BLATHER REVIEW

Cat vs. Cat

We have two cats: Stinky and Batcat. Batcat has recently come to be addressed as Pesky -- and Stinky doesn't stink anymore since he lost all of his teeth.

Batcat became so named because of her ability and propensity to catch and kill bats in the basement. Stinky is...well... You just can't say no to stinky. He follows me around, fercryingoutloud. More dog-like than cat-like.

We took them both in when they were feral during a cold winter about five years ago.

The difference between them is that Batcat always watches my feet. She has undoubtedly been stepped on at some point in her younger years. Stinky, on the other hand, fully trusts me to step around him.

While Batcat seems to be pertpetually nervous and a little jumpy, Stinky is always calm and dismissive of danger. Batcat watches me closely. Stinky trusts me completely.

I always know when Stinky is nearby, but I don't always notice Batcat. Odd, that...

Work and Sleep and Work and Sleep and...

I don't mind being busy. I just mind being so busy with whackadoodle jobs that require rediculous color washes and finding new ways to run self-seal envelopes that my press was not designed to run.

Tomorrow I'll be runnoing gold ink. @#$% GOLD INK! Oh, I've done that plenty of times. The way that metalic ink manages to find a way into every crevass of the press is truely inspiring. But, then I hafta go back to black and then to brown. Wouldn't it make more sense to go from brown to black? Yeah. But that's not the order in which the jobs were promised.

I don't mind being busy. But I do mind being so busy that the only way to get everything done is to skip lunch everyday. 3 o'clock and I haven't eaten since breakfast and I still have three hours of work to do before 5.

If this is the future then New Boss really needs to finally get a system in place. Seven months on and it's still all in our heads. No paper trail; no structure; no system.

One of the first complaints New Boss made to me was that -- through his travels among the Lost Clients -- he'd learned that Old Boss was a bit...er... disorganized.

Meet the new boss...

I made a boner, but it was okay.

Sometime after Thanksgiving dinner my grandmother, my mother, my sister and I played a game of Scrabble. My mother put down the word BONER. Uhhh.. ma? "A boner is a mistake, y'know? Like 'to make a boner'." I believe she scored 9 points as my nephew giggled and my sister said to him "Shhh, we know what it means".

So, we got together last night (Saturday) at a fancyish restaurant with some family that couldn't make it to Thanksgiving dinner. At one point my grandmother mentioned to my aunt that we'd had a great time on Thursday and that we'd played Scrabble. My aunt, for some reason, asked me if we put down a lot of dirty words. I told her that my mother put one down but that she didn't know it. "It's a word with a couple of meanings, one of which is kinda dirty," I told her.

Well, of course my aunt (who is my mother's younger sister) wanted to find out what the word was. My aunt's date locked eyes with me in hopes that I'd clue him in. I mouthed the word to him. Word apparantly got back, via my aunt, to mom.
"You mean there's another meaning?" my mother asked her. My aunt must have told her quietly because my mother roared!

"No," Gramma insisted, "a boner is a mistake!" It's pretty funny to hear your mother and grandmother discussing the word boner loudly across a large table in a fancyish restaurant. Ooops. More giggling ensued.

I'm still not sure if my grandmother ever learned the other meaning.

Odd thought of the day

Freedom is the place where you get to forge your own chains.

And the Mystical Land of my Birth is...

The Land of Harmonic Fire

You are a passionate warrior of the Land of
Harmonic Fire. You represent a calm fire rather
than a raging blaze. You are not hot-tempered.
But you do have a streak of irrational passion.
When you are angry you choose to fight with
your hands. It gives you more satisfaction.
Your fire represents the new birth of life,
hence your symbol and friend the phoenix.


What is the mystical land of your birth? {13 results with gorgeous anime pics}
brought to you by Quizilla

All of the results picture females. I checked. So don't look at me like that.

Tip o'the tam to Jenelle.

Let's proceed with caution here

Emperor Darth Misha I points to an encouraging article here which reports that the Sunni's, "insurgents" and Ba'athists are signaling that they may be looking for a way to cut and run from the "resistence".

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Several insurgents groups have contacted President Jalal Talabani's office in the past few days, with some saying they are ready to lay down their arms and join the political process, the presidential security adviser said Thursday.

Call me cynical, but -- given their willingness to target innocent men, woman and children in marketplaces and polling places -- this may not signal a change in their hearts and minds, but only a change in their tactics.

(This is a response I left in the comments here: )

WARNING: GRATUITOUS IMPERFECT VIETNAM ANALOGY:

The war had been plodding along without anything identifiable as “progress” for quite a few years. President Nixon’s goal was to bring our troops home, but only after the South Vietnamese were prepared to defend their country by themselves. “Vietnamization.” “Peace with honor.”

But, after four years in office, the Paris peace talks were no further along than they had been when he took office. Ho Chi Minh had no intention of settling for a Korean-style solution, and so Nixon decided that in order to get Vietnam’s war behind US he had to do something bold.

So, after winning a landslide re-election, he took his political capital and — in December — went to Camp David and ordered the “Christmas bombing” of Hanoi and North Vietnam. For two weeks the onslaught continued while Nixon stayed at the presidential retreat refusing to explain himself. People wondered if he’d finally gone mad and was intent on invading North Vietnam.

After two weeks the bombing stopped and Nixon came down from Camp David and announced a 90-day cease-fire with the North Vietnamese, during which time all US troops would withdraw from the South. That, finally, ended our active military involvement in defending South Vietnam. Two years later the South fell.

Possible parallels: Nixon’s landslide re-election followed by the Christmas bombings put the fear into the North Vietnamese. The 403-3 vote in the House followed by/concurrent with the offensive in western Iraq put the fear in the “insurgents”.
The North Vietnamese agreed to a cease-fire in order to allow the major obstacle to invasion to leave the theater: US troops. The “insurgents” and Ba’athists make overtures to lay down their arms in order to speed up the withdrawal of their major obstacle to re-taking power in Iraq: US troops.

Possible difference: The North Vietnamese made no bones about the fact that the cease-fire was not a peace treaty but only a temporary end to hostilities after which the war would continue. The “insurgents” and Ba’athists claim that they are interested in peacefully joining the political process. Great news if it’s true and not a ruse.

I just hope that — once US troops are gone — having brought the”insurgents” and Ba’athists into the political process doesn’t simply transform them from “insurgents” into insurgents.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Ah, the one day of the year when it's okay to say that gluttony is good.

The pilgrims arrived in the New World in November, 1620. Being outside the bounds of English law, some passengers began -- while still aboard the Mayflower while anchored off of Cape Cod -- to assert their complete freedom from obedience to the leaders and to the group. In order to make their first attempt at their new life (and with the coming winter), the passengers negotiated the Mayflower Compact in which all of the men agreed to follow laws drawn up by the group as a whole. Democracy had arrived in America.

After a brief stay in what is now Provincetown, Massachussetts (and a not-so-friendly run-in with the locals, they sailed further up the coast and settled in Plymouth on December 21st, 1620. The winter was harsh and the available food was precious. They had gotten used to fasting regularly in order to conserve what was available and to pray for success during this difficult time.

In the spring they planted and while the soil was rich, there were many mouths to feed and it took a while for the plantation to show what it could do. After the harvest someone called for another day of fasting to acknowledge that the harvest would need to last the winter and to pray for another successful year in the New World. But then someone else called for a feast in order to celebrate the bountiful harvest and to give thanks to G-d for having provided such a fertile new home. The feast idea won out, and the first Thanksgiving Day was celebrated.

Every year since that autumn day in 1621, a day of Thanksgiving has been observed. So, with that in mind, have some appetizers all day, fill the house with the aromas that come with cooking a twelve course meal and eat up!

Lots to read about the original pilgrims' voyage and early settlement here. I'm off to my sister's house for the annual gathering. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

A very brief post

"We in this country, in this generation, are -- by destiny rather than choice -- the watchmen on the walls of world freedom."
--John Fitzgerald Kennedy -- in a speech he never gave -- Nov 22^nd 1963

Tip o'the tam to Victor.

Fun With Babel Fish, part deux

This goes English to French to English. (I realized only afterward that I'd left out the word "men" in second verse.)

It's story of a lovely lady
who was bringing up three very lovely girls.
All of them had hair of gold like their mother;
the youngest one in curls.

It's the story of a man named Brady
who was bringing up three boys of his own.
They were four living all together.
Yet they were all alone

'til the one day when the lady met this fellow
and they knew that it was much more than a hunch
that this group must somehow form a family.
That's the way they all became the Brady bunch.

C'est histoire d'une belle dame
qui amenait trois filles très belles.
Tous ont eu des cheveux d'or juste comme leur mère ;
le plus jeune dans les courbures.

C'est l'histoire d'un homme appelé Brady
qui amenait trois garçons de ses propres.
Ils avaient quatre ans vivant tous ensemble.
Pourtant ils étaient tout seuls

'jusqu'à l'un jour où la dame a rencontré ce camarade
et ils ont su qu'il était beaucoup plus qu'une sensation
que ce groupe doit de façon ou d'autre former une famille.
C'est la manière ils que tout est devenus le groupe de Brady.

It is history of a beautiful injury
which brought three very beautiful girls.
All had golden hair like their mother;
young person in the curves.

It is the history of a man called Brady
which brought three boys of its clean.
They were four years old living all together.
However they were all alone

' until one day when the injury met this comrade
and they knew that it was much more than one feeling
that this group must in way or other to train a family.
It is the manner they which all became the group of Brady.

Fun with Babel Fish

Babel Fish? Oh, yeah. Babel Fish.

(Tip o'the tam to Ted and the 66^th Carnival of the Recipes.)

English:

We hold these truth to be self-evident: That all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness; that in order to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.

Translated into French:

Nous tenons ces la vérité à être art de l'auto-portrait-evident : Que tous les hommes sont égale créée ; qu'ils sont dotés par leur créateur avec certaines droites inaliénables ; ce parmi ces derniers sont la vie, liberté et la poursuite du bonheur ; qu'afin de fixer ces droites, des gouvernements sont institués parmi les hommes dérivant leurs puissances justes du consentement du régi.

Then back into English:

We hold the these truth to be art of the obvious one: That all the men equal are created; that they are equipped by their creator with certain inalienable right-hand sides; it among the latter is the life, freedom and the continuation of happiness; that in order to fix these lines, of the governments are instituted among the men deriving their right powers from the assent of governed.

Substantively it's not toooo far off except for the bit about the right-hand sides. Let's try another:

English:

I was born in the wagon of a travelling show. My mama used to dance for the money they'd throw. Papa would do whatever he could. Preach a little gospel; sell a couple bottles of Doctor Good.

Translated to German:

Ich war im Lastwagen eines reisenden Erscheinens geboren. Meine Mutter pflegte, für das Geld zu tanzen, das sie werfen würden. Papa würde tun, was auch immer er könnte. Predigen Sie ein kleines Evangelium; verkaufen Sie Flaschen eines Paares des Doktors Good.

And back into English:

I was born in the truck of a traveler of appearance. My nut/mother tended to dance for the money which they would throw. Dad would do, whatever he could do. Preach a small gospel; sell to bottles of a pair of the doctor Good.

Hmmm. The German word for nut and mother are the same? I wonder how many Sunday School kids thought that they were being commanded to honor their fathers and almonds. Let's try again:

English:

Yesterday all my troubles seemed so far away.
Now I need a place to hide away.
Oh, I believe in yesterday.

Suddenly I'm not half the man I used to be.
There's a shadow hanging over me.
Oh, yesterday came suddenly.

Why she had to go:
I don't know, she wouldn't say.
I said something wrong, now I long for yesterday.

Yesterday love was such an easy game to play.
Now I need a place to hide away.
Oh, I believe in yesterday.

Translated to Greek (which does not display), and back into English:

Yesterday all the problems to me appearred so much makrya'.
Now I need a place that it hides far.
OH, I believe in yesterday.

Suddenly I am not the half individual that was.
There a shade where custard beyond with.
The OH, came yesterday suddenly.

Because it should it goes:
I do not know, it would not say.
I now said something erroneous, I long-lasting for yesterday.

Yesterday the love was a such easy game that plays.
Now I need a place that it hides far.
OH, I believe in yesterday.

This fun. English:

Born down in a dead man's town. The first kick I took was when I hit the ground like a dog that's been beat too much 'til you spend half your life just covering up. Born in the USA. I was born in the USA.

Portuguese:

Carregado para baixo na cidade de um homem inoperante. O primeiro pontapé que eu fiz exame era quando eu bato a terra como um cão que estivesse sido batida demasiado ' até que você gasta do seu a metade covering justo da vida acima. Carregado nos EUA. Eu fui carregado nos EUA.

Back to English:

Loaded for low in the city of an inoperative man. The first kick that I made examination was when I beat to the land as a dog that was been beaten too much ' until you spend of its the half just covering of the life above. Loaded in U.S.A.. I was loaded in U.S.A..

And finally, English:

You know the world is going crazy when the best rapper is a white guy, the best golfer is a black guy, the tallest guy in the NBA is Chinese, the Swiss hold the America's Cup, France is accusing the U.S. of arrogance, Germany doesn't want to go to war, and the three most powerful men in America are named Bush, Dick, and Colon. Need I say more?

Translated into Spanish:

Usted sabe que el mundo va loco cuando el mejor rapper es un individuo blanco, el mejor golfista es un individuo negro, el individuo más alto del NBA es chino, la taza suizo asimiento de la América, Francia está acusando los ESTADOS UNIDOS de arrogancia, Alemania no desea ir a guerrear, y nombran a los tres hombres más de gran alcance de América Bush, Dick, y los dos puntos. ¿Opinión de la necesidad I más?

And from Spanish to French:

Vous savez que le monde va fou quand le meilleur rapper sera un individu blanc, le mieux golfista est un individu noir, l'individu plus haut que le NBA il est chinois, elle il effiloche par asimiento suisse de l'Amérique, la France accuse les ETATS-UNIS d'arrogance, l'Allemagne ne souhaite pas aller combattre, et nomment aux trois hommes une plus grande portée de l'Amérique Bush, Dick, et les deux points. Avis de la nécessité I plus ?

From French to German:

Sie wissen, daß die Welt geht verrückt, wenn das beste rapper ein weißes Individuum sein wird, besser golfista ein schwarzes Individuum ist das höhere Individuum, wie das NBA er chinesisch ist sie er Faser durch asimiento Schweizer Amerikas, Frankreich zeigt die VEREINIGTEN STAATEN wegen der Arroganz, Deutschland wünscht nicht bekämpfen zu gehen und nennt an den drei Männern eine größere Reichweite Amerikas Bush, Dick und die zwei Punkte. Ansicht von Notwendigkeit I mehr?

And from German to English:

They know that the world goes moved, if the best will be RWSBY a white individual better golfista a black individual is the higher individual, like the NBA it is Chinese it it to fiber through asimiento Swiss America, France shows the United States because of the arrogance, Germany wishes not fighting not to go and calls a larger range America Bush, thick and the two points at the three men. Opinion of necessity I more?

Oh, I'll be doing this all afternoon...

Mem'ries light the corners of my fisking

Just when I thought that yet another day would go by when I found absolutely nothing that would inspire a post, I happen upon Barbra Streisand's latest thesis: The Plan To Invade Iraq Before 9/11. (Well, I didn't just happen upon it -- I went looking for it. I really wish she's post more than once every 2-3 weeks!)
[Actually, I started this yesterday and didb't finish until this morning. Better nate than lever.]

As usual, Babs provides no links to her source material. She prolly just reads what she wants to read and fashions a screed from memory. That's fine, I do that a lot myself. But, then again, she seems to think she oughta be taken a lot more seriously than I'll ever expect to be taken.

Enough, already. Let's just dive right in:

Last week Democratic Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid shut down the Senate. Frustrated, angry and seeking answers, Reid threatened to delay legislative action until the Intelligence Committee followed through on its promised investigation of prewar Iraq intelligence failures. Democrats are demanding answers...and now, so are the American people.

What Harry Reid did was throw a temper trantrum and shut down the Senate as a purely symbolic gesture. Fercryingoutloud, investigations take time. To think that Senator Reid really wanted to end all Senate business until an investigation and report were completed is just daft. I mean, they hadn't even voted for their pay raise yet.

But more importantly, of course, the Democrats are demanding answers to questions to which they seem to already have intuited the answers. It doesn't resemble the scientific method, but I guess that in political science the absence of proof of manipulation is itself proof of manipulation.

But let's remember... 9/11 and faulty intelligence alone did not lead to the invasion of Iraq. This war was being planned in the minds of some for many years.

You got that right! Regime change in Iraq has been official U.S. policy ever since the Iraq Liberation Act of 1998:

As we all learned in elementary school, the legislative branch writes the laws and the executive branch enforces the law. The only difference on this issue between Presidents Clinton and Bush is that President Bush decided to actually enforce the law.

And this would be a good time to ping the Mudville Gazette's excellent Brief History of a Long War. (One caveat: While it's an impressive chronology of the 12-year lead-up to the war, it focuses only on the history as it pertains to WMD. Let's not forget that things like stopping the feeding of people feet-first into plastics shredders were also significant conditions of the cease-fire in '91.)

George Bush's former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill revealed in his book that at one of the very first National Security Council meetings after Bush took office in January 2001 he discussed the notion of invading Iraq and that he seemed desperate to find an excuse for pre-emptive war against Saddam Hussein.

Woah, Babs is diggin' deep! Was he "desperate to find an excuse" or was he, just maybe, interested in finally resolving the crappy state of affairs that had been going on for the previous decade? Assuming, though, that O'Neill's thusfar unique impression was right: If Bush was "deperate to find an excuse" to go to war against Saddam then there could only be one conclusion: It wasn't all about WMD or about Operation Iraqi Freedom; it was all about Operation Ooooiiiiiiillll! To paraphrase what Bubba once said to Paula Corbin: Kiss this. The oil was flowing pre-war. Unfortunately the food wasn't.

Many of Bush's inner circle are members of Project for the New American Century (PNAC), a neo-conservative think-tank that promotes an ideology of total U.S. world domination through the use of force.
BWAHAHAHAHA!!!! This is their very brief mission statement:

The Project for the New American Century is a non-profit educational organization dedicated to a few fundamental propositions: that American leadership is good both for America and for the world; and that such leadership requires military strength, diplomatic energy and commitment to moral principle.

The Project for the New American Century intends, through issue briefs, research papers, advocacy journalism, conferences, and seminars, to explain what American world leadership entails. It will also strive to rally support for a vigorous and principled policy of American international involvement and to stimulate useful public debate on foreign and defense policy and America's role in the world.

William Kristol, Chairman

Babs, regretfully I repeat myself: This is about peace in our time, not peace only in our place and time. Peace will come when all tyrants are deposed and freedom reigns. Unless you believe that America was not founded on self-rule you'll never believe that America is the 229-year-old light that illuminates the dreams of the tired, huddled masses yearning to breathe free. If you believe that the expansion of the American Revolution throughout the world is a thing to be ashamed of, then you must believe that either: a) America does not stand for freedom, or; b) freedom itself is a tyrant. Or, if you are an isolationistn and the welfare of foreigners is none of our concern then -- like I sorta said earlier -- it's Freedom for Me, not for Thee.

Back in 1998, PNAC sent an open letter to President Clinton urging his administration to implement a strategy for removing Saddam's regime from power.

Gee, y'think that mighta maybe been a good idea?!

This letter was signed by Paul Wolfowitz, Donald Rumsfeld, John Bolton and Richard Perle.

Aah, and the message is about to be judged according to the presumably suspect heuristics of the messenger...:

These men, along with fellow PNAC members Dick Cheney and Scooter Libby, were the primary architects of the Iraq war 5 years later.

"Architects"? Funny; I always thought Generals were the primary architects of a war. But, I suppose she means to imply that the rationale for war in Iraq was based on the idea that, possibly, maybe, removing Saddam Hussein from power was in our national interest. Dammit, she's onto us.

In 2000, PNAC produced a document entitled Rebuilding America's Defenses: Strategies, Forces And Resources For A New Century. The plan outlined how the US should go about taking military control of the Gulf region whether or not Saddam Hussein is in power.

Maybe -- just maybe -- because it's not all about Saddam Frickin Hussein. Maybe there really is **gasp!** a reason, other than chemicals and oil and mushroom clouds, to get rid of an opportunistic butcher. Maybe the future of the lands of traditional Islam really is, finally, linked to our own future afterall -- just like they always said it was. Babs, yer so peaceful that -- if you were in charge -- the next James Bond title and theme song might be called Die And Let Live. Know what I mean?

Let's remember some of our recent history with Iraq and Saddam Hussein.

Yes, let's...

The United States' relationship with Saddam has been vastly contradictory. In the 1980's, the U.S. heavily supported Saddam against Iran in the Iran-Iraq war.

To prevent Iraq being from overrun by Ayatollah Khomeini and his "students". The spread of theocracy in the region was not in our -- or anyone else's -- best interest. You disagree, I see.

Saddam was in violation of human rights laws by gassing the Kurds.

That was in 1988; the same yhear the Iran-Iraq war ended. (This will be an important detail in a moment.)

However, the US turned a blind eye, instead opting to retain a friendly relationship with Saddam in order to access intelligence. The US government furnished Saddam with weapons.

Advice and small arms, at best. I mean, those weren't exactly F-16s that the Iraqi pilots were high-tailing to Iranian airspace in January '91 'cuz they didn't wanna die for Saddam. Those were Soviet MIGs. Don't gimme this crap about how we "built him up" as if we had no duty to knock him down.

If you had a child that you just discovered was diabetic, would you withhold the insulin just because you once gave him some candy? I think we're smart enough to know the difference between philisophical surrender and a larger strategy.

We even have pictures documenting Donald Rumsfeld, then special envoy of President Ronald Reagan, shaking hands with Saddam in 1983!

Woah! 1983!!!?! Do y'mean to tell me that long before Saddam gassed the Kurds our gubmint actually considered that maybe the enemy of our enemy to be an potential ally?! I'm shocked! Shocked and saddened! Where were our chrystal balls when we needed them?!

In 1990, Saddam invaded Kuwait, stating that he believed he had the silent permission to do so by then US Ambassador to Iraq, April Glaspie.

Silent permission. "Silent permission". That phrase just rolls off the tongue, doesn't it? I believe that I've successfully dealt with that relic of an idea hyar.

However, the United States, under George H.W. Bush, responded with Operation Desert Storm to quell the invasion. The same weapons we had given to Saddam to defeat the Iranians a decade earlier, were now being used to kill US soldiers.

Name one.

Although the Persian Gulf War was considered a victory for the United States, ultimately Saddam was not removed from power.

Good to hear you lamenting that!

Oh, but ..."considered" a victory...? Get your head out of your pillow, already.
This was a tremendous disappointment for the conservative hawks emerging in the Republican party.

And there we have it: It's "conservative hawks" that want to spread freedom and democracy and "liberal doves" that want to allow opression and dictatorship to flourish. Thanks for the admission, Babs!

Since the Gulf War, there has been a covert but persistent mission by neo-cons to overthrow Saddam Hussein by any means necessary in order to reorganize the Middle East in the name of democracy.

...and thus, peace...

However democracy was not the reason Bush gave to the country when he decided to invade Iraq....it was the presence of WMDs, which UN inspectors did not find.

**bzzzt** Wrong. WMD was only one of many reasons given for the resumption of hostilities. But we've already been through that.

Former US top weapons inspector David Kay testified before congress asserting this fact. And Director General of the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency, Mohamed ElBaradei, requested more time from the administration to investigate the weapons claims in Iraq before rushing to war. Those in the Bush inner circle had tremendous influence on his final decision to unilaterally attack Iraq in 2003 without the support of the United Nations and the rest of the world.

Because France and Germany (who, by the way, agreed that Saddam had WMD programs) said that they would refuse under any circumstances to support holding Saddam accountable to the UN resolutions. Gee, I wonder why.

The notion of invading Iraq and overthrowing Saddam was gaining momentum long before the terrorists attacked on September 11, 2001.

About 11 years...

Only once America was attacked did Bush and his war mongering neo-con colleagues have the perfect opportunity to utilize faulty intelligence in order to make a case for war and garner the blind support of most of the American public.

We're all blind! Thank goodness we've got Barbra Streisand to rip out our eyes and shove hers into our sockets!

However, we now know that this war, where thousands of young American soldiers have died, was years in the making.

About 12 of 'em...

Let's hope that the frustration, anger and determination felt by Democrats and the American public continue to fuel this investigation to uncover the truth.

And let's hope that the frustration, anger and determination felt by the Iraqi people continue to fuel (there's that oooiiill reference again!) the establishment and growth of freedom and democracy in the Middle East. When they cast their ballots and elect their first legitimate parliament in 30 years; when they can go shopping in the markets without fear of so-called "insurgents" blowing themselves up and taking as many innocent bystanders with them; when they can talk openly about who they voted for, and why, without fear of ending up in a torture cell or rape room, they'll know who to thank. And it wont be isolationist so-called "peace activists" now, will it?

Sic semper tyranus.

Scenes We'd Like To See, pt 1

GLENDA: There's the house, and here you are. So, I ask you again: Are you good witch or a bad witch?

DOROTHY: Well, I already told you, I'm not a witch at all. Witches are old and ugly! **high pitched giggling** What's that?!

GLENDA: The Munchkins. They're laughing because... I am a witch.

DOROTHY: Well, beggin' yer pardon, Ma'am, but I've never heard of a beautiful witch before.

GLENDA: Only bad witches are ugly.

DOROTHY: Well, then, beggin' yer pardon, Ma'am, but if good witches are beautiful and bad witches are ugly then why are you asking me if I'm a good witch or a bad witch?

GLENDA: Uhmm.... **high-pitched giggling** What's that...?!

The strange case of Doug Thompson

Emperor Darth Misha I beats the snot out of Doug Thompson of Capitol Hill Blue for writing this article which, as much of Thompson's work does, seems rather thinly sourced for the extraordinary nature of it's accusations.

Thompson makes the claim that a sooper sekret memo is floating around to Republican leaders that discusses how a terror attack on US soil might be a key to getting Bush's poll numbers back up. All of the significant information in the story was allegedly given to Thompson by unnamed sources in the White House and on Capitol Hill.

Why in the world would such a thing even be discussed, what's more written down?

While the headline and first few paragraphs are about the alleged memo (which Thompson somehow, despite his impecible loose-lipped sources, cannot not produce), the article goes on to address the chaos that the Republican Party is s'posed to be in. Pardon my skepticism but this stuff reeks of bullshit:

The closely-guarded memo lays out a list of scenarios to bring the Republican party back from the political brink, including a devastating attack by terrorists that could “validate” the President’s war on terror and allow Bush to “unite the country” in a “time of national shock and sorrow.”

The memo says such a reversal in the President's fortunes could keep the party from losing control of Congress in the 2006 midterm elections.

GOP insiders who have seen the memo admit it’s a risky strategy [huh?!!-TS] and point out that such scenarios are “blue sky thinking” that often occurs in political planning sessions.
........

Other Republicans, however, worry that such a scenario carries high risk, pointing out that an attack might suggest the President has not done enough to protect the country.
........

The memo outlines other scenarios, including:

--Capture of Osama bin Laden (or proof that he is dead);

--A drastic turnaround in the economy;

--A "successful resolution" of the Iraq war.

GOP memos no longer talk of “victory” in Iraq but use the term “successful resolution.”

“A successful resolution would be us getting out intact and civil war not breaking out until after the midterm elections,” says one insider.

The memo circulates as Tuesday’s disastrous election defeats have left an already dysfunctional White House in chaos, West Wing insiders say, with shouting matches commonplace and the blame game escalating into open warfare.

“This place is like a high-school football locker room after the team lost the big game,” grumbles one Bush administration aide. “Everybody’s pissed and pointing the finger at blame at everybody else.”
............

“Cooler heads tried to prevail,” one aide says. “Most knew an appearance by the President would hurt Kilgore rather than help him but (Karl) Rove rammed it through, convincing Bush that he had enough popularity left to make a difference.”

Bush didn’t have any popularity left. Overnight tracking polls showed Kilgore dropped three percentage points after the President’s appearance and Democrat Tim Kaine won on Tuesday.
..........

As Republican political strategists scramble to find a message – any message – that will ring true with voters, GOP leaders in Congress admit privately that control of their party by right-wing extremists makes their recovery all but impossible.

“We’ve made our bed with these people,” admits an aide to House Speaker Denny Hastert. “Now it’s the morning after and the hangover hurts like hell.”

I included some of those non-memo-related "quotes" for the reason that, to me, they don't sound like anything that so-called Republican insiders would say to a reporter; they sound like things that a Democrat would want unnamed Republican insiders to say.

Of course, this is far from the first time that Thompson's well-places unnamed "sources" have given him, of all people, such juicy gossip. Here's a recent article Bush's sooper sekret enemies list.

Spurred by paranoia and aided by the USA Patriot Act, the Bush Administration has compiled dossiers on more than 10,000 Americans it considers political enemies and uses those files to wage war on those who disagree with its policies.

The “enemies list” dates back to Bush’s days as governor of Texas and can be accessed by senior administration officials in an instant for use in campaigns to discredit those who speak out against administration policies or acts of the President.

The computerized files include intimate personal details on members of Congress; high-ranking local, state and federal officials; prominent media figures and ordinary citizens who may, at one time or another, have spoken out against the President or Administration.

Capitol Hill Blue has spoken with a number of current and former administration officials who acknowledge existence of the enemies list only under a guarantee of confidentiality. Those who have seen the list say it is far more extensive than Richard Nixon’s famous “enemies list” of Watergate fame or Bill Clinton’s dossiers on political enemies.

“How is it that you think Karl (Rove) and Scooter (Libby) were able to disseminate so much information on Joe Wilson and his wife,” says one White House aide. “They didn’t have that information by accident. They had it because they have files on those who might hurt them.”

Now, I don't know about any "enemies list", but look at that quote from the anonymous "White House aide". He names Rove when not even the grand jury did that! And what is this "...so much information..." crud? Libby mentioned that Wilson's wife worked for the CIA. That's it.
There are "quotes" like this aplenty in the article.

And speaking of comparisons to Nixon, here's a Thompson piece from July, '04 where unnamed sources describe Bush as being a few agates short of a sack o'marbles.

President George W. Bush’s increasingly erratic behavior and wide mood swings has the halls of the West Wing buzzing lately as aides privately express growing concern over their leader’s state of mind.

In meetings with top aides and administration officials, the President goes from quoting the Bible in one breath to obscene tantrums against the media, Democrats and others that he classifies as “enemies of the state.”

Worried White House aides paint a portrait of a man on the edge, increasingly wary of those who disagree with him and paranoid of a public that no longer trusts his policies in Iraq or at home.

“It reminds me of the Nixon days,” says a longtime GOP political consultant with contacts in the White House. “Everybody is an enemy; everybody is out to get him. That’s the mood over there.”

In interviews with a number of White House staffers who were willing to talk off the record, a picture of an administration under siege has emerged, led by a man who declares his decisions to be “God’s will” and then tells aides to “fuck over” anyone they consider to be an opponent of the administration.

Perhaps Doug Thompson is an anti-Bush propogandist who's making up quotes to flesh out fantastic storylines. Perhaps he's a dupe and is getting quotes from people only claiming to have the inside scoop. Perhaps this is what inside sources are actually telling him.

He claims to be a non-partisan who, while he has worked for Republicans in the past, is a registered independent. But he did write a strongly worded condemnation of the creation of the Office of Homeland Security here"here.

Capitol Hill Blue has been around for over 10 years, and Thompson authored similar stories during the Clinton administrations, as described here.

Interviews conducted over the past two weeks by Thompson showed an increasingly isolated President whose obsession with his place in the history books has led him to ignore the recommendations not only of career military officers, but also of many close aides. "The President is standing alone on a lot of this," says one White House aide. "He's finding fewer and fewer people who are willing to stick with him over Kosovo. He's backed himself, his administration and his country into a corner."
.........

At the Pentagon, senior officers now call the President the "draft dodger in chief," and sneer at his inability to grasp simple military tactics. "The man is an ass," says one career officer. "He has no concept of a military operation. To him, it's just a video game. What we don't know is how many body bags it will take to make this jerk face reality."

There was a hubbub followed by a curious column some months ago. Thompson had attributed some quotes -- about Bush's alleged desire to prove that Saddam had WMD even it they couldn't prove it -- to oneTerrance J. Wilkinson. When confronted with the veracity of the quotes, Thompson wrote about a 20 year-long relation he had with Wilkinson, an ex-military and CIA consultant, and how he'd used him as a source -- unnamed, of course -- for many years. Then he writes:

On Tuesday, we ran a story headlined "White House admits Bush wrong about Iraqi nukes." For the first time, Wilkinson said he was willing to go on the record and told a story about being present, as a CIA contract consultant, at two briefings with Bush. He said he was retired now and was fed up and wanted to go public.

"He (Bush) said that if the current operatives working for the CIA couldn't prove the story was true, then the agency had better find some who could," Wilkinson said in our story. "He said he knew the story was true and so would the world after American troops secured the country."

After the story ran, we received a number of emails or phone calls that (1) either claimed Wilkinson was lying or (2) doubted his existence. I quickly dismissed the claims. After all, I had known this guy for 20+ years and had no doubt about his credibility. Some people wanted to talk to him, so I forwarded those requests on to him via email. He didn't answer my emails, which I found odd. I should have listened to a bell that should have been going off in my ear.

Today, a White House source I know and trust said visitor logs don't have any record of anyone named Terrance J. Wilkinson ever being present at a meeting with the President. Then a CIA source I trust said the agency had no record of a contract consultant with that name. "Nobody, and I mean nobody, has ever heard of this guy," my source said.

I tried calling Terry's phone number. I got a recorded message from a wireless phone provider saying the number was no longer in service. I tried a second phone number I had for him. Same result.

Both of his phone numbers have Los Angeles area codes but an identity check through Know-X today revealed no record of anyone named Terrance J. Wilkinson ever having lived in LA or surrounding communities.

His email address turns out to be a blind forward to a free email service where anyone can sign up and get an email account. Because it was not one of the usual "free" services like Hotmail, Yahoo or such, I did not recognize it as one (although you'd think that someone like me would have known better).

The bottom line is that someone has been running a con on me for 20 some years and I fell for it like a little old lady in a pigeon drop scheme. I've spent the last two hours going through the database of Capitol Hill Blue stories and removing any that were based on information from Wilkinson (or whoever he is). I've also removed his name, quotes and claims from Tuesday's story about the White House and the uranium claims.

If all of that is true then it's truely bizarre. A source gives acurate information anonymously for years; decides to be quoted by name; is found to have, for the first time, given unreliable information; is called on it and vanishes.

Now, I don't know Doug Thompson from Adam West, but it seems to me that -- and I could be wrong -- that Thompson boneheadedly put a name on one of his made-up "quotes"; thought that indentifying Wilkinson as a CIA consultant would keep him from being found out; got called on it and made up a story about the reliable source having duped him for over two decades. I could be wrong, though.

Perhaps Thompson's articles are born out of nothing but a desire to write sensational stories about the behind the scenes White House. Or, perhaps he has an anti-Bush agenda. I'll point you, lastly, to an article he wrote last spring calling for Bush's impeachment.

Democrats staged a "hearing" on the Downing Street memo last week but
it was little more than a photo op. Republicans didn't participate
because the lackey GOP leadership of both the House and Senate
disregards the truth as much as the Liar-in-Chief in the White House.

Privately, Republicans in both the House and Senate say Bush has left
them and their party in a "no win" situation in Iraq and they fear
growing public opposition to the war will cost them control of
Congress in the 2006 mid-term elections and the White House in 2008.

"We got trouble," one long-time GOP consultant told me. "That starts
with `T' and that rhymes with `B' and that stands for `Bush.'"

America might be able to survive until 2006 to replace the scandal-
ridden GOP leadership of Congress but the country cannot afford to
wait until 2008 to get rid of George W. Bush. His criminal acts merit
immediate impeachment and then removal of office.

Then he should be tried as a traitor for his crimes. War criminals
deserve no less.

I report; you decide.

An "Intelligent Design" Theory

No, not that Intelligent Design "theory". Well, this isn't really technically a theory either, except in the loosest Aristotlesque sense of the word -- learning by thinking. This is a hypothesis based on observed phenomena.

For the purpose of this thesis I will use the following broad definition:

intelligence [in 'tel i jents] n. The ability of a living organism to sense and adapt to it's environment and/or to better it's experience of it's environment.

So, here's my hypothesis: Evolution is driven, at least in part, by the intelligence of organisms themselves, rather than exclusively by random mutations. This has nothing to do with consciousness, but with unconscious awareness of what would improve the species' quality of life. (And this goes for plants as well as animals.)

Exhibit A: Haircuts
Humans like to play with their hair; to cut it, braid it, shave it, grow it, tie things into it, etc. If someone cuts their hair, or shaves a symbolic pattern in it, and then decides that they want to change it, it's okay; it's grow back. Not only that, it'll keep growing and growing until they have to either cut it or, maybe, trip over it.

My hypothesis, then, is that we don't play with our hair because -- unlike the hair of other animals -- it grows and grows, but that our hair grows and grows because we like to play with it.
A dog's coat will grow back if it is shaved down for the summer months, but it will grow only to certain utilitarian length. Our hair will grow to well beyond any useful length not by accident, but because we, throughout our cultures' histories, have always needed it to.

Exhibit B: Claws on squirrels
There's no reason for a ground dwelling herbivore like, say, a deer, to have claws that are capable of getting it up a tree. A squirrel didn't grow sharp claws and then realize that it could climb a tree with them. That would mean waiting around for a random mutation that isn't likely to happen.

I mean, horeshoe crabs have remained unchanged for millions and millions of years not because their genes are somehow not given to mutation, but because they never had a reason to change. Squirrels, therefore, developed claws because they wanted to climb trees. The evolution was done on purpose, not by accident.

Exhibit C: Blubber
Whales don't swim in cold waters because they've accidentally been given a thick layer of blubber; they have a thick layer of blubber because they swim in cold waters. Just as a guitar player will develop callouses on his or her fingertips to keep them from getting raw and painful from playing, our species' adapt to their surroundings with remarkable ease and speed.

Exhiit D: Sunflowers
When a sunflower turns to face the sun it isn't, of course, thinking about what it's doing. But, in a way, the plant as a whole does "know" what's good for it. While a botanist could explain exactly what is happening at the cellular level to produce this phenomenon, the fact of the matter is that this ability to follow the sun is not the product of an incredibly beneficial accident or a biological failure a long time ago when it's DNA was copying itself. It's the result of the intelligence of the organism, as a whole, to recognize a way to make the most of it's given circumstance.

Exhibit E: Flight
Flight has been developed only four times in the 500 million year history of animal life on land; insects, pterosaurs, birds and bats. First, an animal might learn to parachute; to stretch it's own surface area in order to create drag and slow down it's fall. Why? Because it wants to.

Then the parachuting animal might develop the ability to glide; to fall at a shallow angle over a longer distance. Then one of those gliding creatures decided to get more distance by flapping it's "wings" and voila, a flying animal is born self-made! Waiting for nature to accidentally provide a gliding animal with proper wings would be nerve wracking. So, instead, the nerves wrack their nature and soon it's one animal, two wings, no waiting!

In tel i jent de zine; not random, accidental, curiously coincidental mutation. Our bodies, as a unit and given all of the information supplied through our five senses, can willfully adapt to new conditions and, yes, at the cellular/genomal level, new ideas.

Well, it makes sense to me, anyway.

Well, That Was Odd

PART 2:

First I noticed that I existed and, by the voices, that there were others around me. But I knew nothing of what or where I was. The voices were female and things began to seem a bit familiar. This is the bus, I realized, and I was about to die.... then I snapped up while taking a quick deep breath and things immediately seemed a lot clearer. I wasn't about to die.... I was about to fall asleep. Head so foggy. My brain was tingling with growing comprehension, just like back in the days when I was a teenager and used to hyperventilate and then hold my breath while squeezing my chest to get the oxygen overdose until I passed out. Coming to then was just like this. Where was that damn bus driver going? Oh, he was off to that little store for a bottle of water, I guessed. I put the crossword puzzle in my coat pocket. If I'd dared to look at it I might've never woken up again.

------------------------

PART 1

I was in the back of the bus hunched over a crossword puzzle. I'd completed only about half of it and wondered if I could finish it. The remaining spaces -- large chunks of the puzzle -- were empty because I just could not get any of the cross-words and get a clue about the other words. The bus came to the stop just in front of the A&P supermarket and, by the sound of their voices and the character of their banter, I knew that a few highschool girls got on board. The bus driver turned the engine off.

The girls came closer and closer as I stared straight through the crossword puzzle. I wasn't distracted -- I had nothing on my mind. My only sensory input seemed to be their words which I was not listening to. In my upper-left peripheral vision I saw one girl sit down directly in front of me. "Sit over here, girl," a more distant voice said, and the sitting girl skooched over toward the voice. I thought of looking up. I thought that I might be dreaming and remembered that if I ever wondered if I was dreaming, I was. I didn't know where I was.

---------------------------

EPILOGUE

Hmmph. That's never happened before. Everything you just read that happened between "'Sit over here, girl'" and "Head so foggy" happened in the space of about three or four seconds. Maybe it was a mini-bout of narcolepsy? Weird, that.

Well, that was fun

The best thing about sunday crossword puzzles is discovering the theme and working out the clever wordplay or the quote. I just finished the sunday Boston Globe puzzle that appears in a local weekly rag, and it had a very interesting and challenging theme.

The puzzle was titled Playing Charades and the tricky words went something like this (I just made up this example):

clue: bunny + morning moisture = coiff

answer: haredew

Just 'cuz it was alot of fun I'm a-gonna give you the clues. See if you can figure out the answers. Some are pretty hard (and one's a gimme), so I included -- in parentheses -- the number of letters in each answer.

1. Ranch + aides = druggists (11)

2. European + communist = ticks (9)

3. Fish + worry = SRO (8)

4. Composer + guru's deciple = kids' game (9)

5. Salmon + legends = key people? (8)

6. Wed + Funicello = puppet (12)

7. Usual + spuds = announcers (12)

8. Phoney + glass = bubbly (8)

9. Peon + drilled = wave rider (9)

10. House part + house part = kind of fever (9)

11. Springtime + pranks = network (9)

12. European + octet = sprout (11)

Answers are in the extended entry.

Good luck!

1. farmassists

2. CzechMarx

3. soledoubt

4. Haydnsikh

5. loxmyths

6. marryAnnette

7. commontaters

8. shampane

9. serfbored

10. roomattic

11. maytricks

12. Germaneight

Barbra Streisand: Childless Mother Superior

Okay, that title's a bit snarky, but so's she. So, let's just proceed......

Babs wrote a post on the Statements page of her website calling for the impeachment of President Bush. She doesn't really offer anything new or insightful here. She aimed to hit all the usual taliking points and she didn't miss a-one of 'em.

If there was ever a time in history to impeach a President of the United States, it would be now. In my opinion, it is two years too late. We should have done this before the election to spare the country the misjudgment, the incompetence and the malfeasance of this administration.

Okay, there's the opening salvo. Now onto the details...

Let us remember that UN weapons inspectors asked for more time to search Iraq for WMDs. Two months into their search, the Director General of the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency, Mohamed ElBaradei, stated that he found no evidence that Iraq had revived its nuclear weapons program since its elimination in the 1990s. And Saddam Hussein had begun to comply with the administration's demands.

Yes, that is some of what he said. But, he also said that the Iraqis were being less than "proactive" in handing over documents, and that they had equipment that was banned under earlier UN resolutions. After the war had started he said that, while he'd be "surprised" if a nuclear program was found, that "there could be [a nuclear weapons programme.] ..... I did not certify that Iraq was clean when I left Iraq."

The larger point, however, is that the existance of WMD in Iraq was only one of many justifications for Operation Iraqi Freedom. Justifications include: The myriad violations of the 1991 ceasefire including the ejection of inspecters in 1998, the constant shooting at US airplanes, the payments to the families of suicide bombers, the brutalization of the Iraqi people and the safe-harboring of a most-wanted terrorist, Abu Nidal.

The biggest justification, of course, is the beginning of transforming the backward-looking, corrupt and closed nature of middle eastern governments and the instilling of hatred in their mosques and schools.

Why would you invade a country if there was still a chance for peace?

Because "peace" in Iraq resulted in the unspeakably brutal torture, and killing of hundreds of thousands of men, women and children.

Shouldn't war be an absolute last resort?

It was; there was no other way to free Iraq and begin the modernization of the region -- a modernization that is in our vital national interest. Unless, of course, we want to choose isolationism and an end to all diplomatic and trade relations with Islamic states and let them continue to repress the people, swallow up the only democracy that was in the region, Israel, and ban all outward religious expression that is not sanctioned by their theocracies.

We went to war because we were misled.

Yep. Bill Clinton, Jacque Chirac and all the others who were convinced that Saddam had WMD misled us. They all knew better. It wasn't based on the intelligence they had, they just made it up.

And we should be angry because of the 2,000 American soldiers and the 200 armed coalition forces that have died. We should be livid because of the 15,000 American soldiers that have been horribly maimed and wounded. We should be disgusted because of the 30,000 innocent Iraqi civilians that have been killed and the 20,000 that are wounded after administration officials claimed that the US was going to liberate the Iraqi people.

First of all, the 2,000 figure includes soldiers who died in Afghanistan.

Secondly, and just to put it into perspective, well over 100,000 people have died in traffic accidents in the United States alone since the beginning of Operation Iraqi Freedom, yet there is no outrage and clarion call to ban motor vehicles. Each one of those more than 100,000 people died for nothing, but each and every soldier and civilian who died tragically in Iraq and Afghanistan at the hands of freedom-hating terrorists, has given their lives in defiance of tyranny.

When does it stop? It stops with the indictment and impeachment of this corrupt, power-hungry, greedy group of incompetent leaders. How many more have to die before this happens?

How many Americans died on Omaha Beach on the morning of June 6th, 1944? How many more Jews had to die before we impeached President Roosevelt for speeding up the extermination process after the allies landed at Gold and Juno Beaches? How was it that we dared to stay in Europe for years after the war, rebuilding it with the money of American taxpayers?

"How many more have to die?" That's up to the terrorists, not us. We don't target civilians in marketplaces, nurseries, mosques or voting booths. We're there to help put an end to that. What we want is a real chance at freedom, prosperity and peace in our time for every deserving soul, not merely peace in our own place and time.

As for "corrupt, power-hungry, greedy group of incompetent leaders"; without specifics I wont bother to respond. I can assume what Babs is referring to and address each of those, but I don't feel like it. Heh.

Impeachment will be difficult. People must understand the power of Congress. When one party controls both the House and the Senate, they control the agenda. They control what hearings are held, what legislation gets voted on, whether subpoenas are issued and which investigations can take place. And they control whether impeachment proceedings can be brought.

Yep.

We were clearly deceived by this administration and now we find ourselves fighting a war under false pretenses. There was no connection between Iraq and 9/11, despite Dick Cheney's many assertions.

Neither Vice-President Cheney nor anyone else in the Administration ever claimed that there was a connection between Saddam and 9-11, but that there were connections between Saddam and al-Qaeda. It doesn't matter one charm quark whether or not Saddam had any link to 9-11 anymore than it matters if Muhamar Qaddafy had any link to 9-11. The war is on terrorism and the social mores that instill the martyrdom impulse.

There were no WMD's and the CIA had intelligence which corroborated that evidence.

Source please?

There was no nuclear threat contrary to Condoleezza Rice's "smoking gun becoming a mushroom cloud" scare tactic.

Huh? That sentence doesn't even make sense. Oh, wait. Yes, it does. I forgot for a second that Babs and her fellow travellers simply refu-u-u-use to admit that Bush never called Iraq an imminent threat, but that we didn't want to risk waiting until he does become an imminent threat. My bad.

And there was no yellow cake purchased from Niger by Iraq as former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, along with our European allies, confirmed.

This is a reference to a line in Bush's 2003 State of the Union address.

" The International Atomic Energy Agency confirmed in the 1990s that Saddam Hussein had an advanced nuclear weapons development program, had a design for a nuclear weapon and was working on five different methods of enriching uranium for a bomb. The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa. Our intelligence sources tell us that he has attempted to purchase high-strength aluminum tubes suitable for nuclear weapons production. Saddam Hussein has not credibly explained these activities.

Since this was not U.S. intelligence, but British, it probably should have been left out of the address. Nevertheless, the British stood by that intelligence. The info on the aluminun tubes was correct, however, and they were components that Iraq was forbidden to possess under the 1991 ceasefire agreement.

(The Iraq part of the speech is in the final third, and mentions what the UN itself agreed was fact.)

The specific identification of yellowcake and Niger came from Colin Powell during questioning at the United Nations. The British intelligence, however, turned out likely to be based on a forgery.
(Powell's presentation and the follow-up questioning is a long but fascinating read.)

All of these misconceptions and falsehoods were relentlessly stated. But this administration disregarded the facts because they wanted to wage this war, as we learned in the Downing Street memo.

Heh. Heh heh. BWAHAHAHAHAHA!!! The Downing Street memo! Oh, Babs, you just can't let a dead horse die, can ya?!

Oh, man... **guffaw**...actually bringing up that Downing Street memo again....**chuckle**... priceless...**wipes tear**...

This President will go down as the worst president in American history.

HEY!!! Coming out of yer mouth, that honor still goes to Ronald Reagan.

His administration ignored and neglected the threats before 9/11.

The same threats you want him to ignore now...?

His team was not prepared to act and react before, during or after Hurricane Katrina.

Because the local authorities never bothered to put out a call for help...?

His policies have contributed to the hastening of global warming,

He's bitch-slapped Mother Nature? Mighty impressive for a bungling fool, that...!

an ever growing national debt,

For once we are in agreement...

a rise in poverty and an increasing disparity between the rich and the poor.

Huh? Source, please? 'Cuz this sounds like Reagan-era blather t'me...

We are watching the middle-class disappear under Bush's leadership. He has taken our economy from the largest surplus in U.S. history to the largest deficit in U.S. history. And he has appointed several people to important positions that are unqualified and loyal to a dangerous fault.

Well, I'm inclined to meet ya half-way there. Cronyism in Washington; Whodathunkit?!

With the recent controversy surrounding the potential indictments and charges of perjury against senior members of the Bush administration, some have made comparisons to the perjury charge that was brought against President Clinton.

Oh, c'mon! Let's not delve into the realm of "potential", shall we? OK, let's...

Perjury under any circumstance is wrong. However, in President Clinton’s situation, the matter was concerning an issue that only adversely affected himself and his family.

Uh...no. It was about the Jobs-For-Silence program that Bubba had a pattern of engaging in. And I don't recall reading comparisons of Libby and Clinton, but, then, I don't get around as much as you do. But, sure, it was all "lies about sex", but it was lies about sex in a sexual harrassment lawsuit! Yeesh, can't we just MoveOn.org?!

But the potential charges filed against Bush’s closest advisors have put everybody’s families and the national security of the United States at risk.

"...the potential charges filed..."?! What in the world does THAT mean?! Could you have possibly meant to write "...the charges potentially filed..." or "...the potentially charged files..." and simply made an error in syntax? Or, could it be, maybe, that you were so eager to include the phrase "...charges filed..." that you forgot how to build a sentence? Nah! Yer just kinda sneaky, ain'tchya? Ain'tchya!

And, just how does "outing" a beaurocrat put "everybody's families and the national security of the United States at risk", anyway? Valerie Plame was never a covert agent, as the MSM keeps repeating. That she worked somewhere in a cubicle at the CIA was "an open secret". (No, I have no link for that assertion. It's too well known...)

Thank god the media and the American public are finally waking up and asking the tougher questions now.

As a Jew, Babs, I'm sure you know that "god" is properly spelled "G-d". Do not invoke the name of a diety whom you do not serve. It's a respect thang. As an athiest/agnostic, I'm jus' sayin' is all...

I keep hearing Harry Truman's famous statement ringing in my brain, "I wonder how many times you have to be hit on the head before you find out who's hitting you?"

That's the best you could come up with?! THAT'S ringing in yer head?!! Oh, I've had enough of this dingbat. I'll expect to learn from her the day pigs fry in Mecca and MTV actually plays some frickin' music...

Get U.S. off o'the road!

In a typical year there are over 40,000 traffic fatalities in the United States. There have been well over 100,000 deaths in traffic accidents since President Bush declared an end to major combat operations in Iraq.

Let's drive safely, people. It's not like it's a war or anything.

Well whadda ya know...

Professor Einstein convinces the Princeton University Board of Regents that time is money. The parking space, however, would have to wait.

---------------------

Came across this in several places, but clicked there via Ted. (I forgot to grab the url for the site, but Ted has it. So, go there and play around with it, too. Tre fun!)