Atrios Brings Us a Direct Answer To A Direct Question:

Terry Moran had some fun today too:

Q: You said the President is against racial preferences because they're divisive. Is he against other preferences that colleges and universities routinely grant that people see as unfair? Like the one he got?

MR. FLEISCHER: I understand -- I understand all the interest and the specific questions dealing with the review of the University of Michigan case --

Q: That is not what I'm asking.

MR. FLEISCHER: -- and the implications that come from whatever decision is made. I'm not going to go beyond --

Q: I'm asking a question about fairness.

MR. FLEISCHER: -- I'm not going to go beyond where I've gone, because
--

Q: All right. Let me --

MR. FLEISCHER: -- be able to base it on reason and judge for yourself once you see what the President has concluded and why he's concluded . And he'll share his thoughts.

Q: But the general question about his feeling about fairness in America. When he was 18, he got into Yale University, which had and still has a policy of granting very special preferences to children of graduates, like him. Is that preference okay, to give him a leg up, but other preferences are not?

MR. FLEISCHER: I think you're going to have a good understanding of how the President approaches the issue of opportunity and diversity when the President shares his thoughts publicly -- which is going to be, as I indicated, in some short period of time.

Thanks Ari! And that, folks is where the preisdent officially stands on the question of fairness. Now, about that tax cut...

8 second gap in the tape?

Did ABC censor a crowd's disapproval of George H. Bush? The former president and father of the current president delivered a taped message at the American Music Awards on Monday night, and sources who were there tell The Scoop that the crowd booed him.

More here.

The Subtext Of The State Of The Union:

Wondering what was on George's mind during last year's speech?

A Little Guided Research From Tbogg:

We know that Saddam Hussein has Anthrax, as well as botulism and bubonic plague, because the Reagan Administration GAVE him the starter cultures. The emissary on that mission? None other than Donald Rumsfeld. Don't believe me? Type "Rumsfeld" + "Anthrax" + "Iraq" into your search engine.

Boy that Dick Cheney sure is a patriotic guy - he'd never give aide and support to our enemies, right? Think again. As CEO of Halliburton, he went around the UN embargo by using foreign subsidiaries Dresser-Rand and Ingersoll-Dresser Pump to rebuild Saddam Hussein's oil infrastructure just three years ago. Not only did he seek to do business with Mr.Hitler-with-a-bigger-mustache, he actually broke the law for the privilege! Estimates of the deal vary from between 23 and 78 million dollars, but Cheney's take amounted to approximately thirty pieces of silver (adjusted for inflation from 33 A.D.) Need proof? Type "Halliburton" +"Iraq" into your search engine.

Admiral John Poindexter, recently put in charge of going over your e-mails and credit card receipts, is a convicted felon who sold Stinger missiles to the Iranians, used the profits to fund an international terrorist organization, and then lied to congress about it. Along with the Stinger missiles, Poindexter also delivered to the Ayatollah a Bible and a key-shaped cake. Go ahead and and call us democrats as unpatriotic as you like, at least we didn't bake any cakes for the Ayatollah.

Too young to remember this? Keywords are "Poindexter" +"Iran".


Worried that you or a loved one may have to serve in the Persian Gulf? Take a tip from the President: "George Bush" + "AWOL"

To put all this in perspective, remember that Bill Clinton was hounded for six and a half years by the GOP over a two-bit Arkansas land deal where he actually lost money. Throughout his presidency, Bill Clinton was accused of practically every crime in the book except the one he was actually guilty of: not being a member of the Republican Party.

Let's face it, if any of these clowns had been democrats, the GOP wouldn't be putting them into high office, they'd be putting them to death. For their own sake, please encourage your local democratic party representatives to grow a spine. Quickly. Failing that, here's some advice from Billy Bragg: "Start your own revolution and cut out the middleman."

Finally, A Way To Shed All Those Unwanted Pounds You Gained During Immaculate Conception!

Just look.

Easy, Breezy, Beautiful Caseous

I bet you need your own slogan, too. Go ahead and generate one!

A Little Afternoon Disconnect...

Here are the first lines of three stories I have come across today.

WASHINGTON - Pledging to build a culture that respects life, President Bush (news - web sites) is declaring a National Sanctity of Human Life Day

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - As many as half a million Iraqis could require medical treatment as a result of serious injuries suffered in the early stages of a war on Iraq, U.N. emergency planners said in a document disclosed Tuesday.

UNITED NATIONS - Rich nations are committing "mass murder by complacency" by failing to contribute enough money to defeat the AIDS (news - web sites) pandemic that is ravaging Africa and killing millions every year, a top U.N. official says

What can I say? Do you think that the Team Bush audibly snickers when it comes up with things like National Sanctity of Life Day? Oh, by the way, Bush did this last year around the same time. In a completely unrelated story, this is right around the anniversary of Roe V. Wade. Hmm.

If You Tell A Lie Enough Times...

The Bush administration has been working overtime to tie Iraq to Al Queda and it looks like they're making progress with the American people. Here's one question in a recent Knight-Ridder poll:

"As far as you know, how many of the September 11th terrorist hijackers were Iraqi citizens: most of them, some of them, just one, or none?"

Most of them 21%
Some of them 23%
Just one 6%
None 17%
Don't know 33%

Man, are we in trouble.

Other interesting questions & results here.

We're Number One!!!

Time just put out an international poll asking who really poses the greatest danger to world peace: Iraq, North Korea, or the US? Taks a guess at the results. Do you think that only North Koreans & Iraqis have responded so far?

Woah! Time for Ari Fleischer to announce another Bin Laden sighting!

Jan. 14: President Bush's job approval has slipped to 58 percent in a new CNN-USA Today-Gallup poll, the first time it has fallen below 60 percent in that poll since before the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. While still solid overall, his approval was down 5 points from a week ago.

More here.