Quote of the Day

it's a long one, but it sure hits the point on the head:

MR. PRESIDENT, YOU LIED THEN AND YOU CONTINUE TO LIE NOW. HAVE YOU NO SHAME?

PRESIDENT BUSH: Steve.

Q Thank you, sir. On Iraq, the so-called Downing Street memo from July 2002 says intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy of removing Saddam through military action. Is this an accurate reflection of what happened? Could both of you respond?

PRIME MINISTER BLAIR: Well, I can respond to that very easily. No, the facts were not being fixed in any shape or form at all. And let me remind you that that memorandum was written before we then went to the United Nations. Now, no one knows more intimately the discussions that we were conducting as two countries at the time than me. And the fact is we decided to go to the United Nations and went through that process, which resulted in the November 2002 United Nations resolution, to give a final chance to Saddam Hussein to comply with international law. He didn't do so. And that was the reason why we had to take military action.

But all the way through that period of time, we were trying to look for a way of managing to resolve this without conflict. As it happened, we weren't able to do that because -- as I think was very clear -- there was no way that Saddam Hussein was ever going to change the way that he worked, or the way that he acted.

PRESIDENT BUSH: Well, I -- you know, I read kind of the characterizations of the memo, particularly when they dropped it out in the middle of his race. I'm not sure who "they dropped it out" is, but -- I'm not suggesting that you all dropped it out there. (Laughter.) And somebody said, well, you know, we had made up our mind to go to use military force to deal with Saddam. There's nothing farther from the truth.

My conversation with the Prime Minister was, how could we do this peacefully, what could we do. And this meeting, evidently, that took place in London happened before we even went to the United Nations -- or I went to the United Nations. And so it's -- look, both us of didn't want to use our military. Nobody wants to commit military into combat. It's the last option. The consequences of committing the military are -- are very difficult. The hardest things I do as the President is to try to comfort families who've lost a loved one in combat. It's the last option that the President must have -- and it's the last option I know my friend had, as well.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2005/06/20050607-2.html

but isn't musharraf one of our allies?

The LAT's metro section says the FBI has arrested a father and son near Sacramento, accusing the son of having attended an "al-Qaida training camp" in Pakistan.

--courtesy of slate's today's papers

i just have one question here: if the fbi knows about an al-qaeda training camp IN pakistan, why is bush still in bed with musharraf? (like that's not a stupid question)

lets play war daddy

Snipers still regularly attack civilians and troops patrolling Fallujah, despite the fact that the US bombed the city heavily in April and November 2004 to flush out suspected rebels.

According to the Zapata contractors, one of their vehicles veered left on a road leading to a Marine checkpoint. It ran over the spike strip in the road near the guard house and the tire went flat. The anxious contractors jumped into action and put on a spare. Within minutes, they began rolling again.

A Marine captain brought the convoy to a halt. Had anyone in the convoy shot at the guard tower, he asked. Negative, said a convoy member.

But the captain was not convinced. Sixteen American and three Iraqi security contractors in the Zapata convoy were then taken into custody presumably on suspicion of shooting at the Marine tower. They were thrown in jail on the evening of May 28.

Earlier that day, May 28, the soldiers recounted, "receiving small arms fire from gunman in several late-model trucks and sport utility vehicles" at approximately 2 P.M. "Marines also say witnessed passengers in the vehicles firing at and near civilian cars on the street," the Marines' report continues.

According to a Marines press statement, "Three hours later, another Marine observation post was fired on by gunmen from vehicles matching the description of those involved in the earlier attack. Marines saw passengers in the vehicles firing out the windows." This second account coincides with the arrest of the Zapata men.

Today the contractors have been set free and each side tells a different story. Contractors and their families feel they were unfairly arrested and, once in the military prisons, they say they were treated with disrespect.

--corpwatch

there's a lot more of this interesting tale, that got reported in today's latimes.

Letter Of The Day II

Regarding the May 28 letters, "Majority Should Control Senate Confirmations": If the majority should always rule, it follows Al Gore should have been president.

-Jan Kerrigan,
Ankeny.

attribution

Letter Of The Day

President Bush strongly supports embryo adoption. The only way an adopted embryo can be brought to term is through implantation in a healthy woman. So, Bush should encourage his daughters to be surrogate mothers, or does he have others in mind? Maybe volunteer surrogates should get a free college education?

My point is that if he is serious that all those embryos are persons, then he has to propose a program to take care of all of them. Or maybe when he had his photo taken with all those parents and their embryo-implanted babies, he should have reminded them that they should not produce embryos unless they are willing to bring all of them to birth.

Embryos are not persons. As a test, give any of those parents at Bush's photo opportunity a "Sophie's Choice" between the life of a four-celled embryo and the life of an already-born child.

While they might not want to make any choice, they would choose the child. The child, unlike the embryo, is a person with full civil and economic rights.

-Jon Torgerson,
Urbandale.

attribution

and speaking of pensions....

The heads of three major airlines were called to appear Tuesday before the Senate Finance Committee. Its leaders are alarmed that the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. — the federal agency that insures private pension plans — already has a $23.3 billion deficit because of defaults.

More than half of the 100 largest plans had less than their promised benefits on deposit, which the committee's chairman blames on lax rules that are supposed to guarantee full endowment.

About 34 million people — roughly 20 percent of the nation's workforce — expect to receive payments from their employers through defined benefit plans.

--source

well, there ya go.

if they can't get it right (sic) with pensions....

how in the hell are they expected to get it right with social security???

Although the financial markets have been on the upswing recently from their post-boom low, many of the nation's private pension plans have been sinking deeper into the hole, according to new figures from the government's pension insurance agency.

The 1,108 weakest pension plans -- those whose assets are at least $50 million below the value of the benefits they promise -- were short by an aggregate $353.7 billion at the end of last year, figures from the government's Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. show. That was 27 percent more than the shortfall a year earlier, contrary to the hopes of many that funding would improve as the economy strengthens.

--source

to demonstrate how i can say the post and times aren't on the same page....

from slate's today's papers:

Meanwhile, the Post flags a suicide bombing at an Iraqi base in Baghdad. Five people were reportedly killed. (The NYT says none were killed and seven wounded.)

now how can a mistake of that proportion be made by papers that are supposed to be 'of record' quality?

corruption defined

the boeing deal made a lot of people, a lot of money, on the backs of taxpayers. plain and simple.

Besides documenting precisely who was responsible, the new report details the Air Force's vigorous efforts on Boeing's behalf. It also shows how Air Force leaders and Boeing officials jointly manipulated legislation to authorize the deal and later sought to suppress dissenting opinion throughout the Pentagon.

After interviewing 88 people and reading hundreds of thousands of pages of e-mails, the inspector general's office concluded that four top Air Force officials and one of Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld's former top aides, Undersecretary of Defense Edward C. "Pete" Aldridge, violated Pentagon and government-wide procurement rules, failed to use "best business practices," ignored a legal requirement for weapons testing and failed to ensure that the tankers would meet the military's requirements.

The report also connects Rumsfeld to policymaking on the lease, recounting a statement by former Air Force secretary James G. Roche that Rumsfeld had called him in Newport, R.I., in July 2003 to say "he did not want me to budge on the tanker lease proposal," despite criticism.

but can't let in on just how the bushites are involved:

In the copy of the report obtained by The Washington Post, 45 sections were deleted by the White House counsel's office to obscure what several sources described as references to White House involvement in the lease negotiations and its interaction with Boeing. The Pentagon separately blacked out 64 names and many e-mails. It also omitted the names of members of Congress, including some who pressured the Pentagon to back the deal.

--source

how can a weapons maker be having such a hard time making it, DURING A WAR???

and speaking of tom white....

he altered his website thinking that nobody would remember. he went from:

"Prior to his appointment as Secretary of the Army, Secretary White served as Vice Chairman of Enron Energy Services, the Enron Corporation subsidiary responsible for providing energy outsource solutions to commercial and industrial customers throughout the United States. Mr. White was responsible for the delivery component of energy management services, which included commodity management; purchasing, maintaining, and operating energy assets; developing and implementing energy information services; capital management; and facilities management. "

"Secretary White also served as a member of Enron's Executive Committee and was Chairman and Chief Executive Officer for Enron Operations Corporation. He was also responsible for the Enron Engineering and Construction Company, which managed an extensive construction portfolio with domestic and international projects."

to this:

"From 1990 to 2001, Mr. White was employed by Enron Corporation and held various senior executive positions."

--source

criminals every last one of them.

enronizing America

Buried in the 700-plus page energy bill currently under debate in the U.S. Senate is a provision that provides hundreds of millions of dollars worth of federal loan guarantees for a power project apparently to be built by four former Enron executives, the interest group Public Citizen revealed Monday in a release to RAW STORY.

One of the former executives is Thomas White, who was Enron's head of retail and energy trading in California during the energy crisis. White later served as Secretary of the Army under President Bush.

Title XIV of the Senate energy bill provides federal loan guarantees for "a project to produce energy from coal … mined in the western United States using appropriate advanced integrated gasification combined cycle technology that minimizes and offers the potential to sequester carbon dioxide emissions and … shall be located in a western State at an altitude greater than 4,000 feet."

--rawstory

it's a law in bush country: fuck up and get rewarded.

more malarky from the majority of misfits in congress

The American Family Business Institute and Free Enterprise Fund launched a TV and radio ad campaign May 10 that targets potential swing votes in the Senate for full repeal of the estate tax. The group said it will run different versions of the 30-second and 60-second ads in Montana, South Dakota, North Dakota, Maine, Arkansas, Louisiana, Nevada and New York as part of a $15 million campaign leading up to a Senate vote expected before the August recess.


Contrary to ad's claim that "your family" might be crippled, the vast majority of families actually are not affected by the estate tax. In fact, less than 3 percent of deceased adults in 2002 had estates subject to the tax, according to the nonpartisan Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center and figures from the IRS.


One ad claims the federal estate tax "can bury your family in crippling tax bills," which is untrue for nearly all of those who will see the ad, including the large majority of farm and business owners. Both ads claim the estate tax is a "double tax," which is only partly true, and mostly false when it comes to very wealthy families.

in short? THEY LIED.

and why did they lie? BECAISE HYPOCRITES LIE.

CANDY CROWLEY, YOU MAKE MY SKIN CRAWL

god what a waste of human flesh.

HILLARY '08

this country is counting on you hillary.

Mrs. Clinton, who is running for a second term in 2006 and is widely described as a possible Democratic nominee for the presidency in 2008, said that her party is hamstrung because Republicans dissemble and smear without shame and the news media has lost its investigatory zeal for exposing misdeeds.

Left unchallenged, especially if Democrats fail to pick up seats in next year's Congressional elections, she said, Republican leaders could ram through extremist conservative judges, wreck Social Security and make unacceptable concessions to China, Saudi Arabia and other nations that are needed to finance the United States budget deficit.

"There has never been an administration, I don't believe in our history, more intent upon consolidating and abusing power to further their own agenda," Mrs. Clinton told the audience at a "Women for Hillary" gathering in Midtown Manhattan this morning.

--source

an open question to the president

"mr. president, how can you fight a war when you do not know who your enemy is?"

Other than fellow Marines, he had no idea whom he could trust. So he trusted no one. Local Iraqi officials were corrupt, poorly trained and under constant threat from the insurgents. Any civilian could be an insurgent waiting to strike. Maybe the man who sold him ice every morning would attack.

"You give them the benefit of the doubt and they kill you,' he said.

http://www.sbsun.com/Stories/0,1413,208~12588~2906180,00.html

HYPOCRISY ALERT

In an interview with radio and television news directors, Bush posed "an interesting ethical dilemma," using as an example a top al-Qaida operative captured last month in Pakistan.

"If you're in my shoes, and you thought Abu Farraj al-Libbi had planned an attack on America, would you use any means necessary to get the information from him?" Bush asked. "The decision I have made is `No, we will not.' And let's just pray he doesn't have that information. And when I told the American people we're not torturing, we're not torturing.

--SOURCE

two words: ABU GHRAIB

and they wonder why we call 'em faux

that foxnews is a bush propaganda organ has been widely accepted and acknowledged by all with a specle of brain cells in their heads. but something else got slipped out recently, and it has to do with how karl rove is in bed with fox somewhere. from slate:

Here is what Norvell fessed up to in the May 20 Wall Street Journal Europe:

Even we at Fox News manage to get some lefties on the air occasionally, and often let them finish their sentences before we club them to death and feed the scraps to Karl Rove and Bill O'Reilly. And those who hate us can take solace in the fact that they aren't subsidizing Bill's bombast; we payers of the BBC license fee don't enjoy that peace of mind.

another sad day for America and state's rights

Federal authorities may prosecute sick people who smoke pot on doctors' orders, the Supreme Court ruled Monday, concluding that state medical marijuana laws don't protect users from a federal ban on the drug.

-cnn

the results are in, and they're not pretty

unless you're hyper-rich. in which case, you probably aren't reading material like the new york times:

The people at the top of America's money pyramid have so prospered in recent years that they have pulled far ahead of the rest of the population, an analysis of tax records and other government data by The New York Times shows. They have even left behind people making hundreds of thousands of dollars a year.

The share of the nation's income earned by those in this uppermost category has more than doubled since 1980, to 7.4 percent in 2002. The share of income earned by the rest of the top 10 percent rose far less, and the share earned by the bottom 90 percent fell.

The Bush administration tax cuts stand to widen the gap between the hyper-rich and the rest of America. The merely rich, making hundreds of thousands of dollars a year, will shoulder a disproportionate share of the tax burden.

President Bush said during the third election debate last October that most of the tax cuts went to low- and middle-income Americans. In fact, most - 53 percent - will go to people with incomes in the top 10 percent over the first 15 years of the cuts, which began in 2001 and would have to be reauthorized in 2010. And more than 15 percent will go just to the top 0.1 percent, those 145,000 taxpayers.

guess what.... HE LIED:

Under the Bush tax cuts, the 400 taxpayers with the highest incomes - a minimum of $87 million in 2000, the last year for which the government will release such data - now pay income, Medicare and Social Security taxes amounting to virtually the same percentage of their incomes as people making $50,000 to $75,000.

• Those earning more than $10 million a year now pay a lesser share of their income in these taxes than those making $100,000 to $200,000.
• The alternative minimum tax, created 36 years ago to make sure the very richest paid taxes, takes back a growing share of the tax cuts over time from the majority of families earning $75,000 to $1 million - thousands and even tens of thousands of dollars annually. Far fewer of the very wealthiest will be affected by this tax.

The analysis examined only income reported on tax returns. The Treasury Department says that the very wealthiest find ways, legal and illegal, to shelter a lot of income from taxes. So the gap between the very richest and everyone else is almost certainly much larger.

and then we have to get a quote in from the reich-wing heritage foundation:

"In this income data I see a snapshot of a very innovative society," said Tim Kane, an economist at the Heritage Foundation. "Lower taxes and lower marginal tax rates are leading to more growth. There's an explosion of wealth. We are so wealthy in a world that is profoundly poor."

the explosion is happening on the backs of ordainary Americans and he couldn't care less.

the Rush-limbaugh-Wannabe Of The Day

Jeffrey Weiss' article on the meaning of the Quran in Saturday's edition confused me. ("Quran Carries Great Meaning to Muslims," may 29.)

If the Quran is so sacred to Muslims, where is the outrage when insurgents in Iraq set off car bombs in front of mosques? How many Qurans or "representatives of the physical embodiment of the words of God" were destroyed, dirtied or allowed to touch the ground in these car-bomb attacks?

For me to take the imams seriously about their reverence for their holy book, I will need to understand why their outrage is so selective.

Who gave the Muslim detainees Qurans in the first place? It was the U.S. military with gloved hands showing all the respect a Western mind can muster for Islam. Were Nick Berg or our captured soldiers given a Bible or Torah before they were beaten, beheaded and their bodies burned?

-Scott Nelson,
Des Moines.

attribution

Letter Of The Day

I am ashamed to say that I haven't supported Planned Parenthood for years, but now I plan to start sending donations again thanks to STOPP. The May 29 STOPP letter writer displayed specious reasoning in blaming Planned Parenthood for all the ills she abhors. Why not also blame bad breath and obesity on family planning?

-Eileen Mericle,
Ames.

attribution

the tale of two republicans

one a nazi, the other an American. can you tell which is which?

http://desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050605/OPINION01/506050315/1035/OPINION

bolton WATCH

John R. Bolton flew to Europe in 2002 to confront the head of a global arms-control agency and demand he resign, then orchestrated the firing of the unwilling diplomat in a move a U.N. tribunal has since judged unlawful, according to officials involved.

--yahoo

so lemme get this straight. he broke the law, and for a reward, he's to get promoted? is there any more doubt about the corrupt criminal enterprise known as BUSH?

the gm employee discount.... "for everyone"

i wonder how this is going over in the employee lounges. if everybody gets that discount, it's no longer a "benefit" to the real employees. were the unions flacked into accepting this? is business really that bad?

your Friday Fart

Just two web sites, Google and Yahoo!, now account for more advertising revenues than do the prime time schedules of the three traditional television networks - ABC, CBS, and NBC - combined.

--source

incompetence defined?

or all according to plan?

take your pick.

The WP notices inside that the government's new counter-terrorism clearinghouse, mandated by legislation to open in two weeks, still doesn't have a director.

i'm sure including a lot of TP today. i can't recommend the site stronger. it's a top-notch site for being able to truly be 'in the know' about what is going on in today's world. i haven't found another site like it, or one that could come close to being as pertinent, interesting, and valuable as Slate's Today's Papers. so to all you over there, a big thank you for North Iowa for being REAL journalism. alllll those reporters for corporate media could take a lesson (or 5) from you folx.

and to my freeper friends

if you're reading the wall street journal, you're a day behind the rest of us.

The WSJ says that the Army, in a desperate bid to keep manpower, has made it harder to for unit commanders to dismiss slacker soldiers. An Army memo told commanders that they need to go up the chain of command if they want to bounce GIs who are drug addicts, fat, or just loafers. Slate revealed the memo yesterday and also suggested alternatives for keeping retention rates up.

--source

there should be a law

that if you're a sitting politician, you are disqualified from running the Securities Exchange Commission.

huh? why are they dismissing it so lightly?

the ending in the nytimes' daily iraqi wrapup:

UNITED NATIONS, June 2 (AP) - Satellite imagery experts have determined that material that could be used to make biological or chemical weapons and banned long-range missiles has been removed from 109 sites in Iraq, United Nations weapons inspectors said in a report obtained Thursday.

thanks to TP for the heads up!

so this isn't one of those russian "we can't account for it" instances.

this is one of those "someone stole it" occasions.

and i'll be damned if someone shouldn't be screaming bloody hell about it.

in iraq yesterday

a new series (so it'll be easily searchable for producing an accurate timetable) that will be grabbing the relevant paragraphs from today's papers over at slate.

today's offering:

The Wall Street Journal tops its world-wide newsbox with three dozen Iraqis were killed in insurgent attacks; there were three car bombings within an hour in Baghdad. Gunmen also opened fire on shoppers at a market in Baghdad, killing nine. Two GIs were killed in fighting near Ramadi.

i wonder if the picture will change this time next month. wanna bet it doesn't?

an update on the bloggers vs corporate media

kos rips darr a new asshole. *smootch*

These campus blogethicists like Carol Darr at IPDI love to pontificate about the harm that bloggers cause their precious profession, even as they fail to understand that bloggers are, in huge part, a response to the failings of their profession. So they pontificate from their ivory towers, oblivious to the excesses and failures of "legitimate" journalists around them.

--kos

Quote of the Day

"I wish there were somebody of the Deep Throat time in this administration who are aware of what's going on," (Senator George McGovern told Fox News Radio)

"This war in Iraq, in my opinion is worse than anything Nixon did. I think Nixon deserved to be expelled from office in view of the cover-up that he carried on and the laws that he violated.

"But we have an administration in power now that led us to a war that is internationally illegal; it's a war that we are fighting with a country that has no threat to us that has nothing to do with the 9-11 attacks."

--attribution

i was wondering how long it'd be before someone was going to see the desperate need for another deep throat.

i am praying to God Almighty for Him to see fit and allow Rep. Conyers the ability to make his case.

The GO SEE Site of the Day

http://www.4th25.com/

not for the little children.
frankly, not for the sqeamish.
but consider it your patiotic duty to watch it.

howard dean and the shills for the RNC

aren't getting along very well. why else would such a pitiful article be written? no doubt, there are some who don't like dean regardless if he had a halo or not. but all i can say, as it is now, with the same big money cats callin the shots, we will continue to lose again and again. my suggestion to dean: stay true. and expose the lies. make values your base. build a new party because the one we have now died in 2000.

One hundred days into his tenure as the high-energy, higher-decibel chairman of the Democratic Party, Howard Dean is in trouble with party moneybags. The former Vermont governor seems to be doing a better job flaying the Republicans than bridging the cash chasm between the parties. Given Dean's 2004 run as a populist crusader, moderates were never wild about his takeover of the Democratic National Committee. So some big donors are sitting on their wallets.

Dean wowed the faithful in '04 with his Web-based fund-raising magic. But major business donors still count, and in his new role as party honcho, the feisty doctor seems to be struggling to connect. After achieving money parity with the GOP in 2004, Democrats have fallen far behind. According to the Federal Election Commission, the DNC raised $14.1 million in the first quarter of 2005, vs. the Republican National Committee's $32.3 million. Dean drew about 20,000 new donors, while his rivals picked up 68,200. The bottom line: Republicans have $26.2 million in the bank vs. $7.2 million for the Dems.

--businessweek

oh, but a quick look at actual FEC reports

http://images.nictusa.com/cgi-bin/fecimg/?C00010603

shows that Dean has raised more money in an off year than any DNC Chair in history.

First Quarter of 2005 - $16.7 million

Q1/2004 - $28.7 million (presidential election year)

Q1/2003 - $8.7 million

Q1/2002 - $11.8

And Dean is on pace to break the midyear fundraising of $23.7 in the first six months of 2001. "

--courtesy of lojasmo

they lied, AGAIN

Re-igniting the medical malpractice overhaul debate, a new study by Dartmouth College researchers suggests that huge jury awards and financial settlements for injured patients have not caused the explosive increase in doctors' insurance premiums.

The Dartmouth economists studied actual payments made to patients between 1991 and 2003, the results of which were published yesterday in the journal Health Affairs. Some previous studies have examined jury awards, which often are reduced after trial to comply with doctors' insurance coverage maximums or because the plaintiff settles for less money to avoid an appeal. Researchers found that payments grew an average of 4 percent annually during the years covered by the study, or 52 percent overall since 1991, but only 1.6 percent a year since 2000. The increases are roughly equivalent to the overall rise in healthcare costs, said Amitabh Chandra, lead author and an assistant professor of economics at the New Hampshire college.

--source

and finally....

flagged this from today's papers on slate:

President Bush met yesterday with South African President Thabo Mbeki. The NYT flags the get-together and Bush's reiterating the U.S. stance on Britain's call for the doubling of aid to Africa. "It doesn't fit our budgetary process," Bush said.

the next time bush beats his chest about how much aid he has given africa, remind him of the truth in his own words (surprisingly).

remember this when the bushites beat their chests when talkin about afghanistan

KABUL, Afghanistan, June 1 - A suicide bomber detonated a powerful bomb during a mourning ceremony in a mosque in the southern city of Kandahar on Wednesday, killing 19 people, among them the Kabul police chief, and wounding 52 others, the Interior Ministry said. It was one of the deadliest attacks in the three and a half years since the Taliban were removed from power.

The interior minister, Ali Ahmed Jalali, said he believed that the two attacks were linked, and he blamed "enemies of Afghanistan." The bomber was a foreigner, he said, without elaborating.

"We label them as enemies of Islam because they are attacking Islam, attacking Muslims, attacking sacred sites of Islam," he said at a news conference in Kabul, the capital.

[enemies of islam eh? weren't the taliban rigid adherers to the letter of the law of islam?]

A Taliban spokesman, Abdul Latif Hakimi, claimed responsibility for the assassination of Mr. Fayaz, saying it was because of his support for the American military presence in Afghanistan and the government of President Hamid Karzai, The Associated Press reported. But the Taliban spokesman denied responsibility for Wednesday's blast.

--nytimes

violence is on the rise in iraq. violence is on the rise in afghanistan.

where is the success again?

Letter Of The Day

Taking life apparently is not always wrong

President Bush defended his probable veto of the passage of the bill on stem-cell research because "I am not going to use American taxpayers' money to destroy life." How can he make such an absurd statement when he is directly responsible for using American taxpayers' money to destroy the lives of tens of thousands of individuals - both military and civilian - in the quagmire that the invasion of Iraq has become? Also, as governor of Texas, he permitted the execution of large numbers of prisoners - some of whom may well have been innocent. Apparently destroying life can have entirely different meanings depending on whose life is being sacrificed.
-Earl G. Rozeboom, M.D.,
West Des Moines.

--attribution

well, DUH

seeeee? this is why we can not win without having some sort of media support. for instance, this was in today's paper:

GOP is the party of social reform

In recent years, the desperation for Medicare/Medicaid reform has clearly taken the forefront. Despite the efforts of President Bush and his party to make actual reform, the Democrats continue to argue against any possible means of change.

But ask yourself: Have the Democrats actually proposed a single way of reform?

It's sad when leaders have to play such partisan games.

The fact is the Democrats could not maintain the image of being the party of social reform if the Republicans' Social Security proposal went into effect.
- Jon Turk, Bondurant

--attribution

since the media isn't reporting on the democrats' proposals, how is this guy to know about them? hence, he's frustrated that democrats are seen as lazy.

Quote of the WeeQ

i've learned, as you have or should, that whenever george bush jr. speaks, you can pretty much assume that the opposite is true. i am known for saying he's pathological.

"I spend most of my time worrying about people losing their lives in Iraq, both Americans and Iraqis," Bush told The Associated Press and other broadcasters in an interview.

He suggested he has some concerns about the implications of his high-profile position for his daughters, Jenna and Barbara.

"I worry about letting these little girls get into a situation where something unpleasant could happen to them," Bush said. "We're pretty much over the anger — not anger, the frustrations — of living in a fishbowl."

--sfgate

HYPOCRISY ALERT

george bush jr. had a few women holding up babies and small children when he said this:

"The families here today have either adopted or given up for adoption frozen embryos that remained after fertility treatments. /// These lives are not raw material to be exploited",

--source

he makes my skin crawl.

bolton WATCH

thanks to josh marshall over at TPM for pointing this out:

Some of the information that the White House has refused to provide to Congress for its review of the nomination of John Bolton includes the names of American companies mentioned in intelligence reports on commerce with China and other countries covered by export restrictions, say government officials who have been briefed on the documents.

--source

'tis Good News Time

A spate of recent national polls show Bush in the doghouse with the American people:

A Quinnipiac University Poll last week found Bush's job approval rating had hit an all-time low. Only 44 percent approve of the job he is doing, and 50 percent disapprove.

Bush's approval ratings for handling the economy, Iraq and Social Security hit new lows last week, according to an USA Today/CNN/Gallup Poll. Half those polled said they disapprove of the way Bush is handling his job as president.

And a recent CBS News poll found six in 10 Americans don't think the president shares their priorities for the country; just 34 percent say he does. This is the lowest mark since the eve of his first inauguration.

--source

could it be momma? could it really beeeee? America is wising up??

for you bushite sympathizers out there

here's a quote that i hear all the time:

If looked at objectively, what the Register is really angry about is that George W. Bush went into war while being a Republican. I certainly can recall no outcry over the Clinton war in Bosnia or his call for the removal of Saddam.

(from David C. Hammel, Urbandale)

THAT'S BECAUSE WE DIDN'T LOSE OVER 1800 FINE MEN AND WOMEN AND THOUSANDS MORE WHO WERE MAIMED FOR LIFE in the balkans.

we need another deep throat

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Joke of the WeeQ

imagine a bush dynasty. Dear God, please, PLEASE, do not inflict upon America such a penance.

WASHINGTON Vice President Dick Cheney says he's not running for president in 2008. So his wife has a suggestion about who should run.

Lynne Cheney says maybe first lady Laura Bush should seek the nomination. On C-N-N's "Larry King Live" scheduled to air tonight, Mrs. Cheney says, "If we want to have a Bush dynasty, let's get Laura Bush."

-CNN

SURPRISE! SURPRISE!

did you EVER believe that arthur andersen was going to be convicted of destroying documents?

The Supreme Court on Tuesday overturned the conviction of the Arthur Andersen accounting firm for destroying Enron Corp.-related documents before the energy giant’s collapse.

--msnbc

on edit: something i caught over on DU about this that bears mentioning:

Why would you need to do anything so slick when the Supreme Court is in your back pocket?

This result is contrary to my understanding of the rules of statutory construction as they apply to criminal statutes. The instructions expressly mentioned "intent," which is widely recognized to equal either "knowledge" (or in adverbial form "knowingly") OR purpose ("purposefully). However, this opinion says that the statute's use of the term "knowingly" also impliedly required "dishonesty." Additionally, the court ruled the instructions invalid because they didn't think that "intent" equated to "knowledge," which it most certainly does... Very perplexing.

Upon further reflection, I think the reporter must be mistaken about this point; there's no way the court could reach such an absurd conclusion. They probably ruled that this was a specific intent crime, and therefore certain other defenses inhered, and the wording confused the reporter.

Joke of the Day

We need to get our ambassador to the United Nations to help start reforming that important organization," Bush told a White House press conference.

"The reason I picked Bolton is he's a no-nonsense kind of fellow who can get things done. And we need to get something done in the United Nations.

"This is an organization which is important, it can help a lot in terms of the democracy movement. It can help deal with conflict and civil war. But it's an organization that is beginning to lose the trust of the American people ... and therefore we need to restore that trust."

--source

you can stop laughing now. is there nothing so low that geroge bush jr. won't do?

does this make sense to anybody?

from today's papers on slate:

Also, an Iraqi Air Force plane crashed, with four Americans and one Iraqi on board; no word on survivors.

what were so many Americans doing on an IRAQI air force plane?

Letter Of The WeeQ

Saddam Hussein in his underwear shocking? To whom? Certainly not Americans, who can barely watch TV without seeing nudity.

I wonder what some of the people from other countries would think if they spent an evening watching MTV. What about our sick and tasteless advertisements that talk about everything including diarrhea, constipation, birth control, menopause, feminine itch and odor, sticky pads, erectile disfunction and women's lagging sex drive.

-Carolyn K. Petersen,
Des Moines.

--attribution