Gentle Reader -- You are welcome to peruse my web-based journal. I assure you that my contributions to this medium will be both infrequent and inconsequential. Read on!

HATRED

A co-worker asked me a question today, which took me aback: "What kind of a celebration are you going to have when Bush leaves office, since you hate him so much?"

Just for the record, let me explain: I don't hate the man, personally. I think he's very limited, in every way I can think of, and I don't think he is in any way suitable for the position of President. I don't believe he has the intellectual, moral or spiritual capacity required for the position. I don't like him, certainly; I don't like hearing him stumble through a speech or answer a question with a sound bite that nevertheless sounds like the sum total of his thinking on the subject. I suspect the man to have some kind of serious undisclosed mental or physical ailment, but only time will tell about that. I believe he is irrational and small-minded and a cheater. I do not like this man. But I don't hate him.

What I do hate, however, is what has happened to all of us since he became President. He has led us from an era of security and prosperity and into an era of fear and want. He has done with the United States what he has done with every position of responsibility he has ever had: abused his power and squandered assets that rightfully belong to others. He has done his best to wreck stable, necessary, long-standing institutions and organizations for a political benefit that might last a moment, or perhaps for no benefit at all. He has shown an appalling lack of appreciation for human life, both American and foreign.

I do hate these things.

But you know, the Bush Administration isn't exactly the same as Bush himself. Take any one of a number of cockeyed schemes this administration has put in place -- do we really think that George Bush came up with them? He famously declared himself "the Decider", but to what extent is he really making informed decisions? Is it that he has goals that he is working towards and is directing his advisors towards those ends? Or is it more that he is handed papers to sign, given speeches to make, and told where to stand to have his picture taken? Listening to his public statements, it's hard not to hear the disconnect from reality. He, again famously, does not even read the newspaper. How much does he even understand of what is going on?

I believe that, as time goes by, we will see George Bush as more of a pitiable figure than a hateful one: a prisoner in the White House, not understanding why everyone is mean to him, wanting only to go away and drink beer and talk about sports and stop thinking all the time.

What will not happen: he will never understand what he did wrong, never admit to a mistake, and never tell the truth. posted by Carlton at 8:27 PM

THE NO-DIMENSIONAL THINKER

This recent mess (US NEWS reports it as a "PR Fiasco") with the cancellation of the summit/conference/tete-a-tete/casual chit-chat with Our Man in Baghdad Nouri Al-Malaki is illustrative of the dualism running through the entire Bush presidency: with us or against us, patriots or evil-doers, crony or servant. Bush has made this mistake of thinking that Al-Maliki is a servant -- with a certain degree of justification, I suppose. He is a puppet set into place by us, and maintained, to the degree that he is maintained, by us. Bush, characteristically fails to make the further distinction among his servants, between slaves and employees. By brushing the U.S. president off of his agenda, Al-Maliki has demonstrated that he is the latter.

Let's put it frankly: Our president is not used to thinking about the people across the table as though they were, well, people. Like a novice chess player, his strategies for victory fail to take into account that there is an opponent making moves that he can't control. That kind of thinking gives you memos like the one written by Stephen Hadley (trashing Al-Maliki), leaked to the New York Times (possibly deliberately) right before the Al-Maliki-Bush meeting was supposed to take place. The memo lays out some action items that Al-Maliki ought to take, which appear to be flatly impossible. ("Step 1: make the blind to see and the lame to walk.")

The result of this extraordinarily blinkered view is that, when he doesn't have total control of all of the actors in a situation, Bush is pathetically easy to upstage and embarrass. Consider another recent example, for which we even have a script:

At a recent White House reception for freshman members of Congress, Virginia's newest senator tried to avoid President Bush. Democrat James Webb declined to stand in a presidential receiving line or to have his picture taken with the man he had often criticized on the stump this fall. But it wasn't long before Bush found him.

"How's your boy?" Bush asked, referring to Webb's son, a Marine serving in Iraq.

"I'd like to get them out of Iraq, Mr. President," Webb responded, echoing a campaign theme.

"That's not what I asked you," Bush said. "How's your boy?"

"That's between me and my boy, Mr. President," Webb said coldly, ending the conversation on the State Floor of the East Wing of the White House.

Here's a perfect example: Bush has some point to make, whether to be nice to Webb (by feigning concern for his son) or to score a point (by emphasizing that he, Bush, has Webb's son under his control). He goes to make his point, Webb makes an obvious rejoinder -- and Bush can't react. He has the thing he wants to say in mind, and that's all he can think about. He can't recover or respond, except to repeat himself -- with an admonition to Webb, the listener, to co-operate in being placated/insulted. ("Hold still while I bite your nose off!")

Ladies and Gentlemen, we have the President of the United States, upstaged by a junior Senator in the White House and stood up by his own puppet abroad. posted by Carlton at 7:39 PM

THE QUALITY OF THINKING ON THE OTHER SIDE

First, Newt:

Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich yesterday said the country will be forced to reexamine freedom of speech to meet the threat of terrorism. Gingrich, speaking at a Manchester awards banquet, said a "different set of rules" may be needed to reduce terrorists' ability to use the Internet and free speech to recruit and get out their message.

"We need to get ahead of the curve before we actually lose a city, which I think could happen in the next decade," said Gingrich, a Republican who helped engineer the GOP's takeover of Congress in 1994.

Yes, to protect our freedoms, we had all better, how should I put it . . .

Q: As Commander-In-Chief, what was the President's reaction to television's Bill Maher, in his announcement that members of our Armed Forces who deal with missiles are cowards, while the armed terrorists who killed 6,000 unarmed are not cowards, for which Maher was briefly moved off a Washington television station?
. . .

MR. FLEISCHER: I'm aware of the press reports about what he said. I have not seen the actual transcript of the show itself. But assuming the press reports are right, it's a terrible thing to say, and it unfortunate. And that's why -- there was an earlier question about has the President said anything to people in his own party -- they're reminders to all Americans that they need to watch what they say, watch what they do. This is not a time for remarks like that; there never is.

Next, Bush:

Later in Riga, Latvia, Bush dismissed calls to withdraw from Iraq before the nation becomes stabilized.

"We can accept nothing less than victory for our children and our grandchildren," he said.

Mr. President, I think events may have moved beyond a point at which your ability to accept them is a critical, or even relevant, factor.

President Bush finds the world around him increasingly "unacceptable."

In speeches, statements and news conferences this year, the president has repeatedly declared a range of problems "unacceptable," including rising health costs, immigrants who live outside the law, North Korea's claimed nuclear test, genocide in Sudan and Iran's nuclear ambitions.

Bush's decision to lay down blunt new markers about the things he deems intolerable comes at an odd time, a phase of his presidency in which all manner of circumstances are not bending to his will: national security setbacks in North Korea and Iraq, a Congress that has shrugged its shoulders at his top domestic initiatives, a favorability rating mired below 40 percent.

But a survey of transcripts from Bush's public remarks over the past seven years shows the president's worsening political predicament has actually stoked, rather than diminished, his desire to proclaim what he cannot abide. Some presidential scholars and psychologists describe the trend as a signpost of Bush's rising frustration with his declining influence.

posted by Carlton at 7:36 PM

HOW IT IS

Atrios has some YouTube footage from CNN of a reporter in Iraq explaining to the rest of us at home how things are in Iraq.

I recommend it. posted by Carlton at 7:41 AM

IF I STOPPED BLOGGING ALMOST COMPLETELY AND JUST OCCASIONALLY BUZZED IN TO LINK TO SOMETHING I SAW ON THE INTERNET, HERE'S HOW I DID IT

Here.

Yeah, I'm pretty much AWOL from this site. Don't ask me why. I'm a little busy, a little bummed out, a little apathetic. Nothing to worry about -- and I'm sure you won't! posted by Carlton at 6:42 PM

JACOB GETS AN 'F'

Why do I bother? Because something good could have gone here:

From page 6 (actually, the whole page) of Jacob's Age of Steel recap:

The etymology for the constant pi comes from the fact that it's the first letter of the words periphereia (periphery), and perimetros, (perimeter). But it's also the first letter in peripateia, which defines this show and always has; periphrasis, which defines Rose, and Ten as well, and only means anything when you apply it to love; perishable, which ditto Rose and Ten, but only by half; periscope, which is how he sees the world, and perinatal, which is what he still is; periodicity and the Siege Perilous, which is what the season's about; perineum, the no-place between the worlds of divinity and excretion, inspiration and burning off what's not needed, breathing in and breathing out; perigon, or an angle equal to 360 degrees, coming back home; periapt, Ten being the charm she wears against danger even though she never needed it; perikardios, around the heart we're circling; perigee and perihelion and perilune, the closest you can be to the Earth, to the sun and the moon, without touching them, without falling in; and peri, a word with which we're familiar: the angel that has fallen, the fairy that takes you away. (And the person who played this game with the Doctor in the Big Finish serial "...Ish," a.k.a. the Who story written precisely for Jacob.)

Also known as Archimedes's constant and Ludolph's number, pi is the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter, in Euclidean geometry, or the ratio of a circle's area to the area of a square whose side is the radius. Pi is irrational, meaning it can't be written as the ratio of two integers, and transcendental, meaning there's no polynomial with rational coefficients of which pi is a root. The latter means that pi is not constructible: because the coordinates of all points that can be constructed with a compass are constructible numbers, it is impossible to square the circle: it is impossible to construct with a compass a square whose area is equal to the area of a given circle. But the best definition I've ever seen is this: a circle with a diameter of one has a circumference of pi. Meaning that it takes exactly ? rotations to end up where you started, working your way around the wheel. Irrational and transcendent, but there you have it: what should be easy, matching a static square -- four hearts, two sets of twins -- to a circular journey is impossible, and yet you end up where you started nonetheless, and there's never been a circle that wasn't stronger than this fact, thanks to pi. But what you can't construct can still be deconstructed, even if it takes thirteen episodes: On the other side of Hell, we burn off what doesn't work, and that amounts to 4 minus pi: just a smidge less than one whole heart.

Let me try my hand at this:

Sloppy, shoddy, self-congratulatory, onanistic. Neither wild nor random, but calculated. I am smart, I am beautiful, I am connected to the universe of ideas and spirituality in a way that is special, because I am special and if you like Doctor Who and TWoP you'd golly well appreciate my special-ness and keep quiet about it if you don't. I am a boy-king, an umimpeachable voice that cannot be stilled, a mystic quadrangle of wisdom and jism and pot cookies and not ever knowing when I have crossed the invisible line between "ample" and "Ugh! Stop!" Because my voice is music, and my writing is scripture made of the recycled pages of a million other books that I have ALL READ because I am smart, and the circle brings us around to special again. Ezekiel saw a wheel in the sky, do you see how this one turns through its four compass points: Special, Smart, Loved and Unstoppable. Journey wrote a song about the wheel in the sky; writing these recaps has been a journey for me from having a bit of self-doubt and apprehension to having NONE and knowing that I alone of all people in the Universe understand grace, poetry and Cybermen, who are very stampy all of a sudden.

Dreck! posted by Carlton at 1:31 AM

WEBB-TASTIC

I'm working from home again today, and in walking through a local plaza I stumbled into a rally for Jim Webb, at which he acknowledged Allen's concession from earlier in the day. Also present were Sen Chuck Schumer of New York and VA Governor Tim Kaine. I gathered from crowd chatter that the event had been called on very short notice.

So, go me. Of course I didn't have a camera, or even my telephone, so no pictures. posted by Carlton at 5:19 PM

OH, BY THE WAY . . .

It looks like we (the Dems) won everything there was to win on Tuesday. Burns is conceding in MT, Allen in VA. Man, this has been fun to watch.

Go us! posted by Carlton at 1:40 PM

JACOB: NOW WITH MORE SUCK!

Oh, great. Quoth the sage:

Re: the episode ["Age of Steel"]. This might be a more bizarre recap than "Tooth & Claw." Maybe not longer, but there's John Donne and Orpheus and the Gemini stuff, and pi, and "The Five Doctors," and ... I'm only three pages in. So fair warning.

"Look at me! I read a book one time! And I don't have an editor!" posted by Carlton at 1:36 PM

ALLEN REVISITED

It looks like the Allen/Webb race is too close to call, although I speculate that the absentee ballots (such as the one cast by my lovely wife) will put Webb well over the top. We won't know for a few days, I'll bet.

In honor of the clositude of the race, I thought I would revisit the Allen moment that first put him on my radar. Earlier this year, we got ourselves a new chairman of the Federal Reserve, Ben Bernanke (replacing Alan Greenspan). I'm no banker, certainly no central banker, but I understand the Fed chairman to be something like the guy on the boat who stands at the wheel. Whatever the captain says, its this guy who actually turns the boat -- if it can be turned.

It's an important job.

From the NYT:

But in Washington, he is barely on some people's radar screens. Indeed, here is what Senator George Allen of Virginia, who is considering a bid for the Republican presidential nomination in 2008, said when asked his opinion of the Bernanke nomination.

"For what?"

Told that Mr. Bernanke was up for the Fed chairman's job, Mr. Allen hedged a little, said he had not been focused on it, and wondered aloud when the hearings would be. Told that the Senate Banking Committee hearings had concluded in November, the senator responded: "You mean I missed them all? I paid no attention to them."

Way to keep on top of things, George. posted by Carlton at 12:44 AM

SO . . .

Do I get a Lieberman win and a Webb loss? Could be. posted by Carlton at 10:25 PM

JUST TO PUT THE ELECTION BACK AT THE TOP

I'd like to say that I really want Joe Lieberman to lose. Out of the Senate.

That's not a prediction.

Would I trade a Webb victory for a Lieberman loss? Well . . . I guess not. But I would really have to think about it.

UPDATE: Here Joe is where he belongs: (click to enlarge)



To quote a local journalist:

Also, people report it is even harder than they thought to find Joe Lieberman on the ballot. One correspondent: "You'd have to be stupid to vote for Lieberman. And then they make it hard for stupid people to find him. It's not fair!"

(I stole all this from Atrios and Kos.) posted by Carlton at 8:16 PM

SHUT UP! SHUT UP! SHUT UP!

From the latest BSG recap:

So okay. This isn't the whole thing yet, but here's what I've got: Life on the basestar is, for us, dreamy and unreal, because Cylon logic is not human logic. We're not in a human space, we're in the kind of world where consciousness is only differentiated twelve different ways, instead of one for every single entity. We're getting a slice of what Boomer and Sharon and Six have always known: The soft edges of reality in a group mind, the way memories can pass like a shroud across the world before you, facts rising to the surface when we need them, math and GPS caroms drifting like clouds before the moon, memories presenting as prophecy and vice versa. We're not in an alien space, but merely an undifferentiated one. Without ego or personal consciousness, there's no need for that "reducing valve" Huxley talked about -- it's all the same. It's not a question of denying reality, it's a question of not denying any particular part of reality in favor of what's at hand. Ontological, cosmological ADD. "Projection" isn't a diss on Cylon selfishness: it's the equivalent of changing your cell phone face, or the skin on your mp3 program. The math underneath stays the same, and is shared among us all. This is the state that Pythia speaks from, and Amanda Plummer and Leoben -- and Drusilla, and even Tara for a short painful while -- and anybody else who looked on the face of God and went mad: the roiling undeniable sea underneath everything that we spend our lives building walls and choices around so we don't lose it completely. Prophets rock at telling you things that don't make sense but are still true, but they can't balance their checkbooks for shit. No wonder the Cylons know Colonial scripture better than most of the crew of the Galactica: they live there all the time. But also, maybe it's even more fabulous than that: maybe she can see a forest because she's been in a forest before, and that's the forest she's currently, actually in, as she says. Maybe "projection" is a willed way of reducing experience into the best possible shape, and the underneath calculations stay the same. Maybe they weave reality out of all the sights and sounds and math they've ever seen or heard or done, all the time, the way we collage together an afternoon flipping back and forth between Tyra and Farscape reruns and TV recaps on the laptop. And if they can do it with linear memories, maybe they can do it with time itself. Maybe she can see a forest because she'll be in a forest someday. Which is cool as fuck, but also really kind of terrifying. (Though not as terrifying as the fact that, if I'm right, that makes Leoben the sanest one, if you think about it.) Anyway, that's my theory right now.

It speaks for itself, and so do I: yuck. posted by Carlton at 3:17 PM

AS I WAS SAYING

Boy, the posts are coming fast and furious, aren't they?

From CNN (yeah, yeah)

Polling places turn to paper ballots after glitches
POSTED: 1:20 p.m. EST, November 7, 2006

AP) -- Programming errors and inexperience dealing with electronic voting machines frustrated poll workers in hundreds of precincts early Tuesday, delaying voters in Indiana, Ohio and Florida and leaving some with little choice but to use paper ballots instead.

In Cleveland, voters rolled their eyes as election workers fumbled with new touchscreen machines that they couldn't get to start properly until about 10 minutes after polls opened.

"We got five machines -- one of them's got to work," said Willette Scullank, a troubleshooter from the Cuyahoga County, Ohio, elections board.

In Indiana's Marion County, about 175 of 914 precincts turned to paper ballots because poll workers didn't know how to run the machines, said Marion County Clerk Doris Ann Sadler. She said it could take most of the day to fix all of the machine-related issues.

Was that so hard?

Which would we rather, a long period of vote-counting, or a long period of arguing over whose vote counts and whose doesn't? posted by Carlton at 2:19 PM

IN UNRELATED NEWS (OR IS IT?)

This is almost too bizarre to be believed.

When Charlotte Catholic's boys' soccer team got to Forestview High School in Gastonia on Saturday night for an N.C. 3A playoff game, the Cougars heard something over the public address system they never would've expected:

A 90-second portion of a speech from Adolf Hitler.

"We were warming up," said Catholic coach Gary Hoilett, "and all of us stopped and looked up at the booth. We were just real shocked. It was obviously a Hitler speech. The voice was coming across clearly. Everybody knew."

Forestview's players took the field after the speech ended.

But before the game, Hoilett said, some Forestview players were chanting something in German that means "On to victory," according to one of his players who speaks German. Hoilett, who is black, said that during the game some Forestview players directed racial epithets at his two black players.

The offending coach/school gives an explanation for HOW it happened, but I still don't really get WHY. It really is a WTF moment.

Via University Diaries. posted by Carlton at 2:11 PM

SPECIAL PROBLEMS IN DEMOCRACY

I haven't written much about the big voter suppression problems of the day, the robocalls, the misleading flyers, the improper requests for ID. These things exist, though, and all my readers should educate themselves about them. Go to dailykos (at left) TPM, or even CNN for decent coverage (actually, forget CNN).

The problem with broken, misprogrammed or hacked voting machines, though, is inexcuseable. The solution is extremely simple and inexpensive: paper ballots marked with indelible pens and counted by hand. Everyone understands pen and paper, the voter knows that his or her vote is being recorded accurately, and the solution to a problem with the materials is a quick trip to the photocopier. There's delay, for sure, but trust me: getting an accurate count of votes is perfectly in tune with democratic principles -- whereas instantaneous results are often not.

The only losers if my brilliant solution is implemented are 1) Newscasters, who need immediate results to discuss and will turn to dust if they can't announce a winner by dawn; 2) Companies like Diebold, who can't make any money off of pen and paper; and 3) Anyone with an interest in keeping the vote-tallying process opaque and out of the public eye. You know who you are.

So why don't we just do it? Really, somebody tell me why we can't just do this. posted by Carlton at 1:49 PM

I FARTED . . . I MEAN, VOTED

So I am "working from home" today, both to save my sanity and so that I could vote without too much hassle -- or so I thought. I ambled over to my local polling place at about 10:15 AM, thinking the line would be short, and the place was packed. The campaign workers were chatting with people in the line and said that the line was much longer than at the 2004 presidential election.

Notes:

1. We do have one of the more public and hotly contested elections this cycle: Webb/Allen. That may account for higher turnout.

2. There is a "marriage is between a man and a women" amendment on the ballot, which probably inflames both the bigot and the gaylord-friendly voter.

3. There are quite a few constitutional amendments on the ballot (in addition t othe marriage one) and they are long and confusing to read. That slows everyone down.

4. Out of six voting machines at this polling place, one was completely not working and was shut down. I can only imagine that other places have more problems.

So it should be an interesting, nail-biting day. posted by Carlton at 1:36 PM

THE MAN WHO CAN'T BE WRONG, PART THE SECOND

From Krugman (NYT subscription wall), via Atrios:

At this point, nobody should have any illusions about Mr. Bush’s character. To put it bluntly, he’s an insecure bully who believes that owning up to a mistake, any mistake, would undermine his manhood — and who therefore lives in a dream world in which all of his policies are succeeding and all his officials are doing a heckuva job. Just last week he declared himself “pleased with the progress we’re making” in Iraq.

I'm seeing a lot of this, lately. Is this some kind of new observation?

At some point here on the ol' blog, I made the over-extended metaphorical comparison of Bush, et alia, to chocolate Easter bunnies -- the cheap kind that look big but are just a thin layer of pressed chocolate. These types cannot stand any criticism or admit any mistake, becasue the tiniest impact will crack them completely open and show that there is nothing inside. That's why the attacks on critics are always personal and nuclear from the get-go -- Bush and associates cannot even permit their critics to exist, because even acknowlegding the fact that people disagree with them is too dangerous. And bear in mind, this is how they view themselves.

To admit error and apologize is so out of character for these goons that I fear it would require some kind of psychotic break on their part -- and considering that one of them is the President of the United States, we might all be better off not asking so much. You don't have to say you are sorry, you just have to leave. posted by Carlton at 10:28 AM

THE MAN WHO CAN'T BE WRONG

So Glenn Greenwald, who is a much much better blogger AND lawyer than I will ever be (he has fewer typos, for one thing) is just SHOCKED by the fact that Michael Ledeen (some AEI/NRO nutjob) is now claiming he never ever EVER supported invading Iraq and in fact ACTIVELY OPPOSED the invasion. If you think you read something that Ledeen wrote in, say, 2003 that looks like it might have actively supported the invasion and stated that the invasion was the best thing for everybody and couldn't come soon enough and Bush 41 was just a weiner for not finishing the job, well . . . who are you going to believe, Ledeen or your lying eyes?

Writes Glenn:

People like Ledeen simply can't accept responsibility for anything they do or say, and above all, they can never acknowledge an error or mistake. They are single-minded fundamentalists who believe that they have such a monopoly on what is Good and Right that anything they do -- up to and including blatantly lying and then refusing to admit it when they are caught red-handed -- is justified by the overarching importance of their crusades.

On the one hand, yes, this is absolutely true. It is true of Ledeen, of Bush, of Cheney and Rummy and Wolfie and all of them, and Glenn is right and correct to point it out. On the other hand, we have always been at war with Eastasia -- this is perfectly predictable behavior from political amoebae like Ledeen. Politically inconvenient truths must be denied, suppressed, refuted, ignored.

On the third hand, though (which is always where things get interesting) -- Duh, Glenn. Did you really expect these people to admit they were wrong? To admit a mistake? Just because it's glaringly obvious to everyone?

My God, we are naive. posted by Carlton at 10:41 PM

BLAST FROM THE PAST: ONION EDITION

No, It Won't. posted by Carlton at 10:32 AM

THAT CLEARS IT UP: HAGGARD EDITION

Earlier, I posted:

Prediction: After all this is over, [Pastor] Ted [Haggard] will be glad he got caught -- he will be free. His wife will not be glad he was caught.

Well, why should she be happy that her husband Ted took meth and had sex with a male prostitute? After all, it was her fault.

As Mark Driscoll, of Seattle's Mars Hills church states:

Most pastors I know do not have satisfying, free, sexual conversations and liberties with their wives. At the risk of being even more widely despised than I currently am, I will lean over the plate and take one for the team on this. It is not uncommon to meet pastors’ wives who really let themselves go; they sometimes feel that because their husband is a pastor, he is therefore trapped into fidelity, which gives them cause for laziness. A wife who lets herself go and is not sexually available to her husband in the ways that the Song of Songs is so frank about is not responsible for her husband’s sin, but she may not be helping him either.

Really, what could she have been thinking?

Via HuffPo. posted by Carlton at 12:30 AM

SNIPES HUNT

Oh, Wesley. You didn't think you had to pay your federal income taxes.

The "Blade" star was indicted on eight counts of tax fraud in Tampa last month, accused of failing to file tax returns for six years and for seeking $12 million in fraudulent refunds.

He fell for the '861 Scheme', it looks like:

Some maintain that there is no federal statute imposing a tax on income derived from sources within the United States by citizens or residents of the United States. They argue instead that federal income taxes are excise taxes imposed only on nonresident aliens and foreign corporations for the privilege of receiving income from sources within the United States. The premise for this argument is a misreading of sections 861, et seq., and 911, et seq., as well as the regulations under those sections.

The Law: As stated above, for federal income tax purposes, “gross income” means all income from whatever source derived and includes compensation for services. I.R.C. § 61. Further, Treasury Regulation § 1.1-1(b) provides, “[i]n general, all citizens of the United States, wherever resident, and all resident alien individuals are liable to the income taxes imposed by the Code whether the income is received from sources within or without the United States.” I.R.C. sections 861 and 911 define the sources of income (U.S. versus non-U.S. source income) for such purposes as the prevention of double taxation of income that is subject to tax by more than one country. These sections neither specify whether income is taxable, nor do they determine or define gross income. These frivolous assertions are clearly contrary to well-established legal precedent.

Given that the IRS has this posted on its website as a 'frivolous tax argument', you might clue in to the fact that only crazy people think it works. If you are one of those crazy people, I might be able to interest you in a new invention that's sure to change the way we live and make you a million kajillion bucks!. Tax free! posted by Carlton at 4:15 PM

IN THE ARMS OF MY DEAR SAVIOR, OH! THERE ARE TEN THOUSAND CHARMS (AND SOME METH)

I don't have a lot to say about the Ted Haggard mess, except to make the following banal observations:

1. Can we all agree that the more fanatically anti-gay a person is, the more likely he (or she, I guess) is to have a bit of The Gay themselves? It seems obvious to me, but whatever.

2. As always, the cover-up is more damaging than the original misbehavior. Dude, giving that interview in the car, then speeding away -- you look guilty of SOMETHING. And your "I bought drugs a lot but always threw them away and I only got a massage from that hot man every month for three years" story is LAME. At least blame it on demon possession or something that your peeps can get behind. A big gay demon that likes meth.

3. Prediction: After all this is over, Ted will be glad he got caught -- he will be free. His wife will not be glad he was caught.

4. So what was Jeff Gannon/Jim Guckert doing in the White House during all those visits when there was no press briefing?

Guckert made more than two dozen excursions to the White House when there were no scheduled briefings. On many of these days, the Press Office held press gaggles aboard Air Force One—which raises questions about what Guckert was doing at the White House. On other days, the president held photo opportunities.

On at least fourteen occasions, Secret Service records show either the entry or exit time missing. Generally, the existing entry or exit times correlate with press conferences; on most of these days, the records show that Guckert checked in but was never processed out.

In March, 2003, Guckert left the White House twice on days he had never checked in with the Secret Service. Over the next 22 months, Guckert failed to check out with the Service on fourteen days. On several of these visits, Guckert either entered or exited by a different entry/exit point than his usual one. On one of these days, no briefing was held; on another, he checked in twice but failed to check out.

Sorry, I don't know why this last one sprang to mind -- just free-associating, I guess. posted by Carlton at 11:25 AM

GEORGE M DOES GEORGE BUSH

I saw this somewhere and liked it -- I appreciate these homemeade videos.

YouTube link. posted by Carlton at 11:03 AM