1700 year old Judas gospel revealed, will be on display in DC on Friday

I'm sorry, but this is pretty cool. The thing says that Judas turned in Christ because Christ asked him to. And pages of the document are going to be on display at the National Geographic building in DC starting on Friday (conveniently about a mile from my apartment, woo woo!)

Very cool, just from an archaeological perspective alone.

Ok, and let me just say something from a Biblical perspective. If this document is real, and if it is correct, then that means pretty much every branch of Christianity got it wrong calling Judas a traitor. Which, as far as I'm concerned, means this calls into question everything they preach, including their anti-gay teachings.

If they could get something THIS central to Christianity wrong - I mean, Judas is pretty big - then something else could be wrong too. That's not a reason to say religion is all a bunch of hooey, but it is reason to say that certain branches of Christianity, and every religion really, could use a dose of humility when attempting to jam their interpretation of God's will down our throats.

Let them claim they're infallible. Then let them talk to Galileo. Read More......

Open thread

By popular demand. Read More......

George Bush hates leakers. I mean, uh...

E&P; reminds us how Bush was outraged about ANY leaks of classified information from his administration back in 2003. They're great quotes. And totally hypocritical now that we know that Bush himself was authorizing leaks of classified information at that very time. Read More......

Jeb Bush publicly criticizes Katherine Harris' Senate race

Apparently single-handedly making your brother president doesn't count for much in the Bush family.

Republican Gov. Jeb Bush complained Thursday that Katherine Harris has made her struggling Senate campaign about herself instead of the record of the Democratic incumbent.

"I am the party leader. I've got concerns," the governor said in response to a reporter's question. "The campaign can't be about her. It has to be about Bill Nelson and the future of our state and so far, she asked my advice and I gave her that exact advice and it's gotten worse since."

Asked if the issues surrounding Harris' campaign have made it difficult for Republicans to win the race in November, Bush said, "You're right."

And one more thing, Jeb. Leave my girlfriend alone.

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US military refusing to protect US foreign service officers in Iraq

Well, we've gone from incompetent to petty and downright murderous. Apparently things are going SO WELL in Iraq that we can no longer afford to even protect our own diplomats.

Sidney Blumenthal via Digby:

Under the pretense that Iraq is being pacified, the U.S. military is partially withdrawing from hostile towns in the countryside and parts of Baghdad. By reducing the numbers of soldiers the administration can claim its policy is working going into the midterm elections. But the jobs that the military will no longer perform are being sloughed off onto State Department "provincial reconstruction teams" led by Foreign Service officers. The stated rationale is that the teams will win Iraqi hearts and minds by organizing civil functions.

The Pentagon has informed the State Department that it will not provide security for these officials and that State should hire mercenaries for protection instead. Apparently, the U.S. military and the U.S. Foreign Service do not represent the same country in this exercise in nation-building....

The State Department was correct in its assessment, contained in the 17-volume "Future of Iraq Project," of the immense effort required for reconstruction after the war, but it was disregarded. Now the State Department reports from Iraq are correct, but their authors are being punished. Foreign Service officers are to be sent out like tethered goats to the killing fields. When these misbegotten projects inevitably fail, as those inside State expect, the department will be blamed. The passive resistance to these assignments by Foreign Service officers reflects informed anticipation of impending disaster, including the likely murders of diplomats.

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Dems. to Bush: Fess up

The President sacrificed our safety for politics:

"In light of today's shocking revelation, President Bush must fully disclose his participation in the selective leaking of classified information," Senate Minority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) said in a statement. "The American people must know the truth."

Howard Dean, chairman of the Democratic National Committee, said, "The fact that the president was willing to reveal classified information for political gain and put the interests of his political party ahead of America's security shows that he can no longer be trusted to keep America safe."

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Religious right thinks rape is to be expected when men and women live togegther, under high stress, and drink

I know when I started reading this article from the religious right propaganda arm that somewhere it was going to imply the women were to blame. And it only took me halfway through the article on rape at military academies to find it.

You see, according to the religious right, we just didn't have the rape of women at military academies until - da da da dum - they let the women-folk in as cadets (yeah, I hear there weren't a lot of lynchings in America until black people arrived either).

Putting aside the implicit women-bashing, my favorite part of the article is the way the religious right just nonchalantly thinks that raping women is somehow a normal consequence of stress, alcohol and proximity. Like all guys do it, you know. Kind of like burping or giving each other high fives.

We see the same attitude from the religious right about pedophilia: Hey, you put some priests together in the same building for a few years, make em take a vow of chastity, and of course they're going to rape kids, wouldn't you? As if somehow any adult would rape a child under the "right" circumstances.

I seriously think the religious right isn't just wrong about sex, but rather, they think differently about sex than the rest of us do. To them, raping women is a normal consequence of the proximity of the sexes, and raping children is something anyone would do under the right circumstances. And perhaps for them this is true. But how sick can you get get?

More from the wonderful AgapePress, publish by - who else? - the rabid American Family Association:

Retired U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel Bob Maginnis, a military expert and a graduate of West Point Academy, says he is not surprised by recent reports of a case involving a cadet at the military school who is suspected of raping two female former cadets. This is only the latest in a series of sexual assault incidents reported at the U.S. service academies in recent years. Lonnie Story, the senior cadet facing prosecution for allegedly raping two former cadets while on leave last year, has been charged with two counts of rape under the military code but denies the allegations against him. Maginnis, a West Point alum, notes that similar cases have rocked the Air Force, Naval, and Coast Guard Academies. "All the academies have had sexual assault allegations that have been in the news," he points out, "and that hasn't made them look good. To a certain degree, we didn't have these internal issues nearly as much before we had women at the service academies, which happened in 1976." Although Maginnis acknowledges that, even before 1976, some male cadets undoubtedly committed assault, "but they weren't fellow cadets, and they were charged if the evidence suggested that," he says. But with today's situation," he insists, where "men and women are living together under high-stress conditions as they are at the academies, and you mix in alcohol with these circumstances, then inevitably you're going to have problems." The situation could be addressed, but the military analyst says the ball is in the federal legislature's court for now. The rules Congress has set for the military have "unfortunately ... created a monster," Maginnis contends, "and they're not giving us the tools to correct it. Rather they're pushing in just the opposite direction."

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Open thread

What other news have we missed? Read More......

McCain agrees to gut campaign finance law in order to help his own presidential campaign

Evidently, every man DOES have his price.

Campaign Finance Reform is McCain's SIGNATURE issue. He's willing to gut a key component of campaign finance law so that his presidential campaign can get hundreds of millions of dollars that Democrats don't have. Let me say that again: Not only does John McCain want to let MORE dirty money into the system, but he wants to do it a way that will help HIM and not whoever challenges him in the next election. Yeah, that's honest.

That is the definition of a typical Washington politician and a typical Republican member of Congress. Wave a few bucks, or a few hundred million, in front of their face and the principles go flying out the door.

John McCain the Maverick, RIP. Via Atrios:

House Republican leaders have struck a deal with Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) to eliminate restrictions on coordination between national parties and federal candidates, a change in the law that would be of great benefit to the winner of the 2008 GOP presidential primary, according to congressional sources.

Republican and Democratic campaign-finance experts alike believe the change would be a boon to McCain’s campaign, if he wins his party’s nomination in three years, an outcome that political handicappers are beginning to view as a real possibility....

Eliminating the coordination limit would be especially helpful to the Republican presidential nominee in 2008 because the Republican National Committee (RNC) has a huge fundraising advantage over its Democratic counterpart, greater than the disparity between the Republican and Democratic fundraising committees affiliated with the Senate and House.

The RNC has raised $130 million so far this election cycle and has nearly $41 million in its war chest. The Democratic National Committee (DNC) has raised $67 million since the beginning of 2005 and has only about $9 million in the bank.

“It’s obviously going to help the Republicans more — more money — unless the Democrats can play catch-up,” said Ken Gross, a campaign-finance expert with the law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom.

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So much for the GOP making domestic spying a partisan political issue in the coming elections

Seems the Republican House Judiciary Committee chair is upset at the administration for not providing Congress sufficient information about Bush's illegal domestic spying program.

Well, that means that any attack the Republicans make on Democratic members of Congress who have concerns about the program, and concerns about not being given adequate oversight, have just been echoed by one of the most senior Republicans in the US House.

We call that an innoculation.

Any time Ken Mehlman and Karl Rove try to bring up the domestic spying issue in order to claim Democrats are weak on terror, Democrats need only respond with two words: Jim Sensenbrenner (R-WI). Or with one word: Tex. (We call him "Tex" since his family is the heir to "Kotex" - they created it.) Read More......

Washington Post upset that bigoted images of gays aren't portrayed more often on TV

The Washington Post continues its record of swerving head on into the right-wing propaganda machine.

Today we learn from the Washington Post that a depiction of gay families - we're talking gay parents and their kids - is not a TRUE depiction unless those gay parents are cheating on their spouses, in front of their children, while dressing in drag with pierced nipples.

Think I'm kidding? Check out today's Washington Post article about Rosie O'Donnell's new-ish boat cruise for gay families - the emphasis here is on FAMILIES, it's not meant to be a single's cruise. But that doesn't stop the Washington Post from saying that being gay is all about the promiscuous sex - oh yeah, and don't forget the men in dresses and the body piercings.

O'Donnell, who captained the project, was presenting to the mainstream TV audience a scrubbed-up, politely tidy image of gay men and women -- a portrait meticulously devoid of the drag queens, pierced nipples and campy vamping one often sees when a local TV station rushes off to cover a gay-themed event. O'Donnell earns herself a citizenship award or a political correctness award, but the unfortunate byproduct of the consciousness-raising is that it isn't engaging, it isn't much fun, and sometimes it's punishingly platitudinous.

O'Donnell almost robs her subjects of their sexual identity in the pursuit of making them wholesome. In short, there is no gay cruising on this gay cruise.

And before anyone at the post DARE suggest that perhaps Tom Shales is gay and therefore it just isn't possible that he could write a bigoted article about gay people, that's a bit like saying someone black doesn't need an editor when writing about the black community. I'm not saying definitively that Tom Shales is an openly gay man, but I just want to pre-empt that often-heard defense before it comes out of the gate.

There are lots of screwed up gay people who do a pretty poor job of representing the truth about the gay community. Mary Cheney and Roy Cohn come to mind.

As for local TV coverage, the Post is correct. In the past, local news often did show men walking around naked in leather when doing any story, ANY story, about gay people. Local news also probably portrayed Jews as evil money-grubbers and blacks as genetically inferior.

And the Post's point would be? Longing for the good ole days are we?

In tomorrow's Washington Post: Why the Cosby show never depicted real black families since the parents were married, the kids didn't have ten different fathers, and Theo wasn't doing time. Read More......

Libby: Bush told me to leak classified information to reporters

While it's not clear whether Bush did or didn't authorize Libby to leak Valerie Plame's name, we now know that Bush himself is a leaker - Bush thinks leaks of classified information are a-okay and a worthwhile and acceptable tool of politics.

And Bush himself is directly responsible for leaking classified informationt to - whom? - why REPORTERS! The very people who Bush now has the Justice Department investigating for receiving leaks of classified information regarding secret CIA prisons in Eastern Europe.

So, Bush authorized leaks of classified information to reporters, yet he's investigating people in his administration for leaking classified information to reporters. It's good to be king.

You'll recall that Bush leaked classified information to Bob Woodward for one of Woodward's book. The issue was raised at the time, but no one in the media or the Hill wanted to seriously go after it because Bush was still Big Brother back then. Hopefully they'll start going after the leaker-in-chief now.

Vice President Dick Cheney's former top aide told prosecutors President Bush authorized the leak of sensitive intelligence information about Iraq, according to court papers filed by prosecutors in the CIA leak case.

Before his indictment, I. Lewis Libby testified to the grand jury investigating the CIA leak that Cheney told him to pass on information and that it was Bush who authorized the disclosure, the court papers say. According to the documents, the authorization led to the July 8, 2003, conversation between Libby and New York Times reporter Judith Miller.

There was no indication in the filing that either Bush or Cheney authorized Libby to disclose Valerie Plame's CIA identity.

But the disclosure in documents filed Wednesday means that the president and the vice president put Libby in play as a secret provider of information to reporters about prewar intelligence on Iraq.

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How you know the wicked witch is really dead

Just click. Read More......

Open thread

Finally. Read More......

Dems plan to stop theocratic attack on birth control

Make no mistake: The right wingers aren't just going after abortion. They have a longer range agenda. Birth control is on their hit list. The Democrats in the Senate have figured is a dangerous position for the GOP. Harry Reid is pushing a bill to protect contraception:

The bill would prohibit group health plans from excluding contraceptive drugs, devices and outpatient services if they cover the cost of other prescription drugs and outpatient services. It would also require the secretary of health and human services to disseminate information on emergency contraception to healthcare providers and require hospitals receiving federal money to provide emergency contraception to victims of sexual assault.

The bill would also mandate that federally funded programs provide information about contraceptives that is medically accurate and includes data on health benefits and failure rates.

This is a smart strategy. The GOP theocrats in the Senate will fight this bill. But, the Dems. are finally beginning to expose just how extreme the right wing agenda will go.

We've already seen how intrusive the Bush administration is. They cater to the extreme religious right. And, there is no room for contraception in their theocratic world. Read More......

Congressman Curt Weldon is a disgusting GOP pig

Read this and you'll know why. What kind of bastard picks on a kid with cancer? Seriously, is there anything lower? Read More......

Another major tactical error by Condi in Iraq

Condi's latest "surprise" visit to Iraq backfired. How much more damage can she do over there?":

A top adviser to Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari said Wednesday that the visit this week by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Foreign Secretary Jack Straw of Britain had backfired, prolonging a deadlock over a new government and strengthening Mr. Jaafari's resolve to keep his post.

"Pressure from outside is not helping to speed up any solution," said the adviser, Haider al-Abadi. "All it's doing is hardening the position of people who are supporting Jaafari."

He added, "They shouldn't have come to Baghdad."

His comments were echoed by several political leaders on Wednesday, including Kurds and Sunni Arabs.

Well, she finally got the Iraqis to agree on something. Unfortunately, they all agree that her trip was a disaster. Read More......

Yikes! The ethics reform looks like scary stuff

Beware! Read More......

A little benzene with your soda?

Last week the FDA issued a report about benzene levels in soft drinks, essentially telling Americans that everything was fine despite benzene appearing in drinks. Now the FDA is changing their story, admitting that benzene levels are found in soft drinks at much higher rates than normal tap water, but not to worry.

Why not worry and how can they make such a claim? Well, because they say so. The FDA is refusing to turn over the results of the recent study, which contradict other data already available that shows benzene levels are a problem. The FDA is such a sad, pathetic shell of its former self thanks to the GOP who gutted it and left it as a tool of industry.

The Environmental Working Group has accused the FDA of suppressing information about benzene in soft drinks.

"If they're so confident the situation is not a safety risk, they need to release the data to prove it," said Richard Wiles, the group's senior vice president. "The only data available to the public contradict their claim."

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The decline of democracy in the UK: grannies now being arrested

It's no wonder that the general public in the UK is ready to see Blair move on. Freedom of speech, freedom of movement and the right to protest are all disappearing under the creepy New Labour policies of Blair. The latest targets include two British grandmothers who are caught up in new anti-terrorism laws.

Helen John, 68, and Sylvia Boyes, 62, both veterans of the Greenham Common protests 25 years ago, were arrested on Saturday after deliberately setting out to highlight a change in the law which civil liberties groups say will criminalise free speech and further undermine the right to peaceful demonstration.

Under the little-noticed legislation, which came into effect last week, protesters who breach any one of 10 military bases across Britain will be treated as potential terrorists and face up to a year in jail or £5,000 fine. The protests are curtailed under the Home Secretary's Serious Organised Crime and Police Act.

"We thought this was a really important issue and we just had to challenge it," said Mrs John, who was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize last year. Mrs Boyes, who was cleared by a jury at Manchester Crown Court in 1999 of causing criminal damage to a British nuclear submarine, said: " I am quite willing to break the law and prepared to be charged and to go to prison. The Government thinks it can do whatever it wants and that it has a passive public which accepts whatever it throws at it. I find it very worrying."

The article also includes some other examples of arrests in the UK that are related to public dissent and the new anti-terror laws including the rough treatment of an 82 year old Labour Party member who heckled Jack Straw's pro-wars peech last year. Read More......

Rummy's ticked at Condi

If there's one thing the Bushies do well, it's civil war. Read More......

Missing fossil link found between land and sea animals

One question: If God really created the earth 6000 years ago, then why did he create a fake 375 million year old fossil and bury it near the North Pole? A kind of Old Testament April Fool's joke? Read More......