Laser-Beam Focus
originally posted at www.whatsthequestion.org It's over. The election, that is. So now that we've gotten that 2-year trip into political nastiness, it's time to turn attention back to items that have...
View ArticleLaser Beam Focus - A Follow-Up
originally posted at www.whatsthequestion.org OK, I posted my original of this a few days ago. So I thought I'd keep a running tab of where things have gone. I listed what I thought were pressing...
View ArticleThe Hot Topics That Fell Off The Radar
originally posted at WhatsTheQuestion.org It has now been nearly two weeks since the election. As you'll recall, there were a number of hot issues in the weeks immediately prior to the election. I've...
View ArticleChina Vs. Taiwan = US Troops: China Testing AWACS
originally posted on www.WhatsTheQuestion.org Click headline to view complete article (registration required) - China Now Test-Flying Homemade AWACS This should make a few people nervous. China is...
View ArticleIntelligence About WMD - the 2004 Version
Click headline for complete story - MSNBC - Powell says Iran pursuing nuclear bomb Colin Powell is talking about intelligence again. Danger Will Robinson. He was on his way to Chile for an Asia-Pacific...
View ArticleTopics We Used To Care About
elevated/edited from the diaries by DemFromCT. While other issues such as voting reform and unfinished 2004 election topics remain important, they are getting covered. These are some that are not....
View ArticleTopics We Used to Care About - E+28
[ED: Added info on Bush's speech this morning] Well, here we are at 4 weeks since the election day. My last post on this (also posted on www.whatsthequestion.org) generated a large number of responses,...
View ArticleTopics We Used To Care About E+35
It is now 5 weeks since the presidential elections. The list below reflects topics that were hot topics during the election campaign. By "hot" I mean that the respective candidates and their campaigns...
View ArticleWe can't pay for armor, but we'll legislate space tourists
While soldiers are scrounging for parts and looking for ways to pay for gas to get home, and while our legislators tottered back and forth to pass an intelligence reform bill that only starts to...
View ArticleTopics We Used To Care About - E+47
Since the election, I have been trying to keep track of a number of issues that were "big news" during the campaigns, but have since diminished in prominence. These were issues that were touted by...
View ArticleBush Wishes Right-Wing Fundies Happy Holidays
On the way to getting my car serviced this morning, I caught the end of Pres. Bush's speech. Given the uproar being raised by fundamentalists about merchants using Happy Holidays instead of Merry...
View ArticleWork Ethic: Where'd It Go?
I lost my job on Nov. 19th. I have been interviewing and job hunting ever since. While there are some possibilities on the horizon, and I have some ideas on my own, I am still forced to collect my...
View ArticleWill This Finally Be The End Of Rumsfeld?
In a briefing at the Pentagon, Gen. Richard Myers confirmed that yesterday's explosion at Mosul was caused by a suicide bomber. During the briefing, Rumsfeld looked nervous, sounded weak, and deflected...
View ArticleTopics We Should Still Care About - E+56d
It's now been 8 weeks since the election. While others have been posting updates on the process in Ohio, as well as various opinions on who should next lead the DNC, there are still numerous...
View ArticleMy Tsunami/Inauguration LTE
After hearing the "pledge" of monies to be targeted for aid in the tsunami affected region, and the comparison to what is being spent for inauguration festivities, I put together the following letter...
View ArticleThe Backdoor Draft expands
Remember when we were asked to buy the line that there was no backdoor draft? That we had all the military we needed? That there were no recruitment problems? Guess they've forgotten about all that....
View ArticleRove's New Position - One Guy's Thoughts
OK, forgive me if this has been diaried, but I did a search and couldn't find anything (which surprised the heck out of me). Update [2005-2-9 0:6:30 by lsoderman]: Apparently, I just couldn't *find*...
View ArticleDavid Kay on CNN - Iran The Next Iraq?
David Kay is making the case that the rhetoric coming from the Bush administration is a direct parallel between Iraq and Iran."You have the Secretary of Defense talking about the problems of a nuclear...
View ArticleHIV - A Possible Treatment For Cancer
From the darkness that HIV once implied comes a ray of hope for cancer sufferers. According to an article on the BBC site a research team at UCLA has found that "impotent" HIV cells can be used to...
View ArticleIs the Republican Talking Points Machine Breaking Down?
I was driving home today and had Hardball on the satellite radio (Man I love XM), and Matthews had as his guest Sen. John McCain. At one point, they had gotten on the topic of Putin and Russia, with...
View ArticleReaching The Unreachable
On Monday night, I posted a diary entitled "Is the Republican Talking Points Machine Breaking Down?", in whose comments I asked how we can get the message out about the Bush administration's assorted...
View ArticleChecks and Balances - The Scale Is Broken
Two hundred thirty years ago, the founding fathers of what was to become the United States formulated a plan for a representative government system that consisted of three parts - an executive branch...
View ArticleThe Beginning Of Action
A DailyKos diary titled "Perspective from a Wee Activist" got me to thinking about younger individuals who are starting to question (we hope) the world around them. The individual who posted this diary...
View ArticleThe Vigilantes Aren't Who You Think They Are
With the coverage over the last few days of the folks down in Arizona, you probably thought this post was about the US Border Patrol and immigration. Sorry to disappoint. No, this diary is about a new...
View ArticlePrince Rainier Passes
They say they come in threes. Not sure I count Terri Schiavo, but I do count Saul Bellow. The third is Prince Rainier who has just passed from lung, heart and kidney problems. His death was not...
View ArticleIn Case You Thought We'd Turned the Corner..
Maybe it wasn't surprising that eventually a civilian aircraft would be shot down in Iraq. But apparently, it wasn't good enough to being the helicopter down:In a video purportedly showing the...
View ArticleW's Fallacy of the Beard
A commonly used/misused logical argument is often referred to as the "Fallacy of the Beard": How does this apply to W? More below the fold -
View ArticleCooper Talks To GJ - No One Else
So, Cooper says he was released from liability by his source to speak to the grand jury, but not anywhere else. He insists on telling the story with full embellishment, including staying up to write...
View ArticleMy Letter To Keith Olbermann - Amen Brother...
Kudos for saying what has been said far too little. The Bush administration's lip service to the problem of terrorism may be finally coming back to haunt them. Unfortunately, their seemingly...
View ArticleRove, Plame, Journalist, Reporter - It's All In The Definitions
The latest spin in the Rove/Plame story is that Rove got the information about Plame from Robert Novak, not the other way around. Of course this whole line of spin does nothing but create more...
View ArticleThe End Of The War On Terror
The "War on Terror" has ended. It is now the "Global Struggle Against Violent Extremism". We've gone from WOT to GSAVE. The Bush Administration Thesaurus Team has yet again changed the name of...
View ArticleWhy Bolton *Doesn't* Matter
As expected, President Bush today used his recess appointment option to move John Bolton into the position of US Ambassador to the UN. This could create a major backlash. My opinion? It means nothing....
View ArticleWork Ethic - A Rant
crossposted on Random Musings - And Other Cliches A few months ago, I decided to try a new career. After being in supervisory/management positions for the last 15 years or so, I wanted to try something...
View ArticleIntelligent Design - Copernicus Who?
From Merriam-Webster's Medical Desk Dictionary, Revised EditionMain Entry: the·o·ryPronunciation:'thE-&-rE, 'thi(-&)r-EFunction: nounInflected Form: plural -ries1 : the general or abstract...
View ArticleRehnquist's November Surprise
Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist has been in and out of the hospital a number of times the past few weeks. And yet, each time, he comes back out to let everyone know he's going back to...
View ArticleMy Letter To Keith Olbermann - DOD Sponsors Walk/Concert
Keith, Wasn't sure this came across your radar screen (and not sure it will just because I wrote), so I figured I'd drop you an email to help raise a flag. The Department of Defense, in its infinite...
View ArticleUn-Critical Thinking - Why We Can't Change Their Minds
Last night, watching CNN's coverage of the protest and vigil from Crawford, TX, I had an epiphany of sorts: The difference between those who support the war in Iraq and those who don't seems to boil...
View ArticleIn The Un-Balance
Balance. It generally means to bring something into equilibrium, by use of an equal, opposing force. An equal, opposing force. If this is the case, then a mother grieving the death of her son, and...
View ArticleTragedy, Travesty and Hypocrisy
Watching the coverage of what has been occurring in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama late tonight, I saw a clip of a local news reporter talking to a man who was lost. Lost because he had done...
View ArticleThe Fallout Begins
The ramifications of the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina are just beginning to see the light of day. In a press conference this morning, the governor of Texas announced that Houston has...
View ArticleTime To Hold Them To Account
As I sit watching the news coverage of Katrina's aftermath, I am growing more and more angry at politicians who are already trying to spin the responsibility away from themselves. Misssissippi governor...
View ArticleSave Your Life, And Save Theirs
Before this week, the big story had been lung cancer. The death of Peter Jennings struck a chord with many, illustrating the dangers of smoking. Flash forward to this week - the tragedy unfolding along...
View ArticleWhose Reality Is It?
Over the last 24 hours, I've been debating what to write about the last week's events. The depth of tragedy, the level of incompetence, the degree of hubris that has been displayed for all the world to...
View Article9/11 - Four Years Later: We Mourn, But Have We Acted?
Yesterday, communities around the US are held ceremonies to remember the victims of the attacks on September 11, 2001. From New York City to a field in Pennsylvania, solemn commemorations were held to...
View ArticleAn Invitation To Kossacks
Watching the coverage of the Katrina aftermath, and seeing the media grow a little bit of a spine, the myth of fair/balanced coverage kept striking me. What we saw was not fair, not balanced. It was,...
View ArticleMother Nature Thinks It's Too Soon
Three weeks after Katrina slammed the Gulf Coast region, residents of New Orleans are beginning to return to the city in an an effort to repopulate the region. This has been met with considerable...
View ArticleA Reach Out - Anyone Able To Help?
I received the following comment on one of my blog posts today, and thought I would open this up in case anyone had some ideas they could share. I do not know the reliability of the individual posting...
View ArticleTaking An Idea A Step Further
Nearly a month ago, in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, before Rita was on the horizon, I posted an idea about how to help others, while helping yourself. More below the fold...
View ArticleAfghanistan - The New Narco-State
While the President tries mightily to convince us that he had no choice but to go into Iraq, and that Iraq did not weaken efforts and resources in Afghanistan, that's not the whole picture according to...
View ArticlePre 9/11 Mentality - Terror Prosecution at Pre-9/11 Levels - Are We Safer?
A recurring theme in the adminstration's attempt to bail out their sinking boat is that their opponents are guilty of a "pre-9/11 mentality", that they have not adjusted to the world as it is now. Then...
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