Hume, on the April 6 edition of DaySide, said: "And so far as I understand it -- and I asked the vice president about this back in February -- both he and the president have the legal authority under an executive order signed by the president to make public classified information. So that takes the unauthorized out of it."

If this is the case, LET'S SEE THE DOCUMENTS! I'm just waiting for someone to make that request and have it declined. That would put a big fat hole right through this argument, but hey, let's say they do release all of this and say "it was all okay, we said he could." Well now we have the conundrum of the "Security" President compromising national security. Welcome to Catch-22.

Media Matters - Ensor, Hume accepted without question claim that Bush's NIE

The case brought by Sen. Mike DeWine's former counsel to the Senate Judiciary Committee, Robert Steinbuch, alleges that Cutler engaged in an invasion of his privacy in 2004 by publishing sexually explicit facts about a relationship with Steinbuch.

Tough shit. If you did it and the other person decides to blab, well that's just too damn bad. The right to privacy means no poking around. It does not mean that if someone you invited spills the beans you can sue then for "invasion of privacy" which I also seem to think isn't something the right wing like to recognize in the first place.

She didn't "invade" his privacy, he invited her into his "privacy" for a few drinks, invaded her "privacy" (or private parts) with his fleshy probe, and she decided to talk about it. Too bad. I guess the aides in Mike DeWine's office will be carrying NDA's to the bars. So much for getting laid dumbshits...

CNN.com - Judge OKs case against sex blog author - Apr 5, 2006

A small group of current and former conservatives -- including George Will, William F. Buckley Jr. and Francis Fukuyama -- have become harsh critics of the Iraq war. They have declared, or clearly implied, that it is a failure and the president's effort to promote liberty in the Middle East is dead -- and dead for a perfectly predictable reason: Iraq, like the Arab Middle East more broadly, lacks the democratic culture that is necessary for freedom to take root. And so for cultural reasons, this effort was flawed from the outset.

Or so the argument goes.

Let me address each of these charges in turn.

...

Mr. Wehner is deputy assistant to the president and director of the White House's Office of Strategic Initiatives.

Standard (and lame, and transparent) attack strategy ... Opponent makes claim X, which is valid. To refute opponent's claim, restate it after amplifying it by a factor of 10. Then show how claim 10X has weaknesses. Finally, declare victory.

After reading the piece, it's also factually misleading. Is there a drift away from people like Zarqawi? Not relly, his following was small in the first place. Is there an increasing drift towards Sadr? Yes, and who was causing all kinds of problems earlier? Zaqawi on a "small, terror" level, but Sadr on a broad strategic level. In the three years between now and the W regime leaving office, we will get to see just how horribly this has all gone.

Bush Explains Why Fukuyama Is Wrong

Brian J. Doyle, 55, is charged with seven counts of use of a computer to seduce a child and 16 counts of transmission of harmful material to a minor, according to a sheriff's office statement.

On March 12, according to a police statement, Doyle contacted a Polk County computer crimes detective posing online as a 14-year-old girl "and initiated a sexually explicit conversation with her ... Doyle knew that the 'girl' was 14 years old, and he told her who he was and that he worked for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

"Judd said that Doyle, in the first conversation, told the detective his position with DHS and "started immediately into pretty vulgar language. He explained in graphic detail the sexual acts he wanted to perform with this 14-year-old."

As the two continued chatting online, police said, Doyle gave her his home and office phone numbers, and the number to his government-issue cell phone. He also had explicit telephone conversations with a detective posing as the girl, authorities said.

In addition, he used the Internet to send "hard-core pornographic movie clips" to her, and also used an America Online instant-messaging service to have explicit online conversations with her.

Doyle also sent photos of himself that were not sexually explicit, but said he would send nude photos if the "girl" would buy a Web camera and send him nude photos of herself. In one photo, Judd said, Doyle's DHS security tag is clearly visible.

"I read the transcripts," Judd said. "I wanted to see if this was just as outrageous as the detectives depicted it ... It shocked all of us who have worked vice, narcotics, organized crime, homicides."

This is sure to be all over the news today...

While not directly related to this, I've asked this question around lately: "what the hell is DHS doing?" Answers have varied. No one seems to know exactly. Mostly stuff about establishing little fiefdoms and sharing email servers. My favorite comment so far has been "creating new ways to fuck up." Their press center is simply the "Remarks from Michael Chertoff" page. DHS appears to be a black hole.

CNN.com - DHS spokesman arrested in child sex sting - Apr 4, 2006

"He'll resign," a former senior DeLay aide said.

This is a good start...

Officials: DeLay Won't Seek Re-Election - Yahoo! News

But Hadley and other administration officials realized that it would be much more difficult to shield Bush from criticism for his statements regarding the aluminum tubes, for several reasons.

For one, Hadley's review concluded that Bush had been directly and repeatedly apprised of the deep rift within the intelligence community over whether Iraq wanted the high-strength aluminum tubes for a nuclear weapons program or for conventional weapons.

For another, the president and others in the administration had cited the aluminum tubes as the most compelling evidence that Saddam was determined to build a nuclear weapon -- even more than the allegations that he was attempting to purchase uranium.

This is called "Lying to Congress" and punishable by 5 years in a federal correctional institution. Go to jail. Go directly to Jail. Do not go to the G8 conference, do not collect $200,000 speaking fees.

NATIONAL JOURNAL: Insulating Bush (03/30/2006)

Congress ordered the review after a Knight Ridder investigation last year found that the Pentagon had paid $20 a piece for plastic ice cube trays that previously had cost 89 cents and $81 each for coffee makers that it bought for years for $29.

And here I thought the days of the $1500 hammer were passe! Silly me.

KR Washington Bureau | 03/29/2006 | Pentagon agency says `prime vendor' program remains sound

Clearly the system we have today isn't just broke. The system is utterly and completely sick and our weakest citizens are paying the price, every day. And while I have belatedly been forced to share some of the experiences of our poor, uninsured, and unemployed, my situation doesn't even start to compare with people with no resources, no voice, nowhere to go and no one who listens to them. For those citizens we have something that's called the Government; a government that is supposed to look out for the people who can't look out for themselves, but instead focuses on "pay to play money."

A former VP at Pfizer says what's on his mind. It's a very good read on what's gone wrong with both medicine and the economy in general.

Dr. Peter Rost: The New Robber Barons

"Our faith has always been in direct conflict with the values of the world," DeLay said. "We are, after all, a society that provides abortion on demand, has killed millions of innocent children, degrades the institution of marriage, and all but treats Christianity like some second-rate superstition."

We don't treat Christianity like some second rate superstition, just your version of it which damns women with children they don't have any idea how to deal with, does everything it can to block both birth control and sex education, which might might prevent them from getting that way in the first place, thinks the world was created 6,000 years ago, ignores solid science like evolution, doesn't pay any attention to things like the environment (hey it's here for us to exploit right?) and treats the other billions of members of mankind like second rate people there to exploit (as demonstrated by your trip to the Marianas to okay their child labor sweatshops).

Your version of Christianity ranks right up there with breaking a mirror giving you 7 years of bad luck or that thing with spilling salt and tossing it over your shoulder. So it's not a second rate superstition, it's obviously a first rate superstition.

DeLay Says Justices 'Don't Get' Criticism - Yahoo! News

The President of the Oglala Sioux Tribe on the Pine Ridge Reservation, Cecilia Fire Thunder, was incensed. A former nurse and healthcare giver she was very angry that a state body made up mostly of white males, would make such a stupid law against women.

"To me, it is now a question of sovereignty," she said to me last week. "I will personally establish a Planned Parenthood clinic on my own land which is within the boundaries of the Pine Ridge Reservation where the State of South Dakota has absolutely no jurisdiction."

Way to go!

Oglala Sioux Tribe on the South Dakota Abortion Ban : SF Bay Area Indymedia