There is a tragic flaw in our precious Constitution, and I don’t know what can be done to fix it. This is it: Only nut cases want to be president.
– Kurt Vonnegut
– Kurt Vonnegut
BTW, Vonnegut said that in 2004, so we know who he meant…
Recent Comments
Look at that graph on the right. NYT
singlehandedly putting the final nails in the coffin at CBS News: AP/Yahoo
Are they surprised?
WashPo
That spreading freedom thing still doesn’t seem to be owrking out in Iraq…but we’re on to Iran and North Korea anyway.
Ban nominated as U.N. secretary-generalAdd story to my swissinfo panel
Interesting, coming out of Israel:
Of rights and liberties by Majorie Cohn, president-elect, National Lawyers Guild
American Prison camp facility on the way – contract awarded.
Who else but
“Kellogg Brown & Root, a Halliburton subsidiary, is constructing a huge facility at an undisclosed location to hold tens of thousands of Bush’s “unlawful enemy combatants.” Americans are certain to be among them.”
North Korea gets nuclear, so why should I care about North Korea?
Builds more pressure for that war with Iran
North Korea gets nuclear, so why should I care about North Korea?
HMMM? Let me think about that one, OK?
While I think about it enjoy this press release from the Cato Institute
Sounds like a great idea… Let’s encourage China to go on a rampage! AND NEVERMIND THE REAL CONSEQUENCES.
Sigh… Fucking idiots!
I think the Chinese will take to this “logic” about as well as Europeeans liked the idea of cleaning up the mess that bush created in Iraq. Then again, what do I know? I thought we never should have gone to Iraq in the first place.
Anyone with a lick of common sense, when it comes to China and that region, got an opinion? I really am ignorant about that neck of the woods (politically speaking).
‘Too stretched on the war on terror.’ Limited options and Bush knows it.
Not news as such; here’s a link to an interesting article on Joe Wilson and Valerie Plame published today in Der Spiegel.
Joseph Wilson’s War
Russia Seeks Greater Economic Influence in Europe
Link
A Marine’s letter home, with its frank description of life in “Dante’s inferno,” has been circulating through generals’ in-boxes. We publish it here with the author’s approval
Written last month, this straightforward account of life in Iraq by a Marine officer was initially sent just to a small group of family and friends. His honest but wry narration and unusually frank dissection of the mission contrasts sharply with the story presented by both sides of the Iraq war debate, the Pentagon spin masters and fierce critics. Perhaps inevitably, the “Letter from Iraq” moved quickly beyond the small group of acquantainaces and hit the inboxes of retired generals, officers in the Pentagon, and staffers on Capitol Hill. TIME’s Sally B. Donnelly first received a copy three weeks ago but only this week was able to track down the author and verify the document’s authenticity. The author wishes to remain anonymous but has allowed us to publish it here — with a few judicious omissions.
If you have the time, go read the letter. It doesn’t deserve to be cut up and posted piecemeal, so I just posted the description here. It’s VERY powerful.
I don’t think we CAN learn.
Link
Police disperse angry protesters in Downtown T-station
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, in town for a fund-raiser for Sen. Rick Santorum, had a close encounter with a large group of anti-Republican protesters as he was making his way to the Duquesne Club, Downtown.
It was about 4:15 yesterday when Mr. Bush met up with the protesters near the corner of Liberty and Sixth avenues. The protesters were marching to join other pickets already gathered in front of the exclusive club, a little more than a block away at 325 Sixth Ave.
Protesters said Gov. Bush blew them a kiss, acknowledging the crowd of about 30 chanting pickets that was made up of United Steelworkers and members of Uprise Counter Recruitment, a tour traveling through 22 cities to support anti-war efforts.
The protesters came closer.
“Jeb, go home,” they shouted.[snip]
Once in the subway station, Mr. Bush scurried to the escalators and descended to the mezzanine level, Mr. Vandenburgh said.
By now, Mr. Bush was cornered. He was surrounded by signs that said “Pittsburgh is a Santorum Free Zone,” “Honk if you’re sick of Rick,” and a crowd growing increasingly louder, according to Mr. Vandenburgh.[snip]
As a precaution, the governor was ushered into a T-station supply closet and stayed there until the crowd left.
That’ll teach him to arrogantly blow kissies to protestors. He had to hide in a closet. I smell a Saturday night live skit… or a Bood diary. 🙂
Thank you Nag. The thought of that punk cowering in a closet full of mops and stinky chemicals just made my day.
Link
* The Biodiversity Treaty (continued non-support)
* The Geneva Convention
* The Forest Protection Plan
* The Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty
* The Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty
* The 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty
* The 1972 Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention
* The 1979 UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women
* The UN International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
* The Chemical Weapons Convention
* The International Criminal Court
* Honorable Mention: The U.S. Constitution!
Can you imagine what this list would look like if we listed the environmental protection laws and regulations that have been obliterated by the Bush administration along with this? Think about it!
Even if we manage to dislodge the cockroaches from the Whitehouse, how many years will it take to repair the damage Bush has done?
Add treaties against militarization of space to the list – see link in Science Headlines below.
It will take a generation to repair the damage Bush has done in broken treaties alone, never mind the rocks they’ve thrown into the machinery of our own constitution. Sigh.
NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, in collaboration with ground-based observatories, has provided definitive evidence for the existence of the nearest extrasolar planet to our solar system. The Jupiter-sized world orbits the Sun-like star Epsilon Eridani, which is only 10.5 light-years away (approximately 63 trillion miles). The planet is so close it may be observable by Hubble and large ground-based telescopes in late 2007, when the planet makes its closest approach to Epsilon Eridani during its 6.9-year orbit.
Millions of people could be forced from their homes and suffer increasing disease, cyclones and floods in the Asia-Pacific region caused by global warming, scientists warned Monday. Climate change will seriously threaten regional human security and national economies this century, according to a report by the Australian government’s CSIRO.
Another day, another outrage by the rogue nation: The US has issued a new national space policy that reflects a more unilateral and aggressive stance than previously. The statement flat-out rejects treaty obligations that limit the testing or use of military equipment in space.
Medical research in mice has revealed a way to “turn up” the response of the immune system, potentially allowing the body to rid itself of chronic infections such as hepatitis C, meningitis, and HIV.
New research comprehensively and convincingly makes the case that the small skull discovered in Flores, Indonesia, in 2003 does not represent a new species of hominid, dubbed a “Hobbit,” as was claimed in 2004. Instead, the skull is most likely that of a small-bodied modern human who suffered from a genetic condition known as microcephaly, which is characterized by a small head.
Using a formula based on storm intensity, flooding potential, population, evacuation routes and other factors, scientists have determined that New Orleans has the top spot on the list of East Coast and Gulf Coast areas most vulnerable to hurricanes. The runner up is Lake Okeechobee, Fl, where a 1928 hurricane sloshed the lake water into a powerful surge that broke the dike around it, killing 2,500 poor farm workers.
and Tucker Carlson says so.
Tucker Carlson, Mr Arrogant in a bowtie, sometimes says things that surprise me. Then, 5 minutes later, I want to slap him. This, however, is surprising. “The deep truth is that the elites in the Republican Party have pure contempt for the evangelicals who put their party in power.”
Wow. I never wanted to slap Tucker less than right now. 🙂
They need to play the video of that in church on Sunday, don’t you think? 😉
Oh, I wish! If they showed it on Sunday, Rove would see to it that the IRS paid those churches a little visit by Monday morning.
I usually find Carlson to be less horrible than the Limbaugh, O’Reilly, Hannity and Coulter types for that reason. Every once in a while, he will break from the party line and speak honestly. It never lasts, but at least he has had an honest moment once or twice in his life, unlike those others.
Botulism – tainted Carrot Juice Recall in Canada is of US origin.
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency on September 30 warned consumers not to drink Bolthouse Farms 100% Carrot Juice, Earthbound Farm Organic Carrot Juice and President’s Choice Organics 100% Pure Carrot Juice, all of U.S. origin, “due to botulism concerns.”[..]
Last month, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued a warning linking four cases of botulism to carrot juice.
The U.S. cases first appeared in September, with one woman in Florida suffering paralysis after drinking the juice.
Reuters reports, Two in Canada paralyzed