The Ultra-Right-Wing-Loonie Forum, Free Republic, has an article posted from Fox News:

Rumsfeld Has No Plans to Step Down, Despite Democrat Gains, Official Says

But when you click the accompanying link, you get an article that says:

Donald Rumsfeld Resigning as Defense Secretary

Obviously, a Bush administration official lied to Fox News, and Fox covered up for them by simply scrubbing the original article when the lie became known.

Nice.

Did Pravda use "Fair and Balanced" as a slogan, too?

Bush made another speech this morning, deciding to finally come up with a Strategy for Victory THREE YEARS into a war.

Pardon me for pointing this out, but shouldn't he have had a Strategy for Victory when he STARTED the bloody thing? I mean, since it WAS "at a time and place of our choosing," after all, he MIGHT have laid down a plan or two from the get-go. But no. That would require competence.

A couple of things I noticed, though (actually from the text of the proposal, not the speech. The speech said the same thing in nearly the same words, though):

I thought I would float this little discovery, and see what folks thought of it:

According to an article in last December's Newsweek, one of Tom Delay's "questionable contributions" came from the law firm that Miers headed.

"Among the contributions at issue: a $1,000 check in 2001 from superlobbyist Vin Weber, whose clients included Microsoft and the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers; and $2,500 that same year from Locke Liddell & Sapp, the Texas law firm formerly headed by Harriet Miers (who was recently named White House counsel), which was then representing Burlington Northern Santa Fe."

This may have the potential to turn into a real media stench.

In an article in the LA Times, GOP Pollster and consultant Frank Luntz actually defends his Orwellian use of language. I think the article is a graphic demonstration of how totally illogical and given over to the worst kind of sophistry these folks are:

"For example, why not use the term "death tax" for the taxes paid on an estate? What is the event that triggers it? I pay a sales tax when I am involved with a sale, and I pay income tax when I earn income. And when I die, if I'm successful and forget to hire smart accountants, I may pay a tax. What else would you call that other than a death tax -- a "permanent sleep tax"?"

To wit:

There is a story in the LA Times about a potential scandal regarding a contractor in Iraq. Reading that article, I realized that it was 5 pages of density, and incredibly hard and complex to follow, as written. So I thought I would boil it down, since the details really aren't complex at all, and it's important, and if it's explained simply, it's more likely to be attended to.

Simply put: a contractor for the Iraqi Government (Dale Stoffel) was forced to work through a middleman (Raymond Zayna) by an Iraqi Defense Minister (Mashal Sarraf). And he wound up believing, with good reason, that this middleman was routing kickbacks to the Iraqi Defense Ministry, which organization, of course, included the Defense Minister who placed him in the job in the first place.

But, when the contractor tried to tell officials what a potential scandal this could be - he contacted the Army, the Pentagon, and Senators - he was killed in an ambush by a previously unknown group of insurgents.

Yes, George, I mean you.

David Shuster uses an interesting illustration to demonstrate how paltry the 35 million dollars pledged is:

"Besides, to put the 35 million dollars in context, consider this: To "help" the citizens of Iraq, our government is spending 5.8 BILLION dollars each MONTH. That translates to more than 8 million dollars an hour. Or put another way, the $35 million we have pledged in disaster aid for Southeast Asia is less than the amount the U.S. military spent during the six hours it took on Sunday for the tsunami to cross the Indian Ocean."

The biggest disaster in God knows how long, and Bush just can't interrupt his vacation.

"In Britain, <span style="font-weight: bold;">the predominant U.S. voice speaking about the disaster was not Bush but former president Bill Clinton,</span> who in an interview with the BBC said the suffering was like something in a "horror movie," and urged a coordinated international response.

And the right-wingers actually can't figure out why the rest of the world thought a lot of Clinton, and doesn't think much at all of Bush.

How does it work? This is how it works.

When in Congress, pass legislation at the behest of some giant industry, and pay no attention at all to what will actually help the citizens in your district. Heck, let the industry WRITE the laws if they want to. In exchange, they'll give you tons of contributions allowing you to flood the airwaves with spin, deflection and lies so you can get re-elected, and eventually reward you with a million dollar job.

Retiring Representative Billy Tauzin, who led the House committee that regulates drug makers, will become head of the industry's top lobbying group next month.