• Hello. I’m Billy Blades. And so are you.
• Today the Iraqi government says that they want the US out of Iraq — including our military bases. This flies in the face of all of John McCain’s plans for permanent bases in Iraq and a 100-years war. What will he doooo?!?
• Speaking of John McCain, the old coot thinks that he’s much more highly regarded among vets than he really is. And btw, only people who have served have the right to question McCain’s judgment — oops! Make that: only people who have served AND who also agree with John McCain! And he doesn’t want to talk about being a POW — unless it’s in a freakin’ campaign commercial. Seriously?
• You’ve probably heard that those inbred polygamists who got busted earlier this year for letting old men knock up their daughters while they’re still little girls have their own clothing line. It turns out they let their daughters dress like flashy harlots.
• Remember when there were only 3 channels on TV (well, four if you were lucky enough to live in an area with a PBS station)? Have things changed all that much? Not really.
• Now here are a couple of stories that made me laugh out loud today: 1) That the man who never read a book might pretend to write one. and 2) That there are people out there who would consider it appropriate to put the same clueless moron, who can’t even quote Jefferson properly, in a classroom. With children.
• And speaking of George Bush, his buddy John McCain hates bloggers. Yeah, that whole free-flowing information thing sure does put a real crimp in the old bullshit spewer, don’t it?
• Those wacky internetizens are not done with Jesse Helms yet. They’re questioning his patriotism, calling him irrelevant and defeated, and remembering when his house was condemed! Oh, and Mike Huckabee loved and admired him.
• Charlie “110% Heterosexual” Crist is still in the news and Chris Matthews doesn’t love him.
• Are you a quilter? How about quilting for our nation’s wounded heroes?
• A guy in Cleveland, TN has figured out how to run a car on Chattanooga’s greatest natural resource (more here)!
• A Norwich woman spent the morning with a bat in her bra (via BoingBoing).
• Are you ready to wear a bracelet when you get on a plane? One that zaps you with a shock if you don’t behave?
• Here’s the latest from the awesome Improv Everywhere troupe!
• Worst. President. Ever.
• six-course lunch and 18-course dinner?!? Sheesh!

Really-really-wannabe-VP Charlie Crist is engaged to be married — to a woman!

Happy 4th!

There are roughly three New Yorks. There is, first, the New York of the man or woman who was born threre, who takes the city for granted and accepts its size, its turbulence as natural and inevitable. Second, there is the New York of the commuter — the city that is devoured by locusts each day and spat out each night. Third, there is the New York of the person who was born somewhere else and came to New York in quest of something….Commuters give the city its tidal restlessness, natives give it solidity and continuity, but the settlers give it passion.

Speaking of the City, an Ikea store just opened in Red Hook (amid some controversy), and to ease concerns about traffic congestion in the area, Ikea is offering free public transportation to and from the store. Eager consumers are already planning Ikea Hacks to take advantage of the company’s ground-breaking strategy.

But enough of the city and on to other random matters:

• The Eagles went and sold their souls to their corporate masters and Chris the wandering geneticist totally busts them for it. Nicely done.
• After jumping all over Michelle Obama’s patriotism will the right wing give John McCain a free pass? — or will they at least finally lay off the stupid non-story of what Michelle said?
• So, Charlie “Manhunt” Crist, caved in to the wishes of the Wonder Twins, McCain and Bush, and now thinks that we should drill for oil off the coast of Florida. But has he thought of the damage this could do to Florida’s tourist industry? For new leases that won’t start producing meaningful oil for 20-30 years? Maybe we should be truly innovative and think beyond politics: Here’s a funny thing. While the Republicans are arguing that drilling every square inch of America will cut fuel costs, study after study has shown that the effect will be both minimal and several years down the road. On the other hand, just dropping from 65 to 55 will net most cars a 10% savings in fuel costs. That’s far more than we’ll get by turning Florida into the Tar Sands State.
  Plus, Joe Biden rocks. UDPATE: or for instant savings, close the Enron loophole!
• Al Franken wants “to invest in America again.”
• I saw a lot of MSNBC’s hagiography (update: see Hitchens) after Tim Russert died, and while I understand that they were only trying to do right by the man after losing one of their own, it also made me a bit uncomfortable to listen to them go on and on about the greatness of Russert in what continues to be a field of failure — and as great a man as he was, it was a failure that Russert shared.
• I remember when my father would not pay more than 19¢ a pound for bananas. Those days are clearly over, never to return, and what’s more, the banana as we now know it may soon go extinct.
• Joe Lance is chasing down a story about voting and privacy that was prompted by a card he received in the mail.
• And finally, there’s lots more from the Tennessee blogosphere: Carole Borges wonders who we can trust in the medical field anymore, Tiny Cat finds something that’s just plain weird, and much, much more!

Here’s the thing: Politicians lie. The only thing that will keep them from lying is if they know they’ll pay a price. And the only ones who can make them pay that price are the reporters whose job it is to tell us what’s going on. Unless reporters are willing to step in when candidates are arguing over “facts” and tell you which side is being honest, there is absolutely no incentive for the politicians to tell the truth. Rudy may well now be saying, “Hell, how about next time we just say crime increased on Romney’s watch by a thousand percent? Who’s going to stop us?”

Via smijer:

Honestly, if they can’t be bothered to include the facts along with politician’s claims, they might as well just write about Elvis sightings and leave the news to someone else.

H/T, JQR

UPDATE: LOTS more here, including credibility questions that bring the story into a questionable light… but does that really matter?

But from a gay rights perspective, whether or not Lott actually had a liaison with Nicholas isn’t the most relevant detail of this story. It’s the familiarity of the storyline.

How often have we seen rabidly anti-gay leaders outed for their backroom dealings with gay escorts? It happens in every state and at every level of government. Homophobia is often homosexuality waiting to come out of the deepest, darkest, smelliest regions of the closet.

I hope that anti-gay crusaders will wake up one day and recognize that their leaders are wasting their time and energy on a self-hating wild goose chase. True or not, the Trent Lott story brings us closer to that day.

UPDATE: more from Larry Flint

Two years ago today, we lost a US city, and were reminded of why people who do not believe in government (and aren’t gay! Really! They’re NOT gay!) should not be allowed to run our government.

Also, Presidunce Awol McFlightsuit wants to flush another $50 billion into the hands of Dick (who apparently sometimes calls himself “Philip Atkinson“) and his friends at at Halliburton (these are the people who tell us we have nothing to fear but absolutely everything).

And then there’s this:

[N]ew census figures that show the number of people without health insurance increased by 2.2 million in 2006 to a grand total of 47 million. In terms of the overall population, 15.8 percent of people lacked insurance, which is the highest level since 1998. At a time when President Bush is in a fight with Congress over health insurance for children, the LAT points out the number of uninsured children grew by 600,000.

Folks, we can’t wait. This lame duck is a greater disaster for this country with every passing day. Men, women and children continue to be killed and permanently maimed and the draft-dodging decider refuses to do anything to stop it.

Impeach.

ps. Dear Democrats: I’m still waiting for you to do something. Anything!

The likes of Rev. Lou Sheldon at the Traditional Values Coalition and Tony Perkins, head of the Family Research Council, are demanding a “Come to Jesus Meeting” in the GOP to discuss expelling gays from the party’s corridors of power.

“Has the social agenda of the GOP been stalled by homosexual members and/or staffers?” asks Perkins.

He has a point, the Republicans have controlled all three branches of government for six years, but abortion is still legal and gays aren’t yet routinely rounded up and sent to forced reorientation camps.

But if “nuts” like Perkins and Wildmon want to cleanse all but God-fearing breeders from the party’s top ranks, will they stop with the Congress?

I wonder if that means that Andy Sullivan have to turn in his GOP membership card? Will Mary get kicked out of the Cheney family? Will Condi have to come up with some way to prove she’s het?

Once the witch burning has begun, how does one know when to stop?

To say that their attempts to coverup and, even worse, to rationalize a sexual predator’s behavior are disturbing is to make a dramatic understatement.

I’m very worried about some of these people — especially the ones who claim some ownership over “family values” and then demonstrate a complete lack of insight into what that phrase might really mean away from the cynical political stage that gives them the public’s ear. If these politicians and pundits and talking heads don’t, for example, understand the difference between preying on children and an affair with a consenting adult, can they be trusted to behave appropriately around, or on behalf of, our kids?

Meanwhile, Brit Hume of Fox News Sunday can’t fathom the difference between Bill Clinton’s extramarital affair with a consenting adult and the sicko criminal behavior of a dirty old Republican Congressman who preys on kids.

Hume said that while Foley is now “in total disgrace in his party,” Clinton’s “inappropriate behavior toward a subordinate [didn't] even cost Bill Clinton his standing in his party.”

Clearly, Mark Foley’s behavior has been disgusting. But are these men who dissemble on his behalf really any better? People talk about the Republican Culture of Corruption (before Foley, we saw Randy “Duke” Cunningham, Tom DeLay and Rep. Bob Ney go down in flames), but this takes the unsavory factor to a whole new level.

UPDATE: House Speaker Dennis Hastert has pulled mention of protecting children in cyberspace off of his web site. What is the message he’s trying to send?