For Laughing Out Loud (it’s that Austrian writing honest) Continue reading I’m sorry August…

Froomkin links to anAir Force Times article on Bush’s signing statement attached to 2007 Defense Authorization Act which Bush signed on October 17. While Bush “listed two dozen provisions in the act that he indicated he may or may not abide by” the most important would regard war funding in Iraq and Afghanistan. Congress wanted that war funding to be included in the defense budget rather than through supplementals and bridge funds. The section of the bill regarding that is cited in the signing statement. From the AFT article.. Among the provisions is Section 1008 of the Authorization Act, which … Continue reading Another Signing Statement…The Decider’s pen strikes again

At a time when destroyed wetlands should be rebuilt and existing wetlands need protection we getthis from the Army Corps of Engineers which developers will love… Federal wetlands regulators have dropped a bombshell on environmentalists with a little-publicized proposal to relax restrictions on filling in certain wetlands along the entire Mississippi Gulf Coast to speed recovery from Hurricane Katrina. SNIPThe Corps’ proposal would allow property owners and developers to skirt the conventional “regional general permit” process for any projects that fill up to 5 acres of “low-quality” wetlands in the six southernmost Mississippi counties. Especially galling to environmentalists: The new … Continue reading Army Corps of Engineers Wetlands “Bombshell”

Can you go look atthis photo and read slim’s post on a local man killed Tuesday in Iraq and tell me why we have 53 year olds serving in combat? Continue reading Help me out

Would anyone who sees Rummy aswilling to take blame raise your hand? Though I hope she is right on his hitting the road Continue reading Bueller Bueller

FromEditor & Publisher WASHINGTON A federal judge has ordered the Bush administration to release information about who visited Vice President Dick Cheney’s office and personal residence, an order that could spark a late election season debate over lobbyists’ White House access. The Washington Post asked for two years of White House visitor logs in June but the Secret Service refused to process the request. Government attorneys called it “a fishing expedition into the most sensitive details of the vice presidency.” U.S. District Judge Ricardo M. Urbina ruled Wednesday that, by the end of next week, the Secret Service must produce … Continue reading For what it’s worth

Riverbend has a post up It’s very difficult at this point to connect to the internet and try to read the articles written by so-called specialists and analysts and politicians. They write about and discuss Iraq as I might write about the Ivory Coast or Cambodia- with a detachment and lack of sentiment that- I suppose- is meant to be impartial. Hearing American politicians is even worse. They fall between idiots like Bush- constantly and totally in denial, and opportunists who want to use the war and ensuing chaos to promote themselves. She then writes of the Lancet Journal study … Continue reading Riverbend is back

ABC is reporting that when asked about Tom Friedman’s column which compares today’s Iraq to the Tet Offensive, Pony Blow said this… “I think Friedman may be right, but we’ll have to see.” Ooops. I suppose the backtracling will be forthcoming and likely involve reference to Ramadam. UPDATE: Well this appears now onABC home page… In an exclusive interview President Bush said “He could be right,” when George Stephanopoulos asked him about New York Times’ columnist Thomas Friedman’s claim that the situation in Iraq right now might be the equivalent of the 1968 Tet Offensive in Vietnam. Continue reading Tet

Yesterday Iposted a story of the death of a New Orleans area woman. It’s a story I just can’t shake. Antoinette had a history of mental illness. Over the weekend police were called to a disturbance and Antoinette was taken to jail. All too often now in NOLA it is the police that are left to deal with the those suffering from mental illness. There are only 17 psych beds in the entire city. When Antoinette was released from jail she refused to go with her family and took off on her own. At 3:30 am on Sunday, 2 tugboat … Continue reading This Train

I saw Holden’s post below which included 69 US troops have been killed thus far this month. Yesterday when I checked the Iraq Casualty page it was 59 and thought did I read something wrong? But yes it is 69 as 10 US soldiers were killed yesterday according to theIraq Casualty.org and from theNYT… Four of the soldiers were killed by a roadside bomb west of Baghdad, and three others died in fighting in Diyala province, a troubled area northeast of the capital where sectarian violence has run high. A Marine was killed by insurgents in Anbar province, the western … Continue reading 10 US troops killed yesterday

Last week when Dick Cheney was in New Orleans theTimes Picayune headline read…”VP Hails Strides in Work on N.O. Levees” and noted Cheney was “tremendously impressed” with the work on the levees. WOW “tremendously impressed” sounds impressive! But alas sorry NOLA you’re not unique…nor is Dick’s message… Dick was Tremendously Impressed (or TI’d for short) on a previous memorable visit to theGulf Coast in September 2005 just prior to being told to “Go Fuck yourself Mr. Cheney” by a MS resident… Cheney had just noted that he had been“tremendously impressed with the messages I’ve received from the local folks,” TI‘d … Continue reading Cheney’s World of Wonder

I saw this earlier and thought it referred to last week but thenRaw Story pointed to it and I realized that it is this week…Indeed Bush declared this week to beNational Character Counts Week America’s strength is found in the spirit and character of our people. During National Character Counts Week, we renew our commitment to instilling values in our young people and to encouraging all Americans to remember the importance of good character. SNIP 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 … Continue reading National Character Counts Week

Bushsigned the torture bill today. Attaturk has a presidential signing statement Seriously I’ll be watching for THE presidential signing statement attached to this…if there is one.UPDATE: Evidently Pony Blow said yesterday there will be no signing statement. (in comments) UPDATE: Pony saidyesterday…”There will be no signing statement.” Continue reading Bush signs torture bill

I’ve posted numerous times on the terrible state of mental health services in New Orleans. It has not improved.Here is another sad story… A 58-year-old woman who was just released from the Jefferson Parish Correctional Center apparently drowned in the Mississippi River early Sunday, police said. She was identified as Antoinette J. Harry of the 3000 block of Scott Street in Jefferson, said Gretna Police Chief Arthur Lawson. Harry, whose husband told police had a history of mental illness, had been arrested after a disturbance Saturday and was booked on outstanding warrants, Lawson said. She was released from jail early … Continue reading Singing Gospel Songs

America’s Pac is running “race ads” in more than 2 dozen Congressional districts. Here are samples… “Black babies are terminated at triple the rate of white babies,” a female announcer in one of the ads says, as rain, thunder, and a crying infant are heard in the background. “The Democratic Party supports these abortion laws that are decimating our people, but the individual’s right to life is protected in the Republican platform. Democrats say they want our vote.Why don’t they want our lives?” Another ad features a dialogue between two men. “If you make a little mistake with one of … Continue reading Disgusting

North Korea FromAP SEOUL, South Korea – North Korea on Tuesday blasted U.N. sanctions aimed at punishing the country for its nuclear test, saying the measures amount to a declaration of war and that the nation wouldn’t cave in to such pressure now that it’s a nuclear weapons power. SNIPThe North broke two days of silence about the U.N. resolution adopted after its Oct. 9 nuclear test, issuing a Foreign Ministry statement on its official Korean Central News Agency. “The resolution cannot be construed otherwise than a declaration of a war” against the North, also known as the Democratic People’s … Continue reading N Korea: Sanctions are War declaration