"U.N. satellite imagery experts have determined that material that could be used to make biological or chemical weapons and banned long-range missiles has been removed from 109 sites in
Iraq"

Yep, sure is better over there now.

U.N.: Weapons Equipment Missing in Iraq

] C reported on his recent talks in Washington. There was a
] perceptible shift in attitude. Military action was now
] seen as inevitable. Bush wanted to remove Saddam, through
] military action, justified by the conjunction of
] terrorism and WMD. But the intelligence and facts were
] being fixed around the policy. The NSC had no patience
] with the UN route, and no enthusiasm for publishing
] material on the Iraqi regime's record. There was little
] discussion in Washington of the aftermath after military
] action.

And now we see that there really was a rush to war. Lovely.

The secret Downing Street memo - Sunday Times - Times Online

] Anette Pharris, 34, has been indicted by a grand jury on
] charges of contributing to the delinquency of a minor and
] involving a minor in obscene acts. The boy’s
] father, the stripper and two others also face charges.

From what I see here, I'm going to say that the potential results of this trial are probably going to be more harmful to this kid than having the stripper. Not that hiring a stripper for a 16 year old was a stroke of genius, but the likely upshot of this is disasterous. The financial burden of this sort of litigation alone doesn't help the family, or the kid.

Mom indicted for hiring stripper for son

] One of the military's new wartime challenges is dealing
] with global media that can instantly spread around the
] world information that may be false or damaging to U.S.
] interests, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said
] Wednesday.

What about things that are true and damaging? (Abu Gharib, Bagram, Gitmo, No Child Left Behind getting no money to bring them along, Court nominess called unconsionable by their own collegues) Maybe if this administration stopped doing such inanely mindless and often abusive things, they wouldn't have to worry so much about this.

Rummy? When they start spreading false information about you guys, I might care. As it is, they're not, and if it's true and damaging, well that just means it's something you probably shouldn't have done in the first place.

Rumsfeld Laments Global Reach of War News

] A move by China to revalue its currency "does not follow
] that that will lower our overall trade balance,"
] Greenspan said. "Indeed, it's probably quite unlikely."
]
]
] That's because companies are likely to turn to other
] countries, such as Thailand or Malaysia for goods, rather
] than U.S. producers. "So essentially what we will find is
] we're importing from a different area, but we will be
] importing the same goods," Greenspan said.

Yes, more mainstream news sources... Here's something that I don't think these guys have considered though. Everyone wants China to de-link, the "real" value of the yuan is something like 50% higher than what it trades at. So the real problem lies in the fact that the Chinese are holding something on the line of half a TRILLION to a TRILLION dollars worth of the current US national debt.

De-linking the currency will mean the value of those holdings will take a HUGE hit. So before they de-link, they have to dump those. But of course, they can't, because dumping that much on the market would cause the value to tank anyway. Catch-22.

The Chinese option at this pont is, take a huge hit to their economy, or let us take a huge hit to ours (with a secondary one to theirs) At some point some bean counter will getthis all figured out and the dominoes will get shoved, but either way, I don't see anything pretty coming out of this one.

Greenspan: China Revaluation Won't Help

] "I told the world that Iraq, contrary to your claims did
] not have weapons of mass destruction. I told the world,
] contrary to your claims, that Iraq had no connection to
] al-Qaeda. I told the world, contrary to your claims, that
] Iraq had no connection to the atrocity on 9/11 2001. I
] told the world, contrary to your claims, that the Iraqi
] people would resist a British and American invasion of
] their country and that the fall of Baghdad would not be
] the beginning of the end, but merely the end of the
] beginning.
]
]
] "Senator, in everything I said about Iraq, I turned out
] to be right and you turned out to be wrong and 100,000
] people paid with their lives; 1600 of them American
] soldiers sent to their deaths on a pack of lies; 15,000
] of them wounded, many of them disabled forever on a pack
] of lies.

I don't think he bothered to pull any punches on this one. Too bad it's not going to get any play.

Mr. Galloway Goes to Washington

] "The more compelling our journalism, the angrier the
] radical right of the Republican Party gets," he
] explained. "That's because the one thing they loathe more
] than liberals is the truth. And the quickest way to be
] damned by them as liberal is to tell the truth."

After reading this I got the feeling he's more than a little pissed off at these guys.

Bill Moyers Fights Back

] "Contrary to White House spin, the allegations of
] religious desecration at Guantanamo such as those
] described by Newsweek on 9 May 2005 are common among
] ex-prisoners and have been widely reported outside the
] United States. Several former detainees at the Guantanamo
] and Bagram airbase prisons have reported instances of
] their handlers sitting or standing on the Koran, throwing
] or kicking it in toilets, and urinating on it.

I just love how these guys do things.

Newsweek Was Right

] Luis Posada Carriles, a 77-year-old former
] CIA operative and Venezuelan security official, was taken
] into custody by U.S. immigration authorities, the
] Homeland Security Department said in a statement.
]
]
] The department did not say what it planned to do with
] Posada, who is wanted by Venezuela and Cuba. But it said
] that generally, the U.S. government does not return
] people to Cuba or to countries acting on Cuba's behalf.

Interesting to see this start to move, finally.

U.S. Detains Cuban Linked to 1976 Bombing - Yahoo! News

] The first, of a buffalo, restores the animal to the
] five-cent coin. That symbol of the Plains appeared on the
] back of every U.S. nickel minted between 1913 and 1938,
] when the modern Jefferson head piece was introduced. The
] new buffalo nickels will be produced during the first
] half of 2005.

I wouldn't bring this up, but I saw my first one of these today.

The buffalo is anatomically correct.

New nickel unveiled - Sep. 16, 2004