Skippy jr. continues to 'demand that Syria withdraw its troops from Lebanon.' watta concept. He says it with a straight face. Somehow, I want to howl with laughter each time I hear that from him; there's been a lot these last few days.
(above is a reference taken from Doonesbury, who applied that sobriquet to Shrub senior)

I've been loving watching the people of Lebanon demonstrate completely peacefully - women in the front of the lines here and there. Bravo!

(the frelling keyboard at work has a fatal error involving the 'shift' keys. Trying to actually punctuate ?? and !! are imperative for me to maintain my 'style' **koff koff** Typing is always in all caps; 'shift' gives a weird 'other' kind of message, which frequently goes out to the fleet straight away, including, of course, whatever you may have been typing to a specific cab)

He appoints as U.N. Ambassador one of the capitol's harshest critics of that body.
35% of the "regulators" passing on new drugs are lobbyists for - you guessed it - the drug companies. The new Sec. of Interior is in thrall to timber interests, and proceeds to merrily grant permission for roads and clear cut everywhere (well. . .), striking critters off the endangered species list right and left. And how can we forget VP and his secret energy policy meetings (attended mostly by energy producers.)
There's more - I just can't remember it all right now.

The Repubs are trying to stealth through Congress a rule to prevent filibusters - about the only weapon the Dems have to prevent: a) stacking the federal courts; b) stacking the frelling Supreme Court; c) screwing the middle class with draconian changes to bankruptcy laws, drawn up with wording supplied by the banking industry. I could go on, and on.

Oh -and 'they' just voted DOWN a small increase to the minimum wage. Peons, die.
If they could only see: the peons will get progressivly dumber and sicker, requiring either an enormous investment in social services, OR, complete revolt and chaos, OR legalizing euthanasia (eh, maybe not- they want them to breed - more cannon fodder.)

And on another note: certain completely loopy congress people are hollering about how govt (pronounced 'guvment') should make those darned pay cable stations bow to FCC rules on content intended for over the air , accessible to all, broadcast channels. The Chron TV critic waxed apoplectic on that subject today. ha ha

" Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, and Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, recently told a meeting of the National Association of Broadcasters exactly what they wanted to hear. That it wasn't fair for the FCC to doggedly pursue only broadcasters; they ought to have the right to censor pay cable channels like HBO and Showtime, as well as satellite channels."

'Although current laws, history and political thinking indicate Stevens and Barton are merely right-wing blowhards in over their heads on this issue and will be summarily pimp-slapped by a little thing called the First Amendment, what's the painful lesson learned of late?

"Exactly: Freedom is fluid. It's a bone-chillingly cold new morning in red- state dominated America. Indecency crackdowns are big-play politics. The FCC is raising fines. The Parents Television Council -- among others -- has proven influence. And now Stevens has -- in public, without smirking -- declared that he believes Congress has the power to control more than just the over-the-air broadcasters it currently has jurisdiction"


Georgia (I think -mighta been Alabama) passed a law requiring a WAITING PERIOD before getting an abortion. And they don't even 'get' how frelling absurd they are. More, later, term abortions, and/or more thrown away, abused, unwanted children. Their little piece of 'the' soul could go back barely formed, unbruised; or we could let them experience the pain. Much of the collective soul must be involved in sustaining these poor siblings. Less growth or evolution.

Live from downtown Beirut. Now Hezbollah is having a rally to support Syria. They look pretty darned !numerous! dammit. CNN was live for a hot second, but no more. I'd sure like to see more of that.