Author: david

Disaster Response Changes Promised Administration Admits Katrina Flaws, Moves to Retool Homeland Security [A] government-wide review due later this month…[will] make more than 100 recommendations…” Washington Post DKo: I think this calls for at least 200 recommendations.

Inquiry Into Wiretapping Article Widens NYT “…a rapidly expanding criminal investigation into…a New York Times article…that disclosed the existence of a highly classified domestic eavesdropping program…” ————————— DKo: I have no legal expertise, but this is my instinctive lay-person’s reaction: If the NSA eavesdropping was unlawful, or even if it’s lawfulness was so seriously questionable…

Bush acknowledges problems in drug plan’s rollout Reuters [Bush] said officials were trying to make sure more information is shared by Medicare, the health plans and the states, and that it is up-to-date. “We’re making good progress,” Bush said. DKo: Sharing information. Keeping it up-to-date. What a good idea! And now is the perfect time…

Would any news organization fall for Bush’s ludicrous attempt to associate the LA plane-threat story with the totally unrelated surveillance he is currently defending in Washington? Well, there’s at least one born every minute. The AP came through for the Dunce award: Bush: U.S. Surveillance Helped Stop Attack AP http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060210/ap_on_go_pr_wh/bush_35

Low-Fat Diet Does Not Cut Health Risks, Study Finds NYT 2/8/06 The largest study ever to ask whether a low-fat diet reduces the risk of getting cancer or heart disease has found that the diet has no effect. DKo: Remember to avoid health advice drawn from traditional Chinese medicine, Hindu Ayurvedic medicine, herbalism, etc. It…

It occurs to me that under the humbling burden imposed on the Commander-in-Chief in wartime, especially in a harrowing war without borders that could last virtually forever, the President–strictly as required to protect equally extraordinary implicit wartime powers–might be compelled to authorize an Attorney General to give false testimony to a Senate committee. They should…

“Lawmakers cannot reverse wrongdoing that has already occurred. But they can express outrage (in a resolution or on the floor) that the president saw fit to usurp Congress’s power to set the ground rules for secret surveillance.” –From legal commentary by NYU law professor Noah Feldman in the NYT Magazine 2/5/06 DKo: Similarly, when a…

AP today: As Democratic lawmakers argued for more details, CIA Director Porter Goss lamented the leak of classified information on a variety of ongoing intelligence operations. “I’m sorry to tell you that the damage has been very severe to our capabilities to carry out our mission,” Goss said. “It is my aim, and it is…

Reuters tells us that the Supreme Court refused last night “to let Missouri execute a death-row inmate contesting lethal injection…turning down Missouri’s last-minute request to allow a midnight execution.” That’s right, the “last minute request” was from the state. They were irreparably deprived of their last opportunity to kill this man yesterday at midnight. I…

In peacetime, it is vitally important to our American democracy that we adhere to the legally scheduled election-cycles in choosing and changing our high public officials. This allows candidates and parties who are not currently in power to challenge and, if they prevail, to replace those presently in office. In wartime, however, when the very…

There are so many basic facts about the world that we, as grownups, take for granted, yet to a child are matters of wondrous surprise. Living here with my eight-year-old grandson Seaney has really brought that home to me. The process of opening up the wider world to him has been an inspiration and a…

Proponents of Intelligent Design argue that it is just an alternative theory that open minds will agree should be taught as a possibility alongside Darwinian evolution. Another alternative theory that merits such treatment is Malevolent Design. Though still in its infancy, Malevolent Design has a strong scientific advantage, because it is a testable hypothesis that…

In Address, Bush Says He Ordered Domestic Spying NYT [Boldface added] As a result of the [NYT’s] report, he said, “our enemies have learned information they should not have, and the unauthorized disclosure of this effort damages our national security and puts our citizens at risk.” He said the Senate’s action “endangers the lives of…

We read now about an Al Qaeda prisoner whom we sent to Egypt to be tortured. He eventually came up with a fabricated story that Saddam Hussein had trained Al Qaeda members in chemical and germ warfare. This testimony became a favorite piece of smoking-gun evidence, cited repeatedly by top officials in favor of their…

Washington Post Without ever using the words “mistake” or “error,” Bush said the administration miscalculated by clearing insurgents out of a city and then moving onto another assignment, only to allow enemy forces to retake control. DKo: Could anyone have foreseen this? Just about anyone. However, it is never fair to criticize Mr. Bush for…

Washington Post A tearful [Ohio governor] Taft pleaded no contest Aug. 18 to misdemeanor charges. After vowing earlier not to tolerate ethics violations in his administration, he said he had failed to live up to his own standards and public expectations. “I am disappointed in myself,” said Taft, the son and grandson of U.S. senators…

Immaculate Conception is different from the Virgin Birth. Mary gave birth as a virgin, which precluded Original Sin from being transmitted from Joseph. But what about Original Sin being transmitted from Mary? Well, Mary, though not herself the offspring of a Virgin Birth, was also free from sin, because she was produced by Immaculate Conception.…

Especially when it’s only mere Iraqis who die. From the NYT Lack of Armor Proves Deadly for Iraqi Army “The Iraqis put quite a few more people in their trucks, and those trucks aren’t armored,” Major Warren said. “No armor plus more people in the truck equals a substantially higher casualty rate.” The Army unit…