Quite the News Day

First, California's Supreme Court voids the gay marriages that San Francisco's mayor approved a few months ago, which will make my parents oh so happy knowing that anarchy has not taken over our poor teetering social fabric, and then the Governor of New Jersey resigns for being a gay man(who happens to be a married father), and the social fabric is suddenly coming apart at the seams once again....

Helliburton

Good Lord, Halliburton again... From the LA Times today:

Pentagon auditors have found that Halliburton Co. cannot properly document more than $1.8 billion worth of work done under its contracts in Iraq and Kuwait, Army officials said Wednesday.

More than $1.8 BILLION dollars. I mean, not being able to account for a few thousand is bad, a few million should be definitely raising eyebrows, but Halliburton can't account for over $1.8 billion? At the risk of sounding like a broken record, but this is $1.8 billion dollars (italics added for emphasis) for which Halliburton cannot come up with a legitimate reason for having charged the United States Army. Do they just shrug their collective shoulders and say, "Gosh, fellas, sorry! We just, gosh, we have NO IDEA how this could have happened..."? This after already having to pay the SEC for accounting fraud, and their already documented problems with a Halliburton subsidiary caught overcharging in Iraq (which only accounted for a few hundred million). And this latest isn't even barely newsworthy?

My question is, when are they just going to start writing their name with an "e" instead of an "a" and make their image as an almost fictional corporation in a bad conspiracy-theory movie about the military-industrial complex complete?

Mozcar de la Hoya

Forgetting politics for a blessed second, I just found out something from a co-worker of mine that struck me as curious, even bordering surreal, namely that Morrissey has a huge following, HUGE, amongst Mexican-Americans in Los Angeles. To the degree that you'll go into a bar playing mostly Mexican music, but Morrissey will inevitably surface in the mix. Which explains his song "First in the Gang to Die", his song devoted to the eponymous Hector, which starts un-Morrissey-like with "Los Angeles, you want to rock!" He apparently is returning the love, wearing belts with Mexican flag buckles, and calling himself Mozcar de la Hoya. Granted, this is probably only fascinating to me, as one of a handful of die-hard Morrissey fans, but it almost makes me LIKE living in LA....

We Get the Message

According to Scott McLellan, Bush and his administration along with the US economy, and in fact, a lot of countries and people around the world, seem to be, hmm, let's get this straight, ah yes: moving forward. The world and all the people in it are moving forward so remarkably fast it seems that it's necessary to point this out no less than four times in as many sentences...

It's beginning to seem like being "on message" for a member of the Bush Administration is a little bit like being "on heroine" - as addictive and as difficult to shake.

Still, unlike Publius, I don't miss Ari Fleischer, not at all. Scott McLellan is just a stonewaller, unlike Ari, who seemed to revel in the way he could make liberals quiver with indignation at the size of the whoppers he'd serve with smug aplomb. Scotty, on the other hand, almost makes you feel sorry for him sometimes, having to say the same silly, patently empty nothingness over and over again, having to always "dislike the way reporters are 'characterizing' something" when they're clearly speaking the unpleasant truth, and so on - but no doubt this is just part of the act.

Addicted to the Polls

I realize that now that I have little time to read news my entire daily news search revolves around going to the Polling Report website and then the daily Rasmussen poll to see how things are looking for the candidates. Oh, the pointless anxiety. As it is, except for the notorious outlier Gallup/USA Today poll taken after the Democratic convention, things look very good for Kerry.

Which of course always leads me to agonizing Fox Mulder-like over the endless possibilities for fraud with the electronic voting machines in Ohio and Florida (and elsewhere). If it's not one thing, it's another.

Bushify and the Dancing Blair

Here's loads of fun for a rainy day, from a Flashmaster in the UK.

Golden Oldies from Bush the Elder

Just in case we imagine that W is alone in his verbal gifts, a co-worker just sent me this list of classic bits of Pappy-speak:

"For seven and a half years I've worked alongside President Reagan. We've had triumphs. Made some mistakes. We've had some sex...uh...setbacks."

-- GEORGE H.W. BUSH, 1988

"Please don't ask me to do that which I've just said I'm not going to do, because you're burning up time. The meter is running through the sand on you, and I am now filibustering."

-- GEORGE H.W. BUSH, 1989

"High tech is potent, precise, and in the end, unbeatable. The truth is, it reminds a lot of people of the way I pitch horseshoes. Would you believe some of the people? Would you believe our dog? Look, I want to give the high-five symbol to high tech."

-- GEORGE H.W. BUSH, 1989

"You cannot be President of the United States if you don't have faith. Remember Lincoln, going to his knees in times of trial and the Civil War and all that stuff. You can't be. And we are blessed. So don't feel sorry for - don't cry for me , Argentina."

-- GEORGE H.W. BUSH, JANUARY 15, 1992