brainrow

From Mike the Mad Biologist:

When I heard that Republican Senator and presidential candidate John McCain spoke at the [anti-Darwin] Discovery Institute, I was disappointed but not surprised. In March, there’s going to be a report released about antibiotic resistance in bacteria. A major finding of the report: roughly 40,000 people die every year from hospital-acquired antibiotic resistant bacterial infections.

The problem of antibiotic resistance is, fundamentally, a problem of evolutionary biology. Species of bacteria which had very few resistant strains (or none at all) now contain high frequencies of resistance strains (e.g., methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus, commonly known as MRSA). In other words, populations of bacteria have undergone genetic change — evolution — which has led to thousands of unnecessary deaths. How can one expect any administration which has to pander to creationists to take this evolutionary problem seriously? Could you imagine if flat-earthers ran NASA? I fear we would have, at best, another four years of government inaction regarding antibiotic resistance.

The interesting thing about reality is that it always wins. Every single time.

Pig-headed ignorance kills. We’ve had enough of that. Time for a change.

From Perrspectives: the last throes of the Bush presidency:

Start with Tuesday’s conviction of former Cheney chief-of-staff Scooter Libby on four counts of obstruction and perjury in the outing of CIA operative Valerie Plame. In revelation after revelation, the administration’s duplicity in selling its Iraq war was laid bare. …

Meanwhile, the Senate Judiciary Committee began to peel back the onion on the growing Bush Justice Department scandal involving the politically motivated firings of 8 U.S. prosecutors. Senators heard six of the attorneys tell them under oath of pressure from the White House and Congressional Republicans to pursue — or not pursue — a raft of public corruption cases. …

Even as the prosecutors’ imbroglio is just starting to simmer, the outrage over the appalling conditions for wounded American servicemen at Walter Reed Army Medical Center is now at a full boil. The disgraceful conditions reported by the Washington Post and the dismissive response of the Army’s former head at Walter Reed Lt. General Kevin Kiley undermined the last remaining trump card of the Bush team — its mantra of “we support the troops.” …

Sadly for President Bush, the news coming out of Iraq was no better. Even as he praised the initial successes of his surge in Iraq, over 100 Shiite pilgrims were slaughtered in bomb blasts south of Baghad in Hillah. Worse still, nine U.S. soldiers were killed in separate attacks across Iraq on the same day that the Pentagon revealed that Bush’s “surge” would actually require 28,000 additional troops, 7,000 more than the White House claimed.

The toll on President Bush’s standing was reflected in polls released yesterday as well. A new USA Today/Gallup survey showed that fully 60% of Americans now support a timeline for U.S. withdrawal from Iraq, while only 28% say the U.S will win the war. …

For the Bush administration, it is all over except for the shouting. His domestic agenda dead, President Bush can only stubbornly move forward with his debacle in Iraq while threatening to veto Democratic domestic initiatives such as union rights for TSA workers.

Gee, I wonder how history will judge the Bush presidency?

Via GrrlScientist: the George W. Bush postage stamp.

It’s worthless. So it’s perfect.

From The Nation: Vermont Leads:

When Vermont Governor Jim Douglas, a Republican with reasonably close ties to President Bush, asked if there was any additional business to be considered at the town meeting he was running in Middlebury, Ellen McKay popped up and proposed the impeachment of Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney.

The governor was not amused. As moderator of the annual meeting, he tried to suggest that the proposal to impeach — along with another proposal to withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq — could not be voted on.

But McKay, a program coordinator at Middlebury College, pressed her case. And it soon became evident that the crowd at the annual meeting shared her desire to hold the president to account.

So Douglas backed down.

“It became clear that no one was going home until they had the chance to discuss the resolutions and vote on them,” explained David Rosenberg, a political science professor at Middlebury College. “And being a good politician, he allowed the vote to happen.”

By an overwhelming voice vote, Middlebury called for impeachment.

So it has gone this week at town meetings across Vermont, most of which were held Tuesday.

Late Tuesday night, there were confirmed reports that 36 towns had backed impeachment resolutions, and the number was expected to rise.

In one town, Putney, the vote for impeachment was unanimous.

Impeach Bush and Cheney?

Hmmm… President Nancy Pelosi. I like the sound of that.

Cartoonist D.C. Simpson thinks about Bush’s current low poll numbers:

The numbers are clear. George Bush is now less popular than getting kicked in the groin.

… and flashes back to recall the political climate at the start of the Iraq War:

George Bush is so brave and heroic! He held office when something bad happened!

What we believed, of course, was that George W. Bush would do as other presidents had done in times of crisis, and would rise to meet history’s challenge. But George W. Bush was not like other presidents. He had reached the White House not by the process defined in the Constitution, but in an anti-Constitutional judicial coup d’etat. He has spent his presidency disabusing us of our optimism.

Via Hetty Litjens: Some people are such optimists:

Dick Cheney has been diagnosed with a blood clot in his left leg, leading to speculation he will be forced to resign as U.S. Vice-President.

The United States has the most expensive medical care on earth. Cheney will be blighting lives for years to come.

Atrios makes a good point about Fox News:

The problem with Fox isn’t that it’s conservative, it’s that it’s basically a propaganda outlet for the GOP. The difference is an important one. Back when Clinton in power, their true nature was somewhat obscured by the fact that were doing what media should be doing at least in broad terms, which is be skeptical about the actions of the powerful. Back when Bush was popular, it was also easier for people to fail to understand just what Fox does on a daily basis. But now that they spend 24/7 propping up Mr. 30% and his gang of incompetents, the absurdity of considering them to be a “news channel” should be apparent.

I started watching Fox News at about the time we invaded Iraq. They advertised with the slogan, “We Report, You Decide,” and within a few hours I noticed that they never, ever played a story straight. You might not notice the constant editorializing about the war — CNN and CBS and the New York Times all got teary-eyed about “our brave soldiers” during those early days in Iraq. But Fox was different. Reporting even something as simple as an auto accident, they never resisted tacking on a little sermonette about the deeper cultural meaning of the event.

I watched Fox for about two days, then decided they were not a trustworthy source of information. I haven’t watched since.

You know who played the Iraq War story straight? The BBC. There were brave British soldiers in the fight, but the BBC reported just the facts. They left it to each of us to decide for ourselves how to feel about those facts.

The Daily Show on Monday was dynamite, as Jon Stewart took on the Walter Reed story. Crooks and Liars has video. They also have video of Jon Stewart’s interview with wounded ABC News reporter Bob Woodruff.

Stephen Colbert also looked at the Walter Reed story Monday night, focusing on the role of Congress. Think Progress has the video, including Colbert’s summary of Joe Lieberman:

The senseless war in Washington must end, so the War in Iraq can continue in peace.

Switch parties, already, Lieberman. You’re embarrassing the Democrats.

Update: Crooks and Liars is calling the Walter Reed scandal “Waltergate.” Good one!

Via Boing Boing, Fox News’ unbiased report:

Yeah, that’s your headline. Guilty on four counts, but the big news is the one not-guilty verdict.

Media Matters has a dishonor roll of bad media coverage of the case.

Update: Via Crooks and Liars, more Fox spin:

Bill Maher, via GrrlScientist:

New rule, in two parts: a) You can’t call yourself a think tank if all your ideas are stupid, and b) if you’re someone from one of the think tanks that dreamed up the Iraq War, and who predicted that we’d be greeted as liberators, and that we wouldn’t need a lot of troops, and that Iraqi oil would pay for the war, that the WMDs would be found, that the looting wasn’t problematic, that the mission was accomplished, that the insurgency was in its last throes, that things would get better after the people voted, after the government was formed, after we got Saddam, after we got his kids, after we got Zarqawi, and that the whole bloody mess wouldn’t turn into a civil war, you have to stop making predictions.

Via Omni Brain, an image from a blog called grow-a-brain:

I need this. I’ll build a little fence to keep my brain from running away. Ooop! Slippery devil!

Dispatches from the Culture Wars found a selection of new definitions “for those who appreciate bumper sticker politics”:

Cheney, Dick (n.) The greater of two evils.

Class warfare (n.) Any attempt to raise the minimum wage.

Clear Skies Act (n.) Reduction of the bird population.

Creation science (n.) Pseudo-science that claims George W. Bush’s resemblance to a chimpanzee is totally coincidental.

Extrodinary rendition (n.) Outsourcing torture.

Fact (n.) Liberal spin.

Healthy forests (n.) No tree left behind.

Honesty (n.) Lies told in simple, declarative sentences (e. g. “Freedom is on the march.”)

Patriot Act, The (n.) 1. Pre-emptive strike on American liberties to prevent them the terrorists from destroying them first. 2. The elimination of one of the reasons why they hate us.

Pro-life (adj.) 1. Valuing life up until birth. 2. Valuing human life after being born, only if diagnosed to be in a persistent vegitative state. (See: Punitive pregnancy).

Punitive pregnancy (n.) 1. Fitting puhishment for fornication targeting the feminine gender 2. A chip off the old pillory block.

Voter fraud, (n.) A significant minority turnout.

Woman (n.) 1. Person who can be trusted to raise a child but can’t be trusted to decide whether or not she wishes to have a child. 2. Person who must have all decisions, regarding her reproductive functions made by men.

I hope the many typos are intentional. If so, heh-heh. If not, how embarrassing.

Thoughts from Kansas asks us to compare and contrast:

Bill Clinton tells Kansas Democrats:

“You’re in a party that’s in the solutions business. … Can you prove that what unites us is more important than what we disagree about? Can you prove that America can be about doing again? And that the Democratic party can lead the way? That’s what everybody’s looking to see, and I’m gambling you’ll give them a very good answer.”

Grover Norquist at the Conservative PAC summit:

“Our job is to say ‘no, no, no, no’ for two years.”

Which would you rather be part of?

Hmmm… try to solve problems, or try to prevent problems being solved? Tough call.

Via Pharyngula, Hypnocrites has a look at the future:

The Bush Administration went into Iraq without a Plan B. Before the invasion, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said he’d “fire the next person” who talked about a post-war plan.

Live and learn, right?

Wrong. This administration’s bedrock principle is never, ever learn:

During a White House meeting last week, a group of governors asked President Bush and Marine Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, about their backup plan for Iraq. What would the administration do if its new strategy didn’t work?

The conclusion they took away, the governors later said, was that there is no Plan B. “I’m a Marine,” Pace told them, “and Marines don’t talk about failure. They talk about victory.”

Pace had a simple way of summarizing the administration’s position, Gov. Phil Bredesen (D-Tenn.) recalled. “Plan B was to make Plan A work.”

You know, I’m starting to think impeachment’s too good for Bush and his gang.