Here and There

Todays Laugh,
Two elderly couples were enjoying friendly conversation when one of the men asked the other, "Fred, how was the memory clinic you went to last month?""Outstanding," Fred replied. "They taught us all the latest psychological techiniques - visualization, association - it made a huge difference for me.""That's great! What was the name of the clinic?"
Fred went blank. He thought and thought, but couldn't remember. Then a smile broke across his face and he asked, "What do you call that red flower with the long stem and thorns?""You mean a rose?""Yes, that's it!" He turned to his wife. . ."Rose, what was the name of that clinic?"
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Todays Quote,
Arianna Huffington: "It’s One Thing To Believe You’re Napoleon. It’s Quite Another Thing To Send More Young People To Die In Your Waterloo"…
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Edwards:
Senator John Edwards released the following statement today in response to Senator Lindsey Graham's comments on Meet the Press yesterday, where Sen. Graham said: "Well, I hope we will hold the generals accountable for their work product. I respect General Casey and Abizaid, but the strategy they've come up with for the last two years has not worked. Iraq is not more stable than it was when they took over two years ago."
Edwards said, "Senator McCain is the leading advocate for escalating the war in Iraq against the advice of our military leaders, what I call the McCain Doctrine. Now, one of his top allies is attacking those generals and blaming them for the terrible situation in Iraq. That's outrageous. The failed Iraq policy lies squarely on the shoulders of the people who make that policy - the president and his Cabinet - and Senators McCain and Graham know that. Senator McCain should ask Senator Graham to apologize to the men and women of our armed forces who have done nothing but heroically serve their country while trying to carry out a broken policy set in Washington."
He continued, "Instead of scapegoating our military leaders, Senator McCain and Senator Graham should start listening to them. Escalating the war in Iraq sends exactly the wrong signal to the Iraqis and the rest of the world about what our intentions are there. We need to make it clear that we intend to leave Iraq and turn over the responsibility of Iraq to the Iraqi people. The best way to do that is by actually starting to leave."
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LAS VEGAS, Jan. 9 — Michael S. Dell, who made his name building computers, has a new goal: planting Trees.
In a speech Tuesday at the Consumer Electronics Show here, Mr. Dell urged the electronics industry to foster the planting of trees to offset the effect on the environment of the energy consumed by the devices they make.
Meanwhile !!!

Bush lifts Alaska oil, gas drilling ban
By H.JOSEF HEBERT Tue Jan 9, 2:15 PM ET

President Bush lifted the drilling ban Tuesday for Alaska's Bristol Bay, clearing the way for the Interior Department to open the fish-rich waters to oil and natural gas development
Alaska officials as well as local communities had asked for the ban to be lifted, but environmentalists have warned against drilling in the bay, which is also a major fishing area for salmon, crab and cod.
Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne said one or two lease sales in about 5.6 million acres of Bristol Bay will be considered for leasing in the department's upcoming five-year 2007-12 lease plan.
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Bush must have gone to a playground as this one where they have fantasy play.

New York Tries to Think Outside the Sandbox
By DIANE CARDWELL
A new playground will dispense with monkey bars, swings and seesaws in favor of objects for social and fantasy play.
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Skanky Dick Morris points out an interesting fact: Of the four prominent Republican presidential contenders – McCain, Gingrich, Guiliani and Romney – only the Mormon hasn’t had more than one wife
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Sound Familiar
"It became clear that if we were prepared to stay the course, we could help to lay the cornerstone for a diverse and independent Asia… If we faltered, the forces of chaos would scent victory and decades of strife and aggression would stretch endlessly before us. The choice was clear. We would stay the course. And we shall stay the course." LB.Johnson
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Tony Snow: Democrats Can Cut Off Funds, But Can't Stop President's 'Surge' By E&P Staff
NEW YORK At his briefing today, White House Press Secretary Tony Snow was naturally peppered with questions about President Bush's upcoming speech to the nation about his plans for (it seems to be an open secret) sending more U.S. troops to Iraq. Snow wouldn't quite admit that this was indeed set in stone but sparred with reporters over why the president thinks the public will find this appealing. Snow held out hope that the Democrats would come to their senses about opposing this but admitted it could even be a battle royal. But what about calls for the Democrats to halt the build up by denying funding? Snow admitted congress had funding control but also pointed out that the president could ultimately do what he wants. "You know, Congress has the power of the purse," Snow said, then added: "The President has the ability to exercise his own authority if he thinks Congress has voted the wrong way."
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The "surge," then, is a sham. It is not meant to achieve that undefined "victory" Mr. Bush keeps talking about but to serve his own political spin. His real mission is to float the "we're not winning, we're not losing" status quo until Jan. 20, 2009. After that, as Joseph Biden put it last week, a new president will "be the guy landing helicopters inside the Green Zone, taking people off the roof." This is nothing but a replay of the cynical Nixon-Kissinger "decent interval" exit strategy concocted to pass the political buck (to Mr. Ford, as it happened) on Vietnam.
As the White House tries to sell this flimflam, picture fresh American troops being tossed into Baghdad's caldron to work alongside the Maliki-Sadr Shiite lynch mob that presided over the Saddam hanging. Contemplate as well Gerald Ford's most famous words, spoken as he assumed the presidency after the Nixon resignation: "Our Constitution works; our great republic is a government of laws and not of men. Here the people rule."
This time the people do not rule. Two months after Americans spoke decisively on Election Day, the president is determined to overrule them. Our long national nightmare in Iraq, far from being over, is about to get a second wind.
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New Counsel's Daughter in Bush White HouseBy Justin Rood
How plugged-in is incoming White House counsel Fred Fielding? His daughter has enjoyed a career in the vice president's office. Though we doubt she's the one who got him the job.
In 2002, UPI reported that Fielding's daughter Alexandra became staff assistant to Second Lady Lynne Cheney. I'm told Alexandra now works under the vice president himself, although my call to his office has so far failed to yield a confirmation.
The New York Times reported today that the onetime counsel to Richard Nixon "maintained close ties to Mr. Cheney, whom he has known for decades, and had occasionally been an informal adviser to him."
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Democratic Medicare drug plan poised to pass House

WASHINGTON - Keeping true to their campaign promise, Democrats in the House of Representatives will try next week to pass legislation that requires the government to negotiate for lower drug prices in the Medicare prescription-drug benefit.
The bill is expected to pass the House but it may face problems in the Senate, where Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., who helped craft the current Medicare drug program, is expected to hold hearings on the measure ThThe proposal by U.S. Reps. John Dingell of Michigan and new House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel of New York would help remedy what many see as a costly structural flaw in the program.
Rather than using Medicare's 43 million enrollees as leverage to secure lower drug prices, Republican lawmakers, in concert with the drug industry, blocked efforts to establish a government-run plan and prevented Medicare from negotiating prices with drug makers.
They chose to cover Medicare enrollees through hundreds of private drug plans that the government subsidizes. Competition among those plans is helping to keep prices down, but Democrats say the government could negotiate even steeper discounts than the plans have managed.
That theory is largely untested, but Democrats, eager to flex their new congressional-majority muscle, are determined to test it.
"The Medicare Prescription Drug Price Negotiation Act of 2007" will require Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt to negotiate prices on behalf of 29.4 million Medicare recipients who are covered through private standalone plans and Medicare managed-care plans, according to a draft of the proposal. The legislation will require Leavitt to update Congress every six months on progress in those negotiations.