it's my adoption anniversary. 47 years ago.

my, how time flies when yer havin fun.

divide and conquer... if dean is really a leader, he would take advantage of this.

NEW YORK -- Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.), a man known for frank talk, offered a blunt description of the state of his party, which broke camp here Friday after nominating President Bush for a second term. "The Republican Party," he said, "has come loose of its moorings."

WaPo

60 minutes tonite - teen parties in KS

cbs 60 minutes... on the teen drinking and parents.  the hypocritical producers are highlighted, somewhat.

 

oh this prosecutor is comparing it with sex.

 

he asked if its ok to have kids consume

that we're saying, we give up.

 

that's probably right.

but i dunno. i support the parent supervision.

let those kids get the consequence of drinking while they're under their parents eye.

 

what better lesson can there be.

clipped segment from slate's Today's Papers

something lost amongst the republicons who are whining that they don't have it all...

Ninety-four of the 162 active judges now on the U.S. Court of Appeals were chosen by Republican presidents. On 10 of the 13 circuit courts, Republican appointees have a clear majority. And, since 1976, at least seven of the nine seats on the U.S. Supreme Court have been filled by Republican appointees.

the LAT

to hell with you CBS

watching face the nation, bob schieffer is letting this bitch from the chicago tribune, explain the filibuster, and why democrats are using it.

 

the bitch is lying, and putting forth the 'we're the victims' argument that republicons are using because only 90% of the judges have been approved.

 

FUCK YOU CBS, AND FUCK YOU BOB SCHIEFFER.

Quote of the Day

this is no doubt a bush sympathizer, who listens to rush limpball and ann(thrax) coulter too much.

"The concept of three branches of government is based on the relationship between a little boy and his mother and his father, not a three-legged milk stool."

--David Rader, Urbandale.

attribution

Letter Of The Day

today's winner comes from the local paper:

On the day of this writing, the number of American dead in this administration's war has reached 1,724. With grief and anger, I implore the reader to reflect on this question: For what are they dying?

Throughout history, wars have been fought for conquest and profit. The feudal lords in the Middle Ages did not themselves participate in war any more than presidents and dictators do now.

Presidents and dictators declare the wars, and their citizens are told it is their patriotic duty to go to war and kill others sent by their rulers to do the same. It has always been this way.

The rulers declare the wars; their subjects fight them. The rulers have all to gain and nothing to lose; the people have nothing to gain and everything to lose — especially their lives.

I find cruel irony in the fact that the most bellicose members of this administration never served their country in wartime. In all of history, no war has ever been declared by the people. I long for the day when a president or dictator calls for war — and no people show up for it.

By HAROLD W. HOPP, Mason City

all i can say is .... about friggin time.

it took this long, not using a 'new process' but using an old method, only in a new way.

For more than a century, it has caused excitement and frustration in equal measure - a collection of Greek and Roman writings so vast it could redraw the map of classical civilisation. If only it was legible. Now, in a breakthrough described as the classical equivalent of finding the holy grail, Oxford University scientists have employed infra-red technology to open up the
hoard, known as the Oxyrhynchus Papyri, and with it the prospect that hundreds of lost Greek comedies, tragedies and epic poems will soon be revealed.

In the past four days alone, Oxford's classicists have used it to make a series of astonishing discoveries, including writing by Sophocles, Euripides, Hesiod and other literary giants of the ancient world, lost for millennia. They even believe they are likely to find lost Christian gospels, the originals of which were written around the time of the earliest books of the New Testament.

The original papyrus documents, discovered in an ancient rubbish dump in central Egypt, are often meaningless to the naked eye - decayed, worm-eaten and blackened by the passage of time. But scientists using the new photographic technique, developed from satellite imaging, are bringing the original writing back into view. Academics have hailed it as a development which could lead to a 20 per cent increase in the number of great Greek and Roman works in existence.
Some are even predicting a "second Renaissance".

Christopher Pelling, Regius Professor of Greek at the University of Oxford, described the new works as "central texts which scholars have been speculating about for centuries".

from the independent

Last Wednesday, John posted a link to the story about, Eric Berndt, a student at NYU Law School asking Antonin Scalia if he ever sodomized his wife. Thanks to Impeach Bush for pointing us to the student's response to his critics which was posted by Wonkette.Any doubts about whether Scalia should be asked this question will be assuaged by reading his hateful, homophobic dissent in Lawrence v. Texas. And realize that under the theocracy, everyone will be asked these questions, because sodomy is going to be illegal for everyone, not just the homos.

from americablog

the "well DUH" post of the day

WASHINGTON - A top Democratic senator on Friday released formerly classified documents that he said undercut top US officials’ pre-Iraq war claims of a link between Saddam Hussein’s regime and the Al Qaeda terror network.

“These documents are additional compelling evidence that the Intelligence Community did not believe there was a cooperative relationship between Iraq and Al Qaeda, despite public comments by the highest ranking officials in our government to the contrary,” said Senator Carl Levin.

The declassified documents undermine President George W. Bush’s administration claims regarding Iraq’s involvement in training Al Qaeda operatives and the likelihood of a meeting between September 11, 2001, hijacker Mohammed Atta and an Iraqi intelligence officer in Prague in April 2001, Levin said in a statement.

In October 2002 Bush said: “We’ve learned that Iraq has trained Al Qaeda members in bomb-making and poisons and deadly gasses.”

But a June 2002 CIA report, titled “Iraq and Al Qaeda: Interpreting a Murky Relationship,” said “the level and extent of this is assistance is not clear.

http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticle.asp?xfile=data/theworld/2005/April/theworld_April357.xml&section=theworld

 

for a good timeline of our involvement in iraq:

 

http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/2003-Invasion-of-Iraq

 

 

is water wet?

 First Senator Boxer, now State Attorney General Bill Lockyer is asking for transcripts of what an oil refinery executive said about limiting supply - comments made in front of our cameras, by one of the country's biggest independent refiners. ABC7's Mark Matthews reports.

 

Bill Lockyer saw our story and now wants a transcript of what oil refinery president Hank Kuchta said to fellow refiners at last month's conference. What that refiner said conflicts with oil company explanations of high prices based on supply and demand.

 

The oil companies tell us high prices are the natural result of demand outstripping supply. This is how President George Bush described it today to a group of newspaper editors.

 

President George W. Bush: "You see, the problem is the supplies are out of balance with demand."

 

Sounds simple enough. But listen to what the president of Premcor refining told a gathering of refiners here in San Francisco.

 

Hank Kuchta, President & COO of Premcor (3/10/05): "If we go in and we start expanding like crazy before the demand gets there, that's the shoot yourself in the foot theory, and we'd all be the opposite of geniuses, you pick the word. They'd kill us, believe me."

 

Hank Kuchta is president of Premcor, an independent oil refiner with the capability of processing nearly 800,000 barrels a day. But Kuchta told his fellow refiners his company doesn't want to produce as much gasoline as it can because that might flood the market and drive down prices.

 

Here's how Kuchta said his company would handle that.

 

Kuchta (3/10/05): "We are going to make sure that we meet the demand that exists and not some theoretical demand."

 

It's a statement that caught the attention of California's attorney general.

 

Bill Lockyer, (D) California Attorney General: "This is the first time that a high executive was recommending, and no one disagreed, that they restrict supply."

 

The attorney general indicates he doesn't see clear evidence of a crime, but he wants to investigate.

 

Yesterday, California Senator Barbara Boxer called the Federal Trade Commission to investigate Premcor.

 

So far, the company won't admit that a copy of the speech even exists.

 

Mark Matthews: "What did Premcor tell you when you called and asked for a opy of the speech?"

 

Lockyer: "Well they told us they'd get back to us."

 

Premcor told us the same thing. We are still waiting for their response. As we reported yesterday, Senator Boxer is asking for the Federal Trade Commission to investigate, and today the FTC called our general manager here at ABC7 to make sure that we preserve our tapes.

ABC

Letter Of The Day

today's winner, again from the des moines register, hits the nail on the head:

 

As an unemployed victim advocate, I understand and sympathize with those non-profit projects that will either be eliminated or merged in Iowa because of state and federal budget cuts. ("Shelter Closings Limit Victims' Options," April 11.)

Once again, rural areas and those of us who live "out here" witness the importance of social issues that is reflected by our legislators and congressmen who voted for these cuts.

How high does a victim have to jump? The "hoops" get smaller and the "fences" get higher for those who struggle on a daily basis with issues of domestic violence. Now we want to make it tougher for those adults and children who are seeking any kind of assistance to protect themselves from violent perpetrators.

These shelters and projects not only provide a safe haven for victims of violence, but advocates also help and empower victims to find employment, housing, legal and medical assistance, education and, most important, self-worth.

Eliminating and merging projects and shelters also reduces the capability of receiving these necessary services in the rural areas because of lack of transportation. Many victims cannot travel the extra miles because they do not have adequate means of getting to shelter. The barrier of adequate transportation for a victim seeking assistance is of considerable importance and is often the decisive component of leaving or staying. And yet we keep asking the same old question, "Why doesn't she just leave?"

How about this for the same old question: "Why do our state and local governments pump billions of dollars into reconstructing other countries and establishing a mega-million dollar rain forest in Iowa when women and children here in Iowa and the rest of the United States suffer?
-Sandra Altman,
Coon Rapids,
former victim-services
coordinator, Partnership for
Violence Free Living.

and speaking of bills

the bankruptcy bill, in my view, shares the same undemocratic flaws as the energy bill. both show that this congress is more concerned about lining their pockets than any congress before it.

and i guess i'm not alone:

The bill, in our view, is flawed, although it is not nearly as dangerous as its critics maintain. But even its staunchest proponents should be embarrassed that it was muscled through the House in this kind of Potemkin-democracy way. This process—or, more precisely, lack of process—is becoming routine.

it's not often TP makes direct comment on the stories they report on, but this takes the cake for being so right on target, it destroys all the rings around it.

correction: my bad, TP was referring to the WaPo in its editorial about the bill. TP didn't comment, and FOP regrets the error.

th doctor of doom

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) said the "style, tone" and speed with which the Republican-controlled Congress passed the bankruptcy legislation will be a hallmark of legislation in the months ahead.

 

wow, doesn't that statement show just how salivory these idiots are at the prospect of maintaining power until doomsday?

to the producers of Saturday Night Live

let me give you a suggestion for a skit:

 

george bush as a boy, who never go invited to the childhood parties & events, growing up vowing to revenge those snubs.

 

i'd give my left nut to see that on the SNL stage.

Letter Of The Day

I agree with the Rev. Denny Coon's April 4 letter regarding misguided priorities with Polk County's decision to spend $70 million for a new jail while government at all levels cuts back on programs that could reduce prison populations ("No Need for Larger Jails If We Have Better Treatment Programs"). Actually prison building in Iowa has been a growth industry (a good thing?) during the past decade. What is wrong with this picture?

Building prisons to solve social problems is like creating cemeteries to solve medical problems.
-Mark Kerper,
Ames.

attribution

the funniest thing i've heard today

He (agri-corp lackey) suggested that the complainers (or hog confinement odor) are people who move into an area where there's already a confinement and then complain.

attribution

got movie?

chalk it up to the globe to fuck it up yet again.

 

try and find a movie on their website.

they point to a page that has a listing, but NO TELEPHONE NUMBERS TO CALL.

 

 

hackers are the new "terrorists"

even though i couldn't hack my way out of a simple batch script, i did hang out with only new york's finest and brightest.  but what they did here, was wrong wrong and just plain wrong.

 

from the WaPo:

Information broker LexisNexis Group said yesterday that the security breaches it announced last month could affect roughly 310,000 consumers -- about 10 times as many as first thought -- leading several legislators to describe the ongoing bleeding of sensitive personal data as out of control.

Millions of consumers have been exposed to potential identity theft in 14 major breaches in the past year at various brokers, universities, banks and other institutions.

and from slate:

USAT fronts info-broker Lexis-Nexis' announcement that hackers had access to data on 300,000 people, 10 times what the company had said before. The info included names, Social Security digits, and drivers-license numbers. The company said the lucky individuals affected will be offered free credit reports for a year.

well, that sure takes the sting of having our confidential personal information in the hands of criminals.  they lied.  and nobody gives a shit.

 

that's what makes me sad, mad and just plain irritated.

imagine if a terrorist intercepted one of those shipments?

i hate it when newspaper reporter leave me hanging with a ton of questions.  like just how is it that we can have these types of mistakes in the first place.  at the end of the piece, they had a chance to answer that, but this reporter didn't seem fit enough to question any other meridien employee.

 

A dangerous strain of the flu virus that caused a worldwide pandemic in 1957 was sent to thousands of laboratories in the United States and around the world, triggering a frantic effort to destroy the samples to prevent an outbreak, health officials revealed yesterday.

 

then some 10 paragraphs later:

 

The problem arose when a private company, Meridian Bioscience Inc. of Cincinnati, sent a panel of virus samples to about 3,700 laboratories, some in doctors' offices, to be tested as part of routine quality-control certification conducted by the College of American Pathologists. An additional 2,750 laboratories, all in the United States, received the samples as part of other certification processes and were asked to destroy them, CDC spokesman Dan Rutz said.

...

 

The mistake came to light March 25 when the National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg, Manitoba, identified the virus. "They were doing this routine testing and identified this virus and said, 'This shouldn't be here,' " Rutz said. Canadian officials notified WHO and the CDC on Friday.
..
Robert G. Webster, a flu expert at St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, called the incident "a terrible, terrible mistake."

 

"I have been telling WHO for a number of years that this is a dangerous virus that is still out there in more labs than they know," he said. "This may alert WHO and Homeland Security and whoever wants to know that each and every H2N2 sample from 1957 needs to be rounded up and locked down."

 

"For reasons I don't understand and Meridian doesn't understand, the documentation they had was incorrect," he said, adding that the source of the mislabeling was unclear.

 

Schwartz said a mechanism is being established to require anyone shipping pathogens to notify the CDC about what strains of virus are involved.

 

"is" being established?  why isn't it already established???

 

William J. Motto, chairman and chief executive of Meridian Bioscience, said he had no comment last night.

well, DUH.  what's he gonna say?
our company is unprofessional?

 

Letter Of The Day

and speaking of letters, our winner today for the Letter of the Day:

President Bush must be living in a fantasy world. He claimed in Cedar Rapids on March 30 that his call for changing Social Security is gaining ground ("In Iowa, President Touts Plan for Social Security," March 31).

Several public-opinion polls prove him wrong, and U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley said the public is "not closer in buying into personal accounts."

Grassley knows voters will reward, not punish, any politician who works to shore up Social Security rather than establish personal accounts that will only siphon money away from the program.
-David Leonard,
Adel.

 

speaking of poopyheads and boltons

from the new york times, and it's in the form of an editorial (caught by my great friends at today's papers):

Mr. Bolton wanted to give a speech saying that "the United States believes that Cuba has a developmental offensive biological warfare program and is providing assistance to other rogue state programs." That sounds scary but it was not true. Cuba was not doing those things and U.S. intelligence agencies did not think it was. But according to numerous accounts, Mr. Bolton became enraged when an analyst from the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research pointed out the error, and he tried to have the analyst removed from his post.

 

Site of the Day

what a GREAT GREAT site!

 

the institute on money in state politics has a website that'll make even the sqeamish republicans sit back and enjoy.

democrat or republican?

today's letter comes to us from the DSM register.  can you guess what party the writer is?

i say he's republicon.  it may not be 'racism' in its definitive form, but it's something equally as disturbing.

Regarding Susan J. Aden's April 2 letter, "At Roosevelt Vs. Dowling, Fans Went Too Far": Anyone who has watched sporting events has seen increasing amounts of inappropriate behavior.

I have witnessed parents being ejected from a second-grade basketball tournament, parents confronting coaches in the dugout of a 10-year-olds' baseball game, a high-school coach (as a "fan") yell at an opposing player during a free-throw attempt, parents confront parents in parking lots, police called in to assist, "fans" of a public school chant "What would Jesus do?" to the students of a Christian school when they fell behind, "fans" refer to opposing players as Satan, "fans" mocking those in religious orders, etc.

Aden states there is a problem in a society where racism is not even recognized. Perhaps it was not recognized in the situation she cited because it was not there.

Perhaps when people stop labeling everything as black or white, then they will stop seeing racism in every instance.
-Mike Rowley,
Clive.

bush, clinton and intel.

two letter writers in today's DSM register.  both basically let bush off the hook with iraq, by bringing up clinton, and that HE had the same intelligence.  one even made it sound as if clinton was wrong for not doing what bush did.

 

dear God, why do you let people live in such warped realities?

 

of COURSE clinton had the same intel bush had.

 

but christ almighty, did clinton think the threat, what EVER it was, was ENOUGH to invade and waste almost 1600 american lives, and God only knows how many deaths are due to the 'superior forces' of America.

 

ya know what i think happened with the commission in how they drew up the report?  lemme draw a picture for you.

 

there's intel that says there MIGHT be wmd.

those people present it to their managers.

many managers say there's not enough to say there are wmd.  a few managers say there IS wmd

 

bush chose to spend 300 BILLION dollars (and counting), cost 1600 americans their lives, and wounded over 30,000 for life on the word of the few.  as long as there is one man who enabled bush, that's all he needed to think the world enabled him.

 

'sides, doesn't this president already have a dismal record on intel by allowing 9/11 to happen?  he shouldn't have been trusted in the first place to take this country into war.

no WONDER he is bush's man

on bolton's nomination to UN amb post at his confirmation hearings yesterday, fred kaplan from slate, sums it up rather nicely, and a perfect fit for someone in bush's corner:

In short, John Bolton came off as strikingly lacking in the credibility, values, and basic commitment that, especially these days, the job of U.N. ambassador requires.

 

democrat or republicon?

how can you tell someone's lying?

Wholesale prices for popular brand-name prescription drugs rose an average 7.1% in 2004, more than twice the general inflation rate, a new study commissioned by the nation's largest seniors lobby says.

...

Ken Johnson of Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, the trade group of brand-name drugmakers, called the study "exaggerated and misleading." He said the use of wholesale prices excludes factors such as rebates that could cut retail costs.

"Price data clearly shows prescription-drug prices have increased about 4% a year," Johnson said. He called that in line with growth in other health costs.

when they use words like 'exaggerated and misleading' and especially when those words come out of the mouth of a republicon.  i'd bet my life on the fact that mr johnson is a bush enabler.  so how could anybody believe him?

i disagree with the register

they opined today that we should step up efforts of oil exploration domestically, along with stepping up conserving efforts.

Given the world's growing thirst for oil and limited supplies, Congress needs to act. This is one of those instances when just about everyone has a slice of the answer. In the short term, as President Bush has advocated, the United States should step up domestic oil exploration and production. And, now and in the future, it also must step up conservation by encouraging the use of fuel-efficient cars. And it must develop alternative fuels.

i disagree that we should ruin tomorrow's habitat for our needs today.

byron york is a dork

byron york is on daily show.

 

i missed last night's showing, and i thank God Almighty that comedy central had the foresight and guts to run it 5 times a day, and i have to say, i would pay $100 to see jon stewart on stage.

 

but byron york is a dork.  his 'vast left-wing conspiracy' and how he's acting on the DS (notice how daily show and myname have the same initials.  anyway, here's a clip of what google returned about him:

National Review White House correspondent Byron York took issue with The Washington Post's characterization of findings in an ABC News-Washington Post poll that documented a significant drop in public support for President Bush's plan for Social Security. But in challenging the Post in a March 15 National Review Online column , York misrepresented the poll's data to claim that "solid majorities of those surveyed accept the president's underlying rationale for reform, and support his main proposal for that reform [private investment accounts funded by payroll taxes]."

A March 14 WashingtonPost.com article on the poll, which was released the previous day, reported that "[b]arely a third of the public approves of the way President Bush is dealing with Social Security and a majority says the more they hear about Bush's plan to reform the giant retirement system, the less they like it." When respondents were asked: "Overall, do you support or oppose Bush's proposals on Social Security? Do you support/oppose them strongly or somewhat?" 55 percent disapproved: 35 percent strongly and 20 percent somewhat.

 

my letter to the editor

Absolute power is goal of GOP

By DAVID SCHMIDT, Mason City

When someone mentions filibuster, what do you think? The Republicans in Congress are employing the "nuclear option" as a tactic to end filibusters.
They seem not concerned of ever returning to the minority, otherwise, they wouldn't ever pull such a stunt.

Sad to say, but this is next to the last step in the ultimate goal of the refurbished GOP to have absolute power.

Your vote in the next election will determine just how American you truly are.

http://www.globegazette.com/articles/2005/04/12/opinion/doc425b555b9726c854135551.txt

 

when you start to be able to feel what it's like to "miss" your (now) reality.

is when you know the time is upon you.

i dont believe it

so far, i've heard a line that only i use:

twice!

one: "time is on my side"

and two: "there is no better proposal, just different"

dear lord.

i'm sittin here watching the council meeting on public access

and it's TRUE.... these people really are funnier than hell.

Delay Watch

The Tom DeLay Scandals
A score card

 

Middle Class 2004 concludes that Congress did not rise to the occasion when presented with the opportunity to support policies strengthening and expanding the middle class.
--Drum Major Institute

understatement of the week

Rep. Chris Shays of Connecticut simply called for his resignation as majority leader: "Tom's conduct is hurting the Republican Party, is hurting this Republican majority, and it is hurting any Republican who is up for reelection."

 

--the LAT

there are two things important here: the number of troops, and the number of insurgents. that there are still the high number of insurgents has GOT to be saying something.

Initially about a quarter of U.S. forces in Iraq may be brought back, according to the NYT's senior military sources—meaning the number of troops would be reduced to about 105,000 from the current 142,000. The rest of the timeline is not clear, though no one is expecting a complete pullout anytime soon. "We're there militarily for the long haul," says Rhode Island Sen.
Jack Reed, a Democrat and former Army officer. The insurgency is still estimated to have between 12,000 and 20,000 "hard-core fighters," despite the hundreds or
even thousands of fighters killed or taken prisoner in the last year

the epitomy of bigotry shines through this 'folksy' character out in fresno who gives us the Quote of the Day:

"We are not against the homosexuals," said Hutchens, who flashes the twang of her Arkansas birth when she accents the "ho-mo" syllables. "We don't have a problem with what they want to do in private. We just don't want it in our faces."

from

and on the same page, we find a letter writer, who, obviously never went to school:

Although the media keep talking about the "nuclear option," there's nothing that explosive about the plans of Senate Republicans to end the filibusters against President Bush's judicial nominees.

The Republican plan to stop the blockade of the president's judicial nominees isn't nearly as radical as we've been led to believe. All it really involves is restoring constitutional order to a process that's been hijacked by the Senate liberals. By restoring the number of votes needed to confirm a nominee to a simple majority - not the supermajority required to end a filibuster - conservatives hope to stop the madness that has prevented 10 qualified judges from even getting an up-or-down vote over the past two years.

The bottom line: Restoring Senate tradition to end the minority's obstructionism must happen sooner rather than later. That's the message our senators need to hear from us.

-Rhonda Phillips,
Peru.

ms rhonda, why don't you just stay home and change the diapers on those babies of yours runnin the streets like piglets lost.

the letter of the day goes tooooooo:

Anyone who would buy a condo 50 feet from railroad tracks and then complain about train noise is about as dumb as someone who would buy a condo 50 feet from railroad tracks and then complain about train noise.

-Tom Sacco,
Des Moines.

what a brilliant idea!

from today's des moines register:

So here's a modest suggestion about how we could have universal public preschool without spending a whole lot more than we're spending now: As we add two years of school (or educational child care) at one end of the spectrum for 3- and 4-year-olds, lop two years off the other end for 17- and 18-year-olds. Have 10 grades in school instead of 12. Let kids graduate from high school at age 16.

A wildly impractical idea? Maybe, but consider the advantages. Kids grow up a lot faster these days. There's nothing in the high school curriculum that cannot be mastered by 16-year-olds. The course work could be condensed to provide 12 years of education in 10. A more intensive education might actually challenge kids more and keep them interested.

i sure hope vonage gets their act together, and soon.

cuz i sure cant take much more of this recklessness they seem to ooze. click2call duznt work. #5 auto redial duznt work. their tech people are clueless clusterfux. and they have the audacity to want 10 bux more a month for using software phones.

they got 60 days.

no piggy bank in America is safe from these pricks

As Victims' Rights Week begins, victims' advocates are seeking help from Hawaii's congressional delegation to restore money intended to help victims of violent crimes.

The Victims of Crime Act, established by President Ronald Reagan in 1981, collects fees and fines from federal criminal defendants and uses them for grants for compensation and services for victims locally. Congress caps how much money can be spent each fiscal year to keep a reserve in case less money is collected the next year. The current cap is $625 million.

The Bush administration wants to take away $1.2 billion dollars in reserves that would have been sitting in the fund at the beginning of fiscal year 2007 and divert that money, as well as any new revenues, into the government's general fund.

 

west hawaii today

DELAY WATCH

i swear i'm gonna register that .... i know, i keep saying it everytime i post something like that, but fuck.  this guy, along with our very own turd steve king, need to be banished from public service forever.  for they have proven themselve incapable of handling the responsibility the offices of elected officials requires.  both are grade A pricks.

 

from prnewswire:

    NEW YORK, April 10 /PRNewswire/ -- At lunch at his downtown Washington restaurant last week, Jack Abramoff -- the once Washington superlobbyist who is now the target of a Justice Department criminal probe -- lashed out in frustration and was noticeably caustic about House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, reports Investigative Correspondent Michael Isikoff in the April 18 issue of Newsweek (on newsstands Monday, April 11). "Everybody is lying," Abramoff told a former colleague. "Those S.O.B.s," Abramoff said about DeLay and his staffers, according to his luncheon companion. "DeLay knew everything. He knew all the details." There are e-mails and records that will implicate others, Abramoff said.

the newsweek article

Quote for the Day

comes to us from Nera Amaya, via the LAT:

"The church has to come down from heaven to the reality on Earth.  It's not filling my spiritual needs, and I am looking for an alternative."

Quote for the Day

comes to us from Nera Amaya, via the LAT:

"The church has to come down from heaven to the reality on Earth.  It's not filling my spiritual needs, and I am looking for an alternative."

an observation

if America is really, like the republicons like to scream every chance they get, on the road to more religious-ism in our daily lives, then why is it that far fewer are being ordained as priests than are dying?

headline of the Day

comes to us from the Los Angeles Times:

Millions Said Going to Waste in Iraq Utilities

 

A coalition memo says water, sewage and power facilities rebuilt with U.S. funds are falling into disrepair. Iraqis say they need more money.

the headline is misleading however,  as the real problem isn't the iraqis, it's the Americans who have continued to show their high disregard of doing things the correct way, not the 'right' way.

 

the sunday morning thought

i cant help but believe that congress is graspin at straws in their effort to fight terrorism.  why you ask?  well, because they're passing all these laws that they think will give us an edge in catching these criminals, i mean terrorists.

 

these new 'anti-terrorism' laws have so much anti-American flavor in them, that you would rightly wonder if they were passed by the American congress.  6 years ago, who would have ever thought that we needed to give up liberties to fight terrorists?  6 years ago, who would have ever thought that we needed to allow the government unbridaled power to snoop into our daily lives to fight terrorists?

 

probably, because 6 years ago, we DIDN'T NEED TO on account of everything we were already doing was working.  why do you think 9/11 happened on bush's watch and not clintons?  of course they tried, but clinton made sure they didn't try again.  no, they waited for an opening, and bush gave it to them because they would be giving bush alllll he could ever dream for.

 

anyway, just my sunday morning thought.

is it, or isn't it?

out of one side of their mouths we hear that we're enjoying a 'boooming' and 'robust' economy, while out of the other side of the administration's mouths,:we get stuff like this:

"If money were not a consideration, it's a program that would have very broad-based support, but money is a consideration," he said.
attribution

so which is it?  do we have an economy that's crankin, or do we have an economy where we have to act like cold-hearted misers?

 

oh wait!!  we have an economy that's crankin AND cold hearted misers holding the purse strings.