This story is about a week old at this point, but it goes in the “things everyone should know” category.
One of the most common talking points from right-wing pundits, especially on Fox News, is that whatever happens to the people in Guantanamo Bay is okay because all those prisoners are really bad guys — “the […]

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Boy, Scottie McClellan’s decision to come clean — well, I say clean, I mean slightly less dirty — on his role as the Mouth of Sauron, and how the press corps passed along the White House’s propaganda to sell the invasion and occupation of Iraq, has really opened all sorts of floodgates.
In addition […]

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Sublime. Any comment would be superfluous.

 
And in case you haven’t seen it, the dance remix. Warning: Loud, crude, uncensored language, accompanied by a nifty techno beat. Lots of bad words that cultural conservatives might find objectionable, uttered by a conservative! Definitely not safe for work, kind of like the Falafel King himself.

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Bob Schieffer attempts to explain it slowly and clearly for George Stephanopoulos. It probably won’t do any good, but I love him for trying.
And seriously — it’s beyond tragic that this sort of thing even needs to be said, but clearly it does.

 
Via this diary.
I like the parallel Mr. Schieffer draws here between public […]

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From Friday’s AP story on Lawrence King:
OXNARD, Calif. (AP) — Larry King was a gay eighth-grader who used to come to school in makeup, high heels and earrings. And when the other boys made fun of him, he would boldly tease them right back by flirting with them.
That may have been what got him killed.
No, […]

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Markos from Daily Kos has a new gig writing opinion pieces for Newsweek, and he’s been in rare form with his first couple of efforts. From this week’s column: “In his first Inaugural Address, Ronald Reagan remarked that ‘government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem.’ While the quip has provided […]

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I can’t scrape together enough time at the moment to do OcPot’s usual painstakingly well-rounded roundup — I’m seeing The Waterboys at the Park West tonight, woo-hoo! — but I wanted to get some of these links up before they fossilized. So here’s a charmingly slapdash, quick-and-dirty roundup. In ripped fishnet and high heels.

The always-eloquent […]

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Here’s a little video roundup to keep you entertained while I try to scrape together the time to post something more substantial.
First off, Mr. Colbert points out the enormous black-and-orange elephant in the living room … the War on Halloween! That’s not going to be very popular in the candy corn belt.

 
He really enjoyed […]

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Daily Kos has a review up of Naomi Klein’s new book The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism. Harper’s ran an excerpt from The Shock Doctrine in the October issue which was, as the DKos review says, riveting, and immediately put the book on my must-read list. I’m planning to pick up a copy […]

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In case you missed it, Keith Olbermann was on fire this week. His special comment was possibly the most powerful I’ve seen him deliver. And his ultimate point about the sacred dividing line between the civilian leadership and the military is one that needs to be heard more often — too many people don’t seem […]

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Eric Alterman has an outstanding column in The Nation on how the media’s mean girls (of all genders) develop the narratives they use to bring down the presidential candidates they take a dislike to. With examples of what they did to Gore in 2000, and what they’re doing to Obama and Edwards right now.
Two of […]

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General Petraeus says that “victory” in Iraq will require 9-10 more years. I’m trying to imagine how ten more years of bloody occupation can possibly work out to a victory. More on that subject here.

A bill has been introduced in Venezuela to restrict baby names to a list of 100 approved choices. “The bill’s ambition, […]

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Forgive me for posting twice in a row about Larry Craig. After the past week, surely it’s time for him to begin shrinking in the collective rear-view mirror of our culture.
But I can’t help it. On Sunday, someone who goes by the nom de net Blueness posted an absolutely beautiful diary on Daily Kos, called […]

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Proving that the Republican Party truly is just one big puppet show:

 
… I can’t find it now, but I swear that at some point in the 24 hours after the Craig story broke, there was a headline referring to him as “Toilet Sex Senator.”
And of course my first thought was that The Toilet Sex […]

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