Yay! Jasmine's back.

Those wacky Feds

Apparently some of the 9/11 Hijackers are alive and well and actually aren't hijackers or even terrorists.

Another of the men named by the FBI as a hijacker in the suicide attacks on Washington and New York has turned up alive and well...FBI Director Robert Mueller acknowledged on Thursday that the identity of several of the suicide hijackers is in doubt.

We can't find Osama or Saddam or the weapons of mass destruction or that pesky White House leaker. (which way did he go, George?) Of course we can't identify the 9/11 hijackers correctly. Just another day in bizarro world. We are so far into the looking glass that nothing surprises me anymore.

Touchy

Apparently Condo's love life (or lack thereof) is off limits.

Condoleezza Rice is a sticky subject at the Washington Post this week.

The paper has suspended "The Boondocks," a comic strip populated by cynical,
politically aware African-American children, because of a series of jokes
about the national security adviser's personal life. (You can read the
banned comic in this newspaper.)

On Tuesday, cartoonist Aaron McGruder had one of his young characters
speculate: "Maybe if there was a man in the world who Condoleezza truly
loved, she wouldn't be so hell-bent to destroy it."

A rep for the Post, which won't be resuming the strip until Sunday, said:
"We had no way of knowing whether Mr. McGruder's assertion that Condoleezza
Rice had no personal relationship was true or not."

Rice's office didn't return a call yesterday.

The artist's rep told us yesterday, "Not a single other paper in the nation
chose to abort this week's strip."

Is Aaron really being mean? I think he's being compassionate. Just look at this woman's life.

For Rice—who has never married, has no siblings, and was orphaned just a few weeks before assuming her post—Bush and the job represent a very large part of her life, even by upper-level White House staff standards. She has a close circle of old friends and relatives, but most of them live down South or in California. She isn't on the Washington social circuit. Home is a sparsely furnished apartment in the Watergate complex. Entertaining means ordering takeout. Her primary off-hours companions seem to be George and Laura Bush.

Aaron's been on Condo's casebefore. Why all the fuss now?

Howard Zinn has read my mind

This is exactly how I feel.

I wake up in the morning, read the newspaper, and feel that we are an occupied country, that some alien group has taken over. Those Mexican workers trying to cross the border--dying in the attempt to evade immigration officials (ironically, trying to cross into land taken from Mexico by the United States in 1848)--those Mexican workers are not alien to me. Those millions of people in this country who are not citizens and therefore, by the Patriot Act, are subject to being pulled out of their homes and held indefinitely by the FBI, with no constitutional rights--those people are not alien to me. But this small group of men who have taken power in Washington, they are alien to me.

I wake up thinking this country is in the grip of a President who was not elected, who has surrounded himself with thugs in suits who care nothing about human life abroad or here, who care nothing about freedom abroad or here, who care nothing about what happens to the earth, the water, the air. And I wonder what kind of world our children and grandchildren will inherit. More Americans are beginning to feel, like the soldiers in Iraq, that something is terribly wrong, that this is not what we want our country to be.

Something is horribly, horribly wrong--the straw has, long ago, broken the camel's back. There is no other choice but to kick the thugs in suits and their trained chimp out of the White House. Lighting candles and saying novenas is not going to cut it, my friend. We have to exert ourselves and break a sweat on this one. Wake up your loved ones as if your house was on fire. Wake up your neighbors as if their house was on fire. WAKE UP!

I feel I should sympathize with David Brooks, but he really doesn’t make it easy.

To begin with I really don’t enjoy the whole pennant thing right now. It’s not that I don’t like the Cubs as a team. It would be nice for them if they won. But on game days I go out of my way to avoid Wrigleyille. I realize that not all Cubs fans are drunken ex-fratboy yuppies with their overdressed girlfriends swishing on their arms. I realize that most people don’t urinate against buildings and loot and block traffic. But that contingent of sports fans pretty much ruins the whole Cubs experience for me. So as we approach a potential pennant victory, I find myself wishing I could be in another city till the whole thing is over.

In fact here is exactly how I feel, just substitute Cubs and Chicago for Sox and Boston.

So yeah, Brooks does have a point when he says this:

It occurs to me that some of my friends in the Southwest may be watching the series on TV, and may be alarmed by some of the behavior they are seeing on the field and elsewhere. They may think it impolite to grab a 72-year-old man by the head and toss him to the ground, or throw hard objects at people's faces, or hold dueling press conferences calling each other names.

He is of course speaking of this incident at the Yankees-Red Sox game on Saturday.

But I can’t help wondering two things. The first, since when has professional sports been a model of civility and decorum? The second; under what rock does Brooks live? I’d wager it’s a giant gilded one in the manicured garden of a gated community. The only thing wrong with it is that it’s not in Tucson.

My friends should remember that the Yankees-Red Sox series is a contest between two Northeastern teams, and while the Northeast is no longer a particularly important region of the country — we haven't sent a person to the White House in 43 years — we do have a distinct way of doing things, which we cherish.

For example, while most people in the Southwest seek pleasure and avoid stress, we in the Northeast do not have that orientation. The place in their culture that is occupied by the concept "happiness" is occupied in our culture by the concept "cursing at each other."

I’m not going to defend idiots who think turning over a car is an acceptable form of celebrating victory. Nor am I going to make a case that the Northeast is a better place to live than the Southwest. I’m merely pointing out that drunken sports fans whoop it up after games have nothing to do with the red state blue-state polarization.

Reading this piece it’s hard to picture Brooks physically attending this game. Did he brave the stands holding a scented hanky to his nose the entire time? Or did he observe from the safety of his skybox, peering at the mayhem through his opera glasses? It’s not that I object to his snobbery. In many ways I am a snob. But I know enough not go to places where my snobbish sensibilities might be offended.

Brooks could have written a better piece than this. He could have written about sports and alcohol and rivalry. And I might have enjoyed reading it. But Brooks lives in a red and blue world where the antics of rabid sports fans are limited to one region of the country and thus condemn it to political irrelevancy. Others have pointed out Brooks’ peculiar form of color blindness so I won’t go into it.

Meanwhile, tonight is game six. Go Cubs and God help us.

Margaret Cho has a blog. Enjoy.

Aaron McGruder on Fresh Air today.

Don't Hate the Playa, Hate the Game (via Eschaton)

Urban Outfitters has decided to add "peddlar of racist board games" to its already considerable crime of "peddlar of overpriced pseudo-vintage gear for suburbanites." It's hard not to laugh at the absurdity of such a move on the part of both the manufacturer and the distributor.

Could it get any worse? Take a gander at the Ghettopoly Web site. Oh yes Ghettopoly is only the beginning. On deck we have Hoodopoly, Thugopoly, HipHopoly, and Redneckopoly. I could not make this up if I tried. Gee I can't wait for Wetbackopoly in which players have to cross the border without getting shot. But I shouldn't plant ideas in such weak yet fertile minds.

You know the drill:customercare@ghettopoly.com

Be mean and curse a lot.

Strange Victories

When you are faced with this headline in a newspaper that isn’t The Onion, you have no choice but to shrug philosophically and move on. And by you I mean me. The fact of Schwartzenegger’s victory is just too full of horrible truths about politics, Americans, and public perception. And if I think about it for too long, the dark side of American Democracy seems very, very dark.

So what bothers me about the recall vote and the ascent of Arnold Schwarzenegger is that if anyone were to devise a route out of democracy and into a tribal, vengeful savagery, this melding of the world of entertainment, which satiates our most primal wishes, and the world of politics, which is supposed to moderate and rationalize our worst wishes and sublimate our ideals, looks like a pretty good route. Movies are the great persuaders. Their power is much greater than the power of reason, and that is what bothers me. The passion of politics must be tempered by reason. How much difference is there between electing a savage action hero and electing a Mussolini? I don't think Arnold is a fascist. But it is the worship of strength and charisma themselves that I find alarming in a democratic system. I think once the electorate acts from its own troubled id, we are vulnerable to the election of untold numbers of scoundrels, one of whom or a series of whom, could spell the end of democracy.

So hasta la vista, baby. Alabama looks pretty good right now.

Strange victories make for thoughts like these. They also make for disillusionment, scape-goating, tuning out, and caving in. This is the stuff of nihilism and Green Party conversion. This is exactly how we can’t afford to think. So read it and weep, then have a couple of drinks and sober up fast.

For one thing there is a bright side.

It hasn’t been the best year for Ward Connerly and yesterday California refused to retreat deeper in to denial about race. So I haven’t lost faith in the state altogether.

And let’s not forget that we have bigger fish to fry.

Looks like the homophobes want to revise the Ten Commandments. (via Tom Tomorrow)

Anti-gay preacher Fred Phelps has announced intentions to erect a monument to Matthew Shepard the gay college student brutally murdered five years ago near Laramie.

But, the monument will be no memorial. Phelps says the monument would be 5 to 6 feet tall and made of marble or granite. It would bear a bronze plaque bearing the image of Shepard and have an inscription reading "MATTHEW SHEPARD, Entered Hell October 12, 1998, in Defiance of God's Warning: 'Thou shalt not lie with mankind as with womankind; it is abomination.' Leviticus 18:22."

The monument would be erected in downtown Casper, Shepard's home town.

Phelps has sent details of the monument to the city of Casper city council and there may be nothing the city can do to prevent it.

Phelps said he intends to put up the monument in City Park, already the location of a controversial statue of the Ten Commandments.

Can't Matthew Shephard's family sue? Whenever I think I can't get more disgusted the Phelps of the world prove me wrong.

The not-so-subtle signs that you might be a racist

--You must take notes everytime you see a "normal" black family or, for that matter, a black family at all.

--You have ever said any of the following statements.

"I am not a racist."
"Some of my best friends are (insert minority here)."
"You know just by talking to you I would never guess you were (insert minority here)."
"You're from New Mexico? You speak English so well."
"I just don't think interracial marriage is fair to the child."
"Colin Powell is just so well-spoken."

--You give famous minorities props for being "a credit to their race."

--The Puerto Rican Day Parade makes you feel like there are too many Puerto Ricans in the U.S.

--You've used the word "ethnic" as a euphemism.

--You are reading this list right now and getting indignant because you don't see anything wrong with any of the aforementioned points.

A Final Plea Before Sentencing

Well, we are five days away from the California election and I am positively stiff with terror. Most readers know that I blog from Chicago (yeah, yeah, go Cubs, whatever I don’t give a sh*t). But I do have a history with California, and am actually looking into to moving to the Bay Area. This recall effort could seriously derail my grad school plans. So I am making a plea to Californians right now to vote no on the recall. I have no strong feelings about either Davis or Bustamente. But I do know one thing: if Arnold Schwartzenegger becomes governor of California, Jesse Ventura will no longer be the biggest case of buyer’s remorse in state government history.

A Special Note to Republican Voters: Yes, I know I am an icky, paranoid liberal who has said some pretty nasty things about your heroes in the GOP. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t listen to me. You may think I hate you. You may be right. But you want to know who hates you more? The Republicans you so enthusiastically vote into office. They hate you. They think you are stupid and easily manipulated. If they didn’t, they wouldn’t parade Arnold out for you and declare with a straight face that he is the best man for the job. Hell, they did the same thing with Bush. And this is because their private interests come before your public good. If you want to be proud of your party please don’t let Governor Terminator become a reality. Say no and force your leadership to provide a real candidate.

Well that didn't take long. Good. Great. Fantastic. I just have one question. What the hell was he doing on ESPN in the first place?

UPDATE: Remember when Rush announced he was going deaf? This is oh so much sweeter.

What are you doing here? Why are aren't you reading Josh Marshall?

I Am A DORK

The the fact that I think that this is the best post ever on the Valerie Plame affair is a bit too revealing.

NYTimes Letters:

As a reserve military policeman serving in Iraq, I take offense at the letter writer's glorification of combat and criticisms of overstrained National Guardsmen and reservists.

(snip)

We get shot at regularly, endure searing heat and live in less than desirable conditions. While serving my country is a great honor, there is no glory here on the ground.

We still have not been told when we will be redeploying home. Now we hear that reservists will do full 12-month tours "boots on the ground" in Iraq. Many of us are tired, hot and irritated. As far as I'm concerned, reservists serving in Iraq have earned the right to complain.

I hope servicemen and women are making copies of these for their state reps and for the Whitehouse.

When Dr. King said, "I have a dream," I doubt he meant this.

"More than 200 people gathered in front of the Barrow County Courthouse this afternoon to support the county's decision not to remove the Ten Commandments from the government building.

The rally was organized by J.J. Harper, the self-proclaimed imperial wizard of the American White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan and members of the controversial African-American church, the House of Prayer.

The groups were protesting against the American Civil Liberties Union, which has filed a lawsuit to force the removal of a framed poster of the Ten Commandments from the courthouse. Barrow County commissioners voted in June to fight the ACLU over the poster, and county officials have said there are no plans to take it down.

I really have to look into getting an underground bunker because reading stuff like that does not bode well.

Joe Conason at Borders Bookstore

September 29, 2003 7:00 PM
Chicago - Michigan Ave.
830 N. Michigan Ave.
Chicago, IL

Busy, busy

Posting is light this week, as you’ve probably noticed. Ever get busy to the point of exhaustion? Ever been working on the computer for so long that the act of scrolling triggers a migraine? I’m not quite there, but blogging every day— at least right now— might do the trick. Kinda sucks too since this week was very blogworthy.

The news on Bush’s poll numbers was bittersweet. Bitter because to my thinking he never should have been able to garner that much public goodwill based on the sorry job he’s doing. Bitter because the freefall means that things are getting worse. Much worse.Salon has a good piece today on joblessness.

According to numbers released by the Federal Reserve in August, there are approximately 9 million people currently unemployed in the United States. My husband and I are lucky to not be among them. InvestorWords.com, which calls itself a leading Web-based glossary for financial terms of art, defines our condition as underemployment, "a situation in which a worker is employed, but not in the desired capacity, whether in terms of compensation, hours, or level of skill and experience. While not technically unemployed, the underemployed are often competing for available jobs." My husband, Andrew, and I, motorcycle salesperson and movie-house concession bitch, respectively, embody all the features of the definition.

Before his current inability to be employed in his "desired capability," Andrew worked at a software start-up. Prior to my scraping gum off the bottoms of chairs and reheating popcorn, I was a Web writer for a multimedia dot-com corporation. It's been like this for 16 months, the two of us struggling to make ends meet, to emotionally and financially support ourselves and our two young children while battling self-pity and overwhelming panic.

Yes things are bad.

I’ve also been trying to put together a longer post on the Clark, Democratic candidates, and the media which hopefully will come together this weekend during one of those lulls when I should be doing other work. The gist of it is going to be how far behind the press is when it comes to how these campaigns attract interest, and how that translates into underestimating voters. Remember how shocked they were at Deans fundraising success? If they had been paying attention they would have seen it coming. But I’ll come back to that later.

Josh is being coy so I'll go ahead and say it...

Un-fuckin'-believable