Kudos to the MSM for their consistency in, you know, not doing their jobs.  ABC News, CNN, The New York Times, The Washington Post, the Associated Press and others all reported that Rush apologized for his soulless remarks about Michael J. Fox.  The problem?  He did no such thing: 

RUSH: I stand by what I said. I take back none of what I said. I wouldn’t rephrase it any differently. It is what I believe; it is what I think. It is what I have found to be true. 

Media Matters has the transcript.  On a side note, apparently the United States, for all its hooplah about freedom of the press, actually, well … sucks at it.  We are now ranked 53^rd in press freedom according to Reporters Without Borders Worldwide Press Freedom Index.  Actually, we are tied for 53^rd along with Tonga, Croatia, and Botswana.

This is maybe one of the best political ads of 2006.  Oh, and Bill Frist’s advice to Republicans in competitive seats?  OMG, for the love of all that is holy, whatever you do, DON’T MENTION IRAQ!

Rush Limbaugh is a big, fat idiot acting like a very, very bad person again:

Michael J. Fox, who suffers from Parkinson's disease, appears in a TV ad for a Senate candidate who supports stem-cell research, and the severe shaking and stiffness associated with the disease are evident in his movements. But conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh has accused the actor of exaggerating his symptoms for the camera.

Commenting on Fox's commercial for Missouri Senate challenger Claire McCaskill, Limbaugh said on his syndicated radio program Tuesday, "He is moving around and shaking, and it is purely an act."

Limbaugh later said on the show, "If this was not an act, then I apologize." He also went on to say, however, that Fox is allowing his illness to be exploited. 

Yes, utterly shameful of Fox to use his illness to campaign for people who want to help cure him.   For the record, Limbaugh also has big problems with AIDS victims campaigning for debt relief, working stiffs campaigning for minimum wage increases, and legless veterans campaigning for a sensible Iraq plan.

Fact is, Limbaugh is wrong on stem cell research.  Tragically wrong.  And in a country where the VAST majority of citizens want such research to move forward, we are six years further away from progress and six years further behind the rest of the global scientific community.  And he knows it.  So what can he do to salvage this tragedy of his own making?  Why, pick on the handicapped, of course!

As the McDonald’s boys like to say, I’m lovin’ it (emphasis added): 

President Bush and his aides are annoyed that people keep misinterpreting his Iraq policy as "stay the course." A complete distortion, they say. "That is not a stay-the-course policy," White House press secretary Tony Snow declared yesterday.

Where would anyone have gotten that idea? Well, maybe from Bush. 

"We will stay the course. We will help this young Iraqi democracy succeed," he said in Salt Lake City in August. 

"We will win in Iraq so long as we stay the course," he said in Milwaukee in July. 

"I saw people wondering whether the United States would have the nerve to stay the course and help them succeed," he said after returning from Baghdad in June. 

But the White House is cutting and running from "stay the course." A phrase meant to connote steely resolve instead has become a symbol for being out of touch and rigid in the face of a war that seems to grow worse by the week, Republican strategists say. Democrats have now turned "stay the course" into an attack line in campaign commercials, and the Bush team is busy explaining that "stay the course" does not actually mean stay the course. 

Guess this is sort of like Cheney having never once said that Saddam has WMDs.  The centrist liberals tendency to see shades of grey and to approach problems with intellectual rigor has never translated very well into slogans and catchy phrases.  It is a nice departure, though, to see the Dems actually winning for once in the media war.  For a while, I just assumed that we’d get stuck with the ridiculous ‘cut and run’ moniker.  But looks like Bush got his wish and the GOP is indelibly the party of ‘Stay the Course’, even when that course defies all common sense and humanity.  Looks like people are starting to wake up.  Hope this translates into big wins.  I’d love to see Bush ride out the next two years in impotence.  I’d love to see a solid blue congress stop him from causing any more damage.  But mostly I’d love to see us seize an opportunity to develop a sensible plan for how we are going to finally clean up his colossal mess.

And then (another) step the Right.  I was digging around today and noticed that today is the day in 1861 when President Lincoln suspended the writ of habeas corpus. Bet Bush must be pretty happy to have done it a few days earlier! Proud of my dictator, I am.

You’ll all be happy to know that today is also the day that, in 1973, Nixon agreed to turn over subpoenaed Oval office tapes of his discussion of the scandal. I’m keeping my fingers crossed for another temporal coincidence for Bush to surrender information on, well, all the things that he’s been up to for the past 6 years.

8AM November 8, perhaps?

Apologies to those of you missing Friday Dublin Pics last week. I’m happy to report some significant progress on my doctoral thesis and I didn’t feel like breaking momentum to blog. Or go out and shoot any new pics. Or shower. Just kidding!

Or am I?

No, really, I’m joking with you. I mean, c’mon! Do you really think I would allow myself to get that obsessed that I actually forget to shower? Of course I would, I mean, umm … I would, wouldn’t! Damn! Freudian slip there! But all jokes aside, I wouldn’t. Final answer.

I think.

And ... that’s quite enough of that. But seriously, I think I might just go ahead and Change Friday Dublin Pics to Phriday Photoblogging – at least that way I can recycle old vacation photos if nothing else. Yup, lazy bastard I know. But hey, it’s not like I get paid for this, now is it?!

The Bush administration has a decidedly pre-911 worldview.  Tragically so.  Which of course is quite ironic in that they continually hurl such labels at the feet of, well … pretty much anybody who opposes them. 

But actions speak far louder than empty rhetoric.  Bush has surrounded himself with Cold War relics Rumsfeld, Cheney, and other assorted neocon minions.  Even Condi Rice wrote her doctoral dissertation and Cold War security issues.  Think about this.  Every single member of this administration was born, raised, and seasoned in a bi-polar balance of global power.  All dreaming of a coming unipolar world.  But none of them have a damn clue about what to do with it, much less with how to address foreign policy in the absence of a superpower enemy. 

Case in point, we have the re-articulation of “Star Wars” in Bush’s new space policy which essentially hoists a ginormous American flag over all of outer space.  Which serves exactly no purpose.  The threat to U.S. interests in space is exactly what it was 20 years ago when Reagan tried this - Zilch.  Nada.  As empty as the space between Shrub’s privileged elitist ears. 

Passing legislation asserting the United States’ right of defense against threats to its national interest in space is superfluous at best.  Yes, we can, should, and will react if someone is threatening to destroy the DoD stattelite array.  Yes, we all know that a president willing to squeeze off a giant poo on top of the constitution by signing a bill to legalize torture will surely not hesitate to destroy a threat to, ee-gads, the mobile phone networks of U.S. multi-nationals. 

Never mind that not One. Single. Country. hostile to U.S. interests are anywhere close to a position – or a desire – to engage the U.S. in a space war.   Never mind that ushering in a new space race will not help to bankrupt our current enemy as it ‘possibly’ once did to the Soviets – we’re the only ones left to bankrupt.  This is about a dismal failure of a president trying to make himself look strong in advance of an election seemingly pre-ordained to deliver a sharp rebuke to six straight years of failure.   By having a childish territorial pissing over a territory that nobody else even wants. 

This is disgusting: 

A federal judge in Houston yesterday wiped away the fraud and conspiracy conviction of Kenneth L. Lay, the Enron Corp. founder who died of heart disease in July, bowing to decades of legal precedent but frustrating government attempts to seize nearly $44 million from his family.

…

Samuel J. Buffone, a Washington-based lawyer for Lay, said the family was pleased with the ruling. "As far as we're concerned, this is the last step," Buffone said. "It's as if the indictment never occurred."

Yeah, never mind that this guy’s actions resulted in the physical and financial ruin of countless families in the company and its customer base.  He’s dead now, so let’s just all pretend it never happened, mmm-kay?

This has been a truly crazy week for me. I came back with some kind of Danish head cold, thought that was ok since I was due for me annual Irish one anyway. But it seems like I shut down during one of the most interesting weeks of the GOP's apparent implosion. Against the backdrop of the Foley scandal, "sharply" rising U.S. casualties in Iraq, ever-more mystery bodies turning up tortured in Baghdad, a report that Rumsfeld has killed almost 700,000 Iraqis , U.S. soldiers murdering a journalist and, oh yeah, that little ol' double nuclear detonation topping off six years of Bush's dismal failure in dealing with North Korea, we finish up the week with this little gem documenting that the Bushies may not be so chummy with the "Boorish" and "Nuts" Christian Right after all. Seriously, Hollywood can't even come up with a farce this clever!

Anyway, didn't feel like venturing out much this week for photos, so I present you with a couple of old pics I took on Trinity Campus. Enjoy!