Albany, NY -- Bush Likes Torture
Bush's ratings are at their lowest point, according to CBS.
Perhaps his ratings would be higher if he didn't threaten to veto McCain's anti-torture bill? The man has never vetoed a single bill in his entire presidency... I think that if he were to veto this one, it'd become the defining moment of his time in office, and appropriately so. And maybe his signature quality would be his propensity to hire cronies, as The New Republic points out.
I saw my friend Ryan yesterday for the first time in a year, since he was sent to Iraq. He's OK, as he said, "ten fingers and ten toes!" but he seems so much less easygoing than he was before he left, though maybe that was due to being sleep-deprived. Regardless, he does NOT want to talk about Iraq.
Albany, NY -- Corea/Korea
From Andrew Sullivan, who continues to track the story of the anti-torture bill closely, here's the list of the nine senators who voted against the bill:
Allard (R-CO)
Bond (R-MO)
Coburn (R-OK)
Cochran (R-MS)
Cornyn (R-TX)
Inhofe (R-OK)
Roberts (R-KS)
Sessions (R-AL)
Stevens (R-AK)
All Republicans! Well, I'm mad as hell, and I'm not gonna take it anymore!!! Neither will George Clooney, who is producing a live-action remake of The Network, one of my favorite movies of all time.
Random fact from Tenchusatsu: "Did you know that Korea used to be spelled Corea with a 'C'? It was Japan who respelled Corea as Korea because 'K' comes after 'J', and the Japanese empire didn't think a conquered nation ought to be listed before the conquering nation alphabetically." His story checks out.
Albany, NY -- Kudos for McCain
Excellent news to read before going to bed (other than the Angels leading the Yankees in the 9th)... The Senate, led by John McCain, approved rules for treatment of detainees in the "War on Terror."
I've said some pretty negative things about McCain lately, but heck, he really did something heroic here, standing up to the Bush administration on one of their pet issues -- their systematic condoning of what can, at best, be described as "quasi-torture," and for the worst, just remove the "quasi" and the hyphen.
A major victory for all that is good today.
Albany, NY -- Racist Republican Remnants
Though I can't link to New York Times columns anymore because you'd have to pay to get to them, I figured I'd leave you tonight with a quote from Bob Herbert's Thursday column:
Ronald Reagan, the G.O.P.'s biggest hero, opposed both the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act of the mid-1960's. And he began his general election campaign in 1980 with a powerfully symbolic appearance in Philadelphia, Miss., where three young civil rights workers were murdered in the summer of 1964. He drove the crowd wild when he declared: "I believe in states' rights."...
The U.S. is less prejudiced than it was 20 or 30 or 40 years ago, which is why George W. Bush had to try so hard to disenfranchise black voters in Florida in 2000; and why Jeb Bush had to call out the state police to try to intimidate black voters in Orlando, Fla., in 2004; and why Republicans in Georgia have come up with the equivalent of a poll tax (requiring people without a driver's license to pay $20 for a voter identification card), which will hurt poor, black and elderly voters.
Albany, NY -- Carl Everett On...
Cindy Sheehan is back in the news again, leading a march of 200 people in Phoenix.
Here's something we know about Harriet Miers -- she was "born again" in the 80s. Still not enough to make many conservative pundits and politicians happy. The polls confirm the anecdotal evidence.
Another forward-thinking city, Philadelphia, gives its citizens low-cost wireless internet access. Providing the means to learn and advance really can help the poor and children. According to this article, the poor in the U.S. can use all the help they can get:
"Every August, we Americans tell ourselves a lie," said David Brady, a Duke University professor who studies poverty.
"The poverty rate was designed to undercount because the government wanted to show progress in the war on poverty.
"Taking everything into account, the real rate is around 18 percent, or 48 million people. Poverty in the United States is more widespread, by far, than in any other industrialised country."
Another Republican indicted, this time David Safavian, former White House procurement official, for his involvement with Jack Abramoff. How many Republican politicians will wish they'd never heard Abramoff's name when all is said and done?
My man K-hole is always up on important baseball news... by important baseball news, I mean, whatever Carl Everett is saying on any given day:
God put man and woman on earth to multiply. A woman can't make a baby having sex with another woman, and a man can't make a baby having sex with another man. History tends to repeat itself a lot of times. People don't realize that the same God who destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah because of homosexuality can also destroy our world today...
Just because I've seen [dinosaurs] in movies doesn't mean that they existed,'' he said. ''They can make dinosaur bones just like they make dinosaurs for movies. God made man and gave him dominion over the earth and all its animals. If that's true, then we can't say that dinosaurs ruled the earth and that man came from monkeys. The Bible says that in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. On the sixth day, God made man and woman. That's what I believe...
Keep reading, it's great stuff!
Albany, NY -- Meet Captain Ian Fishback
Ryan's coming home!!! My friend Ryan, who has been stationed in Iraq for a full year, just arrived back in the States and will be in Albany for a Welcome Back party on Sunday. I'm really excited to see him, and am pretty sorry to know that he's been through a lot for a wasted cause. Andrew Sullivan has been following the story of another soldier in Iraq, Ian Fishback who has blown the whistle on further American Abu Ghraib-style atrocities in Iraq:
Meet an American hero. He's Army Captain Ian Fishback, a decorated graduate of West Point, and in training to become a member of the elite Special Forces. He has served two combat missions in Iraq and Afghanistan. He is described by friends as a devout Christian who prays before every meal and carries a copy of the U.S. Constitution in his pocket. And while serving at Camp Mercury near the Syrian border in Iraq, he observed horrifying abuse of prisoners, in testimony that was released last week by Human Rights Watch. He has testified to habitual beatings to the face and body before interrogation, the pouring of burning chemicals on prisoners' faces, routine shackling in positions that led to physical collapse, forced exercizes that led prisoners to lose consciousness, and stacking prisoners in pyramids in the same mode as Abu Ghraib. These abuses occurred before, during and after the Abu Ghraib scandal broke...
Fishback is now sequestered at Fort Bragg being interrogated by military officials. His fellow whistle-blowers have been identified and they are being interrogated as well.
I'm starting to like Bush's choice of Miers for the Supreme Court... I mean, if she were a archconservative ideologue, we'd probably know more about her. Plus, she's getting the conservative pundits all pissed off while Harry Reid seems pretty happy.
Ars Technica stress tests the iPod Nano, and the results are pretty spectacular... they even ran it over with a car!
Not a good night for us Yankee haters...
Albany, NY -- Harriet Miers???
Another charge against Tom Delay... get him, Ronnie!!!
Harriet Miers was selected today as Bush's nominee to replace Sandra Day O'Connor. Who is she? Certainly not a pro-choice activist...
ESPN.com boils down conventional playoff wisdom for us... some major surprises here.
Albany, NY -- Poor Republicans
More signs that things are not looking up for the Republicans:
From the Washington Post: Role of Rove, Libby in CIA Leak Case Clearer
The New York Times: Bush Looms Over Contest for House Seat
Margaret Carlson: Bush Presidency Exposed, Crumbling
The Republican Party is doing what it can:
For their part, Republican Party leaders say they will continue to highlight Democratic vulnerabilities, beginning with what they assert is a lack of a positive vision for governing. "Their mantra is 'they're corrupt and everything they do is bad,' " Mr. Dreier said. But, he added, "You can't replace something with nothing."
Dreier makes my skin crawl, but he's right on this one. With few exceptions, the Democrats are spineless wimps with no plan. But here's one... Ladies and gentlemen, the next Governor of New York, Eliot Spitzer:
In 1999, his first year in office, Spitzer intervened in a case involving a handful of coal-burning power plants in Ohio, Indiana and West Virginia.. This reflected a kind of toughness, but not the kind associated with Rudy Giuliani, with whom Spitzer is often compared. As United States attorney for the Southern District of New York, Giuliani saw white-collar crime as a product of personal immorality, and he went after the perpetrators with relish. Spitzer tends to see wrongdoing as the product of both moral failing and lousy incentives. In Spitzer's mind, the reason the power plants produced too much pollution wasn't that their owners were evil; it was that neither they nor their customers were forced to pay the cost of polluting. Spitzer wasn't looking to put the utility companies out of business. He just wanted the loophole closed.
Albany, NY -- Phil and His Bag
Some important questions which relate to tonight:
Who comes to my house bearing a panflute?
Who comes to my house bearing a harmonica?
Who comes to my house bearing a tamborine?
Who comes to my house bearing a saxophone?
Who comes to my house bearing MARACAS???!!!
The answer, of course, is Phil!
Phil playing his instruments
And to Phil, if you're reading, I say, "WHAT THE FUCK?"
