Corrente

Remember this one? AP:

Right after he was re-elected [sic] with just a 3.5 million-vote margin in the popular vote, Bush proudly claimed a mandate to pursue an aggressive agenda. "I earned capital in the campaign — political capital — and now I intend to spend it. It is my style," he said.

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Massive takedown by Reddhedd:

Pantload Media
When the wingnuts chant their talking points like a bunch of tambourine-beaters at the airport, they want to be paid for their efforts. And Pajamas Media was set up to do just that. They received by some accounts $7 million dollars to subsidize 70 right wing bloggers, and if you look at their sites there are no ads, many don't even identify their affiliation with a logo.

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So if Bush has all the "inherent authority" He claims to have, why does He even bother to have His lackeys show up in court? Prawfsblawg asked the same question, using fancier words: Read below the fold...

Is Bush out of touch, or what? WaPo:

According to a poll this month for the Hotline political newsletter, which asked whether Congress should tackle Iraq or the Katrina recovery first in 2006, Americans wanted the Gulf Coast rebuilt by 58 percent to 28 percent.

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How inspiring to the masses that Dear Leader has so many skills! Howie in WaPo:

President Bush has been summoning newspaper editors lately in an effort to prevent publication of stories he considers damaging to national security.

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Literally, yes (scroll all the way down).

Of course, I'm sure that there's no reason to read anything into that.

No reason at all.

NOTE Reminder from Crokks and Liars. Read below the fold...

Of course, Bush lied to us about the scale of His warrantless surveillance program, and it took all of a day for that lie to unravel. Now, the experts, the insiders, the well connected are all wondering: How bad is it, really? The consensus is: Pretty bad. And domestic surveillance--not this "foreign" figleaf--is almost certainly involved. Merry Christmas, America! The LA Times: Read below the fold...

... and are slumped in our chairs and our sofas and our La-Z-Boys, stunned from the orgy of consumerism and glassy-eyed, here are two things to remember:

1. Stuff doesn't make you happy. This is an economist's perspective from Big Picture, and it's interesting. ("Stuff" modulo "stuff" like food and shelter, of course). Read below the fold...

From Harry to George:

Thought I'd troll Yahoo News to see what Harry was up to, and came on this little gem of a non-apology apology. Pahrump Valley Times:

The only regret Reid acknowledged about his first year as minority leader was calling President Bush a loser in a May speech to a class of Las Vegas students. He later issued an apology.

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+++

(Jivester News, Lmtd.) Cambria, California, an hour and a half south of Big Sur and just a ten minute drive from Hearst Castle, is a perfectly quiet and unpretentious, just-plain-folks-bit of America on the West Coast, a place for humanoids to relax and pass time and wind. But apparently Cambria is just as annoying a town as any other, at least according to Jesus of Nazareth, the eponymous Christian leader who fled to this low-key modest seaside town in search of peace and quiet. Read below the fold...

[it's nice to be right.]

By carefully examining how Republicans parse their statements about Bush's warrantless, openly felonious, and treasonous^[1] domestic surveillance program, and combining that with network engineering knowledge available through open sources, alert reader philosophicus has advanced our understanding of the NSA surveillance system Bush set up.

Long story short: (1) Internet surveillance is Bush's goal, not voice calls; (2) the Republican "wiretap" talking point is a diversion, to voice, away from from Internet surveillance; (3) Bush's domestic surveillance system would pose no engineering challenges whatever to NSA. No rocket science--or tinfoil hats--required.

In a future installment of this series, we'll look at the text mining component of this program, assess its impact, and see whether it's going to work (no). Read on: Read below the fold...

And I hope you're warm and safe.... Read below the fold...

The very first words of the Christmas story in the Christmas Eve service I just got back from. Je repete:

"In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered." (ESV translation of Luke 2:1.)

How timely.

How very, very timely. Read below the fold...

Shystee tips for getting into this funky holiday:

1. Ninjatune's Solid Steel Christmas Mix

It's a weekly DJ show out of London and you know those Brits love them some Critmit. The first hour features a bunch of Christmas-related hip-hop and other funky business, including: Read below the fold...

Via Boing boing, here's the recipe:

1. Set up a Hotmail account.

2. Set up a second email account with a non-U.S. provider. (eg. Rediffmail.com)

3. Send messages between the two accounts which might be interesting to the NSA.

"Hey, Osama: Thanks for the terrific "War on Christmas" Calendar!" Et cetera. Then: Read below the fold...