An interesting series at Short Woman on the Bill of Rights. The post I link to is to the fourth part of the series, the fourth amendment and the War on Terror.

US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice responded to ElBaradei: Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice sought today to minimize any sense of division within the Bush administration over Iran after the head of the United Nations nuclear watchdog agency delivered a pointed new warning against what he called the “new crazies” pushing for military action against Tehran. “The President of the United States has made it clear that we are on a course that is a diplomatic course,” Ms....

The AP reports that The Big Donor Show, which was broadcasted yesterday evening, was a hoax. It seems that the producers believe that, because it was a hoax, anger and disgust were not justified. Well, sorry, but I disagree. As Ed Morrissey explains: I’m not sure which scenario was worse, but both are pretty repulsive and exploitative. The producers claim that they wanted to make a statement about the lack of organs for transplant patients, and at least the topic got some attention. However,...

It seems that, what promises to be a fascinating documentary, will be released June 12. The subject of the documentary: Ralph Nader’s (political) career. The publisher is Genius Products. It’s a two-disc DVD set, loaded with 1.5 hours of bonus features, among them: - deleted scenes (The Congress Project, No Nukes and The Congressional Black Caucus) - featurettes: — something that will interest a lot of TMV readers I am sure: Debuting the Role of Third Parties in the U.S. —...

Pete Abel on Peggy Noonan vs. George W. Bush. Libby Spencer: “The new generation of terrorists” Amba: “A serious work by an intelligent man with an incurable habit . . .” Obsidian Wings: “Jimmmy Nada Is A Dead Man” Andrew Sullivan: on conservatives breaking with Bush.

Former Mafia boss Carmelo Musumeci has written a letter, published in the Italian newspaper La Repubblica, in which he asks Italian President Giorgio Napolitano to convert his life-in-prison sentence into the death penalty. Musumeci wrote: “I die a little bit each day. Honestly, I’d rather die immediately.” After a long career in the mafia, he has been in prison for 17 years now. In prison, he finished (his) high school, and got a law degree. However, he writes, “light has...

Bob McCarty writes: (fixed link) Is it just me or did anyone else notice two things about the “GMA Exclusive” photo above of Andrew Speaker (a.k.a., “TB Guy”) and his wife, Sarah, that appeared on Drudge Report this morning? He explains: First, as a long-time writer and editor, I noticed that the words on the “STOP” sign hanging on the door behind them were printed backwards. That indicates the image had been reversed for some reason, apparently by the folks at...

Doctor Jack Kevorkian, also known as “Dr. Death” has been released from prison. Jack Kevorkian, the retired pathologist dubbed “Dr. Death” for claims that he participated in at least 130 assisted suicides, left prison after eight years Friday still believing people have the right to die. A smiling Kevorkian, now 79, said it was “one of the high points in life” as he walked out with his attorney. Mike Wallace, the correspondent for “60 Minutes,” whose...

Is the immigration debate tearing apart the Republican Party? It seems so: The Republican National Committee, hit by a grass-roots donors’ rebellion over President Bush’s immigration policy, has fired all 65 of its telephone solicitors, Ralph Z. Hallow will report Friday in The Washington Times. Faced with an estimated 40 percent fall-off in small-donor contributions and aging phone-bank equipment that the RNC said would cost too much to update, Anne Hathaway, the committee’s chief...

The DNC proves that it can be just as dishonest as – what Hillary Clinton calls – “the right wing noise machine.” Today, the DNC published a post about John McCain (with video). The DNC presents it as follows: McCain Agrees We Need a Cap To Maintain “White, Christian, Male Power Structure” Near the end of the video, there was this exchange: Bill O’Reilly: But do you understand what the New York Times wants, and the far-left want? They want to break down the...

Yesterday, I published a post called Who Gets the Kidney, about a new television show (to be aired Friday) in the Netherlands. Several bloggers commented on it. Jules Crittenden wrote: I stand in awe. I thought we ruled the world of stunningly bizarre, somewhat disturbing and tasteless schlock. They’ve pushed it out to the edge. Ed Morrissey responded with a very thoughful, and personal post, one that should be read in full. His wife, Ed explains, “would not have survived long enough...

O no, Universities are definitely not “left”: University lecturers threatened yesterday to provoke international condemnation by forcing their union into a year-long debate over boycotting work with Israeli universities. Delegates at the first conference of the new University and College Union in Bournemouth voted by 158 to 99 for “a comprehensive and consistent boycott” of all Israeli academic institutions, as called for by Palestinian trade unions in response to Israel’s...

The Arkansas Times (blog) reports: The U.S. Justice Department has notified Arkansas’s congressional delegation that Interim Eastern District U.S. Attorney Tim Griffin is resigning effective Friday, June 1. Jane Duke will become acting U.S. attorney. (This is the assistant in the office who the Justice Department once had said had to be passed over as an interim appointee because of her pregnancy. Since it’s illegal to discriminate on account of pregnancy, Justice had to back off this...

Libby Spencer: Cheney’s heart of darkness. Michael J. W. Stickings: Talking to Tehran. Ali Eteraz: Canada, Down with Diversity, eh hoser? Andrew Sullivan offers an alternative to torture. Dick Polman on Hillary Clinton’s economy speech: it “was a bit much.” The OxBlog’s Patrick Porter: orientalism and war. And lastly, Between Tribalism and Statehood by Tarek Heggy.

That’s the question. In the Netherlands we have a new television show: De Grote Donor Show (The Big Donor Show). What’s the show about you ask? Well, quite simple: this Friday 37 year old Lisa will donate one of her kidneys… on television. Three people who need a new kidney will be there. They have to answer questions. After that, Lisa will decide who gets her kidney. The viewers have an active role as well: they can SMS (to advise Lisa probably). There is a lot of debate going...

Hillary Clinton, ‘liberal’: Presidential hopeful Hillary Rodham Clinton outlined a broad economic vision Tuesday, saying it’s time to replace an “on your own” society with one based on shared responsibility and prosperity. The Democratic senator said what the Bush administration touts as an ownership society really is an “on your own” society that has widened the gap between rich and poor. “I prefer a ‘we’re all in it together’ society,”...

Dan Schneider, who owns (and runs) Cosmoetica, interviewed National Book Award-winning author Charles Johnson, for Monsters and Critics. It is a great interview, a small sample: M&C: Let’s jump right in with some of the posits you have on specific things. I’ve read, now, all of your fiction, and recently read your previously mentioned 2003 nonfiction book, Turning The Wheel: Essays On Buddhism And Writing, published by Scribner’s, so I know you have strong opinions- ones reflected...

The New York Times reports that “a group of experts advising the intelligence agencies are arguing that the harsh techniques used since the 2001 terrorist attacks are outmoded, amateurish and unreliable.” The psychologists and other specialists, commissioned by the Intelligence Science Board, make the case that more than five years after the Sept. 11 attacks, the Bush administration has yet to create an elite corps of interrogators trained to glean secrets from terrorism suspects. ...

About Iraq. An example: JD in Karma: “In fact, there is a civil war in progress in Iraq, one comparable in important respects to other civil wars that have occurred in postcolonial states with weak institutions. Those cases suggest that the Bush administration’s political objective in Iraq–creating a stable, peaceful, somewhat democratic regime that can survive the departure of U.S. troops–is unrealistic.” Professor James D. Fearon, writing in the March/April...

Take a look at these photos: “An Iraqi boy hides behind a U.S. soldier on Monday amid gunfire after a car bomb in Central Baghdad killed 24 people.” Makes one remember why US forces are still in Iraq, and why they cannot all be withdrawn any time soon, doesn’t it?

I’m wondering how you all define yourselves politically. Do you consider yourself to be a moderate, centrist, conservative, liberal, or neoconservative (etc.)? I’m curious like that. Or… do you consider yourself to be a conservative liberal (like yours truly)?

Mexicans don’t likey America no more: Booed mercilessly at the Miss Universe pageant by a Mexican audience angry at U.S. immigration policy, and seen by millions of TV viewers as she slipped and fell on the pageant stage, Miss USA Rachel Smith nonetheless managed to take the high road and offer her Spanish-speaking hosts an enthusiastic, “Buenas noches Mexico. Muchas gracias!” Smith, 22, from Clarksville, Tenn., who was crowned Miss USA last March, was continuously jeered...

A fascinating article and video at the New York Times about Rudy Giuliani’s temperament. The dyspeptic, “not afraid to suggest his opponents have really deep-seated psychological problems” Republican mayor of fact and legend has taken a holiday. What’s left on the presidential campaign trail is a commanding daddy of a candidate, a disciplined fellow who talks about terrorism and fiscal order and about terrorism some more. Mr. Giuliani laughs, he gestures expansively, he even...

The Politico: Rudy Giuliani, whose positions on abortion and homosexuality mark him as the most socially liberal Republican presidential candidate in more than a generation, is so far winning the contest for the support of social conservatives, according to a new analysis of recent polls. Widespread perceptions that Giuliani is the most electable Republican in this year’s field are driving his support among social conservatives, according to the analysis by the Pew Forum on Religion &...

Oops: The genius investigators in the right-wing blogosphere — who serve as our Watchdogs over the Corrupt “MSM” — made a major, major discovery this weekend. Last Wednesday, former CIA agent Larry Johnson published a Memo (.pdf) sent from the U.S. Mission in Iraq which advised troops and other military personnel in Iraq of a “theater-wide delay in food delivery” which would likely limit the available food supply. As has been true for the last four years, right-wing...