NOLA Update

Even after all this time, the horror stories of beaurocratic atrocities continue to flood from New Orleans.

Bill Quigley | New Orleans Residents Vow to Fight Federal Bulldozers

Bill Quigley, writing for Truthout, reports, “On the 12th day before Christmas, the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is planning to unleash teams of bulldozers to demolish thousands of low-income apartments in [...]

Numbers Never Lie

But, they sure can change in a hurry.

Ho Ho Ho

Sure, the dollar is plummeting, the housing market is tanking, and the entire U.S. banking industry is all but insolvent. But at least wages and employment have gone up this year or so we thought until the [...]

Take THAT!!

BIFF!!!  POW!!!  Hillary unleashes a full-scale assault on Obama.

Hillary Continues To Ratchet Up Rhetoric Against Obama

Hillary Rodham Clinton suggested Monday that Barack Obama has too little experience and perhaps too much ambition, pressing an increasingly aggressive campaign against her chief rival for the Democratic presidential nomination. Both candidates were in Iowa, one month before the nation’s leadoff caucuses with new polls showing [...]

Iran’s Nuclear Program

This might make you feel just a bit safer tonight.  And it should do a lot to derail any serious push for us to attack Iran.  I say SHOULD derail it.  But, you know those guys running around the White House and their penchant for doing whatever they want. No matter what…

NIE: Iran ‘Halted’ Nuclear Weapons Program In 2003, Unlikely To Develop A Weapon In This Decade

A new National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) released today concludes with “high confidence” that “in fall 2003, Tehran halted its nuclear weapons program.” From the report’s findings: “We assess with moderate confidence Tehran had not restarted its nuclear weapons program as of mid-2007, but we do not know whether it currently intends to develop nuclear weapons. We [...]

Mind-Boggling

The numbers are beyond comprehension.  At least for me, they are.  And they are more frightening than anything that’s ever come out of Hollywood.

National Debt Grows $1 Million a Minute

The Associated Press reports: “like a ticking time bomb, the national debt is an explosion waiting to happen. It’s expanding by about $1.4 billion a day - or nearly $1 million a minute. What’s that mean to you? It means almost $30,000 in debt for [...]

Give ‘Em Up

Documents.  He wants documents.  We can pretty much guess what the response will be, but it’s a fun little exercise in governing.

Waxman Requesting Documents From Patrick Fitzgerald

Marcy Wheeler is reporting that Henry Waxman is asking Patrick Fitzgerald for documents relevant to the outing of Valerie Plame — and he wants Michael Mukasey’s help in getting them. It looks like Waxman took the advice of looseheadprop and was very specific about making his request for “documents relating to any interviews outside the presence of [...]

Death By Cell Phone

Got your attention, didn’t I?  But, it’s not what you’re thinking. No new cancer scare. Instead, the end result of several things, including (I believe) the fact that darn near everbody has cell phones and nobody was using these anymore. Go on and click.  The post includes a photo of something some of you youngens might not have seen…a pay phone.

AT&T to hang up its pay phones

AT&T — or whatever company it is that’s going by that name these days — has decided to pull the plug on its pay phone business, over 100 years after the first coin-operated model was installed in Chicago. Currently, the telecom giant owns and operates public telephones in 13 states. With the number of [...]

He’s Back…

Don Imus is back on the radio. And on TV - kind of.  It’ll be really interesting to see how he handles things in the wake of the Rutgers disaster.

A Repentant Imus Returns to Radio

A repentant Don Imus returned to the airwaves this morning. He’s hired two African-American comedians as “sidekicks” and the three will provide ““an ongoing discussion about race relations in this country.”  He’s vowed to avoid making racially disparaging remarks. He says [...]

Good Press

Obama is picking up some good press this week, riding new poll results that look very good for him.

Obama Hits Stride and Leads Clinton In New Iowa Poll

Chris Cillizza at the Washington Post is impressed by Obama. Joe was convinced weeks ago that Hillary was in trouble. I was less convinced. And I still think that, regardless of whether she wins or loses the first two primaries, she’ll put it out in the end. But were Obama to win the Democratic nomination, could he win the national election? I’m constantly surprised by Republicans I meet who really like Obama. I think he has great cross-over potential for picking up Republican votes. But, [...]

Huckabee Notes For Tonight

Let’s create a new segment, shall we?  Let’s just call it “Huckabee Headlines” for simplicity’s sake.  For starters, he’s not riding high with ALL Conservative pundits..

“Huckabee: ‘a different kind of Jesus juice’”

This is infuriating and cringe inducing, “In 2005, a Republican state senator named Jim Holt introduced a bill to deny public benefits to Arkansas’ soaring population of illegal immigrants. Holt, a Southern Baptist minister, figured it was a rock-solid conservative idea — a matter, he said, “of right and wrong.” Arkansas’ governor [...]

Pro-Huckabee negative calls flood Iowa

Iowans report getting robo-calls slamming Giuliani, Thompson and McCain; Huckabee camp denies link [...]

UPDATE: Time Magazine’s blog, Real Clear Politics, figured out who’s behind it all…

A Pro-Huck Outfit Outed

Jonathan Martin has the goods on a pro-Huckabee outfit making push polling calls in Iowa attacking the other GOP candidates. Reports Martin: “Trust Huckabee,” whose website went live last week, was [...]

The Rise of the Outsider

Michael Barone has a timely piece this morning, chronicling how Iowa voters may be ready to upset the conventional wisdom. It’s all of a piece with what may be this campaign’s first major [... ]

The Power Of Christianism

It’s propelling Huckabee to national status; and it allows him to rally an informal national network of pastors, whom he’s addressing in Iowa this [...]

But, bottom line - new polls show they like him in Iowa. They really like him..

Giuliani’s fast decline, Huckabee’s rise

I alway feared Huckabee’s potential, though was heartened by his utter inability to raise any money. Well, he’s gotten a serious boost from the 1-2 punch of the YouTube debate and the Sex on the City scandal. On 11/30, Rasmussen’s tracking poll had Giuliani at [...]

No Protection Needed

Making a few political points, are we? Quite effectively, I’d say…

Bloomberg’s girlfriend: I don’t need Judith Nathan style security

Oh this is too cute. Mayor Bloomberg’s girlfriend has reacted to news that Rudy Giuliani’s girlfriend Judith Nathan used taxpayer funds to finance lavish vacations in The Hamptons and the NYPD as her personal taxi and security service: Unlike her predecessor as mayoral girlfriend, Mike Bloomberg’s gal pal, investment banker Diana Taylor, has never had a [...]

Being A Morman

Romney thinks a little speech, ala John Kennedy, might fix his perception problem among people who don’t understand what being a Morman is all about.  Here’s one blogger who thinks it’s not gonna work.

 Romney’s ‘religion speech’ won’t work

After months of speculation and unsolicited advice, Mitt Romney suggested a few weeks ago that he was inclined to give a major campaign speech outlining his religious beliefs and how his Mormon faith might affect his administration, but his campaign aides were against it, saying it would “draw too much attention” to Romney’s religious tradition. Asked [...]

Manic Monday

Up early today to take our heartworm puppy back to the vet for her checkup. (UPDATE: progress, but not 100%. All the adult heartworms are killed. That’s good.  But the baby ones survived today’s treatment.  There’s apparently a new breed of heartworm that is immune to the current drugs. The vet is trying another one tomorrow.  Hopefully, it will work. At least she’s off the leash and can run the backyard. )

I guess I’m getting old and set in my ways, but anything like that to take me out of my routine throws the entire day off! Then, sitting here tonight, working through bloglines looking for interesting stuff, I’m caught up realizing that we don’t have any Christmas decorations up and a trip north for our daughter’s college graduation looming in less than two weeks.  I really need to figure out a way to squeeze more hours into the day or more energy into my life.

What’s happening tonight?  Depressing reports out of Baghdad that, while violence is down, disease is up. 

It’s all hunky dory in Iraq

The surge is surging, refugees are being evicted returning from Syria and elsewhere, and President Bush has his permanent bases for as long as he wants them. Put on a happy face because all is right with the Iraqi world (nevermind those cowardly reporters who refuse to go anywhere in Baghdad without military protection). It’s all just fine and dandy over in the central front on the War on Terror, except for this itsy-bitsy concern about a cholera epidemic. [...]

There’s still more “good” news out of Iraq:

60 Minutes: Reverend Canon White says: The situation is clearly worse in Iraq now for Christians

Scott Pelley’s disturbing report on 60 Minutes shows just one angle of the carnage that continues in Iraq despite the surge — the cleansing of Iraqi Christians. Pelley interviews Andrew White, a minister who suffers from Multiple Sclerosis and runs one of the few remaining Christian churches left [...]