America's Students Speak: "This Headline Not Yet Approved..."

The post-Iraqi Election gloating dominates the news this morning. I'm also pleased to hear that the turnout was high, even though everyone's couching the fact that Sunni turnout was definitely low and we won't have a real tally for about 10 days. The neo-Cons are surely hoping this period will be a respite, the terrorists are surely hoping to take the shine off this success for the occupiers. So everyone - critics of the Bushies' policies included - will have a new sort of chance to gauge what the voice of Iraqis sounds like. Hopefully, that voice will be strong and committed to getting us outta there. Because the problems if we stay will only get worse.

Take, for instance, this story about how $9B has gone missing in terms of reconstruction money from American taxpayers. $9 Fricking Billion.Yet another example of how miserably bad Paul Bremer was at running the CPA. Medal of Freedom winner Bremer. Brooks Brothers and Timberland boots Bremer. De-Baathification Bremer. Yes, that Bremer - this Enron-esque mess also is attributable to the work done on his watch.

The WashingtonPost is among the first to report that a federal judge has ruled that the standards for Guantanamo Bay tribunals thrown together by the Pentagon are illegal. Add this to the increasingly gross claims coming out of Gitmo (Maureen Dowd's column yesterday about female interregators hit harder on this than most). And throw in the expanding questions about Homeland Security nominee Michael Chertoff's involvement at Justice helping the CIA to protect themselves from prosecution for war crimes. I can only expect that much more will come down the pike on the entire mix of torturous actions committed by this Administration's policy directives.

In much less important news, Mike Piazza seems to have taken the "I'm NOT GAY!" argument to a new extreme by marrying a Playboy Playmate over the weekend. Over one third of America's high school students when surveyed responded that newspapers should get “government approval” of stories before printing them, supporting the general opinion among many that kids is sure stupid. Jon Stewart's out of the running to replace Dan Rather on the CBS Evening News (thank gawd - Stewart's too important as a fake newsman to sell out to the dark side). The race for the DNC just got a little more interesting when the powerful group of Dems (no pun intended) announced they're supporting Donnie Fowler Jr. in the election for a new Chair. "Time" smacks Dean around a little more in a web-exclusive published today. And all the SuperDuper Bowl pre-game shtick enters Week 2. Now that the Iraqi Election is over, the content vacuum out there is surely glad to have some not-really-fresh hot air to pump freely.

Anyhoo, hope the end of January thaws out your collective hometown, if such actions are necessary. Send me a comment (on the link below) if you want to tell me I'm an idiot or otherwise.