SUNSHINE LOLLIPOPS AND RAINBOWS
Today Teddy Kennedy became the first U.S. Senator to call for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq:
While not the first member of Congress to call for a withdrawal of the troops, Kennedy is the first senator to do so. And his remarks continued what has been a long and blistering assault [...]

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BRIEFLY
Since so many people are clicking here via Duncan’s comment on Jim C.’s piece, let me state something for the record. Maureen Tkacik, whose byline is on the Philadelphia magazine blog article (the one in which I was rated a C-) wrote me several weeks ago to apologize for the piece, saying she was called [...]

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HONOR AND MORALITY, ETC.
You will be surprised, I know, to learn that the Republicans have thoroughly squashed the ability of minority Democrats to hold hearings with subpoena power:
So not surprisingly, when Ranking Democrat John Conyers offered this modest proposal in the Judiciary Committee, the Republicans rejected it based on a red herring. Chairman Sensenbrenner claimed [...]

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BUSINESS ABOVE ALL
While Max Boot is frothing at the mouth about the “imaginary” military-industrial complex, chew on this:
A senior Iranian diplomat negotiating with Europe over Iran’s controversial nuclear programme is also at the heart of deals with US energy companies to develop the country’s oil industry.
Conservatives in Iran’s parliament have asked how Sirus Naseri can [...]

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GO DEMS
The House Democrats share the news that PR spending doubled under Bush, and they’ve introduced the Federal Propaganda Prohibition Act in response.

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POOR MAX
War fetishist and wingnut attack dog Max Boot goes after Sy Hersh in today’s L.A. Times:
Hersh, on the other hand, is the journalistic equivalent of Oliver Stone: a hard-left zealot who subscribes to the old counterculture conceit that a deep, dark conspiracy is running the U.S. government. In the 1960s the boogeyman was the [...]

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MEMORY LANE
From Frank Rich’s review of “Gunner Palace,” the Iraq war documentary:
JAN. 30 is here at last, and the light is at the end of the tunnel, again. By my estimate, Iraq’s election day is the fifth time that American troops have been almost on their way home from an about-to-be pacified Iraq. The four [...]

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ROLE MODEL
I was wondering if any of the Corporate Media would get around to covering the problems with Chile’s privatization scheme:
For all the program’s success in economic terms, the government continues to direct billions of dollars to a safety net for those whose contributions were not large enough to ensure even a minimum pension approaching [...]

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I caught a small portion of Bubble Boy’s press conference yesterday, and was struck again by how he always smiles when he talks about other people’s children dying:
“The story today is going to be very discouraging to the American people,” Mr. Bush said. “I understand that. We value life. And we weep and mourn when [...]

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THANK YOU
Thanks, guys, for the donations and get-well cards. All your concern is much appreciated. It’s amazing how fast the antibiotics kicked in - only one dose so far and I’m feeling much better. (For one thing, my fever finally broke.)
Severe illness is quite humbling, especially when you live alone and so far from friends [...]

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FROM THE FRYING PAN TO THE FIRE
Joe Lieberman to replace Rumsfeld? Arghhh…

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THAT THING YOU DO
No matter how bad I feel, there’s one thing that always makes me happy: “That Thing You Do!”
And considering the kind of fucking week I’ve had, I’n thrilled that it’s on HBO tonight.
You, doing that thing you doBreakin’ my heart into a million piecesLike you always doAnd youDon’t mean to be cruel.You [...]

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NEOCON BITES THE DUST
Wonder what the real story is here:
Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Douglas J. Feith announced today that he would leave his position this summer. As he has informed Secretary Rumsfeld, Mr. Feith made his decision for personal and family reasons.

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DOWNHILL WITH NO BRAKES
Another voice of experience ignored:
Pelletiere, who holds a doctorate from the University of California at Berkeley, is the author of “America’s Oil Wars.” He served as the CIA’s senior policy analyst on Iraq throughout the Iran-Iraq war and, in 1988, became a senior research professor at the U.S. Army War College in [...]

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‘A SYSTEM TAKEN OVER BY CULTISTS’
Click here to hear Seymour Hersh speak on Abu Ghraib and more, or click here to read transcript:
It’s going to go very bad, folks. You know, if you have not sold your stocks and bought property in Italy, you better do it quick.
And the third thing is Europe — [...]

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SCRAPING BY
But what happens to the yacht payment?
WASHINGTON - President Bush (news - web sites) on Wednesday ordered his Cabinet secretaries not to hire columnists to promote their agendas after disclosure that a second writer was paid to tout an administration initiative.
The president said he expects his agency heads will “make sure that that [...]

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COINCIDENCE
You know, it’s like when all of a sudden, pink is the new black:
AUSTRALIAN Guantanamo Bay detainee Mamdouh Habib was tied to the ground while a prostitute menstruated on him after he failed to co-operate with interrogators, his lawyer said yesterday.
Interrogators also told the Sydney man they had killed his family and superimposed animals’ heads [...]

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NOT TONIGHT, I HAVE A HEADACHE
Understand that the Labor Relations Board during a Republican administration means, bend over and take it:
The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has long held that it is legal for supervisors to vigorously campaign against union organizing efforts. Even employers who force employees to attend anti-union meetings are acting lawfully. [...]

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36 TODAY
Wampum:
31 in the rotary-wing transport crash (cause not determined) at al-Rutbah town, western desert, pop 25,000 (and 2,000,000 sheep).
The air crew were from the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing. The aircraft was a CH-53 Sea Stallion, configured as a troop transporter.The transportees were from the 1st Marine Division, based out of Camp Pendleton in San [...]

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OOPS
You don’t suppose Dick left the nuclear trigger out where Junior could play with it, do you? [Via Unqualified Offerings]:
Apparently we had a little problem with the silo doors on 200 of our missiles in Montana last Friday - the things flew open. Silo doors are something other countries watch with spy satellites because one [...]

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WAY TO GO
The Judiciary Committee Dems held firm and voted no on Gonzales - and to torture as a U.S. policy.
Let’s hear it for senators Kennedy, Leahy, Biden, Feingold, Schumer, Feinstein, Kohl and Durbin.
Republicans, however, are perfectly okay with it, since the odds of them or anyone they care about actually serving the armed services [...]

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I woke up this morning and my chest was making some very strange noises - like hunger pangs, only in my chest. Or like air trying to force itself out of an old, cracked accordian. This lasted for about fifteen minutes and went away when I got up and walked around.
Still, I called the doctor. [...]

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‘I’D LIKE TO THANK THE ACADEMY’
Go read about the Ten Worst Corporations of 2004.

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WHY
Another Times editorial against confirming Gonzales:
Alberto Gonzales’s nomination as attorney general goes before the Senate at a time when the Republican majority is eager to provide newly elected President Bush with the cabinet of his choice, and the Democrats are leery of exposing their weakened status by taking fruitless stands against the inevitable. None of [...]

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SECOND CHANCE
This is a nice human interest story:
Somewhere between 9 and 10 a.m. Monday, the phone rang in the office of Jeff Thomason, a project manager for a development company that is building 150 homes in Chesterfield, N.J., off Exit 7 of the New Jersey Turnpike.
“I’m hurt and I can’t play in the Super Bowl,” [...]

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HELP
I’m still too sick to work today - my cough is so bad, I’m now coughing up blood from a small rupture in my vocal chords. And it’s hard to drive safely when you’re going into these extended coughing fits.
Also, I just can’t seem to shake this fever, despite taking every over-the-counter remedy known to [...]

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ETHICS
Oh, look. One of the principled gang over at the National Review was also getting paid by the government:
In 2002, syndicated columnist Maggie Gallagher repeatedly defended President Bush’s push for a $300 million initiative encouraging marriage as a way of strengthening families.
But Gallagher failed to mention that she had a $21,500 contract with the Department [...]

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AWW
Now, this is love.

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SHOCKING
Geeze. Like there’s not enough to worry about?
Electricity surging up through sidewalks left at least three city dogs with shocked paws yesterday and had Con Edison crews busy trying to prevent a repeat of last year’s pedestrian electrocution.Two Brooklyn dogs were zapped when they stepped on a charged portion of a Clark St. sidewalk, near [...]

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HUMAN MEAT
This may be enough to push me over into the vegetarian column:
For the first time, Human Rights Watch has issued a report that harshly criticizes a single industry in the United States, concluding that the nation’s meat packing industry has such bad working conditions that it violates basic human and worker rights.
In a report [...]

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