LP's blog

If you listen to the evil-liberal radio network (NPR) or the pre-eminent evil liberal blog (Daily Kos), you probably know that the HPV vaccine is just about ready to roll out; possibly by the end of June.

A U.S. Food and Drug Administration panel unanimously deemed the vaccine, Gardacil, safe and effective, paving the way for Merck to begin marketing and producing the life-saving product. Nearly 300,000 women die yearly from cervical cancer; cervical cancer can directly be traced to HPV.  Read More »

There is no timetable.  We don't know when the troops will come home.  The desert reaches over 100 degrees regularly.

No, not over in Iraq, but on the U.S.-Mexico border.

The AP reports that a Pentagon memo says the deployment of National Guard troops will "last at least two years with no clear end date."  So basically, they are putting the troops down on the border, no plan, no timetable, but just a very big, 6,000 person, camoflauged distraction from the real problem.  Read More »

The US has never had an official language. For centuries, there have been Spanish-speakers (Florida), French-speakers (Louisiana), English-speakers, and any number of different languages by Native Americans.

People up to now have recognized that this trend never went away -- indeed, it became more prevalent. When first-generation immigrants come from any country (Somalia, Poland, Mexico, China) they usually are not all that versed in English; part of the charm of certain neighborhoods is the chatter of a foreign language, making the neighborhood seem 'more authentic'.  Read More »

The United States has a long history of supporting dictators. From Batista in Cuba (supported by none other than FDR) to Montt in Guatemala (Reagan said that human rights groups gave Montt "a bum rap") to the Shah in Iran.  Read More »

In the New York Times, Adam Nagourney asked the question if it is really in the best interest of the Democrats to win the mid term elections.

I'll give you a second to read that first sentence again. Now just the last half.

Nagourney says

From this perspective, it wouldn't be the worst thing in the world politically to watch the Republicans struggle through the last two years of the Bush presidency. There's the prospect of continued conflict in Iraq, high gas prices, corruption investigations, Republican infighting and a gridlocked Congress. Democrats would have a better chance of winning the presidency in 2008, by this reasoning, and for the future they enhance their stature at a time when Republicans are faltering.

He's missing one thing that many people miss; even if it were in the best interest of the Democrats to lose (it isn't), it would not be in the best interest of the nation to have the Republicans control .  Read More »

I wrote a couple days back that Jason Leopold at Truthout reported that Karl Rove was indicted on charges of perjury. The report came Saturday, and the alleged indictment on Friday ... but if you open a newspaper, you won't see an article about it.

Why? Jason Leopold, in an e-mail exchange with Rob Kall of Opednews, tells us.

I am amazed that the blogosphere would lend credence to the statements of people who have consistently lied about Rove’s role in this case. This is a White House that denied Rove’s involvement in the leak. This is a White House that has lied and lied and lied. And yet the first question that people ask is “why would Rove’s spokesman lie?” Because they can, because they do, and because they have. This is an administration that has attacked and discredited their detractors. I am amazed that not a single reporter would actually do any real investigative work and get to the bottom of this story. Surely, their must be another intrepid reporter out there that has sources beyond a spokesman.

Let's assume for a second that the sources were lying. Will Leopold reveal their names? Will this be another subtle Rovinistic maneuver?  Read More »

I listened to President Bush's Oval Office Speech on NPR today while driving home from work (damn you rush-hour traffic!). Nothing was a real surprise; we all knew what to expect from President Bush in his speech. There wasn't really much purpose to the speech in a policy sense; it didn't seem like something that warranted a prime time speech.

The biggest deal, at least in the press, is the 6,000 National Guard troops that Bush is pledging to send to the borders. Our porders are oviously porous, and this just goes to show that President Bush has ignored the situation in his previous five years in office.  Read More »

Truthout.org has reported that Karl Rove was indicted Friday on charges of perjury.

Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald spent more than half a day Friday at the offices of Patton Boggs, the law firm representing Karl Rove.

During the course of that meeting, Fitzgerald served attorneys for former Deputy White House Chief of Staff Karl Rove with an indictment charging the embattled White House official with perjury and lying to investigators related to his role in the CIA leak case, and instructed one of the attorneys to tell Rove that he has 24 hours to get his affairs in order, high level sources with direct knowledge of the meeting said Saturday morning.

I've yet to see a mainstream news source confirm this, but I wouldn't be surprised if Truthout outscooped them all.  Read More »