HEAD… MUST… EXPLODE…
Charles Pierce in today’s Altercation:
So, there I am last night, lost on a blissful post-Pedro high, and I’m watching Aaron Brown and Kelly Wallace on CNN chating over their great dismay over what they perceived as John Kerry’s dilatory documentary response to the charge that he didn’t bleed enough back in the 1970’s. [...]

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LOCKING THE BARN DOOR AFTER THE HORSE IS OUT
Bob Somerby makes a great catch from Woodward’s book:
Since Saturday, this episode has been discussed again and again. And everyone knows what the episode means—George Tenet blew it again. But no one has raised an obvious question, a question concerning the date of this brief. The question [...]

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SPREADING FREEDOM
A senior administration official told reporters today that Bush was seen skipping through the halls of the White House, singing at the top of his voice: All the world over, so easy to see, people everywhere just got to be free! And then GWB did that little thing where he crinkles his eyes and [...]

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OOPS
This was a no-brainer.
The United States is moving to rehire former members of Iraq’s ruling Baath Party and senior Iraqi military officers fired after the ouster of Saddam Hussein, in an effort to undo the damage of its two most controversial policies in Iraq, according to U.S. officials.
Gee, let’s promise a large group of [...]

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GOOD NEWS
Since we clearly have an administration which places little value on art or language, this is good news:
Raymond Park Middle School lost its two arts teachers last year. Home economics was eliminated, along with most foreign-language classes and some physical education classes. The overwhelming priority these days is getting students to grade level in [...]

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I’D LIKE TO SEE THE HALLMARK CARD FOR THIS ONE
So the new overtime rules only screw some workers, not all of them.
But, in one of those special moments of irony at which the Bush administration so excells, they did announce that one of the groups exempted from overtime pay is… administrative assistants.
Funnily enough, today is [...]

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Breslin:
Then in the afternoon in South Jamaica, we tried to scare the young. There was a little girl in a pink sweater saying how much she is afraid of the big third-grade test she must pass today. She ran from PS 165 to the school bus at the curb and called out,
“I throw up.”
“When did [...]

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INTERNED
For those of y’all who’ve lined up summer internships, you should read this.
Internships have nearly replaced traditional summer jobs among today’s career-crazed students. Princeton’s Office of Career Services, for instance, estimates that 60% of Princeton students do internships — paid or unpaid — at some point. Surveys by the National Association of Colleges and Employers [...]

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SOOO-EEY
This morning before I left the house, I caught John O’Neill trashing John Kerry on C-SPAN. They gave this fucker an entire hour without having anyone on from the Kerry campaign to rebut. Bad, bad, bad.
This nasty pigfuck describes himself as a “political independent.” Oh, kiss my ass. He was the man selected by the [...]

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THE VISION THING
I read this letter on Democratic Underground, and wanted to share:
In the summer of 2002, Bush enacted some budget cuts that ended up strangling funds to a non-profit called the Lions Club (it was in a big package, hardly noticeable to anyone except the people really watching this stuff and the people it [...]

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PISSING IN THE WELL
My nana used to say, “Don’t piss in the well, you may need to drink from it later.” Well, that reminds me of this.
Melanie is still fighting the good fight re: liberal snideness about religion, but it’s a losing battle, I fear.
Here you have the exact reason I started Bump in the [...]

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OPEN YOUR EARS
Reader and blog buddy Mike Gutierrez announces the launch of his Internet radio station, Eagle FM. Based out of Alaska, it features the music of the 80s, 90s and current hits - with liberal political commentary. (As soon as I get it together to buy and hook up a computer mic, I’ll be [...]

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THEY’LL DO ANYTHING FOR GOOD PRESS
One of our local congressman, Curt “Congressman from Boeing” Weldon, has been going out of his way to praise the Reverend Moon. Yes, the same Moon who advocates killing gays. Nice.
UPDATE - on the other hand, he’s doing this. So props to Curt for something that looks like principle.

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THE COMPANY YOU KEEP
Arlen Specter has a new best friend. Hopefully, Pennsylvania voters will remember that in November.

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Krugman on interest:
Now for the obvious point: many American families and businesses will be in big trouble if interest rates really do go as high as I’m suggesting. That’s why the I.M.F. is urging the Fed to get the word out.
And one suspects that the fund, which, like Alan Greenspan, tends to convey messages in [...]

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FAIR PLAY
Finally.
In his testimony last week before the Sept. 11 commission, Attorney General John D. Ashcroft loosed a remarkable attack on Jamie S. Gorelick, a commission member who served as deputy attorney general during part of the Clinton administration. The “single greatest structural cause for the September 11th problem,” Ashcroft said, “was the wall that [...]

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HMMM
They backed off, sort of:
Retreating under pressure, the Bush administration intends to revise a proposed overtime regulation to preserve eligibility for most white-collar workers making up to $100,000 a year as well as for police, firefighters and other first responders, Republican officials said Monday.
The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said revisions also would [...]

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From Salon: Woodward proves Richard Clarke was right.

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Just when you think they couldn’t possibly be any worse - that you couldn’t possibly get any more cynical about this administration, they top themselves:
Concern is growing within the archival and historical communities regarding the Bush administration’s hoped for “fast-track” process to replace Archivist of the United States John Carlin with one of its own [...]

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WINNING HEARTS AND MINDS
From Steve at No More Mister Nice Blog, this AP story:
U.S. troops shot to death two employees of U.S.-funded television station Al-Iraqiya on Monday and wounded a third in the central city of Samara, the station said.
Correspondent Asaad Kadhim and driver Hussein Saleh were killed. Cameraman Bassem Kamel was wounded “after [...]

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QUOTE OF THE WEEK
From Rox Populi, “Powell’s Lament“:
“And let’s no have displays of indignation. You may not have known, but you certainly had suspicions. If we’ve told lies, you’ve told half-lies and a man who tells lies, like me, merely hides the truth, but a man who tells half-lies has forgotten where he put it.” [...]

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POP QUIZ
Hah! I don’t usually bite on things like this, but I couldn’t resist the 50 Worst Artists of All Time.
I only have two of these - a Dan Fogleberg album and Iron Butterfly’s In-a-Gadda-Da-Vida. And I’m not ashamed. So there!

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SPIN SPIN SPIN
Hesiod reports that Bob Woodward is ready for the inevitable White House character assassination:
Bob Woodward just told Larry King that he has tape recordings of all the interviews he conducted with Bush administration officialks, including President Buhs, and/or notes from meetings that back up the accounts in his new book.
Apparently, however, the White [...]

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GOODBYE
Poland will be pulling its troops from Iraq by the end of the month.

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BAD AND GETTING WORSE
Some more of that good news from Iraq coming tomorrow:
In an unusual move for the organization, the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies (AAN) will release what it promises will be a bombshell article related to the Iraq conflict at 10 a.m. Eastern Standard Time on Tuesday. It will be made available free of [...]

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FISH OUT OF WATER
Flounder was really flopping all over the deck today, trying to avoid a direct answer: Did Bush fix the price of oil to help his reelection? From Josh Marshall:
QUESTION: Can you describe conversations between the White House and Prince Bandar about his essential promise to lower oil prices before the election? MR. [...]

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FIRST IMPRESSIONS
Via Digby, this cogent thought from Michael Tomasky:
My overwhelming reaction to the 60 Minutes segment on Bob Woodward’s new book and the reports and leaks about the book over the weekend is that Woodward’s account shows a man who just doesn’t have the intellectual capacity to do this job. This may not strike some [...]

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GOOD DOG! NOW BEG.
Wow. Via Atrios, this spells out exactly how this administration controls the media:
One of Suskind’s most severe critiques of Bush was not only Bush’s lack of press conferences but also his management of those conferences.
For each press conference, the White House press secretary asks the reporters for their questions, selects six or [...]

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STUPID IS AS STUPID DOES
I caught Crossfire today, and Paul Begala was calling it an “outrage” about the deal Bush made with the Saudis to lower oil prices, while the Republicons are saying how wonderful it is.
And of course people are too fucking stupid to realize that’s the reason we’ll be paying higher prices all [...]

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DRIP DRIP DRIP
I saw William Cohen talk to Wolf Blitzer on CCN today, and he said Dick Cheney told him before Bush even took office that he wanted Bush’s briefing to focus on Iraq. Since I haven’t read Woodward’s book yet, I don’t know if Cohen was as vehement when he was talking to Woodward.
The [...]

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