Elonka wrote:
] To be honest, even if it was true (and I don't believe it is),
] it wouldn't have an impact on my opinion. Someone cut school
] for a day? Big whoop.

[ With all due respect, this isn't about skipping school. It's about reneging on a sworn promise to serve in the United States Armed Forces. If this is true, it means that the President is a man who couldn't find it in himself to commit fully to the National Guard, an honorable position that nonetheless was a gift from god compared with fighting in a foreign war. For such a man to talk to *anyone* about patriotism, honor, or duty, much less command this generation of soldiers to wage war is outrageous.

I'm as skeptical as anyone about this situation... it seems to me like much ado without much data, but it's not about nothing. If it comes out as fact, then we're talking about hypocracy of the worst sort -- the kind in which people die under orders from a false leader. If it comes out to be nothing, then we can reprimand the accusers, demand their apology, and then move on. But to claim it's unimportant is completely absurd and does a disservice to those who don't equivocate their dedication to the oaths they take. -k]

Spokesman Defends Bush's Military Service

] President Bartlet (Martin Sheen): I like how you call
] homosexuality an abombination.
]
] Jenna Jacobs: I don't say homosexuality is an
] abomination, Mr. President, the Bible does.
]
] President Bartlet: Yes, it does. Leviticus.
]
] Jenna Jacobs: 18:22.
]
] President Bartlet: Chapter and verse. I wanted to ask you
] a couple of questions while I have you here. I'm
] interested in selling my youngest daughter into slavery
] as sanctioned in Exodus 21:7. She's a Georgetown
] sophmore, speaks fluent Italian, always cleared the table
] when it was her turn. What would a good price for her be?
] While thinking about that, can I ask another? My Chief of
] Staff Leo McGarry insists on working on the Sabbath.
] Exodus 35:2 clearly says he should be put to death. Am I
] morally obligated to kill him myself or is it okay to
] call the police? Here's one that's really important
] because we've got a lot of sports fans in this town:
] touching the skin of a dead pig makes one unclean.
] Leviticus 11:7. If they promise to wear gloves, can the
] Washington Redskins still play football? Can Notre Dame?
] Can West Point? Does the whole town really have to be
] together to stone my brother John for planting different
] crops side by side? Can I burn my mother in a small
] family gathering for wearing garments made from two
] different threads? Think about those questions, would
] you?

Found this the other day and thought the Memestreams audience should share the laugh. FYI: The stoning commences tomorrow.

The West Wing

] The Defense Department announced Wednesday it has decided
] to grant "dirty bomb" suspect Jose Padilla access to a
] lawyer "subject to appropriate security restrictions."
]
] The FBI arrested Padilla in Chicago, Illinois, in May of
] 2002 on suspicion of being part of a plot to detonate a
] so-called dirty bomb. He was designated an "enemy
] combatant" by President Bush a month later and was
] transferred to the military brig in Charleston, South
] Carolina, in June.
]
] He has been held there ever since and has not had access
] to any legal counsel or been formally charged.

Nice. A U.S. citizen is finally getting due process of law (well, "conditionally" FWIW) after being incarcerated for nearly 2 years? And I suppose its *purely coincidental* that this is happening in an election year too. Of course this isn’t an effort to soften Bush and Ashcroft’s Gestapo image.

LB

'Dirty bomb' suspect gets conditional lawyer access

] Lifeguards at a beach post north of Sydney couldn't
] believe their eyes when a man walked in with a small
] shark attached to his leg.

WEIRD!
LB

Swimmer drives with shark on leg

] CEDAR LAKE, Ind. (AP) %u2014 Some parents and students
] said they were concerned about children's privacy as a
] northwestern Indiana school district prepares to use
] fingerprints to identify students while buying school
] meals.
]
] The Hanover Community School Corp. plans to use a new
] cafeteria cash register system, which uses fingerprints
] instead of meal cards to charge students.
]
] Some parents and students questioned how else the
] fingerprints might be used, but school officials say the
] system would make the cafeterias more efficient and does
] not infringe on privacy.

Call me crazy... but my highschool had I think a magstripe or barcode reader for scanning student photo IDs. It seemed to work really well at keeping track of who bought what in the cafeteria without conjuring scary Orwellian "Big Brother" images. I fail to see why a biometric system is necessary in a school cafeteria.

Moral of the story... your civil liberties are not taken away in one foul swoop - they are chipped away little by little so not enough people notice to raise any red flags with a large percentage of the population.

LB

Some question using student fingerprints for school meals

] I was 23-24 years old when I wrote these diaries. I
] certainly wasn't planning on publishing them when I wrote
] them; so reading them now either makes me laugh, cry or
] cringe. I will not make any claims to being a gifted
] writer or diarist, but the aim here is to give the reader
] some sense of what it was like to tour across the USA in
] a van with a punk rock band in the mid to late 1980's.
] Some say this was the heyday of independent rock music
] and the college radio scene. I would bet we worked harder
] and played many more shows than many of today's
] 'alternative' rock bands will play in their short-lived
] careers.

Dean Clean has put up a Moveable Type blog, and is posting commented entries from his journal covering the Milkmen's first tour. Other members of the band are also adding comments. You can follow the band on their tour, 18 years lagged.

Also, they have a number of music videos available for download from their main website.

The Dead Milkmen are required listening. Don't trust anyone who says they do not like The Dead Milkmen.

The Dead Milkmen: 18 years ago

] "Outsourcing is just a new way of doing international
] trade," said N. Gregory Mankiw, chairman of Bush's
] Council of Economic Advisors, which prepared the report.
] "More things are tradable than were tradable in the past.
] And that's a good thing."

This guy is talking about programmers. Get out while you can

The Seattle Times: Nation & World: Bush report: Sending jobs overseas helps U.S.

] In the rush to hire more than 55,000 airport baggage
] screeners, the Transportation Security Administration
] swept up a few people that didn't belong in security
] positions, according to the inspector general of the
] Department of Homeland Security.
]
] Among them, some 85 screeners had felony convictions, 503
] failed to disclose an arrest or conviction, and 338 had
] financial or similar disqualifying problems, according to
] Inspector General Clark Kent Ervin.

Your tax dollars at work.

LB

Report: Felons hired in rush to fill airport security jobs

Commercials from the Super Bowl - without all those damn "game breaks".

LB

IFILM - Super Bowl Ads

] Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, who urged the United
] Nations to endorse a preemptive war to strip Iraq of its
] weapons of mass destruction, conceded yesterday that
] Saddam Hussein's government may have no longer had such
] munitions.

[ well, how about that. ] -k

Powell Voices Doubts About Iraqi Weapons (washingtonpost.com)