David Lazarus:
Consumer Confidential
Los Angeles Times
Free speech could lead to online disconnect
October 10 2007
If you’re displeased with the way a company treats you, you’re free to air your feelings in public, right? Not necessarily if you receive high-speed Internet access from AT&T Inc. or Verizon Communications Inc.
Buried deep within both companies’ voluminous service contracts is language […]

Yankee Fans Hate Rudy
By: Jane Hamsher
Firedoglake
I understand the true volume levels didn’t make it on TV, but during the Yankee game on Monday night Rudy Giuliani was resoundingly booed by New Yorkers:
For years, George Steinbrenner and right wing nutcases running the New York Yankees have subtly and overtly attempted to turn a nonpolitical sporting event […]

Rebellious ex-nuns evicted in Poland
By MARCIN ZOLTOWSKI, Associated Press Writer
KAZIMIERZ DOLNY, Poland - Court officials backed by 150 police pushed their way into a convent in eastern Poland on Wednesday to evict about 65 rebellious ex-nuns and a monk who have occupied the complex illegally for two years.
The women had taken over the building in […]

but I still believe he looks more rational–and certainly happier– in drag.
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Images: (Giuliani) both are AP photos via huffingtonpost.com

Thanks to Washington Joe’s rooting for Cleveland in order to prevent Guiliani from parading down Broadway in another unabashed moment of humanity.

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New York Yankees manager Joe Torre watches from the dugout against the Cleveland Indians during Game 4 of an American League Division Series baseball game Monday, Oct. 8, 2007 at Yankee Stadium in […]

Sen. Craig to Join Idaho Hall of Fame
1 day ago
BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Sen. Larry Craig has been chosen for induction into the Idaho Hall of Fame, despite his well-publicized arrest and guilty plea in an airport sex sting, officials said.
His fellow inductees this year are…
Earle “Earl” Overhall–
the inventor of blue astroturf.
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Earl Overhall says the […]

I don’t recall much of a theater-run for this film.
Cable and DVD seem to be its fate.
Will it’s success be that of THUNDER ROAD–
the ruler of the drive-ins for two decades?

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While somewhat dark, this film cast a positive glow on contemporary America. The movie gives us 500 years for almost total social disintegration–a […]

October 8, 2007
Intruders Damage a Monet in Paris Museum
By JAMES KANTER
October 8, 2007
PARIS, Oct. 7 — Intruders broke into the Orsay Museum early Sunday and damaged a work by the Impressionist painter Claude Monet, the latest in a series of acts of vandalism and thefts at cultural sites in France.
Christine Albanel, the minister […]

State Dept. ignored Blackwater warnings
Diplomats had raised concerns about guards’ endangering of Iraqi civilians, but the complaints got little attention.
By Paul Richter
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
October 7, 2007
WASHINGTON — The State Department, which is facing growing criticism of its policy on private security contractors, overlooked repeated warnings from U.S. diplomats in the field that guards […]

Fineman: Intel Community To Release ‘Three Iran Reports’ To ‘Slow Down’ Bush’s Warmongering
On the Chris Matthews Show today, NBC’s Howard Fineman revealed that the intelligence community will release “three different reports” in upcoming weeks to “slow down” the administration’s current drumbeat for war with Iran:
The intelligence community over the next few months is going to […]

Iraqi ‘reality’ TV
Posted: Wednesday, October 03, 2007 11:00 AM
Categories: Baghdad, Iraq
By Jim Maceda, NBC News Correspondent
For more than four years the world has watched news of the violence and political problems plaguing Iraq.
But what do Iraqis watch? You might be surprised….
Many are tuning into black comedies like “The Country Has Been Sold” – a home-made […]

An Exit Toward Soul-Searching
As Bush Staffers Leave, Questions About Legacy Abound
By Peter Baker
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, October 7, 2007; Page A01
It had been four days since Meghan O’Sullivan left her job at the White House. Just four days since she gave up her Secret Service pass, her classified hard drive and her entree to the […]

Capitol Hill Blue
Saturday, October 6, 2007 :
Clinton aide works for Blackwater
October 6, 2007 - 8:11am.
Senator Hillary Clinton’s top consultant in her campaign for President is also head of the giant public relations company that helped Blackwater USA CEO Erik Prince prepare his lies-filled testimony to Congress this week.
Mark Penn, in addition to advising Clinton in […]

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I saw this AP photo this morning.
The movement and emotion reminded me
of a famous French painting by Eugene Delacroix.
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Cleveland Indians’ Casey Blake, left, Paul Byrd, center, and Victor Martinez rush toward Travis Hafner after Hafner’s 11th-inning single drove in the winning run for a 2-1 win over the New York Yankees in Game […]

Matthews says Bush administration has “finally been caught in their criminality”
October 4, 8:04 PM
Playing Hardball with the Prez
Chris Matthews had barely finished praising his colleagues at the 10th anniversary party for his “Hardball” show Thursday night in Washington, D.C. when his remarks turned political and pointed, even suggesting that the Bush administration had “finally been […]

October 4, 2007
Secret U.S. Endorsement of Severe Interrogations
By SCOTT SHANE, DAVID JOHNSTON and JAMES RISEN
This article is by Scott Shane, David Johnston and James Risen.
WASHINGTON, Oct. 3 — When the Justice Department publicly declared torture “abhorrent” in a legal opinion in December 2004, the Bush administration appeared to have abandoned its assertion of nearly unlimited […]

On Stump, Low-Key Thompson Stirs Few Sparks
New York Times
By ADAM NAGOURNEY
Published: October 4, 2007

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Doug Mills/The New York Times

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AP photo
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Image: AP photo via Huffington Post; (computer image) Vanderline via Boston Globe

George W. Bush’s killer elite
October 3, 2007 - 10:16am.

Blackwater USA is jsut another gang of killers for hire

By DOUG THOMPSON

Capitol Hill Blue

Erik Prince looks like the all-American boy but don’t let the good looks fool you.

The trim, articulate 38-year-old served in the Navy SEALs, an elite commando unit. Ten years ago, Prince decided the particular […]

Dave:
Sometimes Brooks surprises me. He had a very insighftful column about On The Road called “Sal Paradise at 50.” If you haven’t read it, you should. Brooks essential take is that the book was viewed as a yea-saying hymn to raw experience when first published and then when it was taken up by the […]

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Images: (Neptune) NASA via epsc.wustl.edu; (W) AP photo via britfilms.com

The Kennedy piece is here.

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Image: via the timesonline.typepad.com

It is certainly reasonable
to expect not
to see advertisements
like this in the near future.

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Images: (pandas) via bearden.org

Too much of the same old pols?
September 29, 2007 - 8:08am.
Bush, Clinton, Bush…Clinton? Been there, done that
By NANCY BENAC
Forty percent of Americans have never lived when there wasn’t a Bush or a Clinton in the White House. Anyone got a problem with that?
With Hillary Rodham Clinton hoping to tack another four or eight “Clinton” years […]

JOHN FUND ON THE TRAIL
OPINION-Wall Street Journal
Rude Giuliani
If he wants voters to respect his privacy, he ought to show some respect for basic manners.
Monday, October 1, 2007 12:01 a.m. EDT
…Even members of Mr. Giuliani’s own staff are appalled at how he handled the incident in which he answered a phone call from his wife, Judith, […]

Air Force Arranged No-Work Contract
Experts Question Official’s Deal With Nonprofit
By Robert O’Harrow Jr.
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, October 1, 2007; Page A01
While waiting to be confirmed by the White House for a top civilian post at the Air Force last year, Charles D. Riechers was out of work and wanted a paycheck. So the Air Force […]

According to Illinois.com, there are 13,619 Chicago police officers.
Paul Green’s observation would allow only 14 officers to act in a non-professional manner.
I don’t think that’s possible.
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Chicago police again mired in scandal
By MIKE ROBINSON, Associated Press WriterSun Sep 30, 7:04 PM ET
Videotapes of angry officers savagely beating civilians and charges that a murder […]

Justice Thomas Lashes Out in Memoir
Book Attacks Liberals and the Media, Breaks Near-Silence on Anita Hill
By Robert Barnes, Michael A. Fletcher and Kevin Merida
Washington Post Staff Writers
Saturday, September 29, 2007; Page A01
Justice Clarence Thomas settles scores in an angry and vivid forthcoming memoir, scathingly condemning the media, the Democratic senators who opposed his nomination to […]