From Newsweek:

Georgia marched back into the culture wars last week when Gov. Sonny Perdue signed a bill allowing Bible classes in public high schools. An estimated 8 percent of the nation's schools offer some form of Bible study. But the Georgia law is the first to set statewide guidelines and earmark public dollars for a Bible course. Five other states are considering similar measures....

In the past, school Bible lessons were informal. Now two groups with national influence and powerful backers are offering states comprehensive curricula. Last fall the nonprofit Bible Literacy Project published "The Bible and Its Influences," a textbook endorsed by moderate Christian and Jewish groups. So far, 30 schools are teaching the pilot program, and the group says 800 schools have shown interest. Meanwhile, the National Council for Bible Curriculum in Public Schools, backed by a long list of conservative evangelicals, including Pat Robertson, says its curriculum is already taught in 353 school districts. However, if Georgia opts for either program it will be the first time that a state has officially adopted a Bible curriculum.

Posted by freewilliamsburg at 10:03 AM | Comments (0)

From Think Progress:

Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld has been doing a series of softball interviews with hosts like Rush Limbaugh in an effort to rehabilitate his image. On Monday, Rumsfeld appeared on the Bill Cunningham Show and had this to say about the retired generals criticizing his management of the Iraq war:

"Of course the implication that there was something wrong with the war plan is amusing almost because of the fact that the war plan’s fashioned by the combatant commanders and it’s reviewed in great detail by the members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, then it’s recommended to me and the President."

In other words, Rumsfeld is arguing that there is nothing wrong with the Iraq war planning — but if there was anything wrong it wasn’t his fault.

Read the whole article here.

Posted by freewilliamsburg at 10:16 AM | Comments (0)

Captain Pretension and Porky the Tool have left the building. Now if Mugger and Rummy get fired, our day will be complete. We must admit, we're secretly going to miss watching McClellan squirm in front of the press core. He is a true professional when it comes to lying and dodging. Someone needs to whip up a McClellan highlights clip, scored to Carly Simon's "Nobody Does It Better."

Posted by freewilliamsburg at 09:59 AM | Comments (4)

Former guest blogger and FREEwilly friend, Kevin, has a great piece on Rightwing fear (he calls it post 9-11 "bedwetting") on Firedoglake, where he's been guest blogging. Atrios and nearly every other leftie blog has picked it up. Here's an excerpt if you missed it:

[Righwingers] are scared is all. They’re scared of a lot of things because they need to be scared of a lot of things. They lack purpose without things relentlessly scaring the shit out of them. And in order to distract the media from the fact that they’re more juiced up on fear than love for their country, they constantly try to frame liberals—who in their minds still wear patchouli, listen to Jefferson Airplane and love the fuck out of Jane Fonda—of being the cowards because, um, we’re "anti-war" (what fucked up times we live in where being "anti-war" is a "bad thing") and we aren’t 100% freaked out that gay people, Mexicans, Arabs and the Dixie Chicks are roaming free in our streets.

You see, in reality, us "cowardly" liberals aren’t afraid of much of anything. Disgusted, sure. We’re plenty disgusted with a lot of things going on in America and the world today, and rightfully so, but our repulsion isn’t fueled by fear. It’s fueled by hope for better days in America, a concept so antithetical to the rightists’ junked-out need for a constant influx of "bogeymen" (they’ve been trained well) that they aren’t able to process the notion that we don’t hate our country, we just take great, full-throated exception to how it’s being run by them. Or, more to the point, run into the ground by them.

I didn’t really follow the explosion of bedwetting blogs post-9/11 because I was too busy languishing in my pre-9/11 NYC liberal mindset, but apparently the blogosphere was flush with dorks in crouched-down, defensive positions who pecked away at something they called "warblogs." These, ahem, "warbloggers" (must … stop … tittering) thought they were at war and no amount of fear of Blogger’s registration process and/or HTML interface was going to get in their way to fight the good fight. They were G.I. Jonesin’ for some seriously manly cutting ‘n’ pasting as they bravely stormed the frontlines of HyperText Transfer Protocol. And some of them, primarily "9/11 Republicans" and alleged libertarians, were so addicted to the notion that "everything changed after 9/11" that they discarded large, important chunks of their belief systems because they figured the "everything changed" doctrine applied to their very beings as well.

Read the whole thing here.

Posted by freewilliamsburg at 09:46 AM | Comments (5)

Gawker reminded us that we forgot to honor the passing of Rev. William Sloane Coffin, Jr. If good people actually "go home to be with the Lord" when they die, then the Rev. has secured himself a place in the Kingdom. In an age of Pat Robertsons and James Dobsons, Coffin was a true crusader. From Wikipedia:

Rev. William Sloane Coffin, Jr. (June 1, 1924 – April 12, 2006) was a liberal Presbyterian and United Church of Christ clergyman and long-time peace activist with international stature.

He was a CIA agent, and later chaplain of Yale University, where the influence of Reinhold Niebuhr's social philosophy led him to become a leader in the civil-rights and peace movements of the 1960s and 1970s.

He went on to serve as Senior Minister at the Riverside Church in New York City, and President of SANE/Freeze (now Peace Action), the nation's largest peace and justice group, and prominently opposed United States military intervention from the Vietnam War to the Iraq War.

Posted by freewilliamsburg at 10:41 AM | Comments (0)

Since the major news outlets are burying the country's most important news story, we feel compelled to underline its significance:

— In 2003, Colin Powell presented pictures of supposed "mobile biological weapons" production trailers to the United Nations Security Council to make an argument for a preemptive invasion of Iraq. Bush had formerly used the photographs of the trailers as evidence, saying "We have found the weapons of mass destruction."

— The Washington Post reported yesterday that the administration had been told by the Pentagon that "it was clear.... that these were not biological labs."

In other words, we now have official confirmation that the administration's "evidence" was a sham. They knowingly presented erroneous information to the U.N. Security Council to manipulate people into supporting the invasion of Iraq.

It's a shame that the media and the American public has gotten so used to Bush's lies that this has become a minor story. Of course, the blogs are ablaze, but this should be headline news across the country. And to think we impeached Clinton for lying about a blow job. God help us.

Posted by freewilliamsburg at 09:48 AM | Comments (7)

From the LA Times:

Ruth Malhotra went to court last month for the right to be intolerant.

Malhotra says her Christian faith compels her to speak out against homosexuality. But the Georgia Institute of Technology, where she's a senior, bans speech that puts down others because of their sexual orientation.

Malhotra sees that as an unacceptable infringement on her right to religious expression. So she's demanding that Georgia Tech revoke its tolerance policy. The religious right aims to overturn a broad range of common tolerance programs: diversity training that promotes acceptance of gays and lesbians, speech codes that ban harsh words against homosexuality, anti-discrimination policies that require college clubs to open their membership to all...

In the public schools, an Ohio middle school student last year won the right to wear a T-shirt that proclaimed: "Homosexuality is a sin! Islam is a lie! Abortion is murder!" But a teen-ager in Kentucky lost in federal court when he tried to exempt himself from a school program on gay tolerance on the grounds that it violated his religious beliefs...

The open question is what constitutes harassment, what's a sincere expression of faith — and what to do when they overlap.

Evidently, Jesus wants his followers to wear God Hates Fags T-Shirts. We must have skipped over that part of the bible somehow.

Posted by freewilliamsburg at 09:46 AM | Comments (4)

The Times magazine published an important—albeit disturbing—story this weekend about the criminalization of abortion in El Salvador. Here's an excerpt of one woman's story (that's her pictured). She had a back-alley abortion because she couldn't afford another child. It's a reminder of why the recent events in South Dakota are so troubling:

From NYTimes Magazine:
When we got to the woman's house, there was so much disorder. It was all a mess... I came in and was told to lie down. It was not even a bed. There was just so much disorder. She asked me to take off my clothes, and she put a shirt on me. She came with a piece of cloth and put it underneath my nose, and I felt a little numb. She came back with a long wire, like a TV antenna. It was not like a doctor's instrument. It was just a wire tube with another wire inside it. She put some oil on it and told me to breathe deeply.

She put it in. And she was scraping around. I was supposed to be asleep. But I felt pain. I told her it hurt. She said, "Yeah, we're almost done." But she kept scraping around, and I said: "No, no, stop. It's hurting me." Then she said, "It's done." ....

At 2 a.m., I started to shake. I had a fever and convulsions. My mama came, and I told her I was cold. She put more clothes on me. The next day I was fine and went to work. I started to feel bad pain but kept working. That night another fever came, and shaking. Mama said she was taking me to the doctor, and I said no. That night I began to convulse again and the pain was stronger. I didn't go to work the next day. I went to the bathroom and bled heavily.

Two days later, on Friday, even my hands and feet were hurting. My kid was sick, he had a cold. I took my son to the doctor, who asked if it was me who was there to see him. I said it was my child, and he said, "You're yellow, like hepatitis." Then I was crying because he touched me on the stomach and liver and it hurt a lot. He asked me if I was sure I was O.K. because I looked bad. When I left the clinic, I couldn't walk. My sister went to look for a cab.

Several days later, I was back at the doctor. They did some tests and called an ambulance. At the hospital they asked me what I had. I didn't want to say. I said I felt bad. They did tests on my urine, blood and lungs and found I had a severe respiratory infection. They did an ultrasound and found my kidneys, lung and liver were infected. And the ultrasound showed something else. They asked me: "Why do you have a perforated uterus? What have you done?" Then they did a vaginal exam, and it was the most painful thing for me in the world. They put something in me, and I cried out. They had two doctors holding me down. They said they knew I had had an abortion because my uterus was perforated and big and they would have to operate immediately. All I remember was going to the operating room, and then I don't remember anything because for the next six days I was in a coma.

She was later prosecuted and nearly put in jail. Read the whole story here.

Posted by freewilliamsburg at 10:11 AM | Comments (1)

Here's the story in full (since the Sun's website keeps crashing due, undoubtedly, to high traffic volume)

Bush Authorized Leak to Times, Libby Told Grand Jury
New York Sun Web Exclusive
By JOSH GERSTEIN - Staff Reporter of the Sun
April 6, 2006 updated 9:02 am EDT

A former White House aide under indictment for obstructing a leak probe, I. Lewis Libby, testified to a grand jury that he gave information from a closely-guarded "National Intelligence Estimate" on Iraq to a New York Times reporter in 2003 with the specific permission of President Bush, according to a new court filing from the special prosecutor in the case.

The court papers from the prosecutor, Patrick Fitzgerald, do not suggest that Mr. Bush violated any law or rule. However, the new disclosure could be awkward for the president because it places him, for the first time, directly in a chain of events that led to a meeting where prosecutors contend the identity of a CIA employee, Valerie Plame, was provided to a reporter.

Mr. Fitzgerald's inquiry initially focused on the alleged leak, which occurred after a former ambassador who is Ms. Plame's husband, Joseph Wilson, wrote an op-ed piece in the New York Times questioning the accuracy of statements Mr. Bush made about Iraq's nuclear procurement efforts in Africa.

No criminal charges have been brought for the leak itself, but Mr. Libby, a former chief of staff to Vice President Cheney, was indicted in October on charges that he obstructed the investigation, perjured himself in front of the grand jury, and lied to FBI agents who interviewed him. Mr. Libby, who resigned from the White House and pleaded not guilty, is scheduled to go on trial in January 2007.

In a court filing late Wednesday responding to requests from Mr. Libby's attorneys for government records that might aid his defense, Mr. Fitzgerald shed new light on Mr. Libby's claims that he was authorized to provide sensitive information to the Times reporter, Judith Miller, at a meeting on July 8, 2003.

"Defendant testified that he was specifically authorized in advance of the meeting to disclose the key judgments of the classified NIE to Miller on that occasion because it was thought that the NIE was Ôpretty definitive' against what Ambassador Wilson had said and that the vice president thought that it was Ôvery important' for the key judgments of the NIE to come out," Mr. Fitzgerald wrote.

Mr. Libby is said to have testified that "at first" he rebuffed Mr. Cheney's suggestion to release the information because the estimate was classified. However, according to the vice presidential aide, Mr. Cheney subsequently said he got permission for the release directly from Mr. Bush. "Defendant testified that the vice president later advised him that the president had authorized defendant to disclose the relevant portions of the NIE," the prosecution filing said.

Mr. Libby told the grand jury that he also sought the advice of the legal counsel to the vice president, David Addington, who indicated that Mr. Bush's permission to disclose the estimate "amounted to a declassification of the document," according to the new court papers.

One of the facts Mr. Libby said he planned to disclose to Ms. Miller was that the estimate, produced in October 2002, concluded that Iraq was "vigorously trying to procure uranium." This contention was sharply at odds with Mr. Wilson's op-ed piece which argued there was no evidence of such a procurement effort, at least on a trip he took to Africa at the CIA's request.

Mr. Bush's alleged instruction to release the conclusions of the intelligence estimate appears to have been squarely within his authority and Mr. Fitzgerald makes no argument that it was illegal. While Mr. Libby said he gave that information "exclusively" to the Times reporter at their breakfast meeting at the St. Regis Hotel in Washington, many of the findings of the estimate were formally declassified and discussed at a White House press briefing ten days later, on July 18, 2003.

The court papers filed by Mr. Fitzgerald do not make clear whether Mr. Bush knew the disclosure was destined for Ms. Miller, though they indicate Mr. Cheney knew that fact. Mr. Libby is also said to have testified that five days late Mr. Cheney authorized the release to the press of information about a cable about Mr. Wilson's strip.

Messrs. Bush and Cheney have been interviewed by Mr. Fitzgerald and his staff, but it is not known how their accounts of the events compared to that of Mr. Libby.

In an interview with Fox News in February, Mr. Cheney, who has a reputation for secrecy, acknowledged that he has sometimes pressed for the official release of classified records.

"I've certainly advocated declassification and participated in declassification decisions," he said.

Asked if he had ever "unilaterally" declassified material, Mr. Cheney replied, "I don't want to get into that. There is an executive order that specifies who has classification authority, and obviously focuses first and foremost on the president, but also includes the vice president."

While prosecutors initially said Mr. Libby was the first government official to disclose Ms. Plame's identity, it subsequently emerged that a Washington Post reporter, Bob Woodward, learned earlier about her CIA employment from another government official. Neither Mr. Woodward nor Ms. Miller wrote about Ms. Plame at the time. Another journalist, Robert Novak, first disclosed the employment of Mr. Wilson's wife in a syndicated column released on July 14, 2003. The columnist based his story on interviews with Mr. Bush's top political adviser, Karl Rove, and another official who has not been officially identified.

Prosecutors argued that Mr. Libby covered up his role in the disclosures because "he knew the White House had publicly staked its credibility on there being no White House involvement in the leaking of information about Ms. Wilson." They also noted that Mr. Bush publicly declared he would fire anyone found to have leaked classified information.

The new court filing quotes from handwritten suggestions Mr. Libby gave to the White House press secretary, Scott McClellan, urging the spokesman to proclaim the vice presidential aide's innocence with the same vigor that the press secretary previously denounced as "ridiculous" suggestions that Mr. Rove might have had a hand in leaking Ms. Plame's identity.

Mr. Libby's note, as typed up by the prosecution, reads like a stanza of verse:

"People have made too much of the difference in
How I described Karl and Libby
I've talked to Libby.
I said it was ridiculous about Karl
And it is ridiculous about Libby.
Libby was not the source of the Novak story.
And he did not leak classified information."

Mr. McClellan did not adopt the talking points verbatim, but did tell reporters later that Messrs. Rove and Libby "assured me that they were not involved in this."

Mr. Rove has not been charged with a crime, but remains under investigation by Mr. Fitzgerald's office.

Posted by freewilliamsburg at 11:41 AM | Comments (0)

The megachurches are gearing up for that huge Christian event that is almost upon us this Spring. No, not Easter. They're preparing for the theatrical release of The Da Vinci Code. Evangelical media darling Rick Warren has been sending out disinformation tips to tens of thousands of pastors encouraging them to inform their congregations that the book is a sham.

Every Christian.... should know that skeptics who see the movie will feel they have been equipped to challenge the faithful. "Our people need to be equipped, too," [says pastor Ken Baugh on Rick Warren's pastors.com]

Warren and Da Vinci Code debunker Lee Strobel are encouraging churches to preach on the heresy of the book:

[from pastors.com] My initial reaction to the book [says Stobel] was outright anger at the way it slanders Christianity... [Still] The Da Vinci Code offers terrific opportunities to preach on apologetics, doctrine, and church history in fresh and powerful ways... I know one church where attendance jumped 500 people when its Da Vinci series launched. Outreach, Inc. is offering materials to support your series, such as sample sermons, bulletin inserts, door hangers, banners, and invitations. And don’t forget to send a press release about your series to your local newspaper in order to garner free publicity..... "It would be a tragedy if all the churches across America miss this opportunity."...

One church mentioned on pastors.com is taking drastic measures.

[Coast Hills Community Church in CA] plans to distribute more than 300 iPod Shuffles – all pre-loaded with the eight sermons from the Da Vinci series – to church members. Their mission: To give them away to friends, neighbors, co-workers, perhaps even total strangers, anyone who might be interested in hearing the sermons.

"They'll be iPod evangelists. They will tell the person, I'd love for you to listen to this and then have coffee with me. I mean, who's not going to take an iPod?"

Though some Christians will undoubtedly be organizing boycotts against Sony (who produced the film) most are following Rick Warren's lead and organizing "truth squads" to counter "heretical" claims that the book makes about Jesus and the deceptions of the Catholic chuch:

[from Christian Science Monitor] Rather than organize protests or boycotts - steps taken in the past against controversial films - Evangelicals and Catholics instead are mobilizing "truth squads." They're producing books, websites, TV documentaries, DVDs, and study guides. Some hope to use the film as a "teachable moment" that could turn the occasion to their advantage.

Of course this all begs the questions: A) what are they so afraid of? B) Don't they realize the book is a work of fiction? and C) Shouldn't churches be worrying about things like ending poverty and hunger instead of obssessing about films directed by Opie?

Posted by freewilliamsburg at 10:02 AM | Comments (0)

From the Associated Press

Dave Eggers, Jane Smiley and Daniel Handler, aka "Lemony Snicket," are among those involved with the newly formed LitPAC, a coalition of authors that plans readings around the country to register voters and raise money for liberal candidates in this year's congressional elections.

"We feel we can raise $75,000 in hard money for congressional candidates, at $5,000 apiece," says LitPAC executive director Stephen Elliott, who has written four novels and a political memoir, "Looking Forward to It."

"We're not George Soros; we're not going to make a massive impact. But if you ask any non-incumbent candidate if $5,000 is a big chunk of money, they'll tell you it's a very big chunk of money."

Other LitPAC authors include Mary Gaitskill, whose "Veronica" was a finalist for the National Book Award, Tobias Wolff, Rick Moody and Anthony Swofford.

Posted by freewilliamsburg at 11:01 AM | Comments (0)

... It must be true. From the American Enterprise Institute:

Though the Bush administration hates to admit it, daily life in Baghdad has become worse. For those politically active, life is more dangerous now than ever.

It is irrelevant whether small businesses, imports, and school and hospital construction are doing better if Iraq's political and intellectual classes (not to mention foreigners who are trying to help them) cannot walk out of their homes unguarded.

If Baghdad remains a killing zone, where Iraq's leaders can safely gather only under U.S. protection, then the prognosis for the Iraqi national identity, which has always had Baghdad at its center, is poor. Lasting political compromises will probably be impossible if the increasingly vicious sectarian strife in Baghdad and its environs intensifies. Within a year, at most two, Iraq could become Algeria.

Posted by freewilliamsburg at 10:44 AM | Comments (3)

by Kevin K.

From The New York Times:

In the biggest campaign fund-raiser yet on behalf of State Senator Thomas H. Kean Jr., Vice President Dick Cheney traveled to New Jersey on Monday and praised Mr. Kean as someone with "the experience, the values and the vision to be a superb United States senator."

But there was one problem: Mr. Kean was a no-show.

Actually, Mr. Kean did show up at the event, which was held at the offices of the IDT Corporation in downtown Newark. But he did not make it until 6:15, roughly 15 minutes after Mr. Cheney's motorcade had left.

So what should have been a routine political story about a successful fund-raiser, netting close to $400,000, became one in which Mr. Kean was asked repeatedly whether he had deliberately avoided being photographed with the vice president, who is deeply unpopular in New Jersey.

Mr. Kean's spokeswoman, Jill Hazelbaker, said: "There was no concerted effort. It was two ships passing in the night."

For his part, Mr. Kean said he had been in Trenton all day, voting on important bills, because "I would not miss votes in order to make a political event." As soon as the Senate wrapped up, around 4 p.m., he traveled north "as quickly as I could." But instead of taking the New Jersey Turnpike, like any regular commuter between Trenton and Newark, he and his driver chose Route 1, which is usually crawling with bumper-to-bumper traffic at that hour.

Mr. Kean said he did so because there were delays on the Turnpike in the morning. But at 6 p.m., there were no reported delays between Exit 7A, not far from Trenton, and the George Washington Bridge, according to the Turnpike's Web site.

And Anton Peters, an executive producer at Shadow Traffic, said that Route 1 was relatively trouble-free on Monday afternoon, with the only significant problem a northbound accident near Linden that was cleared up by 2 p.m. "If he was going north, it wouldn't have affected him," Mr. Peters said.

In any event, by the time he arrived in Newark, Mr. Kean said, "I ended up running down the street" to make the event.

Kean later clarified that he wasn't driving a car to the fund-raiser but "one of those Flintstone-type vehicles you propel with your feet" and that he was actually running down the street "blind-folded and in a potato sack."

Posted by freewilliamsburg at 07:09 AM | Comments (5)

by Kevin K.

From The New York Times:

As the Iraqi insurgency intensified in early 2004, an elite Special Operations forces unit converted one of Saddam Hussein's former military bases near Baghdad into a top-secret detention center. There, American soldiers made one of the former Iraqi government's torture chambers into their own interrogation cell. They named it the Black Room.

In the windowless, jet-black garage-size room, some soldiers beat prisoners with rifle butts, yelled and spit in their faces and, in a nearby area, used detainees for target practice in a game of jailer paintball. Their intention was to extract information to help hunt down Iraq's most-wanted terrorist, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, according to Defense Department personnel who served with the unit or were briefed on its operations.

The Black Room was part of a temporary detention site at Camp Nama, the secret headquarters of a shadowy military unit known as Task Force 6-26. Located at Baghdad International Airport, the camp was the first stop for many insurgents on their way to the Abu Ghraib prison a few miles away.

Placards posted by soldiers at the detention area advised, "NO BLOOD, NO FOUL." The slogan, as one Defense Department official explained, reflected an adage adopted by Task Force 6-26: "If you don't make them bleed, they can't prosecute for it." According to Pentagon specialists who worked with the unit, prisoners at Camp Nama often disappeared into a detention black hole, barred from access to lawyers or relatives, and confined for weeks without charges. "The reality is, there were no rules there," another Pentagon official said.

[...]

Despite the task force's access to a wide range of intelligence, its raids were often dry holes, yielding little if any intelligence and alienating ordinary Iraqis, Defense Department personnel said. Prisoners deemed no threat to American troops were often driven deep into the Iraqi desert at night and released, sometimes given $100 or more in American money for their trouble.

Back at Camp Nama, the task force leaders established a ritual for departing personnel who did a good job, Pentagon officials said. The commanders presented them with two unusual mementos: a detainee hood and a souvenir piece of tile from the medical screening room that once held Mr. Hussein.

We are a nation that tortures people.

It just rolls of the tongue, doesn't it?

Posted by freewilliamsburg at 01:06 PM | Comments (4)

by Kevin K.

George Bush, June 14, 2005: "We're a party of getting things done."

Recent cases in point: Santorum and Norton.

I guess next time someone should ask President Blunt Head Trauma what he means by "things."

BONUS FUNNY:

UPDATE: Yet another case in point. The fun never stops with these guys.

Posted by freewilliamsburg at 05:20 PM | Comments (2)

by Kevin K.

And now your warm 'n' fuzzy story of the day from AVN (careful@work):

Ron Jeremy recently debated Craig Gross, one of the founders of the Christian porn ministry, XXXChurch.com, in front of a raucous audience at Northeastern University in Boston.

Jeremy billed the spirited debate last Thursday before 1,100-plus students as “the porn star meets the bible thumper.” The Metro Studios contract star said both he and Gross wanted the debate to happen.

“The nice thing about it is I checked their website, and he did say I was nice guy. He likes to say he won and I like to say I won,” Jeremy told AVN.com Monday. “He says nice things there and there are pictures of me and him posing with the police and girls.”

While Jeremy was cheered throughout and received a standing ovations, Gross was booed upon his introduction.

“It was a great meeting and it was a brutal debate,” Jeremy continued. “We were friends off the stage, and on the stage we were on it, tearing each other apart. But afterward we went and had coffee and talked for two hours. I think he’s a nice guy, and I don’t even mind what he does. I’m glad he’s there. I don’t have a problem with it.”

To view Gross’ account of the debate, click here.

Here's an article about the event in Northeastern News.

Posted by freewilliamsburg at 07:30 AM | Comments (4)

by Kevin K.

From the LA Times:

Trip offers Bush a break from troubles back home

From ABC News:

Tens of Thousands Protest Bush India Visit

Where did that brush go?

Posted by freewilliamsburg at 08:08 AM | Comments (0)

Cakehead has a funny story on Hooah! bars, military power bars. The Hooah! website makes it easy to support the troops by allowing visitors to send Hooah! bars to the troops overseas as gifts. (Surely they prefer porn, cigarettes, and food that's actually nutritious). The Hooah! bar message board is worth a visit:

Dear AnySoldier who is the beneficiary of these bad to the bone Hooah Bars, hopefully you can chow these down and maybe share them with your comrades while you have your cross-hairs on some high value targets. Whatever your duties may be I hope you enjoy! Keep up the good work and always know your surroundings.HOOAH!"

"I sent Beef Jerkey too! HELP IS ON THE WAY!!!!!!!"

Read the full cakehead story here.

Posted by freewilliamsburg at 10:24 AM | Comments (0)

So we've got a president who doesn't read newspapers or watch the news. And Secretaries of Defense and Homeland Security who don't use email. Should we just shut off the power and turn the capitol into Amish country? It's ironic that the Bush administration argues that it needs to bypass the courts when wiretapping Americans in order to save time, yet two of its key members are apparently still relying on the telegraph and the pony express. Maybe we should fact-check which decade we're in, but what other white-collar job in the country would hire employees who don't use email? It's disconcerting that our nation's security is in the hands of people who don't read. Much less understand what all the hoopla is about when it comes to this internet thingamajiggy. But on the other hand, maybe email is just a fad, like TV and rap music.

Posted by freewilliamsburg at 10:09 AM | Comments (7)

Click image for a larger version. And like Cheney, we figured we'd wait five days until commenting on the shooting. Care of Animal New York.

Posted by freewilliamsburg at 05:06 PM | Comments (0)

In addition to the $250,000 given to Armstrong Williams to promote No Child Left Behind, here's what you money bought [from Adweek]:

A Food and Drug Administration contract had the objective of warning the public about the "consequences and potential dangers of buying prescription drugs from non-U.S. sources."

"expert advice and support in the development of several marriage-related research initiatives"

an educational campaign regarding the "Medicare Modernization Act, and its coverage and benefits"

a contract regarding "message development that presents the Army's strategic perspective in the global war on terrorism"

Posted by freewilliamsburg at 10:37 AM | Comments (4)

It was Cheney who authorized the leaks.

Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff, I. Lewis (Scooter) Libby, testified to a federal grand jury that he had been "authorized" by Cheney and other White House "superiors" in the summer of 2003 to disclose classified information to journalists to defend the Bush administration's use of prewar intelligence in making the case to go to war with Iraq, according to attorneys familiar with the matter, and to court records.

Libby specifically claimed that in one instance he had been authorized to divulge portions of a then-still highly classified National Intelligence Estimate regarding Saddam Hussein's purported efforts to develop nuclear weapons, according to correspondence recently filed in federal court by special prosecutor Patrick J. Fitzgerald.

Beyond what was stated in the court paper, say people with firsthand knowledge of the matter, Libby also indicated what he will offer as a broad defense during his upcoming criminal trial: that Vice President Cheney and other senior Bush administration officials had earlier encouraged and authorized him to share classified information with journalists to build public support for going to war. Later, after the war began in 2003, Cheney authorized Libby to release additional classified information, including details of the NIE, to defend the administration's use of prewar intelligence in making the case for war.

Posted by freewilliamsburg at 01:57 PM | Comments (2)

Having no logical defense against his illegal wiretaps, Bush decides to rely on what always works best for his administration. Good old-fashioned fear.

Posted by freewilliamsburg at 11:43 AM | Comments (0)

Huff Post currently has this as their top story, but we thought we'd run it too since it's been buried elsewhere:

DeLay, R-Texas, ... claimed a seat on the subcommittee overseeing the Justice Department, which is currently investigating an influence-peddling scandal involving disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff and his dealings with lawmaker

Can anyone say "conflict of interest." To make matters worse, Repubs have also given Delay a cushy seat on the Appropriations Committee. Bill Burton, spokesman for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, has this to say:

"Allowing Tom DeLay to sit on a committee in charge of giving out money is like putting Michael Brown back in charge of FEMA — Republicans in Congress just can't seem to resist standing by their man,"

Evidently, the GOP doesn't remember that Delay was just arrested, fingerprinted, and released on $10000 bail for conspiracy charges related to his own appropriations. Read the whole, disturbing article here.

Posted by freewilliamsburg at 10:10 AM | Comments (3)

We keep hoping this will just go away. From New York Observer:

The editorial staff of the alternative weekly New York Press walked out today, en masse, after the paper's publishers backed down from printing the Danish cartoons that have become the center of a global free-speech fight.

Editor-in-Chief Harry Siegel emails, on behalf of the editorial staff:

New York Press, like so many other publications, has suborned its own professed principles. For all the talk of freedom of speech, only the New York Sun locally and two other papers nationally have mustered the
minimal courage needed to print simple and not especially offensive editorial cartoons that have been used as a pretext for great and greatly menacing violence directed against journalists, cartoonists, humanitarian aid workers, diplomats and others who represent the basic values and obligations of Western civilization. Having been ordered at the 11th hour to pull the now-infamous Danish cartoons from an issue dedicated to them, the editorial group—consisting of myself, managing editor Tim Marchman, arts editorJonathan Leaf and one-man city hall bureau Azi Paybarah, chose instead to resign our positions.

We have no desire to be free speech martyrs, but it would have been nakedly hypocritical to avoid the same cartoons we'd criticized others for not running, cartoons that however absurdly have inspired arson, kidnapping and murder and forced cartoonists in at least two continents to go into hiding. Editors have already been forced to leave papers in Jordan and France for having run these cartoons. We have no illusions about the power of the Press (NY Press, we mean), but even on the far margins of the world-historical stage, we are not willing to side with the enemies of the values we hold dear, a free press not least among them.

This was not an easy decision. I've been reading the Press since 1988 and have dreamed of running it for nearly as long. The paper's editorial staff has worked impossibly hard hours and has come quite a ways in only a few months towards restoring the paper's tarnished editorial reputation and credibility. I'm proud of the work we've done, and wish we'd had time to finish the job. I wish the Press all the best, and hope that under new ownership and leadership it can again be an invaluable read for all good Gothamites.

Nevertheless, there's a bigger cartoon scandal at New York Press. They no longer run Maakies. On another note, NPR has decided not to publish the cartoon. And thus far no major UK papers have published the cartoons. In this country, The Philadelphia Inquirer and The New York Sun are the only two major U.S. papers to publish any of the cartoons as of Tuesday night.

Posted by freewilliamsburg at 10:31 AM | Comments (4)

[via Huffpost]

Dear Mr. President,

This March will mark the beginning of the 4th year of the war in Iraq. In contrast, U.S. involvement in WWI came to an end after 19 months. Victory in Europe was declared in WWII after 3 years 5 months. In the Korean War, a cease-fire was signed after 3 years and 1 month. But after more than three and a half years into the war in Iraq, your administration finally produced what is called a "Plan for Victory" in Iraq.

Iraq is not the center for the global war on terrorism. I believe Iraq has diverted our attention away from the fight against global terrorism and has depleted the required resources needed to wage an effective war. It is estimated that there are only about 750 to 1,000 al-Qaeda in Iraq. I believe the Iraqis will force them out or kill them after U.S. troops are gone. In fact, there is now evidence that Iraqi insurgent groups are increasingly turning against al-Qaeda and other foreign terrorists.

Our country needs a vigorous and comprehensive strategy for victory against global terrorism.

The architect of 9/11 is still out there but now has an international microphone. We must get back to the real issue at hand - we have to root out and destroy al-Qaeda's worldwide network.

There are 4 key elements that I recommend to reinvigorate our global anti-terrorism effort: Redeploy, Replace, Reallocate, and Reconstitute.

Redeploy

The war in Iraq is fueling terrorism, not eliminating it. Our continued military presence feeds the strong anti-foreigner fervor that has existed in this part of the world for centuries. A vast majority of the Iraqi people now view American troops as occupiers, not liberators. Over 80% of Iraqis want U.S. forces to leave Iraq and 47% think it is justified to attack Americans. 70% of Iraqis favor a timetable for withdrawal of U.S. forces, with half favoring a withdrawal in the next six months. In fact, 67% of Iraqis expect day-to-day security for Iraqi citizens will improve if U.S. forces withdraw in six months and over 60% believe violent attacks, including those that are ethnically motivated, will decrease. Our military presence is the single most important reason why the Iraqis have tolerated the foreign terrorists, who account for less than 7 percent of the insurgency. 93% of the insurgency is made up of Iraqis. Once our troops are re-deployed, the Iraqis will reject the terrorists and deny them a safe haven in Iraq. The Iraqis are against a foreign presence in Iraq of any kind.

The steadfast and valiant efforts of the United States military and coalition partners have provided the Iraqi people with the framework needed to self govern. The Iraqis held elections that have been touted as highly successful, based primarily on the accounts of Iraqis who went to the polls. But our continued military presence in Iraq, regardless of the motives behind it, is seen by Iraqis as interfering in Iraq's democratic process and undercuts the chances for the newly elected government to be successful. Recently, Iraq's National Security Adviser accused U.S. negotiators of going behind the back of the Iraqi government on talks with insurgents, saying the process could encourage more violence. He said, "Americans are making a huge and fatal mistake in their policy for appeasement and they should not do this. They should leave the Iraqi government to deal with it... The United States should allow the new Iraqi government to decide on how to quell the insurgency."

In December 2005, an ABC News poll in Iraq produced some noteworthy results. 57% of Iraqis identified national security as the country's top priority. When asked to rate the confidence in public institutions, they gave Iraqi police a 68% confidence level, the Iraqi army 67%, religious leaders 67%. But the U.S./U.K. forces scored the lowest, a mere 18%.

The longer our military stays in Iraq, the more unwelcome we will be. We will be increasingly entangled in an open-ended nation building mission, one that our military can not accomplish amidst a civil war. Our troops will continue to be the targets of Iraqis who see them as interfering occupiers.

Redeploying our forces from Iraq and stationing a mobile force outside of the country removes a major antagonizing factor. I believe we will see a swift demise of foreign terrorist groups in Iraq if we redeploy outside of the country. Further, our troops will no longer be the targets of bloody attacks.

Replace

The ever-changing justifications of the war in Iraq, combined with tragic missteps, have resulted in a worldwide collapse of support for U.S. policies in Iraq.

The credibility of the United States of America will not be restored if we continue down the path of saying one thing and doing another. We must not lower our standards and tactics to those of the terrorists. In order to keep our homeland secure, we must hold true to the values that molded our American democracy, even in the face of adversity. Former Secretary of Homeland Security, Tom Ridge, said it best during a speech in March 2004 to the Institute of Defense and Strategic Studies: "America knows we cannot seek a double standard. And, America knows we get what we give. And so we must and will always be careful to respect people's privacy, civil liberties and reputations. To suggest that there is a tradeoff between security and individual freedoms -- that we must discard one protection for the other -- is a false choice. You do not defend liberty to forsake it."

Restoring the world's confidence in America as a competent and morally superior world leader is essential to winning the war on global terrorism.

A recent pubic opinion poll, conducted jointly with Zogby International and taken in Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates, found that 81% said the war in Iraq had brought less peace to the Middle East. A majority of the respondents said they view the United States as the biggest threat to their nations.

Mr. President, I believe in order to restore our credibility, you must hold accountable those responsible for so many missteps and install a fresh team that demonstrates true diplomatic skill, knowledge of cultural differences and a willingness to earnestly engage other leaders in a respectful and constructive way. This would do much to reinvigorate international participation in a truly effective war on global terrorism.

Reallocate

The Department of Defense has been allocated $238 billion for the war in Iraq, with average monthly costs growing significantly since the beginning of the war. In 2003 the average monthly war cost was $4.4 billion; by 2005 the average monthly cost had reached $6.1 billion.

Despite the urgent homeland security needs of our country, the bipartisan 9/11 Commission issued a dismal report card on the efforts to improve our counter-terrorist defenses. Even the most basic of recommendations, such as the coordination of fire and police communication lines, still have not been accomplished.

In the face of threats from international terrorists, we need to reallocate funds from the war in Iraq to protecting the United States against attack. A safe and swift redeployment from Iraq will allow us to do just that.

Reconstitute

The U.S. army is the smallest it's been since 1941. It is highly capable. But this drawn out conflict has put tremendous stress on our military, particularly on our Army and Marine Corps, whose operations tempo has increased substantially since 9/11.

The Government Accountability Office issued a report in November 2005 addressing the challenges of military personnel recruitment and retention and noted that the Department of Defense had been unable to fill over 112,000 positions in critical occupational specialties. This shortfall includes intelligence analysts, special forces, interpreters, and demolition experts-- those on whom we rely so heavily in today's asymmetric battlefield.

Some of our troops have been deployed four times over the last three years. Enlistment for the regular forces as well as the guard and reserves are well below recruitment goals. In 2005, the Army missed its recruitment goal for the first time since 1999, even after offering enlistment bonuses and incentives, lowering its monthly goals, and lowering its recruitment standards. As Retired Army officer Andrew Krepinevich recently warned in a report to the Pentagon, the Army is "in a race against time" to adjust to the demands of war "or risk 'breaking' the force in the form of a catastrophic decline" in recruitment and re-enlistment.

The harsh environment in which we are operating our equipment in Iraq, combined with the equipment usage rate (ten times greater than peacetime levels) is taking a heavy toll on our ground equipment. It is currently estimated that $50 billion will be required to refurbish this equipment.

Further, in its response to Hurricane Katrina, the National Guard realized that it had over $1.3 billion in equipment shortfalls. This has created a tremendous burden on non-deployed guard units, on whom this country depends so heavily to respond to domestic disasters and possible terrorist attacks. Without relief, Army Guard units will face growing equipment shortages and challenges in regaining operational readiness for future missions at home and overseas.

Since 9/11, Congress has appropriated about $334 billion for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, while the insurgents have spent hundreds of thousands. We have seen reports estimating that the total cost of the wars may reach as high as $1 trillion. These estimates are said to include such costs as providing long-term disability benefits and care for injured service members. It is estimated today that over 16,000 U.S. troops have been wounded in Iraq, 10,481 of whom have been wounded by "weaponry explosive devices."

But while war costs continue to climb, cuts are being made to the defense budget. As soon as the war is over there will be pressure to cut even more. This year, even while we are at war, 8 billion dollars was cut from the base defense spending bill. You ordered another $32 billion in cuts to the defense budget over the next five years, with $11.6 billion coming from the Army. The Pentagon told Congress only last year that it needed 77 combat brigades to fulfill its missions, but now insists it only needs 70. In fact, 6 of the 7 combat brigades will be cut from the National Guard, reducing its combat units from 34 to 28. Even though all of the National Guard combat brigades have been deployed overseas since 9/11, your Administration has determined that, because of funding shortfalls, our combat ground forces can be reduced. Not only will these cuts diminish our combat power, but our ability to respond to natural disasters and terrorist threats to our homeland will be adversely affected. It is obvious that the cost of the war, in conjunction with the Army's inability to meet recruitment goals, has impacted this estimate. My concern is that instead of our force structure being based on the future threat, it is now being based on the number of troops and level of funding available.

I am concerned that costly program cuts will lead to costly mistakes and we will be unable to sustain another deployment even if there is a real threat. The future of our military and the future of our country could very well be at stake. The high dollar forecasts of our future military weapons systems and military health care add pressure to cut costs on the backs of these programs. As our weapons systems age, the concern becomes even greater.

During a time of war, we are cutting our combat force, we have not mobilized industry, and have never fully mobilized our military. On our current path, I believe that we are not only in danger of breaking our military, but that we are increasing the chances of a major miscalculation by our future enemies, who may perceive us as vulnerable.

Sincerely,

JOHN P. MURTHA
Member of Congress
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Posted by freewilliamsburg at 10:14 AM | Comments (0)

This is disgusting. Another victory for Dobson and the American Family Association

The last chapter of the controversial religious drama "The Book of Daniel" has been written at NBC. Although the network stopped short of saying the low-rated show was canceled, a spokeswoman said Tuesday it has been dropped from the schedule.

The series, which starred Aidan Quinn as an Episcopalian priest with a pill habit who holds regular conversations with Jesus, has a promiscuous son and a daughter who deals marijuana, proved better at drawing criticism than viewers.

Conservative Christian groups condemned the depiction of Jesus as blasphemous, accusing the writers of portraying Christ as tolerant of sin in talks with the priest. Seven NBC affiliates refused to air it.

Who knew there was a difference between cancelled and dropped from the schedule?

And here's the AFA statement:

“NBC didn’t want to eat their economic losses,” said AFA Chairman Donald E. Wildmon. “Had NBC not had to eat millions of dollars each time it aired, NBC would have kept ‘Daniel’ alive. But when the sponsors dropped the program, NBC decided it didn’t want to continue the fight.”

“This shows the average American that he doesn’t have to simply sit back and take the trash being offered on TV, but he can get involved and fight back with his pocketbook,” Wildmon said. “We want to thank the 678,394 individuals who sent emails to NBC and the thousands who called and emailed their local affiliates.”

No wonder NBC is in last place in the ratings. Pussies. You can read the article here.

Posted by freewilliamsburg at 10:30 AM | Comments (0)

We stumbled across the Bauer Blog this weekend. We'd wondered what Gary Bauer, former evangelical Right golden boy, had been up to. Evidently, when's he's not in DuPont Circle, hiding behind the big oak tree, throwing pebbles at gay men, he's blogging. His latest entry reads "Bin Laden Joins the Anti-War Movement." We're glad to see he's as creepy as ever. It brings stability to our lives.

Posted by freewilliamsburg at 10:04 AM | Comments (0)

Those are the words of Walter Cronkite, not Cindy Sheehan. Of course, now we want to ask Bill O'Reilly, is Cronkite being "run by far-left elements" who are using him. And is he "dumb enough to allow it to happen." After all, those were the accusations he tossed at Sheehan.

What mud can Bill sling at Cronkite, he's probably wondering. How about trashing Cronkite's credibility? Probably not a good idea Bill, since you started out on "Inside Edition." How about saying his statement will dangerously undercut troop morale? Eh — not so great either since you're already using that line of reasoning on Murtha. You could call him crazy. Nah — you're already using that one on Gore, Clinton, Kennedy, Dean, and Moore.

How's this one, Bill, just says he's old. Yeah, that'll work.

Posted by freewilliamsburg at 10:02 AM | Comments (0)

The winner is hooker-lovin' Dick Morris. He claims America is shifting to the Left politically because of the successes of Bush.

A big part of the reason [that America is shifting to the Left] is the success the Bush administration has had in solving and hence diminishing the importance of the Republican agenda. Taxes have been cut, we have not had a terror attack since Sept. 11 and trial lawyers are on the defensive. The issues that remain — energy, environment, healthcare and Social Security — usually are Democratic and liberal.

Read the article here.

Posted by freewilliamsburg at 10:43 AM | Comments (0)

If this were only true....

Read the story here.

Posted by freewilliamsburg at 10:49 AM | Comments (0)

Captain Cronyism, George Bush, has once again nominated a well-connected buddy—who like Brownie is totally unqualified—to head an important federal agency. This time, her name is Julie L. Myers and she's the new head of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency (ICE), an agency with an annual budget of $4 billion and 20,000 employees. The Agency is responsible for, as pointed out by the Washington Post, "preventing terrorists and weapons from entering the country." To make matters worse, Bush intentionally made this appointment (and several others) while Congress was in recess, "circumventing the need for approval by the Senate." Myers has been attacked by Republicans and Democrats as being unqualified. As reported by The National Review in September:

"Given the importance of the position and a history of mismanagement in the immigration service, Congress took the unusual step of inserting a statutory requirement that nominees have a minimum of five years of experience in both management and law enforcement....Her most relevant previous experience was managing only 170 employees and a $25 million budget while at the Commerce department."

Nevertheless, Myers is the niece of former Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Richard B. Myers and is married to Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff's chief of staff. You know, she's a crony. Bush's audacity never ceases to amaze us. Read the Wash Post article here.

Posted by freewilliamsburg at 10:12 AM | Comments (4)

Real classy, guys.

Posted by freewilliamsburg at 04:27 PM | Comments (4)

The old David Letterman is back. Unlike all the other talking heads on talk television, he's begun to actually speak his mind again, like he did early in his career. We started watching him again a couple of years ago and he just keeps getting better. Last night, he told Bill O'Reilly that "about 60 percent of what you say is crap." Watch the Windows video here. Quicktime video here. O'Reilly was clearly fazed. And read some highlights below [via Newsbusters]. Go Dave!

Letterman: “How can you possibly take exception with the motivation and the position of someone like Cindy Sheehan?”

O’Reilly: “Because I think she’s run by far-left elements in this country. I feel bad for the woman.”

Letterman: “Have you lost family members in armed conflict?”

O’Reilly: “No, I have not.”

Letterman: "Well, then you can hardly speak for her, can you?"

....

Letterman: "Yeah, but I think there’s something, this fair and balanced. I'm not sure that it's, I don't think that you represent an objective viewpoint."

....

Letterman: “[w]hy are we there [Iraq] in the first place? [applause] The President himself, less than a month ago said we are there because of a mistake made in intelligence. Well, whose intelligence? It was just somebody just get off a bus and handed it to him?... I agree with you that we have to support the troops... However, however, that does not eliminate the legitimate speculation and concern and questioning of ‘Why the Hell are we there to begin with?’"

Posted by freewilliamsburg at 09:50 AM | Comments (29)

Evidently, he's going to start dressing like Inspector Gadget and saying "go go gadget kickback," to firm-up the evidence for his insanity plea. Read the story here.

Posted by freewilliamsburg at 02:28 PM | Comments (1)

Our favorite culinary website, cakehead, has finally returned with a funny expose on the Google holiday party.

In other blog news, our favorite, slutty, news source, Wonkette [aka Ana Marie Cox], is to become a Wonker.

Posted by freewilliamsburg at 10:37 AM | Comments (0)

Tough guy, Bill O'Reilly is really pissed at Frank and Bill. See the hilarious video here. [Via CrooksandLiars]

JUAN WILLIAMS: I was listening to your Talking Points and there you are, threatening Bill Keller and Frank Rich and I thought: What are you gonna do to them if they engage in the politics of personal attack against the President?

O'REILLY: It's a good question, Juan, and I don't see it as a threat. I mean, I think you have to say to people, as we do with all our guests here, this is what's likely to happen and, if they continue - those people continue - to attack people personally as Frank Rich does almost every week and Keller allows it, then we'll just have to get into their lives.

We must admit, Keller does need a good ass-beating, albeit for completely different reasons than O'Reilly suggested. Given his silence on the wiretap debacle and his paper's blind endorsement of the WMD "evidence" leading up to the war, Keller should be getting a check from the administration.

Posted by freewilliamsburg at 10:19 AM | Comments (0)

Now go party hard like these two. Just three more years with Bush!

Posted by freewilliamsburg at 11:50 AM | Comments (6)

The consensus among Democrats and Republicans is Bush broke the law. Nixon used wiretaps and it was deemed illegal. What are we waiting for?

And to make matters worse, now he's calling the leaks to media about domestic eavesdropping program "a shameful act" that "helped the enemy." Nixon didn't like Deep Throat either. This is a clear cut issue, the taps are illegal and a huge infringement on civil rights. It's arguably, even a bigger deal than someone getting a blow job!

Posted by freewilliamsburg at 11:05 AM | Comments (14)

Trent Lott may run for Majority Leader. He said today:

"I want to keep it dangling out there to keep everyone uneasy"

We'd prefer you put it back in you pants, Trent. My tummy hurts now.

Posted by freewilliamsburg at 05:26 PM | Comments (0)

Make us want to buy a Ford.

Ford Motor Co. on Wednesday said it will run advertisements in gay publications, reversing a decision last week to pull all advertising of its Jaguar and Land Rover luxury brands from that sector.

In a letter to some gay, lesbian and human rights groups, Ford said it has decided to run corporate ads for all its eight brands, including its Jaguar and Land Rover luxury brands, in the targeted publications.

"It is my hope that this will remove any ambiguity about Ford's desire to advertise to all important audiences and put this particular issue behind us," Joe Laymon, Ford's group vice president for corporate human resources, wrote in the letter, which was posted on Ford's web site.

Posted by freewilliamsburg at 09:19 AM | Comments (10)

This is disturbing. They're even spying on Quakers, you know, since they probably have ties to Al Quaeda.

[From MSNBC} A year ago, at a Quaker Meeting House in Lake Worth, Fla., a small group of activists met to plan a protest of military recruiting at local high schools. What they didn't know was that their meeting had come to the attention of the U.S. military.

A secret 400-page Defense Department document obtained by NBC News lists the Lake Worth meeting as a "threat" and one of more than 1,500 "suspicious incidents" across the country over a recent 10-month period....

The DOD database obtained by NBC News includes nearly four dozen anti-war meetings or protests, including some that have taken place far from any military installation, post or recruitment center. One “incident” included in the database is a large anti-war protest at Hollywood and Vine in Los Angeles last March that included effigies of President Bush and anti-war protest banners. Another incident mentions a planned protest against military recruiters last December in Boston and a planned protest last April at McDonald’s National Salute to America’s Heroes — a military air and sea show in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

Posted by freewilliamsburg at 09:50 AM | Comments (5)

This CNN transcript is hilarious [Thanks John]:

SAM SEDER [Host of Air America's Majority Report]: Listen, as far as the war on Christmas goes, I feel like we should be waging a war on Christmas. I mean, I believe that Christmas, it's almost proven that Christmas has nuclear weapons, can be an imminent threat to this country, that they have operative ties with terrorists and I believe that we should sacrifice thousands of American lives in pursuit of this war on Christmas. And hundreds of billions of dollars of taxpayer money.

PHILLIPS [CNN Talking Head]: Is it a war on Christmas, a war on Christians, a war on over-political correctness or just a lot of people with way too much time on their hands?

SEDER: I would say probably, if I was to be serious about it, too much time on their hands, but I'd like to get back to the operational ties between Santa Claus and al Qaeda.

PHILLIPS: I don't think that exists. Bob? Help me out here.

SEDER: We have intelligence, we have intelligence.

PHILLIPS: You have intel. Where exactly does your intel come from?

SEDER: Well, we have tortured an elf and it's actually how we got the same information from Al Libbi. It's exactly the same way the Bush administration got this info about the operational ties between al Qaeda and Saddam.

BOB KNIGHT, CULTURE AND FAMILY INSTITUTE: Well, first I want to compliment him on his dry humor, but this is actually a very serious subject, because a lot of people are waking up to realize that the war on Christmas is really the culmination of a war on faith.

And we'd like to compliment you, Bob Knight, for dry humping this stupid issue to death.

Posted by freewilliamsburg at 11:35 AM | Comments (0)

The White House Christmas card, according to WaPo, fails the "Christmas Friend or Foe" litmus test.

President Bush sent out cards with a generic end-of-the-year message, wishing 1.4 million of his close friends and supporters a happy "holiday season..."

"This clearly demonstrates that the Bush administration has suffered a loss of will and that they have capitulated to the worst elements in our culture," said William A. Donohue, president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights.

Bush "claims to be a born-again, evangelical Christian. But he sure doesn't act like one," said Joseph Farah, editor of the conservative Web site WorldNetDaily.com. "I threw out my White House card as soon as I got it."

Religious conservatives are miffed because they have been pressuring stores to advertise Christmas sales rather than "holiday specials" and urging schools to let students out for Christmas vacation rather than for "winter break." They celebrated when House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) insisted that the sparkling spectacle on the Capitol lawn should be called the Capitol Christmas Tree, not a holiday spruce.

Then along comes a generic season's greeting from the White House, paid for by the Republican National Committee. The cover art is also secular, if not humanist: It shows the presidential pets -- two dogs and a cat -- frolicking on a snowy White House lawn.

"Certainly President and Mrs. Bush, because of their faith, celebrate Christmas," said Susan Whitson, Laura Bush's press secretary. "Their cards in recent years have included best wishes for a holiday season, rather than Christmas wishes, because they are sent to people of all faiths."

Well said, Susan. Not surprisingly, Falwell, who spearheaded the campaign, proves to be a flip-flopper when it comes to his beloved presidential puppet:

The current Bush has straddled the divide, offering generic greetings along with an Old Testament verse. To some religious conservatives, that makes all the difference.

"There's a verse from Scripture in it. I don't mind that at all, as long as we don't try to pretend we're not a nation under God," said the Rev. Jerry Falwell.

Posted by freewilliamsburg at 09:54 AM | Comments (5)

But he meant it as constructive criticism:

"Forgive me for using the term 'fat little brother' " Castro said. "It is not a criticism, rather a suggestion that he do some exercises and go on a diet, don't you think? I'm doing this for the gentleman's health." [from Miami Herald]

Posted by freewilliamsburg at 10:00 AM | Comments (4)

Because God would prefer people die of AIDS

A Brazilian singer who promoted the use of condoms in an anti-AIDS campaign has been dropped from the lineup of next month's Christmas concert at the Vatican, organizers said Friday.

Daniela Mercury was dropped after Vatican authorities read statements by her in the Brazilian press that went "against the moral doctrine of the church," said Eligio Ermeti, a spokesman for the agency organizing the event. [continue reading]

Posted by freewilliamsburg at 10:19 AM | Comments (12)

Evidently, Bush Inc is now censoring Vietnam era documents to save face on Iraq. Perhaps we should censor history text books too. Those darn Crusades could "prompt uncomfortable comparisons" too:

[Frank Rich via TruthOut] If Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney believe they were truthful in the run-up to the war, it's easy for them to make their case. Instead of falsely claiming that they've been exonerated by two commissions that looked into prewar intelligence - neither of which addressed possible White House misuse and mischaracterization of that intelligence - they should just release the rest of the President's Daily Briefs and other prewar documents that are now trickling out. Instead, incriminatingly enough, they are fighting the release of any such information, including unclassified documents found in post-invasion Iraq requested from the Pentagon by the pro-war, neocon Weekly Standard. As Scott Shane reported in The New York Times last month, Vietnam documents are now off limits, too: the National Security Agency won't make public a 2001 historical report on how American officials distorted intelligence in 1964 about the Gulf of Tonkin incident for fear it might "prompt uncomfortable comparisons" between the games White Houses played then and now to gin up wars.

Posted by freewilliamsburg at 12:04 PM | Comments (1)

Posted by freewilliamsburg at 10:34 AM | Comments (1)

Ted Koppel's final show will air tonight. Thanks for a classy, distinguished career, Ted. You'll be missed.

Posted by freewilliamsburg at 01:09 PM | Comments (2)

Somehow we missed this column by former Senator Bob Graham on Sunday. It further implicates Bush Inc of intelligence manipulation. Evidently, there were twointelligence reports:

The classified version most senators did not see:

"contained vigorous dissents on key parts of the information, especially by the departments of State and Energy. Particular skepticism was raised about aluminum tubes that were offered as evidence Iraq was reconstituting its nuclear program. As to Hussein's will to use whatever weapons he might have, the estimate indicated he would not do so unless he was first attacked."

The unclassified version most senators did see:

[It was] titled "Iraq's Weapons of Mass Destruction Programs." It represented an unqualified case that Hussein possessed them, avoided a discussion of whether he had the will to use them and omitted the dissenting opinions contained in the classified version. Its conclusions, such as "If Baghdad acquired sufficient weapons-grade fissile material from abroad, it could make a nuclear weapon within a year," underscored the White House's claim that exactly such material was being provided from Africa to Iraq.

Read the full story here.

Posted by freewilliamsburg at 10:11 AM | Comments (3)

The LA Times says Bush "exaggerated." We say he lied. Decide for yourself: [From the same LA Times story]

1. "[An Iraqi defector code-named Curveball] was the chief source of inaccurate prewar U.S. accusations that Baghdad had biological weapons"

2. "Curveball never claimed to produce germ weapons and never saw anyone else do so."

3. "Curveball's German handlers for the last six years said his information was often vague, mostly secondhand and impossible to confirm. 'This was not substantial evidence,' said a senior German intelligence official... 'We made clear we could not verify the things he said... He [Curveball] is not a stable, psychologically stable guy.'"

4. "The White House... ignored evidence gathered by United Nations weapons inspectors shortly before the war that disproved Curveball's account... [and] punished in-house critics who provided proof that he had lied"

Forget Plamegate. Forget Clinton's blow job. Neither caused 1500 US deaths or enabled the use of chemical weapons against civilians. Can we hurry up and fire this pig fucker from Texas?

Posted by freewilliamsburg at 12:48 PM | Comments (10)

Hearing Ohio Republican Jean Schmidt's vile response to John P. Murtha yesterday was enough to turn our stomachs:

"Cowards cut and run" she said. "Marines never do" [the video is here]

Never mind that Murtha is a distinguished war vet who was visibly moved by the amount of carnage he has personally witnessed while visiting Iraq and vet hospitals. Once again, the GOP makes a mockery of the freedom we are supposedly fighting for by attacking any voice of dissent as unpatriotic.

Thank God Catch softened the blow by focusing our attention where it should be, on Schmidt's bizarre wardrobe.

"Worst. Wonder. Woman. Costume. Ever"

Thanks Catch, we needed that laugh.

Posted by freewilliamsburg at 03:53 PM | Comments (3)

Congressional budget negotiators have decided to take back $125 million in Sept. 11 aid from New York, which had fought to keep the money to treat sick and injured ground zero workers, lawmakers said Tuesday.

New York officials had sought for months to hold onto the funding, originally meant to cover increased worker compensation costs stemming from the 2001 terror attacks [AP]

Meanwhile, the pork-filled Highway Bill posed no problems for Congressional leaders, on either side of the aisle:

The $286 billion legislation was stuffed with 6,000 pet projects for lawmakers' districts, including what critics denounce as a $223 million "Bridge to Nowhere" that would replace a 7-minute ferry ride in a sparsely populated area of Alaska. Usually members of Congress cannot wait to rush home and brag about such bounty -- a staggering number of parking lots, bus depots, bike paths and new interchanges for just about every congressional district in the country that added $24 billion to the overall cost of maintaining the nation's highways and bridges in the coming years [WaPo]

Posted by freewilliamsburg at 09:41 AM | Comments (0)

From NYTimes:

On Tuesday, fueled by the popular opposition to the Darwinian theory of evolution, the Kansas State Board of Education... promulgated a new definition of science itself.

The changes in the official state definition are subtle and lawyerly, and involve mainly the removal of two words: "natural explanations." But they are a red flag to scientists, who say the changes obliterate the distinction between the natural and the supernatural that goes back to Galileo and the foundations of science...

Adrian Melott, a physics professor at the University of Kansas who has long been fighting Darwin's opponents, said, "The only reason to take out 'natural explanations' is if you want to open the door to supernatural explanations."

Gerald Holton, a professor of the history of science at Harvard, said removing those two words and the framework they set means "anything goes."

The authors of these changes say that presuming the laws of science can explain all natural phenomena promotes materialism, secular humanism, atheism and leads to the idea that life is accidental. Indeed, they say in material online at kansasscience2005.com, it may even be unconstitutional to promulgate that attitude in a classroom because it is not ideologically "neutral."

Posted by freewilliamsburg at 10:02 AM | Comments (33)

Now that the Times have made their editorial section subscription-only, most missed this inane rant last week from David Brooks. In a nutshell, he blamed the chaos in France on rap music. Obviously, Brooks couldn't be more wrong. The true catalyst was, of course, them shoot 'em up video games those darn French teenagers are always playing. If you missed his column, it's a must read, just for its pure stupidity:

Gangsta, in French
By DAVID BROOKS
After 9/11, everyone knew there was going to be a debate about the future of Islam. We just didn't know the debate would be between Osama bin Laden and Tupac Shakur.

Yet those seem to be the lifestyle alternatives that are really on offer for poor young Muslim men in places like France, Britain and maybe even the world beyond. A few highly alienated and fanatical young men commit themselves to the radical Islam of bin Laden. But most find their self-respect by embracing the poses and worldview of American hip-hop and gangsta rap.

One of the striking things about the scenes from France is how thoroughly the rioters have assimilated hip-hop and rap culture. It's not only that they use the same hand gestures as American rappers, wear the same clothes and necklaces, play the same video games, and sit with the same sorts of car stereos at full blast. It's that they seem to have adopted the same poses of exaggerated manhood, the same attitudes about women, money and the police. They seem to have replicated the same sort of gang culture, the same romantic visions of gunslinging drug dealers.

In a globalized age it's perhaps inevitable that the culture of resistance gets globalized, too. What we are seeing is what Mark Lilla of the University of Chicago calls a universal culture of the wretched of the earth. The images, modes and attitudes of hip-hop and gangsta rap are so powerful they are having a hegemonic effect across the globe.

American ghetto life, at least as portrayed in rap videos, now defines for the young, poor and disaffected what it means to be oppressed. Gangsta resistance is the most compelling model for how to rebel against that oppression. If you want to stand up and fight The Man, the Notorious B.I.G. shows the way.

This is a reminder that for all the talk about American cultural hegemony, American countercultural hegemony has always been more powerful. America's rebellious countercultural heroes exert more influence around the world than the clean establishment images from Disney and McDonald's. This is our final insult to the anti-Americans; we define how to be anti- American, and the foreigners who attack us are reduced to borrowing our own cliches.

When rap first came to France, American rappers dominated the scene, but now the suburban immigrant neighborhoods have produced their own stars in their own language. French rap lyrics today are like the American gangsta lyrics of about five or 10 years ago, when it was more common to fantasize about cop killings and gang rape.

Most of the lyrics can't be reprinted in this newspaper, but you can get a sense of them from, say, a snippet from a song from Bitter Ministry:

"Another woman takes her beating./This time she's called Brigitte./She's the wife of a cop."

Or this from Mr. R's celebrated album "PolitiKment IncorreKt":

"France is a bitch. Don't forget to [deleted] her to exhaustion. You have to treat her like a whore, man! My niggers and my Arabs, our playground is the street with the most guns!"

The French gangsta pose is familiar. It is built around the image of the strong, violent hypermacho male, who loudly asserts his dominance and demands respect. The gangsta is a brave, countercultural criminal. He has nothing but rage for the institutions of society: the state and the schools. He shows his own cruel strength by dominating women. It is perhaps no accident that until the riots, the biggest story coming out of these neighborhoods was the rise of astonishing and horrific gang rapes.

In other words, what we are seeing in France will be familiar to anyone who watched gangsta culture rise in this country. You take a population of young men who are oppressed by racism and who face limited opportunities, and you present them with a culture that encourages them to become exactly the sort of people the bigots think they are -- and you call this proud self- assertion and empowerment. You take men who are already suspected by the police because of their color, and you romanticize and encourage criminality so they will be really despised and mistreated. You tell them to defy oppression by embracing self-destruction.

In America, at least, gangsta rap is sort of a game. The gangsta fan ends up in college or law school. But in France, the barriers to ascent are higher. The prejudice is more impermeable, and the labor markets are more rigid. There really is no escape.

Needless to say, Brooks isn't keepin' shit real. [Thanks for the tip, John]

Posted by freewilliamsburg at 10:15 AM | Comments (9)

Finally, a leading Democrat admits what we've known all along. Too bad we had to wait nearly 3 years for some honesty.

It was an op-ed opening with a rare, "I was wrong." The author was former senator and candidate for vice president, John Edward, writing in Sunday's Washington Post.

"Almost three years ago we went into Iraq to remove what we were told -- and what many of us believed and argued -- was a threat to America," Edward related. "But in fact we now know that Iraq did not have weapons of mass destruction when our forces invaded Iraq in 2003. The intelligence was deeply flawed and, in some cases, manipulated to fit a political agenda.

"It was a mistake to vote for this war in 2002. I take responsibility for that mistake. It has been hard to say these words because those who didn't make a mistake -- the men and women of our armed forces and their families -- have performed heroically and paid a dear price.

"The world desperately needs moral leadership from America, and the foundation for moral leadership is telling the truth.... [read the rest]

Posted by freewilliamsburg at 10:48 AM | Comments (4)

From USA Today:

Bush is threatening to veto two major defense bills because they include an amendment to ban abusive treatment of detainees that the Senate has attached to both measures....

It's a fight over treatment of prisoners by U.S. interrogators that pits Bush against usual allies, such as Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, and prominent veterans, such as Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.

Posted by freewilliamsburg at 12:01 AM | Comments (0)

And if you haven't seen this Ferrer ad featuring a dancing Al Sharpton, it's hilarious.

Posted by freewilliamsburg at 09:44 AM | Comments (10)

The New York Times got a big scoop on Sunday and curiously buried it on page 14. It got trumped by their page one story about this obscure little company they discovered called Google which has, evidently, been doing pretty well recently. With Senate hearings into the handling of pre-war evidence FINALLY beginning this week, this could be a big story:

A high Qaeda official in American custody was identified as a likely fabricator months before the Bush administration began to use his statements as the foundation for its claims that Iraq trained Al Qaeda members to use biological and chemical weapons, according to newly declassified portions of a Defense Intelligence Agency document...

The document provides the earliest and strongest indication of doubts voiced by American intelligence agencies about Mr. Libi's credibility. Without mentioning him by name, President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, Colin L. Powell, then secretary of state, and other administration officials repeatedly cited Mr. Libi's information as "credible" evidence that Iraq was training Al Qaeda members in the use of explosives and illicit weapons.

Read it all a here.

Posted by freewilliamsburg at 09:40 PM | Comments (1)

"On Tuesday, a bipartisan group of senators plans to meet and launch what the panel has labeled "Phase Two" of its investigation. That phase will focus in part on how the Bush administration handled prewar intelligence, including whether the information was misrepresented in statements to the public. The group of six senators is to meet over three days and report back on the intelligence committee's plan for this second phase."

Read it all here.

Posted by freewilliamsburg at 11:22 AM | Comments (0)

This was buried in the New York Times yesterday, but worth noting:

The Labor Department's inspector general strongly criticized department officials yesterday for "serious breakdowns" in procedures involving an agreement promising Wal-Mart Stores 15 days' notice before labor investigators would inspect its stores for child labor violations.

The report by the inspector general faulted department officials for making "significant concessions" to Wal-Mart, the nation's largest retailer, without obtaining anything in return. The report also criticized department officials for letting Wal-Mart lawyers write substantial parts of the settlement and for leaving the department's own legal division out of the settlement process...

"The Bush Labor Department chose to do an unprecedented favor for Wal-Mart, despite the fact it is well known for violating labor laws, including child labor laws," Mr. Miller [Democratric Sen from California] said. "The sweetheart deal put Wal-Mart employees at risk, undermined government effectiveness, and fur