To the teeming millions of readers of this blog

Sorry, I'm offline for five days. Family wedding in Arizona.

This is news to me

The wire service, UPI, once a strong competitor to AP but for years its lesser cousin, has for five years been owned by the Rev. Moon, whose politics are to the right of Himmler.

So far, not a whisper

from the MSM about the missing billion from Iraq's coffers.

Rooting for Rita

Her projected path looks perfect. First, wiping out the remaining oil derricks in the Gulf, then knocking out refineries in Galveston, then cutting a direct path over barren land to Crawford. You go, girl.

Right on, Arianna

I didn't climb on the Huffington bandwagon right away, but I gotta tell ya, she sees Bill Clinton (Hilary too) for what they truly represent. The worst kind of politicians: unprincipled, unscrupulous, unbridled opportunists who do America no service by their service. I have come to despise them -- for different reasons -- with the virulence I thought I could feel only for Bush and his ilk. At least Bush doesn't pretend to be "one of us."

He who lives by the sword...

Check out these numbers of those recently polled who approve of Bush's handling of the situation in Iraq. Not only are they plummeting, scroll down a bit to see the astounding percentage responses to this question:

"Should the United States troops stay in Iraq as long as it takes to make sure Iraq is a stable democracy, even if it takes a long time, or should U.S. troops leave Iraq as soon as possible, even if Iraq is not completely stable?"

Result: "Leave ASAP" is 52%, up from 40% at the beginning of 2005. The tide is turning, bigtime.

More madness

This kind of thing is enough to drive a U.S. taxpayer, especially a conservative one, into tax-protest. But of course we'll not hear a peep about it in the MSM.

Update: It's five-thirty p.m. PDT and so far not a peep from the MSM. If anyone notes a peep about the missing billion, please let me know when and where.

The trial is on

of the St. Patrick's Four. Here's the detailed information and here's a summary.

How powerful a statement is that?!

Elect a madman, you get madness

Like this, and this and this and this and this. Just another day of news accounts from Iraq and the American Empire.

Let the word go forth from this time and place...

that Robert Kennedy should be our next president of the United States.

The coalition of the dwindling

The newly-elected Prime Minister of Norway has told Bush that he will pull Norway's troops out of Iraq. All twenty of them.

Lest we forget

Here's a dispatch from Iraq, a necessary reminder, because while hundreds of thousands of Americans have lost their belongings and some hundreds have lost their lives to a natural catastrophe, a similar number of Iraqis are in the middle of a man-made storm. And while Katrina has passed into meteorological history, the agony the Iraqis are suffering has no apparent end.

Just when you thought they couldn't stoop any lower...

They seek to blame the woeful levee-levels around New Orleans on environmental groups to deflect criticism from their own lack of funding of levee projects. Recall, BTW, that the head of the department that employs all U.S. Attorneys is none other than our torture-lover, Alberto Gonzales.

(The person who leaked this memo to the Louisiana newspaper should be awarded the highest environmental medal, something like the Earth Emblem.)

A dog in this fight

For weeks I've stayed away from the question of John Roberts' suitability as Supreme Court Justice, now Chief Justice. But having watched and listened to a few hours of his testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee (and having all the while squirmed and moaned at the ineptness of the questioning by the "liberals") I have concluded as follows:

1. Roberts is a skilled advocate of legal positions, and has brought those skills to the hearing room to support his own nomination. He argues positions very well.

2. He has no soul. This is apparent not only from his demeanor and the content of his "answers" but from his record as well. As to the latter, consider this analysis by a long-time Washington lawyer, a Georgetown Law teacher who litigated civil rights cases for years.

So, do I think he should be a Supreme? No, because it's a job for a human being, not a robot. And, if you look carefully at John Roberts, don't you get a kind of Stepford-wives feeling, like there's nobody there? So maybe we should dub him John Robot?

So far, so mute

The MSM is still silent, as of this writing, on this Reuters story of Iraq's Justice Minister's (Attorney General) complaints about the US detentions of innocents and journalists in Iraq, as well as the legal immunity of our troops. A huge development, showing clearly that our status in Iraq is that of occupier, not liberator. I wish the Justice Minister well--he certainly speaks for "liberty" in his nation--but I'll bet his complaint gets no legs in this nation and is even buried by his cohorts, the puppets, who run Iraq on behalf of the US. Stay tuned.

A rat deserting...?

NYT's Tom Friedman, evil genius of the conservative economy, compares the US to Singapore, and decides the latter is preferable to the America run by his compadres. Is the dike cracking?

Economic disconnect

If "the economy" is soaring, why do most Americans not believe it? Here's why.

Who's on first?

Depending on whom you listen to--the Rummie or the President of Iraq--the US will pull out "at least 50 or 60 thousand" troops by the end of the year. Or not.

Update: This is what they call a puppet government.

Polling the polls

Here's a list of most recent national polls, showing the percentages who approve/disapprove of Bush's performance as president. All of the disapproval percentages are at an all-time high for his presidency, and so for once the hype in the MSM about his declining numbers isn't just hype--it's real.

Now, wouldn't it be great if the MSM would finally get the guts to tell the truth about his reign, now that it's safe to do so? And maybe if they did, the Democrats in Congress could get some balls too. But don't count on it. Rove's power is still formidable (but recall that the Plame grand jury term will end in October, so that a report on the leak is imminent, maybe with indictments) and both the MSM and the Democrats (most, anyway) have consistently shown no spine when it comes to attacking this administration for its aberrant policies and its lies.

Stay tuned.

She's baaack!

Riverbend, the Baghdad's Burning blogger, has resumed posting, telling us what it's like in that city. If ever there was "fair and balanced" reporting, this is it.