There’s something of a stink brewing over to the County Center, the downtown Tampa headquarters of Hillsborough County government.

It seems that the county has erected a couple of shelters for the benefit of smokers who are forced by law to flee the building whenever they want to light up. Some county commissioners are upset because they feel that the shelters imply that Hillsborough County endorses smoking.

Further, it has been proposed that Hillsborough curtail health coverage to smokers under our indigent health care plan. This has prompted observations of hypocrisy as members of the Health Care Study Committee meet to discuss ways to cut costs.

“There’s an argument being made that people on the indigent plan need to show personal responsibility for their health,'’ said Busansky, a former smoker. “The same point can be made for the health of county employees and commissioners. Their health care is also being paid by the taxes of the citizens of this county.'’

The smoking shelters were proposed in January 2004 by Commissioner Jim Norman, a nonsmoker.

Norman said in 2004 that the shelters would provide some dignity for county employees who will step outside to smoke regardless of cold, rainy weather. Commissioners Kathy Castor and Pat Frank voted against allocating up to $20,000 for the shelters, which were installed this week for about $14,000.

This year, Norman also suggested the county might limit enrollment in the indigent health care plan to nonsmokers to save money. Under state law, however, eligibility can be determined only by residency and financial status.

Norman bristled Friday about the smoking shelter complaints. County employees contribute to their health care plan, and indigents do not, he said.

Remember: health care is not a right – it’s a privilege, and only the economically well off should ever be allowed to make personal decisions that might ultimately have a negative impact on their well being.

Presumably, this would include unhealthy sedentary lifestyle choices that lead to multiple chins and pudginess.

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Democrats, showing a rare bit of spine, managed to shoot down Jeb!’s scheme to gut the voter mandated class size amendment. In an attempt to split supporters of smaller classes, Jeb! proposed raising teacher salaries slightly in exchange for relaxed rules on class sizes.

His plan called for an amendment to be decided by special election – the class size question would be the only one on the ballot, thus ensuring ultra-low turnout, which, Jeb! hoped, would ease the task of overturning a popular measure at the polls. Now, if the proposal is to be decided, it will be during the regular 2006 election cycle, presumably in November.

Jeb!’s rationale for all of this is that the state cannot possibly afford schools with less than 35 children in each classroom. See, the state can afford tax cuts for the wealthy and the state is awash in cash, but a proper education is just too much to expect.

Anyway, Dems hung tough, and managed to kill the proposed special election to thwart the will of the people, so Jeb! and his cronies had to find a more underhanded way to derail smaller classes.

Republican leaders inserted a one-year delay of the class-size implementation law into education bills Friday, a move that would let Gov. Jeb Bush finish his term without having to pay for expensive, school-by-school class-size limits.

Class-size compliance calculations would go from county-level averages to school-level averages in August 2007, when Bush will be out of office. Under the current law, the change would take effect in August 2006.

The change was slipped in with little debate in the Senate Education Appropriations Committee into a massive education bill containing Bush’s proposed new reading vouchers. Hours later, it was added on the floor to a similar measure in the House, which gave initial approval Friday to its combined education bill.

“There is just no willingness to implement what the voters wanted,” said Rep. Susan Bucher, D-West Palm Beach. She and other Democrats opposed the amendment but lost on a voice vote.
……

Current law says that class sizes must be measured at the district-by-district level from 2003-04 through 2005-06; at the school-by-school level in 2006-07 and 2007-08; and in individual classrooms by 2008-09.

The change would leave 2007-08 as the only year the calculations would be done at the school level.

The amendment approved by voters in 2002 required that class limits of 18 students in elementary school, 22 in middle school and 25 in high school were to be in place by 2010-11 and that lawmakers had to reduce the average size by two students per year until the limits were achieved. The amendment left it to lawmakers how specifically to get to that point.

The delay of school-by-school limits to 2007 would have another major political implication: Parents of children in crowded suburban schools would never see the benefits of school-by-school class-size caps before they are asked to forgo them, should Bush’s proposed repeal make the 2006 ballot.

Under the existing law, parents in fast-growing suburbs whose children now have 30 or 35 students in their classes will see dramatic reductions for the first time in August 2006 — just three months before they could be asked to give that up. That prospect was one of the reasons proponents of Bush’s plan wanted to hold an early special election.

Those devious bastards. But wait – there’s still hope:

With five Republicans also opposed this session, Bush does not appear to have even the three-fifths vote he needs to put the question on the 2006 ballot.

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And you will NOT know us by the trail of dead…

The Pentagon on April 28 released more than 700 photographs of America’s war dead returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.

But many of the images, released under the pressure of a yearlong Freedom of Information Act lawsuit, are as striking for what they don’t show as what they do.

In most photographs the faces of the troops accompanying the fallen and carrying the flag-draped coffins are blacked out.

1576 (US) and counting.

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Hmmm, it looks like those darn activist judges are once again basing their actions on case law and common sense. Thursday, Palm Beach County Juvenile Court Judge Ronald Alvarez slammed DCF for their handling of a 13 year-old foster child, and though he seems sympathetic to the girl’s case, he has put off a ruling pending an appellate court decision on whether or not he has any authority in the case.

She has been under the state’s care for some time. She ran away from a state home and got pregnant. DCF didn’t even bother to go looking for her, but now they want to step in and force the kid to give birth. Again, she’s 13. The DCF is claiming, with a straight face, that it would behoove her to bear a child rather than obtaining a safe abortion.

Now, the DCF has no more rights in this case than those of a natural parent, and Florida courts have ruled over and over again that a parent cannot prevent a minor from obtaining an abortion.

DCF is citing a state law that prevents the agency from consenting to an abortion, and they have hastened into court to interfere with another patients personal medical decisions .

A judge said Thursday he was outraged that the Florida Department of Children and Families did not do more to prevent a 13-year-old foster child from getting pregnant.

Before rushing into court to stop her from having an abortion, Palm Beach County Juvenile Court Judge Ronald Alvarez said, the state should have done more to get her off the streets. He discovered during a Thursday hearing that the girl has run away from state homes at least five times and was gone for a month when she became pregnant early this year.

The Department of Children and Families failed to even notify the court that she was gone so police could try to find her, Alvarez said.

“To say I am angry is an understatement,” he said.

Alvarez held a hearing Thursday in Palm Beach County Juvenile Court to determine whether the girl, identified in court records as L.G., might be physically or emotionally harmed by an abortion.

But Alvarez said he will wait to rule on whether she can go ahead with the abortion until the 4th District Court of Appeal decides whether he has any authority in the case. The American Civil Liberties Union and the Legal Aid Society of Palm Beach County believe that any court or state involvement violates L.G.’s constitutional right to choose.

The appeals court said Thursday it will move quickly on the case. The state has five days to submit its brief, and the ACLU and Legal Aid will have three days to respond. The girl is in her second trimester of pregnancy, her lawyers said, and an abortion will become more risky as time passes.

The ACLU believes this is another case of Florida leaders meddling in private lives and trampling the law to push a pro-life ideology. Critics of the state’s intervention compared the case to Gov. Jeb Bush’s attempts to block Terri Schiavo’s husband from removing her feeding tube and to his attempt in 2003 to appoint a guardian for the fetus of a severely disabled woman raped in state care.
……

DCF has declined comment on who made the decision to stop the abortion.
……

L.G. has been in foster care for at least four years, since she was taken away from her parents for abuse or neglect. Caseworkers haven’t been able to find any families willing to adopt her, DCF attorney Jeffrey Gillen said Thursday in court.

L.G. has run away from several state homes and got pregnant during one of those periods 14 weeks ago, according to court testimony.

Two weeks ago, at a doctor’s appointment, she found out she was due to have a baby. She then told her caseworker with the Children’s Home Society, which runs some Palm Beach County foster care programs under contract with the state, that she wanted to end the pregnancy.

The caseworker drove her to the Presidential Women’s Center in West Palm Beach on April 22. There, she got an ultrasound and spoke with a health worker about her options.

The Women’s Center scheduled another appointment for Tuesday, when the girl would have a longer counseling session and then the abortion, Director Mona Reis said. “She was very vocal about wanting to end the pregnancy,” Reis said.

But the morning of that appointment, the Children’s Home Society called L.G. to tell her that the appointment was off. DCF went to court with an emergency motion asking Alvarez to stop the abortion.

Alvarez held a preliminary hearing the same day.

Legal Aid attorneys said the girl should have a right to end the pregnancy without delay.

The judge asked a court psychologist to evaluate the girl and for both sides to present evidence on whether she could be physically or emotionally harmed by ending the pregnancy or giving birth.

Lynn Hargrove, the court psychologist who met with L.G. under Alvarez’s order, determined she did not have any mental problems. The girl may have a mild mood disorder, she told the court Thursday, but nothing that would cloud her thinking.

“Her main concern seemed to be that she had to be at the evaluation,” Hargrove said. “She was frustrated at the delay.”

Hargrove said she reviewed research on the psychological effects of an abortion and found that teens have no greater risk of emotional problems after an abortion than adults. Women who have had abortions do not seem to have more trouble with depression or post-traumatic stress disorder than the general population, Hargrove said.

Ethelene Jones, a retired obstetrician/gynecologist who has held leadership roles with Planned Parenthood and the ACLU, testified that legal abortions are safer than pregnancy and childbirth.

At the girl’s age and stage of pregnancy, her chances of dying from an abortion are 1 in 34,000. The chances are 1 in 10,000 that she would die while carrying the baby to term, Jones said.

DCF called only one witness at the hearing. DCF attorney Gillen asked Francis X. Crosby, a child psychologist from Boca Raton, to talk about a disorder called post-abortion syndrome.

Though considered valid by some researchers and pro-life supporters, the syndrome is controversial. Crosby testified that it is not recognized by the American Psychiatric Association or the American Medical Association.

“So far the research is still questionable,” Crosby said.
……

At the end of Thursday’s hearing, Alvarez cleared attorneys, reporters and onlookers from the courtroom.

The 13-year-old was whisked inside through a side door to protect her privacy. She met alone with Alvarez and her court-appointed guardian.

Attorneys for the state and Legal Aid wrote their questions for the girl on notebook paper outside the courtroom. A bailiff then passed their handwritten notes to the judge.

They asked if she wanted a baby. L.G. said she does not, Alvarez said. She said she is only 13. She can’t get a job to support a child.

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One of the few bright spots in the 2004 elections was the success of the early voting program. Basically, early voting lets people vote at designated locations up to 2 weeks before the official election day. Early voting was praised by supporters of participatory democracy as well as voters and supervisors of elections around the state. It’s especially helpful for those who find it difficult to take time off work or otherwise struggle to make it to the polls during the traditional 12 hour workday voting window. Republicans must hate participatory democracy.

A measure that would limit early voting to eight hours a day in the two weeks before election day passed the House despite protests Tuesday from Democrats, who wanted to require a backup recorder for electronic touch-screen machines.

The bill (HB 1567), sponsored by Rep. Ronald Reagan, R-Bradenton, passed on an 83-35 vote, largely along party lines.

Opponents said keeping polls open during routine working hours doesn’t make it more convenient for voters and many were disgusted that there was no interest in providing a paper backup.

“Voters have complained about one thing overall: a paper trail,” said Rep. Ken Gottlieb, D-Hollywood. “This bill doesn’t have it. We need a paper trail. We need a bunch of things to make elections better.”

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Jeb! is once again calling on the Department of Children and Families goons to get all up into a personal medical decision.

During the Terri Schiavo case, Jeb! used a spurious DCF claim of new evidence against Michael Schiavo to justify a kidnapping attempt by his jack booted state police, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. An armed showdown between state and local police agencies was averted at the last minute only after local authorities made it very clear that they would not allow the state to violate repeated court orders by seizing Terri and spiriting her away to have her feeding tube reinserted.

In 2003, Jeb! played politics with a mentally disabled woman who was raped while under state care. The woman, J.D.S., has the mental capacity of a 5 year old. After she was impregnated in a state facility, Jeb! fought to have a guardian appointed for the fetus.

Protecting J.D.S. from from being raped in the first place was apparently unimportant, and seeing to it that her best interests were met after the rape really didn’t matter. All possible resources were mustered to ensure that J.D.S. would bring the child to term, even if doctors and judges and common sense indicated that an abortion would be best for all concerned.

Fast forward to 2005. A 13 year old abuse victim becomes pregnant while in state care. She seeks counseling from qualified professionals and makes an informed decision that, hey, maybe 13 is not the best time to become a mother. Her DCF counselor agrees, and will even accompany her to the clinic. Sounds like reasonable minds have prevailed.

But wait – here comes Jeb!, once again swooping in to pander to his base by depriving a woman of her constitutional rights. He and the DCF have stepped in to prevent the abortion, saying that the 13 year old is not mature enough to make a decision to end her own pregnancy.

Unfortunately for Jeb!, DCF in this case has no more rights than a parent would, and Florida courts have struck down the notion that a parent can step in and prevent such a legal medical procedure. The ACLU has stepped in on behalf of the girl.

As a 13-year-old Palm Beach County girl prepared this week to end a pregnancy she says she does not want, the Florida Department of Children and Families went to court to stop her from having the abortion.

The American Civil Liberties Union challenged the state’s position Wednesday, saying DCF is overstepping its authority and violating the girl’s constitutional rights.

The girl, identified only as L.G., lives in a shelter for abused and neglected teens and found out two weeks ago during a doctor’s appointment that she is pregnant. Soon after, she told her DCF caseworker in Palm Beach County that she wanted an abortion.

The caseworker scheduled an appointment for the girl to have an abortion Tuesday and planned to drive her to the office, according to an appeal filed by the ACLU. On the same day, lawyers for DCF filed an emergency motion to stop L.G. from terminating her pregnancy.

In a hearing that day before Juvenile Court Judge Ronald Alvarez, the state argued that Florida law gives DCF authority to prevent L.G. from having an abortion. The state said the girl was not able to make an informed decision because of her age and immaturity, according to the appeal filed Wednesday by the ACLU.

Alvarez agreed to delay the abortion until the court could give L.G. a psychological evaluation to find out whether an abortion could cause her emotional harm. The judge also wanted the court to determine whether the girl would face medical risks in terminating the pregnancy or carrying the baby to term.

The ACLU and the Legal Aid Society appealed that decision Wednesday to the 4th District Court of Appeal, saying neither DCF nor the court had any right to interfere.

The U.S. Supreme Court’s position that women have the right to choose an abortion overrides any state argument or law, ACLU of Florida Executive Director Howard Simon said.

“Whatever politically motivated, convoluted legal rationale they (DCF leaders) can come up with, they cannot ignore the constitutional rights of women as recognized by the U.S. Supreme Court,” Simon said.

DCF spokeswoman Marilyn Munoz said Wednesday that DCF is “acting in the best interest of the child.” She cited a Florida state law that says DCF cannot permit an abortion without a judge’s consent, but declined further comment.

A spokesman for Gov. Jeb Bush also declined comment.

Under Florida law, a 13-year-old can have an abortion without her parents knowing or agreeing. The legislature is considering a bill this session that would require parental notification, but not consent, for girls under the age of 16.

In 1988 and 1999, Florida tried to pass laws requiring minors to get their parents’ permission to have an abortion. The Florida Supreme Court struck both down as unconstitutional.

Because L.G. was abused or neglected, she has no legal parents but the state. But even as her custodian, the state has no more right to stop her decision than her parents would, the ACLU said.

The Supreme Court has established that nobody has the right to determine L.G.’s best interests but L.G. herself, the ACLU argues.

L.G., who is 13 weeks pregnant, does not believe she can care for herself or a child, said Bob Bertisch, the director of Palm Beach County’s Legal Aid Society.

The girl has received counseling from a women’s health clinic, talked about her decision with responsible adults and knows the medical risks of abortion, the ACLU and Legal Aid Society wrote in the appeal.

The ACLU asked the courts to act quickly. As she moves into the third month of her pregnancy, the abortion will become more risky, they said.

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With the NRA lobbyist standing by and gazing fondly at Jeb!’s piece, a simple stroke ushered in a new era of personal responsibility, namely the responsibility to shoot first, ’cause the other guy might be armed too.

Floridians will have the right to shoot in self-defense anywhere they feel threatened under a bill Gov. Jeb Bush signed into law Tuesday, but critics fear it will encourage people to fight to the death rather than seek safety.

Bush signed the bill (SB 436), passed unanimously in the Senate and overwhelmingly in the House, as the National Rifle Association’s Florida lobbyist, Marion Hammer, looked over his shoulder.

The law, which takes effect Oct. 1, is the latest victory in a state already counted as one of the friendliest to gun owners.

Floridians already have the right to carry concealed weapons and can circumvent background checks when buying weapons at gun shows. The state also has reciprocal agreements honoring gun-toting citizens’ concealed weapons permits from other states.

Bush signed the reciprocity bill into law, also with Hammer by his side, on April 20, 1999, the same day that two Columbine, Colo., high school students went on a shooting spree, killing 12 classmates and a teacher and injuring nearly two dozen others before taking their own lives.
……

The bill’s House sponsor, Ocala Republican Dennis Baxley, said the law brings Florida into line with other states, fewer than a dozen of which have “duty to retreat” laws on the books. Baxley and the Senate sponsor, Sen. Durell Peaden, R-Crestview, also were in Bush’s office when he signed the bill.

“We’re not breaking any new ground here,” Baxley said. “We’re catching up.”

NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre said the law is the “first step of a multi-state strategy” that he hopes can capitalize on a political climate dominated by conservative opponents of gun control at the state and national levels.
……

But in an era of road rage and hot tempers, and in a state with a violent crime rate second only to South Carolina, it’s easy to envision a scenario where force rapidly escalates, said Rep. Dan Gelber, D-Miami Beach, one of 19 members who opposed the bill.

“Two people in an altercation, that happens every day. Someone thinks you’re looking at their wife the wrong way, somebody spills coffee on you, someone bumps into you, someone cuts you off, then all of a sudden they’re in a fight,” said Gelber, a former federal prosecutor. “Do we tell those people that they’re supposed to walk away or do we tell them that you’re supposed to stand your ground and fight to the death?”

No one has ever been prosecuted in Florida for lawfully defending themselves, Gelber said.

It’s heartening to learn that Florida is catching up to the rest of the nation by being the first. Maybe we’re getting ready to lap those other states?

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Remember: when the GOP starts spouting off about voter fraud, it’s simply their way of saying that too many people are taking part in the democratic process. See, too many people participating makes it much more difficult for the moneyed interests to pull the strings, which leaves the poor legislative marionettes twisting powerlessly in the wind.

We can’t have that.

The Florida House approved a series of bills Tuesday intended to clamp down on citizen initiatives, setting off a heated debate over the need to curb election fraud while preserving voters’ rights to amend the state Constitution.

The bills include restrictions on signature gathering and three proposed constitutional amendments to limit the subjects of those initiatives and increase the votes needed to approve them.

The four bills now await Senate action.

Supporters say the measures will curb fraud and preserve the integrity of the state Constitution.

“This bill doesn’t make it tougher for citizens to collect signatures. What this bill does is make it tougher to commit fraud,” said House sponsor Dudley Goodlette, R-Naples.

Opponents say the measures ensure that only monied interests can change the Constitution, leaving true grass roots groups out in the cold.

“I am drawing a line in the sand. You either stand with the people of Florida or against the people of Florida,” said Rep. Arthenia Joyner, D-Tampa.

The most controversial change would add restrictions to the petitioning process, including criminal penalties for failing to wear an ID badge while collecting signatures, prohibiting most high school students from volunteering for a constitutional amendment campaign by mandating that signature gatherers be at least 18, and restricting signature gathering to Florida residents. Paying people for each signature also would result in a criminal charge.

The petition regulations don’t need voter approval. The three proposed amendments would go before voters in November 2006.

The Herald has more.

Three constitutional amendment proposals approved by the House, which must now find favor in the Senate, ask voters to impose tough new restrictions on the scope of the constitutional questions allowed on the ballot, and the margin of the vote for approval of new amendments. Had the proposals been in effect in the past 15 years, not a single controversial amendment would have passed.

If the House measures are approved by the full Legislature, voters would be asked in November 2006 to curtail their own rights to amend the state Constitution.

‘’The citizens of this state want to do something to stop what is going on,'’ said Rep. David Simmons, an Altamonte Springs Republican who sponsored the House bill. “We are not stopping the citizens from their right under the Constitution. What we are doing is trying to protect them from being abused by a system that has run amok.'’

BUSINESS CONCERNS

Opponents counter that the proposals are a knee-jerk reaction from a nervous Legislature that is heavily influenced by the Florida Chamber of Commerce, which is backing the changes.

Business owners across the state have complained about amendments that voters have approved that affect businesses, from bans on smoking in bars and restaurants to raising the minimum wage by $1 an hour.
……

Democrats argued forcefully against the measures, saying that without an alternative that gives voters the ability to circumvent a nonresponsive Legislature by approving initiatives that change state law, they are taking away voters’ rights.

‘’What we’re seeing today is the death of direct democracy,'’ said Rep. Dan Gelber, a Miami Democrat. “It’s a horrible, horrible bill.'’

Both the House and Senate attempted to get at the initiative process — which depends heavily on people who gather voter signatures to get a proposed amendment on the ballot — another way: by making it a third-degree felony for anyone to pay or be paid ‘’directly or indirectly'’ per signature collected. State law requires that an estimated 600,000 valid signatures be verified from registered voters to get a proposed amendment on Florida’s election ballot.

House leaders said their ‘’Petition Fraud and Voter Protection Act'’ is necessary to stop perceived fraud in Florida’s petition-gathering process. The House approved the measure on a final vote of 96-22.

‘’Clearly we have evidence where signatures have been forged,'’ said Rep. Dudley Goodlette, a Naples Republican and sponsor of the House bill.

A similar bill was passed by the Senate Judiciary Committee Tuesday despite complaints by consumer groups that lawmakers can offer little proof that the problem is widespread.

`LIKE A CRIMINAL’

Barbara Sterling, a volunteer with the League of Women Voters, complained that the bills ‘’essentially crush the petition process.'’ She said volunteers like her will ‘’feel like a criminal'’ just by exercising their constitutional right.

Both the House and Senate bills also require any petition gathering organization that pays people to gather signatures to also pay each supervisor of elections for the cost of validating the signatures.

Those who circulate petitions must also wear a badge announcing that they are a ‘’paid petition circulator.'’ Violations are third-degree felonies.

Rep. Tim Ryan, who along with former state Education Commissioner Betty Castor is pushing a citizens’ petition to take redistricting out of the hands of lawmakers, said the bill would invalidate at least four petition drives already in progress, including one by former Senate President John McKay to create a citizens committee to review all sales tax exemptions.

‘’This has changed the rules,'’ he said. “It’s step after step, hurdle after hurdle in an effort to prevent the people from being able to petition their government for change.'’

Of course, signatures on petitions are already closely scrutinized. There will always be duplicates and signatures by non-voters. They are already weeded out before the signatures are counted. None of these bills are aimed at curtailing fraud. It’s all about removing the people from the process.

As Rep. Dan Gelber puts it, “Democracy without people might be easier, but it wouldn’t be democracy.”

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World Terror Attacks Tripled in 2004 by U.S. Count

The U.S. count of major world terrorist attacks more than tripled in 2004, a rise that may revive debate on whether the Bush administration is winning the war on terrorism, congressional aides said on Tuesday.

The number of “significant” international terrorist attacks rose to about 650 last year from about 175 in 2003, according to congressional aides briefed on the numbers by State Department and intelligence officials on Monday.

CIA says WMD probe over, found nothing

In his final report, the CIA’s top weapons inspector in Iraq said yesterday that the hunt for weapons of mass destruction has gone “as far as feasible” and has found nothing, closing an 18-month investigation into the purported programs of Saddam Hussein that were used to justify the 2003 invasion.

“As matters now stand, the WMD investigation has gone as far as feasible,” wrote Charles Duelfer, who led the Iraq Survey Group. “After more than 18 months, the WMD investigation and debriefing of the WMD-related detainees has been exhausted.”

Bush’s Saudi allegiance

Midland, Texas, 1986. A young old man, George W. Bush, seems to have trouble finding oil. But he strikes it rich when his flailing drilling partnership is bought out by Harken Oil. Despite the addition of the business acumen of Bush Jr., Harken faces collapse; but is pulled from the brink by a cash infusion from a Saudi, Sheik Bakhsh. The money from Arabia has nothing to do, we must assume, with Dubya’s daddy at the time holding the post of Vice-President of the Free World.

The Bakhsh booty continued a pattern of the young Bush being saved from his dire business decisions by a line of Sheik angels. His first oil company, Arbusto, going bust-o, was aided by the American financial representative of the bin Ladin family.

And on BBC TV last month, I reported this: following the bombing of our embassies, the Clinton Administration sent two delegations to Saudi Arabia to tell their royal highnesses to stop giving money to the guys who are killing us. But Mr. Bush, once in office, put the kibosh on unfriendly words to the Saudis.

Furthermore, in the summer of 2001, Mr. Bush disbanded the U.S. intelligence unit tracking funding of Al Qaeda. What is it our G-men were uncovering? According to two separate sources speaking to BBC, the funders of Al Qaeda fronts include those who have previously funded Bush family business and political ventures.

Look here for More Man Date, and I’ve also located the President’s standard pre man-date briefing materials.

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Microsoft is a heartless behemoth of a corporation and is turning downright evil.

Open source software , including Firefox and Linux are community projects. They are better and cheaper than Microsoft products, and when you install and use them, you are doing your small part to chip away at the Microsoft empire.

Firefox - Rediscover the web

Thunderbird - Reclaim Your Inbox

Ubuntu - Linux for Human Beings

OpenOffice.org – Full Featured Office Suite

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