The spider spinning his web for the unwary fly...

If you don't share my view that this is the funniest video ever then I will come to your house and fight you.

What if we haven't enough voltage?

From the same department: "Bush Resists Major Course Change in Iraq."

I'm gonna split you in two.

From the department of the earth revolves around the sun: "Clinton acknowledges she's thought of '08 run."

The Hillary for Prez. talk always makes me throw up a little in my mouth.

You have created a monster and it will destroy you.

As a "fallen" Catholic I've always had only a passing interest in the last few years of priest/ pedophilia scandals that've not only plagued the church, but come close to bankrupting it in many areas of the country.

From what I did read about the scandals the legal strategy of the church when they were accused was to deny the accusations while simultaneously attacking the reputation of accuser. Not very Christian, but the best they could come up with.

The current jag the Foley/ page scandal has taken into his own victimization at the hands of a Catholic priest some years ago is a diversion to the much larger story of the cover-up. But the church's reaction to Foley's accusations of abuse is downright stunning. Instead of the deny/ attack strategy they've taken the exact opposite tact from every other priest sexual abuse case; admit and apologize.

A cynical man might say that the only thing different in this case is that the accuser is was a congressional Republican whose party is being crucified by the media over their failure to reign in Foley and that the Catholic church has a vested interest in keeping Republicans in power. A story such as this provides both a convienent excuse for Foley's objectionable behavior and a distraction from the fact that the GOP leadership looked the other way as Foley stalked children.

Luckily, I am not such a cynic.

Everything that has transpired has done so according to my design.

The Bush administration has now decided that Pax Americana extends to space.

The US has claimed "dibs" on the Universe with its new space policy. The document, signed by President Bush, was released on a Friday, just before a long weekend in the States. This, in itself has caused a bit of a stir, but not more so than the tone and content of the document.

In it, the US government allocates itself rights to access and use space without anyone else getting in its way. It also sets security at the heart of the space agenda, frequently citing its right to use space as part of its national defence.

Great. Let's begin by securing that vast, uncharted barren patch of matter that sits between the President's ears.

Are you calling me a pussy communist?

Bush Guts Posse Comitatus, Grabs National Guard!

(For those keeping score the quote's from the movie "Tank" starring James Garner)

There is evil there that does not sleep, and the Great Eye is ever watchful.

Atrios pointed to this great Think Progress catch of Rick Santorum lunacy:

Would Gandalf stay the course?

Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA) explains the Iraq war by citing Lord of the Rings: “As the hobbits are going up Mount Doom, the Eye of Mordor is being drawn somewhere else,” Santorum told a newspaper editorial board. “It’s being drawn to Iraq and it’s not being drawn to the U.S. You know what? I want to keep it on Iraq. I don’t want the Eye to come back here to the United States.”

(My favorite comment from the Think Progress thread on this- "Wait, Howard Dean says Yeaaarrrghh! and the guy is nuts, but Santorum gets to explain the situation in Iraq using a fantasy story featuring wizards, elves and dwarfs?")

I'm sure Sanatorum is referring to al-qaeda but if we REALLY want to start looking for current analogies to Sauron I think we can look a little closer to home. Who is really the all-seeing, evil entity that resides in the East? Who uses a "Terrorist Survelliance System" to spy on us all? Who has an acerbic aversion to the innocent nature-lovers among us?

Then there's this...

It's a ...baby.

Rare meteorite found in Kansas field.

Rand Peltzer, Fantastic ideas for a Fantastic World, I make the illogical logical

Hindrocket at Powerline is perturbed that he has to continue to deal with that old canard that the rationale for the war in Iraq keeps shifting. I'm sympathetic to the poor guy. It's got to be a huge hassle to have to repeatedly have to fish out that bag of fairy dust and wish the last five years away.

Raum continues to expand on this theme, but without citing any evidence whatsoever. In fact, as we have often noted, if you listened to any of the speeches President Bush gave on Iraq in 2003 or read the Congressional authorization on the war, every rationale that has ever been discussed is there. And, as I have often said, bringing reform and democracy to the Arab world was perceived by me, and by many if not most of the war's early supporters, as the most important goal.

As an early supporter of the war I have to differ with John on this. I percieved the war's goal as that of saving the nearly extinct Rainbow unicorn species (not to be confused with the Norwegian Blue unicorn, lovely plumeage) which dwells exclusively in the hills of Northern Iraq. Take Bush's 2002 State of the Union-

Iraq continues to flaunt its hostility toward America and to support terror. The Iraqi regime has plotted to develop anthrax and nerve gas and nuclear weapons for over a decade.

This is a regime that has already used poison gas to murder thousands of its own citizens, leaving the bodies of mothers huddled over their dead children. This is a regime that agreed to international inspections then kicked out the inspectors. This is a regime that has something to hide from the civilized world.

That "something" that they were hiding was obviously the unicorns.

Not convinced? Consider the joint authorization on use of force on Iraq-

Whereas Iraq, in direct and flagrant violation of the cease-fire, attempted to thwart the efforts of weapons inspectors to identify and destroy Iraq's weapons of mass destruction stockpiles and development capabilities, which finally resulted in the withdrawal of inspectors from Iraq on October 31, 1998;

The Iraqis weren't worried about the inspectors finding any of their non-existent WMDs. They were afraid the inspectors would discover Sadaam's secret plan to irradicate the unicorn species.

At least that's how I "perceived" it.

I love you. However, I hate you.

The thing that really stands out in The Oregonian's ridiculous endorsement of Republican challenger Ron Saxton over Governor Ted Kulongoski is how intelletually dishonest the reasoning is. They begin by correctly identify many of the issues facing the state:

This state has slipped and fallen. School funding is below the national average. Oregon is near the bottom in public support of universities. The number of troopers patrolling highways is only half of what the state mustered 30 years ago. Oregon's system of public finance is a mess, and Oregon, virtually alone among states, has no rainy day fund.

Which leads them naturally to endorse the man who will exasperate all of these problems.

Kulongoski is not a great Governor. He seems unwilling to use the Governor's office as a bully pulpit and all too willing to throw up his hands, point at the Republican controlled state house and claim he can't do anything.

But Saxton? He's clearly not interested in adequately funding state schools, refuses to say where he stands on the number of state troopers Oregon maintains (House Republicans would actually like to REDUCE the number of troopers) and continues to support the kicker which is the biggest obstacle to a rainy day fund.

But on a larger sense we simply can no longer afford to elect Republicans to any office. The party - as it's currently constituted - is simply too regimented and too wrong on the important issues to allow for the individual conscious of it's candidates. Paul Krugman writes today in the New York Times that "...this is a one-letter election. D or R, that's all that matters." I wish I could disagree.

I also wish Fred Stickel and the rest of the editorial board at the Oregonian understood that.

You know, like octopus? Testicles?

"Jack Abramoff's Tentacles Reach Ken Mehlman And The White House."