This just in from investigative reporter Andy Borowitz:MAN IN COMA FOR NINETEEN YEARS ASKS TO GO BACK TO SLEEP Bush Administration, Paris Hilton Top Coma Man's Concerns In what members of the medical community are calling an unprecedented development, a man who recently awoke from a nineteen-year coma has asked doctors to put him back to sleep. At a press conference in … [Read more...] about This Just In!

Here's what is TRULY a classic show biz moment: World War II teen idol Frank Sinatra does a duet with 1950s teen idol Elvis Presley on Sinatra's NBC show in 1957. What's striking about this is: --The juxaposition of the two eras of music and show biz. --The different styles. Perhaps there's a hint here of why Sinatra never quite took off on the tube. He does his stuff and … [Read more...] about Great Show Biz Moments: Frank Sinatra’s 1950s and 1990s Duets

If I'm to believe what some of my commenters here and at The Debate Link say, that's the morally preferable response for Israel to make compared to, you know, waging a war within the laws of war. … [Read more...] about Indiscriminate Shelling At Random

New Donklephant contributor Tom Strong injects some reality into the biofuel argument. While the tiny ethanol and biodiesel industries have seen a mini-boom last year, the market took a sharp hit this past spring. Future growth may speed up again, but there’s a very real limit to how much biodiesel and ethanol we can produce without cutting into our food supply. What’s … [Read more...] about Alternative Fuel, Schmalternative Fuel

Beirut taxi driver: "Is this resistance? Ruining your country?"A hero to some, a dangerous militia to others. The bloody fight Hizbullah picked with Israel has aggravated the longtime split in Lebanon over the guerrilla group - and raised worries about whether Lebanon's Western-backed government can survive. The division runs through the Lebanese Cabinet itself, which is … [Read more...] about AP via J Post: Hizbullah criticized in Lebanon

Back in March, I wrote three posts on the Belarusian presidential election and its aftermath: "Balloting in Belarus," "Balloting in Belarus (update)," and "Protesting in Belarus". Well, it looks like Belarus has gone from voting to protesting to, now, imprisoning political opponents. Alexander Lukashenko may have "won" the election with over 80 percent of the vote, but such a … [Read more...] about Imprisoning opponents in Belarus

Putting it together: US Middle East Policy is coming apart 07/14/2006 In the larger perspective, the current crises in the Middle East are due to the fact that the United States Middle East policy is coming apart at the seams. The US wanted to promote democracy in the Middle East. Result number one is the Iraqi non-government. In addition to corruption, disunity and … [Read more...] about Thoughts from MidEastWeb

Will Hillary run in '08? Yes. Will she win the Democratic nomination? Maybe. Would she win the election? A lot depends on what happens this November, as well as on who the Republican nominee is, as well as on what other Democrats emerge as viable candidates (Gore could be a problem for her) as well as on variables like Iraq and the economy, but, well, whatever her defenders … [Read more...] about Doubting Hillary

Israel didn't hit Lebanese transportation infrastructure just to be punitive. They did it to keep Hezbollah from moving the prisoners to Iran or Syria, where in all likelihood they'd never be seen again. … [Read more...] about From Beirut to Tehran (or Damascus)

Mikhail Gorbachev is back. Back in the news, that is, with blunt comments on Bush and Putin, the U.S. and Russia, peace and democracy, Cheney and Rumsfeld. I have some reaction to his comments here. … [Read more...] about Gorbachev speaks

For the latest in The Reaction's ongoing series "Just another day in the life and death of Iraq," now up to nine entries, see here. Basically, there's a bit of good news (the transfer of security responsibility in Muthanna from British and Australian forces to Iraqi forces) and a lot of bad news (yet more car bombs, drive-by shootings, roadside bombs, etc.), … [Read more...] about The grotesque banality of violence in Iraq

A quick note for longtime as well as new readers: --The people who post on this site may differ on issues. We get emails all the time from readers upset because so and so is too far left or right — or that TMV himself is wishy washy, or secretly collecting checks from Karl Rove and/or Howard Dean. If you look at polls there is no 100 percent agreement among moderates on … [Read more...] about Quick Reminder To Readers

Ehud Barak in the Jerusalem Post: We are living in a tough neighborhood. This is not the Midwest, it's the mideast," former prime minister Ehud Barak said Friday in an interview on CNN. Barak said that Hizbullah and Hamas gave the Israeli government no choice but to respond to Lebanese and Palestinian aggression. Barak added that it was impossible to "live normally" in the … [Read more...] about Living in Hell’s Kitchen to the Nth Degree

Given my generally pro-Israeli sentiments — with reservations, of course — this is one case where I agree wholeheartedly (well, almost) with the U.S. and find the U.N. to be, as some find it often to be, an apologist for terrorism and authoritarianism. From the AP: The United States blocked an Arab-backed resolution Thursday that would have demanded Israel halt its … [Read more...] about Two and a half cheers for the United States

David Twersky, writing in the New York Sun, asks whether the events now unfolding in the middle-east signal the beginning of the war on Iran:The war with Iran has begun. Just last Friday, Iranian President Ahmadinejad warned that Israel's return to Gaza could lead to an "explosion" in the Islamic world that would target Israel and its supporters in the West. "They should not … [Read more...] about Has The War On Iran Begun?

Some readers have sent emails asking why TMV isn't posting. As we've explained he is out of pocket...and a few hours earlier felt he was almost in the grave. This is written from Jefferson, Iowa, where TMV in his other incarnation will be doing shows at a county fair. The trip began VERY early in San Diego, going to the airport to catch the connecting flight to Minneapolis. … [Read more...] about I’m Lucky To Be Posting This At All

Israelly Cool has the scoop on-site in Israel. Spectacular coverage. … [Read more...] about Live Blogging The Middle East

...and the corollary, a break from those who think that Zionists want to slaughter the world. A no-duh moment. Pete Coors, head of the Coors Brewing Company, arrested for Drunk Driving. … [Read more...] about …Because I Need a Break From Watching The World Collapse

Two stellar posts on the brewing conflict over at Obsidian Wings. New blogger Andrew writes in his piece, "War Without End": I am left wondering just what it is Israel hopes to accomplish with these strikes. I do not mean that they are morally wrong to do so; both Hezbollah and Hamas have been in a state of war with Israel since it came into existence, so Israel has every … [Read more...] about Sense and Sensibility on Israel/Lebanon/Palestine

Cross-posted to Random Fate. --- The Wall Street Journal (posted online at OpinionJournal.com) betrays a fundamental misunderstanding of the concept of the rule of law in an editorial on the recent ruling by the Supreme Court on the applicability of part of the Geneva Conventions to the prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay by the United States. In the editorial Osama in … [Read more...] about Guantanamo, the Supreme Court, and the rule of law