Burning hot hits  from The Heretik today (plus a few misses):

Time, time, time, look what's become of me . . . . out of time (and all out of Friedmans) in Iraq. What time is last call at The Green Zone Bar and Grille?

Too Little, Too Late, Sad Story du Jour: is anybody buying what the sellout Colin Powell is now offering?  Plus Dick du Jour.

Josef Conrad goes to Washington: "The heart of darkness is the president," the person said. "Nobody knows what he thinks, even the people who work for him."

How green was my concert?  Take the pledge.  Flat Earth blues. Sandman.

Bedtime stories: Will the nightmare ever end? Plus the story of Oedipus Dix? And spy vs spy? How about the spy who billed me? What happens when the children wake up before the rest of us?  Did somebody say impeachment?  What's it all about, Arlen ?

Send hot links to The Heretik at joe.ivory.mattingly AT gmail DOT com.

This is so unbelievably offensive, I got to wonder what it will take to get the FCC to come down on this radio station:

Colorado Media Matters:

Discussing the breakup of an alleged terrorist plot to attack U.S. soldiers at New Jersey's Fort Dix, Newsradio 850 KOA host "Gunny" Bob Newman said on his May 8 show that "every Muslim immigrant to America who holds a green card, a visa, or who is a naturalized citizen [should] be required by law to wear a GPS tracking bracelet at all times," and that the government should "bug their places of work and their residences" and monitor "[a]ll mosques and community centers." Newman added, "If they don't like the idea, or if they refuse, throw their asses out of this country."

Audio and contact names and links available on the CMM site. Considering that Eric Rudolph *, Timothy McVeigh and Chad Castagana are all right wing Christian white men, wouldn't you think Newman would advocate ankle bracelets on all wingnuts males?

*Corrected name

NY Times (reg. req'd.):

Government investigators said Monday that byproducts from pet food contaminated with wheat gluten imported from China were used in chicken feed on some farms in Indiana.

The latest revelation came as part of the investigation into imported rice protein concentrate and wheat gluten that have been found to contain melamine and melamine-related compounds. Pet food contaminated with melamine has killed at least 16 cats and dogs and sickened thousands of others.

The Agriculture Department and the Food and Drug Administration said that some 30 broiler poultry farms and eight breeder poultry farms in Indiana had received contaminated feed in early February and fed it to chickens within days of receiving it. All of those potentially affected chickens have since been processed.

The two agencies said they believed the likelihood of illness to people eating contaminated chicken was low because the contamination was most likely diluted. Without evidence of harm to humans, the agencies said they were not issuing recalls of any of the processed chicken products.

Why do I not feel comforted by the assurances from the federal agencies? At this point, I wouldn't be surprised to hear that Soylent Green is in the food.

BREAKING: Americans ate 3 million melamine-tainted chickens!

(Photo courtesy of British Army) CTV:

The head of the British army says he has personally decided Prince Harry will go to Iraq.

Gen. Sir Richard Dannatt told BBC News the decision will be kept under review, but says he hopes his statement will end media speculation on Harry's deployment.

The 22-year-old Prince's regiment, the Blues and Royals, is due to begin a six-month tour of duty in Iraq within weeks. British commanders had reportedly been reconsidering their decision to allow the prince to fight in Iraq.[..]

Meanwhile, the Guardian newspaper is reporting that Shiite militants have set up a special squad targeting Harry should he be posted to Iraq.

The British newspaper quoted a commander in the Mahdi Army -- the militia loyal to radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr -- as saying the group had informants inside British army bases who would tip them off about Harry's presence.

Normally, this is one of those quasi-celebrity stories that I could not care less about. But I think it's important to point out one thing: I don't know how the royal family feels about the occupation in Iraq, but it would have been no big thing for them to arrange for Harry to not be deployed. But they didn't.

So I put it out there to all those talking heads who are still cheerleading the war: The man third in line for the throne of England is willing to put his life on the line (with direct threats, I might add). When are we going to see the same sacrifice of those unwilling to question the President? When will Jenna and Barbara land in the Green Zone?

(Double shot of espresso via ASurroca.)

Double up on the caffeine this morning. The Sunday Talking Head listings are up and ready for reading.

Don't know about you, but it's an awful lot of Condi Rice to deal with first thing in the morning. I'm going to need way more coffee...although I'm sure hanging out in the Green Room with Jack Murtha will do wonders for her, too, today. Will Blitzer ask Adam Putnam about his comment that AG Gonzales should resign? That could make for a fun interview moment with the Representative from Howdy Doody.

Somehow, today seems like a good morning to go out for breakfast. How is everyone else doing this morning? Anything catching your eye in the news or on the blogs?

Don't look now, but there may be a little bit of spine showing. As John noted in this post, MoveOn.org has been organizing against giving Fox any legitimization for sponsoring the Nevada Democratic Party Presidential Debate. It's coming together really well.

First, PoliticsTV.com has declined Fox's offer to webcast the debate. PTV's CEO, Dan Manatt explains:

Mark Green at HuffPo:

Today my family formally purchases and takes over Air America Radio. Why? Because if progressive values were a stock, now is the time to buy.

That hasn't always been true, as the cycle of politics demonstrates. In recent decades, politics seems to have been governed by physics - for every action, there's an opposite and equal reaction.
William F. Buckley Jr. started The National Review in the 1950s to rebut what he saw as the dominance of liberalism in the academy and opinion journals like The Nation and The New Republic. From 1970-72, Public Citizen, Common Cause and the NRDC were all created in reaction to Nixon's depredations. Similarly, People For the American Way grew out of the rise of the Religious Right under Reagan in the mid-80s.
New progressive think tanks over the past 10 years, most recently and prominently the Center for American Progress, were created to counter AEI and Heritage. And, of course, the Huffington Post and Air America were born in reaction to the electronic propaganda of Drudge and Limbaugh et. al.

Air America was a large, smart idea to counter the near-monopoly on talk radio by the far (f)right. But like most start-ups, the business plan collided with reality. Six CEOs over its first three years - and various missteps and misspending - sent it into Chapter 11.
It's now ready to go from The Perils of Pauline to The Little Engine that Could.

War and Piece: Twice a day, the clock strikes 11...

hypocalypse: Rabid hate-monger and noted anti-Arab/Muslim bigot Charles Johnson of the toxic website Little Green Footballs is now apparently a Muslim scholar!  And this winger obviously OD'd on Kool-Aid, claiming IRAN is the instigator of the war in Iraq!

Bob Geiger: Editorial cartoon extravaganza!

Balkinization: Our government--including the once-great Justice Department--has lost its moral compass, to the disgrace of our country.

The Carpetbagger Report: St. John McCain update...

This Modern World: The threat to journalism.  If you are a fan of Tom Tomorrow cartoons and live in the New York area, see this.

This didn't even make the front page of the local paper. What War on Terror are we fighting? Um...Mainsteam media? Is it only important to cover if the terrorist in question has a "foreign" name?

Orcinus: (h/t Gregory)

Imagine, for a moment, what would have happened if a Muslim extremist with an apparent hatred of the American government had been apprehended in, say, Tennessee, and charged with plotting to blow up Congress with a briefcase bomb.

Do you suppose that the case would then be relegated to the back pages of the local papers? Do you suppose it would go unmentioned by the 101st Keyboard Kommandos in their ever-vigilant search for proof that the War on Terror is right here in our midst?

Of course not. You can be certain Fox News would have splashed the case across its broadcasts, and Michelle Malkin and Little Green Footballs would have been all over it.

Now consider the case of Demetrius "Van" Crocker, who just happens to be a white right-wing extremist:

Demetrius "Van" Crocker of McKenzie, convicted in April of attempting to obtain a chemical weapon and possession of stolen explosives, was sentenced to 30 years in prison Tuesday by U.S. District Judge James Todd in Jackson.

Crocker, who told undercover FBI agents of his desire to explode a briefcase bomb while Congress was in session, was found guilty by a jury in about 90 minutes in April.

The 40-year-old farmhand and father of two was convicted of accepting what he thought were ingredients to make Sarin nerve gas and a block of C-4 explosive from undercover agents in October 2004.

Read on...

CorrenteWire: Better old people should die than vote Democratic

The Blue State: Military Times newspapers to call for Rumsfeld's resignation

The Old Hippie's Groovy Blog: Some useful tips for citizens who are understandably paranoid about our broken election system

Common Dreams: What happens to a public servant in Iraq who uncovers bribery and conspiracy, exposes disastrously poor construction done by BU$HCO cronies, and discovers the military failed to keep track of thousands of weapons shipped to Iraqi security forces? He gets fired!

Nuestra Voice: "Green card marines"--Latino immigrants fighting in Iraq but without green cards

OFF THE BEATEN PATH: NightBird'sFountain…Monkeyfister...Whippersnapp...Playful Painter