] The Pentagon says military records related to President
] Bush's service in the National Guard more than 30 years
] ago were inadvertently destroyed,

Whoops. Well he hasn't really shown up for work since he was appointed President, Cheney's actually been running things and Bush has been the Vice-Presidential Spokesman, so I guess he's consistant at least?

Did Bush Show Up?

I saw something the other night I had never heard of before. Bottom of the fourth inning, man on second, one out, the Colorado Rockies gave an intentional walk. This isn't unusual, it was Barry Bonds after all, but they did it with the score 6-1. The Giants were winning.

I was trying to think if I'd ever heard of such a thing and the answer was, no. Barry Bonds is the most feared man in baseball. Ever.

I wanted to make sure about this so I pulled a statitic out. This is the previous best combination of batting, on base and slugging averages I could find. .376 .532 .847 That gets an OBPS of 1.378 (there's some rounding in the actual numbers so it comes out .001 points off). That's Babe Ruth in 1920, what is arguable his best season, and statistically by far his best. Bonds through the first half of the year is doing this, .354 .622 .796 1.417.

Keep in mind, there are only THREE people who have ever broken 1.250 (Ted Williams is the third) and Bonds isn't just beating Ruth, he's beating him handily, and so far ahead of everyone else it isn't funny.

Who else currently stands out? Sammy Sosa? He pulled in a 1.172 one year and has been over 1 a couple times, but he's not close. Junior? Never made a 1.1. How about Big Mac, he of the broken record (before Bonds kicked it to the curb) his best season was 1.222. Not shabby by any stretch, but not even close. Mays? His best season was 1954 and it doesn't make 1.1. Hammerin Hank? At his absolute best, not a 1.1.

Barry destroyed Ruth's walks record years ago. This season he may get walked so many times he won't be eligible for the batting title. A few years ago I thought, as a baseball fan, I'm lucky to be living now, because so many great players are playing right now. I was right, but didn't know I was also getting a chance to see the absolute best.

Hate him or not, no one has ever put up numbers like these.

For sources check www.baseball-reference.com and a very good article on this from the 2001 season at www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=1205

] But the chairman of the new federal Election Assistance
] Commission complained Thursday that he was rebuffed when
] he wrote to Ridge seeking to discuss election security
] issues, including how to handle rescheduling the election
] if it were to be disrupted by an attack.

Oh yeah... This inspires confidence. "Hey, you're going to get attacked!" "What can you tell me?" "Sorry, I'm too busy to talk to you. You're the one who's going to be attacked."
WTF?

Yahoo! News - Ridge Warns of Election Terror Plot

] "They didn't really have a specific plan for what to do,
] case by case, if we lost," a senior Department of Defense
] (news - web sites) official said on condition of
] anonymity. "The Justice Department (news - web sites)
] didn't have a plan. State didn't have a plan. This wasn't
] a unilateral mistake on Department of Defense's part.
] It's astounding to me that these cases have been pending
] for so long and nobody came up with a contingency plan."

What? The Bushies didn't have a plan? How is that unlike EVERYTHING ELSE they've done? Invade Afghanistan, no plan to actually catch/kill the people they're after. Invade Iraq, no plan for what to do after they get rid of Saddam. It seems to me this sort of half assed action is NORMAL for the Axis of Weasels. (http://www.thebushadministration.com/bush/)

Yahoo! News - Detainees May Be Moved Off Cuba Base

] The court refused to endorse a central claim of the White
] House since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001: that
] the government has authority to seize and detain terror
] suspects or their protectors and indefinitely deny access
] to courts or lawyers while interrogating them.

Good. For a country purportedly fighting for "the rule of law" we've been doing a pretty crappy job about even bothering to follow our own.

Yahoo! News - Enemy Combatants Win Right to U.S. Courts

...There were no exuberant scenes of jubilation which greeted the fall of Saddam Hussein's statue on Firdous Square on April 9, 2003, when U.S. troops swept into the capital.

I think what they meant to say was that there were no cheering crowds now, as opposed to the statue incident, but then, having seen the overhead shot of the statue coming down, there weren't any crowds then either, so oddly, they got this right even though it's not what was meant.

Not what they meant but...

That's when Cheney unloaded with the "F-bomb,"

Way to go, dick.

"a 2002 order signed by Bush says the president reserves the right to suspend the Geneva Conventions on treatment of prisoners of war at any time."

So is Bush the second coming of Franz von Papen, a "leader" so inept that his underlings could get him to authorize anything or is he managing to rank right up there with Saddam Hussein, the guy we needed to "regime change?"

El Presidente Shrub Says 'Geneva Bad! Torture Good!'

] By Ahmad Chalabi
]
] President Bush (news - web sites) is the most popular
] political figure in Iraq (news - web sites) today. The
] Iraqi people are grateful for liberation and are hopeful
] that it will lead to a better future.

Well let's see... Is this a credible source? Um... well...

Yahoo! News - Stay the political course

] The Bush administration is spending $18 million on a new
] round of taxpayer-funded television advertising to
] promote the Medicare discount drug card, the Medicare
] administrator said Tuesday.

So id this an $18 million dollar ad to try to get people to vote for the shrubbery or is it $18 million dollars that could be spent on something practical, like maybe a medicare system that doesn't suck?

And oh yeah... this is the benefit plan that it was said would "only" cost $400 billion, whenthey hid numbers saying $500+ billion, and it is only covering about 7 million out of 41 million people eligible?

Wait... does that mean if everyone signs up it costs $3 trillion???

Yahoo! News - White House Spends $18M on Medicare Ad