Category: dKo journal

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…

These US soldiers in Iraq present such an excruciating paradox. On the one hand, we have seen how, with the right (i..e., wrong) people and setting, the slippery slope of prisoner abuse plummets deep into the abyss. But then there is the astonishing generosity, altruism, self-sacrifice that can show up, something that they almost take…

The Chicago White Sox’ unexpected sweep of the Boston Red Sox in this year’s World Series calls to mind the mostly forgotten early years of the game, when Baseball franchises were owned mainly by the major cookie companies, and the classic rivalry was between the Baltimore Oreos and the Chicago Hydrox.

If getting pregnant were like catching a cold, just something that people randomly came down with, I doubt the government would even think of coercing those who caught it to take the pregnancies to term–even though the Pro Life-Baby Killer considerations would be just the same. There is definitely a sexual anxiety at play here…

HANOI (Reuters) – The spread of Asia’s deadly bird flu to Europe is a “troubling sign” and the world must work faster to prepare for a potential flu pandemic, U.S. Health Secretary Mike Leavitt said on Friday. —————– I hear that Bush White House officials are assembling a team of top Public Relations experts from…

I am inspired by Dumpster’s post below, to make a general point about “The Appearance of a Conflict Interest.” I believe the meanings of the key terms here have become distorted and compromised in recent years. It may not affect this EPA ruling directly, but the Inspector General did contribute to the convenient confusion surrounding…

Papers Offer Peek at Miers’s Views Washington Post Miers, President Bush’s nominee to the Supreme Court, said in her 1995 letter to Bush that the legislation was a blatant attempt to protect a “handful of greedy, but immensely rich and powerful” trial lawyers. ————————– DKo: The legislation in question protected the use of a lawyer’s…

This is from the weekly prophetical reading that is designated for Yom Kippur (Beginning this year on the evening of October 12.): Jeremiah 58 6 …this is the fast I desire: To unlock the fetters of wickedness, And untie the cords of the yoke To let the oppressed go free; To break off every yoke.…