But at least in this country we're thrashing out vital issues in the meantime, such as steroids in sports, the of disposition of Terri Schiavo's feeding tube, if the Ten Commandments belong in every washroom, and whether or not convicted sex offenders should be forced to drive with pink license plates in the state of Ohio. We'll have those culture-war controversies all nice and tidy by the time the earth begins to bake and Bush has chain-sawed the last standing tree.
For those that thought that there has not been a full scale war lanched against liberals; for those who didn't take the radical right's promise to "eradicate liberals" seriously, I present to you, Exhibit A: East Waynesville Baptist Church has just kicked out all its Democratic members.
Yes. You read that right. If you didn't vote for Bush, you had to "repent your sin". And finally, they figured why deal with the liberal sinners at all..
A suspected bomb at the downtown Truckee Amtrak station was determined to be a false alarm Thursday night, but not before the historic main street area was evacuated for several hours.
The discovery of a black leather brief case placed near a gas meter at the Amtrak depot on Truckee’s historic Commercial Row forced the evacuation of the area at about 5:15 p.m. and closed down the Union Pacific Railroad’s main route over the Sierra Nevada for approximately four hours.
After the Placer County Sheriff’s Office bomb squad reported to the scene at approximately 8 p.m., officers X-rayed the brief case and then fired a water cannon at it. The luggage failed to explode. Officers then opened the bag at about 9:15 p.m. to discover clothing items, according to Alex Terrazas, the Town of Truckee’s assistant to town manager.
“It’s better to be safe than sorry,” Terrazas said.
The discovery of the suspicious brief case came after Amtrak officials contacted the Town of Truckee earlier in the week during routine communications to be on the lookout for suspicious activity, Terrazas said.
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Now, however, your website plans to run an ad in Tuesday's USA Today. And you're asking for donations. More money. Again. Lord, I don't understand...
Call me disrespectful, Senator, but I really don't think it's asking too much of you to, just one friggin' time, solicit Theresa for the necessary funds before you come panhandling to that portion of your 55 million plus still willing to lend you a goddamned ear. Precious few of us are sitting on family fortunes, in case you were unaware...
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The need of fundamentalists and others to have the details of the Bible accepted as empirical fact has always puzzled me. My minister Dad always used to say that if you can prove it, then it's no longer faith. Buddhists, for example, subject their faith to no such demands -- Buddhist teachers throughout the millennia have made up stories about the life of the Buddha to demonstrate their teachings. But Buddhists have a much more fluid notion of "reality" than the fundies, and nobody is going to take to the streets protesting the veracity of these stories, or lack thereof.
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I swear to god, the next time someone tries to pull that "christianity is under attack in America" bullshit again, I'm gonna pop 'em right in the fucking mouth. You want to know just how much of a vise grip christianity has on the nuts of this nation? Check this story out.
Well here it is! In my home town of Spokane WA, Republican, homophobe, Mayor Jim West has been using his office to lure boys.
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Elise at After School Snack has declared this De-Lurking Week. So, if there are any silent but loyal Shakers out there, speak up, leave a comment, and reveal yourselves (if you dare)!
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We continue the long, bruising slide toward a Republican Fundamentalist state. From the ABA Journal by way of ACSBlog:
The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled a Virginia county can refuse to let a witch give the invocation at its meetings by limiting the privilege to clergy representing Judeo-Christian monotheism.
Washington - The House on Wednesday approved an $81.4 billion emergency spending package for combat and reconstruction in Iraq and Afghanistan, which would push the total cost of the wars beyond $300 billion.
By a 388-43 vote, the House gave President Bush most of the money he had requested, with strong support from both Republicans and Democrats. The Senate will consider its version in April.
The legislation is the fifth emergency spending plan Bush has sent to Congress for wars since the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. It provides $76.8 billion for defense-related expenses and, overall, is roughly $500 million less than the president's request. [my emphases]
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Al Eaton was all set to toss Dan Lungren’s letter in the trash when he noticed something that amazed him. The Rio Vista resident already had no idea why Sacramento’s Republican congressman would be sending him a “reply” for “contacting” his office, given that Eaton had never written to him in the first place. But apparently, Lungren had something to say to the retired high-school teacher and liberal Democrat.
The letter, dated April 4, 2005, starts off by defending the Republican Congress’ push of House Resolution 6, energy legislation that allows drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). While critics say the oil in ANWR would last only six months, Lungren argues that it could last 25 years by being used to “supplement rather than replace our need for foreign oil.” (Congress passed the bill on April 21.)
But it’s what comes next that caught Eaton’s attention. While discussing the nation’s dependency on foreign oil, Lungren writes, “I feel quite strongly that as long as we have our military in the Middle East fighting so that we can continue to purchase oil from that region (my emphasis), we have an obligation to find alternatives to foreign oil. It is difficult to justify the death of even one soldier when we are not doing everything in our power to explore options for oil within our country.”
But was this really a slip in judgment or a sign that Republican leaders are shifting the rhetoric on Iraq one more time?
Ironically, polls are beginning to suggest the public may be psychologically prepared for a shift in rhetoric from the war on terrorism to a battle for oil. According to Editor & Publisher last week, the Gallup Poll shows that half of all Americans now say the Bush administration deliberately misled Americans about whether Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, a 20-percent increase from 2003.
Still, even if there is truth behind Lungren’s apparent rhetorical slip, not everyone is pleased to hear it. After hearing Lungren’s remarks, California Democratic Party spokesman Bob Mulholland characterized the letter as a “tragic” example of Republican hypocrisy.
“Lungren was a 220-pound football player that avoided serving in Vietnam by using a knee injury as an excuse not to go,” countered Mulholland. “He consistently avoided the military. Now that he gets to use it, it won’t be him or his kids that go overseas to die.”
The U.S. Army missed its April recruiting goal by a whopping 42 percent and the Army Reserve fell short by 37 percent, officials said on Tuesday, showing the depth of the military's wartime recruiting woes.
Military recruiters have said potential recruits and their parents were expressing wariness about enlisting during the Iraq war. They said improving civilian job opportunities also were affecting recruiting.
The 5th of May is not Mexican Independence Day, but it should be! And Cinco de Mayo is not an American holiday, but it should be. Mexico declared its independence from mother Spain on midnight, the 15th of September, 1810. And it took 11 years before the first Spanish soldiers were told and forced to leave Mexico.
So, why Cinco de Mayo? And why should Americans savor this day as well? Because 4,000 Mexican soldiers smashed the French and traitor Mexican army of 8,000 at Puebla, Mexico, 100 miles east of Mexico City on the morning of May 5, 1862.
(New York -WABC, May 4, 2005) — There are major changes tonight for the Freedom Tower. As we first reported at five, the state is tossing out the current design because of security concerns - and starting all over.
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MSNBC Breaking News
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Blasts outside U.K. consulate in NYC -
Two explosions were reported early Thursday outside the building that houses the British Consulate in New York, NBC affiliate WNBC-TV reported early Thursday. No injuries were reported.
When pigs fly. Hell, if they drafted those ying-yangs, they'd take their doctors with 'em to get out of it . . .
Why doesn't the Commandant trust his Marines?
I'm a bit embarrassed to ask this. In the March 2005 issue of Leatherneck, page 20 includes a photo of Company B marching in the Presidential Inaugural Parade. The Marines didn't have bolts in their M1 rifles. Nor did the color guard on page 21.
The rifles are not cleared with the bolts locked in the rear of the receivers; they are missing. The operating rod is forward and the follower is exposed.
What gives?
SgtMaj Thomas R. Jablonicky USMC (Ret)
Colby, Wis.
Our readers don't miss a thing.The nation is at war and, consequently, security at the inauguration and related events was high. According to Lance Corporal Earnest J. Barnes, Public Affairs Office, Marine Barracks, Washington, D.C., the bolts were removed from the rifles carried by Marines in the inaugural parade for security purposes by order of the Secret Service. Gunnery Sergeant David Dunaway, USMC (Ret) of Shoreline, Wash., and Joseph Berthelot of Syracuse, N.Y., also took notice. - Sound Off Ed.
Everyone from NPR to the Houston Chronicle is abuzz about the study, "The War on Marijuana; The Transformation of the War on Drugs in the 1990s", done by The Sentencing Project, which shows that a renewed focus on low-level marijuana users resulted in arrests rising from 28% to 45% of total drug arrests from 1992 to 2002. Of the rise in total drug arrests, 80% of the increase came from marijuana arrests of mostly small, recreational users. The price for this is high: the report estimates about $4 billion a year is spent on arresting and prosecution. Think of the health insurance or decent housing that could buy!
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I'm not sure when it happened but white trash is in. I just read it in a national magazine and all I could say was, "Well shit fire and save the matches."
You don't have to be Southern to be white trash, but it helps, mostly because Southerners know the beauty of potted meat and mayonnaise sandwich better than most. As a sort of on-the-bubble white trash girl myself (I've never, technically, had what car dealers describe as "bruised credit"). I'm feeling downright giddy. Why is white trash chic now? Maybe it's just natural backlash to decades of greed and consumption. Whatever the reason, there's much to learn and I can coach even the snobbiest of y'all on how to be WT.
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mainly, if awol is so concerned about social security shortfalls, he should repeal the tax cuts on the upper 1% of the wealthy in this country, and reinstate the entitlement tax.
(the tax formerly known as the "death tax," aka the inheritance tax. it's not a tax on the person who died. it's a tax on the greedy little heirs who think they are entitled to that estate without working for it. an entitlement tax.)
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In a statement, Conyers says he is disappointed the mainstream media has not touched the revelations.
"Unfortunately, the mainstream media in the United States was too busy with wall-to-wall coverage of a "runaway bride" to cover a bombshell report out of the British newspapers."
Dear Mr. President:
We write because of troubling revelations in the Sunday London Times apparently confirming that the United States and Great Britain had secretly agreed to attack Iraq in the summer of 2002, well before the invasion and before you even sought Congressional authority to engage in military action. While various individuals have asserted this to be the case before, including Paul O'Neill, former U.S. Treasury Secretary, and Richard Clarke, a former National Security Council official, they have been previously dismissed by your Administration. However, when this story was divulged last weekend, Prime Minister Blair's representative claimed the document contained "nothing new." If the disclosure is accurate, it raises troubling new questions regarding the legal justifications for the war as well as the integrity of your own Administration.
Angry Bear compares the pensions given in different countries. In Luxembourg workers get 102% of ther average pay. In Austria, Hungary, Spain and Turkey you get 75%.
We get 36-38%.
In parts of Europe the workweek is 35 hours. ("In 2001, France’s national planning agency found “indisputable” evidence that work-time reduction was creating vast numbers of new jobs, helping to bring unemployment down from 12.5 percent in 1997 to an eighteen-year low of 8.6 percent.")
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According to the New York Times, Iraq's oil is flowing at a rate less than before the war, which means the American taxpayers have been covering all of the financial burden, including billions of dollars in unforeseen (if you're a blind ideologue, or a liar) expenses.
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DONALD RUMSFELD: Well, I think when you say "that different," it's important to understand that you can - when the Germans transformed their armed forces into the Blitzkrieg, they transformed only about 5 or 10 percent of their force. Everything else was the same, but they transformed the way they used it, the connectivity between aircraft and forces on the ground, the concentration of it in a specific portion of the line, and it - one would not want to transform 100 percent of your forces. You only need to transform a portion. [my emphasis]
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The only thing "to do" about Social Security is to improve its long run solvency. The only reasonable way to improve its long run solvency is to pre-fund the Trust Fund. But, we have a president running around claiming the trust fund is just a file cabinet, and a bunch of Republicans in Congress who agree. So, throwing more money into the "file cabinet" is just a way to throw more money at tax cuts for the rich. That is, in fact, what the president has told us.
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A Greek medical student at Bologna University who was surfing the web early on Sunday found that with two simple clicks of his computer mouse he could restore censored portions of a 43-page US military inquiry (pdf) into the killing of Italian agent, Nicola Calipari, November 2004, in Baghdad. [my emphasis]
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Hey, you crazy faithful, how 'bout a hand for the Doctor Senator Reverend Indian Chief Bill Frist. Could that guy sweet talk the chrome off the bumper of a '57 Ford or what?
The president takes the podium in the ballroom and begins to tell a joke about cows.
"Not that old joke!" cries a heckler at the head table. Who turns out to be the first lady. She gestures for her husband to take his seat. "I've been attending these dinners for years, just quietly sitting there," Mrs. Bush says. "Now I've got a few things to say."
"I'm proud of George," she told the ballroom. "He's learned a lot about ranching since that first year he tried to milk a horse." Pause. "It was a male horse." Pandemonium ensued in a room filled with tough acts to follow.
"At 9 p.m. Mr. Excitement here is asleep and I'm watching 'Desperate Housewives.' Ladies and gentlemen, I'm a desperate housewife!"
The first lady on her in-laws: "First prize is a three-day vacation with the Bush family. Second prize is 10 days."
North Korea Labels Bush a 'Dictator'
North Korea lashed out at President Bush yesterday for comments he made about the country's leader, Kim Jong Il, at a news conference Thursday, asserting that the North Korean nuclear impasse will never be resolved while Bush remains in office.
Bush is "a half-baked man in terms of morality and a philistine whom we can never deal with," (couldn'ta said it better myself-G) a Foreign Ministry spokesman said, according to the official Korean Central News Agency. The statement described Bush as the "world's dictator," who as president had "turned the world into a sea of blood."
"We can no longer tolerate and wait for a shift in the [U.S.] policy," the North Korean statement concluded. "Quite just is the path chosen by us, and we will proceed straight and square along that path."
Kim is considered almost a deity in his country, and the North Korean statement said it could not ignore such "slandering and cursing remarks." The statement noted that "no one can expect to hear reasonable words from Bush, once a cowboy at a ranch in Texas. His remarks often stun audiences as they reveal his utter ignorance."
SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea needs to conduct a test to see if the vast sums it spent to develop atomic weapons have produced a working bomb, analysts say, but the political fall-out from such a blast could paralyze its already crippled economy.
The nuclear card overwhelms all other cards the reclusive state possesses. Six-party talks aimed at ending its nuclear ambitions have been stalled for almost a year, but that did not stop Pyongyang from boasting in February it had nuclear weapons.
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TOKYO - The U.S. military informed Japan that North Korea may have fired a short-range missile toward the Sea of Japan on Sunday morning, Kyodo News service and national broadcaster NHK reported.
The reports quoted unidentified government sources as saying that the U.S. military informed Japan’s Defense Agency of the possible missile launch. The government was attempting to confirm the information, the reports said.
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The end of oil may not be the largest problem we have to face in the next few decades. New research indicates that, when it comes to the impact of climate change on worldwide food production, the most pessimistic forecasts to date are not pessimistic enough:
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Tony Blair had resolved to send British troops into action alongside US forces eight months before the Iraq War began, despite a clear warning from the Foreign Office that the conflict could be illegal.
A damning minute leaked to a Sunday newspaper reveals that in July 2002, a few weeks after meeting George Bush at his ranch in Crawford, Texas, Mr Blair summoned his closest aides for what amounted to a council of war. The minute reveals the head of British intelligence reported that President Bush had firmly made up his mind to invade Iraq and overthrow Saddam Hussein, adding that "the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy" (my emphasis).
Ahmad Chalabi - convicted embezzler in Jordan, suspected Iranian spy, double-crosser of America, purveyor of phony war-instigating intelligence - is the new acting Iraqi oil minister.
Is that why we went to war, to put the oily in charge of the oil, to set the swindler who pretended to be Spartacus atop the ultimate gusher?
Does anybody still think the path to war wasn't greased by oil?
Oil isn't on the front burner only in Iraq. Mr. Bush and Dick Cheney know that time is running out to pay back the Texas buddies who sent them here with an energy bill. So those two oilmen are frantically pushing one loaded with giveaways to the oil industry at a time when it's already raking in huge profits because of high gasoline prices.
Mr. Bush wanted Iraq to have a democracy like ours. It's on its way, nearing an ethics-free zone where a corrupt official can hold sway and a theocracy can curb women's rights.
This is the CENTRAL SCRUTINIZER . . .
It is my responsibility to enforce all the laws that haven't been passed yet. It is also my responsibility to alert each and every one of you to the potential consequences of various ordinary everyday activities you might be performing which could eventually lead to The Death Penalty (or affect your parents' credit rating). Our criminal institutions are filled with little creeps like you who do wrong things . . . and many of them were driven to these crimes by a horrible force called MUSIC!
Our studies have shown that this horrible force is so dangerous to society at large that laws are being drawn up at this very moment to stop it forever! Cruel and inhuman punishments are being carefully described in tiny paragraphs so they won't conflict with the Constitution (which itself is being modified in order to accommodate THE FUTURE). - The Central Scrutinizer © 1979 Frank Zappa, Joe's Garage, Vol. 1
Desperate nerds in high offices all over the world have been known to enact the most disgusting pieces of legislation in order to win votes (or, in places where they don't get to vote, to control unwanted forms of mass behavior).
Had to stop, turn round and go back to take this picture near Daytona this week.
US marines who suffered the highest casualty rate of any unit in Iraq have revealed that they were so short of soldiers that they used cardboard dummies to fool insurgents into believing that they faced more men.
Company E of the First Marine Division dressed the cutouts in camouflage shirts and placed them in observation posts to trick Iraqi rebels into thinking that they were manned.
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And man, was it worth it. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy was not completely faithful to the book--what adaptation ever is?--but even though the filmmakers added a new character and additional storyline, they were true to the most important aspect of the novel(s). The one thing I was afraid they wouldn't be able to pull off--the little asides that Adams sprinkled throughout--were handled wonderfully, and served to propel the film along. They left out a couple, probably for ratings purposes--the one on getting drunk (although they kept the Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster) and the one about Eccentrica Gallumbits, the triple-breasted whore of Eroticon Six, but I forgive them that because they got the feel so absolutely right.
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One day after President Bush's April 28 press conference, the 10 largest U.S. newspapers obscured the full impact of Bush's proposed cuts in Social Security benefits. While some articles failed to note that the proposal would drastically cut benefits for lower-middle-income workers and not just for the wealthy, others neglected to describe the changes as cuts at all, instead repeating the Republican talking point that they would merely slow the rate of growth in benefits. The Wall Street Journal and the Associated Press even falsely reported that low-income workers would receive greater benefits under the Bush plan than under current law.
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It is no accident that this assault on the integrity of our constitutional design has been fueled by a small group claiming special knowledge of God's will in American politics. They even claim that those of us who disagree with their point of view are waging war against "people of faith."
How dare they?
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50% of the annual fee goes to Animal Population Control Fund. New Yorkers, find out about other good causes you can support this way by clicking here.
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. . . I want teenage girls who would be affected by it to know - you can go ahead and call me. I'll drive you across state lines, threat of a lawsuit or not . . .
The New York Post didn't even put the Bush press con on page one, realizing that Katie Holmes & Tom Cruise (the new Brad & Jen?) and a Phil Rizzuto commemorative medallion took precedence.
So it's seems evident that Bush didn't persuade or energize anyone last night, and today he's at Falls Church, Va, doing another sales pitch, and I wish someone last night had asked the president if it's really an appropriate use of the Commander in Chief's time and the taxpayers' money to be jetting all around the country fielding softball questions from cherry-picked audiences? It's like a revival tour solely for the already converted--a futile, costly sham.
We told him nicely: "Please desist."
We even offered an assist
But Kim Jong-Il said, "Screw You, See?"
"We'll make Hawaii DMZ!"
Who's next?
(CNN) -- NASA will delay the launch of the space shuttle Discovery, the first shuttle to fly since the 2003 Columbia disaster, from May until July because of safety concerns, NASA Administrator Michael Griffin said Friday.
Griffin said the decision was made after managers looked at technical reviews over the past 10 days.
"As a result of all that and in looking at the open analysis items and the small fixes that we need to make and some issues that arose during the tanking of Discovery ... the sum of all those things necessitates that we move out six or seven weeks," Griffin said.
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Authorities at Guantanamo Bay staged interrogations of detainees for visiting politicians and generals to give the impression that valuable intelligence was regularly being gathered, according to a former Army translator at the camp.
Former Army Sgt. Erik Saar told CBS television show 60 Minutes that he believes "only a few dozen" of the 600 detainees at the camp were terrorists and that little information was obtained from them.
"Interrogations were set up so the VIPs could come and witness an interrogation ... a mock interrogation, basically," Saar told the program, to air on Sunday. [my emphases]
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Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld will host an armed forces full honor review and award ceremony for Deputy Secretary Defense Paul Wolfowitz at the Pentagon at 11 a.m. EDT, Friday, April 29, 2005.
But if the draft advocates eventually persuade the administration that a conscripted army is viable, I believe they would still have to overcome a second layer of reluctance among decision-makers in charge of military policy: a fear that the draft will specifically alienate those who currently endorse the war in Iraq (my emphasis). Pro-war partisans rest much of their support of administration foreign policy on the expectation that the January 30 election was a turning point, that the battle of Falluja disabled the resistance, that Iraqi troops will be ready to handle the guerrillas in the not-too-distant future -- and that American troops will soon be brought home at least reasonably victorious. The reinstitution of a draft would constitute an admission that these beliefs are so many illusions. In all likelihood, therefore, any relaxation of the unequivocal opposition to the draft in the administration would indeed precipitate a sharp erosion of the war's already eroding base. Opposition might then reach the critical mass needed to make withdrawal "thinkable."
Being of the populist persuasion, I am a terminal fan of Thomas Frank, who has gone from "What's the Matter With Kansas?" to "What's the Matter With Liberals?" in the current issue of the New York Review of Books, which is a good spot for it.
Those of us in the beer-drinking, pick-up-truck-driving, country-music-listening school of liberals in the hinterlands (That's me - ed.) particularly appreciate his keen dissection of how the Republicans use class resentment against "elitist liberals," while waging class warfare on people who work for a living.
The unholy combination of theocracy and plutocracy that now rules this country is, in fact, enabled by dumb liberals. Many a weary liberal on the Internet and elsewhere has been involved in the tedious study of the entrails from the last election, trying to figure out where Democrats went wrong. I don't have a dog in that fight, but I can guarantee you where they're going wrong for the next election: 73 Democratic House members and 18 Democratic senators voted for that hideous bankruptcy "reform" bill that absolutely screws regular people.
"The data show that the share of real income growth that has gone to wages and salaries has been smaller than during any other comparable post-World War II recovery period, while the share of real income growth that has gone to corporate profits has been larger than during all other comparable post-World War II recoveries."
In previous recoveries, workers got an average of 49 percent of the national income gains, while corporate profits got 18 percent. This time, the workers are getting 23 percent and the corporations are getting 44 percent -- about one half as much as the share that has gone to corporate profits.
None of that apply to you? Good. Go listen to Tom DeLay give another lecture on moral values.
FORTY YEARS AGO, on the morning of April 26, 1965, President Lyndon Johnson spoke with a top State Department official about fast-moving events in the Dominican Republic. A popular rebellion was on the verge of toppling a military junta and restoring the country's democratically elected president, Juan Bosch, to power.
"This Bosch is no good," Mr. Johnson said. "He's no good at all," replied Assistant Secretary of State Thomas Mann, who added: "If we don't get a decent government in there, Mr. President, we get another Bosch. It's just going to be another sinkhole."
Two days after that phone conversation, thousands of U.S. Marines landed on the beaches of Santo Domingo. By then, the White House spin machinery was in high gear. When the president went on television to declare that the military action was necessary to rescue U.S. citizens, he didn't mention that nearly all of them had already been evacuated before the Marines arrived.
The invasion of the Dominican Republic turned out to be the first in a modern series of U.S. military interventions that produced quick victories overseas and evident satisfaction at home. The sudden and overwhelming arrival of U.S. troops in Santo Domingo was a prototype for the lightning-strike invasions of Grenada and Panama in the 1980s.
In their phone conversation two days before the Marines landed, Mr. Johnson and Mr. Mann were already planning the post-invasion government of the Dominican Republic.
A tape recording of the discussion conveys large doses of imperial arrogance. "We're going to have to really set up that government down there," the president said, "and run it and stabilize it some way or other."
Forty years later, it's easy to imagine similar conversations in the present-day Oval Office.
In this mean and meager time of pre-packaged, pre-processed, corporate-controlled infotainment that passes itself off as 'news, it is a rare and refreshing experience to see and hear a true journalist reporting the facts. I was privileged on Monday night to share a stage in Boston with Dahr Jamail, the intrepid reporter who could not stomach the biased non-news coming out of Iraq after the invasion, and went over there to see and report on what was happening himself.
The Pentagon has a phrase for the photos and reports Dahr Jamail was able to bring back to us from his time in Iraq. They call it 'Hostile Information,' otherwise known as unassailable facts that cut violently against the pretty portrait and non-news the American people have been spoon-fed about our occupation of that country.
'Horror' is not a strong enough word to describe what Dahr Jamail showed us on Monday night, what he saw with his own eyes, what almost no American has been allowed to see because 'Hostile Information' is not permitted in George Bush's America.
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When you stand on principle and refuse to budge, those who flout principle look like the lowlives they are.
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The U.S. count of major world terrorist attacks more than tripled in 2004, rise that may revive debate on whether the Bush administration is winning the war on terrorism, congressional aides said Tuesday.
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Oh, sure, the media has helped Bush and his band of merry madmen twist and trample the truth, but you don’t need to be an Einstein to survey the wreckage of this country and conclude that this bunch has been WRONG about EVERYTHING. Not just Iraq. Not just the economy. EVERYTHING. Still, they saunter unscathed through the wreckage, never allowing an unwanted fact trip them up.
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Gov. Janet Napolitano said no on Monday to mixing guns and alcohol in Arizona nightspots.
"We're happy she recognized that it's dangerous for our employees and for the industry as a whole," said Miglino, who owns Nixon's at the Esplanade. "It is also exciting for the recognition of the hospitality industry and how important it is to the state. You can't mess with the golden goose, which is tourism in Arizona."
Eric Edwards, executive director of the Arizona Association of Chiefs of Police, said, "Guns don't mix with booze any better than driving has."
WASHINGTON - Confronting growing concerns over high energy prices, President Bush on Wednesday will unveil controversial plans to spur construction of new nuclear power plants, provide incentives to buy diesel vehicles and most novel of all: use some old military bases for oil refineries.
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Nuclear power.Bush will call on Congress to provide a “risk insurance” plan to insulate the nuclear industry against regulatory delays if they build new nuclear power plants.
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Late last month, the people of New York State got quite a bargain: the Shoreham nuclear-power plant on Long Island, complete and almost ready to run, a certified $5.3-billion value for only one dollar.
If you wonder why the plant's owner, the Long Island Lighting Company (Lilco), was willing to sell at such a discount, the answer can be found in that phrase ''almost ready to run.'' All Shoreham lacks is an operating license, for which it has been waiting since its completion in 1984. It doesn't have an operating license because the State of New York and its creature, Suffolk County, have refused to take part in developing the emergency-evacuation plans that are a requisite to securing the license from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). . .
Congress and President Bush aren't moving fast enough to protect the nation from terrorist attacks, the leaders of the commission that investigated 9/11 said Tuesday.
"We know many of these recommendations are going to be implemented," Kean said. "The question is whether they're going to be implemented before the next attack or after it."
MIAMI -- It is either a Wild West revival, a return to the days of "shoot first and ask questions later," or a triumph for the "Castle Doctrine" -- the notion that enemies invade personal space at their peril.
Such dueling rhetoric marked the debate over a measure that Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R) could sign as early as Tuesday. The legislation passed so emphatically that National Rifle Association backers plan to take it to statehouses across the nation, including Virginia's, over the next year. The law will let Floridians "meet force with force," erasing the "duty to retreat" when they fear for their lives outside of their homes, in their cars or businesses, or on the street.
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American students traveling abroad confirm the findings of a study indicating that Washington's unilateral approach to foreign policy has seriously undermined Americans' chances of getting laid.
"Unpopular military actions and dismissal of international organizations have galvanized world hostility toward the U.S.," Hapbrook said. "Instead of being inundated with questions about Hollywood and requests to help hot young foreigners practice their English, Americans are being openly scorned in European pubs and cafes. Data taken from a poll of students in December 2004 showed that only a dismal 11 percent had achieved sexual congress with a non-American."
"I'm in Amsterdam—Amsterdam, for Christ's sake—and I'm in the middle of the longest dry spell I can remember," Higgs said. "Last week, I was making out with this Italian girl at a concert. It was all going great until the music ended and she heard my American accent. I swear to God, I went from the cusp of a hand job to, 'Why won't your country sign the Kyoto Treaty?'"
Acknowledging that a large-scale change in American foreign policy is unlikely to occur before the end of the current semester, Hapbrook recommended three tactics for American students frustrated in their attempts to bed foreigners.
"First, pretend you're Canadian whenever you can," Hapbrook said. "But make sure you're not around actual Canadians, because they'll know you're lying and cock-block you. Second, if there are any anti-American protests going on, take care to avoid women carrying signs. Third, focus your itinerary on countries like Ireland and Japan that are still relatively friendly to Americans."
"You may want to write off France altogether," Hapbrook added.
"This affects all of us," Higgs said. "The government has to acknowledge the needs of young Americans. Too many U.S. citizens in foreign lands are spending sleepless, lonely nights jerking off in increasingly filthy sleeping bags. It sucks."
If DeLay goes down, his shamelessness will go with him, which will make it harder to see the GOP's true agenda. Take the assault on federal judges. DeLay first asserted that they must "answer for their behavior" in the Schiavo case. His "apology" consisted of adding: "We set up the courts. We can unseat the courts. We have the power of the purse." At a recent strategy session sponsored by Tony Perkins's Family Research Council and James Dobson's Focus on the Family, discussion focused on getting rid of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, which the right wing deems too liberal. Perkins and Dobson reminded the group that they need not impeach judges, they can simply defund them, as DeLay recommends.
But this smelly hypocrisy—assuming it's not found illegal—merely offends the senses. DeLay's views on muscling the judiciary and ending the separation of church and state (which he believes is a fiction) offend the Constitution. That makes it too important to leave to the media and the rest of the Washington scandal machine to remedy. This job belongs to the voters, who can hammer the Hammer by siding against his many acolytes in Congress. Let's make 2006 a referendum on the right wing. For that, DeLay must stay.
. . . He should not be allowed to work in any diplomatic position whatsoever, whether it is ambassador to the UN, negotiating with North Korea, negotiating with Chick Korea, or working the 3rd shift at the customer service window at Safeway. . .
. . . It's about time that someone realized that George Bush's nominations for just about any position that opens up are done just to amuse himself and see if he can actually get people who are ridiculously unqualified confirmed to positions of power. He seems to carefully pick the person least qualified for a particular position from his loyal followers. . .
It has taken me a long time to decide that this article is not a hoax. I so wanted it to be a joke.
It is written by one Ronald E. Williams, an American Talibanist of an extreme kind, and it advocates corporeal punishment of children. No, it doesn't just advocate such punishment, it begs and pleads the parents (the father, obviously, but the mother can be delegated the duty to beat) to really revel in such beatings, to give them a chance to work by sticking at it, for hours if necessary. Why? Because the Bible tells him so. Also because children are inherently bad (why did God make them so?) and need to have their will broken, preferably before they turn twelve months old. No, I am not making this up.
[. . .]
. . . This particular child who came along later in our family was extremely willful and rebellious toward our authority and would often require sessions of correction lasting from one to two hours in length before the will would finally be broken! . . . [my emphasis]
[. . .]
All four military services missed their enlistment quotas last year, according to one analysis, and regular military, reserve and National Guard recruitment levels are at a 30-year low.
With a lack of new troops, the Pentagon has relied heavily on rotations to maintain the 150,000-strong force in Iraq. Yet a Pentagon-funded poll in late 2003 found that 49% of troops did not plan to re-enlist, and that number is likely to be even higher now.
Without a major influx of new recruits, many observers say the option of relying on Reserves and National Guard troops is not sustainable. [my emphases]
[. . .]
Howard Dean may not be running for anything, but his elbows appear to be as sharp as ever.
Since taking over as chairman of the Democratic National Committee earlier this year, the former presidential candidate has been quoted in newspapers making unusually caustic remarks about Republicans.
Dean has suggested that they are "evil." That they are "corrupt." He called them "brain-dead" during a stop in Toronto -- and while the Terri Schiavo case was still in the news. He has tagged Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.) as a "liar." Last week, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reported that he mimicked a "drug-snorting Rush Limbaugh" at an event there.
Dean was noted for his candid and often unpredictable comments during his campaign last year. Then, as now, many Democrats said they don't mind the former Vermont governor's bluntness.
