From Scout: I am getting together with my family this evening to share some video from the NOLA trip. I put together a short music video to show them of the 9th Ward. So I’ll share it with you too. Music: Nanci Griffith Continue reading An Offering

From Holden: Ambassador Joe Wilson spoke at Florida State University yesteday. Wilson said if anyone believes Bush and his allies won’t improperly use national security data, culled now through eavesdropping on phone calls originating overseas: “I stand before you tonight as somebody who knows from from personal experience that this administration will take national security information and use it for political purposes . . . because they did it to Valerie and to me.” [snip] U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice should “stop this globe-trotting in her thigh-high boots” and “get serious about getting together a concert of nations to … Continue reading Joe Wilson

From Scout: 3 more bodies were found in the Lower 9th Ward…. The discovery of the bodies in the 2400 block of Tupelo Street, near the St. Bernard Parish line — two of them within 20 feet of each other in the same debris pile — brings to seven the number of bodies discovered since the special operations unit of the Fire Department resumed recovery work on March 2, said Fire Chief Steve Glynn, chief of special operations for the New Orleans Fire Department. He said six have been found in the Lower 9th Ward, and one in Lakeview. Most … Continue reading More Bodies Found

From Holden: Oh, what a glorious press conference it was. In his sixth year in office Chimpy finally calls on Helen Thomas, although he was warned not to. And of course he comes out the worse in the exchange when he conflates Iraq with Afghanistan and Helen calls him on it. THE PRESIDENT: Helen. After that brilliant performance at the Grid Iron, I am — (laughter.) Q You’re going to be sorry. (Laughter.) THE PRESIDENT: Well, then, let me take it back. (Laughter.) Q I’d like to ask you, Mr. President, your decision to invade Iraq has caused the deaths … Continue reading Your President Speaks!

From Holden: What do you think? REUTERS/Larry Downing Lon Chaney, Jr.? Or Butch Patrick? Continue reading Separated at Birth — But Which One Is His Twin?

From Holden: What’s this? Best Series finalist two years running? I owe it all to Les, Helen, Goyal and Little Scottie. Go vote for your favorite lefty bloggers! Continue reading I Couldn’t Have Done It Without Les

From Holden: Yesterday’s “Ask the White House” topic was Progress in Iraq with Kevin Bergner, Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Iraq, fielding the questions. While the vast majority of Americans believe the Attack on Iraq was a grave mistake one would think that most of the questions the White House received on this topic would be critical of the war and skeptical of any claims of “progress”. Strangely enough, none of the eleven questions posted were critical, while ten of them were gushing with approval of the Assministration’s supposed strategy. Question 1: Stay the Course! Dennis, … Continue reading Blow the White House

Despite sending replies that contain nothing but crude sexual innuendo, recipes for Molotov cocktails and links to the vilest, most hardcore porn I can find on the ‘net, I am still on the Family Research Council’s mailing list. And days like today, I’m glad I am, because children, they are pissed: The Bush administration assured us late last year that the new Iraqi constitution would not threaten religious liberty. This, despite the provisions saying no law could be passed that was “inconsistent with Islam.” Our concern that such promises of religious freedom will be meaningless in light of Islamic law … Continue reading They’d Like The Pound of Flesh Gift-Wrapped, Please

From Holden: They held the gaggle on board Air Force One again today. Damn, I hate that — no Helen Thomas, no Les Kinsolving. They’re half my schtick! Oh, well, I guess we’ll have to settle for Scottie denying the obvious again. Q When Allawi says that Iraq is in the middle of a civil war, what is he talking about? MR. McCLELLAN: Well, I think that General Casey and the Vice President talked about that very issue yesterday. They talked about their views of the situation on the ground. General Casey is someone who is on the ground and … Continue reading Today on Holden’s Obsession with the Gaggle

Via Romenesko, Stanford prof Howard Rheingold asks one of the dumbest questions I’ve ever heard: “But now there needs to be more involvement between mainstream media and the digital world. If you don’t learn from an editor or a newsroom, where do those values of journalism come from?” The linked article is a take on the whole “blogging versus journalism” debate, an article that is neither the worst nor the best I’ve seen done on the subject but nevertheless falls into the same stupid fucking trap of Zombie Facts (bloggers want to be journalists, all blogs are the same, all … Continue reading ‘Journalism Values’

From Holden: Bob Schieffer had a down home come to Jesus chat with Dick Cheney yesterday. Turns out Dick was right all along — our troops were greeted with flowers and candy three years ago, and last June the insurgency was in its last throes. Unfortunately all that goodness was obscured by car-bombings, or something. SCHIEFFER: Mr. Vice President, all along the government has been very optimistic. You remain optimistic. But I remember when you were saying we’d be greeted as liberators, you played down the insurgency 10 months ago. You said it was in its last throes. Do you … Continue reading Face the Dick

From Holden: Uh — hello? *thump-thump* Is this thing on? AN AFGHAN man is being prosecuted in a Kabul court and could be sentenced to death after being charged with converting from Islam to Christianity, a crime under this country’s Islamic Shari’a laws, a judge said yesterday. [snip] The defendant, Abdul Rahman, 41, was arrested last month after his family accused him of becoming a Christian, Judge Ansarullah Mawlavezada told The Associated Press in an interview. Rahman was charged with rejecting Islam and his trial started last Thursday. During the one-day hearing, the defendant allegedly confessed that he converted from … Continue reading Paging Mr. Dobson…

From Holden: Rumors have been churning around the Internets for several days now regarding this raid by US forces in Iraq. Now we have official confirmation that those rumors are true. Iraqi police have accused American troops of executing 11 people, including a 75-year-old woman and a 6-month-old infant, in the aftermath of a raid last Wednesday on a house about 60 miles north of Baghdad. The villagers were killed after American troops herded them into a single room of the house, according to a police document obtained by Knight Ridder Newspapers. The soldiers also burned three vehicles, killed the … Continue reading A Modern Mini My Lai

From Scout: From WaPo… NEW ORLEANS — How many contractors does it take to haul a pile of tree branches? If it’s government work, at least four: a contractor, his subcontractor, the subcontractor’s subcontractor, and finally, the local man with a truck and chainsaw. If the job is patching a leaking roof, the answer may be five contractors, or even six. At the bottom tier is a Spanish-speaking crew earning less than 10 cents for every square foot of blue tarp installed. At the top, the prime contractor bills the government 15 times as much for the same job. Snip … Continue reading Heckuva a job…….

Catch Walkout in repeats if you can, especially the end, with the actual news footage of the events depicted, and interviews with those who participated in them. A. Continue reading TV rec of the week

From Scout: Absurd….. “FEMA even wanted us to devise an evacuation strategy (for the upcoming hurricane season) that included evacuating the travel trailers,” said an incredulous Walter Leger, who heads the LRA’s [Louisiana Recovery Authority] housing committee and is a St. Bernard resident. Oh FEMA, how do you out do yourself time and again? Just when I think FEMA can’t hit a lower note they cross a new threshhold of absurdity. About the only way this story could get better is if in the next hurricane evacuation people really did haul their trailers with them only to be turned back … Continue reading Just when you think it couldn’t get more…

Awesome: The tract-like booklets shown on this page are intended to serve a dual purpose: to be serious educational religious material, and to at the same time parody some of the hate literature that is published under the guise of “religious” literature by others, literature that often attacks the faith of just about everyone else except, of course, that particularly narrow brand of “religion” followed by the publisher. [snip] In Heathens, we see a band of Vikings at the Board of Education offices, demanding prayer in the schools. But their demands are a bit different – they’re asking for prayer … Continue reading Classroom Mead-Drinking and Swordfights

From Scout: This is a superb video. It tells the story of American Can…a Katrina story that went unreported. Just watch it……. New Orleans: My Home, My Life, My Love (thanks to lb0313 for the tip) Continue reading Do Watch This

Steve on Iraq, three years on: So why did anyone think Chalabi, a fat crook of a banker, was going to be greeted as some kind of hero, especially when he waqs talking about selling oil to Israel. That shit sold at cocktail parties for the gullible, but for the Iraqi man in the street, the Sadr family was his heroes. Sure, the Hakims have their cult, and everybody respects Sistani, The Sadrs were the heroes of the Iraqi shia poor. They opposed Sadaam, they were killed by him, Moqtada the last man standing. So, when picking a leader, would … Continue reading A Sense Of History

Ransom note and everything: Caroll was at her parents’ house in Gurnee over the weekend and returned Monday to her Oak Forest apartment to find her ferrets missing and a sort-of ransom note: Dear Mom, We are going to visit Uncle Chuck. We will be home as soon as you pay him the $200 you now owe him. Love, The Rats “Uncle Chuck” is the old roomie (he asked for his last name not to be used) who moved out Jan. 31 and contends that Caroll owes him $200 in unpaid bills. Chuck said he was frustrated and a little … Continue reading Guys? Seriously, ferret-napping!

From Scout: I’m going to be on WORT radio tomorrow at 9:00 PM Central to talk about my trip to New Orleans. lb0313 who so graciously offered her home and friends while I was in New Orleans will also be joining us via phone. The program is hosted by Roadmaster and it is usually a music program but he is instead going to use his time to keep the focus on NOLA. This is a Madison station but you can live stream it at the link below. I hope you’ll listen in. Wort Radio Continue reading Scout on the Radio

From Tena: ‘Sean Patrick was born to NYMary and Thers at 4:52 EST on St Patrick’s Day. Another liberal comes into the world. Can’t you feel it? I can. We welcome Sean Patrick with all our hearts. Joy to NYMary and Thers and their family. Continue reading Congratulations!

From Holden: Today’s obsession is devoted to a single query from Les Kinsolving which raises the following question: If the documents recently released by John Negroponte that allegedly reveal a link between al Qaeda and Saddam are such an all-fired big deal how come Scottie refuses to talk about them, and why does he cut Les off after the topic is raised? Q Well, all right. In the last two months, two former Iraqi officials have said Saddam moved weapons of mass destruction to Syria before the U.S. invasion. And now one of the documents released by the Pentagon yesterday, … Continue reading Today on Holden’s Obsession with the Gaggle

From Scout: From the Times Picayune But Rep. Tom Davis, R-Va., said he was rebuffed by the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, which also is probing the handling of the crisis. With White House attorneys asserting executive privilege and facing a tight deadline for his report, Davis said he decided against issuing the subpoena through his committee and wading into what would have likely been a protracted legal battle. “Had they joined us,” he said, “we would have issued a subpoena.” Davis’ report, issued last month, chided the White House for its lack of cooperation, but he had … Continue reading Ugly all the way around

From Holden: New York Times headline: Iraqi Shiites Denounce Plan for Talks Between U.S. and Iran But it’s really the Sunnis who are pissed. Iran and the United States agreed Thursday to hold direct talks on how to halt sectarian violence and restore calm in Iraq, a plan that was denounced today by Iraq’s largest bloc of Sunni parties. [snip] But the Iraqi Tawafuq Front, a coalition of Sunni groups, denounced news of the talks “as an obvious unjustified interference in Iraq’s affairs.” The group said, in a statement released in Baghdad, that “it is not committed, under any circumstances, … Continue reading NYTimes Confusing Shiites with Sunnis

A. Continue reading Friday Ferretblogging: Joe & Fox

From Holden: A plurality of all Americans, and the vast majority of your party, favors censure for Chimpy. Amreican Research Group (ARG) Poll: Do you favor or oppose the United States Senate passing a resolution censuring President George W. Bush for authorizing wiretaps of Americans within the United States without obtaining court orders? 3/15/06 Favor Oppose Undecided All Adults 46% 44% 10% Voters 48% 43% 9% Republicans (33%) 29% 57% 14% Democrats (37%) 70% 26% 4% Independents (30%) 42% 47% 11% Do you favor or oppose the United States House of Representatives voting to impeach President George W. Bush? 3/15/06 … Continue reading Uh, Excuse Me — Democrats?

From Holden: We’ve created one helluva mess in Iraq. For nearly two decades, Kurds have gathered peacefully in this mountainous corner of northern Iraq to commemorate one of the blackest days in their history. It was here that Saddam Hussein’s government launched a poison gas attack that killed more than 5,000 people on March 16, 1988. So it came as a shock when hundreds of stone-throwing protesters took to the streets here Thursday on the anniversary, beating back government guards to storm and destroy a museum dedicated to the memory of the Halabja attack. [snip] Although Kurdistan remains a relative … Continue reading B-B-But — Saddam Gassed His Own People!