From today’s L.A. Times, a story about impending civil war in Iraq:
BAGHDAD — Explosions rip through marketplaces, scattering blood and vegetables and leaving women wailing in the alleys. Bodies bob in rivers and are dug up from garbage dumps and parks. Kidnappers troll the streets, sirens howl through morning prayers and mortar rounds whistle […]

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What, exactly, does it take to make people wake up and demand impeachment? Oh, I forgot, another blowjob:
THE RAF and US aircraft doubled the rate at which they were dropping bombs on Iraq in 2002 in an attempt to provoke Saddam Hussein into giving the allies an excuse for war, new evidence has shown.
The […]

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I just realized I actually had a cup of tea, some lime-flavored Tostitos and a Fudgesicle for breakfast.
Can you say “PMS”?

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Via Josh Marshall, the WashPo article reporting that the intelligence analysts who were responsible for the aluminum tubes fiasco got bonuses for their efforts:
That each of these men could have been given such high commendations over the period of time in which their errors and poor performance became apparent makes it hard not to think […]

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Julia untangles the many contradictions of that wacky big-government program encouraging women to adopt and implant frozen embryos.

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Oh good, more local jobs - and lots of turnover:
WASHINGTON — Closed military bases could become repositories for nuclear waste under a little-noticed section of a spending bill that was passed by the House this week, exacerbating the fears of local lawmakers who are fighting the scheduled closure of four of New England’s biggest bases.
The […]

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The Voice of the White House says certain interests are talking about a coup (usual disclaimers apply):
As a result of the economic and military disasters the narrow-minded and ignorant President is creating, there is now a very powerful internal movement to get him out of the White House, either by turning Congress and the people […]

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Oh, I marched to the battle of New Orleans,
At the end of the early British wars.
The young land started growing,
The young blood started flowing.
But I ain’t a-marching anymore!
Oh I killed my share of Injuns in a thousand different fights,
I was there at the Little Big Horn.
I heard many men a-lying,
I saw many more a-dying.
But I […]

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I wish more bands were like this:
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The rock band Nine Inch Nails said on Friday it canceled plans to appear on next week’s MTV Movie Awards after the network questioned the band’s plans to perform in front of an image of President Bush.
The band was slated to perform “The Hand That […]

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Professor Alterman on how the right wing is “working the refs” :
On the cable news networks and Sunday shout fests where conservatives love to pull the “liberal bias” charge out of their bags when confronted with facts they don’t like, you would be hard pressed to find much liberal representation. It’s odd that of most […]

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Yeah, but can I do it until I need glasses?
Federal health officials are examining rare reports of blindness among some men using the impotence drug Viagra.
The Food and Drug Administration still is investigating, but has no evidence yet that the drug is to blame, said spokeswoman Susan Cruzan.

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Gee. Sure looks suspicious, doesn’t it?
WASHINGTON - Two days before Sen. Rick Santorum introduced a bill that critics say would restrict the National Weather Service, his political action committee received a $2,000 donation from the chief executive of AccuWeather Inc., a leading provider of weather data.
The disclosure has renewed criticism of the measure, which Santorum, […]

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It’s not that the government is trying to do this that puzzles me. It’s that there is so little outrage when they try:
WASHINGTON, May 26 - As the Senate moves to complete the spending bill for the Higher Education Act next month, a growing number of organizations concerned about privacy rights are fighting a Department […]

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Nice to know BushCo’s base is doing so well:
The number of millionaires in the U.S. increased to a record last year, boosted by gains in stocks and global financial markets, according to two new studies.
The number of U.S. households with a net worth of $1 million or more rose 21% in 2004, according to a […]

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Oh. Well, we weren’t actually going to tell anyone when there was an emergency, anyway. Wouldn’t want people to panic:
More than two dozen nuclear power plants across the country lack sirens that would warn of a nuclear emergency if electricity also was blacked out, according to a report by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Twenty-eight U.S. […]

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This is getting good, and Democrats should slam them hard:
The director of Ohio’s workers compensation bureau is resigning amid a growing scandal over millions of dollars missing from a rare coin investment fund, Gov. Bob Taft said Friday.
Neither workers comp Administrator James Conrad nor any member of his staff told the governor about the state’s […]

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Dad’s doing great and I’ll be going off to the big old Take Back America conference with a relatively light heart.
Those of you who offered to chip in for gas, etc., please do so soon. It takes a few days for the donations to clear. Thanks!

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Miss Molly on Priscilla Owens:
Each Owen aficionado here in Texas has his or her own favorite Owen ruling, but I always liked the one about the boy rendered quadriplegic by a defective safety belt, who died waiting for the dilatory Owen to figure out if a lower court decision that the manufacturer owed him enough […]

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Slate has a new series covering all the angles on torture.

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There used to be a female comedian on the daytime Letterman show (that’s how old I am) playing a crafts-obsessed woman who made Nativities out of styrofoam McDonald’s containers. This is like that, only funnier. (And plus, there’s variety.)

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E.J. Dionne:
But this particular anti-press campaign is not about Journalism 101. It is about Power 101. It is a sophisticated effort to demolish the idea of a press independent of political parties by way of discouraging scrutiny of conservative politicians in power. By using bad documents, Dan Rather helped Bush, not John Kerry, because Rather […]

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I’m sure BushCo will get right on this:
Scientists in America have found the first evidence that common chemicals used in products as diverse as cosmetics, toys, clingfilm and plastic bags may harm the development of unborn baby boys.
Researchers have long known that high levels of substances called phthalates have gender-bending effects on male animals, […]

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I was wondering the same thing as David Sirota. Seems like he’s turned into just another cautious politician - already.

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Tom Burka:
Senate Republicans who feared that they would not get the 50 votes they needed to destroy the filibuster spoke of abandoning the so-called “nuclear option” in favor of biological or chemical warfare.
“We should just gas all of them,” said Sen. Rick Santorum of the Democrats, almost immediately after he had called them Nazis. Sen. […]

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Billmon explains how to succeed at being a role model for human rights.

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