One for the road

Robert says:

I suggest a drinking game (a'la the Bob Newhart version) wherein everyone has to down a shot of some liquor or other everytime Bushie says any of the following phrases:

• "September the 11th"
• "We have to fight them there so we don't have to fight them here"
• "War on Terra"
• "Resoloot"
• "Unwavering"
• "Vigilant"
  

The apartment owners better be prepared for overnight guests.

Let's not forget "Stay the course."
A new study by Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz and Harvard budget expert Linda Bilmes have calculated that the war is likely to cost the United States a minimum of nearly one trillion dollars and potentially over $2 trillion. The economists take into account lifetime disability and health care for the over 16,000 injured and "then goes on to analyze the costs to the economy, including the economic value of lives lost and the impact of factors such as higher oil prices that can be partly attributed to the conflict in Iraq."

Said Stiglitz, "Shortly before the war, when Administration economist Larry Lindsey suggested that the costs might range between $100 and $200 billion, Administration spokesmen quickly distanced themselves from those numbers. But in retrospect, it appears that Lindsey’s numbers represented a gross underestimate of the actual costs."

Viva Hugo Citgo

Chicago is refusing Venezuelan discounted oil to low-income neighborhoods...
The Chicago Transit Authority is refusing an opportunity to alleviate commuting costs for hundreds of thousands in the Windy City's low-income neighborhoods. Instead of accepting deeply discounted fuel from the Venezuela-owned CITGO Petroleum Corporation, the city is instead raising fares to solve budget shortfalls.

Jessica Pupovac reports additional info: Chicago Turns Down Discounted Venezuelan Oil

Naughty artists in Austria

Eine Sex-Szene in Staatschefmasken, eine Frau mit EU-Slip, ein Aufruf zum Terror-Voten, EU-Galgen: Sind die Bilder der Kunstaktion "25Peaces" zu Europa gute Werbung für die EU? EU-Kampagne schlägt Wellen.

In case you don't listen to the BBC or missed hearing about this "scandal" elsewhere, Austria has experienced artshock at the hands of euroPART, an independent artists' group. Very independent indeed with a million euros grant, they embarrassed the government by covering Vienna with thought-provoking posters just days before Austria assumed the EU's rotating presidency on Sunday.

Three of the 150 works by over 70 artists from all 25 EU countries were deemed porn and have been removed, two for showing nude models wearing masks of President George W. Bush, the Queen and French President Jacques Chirac and the other a pelvic shot of a woman in a suggestive spread who wears nothing but EU-blue panties emblazoned with the stars symbol of the 25-country European Union.

"Not a single poster portrays Europe in a good light," Karl Doutlik, the head of the European Commission representation in Austria, was quoted as saying by the Kurier.

"Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys," says P.J. O'Rourke.

"Giving money and power to artists is like giving water baloons to teenage boys in the closed balcony section of a movie theater," says me.