TALIBAMA DREAMIN'
"The other night I dreamed that Roy Moore was elected governor."
(ANNISTON STAR, unearthed by Joe Paul)

IRAQ REALITY CHECK
What if the war in Iraq were happening in New York State? What would it be like? In reality, the numbers are roughly comparable. The state has 19 million people. Iraq has 25 million. Baghdad's population is about 6 million. New York City's is 8 million.
(VILLAGE VOICE)
FOR A BEAUTIFUL TRIBUTE TO THE GUYS AND GALS WHO ARE OVER THERE CLICK HERE
(Suggested by Marsh Acker)

SPONGEBOB SEEN WITH UNDERAGE TELETUBBY, PINK POWERRANGER IS JEALOUS
First it was the spate of the SpongeBob rob jobs from local Burger Kings. Now the little yellow guy who lives in a pineapple under the sea is at the center of a far grimmer controversy, again not of his own making. Two conservative Christian groups attacking the cartoon character for allegedly being part of, as one of them put it, a "pro-homosexual video." CLICK HERE FOR OTHER COMMENTARY
CLICK HERE FOR AN EXAMPLE OF THE 'DEBATE' AMONGST THESE 'CHRISTIANS' or CLICK HERE FOR A LINK TO JUST GOOD OLE REACTIONARIES(MSNBC, unearthed by Joel Sogol)

MOBILE BUSH PROTEST
While hundreds of Alabamians were in Washington celebrating the second term of President Bush, a few of their fellow citizens staged a shadow inauguration Thursday in Mobile with a different take on the nation's leader. CLICK HERE FOR OTHER PROTESTS

(MOBILE RESITER and COMMON DREAMS)

MIA: MANDATE
"President Bush will begin his second term in office without a clear mandate to lead the nation, with strong disapproval of his policies in Iraq and with the public both hopeful and dubious about his leadership on the issues that will dominate his agenda, according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll. "
(WASH POST)

CHINESE INFLUENCE IN CUBA GROWS
Saw the Mayor today at the Blockbuster, he told me that the Chinese are strengthening their influence in Cuba. Found this related story in the Kansas City Star: "In his first visit to Cuba, Chinese President Hu Jintao lent strong political support to this besieged nation but also came bearing gifts, including $500 million for a new nickel plant and $15 million for education, health and other areas. Hu even pledged late last month to finance the manufacture of 1 million television sets on the island."
(KANSAS CITY STAR)

THE BLUES ARE SEEING RED
"The major political battles this year in Washington may not be between Democrats and Republicans in Congress, but between the states and the federal government. 'The principle of federalism has gotten lost in the weeds by a Republican Congress that was elected to uphold it in 1994,' said Senator Lamar Alexander, a Republican and former governor of Tennessee who is an advocate for states on Capitol Hill. 'Conservatives are as bad as liberals about imposing mandates once they come to Washington.'"
(NYT)

ALL THE PRESIDENT'S NEWSMEN
" The Jan. 7 edition of "Crossfire," CNN's can stand as an exceptionally ripe paradigm of what is happening to the free flow of information in a country in which a timid news media, the fierce (and often covert) Bush administration propaganda machine, lax and sometimes corrupt journalistic practices, and a celebrity culture all combine to keep the public at many more than six degrees of separation from anything that might resemble the truth when it failed miserably to take Armstrong Williams, a conservative commentator, talk-show host and newspaper columnist to task for his role as the frontman for a scheme in which $240,000 of taxpayers' money was quietly siphoned to him through the Department of Education and a private p.r. firm so that he would "regularly comment" upon the Bush administration's No Child Left Behind policy in various media venues during an election year.
(NYT)

CHEERLEADERS' PHOTOS POSTED ON PORN SITE
"Parents and students at Thomas S. Wootton High School were horrified when the dozen or so photos of their varsity cheerleaders popped up on a pornographic Web site in November, endangering the squad's chances of participating in an annual competition and raising questions about privacy and propriety."
(WASHINGTON POST)

WHAT'S NEXT? BOBBLEHEAD LAWYER JOKES
"The Birmingham law office of Tommy Spina started receiving an unusually high number calls in October requesting not the lawyer's legal services, but his resemblance on a bobblehead doll."
(TUSCALOOSA NEWS, unearthed by Joel Sogol)

BEYOND THE BLING
"Income inequality in the U.S. began climbing 30 years ago, reversing a nearly 50-year trend. And the prison population has soared. Hardest hit have been African Americans, whose folk culture has made cash registers ring. America is now No. 1 in the percentage of its population in prison and No. 1 in income inequality among industrialized nations. Read this story for some real statistics"
(VILLAGE VOICE)

MOORE PUBLISHES BOOK
In a new book, 'So Help Me God,' Former Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore describes the night of July 31, 2001, as he sat alone in his state courthouse office awaiting delivery of a Ten Commandments monument he wanted to install in the rotunda as the completion of a lifelong mission to use his position as the state's highest judge to publicly display a symbol of his religion."
(AP, unearthed by Bill Messick)

MEMO SHOWS GONZALES REJECTED RECONSIDERATION OF BUSH'S TORTURE POSITION
"Gonzales reconsidered, at the request of Secretary of State Colin Powell, Bush's decision "that al Qaeda and Taliban detainees are not prisoners of war under the [Geneva Convention]." After detailing arguments for and against prisoner of war status, the White House Counsel concluded that "[o]n balance, I believe that the arguments for reconsideration and reversal are unpersuasive." (January 25, 2002)
(FINDLAW)

PROVE IT
"Attorneys defending Jose Padilla, an American accused of participating in an al-Qaida plot to set off a 'dirty bomb' have issued a challenge to federal prosecutors: prove it or free him."
(FINDLAW)

STATE OF EMERGENCY EXTENDED IN IRAQ
"Iraq extended a state of emergency for another 30 days on Thursday because of continued insurgent attacks in the country. The state of emergency, originally announced two months ago, will continue throughout Iraq except for the Kurdish run areas north of the country, interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi's office said in a statement."
(FINDLAW)