Casual (read: lazy) Friday Blogging

What's in the news?

• Fourth quake in five days shakes California. Are these quakes harbingers to the Big One? They're telling us not to worry, but why is Donald Fagan heading back to Annandale?
• Is this the first case of "fragging" in Iraq? Or is this just the first one we've heard about? I thought they had a "don't ask, don't tell" policy about frags in the military.
  
• Snotty McClellen defends Cheney's comments about the Iraqi insurgency being in "its last throes." Well, not really. Answering a direct question with a direct answer is not his forte. "Next question, please." BTW, i think Cheney's "last throes" comment will become a reference point in the Iraq War timeline, much like W's "Mission Accomplished" speech in May of 2003. We'll be pointing to this comment in the future when US soldier deaths reach 3,000 and we'll say, "that's 1,300 since Dick Cheney said that the insurgency was in its "last throes.'"
  
• Cindy Sheenan, a name to remember as public dissent about the Iraq War continues to grow. Remember her from last week? She spoke again at Congressman Conyers' hearings on the Downing Street Memo on Thursday. She wants Bush to be account for her son's death and an unjust war (is this too much to ask?): "The leadership of this country rushed us into an illegal invasion of another sovereign country on prefabricated and cherry picked intelligence." Here's Mr. Conyers' account of his busy day. Please join 560,000 concerned citizens and 122 Members of Congress and sign his letter to Bush, if you haven't already.
• And finally...10 TV cliches that should be banned.

Word.

DTS update

New shorty up at DTS: "Please, Call Me Sal" Give it a read.
Other fictions by DTS here.
This is what i think Sal would look like, waiting for his return flight from a case in some tropical paradise. Found the pic just by Googling "Sal," it came up on first page. You can almost see his lazy eye.

Downing Street Memo(s!) Summary

Slate has a good summary of the memos and what they mean. Check it.

Chris Carpenter In Command, Cards Crush Canadian Competitors

A generous but consistent strike zone aided Chris Carpenter as he pitched his first career one-hitter over his former team. The former Toronto starter gave up one walk, one hit and K'd 10 on just 95 pithces to dispatch the Blue Jays. Very nice.

Carpenter (9-4) picked up the victory with his second complete-game shutout of the season (April 21) and 15th complete game of his career. He fanned 10 of the 28 batters he faced to increase his season strikeout total to 93 and career strikeout total to 857, through June 14. Carpenter's previous low was two hits allowed in a nine-inning performance (April 15, 1999). His previous low in a complete-game shutout was three hits (Sept. 9, 1997 and July 3, 1999)

The Cardinals offense delivered four homers including two by Canadian Larry Walker. Wait. Did you know he was Canadian? I thought he was from Colorado or something. Those crafty cannucks are sneaky sometimes, the way they quietly blend in with us Amerkins. I wonder who else is secretly Canadian, walking around amongst us regular people. That's kinda scary, when you think about it. They could be living next door to us right now! Or standing in line behind you at the grocery store peeping your products and taking notes as to what to buy so as to appear more like an everyday, fat, dumb Amerkin. Not that there's anything wrong with that. It's just that the more they act and look like us, the more they become a target for the terrists, so i'm just concerned for their safety. I'm sure most are here for a just a little while, working hard earning US dollars to mail back to their impoverished families in Canadia. They will prolly learn that it's not really safe for them down here and they will soon return to the frozen wasteland of hockey farms, beaver pelts, and Celine Dion monuments. Then we can finally stop worrying about who's Canadian.
But seriously, i like many Canadian musical exports: Neil Young, SNFU, the Weakerthans, Neko Case/New Pornographers, The Cash Brothers, all come to mind. But as for Nickelback, Celine, and Shania - they can go ahead and take off, eh! They are clearly Canadian and aren't fooling anyone.

Mainstream Media Catching up to Blogosphere?

We'll see, but this is a good start:
It's all about the memos. First, the so-called "Downing Street Memo" from July 2002, which summarized meetings in Washington that said intelligence was being "fixed atound the policy" massive military action in Iraq by the Bush Administration. This came out May 1, 2005, and received little attention in the US media.
Now, there are The British Briefing Papers, and NBC has blessed these with a "verified by NBC News" label. Hooray for NBC. Now they wait breathlessly for the Administration to discredit NBC News in general and Andrea Mitchell in particular. Snotty McClellen will employ the usual M.O. and attack the messenger and ignore the message. Stay tuned for that.

These memos(pdf links below)from as early as March of 2002 indicate:
Iraq had no WMD threat
BushCo. had given "little thought" to the post-war aftermath in Iraq
BushCo. knew that Al-Qaeda/Iraq links were weak
British officials knew that going to war at that time would be illegal

So when you hear W and his boys talk about war in Iraq as "the last option," it is clear they are lying.

1,700+ dead US Soldiers and counting.
Countless dead Iraqis - we don't know the number because "We Don't do body counts" - General Tommy Franks. Isn't that lovely?

More:
Washington Post Sunday June 12, 2005
Think Progress
The Raw Story
The Path of War timeline
Downing Street Memo rally announced for Thursday in DC
and of course After Downing Street

Mother of dead soldier vilifies Bush over war

From Raw Story and The Lexington Herald Leader
Cindy Sheehan of Gold Star Families for Peace let W have it:

"We're watching you very carefully and we're going to do everything in our power to have you impeached for misleading the American people," she said, quoting a letter she sent to the White House. "Beating a political stake in your black heart will be the fulfillment of my life ... "

Ouch. Read the whole story.

NBA Finals: Spurs vs. Pistons...OK, NOW i care

The NBA sucks. Some reasons i don't give a crap about it 97% of the time:

• The players are too good. i think they need to raise the rim 18 inches so no one but a super-athletic flyer can dunk. Dumping it in to the big man who uses his ass to knock over defenders so he can slam it home with little effort is boring. If said big man actually had to shoot every time, there would be more parity and the games would be more fun to watch.
• The players suck too much. On defense, that is. In what other game can you give up 124 points and still win? Answer: a shitty one. It's time to raise the bar on defensive expectations in the league. So what if a point guard averages 25 points a game if the players he's defending score 30 or more? That's a negative however you look at it, in my book. Everyone knows that an 18 point lead in the 3rd quarter is nothing in the NBA, cuz defense sucks and teams get complacent, so the next thing you know, the other team goes on a 15 point run and it's back to boring.
  
• Superstar Fatigue. i'm sick of the Lakers and anyone who has played for them lately. i'm sick of the refs babying the superstars and the top teams. i'm glad the Pistons won last year, now i'm sick of them. Next year, i'll be sick of whoever wins this year, and i'll post about how much i want someone else to win the championship. It seems the only thing i don't get sick of is parity.
  
• Is it me, or does the first 46 minutes of a game suck ass? The only part that is worth watching is the final two minutes. The previous three quarters of an hour is a mind-numbing waste of time. i might as well extrapolate that opinion to apply to the entire season as well.

So, with all that off my chest, i want to say that i am interested in the NBA, at least until Game 7 is over. This looks like an intriguing matchup, and i will watch most of the games on my "sports monitor" - that's the secondary, small TV set with the sound turned down next to the big TV set in the living rooms i frequent - providing they don't interfere with Cardinal games.
Even though they are "slight favorites," i hope the Spurs win. First, cuz they beat the only NBA team i remotely care about, the Mavericks, and if they win, then that means Dallas gets third place, right? Also, i get a kick out of watching Ginobili go nuts on both sides of the court, and Tim Duncan is a good man. But after that, it's back to business as usual where i'm hatin' the NBA. Until they raise the rim, that is. Then it will be awesome.

The "I" Word Editorials Are Mounting

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Excellent update on the case against Mr. Bush from consortiumnews.com:

The clues are falling into place, pointing to the incontrovertible judgment that George W. Bush willfully misled the United States into invading Iraq, in part, by eliminating the possibility of the peaceful solution that he pretended to want.

Read the whole article by Robert Parry.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Editorial from Bangordailynews.com:

Bush was determined to go to war, "Intelligence and facts are being fixed around the policy." "Fixed" means faked, manufactured, conjured, hyped - the product of whole cloth fabrication.

So we got aluminum tubes, mushroom clouds imported from Niger, biological weapons labs in weather trucks, fear and trembling, the phony ultimatums to Saddam Hussein to turn over the weapons he didn't have and thus couldn't. We got the call to arms, the stifling of dissent, the parade of retired generals strategizing on the "news" shows, with us or against us, flags in the lapel, a craven media afraid to look for a truth that might disturb their corporate owners who would profit from the war. Shock and Awe. Fallujah. Abu Ghraib.

It was all a lie. Many of us have said for a long time it was a lie. But here it is in black and white: Lies from a president who has taken a sacred trust to uphold the Constitution of the United States.

Tell me this isn't more serious than what Clinton did to get impeached.
Go ahead, i dare ya. It makes Bush's rhetoric on accountability and a culture of life sound more hollow and hypocritical than the first time he said it.

From Seattle Weekly:

The information needed to impeach George Bush for lying to Congress, the United Nations, and the American public about the most serious imaginable matter—the misuse of military force—is all out there. It's been reported, in foreign media, in the alternative press, in the margins. But it has not been championed by major media, and so it has not been taken to heart by either the American public or Congress.

Yes, it's all out there. Here's the "memo" itself. What are we to make of the US Media's apathy, indifference, ignorance - whatever it is that's keeping this story under the radar? I'm confounded.

From the Sun-Sentinel in Florida:

With all the evidence available, and the new information emerging regarding the lies, twisted truths and selective intelligence that brought us into an unprovoked and unnecessary war, it's time for the nation to hold responsible the man sitting where the buck stops at the White House. I find it untenable that we would almost impeach one president for engineering and condoning a break-in and impeach another for a sexual liaison, but not a man who started a deadly war based on lies, deceit and avarice.

Okay, now we're talking. Except for one thing: the buck does not stop at President GW Bush. He's made that abundantly clear. It's never his fault, the buck stops at any number of disposable pawns in his chain of command. It's the fault of some anonymous underlings, some unamed bureaucrats, and the grunts on the ground. Remember, he can't recall making any mistakes since he took office, so apparently, nothing is his fault. BTW, is this a sign of some sort of neurosis? And so far, the media and congress - those who should be taking him to task for his words and actions - refuse to hold him accountable.

More-->
Ralph Nader & Kevin Zeese
Former Nixon White House Counsel John Dean (this was from a TWO YEARS AGO!)
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/

What can you do? Fight the Power.
Sign MI Rep. John Conyers' letter to W. Over 89,000 concerned citizens have already done so. Write your Rep. with this handy online form.

Enjoy your weekend.

Thursday News Brief

Tom DeLay says, M-A-R-S! Mars, bitches!
House Majority Leader holds photo op, press briefing for pie-in-the-sky human exploration mission to the Angry Red Planet, hoping to distract Americans from his scandals here on Earth.
Here's my idea: Let's tell Tom that lobbyists are willing to pay for his ticket to Mars, and convince him that there will be golf when he gets there. We will conveniently forget to disclose to him that his ticket is one-way.

Fore!

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US Mainstream Media Ignores Evidence of BushCo.'s Lies Leading Up To Iraq War
This is important.
It's known as The Downing Street Memo:

The contents of the memo are shocking. The minutes detail how our government did not believe Iraq was a greater threat than other nations; how intelligence was "fixed" to sell the case for war to the American public; and how the Bush Administration’s public assurances of "war as a last resort" were at odds with their privately stated intentions.

This is a potential blockbuster scandal, capable of unseating this President, but coverage of this story in the American Mainstream Media has been scant at best. Where's the outrage? Where are the "Deep Throats" of today? Where are the intrepid reporters? Why didn't anyone in the press corps ask W when they had the chance on Tuesday? Has the White House bullied the press so much that they are reduced to being obsequious stenographers? What are they afraid of? Are their stories being spiked by editors afraid to piss off their big corporate owners and advertisers?
>More:
Ralph Nader and Kevin Zeese on the "I Word"
Michigan Rep. John Conyers writes a letter to W demanding explanation, 59,000 sign it.
What can you do?
Awaken the Mainstream Media

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Do you feel a draft?

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The Bush Administration will soon be spraying crowds with this stuff during public appearances. You laugh now, but soon you'll be swooning over little W and Big Dick.

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Friday God Blogging

The BushCo. holy war rolls on.
W: "This crusade, this war on terrorism is gonna take a while."
Yep. Especially when the Department of Defense does stupid stuff like approving this picture of a marine tank in Iraq:

This photo was on the DoD website for 5 days with this caption: Haditha Dam, Al Anbar, Iraq - The 'New Testament' a tank with 4th Tank Co., 1st Tank battalion attached to 3/25 prepares to lead the way during a recent mission. Photo by: Cpl. Ken Melton (date photo was taken 05/05/2005)
Below the caption it read, "This image cleared for release" It has since been scrubbed from the Marine Corps site (Thanks to AmericaBlog) so now when you follow the original link,
you get a "general error" message. That looks more like a "specific error" in judgement, if you ask me. Or maybe a "major f(_)ck up?" At least we can all take comfort that the Defense Department is finally being honest about their mission.

Uh, hold up. Here's another example of the military's "honesty":
During his Thursday press conference Pentagon spokesman Lawrence DiRita said this regarding a US servicemember who was removed for "mishandling the Quran": "And again, it involves, again, an inadvertent mishandling, but one that was deemed sufficiently -- again, with the caution that the commanders are trying to establish, that it's inadvertent, but move him to another set of duties."
But on May 17, Mr. DiRita said this: “When a specific, credible allegation of this nature were to be received, we would take it quite seriously,” he said. “But we’ve not seen specific, credible allegations.” Well OK then.
Fast forward to May 20 when DiRita said, "We just have found no indication that as a matter of interrogation policy, the Quran was used."

Joint Task Force - Guantanamo Commander Brig. Gen. Jay W. Hood said Thursday, "First off,I'd like you to know that we have found no credible evidence that a member of the Joint Task Force at Guantanamo Bay ever flushed a Quran down the toilet. We did identify 13 incidents of alleged mishandling of the Quran by Joint Task Force Personnel."
I have some questions. Do they even have flushable toilets at GITMO? And if they do, is it possible to flush a book the size of the Quran down a toilet? I'm serious. Help.
Also note that during the press conference, they never specified what "alleged mishandling" means.
See The Raw Story post for more.


Incidentally, if you rearrange the letters in Lawrence DiRita's name you get liar enticed war or liar created win. No, i'm not clever enough to figure that out all by myself. I got some help here.

God in brief...

A Bible text found in an ancient Egyptian garbage dump indicates the Number of the Beast is 616, not 666.

Apparently, doomsday cults, apocalypse authors and countless metal bands have been dialing the wrong number.
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Microsoft fires Right Wing Religious Radical Ralph Reed.

From Seattle Weekly:

When it was recently revealed that Microsoft had employed religious conservative Ralph Reed as a political consultant, it was logical to wonder if his $20,000 monthly retainer was somehow related to the company's temporary refusal to support a gay-rights bill in Olympia, which failed. Maybe the fiercely antigay crusader with the choirboy looks would be there to guide Bill Gates through a nationwide boycott of software products, as threatened by Eastside minister Ken Hutcherson.

So you may now lift your ban on MicroSoft products. Put your ancient typewriter back in the closet. You may, however, continue your ban on ex-football-playing megachurch ministering spritual bomb dropping assholes. Thank you.
*****************************************************

Christian Group drops Disney boycott The Religious Radicals at the American Family Association have called for an end to their 9-year boycott of the Mouse. Now that Disney has severed ties with such heathens as Harvey Weinstein and Micheal Eisner, and will soon release CS Lewis' The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, they say it is now permissable for its members to go to Disneyland and see the Sights. Hooray for tolerance!
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God's hand-picked Leader of the Free World misled the American people.

art by: Loisif
From Raw Story: Boston constitutional lawyer seeks Resolution of Inquiry on Iraq

The recent release of the Downing Street Memo provides new and compelling evidence that the President of the United States has been actively engaged in a conspiracy to deceive and mislead the United States Congress and the American people about the basis for going to war against Iraq.

High Crimes and Misdemeanors in the White House? Not Our Dear Leader. I'm sure whatever he did, it's not half as bad as getting a beejay.

Join me next tweak for Friday God Blogging, and enjoy the weekend.

Up is Down, Black is White, Wrong is Right.

I am so confused.

Part I:
Afghan President Hamid Karzai said of the May 12 anti-US riots that left at least 17 people dead, "Those demonstrations were, in reality, not related to the Newsweek story."
White House Spokesperson Scott McClellen denied on Monday that he ever made the link between the Newsweek article and the deaths of the 17 Afghanis. Let's go to the transcripts, shall we?
From May 16: MR. McCLELLAN: I mean, it's -- this report has had serious consequences. It has caused damage to the image of the United States abroad. It has -- people have lost their lives.
He didn't say that.
From May 17: MR. McCLELLAN: This report, which Newsweek has now retracted and said was wrong, has had serious consequences. People did lose their lives.
He didn't say that, either.
I know that it's Scotty's job to spin everything in a positive way for the Administration, and he does pretty well at repeating talking points and giving long, non-answers to simple questions, but this is rediculous.
From Monday, May 23:

Q: One other question. Karzai was quite definite in saying that he didn't believe that the violence in Afghanistan was directly tied to the Newsweek article about Koran desecration. Yet, from this podium, you have made that link. So-
MR. McCLELLAN: Actually, I don't think you're actually characterizing what was said accurately.
Q: By whom?
MR. McCLELLAN: As I said last week, and as President Karzai said today, and as General Myers had said previously, the protest may well have been pre-staged. The discredited report was damaging. It was used to incite violence. But those who espouse an ideology of hatred and oppression and murder don't need an excuse to incite violence. But the reports from the region showed how this story was used to incite violence.
Q: But Karzai seemed to think that that wasn't what led to the violence, that it was-
MR. McCLELLAN: That's right, he actually -- he talked about -- President Karzai spoke about how the demonstrations were aimed at undercutting the progress being made toward democracy in Afghanistan, and the progress on elections. They have elections coming up soon. And I spoke about that, as well, last week.
Q: So could it be said that the Newsweek article played a role, but was not --
MR. McCLELLAN: John, I think we've made our views known when it comes to the discredited report. There are some that want to continue to defend what is a discredited report that has been disavowed by Newsweek, and that's their business. We're perfectly willing to trust the American people to make their own judgment about it.
Q: Who's doing that, exactly?
MR. McCLELLAN: I'm sorry?
Q: Who wants to defend it?
MR. McCLELLAN: Well, you can see in the media coverage, there are some that want to continue to do that.

Yeah, see? He never said, "I never said that." He said, "I don't think you're actually characterizing what was said accurately," and remained ambiguous about who said "what was said." This leaves us wondering, was the reporter asking about Scotty's quote or President Karzai's? In his next sentence he paraphrases himself, Karzai, and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Myers as if they all were saying the same thing, when in fact Karzai and Gen. Myers contradicted what he said on May 16 & 17. Very clever. These press briefings are contentious at times, and Scotty gets a little testy when reporters ask him to tell the truth. I wish i could see them on the TV, but i don't know if they air them all. I wish i had C-Span wired to my office so i can watch all the action. I do, however eagerly anticipate the release of the transcripts, and read them thouroughly, playing out the drama on the TV in my head.

Part II:

Sunscreen is not necessary...
Unless it helps you escape an attacker.

Part III:

More casualties in Iraq means we are winning!
From the White House, May 23:

Naive Reporter: And if I may ask you, Mr. President, as you know, the casualties of Iraq is again high today -- 50 more people dying. Do you think that insurgence is getting harder now to defeat militarily? Thank you.

PRESIDENT BUSH: No, I don't think so. I think they're being defeated. And that's why they continue to fight. The worst thing for them is to see democracy. The President [Karzai] can speak to that firsthand. The worst problem that an ideologue that uses terror to try to get their way is to see a free society emerge. And I'm confident we're making great progress in Iraq.

Oh, how reassuring! And here i was thinking things weren't going so well. Silly me.

Album of the Week: Healthy White Baby

Well, it looks like someone's been up to the devil's business. Danny Black, formerly of The Blacks, has teamed up with Laurie Stirratt, formerly of Blue Mountain, and made a Healthy White Baby. First off, The Blacks released two of my top 100 albums of all times: Dolly Horrorshow in 1998 and Just Like Home in 2000, and Blue Mountain's Dog Days also occupies a slot on my all-time greats list, so i knew i would be down with this holy hook-up. Secondly, anyone who names their band after a line in a Cohen Brothers movie kicks ass anyway.

Glen: Say that reminds me, how'd you get that kid so darn fast? Me and Dot went in to adopt on account a' somethin' went wrong with my semen, and they said we had to wait five years for a healthy white baby. I said, "Healthy white baby? Five years? What else you got?" Said they got two Koreans and a negra born with his heart on the outside. It's a crazy world.
H.I.: Someone oughta sell tickets.
Glen: Sure, I'd buy one.

I ordered the album and put it in my car stereo yesterday to the sounds of this. Yeah, that's what i'm talkin' about. More samples here. Now, go out and fetch you one right quick.

Today's the day!...It's about freakin' time.

One of my favorite TV shows of all times, NewsRadio is now available on the DVD! And like i said, it's about time. I think I still have a bunch of episodes on tape somewhere, but who wants to dig through all that crap under my bed only to find a dusty, warped, moisture-&-heat-damaged old VHS tape that prolly has episodes interrupted by football games and porn anyway? Not me. Well, surprise-o-porn is funny sometimes, but not when it messes up an episode of NewsRadio. That is why i live in the 21st Century, where all of our favorite TV shows from back in the day are available to us on the DVD and can be shipped to our mailbox in a coupla days. Yes, that is why i live in this century.
My favorite NewsRadio episode has to be Episode 57, Super Karate Monkey Death Car. That's the one where we learn that Lisa Miller (freakin' hot already!) has a criminal past (making her freakin' hotter still, in my book), Jimmy James reads his biographical book that has been translated from English to Japanese, back to English (Stephen Root is always good). Lauren Graham guests as the efficiency expert (second hottest woman on the show!), and some other stuff happens. I've only seen that episode a coupla times - maybe that's why i like it. Or maybe it's because i like saying, "super karate monkey death car" and "macho business donkey wrestler." Over to you, Bill.

"Gazziza diznoofus, it's Bill McNeal saying get with the crezappy taste of Rocketfuel Malt Liquor... Rocketfuel's got tha upstate prison flavor that keeps you ugly all night long. So when you wanna get sick, remember, nothing makes yo' feet stank like Rocketfuel Malt Liquor... DAMN! It's crezappy!!!"

I know what i'm doing this weekend - chill with my NewsRadio homies. Damn!!

Tighty Whitey Photos Spark Protests

photo via timesonline.co.uk
Iraq - Protests erupted across Iraq today, sparked by the publication of candid photos of the former dictator laundering his pants while wearing only his underwear. The photos were published Friday May 20, 2005 by the British tabloid The Sun and in the U.S. by The New York Post. Demonstrators took to the streets in Iraq carrying signs and chanting in support of their former leader. "Down with America, up with pants!" and "Ho ho, hey hey! Give Saddam a robe today!" shouted the protesters in unison.
Saddam's defense lawyer said that the photos violate his human rights, but many protesters had other concerns. Collections were being taken up for the purchase of a washing machine and spare clothing for the deposed dictator to use while in custody awaitng trial. "What we want to know is, why does he do his own laundry? Why doesn't he have more pants? Where is his harem? That is why we are here," said protester Mohammed al-Naseri before climbing on top of a nearby car with his guitar to lead the crowd in singing Neil Young's A Man Needs A Maid.
White House spokesperson Scott McClellen immediately condemned the publication of the photos. "This incident is under investigation. These photos will have lasting damage to our image abroad, and we expect a retraction from the papers that published the photos immediately. We would also encourage The Sun and The New York Post to publish photos that reflect American values and how well we are treating Saddam Hussein." Pressing for specifics, a reporter in the press corps asked, "Who made you editor of The Sun and The Post? What are you asking them to do?" To which Scotty replied, "It is incumbent on them to do their part to repair the damage," he said.
"What, like maybe show Condi Rice delivering flowers or a fruit basket to Mr. hussein in his cell?" the reporter asked.
"We've made our views known," said the Press Secretary.
"Or maybe a new pair of pants?" asked another pool reporter.
Scotty replied, "I'll look into that," as he ended the press briefing.
Stay tuned...

POTUS quiz # 1: What is the President doing?

Is he...
A. providing a DNA sample?
B. trying to read his monogram?
C. wiping his face after milking a male horse?
D. huffing gas?
E. other (post a comment)