You'd better stop that or you'll go blind!

F.D.A. Gets Reports of Blindness Tied to Male Impotence Drugs - New York Times

You don't get the intersection af anold wives tale and a herd (Heh! I said "Herd") science story very often... From the above linked story:

The Food and Drug Administration said today that it had received reports of partial vision loss among 38 men taking Viagra, the impotence drug, and among four men taking Cialis, a newer competitor.

Whether the popular impotence drugs can actually cause blindness is unclear, but the Food and Drug Administration said it had suggested changes in the drugs' labeling as a precaution.

Pfizer Inc., the maker of Viagra, is in talks with the agency to list vision loss among the drug's side effects, while the makers of Cialis, Eli Lilly & Company and the Icos Corporation, have already added such a warning.

Yep! the warning labels may indeed include language that paraphrases to "If you keep it up you'll go blind!"


Heh! indeedy!

Star Wars Episode 2 - Death from above

Air Force Seeks Bush's Approval for Space Weapons Programs - New York Times

The Air Force, saying it must secure space to protect the nation from attack, is seeking President Bush's approval of a national-security directive that could move the United States closer to fielding offensive and defensive space weapons, according to White House and Air Force officials.

Well it looks like the most militaristic administration in the last 30 years has decided to make a claim on space as well. I can't say I'm totally surprised but I am deeply afraid of this development. The potentailly militarization of space will most probably lead to an arms race against the latest entry to the space race China. at a time when sino-american relations are at a very testy brink over the currency flap, a further ramping up of saber rattling could spell disaster.

This administration is using its hubris to do some remarkably murky things lately. Everything form breaking the rules of the Senate to remove the filibuster, to gutting the bankruptcy protections in favor of massive credit card companies. It can be seen as an attempt to grab total power and authority in small controlled moves. Take away the minority's ability to prevent the passage of laws they find unacceptable and you diminish the power of the people. Reduce the common mans ability to be protected from financial ruin in the event of temporary hardships, and you reduce his security at home and in his life. That insecurity drives him into the arms of the state. It makes the leaders that much more powerful.

All of this on conjunction with another piece I found here at First Draft (Great blog BTW!) has me even more concerned about the possible repercussions of the current power grab. Do I need to get some survivalist training in the near future? Well, I am holding off on that for the time being but I am only half kidding abou it.

All of this is to say that I have been getting very bad feelings about the current administration and their tireless reach of supreme power and control. Will they make a fatal mistake in the near future? In some ways I feel that they may not be able to avoid it, but I hope that they don't damage the entire republic in the process.

Holy SHIT! The earth is FLAT!!! FLAT!!!!!

CNN.com - Rice makes surprise visit to Iraq - May 15, 2005

Rice, making her first visit to Iraq as secretary of state, spoke to hundreds of U.S. troops and diplomats in Baghdad.

"I want you to keep focused on what you are doing here," Rice told the diplomats and troops who gathered in one of Saddam Hussein's former palaces. "This war came to us, not the other way around."

Oh. My. God. (Emphasis mine.)

How bout "Saddam came over to Washington DC and held us all at knifepoint! We had to do something!!!" or maybe "We had no choice! Saddam kept our inspectors out (ok maybe not) and had all of those Weapons of Mass Destruction (Ummm.... so not that either...) and was attacking all of his neighbors in the middle east (not soo much...) We had too!"

More likely "Myy boss has a dick about the size of a cocktail frank and he needed a way to feel manly. Come to think of it this makes ME feel kind of manly too!"

Give me a break!

Fuck these people.

And they blew the horns! And the walls fell!

Looks like the Office of Special Plans created on the sly by our own favorite Douglas Feith is getting a bit of late but not undue attention from the counterespionage team at the FBI. Naughty Naughty! You can't do that!

Newsday.com: Charged with passing top-secret info

WASHINGTON -- An analyst in a controversial Pentagon intelligence office was charged yesterday with passing top-secret information to two staff members of a pro-Israeli lobbying group here.

Charged was Larry Franklin, an Iran specialist who worked in the Office of Special Plans, established by Pentagon Undersecretary Douglas Feith in order to give Pentagon civilians an independent source of intelligence that could bolster the case for war with Iraq.

He was charged with passing highly classified information about potential attacks on U.S. forces in Iraq to two individuals identified by sources as staff members of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee in June 2003, shortly after the U.S. invasion of Iraq.

This looks pretty juicy for anyone who was figuring that the neocon propaganda machine was working for two masters all the time. I have a bet that there will be a bunch more to come. but don't expect there to be any prosecutions until sometime after 2008...

Heh! Indeed...