wise contingency planning

* via digby:

"Cheney said that even with pollsters predicting that Democrats would likely make gains in both houses of Congress Tuesday, voter sentiment would not influence Bush's Iraq policy.

"It may not be popular with the public — it doesn't matter in the sense that we have to continue the mission and do what we think is right. And that's exactly what we're doing," Cheney said. "We're not running for office. We're doing what we think is right.""

* via digby:

"According to a Mason Dixon poll commissioned by the Argus Leader, the supporters of the (sthdakota) abortion ban are trailing the in the polls 52 percent to 42 percent with 6 percent still undecided."

6% of sth dakotans will decide in 4 days whether killing cells is murder. the election timetable really can concentrate the mind.

* wolcott:

"I wonder if the toothy founder of the New Life Church and president of the National Association of Evangelicals, the mesmerizing Ted Haggard, fell under the spell of trade, the pagan rhythm of tea bagging beating like a tom tom on his brow. I wonder, not because I'm prurient, but because the mysterious currents of human nature fascinate me so. And because it confirms my suspicion that all Republican men are privately, passionately, exceedingly gay."

* I know that PreznitBlinky and his friends don't want to say whether they waterboard or not - because that would embolden someone or other, and enable Teh Terrorists to practise resistance methods and such. 2 comments: a) the average time that 'participants' can withstand waterboarding torture is about 15 seconds. the maximum is nearly 7 minutes, apparently. in other words, unless there's a ticking time bomb that's set to explode in the next 420 seconds - no amount of training is going to help. b) if i was a 'terrorist' (does anyone actually self-identify as a terrorist?), and i thought that building up a resistance to waterboarding would be helpful, i'd do it regardless of whether or not i had comfirmation that the USG waterboards. i'd think that would be wise contingency planning.