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Visit to a Small Planet
by Gore Vidal
Fine, Collector's Copy $250
By Joe Conason
$14.95
$19
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America’s ambassador to Iraq says the United States might cut funding to the Iraqi government if it puts sectarian politicians in two key posts.
Iraq’s prime minister angrily rejects the call, saying, “We do not need anybody to remind us, thank you.”
Posted on Feb 21, 2006
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Fox News via Crooks and Liars
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We stood up and cheered when we saw this one: Sean Hannity needles Arianna Huffington about something Alec Baldwin said, and Arianna throws it back in his face by listing some of the indefensible and “toxic” things Ann Coulter has said over the years. Good one, Arianna.
Posted on Feb 21, 2006
2 COMMENTS 
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The secretary of defense claims he didn’t know about the pending sale of six major U.S. ports to a United Arab Emirates company, even though, as ThinkProgress points out, he sat on a board that approved the sale.
Meanwhile, the president vows to veto any blockage of the sale, setting up a showdown with Republicans and Democrats.
Confused about the issue? The Moderate Voice has a good primer.
Posted on Feb 21, 2006
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Almost 100 prisoners have died in U.S. custody in Iraq and Afghanistan since August 2000, with homicide suspected or confirmed in 34 deaths, concludes a report fom Human Rights First.
Posted on Feb 21, 2006
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From evote.com
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The American Prospect digs into the finances of Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum and finds that his “lifestyle is financed in ways ... [that] are at best unconventional, and at worst a possible violation of Senate rules.”
Posted on Feb 21, 2006
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From jkrweb.com
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OK, all you expatriates probably already knew this, but Truthdig didn’t: “The Daily Show” runs on CNN International outside the U.S.
Think about that: Millions (perhaps billions) of foreigners get Jon Stewart’s version of America on a relatively straight-news-oriented channel. Depending on how you feel about Stewart’s sensibility, that’s either wonderful or troubling. (This snippet of news comes near the end of a hilarious article about Stewart’s upcoming gig at the Oscars.)
Posted on Feb 20, 2006
7 COMMENTS
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Two years before the Abu Ghraib prison scandal, the Navy’s general counsel warned the Pentagon that its wink-and-nod policies on torture would invite abuse, reports The New Yorker.
Posted on Feb 20, 2006
1 COMMENT
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As Palestinians swore in their Hamas-dominated parliament, Israel froze contact with the “terrorist” group, and stopped a planned transfer of funds.
Hamas dismissed the effect of the sanctions, and former President Jimmy Carter warns in an Op-Ed that America risks severe consequences if it conspires with Israel to disrupt the transfer of power to Hamas.
Posted on Feb 20, 2006
2 COMMENTS
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The request, which echoes something the Bush-Cheney ticket did in the 2004 race, has been met with protests from across the spectrum.
Posted on Feb 20, 2006
1 COMMENT
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From memoriallibrary.com
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James Buchanan tops the list for failing to avert the Civil War; Clinton comes in at No. 10 for his Lewinsky lie.
Posted on Feb 20, 2006
3 COMMENTS
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Francis Fukuyama, one of the leading neocon intellectuals who argued the case for the Iraq war, admits in a blockbuster N.Y. Times Magazine essay that it is “very hard to see how [the removal of Saddam Hussein, and a few spillover benefits] justify the blood and treasure that the United States has spent.”
Andrew Sullivan, another leading pro-war conservative, echoes Fukuyama’s comment and points out three areas where neocons were tragically wrong.
Posted on Feb 20, 2006
7 COMMENTS
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Greenhouse gases are being released into the atmosphere at a rate 30 times faster than the rate of emissions that caused a period of intense warming in the Earth’s past, concludes a scientific panel in St. Louis.
Posted on Feb 20, 2006
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It apparently wasn’t the vice president’s sense of duty to the country that precipitated his sit-down interview with Fox News. It was the president, no dummy when it comes to PR, who made Cheney sit down in front of the cameras, according to Time magazine.
Posted on Feb 20, 2006
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From jamesbondguys.com
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Figuring that public indignation over the Jack Abramoff scandal will soon dissipate, Republicans in Congress are dragging their feet on promised reform measures.
Unfortunately, this will probably work--because an indignant populace is sort of like a villain in a James Bond movie: We vow to stamp out a source of aggravation; we put the machinery in place for doing so; we flip the switch; and then we leave the room on the nave assumption that our plan is escape-proof.
It’d be funny if this weren’t, like, our government we’re talking about.
Posted on Feb 20, 2006
2 COMMENTS
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The cartoon-fueled hysteria continues unabated:
In Libya: 10 die in the bloodiest protests yet.
In Russia: Authorities shut down a newspaper that printed a tame cartoon of Muhammad, along with other religious figures.
In Manhattan: 1,000 protesters rally in front of the Danish consulate.
In Italy: An official quits after wearing a T-shirt with the controversial Muhammad cartoons.
Update:
16 Killed in Nigerian cartoon protests, along with five this week in Pakistan
Hey, Muslim centrists/moderates, if you want to do something to quell this insane violence, now would be a pretty good time to do so.
Posted on Feb 18, 2006
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On the heels of Exxon Mobil’s record-setting $10-billion quarterly profit, the “federal government is on the verge of one of the biggest giveaways of oil and gas in American history, worth an estimated $7 billion over five years.”
It’s nice being an oil baron when two oilmen head the government.
Posted on Feb 18, 2006
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AP / David Bohrer
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The Associated Press (not exactly an ultra-liberal organization) says the account of the vice president’s hunting accident is full of inconsistencies.
Newsday points out that the medical diagram in Cheney’s accident report is incorrect.
Posted on Feb 18, 2006
3 COMMENTS
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From moviereporter.net
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China is set to plumb Iranian oil fields in a $100-billion deal, complicating U.S. efforts to isolate Tehran and providing Iran more money to pursue its nuclear ambitions.
Can someone please call Stephen Gaghan to figure this one out for us? Or maybe this is a case for Truthdig’s Orville Schell, who knows a thing or two about China?
Posted on Feb 17, 2006
3 COMMENTS
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Bob Child / AP
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A prudish Harvard student, writing in a conservative campus newspaper, says the following of Yale’s annual ode to sex: “I don’t see how bringing a Playboy stripper to campus is helping anything.”
No surprise there. The Yale contingent at Truthdig knows from experience that Cantabs are sooooo uptight.
Posted on Feb 17, 2006
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Paul Iverson / AP
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“We all assume certain risks in what we do.... Accidents do and will happen,” says the 78-year-old lawyer upon being released from the hospital.
Posted on Feb 17, 2006
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Wal-Mart’s CEO suggests that a store manager is disloyal, and should consider quitting, after the manager laments the lack of health benefits at the mega-chain. This happened on a confidential, internal website that the N.Y. Times sussed out.
Earlier: Sales are brisk and accusations fly as Robert Greenwald’s Wal-Mart documentary racks up 110,000 DVD sales.
Posted on Feb 17, 2006
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You will be shocked, shocked to learn that Sen. Arlen Specter earmarked $50 million in defense appropriations for clients of a lobbyist married to one of the senator’s staffers.
Posted on Feb 17, 2006
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MSNBC via ThinkProgress
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The traditional media and the blogosphere are abuzz with questions about the drinking Cheney did before hunting; whether his medications, combined with alcohol, may have played a role; and whether this explains why he didn’t alert the media for so long about the accident (i.e., did he need the time to get the intoxicants out of his system?).
Some of the best writing on the topic:
Think Progress: McClellan Ducks Questions on Role of Alcohol
AMERICAblog: What did Cheney drink and when did he drink it?
Tucker Carlson: You CanӒt Drink A Beer If You Shoot. Period.
Think Progress: Inconsistencies in statements of Cheney’s “star witness”
Raw Story: ‘Beer quote’ scrubbed from MSNBC story
The Nation’s John Nichols: Cheney has a lot more explaining to do
Posted on Feb 17, 2006
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AIDS and the Myth of the Oversexed Negro
