuesday, accusing Sen. Harry Reid of malicious conduct "unbecoming" his role as Democratic leader.
[...]
McClellan decried Reid's "rants" as "unbecoming of a leader of any party," and said Americans would question "whether Democrats are more concerned about the peoples' priorities or scoring political points at the expense of a dedicated public servant."
Schmidt called Reid's comments "unconscionable personal attacks and malicious," adding: "These are beneath the office of the Democratic leader."
"Acquaintance, n.: A person whom we know well enough to borrow from, but not well enough to lend to."
--Ambrose Bierce
Wingnuts dumb down their children:
At the risk of re-igniting the same heated nationwide debate it sparked six years ago, the Kansas Board of Education approved new public school science standards Tuesday that cast doubt on the theory of evolution.
The 6-4 vote was a victory for "intelligent design" advocates who helped draft the standards. Intelligent design holds that the universe is so complex that it must have been created by a higher power.
Democrats Win.
Despite the gay marriage amendment passing in Texas, Democrats did pretty well yesterday. Corzine handily won, what was thought to be a close governors race in New Jersey. In the biggest stunner to Bush and the GOP, Tim Kaine won the gubernatorial race in solidly Republican Virginia. This despite Bush himself campaigning for Kilgore Monday.
As if that wasn't enough, Atrios points us to the Mayoral race in St. Paul, Minnesota. Democrat Mayor Randy Kelly was ousted by Democratic challenger Chris Coleman. Why, you may ask, would this be important to Democrats?
From 2 August, 2004:
St. Paul Mayor Randy Kelly broke Democratic Party ranks on Sunday to announce his support for President Bush's re-election.
"George Bush and I do not agree on a lot of issues," Kelly said in a statement. "But in turbulent times, what the American people need more than anything is continuity of government, even with some imperfect policies."
Kelly, who said he's remaining a Democrat, said the economy is going in the right direction. "There's no reason to believe a change of course will produce better or quicker results," he said.
In a race dominated by partisan payback, St. Paul voters swept former City Council Member Chris Coleman into the mayor's office Tuesday, as Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak cruised to a convincing victory.
[...]
The St. Paul race was overshadowed by partisan fury over Kelly's decision to endorse President Bush for reelection in 2004. A number of polls showed Kelly fighting a backlash in the largely DFL town over the endorsement. A Star Tribune Minnesota Poll showed that nearly two-thirds of likely voters said Kelly's decision to campaign for Bush influenced their choice of candidate.
Frist and Hastert want to investigate who leaked potentially classified information about the "black site" prison network the CIA maintains, then this happens:
Hastert and Frist make a big show of calling for an investigation into a leak allegedly affecting national security -- the locations of secret "black site" torture prisons. And then -- BOOM!!! Lott just said, Tuesday afternoon, that he thinks it was a GOP Senator who leaked the info to the Washington Post last week. He says the details had been discussed at a GOP Senators-only meeting last week, and that many of those details made it into the WaPo story.
Money quote from Lott; "We can not remain silent. We have met the enemy, and it is us."
HENRY: Good evening, Lou, again. That's right, Now Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist in the last half hour now has actually signed this letter, officially launching the congressional investigation. It is a letter basically from Speaker Dennis Hastert and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist to the House and Senate intelligence committee chairman, saying they want a bicameral -- it means basically both chambers -- investigating whether or not classified information made it into this "Washington Post" report last week about secret prisons holding terror suspects.
Texas became the 19th state to approve a constitutional ban of gay marriage as voters decided nine proposed amendments today.
The U.S. military in Iraq denied a report shown on Italian state television on Tuesday saying U.S. forces used incendiary white phosphorus against civilians in a November 2004 offensive on the Iraqi town of Falluja.
It confirmed, however, that U.S. forces had dropped MK 77 firebombs -- which a documentary on Italian state-run broadcaster RAI compared to napalm -- against military targets in Iraq in March and April 2003.
From James Dobson's hometown:
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. -- A former coach at a Colorado Springs high school faces charges of hosting a sexually oriented party for teenagers that led to child pornography.
Marsha Ann Williams, 45, posted a $1,000 bond Saturday after her arrest last Friday. She is under investigation for contributing to the delinquency of minors, according to police.
Williams is a former coach at Mitchell High School.
About 10 girls between the ages of 14 and 16 attended the Jan. 21 part at Williams' Colorado Springs home, according to an arrest affidavit.
"We are here on Earth to do good to others. What the others are here for, I don't know."
--W. H. Auden
Or so he'd have you believe.
The problem, according to DeLay's lawyer is that Travis county, where his trial is being held, has such animosity towards DeLay, that he cannot get a fair trial here.
Problem number one, is that 40 affidavits filed by DeLay's attorney that he could not get a fair trial in Austin, came from 40 strong supporters of DeLay, who ultimately want to see the trial moved to a venue where the jury pool would be guaranteed to be pro-Tom DeLay. Problem number two, which DeLay, nor his lawyer can avoid, is that Travis county went to Democrats in the past two Senate races by two-tenths of one percent, hardly the "... the last enclaves of the Democratic Party in Texas.".
Perrspectives for more information on the DeLay trial.
Thanks to Talk Left for the Houston Chronicle link.
According to Italian news reports, the US Army used White Phosphorus against insurgent, and civilian populations in Falluja right after the elections last November.
For those who aren't familiar with what effect White Phosphorus has, it oxidized into a number of different compounds, one of which is phosporic acid when exposed to water (of which the human body is mostly composed).
There is a video of the Italian news program here, and supposedly it is rather graphic in nature.
AmericaBLOG has some thoughts.
As does Daily Kos
And CorrenteWire
Apparently White Phosphorus is not considered a chemical weapon, but it is still highly corrosive to human tissue, and should be banned as a weapon.
We do everything we can to keep sex offenders away from our kids and then allow them in neighborhood schools on election day.
How could this be?
On election day, sex offenders in Travis Country get into our schools. They are sent there to vote.
It's happening all over the state -- even in Austin.
They can't live within 1,000 feet of our schools. On election day, sex offenders are welcomed into those schools to vote.
For those that are missing their calender, that is tomorrow (or today if you are reading this tomrrow as I posted this kind of late).
I have received a couple of robo calls telling me which way I need to vote on Proposition 2.
I voted on Friday, so I don't have to wait through the massive (not) lines that we will see tomorrow. If you are reading this, and have not voted, do so.
There are elections happening in a number of states, some of which are kind of important, so if there is an election happening in your area, vote.
I think this article is more of a ploy to scare Republican voters out to the polls:
One year before the 2006 midterm elections, Republicans are facing the most adverse political conditions of the 11 years since they vaulted to power in Congress in 1994. Powerful currents of voter unrest -- including unhappiness over the war in Iraq and dissatisfaction with the leadership of President Bush -- have undermined confidence in government and are stirring fears among GOP candidates of a backlash.
Interviews with voters, politicians and strategists in four battleground states, supplemented by a new Washington Post-ABC News poll, found significant discontent with the performance of both political parties. Frustration has not reached the level that existed before the 1994 earthquake, but many strategists say that if the public mood further darkens, Republican majorities in the House and Senate could be at risk.
SHIELDS: And George Bush was to be this pillar of integrity. He is now seen as morally and ethically inferior to Bill Clinton.
BROOKS: Yeah, but it's not irreversible. I mean, Clinton was much lower than Bush is now. Reagan was lower in Iran Contra.
SHIELDS: Not in the job ratings.
BROOKS: Well, they were in the 20s. But the point is, you've got to make some changes. And when you go back and read about the Reagan administration, you realize how fluid it was. They really did make big changes.
Fresh on the heels on one revelation of Kilgore's dirty tricks in Virginia, we find out about more Republican dirty tricks:
In yet the latest Republican dirty trick, people in Northern Virginia — myself included — are getting calls purporting to be from the Kaine campaign. However, at the end of the message it says “Paid for by Honest Leadership for Virginia PAC.” Wait a minute, what on earth is THAT?
I know that it has been a long time since Congress has done something that is in the best interest of Americans, but finally they did.
Contending that the Supreme Court has undermined a pillar of American society -- the sanctity of the home -- the House overwhelmingly approved a bill Thursday to block the court-approved seizure of private property for use by developers.
The bill, passed 376-38, would withhold federal money from state and local governments that use powers of eminent domain to force businesses and homeowners to give up their property for commercial uses.
Bush declares: 'We do not torture'
Senate, Cheney split over ban on torture
Both AP stories.
Only one is correct.
Bush had an opportunity to confront Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez directly with his concerns while he was in Argentina. Instead Bush runs and hides in Brazil to target Chavez:
BRASILIA, Nov. 6 - President Bush, in tough remarks aimed at Venezuela's leftist president, Hugo Chavez, called on Latin America today to choose between two competing futures - an American-supported "vision of hope" and another that "seeks to roll back the democratic progress of the past two decades."
Such a democratic retrenchment, the president said, would be "playing to fear, pitting neighbor against neighbor, and blaming others for their own failures to provide for their people."
Mr. Bush spoke before Brazilian business leaders, diplomats and students at the luxury Blue Tree Park Hotel, in an isolated section of the capital, and did not mention Mr. Chavez by name.
But his barbs at the populist president were clear, and were in effect Mr. Bush's response to the fiery populist who led an anti-American rally of more than 25,000 people on Friday in Mar Del Plata, Argentina, while Mr. Bush was attending a summit meeting there.
According to TalkLeft, Libby's defense strategy has moved from the "I can't remember" strategy to one where he blames reporters for getting caught:
"It's Mr. Libby's right to a fair trial versus editorial privileges, and that isn't a close question," said one attorney closely involved in the case. "Most judges will say the right to a fair trial wins. ... We're over the hump of the identity" of secret sources, the attorney added. "Now we're talking about credibility" of the reporters.
So far 8.3 percent in Travis County, 1.42 percent in El Paso County for early voters.
This is a low turnout election, with only constitutional amendments on the ballot. If enough come out to vote in opposition to proposition 2, it may fail.
And that would be a Good Thing.
"Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself."
--Leo Tolstoy
The Governors election in Virginia is getting rather nasty. So nasty, in fact, that the Republican candidate resorts to pretending to be a Democrat to get votes:
The flyer pits independent (and former Republican) Russ Potts against Democrat Tim Kaine. On issues of Choice, Gays, and Guns, the flyer claims that Potts is a great progressive while Kaine is against all that. So who put this together, this guide pretending to be an "official" Democratic Party guide urging Democrats and Progressives to vote against the Democratic candidate?
Virginians for Jerry Kilgore.
Ahmed Chalabi was the primary source of information that was used by the Bush administration to invade Iraq. We now know that the information he provided was patently false.
In light of all of this, the American Enterprise Institute decides to host a speech for him. Most members of the Bush administration are members of AEI, they even have a letter from Bush about how great AEI is.
There is plenty of information about Chalabi's past, but more importantly, he was in Iran last week ostensibly to tell the Iranian deputy prime minister to stay out of Iraq' business. Based on past dealings with him, I wonder if we can believe what he says?
Thanks to Steve at The Washington Note for the heads up.
This is the number of KKK vs. Counterprotestors that showed up for today's hatefest downtown:
There was a showdown Saturday over a proposed state constitutional ban of same-sex marriage that put a small Ku Klux Klan group against a massive rally by opponents.
Only about a dozen members of the American White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan appeared at Austin City Hall for the group's “pro-family values'' rally. None wore the traditional hoods or robes of the white supremacist group. Some displayed Confederate flag symbols.
[...]
About 3,000 counter demonstrators were drawn to oppose the hate group at City Hall.
More than 200 police officers patrolled the area. Two arrests were made - one for an outstanding warrant and another for carrying a club and creating disturbance.
I suppose coming from the position that I didn't really believe the Bush administration and their rationale used to justify the war in Iraq, I personally cannot get too worked up over the revelations that the evidence was made up out of whole cloth. However, I know that the majority of America was not paying that much attention, and accepted that what they were told, was enough truth that many could make the leap to accepting the war's reasons.
However, now that the information is starting to come out that not only was the information knowningly false, but the information was obtained from tortured prisoners, whose motives were not questioned, nor was any of the information obtained via these methods validated.
The incompetence of the Bush administration is stunning in its depth and breadth.
"The mind of a bigot is like the pupil of the eye. The more light you shine on it, the more it will contract."
--Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.
Prize winning English Bulldog Re-Ha Chili Bean was dog-napped at gunpoint in Atlanta this past week.
A show dog from Pennsylvania, Suzie's handlers brought her to Metro Atlanta to compete in a dog show being held in Marietta.
Now, Sandy Springs is peppered with flyers asking for help finding Suzie. The show dog, whose registered name is Re-Ha Chili Bean, was stolen at gunpoint early Wednesday, authorities said. There has been one reported sighting of the dog since she was stolen, authorities said.
Suzie's handlers were on their way from Asheville, N.C., to enter her in a dog show in Marietta. They stopped at a shopping plaza on Roswell Road and Hammond Drive to let the dog out, and that's when they were held up at gunpoint, Fulton County police said.
“Two subjects approached from behind, demanding money. When she told them she didn’t’ have any money, one of them took the dog,” said Fulton Officer Gary Syblis.
"To avoid situations in which you might make mistakes may be the biggest mistake of all."
--Peter McWilliams
For that's how Congress thinks:
The Senate approved sweeping deficit-reduction legislation last night that would save about $35 billion over the next five years by cutting federal spending on prescription drugs, agriculture supports and student loans, while clamping down on fraud in the Medicaid program.
The measure would also open Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling, a long-sought goal of the oil industry that took a major step forward after years of political struggle. A bipartisan effort to strip the drilling provision narrowly failed.
Today is the last day for early voting in this election. There are 9 propositions on the ballot, including the nefarious Proposition 2.
Get out and vote. If you can't get out today, regular voting is on Tuesday 8 November.
Today, House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi introduced a privileged resolution to demand that Republican Congressional leadership conduct a thorough investigation of abuses relating to the Iraq War. The resolution failed by a party line vote, 220 to191, when Republicans unanimously moved to table, or effectively kill, the resolution.
"A vote to table is a vote to cover-up," Pelosi said. "Congress has the responsibility to find out why so many things in Iraq have gone so terribly wrong. That is why I asked the House to investigate abuses relating to Iraq. Yet, Republicans again thwarted efforts to answer the questions of the American people. This Republican cover-up Congress refuses to live up to its oversight responsibility."
"Congress has an obligation to identify and correct the problems that led to the production of flawed intelligence," Pelosi said. "Our troops are at risk until that is done, and yet, there is no sense of urgency to undertake a thorough review of what went wrong. Neither the issue of the quality of the intelligence nor the equally important issue of whether intelligence was politicized, have been investigated by this Congress."
Citing the absence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, evidence of the Bush Administration's efforts to discredit critics of the Iraq war, prisoner abuses at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, Guantanamo, and Afghanistan, and the responsibility of Congress to oversee the decisions and actions of other branches of government, Pelosi demanded investigative action by the Republican Congress.
39%:
President George W. Bush's job approval rating fell to 39 percent, the lowest number since he took office, in a Zogby International poll taken after the indictment of an administration adviser in the CIA leak case and the withdrawal of another aide as a Supreme Court nominee.
The number is down from two weeks ago, when 45 percent of U.S. adults said they approved of the job Bush was doing. Public approval of Bush's leadership had been on the rebound since hitting a low after criticism of the government's slow reaction to Hurricane Katrina in the first week of September.
``The 39 percent job performance is the lowest we have registered so far for Mr. Bush,'' pollster John Zogby said in a statement. ``Behind those numbers are some troubling trends for his party.''
The approval rating number is in line with other recent polls by USA Today/CNN/Gallup, the Washington Post/ABC News
I feel dirty just having read this, but it's true. Tolerance, and teaching our children tolerance, has no place in the Southern Baptist lifestyle:
"There are other agendas, particularly the homosexual agenda, that have been very aggressive in promoting tolerance of what we consider to be destructive and unbiblical lifestyles -- and building that tolerance into our children," Ledbetter contends. "And they're finding a listening ear. Whether it's on the Supreme Court, or whether it's the textbook manufacturers, the National Education Association -- we find ourselves up against some pretty big boys."
The goal of the public school resolution is to put the responsibility for educating children in the hands of the parents where it belongs, Ledbetter adds. Now that more believing parents are becoming wary of what is being taught in public schools, he says these Christian moms and dads are looking to take a proactive response.
"Democracy is a device that ensures we shall be governed no better than we deserve."
--George Bernard Shaw
Is good for the Gander, I guess:
Just days after U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay won a fight to get a new judge in his case, prosecutors on Thursday sought the ouster of a Republican jurist responsible for selecting the new judge.
The legal wrangling comes as administrative Judge B.B. Schraub was expected to name a new judge for DeLay's money laundering and conspiracy case.
Normally I don't like Dan Abrams, but his blog entry from Halloween is pretty good:
Oh, please. How do you explain this one to the kids? Well, honey you can't go to school today as a ballerina because Halloween is not just about candy corn and jack o lanterns. No, it's a far more serious religious holiday…Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice. What world are we living in? If you don't want to have your kids dress up then don't. And you know what else? I hate to break the news to you, but it’s not a real holiday!! People still go to work. It’s kind of like taking Groundhog day seriously.
Sure, if you look back far enough you can trace Halloween rituals to more than just fun and games. But that is not the reality today. The few who still adhere to the origins of the Halloween holiday are a few fringe so-called witches.
What about Valentines Day? After all, February 14 celebrates the martyrdom of a Catholic priest named Valentine who conducted secret marriages. Will parents now insist that their kids not give Valentine cards at school because they might actually be honoring a religious tradition?
Lighten up. These are at worst, Hallmark holidays and at best, just fun. Don't make me come over there and egg and toilet paper your house tonight.
Former House majority leader Tom DeLay's efforts to retain power despite his indictment have angered some rank-and-file Republicans, many of whom say his ethical problems and uncertain status are staining them and destabilizing GOP unity.
Republicans said no.
David Broder:
None of this is to suggest that Judge Alito will be -- or should be -- blocked from elevation to the seat of Sandra Day O'Connor. His record entitles him to the serious consideration and questioning he will undoubtedly receive from the Judiciary Committee. But after Bush acquiesced in the conservative movement's uproar denying Miers her chance for an up-or-down Senate vote, or even a hearing in that committee, there is no plausible way the White House can insist that every major judicial nominee deserves such a vote.
That was the rationale behind the threatened "nuclear option" in the Senate, the mid-session rule change that would have banned judicial filibusters. If the mass of Democrats and a few Republicans who may be dismayed by Alito's stands on abortion and other issues can muster the 41 votes needed to sustain a filibuster under current rules, they now have precedent for using their power.
Another person involved in the bogus WMD claims?
Vice President Dick Cheney replaced I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby as his national security adviser on Monday with an aide identified by a former Iraqi exile group as the White House official to whom it fed information on Iraq that turned out to be erroneous.
The Bush administration relied on some of the information from the Iraqi National Congress to argue that Saddam Hussein had to be ousted before he could give banned biological or chemical weapons to al-Qaida for strikes on the United States.
But no such weapons were discovered after the March 2003 invasion, and U.S. intelligence agencies and the independent commission on the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks found no evidence of operational cooperation between Iraq and al-Qaida.
The White House announced on Monday the elevation of John Hannah to replace Libby as Cheney's national security adviser. Earlier in the day it announced that Libby would be arraigned Thursday in federal court on charges of perjury, making false statements and obstruction of justice. He was expected to plead innocent.
The White House also announced that David S. Addington, who's been Cheney's legal counsel, would assume Libby's duties as chief of staff. Like Hannah, Addington has played a quiet, though influential, role in the vice president's office. The Washington director of Human Rights Watch accused Addington of helping draft policies that led to the abuse of prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan.
And I apparently have missed some BIG to do's.
Harry Reid just shutdown the Senate
more here
and Bill Frist had a hissy fit
Damn, I hate when my real job gets in the way of the job I wish I had.
3. Kansas Biology Teacher
On the front lines of science's devolution
"The evolution debate is consuming almost everything we do," says Brad Williamson, a 30-year science veteran at suburban Olathe East High School and a past president of the National Association of Biology Teachers. "It's politicized the classroom. Parents will say their child can't be in class during any discussion of evolution, and students will say things like 'My grandfather wasn't a monkey!'"
First, a history lesson. In 1999 a group of religious fundamentalists won election to the Kansas State Board of Education and tried to introduce creationism into the state's classrooms. They wanted to delete references to radiocarbon dating, continental drift and the fossil record from the education standards. In 2001 more-temperate forces prevailed in elections, but the anti-evolutionists garnered a 6-4 majority again last November. This year Intelligent Design (ID) theory is their anti-evolution tool of choice.
In a case that some have called a showdown over voting rights, a U.S. appeals court yesterday upheld an injunction barring the state of Georgia from enforcing a law requiring citizens to get government-issued photo identification in order to vote.
The ruling allows thousands of Georgians who do not have government-issued identification, such as driver's licenses and passports, to vote in the Nov. 8 municipal elections without obtaining a special digital identification card, which costs $20 for five years. In prior elections, Georgians could use any one of 17 types of identification that show the person's name and address, including a driver's license, utility bill, bank statement or a paycheck, to gain access to a voting booth.
Last week, when issuing the injunction, U.S. District Judge Harold L. Murphy likened the law to a Jim Crow-era poll tax that required residents, most of them black, to pay back taxes before voting. He said the law appeared to violate the Constitution for that reason. In the 2004 election, about 150,000 Georgians voted without producing government-issued identification.
"I've talked to some who have said, 'This is going to sabotage our abstinence message,' " said Gene Rudd, associate executive director of the Christian Medical and Dental Associations. But Rudd said most people change their minds once they learn more, adding he would probably want his children immunized. Rudd, however, draws the line at making the vaccine mandatory.
"A paranoid is someone who knows a little of what's going on."
--William S. Burroughs
The KKK is coming to Austin for a rally on Saturday 5 November.
They are coming to show their support for the Gay Marriage Amendment that Texas is voting on, and to scare conservatives with the insidious threat of homosexuals recruiting their sons and daughters.
In response, a group is trying to get a moon the Klan rally:
It would be easy to give them what they want.
It would be easy to shake my fist and holler.
It will be harder to shake my ass in their general direction,
but it will be better than feeding into their media strategy.
You are invited to join in
the 2nd* Austin Mooning of the Klan
Saturday, November 5th
Austin City Hall (or nearby depending on where the police make us stand)
from 1-3PM
*The first mooning of the Klan was organized by Texas musician Steve Fromholz in 1993 and proved to be an effective means of making counter protesters smile and Klanspeople cringe.
You ever wonder how happily married the Klan guys are? Notice how you never see a calendar called Girls of the KKK? Hey, if you're a fat girl with no teeth, wouldn't you want to walk around under a bedsheet?
So I'm glad some people are talking about dropping their Dockers at this event (1 to 3 p.m. Saturday) thus becoming the butt of the joke.
Besides, there's a precedent. In 1993 a group of mooners boarded a bus at the Saxon Pub on South Lamar, then proceeded to the Capitol grounds, where they mooned a Klan rally. But the Saxon Pub mooners didn't get organized as a bloc mooning. You had a butt here, a butt there. It was kind of half-, uh, never mind.
I would arrange 100 to 150 people like a card section at a football game. That way you could write a different word on each cheek to spell out, say, one of Shakespeare's sonnets, or the lyrics to a Neil Young song, like, say, "Harvest Moon."
This would get the idea across that we here in Austin, Texas, don't sit on our butts when meanness marches into town. And a humorous gesture might take the edge off. In fact, the '93 mooning did just that. It started with Klan-haters banging their fists in anger on the front of the KKK bus when it showed up.
But things lightened up when the pants came down. At least briefly.
so says the American Family Association:
Two national groups - the Pro-Life Action League in Chicago and the American Family Association in Tupelo, Miss. - have raised questions about the American Girl brand and its parent company, Mattel Inc., because of the company's fund-raising for Girls Inc., formerly known as Girls Clubs of America.
The American Family Association has called Girls Inc. "a pro-abortion, pro-lesbian advocacy group." Girls Inc., which has more than 1,500 centers across the country, says it provides a variety of programs to educate and encourage girls and does accept lesbian sexual orientation. Alexander Kopelman, director of communications, said it does not include abortion in its programming, though it does not control what leaders say if girls ask about it.
To all friends of strong, smart, and bold girls:
Girls Inc. has empowered girls for over 141 years, first as Girls Clubs of America and since 1990 as Girls Incorporated. In centers across the country, generations of girls have learned their strengths, explored their worlds, prepared for productive, interesting lives, and offered each other the support necessary in dealing with the challenges of growing up.
Grounded in research and tested in the field, Girls Inc. programs address the whole girl. They build her athletic skills and competitive spirit, nurture her ability and interest in science, math and technology, equip her with critical health and sexuality information, provide her leadership experience, teach her media literacy and money management skills, and foster her self-respect and self-determination. Programs such as Girls Inc. Operation SMART®, Girls Inc. Discovery Leadership®, and Girls Inc. Sporting Chance® help girls understand who they are and acquire the skills and knowledge needed to make smart, informed decisions about their lives.
In addition, since 1992 Girls Inc. has provided over $1.8 million in college scholarships to girls who have become leaders in all walks of life and has played a crucial role in advancing girls' rights through supporting legislation such as Title IX and the Violence Against Women Act.
Recently, our mission to help girls develop their self-esteem and self-reliance has become the target of false, inflammatory statements from people who are pursuing a narrow political agenda.
Girls Incorporated stands on its long positive history. The millions of lives we have touched speak for who we are and our values. Thanks to all of you who believe in our mission of inspiring girls to be strong, smart, and bold®. Together, we will continue to work to help all girls realize their potential.
Cordially,
Joyce M. Roché
President and CEO
Girls Incorporated
The Facts: Alito is an activist judge:
In 1995, he voted to invalidate Pennsylvania restrictions on publicly funded abortions for women who are victims of rape or incest. The state wanted the women to have to report the crime to police first, but Alito joined another judge in finding that state rules were trumped by federal policy.
Why, oh why do we allow Republicans to disenfranchise voters?
Last week, an ugly bit of business transpired in the GOP-dominated House of Representatives, where Republican hard-liners succeeded in passing a measure that would limit the ability of nonprofit groups to conduct voter registration drives. It was one of those moments when you don't have to wonder what the jihadist faction of the GOP is up to: They want to restrict the franchise to people who think as they do.
Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., a veteran of the civil rights movement, said the measure would "take us back to 1964 or 1965. I just think they (Republicans) want to be in a position to stifle the participation of poor people and minorities in the political process. They want to take us back to another period."
Sony decides that legal use of purchased music is unacceptable if you own an iPod.
At this point I don't think I am going to purchase any more Sony products until they change their policy. I don't have an iPod, but Mrs. David does. Because of Sony's inability to have created a digital audio player (DAP) before Apple, or one as good as Apple, they have decided that their customers who use iPods shouldn't be permitted to listed to their musicians music.
Of course the biggest losers in this are really the artist who creates the music that Sony puts out, but as consumers we lose out as well.
And I was going to purchase a Sony laptop too.
"The keenest sorrow is to recognize ourselves as the sole cause of all our adversities."
--Sophocles
In Doe v. Groody, Alito agued that police officers had not violated constitutional rights when they strip searched a mother and her ten-year-old daughter while carrying out a search warrant that authorized only the search of a man and his home. [Doe v. Groody, 2004]
Bush nominates Alito to Supreme Court.
Early info seems to indicate that Bush has given the far right exactly what they want. We shall see.
"Don't worry about the world coming to an end today. It's already tomorrow in Australia."
--Charles M. Schulz
Republicans know which side the bread is buttered
Here is the dry side of the bread:
The House Agriculture Committee approved budget cuts Friday that would take food stamps away from an estimated 300,000 people and could cut off school lunches and breakfasts for 40,000 children.
The action came as the government reported that the number of people who are hungry because they can't afford to buy enough food rose to 38.2 million in 2004, an increase of 7 million in five years. The number represents nearly 12 percent of U.S. households.
"If there are cuts to be made, why should we make them on food stamps?" said Rep. David Scott, D-Ga. "This is the meanest cut of all."
The cuts, approved by the Republican-controlled committee on a party-line vote, are part of an effort by the House GOP to curb federal spending by $50 billion. The food and agriculture cuts would reduce spending by $3.7 billion, including $844 million on nutrition, $760 million on conservation and $212 million on payments to farmers.
“What was the Republican answer to the hurricanes? More subsidies to the oil industry*,” Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., said in his party’s weekly radio address.
Dingell said Democrats proposed a “tough anti-price-gouging law” and called for more federal money for research and development of renewable fuels and energy efficiency technologies to try to reduce the country’s need for oil.
