PATIENT DIES DURING TELEVISED OPERATION
"Hundreds of doctors watched on live video as Italian surgeons replaced a man's heart valve without cutting open his chest. Then something went wrong. The valve was in place, but his heart was failing as the live telecast to Washington ended. Two hours later, the 77-year-old died in a Milan hospital."
(FINDLAW/AP)

TORTURE BY PROXY
"Our intelligence agencies have a name for this torture-by-proxy. They call it 'extraordinary rendition.' As one intelligence official explained: 'We don't kick the s -- out of them. We send them to other countries so they can kick the s -- out of them.' "
(SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE topic suggested by Joel Sogol)

DEBATE PRIMER
"At first glance, the candidates' assertions may have the ring of truth. But on close examination, many of their pronouncements turn out to be exaggerated, lacking in context or wrong. "
(WASHINGTON POST)

FOURTH ESTATE OR FIFTH COLUMN?
"If you were watching the network evening news in June, July and August, you would have seen somewhat favorable coverage of John Kerry -- six out of 10 evaluations were positive -- and somewhat unfavorable coverage of President Bush.
If you were watching Fox News Channel's 6 p.m. newscast, you would have seen about the same coverage of the president. But Kerry's evaluations were negative by a 5 to 1 margin."
(WASHINGTON POST)

HANDY TOOLBAR LETS YOU KEEP UP WITH POLITICS
Here's a pretty valuable little toolbar: Vote121, a browser toolbar that brings all the latest campaign news and opinion straight to your browser. Without interrupting your normal browsing routine, you can learn more about the presidential candidates, get an active countdown to the election and an up-to-the-minute display of the projected election results – and it’s all free! -- Vote121 Toolbar.
And, thanx to Paul Whitehurst who steered me to Political State Report. The site, which is hosted by Temple Stark, is dedicated to giving its readers thoughts and facts about politics and politicians in all 50 states, and DC.
From that site I found some nice Alabama sites:
VoteLaw,
my friend Ed Still's blog from Birmingham.
States Writes
a Progressive Peer Directory from The American Street.
Alabama Politics
"Political news and commentary from the Heart of Dixie."
Illruminations
another interesting site whose motto is "It's more complicated than that."
The World Around You
An informed perspective on local (Prattville/Montgomery), state (Alabama), regional (southeast), national (US), and world politics and events.
The Haze Filter
DESPERATELY SEEKING SOME CLARITY IN THIS MADHOUSE WE CALL OUR WORLD!

CAT STEVENS TO BE DEPORTED
"Reuter's is reporting that former pop singer Cat Stevens, a Muslim, will be deported to Britain because his activities could be 'linked to terrorism,' a U.S. official said on Wednesday.
In case you've forgotten, Stevens was the composer of, among many hits, Peace Train:
Now, I've been cryin' lately,
Thinkin' about the world as it is.
Why must we go on hating?
Why can't we live in bliss?

(REUTER'S)

"SMOKETOWN SIX" CHARGED FOR FLASHING PREZ
"Six Lancaster city men are headed to court next month, accused of dropping their pants this summer in protest during President George W. Bush's visit to Smoketown Elementary School. Each of the self-monikered 'Smoketown Six' has been charged with one count of disorderly conduct for stripping down to thong underwear minutes before the president's bus rolled by on its way to the school."
(POLITICAL STATE REPORT, unearthed by Paul Whitehurst)

GUANTANAMO DIARY
There is a sense here that the U.S. military leaders overseeing these trials are making much up as they go. This confounds the very notion of the "rule of law." Here, the Presiding Officer writes a memoranda and that becomes the law. And yet, the memos and documents to date do not answer really basic practical questions. Someone will ask, "May I have access to this piece of evidence?" and will be told by the Presiding Officer, "Well, I don't know."
(HUMAN RIGHTS FIRST)

SUNSHINE PATRIOTS
"The GOP's champions of this war had a hard time finding their own way to the battlefield"
(VILLAGE VOICE)

PART-TIME CONTSTITUTION
"Four suspected al Qaeda terrorists will face military trials this week at the Navy base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in historic legal proceedings that have not been conducted by the U.S. government since World War II and are unlike anything most Americans face in the criminal justice system," The Washington Post reports.
The Cato Project's Handbook for Congress warns against the establishment of military tribunals for civilians, noting that the Constitution's jury trial clause is "not a 'peace provision' that can be suspended during wartime."
(CATO PROJECT)

JOINT MOTIONS
"A group of 38 California medical marijuana patients filed legal motions on Tuesday asking the federal government to give them back their pot worth nearly a million dollars. "
(REUTER'S, unearthed by Paul Whitehurst)

THOU SHOULDN'T
"Ten teachers of Christian ethics at leading seminaries and universities have written a letter to President Bush criticizing his campaign's outreach to churches, particularly its effort to gather church membership directories. "
(WASHINGTON POST)

WWJD?
"Jesus was a social liberal. He liked a party, attended many. His first miracle was to turn water into wine for a wedding feast. He consorted, even dined, with sinners, the disfranchised, the poor, the homeless, the jobless, the lame and the afflicted. He talked to women on a level playing field, even to an oft-divorced and wanton woman, and dared anyone to cast aspersions, much less stones, at her."
(MINISTRY OF TRUTH, unearthed by Joe Paul)

DIXIE BUCKS BUSH ON CUBA
Thirty-five states sold $700 million in supplies to Cuba since 2001. And Southerners possess the ports where tons of powdered milk, poultry, soybeans and other items set sail for Havana....
Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour is Bush's statewide campaign manager, yet Gulfport and Pascagoula ports shipped $50 million in goods to Cuba last year. Bible Belt businessmen at the Mississippi Development Authority's recent summit on Cuban trade want even bigger deals with Cuba, which has been under embargo since the 1960s.
(MISSISSIPPI SUN HERALD, unearthed by Cuba News Digest)

DIDDLY AWARDS
A tribute to the most profligate, prejudiced, and just plain pigheaded members of Congress.
(MOTHER JONES, unearthed by Joel Sogol)