I'm Making a List, Checking It Twice.

Man there is so much to get outraged about today. However, I have my own problems, with my car being out in Arlington for a scheduled service. Where to start?

Downing Street Memo. Finally, someone in Congress shows a little bit of fortitude and decides to go inquire into an official British government document alleging that BushCo was cooking the books on Iraq, much like his buddy Ken Lay cooked the books at Enron. Birds of a fucking feather my friends. Only problem is, no one seems to care about this outrage that has cost, to date, 1700 U.S. armed forces lives, not to mention the other forces of the "coalition" and the countless Iraqi civilian lives. In the mainstream press (the one that's supposedly so liberal), the story remains secondary to other news (such as being linked to the Bolton nomination) and is even downplayed by "liberal" apologists. Where the hell are Woodward and Bernstein when you need them?

2. U.S. pressures G8 to strip language on global warming. The biggest question here is why on earth did the other 7 go along with this discredited administration's bullying? The Bush administration has brought with them the biggest pseudoscientific quacks this side of a Scientology rally. Here's the choicest bit from the Post's story:

Last week, the New York Times reported that a senior White House official had
altered government documents to emphasize the uncertainties surrounding the
science on global warming. That official, White House Council on Environmental
Quality chief of staff Phillip Cooney, left the administration last Friday to
take a public relations job with oil giant Exxon Mobil, a leading opponent of
mandatory limits on greenhouse gas emissions.

Quack-Quack-Quack-Quack, Quack Quack.

3. Senator/Physician Bill Frist contends he wasn't making a medical diagnosis on Terri Schiavo. A transcript of what he said back on March 17th is available on the crypto-fascist National Review website. He claims he is speaking "more as a physician than as a United States senator." Hmmm. Sounds like he's bringing his medical expertise into play here. He quite clearly invokes his specific medical background as a "transplant surgeon," which apparently has some bearing on Terri Schiavo's case of brain damage. After yakking on interminably using lots and lots of hedging words -- "maybe," "from what I've heard," etc. -- and repeating over and over the misleading assertion that somehow this whole Schiavo fiasco was the result of one judge acting alone with one neurologist acting alone with one husband acting alone to terminate this woman who would be vibrant and healthy again if only she could get some physical therapy, he finally gets around to the basis upon which he determines that Terri Schiavo is not in a persistent vegetative state: "I question it based on a review of the video footage which I spent an hour or so looking at last night in my office here in the Capitol." Now that the autopsy has shown Frist up as the charlatan he is, Frist is trying to weasel out by saying he didn't make any diagnosis on the Senate floor. Hmmm. I guess when he says he's speaking as a physician he's not making a diagnosis. What a goddamned fraud.

But back to my car. I had to drive out into Arlington to drop the car off. OK, no problem. I drive out over the Roosevelt Bridge, take Spout Run to 29, take 29 a mile or two and drop the car off. It's quick. Then the dealership shuttle takes me to the Ballston Metro. Ballston metro? I drove about five minutes and now I'm coming in on the Metro from the friggin boondocks? I had to watch out for all the banjo picking extras from Deliverance. But I jest, my dear VA friends, so don't get your knickers in a twist.