Water pollution

A Voice writer suggests that Joe Lieberman’s tactics, which entail attacking his opponents as dangerous leftists whose “old, big-government solutions” would lead to a “Dean recession,” etc etc, is an if-I-don’t-win-nobody-wins strategy. He compares this to the hatchet job Al Gore did on Dukakis in 1988. He also comments that when he tried to find a Lieberman event to cover, Holy Joe’s press office wouldn’t tell him any, and his website indicates that he pretty much only shows up at fundraisers.

Sy Hersh on just how the Bush admin got its intelligence on Iraq, etc, so horribly wrong, and some speculation on the origins of the yellowcake forgeries.

Harper’s on Bush abroad: “Bush said that the Philippines, which he called "the oldest democracy in Asia," should be seen as the model for a new democratic Iraq, and then quickly left the country because of security concerns.” Hey, that’s a model for any country: one where Bush doesn’t dare stay more than 6 hours.

The Florida legislature rushes through a bill allowing Jeb Bush to overturn a court order and order doctors to keep alive the body of a brain-dead woman against the wishes of her husband.

Chirac supports a ban on the wearing of Islamic headscarves in school: “We cannot allow people to shelter behind a deviant idea of religious liberty in order to defy the laws of the republic.” Especially the really petty, vindictive laws of the republic.

Re “Jerry” Boykin, David Corn asks what the reaction would be if he had said that Judaism was a false religion. I think as long as Rumsfeld keeps him in his job, any non-Christians in the military get to go home if they want. Rummy’s response to a question today was that he’d only heard difficult-to-understand video tapes, so he doesn’t really know what Boykin said. Corn comments that the Pentagon did seem to have the ability to analyze the supposed Osama bin Laden tapes, so this shouldn’t have been that difficult, but Boykin works for Rumsfeld, so why can’t he just ask him what he said? This is the Yellowcakegate (Weapons of Mate Destruction won the WashPost name-the-scandal contest) strategy of pretending Bush can’t order the leaker to reveal his or herself.

Boykin has asked to be investigated by the IG. Josh Marshall: “This, of course, rather begs the question of which “rules and procedures” his comments would have violated. Conduct unbecoming an officer from this millennium? Use of hellfire in violation of the Geneva Convention?”

Also from Harper’s: “Thai protesters captured the soul
of George W. Bush, imprisoned it in a clay pot, and then
drowned it in the Ping River.”

And this: “In France, a judge was caught masturbating in court. A penal inquiry was underway.” (Sorry)