The Bush regime doesn’t even have to pretend to care about appearances any more. Americans don’t seem to care.

From the LA Times:

Vice President Dick Cheney and Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia spent part of last week duck hunting together at a private camp in southern Louisiana just three weeks after the court agreed to take up the vice president’s appeal in lawsuits over his handling of the administration’s energy task force.

While Scalia and Cheney are avid hunters and longtime friends, several experts in legal ethics questioned the timing of their trip and said it raised doubts about Scalia’s ability to judge the case impartially.

But Scalia rejected that concern Friday, saying, “I do not think my impartiality could reasonably be questioned.”

Federal law says “any justice or judge shall disqualify himself in any proceeding in which his impartiality might be questioned.” For nearly three years, Cheney has been fighting demands that he reveal whether he met with energy industry officials, including Kenneth L. Lay when he was chairman of Enron, while he was formulating the president’s energy policy.

[via TalkLeft]

The latest from David Rees is now up.

Also, he’ll be doing a short presentation tonight. It will mark the public debut of the new comic, “Adventures of Confessions of Saint Augustine Bear.”

Cafe Barbes
376 9th Street
Park Slope, Brooklyn
(718) 965-9177
7:30 PM
$2.00

Howard Fineman wants to remind readers that the “Judeo-Christian” phrase used by politicians isn’t really very Judeo. This excerpt of an interview with Howard Dean is from Newsweek, not a religious publication. I’m, surprised he didn’t ask, “How do reconcile that with having a Jewish wife and children?”

…

Q. Do you have a deadline for removing U.S. troops from Iraq?

A. Absolutely not. I think that would be a big mistake. To remove troops prematurely, Al Qaeda—which was not in Iraq, but is now—will set up shop in Iraq and present an enormous national-security danger.

Q. Do you see Jesus Christ as the son of God and believe in him as the route to salvation and eternal life?

A. I certainly see him as the son of God. I think whether I’m saved or not is not gonna be up to me.

Q. Do you have a favorite Bible passage or book or theologian?

A. I like the Book of Job.

Q. [Laughs] Does it strike you more personally after this campaign?

A. I’m feeling a little more Job-like recently.

Note that last line. Newsweek/MSNBC chooses to use a pull-quote that says:

‘I’m Feeling Like Job’

—

UPDATED: I added a link to the interview, and added the question before the Jesus one to show that it seems like a non-sequitur to suddenly ask about his belief in Jesus.

Feel free to email the editors and Newsweek and ask them about the propriety of theological questions for presidential candidates.

A few juxtapositions, for your reading pleasure:

From the NY Times front page today (emphasis mine):

Administration officials say they are planning an extensive election-year initiative to promote marriage, especially among low-income couples, and they are weighing whether President Bush should promote the plan next week in his State of the Union address.

For months, administration officials have worked with conservative groups on the proposal, which would provide at least $1.5 billion for training to help couples develop interpersonal skills that sustain “healthy marriages.”

…

The proposal is the type of relatively inexpensive but politically potent initiative that appeals to White House officials at a time when they are squeezed by growing federal budget deficits.

…

Dr. Horn said that federal money for marriage promotion would be available only to heterosexual couples. As a federal official, he said, he is bound by a 1996 statute, the Defense of Marriage Act, which defined marriage for any program established by Congress. The law states, “The word `marriage’ means only a legal union between one man and one woman as husband and wife.”

But Dr. Horn said: “I don’t have any problem with the government providing support services to gay couples under other programs. If a gay couple had a child and they were poor, they might be eligible for food stamps or cash assistance.”

Via TalkLeft, some excerpts from testimony in Neil Bush’s divorce trial:

Bush: “I had sexual intercourse with perhaps three or four, I don’t remember the exact number, women, at different times. In Thailand once, I have a pretty clear recollection that there was one time in Thailand and in Hong Kong.”

Brown: “And you were married to Mrs. Bush?”

Bush: “Yes.”

Brown: “Is that where you caught the venereal diseases?”

Bush: “No.”

Brown: “Where did you catch those?”

Bush: “Diseases plural? I didn’t catch…”

Brown: “Well, I’m sorry. How … how many venereal diseases do you suffer from?”

Bush: “I’ve had one venereal disease.”

Brown: “Which was?”

Bush: “Herpes.”

Brown then interrogates Bush’s about his various sex partners:

“Did you pay them for that sex?”

Bush: “No, I did not.”

Brown: “Pick them up in a sushi house?”

Bush: “No. … My recollection is, where I can recall, they came to my room.”

Brown: “Do you know the name of that hotel? I may go to Thailand sometime.”

FY 2002 Federal spending for the National Endowment for the Arts: $95,835,000.