From Holden: Saturday: Q Thank you, sir. You’ve talked repeatedly about how pleased you’ve been with President Musharraf’s cooperation in the arrest of al Qaeda suspects. But are you not disappointed that his army has somewhat downgraded the search for Osama bin Laden? PRESIDENT BUSH: Quite the contrary. His army has been incredibly active and very brave in southern Waziristan, flushing out an enemy that had thought they had found safe haven. His army has suffered casualty, and for that, we want to thank their loved ones for the sacrifice that their family has made. [snip] But our cooperation has … Continue reading Musharraf Plays Chimpy Like a Fiddle

From Holden: OPEC is swapping dollars for euros. Member nations of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries have cut the proportion of their deposits denominated in dollars by more than 13 percentage points in the past three years, mainly to the advantage of the euro, the Bank for International Settlements said Sunday. [snip] “Since the third quarter of 2001, oil revenue seems to have been channeled increasingly into euro and other currency deposits,” the bank said. “This shift out of U.S. dollars probably reflected to some extent the relative change in interest rates in the United States and the … Continue reading OPEC Votes Euro

From Holden: President Bush said Monday that an attack on the U.S. consulate in Jiddah, Saudi Arabia, demonstrated that “terrorists are still on the move” trying to intimidate Americans and force the United States to withdraw from Saudi Arabia and Iraq. Link. Continue reading But I Thought Freedom Was On the March?

From Holden: Book of the Year: Jon Stewart’s “America (The Book),” the television commentator’s million-selling riff on politics and other matters of satire, has been named Book of the Year by Publishers Weekly, the industry trade magazine. In announcing the award Monday, Publishers Weekly called the book “a serious critique of the two-party system, the corporations that finance it and the ‘spineless cowards in the press’ who ‘aggressively print allegation and rumor independent of accuracy and fairness.”‘ Continue reading Congratulations Jon Stewart

From Holden: I suppose now he thinks he’s entitled to take the rest of the month off. He’s a company man. Q Thank you. Mr. President, what do you make of the warning sounded yesterday by Tommy Thompson that the American food supply may be at risk to terrorist attack? PRESIDENT BUSH: Tommy was commenting on the fact that we’re a large company — country, with all kinds of avenues where somebody can inflict harm. And we’re doing everything we can to protect the American people. I picked a good man to head the Homeland Security Department in Bernie Kerik. … Continue reading Your Preznit Works a Saturday

From Holden: From Sunday’s session with Tim-MEH: George Bush is a Liar: MR. RUSSERT: When the president talked about Yucca Mountain and moving the nation’s nuclear waste there, you were very, very, very strong in your words. You said, “President Bush is a liar. He betrayed Nevada and he betrayed the country.” Is that rhetoric appropriate? SEN. REID: I don’t know if that rhetoric is appropriate. That’s how I feel, and that’s how I felt. I think to take that issue, Tim, to take the most poisonous substance known to man, plutonium, and haul 70,000 tons of it across the … Continue reading Harry Reid’s Greatest Hits

From Holden: skippy sends us to Eternal Hope’s dkos diary where we learn that the FBI is investigating charges that the GOP hacked the vote in Florida. What is it that hack bloggers always use to end a brief post like this? Oh, yeah. Developing… Continue reading Hack the Vote

From Holden: Dateline, Florida A 1940’s-era Convair CV-340 cargo plane sporting “EELECT (sic) GEORGE W. BUSH” down the length of its fuselage Saturday departed Opa-Locka airport in Florida, reportedly suffered engine trouble and ditched in nearby Maule lake. The crew of two avoided densely populated Miami-Dade suburbs (excepting vast expanses of open water) and escaped unhurt. The aircraft and its cargo of baggage were afloat but slowly sinking, though there were plans to bolster the aircraft with the support of gaseous sacks. “The support of gaseous sacks,” eh? Like this one, this one, this one, or this one? Continue reading Karma

From Holden: Pat Tillman’s last words were not “Bush-Cheney ’04”, they were “Cease fire! Friendlies!” Continue reading Who Knew?

From Holden: The fact that UN fixer Lakhdar Brahimi doubts that elections can be held in Iraq next month should not be surprising: UN election adviser Lakhdar Brahimi cast fresh doubt on whether elections could take place in the present circumstances. Brahimi told a Dutch newspaper in an interview published yesterday: ‘Elections are no magic potion, but part of a political process. They must be prepared well and take place at the right time to produce the good effects that you expect from them.’ Asked if elections under present conditions were possible, Brahimi said: ‘If the circumstances stay as they … Continue reading Impossible Iraqi Elections

link here. Western governors got together last week with the Bush administration and Congress to plan how to change the Endangered Species Act. It must be changed, they all agree, because it costs loggers and ranchers too much money. “We have to recognize that, A, we can’t protect everything, and B, whether we should try to protect everything and at what cost.” Holy motherfucking shit. Continue reading First they came for the trees, and I did nothing…

Microsoft has a strange sense of propriety, to say the least. Over at BoingBoing, I found a great post about MSN Spaces, the new Microsoft blogging tool. It censors certain words that one might like to include in a blog title or URL. But it gets head-scratchingly silly, if not downright funny. First, the classic seven dirty words that are banned by the FCC are censored. So shit, piss, fuck, cunt, cocksucker, motherfucker and tits (tits????!!!!) are verboten. From there, it is anything but clear. Boingboing tried out a number of blog title ideas, and found that while “Corporate Whore” … Continue reading Microsoft censorship

link here. Chris Bowers has an interesting post over at Mydd. It’s interesting to me because it is about something that I’ve been slightly obsessed about since the election. For the first 4 or so days after November 2, I was as mad at my fellow citizens as I’ve ever been. I blamed Red America, which is roughly the same idea as Middle America, for electing the Bush Republicans, and for thereby destroying the country. Then I began to realize that there is no Red State phenomenon. That this idea was invented by the Right to divide the country and … Continue reading Middle America is not a real place

Back Sunday. And hey, thanks to everybody recc’ing Holden’s excellent gaggles and my furballs over at Kos. You First Drafters all rock like big rocking things. A. Continue reading Weekend Open Thread

From Holden: A pretty boring gaggle today, although Little Scottie and the press corps seem to have enjoyed discussing the ongoing cabinet shakedown: Q Have you been informed of Tommy Thompson’s resignation? MR. McCLELLAN: I believe Secretary Thompson has a news conference at 2:00 p.m. this afternoon. And I think out of respect for the announcement that he will be having at that time, I will defer on all questions for now. Q How many more? (Laughter.) [snip] Q Scott, this transition process has been described to us as an orderly process overseen by the Chief of Staff. But with … Continue reading Today on Holden’s Obsession with the Gaggle

From Holden: Ohio will officially report a 117,000 vote advantage for Bush over Kerry in November’s election, 19,000 votes less than the 136,000 originally reported. That’s not a small enough difference to trigger an automatic recount, but it is progress. Link. Continue reading Chimpy’s Shrinking Mandate

From Holden: Richard Armitage is leaving the State Department with Colin Powell so he did not have to be too careful about what he said in this interview with an Aussie journalist: MAXINE McKEW: In fact, I think you said on one of your visits to Australia that you regretted that America had exported a lot of its anger to the rest of the world. RICHARD ARMITAGE: Yeah, we – traditionally I think Americans support hope and enthusiasm and opportunity, but after 9-11 it was anger and our fear that we exported. I think we’re coming back to centre a … Continue reading Exporting Anger and Fear

From Holden: Despite thier “broken backs” Iraqi insurgents continue it fight in and around Fallujah: Sporadic clashes between insurgents and US-Iraqi forces erupted in and around the restive Iraqi city of Fallujah on Friday. Columns of smoke were seen rising above Jolan and Shuhadaa districts inside the city. Sporadic clashes also took place in the refugee camps near al-Saqlawiya, west of Fallujah, witnesses told Xinhua. Around Saqlawiya, a roadside bomb was detonated, damaging a US Humvee, but casualties could not immediately be known. [snip] US-Iraqi forces were fighting pockets of insurgents still holed up in Fallujah despite the all-out offensive … Continue reading They Must Be Fighting from Their Wheelchairs

From Holden: Dan Froomkin has written a nice essay regarding the questions the press should be asking your preznit. It’s worth a read, and he’s soliciting your input at the end. Continue reading Ask Better Questions

At the International Spy Museum in Washington, DC, you can purchase this: Now, I know there’s a lot of things on the Internet that are worse. Shirts that show Marines gunning down wounded Iraqis with the words “we support our marine,” for example. But you expect that from right-wing hate sites’ Cafe Press stores. We didn’t expect it from the president when he thought this shit was funny, and we shouldn’t expect it from a bricks-and-mortar operation a stone’s throw from the Capitol building. I just wish stores, before they stocked this kind of vicious crap, would try to think … Continue reading Department Of It’s Not Even Noon And I’m Already Disgusted

From Holden: Yet another secret report on detainee abuse, this time in Afghanistan, slouches into view. A recent classified assessment of U.S. military detention facilities in Afghanistan found that they have been plagued by many of the problems that existed at military prisons in Iraq, including weak or nonexistent guidance for interrogators, creating what the assessment described as an “opportunity” for prisoner abuse. The inspection, conducted this summer by a one-star Army general, has not been publicly released by the Defense Department. But three government officials privy to its conclusions said this week that Army Brig. Gen. Charles H. Jacoby … Continue reading ‘Cause Our Brave Troops Love to Shove Their Fingers Up Other Guys’ Butts

From Holden: Via Talk Radio News Service, Bill Richardson says that the Democratic Governor’s Association knows how to win and is ready to take over the reigns of power in the Democratic Party (audio, 36 sec.). I’m not much of a political strategist, but he has a point about Dem governor’s winning in red states. And the party could certainly use more input from the state level. Continue reading Donkey Governor’s Know How to Win

Squirrels … rarely … hold … still. It’s going to have to be Friday Ferret Video-ing soon. A. Continue reading Friday Ferretblogging

From Holden: Georgie’s body count (U.S. military only) rests at 1,263, so we should hit 1,300 by Xmas if not sooner. Once again proving that they are who we aspire to be, the Ukrainians vote to pull their forces out of Iraq: The Ukrainian parliament decided on Friday to recall the Ukrainian army contingent from Iraq. Two hundred and fifty-seven members of the Supreme Rada (Parliament) have voted for this decision. The decision was passed due to the aggravation of the situation in Iraq, where Ukrainian servicemen are being drawn into the ongoing combat actions, which the parliament had not … Continue reading Just Another Day in Iraq

From Holden: Following on the heels of yesterday’s report of an unexpected increase in the number of new jobless individuals and lackluster post-Thanksgiving retail sales, today we learn that a mediocre 112k new non-farm jobs were created in November: U.S. employers pulled back on hiring as they entered the holiday shopping season, adding just 112,000 new jobs overall in November. It was the weakest gain in five months and about half of what economists had forecast. [snip] Employers’ payrolls have expanded by 2.3 million since August 2003, but the monthly pace has been sluggish. Analysts had predicted in advance of … Continue reading And the Wind Cries Bush Boom

From Holden: Commenter, friend and fellow Austinite fourlegsgood alerted me to this post over on presidential candidate, friend and Lubbockite Scooter’s blog, in which we learn that abstinence education is failing in the reddest town on the map: According to local lore, this dusty town eight hours from Austin boasts more churches per capita than any other in the nation. But it also boasts some of the highest teen pregnancy rates in the state, with 36.4 percent in 2002, compared to the statewide rate of 28.5 percent, according to the Texas Department of Health’s Vital Statistics from 2002. Lubbock County … Continue reading Hot Teen Sex in Lubbock

From Holden: NOW, THEREFORE, I, GEORGE W. BUSH, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim December 2004 as National Drunk and Drugged Driving Prevention Month. Link Continue reading I Think Irony Just Stuck Her Head in the Oven

From Holden: OK, skippy did not invent it, but he brought it to my attention: One economist advocates describing the Republicans’ borrow-and-spend policies as “fiscal child abuse,” because it’s today’s kids who are going to have to work off our trillions in national debt. Continue reading skippy’s got a brand new bag meme

From Holden: We start today’s obsession with a series of good questions about the Iraqi elections (click the link for Scottie spin): Q Scott, can you explain the thinking at the White House and in the administration why the President is so insistent that the Iraqi elections go forward in January when it is clearly dangerous to do so? Q It would be that milestone whether it goes forward in January or February or March or some other date. So why — and even if the President is agreeing with others when he makes this call, why is it important … Continue reading Today on Holden’s Obsession with the Gaggle