They Did Lie. Kevin Drum gives the Bushies too much credit over the Botulism Bacteria of mass destruction, calling it a "technical lie." David Kay explicitly refers to it as a "weapons cache." Don't let them off the hook so easily.

SNOW: You believe that there are similar strains perhaps throughout Iraq right now?

KAY: We're actively searching for at least one more cache of weapons âo[per thou] of strains that we know exists.

SNOW: This is a cache that had been referred to by a scientist. The first bit of information paid off; you're still looking for the second one?

KAY: Exactly.

SNOW: And the second one is a large cache.

And, don't forget Bush's own spin:

Kay had reported to Congress on Thursday that his team has found no weapons of mass destruction inside Iraq. But Bush said Friday the Iraq war was justified and cited the vial of bacteria as proof Kay found ample signs Saddam "was a danger to the world."

In the magical fairy universe inhabited by Bush, Instahack, and their minions, this is proof that Saddam was a danger to the world. But, in the normal universe where reason and intelligence still have some value, this is of course not proof of any such thing.
[Eschaton]

A vial of a common soil bacteria is not a weapons program. In addition, the particular type of bacteria found can not be used successfully in any sort bioweapons program. We know because we tried and were unsuccessful, dropping the project. This was a vial that was received from the the US a long time ago and put in the refrigerator. This is not worth hundreds of millions of dollars to determine.

I wish this adminstration had the same rigorous disdain for war profiteering that Truman did with the Marshall Plan. It just seems to me that the government is transferring billions of our dollars, dollars that do not even exist, into the pockets of a few select companies. Welfare is fine if you are a corporation. Tough luck if you live on the street.  11:52:17 PM    

Generation gap
. Georgie Anne Geyer has an interesting piece on the rift between Bush Sr. and his AWOL son, embodied by Bush Sr.'s decision to give the 2003 George Bush Award for Excellence in Public Service to none other than Sen. Edward Kennedy, easily the current presi [Orcinus]

I have been wondering what the elder Bush has been feeling about his son's wholesale destruction of almost every good thing that Bush pere had done. Not only ignoring multilateralism but the insincere investigation of the outing of an undercover CIA operative. Well, it looks like he is making a point by giving Teddy Kennedy the 2003 George Bush Award for Excellence in Public Service, not too long after Senator Kennedy claimed the Iraq adventure was a fraud.Tis from the Geyer article:

More curious, and in many ways depressing, is the fact that this President Bush has embarked upon a policy designed to counter, or even to wipe out, his father's entire political legacy.

The father lived his life in the service of moderate and intelligent internationalism. His manners were always meticulously courteous, as he wooed even critics overseas to see the American position. He was even-handed in the Middle East and thus brought the area to the verge of peace for the first time in history; he was capable of using force but preferred to do it supported by coalitions of friendly states, thus cementing international cooperation.

The son seems to have made posturing against his father's accomplishments and beliefs his life's work.

11:46:00 PM    

Left-handers top cricket stats. Scientists use World Cup statistics to show that left-handed batsmen have an advantage at the crease. [BBC News | Science/Nature | World Edition]

So lefthanded batsman have an advantage. I wonder about left-handed bowlers? Left-handed batters baseball have a similar advantage. They are unfamiliar and the ball curves into them rather than away.  11:14:10 PM