This is such bullshit. HarperCollins photoshopped the cigarette out of the Clement Hurd's hand in the "about the illustrator" picture in the 50th anniversary edition of the children's book Goodnight Moon, Worse still they bowdlerized an illustration by erasing an ashtray:

In the great green room, there is a telephone, and a red balloon, but no ashtray. "Goodnight Moon," the children's classic by Margaret Wise Brown, has gone smoke free.

In a newly revised edition of the book, which has lulled children to sleep for nearly 60 years, the publisher, HarperCollins, has digitally altered the photograph of Clement Hurd, the illustrator, to remove a cigarette from his hand. [NYT permalnk]

Don't smoke, kids. You might end up frozen in an incomprehensible pose for posterity.

--Lindsay Beyerstein, Majikthise

BY THEIR WORKS, YE SHALL KNOW THEM

Change the channel. Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt's advice to Iraqis who see TV images of innocent civilians killed by coalition troops

I wish I could be my usual smartass self, but when I read things like this and this, I just want to cry - or scream. Juan Cole:

Az-Zaman reports that telephone calls with residents of Mosul reveal that the guerrillas who took control of the city's streets the day before yesterday have burned all the police stations in the city and have released from jails all the criminals that had been incarcerated in them. In the center of Mosul, eyewitnesses said, the offices of government service agencies and economic targets had been set ablaze. A number of shops were attacked and/or looted.

Armed men roamed the streets and manned checkpoints between city quarters. Mosque preachers called on Mosul residents to flood into the streets to protect their quarters and government offices and shops. The main streets seemed deserted. American troops had withdrawn from the center of the city, but maintained control of bridges.

All signs of Iraqi national guardsmen and police had disappeared. The police chief of Ninevah province resigned (other reports say he was fired by the Allawi government).

US military spokesmen denied that guerrillas were in control of the city, and maintained that US troops and Iraqi national guardsmen continued to advance into it. US warplanes repeatedly bombed suspected safe houses of the guerrillas. Guerrillas had killed one American serviceman in Mosul on Thursday.

MF

Kerry Calls Bush to Concede Election

BOSTON (Reuters) - Democratic challenger John Kerry (news - web sites) telephoned President Bush (news - web sites) on Wednesday and conceded the White House election, campaign spokeswoman Stephanie Cutter said. Kerry is expected to make a statement at 1 p.m. EST and an administration official said Bush would have a statement at 3 p.m.

And were wondering why:

Millions of people across the Middle East and Asia have lost access to the internet after two undersea cables in the Mediterranean suffered severe damage.

Huge numbers in Egypt and India were left struggling to get online as a result of the outage, when the major internet pipeline between Egypt and Italy was cut.

Internet Service Providers (ISPs) throughout the region, including those in United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, also reported problems. International telephone calls, which have also been affected, are being rerouted to work around the problem.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Federal Communications Commission (news - web sites) on Tuesday sought to fine 169 Fox television stations a total of $1.18 million for violating decency standards when they aired an episode of "Married by America."

The FCC (news - web sites) said it proposed fining the stations $7,000 each for airing in April 2003 an episode of the matchmaking reality program that showed sexually explicit and graphic scenes at a time when children were likely to be watching.

The agency voted 5-0 in favor of fining the stations after receiving 159 complaints. Not all Fox affiliates aired the episode.

Email Sinclair Broadcasting Group and urge them not to broadcast the anti-Kerry attack film Stolen Honor: Wounds That Never Heal between now and the Nov. 2 presidential election

David D. Smith
President and Chief Executive Officer
E-mail: comments@sbgi.net

Contact your local Sinclair station

Sinclair Broadcast Group, Inc.
10706 Beaver Dam Road
Hunt Valley, Maryland 21030
410-568-1500 (Main Telephone)
410-568-1533 (Main Fax)

Long-time readers know that I take a certain amount of pleasure in mocking Florida, where I was born and raised. There’s just something … unique about it.

Take, for example, a Tampa-area school firing a substitute teacher for doing a magic trick for his students.

The telephone call that spelled the end of Jim Piculas’ career as a substitute teacher in Pasco County came on a January day about a week after he performed the disappearing-toothpick trick for a group of rapt middle school students.

Pat Sinclair, who oversees substitute teachers in the Pasco County School District, was on the phone. She told Piculas there had been a complaint about his performance at Rushe Middle School in Land O’ Lakes.

He asked what she meant. “She said, ‘You’ve been accused of wizardry,’” Piculas said.

He said the statement seemed bizarre to him, like something out of Harry Potter.

Piculas said he replied, “I have no idea what you’re talking about.” He said he also told Sinclair, “It’s not black magic. It’s a toothpick.”

Oh sure, it’s a toothpick today. But what about tomorrow? What will we tell parents when a substitute teacher starts trying to do spells? Or shows kids pictures of Willow from “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”? Or accidentally turns someone into a newt? Hmm?

As Piculas — who, as far as I know, is not a warlock — explained it, he got a call after doing his trick from the head of supervisor of substitute teachers. “He says, ‘Jim, we have a huge issue, you can’t take any more assignments you need to come in right away,’” Piculas said.

The disappearing tooth pick was, apparently, the “huge issue,” and led to the disappearing job.

Capital Eye: Desperate to get of the hook for their serial lawlessness, the telephone utility industry spent at least $31.4 million lobbying in 2007.

Needlenose: What if they built a "Rule of Law Complex" and nobody came?

BOT! The blood thinning drug Heparin has been recalled due to contamination. FDA inspectors last week found quality-control problems at the Chinese factory, a facility the agency had never before inspected - in violation of its own rules.

Bad Astronomy: Possible McCain running mate

MyDD: Speak for yourself.

HOLY CRAP: And this is why it's called "Holy Crap"...Christian Candidate Quiz Bowl...Prayer Brawl...More Bush Family support of Rev. Moon...Rediscovering or revising Islam?...Fringe-dwelling fundie threatens Obama...Critics question White House's Faith-Based report....Jefferson Bible...This is good news...Buckley's Big Mistake...The man McCain is ‘very proud' to be associated with...The Bible can mean anything you want...Darwin strikes again!

At his presser today President Bush was asked by CNN's Ed Henry whether he had mentioned the Saudi rape case at all during conversations with King Abdullah in the past few weeks.

Download | play Download | play

Bush begins his answer with a supposedly heartfelt 'what if it was my daughter' explanation but then when pressed further says that he doesn't remember whether he ever brought the subject up or not but insists the Saudi King “knows our position loud and clear.”

Henry: On another issue of credibility in the Mid East -- At the Annapolis Summit you used your influence to get Saudi Arabia to the table but I wonder whether now you will use you influence to do something about the Saudi rape case that has gotten so much international attention? What goes through your mind when you hear about a 19 year old Saudi woman getting gang raped by seven men and basically a Saudi court blames the victim and sentences her to 200 lashes? You spoke to King Abdullah by telephone in the last couple of weeks. Did you press him on this case? If so what did you say and if not, are you giving him a pass?"

Bush: My first thoughts were these. What happens if this happened to my daughter? How would I react? And I would have been -- I would have been very emotional, of course. I’d have been angry at those who committed the crime, and I would be angry at the state that didn’t support the victim, and our opinions were expressed by Dana Perino from the podium.

Henry: Did you press King Abdullah about it personally?

Bush: I talked to King Abdullah about the Middle eastern peace. I don't remember if that subject came up.

Henry: If it was that important to you why wouldn't you at that level bring it directly up to King Abdullah?

Bush: There's plenty of time. He knows our position loud and clear.

Even after considering 'what if' the victim was his own daughter, apparently Bush decided it really wasn't important enough to even bring up after all.

Via TPM:

The FBI, working with an Alaska oil contractor, secretly taped telephone calls with Sen. Ted Stevens as part of a public corruption sting, according to people close to the investigation.

The secret recordings suggest the Justice Department was eyeing Stevens long before June, when the Republican senator first publicly acknowledged he was under scrutiny. At that time, it appeared Stevens was a new focus in a case that had already ensnared several state lawmakers.

The recorded calls between Stevens and businessman Bill Allen were confirmed by two people close to the case who spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is still under way. They declined to say how many calls were recorded or what was said.

Allen, a wealthy businessman and Stevens' political patron, agreed to the taping last year after authorities confronted him with evidence he had bribed Alaska lawmakers. He pleaded guilty to bribery and is a key witness against Alaska legislators. He also has told prosecutors he paid his employees to renovate the senator's house. Read more...

I wonder how Stevens feels about wiretapping now...

CREW has Stevens on the list of Most Corrupt Politicians, how much longer does he have before he is stripped of his seats or is forced to retire?

How positively ... Rovian:

Matt Ortega:

Republicans battling for the party's nomination in a South Carolina State House primary stooped to unbelievable lows, even for the GOP.

Sources are telling FITSNews that a black woman calling herself "Shaniqua" has placed telephone calls to several Republican voters in Beaufort County urging them to vote for Shannon Erickson in today's GOP State House runoff election. According to individuals who have received them, the calls say, "My name is Shaniqua, and I be voting' for Shannon Erickson 'cause she gonna give me all the money I need sos I don't hafta work." Another phone caller, alleging to be Erickson herself, tells voters that she will "spend money like a drunken sailor" if elected. [...]

The phoney phone calls have some Beaufort insiders pointing fingers at [primary opponent, Randy] Bates' political consultant, Rod Shealy, particularly given their overtly racial overtones. Shealy pled guilty to election fraud years ago after hiring an unemployed black fisherman to run against his sister in an effort to frighten white voters.

Rod Shealy, Jr., who is managing Bates' campaign, told FITSNews, "our campaign knows nothing about this, period."

"Any campaign worth its salt would be much smarter than to send out something that transparent," Shealy said.

Luckily, the utterly transparent push polling didn't have the intended effect. Shannon Erickson won the runoff yesterday.