Sorry, but this can’t possibly be a good sign for the “internet economy”.

Lexington, Massachusetts police confiscated a bunch of marijuana plants today. According to a report on Boston’s NBC affiliate tonight, the police plan to put the plants on public display to “teach the community about the dangers of drugs.”

I’m sure after Lexington residents have seen - in all its gory, raw, uncensored ugliness - a pile of plants slowly dying behind a chain link fence, they’ll finally get the message.

Wow.

I’m glad I’m not the only one to find the Kate Moss story a non-story. A fashion model - doing coke? Oh my - stop the presses!

Sheesh. All this does is get Kate Moss on every front page during Fashion Week. And for a 30+ year old model whose career has slowed dramatically, that’s a lot of visibility.

Oh Lord, now we’ve really done it. What makes this story especially odd is that I dreamt about mice again last night.

Well, at least it’s not bubonic plague or something. Oh, wait, it is…

I really am stunned at the absolute tone deafness of the Bush administration. We know there are a lot of very smart people who work for the President. So, where are his political strategists?

In a bid to boost his image, they decided to send him down South again to empathize. Where did he go to shake hands and put his arms around “victims”? A Chevron refinery.

Mr. President, some advice from me:

1. Admit you screwed this up - and by “this”, I don’t just mean the new thing with Brownie, Katrina, the vacation, and such. By “this” I mean your perpetual cluelessness over the past six years, your cronyism, and your total disregard for any truly conservative ideals.

2. Appoint a strong, popular moderate Democrat to something really important and meaningful and with real power.

3. Speak to the media with more frequency and fewer scripts. I know it’s scary for you, but it’s scary for us when we see that frightened kid-in-his-first-school-play expression on your face every time you get in front of a camera and struggle to read through something. If you’re going to fumble over words, at least fumble over your own.

4. Act like a leader. Don’t ask your advisors if you can go to the bathroom, for example.

WASHINGTON, DC - September 14, 2005 - In light of several recent Acts of God against the US Homeland, the US intelligence community is exploring possible links between God and Al-Qaeda.

A high-ranking CIA source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said “First Katrina, now Ophelia, and now that new volcano rising in the Pacific Northwest; it’s just too much of a coincidence. We finally had to ask - is God really on our side, or could there be something else going on?”

Authorities have dispatched investigative teams to the Vatican, Tibet and Utah in an attempt to shed light on this disturbing possibility.

In the past, Al Qaeda representatives have claimed deep ties with God. Until now, however, US authorities had not taken these claims seriously.

Calls to God were not returned.

# # #

Check out this story - Congressman Jefferson allegedly requested a National Guard truck and personnel to bring him to his place for an hour so he could get his laptop. Then the truck got stuck, and the Coast Guard sent a chopper. He wouldn’t get in the chopper, twice. So the Guard sent a second truck. Wow.

Why do smart people:

- Say things like “ATM machine” and “PIN number”
- Throw cigarette butts out their car window
- Say that summer ends on Labor Day weekend
- Think the age of consent is 18
- Think federal responsibility outweighs that of the individual & local
- Not realize the corrosive effect of holding judicial nominees accountable to grandstanding politicians

The hallmarks of fascism are:

1) unrestrained government;
2) an absolute leader responsible to a single party;
3) a planned economy with nominal private ownership of the means of production;
4) bureaucracy and administrative “law”;
5) state control of the financial sector;
6) permanent economic manipulation via deficit spending;
7) militarism, and imperialism

- John T. Flynn’s enumeration of generic fascism, written in 1944 after he surveyed the interwar policies of Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany, in As We Go Marching.

For those of you who have not seen today’s shouting match between NBC’s David Gregory and White House press secretary Scott McLellan, find it.

Oh, and it was refreshing to see Dick Cheney show up down South to shake hands with a construction worker. I feel much better. But I don’t think the guy in Gulfport shouting “fuck yourself, Mr. Cheney. Fuck yourself.” shares my sense of relief.

I have never heard the Bush administration criticized so harshly from the right as in the last day or so.

And this little situation makes it quite serendipitous that we’re pulling several thousand Guard troops out of the theater to help in our own Gulf.

I met Bush Sr. and Barbara Bush once. I found them to be exactly as others who know them better have described them to me - gentle, sincere, friendly, good people. However, they are all known for being a bit tone-deaf and out of touch. President Bush stumbled his way through last weekend after Katrina - it was almost as painful to watch him play “make believe President” as it was to watch the carnage and the pain of the victims. [He was nearly staffless - most of his closest aides were on vacation in such places as Greece, where a staffer was married last week.]

Today, speaking to NPR’s “Marketplace”, Presidential Mom Barbara Bush gave us an indication of where little Georgie might have gotten his cluelessness:

“Almost everyone I’ve talked to says we’re going to move to Houston … what I’m hearing is they all want to stay in Texas. Everyone is so overwhelmed by the hospitality.

Source: Editor & Publisher

So see - Katrina was good for all those po’ folk !