Internal Monologue

Rahm Emmanuel's "Defund Cheney" amendment failed . Why did 24 Democrats vote against it? I'm going to remember that and if any of those 24 Dems get primaried, I'll definitely consider giving more money to the challenger than I otherwise would.

KA-CHING!!!! My first actual money from Google Ads has been deposited in my account! Selling out to giant corporations has its rewards, and I just reaped one of them. W00T! June 2007 Jun 26 Payment issued - details ($121.38) Now how should I spend my big ol' pile o' loot?

It's a phone camera picture, so the quality isn't so great. But you can see Quinn in the baby swing at the park near our house, wearing his cool new sunglasses. He likes the swing a lot. He has two teeth poking through is gums now, and he can bang two objects together.

UPDATE: More impeachment gossip from Alegre on DailyKos . An impassioned plea from teacherken on DailyKos : To me the crisis is immediate. I am hoping that the normal process of oversight can solve some of what is wrong, but I fear that this administration believes it can bully the Congress into backing down, and if not, that it has sufficiently stacked the Courts that it will win any legal confrontation. I am not absolute in that perspective - after all, it has lost repeatedly on the matter of the prisoners and the military commissions, etc. And despite my occasional rhetorical outbursts, I am not by nature confrontational. I would hope there would be some other way of righting our country. But here's my problem. I see no evidence that this administration is willing to be limited - by Congress or by Courts. It is perfectly prepared to try to run out the clock, and in the process destroy as much of the fabric of our society as it can - it will be not only public education an...

Here's a musical version of the Robotron 2084 Scenario that I've blogged about before:

(HT: Sullivan ) I don't know what they're talking about. It's never like that for us.

Bush won't provide the documents that Congress has subpoenaed. Congress responds . Leahy: This is a further shift by the Bush Administration into Nixonian stonewalling and more evidence of their disdain for our system of checks and balances. This White House cannot have it both ways. They cannot stonewall congressional investigations by refusing to provide documents and witnesses, while claiming nothing improper occurred. Increasingly, the President and Vice President feel they are above the law --- in America no one is above law. BarbinMD on DailyKos asks: Strong words. Now the question is, what will they do about it? More words, empty threats, or action? No bullshit compromises, please. May I remind Congress that Bush is deeply unpopular. But regardless of his popularity, letting Bush's contempt for checks and balances and rule of law slide would set an awful, craven precedent. I ask you simply to your jobs and not let the inevitable accusations of "part...

From Grishnash via email (who adds: I got that image from a posting by JohnnySlick on the Snopes message board at http://message.snopes.com in the Humor thread).

Johann Hari writes about the 7 days he spent on the cruise for readers of The National Review . He doesn't like what he hears: There is something strange about this discussion, and it takes me a few moments to realize exactly what it is. All the tropes conservatives usually deny in public--that Iraq is another Vietnam, that Bush is fighting a class war on behalf of the rich--are embraced on this shining ship in the middle of the ocean. Yes, they concede, we are fighting another Vietnam; and this time we won't let the weak-kneed liberals lose it. "It's customary to say we lost the Vietnam war, but who's 'we'?" Dinesh D'Souza asks angrily. "The left won by demanding America's humiliation." On this ship, there are no Viet Cong, no three million dead. There is only liberal treachery. Yes, D'Souza says, in a swift shift to domestic politics, "of course" Republican politics is "about class. Republicans are the party of w...

Maybe Dick Cheney will rescue the mullahs who rule Iran by starting a bombing campaign and driving everyone back into the arms of the hard-liners. After all, our foreign policy since 9/11 seems custom-made to bolster the power of the Iranian government. But right now, things there are very unstable: riots over gasoline rationing are breaking out . Whether this could lead to the downfall of the regime or if it's just small scale rioting is hard to tell from the reports.

You know The Daily Show couldn't let Cheney's recent ridiculous arguments about not being part of the executive branch pass without some comment. Crooks and Liars is your source for TDS political videos. Not only are Cheney's arguments ridiculous, they contradict stances he's taken about "executive privilege" in the past : That's quite opposite the argument Cheney made in 2001, when he said that a congressional probe into the workings of his energy task force "would unconstitutionally interfere with the functioning of the executive branch." Cheney has, in effect, declared himself to be neither fish nor fowl but an exotic, extraconstitutional beast who answers to no one. Question for Democrats in Congress: How outlandish does Cheney have to get before you impeach him? (Republicans, feel free to reply.) Congressional Democrats are doing some nice countering , though: Over on the House side of the Capitol, the chairman of the Democratic caucus, ...

I sent an e-mail to Andrew Sullivan, in response to this post , in which he quotes Larry Sabato: Let's suppose Mrs. Clinton wins in November 2008. Democrats would have to live with the consequences. There is simply no question that Senator Clinton would be the third deeply polarizing President in a row, following her husband's divisive and partially wasted tenure and George W. Bush's deeply disappointing turn at bat. We bet that she would have a short honeymoon and would be unable to convince her millions of critics and detractors that she had changed - or was different than they long ago concluded she was. At a time when the nation could use a unifier and a healer - to the extent that any President can perform those roles - partisan warfare would be at fever pitch from Day One. Here's my response: While I agree with Sabato and others that Senator Clinton would be a highly polarizing candidate, I highly doubt the right wing will sit mutely on its megaphones and allow ...

...while your female counterpart goes east, apparently: Map originally from National Geographic (HT: Feministing ) It seems as though single people do not sort themselves by gender in a geographically equitable manner? Is it because men leave for high tech or other jobs on the West Coast? Or do women flock to the Atlantic Seaboard for careers in government or the arts? A lot of speculation along these lines in the comments here . People bring up immigration patterns, and the fact that men might be more willing to pick up and move. More data would be nice. Another good point : The graph is quite misleading since it records absolute excess single people, not the excess single people relative to the total local population. 185 000 extra single women in New York-Newark isn't that big a deal because it's taken from a population of 20 million, i.e., the excess is less than 1% of the population. All this graph does is to pick out centres of high population. (Notice that the b...

VLWC points out how the administration keeps changing who the big evil bad guy in Iraq is . He's starting a pool to bet on when the administration shifts from its current rhetoric about Al Qaeda back to seeing Iran's involvement in every single bit of violence. I'll do him one better: pretty soon, the administration will be saying that Iran and Al Qaeda are working together! It's been pretty obvious they don't know jack about any of the factions that operate there. They just churn out whatever rhetoric they feel like.

ALL YOUR BROWN ARE BELONG TO US Get this: my wife just discovered that the UPS corporation has trademarked the color brown . Yes, you got that right. Go to their corporate homepage , and click on the "trademarks" link at the bottom. Download their trademarks PDF . You will find the following text on the front page: Published by UPS Brand Management. © Copyright 2003 United Parcel Service of America, Inc. UPS, the UPS brandmark and the color brown are registered trademarks of United Parcel Service of America, Inc. All rights reserved. Trademarks in the U.S. 2005-2007 United Parcel Service of America, Inc. Rev. 4/07 (emphasis added.) Looking inside, you can see some of the other terms they've trademarked: Big Brown Truck® Brown® Color Brown® Um, dude, that is totally wack.

Mad Latinist sent me this list . I don't play console games very much (I'm a PC guy) but the cliches of the genre are often cross-platform. Here are some samples: "No! My beloved peasant village!" The hero's home town, city, slum, or planet will usually be annihilated in a spectacular fashion before the end of the game, and often before the end of the opening scene. Let's Start From The Very Beginning (Yuna Rule) Whenever there is a sequel to an RPG that features the same main character as the previous game, that character will always start with beginner skills. Everything that they learned in the previous game will be gone, as will all their ultra-powerful weapons and equipment. "Silly Squall, bringing a sword to a gunfight..." No matter what timeframe the game is set in -- past, present, or future -- the main hero and his antagonist will both use a sword for a weapon. (Therefore, you can identify your antagonist pretty easily right from the start ...

Quiddity : Cheney's fourth branch claims: The story has legs. The story is a good source of jokes. Most important of all, the story makes Bush look weak. George W. Bush: so pathetic he can't even control a vice-president. Ha ha ha! Let's get rid of them both, please. Internal Monologue's editorial board has been endorsing impeachment for the both of them for quite some time.

...at least according to the latest government propaganda and the dutiful journalists who unquestioningly parrot the official line. Greenwald : What is so amazing about this new rhetorical development -- not only from our military, but also from our "journalists" -- is that, for years, it was too shameless and false even for the Bush administration to use. Even at the height of their propaganda offensives about the war, the furthest Bush officials were willing to go was to use the generic term "terrorists" for everyone we are fighting in Iraq, as in: "we cannot surrender to the terrorists by withdrawing" and "we must stay on the offensive against terrorists." [...] But now, support for the war is at an all-time low and war supporters are truly desperate to find a way to stay in Iraq. So the administration has thrown any remnants of rhetorical caution to the wind, overtly calling everyone we are fighting "Al Qaeda." This strategy was fir...

Does this mean we can exile the Bush administration to St. Helena ? (HT: Sullivan )

My blog got an "R" rating from Mingle2.com . Here's why: This rating was determined based on the presence of the following words: sex (8x) dick (2x) torture (1x) HT: rubber hose .

Stamp image from Tennessee Guerrilla Women Limbo image from The Dark Stuff . ...because Bush is someone who can't be disrespected enough. How contemptuous does America have to become of this guy before the Democratic Congress really starts standing up to him? I got these images via Quiddity at uggabugga .

I have said numerous times that the problem with George W. Bush is not so much stupidity (he's not brilliant, but he's smart enough), but rather a profound lack of curiosity combined with arrogance and stubbornness. Kevin Drum links to a research paper about the phenomenon of metacognitive incompetence : it turns out that people who are really bad at something (oh, say, American foreign policy), are often completely unaware that they are bad at it. Indeed, the very traits that make them bad at something also make them unable to see how bad they are. I'm reading the whole paper , but here's the abstract for you: People tend to hold overly favorable views of their abilities in many social and intellectual domains. The authors suggest that this overestimation occurs, in part, because people who are unskilled in these domains suffer a dual burden: Not only do these people reach erroneous conclusions and make unfortunate choices, but their incompetence robs them of the met...

This is how USA for Kids views the U.S. Government. It is not how our vice president views it. "Three" is the answer we learned in school. But Dick Cheney apparently thinks otherwise : Vice President Dick Cheney has asserted his office is not a part of the executive branch of the U.S. government, and therefore not bound by a presidential order governing the protection of classified information by government agencies, according to a new letter from Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., to Cheney. Bill Leonard, head of the government's Information Security Oversight Office (ISOO), told Waxman's staff that Cheney's office has refused to provide his staff with details regarding classified documents or submit to a routine inspection as required by presidential order, according to Waxman. In pointed letters released today by Waxman, ISOO's Leonard twice questioned Cheney's office on its assertion it was exempt from the rules. He received no reply, but the vice pres...

A much better response to terrorism than the American government has managed.

That's Sir Salman Rushdie, to you, bub. Image from the CBC . The religious affairs minister of Pakistan was not happy that Salman Rushdie is to be knighted : Today, Pakistan's religious affairs minister suggested that the knighthood was so grave an offence that any Muslim anywhere in the world would be justified in taking violent action. "If somebody has to attack by strapping bombs to his body to protect the honour of the Prophet then it is justified," Mr ul-Haq told the National Assembly. The minister, the son of Zia ul-Haq, the military dictator who died in a plane crash in 1988, later retracted his statement in parliament, then told the AFP news agency that he meant to say that knighting Rushdie would foster extremism. (HT: Vast Left-Wing Conspiracy ) The minister goes on to say Pakistan should cut off diplomatic relations with the UK. Remember folks: Pakistan is allegedly our ally in the struggle against militarized Islamists. Of course, Iran's no...

Here's something I don't get about Maxim's latest photo spread : aren't all Israeli women required to be in the military at some point? So isn't having a photo series of female Israeli soldiers the same thing as having a photo series of female Israelis above military age? Another thing I don't get: the military-themed pinup. Does nothin' for me. But to each his own, I guess.

I don't normally announce new Bush approval rating lows on Internal Monologue , because they happen so often recently that they cease to amaze. But every once in a while one ought to take stock: 26% . He's beaten Carter's nadir of 28% (though the polls were done by different firms, so the ratings may not be directly comparable). Kos thinks he'll beat Nixon's 23% before leaving office. Every time Bush hits a new low, Atrios posts a picture of a toy pony on his blog. This has happened so many times that Atrios is having to range pretty far in search of new pony pictures:

That seems to be the attitude of FOX and CBS, who are refusing to air this ad for Trojan condoms. FOX gave Trojan the following justification, according to the New York Times : In a written response to Trojan, though, Fox said that it had rejected the spot because, “Contraceptive advertising must stress health-related uses rather than the prevention of pregnancy.” Actually, this ad doesn't mention pregnancy. It just implies that having a condom will make you more attractive to the hot woman. But I'm somewhat bewildered by FOX preference for disease prevention uses over contraceptive uses. What gives? I guess condom ads are supposed to talk about scary AIDS and nasty STDs, not pregnancy prevention. I know that in some religions birth control is evil, but I suspect those religions would consider any sex that required a condom evil, so how does making it about disease help? Maybe talking about disease makes sex seem sufficiently dangerous and yucky that the puritans are OK with it...

From the front page of DailyKos Not only is Lieberman advocating more war, he's raising money for a Republican Senator, Susan Collins (corrected-originally I said Olympia Snowe) of Maine. DailyKos and ActBlue have responded by holding an online counter-fundraiser for Snowe's Democratic opponent, Tom Allen. You can participate here . (I did.) I think all the Democrats who supported Lieberman over Lamont, even after Lamont won the Democratic primary, should look at Lieberman's recent behavior and feel pretty foolish.

It really is repellent how casually some American warmongers talk of killing other people. Greenwald is on the case, of course: Nothing could be more boring to Tony Snow than the question of how many Iraqi civilians we have killed as a result of our invasion and occupation. His yawn is virtually audible. What could be less relevant than that? It is better if we do not know. We can just keep repeating over and over that we are "killing Al Qaeda" -- a "fact" which Michael Gordon and The New York Times will be happy repeatedly to re-inforce -- and we can ignore the rest. What Norman Podhoretz is advocating -- blowing Iran into "smithereens" -- is criminal and morally twisted for reasons that should require no elaboration. But the far more significant fact is that such advocacy does not relegate him to the fringes. Quite the contrary, the movement of which he is an integral part, on whose behalf he speaks, is well within the political mainstream as depic...

The organization is the Drug Policy Alliance , who have long enjoyed a much-coveted spot in Internal Monologue's right-hand sidebar. The spot is for "Incarcerex", a drug politicians can take to relieve electile dysfunction. It's pretty funny. Sullivan links to this video. The "war on drugs" is very stupid, immoral and wasteful. It's also been on the back burner quite a bit. I wish some prominent politicians would start acting sensibly on this.

Majikthise posts FlickrFinds like this one . I don't have any particular reason for posting this, other than that it looks cool.

Here's a fun little map: each state is labeled with the name of a country with equivalent GDP. From strange maps via Sullivan . One interesting thought this map provokes is that Iran, the latest uber-bogey man of the neocon warmongers, has an economy similar in size to that of Alabama. I think that gives some much needed perspective.

Image from Firedoglake Digby is one of my favorite bloggers. I've never known what she looked like, or even that she is a woman. Here she is speaking at Campaign for America's Future.

Digby assigned this Mark Danner piece as "homework" for Hullabaloo readers: ...One of the most painful principles of our age is that scandals are doomed to be revealed — and to remain stinking there before us, unexcised, unpunished, unfinished. If this Age of Rhetoric has a tragic symbol, then surely this is it: the frozen scandal, doomed to be revealed, and revealed, and revealed, in a never-ending torture familiar to the rock-bound Prometheus and his poor half-eaten liver. A full three years ago, the photographs from Abu Ghraib were broadcast by CBS on Sixty Minutes II and published by Seymour Hersh in The New Yorker ; nearly as far back I wrote a book entitled Torture and Truth , made up largely of Bush administration documents that detailed the decision to use “extreme interrogation techniques” or — in the First President of Rhetoric’s phrase — “an alternative set of procedures” on prisoners in the War on Terror. And yet nothing happens. The Democratic Congress co...

Now that Taguba is talking to Seymour Hersh , Rumsfeld's culpability for war crimes is becoming more clear. Sullivan is tracking the story: So you're secretary of defense and have been informed that your troops have grotesquely violated the Geneva Conventions - on tape and JPGs - and you decide you don't want to look into it for months because you don't want to jeopardize the investigation? Are we really supposed to believe this? Now look at who Sy Hersh's source is: not an anonymous leaker, but a general of impeccable integrity and credibility whom the Pentagon had itself relied on to do the investigation. It doesn't get more damning than this. The obvious explanation, of course, is much, much more plausible than Rumsfeld's ludicrous grandstanding. It is that Rumsfeld knew what he had authorized - and knew the consequences.

Image of Nobel medal from Citizen Journalism Nepal. How many layers of sadness, irony, and hilarity are contained in this little tidbit from the Jerusalem Post : Enraged Fatah leaders on Saturday accused Hamas militiamen of looting the home of former Palestinian Authority chairman Yasser Arafat in Gaza City. "They stole almost everything inside the house, including Arafat's Nobel Peace Prize medal ," said Ramallah-based Fatah spokesman Ahmed Abdel Rahman. " Hamas militiamen and gangsters blew up the main entrance to the house before storming it. They stole many of Arafat's documents and files, gifts he had received from world leaders and even his military outfits." (emphasis added). The Hotline's Blogometer rounds up some of the expected snarky reactions. I don't have any particular insight into the latest Hamas vs. Fatah fighting. It sucks, and bodes ill for the region of course. And it sort of highlights the problems with Bush's "elect...

I'm going to be on vacation in a low tech environment until tomorrow evening, so you'll have to look elsewhere for blogospheric enlightenment.

Here's a sad sight to behold: union workers fighting environmentalists about fuel efficiency standards . It always saddens me when two groups that could be allies in a broader progressive movement fight each other. I must say I side with the environmentalists on this one. The cars produced by American auto companies are very fuel inefficient, if those graphs in An Inconvenient Truth are accurate. American auto companies have fought increased fuel efficiency standards tooth and nail. Meanwhile, Toyota, maker of the Prius among other things, has displaced GM as the world's largest auto company. I don't suppose it's occurred to the big three (I guess that term doesn't really apply any more) automakers that if they'd accepted higher fuel efficiency standards back in the 1980's, maybe Japanese automakers wouldn't be eating their lunch right now. And just wait until China starts making cars. I don't see why the auto industry is whining so much: if Congres...

Here's Atrios : Watching "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner" and it occurs to me that while the interracial relationship is perceived as freakishly weird, the fact that the 37 year old distinguished doctor picks up a young 23 year old thing at a "Dean's party" after lecturing at a university is seen as perfectly normal. I admit I am quite shocked when I hear about romantic relationships involving large age differences (and I'd consider 37 and 23 to be largely different). Such things scandalize me to a surprisingly high degree. I've never been in such a relationship. I think the biggest age difference I've had with a partner has been less than 4 years (and I was in my 20's before I had any romantic relationships at all). Whenever I hear about such a "May-December" pairing, I always think: so when I'm 37, does that mean I get hit on 23 year olds? (Well, now that I'm married such thinking is of course extremely hypothetical in n...

It seems like the GOP coalition is having some major problems holding itself together. Apparently Sen. Trent Lott (R-MS), who supported the stalled immigration reform bill, recently complained that “Talk radio is running America. We have to deal with that problem.” This is pretty interesting. Talk radio has been one of the most powerful weapons in the right wing arsenal. To hear Trent Lott describe it as a "problem" is quite stunning. Needless to say, digby is not terribly sympathetic to the GOP's current woes : No wonder Bush is sweating bullets. Aside from the small matter of turning the country into a rogue super power, his lasting political legacy may be overseeing his party's decline to a minority faction of racists and malcontents because they foolishly empowered a bunch of shrieking wingnut gasbags to speak for them in the national media --- and now they can't control them. As ye sow, so shall ye reap. Although it heartens me to see the savage id of the GO...

(HT: Sullivan )

It's almost too easy .

...is the headline at C&L . But isn't Lieberman an independent? No, he's a member of Connecticut for Lieberman! Remember them? The dummy party Joementum created so he could run? And how it got taken over? Well the guy who took it over is asking Lieberman to resign because of his insane bomb Iran comments.

Paul Potts, the geeky opera singer guy I posted the clip of a few days ago has gone to the semi-finals. It's not as magical because now you already know he can sing:

Chait found this: Perusing the Weekly Standard's promotional package (which isn't online), I came across this testimonial from Joe Lieberman: "If Kristol says what I'm doing is right, it must be right." And Lieberman is shocked, shocked, that anti-war Democrats can't stand him. When you grant Bill Kristol infallibility, you can't exactly expect progressive bloggers to look favorably upon you.

Greenwald : [...] our dominant political discourse is comprised of people like Rush Limbaugh calling others "wimps and sissies" for not supporting the torture policies he loves, and people like Joe Lieberman wanting to start new wars because they think it is a way that they become "powerful," and "journalists" like Chris Matthews, on a nightly basis, deciding who the best presidential candidates are based upon who emanates the strongest cigar odors from their bodies. None of this is about psychoanalyzing anyone. Unfortunately, all of this comes explicitly from their own mouths, and is tragically unavoidable. And there is simply no way to understand our degraded political discourse and the radical militarism of the last six years without thinking about these twisted character traits, which their carriers tout quite overtly and even proudly. Digby (from July 2005): We are dealing with a group of right wing glory seekers who chose long ago to eschew puttin...

Banning same-sex marriage won't be on the MA ballot . It couldn't even get the 50 of 200 votes necessary to make it onto the 2008 ballot. The next opportunity would be 2012. Looks like gay marriage is here to stay, in one state at least.

...says digby , because Scooter Libby has been denied bail and has to go to jail . I don't know what all the fuss is about. A convicted felon goes to jail. What's more routine than that?

Crooks and Liars , your source for Daily Show political clips Jon Stewart couldn't let something this crazy and stupid go by without taking a look at it . It's a pretty funny clip, but the insanity of our "strategy" is making his job too easy. I know its a good idea to exploit divisions among your enemies, but giving weapons to the very folks who have been most responsible for attacks against our troops? If we're going to be stupid and cruel enough to add weapons to a multi-party civil war, can we at least be selfish enough to get our own troops out of the way first? Isn't the first rule of quelling ethnic and sectarian conflict "Don't add a bunch of free weapons into the mix?" I'm a broken record, but: Impeach Bush and Cheney now. Congress should use its constitutional power to end our involvement in this debacle.

People protesting against gay civil unions and reproductive rights in San Juan, Puerto Rico decided that dressing like sperm would somehow make their point more convincing. Well, at least it helped them get coverage in Internal Monologue . I'll forgo the obvious Monty Python reference. (HT: Ann on Feministing , who does not forgo the obvious Monty Python reference.)

Check out the Reuters video . It looks like someone swiped Bush's watch. Tony Snow denied it , but looking at the video it doesn't look like he put it in his pocket. There's supposedly another video out there that makes it clear he did put it in his pocket. But I haven't seen it yet. UPDATE: Here's the new video. It looks like it wasn't stolen:

The resolution made it out of committee 9-1: Washington, DC - DC Vote applauds the strong, bipartisan vote today of 9-1 in favor of granting DC its first-ever voting member of Congress. All the Democrats on the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs voted in favor of the bill. They were joined by three key Republicans: Senators Susan Collins (ME), Norm Coleman (MN) and George Voinovich (OH)...

A graphical representation of Bush's proposed budget for 2008 . 67% defense/national security seems awfully high. But this poster doesn't include Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid which are funded by their own taxes. (HT: Political Wire ).

Quiddity on uggabugga gives us a brief graphical demonstration of how un-democratic (with a small 'd') the Senate can be: Under a worse case scenario, Senators from the 21 least-populous states could block legislation. How many people are in those 21 states? If you look at the List of U.S. states by population , we find that out of a total of 300 million for the country, there are 37 million in the 21 least-populous states. That amounts to 12.4% of the population, or one in eight. [...] Taking this further, it's possible that in each of the 21 least-populous states, the senator was elected with a vote of 50% +1. Effectively half the population of each state. So it could take as little as 18 milliion people to elect enough senators to stop action on a particular bill. That's one in 16 people. And that explains, in part, how anti-democratic (and pro-plutocratic) the Senate can be. Of course, the House, with its "majority can do anything it wants" rules, can be ...

Oh, this is rich: a guide to Iraq for American troops stationed there, published by the War and Navy departments during WWII. Maybe the architects of this occupation should have read it before blundering in mucking things up. Sullivan quotes this part: You can usually tell a mosque by its high tower. Keep away from mosques . If you try to enter one, you will be thrown out, probably with a severe beating. There are four towns in Iraq which are particularly sacred to the Iraq Moslems: Kerbala, Najaf, Samarra, and Kadhiman. Unless you are ordered to these towns it is advisable to stay away from them. Moslems here are divided into two factions something like our division into Catholic and Protestant denominations - so don't put in your two cents when Iraqis argue about religion. There are political differences in Iraq that have puzzled diplomats and statesmen. You won't help matters any by getting mixed up in them. But here's my favorite bit:

I get dizzy trying to keep track of which band of armed thugs the United States is backing in Iraq. Now I guess Sunni insurgent groups are our allies . It's truly mind-boggling.

A "classic YouTube moment" via Sullivan :

It could be that disbelief in evolution and church attendance both have a hidden third cause (stupidity?), but this Gallup poll strongly suggests that going to church makes you doubt one of the bedrock scientific ideas of our day. Of course, it could be that Republicanism causes this, as 68% of Republicans don't believe in evolution. But as Pharyngula points out , when people are asked why they don't believe in evolution, the majority of answers are straight out of Sunday school: % I believe in Jesus Christ 19 I believe in the almighty God, creator of Heaven and Earth 16 Due to my religion and faith 16 Not enough scientific evidence to prove otherwise 14 I believe in what I read in the Bible 12 I'm a Christian 9 I don't believe humans come from beasts/monkeys 3 Other 5 No reason in particular 2 No opinion 3 There are some positions that should be argued against, and some that should be ridiculed and held in utter contempt. I put disbelie...

Kevin Drum calls for an open auction of the 700 MHz spectrum that will soon come available when the UHF channels have to vacate it: ...a better policy would be to auction off a piece of the spectrum under the usual rules, but to reserve another chunk to be auctioned off under "open access" rules that require the spectrum to be open to anyone who wants to lease it and to any device that's capable of running on it. This would allow small innovators to enter the market and would open up the spectrum to interesting new devices in the same way that the Supreme Court's 1969 Carterphone decision revolutionized the phone industry by opening up the old telephone network to answering machines and cordless phones not made by AT&T. But none of this will happen if the entire spectrum gets auctioned off to the usual suspects.

Here's Jon Rauch on why gay marriage should be normalized: Suffice it to say that, in a society riddled with divorce and fatherlessness, family policy’s essential task is to shore up marriage’s status as a norm. In a world where gay couples look married, act married, talk married, raise kids together, and are increasingly accepted as married, the best way to preserve marriage’s normative status is to bring gay couples inside the tent. Failing to do so, over time, will tar marriage as discriminatory, legitimize co-habitation and other kinds of non-marriage, and turn every successful gay couple into a cultural advertisement for the expendability of matrimony. Via Sullivan , naturally. It's interesting to see how to get to gay marriage from a traditionalist path.

This has been all over the Internets already, but I suppose I should mention the odd military proposal to create a weaponized aphrodisiac that would render enemy troops insatiably homosexual. They didn't actually try to make it, but a watchdog group is claiming the proposal got farther than the Pentagon is admitting: However, Hammond said the government records he obtained suggest the military gave the plan much stronger consideration than it has acknowledged. "The truth of the matter is it would have never come to my attention if it was dismissed at the time it was proposed," he said. "In fact, the Pentagon has used it repeatedly and subsequently in an effort to promote non-lethal weapons, and in fact they submitted it to the highest scientific review body in the country for them to consider." Military officials insisted Friday to KPIX-TV that they are not currently working on any such idea and that the past plan was abandoned. (HT: Mad Latinist via email and...

...at least in the United States. 7 in 10 Republicans don't believe in evolution . 4 in 10 Democrats don't. And even scarier: The data indicate some seeming confusion on the part of Americans on this issue. About a quarter of Americans say they believe both in evolution's explanation that humans evolved over millions of years and in the creationist explanation that humans were created as is about 10,000 years ago... We can't even be consistently stupid. We must be self-contradictorily stupid. This is one area where supernaturalism isn't just a harmless indulgence, but an actual active force of ignorance. And things aren't getting better: A 2005 Harris poll showed 6% fewer Americans believing in human evolution than they had in 1994. It's stuff like this that makes me believe that perhaps the fall of America from its position of global dominance would be a good thing. But then I take a look at what the Chinese government is like and change my mind. Individu...

The Republicans stood up for Alberto "I don't recall" Gonzales and blocked the measure from coming up for a vote: As predicted, the no confidence vote on Gonzale didn't make cloture, with a vote of 53-38, with one voting "present." Also as expected, the skunk at everyone's picnic Lieberman voted no. But look at which Republican Senators voted aye: Coleman, Collins, Hagel, Smith, Specter, Snowe, Sununu. Ok, so five of them are clearly looking ahead to saving their political skins in November of '08, nonetheless, they should be applauded for putting their votes where their mouths have been in recent months. However, this vote should be considered just the beginning, more than just a procedural vote to put some Republicans on the spot. It should be considered a critical step forward in building the case to remove Gonzales from office. Senators Schumer, Whitehouse and Reid laid out a clear and empassioned case for Gonzales's removal. It can'...

Democratic Party politicians seem to be forever distancing themselves from their own base. While a certain amount of centrism is necessary, I think the party has taken it too far. Chris Bowers on MyDD explains what the Democratic party loses by alienating its base: However, leaving aside actual polling numbers for a moment, there are other reasons why catering to mythical, center-right swing voters and other 1990's chimeras should not always be the number one priority of the Democratic leadership. For one thing, swing voters don't contribute money, they don't volunteer for campaigns, they don't challenge right-wing media narratives, they don't keep Democrats active and energized to vote, and they don't expand the electoral playing field. Rather, these are tasks all carried out by the progressive activist base that Rothenberg thinks has "nowhere else to go" and which the Democratic Party "risks very little, at least at this point, in disappointing...

Seeing the outpouring of neocon/wingnut support for convicted felon Scooter Libby is bad enough. The argument seems to go something like: "Libby lied to protect Dick Cheney. Therefore he is a loyal soldier who shouldn't be abandoned to liberal partisans. Therefore Bush should pardon him." (Never mind that both the prosecutor who convicted him and the judge presiding in the case were Republicans and George W. Bush appointees to boot.) But when allegedly liberal "heavyweights" like Joe Klein rally to Libby's defense , you really have to scratch your head (Klein is not talking about a pardon here, but rather saying Libby shouldn't have to spend time in jail): I have a different feeling about Libby. His "perjury"--not telling the truth about which reporters he talked to--would never be considered significant enough to reach trial, much less sentencing, much less time in stir if he weren't Dick Cheney's hatchet man.[...] But jail time? Do w...

From Political Wire : Leavitt Requests Meeting with Dead Senator The office of Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt called Sen. Craig Thomas's (R-WY) office Thursday afternoon to request a meeting with the late senator, the Washington Post reports. Thomas passed away on Monday after a seven month battle with leukemia. "Needless to say, grief-stricken Thomas staffers were stunned."

As an early Father's Day present, my wonderful yummy wife hired a babysitter and took me on an afternoon lunch/movie date. This was one of our favorite activities from our pre-baby days that we had not yet been able to enjoy. We saw the movie Knocked Up and loved it. It's by the writer/director of "The 40 Year-Old Virgin", so some of the humor is quite crude, and it features similar slacker/loser characters. But it was very funny, especially for those people who have been through pregnancy together. Here's a deleted scene from the movie. It's laden with profanity and crass sexual imagery, but doesn't have any spoilers. Definitely not work safe, though. Enjoy.

BlueGrassRoots takes a tour of the creationist museum. It includes the admonition “Don’t think, just listen and believe” and a nice justification of Cain's incest with his sister (pictured above). There's some really wacky stuff in there. P.S.: The guy they cast as "Adam" in one of their videos turned out to have a life incompatible with the philosophy of the museum . As a result, they pulled the video.

Supposedly, this robot, CB2 , was made to help researchers learn about child development: Minoru Asada, a professor at Osaka University who leads the project, said the robot was developed to learn more about child development. "Our goal is to study human recognition development such as how the child learns a language, recognizes objects and learns to communicate with his father and mother," he said. I'm not sure how making a robot helps you do this. I suspect this is something of a publicity stunt. Or else its part of a secret plan to develop the ROBOTRONS .