From the White House press briefing:

Q Ari, many estimates we've seen on the war's cost in tens of billions, up over $100 billion.  Can you explain the wisdom of continuing to pursue hundreds of billions in tax cuts when you have this large potential liability out there that could increase the budget deficit?  And didn't Lyndon Johnson get in trouble for the same sort of thinking during Vietnam, in wanting to maintain his fiscal program while funding the Vietnam War?

MR. FLEISCHER: Whether or not the President decides to authorize the use of force, it is vital for out country that the economy grow.  And the President believes one of the best ways to help the economy grow is to provide the tax relief that can give a boost to the economy and create jobs for the American people.  Whether or not the President authorizes the use of force, the American people deserve to have jobs.  And whether or not the President authorizes a use of force, it still is important to get prescription drugs to our nation's seniors and to strengthen the Medicare program.

I'm certain you would not suggest that if we go to war, seniors somehow don't deserve prescription drugs.  There are still a series of initiatives that are important, and the fundamental focus of the President will be on growth policies can help people get jobs and get the economy growing stronger.

Pardon my language, but WHAT THE FUCK?  The reporter asks about tax cuts, and Ari accuses him of saying that seniors don't deserve prescription drugs?  People call Fleischer a master of spin, but this is just clunky.  Can anyone possibly fall for this?  More to the point, realize that this is apparently the best the administration can do, the best rationale they can come up with to justify their policies: ignore the question, and make it into an accusation of bigotry.

Damn, damn, damn.  For the past year or so I've been priding myself on reading Metafilter as a source of balanced, reasoned political discussion.  Then this thread came up, discussing the Political Compass that mcgees.org discussed last June.  If you remember, here was my score:

             

Authoritarian
Left		Right
Libertarian

People posted their scores in the discussion, and someone bothered to chart the distribution of scores:

Everyone's like me!  I'm about two and a half squares due south of average (the blue square)!  Damn, damn, damn.  The other day I was quoting two things from the board to David (my brother).  "Damn, you guys are a bunch of arrogant assholes," he said.  Au contraire!  A bunch of arrogant, Left-Libertarian assholes.

I also learned a great new word from the discussion, enthymeme, that I probably should have known already.

Do you remember making paper snowflakes when you were a child?  Now you can do so with a Java applet.

Iraqi Explorer: These Weapons of Mass Destruction cannot be displayed

"Better that ten guilty persons escape than that one innocent suffer," says English jurist William Blackstone.  The ratio 10:1 has become known as the "Blackstone ratio."  Lawyers "are indoctrinated" with it "early in law school."  "Schoolboys are taught" it.  In the fantasies of legal academics, jurors think about Blackstone routinely.

The essay "n Guilty Men", published in the University of Pennsylvania Law Review, is one of the most hilarious things I have ever read.  Rarely have I seen a better executed example of bone-dry humor.