An "escape route" from global warming?

Here's one from the fact-is-stranger-than-fiction department. Paul Crutzen, a Nobel Prize-winning scientist, thinks we can save the world from global warming by releasing particles of sulphur into the upper atmosphere. He says the sulphur would reflect sunlight and heat back into space, resulting in a cooler planet.

Crutzen suggests dispersing the sulphur via a fleet of high-altitude balloons or by firing it into the upper atmosphere inside heavy artillery shells. Hmmm...how would the sulphur get out of the shells, and where would the empty shells land?

Obviously, this idea has a few kinks to work out...including cost, which is estimated at $25 to $50 billion to launch enough sulphur to last about two years. But as Crutzen points out, the high cost should be measured against the even higher cost of environmental disasters caused by global warming.

Of course, as with any drug, this idea does have potential side effects: an increase in the destruction of the ozone layer and whitening of the sky. However, Crutzen said, the sulphur particles would also create more spectacular sunsets and sunrises.

A bigger ozone hole and a weird-colored sky in trade for a cooler planet and cooler sunsets? Oh well, like we humans do with everything else, we'll cross that collapsed bridge when we come to it.

Other "geo-engineering" ideas to combat global warming, proposed by other scientists:

Reflect light and heat back into space by building giant unfolding mirrors in space, laying reflecting film in the deserts, or floating white plastic islands in the ocean to mimic the reflective effect of sea ice.

Swallow up CO2 by dumping iron into the ocean. Marine plankton absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, which the microbes need for photosynthesis. The growth of plankton is limited by the relatively small amounts of iron in the sea. Scientists have conducted experiments on boosting plankton by throwing iron filings into the sea. But why settle for mere filings - why not dump all the planet's broken-down cars, trucks, trains, ships, and unused exercise equipment into the ocean?

http://news.independent.co.uk/environment/article1205975.ece

Howard Dean was right

Everything Howard Dean warned us about has come true. Check out this excerpt from a speech he gave at Drake University on February 17, 2003 - just over a month before we invaded Iraq. Read it and weep.

"To this day, the President has not made a case that war against Iraq, now, is necessary to defend American territory, our citizens, our allies, or our essential interests.

"The Administration has not explained how a lasting peace, and lasting security, will be achieved in Iraq once Saddam Hussein is toppled.

"I, for one, am not ready to abandon the search for better answers.

"As a doctor, I was trained to treat illness, and to examine a variety of options before deciding which to prescribe. I worried about side effects and took the time to see what else might work before proceeding to high-risk measures. . . .

"We have been told over and over again what the risks will be if we do not go to war.

"We have been told little about what the risks will be if we do go to war.

"If we go to war, I certainly hope the Administration's assumptions are realized, and the conflict is swift, successful and clean. I certainly hope our armed forces will be welcomed like heroes and liberators in the streets of Baghdad. I certainly hope Iraq emerges from the war stable, united and democratic. I certainly hope terrorists around the world conclude it is a mistake to defy America and cease, thereafter, to be terrorists.

"It is possible, however, that events could go differently, and that the Iraqi Republican Guard will not sit out in the desert where they can be destroyed easily from the air.

"It is possible that Iraq will try to force our troops to fight house to house in the middle of cities - on its turf, not ours - where precision-guided missiles are of little use...

"There are other risks. Iraq is a divided country, with Sunni, Shia and Kurdish factions that share both bitter rivalries and access to large quantities of arms.

"Iran and Turkey each have interests in Iraq they will be tempted to protect with or without our approval...

"Some people simply brush aside these concerns, saying there were also a lot of dire predictions before the first Gulf War, and that those didn't come true.

"We have learned through experience to have confidence in our armed forces - and that confidence is very well deserved.

"But if you talk to military leaders, they will tell you there is a big difference between pushing back the Iraqi armed forces in Kuwait and trying to defeat them on their home ground.

"There are limits to what even our military can do. Technology is not the solution to every problem."

http://glenngreenwald.blogspot.com/2006/07/why-is-being-right-or-wrong-on-iraq-so.html

Boys will be boys - even when they're grown men

Mississippi Rep. Gene Taylor accused "heckuva job" Brownie of failing to recognize the death and suffering going on after Hurricane Katrina.

In return, Brownie called Taylor a "little twerp" and said "he can just bite me."

In return, Taylor called Brownie "an incompetent fool" and said he would like to have done more than just "verbally kick his butt."

Later, during recess, Brownie was caught spitting at Taylor and pulling his hair, after Taylor tried to steal Brownie's kickball. Both boys will be serving noontime detention, along with classmate Dick "Go f--- yourself" Cheney.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/07/27/brown.interview.ap/index.html

Polar scientist: Stop using my research to dispute global warming

Peter Doran, a professor of earth and environmental sciences at the University of Illinois at Chicago, says a paper he published in 2002 has been misinterpreted, misquoted, and misused by right-wing media, politicians, and even fiction authors Michael Crichton and Ann Coulter.

Doran's research did find that 58 percent of Antarctica had cooled between 1966 to 2000, but that the rest of the continent was warming. Also, Doran says, "climate models created since our paper was published have suggested a link between the lack of significant warming in Antarctica and the ozone hole over that continent."

Nevertheless, newspaper and television reports focused on the "58 percent cooling" part of the study and concluded that the earth was not warming at all. The study was also misused as "evidence" against global warming in Crichton's novel "State of Fear" and Coulter's "Godless: The Church of Liberalism." If you search Doran's name on the Web, you'll find pages of links to everything from climate discussion groups to Senate policy committee documents - all citing his 2002 study as reason to doubt that the earth is warming. One recent Web column even put words in his mouth: "...the unexpected colder climate in Antarctica may possibly be signaling a lessening of the current global warming cycle." Doran never said - or thought - that either, he says.

Also missing from the skeptics' arguments is the debate over Doran's conclusions. Other researchers have found no clear cooling trend in Antarctica. Unbiased reporting would acknowledge these differences of opinion.

"The disappointing thing" Doran says, "is that we are even debating the direction of climate change on this globally important continent. And it may not end until we have more weather stations on Antarctica and longer-term data that demonstrate a clear trend. In the meantime, I would like to remove my name from the list of scientists who dispute global warming."

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/27/opinion/27doran.html

GOP candidate: Republican "R" is a "scarlet letter"

Republican Senatorial candidate Michael Steele (currently lieutenant governor of Maryland) called his party affiliation "an impediment...a hurdle I have to overcome...a scarlet letter" and said he'd "probably not" want Bush to campaign for him. He also said the GOP-controlled Congress should "just shut up and get something done."

We like this guy. If we were residents of Maryland, we might be tempted to vote for him. Except for that scarlet letter.

Steele also said the Iraq war "didn't work" and "we didn't prepare for the peace," that the response to Hurricane Katrina was "a monumental failure of government," and that "there's a palpable frustration right now in the country."

Is this guy sure he's a Republican?

Of Republicans who control Congress, Steele said: "We've lost our way, we've gone to the well and we drank the water, and we shouldn't have."

Whoa. Is this guy sure he wants to get elected?

Steele is the second Republican in a week to suggest that GOP candidates distance themselves from Bush as the party tries to hold onto the House and Senate. Last week, Republican Sen. John Thune of South Dakota told reporters: "If I were running in the state this year, you obviously don't embrace the president and his agenda."

No, it doesn't seem especially canny to embrace a president whose agenda is to make everything FUBAR. We're heartened to see some Republicans starting to recognize that.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/07/26/republicans.bush.ap/index.html

UPDATE: Today Michael Steele said Bush is his "homeboy" and claimed to have been joking when he described his Republican affiliation as a scarlet letter. He also said, "If the president wanted to come and help me in Maryland, he is more than welcome, because I'm not going to turn my back on a friend. I'm not gonna do that."

Funny how fast shit changes direction when it hits the fan.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060726/ap_on_el_se/republicans_
bush;_ylt=Apma.dmo5izGUwfcwIzIarSs0NUE;
_ylu=X3oDMTA3OXIzMDMzBHNlYwM3MDM

Want a hybrid? Better buy it before September 30!

You may have heard about the federal tax credit that gives you up to $3,400 off your taxes if you buy a hybrid, but have you heard about the tax credit's "trigger point"? After a particular car maker has sold 60,000 hybrids, the amount of the tax credit for all of its hybrids starts getting phased out.

Typical, right? The Bush administration wants us to conserve oil, but not too much oil - especially at the expense of the American automobile and oil corporations (the "auto-oil complex").

Since Toyota has hit the 60,000 trigger point for hybrid car sales, the tax credit for its Prius and Lexus hybrids will start phasing down after September 30, 2006. As of October 1, the credit will be reduced to 50% of the original credit until March 31, 2007, then to 25% until September 30, 2007, and then down to zero on October 1, 2007.

The government is talking about extending or modifying this phaseout period, but nothing is official yet. So if you want a Toyota hybrid but can't afford one until after September 30, give your Congressperson a call and tell him/her you want that phaseout period extended - or better yet, eliminated altogether.

http://hybridcars.about.com/od/news/a/Toyotataxcredit.htm

(Thanks to Exigent for the scoop.)

American Bar Association: Bush is violating the Constitution

Yeah, they're a little slow in catching up to the rest of us, but better late than never. An American Bar Association task force says President Bush is violating the Constitution when he writes exceptions to laws he has just signed.

The ABA group, which includes former FBI director William Sessions and former federal appeals court judge Patricia Wald, says the president has overstepped his authority by attaching challenges to hundreds of new laws. The attachments, known as bill-signing statements, say Bush reserves a right to revise, interpret, or disregard measures on national security and constitutional grounds.

"This report raises serious concerns crucial to the survival of our democracy," said the ABA's president, Michael Greco. "If left unchecked, the president's practice does grave harm to the separation of powers doctrine, and the system of checks and balances that have sustained our democracy for more than two centuries."

Serious concerns. Grave harm. Sounds like business as usual for Bush!

http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/07/24/lawyers.bush.ap/index.html

Jon Stewart explains Israel's "strategy"

Priceless. http://www.salon.com/ent/video_dog/latenight/2006/07/20/
mideast_crisis/index.html

This ought to be good

Remember just after hurricane Katrina last year, when one poll indicated that Bush's approval rating among blacks was around 2 percent? Today Bush is going to address the NAACP, after declining to do so for five years in a row.

Why, all of a sudden, is Bush willing to address a group that despises him - and that he apparently despises? Could it be because the Senate is about to renew the Voting Rights Act, which affects blacks primarily? Could it also be because this is a midterm election year, and Republicans are afraid of losing Congress to the black-friendly Democrats?

The official word from the White House, of course, is that Bush wants to address the NAACP to show his commitment to civil rights. You know, just like he's committed to world peace, democracy, the environment, the economy, the Constitution, education, and catching Osama bin Laden.

In an embarrassingly revealing slip of the brain, White House press secretary Tony Snow said, "It is clear that in this nation, racism and discrimination are legally unacceptable..."

Legally unacceptable? What about morally and ethically? If the law is the only barrier between civil rights and racism, it's a flimsy barrier indeed, because Bush has about as much respect for the law as he does for civil rights.

Continuing his audition for an appearance on Saturday Night Live, Snow said, "I think the president wants to make his voice heard. He has an important role to play not only in making the case for civil rights but, maybe more importantly, the case for unity."

http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/07/20/bush.naacp.ap/index.html

The Decider vetoes his first bill

Bush has followed through on his threat and vetoed the bipartisan stem cell funding bill proffered by a two-thirds majority of Congress. Interesting that the bill was both the first useful thing Congress has produced in years AND the first bill Bush has ever vetoed...

August Pollak had this to say about it:

"If you think about it for a moment, there's something much more symbolic about Bush's intent to veto the stem cell bill than just a platitude to the far right.

"Let's look at this objectively: The President has never vetoed a single bill. This is mostly because for the bulk of his presidency he has had a fully cooperative Congress. Despite this, the talking point for the last three election cycles has been "obstructionist Democrats" and "activist judges" and "do-nothing partisan politicians."

"So after six years, we have a bill that defies that. Regardless of your personal views on abortion or stem cells, consider this: the bill has the support of over two-thirds of the country. Both Congress and the Senate came together to debate the bill, negotiate clauses, establish agreements, and work out a compromise package that a wide majority of our elected officials, Democrat and Republican, agree on.

"Basically, the passing of the stem cell bill is as close to any grade-school textbook presentation of how a bill become law. It is, in six years, quite possibly the closest example of an actual Congress actually doing something that actual Americans actually want their elected officials to do.

"This, George W. Bush chooses to oppose."

www.xoverboard.com/index.html

How are things going with "Operation Enduring Freedom"?

Last month the death toll for Iraqi civilians was more than 100 per day.

MORE THAN 100 PER DAY.

Maybe death is what Bush means by "Enduring Freedom."

But not to worry - the insurgency is in its last throes. Mainly because the insurgents are running out of people to kill.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/19/world/middleeast/19iraq.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin

Dan Quayle walks out on John Mellencamp

Hmmm...it must've been something he said. Former VP Dan Quayle walked out of a John Mellencamp concert after Mellencamp dedicated his song "Walk Tall" to everyone who had been hurt by policies of the current Bush administration.

What was Quayle's problem with that? "Well, I think Mellencamp's performance was not very good to begin with, and the comment put it over the top."

Over the top of Quayle's head, he means.

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/sports/15049856.htm

Designers refuse breakfast with Laura Bush

Following poet Sharon Olds' lead, five designers who won or were nominated for the National Design Award turned down an invitation from Laura Bush to have breakfast with her at the White House. The designers - Michael Rock, Susan Sellers, Georgie Stout, Paula Scher, and Stefan Sagmeister - sent Mrs. Bush the following letter:

"Dear Mrs. Bush:

"As American designers, we strongly believe our government should support the design profession and applaud the White House sponsorship of the Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum. And as finalists and recipients of the National Design Award in Communication Design we are deeply honored to be selected for this recognition. However, we find ourselves compelled to respectfully decline your invitation to visit the White House on July 10th.

"Graphic designers are intimately engaged in the construction of language, both visual and verbal. And while our work often dissects, rearranges, rethinks, questions and plays with language, it is our fundamental belief, and a central tenet of "good" design, that words and images must be used responsibly, especially when the matters articulated are of vital importance to the life of our nation.

"We understand that politics often involves high rhetoric and the shading of language for political ends. However it is our belief that the current administration of George W. Bush has used the mass communication of words and images in ways that have seriously harmed the political discourse in America. We therefore feel it would be inconsistent with those values previously stated to accept an award celebrating language and communication, from a representative of an administration that has engaged in a prolonged assault on meaning.

"While we have diverse political beliefs, we are united in our rejection of these policies. Through the wide-scale distortion of words (from "Healthy Forests" to "Mission Accomplished") and both the manipulation of media (the photo op) and its suppression (the hidden war casualties), the Bush administration has demonstrated disdain for the responsible use of mass media, language and the intelligence of the American people.

"While it may be an insignificant gesture, we stand against these distortions and for the restoration of a civil political dialogue."

Poor Laura Bush. No one wants to have breakfast with her! But as Hughes for America says, "Those signing this letter recognize the damage this administration has done through its disregard for everything that makes our profession great. By treating communication - especially, of late, the media - with such utter disdain, the White House and Republican Party have misused an often noble profession as a means to an unfortunate end. An end these design notables recognized and revolted against. If only more people possessed their courage, their convictions, then things might not be as bad as they presently are."

http://hughesforamerica.typepad.com/hughes_for_america/2006/07/
designers_with_.html

(Thanks to Eric Dickey for the tip.)

Woman finds 20 garter snakes in her car

Weird things can happen when you park your car at the Fred Meyer store in Warrenton, Oregon. Just ask Sherry Hart.

First it was just two snakes, slithering around in the back seat. Then she found several more under a floor mat. Then, as she was driving home, two more snakes fell out of her dashboard, right at her feet. The next day she found one inside a door panel. The day after that, three more snakes came from somewhere inside the car.

Eventually Sherry Hart had found more than 20 garter snakes in her car, ranging from six inches to three feet long.

Hart believes it was a prank, and that her car was chosen because one of its windows was stuck in the open position, making it an easy target.

"I'm not afraid of snakes," Hart said, "but when they just keep coming and coming, you kind of get a little paranoid."

Kind of like living in the U.S. since Bush took office (you KNEW we couldn't resist the snake metaphor!).

http://www.dailyastorian.com

Bush: "Israel has a right to defend herself"

Following Israel's retaliatory strike against Beirut's airport, Bush said, "Israel has a right to defend herself. Every nation must defend herself against terrorist attacks and the killing of innocent life."

Interesting comment, considering that Bush's preemptive strike against Iraq has killed at least 40,000 innocent lives.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/B/BUSH?SITE=ORCOR&SECTION=TOP_STORIES&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

Valerie Plame suing Cheney, Rove, and Libby

Well, it's about time. Valerie Plame and Joseph Wilson have filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court accusing Dick Cheney, Karl Rove, and I. Lewis Libby of revealing Plame's CIA identity in an effort to seek revenge against Wilson for criticizing the Bush administration's motives in Iraq.

The lawsuit accuses Cheney, Libby, Rove, and 10 others of risking the lives of Plame, Wilson, and their children by exposing Plame.

"This lawsuit concerns the intentional and malicious exposure by senior officials of the federal government of ... (Plame), whose job it was to gather intelligence to make the nation safer and who risked her life for her country," the Wilsons' lawyers said in the lawsuit.

Plame on! (Only people familiar with Buck Rogers will get that, but what the hell.)

http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/07/13/cialeak.lawsuit.ap/
index.html

(Thanks to Linda Larsen for the scoop.)

"Pro-life" blog quotes Onion article as if it's serious

First Tom DeLay, and now a "pro-life" blogger named Pete. Both apparently believe that The Onion, a satirical newspaper, is serious. In a post titled "Murder without conscience," Pete, the pro-lifer, parried with the Onion article as if dueling with a real opponent.

In subsequent posts, Pete first admits that he was fooled by the Onion article because it "sounds just like a real pro-abortionist," and later he claims to have been joking all along. Sure, Pete. Someday you'll make a fine politician.

Here's Pete's blog entry.

Murder without conscience

Here are some quotes from a pro-abortion person, Miss Caroline Weber, who wrote an article at The Onion online magazine.

When referring to the killing of her child she said:

"I am totally psyched for this abortion!"

"Those pro-life activists made it pretty clear that, unlike me, they actually think abortion is bad and to be avoided. Are they nuts? Abortion is the best!"

"It wasn't until now that I was lucky enough to be pregnant with a child I had no means to support."

"I just know it's going to be the best non-anesthetized invasive uterine surgery ever!"

Who does Miss Weber blame her abortion on? The pro-life movement.

"The funny thing is, I actually have the pro-life movement to thank for this opportunity."

It's our fault? She says:

"If my HMO wouldn't have bowed to their pressure not to cover oral contraceptives, I never would've gotten pregnant in the first place."

Sorry ma'am, if you hadn't had sex you wouldn't have gotten pregnant, it's not the HMO's fault for not supporting your promiscuity while not married.

To sum it up, Miss Weber said:

"I realize there are people who will criticize me, calling me selfish and immature because I took "the easy way out." I realize there are those who will condemn me to hell for what I'm about to do. Well, I don't care what they say: It's worth it for all the fun and laughs I'm going to have at the clinic. So listen up, world: I'm pro-abortion... and I love it! See you at my post-abortion party, everybody!"

Miss Weber, you have killed your child, which you admit is a baby/human being, intentionally. That does make you an admitted murderer. I'm not going to "condemn you to hell", I'm going to pray for your forgiveness and for the suffering which you will endure when you realize what you have done. Every baby you see from that moment on is going to wake you up to the realization that you killed your child.

Speak out against abortion. Don't just complain about it. Join the Monthly Call for Life at MonthlyCallForLife.com. We call, email and/or march to let our representatives know that we will not stop until they stop the killing of innocent human beings!

http://marchtogether.blogspot.com/2006/07/murder-without-conscience.html

The four most overpaid White House staffers

This is one of the funniest - and most infuriating - things we've ever heard. Did you know the White House employs two "Ethics Advisors," a "Director of Fact Checking," and a "Director for Lessons Learned"?

That's right: your tax dollars are being squandered not only on leaders who are stunningly incompetent, dishonest, and unethical, but on underlings who are supposed to be keeping those leaders competent, honest, and ethical. Obviously, we need to hire more underlings to help those underlings do a better job.

Who are these underlings and how much do they make (notice we didn't say "earn")?

Deborah Nirmala Misir, Ethics Advisor: $114,688
Erica M. Dornburg, Ethics Advisor: $100,547
Stuart Baker, Director for Lessons Learned: $106,641
Melissa M. Carson, Director of Fact Checking: $46,500

http://thinkprogress.org/2006/07/11/four-most-overpaid-wh-staffers/

Lay was bad, but Gates and Buffett are worse

Ken Lay was a rotten potato, but he was a relatively small rotten potato, compared to Bill Gates and Warren Buffett. Lay allegedly bilked Enron employees and customers out of $43.5 million, but Gates and Buffett are worth $50 BILLION and $44 BILLION respectively. How did they "earn" all that money?

Buffett and Gates may not have broken any laws (although the Clinton-era Justice Department believed Gates had cheated millions of Americans by violating anti-trust laws), but their billions may be just as ethically wrong as Lay's misbegotten millions. As columnist Ted Rall says, "Sorry, but 'working hard' doesn't cut it. I don't care if you stay late at the office every night, work weekends and holidays, or you never go on vacation. It doesn't matter how smart, imaginative or lucky you are. It just isn't possible to earn $44 billion in a single lifetime. Not honestly, anyway."

Gates and Buffett have created a lot of pain and misery on their way to "earning" their combined $94 billion. Gates scammed his billions overcharging his customers and underpaying his employees. Buffett profited by investing in corporations that downsized, exploited, and impoverished their workers.

And now we're supposed to be impressed that Buffett has given $37 billion - about 85 percent of his net worth - to Bill Gates' foundation. Why? Let's take a look at where some of the Gates Foundation money has gone recently:

$100,000 for the museum at Pearl Harbor
$241,500 "to provide sustainable public access computer hardware and software upgrades" to libraries in Los Angeles
$21 million "to provide curriculum and support for teachers as a part of a transformation that aims to prepare...Chicago public school students for success in post-secondary education."

"Good causes all," Rall says, "but maintaining Pearl Harbor is one of the reasons we pay federal taxes. Why does a national war memorial need help from Gates? One can't help wondering whether L.A. libraries and Chicago schools might be less cash-strapped in the first place if so much of our society's wealth hadn't been monopolized by America's tiny, increasingly powerful oligarchy, rather than going to city taxpayers in the form of fair wages and affordable computers."

The average member of the Forbes 400 list of the richest Americans has seen his or her income rise 3.5 times - from $800 million (adjusted to 2006 dollars) to $2.8 billion - in the past 20 years. Meanwhile, real income for more than half the population hasn't increased at all.

To his credit, Buffett acknowledges this disparity. "What has gone on in this country in recent years is a huge benefit to the very rich and not much relief to those below," he told Fortune magazine in 2005. But his philanthropy, however generous, won't slow our slide into Third Worlddom, and it won't help the people he exploited while accumulating all that wealth. And, as Rall points out, such philanthropy is more than a little disingenuous:

"Consider a burglar who boosts your TV and then, thinking better of it, donates it to an orphanage. His act of generosity beats the alternative - keeping it for himself. But you'd probably prefer that he'd returned it to you, or better yet, never stolen it at all."

www.rall.com

Bush: "I'd rather be judged as solving problems and being correct, rather than being popular"

Yep, he actually said that, in an interview yesterday on Larry King Live. He also said a bunch of other stupendously clueless things:

"Because we're right on winning this war on terror, and we've got a good economic record, people are working under the leadership of the Bush administration and the Congress."

"We removed a tyrant [Saddam]. He was an enemy of the United States who harbored terrorists and who had the capacity, at the very minimum, to make weapons of mass destruction. And he was a true threat."

Bush does not feel beleaguered by the presidency. "Quite the contrary. I feel it is an honor to be in this position. I wake up enthused about working on this year's problems because I've got confidence we can solve them."

Bush predicted that Osama bin Laden will be captured eventually. "Oh, we'll get him. It's just a matter of persistence and patience."

Bush was "really surprised" by the death of friend and Enron founder Ken Lay. "My hope is that his heart was right with the Lord, and I feel real sorry for his wife. She's had a rough go, and she's now here on Earth to bear the burdens of losing her husband, a man she loved."

http://news.netscape.com/story/2006/07/07/-bush-i-rather-be-right-than-popular/

Incredible

From today's Newsweek online: "While some Republicans have avoided being photographed with Bush on the trail, the president continues to be a huge draw on the fund-raising circuit. According to the Republican National Committee, Bush has appeared at more than 40 money events for GOP candidates during this midterm election, raising more than $130 million (more than the president raised during the 2002 midterms)."

So not only are many Republican candidates unashamed to appear at fund-raisers with their extremely unpopular president, but fat-cat donors are unashamed to throw even more money on the fire. Tell us why, again, they call themselves "conservatives"?

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13722355/site/newsweek/page/2/

Bush told Cheney to discredit Wilson

The National Journal, a respected weekly political magazine, reports that President Bush directed Dick Cheney to take personal charge of a campaign to discredit Joseph Wilson, after Wilson accused the administration of twisting prewar intelligence on Iraq. The revelation returns the focus of the criminal investigation to the White House after Karl Rove was told he would not face prosecution.

Visualize impeachment!

http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,,1813640,00.html

No Fourth of July next year

For us, at least. We're going to Canada (camping). Just can't stand the moronic display of "patriotism" the Fourth brings, and along with it the anxiety it causes our dogs. So next year on the fifth of July we'll wake up to something other than piles of diarrhea and vomit in the garage.

Happy fifth!