Dickie's Quickies

Hey, I got new glasses yesterday! First new set of specs in a few years. I'll post pix when I get the camera holder's act together. Waking her at 6 AM for a blog posting is most likely unacceptable.

Bad week for the White House. Dick Cheney on The Newshour on PBS defended his statement that the Iraqi insurgency was in it's last days. If that wasn't bad enough for the Vice Dick, his boy-love pal, Scooter, has reportedly told prosecutors that Cheney authorized the leaks involving ex-CIA agent Valerie Plame. Michael "Brownie" Brown (Scooter? Brownie? Turd Blossom? See a theme? I bet Mr. Hankie gets nominated to replace Chertoff) testified yesterday that the White House was aware of the levee breaks during Katrina - something that in the past they denied knowing until two days later and blamed on Brownie. Then an ex-CIA chief announced something we already knew: the White House cooked the intelligence before Iraq in order that it would fit their case to go to war. For a succinct and complete round up of the reporting, see the Independent. Incompetence and lies abound!

Oh, and on a week where Porter Goss had an editorial in the NY Times castigating government security leaks as lethal to the protection of the country, President Bush leaked word of a foiled plot to crash a plane into the Library Tower in LA. Of course, the President got the name wrong (he called it the Liberty Tower presumably because it sounds more patriotic and because of his aversion to libraries, which is where his true kink with Laura comes into play) and he got the size of the tower wrong (second highest on the west coast; not the highest). And what's up with blowing open a cockpit door with "shoe bombs"? How does one do that exactly? "Um, Stewardess, my feet ache, so I'm just going to leave my shoes up here while I use the restroom at the back of the plane, ok?" Seriously, the government still holds onto secrets from WWII for security purposes and all of a sudden it's OK to release secrets from 2 years ago? That can only be because it was made up. I call bullshit.

The Independent reports that, according to their study, Global Warming is beyond the "tipping point". I expect to have beach front property and to grow tomatoes so that they ripen on the vine very shortly. Seriously, this is a major problem and world leaders in both government and industry are failing us. Mobilizing citizens to make better choices is an excellent idea, but we need to demand more reform at all levels of leadership. Even if the most dire predictions are not likely, it's generally a good idea to confront this. World population levels - hello, fundies, that includes birth control and safe abortions - must be a major target as well.

While I'm singing the praises of the Independent, they did a terrific series on Paul Weller yesterday. He's accepting a Brit award this week for lifetime achievements. Paul, you don't look old enough to accept that, but I suppose if Duran Duran did it, then so can you.

Now that the War on Xmas is over, a Seattle group has started a War on Valentine's Day. I kid you not. Of course, they missed the all important War on Fat Tuesday, but I expect to see a War on Saint Patrick's Day next month. Of special note to Seattle folks, the group is pissed at the Stranger for mocking them and has called on a possible protest outside of The Stranger offices. Excellent.

Confession time (hey, it's working for Brownie and Libby, so it must be good for the sole...fish pun, folks): I convinced this woman to smuggle in a shrunken human skull. I cannot reveal the purpose now, but it has something to do with Elvis on crack.