Corrente

President Bush Thinks Hard About His Special Day

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(Jivester News, Lmtd.) Even as many aides on the White House team are busily bracing for the President's State of the Non-Union speech, a few have taken the time to voice their concerns off the record that the Commander in Chief is confused as to the nature of an upcoming national holiday. It seems that George W. Bush is convinced that "President's Day" actually belongs to him, and he is seeking an injuction against any "person or persons" who might have their sites set on making use of that "...very special day. It's my day, mine, and you should just keep your grubby mitts off of it! Just burn a hole in your calendar and kiss the ground when you arrive at the following Tuesday, because I'm locking up 24 hours of that Monday, America, and you can't stop me!" Read below the fold...

Interesting piece in the Baltimore Sun today (well, Wednesday; still "today" as I write this albeit just barely.) Note I said it was interesting, not that it was "well written" or that it delved into the deeper issues that this subject is really about:

The Carroll County school system has returned two disputed books to high schools, but the student who led the effort to have them removed maintains that profanity and sexual references have no place in school libraries. Read below the fold...

Excellent.

Hey, lemme see if I can put out the light by heaving a bottle at it! That way--just call me Marcel--I won't have to get out of bed! Read below the fold...

Was James "***" Brady using Deborah Howell to send The Amazin' Froomkin a signal? It would be irresponsible not to speculate, especially after today's Portrait of the Editor as an Old Weasel (Jane here). Howell wrote: Read below the fold...

Taking this post wholesale from DerekLarsen at Kos 'cause it's good:

Senate Democrats refuse to signal whether or not they will filibuster Alito. They appear to have 41 votes, since Ben Nelson (D-NE) is the only one of 44 Democrats who supports Alito. Jim Jeffords (I-VT) should oppose Alito, and 5 Republicans - Lamar Alexander (TN), Lincoln Chafee (RI) Susan Collins (ME), Olympia Snowe (ME), and Ted Stevens (AK) - are undecided.

Read below the fold...

Today, let's practice our idioms. Nuance can be very important! For example:

Do you see the distinction? Read below the fold...

But what did we expect? Yes, James "***" Brady indeed held the showdown at the WaPo corral. And gosh, for some reason "***" had nothing to say when Jane said this: Read below the fold...

Floor debate on the Alito SCOTUS nomination has begun this morning. Republicans and Democrats are to take alternate hours, and the schedule indicates the debate will continue late, until11:00 PM EST. Republicans hope to wind up debate by Friday, with a vote before next week. Read below the fold...

Gore Vidal had this to say over at the The Huffington Post:

For what we are now seeing are the obvious characteristics of the West after the fall of Rome: the triumph of religion over reason; the atrophy of education and critical thinking; the integration of religion, the state, and the apparatus of torture--a troika that was for Voltaire the central horror of the pre-Enlightenment world; and the political and economic marginalization of our culture....

Read below the fold...

Another SIC heard from. Dana Milbank, via the Amazin' Froomkin (who is back!).

And Milbank writes: "On the Mall at Seventh Street, tens of thousands of antiabortion activists were listening to the Rev. James Nesbit, whose invocation was so passionate that his voice cracked and warbled as he delivered the jeremiad.

Read below the fold...

In case you hadn't heard, the WaPo is hosting an online chat today featuring, among others, Prof. Instacracker and Firedoglake's Jeanne D'Blog, Jane Hamsher.

Guns will be drawn starting at 1 pm EST. Submit your questions in advance and watch them get ignored. Here's mine:

Question for Jim Brady:

Read below the fold...

Sounds like the Republicans who put the "con" in Iraqi reconstruction got their degrees from the Abramoff School of Accounting. Loose cash and Republicans; a volatile combination. Things got ugly fast: Read below the fold...

The Judiciary Committee will vote out the Alito nomination today. I expect that no Democrat will vote to affirm Judge Alito. However, the Republicans will all vote in the affirmative, and his nomination will proceed to the floor of the Senate.

In fact, the AP has just confirmed that is exactly what has happened. Read below the fold...

Dionne writes a column that, amazingly enough, reflects PO not BCW (using Shystee's brilliant formulation). In WaPo, Dionne looks at Rove's plans to run (again) on 9/11. Read below the fold...

The closed doors that Republicans work behind, that is. WaPo:

House and Senate GOP negotiators, meeting behind closed doors last month to complete a major budget-cutting bill, agreed on a change to Senate-passed Medicare legislation that would save the health insurance industry $22 billion over the next decade, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.

Read below the fold...