South Park takes a shot at the republican party in this brief clip.

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Then go read Bilmon: The Soldier Who Saw Everything Twice

Today's key document, I think, is former Sen. John Danforth's op-ed in the New York Times, which can be read as both his own personal declaration of independence from the religious right, and a manifesto calling upon the Republican Party to do likewise.

"But in recent times, we Republicans have allowed [our] shared agenda to become secondary to the agenda of Christian conservatives. As a senator, I worried every day about the size of the federal deficit. I did not spend a single minute worrying about the effect of gays on the institution of marriage. Today it seems to be the other way around"...read on

I posted this because of two reasons.

This little girl's courage facing a tragic circumstance is amazing, even if she is very young.

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The second: I wanted to note how great the 9-11 operator handled herself in this situation. We always hear how bad a job these operators do on the news, but in this instance, having to field that type of call...bravo.

(Update)-Now for an idiotic 9-11 call via Body and Soul: Hamburger escort

new 911: "Ma'am, we're not going to go down there and escort your Western bacon cheeseburger."

I was just about to e-mail this to my son, who could use a good laugh, when I decided, well, who couldn't?

Listen to the sound file. Even my 10-year-old couldn't stop laughing.

End

Update-with video

via Think Progress

DeLay just released this statement:

Mrs. Schiavo’s death is a moral poverty and a legal tragedy. This loss happened because our legal system did not protect the people who need protection most, and that will change. The time will come for the men responsible for this to answer for their behavior, but not today. Today we grieve, we pray, and we hope to God this fate never befalls another. Our thoughts and prayers are with the Schindlers and with Terri Schiavo’s friends in this time of deep sorrow.

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Make no mistake about it: Tom DeLay, our Majority Leader, is now threatening judges, doctors and Terri Schiavo’s husband.

AP reports her passing....

Of course the ghouls will not be stopped. They have no shame.

FNC has been pounding on about the autopsy complete with Hannity waving her bone scans around last night with some forensic guy. I'm sure they'll try to send in Geraldo with a camera. I would have shown Catherine Crier on H/C's last night, but Jay (Suck-at-law) Sekulow wouldn't let her speak.

via Carpetbagger Report

There are certain American institutions in which secular liberals are supposed to reign supreme. Not many, of course, but a couple. Alas, even the last bastion of this dying breed appears to be under siege. From our friends at James Dobson’s Focus on the Family: A Hollywood project that has successfully trained Christian writers to work from the inside of show business has set its sights on Tinseltown’s executive offices...read on

We are taking bets to see just how quickly these new Christain filmakers will take to be: controlled by the secular Jews, like anal sex, get hooked on dope and become libertine (that means promiscuous.) I give it six months. A few casting calls and it'll be all over.

William Donahue's greatest wingnut hit: Video wmp only

There are many to choose from, but this I believe is the #1

Amazing Grace

via All Spin Zone

Yesterday evening, I was doing some research for my "Talking to the Reptile" series, when I quite by accident ran into an exceptionally relevant sermon on Beliefnet. I urge you to read the entire sermon by Forrest Church, Senior Minister of All Souls Church (Unitarian) in New York City. Not only is it timely, but it takes the evangelical fundamentalists to task on many issues, using the Schiavo debacle as a jumping off point for talking about the "culture of life" that apparently is so near and dear to the fundies....read on

via BlondeSense

The culture of life applies to all life.
If you claim to be christian then act like it. Especially in public...read on

The culture of life means if you are going to pull out all the stops and drag out your Christ on the Cross statue then you had better know what it means to be christian or shut the hell up:

Both posts are exceptional in bringing together the aspects of a real spiritual life, not one that is a single issue hypocrisy.

Tucker Carlson out at PBS.

Now he's all MSNBC's problem.

Demagogue

Today's Daily Darfur is up on the coalition blog.

On an unrelated note, a quick Factiva search reveals that, in the last month, there have been 6179 media reports mentioning Terri Schiavo.

There have been 942 mentioning Darfur.

For every one article mentioning Darfur, there are been 6.5 mentioning Schiavo despite the fact that her death is just 1/ the number of deaths occuring every month in Darfur.

Moon: Discard Democracy   Where in Washington, D.C. is Sun Myung Moon?

The Washington Times owner's most recent of many consistent entreaties to toss democracy on the scrap-heap along with Communism:

Translation:

1. Ever since the Garden of Eden, mankind has pursued the wrong relationships and forms of government.
2. Human beings are loyal to brothers. Instead, they should be bowing down to the True Parents.
3. The result of their sinful ways is democracy.
4. But the proper and ultimate relationship, Moon says, is sworn obedience to parents. (He calls himself the True Father.) 10,000th the number of deaths occuring every month in Darfur.

Craig's Thoughts, Theories, and Tantrums

"College faculties, long assumed to be a liberal bastion, lean further to the left than even the most conspiratorial conservatives might have imagined, a new study says," reports Howard Kurtz. He misses the simplest explanation: liberals are smarter or that the most intelligent one is, the more likely you are to be liberal. A possibility?

...over the past three years, the United States has routinely handed over dozens of low-level terrorism suspects to Uzbekistan, an authoritarian regime that systematically uses torture to obtain terrorist confessions during interrogations.

But wait, there's more.

The former ambassador, Craig Murray, also contends that the CIA and the British intelligence agency MI6 routinely cited information in their regular intelligence briefings that has been passed on by Uzbek authorities and was almost certainly obtained under torture.

These are "low-level terrorism suspects." We like to torture the high-level ones ourselves. What Republican ideal does this fall under? Compassion? Conservatism? Morality? I'm still waiting for just one of these sick bastards in the Pentagon, or in the Bush administration to be held accountable. I won't hold my breath or anything.

Here's a related piece by Paul Friedman. This piece gets right down to it.

And another one in the Post about the CIA and "ghost prisoners." I guess CNN, MSNBC, and FOX are bored with this story.

Idiot of the Moment      Craig's Thoughts, Theories, and Tantrums

"College faculties, long assumed to be a liberal bastion, lean further to the left than even the most conspiratorial conservatives might have imagined, a new study says," reports Howard Kurtz. He misses the simplest explanation: liberals are smarter or that the most intelligent one is, the more likely you are to be liberal. A possibility?

The Attacks of the Right Wing Liars    The Left Coaster

Here's a related piece by Paul Friedman. This piece gets right down to it.

And another one in the Post about the CIA and "ghost prisoners." I guess CNN, MSNBC, and FOX are bored with this story.