LEAVE IT TO PEEVER

— Bumper sticker of the week: Vote Democratic — the ass you save may be your own.

— Quote of the week: "But, it turns out, two days before the president told Powell (about war with Iraq), Cheney and Rumsfeld call Bandar, the Saudi ambassador, to Cheney’s West Wing office, and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Gen. Myers, is there with a top-secret map of the war plan. It says,’Top secret. No foreign.’ No foreign means no foreigners are supposed to see it. They describe in detail the war plan with Bandar."

"Prince Bandar, the Saudi ambassador, enjoys easy access to the Oval Office. His family and the Bush family are close. Bandar promised the president that Saudi Arabia will lower oil prices in the months before the election—to ensure the U.S. economy is strong on election day." Plan of Attack, Bob Woodward

— The Bush administration has been caught in so many lies, it’s hard to even sit and listen to them. I dialed in the president the other night, and while I was watching, I could feel his nose grow. Now that ain’t right.

— Gore: 50,999,897, Bush: 50,456,002

Now how does this work again?

— Downtown Galesburg: Seems no one can do anything right but the "good old boys." Disagree with them, cross them, and you’re history. Talk to the last 3 or 4 who have held the job of Downtown Director, and they’ll tell you it wasn’t a real good experience. Why is that? If these downtown hotshots got all the answers, why doesn’t one of them take the job? They could make Galesburg history, which is kind of what’s happening anyway. I guess the boys don’t like anyone to talk back, or to suggest that maybe they’re a bit off course. I think the downtown council board, along with the GREDA board, along with the chamber board, need one huge enema. That would clear out a lot of the crap.

— I see good old Rev. Hiatt is spewing venom again regarding gays. If this guy’s got a church, I hope nobody goes. He should be Bush’s personal pastor. They’d make a great couple. (Ain’t it funny how these things work out). Couple.

— When you blend religion with politics, what you generally end up with are assholes.

— I wouldn’t liken neighborhood watch groups to the KGB or Gestapo, which, by the way, come from two seriously different ideologies. (With The Patriot Act, one might even be able to add the FBI or CIA to that distinguished list). I would call them somewhat meddlesome and misguided. It would be much nicer to see neighborhood watch groups, in their own neighborhoods, offering to help people with yards or homes that don’t measure up to their standards. That would seemingly be a much better, more honest, neighborhood-like approach.

— Let me see if I got this right: We invade a country under false pretenses. We jail or kill their leaders. We destroy their infrastructure. We order this country to have an election, where we pick the people to be elected. The people of this country hate us. They don’t want us there. They start killing us. Now it’s their fault. How can they be so cruel and heartless? It’s funny how these things work out, and that somehow, we’re always in the right.

— Next on the Divine intervention list is North Korea, Iran, and Venezuela: Bush sees himself as the savior of the world. He is out to free people, to liberate them. From what and to what, I’m not entirely sure. He’s stated this as his purpose to Bob Woodward, author of Plan of Attack. Woodward comments, "That’s his stated purpose. It is far-reaching, and ambitious, and I think will cause many people to tremble."