Ex-aide renounces Bush

Chief Bush campaign strategist Matthew Dowd tells the NYT he's disenchanted:

“I really like him, which is probably why I’m so disappointed in things,” he said.

Yeah, imagine how the rest of us feel.

French leave

I like the flap over the number of deserters. Are they counting Bush, or not?

Run, Dick, run.

See Dick run:

Cheney takes refuge in bomb shelter after Afghan blast.

Pack of liars

Today on GMA I heard that wolves take care of their old and sick.

It's regrettable but hardly surprising that an animal notorious for rapacity is more humane than the current Administration:

In the months since the election, President Bush has escalated the war in Iraq and made serious threats and allegations (unsupported by evidence) that could presage an attack against Iran. He has proposed a health-care reform measure that, as a side effect, would largely wipe out Social Security for low and moderate income workers. President Bush has also proposed gradually phasing out Medicare for middle income retirees over the next 4 or 5 decades. --Dean Baker

Can you hear me now?

The Earth stages a guerilla marketing campaign on Super Bowl weekend:

Florida tornado released on same day as IPPC report.


Global Climate Change-- brought to you by YOU!

Uppity woman will be missed

Molly Ivins' first newspaper job was in the complaint department of the Houston Chronicle, followed by the position of sewer editor. She went on to the Minneapolis Tribune, where she was the first woman police reporter in that city and, later, the reporter who covered a beat called Movements for Social Change, where she notes that she wrote about "militant blacks, angry Indians, radical students, uppity women and a motley assortment of other misfits and troublemakers." She left the Tribune to write for the Texas Observer from 1970 to 1976. The New York Times, concerned that its prevailing writing style was too staid and lifeless, hired her away from the Observer in 1976, and she wrote for the Times until 1982. Her more colorful style clashed with the editors' expectations, and in 1982, after she wrote about a "community chicken-killing festival" and called it a "gang-pluck," she was dismissed. She then wrote for the Dallas Times Herald from 1982 until the paper's demise in 1992, moving in that year to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, her current home paper. --Creators Syndicate

Molly's last column ends:

We are the people who run this country. We are the deciders. And every single day, every single one of us needs to step outside and take some action to help stop this war. Raise hell. Think of something to make the ridiculous look ridiculous. Make our troops know we're for them and trying to get them out of there. Hit the streets to protest Bush's proposed surge.

Schieffer takes a stand

Bob Schieffer is mad as hell and he's not going to take it any more. This is how he ended "Face the Nation" Sunday:

Schieffer: Can We Handle the Truth?

During the court martial scene in the movie "A Few Good Men," young Navy prosecutor Tom Cruise put Marine Colonel Jack Nicholson on the stand and demanded the truth.

Nicholson replied, "The truth? You can't handle the truth!"

A memorable line, but we are left to ask: Has the government concluded Nicholson's character was right, that Americans can't handle the truth?

As the war has grown worse, we have heard government spokesmen from the top on down tell us "Stuff happens," "Mission accomplished," "Enormous progress," "The good news is not reported."

We can't even get a straight story on how our troops die.

Last week, the Pentagon first reported that four Americans were killed in Iraq while repelling an enemy attack. Then on Friday we were told they had actually been kidnapped during a shootout and executed, two of them handcuffed and shot in the head.

In the hours after the killings, reporters who had pieced together the real story were told their version was inaccurate. The new Secretary of Defense claimed he was unaware of the new information an hour before it was announced.

The government argues that public criticism hurts the war effort, but it is being damaged much more by its own loss of credibility brought on by such incidents.

Truth is the foundation of democracy and Americans can handle the truth — they demand it. History shows that when they fail to get it, they no longer follow their leaders, no matter the cause. They are more likely to just change leaders.

I applaud Bob Schieffer's courageous stand. He is clearly outraged by this administration's casual dismissal of important values such as truth and human life.

Thank you for speaking up, Bob, and speaking truth to power. If more journalists had dared to challenge this arrogant administration, we might not now be debating our painful way out of the Iraq quagmire.

Never mind the rabid rightwing bloggers, ("You know, this is rediculous. Just rediculous. Bob", "Bob Schieffer, you are full fledged, flaming, card carrying liberal.") full speed ahead.