George Bush really is a miserable failure. I’m not the only one saying it.

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Via Kevin Drum, this piece of craziness:
Under the provisions of the No Child Left Behind Act, my dad — who taught social studies at an inner-city high school for twenty-seven years and was nationally recognized as an innovative educator — is considered unqualified to teach history courses in the state of Michigan. Yes, he was […]

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Billmon has so many great posts today. Just start with this one and work your way down.

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Bush’s prescription drug plan doesn’t reduce costs, and is aiming at privatizing coverage for at least half of senior citizens.
Why am I not surprised?

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Whatever happened to protecting the rights of the family from government interference? I’m so confused.

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Clark really cut loose yesterday:
In a blistering review of President Bush’s national security policy, Gen. Wesley K. Clark said on Tuesday that the administration could not “walk away from its responsibilities for 9/11.”
“You can’t blame something like this on lower-level intelligence officers, however badly they communicated in memos with each other,” said the retired general, […]

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Cutting Pell grants to pay for tax cuts for the rich - now, that is sheer economic genius.

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Shorter Bill Safire:
I most emphatically see the glass as one-eighth full.

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Atrios reminds us The Horse is all over the latest Bush lie - this time, the one about the “Mission Accomplished” banner on the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln. Here’s what the lying little weasel had to say at yesterday’s tightly controlled press conference:
The “Mission Accomplished” sign, of course, was put up by the members of the […]

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There’s a link to a transcript of the Cher call-in from C-SPAN on Atrios:
C-Span Moderator: Ok. And you spent the day at Walter Reed [Medical Center].
CALLER: Yeah. And I spent the day with, I mean they were great guys…and the the men that took me around were in the - you know, the services,you […]

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This soldier’s family says he was denied proper care, while the VA announces it will start closing hospitals.
More of that troop support we’ve heard so much about…

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California’s unemployment insurance fund is about to go bankrupt. C’mon, Arnie, use your superpowers. Nah, he’ll just borrow the money and stick the next governor with the bill.

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Uh oh. Looks like a big solar flare headed our way tomorrow.
The sun on Tuesday unleashed what appears to be the third most powerful flare in recorded history, a storm of charged particles that could hit Earth midday Wednesday with more effect than any since 1989, when power was knocked out to an entire Canadian […]

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My sister-in-law, Amazing Grace, is a finalist in the local talk radio station’s Italian gravy contest. Way to go, Gracie!

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WHEN YOU HAVE NOTHING TO HIDE, YOU DON’T HIDE ANYTHING
Well, well, well. Someone on one of my email lists sent this quote from Healing Iraq, what purports to be an Iraqi dentist’s blog (I was already a little suspicious about the Jonathan Swift quote at the top of the page):
The Mujahedeen are getting very creative […]

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Via Atrios, this must-read interview with George Lakoff, a UC Berkeley professor of linguistics and cognitive science, highlights the use of language in the selling of political ideas:
Do any of the Democratic Presidential candidates grasp the importance of framing?
None. They don’t get it at all. But they’re in a funny position. The framing changes that […]

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I wonder if anything ever makes this dope stop and question himself? In related news, Billmon parses the recurring usage of the word “desperate.”

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Tonight, tonight… the season premiere of 24. Every time I blink or leave the room, I miss some pivotal plot point, but damn, this show is fun. I can’t wait.
Tonight’s premiere episode of Day 3 starts three years after last season’s finale. Viewers are not immediately told what Bauer has been doing in the 26,280 […]

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Am I the only one who’s noticed we’re rapidly moving toward a country in which corporations don’t even have to clean up their own mess?

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Shorter David Brooks:
I am shocked, shocked that Republicans support pork barrel spending. I thought they were too principled for that sort of thing.

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Krugman has a real thoughtful piece on how little effort is put into understanding why other countries don’t trust us.
Last week I found myself caught up in that [domestic political] struggle. I wrote about why Mahathir Mohamad, Malaysia’s prime minister — a clever if loathsome man who adjusts the volume of his anti-Semitism depending on […]

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It’s funny. An administration which can’t seem to find its ass with both hands manages to get organized enough to do punitive audits on teen sex education groups.
So far, Advocates for Youth, STOP AIDS and SIECUS have come through all of their audits with flying colors. But last year, as it turns out, a number […]

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MORE ON OUR ‘ACCURATE’ MEDIA
Spinsanity has an enlightening piece on the $38 billion California deficit that wasn’t.
The $38 billion figure received wide publicity earlier this year (with most coverage implying it was a one-year deficit rather than a projection over two years). But on July 31, 2003, just a few days after the recall qualified […]

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WE’RE WINNING, HE SAYS
Could someone please explain to me by what system are they keeping score?
Said Bremer: “We’ll have rough days … but the overall thrust is in the right direction and the good days outnumber the bad days.”

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Atrios has a post this morning from a counselor talking about all the cases of post-traumatic stress disorder he/she is seeing in soldiers back from Iraq. In the comments section, someone suggest there’s a certain amount of projection going on when the counselor says they’re all angry at Bush for having lied to them.
Actually, those […]

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