Air Marshals grease wanna-be-terrorist. He had no bomb. His wife claims he was mentally ill. I believe her. More tax cuts: "Spineless Party" shows signs of hope. President Bush gives a progress speech to the shadowy Council on Foriegn Relations regarding the War on Terror and rebuilding Iraq. What was it I heard yesterday? Democrats don't want "Victory" they want "Benchmarks for Success", it's not "Immediate Withdrawal" or "Cut and Run" it's... "Strategic Redeployment." Nuance. Gak. At least Howard Dean doesn't mince words. Michael Moore's "Minutemen" kill 30. Allies pleased:Condoleeza Rice outlines the menus and activities calendar for detainees or should I say "guests"? Global Warming sweeps the U.S. And to think we could have stopped it with the stroke of a pen. Thanks Mr. President. Pope Benedict on virtue not being boring: That's what he thinks. I tried it once for 24 hours. It was boring. This is just probably some Daily Kosser or Deaniac that reached the tipping point. At least he (or she) didn't get on a plane. Leave 'em alone.

Worthy of The Onion:

The people of the Arctic filed a landmark human rights complaint against the United States, blaming the world's No. 1 carbon polluter for stoking the global warming that is destroying their habitat. The Inuit Circumpolar Conference (ICC), representing native people in the vast, sparsely-populated region girdling the Earth's far north, said they had petitioned an inter-American panel to seek relief for Canadian and US Inuit.

Soon there will be lawsuits for lightning strikes. I can't wait.

Quote of the Day: String enough adjectives together and everyone believes you.

Nobel winner Harry Pinter:

"The crimes of the United States have been systematic, constant, vicious, remorseless, but very few people have actually talked about them," he said. "It has exercised a quite clinical manipulation of power worldwide while masquerading as a force for universal good. It's a brilliant, even witty, highly successful act of hypnosis."

 

He writes poetry too...

Coupled with the "hawking British General, haughty ivory tower intellectual accent" and you can't lose. How can the US engage in a brilliant act of hypnosis if the man at the titular head of the gubbomint is an idiot?

Man who killed his estranged wife is now toast, the 1000th piece of toast.Am I wrong in viewing the Death Penalty not as a deterrent but as a punishment in and of itself? We jail people all the time for theft but that doesn't stop it. I'm waiting for some Human Rights group to allege that China, not Eastern Europe is where the U.S. really has it's "secret prisons." Enema of the State: Christian "peacemakers" kidnapped by jihadists. Who's fault is it? All together now...The United States and The United Kingdom. Quote of the Day, The Christian Peacemaker Team:

"We are angry because what has happened to our teammates is the result of the actions of the US and UK governments due to the illegal attack on Iraq and the continuing occupation and oppression of its people."

So. The people of Iraq were free under Saddam? Should we reinstall him so they can have their freedom back? That would be awesome. Then, Iraqis could go back to having elections to determine the self determination of Saddam rather than the self determination of themselves. Idiots.

Pandora's Box has been opened in Iraq. What does it mean for the people of the Middle East?:

ON BOTH SIDES of the Atlantic, the Stop The War cries are deafening now. Fold the tents; cut the losses; bring them home.

Some of the pleading comes from people whose motives are purely mischievous. These are the critics who opposed the war in the first place and would like nothing more than to see it end in a humiliating climbdown for its authors. Their concern for the Iraqi people or the lives of British and American troops flows in rivers of crocodile tears; their true emotions will be realised in the warm thrill of self-vindication at the spectacle of coalition tank columns rolling, turrets forlornly down, out of Mesopotamia.

You know exactly what these people would say in the unlikely event they got their way. They wouldn’t hail the US and British decision to leave Iraq as the long-delayed but correct decision. It would instead be used as an opportunity to pour scorn on the whole project, to chortle at the hopeless vanity of the Bush and Blair crowd.

But there are many more good, honourable people who have come to the same conclusion not out of a desire for self-justification but because, whether they supported the war in the first place or not, they have come to see it as unwinnable, or at least they believe the situation so dire that the price — in further blood and treasure — is simply not worth paying. For them the genuine humiliation of retreat is worth suffering if it spares us all greater losses by staying.
This is a wholly understandable reaction. We’re overwhelmed every day with the hard statistics of loss: Britain may soon endure its 100th death of a serviceman in Iraq; America has just passed the 2,000 mark; tens of thousands of Iraqis have perished. We have spent billions of dollars, not always efficiently. These are tangible, measurable losses; hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands, billions.

Success is less tangible. It is articulated not in the indicative but in the subjunctive: potential threats removed; future wars that don’t have to be fought. It is numbered in the unenumerable: the slow awakening of human freedom; the steady, incremental spread of dignity it brings to people cowed and trampled for decades.

And yet it leaves its mark in tangible ways, even in the turmoil of Iraq. In a couple of weeks, Iraqis will go to the polls in their millions for the third time this year (the exercise of democracy can be habit-forming, can’t it?). This time they will choose a government that will have real power over the direction of the country. It will be a genuine first in the history of a region where medievalist tyranny has enjoyed five centuries of extra time....

Contraception for Architecture:Now towering edifices can engage in safe sex!

Tax cuts work/ Roaring economy: If this were happening under the Clinton Adminstration we'd never hear the end of it.

Bad news and good news for Halliburton Shareholder Michael Moore:

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Suicide bombings fell in November to their lowest level in seven months, the American military said Thursday, citing the success of U.S.-Iraqi military operations against insurgent and foreign fighter sanctuaries near the Syrian border. But the trend in Iraq has not resulted in less bloodshed: 85 U.S. troops died during the month, one of the highest tolls since the invasion.

Good News/Bad News for Halliburton "W" McBushitler: Poll:6 in 10 Americans do not want to withdraw from Iraq until certain goals are met, but most also believe that Bush has no plan for victory. Guess which poll question was used as the headline? If he has no plan for victory then why keep the troops there?

The Democrat response to Bush's speech. Was this the State of the Union or something? Kerry: "We don't need a timetable for withdrawal, we need a timetable for success." That is why he didn't get elected. Just like: "I voted for the 87 billion before I voted against it." Will he ever learn? Worried about jihadists? Death toll from accidents vs. terrorism. Of course that is probably what leads many to think we should stand down in the war on terror and fight cars. Bush speech: Opinion piece disguised as news story. Tax cuts work/ Roaring economy: If this were happening under the Clinton Adminstration we'd never hear the end of it.

Imagine if Monday Night Football were covered like the Iraq War.

INDIANAPOLIS — The Indianapolis Colts, seeking to silence critics who say they are overrated, fell short of that mark on Monday night by outscoring the Pittsburgh Steelers by a mere 3-point margin in the first quarter.

Despite the unspectacular first-quarter margin, Colts head coach Tony Dungy insisted that his team was winning the battle. “Hey, we’re up three,” said Dungy. “In my book that’s a lead.” But critics pointed out that the Colts gained their lead only as a result of a desperation 80-yard pass by quarterback Peyton Manning to Marvin Harrison on their first play of the game.“That score was based on subterfuge and was patently unfair,” said one critic, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation by league officials. “It amounted to abuse of opposing players to fool them like that.”Despite scoring on their first snap of the game, and later scoring a field goal to go up 10-0, the Colts allowed Pittsburgh to score with only 1:18 left in the first quarter. Colt critics demanded that Dungy acknowledge that he had made coaching mistakes in the quarter, but he refused to do so.

The Colts have become a target of critics since going undefeated so far this year. That so many Colt players have openly expressed a desire to go undefeated the whole season is seen as arrogance and a sense of exceptionalism by many, causing many former friends to turn against them.The staunch Pittsburgh defense, though out-manned and out-gunned, managed to battle the Colts to a standstill in the second quarter, allowing them only six points. Those familiar with the Colts say this second-quarter swoon reveals a lack of depth on offense due to unmet recruitment goals during the off-season.The insurgent Steelers, striking sporadically with lesser equipment against the hegemonic Colts, inflicted serious damage with several tackles, a sack and some pass breakups, holding Indianapolis to only two field goals in the 15-minute span.

Observers said it looked as if the tide were turning in favor of the insurgent Steelers.In the third period, the Steelers again held the Colts to a single touchdown, damaging the Colts’ aura of invincibility and giving hope to the insurgents that their time would come. Some critics pointed to the stands as some Colt fans began filing out, saying that this showed the Colts losing support at home.The Steelers were even stronger in the final period, holding the Colt juggernaut to a mere three points. “I think Indianapolis was just in the wrong game, at the wrong place at the wrong time,” one Colt critic was heard to say.

Celebrities rally to save Death Row inmate. Didn't Snoop Dog almost wind up on Death Row?

Quote of the Day, Tim Robbins on Madam Hillrod:

Actor Tim Robbins Lashes Out: 'Hillary Clinton can kiss my butt.' Comments made Thursday on AIR AMERICA'S 'Morning Sedition'...

I wonder what she did to piss off little Timmy? Somebody needs a hug.
Enema of the State- More Dr. Nuance here:

Massachusetts Senator John Kerry came out firing in his response to the president's plan for victory in Iraq, saying that the presence of U.S. troops, "presents food for the insurgency. And you need to reduce that presence." But just five months ago, Senator Kerry argued exactly the opposite. During a June TV appearance, Kerry said U.S. generals were telling him, "We don't have enough troops in Iraq," and "There aren't enough people on the ground,” adding, "The way you honor the troops and the way you provide a policy to America is to do everything possible to win."

Media largely ignores Lieberman:

Connecticut Democrat Joe Lieberman, who just returned from Iraq, defended U.S. efforts there in Tuesday's Wall Street Journal and a subsequent news conference on Capitol Hill, saying the military has "a good plan" for victory in Iraq, that progress is "visible and practical" and warning that such progress could be turned back by a premature withdrawal.
But the major media that played up Democratic Rep. John Murtha's call for withdrawing U.S. troops largely ignored Lieberman's remarks. Neither ABC nor CBS mentioned the senator in their nightly newscasts while NBC aired a short sound byte. And The Washington Post, New York Times, and USA Today ran not a word of Lieberman's praise for U.S. efforts in Iraq.