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Friday, August 11, 2006
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I hope the Democrats (or at least the anti-Iraq-war Democrats) are smart enough to recognize the Gatorade bombing plot actually supports their position on the war on terror. (Or, to put it less kindly, gives them an opportunity to actually formulate a coherent position, at last.) They should be saying something along these lines:
This plot demonstrates the seriousness of the threat posed against us, and, if all the early indications prove to be right, the continuing existence of the Al Qaeda network. It also demonstrates that top-notch law enforcement work, coupled with international collaboration -- and, yes, some wire-tapping -- can truly make us safer. If we had been in charge after 9/11, we would have devoted our military and law enforcement resources exclusively to tracking down Islamic terror networks, with the highest priority given to hunting down Osama Bin Laden. We wouldn't have introduced the huge distraction of Iraq, which has both been a terrible drain on resources and lives, and made us many new enemies in regions where we need more friends. If you elect us this fall, we promise a renewed focus on the enemies that actually threaten us directly. While we can't immediately withdraw from Iraq, we propose a steady re-allocation of manpower and money from Iraq to the immediate threats on American lives. We believe in the war on terror just as firmly as the Republicans do. We just think it should concentrate on capturing terrorists, not rebuilding the electrical grid in Bagdhad.
(Via stevenberlinjohnson.com.)
3:23:15 PM 
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Republicans Are The Same Everywhere
by poputonian
August 7, 2006 from Morning Edition (JOHN HENDREN reporting)
This is how staggeringly pointless the killing in Iraq is getting: shepherds in the rural western Baghdad neighborhood of Gazalea have recently been murdered, according to locals, for failing to diaper their goats. Apparently the sexual tension is so high in regions where Sheikhs take a draconian view of Shariah law, that they feel the sight of naked goats poses an unacceptable temptation. They blame the goats.
I’ve spent nearly a year here, on more than a dozen visits since the early days of the war, and that seemed about as preposterous as Iraq could get until I heard about the grocery store in east Baghdad. The grocer and three others were shot to death and the store was firebombed because he suggestively arranged his vegetables.
I didn’t believe it at first. Firebombings of liquor stores are common, and I figured there must’ve been one next door. But an Iraqi colleague explained matter-of-factly that Shiite clerics had recently distributed a flyer directing groceries how to display their food.
Standing up a celery stalk near a couple of tomatoes in a way that might – to the profoundly repressed – suggest an aroused male, is now a capital offense.
Sexually repressed and free to kill.
(Via Hullabaloo.)
2:23:28 PM
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Who wrote the passage below? No, you’re wrong. For the answer, click here.
The administration’s interest in all e-mail is a wholly unhealthy precedent, especially given this administration’s track record on FBI files and IRS snooping. Every medium by which people communicate can be subject to exploitation by those with illegal intentions. Nevertheless, this is no reason to hand Big Brother the keys to unlock our e-mail diaries, open our ATM records, read our medical records, or translate our international communications. 
(Via Bad Attitudes.)
1:49:23 PM
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RIP Mike Douglas. Lots of nice clips from his music show on YouTube.
1:43:10 PM
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No, Mars will NOT be as big as the full moon in the sky in August. It didn't get this big in 2003, 2004, 2005, or 2006. It will never, barring some sort of monstrous cataclysm of Velikovskyian proportions that is clearly impossible, get that big in our sky. Read about it here and here.
1:41:10 PM
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Go read The Stakeholder:: Timeline: A Profile in Politicizing Terror.
Just go read it. You won't believe it. Actually I'm wrong about that -- after everything we've seen this crowd do, you will believe it. Party over country, tearing the country apart. Anything to bring them more power...
(Via Seeing the Forest.)
"‘Weeks before September 11th, this is going to play big,’ said another White House official, who also spoke on condition of not being named, adding that some Democratic candidates won't ‘look as appealing’ under the circumstances.”
12:37:36 PM
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It's all they've got, Bush's approval has fallen back panick-button levels:
An Associated Press-Ipsos poll conducted this week found the president's approval rating has dropped to 33 percent, matching his low in May. His handling of nearly every issue, from the Iraq war to foreign policy, contributed to the president's decline around the nation, even in the Republican-friendly South.
More sobering for the GOP are the number of voters who backed Bush in 2004 who are ready to vote Democratic in the fall's congressional elections - 19 percent. These one-time Bush voters are more likely to be female, self-described moderates, low- to middle-income and from the Northeast and Midwest.
(Via Rising Hegemon.)
10:02:12 AM
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Sigh.
9:59:04 AM
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People in the United States are much less likely to accept Darwin's idea that humans evolved from apes than adults in other Western nations, a number of surveys show. A new study of those surveys suggests that the main reason for this lies in a unique confluence of religion, politics, and the public understanding of biological science in the US
(Via digg / dig.)
9:57:47 AM
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© Copyright 2006 Steve Michel.
Last update: 9/1/2006; 6:58:28 PM.
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