A Scandal A Day

From the New York Times yesterday:

“With Blackwater and other private contractors in Iraq facing tighter scrutiny, the House of Representatives on Thursday overwhelmingly approved a bill that would bring all United States government contractors in the Iraq war zone under the jurisdiction of American criminal law. The bill was approved 389 to 30, despite strong opposition from the White House. It came as lawmakers and human rights groups are using the Sept. 16 shooting by Blackwater personnel in Baghdad to highlight the many contractors operating in Iraq who have apparently been unaccountable to American military or civilian laws and outside the reach of the Iraqi judicial system.”

From the New York Times today:

“When the Justice Department publicly declared torture “abhorrent” in a legal opinion in December 2004, the Bush administration appeared to have abandoned its assertion of nearly unlimited presidential authority to order brutal interrogations. But soon after Alberto R. Gonzales's arrival as attorney general in February 2005, the Justice Department issued another opinion, this one in secret. It was a very different document, according to officials briefed on it, an expansive endorsement of the harshest interrogation techniques ever used by the Central Intelligence Agency. The new opinion, the officials said, for the first time provided explicit authorization to barrage terror suspects with a combination of painful physical and psychological tactics, including head-slapping, simulated drowning and frigid temperatures.”

472 more days of ineptitude, dishonesty, and cruelty.

Randy Kuhl as no surprise strongly supports George Bush’s veto of the bipartisan bill to expand health care to more uninsured children. I put so much support behind Eric Massa in his race for Kuhl’s office last year because this is exactly the type of disgraceful representation I wanted to avoid. The only reason Kuhl supports my district is because we are gerrymandered with a bunch of small-minded hicks along the southern tier who believe any lies they hear from a republican about a democrat wanting to cut their precious social security. You can’t pick up the Elmira paper without reading some letter to the editor from someone who couldn’t get his prescription filled and went to Kuhl’s office for help and one of Representative Pothole’s flunkies went and sorted it out for him. By the way, Kuhl was one of the 30 representatives mentioned above by The Times who voted against the bill to “Require Accountability for Contractors and Contract Personnel Under Federal Contracts, and for Other Purposes,” goose-stepping right behind Bush. Only 30 out of 419 representatives put Bush and Cheney above all else, and one of them does it in my name as my representative!

New York Yankees - unbelievable. If they lose to another team of young upstarts they all need to go, including Torre, the former Yankee coaches, and the managerial-go-round basecoaches. I'm not bailing out and I'm not pointing fingers, but they have to play to their potential. Lose to the Angels once, I guess it happens. Lose to the Angels again, and maybe you were unlucky. Lose to Detoit, then lose to Cleveland... Like Jimmy from South Park would say, "Come on."

I love that the games are on early. I love that TBS is not trying to outfox Fox with the gimmicks, crowd shots, distractions, and "attitude." I like the roving reporter in the crazy sportcoats. He actually has interesting things to say. Accusing LeBron James of being a frontrunner - and LeBron's answer - were brilliant. His drum isn't the only thing the Indians superfan hasn't changed since 1973. He's still got the same haircut, mustache, and eyeglasses as well.

Good points made by Jerry Sullivan at the beginning of the week regarding why Buffalo will give Edwards every chance to win the quarterback job. Losman has shown that he does a lot better when he's pushed by another QB, but he may not get a chance to show it this time.