Keep yourself as healthy and as sane as possible: we're going to need you around after the inevitable collapse of the present system. Also, beware of those reductionist demons of the mind who diminish the soul-making possibilities of "mere" words. The acts of writing and reading are seen as passive; to crackpot realists, these activities seem useless, unproductive -- the feckless indulgences of a class of the thin-wristed effete.

Immediately after the 9/11 attacks of 2001, President Bush sat down to play poker with the biggest stack of chips at the table, the odds-on favorite to win one of the highest-stakes games ever played. This huge initial chip advantage was built from a unified and supportive citizenry at home, a mainstream media that rarely questioned his judgment or intentions, an international community prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt, and a military machine bigger than the next couple dozen countries combined. But since those early heady days, Bush and his close advisers and neocon allies have made one horrendous decision after another. The great tragedy, of course, is that the president has not been playing with his own chips. Rather, in this game his poor play has cost the lives of our courageous soldiers and many Iraqi civilians, our country's stature in the world, and our national resources much needed for other purposes, domestic and international.

The recent report from the Administration for Children and Families defends abstinence-only programs by attacking comprehensive sexuality education.

By William Smith, SIECUS.

Senator Tom Coburn must have felt like a champ last week.  He released his own missive on the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention), claiming in the title of the document that the CDC's "wasteful" spending indicated a "CDC Off Center." The 114 pages of that report have consumed more paper and staff time in its creation than it is worth.  Until the CDC comes fully into line with Dr. Coburn's vision of fiscal restraint and public health strained through an ideological sieve, such diatribes make for amusing reading.  I was pleased to see that yours truly made the cut when Coburn retold the story of how I got booted from a peer-reviewed panel at the national STD conference. I was tossed out because I was actually going to question the public health rationale for abstinence-only-until-marri age programs--of course, that's not exactly how Coburn told the story. Amusingly, the CDC ended up picking up the last minute tab for the goofs brought in to replace me--of course the report didn't mention that.

 

Podhoretz is a Punk

That's something a (rather knowledgeable) child might say of the crackpot neocon who was afforded a full page op-ed calling for 'preemptive strikes' on Iran in one of America's (formerly) most respected papers -- and quite appropriately considering Norman's thought processes seem to mirror a child's impulsive actions, reflexive bullying, and irrational logic.

But is he wrong?

Of course he is, and yet, not so long ago, nearly half of all Americans agreed that a preemptive strike on Iran would be desirable.

In April 2006, a Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll showed that "despite Iraq, Americans don't reject strikes against a nuclear Iran. By 48%-42%, the public says U.S. should join coalition to attack Iran's nuclear capability if Tehran approaches development of a weapon."

Are there that many punks in our great nation?

Now this is a year later and the 06 elections as well as more recent polls regarding our occupation of Iraq have certainly indicated that Americans are fed up with this crap.

But what would it take to swing them back the other way? How much effort would it take for the administration and it's minions to convince the public that "Tehran [is approaching] development of a [nuclear] weapon"?

There are so many instructive comparisons between the film classic The Wizard of Oz and the presidency of George W. Bush that it's hard to settle on just one. Here's a particular angle that I think deserves more attention.

Through memorable characters and adventures, The Wizard of Oz reminds us that too often we underestimate ourselves and fail to realize that we already possess the very qualities and virtues to which we aspire. The Scarecrow travels the Yellow Brick Road in the hope of obtaining a brain; at journey's end he comes to realize that he had one all along. Similarly, the Tin Man wishes for a heart but ultimately learns that he was a compassionate woodsman from the start. And the Cowardly Lion heads to the Emerald City in pursuit of courage--yet he demonstrates his considerable valor along the way. All told, it's an uplifting tale of unpresumptuous, accidental heroes who rise to the occasion in the face of adversity.

But now try to imagine an altered script, an upside-down Oz where the key players, rather than underestimating themselves, instead make outrageous and false claims (to themselves and to others) about their intelligence, compassion, and courage. And also try to imagine that over the course of their own harrowing journey these travelers learn...well, absolutely nothing. Of course, sadly this re-write doesn't require much of an imagination at all. This is the Oz rendition that's been playing in Washington and around the world since Bush, Cheney, and their neocon entourage took center stage. Although many examples are available, let's focus on the Iraq War alone.

We have now learned that the outpatient conditions faced by some of our wounded returning soldiers at Walter Reed Army Medical Center are truly shocking--rodent and roach infested rooms, mold and leaky plumbing, no heat and water, inadequate and unqualified staffing, and seemingly interminable bureaucratic delays in their treatment. But equally stunning is the fact that several high-level officials have actually lost their jobs as a result of this news--despite initial efforts to downplay and discount the reported negligence. After all, considering the Bush administration's lengthy record of action and inaction worthy of public outrage and condemnation, we might wonder why this particular instance of wrongdoing and mismanagement has drawn such a strong, unified, and seemingly effective response from the American people. From a psychological perspective, one reason is clear: the discoveries at Walter Reed represent a near "perfect storm," triggering all five core concerns--about vulnerability, injustice, distrust, superiority, and helplessness--that often govern the way we understand the world around us.

When respondents in a mid-February Pew poll were asked to use one word to describe President Bush, the single adjective offered most often was "incompetent." Meanwhile, a recent Newsweek poll revealed not only that Bush's approval rating has fallen to an all-time low, but also that a majority of respondents simply wish his presidency was already over. These rebukes cannot sit well with someone who has proclaimed himself "The Decider," who has become infatuated with the title "Commander-in-Chief," and who once told Bob Woodward "That's the interesting thing about being the President...I don't feel like I owe anybody an explanation."

Narrator: .... Once Upon a time there was a little boy whose parents and friends always called him "Silly". Silly always lived under the shadow of his father, Papa Wanker, a very conservative politician who always preferred to do things from behind the scenes. But Little Silly Wanker always wanted sweet, decisive victories... despite the objections of his father, he became a world renouned war profiteer and opened a Victory Factory... and one day he came to realize that he would have to mount a surge to keep the Victory Factory in business... So he hatched a scheme to release five Golden Tickets to decide who would inherit the factory... this is the story...

A children's story by Siegfried Engelmann and Elaine C. Bruner, "The Pet Goat" rocketed to pseudo-stardom on September 11, 2001, when 'President' George W. Bush sat with a group of children in their classroom reading it while the United States experienced the most heinous acts of terrorism in history.

At the time of the attacks, Andrew Card slipped into the classroom and notified Mr. Bush of the attacks; the next seven minutes of silence as he continued to sit in the room will never be forgotten.

This is not a diary about a book, but on the eerie appropriateness of the story as an analogy to what we now see unfolding in our nation today -- the abandoning of Mr. Bush by his party and minions, and the equally damning confirmation that he has been, all along, their pet goat. A scapegoat, to be precise.  Jump with me...

The widely respected, subscription only U.S. News Bulletin (A joint operation between U.S. News and World Report and the Bulletin News Network) is reporting that Rove might well be experiencing his final days at the White House:

The rumors that chief White House political architect Karl Rove will leave sometime next year are being bolstered with new insider reports that his partisan style is a hurdle to President Bush's new push for bipartisanship. A key Bush advisor tells the US News Political Bulletin, "Karl represents the old style and he's got to go if the Democrats are going to believe Bush's talk of getting along." The advisor said a departure might come in "weeks, not months." A Rove ally, however, noted that he has a record of out-witting his critics.

In addition, I've heard/read that, although the result of the midterms reflected VERY poorly on Bush's Brain, the White House is forced to retain Rove through the conclusion of this administration for the simple reason that Rove knows too much.

To me that means the White House believes Rove is not above a tell-all book if the situation served him.

 

"Efforts by HHS and states to assess the scientific accuracy of materials used in abstinence-until-marriage education programs have been limited. This is because ACF - which awards grants through two programs that account for the largest portion of federal spending on abstinence-until-marriage education - does not review its grantees' education materials for scientific accuracy and does not require grantees of either program to review their own materials for scientific accuracy."

 

• Government Accountability Office report, "Abstinence Education:  Efforts to Assess the Accuracy and Effectiveness of Federally Funded Programs"

   

Just kidding. Actually that was the only stupid question I'll ask here -- knowing full well that you all know the answer.

What I will do is note the sad irony (for Republicans) that, had Rumsfeld done the right thing and resigned long ago, the Republicans might still have control of the Senate. He didn't. They don't.

Now, the Democrats have taken over both houses of congress and the Administration has no choice. They dare not retain Rumsfeld and provoke the newly found powers of oversight and investigation that the American electorate has given the Democrats.

But don't expect this move to totally assuage Democrat's desire to investigate this administration. Not totally, but certainly some.

And though I would love to see this administration pay for it's many trespasses, I would put a much higher priority on such things as a higher minimum wage, universal healthcare, stem-cell research, reconnecting with our allies, and a new plan for Iraq.

But that's just me.

Either way, there is going to be some serious changes for the better - if for no other reason than the newly found set of checks and balances necessary to keep our nation from teetering on the edge of lunacy.

Now that North Korea has confirmed nukes, the U.S. and South Korea have finally decided to create a plan on how to deal with the situation.

According to the report, the United States is considering a plan against North Korea to neutralize Pyongyang's nuclear capability with overwhelming use of the U.S. Air Force.

Under the envisaged plan, U.S. combat aircraft and bombers... would conduct "surgical strikes'' on major weapons of mass destruction (WMD) facilities, training sites, and intelligence and communication facilities in the North instead of ground forces advancing into the North, the report said.

Currently, the Operations Plan -- OPLAN 5027, the joint U.S. contingency plan with South Korea, accounts for a conflict involving conventional weapons:

This is Part VI. Read:

Part I, "Tempting Faith: Bush's 'Faith Based' Initiative a Scam"

PART II, "Tempting Faith: Bush Betrays Christian Conservatives"

PART III, "Tempting Faith: Bush Admin: Christian Cons are "Nuts", "Ridiculous""

In Part IV, Kuo reveals the administration's deliberate and conscious discrimination of non-Christian and otherwise non-Bush-supportive groups.

Clearly this is the most egregious trespass (among many) to American values laid out in Kuo's book -- a clear desecration of the first amendment.

Kuo charges that "the White House's own rationale for pushing the faith-based initiative -- an effort to make it easier for churches and other sectarian organizations to receive federal social-service funding -- was bogus."

(More over the flip...)