You're doin' a heckuva job, Rudy

Yowza. Rolling Stone's Matt Taibbi on Bill Maher's favorite cross-dresser.

Giuliani: Worse Than Bush.

September 11th

MSNBC presents a flash timeline of the events of the day. Three years ...

Bush Approval Rating / Terror Alert Chart

Found here.

Bush - Cheney 9/11 Commission Meeting

I take that back, he is dumb. What is he doing? Signalling to the band?

"If we had something to hide, we wouldn't have met with them in the first place," Bush said. "We answered all their questions."

No word on whether they were answered truthfully or not.

Bush said it was important for him and Cheney to appear together so that commission members could "see our body language... how we work together."

So they're an interpretive dance couple now? Was Dick Button there to provide commentary?

Forbidden thoughts on 9/11

Warning: Some of these are unbelievably shallow and crass. Which is why I suppose they feel right at home here at House 8.

Fox News: "Fair and Balanced"

House 8: "Shallow and Crass"

Yeah, that fits.

For those not interested in wading through all 6 (!!) pages, this one pretty much sums it all up:

We were living in D.C., but it didn't really faze us that terrorists had hit our very own city. We attempted to go to the movies where a homeless man kindly told us that no movies were being shown that day; grudgingly ate at the only food establishment open --Taco Bell -- and ended up renting Tommy Lee and Pamela Anderson Lee's staged X-rated extravaganza. We did the nasty all day (no thanks to Tommy and Pam), convincing ourselves that what we were doing was life affirming. And it was.

-- Name withheld

Gawd Bless Umuricuh.

via one.point.zero

Post 9/11 ATM Fraud

Hey, dumbass. You're using your ATM card. Did these people really think they were getting away with something?

World Trade Center site: What would you do?

This is pretty cool...sumbit proposals for the WTC site. I fully expect johnny_monorail to submit a plan for the site.

Starbucks poster offends stupid people

I would think people would be more offended that fruity-flavored slushy-water costs $3.75... (Or whatever it costs. Anything more than a buck is too much.)

The image shown above is indeed a promotional poster for the Starbucks Coffee Company's new TazoCitrus drinks. The posters were displayed on the walls of about 3,000 Starbucks outlets throughout the USA and Canada beginning in April 2002, until complaints from offended customers who felt the poster was too reminiscent of the terror attacks on New York's twin towers prompted Starbucks to pull the material from their stores on June 7.

Even better is the Starbucks "apology" letter, which, while completely unnecessary, suddenly morphs into a press release about their overpriced fruity summer drinks. Hah!

via Neoflux

Big Tobacco and The Patriot Act

During the debate to pass the Financial Anti-Terrorist Act (later re-named the Patriot Act) after Sept. 11th, tobacco lobbyists managed to remove a section that basically said, "If you do stuff like money laundering in another country that we would consider illegal in the US, we will bust you."

Well, this presents a problem for Big Tobacco, who regularly smuggles squares into other countries to get around taxes and other nasty things that might cost them money.

...Philip Morris and Brown & Williamson developed a system for smuggling their Marlboros, Kools and other brands into [Colombia] without paying customs tariffs or any import taxes whatsoever. For more than a decade, this enabled them to compete head to head with ColombiaÕs domestic manufacturers: While legal imports of foreign cigarettes should cost from four to five dollars a pack, with all duties paid, they were sold throughout Colombia at just over a buck a pack.

And it worked.

Shortly after the Patriot Act passed the House without Section 107(B), CanadaÕs lawsuit was dismissed by the appeals court, which based its decision substantially on the revenue rule; and on Feb. 19, the Colombian and European cases were likewise dismissed by a federal district judge who also cited the revenue rule.

Who needs strong anti-terrorism legislation? Cheap smokes on holiday! Woo-hoo!

via blogdex

Pickup Truck Bedliners Used to Protect Pentagon

Technology that's been around for more than a decade is now being used in the war on terrorism.

It's not computer software, or an electronic device, but a simple substance you find on a pickup truck. It's a thick, black spray, made out of polyeurothane -- a fancy name for liquid plastic. It dries in seconds, and creates a protective armor so strong that the military believes it can save lives in an explosion.

(Sure, I heard banjo music when I read the story, but then I looked here)

70-year-old with Alzheimer's Disappears at Airport; Still Missing 3 Months Later

Hint to the FAA: Maybe she's working security and that's why the friggin lines take so long...

Italian Plane Passengers See Flames, Vote to Land

Considering that the Italians have had like 65 governments in the last 50 years, its not surprising that they put it to a vote.