Bush Drilling Plan Brings Foes Together

From the Los Angeles Times a report on the opposition to drilling for gas on southeast New Mexico’s Otero Mesa — “an unusual alliance of ranchers, environmentalists, hunters and property-rights activists” lead by Governor Bill Richardson.

“I am a lifelong Republican. I was a fundraiser for President Bush, and I never thought I’d be saying what I am today,” said Tweeti Blancett, a sixth-generation rancher from San Juan County in northwest New Mexico, where the landscape holds 35,000 wells. An additional 10,000 are planned.

“Our ranch has been devastated by drillers, our water is poisoned and so are our cows,” Blancett said. “These oil companies are getting away with murder, ruining the land, and no one is stopping them.”

The Browser, Reloaded

Tired of Internet Explorer or Netscape Navigator? Try Mozilla Firefox — tabbed browsing, popup blocking, integrated search, etc.

Not that it seems all that different.

Update: It does seem faster.

Band of Brothers

From Roger Ailes

John Kerry has appeared at numerous campaign events with the fellow veterans who served along side him in Vietnam (and made it home alive).

Anyone seen Bush’s band of brothers?

Me, neither.

And neither has Scott “Tissue of Lies” McClellan:

Q. Scott, when Senator Kerry goes around campaigning, there’s frequently what they call “a band of brothers,” a bunch of soldiers who served with him, who come forward and give testimonials for him. I see, in looking at our files in the campaign of 2000, it said that you were looking for people who served with him to verify his account of service in the National Guard. Has the White House been able to find, like Senator Kerry, “a band of brothers” or others who can testify about the President’s service?

MR. McCLELLAN: All the information that we have we shared with you in 2000, that was relevant to this issue. And all the additional information that has come to our attention we have shared with you. The President was asked about this in his interview over the weekend, and the President made it clear, yes, I want all records to be made available that are relevant to this issue; that there are some out there that were making outrageous, baseless accusations. It was a shame that they brought it up four years ago. It was a shame that they brought it up again this year. And I think that the facts are very clear from these documents. These documents — the payroll records and the point summaries verify that he was paid for serving and that he met his requirements.

Q. Actually, I wasn’t talking about documents, I was talking about people — you know, comrades-in-arms —

MR. McCLELLAN: Right. That’s why I said everything that came to our attention that was available, we made available at that time, during the 2000 campaign.

Q. But you said you were looking for people — and I take it you didn’t find any people?

MR. McCLELLAN: I mean, obviously, we would have made people available. And we — Mr. Lloyd, who has provided a statement to put some of this into context for everybody, made some public statements during that time period to verify the records that the President had fulfilled his duties. And he put out an additional statement now to put this into context. He’s someone with some technical expertise and someone that understands these matters, because he was in the National Guard at the time.

Q. Scott, can I follow on this, because I do think this is important. You know, it might strike some as odd that there isn’t anyone who can stand up and say, I served with George W. Bush in Alabama, or in Houston in the Guard unit. Particularly because there are people, his superiors who have stepped forward — in Alabama and in Houston — who have said in the past several years that they have no recollection of him being there and serving. So isn’t that odd that nobody — you can’t produce anyone to corroborate what these records purport to show?

MR. McCLELLAN: David, we’re talking about some 30 years ago. You are perfectly welcome to go back and talk to individuals from that time period. But these documents —

What? Did Bush perform his duties in solitary confinement? Was he testing a top secret Flightsuit of Invisibility? He can’t remember the names of anyone who he served under, or who served with him?

We three kings persons of orient are

As one newpaper headline puts it, “The Three Fairly Sagacious Persons.”

The Church of England has decided that the three wise men who followed the star to Bethlehem bearing gifts for the baby Jesus may not have been all that wise — or even men.

The revision committee said: “While it seems very unlikely that these Persian court officials were female, the possibility that one or more of the Magi were female cannot be excluded completely.”

There is no theological dispute about the gifts they brought — gold, frankincense and myrrh — but the prayer has been changed to use the word Magi on the grounds that “the visitors were not necessarily wise and not necessarily men.”

See the report from CNN.com.

Odds on the Oscars

Beverly Hills Bookie shows where the money is going on the Oscars.

Caught!

The Detroit Free Press compares the photo of the skyline used to promote Detroit as the site of Super Bowl XL (2006) with the real thing (621K pdf file).

Read the article — Will the real Detroit skyline please stand up?

Little School That Could

From the Los Angeles Times, what sports means to a high school with 21 students in grades nine through 12 — 18 of them on the basketball teams. “In a no-stoplight town lacking a movie theater, much less a mall to cruise, sports is the tie that binds.”