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From the 1934 movie Six of a Kind, W.C. Fields tells how he got the name of “Honest John.”

Seems it would have been tough to stand by while Fields worked and keep a straight face.

Political cartoonist Tom Tomorrow on the next war:

Of course Iraq has descended into chaos and civil war — but Iran is going to be a cakewalk!

I mean, c’mon! Nobody can be wrong all the time, can they?

Doonesbury:

Drat! These pesky scientific facts won’t line up behind my beliefs!

New York Times columnist Paul Krugman says the “surge” is a con job:

During the savings and loan scandal of the 1980s, people like [Charles] Keating kept failed banks going by faking financial success. Mr. Bush has kept a failed war going by faking military success.

The “surge” is just another stalling tactic, designed to buy more time.

…

But the real point of the racket was a form of looting: as long as they could keep reporting high paper profits, S.&L. owners could keep rewarding themselves with salaries, dividends and sweetheart business deals.

Mr. Keating paid himself a million dollars just weeks before his holding company collapsed.

…

Now Mr. Bush has grudgingly sort-of admitted that things aren’t going well — but he says his “new way forward” will fix everything.

So it’s still the Texas strategy: the war’s architects are trying to keep their failed venture going as long as possible.

…

Escalation won’t bring victory in Iraq, but it might bring defeat in Afghanistan, which the administration will continue to neglect. And it has pushed the military to the breaking point.

Mr. Bush calls his critics “irresponsible,” saying that they don’t have an alternative to his strategy. But they do: setting a timetable for withdrawal, so that we can cut our losses, and trying to save what can be saved. It isn’t a strategy for victory because that’s no longer an option. It’s a strategy for acknowledging reality.

The lesson of the savings and loan scandal was that when a bank has failed, you shouldn’t let the owner string you along with promises — you should shut the thing down. We should do the same with Mr. Bush’s failed war.

Bush is a con man, and it’s time to shut down his racket.

Martin Luther King in Montgomery, Alabama, on March 25, 1965:

I know you are asking today, “How long will it take?” Somebody’s asking, “How long will prejudice blind the visions of men…”

I come to say to you this afternoon, however difficult the moment, however frustrating the hour, it will not be long, because “truth crushed to earth will rise again.”

How long? Not long, because “no lie can live forever.”

How long? Not long, because “you shall reap what you sow.”

How long? Not long:

Truth forever on the scaffold,
Wrong forever on the throne,
Yet that scaffold sways the future,
And, behind the dim unknown,
Standeth God within the shadow,
Keeping watch above his own.

How long? Not long, because “the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”

How long? Not long, because:

Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord;
He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored;
He has loosed the fateful lightning of his terrible swift sword;
His truth is marching on.
He has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat;
He is sifting out the hearts of men before His judgment seat.
O, be swift, my soul, to answer Him! Be jubilant my feet!
Our God is marching on.
Glory, hallelujah! Glory, hallelujah!
Glory, hallelujah! Glory, hallelujah!
His truth is marching on.

The video is from the documentary “King: Montgomery to Memphis.”

Bush on Saturday: You got a better idea?

President Bush on Saturday challenged lawmakers skeptical of his new Iraq plan to propose their own strategy for stopping the violence in Baghdad.

“To oppose everything while proposing nothing is irresponsible,” Bush said.

The Iraq Study Group doesn’t count, huh?

Bush on Sunday: Who cares what you think, anyway?

President Bush, facing opposition from both parties over his plan to send more troops to Iraq, said he has the authority to act no matter what Congress wants.

“I fully understand they could try to stop me from doing it. But I’ve made my decision. And we’re going forward,” Bush told CBS’ “60 Minutes” in an interview to air Sunday night.

Vice President Dick Cheney asserted that lawmakers’ criticism will not influence Bush’s plans and he dismissed any effort to “run a war by committee.”

White House official on Sunday: You ain’t seen nothin’ yet!

The White House said Sunday it is not planning military action against Iran, but refused to rule out the possibility, bucking pressure from several senators who said the administration is not authorized to do so.

Sure, the current war is a total disaster, helping terrorists more than hurting them. But the next war is gonna be great!

Several moments from the global warming documentary An Inconvenient Truth struck a chord.

Sir Winston Churchill, on November 12, 1936, discussing an earlier crisis:

The era of procrastination, of half-measures, of soothing and baffling expedients, is coming to its close.

In its place we are entering a period of consequences.

Al Gore says we have the technology:

We already know everything we need to know to effectively address this problem….

We have everything we need, save, perhaps, political will. But you know what? In America, political will is a renewable resource.

From the suggestions for action that appear on screen during the closing credits:

If you believe in prayer, pray that people will find the strength to change.

In the words of the old African proverb, when you pray, move your feet.

The film is out on DVD. If you haven’t already seen it, rent it or borrow it from your library.

I don’t like to watch when George W. Bush makes a speech about Iraq. It’s always a re-run.

The “surge” Bush announced on Wednesday will be the fifth time we’ve sent more troops in to stabilize the situation in Iraq, made necessary because none of the previous surges have worked and things just keep getting worse.

Some of the TV talking heads have been asking, “What happens if this fails?” I think I can answer that: the same, only more of it — another surge.

You know, I may owe Don Rumsfeld an apology. I’ve blamed him for the U.S. policy of “keep doing what doesn’t work until it does work.” Now he’s gone, but the policy remains.

“Surge” is the wrong word. The new Bush policy is a “splurge.”

Ronald Reagan used to joke that it was unfair to say Congress was spending money like a drunken sailor, because the drunken sailor was spending his own money.

Bush is doubling down on a bad bet, certain he’ll win this time. He’s not gambling with his own money, but with the lives of people better than himself. He’s not afraid to keep raising the stakes, because there’s no shortage of people better than George W. Bush.

I don’t know why this doesn’t fill me with a lot of confidence:

The U.S. agency best known for eavesdropping on telephone calls had a hand in the development of Microsoft Corp.’s Vista operating system, the software vendor confirmed yesterday.

The National Security Agency stepped in to help Microsoft develop a configuration of its next-generation operating system that would meet U.S. Department of Defense requirements, said NSA spokesman Ken White.

The theory, I suppose, is that you might as well give them the keys because they’re going to get in anyway, and it’s less messy for everyone if they don’t have to smash the door down.

On the Daily Show, former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee distinguishes himself from other conservative Republicans:

I’m a conservative, but I’m not mad at everybody over it… for example, I’m pro-life, but I think life begins at conception, but I don’t think it ends at birth. We have to be concerned about a child’s education, and health care, safe neighborhoods, clean water, the access to a college education. That is pro-life — to care about a child’s entire life…

I guess he’s not running for president. He’d never stand a chance in a Republican primary with that kind of attitude.

Before Bush’s “surge” speech tonight, Keith Olbermann reviewed the Bush record on Iraq:

We earthlings are so vain. We send the Cassini spacecraft billions of miles to study Saturn, and then we have it send back photos of — what else? — the earth.

In this image, the bluish dot between Saturn’s rings is Earth (also inset).

We’re so vain, we probably even think Carly Simon’s writing songs about us.

Via Coyote Gulch: the Union of Concerned Scientists have put together The A to Z Guide to Political Interference in Science:

In recent years, scientists who work for and advise the federal government have seen their work manipulated, suppressed, distorted, while agencies have systematically limited public and policy maker access to critical scientific information….

From air pollution to Ground Zero, the A to Z Guide showcases dozens of examples of the misuse of science on issues like childhood lead poisoning, toxic mercury contamination, and endangered species.

The January issue of MAD magazine is the source of this parody cover of Scientific American.

Via Coyote Gulch, here’s a preview of tonight’s titanic Bush plan for Iraq.

What a surprise:

Families earning more than $1 million a year saw their federal tax rates drop more sharply than any group in the country as a result of President Bush’s tax cuts, according to a new Congressional study.

The study, by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, also shows that tax rates for middle-income earners edged up in 2004, the most recent year for which data was available, while rates for people at the very top continued to decline.

Based on an exhaustive analysis of tax records and census data, the study reinforced the sense that while Mr. Bush’s tax cuts reduced rates for people at every income level, they offered the biggest benefits by far to people at the very top — especially the top 1 percent of income earners.

Though tax cuts for the rich were bigger than those for other groups, the wealthiest families paid a bigger share of total taxes. That is because their incomes have climbed far more rapidly, and the gap between rich and poor has widened in the last several years.

I guess this means I have to stop saying that the Bush administration isn’t good for anybody.