Failed Suicide Bomber Fights Al Qaeda Recruiters

In Saudi Arabia.

Um, What? [Updated]

Marry our Daughter.org

Kyra A.
Age: 14 ½,
Location: Southeast

Bride Price: $27,995

Kyra likes the outdoors, more the open air of the beach or the desert than the woods. She would love to live somewhere away from it all. She is bright and funny and full of life and while she has little direct experience with the opposite sex we have made sure she is aware of everything she needs to know to be a good wife and mother.

Thanks to commenter Satchel Pooch, we know for sure that this is a hoax.

Hilarious.

Atlas Shrugs: Death to Jews Americans

One more time: Why do they hate America?

Spamela at AShrugs posts about a book, the name of which I missed, which claims that the terrorists have threatened to cut off the head of the "prostitute" Britney Spears. Spamela's response to that:

Sean, Rosie ("the terrorists have mummies and daddies too") 'Donut, Tim Robbins, Susan Sarandon - youse next! The night of the long knives awaits all the useful idiots.

A redo of the Night of the Long Knives, a 1934 massacre of political opponents by the Nazis, is wished upon - by a Jew - Sean Penn, Rosie O'Donnell, I don't know who the "Donut" is, Tim Robbins, and Susan Sarandon.

Ladies and gentlen - you're Modern Right Wing Thinker exemplitfied.

Petraeus: We're NOT Arming Sunnis

General Petraues said yesterday that we're not arming Sunnis in Iraq.

We've been over this before.

D.C. Madam Names Another John [Updated]

Jeane "D.C. Madam" Palfrey has named Ronald Roughead of the SAIC as a customer. A bit on Roughead from 1986 2006 with a conspiratorial bent to it - with Joe Wilson's name even popping up.

This is all in conjunction with a new defense strategy for Palfrey, the "Honey Pot" defense, in which (from an email release by her lawyer):

...she alleges that the United States Government has been directly or indirectly benefiting from the operation of her service by monitoring her customers and is thus equitably barred from prosecuting her.

In that Memo, Jeane identifies not only already-known customers of the escort service -- Senator Vitter, Randall Tobias of USAID and Harland Ullman -- but also confirms for the first time that another individual with very high government security clearance -- Ronald Roughead of SAIC -- was also a customer. This nexus of CIA backed USAID, Senator Vitter on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and two beltway bandits appears to be more than a coincidence.

She is keeping it interesting, isn't she?

And so is Larry Flynt.

UPDATE: If an internet visitor from the SAIC would like to leave a comment and shed some more light on this unhappy story, I'd consider it an honor.

The Theorbo

A mostly forgotten instrument born around the time the opera was born in Florence, in the late 16th century. The audio starts a bit late, but give it a chance. I'll find another video with more playing, as this one is mostly just an explanation of the instrument. (Though I don't understand why the first set of tuning keys is eight in number if the fretted set is only seven. Hmmm.



Here' a nice one:



Okay now let's get trippy...with the theorbo.

Bill Staines: River

Plays right-handed guitar left-handed, with the high-E up on top of the neck. Saw it with my own eyes years ago. He's a hell of a writer and a rock solid performer - Bill Staines.



And one of my old favorites, The Animal Song:

Anotonio Capel

Painting?



Or Photograph?

The Surge Blah Blah Blah

Something's surging:

In July, the civilian death toll was 1,753, and in June it was 1,227. The numbers are based on morgue, hospital and police records and come from officials in the ministries of Health, Defense and the Interior. The statistics appear to indicate that the increase in troops ordered by President Bush this year has done little to curb civilian bloodshed, despite U.S. military statements to the contrary.

Military statements like these ones:

Petraeus told the Australian that there had been a 75 percent reduction in religious and ethnic killing since last year, while the number of al Qaeda "kills and captures" was on the rise.

General Petraeus, our representative to the world.

Free Book

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.




Chief Justice Roberts in the Hospital: Updated

Get well quickly, Mr. Roberts. And please retire in 2009.

That's all.

Wo - a seizure. No fun. He apparently had one in 1993 as well.

Best of health, again.

An Email to Mark Steyn

At the The Corner:

Mr. Steyn

I don't get you. You posted about a guy who admitted to burning a Koran - as "art" - and then about a guy who stole two Korans and put them in toilets, and was much later caught and arrested [First link.]. You then say:

"Obviously Mr Shmulevich should have submerged it in his own urine, applied for an NEA grant and offered it to the Whitney Biennial."

And you add a link to LGF.

It's not clear what you're saying. You seem to be in agreement with LGF. They and their commenters are repeatedly writing about how putting a cross or a bible in urine - as "art" - is okay, so there's some sort of grand hypocrisy here. But your post about the burnt Koran (that guy wasn't arrested) seems to show that that argument is silly. Yet you make that statement, and give the link?

???

Sincerely,

Thom (Someone who thinks you're a loon, but reads you now and then anyway.)

Songs for the iPod

Haven't been to CDBaby yet? You can get LT songs by the CD, or by the digital song (for as low as .89¢ apiece) at any of the numerous links - to iTunes, for example - located at the LT CDBaby site.

Thanks. That's all.

Bush Admin. Subpoenas Michael Moore

No matter who you love, like, or hate in this story, this seems like a loser all around for the White House.

UPDATE: Hey - Moore may not have to appear. Isn't there a precedent for ignoring subpoenas?

Condom Fashion Show

Because you only get to say that a few hundred times in your life. (From this guy.)

Jon Swift Eats Some Children

Well, at least it was some of the dumber ones. (Via TBogg.)

I don't want this to be true

I just don't.

Twenty-five hits on Google News. That's not many, but it includes the originator of the story, ABC News, as well as the Denver Post, Forbes, and a lot of not-so-small market TV sites.

This is a hard one to stomach.

Ultra-Right Wing SWANK

Unintended porn from Right Wing thing Human Events.

MadamGate Heading to Ohio?

Check there or check back here as the updates or non-updates come in.

It couldn't be Boehner, could it?

Vitter Wants to "Rebrand" his Grand Old Prostitution Party

This is really rich:

So just imagine their confusion when Vitter scrambled to his feet a week later. Would he apologize again? Had he committed some new sin?

But no. Instead, he launched into a speech about his thoughts on “rebranding” the party by reclaiming the fiscal conservative mantle.

HOOOOOOOOOOT!

"Let's get away from that whole 'family values' and 'morality' thing and go back to 'fiscally conservative.' I'll show 'em how I saved almost 50% by calling Pro... well, just a pro.

More Tony Snow Hackerism

The Carptebagger takes on Snow's pathetics from yesterday:

As for Snow’s belief that “assailing” executive privilege has “never been done in American history,” I’m not an expert, but as I recall, Nixon made the same claim — and things didn’t work out too well for him.

Tony Snow Lectures on the "Craft of Journalism"

Former FOX News hack and current FOX News White House hack Tony Snow redlines the farce machine.

Yeah, it's Les Kinsolving, but still - it's funny. And sick.

"Cat 'Predicts Patient Deaths'"

From the BBC:

Oscar has a habit of curling up next to patients at the home in Providence, Rhode Island, in their final hours.

Bush Bloggers to Join FBI Snitch Program

Via TPM's Justin Rood:

The FBI is taking cues from the CIA to recruit thousands of covert informants in the United States as part of a sprawling effort to boost its intelligence capabilities.

According to a recent unclassified report to Congress, the FBI expects its informants to provide secrets about possible terrorists and foreign spies, although some may also be expected to aid with criminal investigations, in the tradition of law enforcement confidential informants. The FBI did not respond to requests for comment on this story.

Expect every Right Wing war blogger from Michelle Malkin to Ace of Spades to Hugh Hewitt to Instapundit to (take your pick) to sign up for their dream job: Informing on Americans (which they will then say counts for service on the "front lines" in the GWHAT?® and thereby allows them to never ever be called "Chickenhawks" again).

Expect also the FBI to quickly scuttle the program when they are daily besieged with "tips" from their enthusiastic blog-friends, such as:

Dear Handler

This totally unhinged dude on Daily Terrorist (Kos) just wrote that Donald Rumsfeld should be tried for war crimes. That's TREASON: T-R-E-A-S-O-N treason!

Sincerely,

American Hero

P.S. I'll take pictures of his arrest and post them on my blog if you send me a plane ticket voucher and a note to get out of work.

P.P.S. Do I get a badge now?

Chief Cheney Hawk/Aide Resigns

Via Huffington Post.

I wonder if he's gonna get Palfreyed.

AJ in Amercablog Out of the Closet

Quite the impressive bio.

Last spring, I left the Defense Intelligence Agency (essentially the spy arm of the Department of Defense) where I was an Intelligence Officer for the Iraq office. I joined DIA wanting to contribute to the defense and security of my country, and I left convinced that the system -- and especially the Iraq office -- was politicized and manipulated to such a degree that we were doing more harm than good. When I resigned, I wanted to put to use my experience both in the field in Iraq and at the Pentagon to help advance reality-based security and foreign policies, and John was kind enough to offer me a place here to do just that.

In my establishment life, I’m a Fellow at the National Security Network, a fantastic organization run by Rand Beers, a former Marine and 35 year veteran of the civil service who resigned from the National Security Council just days before we invaded Iraq.

Thriller Update

Joe, in the comments, sends an update of the Filipino Prison Thriller Production. Thanks, Joe.

Update on Gov. Don Siegelman Case

From Dana Jill Simpson via Scott Horton at Harper's Magazine. More here.

Thriller: In a Filipino Prison

Very bizarre and cool. Michael Jackson's Thriller done by prisoners in the Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center in Cebu City, Philippines. From this place.

The Man Who Was Murdered

The story of the Marine who got away has gotten a lot of play - a really lot of play - since it came out yesterday.

Military judges at Camp Pendleton have decided that a 25-year-old Marine convicted of kidnapping and conspiring to murder an Iraqi man will not serve jail time. Instead, a three-judge panel gave Cpl. Trent Thomas of Madison, Ill., a bad-conduct discharge and busted him to private.

"Conspiring to murder." They did murder, and Thomas admitted that, and admitted that he knew that he had helped murder a man he knew to be innocent.

But I don't feel like giving him or his "punishment" much thought right now.

What's been bugging me about all these stories is that you hardly get a sense of the human on the other side of the equation: the man who was pulled from his home in the middle of the night - in his bathrobe - marched a half a mile while he repeatedly asked them, "Why mister, why?", thrown into a ditch, and shot at least three times in the face, and then several more times in the chest. The seven Marines and one Navy corpsman then left him with an AK-47 and a shovel by his side, both of which they had stolen earlier from his cousin's house. The group later said, as they had all planned beforehand, that they had come across the man digging a hole for a bomb, and killed him only after he shot at them.

The man they killed was a 52-year-old named Hashim. He was, by all accounts, a small man, and disabled, and he had poor eyesight. He was known in his village as "Hasim the Lame," because he had a rod in his leg, put there to repair a wound suffered in a farming accident some 15 years earlier. His family - his wife, his eleven children, at least two of his brothers and their families - were home when he was taken. They later heard gunshots, but wouldn't know until the next day, when a brother was asked to identify a body - which he at first couldn't identify because the face was so badly mutilated - that he had been killed.

His full name was Hashim Ibrahim Awad.




Buy a Song for a Song!

No tips taken here at the LTB, just songs for sale - and they cost so little!

Check 'em out (and lots of others, of course) at PayPlay.FM. It's appreciated, and I think you'll find a song or three to appreciate too.

They even have a nifty player. It's too big for the column - but oh well.

Little Thom


Thanks much,

LT

Christian Extremist Goes on the Lam

If you think "Christian extremist" is over the top, take a look at this piece of work. This guy has issued death threats to several biology professors at the University of Colorado, Boulder…because they teach evolution.

Police have identified the man as one Michael Korn, but he has apparently disappeared. (Korn has a blog: JesusOverIsrael.)

But the Wired Science blog has apparently been in contact with him.

Indians Elect First Female President

Someday we'll join the grownups.

Quiz: Who was the first female leader of a modern democracy, and in what year was she elected?

Expand post for answer.

Siramavo Bandaranaike of Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) became the world's first female Prime Minister in 1960.

Ex-Gonzales #2: Make Fitzgerald Atty General

How much of a kick in the nads is that? Former Deputy U.S. Attorney General James B. Comey served from 2003 until 2005, under AG Gonzales and John Ashcroft, and is now with defense contractor Lockheed Martin Corporation. This is a Republican, appointed to U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York in 2002, and then to Deputy Attorney General at the Justice Department - by President Bush.

And he thinks Pat Fitzgerald should replace Alberto Gonzales.

Republican "Christian Activist" Busted for Prostitution

He's the president of the Christian Action League. Hey - they didn't mean that kind of action.

Ba da BOOM.

Here's their stand(s) on gay marriage.

Man Fires on "Iraqis"...in Florida

I wonder if he's a Michelle Malkin reader.

He fired "10 to 12 rounds" into a house, later telling police he thought he saw "Iraq people" running through the yard. The article doesn't say whether or not "Iraq people" live in the house.

Support Who the Troops Support

Among second quarter presidential campaign donations from the "Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines, as well as the Army National Guard, Air National Guard, Coast Guard and any military veterans," a whopping 50% went to two anti-war candidates, Ron Paul and Barack Obama, with Paul edging Obama by 2%. John McCain was third with 18%.

Third was Hillary Clinton with 11%, and the next Republican was Mitt Romney - with 4%.

That's gotta tell you something.

Rudy G.: We're at War with Pakistan

Don't tell the Pakistanis, I mean given that they're our allies and everything. That and much more over there.

White House to Congress: Bring it On

We are truly in bizarro land.


Bush administration officials unveiled a bold new assertion of executive authority yesterday in the dispute over the firing of nine U.S. attorneys, saying that the Justice Department will never be allowed to pursue contempt charges initiated by Congress against White House officials once the president has invoked executive privilege.

"Never." Wow.

Mark J. Rozell, a professor of public policy at George Mason University who has written a book on executive-privilege issues, called the administration's stance "astonishing."

"That's a breathtakingly broad view of the president's role in this system of separation of powers," Rozell said. "What this statement is saying is the president's claim of executive privilege trumps all."

.

Strange move. It really does seem like another "Bring it on" move from Bush. Given his and his administration's level of support right now (and for the last few years), it doesn't seem like the brightest move. And they defended the stance by pointing to a similar conflict in 1984 - a conflict that administration effectively lost, if not in the courts then by the turning over of the documents that Congress had demanded. How can they expect to win this?

Waxman added: "I suppose the next step would be just disbanding the Justice Department."

Well, there's always that.




Bonds Will Retire

Barry Bonds hit 2 HRs yesterday, bringing him to a total of 753. Damn, that's a lot of home runs.

Here's my breaking news on this: Barry Bonds will retire from baseball when he gets to 754 home runs, just one shy of Henry Aaron, so Hammerin' Hank can keep the cherished all time record. Bonds will round the bases with a smile on his face, tip his hat to the crowd, and, even if it's still the first inning, he will walk through the dugout, through the locker room, out the back door, and out of active professional baseball forever.

This will obliterate any questions about Bonds regarding "cheating" via steroids, and will actually make him one of baseball's most loved characters of all time.

Way to go, Barry. Way to go.

Plame Civil Case Tossed

From CNN:

A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit by outed spy Valerie Plame Wilson and her husband against Vice President Dick Cheney and other top Bush administration officials.

A judge threw out the lawsuit by ex-spy Valerie Plame Wilson and husband Joseph Wilson.

Plame had accused members of the Bush administration of leaking her identity.

U.S. District Judge John Bates ruled that the lawsuit raises "important questions relating to the propriety of actions undertaken by our highest government officials" -- but in a 41-page decision, Bates found the Wilsons failed to show the case belongs in federal court.

"Important questions"...left unanswered.

Dismissed on "jurisdictional grounds".

WaPo version quite different from the others. How do you go from the AP version: "U.S. District Judge John D. Bates dismissed the case on jurisdictional grounds and said he would not express an opinion on the constitutional arguments" to this:

U.S. District Judge John D. Bates said that Cheney and White House aides cannot be held liable for the disclosure of information about Plame in the summer of 2003 while they were trying to rebut criticism of the administration's war efforts levied by her husband, former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV. The judge said such efforts were certainly part of the officials' scope of normal duties.

Bizarro.

Judge's decision here (pdf).

Sen. Vitter and the Diapered Astronaut?

Unconfirmed Sources does the Hustle.

Samuel Lipari, Medical Supply Chain Update

Got an email from Samuel Lipari with a link to his latest press release. It's complicated, but relates to Lipari's lawsuit(s) against General Electric, that suit regarding Novation LLC. For background info, enter "Lipari" into the "Search this blog" feature in the right-hand column.

I'll try to get more later.

P.S. I'll never understand how this story didn't get more press.

Kiwi PMs Lose Their Mind

Good godamighty, use of images of politicians for satire illegal? And this is from the ruling Labour party?

Both Alaskan GOP Senators Being Investigated?

TPM Muckraker has lots of info on a questionable land deal between Sen. Lisa Murkowski and Bob Penney, a business partner of Alaska's other senator, Ted Stevens, who is currently being investigated by the FBI.

And more from the Anchorage Daily News, with the price the land sold for, $179,400. Anonymous real estate agents in Soldotna told TPM Muckraker the land was worth about$300,000.

Fred Thompson's Abortions

TPM Election Central to the NYTimes on the Republican baby killer.

Roger Ailes has more.

Maliki Says We Can Go

Does the fact that the Iraqi Prime Minister says we can leave and they'll be fine put an end to all the talk of how we have to stay because of the mess it'll be if we leave?

Shouldn't it?

It would at least put an end to the losing the hearts and minds of the Iraqi people.

The "Read More" Function: KOSOVO - You find the function?

The "Read More" function that allows me to compress longer posts seems to have malfunctioned and now shows up on all posts whether there's more or not. Ignore it unless it seems the post has more to say.

Rupert Murdoch's Pot Plants

This is a hoot.

Monterey Sheriff’s Deputies pulled-up thousands of pot plants from a ranch in Carmel Valley owned by media mogul Rupert Murdoch. Nearly thirty four hundred plants were found in two gardens along the banks of a creek. The remote property is part of a ranch belonging to Murdoch who owns the FOX Network and My-Space-Dot-Com among other things.

Will Murdoch be arrested for possession? Possession is 9/10 of the law, right?

Little Stevie Orbit

Or Steve Forbert, if you like. You might know him from the song Romeo's Tune.

Michael Moore Writes a Letter

To CNN, with love.

Executive Privilege: The Pat Tillman Docs

Hot off the wire at Raw Story. The WaPo has it too.

Those would be docs showing whether Bush knew about the cause of Tillman's death earlier than he said, I'm guessing,

Al-Qaeda Bakes Little Boys [Updated]

And feeds them to their families. This from WingNutDaily and Michael Yon, who Hugh Hewitt had on his radio show. And Power Line goes along for the blood libel ride.

Al Qaeda: It's the new Jew.

Yon tries to backpedal from it on the July 12 Hugh Hewitt show - "...there’s no proof, and I haven’t been trying to get proof of that. That’s just Iraqis talking," he says - but this is what he wrote on his Web site on July 5:

At first, he said, they would only target Shia, but over time the new al Qaeda directed attacks against Sunni, and then anyone who thought differently. The official reported that on a couple of occasions in Baqubah, al Qaeda invited to lunch families they wanted to convert to their way of thinking. In each instance, the family had a boy, he said, who was about 11 years old. As LT David Wallach interpreted the man’s words, I saw Wallach go blank and silent. He stopped interpreting for a moment. I asked Wallach, “What did he say?” Wallach said that at these luncheons, the families were sat down to eat. And then their boy was brought in with his mouth stuffed. The boy had been baked. Al Qaeda served the boy to his family.

No proof... just Iraqis talking... But I'm going to post it with next to no qualification on my blog, because that's how blood libel works the best.

And he doesn't provide us with who these "Al Qaeda" boy-bakers are: are they Iraqis? Saudis? Pakistanis? I guess it doesn't really matter, does it? There can be no mistaking that they're brown, Arab-ish people, and that's really all that matters.

UPDATE: Yon updated his story when he heard that people were misusing, if that's the right word, what he wrote. (His point about the chicken crossing the road is worth the read, and understandable.) This is according to a representative of his, who just sent me an email. Yon states in the update that he was simply writing what someone had told him. Fine. He stated it as a fact in the story, but he didn't mean to and updated it. It is unfortunately being used by Right Wing bloggers for their own purposes.

Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) Next in Hookergate?

He seems to say it's possible (here also):

“All of us have to look at it and say that we could be next,” he said in answer to a Vitter question. “We all think that we’re not vulnerable to something like that happening, but the fact is this can be a very lonely and isolating place.”

Did he just give his wife a warning shot from a safe distance? Oy.

Tony Blair to War Crimes Trial Tomorrow

At least in this BBC radio play.

Brilliant!

Friday Roundabout

Douglas Adams: Is there an artificial god?

• Word judge declares mistrial in R-A-P-E case.

• Internet radio is dead?

• Mormom church must release financial records.

• "Remove the one millimeter penis!"

• "Except for a tragic accident, the parade went off without a hitch".

• India to require pregnancy registration to fight female foeticide.

• Got an early release of An Arsonist's Guide to Writer's Homes in New England. It's a good one. No - a special one. Or something. It's due out in September.

Higher Crimes

How high can they go? Josh Marshall, from someone who "knows his stuff":

Invoking a privilege is one thing, but telling a person not to show up in response to a subpoena -- if only to actually invoke the privilege -- is quite another. It's not just worse, it's a felony under federal criminal law. See for yourself.

Does Bush, or Cheney, have to strangle someone on live TV for Congress to act? You can only think that the answer is "Uh, yeah."

Nobody Named "Johnson" Allowed in the U.S.

This guy says all "Muslim doctors" should be "suspended" from entering the U.S., since some Muslim doctors appear to have been involved in terrorist activity in the UK.

He's right, gosh darn it.

And since 247 people named "Johnson" have been arrested in the U.S. since June, for a multitude of crimes that include rape and murder, which are terrible crimes that should terrify the hell out of anyone, we should also suspend anyone named Johnson from entering the U.S.

That goes for all the Smiths too.

"A Debased, Sad Fantasy"

One (former) Republican on the urge to hurl his typewriter through someone's front window.

Do Jehovah's Witnesses Convert People?

This one hasn't done so well.

After decades of door-to-door proselytizing, Sybil Lovelace can count five people -- only five!? -- she's led to Bible study, which led to baptism. Time for her to brush up on her sales skills (or just retire).

Loaded Orygun

If you haven't heard of Loaded Orygun, especially if you're an Oregonian, get on over there and get yourself filled up with all the latest on the political goings on, and just cool stuff in general, regarding our great state.

Henry Rollins: Mmmmm-peachment

Teaser Update: I'll be getting a set of phone records... in the mail any day now. Check back to see if my mad researching skillz dig anything up (though I'll have to check with headquarters to see if I can publish anything).

Pink Pistol-Packing Lesbian Killer Gangs

No, it's not coming to a cinema near you soon, it was on The O'Reilly Factor. So you know it's true.