Category: news

Reality rears its ugly heard, and a long overdue modicum of responsibility is introduced at the White House:

In a White House known for both defiance and optimism, yesterday’s senior staff changes represent a frank acknowledgment of the trouble in which President Bush now finds himself. They are also a signal of how starkly Bush’s second-term ambitions have shifted after a year of persistent problems at home and abroad.

Longtime Bush confidant Karl Rove — who had hoped to use his position of deputy chief of staff to usher in an expansive conservative agenda — was relieved of his policy portfolio to concentrate on long-term strategy and planning for a November midterm election that looks increasingly bleak for Republicans.
Washington Post: White House Shifts Into Survival Mode

George and Laura Bush made $735,000 last year and owed $187,000 in taxes. Somehow the Cheney’s made 10 times more ($8.92 million), but were owed a refund of almost $2 million!

Continue reading “Funny math” →

Watch ’em fall like dominoes….

Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Tex.), a primary architect of the House Republican majority who became one of the most powerful and feared leaders in Washington, told House allies tonight that he will resign from the House rather than face a reelection fight that appears increasingly unwinnable.

The decision came just three days after his former deputy chief of staff, Tony C. Rudy, pleaded guilty to conspiracy and corruption charges, telling federal prosecutors of a criminal enterprise being run out of DeLay’s leadership offices.
– Rep. DeLay Won’t Seek Reelection

I. R. A. Q.

Yer doin’ a great job, Bushie!

The Iraqi government announced a one-day ban on private vehicles in Baghdad and its outskirts aimed at averting violence on Friday, when Muslims attend the most important prayer service of the week.
– Iraq Bans Cars After Another Bloody Day – Yahoo! News

This round-up will start with the worst news and work toward the good stuff, because I don’t want anyone slitting their wrists on account of me.

• In the Truly Awful department, the Supreme Court struck down the use of RICO laws to prevent agressive protesting at abortion clinics. In the 90’s I volunteered with NARAL and escorted patients at a clinic in Durham. It was the first time, but not the last, I had encountered this kind of thing in person. Now that I have visited Planned Parenthood clinics around the country, I can tell you the protests were fairly typical. They consisted of huge (10 times bigger than life) posters of bloody fetuses, men and women standing along the driveway of the clinic with “abortion = murder” and similar signs, and yelling at patients in a not-always-Christian fashion.

  I’m just so sad and disgusted to hear this news, and it’s only the begining of more and more rights that will be going away for the next few deacdes.

Continue reading “From truly awful to slightly encouraging” →

I was quite shocked to learn that El Presidente attended and spoke at Coretta Scott King’s funeral, until I heard that other speakers hassled him to his face. (For which I’m sure someone is getting fired right now.)

Former SCLC leader Joseph Lowery wrote a poem to eulogize Mrs. King:
“She extended Martin’s message against poverty, racism and war
She deplored the terror inflicted by our smart bombs on missions way afar
We know now there were no weapons of mass destruction over there
But Coretta knew and we knew that there are weapons of misdirection right down here
Millions without health insurance. Poverty abounds. For war billions more but no more for the poor.”

Continue reading “Carter family alive and kicking” →

Soldier in Iraq pose for gay porn site
Fort Bragg officials are moving forward with their investigation into claims that several soldiers may have posed for a gay porn Web site believed to be based out of Fayetteville….

“It’s very enticing, very enticing,” said the man. “(It’s) almost a form of entrapment by these porn sites.”

Now that’s not at all like military recruitment of men and women with few other options, now is it?

So I am a bit of a news junkie, and sometime I think people would interested in a roundup of the notable stuff I find so they don’t have to do the research themself. Is this interesting? Or am I just re-hashing stale content? I probably won’t post the obvious stuff that is already in the headlines. Please tell me if you’d like me to do this on a regular basis:

• There’s a new alaskan oil spill. 🙁
  An oil tanker carrying nearly 5 million gallons of oil and gasoline was struck by an ice floe and ran aground while loading oil products at an Alaska refinery on Thursday, causing a spill, a state official and the refining company said.

  “At this time we do not have an estimate as to the amount of product released,” refinery owner Tesoro Corp. said in a statement.

  I love that the story ends with this important information:
  Shares of Tesoro, based in San Antonio, Texas, fell $3.70 to $66.31 and Seacor Holdings’ stock fell $2.25 to $71.19 in afternoon New York Stock Exchange trade.

• Pat Robertson admits he “ad libs.”
  “I’ve been doing TV for years and years,” Robertson said. “And the problem is, I ad lib.”

  Interviewed on ABC’s “Good Morning America” on the morning of the annual National Prayer Breakfast, Robertson was asked about statements suggesting that the United States assassinate President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela and intimating that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s stroke was God’s punishment for giving up the Gaza strip.

• Also at the national prayer breakfast: Bono prentending not to realize he’s shaking the president’s hand.
• And speaking of Mr. Preznit, he wants more money. Shock.
  The White House said on Thursday it would ask the Congress for about $70 billion in new emergency funds for the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, and seek another $50 billion for those wars early in fiscal 2007.

  The Bush administration also said it would seek a further $18 billion for the hurricane-battered Gulf Coast and $2.3 billion to prepare for a possible avian flu epidemic.

  The new war funds would come on top of the $320 billion the White House budget office said has been allocated for the wars so far, pushing costs since the start of the wars through early next year to about $440 billion.

• And finally, the CIA says that telling people what they do makes it hadrer for them to do it. I think that’s the idea, guys!