Tsunami death toll tops 135,000

As the Tsunami death toll tops 135,000 people I cannot but contrast the paramount need with the President's leisure time down in Texas. President Bush, just like he did after 9/11, is wasting an opportunity to draw the world together in an hour of need.

Think how much better it would be if President Bush cancelled his vacation and challenged Saudi Arabia to donate as much money to their Muslim brothers as the US, and called on NATO to deploy their military equipment to assist in the effort, and gave relief agencies free computing horsepower so they could keep up with on-line donations, and kept reminding other nations to do more, and talked to the American people every day about the ways they can help.

Imagine the potential for repair to our reputation abroad, and imagine the potential to instill hope in mankind that we can still love each other when the need is great (even if perhaps only then). Furthermore, this type of leadership might even prevent a few would-be terrorists from signing up with Osama's outfit.

I know a lot of doctors and when their pager sounds they answer the call even if they are on vacation. Here is a link to a group of doctors that will be involved in the relief effort:

Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors without borders)


Paul (a reader) posted this link to provide Christian's a place to communicate and donate towards the Tsunami relief effort:

Heart For Missions

A steadily dropping dollar

While President Bush clings to tax proposals and policy largesse which benefit the well off like a life vest, the markets continue to respond to his dangerous fiscal recklessness by seeking refuge on another ship.

Dollar Drops to Record Low Against Euro

Why aren't more Democratic Congress people pointing out the folly of the enormous budget-busting tax package that President Bush wants to make permanent? Why not say, "Now that the war is dragging on we think it would be prudent to restore tax rates to solvent levels. We feel it is unwise to react to a pay-cut by going out on a spending spree, and since we can't stop spending on this protracted war we must restore the revenue. We believe the falling dollar is evidence that the markets are losing faith in America's fiscal discipline, and further that if the situation isn't corrected our debt will become more expensive and add to our debt problems."

Ohio GOP Election Officials Ducking Subpoenas

Did John Kerry concede defeat too early?

If Ohio counts all of it's votes will election results change?

Should a Secretary of State, which has authority in an election, be allowed to chair a campaign too?

How long will Ohio's Secretary of State dodge his deposition?

Election Officials Ducking Subpoenas as Kerry Enters Fray in Ohio

Perhaps the fat lady isn't singing?

Toll From Tsunami Rises to More Than 51,000

The Washington Post is today reporting that the death toll from the Asian Tsunami has risen to more than 51,000. That is about twelve times the number of people lost on 9/11, and perhaps the size of a crowd at the Super Bowl.

For whom the bell tolls

As if that weren't bad enough the UN is warning that ground-water has been contaminated by the flooding and Cholera will likely kill thousands more unless aid is swift and sure.

If you wish to make a donation, here is a link to the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies:

Asia - Earthquake and tsunamis

We are currently spending about 250 million dollars a day to wage war in Iraq. Wouldn't it be great if the planet used its armies to build and it's riches to feed?

Toto's revelation

Paul Krugman used a great axiom the other day, which I had never heard. He said, "Situations that can't go on forever don't". I'm paraphrasing, but you can hear the quote here, where you can also delight in one of our Dear Leader's best impersonations of a moron:

Paul Krugman on Social Security, the Decline of the Dollar and Healthcare

This story, which appeared in the Los Angeles Times, might be evidence that investors are starting to loose faith in an economy that is piling on debt, incurring ever-larger trade defecits, foolishly maintaining the Bush budget-busting tax cuts, and spending like sailors on leave:

Further pressure on the dollar

There is a financial crisis lurking, but it isn't Social Security. That is just a curtain awaiting Toto's revelation. Bark Democrats. Bark.

Here we go again.

Whenever Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld opens his mouth lately bad things happen. For example, during his Christmas eve visit to the troops he said that flight 93 was shot down over Pennsylvania.

Here is what he said,

"I think all of us have a sense if we imagine the kind of world we would face if the people who bombed the mess hall in Mosul, or the people who did the bombing in Spain, or the people who attacked the United States in New York, shot down the plane over Pennsylvania and attacked the Pentagon, the people who cut off peoples' heads on television to intimidate, to frighten – indeed the word 'terrorized' is just that. Its purpose is to terrorize, to alter behavior, to make people be something other than that which they want to be."

I wonder if he meant that the US military shot it down, or if he meant that terrorists shot it down, or if he was simply making more mistakes aloud. If he was misspeaking it seems an odd slip of the tongue, doesn't it?

Something other than that which he wanted to say?

ADDENDUM: A Pentagon spokesman said today, Tuesday the 28th, that Donald Rumsfeld misspoke. Here is a link to the details: Read more...

Bring them home

When you are 80 you learn not to mince words.

Al Neuharth, founder of USA Today and veteran of WWII, speaks bluntly in this editorial and calls on Americans to support our troops by bringing them home, and sooner rather than later:

Reflections at 80

When a veteran says if he were eligible for service in Iraq he'd do "all he could to avoid it" I find that an untidy narrative alongside proclamations to the contrary.

Disaster strikes Asia

Perhaps you, like me, just enjoyed a holiday spent with friends and family. Perhaps you, like me, took a moment to reflect about how fortune smiled upon you.

This mornings news made me feel all the more fortunate and all the more thankful. In the blink of an eye, following a 9.0 earthquake at sea near Sumatra, 23000+ people were killed by tsunami in Asia.

Asia toll tops 23,000

In this moment of disaster I am proud to see the world pull together and offer aid and assistance to the stricken. Humanity longs for brotherhood at a time like this and may those offering it live in peace.

Christmas call and response

Christmas, 0000

Glory to God in the highest,
and on earth peace,
good will toward men.

- Saint Luke -


Christmas, 1924


"Peace upon earth!" was said. We sing it,
And pay a million priests to bring it.
After two thousand years of mass
We've got as far as poison-gas.

- Thomas Hardy -

Invigorating Ownership Society

While campaigning in Albuquerque on August 26th, 2004 President Bush said...

In changing times, if you own your own home, it can help provide stability. The home ownership rate is at an all-time high in America. We'll continue to pursue policies to encourage people to own their own home. There's nothing better than somebody opening that front door and saying, welcome to my house. Thank you for coming to my home. We understand in America that if you own something, you have a vital stake in the future of our country.

Entire speech...

Today's economic news is that new home sales plunged in November to their lowest levels in a decade:

Story here...

Bush Social Security Plan Worries GOP

When it came to the Medicare prescription drug program, the Bush administration lied about it's costs(Up, up, and away), bullied an actuary into keeping silent (Richard S. Foster), and used a little extortion on the House floor (Nick Smith R-Mich) to get it passed.

Will the same bag of tricks work to turn grandma's Social Security pittance over to Enron?

It will if Republicans are stupid or in on the joke.

It will if Democrats aren't united, organized, and vocal.

Don't get fooled again...

President Bush doesn't exactly have the Midas touch. On the "War on Terror" front: Osama got away, Iraq is a quagmire, North Korea is armed with nuclear weapons, and Iran isn't playing nice. When it comes to his budget prowess: He took over a multi-trillion dollar surplus and his deficit spending, revenue-busting ways turned that into a chasm of debt.

This isn't the kind of person that I want meddling with grandma's rent money. His type of "fixing" is liable to scramble grandma's nest egg and serve it to Ken Lay types with a side order of pork.

Presidential Order Authorizing Inhumane Interrogation Techniques

A document released for the first time today [Monday December 20th] by the American Civil Liberties Union suggests that President Bush issued an Executive Order authorizing the use of inhumane interrogation methods against detainees in Iraq. Also released by the ACLU today are a slew of other records including a December 2003 FBI e-mail that characterizes methods used by the Defense Department as "torture" and a June 2004 "Urgent Report" to the Director of the FBI that raises concerns that abuse of detainees is being covered up.

More...


Here is a direct link to the records released in response to the "Torture FOIA Request" filed by the ACLU:

Torture Documents

Flat earthers in the schools

Anybody that has experienced insects adapting to pesticide has seen evolution in action. Why then, do the religious types continue to insist that evolution is a myth?

Open your eyes

I don't know about you, but when I break my leg I want a doctor and not a priest. You can send for the priest in my time of dying.

Doesn't the separation of scientific and religious disciplines keep people from worshiping technology? Wouldn't a blurring of the two lead to science-priests? Do we want that?

Pentagon: At Least 22 Killed in Mosul Attack

At least 22 people were killed and 50 wounded today (Tuesday) on a US/Iraqi base near Mosul. The Pentagon is saying that it doesn't know whether the KIA were US soldiers or Iraqi personnel at this point, but it does know that a dining hall was struck.

At Least 22 Killed in Mosul Attack


It seems ever more clear that we either need more troops in Iraq or we need to get out of Iraq. The current Bush plan to stay with inadequate force protection and no exit strategy is worse than either of these choices.

John McCain has been calling for more troops for a while and John Kerry has also, which means there is bipartisan support for expanding the size of the US military (as opposed to recruiting more weekend warriors). Since President Bush has little chance to secure the help of allies he bullied he might consider this life-saving option immediately.

ADDENDUM: The Boston Globe is reporting that 19 US soldiers died in today's attack, detals here

Rumsfeld cares

After prominent Republicans John McCain, Trent Lott, and Bill Kristol publicly expressed a lack of confidence in Donald Rumsfeld's abilities, President Bush made statements defending him as "caring" and "a good human being".

Donald Dearest

If you were a soldier would you rather have an SOB that provided you with armor, or a caring and good human being that didn't?

On intelligent design

Anyone that has spent time gawking open-mouthed at the contents of a glass jar in a circus freak show knows that the argument for intelligent design ignores compelling evidence which suggests that Darwin was correct. However, if you are one of those people that cannot be swayed even by a trip to Philadelphia's Mütter Museum, then you should follow the ideology of intelligent design to its' logical conclusion.

The ideology of intelligent design argues that since a watch is complicated, then it must have a creator, or watchmaker. It further argues that the watchmaker requires a maker, since he is complicated, and that maker is God.

If one accepts this wishful thinking as science, then one should naturally assume that since God is complicated then He must require a maker. Of course, any deity capable of creating God must be very complicated indeed, and therefore require a maker...

At some point you must either accept that there is a supreme watchmaker in the sky which requires no watchmaker, and therefore invalidate your original premise, or reject the ideology of intelligent design as self-delusional hokum.

Belief in God is a lot like feelings of love, and you should no more expect to quantify it with science then you should expect religion to put a man on Mars. That's why they call it "faith".

The Defense Secretary We Have

I am going to be on the road until Monday so I'll leave you with two good pieces of reading.

The first is an editorial in the Washington Post by Bill Kristol calling for Donald Rumsfed to spend more time with his family:

Please leave Donald

The second is an article written by Marshall Wittmann which offers a roadmap to Democrats:

Learn from history

Until Monday I bid you adieu (that's freedom for farewell).

Trade canyon

Republicans control the House.
Republicans control the Senate.
Republicans control most governorships.
The President of the United States is Republican.

And our trade gap widened by 9 percent in October to a record $55.5 billion dollars.

October's shortfall

You may have heard that a fool and his money are soon parted. If you entrust your money to a fool, the same rule applies.

US firms announce 104,530 job cuts in November

For the third month in a row job cuts exceeded 100,000. For a "strong economy" we sure do bleed a lot of jobs.

Labor let-down

I think it is interesting that many companies suggested the cuts were predicated on rising health-care costs and rising energy costs. Maybe we'd create jobs if we had universal healthcare? Maybe we'd create jobs if we worked on energy independence via stable renewable energy sources?

This can't bode well for the holiday shopping season.

Recruiting woes

Hackworth writes on our recruiting woes.

You and what army?

Here is a report of a 70 year old man pulled out of his second retirement to go to Afghanistan:

Geezers going


Meanwhile, another suicide bomber killed a bunch more people in Baghdad, one day after a suicide bomber killed a bunch more people in Baghdad...

War's untidy decimation