Alternate Entries

Friday, September 19, 2003

Another good reason to live in California:

Sealing his reputation as one of the nation's most gay-friendly governors, Gray Davis signed a domestic partner bill Friday night granting same-sex couples in California nearly all the same rights and responsibilities as married spouses.

Read the article.

Vermont is also good, but it gets really cold there.

posted by jeev | 9:17 PM |

From the Washington Post, the $87 billion Dubya asked for for his little war compared to the rest of the budget:

Or maybe it's not just $87 billion. Reprinted from the LATimes:

WASHINGTON � The White House acknowledged Monday that it substantially underestimated the cost of rebuilding Iraq and that even the additional $87 billion it was seeking from a wary Congress would fall far short of what is needed for postwar reconstruction.

Administration officials said President Bush's emergency spending request � which would push the U.S. budget deficit above the half-trillion-dollar mark for the first time � still left a reconstruction funding gap of as much as $55 billion.

posted by jeev | 4:04 PM |

From Fred Kaplan, at Slate:

This year, if all goes as President Bush plans, the United States will spend more money on the military than in any year since 1952, the peak of the Korean War.

And what's he spending it on? Things like this:

The only American weapon that performed poorly in Gulf War II was the AH-64D Apache attack helicopter�in its only massed assault, 30 out of 32 were shot up, mainly by Iraqi small-arms fire, and had to scurry back to base, most of them in disrepair. Yet the budget includes $777 million to keep buying Apaches.

Comforting, en't it?

posted by jeev | 10:03 AM |

Thursday, September 18, 2003

At some point, even the Bush administration has to come out and admit what is patently the case:

President Bush said there has been no evidence that Iraq's Saddam Hussein was involved in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, disavowing a link that had been hinted at previously by his administration.

To read the rest of the story, a link to the Washington Post.

posted by jeev | 5:26 PM |

Halliburton again. Josh Marshall at TalkingPointsMemo takes up the story. Scroll up to his take on the Feith story cited here a few days ago.

posted by jeev | 3:06 PM |

Speaks for itself:

(Think I made it up? The source.)

posted by jeev | 8:31 AM |

From the folk at moveon.org, The Daily Mislead, a "daily chronicle of Bush administration distortion". Sadly, until this administration is history they'll never run out of subjects.

posted by jeev | 8:16 AM |

Tuesday, September 16, 2003

Enough with politics. Now to real stuff, like, say, a museum of odd 404 messages.

(Via Boing Boing)

posted by jeev | 7:09 PM |

Monday, September 15, 2003

Say what?

GW went to Detroit to today to see if he could still say patently ridiculous things and get away with it. Speaking at the dedication of a power plant, "upgraded" under his newly issued environmental rules, that will not only continue to produce 102,700 tons of sulfer dioxide a year, but may also increase other emissions by 56%, he said: "It makes sense to change these regulations. It makes sense for the workplace environment. It makes sense for the protection of the air."

Perhaps in Bizarro world.

posted by jeev | 9:50 PM |

Sunday, September 14, 2003

Just say what you really feel, Josh.

From Talking Points Memo, an analysis of a recent performance by Dick Cheney:

Apparently the Vice-President of the United States can't help lying to and deceiving the people he was elected to serve.

Marshall describes Cheney's evasive and self-serving response to a direct question this morning by Tim Russert on Meet the Press about Saddam's supposed involvement in 9/11.

MR. RUSSERT: The Washington Post asked the American people about Saddam Hussein, and this is what they said: 69 percent said he was involved in the September 11 attacks. Are you surprised by that?

VICE PRES. CHENEY: No. I think it�s not surprising that people make that connection.

MR. RUSSERT: But is there a connection?

VICE PRES. CHENEY: We don�t know. . .With respect to 9/11, of course, we�ve had the story that�s been public out there. The Czechs alleged that Mohamed Atta, the lead attacker, met in Prague with a senior Iraqi intelligence official five months before the attack, but we�ve never been able to develop anymore of that yet either in terms of confirming it or discrediting it. We just don�t know.

Boy, talk about your clear and damning evidence. The "public" "story" that the Czechs "alleged" that we've "never been able to develop". Sure, it's not surprising that people make that connection. And this, ladies and gentlemen, is the Vice President of the United States.

Marshall concludes with this:

Why do 69% of Americans continue to believe that Iraq may have been involved in 9/11? Many reasons. But one of the most important is that their leaders keep lying to them.

posted by jeev | 9:10 PM |

I like the image.

In today's NYTimes, an analysis of the stunning growth of the budget deficit. My favorite line?

"It really has been a Miltonian experience, from the heights to the depths," said Robert D. Reischauer, a former director of the Congressional Budget Office, invoking "Paradise Lost" as a metaphor for the budget's fall.

My feelings, exactly.

(Via dangerousmeta)

posted by jeev | 8:56 PM |

Remember the guy we were getting "dead or alive"? This week's Newsweek brings us up to date, in an article titled: "Why Can't We Get Him?"

Why indeed? George W. Bush has already buried bin Laden�rhetorically. It�s been many months since the president, who once declared he wanted bin Laden �dead or alive,� even mentioned his name. But if last week�s video is to be believed, bin Laden appears to be not only alive, but thriving. And with America distracted in Iraq, and Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf leery of stirring up an Islamist backlash, there is no large-scale military force currently pursuing the chief culprit in the 9/11 attacks, U.S. officials concede.

But at least we got Saddam. Right?

posted by jeev | 8:38 PM |