Susie at Suburban Guerilla: Iraqi moms are prostituting themselves to feed their children. But hey, at least they don’t have to live under Saddam Hussein! Meanwhile, the “number of coalition military deaths in the war in Iraq has reached 4,000,” with the majority of the fatalities — 3,702 — suffered by U.S. soldiers. Forty-four U.S. troops have died this month.
Somebody’s Lying
Alberto Gonzales (under oath), July 24: "When we got there, I would just say that Mr. Ashcroft did most of the talking. We were there maybe five minutes, five or six minutes. Mr. Ashcroft talked about the legal issues in a lucid form." Today’s Post: Then-Attorney General John D. Ashcroft was "feeble," "barely articulate" and "stressed" moments after a hospital … Read More
Congrats To All Who Urge Strict Border Control
Michelle Malkin, Rush Limbaugh and others — your message is getting through: The video, filmed with night-vision equipment and low in quality, is not always easy to understand. Here is a detailed description: The footage starts by showing a single figure wearing a backpack sneaking along a rugged desert trail. A male voice, off-camera, says: “I got him. He’s low … Read More
I Can’t Follow This Utah Mine Story Anymore
It’s too depressing. I would be nice, at some point, to focus on mine safety and the people who appoint to oversee that: It turns out that the guy in charge of mine safety for the federal government, Assistant Secretary of Labor Richard Stickler, couldn’t even get approved by the Senate back when it was under Republican control because his … Read More
“The Little Guy” Myth
WaPo: Rove argues that Republicans win as activist reformers, in the tradition of Lincoln, McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt. "We were founded as a reformist party," he said in our conversation this week, "not to be against something, but to help the little guy get ahead." The models he cites are 401(k)s and the mortgage interest deduction — government policies that … Read More
Your Local GOP
Sigh. Another day, another scandal: A Franklin County commissioner was arrested late Wednesday on charges of drug possession and assault after a 911 call was placed from a boat in the Pamlico Sound. Harry Foy is charged with one count of assault on a female, possessing less than half an once of marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia, said Dare … Read More
File Under “Chutzpah”
Wow: A small South Carolina parts supplier collected about $20.5 million over six years from the Pentagon for fraudulent shipping costs, including $998,798 for sending two 19-cent washers to an Army base in Texas, U.S. officials said. The company also billed and was paid $455,009 to ship three machine screws costing $1.31 each to Marines in Habbaniyah, Iraq, and $293,451 … Read More
Padilla Verdict Announced Soon
Background: The Bush administration accused Padilla after his 2002 arrest of plotting to set off a radioactive bomb. Bush ordered him imprisoned by the military as an "enemy combatant." He languished in jail for years, without so much as a trial (or even an indictment). Amid court challenges to the president’s authority to do that, Padilla was indicted in a … Read More
A Failing Health Care System
To all the nay-sayers who think health care in this country is just hunky-dory: KANSAS CITY, Missouri (AP) — A man threw his seriously ill wife four stories to her death because he could no longer afford to pay for her medical care, prosecutors said in charging him with second-degree murder. According to court documents filed Wednesday in Jackson County … Read More
Stewart on Cheney
This is a treat. Even though it’s a comedy show, Stewart asks hard questions that nobody else seems to ask…. At the end, he refers to John Gibson, the Fox News wanker who played an audio of Jon Stewart on 9/20/01, the day The Daily Show returned on the air following the 9/11 attacks. Stewart was clearly shaken (as we … Read More
Watch For Jumping Stockbrokers
I don’t follow the markets much, but I hear bad things… DOW NASDAQ S&P 500 2:00 p.m.: Rebound? 3:00 p.m.: Guess not. 3:30 p.m.: Aw, screw it. This is why I don’t follow the stock market.
Supersecret Surveillance
So secret, a court cannot even review it. The Ninth Circuit is looking at a case revolving around supersecret surveillance done with out court oversight of any constitutional safeguards. The Washington Post covers it, and I particularly lliked this part: The bottom line here is the government declares something is a state secret, that’s the end of it. No cases. … Read More
Only Mentally Impaired Women Have Abortions
Bet you didn’t know that. There’s an infamous video out there — I’ve probably linked to it before — in which anti-choice activists are interviewed. ALL of them say that abortion should be made a crime. But when asked "If abortions become a crime, then what should the punishment be for women who have abortions (i.e., commit that "crime")? Almost … Read More
62 Years Ago Today….
….this historic photograph was taken: This is easily the most famous photograph by Alfred Eisenstaedt. It shows an American sailor kissing a young woman during V–J Day impromptu celebrations in Times Square in 1945. Because the faces of the kisser and kissee are partially obscured, many have laid claim to be either the man or the woman in this photo. … Read More