No Gay Mayor in Dallas

Ed Oakley conceded according to Dallas Morning News Election Blog. Read the rest of this post...

Open Thread

Saturday night. What's going on?

Keeping an eye on the Dallas Mayor's race to see if they'll elect a gay mayor -- Ed Oakley. Polls closed at 7 PM Central time. Couple sites with results are Dallas Morning News and Unfair Park, the blog of the Dallas Observer. Read the rest of this post...

The 64,000 person question

Does anyone in government care at all about data security? Read the rest of this post...

The Yogi Berra Iraq plan

It's deja vu all over again. New military offensive around Baghdad that will surely do the trick this time. Since they're going back for the umpteenth time, it's time to again roll out the classic Black Adder episode where the Field Marshall Haig wants the troops to go over the top for the 18th time, naturally surprising the German troops who would never expect such a move since it was a failure the previous 17 attempts. Read the rest of this post...

No Spanish, please - we're Univision

The Washington Post reports that the Spanish-language TV network, Univision, is requiring at its upcoming Democratic presidential debate that the candidates only speak in English - Spanish is banned.

Democrats Chris Dodd and Bill Richardson are objecting to a requirement that all presidential candidates in a debate on the Spanish-language television network Univision speak in English.

The two have signed a letter to Univision, which is trying to organize a Democratic presidential debate for Sept. 9 in Miami. The audio would be translated into Spanish.

Both candidates speak Spanish fluently and say they would prefer to address Spanish-speaking viewers without a translator. Dodd, the senator from Connecticut who wrote the letter, and Richardson, the New Mexico governor who signed on, embraced the debate with the understanding that they would be able to speak Spanish, and both campaigns say they feel that the rules have been altered to benefit those who don't.

I suggest Messrs. Dodd and Richardson announce that in their opening statements they will be asking for a show of hands as to which candidates are willing to swear that they didn't ask for the Spanish-ban. This is ridiculous, certainly callous on a Spanish-language network during a debate meant to reach Latinos, and borders on racist as well. I really am increasingly tired of these debates having to follow all sorts of ridiculous rules that the candidates concoct. If some of the candidates refuse to show up because Univision refused to ban Spanish, let those candidates explain that to America's 20 million Latinos.

As for Univision, can't wait until your viewers get a load of this. What were you thinking? Read the rest of this post...

Colbert on military firing Arab-language translators for being gay

I've pretty much stopped promoting Comedy Central since they stopped believing in the Fair Use doctrine. Comedy Central has probably been the nastiest of the TV networks in terms of going after anyone who posts any video of any of their shows, regardless of how short the video and regardless of whether reposting the video is totally legal under the Fair Use doctrine. And no, it's not their right to go after people who are reposting snippets that are totally legal under Fair Use. Not to mention, the blogs, and our readers, have done Comedy Central an incredible service over the past several years - I only started watching Jon Stewart after seeing his sketches posted on the blogs - Comedy Central responded to our charity the way every greedy corporation does, with a heavy-handed fist. So yeah, I have a problem promoting a network that's actually kind of nasty. Having said that, I'm posting this anyway since the issue is so important. Don't hold your breath for it to happen again any time soon. Read the rest of this post...

Saturday Morning Open Thread

Good morning.

Our good friend, Bob Geiger, has his weekly compilation of the best editorial cartoons. As always, Gonzales, Bush and Cheney provide plenty of material. Looking forward to seeing Bob this week at the Take Back America conference next week here in DC.

The poem of the week's author is anonymous. "O Western Wind" is only four lines proving that so much can said with a few words.

Enjoy. Then, thread. Read the rest of this post...

FDA and test lab argue over pet food results

In another time, I might have been willing to give the FDA the benefit of the doubt, but after recent actions and inactions, their word and authority no longer means much. ExperTox, the Texas lab that identified acetaminophen in various pet food products that were provided to them both directly from producers as well as concerned pet owners, stands by its test results despite the FDA disputing their findings. The lab is under confidentiality agreements so they are limited with what details can be provided to the FDA though ExperTox has offered to share data samples with the FDA but so far the FDA has failed to make contact. (H/t to Richard C.) Read the rest of this post...

"Disgrace disguised as an achievement"

Al Gore continues to call 'em as he sees 'em and is once again spot on.

"The eight most powerful nations gathered and were unable to do anything except to say 'We had good conversations and we agreed that we will have more conversations, and we will even have conversations about the possibility of doing something in the future on a voluntary basis perhaps."'

Read the rest of this post...