Open thread for year end

Post here. I know you want to say something.

I've been away . . . so to speak

I haven't done much posting here recently. I've been galavanting around some of the "conservative" blogosphere trying to refute misleading statements (or lies) and generally sticking up for people and organizations that I think deserve it.

But to quote a famous president, "It's hard work." And unfortunately, it seldom pays off. There are only a few people out there who are actually willing to debate the issues of the day. More often than not, the "discussion" consists of snippets from "my guy's" writings and" your guy is a hateful, anti-American, Bush-hating scum bag." It started out as fun because it really got me to put my thoughts together and to actually look up some of the source material that's out there to read.

But I found only one or two people who would actually give a little if I give a little. To most, it's just "I'm right, you're wrong, and you are [choose any two of the following] (looney, a pussy, not man enough to get a date, an idiot, liberal lunatic, psychotic . . . ).

So I'm going to try to get back to my origianl purpose which is to present information from sources which I find interesting and which I find many citations and links to orginal source material. This information may not be the final "truth", but I usually think it makes sense and has enough backing, source-wise, to make it legitimate for inclusion and discussion.

In another post I'm going to lay down some guidelines for this blog. I'm not calling them rules because I'm going to leave myself room for judgement.

But I do expect the discussions to be civil and respectful, something I rarely find where I've been. Again, there have been exceptions (marginally), and you know who you are.

Condi back on the job. Oh, great!

I love this from Think Progress. Remember in Ocotober of 2003 Bush appointed Condi head of the "Iraq Stabilization Group" with the authority to manage postwar Iraq and the rebuilding of Afghanistan?

As we know, THAT didn't work out so well, did it? Seven months later, the Washington Post wrote that a search of the White House website revealed no public mention of the Iraq Stabilization Group since back in October 2003.

Today the Financial Times reports that "[t]he White House formally gave Condoleezza Rice authority on Wednesday to take the lead in planning and reconstruction efforts in conflict areas such as Iraq.

As Think Progess suggests, her first task, no doubt, will be to clean up the mess the Iraq Stabilization Group left.

Corruption in every part of the Bush Administration

The Washington post has obtained a Justice Department memo which concluded that the Texas congressional resdistricting plan spearheaded by Tom Delay violated the Voting Rights Act. However senior Justice officials overruled the memo's recommendation that the plan be overturned and then suppressed the memo.

From the Washington Post:

The memo, unanimously endorsed by six lawyers and two analysts in the department's voting section, said the redistricting plan illegally diluted black and Hispanic voting power in two congressional districts. It also said the plan eliminated several other districts in which minorities had a substantial, though not necessarily decisive, influence in elections.

They have no shame.