Friday morning

Yesterday was pretty much a wash. Woke up with a mild fever and spent the day in bed. SOF had a similar experience on Tuesday, so I think we both had a 24 hour virus of some kind. As such things go, pretty mild. I just had a headache and felt tired.

But this morning, I feel better and am trying to get going. Unfortunately, that means reading the news this morning. Damn the internets. Life used to be easier when I had to wait for several days to learn that my country's leaders were inept and incompetent. Of course, it is hard to believe that any country's leaders have been this inept and this incompetent.

Item one on that list, (H/t to SOF) for this NYT's story on the destroyed CIA tapes. Turns out, they may have mucked up future and past legal cases. That's right, messed up cases against actual terrorists because they destroyed evidence. The article suggests that the only thing they may have accomplished was to destroy the evidence needed to charge someone for illegal torture (remember, there George? Torture is illegal?). Nice to know they are on our side.

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But their prosecution of the war against sex continues. Feministe notes that with all the noise about Reverend Wright's wacky ideas about AIDS, the President nominated another person--Jerry Thacker--to the Presidential advisory on HIV and Aids, and a man who called AIDS a "gay plague." Thacker had to withdraw his nomination.

Of course, this President has done all sorts of things that are as wacky as Jeremiah Wright. You know, like appointing an anti-birth control doctor to his family planning program. Or of course, the obvious of continuing to fund "abstinence only" programs that don't work. Speaking of wacky and misleading statements, some of the pro-life groups that Bush likes to fund, spread horrible information about contraceptives and stds, such as that condoms do nothing to prevent HIV transmission, or that stds can be spread through "skin to skin" contact.

With all of that, the claim that the government spread AIDS on purpose looks wacky, but at least this man wasn't elected President.

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Some good news from Bush justice. Don Siegelman will be released on bond during his appeal. That case stinks to high heaven and I am glad to see him out of jail.

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In other news, however, the surge appears to be faltering, though Bush uses the uptick in violence to suggest the opposite.

Meanwhile, military leaders told Bush the military is badly strained by this. I am less than optimistic it will result in any kind of action. Bush has done more to undermine our troops than any president in recent history, yet Republicans still get to claim they are "pro-troops."

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Other news. Seems odd that the very same US Attorney's office of public corruption in LA has now been disbanded. After the US Att scandal and Don Siegelman, let's just say I approach this move with healthy skepticism.

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The Senate is investigating the bailout of Bear Stearns. On one hand, I think that these bailouts are necessary to keep our economy from cratering. But it goes against the conservative lie of "keeping government out of business" and is just ridiculous when we hear McCain and other Republicans talking about the poor and working class families needing to live with their bad decisions. If we are going to bail out the big guys, then we need to have some latitude for people who had less knowledge of their bad decision. As BB and WJ noted in the comments, I have no sympathy for those getting "interest only" loans to get a bigger house, or those speculating in the market. But those who barely qualified for their first house and are working hard to maintain that dream should not be punished for this.

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That is enough for this morning. Here is hoping that Friday is a good day for all of you, and that this day sees some rapprochement between the Clinton and Obama camps.