Katrina vs. the Tsunami

I understand they were dealt a major blow, but knock off the tsunami comparisons... 54 deaths is horrible, and I truly feel for the families, but get a grip: the tsunami took out some quarter of a million people.

Bribes to hold your newborn in Bangalore

There should be a special circle in Hell for people like this...

The Heartland

I don't know which is more retarded: that a 22 year old man would get married to a 14 year old girl (with the blessings of the parents, no less) or that the state of Nebraska would go after him for statutory rape now that they have a child, thereby creating a fatherless child in the hands of a mother who can't even drive yet.

Update: Oooh... I just finished the article... it's like watching a train wreck (he has learning disabilities, she isn't interested in college but "wants to become a nurse")

Do not mess with the Halliburton Administration

Here:

A top Army contracting official who criticized a large, noncompetitive contract with the Halliburton Company for work in Iraq was demoted Saturday for what the Army called poor job performance.

The official, Bunnatine H. Greenhouse, has worked in military procurement for 20 years and for the past several years had been the chief overseer of contracts at the Army Corps of Engineers, the agency that has managed much of the reconstruction work in Iraq.

The demotion removes her from the elite Senior Executive Service and reassigns her to a lesser job in the corps' civil works division.

Ms. Greenhouse's lawyer, Michael Kohn, called the action an "obvious reprisal" for the strong objections she raised in 2003 to a series of corps decisions involving the Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg Brown & Root, which has garnered more than $10 billion for work in Iraq.

Dick Cheney led Halliburton, which is based in Texas, before he became vice president.

This says it all...

Buried in a long post, Digby related this old joke and compares it to the timidity that the Democrats are currently displaying on Iraq:

Howard and Joe are facing the firing squad. The executioner comes forward to place the blindfold on them. Howard disdainfully and proudly refuses, tearing the thing from his face. Joe turns to him and pleads: "Please Howard, don't make trouble!

Such a nice summary. It is just beyond me that the Dems are not even attempting to find their collective balls on this issue given how badly the Republicans have screwed things up, how much corruption is running wild, and how low Dubya's approval ratings are... it's beyond me.

Dissent in the states...

I understand that people will try to paint their political foes in certain ways, but this is simply retarded:

Meeting briefly with reporters Monday aboard Air Force One, Trent Duffy, a White
House spokesman subbing for Scott McClellan, said that President Bush believes
that those who want the U.S. to begin to change course in Iraq do not want
America to win the overall "war on terror."

Yeah... we liberals really want to hurt America... the ridiculousness and lack of civility is appalling but also standard operating procedure for this White House.

This part was nice too:

Speaking to reporters, Duffy said that Bush "can understand that people don't
share his view that we must win the war on terror, and we cannot retreat and cut
and run from terrorists, but he just has a different view. He believes it would
be a fundamental mistake right now for us to cut and run in the face of
terrorism, because if we've learned anything, especially from the 9/11
Commission Report, it is that to continue to retreat after the Cole, after
Beirut and Somalia is to only empower terrorists and to give them more
recruiting tools as they try to identify ways to harm Americans.

I will give him Somalia... the military decision on the ground was poor and the political decision thereafter was as well, but on the rest? Retreat? Clinton launched 70 cruise missiles at terrorist camps in Sudan and Afghanistan after the Cole bombing, but perhaps you remember that the right derided the move as wagging the dog.

Dillholes...

An accurate capsule of the Dubya presidency

This sums it up:

In brief remarks outside the exclusive resort where he is vacationing, Bush
gave no indication that he would change his mind and meet with Sheehan, who lost
a son in Iraq and has emerged as a harsh critic of the war there, when he
returns to his Texas ranch Wednesday evening.

---

Bush said most military families have a different viewpoint than Sheehan.
"She doesn't represent the view of a lot of families," he told reporters.

Dubya has no interest in hearing anything else that what he wants to hear... it doesn't matter if his assertion is true (note how he finely chops it to just military families), and it doesn't matter if some opinion he wont hear is in the majority... he just doesn't care.

Bat-Shit Crazy

Robertson calls for the assassination of Chavez

I can understand it... it is, after all, a very Christian thing to do.

And let's not forget that Robertson has called on more than one occasion for God to create some openings on the Supreme Court so Roe v. Wade can be overturned.

Update: Atrios points out why Robertson wants to off Chavez... but I can take that better than "I have to one-up my Daddy so I can work out my issues."

Your required Roberts reading

Some sketchy views on minorities and women... a product of privilege?

Remember: Roberts is Dubya with better grades

Utah startign a police state?

We'll see how this plays out... I would love to see some footage!

Guns in the Workplace

Hmmm... I wonder what the Heston-ite nutcases think of this:

Researchers at the University of North Carolina have shown that killings are five times more likely to occur at workplaces where guns are allowed as where they’re prohibited.

But...

But...

Guns don't kill people! People kill people! My worldview is crumbling and I must hang on to my tired slogan for dear life!

Whore

Frist can't bring himself to say that HIV can't be spread by tears, and now he thinks ID should be taught along side evolution.

Who is Roberts?

Here's a good post to start getting an idea... the "George Bush but with better grades" line is a pretty good summation.

Gas Prices

Hmmm... it has been over two weeks since my last post. I have been amazingly busy with my dissertation data collection, and things will continue to be slow for at least another month.

However, I did want to pop in and note that I just paid $45 for a fill-up (and I wasn't exactly running on fumes).

That's obscene for our culture... I would love to have even higher prices (from taxes, etc.) but we just don't have the infrastructure for alternative modes of transportation that other countries do. I also wouldn't mind so much if corporate profits were normal, but they are making money hand over fist.

The silver lining here is that I think more and more of the population has become interested in green technology, particularly hybrids. Hell, even a lefty like me has started to really look at the Prius and others for our next car, so hopefully this will lead to economic pressures that aid the greener industries.

South Koreans clone dog

Insert asian food joke here

Yeah, he's a really moderate conservative

O'Reilly wants to execute the Gitmo prisoners