Coalition in Iraq continues to dwindle

quote[The U.S.-led multinational force in
Iraq is losing troops from two of its most important allies — Italy and
South Korea — and up to a half dozen other members could draw down their forces or pull out entirely by year's end.

The withdrawals are complicating America's effort to begin extracting itself from the country, where a fresh onslaught of deadly attacks on coalition forces is testing the resolve of key partners such as Britain and Poland.]

Fox Analyst: Global Warming is ‘Bogus…Dreamed Up by The Greens Because They Hate Industry’

quote[This weekend on the show “Cashin’ In,” Fox News analyst Jonathan Hoenig asserted that global warming was “bogus,” and “dreamed up” by environmentalists to stop economic development:

There’s no scientific proof that global warming even exists. To be honest, it’s a bogus consensus dreamed up by Greens because they hate industry. They hate advancement. They hate technology…Greens will lead us back to the stone ages.

It’s Hoenig that’s living in a dream land. Science Magazine analyzed 928 peer-reviewed scientific papers on global warming published between 1993 and 2003. Not a single one challenged the scientific consensus the earth’s temperature is rising due to human activity.

A big part of the solution to global warming, of course, is technology – more efficient cars, renewable energy, cleaner production methods. Don’t bother telling that to Hoenig, however. He’s too busy with his conspiracy theories.]

These guys are insane.

Petition likely to nullify South Dakota abortion ban

quote[A petition to repeal the South Dakota abortion ban is due to be filed today, with organizers claiming that nearly 38,000 signatures have been collected.

Under South Dakot law, just 16,728 of those signatures need to be valid in order to nullify implementation of the ban until after it goes before voters in the November election. The law was set to go into effect July 1.

At press events in seven communities, supporters of the repeal touted the strength of their efforts, boasting that all of the petition's 1,200 signature-gathering volunteers from 138 towns were unpaid volunteers.]

Let the voters decide.

The massacre and the Marines

quote[ US Marines could face the death penalty after one of their number took horrific photographs of a massacre in Iraq on his mobile phone, The Independent on Sunday has learned.

The photographs, seized by the US Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS), show many victims shot at close range in the head and chest, execution-style, according to sources who have seen them. One image shows a mother and young child bent over on the floor as if in prayer. Both have been shot dead.]

This makes me sick.

Fox News: ‘Al Gore’s Global Warming Movie: Could It Destroy Our Economy?’

quote[This weekend on Fox News, host David Asman asked his guests to discuss the following question: “If people buy into [Al Gore’s] global warming hysteria, will it put him in the White House and our economy on the skids?” Steve Forbes answered yes, and called Gore’s new movie “a real recipe for more socialist regulation.”]

Disgusting.

Rule Tackles Blowouts In High School Football

quote[In what some are referring to as the "Cochran rule," the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference football committee passed a score management policy to be instituted next season. The rule says if a team wins by 50 or more points, the coach is suspended for the next game.]

Okay, this is a local story. But it really has raised my ire. What is the point of sports if we aren't trying to teach competitiveness? Also, isn't it just as important to experience victory and defeat?

I think what really bugs me is that they are trying to force a coach to ask his players NOT to give it their all. That, to me, is disgusting. If you want to protect fragile ego's (to which I also disagree), there are other ways of dealing with this. You could let the clock run out after a certain score differential, etc...

This is just wrong, and sends a bad message to our kids.

What Are You Doing Tomorrow?

quote[I have received information psychically, which is corroborated by scientific data, according to which on May 25, 2006 a giant tsunami will occur in the Atlantic Ocean, brought about by the impact of a comet fragment which will provoke the eruption of under-sea volcanoes. Waves up to 200 m high will reach coastlines located above and below the Tropic of Cancer. However, all of the countries bordering the Atlantic will be affected to greater or lesser destructive and deadly levels. This site is dedicated to life, to civic responsibility and to information. There is still time to save lives. Thanks for participating in the world-wide alert!]

LOL!

Pill 'reverses' vegetative state

quote[A sleeping pill can temporarily revive people in a permanent vegetative state to the point where they can have conversations, a study finds.

Zolpidem is usually used to treat insomnia.]

Interesting. I'd like to know how cognizant these patients were.

F.B.I. Raid Divides G.O.P. Lawmakers and White House

quote[ After years of quietly acceding to the Bush administration's assertions of executive power, the Republican-led Congress hit a limit this weekend.

Resentment boiled among senior Republicans for a second day on Tuesday after a team of warrant-bearing agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation turned up at a closed House office building on Saturday evening, demanded entry to the office of a lawmaker and spent the night going through his files.]

I guess privacy concerns only count when you're a member of congress.

BTW, Jefferson should be tossed.

Ariz. measure would give $1M to a voter

quote[An Arizona political activist is placing his bets that a proposal to pay one lucky voter $1 million will drive people to the polls.

Dr. Mark Osterloh, a Tuscon ophthalmologist who has run unsuccessfully for governor and the Legislature, filed paperwork Monday to put the idea before state voters on the 2006 ballot.

"Who do you know that doesn't want to be a millionaire? What's the worst thing that could happen? Everybody who's eligible to vote could be voting," he said.

Osterloh and other supporters said they gathered 185,903 signatures of registered voters, well over the 122,612 required for a ballot initiative. Elections officials will check the signatures to see whether enough are valid to qualify the measure for the ballot.]

This seems like a very good idea.

I hope it goes national.

Bounty Placed On Dan Brown's Head

quote[Some Indian Christians are so incensed with the fictional blockbuster "The Da Vinci Code" they want the government to ban it and one Roman Catholic has offered a bounty of US$25 000 on the head of author Dan Brown, leaving other members of the faithful embarrassed by the reaction.]

Yes, because that is the Christian thing to do.

2 in CIA to testify Libby lied on leak

quote[Two top CIA officials will bolster prosecutors' charge that Vice President Cheney's chief aide lied to them, court papers show.

Prosecutors say disgraced Cheney chief of staff Lewis (Scooter) Libby learned CIA spy Valerie Plame's identity from, among others, agency officials who will be called to testify at his trial for perjury, false statements and obstruction of justice.

The U.S. alleges he learned about Plame from one of the CIA officials when he went after dirt on her husband, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson. Wilson shattered a pillar of President Bush's rationale for war - that Iraq was seeking to build a nuclear weapon.

Both CIA officials - including a top architect of the 2003 Iraq invasion - discussed Plame with Libby a month before columnist Robert Novak blew her cover in July 2003, prosecutors charge.]

He's screwed. Now, what about Rove?

Morgellons Disease....Viral marketing for A Scanner Darkly movie?

quote[The Wikipedia entry linked above cites the evidence for this as follows:

* The website claims that a "national news broadcast" will occur in June or July. The release date for the film is July 7.

* Morgellons.org and Morgellonusa.com (currently down) are both registered by a proxy company and contain no contact info.

* The first Morgellon's article on Wikipedia was created in February as a link to one of the above websites.

By far the biggest piece of damning evidence though is what is uncovered by the Slashdot post mentioned above that contains an excert from the opening chapter of the original Phillip K. Dick novel, A Scanner Darkly.]

Interesting and, if true, somewhat shameful.

Pro-Lifers Lure Teens into Fake Abortion Clinics

quote[A 17-year-old Indiana girl and her mother walked into what they thought was a Planned Parenthood clinic, never imagining it was a trap set by anti-abortion fanatics, according to an April 20, 2006 press release by Cecile Richards, President of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America. This was one of between 2,300 and 3,500 so-called "crisis pregnancy centers" set as traps nationwide by the anti-abortion movement.

Some "crisis pregnancy centers" have innocent-sounding names and falsely advertise a full range of reproductive health services. Then after luring women seeking such services into the "clinics," the "clinic staff" aggressively dispenses anti-abortion propaganda and intimidates them.]

Say what you want about abortion, but this is clearly very, very wrong.

Why aren't these people being prosecuted?

Couple Arrested For Asking For Directions

quote[Baltimore City police arrested a Virginia couple over the weekend after they asked an officer for directions.

WBAL-TV 11 News I-Team reporter David Collins said Joshua Kelly and Llara Brook, of Chantilly, Va., got lost leaving an Orioles game on Saturday. Collins reported a city officer arrested them for trespassing on a public street while they were asking for directions .

"In jail for eight hours -- sleeping on a concrete floor next to a toilet," Kelly said.

"It was a nightmare," Brook said. "I was in there thinking I was just dreaming and waiting to wake up."]

WTF???!!!!

Sen. Feingold walks out as Marriage Amendment Hearing moved behind closed doors

quote["I don't need to be lectured by you. You are no more a protector of the Constitution than am I," Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter, R-Pa., shouted after Sen. Russ Feingold declared his opposition to the amendment, his affinity for the Constitution and his intention to leave the meeting.

"If you want to leave, good riddance," Specter finished.

"I've enjoyed your lecture, too, Mr. Chairman," replied Feingold, D-Wis., who is considering a run for president in 2008. "See ya."]

Good for him.

The 9/11 Story That Got Away

quote[In 2001, an anonymous White House source leaked top-secret NSA intelligence to reporter Judith Miller that Al Qaida was planning a major attack on the United States. But the story never made it into the paper.]

This sure is a good way to quell conspiracy theorists.

Yeah, right...

New Presidential Memorandum Permits Intelligence Director To Authorize Telcos To Lie Without Violating Securities Law

quote[Ordinarily, a company that conceals their transactions and activities from the public would violate securities law. But an presidential memorandum signed by the President on May 5 allows the Director of National Intelligence, John Negroponte, to authorize a company to conceal activities related to national security. (See 15 U.S.C. 78m(b)(3)(A))]

All hail King George!

Judge: Documents On AT&T Surveillance Allowed

quote[Secret documents that allegedly detail the surveillance of AT&T phone lines under the Bush administration's domestic spying program can be used in a lawsuit against the telephone giant, a federal judge ruled Wednesday, but the records will remain sealed.]

Good.

Tony Snow: Tar babies...

quote[CBS REPORTER: Why not declassify [the NSA's call records database]? I mean, the President did talk about the surveillance program a day after the New York Times broke that story. This would seem to affect far more people and it did sound like the President was confirming that story today when he was answering questions.

SNOW: If you go back and look through what he said, there was a reference of foreign to domestic calls. I am not going to stand up here and presume to declassify any kind of program. That is a decision the President has to make. I can't confirm or deny it. The President was not confirming or denying. Again, I would take you back to the USA Today story to give you a little context. Look at the poll that appeared the following day [...] something like 65% of the public was not troubled by it. Having said that, I don't want to hug the tar baby of trying to comment on the program... the alleged program, the existence of which I can neither confirm or deny.]

Yep, he was the right guy for the job.

Ned Lamont for U.S. Senate Introduction Video

quote[Three months ago, Ned Lamont began the kind of campaign entrenched DC power-brokers fear and beyond-the-beltway Democrats recognize as the only way to reclaim our country for ordinary Americans. This video introduces you to Ned, contains interviews with many Connecticut voters, and information on the actions and positions of Senator Lieberman. Now we need your help to spread the word to your friends and family.]

It's a rather large file, but well worth it.

Federal Source to ABC News: We Know Who You're Calling

quote[A senior federal law enforcement official tells ABC News the government is tracking the phone numbers we (Brian Ross and Richard Esposito) call in an effort to root out confidential sources.

"It's time for you to get some new cell phones, quick," the source told us in an in-person conversation.

ABC News does not know how the government determined who we are calling, or whether our phone records were provided to the government as part of the recently-disclosed NSA collection of domestic phone calls.

Other sources have told us that phone calls and contacts by reporters for ABC News, along with the New York Times and the Washington Post, are being examined as part of a widespread CIA leak investigation.]

Freedome of the press? Yeah right.

NSA Whistleblower To Expose More Unlawful Activity: ‘People…Are Going To Be Shocked’

quote[A former intelligence officer for the National Security Agency said Thursday he plans to tell Senate staffers next week that unlawful activity occurred at the agency under the supervision of Gen. Michael Hayden beyond what has been publicly reported, while hinting that it might have involved the illegal use of space-based satellites and systems to spy on U.S. citizens. …

[Tice] said he plans to tell the committee staffers the NSA conducted illegal and unconstitutional surveillance of U.S. citizens while he was there with the knowledge of Hayden. … “I think the people I talk to next week are going to be shocked when I tell them what I have to tell them. It’s pretty hard to believe,” Tice said. “I hope that they’ll clean up the abuses and have some oversight into these programs, which doesn’t exist right now.” …]

I think Hayden's confirmation just sunk.

Relinked at Reader's Request: Wiretap Whistleblower's Statement

quote[In January 2003, I, along with others, toured the AT&T central office on Folsom Street in San Francisco -- actually three floors of an SBC building. There I saw a new room being built adjacent to the 4ESS switch room where the public's phone calls are routed. I learned that the person whom the NSA interviewed for the secret job was the person working to install equipment in this room. The regular technician work force was not allowed in the room.]

Should the recent wiretap stories really be all that of a surprise???

Bush Dips Into the 20s

quote[President Bush’s job-approval rating has fallen to its lowest mark of his presidency, according to a new Harris Interactive poll. Of 1,003 U.S. adults surveyed in a telephone poll, 29% think Mr. Bush is doing an “excellent or pretty good” job as president, down from 35% in April and significantly lower than 43% in January. Approval ratings for Congress overall also sank, and now stand at 18%.]

He's not going to recover, methinks.

Snow Makes Solo Debut at Chaotic Briefing

quote[And why not?

His boss is giving a speech to the nation Monday night.]

Let me guess: the speach will begin with "Major combat operations are now underway..."

You guess the country.

US military, intelligence officials raise concern about possible preparations for Iran strike

quote[Concern is building among the military and the intelligence community that the US may be preparing for a military strike on Iran, as military assets in key positions are approaching readiness, RAW STORY has learned.

According to military and intelligence sources, an air strike on Iran could be doable in June of this year, with military assets in key positions ready to go and a possible plan already on the table.]

How much more if this shit will America take?

NSA has massive database of Americans' phone calls

quote[The National Security Agency has been secretly collecting the phone call records of tens of millions of Americans, using data provided by AT&T, Verizon and BellSouth, people with direct knowledge of the arrangement told USA TODAY.
ADVERTISEMENT

The NSA program reaches into homes and businesses across the nation by amassing information about the calls of ordinary Americans - most of whom aren't suspected of any crime. This program does not involve the NSA listening to or recording conversations. But the spy agency is using the data to analyze calling patterns in an effort to detect terrorist activity, sources said in separate interviews.]

WTF!!!!! If this doesn't piss you off, nothing will.

Stem Cell Grants Now Available In CT

quote[Connecticut scientists today can begin applying for $20 million in state money to conduct stem cell research.

On Tuesday, the Connecticut Stem Cell Research Advisory Committee approved long-awaited guidelines for scientists seeking a share of the funds to be awarded in the first two years of the 10-year, $100 million commitment the state legislature approved last spring.]

Congress For Sale: Who Else Was Bribed With Limos, Cash and Prostitutes?

quote[# Representative Bob Ney, R-OH: Representative Ney is at the center of the Abramoff corruption scandal. Rep. Ney and his staff reportedly took numerous gifts and trips, including golfing at the Old Course at St. Andrews in Scotland. In addition, they had regular meals and drinks at Abramoff's Washington restaurant and used Abramoff's luxury box suites at Camden Yards baseball stadium in Baltimore for campaign fund-raisers. A former aide to Rep. Ney, Neil Volz, has just pleaded guilty to conspiring with Abramoff to corrupt Ney and other members of his staff by peddling trips, free tickets and meals.

# Senator Conrad Burns, R-MT: Senator Burns received close to $150,000 in campaign funds from Indian tribes through Jack Abramoff and his associates. Originally, Sen. Burns pledged to return the money after the Abramoff story made headlines -- but in late April, it was reported that Rep. Burns will now use the money to pay for his defense against corruption charges.

# Representative William Jefferson, D-LA: A Louisville businessman recently pled guilty in federal court to paying more than $400,000 in bribes to Jefferson; he has also been accused of misusing federal resources in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. The nonpartisan ethics watchdog group CREW has called for an investigation; recently, Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi agreed.

# Representative John Doolittle, R-CA: Representative Doolittle has been paying 15% commissions on all his fundraising to a company, Sierra Dominion, that is owned by his wife (and also on retainer from Jack Abramoff’s company). This resulted in Rep. Doolittle, in effect, enriching himself by skimming off campaign funds into his own household budget.]

GOP House Speaker taps Cheney, Goss for Congressional Distinguished Service Awards

quote[On Wednesday afternoon in the U.S. Capitol, Distinguished Service Awards will be bestowed upon Vice President Dick Cheney and former CIA Director Porter Goss, two former House members selected by House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-IL), RAW STORY has found.]

Whaaaaaaaaaa?

HAVE 200,000 AK47S FALLEN INTO THE HANDS OF IRAQ TERRORISTS?

quote[SOME 200,000 guns the US sent to Iraqi security forces may have been smuggled to terrorists, it was feared yesterday.

The 99-tonne cache of AK47s was to have been secretly flown out from a US base in Bosnia. But the four planeloads of arms have vanished.

Orders for the deal to go ahead were given by the US Department of Defense. But the work was contracted out via a complex web of private arms traders.]

And we continue to fuck things up.

Goss Didn't Resign, He Was Fired

quote[Intelligence insiders say that former CIA Director Porter Goss was given less than a day to pack his bags by new White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten, who is moving swiftly to put a new and more aggressive face on the administration.]

I'm not surprised.

Now, for the 9-11 conspiracy folks, this should convince you that this administration cannot cover ANYTHING up.

Post Office Hopes Idea Of 'Forever Stamp' Sticks

quote[Postal officials pitched the idea of creating a "forever stamp" that would be good for sending first-class mail no matter how much -- or how often -- the cost of a postage stamp goes up. The announcement came on the same day that the Postal Service said it would seek to raise the price of a first-class stamp for the second consecutive year.

The forever stamp, which would cost the same as a first-class stamp, would provide a hedge against future postal rate increases and end the search for 2- or 3-cent stamps that usually follows a price increase. The stamps could pose unusual challenges for the Postal Service, however, and officials say many details still have to be worked out.]

Interesting idea.

An Army of One Wrong Recruit

quote[Jared Guinther is 18. Tall and lanky, he will graduate from Marshall High School in June. Girls think he's cute, until they try to talk to him and he stammers or just stands there -- silent.

Diagnosed with autism at age 3, Jared is polite but won't talk to people unless they address him first. It's hard for him to make friends. He lives in his own private world.

Jared didn't know there was a war raging in Iraq until his parents told him last fall -- shortly after a military recruiter stopped him outside a Southeast Portland strip mall and complimented him on his black Converse All Stars.

"When Jared first started talking about joining the Army, I thought, 'Well, that isn't going to happen,' " said Paul Guinther, Jared's father. "I told my wife not to worry about it. They're not going to take anybody in the service who's autistic."

But they did...]

Shameless...

Desperation. Even The USDA is Recieving Bush's Talking Points

quote[Career appointees at the Department of Agriculture were stunned last week to receive e-mailed instructions that include Bush administration "talking points" -- saying things such as "President Bush has a clear strategy for victory in Iraq" -- in every speech they give for the department.]

That's just pathetic.

Another Republican Congressman About To Fall?

quote[In this, the fourth (Michael Scanlon, Jack Abramoff, Tony Rudy, and now Neil Volz) guilty plea to implicate Rep. Bob "Representative #1" Ney (R-OH), we get more details about what Ney did to earn Jack Abramoff's goodies.

Volz, Ney's former chief of staff, admits to receiving all sorts of bribes while he was still with Ney, and then turning around and taking part in the bribing once he moved over to work with Abramoff.]

I've never looked forward to a midterm (of any kind) so much in my life.

Freaky Friday, Part III: Mission Illogical

quote[The management of The Los Angeles Times said a musical promotion for Paramount Pictures' upcoming movie, "Mission: Impossible III" was designed to turn the "everyday news rack experience" into an "extraordinary mission." But the stunt created a real mission for federal law enforcement officers who had to evacuate patients and staff at an area veterans' medical facility last week.]

How stupid do you have to be to come up with this?

Freaky Friday, Part II: They're Made out of Meat

quote["They're made out of meat."

"Meat?"

"Meat. They're made out of meat."

"Meat?"

"There's no doubt about it. We picked several from different parts of the planet, took them aboard our recon vessels, probed them all the way through. They're completely meat."]

This is a great short story, that I've really liked for some time. I finally decided to post a link to it.

Freaky Friday, Part I: Thirsty Hungarians Find Surprising Cause For Drink’s ‘Special Taste’

quote[Hungarian builders who drank their way to the bottom of a huge barrel of rum while renovating a house got a nasty surprise when a pickled corpse tumbled out of the empty barrel, a police magazine Web site reported.]

Stick that in the "Eww Gross" department.

Unclassified Media Project

quote["From the Unclassified Media Project comes this rock-and-roll news-reel about the Bush administration's trampling of the Constitution. Remember, kids, back when we used to have civics classes in our schools, which warned about how easily our nation could slide from democracy into despotism?

Despots don't like kids to learn how a democracy should work. This media remix includes prophetic lessons from 1946, news footage of "the decider," messages from the American people about protecting our nation-- and some original music. Also features a brief interview with Glenn Greenwald about his book, How Would a Patriot Act?]

Great video, though a bit long.

The Self-Locking F-22

quote[Last week, Lockheed Martin announced that its profits were up a hefty 60 percent in the first quarter. The company earned $591 million in profit on revenues of $9.2 billion. Now, if the company could just figure out how to put a door handle on its new $361 million F-22 fighter, its prospects would really soar.

On April 10, at Langley Air Force Base, an F-22 pilot, Capt. Brad Spears, was locked inside the cockpit of his aircraft for five hours. No one in the U.S. Air Force or from Lockheed Martin could figure out how to open the aircraft's canopy. At about 1:15 pm, chainsaw-wielding firefighters from the 1st Fighter Wing finally extracted Spears after they cut through the F-22's three-quarter inch-thick polycarbonate canopy.

Total damage to the airplane, according to sources inside the Pentagon: $1.28 million. Not only did the firefighters ruin the canopy, which cost $286,000, they also scuffed the coating on the airplane's skin which will cost about $1 million to replace.]

That's totally ridiculous.

Rumsfeld Called Out On Lies About WMD

quote[Speaking in Atlanta today, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld was sharply questioned about his pre-war claims about WMD in Iraq. An audience member confronted Rumsfeld with his 2003 claim about WMD, “We know where they are.” Rumsfeld falsely claimed he never said it. The audience member then read Rumsfeld’s quote back to him, leaving the defense secretary speechless.

Of course, Rumsfeld did say he knew where the WMD were. From ABC’s This Week, 5/4/03:

STEPHANOPOULOS: And is it curious to you that given how much control U.S. and coalition forces now have in the country, they haven’t found any weapons of mass destruction?

SEC. RUMSFELD: …We know where they are. They’re in the area around Tikrit and Baghdad and east, west, south and north somewhat.]

Also here's an audio link that compares his older statements.

Colbert's response to his White House Correspondents' Dinner appearance

quote[Stephen Colbert opened his show on Monday with a brief recap of his performance at the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner.

Colbert: I delivered the closing speech and needless to say, the audience could not contain their excitement.

Colbert: Very respective silence. The crowd practically carried me out on their shoulders, although I wasn't actually ready to leave...]

Colbert is a genius.

Hearing vowed on Bush's powers

quote[The chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, accusing the White House of a ''very blatant encroachment" on congressional authority, said yesterday he will hold an oversight hearing into President Bush's assertion that he has the power to bypass more than 750 laws enacted over the past five years.

''There is some need for some oversight by Congress to assert its authority here," Arlen Specter, Republican of Pennsylvania, said in an interview. ''What's the point of having a statute if . . . the president can cherry-pick what he likes and what he doesn't like?"]

Not that anything will come of this...

Fox, BBC, Al Jazeera most trusted: poll

quote[One-quarter of consumers abandoned a news source over the past year because they lost trust in its reporting, according to a new survey that also found the BBC, Fox News and Al Jazeera the most trusted brands in their respective home regions.

Results of a poll of more than 10,000 adults in 10 countries by the British Broadcasting Corporation, Reuters Group Plc and The Media Center were released on Wednesday, with an additional finding that media worldwide were trusted by an average of 61 percent of respondents compared with 52 percent who said they trusted their governments.]

Fox??? You've got to be kidding me!

Bush Ready To Blow His Top Over Colbert

quote[Comedy Central star Stephen Colbert's biting routine at the White House Correspondents Association dinner won a rare silent protest from Bush aides and supporters Saturday when several independently left before he finished.

"Colbert crossed the line," said one top Bush aide, who rushed out of the hotel as soon as Colbert finished. Another said that the president was visibly angered by the sharp lines that kept coming.

"I've been there before, and I can see that he is [angry]," said a former top aide. "He's got that look that he's ready to blow."]

Ha! LOL.

Warning: Cocoa Mulch from Home Depot toxic to dogs and cats

quote[Cocoa Mulch, which is sold by Home Depot, Foreman's Garden Supply and other Garden supply stores, contains a lethal ingredient called "Theobromine".

It is lethal to dogs and cats. It smells like chocolate and it really attracts dogs. They will ingest this stuff and die. Several deaths already occurred in the last 2-3 weeks. Just a word of caution — check what you are using in your gardens and be aware of what your gardeners are using in your gardens.

Theobromine is the ingredient that is used to make all chocolate — especially dark or baker's chocolate — which is toxic to dogs.]

What a collossally stupid product idea.

Colbert Lampoons Bush at White House Correspondents Dinner-- President Not Amused?

quote[A blistering comedy “tribute” to President Bush by Comedy Central’s faux talk show host Stephen Colbert at the White House Correspondent Dinner Saturday night left George and Laura Bush unsmiling at its close.

Earlier, the president had delivered his talk to the 2700 attendees, including many celebrities and top officials, with the help of a Bush impersonator.

Colbert, who spoke in the guise of his talk show character, who ostensibly supports the president strongly, urged Bush to ignore his low approval ratings, saying they were based on reality, “and reality has a well-known liberal bias.”

He attacked those in the press who claim that the shake-up at the White House was merely re-arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. “This administration is soaring, not sinking,” he said. “If anything, they are re-arranging the deck chairs on the Hindenburg.”]

Even if you are not into the text links, read this one. It really is good.

If anyone has video, please let me know.

Never mind, I should have known that crooksandliars.com would have it.

Bush challenges hundreds of laws

quote[President Bush has quietly claimed the authority to disobey more than 750 laws enacted since he took office, asserting that he has the power to set aside any statute passed by Congress when it conflicts with his interpretation of the Constitution.

Among the laws Bush said he can ignore are military rules and regulations, affirmative-action provisions, requirements that Congress be told about immigration services problems, ''whistle-blower" protections for nuclear regulatory officials, and safeguards against political interference in federally funded research.

My God, Why isn't this idiot in jail?