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)

GAG REFLEX
Chuck Shepherd's News of the Weird, a recap of news about stupid people and things reports that Tim Ekelman, 33, was hospitalized in Hamilton, Ontario, in 1998 with a collapsed lung, a sliced throat and voice-box damage after he, believing there was nothing to it, attempted to swallow a friend's 40-inch-long sword.
(MSN)

DOG ODS
"A police sniffer dog died of a suspected overdose while out hunting for drugs, British police said. Todd, a 7-year-old Springer spaniel, had been looking for drugs in a field and car in Preston, northern England, when his handler noticed he was looking unwell."
(PAKISTAN DAILY TIMES, unearthed by Kate Varner)

"THE BOSS" STUMPS AGAINST "NUMBER 1"
"Bruce Springsteen, Dave Matthews, the Dixie Chicks, Babyface and more than a dozen other stars are fanning out to play concerts in the most hotly contested terrain of the presidential election. MoveOn.org, a group dedicated to defeating President Bush, yesterday announced the 'Vote for Change Tour,' which will land in 34 cities in nine states.
CLICK HERE FOR SPRINGTEEN'S OP-ED PIECE IN NYT"
(WASHINGTON POST AND NEW YORK TIMES)

WHITHER THE TRUTH?
These are incredibly difficult issues and an honest search for solutions can only come from a sustained effort by the broadest array of America's brightest and wisest men and women. What the U.S. really needs is leadership that could marshal that effort.
Unfortunately, we've become a society addicted to the fantasy of a quick fix. We want our solutions encompassed in a sound bite. We want our leaders to manipulate reality to our liking.
(NYT)

MRS. C's MISSION
After the toxic life of the wreckage at ground zero, patients like David O'Neal, a day laborer in Local 79, and Joseph Lebretti, a Local 580 ironworker, thank the doctors. Who do the doctors thank? Who do the unions thank? Hillary Clinton.
(VILLAGE VOICE)

HOBBESIAN?

I was reading the article below (NUMBER TWO) that called Cheney a "Hobbesian". Given that I am prone to using metaphors and images I thought I would follow that trail to refresh my memory about Thomas Hobbes. I Found the definition on a website that is very interesting. Some professor at Oregon State has put together an instructional site (click here)that has a wealth of information and that is quite fun. If you just want the bare bones part of the site go to the site map link.

DEFENSE OR EMPIRE? Ultimately, the real rationale for missile defense is to protect U.S. forces so they can engage in military intervention throughout the world to enforce a Pax Americana -- a strategy of empire by another name. ... A better alternative -- especially given the post-September 11, 2001, realities of the al-Qaeda terrorist threat -- is for the United States to adopt a more restrained foreign policy." (CATO INSTITUTE)

THAT'S RICH
How do you determine who's rich, middle class or poor? President Bush weighed has clairified things with a broad, new definition of rich and not rich.
(WASHINGTON POST)

SHADOW GOVERNMENT
"A 43-page, painstakingly annotated report, 'Ending Secret Detentions,' by Human Rights First (formerly named the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights). claims that the the U.S. is holding prisoners in more than two dozen secret detention facilities worldwide. "At least half of these operate in total secrecy...these offshore prisons are 'beyond the reach of adequate supervision, accountability, or law [and the Geneva Conventions]. "
(VILLAGE VOICE)

NUMBER TWO
"Dick Cheney Is a Hobbesian whose doom-laden vision of life as a dog-eat-dog struggle has not only defined our nation's foreign policy but his own public persona."
(VILLAGE VOICE)

SAME SEX MARRIAGE AMENDMENT FLIP-FLOP
"This week the Senate formally debated the Federal Marriage Amendment (FMA) - which would change the U.S. Constitution to eliminate the right of any state to permit same-sex marriage. Having failed to muster sufficient votes to bring it to the floor for a vote, Republican leaders have avowed to continue efforts to pass such a constitutional amendment, though. But, only eight years ago, they were advocating the opposite solution: Rather than federalizing the issue of same-sex marriage, they advocated leaving it to the states. "
(FINDLAW)