Over at The Reaction, co-blogger J. Kingston Pierce connects the French/freedom fries issue in Congress to the much more serious problem of Iraq, as well as to the verious ethical scandals that plague Republicans (including freedom fries advocate Rep. Bob Ney). It's a link-filled journey straight into the heart of stupidity. See here. … [Read more...] about The rise and fall of the freedom fry

As many of you surely know by now, Fidel Castro went in for intestinal surgery earlier this week and temporarily handed over power to his brother Raul. Well, fret not. (Not that I am.) According to CNN, reporting on a message from the man himself, Fidel is in "stable" condition and in "good spirits". His health may be "a secret of state that cannot be divulged constantly," but … [Read more...] about Castro’s demise

Trends show an impact on contests across the nation Just over one month ago, the Crystal Ball argued that a larger wave than currently existed at the time would have to build in order for Republicans to lose their congressional majorities. At the time, the race-by-race rather than national dynamic of competitive races pointed more towards a "micro-wave" than a "macro-wave" … [Read more...] about Sabato’s Crystal Ball – The 2006 Midterms: Guilt by Association?

Time Magazine notes that perception equals reality in politics and right now the perceptions aren't good for Israel and the United States in the status of the conflict in the Midde East:Even as Israel extends its military's reach deeper into Lebanon, the war there may now increasingly be more about perception than position. After three weeks of fighting, the tenacity of … [Read more...] about Time: Perceptions On Middle East Look Bad For Israel And The United States

"Thanks but no thanks" to this... (Update) ...and to this. Of course THIS has happened since then.... … [Read more...] about Joe Lieberman AND Ned Lamont Should Say (UPDATED)

THIS JUST IN from investigative reporter Andy Borowitz:Gibson Converts to Judaism Changes Name to Mel Gibstein In his boldest bid yet to apologize to the Jewish community, actor Mel Gibson today announced that he had converted to Judaism. The news took many Jews aback, since conversion to Judaism is a demanding process that can take months or even years of study, and Mr. … [Read more...] about This Just In!

The indispdensible website Watching America has posted an interesting editorial from the Bangkok Post titled "Simplistic view yielding disaster" which attributes the problems in Iraq to President Bush's perspective. Here's a key section:Bush can't be blamed for the prejudices and animosity that have been brewing for hundreds of years between religious sects, but he can be … [Read more...] about The View From Abroad: Bush’s Mistake On Iraq

...siphon their votes away by propping up a third party.. UPDATE: The situation is even MORE OUTRAGEOUS (true independent voters are not amused but we do have our ways of making our unamusement known in 2006, don't we?). … [Read more...] about If You Can’t Defeat ‘Em Directly (UPDATED)

TMV LOVES satire (we don't do enough of it on this site, although some of the news stories we quote seem as if they are satires). And there IS some good stuff out there. So here are two great ones — satires on The Sopranos, via You Tube. First, here's Mad TV's look at what The Sopranos will look like once it goes into syndication and the swearing and extreme violence are … [Read more...] about Great Satires: The Sopranos

What would happen if we took the discussion about the rights of non-traditional families (gay and otherwise), and divorced it entirely from the issue of marriage equality? An intriguing petition explores the issue. … [Read more...] about God Bless Them–Each And Every One

Look who just won a Distinguished Service Medal from the US Army? And I can't think of a more deserving person, either. … [Read more...] about Grade Inflation

Prime Minister Blair has misread President Bush on global warming, expecting far too much -- something, anything -- from a White House that doesn't take global warming seriously, that doesn't even think there's a problem at all, but he has turned to the state that may just work with him on this pressing issue: California. Yes, behold the Blair-Schwarzenegger alliance: British … [Read more...] about The Blair-Schwarzenegger alliance on global warming

From Reuters: Saudi Arabia has exhorted the United States to take the lead in efforts to immediately end the fighting between Hizbollah and Israel and faulted President George W. Bush for not following through on earlier peacemaking appeals. "The United States must play the role of pacifier and lead the world to peace and not be led by Israel's ambitions," said the Saudi … [Read more...] about Saudi pressure, American disengagement

From investigative reporter Andy Borowitz (we don't usually run two of his breaking-news reports in one day but we had to get this on the site fast!):Bin Laden Offers Mel Gibson Anger Management Lessons Calls Actor's Drunken Rant 'A Cry for Help' In an extraordinary appearance on the Arabic-language al-Jazeera network today, terror mastermind Osama bin Laden reached out to … [Read more...] about This Just In!

The Moderate Voice applauds the efforts by some bloggers to offer original reporting on their sites. Blogs have an incredible potential to act as citizen journalism — versus the citizen op-ed pages which the bulk of them have become. There's nothing wrong with that...except blogs have the potential of offering more than just opinion. Once again the always unique The … [Read more...] about Original Blog Reporting: The Talking Dog Interviews Michael Ratner

...but not for the reasons you'd normally think.... … [Read more...] about A Great Writer And Blogger Quits Blogging

Western governments, in particular the US, see the world through narcissistic lenses. Europe had its way in the world for centuries while the US has led since the 1950s. The habit is so ingrained that they often ignore the effect that their actions have on the thinking of other nations. Instead, they repeatedly insist on their view of desired solutions expecting others to … [Read more...] about Keeping the wider world in mind

NOTE: This post ran yesterday. Due to the international interest in the Mel Gibson arrest story (his mug shot is above) this has has been UPDATED with new links for today. It will be placed towards the top of this site early Wednesday morning BUT newer posts may be BELOW IT so please SCROLL DOWN. When should apologizes be accepted--and when shouldn't they--in cases of racial … [Read more...] about Mea Culpa (UPDATED FOR WEDNESDAY EDITION)

...at TMZ.COM the celebrity and show biz news site that broke the Mel Gibson arrest story — by posting Gibson's anti-semitic comments (Gibson has since profusely apologized for them. See our posts chain linked to this post). TMZ is another example of the power of instaweb news publishing. With the touch of a button this info was put on the web on Time-Warner-AOL's solid, … [Read more...] about Take A Peek….

It's here. … [Read more...] about Major Development In Barry Bonds Story