Will they seat her at Jeff Gannon's table?

Porn star and former gubernatorial candidate Mary Carey will be joining her boss, Kick Ass Pictures president Mark Kulkis, in attending a dinner with President Bush in Washington, D.C. on June 14th. Kulkis was invited to attend the event by the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC), which is organizing the event.

Over a two-day course of NRCC events preceding the dinner, Carey and Kulkis will be attending a meeting with presidential advisor Karl Rove, giving their recommendations on important national issues.

"I'm hoping to run as Lieutenant Governor of California next year," Carey said. "Since Arnold is a Republican, I thought this dinner would be a great networking opportunity for me."

"I'm honored to be invited to this event," Kulkis said. "Republicans bill themselves as the pro-business party. Well, you won't find a group of people more pro-business than pornographers. We contributed over $10 billion to the national economy last year."

"I'm especially looking forward to meeting Karl Rove," Carey added. "Smart men like him are so sexy. I know that he's against gay marriage, but I think I can convince him that a little girl-on-girl action now and then isn't so bad!"

You know the old saying about politics and strang bedfellows?

Buh-bye!

So sayeth the Go-gos....

Vacation
All I ever wanted
Vacation
Had to get away

I will be out of the country for three blessed weeks, starting tomorrow afternoon. I'm not sure if I will have the strength to go cold turkey on American politics for that long, so there may be a random post or two during that period. (I'm also not sure I will recognize American politics when I get back...) I will try not to post any Tom Friedmanesque I-talked-to-an-actual-foreigner-so-now-I-know-what-the-world-thinks pieces.

This is still a very small blog, but I have noticed that we do have a few regulars, and I want you to know I appreciate your electro-patronage. I hope you will stick around while Dr. Bloor carries the load, and I look forward to being back in the saddle in mid-June.

Cheers, y'all.

We have nothing to fear...

Except PETA itself

Terrorism by Activist Extremists Rising - Yahoo! News

WASHINGTON - Environmental and animal rights activists who have turned to arson and explosives are the nation's top domestic terrorism threat, an FBI official told a Senate committee on Wednesday.

Groups such as the Animal Liberation Front, the Earth Liberation Front and Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty are "way out in front" in terms of damage and number of crimes, said John Lewis, the FBI's deputy assistant director for counterterrorism.

"There is nothing else going on in this country over the last several years that is racking up the high number of violent crimes and terrorist actions," Lewis said.

ALF says on its Web site that its small, autonomous groups of people take "direct action" against animal abuse by rescuing animals and causing financial loss to animal exploiters, usually through damage and destruction of property. ELF is an underground movement with no public leadership, membership or spokesperson.

Al Qaeda don't worry me. No siree, Bob. They's God-fearin' folks. But I lays awake nights, worryin' that some animal rights fundamentalist is going to break into my house and set my ferrets free. And the missus... she cain't hardly go out in her mink coat no more what for all them PETA wackos with their paint cans and all. That there's your real terrorists, lemme tell ya.

What Frist has already won

Senate Democrats accuse Bolton of misleading them

John Bolton, nominated as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, planned to seek the help of the CIA director to punish an intelligence officer who disagreed with him and later misled a Senate panel about the incident, Democratic senators said in a report on Wednesday.
...
The Foreign Relations Committee last week voted on party lines to advance Bolton's nomination to the full Senate without a recommendation -- an extremely rare move -- after Ohio Republican George Voinovich gave a blistering statement against Bolton.
...
Democrats have not decided whether to use the procedural roadblock known as a filibuster to block a Senate vote on Bolton's nomination, but several senators have said they doubted that tactic would be used.

And there, in a nutshell, is the damage already done by the filibuster jihad. If Frist and his wacky lackeys were not threatening to blow up the Senate, I doubt the Dems would be at such pains to express their reticence to deploy the tool. "Don't take away our guns, please, sir. We promise never, ever to use them...."

Jury of his pee-ers

Boston.com :Former GOP official says grand jury included Democrats

A former Republican official charged with helping orchestrate political dirty tricks wants to know whether prospective jurors at his trial consider themselves aggressive or laid back, naive or perceptive.

James Tobin also wants to know whether they're Democrats, Republicans or independents and whether they watch TV shows such as "West Wing," CNN's "Crossfire," MSNBC's "Hardball," or "The McLaughlin Group," which mostly runs on public television stations.

Those questions are part of a proposed jury pool questionnaire for Tobin's trial on charges he conspired to jam Democrats' get-out-the-vote phones on Election Day 2002, as well as a ride-to-the-polls line run by the Manchester firefighters union.
...
Tobin, who at the time was the Northeast political director of the Republican Senatorial Committee, also says the charges should be dismissed because the grand jury that indicted him included Democrats.

The grand jury "included purported victims of the alleged scheme -- Democrats," said a motion filed by Tobin, who at the time was the Northeast political director of the national Republican Senatorial Committee. He was indicted in December.

Would these be the same "lawn order" Repugs who trumpet victims' rights (when they are the victims, to be sure)? The ones who resist tossing convictions of black defendants judged by all white juries? Thought so.

How to punk the press

1. Do evil things (hereinafter, the "Evil"). Systematically physically and psychologically torturing illegally held prisoners, for example. Or desecrating the Koran as part and parcel thereof.

2. When you discover that the media has the story on the Evil, have an unnamed official leak an inflammatory but highly specific fact that is emblematic of the Evil -- e.g., that at a specific place, a specific incident of Evil (hereinafter, the "Bad Thing") happened. Flushing the Koran down a toilet in Gitmo, just to pull an example out of thin air.

3. Wait for a news outlet to report the the Evil, which includes the Bad Thing.

4. Observe shit hitting fan.

5. Officially deny the Bad Thing, scrupulously avoiding larger questions re: the Evil.

6. Have unnamed offical back away from story re: the Bad Thing.

7. Observe all other news outlets feasting on entrails of news outlet that reported the Bad Thing.

8. Enjoy atmosphere in which (a) no one dares to speak of the Evil, which you never denied, and (b) news outlets fall prostrate in efforts to remove all vestiges of blasphemous "liberal bias" from their sycophantic coverage of White House talking points.

Easy.

Leaving nothing to Chance (the gardener)

McClellan Says No Need to Notify Bush in D.C. Scare

I guess if those of us outside the Kool-aid circle know what a mindless doofus Dubya is, it stands to reason that his handlers know it to infinity and beyond, and have systems in place to protect themselves from his stupidity. That explains the decision to let him him ride his friggin' bicycle while his wife and 30,000 of her closest friends fled. After "My pet goat," I doubt they let him near the football.

I guess we should consider ourselves fortunate third party beneficiaries -- what they do to protect their own asses sometimes helps us, too.

Read the full E&P piece, which quotes Scott McLellan tap dancin' away from the closest the WH press corps has come in some time to actual questions.

Let them eat cake

Corporate America Pulling Back Pension Safety Net - Yahoo! News

Last week's court decision permitting United Airlines' parent to dump its pensions on the federal government is part of a sweeping trend that could make the nation's employers more competitive, but at the cost of leaving workers and their families bearing big new risks.

In a nutshell, a broadening swath of corporate America is retreating from the safety-net business and is shifting responsibility to employees.

Newsflash -- while a big portion of the net effect of UAL's pension punt is to shaft its employees by changing the employment contract post facto, the portion of their pensions that has not disappeared is being picked up by the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp., a government agency. Granted, it is not directly taxpayer funded, but the money has to come from somewhere, and where it comes from premiums paid by every other company with a pension plan. You know, kinda like .... um... er... Social Security!

The decision by a Chicago bankruptcy court focused on the problems of a company strapped with $6.6 billion in pension costs. But the court's solution is one that even healthy firms are seeking to copy in one fashion or another, shifting benefit costs away from themselves and making fewer promises to their employees.

"People like to think of employers as social welfare organizations, but they're not," said Sylvester Scheiber, a partner with the financial consulting firm of Watson-Wyatt and a member of President Bush's 2001 Social Security Commission. "In an increasingly competitive world, they don't have room to do much else but focus on the competition."

Isn't it fascinating the way the same kinds of folks who push "right to work" labor laws because they believe in the sanctity of the employment contract and the freedom to enter into one no matter what the terms are so quick to applaud the breaking of contracts when the net effect is to screw the powerless?

Wankers.

Whiskey Bar: Scenes We'd Like to See

Whiskey Bar: Scenes We'd Like to See

Photoshopping with a purpose....

Frank Rich on the case

via AMERICAblog

Today's NYT: "Just how gay is the Right?"

"What adds a peculiar dynamic to this anti-gay juggernaut is the continued emergence of gay people within its ranks. Allen Drury would have been incredulous if gay-baiters hounding his Utah senator had turned out to be gay themselves, but this has been a consistent pattern throughout the 30-year war. Terry Dolan, a closeted gay man, ran the National Conservative Political Action Committee, which as far back as 1980 was putting out fund-raising letters that said, "Our nation's moral fiber is being weakened by the growing homosexual movement and the fanatical E.R.A. pushers (many of whom publicly brag they are lesbians)." (Dolan recanted and endorsed gay rights before he died of AIDS in 1986.) The latest boldface name to marry his same-sex partner in Massachusetts is Arthur Finkelstein, the political operative behind the electoral success of Jesse Helms, a senator so homophobic he voted in the minority of the 97-to-3 reauthorization of the Ryan White act for AIDS funding and treatment in 1995.

But surely the most arresting recent case is James E. West, the powerful Republican mayor of Spokane, Wash., whose double life has just been exposed by the local paper, The Spokesman-Review. Mr. West's long, successful political career has been distinguished by his attempts to ban gay men and lesbians from schools and day care centers, to fire gay state employees, to deny City Hall benefits to domestic partners and to stifle AIDS-prevention education. The Spokesman-Review caught him trolling gay Web sites for young men and trying to lure them with gifts and favors. (He has denied accusations of abusing boys when he was a Boy Scout leader some 25 years ago.) Not unlike the Roy Cohn of "Angels in America" - who describes himself as "a heterosexual man" who has sex "with guys" - Mr. West has said he had "relations with adult men" but doesn't "characterize" himself as gay. This is more than hypocrisy - it's pathology.

Goes with my current Raw Story piece rather like chianti and pasta, no?

Robert Novak cancels UC Santa Barbara debate on media bias

Conservative columnist Robert Novak has dropped out of a scheduled debate at U-C Santa Barbara about media bias.

Novak says he canceled the May 25th appearance after learning he would face liberal critic Eric Alterman.

The two have a history of clashes, and Novak says he won't appear publicly with Alterman because he feels the debate would devolve into a critique of him instead of the bias issue.

Novak's decision left organizers with little time to find another speaker, so they canceled the event.

In his criticism, Alterman has criticized Novak for disclosing in a column the name of C-I-A agent Valerie Plame. The revelation, based on unnamed sources, triggered a federal probe to determine who leaked the information.

Poor baby. Can't expect him to confront someone who refuses to play by the lame-ass rules of the Washington press corps -- you know, never ask embarassing questions, no matter how shameful the behavior of the subject, pretend the press still does its job, pretend sucking up to power is inevitable and proper...

Can't imagine why therey are having trouble meeting recruiting targets

USATODAY.com - Armor issued despite warnings

The Marine Corps issued to nearly 10,000 troops body armor that military ballistic experts had urged the Marines to reject after tests revealed life-threatening flaws in the vests, an eight-month investigation by Marine Corps Times has found.

In all, the Marines bought about 19,000 Interceptor outer tactical vests from Pompano Beach, Fla.-based Point Blank Body Armor. According to a government memo, the vests failed tests because of "multiple complete penetrations" of 9mm pistol rounds and other ballistics or quality-assurance tests.

Defective flak jackets. Unarmored Hummers. Thousands of tons of high-energy explosives that walked out of ammo dumps and into a gazillion roadside IEDs.

Can't imagine why Michelle Malkin, Jonah Goldberg, et. al are not helping to "bring it on."

Betty Bowers was there first

Is Fabulous President George W. Bush a Fabulous Homosexual? Baptists Are Saving Homosexuals asks what conservative Christians demand to know

A reader of the latest Raw Story piece points out that the intrepid Betty Bowers has been questioning the direction of Dubya's current for some time. Fun stuff.

I'm just asking...

New piece up @ Raw Story. Innuendo is alive and well.

BushFish.org: Supporting God and Country

Do you believe God belongs in government?
Do you believe President Bush is doing The Lord's Work?

If this country's legislature and judiciary are supposed to
reflect the values and beliefs of The People, then send them
a message that they are WAY off course!

If you are tired of secularists telling you that The Lord has no place
in our government and our public institutions, then show them that
you disagree.

This symbol, this site, and this car magnet have been created for the millions of Americans who support the President and his vision for a government that embraces religion, morality, and family values. It shows worship to the Lord, respect for the President, and hope for all.

Join the millions of Americans who believe that President Bush’s faith-based administration presents the best hope for America’s future. The future is in your hands. Stand up and be counted.

This is an actual emergency. If this had been a drill, you would have read this story on The Onion's site.

Self-parody has become so pervasive that it is starting to look like water must look like to a fish.

Wavering senator to vote for Bolton

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- One of the Republicans who has been wavering on the nomination of John Bolton to be U.S. ambassador to the United Nations said Tuesday that he will reluctantly support him.

Rhode Island Republican Sen. Lincoln Chafee's decision gives momentum to Bolton ahead of a Senate Foreign Relations Committee vote Thursday.

A 10-8 party-line vote on the GOP-led panel would send Bolton's nomination to the full Senate and probable confirmation.

Pray tell, Dr. Bloor. What drives a man to (a) equivocate, and thereby squander any possible political value in his decision to the loyalty-obsessed theocracy, and then (b) do the manifestly wrong thing, thereby abandoning all chance of redemption in the eyes of the rest of us?

What makes a man so totally screw the pooch?

United gets approval to shift pension plans

...but let's privatize Social Security!

The cognitive dissonance between taking a public program for paying retirement benefits to workers and making it private, on the one hand, and taking a private program for paying retirement benefits and making it public, on the other, might at first seem overwhelming. But the two are in fact easy to harmonize. Nobody gets rich manipulating the Social Security system that benefits millions. A much smaller number of Wall Street types will get rich(er) if it is privatized.

None of the retired UAL employees will get rich from their pensions. But a few folks will get richer by dumping that liability on the US government. Simple, no? Just the new utilitarianism -- the greatest good for the smallest number.

Clusterfuck Nation by Jim Kunstler : The Rapture

When exactly the American public entered the Rapture is a little hard to say -- maybe as long ago as the Reagan years -- but it is not the same Rapture as the Born Agains are gleefully awaiting -- the absurd cosmic vacuuming up to heaven that leaves behind all the rest of us sinners. No, the Rapture I speak of is the stupendous complacency of a people convinced that the future is going to be just like the past.

Always nice to find another readable curmudgeon. AND he digs Zippy.

Darwin's Lament

Darwin's Lament, by punpirate - Democratic Underground

Excellent piece @ DU.

Ever hear a born-again Kansan rail against the science that made the automobile? Nope, me neither. Periodically, some of those Kansans get into a long metal tube with wings (some of which are made in, gasp, Wichita, Kansas!), strap themselves in and are then accelerated to nearly 600 mph and are lifted into the sky to an altitude of about 33,000 feet, without the aid of Jesus, and directed to their destination by a strange assemblage of wires and glass known as a klystron tube (or its post-millennial equivalent), an essential part of what silly scientists refer to as radar.

Ever hear a born-again Kansan harp about the inherent ungodliness of airplanes? Nope, me neither.

Or wail about the evil of having to pick up a plastic pen, or drag a synthetic rubber-hosed sprinkler into the back yard and turn the handle of a sophisticated metal and plastic object and have water come out, water provided by distant, complicated pumps (run by even more distant and more complicated generators making the electricity to run them) and industrial processes to kill the germs and remove the gritty bits as flocculants, and inject a bit of sodium fluoride to keep their teeth strong and free of cavities?

Me neither.

And how 'bout those Internets? They seem all science-y to me.

OK, now I'm confused

Rice withholds Bolton docs

The State Department is refusing to make public internal documents sought by Senate Democrats in their attempt to seek more information about repeated clashes between John R. Bolton and American intelligence agencies over Syria, administration officials tell the registration-restricted New York Times. Excerpts follow.

In rejecting the request, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has said that the information involves "internal deliberations" and their disclosure could have a chilling effect on debates within the administration.

Wait a minute here. I could've sworn that eliminating debate within the Administration was in fact the highest goal of the Bush White House.

Politics is so confusing.

Daily Kos :: "Suicided" Lobbyist tied to "Jeff Gannon"?

Daily Kos :: "Suicided" Lobbyist tied to "Jeff Gannon"?

All the JimmyJeff that's fit to post.

Separation of Church and State (from the Constitution)

Americans United: Church Split In North Carolina Shows Dangers Of Partisan Politics In Pulpit, Says Americans United

H.R. 235, a measure introduced by Rep. Walter Jones (R-N.C.), would allow clergy to endorse candidates from the pulpit and still retain a tax exemption of their house of worship.

Yes, this is serious. They have their ownwebsite. The bill has a 165 co-sponsors. They have a pretzel-logic euphamism - the 'Houses of Worship Free Speech Restoration Act.' They have you-can't-even-see-reality-from-here talking points.

And like all good wingnuts, they have no answer for the obvious, even-Homer-Simpson-gets-it answer to their lament -- give up your tax-favored status (which is surely a law 'respecting an establishment of religion') and Uncle Sam will be more than happy to let you advocate that George W. Bush descends directly from the Virgin Mary, or that the rapture gets your clothes whiter, or whatever lame-ass, alternative-universe drivel floats your boat.

At any other point during the last 50 years, this outrage would have lasted 30 seconds before the Supreme Court smacked it down. But with Monsignor Scalia and Reverend Thomas driving, all bets are off.

Kansas school board approves new science text

from Sadly, No!: The Truth for Youth!

OK, not literally. Yet.

74-Year-Old Man Sentenced for pushing oxycodone

via Yahoo! News:

A 74-year-old man who illegally sold prescription drugs was sentenced to 70 years in prison, but the judge suspended all except 10 years of the term.

Lloyd Edgar Williams Sr. pleaded guilty in January to distributing the powerful pain killer oxycodone and conspiracy to distribute.

Expect a full airing of the implications of the story on a forthcoming Rush Limbaugh show.

Fool me once, shame on you

Fool me 87,453 times, shame on me.

Captured Al-Qaeda kingpin is case of mistaken identity - Sunday Times

The capture of a supposed Al-Qaeda kingpin by Pakistani agents last week was hailed by President George W Bush as “a critical victory in the war on terror”. According to European intelligence experts, however, Abu Faraj al-Libbi was not the terrorists’ third in command, as claimed, but a middle-ranker derided by one source as “among the flotsam and jetsam” of the organisation.

Al-Libbi’s arrest in Pakistan, announced last Wednesday, was described in the United States as “a major breakthrough” in the hunt for Osama Bin Laden.

Bush called him a “top general” and “a major facilitator and chief planner for the Al- Qaeda network”. Condoleezza Rice, secretary of state, said he was “a very important figure”. Yet the backslapping in Washington and Islamabad has astonished European terrorism experts, who point out that the Libyan was neither on the FBI’s most wanted list, nor on that of the State Department “rewards for justice” programme.

Note to mainstream media: there's this concept called credibility. The way it works is that the extent to which you give credence to what someone tells you today is based upon the truth value of things they told you yesterday. Shall I repeat that for you? Use smaller words?

If you are willing to concede that this is the first time anyone has explained this concept to you, I might be willing to give you a pass for your complete failure to apply it to date. (Well, everyone but Judith Miller, who is apparently beyond redemption. And Bob Woodward, who knew this shit cold once upon a time.)

Once you have mastered that concept, you can try this: when evaluating the likelihood that someone is blowing smoke up your collective journalistic asses, ask yourselves: how does this story serve the interests of the source of the story? You know, context. Like the WMD schtick and the Bush team's obvious desire to control Iraq's oil. And, oh, let me go out on a limb here, the amazing confluence of the capture of this Al Qaeda dude and the British elections. Not that the adorable canine Blair himself has the power to bring even third-rate terrorists to heel, but consider the possibility that the way Bush gets his favorite pooch to sit and stay is with these kinds of Persian-flavored Beggin' Bits.

Oh, I can see by the looks on your faces that I have totally lost you. Let's start over...

Bible :: Beast's real mark devalued to '616'

Satanists, apocalypse watchers and heavy metal guitarists may have to adjust their demonic numerology after a recently deciphered ancient biblical text revealed that 666 is not the fabled Number of the Beast after all.

A fragment from the oldest surviving copy of the New Testament, dating to the Third century, gives the more mundane 616 as the mark of the Antichrist.

Ellen Aitken, a professor of early Christian history at McGill University, said the discovery appears to spell the end of 666 as the devil's prime number.

"This is a very nice piece to find," Dr. Aitken said. "Scholars have argued for a long time over this, and it now seems that 616 was the original number of the beast."

Like Bureau of Labor Statisitics output, it appears the Bible's numbers require revisions after initial publication. And the real world implications may be equally important. Think of all the tattoo artists working overtime trying to figure out how to change goth sixes into ones...

Oh, and can someone remind me which version of the Bible is the inerrant one?

Another missing link is no longer missing

from BBC NEWS:

Fossils of an ancient fish - dating back 450 million years, when the creatures had neither bones nor teeth - have been found in South Africa.

The finds, which are 50 million years older than any other fossil fish in Africa, will help provide a "missing link" in the evolution of early fish.

The point is mere preaching to the converted to everyone here, but it bears repeating: the primary rap Creationists level against the theory of evolution is in fact the source of its strength.

Given the special circumstances that spell the difference between a dead trilobyte leaving behind a fossil or coming back a few million years later as a spoonful of petroleum, rational thinkers are amazed at how good the known fossil record already is -- they don't see the current holes as flaws in the theory, but as an opportunity to refine and extend what is already known.

But more to the point, the "flaws" in evolution, as in all scientific concepts, are inevitable but also generally transient. Evidence will continue to refine the theory -- or contradict it, in which case a new theory takes its place. So it must be in a reality-based world-view.

But how does one fix flaws in received wisdom, imported from an unchallengable source? They cannot be fixed, so eventually creationists and Intelligent Design lackeys must admit that they simply will not consider the possibility that their premises might be false. And that, my friends, is where religion and science cleave.

Evolution Isn't a Natural Selection Here

Wingnuts in charge, Kansas edition:

Kathy Martin, a member of the state board of education, and her family built it on their farm this spring, gathering weathered chunks of limestone from the horse pasture and laying them on a hillside.

The cross is a proud expression of Martin's faith. And as hearings challenging the role of evolution in the state's school science curriculum began Thursday, that cross left little doubt about where she stood in the debate.

"Evolution is a great theory, but it is flawed," said Martin, 59, a retired science and elementary school teacher who is presiding over the hearings. "There are alternatives. Children need to hear them…. We can't ignore that our nation is based on Christianity — not science."

The hearings in Topeka, scheduled to last several days, are focusing on two proposals. The first recommends that students continue to be taught the theory of evolution because it is key to understanding biology. The other proposes that Kansas alter the definition of science, not limiting it to theories based on natural explanations.

I'm sure it would come as quite a surprise to Ben Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, et.al to learn that the founding of our nation was based on Christianity. But that view is one we've seen before.

What scares the bejeezus out of me is that we have come to a point at which adults can stand up and advocate self-negating nonsense like "not limiting science to natural explanations" and get mainstream news sources to cover them as proponents of a serious worldview.

If there was a futures market for world events, I'd be long in a revival of Salem witch trials.

But at least they ain't queer...

'Pleasure marriages' regain popularity in Iraq - Yahoo! News

The 1,400-year-old practice of muta'a- "ecstasy" in Arabic - is as old as Islam itself. It was permitted by the prophet Mohammed as a way to ensure a respectable means of income for widowed women.

Pleasure marriages were outlawed under Saddam Hussein but have begun to flourish again. The contracts, lasting anywhere from one hour to 10 years, generally stipulate that the man will pay the woman in exchange for sexual intimacy. Now some Iraqi clerics and women's rights activists are complaining that the contracts have become less a mechanism for taking care of widows than an outlet for male sexual desires.
...
Pleasure marriages began to resurface after the fall of Baghdad in 2003. One reason is that Shiites, 60% of Iraq's population, have a greater ability to shape social mores than they did under Saddam, a Sunni Arab whose top aides were also Sunnis.
...
A woman agreeing to a pleasure marriage that involves a one-time encounter might be able to count on about $100. For a muta'a that runs longer, she might be paid $200 a month, though the amounts vary widely and can depend on whether she has children.

Zeinab Ahmed, 31, lost her husband in a car accident five years ago. She says she has considered entering into a muta'a contract with a man, but the stigma attached has kept her from doing so.

"All my friends who have done this have told me they got married in this way just to meet their sexual desires," Ahmed says, "but later on they started to love that man, and he does not accept to get married permanently. ... Most of the men, at the end of the contract, they feel contempt towards the woman."

Since this policy seems entirely consistent with the "marriage is between one man and one woman" thing, I can't see how Dubya, Spongedob, or any of their ilk can have a problem with it.

On the other hand, if they do object, it will be hard to blame anyone other than ... ourselves. Or the flowering of democracy. Take your pick.

RollingStone.com: The Quagmire

What a strange place we find ourselves inhabiting, when the home of sex, drugs and rock & roll becomes a virtual lone truthful voice countering the Administration's spin on Iraq.

In private, however, senior military advisers and intelligence specialists on Iraq offer a starkly different picture. Two years after the U.S. invasion, Iraq is perched on the brink of civil war. Months after the election, the new Iraqi government remains hunkered down inside the fortified Green Zone in Baghdad, surviving only because it is defended by thousands of U.S. troops. Iraqi officials hold meetings and press conferences in Alamo-like settings, often punctuated by the sounds of nearby explosions. Outside the Green Zone, party offices and government buildings are surrounded by tank traps, blast walls made from concrete slabs eighteen feet high, and private militias wielding machine guns and AK-47s. Even minor government officials travel from fort to fort in heavily armed convoys of Humvees.

"I talk to senior military people and combat commanders who tell me that the situation is much more precarious than admitted," says Col. Patrick Lang, former Middle East chief for the Defense Intelligence Agency. "Even inside the Green Zone you are not safe, because of indirect fire. And if you were to venture outside at night, they'd probably find your headless body the next morning."

Car bombs rock Baghdad and other cities virtually every day, and insurgents conduct hundreds of attacks each week on U.S. troops, Iraqi recruits and civilian police. Thousands of Iraqi police and soldiers have scattered or disappeared, and countless others either do no fighting or covertly support the insurgency. The out-of-control security situation means that few reconstruction projects can get off the ground. Transport is crippled, and Iraq's core infrastructure -- its roads and bridges, its power plants, its water-treatment facilities, and its all-important oil fields, pipelines and oil terminals -- remains heavily damaged from the war.

Let freedom reign.

Siding with stupidity

from The Connecticut Post Online

House Republicans Wednesday soundly rejected an effort by Democrats to ban the Department of Education from spending money on "covert propaganda."

The House voted 224 to 197 against a measure, championed by Reps. Rosa DeLauro, D-3, and George Miller, D-Calif., aimed at blocking the department from creating sham news stories or hiring columnists to promote policies.
...
Rep. John Boehner, R-Ohio, argued against the proposal saying that newly appointed Education Secretary Margaret Spellings has taken steps to ensure such contracts will not be awarded again.

"What happened with Armstrong was stupid, but passing laws to outlaw stupidity is not Congress' job," he said.

I hear that. House Republicans voting to outlaw stupidity would be like Tom DeLay arguing for campaign finance reform.

Judicial activism: the new missionary position

Sorry, I forgot. When the wingnuts create law from whole cloth, that isn't activism. it's "intent of the framers."

Paperwight's Fair Shot: Does She Weigh The Same As A Duck?

The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled a Virginia county can refuse to let a witch give the invocation at its meetings by limiting the privilege to clergy representing Judeo-Christian monotheism.
...
While the U.S. Supreme Court has limited government entanglement with religion in the past, the 4th Circuit’s decision relies heavily on a case in which the high court carved out separate and broader boundaries and guidelines for prayer at legislative gatherings. In that 1983 case, the court ruled there was no violation of the establishment clause when the Nebraska legislature used a Presbyterian minister over a number of years to lead its invocations. Marsh v. Chambers, 463 U.S. 783.

The court said in Marsh that as long as the selection of a particular minister did not stem "from any impermissible motive," it was constitutional. The Marsh opinion also strongly emphasized the long history of prayer in both Congress and the Supreme Court itself.

The 4th Circuit ruled Chesterfield County’s Board of Supervisors did not show impermissible motive in refusing to permit a pantheistic invocation by a Wiccan because its list of clergy who registered to conduct invocations covers a wide spectrum of Judeo-Christian denominations.

So, Judeo-Christian (a made-up term) denominations can now stand in for any other religion as the official religion requested to participate in government business. Because, you know, the Bible really does encompass every other sacred text, and there's never been any problem with, you know, silly little religious tiffs, arising between Judeos and/or Christians (who are, after all, completely interchangeable), and anyone else.

From theocracy watch to theocracy alert to Federal Court of Appeals-sanctioned, 100% made in USA theocracy. In a week.

Efficient buggers, aren't they?

Defending snobbery

dKos linked approvingly to a piece on Steve Gilliard's News Blog arguing that we need to at least fake an interest in pop culture in order to grab the proles and lead them slowly back into the real world, as opposed the MTY's Real World.

If CNN basically covers this story all Saturday, it's news. It's not a debate. It is news, and malaria isn't. Instead of wishing it wasn't news, we need to subvert it. We need to discuss it in wider terms, class, race, sex. We need to bring depth to the debate. I mean this story gets weirder by the day. But if you don't engage it, bring different perspectives to it, the media gets away clean again. When people say "you don't cover this story" people think "liberal whiner". If they want to talk about runaway brides, let's talk about runaway brides, but intelligently, questioning the sex roles of men and women and the economic cost and pressure in a large wedding. There is fertile ground for smart people, but they have to seize the target and change the debate.

One of the great tricks of conservative pundits was to talk about ANY topic. No matter what it was, they had an opinion, got face time and then book deals. They saw this as fertile ground to extend the debate. We have to engage these issues and bring new perspectives on them.
...
There's a sort of snobishness about news on the left. I don't watch TV, I only read the Guardian. Give me a fucking break. Most people think Angel comes after Guardian and when you don't watch TV, you might as well say pinko hippie. If you want to change minds, you have to speak their language and it's in things people care about.

If you don't have an opinion on the latest circus, your opinion on more serious matters will not count. You don't have to spend every day repeating Eonline, but you have to understand the culture, even the vulgar parts, to change it. If you do not engage the debate at hand, you will become irrelevant. Even if the debate is not a big deal in the end. Walking away, as we did so many times before, is no longer an option.

Now I am probably the worst person in the world to listen to on this issue. My most culturally literate friends all consider me an insufferable snob. I despise reality TV. I steadfastly refuse to join the Paris Hilton/Michael Jackson/BenJLoBrad rubbernecking. I know intelligent people who watch and enjoy this stuff. Please include me out.

But more to the point, I don't see how pandering and pretending to give a rat's ass about this stuff gets us anywhere we want to go. And if anyone thinks that trying to open a debate on the sociological implications of the runaway bride is going to make the flesh-eating zombies see us as less leper-like, then I have a used bowl of Wendy's chili to sell you.

Hoop-la

Looking at the sports page this morning, I was struck by what an affirmation of statistical probability the NBA play0ffs have been so far this year. In both of the 1st vs. 8th seed match-ups, the #1 team swept 4-0. In the two 2-7 series, the #7 teams have won a single game each. The 4-5 matchups are a combined 5 and 4.

And, why, you might ask, have I not taken the opportunity to heap scorn on Kobe Bryant, now a fellow playoff spectator for the first time in his career? I got my digs in back in November. and December. And January. No need to pile on now.

National Lampoon-quality stuff

I liked this column from JON CARROLL:

Greetings to the Imprisoned Citizens of the United States. We are Unitarian Jihad. There is only God, unless there is more than one God. The vote of our God subcommittee is 10-8 in favor of one God, with two abstentions. Brother Flaming Sword of Moderation noted the possibility of there being no God at all, and his objection was noted with love by the secretary.

Greetings to the Imprisoned Citizens of the United States! Too long has your attention been waylaid by the bright baubles of extremist thought. Too long have fundamentalist yahoos of all religions (except Buddhism -- 14-5 vote, no abstentions, fundamentalism subcommittee) made your head hurt. Too long have you been buffeted by angry people who think that God talks to them. You have a right to your moderation! You have the power to be calm! We will use the IED of truth to explode the SUV of dogmatic expression!

People of the United States, why is everyone yelling at you??? Whatever happened to ... you know, everything? Why is the news dominated by nutballs saying that the Ten Commandments have to be tattooed inside the eyelids of every American, or that Allah has told them to kill Americans in order to rid the world of Satan, or that Yahweh has instructed them to go live wherever they feel like, or that Shiva thinks bombing mosques is a great idea? Sister Immaculate Dagger of Peace notes for the record that we mean no disrespect to Jews, Muslims, Christians or Hindus. Referred back to the committee of the whole for further discussion.

Uh oh

Soldier: England Pics Had Legitimate Use - Yahoo! News:

Isn't it always the way? You go to all the trouble of crafting a lie and getting everyone reading off the same page in the hymnal of bullshit. It seems to be effective -- the proles take the fall, and the money walks, as usual. You get within inches of the fnish line... and some danged fool tries to help with a bit of freelancing and screws the pooch.

FORT HOOD, Texas - The reputed ringleader in the Abu Ghraib prison scandal on Wednesday contradicted a key part of Pfc. Lynndie England's guilty plea, in which the defendant said she knew she was committing wrongful acts when she took part in the mistreatment of Iraqi detainees.

The testimony of Pvt. Charles Graner Jr., contending that notorious photos taken of England at the prison were to have a legitimate use, could endanger England's guilty plea to seven abuse charges. Under military law, a judge can formally accept England's guilty plea only if she knew at the time that what she was doing was illegal.

The judge, Col. James Pohl, planned to question England again Wednesday afternoon to try to clarify her state of mind when the abusive acts occurred.

Graner, who is said to be England's ex-boyfriend, was found guilty in January and is serving a 10-year prison term for his role in the scandal.

Pohl abruptly stopped England's sentencing hearing after Graner testified for the defense that three pictures he took of England holding a naked prisoner on a leash were meant to be used as a legitimate training aid for other guards.
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In a handwritten note given to reporters Tuesday, Graner had said he wanted England to fight the charges.

"Knowing what happened in Iraq, it was very upsetting to see Lynn plead guilty to her charges," he wrote. "I would hope that by doing so she will have a better chance at a good sentence."

Graner maintains that he and the other Abu Ghraib guards were following orders from higher-ranking interrogators when they abused the detainees.

It would not surprise me in the least if there was a new Yakuza-like response to this bad news: someone needs to sacrifice a finger to atone. Whose fast food will it be placed in to push the real news off CNN this time?

Pat Robertson's contradictory theology

from Media Matters for America:

Responding to a question from ABC host George Stephanopoulos about why a God "so involved in our daily life" would allow a tsunami to kill hundreds of thousands of people, Rev. Pat Robertson, founder of the Christian Coalition of America, replied: "I don't think He reverses the laws of nature." That statement, on the May 1 edition of ABC's This Week with George Stephanopoulos, conflicts with other meteorological comments by Robertson, who has repeatedly linked natural disasters to the will of God.

After Orlando, Florida, city officials voted in 1998 to fly rainbow flags from city lampposts during the annual Gay Days event at Disney World, Robertson issued the city a warning: "I don't think I'd be waving those flags in God's face if I were you. ... [A] condition like this will bring about the destruction of your nation. It'll bring about terrorist bombs, it'll bring earthquakes, tornadoes and possibly a meteor."

Robertson claimed that his prayers to God helped steer Hurricane Gloria in 1985 and Hurricane Felix in 1995 away from Hampton Roads, Virginia, the headquarters of Robertson's Christian Broadcasting Network, according to The Virginian-Pilot (Norfolk, VA) on June 10, 1998. The Virginian-Pilot further noted that "Robertson also believes that various natural disasters are signs of God's will and that the world will suffer more of them before the arrival of 'the end of the age.' ''

I am far beyond amazement at everyday ordinary contradictions in the world views of theocrats. But when I saw the clip referred to here, my jaw dropped.

This isn't a relatively subtle gotcha game like "who was Cain's wife?" or the like flowing from what Hollywood would call continuity issues in the Bible. This is fundamental confusion about the omnipotence of God from one of the godliest fundamentalists.

A God who can actually bring plague and pestilence would reward such equivocation from one of His highest shepherds with a thunderbolt up the ass, don't you think?

And they STILL can't make their numbers

via the Rocky Mountain News:

Two Army recruiters in Golden have been suspended from their jobs while military officials look into allegations the two men used improper tactics to get an Arvada high school student to sign up for duty.
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The report featured David McSwane, an Arvada West High School honors student and editor of his school newspaper, who was "curious" to see what recruiters at a Golden recruitment facility would do if he told them he wanted to join the Army as a high school dropout with a serious marijuana problem.

McSwane, 17, said he had read about the challenges the military was facing in recruiting and wanted to find out "how desperate they really are."
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Starting in January, McSwane met with two recruiters in Golden several times and secretly taped a series of phone calls with them. On the tapes, one recruiter is apparently heard encouraging McSwane to create a fake high school diploma to cover for the fact that he had dropped out.

"It can be like Faith Hill Baptist School or something - whatever you choose," the recruiter said.

McSwane said he bought a phony diploma, complete with a transcript, from a Web site for $200. He was told that it passed the Army's academic evaluation.

"At one point, I thought he would look up my academic record, but he never did," McSwane said.

McSwane got a friend to film another recruiter driving him to a store to purchase a detoxification kit to rid his system of supposed marijuana traces.

So much to marvel at here. The tactics. The immorality. And the fact that even when the Army is willing to go to such lengths to drug-using high school drop-outs, they are still falling short of their recruitment goals. And the Times reports that this is no rogue prison guard scenario -- this stuff is going on everywhere.

Draw your curve, then plot your points

Blair hit by new leak of secret war plan - Britain - Times Online

A SECRET document from the heart of government reveals today that Tony Blair privately committed Britain to war with Iraq and then set out to lure Saddam Hussein into providing the legal justification.

The Downing Street minutes, headed “Secret and strictly personal — UK eyes only”, detail one of the most important meetings ahead of the invasion.

It was chaired by the prime minister and attended by his inner circle. The document reveals Blair backed “regime change” by force from the outset, despite warnings from Lord Goldsmith, the attorney-general, that such action could be illegal.

At least he didn't finance Arkansas real estate, or try to fix health care, or fool around with an intern. So (repeat as nauseum) nothing to see here -- just move along to the next runaway dead Pope found in a bowl of chili.

Stoopid is as stoopid does

fromThe Washington Monthly

....The U.S. military released a report last week clearing American troops in the March gunfire incident that injured Italian journalist Giuliana Sgrena and killed Nicola Calipari, an Italian intelligence agent, as they were driving to the Baghdad airport. Italian reaction has been outraged, and the Italian government is expected to issue a report on Monday contradicting many of the U.S. findings.

But here's a question: do you think the Italian computer whizzes will be any more competent than their American counterparts when they release their report? The U.S. report is full of redactions, as you can see in the picture above, but once again an American agency has used the searchable PDF format to distribute a report, and all you have to do is save the report as a text file in order to recover all the redacted parts.

I feel safer already.