Weather Hampers Effort to Contain Aleutian Oil Spill

"A grounded freighter continues to spill heavy fuel oil into a pristine Alaskan wildlife area as poor weather conditions hurt cleanup efforts. Six people remain missing."

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- david | 5:08 PM 0 comments

  Kerik Withdraws From Consideration for Homeland Security Secretary Update:

Bernard Kerik apologized to President Bush on Saturday after questions about the immigration status of a housekeeper-nanny he employed led the former New York City police commissioner to withdraw his nomination as homeland security chief.

"WASHINGTON (AP) - The White House says President Bush's choice to be secretary of homeland security -- Bernard Kerik -- has withdrawn his name from consideration.

In a conference call to news organizations, White House spokesman Scott McClellan revealed that Kerik had withdrawn 'for personal reasons.'

McClellan said in a statement that the president respects Kerik's decision and wishes the commissioner and his wife well.

Kerik was the New York City police commissioner during 9-11.

McClellan said the White House will move as quickly as it can to name someone else to fill the nomination."

  ¶
- david | 3:54 PM 0 comments

  William Gibson Brings Us Excerpts From Neo-Confederate Literature

"Slavery as it existed in the South was not an adversarial relationship with pervasive racial animosity. Because of its dominantly patriarchal character, it was a relationship based upon mutual affection and confidence." p. 24

Oh my god. This is pretty unbelievable. I don't know what the impetus for this is, but apparently this is being taught to children in the South...

Students at one of the area's largest Christian schools are reading a controversial booklet that critics say whitewashes Southern slavery with its view that slaves lived "a life of plenty, of simple pleasures."

Um, I don't know what the hell they think they're doing... and this is no excuse:

"You can have two different sides, a Northern perspective and a Southern perspective," he said.

You really can't. It was something that happened one way. Well, obviously it happened millions of way over hundreds of years, but it was one thing, not two. This is literally making me sick to my stomach, and until someone proves to me that the "Northern" view of slavery is a sham, I will continue to feel sick and sad for my country.  ¶
- david | 1:58 PM 0 comments

  In Hypothetical Matchup, Powell Beats Spitzer This strikes me as an interesting race, although admittedly I know nothing about NY politics.

"Secretary of State Colin Powell (R) beats Attorney General Eliot Spitzer (D) 47 to 42 percent 'in an early look at the 2006 New York governor's race,' according to a new Quinnipiac University poll. However, Powell has given no indication he's interested in the job.

Spitzer handily leads Gov. George Pataki (R) 50 to 38 percent if the two face off.

In a hypothetical Senate matchup, Sen. Clinton (D-NY) and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani are in a statistical tie."

(via Political Wire)  ¶
- david | 8:24 PM 0 comments

  Intelligence Bill Clears Congress (Finally!)

The Senate overwhelmingly approved the intelligence restructuring bill yesterday and sent it to the White House, where President Bush is expected to sign it into law next week, setting in motion the first major changes in the U.S. intelligence community since the CIA was established in 1947.

"We are rebuilding a structure that was designed for a different enemy at a different time, a structure that was designed for the Cold War and has not proved agile enough to deal with the threats of the 21st century," said Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), chairman of the Governmental Affairs Committee and a prime mover of the measure.

The legislation establishes a new director of national intelligence (DNI) as the president's chief adviser on intelligence, with budgetary and monitoring authority over foreign and domestic intelligence activities. It also creates a national counterterrorism center, where terrorism information will be channeled and whose director will report to the president on counterterrorism planning and operations.

  ¶
- david | 3:13 PM 0 comments

  NY Attorney General Plans to Run For Governor 2006 Finally some good local news. Ballbusting Dem Eliot Spitzer has thrown in his bid for the seat as of Tuesday.

"The state is in dire need of leadership that will address budget issues, tax issues. We are bleeding jobs. We need reform in the process of government," Spitzer told The Associated Press in a telephone interview.

Spitzer has been high-profile as of late, garnering attention for his investigations of white-collar crime.  ¶
- david | 5:25 PM 0 comments

  Eschaton

"Yesterday:


Bush introduced Mike and Sharla Hintz, a couple from Clive, whom he said benefited from his tax plan."

...

and today...


A Des Moines youth pastor is charged with the sexual exploitation of a child.

KCCI learned that the married father of four recently turned himself in to Johnston police.

Rev. Mike Hintz was fired from the First Assembly of God Church, located at 2725 Merle Hay Road, on Oct. 30. Hintz was the youth pastor there for three years.

This seems somehow more than coincidental. I wonder how many of Bush's friends and playthings are confirmed child molesters. Find out more from Atrios (from whom I shamelessly stole this info... I'm damn near my breaking point, which means I've essentially stopped working).  ¶
- david | 5:20 PM 0 comments

  Programmer Built Vote-Rigging Demo for Florida Politician A computer programmer who claims he was assigned the task of programming a transparent and undetectable electronic vote-rigging agent. He has written and signed a "sworn affidavit" and fingered his former boss, Florida Rep. Tom Feeney. This will obviously be big news over the next few days, starting now, if you haven't already heard about it. On the other hand, I've been meaning to blog about this for... like a day or two now. So get on it!  ¶
- david | 5:17 PM 0 comments

  Kerry creates PAC to back candidates

"Senator John F. Kerry is establishing a so-called leadership political action committee to promote Democratic candidates at the state and national level, as well as to continue pushing the agenda he promoted during his unsuccessful campaign for the presidency.

The PAC, which has yet to be named, will be based in Boston and headed by John Giesser, a lawyer and former chief operating officer of the City Year community service program."

It's good to hear that Kerry's not dropping off the face of the earth. I hear he's also taking somewhat of a leadership role in the Senate, and now he's got this PAC to advance his agenda, which is totally sweet as far as I'm concerned.

The new organization will be separate from a reelection committee Kerry recently established, Friends of John Kerry, but it will share the same focus as a leadership PAC the Massachusetts Democrat established in 2002, the Citizen Soldier Fund.

I hadn't realized it was a sure thing, his re-run next time around. We've got a few years to cement political goals, but I find it hard to believe that Kerry will make it through the primaries next time.

But who do we think is a better candidate?  ¶
- david | 1:14 PM 2 comments

  Daily Kos :: BushCo's Arab Democracy Project: Maybe Not

"No WMDs. No connection to Al Qaida. No nuthin'. What did the neocons have left to justify the Iraq Debacle? Why their Arab Democracy Project. Well, now that seems a non-starter too. At next week's summit with our Arab allies, the Bush Arab Democracy Project, so touted by the remaining defenders of the Iraq Debacle, looks like it will be put to rest."

Read more: NYTimes (Reg. Req.)  ¶
- david | 12:55 PM 0 comments