It’s time to high-tail it out of there!

The White House said Monday that President Bush was no longer using the phrase "stay the course"” when speaking about the Iraq war, in a new effort to emphasize flexibility in the face of some of the bloodiest violence there since the 2003 invasion... [Hey, check out my last article below.]

Mr. Bush used the slogan in a stump speech on Aug. 31, but has not repeated it for some time. Still, Mr. Snow's pronouncement was a stark example of the complicated line the White House is walking this election year in trying to tag Democrats as wanting to "cut and run"” from Iraq, without itself appearing wedded to unsuccessful tactics there. [Hmm, you think?]

In a related note:

America'’s top military and civilian officials in Iraq said today that the Baghdad government has agreed to a timetable for a series of milestones to be pursued in the coming year, including cracking down on Shiite militias, completing a "national compact"” between competing political groups, persuading Sunni insurgents to lay down their arms and settling contentious issues like the division of oil revenues...

Gen. George W. Casey Jr., the senior American military commander in Iraq, said that at their current rate of development, in 12 to 18 months the Iraqi security forces "“will emerge as the dominant force in Iraq, possibly with some American support."...

Do you feel it? It's time for the "I Told You So's."

“Staying the Course” impossible

It has become conventional wisdom in Washington's foreign policy circles that "staying the course" in Iraq is untenable. That's why much of Washington and the media is focused on the secret deliberations of the bipartisan Iraq Study Group, initiated by congressional Republicans and endorsed by the White House. The panel, headed by former Secretary of State and Bush family consiglieri James Baker, will not report until after November's elections, which will avoid a serious reexamination of Iraq policy being subsumed in partisan bickering.

While the specifics of its proposals are not yet clear or, says Baker, even finalized the broad premise guiding those recommendations appears to be that the U.S. needs to try to salvage the best possible outcome given that the achievement of its original goals in Iraq appear increasingly unlikely. The New York Sun first reported last week that Baker's group would make clear that "victory" in Iraq, in the sense that the White House uses the term establishing a stable democracy capable of defending itself and serving as an ally in the U.S. war on terror is beyond reach.

Such a conclusion certainly jibes with the facts on the ground: Iraq has become a charnel house with a current average of around 100 Iraqis killed every day in rampant sectarian bloodletting, while the U.S. casualty count continues to climb at a steady clip— October 2006 is currently on track to be the third-deadliest month for U.S. troops since the invasion of Iraq. The U.S. has long recognized that the insurgency can't be eliminated by military means (Isn't that what us "hippies"” were saying from the beginning!); instead it hoped that it could be defanged by a national reconciliation process pursued by the elected government, which would coax Sunnis away from the insurgency by dismantling Shi'ite militias and by giving them a greater political stake. At the same time, security duties would be transferred increasingly into the hands of Iraqi forces. But six months after the new government took office, the national reconciliation process is effectively stalled. And the reason American casualty figures have spiked in recent months is that U.S.Baghdad troops have had to resume a greater role in security operations, particularly in and around

President Bush on Monday had to phone [Iraqi Prime Minister] Maliki to reassure him that he still had U.S. support. (That may have been a comfort to Maliki, since the Iraqi capital has also been awash with rumors of a U.S.-backed coup that would replace Maliki with a "strongman" capable of getting the job done.)

[Baker] has made clear his belief that the U.S. would be more prudent in aiming for something less than democracy in the Middle East...

Nurse sues over ticket for anti-Bush bumper sticker

A woman who was ticketed for having an obscene anti-Bush bumper sticker filed a lawsuit in federal court Monday against a county in the state of Georgia and its officials.

Denise Grier, 47, of Athens, Georgia, got a $100 ticket in March after a DeKalb County police officer spotted the bumper sticker, which read "I'm Tired Of All The BUSH**."

A DeKalb judge threw out the ticket in April because the state's lewd decal law that formed the basis for the ticket was ruled unconstitutional in 1990.

Grier is seeking damages from the county for "emotional distress," according to the lawsuit.

Grier also seeks a declaration in federal court that her bumper sticker is considered constitutionally protected speech because she is "uncertain and insecure regarding her right to display her bumper sticker in DeKalb County," the lawsuit said.

The lawsuit was filed by the American Civil Liberties Union of Georgia.

Grier, a nurse who works at Emory University and other hospitals, also is seeking punitive damages against the DeKalb police officer who gave her the ticket because he "acted with reckless disregard" of her rights, the lawsuit said.

The state law prohibited lewd or profane stickers and decals on vehicles.

I'd hate to live in a place where your political views can get you in trouble with the PoPo. Is this communist Russia or AMERICA [F Yea!].

21st Century digital boy - you have no privacy

Someday a stranger will read your e-mail, rummage through your instant messages without your permission or scan the Web sites you’ve visited — maybe even find out that you read this story.

You might be spied in a lingerie store by a secret camera or traced using a computer chip in your car, your clothes or your skin.

Perhaps someone will casually glance through your credit card purchases or cell phone bills, or a political consultant might select you for special attention based on personal data purchased from a vendor.

Who would watch you without your permission? It might be a spouse, a girlfriend, a marketing company, a boss, a cop or a criminal. Whoever it is, they will see you in a way you never intended to be seen — the 21st century equivalent of being caught naked.

Psychologists tell us boundaries are healthy, that it’s important to reveal yourself to friends, family and lovers in stages, at appropriate times. But few boundaries remain. The digital bread crumbs you leave everywhere make it easy for strangers to reconstruct who you are, where you are and what you like. In some cases, a simple Google search can reveal what you think. Like it or not, increasingly we live in a world where you simply cannot keep a secret…

People do and don't care. But people say one thing and do another. Only a tiny fraction of Americans – 7 percent, according to a recent survey by The Ponemon Institute – change any behaviors in an effort to preserve their privacy. Few people turn down a discount at toll booths to avoid using the EZ-Pass system that can track automobile movements.

And few turn down supermarket loyalty cards. Carnegie Mellon privacy economist Alessandro Acquisti has run a series of tests that reveal people will surrender personal information like Social Security numbers just to get their hands on a measly 50-cents-off coupon…

I think most of us blindly accept the little ways in which companies and our government spy on us. The technology is out there and getting better all the time. Has anyone tried GoogleEarth for example? You can search for any location on the planet and it will bring up a satellite photo of that location within a couple of hundred feet. I was able to find the rooftop of my house and in taller structures you can even look inside of windows.

Teacher Fired for Exposing Children to Art

It amazes me that this sort of thing still happens in our country, but then again, a good chunck of Americans don’t believe in evil-ution. Idiots.

Sydney McGee, who taught elementary school in this sprawling Dallas suburb, has drawn national sympathy and disbelief since claiming she was let go last month because a parent complained that their child saw a nude piece during a field trip to the Dallas Museum of Art.

Eighty-nine of McGee's fifth-graders toured the museum during the April trip, which McGee concedes likely included nudes but was arranged as a chance to see Picassos and Piet Mondrians.

"It's not a place of pornography, it's art," said McGee, 51, who has taught for 28 years and lists Oxford University among her graduate studies.

Her dismissal has stirred up familiar stereotypes of Texas conservatism run amok and the intemperate prudishness of suburban life.

The Frisco school board suspended McGee, with pay, on September 22 for the remainder of the school year and the superintendent has said he will recommend that her contract not be renewed. District officials have vigilantly maintained that the decision stemmed from separate personnel issues and not one child's exposure to a nude artwork, which has never been identified…

"We have a lot of sporting things in Frisco, with the soccer and the baseball," McGee said. "But not a lot of those kids go to the museum."

Oh You Wily FOX

I actually found this story on VH1's "Best Week Ever" blog. I guess they are good for something other than Lindsey Lohan fire-crotch gossip!

How could a cable news network possibly be expected to fit something so outrageously embarrassing as a Republican Congressman caught having dirty cybersex with teenage boys into their shamelessly conservative agenda? Make the pervet a Democrat, of course! Yes, on last night’s episode of The “Oh, Really?” Factor, Rep. Mark Foley was labeled “D” for “Democrat” on THREE separate screen shots. Was this just poor fact-checking on the part of our fair and balanced friends, or did the “D” actually stand for Disgusting Douchebag Republican? Be sure to tune in tonight for Bill’s hard-hitting expose, “Amish Killer: Best Friend of the Clintons”

The Great Wall (fence) of America

Republicans will go into the elections with a message that they've made great strides fighting illegal immigration, including authorizing a fence along one-third of the U.S.-Mexico border and making a $1.2 billion down payment on it.

Among its final tasks before leaving to campaign, the Senate on Friday night passed and sent to President Bush a bill authorizing 700 miles of fencing on the nearly 2,000-mile long southern border.

No one knows how much it will cost, but a separate bill also on the way to the White House makes a $1.2 billion down payment on it. A 14-mile segment of fence under construction in San Diego is costing $126.5 million.

The fence bill was passed by the House two weeks ago. The Senate vote Friday night was 80-19.

In addition to money for starting work on the fence, a homeland security bill Congress was completing Friday includes $380 million to hire 1,500 more Border Patrol agents and money to build detention facilities to hold 6,700 more illegal immigrants until they can be deported...

A fence!? How embarrassing. What's next, a moat?

Bush thinks Dems are Sissies, but at least our sex scandals don't involve little boys

President Bush, on a campaign swing in the West, is arguing the Democratic Party is weak-kneed on national security and shouldn't be trusted to hold the reins of Congress.

"If you listen closely to some of the leaders of the Democratic Party, it sounds like -- it sounds like -- they think the best way to protect the American people is, wait until we're attacked again," Bush said Monday at a $360,000 fundraiser in Reno, Nevada, for state Secretary of State Dean Heller's congressional campaign.

As opposed to knowing we are going to get attacked but doing nothing? Keep reading...

Bush delivered the administration's oft-repeated claims about the Democrats as it struggles with persistent questions about a recent intelligence report that suggests the Iraq war has helped recruit more terrorists, and a new book, "State of Denial," by journalist Bob Woodward that contends Bush misled the country about the war.

In the latest development, a State Department official confirmed that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice did receive a CIA briefing about terror threats just about two months before the Sept. 11 attacks. Rice has said repeatedly she could not specifically recall the meeting.

Spokesman Sean McCormack said the information at the July 10, 2001 session is not new...

Republicans have held the seat since it was created 25 years ago to represent more than 100,000 square miles -- nearly the entire state except for Las Vegas. Republicans hold an edge of more than 47,000 registered, mostly rural voters, but polls suggest it is a close race.

About 100 protesters chanting "Vote for Change" rallied nearby.

"I think it's an indication of how desperate the Republicans have gotten to try to hang onto a seat that just a year ago was considered a slam dunk for the Republicans," said Pam duPre, executive director of the Washoe County Democratic Party.

Read more about the Republicans most recent scandal here.