May 2, 2009 archive

Walter Reed celebrates 100 years at forefront of medical research.

Once in a blue moon I stumble across  an essay by Mark Morford and, as always, I am automatically compelled to share it with other Progressives. For better or worse, Morford has a style you don’t easily forget. He can make you laugh and cry all in the same sentence.  

Evil overlords to flaccid clowns in the blink of Jesus’ eye. Adorable!

Mark Morford:

This much we know: Hand evil a big, sticky gob of power, and it quickly becomes a feral monster, dangerous and cruel and willing to sell its own shriveled heart and the heart of its very remorseful mother for a shot at everlasting infamy, even more power and maybe some fresh, raw kitten blood, intravenously, just for the hell of it.

Oh, but take that same vile leviathan and suddenly strip away all its power and influence and capacity for wickedness, and watch it deflate like a wheezing circus tent, quickly turning into a trembling caricature of its former self, a tiny, elfin thing small enough to fit into a shoebox of panic and pathos and residual Godspit.

[…]

But weep not for Miss California, who’s happy as a Prozac clam to take on the title as the new face of Republican hetero marriage. Isn’t she lovely? A skinny, fake-breasted blonde mouthful of air who does exactly as she’s told and never questions her scary Bible and doesn’t really like sex and you want to stick that thing where? Ewww! She’s perfect.

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With No Nominee’s

Name Forwarded

The Republicans Are

Already Complaining    

In Pakistan, U.S. Courts Leader of Opposition



By HELENE COOPER and MARK MAZZETTI

Published: May 1, 2009

WASHINGTON – As American confidence in the Pakistani government wanes, the Obama administration is reaching out more directly than before to Nawaz Sharif, the chief rival of Asif Ali Zardari, the Pakistani president, administration officials said Friday.

American officials have long held Mr. Sharif at arm’s length because of his close ties to Islamists in Pakistan, but some Obama administration officials now say those ties could be useful in helping Mr. Zardari’s government to confront the stiffening challenge by Taliban insurgents.

The move reflects the heightened concern in the Obama administration about the survivability of the Zardari government.

‘Abu Ghraib US prison guards were scapegoats for Bush’ lawyers claim

From The Times

May 2, 2009

Tim Reid in Washington

Prison guards jailed for abusing inmates at the Abu Ghraib jail in Iraq are planning to appeal against their convictions on the ground that recently released CIA torture memos prove that they were scapegoats for the Bush Administration.

The photographs of prisoner abuse at the Baghdad jail in 2004 sparked worldwide outrage but the previous administration, from President Bush down, blamed the incident on a few low-ranking “bad apples” who were acting on their own.

The decision by President Obama to release the memos showed that the harsh interrogation tactics were approved and authorised at the highest levels of the White House.

USA

Obama calls ’empathy’ key to Supreme Court pick

Interest groups are already lobbying for a woman, minority or solid liberal to succeed Justice David Souter. Obama says he puts empathy, intelligence and independence before ideology.

By Janet Hook and Christi Parsons

May 2, 2009

Reporting from Washington — A debate among Democrats over who should replace Justice David H. Souter on the Supreme Court began emerging Friday between those eager to return the court to its liberal era of 40 years ago and those who are wary of tacking too far to the left.

But President Obama, who will choose the nominee, focused not on volatile ideological questions but on personal character, saying he wanted someone with “empathy” for “people’s hopes and struggles.”

Making a surprise appearance in the White House press briefing room, Obama told reporters that he had just talked with Souter by phone about his retirement, which is to take effect at the end of this court term, probably in June. It was the first official confirmation of the justice’s departure.

Obama said that in considering a successor for Souter, he was looking for a “sharp and independent mind” and a sense of compassion.

B-52’s

TUFF STUFF

Forty-year-old Orix Buffaloes slugger Tuffy Rhodes hit his 444th home run in Japanese baseball, tying him for 12th place on the NPB career list with former Yomiuri Giants star Shigeo Nagashima.

Excommunicated Japanese sumo wrestler Wakakirin admitted during his drug trial that he was a regular pot smoker, even lighting up at his stable at times. “Yo dude, pass the chanko nabe!”

A junior high soccer coach in Niigata was given a year-long suspension by the Japan Football Association for ordering his team to throw a futsal match. His boys scored six own-goals in a 7-0 loss At a time when many Japanese are decrying the lack of solid local sumo wrestlers, Mongolian yokozuna Hakuho told reporters that he’d like to see even more foreign wrestlers in the raised ring.

Six people were hurt when a 27-meter-tall crane collapsed at a Tokyo worksite, cutting off traffic on a busy road in Kojimachi.

A survey taken during WWII to determine whether Korean students were “ideologically sound” was discovered by a teacher at an Osaka high school.

A junior high social studies textbook was deemed to have 516 “flaws” in it, the education ministry reported.