A reader emailed us the video. Should we post it on the site?

Islamic Site Shows Attack on Mosul Base [AP Story no longer posted]

BAGHDAD, Iraq - A video posted by an Iraqi insurgent group Sunday purported to show last week's suicide attack at a U.S. base in Mosul, with a fireball rising from a white tent. The group claimed that the bomber slipped into the base through a hole in the fence during a guard change.

Gay Marriage Amendment Not Coming Soon By DAVID ESPO, AP Special Correspondent

WASHINGTON - Opponents of gay marriage concede victory will not be swift in their attempt to amend the U.S. Constitution, even after prevailing in all 11 states where the issue was on the ballot last month.

While the Nov. 2 election also increased the ranks of amendment supporters in both houses of Congress, the gains were relatively small.

"We're going to have to see additional court cases come down" supporting gay marriage before congressional sentiment shifts dramatically, predicted Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, who supports the amendment that failed in both houses of Congress this year.

Mark A. R. Kleiman surveys the wing-nut blogosphere and discovers that torture doesn't appear to offend anybody's 'values'....

...reading [the] commenters is enough to spoil your appetite for dinner. "We're not torturing anyone, and anyway torture doesn't hurt so much, and if torture is going on it must be unauthorized, and in any case the SOB's deserved it and aren't protected by international law." ..."and any way it's all the Democrats' fault because they hate Bush and America so much you can't believe anything they say, even when it's true." Naturally, there's the obligatory reference to fraternity hazing.

The Guardian Quiet, or I'll call democracy

Iraqi women were long the most liberated in the Middle East. Occupation has confined them to their homes

The US state department has launched a $10m "Iraqi women's democracy initiative" to train Iraqi women in the skills and practices of democratic life ahead of the forthcoming elections. ...The fact that the money will go mainly to organizations embedded with the US administration, such as the Independent Women's Forum (IWF) founded by Dick Cheney's wife Lynn, was, of course, not mentioned.

Talking Points Memo:

The president and the White House have now compared their build-up to the Iraq war with their push to phase out Social Security enough times, that it seems worth creating a detailed taxonomy of the Bush White House approach to major policy initiatives in order to predict their efforts over the next two years. This would suggest that we're now in the lying and fear-mongering phase of the campaign, which would be followed of course by a later phase in which a specific policy remedy is brought forward, nominally meant to address the fake problem. Read more...

CNN:

A French journalist held hostage in Iraq for four months says his captors wanted U.S. President George W. Bush re-elected because it would help promote their cause.
Speaking by telephone from Vichy, France on Friday, Malbrunot quoted his captors as saying Bush's re-election "would improve our ability to fight."

Speaking on " Late Edition," Jerry Falwell in talking about same sex marriage said:

"Why not polygamy, why just two, why not a dozen. Why not...what's wrong with bestiality?"

How does sex with animals enter into the discussion about gay marriage or civil unions? I know what they are doing, but these Judo-Christian moralists should look in the mirror sometime! He also cited "no evidence" to support stem cell research!

If that is his argument, then where's the evidence in Intelligent Design? Where's the scientific evidence Moses parted the Red Sea? It's laughable to watch these guys use science and lawyers when it suits them to make certain points, then espouse the power in faith to make others. I'm sure Tort reform will be a high priority for this lot, but how many lawyers do you think they have on staff?

So says republican David Dreier on Late Edition, in his promotion of Social Security reform:

Video

Dreier: African Americans are...would be the greatest beneficiaries of this as they would be able with a shortened life span, they would be able to pass this on....

Rangel: So we die earlier we should invest....

It's nice to see how republicans are looking out for African American's shortened life span.

KIEV, Ukraine - All three exit polls tracking Sunday's presidential election in Ukraine gave opposition candidate Viktor Yushchenko a commanding lead of at least 15 percent. read on

Dr Phil disguises the breakdown of the family as a moral values issue. Is that a hidden message to bring more religion into the family? He says that we are giving our children too much, and calls it child abuse. Materialism is child abuse?

Dr Phil: "I believe that overindulgence is one of the most insidious forms of child abuse known to man. You don't teach them how the world really works if you're overindulging them."

Video

On the issue of teen pregnancy, Russert and Dr. Phil seem to put all the blame on the girls and only a fleetingly mentions the role of teenage boys.

Tim: How do we get in the hearts and minds of those young girls, young babies having babies?

Dr. Phil: The reason that's important is I think we have to begin with these young girls in helping them to believe that they are capable of more...

Phil's answer is disingenuous because it doesn't cover the fact that sexual behavior is a natural instinct that is never addressed as such. Instead of talking about our " social masks and personal truths," young people make mistakes and often experiment with many things (like sex, alcohol and drugs) and his answer seems to say that young girls are having sex to get pregnant because they don't believe in themselves.

James Wolcott : I share Jeff Jarvis's incredulity at tuning into Meet the Press and seeing Tim Russert engaged in Vulcan mind-meld with Dr. Phil. What's next, Suzi Orman laying out Social Security privatization for us between teeth bleachings?

Social Security Issue Guide: Facts at a Glance