More on why Bush is a schmuck

This is truncated due to a maruading toddler in the house. I wasn't even going to say anything. This is ridiculous though. Bill Clinton - not my favorite president admittedly - makes a justified comment to the BBC (as quoted in Salon) about The president's lack of leadership in the tsuanmi tragedy. The president has shown none, and while there are certainly some cheap jokes there, it is not surprising or even worth commenting on. Then the unnamed White House sources have to go kicking Clinton around.

Look, The President is a schmuck. He has evidenced no compassion - real or imagined - for the non-white population of this world. Unless of course, one counts invading a country on an Imperial mission as compassion. Do you know why African Americans like Bill Clinton? Because at least he pretended to care; at least he pretended to worry about the lack of living wage jobs, crappy health care delivery system, and continuing institutional racism. I hope Bush gets stuck without a phone or Secret Service in Detroit after dark. Even before dark would be enough to scare him to death.

Powell's curious new year's eve plans

I thought I had imagined it... or perhaps some hallucination during the 30 hour drive on frozen interstates, but it appears Colin Powell will be the official pulling the plug on 2004. Why the Secretary of State? It really made no sense until I saw the headline from a recent low culture post:

Well, He Does Have Experience "Dropping the Ball"

Christmas: The new right-wing conspiracy

For the record, I have had just about enough of the whole conservative outrage over the secularizing of Christmas. Luckily, it being December 27, they will likely move on to other imaginary moral crises like only allowing straight couples to celebrate St. Valentines Day.

That said, I saw this on Wonkette and had a chuckle... which was quickly followed by the realization that Ann Coulter is still out there spreading... good will.

Ann Coulter has shown herself to be a closet evangelist for the Christmas
cause, and has used her website to send out a subtle appeal to those who
practice a different faith:

To The People Of Islam:
Just think: If we'd invaded your countries, killed your leaders and converted you to Christianity YOU'D ALL BE OPENING CHRISTMAS PRESENTS RIGHT ABOUT NOW!
Merry Christmas

We're thinking this is one reason to convert most Muslim's haven't thought
of, but, ironically, "Because we want to give them Christmas gifts" was actually
in the first draft of Colin Powell's UN presentation.

Ahhhh occupation... the gift that keeps on giving.

Castro announces new oil find

Back from my holiday pilgrimage to the unexpectedly icy deep South to find that Reuters says an oil deposit with an estimated 100-million-barrel reserve has been discovered off Cuba's coast...

Prepare for war, Mr. Castro.

Christmas sermon

One of the hallmarks of nascent fascism according to Umberto Eco is an attitude of simultaneous triumphalism and siege mentality. Fascism thrives on eternal war and on specious and spurious arguments of native superiority, i.e. it requires the populous to be dominated to believe that it is constantly under threat of being physically and culturally overwhelmed by enemies while at the same time believing that this same populous is by nature and culture superior to anything else on earth. So in the case of the Christian Right, the leaders - such as Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson - they persist in telling stories (fictions) of the evil and pernicious Left seeking to undermine and destroy the Christian culture of the US, while at the same time assuring their listeners, readers, and viewers of the inevitable (and sometimes quite violent) triumph of their culture.

Now I told you that story to tell you this one. Following the lead of the ever entertaining and ever false Bill (he really likes loofahs) O'Reilly, the Christian Right has accelerated their attack on the secularists (which definition gets murkier and more vague with each passing pundit - another hallmark of nascent fascists) who are "attacking" Christmas. Sean Hannity, Jerry Falwell, and Pat Robertson have all joined (and created) the fray. Of course, it wouldn't be mudslinging without the wit and wiles of the very splotchy Mr. O'Reilly. You can read it all right here. Truly there are so many stories, I couldn't pick just one. Sean Hannity claims (falsely - what a surprise) that a New Jersey school has banned "Silent Night." Bill O'Reilly devoted an entire segment of his show (spin-free zone my ass) to refuting every (false) charge made against him by the Liberal Media. Jerry Falwell's pre-Christmas "sermon" contained lengthy descriptions of the Christian lawyers gathered to do battle with the evil forces of the American Civil Liberties Union and Americans United for Separation of Church and State among others.

Now, I'm a preacher by vocation and avocation, so I fancy that I know a little something about sermon writing and sermon delivery. I admit that I am still a novice and prone to rants from the pulpit. I am not the best preacher in my home state or even in the very small town in which I preach. None of that stops me from being very offended by this cult - Christian though it may be, at least in name - and its use of violent and militaristic imagery to denigrate its opponents and give hope to its followers. Especially at Christmastime when Christians gather to celebrate and remember that God chose to be incarnated not as a general or a tank or a phalanx of attorneys but as a human baby, vulnerable and assailable. That this baby existed in flesh and suffered in flesh and took on the task of being human for the liberation of all humans. We gather to remember and to celebrate that this God - Yahweh of the Hebrew Scriptures and Allah of Koran - sent a child among us to save us from our own hatred and violence. Whether we read the nativity story in Matthew or Luke, we find that God sent this child, this defenseless baby among us not as a patrician or as capitalist baron but as a child of a working class carpenter, born in a dirty, unsanitary shed behind an inn because no one there would give up their bed for a poor pregnant teenager. We read that the first to find this child and recognize him as the liberator of us all were not the priests and scribes who were slaves to the wealthy and powerful but shepherds, dirty, smelly, and known for extortion, thievery, and deviant acts - the lowest of the low better than Gentiles and lepers only by a hair's breadth.

Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson are similarly (in my opinion) slaves to the wealthy and powerful. Self-aggrandizing and stuck to the status quo, they spend their time defending that poor, defenseless, victimized beyond all victimization demograph - the middle class white male. They have aligned themselves and their ministries with the least vulnerable, the least assailable group in the United States. Where Jesus spent his ministry among the disaffected and the outcast, the Christian Right spends their ministry among the rich and powerful. I am not saying that Jesus holds no liberation for these people but rather I am saying that these groups - the rulers and financers of this nation - would seem to find their redemption in the very groups that Jesus worked among - the poor, the diseased, the politically and culturally disenfranchised. When these preachers and supporters of white male domination speak of a coming war, they do so with the might of the military on their side. When they rail against their own "victimization" and "marginalization," they do so from the very centers of media power. They consistently and persistently attack dissent and diverstiy in defense of a status quo which prizes strength above meekness, violence above peace, and domination over consensus. The message of this and every Christmas season is a message of peace; instead they preach a message of hate. Each Christmas is a time of hope; instead they preach a gospel of consumerism and acquisition. While they assail and rail against the forces of "secularization," they do nothing to stem the tide of capitalism and dissipation.

We, on the Left, conceive of a better way. Whether we align ourselves with Christianity, Islam, or no religion at all, we value diversity (even conservative diversity!), acceptance, hope, peace, and rule of law. As we enter and finish this season of expectation (almost on the same day) let us raise our voices against the tide of anger and hatred spewing from the mouths of those pervert the values of our culture for their own ends. Let us raise our voices in reason and logic to neutralize the voices of fear and dismay. Someone wrote in the name of St. Paul that God has not given us a spirit of fear but of reason and love and a sound mind. Let us on the Left affirm that through precision of thought and speech in our quest to bring light to the darkness of the Right.

Bill Moyers

This was posted at thenation.com. I don't have anything funny or insightful to say about it. Read it anyway.

Bill Moyers: A reminder and an update

I have said it before, tonight is Bill Moyer's last report on Now.

Recently, Moyers received the Global Environment Citizen Award from Harvard. His speech is a must read. Seriously, read it now. Seriously.

Here is a taste...

One of the biggest changes in politics in my lifetime is that the delusional is no longer marginal. It has come in from the fringe, to sit in the seat of power in the Oval Office and in Congress. For the first time in our history, ideology and theology hold a monopoly of power in Washington. Theology asserts propositions that cannot be proven true; ideologues hold stoutly to a world view despite being contradicted by what is generally accepted as reality. When ideology and theology couple, their offspring are not always bad but they are always blind. And there is the danger: voters and politicians alike, oblivious to the facts.

. . .

Remember James Watt, President Reagan's first secretary of the Interior? My favorite online environmental journal, the ever-engaging Grist , reminded us recently of how James Watt told the U.S. Congress that protecting natural resources was unimportant in light of the imminent return of Jesus Christ. In public testimony he said, "after the last tree is felled, Christ will come back."

Beltway elites snickered. The press corps didn't know what he was talking about. But James Watt was serious. So were his compatriots out across the country. They are the people who believe the bible is literally true – one-third of the American electorate, if a recent Gallup poll is accurate. In this past election several million good and decent citizens went to the polls believing in the rapture index. That's right – the rapture index.

Seriously, read it.

The Iraqi people have spoken

Perusing Harpers online today, found this post offering a sampling of graffiti seen in and around Baghdad between March 2003 and August 2004.

Some of my favs...

Gas makoo ["none"], work makoo, money makoo, water makoo, electricity makoo: we have exchanged dirt for a smell. Long live America!

I love the smell of makoo in the morning... but seriously, folks. That's the sweet smell of freedom on the march.

Marriage of the same sex became legal in America. Is this, with the mafia and
drugs, what you want to bring to Iraq, Americans? Is this the freedom you
promised?

No, no, no! We promised the freedom in which you are an occupied people who will be detained, tortured and/or killed at will. Jeez!

Only three will enter paradise: Bush and Blair and Bremer. [added later] The
paradise of your sister's cunt.

Yeah... I've got nothing

No to the faked, fabricated elections that are made in America!

Faked, fabricated elections coming soon to Iraq!

Bernie Kerik and the Case of the Invisible Nanny

An unattributed quote from Atrios yesterday:
"Bernard Kerik is one scandal away from winning the Presidential Medal of Freedom."

Now, there are suggestions that the whole illegal nanny issue may have been a red herring. Really?! You mean that vetting process didn't go something like this, "Let's see... misuse of public office, mob-connections, stalking allegations, sex scandals... that all seems well and good. Wait a minute. He hired an illegal to raise his bastard children?! Not on my watch. Get Lieberman on the phone... pronto!"

Fox News: Now EXTRA unbalanced!

Zell Miller... some of you may recall my secret love for him. Others may know him as a rabid, ranting conservative Dixiecrat-turned Bush stooge. For those of you not familiar with the crazy Senator from Georgia, imagine a cross between James Carville and the old Dana Carvey Saturday Night Live character, Grumpy Old Man.

Now imagine him as a Fox News contributor.

That's right, folks! Zell has been signed by the formerly fair and balanced Fox News. Look out Bill O'Reilly! There's a new nut in town.

Out Rumsfelding Rumsfeld

Joe Klein is tearin' it up today, guest blogging for Wonkette...

"We go to war with the secretary of defense we have, not the secretary of defense we might want."

Always good for a laugh!

Just roll the word around on your tongue a few times...

Dioxin....


HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Which Hollywood Icons are We Talking About, Exactly?

And so it came to pass that all the bizarre claims suggesting that the left leaning aspect of mainstream Hollywood, which was somehow less competent at expressing political thought than Pa Preacher from Alabama, would eventually be promoted as what cost Democrats the election.

Quoting from the L.A. Times :

”Even Bush critic Marc Cooper marveled in the left-leaning LA Weekly: “When you ask yourself who are the great Democratic mass icons of our times ... damned if we don’t come up with literal clowns like Al Franken and Michael Moore. Doesn’t this say something rather startling about the state of the Democrats?”

Believe it or not, this doesn’t say anything about ‘Democrats’. It says something about idiots. First of all, for most thinking liberals, neither Moore nor Franken are icons. They’re merely vehicles for relevant information. I’m sorry that they, along with other relevant and exceptional political thinkers, like Jon Stewart, Tom Tomorrow or Gary Trudeau, happen to also be comedians, as well. However, when people dismiss them for being comedians instead of weighing the facts and arguments that these men present on their own merit, they are committing the grossest of logical fallacies, poisoning the well, as this special subset of argumentum ad hominem is frequently known, dismissing these people as icons and funny men as if this were somehow a legitimate reason to entirely ignore any actual arguments or facts presented. (To all you conservatives out there, it’s not. There’s your free lesson is rational thinking.)

Of course, in doing so, such people are also striving to undermine well known liberal thinkers who aren’t considered clowns, like Noam Chomsky, Ralph Nader or Jello Biafra, just to name some of my personal favorites. Instead, we’re told that our choice of ‘icons’ isn’t up to par.

And, in a sense, those who claim this are right. Look at their Hollywood icon. Arnold. This man is an actual icon. He isn’t in the spotlight for what he knows, believes or can argue. He is a symbol of a movement he happens to belong to, and those who support him support him for this reason. A statue or flag could serve the same purpose, and this is where one of the most fundamental demonstrations of the division between conservatives and liberals in the U.S. today creeps in.

From the article:

”It makes you wonder: Has Hollywood become a millstone around the Democratic party’s neck, only making it easier for conservatives to stereotype Democratic candidates as the latte-sipping stooges of the showbiz elite? After all, this was an election in which George Bush never failed to tell audiences that Sen. John Kerry believed “the heart and soul of America was in Hollywood,” not Toledo, or Tampa, Fla., or wherever the president was speaking that day.”

Arguments vs. Icons. I’m not made to wonder. The point was made years ago. At least a third of our nation doesn’t think, and for this reason, they will ever look to ways to ignore those who do, at least the ones who disagree with them. It doesn’t matter that Al Franken or Jon Stewart are considered media clowns. They would be ignored for some other reason, slapped with some other title that meant, “we hate this man,” if they weren’t. They’d be out of touch elitist intellectuals, like Chomsky, or twitchy, self important neurotics like Nader, or out and out psychotic freaks like Biafra. Finding ways to demonize the opposition is what stupid people do, because otherwise they might have to address the actual issues these people bring to bear. The liberal media, liberal UNIVERSITIES, tree huggers, environmental extremists, bleeding hearts, commies, traitors, cowards, elitists, faggots, niggers, kikes that’s what these idiots will always do to dehumanize the enemy, to suppose that they can go on believing what they want, thinking what they want, ignoring facts, evidence, reality, other people, and Hollywood is just another name, another label they’ve slapped on to that purpose, for the present, because a lot of people they don’t like happen to live out here right now.

A real newsman retires.

It must be something in air. On-air news talents are dropping like flies... Brokaw, Rather and now Bill Moyers.

I would not, however, lump Moyers in with your run-of-the-mill news-reading hacks. He is an actual journalist with a bit of integrity... which is why 80% of America has never heard of him.

"I'm going out telling the story that I think is the biggest story of our time: how the right-wing media has become a partisan propaganda arm of the Republican National Committee," says Moyers. "We have an ideological press that's interested in the election of Republicans, and a mainstream press that's interested in the bottom line. Therefore, we don't have a vigilant, independent press whose interest is the American people."

The show is "Now" which airs on PBS Fridays at 8:30 p.m. EST. Moyer's last show will run Dec. 17.

Ahhhh the media...

You have all no doubt heard about the plucky National Guardsman, Jerry Wilson, who stuck it to Rummy the other day, asking "why do we soldiers have to dig through local landfills for pieces of scrap metal and compromised ballistic glass to up-armor our vehicles?"

Kudos to Jerry. So, what now becomes the story? Not the woefully inadequate armor... that's too obvious... it's got no legs [it's a newspaper term]. The real scandal? A reporter might have been involved with the question. A REPORTER! ASKING A QUESTION!!! Dear God... what has our democracy become when reporters are allowed to ask... oh wait.

The real story should be that the only person with the stones [it's a military term] to actually ask a tough question of a senior administration official was NOT a reporter.

O'Reilly: Santa's last elf

I've noticed that everyone in this country except friggin' Bill O'Reilly (O'Liely to the forum-ites at MediaMatters) hates Christmas. Every last one of us. Thank God (and I mean that in a very real and legally binding sense) for Bill who stands up for the sanctity of this holiday, in which we as Christians take time out from the madness that is this consumer-driven economy to remember that God chose to Incarnated as a human baby in the mud and shit in a barn behind a pub with no one but dirty, untrustworthy, Semitic sheep herders to see.

Right?

Good news, bad news

Charles Pickering Sr., the former president of the Southern Baptist Convention who was twice blocked by Democrats in Congress for a seat on a federal appeals court... then snuck in by your president with a recess appointment, announced his retirement today.

Why were those pesky Dems picking on old Charlie? A few youthful indescretions like supporting segregation and promoting anti-abortion and anti-voting rights views. Jeez, people, what a man does in his 30s and 40s should have no bearing on the rest of his life.

The good news, in Pickerings words, is that "Bush can now nominate someone younger who will be able to serve longer, which I believe is in the best interest of the court."

He then added, "Now, if you'll excuse me I've got a 4:oo lynching to get to."

I kid. He didn't really say that... it was at 4:30.

I'll Fuck Shit Up!

It's been a while, has it not, my lovelies?

It's me. Kristin.

I read today that President Bush Ruled Out Tax Hikes for Social Security. Instead, he plans to use the proceeds from ribbon magnet sales at gas stations.

Oh, the magnets. OH, THE DOUBLE MAGNET. Have you seen this? The double-magneting? Like two yellows on the same car? Not. Kosher for Passover.

Okay, so here's a story for you:

I went to visit my friend in Connec. Ti. Cut., and while there, we went to Mystic Pizza, named after the movie, of course. The whole town of Mystic was nonexistant before the movie. They don't even have a postal code. But anyway. At Mystic Pizza, my friend and I enjoyed a pitcher of refreshing Coors Light because the silver bullet never lets you down. Much refreshed (buzzed) by the Coors Light, we departed. In the parking lot of this family / touristy restaurant, at around 1:00pm, in broad daylight I:

1) became enraged and took a yellow ribbon magnet off of a minivan and threw it into the bushes.

2) threatened to remove the ribbon magnets from each and every car in this family / touristy restaurant parking lot at 1:02pm in broad daylight.

3) did not, because our third, and thankfully sober, friend said, "Kristin. NO."

Viva la revolucion! Kinda!

KTP

Schadenfreude... it's what's for dinner

Paraphrased from Atrios...

Back in October, your president went to Iowa to sign the fourth major tax cut during his four years in office. Bush trotted out Mike and Sharla Hintz, decent upstanding Republicans whom he said benefited from his tax plan. Mike, a First Assembly of God youth pastor, said he supports Bush's values.

"Where we are in this world, with not just the war on terror, but with the war with our culture that's going on, I think we need a man that is going to be in the White House like President Bush, that's going to stand by what he believes.

Then, yesterday...
Mike Hintz, youth pastor and Bush shill, was charged with the sexual exploitation of a child.


No doubt this was one of Bush's faith-based initiatives.

I'll be here all week, folks...

More success through action.

Over the last few decades the right wing has succeeded in their slow bid on the nation largely through some serious conformity, blind capitulation to those who are allies. Now, I would never advocate such behavior on the part of liberals, not that I'm not willing to go the extra mile to see my values win out, but simply because if we win through ignorance, then we've lost.

Even so, intelligent solidarity can yield the same results, and in light of that, I might turn your attention to BuyBlue.

http://www.buyblue.org/bluexmas.html

This is a good idea for two reasons. First of all, it helps take money away from those who oppose us. Remember, this is no armchair political war, at this point. If you are donating money to the GOP, you are saying that psychotic religious tyranny is an acceptable idea, and simply put, it's not. In the same way that we're not interested in seeing the notions of the Manson family suddenly being validated through contributions and votes, neither are we interested in seeing conservatism continue to gain favor in this manner, so, should we wish our own goals and ideals to bear fruit, we must see to it that resources are channeled effective in directions beneficial, and not directly into the pockets of the enemies. In this way we thwart both the right wing at its top as well as at its base. Bush doesn't get our money and Walmart doesn't get our money, so we win twice.

Of course, the second good reason to do this is to simply check out the list. It's a matter of taste, people. Walmart, Circuit City, J.C. Pennys? All places I like to avoid to begin with. The Olive Garden? The Fun Party does NOT support The Olive Garden, and this was long before we discovered that they were run by conservative swine.

Does it surprise anyone? Conservatism has always been the enemy of both taste and fun, so it stands to reason that tasteless, unfun things like Hallmark, Anheuser Busch or Taco Bell would fall into their camps. Oh, there are a few tiny abnormatlities, since Victoria's Secret is certainly fun, and Arby's clearly isn't, but over all the trend it remarkable.

The attempt to return our nation into the bossom of both reason and freedom will not be won by halfassed action. Only through concerted effort on all fronts will we succeed. I think we're fortunate here in that what's being asked is nothing more than 'shop intelligently'. Seriously, who among us was a big fan of The Outback Steakhouse, White Barn or Guess, anyway?

The new polyester...

From alicublog by way of This Modern World ...

"I guess that, on the Right, batshit-crazy is the new polyester. It was bound to happen. They run everything, yet their world still isn't perfect, and the shortfalls couldn't possibly be their fault. Having no powerful adversaries left to scourge, they turn on small fish like the comedian Franken, impute to them strange powers, and start spooling out the outrage. Gives them something to do until a spot opens up in the Ministry of Truth, one imagines."

I fucking warned you all...

Please read this:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A16443-2004Nov27.html

Now, if you would, take a gander at this:

http://www.al.com/news/birminghamnews/index.ssf?/base/news/1101896768316400.xml

With any luck, you'll have all heard of both of these things already, but the media's been so good about living up to its goals of misinforming, misleading and withholding fact from the public body lately, that despite what news should be making the front page, it often isn't. Seriously, in San Francisco a couple of weeks ago, the fact that no one had spotted Hillary Duff in the area made the front fucking page of the regional section of the Sunday edition of a major city newspaper. But I digress.

Or, rather, I repress. For even I truly wish what were happening today weren't. Look, we've all always known that Alabama is easily the nation's lowest common denominator. It's the problem child of our little national family. But we could never have guessed how low it would turn out this denominator fell. This is like having a younger sibling who's a little slow, maybe a little quirky, you know, chromosomes sorta crossed, parents are always saying in that ho hum voice, "Oh, we just have to be patient with Randy. He's just a little special," and then coming home one afternoon to find he's raped and murdered the family dog.

Imagine, if you will, a social philosophy that has no interest in social progress. It has no interest in the promotion of human interests. It doesn't even, against all odds, enjoy a healthy interest in the common lures of wealth or power. The only interest this philosophy has is in a notion, entirely thwarted by application of Aristotelian logic, of forcing capitulation to a very limited and lunatic misinterpretation of the dogma of a religion. Essentially, we have a philosophy that plucks a couple of choice eccentricities from a host of codes regarding social behavior and attempts to apply them quite forcibly, and in opposition to both the current societal law or the actual dogma of the religion, unto those who believe or behave otherwise.

And that appears to be almost the entire base of political thought or action for a good portion of Alabama, anymore.

Now, and bear with me, I’d like everyone to push through this:

http://www.procyon.com/~froody/vendorx/viewentry.php?EntryID=93

There. Right fucking there, a little over a year ago, I warned EVERYONE what was going to happen if this shit kept up. No one can claim ignorance, here. Everyone's had at least a year to improve.

Well, Alabama has fucking failed. F for failure for fucking Alabama. Step into my office, you're fucking fired. And you know what that means? The Fun Party is now officially at war with Alabama. Drafts for upcoming battle theaters and a propaganda campaign will follow shortly, but for the time being, all Fun Party delegates, diplomats and members are ordered to evacuate immediately.

Look not to those delegates in 2008, my friends. Inside of four years, we expect Alabama to be entirely walled off from the civilized world, a place where psychotics, violent criminals and the other undesired dregs of the unfun society can be chucked without pain to our community or its conscious.

An oldie, and a goodie

I was reading a Salon interview with Jerry Stahl, the author of "Permanent Midnight" and more recently "I, Fatty" and came across this gem. When asked about his thoughts on Bush's re-election he had this to say...

"I'd have to go back to H.L. Mencken and quote something he said in the Baltimore Sun in 1920: 'As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.'

Put differently, as Americans are subtly and consistently stripped of their personal power -- be it economic or intellectual -- the need to bask in some nationalistic pseudo glory must increase proportionately. A few more years of Bush and people will be eating flags -- raw, of course, since if you cook them that counts as burning. Around the time the first Bush-girls porn tape hits the Internet -- 'Oh baby, spank my ass and call me Fallujah!' -- Attorney General Billy Graham will declare the entire nation possessed by Satan and invoke martial law until the Dark One can be rooted out. I don't subscribe to the notion that Bush Jr. is necessarily the worst president -- but I do believe he'll be the last one."

Fun for America... my Anti-Drug.

A quick perusal of the Washington Post this morning...

Simultaneous Attacks Kill At Least 20 in Baghdad
The attacks on police stations also allow insurgents to free dozens of prisoners, empty a police arsenal.

'Opportunity' for Abuse Cited
Report details shortcomings in military's handling of prisoners in Afghanistan.

Job Growth 112,000 in Nov.
Weakest gain in five months is about half of what economists had forecast.

Antidepressant Use by U.S. Adults Soars
Use of drugs such as Prozac, Paxil or Zoloft has nearly tripled amid questions about the costs and safety of many prescription drugs.

Hmmm... coincidence? I think not. The moral of this story, America, is that when the going gets tough, the tough get bent.

Life imitating the Simpsons

Don't know if you guys saw this, but there a few disturbing things in this Washington Post piece, wherein your president outlines his 2nd-term foreign policy.

There is the standard fare against the U.N...
"The objective of the U.N. and other institutions must be collective security, not endless debate." Take that, you peace-making pansies!

There was a focus on the "real trouble" in the middle east...
"As we negotiate the details of peace, we must look to the heart of the matter, which is the need for a Palestinian democracy." Freedom is on the march!

But, the thing that gets me is that we are still talking about a missile defense system. I realize that Bush doesn't believe in science, but why, why, why are folks still pushing for this? Anyone seen that episode of the Simpsons, Marge vs. the Monorail?

Seriously, this is not a rhetorical question. Please, give me your comments. I need to know.