Steve at The Carpetbagger Report has more on the "Lonely Kerry" photo, pointing out the picture may not be faked, but the story surrounding it obviously is.

Guess who helps prove that? Malkin. Go figure, she's dumb enough to sabotage herself trying to prove her point.

Steve: An apology, or at least a correction, from some of the conservatives who mocked Kerry incorrectly seems entirely appropriate.

I agree, Steve, but I don't think it's a-coming.

Reports are confirming that Saddam Hussein was executed this evening. While I cannot mourn his death, I do pray for the safety of our troops and hope that there is not an escalation in violence in response to this execution.

Honestly, I had planned to post a bit of opera tonight (just because John likes to offer diverse types of music), but as I was working on another post, I heard a familiar refrain during a commercial for a business credit card. It stopped me in my tracks because the ad wizards in charge had chosen a SPINAL TAP song. A spoof song from a "mockumentary" is supposed to sell business owners on this card?

Don't get me wrong, I LOVE Spinal Tap. (So much so that I know that this is technically the Thamesman, not ST, and yes, I am a dork) It's definitely in my top ten all time favorite movies--and one of the best DVDs ever. Certain phrases from it trip so often from my lips that my four year old says "This one goes to eleven!", knowing that it will make me laugh. But it seemed odd to hear as a completely legit advertisement.

But it gave me an idea for a challenge. Your challenge tonight--if you choose to accept it--is to post songs you love that have been used in advertising campaigns.

The New York Times has decided to run a redacted version of Floyd Leverett's op-ed about the Bush administrations failed policy towards Iran. Mr Leverett -- who is an established foreign policy expert who worked for the Bush administration in the CIA -- charged earlier this week that the White House stepped in and politicized the Prepublication Review Process in an attempt to silence him when the CIA had already cleared the article in it's entirety.

TPMmuckraker has more.

Baghdad Burning:

End of Another Year...
You know your country is in trouble when:

1. The UN has to open a special branch just to keep track of the chaos and bloodshed, UNAMI.
2. Abovementioned branch cannot be run from your country.
3. The politicians who worked to put your country in this sorry state can no longer be found inside of, or anywhere near, its borders.
4. The only thing the US and Iran can agree about is the deteriorating state of your nation.
5. An 8-year war and 13-year blockade are looking like the country's 'Golden Years'.
6. Your country is purportedly 'selling' 2 million barrels of oil a day, but you are standing in line for 4 hours for black market gasoline for the generator.
7. For every 5 hours of no electricity, you get one hour of public electricity and then the government announces it's going to cut back on providing that hour.
8. Politicians who supported the war spend tv time debating whether it is 'sectarian bloodshed' or 'civil war'.
9. People consider themselves lucky if they can actually identify the corpse of the relative that's been missing for two weeks.

A day in the life of the average Iraqi has been reduced to identifying corpses, avoiding car bombs and attempting to keep track of which family members have been detained, which ones have been exiled and which ones have been abducted.

2006 has been, decidedly, the worst year yet. No- really. The magnitude of this war and occupation is only now hitting the country full force. It's like having a big piece of hard, dry earth you are determined to break apart. You drive in the first stake in the form of an infrastructure damaged with missiles and the newest in arms technology, the first cracks begin to form. Several smaller stakes come in the form of politicians like Chalabi, Al Hakim, Talbani, Pachachi, Allawi and Maliki. The cracks slowly begin to multiply and stretch across the once solid piece of earth, reaching out towards its edges like so many skeletal hands. And you apply pressure. You surround it from all sides and push and pull. Slowly, but surely, it begins coming apart- a chip here, a chunk there.

Here's the video to Nicole's post from before about Fran Townsend and her deep state of denial.

Download | play WMP | Download | play MOV

Townsend said something else that I thought warranted its own post:

TOWNSEND: Look, we can't do it alone. We understand from the intelligence that he's most likely in the tribal areas. They are inaccessible. They're difficult to reach. It's difficult terrain. And, oh, by the way, it's part of the sovereign country of Pakistan.

I've heard this argument made time and time again, yet it never ceases to amaze me. Even though it is widely accepted that bin Laden is hiding out in the remote areas of Pakistan, the fact that they are a "sovereign county" precludes our troops from entering and taking care of business. Are you kidding me? President Bush even reiterated this point back in September, telling Wolf Blitzer that he wouldn't send troops into Pakistan unless he was "invited" to do so because Pakistan is a "sovereign nation." With all due respect to Our Dear Leader, Iraq too was a "sovereign nation" but that didn't stop him from invading and deposing a leader who (a) didn't attack us and (b) posed no threat to our national security.

So, as Saddam Hussein awaits execution, the man actually responsible for 9/11 and the deaths of 3000 Americans remains free. What's more, he's being protected by our favorite dictator ally in The War on Terror, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, whose sovereignty we respect so much.

This is one of those "beat head against keyboard" moments that makes me nuts. Talk about a serious brain drain at the top. (h/t to HuffPost)

Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility:

Grand Canyon National Park is not permitted to give an official estimate of the geologic age of its principal feature, due to pressure from Bush administration appointees. Despite promising a prompt review of its approval for a book claiming the Grand Canyon was created by Noah's flood rather than by geologic forces, more than three years later no review has ever been done and the book remains on sale at the park, according to documents released today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER).

"In order to avoid offending religious fundamentalists, our National Park Service is under orders to suspend its belief in geology," stated PEER Executive Director Jeff Ruch. "It is disconcerting that the official position of a national park as to the geologic age of the Grand Canyon is ‘no comment.'"

In a letter released today, PEER urged the new Director of the National Park Service (NPS), Mary Bomar, to end the stalling tactics, remove the book from sale at the park and allow park interpretive rangers to honestly answer questions from the public about the geologic age of the Grand Canyon. PEER is also asking Director Bomar to approve a pamphlet, suppressed since 2002 by Bush appointees, providing guidance for rangers and other interpretive staff in making distinctions between science and religion when speaking to park visitors about geologic issues.

In August 2003, Park Superintendent Joe Alston attempted to block the sale at park bookstores of Grand Canyon: A Different View by Tom Vail, a book claiming the Canyon developed on a biblical rather than an evolutionary time scale. NPS Headquarters, however, intervened and overruled Alston. To quiet the resulting furor, NPS Chief of Communications David Barna told reporters and members of Congress that there would be a high-level policy review of the issue.

According to a recent NPS response to a Freedom of Information Act request filed by PEER, no such review was ever requested, let alone conducted or completed. Read on...

I'm of the belief that this should be in the "Good News/Bad News" category. The bad news is that it looks like the major obstacles blocking the merger of AT&T and BellSouth have been cleared, and history shows that these mergers do not benefits consumers. The good news is that one of those cleared obstacles has scored a victory for net neutrality and eliminated one of the anti-neutrality forces' biggest arguments.

FreePress/Save the Internet:

In a striking victory for Internet freedom advocates, AT&T officials agreed on Thursday night to adhere to strict Network Neutrality conditions if allowed to complete their proposed $85 billion merger with BellSouth.

The phone company filed a "letter of commitment" with the Federal Communications Commission in which it promises to observe Net Neutrality principles for at least 24 months. Now it's left to Congress to follow the FCC's lead and make Net Neutrality permanent under the law.

Continue reading »

In his WaPo column today, E.J. Dionne quotes one of his readers: “Conservatism, like Christianity, has not failed. Neither has ever been tried, especially by this administration.”
This person may have a point about Christianity, although I think a handful of people have made a sincere effort; Albert Schweitzer comes to mind. But he’s wrong about American-style conservatism. It’s been tried, and it failed.

As Digby wrote recently,

I did not understand the zombie nature of Republicanism and had no way of knowing that unless you drive a metaphorical stake through the heart of GOP crooks and liars, they will be back, refreshed and and ready to screw up the country in almost exactly the same way, within just a few years.

In support of Digby’s statement I present here A (Pretty) Short History of Wingnutism.

Continue reading »

Our next year-ender list. Again, I'll link a bunch of top ten lists, you tell us whether you agree or disagree. Not nearly the same level of consensus on books as I found on movies. If there's a book not on the list that we should pick up, let us know that too.

Salon: Editor's Picks for 2006 (watch a short ad for a site pass)

Amazon.com: Editors' Top 50; Customers' Top 50

Publisher's Weekly: Best Books of the Year

Washington Post: Book World Holiday--Editor's Top Ten

Time Magazine: 10 Best Books

NY Sun: The Year's Best Books

Times UK: The 10 best books of 2006

I don't know whether to laugh or cry over this one. Thanks to Gregory for calling my attention to it.

Forbes.com

President Bush worked nearly three hours at his Texas ranch on Thursday to design a new U.S. policy in Iraq, then emerged to say that he and his advisers need more time to craft the plan he'll announce in the new year.
Burdened by low approval ratings on his handling of the war, the president is under mounting pressure to come up with a new blueprint for U.S. involvement in Iraq where the execution of Saddam Hussein - perhaps as early as this weekend - could incite further violence.

"We've got more consultation to do until I talk to the country about the plan," Bush said, appearing outside an office building at his ranch.

NEARLY three hours?!?!?! You know, I spent more time wrapping gifts this Christmas than Bush has spent meeting with his advisers over a war that has lost us 3,000 troops and more than half a million Iraqis. Glad to know he's not done consulting after those nearly three hours.