Go ahead, tell us what you really think, Shayera

They're idiots. Babbling twits.

Nicely done.

Link: excuse the mess... that was just my head: new museum for the stupids opens

Please...anything but that

Although he is not built for it, Fred Thompson is sashaying down the Republican runway, dropping gloves and hints about getting naked for ’08.

Link: Connecting.the.Dots: Fred Thompson Striptease

OMG! It's contagious

VALLEY IDOL: Kick off of the Shea Theater’s annual Valley Idol fundraiser. A karaoke singing competition offering a $1,000 prize to the grand prize winner and other cash prizes for runners-up.

Yes that's right, Bunky, we are doomed.

Link: Greenfield Arts and Entertainment

See it's just a coincidence...

...that gas prices go up right before Memorial Day.

Vacationers seem resigned to gas prices and confident that, as in previous years, prices will drop after the traditional start of the summer driving season.

Sort of a traditional coincidence, you might say.

What are the odds?

Link: Burlington Free Press.com | Business

Umm, well...

“There's no doubt in my mind there will be an arrest. They just want to make sure the guy don't walk, which is correct,” James Dickson of Rutland said Thursday night of the police investigation into the death of his son, Stewart Dickson, 52.

...if he is a hit-and-run driver maybe he should walk. I'm just saying here.

Link: Victim's dad OK with hit-and-run probe: Rutland Herald Online

Supporting the troops

The Pentagon's Byzantine bureaucracy isn't just holding up bomb-resistant vehicles. Urgent requests for equipment from Marines in Iraq appeared to go almost nowhere once the paperwork reached the suits back in the United States. According to an Associated Press article, an internal Marine Corps report criticized acquisition officials who dragged their heels on what could have been life-saving requests.

Link: Danger Room - Wired Blogs

Is our children learning how to spell?

Spelling, originally uploaded by tedcompton.

No idea what to do this weekend?

Thanks to WIIIAI, your problem's solved.

This blog will be open for business over the Memorial Day weekend, assuming there’s anything to blog about, but many won’t. Some of you (and you know who you are) are no doubt terrified by the prospect that this dearth of online material will force you to shut off your computers and go outside. As a public service, may I suggest some alternative online activities: 1) porn, 2) animation produced by the National Film Board of Canada. To celebrate its 300th anniversary, or something, the NFB put 50 animated short films online.

The Canadians do this kind of film better than anybody else. Bar none. Kick back and watch.

Link: Whatever It Is, I’m Against It: John McCain: hak politician

The Good Mexicans

According to a front page article in Friday's LA Times, “Mexico is expanding its ability to tap telephone calls and e-mail using money from the U.S. government, a move that underlines how the country's conservative government is increasingly willing to cooperate with the United States on law enforcement.”

“The expansion comes as President Felipe Calderon is pushing to amend the Mexican Constitution to allow officials to tap phones without a judge's approval in some cases,” writes Sam Enriquez for the paper. “Calderon argues that the government needs the authority to combat drug gangs, which have killed hundreds of people this year.”...

They suggest that Washington could have access to information derived from the surveillance.

It's all about the snoops.

Link: The Raw Story | Report: US to aid Mexico with tapping phones, email

Commander Guy rescues country from that “global warming” thing

US to be shielded by enormous pie in sky

WASHINGTON, May 25 — The Bush administration is developing what are described as concepts for reducing American combat forces in Iraq by as much as half next year, according to senior administration officials in the midst of the internal debate.

Link: White House Is Said to Debate ’08 Cut in Iraq Troops by 50% - New York Times

Or for your heads

“There's a rumbling out in the country, my friends. I think they're calling to us,” Thompson said.

Link: Thompson headlines
Prescott Bush Awards - Greenwich Time

Brick green

Brick green, originally uploaded by tedcompton.

It ain't splendid, it ain't little, and it ain't all George's any more

So. Let me see if I’ve got this straight:

The House and Senate have both approved giving this incompetent, lying, petulant little bully ONE HUNDRED BILLION DOLLARS to continue pouring down the death ridden rat hole that is the Iraq War and in return he has promised to remove the troops…when? Oh that’s right. HE DOESN’T HAVE TO WTHDRAW THE TROOPS AT ALL IF HE DOESN’T WANT TO.

Yeah, pretty much, that's it.

Link: Democrats give Dubya billions to pay Halliburton - I mean, for the Iraq war - meanwhile, he announces al Qaeda's winning...and he thinks Osama's lonely.... « Scholars and Rogues

That's it! That's the problem, right there!

President George W. Bush said Thursday the Chinese “need” to eat US beef for their health, and lamented that China refuses to allow imports because of mad-cow concerns.

Bush, speaking at a news conference after meeting with Chinese Vice Premier Wu Yi, said he was “disappointed” that China was still not accepting US beef.

“They need to be eating US beef. It's good for them. They'll like it. And so we're working hard to get that beef market opened up,” he said.

See how easy?

They need to eat more beef! Our beef. Dude, fair is fair. We eat their crap, they can eat ours.

And hey, a little of that “mad cow” stuff can't hurt you. Just ask the Commander Guy.

Link: The Raw Story | Bush says Chinese 'need' to eat US beef

Finish this sentence in 15 words

maha over at mahablog reports that hillary and barak “to the future” obama voted 'no' on the iraq supplemental funding bill...

Skippy can.

Link: skippy the bush kangaroo: that's not just hedging your bets, that's outright topiary

Oh oh - kinky bug sex

Cockroaches are generally seen as vile and disgusting creatures so it should come as no surprise that they also have a sleazy sex life complete with date rape drugs, golden showers and the occasional eating of body parts.

Link: Primordial Blog: Sexiest Animal on the Planet - Cockroaches

Yellow ribbon, not around a tree

Spiiderweb™ writes about a gas station owner in Milwaukee, one Harvey Pollack, who wrapped yellow caution tape around his pumps yesterday and refused to sell gas because he thinks the price is too high, a gutsy move.

You can do what Harvey has done. You can keep feeding the corrupt corporate beasts or you can take a stand too. You can continue to buy from the monsters who cheat you on a daily basis or you can choose not too. You can continue to suck up hundreds of gallons of gasoline in your SUV daily or not. You can reward the pirates or you can refuse to.

Its all up to you....

...Spiiderweb™ writes, and I agree. But my own real problem with gas prices is not so much how high they are but where the profit goes. High prices, at least in theory, will drive down consumption. The oil companies are betting that theory is pretty soft because, Dear Reader, you are hooked. I know. Me too. Half my job is just getting there. $5.00/gallon gas would be a real bitch. (When I was in high school a gallon cost two bits and for a buck you could go on a heavy date. OK, it was a small town. Maybe $1.50 in the city.)

If the government slapped a 2-bucks-per tax on gas that might be a good thing. The income would go to rebuilding roads and bridges, not to fattening oil execs, and maybe we'd all start driving less and talking a lot more about real alternatives, not just the pie-in-the-sky, run-out-the-clock stuff they're feeding us now.

But as things stand, Big Oil is now blaming you, Bunky, for high prices. See, you keep mumbling about ethanol and - gasp - hydrogen and such subversive stuff and what are the poor oil companies to do, they whine, invest in making more of that good gas? I's all about the refineries, haven't you read the ads?

Well. The Feds are even more reluctant to raise the gas tax than they are to raise the minimum wage so you don't have much to worry about anytime soon, Dude, if you're invested in Exxxon. Or if you drive to work.

But - think about it - if you cut down just a little bit on driving you can save some money to buy some yellow tape.

Link: spiiderweb™: Must read IMHO

LOL, wait until those clueless suckers read this

If you've been paying attention during the last few days you've probably already heard President Commander Guy has issued a directive apparently appointing himself sole ruler of the known universe in the event of a “catastrophic emergency” only he, down there in his bunker, will have the ability to divine. Needless, I hope, to say, this whole thing raises a question or two. For example, does he think a Katrina-scale storm would be not too catastrophic to worry much about (an interpretation favored by history) or does this mean all it would take, now, is one good hurricane to turn the entire country into the DOOFUS's personal realm?

And, how long would it take the Idiot-in-Chief to rescind this order if, say, Al Sharpton were elected President in '08, not that I imagine for a minute Sharpton would be elected or that the First Moron would consider stepping down if he were. I'm just asking here, is all.

I haven't myself yet managed to struggle through the entire text but there it is in all its glory, sort of, on the White House web site (see the link below), which is somewhat amusing right there, since at the very bottom of this stinker resides a paragraph beginning:

This directive and the information contained herein shall
be protected from unauthorized disclosure, provided that, except for Annex
A, the Annexes attached to this directive are classified...

So publishing it to the entire freakin' World Wide Web is what they consider “authorized disclosure,” I guess, and one of the Annexes duly attached and neatly tucked under the blanket of “security” doubtless begins, “LOL, wait until those clueless suckers read this.”

Link: National Security and Homeland Security Presidential Directive

Calling the Dems bird-brains might be an insult to the birds

As President Bush took a question Thursday in the White House Rose Garden about scandals involving his Attorney General, he remarked, “I've got confidence in Al Gonzales doin' the job.”...

Simultaneously, a sparrow flew overhead and left a splash on the President's sleeve, which Bush tried several times to wipe off.

(Watch the movie at Pam's.)

Link: Pam's House Blend:: Bird drops a bomb on Bush

Terror on the Bridgeport Ferry

This was going to be a happy story about how two of my nephews love the french fries on the Bridgeport-Port Jefferson Ferry. “Ferry fries,” they call them. But that story went out the window Sunday night, when I took the photograph below and was threatened with arrest by the Ferry Fascists for doing so.

It's those fries that look like an act of terrorism to me.

Link: FAIRFIELD WEEKLY - FAIRFIELD WEEKLY

Getting away

Getting away, originally uploaded by tedcompton.

Well screw the innocent people...

The President also acknowledged that his troop escalation strategy, and the announcement of the September deadline for a report from General David Petraeus on its progress, would result in a likely increase in violence and bloodshed in Iraq.

“It could make August a tough month, because what they're going to try to do is kill as many people as they can to try and influence the debate here at home. Don't you find that interesting? I do, that they recognize that the death of innocent people could shake our will,” the President explained.

...We don't care how many of them get blown up. Take that, you terrorists.

OK, maybe I'm just being bitter here.

The DOOFUS also blamed the Dems for the “drug out” Gonzales investigation. Like, Dude, he never did no drugging out himself.

Link: The Raw Story | Bush: 'I'm credible because I read the intelligence'

Testing (1, 2, 3)

Rosie!

Mary!

Jimmy!

Jordin!

Monica!

Ralph!

PS: Later: It didn't work. YA total failure. YA wacky experiment gone awry. Maybe I should give up this blogging thing and go back to nuclear physics.

Maybe not so missing after all.

This Monica revealed something hotter --- much hotter --- than a stained blue dress. In her opening testimony yesterday before the House Judiciary Committee, Monica Goodling, the blonde-ling underling to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and Department of Justice Liaison to the White House, dropped The Big One....And the Committee members didn't even know it.

Goodling testified that Gonzales' Chief of Staff, Kyle Sampson, perjured himself, lying to the committee in earlier testimony. The lie: Sampson denied Monica had told him about Tim Griffin's “involvement in 'caging' voters” in 2004.

Huh?? Tim Griffin? “Caging”???...

Here's what you need to know --- and the Committee would have discovered, if only they'd asked:

'Caging' voters is a crime, a go-to-jail felony.
Griffin wasn't “involved” in the caging, Ms. Goodling. Griffin, Rove's right-hand man (right-hand claw), was directing the illegal purge and challenge campaign. How do I know? It's in the email I got. Thanks. And it's posted below.
On December 7, 2006, the ragin', cagin' Griffin was named, on Rove's personal demand, US Attorney for Arkansas. Perpetrator became prosecutor.

Read the rest (oh yeah, more) at the link.

Link: The BRAD BLOG : Palast Exclusive: The Goods on Goodling and the Keys to the Kingdom

Why not? The Dems won't

A Washington-based legal watchdog has sued the White House Office of Administration alleging the administration refuses to comply with a public records request related to more than 5 million e-mails from administration officials that have gone missing, according to a press release.

Link: The Raw Story | CREW sues White House over missing e-mails

Bunky, we have a problem here

Lawmakers asked Kyle Sampson about who drew up the list of U.S. Attorneys to be fired and how those names got on the list. Dunno, he said. They asked Alberto Gonzales. Beats me, he said. They asked Paul McNulty. Ask everybody else, he said. They asked Monica Goodling. Ask anybody else, she said.

As Kevin Drum put it, “Goodling is now the latest high-ranking DOJ official to say that, really, she has no idea why those U.S. Attorneys were fired last year, or who made the choices. The list appeared, somehow, but apparently not from any human hand. It’s a miracle!”

Yeah maybe. Or maybe they're bots. How do we know they're not bots? I mean, think about it, Bunky. Here we have this whole Ministry of Justice place full of “people” (yeah, see what I mean?) running around doing things and they have no idea why? They weren't programmed for “why,” that's why. They were just programmed for “do as you are told.”

Link: Crooks and Liars » The magical firing of (at least) eight U.S. Attorneys

Don't ask, don't tell, and don't get a clue

Lawmakers who say the military has kicked out 58 Arabic linguists because they were gay want the Pentagon to explain how it can afford to let the valuable language specialists go.

Link: Brilliant at Breakfast

Surveys: Gotta love 'em

McDonald's has launched a petition to get the dictionary definition of a McJob changed.

The Oxford English Dictionary describes a McJob as “an unstimulating low-paid job with few prospects”....

McDonald's says that in its staff surveys, 90% of employees agree they are given valuable training that will be of benefit for the rest of their working lives.

Uh-huh. Right. Baby, I can just imagine those surveys.

Nice touch though, with the 90%. 100 would have sounded a little, you know, fake.

Link: Ananova - McDonald's begins McJob petition

Amnesia epidemic in DC claims one more

On this subject, in the absence of all those missing Karl Rove e-mails, Ms. Goodling seemed to feel perjury-proof in denying or not remembering any discussions with Karl Rove or Harriet Meirs, a contention that strains credulity in the light of her job as the Department’s White House liaison.

Isn’t it heartwarming to be living in a country where the people in charge equate telling the truth with not being caught lying?

Link: Connecting.the.Dots: The Monica Misdirection

Kick 'em out and lock 'em up

Thanks to Spiderweb™ for finding this gem:

If your actual goal were to prevent these things from occurring -- to ensure that bin Laden is never caught, that Iraq's infrastructure is never rebuilt -- then incentives like this would be just the kind of thing you'd need. Perverse incentives are an intelligent strategy if you're pursuing perverse goals.

I've long since quit giving these guys credit for being incompetent: Nobody's this dumb. Not even Rs.

Link: slacktivist: Sweet deals

Yeah, well, who'd want to?

Birds do it. Bees do it. Now it seems that sharks are the latest, and largest, creatures that are able to reproduce without having sex...

Link: Shark's virgin birth stuns scientists | Earth News | Earth | Telegraph

But “slurburger” just might work

Restaurant Refuses To Change Burger Name With 'Ethnic Slur'

Wopburger Sparks Controversy At Family-Owned Italian Restaurant

Link: Restaurant Refuses To Change Burger Name With 'Ethnic Slur' - News Story - KMGH Denver

Also their asses

Congress seeks missing billions in Iraq

Link: FT.com / In depth - Congress seeks missing billions in Iraq

Save the snails!

Or at least save some for me.

Expensive restaurants are now so popular that they are driving certain animals and fish to the verge of extinction, according to one of the world's leading chefs.

Pierre Gagnaire, whose Michelin three-star restaurant in Paris regularly wins plaudits as one of the world's best, said that there were now too many restaurants like his own, ploughing their way through large quantities of certain raw materials considered as delicacies.

It's all China's fault, says Gagnaire. Not Bubba's. He eats cheeseburgers.

Link: Rare delicacies 'eaten to extinction' |Earth News | Earth | Telegraph

Did your colors change?

Thwarted Christian-fundamentalist terrorist attack

That's right! A student from Jerry Falwell's Liberty University planned to bomb protesters at Jerry's funeral. With gasoline-based napalm bombs.

Link: Mixter's Mix: Thwarted Christian-fundamentalist terrorist attack

Two more gone

Two more, originally uploaded by tedcompton.

Anything you don't like, Bunky?

Anything at all? Well then, come on down and play Blame It On Bubba!

In an appearance on the “Late Show with David Letterman”...Rudolph W. Giuliani said he believes America might have gone to war in Iraq even if George W. Bush had not been President....

He continued: “It was the policy of the Clinton administration to have a regime change in Iraq, so in a way, George Bush carried out what Bill Clinton wanted to do and didn’t get the opportunity to do. So who knows.”

See how easy?

Link: A Democratic Drive to War? - The Caucus - Politics - New York Times Blog

It's all an act now?

Thanks to WIIIAI for noticing this:

Top U.S. commanders and diplomats in Iraq are completing a far-reaching campaign plan for a new U.S. strategy, laying out military and political goals and endorsing the selective removal of hardened sectarian actors from Iraq's security forces and government.

Emphasis (emphatically) mine.

So then. They're not terrorists and they're not insurgents, they're actors? And we're only concerned about the hardened ones? Yeah, well. Nice of you to clear that up for us, WaPo.

Of course it does sort of fit nicely with the new official meme: Nothing wrong with a little good-natured violence, Bunky, as long as things don't get too far out of hand.

Link: New Strategy for War Stresses Iraqi Politics - washingtonpost.com

Poor Dems wrenched

WASHINGTON, May 22 — Congressional Democrats relented Tuesday on their insistence that a war spending measure set a date for withdrawing American combat troops from Iraq. Instead, they moved toward a deal with President Bush that would impose new conditions on the Iraqi government.

The decision to back down was a wrenching reversal for leading Democrats, who saw their election triumph in November as a call to force an end to the war.

They flat-out folded, is what they did. Let the troops do the dying: They're just worried about their jobs.

What, will these hands ne'er be clean?

Link: Democrats Pull Troop Deadline From Iraq Bill - New York Times

Want to buy my Print button?

Hey, it works for the New York Times. I guess you can sell advertising just about anywhere these days.

She's got my vote

AN Essex girl may be the first lady with a tongue stud to have set her sights
on the White House. The wife of Dennis Kucinich, a left-wing Democratic
congressman and 2008 presidential candidate, is a 29-year-old hippie chick
from Upminster at the end of London Underground’s District line.

Link: Essex girl fills White House race with lurve-News-World-US & Americas-TimesOnline

Wait

Wait, originally uploaded by tedcompton.

“Puzzlewit” is good!

Still, Mr. Carter did not call President Bush a “puzzlewit” and a “fathead” as Roosevelt did Taft, according to “When Trumpets Call.”

Link: Jimmy Carter is Mean - Wonkette

Yeah, but do they vote right?

Al Hurra television, the U.S. government’s $63 million-a-year effort at public diplomacy broadcasting in the Middle East, is run by executives and officials who cannot speak Arabic, according to a senior official who oversees the program.

That might explain why critics say the service has recently been caught broadcasting terrorist messages, including an hour-long tirade on the importance of anti-Jewish violence, among other questionable pieces.

Let the Carpetbagger explain.

Link: The Carpetbagger Report » Blog Archive » ‘Is there no adult supervision?’

Edge

Edge, originally uploaded by tedcompton.

Surge II™

(05-22) 04:00 PDT Washington -- The Bush administration is quietly on track to nearly double the number of combat troops in Iraq this year, an analysis of Pentagon deployment orders showed Monday.

The little-noticed second surge, designed to reinforce U.S. troops in Iraq, is being executed by sending more combat brigades and extending tours of duty for troops already there.

The actions could boost the number of combat soldiers from 52,500 in early January to as many as 98,000 by the end of this year if the Pentagon overlaps arriving and departing combat brigades.

Link: Bush could double force by Christmas

This morning's sweater report

Sweaters, originally uploaded by tedcompton.

Back way

Back way, originally uploaded by tedcompton.

Iran's diabolical strategy: Get US to quit

Really! Those bastards!

The official said US commanders were bracing for a nationwide, Iranian-orchestrated summer offensive, linking al-Qaida and Sunni insurgents to Tehran's Shia militia allies, that Iran hoped would trigger a political mutiny in Washington and a US retreat.

But don't worry, Bunky, the US has an ingenious plan of its own: Lilly pads! It's another idea from Rummy and his pals, ain't that swell?

One scenario includes a “series of military installations [that] could be maintained around Iraq, with a total of total of 30,000 to 40,000 U.S. troops, for a long period of time — maybe a few decades.”,,,

The Iraq installations would be part of the so-called “lilly pad” strategy that the US military has been developing since 2004. Gen. Pace, along with former Under Secretary for Policy at the Pentagon, Douglas Feith, and former Defense Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, was an architect of the strategy.

And we know how well all their other ideas worked out.

Link: Iran's secret plan for summer offensive to force US out of Iraq | The Guardian | Guardian Unlimited
Link: The Raw Story | Pentagon considers staying in Iraq for 'decades'

Is that a bird in your old Mac?

Instead of building the avian homes solely from scratch, Piccadilly Park has taken to emptying and then reusing the plastic shells of vintage Macs as birdhouses, mounting them on poles throughout the farm to provide nests in open areas.

Link: AppleInsider | Offbeat News: Apple's old Macs are for the birds

Yikes!

Yikes!, originally uploaded by tedcompton.

Countdown to Memorial Day

CAMARILLO, Calif. — The average price of self-serve regular gasoline hit a record high of $3.18, rising more than 11 cents over the past two weeks, according to a nationwide survey released Sunday.

Link: FOXNews.com - Gas Prices Jump Over 11 Cents - Business And Money | Business News | Financial News

His mother were what?

Richardson, the son of a Mexican mother and an American father, was born in Pasadena, California, on November 15, 1947. He spent part of his youth in Mexico City, where his father headed Citibank and his mother, who was born in Oaxaca, were a leading society couple.

Link: FACTBOX: Bill Richardson, politician and diplomat | Politics | Reuters

And if that don't get you mated, Bunky, nothing will

CHICAGO — Coming soon: Brood XIII.

It sounds like a bad horror movie. But it's actually the name of the billions of cicadas expected to emerge this month in parts of the Midwest after spending 17 years underground.

The red-eyed, shrimp-sized, flying insects don't bite or sting. But they are known for mating calls that produce a din that can overpower ringing telephones, lawn mowers and power tools.

Yup, there they are.

Link: FOXNews.com - Midwest Prepares for Invasion of Cicadas After 17-Year Absence - Science News | Current Articles

Settling for not very much

In unusually candid comments, Mr Campbell also disclosed that American commanders had decided that the criteria for the “success” of the troop surge would be nothing more than a reduction in violence to the level prior to last year’s al-Qaeda bombing of the al-Askari Mosque in Samarra, which destroyed its golden dome.

That would be on the order of 800 murders per month, the level of violence in Iraq before the Samarra bombing, or roughly three World Trade Centers per year. In a state the size of California.

So if that's an acceptable level of violence, what's all this “war on terror” about?

Link:Firedoglake - Firedoglake weblog » Coalition Of The Had Enough

Scattered showers

Scattered showers, originally uploaded by tedcompton.

Former orphan alleges “sun will come up tomorrow”

And, oh yeah, also...

Former US Attorney alleges Justice cover-up in his firing

Duh. I's starting to sound like Gonzo, the Musical.

Link: The Raw Story | Former US Attorney alleges Justice cover-up in his firing

Hot set in Hooksett

Town Administrator David Jodoin was deeply troubled by the rumors about his personal life. He complained to the Hooksett Town Council, which launched an investigation of the gossip at the town offices. When the brief probe was over, the town moved quickly to action, and fired four town employees for spreading the rumor....

Critics of the town have boiled their argument down to one question: Is there an employee anywhere who isn't guilty of gossiping about co workers?

Link: Rumor mill churns trouble in town - The Boston Globe

You won't believe this...there's sun!

Sun, originally uploaded by tedcompton.

The world turned upside down

Faux News' Roger Friedman calls Michael Moore's new film, “Sicko,” brilliant and uplifting and agrees with Moore's claim, “It's...not a partisan film.” Meanwhile, over at the NYTimes, Manohla Dargis says Moore remains “radically partisan” and the movie's “insistently leftist.”

Looks like Moore's got another hit on his hands.

Go broads!

ATLANTA — The three women call themselves the All-Broad Fraud Squad.

Nearly a decade ago, concerned that mortgage fraud was threatening their pastoral towns, the women — two full-time mothers and a mortgage executive then in their 40s — got together to write down license plate numbers of suspicious cars in their neighborhoods, scour public documents for housing titles and deeds and seek the help of local law enforcement. At first they were ignored, written off as bored housewives.

Today, the three women — Ann Fulmer, Alicia Sheppard and Julia Barrette — are helping train F.B.I. agents, speaking to lending associations across the country and lecturing college students on how to identify mortgage fraud.

Link: Mortgage Fraud Is Up, but Not in Their Backyards - New York Times

A what???

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN TAUNTON HAS ISSUED A FROST ADVISORY... WHICH IS IN EFFECT FROM 2 AM TO 8 AM EDT TUESDAY. THIS INCLUDES NORTHWEST AND NORTH CENTRAL MASSACHUSETTS...AS WELL AS MOST OF SOUTHWEST NEW HAMPSHIRE.

Link: weather.com - Local Severe Weather Alerts Details

Doom

When you start having dreams in Excel, Bunky, you're screwed.

Woe is me.

Calling out the D's

Rather than deftly acting to bring the troops home, the Democrats continue their eye-shifting and throat-clearing while the killing and dying go on and on. Last week, the new majority party yielded to the oxymoron argument that we have to support the troops by keeping them in the line of fire.

Link: Bring troops home now :: CHICAGO SUN-TIMES :: Monroe Anderson

Rain returns

Rain returns, originally uploaded by tedcompton.

Not open

Not open, originally uploaded by tedcompton.

Oh no, first you get a job and pay the bill

Last month the Washington high school junior used 6,807 text messages, which, at a rate of 15 cents apiece for most of them, pushed the family's Verizon Wireless bill to more than $1,100 for the month. Sofia knew she'd been texting a lot but couldn't believe the “incredible” number she hit. “I just thought, oh my God, my life is over,” she said.

Then we'll see.

Link: For Texting Teens, an OMG Moment When the Phone Bill Arrives - washingtonpost.com

Wait a minute

“Votes of no confidence are very rare,” Specter said. “Historically, that is something which Attorney General Gonzales would like to avoid. I think that if and when he sees that coming, he would prefer to avoid that kind of a historical black mark.”

Avoid, horsefeathers. This guy is a historical black mark.

Link: Specter: Vote Could Force Gonzales Out | The Huffington Post

Roll heads

“Two intelligence assessments from January 2003 predicted that the overthrow of Saddam Hussein and subsequent U.S. occupation of Iraq could lead to internal violence and provide a boost to Islamic extremists and terrorists in the region, according to congressional sources and former intelligence officials familiar with the prewar studies,” reports the Washington Post....

The Defense Department apparently dismissed the reports as “too negative.”

Link: The Raw Story | 2003 intelligence reports predicted violence in Iraq

Sunday morning

Sunday morning, originally uploaded by tedcompton.

Globe hires mind reader, gets scoop

DURHAM, N.H. -- As he followed his fellow former president George H.W. Bush to the lectern, Bill Clinton's eyes were on the University of New Hampshire's graduating class, but his mind was on the state's upcoming primary.

Link: Politics reigns, as usual, in N.H. - The Boston Globe

Time out!

Teachers union chief trounces rival

Link: Teachers union chief trounces rival :: CHICAGO SUN-TIMES :: Education

Full metal screech

The rightie message boards (no, go find them yourself...I'm not posting links) are in all-out banshee mode this weekend over the Commander Guy's “sell out” on the immigration question.

To become full legal residents, under a compromise Senate leaders announced Thursday, Mr. Ramírez and other illegal immigrants would have to pay a total of $5,000 in fines, more than 14 times the typical weekly earnings on the streets here, return to their home countries at least once, and wait as long as eight years. During the wait, they would have limited possibilities to bring other family members.

Yeah, that sounds pretty scary. Let the invasion begin.

Apparently all the grand and glorious things the DOOFUS has accomplished in Iraq count for nothing beside this perfidy. Oh well, hey, whatever works.

Link: Illegal Migrants Dissect Details of Senate Deal - New York Times

Crossing

Crossing, originally uploaded by tedcompton.

Escape

Escape, originally uploaded by tedcompton.