Palace Revolt

They were loyal conservatives, and Bush appointees. They fought a quiet battle to rein in the president's power in the war on terror. And they paid a price for it. A NEWSWEEK investigation.

By Daniel Klaidman, Stuart Taylor Jr. and Evan Thomas
Newsweek

Feb. 6, 2006 issue - James Comey, a lanky, 6-foot-8 former prosecutor who looks a little like Jimmy Stewart, resigned as deputy attorney general in the summer of 2005. The press and public hardly noticed. Comey's farewell speech, delivered in the Great Hall of the Justice Department, contained all the predictable, if heartfelt, appreciations. But mixed in among the platitudes was an unusual passage. Comey thanked "people who came to my office, or my home, or called my cell phone late at night, to quietly tell me when I was about to make a mistake; they were the people committed to getting it right—and to doing the right thing—whatever the price. These people," said Comey, "know who they are. Some of them did pay a price for their commitment to right, but they wouldn't have it any other way." [Read more.]

The Poster Child for the Stupid Smart People

I know an equine veterinarian that went to an extremely competitive, world-renowned veterinary school. Most vets I know are quite brilliant. But this one vet was just a dim bulb. Often I would question his diagnoses, as they lacked just good common sense. So how could someone graduate from such a prestigious instution and still be, well, stupid? He's stupid smart. And folks, the Stupid Smarts now have their poster child. Meet Condi Rice.


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RICE'S BLIND SPOT

By Sebastian Mallaby
The Washington Post

Monday, January 23, 2006; Page A15

Nobody doubts her star power. She speaks Russian and talks football, wears dominatrix boots and plays Dvorak, weaves her segregated Alabama childhood into speeches about geopolitics. But the strange thing about Condoleezza Rice is that, when it comes to the stuff that a professor-politician should be really good at, she can be oddly flat-footed. This was true when she emerged as George W. Bush's fitness buddy and foreign policy tutor seven years ago. It is still true now. [Read more.]

A Million Here... A Billion Here...

So George Bush fans, does it make you all warm and fuzzy inside to know your tax dollars are just disappearing into thin air in Iraq? In a recent audit, MILLIONS OF DOLLARS are being squandered in Iraq in deals with crooked contractors and just plain thieves. Click here to read all the details.

And let us not forget the $9 Billion lost per an audit in January 2005.

With social security on the brink of bankruptcy, the thousands of people in this country without health care, the lack of hospitals and recovery centers for our veterans, and the thousands of homeless, couldn't we find a more ethical direction for our hard earned tax dollars? Or is lining the pockets of big contractors like Haliburton the "Conservative Christian" way of doing business? I just don't get it.

I love the internet!

With the looming nomination of Judge Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court, I shot off a couple of emails to my senators, Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer, asking them to join the Kennedy/Kerry filibuster. I don't think I ever would have jumped on the old typewriter or penned a letter back in those days, only to stick the stamped envelope in my purse and forget it until it became another crumpled piece of paper at the bottom of said purse. So thanks again, Al Gore! ;-) Thanks for the internet!

Common sense prevails at the Vatican!

Vatican paper raps ‘intelligent design’
Professor’s article appears in official Catholic publication

VATICAN CITY - The Vatican newspaper has published an article saying “intelligent design” is not science and that teaching it alongside evolutionary theory in school classrooms only creates confusion.

The article in Tuesday’s editions of L’Osservatore Romano was the latest in a series of interventions by Vatican officials — including the pope — on the issue that has dominated headlines in the United States.

The author, Fiorenzo Facchini, a professor of evolutionary biology at the University of Bologna, laid out the scientific rationale for Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution, saying that in the scientific world, biological evolution “represents the interpretative key of the history of life on Earth.”

[Read the rest of the story.]

And yet another "Can't miss!"

Saturdays at 10pm, on the Discovery Times Channel, make sure to tune in to "Off to War," an amazingly honest chronicling of the deployment of the Arkansas National Guard to Iraq. To learn more about the show, visit the Discovery Times Channel website at: http://times.discovery.com/convergence/offtowar/offtowar.html

And more on Iraq...

A neighbor/friend told me she was watching Jay Leno not too long ago. He did his "on the street" bit, where he sends a guy on the street to ask Americans stupid questions to see how they respond. Would you be surprised that not one person interviewed knew where a Parisian was from!? When told, they were also shocked to find out Paris was in France. Besides BASIC world geography, weren't we all forced to take a history class sometime in our school careers? World War II people -- ever hear of it?? It's just mind boggling.

THIS is why we're in Iraq.

If the general public would have received a five minute history on the Middle East before this war started, we would not be there. Anyone, with any knowledge of the historical strife among the Shia, Sunni and Kurds in Iraq, would have known that by "dethroning" the tyrannical Saddam Hussein, civil war was sure to follow. Just as predicted, we now have a Shia majority, Iran friendly Iraq, with a disenfranchised minority Sunni "insurgency." Surprise!? And with the wannabee-autonomous Kurds now drilling for oil in Northern Iraq, in a deal not approved by the Iraqi central government, things are really going to hit the fan. Folks, you haven't seen nothin' yet.

So, I'm not saying most Americans are stupid. But I have to admit, most of my fellow countrymen are plain ignorant. And, well, it's just downright embarassing.