So many outrages, so little time

Where do I start? Quick-fire reference time - read it yourself, and save the weeping, roll up your sleeves and get to work.

Halliburton subsidiary KBR admits it paid millions in bribe payments in Nigeria to get favorable tax treatment.

And it just keeps on coming. The bribes were paid in 2001, but Cheney's not out of the woods. The SEC is still looking into its accounting practices in 1998 - when Dick was still CEO.

Omaha Workers to lose a day's pay because of shut-down during Bush photo-op.

And there's still the bickering over the Top Gun incident to consider and how much that little stunt cost taxpayers.

GOP endorses tax hikes in other sectors to pay for Bush tax-cut plan.

The nice way to put it is, "Robbing Peter to pay Paul." The not-so-nice way to put it starts with, "You slimy sons-of-panther-piss..." and ends with several iterations of "motherfuckers". Easy solution, guys. Lay off the dividend tax-cut for now. But noooo... of course not.

John Kerry gives favorable treatment to telecommunications lobby.

Which, of course, is the largest contributor to his campaign coffers. Surprise, surprise.

Now, this next one isn't an outrage per se - well, it was at the time - but it's a reminder of how bad things can get in these United States, especially when you get assholes like Jonah Goldberg defending McCarthyism and claiming that, "Well, he was wrong, but he was right." The sealed-for-50-years transcripts of the closed hearings from 1953-54 have just been released. Makes for good readin', if you have the time.

And to reveal my vulnerable, fleshy underside, are people reading any of this stuff or am I just wasting my time and should keep my outrages to myself?

More crap

Ex-CIA director John Woolsey set to profit from war on terror.

More jobs for the boys, joining such luminaries as George Shultz (Bechtel), Richard Perle (Trireme) and Dick Cheney (Halliburton - our boy is still getting pension payments, remember?). Then there's ex-executives of major military contractors like undersecretary of the Air Force and NRO director Richard Teets (Lockheed), Secretary of the Air Force James Roche (Northtrop Grumman) and Former Secretary of the Navy (now Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security) Gordon England (General Dynamics). Funny how the people making decisions as to who to contract to for the military would be the same people who used to run the companies that get awarded the contracts.

British made tanks up against Indonesian rebels.

So much for Labour and the peace process. Meet New Labour - same as the Old Conservatives. When money flows, so do the arms and to hell with an ethical foreign policy.

Powell thinks we can get started on Mid-East roadmap after meeting with Palestinian leadership.

Sorry, Colin. Think again. There shall be no peace as long as Sharon lives.

I don't want to say I told you so, but...

( US arms experts leaving Iraq. We got nothin', they say. )

The horror... the horror....

This is why the human race will deserve no mercy when our pets finally rise up in their genocidal war against us for millennia of humiliation, ill-useage, and Poochie-poos and Numby-nums. Only the Japanese could be capable of such sadism. The music alone on this site is enough to drive you mad.

Liar, Liar...

So, by now you've probably read the New York Times report on Jayson Blair and his career of deception, plagiarism and just plain making things up. Gotta tell you, when news of this broke a few days ago I rushed back to see if I had quoted any of his articles and am glad to say I've never relied on anything he said for news.

Be that as it may, these things happen. Which is why I try to take Frank Zappa's view of the media - everybody has an agenda, everybody is biased. So what he did was he read everything, and what they all tended to agree on would be the closest to the truth. That is not a perfect system by any means, but it's a pretty useful filter. Me, I don't pretend I have time to read every perspective on every news item, so I rely on a few sources I've generally found to be reliable or, shall we say, less suspect than most.

What I like is the way the New York Times has handled the situation. They realize that credibility is their best, only resource. That's what they're selling the public, and if they lose that, it's all over for them. They investigated it quickly, came up with their report and their conclusions, which I agree with. Jayson Blair was an aberration who took advantage of the system of trust that journalists work under, who lied bald-faced when confronted with anomalies, but could have been caught if there had been more communication between editors.

The sad part is that the New York Times' credibility might never be as high again. The good thing to come out of this is the lessons learned. No, not that journalists can lie. We've known that for decades - remember Janet Cooke of the Washington Post (and more recently, Stephen Glass of the New Republic )? The lessons learned include things like realizing that even great newspapers can be deceived, and it is incumbent upon the editors to ensure that they can identify those who would abuse the trust that is given reporters. The other lesson is that the reader should not take what they read at face value, but adjudge it with a critical eye and see if it fits the known facts. Finally, the best lesson to take away from all of it is this:

Buy the goods from the guy you know can be relied on. And get a receipt.

(thanks to camwyn for reminding me about this news item. I already knew, but it's nice to be notified in case I didn't.)

Cops are Nazis. Well, they could be.

( Police Recruits brought to Holocaust Museum. )

Good news: More disposable income. Bad news: You can't afford anything.

( GOP wants Annual Tax Cuts. )

Clare, the moment you left us I swear... I felt as if something somewhere...

( Clare Short resigns. Again. For sure. )

They're baaaa-aaack

MY LITTLE PONY MAKES ITS HIGHLY ANTICIPATED RETURN

"God didn't create real ponies with wings, so toy ponies with wings are satanic." Cthulhu fhtagn!