Fascinating piece in today’s Times about the pastor of an evangelical megachurch who has disassociated his church from the Republican party line, and the consequences thereof. Sounds like a good man:
In his six sermons, Mr. Boyd laid out a broad argument that the role of Christians was not to seek “power over” others — by […]

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But it’s perfectly okay to burn them:
The Israeli military is using illegal weapons against civilians in southern Lebanon, according to several reports.
U.S.-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) said this week that Israel had used cluster bombs in civilian areas of Lebanon, in clear violation of international law.
The group said cluster bombs killed a civilian and injured […]

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Oh, look. More than 60% of the country is now officially in drought conditions.

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Stole this from Duncan:

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That’s our GOP - looking out for the welfare of Paris Hilton’s trust fund:
WASHINGTON, July 29 — A bitter fight over legislative tactics and the minimum wage shifted to the Senate after the House early on Saturday approved a $2.10 increase in the wage scale but tied it to a reduction in the estate tax […]

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This might be the best Stephen Colbert yet.

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I’m sure it’ll be as thoughtfully and carefully applied with an eye toward our civil rights as the rest of their attempts to protect our nation:
WASHINGTON - U.S. citizens suspected of terror ties might be detained indefinitely and barred from access to civilian courts under legislation proposed by the Bush administration, say legal experts reviewing […]

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The late, lamented Ken Lay’s business, that is:
The State Department agency in charge of $1.4 billion in reconstruction money in Iraq used an accounting shell game to hide ballooning cost overruns on its projects there and knowingly withheld information on schedule delays from Congress, a federal audit released late Friday has found.

Remember, kids: When […]

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Via Duncan:
It really could be the perfect storm hitting the economy. The housing market, combined with extravagant federal government spending, has really kept the economy going these past few years. It’s done so both by providing a lot of construction jobs and also by providing people with easy credit as they pull equity out of […]

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Does anyone deconstruct “For Better or Worse” quite like my friend Brendan?

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Oh, what’s the big deal? A little heat never killed anyone. Oh, wait….
LOS ANGELES, July 28 (Reuters) - The record-breaking heat wave that plagued California will pass this weekend to the U.S. Midwest and East Coast where high air conditioning use will strain electricity systems and increase the chance of outages, power officials and weather […]

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I do wish Eric Alterman would stop being so consistent and logical. It bothers so many people:
Another unspoken aspect of Establishment/Timesman ideology is that while it is not OK and is probably anti-Semitic to say out loud that Jews often vote for politicians on the basis of what they think is good for Israel, it […]

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Oy.

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I woke up annoyed, and went into the living room to blog, because I finally have internet access. I heard my cell phone ringing somewhere, found my handbag under a pile of newspapers and rooted around in the bottom until I found it. It was my best friend, calling for our usual morning check-in.
“Why are […]

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If my memory serves me right, Saddam was condemned for doing this during the first Gulf War:
BEIRUT (AFP) - The Mediterranean is threatened by its worst ever environmental disaster after Israel’s bombing of a power plant in Lebanon sent thousands of tonnes of fuel gushing into the sea, the environment minister charged.
“Up until now […]

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I haven’t read Dean’s book yet (link) but everyone I know is reading it and it sounds like a good one:
LOS ANGELES - John Dean, the White House lawyer who famously helped blow the whistle on the Watergate scandal that drove Richard Nixon from office, says the country has returned to an “imperial presidency” that […]

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Julia explains the Lieberman conventional wisdom.

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It’s always interesting when Republicans endorse the Democrats - in this case, Pete McCloskey:
The observation of Mr. Pombo’s political consultant, Wayne Johnson, that I have been mired in the obsolete values of the 1970s, honesty, good ethics and balanced budgets, all rejected by today’s modern Republicans, is only too accurate.
It has been difficult, nevertheless, […]

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Whiny ass titty babies.

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Jay Rosen of PressThink (the great media blog) has been writing about what a norgs-type newsite called NewAssignment.net would look like if it was independently funded to do investigative work, and of course I was intrigued by the idea. (Jay asked for people to submit story ideas, with one to be funded by Craig Newmark […]

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Liz Phair:

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Sunday, I think. This one’s been a doozy, what with my hosting service going down twice - and today, even though I paid the cable, the big storm that came through town this afternoon has knocked out service to the area and I still don’t have an internet connection. (I’m writing from Cos’s house - […]

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Just to keep things interesting, Salon has a piece today which examines the conventional wisdom that Hizbollah is hiding amid the civilian population in Lebanon:
Throughout this now 16-day-old war, Israeli planes high above civilian areas make decisions on what to bomb. They send huge bombs capable of killing things for hundreds of meters around […]

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Don’t forget: The Democratic Party Reunion is this weekend. Click here to find an event near you.

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They can’t give unless they take with the other hand:
WASHINGTON - Congress would pass an increase in the minimum wage before leaving Washington for vacation, but only as part of a package rolling back taxes on the heirs of multimillionaires, a Senate leadership aide said Friday.
The GOP package would also contain a popular package of […]

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