Suicide bombers kill dozens in Iraq

That's "safe" in John-McCain-land. From Reuters:

A suicide car bomber killed at least 40 people and wounded 128 at a crowded bus station near a major Shi'ite shrine in the Iraqi holy city of Kerbala on Saturday, police and hospital sources said.

In Baghdad, police said a suicide car bomber detonated his device near a checkpoint at the southern Jadriyah bridge, killing 10 people, wounding 15 and burning several cars in the second major attack on a bridge in the capital in the past three days.

In the volatile southern city of Basra, British forces on Friday killed eight gunmen laying landmines in an area where four British soldiers and their translator were killed by a roadside bomb that destroyed their armored vehicle earlier this month, the British military said on Saturday.

Television footage of the aftermath of the Kerbala explosion showed a distraught man carrying the charred body of a small child, while witnesses said the blast sent body parts flying into the air.

"I suddenly heard a horrifying explosion. I had never expected that Kerbala would see an explosion of that size because it is a safe city," said Ali Mussawi, 30, a store owner who was 50 meters (yards) from the blast site.

Read the rest of this post...

Corzine wasn't wearing a seat belt

It really burns me when people don't wear seat belts.

Corzine — who was riding in a sport utility vehicle driven by a state trooper and headed to a meeting between radio show host Don Imus and the Rutgers women's basketball team — apparently was not wearing his seat belt, as required by law.

You know the risk, you assume the risk. It's just plain idiotic. I NEVER ride in a car without a seat belt unless the seat belt is broken. NEVER. And I publicly berate those who ride with me who don't wear seat belts. There is no excuse. Read the rest of this post...

Open thread

Cloudy day... Read the rest of this post...

Indicted former Republican House leader Tom Delay says racism is a joke

This man was a leader of the Republican party. He's still a leader of the Republican far-right. And he thinks racism is a joke. He thinks calling black women "nappy-headed hos" is a joke, and that anyone who has a problem with it is simply being "politically correct." I guess that this Republican leader also thinks calling a Jewish journalist a "boner-nosed, beanie headed Jew boy" is a joke too. That calling gays "homos" and laughing at the murder of gays and lesbians is a joke too. That overturning Jewish tombstones is a joke. That referring to black professional women as "cleaning ladies" is a joke. The list goes on.

The people leading today's Republican party, a party hijacked by the far-right, the religious right, racism, sexism, and homophobia is simple a joke. And if you call someone on their ten-plus years of racism, sexism and homophobia, then you are simply being politically correct and must be destroyed.

This is what the Republican party has become. A haven for racists, sexists, and homophobes. Blacks, women, gays, and Latinos take note. They simply can't comprehend the concept that racism, sexism and homophobia are bad things, per se, and that you don't get the right to revenge because someone held a racist accountable. Only klansmen think and talk like that, at least until now.

(NB Delay made these deplorable comments on his blog and at Townhall, the premiere conservative Web site. I don't plan on linking to either, since I'm not going to give this racist criminal the Web traffic he wants.) Read the rest of this post...

Signorile launches a blog

My good friend, Sirius OutQ radio host, and a great advocate for civil rights (and lots of other progressive issues), Michelangelo Signorile has launched a blog. One of his first in-depth posts is about the gay media monitoring organization GLAAD and its MIA status of late. Check it out at Mike's blog, The Gist. Read the rest of this post...

Bush vows to stay his course on Iraq despite the American people, despite the mounting death toll

Driving home from the grocery store this morning, I actually listened to Bush give his radio address -- for the first time ever. He said the word "troops" at least a dozen times. Now, we know that the media will dutifully provide the dictation of his speech without providing any context. Like the context that April is shaping up to be one of the deadliest months yet for our troops.

I was struck by one line:

When Americans went to the polls last November, they did not vote for politicians to substitute their judgment for the judgment of our commanders on the ground.

Actually, "W", when Americans went to the polls last November, they did vote for politicians who would substitute their judgment for the judgment of the Commander-in-Chief, because the Commander-in-Chief has shown no judgment on Iraq. That's why Congress has to force the issue. Bush still has no feasible plan for Iraq -- and he never has had one. The GOP-led Congress never challenged him. That's what Democratic-led Congress is doing. The Democrats are going to impose some judgment, some rational thinking, some kind of plan on the quagmire that is Iraq.

Bush did acknowledge that "The American people voted for change in Iraq." He's right, but he doesn't seem to grasp they voted for that change because he's such a disaster. Read the rest of this post...

New study: abstinence programs a complete failure

Now it's time for Congress to shut this nonsense down. It's pathetic in the US but since this administration has chosen to export this rubbish overseas where the stakes are much higher and people are dying by the thousands, it is downright criminal.

Students who participated in sexual abstinence programs were just as likely to have sex a few years later as those who did not, according to a long-awaited study mandated by Congress.

Also, those who attended one of the four abstinence classes reviewed reported having similar numbers of sexual partners as those who did not attend the classes, and they first had sex at about the same age as their control group counterparts — 14.9 years, according to Mathematica Policy Research Inc.

The federal government now spends about $176 million annually on abstinence-until-marriage education. Critics have repeatedly said they don’t believe the programs are working, and the study will give them reinforcement.

The world has had enough of the American religious right theory and taxpayers have given enough money to their experiments. Read the rest of this post...

Saturday Morning Open Thread

Good Morning.

Some of the week's best editorial cartoons are compiled every Saturday at Bob Geiger's site. Good batch this week: McCain, Imus and Cheney get the treatment. Also, take a minute to watch Mark Fiore's video on "MC Rove." So funny, so relevant. There sure isn't a dearth of material for the cartoonists.

The Poem of the Week is by Rumi "a 13th century Persian muslim poet, jurist, and theologian." Few words, powerful thoughts.

With that, start the threading. Read the rest of this post...

Church leaders from South Africa speak out on Zimbabwe crisis

Thank goodness Desmond Tutu started this trend of criticizing the sad events in Zimbabwe. Tutu deserves a lot of credit for speaking his mind on a lot of issues and being spot on. Now that the barrier has been broken, more voices are coming forward such as two Catholic Church leaders from South Africa.

"The church is challenging SADC leaders because they are silent and letting this oppression go on," Bishop Dowling said during a prayer service in Bulawayo, second city in the country, late Thursday.

"Our political leaders by their silence are cooperating in the oppression of Zimbabweans and we are going to tell this," he said.

The two bishops, who were hosted by Bulawayo Archbishop Pius Ncube -- an outspoken critic of Mugabe -- compared the current situation in Zimbabwe to that of South Africa under apartheid.

"Apartheid did what the current regime is doing to Zimbabweans. Listening to your stories has helped us remember and realise that the oppression here and the oppression we endured is very similar," Dowling said.

Read the rest of this post...

Durbin on FDA response to pet food scandal: "inexcusable"

The FDA is little more than a pathetic excuse and hollow shell of it's former self. The organization believes its mission is to protect business interests instead of protecting citizens from harmful food both for human consumption as well as for the pets that we love.

The unexpected appearance of the Appropriations Committee Chairman, Sen. Robert C. Byrd (D-W.Va.), drove home the message that the issue is one that matters deeply to millions.

In rambling but heartfelt statements and queries, Byrd discussed his Shih Tzu, whom his late wife named Trouble, he said, and whom he calls Baby. The dog often spends his day at the Senate.

"As a pet owner and dog-lover, I join with many millions of Americans in anxiously hoping I didn't poison my dog with a special snack or serving of food," said the Senate's most senior member.

I think plenty of Americans share the same sentiment as Senator Byrd. It's time for serious change at the FDA. Read the rest of this post...

Friday Orchid Blogging

Phrag Besseae

A very small, quite beautiful flower. These aren't terribly hard to grow, at least for me. And they're awfully pretty. Enjoy. Read the rest of this post...