Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Labor Day Weekend Update 2008

Sept. 2, 2008—Former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales mishandled highly classified notes about a secret counter terror program, but not on purpose, according to a memo by his legal team. WSJ A2

--Sept. 2, 2008.On Monday morning, Ms. Palin and her husband, Todd, issued a statement saying that their 17-year-old unmarried daughter, Bristol, was five months pregnant and that she intended to marry the father. Among other less attention-grabbing news of the day: it was learned that Ms. Palin now has a private lawyer in a legislative ethics investigation in Alaska into whether she abused her power in dismissing the state’s public safety commissioner; that she was a member for two years in the 1990s of the Alaska Independence Party, which has at times sought a vote on whether the state should secede; and that Mr. Palin was arrested 22 years ago on a drunken-driving charge.

--August 31, 2008—I have spent the last 8 years so disgusted with the incompetent yahoos of the executive branch that I had forgotten that I believe in one of the core principles of the Democratic Party—that government can be a useful meaningful and worthwhile force for good in this republic instead of just an embarrassing, torturing Book of revelation starter kit...Picture this: a wind-powered public school classroom of 19 multi-racial 8-year olds reading above grade level and answering the questions of their engaging, inspirational teacher before going home to a cancer-free (or in remission) parent or parents who have to work only 8 hours a day in a country as war solely with the people who make war on us, where maybe Exxon Mobil can settle of, oh, $8 billion in quarterly profits instead of $11 billion, and the federal government’s point man for Biblical natural disasters is some one who knows more about emergency management that a how to put on a horse show. Is that really too much to ask? Can we do that?—Sara h Vowell, NYT, WK 12

-August 30, 2008—The era of the American Internet is ending ... Data is increasingly flowing around the US, which may have intelligence—and conceivably military—consequences. NYT B1

--August 26-29, 1968. Riots at Democratic Convention in Chicago.

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