saddam would be proud of you georgie

More than 90 per cent of Iraqis believe the country is worse off now than before the war in 2003, according to new research obtained by Al Jazeera.

--story

the lied

and thousands died

today's independent

and read what the AFP has to say about it

why i'm against the death penalty

In Florida: After it took "34 minutes and a second injection" to kill a death row inmate on Wednesday, Gov. Bush ordered a medical inquiry into the incident, which eventually found that the first needle had passed through the prisoner's veins and deposited the poison in his arm tissue, causing a visible amount of pain and requiring the second dose. When this information was released, Bush halted the executions and appointed a commission to review injection procedures in the state. But Florida doesn't seem to be have much luck with capital punishment: It apparently switched to lethal injection in 2000 "after flames shot from an inmate's head during his execution by electric chair."

did you know that you can't raise a family on $165,000 a year?

"If you become a federal judge in the Southern District of New York (Manhattan), you can't raise a family on what the salary is," Scalia said during a speech to the Northern Virginia Technology Council.

Federal judges earned salaries of $165,200 in 2006. Scalia said lawyers can easily earn significantly more by staying in the private sector.
--story

FUCK YOU SCALIA

i have a feeling that the democratic house members

aren't going to be doing the job they could be doing. if pelosi doesn't wise up and appoint KNOWLEGEABLE members to head committees, then she stands to be ridiculed for her wasting our time. from today's papers:

The WP carries a wire story that reports the incoming Democratic chairman of the House intelligence committee, Rep. Silvestre Reyes, pretty much failed a pop quiz he got from a Congressional Quarterly reporter. Worst part is, the questions weren't even that difficult. When asked whether al-Qaeda is Sunni or Shiite, Reyes answered, "Predominantly – probably Shiite." When he was asked to describe Hezbollah, he didn't even give an answer and merely said, "Hezbolllah. Uh, Hezbollah … why do you ask me these questions at 5 o'clock?" Reyes' office issued a statement yesterday: "As a member of the intelligence committee since before 9/11, I'm acutely aware of al-Qaeda's desire to harm Americans." Well, guess that covers it then.