Washington Post:
“He annoys me. I annoy him. He chews gum with his mouth open. I leave my legs lying around on the floor.”
–Democratic congressional candidate Tammy Duckworth (whose legs were blown off in Iraq) talking about her husband.

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Drinking Liberally tonight at Tangier, 18th & Lombard, 6-9 p.m. Free wings for the early birds and drink specials…

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My friend Somegirl sent me this all the way from Venezuela:
Sometimes it’s the small abuses scurrying below radar that reveal how profoundly the Bush administration has changed America in the name of national security. Buried within the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 is a regulation that bars most public access to birth [...]

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When I dropped by to see my friend Cos after I got the new apartment Saturday, I picked up one of their guitars and then so did her boyfriend Slim, who started playing lead. We had a nice little impromptu jam going for a half-hour or so, until Slim had to leave for work.
See, that [...]

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Larry Sabato’s Crystal Ball says wingnut Crazy Curt Weldon (PA-7) is looking vulnerable this year. Oh, goody.

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My, this is really getting interesting, isn’t it?
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — Former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said Monday that disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff was paid $1.2 million to organize his 2002 meeting with President Bush, but denied the money came from the Malaysian government.
Mahathir told reporters he was aware a payment was made to Abramoff, [...]

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The torturers win:
In a ruling that basically gave the green light to government barbarism, U.S. District Judge David Trager dismissed Mr. Arar’s lawsuit last Thursday. Judge Trager wrote in his opinion that “Arar’s claim that he faced a likelihood of torture in Syria is supported by U.S. State Department reports on Syria’s human rights practices.”
But [...]

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Fafblog:
“There’s no more soup in the world,” says me. “There is only post-9/11 soup.”
“It’s true,” says Giblets. “9/11 changed everything - even flavor.”
“Five years ago this woulda tasted like delicious cream of mushroom,” says me. “But now it tastes like the ever-present threat of terror.”
“There is the tangy zest of war and the aftertaste of [...]

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Will has some fascinating stuff in a cover story for the American Prospect - all about the new Senate point man on ethics, little Ricky Santorum:
Santorum and his wife received a $500,000, five-year mortgage for their Leesburg, Va., home (pictured at top) from a small Philadelphia private bank run by a major campaign donor — [...]

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Paul Krugman on BushCo: Where are the mensches?

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I know you’ve been waiting for this: Ralph Reed, the comic strip.

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I know a lot of people who wrote letters to the Ocean County commissioners, saying they would no longer vacation there if they didn’t pass this law. I’m glad this was settled before she died:
A New Jersey police lieutenant who last month won a long campaign to pass on pension benefits to her domestic partner [...]

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Via Kevin, from the BBC:
The ambassador said the US would not continue spending billions of dollars to build up security forces run by people with a sectarian agenda.
“American taxpayers expect their money to be spent properly. We are not going to invest the resources of the American people into forces run by people who are [...]

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If this is true, Paul Hackett has lost my respect for good. From David Sirota:
A week AFTER Hackett got out of the race, Hackett’s campaign - now in the process of closing down - leaked all of its “opposition research” on Rep. Sherrod Brown (D) to the Toledo Blade - opposition research that regurgitates the [...]

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Dude!
BERLIN (Reuters) - A 52-year-old man from the German town of Darmstadt tried in vain to get a refund for 400 euros ($475) worth of what he said was “bad marijuana” from his dealer before turning to the police for help, according to authorities.
The police then charged the man with violating drugs possession laws [...]

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Okay, now I’m moving on to the heavy artillery. The sinus tabs didn’t work so I just went to the local CVS drugstore for the triple whammy: Excedrin, Pepsi and chocolate. That’s enough caffeine to move the world off its axis (and to put my stomach in a knot).
This means my head will start [...]

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Hey, Wampum’s computers are in a bad, bad way and they need some help - fast. Nothing sadder than a blogger without a machine (as well I know) and it’s even worse when they’re trying to accomplish something as overwhelming as the Koufax awards.
Please please please - if you can spare $10 or $20, go [...]

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Dar Williams went to Wesleyan College University, which was heavily into experimental music and performance art - the kind of place where the students thought of “Double Fantasy” as a Yoko Ono album with “special guests.” She wrote this other view of the rock world’s most famous couple for “The Green World“:
I wonder if Yoko [...]

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Seems like it was just Fitzmas yesterday, and now it’s time to start thinking about it again:
The investigation into the leak of covert CIA operative Valerie Plame Wilson is heating up. Evidence is mounting that senior officials in the office of Vice President Dick Cheney and the National Security Council conspired to unmask Plame Wilson’s [...]

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I have off for President’s Day. But I have a splitting sinus headache….
By the way: Cold enough for you?

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We have our own problems here:
Feb. 20 (Bloomberg) — Snakeheads, the carnivores nicknamed “Frankenfish,” are on the loose in the Delaware River, posing a threat to a key part of Pennsylvania’s $1.6 billion-a-year fishing industry.
State officials said in December that an 8-inch northern snakehead was caught near Philadelphia International Airport, a year after two of [...]

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Yeah, but it felt so good to know it was there:
WASHINGTON — For Americans troubled by the prospect of federal agents eavesdropping on their phone conversations or combing through their Internet records, there is good news: A little-known board exists in the White House whose purpose is to ensure that privacy and civil liberties are [...]

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This story is getting some major play:
One of the Pentagon’s top civilian lawyers repeatedly challenged the Bush administration’s policy on the coercive interrogation of terror suspects, arguing that such practices violated the law, verged on torture and could ultimately expose senior officials to prosecution, a newly disclosed document shows.
The lawyer, Alberto J. Mora, a political [...]

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Eli on those damned Iraqis and their insistence on things like having electricity….

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Lots of people were very unkind after Mary Matalin appeared on Press the Meat today, but only watertiger made me laugh out loud.

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Josh on why Cheney is a moral coward.

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They were warned. They just didn’t care:
WASHINGTON — The Navy’s former general counsel warned Pentagon officials two years before the Abu Ghraib prison scandal that circumventing international agreements on torture and detainees’ treatment would invite abuse, according to a published report.
Legal theories granting the president the right to authorize abuse in spite of the Geneva [...]

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What would Jesus charge?
(APN) ATLANTA–Ralph Reed’s largest campaign financial supporters, members of Georgia’s Hanna family, are major owners of CompuCredit–the company which issues the highly usurious “credit rebuilding” Aspire Visa Card–Atlanta Progressive News has learned.
Aspire Visa is notorious for extremely high annual fees, monthly fees, account opening fees, credit line increase fees, and finance charges, [...]

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This is no small thing. It should be interesting, to watch the fallout from this statement:
The Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu, has launched a passionate attack on President George Bush, saying his administration’s refusal to close the notorious Guantanamo Bay camp reflected “a society that is heading towards George Orwell’s Animal Farm”.
Dr Sentamu, [...]

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Really, this makes a lot of sense. Don’t you think?
WASHINGTON, Feb. 19 — Legislators from both parties continued today to sharply criticize the Bush administration’s approval of a recent sale that would give a Dubai company control over shipping facilities at six leading American ports, saying that it raised fundamental security issues.
A range of Democrats [...]

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