has nobody even bothered to ask the most important question about iraq today? or has it been asked, only to get the infamous turn off by changing the subject. i dont know, but it seems to me, someone needs to step up to the plate, and my guess is that's why howard dean was successful at getting the reins of the DNC.

here's a message to mr. dean, as i stomped plenty of pavement in north iowa for you during last winter.... HOLD THIS ADMINISTRATION ACCOUNTABLE. accountable to the American people, not just to the American elite. make this administration make public it's plans regarding iraq. all we hear is what is happening, not why. filled with promise after promise about how great things WILL get. only, nobody seems to care when.

the next time someone bashes seymour hersh over at the new yorker, needs to be bitchslapped with some facts, such as this lil' gem, caught by today's papers over at slate:

Unmanned U.S. planes have been monitoring Iranian airspace in search of nukes, reports the WP. The drones complement satellite recon by sampling the air for traces of nuclear activity. The story elaborates on news broken by Seymour Hersh last month. Iranian civilians first spotted the drones in December but thought they were flying saucers. Though the United States believes that Iran's nuclear energy program is a front for developing nuclear weapons, Condoleezza Rice said that an Iranian invasion is not on the menu "at this time."

at this time?? what the hell are they up to, you might ask. well, just make sure you ask someone with a brain to tell you, like a democrat.

it's par for the course. whenever i pick one letter from the register, there's undoubtedly going to be another that deserves the same attention.

Set my television free, Congress

Way back in the history of broadcasting, Congress guaranteed local TV broadcasters that if they had agreements to carry network programming, no other broadcaster in its reception area could carry that same programming. This World War II-era government-controlled monopoly model persists to this day, and is why fans of "American Idol" are stuck with a basketball game (" 'American Idol' loses to Hawkeye Games," Feb. 9).

Ironically, the technology to overcome this is cheap and seamless: Since TV stations upload their signals via satellites, cable or satellite providers could retransmit those signals to their subscribers, so they could watch "Idol" on, say, Chicago's Fox affiliate, WFLD, instead of the basketball game on Des Moines' Fox affiliate, KDSM.

But providers aren't allowed to do that, thanks to the deceptively named Satellite Home Viewer Improvement Act (SHVIA). Passed in 1999, the law, which ossifies the restrictions imposed by ancient technology, holds viewers hostage to the whims of local broadcasters and their advertisers.

There are no similar federal regulations restricting other forms of consumer choice: If you don't like a car dealership in Des Moines, you are free to shop for that car in the Quad Cities, or in Minnesota, for that matter. Don't like your bank? Open an account with another. But if your local TV station chooses to pre-empt network programming - such as when WOI's owner, Capital Communications, refused to air the "Nightline" segment involving the reading of the Iraq war dead - the viewer has no recourse.

You could argue that "it's only television." But when TV is such a huge part of our culture, and when it is the overwhelming provider of our news and information, should this massest of media really remain a state-controlled franchise? It is past time for Congress to tear down the walls of broadcaster protectionism and allow viewers to make their own choices.

-Ira Lacher,
Des Moines.

http://desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050213/OPINION04/502130321/1035/OPINION

can't get the blogger thing on google's toolbar to work. 'error on page' is all that gets expressed.

Besides, Social Security wasn't intended to make anyone rich. It was created to keep people from being poor.

--ANDIE DOMINICK, DSM Register editorial writer

well, this is my 2nd install of XP on this new 250gig 16mb buffer harddrive. but boy does it sing. and worth every penny of the $140 or so i paid for it at staples.

i jus watched cbsnews doing a piece on the predator, showing released dod video of a predator taking out some roadside bomb or something, and just misses the car going past. what really got my blood flowing from this terrorist activity was the announcer joking about how the driver must have gotten the scare of his life.

have we descended into such horrific animals as to joke about terrorizing another human being?

i'm ashamed to be an American after watching cbsnews tonite. God help us.

and the post sums it up rather tiday:

A Breathtaking Budget (washingtonpost.com): "Either way, the fiscal 2006 budget proposed yesterday by President Bush is breathtaking -- in the first approach as farce, in the second as tragedy. "

slate's TP nails this administration's priorities down pat:

Don't Let me Down, Truce By Eric?Umansky: "Among the programs to face the hypothetical scalpel: The EPA would be cut nearly 6 percent, with the biggest chunk coming from a clean-water fund. A program to help people pay their heating bills would be cut by 8 percent. And that good-for-nuthin' bureaucracy known as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention would be trimmed by about 12 percent.
Of course, not all programs are facing cuts. From the Post: 'Financing for the apprehension of Army deserters would double.' "

kudos to Dr. Bret McFarlin (nice irish name isn't it) for getting Quasar's Quote For The Day:

DesMoinesRegister.com: "Medical care corrupted by market forces and profit motives is what's truly bankrupt."

this letter writer demonstrates the fallen logic used by the reich-wing to denounce gay marriage.

DesMoinesRegister.com: "Rekha Basu thinks the YMCA should be more liberal in its view of 'family' to include gay lovers, but where do we draw the line? Why not also include your live-in boyfriend or girlfriend?"

the "well DUH" quote of the day:

globegazette.com - North Iowa Local News Headlines: "We believe that a project manager is necessary for an effort of this size,' said John Michel, president of the chamber board. 'No private business would launch a $10-$20 million project with only a committee of volunteers ? no matter how well qualified or well intentioned ? to oversee its completion.'"

the park inn is the last of the frank lloyd wright buildings, and has been the subject of quite the infighting among the elite of mason city.

what a shame. shame in that someone had to be on the receiving end of drug's evil grip. one has to wonder tho, in such a family-value-high-moral area of the country, how it could happen that one gets elected as district attorney, TWICE.

Texas prosecutor faces charges - The Washington Times: Nation/Politics - February 07, 2005: " Mr. Roach, a Republican who first won election in 2000 with a strong anti-drug campaign, was arrested in a Gray County courtroom on Jan. 11 as several of his peers looked on in amazement.
After confiscating two handguns from the district attorney's briefcase, FBI agents converged on Mr. Roach's home, his office and an apartment rented by the district attorney's office. According to court documents, officials said they found 35 more guns, along with a cache of cocaine, methamphetamines, marijuana, scales and syringes. "

the smoke and mirrors of this administration's campaign has begun. from the LAT:

"It doesn't quite compute," said Isabel V. Sawhill, director of economic studies at the Brookings Institution think tank, who foresees a shortfall slightly larger in 2009 than now.

It is the 2004 deficit that Bush is promising to cut in half, but he's not starting with the actual 2004 deficit of $412 billion.

Instead, his benchmark is the projected $521-billion deficit that his Office of Management and Budget estimated a year ago, when the fiscal year was four months old. Using half of that figure, Bush's goal is to reach a deficit of $260.5 billion.

If Bush were to start with the actual 2004 figure, his goal would be a deficit of $206 billion — $54.5 billion more.

There are more twists. Bush proposes to cut the deficit in half not in dollars but as a share of the economy. If the economy grows, as is projected, then the deficit will decline as a share of the economy even if it does not shrink by a single dollar.

The 2004 deficit was 4.5% of the economy. So in fiscal 2009 it must be 2.2% or less. That is exactly the average share of the last 43 years, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

Finally, the budget that the president will send to Congress will, like his past budgets, omit some major deficit-raising items.

It will, as Vice President Dick Cheney said on "Fox News Sunday," be "the tightest budget that has been submitted since we got here." It will hold the growth in domestic programs whose spending levels are set in annual appropriations bills to less than inflation.

But these programs, because they exclude defense and giant benefit programs such as Social Security, account for about $1 of every $5 the government spends.

Most of the cost of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars will not be included in the budget. Instead, it will be sent to Congress as a supplemental budget request for 2006, just as the administration recently announced an $80-billion supplemental request for the current fiscal year.

Nor will the cost of introducing private investment accounts to Social Security — $754 billion over the first 10 years alone — be found in the budget, according to administration officials.

That cost will be borrowed, Cheney said, calling the figure a "manageable amount" in terms of dealing with the deficit. He acknowledged that it would also be necessary to borrow "trillions more" after the first decade, but he argued that the private accounts eventually would greatly enhance Social Security recipients' retirement income.

On the tax side, the budget is not expected to show the effect of its proposal to curb the alternative minimum tax, which is likely to win congressional approval.

This tax, designed to hit wealthy individuals who shelter much of their income from taxes, has been snaring a growing number of taxpayers whose income has merely grown with inflation. Preventing the alternative minimum tax's reach from growing would add $44 billion to the deficit that today's budget will project for 2009, the CBO said.

Even if the administration succeeded in getting the actual 2009 deficit to half of its 2004 size, analysts at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities expect it to rocket back upward shortly thereafter. They point out that the first wave of the baby boom generation would reach the full retirement age of 66 in 2012, sending federal retirement and healthcare costs soaring.

"The 2.2% deficits won't be sustainable for long," predicted Richard Kogan, a senior fellow at the center.

The problem, watchdog groups say, is that the government's spending habits and penchant for cutting taxes do not match the administration's budget-restraint rhetoric.

"This administration has a schizophrenic fiscal policy," said Robert L. Bixby, executive director of the Concord Coalition, which lobbies for smaller deficits. "It has a big-government spending policy and a small-government revenue policy."

and speaking of the budget and veterans.... i think i posted a short blurb from this article, but more needs to be noted:

In Michigan, for example, thousands of veterans are on waiting lists for medical services, and some reservists returning from Iraq say they have been unable to obtain the care they were promised. A veterans clinic in Pontiac, Mich., put a limit on new enrollment. Cutbacks at a veterans hospital in Altoona, Pa., are forcing some veterans to seek treatment elsewhere.

But Cynthia R. Church, a spokeswoman for the Department of Veterans Affairs, defended the administration's record. "Our budget increase from 2001 to 2005 for health care alone has been more than 40 percent," Ms. Church said. "President Bush has kept his commitment to veterans."

(snip)

Other budget details came to light over the weekend as well. Sifting through documents, Tobin L. Smith, a policy analyst at the Association of American Universities, which represents 60 large research universities, found a shift in priorities at the Pentagon.

"In the budget request for 2006," Mr. Smith said, "Defense Department spending for science and technology is significantly reduced, while the budget for development, testing and evaluation of major weapons systems increases."

one only has to know that health care costs between 2001 and 2005 have risen dramatically more than 40 percent. but this is how the administration will fool the American people.

and veterans, rightly so, get their own space in the WP. give a whole new meaning to supporting our troops.

The New York Times > Washington > Bush Budget Raises Drug Prices for Many Veterans: "President Bush's budget would more than double the co-payment charged to many veterans for prescription drugs and would require some to pay a new fee of $250 a year for the privilege of using government health care, administration officials said Sunday."

yes, it's still early yet, but we'll have to watch and see just how they fare up in the end with what they're saying now.

$2.5 Trillion Budget Plan Cuts Many Programs (washingtonpost.com): "On the domestic side, according to documents, the budget would consolidate 18 community development block grant programs into one Commerce Department program for a savings of $1.8 billion. It would slice law enforcement grants to states from $2.8 billion to $1.5 billion. And it would cut 48 education programs totaling $4.3 billion, including $2.2 billion for high school programs, mostly state grants for vocational education.

The budget would cut $440 million in Safe and Drug-Free School grants, $500 million in education technology state grants, $225 million for the Even Start literacy program, $280 million for Upward Bound programs for inner-city youths and a $150 million talent research program, according to the documents.

The budget includes no subsidy for Amtrak and would eliminate $20 million for the next generation of high-speed rail and $250 million for railroad rehabilitation. Several Energy Department programs would be eliminated, as would $100 million in grants for land and water conservation. The budget proposal would cut $94 million in grants for the Healthy Communities Access Program and phase out rural health grants, the documents said. Bush touted his commitment to such programs during his reelection campaign. The president would terminate the Community Food and Nutrition Program, and cut a migrant and seasonal farm worker training program. He would renew his effort to cut a $143 million program for the removal of severely distressed housing. "

bush's budget: it's like when someone spends all his money on clothes, then bitches about not having enough for food. only in this case, he eats out all the time with his poker buddies and leaves the wife & kids at home with bare cupboards. and why nobody is brave enough to make the comparison, isn't really hard to understand. they're all afraid of losing whatever was promised them if they drank the kool-aid.

an interesting factoid:

DesMoinesRegister.com: "Nearly half of all bankruptcy filings each year are a result of medical debt and illness. And about 70 percent of those who declared bankruptcy due to medical reasons had health insurance, a new Harvard University study has found. Those involved averaged $13,460 in out-of-pocket expenses."

it's not often i paste a entire editorial, but this one deserves shouting from the rooftops:

DesMoinesRegister.com: "One of the propaganda techniques intended to undermine public confidence in Social Security is to describe the Social Security trust funds as 'nothing but a bunch of IOUs.'

Well, duh. Name an investment that isn't 'just an IOU.'

Social Security currently collects more in payroll taxes than it pays out in benefits. As a result, a surplus of more than $1.4 trillion has accumulated. This surplus is invested in special U.S. treasury bonds and earns annual interest. According to AARP, Social Security earned $80 billion in interest from this invested surplus last year.
Those treasury bonds are what the Social Security detractors characterize as 'nothing but IOUs' - the implication being that the government won't make good on the bonds when the time comes to cash them in.

What nonsense. In more than 200 years, the U.S. government has never defaulted on its bonds. They're the safest investment in the world. If things ever get so bad that the United States even contemplates defaulting on its debt, the country will have a lot bigger worries than the health of Social Security.

Consider the alternatives. Retirement funds could be deposited in a bank, but certificates of deposit are 'nothing but IOUs' from the bank. They could be invested in corporate bonds, but those are 'nothing but IOUs' from the corporations.

They could be invested in the stock market, the preferred alternative of the Social Security detractors. But stocks don't even rise to the level of an IOU. A company's stock comes with no promises whatsoever. There is only the hope that the company will keep paying dividends and the stock will appreciate in value.

Those who want to privatize Social Security have a right to argue that investing in stocks would be better than the existing system. But they should do it without implying that U.S. treasury bonds are somehow unsafe. In effect, they're saying that the full faith and credit of the United States of America is no good, and that's just plain nutso."

if it can happen in iowa, then it can happen anywhere.

DesMoinesRegister.com: "Maybe that's what happened in the 1990s, when the Legislature slashed the state income tax amid rosy assurances that lower taxes on upper-income people would cause the Iowa economy to explode in growth. It didn't happen.

There were promises that the tax cuts would create tens of thousands of new jobs in Iowa and the cuts would pay for themselves by generating more state revenue. What followed was a loss of jobs and the state's worst fiscal crisis since the Depression.
Measured against the promises, the tax cuts of the '90s have to be one of the state's biggest policy flops of all time.

There is a contrary example from a couple of decades earlier. In the 1970s, the state income tax was increased to finance the newly devised school-aid formula. What followed was one of Iowa's most prosperous decades of modern times."

what a great line!

globegazette.com - North Iowa Opinion Stories: "Instead of citizens paying the EPA to do its job, big agribusiness is now paying the EPA not to do it.

--Chris Petersen, Clear Lake"

i know this guy. he's a down-to-earth man who supported howard dean last year.

YOU GO CHRIS!!

one just HAS to ask: where are these 690,000 men & women now?

VOA News - New South Korean Defense Paper Softens Description of North: "The document, released Friday, drops 10-year-old references to North Korea as the 'main enemy' of South Korea, instead describing the Communist state as a 'direct military threat.' The revisions to the White Paper, the first in four years, reflect South Korea's policy of seeking to engage the North peacefully.
At the same time, the document says the United States would commit 690,000 military personnel, supported by about 2,000 war planes should North Korea attack.
The paper says that commitment would require 70 percent of all U.S. Marines, half of the U.S. Air Force, and 40 percent of the U.S. Navy, plus thousands of Army troops, to defend South Korea."

HIP HIP HOOORAY!! HIP HIP HOOORAY!!! i can't begin to express how happy this makes me feel.

The New York Times > New York Region > Judge's Ruling Opens Window for Gay Marriage in New York City: "New York State judge in Manhattan ruled yesterday that a state law that effectively denied gay couples the right to marry violated the state Constitution, a decision that raised the possibility that the city would begin issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples as soon as next month. "

what makes signs of intelligent life on earth? letters like this:

DesMoinesRegister.com: "Regarding the debate over the 'Buster' cartoon: I do not know which is a greater mental-health concern: those who pursue an interest in pornography or those obsessed with looking for sexual symbolism and lifestyle agendas in any type of children's media.

Pornography is demeaning, destructive and dangerous. However, looking for sexual or lifestyle messages in animation - live-action or pop culture created for and directed at children - is not any healthier and could become an obsession. A person must consciously think about either subject.

Had it not been suggested, neither my children nor I ever thought Bert and Ernie, Tinkie-Winkie, SpongeBob or Buster were promoting hidden messages. Watch more than just one single episode of 'Postcards From Buster' and you will learn more about America and cultural diversity than from any formal classroom setting.

Fearing fictional characters have a permanent, negative psychological influence is ridiculous and insulting to children. For those of us over 40, did Bugs Bunny dressing in drag titillate us? Was Pepe Le Pew's behavior sexual harassment? Were we seduced into blowing up our friends when we watched Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote? Did Donald Duck have a secret message by wearing a shirt but not pants?

Please stop throwing dirt on innocent childhood characters.

-Steven C. Woolery,
Pella."

DesMoinesRegister.com: "As many letter writers have pointed out, the Iowa Code protects medical practitioners from frivolous lawsuits. As the Register points out, malpractice premiums are a small percentage of medical overhead.

Moreover, insurance companies have not reduced premiums where caps have been established by legislation.

It is revealing that John Abramson, M.D., writes in his book, 'Overdosed America, The Broken Promise of American Medicine,' that a 2002 article in the Journal of the American Medical Association reported, '59 percent of the experts who write the clinical guidelines that define good medical care (the standard to which doctors are often held in malpractice suits) have direct financial ties to the companies whose products are being evaluated.'

It seems the cards are already stacked in favor of the medical professionals who are vociferously seeking tort reform to further isolate responsibility and accountability.

-Steven R. Hull,
Clive."

what a zinger. in a story about the iowa supremes making it clear that open records is vital to a democracy.

DesMoinesRegister.com: "It would be wrong for public foundations to become secret hiding places for public money and private influence."

one thing nobody seems to be asking is 'if the private accounts for the new social security were so good, then why aren't people making those investments already?' and asking 'who's benefiting most from this plan?' and ... well, i'll think of more as we proceed into this blackhole.

this should prove interesting...

U.S. 'in for a shock' / In early election results, Shiite cleric's alliance trouncing Washington's favorite: "'Americans are in for a shock,' he said, adding that one day they would realize, 'We've got 150,000 troops here protecting a country that's extremely friendly to Iran, and training their troops.'
The partial totals so far show the Iraqi List headed by Allawi, a secular Shiite and onetime CIA protege, trailed far behind with only 18 percent of the votes, despite an aggressive television ad campaign waged with U.S. aid. A lopsided majority of votes, 72 percent, went to the United Iraqi Alliance list, topped by a Shiite cleric who lived in Iran for many years and whose Sciri party has close ties to Iran's clerical regime. More than a third of the alliance's vote came from Baghdad, the cosmopolitan capital where Allawi had been expected to fare well. "

this should prove interesting...

U.S. 'in for a shock' / In early election results, Shiite cleric's alliance trouncing Washington's favorite: "'Americans are in for a shock,' he said, adding that one day they would realize, 'We've got 150,000 troops here protecting a country that's extremely friendly to Iran, and training their troops.'
The partial totals so far show the Iraqi List headed by Allawi, a secular Shiite and onetime CIA protege, trailed far behind with only 18 percent of the votes, despite an aggressive television ad campaign waged with U.S. aid. A lopsided majority of votes, 72 percent, went to the United Iraqi Alliance list, topped by a Shiite cleric who lived in Iran for many years and whose Sciri party has close ties to Iran's clerical regime. More than a third of the alliance's vote came from Baghdad, the cosmopolitan capital where Allawi had been expected to fare well. "

didn't dicky blurt out factcheck during his debate with edwards? like factcheck was always going to back his ass up or something? oh yeah, he said factcheck.COM. haha, oh the irony.

FactCheck.org Bush's State of the Union: Social Security "Bankruptcy?": "In his State of the Union Address, President Bush said again that the Social Security system is headed for 'bankruptcy,' a term that could give the wrong idea. Actually, even if it goes 'bankrupt' a few decades from now, the system would still be able to pay about three-quarters of the benefits now promised.
Bush also made his proposed private Social Security accounts sound like a sure thing, which they are not. He said they 'will' grow fast enough to provide a better return than the present system. History suggests that will be so, but nobody can predict what stock and bond markets will do in the future.
Bush left out any mention of what workers would have to give up to get those private acounts -- a proportional reduction or offset in guaranteed Social Security retirement benefits. He also glossed over the fact that money in private accounts would be 'owned' by workers only in a very limited sense -- under strict conditions which the President referred to as 'guidelines.' Many retirees, and possibly the vast majority, wouldn't be able to touch their Social Security nest egg directly, even after retirement, because the government would take some or all of it back and convert it to a stream of payments guaranteed for life."

new bed finally got here. DAMMM this thing is big. anyway, i've got one for the anti-corp folx out there: why do you think they put "please check here if you do not wish to be offered other opportunities" in 2pt type at the very bottom of the questionnaire. it was rhetorical.

so this administration wants to turn the clock back a few decades eh?

globegazette.com - North Iowa Local News Headlines: "'In the 1950s, rock 'n' roll had a tradition of driving old folks up the wall' --John Cunningham"

globegazette.com - North Iowa Local News Headlines: "Alexander Technologies is taking its manufacturing operation to Malaysia.

Need for increased profit margin and the weakening of the dollar are major factors in the decision to off-shore manufacturing, Jay Miller, senior vice president of marketing and engineering, said Tuesday.

(wait now, it gets good)

Alexander Technologies is coming off its most profitable year, with sales continuing to rise, according to Tania Cooper, vice president of operations and finance."

from the des moines register:

A homecoming event is planned for 5:30 p.m. today at Camp Dodge for 15 members of the Iowa National Guard's 767th Firefighting Team that is returning from 12 months of duty in Iraq. They will be accompanied by 45 soldiers from the Guard's 1088th Personnel Services Detachment which has spent the past year in Kuwait, processing American soldiers headed into and out of Iraq.

...

The troops returned to the United States several days ago from the Persian Gulf and have been undergoing processing at Fort McCoy, Wis., to be released from active duty. The homecoming celebration is at the Iowa National Guard's headquarters facility at Camp Dodge.

released from active duty huh. pray tell, exactly what does that mean when our president is none other than george walker bush. this is one of those things that make you think one thing, and it's really something else.

and speaking of smart iowans..... the rev is surely the faucet of God's voice.

DesMoinesRegister.com: "The search for Iraqi WMD is over. None is likely to be found. This is the White House report. Will an apology be forthcoming? Will the White House admit questionable sources and hasty decisions were used to justify the rush to war?

If the White House were CBS, the chief spokesperson would resign and many top subordinates would be fired. Who will apologize to the kin of fallen soldiers and the countless Iraqi dead? Impeachable acts have been committed.

When will someone in Congress have the courage to call for the president to answer for this illegal Bush war? When will Americans see how much they have been deceived?
-The Rev. Oren A. Peterson,
Des Moines."

too bad everybody in iowa wasn't this smart.

DesMoinesRegister.com: "Now that his old excuses for military aggression - such as WMDs in Iraq - have been discredited, President Bush trumpets 'spreading freedom' as his goal. Substitute fascism for freedom, and you have his true goal.
-Jay Miller,
Hills."

the pushing is getting a bit more ... er, um, more.... republicon than normal. and that should be enough to scare the hell outta anybody.

Israel, United States say Iran an imminent threat: "Israel's Knesset and the U.S. Congress have begun a joint effort to convince European Union parliamentarians that Iran's nuclear weapons program is an imminent threat, the Middle East Newsline reported Saturday. The Knesset and Congress plan to send representatives to meetings in Brussels with EU parliamentarians on defense and security committees.

The program began in the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee. Members of the committee have discussed the effort with leading members of Congress, and Sen. Jon Kyle, a Republican from Nevada, has been appointed to lead the Congress-Knesset panel.

Kyle has said the EU is necessary for any diplomatic offensive to stop Iran's weapons program. "

everybody's ranting and raving about how the iraqs "for the first time in 50 years' got to vote. that's a lie. saddam had elections, and in fact, garnered some 90% of the vote the last time, which was only a few years ago.

so this whole bruhaha about the novelty of iraqis 'finally' being able to vote, is preposterous. and very republicon.

they're already lying. 30,000 polling observers all over iraq??? everything's going better than expected, iraqis are now voting for the very first time (actually, it's been only 50 years). but we know baghdad bob is back, and he's put a new suit on.

i cant stop laughing at the hypocrisy of these pissants.

U.S. Newswire : Releases : "Gannongate: Media Matters for America Uncovers White...": "WASHINGTON, Jan. 27 /U.S. Newswire/ -- Talon News Washington bureau chief and White House correspondent Jeff Gannon, who accused his colleagues in the press corps of 'work(ing) off of the talking points' provided by Democrats, has used Bush administration and Republican National Committee (RNC) documents and releases in his Talon 'news reports' verbatim and without attribution. In at least two of his articles, Gannon lifted more than half of the text directly from GOP 'fact sheets.' Moreover, as Media Matters for America has pointed out, conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh proclaimed that Gannon repeated a fabricated assertion of Limbaugh's in asking a question at President Bush's January 26 press conference."

mr. strentz, you win today's cigar!

DesMoinesRegister.com: "All those approaches make as much sense as what Anderson is proposing - a selfish and self-serving way of avoiding our mutual responsibilities and mutual risks in a participatory democracy.

-Herb Strentz,
Urbandale."

bush to oil buddies: g'head, be my guest. i didnt ever like those rocky moutain oysters anyway.

It's Not All Blue Skies for Drilling Project: "The federal Bureau of Land Management, under pressure from the White House to fast-track energy production, approved the drilling plan two years ago without incorporating any requirements to reduce the resulting air pollution.

Government scientists expect that the drilling expansion, combined with a planned increase in coal mining and oil drilling in the northern Great Plains, will nearly double smog-forming emissions and greatly increase particulate matter pollution in a thinly populated region that has produced less than 3% of the amount of unhealthful air found in Los Angeles."

torture-gate?

Daily Kos :: Homeland Nominee Chertoff on Torture: Many Questions: "Michael Chertoff, who has been picked by President Bush to be the homeland security secretary, advised the Central Intelligence Agency on the legality of coercive interrogation methods on terror suspects under the federal anti-torture statute, current and former administration officials said this week.
Depending on the circumstances, he told the intelligence agency, some coercive methods could be legal, but he advised against others, the officials said.

Mr. Chertoff's previously undisclosed involvement in evaluating how far interrogators could go took place in 2002 and 2003 when he headed the Justice Department's criminal division. The advice came in the form of responses to agency inquiries asking whether C.I.A. employees risked being charged with crimes if particular interrogation techniques were used on specific detainees.
This is important on a number of levels. While Homeland Security has no charge regarding foreign terrorist activity - can Homeland Security 'render' terrorism suspects to the CIA? This is important because Alberto Gonzales has stated that the CIA is not bound by the prohibitions of the UN Convention on Torture. Can Homeland Security 'render' to the CIA for 'interrogation'? Many questions must be asked of and answered by Chertoff.

Here's a particular question: is the following true:

In responding, Mr. Chertoff's division said that whether the techniques were impermissible depended on the standards outlined in an August 2002 memorandum from the Office of Legal Counsel that has since been disclosed and which defined torture narrowly. That memorandum, signed by Jay S. Bybee, then the head of the legal counsel's office, said that inflicted pain, for example, qualified as torture only if it was of a level equivalent to organ failure or imminent death.

Cuz if it is, we got a problem. "

has any of the MSM types thought about asking georgie about who he hopes to win the election (if you can really call it that)? isn't it amazing that he isn't favoring anybody?

headline #5... Mother Nature Bitchslaps Human Nature:

News: "Global warming is 'twice as bad as previously thought'"

headline #5.... coalition meltdown:

FT.com / News in depth / Iraq - Coalition pull-out from Iraq gathers pace: "Several allied countries, many of them eastern European, that were part of the original 'New Europe' group backing the Iraqi war have said they will either completely withdraw or substantially reduce their forces in Iraq after the January 30 elections. "

headline #4.... that health savings accounts that we're no longer allowed to use the word private... is just another one of the things that republicans are posterboys for the ones that "just don't get it."

Yahoo! News - Health Savings Accounts Hurt Poor, Care - Report: "CHICAGO (Reuters) - Health plans with high patient-paid deductibles, embraced by many Republicans as a market-based solution to quell soaring medical-care costs, lead to poorer quality care and increasing patient debt, a study released on Thursday said.

With the new plans, individuals typically pay the first $1000, or $2000 for families, spent on medical care each year. The plans are coupled with so-called health savings accounts, or HSAs, which allow patients to set aside tax-free funds to defray health expenses.

But a survey of data from 4,000 adults with health insurance found that about half of patients with a high-deductible plan racked up medical debt and were faced with other billing woes, compared with 31 percent of those with more traditional health plans, according to the research group Commonwealth Fund, which studies health policy issues. "

headline #3.... propaganda-gate update

Third Columnist Implicated with Payola Charges: "NEW YORK Michael McManus, whose syndicated column, 'Ethics & Religion,' appears in 50 newspapers, was hired as a subcontractor by the Department of Health and Human Services to promote an administration marriage initiative, according to an article posted yesterday by Salon.com, the online magazine.

Senior writer Eric Boehlert wrote that Salon had confirmed that McManus ?championed the plan in his columns without disclosing to readers he was being paid to help it succeed.? "

headline #2.... not much better, but it still explains how America is no longer the solution, it's the problem.

News: "How sectarian is the resistance? The Salafi or militant fundamentalist Sunni wing of the insurgency has repeatedly targeted Shia with suicide bombs in Baghdad, Najaf and Kerbala, causing horrendous casualties. These attacks ensured that the uprising remains confined to the Sunni Arabs.
Since early 2004 the US has promoted Abu Musab al-Zarqawi as the man behind the uprising. This probably began as a propaganda ploy but Zarqawi revelled in the publicity and American denunciations meant local groups began to call themselves al-Qa'ida.
At any rate, the invasion - and the lack of planning - has created the very conditions the US cited as reason for going to war. Trouble was, they never existed then."

it's headline time... first up

No U.S. accountability in propaganda scandals: "No U.S. accountability in propaganda scandals "