Letter Of The Day

David Yepsen is correct when he speaks of repealing the two-term limit on presidents. Just think about it. If there had been no limit for the 2000 election, Bill Clinton would have handily won a third term and the country would have avoided the terrible situation we are currently in.

-Gene Watson, Des Moines.
--attribution

the lied (again)

WASHINGTON — In the spring of 2003, Los Angeles police officials were summoned to a briefing with the FBI-led Joint Terrorism Task Force and told that the 73-story Library Tower might have been the target of a terrorist plot similar to that of the Sept. 11 suicide hijackings.

When the plot was disclosed last year, authorities said publicly that they had viewed the claims by captured Al Qaeda chieftain Khalid Shaikh Mohammed with skepticism. They said that, at best, the alleged plot was something that had been discussed but never put into action.

...

On Friday, the White House responded to questions seeking clarification on the potential attacks by referring inquiries to the FBI or other counter-terrorism agencies. The FBI referred the questions to the White House.
--WaPo

that's right, they get caught in a lie, and they brush it off knowing the media won't dare ask any serious questions.

the FARPOINT FACTOID

According to one study, 26 percent of all fraud victims knew the person who took their information, and as much as 50 percent of those who commited debit card fraud are a family member or friend. Computer viruses or hackers only accounted for 2.2 percent of all identity theft.

--source

so the old adage is true then. keep your enemies close, but watch your friends even closer.

an interesting point i ran across today

in today's papers on slate. in

Recent studies paid for by the government have shown shortcomings in the early drug company results. The WP quotes a pharmaceutical company lobbyist saying these studies should be paid for by the government because they're too expensive and would "probably bring drug development to a halt." This claim is left unexplored by the Post even though widely available data could raise questions about the assertion. In an article published by the New York Review of Books last year, Marcia Angell wrote that the combined profits of the 10 drug companies in 2002, listed in the Fortune 500, was $35.9 billion, which was more than the profits of all the other businesses in the list put together. Also, on average, the 10 biggest drug companies spent 14 percent of their total sales on research and development in 2000, compared to 36 percent on marketing and administration.

the drug companies are making a killing and they want us to believe that they need the government to pay for studies they should pay for because it's too expensive. how can you still have a straight face and say that is beyond me.

Letter Of The Day

The Republican House majority leader has been indicted, the Senate majority leader is under investigation for illegal insider trading, the deputy chief of staff and others are under investigation for blowing a CIA agent's cover, the top federal procurement officer was arrested, the former attorney general is being called to testify about torture abuses and who knows what happened in the secret energy-policy meetings Dick Cheney held before the sudden California energy crisis appeared just long enough to drain tens of billions of dollars from California to Houston and then, nearly as fast, disappeared. And on and on and on.

Republicans are so efficient, it took them only 10 years in power to become as bloated and corrupt as Democrats had become after 40 years in control.

-William C. Stosine, Iowa City.
--attribution

put 2 and 2 together and whaddaya get?

USAT fronts an in-house analysis showing that most nursing homes have been cited for some form of fire-code violations, but with weak federal and state regulations only a tiny fraction of homes are ever fined. Moreover, Congress has declined to mandate that all nursing homes have fire sprinklers. The nursing industry argues that installing them would cost too much. The industry has also donated $11 million to congressional campaigns since 1999.

too bad USAT didn't bother to find out how much it would cost to put those sprinklers in, because i'll betcha a nickel it could be done for 11 mil.

on the katrina handouts to the corporate thieves

A FEMA spokeswoman later said the new bidding process affects only the four largest no-bid deals. Those are $100 million contracts awarded to the Shaw Group, Bechtel Corp., CH2M Hill Inc. and Fluor Corp. to find and engineer sites for temporary housing for displaced residents.

--WaPo

if you care to know, those companies made out like bandits on the iraqi mess too.

thank you LA Times

The White House later issued a list of the foiled plots, citing potential Sept. 11-style airliner attacks on both coasts, a plan to blow up apartment buildings and surveillance of gas stations, bridges and tourist sites nationwide. But several senior law enforcement officials interviewed later questioned whether many of the incidents on the list constituted an imminent threat to public safety and said that authorities had not disrupted any operational terrorist plot within the United States since the 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
--source

why does he continue to make such radical statement that are clearly not true?

who the hell is ronnie earle?

he's the man who i really think has his man.
esquire's got a bit on him. i suggest reading it, then listening to one of delay's whining sessions about some 'rogue prosecutor' is on his butt.

http://www.esquire.com/features/articles/2005/050928_mfe_earle_1.html

you'll just fall in love with 'rogue prosecutors' after that.

i have now so many telephone numbers

i dont know if i'm just on one of these compulsive behavior panic trips or what, but i now have the following numbers:

• 641.226.5205 (vonage)
• 347.733.8430 (virgin mobile)
• 989.785.0243 (skype)
• 641.201.3091 (mediacom)

really. mediacom's giving me 3 months free AND $50 credit on my bill for beta testing their entry. skype was something i had before i switched from qwest to vonage.

my conclusion as to which is better? not yet. soon.

from the Good News department

RNKVoIP, a division of full-service CLEC and telecommunications company RNK Telecom, based in Dedham, Mass., today announced it is working with the Freedom Calls Foundation to provide free VoIP calls to U.S. service men and women, from three locations Iraq.

"U.S. troops want to reach out and touch their families and friends," said RNK Telecom president Richard Koch "With RNKVoIP, U.S. soldiers can make unlimited alls to anywhere in the U.S. free of charge," he added.

Koch noted that the three locations served are 'transfer points,' with large numbers of military personnel passing through each day. At Camp Taji, 23 miles northwest of Baghdad, some 1,500 troops on an average day, have an opportunity to stop in at RNK's IP phone stations and call home to the U.S. Did we mention that calls are totally free of charge? They are, and the phone facilities are open 24x7. Similar facilities are in operation at Camp Fallujah, and at Al Asad airbase.

--source

now THIS is what America is about.

informational article on democrats and their future in politics

brought to light some 'myths' that i have never heard of, but maybe you have.

The belief Democrats can win if they just do a great job of mobilizing their base. Republicans have improved at mobilizing their own base, so Democrats need to do more than that.

does this mean that doing a great job at mobilizing your base isn't important any more?

The theory demographic changes over time will make Democrats a majority, a questionable concept with the Hispanic vote increasingly up for grabs.

i have never heard such a thing, but isn't it true regardless?

The belief Democrats can succeed politically if they simply learn to talk more effectively about their positions.

now THAT i believe is hitting the nail on the head.

The strategy of avoiding cultural issues, playing down national security and changing the subject to domestic issues. National security is too dominant a concern now.

it is because the 'democrats' allowed republicons to make it a high priority.

The report noted Republican gains among married people, Catholics, Hispanics and women during the last presidential election.

as if democrats didn't make inroads into traditional right-wing demographics.

Democrats must choose to appeal to a broader majority that includes many moderates, said Galston, a political scientist at the University of Maryland.

a classic "me-too" strategy never worked for me.

The Democrats also must develop a coherent foreign policy because "we just don't have one," said Kamarck, a political scientist at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government.

how in the fuck can you sit there and tell me that 'we just don't have' a coherent foreign policy. democrats aren't running around creating wars with everybody like republicons, and you're saying we don't have a coherent foreign policy???

--source

obviously this interview was with a man who strokes his ego more times than harry longdong stroked his dick.

unbelievable

from the BBC

President George W. Bush told Palestinian ministers that God had told him to invade Afghanistan and Iraq - and create a Palestinian State, a new BBC series reveals.

In Elusive Peace: Israel and the Arabs, a major three-part series on BBC TWO (at 9.00pm on Monday 10, Monday 17 and Monday 24 October), Abu Mazen, Palestinian Prime Minister, and Nabil Shaath, his Foreign Minister, describe their first meeting with President Bush in June 2003.

Nabil Shaath says: "President Bush said to all of us: 'I'm driven with a mission from God. God would tell me, "George, go and fight those terrorists in Afghanistan." And I did, and then God would tell me, "George, go and end the tyranny in Iraq …" And I did. And now, again, I feel God's words coming to me, "Go get the Palestinians their state and get the Israelis their security, and get peace in the Middle East." And by God I'm gonna do it.'"

proof that george bush junior is in serious need of professional mental help.

so it's case closed then?

The CIA will not seek to hold any current or former agency officials, including ex-director George J. Tenet, responsible for failures leading up to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, CIA Director Porter J. Goss said yesterday, despite a recommendation by the agency's inspector general that he convene an "accountability board" to judge their performance.

--WaPo

did anybody really think that anybody in this administration would ever be held accountable for the uncountable failures that have happened on their watch?

puleeeeze, get over yourself. this is an administration that teflon built.

more cronyism?

one would have to think that America has had enough of the cronyism rampant in this administration, when lo' and behold, we find there's more.

from today's papers over at slate:

Vaccines are high risk and don't make big bucks, so most companies aren't interested in making them. Leavitt wouldn't go into detail on the administration's plan, and it isn't clear whether it will address the vaccine-production issue. (Not mentioned but potentially worth exploring: HHS's Assistant Secretary for Public Health Emergency Preparedness—the point person for responding to flue pandemic—seems to have limited expertise in public health as well as emergency preparedness.)

is there ANYbody in this government that is left and has the qualifications needed for the job they're holding?

Letter Of The Day

It doesn't matter if the U.S. Small Business Administration's 9/11 disaster loan-guarantee program was "legitimate." The idea that a pizza restaurant in Iowa received a SBA guaranteed loan because it was "adversely impacted financially by 9/11" is just plain wrong.

The 9/11 disaster was simply used as an excuse to provide a little more pork to every state in the nation.

We must demand that our elected officials not just throw money at a problem without any apparent accountability. Unfortunately, I have very low expectations that our current elected officials will do the right thing and not simply rubber stamp huge funding requests for the Hurricane Katrina disaster.

I've heard and read too many times that we must accept "a certain amount of fraud" when responding to a disaster. No we don't.

-Kurt Johnson, Urbandale.
--attribution

no, kurt, we DON'T!

it's not often i quote druge sludge in here

but today is different.

FBI CHARGES MARINE WITH STEALING DOCUMENTS AND GIVING THEM TO PHILIPPINES... WORKED FOR CHENEY; WORKED IN WHITE HOUSE FOR 3 YEARS... TOP SECRET CLEARANCE; STOLE FROM WHITE HOUSE COMPUTERS... 100+ DOCUMENTS...

--drudge
another collaboration is HERE.

for this reason alone, heads should roll

Following Hurricane Katrina, the Federal Emergency Management Agency decided to pay $236 million to Carnival Cruise Lines to house evacuees.

According to a joint statement issued by Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) and Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.), a Senate investigation found that equaled $2,550 per week, per evacuee. That’s “four times the amount a vacation cruise passenger would have to pay,” according to the statement.

To rub saltwater in the wound, those cruise lines aren’t even full now. Greece offered to give the United States free cruise ships, but the U.S. government didn’t accept them.
--source

can there ever be a more glaring example of why a crony-filled administration is bad for America?

and speaking of the fuhrer...

BAGHDAD -- "I don't know if I have the moral authority to send troops into combat anymore," a senior American general recently told United Press International.

He knows what his power means -- that on his word hundreds or thousands of young men would step into danger.

"I'm no longer sure I can look (a soldier or a Marine) in the eye and say: 'This is something worth dying for.'"

He doesn't mean Iraq. There are plenty of bad people here to fight, and plenty of innocents worth protecting.

His moral crisis was that he had been to Washington, D.C.

He had been asked politically loaded questions from both sides of aisle about the war, each questioner seeking ammunition to use for their own political ends.

He was dismayed. And he's not the only one.

"Everything that happens in Iraq is viewed in Washington through a prism of whether it is good for George W. Bush or bad," said a civilian U.S. official, who spoke to UPI on the condition he not be named.
--source

we could have told them years ago: nothing gets done because it's good for the American people, but whether or not this is good for george bush junior. georgie can now say that he's been able to have people bow to him and wait on him hand and foot like the king he thinks he is. when in reality, he's been nothing but a boil on the butt of every American in this country.

Joke Of The Day

this aint no joke. had the t-shirt been about the movie, would any of this ever have been an issue? it was because of the bush lovers not being able to handle anybody pissin on their fuhrer.

A Portland woman's flight home was stopped short in Reno, all because the message on the T-shirt she was wearing.

The shirt had pictures of members of the Bush Administration, and a phrase based on the movie "Meet the Fockers," but with one crucial vowel changed.

It was enough to cause complaints from other passengers and it's a problem the airline has had to deal with before.
--source

Good News Of The Day

The WP fronts (and others tease) news that Tom DeLay was indicted again, this time on much more serious felony charges of money laundering. Two charges allege that DeLay conspired to and did launder $190,000 of corporate contributions through an arm of the RNC, to funnel to Republican candidates for the Texas House of Representatives. If convicted, DeLay could face life in prison.

oh one can ONLY hope. and pray.

if katrina was ever to produce a story worth remembering

http://nytimes.com/2005/10/02/national/nationalspecial/02ice.html?hp&ex=1128312000&en=9116c3ab770e5867&ei=5094&partner=homepage

something i didn't know

but did....

Robert Reich, writing in the October issue of the American Prospect, said, "George W. Bush cares about winning elections and putting his ideological stamp on the nation, but doesn't give a hoot about governing the place."
--source

george bush junior never worked a day in his life. he doesn't give a flying fuck about anybody except himself, and his buddies who bow down to him. he's a pathetic excuse for a human being. he makes my skin crawl, my stomach turn, and my pretty mind dirty.

tim russert: excuse me while i puke

he's got a democrat & a republican on.

he softballs the republican with panzy questions about tom delay. he pushes the democrat on stupid shit to the point i'd wanna slap him upside his head. this 2 against 1 pisses me off.

scary like a halloween movie, on halloween in a cemetary

a good thread to watch on negroponte's meteoric rise in power, and the implications of such.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x1819633#1819640

heard of bill bennett?

ya, THAT guy. lookie what cropped up:

When I was chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (1993-97), I asked Bill Bennett to visit my office so that I could ask him for help in seeking legislation that would pay for internet access in all classrooms and libraries in the country. Eventually Senators Olympia Snowe and Jay Rockefeller, with the White House leadership of President Clinton and Vice President Gore, put that provision in the Telecommunications Law of 1996, and today nearly 90% of all classrooms and libraries do have such access. The schools covered were public and private. So far the federal funding (actually collected from everyone as part of the phone bill) has been matched more or less equally with school district funding to total about $20 billion over the last seven years. More than 90% of all teachers praise the impact of such technology on their work. At any rate, since Mr. Bennett had been Secretary of Education I asked him to support the bill in the crucial stage when we needed Republican allies. He told me he would not help, because he did not want public schools to obtain new funding, new capability, new tools for success. He wanted them, he said, to fail so that they could be replaced with vouchers,charter schools, religious schools, and other forms of private education. Well, I thought, at least he's candid about his true views. The key Senate committee voted almost on party lines on the bill, all D's for and all R's against, except one -- Olympia Snowe. Her support provided the margin of victory. On the House side, Speaker Gingrich made sure the provision was not in the companion bill, but in conference again Senators Snowe and Rockefeller, with White House support, made the difference. The Internet has been the first technology made available to students in poorly funded schools at about the same time and in about the same way as to students in well funded schools.

--source

so much for values and bill bennett. we know where his lie.

Letters Of The Day

a whole slew of 'em today about iowa's embarrassment in congress, steve king.

Fifth District Congressman Steve King recently admonished a speaker to brush up on her history and then noted that "Joseph McCarthy was a great American Hero."

I've read my history, and Joseph McCarthy was a delusional, deceitful, self-aggrandizing, manipulative, career- and life-ruining monster whose infamous political ascent was knowingly abetted by the collective cowardice of the House and the Senate.

Some hero. Some congressman.

-Dave Swenson, Ames.

I hope U.S. Rep. Steve King gets his wall built. Around himself.

-Barbara Moore, Boone.

When Rep. Steve King runs out of stupid pills, don't let him renew his prescription.

-Ron Shoop, Urbandale.

Congressman Steve King's remarks about Joe McCarthy being a great American hero don't surprise me. They are very consistent with other things he's had to say, such as the torture of Iraqi prisoners being no worse than a frat-house hazing, America needing an "official" language, and the best way to stop terrorism in this country is to build a fence between us and Mexico.

What does surprise me is that the Register endorsed him in his last campaign. Maybe you thought he could bring home some federal bacon, but, while he is popular in his local base, that base is crumbling on a national level, as evidenced by the Bush numbers going into free-fall over Iraq and Katrina, and the Republican leaders of both bodies coming under federal indictment.

-Roy Applegate, Spencer.

So, the late Sen. Joe McCarthy is Rep. Steve King's "great American hero." What a surprise! I don't know what history King is reading, but my history identifies the real heroes as the men who brought McCarthy down, men like CBS correspondent Edward R. Murrow and Army counsel Joseph N. Welch who, at the Army-McCarthy hearings blistered McCarthy with the simple remark: "Have you no sense of decency?"

For those too young to remember, I lived through the McCarthy era and believe me, he was no great American hero.

-Douglas W. Hansen, Storm Lake.

There are many reasons why I am glad that I live in the Des Moines area. Chief among them today is that I am in a congressional district that is NOT represented by Steve King.

-Clint Davis, Des Moines.

If Rep. Steve King considers Joe McCarthy a "great American hero," citing a historical perspective, I'm sure he would also have supported slavery and the Salem witch-hunts as the "American values" of their time. We should be looking to history to learn from our mistakes, not applaud them.

-Kathi Stanfield, Indianola.

--source

prediction time

what will happen in iraq next month? from slate's today's papers:

The NYT has a slightly different takeaway from the generals' chat. It inexplicably skips the state of the Iraqi army and instead offers: "OFFICIALS FEAR CHAOS IF IRAQIS VOTE DOWN THE CONSTITUTION." Which is true enough; what it misses, and the story doesn't mention, is that many independent analysts—including Slate's Fred Kaplan—"fear chaos" if the constitution is approved.

iraq is heading towards national chaos, otherwise known as civil war. we have been predicting that for months, and october is going to be the month that determines our accuracy.

the judy miller saga

judy miller, that nytimes reporter who was a mouthpiece for the dark side, was released yesterday from jail. she had the opportunity to be out long long ago, but wanted to play victim for as long as she could stroke the sympathy band.

she makes my skin crawl.

Letter Of The Day

today's winner comes from a town just south of where i am.

In a Sept. 21 Register story about Social Security, Sen. Charles Grassley said, "I'm the guy saddled with the responsibility of saving Social Security for our grandchildren." Senator Grassley, your responsibility is much broader than that. It includes saving America's entire economy for our grandchildren.

The Iraq war and Hurricane Katrina go on our national credit card. A prescription-drug bill and massive spending on pork projects slide through Congress despite record deficits. Interest payments to Japan, China and other lenders climb steadily upward. Wages are stagnant. Energy and health costs soar. Our ability to compete in a global economy seems to be eroding.

Meanwhile, Congress will continue to negotiate over tax cuts.

My simple brain just can't grasp the concept of cutting taxes while increasing spending. It keeps telling me that if you cut revenue you must cut spending. I have a credit card, too, but it will eventually max out. You can't spend what you don't have, at least not for very long.

Yet Congress continues to spend and ignores deficits while promoting even more tax cuts. I wish they'd explain this trick to America's household budgeters, farmers, businessmen and others who have to pay bills at the end of the month. And to my grandchildren.

-Dick Heimer, Sheffield.
--source

my first picture post

and i'm wondering if it'll come out. it's a picture i just took. *shhhh* don't tell anybody.

and this guy used to be the head of something in government

the headline over at mediamatters:

Bill Bennett: "[Y]ou could abort every black baby in this country, and your crime rate would go down"

--mediamatters

you can ALWAYS tell a person who listens to limbaugh

like this one:

Lovell Beaulieu's Sept. 23 article on the tragedy in New Orleans made some valid points, but he left out the most glaring fact: the absolute failure of the welfare state. He also did not mention how inept and corrupt the local goverment officials are.

-Jerry Mundt, Cedar Falls.

--source

Letter Of The Day

we're BACK!

today's winner is a young adult, writing for the des moines register's young adult board:

It seems whenever there is a document, photograph, or report that reflects negatively on the Bush administration or obstructs its goal in some way, this administration instantly, instinctively suppresses it. Be the piece of information a photograph of coffins of soldiers arriving at Dover Air Force Base or a document providing information on the president's latest nominee to some important political post, the response is almost always to hide it from the public — usually under the fraudulent excuse of "national security."

This was seen again in the latest round of exigencies when reporters were told at gunpoint they could not film a corpse in New Orleans and senators were told they would not be given all the documents they desired while considering John Roberts.

These events put a cartoon published in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel earlier this year in eerie context. The cartoon depicts a clean-cut Saddam Hussein reading a newspaper with the headline "Reporter Jailed" and a thought bubble reading "Now, that's my kind of Democracy!" It reminds us that it is not merely enough to call our country a "democracy" if the administration doesn't provide the public with one of the things most required for a democracy: information.

- Bryce Bauer, Audubon
--source

hey dan, you just keep on keepin on

September 28, 2005 -- DAN Rather wants to reopen the investigation into President Bush and the National Guard story that resulted in the Memogate scandal and led to his early departure from the anchor desk.

But his bosses at CBS have forbidden him to go back at it, he said.

"CBS News doesn't want me to do that story," Rather said during an interview that aired on C-SPAN Monday night.

"They wouldn't let me do that story," he said during the shockingly frank interview with former NBC newsman Marvin Kalb.

Rather continues to insist that the story was correct and suggested in the interview that he and the network may have been set up by some outsider.

--nypost

i KNOW who set him up. we allll know who set him up. i'll bet the only reason he doesn't say is because he can't yet prove it.

it's the bush way

WASHINGTON, Sept. 27 - An Army captain who reported new allegations of detainee abuse in Iraq said Tuesday that Army investigators seemed more concerned about tracking down young soldiers who reported misconduct than in following up the accusations and investigating whether higher-ranking officers knew of the abuses.

--source

it really sickens me the way those in control escape responsibility for their utter incompetence.

Quote of the Day

"A lot of the maintenance work we'd normally be doing has gone to KBR," Moody said, referring to Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg, Brown & Root. "We're trained by the military to do this job, and it's going to civilian employees."
--attribution

Quote of the Day

"No one disputes the right of the President to make his policy recommendations known to Congress and the public. Yet there is a vital line between legitimately informing the public, as the President did in his State of the Union address, and commandeering the vast resources of the federal government to fund a political campaign for Social Security privatization."
--Senator Henry Waxman in a letter to U.S. Comptroller General David M. Walker

SOURCE

the only way this administration can sell its policies is to brainwash the populace. they do it with a lapdog media hungry for access.

HYPOCRISY ALERT

this was a series i did in I.T.M. and was used to exhibit the enormous hypocrisy of this administration.

here's the first of probably many, many ... many more displays of utter arrogance.

WASHINGTON President Bush is on his seventh trip to the Gulf Coast since Hurricane Katrina hit a month ago. The visit comes even as he encourages Americans to save gas, and to cut out unnecessary travel. He says federal employees will do the same.

The president's spokesman says this trip is, in fact, essential -- so the president can get a look at recovery efforts.

Spokesman Scott McClellan says the president's motorcade of gas-guzzling vans and S-U-Vs is being shortened. But it's hard to make similar savings on Air Force One. The Air Force recently estimated that fuel costs on the presidential aircraft have risen past six-thousand-dollars an hour, up from just under four-thousand in the last budget year.

--source

the republicon politico machine

a good post by josh on how jack abramoff fits into washington's elite (read corrupt) money monster.
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/week_2005_09_25.php#006629

Joke of the Day

An extraordinary appeal to Americans from the Bush administration for money to help pay for the reconstruction of Iraq has raised only $600 (£337), The Observer has learnt. Yet since the appeal was launched earlier this month, donations to rebuild New Orleans have attracted hundreds of millions of dollars.
...

It is understood to be the first time that a US government has made an appeal to taxpayers for foreign aid money. Contributors have no way of knowing who will receive their donations or even where they may go, after officials said details had be kept secret for security reasons.

USaid's Heather Layman denied it was disappointed with the meagre sum raised after a fortnight. 'Every little helps,' she said.

--source

ya, every little bit helps? helps what??

i believe the national enquirer

even if it's the tiniest part of the story that is true, to get something like this out of fantasy, well, just isn't possible.

bush is back on the bottle. so what. he lies about everything else, so why would we want to believe him when he says he's not boozin again.

The National Enquirer is reporting that the president's troubles have literally driven him to drink. "Faced with the biggest crisis of his political life, President Bush has hit the bottle again," the Enquirer says.

As you might expect, the sourcing for the story is a little vague. In an odd sort of grammatical construction, the Enquirer says that "family sources have told" -- to whom, it doesn't say -- that the president was "caught by First Lady Laura downing a shot of booze" in Crawford, Texas, when "he learned of the hurricane disaster." "One insider" says that Bush "apparently" reached for a "Texas-sized shot of straight whiskey" when water flooded into New Orleans. Another "Washington source" says: "The sad fact is that he has been sneaking drinks for weeks now. Laura may have only just caught him -- but the word is his drinking has been going on for a while in the capital. He's been in a pressure cooker for months."

--salon

so there ya have it. the national enquirer, backed up by salon, makes for an interesting case, especially against a proven liar.

wonder why tuition is so high?

take a look at American University. a fine read into the backsides of what the leaders of our learning institutions do for themselves at the expense of others. a horrifying tale of utter ego-maniac-ness.

WASHINGTON, Sept. 23 - Benjamin Ladner, the president of American University, who has been suspended pending an investigation of expenses that he charged to the college, has agreed to accept a more modest contract if the board votes to return him to office, his lawyer and several board members said on Friday.

--nytimes

does that mean rummy is a confirmed liar now?

caught this in today's papers:

Off-lead in the NYT, there's a new report of prisoner abuse in Iraq. This time it's a confession by three former soldiers in the legendary 82^nd Airborne to Human Rights Watch that detainees were routinely beaten in 2003 and 2004. According to the LAT, one sergeant says the troops were acting on orders form military intelligence. He decided to come forward after he heard Donald Rumsfeld say the military had changed its procedures after Abu Ghraib.

Letters Of The Day

Federal Emergency Management Agency Director Michael Brown has resigned. It would be very wrong to let Brown be the scapegoat for FEMA's sins. The real scandal is that somewhere along the line FEMA became a dumping ground for the president's political cronies with little experience in disaster relief.

The agency's previous director was Joe Albaugh, who was President Bush's 2000 campaign chairman. Albaugh brought in the current failure, whose previous work was with Arabian horses.

The No. 2 guy, Patrick Rhode, worked for the 2000 election campaign. The No. 3 guy is Brooks Altshuler, who used to plan presidential trips. FEMA's long-term recovery director is a guy named Scott Morris, who produced television and radio commercials for the Bush campaign.

None of these guys is qualified to head an emergency-management agency.

How is it possible that four years after 9/11, the president treats a federal agency vital to homeland security as a patronage prize? Call me naive, but it's a real blow to learn that political hacks have been running FEMA, of all agencies of the federal government.

-William C. Stosine, Iowa City.

George Bush said, "I as president am responsible for the problem and for the solution." So why did he fire FEMA Director Michael Brown? Brown claims before and during the storm he called the White House repeatedly and received absolutely no response.

-Steve Stanley, Earlham.

--attribution

if this aint corruption, i dont know what is

The Post and NYT front the indictment of the White House's just-resigned top procurement official, David Safavian, for allegedly giving under-the-table help to uber-lobbyist Jack Abramoff and then lying to investigators about it. Safavian as Post puts it, "set purchasing policy for the entire government," he resigned last week, with the indictments were written up. According to a piece in Government Executive magazine last year, he came to the gig with little procurement experience. Before his time in the administration, he worked as a lobbyist with Jack Abramoff. (And final bit of fun: Safavian's wife is the top lawyer on the House committee that oversees government procurement.)

On Vacation - if you will

i'm leaving for nyc this afternoon, and am excited at the prospect of getting a fabulous apt. but i'll continue to make posts from the city - they can't keep this ol' bitch down.

bush's power grab

first 9/11 allowed this criminal to exact more power for himself, and now katrina is offering up (in his mind anyway) the same scenario:

WASHINGTON — President Bush on Monday urged Congress to examine whether the White House needs stronger powers to deal with catastrophes like Hurricane Katrina.

Bush’s backing for the congressional inquiry raised the possibility that lawmakers might expand presidential authority to:

• Order mandatory civilian evacuations

• Dispatch U.S.-based armed forces for emergency search-and-rescue operations

• Grant wider leeway for active-duty U.S. military personnel to carry out law enforcement operations.

--source

he's already got those powers, and yet failed to use them to prevent lives:

from http://www.ohioema.org/robertt.htm:

Sec. 402. In any major disaster, the President may -

(1) direct any Federal agency, with or without reimbursement, to utilize its authorities and the resources granted to it under Federal law (including personnel, equipment, supplies, facilities, and managerial, technical, and advisory services) in support of State and local assistance efforts;
(2) coordinate all disaster relief assistance (including voluntary assistance) provided by Federal agencies, private organizations, and State and local governments;
(3) provide technical and advisory assistance to affected State and local governments for -
(A) the performance of essential community services;
(B) issuance of warnings of risks and hazards;
(C) public health and safety information, including dissemination of such information;
(D) provision of health and safety measures; and
(E) management, control, and reduction of immediate threats to public health and safety; and
(4) assist State and local governments in the distribution of medicine, food, and other consumable supplies, and emergency assistance.

BUSTED!

busted! was a series of articles i did in another forum where the bushites were caught with their pants down lying about something. here we go again:

WASHINGTON, Sept. 13 - American aviation officials were warned as early as 1998 that Al Qaeda could "seek to hijack a commercial jet and slam it into a U.S. landmark," according to previously secret portions of a report prepared last year by the Sept. 11 commission. The officials also realized months before the Sept. 11 attacks that two of the three airports used in the hijackings had suffered repeated security lapses.

--nytimes

remember bush whining about how nobody ever thought of terrorists using airplanes, and 'certainly never' thought they would use them to crash into buildings? how many months did it take to prove him wrong? obviously, the times thought long enough that nobody would remember.

Letter Of The Day

News flash: That old adage about how crime doesn't pay? Guess what? That's no longer true. In America in 2005, crime does pay.

I learned recently that someone had used my card to buy an Ipod Mini. I called the store where the item was purchased and in five minutes had the name and address of the person who used my card (he had the item shipped to his home).

But too bad for me: The person who committed the fraud lives in Santa Ana, Calif., and I live in Ames. Can you tell where this is going? The Santa Ana police aren't interested because I don't live there, and the Ames police aren't interested because the crime was committed in Santa Ana. Nor does the FBI care.

Silly me! I thought using someone else's credit card was a crime.

So if you want free Ipods, flat-screen TVs, computers or whatever, find someone's credit card and have at it. No one will try to stop you. And when you've shopped till you've dropped, take your shoes off, relax and ponder the joys of life in 21st-century America — the land where crime pays.

-M. M. Ogle, Ames.

--source