Emmys Stick It to Tom Cruise

The “South Park” episode that mocked Tom Cruise’s affiliation with Scientology is up for an Emmy.

Posted on Jul 6, 2006 READ MORE  | 19 READS

Test-Tube Meat May Be En Route to Dinner Table

Dutch scientists are working on growing artificial pork out of pig stem cells. Efforts to mass-produce it are underway.
This use of stem cells may have the unintended effect of uniting militant vegans and evangelical right-to-life’ers.

Posted on Jul 6, 2006 READ MORE  | 92 READS

New York and Georgia Rule Against Gay Marriage

Just when it appeared that there might be a glimmer of hope in the darkness…New York and Georgia go and remind us that when it comes to gay marriage, the USA is still in the Dark Ages.

Posted on Jul 6, 2006 READ MORE  | 55 READS

Military Checking Journos’ ‘Slant’ Before Granting Access

Newsweek’s former Baghdad bureau chief says that U.S. military personnel in Iraq have started reviewing journalists’ previous work and their “slant,” or point of view, before granting the reporters the right to embed with units. He said some reporters have been “blacklisted” for writing pieces unfriendly to the military.

Posted on Jul 6, 2006 READ MORE  | 74 READS

Pentagon Monitored Student Groups’ E-mail

The Department of Defense monitored e-mails from college students who were planning protests against the Iraq war and against the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy. The Pentagon apparently started digging after receiving tips through a website used for soliciting anti-terror tips from civilians and military personnel. (Link - reg req’d)

Posted on Jul 6, 2006 READ MORE  | 48 READS

Playing Fast and Loose With the Constitution

Posted on Jul 5, 2006 READ MORE  | 506 READS

Did Bush & Co. ‘Floridize’ Mexico’s Voter Rolls?

The FBI obtained Mexico’s voter lists via the same contractor that Florida Gov. Jeb Bush used to scrub alleged felons from the voter rolls. The FBI supposedly obtained the lists as part of counter-terror operations, but there’s reason to suspect those lists will end up helping President Bush’s favored candidate into office in Mexico…. (more)

Posted on Jul 5, 2006 READ MORE  | 55 READS

N. Korea Is Seen as Wanting to Grab Nuclear Spotlight From Iran

Stephen Hadley, Bush’s national security advisor, told reporters about North Korea’s missile launch, “Obviously, it is a bit of an effort to get attention, perhaps because so much attention has been focused on the Iranians.”

Bush Has No Answers for Soldiers on Redeployment Questions

President Bush, answering questions posed by U.S. servicemen in the military publication Stars and Stripes, said that he basically had no idea how many times servicemen could expect to be redeployed to Iraq and Afghanistan, and admitted that he has yet to go to even one funeral for a soldier killed in either of those theaters.

Posted on Jul 5, 2006 READ MORE  | 189 READS

Killings Rose in Iraq After Zarqawi’s Death

Baghdad’s morgue received 1,595 bodies last month, 16% more than in May, showing that the pace of killing has actually increased since the death of terrorist mastermind Abu Musab al Zarqawi.

Posted on Jul 5, 2006 READ MORE  | 42 READS

Were Cheney, Gonzales and Hayden Lying About Wiretap Capabilities?

If Bloomberg News is correct in its June 30 report that the NSA’s warrantless wiretapping program started up to seven months before the Sept. 11 attacks, then why did the vice president, the attorney general and the new CIA chief say otherwise?

Posted on Jul 5, 2006 READ MORE  | 63 READS

Mediterraneans Have All the Fun, Fewer Heart Attacks

According to Reuters: “Mediterranean-style diets, rich in healthy fats from olive oil or nuts, may be better for the heart than low-fat regimens, a new study shows.”

Posted on Jul 5, 2006 READ MORE  | 15 READS

The ‘Cola Wars’ Just Got Fun Again

This tale of corporate theft is too good to miss: Insiders at Coca-Cola got nabbed in a sting operation when they tried to sell trade secrets about a new soft drink to the folks at Pepsi.

Posted on Jul 5, 2006 READ MORE  | 458 READS

Report: Company to Probe Coulter Plagiarism Charges

The folks over at TPM Muckraker goaded the company that syndicates Ann Coulter’s column into following up on a report in the New York Post alleging that the conservative hatemonger plagiarized material for her writings.

Posted on Jul 5, 2006 READ MORE  | 35 READS

Memo to Pundits and Pols: No More Holocaust Comparisons

That’s the advice of a Washington Post reporter, who says that no one should ever compare anything to the Nazis, Hitler or the Holocaust. Even if you’re talking, as Sen. Dick Durbin recently was, about the prisoner mistreatment scandal at Gitmo, it will always backfire. Other examples:

Posted on Jul 5, 2006 READ MORE  | 161 READS