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Via Boing Boing, A Woman Who Went to Alaska, written by May Kellog Sullivan in 1902.

The Haditha Trial

Ugly.

"I said 'But they're just women and children.' He didn't say nothing."

Rapes and massacres during a reemptive war. George Bush's preemptive war.

A New Dune Movie?

Rumors via The Raw Feed.

And there are new Dunes? Didn't know that.

I AM the Government

Thomas Kontogiannis, Duke Cunningham briber, says he was just doing his job when he bought a congressman.

The heretofore secret court transcripts.

The Angry Rakkasan

Army officer author at DKos has a book just out. The War I Always Wanted: The Illusion of Glory and the Reality of War.

Getting mine tonight.

World's Oldest Blogger

Olive Riley, 107 years old, of New South Wales, at Life of Riley.

Cunningham briber Kontogiannis' trial transcripts unsealed

Thugs-R-Us Republicans are coming into the spotlight.

"Good Planets" and "Romeo's Tune"

Two songs from Steve Norbert. Commenter says the accompanying guitarist is Mark Earle.

Limbaugh: Darfur is Donovan McNabb

More brilliant analysis from Rush Limbaugh: the "black" man.

From here.

The Timing of the Shill

The Washington Post, today:

Democratic leaders in Congress had planned to use August recess to raise the heat on Republicans to break with President Bush on the Iraq war. Instead, Democrats have been forced to recalibrate their own message in the face of recent positive signs on the security front...

"Positive signs," same day:

Iraq helicopter crash kills 14 U.S. soldiers

It's hard being a shill some days.

And another soldier killed, in Baghdad.

Creationism…the Movie (With Ben Stein)

I shit you not.

Watch the trailer, but do it on monitor you won't mind crushing with a sledge hammer afterwards (or during, more likely).

Oh look, Ben "Stein indicates that my brain is made of granite" Stein has a movie blog. I left a comment informing him that the Pope thinks evolution is cool. Let's see if he expels it...

From Pharyngula.

Lying Bastard Mine Owner Made "Risky" Mining Changes Last Year

Weasel shit liar:

Robert Murray insists that his company did not change the mining plan at Crandall Canyon after purchasing a joint interest in the mine last August.

But documents obtained by The Salt Lake Tribune clearly contradict Murray's assertion, and show that Murray's company sought and received approval from federal regulators to make a significant, and, experts say, risky change to the mining strategy.

But no worries, mate, you go ahead and lead the story.

Lying bastard.

Hurricane Dean Blog From Jamaica

Updating from the island . (Tracker.)

And best of luck and more to Oliver's mom.

Karl Rove Calls Bush Critics "Effete"

Karl Rove called someone "effete"? Are you kidding me?

That Vietnam War-Supporting Draft Dodger marshmallow called, like, this guy "effete"? And this guy? And this guy? (This could go on all day. All year. A decade.)

Too bad they CANCELLED FOX's Half Hour News Hour. Rove could have saved them with that kind of comedy.

"I'm not falling out of this tree for you bastards!"

Ah, Australia:

CAPE York stockman David George has spent seven nights up a tree in a crocodile-infested swamp, bleeding and with little food - and lived to tell the tale.
...

"Every night I was stalked by two crocs who would sit at the bottom of the tree staring up at me," Mr George recalled yesterday.

"All I could see was two sets of red eyes below me and all night I had to listen to a big bull croc bellowing a bit further out.

"I'd yell out at them, 'I'm not falling out of this tree for you bastards'."

Researchers Find Cancer-Supressing Gene

From Canada:

The team, led by Dr. Poul Sorensen, says the gene has the power to suppress the growth of human tumours in multiple cancers, including breast, lung and liver.

The gene, HACE 1, helps cells fight off stress that, left unchecked, opens the door to formation of multiple tumours.

Dr. Sorensen's team found cancerous cells form tumours when HACE 1 is inactive, but when additional stress such as radiation is added, tumour growth is rampant.

Kick-starting HACE 1 prevented those cells from forming tumours.

Radiation stress, it's saying, could in cases be a bad thing. Not exactly news, but to get details of how it works (if that's in fact what this is - it's still brand new research) is a bit chilling.

Let's hope this is a breakthrough.

iTunes

Your host, on iTunes.

This message has been brought to you by the letter "R," first letter in such words as "retired" and "Republican" and "ruinous," and phrases like "really, really awful."

The Blossom is off the Turd [Updated]

Somebody fumigate the White House.

And don't forget that Patrick Leahy is still busy.

More news about an asshole here.

And remember just a few days back when a major Bush fundraiser was arrested? Is Fabian singing?

It's Impeachment Excuse Season

Look! There's a dumb, slow one!

BAM! You "understand the sentiments"? The hell you do! If you understood 'em, you'd have ARTICLES OF IMPEACHMENT halfway up that bastard's ass already! You don't understand squat - and you should! BAM!

BAM! Would you say, "Let's not put it out - it'd be too much work!" if your house was fire, ya big dummy? BAM!

BAM! It'd be too much work? Then spend more time at work! I've worked 22 hour days (really, lots of them, in Alaska), and that job wasn't as important as yours. You can damn well do it too! Now get to work! BAM!

Killed it.

Bomb Kills Governor, Police Chief in Iraq

But don't worry, P-Bushy's working real hard on Iraq and stuff.

The "War Czar" Can't Freaking Talk

You've probably heard that Bush's inanely-appointed "War Czar," Lt. General Douglas Lute, says we may need a draft to fill all the fun spots created by the Never-Ending War on Everything that Could Possibly Make Rich People Mountains of Even More Money.

I couldn't care less what that nitwit thinks - there ain't gonna be a draft. For obvious reasons. But I would like to point to some of the WAZAH!'S comments:

“I think it makes sense to certainly consider it,” Army Lt. Gen. Douglas Lute said in an interview with National Public Radio’s “All Things Considered.”

It makes sense to certainly consider it? Rather than uncertainly consider it? Did you mean to say, "It certainly makes sense to consider it?" Cuz if you did, that's what you should have said. It would have made you appear to possess at least the possibility of intelligence. You're the WAZAH!, after all. I don't think that's asking too much.

And I can tell you, this has always been an option on the table.

OWWW! Stop that! It's an "option on the table"? That's a redundancy and a cliché. That's two crimes in one. It's a redundanché. (Are we gonna give it 110% of everything we've got, too?)

But ultimately, this is a policy matter between meeting the demands for the nation’s security by one means or another.

Oh dear Lord. What you meant to say is that any discussion regarding our nation's security should by necessity include the subject of the draft. Or something along those lines. But you couldn't do that, either because a) you're too dumb, or b) you're concentrating so hard on b1.) not sounding like an idiot (you failed), and b2.) evading, distorting, and distracting people from the fact that you're attempting to evade, distort, and distract people. Or both.

But wait! there's more!

There's both a personal dimension of this, where this kind of stress plays out across dinner tables and in living room conversations within these families, and ultimately, the health of the all-volunteer force is going to rest on those sorts of personal family decisions.

... yeah? ... we're waiting ... you said "both" ... it was the second word in the sentence(!!) ... I'm pretty sure you didn't mean both the "dinner tables" and the "living rooms" - that wouldn't make sense!!! ... ("stress plays out across dinner tables"?) ... ("a personal dimension of this" - is that really what he said?) ... oh screw it. I'm leaving ...

Our War Czar can't talk. Or think, apparently. I think P-Bushy may have found his double.

Major Romney (and Bush/Cheney) Fundraiser Indicted in Massive Fraud Case

Ouch. Go get em, Willis.

A federal grand jury indicted a corporate executive who allegedly ran a scheme to make $32 million in false purchases of computer equipment, spending the money instead on beach real estate and private jet travel, prosecutors said Thursday.

Alan B. Fabian, 43, of Cockeysville, is charged in a 23-count indictment with mail fraud, money laundering, bankruptcy fraud, perjury and obstruction of justice. The grand jury handed up the indictment Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Baltimore and it was unsealed Thursday.

At a news conference, U.S. Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein called it one of the largest monetary theft cases ever prosecuted in Maryland.

Email: "Republicans Protecting Gen.s Abizaid and McChrystal"

I just got an email from someone involved in the ongoing investigation of the Pat Tillman tragedy. Key paragraph:

This whole investigation was conducted to protect McChrystal and Abizaid who are being groomed by Republicans for the future.

Make of that what you will. More later.

THE BROWN PEOPLE ARE TAKING OVER!!!

CNN [and the Associated Press] gets out their freak machine.

This kind of stuff fuels such emlightened forays of the soul as the recent National Review cruise:

The conversation ebbs back to friendly chit-chat. So, you're a European, one of the Park Avenue ladies says, before offering witty commentaries on the cities she's visited. Her companion adds, "I went to Paris, and it was so lovely." Her face darkens: "But then you think – it's surrounded by Muslims. " The first lady nods: "They're out there, and they're coming."

If someone Dropped a Piano on John Gibson...

I'd get them a new piano.

President Bush Has Lyme Disease?

Weird.

No End in Sight

A review from Village Voice of Charles Ferguson's new documentary:

Masterfully edited and cumulatively walloping, Charles Ferguson's No End in Sight turns the well-known details of our monstrously bungled Iraq war into an enraging, apocalyptic litany of fuckups. One may have already heard some or all of the appalling details that Ferguson collects—the well-connected American kid plucked straight out of Georgetown to oversee the Baghdad traffic plan, the $2 trillion price tag, the estimated 700,000 Iraqi civilian casualties—and still be driven to hysterics by the sheer volume of atrocity gathered here. Ferguson's early title card—"It is a story in which many people tried to save a nation"—may be overly generous toward the doc's talking-head roster of former U.S. military officials and other administrative casualties of war, but No End in Sight is certainly a film about failure, perhaps the ultimate film about failure. Or maybe a film about the ultimate failure?

And a clip:

Why the Secrecy in the Duke Cunningham Case?

Who else is Thomas Kontogiannis linked to? Cheney? He has already pleaded guilty to bribery, in a case against somebody already sitting in prison. What else is going on here? Why isn't the press being allowed into this story?

“It's almost Orwellian double-speak,” said Gregg Leslie, the legal defense director for The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. “They say, 'We need secrecy, but the reason we need secrecy is also secret, so we can't tell you.' ”

This guy is not just guilty of bribery, he's guilty of bribing a sitting U.S. congressman - and on matters involving defense contractors. Big defense contractors. There is enormous reason for this story to be covered and covered in depth. It has profound implications on a profound subject: national security. Why isn't this front page news.?

Black Sites

Things we're supposed to stand against. One snippet from the nine page article:

The conclusions of the Red Cross, which is known for its credibility and caution, could have potentially devastating legal ramifications.

That's a very tame snippet. (Steve Clemons points "potentially devastating legal ramifications" toward the Vice President's office.)

Full article here.

"Plastic, not axes, threaten cork forests"

Interesting story on how synthetic corks are dooming the world's cork forests:



The Quercus suber, or cork oak, which grows on both the European and African sides of the Mediterranean, provides the raw material for practically all the 20 billion wine corks used every year.

The way cork is harvested -- shaved off the sides of trees like the way a sheep is shorn -- means forests continue to thrive as they give up their valuable bark.

In Sardinia, the only region in Italy that produces cork, the forests are a haven for wild boar, a species of hawk native to the island and Sardinian deer.

The highly endangered Iberian lynx roams the cork forests of Spain and Portugal, the global leader in cork production; in North Africa the forests provide a habitat for Barbary deer.

News From Ferghana

At Ferghana.ru:

Ferghana.Ru news agency was established in the fall 1998 when Ferghana Community web site was set up. Ferghana.Ru news agency is one of the most popular resources dealing with the life of Central Asian countries of the former USSR. With correspondents in every major city of the region, Ferghana.Ru news agency offers its clients the latest information.

News from Ferghana, Uzbekistan, and Central Asia. Available in English, Russian, and Uzbek.

Old Advertising and Educational Films

The Prelinger Archives:

Prelinger Archives was founded in 1983 by Rick Prelinger in New York City. Over the next twenty years, it grew into a collection of over 60,000 "ephemeral" (advertising, educational, industrial, and amateur) films.

Via Boing Boing.

Hey! We're Just Like Zimbabwe!

They can listen to their citizens' phone calls without warrants too.

Massive Crystals in Mexican Cave

Too cool for words.

Heinrich Barth's 1850s Sahara Sketches

I hope to have more about this at some point in the future, but for now - behold the Sahara Desert. (I learned about Barth from this Smithsonian article.)

Escort Linked to Senator Vitter to Testify

She's going to testify against Jeane Palfrey, who ran the alleged prostitution business, saying that it wasn't so "alleged." And the phone records link this woman to Vitter.

You see how Palfrey's working this? Link the escort to Vitter, then Vitter is implicated in illegal acts. And will be called to tesify. And he has to testify for Palfrey that it wasn't money for sex. Crazy stuff.

(And Palfrey is suing the escort, along with several others, for "breach of contract" for having sex with clients. Really crazy stuff.)

Tillman Hearing: the P4

The Tillman hearing today is focusing on the "P4," the "Personal For" message sent by Maj. Gen. Stanley McChrystal on April 29, 2004. I wrote about that in March when it became public.

The hearing is being followed at FireDogLake.

And the censured general in the case is evading federal officers trying to serve him a subpoena to appear at the hearing.

Justice Dept. Pressured USAtty in Oxycontin Case

More of the same from BushCheneyGonzalesCo.:

The night before the government secured a guilty plea from the manufacturer of the addictive painkiller OxyContin, a senior Justice Department official called the U.S. attorney handling the case and, at the behest of an executive for the drugmaker, urged him to slow down, the prosecutor told the Senate Judiciary Committee yesterday.

John L. Brownlee, the U.S. attorney in Roanoke, testified that he was at home the evening of Oct. 24 when he received the call on his cellphone from Michael J. Elston, then chief of staff to the deputy attorney general and one of the Justice aides involved in the removal of nine U.S. attorneys last year.

Brownlee settled the case anyway. Eight days later, his name appeared on a list compiled by Elston of prosecutors that officials had suggested be fired.

"...at the behest of an executive for the drugmaker...slow down"? These people are crooks to the core. [Damn, TPM and Atrios used the exact words. I wouldn't have if I'd seen thier posts - but it's a natural reaction to this story.] Don't forget what that case was about:

The OxyContin case arose from a four-year investigation into the marketing of a powerful drug that was, according to federal drug officials, a direct or partial cause of 146 deaths in 2000 and 2001 and possibly in 318 others during that period.

Slow down.