All the good news from Iraq!

This is great, folks. Just when you thought our president of this here Union was a jackass, he goes and has himself a good 'ol moment of clarity. I mean, a genuine moment of truth...

It happened at one of Bush's fake "town hall meetings" this
week. An Army wife asked Bush why the mainstream media only focuses on "the bad
news" from Iraq and never reports "the good news." Bush furrowed his brow and
nodded in agreement. Earlier in the week the administration launched a
Vietnam-era-style "blame the media" campaign to explain plummeting public
support for both the war and Bush himself.The woman's question offered Bush an
opportunity for another anti-media riff on that theme. He sympathized with her
distress and suggested (pay attention -- here comes the truth part) that she
should turn to alternative sources for news, "like the internet." (He used to
call it the "internets" until his handlers informed him that, like God, the
internet is not plural.)

I sure do feel better now. Here I was starting to think that this "military stronghold over foreign energy recources" was cycling down the shitter. Little did I know all I had to do was stop watching Fox and start watching the Internets.

- king michael the second 11:42 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Seriously, why even have a Congress, Bush doesn't think much of their role in government.

It is so much easier to ignore the laws.

Bush shuns Patriot Act requirement - The Boston Globe
In addendum to law, he says oversight rules are not binding

WASHINGTON -- When President Bush signed the reauthorization of the USA Patriot Act this month, he included an addendum saying that he did not feel obliged to obey requirements that he inform Congress about how the FBI was using the act's expanded police powers.
...
Bush signed the bill with fanfare at a White House ceremony March 9, calling it ''a piece of legislation that's vital to win the war on terror and to protect the American people." But after the reporters and guests had left, the White House quietly issued a ''signing statement," an official document in which a president lays out his interpretation of a new law.

In the statement, Bush said that he did not consider himself bound to tell Congress how the Patriot Act powers were being used and that, despite the law's requirements, he could withhold the information if he decided that disclosure would ''impair foreign relations, national security, the deliberative process of the executive, or the performance of the executive's constitutional duties."

Why have judges either, if Bush can interpret law, as well as rewrite it, that function of the judicial branch is no longer needed.

Now we know how Bush is going to cut down the deficit - remove those 2 other pesky branches of American government.

And we thought he was joking when he said:



"If this were a dictatorship, it would be a heck of a lot easier - just so long I'm the dictator."
- George W. Bush (December 18, 2000)

Yes, that is a real quote.

- rob 5:55 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Oh by the way TCS started its 4th year a couple weeks back. Fogot to mention that. So we're:



In honor of our Birthday (a couple weeks late), I'd like to announce: This Century.org. If you go there you'll see something exciting:

This site!

Yes its just this site under a "work safe" url. Some people have noted that they can't visit our fine site at work, something about the word "sucks" in the URL. So enjoy. Don't eat too much cake.

- rob 5:47 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Good for you Dixie Chicks.

I made my bed and I sleep like a baby
With no regrets and I don’t mind sayin’
It’s a sad sad story when a mother will teach her
Daughter that she ought to hate a perfect stranger
And how in the world can the words that I said
Send somebody so over the edge
That they’d write me a letter
Sayin’ that I better shut up and sing
Or my life will be over
- Not Ready to Make Nice / Dixie Chicks

Dixie Chicks Address Death Threats

All of that is to say, country music listeners don’t seem to mind that the Dixie Chicks are speaking their minds about several topics including the war in Iraq and President Bush. They are not the first people you think of as war protesters or folk singers with a message. But The Dixie Chicks are back with their first album in four years, and they are mad as hell.

Back in 2003, the Chicks revealed that they’d installed metal detectors at their shows and were receiving hate mail and death threats.

Death Threats?

What could they have said that is soo outrageous that in a nation that prides itself on free speech so many could be driven so far?

In March 2003 lead singer Maines told an audience in London, "Just so you know, we're ashamed the president of the United States is from Texas."

This is the cult like following George had and still has for many. And now so many are saddened by what they see every day in Iraq.

That is why bullying is dangerous. The bullies tried to prevent an honest and open discussion about whether or not this war was necessary. Now the majority of Americans believe it was not necessary. Now thousands of Americans are dead. Now tens of thousands of Iraqis are dead. Now America is less secure. Now Iraq is close to falling into a civil war (if it already hasn't).

Dissent is patriotic. Listening to the dissenters would have been better for America. Those who burned Dixie Chick albums. Those who swore at any who would question Bush. Those who believed patriotism was undying devotion to Bush. Those Americans made America weaker and less safe.

- rob 6:33 PM - [PermaLink] -

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The Smoking Gun Rocks

Dick Cheney's Suite Demands - March 23, 2006

That's right, below you'll find a copy of Vice President Dick Cheney's standard "tour" rider. The document is provided to hotels where Cheney will be bunking and lists how the Republican pol's "Downtime Suite" needs to be outfitted. While the vice president's requests are pretty modest (no extract-the-brown-M&M demands here), Cheney does like his suite at a comfy 68 degrees. And, of course, all the televisions need to be preset to the Fox News Channel (what, you thought he was a Lifetime devotee?). Decaf coffee should be ready upon his arrival along with four cans of caffeine-free Diet Sprite.

I just like the Fox News bit - that's all.

- rob 6:24 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Bush Family news

We've posted before about Neil Bush's profession is having a company people invest in solely in hopes of getting closer to the "family." Now we learn that even a disaster like Katrina is just another front for getting Neil money.

Barbara Bush Funnels Money to Son's Company via Katrina Fund

Charity - with strings attached.

Former first lady Barbara Bush donated an undisclosed amount of money to the Bush-Clinton Katrina Fund, but directed it to go toward buying educational software from her son Neil's company, Ignite! Learning, the Houston Chronicle reports today. Ignite! computers "[have] been given to eight area schools that took in substantial numbers of Hurricane Katrina evacuees."

Ignite!, as you can see here (and you really should), is a computer-based history program that deemphasizes old fashioned book-learning....

We had fun mocking Ignite back in August, 03. It is always good to look back at old posts back when we spent some time writing them.

- rob 6:14 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Um... does this mean Texas is otherwise free of crime?

CNN.com - Texas busting drunks ... in bars - Mar 23, 2006

SAN ANTONIO, Texas (Reuters) -- Texas has begun sending undercover agents into bars to arrest drinkers for being drunk, a spokeswoman for the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission said Wednesday.

The first sting operation was conducted recently in a Dallas suburb where agents infiltrated 36 bars and arrested 30 people for public intoxication, said the commission's Carolyn Beck.

Being in a bar does not exempt one from the state laws against public drunkenness, Beck said.

Beck also noted that changing closthes in a changing room at a store does not exempt one from the state laws against public nudity.

- rob 1:58 PM - [PermaLink] -

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CNN.com - Report: Aruba has new Holloway lead - Mar 22, 2006

Now I wish the best for the Holloway family, and I am sorry for what they have gone through, but this story has officially gotten more attention then:

• The forged memos about Yellow Cake that Bush used as the bases for talking about nuclear weapons in Iraq in his State of the Union speech.
• The Anthrax investigation
• Voting irreqularties in multiple states
• The missing money that was to go to Iraqi reconstruction
• White House connections with Abramoff
• lots of other stories of national interest

combined.

- rob 11:57 AM - [PermaLink] -

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Rowan Williams? Wasn't he the producer of Laugh-in?
No wait... he's the guy who plays Bean in those British comedy bits.

Whoever he is - he rocks.

Archbishop: stop teaching creationism

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, has stepped into the controversy between religious fundamentalists and scientists by saying that he does not believe that creationism - the Bible-based account of the origins of the world - should be taught in schools.

Giving his first, wide-ranging, interview at Lambeth Palace, the archbishop was emphatic in his criticism of creationism being taught in the classroom, as is happening in two city academies founded by the evangelical Christian businessman Sir Peter Vardy and several other schools.

- rob 4:48 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Americans like people how stand up for what is right.

They really do.

Feingold connects at home
Rural listeners applaud senator's resolution

Belle Plaine - Wisconsin Democratic Sen. Russ Feingold wants to make one thing perfectly clear - he's for wiretapping terrorists.

He just wants it done legally.
...
But when Feingold made his case to censure the president, he received sustained applause from a crowd of nearly 100 people at the Belle Plaine Community Center in Shawano County.

"If you were on the phone with an al-Qaida person, I support your being wiretapped, all the time, for a long time," he told the audience. "We have laws already that allow the president to wiretap your line for 72 hours without a warrant. All he has to do is apply for that warrant. . . . The whole thing they're saying about how Senator Feingold doesn't want us to be able to wiretap. That's absolute nonsense. I support wiretapping every single person who is working with a terrorist. Just do it within the law. That's all we ask."

In an interview, Feingold said letters to his office were running 3 to 1 in favor of his censure position. He said "people are coming around," although only two Democratic senators have become co-sponsors of the resolution: Tom Harkin of Iowa and Barbara Boxer of California.

"We cannot allow the president of the United States to break the law," he said.

- rob 4:44 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Of course this is Berkeley where being a conservative would make you withdrawn and insecure.

How to spot a baby conservative

Remember the whiny, insecure kid in nursery school, the one who always thought everyone was out to get him, and was always running to the teacher with complaints? Chances are he grew up to be a conservative.

At least, he did if he was one of 95 kids from the Berkeley area that social scientists have been tracking for the last 20 years. The confident, resilient, self-reliant kids mostly grew up to be liberals.

The study from the Journal of Research Into Personality isn't going to make the UC Berkeley professor who published it any friends on the right. Similar conclusions a few years ago from another academic saw him excoriated on right-wing blogs, and even led to a Congressional investigation into his research funding.

Because whiny insecure kids always lash out when confronted.

A few decades later, Block followed up with more surveys, looking again at personality, and this time at politics, too. The whiny kids tended to grow up conservative, and turned into rigid young adults who hewed closely to traditional gender roles and were uncomfortable with ambiguity.

The confident kids turned out liberal and were still hanging loose, turning into bright, non-conforming adults with wide interests. The girls were still outgoing, but the young men tended to turn a little introspective.

- rob 4:24 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Yes this is a security issue

Airlines Losing Luggage At Alarming Rate

KDKA) PITTSBURGH A recent study shows that millions of pieces of luggage were lost by airlines last year.

For people who travel often by airplane, there's a good chance that their luggage will be lost or misplaced.
...
The U.S. Department of Transportation says all airlines are guilty, but that some are worse than others.

US Airways leads the group with nearly 10 cases of lost luggage per 1,000 passengers.

Don't tell me losing almost 1% of check bags isn't a security issue.

We can't keep tack of the bags put into the planes? This should be seen as a cute "slice of life" fluff piece, but as an example of how far we have to go to make our airports secure.

The post 9/11 world is just a stupid talking point. We have done nothing to make America safer - we've just bombed people (not helpful).

- rob 4:21 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Any of TCS readers from Maryland? (well besides the ones we know about)

State Senator Paula Hollinger is in charge of making sure SB713 gets to the floor in a form identical to HB244 (which passed unanimously). Word on the street (and you know we're really hooked into the Maryland political scene what with us living in another state and running a whiney blog a few minutes a day) is that she is waffling and thinks Diebold is okay.

Anyway HB244 is a good idea and has a requirement that 5% of the votes be manually counted on a randomly-selected basis.

Diebold is proposing to meet that by selling Maryland enough new machines so that in the 2006 elections 5% of the votes can be voter-verified. Not really the same thing. To quote a fine fellow:

Hey, it's really great. It's really going to deter election manipulation if you can only fudge a pre-determined 95% of the voting machines undetected! And won't you feel safe from electronic voting equipment malfunction if you know there is a one in twenty chance your vote wouldn't be lost?

It's called Diebold roulette. One in twenty of the revolvers on the table in front of you have been checked to verify that they are unloaded. Now blindfold yourself, grab a revolver, stick it in your ear, and pull the trigger. Diebold!

- rob 6:00 PM - [PermaLink] -

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GOP Struggles To Define Its Message for 2006 Elections

Let's see:

State's Rights! Um... Corporations are more important then states don't ya know.

Fiscal Responsibility! Wow - do they have guts to try that?

Security! Do you think someone might notice how they've voted down funding port security?

Support our troops! Only if you think saying you support the troops is more important then actually doing something to support the troops like insuring they have adequate armor while serving, and healthcare after they've served.

hmm... not much left. Hey folks you still freaked about guys kissing guys!

- rob 5:49 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Are you a popular Governor?

Are you wondering how to reverse your fortunes overnight?

Well thanks to Governor Mike Rounds of South Dakota you now have an answer: Listen to the religious right.

SurveyUSA - SD Gov

2/12/06 - 72% Approve of Governor / 23% don't
3/13/06 - 58% approve of Governor / 38% don't

Wow - what happened? Oh yeah...

South Dakota's abortion ban ignores reality

Gov. Mike Rounds signed a bill passed by the equally backward-looking South Dakota state Legislature that bans all abortions except when the life of the woman is in danger. It does not provide exceptions for rape, incest or the health of a pregnant woman, which happens to be the Supreme Court-approved law of the land.

I'm of the opinion that GOP officials are now dreading the idea of abortion going before their Supreme Court. If the Court still makes abortion legal then the religious right is going to get so angry that there could be a strong backlash against the party. But if the Court does say it is okay for states to make abortion illegal the party has lost their national issue.

Many have voted Republican solely due to their stance on abortion. They may have many issues with the party, but abortion trumped all their concerns. If abortion can again be illegal the national interest for these folks in the GOP instantly evaporates.

What do Republicans have to fall back on? Fiscal Responsibility (proven myth)? Making the nation secure (being proven to be a myth)?

ah... yes... gay marriage.

- rob 1:20 PM - [PermaLink] -

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What is Bush such a sick man?
He sets me up just to knock me over.
Over and over again.

Bush Using Straw-Man Arguments in Speeches

WASHINGTON - "Some look at the challenges in Iraq and conclude that the war is lost and not worth another dime or another day," President Bush said recently.

Another time he said, "Some say that if you're Muslim you can't be free."
...
Of course, hardly anyone in mainstream political debate has made such assertions.

When the president starts a sentence with "some say" or offers up what "some in Washington" believe, as he is doing more often these days, a rhetorical retort almost assuredly follows.
...
He typically then says he "strongly disagrees" — conveniently knocking down a straw man of his own making.
...
"It's such a phenomenal hole in the national debate that you can have arguments with nonexistent people," Fields said. "All politicians try to get away with this to a certain extent. What's striking here is how much this administration rests on a foundation of this kind of stuff."
...
"Some people believe the answer to this problem is to wall off our economy from the world," he said this month in India, talking about the migration of U.S. jobs overseas. "I strongly disagree."

No one talks about such a wall. The only wall folks are talking about is the one between Bush and reality.

They've got a wall in China
It's a thousand miles long
To keep out the foreigners
They made it strong
And I've got a wall around me
That you can't even see
- Paul Simon (Something So Right - Annie Lennox's version is excellent)

- rob 11:47 AM - [PermaLink] -

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One statement answers two questions:

1) Why is Keith Olbermann MSNBC's top rated anchor?
2) Why do GE big wigs hate him so?

Olbermann: "Who does the President think he's F'n kidding?"

Read the transcript or watch the video at: Crooks and Liars: Bush makes false claim about Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda

- rob 10:14 AM - [PermaLink] -

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I have proof for Special Agent Mulder that aliens exist!
Too bad I can't email him.

FBI, you've got mail -- NOT! -
FBI official says budget doesn't cover accounts for all agents

NEW YORK (AP) -- Budget constraints are forcing some FBI agents to operate without e-mail accounts, according to the agency's top official in New York.

"As ridiculous as this might sound, we have real money issues right now, and the government is reluctant to give all agents and analysts dot-gov accounts," Mark Mershon said when asked about the gap at a New York Daily News editorial board meeting.

"We just don't have the money, and that is an endless stream of complaints that come from the field," he said.

FBI officials in Washington denied that cost-cutting was putting agents at a disadvantage.

Of course not, why some FBI agents to their best work when they have to hitchhike to the crime scene because the FBI can't afford the gas.

If they don't think cost-cutting puts the FBI at a disadvantage why not trim the amount of money we give Halliburton - I'm sure they won't mind either.

Seriously though - Bush's excuse for the insane budget bloat has always been that he had to spend the money to keep America safer. Well we know he's not spending it on port security, we know he isn't giving it to states so they can have more moeney available to first responders, and now we know he isn't giving it to the FBI.

Where the hell is the money going? (yes, besides Iraq).

Thanks to a Phunkster for the link.

- rob 9:50 AM - [PermaLink] -

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"To announce that there must be no criticism of the president, or that we are to stand by the president, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American people."
- Teddy Roosevelt



"Government has a final responsibility for the well-being of its citizenship. If private cooperative endeavor fails to provide work for willing hands and relief for the unfortunate, those suffering hardship from no fault of their own have a right to call upon the Government for aid; and a government worthy of its name must make fitting response."
 - Franklin Delano Roosevelt



"I am not an advocate for frequent changes in laws and Constitutions, but laws must and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind. As that becomes more developed, more enlightened, as new discoveries are made, new truths discovered and manners and opinions change, with the change of circumstances, institutions must advance also to keep pace with the times. We might as well require a man to wear still the coat which fitted him when a boy as civilized society to remain ever under the regimen of their barbarous ancestors."
- Thomas Jefferson



"The means of defense against foreign danger historically have become the instruments of tyranny at home."

"All men having power ought to be distrusted to a certain degree."
- James Madison



"I believe in human dignity as the source of national purpose, in human liberty as the source of national action, in the human heart as the source of national compassion, and in the human mind as the source of our invention and our ideas. It is, I believe, the faith in our fellow citizens as individuals and as people that lies at the heart of the liberal faith. For liberalism is not so much a party creed or set of fixed platform promises as it is an attitude of mind and heart, a faith in man's ability through the experiences of his reason and judgment to increase for himself and his fellow men the amount of justice and freedom and brotherhood which all human life deserves."
- John F. Kennedy



"Should any political party attempt to abolish social security, unemployment insurance, and eliminate labor laws and farm programs, you would not hear of that party again in our political history. There is a tiny splinter group, of course, that believes you can do these things. Among them are [a] few other Texas oil millionaires, and an occasional politician or business man from other areas. Their number is negligible and they are stupid."
- Dwight D. Eisenhower

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"There's nothing wrong with America that can't be fixed by what's right with America." - Bill Clinton.