Progressive pig legislation

The response in the Arab world to Bush’s demand that they democratize has been unanimous: they have all scheduled free and fair elections. “We were just waiting to be asked,” said King Mohammed of Morocco.

Bush has decided that the new “partial-birth abortion” ban will be enforced by--wait for it--the Justice Dept’s civil rights division. Because this is all about the civil rights of the unborn, geddit?

The WaPo on General Boykin. Yes, he is a religious wingnut of the highest order. I like the story about how Jesus fixed his radio.

Christian Science Monitor on the new textbooks the US picked for Iraq.

The R’s have stopped work of the committee investigating what the intelligence agencies knew about Iraq before the war, demanding an apology from the author of a draft memo, that was not sent to anyone, that they dug out of a garbage can. If the CIA had done as good a job spying on Iraq as the R’s have done spying on D’s staffers, there might never have been a war. The memo suggested that if R’s tried to limit the inquiry, the D’s make that fact public.

As you know, the first state to choose in the presidential primaries will be Iowa, which has 5 times as many pigs as humans, thanks to the rise of huge factory farms. Or to put this another way, one of the most important issues in choosing the man who might be the next president: pig shit smell. The Kerry campaign told the Sunday Telegraph, “We take the problem of pig smell very, very seriously.” “Faced with such brazen electioneering, a spokesman for Richard Gephardt, a leading Democratic candidate, points out that he has the longest history of any candidate in promoting progressive pig legislation.” And that’s why I love America.

The Sunday Times (London) hired a former Iraqi general to buy a rocket-propelled grenade launcher (rocket included). It took him 3 days to find one, and it cost $500. He drove it through Baghdad, passing through 3 checkpoints and past the hq of the “Coalition Provisional Authority.” On the reporter’s lap, not in the trunk. They tried to turn it in at a US checkpoint, but the soldiers refused to take it.

I’m told the big new thing in the US for the man who has everything: a urinal in his own home.