Keeping America and Americans safe.  That's what George Bush, Dick Cheney, and their think-alikes claim is their first priority.  And that sure sounds good if you're an American living in an America where terrorists have flown massive, fuel-laden airplanes into populated buildings in two of the country's major cities.

John Boener, the new House majority leader, has his privately funded travel over the last few years detailed in a report on MSNBC, based on information in the recent report from the Center for Public Integrity.

The Reading Eagle is reporting yet another example of Clear Channel finding a non-political explanation of their "business decision" to refuse political advertising.  For some reason, their refusals seem to always involve rejecting ads that criticize Republicans, conservatives, or issues those two groups advocate.

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."

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