V

Listening to Mr. Rumsfeld this week I find myself wondering if he watched V for Vendetta and said, "Yeh, that's who I want to be — that guy on the big video screen."

Dissent and disagreement with government is the life’s blood of human freedom; and not merely because it is the first roadblock against the kind of tyranny the men Mr. Rumsfeld likes to think of as “his” troops still fight, this very evening, in Iraq.
It is also essential. Because just every once in awhile it is right and the power to which it speaks, is wrong.
— Keith Olbermann, Countdown editorial, 08.30.06

Keith Olbermann's editorial on August 20, 2006 was remarkable. So I'm remarking on it . . .

less crazy by a long shot

What if we woke up one morning and found a tiny corner of the world less crazy . . .

Check out starbury.com

When you get to the Goods, make sure you look at the price info.


[thanks to Dan at InsideWork for this link]

news

Here's a news lead I would like to hear tonight:

"We have nothing to add to speculations about the death of JonBenet Ramsey nine-and-a-half years ago. However . . .

Today in Washington . . .

Today in Beirut . . .

Today in Baghdad . . .

Today in Jerusalem . . .

Today in . . ."

Is this really asking too much of television news organizations?

here's what i'm talking about

Garrison Keillor went to a ballgame the other day:

Seeing men compete at the height of their ability is pure inspiration these days, politics having turned so cheesy. What you thought of as civics turns out to be a basic service industry, like bartending but without the jokes. Politics today is about money. Abramoff was the rule, not the exception. The cultural issues, the Christian values, they are pure camouflage, and so is national security. Congress is mostly about serving its clients, who are not you or me, and now this gang of misfits, nitwits and yahoos is hoping that the arrest by British police of a band of terrorists might enable Rep. Blimp and Sen. Foghorn to play the security card once more. There is no limit to their brazenness. They would swipe your wallet and then return it for the reward. Lord, have mercy.

We have never (in my years anyway) seen this level of open cynicism in the White House – Congress, maybe, but not the White House. Not even in the Nixon Adminstration who at least had a sense of shame when they broke the law and the decency to try to hide their crimes. But these guys . . . When I see what they do in public, I cringe to think what's going on out of sight.

"There is no limit to their brazenness," Keillor writes, and this is why America's voters must clean house this November. Because someone must limit the brazenness of Mr. Cheney, Mr. Bush and their surly lot.

over the top

OK, perhaps that Mr. Cheney, You Are a Liar post was a little over the top.

I don't think Mr. Cheney is really the Anti-American.

I just think his reprehensible behavior in office is Anti-American.

He strikes me like one of those guys who makes a big deal about not taking God's name in vain even as he's looting the church treasury.

Not the kind of thing one looks for in a minister. Or a vice president.

Mr. Cheney, You Are A Liar.

Paul O'Neill was purged because he would not buckle under.

Richard Clarke was purged for telling the truth.

No one purged Mr. Lieberman. Mr. Lieberman lost an election on principle.

I consider you a dishonor to your office, sir; a dissembler; a rogue; a scoundrel; the anti-American.

I cannot wait to see you in our rearview mirror as America speeds away from your unwholesome influence.

Sooner would be so much better than later.

i am not (entirely) a slug

The very smart and witty J.P. St.Pierre who hardly seems French at all, gently chided me for the . . . let's say spottiness . . . of my posts.

He's not wrong about that. But it's not like i'm sitting around watching television half the night.

I'm posting like crazy at InsideWork – well, three or four times a week anyway.

I have a new Squidoo Lens.

Rich Van Pelt and I are working on the treatment for a parents' edition of our Crisis Book.

So . . . there.

Drop in and see what you see. If you hate it, please don't tell anyone.

more soon (ish). . .