Roundup: Green Blood and Near Beer Edition
- POLITICS: Department of things that should be perfectly obvious to everyone: Colin Powell says we should close Guantanamo. “Essentially, we have shaken the belief the world had in America’s justice system by keeping a place like Guantanamo open and creating things like the military commission. We don’t need it and it is causing us far more damage than any good we get for it.”
- The AP photographs Bush drinking what apparently is “near beer.” Various blogs point out that “near beer” is not free of alcohol, and is considered dangerous for alcoholics.
- “Fired by the Universe”: Eli at Weather Head has the ultimate analysis of the Gonzales/fired attorneys scandal — it must be understood as a time travel science fiction story. (Just go read it.)
- Obama does a good job of refusing to be baited by a bad question.
- Bush’s buddy Bandar busted by the BBC. “A Saudi prince received secret payments from the UK’s biggest arms dealer, a BBC investigation has revealed. BAE Systems made regular payments of hundreds of millions of pounds to Prince Bandar bin Sultan for more than a decade … The Prince served for 20 years as Saudi ambassador to the US.” As Jonathan Schwartz at This Modern World reminds us, “Two days after the 9/11 attacks, the President asked Bandar to come to the White House. Bush embraced him and escorted him to the Truman balcony. Bandar had a drink and the two men smoked cigars.”
- THE PINK SECTION: Bush’s nominee for surgeon general is a wacked-out, twisted homophobe. (Via Atrios.)
- While I’m praising Obama, he made a great statement on the aforementioned nominee: “America’s top doctor should be a doctor for all Americans, and so I have serious reservations about nominating someone who would inject his own anti-gay ideology into critical decisions about the health and well-being of our nation,” Obama said. “As with other nominees, I will listen to the testimony of Dr. James Holsinger, but this Administration must know that the United States Surgeon General’s office is no place for bigotry or ideology that would trump sound science and good judgment.†The other candidates will have to clear a high bar to say it better than that.
- 15 year old boy in Wales commits suicide by lying down in front of a train, in response to anti-gay bullying by his schoolmates. Just before he died, he used his mobile phone to send a text message to family members, reading: “Tell everyone that this is for anybody who eva said anything bad about me, see I do have feelings too. Blame the people who were horrible and injust 2 me. This is because of them, I am human just like them. I hope they rot in hell 4 what they made me do. They know who they are.†He added: “None of you blame urself mum, dad, Sam and the rest of my family. This is not because of you.†(Via Towleroad.)
- TECH: On a much brighter note, Julie Amero’s conviction was reversed, and she’s getting a new trial. Thank heaven for small mercies.
- TEEVEE: Just came across this article with more on the Heroes: Origin spinoff and how it relates to the main series.
- MUSIC: The B-52’s new album has been pushed back again — apparently now it’s slated for early 2008. Well, at least they got a nice piece in the Post.
- Arab pop stars perform to raise funds for Darfur.
- THE COMICS SECTION: Tom the Dancing Bug has Super-Fun-Pax Comics, including “Science Facts for the Immature” and “Cool White Guys Using Ten-Year-Old Black Slang.”
- Opus: Davie Dinkle has two moms.
- Bob Geiger has the Saturday cartoon roundup.
- THE SOCK DRAWER: Via Jason, how to translate Comment Troll into English.
- Vulcans among us: patient in Canada bleeds green blood. (h/t Jorjet)
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Sure, Bush drinks Near Beer and only gets hand jobs…nobody crosses any sinful lines in THAT house! :-)