George W. Bush has hit an all-time job approval low of 19%.
This stunningly low number smashes Harry Truman's previous record of 22% and Richard Nixon's all-time low of 24%.





35% job approval rating in the latest CBS poll (11/02/05).

34% job approval rating in the latest Harris Interactive Poll (11/17/05).

34% job approval rating in the latest CBS poll (2/27/06).

33% job approval rating in the latest Pew Research Center for People and the Press Poll (3/15/06).

33% job approval rating in the latest Fox News Poll (4/20/06).

32% job approval rating in the latest CNN Poll (4/24/06).

31% job approval rating in the latest USA Today/Gallup Poll (5/8/06).

31% job approval rating in the latest New York Times/CBS News Poll (5/9/06).

29% job approval rating in the latest Harris Poll (5/11/06).

28% job approval rating in the latest CBS News Poll (1/23/07).

28% job approval rating in the latest Harris Interactive Survey (4/26/07).

28% job approval rating in the latest Newsweek Poll (5/05/07).

26% job approval rating in the latest Newsweek Poll (6/21/07).

26% job approval rating in the latest Newsweek Poll (7/06/07).

26% (PDF) job approval rating in the latest Harris Interactive Poll (7/12/07).

25% job approval rating in the latest American Research Group Poll (7/23/07).

24% job approval rating in the latest Reuters/Zogby Poll (10/17/07).

19% job approval rating in the latest American Research Group Poll (02/20/08).


Buy Bush Limbo Party T-Shirts.

Did you know that you may be entitled to THOUSANDS of dollars in FREE MONEY?

That's right! If you signed up for telephone or Internet service with a major telecommunications carrier any time after September 2001, you may be eligible for an award of more than TWENTY THOUSAND DOLLARS!

THIS IS NOT A SCAM!

This is a bona fide legal claim that over 100 MILLION PEOPLE OR MORE may be entitled to.

But you need to act fast, because this offer may not last if you don't CALL NOW!

What's this all about?

In 2006, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) filed a class action lawsuit in Federal Court against AT&T for conspiring with the National Security Agency (NSA), to illegally monitor the Internet and telephone traffic of AT&T's customers.

The EFF lawsuit arose from news reports in December 2005, which first revealed that the NSA has been intercepting Americans' phone calls and Internet communications without any court oversight and in violation of the privacy safeguards established by Congress and the U.S. Constitution. This surveillance program, purportedly authorized by the President at least as early as 2001, intercepts and analyzes the phone and Internet communications of millions of ordinary Americans.

But the government did not act-and is not acting-alone. EFF's lawsuit alleges that AT&T has given the NSA unchecked backdoor access to its communications network and its record databases. On behalf of a nationwide class of AT&T customers, EFF is suing to stop this illegal conduct and hold AT&T responsible for violating the law and the fundamental freedoms of the American public.

This lawsuit, known as Hepting v. AT&T, is just one of many similar class action lawsuits filed against nearly every major US Telco carrier. Most of these suits have now been consolidated, along with Hepting, into one major legal action, which is being heard by Judge Walker in the Federal Court for the Northern District of California.

The list of companies being sued for helping the Bush Administration spy on millions of law-abiding Americans includes:

AT&T
AT&T Mobility
BellSouth
Cingular Wireless
Comcast
MCI
McLeod
Nextel
Sprint
T-Mobile
Transworld
Verizon

If you had telephone and/or Internet service with one of the above listed companies any time after September 2001, you are likely part of a class eligible to receive a substantial money damage award should EFF's and others' domestic spying lawsuits prove successful.

How much money are we talking about?

While the size of your damage award may vary depending on what state you live in, your carrier, and a host of other factors, as a guide let's assume you, like 73 million other people, used AT&T for your phone or Internet service. Here's how much EFF says you may be entitled to:

EFF, on behalf of a nationwide class of AT&T customers, is suing to stop this illegal conduct and hold AT&T responsible for its illegal collaboration in the government's domestic spying program, which has violated the law and damaged the fundamental freedoms of the American public. The lawsuit request an injunction and damages under the statute. The laws provide that the victims can receive damages of at least $21,000 for each affected person.

Notice that EFF says the law entitles subscribers to damages of at least 21,000, which means the final award per person could be even greater. Notice also that the law applies to "each affected person" - not each account. This means that if your household has multiple users on the same account, each person may be entitled to a separate award.

The other Telco companies are in pretty much the same boat as AT&T, which also means that if you had different carriers for your phone and Internet, or if you changed carriers after Sept. 2001, you may be eligible to receive multiple awards.

Needless to say, any way you slice it, we're talking real money.

What's going on with the cases?

The domestic spying cases are currently on hold pending the outcome of an appeal by the Government and the Telcos of Judge Walker's denial of their Motion to Dismiss based on state secrets immunity:

As Judge Walker wrote when dismissing AT&T's immunity claims, "AT&T cannot seriously contend that a reasonable entity in its position could have believed that the alleged domestic dragnet was legal." Judge Walker also flatly rejected the government's secrecy argument: "The compromise between liberty and security remains a difficult one. But dismissing this case at the outset would sacrifice liberty for no apparent enhancement of security."

Although the Appellate Court has yet to rule, during the appellate hearing all three Judges on the panel clearly appeared ready to reject the state secrets immunity argument, with one Judge even telling the Government's lawyer during his presentation, "I feel like I'm in Alice in Wonderland".

Assuming the Court rejects the Government's appeal, the consolidated cases would then proceed to the next phase, where even more damning information about just what our Government and the Telcos have been up to is sure to come out.

So what's the catch?

Of course, companies so flagrantly willing to illegally invade the privacy of millions of their own customers should not be expected to play fair when it comes to answering for their crimes.  Now that it appears the Appellate Court may be willing to let Hepting proceed, the Telcos are busily trying to short circuit the court process entirely by lobbying Congress to grant retroactive immunity for the illegal wiretapping of millions of Americans just like you.

A Congressional grant of retroactive immunity will virtually shut down the Hepting case.  If that happens, not only will we never know the full extent to which our own Government has been spying on us, but you will no longer be entitled to all of those thousands of dollars in damages the Telcos may otherwise owe you for handing your phone and Internet records over to George W. Bush.

****** Call NOW!!!! ******

It's still not too late to preserve your claim to the thousands of dollars your privacy is legally worth - privacy that the Telcos intentionally stole from you.

Congress is currently debating a bill that would include retroactive immunity for the Telcos as part of a larger overhaul of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act or FISA.

Call your Representative and Senators and tell them to vote NO on any FISA bill that includes retroactive immunity.

(To find the telephone numbers of your Congresspeople go here.)

****** Don't Wait!!!  Call NOW!!!! ******



Because the money you win may be your own.

****** Call NOW!!!! ******

It's only been three years since the New York Times publicly apologized for promoting Bush Administration fairy tales about Iraqi WMD, and still the Grey Lady continues to carry heavy water for the Bush Administration, this time regurgitating neocon lies claims that the target of the Israeli bombing strike in Syria was a nuclear facility.

WASHINGTON, Oct. 13 - Israel's air attack on Syria last month was directed against a site that Israeli and American intelligence analysts judged was a partly constructed nuclear reactor, apparently modeled on one North Korea has used to create its stockpile of nuclear weapons fuel, according to American and foreign officials with access to the intelligence reports.
...
Many details remain unclear, most notably how much progress the Syrians had made in construction before the Israelis struck, the role of any assistance provided by North Korea, and whether the Syrians could make a plausible case that the reactor was intended to produce electricity. In Washington and Israel, information about the raid has been wrapped in extraordinary secrecy and restricted to just a handful of officials, while the Israeli press has been prohibited from publishing information about the attack.

See how easy it is to make a news story seem credible?  Just quote some unnamed Administration officials with access to reports they can't otherwise talk about, and Voila!Instant nukes, ready for framing!

Of course, you might expect professional (or at least competent) journalists to make some attempt to corroborate these bombastic reports, especially considering the Times' embarrassing track record when it comes to the topic of WMD in Middle Eastern countries. Right?

Heh.

Happily embracing a propagandist fiction that the veracity of anonymous 'American and foreign (read Israeli) officials' is unimpeachable (ahem), trusting Times' reporters apparently feel no need to provide even a single, independent source to back up the Bush Administration's claim that the Syrians were breaking ground on a nuclear facility at Deir ez-Zor.  Not one.

Fool me once....

Yet even as the stenographer's pool at the Times continues to pass off mere dictation of BushCo bunker fantasies as honest reporting, serious analysts in the real world remain convinced target was NOT a nuclear facility.

Last week I blogged Laura Rozen's report that the real target of the Israeli raid was a shipment of SCUD missile parts from North Korea.

Dair el Zor(sic) houses a huge underground base where the Syrian army stores the long and medium-range missiles it mostly buys from Iran and North Korea. The attack by the Israeli air force coincided with the arrival of a stock of parts for Syria's 200 Scud B and 60 Scud C weapons.

The story goes that the US Navy was unable to interdict the missile shipment in Moroccan waters, so the Israelis waited until the parts arrived at their final destination in Syria before taking them out.

Dr. Jeffrey Lewis at Arms Control Wonk (think Juan Cole for the nuclear set) calls Syrian nuclear claims silly. Professor Lewis also believes the Israeli strike targeted missile parts, and quotes strategic analyst Chris Nelson:

In fact, as our headline, above, notes, we have absolutely solid information that the Israeli bombing raid on Syria was aimed at…and took out…missiles and/or weapons parts. Period.

All the stories being floated about Israeli intelligence sources hinting that it was a North Korean/Syrian nuclear weapons project, or site, are BS, albeit of varying motivation.

What remains under some debate is whether the missiles/parts can be 100% ascribed to N. Korea. Most unclassified evidence … points at Pyongyang.

Dr. Lewis further points out that a 2004 Directorate of National Intelligence (DNI) WMD report (PDF) is consistent with a North Korean missile shipment.
From the DNI report:

Syria
Nuclear.
Syria-an NPT signatory with full-scope IAEA safeguards-has nuclear research facilities at Dayr Al Hajar and Dubaya. In 2004 Syria continued to develop civilian nuclear capabilities, including uranium extraction technology and hot cell facilities, which may also be potentially applicable to a weapons program. Pakistani investigators in late January 2004 said they had "confirmation" of an IAEA allegation that A.Q. Khan offered nuclear technology and hardware to Syria, according to Pakistani press, and we are concerned that expertise or technology could have been transferred. We continue to monitor Syrian nuclear intentions with concern.

Ballistic Missile.
During 2004, Damascus continued to seek help from abroad to establish a solid-propellant rocket motor development and production capability. Syria's liquid-propellant missile program continued to depend on essential foreign equipment and assistance-primarily from North Korean entities. Damascus also continued to manufacture liquid-propellant Scud missiles. In addition, Syria was developing longer-range missile programs, such as a Scud D and possibly other variants, with assistance from North Korea and Iran.

Basically, the DNI report not only confirms an ongoing arms relationship between North Korea and Syria for missiles and parts, but also suggests that if the Syrians were actually interested in acquiring nukes, the most likely supplier would be Pakistan, not North Korea.  (I'd also point out that the Syrian nuclear facilities identified in the DNI report are hundreds of kilometers from the site of the Israeli attack.)

Finally, the highly respected SIPRI has a nice overview on the history and extent of Syrian nuclear development, which states:

Syria possesses what appears to be a nascent nuclear programme and limited nuclear infrastructure. Though this country has been mentioned as a potential nuclear proliferation risk, there is little evidence that it has ever had serious nuclear weapons ambitions.

But forget Syria the moment and think about this: Why on earth would North Korea start developing a nuclear relationship with Syria now, especially when North Korea is in the process of dismantling its own nuclear program?

[T]alks produced the February 13 accord under which impoverished, food-short North Korea is to dismantle its nuclear programs and jettison its weapons in return for economic assistance, security guarantees and diplomatic relations with the United States.
North Korea shut down its main plutonium-producing reactor at Yongbyon in July and received 50,000 tons of fuel oil from South Korea.

The answer is, of course, that North Korea has absolutely no reason whatsoever to jeopardize its dismantlement deal with the major powers just to sell nuclear materials to pariah state Syria.

There are, however, those in the Administration who would very much like to use a bogus charge of North Korean proliferation to torpedo the dismantlement deal (from the Times article):

Behind closed doors, however, Vice President Dick Cheney and other hawkish members of the administration have made the case that the same intelligence that prompted Israel to attack should lead the United States to reconsider delicate negotiations with North Korea over ending its nuclear program, as well as America's diplomatic strategy toward Syria, which has been invited to join Middle East peace talks in Annapolis, Md., next month.>

Basically, what we have is a Neocon Nuclear Three-fer: take out the missiles, discredit the Syrians, and sabotage Korean nuclear dismantlement, all with one shameless disinformation campaign reminiscent of Judy Miller at her worst.

Now that's what I call renewing your Times' Home Delivery service....

(x-posted at Docudharma and Big Orange).

Hat tip to Magnifico.

Update: 
Major overnight rewrite as well as a title change to avoid unintentionally copying this article at HuffPo. It seems I'm not the first to notice the resurrection of some very bad journalistic habits at the New York Times.

Al Gore wins the Nobel Peace Prize:

The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided that the Nobel Peace Prize for 2007 is to be shared, in two equal parts, between the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and Albert Arnold (Al) Gore Jr. for their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change, and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change.
...
Al Gore has for a long time been one of the world’s leading environmentalist politicians. He became aware at an early stage of the climatic challenges the world is facing. His strong commitment, reflected in political activity, lectures, films and books, has strengthened the struggle against climate change. He is probably the single individual who has done most to create greater worldwide understanding of the measures that need to be adopted.

Today I spent a fun and very worthwhile morning collecting voter signatures with Louisa, the 6th District (Marin and Sonoma Counties) volunteer coordinator for the campaign to place Al Gore on the California Democratic primary ballot.*

This drive is part of a larger grass roots effort to convince Al Gore that we need him as our next President. Today was our first day collecting signatures.

In the afternoon, Louisa emailed a fantastic account of the morning's events. Louisa's words were so inspiring that I asked her if I could repost them. Louisa, who is nearly eighty (you'd never know it), graciously agreed:

Hello all!

This was a great opening day for our Draft Gore campaign in Marin. I arrived at the Marin Farmers' Market at about 8:40 and found a place to set up. It wasn't the best spot, which was already pretty well taken up, but it worked out well, I think. I loaded card table, two folding chairs, clipboards, pens & mug to hold them, large sign, small sign, the necessary forms, and a quantity of the half-page info sheets (text sent you yesterday) onto my little red wagon (which fit nicely into the trunk of my Honda Civic). So, one trip from car to the site, and we were in business.

In a half hour or so, {my name} showed up and stayed until 11:00 (thank you {my name}!). Great conversation in between signers! We didn't accost anyone but let them come to us. And they did! I got my first signature as I was unloading stuff from my car! We felt that our mission was to provide the opportunity for people to "choose to have a choice." {my name} has access to other like-minded people. He will photocopy the form and solicit signatures. Michelle, another of our volunteers, showed up a bit later. She's a film director and so has lots of contacts. She wasn't able to stay but took a batch of forms.

The most repeated question we heard was "But will he run?" A splendid opening – and a subtle way of conveying the message that WE THE VOTERS can affect that decision. The good news: Except for their concerns about whether Gore would agree to run, we felt a great yearning for a change, for a leader with the wisdom to take us on a path to peace and prosperity rather than war and bankruptcy. The bad news: an air of pessimism, of doubt that we citizens can affect our future, can really find representation of OUR values in the administration of our government. On the other hand, that can be seen as good news: there is pent-up desire for progress in protecting our environment, for REAL democracy, for pursuing PEACE instead of war. And they were ready to "sign on the dotted line" for a better choice – and a better world.

I closed up shop just before noon, when the crowd had thinned out considerably and vendors were packing up – and my tummy was grumbling for FOOD!. I had set a goal of 30, which we didn't quite make, but came close. Step One.

Marin Team – anyone available to take on the Sunday Marin Farmers' Market? I can speak from experience: it's easy! It's energizing! I think setup will be easier, as it's on the grounds of the Civic Center, rather than the Veterans' Memorial Hall. The sidewalk runs right along the entrances. Call or e-mail me to arrange to pick up gear – and a brief rundown of what my limited experience tells me you need to know.

One thing I know: You will interact with some wonderful people, and you'll feel good about it.

We have a good start. Let's keep it rolling.

Louisa

Can't think of a better way to spend a morning - if for no other reason than to be able to vote for Al in the Dem primary. But more importantly, assuming Al does run (and I think he will), we already have a head start on the signatures we need.

If you live in the Bay area and would like to help get Al Gore's name on the Democratic primary ballot in California, go to sf4gore.org. Otherwise check out DraftGore.com for local volunteer chapters where you live.

And by all means, if you are a registered voter in the 6th CA District and want to sign the Draft Gore petition, be sure to stop by the Marin Farmer's Market at the Civic Center this Sunday.



Just look for Louisa and her little red wagon. She'll be very glad to see you.


*Regardless of whether Gore declares, he can still be placed on the primary ballot in California with 500 valid signatures from each of the state's Congressional Districts.

Lewis Black

"You're writing a letter to complain about Rush Limbaugh? That's the work of the Senate?

"That's the work of my Grampa Schmoolie in Boca."

Line of the Week.

h/t: NLinStPaul

Air Force Col. Morris Davis, the Chief Prosecutor for Guantanamo Bay military tribunals has resigned:

MIAMI -- The chief prosecutor for the Guantanamo military commissions has resigned, raising the prospect of further delays in the Bush administration's six-year effort to bring prisoners in the war on terrorism to trial.

The Pentagon confirmed Friday that Air Force Col. Morris Davis, a steadfast supporter of the controversial detention and judicial processes at the U.S. Naval Base in southern Cuba, had asked to be relieved of his duties. Defense Department spokeswoman Cynthia Smith said a successor has yet to be named.

Davis' resignation reportedly stems from a dispute with Air Force Brig. Gen. Thomas Hartman over Hartman's authority to control Davis' prosecutorial decisions.

Davis, a veteran military lawyer who had served in the position for at least two years, lately had chafed under the second-guessing and micromanaging of Air Force Brig. Gen. Thomas Hartmann, who this summer became legal advisor to the tribunal convening authority, an attorney general-like post.

Hartmann has urged the prosecution to move forward with trials of the "high-value" detainees rather than try smaller fish in the pool for whom prosecutors have more convincing evidence and better-prepared cases. The prosecution was prodded to proceed on those cases before all the commissions' procedural codes were adopted and legal challenges had been worked out.

The 16 "high-value" suspects, including accused 9/11 mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, were transferred there from secret CIA prisons a year ago.

The only 'conviction' the Gitmo star chamber has managed to procure so far has been the embarrassing plea agreement last March with Australian Thomas Hicks.  Davis, who recommended a long sentence for Hicks, was reportedly unhappy about Hartman's politically motivated intervention that forced Hick's early release. (Hicks remains under a gag order about his treatment at Gitmo, an order conveniently timed to expire after the Aussie Federal elections.)

On the heels of the Hicks embarrassment, as well as continuing legal challenges to the Constitutionality of the whole sordid enterprise, the Bushies know they need a big win to salvage the viability of their extraterritorial star chamber. Yet the only defendant currently awaiting trial is 21 year old Canadian, Omar Khadr, accused of fragging a US Army medic in Afganistan in 2002 when he was 15.

While true believer Col. Davis may have thought he was doing God's work in prosecuting this 'small fry' for alleged crimes committed as a teenager, Gen. Hartman understands the Rovian reality that the Gitmo tribunals are strictly exercises in political expediency, and that prosecuting a 9/11 patsy has far more propaganda value than prosecuting a lowly child grunt.  If Davis doesn't get that, reasons Hartman, then Davis obviously isn't the right man for the Chief Prosecutor's job.

Bottom line: With Davis now out of the way, expect Khadr's trial to be put on the back burner while the new prosecutor (yet to be named) gears up for a big, Gitmo show trial of the latest alleged 9/11 'mastermind'. And assuming the Bushies remain true to form, expect this new Terror Trial to begin sometime around the Democratic National Convention.

Another addition of Sign of the Times...

ELIZABETH, N.J. (AP) -- Topps Meat Co. LLC, the meat company responsible for the second-largest beef recall in U.S. history, said Friday it will close its plant in Elizabeth, N.J., and go out of business, effective immediately.

Topps on Sept. 25 began a recall of its frozen hamburger meat that was expanded to comprise 21.7 million pounds of the meat, which may be contaminated with E. coli after federal inspectors discovered inadequate safety measures at its plant.

"In one week we have gone from the largest U.S. manufacturer of frozen hamburgers to a company that cannot overcome the economic reality of a recall this large," he said.

Here is the USDA recall page.

Countdown 'til some clueless Gooper argues that meddling big government agencies are bad for the economy. 

In 3...2...1....

Update:

Topps Meat Company, LLC, a privately held company, is apparently not the same firm as Topps Company, Inc., a public company (NASDAQ NM: Topp) that makes sports trading cards.

"These fires are the suicide note of mankind," said Hylton Murray Philipson, from the London-based charity Rainforest Concern. "While politicians talk about defining moments, destruction will continue until we begin to attribute real value to the standing forest."

GBCW.


h/t: Barcelona

The indispensable Laura Rosen quotes Intelligence Online, which says the targets were Korean SCUD missile parts: 

In attacking Dair el Zor in Syria on Sept. 6, the Israeli air force wasn't targeting a nuclear site but rather one of the main arms depots in the country.

  Dair el Zor houses a huge underground base where the Syrian army stores the long and medium-range missiles it mostly buys from Iran and North Korea. The attack by the Israeli air force coincided with the arrival of a stock of parts for Syria's 200 Scud B and 60 Scud C weapons.

  The parts were shipped from North Korea aboard a container ship flying the Panamanian flag. The U.S. Navy wanted to board the ship in Morocco's territorial waters but Rabat vetoed the operation. The parts were loaded aboard six trucks in the Syrian port of Tartus on Sept. 3 and took three days to reach Dair el Zor. The trucks and their loads were destroyed the moment they arrived at the underground base. A unit of military police that escorted the convoy was also wiped out in the attack.

The really interesting part is below the fold:   more »

While most of the sturm and drang about yesterday's seemingly senseless Senate resolution has focused on implications for war with Iran, a closer look at the text reveals the true agenda of our Parliamentary Putzes - the codification of a long term US military presence in Iraq.

   more »

Over at Wired, bloggers Ryan Singel and David Kravets just finished liveblogging the U.S. 9th Circuit Appeals court hearing on the companion cases Hepting v. AT&T and Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation v. Bush.

Hepting involves the District Court's denial of the US Government's motion to dismiss the Electronic Frontier Foundation's (EFF) class action claim against AT&T for collaborating with the NSA to illegally monitor domestic communications in violation of FISA. Al-Haramain is an Islamic charity which claims it was illegally spied on by the US Government.

Below are some thoughts on their report of the hearing.   more »

The BBC website has a very effective mapping tool for understanding just how pervasive and violent the ethnic cleansing campaigns of both the Shia and the Sunnis in Baghdad have become. The tool is also useful for understanding possible operational and tactical reasons for the wall US authorities want to build around a Sunni dominated neighborhood east of the Tigris.

Below is a map of ethnic communities in Baghdad prior to 2006.



Notice the large beige swatches of ethnically mixed Sunni/Shia neighborhoods that predominate the center city.

Now look at what has happened to those neighborhoods in just one year.   more »

Spin the news around the clock,
'Cause we're losing in Iraq.

Condilicious.

Well whaddaya know, the real UM football star finally beats out the acting Notre Dame football star for oldest ex-president, and then just a month later meets the Gipper at the 19th hole of Great Beyond Country Club (GBCC) to settle up the bet.

The NYT's eulogy calls Ford an 'Internationalist' while touching ever so delicately on his prewar isolationism,

Mr. Ford never adopted the domestic liberalism of a Roosevelt or, later, a Johnson. But the war experience broadened his view, changing him “from a passive isolationist to an ardent internationalist,” as he put it.

Significantly, the piece carefully omits the historically sensitive fact that this 'passive isolationist' had been one of the leading lights of the The America First Comittee, a powerful conservative movement that advocated a policy of strict US neutrality during World War II.

While attending Yale Law School, [Ford] joined a group of students led by R. Douglas Stuart, Jr., and signed a petition to enforce the 1939 Neutrality Act. The petition was circulated nationally and was the inspiration for The America First Committee, a group determined to keep America out of World War II.

Rude Pundit has a nice, PG-13 summary of Ford's Presidency which concludes:

[T]he nicest thing that can be said about Gerald R. Ford was that he didn't fuck things up even worse in the wake of Richard Nixon.

Kinda sums it all up right there.

As a grade schooler at the time, I have only three real recollections of Ford's short stint as leader of the free world:

1) The Pardon, the ramifications of which I still haven't quite got my head around.

2) Whip Inflation Now Buttons,
which my second grade teacher handed out to all of us during an assembly. Even then I recall wondering how wearing a small piece of tin was going to help stave off rising prices, but at that time in my life I still assumed the powers that be knew what they were doing (my outlook has obviously altered considerably since my childhood days).

3) The letter I wrote to Gerald Ford.
Like his Rudeness, I too wrote a letter to Gerald Ford in 1974, the content of which to this day still makes my father chuckle for some reason.

The entire text of my letter was as follows:

"Dear President Ford,

I think you are doing a pretty good job, so far.

Keep up the good work.

Sincerely,
(me)"

A few months later I received a generic thank you printed on White House stationary with Ford's signature in blue, felt tip pen. I brought the reply to school and accidently spilled a Coke on it at lunch.

I felt bad until someone told me that Ford didn't really sign the letter but had a machine sign it instead. Somehow, this knowledge made me feel better about the whole incident.

I have no idea what finally happened to that letter.

Don’t be fooled. Time magazine’s declaration of ‘You’ as Person of the Year is not a paean to Bloggers You Tubers, MySpacers, and other Internetworked contributors.

It’s a business plan.   more »

Man, somebody on the Time editorial staff really needs to cut down on all those the late night (movie) sessions.



So tell me: Are you a Little Lebowski Urban Achiever?

Fat in the middle and pinched at the end? Yup. You guessed it.

Now check out whose hand it's in.



Come to think of, they all look high on something...except maybe Dorothy (although on second thought...).

Jeb's got that thoughtful, concerned thing happening.

Marvin's trying hard not to lose it 'cuz he thinks the folks don't know.

Neil already has.

Its DEFINITELY George Jr.'s stuff (probably traded a gold plated belt buckle to one of the lawn guys for it).

Poppy's got that gin soaked fizz.

And Babs? Well, I think we finally know for certain who Laura's connection is.

H/T: Big Orange

Imagine you're a 23 year-old Iranian-American student studying late at the library. You're tired, but you really need to get some stuff done.

Around 11 pm some bored campus cop comes shuffling in checking IDs and you don't have yours on you so you gotta leave. Maybe you give him a look or some snarky attitude or something - whatever. He leaves, but you know he'll be back.

So, after taking your own sweet time finishing up, you finally get on your coat and sling your backpack and start heading out. As you get near the stairs four cops all of a sudden appear in front of you. One of them grabs your arm.

You're pissed and tired and fed up and you tell him to get off you because you're leaving anyway. Then another cop gets in your face.

Now you're not sure what's going on but you are suddenly beginning to think that going outside with these guys may not be such a great idea. So you just sit down.

Next thing you know, one of the cops is tasing you.

And then he tells you to get up.

And then he tases you again.

And then he tells you to get up.

And then he tases you again....



What's next? Summary public executions for late library books?

The poor guy is absolutely right: "Here IS your Patriot Act. Here IS your fucking abuse of power."

Even felons properly tried and convicted by a court of law of the most heinous crimes imaginable are constitutionally prohibited from undergoing anything close to the cruel and unusual punishment meted out in this excruciating video. Yet somehow a number of campus police at UCLA have come to believe it is a perfectly acceptable practice to repeatedly torture a recalcitrant student who has done nothing adminstratively worse that forget his ID.

The worst part of all this is that the cops show absolutely no qualms about conducting their ritual punishment in front of an entire crowd of shocked bystanders left gaping at the unabashed brutality. Indeed, its almost as if the cops WANT to be seen. As if they are putting on this horror show on purpose - to remind those snotty college punks that they'd better do what they're told by making a public example of a weakling and an outsider who didn't.

At the end of the video another student is warned that, if he doesn't do what the cop tells him, he'll be tased as well.

The student backs off. Mission accomplished.

Police intimidation certainly didn't start with 9/11, but it sure seems a lot more flagrant now than it has been in a long time. Hell, even the LAPD cops who beat up Rodney King thought nobody was watching.

By contrast, the UCLA cops in this video couldn't care less how many witnesses with cel phone cameras are recording their brutality. On the contrary, they actually look like they're enjoying the attention.

Rove sends Rummy a sympathy card.

Abu Hamza al-Muhajir, also known as Abu Ayyub al-Masri, said in the recording posted on the Internet on Friday that the group had 12,000 armed fighters and 10,000 others waiting to be equipped to fight U.S. troops in Iraq.

"I tell the lame duck (U.S. administration) do not rush to escape as did your defense minister...stay on the battle ground," he said.

He said his group would not rest until it had blown up the presidential mansion in Washington.

So thoughtful of Karl, don't ya think?

Seriously, since when do Islamic terrorists use the phrase 'lame duck' to rally support?

Even supposing Abu learned this phrase on the Internets, why would he choose such a distinctly American political colloquialism to address the 99.9% of his potential supporters who have absolutely no idea what the phrase means?

Omar: Lame Duck? What is this lame duck?

Asi: Um, it means... It means... um...It means that we will eat Bush!

Omar: Ah, I see, Asi.

Asi: Personally, I prefer Satanic, blood drinking, infidel swine myself, but I guess that's why they pay Abu the big bucks.

Omar: Big Bucks?

Asi: Oh never mind. Pass the couscous.

Bottom line: Karl has really lost his disinformation touch (but we knew that didn't we?).

Update: Even the experts are (ahem) skeptical:

Interestingly, the message asks (American) politicians if they will implement their electoral promises to withdraw from Iraq. al Muhajir praises the choices by the voters of the enemy to "defeat Bush." More interestingly, he uses and American vocabulary by calling the War "stupid." Usually Jihadists calls it evil or infidel and rarely qualify it in secular "electoral" terms.

But the most striking words used by a Jihadi commander is "lame duck." When I heard him uttering the words al-batta al arjaa' I realized he was off the classical Jihadi speech. The introduction of such words will certainly affect our reading of the speech...

The author calls the tape a 'Salad Bowl'.

He might as well call it a 'Terror's Greatest Hits' collection, or better yet, 'Rummy's final episode'.

Update 2: Looks like Fox news is not just Fair and Balanced, it's clairovoyant.



Notice the date on this internal memo - one day prior to the release of the tape.

Fox obviously has some pretty good sources somewhere to be predicting the next day's events with such uncanny accuracy (whoever they are, you can bet they ain't in the Iraqi insurgency).

Jeez, why be in the news business at all? With a crystal ball like that, the VP who wrote the memo might as well just day trade.