Monday, July 30, 2007

Money money money

Sunlight Projects is a blog dedicated the the grunt work of investigating Congressional spending transparency.

They do great work, and should be encouraged by anything with even a vague interest in how our tax dollars are spent. The less accountability, the more money is wasted, as we saw with the balooning of "earmarks" during the Congresses in the Bush Administration before Dems took over in January.

RATM vs. Fox News

RATM

I am sorry I missed this show, but even with the proximity to my apt, age, memory and stamina caused me to skip out on a rap festival. However, I have seen Rage several times and they are dynamic. Zach de la Rocha is more than just a voice. He means what he says. To read that Hannity and Coulter actually commented on Zach's rants is very amusing. Zach and Tommy Morrell would crush them...with bass in their face. "Why stand on a silent platform, fight the war, fuck the norm."

It's good to see RATM back together. I saw them in Oakland back in 1993 or so. What a trip. Love their music.

What irks me are Coulter's comments: "blah blah blah losers...there's a lot of violence coming from the left." Would that be the violence in Iraq? The surge? The continued ad-hoc funding of the war by the (lefty?) administration? I don't know that this violence looks like. We're not starting wars, shooting folks in the face, or saying: "We should invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity." But I guess we're the violent one's.

Rock on, and feel the RAGE.
- walk

Sunday, July 29, 2007

The "What You Don't Know Can't Hurt My Administration" List

One of the more ham-fisted efforts by the Administration to control and direct the flow of information:

Repressed reports and other "public" information

Glad someone's started a list. Any more examples?

Saturday, July 28, 2007

Signs that things aren't working in Iraq

Iraqi government refuses to take on thousands of American-funded reconstruction projects.

I'd be interested in what the Iraqi government thinks will happen. Maybe they are just overworked, without the necessary backoffice help even to track, let along move forward, all these projects. Betcha a working oil-revenue sharing agreement would free up some cash to get this done.

Friday, July 27, 2007

Electricity? Who needs it when the surge is kicking ass!

I meant to post this earlier today, but thanks, Andrew Sullivan, for the kick in the pants.

Withholding information about how often the city of Baghdad has electrical power seems to me a key statistic in determining if the "surge" is securing the city or not.

Sometimes the Administration's attempts to spin an information web looks very silly.

The heroism of everyday people

McClatchy with an update on Lt. Col. Stephen Abraham, who is calling a spade a spade on the Gitmo detainees.

Now, before I get hate comments, let me just say that there are some nasty people being held there. People who should have the book thrown at them. But they won't--because Bush is re-writing it as he goes along and, well, it often doesn't match the version of "justice" upon which this country was founded and grew.

One of the ironies of this Administration is the willingness to portray American's morality as leading the way in the world, all the while undercutting that morality through unethical and illegal behavior, often for vindictive, spiteful, for publicity reasons.

I gave the Administration the benefit of the doubt right after 9/11. Many of us did, because we simply couldn't imagine how morally-bankrupt (through and through) this flag-waving, Bible-thumping, self-confident bunch of loonies the Administration would become.

And now they've got nothing to lose. We need to encourage Republicans in Congress to stop being partisan and start being conservative (indeed, that's been the Democratic problem for some time--Party members tend to be liberals first, party members second). End the WINO (Waverer In Name Only) Brigade!

Pat Tillman story

An evolving story, but clearly the wheels are coming off the government's side of this, as more documents in the Pat Tillman story reveal lots and lots of coverup.

Kudos to the mother for sticking with it.

Teachers & students, kissing in a, well...theater, camping tent, a van in the church parking lot...

I'm not one to link to WorldNetDaily often, but this is just bang-up work:

Women teachers having sex with students: A roundup

What happens in the barn, stays in the barn

More shrillness by the "dumb vegans".

Man, what ever happened to the days when what happened between a man and his pony wasn't dredged up by do-gooder vegans?

Tragic (truly) but sometimes gorilla warfare is hell...

Gorillas found shot to death in the Congo

Thursday, July 26, 2007

Time for a new start

I've been plugging along in a half-assed way on DPS for some time, zonbie-like, and I'd really prefer to keep it going. But the whole MT thing is far too clunky anymore, and until I figure out how to convert it all to WordPress I'm just going to lay low on DPS for awhile.

I'll post here at least once a day, I think, probably several times a day. So, there you go.