1. Terry Schiavo. Both the United States Senate and the House of Representatives decided they had to get involved in this one. It's contrary to what Republicans are supposed to stand for on a number of levels - State's Rights and the Sanctity of marriage. Congressman Delay (not exactly a barometer of morality) suggested that Michael Schiavo should divorce his wife and let her parents take care of her. Senator Bill Frist wants to bring her in for questioning. Senator Frist, as you know, is a physician who says that you can get AIDS from tears; if this man is your doctor, RUN. What will he ask her? Where has Osama bin hiding? Where are the WMD? Watching the "news" last night there is so much misinformation out there it is frightening. Please go here to get some facts. It's an article from The Orlando Sentinel and includes the report from the Guardian Ad Litem.

   From the report: "Testimony provided by members of the Schindler family included very personal statements about their desire and intention to ensure that Theresa remain alive . . . at any and all costs. Nearly gruesome examples were given, eliciting agreement by family members that in the event Theresa should contract diabetes and subsequent gangrene in each of her limbs, they would agree to amputate each limb and would then, were she to be diagnosed with heart disease, perform open-heart surgery. Within the testimony, as part of the hypothetical presented, Schindler family members stated that even if Theresa had told them of her intention to have artificial nutrition withdrawn, they would not do it."Wolfson told me that when Michael heard this, he said: "That's it. I'm never going to let that happen to her."

2. Jeff Guckert. Representative F. James Sensebrenner, the committee Chairman of the Judiciary Committee made sure that there would be NO investigation as to how a prostitute working for an online blog called GOPUSA, managed to get into the White House on a series of day passes. Nor was the Honorable Sensebrenner interested in how the same "fake" reporter managed to have access to a confidential memo on a CIA agent. No, Mr. Sensebrenner thought it better that the White House investigate itself. He did, however, think it was important for the House Republicans to weigh in on our number one Terry Schiavo to create a law to protect her.
3. C-Span. They had scheduled a show on Deborah Lipstadt's new book History on Trial about her fight against a Holocaust denier that she WON in a British court. C-Span thought it would be a good idea to give equal time to the Holocaust denier for BALANCE. There's a great article by Richard Cohan in The Washington Post:

You will not be seeing Deborah Lipstadt on C-SPAN. The Holocaust scholar at Emory University has a new book out ("History on Trial"), and an upcoming lecture of hers at Harvard was scheduled to be televised on the public affairs cable outlet. The book is about a libel case brought against her in Britain by David Irving, a Holocaust denier, trivializer and prevaricator who is, by solemn ruling of the very court that heard his lawsuit, "anti-Semitic and racist." No matter. C-SPAN wanted Irving to "balance" Lipstadt.

4. Our "friends" in Pakistan just tested a long range nuclear missile. No need for concern.

World News]: Islamabad, March 19 : Pakistan Saturday carried out a successful test
firing of its nuclear-capable long-range surface-to-surface missile Shaheen-2 also known as Hatf VI, an official statement said.This missile system, which incorporates an advanced two-stage solid motor technology, can carry all types of conventional and nuclear warheads to a range of 2,000 kilometers, it said.

On our little blog you can read about the other crazy things that happened so far this month, Paul Wolfowitz, James Bolton, No raise in minimum wage, China controlling our interest rates and owning our deficit, the Bankruptcy Bill that even Lou Dobbs called an "assault on the middle class. Go over to Americablog.org to check out the story of the San Diego bishop who said that a man who owned gay bars cannot be buried with a Catholic funeral. You'll be gratified to know that the same bishop has paid off men who were abused when they were children by priests.

I wrote an email to Mr. Cohan about his story sited above:

Thank you. Perhaps I'm old fashioned but I believe a reporter's job is not just to report what someone says but to refute it if is a lie with the facts. Not to offer "balance" to liars.

I said on a previous post that if you're not angry you haven't been paying attention. I now wonder if you don't question your sanity because nothing makes sense anymore you haven't been paying attention.

Ah, the Madness that is March.

Republicans forced through a series of rules changes over the winter that required a bipartisan vote before any future investigation can proceed. At the same time, they appointed new members, some of whom have contributed to the majority leader's legal defense fund.

Democrats argued that those steps amounted to an attempt to protect DeLay from future investigations.They forced a vote on the House floor during the day on a call for a bipartisan panel that could propose new rules that "restore public confidence in the ethics process.''

Republicans defeated it, 223-194

So the Houston-based contractor charged the Pentagon $27.5 million to ship $82,100 worth of cooking and heating fuel.

Drilling in the Arctic Refuge can't make even a small dent in meeting America's energy needs. U.S. Geological Survey scientists estimate that there is very likely only enough oil to supply America's needs for six months. And oil companies admit that, even that, won't be available for at least 10 years.

"The president gets everybody interested in it (social security), engaged in it as it moves up the hit parade, probably now to the No. 1 domestic issue. In the meantime, we are moving right along here in Congress," said Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., the Senate majority whip.

Already, the president has signed the class-action reform (search) law, making it tougher for trial attorneys to file suits against businesses. The Senate has passed a bankruptcy bill (search) that gives credit card companies new powers to collect overdue debt. Congress is also about to approve oil drilling in Alaska's remote Arctic National Wildlife Refuge

The concern here is the PRC. They have been annoyed with Bush for his clumsy and arrogant behavior towards not only them but just about everyone else. Bush is pig-headed and totally devoid of any diplomatic skills. Rice in narrow-minded and clever but inflexible. The problem is that the PRC has always believed that Taiwan was a part of China and must eventually be reunited. This does not sit well with the people of Taiwan and there has been ongoing tension. To show how clever he was, Bush sent US naval units to the area last year and in essence stuck his tongue out at the mainland Chinese. Now, Beijing has retaliated. They have warned Bush, through the DoS that they would no longer tolerate any interference by the Bush Administration in their problems with Taiwan and they went on to demand, not request, that Bush back off.

He was told, again, not asked, that if he did not make a public statement to the effect that the United States believed that the problems between the two entities could be solved between them and wished to remain strictly neutral, they would retaliate against the US. In other worse, if Beijing decided to invade Taiwan, which they are now seriously planning, Bush would have to butt out and stay out. Their threat? Clever. If he keeps up his current nose-thumbing at Beijing, they will repeg their currency and dump all of their US treasury holdings on the market and never again buy any US paper.