FDA official resigns.

"I can no longer serve as staff when scientific and clinical evidence, fully evaluated and recommended for approval by the professional staff here, has been overruled . . . The recent decision announced by the Commissioner about emergency contraception, which continues to limit women's access to a product that would reduce unintended pregnancies and reduce abortions, is contrary to my core commitment to improving and advancing women's health."

From Brad:

All right Bastards...

I will be at the Funny Bone Newport on the Levee
starting tonight (Wednesday August 31) with Roy Wood
Jr. and September 1-Saturday September 3 with RICH VOS
Tickets and showtimes vary, please come out
http://www.funnyboneonthelevee.com

ALSO

COUNTDOWN TO THE LAST EPISODE OF THE OPENERS THIS
FRIDAY

Its going to be an emotional morning for me and I am
really going to miss doing this show. Hopefully, we
are moving on to big and better things with this show,
I will keep you posted, but several parties are
interested in picking this up and even paying us, we
will see fingers crossed. Thanks to all comics who
have called in and sat in (Kachelmeyer, Waite, Hyden,
Butch, Stanton, Gillman)

10-11 am EST on 88.3 FM or http://www.waifstream.com

This guy's a real fucking humanitarian...

via Crooks and Liars.

The war over "truth".

(nevermind... now that I read it, it's kind of a shitty article. The book reviewed might be interesting, but the author of the article could use a course in philosophy 101, not to mention physics 101.)

Miss Clinton?

Language and survival.

Everyone had hoped that the weakening and turning storm had spared New Orleans the worst of it, but the levee ruptured anyway. Every time I check the news it's worse.

Rotten in Denmark #4576

"Bunnatine H. Greenhouse, who had been the Corps of Engineers' top procurement official since 1997, was removed, effective Saturday, for what Corps of Engineers officials called a poor job performance."

Yeah...sure...You don't think it has anything to do with Cheney, do ya?

Cindy Sheehan Speaks, along with other grieving families, on NPR's Talk of the Nation.

Dr. Myers takes apart the ridiculous creationist article that Sally Jenkins published in the Washington Post.

Governor Fletcher is going to try to pardon his way out of scandal. If he pardons himself, he deserves to leave this state tarred, feathered, and tied to a rail.

New discovery at Fort Ancient.

Posting from me is likely to be light for a while. I'm sure Wizard and Man of Wealth and Taste will take up the slack.

The evacuation of parts of east-side Cincinnati for a styrene leak. I don't normally mention local issues much, but posted for discussion.

Liberal Law School?!

A soldier points out a connection I hadn't made... he was paralyzed in Operation Bush's Ego, and Bush is blocking the stem cell research that might help him walk again.

McCain proudly pushing gay-bashing amendment to Arizona constitution.

Flickr photogroup for Hurricane Katrina.

Kos on the NeoCon lowblows, lowbrows, and low character.

Really, I'd say we should just do all the testing on "animal rights activists" but apparently, they're not even smart enough to get a hanging banana by stacking boxes.

Rush Limbaugh/Bill O'Reilly support down to 12%. Small enough to drown in a bathtub.

6. Do you think it is OK for people who oppose the war in Iraq to express their opposition publicly, or not?

--Yes, 87 percent

--No, 12 percent

--Not sure, 1 percent

The Post Mortem on Post Modernism: A Screed.

First Bush gets elected...then Poindexter appears phantom like from the 7th circle of Hell...Cap Weinberger and James Watt crawl out of the darkest holes imaginable...the platonic twice removed sounds of New New Wave ruling the airwaves...Cold Supply has the biggest album in the world...now this...

Prep's Cool.

Yes...legions of popped collared lemmings crawling their way to despondancy, crass materialism, pink sport shirts and plaid shorts, top-siders, coke off the toilet seat. What the fuck is this? Pretty in Pink?

Yes, let us revel in fake punk bands who sound like REO Speedwagon, or "authentic" emo bands who want to sound like Morrissey, but without all the gay connotations. No no no, let's instead groove substanceless lifestyle bullshit like 50 cent et al keepin' it real...Yeah, real bourgie, real vacant...

I'm thirty one years old...what do you do when, in that time, you've lived through the same horrifyingly vacant decade TWICE...only knowing glimpses of an America that was subsequently eaten by its stupid, bratty consumerist little brothers; "When I grow up, I wanna be a simulacra".

The sad fact is that these Greek Life shits are trying to perpetuate the same Greek Life shit their similarly lame parents pulled in the eighties. So much for doing your own thing. Television finally killed youth culture.

So here we are, friends, at the funeral of irony, the death of the sign as signification. We've reached the pinnacle of Post Modernism, and it is an endless self referential loop. Hell, the kind of play that characterized the early Post Modern period has been appropriated by its natural enemies in order to further its own Izod fascism, under the guise of moral absolutes...WMD evidence...let's decontextualize some data, and voila, a justification. Let's apply deconstructive tension to the word theory, and that way, the Flintstones Design theory gets taken seriously...Hypocrisy made real flesh and real politik.

So here is what I propose; An apocalypse. Yep, starting over. Stop the feedback loop. I propose, once and for all, we kill POST MODERNISM; academically, culturally, and otherwise. Take its lessons of historical proximity, the inquiry of power, the slipperiness of language, and kill it dead. Keep the good, for it is, and dump the rest. Reinstate the objective. I could go on and on...

I would not have survived the Comps. with out 'em. Maybe they should put it in the water.

"Much like performance-enhancing drugs in professional sports, the spread of analeptics among college students is raising issues of competitiveness and fairness."

Hey...Don't you know who helped get the Governator elected?

Don't think for a second that Pfizer aren't going to get their 100 grand worth...

Can fetuses feel it?

Evidentally, ideology influenced the findings.

Wow...everything really is political....

Institutional rape culture at the military academies.

A culture that devalues the role of women in uniform makes it easier for rape and sexual harassment to occur at the Army and Navy academies, according to a Pentagon task force report released Thursday.

"When women are devalued, the likelihood of harassing and even abusive behavior increases," said the panel of 12 military officers and civilian experts. It proposed wide-ranging action, from better admissions screening to revamping antiquated military rape laws.

Congress ordered the review of the Army and Navy academies after a 2003 investigation at the Air Force academy found sexual assault "a part of life" for cadets. That investigation arose after almost 150 women came forward to say they had been assaulted by fellow cadets between 1993 and 2003.

Wow. Years of bullshit stories about a fictional child of a fictional soldier are unraveling. Some student has been learning about journalism from Judith Miller and Fox News.

Oops - I see that he already graduated. I'm surprised his name isn't Ari Fleischer.

Reynolds acknowledged the little girl actually is the daughter of friends, and said she persuaded the parents to let her bring the child regularly to Carbondale by saying she was filming a documentary about a soldier killed in Iraq.

"We told her it was for a movie," Reynolds said.

Reynolds said the scheme was Brenner's idea.

"Mike is my best friend," she said. "In the last couple of years, he's had a hard time with his career. He asked me if I would help him out. I said I would. It just got a little bigger than he told me it would. I went with it because supposedly he was my best friend. This needs to be over with. I don't want to lie anymore. He just wouldn't let it go."

Mother of the year.

“An officer was sent to the residence to investigate. Indeed Mr. Clark was sleeping in the bed with a 15 year-old female. The mother of the femaly, ironically, had no problem with this,” Murfreesboro Police Lieutenant Alvin Baird said.

Clark was arrested and charged with violating the sex offender registry.

“A sex offender is not allowed to reside with a minor. In this case, not only was he residing at the residents, he was sleeping in the bed with the minor,” Lt. Baird said.

Police said Clark also gave them a false address when he registered as a sex offender. The address listed for Clark on the sex offender registry is different from the one police found him living in with the teen.

The homeowner at the address Clark filed with the state said Clark never lived there, but that he did work there, and was usually dropped off at his probation office.

Detectives have asked the district attorney to look into whether the mother broke any laws by allowing a convicted sex offender share a bed with her daughter. No charges have been filed yet.

Religious fanatics attack grieving military widow.

Tomorrow on "The Openers" (Fridays 10 a.m.-11 a.m. on
88.3 FM or on the internet at
http://www.waifstream.com)

Young Brian Gill(man) Joins Us Live in the Studio

Brad Lied to By Kanye West

Jamie Foxx Annoyance Level

Trouble's With WAIF

Butch Wesley Calls In About His New Car

Dog: The Bounty Hunter Parody

Brad Camp

Meg White Countdown

also:

You can check me out live August 31-September 3rd at
the Funny Bone Newport on the Levee. I will be opening
for Rich Vos (http://www.richvos.com). Get tickets and
show info at http://www.funnyboneonthelevee.com

This will be my last appearance in Cincy for a few
weeks.

Coming to Cleveland with Levy and the freaks from
Howard Stern in September as well as a few other
places.

Brad

Viral marketing clips for the Serenity movie.

Robertson

(took down the first cartoon because it was too large, blowing out the formatting)

Hawaii institutes a cap on wholesale gas prices.

Just in time for CHRISTMASS part deux: Bush finds his own Cindy Sheehan.

"By invoking Tammy Pruett of Pocatello, Idaho, Bush's speech to Idaho National Guard members and Air Force personnel marked the latest effort by the White House to respond to growing antiwar protests being led largely by relatives of fallen troops."

Can a steel cage match be far behind?

Just in time for CHRIST-MASS: A book that tells kids what horrible people we are.

Help! Mom! There Are Liberals Under My Bed.

via The Huffington Post

"Dr." James Dobson and what to do if you think your child might be "gettin' a lil' gay".

Isn't that just precious?

Bernie Goldberg et al.:

Liberal Media Bias, my ass, part ???

"CBS Affiliate Will Not Air Sheehan Ad Because There Is “No Proof” Of Absence Of WMD In Iraq..."

via The Huffington Post

McCain advocates teaching mythology in science class. via Pharyngula

Abu Ghraib General Lambastes Bush Administration

Flashback to what the "American Legion" was saying about supporting the president when we were intervening in Yugoslavia.

Dear Mr. President:
The American Legion, a wartime veterans organization of nearly three-million members, urges the immediate withdrawal of American troops participating in "Operation Allied Force.''

The National Executive Committee of The American Legion, meeting in Indianapolis today, adopted Resolution 44, titled "The American Legion's Statement on Yugoslavia.'' This resolution was debated and adopted unanimously.

Mr. President, the United States Armed Forces should never be committed to wartime operations unless the following conditions are fulfilled:


That there be a clear statement by the President of why it is in our vital national interests to be engaged in hostilities;

Guidelines be established for the mission, including a clear exit strategy;

That there be support of the mission by the U.S. Congress and the American people; and

That it be made clear that U.S. Forces will be commanded only by U.S. officers whom we acknowledge are superior military leaders.
It is the opinion of The American Legion, which I am sure is shared by the majority of Americans, that three of the above listed conditions have not been met in the current joint operation with NATO ("Operation Allied Force'').

In no case should America commit its Armed Forces in the absence of clearly defined objectives agreed upon by the U.S. Congress in accordance with Article I, Section 8, of the Constitution of the United States.

Sincerely,
Harold L. "Butch" Miller,
National Commander

American Legion
Letter to President Clinton
May 5, 1999

Republicans and Free Speech.

Actually, it should say Neo Cons, because there is a difference.

On a lighter note: Ann Coulter is still an ignorant harpy.

However, Olbermann declares her to be the "worst person in the world"...

I'll go along with that.

How long are we going to continue treating military spending like a jobs and welfare program?

In some of its first decisions, the commission voted to keep open several major Army and Navy bases that military planners want to shut down, including the Portsmouth shipyard in Kittery, Maine, and the New London submarine base in Groton, Conn., two of the Navy's oldest bases.

"Yahoo!" exclaimed Sen. Joe Lieberman, D-Conn. "Submarine base New London lives, and I think that it will live forever."

Another interesting, albeit depressing, piece from Matt Taibbi.

The Quixotic Bernie Sanders?

"It was a fairy-tale political season for George W. Bush, and it seemed like no one in the world noticed. Amid bombs in London, bloodshed in Iraq, a missing blonde in Aruba and a scandal curling up on the doorstep of Karl Rove, Bush's Republican Party quietly celebrated a massacre on Capitol Hill. Two of the most long-awaited legislative wet dreams of the Washington Insiders Club -- an energy bill and a much-delayed highway bill -- breezed into law. One mildly nervous evening was all it took to pass through the House the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA), for years now a primary strategic focus of the battle-in-Seattle activist scene. And accompanied by scarcely a whimper from the Democratic opposition, a second version of the notorious USA Patriot Act passed triumphantly through both houses of Congress, with most of the law being made permanent this time. "

Except this time, the windmills are oil rigs pumping cash to fat old white guys.

Can Fetuses feel it?

Survey says: Until 28 weeks, no.

Guess we're back to the mythology.

Huggins Hysteria: A more balanced look.

Brownshirts.

NEW YORK The American Legion, which has 2.7 million members, has declared war on antiwar protestors, and the media could be next. Speaking at its national convention in Honolulu, the group's national commander called for an end to all “public protests” and “media events” against the war, constitutional protections be damned.

"The American Legion will stand against anyone and any group that would demoralize our troops, or worse, endanger their lives by encouraging terrorists to continue their cowardly attacks against freedom-loving peoples," Thomas Cadmus, national commander, told delegates at the group's national convention in Honolulu.

The delegates vowed to use whatever means necessary to "ensure the united backing of the American people to support our troops and the global war on terrorism."

Illegal organ market. This story is on NPR right now. It will hit the rest of the media tomorrow.

IANS Durban Aug 18: Three South African Indians are among five leading doctors, facing charges of alleged involvement in a scam that saw Brazilians being paid paltry sums for their kidneys, which were transplanted into mainly Israeli clients.One of the three, Ariff Haffajee, is the deputy head of surgery at the Nelson Mandela Medical School and has won numerous international awards for humanitarian activities. His boss, John Robbs has also been charged, along with doctors, Mahadev Naidoo, Neil Christopher and Kapil Satyapal.

[...]

The charges were framed after local police uncovered a syndicate that recruited donors from Brazil who were paid a few hundred dollars for their organs. Israeli recipients of the kidneys then paid more than $100,000 each for the operations, flying in especially to get a transplant.

NPR states that half of Israeli kidney transplant patients have gotten their new organs on the black market.

I'd guess that the focus on Israel as the main customer country may have something to do with orthodox jewish beliefs about keeping the body intact after death, so they have very few organ donations.

A lot more on Chavez, including his offer to sell cheap gasoline directly to impoverished US communities to help the poor.

I'm sure she's just 'big-boned'.

ROCHESTER, N.H. - As doctors warn more patients that they should lose weight, the advice has backfired on one doctor with a woman filing a complaint with the state saying he was hurtful, not helpful.

Dr. Terry Bennett says he tells obese patients their weight is bad for their health and their love lives, but the lecture drove one patient to complain to the state.

"I told a fat woman she was obese," Bennett says. "I tried to get her attention. I told her, 'You need to get on a program, join a group of like-minded people and peel off the weight that is going to kill you.' "

He says he wrote a letter of apology to the woman when he found out she was offended.

Reverend Terminator

Good editorial, but this is the best;

"And remember that Robertson's moral indignation is selective. In 2003--a busy year for him--he slammed the Bush administration's calls for Liberian President Charles Taylor to resign. A UN-backed tribunal had indicted Taylor for war crimes in Sierra Leone.

You see, some of Robertson's financial investments happened to be tied up in Liberia. Ah, morality is in the details."

Bush, "Protesters Don't Represent American View of Iraq"

Interesting that the polls support a contrary view. Ahem....What's your approval rating again, George?

Nigeria's Oil Battle

A very interesting interview from NPR about the situation in Nigeria and its effect on oil prices. Wonderful quotes from a Warlord, too.

DarkSyde does cosmogany, then talks about the upcoming merger with Andromeda.

Then he gets to the wild stuff:

There's another anomaly possibly related to massive black-holes and gravitational monsters. All of the nearby galaxies including our own are blazing along at over 1,000 miles per second to a point about 150 million light-years away. That region seems to be drawing in matter from all over, from hundreds of millions of light-years in all directions. It is therefore called, for lack of a more precise name, the Great Attractor. This beast would need to have the mass of a hundred-thousand galaxies the size of our Milky Way to account for the effects we observe. But we can't see anything in telescopes or detect anything in other wavelengths to account for it. Could a giant black hole, free of a galaxy be lurking there? Or is it something else, some kind of dark matter object; the non bayronic analogue of a super massive black-hole or giant galaxy? Something new, exotic, maybe even dare I say it, something artificial (That would be a scary race of beings, to have that kind of power ... maybe we'd call them, Xeelee?)? Right now, no one has a clue what it might be.

So, fact is, there are real mysteries out there in the cosmos, giant black-holes, gravitational monstrosities, mysterious attractors, bizarre forms of exotic matter, dark energy, and things we haven't even dreamed of yet, waiting to be found and explained. There's plenty to learn, we haven't even scratched the surface. We need lots of young scientists to take up the good fight and push our knowledge one more notch, one more iota, one more datum. There's a whole dark sea full of unknowns, it's every where we look, in the large and the small, the subtle and the obvious; just waiting to be seen, examined, understood, appreciated, and passed on to the next generation to build upon.

Woman who once said Bush was her "liberator" decides to get the hell out of Iraq.

Dr. Raja Kuzai yesterday:
"This is the future of the new Iraqi government - it will be in the hands of the clerics," said Dr. Raja Kuzai, a secular Shiite member of the Assembly."I wanted Iraqi women to be free, to be able to talk freely and to able to move around."

"I am not going to stay here," said Dr. Kuzai, an obstetrician and women's leader who met President Bush in the White House in November 2003.

This is the grasp on reality that Chimpy has:

Q Does the administration's goal -- I'll ask you about the Iraqi constitution. You said you're confident that it will honor the rights of women.

THE PRESIDENT: Yes.

Q If it's rooted in Islam, as it seems it will be, is that still -- is there still the possibility of honoring the rights of women?

THE PRESIDENT: I talked to Condi, and there is not -- as I understand it, the way the constitution is written is that women have got rights, inherent rights recognized in the constitution, and that the constitution talks about not "the religion," but "a religion." Twenty-five percent of the assembly is going to be women, which is a -- is embedded in the constitution.

It would be hilarious listening to a moron who has no idea what everyone who reads the news knows about Iraq's constitution, if he were anyone but the most powerful individual in the world.

Marketing the Dead

The Pentagon's latest Pro-War effort.

UC Coach Nears His End

The West side of Cincinnati must be wearing sackcloth and spreading ashes today.

ICE your cell phone.

How to effectively battle the DLC/right branch for control of the democratic party.

The model I think that works is based on one with which I was involved before I left Massachusetts. It was a statewide group called Progressive Democrats of Massachussetts. The "Democrats" part of the title was not an accident. Once you incorporate that into your name, you are obliged by state rules to behave in certain ways--for instance, you can't endorse non-Democrats. The goal of the organization is to inject the stultified (and sometimes regressive) state party with more progressive attitudes and candidates. As new as it is, this group has already been pretty successful in throwing financial and volunteer weight behind candidates who fit the progressive mold. And they have gotten them elected. They've also made less progressive candidates listen to them by the unnamed threat of not getting their endorsement. If you show you can get people elected, people start to listen to you. If they know you are successfully countering the electoral chances of more moderate candidates, you get some political clout. In party politics, results are what convinces more than talk. If we want leverage, it has to been earned through tangible successes.

No Time to meet with a soldier's mother. I'm Going Cycling

No answers in the pizza-delivery guy bombing. But some serious suspicions.

Three days after the strange death of Brian Wells, Erie was faced with another strange incident.

Robert Pinetti, a friend of Wells’ who worked with him delivering pizzas for Mama Mia’s, was discovered unresponsive by family members. Nearly the same age as Wells, a coroner’s report obtained by FOX News showed that Pinetti died from a lethal combination of drugs and alcohol in his system. The coroner’s report ruled Pinetti’s death accidental.

Despite the extraordinary coincidence of two men working for the same small pizza delivery shop dying mysterious deaths within days of each other, a thorough investigation turned up nothing linking Pinetti's overdose death to the deadly bomb blast that killed Wells.

But Pinetti’s death would not be the last.

Three weeks after Wells’ murder, William Rothstein -- a substitute teacher, handyman and lifelong Erie resident -- contacted the Pennsylvania State Police to report that there was a body in his freezer.

In an exclusive video obtained by FOX News, Rothstein admits to disposing of the corpse, later identified as James Roden.

“There was a person I have known since the late 60s early 70s. She had a body in her house that she wanted removed … I helped her with it,” Rothstein said. “I put it basically in my garage.”

The woman was Marjorie Diehl-Armstrong, a former fiancé of Rothstein’s.

“She's had bad luck with significant others. One individual was shot seven or eight times while he was asleep,” said Foulk, the district attorney.

“She had a significant other that hung himself … She had a significant other that apparently stumbled and hit his head on a coffee table and died … and Mr. Roden was shot while he was asleep as well with two blasts from a shotgun,” Foulk said.

Of the four suspicious deaths connected to Diehl-Armstrong, she was convicted in only one. She was found guilty of murder in the third degree for the death of James Roden. She admitted to causing one of the other deaths but she claimed spousal abuse.

[...]

One potential witness to the events of Aug. 28, 2003, told FOX News that he was driving south on I-79 not far from the bank robbery site on that day.

“I saw at a distance, maybe half a mile away, a gold car driving to my right on the berm coming at me at full highway speed,” said Tom Sedwick, a retired faculty member from Indiana University of Pennsylvania. “It was a woman … and she made full eye contact with me because I was blinking the lights and she looked at me and continued on toward Erie, but in the wrong lane, on the wrong side of the road.”

Three weeks later, he found out whom those eyes belonged to when authorities picked up Diehl-Armstrong in the Roden case and Sedwick saw her on television. “They marched the woman through in her orange outfit and I turned to my wife and I said, ‘That's the woman I saw in that gold car.’”

Roberts on minorities.

Pat Robertson calls for assassination.

Digby on being the opposition party.

Feinstein is saying "I happen to feel that it would be very difficult for me to vote yes on a nominee I thought would overturn Roe vs. Wade."

Golly, from her that almost sounds like she'll vote against corporate interests. I hope she's serious enough to vote against him even when he refuses to answer the question.

Don't kid yourself though. Roberts is already on the Court. America lost that fight at the ballot box.

Moog died.

Switched-On Bach was one of my favorite 8-tracks as a 10 year old.

Roberts

The first, and most important, thing everyone needs to understand about the nomination of John Roberts to the Supreme Court is that it is the single biggest domestic issue that will face the country not just now, but for the rest of Bush's presidency. Everyone who reads this blog has grown up assuming (because no one ever said otherwise in high school civics) that the New Deal was constitutional, that Congress could pass sweeping civil rights laws, and that the federal judiciary is a protector of civil rights. Most of you have grown up assuming that such a thing as the right to privacy is a part of the United States Constitution. Indeed, even most of the readers of this blog, and certainly most Americans, have come to assume that the Constitutional order this country has known since the 1930s is more or less a given, with some issues still to be decided but certainly with the fundamentals settled.

John Roberts could change all that. Whatever any media outlet or conservative pundit has to say about Judge Roberts being "kind," "brilliant," "family man," he's the Trojan horse that Bush wants to send to the Supreme Court to dismantle seventy years of jurisprudence. John Roberts on the Supreme Court will fundamentally change the nature of the United States. That is why he is the issue, and why we must all do whatever we can to keep him off of the Court.

I haven't been able to find Ralph Nader speaking out about Roberts yet. Though Roberts is wrong on nearly every issue, it's as a corporate whore that he's really shown us what complete disregard for the citizens and the country in favor of the Enrons of the world look like. So I would hope Ralph would get past his work for the republicans to talk about what Roberts plans to do to this country.

The Southpark version of The Aristocrats.

Very not safe for work. Or for any of my nieces or nephews who read this site, by the way!

Senator Hackett.

More on the Iraq civil war.

The spreadsheets in Dr. Faad Ameen Bakr's computer shed some light on the casualty rate. Baghdad's chief pathologist pulls down the death toll for Iraq's capital in July: 1,083 murders, a new record.

Under Saddam Hussein, Baghdad was a violent city. But the highest murder rate before the war was 250 in one month. (By comparison, New York City with about 2 million more residents, had 572 murders in 2004, and a peak of 2,245 in 1990).

The month of June, with 870 murders, was the previous record in Baghdad. In a weary monotone, Dr. Bakr explains that 680 of the victims were shot, the rest "strangled, electrocuted, stabbed, killed by blunt trauma or burned to death." The totals don't include residents killed by Baghdad's frequent car-bombings.

While he won't discuss the religious background of the victims - citing the vulnerability of himself and his staff - Bakr says a growing number of victims show signs of "extreme torture" and arrive at the morgue in handcuffs or bound with the plastic ties used by the Iraqi military and police. "I wouldn't call it a civil war, but I would call it chronic instability," he says.

The Iraq civil war is rapidly escalating.

BASRA, Iraq -- Shiite and Kurdish militias, often operating as part of Iraqi government security forces, have carried out a wave of abductions, assassinations and other acts of intimidation, consolidating their control over territory across northern and southern Iraq and deepening the country's divide along ethnic and sectarian lines, according to political leaders, families of the victims, human rights activists and Iraqi officials.

[...]

Since the formation of a government this spring, Basra, Iraq's second-largest city, has witnessed dozens of assassinations, claiming members of the former ruling Baath Party, Sunni political leaders and officials of competing Shiite parties. Many have been carried out by uniformed men in police vehicles, according to political leaders and families of the victims, with some of the bullet-riddled bodies dumped at night in a trash-strewn parcel known as The Lot. The province's governor said in an interview that Shiite militias have penetrated the police force; an Iraqi official estimated that as many as 90 percent of officers were loyal to religious parties.

Across northern Iraq, Kurdish parties have employed a previously undisclosed network of at least five detention facilities to incarcerate hundreds of Sunni Arabs, Turkmens and other minorities abducted and secretly transferred from Mosul, Iraq's third-largest city, and from territories stretching to the Iranian border, according to political leaders and detainees' families. Nominally under the authority of the U.S.-backed Iraqi army, the militias have beaten up and threatened government officials and political leaders deemed to be working against Kurdish interests; one bloodied official was paraded through a town in a pickup truck, witnesses said.

"I don't see any difference between Saddam and the way the Kurds are running things here," said Nahrain Toma, who heads a human rights organization, Betnahrain, with offices in northern Iraq and has faced several death threats.

Bush approval rating: 36%.

Kos declares war on Ed Kilgore and Will Marshall of the DLC.

An asshole doesn't get the Aristocrats and hates standup comics, and to the Washington Post, that's news.

Bush is still trying to lie about the invasion of Iraq having any connection to the 9-11 attacks.

Digby on Iraq policy until 2008.

A former top aide to Colin Powell says his involvement in the former secretary of state's presentation to the United Nations on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction was "the lowest point" in his life.

"I wish I had not been involved in it," says Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, a longtime Powell adviser who served as his chief of staff from 2002 through 2005. "I look back on it, and I still say it was the lowest point in my life."

Great article in the Nation on radio consolidation.

Body and Soul on Roberts.

Yesterday was the 85th anniversary of the 19th amendment, giving women the right to vote in the US.

Support H.R. 1264, to get well-trained support for disabled!

Direct Support Worker Bill Can Make a Difference

Take Action!

Contact Your Representative to Co-Sponsor H.R. 1264


BACKGROUND:

Earlier this year, Representatives Lee Terry (R-NE) and Lois Capps (D-CA) introduced the Direct Support Professionals Fairness and Security Act of

2005 (H.R. 1264). Reps. Terry and Capps recognize the inadequate wages paid to hundreds of thousands of direct support professionals who struggle daily to enhance the lives of people with disabilities while at the same time struggling to provide income security for their own families. H.R. 1264 represents a first step in bringing an unfair situation to the attention of Congress and the nation.

For millions of people with disabilities of all ages, direct support professionals are the key to living successfully in their home communities. Direct support professionals are often personal care assistants or home care aides who assist people with severe disabilities with medications, preparing and eating meals, dressing, mobility, personal hygiene and handling daily affairs.

Direct support professionals face many difficult challenges throughout their careers. Unfortunately, these difficulties have led to high turnover and ongoing vacancies, which can place people with severe disabilities at risk. Annual turnover rates for direct support professionals range to more than 75 percent.

The lack of adequate and well-trained direct support staff for people with disabilities continues to threaten the quality of services provided for people with disabilities; undermines their choice to live and work in the community; and chips away their ability to control their own lives.

STATUS:

The Arc, United Cerebral Palsy, the American Network of Community Options and Resources (ANCOR) and the Lutheran Services of America are participating in a national campaign to highlight this important issue and gain support for H.R. 1264.

Currently, the following members of Congress sponsor and co-sponsor H.R.

1264:

Rep. Lee Terry (R-NE) - sponsor

Rep. Lois Capps (D-CA) - sponsor

Rep. John Duncan, Jr. (R-TN)

Rep. Bob Filner (D-CA)

Rep. Ray LaHood (R-IL)

Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY)

Rep. Tom Osborne (R-NE)

Rep. Nick Rahall (D-WV)

Rep. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI)

Rep. Howard Berman (D-CA)

Rep. Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV)

Rep. Michael Doyle (D-PA)

Rep. Michael McNulty (D-NY)

Rep. Ed Pastor (D-AZ)

Rep. Peter Visclosky (D-IN)

**Please note: If Reps. Terry, Capps or a current co-sponsor is your member of Congress, please do not send an e-mail requesting their support of H.R. 1264.

TAKE ACTION:

Representatives Terry and Capps cannot make this bill become law without the support of the disability community. You know the difference that quality direct support workers make. Now, it is time for you to help make a difference. Make it happen today!

Send an e-mail today to your member of Congress and urge him/her to co-sponsor Rep. Terry and Capps's bill, H.R. 1264.

Senators are in Alaska seeing the results of global warming for themselves.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska - Anyone doubting the effects of human activity on global climate change should talk to the people it affects in Alaska and the Yukon, U.S. Sen. John McCain said Wednesday.

Fresh from a trip to Barrow, America's northernmost city, McCain said anecdotes from Alaskans and residents of the Yukon Territory confirm scientific evidence of global warming.

"We are convinced that the overwhelming scientific evidence indicated that climate change is taking place and human activities play a very large role," McCain said.

McCain, accompanied by Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., spoke to villagers in Canada whose spruce trees are being attacked by the northward spread of spruce beetles. On Alaska's northern coast, they met Native Alaskans dealing with melting permafrost and coastal erosion.

"I don't think there is any doubt left for anyone who actually looks at the science," Clinton said. "There are still some holdouts, but they are fighting a losing battle. The science is overwhelming, but what is deeply concerning is that climate change is accelerating."

Graham, who declared himself "on the fence" about climate change legislation, said an academic debate about global warming is different in the North.

"If you can go to the Native people and listen to their stories and walk away with any doubt that something's going on, I just think you're not listening," he said.

[...]

McCain said the trip has been valuable for the accumulation of evidence that can be used to push the bill. Ultimately, he said, Americans will demand laws to decrease emissions, just as they demanded campaign financing reform.

"It's coming up from the bottom," he said. "It's the special interests vs. the people's interests and I still have enough confidence in our system of government that the people's interest will ultimately prevail."

[...]

Graham couched the argument for climate change, as well as another major Alaska issue, petroleum drilling of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, as a national security measure. Continued dependence on foreign fossil fuels makes America vulnerable, he said.

"The sooner we get started with alternative energy sources and recognize that fossil fuels makes us less secure as a nation, and more dangerous as a planet, the better off we'll be," Graham said.

45% of Afghan marriages involved a girl under the age of 16.

"The tradition of marrying off daughters as young as six is still common."

I thought things were getting better?

"Attackers Fire Missiles at U.S. Navy Ship."

It costs a lot to become a freak.

STEVE ERHARDT is a man in search of perfection. A virtual human "Ken" doll, the celebrity hairstylist and makeup artist has undergone approximately 30 cosmetic surgeries and subsequent maintenance and has spent close to $250,000 out of his own pocket to achieve his current look.

ET followed along with Steve to watch him get Botox and hear his unique take on the ideal appearance.

"When you're in Hollywood, you have to keep yourself together and looking good to extend your career," he tells ET. "My photo gallery in my salon is like a chameleon. It's pretty amazing how I've changed over the years."

What started in 1987 as a nose job soon became an obsession. Steve went to the same doctor that worked on MICHAEL JACKSON, and intending only to get rhinoplasty, he also ended up getting a cleft chin. From there, Steve went on to get a facelift and lid work and has since added such things as pec implants, bicep implants (he was the first person to ever have that type of work done) and even painful butt implants, one of the most difficult surgeries to perform for both doctor and patient.

"I'm content with myself now because I've done everything that bothered me," says Steve, who says he looked like a cross between PATRICK SWAYZE and DAVID HASSELHOFF before he underwent his various surgeries. "There's no one I'm trying to look like. You have to work with the features you've got."

So, what's Steve's ultimate objective? "I think the goal is just to stay youthful and feeling good," he says. "It's not really to look like anything in particular. Keeping your face nice, you know?"

There can be only one.

DarkSyde hearts Hydrogen.

Krugman

In his recent book "Steal This Vote" - a very judicious work, despite its title - Andrew Gumbel, a U.S. correspondent for the British newspaper The Independent, provides the best overview I've seen of the 2000 Florida vote. And he documents the simple truth: "Al Gore won the 2000 presidential election."

Franken for Senate!

Peak Oil

Roberts clearly violated judicial ethics.

TravisG in the news.

From Brad...

Friday 10 am-11am EST on 88.3 FM or at
http://www.waifstream.com

Tomorrow on the Openers:

Darin is in the studio for two weeks straight!

Chris Wagel Joins Us in the studio as well.

Wedding Discussions>Brad Not Drinking?

Lets All Steal Gas

Entertainment Tonight Parody

Brad Camp

Mama, I'm Coming Home (Mama Being Jack Daniels)

2 Weeks of The Openers Left What Happens Next?

We take your calls at 513-749-1444

or your emails at theopeners4@yahoo.com

Also See Brad Live:

Tonight: Luther's Doghouse 9:00pm FREE 3715 Winston
Avenue Latonia/Covington, KY (right next door to the
Lee's Famous Recipe Chicken, you can park in their lot
too, its cool). 18 to laugh, 21 and over to drink.
Luther's is a pretty kick ass bar that no one really
knows about. People are friendly and sometimes they
have free food..........PUNCH AND PIE!

Tomorrow (Friday): Southgate House Parlour 9:30pm 5
bucks. With Trained Monkey Press, Reed Hartman, and
the live debut of THUNDERPANTS
http://www.southgatehouse.com PUNCH AND PIE!

Bangladesh tipping point

Hundreds of bomb blasts across Bangladesh on Wednesday have triggered fresh concerns that one of the world's poorest countries is nearing a tipping point in the advance of militant Islamic fundamentalism into the mainstream of the nation's social and political life.

Around midday on Wednesday, more than 300 crude bombs exploded nationwide, officials said, targeting symbols of public life: government buildings, courthouses and press clubs for journalists. The attacks were fastidiously planned, with hundreds of strikes condensed into a half-hour and spread across 63 of the country's 64 districts.

National Geographic on alternative energy.

A soldier's letter to the jackass who mowed down crosses at Cindy Sheehan's memorial for the fallen.

Fox News on killing Social Security.

Pope Ratzinger visits Germany to celebrate World Youth Day.

So which way do we go... talk about his own adolescence in the Hitler Youth, or talk about his involvement in the coverup of the rape of tens of thousands of children by catholic priests?

Please, please let this mean I'll never again see adultation of crypt-keepers like Calista Flockhart, Laura Flynn Boyle, Paris Hilton, or the Olsen twins.

If advertising is about sex, then let's see sexy. Skeletons aren't. Guys who are attracted to those kind of women probably wear raincoats and sock-garters when they go see holocaust documentaries.

The ABA examines legal tradecraft alone.

No one argues that Roberts isn't an experienced lawyer. He's just wrong on nearly every issue.

Dear Alice...

I am pretty stoked...

This Saturday Nite, one of my heroes, Alice Cooper, is playing US Bank Arena with Cheap Trick.

Arena shows are always interesting, and while a club is the preferred method to see music, there is something indescribable about an Arena Rock show...thousands of drunks precariously navigating steep steps with trays of beer, women, whether in their "prime" or past it, rocking the spandex or acid washed jeans...pungent aroma of weed permeating the air...vomit...piss...
Ah, the wonder of it all. Rest assured...I will be in the thick of it. In fact, so will Covington, the founder of our blogger feast, and our new voice, The Man of Wealth and Taste, taking it all in...I hope Alice decapitates Britney Spears again...

Some of you might be wondering "The Wizard is an avowed Leftist...not liberal, not progressive,but a Leftist. So what the hell is he doing giving his money a Republican like Mr. Cooper?"

I read an interview around election time, in which Alice talked about his affiliation, and he mentioned that politics is treason "against rock n roll", and I would agree somewhat with this. I enjoy political music as much as the next person (anyone who knows me knows of the fealty I swore to Joe Strummer and The Clash some years back), but there is a point, that Alice makes, about Dave Matthews, Don Henley, etc. (though I disagree with him about REM, having been fortunate enough to see them at the Michael Moore rally on UC's Common last year), being ham-fisted in their approach. Why the hell should you listen to a guy with a guitar? You should listen to Bob Dylan get political. You should listen to Joe Strummer. Why? Because they are poets with guitars, simple as that. No time for generalizations...no time for hackneyed turns of phrase. As for Don Henley and his ilk- Please. Limosine Liberal Platitudes.

I would also disagree with his implication of the Stones as being a political. "Street Fighting Man" would suggest otherwise.

The Best reason to love Alice is because he is sickly All American, our dark underbelly, as nasty and anti authoritarian as anybody. He invented shock rock, afterall, and besides, he rocks like a motherfucker. Give Love It to Death or Killer a listen...Haunting, brilliant, stuff. At some point, politics has to give way to fun, or you'll go fucking nuts. Though I have often asserted that everything is political, sometimes it's awesome to drink too much beer and whatnot, and just rock, and let the chips fall. Things will still suck on Sunday.

Speaking of sucking, anti authoritarian, and All American sickness, Dr. Gonzo gets shot out of a cannon on Saturday as well, the coda to life on the edge. Thompson's wit and insight into that underbelly is as vital now as it was then. In the future, perhaps, we can look at him for the true artist he was, the innovator, he who collapsed the arrogance of journalism and literature, making something new and contemporaneous, the best of which remains relevant past its era because it uncovers something transcendent.

Thus, I will have myself a gonzo good time, and celebrate the life of one American Original while rocking out to another.

Any problems with that, and "You...Can...Go...To...Hell!"

Florida is Scarborough Country?

And you thought Katherine Harris was absurd.

Sy Hersh on the Daily Show.

It will scare the shit out of you.

Then when you try to remember any time that he's been wrong, you'll feel even more pessimistic.

It didn't have to be this way. We should never have done this.

It's going to hell no matter what we do. We need to get our soldiers out of there right now. They're dying for Bush's ego alone.

via Pharyngula.

Something for yer Friday Nite..

Trained Monkey Press presents ...

Readings by: Robert Bartusch, Blaise Weller, Aaron Kerley, Bret Duncan

Music by: Reed Hartman featuring Scotty Wood, Thunderpants (the live debut!)

Stand-up Comedy by: Brad Thacker

The Historic Southgate House Parlour
08. 19.05
9PM doors, 9:30 show
$5
18+

Leahy, ranking democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, on Roberts.

(AP) Sen. Patrick Leahy says Supreme Court nominee John Roberts holds "radical" views and has been an "eager, aggressive advocate" for policies of the far right.

While stopping short of announcing his opposition to the appointment, the Vermont Democrat's written statement Tuesday was by far the most critical he has made since President Bush nominated Roberts.

Leahy, who is the ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary, fired his broadside one day after the release of 5,000 pages of Reagan-era records. Leahy said Roberts' views were "among the most radical being offered by a cadre intent on reversing decades of policies on civil rights, voting rights, women's rights, privacy and access to justice."

20 questions for Roberts from People for the American Way

Kissing Hank's Ass, the movie.

It's like being back in catholic school all over again. It's pretty much exactly what religion looks like to freethinkers.

To go with the restaurant at the end of the universe, there's a bar at the center of the Milky Way.

You remember it, I remember it. Why don't reporters remember Clinton's attacks on Bin Laden?

I sure as fuck remember the right wing's reaction.

via Atrios.

Evangelical physics.

Gunned down for no reason at all.

The documents, seemingly from the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) investigation into the shooting, contradict first reports which suggested Mr de Menezes did not hurdle the barrier at Stockwell tube station and was not wearing a padded jacket that could have concealed a bomb.

They also suggest Mr de Menezes had walked into Stockwell Tube station, picked up a free newspaper, walked through ticket barriers, had started to run when he saw a train arriving and was sitting down in a train when he was shot.

The leak suggests the electrician was restrained before shot

In the immediate aftermath of the incident - which happened a day after the 21 July failed bomb attacks in London - police said Mr de Menezes had been acting suspiciously and suggested he had vaulted the ticket barriers.

Police also said the 27-year-old electrician had worn a large winter-style coat - but the leaked version suggested he had in fact worn a denim jacket.

Looting America.

WASHINGTON -- It weighed 28 tons and took up as much room as 74 washing machines. It was $2.4 billion in $100 bills, and Baghdad needed it ASAP.

The initial request from U.S. officials in charge of Iraq required the Federal Reserve Bank of New York to decide whether it could open its vault on a Sunday, a day banks aren't usually open.

"Just when you think you've seen it all," read one e-mail from an exasperated Fed official.

"Pocket change," said another e-mail.

Then, when the shipment date changed, officials had to scramble to line up U.S. Air Force C-130 cargo planes to hold the money. They did, and the $2,401,600,000 was delivered to Baghdad on June 22, 2004.

It was the largest one-time cash transfer in the history of the New York Fed."

And where did it all go? It was given away, handed out from the back of pickup trucks and stuffed into the duffelbags of "contractors".

More Able Danger.

Yeah...I'd say this might appear to compromise impartiality.

"Judge John G. Roberts Jr. was interviewing for a possible Supreme Court nomination with top Bush administration officials at the same time he was presiding over a terrorism case of significant importance to President Bush."

Not that this should be newsworthy or anything.

Meese Schmeese

Now there's an oldie but a "goodie". Like an Old Timers Game, except nobody playing is a hero to anyone but Karl Rove...and, evidentally, John Roberts.

Swell.

Stephen King Sells Out.

Okay...

I am a literature snob. I always thought King was a sell out, and never really understood what all the hubbub was about (with the exception of "The Breathing Method", and maybe "Apt Pupil"), but this is definately for a cause worth celebrating, and I raise my glass to him for it.

I'll even raise my glass to Grisham for the same cause, though he's still a fucking hack.

Gas Prices Skirt $2.70

See where to get it cheap, and see the highs for the last 60 hours.

Da Vinci Divides Church

I'll give you two reason for a boycott, and they've got nothing to do with religion, TOM...HANKS.

Propaganda.

Sale of $50 used Apple laptops turns into a riot.

The butt conundrum.

Don't they realize that to Prince John, Robin Hood and his merry men were terrorists?

Allowing ice picks, bows and arrows on flights, but confiscating tweezers and lighters. Freaking genius.

Back in 1987, when Mr. Reagan applied his veto to what was generally known at the time as the highway and mass transit bill, he was offended by the 152 earmarks for pet projects favored by members of Congress. But on Wednesday Mr. Bush signed a transportation bill containing no fewer than 6,371 earmarks. Each one of these, as Mr. Reagan understood but Mr. Bush apparently doesn't, amounts to a conscious decision to waste taxpayers' dollars.

It's not an accident or caving, it's intentional mismanagement. They haven't been shy about their strategy... they intend to bankrupt the United States in order to kill social welfare and insurance programs such as Social Security and Medicare.

It's government by sabotage, and they told us they were going to do it.

DarkSyde on lightning.

Roberts thinks equal pay is a "radical redistributive concept."

"Able Danger" report that intelligence had tagged Atta pre-2001 turns out to be complete bullshit.

Time article.

9-11 Commission statement.

However, as always, reality has no impact on the right wing jingosphere... Google search on "Able Danger" and Clinton.

The economic pressure to infantilize movies.

Google to blanket US cities with free WiFi?

Most likely they're simply continuing what they are already doing in places like SF and NY - cover a few popular public spaces. Contrary to what the 13 year olds on Slashdot seem to think, that's cheap and easy for a company like Google. Do they really think the company is spending all its billions just finding them more porn? Sometimes those kids remind of nothing more than the "scientists" who were still writing papers on how flight is impossible, years after the Wright Brothers flew at Kittyhawk.

Right wing redneck decides to destroy memorial to fallen soldiers by running over a field of crosses in his pickup truck.

The point the jackals and scumbags on the right don't get.

Cindy Sheehan is not running for office. She's not nominated for SCOTUS, ambassador, or postmaster general. THEREFORE, when you start whining about her "credibility" or her divorce, or her sponsors, or the things she's said once upon a time, remember: She doesn't care what you think.

Really, do you think smearing her is going to hurt her more than the loss of her son? Do you think if enough rabid talk show attack dogs say mean things about her, she'll go home?

She's not John Kerry. She doesn't care about you. She only wants to talk to one guy, and he's not saying anything.

Everyone else, however, is being presented with a clear view of what the chickenhawks think of the cannon-fodder and the families of those whose lives they spend for ego and profit.

Man convicted of 104 sexual assaults on children, and sentenced to 424 years in jail, released after only 5 years.

Shocked locals in the quiet north coast town of Banora Point yesterday demanded to know why they weren't told by authorities that Otto Seamus Darcy-Searle had been paroled to live among them.

Darcy-Searle, 63, was jailed in Perth in 2000 for 104 offences against members of junior soccer teams he coached. His victims were aged between 10 and 12.

Although sentenced on each count to a total of 424 years, he was allowed to serve the sentences concurrently, reducing his total jail term to 11 years.

However last month, to the disgust of arresting police, he was paroled after only five years on the condition he would leave WA and live with family members at Banora Point, near Tweed Heads.

Via Fark.com, Japanese propaganda booklet.

Mooney argues that postmodernists have largely given up their attack on science.

The summer issue of The American Scholar, a leading read among academic humanists and the literary set, provides a case in point. "Science matters," blazons the cover. Inside, Editor Robert Wilson explains to readers that although "the attack on science has always been our game … the enemy of our enemy is most definitely not our friend." The right's attack on science, Wilson continues, "is an attack on reason, and it cannot be ignored, or excused, or allowed to go uncontested."

Appropos of the Donneybrooke I set off over at the Blog Formerly Known as Sweet:

Tom DeLay declares the Supreme Court to be "autocratic"?!

That's right, folks: Just the trustworthy sort you want telling a congregation. If this had been a real church, and not an Christian Mall with Ideology for sale, the crosses would have spun, the crucifixes would have cried bloody tears, and Christ would have torn that motherfucker down for letting such a snivelling, self righteous crook as De Lay in there in the first place.

Of course, all of this is our fault...what with our insistence on social justice and all. Seriously...If I as a Leftist had any influence at all, Pot would be legal, and Capital Punishment would be abolished...Do ya see how well I'm doing there?

I think Carell is a laugh riot anyway, so this seems like something I might actually pay to see.

Well, its a start.

"Japanese prime minister Junichiro Koizumi has marked the 60th anniversary of VJ Day with an apology for suffering caused by his country's military aggression."

Yeah...let's review those Post Traumatic Stress Disorder cases...

"A veteran recently named 'Marine of the Year' for his service in Iraq was charged with attempted murder after firing a shotgun from his apartment window as a group of noisy revelers stood outside a nightclub, police said."

Interesting...

"Retired four-star Army General Barry McCaffrey said to Time Magazine: 'The army's wheels are going to come off in the next 24 months. We are now in a period of considerable strategic peril. It's because [Pentagon chief Donald] Rumsfeld has dug in his heels and said, 'I cannot retreat from my position.'"

See...I didn't even have to go to West Point, and I knew that...

The Governator accused of staturory rape.

America-hating idiots.

That's funny. I wish I could remember some of the counter-protest signs Nathan told me about during the run up to the invasion.

Bush Official says reality is starting to have an impact on policy. It's about time.

Photo of plane being hit by lightning.

Manifest Destiny:

Chicken Little: The Sky is Falling. I must tell the king...

Pat Buchanan: Unless we do something and make sure the things that unite us are elevated--like language and history and all the rest of it--we’re gonna lose our country, my friend.

Minutemen as Greek Chorus: the great state of south carolina isbeing over-run by illegals[...]these people must be stopped.

El Mago, el mensajero de los dioses: ¿Liebensraum? Fascistas De mierda! Este el mexicano es decended de la gente original éstas... continentes que matamos. Justicia poética, digo...La energía malvada desaparece los demonios se preocupa cuando el mago está cerca él da vuelta a los rasgones en alegría cada uno felices cuando camina el mago cerca...(Spanish is a little rusty).

Perhaps this is related to yesterday's Girl Crush post...

"Michelle Malkin: 'Liberals say they want women to be taken seriously in the arenas of government and public policy. They claim they want women to be judged based on their ideas, not their physical appearance. Unless, of course, those women are conservative.... This week, after an unremarkable appearance on Hannity & Colmes, the attacks became even more vicious and sexualized:...read on"

Seriously...there are people who think about Katherine Harris's tits. I'd rather talk about her ass, or rather, that she is an ass.

via Crooks and Liars.

I guess she took offence to the Palpatine comparison.

"When “Mean Jean” Schmidt gets to Washington, what will her first piece of legislation be? According to Whistleblower Research Bureau Chief Fearless Ferrett, word is she’s already busy working on her Bloggers Reform Act of 2006, that’ll require hosts to be personally criminally liable for all the lies published on their blogsites. But this wouldn’t actually affect the Blower, since we’re not really a blogger".

via Ohio 2nd.

Late on a Friday, surfing Flickr... neat shot.

From a comment on Pharyngula... "Psychic" leaves his crystal ball on the windowsill on a sunny afternoon. Though his magic powers didn't predict what happens next, any kid burning ants with a magnifying glass could have told him.

From Brad...

This Week on The Openers:

Butch Wesley joins us live in the studio
Darin Returns From a Month Vacation
Bitter Brad Returns
Brad's Towing Story
Darin's Vacation/Trade Show Stories
Trapped in a Closet Prequel?
We take your calls at 513-749-1444

HBO contracts for another 8-episode season of Sopranos, after the upcoming 12-episode season.

So their point is that it's perfectly ok that we're torturing prisoners to death, but it's the EVIDENCE of it that's going to piss off the families of those murdered.

If the photos are released to the public, Myers said, "riots, violence and attacks by insurgents will result."

We have no doubt that the photographs are shocking. As Editor & Publisher noted the other day, Donald Rumsfeld said last year that some unreleased photos from Abu Ghraib depict conduct that "can only be described as blatantly sadistic, cruel and inhumane." Seymour Hersh has said that the unreleased images include videotape of Iraqi boys being sodomized. But while the Freedom of Information Act, under which the ACLU is seeking release of the photos, is subject to certain enumerated exceptions, we're pretty sure that "what we've done is so awful that people would riot if they knew" isn't one of them. If the Bush administration is so worried about how Muslims will react to further evidence of torture at Abu Ghraib, maybe it should spend less time fretting about photos that haven't been released and more time focused on wrongs that haven't been righted. Punishing, not promoting, some of the commanders and lawyers involved would be a good way to start.

I'm sure we won't be reading about any future killings by these murderers and everyone will like happily ever after.

Dressed in camouflage fatigues, the two boys waited in the woods behind the school until the lunch hour, when one of them ran into the hallway and triggered a fire alarm. As classmates and teachers filed out of the buildings Mitchell Johnson, 13, and Andrew Golden, 11, opened fire with high-powered rifles stolen from Golden's grandfather. By the time the last shot was fired four girls and an English teacher, who had attempted to shield the children from the barrage, were dead.

What happened in Jonesboro that day in 1998 awakened America to the terror of school shootings and left an indelible mark on the northeast Arkansas town that was yesterday trying to come to terms with the fact that one of the convicted murderers, Johnson, is due to walk free from prison. Golden is scheduled to be freed in 2007.
A now-closed legal loophole means the killers can only be held until their 21st birthdays, and with Johnson's birthday falling yesterday his expected release from a federal penitentiary in Memphis has re-opened old wounds in the town, with many residents questioning whether justice has been served in the case.

It has also drawn a sharp reaction from gun control campaigners, who criticised the fact that because Johnson was convicted as a minor his criminal record will be wiped clean and he will be allowed to buy a gun.

Operation Helmet

Shouldn't the military already be providing this?

A summary of the conspiracy.

Mars Homestead project.

Girl Crush

Mars reconnaissance Orbiter launched.

Led by religious groups, the South wants to split off and create it's own fundamentalist county.

BAGHDAD, Iraq, Aug. 11 - One of Iraq's most powerful Shiite politicians on Thursday strongly backed demands for the formation of a semi-independent region in the oil-rich south, adding fresh turmoil to the drafting of a new constitution as the deadline for its completion draws near.

The politician, Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim, a religious Shiite with close ties to Iran, told a large gathering in the holy city of Najaf that it was "necessary" for Shiite Arabs to secure broad governing powers for the south, which is dominated by the Shiites and was long oppressed under the rule of Saddam Hussein.

"Whites Only."

Okay...where the fuck was everybody 9 months ago? Is this the bizarro world?

Cincinnati is the 56th most liberal city in the U.S., and only the 182nd most conservative, according to The Bay Area Center for Voting Research.

Weather balloon design explains data that climate change deniers have been relying on.

I'm sure you've already seen this, but armed religious fanatics sponsored by Iran have taken over control of Baghdad and ousted the Mayor.

The deposed mayor, Alaa al-Tamimi, who was not in his offices at the time, recounted the events in a telephone interview on Tuesday and called the move a municipal coup d'état. He added that he had gone into hiding for fear of his life.

"This is the new Iraq," said Mr. Tamimi, a secular engineer with no party affiliation. "They use force to achieve their goal."

The group that ousted him insisted that it had the authority to assume control of Iraq's capital city and that Mr. Tamimi was in no danger. The man the group installed, Hussein al-Tahaan, is a member of the Badr Organization, the armed militia of the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq, known as Sciri.

The militia has been credited with keeping the peace in heavily Shiite areas in southern Iraq but also accused of abuses like forcing women to wear the veils demanded by conservative Shiite religious law.

She asked for it. Stephanie wants to know what your penis/vagina would say if it could talk.

Via Brad, Punk landmark CBGB's is staying open.

The URL covington.blogspot.com is currently rated as:

Category 6 - Adult/Mature Content
Category 25 - Political/Advocacy Groups
Category 35 - Usenet News Groups
Category 0 - Unrated

... via Pharyngula (rated 9669 - squid porn)

Nightline on the Creationism fraud, via Pharyngula.

Looks like cloudy skies here tonight and tomorrow, but it's the Perseids.

ABC's Tribute to Jennings

The network did a very nice 2 hour, commercial free tribute to Peter Jennings last night. It was well done, without being overtly sentimental. It was amazing to see the diverse group of people they had speak about him, from ABC execs to Alan Alda.

Truly a great loss. We've seen the end of an era in journalism. I'm not eager to see what's on the horizon.

On Free-the-Music, Clear Channel organizes rallies against Cindy Sheehan, who lost her son in Iraq.

Odd that your kids don't look much like you, guys.

Kodos, Kang, & Cephalopod Evolution

The fugitive couple who killed a guard in a jailbreak have been tracked here to a hotel in Erlanger.

CNN having a hard time with the concept that a rock and roll song criticizes authority figures and war.

Via TBogg, it sucks to be Creed. This sounds like a set from Brad's show.

Quite pretending evolution and creationism are compatible.

Conservative sex.

An asteroid with two moons.

Let Them Eat War

Flash video courtesy of Take Back the Media's American Stranger. All actual news footage, but some could be considered graphic. But, after all, war can be graphic right?

WLW becoming a Fox News outlet.

Is this a goddamned joke?

The Pentagon would hold a massive march and country music concert to mark the fourth anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks, US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said in an announcement tucked into an Iraq war briefing today.

"This year the Department of Defence will initiate an America Supports Your Freedom Walk," Rumsfeld said, adding that the march would remind people of "the sacrifices of this generation and of each previous generation".

[...]

Rumsfeld's march had some relatives of September 11 victims fuming.

"How about telling Mr Rumsfeld to leave the memories of September 11 victims to the families?" said Monica Gabrielle, who lost her husband in the attacks.

Administration supporters insisted Rumsfeld was right to link Iraq and September 11, and hold the rally.

"We are at war," said Representative Pete King, (Republican, New York).

"It's essential that we support our troops."

He also said attacking Iraq was necessary after September 11.

Can anyone think of a better day for a military salute? How about the last Monday of May?

Digby on Phelps and his pox-ridden ilk.

Heist.

The impending religious conflicts in America. Couldn't have happened to a nicer bunch of assholes, eh?

What exactly do they think the Founders were trying to avoid with the separation of Church and State?

At the risk of being snarky: "Truckin'/Now my chip cashed in".

10 years ago today Captain Trips left the terraplane. And smack dealers, patchouli suppliers, Al Gore and the totality of the chili dog industry still mourns.

Katherine Harris announces Senate Bid.

Oh, great. Wonder who she'll get to rig the election, since she can't.

Hey, can we get a Mulligan on that...

... Update... More details on the shocking revelation that not only did Defense Intelligence tag four of the 9-11 hijackers as being a US-based al qaeda terrorist cell in 2000, but that this information was withheld from most of the 9-11 committee. - Cov

And here comes Bush's version of the Robert H. Bork.

Nice. Hackett calls Rush Limbaugh a "fat-ass drug addict."

Things you probably don't want to know about Marilyn Monroe.

Anti-immigrant "minutemen" rallying under the Nazi flag.

Bush Administration stomping on wounded soldiers while they're down.

In a recent move that has set off a firestorm among veterans, the Department of Veterans Affairs has decided to go back and review more than 70,000 individual cases of vets who in the past five years have been considered disabled and unemployable because of mental trauma. Veterans like LaBranche now stand to lose some or all of their monthly payments.

To outraged veterans groups, the review smacks of a convenient way to cut costs during an increasingly expensive war and reflects a reluctance by the department to take PTSD seriously. "The V.A. hopes to trim costs for existing war veterans and recently returning war veterans by targeting PTSD," says Steve Robinson, executive director of the National Gulf War Resource Center, a veterans advocacy organization in Silver Spring, Md. "This is a desperate and despicable move by an administration caught without a plan, the money or the staff to care for our nation's wounded warriors."

[...]

Veterans groups, already enraged that the department might go back and take money from vets, have assailed the accusations of fraud. "It is like accusing somebody of sexual battery or a sexual offense," says Steve Smithson, deputy director for claims services at the American Legion. "Even if that person is later proven innocent, there is still going to be that shadow around him. They are trying to give people the impression that people are gaming the system."

[...]

Veterans advocate Robinson, a retired Army Airborne Ranger, who served in the Gulf War, says that in all compensation systems there will always be some individuals who try to pull a fast one on the system. But in this case, he adds, the number of people unfairly being denied compensation "far outweighs" any losses from veterans involved in fraud.

PTSD is a particularly acute problem in Iraq because combat is marked by constant threats that can come from any direction at any time, and the line between civilians and insurgent enemies is blurry at best. A study by the Department of Psychiatric and Behavioral Sciences at Walter Reed Hospital, published in the New England Journal of Medicine in July 2004, showed 17 percent of troops returning from duty in Iraq met the strict screening criteria for mental problems such as PTSD. Nearly 25,000 veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan have been diagnosed with mental-health disorders from war, including PTSD, the V.A. told Congress last month.

By comparison, studies show that up to 30 percent of Vietnam vets, given they were often engaged in guerrilla warfare in jungles, have experienced PTSD. A 1950 study of WWII showed that 10 percent of vets suffered from "traumatic war neurosis," the term that predated PTSD. In any event, the price tag for PTSD from Iraq is going to be steep and will continue to be for decades as veterans collect checks, in some cases for the rest of their lives.

Matator and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder

Interesting piece in the Miami Herald on efficacy of ribbons and stickers to the war effort.

Also, the grieving mother finds her way to Crawford, Texas. Do you think this reminder will force Bush to come back to Washington.

St. Petersburg Times, the official newspaper of countless retirement communities, send its crack investigative unit to watch girls make out in bars.

Peter Jennings died of lung cancer.

Novak takes a little "vacation".

"'Well, I think that's bullshit, and I hate that [...]'".

Sorry Bob...Wonder how long is this vacation going to be? Will a "de-briefing" follow?

Peter Jennings is dead.

Dick is a killer. Listen to it.

A simple map of occupation fatalities through July 16th, 2005, day after day after day at 10 days per second.

Watch it, then think about the rhetoric we're getting out of Washington.

More Iraq vets speak out.

I was engaged actively in urban combat in the Abu Ghraib area, west of Baghdad. Many of the people who were attacking me were the poor people of Iraq. They were definitely not members of al-Qaida or leftover Baath Party members, and they were not former members of Saddam's regime. They were just your average Iraqi civilians who wanted us out of their country.

On Oct. 31, 2003, the people of the Abu Ghraib area organized a large uprising against us. They launched a massive assault on our compound in the area. We were attacked with AK-47 machine guns, rocket-propelled grenades and mortars. Thousands of people took to the streets to attack us. As the riot unfolded before my eyes, I realized these were just the people who lived there. There were men, women and children participating. Some of the Iraqi protesters were even carrying pictures of Saddam Hussein. My battalion fought back with everything we had and eventually shut down the uprising.

So while President Bush speaks of freedom and liberation of the Iraqi people, I find that his statements are not credible after witnessing events such as these. During the violence that day I felt so much fear throughout my entire body. I remember going home that night and praying to God, thanking him that I was still alive. A few months earlier President Bush made the statement "Bring it on" when referring to the attacks on Americans by the insurgency. To me, that felt like a personal invitation to the insurgents to attack me and my friends who desperately wanted to make it home alive.

Kerouac film 'gets green light'

Will it suck?

Tell Karl how much you love him.

Seriously, check it out at WhiteHouse.org

"Why is your generation full of pussies?"

As a vet of the Kisstm Army, I found this Ed Helms piece " House of Ill Recruit "screamingly funny.

Another long weekend away from computers and news...



Gone bowling.

And by god, sir, I will not abide another toe.

Was Novak drunk on CNN today?

Amazing interview.

I'm done with Rick James, Bitch!

"Charlie Murphy, a writer and actor on the funnyman's top-rated Chappelle's Show, dropped a bombshell to the New York Post Wednesday, saying that, to his knowledge, the hit Comedy Central series has officially run its course.

'I don't think Dave is going to do it anymore,' Murphy told the Post. 'We shot about eight shows for the third season, and they're hilarious. They'll be released on DVD, I'm sure. But that's it.'"

From Brad...

TOMORROW ON THE OPENERS:

Its the un-official SWEEPS WEEK Episode.

Brian Gill and Chris Wagel Join Me In The Studio.

Wagel and Brad's Drunken Saturday Night

Repercussions of Brad's Saturday Night

The Apology

The Seduction

Brad Knows Someone Who Knows Someone Who Gang Banged The Killers (rock group) Discussion

1 or 2 BIG TIME COMEDY PHONE IN GUESTS

We take your calls at 513-749-1444

email us always at theopeners4@yahoo.com

Once again Yglesias is arguing that we shouldn't press the issue of evolution.

Getting snooty about this just feeds into perceptions of liberalism as fundamentally a snobbish, anti-religious, elitist view while distracting attention from the basically reality that the Republican Party is a front organization for corporate managers that puts on a cloak of social conservatism to disguise what it really does in practice. If you must worry about social conservatives, worry about women's reproductive rights and basic equality for gays and lesbians. There's just no there there in the evolution issue.

It goes without saying that he's dead wrong. This battle is about whether the scientific method itself is taught in our schools. Without it, there's no longer a way to have consensus on the facts of ANY issue.

Roberts Helped Pro-Gay Rights Coalition in Key Case

Just TRY looking at these photos of the shuttle maneuvering in front of the ISS without humming the Blue Danube Waltz to yourself.

From my brother...

Something positive, for a change.

We've been to one of their Christmas performances... many of the children are amazingly talented, all are having a great time overcoming visual challenges to learn to play music, and they all have their lives tremendously enriched by Ms. Jordan's work.

Catholic church's lawyers argue that woman impregnated by a priest was at fault because she should have been using birth control.

X and other amphetamines reverse some effects of Parkinson's disease.

Cool glow in the dark bulbs that will save lives even when the power is out.

Tagging your store as "Christian Branded".

At least now they're selling actual products, instead of mythology, ignorance, and dogma. And if you're going by stereotypes, is the cross the religious symbol you'd associate with quality and thriftiness? I don't think so.

FBI wiretaps indicate Dennis Hastert received at least tens of thousands of dollars in bribes from Turkish political operatives.

"... a senior official at the Turkish Consulate is said to have claimed in one recording that the price for Hastert to withdraw the resolution would have been at least $50,000."

Ohio has lost 20 marines in the last two days.

The difference between science and religion is that science really does show us miracles.

What else O'Reilly calls fascist.

"Fourteen Marines, civilian killed in bombing". These Marines are from the Cleveland area, as were the four killed a few days ago.

But hey, Clermont County, not your district, not your fault, right...

A doctor who needs a good kidney laceration to give her a better attitude about treating pain.

Torture.

Iraqi Maj. Gen. Abed Hamed Mowhoush was being stubborn with his American captors, and a series of intense beatings and creative interrogation tactics were not enough to break his will. On the morning of Nov. 26, 2003, a U.S. Army interrogator and a military guard grabbed a green sleeping bag, stuffed Mowhoush inside, wrapped him in an electrical cord, laid him on the floor and began to go to work. Again.

It was inside the sleeping bag that the 56-year-old detainee took his last breath through broken ribs, lying on the floor beneath a U.S. soldier in Interrogation Room 6 in the western Iraqi desert. Two days before, a secret CIA-sponsored group of Iraqi paramilitaries, working with Army interrogators, had beaten Mowhoush nearly senseless, using fists, a club and a rubber hose, according to classified documents.

O'Reilly: "Science is Fascism."

Enquirer is calling it for Jean.

Schmidt: 59,095 votes (52%)
Hackett: 55,091 votes (48%)



This is going to be grounds for some pointed speculation:

After all six other counties in the district had completed their ballot counts in what was a low-turnout election, Schmidt’s home county, Clermont, had reported a little more than half of its precincts.

“I have no idea what is going on over there,’’ said Hamilton County Board of Elections chairman Tim Burke. “I don’t know what their problem is.’’

Still, it's an astounding result by Hackett, and very much a measure of rapidly declining GOP clout. Hackett is now poised to, I hope, run for Senate. And every time Jean opens her mouth, somewhere a swing voter recoils in horror and becomes a democrat.

Most of all, every Republican facing a reelection fight next year is going to have to decide now whether Bush and the neocon/theocon alliance is an anvil around the neck of their party that is losing them their absolute control of American government and media.

The polls are closed. Real-time election results here.

If Hackett pulls it out, I'll be ecstatic. On the other hand, if Jean wins, there's no one I know who is better at making people into democrats than she is.

Via WCPO -

662 precincts of 753 reporting
JEAN SCHMIDT 49,681 50%
PAUL HACKETT 48,811 50%

Clermont County (Jean's home turf, wherein all her political connections are strongest) stopped reporting results an hour ago with only 52% counted. Something is going on. Either way this goes, it's going to be a recount.

5,000 year old Lyre of Ur we destroyed invading Iraq reproduced.

Capsule hotels starting up in England.

From Brad... Myspace users don't like the idea of Fox buying them. Check your user agreements... Fox might own your writing and photos now.

Separated at birth? She really does have a twin.

A $1000 fine?! That's it?

Gang of thieves, indeed.

Cops assault the wrong guy. Heart surgeon and soldier. Unfortunately also black and dealing with racist cops.

Anybody else think Jean Schmidt looks like Palpatine from Star Wars.

Schmidt still trying to "swift-boat" Hackett.

Evil Mark Twain Muppet Arrives for Work

Must be like having the neighborhood kid everybody hates on your baseball team. Talk among yourselves.

DarkSyde has a heartbreaking interview with the mother of a soldier killed in the invasion of Iraq.

I'm sure you've all read this elsewhere, but just in case...

Among the striking statements in the prosecutors' messages was an assertion by one that the chief prosecutor had told his subordinates that the members of the military commission that would try the first four defendants would be "handpicked" to ensure that all would be convicted.

The same officer, Capt. John Carr of the Air Force, also said in his message that he had been told that any exculpatory evidence - information that could help the detainees mount a defense in their cases - would probably exist only in the 10 percent of documents being withheld by the Central Intelligence Agency for security reasons.

Captain Carr's e-mail message also said that some evidence that at least one of the four defendants had been brutalized had been lost and that other evidence on the same issue had been withheld. The March 15, 2004, message was addressed to Col. Frederick L. Borch, the chief prosecutor who was the object of much of Captain Carr's criticism.

The second officer, Maj. Robert Preston, also of the Air Force, said in a March 11, 2004, message to another senior officer in the prosecutor's office that he could not in good conscience write a legal motion saying the proceedings would be "full and fair" when he knew they would not.

[...]

The trials of the first four defendants began last August in a secure courtroom in a converted dental clinic at the naval base at Guantánamo. Before they could start in earnest, the trials were abruptly halted in November when a federal judge ruled they violated both military law and the United States' obligations to comply with the Geneva Conventions.

But a three-judge appeals court panel that included Judge John G. Roberts, President Bush's Supreme Court nominee, unanimously reversed that ruling on July 15.

Defense Department officials have said they plan to resume the trials in the next several weeks. They said they also planned soon to charge an additional eight detainees with war crimes.

In related news, 71 years ago today, Adolph Hitler became Führer of Nazi Germany.

DarkSyde on the Billion Years War.

Love is like oxygen...

Bush calls for schools to teach mythology in science class.

via Cincinnati Blog.

So...not that anybody really cares, but Lauren Bacall on Tom Cruise.

"When you talk about a great actor, you're not talking about Tom Cruise."

Snap!

I just was checking the news and the top Enquirer headline was "Eyes of nation on us" so I clicked on it thinking it was the election coverage.

Nope.

Stern on Limbaugh on drugs.

Louisville Creates Its Own Pleasantville

Louisville developers have unvelied their brand new urban living center (read: "gated utopia"), which will allow people the downtown feel without the inconvenience of seeing minorities or poor folks.

The renderings are classic Cleaver, but wait till everything starts turning technicolor.......

Science!

I think this guy shouldn't accept the state's "whoops" defense of his wrongful incarceration.

Class war in China.

Pre-Clash Joe Strummer album on Fresh Air today.

Election tampering by Noe's wife?

Ummm...

Shatner doing Rocketman in 1978, via Neil Gaiman.

Quotes from the American Taliban.

... and on that note, a catholic priest is talking about "embryocide" on the DR show right now. The day we take science advice from the catholic church is the day we set our calendars back to 800AD.

King Fahd is dead.

So let's sum up... Bolton lied about intelligence, illegally used the NSA to spy on other members of the Bush Administration, and burned our CIA WMD specialists. Like so many other members of the Bush Administration, he has an unbroken record of being wrong on every issue he comes near.

And now he's getting rewarded with a recess appointment to the UN over the protests of Congress.

... UPDATE: MSNBC online poll here.