Consistency is the last refuge of the unimaginative. - Oscar Wilde
Pax leads us into temptation - to create our own church signs. Check out this post that starts a sequence of very clever signs. And what would yours say?
Of course the people don't want war. But after all, it's the leaders of the country who determine the policy, and it's always a simple matter to drag the people along whether it's a democracy, a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism, and exposing the country to greater danger.
The Powerball prize is up to $215 million for annuity or $122 million for cash (I'll take the cash when I win). A card reader here in NOLA told me I was going to need to open a bank account in the Caymans, so I'm feeling pretty good. Now going to burn a voodoo candle with the word "money" on it.
The Tattered Coat has an article titled Lies, and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them, in which Matt outlines White House Press Secretary Scott McLellan's bald-faced lies about Koran desecration at Gitmo, Newsweek magazine, and deaths in Afghanistan.
Dan at Blinq has a cool piece about Roadcasting. Can RoadRageCasting be far behind? I have a few choices words for my first RRC when I'm sitting on the Schuylkill.
Attytood outlines some words by Nobel Laureates speaking on behalf of Amnesty International:
When the most powerful country in the world thumbs its nose at the rule of law and human rights, it grants a license to others to commit abuse with impunity, she said.
Sensible Senators saved the U.S. Senate from the shameful, self-serving situational ethicists. A group of very skilled Senators hammered out a compromise that allows a yes-no vote on President Bush's judicial nominees without dropping the filibuster "nuclear bomb." (Hey, great name for a bomb, don't you think? The Filibuster.)
The NYT outlines what's going wrong in Iraq. And it's not left-wing media bias. It's right out of the mouths of U.S. generals on the ground in Iraq. Sometimes you just have to say, "Bullshit, that's a pig!"
Good advice from Will Bunch at Attytood to Man-on-Dog Senator Rick Santorum: "He should just know that it's better never to utter the word "Hitler".. because nothing good comes of it."
Wow, George Bush and his friends at The White House have no shame. I saw this post on Etherealgirl and just shook my head in wonder at how George Bush and Donald Rumsfeld can be such hypocrites.
Call me skeptical. First there was the story of George Bush's life being in danger when a "small bomb" was thrown into the crowd during a speech in the former Soviet republic of Georgia. Then we heard that the "grenade" was a dummy, a test grenade or training device. Then just about the time that George Bush & Co. get embarrassed about Georgie being out riding his bike while the White House and Capitol were evacuated because of a false threat, we now hear that the grenade in Georgia was real. AND THE PRESIDENT'S LIFE WAS IN DANGER!!!!!!!!!!!! Right.
...and the White House is saying the mistake is worse than the underlying act. In the never-ending lack of irony, Scott McLellan is on CNN this morning criticizing Newsweek magazine while acting like there was no Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse or no torture at Guantanamo Bay. Hmmm.
I'm changing systems and have the tradtional transition issues. Should be up to the normal 3-4 posts a day by the end of the week.
I saw this on Oliver Willis's site and couldn't help but nick it. I'm still laughing about Bill Frist going shopping and running into these guys. Read what O-Dub wrote...Frist got a ticket for parking illegally, too.
Chris at Rowhouse Logic has a writeup of the Seth Williams gathering last night in Center City. Matt has the pix and a summary too on The Tattered Coat. Found via Karl's post on Philly Future.
Attytood had a piece a couple of days ago titled Bush: It's All About the Bike, in which Will takes our president to task for being out on a bike ride in the middle of the afternoon while the nation's capital was under a Code Red threat. It's a great read. But that story just kept bugging me.
Test your political typology here. I tested as a Liberal (go figure):
Liberal
Based on your answers to the questionnaire, you most closely resemble survey respondents within the Liberal typology group. This does not mean that you necessarily fit every group characteristic or agree with the group on all issues.
Liberals represent 17 percent of the American public, and 19 percent of registered voters.
Here's a stirring piece on The All Spin Zone about African genocide, the U.S. government's refusal to acknowledge it, and the U.S. media's complicity in ignoring. Richard Cranium's title tells it all.
This story stinks to high heavens. In fact, when I walked my dog this morning she took a Karl Rove a couple of times. And this story about George Bush dodging a grenade in Georgia smells like Karl Rove.
Matt hits a home run (something that's sorely lacking with the Philles right now) with his piece titled Another Conservative Insult Bites the Dust. Well done piece about George Bush sitting as a Russian prop. Read all the way to the end, friends. The payoff is well worth it.
From Mayor John F Street's press release:
For Immediate Release: May 9, 2005I'm all in favor of governmental reform, and if this is the start of it, I say, huzzah!
Statement from Mayor John F. Street
After reviewing all the evidence, a jury found a former member of my Administration and four private citizens guilty of violating a variety of Federal laws. We respect that verdict. It is of little comfort that not all of the defendants were convicted on all counts.
These convictions should send a strong message that people who violate the public trust will be prosecuted, tried and convicted. That is the way it should be. As Mayor, I am deeply saddened to know that a former member of my administration was found guilty of violating the public's trust.
As I have said from the first moments this investigation was discovered, my administration has always had a zero tolerance for corruption and, as promised, we have fully cooperated with the federal prosecutors throughout this process. We have turned over hundreds of thousands of pages of materials to the United States Attorney's office and spent thousands of hours working with them to ensure full examination and deliberation about the allegations.
Today's verdicts highlight the need for Council to pass the comprehensive ethics proposals I have submitted, which include restrictions on outside income and eliminates nepotism as well as increase financial disclosure.
The proposal creates an independent ethics board which will drastically change the way government business is done in our city.
It is important for all Philadelphians to have confidence that their government is doing the right thing for its citizens.
George Bush went to Moscow. Continued to show the world that Condi's hus...., boss, is a tone deaf fool who exemplifies The Ugly American. The Boston Globe commented:
History has weighed heavily on President Bush's trip to Latvia and Russia to commemorate the Allied victory over German fascism.I'm not crazy about being so harsh, but it just astonishes me that the president of U.S., with all the resources he has about cross-cultural sensitivity and historical perspective, can continue to step in it like some crass cowboy from Crawford, Texas.
What should be clear after Bush angered Russians by speaking of the Soviet 'occupation" of the Baltic states -- rather than the ''liberation" Russia's President Vladimir Putin has evoked -- is that one's reading of history can have a great bearing on the present and the future. And though Bush said some things in the Latvian capital of Riga and in Moscow that needed to be said, he was speaking as a leader who has demonstrated an unfortunate insensitivity to the lessons his predecessors learned from the inferno of World War II.
These dumbasses. George Bush and Company were touting the capture of the Number 3 Al Qaeda operative named Abu Faraj al-Libbi. Small problem: al-Libbi is a third-rate hood; the real bad guy is named Anas al-Liby. Perhaps Team Bush should go back to school. Leave No President Behind.
It's been one year since Nick Berg was beheaded in Baghdad. And there are still more questions than answers. On this Mother's Day, I wonder what George Bush has to say to Mrs. Berg about why her son was killed and why we're allowing other mothers' sons and daughters - American and Iraqi - to be killed.
I looked up the origin of Mother's Day in the U.S. The first mention in the U.S. was in 1872 and was first celebrated in 1877. Anyway, happy Mother's Day to the moms out there.
Christ, read this piece about Bumbling George Bush and how he behaved like an ugly American in Latvia today. Shameful.
Howard at The Smedley Log, has a piece about national ID cards. That's just creepy. The Republicans act like they want to keep the government out of citizens' lives, yet at every turn they demonstrate the opposite.
Has anyone noticed that the only people the U.S. think are guilty at Abu Ghraib are women? The Army demoted Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski, whose unit was in charge of the prison. Lynndie England was the most celebrated face of abuse (but in a crazy twist, the judge now has rejected her guilty plea saying England didn't know what she did was wrong).
C'mon, I could just listen to Dick is a Killer again and again. That would be Dick Cheney.
Over at Fables of the Reconstruction, Mithras juxtaposes these two photos. The effect is chilling. The U.S. government can put little black bars over the faces of military personnel, but they can't wag the dog.
Okay, it's not quite that dire, but I must admit it's a little startling to read this in my hometown paper, The Philadelphia Inquirer, this morning:
The U.S. military might not be able to win any new wars as quickly as planned because the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan have strained its troop numbers and resources, the nation's top military officer told Congress in a classified report.Donald Rumsfeld and George Bush won't give dates for a pullout from Iraq because they say it lays out their strategy, yet they just coughed up that the U.S. is unprepared for another war because our resources are strained. Do you think that Kim Jung Il can read newspapers? This is the mess "The War President" got us in.
Will has a very clever way of getting attention in big media. On an Attytood piece, he says the way to do it is to start each story with "The runaway...." Have a look. I'm still laughing. And thinking of retitling this site The Runaway Blog.
Matt has a piece on The Tattered Coat called Out of the Psych Ward, Into the Combat Zone in which he says, "So this is how Bush fights terrorism: by placing guns in the hands of mental patients and convicts." Interesting read, indeed. And it made me think that of George Bush wants to do that kind of war staffing perhaps he could start with his brother Neil, who fits both of Matt's criteria.
I scored a -9% on the Are You a Republican quiz. Mine said "You're a damn Commie! Where's Tailgunner Joe when we need him?"
A Florida court ruled that a 13-year-old is too "immature" to have an abortion. As if maturity is a court definition. Hell, if maturity was a requirement for making decisions, the court should have ruled that Britney Spears should be prevented from breeding.
Over 15 car bombs have exploded in Baghdad, Iraq since last Thursday, when the "democratically-elected" government was installed. Another eight people were killed today by a car bomb. Little hard to swallow the platitudes President Bush gave about Iraqi freedom last week during his press conference.
Check out this surreal picture of flag-draped coffins on Fables of the Reconstruction. I initially thought it was a Star Wars picture.
Rad rants about the Social Security shell game in a piece titled The Fix Is In? Interesting perspective on George Bush proposing a Treasury Bond option for Social Security privatization when just a few months ago the president called those bonds "just paper."
