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Wal-Mart Turns in Student’s Anti-Bush Photo, Secret Service Investigates Him | progresive.org:

By Matthew Rothschild
October 4, 2005

Selina Jarvis is the chair of the social studies department at Currituck County High School in North Carolina, and she is not used to having the Secret Service question her or one of her students.

But that’s what happened on September 20.

Does this seem a bit insane to anyone else?  The picture wasn’t even all that outrageous, either.  I know that the secret service was following up w/ due diligence, but shouldn’t there be some reprimand for the Wal-Mart employee?
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CNN.com – Palestinian: Bush spoke of Iraq as divine mission – Oct 7, 2005:
In advance excerpts from the television series “Elusive Peace: Israel and the Arabs” to be broadcast this month, Shaath says: “President Bush said to all of us: ‘I’m driven with a mission from God. God would tell me, ‘George, go and fight those terrorists in Afghanistan’.

”And I did, and then God would tell me, ‘George, go and end the tyranny in Iraq’. And I did.

“And now, again, I feel God’s words coming to me, ‘Go get the Palestinians their state and get the Israelis their security, and get peace in the Middle East’. And by God I’m gonna do it’,” Shaath quotes him as saying.

In response, White House spokesman Scott McClellan told reporters in Washington: “He’s never made such comments.”

Shaath, who at the time was foreign minister under then- prime minister Abbas, confirmed what he had told the BBC.

But he added: “It was really a figure of speech (by Bush). We felt he was saying that he had a mission, a commitment, his faith in God would inspire him … rather than a metaphysical whisper in his ear.”

In the past, this wouldn’t have been a huge deal.  The problem I have w/ this is that we’re supposed to be a nation that’s working on separating church from state.

The president was re-elected based largely on the support of the ultra-conservative states that rallied behind a man who was so openly religious.  I don’t have a problem with this:  the idea behind our system is that people can choose a leader based on whatever their own personal beliefs are.  The guy who wins will ideally be the one who’s beliefs match up best w/ the majority of the nation.

Here’s the rub:  we’re also a nation that claims to be about welcoming all people and honoring *their* beliefs.  If we’re TRULY going to live up to this ideology, then we need to govern our nation w/ some sense of religious neutrality, leading back to the point of separating church from state.

Freeing Iraqis from tyranny is an admirable notion, and it’s definitely A Good Thing™, but committing an entire nation to a war that has no end in sight (which is great news for Halliburton, no?) based on one man’s belief’s is SO two thousand years ago.

CNN.com – DeLay faces money laundering charge – Oct 3, 2005:
DeLay faces money laundering charge
Former majority leader calls indictment ‘abomination of justice’

WASHINGTON (CNN) — A Texas grand jury brought a charge of money laundering Monday against Rep. Tom DeLay, the former House majority leader indicted last week on conspiracy charges stemming from a campaign finance probe.

DeLay and two associates are now also charged with conspiring to illegally steer $190,000 in corporate donations to state legislative candidates in 2002 and to disguise its source by sending it through national Republican campaign committees.

To be fair, it *does* seem like the Dems are trying to hit him w/ two charges on a related crime, but to that I say, it’s about time.  DeLay’s lawyer is trying to get the charges dropped because his client’s alleged conspiracy isn’t subject to the state code cited, but instead to the state election code.

This is just too slimy for me — as a child, my older brother told me, “You know when you’re doing wrong.”  Whether or not a technicality admonishes him or not, something doesn’t smell right.  This is what’s wrong w/ American politics — there’s just no room for people in Washington who act on what they know is right.  As soon as they make too much noise, they’re crushed by people who aren’t afraid to lie to the press and make up damaging news stories, or even just embellish upon the truth.  By the time the real story is brought to light, the damage is done, and your career is over.

The wife & I were discussing how much we both admired and were disappointed w/ Senator McCain.  By all accounts, this man is a real-life war hero.  As a fellow alum, I have a certain amount of respect and reverence for him — he’s the embodiment of that unflinching manliness you see in films where men are willing to die for freedom, the American way and trade their own life for the lives of his men.  Yes — he really did stuff like that.  Our beef is that after Bush publicly crushed him in a smear campaign during the ’04 election campaign, he quietly took his place aside the rest of the republicans in their efforts to get Bush re-elected.

The sad reality is that McCain knows that he can NEVER climb to presidency if he doesn’t play the game.  That’s just how DC works — don’t play the game and you’re finished. 

It’ll be interesting to see if the Democrats can make this one stick.

CNN.com – Schiavo autopsy finds no sign of trauma – Jun 15, 2005:
Schiavo autopsy finds no sign of trauma

LARGO, Florida (AP) — An autopsy on Terri Schiavo backed her husband’s contention that she was in a persistent vegetative state, finding that she had massive and irreversible brain damage and was blind, the medical examiner’s office said Wednesday. It also found no evidence that she was strangled or otherwise abused.

So the question now is, when will everyone apologize to her husband?  He was accused of a lot of different things, and the autopsy has pretty much cleared him of everything.  I remember her parents saying some pretty rude things about him… and the government, too.

What are the chances of getting Dubya to apologize?

What’s worse is that I heard that her family is now disputing the results of the autopsy.
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