A horrible choice...

I cannot believe the audacity of the Bush administration (I am further amazed by this daily) nominating Negroponte for head of Intelligence. Here we have a person who looked past evidence of massacres in Central America - will he be place in charge of looking past the next WMD claims?

Write your Senators - I will be writing mine.

Here's some background:

http://thinkprogress.org/index.php?p=263

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6968346/#050217

I just finished...

"The Pleasure of My Company" by Steve Martin.

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?userid=ba6xKxLAO7&isbn=0786869216&itm=4

It is amazing.

A little adult, but really funny....

This Gannon thing is crazy....

Some Democratic Senators Are Now Reluctant to Push for "Jeff Gannon" Investigation

http://www.buzzflash.com/peyser/05/02/pey05042.html

Now, it is a little easier for Boxer to be a bulldog, because she did get the 3rd most votes in November of any American.

She is a safe Senator from A depply blue state. That said, I am glad she is there!

Too cool not to mention....

A pair of paintings from the famed series depicting dogs playing poker fetched nearly $600,000 at auction Tuesday.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6976660/

Krugman gets it...

...the Democratic Party is not dead and Dean is not a radical.

In fact, by taking on Social Security, Mr. Bush gave the Democrats a chance to remember what they stand for, and why. Here's my favorite version, from another fighting moderate, Eliot Spitzer: "As President Bush embraces the ownership society and tries to claim that he is the one that is making it possible for the middle class to succeed and save and invest - well, I say to myself, no, that's not right; it is the Democratic Party historically that created the middle class."

For a while, Mr. Dean will be the public face of the Democrats, and the Republicans will try to portray him as the leftist he isn't. But Deanism isn't about turning to the left: it's about making a stand.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/15/opinion/15krugman.html?th=&pagewanted=print&position=

When will we stop calling these "isolated incidents"

and call them what they are, systematic torture encouraged and condoned from the top?

Judge advocates - uniformed legal advisers known as JAGs who were assigned to a secret war crimes task force - repeatedly objected to aggressive interrogations by a separate intelligence unit at Camp Delta, where Taliban and al-Qaida suspects have been jailed since January 2002.

But Pentagon officials "didn't think this was a big deal, so they just ignored the JAGs," a senior military source said.

The military lawyers' actions had never been disclosed and are the first known cases of lower-level officers resisting interrogations at the Cuban camp that might constitute torture. Some officials called them "unsung heroes" for risking their careers by crossing senior officials who approved the techniques.

http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/politics/10889627.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp

We find the same behavior towords prisoners in Afganistan, Iraq and Cuba. It goes back as far as when they stripped the 'American Taliban' and took pictures of him taped to a gurney.

Hoods and leashes do not just 'appear' in these prisons - someone had to requisition and bring them in.

This is a disgrace.

This is a great point.....

Most important, making energy independence our generation's moon shot could help inspire more young people to go into science and engineering, which we desperately need.

Sadly, the Bush team won't even consider this. It prefers cruise missiles to cruise controls. We need a grass-roots movement. Where are college kids these days? I would like to see every campus in America demand that its board of trustees disinvest from every U.S. auto company until they improve their mileage standards. Every college town needs to declare itself a "Hummer-free zone." You want to drive a gas-guzzling Humvee? Go to Iraq, not our campus. And an idea from my wife, Ann: free parking anywhere in America for anyone driving a hybrid car.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/13/opinion/13friedman.html?th

Stewart Rieckman makes some good points about the worst of our Oshkosh Blogs...

here:

http://www.wisinfo.com/northwestern/news/columns/stories/columns_19802842.shtml

However, I would like to point out that in my participation in these blogs, I have always used my own name. I have always provided links to the information I was referencing. And I backed up anything I said about someone with their acual words.

I agree with Mr. Reikman that there is a problem with nameless bomb-throwing, and I have had several lobbed at me.

I, however, am proud of, and stand by the questions I posted, the stands I took and the information I have provided.

All done in my own name and with the ability to contact me either publicly on the blog or privately via email.

When blogging is done in this matter, I believe it is a very usefull tool. When it is not, Mr. Reichman is right to call it "intellectual trash."