My letter (now an open letter) to Kathleen Carroll at the AP:

Kathleen Carroll
Associated Press

Ms. Carroll,

I know you're getting a lot of emails about Ron Fournier today. From his "Keep up the fight." email to Karl Rove to his job interview with the McCain campaign to his recent column on Biden as Obama's VP pick, Fournier is taking a lot of heat.

I'm not writing to tell you to fire Fournier or take him off the presidential beat. You can employ whoever you want. You can hire Karl Rove himself to cover the Obama campaign. It's your choice.

This is really just a personal diary. I'm not sure what larger point I have to make, if any. But a couple of months ago, the company I work for was bought out by another company. After the acquisition, we were told that our health insurance would carry over to the new company without any interruptions. We even had the same provider. (Think "blue".)

There were some forms we had to fill out. I filled them out and gave them back to our (the old company's) HR person. Then, just recently, I got an email forwarded to me from the new company's HR person. It seems that they didn't have all the right forms for me, and my health insurance expired. Back at the end of April. Which they are only telling me about now.

Oh, and today is my birthday. Happy birthday to me. As for health care, until the paperwork is straightened out, I am completely naked. So for my birthday, I am wearing my birthday suit.

I just received a (mass) e-mail from Senator Carl Levin's office with the subject, "Why I Voted Against Retroactive Immunity". It begins,

Retroactive immunity for telecommunications companies is not fair. It is not wise. And it is not necessary.

Senator Levin did the right thing yesterday, voting with Sens. Dodd and Feingold to uphold the rule of law and protect Americans' privacy and civil rights. I haven't always been happy with his leadership as chairman of the Senate Armed Services committee this past year, but I want to give him credit when it is due, and it surely is today. More of the letter below the fold.

Now that the presents have all been carefully wrapped and then frantically torn open, the tree decorated, the carols sung, and both relatives and eggnog drunk, we can get down to the real nitty gritty, the burning question that is on everyone's mind:

Did Santa evolve, or was he intelligently designed?

Yes, Virginia, we all know that there is a Santa Claus, but where did he come from? For a little light-hearted War-On-Christmas merriment, join me below the fold to learn the very latest scientific research on The Origin of (Elf) Species.

President Bush has chosen former federal judge Michael Mukasey as his pick for attorney general. In March of 2003 Mukasey ruled that the government had to allow Jose Padilla to have legal counsel. As Lara Jakes Jordan of the Associated Press reports:

That ruling offered a glimpse of what colleagues describe as Mukasey's trademark brusqueness and impatience with people who waste his time. But it also endeared him to the liberal-leaning American Center for Law and Justice, which supports his confirmation, while raising a red flag for conservatives with whom Mukasey met Sunday to try to appease.

The liberal-leaning American Center for Law and Justice? Surely they can't be talking about Pat Robertson's ACLJ, the group he created as a counterpoise to the ACLU, can they? More after the jump.

Fascinating article in the Christian Science Monitor on Spc. Agustín Aguayo:

Two-and-a-half years earlier, in February 2004, the medic had applied to leave the Army as a conscientious objector (CO), someone whose beliefs forbid him to participate in war. While his claim was being evaluated, Aguayo served a year in Iraq with an unloaded weapon; when the claim was rejected, he sued for another review.

Before that review was completed, his unit was ordered back to Iraq for a second tour, but Aguayo did not go with them. He turned himself in for "missing movement", but was ordered to go to Iraq, and fled. He was convicted of desertion.

The infamous Fred Phelps has announced that he's coming to Minnesota to protest the funerals of victims of the 35W bridge collapse. "God hates Minnesota" ... "God cast down the bridge." I'm sure there will be counterprotests, but I have a better idea.

I propose a fundraiser for the bridge victims, where people will pledge money for every minute that Fred Phelps protests the funerals, with all proceeds to go to charity.

It's been done before (successfully!); I didn't come up with the idea. But it's a good one. More on where the idea came from and how it would work after the jump.

The New York Times story by Sheryl Gay Stolberg and Jim Rutenberg has already been diaried by Devilstower, but I wanted to highlight one particular aspect of the story:

[A] Republican said the overarching question was "did [Libby] lie?"

Mr. Bush has not publicly offered his conclusion to that question, nor have his aides.

But just a little earlier in the same article, we find:

"I weighed this decision carefully," the president told reporters.... "I thought that the jury verdict should stand. ..."

So Bush says the verdict that Libby lied should stand, but fortunately Stolberg can read his mind and tell us that it ain't necessarily so.

Below the fold you'll see what is on my table for the 4th of July.

You may have heard that the minarets of the Al-Askari mosque in Samarra, still standing after the bombing that destroyed its golden dome, were blown up last week. But never fear! TIME magazine is here with good news from Bobby Ghosh in Baghdad. Still, if this image captured from Google News is any indication, he may have spoken too soon. Note the WaPo headline right above the TIME headline:

More below the fold.

I'm one of those who thinks the Biden quote was misinterpreted. I know that isn't a terribly popular opinion around here now. But I did do one thing that no one else seems to have bothered to do, which is to attempt to transcribe the audio verbatim:

Biden: real story.
Interlocutor: uh-huh
Biden: I mean you got the first ... sorta ... mainstream, African-American
Interlocutor: yeah
Biden: who is articulate and bright and ... and, and clean and a ... nice looking guy
Interlocutor: mmm
Biden: I mean, it's -- that's a storybook, man.
Interlocutor: yeah

Today, November 5, 2006, Saddam Hussein was sentenced to death for the actions of his government against the people of the town of Dujail, Iraq in 1982. The war between Iraq and Iran was raging in the summer of 1982 when Saddam made his trip to Dujail. There, on July 8, 1982, there was an assassination attempt on his life. Juan Cole writes:

The saga of Dujail began, as the BBC explained recently, with Hussein's visit to the mixed Shiite and Sunni town north of Baghdad in summer of 1982. ... Hussein appears to have gone there to drum up support for his war, which had quickly become a costly and dangerous quagmire.

Many people are no doubt familiar with the famous picture of Donald Rumsfeld shaking hands with Saddam Hussein. That photograph was taken on December 20, 1983, nearly a year and a half after the massacre for which Saddam Hussein has now been sentenced to be hanged. It is also a few weeks after a State Department document confirming the use by Iraq of chemical weapons in its war with Iran.

Bush Bucks, the newest denomination of US Currency. The US Treasury is releasing these commemorative bills to celebrate the meaning and value of the Bush Administration. Indeed, not only Bush's value, but the values of the Republican Party. After great deliberation, they concluded that the most appropriate denomination to represent all that George W. Bush has done for this country was the zero dollar bill.

OK, not really, but if our Miserable Failure-in-Chief was going to appear on our money, the zero dollar bill would be the only choice. I started working on this image a few months ago, but put it on hold when I realized how hard all the markings were going to be. I finally got off my duff this weekend, and I'm so happy with how it turned out that I felt like I just had to share it with the world. More on how it was created after the jump.