I've been busy. 3 ft. of snow in the last 24 hrs. Check the cam.
Tired ol' Gord
. . . If Bush were a statesman, he would have flown to Jakarta and announced his solidarity with the Muslims of Indonesia (which has suffered at least 40,000 dead and rising).
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The president’s brother, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, who has experience with extensive hurricane damage in Florida, will travel with [SECSTATE]Powell. A congressional delegation headed by Rep. Jim Leach, R-Iowa, a former U.S. foreign service officer, is scheduled to visit Thailand and Sri Lanka next week.
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Set up an early warning or detection system against natural disasters? It looks good on paper, but who will foot the bill? Asia has weathered countless natural disasters that have claimed millions of lives. In the medium term, the odds of a tsunami disaster of this scale happening again are rather small. Governments certainly will pragmatically take their chances rather than devote resources to a project akin to an insurance policy against a natural disaster which may or may not happen again for many years.
There are many far more pressing problems on Asian governments' agendas. Natural disasters are perceived fatalistically as unavoidable. It's easier and cheaper to lose a few sheep from the flock to the wolves, than it is to go to the trouble of seeking new pastures free from wolves. Cynical as it may sound, that is the old way for Asia and last Sunday's disaster won't change it.
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) - Prosecutors agreed to drop an illegal campaign contribution charge against Sears, Roebuck and Co. in exchange for its cooperation in an investigation of contributions to a political action committee associated with House Majority Leader Tom DeLay.
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Under the agreement, Sears will cooperate with Texas officials in their prosecution and investigation of other people for any offense related to the corporate contribution that Sears made. O'Leary said Sears also will give $100,000 to the University of Texas for a campaign finance law awareness program.
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. . .Conservatives believe in America the fighter, America the country with the largest military and the most advanced bombing technology. Liberals believe in America the idea, the America of the Marshall Plan and the Declaration of Independence. . .
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Republican elders who warned of endless war are purged. Those who advised Bush that Saddam was building nuclear weapons, that with a light military force the operation would be a "cakewalk", and that capturing Baghdad was "mission accomplished", are rewarded.
The outgoing secretary of state, fighting his last battle, is leaking stories to the Washington Post about how his advice went unheeded. Secretary of defence Donald Rumsfeld, whose heart beats with the compassion of a crocodile, clings to his job by staging Florence Nightingale-like tableaux of hand-holding of the wounded while declaiming into the desert wind about "victory". Since the election, 203 US soldiers have been killed and 1,674 wounded.
WASHINGTON - Pakistan, the United States' premier ally in the "war on terrorism", has laid down the agenda for the Bush administration for the next four years on what it expects in exchange for continued cooperation to hunt down al-Qaeda.
On the menu is a slew of demands, ranging from continued economic aid to a generous flow of weapons. But above all is the expectation of a long-term relationship, especially in light of what Washington is building with India under the title of the "Next Steps in Strategic Partnership".
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But what was noted by observers was the language he used to deliver the message. He sounded more like a teacher telling a pupil the level of performance he expected from the Americans, said diplomatic observers. He seemed to be drawing a clear parallel between payment and delivery, which led to questions whether the changes in policy that Pakistan has pursued post-September 11, 2001, have been made because they are good for Pakistan, or because they bring US arms and aid.
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Even though the Bush administration has embraced Pakistan as a key and indispensable ally in its "war on terrorism" and publicly defended Musharraf on every issue - from the Khan affair to the re-emergence of the Taliban to his refusal to relinquish his post as army chief as promised - the US media and many congressmen and senators have repeatedly raised questions about Pakistan's commitment to the United States. Editorials in respected newspapers have questioned the reliability of Pakistan as an ally, and whether the US is giving Musharraf a pass despite the many problems.
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Saudi security forces say they have killed seven suspected militants connected to two car bomb attacks in the capital Riyadh. The Dubai-based Al-Arabiya television station said the seven were suspected of involvement in the bombings against the interior ministry and a security forces camp which left several people wounded. Saudi Arabia, the world's largest oil exporter, has been battling a wave of al Qaeda-linked violence.
Fannie Mae
Raines is finally out at Fannie Mae. The company seems to be in increasing difficulties, with recent investigations by regulatory agencies finding that Fannie Mae has hidden about $9 billion in losses over the past few years, basically by using the same accounting trick that WorldCom used a few years ago. It's unclear at this point how much of this Raines is to blame for, but it is increasingly clear that we'll be reading more bad news about Fannie Mae through 2005. And because of Fannie Mae's sheer size (about $1 trillion each in assets and liabilities), bad news for Fannie Mae could well mean bad news for the US's financial system in general.
Donald the Reptile Rumsfeld
Tell us the truth about Fallujah, tell us the truth about Iraq
A war zone is a great filter for the truth and when the United States of America says it is sending in camera crews with the troops to record what is happening, after all the hype and spin and lies, the suspicions arise that there is in fact a cover-up going on, a massive cover-up, especially when one confronts the official version of events with the information circulating on the Internet.
Is it just chatter that the US Armed Forces sustained thousands of casualties in Fallujah? Is it just chatter that thousands of wounded are spirited out of the country at night-time? Is it just chatter that burials take place under cover of darkness? Is it just chatter that the whole campaign has been disastrously mismanaged from the beginning, that US troops are at the mercy of snipers, booby-traps and counter-offensives which kill and maim tens of soldiers every day?
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Is it true, Mr. Rumsfeld, that you used a machine to sign your name on letters of condolences? Couldn't you even be bothered to put pen to paper? Not that this is in the slightest surprising. After the lies, after the torture scandal, after the illegal murders, what to expect from a reptilian man with cold blood cursing through his veins who is the personification of every reason why the United States of America of the Bush regime has the status of most hated nation in the hearts and minds of the international community at the end of 2004?
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. . . If Bush were a statesman, he would have flown to Jakarta and announced his solidarity with the Muslims of Indonesia (which has suffered at least 40,000 dead and rising).
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As the Bush administration looks to revamp the tax code, New York officials say they are particularly worried about one idea being considered: eliminating the federal deduction for state and local taxes.
If the president pursues this plan, New York State would lose about $37 billion per year in federal tax deductions, more than almost any other state, according to Internal Revenue Service data. The change would affect about 3.2 million households in New York, three-quarters of which are middle- and low-income, tax records indicate.
"This change would be one of the worst things for New York to came out of Washington in a long time," said Senator Charles E. Schumer. "But if they take this route they can expect a serious fight."
With a 7.7 percent maximum state income tax rate, the second-highest in the country behind California's 9.3 percent, New York would be especially affected because its residents use those taxes to take large federal deductions. About 38 percent of households in New York file for some sort of federal deduction of state and local taxes.
New York City residents, who also pay city income taxes, would be especially hard hit as they could expect an 11 percent increase in the amount they pay the I.R.S., or an increase of about $3.4 billion, said Ronnie Lowenstein, director of the city's Independent Budget Office.
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WASHINGTON (AP) - The Homeland Security Department has allowed federal grants for improving security at America's ports to be spent on low priority problems rather than the most serious vulnerabilities, the agency's outgoing watchdog says.
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The Healing a Divided America Act: Shocked and saddened by the divisive nature of the recent Presidential campaign, President Bush will attempt to reach out to and pacify the two warring cultures in our country. Accordingly, a twenty-foot-high concrete security wall, topped by electrified razor wire, will be constructed as a barrier between blue states and red. Democrats and Republicans will have thirty days to relocate to blue states and red states, respectively, or else they will be placed in attractive government relocation camps for their own safety and comfort.
The Tax Simplification Act: Beginning in 2005, all taxpayers in the top one-per-cent income bracket will pay a flat one-per-cent tax, taxpayers in the top two-per-cent bracket will pay a flat two-per-cent tax, and so on.
The Endangered Species Preservation Act: All endangered species will immediately be preserved by a national corps of expert taxidermists.
The Keeping Our Young People Out of Harm’s Way Act: All young persons age eighteen or over will be placed out of harm’s way in training facilities where they will be issued M-16 rifles and taught how to defend themselves in the event of an attack from a hostile power, or, if the country is not attacked, how to defend themselves when dropped off in countries desperately in need of regime change.
The Separation of Church and State Act: There will be no separation of church and state.
RIP
Susan Sontag
A dumbed-down America just got quite a bit dumber.
If that's possible...
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And worse, they are so caught up in their inside the beltway, high-stakes power games that even if we screamed our lungs out over here in our little corner of the universe....we'd still appear as this tiny fraction of the equation. Be a dear and weight the pro-Dean, blog-driven dissent by any extra factor or two, would you, Harry....
We are bloggers and citizens, and our politics should no longer be about them....our politics should reflect who we are and who we fight for. In fact, the question I have tonight is not who will be chair of the DNC, but, with all due respect, if all we're doing is shoring up a "business-as-usual party" why should I care?
When I walk the streets and see my brothers and sisters..I know exactly who I'm fighting for. When I hold a newborn in my arms and think of my own life half over, I know who I'm fighting for. When I think of the rainbow of citizens every election day going to and from work at the West Oakland BART station, I realize how hollow the rhetoric coming from our Democratic leadership has been. When I think of Paul Wellstone, and all that his political life stood for, what direction that life was pointed in, I know the answer to my question.
It's not simply that the heads of Democratic Congressional delegations have seen fit to nominate an anti-choice, "concede before we've begun to fight" on Social Security Democrat...it's that in doing so they've proven to me that they have nothing whatsoever to do with our lives.
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Next time you hear some politician or conservative pundit blather on about what a generous country we are, remember this; we’re devoting less than half of what Bush is planning to spend on his own inauguration to helping people recover from one of the worst natural disasters in human history. I suppose it’s just a coincidence that we’re reading this on the very same day.
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One evening as the sun went down and the jungle fire was burning
Down the track came a hobo hiking and he said boys I'm not turning
I'm headin for a land that's far away beside the crystal fountains
So come with me we'll go and see the Big Rock Candy Mountains
In the Big Rock Candy Mountains there's a land that's fair and bright
Where the handouts grow on bushes and you sleep out every night
Where the boxcars are all empty and the sun shines every day
On the birds and the bees and the cigarette trees
Where the lemonade springs where the bluebird sings
In the Big Rock Candy Mountains
In the Big Rock Candy Mountains all the cops have wooden legs
And the bulldogs all have rubber teeth and the hens lay soft boiled eggs
The farmer's trees are full of fruit and the barns are full of hay
Oh, I'm bound to go where there ain't no snow
Where the rain don't fall and the wind don't blow
In the Big Rock Candy Mountains
In the Big Rock Candy Mountains you never change your socks
And the little streams of alcohol come a-trickling down the rocks
The brakemen have to tip their hats and the railroad bulls are blind
There's a lake of stew and of whiskey too
You can paddle all around 'em in a big canoe
In the Big Rock Candy Mountains
In the Big Rock Candy Mountains the jails are made of tin
And you can walk right out again as soon as you are in
There ain't no short handled shovels, no axes saws or picks
I'm a goin to stay where you sleep all day
Where they hung the jerk that invented work
In the Big Rock Candy Mountains
I'll see you all this coming fall in the Big Rock Candy Mountains
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President Al Gore's "Brooklyn Project" to achieve American energy independence bears fruit as the first solar/hydrogen hybrid car, the Ford Sunburst, rolled off the assembly line. The car runs primarily on power generated by its super efficient-solar panels with supplemental power from light-weight hydrogen fuel cells. The fuel cells run on hydrogen produced at the Pacific Solar Farm, which extracts storable hydrogen fuel from seawater using power generated by a mammoth array of solar panels floating off the coast of California.
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That's mostly right. The real challenge for the left is making people care about anything once it slips off the front page. Hey America? What happened to those stolen munitions? What about that bureaucrat who got browbeat into concealing the true cost of Medicare? Come to think of it, who did out Valerie Plame? What was all that stuff about Tom DeLay's ethics? Didn't the troops need more armor or something? And wasn't there some controversy over Bush knowingly using bad intelligence to lead us to war?
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Wow, I'm not the only one who thinks she's both incompetent and an idiot. If she can't explain a core belief of the people who pay her, then why the fuck are they paying her?
She is simply not competent at her job and no one will say so.