abominations

AMDOM
* AP(!): "When Bush's face appeared on giant screen TVs showing the ceremony, many in the crowds outside St. Peter's Square booed and whistled." LINK

* btw - did someone tell blinky to shrug his shoulders more?

* heres world o crap trying to sort out the berger mess. it seems that it was all a big mistake, and even the wsj agrees... LINK
im still ahve no idea why scheuer was so pissed. im not sure i trust him anyways...

* volker is very nervous about the economy. LINK

* apparently the egadmin plan to have a socsec bill passed by both houses by, ummm, july. faster, please. ive long wondered what is up their sleeve... LINK

* "Dear Secretary Leavitt,
We the undersigned are writing to express our deep concern with the Department of Health and Human Services' recently launched website: www.4parents.gov . All of us agree that parents should be the primary sexuality educators of their children. Therefore, it is incumbent upon all of us to make certain that parents receive the accurate information and resources they need to achieve this difficult task. Unfortunately, 4parents.gov fails to meet these goals and instead, relies on fear to motivate and contains many errors and biases that undermine its intent of encouraging parent-child communication around sex and sexuality." LINK

* in a good day for nycpolice, they have been found altering video footage and lying in court to justify the rnc arrests. 90+% of the 1800 arrested have been found not guilty. the article doesnt mention, but from memory, many of those people spent 3 days in jail... for shame. the lawsuits should be delicious. as i said at the time, it reminds me of the Tasty raid in melbourne (altho in reality, its much worse). LINK

* "But when the deadline for filing income tax returns arrives on Friday, the alternative minimum tax will require 2.9 million families to pay an average of about $6,000 more than what they would owe under traditional calculations" LINK

* "Reid's poll-tested line of attack: ending the filibuster rule would destroy the separation of powers envisioned by the Founding Fathers. It's not clear whether Frist has the support—or the nerve—to press for a vote on ending the rule. His own advisers are divided." LINK

* "Reid, the Senate minority leader, used a national radio address Saturday to rail against Republicans for seeking to jettison the checks and balances that have been in place for more than two centuries.
''Republicans are trying to increase their power even if it means ignoring rules that go back to America's beginnings," Reid said. ''They seem to think that they know better than our Founding Fathers. Somehow, I doubt that's true."" LINK


NOMS
* "John Danforth was a great U.N. Ambassador -- but he got out in 6 months, knowing that the administration was going to start kicking apart the U.N. and doing things that he could not abide by. John Danforth eulogized the late Senator John Chafee, Lincoln Chafee's father, at his funeral. The Danforths and Chafees are old friends." LINK
follow thewashingtonnote.com for summaries and live-blogging.

* btw - bbc carried some of the bolton hearings live, and cnni carried heaps of it.

* "As Negroponte prepares for his Senate confirmation hearing today for the new post of director of national intelligence, hundreds of previously secret cables and telegrams have become available that shed new light on the most controversial episode in his four-decade diplomatic career. " LINK

* it looks as though Negroponte's confirmation will hardly hit a bump :-(

DELAY
* LAT ed: "Allies of Rep. Tom DeLay of Texas have finally gotten around to the "everybody does it" justification of the ethical lapses of their guy, the No. 2 Republican in the House. It's the excuse used after more specific defenses, such as "he couldn't have known where the money was coming from," begin to sound hollow... "Everybody does it." When children say that, their mothers ask: "Would you jump off a cliff if everyone did it?" Maybe Republican defenders of DeLay are thinking, "yes."" LINK

* "There's also the disclosure Thursday that 11 people who once worked for DeLay have raked in at least $45 million in lobbying fees from various corporations since leaving DeLay's employ. " LINK

* "So now DeLay is reduced to essentially admitting he violated his principles at the behest of U.S. companies, which is merely sleazy, in order to deny violating his principles on behalf of Russian companies, which could be illegal.
It was probably just a matter of time before DeLay got nabbed for something or other. The hallmark of his career lies in pushing previously known social, ethical and legal norms further and lower than anybody else had ever had the guts or the indecency to push them." LINK

MEDIA
* "The 24 hour a day "Pope-a-thon" shows the dramatic shift in the way that news is covered. If a story is inoffensive to the political establishment or if it serves their greater interests (like Schiavo) then it becomes an immediate mega-story that swallows up most of the front page and consumes the majority of TV time. In this way, the national dialogue is controlled by PR firms working closely with Washington to decide what information is suitable for public consumption." LINK
this is a terrific article which describes much better than i did that the purpose of pope-arama was to hide real news. go read.

* in curious news, if u google "doesnt exist" - the number one return out of 830,000 is one of my posts called 'zark doesnt exist'. go figure.