Miami Police Terrorize City

Of course, the way they see it, you have nothing to be afraid of if you have nothing to hide. So, they'll be sending in squads to randomly surround banks, cordon off areas, and take ID from everybody. "We want that shock. We want that awe. But at the same time, we don't want people to feel their rights are being threatened."

Pardon the Turkey

Over at Slate, "has been" Bruce Reed makes a good point about the traditional turkey pardon that President Bush engaged in last Tuesday - namely, that this is expected to be the first of many for the second-term President.

Actually, with his approval ratings sinking to Carterian (if not Nixonian) depths, the President's plight itself is reminiscent of a certain hobbled variety of water fowl...

Record new HIV cases in '05

HIV is spreading. Which to be more fearful of? HIV? Bird flu? who can tell?

Or, perhaps we should take to heart Sarah Silverman's words on the subject: "When God gives you AIDS, make lemon-AIDS!"

Bush's Asia Trip Meets Low Expectations

Okay, that's not my headline -- that's the headline on the relevant WaPost article.

GM Closing 6 plants in US, cutting 30,000 jobs.

Front page news flash at NYTimes, now.

Bush immediately introduced a new tax cut proposal, where the affected 30,000 workers will see their income taxes cut in proportion to their decrease in income. Bush says no new laws need be passed for the propsal to take effect. I'd sure like to see how he's going to accomplish THAT crazy calculus.

Bob Graham: What I Knew Before the Invasion

Former Sen. Bob Graham (D-FL) describes why he voted against the Iraq invasion, and how he knew the Administration was lying. [WaPost]

Amusing Ourselves to Death

NYTimes. The article points out that most households making more than $77K/year spend more on entertainment than food, clothing, or gasoline.

That's completely crazy. Someone should start the American Hobby movement.

The Article goes on to describe ways to bring that way down.

Why Did Woodward's Source Come Forth?

It's been speculated that Woodward's source must have been cooperating with the prosecuter, because it was the source who told Fitzgerald about their conversation.

Nope. According to the WaPost, Woodward's source had testified earlier. And then, Woodward -- apparently beginning effort to come clean which we hear about now -- approached the source and reminded them about the June 2003 conversation. It was then that the source went to Fitzgerald to tell him about the conversation.

Thus, Woodward's source is presently exposed to obstruction of justice charges, for not having previously mentioned having told Woodward about Plame to the grand jury. And he was looking forward to getting away with it, because Woodward had apparently decided to keep mum.

Woodward was Told About Plame by Dick Cheney before the Novak Article

Further in that Rueters article, we learn from Rove's lawyer that Karl Rove "absolutely, positively is not the source" for Woodward.

Okay. And Scooter Libby's been handing open permission (to Judith Miller, for Example), so it can't be him who's denying permission to Bob Woodward.

Do the math. The only person left here is Dick Cheney. He has never said he gives permission to reporters to talk about his involvment.

Dick Cheney told Bob Woodward that Plame was a CIA agent prior to Novak's article.

Woodward is Gonna Go To Prison

So Woodward has now admitted publicly that he got Plame's name from a White House official, but that official won't 'release him from his pledge'.

We know what happens in these cases: Fitzgerald asks the Grand Jury to hold him in contempt, and he goes to prison.

[Reuters]

The press needs to outline ethical standards that distinguish between providing access to a free press, and their being a tool of government opression.

Bush Administration Member Still Not Cooperating with the Plame Investigation

Bob Woodward reported today that he has a source in the White House who he talked to about Plame prior to the Novak article, but that source expressly told him not to reveal his identity -- as recently as this week!

This means that someone in the White House is disobeying Bush's direct instruction to completely cooperate with the investigation.

Here's text: "The Post disclosed this morning that Woodward testified under oath Monday in the CIA leak case. Woodward said today he had gotten permission from one of his sources, White House chief of staff Andrew H. Card Jr., to disclose that he had testified that their June 20, 2003 conversation did not involve Plame, the wife of administration critic Joseph C. Wilson IV. He said he had 'pushed' his other administration source, without success, to allow him to discuss that person's identity, but that the source has insisted that the waiver applies only to Woodward's testimony.

"

The Trees are Coming to Dunsinane

In editorials like these, you can hear the chords of the new national consensus: Bush lied us into war.

Bush Becoming Reclusive: Talks only to Laura, Condi, his Mom and Karen Hughes

WaTimes via AMERICAblog.

This should really freak y'all out.

I mean, us all out.

French Employment Minister: Riots not due to racism, but to polygamists

You see, says the minister, the problem could be that the large, polygamous families these people come from leads to a lack of a father figure and, thus, anti-social behavior and riots. How does he know? Well, it seems he once knew personally of a youth who was arrested -- arrested, see --- and it later turned out that he came from a polygamous family. So you see, no racism here, he says, it's because of these teeming masses of polygamous families. An aide -- who refused to be named -- later said polygamy was not the overwhelming cause of the riots.

Holy bejeezus fuck. This guy is their employment minister .

Disco Inferno

Last week, the Pentagon was all like "We SOOO did not use white phosphorous in Falluja. Today they're all like "OK, so what if we did? So what? We didn't sign the international treaty restricting its use, so it's not illegal.

Burn baby, burn.

Alito says he was 'totally kiddding' about backing abortion curbs in '85

Seriously. That's a direct paraphrase.

White House Policy: We Torture

Earlier this week, George Bush made the statement: "We do not torture." That sounds pretty unequivocal.

But National Security Advisor and future indicted administration member Stephen Hadley issued this important clarification. That is to say, we torture.

Of course, future indictee Hadley says we use "enhanced interrogation techniques" to get information that "may help" provide information to avoid future attacks.

Oh my god. You've got to be kidding, Hadley. "May help"? As in, "I think this punk has information we need to get -- call in the guys with the scalpels." That's completely unacceptable.

Revolution of the Center

Anybody watch The Daily Show this week? On was John McCain, who didn't talk about his 2008 plans. However, he mentioned, incidentally, the opinions on specific subjects held by one Colin Powell -- you've probably heard of him. To be precise, McCain twice talked about Colin Powell, apropos of nothing.

So: McCain/Powell. With any luck, they'll announce early, and give Cheney that gripper we've all be hoping for.

Hasta la Vista

In case those of you no longer in California haven't been paying attention, Governor Arnold Schwarznegger put 4 propositions on the ballot yesterday. Those propositions, as well as all 4 other propositions on the ballot failed. This would seem to be the end of Arnold's "reform" agenda and the end of his political career.

Why NBC, CBS and DirecTV are a Pack of Idiots

CBS, NBC to Offer TV Shows for 99 Cents - Yahoo! News. Here's how they think they're going to compete with Apple:

• DirectTV is shipping new DVRs
  
• DirectTVs DVRs have 160 hours of prorgramming -- they'll let the consumer use 100 hours, and they will download 60 hours of content which the consumer can then purchase, at 99 cents a show.
  

In other words, people who can already record the shows will be the only ones who can purchase the shows. Also, they are downloading EVERY single show for sale onto EVERYBODY's DVR, and then asking them if they want to buy it. So the bandwidth costs are alread spent by the time the consumer decides to buy -- and if they don't, DirecTV is out of luck. Mostly, people won't. If only 5% of all people buy a particular show, that means they have to charge at least 20x what it cost to deliver that show to recoup, which they either aren't doing. Apple, meanwhile, charges only to make a single copy of a show, $1.99. All that goes back to the Studio, with no additional bandwidth costs to Apple, the studio, anybody.

A pack of screaming idiots at NBC and CBS, not to mention DirecTV. This sort of thing could bankrupt them.

Who Knew?

The New York Times reports that the Bush Administration had an intelligence report from Feb 2002, which said a top Al Qaeda member was a big ol' liar, and shouldn't be trusted when he said that Iraq was supporting Al Qeada's work with illicit weapons.

Oh my goodness. This means the Bush Administration probably knew all along that the Iraqi WMD/terrorism claims were lies. Who knew?

Alito, Dark Prince

If you're not scared yet about the Alito nomination, you haven't read this piece by Slate's William Saletan.

Note that Saletan is not a liberal on abortion.

Rove Indictment to Come Within Weeks

[WaPost]: "Fitzgerald is considering charging Rove with making false statements in the course of the 22-month probe, and sources close to Rove -- who holds the titles of senior adviser and White House deputy chief of staff -- said they expect to know within weeks whether the most powerful aide in the White House will be accused of a crime."

The article also says that his WH colleagues are saying that if he wants to stay, he has to issue an apology to the public and colleagues for misleading them. That's like saying "He's been obstructing justice." And if WHouse colleagues are saying, boldly, that Rove's been obstructing justice, the guy is as good as toast.

America Has Secret Prisons

WaPost

This stuff is supposedly okay, because it's not done on US soil.