] The H5N1 avian flu, which first appeared in Hong Kong in
] 1997 and has since popped up twice, is evolving and can
] jump directly from birds to people, killing an estimated
] 72 percent of diagnosed victims, Gerberding said.

Folks, those are close to ebola numbers with a MUCH easier transmission vector. This is scaring the crap out of CDC.

Avian Flu World's No. 1 Threat, CDC Head Says

] If two-thirds (4 percentage points) of your Social
] Security taxes are diverted into private accounts, as
] Bush proposes, the date the program begins running a
] deficit will advance to 2012 from 2018, according to the
] liberal Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
] Similarly, the date the trust fund is emptied advances to
] 2031 from 2042

If I read this right, the actual plan is to make Wall Street a crapload of money and burn Social Security to the ground ten years earlier. How the hell is this a good idea?

Accounts may be fine idea. Alone, they're no solution.

] The special prosecutor in the case, Chicago U.S. Attorney
] Patrick Fitzgerald, is investigating whether a crime was
] committed when someone leaked the identity of CIA officer
] Valerie Plame. Her name was published in a 2003 column by
] Robert Novak, who cited two senior Bush administration
] officials as his sources.

So why the hell isn't the Prince of Darkness one of the people under the order?

Appeals Court Upholds Ruling in CIA Leak

] Bush urged Congress "not to attach to this proposal items
] that are not directly related to these emergencies
] abroad."
]
]
] But the White House attached its extra spending request
] to a measure that is labeled "Funding for the War on
] Terror." Among the extras is $5.3 billion to pay for a
] restructuring of the Army and, to a lesser degree, the
] Marine Corps. The administration chose to not include
] those items in the $419.3 billion defense budget for 2006
] that Bush submitted to Congress last week.

It's funny, but if W tried to say he wasn't a crook right now, I'd find Nixon much more believable. And with this coming from that well known liberally biased rag the... Chicago Tribune? oh, I guess there won't be any waving that flag on this one.

Yahoo! News - War budget request loaded with extras

] He takes that a step further by arguing that such an
] incumbent-protection system, in which neither party risks
] losing what they already have, is the reason compromise
] has been replaced by deadlock in state politics. The
] state legislature seems forever polarized as extremists
] of left and right win safe party seats in Sacramento --
] and in Washington, too. His solution: panels of retired
] judges (and computers) to create new and presumably
] competitive elections.

I generally like Reeves column, especially when he points out things that have real solutions that people are working to deal with (and are getting stiffed).

CITIZEN SCHWARZENEGGER UPSETTING HIS PARTY

] Arthur Miller, the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright
] whose most famous fictional creation, Willy Loman in
] "Death of a Salesman," came to symbolize the American
] Dream gone awry, has died. He was 89.

It's a sad day for the theater.

Playwright Arthur Miller Dies at 89

] The administration's Medicare chief revealed Tuesday
] night that the prescription drug program will actually
] cost not $400 billion, not $434 billion, not $551 billion
] but $732 billion over the next 10 years. That's an
] increase of 83 percent over what the administration told
] Congress when it was selling the bill -- enough money in
] real dollars to cover the entire costs of the wars in
] Afghanistan and Iraq to date or to eliminate the budget
] deficit that the administration projects for 2009.

hmmm... and what does this say to the Social Security numbers coming out of the White House?

Salon.com Politics - The Medicare Drug Benefit Boondoggle

] President Bush, in an interview with Brian Lamb of C-SPAN
] that was released Friday, talked of life in the White
] House:
]
]
] Lamb: "The longer you're in this White House, with all
] those that have gone before you, do you see ghosts of
] past presidents?"
]
]
] Bush: "Well, I quit drinking in '86. ... It's just really
] hard to project back into somebody else's shoes. So, no,
] I guess I don't see ghosts."

That's it, that's the whole piece, and wow can I not figure out where the hell Bush was going on this one.

Bush Doesn't See Ghosts in White House

] The tapes raised questions about mistreatment and
] misconduct, however, said the investigators, who
] suggested some clips needed more scrutiny to rule out
] abuse. The military has cited 10 substantiated cases of
] abuse at Guantanamo, and announced Tuesday an extension
] would be granted for an investigation to interview of
] witnesses in the United States and abroad.

Is anyone surprised?

AP: Videos Show Guantanamo Prisoner Abuse

A Fox News anchor flips out when a guest dares to question the nature of Bush's elaborate 2nd inauguration.

Frank Rich wrote: "Judy Bachrach, a writer for Vanity Fair, dared say on Fox News that the inaugural's military ball and prayer service would not keep troops 'safe and warm' in their 'flimsy' Humvees in Iraq. She was promptly given the hook."

Not what the poor talking head was expecting at all...

Fair and Balanced Inauguration