Religion is evil

A catholic bishop makes up a story about how condoms give you AIDS. Does he have any proof for his claim? No. Of course not. But that's the thing. Religious authority has never been constrainted by the burden of proof, so people are used to just listening to whatever lunatic ideas they have.

This bishop has blood on his hands.

not surprised

The Post declares Putin's move a surprise. I disagree. He's always behaved like a dictator. Now he's just assuming the mantle.

Dead air

As we drove from North Dakota into Montana on Wednesday evening, the sun was setting and I was getting tired. We'd been driving since 9 that morning (central time) and it was almost 8 (mountain time). I scanned through the chanels on the truck's radio and stopped on a classic rock station which was finishing off some song I didn't recognize from the early 80's I figured. It went to a comercial break, but I stuck with the station because my other two options were a country station and an all-jesus-all-the-time station.

As the station returned from break, it went through its call sign

"One hundred point five. The rock."

< Dead silence >

I kept glancing down at the dial and started to chuckle to myself. They were broadcasting dead air; how embarassing. Thirty seconds passed. I was cracking up. These idiots clearly didn't have a very high value on their air time if they were letting thirty seconds go by without broadcasting anything. How unprofessional. A minute passed. I started to get a little peeved. The sun was setting into my eyes, so I adjusted the sun visor -- I was only able to see the road up to the horizon in front of me. Two minutes passed, still no music. Man, these guys seriously need work. I started to forget that I was listening to the radio. Five minutes passed. Then I finally hear

"One hundred point five. The rock"

< Dead silence >

Someone's clearly gone to take a shit after queueing up a whole bunch of music. The call signs keep coming but the music they've queued is not. Well surely their boss is listening to the radio and will jump into the booth and straighten the mess out. Five more minutes pass; my mind wanders and I start to get sleepy. Fortunately, the radio comes to its senses and I hear

"One hundred point five. The rock"

< Dead silence >

AAAAAAAAA. Play something goddamnit!

I switched to the country station.

Putin shutters Journalist Group over $2500

The head of the Educated Media Foundation is facing charges of 5 years in jail for accidentally walking through customs without declaring $2500 over the legal limit of $10000.

The foundation has been shut down, its computers seized, its accounts frozen.

Over $2500.

Putin is an enemy of the world.

GHWB (41)

Bigot

Rove To Abramoff: It's safe to break the law now

An uncovered email from Rove's secretary to Abramoff's secretary:

"I now have an RNC BlackBerry, which you can use to e-mail me at any time. No security issues like my WH e-mail."

Willing violation of the Presidential Records Act of 1978 by Bush's #2. (And yes, I do mean to imply Rove is a little shit.)

Impeach!

Sensitivity toward Islam

Pakistan is threatening to cut its ties with Britain over the knighting of the author of a literary work of fiction.

This work of fiction inflames Islamists and is insensitive toward moderates. Everyone knows that offending a great religion is blasphemy and punishable by death. Surely the British should have been more sensitive than to give any praise for a man who has lived under threat of death for 20 years. Moderates agree that he should be murdered, and if the moderates agree, then Britain is offensive in not carrying out the execution themselves!

In the name of world peace and sensitivity, murder the author!

Tanks and Students

Magnum photos is presenting 31 pictures that moved the world.

#27 is my vote for the most moving.

Star Wars

The evil emporer squelches the vote by positioning his Storm Troopers outside polling stations in areas of great unrest.

Cheney's hatred for America

He wages war on the principles that founded this country. His weapon: calling the Constitution a rallying point for pussies and terrorists.

That's the Republican party. A bunch of fascists.

Can we afford a Giuliani presidency? He's clearly in the Cheney camp when it comes to reckless disreguard for the Constitution.

Goodling had something to hide

For Gonzales, the shit hit the fan today. I can't see him remaining in office another week.

Goodling testified that McNulty lied to congress and that hiring inside the Justice department for *career positions* was politically motivated.

Goodline stalled the hiring of a layer from Harvard law specifically because of his political leanings.

The hiring of career layers and the appointments to political positions fall under different categories. Bush and Gonzales have presided over the worst politicization of the US govenerment ever.

Both should be tried for treason. They intentionally sought to violate the constitution they swore to uphold.

Wolfowitz's statement

Hitchens summary of this non-event is spot on.

Here's Wolfowitz's statement to the World Bank.

Wolfowitz non-scandal

I'm disappointed in the media for neglecting all facts surrounding the Wolfowitz case in their reporting of it. All that gets reported are the accuasations of a scandal. "The europeans are upset over a promotion of Wolfowitz's girlfriend" is all that gets reported. Since that's all that gets reported, it seems like that's all there is to the case and anyone can draw the conclusion that Wolfowitz has acted inapporpiately. This is a terrible sin of omission.

Again, I have to admire Hitchens for taking a firm stand when no one else will: Wolfowitz has been more than open with the world bank about his relationship with Riza, and the World Bank's decision to promote Riza so as to alleviate any conflict of interest is now being portrayed as Wolfowitz's decision based on nepotism or something even less seemly -- showering a girlfriend with money.

Hitchens has two articles that should be read.

From when the "controversy" first emerged: here

and from today: here.

I have no love lost for Wolfowitz. But men should only be convicted for crimes they commit. The press's attempt to try him the court of public opinion while not presenting any facts is shameful.

Kasparov Jailed For Disagreeing with Putin

Putin is an enemy of the modern world which holds as its most important principle the free flow of ideas.

Today, he jailed chess champion Gary Kasparov for demonstrating against his regime.

Karsparov had seen ahead a few moves; he knew Putin would come after him.

Vonnegut

I will miss him.

I've stolen another link from Sullivan's website: here's an exerpt from "A Man Without a Country"

march on washington

Seriously; the errosion of habeas corpus demands a response from the US citizenry. The stance this administration has consistently taken is that they don't have to follow any of the laws/constitutions that were written before they came to power. They can imprisson whomever for whatever reason for however long and be accountable to no one.

I'm not much of an organizer, but I'll march on DC if/when a civil liberties march gets organized.

From Sullivan's website, I got this link to a Harpers story about an imprissoned Pullizer-prize winning photojournalist. He's been imprissoned for a year. No charges have been filed against him.

Redacted

Big Brother Bush tortured a confession out of a suspected terrorist, Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri. What did that torture buy us? What he confessed can't be trusted or believed. Bush has tainted America's good standing in the world and emboldened totalitarians like Putin and Ahmadinejad.

Nashiri described his torture. Bush redacted the transcript.

ISP

Google announced a new broadband service.

I don't think it will work for me, though.

Gag

Under Gonzale's watch, the FBI abused its power to issue National Security Letters. These abuses have not come to light because of the gag order that the letters bring with them: people issued the letters must lie under threat of prosecution about having ever been given one.

One man speaks out. Annonymously.

The patriot act would not have become permanent if the gag order rule were not in place.

It's time we got rid of this insideous peice of legistlation.

Ongoing investigation

Duke Cunningham was brought down by one of the prosecutors that got fired. Her name is Lam. She was in the process of investigating Rep. Jerry Lewis when she got canned.

This scandal is obscene, and yet so very expected.

Every time the President has fought for more power, he has abused it.