My friend mgo forwarded this to me from an AP article:

Republicans award chairmanships based on the
evaluation of a leadership committee that takes into
account leadership fealty, fundraising prowess and
other factors. Democrats would award would-be
chairmanships strictly by seniority.

Seems like the best short-form explanation of why the Dems are always losing and tacking to the center. They have no incentive to win, just an incentive to not lose. More importantly they have no incentive to help their party win.

From Daou via a million other places. An interview with the Bushes on how their day was on 9/11:

"[Peggy] Noonan: You were separated on September 11th. What was it like when you saw each other again?

Mrs. Bush: Well, we just hugged. I think there was a certain amount of security in being with each other than being apart.

President Bush: But the day ended on a relatively humorous note. The agents said, "You'll be sleeping downstairs. Washington's still a dangerous place." And I said no, I can't sleep down there, the bed didn't look comfortable. I was really tired, Laura was tired, we like our own bed. We like our own routine. You know, kind of a nester. Like the way things are. I knew I had to deal with the issue the next day and provide strength and comfort to the country, and so I needed rest in order to be mentally prepared. So I told the agent we're going upstairs, and he reluctantly said okay. Laura wears contacts, and she was sound asleep. Barney was there. And the agent comes running up and says, "We're under attack. We need you downstairs," and so there we go. I'm in my running shorts and my T-shirt, and I'm barefooted. Got the dog in one hand, Laura had a cat, I'm holding Laura --

Mrs. Bush: I don't have my contacts in, and I'm in my fuzzy house slippers --

President Bush: And this guy's out of breath, and we're heading straight down to the basement because there's an incoming unidentified airplane, which is coming toward the White House. Then the guy says it's a friendly airplane. And we hustle all the way back upstairs and go to bed.

Mrs. Bush: [laughs] And we just lay there thinking about the way we must have looked.

Noonan: So the day starts in tragedy and ends in Marx Brothers.

President Bush: That's right -- we got a laugh out of it."

The "Four Factor Model" of Psychopathy:

Interpersonal

* Glibness/superficial charm
* Egocentricity/Grandiose sense of self-worth
* Pathological lying
* Conning/Manipulative


Affective

* Lack of remorse or guilt
* Callous/Lack of empathy
* Shallow affect
* Failure to accept responsibility for own actions

Lifestyle

* Need for stimulation/Proneness to boredom
* Parasitic lifestyle
* Lack of realistic, long-term goals
* Impulsivity
* Irresponsibility

Antisocial

* Early behavior problems
* Poor behavioral controls
* Juvenile delinquency
* Violation of conditional release
* Criminal versatility

Traits not associated with any factor

* Promiscuous sexual behavior
* Many short-term marital relationships

Republican Congressman Peter King is Shrill:

New York will receive $124.5 million in anti-terrorism grants for cities at high risk of attacks, a deep cut of some 40 percent described as "a knife in the back" by one lawmaker.

...

"As far as I'm concerned, the Department of Homeland Security and the administration have declared war on New York," said Rep. Peter King of Long Island, chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee.

1. Hometown hero's funeral (2:01)

2. Puppy tangles with alligator (1:29)

3. Haditha scene follows Marine home (2:12)

4. Alien head inside a duck? (1:21)


(I know it's like this every day at CNN, but come on.)

Just happened to stumble across this comment from jim p over at firedoglake--

Everyone forgets that 9/11 stunned and angered us, but the terror part came with the 10-week media reign of the Anthrax Terrorist. (Yes, I know, “who?”). It was during that time that other “threats” were mixed in as well–the frogmen terrorists, the next-door neighbor apartment-blowing-up terrorist, the ambulence/police car-driving terrorist).

We had a period of almost three months of total saturation on the anthrax murderer, and that’s when the fear-imprinting was laid down in the public’s mind. Without this, with just 9/11, I suspect the bait-and-switch (Saddam for bin Laden) wouldn’t have been doable.

For some reason, the "unsolved" anthrax thing keeps falling off my Short List of Shit So Preposterous It More Than Justifies My Most Paranoid Ruminations Concerning Everything That's Happened Since 2000 (1998?), but deserves to go right back to the top.

And all the crazy footnotes (core theses? can you distinguish?), from John Ashcroft going to the media with Steven Hatfill as a "person of interest," to the FBI fucking running the guy over on Wisconsin Avenue? I mean, WTF???

Robert Newman's History of Oil.