"Gun Safety Presenter Shoots Self by Accident"

You won't be able to believe this, but he's from Florida.

There's clearly quite a joke here, but it's tasteless.

However, one of the MANY reasons I don't play with guns is because I'm clumsy. Perhaps this DEA agent should consider a career change (and I don't mean nuclear reactor technician either).

Another View of the Iraqi Abuse Story

This is a rather potent story in the Baltimore Sun from yesterday related to the above-referenced topic, with some written comments by some of the people involved as well as their families. Thanks to Buzzflash for the first link on it I saw.

New Yorker Piece

Reader CK posted this in comments, but I neglected to post it here. Let me do that now. It's from Seymour Hersch about the charges of brutality in Iraq and gives more background that the 60 Minutes II piece or most of the followup through the media since Wednesday night.

A fun read it's not but remember... every man and woman there in Iraq right now is in that position because of a course this country took. We own it.

California Removes Electronic Voting for November

The LA Times is reporting that the Secretary of State in California has pulled his support for electronic voting, a move that is likely to keep at least several counties from using some of the most controversial Diebold machines for the presidential election in November.

I'm actually waiting to hear what my state will do. I decided sometime back that rather than submit to an electronic vote on these machines considering the election of 2000, I'll apply for and submit an absentee paper ballot (in VT, most votes have always been done on paper or even by hand). As it happens, there's a significant chance I'll be traveling around election time so this move serves two purposes. If, however, we disallow "no trail" electronic voting, I'd make more of an effort to be here to cast my vote.

Mind you, ultimately, I think computerized voting will be fine. But we must protect the way it's done, and to have Mr. Bush push into law his "Help America Vote (for Me Whether They Planned to Or Not) Act" is ... uh.. worrisome. That's the word.

Thanks!

Well, in just a few days up, we've gotten some good comments. Thanks to those reading and contributing.

And while I've got a rosy glow (so to speak), congratulations to Jesse Taylor at Pandagon.net who's taken a paid position with the Jerry Springer group.

I know, I know... Jerry Springer, you think. I've never seen more than excerpts from his show, and that's a crock.

But Springer the man seems quite bright, honest (he knows exactly what his show is and pretends nothing lofty), talented, and an intelligent progressive voice. Whether he ends up running for politics again or just tries to give Dems in Ohio a step up, I'd like to hear more. With Jesse - and Ezra - so talented, I'm planning to check out the work. But I also hope Pandagon continues (I'm addicted, what can I say?).

Alleged

When I was studying journalism in college, we were hit over the head repeatedly with the word,"alleged" and rightly so.

But my significant other and I were watching the news over lunch, and while they kept broadcasting images of torture and degradation of the prisoners, they kept, kept, kept using the word alleged. Frankly, I don't think the abuse quite falls under the category. It may be said "alleged to be Iraqis tortured at the hands of American soldiers", but you look at those pictures... and alleged abuse isn't the first word term pops to mind. Holy shit! and What the f--- came to mind first here.

Dick Meyers Says it Well

Although I'm a regular Dick Meyers' reader, Skippy found this first on CBSnews.com:

What kind of absurd political twilight zone is it where George Bush and Dick Cheney can make John Kerry look like an unpatriotic chicken by focusing attention on his combat duty in Vietnam?

It's a doublethink world of issues-ephemera, spin, and manipulated perceptions that Bush's technicians have mastered and that we the media and we the people aid and abet: Campaign 2004, a truth odyssey.

What is the word that has more gall than gall? Nerve? Cheek, chutzpah conceit, arrogance, condescension? You name it -- the squadron of chickenhawks that steers both the campaign and government of President Bush's have pots of it. Where do these people come off impugning John Kerry's Vietnam era guts and patriotism? John McCain, Colin Powell, Tom Ridge or Chuck Hagel might have some moral standing, but not these chickenhawks.

I think I just died and went to Heaven. Or at least died and didn't get stuck in New Jersey.

Mistreatment of Iraqi Detainees

As Josh Marshall points out today, the excuse being offered - that troops were insufficiently trained in rules of the Geneva Convention - over the documented mistreatment of Iraqi detainees is really quite lame.

Humans should know to treat other living things better than that. And before you tell me, "well, what about the Iraqis?", let me add that we supposedly haven't been living under a brutal dictatorship (except, of course, that we hear about this kind of thing being done here to prisoners).

Like Josh, I feel that this is largely a matter of putting a lot of young men (and presumably women) in a situation like this, getting them juiced up on the concept of enemy and then requiring them to get information from these prisoners (and let's be honest, a lot of detainees have no information to give but perhaps we don't feel we can verify that until we've tortured them - yeesh) at any costs is likely a big factor in this. Nor was this limited to American troops. While British papers have profiled more than once the statements of Brit soldiers rather appalled at the way the Americans treated civilians, at least one case here involves a British soldier purportedly urinating on an Iraqi.

Put these young people with little experience in the world in highly alien and dangerous conditions, hype them on the concept that each prisoner is like a glaring symbol of Osama and Saddam, praise the troops only if they get results, and you end up with a lot of detainees mistreated.

Former Diplomats Protest Bush Policy

From the Financial Times comes this:

Inspired by the attack of their British colleagues on Tony Blair's foreign policy, more than 20 former US diplomats have so far signed a letter to President George W. Bush protesting against his pro-Israeli stance.

The letter accuses Mr Bush of reversing long- standing American policy in the Middle East by endorsing the demands of Ariel Sharon, the Israeli prime minister, that Israel retain big settlements in the occupied West Bank and deny the right of return to Palestinian refugees.

"Your unqualified support of Sharon's extra-judicial assassinations, Israel's Berlin Wall-like barrier, its harsh military measures in occupied territories, and now your endorsement of Sharon's unilateral plan are costing our country its credibility, prestige and friends," the letter says.

Electoral College and Vote 2004

Ezra at Pandagon makes this point (note the article link within to a discussion of Rasmussen at Matthew Yglesias' site):

I would just like to mention that in the context of this election, being tied is not necessarily a good thing. Now I don't know if Rasmussen is compensating for electoral votes, but my feeling is their national tracking poll is simply a snapshot of the general mood and is only trying to represent the population's opinion. As we remember, Gore won by this measure and lost (after the hijinks, etc) despite it. Since Democratic votes are in population-rich areas whose electoral influence is not necessarily equal to its votes while Republicans find dominance in rural communities who command more power-per-head, simply having more voters isn't enough. We need to either be way ahead, or ahead where it counts. Assuming recent trends hold true, and they probably will, tied is a bad thing.

However, I'll say what I told anyone who would listen in 2000: we should END the Electoral College. That no serious attempt to do so has been made in the four years since is an abomination.

(But, to be fair, I also wanted to disband the Supremes who decided it was more important to end the recounts to be fair to Bush than it was to continue the counts to be fair to the will of the goddamned people.)

O'Brien's Take

On a final note tonight, Conan O'Brien has his announcer read off a list of programs Sinclair has found acceptable to show, including "Temptation Island", several really strange episodes of Jerry Springer and Maury Povich, and "I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here!"

Heh.

Just FYI

I remember seeing Ted Koppel interviewed at some point last year, and was quite surprised to see him take what seemed like a rather pro-war stance. This seems in direct contradiction to what Sinclair is suggesting. Frankly, I'd believe Ted over some right-winger true red-white-and-blue GOP donor who picks up prostitutes (and the pro said he was a regular customer).

Sinclair Broadcasting's Home Page

As it happens, the same David D. Smith picked up for prostitution in 1996 (see the Atrios link earlier) still works (as in CEOing) for Sinclair, and responded to Senator John McCain's note on the home page of their Web site today (without showing McCain's letter questioning them).

While you're there reading, check this out:

The ABC Television Network announced on Tuesday that the Friday, April 30 edition of "Nightline" will consist entirely of Ted Koppel reading aloud the names of U.S. servicemen and women killed in action in Iraq. Despite the denials by a spokeswoman for the show, the action appears to be motivated by a political agenda designed to undermine the efforts of the United States in Iraq. [Note: bold face type is at it appears on their site]

There is no organization that holds the members of our military and those soldiers who have sacrificed their lives in service of our country in higher regard than Sinclair Broadcast Group. While Sinclair would support an honest effort to honor the memory of these brave soldiers, we do not believe that is what "Nightline" is doing. Rather, Mr. Koppel and "Nightline" are hiding behind this so-called tribute in an effort to highlight only one aspect of the war effort and in doing so to influence public opinion against the military action in Iraq. Based on published reports, we are aware of the spouse of one soldier who died in Iraq who opposes the reading of her husband's name to oppose our military action. We suspect she is not alone in this viewpoint. As a result, we have decided to preempt the broadcast of "Nightline' this Friday on each of our stations which air ABC programming.

We understand that our decision in this matter may be questioned by some. Before you judge our decision, however, we would ask that you first question Mr. Koppel as to why he chose to read the names of 523 troops killed in combat in Iraq, rather than the names of the thousands of private citizens killed in terrorist attacks since and including the events of September 11, 2001. In his answer, we believe you will find the real motivation behind his action scheduled for this Friday. Unfortunately, we may never know for sure because Mr. Koppel has refused repeated requests from Sinclair's News Central news organization to comment on this Friday's program.

Happy Anniversary

A year ago tonight, Mr. Bush declared an end to all combat operations in Iraq.

It's amazing, however, how many people shown on the Koppel broadcast tonight lost their lives after that announcement, more than 100 of them the month of April 2004 alone.

Sinclair Exec Arrested for Prostitution?

This and other interesting tidbits appear via Atrios, starting with this tidbit, about Sinclair Broadcasting, the ones who pulled the Nightline episode tonight. These folks sound like just lovely people.

No wonder John McCain today called them "unAmerican" (I hate that phrase because it's too often used with ignorance and hate, but this is one time it seems a bit apt).

PBS Frontline: Bush's Christian Beliefs

PBS' Frontline tonight had a fairly interesting program tonight about the evolution of George Bush as a born-again Christian and politician. My partner and I argued back and forth about various points. In fact, about the only thing we certainly agreed upon was that Mr. Bush thinks he's a good Christian.

If you're interested at all, I'd recommend trying to catch it.

Rowland Closer to Impeachment

NBC is reporting that Connecticut Governor John Rowland (R) is one step closer to impeachment, with a state politician ordering up at least one article of impeachment based on what he perceives as non-compliance by the governor in providing evidence from his financial records. Rowland's lawyers say there's nothing more to give.

However, state legislators, while frustrated, will not necessarily vote on - and certainly not necessarily vote in favor of - that article of impeachment when it reconvenes next week.

Still, polls have indicated for some time that a majority of state residents feel he is either corrupt or at least quite dishonest (I guess it's a matter of degree), and feel he should resign. Rowland is not likely to go on his own and still enjoys strong support behind the scenes from the Bush organization (which has no connection, of course, to Tony Soprano's waste carting business).

Chickenhawk

Hesiod at CounterSpin has an interesting er... interpretation... of Bush in his flight suit from his "Mission Accomplished" speech last May 1st.

Personally, I think chickens everywhere should sue (not Hesiod, the purveyor of chickenhawkdom). I don't think they'd support Bush or Cheney either.

"Mission Accomplished"

Just consider what has occurred in the year since we heard that message delivered on the deck (poop?) of the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln.

Just the other day, for example, was one of the bloodiest days (for American troops) since we marched into Iraq. That same day, we saw the mainstream media begin to report on the abuses we've committed on Iraqi prisoners. Tonight, on the eve of the anniversary, a major broadcasting company (one which has given almost exclusively to Republicans) will not air Ted Koppel's Nightline program listing the US war dead.

These, sadly, are just snippets of a quite horrible year.

Mission accomplished indeed.

Nancy Says No to Ronnie Raygun University

As someone who's not a particular fan of Nancy Reagan, I have to say I do admire the adamant "no" she's offered up everytime the extreme right decides to do something like put Ronnie's image on money or name a university for them. I also appreciated her speaking out in favor of stem cell research, despite how the right wing made that sound like courting satanism at its worst.

I sometimes wonder, actually, if the true Reaganites don't shudder a bit about the Bush Administration that likes to say it fashions itself after the "best of Reagan". Bush and Cheney, after all, are not conservatives in the traditional meaning of the word. Many conservatives think their GOP has been usurped - a point I happen to agree upon.