a quote;

"As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron." - H.L. Mencken (1880 - 1956)

more maps...

We're used to seeing maps like this, which make the blue states seem pretty small.

Here's what is called a "cartogram", which shows the map in terms of population:


Here's the same, broken down by county:


And even better yet, broken down by county and using the red-purple-blue scale:


Fine more maps here.

Awesome new meme...

To: President Bush
From: The Men and Women of America

I believe in fighting for democracy and freedom everywhere in the world. I am willing to sacrifice when the cause is just and the strategy is strong. But I don't want anyone to be forced to die for a terrible, unplanned war.

President Bush, you say there will be no draft. Why should I trust you?

Go and sign this meme, then post it to your own journal!

You can also watch a flash animation of how the meme has spread! It's quite nifty.

Amazing.

The back of Wired Magazine always features a photoshopped image.

The latest issue has something I would LOVE to see come true some day:



"This is a copy of an original printout stored in the votestation."

Just think....

Our new United States Attorney General defended Enron during the scandal.

When Bush was elected President of the United States in 2001, Gonzales was named White House Counsel. After the September 11, 2001 attacks, he has been criticized by some for being culpable of the mistreatment of detainees captured during the War on Terror, authoring a February 2002 memo (http://msnbc.msn.com/id/4999148/site/newsweek/) suggesting that the Geneva Conventions, parts of which he described as "obsolete" and "quaint," and therefore did not apply to "enemy combatants" captured in Afghanistan. (The term "enemy combatant" was a resurrected legal term from WWII.) He noted that if detainees were not exempted from the Conventions, and mistreatment were to be alleged, officials and military leaders could be prosecuted under the War Crimes Act of 1996.

Because of this memo, Gonzales (among others in the Bush administration) has received criticism for contributing to "creating a climate" in which the abuses at Abu Ghraib prison took place. Notable critics of US foreign policy in the War on Terror have claimed that these abuses, having been sanctioned by the President, were formed under the influence of Gonzales legal counsel. In the memo, Gonzales claimed that the value of intelligence which could be obtained during interrogation "renders obsolete Geneva's strict limitations on questioning of enemy prisoners." This advice faced strong dissent from Secretary of State Colin Powell, who felt that all captives should be considered prisoners of war. (http://msnbc.msn.com/id/4989422/site/newsweek/)

Gonzales faced further controversy when he authored the Presidential Order which authorized the use of military tribunals to try terrorist suspects. He fought with Congress to keep vice-president Dick Cheney's Energy task force documents from being reviewed. Gonzales was also an early advocate of the USA PATRIOT Act, and was apparently involved in the decision to allow foreign combatants in U.S. custody to be deported to nations that allow torture, in order to extract further information from them. Gonzales denies that he supported this measure, however.

Enron even donated money ($6500) to this guy's campaign for the Texas Supreme Court.

They sure know how to pick 'em.