Here’s the book that’ll outsell the one sold by the Shiftless-Boat Weterans for Cash: The Phony Fighter Pilot.

It also covers his Dad’s bailout that left two men behind to die. And it’s written by a registered Republican.

See? I knew there are ethical Republicans left.

(Cross-posted at Suddenly Routine)

[Preface: I know this post isn’t going to raise the level of discourse and will surely reek of “liberal elitism” but, well, it’s how I feel.]

As I read this sentence in the New York Times:

Valerie White had each fingernail carefully painted to resemble a tiny, shiny American flag. No detail was too small for the big night, the night she put on her sequined vest, and her husband, Lyn, his flag-decorated tie, so they could welcome Arnold Schwarzenegger to Madison Square Garden.

I couldn’t help but remember a quote by Neal Stephenson that, when adapted, I think best sums up many New Yorkers’ feelings about the RNC:

Hostility towards [the RNC] is not difficult to find [in New York], and it blends two strains: resentful people who feel [Republicans are] too powerful, and disdainful people who think [they’re] tacky. This is all strongly reminiscent of the heyday of Communism and Socialism, when the bourgeoisie were hated from both ends: by the proles, because they had all the money, and by the intelligentsia, because of their tendency to spend it on lawn ornaments.

find it at cosmopoly’s aggregator page.

(ok, we’re only doing this because we know this post will show up on the cosmopoly’s aggregator page. we want to see something refer to something referring to itself…sort of like looking into a mirror with a mirror behind you…the cyber equivalent of the illusion of infinity).

yes, we do have time on our hands, why do you ask?

(cross-posted at skippy the bush kangaroo)

the asspress is reporting at least 400 protesters were arrested in nyc tuesday:

police wrapped demonstrators and an entire midtown manhattan block in orange netting tuesday to control anti-gop protests, arresting more than 400 people across the city as activists massed in the streets for marches to the site of the republican convention.

outside the new york public library, in the streets near the famed herald square and at the site of the fallen world trade center, demonstrators pointed themselves toward madison square garden and promised to get their message across that they want president bush out of office.

there were no immediate reports of violence, but it appeared by late evening that the planned march had deteriorated into blocks of human gridlock in several parts of the city.

Read the rest of this entry »

(Cross-posted at Polemic Propaganda)

I guess this is what happens when you try to fight a sensitive war on terror.

Legal sources say the Justice Department [I believe that means John "I’m tough on terror" Ashcroft] has asked a judge to throw out the convictions of an accused terror cell in Detroit because of prosecutorial misconduct.

The request is a dramatic reversal of a case the Bush administration once hailed as a major post-Nine-Eleven victory in the war on terror.

The department told U-S District Judge Gerald Rosen that it supports the Detroit defendants’ request for a new trial, and would no longer pursue charges of material support of terrorism. Sources say that means the defendants at most would only face fraud charges at a new trial.

The department’s decision came after a months-long independent investigation uncovered several pieces of evidence that prosecutors failed to turn over to defense lawyers before the trial last year.

The announcement is expected as early as tomorrow.

What are we going to do next? Let the terrorists roam free through Syria, Palestine, Pakistan, Iran, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, and Yemen? Oh wait…