altho i can't recall ever feeling anything but creeped out by george hw bush, his wife, barbara, always seemed to me a pleasant, down-to-earth very likeable woman. i could never imagine what she could have seen in her husband nor how much alcohol she musta had to imbibe in order to mother his children. speaking of which, i never...ever...thought badly of her for bringing them into the world. after all, that was something she's hadda live with for over half century.&...
sadly, for as long as it remains standing, iraq's infamous abu ghraib prison is gonna be an haunting reminder about how combining hubris, executive incompetence and ideology can very easily and swiftly wrest defeat from the heart of impending victory. contemplate for a moment or two this report about abu ghraib's current status compiled and distributed by the associated press. The sprawling facility on the western outskirts of Baghdad wi...
perhaps the most intriguing aspect of the dubai port world deal--so far anyway--is the president's public position. he aggressively supported something with which he then claimed to be barely familiar. if he's lying about his limited knowledge, it's pretty scary. if he's not, scary ain't nearly strong enuff. i tend to go with the former possibility. as i've tried to point out several times in the past, he may be dumb as he often seems, but not nearly as dumb as he thinks...
christina applegate and jennifer tilly are two very smart, sexy, funny women who share a very unique talent. both are able to conjure up characters who say and do such incredibly stupid things with such finesse, it is sometimes difficult not to confuse christina with kelly bundy or jennifer with damn near a sorority of goofy sounding ditzy bimbos. brilliant as they may be, they have nothin on george w. bush. i may seem gullible and naive but i've done seed da light.&nbs...
day before yesterday i began--but then abandoned--a piece about generalissimo gonzales' attempt to strongarm google with a subpeona demanding a week's worth of user search queries as well as a random list of website urls from google's database. like the tools they are, yahoo, aol and msn appear to have already caved to government demands. gonzales--who seems at times to believe his job title is attorney tsar rather than attorney general--claims the information is needed to persuade ...
no, i don't know anyone who's suffered as a consequence of this administration's decision to defy the congress and judiciary by monitoring our communications. i do know someone who's in custody and subject to being deported for a drug-related felony because the government claims she isn't a citizen. she was born on a us military base in germany to parents who were both us citizens. i also know former admiral poindexter's proposal for the tia was voted down by ...
if the question is: "does the constitution provide for the federal government to own and administer the physical real estate of which these united states are comprised?'", the answer is very clearly spelled out in the second paragraph of article vi, section 3: "The Congress shall have Power to dispose of and make all needful Rules and Regulations respecting the Territory or other Property belonging to the United States; and nothing in this Constitution shall be so construed as to Prejudice a...
got some GOOD NEWS for all yall american conservatives (and others) who so fervently despise racial quotas, affirmative action and them damn non-european 'dash americans' (afro-americans, african-americans, mexican-americans,etc as opposed to perfectly good ol' german-, irish-, italian-, even franco-americans). and it don't have a thing to do with geico neither. fact is, you have an ideological ally in, of all places, france. in the aftermath of last...
(this is a response of sorts to rightwinger's strange view of the world located here: Link . more specifically, it's a reply to this statement: "You always seem to have a good grasp and command of some particular facts that I do not have. Admittedly, this often frustrates me because I just don't have the time to look everything up in order to give you a really good thrashing. That's all well and good, but as for this article, I'm not seeing you addressing the actual point of the po...
right in the middle of last year's crusade to keep christmas from being 'banned', an already ban-concious public was alarmed and outraged by news of a public school in cupertino, california 'banning' the constitution. as it turned out, the school hadn't banned anything (a teacher who made the claim after being disciplined by his principal for repeatedly violating a directive entered into a settlement in which the school denied any wrongdoing). despite a flurry of furio...
hbo's series 'the wire' is one of the best--if not the best--thing ever made for tv. on the surface, it's a story of cops trying to bring down a group of baltimore druglords; like all great dramas, its characters are driven, often by forces of which they themselves are unaware. the east side drugking is large, very pragmatic man known on the street as 'proposition joe'. the governor of california is also a large, very pragmatic man who should be known as ...
bad enuff, we as a society hafta endure a rapidly and constantly expanding sacred holiday gift-buying season (not so long ago, no respectable enterprise woulda crassed the line by transforming its facility into a red-green-and-tinseled gwb's smirk vision of yuletide one minute before 12:00:01 the day after thanksgiving; this year, i'd not be surprised to find santa, reindeer and elf suits being stealthed in as halloween costumes) without being subjected to ...
now not even the most myopic tunnel-vision warhawk can argue our adventure in iraq wasn't poorly planned. someone shoulda anticipated this: Link An Arab version of “The Simpsons,” called “Al Shamshoon,” made its debut on Arab TV this month in time for Ramadan, a time of high viewership. The Wall Street Journal notes that Homer is “Omar,” and “is still lazy and works at the nuclear power plant.” But Omar has given up beer and bacon, and he no longer hangs out at “seedy b...
as put forth in an 83-page opinion, the osaka high court (outranked only by the japanese supreme court) has determined prime minister junichiro koizumi's visits to the yasukuni shinto shrine violate japan's constitutional barriers between church and state. in an article which appeared in the october 1, 2005 edition of la times. staff writer, bruce wallace, Link notes: "Yasukuni honors the souls of Japanese killed in wars since the 19th centur...
i very clearly remember the first time george bush proclaimed a national day of prayer. it was also in september, just a few days after those planes smashed into the towers, the pentagon and a wooded area in pennsylvania. prior to reading the official proclamation document and then hearing bush's address at the episcopal national cathedral, i disliked him both as a man and as president. by dislike, i mean exactly that. no less; no more. i didn't focus much e...