Good news!
 

Women seeking abortions in the state of Texas will not be forced to view sonograms before the procedure AND judges who grant judicial bypass to minors seeking abortion services will not be published in local witch hunt magazines!


ETA: At least, until the next legislative session.

I don't know how you people with sessions every year can handle it. Our yahoos meet for four months every other year, and it causes me much stress.

Good news!
 

We don't have your kind of yahoos.

Good news!
 

I think the fact that you let people vote long after they have died ensures a solid experience base in your voter pool to weed out the real crazies.

Good news!
 

Exactly. That and the fact that after you vote, the precinct captain calls your mother and asks her if maybe you weren't feeling well that afternoon and that's why you mistakenly didn't vote for Alderman Vrdolyak.

Huh. That doesn't look so good.

He's going through a hard time right now.
 

Shaha Riza dumped Paul Wolfowitz.

He's going through a hard time right now.
 

He is no longer any use to her after stepping down?

Good News (Finally)
 

From Time:

• There is good news from Iraq, believe it or not. It comes from the most unlikely place: Anbar province, home of the Sunni insurgency. The level of violence has plummeted in recent weeks. An alliance of U.S. troops and local tribes has been very effective in moving against the al-Qaeda foreign fighters. A senior U.S. military official told me—confirming reports from several other sources—that there have been "a couple of days recently during which there were zero effective attacks and less than 10 attacks overall in the province (keep in mind that an attack can be as little as one round fired). This is a result of sheiks stepping up and opposing AQI [al-Qaeda in Iraq] and volunteering their young men to serve in the police and army units there." The success in Anbar has led sheiks in at least two other Sunni-dominated provinces, Nineveh and Salahaddin, to ask for similar alliances against the foreign fighters. And, as TIME's Bobby Ghosh has reported, an influential leader of the Sunni insurgency, Harith al-Dari, has turned against al-Qaeda as well. It is possible that al-Qaeda is being rejected like a mismatched liver transplant by the body of the Iraqi insurgency.
  

Good News (Finally)
 

That is good news. Let's hope that it both holds and spreads.

Good News (Finally)
 

Sadly, Al Qaeda is not the fundamental problem there. It's not clear that many Iraqis would tolerate Al Qaeda at all if we weren't there. Meanwhile, there were reports this week that Al Qaeda is raising huge amounts of money in Iraq and sending it to Pakistan.

He's going through a hard time right now.
 

One commenter put it thus:

• Hilarious. She did not want people to think she just used a powerful man to get ahead, so she immediately broke up with him as soon as he lost power?

How does this policy continue to make sense?
 

U.S. military continues to discharge gay Arab linguists, and Congress members seek hearing. Three more were fired recently.

(Personal bias: nearly everyone I know personally who speaks Arabic is gay. I have a very good gay friend who is Egyptian, and he has a score of gay Lebanese, Palistinian, Egyptian and Jordanian friends. I love them dearly and don't see at all how they could possibly compromise national security.)

How does this policy continue to make sense?
 

What if someone threatened to blackmail them?

Thing is, He's Right
 

Primary Season Follies.
 

Politicians do, indeed, have it rough, having to meet untold numbers of people every day and actually try to remember who the hell some of them are. Even so, I found this screwup funny.

Slate

• If you want to know just how foreign Romney is to the conservative circles he now frequents, read the Atlanta Journal-Constitution's account of his fund-raiser last week during the Georgia Republican Convention:
  
  
  Quote:

  Romney gestured to Ralph Reed and said, "Why it's good to see Gary Bauer here." Romney then caught himself. "Oh, I'm a little mixed up here," he said. But Romney still couldn't place Reed's face—and had to move on.

  ...
  
  To be sure, politicians shouldn't be expected to remember every person they meet. For example, here's a photograph of another Georgia Republican, Rep. Phil Gingrey, who appears to have put on a fake mustache simply to confuse Romney.
  
  But mistaking Ralph Reed for Gary Bauer at your own fund-raiser is like going to a Star Wars convention and mixing up Luke Skywalker and Yoda. Bauer is short, bug-eyed, and tight-lipped. No one noticed his 2000 primary bid until he fell off the stage at a pancake-flipping event in New Hampshire. Reed is lanky, with narrow, shifty eyes and a big, plastic grin.

Gattigap

Atheist Books Article
 

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cg...a111654D33.DTL - interesting article re the growth of atheist books. Harris' followup to End of Faith - A Letter to a Christian Nation is mentioned, and I endorse it heartily. He has condensed his arguments down to a much more biting and irrefutable 90-something small pages.

Atheist Books Article
 

Read the Hitchens' thing. It's really funny.

Atheist Books Article
 

I've offered a trade with a friend, but the point is that it is no longer funny

I'm sure they bought vouchers
 

http://www.zombietime.com/gore_in_marin/

Parking lot to hear Al Gore speak in Marin County.


http://www.zombietime.com/gore_in_marin/IMG_3277.JPG

I'm sure they bought vouchers
 

I bought a voucher, and I drive an SUV. I run my air conditioning a lot, but I use Green Mountain Energy.

I suppose I'm still a bad person and a hypocrite.

I'm sure they bought vouchers
 

I take it you believe the federal government should be doing more to enable places like Marin County to obtain mass transit.

I'm sure they bought vouchers
 

Not for nothing, but it looks like only one real SUV to me, with two small ones (maybe even an Escape hybrid) and a minivan.

We are all hypocrites, Hank. I don't follow the teachings of Jesus on giving all of my money to the poor in order to follow him. My 25 year old pro-war ("this is the most important fight for our country's survival since the War of 1812 -- that was the last time we were attacked like this") cousin has no intentions of joining the Army. My friend the would-be state elected official panders shamelessly to anyone who will write her a check for the maximum legal contribution, including some developer that she called "pond scum" six months ago. The same conservative groups last year who argued that senate rules on filibusters were unconstitutional are about to change their tune when the vote of no confidence for Gonzalez comes up in the senate in a few weeks. I think that the government should spend more on social services, but try to minimize my taxes by taking every deduction and credit that I can. Your point?

I'm sure they bought vouchers
 

you're not bad. I drive an SUV (it will be my last one) too.

But you are lying to yourself. Al is saying we have to REDUCE emissions, not just stop increasing. As long as buying vouchers is done to allow continued massive pollution we can only hope the global warming crowd is wrong.

I'm sure they bought vouchers
 

the onliest place you need an SUV is if you're driving on the veldt.

I'm sure they bought vouchers
 

Um, how is being pro-war and not joining the Army being a hypocrite?

I hear this all the time from assholes on the Left, but it's fucking idiotic.

I'm pro-medicine - doesn't mean i'm going to med school.

I'm pro-electricity - doesn't mean I'm signing up to work on a cherry picker fixing lines.

I'm pro-food - doesn't mean I'm farming anytime soon.

By your logic, I guess I'm a hypocrite because I pay my taxes timely, even though I'm against paying them at all.

I'm sure they bought vouchers
 

I don't drive an SUV, nor do we have A/C in our home. So to do my part, I'm killing trees.


http://www.carboncreditkillers.com/default.asp

http://www.carboncreditkillers.com/i...irts/001CF.gif

I'm sure they bought vouchers
 

Are you kidding? If like the sock's cousin, you think that the Iraq war is so important to the survival of our civilization, and you are of military age and otherwise eligible to serve, how can you say that? Even Pete Fucking Seeger joined the Army in WWII.

At any rate, the point was that supporting efforts to fight global warming while not living Ed Begley's lifestyle wasn't any more hypocritical than a series of other examples. Sensitive much?

I'm sure they bought vouchers
 

ummmm, one teeny little diff, thinking the Iraq war is "a good idea" is not the same as saying "if we don't wipe out Iraq within the next 10 years then the world is toast." I don't think too many people think/thought the Iraq war was immediately necessary to continuing human population of earth.

I'm sure they bought vouchers
 

Why? Vouchers will become more expensive as demand increases. If you're concerned about any kind of market-based system locking in a certain pollution level, it's quite easy to reduce the value of each pollution credit/right by a certain percentage each year.

If I had a Hammer...
 

Bully for Pete Seeger. Probably the only steady job he's had.

This is just moronic, typical claptrap that you Lefties like to throw around as if its some sort of profound "Gotcha!".

Guess what - it isn't. But, then again, you know this.

I'm sure they bought vouchers
 

I see. Perhaps you could explain the lack of importance of the Iraq war to the President so that he can tell David Gregory not to worry about his kids after all.

I'm sure they bought vouchers
 

now you're just arguing to argue. your new PB nickname is "Rural spanky."

Do as Dick Cheney does
 

My personal advice to President Bush would be to tell David Gregory "Go fuck yourself" at each and every press conference.

I'm sure they bought vouchers
 

• REGARDING PETE SEEGER'S REQUESTS FOR A HAMMER AND HIS DESCRIPTIONS OF WHAT HE WOULD DO IF HE HAD ONE.
  - - - -
  
  Dear Mr. Seeger,
  
  We regret to inform you that we have declined your application for $25 to be used in the purchase of a hammer. We approve loans that make good sense for all parties involved, loans that are investments in the potential profitability of the recipient's enterprise. This, in turn, ensures repayment of the initial capital. While $25 might seem an insignificant sum to a bank of our size, we could not approve it, largely because we frankly just didn't understand the request. Seriously, long after we dismissed the application, we were still trying to figure out what you were talking about. It haunts us, to be honest.
  
  You say that with your proposed new hammer, you'd hammer in both the morning and the evening and that you would do so all over this land. (You're going to need to raise additional capital for that travel, by the way. Has that ever crossed your mind?) But the real head-scratcher is this proposed security implementation. How would you hammer out danger? Or warning? Wouldn't it just be a loud whack whack whack? How would anyone anywhere understand that as a security alert? I mean, are we missing something?
  
  Again, all we have to go on is your loan application here. You should type those, by the way.
  
  As for establishing some sort of sibling harmony with a hammer, we just ... we don't know what to say about that one. Some of us have been staring at the words on the page there for a while. We were here until, like, 9:30 last night. And you should know that there has been a spirited and still ongoing debate about alerting the authorities, since establishing love between your brothers and your sisters with a ... hammer?! ... has many of us very nervous.
  
  Again, we're sorry we could not help. Thanks for the enclosed picture of you in a turtleneck holding an acoustic guitar. Although that weirded us out a little, too.
  
  Sincerely,
  
  P. Yarrow
  First Commerce Bank

http://www.mcsweeneys.net/2007/4/3moe.html

I'm sure they bought vouchers
 

In the spirit of bi-partisanal fairiness to Mr. slave, perhaps he is too old to join the military? Or gay and he told. Or both.

Do as Dick Cheney does
 

In bi-partisanal fairness to D. Gregory, he is a very good dancer and fluent in the french. Vive la Twist!

http://www.mediabistro.com/tvnewser/...ryaugust19.jpg

Greetings from Podunkville RFD.
 

I think that everyone will mainly agree that I am mostly correct when I say that the above is a concession that the exchange ended as a Hank loss. Buck up, though -- even the great Denny McLain lost a few on his way to 30 plus wins for the Tigers in '68.

Greetings from Podunkville RFD.
 

He lost many more since.

Greetings from Podunkville RFD.
 

It'll only be after his 4th Memorial Day beer that it dawns on Hank that this is what NotBob meant as well. The pathos and ennui caused by this discovery, and the awareness that another notch is added into the "loss" column, will be crushing indeed.


Well played, NB. Well played.

Greetings from Podunkville RFD.
 

ummm, I think you are in over your head.