what goes on

scary info about the royal family

So Dick, were ya drunk? Sure looks like you were closer to Harry than you said you were. And why did y'all prevent the local Sheriff from entering the property, after the shooting?

This is apparently not getting much coverage by the U.S. media. Surprise, surprise.

This November, demand a paper ballot!

Life imitates art.

Air America Radio. Just listen. Randi Rhodes is particularly awesome, but I like the Rachel Maddow show, too.

Drop Dead Gorgeous

So, Dick, what the hell? Why'd you shoot your friend? Cheney's been a hunter "for years," he says. In fact, we know he hunts several times a year, preferring 'canned hunts'- on private land, where the game is often tame enough to eat out of human hands -but that's beside the point. He should be familiar with guns and gun rules. Still, accidents happen, I suppose.

All questions about what exactly happened -and-how- and why aside, there is a relationship at play here which is ...very interesting.

See, Harry Whittington is an Austin-based lawyer, and a long-time big-wig Republican. Way back when George was still Governor of Texas, another old Bush family friend, Robert Waltrip got in trouble when hundreds of corpses were found in buildings and woods on the premises of his funeral home and crematorium (Service Corporation International, aka SCI). Yeah, remember Funeralgate?

Well, Eliza May was in charge of the Texas Funeral Services Commission (TFSC) when the bodies were discovered, and felt it was her job to investigate. When she got curious about why so many politicians were pressuring her to drop the investigation, she started to dig up campaign contribution reports, and was promptly fired and replaced with... Harry Whittington (who could not have been ignorant of the situation at SCI). She brought suit against the State of Texas and SCI for being forced out of her job, but the suit was quietly settled out of court -get this-- just weeks before two other SCI funeral homes in Florida were found doing the very same thing, and worse:

In one instance at Menorah Gardens, a Jewish cemetery, SCI desecrated graves and left corpses in the woods where they were devoured by wild hogs.

The general manager of Menorah Gardens, Peter Hartman, died by apparent suicide on December 27, 2001. From Wiki -I didn't want to disturb the original links.

So you'd think they'd be shut down by now, eh? No, silly! Remember- Robert Waltrip is a good, old friend of the Bushes. So what's SCI up to now? They got a no-bid contract to handle the remains of the dead from Hurricane Katrina, in New Orleans. Maybe the 'gators will do a better job of cleaning up, than the hogs did?

I think I'm gonna be sick.

Hats off to Jeff at Rigorous Intuition for taking the lead on this side of this story.

Apparent suicide. Remember that one. "Apparent," like Gary Webb's "suicide," perhaps. One wonders how many guns were involved.

George, you got a lot of 'splainin to do...

The president is a FUCKING LIAR. Get it? We've been had.

Lying again!

I am the canary in your coal mine, people, and I am screaming: MOVE! ALL IS NOT WELL! SOMETHING IS TERRIBLY WRONG HERE.

The powers-that-be have us on the wrong path. Our very notions of civility are eroding; we are one natural disaster away from every man for himself.

the tide is turning

Stop everything. Read this now. To the end.
Thank you.
Now you know. Now you can say, "Yeah, I know that speech...." -coz you'll want to, later.

Beat the rush: be terrified now

Way beyond embarrassing: The world knows, while we continue to deny it, in the face of overwhelming evidence. This is an IndiaTimes story about the CIA manual that OKs torture. Folks, we're gonna pay for this.... Note- IndiaTimes is a decent paper, kinda conservative, but they use pop-ups, damn their eyes. Be warned.

Russia is scheduled to have an election in 2008. Here's Russian politics, today. Given Putin's history (KGB career, later (as President) sent Michail Kodorkovsky to Siberia apparently for disagreeing too publicly...?), I don't expect a clean election. Putin has said he won't run again (he's limited to two consecutive terms, by their constitution), but I suspect one or more of the following: 1) election irregularities in Russia will be used to distract us from irregularities in our own polls, 2) terror threats will be used to cancel/disrupt/postpone elections in Russia and/or the U.S., and/or 3), charges will be brought against reformers (in either/both countries) and they will be declared ineligible as candidates or disgraced.

Just a thought.

Breaking news here: Joint Chiefs of Staff in confrontation with the Washington Post -Excuse me, are we in fucking Guatemala or Pakistan or something? Is this a tentative step toward military intervention in the media? Beat the rush: be terrified now.

Oh, and speaking of Pakistan, their last democratically elected leader, Benazir Bhutto, after being ejected in a 1999 coup led by their current leader (and close personal pal of George) Pervez Musharraf, is threatening to return to Pakistan to challenge Musharraf in an upcoming election. She's got massive huevos. To refresh your memory, Musharraf took power in a coup in 1999, then was NOT democratically elected when he took more power in 2001, nor was he elected in the national election that followed in 2002 (I think he said the country was too unstable at that time, or something). Nor was he elected in the national election of 2004, either (he had other things going on. No, he really said words to that effect). Any guesses as to how the '06 or '08 elections might go there? Is that the ISI knocking at my door?

It's a good thing we have guys on our side who are so committed to democracy-ness.

What I find particularly interesting is that he took office in June of 2000, one month before the U.S. announced that it was preparing a strike on Afghanistan, and that Bhutto herself had been strongly opposed to the Taliban government there, most unlike Gen. Musharraf. Does this tell you anything about the "War on Terror"? It should. Remember that Pakistan gets very upset when they think we've crossed their borders -even in hot pursuit of Taliban soldiers- and that Musharraf's very good friend and trafficker in nuclear materials and secrets, A.Q. Khan, got off scot free...

Death comes to Smurftown

I've never seen a Smurfs cartoon, I never owned any Smurf stuff; I just never got bit by the Smurfbug. I'm not a Smurfhater (I reserve that dubious honor for my arch-nemesis, Holly Hobby): I don't have strong feelings about them either way. But--

This made me cry. I wish I was kidding.

Here's the back story.

Who's Holly Hobby? One look from her eyes turns people to stone! That's why she wears that bonnet. With a single power-word, she can stink up an entire house with potpourri... with another word, calico print will infest your walls and furniture! I can't even bring myself to link you directly, she's just that ...evil. One day... one day, Mr. The Goat will join forces with Hello Kitty for a mighty battle and wipe that annoying pout off Holly Hobby's inhuman face forever, to ensure that she and her sinister bonnet never rise again.... Holly Hobby is the death of Art!

Hugo! Hugo! Hugo! Chavez is the man!

The elephant in the corner, is also the only iceberg that's not melting. Think before you bink.

Tough squirrels. Or maybe it's just a few bad seeds....

Do you see a pattern of corruption, influence peddling, conspiracy and fraud? Or are you blind?

Godzilla vs Toxic Avenger at the Bangalore Thunderdome

Evolution happens. If you doubt me, get over it: it is observed fact. Evolution is simply change over time. Anyone remotely connected to the Earth knows this happens, intuitively. We see it every day. Successful critters live to reproduce.

Theories are proposed to explain observations. "Why did that apple fall to the ground? Theory: there must be a force (gravity) that draws objects together." "Why did I get sick, if I didn't eat or drink anything bad? Theory: there are things called germs that can make us sick." "Evolution" is just an oversimplified answer to the question, "where did all these different species come from?"

One way for a new species to develop, is when a portion of a population gets separated somehow -geography, habit, diet choices, whatever- and slowly adapts to the new circumstance, with successful individuals mating and thereby passing their healthy, well-adjusted gene profile along. Those who weren't so successful in the new circumstance, probably won't get that chance. If the new population remains separated for long enough, the chances for successful random genetic mutation increase, eventually to a point at which the members of the distinct populations no longer recognize the other as "like me."

In nature it takes a long time, but we might be watching it happen, as Mc Donalds and Nintendo join forces to create a habitat ideally suited for Homo sapiens couchpotatus.

Successful mutations are the key to new species formation. India seems determined to be a living evolution laboratory, given that exposure to heavy metals and other toxic waste increases the likelihood of mutations in successive generations and apparently causes loss of cognitive abilities in children. Reality TV in twenty years might be "Godzilla vs. Toxic Avenger at the Bangalore Thunderdome!"

Yikes.

Weird.

Weirder.

Aspens?

Interesting resource regarding social networks. They Rule.

Judith Miller is a whore. Sue me: you know it's true. "The aspens are already turning..." Such an interesting statement.
Aspens: thin-skinned, in-bred* white trees. Interesting metaphor, no?

*in-bred? Yeah, they reproduce asexually: little to no genetic variation between parent and child. Like certain upper-crust cliques.

Harriet Miers's "incomplete" and "inadequate" answers "insulted" some Senators. Why is she still even being considered? This is the most ridiculous nominee I can realistically imagine. Who's next, Bugs Bunny?

Exploding the pot myths.

Imagine.

Can a dog have the Buddha nature?

I have always thought so.

Imagine this. Communities will almost have to be more self-sustaining in the future. How far away is that? Is that $4 bucks a gallon? Five? That could be next year...


Y'know, if we could trust everyone to act honestly and without regulation, then we wouldn't need prisons. The very fact that prisons -and punishment in general, as a concept- exist is testament to the idiotic nature of the Republican ideal of a "free market." They just want an excuse to act unethically.

Don't get me wrong: competition is not bad! It's natural, it's inevitable, it drives us to new heights of all kinds. That's not my point. I just think a lot of our problems would disappear if we reinstated the fairness doctrine. The arguments against it are absurd.

Senator Stevens, the American people think you're empty and ugly too, can we drill you for oil? We're not asking why there isn't enough energy (what??). We're wondering how control of all the energy ended up in such few hands. How about you start talking?

Sydney Blumenthal has a somewhat complicated, but complete, digest of the scandals beseiging George's pals and the Republican party. Essential reading for the politically perplexed!

"Amazing."

I can't NOT pass this along. The "Amazing" Randi runs away. What a prick.

And this is very interesting: it seems societies are worse off when they think God is on their side...

I can't keep track of all these Republicans under investigation/indictment anymore, the list just keeps growing too fast. Joe Conason wrote a great reader's digest update, though: check it out. Blows my mind. Staggering.

Who needs horror movies?

If Jesus was a computer,

If Jesus was a computer, this guy would have been his Paul, and this would be his bid to evangelize the world. What's so wrong with that? Ask yourself this: what happens WHEN they break? Cha-ching! goes the computer industry. What happens WHEN they need tech support? Cha-ching! goes the computer industry. What happens WHEN they wear out? Cha-ching! goes the computer industry, and Plop! goes the computer on a trash heap, where the heavy metals leach out into the area water supply and work their way up the food chain. Yum!

Y'know, when Marie Curie discovered Radium, everybody thought it was great. Someone then thought they had a great idea for how to use this new stuff: paint things with it so they'd glow in the dark. Until they realized it was killing the people who were closest to it. Oops! Too little, too late, for too many....

So here we are, with a new idea. We have a device at our disposal, which, like Radium and Uranium and the like, is so far out of our realm of normal experience that we have no precedent for it. Engineers built computers, then found that the things were, and became increasingly, so complex that they needed Scientists -specializing in an entirely new discipline- to help them understand what was going on. To date, Computer Science has been concerned in large part with the study of what computers do, as systems in and of themselves, with almost no research at all on the biological or social-behavioral aspects of their use. Some sparse research has been done on the effects of electromagnetic fields on human bodies, but so far nothing conclusive has really been shown. Just like in the early days of Marie Curie's research, non? Now what happens if we find, ten years down the line, that electromagnetic fields, when placed in close proximity to, say, immature reproductive organs, cause ...say... cancer? infertility? Hmmm? Will Dr. Negroponte's estate be paying for the cleanup? Will MIT? Or will we just turn our backs on the (now-infertile?) Third World (like maybe Appalachia, or bayou country?) like we did to the Radium painters?

Or maybe Negroponte's right, and computers everywhere will make everybody happy and apples will rain from the heavens -er, slowly, of course- and wine will flow in the -er, very clean streets, cleaned by um... robots!- and every computer geek will have a beautiful -and round-headed girlfriend. Who knows, right?

Thank Mammon!

George is a cruel, greedy sonovabitch, whose first decisions about what to do about the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina hinged upon the question, "how can I be sure that the money goes to 'higher, tighter, and righter hands'*?
(*Actual quote from Poppy (GHW) Bush)

Billions of dollars go missing from Iraq after we take charge. Negligence? Hell no. Try complicity. Sorry George, but I believe in responsibility, and further, that responsibility and command go hand in hand. So yeah, you are responsible for whatever you command. And so yeah, you are complicit in this mess. So take some fucking responsibility, dumbass. Make your buddies hand back the goods. Don't you think they have enough? Don't you think you have enough?

But it won't stop there, oh no. And this will be the future of New Orleans, Biloxi, Gulf Coast: billions in "recovery" funds lost, missing, or "mis-spent" by Karl Rove's pals. That's right, Karl Rove -political operative who's never held a real job in his life- is directing the reconstruction. You asked for it, America: you f-ing got it. The biggest, baddest racket ever. Enron? Pshht. WorldCom? A trifle. Baghdad? That was just practice. Just watch.

We watched Slaughterhouse Five last night, and one of the characters mentioned Communism. So I started thinking about our situation, how ironic it all is. I mean, since right after WWII, America's raison d'etre has been to fight Communism, because Communism meant that all the money and power would be consolidated in the hands of just a few. And yet, here we are, money and power neatly consolidated (in "higher, tighter and righter hands," remember)... and it's just getting worse. But gosh, aren't we lucky we aren't Godless Communists? Thank Mammon!

Oh, and what the heck, let's talk about Basra. Where two British soldiers, dressed as Arabs, driving a car loaded with explosives, fired on Iraqi police. Where these two British soldiers were arrested and held -but not for long (anxious Occupation Authorities didn't want their secrets getting out under torture, apparently), as the British army drove a (or maybe seven?) tank(s) through the perimeter wall to release their men ...along with over 100 other criminals, coincidentally.

But why talk about Basra just now? Because it was a false flag operation gone wrong: this was to have ended in a massive explosion, blamed on "insurgents," in order to prolong the occupation. Because as long as there's an "insurgency," then we "need" to be there. And apparently Tony Blair needs to maintain a presence there too. I hope you at least get a kiss, Tony, coz this has to hurt. No, let me correct that: I hope it hurts. A lot.

And we want to prolong the occupation because only in such chaotic circumstances could so few unworthy souls make so much cash so easily. So long, New Orleans.

No politics too slimy for Republicans. Never mind "right" and "wrong," or "good" and "bad:" for these guys, it's all about winning. The 2008 election will be decided by a bare-fisted brawl. The DNC will allow the RNC to write the rules, of course.

What's that behind the curtain? Abramoff and other of
George's pals are BUSTED.

OH, and meanwhile: we still don't know who sent the anthrax to news anchors and Democratic congressmen in the fall of 2001,
...and we still haven't caught Osama bin Laden. But he's not really a threat: 911 was an inside job anyway. Sleep well, Osama! You're safe as long as the US needs an enemy to excoriate. (look it up).

Finding my politics hard to swallow? Just ask yourself, whenever you hear about a disaster and it's subsequent reorganization: who benefits? (cui bono?). Follow the money, honey.

"Higher, tighter and righter hands"....

Curioser and curioser!

From the cryptozoology corner (I guess?): Dragons. No, really: here, over Tibet, and here, over China. I'll just say I'm a wide-eyed agnostic, so far.

And from the heresy corner: No Arabs on American Airlines flight 77 (9-11-2001)? Not on the official passenger manifests, anyway. Or the seating chart. And no Arab faces on the videos, for that matter. Old news maybe, but worth checking out. So... where did those "evil-sounding" Arabic names come from?

Another red-hot letter from my current shordurpersav, Congressman John Conyers (D, MI), calling for a congressional investigation in addition to Fitzgerald's FBI investigation. Go, man, go! I wish I could vote for him.

Who's the boss?

Strong words.

"They rode into office in a highly contested election, spouting a message of bipartisanship but determined to undermine the federal government in every way but defense (and, after 9/11, one presumed, homeland security). One with Grover Norquist, they were determined to shrink Washington until it was "small enough to drown in a bathtub." Katrina has stripped the veil from this mean-spirited strategy, exposing the greed, mindlessness and sheer profiteering behind it."
Yep, time to go, George.

I actually think Rumsfeld is more central to the command structure than the President. I believe he has been positioning himself as such since the early 1970's, with the cooperation of one Dick Cheney. But, er, pay no attention to the man behind the curtain, of course. Of course.

2008

Paul Krugman wonders, given that the last three elections were essentially stolen, what makes us think the Republicans won't steal the next? He thinks they will.

I'm not so sure. A fourth dubious election would likely put the Republican party in such a shadowy light that investigations -and most likely indictments- would be inevitable. It's difficult for me to imagine high-level Republican strategists endorsing something like that. Rather, it's much easier for me to expect them to throw the next Presidential election (maybe even using that as an excuse to campaign harder for Congressional seats).

On the other hand, recent news is showing us that the Republican party isn't so simple. In fact, results from the last nation-wide election suggest that Republican Party Central might not have had complete control over their minions, and that those minions got their own squirrely ideas into their heads, each one of them trying to be The Hero of 2004, by cheating and conspiring to send Democratic votes to Republican candidates.

Actually, either of these scenarios could work in their favor, if they play their cards right. In the first scenario, Republicans could dismiss such charges as "conspiracy theory," and the media would lap it up like pigs at a trough. And the second scenario would just allow them to dismiss all the charges as "isolated incidents" (sound familiar? it should).

As far as the Republican Party goes, whatever your suspicions are, they're probably well-founded.

it never ends

Chris Floyd sums up my frustration with the bush-cheney administration

Interesting career move.

Hoist the black flag...

Is this creativity? Consciousness?

Good essay on the Strategy of Tension, from the Moscow Times (take it from me: if you're gonna read a Russian paper, Moscow Times is a good place to start. Pravda is still crap). Chris Floyd is often a very interesting observer.

The Rove scandal explained

If you're at all unsatisfied with mainstream media news, this seems like our best place to start. Take back the airwaves.

Oh I'm sorry- the election wasn't stolen, it was bought.

"Every normal man must be tempted at times to spit upon his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats."
-H L Mencken

Zombie dogs

Zombie dogs.

Hello! Asia wants to know when we'll have our stuff out. And they're not just asking. It's a demand. From Russia and China, no less. Tell us, Dr. Brezinski, is this check, or mate?

Cool letter from London, re: the recent bombings. We're through the looking-glass here, folks, but I'm warning you: we're not dreaming ...in any ordinary sense, anyway...

Hey everybody, it's filmstrip day! Yay! Watch, it's only about ten minutes. When was the last time you watched a filmstrip?

Having just watched it myself, I'm struck both by how cheesy and pedantic it seems, and also, ironically, by how radical the information seems today. That's bad. Bad, because the cheesiness of it makes us presume that it's dated, and therefore not relevant anymore. Bad, because it makes us feel we're being talked-down-to, and we tend not to repeat information that we recieve like that. Bad, because the original viewers (who probably also laughed at how cheesy it was) are now teachers and parents (grandparents, even), who are now passing along that affected ennui to their children and students, thereby encouraging further submission to Authority- the authority of Marketing and authority of State. Ironic.

Fear is the mind-killer. Submission is mental death.

Mmmmm... gravy

Mmmmm... gravy. What'll really be fun is when our water supply is fully privatized, too. Picture Pickles Bush astride her jetski in the midst of a drought, saying -with that patent-leather smile- "the people can't afford water? Well, let them drink Pepsi!"

Oh and- where the hell is Robert Novak in all this? Why are Judith Miller and Matthew Cooper going to jail when Robert Novak gets off scot-free? If he has already cooperated with the prosecution, and the identity of the leak is already known, then this judge admits he's deciding against precedent. If he didn't cooperate, then -ahem- why the hell isn't he in the same hot water, or worse? It was he, after all, who originally published the offending name. Would someone please explain, what the hell is going on here?

George is a complete embarrassment. I'm reminded of the story his mother told, about how she made him sit at the far end of the table from Queen Elizabeth on Her Majesty's visit to the GHWBush White House way back when. Because she was afraid he'd embarrass himself, of course.

Let the howling begin

What does Karl Rove's comment say about the Republican party? To refresh your memory, he said: "Conservatives saw the savagery of 9/11 and the attacks and prepared for war; liberals saw the savagery of the 9/11 attacks and wanted to prepare indictments and offer therapy and understanding for our attackers."

Now think about that a second. Let's parse it:

"Conservatives saw the savagery of 9/11 and the attacks and prepared for war..."

--Forget that old "innocent until proven guilty" bullshit, of course. Investigation? Bosh! Investigation schminvestigation.

Clearly, then, someConservatives knew who did it, without even looking. How might they have been so sure? Considering the evidence that the various 911 commissions couldn't cover up, complicity or willfull stupidity seem the only options. And only complicity could leave one so certain: stupidity would just leave you saying "huh?"

Then he went on, "...liberals saw the savagery of the 9/11 attacks and wanted to prepare indictments and offer therapy and understanding for our attackers."

--In other words, it wasn't enough for him to say "Conservatives don't give a shit about your stupid constitution," he wanted to say "those stupid liberals are soft (i.e. compassionate)."

Karl's little comment says so much about the conservative mind-set: it says not only that "We knew who did it even before it happened," (or more generously, "We're so certain of your guilt that we don't even have to investigate," which is just as dangerous) but also, and perhaps more importantly, that "violence is an appropriate first resort."

Kinda reminds me of the Godfather. Except, he had a conscience.

Let the howling begin.

what could be worse than wal-mart?

So..... what happens if --no, when- prisons-for-profit start to lobby Congress? Yesterday you couldn't protest the President at an official event. Sure, the penalty isn't severe, but we're not in a time of crisis. Doubtless, anti-presidential demonstrations would be tolerated much less gracefully in such times as 9/12/01- it doesn't take much to imagine protesters on such a day being arrested and detained. Today the House passed an anti-flag-burning amendment (House: "you can't say that." ahem). It has to pass the Senate, and be ratified blah blah blah, which is to say it's ultimately not very likely, but still, it represents an incremental encroachment on true, responsible, freedom of expression. I'm not sure what the penalties would be, but imprisonment would certainly not be a surprise. What's tomorrow, then? Ever-increasingly draconian legislation, that's what. To the point, eventually, where people like you and I will no longer be officially US anymore. Maybe I'll dress wrong. Maybe you won't be able to pay your debts. Use your imagination: watch Brazil, read 1984 or Brave New World- as natural resources dwindle, the Power Elite will find more reasons to exclude those they don't like, and those definitions will be made in the halls -and sewers- of power. For the powers behind Corporate Prisons: the more people in prison, the better. More prisoners, more money. Longer terms! Put those dangerous pot smokers away for good! And how might they go about getting more prisoners? Lobbying Congress -or maybe Alberto Gonzales- for heavier sentences, broader definitions of federal crimes, easements on use of inmates as labor, silly things like that.

Think about it. All conscious critters -I think- naturally divide the world into US and them (in various and shifting ways, as circumstances and needs change). On a societal scale among humans, the sides are determined by our purportedly impartial leaders and ruling class of politicians and judiciary. Let's not be coy: the socio-political elite.

As resources threaten to dwindle, it should come as no surprise when the ruling class narrows the definition of what's legal and acceptable -eventually to a point at which you and I are their them.

Now taking bets on when that point will come...

How long can "last throes" last?

Very good short flash thingy explaining the Downing Street memos.

If you have a credit card, you should read this. Thanks, Washington. Good stuff from David Sirota.

This is rich: "During a White House press conference, journalist Terry Moran asked Scott McClellan whether the insurgency in Iraq was in its "last throes," as had been claimed by Vice President Dick Cheney, or was not. McClellan gave a vague answer, so Moran repeated his question five more times. "Is there any idea," he finally asked, "how long a last throe lasts for?""
more here

Hmm. Must be nice to have affordable healthcare, eh? Fuck you, Saxby Chambliss, you ass-sucking election thief. (Oops, did I just say that?)

Robots (scary). We're on the road to obsolescence, folks. In the meantime, you might consider a career in tech support insurance...

Former Chief Economist in Bush's Labor dept, declaring that the Official Story of 911 is BS. Good solid stuff.

So why isn't anyone asking the officials at FEMA about why they broke the law after 911 by destroying evidence and a crime scene? This is outrageous. Nothin' makes me think "coverup" like -um- covering up the evidence. DUH Looking for the banal? Here ya go. Nothing outlandish about it at all: Someone at FEMA said "clean this up." Who gave what orders, and why?

A Sherlock Holmes Type Twist To The 9/11 Murder Mystery. Verrrrry interesting...

Shell Chairman sez we're in trouble: "The boat is sinking, and we have to use everything that we possibly can." and "We have roughly 45 years. And if we start NOW, not in 10 or 15 years' time, we have a chance..."

They thought no one was looking.

A new 767-page book is out, called Did George W. Bush Steal America's 2004 Election? Essential Documents. Apparently someone wants us to think that there's some doubt. The documents, however, don't leave much room for that. The link (if you haven't followed it yet) is to an article about the book.

As I've been saying for five years now, IMPEACH already, geez. How many crimes does he have to commit before someone holds him accountable?

What's the matter with Ohio? They thought no one was looking.

Memos show British Fretting Over Iraq War Troops' families aren't too happy about it, either, says this article in Stars and Stripes


US tries to derail G8 hearings on climate change: memos leaked

I have to say, sometimes politics -even just following it in the news- gets discouraging. I'm a radical, I won't lie about it, so I don't ever expect to hear my views on the news, or to read them echoed in some editorial somewhere; I can deal with that. Lately, though, I have felt so far out there that I don't even feel like I'm in the same political galaxy as Washington (hell, even Topeka).

The Republican party has been working toward a stranglehold on Washington and national politics for over twenty years. Having achieved control of both houses of Congress and the White House, some republicans -in statehouses and Washington alike- are actually devising ways to control -or make irrelevant- our judicial branch.

It's getting ugly.

Sad times for Democracy

Tempers flare in the House this is getting good...

Another damaging memo from Downing Street ...really good...

Betcha won't see this in the Washington Post. How the mighty have fallen: after Watergate, the Post might have been as important as the New York Times. These days, however, it's all too clear that they (i.e., the publisher, who calls ALL the shots) are happy to act as a propaganda organ for an illegal junta. Sad, sad times for democracy.

Don't tell me boycotts don't work

Don't tell me boycotts don't work: I'm tired of hearing those self-defeating arguments. DON'T SHOP AT WAL-MART, YO. Fuck the man. It's easier than you think.

Howard Dean rocks. We should all be so outspoken.

Downing Street Memo comes under Judiciary Committee scrutiny. My hat's off to Representative John Conyers for this. There's a man with cojones. Representative Moore, are you listening?