Can you decipher that? Shouldn't be too hard. I have to go out to do some Dangerous Driving this afternoon, but I will be back and blog more if I return.
But it's possible to fill your Friday funk quota even before that. We are finally getting flowers from Afghanistan! The liberation has worked:
"The Afghanistan Opium Survey 2004 found that cultivation rose 64 percent over 2003, with 323,701 acres dedicated to the poppies that produce opium. That set a double record, according to Antonio Maria Costa, executive director of the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime, for 'the highest drug cultivation in the country's history, and the largest in the world.'"
This is an obvious indication of the great success of George Bush's war politics, and as a consequence he is streamlining his administration towards a purer, more faith-based, more "yes-president" direction by getting rid of any voices that might not think Iran in 2005 is a splendid idea:
In Mr. Bush's case, his administration has already shown ominous signs of 'group-think' in its handling of Iraq and the nation's finances. By closing down dissent and centralizing power in a few hands, he is acting as if he truly believes that he and his team have a perfect track record, that they know best, and that they don't need any infusion of new heavyweights. He has every right to take this course, but as he knows from his Bible, pride goeth before. ... "
And somewhere in the loony land that everybody ignores the election is still being discussed, though of course it's time to move on and get into goosestep with the rest of the country. Really, why should anyone listen to some Berkeley academics finding itty-bitty problems with the election? Well, this is why:
"Our approach is like a smoke alarm, and it's beeping," Hout said on a call with reporters this morning. "We're calling on officials in Florida to investigate to see if there's a fire."