The Passion as corrente tells it
The farmer's review of Gibson's latest.

Iranian state radio says Osama caught
With all these allegations and denials and recent statements that Osama may be caught "within the year," I'm gonna make my position now: we have Osama.

Gay Ohio GOPer turns Dem
Are there enough Log Cabin Republicans to do any damage to the right-wring infrastructure during the ongoing gay marriage debate?

Oscar frets political comments
Is it really a big deal if a few stars make some politically motivated statements at the Oscars? Can't we all settle down and accept that it is a part of free speech? If right-wingers wanted a podium to shout their beliefs from once a year...well...I guess they don't need to when they have talk radio every day.

Bush vs. drugs
Dubya decided that in these trying times he'd attack the very source of our problem - recreational narcotics.

Stern rails at Bush
"I might be taken off all the stations very soon, and my last words to you are 'G.W.B.,' " Stern told listeners yesterday.

"Get him out of office. I'm tellin' you, man, he's in dangerous territory a religious agenda and you gotta vote him out - anyone but Bush," Stern railed.

Indeed.

Extra unemployment benefits fail to pass
I suppose with all the unemployed these days, the benefits might have costed trillions.

Gay marriages continue
Court rulings in cities who begin marrying gays will hopefully follow suit.

Randi Rhodes to hit the national airwaves
Great news.

The Bush Budget
Looks like we may have a hell of a deficit....(moreso than now, I mean).

2 tons of pot
You'd think that if you had a man driving over 4K pounds of marijuana into another country, you'd teach him how to drive the truck.

Breaking
Looks as if Hastert will now support a 9/11 commission extension.

New Paltz, NY to marry gays
East Coast gays who want to marry now have their chance.

Dean says Dems should paint Bush as radical
The man who fell off the charts in a matter of a week gave us all some very obvious advise today - make the other guy look out of sync with America.

Bush endorses TV show
Perhaps he wants to get into the televised terror business?

We shall never know her pain
Woman gives birth to six babies in a minute.

International politics reaches new lows
Tit-for-tat meat banning.

60% of adults drink
You know, I would've thought it was more.

Audit: SS, Coast Guard missing money
Looks as if a few billion bucks are not accounted for over there.

More Osama predictions
Well, even though I still find these predictions suspicious, this one by Rumsfeld isn't particularly inspiring.

Abortion rights: who needs 'em?
This should be front page in every paper in the country: the feds are poised to wage war on women's rights.

Stern suspended
The infamous shock jock is a surprising victim of Clear Channel's crackdown.

Remarkably, Limbaugh had some intelligent comments on this.

McAuliffe to step down
With Terry gone, will Bill Clinton be the next DNC head?

Doonesbury suddenly relevant
The strip is offering a cool 10 grand to....get this.....anyone who can prove that Bush served his time in the Guard.

Big gains in AIDS research
A protein in monkeys may block the virus.

Church marquee offensive to Jews
Would you appreciate it if a church in your town had a sign that said "Jews Killed Jesus"?

Church and State dispatch
Today the SCOTUS ruled that scholarships should not be rewarded to students who intend to be ministers. Bravo.

Iran redux
This all sounds so familiar....

Greenspan talks on deficits
Now that they're economic cheerleader has railed against deficits a little, will BushCo pay attention? Probably not, no. And they aren't dumb enough to cut Social Security. But here's a chart, anyway:

Slavery in (Jeb) Bush country
Interesting:

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - Modern-day slavery is alive and well in Florida, the head of a human rights center said Tuesday as it released a report on people forced to work as prostitutes, farmworkers and maids across the state.

Human traffickers bring thousands of people into the United States each year and Florida is believed to be one of the top three destinations, along with New York and Texas, according to the Center for the Advancement of Human Rights at Florida State University.

Nader: lighten up
Ralph Nader assured us that his candidacy was aimed squarely at Bush. Whew, I thought his running might be a bad thing for a second there. On the other hand, is this foreshadowing that he will drop out before November? God, I hope so.

Redefining "partisan politics"
Would you classify a legitimate investigation into questionable campaign fundraising "partisan"? Tom DeLay would.

Breaking
Hastert will block the extension of the 9/11 commission.

Snow defends outsourcing
The Bush team continues to defend shipping American jobs overseas...ladies and gentleman, we have a winning issue.

Undersupplied troops
5 bullets per British soldier:

A serving soldier has risked his career by speaking out over equipment shortages in the Gulf conflict.

Just five bullets each were issued to him and his men, who were serving along frontlines in southern Iraq, the unnamed soldier told Channel 4 News.

"We had five rounds each to defend ourselves. I actually crossed the border with five rounds," he said.

"The magazine held 30 separate bullets but I was issued with five separate bullets to last the entire hostilities of the war. We came under fire in Um Qasr three or four times.

"Not fire, it was more like ricochets. There were firefights going on all around us. It was scary."

The claims threaten to reignite the controversy over equipment shortages, dramatically highlighted by the death of Sgt Steve Roberts.

Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon came under mounting pressure when Sgt Roberts' widow Samantha revealed he was ordered to hand body armour to a colleague, shortly before he was shot and killed.

Drug traffickers killing seals?
I didn't think they could do it, but they've managed to pin the deaths of sea animals on drugs. While they may have a case, I'm a bit surprised that this hasn't happened before.

Town Hall crapfest
Tom Sowell, the token "black conservative" that they keep around to avoid the racist label, chimes in:

It may be too early in this election year to determine which will be the biggest of the Big Lies in this political campaign. However, my feeling is that it may be "the working poor." While there are working people who are poor, most poor people are not working full time, not working very long, or not working at all.

These are not matters of opinion. Census data make it unmistakably clear. When it comes to full-time year-around workers, there are more heads of households who fall into that category in the top 5 percent of income earners than in the bottom 20 percent -- in absolute numbers.

They "aren't working very long"? What does that mean? That means that they may work full time, but, according to Sowell, not quite enough. Well, Tommy, not everyone gets paid by puking up columns like these once every two weeks. And we can all thank God for that.

Fascism in the Midwest
Apparently Cincinatti doesn't let people be in porn.

Oh Dear....
Drudge:

As Democrats express outrage over comments made by Education Secretary Rod Paige [he called the the nation's largest teachers union 'a terrorist organization'] a DRUDGE REPORT flashback can reveal Democrat presidential frontrunner John Kerry Has Called Republicans 'legislative terrorists'... MORE... In Jan. 1996, commenting on the federal government shutdown, Kerry called the House Republicans 'legislative terrorists,' who used federal workers as pawns and disrespected them. Asked about his terrorist comment, Kerry explained, 'Terrorists hold hostages, and the Republicans are holding the government hostage'...

Well, yeah...there's quite a big difference between the term "legislative terrorists" and just plain "terrorists." Obviously Kerry was not implying anything other than that the Republicans were disrupting government, whereas Paige flat-out equalled the union to a branch of al Qaeda. If you can't see that difference, you shouldn't be running a popular gossip page.

173 lashes plus a hanging
Remind me never to commit a crime in Iran....

Gay rights advocates strike back
This is a great story:

Claiming divorce -- not same-sex unions -- is undermining the sanctity of marriage, a group of gay Democrats on Monday asked state GOP Chairman Jim Kittle to identify Republican legislators who have been divorced.

The request comes as House Republicans are attempting to force a vote on a proposed constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage. The amendment -- which Republicans last week called "the most important issue we're dealing with this session" -- was approved by the Senate but has been stalled in the House by Democratic leadership.

"We think it is fair to ask during this debate how many legislators who are demonizing gay marriage have actually committed the most grievous possible injury to the institution they claim to want to protect," said Linda Perdue, president of the Indiana Stonewall Democrats.

The political action committee, which works to elect gay and gay-friendly candidates to public office, also asked Kittle to release the marital histories of the party's two candidates for governor, Mitch Daniels and Eric Miller -- and their stands on a proposed constitutional ban.

Ouch. Knowing the Newt-like tendencies of some of these guys, this may get nasty. This is right in the face of Bush's request for a constitutional amendment.

Will the "liberal" label work?
With some Republicans quick to call Kerry a liberal, one wonders whether that will resonate with the people. Our consistently pointing out that Bush is a far-right religious nutbag hasn't had an enormous effect because people who don't pay too much attention to politics can't see why. It will be even hard to call Kerry a liberal. Why? Ralph Nader. As much as I despise his candidacy, Nader may position himself to be the liberal in the race, with Bush as the conservative. This will make Kerry appear to be a more stable middle ground...and we all know that moderates win elections.

Where's that recovery?
Consumer confidence plummeted this month:

U.S. consumers became much more cautious in February, the Conference Board said Tuesday. The consumer confidence index plunged to 87.3 in February from a revised 96.4 in January. Economists expected the index to fall to about 92.9. The present situation index eased to 73.1 from 79.4, while the expectations index sank to 96.8 from 107.8.

Teacher quits over corporal punishment
Here:

MERIDIAN, Miss. — The debate over whether corporal punishment has a place in American education became personal for Ralph McClaney when the Carver Middle School principal ordered him to paddle a sixth-grade student who had acted up in class.

"The idea of a big white guy hitting an 80-pound black girl because she talked back to the teacher did not sit well with me," said McClaney, who resigned his assistant principal's post rather than carry out his superior's instructions. "I decided I did not get my master's degree in education to spend my time paddling students."

A decision last month by the Canadian Supreme Court to outlaw the use of the strap by teachers has left the United States and a lone state in Australia as the only parts of the industrialized world to allow corporal punishment in schools, according to anti-paddling activists. While 28 U.S. states, including Washington in 1993, have outlawed paddling over the past three decades, the practice remains commonplace across much of the Southern Bible Belt.

Good for him....but just to make you more disgusted:

"Are we going to believe man's report or God's report?" asked Cherry Moore, a special-education teacher at Carver and co-pastor of a local church. She said she believes that Old Testament references to "spoiling the child by sparing the rod" should outweigh the allegedly negative effects of corporal punishment cited by child-development experts.

Pentagon to probe Halliburton
Wow, I'm sure this'll be thorough....

School administrator busted
Note to everyone: if you're trying to frame someone, don't tell the cops.

(The question here is where this guy bought the weed to frame the dealer with.)

Soldiers abused POWs
Here:

Seventeen US soldiers have been suspended of duties pending the outcome of the investigation into allegations of abuse of Iraqi prisoners, a US officer said.

The 17 include a battalion commander and a company commander, Colonel William Darley said. He gave no further details.

Last month, Lieutenant-General Ricardo Sanchez, commander of US forces in Iraq, ordered a criminal investigation into reports of abuse of prisoners at the Abu Ghraib prison on the western outskirts of Baghdad.

The announcement followed allegations by Amnesty International and former prisoners of harsh treatment of detainees arrested by US and coalition forces since the Iraq war began last March.

The coalition is believed to be holding more than 12,000 detainees for various offences, including attacks on US and allied troops. Last month, three US Army reservists were discharged for abuse of prisoners at the Camp Bucca detention centre in southern Iraq.

This is sure to inflame the Iraqi streets. Just goes to show: you don't have to not be a soldier to be a jackass.

Miller on gay marriage
Apparently it's not about "tradition" or "opening the floodgates," but "decency."

Americans want to see executions
This is disturbing:

NEW YORK -- Two-thirds of Americans polled last month said they support the idea of televising executions -- and 21 percent said they'd pay to watch Osama bin Laden put to death.

Eleven percent said they would pay to see Saddam Hussein executed.

The opinions on executions came in a poll taken by Harris Interactive for the Trio cable channel.

Even though the poll found support for the idea, 54 percent said they wouldn't watch an execution on television.

Harris Interactive interviewed 1,017 Americans aged 18 or older at random Jan. 24-26. The margin of error for the sample is plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.

Wanting to see Osama put to death is one thing....but 2/3 of Americans would like to watch the average execution? I am sickened.

Big Brother, where art thou?
Why, right here.

Bring 'em on
Bush going on the attack:

In his speech Monday, Bush will "make it clear he's now energized and ready to talk about the choice people have next November," campaign communications director Nicolle Devenish said.

The president will not mention an opponent by name but will say Democrats are running on "wrong ideas that will move the country backward and derail and weaken our ability to win the war on terror," she said.

Liberals in Fargo
It's sad when the "liberal alternative" to Hannity and Limbaugh is not too liberal. But this brings up an interesting idea...if liberal radio doesn't work, will centrist radio? Will appealing to the masses make it easier to slide liberalism back into that particular media? It's possible.

Racicot says Bush "volunteered"
From an NPR interview, speaking about Bush:

"He volunteered to go to Vietnam."

That's news to me. And apparently it's news to a lot of people.

If the Bush team doesn't want this to be an issue come November, they should try ignoring it. But no....just as the issue is fading slightly they chuck another lie out there. Smooth, guys.

50 Marines head to Caribbean
If you had asked me six months ago where the next place we send troops to would be, I wouldn't have said Haiti.

From gays to guns
Arnold says:

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who Friday asked the state's attorney general to intervene, said allowing same-sex marriages would open a Pandora's box.

"Maybe the next thing is another city that hands out licenses for assault weapons, and someone else hand out licenses for selling drugs," the Republican governor said on NBC's "Meet the Press" Sunday.

Thanks Arny, who knew you were so capable of puking up such astounding insight?

And they said anger would lose elections
Anger at Bush is increasing.

They'll lie about anything
The WH admits to another one.

Unborn rights
Keep your eye on the movement to gain "rights for the unborn." The right is slowly making fetuses legally equal to grown adults.

FBI warnings on CDs and DVDs
Interesting. But....I'm sure the RIAA would still rather sue little kids who are downloading music. After all, why the hell not?

The Passion gets two thumbs up
But I guess giving it anything less would be blasphemy.

The 20th Century
A century for the liberals.

Nader is running
Ralph, I hate you.

If liberals actually do vote for him, we deserve what we get. The question is: do we want change or not?