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"F***ing Arab!" - A Sikh veteran is brutally beaten and pepper-sprayed by an insult-hurling police officer, apparently for refusing to move his van (parked in his own driveway), into his garage.
comment posted at 6:20 AM on Apr-12-07

In April of 2001, a Cincinnati police officer shot an unarmed African-American teenager in the Over-the-Rhine neighborhood of Cincinnati, sparking a summer of riots and violence. Now, a neo-Nazi group plans to march through Over-the-Rhine on April 20, with or without a permit, to celebrate the birthday of Adolph Hitler. The NAACP has demanded that police protection not be provided at taxpayer expense. In 2005, a march by the same group through a Toledo neighborhood did not end well.
comment posted at 10:08 AM on Apr-10-07

Frank Zappa. Musical Innovator. Actor. Straight man. Dance Judge. Monkee.
comment posted at 8:26 AM on Apr-6-07

A Day of Discovery. Now Taylor and Sillett planned to push deeper into Jed Smith, beyond New Hope Tree, to try to explore valleys where they had never gone before. It seemed unlikely that anyone had gone there in many years, and they would discover, once they got into the valleys, that the U.S. government maps of the area were inaccurate and could not be used for guidance. For all practical purposes, the center of Jed Smith was a blank spot on the map of North America. A couple of guys out for a walk discover an unknown grove of redwoods.
comment posted at 9:03 AM on Apr-3-07

An Op-Ed in today's New York Times criticizes the Democrats' addition of $20 billion in proposed domestic spending to the recent emergency supplemental appropriations bill. Despite their rhetoric of five months ago, leading Democrats have not, it seems, been able to curb their own desire for pork.
comment posted at 8:09 AM on Mar-30-07

US and Iraq: Post-Pottery Barn Rules. "The issue here is not which candidate said what, but how the campaign is revealing the underlying public mood -- the view people have of the Iraq saga and their country’s international responsibility more generally."
comment posted at 8:10 AM on Mar-30-07

"A year ago my approval rating was in the 30s, my nominee for the Supreme Court had just withdrawn, and my vice-president had shot someone. Ah, those were the good ol' days." Attendees at the Radio and Television Correspondents' Association dinner had some special entertainment, courtesy the President and MC Rove (YouTube, 4 minutes).
comment posted at 10:44 AM on Mar-29-07
comment posted at 7:05 AM on Mar-30-07

Holy fucking shit. I mean, I've heard of people eating people before, but this is pretty gruesome. recipe
comment posted at 12:02 PM on Mar-23-07

Cockeyed Absurdist - jonmc's 300 most favorite songs and why, including Iron Maiden, The Exciters, Neil Young (as a greaser), Captain Beefheart, Hanson, and of course, The Dictators.
comment posted at 9:48 AM on Mar-23-07
comment posted at 12:25 PM on Mar-23-07
comment posted at 12:35 PM on Mar-23-07
comment posted at 12:46 PM on Mar-23-07

"A bad way to make a living." A series on the history and ecological impact of strip mining in southeast Kansas during the early 20th century that includes articles, photo galleries with sound files, and video slideshows about the region. The area, known as the "Little Balkans," because of the large Eastern European population that worked the mines, was a large mining community that has given the US the second largest electric shovel in the country, a home to one of the largest socialist newspapers in the country (called Appeal to Reason and founded by Julius Wayland) as well as the Little Blue Books series started by Emanuel Haldeman-Julius in 1919. Oh yeah, it was also --second paragraph-- the place that most of the bootleg alcohol that fueled the Kansas City Jazz Scene of that time was from as well. Of course, if you should ever find yourself in SEKS, and you eat meat, go to either Chicken Annie's or Chicken Mary's [transcript] since they're only a few miles apart in their modern incarnation. The legends you hear growing up there aren't always true, but it doesn't matter because the onion rings are fantastic. And yes, in some ways all Kansas has left is history.
comment posted at 5:36 AM on Mar-23-07

The folks at DownsizeDC have this crazy idea that the members of Congress should have to read the bills that they vote on. Here is their plan to make it happen.
comment posted at 6:03 AM on Mar-22-07
comment posted at 12:04 PM on Mar-22-07

Swimming with Sharks. How do College Republicans learn to use dirty tricks? They practice on each other. TNR's Franklin Foer describes the summer 2005 race for College Republican National Committee chair. Via Paul Krugman. Previously.
comment posted at 12:56 PM on Mar-20-07

United States attorneys can be fired whenever a president wants, but not, as § 1512 (c) puts it, to corruptly obstruct, influence, or impede an official proceeding. "The day the news broke that Ms. Lam, who had already put one Republican congressman in jail, was investigating a second one, Mr. Sampson wrote an e-mail message referring to the “real problem we have right now with Carol Lam.” Bush, Gonzales and Rove are trying to cover their tracks.
comment posted at 6:54 AM on Mar-20-07
comment posted at 11:22 AM on Mar-20-07

Mike Strizki lives in the nation's first solar-hydrogen house. "The technology this civil engineer has been able to string together – solar panels, a hydrogen fuel cell, storage tanks, and a piece of equipment called an electrolyzer – provides electricity to his home year-round, even on the cloudiest of winter days. Mr. Strizki's monthly utility bill is zero – he's off the power grid – and his system creates no carbon-dioxide emissions. Neither does the fuel-cell car parked in his garage, which runs off the hydrogen his system creates."
comment posted at 10:55 AM on Mar-16-07

Some Say Things might be turning around in Iraq... Then again maybe not.
comment posted at 12:21 PM on Mar-15-07

If you love to hate Fox News, this blogger has thoughtfully collected a number of Fox's more outrageous on-screen captions and website nonsense from the past few years. (Nice to see John Gibson admit he's a weakling.) [via]
comment posted at 12:28 PM on Mar-15-07
comment posted at 12:06 PM on Mar-16-07

Same Old Dogs, Same Old Tricks. In a rare act of bipartisan cooperation, the House of Representatives passed a group of bills strengthening the FOIA (HR 1309), streamlining access to Presidential Libraries (HR 1255), and expanding safeguards for whistleblowers (still in process, HR 985), with those that were passed having a veto-proof margin. The White House sharply criticized these acts of transparency as unconstitutional, a threat on the established separation of Powers, and as a threat to national security [pdf]. All of which heralds back to an earlier time, that looks vaguely familiar...
comment posted at 10:23 AM on Mar-15-07

This year, Maryland has been on a path to become the first state to abolish capital punishment, and a bill to repeal the death penalty will be voted on in committee within days. Exonerated death row inmates have been campaigning fervently in support of the bill (including Kirk Bloodsworth, a Marylander who was the first death row inmate ever to be proven innocent by DNA)--and the exonerated are joined by a gamut of other voices that one might not normally expect in the debate. Murder victim family members are vocally supporting abolition. Law enforcement officials, including prosecutors, wardens and police chiefs, are vocally supporting abolition. The Baltimore city council – which presides over the lion’s share of Maryland’s violent crime -- is unanimously in support of abolition. Even Maryland's governor, Martin O’Malley, has taken a bold stance in support of abolishing executions, going so far as to publish an op-ed, "Why I Oppose the Death Penalty," in the Washington Post on the day of the abolition bill’s hearings in Annapolis. And, last but not least, the public is more than 60% in support of replacing the death penalty with life without parole.

So why are so many legislators still supporting death penalty?
Even if the bill doesn’t pass in this session, it seems like Governor O’Malley has nothing to worry about for having come out ahead of the legislature on this issue. It’s the legislatures—in Maryland and elsewhere—that are falling behind, as the entire country backs steadily away from capital punishment.
comment posted at 10:28 AM on Mar-15-07

Chiquita will plead guilty to a count of doing business with a paramilitary group in Colombia. Mefites might remember Chiquita from here. In Colombia they are not the only brand to have been on "Trial". Chiquita is not new to controversy. If you are choking on your banana co-op america might interest you.
comment posted at 6:04 AM on Mar-15-07
comment posted at 10:35 AM on Mar-15-07

Mastermind? admitted planning attacks.... can you believe a verdict from partial transcripts edited by the US defence department that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed planned these attacks?
comment posted at 10:47 AM on Mar-15-07

Thirty-five percent of U.S. women will have at least one abortion before their 45th birthday, making it the most common surgical procedure in the country. If you haven't had one, you know someone who has. If the Post-Abortion E-Cards aren't your thing, there are other ways to raise your voice. Even if you're Catholic or male.
comment posted at 6:29 AM on Mar-15-07

The dismissals took place after President Bush told Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales in October that he had received complaints that some prosecutors had not energetically pursued voter-fraud investigations...
Sampson sent an e-mail to Miers in March 2005 that ranked all 93 U.S. attorneys. Strong performers "exhibited loyalty" to the administration; low performers were "weak U.S. attorneys who have been ineffectual managers and prosecutors, chafed against Administration initiatives, etc." A third group merited no opinion.

White House Said to Prompt Firing of Prosecutors (NYTimes) - Firings Had Genesis in White House (WashPost) [via]
comment posted at 7:42 AM on Mar-13-07

Halliburton Moves Corporate Headquarters to Dubai, UAE. Oil services giant Halliburton, parent company of soon to be spun off KBR, and recipient of many no-bid government contracts, is moving its corporate headquarters to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. Meanwhile, the US and the UAE are working on a free trade agreement. The UAE and China are the two largest exporters to Iran, and some speculate that the purpose of the move is to open up Iran as a legitimate market for Halliburton, because as a US firm its acknowledged trade with Iran is of questionable legality. Among the implications of this corporate move is that the US military will now be heavily dependent on a contractor that is a foreign company.
comment posted at 12:10 PM on Mar-12-07
comment posted at 9:37 AM on Mar-13-07

Win in China! A "reality" TV show in China where young would be entrepreneurs compete for a large pile of startup cash to actualize their business ideas. Not everyone is happy about the glorification of capitalism, of course, and one losing contestant may have committed suicide, but overall reaction in China to the show seems positive. Video clips here (also a full length article by the Atlantic if you have a paid subscription).
comment posted at 11:40 AM on Mar-9-07

Gingrich Had Affair During Clinton Probe. "There are times that I have fallen short of my own standards. There's certainly times when I've fallen short of God's standards." Thus Newt Gingrich 2008 Republican stealth candidate for U.S. president. Gingrich described by J. William Lauderback of the American Conservative Union as "the intellectual cornerstone of our modern conservative movement" has a closet filled with skeletons which should cause anyone to question his commitment to family values. (more inside)
comment posted at 6:59 AM on Mar-9-07

From the award-winning comic series ACTION PHILOSOPHERS! comes these biographies of the titans of thought! Thrill to the killer koans of Bam-Bam Bodhidharma! Shudder before the noble savagery of Terrible Thomas Jefferson! And enjoy (Or pick apart) tales of Crusher Carl Jung, Nasty Niccolo Machiavelli, Rowdy Rene Descartes, uh, Terribler Thomas Aquinas, The Pre-Socratics, and Gentleman John Stewart Mill!(Scroll down)
comment posted at 8:47 AM on Mar-8-07

The private war of women soldiers. "Last year, Col. Janis Karpinski caused a stir by publicly reporting that in 2003, three female soldiers had died of dehydration in Iraq, which can get up to 126 degrees in the summer, because they refused to drink liquids late in the day. They were afraid of being raped by male soldiers if they walked to the latrines after dark."
comment posted at 5:31 AM on Mar-8-07
comment posted at 6:22 AM on Mar-8-07
comment posted at 7:36 AM on Mar-8-07
comment posted at 11:15 AM on Mar-8-07

Calvin Klein is releasing a new fragrance for our "technosexual" generation: A typical line from the press materials for CK in2u goes like this: “She likes how he blogs, her texts turn him on. It’s intense. For right now.
comment posted at 5:41 AM on Mar-8-07
comment posted at 9:20 AM on Mar-8-07

Whatever one's opinion of its possible limitations, the 2006 Iraq mortality survey produced epidemiological evidence that coalition forces have failed to protect Iraqi civilians... If, for the sake of argument, the study is wrong and the number of Iraqi deaths is less than half the infamous figure, is it acceptable that "only" 300,000 have died? Last November, with no explanation, the Iraqi Ministry of Health suddenly began citing 150,000 dead, five times its previous estimate. Is that amount of death acceptable? In January, the United Nations reported that more than 34,000 Iraqis were killed violently in the last year alone. Is that acceptable?

Regarding The Number, the result of what one of the study's authors calls an episode more deadly than the Rwandan genocide... [more within]
comment posted at 5:59 AM on Mar-8-07
comment posted at 11:21 AM on Mar-8-07

Feds seek to gag D.C. Madam this madam threatens to spill the names about the biggies that used her services and so: [...]government lawyers claim that some discovery documents contain "personal information" about Palfrey's former johns and prostitutes that is "sensitive." The prosecution filing does not detail the nature of this confidential information, though the identity of Palfrey's D.C. customers would surely be cloaked if the protective order was signed by Judge Gladys Kessler[...]
comment posted at 6:15 AM on Mar-8-07

22 basic suggested readings on the Middle East from history professor and informed commenter on Middle Eastern affairs Juan Cole.
comment posted at 6:37 AM on Mar-8-07

Speculative Grammarian is the premier scholarly journal featuring research in the neglected field of satirical linguistics. Don't miss: Re-Rating the World's Languages, Hunting the Elusive Labio-Nasal, The Endangered Languages Armamentation Programme, New speech disorder linguists contracted discovered! and of course Choose Your Own Career in Linguistics.
comment posted at 6:52 AM on Mar-8-07

Is it racist to condemn fanaticism? Phyllis Chesler, the Emerita Professor of Psychology and Women’s Studies at the City University of New York, writes of her time as bride of a charming and Westernised Afghan Muslim.
comment posted at 8:01 AM on Mar-7-07
comment posted at 10:42 AM on Mar-7-07
comment posted at 10:45 AM on Mar-7-07

Slashdot poster has brilliant legislative reform idea: "Source Control for Bills in Congress." What if sneaky changes to pending legislation showed up as soon as they were made instead of in ominously worded media reports months later?
comment posted at 8:04 AM on Mar-7-07