Bloggers "Probably" Not Journalists

Bloggers would "probably not" be considered journalists under the proposed federal shield law, the bill's co-sponsor, U.S. Sen. Richard Lugar (R.-Ind.), told the Inter American Press Association (IAPA) Monday afternoon.

Lugar emphasized, however, that debate is not yet closed on how to define a journalist under the proposed law. "As to who is a reporter, this will be a subject of debate as this bill goes farther along," he said in response to a question from Washington Post Deputy Managing Editor Milton Coleman.

"Are bloggers journalists or some of the commercial businesses that you here would probably not consider real journalists? Probably not, but how do you determine who will be included in this bill?"According to the first draft of the Free Flow of Information Act of 2005, the "covered person" protected by the bill's terms includes "any entity that disseminates information by print, broadcast, cable, satellite, mechanical, photographic, electronic, or other means and that publishes a newspaper, book, magazine, or other periodical in print or electronic form; operates a radio or television station (or network of such stations), cable system, or satellite carrier, or channel or programming service for any such station, network, system, or carrier; or operates a news agency or wire service." The legislation also covers employees, contractors or other persons who "gathers, edits, photographs, records, prepares, or disseminates news or information for any such entity."

A key reason some journalists oppose the popular federal shield proposal is fear that giving Congress the power to define who is and isn't a journalist could lead effectively to the licensing of journalists.

In other remarks about the legislation at IAPA's 61st General Assembly, Lugar acknowledged that the legislation could amount to a "privilege" for reporters over other Americans.

The above from Ed and Pub.

For the record, I'm not fully sure if I have a problem with this. A journalist can blog; some bloggers behave as journalists. But being a blogger doesn't immediately produce a press card.

As I've said before, although I am a journalist and a card carrying member of the press, I do not treat this blog as a journalistic endeavor. Yet there are many bloggers I would consider full journalists.

Answer This

So why did President Bush send Harriet Miers a birthday card telling her "no more public scatology"? Of course, she called him the most brilliant man she ever met (Harriet really needs to get out more)

From Dictionary.com:

Scatology

The study of fecal excrement, as in medicine, paleontology, or biology.
An obsession with excrement or excretory functions.
The psychiatric study of such an obsession.
Obscene language or literature, especially that dealing pruriently or humorously with excrement and excretory functions.

Don't mess with Tex-ass?

National Journal: Cheney Aide Libby Failed to Disclose Key Conversation

Here:

In two appearances before the federal grand jury investigating the leak of a covert CIA operative's name, Lewis (Scooter) Libby, the chief of staff to Vice President Cheney, did not disclose a crucial conversation that he had with New York Times reporter Judith Miller in June 2003 about the operative, Valerie Plame, according to sources with firsthand knowledge of his sworn testimony.

Libby also did not disclose the June 23 conversation when he was twice interviewed by FBI agents working on the Plame leak investigation, the sources said.

Special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald apparently learned about the June 23 conversation for the first time just days ago, after attorneys for Miller and The New York Times informed prosecutors that Miller had discovered a set of notes on the conversation.

Imagine that, the Prince of Darkness handpicked demon spawn not telling the truth. Be still my heart.

A Note to California's Governator

Dear Arnold:

Considering what a mess you've made of California - and you, God help us, were the recall and reform candidate - I would think you would be more concerned about stop fucking up the state you lead.

But gosh, no, you're signing movie deals. And God knows, the world needs more semi-elderly super heros with a neck the diameter of a redwood tree trunk without a mastery for the English language. The latter, however, won't keep you from being president as our current leader in thief exemplifies.

Speaking as a pacifist to a non-pacifist, someone really ought to slap you silly.

Signed,
A non-fan in Vermont

Bird Flu Redux

You know, not so long ago I was lamenting that our brilliant leaders were paying almost no attention to bird flu which could make the losses on 9/11, or NOLA, or Pakistan seem like a birthday party.

But now, the Bushies are just using it to distract everybody. And using it to push the end of Posse Comitatus. Talking about forced quarantines. You know, generally fucking it up the way only Bushies seem able to do.

Sigh.

A Prophet, a Warrior, AND Not Gay

General JC Christian has come screaming out of the closet to announce that he is not a homosexual.

Neither am I.

Good. Now that this is settled we can return to the world's chaos, already in progress.

A Toilet You MUST See

Read this interesting article about an American solidarity movement at Karlo's SwerveLeft... then check out the "holy image" in the toilet.

Strangely, during my 32 hour power outage two weeks ago, I ended up with an image of Condi Rice in my lavatory toilet off the kitchen.

Posted by the Good Folks

at Skippy International. I'd read this before but I enjoy reading it again. ;)

theodore roosevelt heller, 88, loving father of charles (joann) heller; dear brother of the late sonya (the late jack) steinberg. ted was discharged from the u.s. army during wwii due to service related injuries, and then forced his way back into the illinois national guard insisting no one tells him when to serve his country. graveside services tuesday 11 a.m. at waldheim jewish cemetery (ziditshover section), 1700 s. harlem ave., chicago.in lieu of flowers, please send acerbic letters to republicans.

National Guard Deaths in Iraq Have Doubled

Story in The Times.

So Now We've Lost Another Billion in Iraq

From USA Today:

BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraq has issued arrest warrants against the defense minister and 27 other officials from the U.S.-backed government of former Prime Minister Iyad Allawi over the alleged disappearance or misappropriation of $1 billion in military procurement funds, officials said Monday.

Those accused include four other ministers from Allawi's government, which was replaced by an elected Cabinet led by Shiite parties in April, said Ali al-Lami of Iraq's Integrity Commission. Many of the officials are believed to have left Iraq, including Hazem Shaalan, the former defense minister who moved to Jordan shortly after the new government was installed.

For months, Iraqi investigators have been looking into allegations that millions of dollars were spent on overpriced deals for shoddy weapons and military hardware, apparently to launder cash, at a time when Iraq was battling a bloody insurgency that still persists.

In Baghdad, a suicide bomber detonated a car full of mortars near an entrance to the fortified Green Zone on Monday, killing a U.S. soldier and six Iraqis in one of a string of insurgent attacks in which at least 13 other Iraqis also died.

No Values Like Family Values (Cough)

From Oregon Live:

Law enforcement officials said Saturday they are investigating complaints that Louis Beres, longtime chairman of the Christian Coalition of Oregon, molested three female family members when they were pre-teens.

"There is an investigation of allegations that have been made," Multnomah County District Attorney Michael Schrunk said Saturday.

The Oregonian talked to three of Beres' female relatives, including two who told reporters that he molested them. All three said they have been interviewed for several hours by detectives.
"I was molested," said one of the women, now in her early 50s. "I was victimized, and I've suffered all my life for it. I'm still afraid to be in the same room with (Beres)."

Beres, 70, whose group champions socially conservative candidates and causes, confirmed he is under investigation for alleged molestation. He blamed "personal and political enemies" for the reports and said, "I never molested anybody."

Top Three U.S. Automakers About to Belly Up?

That's what The Times and other news sources are saying.

Clear the passageways: Rat are running off the Good Ship Dubya

Maybe it's his deodorant; from the Mercury News:

For almost five years, Republican lawmakers have seamlessly marched together to deliver President Bush's legislative agenda. At times, they have made the normally messy business of writing laws look easy.

Now, for the first time in Bush's presidency, party discipline among Republicans has broken down to the point that he faces insurrections on a variety of fronts, from Harriet Miers' Supreme Court nomination to the nation's policy on the treatment of prisoners.

Republicans in the House, in the Senate and in key conservative groups have begun criticizing the president and his policies in a way not seen since he took office.

"With fiscal conservatives, we've been disappointed," said Rep. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., a leader in the fight to push the White House to restrain federal spending.

Plummeting ratings for Bush and many of his policies, from Social Security to the war in Iraq, have clearly played a part, freeing people to speak their minds, Flake acknowledged: "When you're taking on water, it's easier to complain."

Bush's problem with his own party coincides with his low popularity ratings around the nation. According to a recent CBS News poll, Bush has hit an all-time low with just 37 percent approval. A new Associated Press-Ipsos poll shows that 28 percent of the electorate says the country is headed in the right direction, while 66 percent say it's on the wrong track.

Now conservatives who have been crucial to Bush's electoral and legislative successes are speaking out against the president.

Jessica Echard, executive director of the Eagle Forum, a grass-roots organization founded by Phyllis Schlafly, describes the mood among her 80,000 members as "disillusionment."

"The Harriet Miers nomination has brought to the surface a lot of concerns and disappointments that have been smoldering beneath the surface," Echard said. "We've been concerned and frustrated by the president's stances on immigration, border security, spending and the fact that he hasn't used his veto power in five years in office."

In recent days, Bush has faced legislative setbacks in the House and Senate and public complaints about his actions and policies. And, for a change, none of the president's trouble has come from the Democrats:

Rejecting White House pleas, the Republican-led Senate voted 90-9 to ban cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment or punishment against anyone in U.S. government custody.

In the House, a band of fiscal conservatives has been badgering the White House and Republican leaders to pay for billions of dollars in relief for Hurricane Katrina by cutting other federal spending. GOP leaders eventually relented, promising across-the-board spending cuts by the end of the month.

Bush's nomination of Miers has provoked consternation outside the Capitol, as conservative special interest groups have complained bitterly that Miers does not have a proven track record of supporting their socially conservative agenda.

Bush's push to overhaul Social Security with private investment accounts is widely considered to be dead, having failed to attract enough Republican support.

The Eight Years of Our Discontent OR Cold Reality

I was reading about the expected federal indictments that may extend beyond
Karl Rove via a threat at Think Progress which made me stop, think for about four-five tours around the topic.

Does this strike anyone else any particular way?

Face it- There will be pardons long before any trial, thus eliminating the possibility that the crimes committed by the bush regieme will ever come to light in a public forum.
The fact that the USA electorate refused to challenge the blatantly false “official” 2004 election results is proof enough that the corporate repugs will continue to rule for the foreseeable future.

Stoopid USA citizens will always sell-out the USA in favor of moronic corporate jingles.

Face the truth- Even if rove is shot for treason, almost half of the USA electorate is far too stupid to ever understand the CONCEPT of treason, and most of the other half, is far too stupid to get off their ass and vote.

The USA was once a nation of LAWS. The USA is NOW a nation of MORONS.

For every non-USA citizen who harbors hatred towards the USA, Relax- the USA will be gone forever soon enough. Certainly in less than 2 decades- most likely in less than a decade.

Bide your time, and invest in euros.

The USA is defined by it’s constitution- but almost everyone sworn to to defend the USA constitution is working to destroy the USA constitution.

The noble experiment has failed after more than 2 centuries.The USA is dead.

I find that second to last paragraph stunning in its truth.

Have an Idea That's the Best Thing Since Sliced Bread?

Saw this link to Since Sliced Bread in an ad at Talking Points Memo. Interesting whatever it is.

Mr. Bush's Desire for a Martial Law Police State

Mr Natural at Left Edge North points us to this important piece at Take it Personally.

Snippet from profmarcus:

yeah, uh-huh... right... just trust us... s-u-u-ure... here's the key phrase: "covert operatives need to be able to approach potential sources in the United States without identifying themselves as government agents..." you can't have trust when you don't know what's going on in the first place...

Interesting Poll Result

Now a few different polls indicate that, among the Americans who've ever heard of Harriet Miers after two weeks on nonstop discussion about her, they report feeling more disturbed rather than reassured that Mr. Bush considers her a good friend and an excellent choice.

Social Dem Schroeder Out, Christian Dem Merkel In as Germany's Leader

Interesting. She's Germany's first female leader. Interesting solution to the closeness of the vote, too: Christian Dems agreed to give up key cabinet posts to Social Dems in exchange for Schroeder stepping aside.

This "winner takes all" and "mandate" shit that goes on with our elections doesn't help Republicans, doesn't help Democrats, doesn't help anyone in between or outside the two parties.

Mystery of Dead Journalist in Iraq Deepens

Buzzflash points us at this piece in Editor and Publisher:

Steve Vincent, a New Yorker and a freelance reporter, remains the only American journalist slain in Iraq since the fall of Baghdad more than two years ago. It happened on Aug. 2, but more than two months later, no one has been caught or charged with his murder.

Just before his death, after being kidnapped in Basra, he had written an op-ed for The New York Times. That newspaper re-visited his killing today, revealing or speculating on several fascinating angles, including the role that his very close relationship with his Iraqi interpreter may have played in the mystery. Vincent's death was followed on Sept. 19 by the slaying of Fakher Haider, 38, an Iraqi journalist working for the Times, with the circumstances similar and his killers also still at large.

The paper's Kirk Semple wrote today, "Radical Shiite militias, who have infiltrated the government and police force in Basra, are widely suspected of committing the crimes, though it is not known whether the killings are linked in any way."

Vincent and his Iraqi interpreter, Nooriya Taiz, were grabbed off the street by several armed men and thrown into a government pickup truck in Basra, and found several hours later, riddled with bullets. Taiz survived. From the beginning, speculation about a motive for Vincent's killing focused mainly on his reporting and that July 31 op-ed, which revealed his increasing concerns about the role of radical Shiites and the fundamentalist crackdown in that city since the January elections. But his relationship with Taiz may have also played a big part.

Semple, in a frank account, revealed today that the relationship between Vincent and Taiz "developed well beyond a business arrangement and a shared indignation about the spread of hard-line Shiite control. They clearly adored each other." Among those Semple cited for this: Vincent's wife of 13 years, Lisa Ramaci. Many people who met the writer and the interpreter in Basra were told by them that they intended to marry.

Toledo Blade: More on Ohio GOP Coingate

Although this story of corrupt Ohio GOP's connection to losing a lot of employee money in rare and bad coin purchases goes to the very depth of how legitimate the 2004 presidential elections results from Ohio, the deciding state, this story has only once to my knowledge made it to the airwaves.

From the Toledo Blade, a paper doing steady work on this case:

Tom Noe often transferred tens of thousands of dollars from the Ohio rare-coin funds he managed to his personal business before bankrolling Republican candidates and causes with contributions and loans.

A Blade examination of the accounting records from Mr. Noe’s $50 million rare-coin venture shows a pattern of large sums of money moving from the coin funds to his personal business, Vintage Coins and Collectibles, in the days and weeks before the coin dealer and his wife, Bernadette, made contributions to Republican candidates ranging from President Bush to U.S. Sen. George Voinovich and Gov. Bob Taft down to Lucas County Auditor Larry Kaczala.Mr. Noe typically listed the payments from the coin funds to Vintage Coins as "profit distributions" or "coin purchases."But both of those explanations have been assailed as fraudulent by Ohio Attorney General Jim Petro, who has branded Mr. Noe a thief and accused the former Toledo-area coin dealer of running a Ponzi scheme and making questionable coin trades with the state fund.

Last month, Mr. Petro accused Mr. Noe of diverting coin-fund money to his personal business and then to his personal checking account to pay for his former Catawba Island home, landscape his home in the Florida Keys, and pay off a business loan. Mr. Petro said the accusations largely came from "tracking the flow of dollars" out of the coin funds to Mr. Noe’s personal accounts and measuring the "proximity of the transfers" before large purchases or payments.

According to the computerized accounting records of Capital Coin I, II, and their subsidiaries, Mr. Noe since 1998 transferred more than $19 million from the state coin venture into his business accounts at Vintage Coins, including more than $13 million for "coin purchases" and more than $1.7 million in "profit distributions." In that same time period, Vintage Coins transferred about $5 million back to the coin funds, the records show.

As Mr. Petro lodged accusations about how Mr. Noe bought houses and paid-off loans with state coin fund money, he stopped short of making claims about how the coin dealer paid for political contributions and loans he and his wife doled out, totaling more than $300,000 since 1998 — the year he received his first installment of $25 million from the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation to invest in rare coins.

Mr. Petro, who has returned $6,100 in campaign contributions from the Noes because of concerns that the money could have come from state funds, said during a news conference that coin-fund money could have been used for political purposes, but his office is focusing on "personal resources" in building its civil case against the coin dealer.

Cheer Up, Kidderoos

After all, as of midnight, we only have 1,197 days of King George's reign left. And they'll all be a bad Monday.

Newsweek on the Republican Party of George Bush and Tom DeLay

Reasonably interesting. I think it barely even tries to scratch the surface, however.

John Dean: The People Vs. Tommy The Bugman DeLay

John Dean is a regular read of mine and this analysis is interesting, explaining lots of the nuances lost in the babble.

Snips:

The (now) former Majority Leader of the U.S. House of Representatives was indicted on September 28, and again on October 2, by two different Travis County, Texas grand juries. The second indictment is far more serious than the first.

The first indictment charges DeLay with engaging in a criminal conspiracy in violation of Texas Penal Code Section 15.02. It states that DeLay and two of his associates (also indicted) agreed to make corporate political contributions which are prohibited by the Elections Code. If convicted, DeLay faces up to two years in jail and a $10,000 fine.

Six days later came the second indictment, which is twice the length of the first, with its two counts. The first count charges another conspiracy under Section 15.02, again to violate the election law - but ALSO to launder corporate money, in violation of Texas Penal Code Section 34.02, the state's money laundering prohibition. The second count charges DeLay outright with the offense of money laundering, and because the amount of the money allegedly laundered exceeds $100,000, that is a felony punishable by life in prison.

AND

One experienced criminal defense attorneys (from Texas, who is following the case closely) volunteered his surprise that DeLay was going around to radio and television shows to speak out on the matter. DeLay has visited Rush Limbaugh's show, Sean Hannity's, and Chris Mathews's "Hardball" to mention a few. At each stop, DeLay repeats his claim that the grand jury had no basis, no evidence whatsoever, to indict him.

"It is just not smart for a criminal defendant to blabber on," the attorney told me. "Those public statements will come back to haunt Tom DeLay in a courtroom, probably early next year." I asked that he be more specific.

This attorney said he had watched DeLay contradict himself on "Hardball," and then, apparently, lie about never having been requested to appear before the grand jury. I pulled the transcript.

Referring to the fund-raising entity at the heart of the case, Texans for a Republican Majority PAC, DeLay told Mathews, "TRMPAC is a separate entity. I had no fiduciary responsibilities. I had no managerial responsibilities. I had nothing to do with the day-to-day operation. I was simply, along with four other elected officials, on an advisory board. They used my name as headliners for fund-raisers."

A few minutes later, though, the transcript reflects that DeLay is contradicting himself. He tells Mathews he was, in effect, deeply involved: "Everything TRMPAC did -- and I insisted on -- to even be on their board of advisers. Now, TRMPAC was my idea. I wanted the Texas House to be a Republican majority. And I went down there and worked with them to do that. We were successful."

Christian Coalition: That They Were Morally Bankrupt Stood Without Question, But Financially?

Oops.

The Christian Coalition, the onetime powerhouse of the religious right founded by Pat Robertson, is struggling to stay afloat.

The group’s annual revenue has shrunk to one- twentieth of what it was a decade ago – from a peak of $26 million in 1996 to $1.3 million in 2004 – and it has left a trail of unpaid bills from Texas to Virginia. Among the creditors who have sued the coalition for nonpayment are landlords, direct-mail companies, lawyers and at least one former employee seeking back pay.

It has even come to this: The company that moved the group out of its Washington headquarters in 2002 went to small-claims court Friday in Henrico County trying to collect $1,890 that remains unpaid on its three-year-old bill.

It is the latest in at least a dozen judicial collection actions brought against the coalition since 2001. The amounts sought by creditors total hundreds of thousands of dollars.

NOPD Officers Beat Older Man

Not the best time for the NOPD in a history that has not been filled with all the best stuff anyway.

Snippet:

NEW ORLEANS - At least one police officer repeatedly punched a 64-year-old man accused of public intoxication, and another officer assaulted an Associated Press Television News producer as a cameraman taped the confrontations.

There will be a criminal investigation, and three New Orleans Police Department officers will be suspended Sunday, arrested and charged with simple battery, Capt. Marlon Defillo said.

"We have great concern with what we saw this morning," Defillo said after he and about a dozen other high-ranking police department officials watched the APTN footage Sunday. "It's a troubling tape, no doubt about it. ... This department will take immediate action."

The assaults come as the department, long plagued by allegations of brutality and corruption, struggles with the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and the resignation last month of Police Superintendent Eddie Compass.

The APTN tape shows an officer hitting the man at least four times in the head Saturday night as he stood outside a bar. The suspect, Robert Davis, appeared to resist, twisting and flailing as he was dragged to the ground by four officers. Another officer then kneed Davis and punched him twice. Davis was face-down on the sidewalk with blood streaming down his arm and into the gutter.

Newsday: No Evidence NY Subway Terror Threat Real

But it sure wasis distracting!

NEW YORK -- A reported plot to bomb city subways with remote-controlled explosives has not been corroborated after days of investigation, law-enforcement officials said Sunday amid an easing sense of concern about a possible attack.

Interrogations of suspects captured in Iraq Thursday and Friday after an informant's tip about bomb-laden suitcases and baby carriages have yet to yield evidence that the plot was real, three officials with knowledge of the investigation said.

"The intelligence community has been able to determine that there are very serious doubts about the credibility of this specific threat," Homeland Security Department spokesman Russ Knocke said. "This is after ongoing review and analysis."

Homeland Security officials have been skeptical about the threat since it was publicly announced on Thursday, but officials who were more assertive about the potential danger last week also appeared to be softening their assessment Sunday.

"I believe in the short term we'll have a much better sense of whether or not this has, you know, real substance to it," Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said on CNN's Late Edition.

Sound Familiar, FEMA?

Posted by Lambert at CorrenteWire:

According to the Republican Playbook, the first step in privatizing is you always to underfund and trash a government agency. Then, you can privatize the agency—and hand out the contracts to your contributors! Nice work if you can get it…

But you’d think the Republicans would have some stopping points; some ethical constraints; some limit where they’d say, “We can’t do this, it’s just not decent. Money’s one thing, but people’s lives could depend on this!”

But n-o-o-o-o-o!

After Katrina—or Andrew, for that matter—you’d think the Republicans, as the governing ruling party, would be doing their best to defend American citizens at risk from hurricanes. Think again:

While hurricanes relentlessly pound America’s coastlines, breakdowns in crucial weather-observing equipment are thwarting forecasters at the National Hurricane Center … a Miami Herald Investigation has found.

Grudge Match #2: Patronizing Pimp Boy Pat Robertson vs. Hugo the Terminator Chavez

Raw Story says Pat Robertson is at it again, this time saying Chavez cut Osama bin Laden a generous check. Hell, the Bushies have written LOTS of checks to bin Ladens who are their business and financial partners.

Snippet:

PROMINENT US TV evangelist Pat Robertson has accused Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez of giving Osama bin Laden $US1.2 million after the September 11 attacks and of trying to obtain nuclear material from Iran.

Mr Robertson caused uproar in August when he called during his televised religious program for the US government to assassinate Chavez. He later was forced to apologise to the leftist leader.

But the conservative preacher issued a new denunciation of Chavez yesterday, local time, in an interview with CNN.

"The truth is, this man is setting up a Marxist-type dictatorship in Venezuela, he's trying to spread Marxism throughout South America, he's negotiating with the Iranians to get nuclear material and he also sent $US1.2 million in cash to Osama bin Laden right after 9/11," Mr Robertson said.

"I apologised and I said I will be praying for him, but one day we will be staring nuclear weapons and it won't be (Hurricane) Katrina facing New Orleans, it's going to be a Venezuelan nuke," Mr Robertson said.

SARS Spread by Bats

I'm not terribly surprised by this, but considering how SARS and the "avian" flu can have fairly similar symptoms I wonder if bats - even though they are mammals and not birds - could spread the bird flu as well.

Now, the same time SARS broke out, I happened to be taking a three week vacation in ICU with SARS' nasty big brother, ARDS, which isn't known to be communicable. If the bird flu is anything like SARS or ARDS, God help us. Two and a half years later, I have yet to draw a breath that is not accompanied by staggering pain and a sense of my left lower lung being on fire, an effect of all the scar tissue left behind by a respiratory syndrome that turns your organs to jelly.

What's Your Call on Miers

The Carpetbagger Report - for those who aren't regular readers - has a nice habit of opening up the discussion on one key topic every Sunday, and the questions or dilemmas presented are usually good ones, with a lot of good discussion.

Today's topic is Harriet Miers for the Supreme Court (and here's an interesting tidbit: as late as yesterday, polls were showing that between 7 and 9 out of every 10 people have no idea who she is when asked to identify her). Should we actively support her confirmation (I'd probably prefer to eat glass) or happily sit by and watch the extreme right - who my my my has really been snarling about being stuck with Clarence Thomas 14 years ago - demand her replacement because it would be another nail in King Georgy's coffin?

For myself, I can't applaud her nomination. But even to make Georgy Porgy seem bad am I willing to consciously hurt the country by allowing the rightists to trample all over the court.

OK

I gotta go pretend to be a productive member of society instead of... well... whatever it is I am. Then I need to consult my dog about an appropriate super hero's costume, preferably something without bronze breast plates.

NY Daily News: Americans Aren't Buying What Bush and Rice Are Selling

Here:

Bush & Rice make new Iraq pitches but Americans aren't buying.

Over the last weeks, the White House quietly has been trying out a new argument on Iraq. Aimed at shoring up public support, the tactic compares the difficulties there with historic conflicts, such as World War II and the battle against communism.
What Iraq shares with those periods, the argument goes, are bouts of doubt and confusion followed by victory - if we are resolute and patient.

It's a good argument, but not good enough. My bet is that it's too late and has too many holes in it to be persuasive for those sick of the carnage in Iraq.

The first peek at the new approach came Sept. 30, when Secretary of State Rice linked Iraq to history's "extraordinary times" in a speech at Princeton University. Then, last Thursday, President Bush picked up the theme in Washington, where he compared Osama Bin Laden and other Islamic terrorists to Hitler, Stalin and Pol Pot.

Rice was more thoughtful and less bellicose, but her audience, drawn mostly from the Woodrow Wilson graduate school, responded politely but unenthusiastically. Although her office billed the speech as major, it did not get wide attention, so parts of it are worth repeating here.

Citing setbacks the free world suffered in the first five years after World War II - the division of Germany, the Communist victory in China, the Soviet atomic bomb, the Korean War - she put our choice in stark terms.

"If we quit now, we will abandon Iraq's democrats at their time of greatest need. We will embolden every enemy of liberty and democracy across the Middle East. ... If we abandon future generations in the Middle East to despair and terror, we also condemn future generations in the United States to insecurity and fear."

Bush's Chats with God

Errrr.....

WASHINGTON -- Once again, a private conversation between President Bush and Palestinian leaders two years ago has come back to bedevil the White House.

Despite the dubious nature of Bush's reported words -- which the White House insists have been mischaracterized -- the latest account asserting that Bush once claimed a divine mandate to wage war in Afghanistan and Iraq has spawned headlines around the globe, in newspapers and over the Internet.

Commentators have been especially ruthless in Europe, where Bush's born-again Christianity is viewed with suspicion.

The story has its roots in a meeting in June 2003, when Bush attended back-to-back summits in Egypt and Jordan to launch a peace plan for resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The BBC will broadcast a documentary this week in which a senior Palestinian official alleges Bush privately suggested that he invaded Afghanistan and Iraq on the orders of God.

Florida's New #1 Educator Promotes Creationism

Oh, glorious.

Cheri Pierson Yecke began her job as one of the most powerful educators in the state last week with little fanfare, receiving her office keys and e-mail address and meeting in a two-day retreat with Department of Education staff.

But the reputation of Florida's new chancellor for kindergarten through 12th grade, second only to Education Commissioner John Winn, preceded her with more flourish — and fear from some.

Yecke, 50, who served most recently as Minnesota's top educator, is a conservative, a believer in creationism, a critic of teachers unions and a strong proponent of President Bush's education reform programs, some of which she helped write.

She was forced out as Minnesota's education commissioner last year by a Democrat-controlled Senate.

She then worked as a senior fellow at the conservative think tank Center of the American Experiment, where she wrote articles blaming childhood obesity on the "liberal media" and said "liberal criminal sentencing laws" make streets unsafe for kids.

The Case of Judith Miller's Mysteriously Missing Then Reappeared Notebook

From Editor and Publisher (curioser and curioser):

If its recent track record is any guide, The New York Times, later today or tomorrow, will get around to confirming Michael Isikoff’s Newsweek revelation late Saturday that the missing notes Judith Miller suddenly found and turned over to the federal prosecutor on Friday in the Plame case were located in a notebook in the newspaper’s Washington, D.C. bureau. The prosecutor, Patrick J. Fitzgerald, has now scheduled another meeting with Miller on Tuesday.

Besides the ongoing mystery of why the Times is always a step or two behind its competition in reporting on its own reporter, this latest twist raises all sorts of tantalizing issues. If anyone at the Times objects to raising the following questions: It’s your own fault for not disclosing more about this case yourself.

And, before getting to The Case of the Missing Notebook: What’s with the Times, which long supported Miller going to jail for 85 days, purportedly to stand up for a journalistic principle (protecting a source), now willingly turning over a reporter’s notes to the prosecutor? And did Miller turn over the notes herself, or did the Times locate and do the honors itself?

The notes in question, we now know, cover a Miller discussion with I. Lewis Libby on June 25, 2003, two weeks before Joseph Wilson’s WMD op-ed that was thought to have set the Bush backlash in motion. These notes, the Times had disclosed, do mention Wilson. Isikoff observes that the notebook is “significant because Wilson's identity was not yet public.”

Greg Mitchell's been a strong writer on the Bushies for some time.

New Poll, New Blog Listings

Finally, I updated the poll and the blogs of the week listings.

Bush Seeks More Ways to Spy on Americans Without Paper Trail

Doesn't matter how few they ever catch and how few of those are actually guilty.

Walter Pincus in the WaPo:

As part of the expanding counterterrorism role being taken on by the Pentagon, Defense Intelligence Agency covert operatives need to be able to approach potential sources in the United States without identifying themselves as government agents, George Peirce, the DIA's general counsel, said yesterday.

"This is not about spying on Americans," Peirce said in an interview in which he defended legislative language approved last week by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. The provision would grant limited authority for DIA agents to clandestinely collect information about U.S. citizens or emigres in this country to help determine whether they could be recruited as sources of intelligence information.

"We are not asking for the moon," Peirce said. "We only want to assess their suitability as a source, person to person" and at the same time "protect the ID and safety of our officers." The CIA and the FBI already have such authority, he added, and the DIA needs it "to develop critical leads" because "there is more than enough work for all of us to do."

The legislative proposal has been controversial on Capitol Hill and has drawn criticism from groups concerned with privacy and civil liberties. The House's intelligence authorization bill, which passed in June, does not include the provision, which is similar to a proposal that was eliminated last year from the legislation.

The Senate intelligence panel approved the new authority for the DIA last week and forwarded it to the Senate Armed Services Committee, which reviews sections related to the Defense Department. One senior Armed Services Committee staff member said yesterday that the DIA provision "will get close review here."

Poll Results In

According to you folks, I'm supposed to be a super hero or a FEMA director. Too bad we didn't have a super hero as FEMA director during Katrina, eh?

Diamonds Aren't Any Girl's Best Friend

I see Karlo at SwerveLeft has the same feelings about diamonds I do.

I'd much rather have a piece of fabricated glass than wear a gem that someone paid with his anatomy to get.

War for Porn Site Raided with Very Minimal Search Guidelines

Monkeyfister from Blah3 posts this:

Photographic Evidence Of Potential Warcrimes Ignored Consensual-Sex Pron Confiscated. Owner of site arrested for the pron.

Polk County officials arrested a Lakeland man on obscenity charges Friday after investigating his graphic Web site, which has gained international attention for allowing U.S. soldiers to post pictures of war dead on the Internet.

The charges against Christopher Michael Wilson, a former police officer, are likely to reignite the debate about obscene material in the Internet age. It also raises questions about whether the federal government played a part in motivating the prosecution.

Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said late Friday that the 300 obscenity-related charges against Wilson all involve sexual content on his Web site -- and not graphic war-scene images posted by soldiers.

As John says, God help us all... BUT, if you go to the link, he promises that he's got a few aces in the hole on this story.

Louisiana Visitors

Looking at my blog log this morning, I'm reminded again that a few folks who used to come in regularly from in and around New Orleans just don't show up anymore.

God only knows I can understand other matters are pressing in their lives. But I keep thinking, "Did they make it? Are their homes gone?"

Likewise, I see a few less Texans since Rita. I worry about them, too.

G'Night

John Boy, Mary Ellen, Elizabeth, Jim Bob, Gramma and Grampa.

From Dust to... er.. Cocktail Ring?

Woman 1: My goodness. That ring is huge! Is that the Hope diamond?

Woman 2: No such luck! That's actually the remains of my fourth husband, Morty.

Story here:

Everyone said she was a gem. Now, just eight ounces of cremated remains is all it takes to turn your mother into a diamond.

ADVERTISEMENT

In fact, there's enough carbon in those ashes to make about 20 gems. And there will still be several pounds of ashes left over to display on the mantelpiece.

So far, nobody's ordered more than 11 diamonds, said Dean VandenBiesen, vice president of operations for LifeGem, which uses super-hot ovens to transform ashes to graphite and then presses the stone into blue and yellow diamonds that retail for anywhere from 2,700 to 20,000 dollars.

"It's not for everyone," VandenBiesen admitted, adding that for those who do chose to immortalize their loved ones in jewelry, the experience is extremely positive.

"We have people that approach us who have just experienced a tragedy and they say I can't wait, I'm so excited about this," he said. "In the field of death care, when someone says I'm really excited about this, I think we've achieved what we wanted to do which is change the culture of death."

The success of LifeGem is just one example of a radical shift in the funeral industry, said Mark Musgrove, immediate past president of the National Funeral Directors Association.

Americans are moving away from traditional funerals and are seeking instead less somber occasions that reflect the personality of the deceased.

They are also looking for alternative ways to remember their loved ones.

While a decline in religiosity has contributed to the shift, Musgrove said it's mainly a reflection of a cultural phenomenon.

Say Hello to

Crony Jobs.

Bill Bennett, Still Defending His Abort Black Babies Diatribe

What a maroon!

Now, according to Mr. Morality, it is the media's fault.

"That Was Like So Waaaaaaaay Out of Bounds!"

Errr.....from New York: A 9-year-old girl pleaded guilty to second-degree manslaughter Friday, admitting she fatally stabbed her 11-year-old playmate after a tug-of-war over a rubber ball went sour.

Is Right Wing Radio Slipping in Popularity?

Knight Ridder:

WASHINGTON - When the White House wanted to talk to its political base about a Supreme Court nominee this week, there was no doubt where to go: talk radio.

Vice President Dick Cheney took the administration's case to the Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity programs, speaking simultaneously to the normally sympathetic hosts and their audiences of like-minded Republicans.

A decade after Republicans credited Limbaugh with helping them win control of Congress - they called him the Majority Maker - they still look to his conservative-dominated medium for a lopsided communications edge over Democrats. Today, they count on talk radio to rally support for President Bush, attack those who criticize or question him, and stir passions leading into the 2006 midterm congressional elections.

There are signs that the Republicans could be losing some of their overwhelming edge, however. Ratings for Limbaugh and Hannity slipped this spring in some markets. Liberals such as Ed Schultz, Stephanie Miller and Al Franken are carving out their own radio niche. And Democrats argue that they have an edge on the Internet, where explosive growth could dwarf the political impact of radio.

Today (Sunday) Was Supposed to Be NYC Subway "D-Day"

Story here.

Is There Any Doubt in Anyone's Mind Here About the Energy Bill?

This one has always been a horror - bought by the energy companies but the entire world will pay the costs on this devil's pact.

Boston Globe Editorial: Bush's Solution to Everything is Military, Even in Flu Pandemic

Good piece by George J. Annas on Boston.com:

WHENEVER THE world is not to his liking, President Bush has a tendency to turn to the military to make it better. The most prominent example is the country's response to 9/11, complete with wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. After Hurricane Katrina, Bush belatedly called on the military to assist in securing New Orleans, and has since suggested that Congress should consider empowering the military to be the ''first responders" in any national disaster.

On Tuesday, the president suggested that the United States should confront the risk of a bird flu pandemic by giving him the power to use the US military to quarantine ''part[s] of the country" experiencing an ''outbreak." So we have moved quickly in the past month, at least metaphorically, from the global war on terror to a proposed war on hurricanes, to a proposed war on the bird flu.

Of all these proposals, the use of the military to attempt to contain a flu pandemic on US soil is the most dangerous. Bush says he got the idea by reading John Barry's excellent account of the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic, ''The Great Influenza." Although quarantine was used successfully in that pandemic, on the island of American Samoa, Barry in his afterword suggests (sensibly) that we need a national plan to deal with a future influenza pandemic. He said last week that his other suggestions were the only ones he hoped public health officials and ethicists would consider, but they read like policy recommendations to me and apparently the president. Barry writes, for example, ''if there is any chance to limit the geographical spread of the disease, officials must have in place the legal power to take extreme quarantine measures." This recommendation comes shortly after his praise for countries that ''moved rapidly and ruthlessly to quarantine and isolate anyone with or exposed to" SARS.

Planning makes sense. But planning for ''brutal" or ''extreme" quarantine of large numbers or areas of the United States would create many more problems than it could solve.

First, historically mass quarantines of healthy people who may have been exposed to a pathogen have never worked to control a pandemic, and have almost always done more harm than good because they usually involve vicious discrimination against classes of people (like immigrants or Asians) who are seen as ''diseased" and dangerous.

Second, the notion that ruthless quarantine was responsible for preventing a SARS pandemic is a public health myth. SARS appeared in more than 30 countries; they all reacted differently (some used forced quarantine successfully, others voluntary quarantine, and others no quarantine at all), and all ''succeeded." Quarantine is no magic bullet.

Third, quarantine and isolation are often falsely equated, but the former involves people who are well, the latter people who are sick. Sick people should be treated, but we don't need the military to force treatment.

Horrific Quake

They're saying at least 18,000 could be dead in Pakistan alone. And poor Afghanistan: a quake might improve services.

More on Rove and His Worthless Assurances He Did Not Leak CIA Spy Valerie Plame's Name to Novak and Other Press

This sounds a tad problematic.

The Scooter (Punch) and Judy Show

So how "freely offered" was Cheney's Scooter Libby's waiver to testify to Judy Miller? Questions get raised.

NEW YORK Reuters' Adam Entous, who has been on top of developments in the Plame probe all week, reported today that I. Lewis Libby, the top aide to Vice President Dick Cheney, "got a push" from the federal prosecutor before telling New York Times reporter Judith Miller, in a Sept. 15 letter, that he wanted her to testify.

Prosecutor Patrick J. Fitzgerald's encouragement, in a letter obtained by Reuters, "has prompted some lawyers in the case to question whether Cheney‘s aide was acting completely voluntarily when he gave Miller the confidentiality waiver she had insisted on," Entous observes.

Quoting from the Fitzgerald letter to Libby's attorney, Joseph Tate, on Sept. 12: "I would welcome such a communication reaffirming Mr. Libby‘s waiver. It would be viewed as cooperation with the investigation."

Entous notes: "Some lawyers in the case called the letter a thinly veiled threat seeking Libby‘s cooperation, and said it raised questions about whether Libby‘s waiver was as voluntary as Miller and her lawyers had described."

Fitzgerald will speak with Miller again on Tuesday, at least partly about some notes she has discovered of her talk with Libby in June 2003, which took place earlier than the other conversations she has already detailed for the grand jury.

Why Does the Times Keep Getting Scooped on Their Own Stories?

That seems to be the question inherent in this Editor and Publisher piece, noting how many times "the gray lady" has been outreported by many other publications on stories where the Times - at least in theory - should have had inside knowledge like on Judith Miller, Fitzgerald the special prosecutor in Plamegate, and more.

Hmmm.

Shades of Jeff Gannon

Salon's Joe Conason speculates that male macho escort and formerly the Bushies' favorte "journalist" may be planted right in the middle of the special prosecutor's sights in the Plamegate investigation.

The Religion Card and the Supremes

EJ Dionne asks a question I've been asking: why, when during the John Roberts leadup to confirmation, we were told repeatedly that his religion could and should not be a factor, are we supposed to get all excited that Harriet Miers chose to become an evangelical well into her adulthood? Listen to Bush, and her religion coupled with her relationship to him are her only qualifications for the position.

The Press Always Worries for Bush, But Not for America or the World

Just an observation.

But this is interesting: Bush's core erodes big time:

Evangelicals, Republican women, Southerners and other critical groups in President Bush's political coalition are worried about the direction the nation is headed and disappointed with his performance, an AP-Ipsos poll found.

That unease could be a troubling sign for a White House already struggling to keep the Republican Party base from slipping over Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers, Gulf Coast spending projects, immigration and other issues.

"Politically, this is very serious for the president," said James Thurber, a political scientist at American University. "If the base of his party has lost faith, that could spell trouble for his policy agenda and for the party generally."

Sentiment about the nation's direction has sunk to new depths at a time people are anxious about Iraq, the economy, gas prices and the management of billions of dollars being spent for recovery from the nation's worst natural disaster.

New York's Convenient Subway System Scare

The Times has it here.

All I know is that it's damned convenient that the less and less popular Bush gets, the more terror is bandied about, and then suddenly, NY's under threat from someone with an address of N Main Street, Baghdad. Gotta keep subtly reminding us Iraq and US attacks are synonymous, even though they aren't.

Vermont to Leahy: Mess with Texas

From the Vermont Guardian:

Democrats, independents and moderate Republicans who can still be swayed by facts must come to their senses and recognize that this administration, hell bent on remaking the courts in its conservative, anti-states’ rights, anti-civil liberties image, will try all manner of Machiavellian ploys.

Send Miers’ nomination back to the president’s desk and demand that he nominate the real candidate first.

In the days after Sen. Jim Jeffords left the Republican party, Leahy, who became chairman of the Judiciary Committee as Democrats took control of the Senate and helped to thwart some of Bush’s most conservative nominees from reaching the federal bench, said proudly: “All those bumper stickers that say ‘Don’t Mess with Texas’ should be replaced with ones that say ‘Don’t Mess with Vermont.’”

Sen. Leahy, it’s time to mess with Texas.

Conservatives: Joining the Rest of Us in the Cheap Seats

One thing I do sort of enjoy about the latest Bush trashing of our country - about two steps up from putting Rupert Murdoch or the Reverend Moon on the Supreme Court - is that for the first time, conservatives and Bush-pushers are getting a taste of what it's been for the rest of us.

Now, they're treated to, "Just trust me" from Bush. We heard it through years of him killing public education and the military and real homeland security as opposed to what his folks are doing at max bucks.

And man, are these folks every complaining now that they have to hear, "just trust me."

But you know what? It really doesn't make me feel any better.

Judy Miller: Still Serving in the Prison of Her Own Perceived Greatness

If I hear Judith Miller of the New York Times one more time herald herself as a great martyr of a free press, I will vomit.

Judy's 68 days in jail pale miserably when compared to the number of men and women and children on both sides of the conflict that her lies put in harm's way. It's like she is a Bushie. I mean, where else do you see this total reality disconnect?

Bush's War Against the Elderly

And no, it's not about the very expensive train to nowhere but about basic housing.

From Alaska Daily http://www.adn.com/news/alaska/anchorage/story/7045690p-6949631c.html>

The same day 64-year-old Barbara May came home from the hospital last week, she got a letter saying her share of subsidized rent would be jumping from $189 to $426 a month. She lives on Social Security with a bit of state assistance. So she'll have to move to a small apartment across town.

About 600 low-income individuals and families around Alaska have been sent similar edicts from the Alaska Housing Finance Corporation: Pay more or move.
The cutbacks are due to a drop in federal housing funds this year, said Wes Weir, public housing director of AHFC.

Alaska took a bigger hit than other states because the federal government did not take into account additional expenses due to distances and other factors here, Weir said. The percentages and formulas are "based on a model not accurate for Alaska," he said.

AHFC quit adding new clients for five months this year to save money, leaving thousands on a waiting list. They include mainly low-income people, who may be in substandard housing or staying with relatives.

Beginning Oct. 1, the agency also tightened rules on what size unit each person or family receiving the help qualifies for. AHFC has dipped into its own reserves to partially make up for the rental-assistance funding shortfall, Weir said.

"It is unfair. It's unfair to all of our clients. And It's unfair to clients on the wait list, too," he said.
The agency received about $626,000 less for rental assistance this year over last year from the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development, Weir said.

"We appealed. We lost the appeals," he said. U.S. Sens. Ted Stevens and Lisa Murkowski, both Alaska Republicans, have also asked for a meeting with top federal officials to discuss the situation, Weir said.

The agency could get permission from the Alaska Legislature to spend more state money on low-income renters, but that doesn't seem likely, said AHFC public relations director Bryan Butcher.

All the Whining from the Right About Miers

I'm not even sure if I begin to understand why the tidy righties are whining so indignantly, so self righteously about Miers nomination.

Think Progress: Bush Directly Involved in Plame Spy Leak

Here:

Near the end of a round table discussion on ABC’s This Week, George Stephanopoulos dropped this bomb:

Definitely a political problem but I wonder, George Will, do you think it’s a manageable one for the White House especially if we don’t know whether Fitzgerald is going to write a report or have indictments but if he is able to show as a source close to this told me this week, that President Bush and Vice President Cheney were actually involved in some of these discussions.

This would explain why Bush spent more than an hour answering questions from special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald. It would also fundamentally change the dynamics of the scandal. President Bush could no longer claim he was merely a bystander who wants to “get to the bottom of it.” As Stephanopoulos notes, if Bush played a direct role it could make this scandal completely unmanageable.

UPDATE: Crooks and Liars has the video.

Plame Indictments Right Around the Proverbial Corner?

Here's what Radar Magazine's The Wire has to say:

The D.C. Rumor mill is thrumming with whispers that 22 indictments are about to be handed down on the outed-CIA agent Valerie Plame case. The last time the wires buzzed this loud — that Tom DeLay would be indicted and would step down from his leadership post in the House — the scuttlebutters got it right.

Can it be a coincidence that the White House appears to be distancing President Bush from embattled aide Karl Rove? “He’s been missing in action at more than one major presidential event,” a member of the White House press corps tells us.

If the word on the street is right a second time, we have a bit of advice for Rove: Go with vertical stripes, they’re way more slimming.

Update: Ooh, look: a very convenient distraction!

Who Is Harriet Miers?

The Left Coaster is on the case.

Eh? What's That Smell of Rotting Wildebeast?

Oh wait. Maybe this is it, from the Mercury News.

Tom DeLay deliberately raised more money than he needed to throw parties at the 2000 presidential convention, then diverted some of the excess to longtime ally Roy Blunt through a series of donations that benefited both men's causes.

When the financial carousel stopped, DeLay's private charity, the consulting firm that employed DeLay's wife and the Missouri campaign of Blunt's son all ended up with money, according to campaign documents reviewed by The Associated Press.

Jack Abramoff, a Washington lobbyist recently charged in an ongoing federal corruption and fraud investigation, and Jim Ellis, the DeLay fundraiser indicted with his boss last week in Texas, also came into the picture.

The complicated transactions are drawing scrutiny in legal and political circles after a grand jury indicted DeLay on charges of violating Texas law with a scheme to launder illegal corporate donations to state candidates.

Blunt last week temporarily replaced DeLay as House majority leader, and Blunt's son, Matt, has now risen to Missouri's governor.

The government's former chief election enforcement lawyer said the Blunt and DeLay transactions are similar to the Texas case and raise questions that should be investigated regarding whether donors were deceived or the true destination of their money was concealed.

"These people clearly like using middlemen for their transactions," said Lawrence Noble. "It seems to be a pattern with DeLay funneling money to different groups, at least to obscure, if not cover, the original source," said Noble, who was the Federal Election Commission's chief lawyer for 13 years, including in 2000 when the transactions occurred.

None of the hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations DeLay collected for the 2000 convention were ever disclosed to federal regulators because the type of group DeLay used wasn't governed by federal law at the time.

I Make a Very Poor Media Consumer

#$@!

I'd explain this but Blogger just sucked my message away.

#%@!&#!

MissM, we've got to schedule some time together because I need to expand my foul name vocabulary. I was deprived as a child, not knowing what fuck meant until I was about 21 or 22.

Say Hello to

Three Wise Men (the blog).

Readers Share

Readers share some good links in comments. CK posted some good ones but they won't open for me.

But here's one from Begonia Buzzkill (love the name) about Tommy boy DeLay's stink extending to Brit's Maggie Thatcher. Snippet here:

A DOCUMENT linking Margaret Thatcher to a US corruption probe is so explosive civil servants have been asked to ensure it remains "sealed".

The 79-year-old former Premier is said to have met Congressman Tom DeLay in Britain while he was on a suspected favours-for-freebies scam.

In return for his free holiday, DeLay - who resigned as Republican leader of Congress last week after being accused of laundering political funds - allegedly backed legislation favourable to lobby groups.

Disclosing that US authorities were seeking aid from UK counterparts, a secret Home Office briefing says: "One visit to the UK involved a meeting with Mrs Margaret Thatcher.

"Evidence is sought from her about that meeting and her involvement in the alleged deception and violation of US criminal laws."

Police will "sensitively" investigate the meeting, which took place in May 2000.

Bird Brain Wants to Tap Army for Bird Flu

He wants to quarantine us?

Where?

New Orleans?

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Bush said Tuesday that the possibility of an avian flu pandemic is among the reasons he wants Congress to give him the power to use the nation's military in law enforcement roles in the United States.

"I'm concerned about what an avian flu outbreak could mean for the United States and the world," he told reporters during a Rose Garden news conference.

Such an deadly event would raise difficult questions, such as how a quarantine might be enforced, he said.

"One option is the use of a military that's able to plan and move," he said. "So that's why I put it on the table. I think it's an important debate for Congress to have."

Stan, Another Killer 'Cane

From CNN:

VERACRUZ, Mexico (AP) -- Hurricane Stan slammed into Mexico's Gulf coast Tuesday, forcing authorities to close one of the nation's busiest ports and spawning related storms across the region that left at least 66 people dead, most from landslides in El Salvador.

The storm, which included winds of 80 miles an hour (128 kph) before being downgraded to a tropical storm, came ashore along a sparsely populated stretch of coastline south of Veracruz, a busy port 185 miles (296 kilometers) east of Mexico City.

The storm's outer bands swiped the city, knocking down trees, flooding low-lying neighborhoods and closing some highways, authorities said. State officials said seven people, including two children, were hurt. Most injuries were from falling trees or roofs that collapsed in the communities of Alvarado and Montepio, south of Veracruz and closer to where Stan came ashore.

All three of Mexico's Gulf coast crude-oil loading ports were closed Tuesday as a precaution. The shutdowns weren't expected to affect oil prices.

Forecasters said the hurricane spawned separate storms across Central America and southern Mexico, provoking flooding and landslides.

Some 49 people had been killed during two days of flooding in El Salvador, Interior Secretary Rene Figueroa said Tuesday night. More than 16,700 people had been evacuated to 167 shelters set up all over the country, he said.

Posse Comitatus

OK, is anyone else getting scared by how easily the American public is buying (running 50:50 in votes) that we must have military for law enforcement during an emergency. That's a blur that is frightening.

A Note from Our "Steemed" President

Dear American public:

This is all you need to know about Harriet Miers:

I looked into her heart and she thinks I'm like the smartest man she's ever met. That says a lot.

Oh, yeah. And she'll never change her mind. Don't listen to anybody tell ya that the hallmark of a thinking person is the ability to consider and reconsider and sometimes evolve in their thinking. I promise you, anybody who thinks I'm smart won't be changing her mind.

So.... What's Your Take?

In the last few days, we have:

Tom DeLay indicted and the right strangely taking the position that it's fine, no biggie

A new top Supreme (not quite Diana Ross' hair but... )

Judith Miller out of jail (God save us all)

The president insisting we can pay for Katrina while cutting more ultra-rich taxes and taking the unusual measure (for him) of suggesting fuel conservation.... WHILE he traipses all over making silly trips for photo ops

More talk that either Iraq is already in a civil war or that we have, quite assuredly, already lost the war and we're trying very hard to conceal it

So... jump in. What's on your list of biggies this week? How do you feel about these?

Whoa!

Finally back.

Sorry for the unplanned hiatus. First it was work. Then a microburst tornado struck here Thursday morning - really cool to watch but all the big trees it sheered in half are still being pulled off the house. No phone or power - or working toilets or coffee or sanity either - until sometime last night. But when I went to Blogger, it seemed to be permanently down for maintenance. Same thing this morning but I switched to Firefox and got in.

Gee, a girl doesn't post for a few days and everything goes nuts.

"Celebrating" the Mengeles' of Freedom

The General is writing letters again:

John Hinderaker
Powerline Blog

Dear Mr. Hinderaker,
Your work turning the Gitmo atrocities into a rallying point for those of us who support the use of torture and abuse in the defense of freedom was admirable.

I particularly enjoyed your "I ♥ Gitmo" tees--it must be very satisfying to earn a little extra money turning the misery of others into comedy fodder.

We need you to do it again. Human Rights Watch released a report on Friday which documents more incidents of abuse and torture, this time by the 82nd Airborne in Iraq. According to one 82nd Airborne officer, it's now official US policy to beat "PUCs," or Persons Under Control with baseball bats and to apply caustic chemicals to their eyes and other body parts.

The practitioners of these freedom-building activities, or as I like to call them, the Mengeles of Freedom, call it "Fucking the PUC." They also starve the prisoners and force them to hold stress positions for hours on end--they call that "Smoking the PUC."

Fucking PUCs. Smoking PUCs. I love our new military argot. It brings a little extra enjoyment to those of us who fight the War for Iraqi Freedom with a mouse and a cheeto-stained keyboard.It won't be long before the domestic enemies of freedom begin to decry PUC fucking in the same way they attacked the democracy-building activities at Gitmo.

We need to seize the meme quickly to prevent that from happening. I'm thinking that tees with something like "I ♥ to fuck PUCs" or "Fuck a PUC for Freedom" would do the trick. We could also do a "Fuck a PUC for Jesus" for the Dobson crowd, although they already dig torture and may not need encouragement.

Who in His or Her Right Mind Would Want Rumsfeld

in charge of US disasters? Isn't Iraq disaster and endless misery enough?

"Government by Temper Tantrum"

It's by Molly Ivins and it's spectacular.

So here are all the liberals going into a giant snit just because George W. Bush appointed a veterinarian to head the women's health section of the Food and Drug Administration. For Pete's sake, you whiners, the only reason he chose the vet is because Michael Brown wasn't available.

If you recall, Ol' Heckuva-Job Brownie had to go home, walk his dog and then hug his wife after exhausting himself in his triumphal handling of Hurricane Katrina. Otherwise, he'd have been Bush's first pick.

Now, even the veterinarian doesn't get the job -- just because those professional feminists raised such a stink. What's wrong with a vet? They know a lot about birth and udders and stuff. If the mother is having trouble giving birth, you grab the baby by the legs and pull it out -- it's not brain surgery. Then you worm 'em, you tag 'em and you spray for fleas. Why the fuss?

The only reason Bush even needed a new head of the Office of Women's Health is because the last one, Susan Wood, quit. She was upset because the political hacks who run the agency refused to allow over-the-counter sale of the emergency contraceptive pill Plan B.

Frist's "Political Future Darkens"

Excuse me while I shed a tear.

From Bloomberg:

Sept. 26 (Bloomberg) -- At the start of this year, U.S. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist was looking at a bright political future. He led his party to an expanded majority in the Senate in November and emerged as a leading Republican hopeful for the 2008 presidential race.

Less than nine months later, that picture appears darker. Frist, 53, now faces inquiries into his stock sales by the Justice Department and Securities and Exchange Commission that threaten to undermine him politically and provide Democrats fresh ammunition with which to question their opponents' ethics.

``If there is really any evidence of insider trading, then he's in very serious trouble, and so is his party,'' said Gary Jacobson, professor of political science at the University of California in San Diego. ``It adds another brick to Democrats' argument that Republicans are corrupt.''

Frist through his spokesmen has denied any wrongdoing in the sale of shares of HCA Inc. held in a blind trust earlier this year, one month before a weak earnings report sparked a drop in the company's stock. Nashville, Tennessee-based HCA, the biggest U.S. hospital chain, was founded by Frist's father and brother.

Frist's HCA stock holdings in one of his blind trusts surged more than 30-fold from 2000 to 2001, according to financial disclosure statements filed with the Senate. By the end of 2001 he reported owning $500,001 to $1 million in HCA shares within an entity called Bowling Avenue Partners, which was part of his blind trust. That holding had been valued at $1,001 to $15,000 at the end of 2000. The leap in valuation could not have been the result of changes in share price; in 2001 HCA shares fell 12.4 percent after gaining 50.3 percent in 2000.

Wow... even by Washington standards, that's SOME leap in stock value.

Michael Kinsley's Ouster at LA Times

Interesting piece from The Guardian.

How the Media Missed a Half Million Americans on Saturday

From the Detroit News blog:

Imagine 500,000 people marching down the meandering thoroughfares of Pennsylvania Avenue and 14th Street and Constitution Avenue in Washington, DC. They are headed for a date with destiny and the promise of peace, conjoined with a challenge for justice. How could they vanish from the headlines?

Rod Serling, the brilliant creator/writer of “The Twilight Zone,” might have written this intro to one of his teleplays during the 1960s. But it didn’t happen then. It happened this weekend, with our media, in our country, in our time.

“They came from as far away as Alaska and California,” reported Abayomi Azikiwe of the Pan African Newswire, “from Europe to the nation's capital itself, to make a clear statement that United States military forces should withdraw immediately from Iraq. Honest crowd estimates of the demonstration ranged from 500,000-600,000 (some even thought there were more) making it the largest demonstration in the capital since the winter of 2003.”

Journalist Azikiwe rode the bus with 200 Detroiters who attended this national anti-war march in Washington, DC and stood on the Mall with thousands who watched speakers ranging from the Rev. Jesse Jackson to Cindy Sheehan to activist Curtis Muhammad from New Orleans. He provided a full report on this historic event.

But the corporate media was nowhere to be found. The demonstration was lost on CNN. It was buried on MSNBC. It barely escaped a muffle on NBC’s “Meet the Press” and the old, reliable NPR (National Public Radio). If you had been watching C-SPAN, you would have seen the speakers (but not the march), but how many people watches C-SPAN?

The media failed to cover the largest antiwar demonstration in America since the Vietnam era. That’s not happening in “The Twilight Zone.” That is reality today.

Where were they? Covering local news at home? In Iraq? Or covering the Ashton Kucher/Demi Moore wedding?

No. They had a date with Rita. Celeb anchorpersons, clad in Tommy Hilfiger and St. John knits, were standing in knee-deep water as a backdrop. How many stories about Rita did we need? It’s a tragedy, of course, but in Washington, a challenge to the Bush administration was in full gear, and the cameras, recorders, and reporters’ notepads were missing. If it wasn’t real, it would be science fiction.

The President Suggests Fuel Savings....

Now imagine how many tons of gas we'd save if he'd stop be-bopping all around Texas and Louisiana pretending he's in charge of more than photo ops.

Meanwhile, we put former FEMA head Michael Brown back on the payroll, probably for such a job well done. Brown did, after all, blame the entire NOLA mess on the LA Dem woman governor rather Bush, doing everything but suggesting her "monthly woman problems" interfered with her ability to serve.

Some Sad Truths About the Most Recent Hurricane Hit

Again and again the last few days, I've heard folks- particularly Texans - remarking to news crews, "Everyone hurried in to help those folks in New Orleans. Well, let's see what they do for us. We're the tax and bill payers and the backbone of this country. Let's see if they do as well by us as they did by those (and there's always been a hint of something they're holding back about who the affected were in Katrina vs Rita) before us."

First, I didn't see a lot of Katrina folks having a great time. In fact, the only folks having a good time are people like Bush's pal Joe Allbaugh who's set to make a mint off the disaster as well as Ol Miss governor Haley Barbour, friend of the KKKCCC that he is - Barbour I hear has just procured a huge no bid contract for debris removal for his private company. Halliburton and Bechtel are making out, too.

Yet the anger for some of these folks isn't the fat cats that their boy George has done so well by; instead, some Texans feel angry that "Nobody's here dropping us TVs and debit cards and checks and foods like Katrina victims" I heard today, suggesting that the poor blacks of Katrina got a festival and a parade.

However Hurricane Rita plays out - and it certainly did enough damage - nobody's talking about "not rebuilding Texas" as they are with low income Nola. But regardless, it's going to increase the red-blue divide; the Texas sense among those political players who espouse the belief that they have to screw everybody a little harder because they don't get treated well on their own.

Listen to poor ol Tom DeLay, and you'd swear that chucklehead has never had a nickel he didn't have to mint himself. DeLay, the multi millionaire bugman who controls what we still mistakenly call a democracy.

Texas has a lot of decent people, but it's got way too many DeLays, too. And they're going to be milking Rita and fat cat contracts and such for every cent they can while they sneer at the rest of us for letting them get away with it.

Apparently Nothing More Dangerous to National Security

than a 48-year-old high school educated grief-stricken Bush-Does-Iraq-2 Gold Star mother sitting down on the pavement of a building we bought, built, and pay for daily while George Bush shits on it, on the dead, on the living, and on the American flag on an hourly basis.

I don't happen to agree with absolutely everything Cindy Sheehan says. But that doesn't matter.

She gave her son. She has a right to ask for proof why it was necessary.

Every American has both the right AND the obligation to ask for that same proof. But the families of those who have died also have the right to feel like they're owed twice over.

Good 'Ol George Bush: Trying to Link Hurricane Disasters to Terrorism

From Maureen Dowd posted at ToppleBush:

Stormy was testy.

He had put aside the guitar and packed his slicker.

The First Weatherman was working hard, man, harder than he had in years, even spending nights away from home - and Barney - in strange places.

And still the pesky press was painting him as a storm groupie, racing Rita to Texas just to score a windswept backdrop to recapture his image as protector.

Stormy preened for the cameras at FEEBLE FEMA headquarters in Washington yesterday. On CNN, a bilious image of a hurricane spun next to his head. You could imagine the little hurricane trailing him through the rest of his presidency, like the storm cloud with a lightning bolt that always trailed Joe Btfsplk in "Li'l Abner."

He said he was jetting to San Antonio to check out "the prepositioned assets" and then riding out the storm watching "the interface" between the military and state and local authorities at Northcom in Colorado.

But David Gregory at NBC quizzed W. on what good he could really do in Texas: "Might you get in the way, Mr. President?"

Stormy didn't like that. "One thing I won't do is get in the way," he snipped.

Mr. Gregory, part of a newly amped-up press corps, followed up: "Isn't there a risk of you and your entourage getting in the way?"

Now Stormy let off a little high pressure. "There will be no risk of me getting in the way, I promise you," he said dismissively.

The smart aleck reporters didn't understand how crucial it was for the president to intertwine, inter alia, with the interfacers. So W. explained it again: "See, Northcom is the main entity that interfaces - that uses federal assets, federal troops, to interface with local and state government. I want to watch that relationship."

But soon the San Antonio leg of the trip was scotched amid fears that Stormy would really be interfering more than interfacing. And besides, the weather was too sunny there for poses in foul-weather gear.

Stormy is like his dad, Desert Stormy. They both love wardrobe calls: cool costumes, sports outfits, presidential windbreakers, "Top Gun" get-ups, weather gear.

But leadership is not a series of costume changes. The former Andover cheerleader has been too reliant on photo-ops, drop-bys and "Mission Accomplished" strut-bys, rather than a font of personal knowledge.

What Katrina exposed was a president who - remarkable as this may sound - seemed bored after his re-election, just as Bill Clinton had drifted after his re-election. Before the Monica scandal broke, Mr. Clinton's aides had to beg him to call lawmakers on the Hill to support his own legislative agenda.

Before the Katrina scandal, W. had lethargically wandered the country, lifelessly promoting his Social Security plan and an energy bill that did nothing to solve the energy crisis, and endlessly vacationing in Crawford.

He campaigned as a strong daddy who would keep us safe, but then seemed lost when his daddy figure, Dick Cheney, kept vacationing as Katrina exposed a grotesque rescue apartheid in New Orleans.

The more tuned-in W. is now, the more obvious it is that he tuned out as New Orleans drowned. There is a high cost for presidential learning curves.

Hundreds of thousands of people died in Bosnia before Bill Clinton got it right in Kosovo. A lot of elderly hospital and nursing home patients died in New Orleans before W. could pay attention to Houston and Galveston.

On Wednesday, Stormy tried to make one of his strained linkages, this time with Katrina and terror. The terrorists, he said, were "the kind of people who look at Katrina and wish they had caused it," while he is the kind of person who looks at Katrina and tries to energize himself to deal with natural disasters by thinking, What if this had been done by terrorists?

On Thursday, he tried to move past the image he had projected of a lost boy wandering alone in the storm, and stood at the Pentagon flanked by his war council, talking about how he was moving to "develop a secure, safe democracy in Iraq." Unfortunately, the Saudi foreign minister was in town dropping a bomblet by saying that Iraq was going down the tubes, a judgment other Sunni Arab leaders had been conveying privately.

After his Pentagon remarks, W. looked at his vice president for approval and received a proud, avuncular smile that said, "You're the Man."

But before he chases any more wind tunnels, Stormy should heed the Bob Dylan line: "You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows."

The Smell of Moral Decay Wafting from Bill Frist is Overpowering

From the Sun Times:

Blind trusts are designed to keep an arm's-length distance between federal officials and their investments, to avoid conflicts of interest. But documents show that Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist knew quite a bit about his accounts from nearly two dozen letters from the trust administrators.

Frist (R-Tenn.) received regular updates of transfers of assets to his blind trusts and sales of assets. He also was able to initiate a stock sale of a hospital chain founded by his family with perfect timing. Shortly after the sale this summer, the stock price dived.

A possible presidential contender in 2008, Frist faces dual investigations by the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York and the Securities and Exchange Commission into his stock sales.

Sheldon Cohen, who was the trustee for Democrat Walter Mondale's blind trust when he was vice president and drafted Democrat Lyndon Johnson's blind trust for Johnson's presidency, said that in the executive branch, ''you don't tell them how it's composed.'' He said Frist, like any federal official, ''absolves himself of conflict by not knowing what he owns.''

Cohen said that when Mondale left office, he told Cohen to sell his assets. ''He had no idea what I was holding,'' the Washington attorney and former Internal Revenue Service commissioner said.
Frist spokesman Bob Stevenson said the senator received approval from the Senate Ethics Committee before he initiated the stock sale. All of the information Frist received complied with federal law and Senate ethics rules, Stevenson said.

GOP Sees Post-Katrina ReBuilding as a Wave to Pave Their Agenda

Think more tax cuts for the rich. Think school vouchers. Think even less privacy.

From the Boston Globe:

Republican lawmakers in Congress have tried repeatedly in recent years to allow children to use federally funded vouchers to attend private schools. They have been defeated seven times since 1998.

At least nine times in the past decade, Republicans sought to repeal or undermine a Depression-era law that requires federal contractors to pay the ''prevailing wage" in the region they are working in. None of the efforts succeeded.

But now the GOP is poised to realize both of those goals. President Bush's reconstruction package for the Gulf Coast region devastated by Hurricane Katrina includes nearly $500 million for vouchers that children can use at private schools anywhere in the nation. And Bush declared a ''national emergency" to waive the prevailing wage law during the cleanup, freeing contractors to pay construction workers as little as the minimum wage, rather than the $8 to $10 prevailing wages in Louisiana, Alabama, and Mississippi.

As the federal government's response to Katrina takes shape, the White House and Congress are enacting or seeking to pass a wide range of policies that have been consistently rejected by Congress, despite Republican majorities in the House and Senate. The Bush administration has lifted the requirement that contractors have affirmative-action plans, is seeking to weaken clean-air standards in the Gulf region, and has shelved rules governing the number of hours truckers can work. Republicans in Congress have proposed allowing the EPA to waive all environmental regulations during the rebuilding.

Republicans say the moves are intended to help the region rebuild as fast as possible. Moreover, with as much as $200 billion headed to the states hit by Katrina, the White House and Congress want to be sure that the money is spent in accordance with conservative principles, emphasizing the free market and the strength of the private sector, said Senator Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania, the Senate's third-ranking Republican.

''The conditions that people were living in I would argue were a result of liberal policies," Santorum said. ''And now we've got some alternative ideas -- give us an opportunity to try to positively impact the lives of the poor in these communities. . . . Let's try something different that may work, because what has been tried in the past hasn't worked."

But Democrats contend that Republicans are using a national tragedy to slip in proposals they have not been able to achieve through the legislative process during normal times.

Ed & Pub: FEMA Learned Nothing From Katrina in Helping Texas

Disgusting.

NEW YORK In Beaumont, Texas, claims that federal relief agencies learned their lessons from Hurricane Katrina and are on the ball in the aftermath of Hurricane Rita are apparently ringing hollow.

The Beaumont (Tex.) Enterprise reported tonight that disaster response coordinators in the area hard hit by Rita say they are seeing the same foot-dragging federal response this weekend witnessed two weeks ago in New Orleans and Mississippi. Jefferson County Judge Carl Griffith and other local leaders, "haggard after days of almost non-stop work with little sleep, pleaded with the federal government to get itself in a higher gear," the paper said. Griffith said he wanted to return services to residents who remain but that "it seems like they can't figure out how to get it done." "There's a drastic shortage of generators in Beaumont to provide emergency power," Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst said. "There are generators at Ford Park, and FEMA is withholding their release. They want to finish their damage assessment." Jefferson County officials had a plan to distribute Meals-Ready-to-Eat from local fire stations, the paper said. However, Griffith said the MREs, like the generators, were being withheld by FEMA. "They won't let us have them," Griffith said. "They said we had to go through the state - which we already did - to get them. I'm going over there (to Ford Park) now to figure this out."

Looters have struck in town, but had to be let go because there is no safe place to jail them right now. Officials have asked FEMA to provide temporary jail quarters.The Enterprise has not published a print edition this weekend but provided PDFs of a scaled-down version on its still-active Web site. It included a note there Sunday: "We will publish a home edition as soon as we possibly can."Griffith said he's sending fire officials to local stores to get supplies, including propane to cook with. "We're going into stores and taking food out," Griffith said. "We're going to do what we got to do to get the job done...."

There's just a breakdown in the state and federal government that you saw in Katrina and you've seen in other disasters," Griffith said. He said he hopes to see a change "so at least the next people that have to go through it ... will have some kind of process that makes sense that can immediately deliver what people need."

No One Covered it But... Everywhere in America Yesterday (Saturday), People Marched Against Bush's War.

In DC alone, police are admitting at least 100K showed up, with only a tiny number of Bushie koolaid kiddies.

You Know Things are Bad in Iraq When Iraqis Wish They Were as Well Off as Katrina Survivors

I've wondered how Iraqis are taking our "misery". Ours were natural disasters while we created theirs.

From the wire service:

The Gulf of Mexico is 7,000 miles away, but Iraqis are worried about hurricanes Katrina and Rita: They fear the storms will divert U.S. money and attention from Iraq.

"Our hearts and our prayers are with the victims," Planning Minister Barham Saleh says. "But one should also keep in mind the importance of reconstruction in Iraq. You cannot leave Iraq alone, because failure is not an option here."

A USA TODAY/CNN Poll last week showed that a majority of Americans give the war effort a low priority compared to domestic needs. Asked for the best way to pay for Hurricane Katrina damage, 54% recommend cutting spending for the Iraq war.

The hurricanes come at a time when money for Iraq's reconstruction is running low. Congress approved $18.4 billion in 2003, but $5 billion was later set aside to rebuild Iraq's military and police.

Security costs are eating into the rest. Projects are being scaled back even though needs remain, James Jeffrey, a State Department adviser, recently told a congressional panel.

Gee, Imagine That!

The Stranger at Blah3 brings us something that will make most of us smily wryly while making others - say the Bushes and the DeLays and the Frists and the Hasterts and the Falwells and Robertsons - remind us they are neither evolved nor intelligently designed:

Of course, science is evil, so none of this will hold any sway with the Intelligent Design crowd.

When scientists announced last month they had determined the exact order of all 3 billion bits of genetic code that go into making a chimpanzee, it was no surprise that the sequence was about 96 percent identical to the human genome. Charles Darwin had deduced more than a century ago that chimps were among humans' closest cousins.

But decoding chimpanzees' DNA allowed scientists to do more than just refine their estimates of how similar humans and chimps are. It let them put the very theory of evolution to some tough new tests. If Darwin was right, for example, then scientists should be able to perform a neat trick. Using a mathematical formula that emerges from evolutionary theory, they should be able to predict the number of harmful mutations in chimpanzee DNA by knowing the number of mutations in a different species' DNA and the two animals' population sizes. "That's a very specific prediction," said Eric Lander, a geneticist at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard in Cambridge, Mass., and a leader in the chimp project.

Sure enough, when Lander and his colleagues tallied the harmful mutations in the chimp genome, the number fit perfectly into the range that evolutionary theory had predicted.

Calling All Correntephiles....

For those of you who have not already noticed, Corrente the blog is now CorrenteWire available at this new, non-blogspot URL.

Open Thread

What's on your mind?

DeLay telling us the GOP has successfully cut ALL pork from the budget?

Frist's stock mess?

An opposition party that's more like a mild grumble party?

Why's Bush taking money from servicemen and women to pay for his failures with FEMA and NOLA?

The new PorkBuster campaign that wants to cut all funding to public broadcasting and worse?

How we'll never know how many died in NOLA?

Why we pay the Feds so much to protect us from disaster only to claim during disasters that it's the local first responders - the ones they refuse to equip or give support to - responsibility?

A new chief justice who seems to have a questionable pictorial history?

I mean, there's a shitload to discuss.

On a More Personal Note, However...

I know that about 10% of the folks who visit here each week come from the storm-affected states.

I hope you and yours are OK. I think I speak for most when I say that our hearts and pracyers are with you.

Katrina took enough lives and, sadly, far more than we'll ever know in official counts.