The beginning of the end of the Bush Regime...

David Corn of The Nation broke this story way back in July and the mainstream press is just now picking it up. The Republicans in Congress impeached President Clinton for lying about extramarital sexual relations. This is much more serious; I wonder what they will do about this--a matter of national security.

Does anyone really believe that John Ashcroft will conduct a fair an unbiased investigation? Uhhh...no. If there was ever a time for a special investigator to be appointed this is it.

White House spokesman Scott McClellan spent yesterday telling the White House press corps to let him know if they have any information about "the leak."

This whole thing started because Bush lied about the Iraq-Niger-uranium connection. Ambassador Wilson exposed the lie and the Bush Administration took revenge. Now puppetmaster Karl Rove is probably busy covering his tracks and coming up with more lies that will eventually bring down the Bush Regime.

Justice Dept. Probes Leak of CIA Agent's Identity

By Steve Holland

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Justice Department said on Tuesday it had opened a criminal investigation into the leak of a CIA official's identity in a case that could revive charges the White House overstated pre-war intelligence on Iraqi weapons.

Justice Department lawyers notified the White House counsel's office on Monday night that they had begun a probe into "possible unauthorized disclosures concerning the identity of an undercover CIA employee," according to a memo sent to White House staff by counsel Alberto Gonzales.
(more)

Lawnmower Man sets new record...

7:00 am

7:00 am!!!

Why would someone mow the lawn at 7 o'clock in the morning? I'm not a morning person and I am usually sleeping at that time. This morning I thought that I was having a bad dream but I looked out the window and there was an old man in a white tee shirt pushing a power mower around his yard.

It was bad enough that he mowing, but he kept running over sticks or stones or something. So every few minutes the sound of grinding metal pierced my semiconscious brain.

Baseball Notes

• Congratulations to the Tigers on their 43rd win of the season - I saw one of their 119 losses and one of Bonderman's 19 losses.


• Congratulations to the Cubs and the Red Sox, both made it to post season this year. Wouldn't that be quite a World Series, one of them would have to win.


• Goodbye Veterans' Stadium! After 33 years the Phillies get a real ballpark--with real grass!

On the Fightin' Phils...

The press is calling for Larry Bowa to be fired. In three seasons at the helm Bowa has not made it to the playoffs, but in his first season the Phils finished two games back of the Braves, last year they got off to a bad start but finished strong, and this year it came down to the final week of the season. I look for Bowa to be back next season and to be there well beyond that.

Jim Thome had an outstanding year. Unless Barry Bonds hits two homeruns today Thome will lead the league in homers. He is also one the best guys in the game.

After a great season last year Pat Burrell struggled all season. The Philly fans who are known for booing Santa Claus even cheered on Burrell throughout the year. Finishing the season just above the Mendoza Line, he has a long off season ahead of him.

I am looking forward to the 2004 season at the new ballpark. My second big league game was at the Vet (the first was at Shea, Mets vs. Expos). Usually once or twice a season my dad and my uncle would take my brother and me to a Phillies game and I was at game six of the 1993 World Series at the Vet. Next year I hope to take my dad to a game at the new park.

"Vive la revision!"

A preeminent historian takes on Dubya's use of the term "revisionist history." Finally. Of course it is in the American Historical Association's newsletter so nobody but historians will see it.

Revisionist Historians
by James McPherson


This summer the Bush administration thought it had discovered a surefire tactic to discredit critics of its Iraq adventure. President Bush followed the lead of his national security adviser Condoleeza Rice to accuse such critics of practicing "revisionist history." Neither Bush nor Rice offered a definition of this phrase, but their body language and tone of voice appeared to suggest that they wanted listeners to understand "revisionist history" to be a consciously falsified or distorted interpretation of the past to serve partisan or ideological purposes in the present. ...(read more)

Trickle-down economics at work...

Hey, at least the wealthiest Americans have a little more in their bank accounts thanks to the Bush tax cuts.

Poverty Rate Rises for Second Year in Row
Fri Sep 26, 7:27 PM ET

By GENARO C. ARMAS, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - Poverty rose for a second straight year in 2002 as 1.7 million more people dropped below the poverty line, according to Census Bureau (news - web sites) estimates released Friday that provided fresh evidence of the struggling economy's effect on Americans' pocketbooks.

The poverty rate was 12.1 percent last year, an increase from 11.7 percent in 2001 even though the last recession ended in November 2001. That meant nearly 34.6 million people were living in poverty.

Before the two years of increase, poverty had fallen for nearly a decade to 11.3 percent in 2000, its lowest level in more than 25 years. (read more)

More Lies...

• "He (Saddam Hussein) has not developed any significant capability with respect to weapons of mass destruction. He is unable to project conventional power against his neighbors. So in effect, our policies have strengthened the security of the neighbors of Iraq, and these are policies that we are going to keep in place."
  -- U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, February 2001



• "Iraq's weapons of mass destruction are a real and present danger to the people of Iraq, to its neighbors and to the world."
  -- U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, February 2003



• "I didn't change my assessment... I did not say he (Iraqi President Saddam Hussein) didn't have weapons of mass destruction."
  -- U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, September 2003

Ted Rall on Bush

I love this guy...


Ted Rall


WHY WE HATE BUSH

It's the Stolen Election, Stupid
by Ted Rall 9/23/2003
NEW YORK--"Have the Democrats totally flipped their lids?" asks David Brooks in The Weekly Standard, quasi-official organ of the Bush Administration. "Because every day some Democrat seems to make a manic or totally over-the-top statement about George Bush, the Republican party, and the state of the nation today."

True, Democrats loathe Dubya with greater intensity than any Republican standard-bearer in modern political history. Even the diabolical Richard Nixon--who, after all, created the EPA, went to China and imposed price controls to stop corporate gouging--rates higher in liberal eyes. "It's mystifying," writes Brooks.

Let me explain.

First but not foremost, Bush's detractors despise him viscerally, as a man. Where working-class populists see him as a smug, effeminate frat boy who wouldn't recognize a hard day's work if it kicked him in his self-satisfied ass, intellectuals see a simian-faced idiot unqualified to mow his own lawn, much less lead the free world. Another group, which includes me, is more patronizing than spiteful. I feel sorry for the dude; he looks so pathetic, so out of his depth, out there under the klieg lights, squinting, searching for nouns and verbs, looking like he's been snatched from his bed and beamed in, and is still half asleep, not sure where he is. ... (read more)

Bush LIES...

from "A Thousand Points of Plan" by By Dana Milbank, washingtonpost.com:

BAD EXAMPLE: When Bush was stumping for his "jobs and growth" tax cut proposal in April, he went to Timken Co., a maker of steel bearings in Canton, Ohio. "The greatest strength of the American economy is found right here," Bush said then, predicting the tax cut would bring "more money for investment, more money for growth, and more money for jobs."

A month later, Bush signed a $350 billion tax cut, less than he wanted but still what he called "a bold package." And Timken? The company announced last week that it is cutting 900 jobs and lowering its earnings forecasts.

MOVING TARGET: "Acting pursuant to the Constitution and Public Law 107-243 [congressional authorization for military force in Iraq] is consistent with the United States and other countries continuing to take the necessary actions against international terrorists and terrorist organizations, including those nations, organizations, or persons who planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001."

-- President Bush, March 18 letter to Congress.

"We've had no evidence that Saddam Hussein was involved with the September 11th."

-- President Bush, Sept. 17.

"Wha' the hey?"

Molly sums it up pretty well

Fear and loathing in America
Molly Ivins - Creators Syndicate

09.23.03 - AUSTIN, Texas -- Among the more amusing cluckings from the right lately is their appalled discovery that quite a few Americans actually think George W. Bush is a terrible president.

Robert Novak is quoted as saying in all his 44 years of covering politics, he has never seen anything like the detestation of Bush. Charles Krauthammer managed to write an entire essay on the topic of "Bush haters" in Time magazine, as though he had never before come across such a phenomenon.

Oh, I stretch memory way back, so far back, all the way back to -- our last president. Almost lost in the mists of time though it is, I not only remember eight years of relentless attacks from Clinton-haters, I also notice they haven't let up yet. Clinton-haters accused the man of murder, rape, drug-running, sexual harassment, financial chicanery and official misconduct, and his wife of even worse. (read more)

"The United States Can Do Whatever The Hell It Wants"

Apart from the invented links between Iraq and Al Qaida, we had the manufactured frenzy about Iraq's Weapons of Mass Destruction. George Bush the Lesser went to the extent of saying it would be "suicidal" for the U.S. not to attack Iraq. We once again witnessed the paranoia that a starved, bombed, besieged country was about to annihilate almighty America. (Iraq was only the latest in a succession of countries - earlier there was Cuba, Nicaragua, Libya, Grenada, and Panama.) But this time it wasn't just your ordinary brand of friendly neighborhood frenzy. It was Frenzy with a Purpose. It ushered in an old doctrine in a new bottle: the Doctrine of Pre-emptive Strike, a.k.a. The United States Can Do Whatever The Hell It Wants, And That's Official.


-- Arundhati Roy, May 13, 2003
from her speech Instant-Mix Imperial Democracy (Buy One, Get One Free)

"The Greatest Love Story of the 20th Century" by Sarah Vowell

Sarah Vowell's essay on Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash was on This American Life on Sunday

*listen* start at 47:40 (10 min)

More Revisionist Science

More "revisionist science" from the Bush Administration

Top 1% could show their PATRIOTISM...

...by insisting that they not receive the Bush targeted tax break for the wealthiest Americans. By doing so they could pay for their war. They should also insist that BushCo accounts for the $1.5B in federal funds that is unaccounted for each moth in Iraq.

Anyhow read this:

_{Published on 9/15/2003 in the USA Today}
Tax wealthy to pay for Iraq war
by Robert B. Reich

President Bush says he will ask Congress for $ 87 billion in emergency spending for military and intelligence operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. That's on top of the $ 79 billion Congress already has approved to pay for the war and its immediate aftermath. Neither of these figures includes an estimated $ 50 billion more that will be needed to rebuild Iraq, or any additional expenditures we may need for homeland security.

How can we afford all this?

This coming fiscal year's federal budget deficit already is approaching $ 500 billion. Add in the extra spending, and it's close to $ 600 billion. And that's just one year's tab. The total over all the years it will take to stabilize both Iraq and Afghanistan and win the war against terrorism is likely to be far higher. (read more)

Dept. of Homeland Security is on the job...

From NewsNet5:

Officials Say Cloistered Nuns Are Security Risks

CLEVELAND -- Two Cleveland nuns pray day and night, but it may not be enough to keep them from being deported.

NewsChannel5 reported that the Department of Homeland Security is ordering two Korean sisters out of the country, saying they don't qualify for visas. But the cloistered nuns are hoping a higher power will intervene.

The women live as cloistered nuns with the order of the Poor Clares of Perpetual Adoration on Euclid Avenue in Cleveland. Inside, the nuns pray for the entire world 24 hours a day. They never leave the church except for when they need medical care, and they have almost no contact with the outside world.

But on Friday, they spoke with NewsChannel5 behind steel bars in the visitors' parlor. The bars are a symbol to their commitment to God, prayer and their separation from society.

Sister Mary Cecilia and Sister Mary Catherinia, of Korea, must now deal with the outside world. The Department of Homeland Security said the sisters are security risks. Both Korean sisters may be deported because the U.S. Immigration Service said they don't qualify for religious worker visas. (read more)

Arrrr! me mateys...

Avast! It's International Talk Like a Pirate Day.

Conservatism 101

Thanks to Joel for this:

Right Stuff: conservatism made simple

By Jim Spencer, Denver Post Columnist

Lately, Colorado Gov. Bill Owens and Senate President John Andrews have been criticized for trying to force state colleges to hire more conservative professors.

Guys, I feel your pain.

This society is awash in such anti-conservative programs as Social Security, Medicare and government-mandated minority rights.

That's why I propose a new college course called The Right Stuff.

Today, I offer an outline of this course free of charge. Tomorrow, in keeping with free markets, it'll cost you $1,500. (read more)

Let's get our story straight...

• “We’ve had no evidence that Saddam Hussein was involved with September the 11th.”
  George "Dubya" Bush, September 17, 2003



• “It’s not surprising people make that connection.”
  Vice President "Uncle Dick" Cheney, Meet the Press 9/14/2003
  (referring to Iraq and the9/11 attacks)


• "We learned more and more that there was a relationship between Iraq and al-Qaeda that stretched back through most of the decade of the ’90s"
  Vice President "Uncle Dick" Cheney, Meet the Press 9/14/2003

Gee, where where would people get that idea? Maybe from the Bush administration, which has spent the last year telling us that Iraq was involved. And people are stupid enough to believe them.

A new day...

Yesterday I was obviously a little cranky; thus the post below is to lighten the mood. :-)

400 million-year-old Penis Found!

via Dave Barry's Blog:

World's Oldest Genitals Found in Scotland
Wed September 17, 2003 02:02 PM ET
LONDON (Reuters) - Scientists have discovered fossils of the world's oldest genitals -- belonging to 400 million-year-old insects -- in ancient rocks in Scotland.

The penis of the ancient harvestmen insects, commonly known as a daddy-long-legs, was two-thirds the length of the body and remarkably similar to the modern-day species, New Scientist magazine said Wednesday.

"The discovery of the world's oldest genitals proves that little has changed over the last 400 million years -- at least for daddy-long-legs," the magazine said.

Jason Dunlop and a team of researchers from Humbolt University in Berlin, Germany, who will present their findings at a conference in Aberdeen, also uncovered a long egg-laying organ called an ovipositor from a female.

"As well as genitals, the fossils have the oldest known arachnid respiratory system, suggesting harvestmen's ancestors had long since crawled out of the sea and learned to breathe," the magazine said.

Harvestmen arachnids are sometimes mistaken for spiders but they are more closely related to ticks or mites because they do not spin webs.

The previous oldest penis, which dated back 100 million years and was found in Brazil, belonged an ostracod, an early crustacean related to crabs, shrimps and water fleas.

The United States: A Deist Nation?

I know that I have written about this before but it continues to bother me. Every time that some right-wing christian wants to justify prayer in school or public display of the Ten Commandments they argue that the Founding Fathers were christians and that this is a christian country. They point to a mention of of "God" and "Creator" in The Declaration of Independence to support their assertion.

In fact, "God" is preceded by "Nature's" as in the "watchmaker" god of the deists. That is, a god who set down the laws of nature and set things in motion but then was hands-off. This is the god that Jefferson believed in not the God of the Baptists or Catholics or Anglicans.

In his letter of April 1803 to Doctor Benjamin Rush Jefferson states

I am a Christian, in the only sense [Jesus] wished any one to be; sincerely attached to his doctrines, in preference to all others; ascribing to himself every human excellence; & believing he never claimed any other.

Jefferson also says that he is opposed to "the corruptions of Christianity" and in his attached Syllabus and later in a letter to William Short he disputes the divinity of Jesus.

While Jefferson believed in the teachings of Jesus he was not an admirer of christianity. He called Paul the "first corruptor of the doctrines of Jesus" and believed that Jesus was "a great Reformer of the Hebrew code of religion" and places him in a line of philosophers such as Pythagoras, Socrates, Epicurus, Cicero, Epictetus, Seneca, Antoninus.

Jerry Falwell would have you believe that Jefferson, Washington, Franklin and others were christians but it is just not true. Jefferson's version of christianity would be closer to what Jesus taught than the version of "christianity" that Falwell teaches. Jesus taught forgiveness, philanthropy, peace, and kindness not hate and "with us or with the terrorists."

So the next time someone from the "christian" right tells you that the United States is a christian country founded by christians please point them to Jefferson's letters to Rush and Short. They can read Jefferson's own words and see that he says christianity "resulted from artificial systems, invented by ultra-Christian sects, unauthorized by a single word ever uttered by [Jesus]." Those artificial systems include Jesus' miraculous powers, his deification, the Trinity, original sin, etc.