11.30.2004 "Congress Trims Money for Science Agency" By ROBERT PEAR, The New York Times
11.30.2004 "EXTRAORDINARY RENDITION? AMERICA OUTSOURCES TORTURE" Steven C. Clemons
11.30.2004 "Dude, Where's My Integrity? -- Medical marijuana tests the Supreme Court's true love of federalism." By Dahlia Lithwick
11.30.2004 "Quietly released Pentagon report contains major criticisms of administration." by Tom Regan, Christian Science Monitor
11.29.2004 "He kissed her, forced her lips open with his mouth. She could taste the whiskey he had been drinking, feel his whiskers and the scab on his face. A wave of revulsion swept over her, and she pushed him away. As he fell back, the white bulldog moved toward her, his growl becoming louder" ... "Fledgling writers are always advised to ‘write what you know,’ so it’s pretty interesting trying to determine what and who Lynne Cheney knew here, in this excerpt." Kevin Hayden, at American Street from Lynne Cheney's "Sisters"
11.29.2004 Mark Kleiman "One question I hope Fitzgerald’s staff is asking: Who told Clifford May, a GOP flack who’s been masquerading as journalist at NRO, about Valerie Plame’s identity as a covert CIA officer weeks before Novak published his story? May said in print that some former offical had told him that, back when the Bushies’ line was that Plame’s identity wasn’t actually a secret in the first place. I hope he’s been given an opportunity to explain in detail to the Grand Jury."
11.29.2004 To Hell With Values, Michael Kinsley, The LA Times "It's not just a question of values getting in the way of more pressing or relevant matters. It's also a question of how much you want the government to be worrying about your values. My answer: not very much. My values are my own business."
11.28.2004 "The Baby Gap: Explaining Red and Blue" by Steve Sailer The American Conservative. "voters are picking their parties based on differing approaches to the most fundamentally important human activity: having babies. The white people in Republican-voting regions consistently have more children than the white people in Democratic-voting regions. The more kids whites have, the more pro-Bush they get."
11.28.2004 "Bush's Social Security Plan Is Said to Require Vast Borrowing" By RICHARD W. STEVENSON, The New York Times
11.25.2004 "All across America, we gather this week with the people we love to give thanks to God for the blessings in our lives. We are grateful for our freedom, grateful for our families and friends, and grateful for the many gifts of America. On Thanksgiving Day, we acknowledge that all of these things, and life itself, come from the Almighty God." George W. Bush
11.25.2004 "In essence, what's now being created inside the Beltway is the equivalent of what was created for the President on the campaign trail -- those adoring rallies, that moving campaign bubble, lacking the slightest challenge from reality. In a sense, what's now being put in place is a full-scale fantasy regime, armed to the teeth. Inside the castle (or the bubble, if you prefer) reality will be -- for a while at least -- what the President and Vice President decide it is." TomDispatch.com
11.25.2004 "How Not to Catch a Terrorist -- A ten-step program, from the files of the U.S. intelligence community" by Anonymous, The Atlantic Monthly
"The pattern of decision-making I have witnessed ... seems to indicate a want of moral courage, an overwhelming concern for career advancement, or an abject inability to distinguish right from wrong. Before the Kean Commission's recommendations are implemented, and a vastly expensive and disruptive scheme is undertaken to overhaul an Intelligence Community weaker today than on 11 September 2001, it is worth reviewing the testimonies and documents the commissioners and the other 11 September panels have in hand, and reassessing where primary responsibility lies. Is it really small budgets, poor organization, and legal hurdles that stopped the Community from dealing with Bin Laden to the best of its ability? Or is it the results of decisions by human beings who refuse to do either what is in their power and patently necessary, or that which is asked for by their elected chiefs in Congress and the Executive ... "
10.28.2002 "The Rumsfeld Intelligence Agency -- How the hawks plan to find a Saddam/al-Qaida connection." By Fred Kaplan, Slate"It is an old story that bears the same lesson each time a new chapter unfolds: Intelligence analysis should be kept out of the hands of those who have a vested interest in the results."
11.24.2004 "Republicans sure have been busy" Carpetbagger
11.25.2004 "A harshly critical report by a Pentagon advisory panel says the United States is failing in its efforts to explain the nation's diplomatic and military actions to the Muslim world, but it warns that no public relations plan or information operation can defend America from flawed policies" ... The report also says: 'The critical problem in American public diplomacy directed toward the Muslim world is not one of 'dissemination of information' or even one of crafting and delivering the 'right' message. Rather it is a fundamental problem of credibility. Simply, there is none - the United States today is without a working channel of communication to the world of Muslims and of Islam.'" 11.9.2004 "Judge halts Gitmo detainee's tribunal -- Geneva Conventions do apply to Osama bin Laden's former driver, the ruling says." By Matthew Hay Brown, Sentinel Staff Writer
11.9.2004 "Another day, another Halliburton scandal worsens" Carpetbagger
11.8.2004 "Voting Without the Facts" By BOB HERBERT, The New York Times Ahah!! It's ignorance, not stupidity.
11.04.2004 "Soldiers Describe Looting of Explosives" All about Al Qaqaa.
"Devastating. The administration was given warnings about the facility, which were ignored. The administration was told there weren't enough troops, but that was ignored too. And now terrorists have several hundred tons of deadly explosives. Every defense the administration has offered to justify the mistake has been proven false." Carpetbagger
11.04.2004 "U.S. Wants No Warming Proposal -- Administration Aims to Prevent Arctic Council Suggestions" By Juliet Eilperin The Washington Post "Some Senate Republicans, including Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John McCain (Ariz.) and fellow committee member Olympia J. Snowe (Maine), are also lobbying the administration to back a strong policy document. In late September they and Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) wrote to Secretary of State Colin L. Powell saying, "In order to fulfill our responsibilities to the American people, it is critical that we, as policymakers, have access to the latest scientific information and associated policy recommendations."
11.3.2004