ASSOCIATED PRESS: President Bush’s top advisers are not immune from congressional subpoenas, a federal judge ruled Thursday in an unprecedented dispute between the two political branches. House Democrats called the ruling a ringing endorsement of the principle that nobody is above the law. In his ruling, U.S. District Judge John Bates said there’s no legal basis for Bush’s argument and that his former legal counsel, Harriet Miers, must appear before Congress. If she wants to refuse to testify, he said, she must do so in person. The committee also has sought to force testimony from White House chief of staff […]
GOLIATH: How One Man Brought Comcast To Its Knees
INQUIRER: [T]he FCC, for the first time, will establish enforceable rules for how Comcast and other broadband companies can treat the Internet. The agency is calling the order a precedent-setting move that will provide some consumer protections. The agency’s five commissioners are expected to vote on it tomorrow at the agency headquarters in Washington. FCC Chairman Kevin Martin, a Republican, has found allies in Democratic Commissioners Michael Copps and Jonathan S. Adelstein, who reportedly intend to vote for the punishment order. Republican Commissioners Robert M. McDowell and Deborah Taylor Tate are expected to oppose Martin’s order. Comcast and FCC have […]
LUDACRIS: Obama Is Was Here
ALL HIP-HOP: Presumptive Democrat presidential nominee Barack Obama has condemned an endorsement song from Ludacris, in which the Atlanta MC criticizes rivals Hillary Clinton and John McCain. The song “Politics: Obama Is Here” contains celebratory bars on Obama’s success (“The first is destined and it’s meant to be”), but turns venomous when Obama’s rivals are addressed. Ludacris references the bitter Democratic primary battle by stating “Hillary hated on you/So that b**ch is irrelevant.” Regarding Republican nominee John McCain, the rapper rhymes: “McCain don’t belong in ANY chair unless he’s paralyzed/ Yeah I said it cause Bush is mentally handicapped/ Ball […]
NPR 4 THE DEF: Giving Public Radio Edge Since 2006
FRESH AIR While his Office character may take himself seriously, actor Rainn Wilson seems to be all about the laughs. Wilson plays beet-farming, archery-loving middle-management kook Dwight Schrute on the NBC hit television series. Now, Wilson is trading his crossbow for a guitar in the new film The Rocker. In The Rocker, Wilson plays a failed hair metal musician. After he’s kicked out of his band, the group goes on to achieve great success. But when he joins his nephew’s garage band, he gets a second chance at fame. Wilson made his breakthrough as an actor playing an eccentric mortician […]
CONTEMPT: House Panel Votes To Cite Rove
ASSOCIATED PRESS: WASHINGTON — A House panel Wednesday voted to cite former top White House aide Karl Rove for contempt of Congress for defying a subpoena to answer questions about the dismissals of several federal prosecutors as its Senate counterpart explored punishments for an array of alleged past and present Bush administration misdeeds. Voting 20-14 along party lines, the House Judiciary Committee said that Rove had broke the law by failing to appear at a July 10 hearing on allegations of White House influence over the Justice Department, including whether Rove encouraged prosecutions against Democrats such as former Alabama Gov. […]
DEATH FROM ABOVE: CIA Kills Al Qaeda’s Dr. Evil
CBS NEWS: One of al Qaeda’s top chemical and biological weapons experts was killed in an air strike by a CIA pilotless drone in a remote Pakistani border region, senior Pakistani intelligence officials told CBS News Tuesday morning. Intelligence officials investigating the early Monday missile attack confirmed that Midhat Mursi al-Sayid Umar, also known as Abu Khabab al-Masri was one of six men killed and his remains had been positively identified. “We now have a positive ID on the body. I can confirm to you that Al-Masri has been killed,” a Pakistani intelligence official told CBS News on the condition […]
GOD, GAYS & GUNFIRE: Knoxville Church Shooter Was The Quintessential Karl Rove Wedge Issue ‘Values Voter’
ASSOCIATED PRESS: KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — An out-of-work truck driver accused of opening fire at a Unitarian church, killing two people, left behind a note suggesting that he targeted the congregation out of hatred for its liberal policies, including its acceptance of gays, authorities said Monday. A four-page letter found in Jim D. Adkisson’s small SUV indicated he intentionally targeted the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church because, the police chief said, “he hated the liberal movement” and was upset with “liberals in general as well as gays.” Adkisson, a 58-year-old truck driver on the verge of losing his food stamps, had […]
WORTH REPEATING: Say It Ain’t So, John
LEE STRANAHAN: Before I dive in, let me get the ‘objectivity’ thing out of the way. As a citizen journalist whose main claim to fame is producing satirical comedy [and the infamous 1984 anti-Hillary ad], I can be upfront about my political leanings. I’m a recovering libertarian and currently I’m a registered Democrat who is excited to be voting for Barack Obama in November. I like John Edwards and up until a few days ago, he would have been my first choice for Vice President on an Obama ticket. I’m far from Puritan — anything two or more consenting adults […]
Ever Dance With The Devil Under The Pale Moon Light?
WIKIPEDIA: Radovan Karadžic (Serbian Cyrillic: ??????? ???????, pronounced [râdo?a?n kârad?it?]); born June 19, 1945 (1945-06-19) (age 63) in Petnjica, SR Montenegro, SFR Yugoslavia) is a former Bosnian Serb politician, poet and psychiatrist, currently under arrest for war crime charges. Educated as a psychiatrist, he co-founded the Serbian Democratic Party in Bosnia and Herzegovina and was the first President of Republika Srpska from 1992 to 1996. He was a fugitive from 1996 until July 2008 after having been indicted for war crimes by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY).[1] The indictment concluded there were reasonable grounds for believing he committed war […]
WORTH REPEATING: The Dude Abides
NEW YORKER: Captain Blue is a pot broker. More precisely, he helps connect growers of high-grade marijuana upstate to the retail dispensaries that sell marijuana legally to Californians on a doctor’s recommendation. Since 1996, when a referendum known as Proposition 215 was approved by California voters, it has been legal, under California state law, for authorized patients to possess or cultivate the drug. The proposition also allowed a grower to cultivate marijuana for a patient, as long as he had been designated a “primary caregiver” by that patient. Although much of the public discussion centered on the needs of patients […]
ALPHA OBAMA: Vive La France!
PARIS (AP) — Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama expected to spend just enough time in Paris on Friday for talks with the French president and a joint news conference, not a rousing speech like the one he delivered in Berlin. Most newspapers headlined Obama’s pending arrival, with the leftist daily Liberation giving a full front-page spread to “Obamania.” After Berlin, where Obama drew some 200,000 spectators for a speech Thursday, the conservative newspaper Le Figaro wrote that Obama is not looking to draw crowds in Paris “because he knows his huge popularity in our country could ill serve him with […]
NPR 4 THE DEF: Giving Public Radio Edge Since 2006
ALL THINGS CONSIDERED Imagine if millions of people had seen you naked before you were old enough to say “embarrassing.” That’s the story of Spencer Elden, whom you may know as the little baby floating towards a dollar bill on the cover of Nirvana’s 1991 album, Nevermind. Nearly 17 years later, amid hating school and playing water polo, Elden is still struggling to make sense of his (very) public image. “Quite a few people in the world have seen my penis,” he says from his home in Los Angeles. “So that’s kinda cool. I’m just a normal kid living it […]
ALPHA OBAMA: Ich Bin Ein Berliner!
AFP: BERLIN — Barack Obama Thursday told a staggering crowd of 200,000 people in Berlin that Americans and Europeans must tear down walls between estranged allies, races and faiths, in a soaring challenge to a new political generation. EXCERPT: People of Berlin – people of the world – this is our moment. This is our time. I know my country has not perfected itself. At times, we’ve struggled to keep the promise of liberty and equality for all of our people. We’ve made our share of mistakes, and there are times when our actions around the world have not lived […]