Come for the politics, stay for the snark.
by John Cole| 35 Comments
This post is in: Sports, General Stupidity
Now even ESPN2 is in on the act. I was watching my WVU Mountaineers take it to #8 Oklahoma tonight (final score 92-68), and I noticed something appalling. They are calling the basketball games “Holiday Hoops.”
Not Christmas Hoops. Holiday Hoops.
Why does ESPN hate the baby Jesus? Someone call Gibson and O’Reilly.
by John Cole| 39 Comments
This post is in: Previous Site Maintenance
Tomorrow we will be holding our Airing of Grievances. Don’t forget to pull your list together.
by John Cole| 61 Comments
This post is in: Politics, Science & Technology, General Stupidity
Anyone with half a brain could tell you that when ID proponents claim there is no religious element to intelligent design, they are lying through their teeth. Apparently, that is not the only lie ID proponents told in the recent Dover Case:
A federal prosecutor said testimony in the Dover Area School District’s intelligent design case is under review to determine if perjury charges should be pursued.
U.S. Middle District Attorney Thomas A. Marino said yesterday that decision will take time because there is “a lot of reading to do” to determine if the statements rise to the level of a crime.
“I want to question a couple of people who were present,” he said. They will not include Judge John E. Jones III, who presided over the case, he said.
Marino’s comments came a day after Jones struck down the school district’s policy of telling ninth-grade biology students Darwin’s theory of evolution is not fact and intelligent design is an alternative explanation of the origin of life.
In his opinion, Jones accused some of those who testified during the six-week trial in Harrisburg of lying, singling out former board members Alan Bonsell and William Buckingham, the leading proponents of the policy.
Both men testified during the trial, which ended last month, and both gave sworn statements in depositions on Jan. 3. During the trial, Jones and lawyers for parents opposed to the policy confronted the men about the discrepancies and evasiveness in their answers to questions about their motivations and efforts to raise money for a pro-intelligent design textbook, “Of Pandas and People.”
As I am petty, vindictive, and shallow, I can not tell you how much I would enjoy seeing perjury charges filed against these charlatans. Maybe if that happens, they can, without irony, get the Thomas More Law Center to come to their legal aid once again. Question is- will the Thomas More Law center want to defend someone who willfully breaks the 9th Commandment?
*** Uodate ***
LMAO. Commandment, not amendment. What a jackass I am.
by John Cole| 17 Comments
This post is in: Popular Culture, Sports
And all of the Colt’s success now seems meaningless to Tony Dungy:
James Dungy, the 18-year-old son of Indianapolis Colts coach Tony Dungy, was found dead in a Tampa-area apartment, police said Thursday.
No foul play is suspected, but a cause of death won’t be announced pending an autopsy, said Vida Morgan, a secretary in the Hillsborough County sheriff’s office.
The worst nightmare for a parent.
*** Update ***
A nice piece about Tony Dungy, who really is a class act.
by John Cole| 20 Comments
This post is in: War on Terror aka GSAVE®
For six months:
The terror-fighting USA Patriot Act may have a new lease on life.
The GOP-controlled Senate on Wednesday approved a six-month extension of the USA Patriot Act to keep the anti-terror law from expiring on Dec. 31. President Bush gave it his grudging blessing.
The Republican-controlled House is now expected to come back and consider the legislation keeping the 16 provisions of the law passed after the terrorist attacks on New York City and Washington from expiring.
Republican leaders and Bush wanted to make most of the law permanent, but were stymied by a filibuster in the Senate and had to resort to a six-month extension.
“This will allow more time to finally agree on a bill that protects our rights and freedoms while preserving important tools for fighting terrorism,” said Sen. Feingold, D-Wis., who was the only senator to vote against the original Patriot Act in 2001.
More as it becomes available.
by Tim F| 295 Comments
This post is in: Domestic Politics
In today’s snoopgate news, the FISA court itself has decided to look more closely into what exactly Bush has been doing:
Presiding Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly…told fellow FISA court members by e-mail Monday that she is arranging for them to convene in Washington, preferably early next month, for a secret briefing on the program, several judges confirmed yesterday.
….The judges could, depending on their level of satisfaction with the answers, demand that the Justice Department produce proof that previous wiretaps were not tainted, according to government officials knowledgeable about the FISA court. Warrants obtained through secret surveillance could be thrown into question. One judge, speaking on the condition of anonymity, also said members could suggest disbanding the court in light of the president’s suggestion that he has the power to bypass the court.
If Bush won’t reconsider his decision to bypass federal law the entire court may follow James Robertson’s lead and resign in protest. Anybody who knows an example of Bush reconsidering anything is invited to share it in the comments – snark, irrelevancies, anything. Bush gives me the impression of a man who cannot or will not change course once he’s made up his mind, and I’d be glad to be proved substantially wrong. That might not be an issue if he had an infallible judgment or a tendency to think things through fully, but he doesn’t so it is.
Let me make one point about momentum. Certain stories start out as what seems like an evenly-matched debate but pick up an inexorable momentum forcing one side or the other to retreat from point a to point b to, finally, total capitulation. Think of the London shooting story, or the WP debate. In both cases the slow drip of news eventually made it impossible to defend the perspective that the police did nothing wrong, or that the US used chemical weapons in Fallujah (easy with the outrage – I’m just talking about whether WP qualifies as a banned chemical weapon, not whether it’s good).
From the White House perspective this FISA story seems to have taken on that most dreaded kind of momentum, Joementum [thanks to Masson’s blog for the link]. Joementum is that inexorable political quicksand where every effort to push back only embarrasses you further. Joementum is the classical tragedy in which the hero’s own character flaw seals his unhappy fate before the high-flying first act has closed. The White house saw this story coming for over a year, and yet their explanations range from wrong (“Congress had oversight,” “the 9/11 resolution allowed Bush to bypass legislation.”) to disingenuous (“FISA courts ruled in 2002 that it was ok“) to embarassingly trite (“Clinton did it“).
I may be wrong. But judging by the gravity of the accusations and the quality of the defense mounted so far, I doubt it.
***Update***
Some confusion remains about a semi-relevant appeals court decision from 2002. See here for relevant commentary. Post rebuttals in the comments.
by John Cole| 48 Comments
This post is in: Movies
Just saw Serenity for the first time (never made it to the theater- I rarely if ever go anymore), and I really liked it.
Little upset with some of the outcomes, but I loved the villain. One note- if you had not seen Firefly and saw Serenity in the theatre, you would be completely lost. Completely.
Oh, and a quick WTF- Why no theme song, damnit?