Well, this has the potential to suck.
Looks like going around FISA could have immediate ramifications. Because now that it’s established we’ve done this, it gives potential terrorists and terrorist supporters a chance to escape prosecution. In other words, when Bush does things that are legally dubious, he could actually be hurting the WOT.
From the NY [...]

Yeah, it sounds completely ridiculous, but it’s real. Amazing stuff and something I would never think about doing…ever.
In any event, Behold the one-wheeled warriors!

So, how many folks remember their statistics lessons? I know that can be a rather horrible flashback!
Here’s a good reminder though of the importance of those stat basics, such as the importance of sampling size and distribution, as in this case when analyzing and drawing conclusions on military recruiting.
Numbers aren’t just facts. They can [...]

The government is disputing the validity of some veterans claims. Why? What else? Money.
Well, we sent them into war. Don’t we owe our veterans better?
The spiraling cost of post-traumatic stress disorder among war veterans has triggered a politically charged debate and ignited fears that the government is trying to limit expensive benefits for emotionally scarred [...]

Those aren’t my words. They’re the words of one of the lead economists in Washington…and thereby the world…
From the NY Times:
As director of the Congressional Budget Office, Douglas Holtz-Eakin has been Congress’s top economist, handpicked by the Republican leadership. Recently, he had some advice for lawmakers - mostly Republicans - who insist that more tax [...]

I love Stanley Kubrick films, and one of my favorites is The Shining. I know many think it’s one of Kubrick’s weakest, but there’s just something about it that makes me want to watch it at least once or twice a year.
Well, now somebody recut a trailer for the movie to make it seem like [...]

I just read an editorial that pretty much sums up what I’ve been thinking lately about terrorism, the war, civil liberties. Well, what I’ve been thinking minus the flashes of rhetoric.
Now, I hesitate to link to this piece because it calls Bush a “king” and so forth, but read it and ponder what it [...]

I turned 29 this year. One more revolution of this Earth and I reach that dreadful milestone of “the 30s.” And believe me…I look like hell…
Now it seems like those is their 20s are more and more concerned with their youth….
CHICAGO - Forget “40 is the new 30.” Now even twentysomethings are joining the [...]

…is proving messy.
From the NY Times:
Baghdad, IRAQ, Dec. 25 - Sunni Arab political leaders asked the main Shiite political block today to give them 10 Shiite seats in the new parliament in an early attempt to defuse tensions over the results of last week’s election. The Shiites refused the request.
Why are the Sunnis so angry? [...]

Looks like there’s trouble in the newly democratized nation:
Disappointed Sunni and secular parties have demanded a rerun of the December 15 election and threatened to boycott parliament, a move that could damage U.S. hopes of forging a consensus that can keep Iraq from breaking up in ethnic and sectarian warfare.
But despite militant rhetoric, seemingly aimed [...]

USNews has the story.
In search of a terrorist nuclear bomb, the federal government since 9/11 has run a far-reaching, top secret program to monitor radiation levels at over a hundred Muslim sites in the Washington, D.C., area, including mosques, homes, businesses, and warehouses, plus similar sites in at least five other cities, U.S. News has [...]

They also loom over many cities and states…
The costs are scary, and they speak to how much subsidized health care by the state actually costs in our country. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t pay, but it does mean that it looks like it’s going to hurt quite a bit…
More from the NY Times:
When [...]

Looks like he’s trying to keep sensitive information out of the public eye, and he’s taking his case to the editors of our major newspapers.
From the Washington Post:
President Bush has been summoning newspaper editors lately in an effort to prevent publication of stories he considers damaging to national security.
The efforts have failed, but the rare [...]

Sometime in the last few days we got our 100,000th visitor. Frankly, if you would have told me that we’d have more than 100,000 people visiting this site in just 5 short months, I’d think you were being extremely optimistic.
Here’s to the “glass if half full” crowd…and here’s to the next 100,000!

And he leaves behind this little gem…
NOVAK: I said several times on this network that there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.
BLITZER: How did you know that and the President of the United States, Vice President of the United States were convinced that there were?
NOVAK: Because my sources. I don’t run my own [...]

Or Merry Christmas…you know…whatever…
I love you all.
:-D

Some good points by Dave Schuler:
The reality is that impeachable offenses are defined circularly: they are precisely what the House of Representatives finds that they are. Under current circumstances it seems pretty unlikely that the House will find what the President has done (whatever that is) will rise to the level of an impeachable offense.
Perhaps [...]

A pretty interesting editorial has come out recently that points out a very important distinction in the AUMF (authorization to use military force) that Bush has said gives him absolute authority.
So, on September 12th, 2001, the White House asked for this language to be in the AUMF. Basically, an authorization to…
“deter and pre-empt any [...]

Sorry, but this looks like some “fuzzy math” to me…
Dec. 21 (Bloomberg) — President Bill Clinton left office in 2001 with a federal budget surplus of $127 billion. President George Bush ran a deficit of $319 billion in 2005. So who deserves more credit for fighting red ink?
No question, says Treasury Secretary John Snow: [...]

Looks like the pending Google/AOL merger is already providing some very fruitful results.
The new IM partnership takes on significance because of who AOL did not partner with, namely Yahoo Inc. or Microsoft’s MSN, the two other top IM makers.
The apparent underlying message is that the three sides still don’t yet see eye-to-eye on the complex [...]