A team of archaeologists from Texas claim they have found Noah's Ark on a mountainside in Iran.News of the Texas archaeologists is about as riveting as news that a tornado hit a trailer park in Arkansas. What remains unexplained is why anyone from the United States was allowed into Iran or what interest Iran has in proving some silly Christian myth. (Yes, I know, it's a story from the Jewish bible, but Jews generally believe the story is a myth).Reports say "I can't imagine what it could be if it is not the Ark," said Arch Bonnema of ...   more »

For the first time, the newly improved right wing Supreme Court ruled against Bush.

The ruling says that the military trials ordered by Bush for concentration camp prisoners at Guantanamo are illegal under U.S. law and violates the Geneva Convention.

Clarence Thomas, who dissented, backed Bush so strongly that he did something he has never done before - he read his opinion from the bench.

The ruling is the first that delcares Bush has violated an international treaty. It is the first time the new court has ruled against Republican extremism.

Stephen Breyer wrote, "Congress has not issued the executive ...   more »

Henry Paulson was given unanimous approval to be the new treasury secretary. The New York Times calls him "the Goldman Sachs chief" who "is a 32-year veteran of Wall Street who served on President Richard M. Nixon's domestic policy staff and worked in the Pentagon during the Vietnam War."

Yes, he worked for Nixon. As a plumber. Watergate.

The Boston Globe quoted Senator Ron Wyden, (D-Ore.): "I am convinced he is the right man at the right time."

In a biography listed in the Seattle Post Intelligencer, they get as close as anyone without hitting the nauil on the head. ...   more »

"If I was to ask the black preachers if their congregations are having problems with Medicaid, have loved ones in Iraq, youth violence, education or employment, 70 to 80 or 90 percent of them will say yes, but if I ask them if they are being asked to perform gay marriages, only 1 percent likely would say yes."

-Al Sharpton in Dallas at a three-day National Conference and Revival for Social Justice in the Black Church.   more »

I recall having once referred to Republicans as "hairy-backed swamp developers, fundamentalist bullies, freelance racists, hobby cops, sweatshop tycoons, line jumpers, marsupial moms and aluminum-siding salesmen, misanthropic frat boys, ninja dittoheads, shrieking midgets, tax cheats, cheese merchants, cat stranglers, pill pushers, nihilists in golf pants, backed-up Baptists, the grand pooh-bahs of Percodan, mouth breathers, testosterone junkies and brownshirts in pinstripes."


I look at those words now, and "cat stranglers" seems excessive to me. The number of cat stranglers in the ranks of the Republican Party is surely low, and that reference was hurtful to Republicans and to cat owners. I ...   more »

The new and improved right wing Supreme Court has backed Tom DeLay's butchering of Texas congressional districts.

Other than realigning a district that moved 100,000 Hispanics and diminished their chances of electing a Hispanic, the court ruled that DeLay's redistricting plan was legal. They also ruled that the legislature may redistrict as often as they like despite the fact that the Texas constitution stipulates a once-a-decade redistricting based on the new census.

So while my street is a dividing line between two districts and runs several miles down the street, it is perfectly legal for the line to be drawn ...   more »