their new street-sweeping career

* billmon: "Under the circumstances, the mindless chants of "failure is not an option" are starting to sound like the desperate prayers of the terminally ill...
America can still "win" while losing what's left of what's good about this country. It's slipping away already, with the Rovians as the undertakers, impatiently waiting to get their hands on the corpse.
So please, Mr. and Ms. Establishment Mouthpiece -- spare us the chants of "failure is not an option." We already know better. And you're all the proof we need." LINK
go read. billmon is worried about the war and stuff.

* after much consideration, i agree that pharmacists shouldnt have to dispense contraception. its a difficult issue, but on balance, they should have the right to object, conscientiously. if they seriously think that contraception is murder, then they shouldnt have to kill anyone. i just pray to the almighty that they fucking enjoy their new street-sweeping career.

* its been a great coupla days for gays - in california and canada and spain. thank Dog theres still some sanity left somewhere on the planet. its nice to see some good news, anywhere, these days. i must say, tho, that there is something disturbing about the media coverage where they keep repeating the mantra that 'the spanish govt *defied* the catholic church'.

* more on cunningscam: "Government procurement records show that MZM, which Wade started in 1993, did not report any revenue from prime contract awards until 2003. Most of its revenue has come from the agreement the Pentagon just cut off. But over the past three years it was also awarded several contracts, worth more than $600,000, by the Executive Office of the President. They include a $140,000 deal for office furniture in 2002 and several for unspecified "intelligence services."" LINK
will this be bigger than coingate? the details are extraordinary.

* tomcruise is getting slammed everywhere, deservedly, but it drives me mad that he is getting slammed for talking about aliens. if we define alien as 'a life-form not on earth' (which might be different to tom's definition, i dont know) then i imagine theres hardly a scientist on the planet that would disagree with that proposition (apart from those 'scientists' who believe in the great sky-monster and the flying dead guy - which by any definition is 'a life-form not on earth').

* juancole deigns to take apart blinky's speech "There was nothing new in Bush's speech, and most of what he said was inaccurate." LINK
(i didnt even bother trying)

* "What the Bush administration has proved is that, if you have a mind to do so, there's no end to the ways you can define "is." No administration has reached not just for its guns but for its dictionaries more often, when brought up against commonly accepted definitions of what is... Let me, in fact, suggest a label for them that, I hope, catches their truest political nature: They are immoral relativists." LINK