Fables of the reconstruction

August Health Care Offensive

Chris Good at Ambinder's place:

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee will put the heat on some House Republicans this August with a month-long health care campaign waged against the lawmakers on its 25-member target list ... .

All 25 districts will get volunteer or automated calls on President Obama's health care initiative, volunteer calls into talk radio shows, letter writing drives, and drives for letters to the editor and op-eds in local papers; there will also be district-specific tele-town-halls, an online petition campaign, emails, and a fact-checking initiative on GOP members statements on health care. Democratic reforms haven't seen any GOP support in the House to speak of, and, if Republicans won't back Obama's plan, the DCCC seems determined to hammer their more vulnerable members for it.

Great news. Leadership needs to lean on the so-called moderate Dems, and this will help with vulnerable Republicans.

Mad Bitch Beer

In a non-insane world, these people would lose their jobs immediately:

In a bit about which beers would go to which political players if invited to the White House, we heard a variety of rather predictable jokes. David Vitter could enjoy "a nice cold Happy Ending." Dennis Kucinich would have a bottle of "Insanely Bad Elf." The French delegation could be served "Frosty Frog." You get the idea.

At the 2:35 mark, Milbank tells the viewer, "And we won't tell you who's getting a bottle of Mad Bitch." At that point, a photo of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton appears briefly on screen.

Cash for Clunkers

The Car Allowance Rebate System (CARS), better known as "Cash for Clunkers" has been wildly successful. The $850 million budgeted for the program to last through November ran out in one week. That means over 200,000 people raced into their new car dealership and bought new, fuel-efficient cars. There have been some implementation problems, but the government is working on them. And Congress has now approved an additional $2 billion which hopefully will last longer now that the initial pent-up demand has been released.

As stimulus, sounds great, right? Not if you're a conservative:

The Cash for Clunkers program is pretty simple. The government pays buyers up to $4,500 to trade in an old car to buy a new, more fuel-efficient car. There was never any doubt it would work in the sense that people with old cars would take the cash. If you pay college kids to drink beer, you’re likely to be successful increasing beer sales. The issue in both cases would be whether the program was wise. The answer in both cases is pretty obvious.

Go to their link if you care to, but if not let me summarize: (1) Buying a new, fuel-efficient car is bad for the environment, and (2) the effect of the program will be to make cars more expensive and hurt the economy.

No, I am not making that up.

And even when someone disagrees with their lunacy on one point, they're cited as support for another:

One car salesman, Andy Beloff, said, “People are loving it. It’s wonderful. It’s a great stimulus package.” But when asked if the government was running the program well, Beloff said, “No. No.”

So it's wonderful and not well-run. Gotcha. 

The point is simple: Conservative ideology depends on maintaining the belief against all evidence that markets function perfectly and the government can't do anything right. It terrifies them that a program might be popular, so they have to spin the popularity as a problem and lie about the results. Cash for Clunkers is a hugely successful program that is doing what it's designed to do. It's a commonsense, progressive solution that helps both the economy and the environment.

Just Like How They Believed the Hijackers Were Iraqi

Fifty-eight percent of Republicans either do not believe Obama is an American citizen or are not sure. This is compared to seven percent of Democrats (wonder who they voted for) and seventeen percent of independents. The overwhelming majority of the Republican birthers are in the South.

Hmm, southern white conservatives don't believe the first black President is legitimate. I am so surprised.

When There is a National Conversation on Race, Black People Get it in the Neck

So, right now, the President of the United States, who happens to be half black, and the preeminent African-American scholar, who also happens to be half black, are sitting down for a beer with a police sergeant. The police officer is the person who will decide how the meeting goes, and the tenor of the resulting media coverage, because he is white, and that gives him the privilege of saying whether the black President and professor were sufficiently deferential and respectful of the authority inherent in the color of his skin.

I hope I am wrong, but I don't think this is going to end well.

Triple Word Score

So, I was playing Scrabble with a friend the other night when she put down the word "ago" in a place that opened up the corner spot to me. I added a D to make "dago" and "dey" in the other direction: 35 points. She challenged, not the somewhat obscure "dey", but "dago" because she knew something I didn't: Sure enough, "dago" is not in the official Scrabble dictionary.

There must be some mistake, I thought. "Dago" is a word, it's not new slang, it has been around for a long time, it's not a proper noun. Turns out that in the 90s Scrabble removed a number of words that are offensive or considered offensive from its dictionary, including "dago". I'm not surprised there are some people (there always are) of a certain age who find such things scandalous. What shocked me was that offensive words were removed from a game the point of which was your knowledge of all the words in English.

Apparently, this is how it happened:

While reading [the Official Scrabble Players Dictionary 2nd. Ed.], Judith Grad found several words she considered to be offensive, including "jew", listed as a verb with the definition "To bargain with - an offensive term". Her initial letters to Merriam-Webster and Milton Bradley requesting removal of the words resulted in politely negative responses. Grad wrote to the National Council of Jewish Women, who began a letter-writing campaign in support of her cause. Publicity in Jewish media led to the Anti-Defamation League writing to Hasbro chairman Alan Hassenfeld, who announced that a third edition would be published with the "offensive" words removed.

How did I miss this cultural landmark? Well, most of my good friends are poor but well-educated. When playing Scrabble in the past, we would use whatever dictionary was handy, usually a well-worn unabridged single volume thing. All of the words are in there, even the naughty ones. But now with the magic of the internet, the official dictionary is online, so we were using it this time.

I wondered which forbidden words were on the list and which weren't. It turns out, there is a lot for me to learn when it comes to offending people. I didn't know a good percentage of these terms. I would have expected all of Carlin's Seven Dirty Words to be on there, but of course "tits" has a perfectly innocuous meaning, so that stays in. If "jew" is out, so are the other antisemitic slurs (kike, hebe, yid, sheenie - that one was new on me), as well as their counterparts (goy, shiksa). I also learned "shegetz", which makes my world so much culturally richer. "Popish" is on there, which conjures up images of 19th-Century Know-Nothing riots. And "jesuitic"? Really, that's an insult?

On race and national origin, we've mainly got you covered. So covered, in fact, that I now know a lot more racial slurs than I did before. Ofay and buckra sound like ingredients on a French bistro menu, but in fact they are both disparaging terms for white person. (I shit you not - of course, "shit" is also on the list, so I really shit you not when Scrabbling.) Nigger, wop, mick, tomming, whitie, darkie, gringo, dago, spic, jigaboo, redskin, honkey, squaw, wetback, of course. "Haole" I only knew because of reading about Hawaii when Obama started his campaign. "Abo" I knew they say in Australia, but I didn't think it was a slur. "Chink" didn't make it, understandably given it's commonly used in an inoffensive way, but where is "gook"? "Coloreds" but not colored is on the list, although the plural also refers to laundry. (Too slangy, I guess.)  Did you know "hunkie" is a disparaging term for a person of Slavic or Hungarian descent? Now you do! I was appalled that "greaser" isn't on there, though; I guess they're thinking it's "a person or thing that greases" instead of a Mexican. I was also distressed to see that neither "towelhead" nor "raghead" made the list - perhaps they're too new. "Haji" is clearly too new in its insulting sense, but I look forward to seeing it on the list as it gets updated. But it turns out that "nitchie" is chiefly Canadian slang for a Native American person. Who knew? And I was pleased as a student of history that "pommy" was on the list - I am sure there are some elderly British immigrants who remember when it was last used in conversation. The list also includes "skimo", but I can't find any reference to it online or in any other dictionary - perhaps it's an insult from another planet?

I was a bit let down on sexual orientation insults. Fag and faggot aren't on the list, I guess because they have innocent meanings, but who ever uses them in those senses? "Faggotry" is on there, which makes my day. Dyke is not on the list, being an acceptable alternative form of the word meaning levee, but "dykey" is. Lesbo isn't on there, but "lez" and "lezzy" are. "Poofs" and "nancy" made it, which is sweet - I love anachronisms. And where are "homo" and "het"?

I was surprised to find cultural and political insults on the list, although I guess "redneck" and "fatso" were predictable if it had ever occurred to me to give this topic more than five seconds' thought. "Comsymp", though, th' fuck?

Other, more serious players reacted the way I did:

The news was generally not well received by members of the National Scrabble Association, which was not consulted in the decision. After receiving mostly negative feedback from players, including threats to boycott events, NSA president John D. Williams announced a compromise, the result of which was the publication of the unexpurgated Official Tournament and Club Word List.

This comprehensive list is such a well-guarded secret it retails for about $500. Used. For a game that involves knowing things, this doesn't seem like the optimal result.

This situation made me think of this Penny Arcade comic, which is based on the fact that Xbox Live not only bans dirty words, but preemptively bans words that are likely to become dirty:

A year ago, we saw a quiz thing that asked you to determine which of four odd phrases were euphemisms for sexual acts. By the time we had discovered this question, every item on the list had developed a carnal reputation. That is to say, every item. We are fast approaching a point where ordering a sandwich at a deli will land you in prison. While I'm intrigued by the dystopian undertones of this scenario, I don't necessarily want to live under its strictures, not least of which because I tend to frequent delis.

Also, I'm pretty sure that "Dystopian Undertones" is guttermouth for the male testes. Make a note.

Anyhoo, now that I have studied the list, this dago is ready to compete no matter which dictionary we use.

Also, ham doctor.

If Speaking English Was Good Enough for Jesus, It's Good Enough for Me

"We Get It"

Jason330 at Delaware Liberal:

If you want to comment here, do me a favor and think about what you are about to type. There is no need to repeat basic GOP talking points. For example, don’t tell us that Bill Clinton got a blow job and that Clinton’s infidelity exculpates every Republican adulterer forever. We know. We get it.

If your only point is that [you] don’t like unions or jews, we get it. If you are about to say that everything having to do with gays is a slippery slope that will lead to homosexual indoctrination classes in elementary schools [sic]. Don’t bother. We get it.

There is no need to comment here if you think Obama is not going to be popular in the future and that through the reflexive property of political algebra that conservatism is awesome. We get it.

If you are tempted to comment here that you want to keep your guns in spite of the fact that nobody wants your guns. There is no need. We get it. If you think every tax dollar not spent on the military or paving the street in front of your house is sickeningly wasted, you probably don’t need to note that in the comments section. We get it.

You feel strongly about all of that nutty shit. We get it. If your comment boils down to ticking off some wingnut bullshit that does not address the point of the post or offer some actual and original insights into your thoughts, aspirations or fears – don’t bother.

Thanks.

Funny and helpful.

Anti-Choice Terrorist Claims Membership in Operation Rescue, Justification for Killing

No big shock:

In a phone interview Friday, Roeder said he was upset at the president of Operation Rescue, Troy Newman, who had condemned the killing and said his organization had nothing to do with Roeder.

“He said that I never was a member and I never contributed any money,” Roeder said. “Well, my gosh, I’ve got probably a thousand dollars worth of receipts, at least, from the money I’ve donated to him.”

Roeder said he wrote Newman a letter from jail.

“I told him, ‘You better get your story straight because my lawyer said it’d be good for me to show that I was supporting a pro-life organization.’ ”

On the morality of killing Dr. Tiller:

•Justifiable homicide

Roeder said since about 1992 he considered killing abortion doctors an act of justifiable homicide.

He praised Paul Hill, who killed an abortion doctor and his bodyguard in Pensacola, Fla., in 1994, and said he agreed “100 percent with him.” Hill was executed by the state of Florida in 2003.

Roeder said that “a lot of people have problems with violence in general,” but in most cases, a person who prevents a killing is considered a hero.

“When a policeman shoots somebody on the street, for example, and stops somebody from taking the life of innocent people, that’s violence, and everybody’s fine with that,” he said.

He said after he got involved in the abortion issue, “I would counsel with many people, get their viewpoints.” Only 1 percent or 2 percent of those he talked to actually agreed with him regarding the killing of abortion doctors, he said.

Roeder is apparently receiving fan mail from across the country, praising him for his Godly actions, so I fear there are more like him out there who now have another role model to emulate.

The War to Keep Women Second-Class Citizens

Re the terrorist assassination of Dr. George Tiller:

Abortion opponents are bracing for a drop in support, especially from those in the murky middle ground of the debate. Worse yet, after years of persuading supporters to work within the law, they say they have already lost credibility among the most ardent abortion opponents who cannot help pointing out that one gunman achieved what all their protests and prayers could not.

“The credit is going to go to him,” Mark S. Gietzen, chairman of the Kansas Coalition for Life, said of Mr. Roeder. “There are people who are agreeing with him.”

No shit, Sherlock. You encouraged Roeder and the other freaks like him to kill abortion clinic workers. When they do, then you officially disclaim responsibility while your followers gloat but it's the shooter who gets all the glory. So you're conflicted.

Such lovely people:

Every vendor who showed up at the clinic was warned that if they continued to do business with Dr. Tiller they would be boycotted. Those who ignored the threat were listed on anti-abortion Web sites. “We had nobody in town that would deliver pizza,” said an employee, Linda Joslin.

Protesters confronted his employees, demanding that they quit. If they refused, activists passed out fliers in their neighborhood accusing them of working for a baby killer.

Patients would encounter a gantlet of protest.

They would see a “Truth Truck,” its side panels displaying large color photographs of dismembered fetuses. Over the clinic gate, strung between two poles, they might see a banner, “Please Do Not Kill Your Baby.” Planted in the grass by the sidewalk were 167 white crosses, representing the average number of abortions that protesters said were performed there each month.

Protesters approached patients’ cars, offering them baby blankets and urging them to visit an anti-abortion pregnancy clinic they had set up next door. Sometimes they followed patients to their hotels and slipped pamphlets under their doors. A few years ago anti-abortion campaigners spent weeks in a hotel room with a view of the Tiller clinic entrance. Using a powerful telephoto lens, they took photographs of patients, which were posted on a Web site with their faces blurred.

Much of this activity was methodically tracked by Mr. Gietzen, who said he presides over a network of 600 volunteers, some of whom drove hundreds of miles for a protest “shift.” Protesters counted cars entering the clinic gate, and they tracked “saves” — patients who changed their minds. According to Mr. Gietzen’s data, over the last five years they had 395 “saves” for an “overall save rate” of 3.77 percent.

They also kept detailed “incident reports” of unusual activity. It was a bonanza if an ambulance was summoned; photographs were quickly posted as evidence of another “botched” abortion.

There seemed an endless supply of fresh accusations.

“Wichita shoppers unknowingly sprinkled with the burnt ash of fetal remains,” declared one news release, referring to the clinic’s crematorium.

“If I can’t document it, I don’t say it,” Mr. Newman of Operation Rescue said, moments before suggesting without any proof that Dr. Tiller had bought off the local district attorney, Nola T. Foulston, by giving her a baby for adoption.

Fucking despicable.

In 2001, protesters began appearing at Dr. Tiller’s church with Truth Trucks and a demand that the church ex-communicate the Tiller family.

“They were abusively shouting at people not to take their children into the church because there was a murderer there,” recalled the Rev. Sally C. Fahrenthold, then the interim pastor at the church, Reformation Lutheran.

For at least two years, protesters showed up each Sunday, sometimes disrupting services from the pews. Protesters obtained a copy of the membership address book and sent all members postcards showing aborted fetuses.

Assholes.

Not a single Kansas politician of statewide prominence showed up the next morning for Dr. Tiller’s funeral, which drew 1,200 mourners. Nor were any at Reformation Lutheran the next day, the first Sunday service after his death. ...

In his sermon, Pastor Michelson openly acknowledged his own apprehensions. “Our sanctuary has been violated,” he said. He urged his congregation to rise above fear and anger, and took note of the supportive letters and e-mail messages from churches all over the country.

Only later, during an interview, did he mention all the hate mail.

New Congress-Tracking Site: LegisStalker

Here. I've been looking for a tool like this for some time. You can fairly easily find out how a member of Congress voted, but it's harder to find a comprehensive record of what she or he has said. Of course, the sources are currently limited to news, twitter and youtube, so it's hardly comprehensive, but at least it's something.

It's Concise, You Have to Give Them That

Seen on the bumper of a Dodge driven by a somewhat overweight white man on a highway in the upper part of what they call "slower Delaware":

The Socialist Republic of
Obama Bin Biden
May God Prevail

And there you have it, folks.

John Yoo: A One-Man Crime Wave

Publius:

As I noted earlier, John Yoo played a starring role in the new IG report (pdf) on the Bush administration’s surveillance program (PSP).  And it wasn’t a flattering one.

Yoo’s actions were dishonest and inappropriate on so many different levels that I’m going to try to break them up into three categories:  (1) procedural abuses; (2) legal inaccuracies; and (3) factual inaccuracies.

The details are summarized pretty quickly and convincingly. John Yoo conspired with other top malefactors in the Bush Administration to violate all Americans' civil liberties and then lied to cover it up. He should be standing trial.

Yet that same John Yoo is a professor at a respected law school and is paid to write occasional columns for my once-great local newspaper.

Local Programming: American Constitution Society Supreme Court Event Noon Thursday

Thursday, July 9th
American Constitution Society Supreme Court Event
ACS’s Philadelphia Lawyer Chapter and the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights present “Replacing Justice Souter: President Obama’s First Pick and The Future of the Supreme Court”, featuring William Marshall, William Rand Kenan, Jr. Distinguished Professor of Law, University of North Carolina School of Law; Kermit Roosevelt, Professor of Law, University of Pennsylvania Law School; Steven Duffield, Former Policy Director and Chief Counsel, Senate Republican Conference; moderated by Nancy Zirkin, Executive Vice President, Leadership Conference on Civil Rights. The event will be held on Thursday, July 9, 2009, 12:00 p.m - 2:00 p.m., at Montgomery, McCracken, Walker & Rhoads LLP, Justice Owen J. Roberts Room, 123 S. Broad Street, Avenue of the Arts, Philadelphia, PA. RSVP here or on Facebook.

Why?

They are all running wall-to-wall MJ funeral coverage commercial-free because they know some people regard it as a landmark cultural event.  You can't not run coverage of it, because people will be irate, and you can't interrupt it with commericals, for the same reason.

Local Programming: Cardboard Tube Fighting League Tournament Saturday

I'm not going to this, but it's so wacky I had to post:

Cardboard Tube Fighting League Tournament happens Saturday, July 11th, 2009, rain or shine.

One random travelling weekend only, the Seattle Cardboard Tube Fighting league will be hosting a back-to-back weekend tournament: Saturday in Philadelphia, PA and Sunday in New York City.

Its a free family event. It is recommended that only children above the age of 5 participate.

Location*:
Open grassy area across the street of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, (the Rocky Steps) [ed.: they mean Eakins Oval - M.]
Latitude 39.964485° North - Longitude 75.179197° West
Google Maps: 39.964485, -75.179197

When:
Saturday, July 11th, 2009
13:00

Entry Fee:
FREE to the public!

What to bring:
Water, cameras, video cameras, name tags & positive social attitude

Attire:
cardboard armor, costumes are encouraged.
All tubes are provided by the group.
No outside tubes allowed, liability and cost are the drivers for this ruling.

-----------------------------------
*Alternate Location:
Fairmount Park
Poplar Drive & Kelly Drive

-------------------------------------

http://www.tubeduel.com/sf/events.html

RSVP.

Local Programming: Drinking Liberally Center City Tonight

Tuesday, July 7th
Drinking Liberally Center City
6 p.m. - 10 p.m.
Triumph Brewing Co.
117 Chestnut St. (between Front and 2nd Streets)
Philadelphia, PA 19106.
Meet at the upstairs bar.
$3 beers, $4 wine, $5 well drinks all night.
Happy hour food specials: $4 pizza app, half-price burgers.

Triumph Brewery is conveniently SEPTA-accessible via the Market-Frankford El (2nd Street station), all the buses that turn around at or near Penn's Landing (12, 17, 21, 33, 42, 48), and a few other buses that pass nearby (5, 25, 47, 57). Driving directions are here.

Other Local Events
Tuesday, July 7th
Drink to Your Health! Health Reform Meetup
We want Quality and Affordable Health Care! And we're tired of politicians claiming otherwise! The rhetoric is that youth in this country don't care about having it and that's why we go without it. That's why we have enormous hospital bills when something goes wrong or stress over routine doctor visits..because we Want to??

Drink To Your Health is a group of dynamic folks that gather for drinks and discussion on health care issues. Come to share your health care story, vent amongst friends, get caught up on current policy, for great discussion or just to meet local progressives. RSVP here.
5:00pm - 7:20pm
Locust Rendezvous
1415 Locust Street
Philadelphia, PA 19102

Send In Your Event Suggestions
Like all civic-minded liberals, we're here to promote democracy and citizen engagement in the political process, especially if there is beer involved. Whether it is or not, forward any area events for the week to the Philly DL organizer by Sunday to have them included in the weekly email.

Help Us Promote DL
Spread the word to your liberal friends to sign up for a group of like-minded people who get together every week to have fun and talk about what's happening in progressive politics right now. Please forward this email to those who might be interested in coming out and Drinking Liberally.

Mistaken For Strangers

It's That Time of Year in Philadelphia.

Bugs.

Big, meaty-looking things. Cockroaches as thick as sausages. And that one with a million legs? That's usually in the sink or the tub? Why is it on the ceiling? Over my bed?

There are also the rotting garbage and the smells. But mainly, bugs.

Busted For Breastfeeding While Intoxicated

Not a joke:

Police responding to a domestic disturbance arrived at Stacey Anvarinia's home to find the mother breast-feeding her 6-week-old baby in front of them. And she was drunk, they said.

Officers arrested the woman, who later pleaded guilty to child neglect and faces up to five years in prison. Now her case has touched off a debate among moms about breast-feeding, alcohol — and privacy.

Since Anvarinia's arrest, blogs have been abuzz with comments questioning whether breast-feeding mothers could risk criminal charges if they drink even modest amounts. Authorities insist police were right to make the arrest, even if the mother had not been breast-feeding, out of concern for the child's welfare. ...

It's unclear how much Anavarina had to drink. Police never conducted a blood-alcohol test. Investigators believed she was drunk, and her arrest on a charge of child abuse and neglect did not require a test. ...

"This case is more than just the breast-feeding. It was the totality of the circumstances," said Grand Forks Police Lt. Rahn Farder. "It is quite unusual for a mother to be breast-feeding her child as we are conducting an investigation, whether she was intoxicated or not."

What a mess. First of all, breastfeeding your kid in front of the police is not yet a crime. Second, while I am skeptical of the healthiness of the habit, all kinds of activities that pose a risk to the kid's well-being are legal - say, smoking - and the police would never even imagine they should lock people up for them. It seems that the woman's job as a mom is somehow open to public scrutiny and disapproval, especially when she is pregnant or breastfeeding. Somehow, the more personal and private the matter for a woman, the more authority male police officers arrogate to themselves to control the woman's behavior.

Sexual Orientation Discrimination Outlawed in Delaware

The first state, coming in near the back of the pack:

Anyone who loses a job, a housing opportunity, an insurance policy, a public contract or a spot in a public facility because of sexual orientation now has legal remedy. For the first time, that kind of discrimination is no longer legal in Delaware.

Finally. What took you so long? Next: marriage and other privileges granted other people.

Via Fred Clark.

Local Programming: Welcome America Festival

Friday, July 3rd - Sunday, July 5th
Come out for the grand finale of the Sunoco Welcome America Philadelphia Festival. Check the schedule here for ice cream festivals, concerts, and fireworks and parade on July 4th.

SUNDAY, JULY 5
12:00 PM		Ice Cream Festival
		Penn’s Landing
1:00 PM		Fam Jams
		Penn’s Landing

Local Programming: Welcome America Festival

Friday, July 3rd - Sunday, July 5th
Come out for the grand finale of the Sunoco Welcome America Philadelphia Festival. Check the schedule here for ice cream festivals, concerts, and fireworks and parade on July 4th.

SATURDAY, JULY 4
10:00 AM		Independence Day Ceremony
		Independence Mall
11:00 AM		Independence Day Parade
		Historic Philadelphia
12:00 PM		Ice Cream Festival
		Penn’s Landing
12:00 PM		Party on the Parkway and Concert
		Benjamin Franklin Parkway
1:30 PM		Bell Tapping Ceremony
		Liberty Bell Center
2:00 PM		Happy Birthday America Celebration
		Independence Visitor Center
8:00 PM		Concert
		Sheryl Crow
		Benjamin Franklin Parkway
		Fireworks Following the Concert

Palin Quits As Alaska Governor

Just seeing this now on the TV, so ... what the fuck?

Local Programming: Welcome America Festival

Friday, July 3rd - Sunday, July 5th
Come out for the grand finale of the Sunoco Welcome America Philadelphia Festival. Check the schedule here for ice cream festivals, concerts, and fireworks and parade on July 4th.

FRIDAY, JULY 3
12:00 PM		Ice Cream Festival
		Penn’s Landing
8:30 PM		Concert
		Pops on Independence
		featuring Peter Nero and the Philly Pops
		Independence Mall
		Philadelphia’s Baseball Legends
		Philadelphia International Airport - Gate A1

Parking Wars

Victory!
 
It's the little things. In this case, $56 worth of little things.

Saddam Said He Bluffed on WMD to Deter Iran

Given that he must have known he was going to be executed, I think he had no reason to lie about this:

Saddam Hussein told an FBI interviewer before he was hanged that he allowed the world to believe he had weapons of mass destruction because he was worried about appearing weak to Iran, according to declassified accounts of the interviews released yesterday. The former Iraqi president also denounced Osama bin Laden as "a zealot" and said he had no dealings with al-Qaeda.

Hussein, in fact, said he felt so vulnerable to the perceived threat from "fanatic" leaders in Tehran that he would have been prepared to seek a "security agreement with the United States to protect [Iraq] from threats in the region."

Bush, knowing all this or at least having good reason to believe it, boxed Hussein into a corner by demanding Iraq prove it had no WMD, which would have weakened Hussein against the Iranians. Instead, by deposing him, all we've done is strengthened Iran's influence in the region immeasurably, at the cost of hundreds of thousands of Iraqi lives and hundreds of billions of American dollars.

Over There

American troops withdraw from the cities and Maliki moves to consolidate his power. Meet the new boss, same as the old boss, only with ties to Iran. Heck of a job, Georgie.

Local Programming: Philly For Change

Wednesday, July 1st

Philly for Change July Meetup
Philly for Change holds its monthly meeting on Wednesday night. Penn Future's Christine Knapp discusses Philly sustainability and Green activism post-Mark Alan Hughes & explains State eco-issues including Marcellus Shale. Also, Committee of Seventy's Zach Stalberg explains the committee's detailed and provocative plan to eliminate several patronage-lined row offices including the City Commissioners! Plus: Updates on the state budget, health care and more.
7 p.m.
The Tritone
1508 South Street
Philadelphia, PA

Dodged a Bullet

I remember when John Edwards was supposedly the great progressive was going to sweep into the White House and make everything right with the world:

A man who was one of former Senator John Edwards’s closest aides has a deal to write a book claiming that Mr. Edwards said he “would be taken care of for life” in return for falsely claiming he was the father of the baby carried by Mr. Edwards’s mistress, Rielle Hunter.

The aide, Andrew Young, sold his book proposal to St. Martin’s Press for an undisclosed price late last week. In his proposal, Mr. Young quotes Mr. Edwards, a Democrat who was his party’s vice-presidential nominee in 2004 and ran for president last year, as begging him to confess to fathering Ms. Hunter’s baby.

“ ‘You know how much I love you,’ Edwards said. ‘You know I’d walk off a cliff for you, and I know you’d walk off a cliff for me,’ ” Mr. Young wrote in the book proposal. “ ‘I will never forget this. And I will always be there for you.’ ” ...

Federal prosecutors are investigating whether any of Mr. Edwards’s campaign money was improperly used with regard to his affair or efforts to keep it from becoming public. Mr. Young wrote that he had been questioned by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and had been subpoenaed to speak before a grand jury.

I gotta agree with Laura Rozen: "What an old-time slime bucket."