Nothing Matters, Part 7358

This is insane:

U.S. military panels reviewing the detention of foreigners as enemy combatants are allowed to use evidence gained by torture in deciding whether to keep them imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, the government conceded in court Thursday.

The acknowledgment by Principal Deputy Associate Attorney General Brian Boyle came during a U.S. District Court hearing on lawsuits brought by some of the 550 foreigners imprisoned at the U.S. naval base in Cuba. The lawsuits challenge their detention without charges for up to three years so far.

Attorneys for the prisoners argued that some were held solely on evidence gained by torture, which they said violated fundamental fairness and U.S. due process standards. But Boyle argued in a similar hearing Wednesday that the detainees "have no constitutional rights enforceable in this court."

U.S. District Judge Richard J. Leon asked if a detention would be illegal if it were based solely on evidence gathered by torture, because "torture is illegal. We all know that."

Boyle replied that if the military's combatant status review tribunals (or CSRTs) "determine that evidence of questionable provenance were reliable, nothing in the due process clause (of the Constitution) prohibits them from relying on it."

One would think simply that a government like ours would treat people by the laws of it's own country, or at least the international laws it helped create. Apparently this is not so.

What standards are we setting around the world?

Bad News

President continues his War on Jobs!

It's Friday so you knew something bad had to happen.

In Skip I Trust

It didn't take much for me to realize he was overrated, but I think Skip Bayless backs it up even more:

After all the knee-jerk outcry this week about what a "racist football factory" Notre Dame revealed itself to be, please allow a little perspective from a guy who closely observed the school as a columnist for the Chicago Tribune and Ty Willingham as a columnist for the San Jose Mercury News.

The day Notre Dame hired Willingham, I wrote that it was a mistake. For Notre Dame, I said, hiring a Ty was like kissing your sister -- an overrated choice that would soon haunt the coach and the school. The board of trustees was right to relieve Willingham of his duties on Wednesday because it was wrong to hire him in the first place.

Willingham's attitude help create his national myth.
Not his fault. Notre Dame's fault.

As much as I'd love to see as many black head coaches in college football as there are in college basketball -- and as much as Notre Dame wanted its first black coach to return it to its golden past -- Willingham was doomed to fail. He isn't a bad coach, but he isn't a good one, either. His Stanford teams routinely faded in November, when coaching becomes increasingly valuable. The more games Stanford played, the more chances rival coaches had to evaluate the team's weaknesses -- and the more Willingham got out-coached.

At Stanford, reporters who covered Willingham were put off by his tight-lipped condescension. He came off as smug and aloof -- qualities that outsiders sometimes interpreted as an almost mystical, twinkle-eyed confidence. Insiders often thought his reticence with the media was a defense mechanism. Sometimes, it appeared, he didn't answer questions because he couldn't.

But his measured, cryptic eloquence built his national aura.

And his myth.

Ty should really be focusing on a cabinet level position.

Lib Media

I don't watch much TV News, but I've seen a bit the last few days. Bush was in Canada, and the only pictures I saw were of him and PM Martin getting along relatively well.

Canadians must have been aghast by the way Bush speaks to audiences about serious issues. I did catch him on CSPAN discussing our relationship with Canada, as if he were talking to 7 year olds. It's really embarrassing already, but whatever, nothing matters.

Anyway, these are the photos I did not see much on television.

You'd think the media would be interested in showing them since they don't get this footage very often in America, with the advent of Free Speech Zones, and all.

Textbook Case

Apparently Bush wants to simplify things, probably so he can understand them better. His effort to adhere strictly to "economic theory" is pretty ironic.

In a speech yesterday at the American Enterprise Institute, N. Gregory Mankiw, chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, spoke repeatedly of "standard economic theory," "textbook economic theory" and "scholarly literature in economics" to bolster his arguments.

Indeed, theories on economic efficiency, savings incentives and government debt finance -- arcane in the nation's capital if not in the academy -- will likely dominate debate over the president's push to revamp Social Security and the tax code in the coming years. It will pit Bush's philosophy that taxation and government spending distort economic decision-making and impede growth against arguments that government should steer some decisions for the broader good.

The irony is that in Mankiw's own "textbook in which he ridiculed the supply-side tax cuts of President Ronald Reagan as "fad economics" conceived by "charlatans and cranks."

That's right, a book distributed to thousands upon thousands of students. But that of course was AGES ago before 9/11, when EVERYTHING CHANGED!

How Are Laws Made?

Does anyone believe this story:

A mid-level House aide said yesterday that he was the one who, during last month's drafting of a huge spending bill, added a provision that could give staffers on the House and Senate appropriations committees broad access to Americans' tax returns.

Richard E. Efford, a 19-year veteran of the House Appropriations Committee, said he did not inform any elected official before inserting the provision and advised his immediate boss, Rep. Ernest J. Istook Jr. (R-Okla.), only after it was too late to make changes. He said other House and Senate appropriations staffers in both parties were aware of the provision, however, and believed it gave them needed authority to enter facilities of the Internal Revenue Service to inspect how taxpayer funds were being used.

"I would guess we all thought it was a housekeeping thing that would help our bosses but did not need to be elevated up to them," said Efford, who described himself as "dumbfounded" by the uproar.

Not that it matters because nothing matters.

It's really messed up that random aides have the ability to pass laws! This spending bill was over 2,000 pages long, and hardly any of the Congressfolk read all of it. In fact, Republicans just cut down the amount of town available to review the bill, which makes it even easier for things like this to happen.

This is crazy. I don't buy it. I'm sure they're lying, again. And this country is really backwards when House/Senate aides can add laws to make things easier for their bosses. One would think EVERYTHING should be run past the elected official, right?

Puhlease...

Michael Powell defends the FCC.

Whatever happened to letting the consumer decide? You don't like it, don't watch it! If enough people don't watch it goes off the air.

I thought that's the Republican way?

Whatever

Bush's choice for Homeland Security Director, Bernie Kerik.

You may remember Kerik from a story that never happened. The one where Rudy Giuliani turned to him on 9/11 and said, "Thank God George W. Bush is our president..." Yeah, that happened.

I always wondered about that because had Giuliani really said that, and he didn't, one would have to think he is one of the dumbest people on the planet. Who else in the world thanked God George W. Bush was president?

It must have been Bush's incredible handling of Foreign Policy up until that point which made Rudy say that. I mean, the way we handled the downed plane in China was truly amazing. Or, it must be that Rudy felt since Bush was so tight with the Saudis he'd be able to get the information rather quickly. Whatever it was, he said this to Bernard Kerik, and Kerik never commented about to anyone. It was a personal moment between two great men.

Because It's Getting Better...

Keep telling us that:

The American military presence in Iraq will grow by nearly 12,000 troops by next month, to 150,000, the highest level since the invasion last year, to provide security for the Iraqi elections in January and to quell insurgent attacks around the country, the Pentagon announced Wednesday.

The Pentagon is doing this mainly by ordering about 10,400 soldiers and marines in Iraq to extend their tours - in some cases for the second time - for up to two months, even as their replacement units begin to arrive. The Pentagon is also sending 1,500 paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne Division in the next two weeks for a four-month tour.

By extending the tours of some 8,000 soldiers from two brigades, the Army is risking problems with morale and retention by breaking its pledge to keep troops on the ground in Iraq for no more than 12 months, some commanders and military experts said.

How many times before the election did you hear, "Because we've trained all these Iraqis to fight we will be able to scale back US forces..."

Bastards!

Damn TV people!:

Television networks are lending new meaning to time-shifting: TV shows don't necessarily start or end right on the hour or half-hour anymore, screwing up some viewers' video recordings.

More programs are running an extra minute or two longer to keep viewers from switching channels. Shows recently padded include CBS's "Without a Trace," Fox's "Renovate My Family," ABC's "The Bachelor" and NBC's "ER," according to Nielsen Media Research.

The tactic has been used on and off for a few years but has grown more popular as competition in network television stiffens.

As a result of the overruns, people who use VCRs and digital video recorders like TiVos end up clipping the beginning or ending of a show. For some, the time conflict could also prevent a later show from being recorded.

Tough on Crime

When it comes to making our streets less safe you can always count on Republicans:

Congress has eliminated direct financing for a Justice Department program that has been the centerpiece of the Bush administration's efforts to prosecute black-market gun crimes.

The move, which Congressional officials attributed to competing budget priorities, cuts federal grants to local and state law enforcement agencies in investigating and prosecuting crimes committed with guns. It also raises questions about the administration's ability to persuade the Republican-controlled Congress to support its legislative priorities, after Republicans last month blocked an intelligence overhaul backed by the White House.

Rove's World

Newsweek talks to Karl. Here's the important stuff:

For now, Rove's goals are at once more immediate and more lofty: to design a legislative and philosophical agenda that will lead to further GOP gains, and beyond that to a political dominance that could last for decades, as FDR's New Deal did. The core principles are clear to anyone who listened to a Bush stump speech. They are drawn from a well of conservative (and, in the 19th-century sense, "liberal") dogma: that only free-market democracies respectful of traditional moral values can bring us a planet of fulfilled citizens secure from terror. In fact, Rove's formulation is a new hybrid, willing to use big government in the service of markets and morality. Asked to name Bush's biggest accomplishment thus far, Rove replied in a flash: "His clear-eyed explanation of how to win the war on terrorism. It was the defining moment of our time." In other words, the Architect plans to be fully engaged in formulating foreign policy—and, while he isn't thought of as a leading neocon, his views are squarely within that camp.

On domestic policy, Rove has a theme at the ready: "the ownership society" he says the president wants to build. It's a bland phrase, but the ideas behind it are hardly status quo. One is to consider abolishing the income-tax system, replacing "progressive" (meaning graduated) rates with a flat tax or even a national sales tax or value-added tax. Another is to rechannel massive flows of tax money from Social Security to private savings accounts and into expanded medical savings accounts. Yet another is a crusade Bush and Rove have been pursuing since Texas: a national cap on damage awards in lawsuits.

In all cases, Rove wants to force Democrats to defend taxes and lawyers. Trained in the ways of direct-mail targeting, he doesn't want to seduce the whole country, just an expanded version of what he's already got. He's aiming at fast-growing exurban areas, where small-business entrepreneurs—mostly Gen-Xers—tend to distrust the New Deal paradigm of government. "We want to pay increased attention to those vibrant small-business climates," says Rove.

And it is in these places, where suburbs meet what's left of the countryside, that the GOP's conservative stands on social issues are welcome even (perhaps even especially) among younger families searching for stability and reassurance in a world of Darwinian economics. In the next term, Rove said, Bush will push—hard—for a constitutional amendment to define marriage as a union of man and woman, and for "strict constructionist" judges. "Voters like the president because he doesn't blink and he doesn't waver," says Rove, "and he isn't going to start. He says he values life, and he means it." The cold calculus: force Democrats to defend gay rights and unfettered access to abortion.

It's an interesting read.

Simply put, when it comes to things like "ownership society" and other nonsense, there are easy ways to counter those messages. Like, "shouldn't the society own the debt?" Or, "in an 'ownership society' do I get to pave my own streets? collect the mail?" You just need to make fun of these ridiculous terms, and simplify with them. Of course, the media will then run with the criticisms as well.

Playing defense on major issues like abortion, taxes, etc. is not a way to take the power back.

(thanks to the prospect for this)

Bush's Choice

Someone asked me yesterday why I didn't comment on Bush's new choice for Commerce Secretary. Frankly, it doesn't really matter! This guy Gutierrez, after years of running Kellogg and playing the role of Lt. Martin Castillo on Miami Vice, will now play the roll of "Guy Who Nods Head."

I think the Post sums it up nicely:

One economist, who was rumored to be up for a position on the Council of Economic Advisers, said he could not take a job that has been steadily pushed to the sidelines over the past two years. "You can't be attracted to a job where you'd be out of the loop," he said.

A top White House official disputed that, saying: "The idea we can't recruit people to serve because they don't want to be cheerleaders is absolutely wrong."

Massachusetts Institute of Technology economist James Poterba, the top choice to replace N. Gregory Mankiw as chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, has declined the post, sources inside and outside the White House said. Poterba told White House officials he did not want to move to Washington and disrupt his teenage children's lives.

Stanford University's John Cogan, a top economist for President George H.W. Bush, has declined invitations to join the administration as a point man for Social Security reform, White House officials say.

White House officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said both cases involved personal circumstances and were not a reflection of the desirability of White House employment. The officials asserted that the new team at the National Economic Council and the Council of Economic Advisers will be involved in crafting policies that will make up the core of Bush's plans to overhaul Social Security and the tax code.

But some Republican economists say the administration's top economic jobs have been marginalized, while their inhabitants have been publicly humiliated.

"Why would you want to take a job where you have no influence?" asked Bruce Bartlett of the conservative National Center for Policy Analysis. "What's the point?"

Stephen Friedman, who had said last week that he planned to step down as Bush's chief economic adviser, submitted a letter of resignation yesterday saying he planned to return to the private sector.

The dismissals of Treasury Secretary Paul H. O'Neill and chief economic adviser Lawrence B. Lindsey two years ago signaled that Bush would accept no dissent or friction in his administration, Bartlett said.

Treasury Secretary John W. Snow is seen as more of a promoter of White House policymaking than a policymaker, and Snow faces anonymous quotes predicting his departure. "It doesn't look like the White House treats its economic advisers very well, regardless of competence or loyalty," Bartlett said.

Among those mentioned as a possible Snow successor is New York Gov. George E. Pataki, who said in Utica, N.Y., yesterday that he is not interested. When asked why his name keeps popping up for one Bush administration job or another, Pataki replied, "God only knows."

And if God knows, that means Bush knows too.

Values Party

Depends on your definition of "values":

CONCORD — A federal grand jury on Wednesday indicted James Tobin, President Bush’s former New England campaign chairman, on four counts related to the jamming of get-out-the-vote phone lines on Election Day 2002.

State Democrats, who have filed a lawsuit over the jamming, had accused Tobin in October of involvement in the conspiracy.

Tobin, 44, stepped down Oct. 15, but released a statement calling the allegations “without merit.”

The 2002 jamming consisted of computer-generated calls to get-out-the-vote phones run by Democrats and the nonpartisan Manchester firefighters’ union. More than 800 hang-up calls tied up phones for about 1 1/2 hours.

The indictment charges Tobin with conspiracy to commit telephone harassment and aiding and abetting of telephone harassment. If convicted, he faces up to five years in prison.

I love when people say things like, "Both parties lie...both parties cheat..." Doesn't mean they both lie and cheat in the same ways.

If someone steals a piece of Bazooka gum, while another person steals a flat-screen TV, they're both thieves, but they're not the same.

Missed This by a Day

EJ Dionne in WaPo:

Is it so outlandish to ask the president to square what he's saying now with what he said four years ago? And if Social Security privatization is supposed to be about making "younger workers" better off, as Bush has said, will he please explain why piling yet more debt on their backs should make them grateful?

Someone needs to remind EJ that Bush is held to a different standard, and that standard is called: No Standard.

Safire's Replacement

Which way should we go? Lets get the best hack we can.

A Good SS Read

Thought I should post not only Kasich's piece, but an assessment of it as well from The New Republic:

JOHN KASICH'S SOCIAL SECURITY SHELL GAME: So I pretty much follow John Kasich's New York Times op-ed today--at least right up until the second-to-last paragraph. Kasich lays out the usual demographic trends--shrinking worker-to-retiree ratios, longer lifespans, etc.--behind the fact that Social Security will begin paying out more in benefits than it receives in payroll-tax revenue in 15 years or so. Kasich ignores the fact that the money the rest of the government owes Social Security technically keeps the program solvent for another 24 years after that (there is some debate among liberals and conservatives over what kind of obligation that actually is), but he correctly notes that we could solve most of the problem simply by indexing the growth in Social Security benefits to consumer prices rather than wages.

So far, so good. But then, for no apparent reason other than to demonstrate his ideological bona fides, Kasich tacks on a completely nonsensical graf toward the end of his piece. (To be fair, Kasich is actually a longtime proponent of such nonsense.):

"We should also create Social Security savings accounts for those under 55. Workers could invest some of their payroll taxes in their own savings account in a mixture of conservative stocks and bonds, much as members of Congress and federal employees do. In exchange for investing a part of their payroll taxes, workers would give up some of their future Social Security benefit-- probably about 25 cents for every dollar invested."

This all sounds perfectly reasonable--as though the private account proposal is entirely self-contained and has nothing to do with Social Security's long-term finances, which Kasich has just explained how to fix. In fact, the two are intimately connected, for the simple reason that today's workers pay the benefits of todaty's retirees. That is, if you allow today's workers to divert 25 percent of their payroll taxes into private accounts, cutting the benefits they're promised won't help you pay for it one bit. We were never counting on their payroll contributions to fund their own benefits; we were counting on their payroll contributions to fund the benefits of current retirees (and near-retirees)--benefits which, in the very next paragraph, Kasich promises not to cut.

In effect, Kasich has spent the first seven paragraphs of his piece proposing a very reasonable way to save Social Security several trillion dollars, which would basically make it solvent. Then, in the final two grafs, he's proposing something that would cost several trillion dollars, which would immediately undermine the earlier proposal and leave Social Security in just as bad (probably worse) financial shape than when he started. That's quite a trick. It sort of reminds me of the capital depreciation fund the guys on "Car Talk" are always pushing--"you send us $50 and we'll guarantee you $25 in return."

He Too Is a Shitty Coach

So Notre Dame fires Ty Willingham and hopes to hire Urban Meyer from Utah. It'll probably happen.

On Sports Radio, especially the Mike and the Mad Dog Show, they're saying Notre Dame "can't compete...they can't get the recruits...the standards are too high..." It's all garbage.

Over the last 5 years here are some of the rankings according to Phil Steele (whose magazine is the best)

1999
1. Texas
4. Ohio St
6. Michigan
7. Notre Dame

2000
1. Florida
4. Penn St
5. Texas
6. Notre Dame

2001
1. FSU
4. LSU
5. Notre Dame
6. Miami

2002
1. FSU
4. Tennessee
5. Notre Dame
6. Miami
8. Oklahoma

2003
1. USC
2. Florida
3. Notre Dame
4. Michigan
5. Tennesse
6. Miami, FL.

Sorry, I don't think recruits are the problem. Coaching is obviously the problem.

Brady Quinn was the highest ranked QB in the midwest when he went to Notre Dame. Julius Jones, who looks to have a tremendous future in the NFL, split time. David Givens never saw the ball, yet on the New England Patriots he's their goto Red Zone WR. Randy Moss signed with Notre Dame!

The standards may be higher, slightly, but in reality it's the poor coaching, and the tough early scheduling.

Another thing, is ND gets in on players so early in their high school years that there's no great potential for them to get better. So many players, like a Ron Powlus, max out by their Senior year, at which time they have already signed with Notre Dame. The kids with the potential to be great often become great, as opposed to the high school phenom. This always happens with Notre Dame. Their guys are physically dominant before they get to college, and other guys catch up.

A great example is Joey Galloway of Ohio State, who was a skinny kid that wanted to play for ND. They did not think he was good enough. He went on to become, for a time, the fastest player in the NFL, and probably the strongest guy his size. ND does not recruit potential, they recruit stars. I can name so many guys that went to school there only to become average players.

The standards may be higher, but that does not mean guys like Chad Henne, Michael Doss, Antoine Winfield, Dwayne Jarrett, and others can't play there. They can! They have better grades and test scores than Ricky Watters and Jerome Bettis. And just like in the bigtime colleges, at the prep schools they help these kids pass their classes with flying colors. In fact, I recall New Jersey soccer powerhouse St. Benedicts Prep used to have the honor system wherein the teachers would leave the classroom so the students could take tests. Kids I knew on SBP told me flat out they all cheated, and were all in classes together.

Also, Notre Dame is on national television every week. They have their own network (which is what this is all about). That's a serious advantage. Other teams have to be good to be on the tube week in, week out.

So for all the garbage about Willingham and Bob Davie only getting three years, or that ND does not get the players because of the standards, it's just that: GARBAGE.

Get yourselves a good coach and national dominance will not be far behind.

Btw, Michigan, you should've fired Lloyd Carr last year and hired Meyer before ND.

Our Next Governor

Will be Jon Corzine.

He's really perfect to lead a state like New Jersey.

He's socially liberal and progressive, understands the economy probably better than anyone in Congress, grew up in the midwest, but chose to live here, and he's too talented to waste his days away in a Senate without numbers.

Blowgger

The host of this site, blogger.com, hasn't been running so smoothly lately, making it tough for me to run the site. Sorry, for those that read it.

In addition, I don't have a guest blogger to carry the load when I do not. I would like to, but I don't.

The light posting should end today.

The only thing you need to know is that Bush is very excited that Mfume has stepped down as the head of the NAACP because now he can be considered to run the Department of Homeland Security, since he has the main qualification.

If There's a Fire...

...in a crowded movie theatre, don't assume there's a fireman to help you. Not good:

At least two-thirds of the nation's fire departments are understaffed, according to the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), which sets firefighting codes and standards. The shortage is worst in rural volunteer departments that have trouble recruiting new members. But many big and medium-size cities that are more likely to be terrorist targets are also short-handed.

Some, including New York, have had to close fire stations; others, such as Houston, have had temporary closures. In many cities, response times are slower, and trucks go out with too few firefighters.

"While staffing companies to nationally recognized standards is desirable," the report said, "it is beyond the reach of many financially strapped communities."

The obvious answer here is to cut taxes in all these "strapped communities" so they can grow out of the problem.

Smaller Story, But I Know You've Been Following...

Shocker:

In stark contrast to the cold war, the United States today is not seeking to contain a threatening state empire, but rather seeking to convert a broad movement within Islamic civilization to accept the value structure of Western Modernity – an agenda hidden within the official rubric of a 'War on Terrorism

You should take a look at this report. Page 11 has some good bits.

The sooner we all become aware that nothing matters, the better off we'll all be.

Again, nothing matters, things just are.

Did You Know?

Somehow I don't think ESPN is going to run this, buy did you know the US makes non-detectable landmines?

Isn't that G-R-r-r-r-reaaaat!

Damn it!

Better watch out:

Brain scans show that the brains of people who are lying look very different from those of people who are telling the truth, U.S. researchers said on Monday.

The study, using functional magnetic resonance imaging or fMRI, not only sheds light on what goes on when people lie but may also provide new technology for lie-detecting, the researchers said.

"There may be unique areas in the brain involved in deception that can be measured with fMRI," said Dr. Scott Faro, director of the Functional Brain Imaging Center at Temple University School of Medicine in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Upon hearing the news the Bush White House sent out a memo detailing new cutbacks in Science.

True Colors

ABCNEWS:

"Values" voters delivered for the president, and the president must now deliver for them — especially in the courts, said Gary Cass, head of a grassroots political organization affiliated with Coral Ridge, called the Center for Reclaiming America.

"It's about the next 40 years and how the courts are going to affect the world in which my children and grandchildren are going to be raised in," he said.

Cass wants a U.S. Supreme Court that will outlaw abortion and gay marriage. "Do you want to take your children to a National League baseball game for instance and have homosexuals showing affection to one another? I don't want my kids to see that," he said.

Ahhh, now we're getting somewhere.

It BEGINS with outlawing Gay Marriage, and then it becomes outlawing "Being Gay." I'm sorry, but I don't see how outlawing marriage would prevent your kids from seeing two people of the same sex kissing at a baseball game.

Also, apparently Cass thinks if his kids see two people of the same sex kissing they will become gay because as you know, it's a disease that can be caught.

I think I need to read What's the Matter with Kansas.

What More Needs to be Said?

Think about this:

In scuttling major intelligence legislation that he, the president and most lawmakers supported, Speaker J. Dennis Hastert last week enunciated a policy in which Congress will pass bills only if most House Republicans back them, regardless of how many Democrats favor them.

Hastert's position, which is drawing fire from Democrats and some outside groups, is the latest step in a decade-long process of limiting Democrats' influence and running the House virtually as a one-party institution. Republicans earlier barred House Democrats from helping to draft major bills such as the 2003 Medicare revision and this year's intelligence package. Hastert (R-Ill.) now says such bills will reach the House floor, after negotiations with the Senate, only if "the majority of the majority" supports them.

Senators from both parties, leaders of the Sept. 11 commission and others have sharply criticized the policy.

In other words, if 300 members of the House of Representatives support a bill, but not the majority of the Republican party, it will never be voted on.

I guess, in the end, this is fine since the light will shine on them in the long run.

Not Much

The news is dry these days outside of what's going on in the Ukraine and Bush selecting Tony the Tiger to head the Commerce Department.

The Ukraine thing is really a huge deal, hence why the media is covering it so much. I'm sure many people across the country don't have a clue why it's being covered so in depth, but it really could metastasize into a civil war, or worse, another Cold War.

Bush, after peering into Putin's soul a few years back, finds himself in a really awkward situation. I think he may need to take another look. Who woulda thunk it, that there's a foreign policy issue that doesn't involve the word "terror?" Bush sure didn't.

Aside from all this, all I have to say today is buy this album. It's amazing.