Don't hold your breath waiting for Norm Coleman to talk about this.
 

Thanks. You realize my winning doesn't negate the fact that far worse occured in NY, Paris and Moscow and none of you seem to care. I mean, don't worry, we'll clean that up too, but your selective sensitivity speaks for itself.

Don't hold your breath waiting for Norm Coleman to talk about this.
 

We know that money has gone to Lebanese banks and the food hasn't been delivered. While this has been reported, what makes you think something's been done about it?

This is the best summary I know about the oil-for-food scandal. It doesn't sound to me like the UN was getting rich from the bribes.

Don't hold your breath waiting for Norm Coleman to talk about this.
 

Interesting.

Jabouri has a notable past with Chalabi, who fired him from his long-held (pre-war) oil post. Jabouri says it was because he refused to deal with oil companies which had helped SH avoid the sanctions, while Chalabi says it was because Jabouri was dealing under the table with the oil companies which had helped SH avoid the sanctions. Can't quite figure out who was telling the truth.

So, is Jabouri a Bathist SH henchman thug/mobster/ripoff artist who is just finding ways to continue his past good works, or is he a cleaned-up noble figure valiantly trying to do his best for his country by working around Chalabi's outstretched hand? Either way, makes you wonder how he got this new job.

The good news is, there's now going to be a lot of pressure for that money to fly back home. Bad news is, if this is happening, what else is happening we haven't found yet?

Mike Meloy, a lawyer for Anita Big Spring, a voter who brought the case to the Supreme Court, said the decision was the right one. "There is no way for anybody to tell from those ballots what the voter intended," Mr. Meloy said. "Those voters violated the instructions given them, which was don't change your ballot and if you make a mistake, ask for a new ballot. Why would you want to give special consideration to someone who didn't follow instructions?"

If all Democrats recognized this, you'd be a more accepting party. Somehow, though, I bet the kind of Democrat who could win in Montana isn't real recognizable to your lot in California.

I'll gladly concede the Montana slot just to see a lawyer for the Democratic party letting this quote slip out:

"Those voters violated the instructions given them, which was don't change your ballot and if you make a mistake, ask for a new ballot. Why would you want to give special consideration to someone who didn't follow instructions?"

"Cooperation will be at a premium," said Dave Wanzenried, the Democratic leader in the House, who will become the next speaker.

If at least some Republicans recognized this, you'd be a more accepting party. Somehow, though, I bet the kind of Republican who could win in Montana (or, for that matter, lose in Montana) isn't real recognizable to the GOP governing class in Washington.

Don't hold your breath waiting for Norm Coleman to talk about this.
 

So do you care about this one, or are you just mad at us for not caring about the other one enough?

We don't need to evaluate why we lose elections, and lately don't need to accept defeat. The Montana Republicans are probably closer to Bush et al, than say, NY Republicans are to him.

Don't hold your breath waiting for Norm Coleman to talk about this.
 

I care. I would think in a new country with the $$$ flowing through, that the potential for fraud would be pretty big. So I'm not surprised.

Ty posted the article as part of his ongoing "Boy is Iraq fucked Up" series. His point, near as I can tell, is the US has done a terrible job in Iraq and should have stayed out. I was merely pointing out that with regard to this one topic, the diversion of big $$$, we are at least better off in that it was exposed.

We have a Texan as President, and a Wyomite as VP. Montana voted for them something like 60% to 39%.

Wyomite? That's confidence. I would have written "A guy from Wyoming."

Um, I think you and Hank are taking the side details of a mirrored post too literally.

But if you'd prefer to ignore the forest of "bi-partisan cooperation" to focus instead on the individual leaves of voting patterns for Prez in Montana, I can certainly understand that.

I'm sorry. To you the important part was the Dems promised to work together with Republicans? You may remember Bush did that in DC until the Dems realized it was time to run someone for President.

It takes a lot of leaves to get to 60% - almost enough for a forest by itself.

(Have you ever watched the parties in the Montana legislature and guv's office . . . umm . . . "cooperate"? This will either be funny, or groundbreaking.)

I was working within the confines of your material, Hank. Try as I might, there was only so much I could do.

We've had this argument before on this board, and as I recall it seemed to revolve around Republican pride in the unfunded mandates of No Child Left Behind. I'll grant you, repeating and rinsing apparently leads to electoral success, but let's not confuse it with the topic at hand.

Don't hold your breath waiting for Norm Coleman to talk about this.
 

If "well, at least we caught him this time" is your first reaction to hearing that the guy who headed up Iraq's oil coupon sales during the heyday of the oil-for-food program is making large untraceable deposits of Iraqi food money, then Ty must really be getting under your skin. Especially with you being so incensed about the oil-for-food program, and all.

Well, not in Montana*.











*with races that involve no more than 3,200 aggregate votes, that is.

Don't hold your breath waiting for Norm Coleman to talk about this.
 

I don't get it. Chalabi supposedly fired someone because he didn't play ball with SH? I realize I don't trust Chalabi as far as I can throw him, so there was probably some other dynamic going on here besides his side of the story, but I don't see any benefit to Chalabi for settling SH's scores.

Yeah. I'd have gone with "A guy from Dallas."

Don't hold your breath waiting for Norm Coleman to talk about this.
 

Nice tie-in.

Yesterday, I posted satire about the sea-gods being angry at SUV's and Kyoto, and sending the tsunami as punishment.

Today, the NYT runs a serious article about the sea-gods being angry at SUV's and Kyoto, and sending the tsunami as punishment.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/29/op...pagewanted=all

The reality-based community. Uh huh.

You need to up the meds, my man. Or else that link's broke.

Naw, I just get a kick out of stuff like this:

"In recent decades, thanks largely to the controversial Gaia Theory developed by the British scientists James Lovelock, it has become ever more respectable to consider the planet as one immense and eternally interacting living system--the living planet, floating in space, every part of its great engine affecting every other, for good or for ill.

Mr. Lovelock's notion, which he named after the earth goddess of the Ancient Greeks, makes much of the delicacy of the balance that mankind's environmental carelessness increasingly threatens. But his theory also acknowledges the somber necessity of natural happenings, many of which seem in human terms so tragically unjust, as part of a vast system of checks and balances. The events that this week destroyed the shores of the Indian Ocean, and which leveled the city of Bam [Iran] a year ago, were of unmitigated horror: but they may also serve some deeper planetary purpose, one quite hidden to our own beliefs."

It helps that I see the global warming movement as being mostly Wiccan. I suppose.

Aside to Hank and bilmore:
 

Don't hold your breath waiting for Norm Coleman to talk about this.
 

As you say, Hank, in a third-world country with $$$ flowing through, no one should be surprised at corruption. That it is happening in Iraq is not a particular indictment of anything the Bush Administration is doing there. But I know from your postings about oil-for-food that you conservatives are all bent on cleaning up that part of the Earth and want badly to hold people to a higher standard. I therefore was confident that you would to know about similar malfeasance by our Iraqi pals so that you can rant about them, too.

Aside to Hank and bilmore:
 

I sort of thought so. Explain that shit to Gattigap, K?

Aside to Hank and bilmore:
 

You understand, if this is the thanks people get for trying to elevate your prose, Hank, it'll never come off the bathroom walls. Keep this shit up and I'll have to break to you why all of your presents from the Secret Santa were re-gifts.

Don't hold your breath waiting for Norm Coleman to talk about this.
 

Yes, we agree they should go after this abuse that was not covered up, was not bribed into the shadows and will be dealt with. We are now dealing with 2 Iraq scandals- 1 was just longer term and took a regime change so that we could find out what our allies had been up to.

You find these equivalents I guess. Cheers!

Me? Well, I know corruption exists- remember we had a President a few years back who sold missile secrets to China for $$$. That was in the US, not the 3rd world (no Arkansas jokes Penske!). What's important to me is that it was exposed, and dealt with in a prudent and non-emotional manner.

Don't hold your breath waiting for Norm Coleman to talk about this.
 

That's nothing. We had a president before that who sold weapons to fucking Iran.

Interesting Prescription Drug Editorial
 

Written by a (soon to be former?) Pfizer exec.

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory...utlook/2970425

Don't hold your breath waiting for Norm Coleman to talk about this.
 

Wow! Really? Did he do it for personal gain, or was there some underlying political reason?

Don't hold your breath waiting for Norm Coleman to talk about this.
 

Hmmm. I think there was a political reason. Oh yeah, I remember, it was to subvert the Congress of the United States of America.

Don't hold your breath waiting for Norm Coleman to talk about this.
 

Funding the Contras? Buying a cake shaped like a key? Providing intel to SH and Iraq? I forget.

And could you give me cites* for the propositions that (a) Clinton sold missile secrets to China (b) for personal gain? Or is this like the drug-dealer airfield in Mesa?

*From a real news source, or at least from a semi-credible right-wing opinion mag like National Review.

Don't hold your breath waiting for Norm Coleman to talk about this.
 

the Clintonistas watch the cites with the real facts, I'm not linking to any of them. 26 who were "outed" are dead already. But read up bob- SS can't be helped. He's an idiot who can't follow logic- but you I have hopes for.

Don't hold your breath waiting for Norm Coleman to talk about this.
 

And we had one before that who traded a few weeks of freedom for hostages in Iran in exchange for a small measure of political advantage.

Don't hold your breath waiting for Norm Coleman to talk about this.
 

I like that your only positive data point is Fucking Carter! If only Mikey Moore could get elected....just doesn't have the TVQ. Maybe if he shaved.

Don't hold your breath waiting for Norm Coleman to talk about this.
 

Guys, the last week of December is for Newsies to write boring, depressing historical retrospectives on the Year/Decade/Century that Was. I'm not sure that we need to reenact that particular dynamic electronically.

Don't hold your breath waiting for Norm Coleman to talk about this.
 

This is fun. I waiting for Hank to tell us about the skeletons in Carter's closet. Or maybe we need bilmore, who may be the only person here who remembers those days well enough.

I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now.
 

The attack of the killer rabbit. "If Teddy runs, I'll whip his ass." Billy Beer. Ham Jordan's coke habit. Bert Lance. "I asked Amy about nuclear war." Malaise. Chrysler. Boycotting the Moscow Olympics. The Panama Canal. "I have lusted in my heart."