m4mgate

WART
* "Rice's statement that the "Iranian regime's human rights behavior and its behavior toward its own population is something to be loathed" shows another tack that the Bush Administration is prepared to take in case its hype about Iran's nuclear weapons program fails." i note again that blinky offered 3 issues in sotu - 2 versions of the nukular thing and 'terrorism' http://www.progressive.org/blogs05/ap020805.html

* is there anything more grating that condi's "those of us on the right side of freedom"? can luntz crawl into a hole and die?

* " the presence of Abrams is not encouraging. "Our military strength and willingness to use it will remain a key factor in our ability to promote peace," Abrams wrote in a book for the Project for the New American Century. "Strengthening Israel, our major ally in the region, should be a central core of US Middle East Policy."" http://www.thenation.com/blogs/outrage?pid=2188

AMDOM
* Matthew Rothschild takes on tfriedman 'taking on' rummy http://www.progressive.org/webex05/wx020805.html

* "A legal ethics specialist, John Mayoue, questioned the ruling's implications, asking: "Are we going to elevate those clinics [with frozen embryos] to the status of an orphanage?"" http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/story.jsp?story=609495

* who the fuck is the FAA's 'security branch'? and other good questions here - seems the 911 conspiracy thingy has hit kos diaries http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/2/10/11640/3414 im not a kos regular so i dont know if its unususal that these things get discussed there - but watching the discussion there about the election they seemed to be somewhat, ummm, diligent about rampant nonsense being discussed. maybe it differs by diarist... a poster there says "I Kinda Expected this would come out on, say, Good Friday, about 5 PM." - seems to me that this points back to my previous post about this report (http://wotisitgood4.blogspot.com/2005/02/murder-by-numbers.html) - they seem to be trying to paint the whole thing as an FAA fuckup - with the faux outrage around airlines not wanting to lose the revenue of air-marshalls' seats (and other such nonsense)... if this is in the domain of limited hangout, imagine what they are really trying to hide... these people are too scary to consider... reading further into the comments at dkos, seems some of em agree with my 'its the FAA's fault' line of thinking

OTHER
* i got a mention here http://thecommonills.blogspot.com/2005/02/nepal-all-communication-links-were-cut.html for some reason - thnx c.i.

* "GDP in the former communist states fell between 20% and 40% in the decade after 1989 - an economic contraction which, in the words of Budapest economist Laszlo Andor, "can only be compared to the Great Depression of the 1930s"." dont forget poland. http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,1409564,00.html