Is departing NYT public editor Daniel Okrent reading Suburban Guerrilla? Probably not, but I’ve been railing about this for a long time - the ethical pitfalls of newspapers relying on freelance writers:
If you’ve been noticing more and more unfamiliar bylines in the paper, it’s no accident. Additional sections, the demands of The Times’s Web site [...]

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Click here for Miss Molly’s well-reasoned take on Priscilla Owen’s judicial nomination and the right-wing attack on the courts.

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Another crop of McMansions going up near my house.

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Different Bible, apparently:
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (Reuters) - President Bush on Saturday championed faith in American society, but ran into some criticism as courted his Christian base in a commencement speech at a Michigan college.
“We need to support and encourage the institutions and pursuits that bring us together. And we learn how to come together by [...]

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I’d just gotten out of the chiropractor’s this morning when I decided to visit my friend Jan, who lives in the same Roxborough neighborhood. I gave her a call and she said, “Sure, come on over.”
When I arrived in her kitchen (the heartbeat of her household - no one uses the front door), I gave [...]

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Sounds about right to me:
WASHINGTON - Democratic Party chairman Howard Dean, who famously refused to prejudge Osama bin Laden’s guilt, is standing by his judgment that House Majority Leader Tom DeLay may deserve jail time for allegations of corruption.
“Tom DeLay is corrupt. No question about it,” Dean said Friday. “This is a guy who [...]

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Good thing we can trust in the integrity of this administration not to abuse such awesome power:
NEW YORK (Reuters) - A Bush administration proposal would grant the FBI broad authority to track the mail of people in terrorism investigations, The New York Times reported in its Saturday editions.
Citing government officials who spoke on Friday, the [...]

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My dad is scheduled for extensive surgery Tuesday. They’re treating him for pancreatic cancer, to be confirmed by the biopsy. Oddly enough, they’re planning a Whipple procedure, which is the same thing Andy “Black Box Voting” Stephenson had last week - remember the fundraising appeal at this very site?
I appreciate all the prayers. Here’s hoping… [...]

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So principled, isn’t he?
WASHINGTON (May 20) - President Bush on Friday said he would veto legislation that would loosen restrictions on embryonic stem cell research and expressed deep concern about human cloning research in South Korea.
***
The president also threatened a veto of legislation that would clear the way for taxpayer money to be spent on [...]

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And I’m sure he means it with all his heart:
WASHINGTON (AP) — Sen. Rick Santorum says he “meant no offense” by referring to Adolf Hitler while defending the GOP’s right to ban judicial filibusters as Senate leaders prepared to start a countdown Friday to a vote over whether to stop minority senators from blocking President [...]

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Keep that treadmill turning:
The average American is working harder and smarter than ever.
But on payday, that’s not making much difference.
U.S. wage growth isn’t keeping up with rising prices for everything from gas to groceries to medical care. Strong productivity gains and an improving job market are not helping as they did in the past.
Adjusted for [...]

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Max has a nice new Movable Type site. Go admire! And read, while you’re at it.

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Makes you proud, doesn’t it? But I’m sure it’s Newsweek’s fault:
Even as the young Afghan man was dying before them, his American jailers continued to torment him.
The prisoner, a slight, 22-year-old taxi driver known only as Dilawar, was hauled from his cell at the detention center in Bagram, Afghanistan, at around 2 a.m. to answer [...]

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Lance has a long rant on the Freedom Tower design that’s supposed to replace the World Trade Center.
He hates the name, too, for its gooey sentimentality - which, as he points out, is hardly New York’s style.
I dunno. The one thing I do like about the design? It looks like something out of “The Jetsons.” [...]

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From the All Spin Zone, this tidbit:
Although the United States still classifies Libya as a terrorism sponsor, the U.S. lobbyist for Muammar Gaddafi has for the past year quietly held a seat on the Energy Department’s top advisory board, and the former energy secretary who appointed her now serves on the board of a major [...]

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Remember last week, when I posted something about how Priscilla Owen dragged her feet and denied medical care for a Texas man - who died as she deliberately dragged it out?
Now read about the big sloppy wet kiss a lazy-ass reporter on the L.A. Times bestowed on the Wicked Witch of the West.

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Since I didn’t have the mental energy today to pull all this together, aren’t you glad the Swing State Project did it for you? In case you missed it, Little Ricky Santorum thinks we’re Nazis.
I’m so tired of Rick Santorum. I’m so tired of his shameless pandering, of the spiritual emptiness that masquerades as [...]

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Look, over there! Hillary Clinton!
WASHINGTON - An interim federal audit of House Majority Leader Tom DeLay’s principal fund-raising committee has found that the group engaged in some inappropriate accounting of receipts and expenditures, prompting it to revise all campaign reports for 2001 and 2002, according to a knowledgeable government official and public records.

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You know, he’s living in the political version of Disney World:
As President Bush resumes his cross-country campaign to promote his vision of Social Security restructuring, it’s no secret that he is relying on outside organizations to help provide the supporting cast.
Yet a memo circulated this week among members of one group, Women Impacting Public Policy, [...]

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Under the heading of “It’s Okay If You’re A Republican,” I’m sure Flounder will be renouncing Rev. Moon’s newspaper at today’s press conference for irresponsible journalism:
ISLAMABAD: A cartoon in The Washington Times lampooning Pakistan’s role in the US war on terror has turned into a rallying point for nationalist passions and hidden anti-American sentiments here. [...]

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Krugman explains why we should be worried about a change in the Chinese currency policy:
So why is the U.S. government complaining? The Treasury report says nothing at all about how China’s currency policy affects the United States - all it offers on the domestic side is the usual sycophantic praise for administration policy. Instead, it [...]

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Ixnay on the an-play:
WASHINGTON, May 19 - Robert C. Pozen, the business executive who developed the theory behind President Bush’s plan to trim Social Security benefits in the future, urged the president on Thursday to drop his insistence on using part of workers’ taxes to pay for individual investment accounts.
This was one of two blows [...]

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Since we can’t do it here, I’m glad other places are picking up the slack:
South Korean researchers Thursday announced the creation of 11 custom-made cloned stem cell lines, made for the first time from the skin cells of child and adult patients. The advance is considered a significant refinement of the controversial stem cell technology [...]

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I’ve been invited to live-blog the Take Back America conference at the Washington Hilton in D.C., June 1-3. Although I don’t have a clue yet how I’ll pull this off, I accepted.
After all, Howard Dean’s going to be there. So is Arianna Huffington, Donna Brazile, John Kenneth Galbraith, Eli “Move On” Pariser, Jesse Jackson, Katrina [...]

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Good:
In the wake of a firestorm on the House floor over a Newsweek article about desecrating the Quran, a dozen members of Congress have planned a forum next Tuesday on media bias, RAW STORY has learned.
Among those scheduled to testify are Air America Radio host Al Franken, Media Matters chief David Brock, AmericaBLOG’s John Aravosis, [...]

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My dad’s in the hospital, waiting to be admitted with an obstruction between his pancreas and his bile duct.
They’re running tests and will probably operate sometime tonight or tomorrow, so for those of you who pray, please do so for him.

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And yet, when it’s a Democrat who supports abortion rights, they forbid them from speaking. Interesting, yes?
BALTIMORE (AP) - Cardinal William Keeler will not attend a Jesuit university commencement because keynote speaker Rudolph Giuliani, a Catholic, supports abortion rights, an official said Wednesday.
Giuliani, the Republican former New York City mayor mentioned as a possible candidate [...]

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Not that the truth matters anymore:
WASHINGTON — The International Committee of the Red Cross documented what it called credible information about U.S. personnel disrespecting or mishandling Korans at the Guantanamo Bay detention facility and pointed it out to the Pentagon in confidential reports during 2002 and early 2003, an ICRC spokesman said Wednesday.
Representatives of the [...]

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Here’s one of my worries: How can I become one of those eccentric old ladies who lives alone with her cats when I’m allergic to cats? Aren’t cats pretty much a mandatory accessory? (Note to self: Get allergy shots next time you have health insurance.)
I can’t seem to do anything right these days; I [...]

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I don’t remember how I stumbled across McSweeney’s, but it’s great. Check out “Barbie’s Diary,” “Passive-Aggressive Vegan Grocery Cashier: A Day in the Life” or “What I Would Be Thinking About if I Were Billy Joel Driving Toward a Holiday Party Where I Knew There Was Going To Be A Piano.”
Or this: “Tools or [...]

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