The general manager of the Dolphins asked one potential recruit if his mother was a prostitute. Because that's TOTALLY relevent to his football skills, yo.

The Iraqi government is torturing detainees in secret prisons. Not that the USA is in a good position to judge them at this point. But I'm sure the Iraqis get down on their knees every night ( Read more... )

In 2007, two Reuters employees (a photographer and his driver) were killed by US Apache helicopters. The military stated that the Reuters men were inadvertantly caught in the crossfire as the Apaches battled a group of armed insurgents that had exchanged gunfire with coalition forces. Reuters filed Freedom of Information Act requests to obtain ( Read more... )

But remember everyone, only conservatives really care about women's rights! Uh huh.

Andy Olmsted, a blogger at Obsidian Wings (a political blog I read) was just killed in Iraq. I didn't know him personally, not really familiar with his work specifically, to be honest. But he gave hilzoy at Obsidian Wings this post to put up in the event of his death, and it is extremely powerful and very interesting, even if you don't agree with ( Read more... )

Jesus H. Christ.

You can read the ACLU press release and search the database here, if that article fails to make you sufficiently nauseous.

You should also read this.

Serious Business

From Feministe: "Pro-Life" Laws: Totally Fucked. I wish I had enough faith in humanity to believe that one day, these people will stop pretending this is about anything other than maintaining power over people's minds and bodies.

From Glenn Greenwald (courtesy of Obsidian Wings): War as reality rather than cartoon. Comparing ( Read more... )

From the "It's About Motherfucking TIME" Department:

Wiccan veterans will be allowed to have the symbol of their religion placed on grave markers in national cemeteries under a lawsuit settlement with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs announced today.

Unsurprisingly, it seems one motive for the settlement may have been to prevent disclosure ( Read more... )

Publius of Legal Fiction on Republicans closing ranks behind Iraq policy as an election gambit:

Whatever your view on Iraq may be, I think there’s a pretty broad consensus that what we’re doing isn’t working (excluding Lieberman’s cell phone penetration study). And so, at the very least, everyone can agree that we need some real changes and we ( Read more... )

So, Bush has dodged the bullet by having Padilla indicted. In one sense, this is a victory- the administration has been forced to treat Padilla like a human being at long last, a criminal suspect instead of an "enemy combatant." Yet, all I can see is the administration trying to postpone the day of reckoning, perhaps fearing that the case will ( Read more... )

Well, lookie here. Seems that all these reports that moderate Republicans are starting to get antsy about the whole Iraq situation are actually being substantiated by some kind of action. Yes, the Senate did not set or demand a timetable, but:

The Senate then voted 79-19 in favor of a Republican alternative stating that 2006 "should be a period ( Read more... )