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Credit: huffingtonpost

It's Newt's night, huh? No place to go but up? They've all been front runner - it's his turn. Thrice married and ethically challenged? Keeper!

Open thread now...

(Let's see if I can get this one right.)

Guess who TheMost Influential Man in the World is, according toEsquire:

The magazine highlights Clinton'saccomplishments in its December issue, which goes on newsstands onThursday, profiling the world's "Best and Brightest" men andwomen.

Via NoCapital.

Avedon

This from Mr. Gilliard

via Driftglass from Steve: It’s not true that the Conservatives I know don’t give a damn so much as they are terrified that they were wrong. Deeply, primally terrified. Their whole psychological infrastructure is cobbled together out of half-baked conservative bumper-sticker ideology, gun lust, socially illiterate hatred of “welfare cheats” and other largely fictional or apocryphal lazy people (read: niggers and other swarthy folk) who want to leech off of them while they work harder and harder for less and less.

Despite a lot of bluster about Freedom and Individuality they are, at heart, happiest when they are conforming to the wishes of the Strong Man; when they know exactly their place in the hierarchy...read on

Blessed are the sneaky bastards TBogg

Sometime back we referred to Mel Gibson's theological snuff film as Crouching Jesus, Hidden Agenda. Now reader Ed (no, not that Ed, the other one) provides us with a link where handy tips are provided for slipping Jesus through the eye of a needle cracks:

If you are worried that your local schools are teaching children that religion has no place in the study of biology, please consider donating biology-related books, posters, CDs, and DVDs with religious content to your school. These materials can be given to public libraries, too, and even directly to science teachers who can keep them in the classroom as convenient reference sources. Students benefit greatly from being exposed to alternatives to the theory of evolution, which is the bias of most textbooks used these days.

These donations are completely legal, and provide a very good way to provide balance in the school without formally challenging the agenda of the mainstream curriculum.

[...]

"These donations can also be tax deductible, but are best made anonymously so that a connection is not easily made to the religious affiliations of the donor. Purchases made at Amazon.com can be sent directly to the school's librarian." (my emphasis)

Oh. And if you want to have some fun, there's a contest to rename Intelligent Design. Why? Here's why:

As you know, lately we have enjoyed increasing success in getting religious explanations of life reintroduced into public school curricula, and we believe our strategy of "repackaging" every 10 years has been a critical contributor to this success. In particular, it has allowed our members to appear more "fair and balanced" at school board meetings.

Because appearing to be "fair and balanced" is much more important than actually being "fair and balanced".

The Whole Truth Matthew Yglesias

Hannah Allam's first-person account of what it's been like covering Iraq for Knight-Ridder as the situation deteriorates is fascinating. I wish news organizations would let more of their foreign correspondents do this sort of writing along with the more conventional hard news pieces they turn out. Not only is it interesting in and of itself, but these kind of accounts make it easier for you to understand the more traditional kind of reporting that gets done by giving you some context in which to place the work and the limitations circumstances place on reporters' ability to get information.

C&L has obtained a document that outlines an incident against two Triple Canopy employees:

"Two employees of a PDS Team from Triple Canopy were under investigation for murdering two Iraq truck drivers. When the employees were questioned on the Iraq side of the Jordanian border, they said that they had encountered no problems. The customs officer inquired why there were one hundred 5.56 rounds found at the site of a reported incident where two Iraq drivers were found dead. The document says that the two were released after 9 hours. Read the rest of the document here."

The report is a scathing account of the episode-and of one of the men involved. The question needs to be asked now more than ever since the release of the Aegis-UK video. Is this event more common place than the exception with civilian contractors? I'll have more as new information comes in...

Triple Canopy had their own tragedy on Sept. 7th, 2005, when four of their employees were killed in Basra.

(Update): Booman Tribune has some more on the story...

...to vote! White lace and promises...

There are a bunch of votes still left to take in the Senate. How many, you ask?

Ezra Klein knows:

Louisville, Ky.: Ezra, can you shed some light on the process involved in moving the Health-Care bill through the Senate? I've heard bits and pieces about number of votes required, but would like some clarification about: voting to block filibuster in the Senate, taking the bill back to a joint Senate-House conference, then back to the floor for final vote. Would you expand on this? Thanks.

Ezra Klein: Sure. Next move is the Finance Committee vote on Tuesday: that requires a bare majority of the committee (I think that means 11 votes, but that's just memory). Then Reid and the Democratic leadership blend the HELP and Finance bills into one bill. That doesn't require any votes. Then the bill comes to the floor. It'll need 60 votes against a filibuster, and 51 votes in favor of the legislation.

Then we have to deal with the House bills. Do you have a headache? People are becoming very irritable in America. Haven't you noticed? The health-care debate and the economic situation is really, really making life miserable for most of America.

A kiss for luck and we're on our way...

Before the rising sun we fly...

So many roads to choose...

We start out walking and learn to run...

Aravosis at AmericaBlog noticed this one...I guess that McCain should thank his lucky stars that most GOP are low info voters, so hopefully not many of them picked up on this:

This, two weeks after he said that Spain was in Latin America. Here's the video from McCain's economic forum that just took place today - Ben Smith has the transcript:

McCain, talking about energy policy, stresses the importance of "ensuring that America is secure, and not dependent on oil from people like Hugo Chavez or other parts of the Middle East which is, as we know, could be destabilized under certain sets of circumstances."

Can we just get this guy a map or a little mini-globe that some staffer can keep handy?

I had conversations with people today that said, "Why didn't she say something the first time he did that?" I replied - if I cried sexual harassment every time a man said something that could even be REMOTELY Construed as a sexual comment - I would still be screaming. I know from Personal experience - most of the time - if it is only once or twice - you just kinda roll your eyes and hope it goes away- as a mater of fact... you are so taken off guard - you can't even respond - and then when it is your BOSS!! Ugh!! You are really between a rock and a hard place( no pun intended) -When I was 16 - my boss asked me to come to the back office - he closed the door and started to kiss me - I pulled away and told my mother - she said she didn't know what to do(1968). Because of my refusing his advances - I got fired - at least that is why I think I was fired - I was a good worker - Hey - just a month ago -some dufus in the middle of a business call asked me if he could come over and "rub my feet" - It is more rampant than people actually know!!