This is why I didn't report on those protests against Iran's supposed torture and murder of gays

Correction: I earlier wrote that the story of Zach, the kid who was forced into the ex-gay camp, was not true. Zach's story is true - I accidentally mixed that story up with the story of the kid who claimed he was expelled for making a gay movie in high school - that last story is the one that wasn't totally true.

Because it ain't necessarily true. (This article is written by the director of Human Rights Watch's Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Rights Project.) You just can't jump on things because they scare and infuriate you IF TRUE. You need to establish some level of certainty before you go off and do the public relations equivalent of invading another country searching for Murder of Mass Homosexuals. As we found out last year with that supposed kid being kicked out of school for making the 'gay movie,' it was a great story, but just not true. Yes he made the movie, but he was never expelled. Read More......

Open Thread

Clearly, we have a lot to discuss....so have at it. Read More......

Top 12 Dems in Congress to Bush: start Iraq withdrawal by end of year

Iraq is a nightmare. And, a unified, rational approach for withdrawing troops from Iraq by the Democrats (which is supported by the American people) is a political nightmare for Bush and the GOP:

Twelve Democratic leaders of the House and Senate have urged President Bush in a strongly worded letter to begin withdrawing the 130,000 U.S. troops from Iraq by year's end, a sign that Democrats may be uniting on a key election-year issue that has divided the party.

"U.S. troops and taxpayers continue to pay a high price as your Administration searches for a policy" in Iraq, said the letter, signed by Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (Nev.), House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (Calif.), and 10 other party leaders.

Americans know that Bush doesn't have a plan for Iraq. The GOP was hoping that the Democrats wouldn't offer a plan either. Looks like they were wrong.

Quick update....can't overlook Kenny weighing in for the Repubs:

Republican National Committee chairman Ken Mehlman said in a statement early this evening that the Democrats' withdrawal strategy will "embolden the enemy, encourage more terrorism, and make America less secure."

Um, Ken, Bush has already emboldened the enemy, encouraged more terrorism and made America less secure. Mission Accomplished. Read More......

Iraq gunmen attack Iraqi-American Chamber of Commerce, take 26 hostage

Is this really worth dying for? Read More......

Arianna calls on Hollywood to stand up to Mel Gibson's atrocious Jew-hatred

Arianna nails it. From HuffPost:

Gibson's no-longer-deniable brand of bigotry has led to the extermination of millions -- and continues to fuel much of the strife and suffering in the world today. Which is why Hollywood cannot sit this one out and wait for the reviews to come in....

Bob Iger at Disney needs to pull the plug on two Gibson projects that are in the works. The company is slated to distribute Gibson's latest directorial project, Apocalypto, opening on December 8. They should refuse to do so. And ABC, which is owned by Disney, should, without delay, scrap its head-scratching plan to develop a miniseries about the Holocaust with Gibson's company (yep, you read that right).

Question for ABC: Do you really need to see a script to know that the idea of having a Holocaust-set miniseries produced by a guy who thinks "the Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world" is a god-awful one?

....For starters, the town's power players need to step up and publicly condemn Gibson's vile comments (in effect, saying in public what they are already saying in private conversations I and many others have had). I mean, it shouldn't be so hard to publicly denounce someone -- even an Oscar-winner -- for being a raging anti-Semite.

But that's not happening. From this morning's Los Angeles Times:

Although many of the town's senior executives are Jewish and Hollywood has a long history of supporting Israel and Jewish causes, there was no widespread public condemnation of Gibson's comments over the weekend. Although some high-level executives privately expressed dismay at the statements attributed to Gibson after his arrest, none of those contacted would speak on the record.

Talk about lacking the courage of their convictions. Which makes Ari Emanuel's no-holds-barred post all the more praise-worthy. But is Ari the only high-profile figure willing to publicly draw a line in the Malibu sand? How disgusting and disappointing is that?

PS Remember, he's a raging homophobe too:

Heartthrob actor Mel Gibson, asked by one of Spain's leading magazines what he thinks of homosexuals, launched into a tirade against gay men.

"They take it up the ass," Gibson told El Pais as he got out of his chair, bent over and pointed to his butt. "This is only for taking a shit," he said.

Reminded by the interviewer, Koro Castellano, that he worked with gays while studying at the School of Dramatic Arts, Gibson added: "They were good people, kind, I like them. But their thing is not my thing."

Castellano said, "But you were obsessed with the thought that if you were an actor, people would confuse you with one of them."

"Yes," Gibson admitted, "but I did it. I became an actor despite that. But with this look, who's going to think I'm gay? It would be hard to take me for someone like that.

"Do I sound like a homosexual?" he asked. "Do I talk like them? Do I move like them?

Read More......

Bush to kill successful suicide prevention line

And why? Because he wants to recreate it WITHIN the federal government so they can get the list of names of every American who calls. How's that for creepy? And guess what that will do? It will stop people, especially kids, from calling the suicide prevention line, so many of them will kill themselves.

Is this what you Republicans voted for? Read More......

Appeals Court hears DeLay's ballot status case

Reports from Texas seem to indicate that the Court isn't inclined to rule in DeLay's favor:

A federal appeals panel indicated today that the ability of Republicans to replace former U.S. Rep. Tom Delay on the ballot rests on whether there was "conclusive" evidence that he had moved to Virginia.

The three-judge panel of the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals did not indicate when it would rule. But questions from the panel seemed to favor the Democrats' position that Republican officials could not declare DeLay ineligible for office based on residency prior to election day.

Of course, nothing matters until they issue their decision, but it doesn't look good for the GOP. Basically, the only evidence that the Court has that DeLay has moved is DeLay saying he's moved. That means taking DeLay's word. And, what good is Tom DeLay's word these days? The Court clearly wants more evidence that that.

If the Appeals Court panel, which includes the notorious Edith Clement, rules against DeLay, he'll stay on the ballot. DeLay is still running for Congress as a Republican...and it seems more likely that won't change. The GOP is running out of tricks. So, we still do have Tom DeLay to kick around. Read More......

The more things change . . .

Ever since I was a kid, I've always been interested in the "why" of stories rather than just the "what." It's hard to understand any event or process without knowledge of how it came about, and the why is often what makes things interesting.

Sometimes, if you pay attention, you can see the causes of events before they even happen. For instance, the continued failure to appropriately reform the intelligence community portends continued failures of the community itself. There are both structural and analytical problems with U.S. intelligence, but many of them are eminently fixable with the right leadership . . . which we so sorely lack. Most of the issues are the same ones that we all found out about nearly five years ago, after the most massive intelligence failure in the history of our nation.

The report also criticized continued lack of communication between spy agencies and a cumbersome bureaucracy that governed security clearances. Noting that information sharing within the community is one of the most critical tenets of intelligence reform, it stated that progress on that front was limited to understanding the task at hand.

So progress in sharing within the IC is limited to . . . understanding the task at hand? WHAT?? I mean, I'm happy that all elements of the IC now recognize the common task of, y'know, protecting the country, but maybe communicating better on the actual issues and information might further that common goal.

There's also this fun little nugget, which is the "why" of future articles about how the FBI has become the U.S. version of MI-5. I'm not totally opposed to the idea of a domestic spy agency, but isn't it at least worth a public debate about whether we want to turn our federal police force into an intelligence unit?

The changes at the Federal Bureau of Investigation were also noted in the House report, which concluded that the transformation of the F.B.I. to an intelligence agency with law enforcement power is starting to take root.

These kinds of things happen just beneath the surface of public consciousness, and then everybody is shocked when the detrimental effects are felt down the road. Read More......

All politics is local: Chapter 8,346

Israeli leadership thinks it has to react strongly to provocations to show it's still tough even though it withdrew from Gaza, lest Netanyahu convince the country that only Likud can keep Israel safe. Hezbollah knows that if it can provoke widespread violence, anti-Israeli sentiment will turn into pro-Hezbollah political support. "Moderate" Arab governments, despite their fear of their own internal extremist groups, can't ignore overwhelming public sentiment against Israel and the U.S., which the governments themselves help stoke to take the focus off their own failings, so they join their populations in denouncing Israel. Meanwhile, the realities of war (angry populations, fear of losing, and lots and lots of pictures of corpses) mean that positions get increasingly hardened.

The Bush administration pursues despicable and heartless ideology like "constructive chaos" and "birth pangs of a new Middle East" because that Middle East policy is one of the few ways to shore up support from both the religious right and neoconservatives. And in Iraq, where we're actually adding troops despite all those supposed plans to reduce forces in the fall, the Shia population is furious at Israel, the U.S., and its Iraqi leadership it sees as too acquiescent to both of the former.

Cue denunciation of Israel and the U.S. by Iraqi leadership, both political and religious, in an effort to retain popularity with the population and not be outflanked by the most radical voices (Sadr et al). As I've said before, if the Shia expand their violence from anti-Sunni to anti-Coalition, the U.S. position in Iraq will worsen considerably. And of course, all of this is intertwined, the elements continuously feeding off each other. Read More......

Heat wave in America, heat wave in Europe, but don't tell Bush and the Republicans that this is global warming

The midwest.

And Europe.

But seriously, trust the Republicans - they say it's nothing. Just like they say that condoms don't work, that the earth is really 6,000 years old, and that dinosaurs lived alongside modern men. Oh yeah, they also told us that we'd be greeted like liberators in Iraq and that the war would be over in a matter of weeks, was it?

Note from Joe: Washington is under an "excessive heat watch." I've never heard of such a thing before. Neither has John. Read More......

Since Disney/ABC has Jew-hater Mel Gibson directing a mini-series about the Holocaust, I was wondering what other mini-series they might consider...

Disney/ABC present...

Black Like Me, by David Duke.

The Harvey Milk Story, by Jesse Helms.

The American Presidents, by Squeekey Fromme.

A Brief History of Time, by George W. Bush.

The Laramie Project, by the Rev. Fred Phelps.

I'm Just a Bill, by Joe McCarthy.

The Wonderful Field of Nursing, by Richard Speck.

Kids Say the Darndest Things, by John Wayne Gacy

And of course...

The Naked Chef, by Jeffrey Dahmer.

Yours? Read More......

Iraqi Interior Ministry may be replaced because things are so bad

Everything is falling apart in Iraq. Bush would call this an opportunity. Read More......

The war in Iraq really is still happening -- and Americans are really still dying

Frank Rich has a brilliant column today about how the US news media is basically ignoring the war in Iraq:

CNN will surely remind us today that it is Day 19 of the Israel-Hezbollah war — now branded as Crisis in the Middle East — but you won’t catch anyone saying it’s Day 1,229 of the war in Iraq. On the Big Three networks’ evening newscasts, the time devoted to Iraq has fallen 60 percent between 2003 and this spring, as clocked by the television monitor, the Tyndall Report. On Thursday, Brian Williams of NBC read aloud a “shame on you” e-mail complaint from the parents of two military sons anguished that his broadcast had so little news about the war.

This is happening even as the casualties in Iraq, averaging more than 100 a day, easily surpass those in Israel and Lebanon combined. When Nouri al-Maliki, the latest Iraqi prime minister, visited Washington last week to address Congress, he too got short TV shrift — a mere five sentences about the speech on ABC’s “World News.” The networks know a rerun when they see it. Only 22 months earlier, one of Mr. Maliki’s short-lived predecessors, Ayad Allawi, had come to town during the 2004 campaign to give a similarly empty Congressional address laced with White House-scripted talking points about the war’s progress. Propaganda stunts, unlike “Law & Order” episodes, don’t hold up on a second viewing.

The steady falloff in Iraq coverage isn’t happenstance. It’s a barometer of the scope of the tragedy. For reporters, the already apocalyptic security situation in Baghdad keeps getting worse, simply making the war more difficult to cover than ever. The audience has its own phobia: Iraq is a bummer. “It is depressing to pay attention to this war on terror,” said Fox News’s Bill O’Reilly on July 18. “I mean, it’s summertime.” Americans don’t like to lose, whatever the season. They know defeat when they see it, no matter how many new plans for victory are trotted out to obscure that reality..

He's right, of course. And even though Americans aren't paying attention to the war in Iraq, those American soldiers everyone talks about supporting are still dying in Iraq:

The Marines, from Regimental Combat Team 7, died Saturday in Anbar province, the heavily Sunni Arab region west of Baghdad that includes such flashpoints as Ramadi and Haditha, a U.S. statement said without further details.

So far this month, 44 U.S. service members have died in Iraq -- including 10 in Anbar province during the past week. That underscores the threat to U.S. troops from Sunni insurgents, despite the attention paid to recent sectarian violence between Sunni and Shiite Muslims in Baghdad.

Iraq is a real bummer for those soldiers and their families. Read More......

Round up of the morning papers

• At least 23 killed in ambush near Baghdad, Wash Post.
• More corruption from GOP House Appropriations chair, Jerry Lewis, Wash Post.
• Millions of American men are turning down jobs that they think are beneath them. Give me a break, NYT.
• GOP Governor Mitt Romney talks about "tar babies." Romney/Gibson '08? Boston Globe.
• Rave reviews for Dixie Chicks concert tour, Boston Globe.
• Baghdad gunmen kidnap 25 people. BBC.
• Karl Rove talks about the "corrosive role" journalists play in politics, then screams "psyche!" NYT.
  
• Disney and ABC plan to go ahead and let Mel Gibson make a TV miniseries about the Holocaust. Working title: "The fucking Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world." LA Times.

Read More......

Let's start the morning right

The view from my friend Joe's place last night. Click the picture to see it large. Read More......

Open thread

Checking the morning papers nows Read More......

Bush's delusions about the Mideast further undermining US credibility

Contrary to most of the rest of the world, the White House has been saying that the latest Mideast war is really an opportunity:

"This moment of conflict in the Middle East is painful and tragic," Bush said in his radio address Saturday. "Yet it is also a moment of opportunity for broader change in the region. Transforming countries that have suffered decades of tyranny and violence is difficult, and it will take time to achieve. But the consequences will be profound for our country and the world."

That viewpoint is openly mocked by foreign policy experts:

[Richard] Haass, the former Bush aide who leads the Council on Foreign Relations, laughed at the president's public optimism. "An opportunity?" Haass said with an incredulous tone. "Lord, spare me. I don't laugh a lot. That's the funniest thing I've heard in a long time. If this is an opportunity, what's Iraq? A once-in-a-lifetime chance?"

Good point. Bush and his foreign policy crew talk a good game. But their track record is one of abysmal failure. What in anything Bush has said or done in foreign policy (or any policy for that matter) provides even a sliver of hope that he's right this time? NOTHING. Read More......

Excellent Dan Savage editorial in the Sunday NYT on same-gender marriage

Just read it. Read More......

Kennedy says Alito and Roberts misled Judiciary Committee

Big surprise there. Actually, this is a very good op ed by Kennedy, do read it. Read More......

Open thread

I hear it's hot in DC :-) Read More......

Is US actually pushing escalation of Mideast war?

Read Josh Marshall's post on this subject of escalation. It's enlightening in a very frightening way -- and helps explain the seemingly hapless way the US has conducted itself during this war:

There's a mix of public and private communications going on between Jerusalem and Damascus. Israel is trying to assure Damascus that they don't plan or want to expand the war to include Syria. Syria is clearly worried that they will and has their troops on full alert. Israel is also warning in no uncertain terms that Syria getting involved will spark massive retaliation.

But there are persistent signs that the US is egging Israel on to bring the war to Damascus.

Here's a clip from the end of an article today in the Jerusalem Post ...

[Israeli]Defense officials told the Post last week that they were receiving indications from the United States that the US would be interested in seeing Israel attack Syria.

And there are other ominous indications of the US pressing for expansion the Israelis don't seem to want.

There's more here than the US not wanting a ceasefire before meaningful changes on the ground have happened in south Lebanon. Or at least I fear there is. This started because Israel doesn't want and won't tolerate a menacing militia building up on their northern border and lashing out with occasional raids or missile attacks, especially in the context of withdrawals from other areas.

The Israelis aren't interested in a war with Syria, but we are.

This is scary stuff. Read More......

Seniors learning the Bush/GOP drug plan is a disaster

The seniors are realizing that they're getting screwed. They have to be reminded every day that this is Bush/GOP plan:

The calls are starting to come in from shocked or angry seniors. They have just learned that their Medicare drug plans are maxing out on early coverage and that they must now spend $2,850 from their own pockets before coverage will resume.

"I can't pay for my medications," one man told Howard Houghton of the Fairfax Area Agency on Aging the other day. "What do I do?"

There's only one thing to do: In 100 days, change the Congress. Read More......

What would happen if Americans actually had to watch real images of war?

This morning, I woke up to CNN"s coverage of the bombing in Qana. There was a riot in Beirut at U.N. Headquarters. The CNN Beirut reporter, Brent Sadler, started his report like this:

In the beginning, there was a spontaneous reaction as Lebanese watched the Qana attack unfold on their television screens. Now, unlike CNN, we take a view that not all the most graphic and horrific pictures from such an attack are shown on our screens, but in Lebanese homes and across the Arab world, uncensored pictures of the aftermath of the Israeli airstrike had been broadcast, and that has hit home deeply in the psyche of the Lebanese.

Does the edited and sanitized coverage of news by American media give us a warped view of war? Would Americans react differently if we saw "graphic and horrific pictures," not only in Lebanon, but in Iraq? The U.S. government won't even show pictures of the caskets of the soldiers who died for their country.

Imagine if we had to face a daily barrage of death and destruction. Would Americans become immune or would they begin to realize the horrors of war?

We hear stories about the number of dead and some video of the aftermath of incidents. Most Americans have already turned against the war in Iraq. What would Bush do if the media actually covered the war in an unedited manner, like in most of the rest of the world?

The American media conglomerates are complicit in the censorship. But what are they supposed to be protecting us from? Read More......

Israeli air strike kills 34 children

But...

Israeli said it targeted Qana because it was a base for hundreds of rockets launched at Israeli, including 40 that injured five Israelis on Sunday. Israel said it had warned civilians several days before to leave the village.

So here's the ethical question of the day. Someone is firing hundreds of missiles at your citizens each day, and launching them from civilians areas because think they think you won't hit back (or hope you do, and thus kill civilians, causing a storm of bad publicity). As for the civilians, it's an open question whether they are helping harbor the guys with the missiles or not, i.e., whether or not they have a say in telling Hezbollah to take a hike (and if they do have a say, would that change your answer)?

So the question is this, under those circumstances, what do YOU do as the leader of country that's receiving 100 rockets a day raining down on your cities?

Second question, which I've posed before. At what point does a local citizenry become responsible for the crimes it supports? When Israel is on the receiving end of bombs, I hear a lot of talk about how every Israeli is a legitimate target because they all support the government. So does the same apply to every Arab, every Muslim, every southern Lebanese, and every American?

I'd just like to see some real discussion of where the line is here, and why some folks seem to care less when the targets are Jewish civilians. Read More......

Normal evangelicals are starting to fight back

Thank God, and about time.

Mr. Boyd finally became fed up, he said. Before the last presidential election, he preached six sermons called ‘The Cross and the Sword’ in which he said the church should steer clear of politics, give up moralizing on sexual issues, stop claiming the United States as a ‘Christian nation’ and stop glorifying American military campaigns.

“When the church wins the culture wars, it inevitably loses,” Mr. Boyd preached. “When it conquers the world, it becomes the world. When you put your trust in the sword, you lose the cross.”....

“More and more people are saying this has gone too far -- the dominance of the evangelical identity by the religious right,” Mr. McLaren said. ”You cannot say the word ‘Jesus’ in 2006 without having an awful lot of baggage going along with it. You can’t say the word ‘Christian,’ and you certainly can’t say the word ‘evangelical’ without it now raising connotations and a certain cringe factor in people.

“Because people think, ‘Oh no, what is going to come next is homosexual bashing, or pro-war rhetoric, or complaining about ‘activist judges.’ ”

That is the reason Christians are feeling oppressed. Not because of Mel Gibson's "fucking Jews," and not because of the ACLU. Christians are feeling oppressed because their own wacko evangelical fringe has so abused Christ as to make him a bad word. When I was a kid, it was a badge of honor to be a regular church-goer - it meant you came from a good family. Nowadays, if you say you're going to church on Sunday, my first thought is usually "is he going to hate me because I'm gay?"

America is less tolerant towards religion. And that's because the religious right has used religion as a sword against everyone its disagrees with. And that creates enemies. Not just for the religious right, but for the God on whose behalf they claim to speak. Read More......

I'm pwn3d

This is what I wake up to this morning. Sushi in all his glory, inside my suitcase. Then, no less than two minutes after taking that picture, I'm busy typing and I hear some noise behind me. This is what I find.



Now, I don't claim to understand cats, but I think we have a contest going for Uncle John's affection. Or a contest for Uncle John's subjugation. Hard to tell. Read More......

New York Times editorial: Dump Lieberman, Vote Lamont

Wow.

The United States is at a critical point in its history, and Mr. Lieberman has chosen a controversial role to play. The voters in Connecticut will have to judge whether it is the right one.

As Mr. Lieberman sees it, this is a fight for the soul of the Democratic Party ? his moderate fair-mindedness against a partisan radicalism that alienates most Americans. ?What kind of Democratic Party are we going to have?? he asked in an interview with New York magazine. ?You've got to agree 100 percent, or you?re not a good Democrat??

That's far from the issue. Mr. Lieberman is not just a senator who works well with members of the other party. And there is a reason that while other Democrats supported the war, he has become the only target. In his effort to appear above the partisan fray, he has become one of the Bush administration?s most useful allies as the president tries to turn the war on terror into an excuse for radical changes in how this country operates....

And Mr. Lieberman has helped that effort. He once denounced Democrats who were ?more focused on how President Bush took America into the war in Iraq? than on supporting the war?s progress.

Bingo. Despite what Barney Frank thinks, we are witnessing the dismantlement of our democracy in a rather frightening manner. We are watching the public disagree with this president's action in record numbers,yet do nothing about it. And we are watching a Democratic party trip over itself in its confusion over how and whether to oppose turning American democracy into some kind of police state.

As some new French friends said to me last night over dinner, if so many of you don't like Bush - 60-some percent in all the recent polls - then why don't you do something about it?

Good question.

Part of the reason we don't is because we have Democrats like Joe Lieberman who give aid and comfort to the dismantlement of our democracy. It's difficult enough to stand up to post-9/11 Republican charges that Dems are soft on Osama, but when one of your own joins the Bush brigade and accuses fellow Dems of simply speaking out for partisan gain, that makes it excruciatingly difficult to continue speaking up because it gives the Republicans the perfect weapon to use against any Democrat who dares speak out. See, just like Joe said, the Dems don't care about September 11, they don't care about national security, they simply care about scoring political points at the expense of all of our lives.

That is why this blog, at least, can't stand Joe Lieberman. America can't afford any more Joe Liebermans at this juncture in our history. We are turning into a police state. No, there are no ovens and mass executions in America. But if people believe that the only lessons we learned from World War II, from fighting the Soviets, and from every other war, cold and hot, that America ever fought is to simply avoid genocide, well, that's a rather short-sided lesson to take from history.

I hate to quote Star Wars as the authoritative word on freedom, but there was a hell of a quote in the last film:

"So this is how democracy dies, to thunderous applause."

And currently, the lion's share of that applause in the Democratic party is coming from Senator Joseph Lieberman.

It's not about the war. It's about our country. Read More......

Sunday Talk Shows Open Thread

Looks like it's all Lebanon. Why does anyone think the U.S. Government, which can't solve it's own Iraq quagmire, is going to be able to solve this one? And does the media even remember the Iraq quagmire?

FOX NEWS SUNDAY....: Undersecretary of State R. Nicholas Burns ; L. Paul Bremer , former head of the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq; Steven A. Rosenberg , chief surgeon at the National Cancer Institute.

THIS WEEK (ABC....: Burns ; Israeli Ambassador Daniel Ayalon ; seven-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong .

FACE THE NATION (CBS....: Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora ; Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Shimon Peres .

MEET THE PRESS (NBC....: Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations Dan Gillerman ; Lebanese special envoy Nouhad Mahmoud .

LATE EDITION (CNN), 11 a.m.: Burns ; Sens. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.); Syrian cabinet minister Bouthaina Shaaban , and Israeli Tourism Minister Isaac Herzog .

Read More......

It's no wonder Iraqis are not impressed with Bush-style democracy

Morgues in the Valley of Peace have more corpses than they know what to do with because of the excessive violence. Remember all of the rosy outlooks that we heard at the beginning of the invasion? When are we going to hear more from that crowd so they can fill in the gaps between their words and the realities on the ground today?

The men who wash the bodies and wrap them in white cloth according to Muslim custom have gained a first-hand view of the ferocity of Iraq's rising sectarian violence.

Kareem al-Haidari said he usually handles 50 to 60 bodies each Friday, the Muslim holy day on which more and more Iraqis are praying for the safety of their loved ones.

"There are usually signs of torture and mutilation like the drilling of eyes and skulls, or severed limbs," he said.

Read More......

Nearly 2/3 of Army's combat brigades not ready for wartime missions because of Bush incompetence

Great, now the Republicans' incompetence is destroying our military readiness. Read More......

Open thread and a little Paris blogging

Just got back from a really nice dinner, or what the Italians might call a spaghettata. Get a bunch of friends together, whip up a simple meal, put way too many people around way too small a coffee table, and eat. It was the birthday of Chris' wife Joelle, and her brother called to invite them to his bday dinner. They'd already left for the south, so he invited me, which was incredibly nice since I've only met him once. Anyway, just a really nice evening with a lot of people I didn't know. And interestingly enough, everyone at the party hated Bush.

Anyway, by popular demand, here is Nasdaq in all her Weight Watchers glory (I can't really tell that she's fat, but apparently she is).



And here are a few other photos from the past 24 hours. First, the series of cafes down the block:



Next a rather popular late-night crepe stand, also down the block (on Blvd. Montparnasse, for those in the know):



Guy on the metro, waiting for the train:



Guy on the train (without eye candy, there is no life):



The new Metro train. It has no driver. And all the cars are connected, you'll note that you're looking at the inside of two cars. It's pretty cool. I have no idea how, in a country as union-strong as France, they got away with a train that has no driver.

Read More......

Gay-hating neighbor gets hers in court

And I can't wait for the fundies to freak out over this one. They'll scream First Amendment and how the Bible will now be outlawed (and I'd love to have them explain to us, under oath, where the Bible directs us to threaten and harass people with AIDS in their own homes). Then let them defend these kind of actions as they would pertain to someone who is black or Latino, since, after all, it's "protected" speech. Physically threatening them, and basically trying to drive them from their home because of their race. There wouldn't even be anything to discuss.

The court did a great job here, and the fundies are again showing their true colors. Mark my words, the national religious right groups WILL jump on this case and defend the AIDS-hating bigot, and then, again, we'll know the true color of their character. Read More......

It's painful for Lieberman to say he's a Democrat

Nagourney takes a look at candidate Joe Lieberman. For me, the most illustrative quote in the article -- and one of the most telling of the campaign -- comes from Chris Dodd, his fellow Senator from Connecticut:

“I said, as painful as it is, the first words out of your mouth and the last words out of your mouth every time you speak have to be ‘I’m a Democrat,’ ” Mr. Dodd recounted on Thursday. “You can say whatever you want after that.”

That really sums up Lieberman. Painful to say "I'm a Democrat." Read More......

52% want US out of Iraq in 12 months

And the rest can send their kids. Read More......

Blogging is hitting the big-time in France

Who knew? Read More......

Bush proposing new legislation that would permit him to throw any American in jail, forever, without a trail or attorney

We reported this, briefly, this morning. Over at DailyKos they've excerpted more of the worst of the article.

This is police state legislation, not American legislation. You simply cannot give the government the authority to throw whichever American citizen it wants in jail permanently, with no trial and no attorney, simply because some government bureaucrat "suspects" you have ties to terrorism. There is no evidentiary basis for "suspects." It's simply a gut decision.

This is the legislation of a police state. And I suspect Bush and the Republicans are offering this as their last-ditch effort to spare the Republicans in the elections this fall. Try get a police state and watch the Democrats scramble in disarray, unable and unsure if they want to challenge it.

In the meantime, the Republicans have now gone beyond bashing gays and Muslims and women and Latinos for political gain. They've now decided to declare a police state in order to win the election.

Anyone, and particularly any Republican, who doesn't stand up against this legislation doesn't deserve to be called an American.

This is simply disgusting. Read More......

Mel Gibson, while being arrested, reportedly starts yelling about "the fucking Jews"

And they apparently have the arrest report to prove it. And video.

I want to hear what the religious right, oh Israel lovers that they are, have to say about their hero the film producer now. More from the NY Daily News:

A blitzed Mel Gibson launched into an obscenity-laced tirade when he was busted on suspicion of drunken driving early yesterday, threatening an officer and making anti-Semitic and sexually abusive remarks, according to a police report.

The "Passion of the Christ" director repeatedly said, "My life is f----d," according to the report by Los Angeles County Deputy James Mee, which was obtained by TMZ.com. The celebrity news Web site posted excerpts of the handwritten report...

According to the incident report obtained by TMZ.com, the Road Warrior embarked on a belligerent, anti-Semitic outburst when he realized he had been busted.

"F-----g Jews. The Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world," Mee's report quotes him as saying.

"Are you a Jew?" Gibson asked the deputy, according to the report.

The actor also berated the deputy, threatening, "You motherf----r. I'm going to f--- you," according to Mee's report.

The actor also told the cop he "owns Malibu" and would spend all his money "to get even with me," Mee said in his report.

TMZ quoted a law enforcement source as saying Gibson noticed a female sergeant on the scene and yelled at her, "What do you think you're looking at, sugar t--s?"

Deputy Mee then wrote an eight-page report detailing of the incident, but higher-ups in the sheriff's department felt it was too "inflammatory" to release and would merely serve to incite "Jewish hatred," TMZ said.

Read More......

Religious right suing to put porn star in public school as teacher

Never thought I'd see the day that the religious right would fight to put a porn star in a supervisory role over our children. But, you see, she's a Christian so it's now okay. The fact that I'm a Christian and a gay man, that makes me akin to a pedophile to these people. But this woman got laid on camera for cash and she's okay as a role model. Imagine what they'd say if it was a gay teacher who had done gay porn? Then again, it's not like the religious right actually gives a damn about the word of God, or anything they profess, so we shouldn't be surprised when they contradict themselves.

Do as I say, not as I screw. Read More......

Your morning coffee

What's interesting in the morning papers...

- AP: US citizens suspected of ties to terror can be detained indefinitely and denied access to a court of law under new Bush-sponsored legislation. Which begs the question, so you mean all those 5,000 Americans whose phones Bush tapped because he suspected them of having "ties to terrorism," they could be locked away forever under this new law, and that's a good thing?

- Wash Post: House passes legislation raising minimum wage and cutting estate tax.
- Wash Post: Robberies surge in DC (surprise)
- NYT: Six shot at Seattle Jewish center.
- NYT: Bush intimidation of whistleblowers continues.
- AP: Joe Lieberman faces political abyss Read More......

Christian right hero Mel Gibson arrested for drunk driving, 0.12 alochol level

So how does drunk driving and speeding fit with Christian values? Another wingnut hypocrite.

Whose child would Jesus kill while drunk? Read More......

Dan Savage lets the chief justice of Washington State have it, in person, over his decision against gay marriage

I love Dan. (You'll recall he's the guy responsible for creating the word "Santorum" - Google it.) Read More......

What's the matter with Meade Kansas?

Homophobia is rampant. All because of a rainbow flag. Read More......

Prediction: There will be NO minimum wage increase this year

The House Republicans are going to great pains to make sure that the minimum wage increase never gets signed in to law. It's so disgusting. The same crowd that has given themselves $31,600 in raises over the past few years, still wants Americans to make $5.15 an hour.

There will probably be a vote later today on the minimum wage in the House, BUT, and this is a major BUT, it's designed to lose. They'll attach poison pills language in the House to ruin the substance of the bill and they'll make sure that whatever passes will die in the Senate. They're such brilliant strategists when it comes to screwing the poor.

Their latest gimmick is to tie the minimum wage to the Paris Hilton tax cut. Not kidding.

Can't bring gas prices down. Can't even begin to address the Iraq disaster. Can't shrink the deficit. But, screw the minimum wage while giving a HUGE tax break to Paris Hilton, they're all over it.

So, the GOP has a "stay the course" mindset on the minimum wage, too. Why not? Only 85% of Americans support the increase.

Interesting coincidence. Oprah's show today is about living on the minimum wage. Members of Congress need to try it. They wouldn't last a day. Read More......

Friday Cat Blogging

This is Sushi. Nasdaq has been hiding ever since they had a fight over the cat toys I brought. Well, it wasn't really a fight. Sushi attacked Nasdaq for having too much fun. There were two toys, but Sushi needed both. You understand. Read More......

Cliff's Corner

For Republican Sexcapades on The Young Turks (hypertext link not working for some reason) go to: mms://youngturks.wmod.llnwd.net/a591/o1/7-27CliffSchector.wmv
Link to more on Lieberman here and here

The Week That Was 7/28/06
Another week. More preposterousness to report.

Schadenfreude is such an underrated feeling. It has been largely difficult to enjoy it as it pertains to President “wow Russia’s really big,” because the colossal disaster that is his presidency has caused countless casualties at home and abroad, wrecked our finances, made us such a pariah Sudan won’t take our phone calls, turned Norm Coleman’s dad into Ace Bigelow, destroyed our environment and made solving world crises about as clear as Christopher Hitchens’ vision after the Wild Turkey runs out.

But we can surely enjoy life’s guilty pleasure of cackling at the Lifestyles of the Corrupt and Crazy who have enabled our president to do such damage to this country over the past 5+ years. And the last week or so has been especially bad for three of these GOP stooges.

First there was the loss in the Georgia primary by Francisco Franco and Anita Bryant’s lovechild, Ralph Reed. This was a real shame because a victory would have allowed his swearing in as lieutenant governor to coincide nicely with his bid to achieve pubescence.

You may remember Ralph as the titular head of the Christian Coalition, the smiling, facile brat who conservatives foisted upon us to equate Christianity with his perverted vision of the righteous path in which America would presumably turn into Phyllis Schlafly’s house. Without the gay kid of course. And the mother who’s never around because she’s always out working. And…well you get the point.

Later Ralph became the man in charge of George W. Bush’s southern dirty tricks division in 2000 and 2004, touting our president’s abiding Christian values and translating retard into English when Bush was in the neighborhood. Yet, it turns out Ralph's not-so-Christian habit of lying, stealing and cheating to play Native American tribes off against each other, so he could in the words of an email to his good buddy Jack Abramoff “start humping corporate clients” (insert Republican joke) wasn’t a big seller. Promoting the banned-religion, forced-abortion nightmare that is the Marianas Islands probably didn’t help much either. For some reason conservatives got a bit worked up about these things.

His mother probably put it best, when quoted in a recent GQ article. “I used to tell people he was going to be either President of the United States or Al Capone.” Now I don’t want to go out on a limb here, but let’s just say Geraldo will probably be opening Ralph’s empty vault on live television in twenty years after giving away U.S. troop positions on Fox using only his mustache.

Two other self-deluded, monomaniacal, intellectual ring-dings, Katherine Harris and Ken Blackwell, are also finally getting the pay back they deserve for doing everything in their power to cheat Bush’s way to victory in Florida in 2000 and Ohio in 2004, respectively.

Harris’ mascara is running for Senate, and she’s fired everyone from the interns to her breast-pump at least three times (and many others have just quit). In fact, a friend of mine familiar with the situation says she is absolutely bipolar, ignoring everyone’s advice, thinking the world is out to get her and berating her staff constantly. I’m just waiting for her to jump up on Oprah’s sofa.

Numerous other reports suggest that she is, let’s just say, living out a daily Girl, Interrupted existence. I must pause, because now I’m all choked up. Particularly when I look at Republican poll numbers that show her losing to Senator Bill Nelson 60% to 22%. But I guess it kind of sucks when you whore yourself out to the Bush brothers and place a blemish on American democracy and all you get is a lousy t-shirt (which is a bit too tight). Yet, she’s still the GOP's best ongoing-reality series. I think it has been tentatively named "Pearls Gone Wild." With a backup title of "The Bitch is Completely Out of Her Skull."

Finally there is the self-hating, Bible-thumping, con-man known as Kenneth Blackwell. He’s one of three black men running for statewide office as a Republican this year, so they can try and pretend their conventions don’t look like Wimbledon. Blackwell’s working hard to suppress votes in this election as he did in the last one, in his capacity as Ohio’s Secretary of State.

Blackwell likes sending a limited number of broken-down machines to large college towns and urban areas, while making sure every vote is counted in neighborhoods where he is the punch-line of most jokes after the raconteur looks over his shoulder. But it will be at least a little tougher to suppress Rep. Ted Strickland’s 47% to 27% lead over him in Ohio governor’s race.

Perhaps it was a bad idea to own stock in the ever-so-reliable Diebold machines he would love to use throughout the state. Or have ideas so shallow George Allen understands them without playing Pictionary.

Regardless, Blackwell and his Dominionist allies will be doing what they can to bring a Dominoes Pizza-like existence to Ohio, so he and Harris must be shown, like the good Mr. Reed, that membership in Loonsville doesn’t have its privileges. Read More......

Arab support for Hezbollah increasing

In news that's roughly as shocking as Lance Bass coming out, Arab popular support for Hezbollah is surging. At the beginning of this latest conflict, Israel had unprecedented support (not explicit, but there nonetheless) from Arab governments that viewed Hezbollah's actions as unnecessarily provocative. Now, with Israel's strategy of bombing everything that might be connected to Hezbollah combined with surprisingly able Hezbollah fighters preventing outright Israeli victory, Arabs are viewing Hezbollah not as foolish instigators but as the champions of the anti-Israel cause. Not good.

Middle Eastern governments, with the exception of Syria and Iran, really don't like Hezbollah. Why would they? Hezbollah is an Islamist Shia group in the midst of Sunni secular governments. Arab states such as Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Jordan have enough problems with their restive Islamist populations without Hezbollah mixing things up, but now the popular support for Hezbollah is forcing those governments to change their stance. Read More......

White House admits that our troops in Iraq aren't really dying for the war on terror anymore

I'm sure the remaining few Americans who still support this fiasco are going to love this. As Dan Froomkin at the WashingtonPost.com put it:

President Bush and national security adviser Stephen Hadley yesterday for the first time publicly acknowledged the momentous shift in the role for U.S. troops in Iraq, from fighting terrorists to trying to suppress religious violence.

This sea change was described in such understated terms that it was eclipsed by news about the crisis in Lebanon. Bush described a change in tactics; Hadley called it a repositioning.

But it's a historic admission: That job one for many American troops in Iraq is no longer fighting al-Qaeda terrorists, or even insurgents. Rather, it is trying to quell an incipient -- if not already raging -- sectarian civil war, with Baghdad as ground zero.

Arguably, that's been the case for quite a while. But having the White House own up to it is a very big deal.

Read More......

Frist gives the GOP their message: We're staying the course

Yesterday, the Democrats offered a New Direction for America. Today, we learn the GOP mantra for 2006 via Hotline on Call:

"We're for staying the course in Iraq and the war on terror."

-- Senate Maj. Leader Bill Frist on the GOP's '06 nat'l security message, "Hannity and Colmes," FNC, 7/27

So there you have it. The choice for 2006: "A new direction" or "Stay the course."

The New York Times poll released yesterday found that 66% of Americans think we're on the wrong track...so keep on that "stay the course" message, GOP. Read More......

The Chimp and his poodle are doing their presser now

Anyone watching Bush and Blair? Bush started by trying to make a joke about the open mike at the G-8. It's all fun and games for him.

Commentary please...

UPDATE: Love this comment from Jenius:

Whew! So relieved to hear that one of Bush's top priorities will be to rebuild civilian infrastructure so that the homeless Lebanese can return and have a place to live.

I wonder if the Lebanese got to see any Katrina coverage.

Ugh, this thing is painful to watch. Think about it -- the future of the world is in the hands of these two clowns. Read More......

Chevron caps out big Big Oil week

Record profits and plenty of smiling faces on one side, groaning and anger on the other. Same same, but different. Fortunately George Bush is an oil man and he promised to jaw bone the industry and you know he has us in mind. He's a compassionate conservative, of course, so he feels your pain. Read More......