Substitute:

Not content to be on Hannity & Colmes every Friday to offer commentary, Dennis Miller will be substituting for Sean on his radio show today (Friday, 29 August 2003)



ADDENDUM: Did you know Hannity supports Judge Moore on the Ten Commandments issue? From Hannity's website:

On August 7, 2003...

CHIEF JUSTICE ROY MOORE'S BATTLE...

On Thursday, August 7, 2003, Sean exclusively interviews Chief Justice Moore, who is in a battle to keep his Statue of the Ten Commandments from being removed from his court room. There will be a rally to support this effort down at the court house in Alabama on August 16, 2003. You can help support his efforts by visiting these supporting sites below for more information....

[CLICK HERE TO VISIT MORALLAW.ORG]
[CLICK HERE TO VISIT RESTORETHECOMMANDMENTS.COM]

posted by Quiddity at 8/29/2003 09:53:00 AM

Now he tells us:

Perle Cites Errors in Iraq, Urges Power Transfer

Richard Perle, a leading Pentagon adviser and architect of the U.S. war to topple Saddam Hussein, said the United States had made mistakes in Iraq and that power should be handed over to the Iraqis as fast as possible.

[...]

He also renewed criticism of President Jacques Chirac's refusal to back the war. Chirac wanted more time for U.N. inspectors to search for any banned weapons.

The United States and Britain said Saddam had deliberately foiled the inspections and failed to provide evidence that it had scrapped its chemical, biological and nuclear programs.

"You have to understand that since September 11, the United States cannot allow the most terrible weapons in the world to be in the hands of the worst regimes in the world," Perle told Le Figaro, referring to the 2001 hijacked airliner attacks on U.S. landmarks that killed some 3,000 people.

What terrible weapons? Where are they?

posted by Quiddity at 8/28/2003 07:26:00 AM

Attention must be paid:

From the Washington Post: Halliburton's Deals Greater Than Thought (excerpt, emphasis added)

Halliburton, the company formerly headed by Vice President Cheney, has won contracts worth more than $1.7 billion under Operation Iraqi Freedom and stands to make hundreds of millions more dollars under a no-bid contract awarded by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, according to newly available documents.

The size and scope of the government contracts awarded to Halliburton in connection with the war in Iraq are significantly greater than was previously disclosed and demonstrate the U.S. military's increasing reliance on for-profit corporations to run its logistical operations. Independent experts estimate that as much as one-third of the monthly $3.9 billion cost of keeping U.S. troops in Iraq is going to independent contractors.

posted by Quiddity at 8/28/2003 07:20:00 AM

Conspicuous consumption compensation:

In the news: NYSE Pays $139.5 Mln to Keep Grasso (excerpts, emphasis added)

The New York Stock Exchange on Wednesday said it paid out almost $140 million to Chairman and Chief Executive Richard Grasso in accrued savings, benefits and incentives, and extended his contract until 2007.

The new employment agreement means Grasso, who was appointed chairman in 1995, will remain in his post for two years beyond the term of his current contract, the exchange said in a statement. It provides for the same base salary of $1.4 million and the same annual bonus of at least $1 million.

"I am a big believer that social stratification is not a good thing, and that no one needs that much money to motivate them to do a good job," said George Washington University law professor Theresa Gabaldon of Grasso's compensation package. "The idea that anyone needs that much money for motivation is ludicrous."

She said the exchange may have feared losing Grasso.

It is ludicrous.

Remember, Bush wanted a tax cut for people like Grasso - and he got it.

posted by Quiddity at 8/28/2003 07:08:00 AM

"We wish we had better data"

From the New York Times' Administration Adopts Rule on Antipollution Exemption

In one of its most far-reaching environmental actions, the Bush administration signed a rule that will allow thousands of power plants, refineries, pulp and paper mills, chemical plants and other industrial facilities to make extensive upgrades that increase pollutants without having to install new antipollution devices.

Jeffrey Holmstead, the E.P.A. administrator for air programs, said today, "We wish we had better data, but we're confident this rule will not have an emissions impact."

The rule allows industrial plants to avoid installing pollution-control devices when they replace equipment, even if the upgrade increases pollution, as long as the cost of the replacement is less than 20 percent of the cost of essential production equipment.

posted by Quiddity at 8/28/2003 04:38:00 AM

Heard on the radio:



posted by Quiddity at 8/27/2003 02:22:00 PM

Confuzzled:



posted by Quiddity at 8/27/2003 10:35:00 AM

A table for you:

The New York Times has an article that reviews various Compassionate Conservative projects that have failed to get full funing or support after Bush made a big deal out of them. Tapped has a few words about the story. Just to clarify the issue, we present a table version of the article.

Compassion Agenda item	Detractors point out	Money promised	Money budgeted	Bush defenders say
The so-called faith-based bill to help religious charities	Mr. Bush, after two years of objections from Democrats, retreated this spring and agreed to strip the bill of provisions specifically related to religious groups.
A proposal this summer to extend a $400-a-child tax credit to low-income families	Mr. Bush at first demanded that Congress appropriate the money, then backed off in the face of opposition from his conservative allies in the House, most notably the majority leader, Representative Tom DeLay of Texas.	$3 bil	0
The national volunteer program called AmeriCorps	Although Mr. Bush forcefully called for expanding that Clinton-era program in his 2002 State of the Union address, he was largely silent last month amid objections to a $100 million emergency infusion that it needed to maintain its current level of operations. The House rejected that spending, leaving AmeriCorps with an uncertain future.	$100 mil	0	"Even the president is not omnipotent," Mr. Bolten said of the House opposition to the AmeriCorps money. "Would that he were. He often says that life would be a lot easier if it were a dictatorship. But it's not, and he's glad it's a democracy."
Education reform	In January 2002, with great fanfare, Mr. Bush signed his No Child Left Behind Act, a landmark bill that mandated annual testing of children in Grades 3 through 8 and greatly enlarged the federal role in public education. Democrats like Senator Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts and Representative George Miller of California were crucial to its passage, and say they went along with the president on his assurances that the government would give states enough money to comply with it.	$18 bil	$12 bil	The White House has now asked for $12 billion to continue that financing next year, $6 billion less than the legislation authorizes. Mr. Bolten, the White House budget director, responded by saying that the president had asked for "some very substantial increases" in education spending — in fact, such spending has risen during his administration — and that the government's budget deficit "would be really way out of control" if the White House asked that all bills be financed to the limits allowed by law.
Mr. Bush's AIDS legislation	[Critics say Bush] has delivered less than promised. Last month, they note, the president toured Africa and heavily promoted his recently enacted bill to fight global AIDS, a measure that authorizes spending of $3 billion a year for five years. "I'm here to say you will not be alone in your fight," Mr. Bush said on July 12 in Nigeria, to applause. "In May, I signed a bill that authorizes $15 billion for the global fight on AIDS." That very week in Washington, the White House asked for only $2 billion, $1 billion less than authorized, for the first of the five years.	$3 bil	$2 bil
mentors to children of prisoners	[Bush called for] $50 million a year for three years Congress provided only $10 million in 2003	$50 mil	$10 mil
Access to Recovery drug treatment plan	Calls for $200 million a year for three years The House has agreed to provide $100 million for the program next year, but a Senate committee has voted it nothing.	$200 mil	$100 mil
Programs in general				White House officials say that given difficult political terrain, Mr. Bush has done well. James Towey, director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, said the president "takes every occasion to publicly announce how important these compassion agenda programs are to him." On some issues, Mr. Towey added, "Congress will go a lot farther on funding what he asks for than others." The president, his aide Mr. Towey said, has pioneered a new Republican approach to social programs, "and like any pioneer, it's tough going."
New proposals
Add a drug benefit to Medicare				Mr. Bush, Republicans say, is eager for a bipartisan piece of legislation in time for 2004 that he can cite as a part of his compassion agenda.

posted by Quiddity at 8/26/2003 03:46:00 PM

The president speaks!

From Remarks by the President To the 85th Annual American Legion National Convention

Al Qaeda and the other global terror networks recognize that the defeat of Saddam Hussein's regime is a defeat for them.

Does anybody seriously believe that?


posted by Quiddity at 8/26/2003 03:14:00 PM

10 Commandments update:

About.com has some good links and background information (in their athiesm section!). Also, there is a story about the sculptor of Roy's Rock. Excerpt: (emphasis added)

The man whose handiwork is now the center of national attention went unrecognized among the crowd of protesters outside the Alabama Supreme Court on Thursday, but Richard Hahnemann was happy in his anonymity.

Hahnemann, a Web designer for Adtran Inc., said he had been sculpting only about five years when a friend of Moore's contacted him around Thanksgiving of 2000, soon after Moore was elected chief justice.

With Moore's approval, Hahnemann ordered an 8,000-pound chunk of granite from the Rock of Ages Corp. of Barre, Vt., which claims to operate the world's largest granite quarry.

Hahnemann's first initial and last name are engraved on the base of the monument, below similar engravings for Moore and his lawyer, Steve Melchoir. The monument also bears a copyright stamp.

"The purpose of (the copyright) is to protect our commercial integrity," Hahnemann said.

posted by Quiddity at 8/26/2003 11:30:00 AM

Empire time:

In the news:

BBC launches public attack on Murdoch 'imperialism'

[The BBC spokeswoman's] comments come in the wake of a speech to the country's senior broadcasting executives by Tony Ball, chief executive of British Sky Broadcasting, in which Mr Murdoch's News Corporation is the major shareholder.

Mr Ball told the Edinburgh International Television Festival last week that the BBC ought to be forced to sell its most successful programmes, such as EastEnders, Casualty and Have I Got News For You to its commercial rivals, who would screen all future episodes instead. The money raised by such sales should then be ploughed into experimental programming, he said.

Executives at the BBC and elsewhere see the plan as a Murdoch-inspired attempt to cripple the corporation by depriving it of its most popular shows - and the large audiences that go with them.

Mr Ball told a questioner at the festival that it "would not be such a disaster" if the BBC were eventually to become a marginal broadcaster.

and

BBC chief warns over Murdoch dominance

The BBC will be left to fight a lone battle against Rupert Murdoch's BSkyB if the government does not intervene to prevent the collapse of ITV as a public service broadcaster, the corporation's director general Greg Dyke warned yesterday.

Really, what can you say when a corporation admits in public that it wants to take profitable entities from the government, simply to fatten their bottom line and shut down an alternative voice?


posted by Quiddity at 8/25/2003 02:04:00 PM

Faulty reasoning:



posted by Quiddity at 8/25/2003 11:15:00 AM

This is absurd:

From Ha'aretz: (excerpts, emphasis added)

U.S. checking possibility of pumping oil from northern Iraq to Haifa, via Jordan
By Amiram Cohen

The United States has asked Israel to check the possibility of pumping oil from Iraq to the oil refineries in Haifa. The request came in a telegram last week from a senior Pentagon official to a top Foreign Ministry official in Jerusalem.

Who is that "senior Pentagon official"? Who ever it is, he (or she) has an incredibly tin ear. That's really going to stoke the conspiracy theory machine - to the detriment of the U.S. effort on the ground in Iraq.


posted by Quiddity at 8/25/2003 10:22:00 AM