One of the more frustrating aspects of the current furor over the manipulation of pre-war intelligence is the posturing - on both sides of the aisle - as if the evidence refuting the White House's interpretation of the evidence is a shocking new accusation. I remember it quite differently. What I remember most was Democratic leaderships' failure to step up to the plate with information that was available to me - a lowly paralegal with no political connections whatsoever.

With the limited resources available to me here at my desk (without tapping into Lexis), I found this line by line refutation of the claims made in the 2003 State of the Union address, posted by the Center for Public Accuracy on March 1, 2003. That article links to a News Hour interview which mentions doubts about the purpose of the aluminum tubes and other claims. It also links to the text of a speech given by Dr. ElBaradei, given to the UN the day before the President's speech. In it he states that, while they were not exactly volunteering information, Iraq was being cooperative with the weapons inspectors.

http://www.accuracy.org/article.php?articleId=1030

www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/middle_east/jan-june03/inspectors_1-27.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/28/international/middleeast/28ETEX.html

The Bush administration simply lied in the face of this contemporaneous information. Bush and Cheney's assertions then and now are patently false and it was clearly illegal for the US to invade on the basis of these lies. The President started a war he thought he could win because he knew Iraq was not armed with WMD.

This is the beauty of an omniscient god. He can destroy cities, torture prime ministers, blow innocent people to bits, and still has time to dish with Robertson and Falwell.

Boy, I’d like to get a look at His PDA.

Alito seems to be defending statements made on the 1985 job application by claiming he was merely saying what he had to say in order to get job in the Meese DOJ.

Why should we believe he isn't doing exactly same thing in this confirmation hearing? It seems to be an admission that he'll say anything to anyone if there's a paycheck in it for him.

This is sad, but kind of cute at the same time. Considering how often we use our faerie powers to cause hurricanes, earthquakes, tsunamis and a variety of diseases, you poor heterosexuals must be scared to death. Even the Four Horsemen tend to cross the street when they see us coming.

Incidentally, I was over at my Homosexual Recruiter's office the other day and a plague of locusts was all the buzz. You might want to consider buying stock in Raid.

At least Joe McCarthy had the balls to hold up a blank piece of paper and say it contained a list of known Communists that had infiltrated all levels of government. Now, the government and the press are riddled with terrorists. Are we seeing the build-up to the reassembly of the House Un-American Activities Committee?

Another huge flaw in Hoekstra's logic - wouldn't it make more sense to let the U.S. believe its illegal spying programs were still secret so that the terrorists could work around them without being detected? Don't spies usually pass their information on to other spies, rather than alerting the planet that they know something we don't know? Or have I been watching too many spy movies?

I was brought up to believe that whistle-blowers are heroes. When the government is spying on us, the people have a right to know. The Radical Republicans are shouting, “Treason!” and “Off with his head!” How much more Un-American can you get?

This morning I have heard iPhone stories on NPR and the local news. There are stories on msnbc.com and cnn.com (to be fair, cnn.com also has a Bigfoot story in its headlines) and sfgate.com has an entire iPhone page. It stinks of coordinated, corporate sponsored, fake news.

Then I come to salon.com, the place I go for a bit of sanity and respite from advernews, and here's another article about the iPhone. If that wasn't bad enough, the article is by a writer I respect.

Apple is making suckers of you all. You're buying gadgets you don't need, that isolate you from what is going on around you, and are priced far beyond their worth. Nobody seems to notice that Apple engages in the same antitrust behavior that keeps Microsoft's lawyers fat and happy. In fact, they pretty much invented it. We should be boycotting Apple, not shoveling money into its insatiable maw.

I call my Mother on Father's day. My mother left my father before I was a year old. I'd visit him on random weekends and for a couple of excrutiating weeks every summer, but he never lifted a finger to help raise me. It was my mother, always.

I don't know anything about having a father, but I'm pretty certain it has something to do with being there when your child needs you. Like, I really could have used someone who could teach me how to shave.

Don't feel bad that your biological father thinks himself under-appreciated. That's his fault. Go out and celebrate the man who was there when you needed him.

The timing of this article is brilliant! Just this morning, on NPR's Morning Edition, McCain said that people who couldn't see the humor in his Obama/Paris Hilton ad should, "turn off the computer, go outside and get some fresh air."

Not only is he ignorant about technology, he's ignorant about the people who use it.