The main story was related to the practice of "earmarking" bills in the process of passing them. This allows lawmakers to appropriate obscene amounts of pork barrel funds for pet projects without any effective oversight.
Of note, Sen. Bill Frist(powerful Republican, self-styled hero and presidential hopeful) inserted a provision into a bill that(in broad language) basically protects the pharmaceutical industry from any and all lawsuits. This is an alternate form of earmarking. Interestingly, Mr. Frist has received $270,000 in political funding from the drug lobby.
While I'm enumerating Mr. Frist's virtues, it should be remembered that he was one of the prime posturers in the path of Mark Sciavo's efforts, on his wife's behalf to shuffle off her mortal coil.
These things bear remembering come election time.
Ankh
Friday, February 17, 2006
At Least 10 Killed in Libya Cartoon Riot
Y'know, it strikes me(and this is decidedly unPC) that if we keep publishing cartoons, all of the radicalized, militant Islamists will eventually kill themselves off.................................without need for further intervention.
Ankh
Ankh
Sunday, February 12, 2006
Oh.......................this is rich;^)
Sorry, I tried the link thing............................bad kharma. Check out any news service.
Dick Cheney peppered one of his hunting buddies with buckshot whilst quail hunting.
D'Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Picture Sid Caesar's vintage skit of the spazzy hunter waving a shotgun about. Knowing the victim will be okay permits a hearty belly laugh:^)
Such comic relief from the Bush administration is all too rare.
Ankh
Dick Cheney peppered one of his hunting buddies with buckshot whilst quail hunting.
D'Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Picture Sid Caesar's vintage skit of the spazzy hunter waving a shotgun about. Knowing the victim will be okay permits a hearty belly laugh:^)
Such comic relief from the Bush administration is all too rare.
Ankh
The flogging continues.................
Ariel Sharon is this generation's Generalissimo Francisco Franco. What a terrible fate, when nationalistic reverence and the embodiment of a national identity unite to negate individual and familial suffering.
Some politico/medical mouthpiece declared that the surgery was routine. Done every day in hospitals worldwide. True, but about as truthful as Dubya saying to good citizens in the hinterlands at a town meeting a couple of years ago that all wiretapping indulged in by the administration required(and had) federal warrants. But I digress. I'll bet the price of a new snowblower that Sharon infarcted his bowel. This is an emergency that(if not caught and remedied quickly) is invariably fatal. Indeed, it's frequently fatal even when it's caught fairly early in its course.
The point of all this is that it's not Sharon's welfare that hangs in the balance. His personal welfare is moot. It's the welfare of the current Israeli power structure that's on life support.
My thoughts are with Ariel Sharon and his family.
Ankh
Some politico/medical mouthpiece declared that the surgery was routine. Done every day in hospitals worldwide. True, but about as truthful as Dubya saying to good citizens in the hinterlands at a town meeting a couple of years ago that all wiretapping indulged in by the administration required(and had) federal warrants. But I digress. I'll bet the price of a new snowblower that Sharon infarcted his bowel. This is an emergency that(if not caught and remedied quickly) is invariably fatal. Indeed, it's frequently fatal even when it's caught fairly early in its course.
The point of all this is that it's not Sharon's welfare that hangs in the balance. His personal welfare is moot. It's the welfare of the current Israeli power structure that's on life support.
My thoughts are with Ariel Sharon and his family.
Ankh
Saturday, February 04, 2006
Rain sucks!............miscellaneous musings
"We are not human beings having a spiritual experience, we are spiritual beings having a human experience." Susan St. James
The administration's(and in particular, Rumsfeld's) vilification of Venezuela's Hugo Chavez and Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is eerily reminiscent of their prewar treatment of Saddam Hussein. Will we finally withdraw from Iraq only to turn our bellicose attention to Venezuela? Is Bush's (covert) plan to wean us from our addiction to Middle East oil ultimately a smokescreen for toppling another detractor and seizing his (considerable) oil reserves? I'm only a little more sanguine about our posturing toward Iran. The thought of tactical nukes in the hands of Islamic fundamentalists is terrifying. Hell, look what WE did with them, and we're civilized(no Truman bashing intended).
Mortality was buzzing about my brain at work last night. Not the overt, traumatic kind. The quiet, sucker-punch kind. I'm caring for a late, middle-aged person who, since November has been dealing with a particularly malignant brain tumor. Salt-of-the-earth kind of human. Vital, active, loving, intact family(a rarity in my line of work). This will likely be fatal within a few months. How does one reconcile that? Even from my there-but-for-the-grace-of-God-go-I vantage point, after 20+ years, I can't.
Hook me up Ne'er(or any of you other silent souls),
Ankh
Addendum: How'd we(the U.S. of A.) manage to stay out of the fray over the violently disputed cartoons caricaturing the Prophet Muhammad? I must side with muslims in general on this one. It's no less irresponsible, offensive or wrong than flying the swastika, the rebel colors or any other White Power drivel. It's incitement in the guise of freedom of speech. With freedom comes responsibility.
The administration's(and in particular, Rumsfeld's) vilification of Venezuela's Hugo Chavez and Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is eerily reminiscent of their prewar treatment of Saddam Hussein. Will we finally withdraw from Iraq only to turn our bellicose attention to Venezuela? Is Bush's (covert) plan to wean us from our addiction to Middle East oil ultimately a smokescreen for toppling another detractor and seizing his (considerable) oil reserves? I'm only a little more sanguine about our posturing toward Iran. The thought of tactical nukes in the hands of Islamic fundamentalists is terrifying. Hell, look what WE did with them, and we're civilized(no Truman bashing intended).
Mortality was buzzing about my brain at work last night. Not the overt, traumatic kind. The quiet, sucker-punch kind. I'm caring for a late, middle-aged person who, since November has been dealing with a particularly malignant brain tumor. Salt-of-the-earth kind of human. Vital, active, loving, intact family(a rarity in my line of work). This will likely be fatal within a few months. How does one reconcile that? Even from my there-but-for-the-grace-of-God-go-I vantage point, after 20+ years, I can't.
Hook me up Ne'er(or any of you other silent souls),
Ankh
Addendum: How'd we(the U.S. of A.) manage to stay out of the fray over the violently disputed cartoons caricaturing the Prophet Muhammad? I must side with muslims in general on this one. It's no less irresponsible, offensive or wrong than flying the swastika, the rebel colors or any other White Power drivel. It's incitement in the guise of freedom of speech. With freedom comes responsibility.
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