Internal Monologue

tristero quoting Krugman : Voters are exasperated with the Democrats, not because they think Congressional leaders are too liberal, but because they don't see Congress doing anything to stop the war. Republican spin-meisters are constantly pointing out that Congress (controlled by Democrats) has lower approval ratings than Bush. What they don't point out is why : people want Congress to do more to stop the war, and to oppose and investigate Bush.

I don't know how substantiated this stuff is , but what's the blogosphere for if not to spread rumors? The sad thing is, I don't think any of this stuff is actually going to help the GOP get over its homophobia. Not that the GOP is trying to. They're trying to use it to motivate the base. Fortunately, time is not on their side.

I'm not surprised by this Blumenthal article, but it still staggers the mind when you stop to think about it. The CIA had documented information from Iraq's foreign minister that Iraq had no nuclear, chemical, or biological capability. Tenet briefed Bush on this on September 18, 2002. But the information never went anywhere: On Sept. 18, 2002, CIA director George Tenet briefed President Bush in the Oval Office on top-secret intelligence that Saddam Hussein did not have weapons of mass destruction, according to two former senior CIA officers. Bush dismissed as worthless this information from the Iraqi foreign minister, a member of Saddam's inner circle, although it turned out to be accurate in every detail. Tenet never brought it up again. Nor was the intelligence included in the National Intelligence Estimate of October 2002, which stated categorically that Iraq possessed WMD. No one in Congress was aware of the secret intelligence that Saddam had no WMD as the House of

If you spend your time reading obscure political blogs like Internal Monologue , but haven't registered to vote, I humbly suggest you re-prioritize your political activities and click the widget above. It will live on my sidebar indefinitely, so if you're a procrastinator, rest assured it will be there for you. This is part of an effort by the folks at Working Assets, and I hope they are wildly successful. They were clever enough to have tracking software so I can tell how many people I've registered. I've put the counter in the sidebar so everyone can see how much I've contributed to our democratic polity (that's democratic with a small "d"; it works for Republicans too). Of course, at the moment the counter stands at zero, so please get someone to register via that link so that embarrassment will be removed from my site.

Remember those stories about dying honey bee colonies? It looks like a virus might be responsible .

Glad to hear she made it : As we crossed the border and saw the last of the Iraqi flags, the tears began again. The car was silent except for the prattling of the driver who was telling us stories of escapades he had while crossing the border. I sneaked a look at my mother sitting beside me and her tears were flowing as well. There was simply nothing to say as we left Iraq. I wanted to sob, but I didn’t want to seem like a baby. I didn’t want the driver to think I was ungrateful for the chance to leave what had become a hellish place over the last four and a half years. The Syrian border was almost equally packed, but the environment was more relaxed. People were getting out of their cars and stretching. Some of them recognized each other and waved or shared woeful stories or comments through the windows of the cars. Most importantly, we were all equal. Sunnis and Shia, Arabs and Kurds… we were all equal in front of the Syrian border personnel. We were all refugees- rich or poor. And

An iceberg melts in Kulusuk, Greenland near the Arctic circle. Photo: John McConnico/AP, stolen by me from Guardian Unlimited I just saw this diary on Kos . Apparently, the arctic ice cap is melting a lot faster than expected : The Arctic ice cap has collapsed at an unprecedented rate this summer and levels of sea ice in the region now stand at record lows, scientists have announced. Experts say they are "stunned" by the loss of ice, with an area almost twice as big as the UK disappearing in the last week alone. So much ice has melted this summer that the Northwest passage across the top of Canada is fully navigable, and observers say the Northeast passage along Russia's Arctic coast could open later this month. Let's put foot-tapping Republican Senators on the back burner for a while (I'm as guilty of piling on as anyone) and start addressing some pressing issues please.