Clarification

Dear loyal readers,

The photos that were up on the site yesterday were of my right ring finger, which I injured playing basketball in Cambridge with a college friend and his friend from High School along with three other random people.

Yes I know, woe is my precious, beautiful digits that faithfully write you my thoughts every weekday (well almost). The point of the previous pictures was to illustrate the damage I did to my finger (just a nasty bruise).

One never appreciates how much an item is needed or used until one cannot use it. That is, it hurts to type, hold on to the bar on the T, and lots of other things. Same thing with the Congress and the Presidency, you forget how important and powerful those positions are until they fall into the wrong hands.

Now we are blessed with a bottomless pit occupation and an angry region posed to attempt acts of terrorism against us, a exploding national debt (posed to burden my generation and my children's generation with higher car and house payments), more polluted land, air and water, higher gasoline prices, higher long-term unemployment, more crumbling schools, exploding health insurance costs, etc.

That's why we need to be like these people and vote in droves.

try this one on for size


Thanks to Wonkette for finding this.

Deija-Vu, all over again

The other day I was downtown drinking an iced coffee at Dunkin Donuts. When I looked out the window, I saw their rival, Starbucks, across the street. That isn't that surprising, but I remembered back about 14 months ago when I went in there to Meetup with the folks running the Draft campaign of Wesley Clark in Massachusetts.

Back then, we all laughed at how we were all unemployed and poked fun at one who just finished law school (and poor sap) had to take the bar exam.

Over a year later, the actual Clark campaign has come and gone, with many of us having gotten jobs working for Clark (not me) in New Hampshire or MA and are now back to being unemployed. Now I am leaving my job at the State House, only to have the JD Clark-ie apply for my job. Where I am going? Law School. All this made me feel like Neo seeing the cat in the Matrix.

Meanwhile, my boss has finally gotten serious about reviewing resumes and sending out job descriptions. I am not worried about her finding someone, I am literally buried in resumes coming in from the internet and off the State House network. The trick is to find the right one for my boss, who might go for a local yokel now that I left for law school (although I warned her that I would be here 1-2 years at the start).

It all goes to make me feel lucky to have been chosen, especially in the current/past job climate. My heart goes out to all of those who are trying to get work and into graduate school to avoid trying to get work (because there is little to be found). Trust me, I have been there.

Emily Miller needs some anger management therapy

Emily Miller, a "top aide" to Sec/State Colin Powell and ex-press sec. to House Maj. Leader Tom DeLay has received more attention than "she bargained for" after trying to forcibly end a 5/16 "Meet the Press" interview with Powell.

As Tim Russert and media critics "piled" on the criticism, Miller defended herself, saying Russert had already run over the allotted time with five interviews waiting to be conducted on a similar time schedule.

Little did we know though, that Miller caused another "press spat" while working for DeLay. Peter Perl was writing a DeLay profile for the Washington Post Magazine. After interviewing DeLay's sister about a "rift" within the extended DeLay family, Perl received a call from Miller.

Perl: "The next evening, I got a phone call from DeLay's press secretary, Emily Miller, who burst into a scathing tirade. 'You lied! ... You betrayed him! You twisted his words! ... We don't know you. You don't exist. ... You are dead to us.' I grabbed for a pencil to take notes, but she was speaking faster than I could transcribe ... It was also the only time Miller neglected to specify that her comments were for my background information, not for publication"

She needs to take a chill pill. OK, maybe two.

In other news, Jon Stewart gave the commencement address at his alma mater, William & Mary, this year. Some highlights:

Stewart, on his college days: "What I lacked in looks I made up for with a repugnant personality. ... You could say that my one saving grace was academics where I excelled, but I did not. And yet now I live in the rarified air of celebrity, of mega stardom. My life a series of Hollywood orgies and Kabala center brunches with the cast of 'Friends.' At least that's what my handlers tell me. I'm actually too valuable to live my own life and spend most of my days in a vegetable crisper to remain fake-news-anchor fresh."

Stewart, on his graduating from college: "I know that the decisions that I made after college worked out. But at the time I didn't know they would. See college is not necessarily predictive of your future success. And it's the kind of thing where the path that I chose obviously wouldn't work for you. For one thing, you're not very funny."

Stewart: "Let's talk about the real world for a moment. ... I don't really know how to put this, so I'll be blunt. We broke it. ... I don't know if you've been following the news lately, but it just kinda got away from us. Somewhere between the gold rush of easy internet profits and an arrogant sense of endless empire, we heard kind of a pinging noise, and uh, then the damn thing just died on us. So I apologize."

Stewart continues: "You fix this thing, you're the next greatest generation, people. You do this -- and I believe you can -- you win this war on terror, and Tom Brokaw's kissing your ass from here to Tikrit, let me tell ya. And even if you don't, you're not gonna have much trouble surpassing my generation. If you end up getting your picture taken next to a naked guy pile of enemy prisoners and don't give the thumbs up, you've outdid us."

Stewart's "real advice": "College is something you complete. Life is something you experience. So don't worry about your grade, or the results or success. Success is defined in myriad ways, and you will find it, and people will no longer be grading you, but it will come from your won internal sense of decency" (release, 5/18).

A Tough Poll to Swallow, or to Bridgewater



Bridgewater claims the '02 UT 02 race "won't be repeated this year," but says Bob Bernick, "so far, things are looking about the same." Bridgewater beat Swallow in both the '02 and '04 UT GOP convos. In '02, Bridgewater lost to Swallow in the primary, who himself went on to lose to Rep. Jim Matheson (D) by 1600 votes.



Due to paranoia, only registered GOPers can vote in the 6/22 primary. But, Bernick points out, "unaffiliated voters, those belonging to no party, can register as Republicans at the polls and pick up a GOP ballot," There are more registered GOPers than Democrats in Utah, but like other states, more non-affilated voters than either cominded. Of course, Utahns are pretty conservative, especially relative to places like Cambridge or San Francisco. Still, Blue Dogs like Jim proved they can win. In in Jim's case, has and will win. Read the full article here.

Another week, another round of scandal

Sunday was a big news day after all. Colin Powell's press staff tried to cut the interview one question short by making a "technical difficulty."

"Emily, get out of the way," said Powell. Russert then loudly complained that this was unprofessional. Powell then instructed the crew to "bring the camera back." Finally, Powell answered Russert's final question about if Colin lied to the UN in his 2/03 speech "that made America's case for war with Iraq" Powell: "It turned out that the sourcing was inaccurate and wrong and, in some cases, deliberately misleading."

Also that morning, Sy Herst's New Yorker piece came out. Herst reports that the situation at Abu Ghraib was the result of a highly-secret 'black operation' intended for use against select, high-value al Qaida operatives, which tumbled out of control when expended for use against the Iraqi insurgency -- which Pentagon and administration officials were understandably desperate to get under control.

Wait, but that's not all! Another important article came out, this time by Newsweek which quotes a memo White House Counsel (and potential supreme court nominee) Alberto Gonzales wrote to the president in January 2002, saying the following: "As you have said, the war against terrorism is a new kind of war. The nature of the new war places a high premium on other factors, such as the ability to quickly obtain information from captured terrorists and their sponsors in order to avoid further atrocities against American civilians ... In my judgment, this new paradigm renders obsolete Geneva's strict limitations on questioning of enemy prisoners and renders quaint some of its provisions." [emphasis mine] Yes, isn't human rights quaint? Gosh, I mean, they behead our people right, so we can make them do anal sex and wear women's underwear on their heads right?


Sorry wrong again Rumsfeld et al. Maybe as Josh Marshall says "Okay, I think the wheels are now officially off this car" Also on CNN this morning, one of the to be court marshaled soldiers from the photos of Abu Ghraib (he's the guy with his arms proudly crossed behind the human pyramid) also confirms my theory. His lawyer says he was "just following orders" from intelligence officers "which he thought to be lawful." On the question of abuse, the lawyer said "many forms of abuse were already permitted." Sounds like you can't convince the stewards to go down with the ship, captain.

Just like the Titanic while Bush may seem like he is "the unsinkable Molly Brown," he is slowly but surely going to end up at the bottom of ocean of his administration's own lies.