One sure way to tell that something--a movement, a television show, a personality--is waning: it trades in any substance it had for  flash and/or flourish.  Speaking of which, have you noticed that the sights of  our favorite frothing Republicans seem to have been considerably lowered?

Proceed cautiously. You're about to see a lesbian admit something shocking! The faint of heart may wish to turn back now. Okay, you asked for it. Ahem. I love real men! You can reread that as often as you like, it'll still say that I -- a big ol' lesbian -- love real men. No, I don't want to sleep with them or marry them or take them home to mother. That's where the lesbian part comes in. But I definitely love them in a respectful, platonic, completely lesberrific kind of way.

So, you can imagine how really angry I get about nonsense theories like that being proposed by Harvard's Harvey C. Mansfield about how there's some sort of crisis of masculinity. The solution to this "crisis?" Let's bring back the bygone days of "manly men" who punched people and kept women in their place. This guy wouldn't know a real man if he bit him.... okay I don't know if real men would go around biting each other on the ass for no reason. (This is not to say that men who do like to bite other men on the ass aren't real men.)

The right wing folks keep harping that the public never gets to hear the real "good news" from Iraq.  They also claim there's lots of that good news.

Well, The U.S. Department of Commerce's Iraq Investment and Reconstruction Task Force (IIRTF) has its own web site, where they offer up "success stories" about commercial ventures there, saying that the task force is "is pleased to highlight the following companies that have pursued successful private sector investment and trade opportunities in Iraq." They list 17 "success stories."  5 of them are set forth below, verbatim, without comment.

Is there anything worse than an official addressing a troubling report by offering a reassurance that makes you feel worse?

Check out this response by Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Edmund "Kip" Hawley to the widely reported fact that GAO investigators were able to sneak bomb components past the security checks at all 21 U.S. airports where they tried.

The AP is reporting that the Senate, on a 52-48 vote, sent to President Bush a bill raising the ceiling on the national debt to nearly $9 trillion.

If my math is correct (numbers this big cause major problems for a simple calculator), and assuming that we are at the 300 million mark in population, that means the US government now owes about $30,000 for every man, woman, and child in the country.

Just thought you'd like to know.

On the day that President Bush has reaffirmed his commitment to the principle of preemptive use of force, and a joint operation of American and Iraqi forces undertook the "largest air operation" on Iraq in years, it seemed appropriate to revisit the Project for a New American Century, and how we got to this point.

From US NEWS & WORLD REPORT'S "Washington Whispers" By Paul Bedard: "Once Halliburton got there, everyone started gaining weight."

As I've said before, I fully believe that this administration is dishonorable, and the dishonor spreads from top to bottom.

How do you feel about a claim by the U.S. military that the Geneva Conventions prevented it from commenting on whether the NY Times had identified the right Iraqi detainee as the person in the infamous Abu Ghraib picture of a hooded prisoner standing on a box, attached to electric wires?

What can bridge the apparent gulf between Arabs and the US?  Check out this excerpt from an editorial on Al Jazeera by Remi Kanazi:

If the Bush administration interviewed my father, a 59 year old, Christian Republican Arab doctor living in the US, they would have realized, "Arabs don't like to be occupied." Arabs--be it Sunni, Shia, Coptic, Orthodox or Maronite--don't want to be invaded by a Western force capable of bombing Baghdad to oblivion. Nevertheless, many Muslim and Christian Arabs in the Middle East send their children to Western schooling and profoundly appreciate Western Culture. As James Zogby--president of the Arab American Institute--pointed out on CNN, Americans can see the integration of US based multinational food chains and stores in Saudi Arabia. More than 70 McDonalds and 32 Pizza Huts spread across the country, while a 69,000 sq ft Chuck E. Cheese opened in Jeddah in 2001, with bumper cars, a bowling alley and a new ice rink. There is thirst for American culture within Saudi society, without the aggression and ramifications of US foreign policy.

Student loans get many a student through college, so you'd think that this administration, headed by a man trying so hard to become the Education President, would really be firmly in favor of these loans.  And looking out for the interests of the students, who only represent our future.

But not so.  The recently passed Deficit Reduction Act contains provisions that will raise the rates on most student loans, while restricting the right of borrowers to consolidate their loans to minimize overall costs.

And the hands of John Boehner, new House leader, and many of his Republican brethren are all over the laws that so heavily favor the lenders, especially Sallie Mae, now known as SLM Corporation (both Sallie Mae and SLM are used to describe the company throughout this article).

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