Bush to Senate: Go Cheney Yourself

C-Plus Caligula has realized it really IS easier when he's the dictator:

President Bush sidestepped the Senate and installed embattled nominee John Bolton as ambassador to the United Nations on Monday, ending a five-month impasse with Democrats who accused Bolton of abusing subordinates and twisting intelligence to fit his conservative ideology.

Yup, the adults sure are in charge.

GWB as mayor of Amity Island

Hoffmania expresses my concerns about the shuttle's safe return exactly.

Kagaya, Hurstville

Kagaya is one of those places you're tempted to keep to yourself. It's crowded enough. It doesn't need more patronage. How on earth will I get a table on Friday nights now?We are in Hurstville, in Sydney's south-west, and although it is barely 6.30pm on a Friday night, Kagaya is already packed out. Thank goodness we have a booking (of course)!My companions have been here before and recommend the

Kagaya, Hurstville

Kagaya is one of those places you're tempted to keep to yourself. It's crowded enough. It doesn't need more patronage. How on earth will I get a table on Friday nights now?We are in Hurstville, in Sydney's south-west, and although it is barely 6.30pm on a Friday night, Kagaya is already packed out. Thank goodness we have a booking (of course)!My companions have been here before and recommend the

And you thought Rove-a-palooza had been forgotten

TIME:

As the investigation tightens into the leak of the identity of covert CIA operative Valerie Plame, sources tell TIME some White House officials may have learned she was married to former ambassador Joseph Wilson weeks before his July 6, 2003, Op-Ed piece criticizing the Administration. That prospect increases the chances that White House official Karl Rove and others learned about Plame from within the Administration rather than from media contacts. Rove has told investigators he believes he learned of her directly or indirectly from reporters, according to his lawyer.

It'll be interesting to see Republicans defend lying to investigators, especially when they were salivating to see Martha Stewart go to jail for doing the same thing.

Thus spake Jill as far back as 1988

Back in 1988, when Bush père was running for president, I said "The Bush family regards this country as a private fiefdom to benefit only their family members and friends."

I was right then, and I'm right now, with one addendum: They regard the whole WORLD as their own private fiefdom.

Krugman agrees:

...the administration is getting nowhere on its grand policy agenda. But it never took policy, as opposed to politics, very seriously anyway. The agenda it has always taken with utmost seriousness - consolidating one-party rule, and rewarding its friends - is moving forward quite nicely.

[snip]

Let's start with the energy bill. Even the bill's supporters barely pretend that it will do anything to reduce America's dependence on imported oil. It's simply an exercise in corporate welfare, full of subsidies and targeted tax breaks.

Then there's the pork-stuffed highway bill. I guess we'll have to stop making fun of Japanese public works spending: now America, too, is building bridges to islands that have almost no inhabitants, but lie in the districts of influential legislators.

Finally, Cafta contains "free trade" in its title, but that's misleading. The administration rammed the bill through the House by, among other things, promising to limit imports of clothing from China; over all, the effect may well be to reduce, not increase, international trade. But pharmaceutical companies got measures that protect and extend their monopoly rights in Central America.

These bills don't have anything to do with governing, if governing means trying to achieve actual policy goals like energy independence or expanded trade. They're just machine politics at work, favors granted in return for favors received.

In fact, you can argue that the administration does a bad job at governing in part because its highest priority is always to reward its friends.

Does George Pataki truly believe the Christofascists will vote for him?

New York women are already casualties of Gov. George Pataki's presidential aspirations:

Gov. George E. Pataki's aides said last night that he would veto a bill to make the so-called morning-after pill available without a prescription, prompting outrage among abortion-rights advocates.

Kevin C. Quinn, a spokesman for the governor, said in a statement that the governor's main objection was that the bill did not include provisions that would prevent minors from having access to the drug.

Mr. Quinn said the governor would be willing to reconsider the measure if the Legislature drafted and passed a new bill that addressed his concerns about the drug's availability to minors, as well as "other flaws."

Mr. Pataki's decision comes as he lays the groundwork for a presidential run in 2008 and underscores the forces he must negotiate as he steps onto the national stage.

Mr. Pataki's position as a longtime supporter of abortion rights has enabled him to survive in heavily Democratic New York for three terms. Had he signed the bill, he would have angered national conservatives, who are adamantly opposed to the emergency contraception and whose support he will need.

The governor revealed his position after he was asked about plans by Naral Pro-Choice New York, to start a nationwide television advertising blitz intended to pressure him into backing the bill.

The group's planned blitz stems from Mr. Pataki's initial refusal to say whether he would support the bill, which would make the morning-after pill, which prevents pregnancy after sex, available to women and girls without a prescription. When told of the advertising campaign last night, the Pataki administration reacted with surprise and later said the governor would veto the measure.

That spurred fierce criticism from abortion-rights advocates, who noted the difficulty in getting the Republicans, who control the Senate, to pass the measure the first time.

"It was a Herculean task to get it through the Senate and get the support of right-to-life senators who saw this as good common ground prevention," said Kelli Conlin, executive director of Naral Pro-Choice New York. Noting that Mr. Pataki had not raised any concerns about minors' having access to the drug before, she accused him of trying to placate conservatives in his possible presidential bid.

Further, Ms. Conlin noted that under Mr. Pataki, the state has covered the costs of abortions and abortion-inducing drugs for low-income minors. "This is about pandering to the right wing of the Republican Party rather than doing what's right for the women of New York," she said.

Mr. Quinn, the governor's spokesman, denied that politics had played into the decision.

And I am Marie of Rumania.

The morning-after pill is designed to PREVENT the need for abortions. It works by preventing a fertilized egg, if one exists, from implanting in the uterus and becoming a pregnancy.

The problem with so-called "right to life" objections to the morning-after pill is that they confer full humanity on a fertilized egg. Up to 30% of fertilized eggs never implant. The most widely-used contraceptives, including the IUD and all hormone-related methods such as the pill, patch, and Norplant, work in much the same way.

Opening the door to preventing access to emergency contraception on these grounds opens the door not just to a ban of these methods of pre-coitus birth control, but also to government policing of women to ensure that they do nothing to prevent a fertilized egg from implanting. I've made a lot of noise about the prospect of submitting used tampons to the government for microscopic examination and resulting potential prosecution if fertilized eggs are present. This has historically been hype used to illustrate a point. But cynical political gestures like Pataki's, as well as the efforts of the Christofascists, make such an outcome entirely plausible.

It's alarming that women are regarded as so expendable if they stand in the way of Pataki's presidential aspirations -- especially since the Christofascists would vote for Satan incarnate before they'd vote for a New York governor.