Bill Gertz And The Sword Of Darkness Where in Washington, D.C. is Sun Myung Moon? National security reporter Bill Gertz has been described by employer Reverend Moon as an agent of prophecy.

Bill Gertz, Washington Times reporter and devout member of the Unification Church, has recently drawn an awful lot of attention for stories no one but the Times will print: stories about Chechen terrorists sneaking across the Rio Grande, Russians pilfering the missing Iraqi explosives, and other marvels. Says Joshua Marshall: "You can't make this stuff up. Or, I guess, actually you can."

Earthrise over the Moon first filmed 41 years ago this week.

Open thread below.

More Buffy:

"You see, the werewolf is such an . . . extreme representation of our inborn animalistic traits that it emerges for three consecutive nights -- the full moon and the 2 nights surrounding it."
"Quite the party animal."
"Quite. . . It acts on pure instinct. No conscience. Predatory and aggressive."
"In other words, a typical male."
"On behalf of my gender -- hey!"
"Yes, let's not jump to conclusions."
"I didn't jump. I took a tiny step and there conclusions were." -- Giles, Willow, Buffy and Xander

HorsesAss: French aerospace enthusiast, John McCain.

Daily Howler: During the 2004 Republican convention in New York, a certain saint threw himself a birthday bash. Check out the guest list.

Beat the Press: Can't the media find any economists who don't think that handing hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars to the big banks and the incredibly rich people who own and manage them is a good idea?

Lance Mannion: The war that will never be lost as long as we stay there until the sun dies.

HOLY CRAP: Bad Moon Rising: A true story of Washington gone mad...Unless he's going to actually govern, Jesus is not relevant to the presidential race, but religious pandering has always worked...Souled Out...Theocracy Rejected...Southern Baptist Ethics...Interfaith Alliance Media Roundup...Randy Forbes and Military Chaplains...Seven sensationalist sins...Sam Harris on religion and modernity...Pot pourri

Technology Review: John Hockenberry on "what I learned about network television at Dateline NBC." A long but important story for understanding the mindset of those in control of old media (h/t Make Them Accountable)

Halfway There: Once upon a time, in 1960...

The Largest Minority: British satirists John Bird and John Fortune performed this depressingly accurate sketch on how the market works

Daily Kos: The following exchange was heard between two Republicans outside of Big Red's Beef and More Beef Restaurant in Des Moines...

endless simmer: This food blog started a presidential endorsement process to make sure their readers know who the best candidate for eating is.

HOLY CRAP: Holy Iowa!...Promise Keepers on steroids...Domestic religious terrorism...Is Huckabee going to Rock & Roll Hell?...World-O-Crap ...The Pope will wage war on Satan in 2008...12-year-old Georgia Clyde thought she won a Deseret Morning News essay contest but because she's not a Mormon, the paper said fuhgedaboudit...John Gorenfeld's book on Sun Myung Moon will be available in March of 2008..."Rapture Ready" Jesus' General is disappointed with the way 2007 turned out

Gotta love those Aussies...Mass mooning of Bush/APEC at 3:00 this afternoon. From Bums For Bush (not exactly safe for work)

Bush is coming to Sydney. Thousands of police, total CBD lockdown, draconian new laws to stifle all protest. Just so nothing disturbs Howard's moment of glory.

APEC's agenda is more free-market madness, more nuclear power, more warmongers deciding how best to [common expletive] the world over.

Is this the future we want? Let's tell Bush what we really think about his visit. Only 4000 cheeks are needed to make the biggest moon in history - a world record Australia can really be proud of.

Rock Strongo at DKos has a diary from a week old story, but it's a revealing peek into the damage caused by the right wing haters in this country.

Download | play -WMP Download | play -QT

Reuters:

When radio host Jerry Klein suggested that all Muslims in the United States should be identified with a crescent-shape tattoo or a distinctive arm band, the phone lines jammed instantly.

Another said that tattoos, armbands and other identifying markers such as crescent marks on driver's licenses, passports and birth certificates did not go far enough. "What good is identifying them?" he asked. "You have to set up encampments like during World War Two with the Japanese and Germans."

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Where or where will our beloved Tony Blankley end up?

The Nation:

"A nasty succession battle is now heating up at the paper, punctuated by allegations of racism, sexism and unprofessional conduct, that has implications far beyond its fractious newsroom. According to several reliable inside sources, Preston Moon, the youngest son of Korean Unification Church leader and Times financier Sun Myung Moon, has initiated a search committee to find a replacement for editor in chief Wesley Pruden--a replacement who is not Pruden's handpicked successor, managing editor Francis Coombs. Preston Moon wants to wrest control of the paper from Pruden and Coombs, according to a Times senior staffer, in order to shift the paper away from their brand of conservatism, which is characterized by extreme racial animus and connections to nativist and neo-Confederate organizations. A Harvard MBA, Preston Moon is said to be seeking to install an editorial regime with more widely palatable politics...."

Archibald has a lot more...

The Osterley Times: Torture in Iraq is worse than under Saddam. But then, torture is now officially an American 'value'...according to the Good Germans of the Right

Talk To Action: Blogging from the "2006 Value voters summit"...and here's some truly amazing Holy Crap: imagine politicians, right-wing Christian leaders and President George H.W. Bush all convened at a shadowy event hosted by Pat Boone in honor of Reverend Sun Myung Moon

Barrelhouse: A book George Allen would love! I'm not sure what my favorite part is: when the brown people take over the nice white family's entire house, or when the brown man is described as an evil murderer and "a follower of Darwinism."

Boregasm: Blogger Hart Williams spent two-and-a-half months writing this series on Howard Rich and his efforts to take the "local" out of local ballot initiatives and create them from afar. Williams was interviewed last night on the PBS show, NOW...and go listen to FAIR founder, Jeff Cohen on his adventures inside the belly of the corporate media beast while working at Fox, MSNBC, and CNN.

OFF THE BEATEN PATH: Intrepid Liberal Journal...Incongruous...The Arabist..
...MoxieGrrrl

Baghdad Burning: Slouching toward chaos...

Dispatches from the Culture Wars: Warren Moon was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame yeaterday. Coming out of U. of Washington in 1978, the All American quarterback was told that no NFL franchise would draft him as a quarterback...because he was black. That was a mere 18 years ago.

A Tiny Revolution: Interested in knowing who some of the experts are that the White Houseconsults when shaping foreign? This may give you some insight...and scare the be-jeebus out of ya...

The Left Coaster: Oil gougers enjoy record profits but wont maintain their supply lines

Pandagon: The founder of 'Girls Gone Wild" assaulted an LA Times reporter, then claimed she had a crush on him. Surprised?

Happy birthday to blogenlust.