Reason to hope Nutso Kim doesn't check the news...

Independant scientists on soon-to-be-deployed Missile Defense: "it won't work"

Simple question: WTF is all that money really going to?

Bush administration officials said they would rework a plan for a $25 billion reserve fund for Iraq operations after Republican and Democratic senators on Thursday deplored it as an effort to get "a blank check" without congressional oversight....Under the White House plan, the reserve funds could be shifted among accounts without congressional approval, which lawmakers said would give the Pentagon full control over the money, cutting Congress out of its constitutional role of overseeing expenditures.

Ok, McCain yelling was no surprise, but when "loyal" republicans are jumping you know it's ridiculous. More numbers...


The Senate will debate the issue next week when it takes up a $422 billion bill for defense programs.

Maybe it's just my natural cynicism talking, but whenever I see these type of numbers I wonder how much is unnecessary make-work for politically-loyal contractors & how much is just outright pocketed for no reason. Near a half-trillion, yet our soldiers have shortages, what gives?

Congress has so far sent the White House about $160 billion for Iraq and Afghanistan.

Hmm...notice we've heard virtually nothing about Afghanistan lately?

Ok, Kerry isn't even trying:

Saying the Bush administration had failed to react to spiraling health care premiums, Senator John Kerry vowed on Monday to cut those costs by about 10 percent, or $1,000, per family.

"Mine is a plan that will cut soaring premiums, cut the waste, cut the greed, and cut Americans a good deal," Mr. Kerry, the presumed Democratic presidential nominee, told several hundred people, of his proposal to have the federal government assume the responsibility for catastrophic care, a move intended to reduce health insurance costs.

And how exactly is handing the bill to the federal gov't (read: taxpayers) supposed to reduce costs? What incentive is there to limit costs when you're being subsidized? Has college tuition gone down since federal assistance on them has existed? No. Have gas prices gone down or stayed stable since we started giving kickbacks to oil companies? Obviously not.

BTW:

While the policy is not new, the senator's approach showed how the Kerry campaign plans to integrate health insurance into its larger economic message about creating jobs.

Instead of talking about universal access and the estimated 43 million uninsured Americans, a rallying cry for liberals concerned about the poor, Mr. Kerry emphasized costs, a hot-button issue for both middle-class voters and businesses. He stood in front of a banner emblazoned with the slogan, "Affordable health care means a stronger America."

"yes Mr Kerry, this will work wonderfully. The Times is behind you."
Nice pro-democrat ego-stroking editorializing, Jodi. Too bad this isn't the editorial page...


Can someone at one of him or Bush's campaign stops or rallies PLEASE ask them to explain why they think the federal government even has the capability to create lower costs, or even the authority to try it in this manner?

The gay marriage flap still going: this won't help...

Out-of-state couples will be able to receive marriage licenses in Provincetown after the Board of Selectmen voted unanimously yesterday to defy Governor Mitt Romney's residency instructions. Romney immediately issued a statement, threatening legal action against clerks who defy his interpretation of the law. The Provincetown board said that gay couples who live outside of Massachusetts and have no intention of moving here will be issued marriage licenses, as long as they attest that they know of no legal impediment to their union. Romney's office has instructed city and town clerks around the state that out-of-state gay couples who do not plan to move to the state will be barred from marrying under a 1913 law that prohibits marriages that would be illegal in a couple's home state.

If they aren't going to live in Massachusetts, why should they get married there? Since it's going to be legal there soon, why not wait & just move there?

I know why: out-of-state gays are planning on getting hitched in Mass and then lawyering up in their homestate to get recognition. It'll only sway people on the fence about it towards the opposition, what are these people thinking?

Everyone likes to twist or ignore the law for their agenda. The bible-thumpers fail to realize america is not a theocracy, and now with more of these type of stories coming out it's becoming obvious the gay activist types are impatiently trying to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

If it weren't for Abu Ghirab, this is what would be the oft-repeated topic on the news. I for one am glad this is taking a backseat to more fundamental issues, at least in a surface sense. If the election season isn't enough of a groaner now, it could've been worse if the only thing to talk about was the horrid "family values" meme...

Gaza strip: FINALLY, an attack on legitimate targets. Why is this so hard to comprehend 99.9999% of the time?

GAZA The Islamist movement Hamas dealt the Israeli Army one of its heaviest losses in months Tuesday during fierce fighting in the Gaza Strip that broke out as Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was trying to salvage a plan to pull out of the territory.
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Hamas' armed wing, the Ezzedin al-Qassam Brigades, announced that its fighters had blown up an armored personnel carrier during an Israeli raid into the Gaza City neighborhood of Zeitoun, killing all six crew members.

Also I notice Hamas is being called "Islamist" and not the usual dismissive terms of moral equivalency in this article. The honesty in describing these nuts is appreciated.

The difference in culture between the US & much of the middle east becomes ever more blindingly clear when you consider that virtually no one in the US has advocated publically a "tit-for-tat" interpretation of the prisoner abuses in Iraq. Despite overwhelming evidence that if the tables were turned our POWs would be tortured without so much as a backthought, we still condemn the acts. We would actually rather there exist a double standard -- they use torture and don't get much attention, we use it and get slammed -- than accept a step towards this level.

I recall numerous conversations online & in public with people who argue in support of suicide bombings of civilians in Israel. The rationale is the same each time: "they kill our innocent, we kill theirs". Apparently the idea that killing civilians is not justified on either side, and the concept of not jumping into the mud w/ the source of your grievance, is considered crazy talk there.

Well, they can call me crazy all they want. Say I have a lack of understanding, say by questioning this I am implicitly approving of the actions that are pointed to in excuse. I do not care.

No, I do not believe in the idea that all culture is relative & cannot be criticized. If your interpretation of justice comes anywhere near deliberately killing people who have done nothing to you, your culture is screwed. I put more faith in mankind than to accept that, as long as you breathe, eat, and sleep like any other human being you can do better.