James Robertson defeats the Dark Side with one simple observation...
The characters made stupid choices again and again. Not to mention the improbability surrounding the central fear point of the movie, that Padme would die in childbirth. Apparently, hyperdrive is one thing in the Star Wars galaxy, but knowledge of C-Sections - nope.Anakin's response: "Oh. Yeah. Good idea."
Via the Utne Reader...
This week Halliburton holds its annual shareholders meeting at the Four Seasons Hotel in Houston. Attendees will toast a whopping 25 percent overall revenue growth thanks to recent work in Iraq. Others will gather outside the swank hotel to protest corporate-cronyism and war-profiteering.Accountability? America needs you, Harry Truman
Yet?
"Open-source technologies such as Python and PHP, to name just two, are of great interest to college students and younger people with a passion," according to Shai Agassi of SAP's Executive Board. But he doesn't believe there is yet the same enthusiasm for ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) applications.Evidence the long-tail may be gaining mind share over the SOA?
A.F. reports...
Maher followed by asking Coleman if it struck him as odd that there haven’t been any terror alerts since the election?After a long laugh from the audience, Coleman answered with some stuff about there still being a high level alert, but then reassured everybody with: "If in fact people used these things for political purposes, I’m sure Congress will look into that."...
Meanwhile, the Coalition Provisional Authority, which we ran, has lost 8.8 billion dollars. By lost, I mean it’s totally unaccounted for. Not only has Congress not "looked into" this $8.8 billion and who might have it now, but it seems that some members are completely unaware that this staggering sum, which was supposed to go toward rebuilding Iraq, is missing. The Sunday morning after the White House Correspondents dinner, I ran into Senator George Allen at a brunch thrown by John McLaughlin and his wife. Allen had never heard of the missing $8.8 billion, or at least that's what he told me. And he's on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Stunned, I went up to Susan Page of USA Today and her husband Carl Lubsdorf of the Dallas Morning News, two veteran Washington political reporters, and told them about Allen’s ignorance of this huge scandal, which has no doubt contributed to hatred for America and the deaths of our troops. There’s less electricity in Iraq now than there was before we invaded Iraq.
Turns out that Page and Lubsdorf had also never heard of the unaccounted-for $8.8 billion. For a moment I thought that maybe I had been imagining things.
Then I spotted my friend Norm Ornstein, scholar from the American Enterprise Institute. "Would you believe it if Norm Ornstein told you about the $8.8 billion?" I asked Susan and Carl.
"Sure."
I brought Norm over, and indeed I had not been imagining things. "It was a huge story," Norm told them.
"Was it in the New York Times?" Carl asked Norm.
"Yes," Norm assured him.
Howard Dean on the Senate...
One of the great geniuses of American democracy, unlike most of the democracies in the world that minority rights are protected, 48 percent of us didn't vote for President Bush, but we still have some say in shaping the agenda of the country. If the filibuster is gotten rid of, the extended debate is gotten rid of in the Senate, first of all, it means the president can put 10 judges on the bench that we believe are not qualified to serve. We've confirmed 205 of his judges. He wants those last 10, so they're willing to change the rules to do it.But it has much worse implications.
A.H. observes Tim Russert "interviewing" Howard Dean. As a counterpoint to my last post, what happens when a Democrat does try to really talk about the war in a national forum...
The key exchange came when Dean raised the most critical point about Iraq:Another reason why I don't watch "major" news networks.DEAN: Because of the president’s actions, I would argue that we are in greater danger now because of what’s going on in Iraq than we were before. Now there are terrorists in Iraq. They have migrated there since our troops were there.
RUSSERT: Let me stay on your rhetoric…
Nice pivot, Tim. Yes, by all means, let’s stay on Dean’s rhetoric rather than on the insignificant fact that our country is less safe as a result of our invasion of Iraq. Good to see you’ve got your priorities in order.
As I write this one of the best programs for real news and interviews... Democracy Now is on my TV, on a local community cable channel from 5am to 6am M-F. But you can watch it on the Internet too.
James Boyce writes...
The fact that thousands of young men and women are coming home disabled for life and learning to live on $2,000 a month disability is a disgrace. The future security of our country is at stake because, as an Army recruiter was explaining on a talk show the other night, this is the first “real” extended war the volunteer army has had to fight, and recruiting to actually fight is different than recruiting to train to fight...I spoke with a top Democratic fundraiser, smart guy, best of the best, and I quote: “The Democratic consultants here in Washington are convinced that the 2008 election will be all about domestic issues.” Sure it will be. Just like the last one was.
