] "I had deep misgivings about this war, deep misgivings.
] And I was trying to say, 'Mr. President, you better
] prepare the American people for casualties.' 'Oh, no,
] we're not going to have any casualties.' 'Well,' I said,
] 'it's the way it's going to be.' And so, it was messy.
] The lord told me it was going to be, A, a disaster and,
] B, messy."

I'm not sure what to think about this one. Pat Robertson really has a hotline to God? He's schizophrenic and thinks he does? The whole story is fabricated to make him look better? It really happened and W is so self absorbed he actually thought this? This is scary on about six or seven levels.

God tells Pat Robertson Iraq would be a disaster

] The parties are also fighting over "provisional ballots"
] given to people who show up at the polls and do not find
] their names on voter rolls. The Help America Vote Act
] passed by Congress in 2002 required that those ballots be
] counted if it can be determined after Election Day that
] the voters were eligible.
]
]
] A number of Republican election chiefs have decided that
] those ballots should be counted only if they are cast in
] the voters' proper precincts. Democrats, who contend that
] provisional ballots will be used mainly by poor and
] minority voters who tend to move a lot, have sued in
] several states. Some federal courts have upheld those
] rules, but others, including one in Michigan yesterday,
] have sided with the Democrats in ruling that the
] provisional ballots should be counted regardless of where
] they are cast.

Yep, this is America, supposed to be the shining beacon of democracy. Amazing that it looks like we'll do just about anything to screw someone out of a vote because winning is more important. And we're supposed to be showing other countries how to do this?

Yahoo! News - Legal Battle for Presidency Underway

] Earlier Tuesday, another top health official said the FDA
] (news - web sites) is in "active negotiations" with a
] Canadian manufacturer to obtain an extra 1.5 million
] doses of flu vaccine. Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the
] National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases
] (news - web sites), said in an interview "it's possible"
] the vaccine from ID Biomedical would make it to American
] consumers this flu season.

So, just to set the record straight on this, the US flu vaccine suppies come from Chiron (the ones that were contaminated) made in the UK (and the contamination was caught by them there, not by anyone here), from Aventis Pasteur, a French Company, and now we're talking to a Canadian company.

Where are all those self important US pharmaceutical compaines? The ones who are so up in arms about drug reimportation? National health issue here and I don't see Merck stepping up to bat...

Yahoo! News - U.S. to Get 2.6 Million Flu Shots in Jan.

] State Rep. Shelley Vana was not so happy. She said the
] paper absentee ballot she was given at a Palm Beach
] County site was missing one of its two pages, including
] the proposed amendments to the state constitution. She
] said election workers were indifferent when she pointed
] out the oversight.
]
]
] "There was absolutely no concern on the part of the folks
] at the Supervisor of Elections Office that this page was
] missing. This is not a good start. If there are
] incomplete ballots out there, I can't imagine I would be
] the only one getting it," she said.

This is not a good start...

Yahoo! News - Problems Crop Up in Fla. Early Voting

] Florida Gov. Jeb Bush ignored advice to throw out a
] flawed felon voter list before it went out to county
] election offices despite warnings from state officials

Screwing up who can and can't vote once is probably an error. Do it twice, and you're probably trying to screw someone. This is a nice dovetail to the Nevada reports.

Yahoo! News - Report: Jeb Bush Ignored Felon List Advice

] If the president wins again, he will oversee an even more
] radical administration than his first. With his
] all-or-nothing temperament, he will take re-election as
] carte blanche to go ahead with his program of pre-emption
] and imperium. Rather than pulling back from future Iraqs,
] he will rush ahead, feeling ordained by history.

Georgie is a little paranoid, but doesn't seem that far off a likely course.

BUSH RE-ELECTION WOULD LEAVE PATH OPEN TO IMPERIAL DREAMS

] The federal government reached its $7.4 trillion debt
] ceiling yesterday, forcing Treasury Secretary John W.
] Snow to delay contributing to one of the federal
] employees' pension systems to avoid running out of cash
] and possibly defaulting on government debt.

And to think just a few years ago we had space under that ceiling and it was GROWING! Reason #1 Clinton was better than either Bushie - a balanced budget.

Yahoo! News - U.S. Hits Debt Limit After Senators Put Off Raising Ceiling

] Nevada election officials have launched an investigation
] into allegations that a Republican-led voter registration
] drive improperly disposed of forms it collected from
] potential Democratic voters.

As far as I'm concerned, this is right there with Watergate. The next step up is shooting people who try to vote.

CNN.com - Nevada investigates voter registration - Oct 14, 2004

] Employees of a private voter registration company allege
] that hundreds, perhaps thousands of voters who may think
] they are registered will be rudely surprised on election
] day. The company claims hundreds of registration forms
] were thrown in the trash.
]
]
] Anyone who has recently registered or re-registered to
] vote outside a mall or grocery store or even government
] building may be affected.
]
]
] The I-Team has obtained information about an alleged
] widespread pattern of potential registration fraud aimed
] at Democrats. The focus of the story is a private
] registration company called Voters Outreach of America,
] AKA America Votes

I suppose I should be shocked and appalled by this. I am appalled, but just when I thought the right wing couldn't stoop any lower, they do.

Voter Registrations Possibly Trashed

] Equipment and materials that could be used to make
] nuclear weapons are disappearing from Iraq (news - web
] sites) but neither Baghdad nor Washington appears to have
] noticed, the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency reported on
] Monday.

So we invaded to keep nuclear materials out of the hands of possible terrorists, but paid so little attention to what was going on that we may have handed over exactly that? Something about "sowing the wind" is jumping into my head and I really don't like it.

Yahoo! News - UN: Iraqi Nuclear-Related Materials Have Vanished