I'm Just F'in Sayin'

- Elliott Stonecipher, an independent political consultant from Shreveport, La.

Ah yes, the magic:



(if you have the stomach for more outrage mixed with sadness, head on over to AMERICAblog where John and company have been expertly documenting the disaster in the Gulf along with demonstrating the lack of leadership and action on the part of our dear leader)

In August of 2001, while President George W. Bush should have been paying attention to this:



...he was busy doing this:



Then, on the day that Osama made good on his determination:



...George leapt into action. Oh, sorry. I meant, George gave us his best deer-in-the-headlights impersonation:



However, THREE DAYS LATER, George finally came to the rescue, climbing atop what was now the grave of thousands of men and women, and declaring to the world, "I hear you" -- essentially beginning his re-election campaign:



It should come as no surprise that on December 26, 2004, the date of one of the deadliest natural disasters in history:



...Bush was, once again, busy doing this:



Just like three years earlier, it took 72 hours for Bush to properly address the catastrophe (if by "properly" one means promising a mere $15 million in relief before upping that figure to $35 million after a U.N. official called the offer "stingy").

And today, we are witnessing, yet again, another stunning three-day waiting period for our President to actually do something even slightly beyond a photo op. While this was happening on Monday:







...George was busy yucking it up over Medicare:



...and celebrating John McCain's birthday:



Then, on Tuesday, while this was still going on:



...George decided it might be fun to fake being able to play the guitar:



Finally, after getting an update yesterday on the biggest natural disaster in U.S. history, George decided to cut short his vacation by two days -- returning to Crawford for one more night before heading back to Washington:






Let's get this straight: He needed an "update" to decide that, um, maybe things are pretty fucked up and, perhaps, he should get back to work and be Presidentable again. An update. Any moron with access to a TV, radio or newspaper (if he knew how to read) could figure out that the Gulf Coast was in a dire state of emergency without the benefit of an official update.

Well, maybe George needed an update because he really didn't understand the magnitude of the situation. Perhaps he saw these two pictures and thought people were simply doing what he was doing on vacation: Riding their bikes:



...and playing with their dogs.



Perhaps I'm being too harsh on our strong, powerful leader. Afterall, he has his priorties. In fact, he once abruptly interrupted his vacation to return to Washington in the middle of the night:



...so he could join this circus:

This is the spot where my wife and I got married 11 years ago. I'm assuming it no longer exists.












It is now part of a landscape in New Orleans that looks something like this:



If you can, please help out the good people of Louisiana and their neighbors in Mississippi, Alabama and western Florida. You can donate here, here or here.

From the Houston Chronicle:

A driver for the Rev. Al Sharpton led Ellis County Sheriff's deputies on a nine-mile chase at speeds up to 110 mph before state troopers stopped the car, authorities said.

The civil rights activist called the sheriff's report "ludicrous on its face" and accused the officers of "embellishing the story."

Chief Deputy Charles Sullins said the driver was rushing Sharpton to the airport after Sharpton visited anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan on Sunday at her camp outside President Bush's ranch in Crawford. The car carrying Sharpton and two other passengers was clocked doing 110 mph in a 65 mph zone on Interstate 35 in Ellis County in North Texas.

Keep in mind Al, even though you now look like this:



...most of us still remember when you looked like this:



Come to think of it, he still can't quite pull off "distinguished."

From an anonymous comments post:

I think the president is doing a great job, and i should "Kill all the fags that don't agree!"

Preznit good; homos bad. Must act like a real man and kill something.

Well? Do you punks?

Retired Gen. Barry McCaffrey says the National Guard already is "in the stage of meltdown and within 24 months will be coming apart."

McCaffrey sounded that alarm in testimony and a compelling memorandum he submitted to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on July 18 after a wide-ranging trip to Iraq in June. He predicted the United States would succeed in Iraq -- but added that it would take five years and dramatic changes in the way the American military and diplomatic establishments conduct business there.

His memorandum reinforces the impression that the U.S. transitional authority essentially wasted its 18 months in effective power and helped create "a weak state of warring factions" that still has to get on its feet. Understaffing and too rapid turnover by the State Department as well as the Pentagon have created a crippling lack of continuity for the decisive months ahead, McCaffrey wrote.

Such concern is driving a dramatic shift in U.S. military planning in Iraq. An emerging aim is to reduce the damage being inflicted on America's armed forces as an institution. It is the structural damage -- the hollowing out of America's military -- that most concerns McCaffrey and other military leaders. Reducing the number of U.S. troops in Iraq's contested urban areas by the summer of 2006 is now a key component of that planning.

So the Bush Administration has caused structural damage to our armed forces and our National Guard is melting down -- you know, the armed forces that are supposed to fight real enemies abroad and the National Guard that is supposed to be mobilized "upon declaration of a state of emergency by the governor of the state in which they serve" -- you know, emergencies such as hurricanes or terrorist attacks on U.S. soil. Man, the 62,040,610 of you selfish idiots who voted for Bush could not have picked a bigger fuckup. Thanks oodles.

Click the pic to watch Cindy completely rock on Real Time with Bill Maher, courtesy of onegoodmove.

President George W. Bush, assailed by sagging poll numbers and criticism from anti-war protesters camped outside his ranch, called on Saturday for Americans to show resolve and brace for additional sacrifice in Iraq...

"Our efforts in Iraq and the broader Middle East will require more time, more sacrifice and continued resolve," he said.

Bush has said withdrawing now would only embolden insurgents who have sought to derail the drafting of an interim constitution.

"And when Iraqi forces can defend their freedom by taking more and more of the fight to the enemy, our troops will come home with the honor they have earned," he said.

In other words:

(I guess it has something to do with "expiration dates")




I'm just sayin'...

From the Huffington Post:

Iraq spins further into disarray. Its president's entourage was ambushed. Soldiers and civilians die daily. The constitution, drafted by Shiites and Kurds, is abhorred by the Sunnis, and still must be voted on in October -- a vote likely to be fraught with more in-fighting and more terrorist attacks, even given the very recent compromise offered by the Shiites. If the Sunnis can't stomach the constitution, it may even be voted out in October, plunging the country into additional darkness -- and not just from the lack of electricity.

At the same time, 1500 additional U.S. troops will be deployed to Iraq over the next several weeks -- in time to help "support security efforts" during the election process -- once again demonstrating our administration's inability or unwillingness to recognize the strategy we're currently following is not working. More troops sent will just put more people in the line of danger.

But is it really fair to say that "we" lost this war? Someone (for a change) has to take responsibility for destroying America's trust across the globe by waging a war based on lies, killing thousands of innocent Iraqis and killing and injuring thousands of coalition soldiers. I know it shouldn't be "us." So, I nominate this asshole:

A reader over at Hullabaloo goes one step further and suggests indicting the entire Republican party along with Bush:

Change:

"We cannot win the war in Iraq and staying could rouse terrorist sentiment against us"

to:

"The Republicans lost the war in Iraq and our continued presence is rousing terrorist sentiment against us."

Digby continues:

I happen to think this has the benefit of being true. The Bush administration lost the war before it began because it was unwinnable as a purely American/British venture. He didn't mishandle it. He didn't misjudge. He lost it.

I know it's unpalatable to use their frame, but I think it's pretty ingrained in the American psyche. We are the ultimate "win-lose" culture. Because of that I believe it is in our political interest and the country's security interests to frame this as a Republican loss. Terrorism is still a threat. Nukes in the hands of bad actors are a very, very serious threat. We are economically and militarily weakened by Bush's response to 9/11...

The GOP has proven in real time, right before our eyes, that they want to start wars but they don't have a fucking clue how to win them. That needs to be reiterated over and over again to the American public. If it sinks in we might just be able to find our way out of this ridiculous national security paradigm we've been in ever since the wingnuts asked "who lost China" back in 48. It created Vietnam and it created Iraq. Enough.

Oh, and by the way: We support our troops. In fact, we'd like them to stay alive so they can defend us against real enemies, not ones created by the Bush Administration.

Cindy to her supporters, Wednesday night:

"...I am going to make sure that after our troops are brought home from Iraq, and they will be brought back, that we’re going to keep the Camp Casey movement going and we’re gonna make sure that our kids are never sent to fight a war for power and greed."

Debbie from Indianapolis, who called radio host Rush Limbaugh...to say her own son was wounded in Iraq:

"What she's doing is not only dishonoring her son, she's dishonoring mine."

Um, whatever.

Excellent Jon Stewart/Ben Karlin interview from Wired, mainly about how the internet is changing the way we watch television:

Your contract goes through 2008. How do you think people will be watching the show then?

Stewart: Through their nipples. I believe the show will come in through one nipple and will be broadcast out the other through some sort of projection device.
Karlin: And if you have three nipples, you're basically walking high definition.

From Think Progress:

Speaking in Idaho a few minutes ago, Bush argued that moms like Cindy Sheehan are a threat to freedom:

There are few things more difficult in life than seeing a loved one go off to war, and here in Idaho, a mom named Tammy Pruitt…knows that feeling six times over.

Tammy has four sons serving in Iraq right now with the Idaho National Guard — Eric, Evan, Greg, and Jeff. Last year, her husband Leon and another son Aaron returned from Iraq where they helped train Iraqi firefighters in Mosul.

Tammy says this — and I want you to hear this — “I know that if something happens to one of the boys, they would leave this world doing what they believe, what they think is right for our country. And I guess you couldn’t ask for a better way of life than giving it for something you believe in.”

America lives in freedom because of families like the Pruitts.

Have I ever mentioned how much I hate this man?

What a waste. Take away the arrogance that was his ultimate undoing and the Dems would have had an excellent candidate in 1988 (instead we ended up with, gulp, Walter Mondale). Here's Gary Hart writing in today's Washington Post:

"Waist deep in the Big Muddy and the big fool said to push on," warned an anti-Vietnam war song those many years ago. The McGovern presidential campaign, in those days, which I know something about, is widely viewed as a cause for the decline of the Democratic Party, a gateway through which a new conservative era entered.

Like the cat that jumped on a hot stove and thereafter wouldn't jump on any stove, hot or cold, today's Democratic leaders didn't want to make that mistake again. Many supported the Iraq war resolution and -- as the Big Muddy is rising yet again -- now find themselves tongue-tied or trying to trump a war president by calling for deployment of more troops. Thus does good money follow bad and bad politics get even worse.

History will deal with George W. Bush and the neoconservatives who misled a mighty nation into a flawed war that is draining the finest military in the world, diverting Guard and reserve forces that should be on the front line of homeland defense, shredding international alliances that prevailed in two world wars and the Cold War, accumulating staggering deficits, misdirecting revenue from education to rebuilding Iraqi buildings we've blown up, and weakening America's national security.

But what will history say about an opposition party that stands silent while all this goes on? My generation of Democrats jumped on the hot stove of Vietnam and now, with its members in positions of responsibility, it is afraid of jumping on any political stove. In their leaders, the American people look for strength, determination and self-confidence, but they also look for courage, wisdom, judgment and, in times of moral crisis, the willingness to say: "I was wrong."

To stay silent during such a crisis, and particularly to harbor the thought that the administration's misfortune is the Democrats' fortune, is cowardly. In 2008 I want a leader who is willing now to say: "I made a mistake, and for my mistake I am going to Iraq and accompanying the next planeload of flag-draped coffins back to Dover Air Force Base. And I am going to ask forgiveness for my mistake from every parent who will talk to me."

Further, this leader should say: "I am now going to give a series of speeches across the country documenting how the administration did not tell the American people the truth, why this war is making our country more vulnerable and less secure, how we can drive a wedge between Iraqi insurgents and outside jihadists and leave Iraq for the Iraqis to govern, how we can repair the damage done to our military, what we and our allies can do to dry up the jihadists' swamp, and what dramatic steps we must take to become energy-secure and prevent Gulf Wars III, IV and so on."

At stake is not just the leadership of the Democratic Party and the nation but our nation's honor, our nobility and our principles. Franklin D. Roosevelt established a national community based on social justice. Harry Truman created international networks that repaired the damage of World War II and defeated communism. John F. Kennedy recaptured the ideal of the republic and the sense of civic duty. To expect to enter this pantheon, the next Democratic leader must now undertake all three tasks.

But this cannot be done while the water is rising in the Big Muddy of the Middle East. No Democrat, especially one now silent, should expect election by default. The public trust must be earned, and speaking clearly, candidly and forcefully now about the mess in Iraq is the place to begin.

The real defeatists today are not those protesting the war. The real defeatists are those in power and their silent supporters in the opposition party who are reduced to repeating "Stay the course" even when the course, whatever it now is, is light years away from the one originally undertaken. The truth is we're way off course. We've stumbled into a hornet's nest. We've weakened ourselves at home and in the world. We are less secure today than before this war began.

Elvis Costello explains why he changed the lyrics of "The Scarlet Tide" for his Today Show performance with Emmylou Harris. Click the above pic to watch the entire song in case you missed it the first time I posted it.

At 2am on the 21st July, I woke up and re-wrote a few lines of “The Scarlet Tide” to reflect the frustration that I sense with the disastrous and dishonest prosecution of a war, an action that might have been thought treasonous in saner times.

The original text adapted an arcane idiom:

“I thought I heard a black bell toll

A little bird did sing;

‘Man has no choice when he wants everything’”

Little birds are always telling you something in old folk songs.

At 5.15am, we were on stage at the “Today” show rehearsing the new lyrics, the repeated verse of which reads:

“I thought I heard a black bell toll upon the highest dome

Admit you lied

And bring the boys back home”

You can never be certain of whether people will take things in at one hearing but there seemed to be a discernibly positive reaction at Rockerfeller Plaza.

This is why I have loved Elvis Costello for almost three decades. Whether you agree with him or not, at least he has the guts to speak his mind.

Actual photo from Bush's address to the Veterans of Foreign Wars.

"I'm less popular than Nixon was during the height of Watergate."

From the mighty "pen" of James Wolcott:

(The) neocons got the war they wanted, it was waged according to their blueprints, and it's their fuck-up, their moral responsibility, their historical bloodstain, their arrogant, ignorant, blundering, inexcusable mess.

A mess with a new constitution:

Article One

The Republic of Iraq is an independent state.

Article Two

The political system is republican, parliamentary, democratic and federal.

1. Islam is a main source for legislation.

-- a. No law may contradict Islamic standards.

-- b. No law may contradict democratic standards.

-- c. No law may contradict the essential rights and freedoms mentioned in this constitution.

2. This constitution guarantees the Islamic identity of the Iraqi people and guarantees all religious rights; all persons are free within their ideology and the practice of their ideological practices.

Islamofascism: Certainly seems like a cause worth dying for...

Lance Armstrong said Sunday he set a one-day record during his bike ride with President Bush - not for cycling but for lobbying.

During their two-hour ride on Bush's ranch Saturday, Armstrong pushed the president to spend more federal money on cancer research.

"I've never asked someone for so much money before," the seven-time Tour de France winner and cancer survivor told ABC's "This Week" for its Sunday broadcast.

Armstrong added that the Iraq war, which he opposes, never came up during their 17-mile ride.

I wonder if it came up later that night during dinner with his girlfriend?

Kinky Friedman, left, with his future Energy Czar Willie Nelson

I decided to run for governor (of Texas) because I've achieved a lot of my dreams, or realized a lot of my dreams in my life — [like] eating monkey brains in Borneo with the Peace Corps. And I've played the Grand Ole Opry. So I've done all this stuff and I want to see that other people, particularly younger Texans, get to realize some of their dreams. If musicians do run the state when I'm governor, we won't get a lot of legislation done in the morning, probably. All these politicians are owned by special interest or by political parties. I am a free bird. I am an independent, and that is just what Texas needs now. When I'm governor, we will bring the Ten Commandments back to school. I may have to change their name — "the Ten Suggestions," maybe. But we have to get them back in. And I would like to bring nondenominational prayer in the public schools. What's wrong with a kid believing in something? And what's wrong with an independent governor that can have an issue like prayer in school that he likes, and like gay marriage that he likes. He doesn't have to toe the party line all the time. So, I mean, I think gays have every right to be just as miserable as the rest of us. So I support gay marriage. Renewable fuel: We gotta stop the Saudis from playing the jukebox and the rest of us dancing to the tune. I mean, gas is going to be costing a dollar a drop in a few years. So bio-diesel is something that my friend Willie Nelson has really been promoting, and I am with Willie on this. In fact, Willie will be my energy czar. Well, all I really offer is I know how to ride, shoot straight and tell the truth. To paraphrase Ronald Reagan when he first ran for governor of California, "The other guys got the experience — that's why I'm running." That's exactly why I am running.

You can watch the video here, read the 6,000 words or so that The New Yorker devoted to the Kinkster here and/or go to his official website here (why the hell not?).

...and that's why I'm linking to it, my little cuppycake gumdrops.

Click to Listen

(Warning: May cause brain hemorrhaging, my little snoogums-boogums)

After the disappointing first 9 (!) episodes of Six Feet Under's fifth and final season, the show made good on it's promise of the first 4 seasons by first, killing off Nate in episode 61 ("Narm!"), dealing with his loss on episode 62 (Brenda to Maggie: "What is this? Some Quaker thing? You fuck someone's husband to death and then bring them a quiche?") and finally, on last night's finale, reminding us why we originally fell in love with The Fishers and their extended family in the first place. The last 5 minutes showing their future were as powerful and emotional as any television I've ever seen (and, of course, also filled with the show's trademark black humor: How could you not love Brenda finally getting sick and tired of Billy's bullshit and croaking on the spot at age 82?). To read their final obituaries, go here. R.I.P. friends...

Bikey W. won the "Tour de Crawford" yesterday, narrowly defeating Lance Armstrong by taking a short cut and avoiding Camp Casey.

From Reuters:

Bush invokes Sept 11 to defend Iraq War

President George W. Bush said on Saturday U.S. troops in Iraq were fighting to protect Americans at home from more attacks like those of September 11, 2001, starting a five-day focus on his case for the war amid growing public discontent.

"Our troops know that they're fighting in Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere to protect their fellow Americans from a savage enemy," Bush said in his weekly radio address.

"They know that if we do not confront these evil men abroad, we will have to face them one day in our own cities and streets, and they know that the safety and security of every American is at stake in this war, and they know we will prevail," he said.

His comments came as the public shows more discontent with his handling of Iraq, with high-profile protests during Bush's ranch vacation and new poll results showing nearly six in 10 Americans are worrying about the outcome of the war.

Asked whether the United States was meeting its objectives in Iraq, 56 percent of those polled said it was not and 39 percent said it was. The poll is to be published in next month's issue of Foreign Affairs, the journal of the Council on Foreign relations.

Cindy Sheehan, the mother of a soldier killed in Iraq, became a symbol for anti-war protesters after camping near Bush's Crawford, Texas, ranch, where he is on vacation, urging him to bring U.S. troops home.

More than 1,800 U.S. troops have been killed in Iraq and thousands more wounded.

The Bush administration justified going to war in Iraq in 2003 by saying it posed a threat because of stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction. None have been found.

Critics say Iraq had nothing to do with the September 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington and that the administration has tried to tie Iraq to terrorism since the war to justify its actions.

"In a few weeks, our country will mark the four-year anniversary of the attacks of September the 11th, 2001. On that day, we learned that vast oceans and friendly neighbors no longer protect us from those who wish to harm our people," Bush said. "And since that day, we have taken the fight to the enemy," he said.

"We're fighting the terrorists in Afghanistan, Iraq, and around the world, striking them in foreign lands before they can attack us here at home," Bush said...

He acknowledged the deaths in the current war and said: "We owe these fallen heroes our gratitude, and we offer their families our heartfelt condolences and prayers."

"Now we must finish the task that our troops have given their lives for and honor their sacrifice by completing their mission," he said.

Six in 10 Americans (I'm betting more) currently see their 9/11 President this way:



as opposed to the can-do mission accomplisher Bush so desperately wants to be seen as:



Desperate times call for one thing in the Bush camp: 9/11, 24/7. But this time, except for the unfortunate brainwashed who get their news from places like (I kid you not) The 700 Club, the majority of Americans are no longer buying his bullshit.

P.S. - Can mainstream reporting get any worse than this line from the above article:

"Critics say Iraq had nothing to do with the September 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington and that the administration has tried to tie Iraq to terrorism since the war to justify its actions."

Critics? Critics? Oh, right...critics like those Commies on that no-good liberal Sept. 11th commission. Grrrrrrrrr.

Go here to demand the release of crucial documents concerning 16 key cases Supreme Court nominee John Roberts worked on in the Solicitor General's office during Bush I -- that is if you still think America should be the land of the free...

"I'm weary, ladies and gentlemen, of even having to express sympathy. 'Oh, she lost her son!' Yes, yes, yes, but (sigh) we all lose things."

(Hillbilly heroin addict Rush Limbaugh discussing Cindy Sheehan on his radio show yesterday)

* from probush.com's "Traitor List" which also conveniently offers this definition of Treason:

"Violation of allegiance toward one's country or sovereign, especially the betrayal of one's country by waging war against it or by consciously and purposely acting to aid its enemies."

Conveniently not included in the list of traitors are the following "gentlemen":



Kos lists their criminal statements. Digby amends them. And Attaturk compares and contrasts.

Untitled, Will McRobb (2005)

"Karl Rove and others in the White House exposed an undercover CIA agent in order to cover up their lies about Iraq." - Digby



Newest Rovelations can be found here.

(Photo courtesy of Busy Busy Busy)

In which case, feel free to run over their memorial crosses with your pickup truck:

Cindy Sheehan — the mother who's camped out near Crawford, Texas, demanding to speak with President Bush about her GI son who died in Iraq — is continuing her vigil but the makeshift memorial erected at her campsite has taken a hit .

The campsite has close to a thousand white crosses, each representing GIs who, like Sheehan's son Casey, were killed in Iraq.

While Sheehan has gotten a lot of support in her vigil, and has been joined by dozens of sympathizers, she's also sparked some opposition.

Monday night, a pickup truck tore through the rows of white crosses.

The crosses stretched along the road at the Crawford, Texas, camp, bore the names of fallen U.S. soldiers. No one was hurt.

(Picture found here via here)

I'm back, but I have nothing to say...yet (except thank you Cindy Sheehan). Oh, and I do have one question: This can't be true, can it? --

"Our great country is in a terrible downward spiral. We're outsourcing jobs, bankrupting social security, and losing lives at war. We need to focus on what's important-- paying attention to our children, our citizens, our future. We need to think about improving our failing educational system, making better use of our resources, and helping to promote a stable, safe, and tolerant global society. It's time to be smart about our politics. It's time to get America back on track."

(Click banner for more)

See ya on the 13th. That's a much shorter break than the 33 days the Doinkus in Chief gets to take off, but I'm not complaining. Well, I am. But not about my vacation. I'm complaining about Chimpy's.

(This post will remain up top for approx. one month)



My nephew Ben, who just graduated from college, is traveling to Mozambique next month to work in an orphanage called Kedesh:

"I have developed an increasing awareness of the AIDS epidemic that greatly affects Africa. One of the biggest problems the HIV/AIDS Virus causes is orphans. Between 12-18 million Africans are orphans because of AIDS...John Wicks started (Kedesh) five years ago to provide homes for orphaned/extreme poverty stricken boys ages 7-20. I will be working beside John for one month to help provide these boys with a home environment, food, schooling, and the life skills of farming, animal husbandry, carpentry, and building. Kedesh is a faith based organization and I am excited to become involved in their work."

Ben is funding this trip on his own. He estimates that it will cost him about $3,000. If you look at the upper left-hand corner of this blog, you will see a PayPal "Make a Donation" button (or, depending on your browser, it might be somewhere further down on the left). I put it up there a few months ago thinking that maybe some of my bandwidth costs could be offset by donations but, alas, no one has yet to donate. Which is perfectly okay. This blog (or, ahem, online magazine) is a hobby for me. And a less expensive hobby then, say, this or this. It's also a hobby that focuses on right and wrong. What's wrong is that Bush's AIDs initiative in Africa may be doing more harm then good. And therefore it's up to people like my nephew to do what they can. So, if you'd like to help, please click the donation button. I promise all donations that I receive between now and the end of summer will go to Ben (and Ben promises that any donations above what he needs for his trip will be donated to the orphanage). For more information on Kedesh, please go here. Thanks...

Environmental damage seen from shuttle

Commander Eileen Collins said astronauts on shuttle Discovery had seen widespread environmental destruction on Earth and warned on Thursday that greater care was needed to protect natural resources...

"Sometimes you can see how there is erosion, and you can see how there is deforestation. It's very widespread in some parts of the world," Collins said in a conversation from space with Japanese officials in Tokyo, including Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi.

"We would like to see, from the astronauts' point of view, people take good care of the Earth and replace the resources that have been used," said Collins, who was standing with Japanese astronaut Soichi Noguchi in front of a Japanese flag and holding a colorful fan.

Collins, flying her fourth shuttle mission, said the view from space made clear that Earth's atmosphere must be protected, too.

"The atmosphere almost looks like an eggshell on an egg, it's so very thin," she said. "We know that we don't have much air, we need to protect what we have."

You can't make this stuff up:

Congresswoman Katherine Harris, who is running for a U.S. Senate seat next year, has again accused some newspapers of doctoring photos to distort her makeup as a way to poke fun at her.

In an interview on a conservative radio talk show Monday, Harris said some newspapers — she didn't say which — altered photos during the 2000 presidential election recount when she was Florida secretary of state.

Democratic commentators and late-night talk show hosts lampooned Harris for her liberal use of cosmetics as she took center stage in the recount.

"They had trucks in Florida bringing the ballots to Tallahassee," Jay Leno quipped at the time. "In fact, it's the same trucks they used to bring the makeup to Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris."

Oh, that Jay Leno...what a cutup!!!

Harris, a Republican, was asked Monday by nationally syndicated radio host Sean Hannity whether that image bothered her.

"I'm actually very sensitive about those things, and it's personally painful," she said. "But they're outrageously false. ... Whenever they made fun of my makeup, it was because the newspapers colorized my photograph."

I don't know. I mean this is exactly what she looks like to me in every single picture I've ever seen of her:




(Click the pic for more Psychedelic Republicans)

(or Macy Gray meets Ol' Dirty Bastard)

An ol' friend sent me this. I had to post it. Listen here. Warning: N.W.S.*

*Not Work Safe (but then again, why are you surfing the internets when you're supposed to be on the job? Get back to work, slacker)

Bomb kills 14 U.S. Marines in Iraq

A roadside bomb explosion tore through a U.S. assault vehicle in
Iraq on Wednesday, killing 14 American Marines and a civilian interpreter in the deadliest attack of its kind against U.S. forces since the war began.

Enjoy your record-breaking vacation George.

Well, the big guy pulled it off. Judging by Day 1 of current, it appears Al knows how to launch a new television network. It came off fresh and original and, although the programming "pods" seem to be completely random (a couple having a baby, artist Shepard Fairey, a hip female preacher, a couple trying to buy an apartment, a piece on egg donors, a look at Iranian youth), the channel felt somehow cohesive. My only gripes: either completely lose the PJs (pod jocks) or put them in a more natural setting (they feel completely canned next to the people featured in the actual pods); dump Deepak Chopra (he's unwatchable and unlistenable); and try to make the channel feel a little less White and middle class (granted, I only watched a few hours but that was the overall feeling I got...perhaps that's what unfortunately made the channel feel cohesive). However, overall it's a fine start for the man who should be running our country. Extra kudos for hooking up with Google, Al...

I loves me a good dog story:

With a stomach full of scrambled eggs, Jake dog-paddled his way into history, leaving most of the serious — and human — swimmers in his wake.

Organizers of the South End Rowing Club's 10th annual Alcatraz Invitational — a 1.2 mile swim from the infamous prison island to the San Francisco shoreline — say the 65-pound golden retriever is the first canine known to have made the crossing.

He was the only dog among more than 500 swimmers who lept into the chilly, choppy waters on Saturday, coming in 72nd overall. His time was 41 minutes and 45 seconds.

The crowd cheered as the 4-year-old pooch made his way onto solid ground, shaking sprays of water and dodging a woman who tried to put a medal around his neck.

I bet Toast could've beat Jake's time back when she was in her prime (she's nine now but she can still swim like there's no tomorrow):

Tickets are on sale now! Click the cute little boy and do exactly what The Rude Pundit tells you to do.