Today's News

Some news items I came across today that are worth looking at...

First, this from the Associated Press (posted on Huffington Post). President Bush has claimed executive privilege to deny Congress the right to see the FBI report into the leaking of Valerie Plame's name.

Why? What possible Executive Privilege could this possibly violate? The privilege to break the law with impunity? I'm pretty sure that's not a privilege extended to the President.

Some of the other recent cases of Executive Privilege have had at least a modicum of justification, the argument that if people can be compelled to testify to Congress, they might not feel as free to give the President full information. I don't think this should extend to cover law breaking, but at least the argument has the barest hint of respectability.

This one has no justification. The argument is that it's about protecting the separation of powers (which is Bush-speak for "I'm an Imperial President and you don't have any right to oversee me", an argument which is explicitly contravened by the Constitution) and the integrity of future Justice Department investigations into the White House. How much integrity do those investigations have when, in the end, no matter what they find no repercussions ensue for wrong-doing?


Second, as we've probably all heard by now, the "terrorist watch list" hit one million names yesterday (even with the much publicized removal of Nelson Mandela from that list). But don't worry, say government officials, that's not really a million people, that's really only about 400,000 people, with an average of one and a half aliases each (in addition to their regular name). So I'm sure we feel much better that only 400,000 people are ACTUALLY considered to be terrorists.


Third, apparently the Bush Health and Human Services, in a bow to the religious right, has released a proposal to allow any federal grant recipient to obstruct women's access to contraception, under the dubious redefinition of most forms of female contraception as abortion. This includes not only things like the "Morning After pill" and the IUD, which work by preventing implantation, but also methods such as the Pill and the shot, which work by preventing ovulation, and thus can not reasonably be considered to be an abortificant, but are nevertheless included on the list.

One wonders just what the Administration plans to do to help all of those women who, lacking access to contraception and abortion, end up carrying to term unwanted babies. Oh, right. Probably nothing.

(Yes, I know, there are still plenty of places from which a woman can still get her contraception. Still, it seems extreme to try to link contraception with abortion. I mean, clearly the next step is linking "turning down any man, anywhere, for sex", because obviously if he can't have sex with her, he can't impregnate her, and that prevents contraception.)


The last is something I've wanted to write about before, but could find no conclusive evidence about it... Now I have it, this video...



John McCain finished fifth from the bottom of his class at the Naval Academy, according to the video that's 894 out of 899 cadets. Now, as I understand it, pilots in the Navy are generally selected based upon their class standing and are usually in the top 10% of their class.

So, while I appreciate THAT he fought for our country, and I appreciate what he went through as a captive, but I'm getting really sick and tired of John McCain saying his military record is off the table... and then touting it as often as he can, when it turns out his military "hero" status is based on being near the bottom of his class and crashing a plane.

Five planes, actually, being shot down was only the last of a series. Apparently, had McCain not been the son and grandson of two famous four-star Navy Admirals, he would likely never have graduated flight school.

McCain himself confirms that he was, in fact, fifth from the bottom of his class, which confirms at least the part of the story that says had he been a normal cadet, he would never have been accepted into flight school to begin with.

And most of these facts are confirmable with a bit of searching on-line, which puts it one up on the "swift boating" of John Kerry. I've found confirmation of at least two of the crashes, and as I said now we have video of McCain himself admitting to being fifth from the bottom of his class.

Liam.