So you think Bush is smart?

Yeah, I do.

Why?

Because he's president of the United States and we aren't. It's facetious and fallacious reasoning to assume that you could be in a position of power like that and on some level not have the ability to do pretty shrewd and careful and, yes, intelligent, things, to be involved in intelligent enterprises.

You don't think a "Being There" scenario is possible?

No, I don't. "Being There" is a lovely fantasy and that's what makes it so charming. But in the real world, it just wouldn't happen.

So if Bush hadn't gotten elected, it would have been possible to think of him as stupid, but because he got elected we must assume he's smart?

No, no, no. And by the way, OK, that's what I was saying. I was obviously just dismissing the question, but let me be accurate. I think it's a nonsensical conversation, honestly, if someone's intelligent.

I don't know, give him an IQ test and I'll look at the results and tell you my response. Do I know that Bill Clinton was a liar? Yes, he admitted he was a liar, so yes, I have to believe, if the man admits that he lied under oath then, yes, we know for a fact because the person who committed the lie admitted to the lie. I'm not gonna say if somebody is smart or stupid or not. I don't know, I'll tell you when I read the results of the test.

"You teach a child to read, and he or her will be able to pass a literacy test."
--"President" Bush

More than one-third of people in suburban Atlanta who participated in a recent study tested positive for the virus that causes genital herpes.

Atlanta had the highest rate of infection of the six cities in the study and also was higher than the national average of about 25 percent.

Only 5 percent of the 915 Atlanta area patients in the study reported a history of the disease, which can cause painful genital sores. Many people who have the disease have no symptoms and are unaware of their infection.

.....

The Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that 1 million people are newly infected with the virus each year in the United States.

Higher levels of education, income and marital status did not reduce the chances of having genital herpes, according to the study, which was sponsored by the GlaxoSmithKline pharmaceutical company.

What a croc!

A large crocodile -- and not the school's namesake alligator mascot -- is featured on the cover of the University of Florida's 2003 football media guide.

A photo of Florida coach Ron Zook leading the team onto the field is superimposed over the olive green crocodile. The words "Florida" and "2003 Football Guide" also appear on the front, but the word "Gators" is absent.

Gwinnett State Court Judge David Fuller said Tuesday that he was in compliance with the terms of his license suspension when he drove to restaurants and a bar to meet with prospective clients.

"I have a limited permit that allows me to drive for appropriate purposes," Fuller said. "These were business purposes, which are allowed in the terms of the permit. I don't have an office. I can't go to the courthouse."

Fuller, an 11-year veteran of the bench, in June pleaded no contest to driving under the influence and was placed on probation. Under the terms of his probation, he must serve 40 hours of community service, and his driving privileges are restricted. Fuller, considered an expert in DUI law, also had to attend DUI school

.....

The television station on Monday broadcast a follow-up report that showed Fuller refueling his vehicle, entering a restaurant, parked at a fast food restaurant and at Fuzzy's Place on North Druid Hills Road. Fuzzy's is known for its bar, live music and Cajun food.

The station reported he left his car overnight at Fuzzy's Place.

Four members of a pack of wild dogs have been captured in the Midtown area, but animal control officials believe the two pack leaders are still at large.

The pack has been spotted running through neighborhoods in a broad area of intown Atlanta, including Inman Park, Virginia-Highland, Midtown and Old Fourth Ward. They are believed to have killed several cats and treed others in their path. Officials believe the pack made its home in the woods around the Carter Center and traveled along the railroad tracks to invade nearby neighborhoods, chasing cats and rummaging garbage bins for food.

Stray dogs often group together and form packs.

"That's not uncommon," Fulton Animal Services Director Marc Paulhus said. "What is uncommon is to have dogs with a daily pattern covering such a vast territory."

MONTREAL — Metallica are taking legal action against independant Canadian rock band Unfaith over what they feel is unsanctioned usage of two chords the band has been using since 1982 : E and F.

"People are going to get on our case again for this, but try to see it from our point of view just once," stated Metallica's Lars Ulrich. "We're not saying we own those two chords, individually - that would be ridiculous. We're just saying that in that specific order, people have grown to associate E, F with our music."

Metallica filed a trademark infringement suit against the indie group at the US district court for central California on Monday. According to the drummer, the continued use of the two chords causes "confusion, deception and mistake in the minds of the public".

In other news, Fly Over Country was informed that the Southern Black Preacher's Association (SBPA) filed a lawsuit yesterday against Metallica lead singer James Hetfield for improperly adding "huh" after every word sung. A spokesman for the group, Miles Jackson, had this to say:

"It has recently come to our attention that one of the Devil's minions stole the distinctive 'huh' that our members have been using for years while preaching to emphasize the importance of The Holy Father's words. It saddens us, but it is not surprising that one of Satan's children would take something Holy and pervert it for the futherance of the Kingdom of the Flesh."

This is not the first time the SBPA has brought a lawsuit against a singing star. Back in the early 70's the SBPA filed a lawsuit against James Brown for using a cloak dropped over his shoulders to exit the stage.

In Room 5714, Garth Stewart is sleeping when three doctors arrive. One of them reaches for a light switch, and before Garth can shield his eyes, his room is flash-blasted in white.

"Can we take a look at the leg?"

Garth flips back the bedsheet. His desert tan has gone sallow. His GI buzz cut is a woolly disgrace. Even in this condition, he wishes for a decent soldier's haircut. The drugs have made his stomach cramp so much that he stays curled on his side. Now, with the doctors hovering, he tries to straighten out his 6-foot-4 frame. His amputated leg won't lie down. It trembles in midair.

A doctor works quickly, unwrapping the bandage and then the white gauze. Garth watches as they probe the black caterpillar of sutures on his bulbous stump. He moans. The stump begins to shake violently. "I'm gonna get sick," he says.

"You want your bucket?"

Garth reaches for the container. "I can't do this much longer," he says, holding his hand over his eyes.

"We're almost finished," the doctor tells him.

"No," Garth says, "not that, everything. I can't take it any more."

They leave him in darkness, with his bucket. Only four weeks earlier, Garth was a mortar man with the 1st Battalion of the 3rd Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division. "You get out of high school and you join the Army, or you get out of high school and live in your parents' basement," he says. He chose Fort Benning over Stillwater, Minn.

A woman who didn't want the rain to ruin the sofa in the back of her truck caused 24 vehicles to wreck behind her Sunday on Interstate 20 as she swerved to get under an overpass, a police spokesman said.

.....

She changed lanes so rapidly that she cut off cars as she made her way to the shoulder of the road to get under the overpass, White said.

"She cut off two vehicles initially, right away, and that caused those two vehicles to collide with each other," White said. "We had a total of 24 vehicles at the end of it."

Eight separate accidents were reported as a direct result of the woman's poor driving, he said.

Mark Twain stunned the political establishment by announcing his candidacy for the presidency. An independent in politics since the '80s, he's running as a third party candidate. Initial polls show 100% support for his positions on the issues, with the strongest support coming from those who agree with these positions:

Foreign Policy: It is easier to stay out than get out.

Crime: Nothing incites to money-crimes like great poverty or great wealth.

The Economy: The lack of money is the root of all evil.

Family Values: It is better to have bad morals than none at all.

Education: I have never let my schooling interfere with my education.

Defense: An inglorious peace is better than a dishonorable war.

Politics: All the talk used to be about doing people good, now it is about doing people.

Congress: It could probably be shown by facts and figures that there is no distinctly native American criminal class except Congress.

Mark Twain is confident that he will retain 100% support throughout his campaign. "I'll make whatever promises the people want," he told reporters. "Better a broken promise than none at all."

Somewhere in Free Country USA, Pom-Pom is being quietly intelligent, Strong Bad is answering e-mail from his adoring fans, and Homestar Runner is doing . . . something. Probably something stupid, for all Internet users to see.

This is the world of Homestarrunner.com.

Created by Atlantans Mike and Matt Chapman, the online cartoon has grown into a Web sensation, with a cultlike following of more than 200,000 unique visitors a day and nods from Entertainment Weekly's "It List," Time magazine and "Buffy the Vampire Slayer."

Its artistic flair makes it a favorite among Web designers; the style and humor draw from classic cartoons but retain the computerized look popularized by "South Park" in the 1990s. But it's the sarcastically spunky characters who attract the most rabid fans.

It's Tour de France time again and Lance Armstrong is out for his fifth consecutive victory, which has never been done.

Don't get me wrong, I love cycling. I'm a cyclist myself.

A bipartisan group of Northeastern governors is expected to announce an historic agreement this week to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from power plants, a plan that would break sharply with Bush administration policy on global warming.

The agreement for mandatory greenhouse-gas emission caps could put the states on the road to compliance with the Kyoto climate-change treaty, an embarrassing rebuke to the president, who made a decision in 2001 to pull the U.S. out of negotiations on the pact. In another repudiation of Bush doctrine, the states say that their move away from fossil fuels and toward sustainable energy will not only benefit the environment but the economy as well.

Since taking the White House, the president abandoned the Kyoto Treaty, reversed a GOP campaign promise to regulate power plant CO2 emissions, ignored scientific reports on climate change, and opted for a toothless global warming program. In June, a long section of an EPA environmental report outlining risks from rising temperatures was censored, "whittled to a few noncommittal paragraphs" after White House arm twisting, according to the New York Times.

Bush does offer limited support to sustainable energy. The administration, for example, allocated $720 million in new funding over the next five years to develop the much-hyped "Freedom Car," a hydrogen fuel cell vehicle. By comparison, federal coal and oil subsidies now run to $5 billion annually, says Taxpayers for Common Sense. This doesn't even take into account the $55 billion to $96 billion spent yearly by the Pentagon to guard fossil fuel corporate interests worldwide, as calculated by the International Center for Technology Assessment.

"Everyone always talks about hydrogen in relation to fuel-cell cars, but the reality is that if we wanted to move rapidly away from oil, we don't have to go that route. We could simply convert our internal combustion engines from gasoline to hydrogen, burning the hydrogen directly," revealed Brown. "It's fairly simple, requiring minor engine changes probably costing not more than about $200 per car. For that amount, a mechanic at a service station could convert an internal combustion engine to a gas engine that would run on natural gas or hydrogen. In fact, BMW now has a prototype model where, while driving down the road, you can switch from gasoline to hydrogen and back again. From an engineering point of view, it is entirely within range." It hasn't been attempted before because hydrogen hasn't been cheap, but an abundance of wind power would change that.

Brown dismisses another often mentioned impediment to the wind-hydrogen transition: the lack of a distribution system. The infrastructure is already in place, he said. "I do all my cooking in a Washington, D.C., apartment with natural gas piped in from Texas. Hydrogen can be delivered the same way, using the same pipes."

A faction of the Green Party is rallying support for former Democratic Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney, who represented Georgia's 4th District, to become the party's candidate for president in 2004.

An Internet site -- www.votemckinney.org -- has been created by a committee of Greens "who have a deep and enduring respect for Ralph Nader but do not take it for granted that he will be our candidate for the president next time around."

It touts 10 reasons why McKinney would be a good candidate, including:

• She has a reputation for being one of the most progressive members of Congress.

• She is black, female and Southern.

• She has a following of political allies and a team of experienced organizers.

• She has experience working within the federal government, unlike many other Greens.

It’s no secret that in the Tour peloton, Lance Armstrong has few riders — team mates excepted —who will fight his corner, or do him a favour. His spats with various rivals — Marco Pantani, Gilberto Simoni and others — have been well reported, but there seems to be a growing undercurrent of resentment against the defending Tour champion.

His wife, Vanessa, also released a statement: "I know that he did not commit a crime...."

The Army is considering whether to punish soldiers in Iraq who griped about conditions there to a television reporter, a Pentagon spokeswoman said Friday.

Some soldiers from the 3rd Infantry Division complained to ABC-TV this week after their units were told they would be leaving Iraq soon, then had their homecoming postponed. One called for the resignation of Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld.

Criticism of superior officers is a breach of military rules. The Army will determine whether any soldier will be charged with breaking those rules, said Pentagon spokeswoman Chief Petty Officer Diane Perry.

On Wednesday, the commander of U.S. forces

.....

"None of us that wear this uniform are free to say anything disparaging about the secretary of defense, or the president of the United States," he added.

Winner: "All Creatures Great and Small" Category

His knowing brown eyes held her gaze for a seeming eternity, his powerful arms clasped her slim body in an irresistible embrace, and from his broad, hairy chest a primal smell of "male" tantalized her nostrils; "Looks like another long night in the ape house" thought veterinarian Abigail Brown as she gingerly reached for the constipated gorilla's suppository.

Paul Jeffery
Oxford, England


Winner: Detective

Detective Inspector Mike Norman slipped six fingers into his overcoat pocket, five of them clad in a latex glove and attached to his palm, while the sixth was wrapped in a plastic evidence bag and apparently belonged to the kidnapped pianist Ricardo Moore, or, as it now seemed likely, the kidnapped ex-pianist Ricardo Moore.

Alan Campbell
Edinburgh, Scotland


Miscellaneous Dishonorable Mentions:

After escaping the clutches of that crazy cult, it was going to take more money than that to start a new life, but still, for one day's work, 30 pieces of silver wasn't bad.

Lawrence Person
Austin,

Head Coach Adams found himself in a quandary as he looked at the scoreboard and saw that his team was going to win 41-13, and he whispered to Phillips, who was the defensive coordinator, "I really don't know why the team plays so much better on grass, but it's obvious they do, so, for the sake of winning and our jobs, do I just turn a blind eye and a deaf ear to their red eyes and constant laughter?"

Randy Blanton
Murfreesboro, TN

Aside from Charles Darwin, most students of animal behavior in the past believed that animals didn’t have emotions—or that if they did, we’d never know. Over the years, the belief hardened into dogma. Then, in the mid-’60s, came Jane Goodall. Since she had little scientific training, she had never been indoctrinated with behaviorist theory. “But I’d had this amazing teacher my whole life,” she says. That would be Rusty, a little black mongrel who lived at a hotel in her childhood neighborhood. “He went everywhere with me, and he didn’t even belong to me,” she says. “At the hotel he was disobedient, but he was beautifully behaved and sensitive with me. Of course, I thought animals had emotions, personalities, minds. How could I not?”

WASHINGTON, DC -- The alleged communication detailing a uranium deal between Niger and Iraq has been published by a newspaper in Rome.

For more than a week, the Bush administration has been trying to explain how the President could have used the claim, that Saddam Hussein was trying to obtain nuclear material from Africa, as justification for war in his State of the Union speech.

.....

To: SaddamHot4U@hotmail.com
Date: Mon, 14 Jul 1999 18:49:03 -0800
Subject: RE: your order..........qy8xc7kd6fg4


ATTN:PRESIDENT/CEO

STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL BUSINESS PROPOSAL

HELLO. MY NAME IS DR. SESE SEKO MOBUTO, DIPLOMATIC ENVOY TO THE PRESIDENT OF NIGER. I AM WRITING TO PROFOUNDLY ASK FOR YOUR GENEROUS HELP. AS YOU MAY KNOW, MY COUNTRY IS RICH IN WEAPONS-GRADE URANIUM. WE HAVE STRONG RELIABLE CONNECTIONS TO OBTAIN US$60,000,000 WORTH OF THIS DESIRABLE COMMODITY. IN ORDER TO OFFICIALLY FORMALIZE THE SALE OF OUR VALUABLE RESOURCE, PLEASE VARIFY YOUR COMPANY'S NAME, ADDRESS, AND FAX ALONG WITH A VALID BANK ACCOUNT NUMBER AT YOUR EARLIEST POSSIBLE CONVENIENCE.

.....

Job-hunting students and teachers pushed Georgia's unemployment rate higher in June.

The unadjusted June rate soared -- as it has the past six years -- eight-tenths of a percentage point to 5.4 percent, up from 4.6 percent in May. Georgia Labor Department officials blamed the jump on more job-seekers and higher first-time claims for unemployment benefits, which have hit a 21-year record.

Criticism of the Bush administration’s handling of post-war Iraq is increasing as the cost and the strain on service members is becoming more clear to lawmakers.
The announcement that the 3rd Infantry Division would not immediately head home and that India had refused the U.S. request to send peacekeeping troops to Iraq fueled part of the criticism, as has the Pentagon’s estimate that the cost of the U.S. mission in Iraq has soared to $3.9 billion a month for the foreseeable future.

Continuing casualties also are cause for concern. There have been 84 deaths in the 79 days since May 1, when President Bush declared that major combat had ended. More than 30 were the direct result of hostile action, while the rest were accidents.

This August will be a good month to feel like a bum -- because it's been declared "National Anal Sex Month" -- no ifs, ands, or buts about it.

The cheeky declaration comes courtesy of the Good Vibrations sex toy company, the group who also celebrate "National Masturbation Month" every May.

Authorities in Afghanistan's eastern city of Jalalabad on Tuesday closed hundreds of shops where children played video games and watched movies, accusing the merchants of "corrupting the morals" of young people, a senior police official said.

"We closed more than 300 shops," said Haji Ajab Shah, chief of Jalalabad police. "People would gamble and drink alcohol in those video game shops" despite prohibitions under Islam, the dominant faith in Afghanistan, he said.

Religious broadcaster Pat Robertson urged his nationwide audience Monday to pray for God to remove three justices from the Supreme Court so they could be replaced by conservatives.

...

Robertson has launched a 21-day "prayer offensive" directed at the Supreme Court in the wake of its 6-3 June vote that decriminalized sodomy. Robertson said in a letter on the CBN Web site that the ruling "has opened the door to homosexual marriage, bigamy, legalized prostitution and even incest."

The same letter targets three justices in particular: "One justice is 83-years-old, another has cancer and another has a heart condition. Would it not be possible for God to put it in the minds of these three judges that the time has come to retire?"

Three Democratic presidential contenders alienated the leadership of the nation's largest civil rights organization today by skipping the candidates forum at the annual NAACP convention, an event attended by 6,000 members from chapters nationwide.

NAACP President Kweisi Mfume described the absent candidates -- Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (Conn.) and Reps. Richard A. Gephardt (Mo.) and Dennis J. Kucinich (Ohio) -- as "persona non grata" whose "political capital is now the equivalent of Confederate dollars."

"When candidates choose to ignore the NAACP, they have no legitimacy when they go into our communities later asking for our votes," Mfume said.

The absences and the sharp response from Mfume dominated attention before and after the forum, prompting angry assessments from delegates concerned about the Democratic Party's commitment to their core issues: affirmative action, health care and education.

"It's a slap in the face," said Ava Sudduth, a delegate from San Francisco.

The ordinance, approved by the City Council this month, is the first directed at removing the graffiti, rather than punishing the scrawler.

Property owners who do not get rid of graffiti within 30 days of receiving a written notice from the city can be fined $100 per week, up to $1,000. After that, they could face up to six months behind bars.

Back home from his tour of governmental facilities and five-star hotels in Africa, President Bush says he has a renewed appreciation for the good ole USA.

After a week of uncomfortable exposure to foreign reporters, Bush said he was eager to resume Washington's highly orchestrated press conferences where only pre-approved questions are allowed.

Regarding to his future plans, the President promised to increase the level of double-talk and misinformation in his fundraising speeches as he campaigns across the Nation.

"No matter how much the economy deteriorates, no matter how deep the deficit gets, no matter how badly this administration mishandles foreign policy, I promise you this: I'm going to say whatever it takes to get re-elected," Bush vowed.

The Etowah River basin lost nearly 40,000 acres of forest -- which filters pollutants flowing toward the river -- between 1982 and 1997, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Increasing pollutants and the loss of natural cover affect headwaters that are home to the river's nine fish and three mussel species considered endangered or threatened. Six species of fish that once were common have already disappeared from the Etowah.

The river has lost 43 species of mussels and freshwater snails since the early 1900s. Many turtles and birds that depended on the snails for part of their diet also are disappearing.

"It's the biggest extinction event in the whole country, and no one knows about it," said Paul Johnson, a research scientist with the Tennessee Aquarium in Chattanooga.

Despite the losses, the upper Etowah still remains one of the most ecologically diverse rivers in the country. It contains 76 native species of fish, more than the entire Columbia River system, which drains seven Western states.

The likeable Victor Hugo, a former champion butterfly swimmer and Giro d'Italia stage winner, certainly realizes that he is only keeping the Maillot Jaune warm for Armstrong who wants both the stage win and the Maillot Jaune on Sunday's stage to l'Alpe d'Huez. In an amusing moment today during Stage 6, Peña explained post race that "Today I saw that Lance didn't have a bottle so I wanted to go back to the car to get one - Johan told me the Maillot Jaune doesn't get bottles." Peña did so anyway, but only once during the stage.

The best rider ever, of any era, and there will never be anyone like him, is Eddy Merckx.

There never will be anyone like Eddy Merckx. No one has to win Paris-Nice, Milan-Sanremo, Paris-Roubaix, the Tour of Flanders, the Tour of Italy, the Tour de France, the World Championships, The Tour of Lombardy and set the hour record all in the same year. If you took some of the year's results for Merckx - they would be sufficient for career results for riders today.

July 9, 2003 (BECKLEY, W.Va.) — It was canine intuition when an injured black Labrador retriever did a doggone good job of getting medical attention.

The dog, apparently struck by a car on July 4, found his way to Beckley Appalachian Regional Hospital, hobbled through the sliding glass doors and waited for assistance in the hallway.

"It's the darndest thing," said Ted Weigel, marketing director at Beckley. "The dog limped in and laid down where people could see it. It seemed to know exactly where to go for help."

Bernard McCoy crouched like a coiled spring at the defense table after the Fulton County judge explained his life-without-parole sentence, which meant his only hope lay in appeal.

Five sheriff's deputies sensed his tension and moved in close. They weren't fast enough. McCoy, 22, grabbed the water pitcher and hurled it toward prosecutors and the woman he had been convicted of raping. Atlanta Traffic Court Solicitor Joe Drolet, who was in the courtroom, broke a knuckle deflecting the pitcher, which otherwise would have smacked the head of a young woman. Water flew everywhere.

"He didn't have much to lose," said prosecutor Gayle Abramson, alluding to the sentence. "I knew he was going to do something because he was staring at me and staring at the victim."

The ad for the touch-screen voting machines says: "In the November 2002 election, Sonny Perdue pulled off an incredible upset victory against heavily favored Democratic incumbent Roy Barnes. He has us to thank for that. Diebold's AccuVote, with its patented paperless, virtually inauditable system, helped Perdue become the first Republican governor of Georgia in 130 years. If you're an underdog and a Republican, let us do the same for you."

I was quite puzzled by Jim Wooten's most recent column. He writes: "Two adults can enter into any personal services contract they choose that's not harmful to others. But marriage is the union between a man and a woman for the purpose of procreation, thereby nurturing and protecting the species. There is a distinction that legislatures should preserve."

So, I'm fascinated by this concept. My 80-year-old grandfather recently married a woman who is also 80 years old, so to say that their marriage is for the purpose of procreation would be incorrect. Should their marriage be declared invalid? Should a fertility test be required for issuance of a marriage certificate? DNA tests? Genital inspections?

It is obvious to me that this procreation principle is in fact a sham, and that Wooten is using it as a pretext to further discrimination against homosexuals.

Regarding the discussion about why there in no outrage over Jim Wooten:

Wooten is a one-track-minded, far-right zealot. Very few of the metro area's 4 million residents take him seriously. He would be against Christmas if Santa Claus were a Democrat.

One of the more peculiar claims in today's political debate is the contention that gay marriage will undermine heterosexual marriage. I'm sorry; any logical connection between the two escapes me. I don't understand the mechanism by which one can possibly affect the other.

But that's not surprising. Logic has its limitations in explaining human behavior. In this case, a lot of people are concerned about the decline of family and marriage as social institutions, and I guess it's just human nature to blame whatever seems new and threatening.

Those who can give up liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.

- Benjamin Franklin, 1759

Q: Last year there wasn't a duel but Armstrong was worried about you...

GS: We went up against each other at the Tour of Switzerland in 2001. He was first and I was second. He learnt then that I can climb. It was a pity that we didn't race against each other in 2002. That route was more suitable to me.

.....

Q: How would you summarise your Tour?

GS: People ask me to beat Armstrong. That's a big responsibility. Most of all I know I have to beat myself. If I can perform better than what I think I can, give it everything, I'm sure I'll have a great Tour, it's guaranteed.

Q: What would be the most exciting thing for you in this Tour?

GS: To be able to drop Armstrong in the mountains, to make him suffer, and then not give up.

Q: The idea of racing hard seems to motivate you more than anything else.

GS: I'm not afraid of suffering even if I admit I don't like it. But my existence is about sufferance and riding my bike and seeing new things and new situations.

In his new job, Max Cleland is supposed to get young people all fired up with idealistic zeal for politics, but that won't be easy. These days, Cleland, a Georgia Democrat defeated in his bid for reelection to the Senate last fall, is angry, bitter and disgusted with politics.

"The state of American politics is sickening," he says.

Cleland has come full circle. In 1963, he arrived at American University's Washington Semester Program as a naive student and left dreaming of a career in the Senate. Now, after six years in the Senate, he's back at the Washington Semester Program, this time as a "distinguished adjunct professor.''

But he lost a few things along the way. In 1968, he lost his right arm and both legs in Vietnam. Last fall, he lost his Senate seat in a campaign that became a symbol of nasty politics.

Cleland, 60, is still livid over a now-infamous TV commercial that Republican challenger Saxby Chambliss ran against him. It opened with pictures of Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein, then attacked Cleland for voting against President Bush's Homeland Security bill. It didn't mention that Cleland supported a Democratic bill that wasn't radically different.

"That was the biggest lie in America -- to put me up there with Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein and say I voted against homeland security!" he says, his voice rising in anger.

"I volunteered 35 years ago to go to Vietnam and the guy I was running against got out of going to Vietnam with a trick knee! I was an author of the homeland security bill, for goodness' sake! But I wasn't a rubber stamp for the White House. That right there is the epitome of what's wrong with American politics today!"

Asked recently for comment, [Saxby] Chambliss responded through a spokesman that he did not want to discuss the ad or Cleland.

This is the thumbnail version of Strom Thurmond, the man whose work realigned white southern conservatism with racist Democrats. Of how this World War II veteran -- a Democrat, a "Dixiecrat" and then a Republican, foe of civil rights and hater of integration -- got away with it as America's longest-serving senator.

And this is why I'm glad he's dead. Reading, thinking and ultimately writing about Thurmond is like a root canal -- it's a painful but unavoidable extraction of infectious roots.

To affix time and place to their time and place in history, folks of that generation recall their whereabouts when Kennedy or King were shot. I did the same with Thurmond, making a mental note. As a TV newscaster ran through his obituary, I turned to catch a glimpse of Thurmond's Bitter Beer Face.

"Is Thurmond dead? He must be dead," I said. "Yes, thank God," my friend said, herself relieved.

Relishing Thurmond's death is a guilty pleasure.....

"The abundance of great music, the culture of drugs, and the politics of Richard Nixon, which had everybody polarized and created more of a sense of community, all contributed to this incredible feeling that somehow we were on a collective journey, " [keyboardist Bill] Payne explains. "Waiting For Columbus is one of the last parts of that journey, and among the last vestiges of that scene."

"There are some who feel like that conditions are such that they can attack us there," Bush told reporters at the White House. "My answer is 'bring them on'. We have the force necessary to deal with the situation."

The death toll among American and British troops in Iraq likely will rise in weeks ahead as resentment against the U.S.-led occupation grows, Middle East and military experts said Monday.
Iraqi citizens are angry the Bush administration has failed to create an elected government in Baghdad and restore electricity and water service to millions, said Aziz Al-Taee, chairman of the Iraqi-American Council.

Members of deposed dictator Saddam Hussein’s Baath Party and thousands of criminals freed from prison during the conflict also threaten the troops, said Anthony Cordesman, a military and Middle East expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. And soldiers are getting caught in crossfire between feuding ethnic, political and religious groups.

As of Monday morning, 203 troops had been killed in Iraq, the Pentagon said. Twenty-five, including four from Ohio, died from enemy fire after President Bush declared the end of major hostilities May 1.

“Unfortunately, what has happened is that the Pentagon did not plan sufficiently for the reconstruction, and it’s now the guys and women who are paying for that on the ground,” said Jennifer Kibbe, a foreign policy expert at the Brookings Institution.

Expect the situation to get worse.

In years past, Sean Hollonbeck has paced the finish line at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Peachtree Road Race, waiting for his twin brother Scot to roll through.

But on Friday, Scot, a 33-year-old paraplegic athlete and 14-year Peachtree Road Race veteran, says he'll be the one idling while his identical twin plays catch-up.

"He's decent," said Scot, who's finished second in the race twice. "But I'm going to kill him."

If Strom Thurmond can't live forever, I guess I'd better start getting my affairs in order, too.

I mean, he was so vibrant and alive.

Authorities say at least 40 mutilated cats have been discovered in Denver and its suburbs in the past year, including four killed over the weekend. The toll in Salt Lake City is 10 cats and another unidentified animal.

.....

In several cases, it appears the attacker kills the cat, then taunts the owner by bringing back the remains. Some of the animals were cut with surgical precision. Some may have been killed by another animal.

Bush has reimposed a blackout of media coverage of the dead who are processed through the Charles Carson Center for Mortuary Affairs at Dover Air Force Base, Delaware. For more than 30 years, television cameras broadcast the white-gloved honor guard escorting the flag-covered coffins from aircraft at Dover. Often a band would play a mournful dirge.

And, the photographs and video would emphasize the size of some foreign debacle. A sea of caskets covered the tarmac in 1983 with the bodies of 241 Marines killed by a terrorist bomb in Beirut.

The last time Americans viewed the ceremonies at Dover was in 1989 when bodies began arriving from Panama. They had been dispatched by Bush the Elder to capture Gen. Manuel Noriega, the Panamian leader who ran afoul of U.S. policies.

While Bush was boasting at a news conference of the success in Panama, television networks split the screen for viewers to see the bodies arriving at Dover. "Aw, give me a break," Bush complained after seeing the split screen. He ordered a media ban at the base and his son has continued the blackout.