Posts from ‘October, 2005’

News out of Iraq is bloodstained and bad, as usual: seven more U.S. soldiers killed, bringing October’s losses to 92. That makes October the deadliest for our troops since January, when 107 were killed.
A story on this includes an interesting detail. We see it as part of a pattern that seems to go [...]

One of Sunday’s most interesting news stories appeared at the bottom of an inside page of the newspaper. Broadcast media seem to be ignoring this story altogether — remarkable, considering its historically important implications.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates - Saddam Hussein accepted an 11th-hour offer to flee into exile weeks ahead of the U.S.-led 2003 [...]

Maybe CNN right-wing stalwart Kate O’Beirne was down with the vapors over I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby’s indictment Friday. We’re guessing RNC chairman and CNN regular Ken Mehlman had a previous lying engagement. Other right-wing noise machine sources had no doubt been lined up by other cable news operations.
So, there was poor Wolf Blitzer, hours [...]

Quote: “Watching the Russert Show this morning, and the Monsignor is discussing the Libby indictments with the usual broad spectrum of political opinion . . .”

“The damage President Bush and the conservative movement have inflicted on their drive to pack the Supreme Court with allies will not be undone by Harriet Miers’s decision to withdraw her nomination.
“In picking such a vulnerable nominee, Bush single-handedly undercut the conservatives’ long-standing claim that the Senate and the rest of us owed great [...]

Special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald indicted I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby on five counts this morning. The charges allege obstruction of justice, perjury and making false statements.
Libby declared his innocence and promptly resigned his post as Vice President Dick Cheney’s chief of staff and White House national security advisor. President Bush promptly accepted Libby’s resignation and [...]

Here’s further evidence, as if any were needed, that House Republicans are the lowest form of political life in America:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - On a party-line vote, a Republican-run U.S. House of Representatives committee voted to cut food stamps by $844 million on Friday, just hours after a new U.S. Agriculture Department report showed more [...]

President Bush seems to be in cutting losses mode. On Wednesday, he reversed his suspension of Davis-Bacon Act wage protection for hurricane disaster zone workers. Early today, he “accepted” Harriet Miers’ request that her Supreme Court nomination be withdrawn.
The labor-law about face marks the first and only time in five years as president Bush [...]

The week’s just past half over but its big winners are clearly established. Chicago’s White Sox swept the World Series handily, leaving Houston’s Astros in the dust.
Exxon Mobile, the world’s largest publicly traded corporation, announced quarterly profits of $9.92 billion. That was an increase of 75 percent over year-earlier profits. That was on [...]

Fittingly, in this era when corporate America’s Republican errand boys and girls run the federal government, the public holds both government and corporations in equally low regard.

The public’s view of the government has eroded over the past year and its view of business corporations is now at the lowest level in two decades.
The public’s [...]