Nanci Griffith and John Prine:

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More signs of that booming economy:
WASHINGTON - The welfare state is bigger than ever despite a decade of policies designed to wean poor people from public aid.
The number of families receiving cash benefits from welfare has plummeted since the government imposed time limits on the payments a decade ago. But other programs for the poor, […]

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Sy Hersh on CNN just now:
John Negroponte was seen as too ethical to sign off on the things the State Department wanted him to do.

This John Negroponte… so imagine how bad their proposals must have been.

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Howard Kurtz this morning, referring to the new Fox political ripoff of Jon Stewart comedy show as “a Foxian fantasy of what it would be like” if the world wasn’t run by “the liberal media.”

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1. The Very Thought of You - Shirley Horn
2. American Idiot - Green Day
3. Goodbye - Steve Earle, Emmylou Harris
4. Sara Smile - Hall & Oates
5. Landed - Ben Folds
6. Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes) - Freedy Johnston
7. Stoned - Lewis Taylor
8. Maps - Yeah Yeah Yeahs
9. Anybody Can Be Somebody’s Fool - Nanci […]

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I don’t watch it anymore. I used to, for the first and part of the second season, but I was turned off by the show’s psychological underpinnings - that torture is both effective, and justified. Not just justified, but downright patriotic! (A co-worker was recently shocked when I referred to his favorite show as “torture […]

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Sy Hersh starts with an analysis of the war “redirection” and follows with a bunch of stories on the possibly impending Iran strikes here.

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I’m guessing there’s a karmic link in there somewhere, too:
In a revelation that will stun the nation, the Rev. Al Sharpton, one of America’s most powerful black leaders, has unearthed a shattering family secret - his ancestors were slaves owned by relatives of the late South Carolina Sen. Strom Thurmond.
It is an ironic twist of […]

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Oh, don’t worry your beautiful minds about it:
WASHINGTON, Feb. 24 — As the National Governors Association began its winter meeting, 13 governors expressed alarm on Saturday that they were about to run out of federal money for a popular program that provides health insurance to children.
They appealed to Congress and the Bush administration for swift […]

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Unless, of course, government officials have drilled holes in the side of your dinghy:
WASHINGTON (AFP) - The gulf between rich and poor in the United States is yawning wider than ever, and the number of extremely impoverished is at a three-decade high, a report out Saturday found.
Based on the latest available US census data […]

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So Bubble Boy and Cheney are so crazy, the top military would rather quit than execute their insane plans? Well, that’s heartening:
SOME of America’s most senior military commanders are prepared to resign if the White House orders a military strike against Iran, according to highly placed defence and intelligence sources.
Tension in the Gulf region […]

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John Lennon:

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I think that Republicans eventually will find this determination to be a fountain for unintended consequences for domestic policy that Republicans won’t like, but give the Bush State Department credit for posting this on the web for all to see: Free Speech on Internet a Basic Human Right.

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Or, “What Happens in Vegas, Is a National Shame in Vegas”.

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George’s tribute to John:

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Ecohuman gives us a lesson on building waste:
The biggest polluter and energy user on the planet? Not cars. Not planes. Not refineries.
It’s buildings. Even “green” buildings. Houses, factories, monstrous skyscrapers, commercial buildings, those nifty concrete and glass condos on the corner.
I’m not sure what to do about it, though. Is all that waste something […]

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Richard and Linda Thompson with the old Everly Brothers song:

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Amazing how, despite all we’ve done to sour it, we still essentially have Europe’s support over the events of 9/11.
Those distinctions have both practical and legal foundations: While a defeat of the US in Iraq might be troubling for the West, an accompanying defeat in Afghanistan would be “catastrophic,” says a Brussels-based European diplomat.
“The war […]

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I wonder how globe sales are doing these days.

Carroll’s family store has sold globes for decades and recently remodeled its showroom in the Crossroads district. He said globe sales took a hit after Germany unified and Russia split in the early 1990s. “People were hesitant to invest the money in one at a […]

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I’m shocked, I tell you - shocked!
Much of the intelligence on Iran’s nuclear facilities provided to UN inspectors by US spy agencies has turned out to be unfounded, diplomatic sources in Vienna said today.
The claims, reminiscent of the intelligence fiasco surrounding the Iraq war, coincided with a sharp increase in international tension as the […]

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Next time I have to have a procedure, I’ll be sure to ask my surgeon what games he’s playing now.
There was a strong correlation between video game skills and a surgeon’s capabilities performing laparoscopic surgery in the study published in the February issue of Archives of Surgery.

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This goes out to Brendan.

We have art in order not to die of the truth.

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Are we paying attention?
Voters in Pennsylvania could have a new state constitution to ratify as soon as the next presidential election.
But there’s a lot to do if that’s going to happen.
The state Senate Government Committee, headed by Sen. Jeffrey E. Piccola, R-Dauphin, held its first in a series of hearings yesterday on convening a constitutional […]

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I never hear of Sister Rosetta Tharpe, until I read this:

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