Cosmogenium: 10/02/2005

Saturday, October 08, 2005

Bush plan for flu crisis shows U.S. not ready -NYT

Bush plan for flu crisis shows U.S. not ready -NYT - Yahoo! News:

"U.S.
President George W. Bush met with the chief executive officers of some of the top corporate makers of vaccines on Friday and asked them to do their utmost to boost flu vaccine production.

The Times quoted an unnamed health official who provided the copy of the plan as saying its true shortcoming was 'that is doesn't say who's in charge.'

Envisioning how an outbreak might play out at its peak, the draft says about a quarter of workers stay home because they are sick or afraid of becoming sick. Hospitals are overwhelmed, it says.

'Social unrest occurs,' the plan says. 'Public anxiety heightens mistrust of government, diminishing compliance with public health advisories. Mortuaries and funeral homes are overwhelmed.'"

Dubya asked the pharm companies oh so nicely to help out. Did he say please?

Why didn't he say that if they don't, we'll take away the "no price negotiation" clause in the Medicare bill? Guess he only plays hardball with people he can't see. Like us.

Friday, October 07, 2005

DeLay Cries Foul, Wants Charges Dropped

DeLay seeks dismissal of Texas charges - Yahoo! News

Cry baby! I guess we'll see if Rove-like techniques work outside of elections, or does DeLay think he's running for another kind of office here? How does PR influence the outcome of criminal proceedings? Who does he think he is, O. J. Simpson? Forget it, Tom. You're toast!

News Flash: Americans Smarter Than Originally Thought

CBS News | Poll: Bush Ratings Hit New Low | October 7, 2005 10:00:05

Down into the 30's. How low can you go?

Oh, Okay, Uh, Why Didn't He Just Tell Us?

BBC - Press Office - George Bush on Elusive Peace

"God told me to invade Iraq."

So, that's why he had to make up all that stuff about WMD and connections with Al Qaeda? He had a moral imperative to lie, manipulate, and commit war? Well, why didn't you just say so?

The Birds Try To Turn Us Into Dinosaurs

Experts Unlock Clues to Spread of 1918 Flu Virus - New York Times: "The 1918 influenza virus, the cause of one of history's most deadly epidemics, has been reconstructed and found to be a bird flu that jumped directly to humans, two teams of federal and university scientists announced yesterday."

Doing the 9/11 Time Warp Again - New York Times

President Bush's Major Speech: Doing the 9/11 Time Warp Again - New York Times:

"Ever since the terrorist attacks, the main thing Americans have wanted from Washington is a sense of safety. That takes more than hyperalertness to suicide bombing threats, important as that is. No matter what the terrorists are up to, it is not possible to feel safe if the federal government does not appear to know what it is doing on so many different levels.

Yesterday was an ideal moment for Mr. Bush to demonstrate that he was really in control of his administration. He could have taken any one of a number of pressing worries and demonstrated that he was on the job, re-examining the problems, working on answers. For instance, he could have addressed the crisis facing the overstretched military due to the endless demands made by Iraq on both the Army and the beleaguered National Guard.

The speech came one day after the White House threatened to veto a bill onto which the Senate added a ban on the use of 'cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment' against prisoners of the American government. This president could not find the spine to veto a bloated transportation bill that included wildly wasteful projects like the now-famous 'bridge to nowhere' in Alaska. What kind of priorities does that suggest? If we ever needed the president to demonstrate that he has a working understanding of exactly where he wants to take this country, we need it now.

The president's inability to grow beyond his big moment in 2001 is unnerving. But the fact that his handlers continue to encourage him to milk 9/11 is infuriating. "

The Waiting Is The Hardest Part

Rove Summoned to Testify Again in C.I.A. Leak Investigation - New York Times:

"WASHINGTON, Oct. 6 - The special prosecutor in the C.I.A. leak case has summoned Karl Rove, the senior White House adviser, to return next week to testify to a federal grand jury in a step that could mean there will be charges filed in the case, lawyers in the case said today.

The prosecutor, Patrick J. Fitzgerald, has held discussions in recent days with lawyers for several Bush administration officials suggesting that that he is considering whether to charge them with a crime over the disclosure of an intelligence operative's identity in a 2003 newspaper column."

Waiting and hoping and waiting and hoping.... C'mon! Baby needs a new pair of shoes!

Thursday, October 06, 2005

Could A New Day Be Dawning?

Politics News Article | Reuters.com

Rumors are spreading at the speed of light that plenty of indictments are about to be brought against those involved and will likely include Rove and Cheney, if not Dubya hi'self. Oh, please! Please! Let it be true!

Finally, Some Good News!

Test Shows Vaccine Prevents Cervical Cancer - Yahoo! News

Wednesday, October 05, 2005

They Better Not Come Near My Dog!

UFO-spotters tell tales of the extra-terrestrial - Yahoo! News

I don't care where they come from, Cosmo isn't on the menu!

"Last year, according to government statistics, 1.1 million Americans fell below the poverty line. That equals the entire population of a major city like Dallas or Prague.

Since 2000, the ranks of the poor have increased year by year by almost 5.5 million in total....

'Every August, we Americans tell ourselves a lie,' said David Brady, a Duke University professor who studies poverty.

'The poverty rate was designed to undercount because the government wanted to show progress in the war on poverty.

'Taking everything into account, the real rate is around 18 percent, or 48 million people. Poverty in the United States is more widespread, by far, than in any other industrialized country.'

Poverty is a universal problem, as is inequality. The world's 500 richest people, according to U.N. statistics, have as much income as the world's poorest 416 million....

The percentage of black Americans living in poverty is 24.7, almost twice as high as the overall rate for all races.

In predominantly black New Orleans, that disparity translated into those with cars and money, almost all white, fleeing the flood while more than 100,000 car-less blacks were trapped in the flooded city.

Some commentators wondered whether the crisis showed that political segregation, America's version of apartheid which formally ended with the 1964 Civil Rights Act, had merely been replaced by economic segregation. Poor black Americans in one part of a city, affluent whites in the other.

A host of other American cities have such divides, including Newark, Philadelphia, Detroit, Atlanta, Baltimore, St. Louis, Oakland, Miami and the U.S. capital itself. It is a 10-minute drive from the White House to the heart of Anacostia, the city's poorest neighborhood, but they could be in different worlds.

But the black-equals-poor scenes from New Orleans do not portray the full picture. There are three times as many poor whites as blacks in the United States and the poverty rate for whites has risen faster than that for blacks and Hispanics."

Some thoughts about this article:

They never mentioned what the rate was in 1999 at the end of Clinton's administration.

They didn't mention the city of Albany, NY, but it also would fit the set of cities that "have such divides." So would Holyoake, MA and many others.

Only 500 people would have to give it up to double the income of the bottom 416 million? Brings to mind an old song by David Crosby, "What Are Their Names...

...And on what streets do they live?
I'd like to ride right over
This afternoon and give
Them a piece of my mind
About peace for mankind.
Peace is not
An awful lot
To ask."

He Said, She Said, Blah, Blah, Blah

Times reporter defends herself in CIA probe case - Yahoo! News:

"After initially promising to fire anyone found to have leaked information in the case, Bush in July offered a more qualified pledge: 'If someone committed a crime they will no longer work in my administration.'

At a news conference on Tuesday, Bush would not say whether he would remove administration officials if they are indicted by the grand jury.

'I'm not going to talk about it until the investigation is complete. And it's important that the investigation run its course,' Bush said.

Fitzgerald could bring indictments in the case or he could conclude no crime was committed and end his investigation. Lawyers involved in the case said he could signal his intentions as early as this week.

'Let's wait and see what Mr. Fitzgerald has. If he brings indictments, if he has a very serious case, then I might have to say that perhaps his zealousness with respect to this mission was justified,' Miller said.

'But if he doesn't have anything, I will wonder about why I had to spend 85 days in jail and why I may be the only one to spend time in jail,' she added."

I for one hope that Fitzgerald has a surprise in store for all of us, and not the kind that has us asking what it was all about. Miller is no saint, and it sucks that she didn't have to give on all that she knows. If this ends up another whitewash for the administration, we can all just hang it up for the future of this country once and for all.

It's not worth holding any breath for. Something stinks so bad they can smell it all the way to Denmark, but the chance of it coming to anything of substance is somewhere between slim and none. I can hardly wait to see the list of presidential pardons at the end of this term. It's gonna' be a doozy!

Tuesday, October 04, 2005

Impeach Bush Coalition

Impeach Bush Coalition: "More Legal Arguments for Impeachment"

In a non-Bizarro world, it would have happened by now.

Presstitutes: Bush The Victim

"It's amazing how pathologically incapable Pre$$titutes are of blaming Bush for anything. It's not 'events' ..., it's an unqualified person being lifted to the highest position on the planet with the invaluable assistance of a negligent, irresponsible media.

Bush has created the mess he's in; unfortunately for us, we're in it with him."

Did you ever crank a bolt just one twist too many and, hearing that cracking sound, wish you had backed off a little earlier? This administration keeps turning the screws and something's gonna' give. Can't you just smell it?

PERRspectives Blog: Banana Republicans

PERRspectives Blog: Banana Republicans

The best thing about the internet and blogging is that somebody is actually keeping track of all this and that it's available to anyone who wants to know. It's kind of like the opposite of the government.

Monday, October 03, 2005

The Brouhaha

The Brouhaha:

"When I read that FEMA has rehired that fucking dolt Michael Brown as a 'consultant,' I realize that the people who call themselves our leaders have given up even trying to fool us into thinking that they give a shit. I keep having flashes of George Bush in a tuxedo talking about the 'haves' and the 'have-mores.' 'Some people call you the elite,' he said. 'I call you my base.'
I keep seeing that vacuous gasbag Tim Russert tear into Aaron Broussard because he got the day of the week wrong during an emotional story, as if that suddenly brought the lady back to life. I keep seeing Karl Rove chumming it up with Bob Novak -- he's wearing that button, 'I'm a source, not a target.' The mindrape is wondering when Broussard turned from source to target -- and there's nothing to wonder about, it's when he said something that made the 'have-mores' look bad."

This is a very interesting site, that's about all I can say about it. Great reading; no idea who it is, but I like it.

Bush Involved In CIA Leak -- Film At Eleven

The Progress Report - American Progress Action Fund

George Stephanopolous says a source says "Bush and Cheney were actually invlolved in some of these discussions." I'm sure it's true. I only hope it's provable.

"Operation Offset"

AlterNet: Blogs: The Mix

If you think you missed out on the pain and suffering caused by Katrina and Rita, guess again. If the Republican majority has its way, the tragedies in the South will be used to forward their agenda of dismantling social and educational programs and environmental protections. No way are they going to consider repealing welfare for the rich by rolling back any of those tax cuts because, you know, they were so good for the economy. Feel the burn!

Cosmogenium