Quick diary to highlight what I find just stunning.  According to MSNBC, soliders running up a large debt are now disallowed from serving overseas.   Suddenly, going AWOL isn't necessary.  A trip to your local car dealer does the trick, just fine.  

More below:

Bush just used a signing statement to completely and totally REVERSE the intent of a key provision of the DHS spending bill.  Not content to use the statement to alter or nuance the intent of the legislation, he just used the statement to nullify it.  Oh my f'ing God, we are really at the mercy of a dictator.

The DHS spending bill is the bill in question.  Look at the atrocity below:

Having mulled over many of the ramifications of this new bill, much if not nearly all have been diaried it seems, I've been struck by this revelation:  How does this new bill affect travel to and from countries such as Iran, Syria, Eygpt, etc.?  If we look at some of the language in this atrocity, it seems CLEAR that it would be highly dubious for any Eygptian, Lebanese, or Iranian to come to America, whether it be for school, business, or vacation.  After all, there are no longer ANY legal safeguards on their well-being.  

I'm pretty sure Bush told some intrepid reporter the other day that we could not enter Pakistan because, in the immortal words of our CoC, they're a "sovereign nation".  This was his rationale as to why there's documentation of so many Taliban fighters and OBL sympathizers over in Pakistan, yet we wouldn't dare go over there to find them and kill 'em.  

Well, kids, suddenly Mr. 44% has changed his mind.  Suddenly, the necessary allowance to enter said rogue mountain areas of a foreign country is NOT Musharraf's OK.  It's not the Pakistan military's call to make.  It's "good intelligence".  That's it.

It appears Musharraf's not to thrilled with such an incredibly low threshold.  Below:

Mitt Romney is REALLY trying hard to become wing-nut #1.  He has decided to initiate--or at least become a general in--the WOSC, otherwise known as the War On Stem Cells.  I guess I cannot fault him for trying to curry favor with Wingnuttia, as his chances at being President are about as likely as me bedding down with Beyonce or Ohio State winning the BCS this year.  Still, that does not excuse what he said today, which if taken literally, would HAVE to mean he's against IVF.  Which, to me, is a stunning revelation.

Ok, what did Governor Dumbass say?  Below, via Reuters via Yahoo news....

Hey, thought I'd take a break from all the Lamont Love and tell y'all that things are looking BRIGHT for science, common sense, and all things rational....in the state of Kansas!!  Any of you that want MORE proof that elections DO matter, come with me and take a look at what electing non-whackjobs and anti-Bible bangers does to one's education system....

Jump...

This has been diaried by The Baculum King much earlier this morning, but has long since scrolled off the page.  So I will do a redux.  It appears as though the Air Marshals are now resigned--in the face of such sheer non-terrorist activity on planes--to make shit up in their reports.  To please their bosses.  To make their raises.  To get bonuses.

You...your grandma...your 3 year-old son...could make the list...at random...just to give Joe Sidearm a good performance eval...

Perhaps this has been diaried, but I couldn't find it, but as ridiculous as this policy is, someone had to write about it.  Seems as though, says the Guardian,  that the U.S. is willing to let the Israelis go on killing as many Lebanese Hizbollah (cough...civilians...cough) as they please....for the next 7 days.  Apparently, on day 8, we'll start to care, and then demand a ceasefire.  

So it appears that if the Star of David hangs from your wall (perhaps that's optional...hard to decipher), you've got 168 hours to cap as many Lebanese--Hizbollah or otherwise, it would appear--as possible before the U.S. grows a spine and a conscience.

More below...

This'll be short and to the point--today, apparently, Shites went rampaging down some neighborhoods, looking only for Sunnis, and executing dozens in cold blood.  Women and children were also targeted.  I'm not sure that anyone really cares anymore--let me rephrase that...nobody is shocked anymore--but this is just stunning.  Apparently, residents tried calling the Ministries of the Interior and Defense, but got no response.  I'd love to know the sect that leads both of those Ministries...

Some bits below:

This is gunna be a short diary because...well...her words speak for themselves.  From Thinkprogress, the transcript of her on NBC TRASHING the widows of 9-11-01.  

Yeah, yeah...I know.  Coulter rude, mean, and insensitive?  Uh huh, and the sky is blue and the Cubs won't win the Central.  But this is beyond bad;  this is truly disgusting.  

Check this bile out:

Thought I'd take a break from politics on this fine Sunday to ask the question that has most (OK, just the North Side) of Chicagoans vexed:  why do our beloved Cubs keep losing?  20 of the last 24 in the dub column, nearly last in batting average (last in the NL), dead last in slugging, OBP, runs, hits, doubles, homers....UGH!!  And the GM just yesterday decided to reward this team effort by telling us the coach would not be fired.  Wow.

More...

Tommy Franks, retired General and Administration blowhard, has just casually dismissed the importance of our dead soliders, dissed as ignorant (or worse, depending on how you interpret his words) the retired generals who've criticized Rummy, and then defends Rummy as a "patriot".  

Stomach-churning to say the least, his comments struck me as just callous towards our lost solidiers, and downright insulting to any of the Generals who've spoken up.

Apparently, the nice congressmen in GA haven't figured out how to craft an amendment to their constitution that actually follows their constitution.  A judge declared the ban unconstitutional based on a technicality dealing with the overarching way in which it was worded/written.

More below:

I just came across this article from AP via Yahoo! news and I'm stunned on so many fronts.  I have long predicted that when one mixes anger, emotion, politics, and ideology, that there will never be a concensus.  However, this inability of these 9/11 families and NYC to agree to a memorial "setting" is just unbearable.  It's been 4.5 years, and they STILL cannot agree?  

Choice excerpts that need some illumination:

Look at this, everyone, via Thinkprogress
and more directly from The Arkansas Times... Seems like the Arkansas schools are fearful (oh God, I wish I was making this up)--FEARFUL--of upsetting "religious fundamentalists who may have their fingers on the purse strings of various school districts"...

DarkSyde, where art thou with your righteous indignation?

Check out these choice quotes below.  They'll make you furious, I'm guessin'...

I was waiting and waiting for a openthread with a basketball theme, but alas, it hasn't happened.  And since I cannot get any work done while watching the tournament (damn you CBSsportsline!), I figured there's likewise a number of fans who'd like to talk a little trash.  

And yes, it's true.  You can watch the game--live--on your computer.  Follow the above link...

Well, looks like the lying, two-faced Bush Administration has done it again.  Against myriad of very recent statements to the contrary, chronicled here, the Bush team has decided to stay in Iraq, permanently.  Of course, they cannot come out and say it unequivocally, but just reading the General's statement makes it clear...

Below:

It appears as though Bush is getting some rather stern advice from one of our Middle Eastern allies (and I use that term loosely) vis-a-vis Iran, and I'm guessing it's NOT what he wants to hear.  Appears as though Egypt isn't real kosher about our desire to blow up more Brown people.  Imagine that....

GREAT quotes below: