T-Mobile caves to far-right extremist group

Michael calls them to task. Read the rest of this post...

A whopping 4% of Americans think "morality" is the nation's top problem

Honey I shrunk the fundies. Read the rest of this post...

Bush will move more US troops to Baghdad to deal with worsening situation there

Which begs the question as to where these troops will come from? Elsewhere in Iraq? Probably. But can they be spared elsewhere in Iraq? No. It's not like the rest of Iraq suddenly got better and we have US troops to spare. So now we're going to make the rest of Iraq less safe, and our troops in those regions less safe, to deal with the worsening situation in Baghdad.

Big mess all round. Read the rest of this post...

WTO trade talks dead in the water until at least 2008

Typical. Everyone is pointing the finger at each other but there's so much blame to go around in this never ending fight to protect special interests and clear desire to avoid competition that would help poor nations develop and pull themselves out of poverty. Despite Americans complaining about the need for poor countries to apply free market trade and help themselves improve their economic situation and despite Europe talking about helping these countries, it's once again bullshit and lies for good PR. (Think neocolonial fishing deals in Africa.)

Let's not kid ourselves with this latest failure and its implications. The top economies of the world obviously prefer this situation and of course they will continue their same old lines in the future but make no mistake, they don't want change. The "free market" talk is just talk. Hell, just look at the so-called free market in the US and how absolutely false and rigged for special interests it is. To even use the phrase "free market" is fraudulent and a sad joke.

Well, I guess everyone can now get back to complaining about those poor nations who just can't go it alone and who always want money and rich countries will write more checks for aid and then keep complaining. Like it or not, we're stuck with this situation until at least after the next presidential election. Read the rest of this post...

Open Thread

Apparently, the french cuff/scarlet letter Republican hating Republican has revealed himself: It's Michael Steele from Maryland. That was fun.

What else? Read the rest of this post...

Ancient port uncovered in Turkey

I love this kind of stuff. Read the rest of this post...

88 million Americans potentially exposed to ID theft since 2005

Nothing to see here, no possible issue worthy of concern at all. The upside here is that it hasn't reached 100 million, yet. And remember that 88 million is what has been "reported" so it's bound to be a conservative number. Read the rest of this post...

Is GOP Senator George Allen the guy running from his own Republican label?

The DSCC thinks so. And let me just add, it was George Allen who told me once that he loves French Vanilla coffee. Note the reference to "French cuffs" below. Someone has rather coquette tastes.

SEN. ALLEN, WHAT DID YOU DO FOR LUNCH YESTERDAY?

Does Allen Think Bush Is A Political Albatross?

Today’s Washington Post features a column about a mystery Republican Senate candidate – who lacked the courage to be identified by name – speaking critically of George Bush and the GOP. From the way this candidate was described, it sounds like it could have been George Allen – someone who is in a tight Senate race and who agrees with Bush over 95% of the time. Even if it wasn’t Allen, though, does Allen agree with Mr. Anonymous?

CLUE: The candidate is “immersed in one of the most competitive Senate races in the country.”
REALITY: Allen has been called “weaker than he ever has been” in his Senate race this year, and his opponent Jim Webb has been called his “worst nightmare.”

CLUE: The candidate stayed off the record “to avoid a public brawl with the White House.”
REALITY: Allen says he supports Bush “when he is right,” which must be 97 percent of the time, because that is how often Allen votes with him.

CLUE: The candidate allowed that he opposes a pullout from Iraq, agrees with Bush's veto of human embryonic stem cell research, and supports constitutional amendments banning same-sex marriage and flag burning.
REALITY: Allen thinks everything is fine in Iraq, opposes stem cell research, and backs the constitutional amendments.

CLUE: The candidate “hit Bush from the right, such as when he opposed Bush's proposed guest-worker program for immigrants.”
REALITY: Allen voted against the Senate’s immigration reform bill, and accused Bush of making a “straw man argument” on immigration.

CLUE: The candidate wore “a monogrammed shirt, French cuffs sprouting cuff links coordinated with his necktie.”
REALITY: With cowboy boots? Well they do dress funny in California. (Allen’s birthplace)

They dress even funnier in San Francisco. Read the rest of this post...

Gay groups launch $250,000 ad campaign for gay marriage

Mother of God, why?

I'm all for equal marriage rights, but three months before the we're spending a quarter of a million dollars on promoting gay marriage. Again, why? I just don't get it. Politically, what is to be gained by spending a hell of a lot of money on promoting gay marriage NOW? Is this supposed to help us get-out-the-vote in the fall? I'm not sure how it does. Though it probably helps get out the far-right Republican vote. So, again the question is asked, why these ads on this topic and why right now?

Now, I'm all for helping change the culture, and doing things to win over the hearts and minds of Americans on various gay issues. And ad campaigns are an important part of that goal. And an ad campaign showing loving gay couples who have been together, in one case, for 53 years, is great PR. But, again, I'm still not sure why this campaign is running right now when America is rightly focused on the fall elections, and that election is increasingly about George Bush's incompetence in Iraq and at home and the Republicans having lost their minds. Why would we want to help shift the debate from all of that to gay marriage?

And finally, if we've got a quarter of a million dollars to piss away on ads, I'd like to think there are a lot better uses for that money, like, oh, say promoting the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) which would ban anti-gay job discrimination, which polls at around 70% support, and which has relatively strong support in Congress.

Is there some reason we as a movement can't focus on the rather-important attainable goals first, then move on to the more difficult ones? The right wing does this all the time - you don't see them trying to overturn Roe v Wade all in one fell swoop. They do it gradually, in thin slices, so you don't even know they're coming... like the fog rolling in on cat paws (love that quote).

One final thought. Maybe this is being done to help fight back against all the anti-gay state ballot initiatives and the like. And that isn't a bad thing. But it's still not quite clear how this ad campaign is helping us do that. And in any case, if this were the intent, it'd be nice if someone told us members of the gay mafia, so we could help, rather than having to find out about it in the newspaper. Read the rest of this post...

BP's profits soar

Thank God the oil companies are doing okay. I worry about them. Read the rest of this post...

Anti-abortion Republicans want to jail your priest

Dems trying to stop them. Good. The Republicans have launched a war on America's bedroom and it needs to stop. Justice Scalia thinks the government regulating masturbation is a fine idea (for real). A lead spokesman for the religious right said he was in favor of outlawing all oral sex, even between married heterosexual couples. We already know the Republicans are trying to get rid of condoms and other forms of birth control. And then there's divorce. How long do you think that will stay legal?

It's high time we kicked the Republicans out of our bedroom. Read the rest of this post...

A GOP Senate Candidate "off the record"

Interesting, yet somewhat bizarre column by Dana Milbank in today's Washington Post. It's an interview with a "GOP Senate Candidate" who talked frankly with reporters yesterday as long as he could be anonymous:

The candidate, immersed in one of the most competitive Senate races in the country, sat down to lunch yesterday with reporters at a Capitol Hill steakhouse and shared his views about this year's political currents.

On the Iraq war: "It didn't work. . . . We didn't prepare for the peace."

On the response to Hurricane Katrina: "A monumental failure of government."

On the national mood: "There's a palpable frustration right now in the country."

Which of the clowns could it have been? I thought Chafee at first, except for this:

It's not an ideological matter. Even as he berated the president, the candidate allowed that he opposes a pullout from Iraq, agrees with Bush's veto of human embryonic stem cell research, and supports constitutional amendments banning same-sex marriage and flag burning.

Reading the piece, you get the sense you're dealing with a real self-hater:

He spoke of his party affiliation as though it were a congenital defect rather than a choice. "It's an impediment. It's a hurdle I have to overcome," he said. "I've got an 'R' here, a scarlet letter."

Santorum? Read the rest of this post...

Iraqi's PM in DC -- and this time, it's not a love fest

Al-Maliki is apparently going to challenge Bush today on several issues -- including the Israeli-Lebanon conflict (he's not on our side in that one):

The growing differences between Iraqi and American policies reflect an increasing disenchantment with American power among politicians and ordinary Iraqis, according to several politicians, academics and clerics. Sectarian violence has soared despite the presence of the Americans, and recent cases where American troops have been accused of killing civilians or raping Iraqi women have infuriated the public.

Mr. Maliki and other top Shiite leaders also want to maintain strong ties to Iran, whose influence is rising across the Middle East, officials say.

Pinnochio is growing up and wants to run a real country.

In a break from CNN's Lebanon frenzy, Suzann Malveaux just briefly reported on Al-Maliki's visits noting that privately, some "administration officials" are acknowledging things aren't going well in Iraq. You think? Read the rest of this post...

Tuesday Morning Open Thread

I hate that CNN war music -- sounds like a combination of guns and drums banging. That network's overload on the war climaxed last night when Paula Zahn asked if we were facing the apocalypse:

Now, is the crisis in the Middle East predicted by the Bible? Next in our top story coverage, what does the Book of Revelation tell us about what's happening right now in the Middle East? Are we really approaching the end of the world?

How's that for some solid reporting?

What else? Read the rest of this post...

Racial hate crime killings continue in UK

What in the hell is happening these days over there? Such horrific stories are happening way too often these days in the UK and it's shocking. I have thought for years that racism in Europe and government/peoples responses were thirty years behind the US but with the numerous hate killings in the UK this year alone, I'm thinking the UK has turned back the clock more than that. In my travels for work and fun, I had always been under the impression that the UK was much more open and integrated compared to neighbors on the continent but the situation there has truly spiraled out of control.

These stories really sadden me because it's just not the Britain that I knew and respected. What has gone so wrong for such an open and understanding society? Read the rest of this post...

Snow waffles on stem cell "murder" remark

Phew, close call. I was starting to think that Bush was allowing murder, outside of Iraq that is. Even his revision is lame and I'm still wondering why Bush is allowing the "destruction of human life" outside of Iraq, of course, where he's pretty comfortable with random killings, murder and gangland sytle executions since he sees things going so well there.

Only last Wednesday:

"The president believes strongly that for the purpose of research it's inappropriate for the federal government to finance something that many people consider murder. He's one of them," Snow said at the time.

And yesterday:

Snow said Monday that the president remains opposed to using federal funds for such research because it involves "a destruction of human life."

Snow's characterization became an issue on Sunday for White House chief of staff Josh Bolten, who struggled on NBC's "Meet the Press" to answer whether Bush agreed with his spokesman that destruction of unwanted fertilized embryos was tantamount to murder?

"The president thinks that that embryo, that fertilized embryo, is a human life that deserves protection," Bolten said. "I haven't spoken to him about the use of particular terminology," Bolten said.

Said Snow on Monday: "I overstepped my brief there, and so I created a little trouble for Josh Bolten in the interview. And I feel bad about it."

Read the rest of this post...