conan p'brien went to finland to meet with newly re-elected president tarja halonen in hopes of acquiring a cabinet post.

for those of you who don't know the backstory, he's been endorsing her on his show and talking about the election not in hopes of influencing finnish policy, but because they look alike. it's frightening. check it out:


source: http://www.katu.com/news/images/story2006/060116_conan_prez_422.jpg

what's funny is that the running joke actually really helped her campaign.

registrar, is there ANY VALID REASON you don't have all my grades up after 22 days?

no. there isn't.

I know it's been a while, but life has been busy...

with regards to the state of the union: parts of it were frightening, parts of it were pleasing to hear. bush's focus on alternative energy sources is extremely encouraging, and he's right about america's addiction to oil. we'll get pissed if gas prices are raised or if gasoline is taxed, even though every other comparable nation in the world has higher gas prices than we do, and even though it's probably necessary to decrease our consumption. I wish people didn't think cheap gas was an entitlement.

I didn't like his staunch defense of wiretapping. I don't know the ins and outs of national security and its necessities, so I don't want to judge too much, but I don't feel like sneaking around the american public in surveillance is very effective.

I particularly didn't like his cutting of "non-security discretionary spending." this means we'll cut after school programs and education in favor of bulking up the military and fighting unnecessary wars. why do I feel like America's becoming more like Sparta?

here's to hoping Congress becomes a little more politically balanced so things like pbs won't get cut...

every year (well, since last year) I try to carve a pumpkin of a famous person or historical figure. this year richard nixon won. here he is!

dear democrats,
please take this time to form a coherent message and plan for the country. you have an opportunity here. people will join you if you give them a reason to.

signed,
america

from The Nation:

"The leak issue is only the tip of the iceberg," Congressman Jerry Nadler told me when I ran into him on the street near our offices on Friday afternoon. He was quick to tell me of a call led by Congressman Maurice Hinchey (D-NY) and Nadler, along with 39 of their House colleagues--for Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald's investigation to be expanded to examine whether the White House--President, Vice-President, and members of the WH's War Group--conspired to deliberately deceive Congress into authorizing the war. And, as Nadler reminded me, lying to Congress is a crime under several federal statutes.

This is the first call by members of Congress for an expansion of Fitzgerald's probe, amid mounting evidence that there was a well-orchestrated effort by what former State Department aide Larry Wilkerson dubbed last week, "the Cheney-Rumsfeld axis" to hijack US foreign policy and knowingly mislead the Congress in order to get its support for an unlawful war.

"We are no longer just talking about a Republican culture of corruption and cronyism," Nadler says. "We now have reason to believe that high crimes may have been committed at the highest level, wrongdoing that may have led us to war and imperiled our national security."

watergate, anyone?

with support for the iraq situation as weak as it is, this is not good news for bush. it'd be one thing if there was a success story over there for the american people, but it's a double whammy now that a) we've committed troops to a losing battle and americans are dying overseas, and b) there wasn't a real need for the whole debacle, and the president knew it.

bedtime after this.

people are saying 'oh, republicans are so corrupt, blah blah blah, look at everyone who's getting indicted for things' but I'm wondering about corruption in democrats. how much is corruption related to party affiliation? how much is it related to being a politician in general? I'm sure there's sketchy things going on on both sides of the aisle. just so happens there's a crackdown on GOP corruption since the plame thing and delay's issues. now frist and gov. fletcher of kentucky have issues. same with randy "duke" cunningham and other congressmen.

this can't be exclusively a GOP problem though. or is it?

the latest, from AP:

"The evidence prosecutors have assembled in the CIA leak case suggests Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff sought out reporters in the weeks before an undercover operative's identity was compromised in the news media, casting doubt on one of the White House's main lines of defense."[...]

"At most, the aides passed on information about her that entered the White House from reporters, the supporters argued.

Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald now knows that Libby met three times with a New York Times reporter before the leak of Plame's identity, initiated a call to NBC's Tim Russert and was a confirming source about Wilson's wife for a Time magazine reporter.

And in a new twist, presidential political adviser Karl Rove has testified that it's possible Libby was his source before Rove talked to two reporters about the CIA operative." [...]

"While Libby maintains that he didn't know Plame's name until it was published in the news media, the now-public evidence suggests Libby at least was aware that Wilson's wife worked at the CIA and that he spread the information." [...]

"As new evidence accumulates on the public record, Libby's original source of information and how he passed the information on are becoming crucial unanswered questions. The public still doesn't know much about what the vice president and his top aide talked about, either."

the sweater is unraveling, fitzgerald just has to keep pulling the yarn.

his warrant and his mug shot.

the dems don't have any incriminating, awful looking photos of delay holding a placard with his info on it to use in campaign ads now. he looks so happy!