Politics is and always be an attack on the gastro intestinal system. Photography - done as a solitary pursuit or with others such as the occasional model - is much more calming and, in the long run, more productive on a personal level.

I discovered MuseCube in February and I've been building a portfolio there. I have had a similar membership at OneModelPlace for years but it is less than inspiring. MuseCube, though smaller, seems to have a far higher level of intellect.

KSM's blog

A number of us have been engaged in a discussion of "the nude in the envoronment". I've made a number of provocative comments. Conversation has gotten deeper than I imagined it would. The intellectual exercise is making attrophied mental muscles ache - a very good feeling.

Capital Games: "It's hard to know what is more disturbing. That George W. Bush misled the public by stating in the months before the Iraq war that he was seriously pursuing a diplomatic resolution when he was not. That he didn't bother to ask aides to present the case against going to war. That he may have violated the U.S. Constitution by spending hundreds of millions of dollars secretly to prepare for the invasion of Iraq without notifying Congress. That he was misinformed by the CIA director about one of the most critical issues of the day and demanded no accountability. Or that he doesn't care if he got it wrong on the weapons of mass destruction. "

I don't know what I can add except that when Bill Clinton lied, no one got killed.

Should one appologise for the truth?

CNN.com - GOP demanding apology from Kerry - Mar 11, 2004:

"The Bush campaign is demanding an apology from Sen. John Kerry after the presumptive Democratic nominee called his Republican opponents the 'most crooked ... lying group of people I've ever seen.'"

Bush cuts rich in, leaves rest out:
February 3, 2004
BY JESSE JACKSON

"Budgets, as the president said in his Saturday radio address, are a matter of priorities, of making hard choices. The president's madcap tax-and-borrow policies have run up a staggering $500 billion deficit -- without creating the jobs needed to keep the economy going. Profits are up, but so is poverty. The Bush administration is building schools in Iraq, but not in the United States. How do we get out of this box?

The president's budget reveals his priorities, what he truly cares about. It is not a reassuring picture.

The president's first priority remains tax cuts, largely for the wealthy. Millionaires are pocketing $30,000 a year in tax breaks from this president. The president wants, first and foremost, to make his tax cuts permanent -- no matter what that means for the deficit, for investments in our future, for already obscene extremes of inequality in what once was a middle-class nation. "

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that says it all. thank you Chicago Sun Times ...

We couldn't find Ossama in Afghanistan so we attacked Iraq ...

Rumsfeld Says Saddam Like a Needle in a Haystack

I guess that means we should now attack the Falkland Islands?

Does ANYONE in the media know how to use the word "alleged"?

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'Alleged victim had praised Jackson in Feb audiotape' : HindustanTimes.com

"Michael Jackson's alleged 12-year-old victim and his mother made an audiotape in February praising the superstar and signed affidavits clearing the 'king of pop' of inappropriate behaviour.

But the victim's mother now says that she was confused and coerced into it.

The alleged audiotape and affidavit were made after the broadcast of a documentary in which the pop star admitted that he sleeps in the same bed with young boys, New York's 'Daily News' reported.

The alleged cancer survivor's mother went to Jackson's Neverland ranch after the boy was spotted in the documentary and became the target of 'cruel teasing' by his classmates."

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Does ANYONE still TRY to spreak Engrish? Does ANYONE care?
Is it an alleged audio tape that actually might be something else?

Are they suggesting that the kid MIGHT be a cancer survivor but MAYBE he's not? Or is the suggestion that the person who's making alligations about the tape and affidavit might be not the kid's mother?

Are we so concerned with covering our asses that we've started speaking gibberish?

But the Neo-cons don't think sanctions work .... they'd rather go to war amd kill someone

Key dates in Lockerbie bombing case

If the facts don't fit, go back and get new facts ...

Bush big, bold, visionary, but is he out of touch?"

"In setting out a bold vision of a democratic Middle East, President Bush has once again demonstrated two trademarks of his presidency: a view of his job as a place to do grand things and a willingness to brush aside realities that might not fit into the bigger ideological picture. "

One should always be careful of the bed one makes lest one be forced to lie in it.

That awful Vietnam comparison

"Ah, the weapons. In the run-up to the 2004 presidential elections, this issue may yet become thorny for Mr Bush. America went to war ostensibly to rid Saddam of his weapons of mass destruction. None has yet turned up, despite searches by hundreds of soldiers and trained inspectors. Congressional committees are investigating the quality of pre-war intelligence. In the Senate, Democrats on the intelligence committee are reportedly seeking an independent inquiry that would examine how the White House used intelligence (in other words, whether Mr Bush and his advisers exaggerated). Mr Bush has so far weathered evidence that he overstated Saddam’s efforts to obtain uranium and the links between the Iraqi regime and the September 11th attacks, but voters may ask harder questions as election day approaches."

16 Dead in Rocket Attack on US Chopper

New Attacks Intensify Pressure on Bush (washingtonpost.com)

"But the latest round of attacks in Iraq, and especially yesterday's deaths -- which amounted to the biggest single day of losses since last spring's conventional war -- may prove more significant in strategic terms.

'It is damaging not only because of the tragic human toll, but also because it looks like a dramatic escalation in lethality and therefore begs obvious questions: Are all helicopters at risk now? Are we losing the initiative? Who is winning?' said Peter D. Feaver, a former National Security Council staff member who teaches political science at Duke University.

'If the attacks get interpreted as evidence that the Baathist holdouts are winning, then attacks like this can be as lethal for public support as they are for the soldiers involved,' he said. "

That would be "Two Steps Backward and One Step Forward".

The Salt Lake Tribune -- U.S. military brass push to re-form units of Iraqi army

Its about time someone started showing a little "millitary intelligence".

"Some U.S. military officers in Iraq are pressing to reconstitute entire units of the former Iraqi army, which the top U.S. administrator in Baghdad disbanded in May. They say the change would speed the creation of a new army and stabilize the nation. "

So ... we figured it was a good idea to break up the units then, a few months later we decide it's a better idea to keep them in tact.

There may have been a plan for all of this but it wasn't one that drew on any past experience. It was all an overly optimistic pipe dream.

uh .... Bring 'em On? The President gets his wish.

FOXNews.com - Top Stories - Thirteen Killed After Helicopter Attacked in Iraq

File Under "Life Imitates Art"
Weather Cools Wildfires' Fury

Remember all those disaster moveies that were set in LA. Art has come back to haunt us. Fires, Earthquakes ... WOW

President Decries General's Remarks

"Bush says comments about Muslims do not reflect his point of view. But firing doesn't seem to be an option."

I bet if the SOB had said the war in Iraq was ill advised he'd be out on his kiester!

"Gen. Boykin is kind of the living embodiment of a key Republican electoral constituency. So forcing him out would not be a very bright move with elections approaching," said military analyst Loren Thompson of the Lexington Institute, an Arlington, Va.-based public policy group.

Jesus wept.

Does the word "inarticulate" ring a bell?

Newsday.com - Political Threat To Bush Growing

"The people have got to understand, the Iraqi people have got to understand that any time you've got a group of killers willing to kill innocent Iraqis, that their future must not be determined by these kind of killers."

- G. W. Bush