Great Expectations
Paul Krugman is an columnist for the New York Times who, in his recent book, The Great Unravelling suggests that President Bush's ecomonic policy is putting America on track for a fiscal disaster of, in his words, Dickensian proportions. I mean, "rising infant mortality and low-birth-weight infants" style poverty across the board for homemakers making about $30,000 or less.

Meanwhile, the President is suggesting that his tax cuts are a dam holding back a tidal wave of even more economic catastrophies.

Funny. I thought we were projecting surpluses ad infinitum when he took office. I suppose that's all Bin Laden's fault. But wait - doesn't Bush know him (see the previous post)? Maybe it's Ken Lay's fault. Oh, wait, Bush knows him, too.

D'Oh.

White House Approved Departure of Saudis After Sept. 11, Ex-Aide Says

The Getaway
Right after September 11, 2001, it was at least a week or more before any more airplanes were allowed to fly.

Or, at least, so we thought.

Apparently, while most Americans were huddling in their homes, trying to comprehend the horror of what had just happened, the U.S. Government was secretly gathering up dozens of high-powered Saudi Arabian citizens still in our country, including members of Osama Bin Laden's family, shuffling them into private planes, and spiriting them off of American soil.

Joe Conason has a much more detailed accounting of this online at Salon.com, but they make you pay to read it (bastards!). The story itself is in the October issue of Vanity Fair.

Someone please tell me why Bush is coddling these people?

Standing Up In The Face Of Madness
Well, say what you will about Colin Powell (let's not get into that whole Harry Belafonte thing again), he proves, once again, that he is the voice of reason in this lunatic asylum they call the Bush Administration. This Washington Post report details how Powell engineered yet another coup to bring the UN into Iraq, over the protests of Don Rumsfeld & the neo-con civilian leadership in the Pentagon.

This is interesting to me for three reasons:
1. Notice that the military brass themselves knew that this was poorly planned, but were promptly silenced by Rumfeld & Co. until the bombs started going off.

2. Why is the President giving more credence for military planning to political appointees instead of generals? Is anyone surprised that this has descended into chaos?

3. Why is it so important to the Administration for the United States to have complete and total control in Iraq? Is it really because they're just arrogant & stubborn? Or could it possibly have to do with the fact that we're holding all of these high level Iraqi officials and that the UN, once involved, may actually want to conduct their own interrogation of these guys? Consider that, to date, none of the Iraqi leadership have confirmed the existence of the WMD arsenal that the White House said they knew had to be there. After all, if any of them knew anything to support Bush's case, they would have been paraded before the public long before now. What other secrets are the US hiding?