Happy Hour Discurso

Today's opining on the public discourse.

I generally choose our discurso on the What the Fuck? factor: if an item makes me say, "What the fuck?!" I include it. This one from the AP certainly qualifies:

White House calendars are not generally considered public records, but reporters and watchdog groups have used Secret Service documents, which normally are public, to report on White House visitors.

Rather than having those documents released on a case-by-casis basis, the Bush administration wants them considered White House documents, which would keep them from public view for more than a decade.

Why, other than sheer contrariness, does Bush want those documents withheld? Well, for one, they would show how much influence religious conservatives have had on White House policy. I'm thinking it's probably a lot more pervasive than we realize.

And, of course, Bush & Cheney just like to keep secrets from Americans. It's their favorite fucking hobby, innit?

In other news, Kevin Drum from Political Animal went to see Expelled. Kevin, what did you think?

Answer: not very good. Stein's basic problem is that during the first half hour or so he keeps his film sounding fairly reasonable. Maybe ID proponents really are getting the shaft! But it's also deadly dull. After 30 minutes I was wondering how long he could possibly stretch this stuff out.

Then it picked up. Unfortunately for Stein and the IDers, it did so only by becoming increasingly unhinged. Stein spends the final half hour wandering around Dachau and telling us outright that his real motivation for attacking evolution isn't any real flaw in the theory, but his belief that Darwinism leads directly to Nazi-ism, eugenics, atheism, the breakdown of morals, and mass slaughter. Can't have that, so evolution needs to go too.

Nice. Read the full review: it's got a happy ending. And no, they didn't win Kevin's allegiance. Kevin is smart.

And finally, we've got a bit of what you might call a contradiction: McCain, the Earmark Avenger, took a ferry ride to highlight "forgotten Americans." He seems to have forgotten that earmarks are evil:

But McCain’s appearance at the ferry conflicts with his contention that he will abolish earmarks from the federal budget, considering that the Gee’s Bend ferry was funded by a federal earmark in the 2005 Transportation/Treasury Appropriations Act.

Whoops! Guess that's what happens when you give up your principles for politics.