FOX News' Rupert Murdoch cancels OJ book and TV special

Gee, the family values network figured promoting a snuff book might finally be a bad idea. Read More......

The animals, the animals...

Trent Lott was right. This never would have happened if Strom Thurmond had become president. Read More......

Iraq update: Still a disaster

I can't wait to hear what the new plan is. Read More......

Open thread

Watching West Wing reruns. Read More......

Sieg Heil

An American town bans the flying of foreign flags. Read More......

The myth of turning a corner in Iraq

I would really, really like to write about something other than Iraq. Aside from the fact that I'd like it to stop descending into oblivion (or "bolivion," as Mike Tyson would say), I personally would simply enjoy someday writing about Iran, or North Korea, or Turkey or China or Russia, or even -- not to get crazy or anything -- some region of the world which our foreign policy isn't screwing up.

Alas, today is not that day.

Here's a new rule for people commenting on Iraq: since apparently it's the cool kid thing to say Iraq must get better in the next six(ish) months (a.k.a. one Friedman unit) to prevent it from becoming a failure, things actually have to improve over the course of that length of time for anyone to say that we've turned a corner.

I honestly have no idea how people can get away with saying things like "the United States and Britain have never attempted a truly comprehensive policy on Iraq," "We have to help Iraq's politicians put the country's unity above their sectarian priorities," "The problems of the federal constitution, the distribution of Iraq's resources and the role of the unofficial militias have to be resolved in the direction of preserving the unity of the nation," and the like -- all of which are included in the above article. I will now light myself on fire.

Any time you read something that talks about what Iraqis "must" do, without following it up with, "here's how," you're getting one of the Sensible Centrist Arguments, which are, of course, part of the Magical Plans Never To Be Implemented genre. Experts in this genre are often "liberals" who advocated the war and cannot quite bring themselves to admit that it's a crippling strategic blunder, therefore feeling obligated to propose solutions that have no chance of being tried, much less actually working.

President Bush showed his understanding of both history and Iraq when he said recently that we lost Vietnam because we left. We don't have the troop numbers to effectively augment, we don't have the diplomatic power or skill to regionalize, and Iraq . . . is getting . . . worse. And I'd be stunned if all of this analysis isn't applicable a year from now. Read More......

US House race in Florida now officially contested

From the DCCC:

Citing statistical and eyewitness evidence of significant machine malfunctions sufficient to call into doubt the result of the election for Florida Congressional District 13, the Christine Jennings campaign today officially contested the election in Circuit Court. The complaint specifically requests the judge to order a new election “to ensure that the will of the people of the Thirteenth District is respected, and to restore the confidence of the electorate, which has been badly fractured by this machine-induced debacle.”

More than 17,000 undervotes (15%) were recorded on Sarasota County’s electronic voting machines, a rate nearly 6 times higher than the undervote rate in the other District 13 counties or in Sarasota’s paper absentee ballots. Jennings won Sarasota County by a 53% - 47% margin, while losing the district-wide manual recount by 369 votes.

Enough. Until they can make these machines tamper proof, we no longer accept any questionable elections. Read More......

UCLA policy okays use of tasers against passive demonstrators

Someone needs to be fired at UCLA, and it needs to be very high up in the police department and the university. UCLA has a written policy authorizing the use of a 50,000 volt taser against students who are offering passive resistance. That means, sitting down and not moving as a form of protest can get you tasered repeatedly. It also means the cops who repeatedly tasered a student who refused to show them an ID may have actually been following official campus policy. It is UCLA campus policy to taser students who offer passive resistance. This is sickening.

Someone very high up at UCLA needs to lose their job, now.

(Update on the story.) Read More......

Romney is obsessed with gays. Obsessed. It's all he can talk about.

What is it with Mitt Romney and the gays? Seriously, his whole platform for 2008 is going to be about gays. He thinks more about gays than most gay people. On one level, it's pure hate mongering. On another level, it's peculiar to say the least:

Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney (R) said Sunday that he will ask the state's highest court this week to order a ballot question on same-sex marriage if legislators fail to vote on the matter when they reconvene in January.

Romney said he will ask a justice of the state's Supreme Judicial Court to direct the secretary of state to place the question on the ballot if lawmakers do not vote directly on the question Jan. 2, the final day of the current session. Romney's term as governor expires Jan. 4.

The legislature is in recess and, because it did not adjourn, Romney has no legal authority to call legislators back into session.

Romney, an opponent of same-sex marriage, made his announcement to the cheers of hundreds of same-sex-marriage opponents at a rally on the Statehouse steps. A counter-protest was held across the street.

Gay bashing is so 2004. It back-fired this year. But, if Mitt wants to publicize his obsession with homosexuality, so be it. Read More......

Bush admits he doesn't know what he's doing in Iraq

No surprise here. Just shocking that 3 1/2 years in to this quagmire that was totally his creation, Bush has no idea what's he going to do in Iraq:

Bush was asked about proposals by some members of Congress, including 2008 presidential hopeful John McCain, to send more troops to Iraq in an effort to stabilize the country.

"I haven't made any decisions about troop increases or troop decreases, and won't until I hear from a variety of sources," Bush replied.

Hasn't made any decisions because he doesn't have a plan. Waiting to hear from a variety of sources? No one's told him anything for the past couple years? The guy is almost unbelievable. Very cavalier about a war that is killing U.S. soldiers and causing the deaths of hundreds of Iraqis almost every day. Read More......

Monday Morning Open Thread

Spent the night at my friend Emily's house in New York's Hudson Valley. Between John Hall and Kirsten Gillibrand, it is the newly blue Hudson Valley.

Any news yet today? Read More......

OSHA threatens scientist who issued asbestos warning

Will it never end with this administration? Do they have to turn back the clock on science every time? This time the threat of being sacked came from the former OSHA head, former Big Auto friend John Henshaw, who did not like that an OSHA scientist ran studies and then issued an asbestos health warning related to automobile brakes. Big Auto did not like the warning and did not see any reason why such an warning needed to be issued. Many consumers and workers were unaware of the continued asbestos tainted car brakes being imported into the US. It's going to be nice having balance in government again.

It took six years to get federal worker safety officials to issue warnings to auto mechanics that the brakes they're working on could contain lethal asbestos fibers. But it took only three weeks after the warnings were posted before a former top federal official with ties to the auto industry reportedly pushed to have them removed.

John Henshaw, a former head of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, called Aug. 15 for the agency to make changes to its warnings, according to documents obtained by The Sun.

But Ira Wainless, an OSHA scientist who wrote the advisory bulletin about asbestos in brakes, refused, according to agency documents. Wainless cited dozens of studies, including work at his own agency, to show that his presentation of the medical risk to mechanics was solid.

Last week, David Ippolito, an official with OSHA's Directorate of Science, Technology and Medicine, told Wainless that he would be suspended without pay for 10 days if the changes weren't made, according to documents.

Read More......

Since Christmas shopping season is now here

Better catch up on the latest re-gifting talk. Living in the small spaces of Paris, there's simply no extra space to store things and why not make someone else happy? Before re-gifting though, check out Regiftable and read the stories so you don't slip up. Lots of funny stories in there to laugh about. Read More......

Joe Lieberman's party of one is taken over by a new chairman who immediately issued a press release criticizing Lieberman

For real. Joe and I got wind of this on Friday. It's for real.

With Connecticut for Lieberman having achieved its victory earlier this month, Orman made his move. He contacted the secretary of the state, learned the new minor party had no registered members, then visited the registrar in Trumbull, where he lives, to switch from a Democrat to a Connecticut for Lieberman-ite.

"Then I went home and called a meeting of all registered Connecticut for Lieberman members to reflect on our party's victory in the U.S. Senate race (and) organize and submit rules to the secretary of the state," Orman said.

He nominated himself chairman, seconded the nomination, cast his vote for himself and proceeded to establish party rules.

Orman said the "party" is upset that Lieberman has abandoned it and says he is an "Independent Democrat."

Read More......