Virginia Blogging Summit: "Thanks to the efforts of Waldo Jaquith and Chad Dotson (aka John Behan), the esteemed Sorensen Institute for Political Leadership at University of Virginia will be offering the first Summit on Blogging and Democracy in the Commonwealth on August 27.

The mission of the summit is twofold:

1)To promote commonwealth over partisanship among political bloggers in Virginia.
2)To explore efforts to regulate political blogging."

(Via Democracy for Virginia.)

AlterNet: MediaCulture: Crying 'anti-Americanism': "Fox News speaks up for the poor, downtrodden white male.

'Special interest groups' is a phrase that conservative pundits use to describe various advocacy groups that, when added all together, constitute the majority of Americans.

Though it may be unintentional, it's a classic example of divide-and-conquer.

African-American advocacy groups? No, special interest groups, coded language that really means 'those minorities are trying to impose their narrow and selfish agenda on the majority, which is obviously wrong because in a democracy, majority rules (as if the Founding Fathers didn't Constitutionalize legal parameters to protect minorities from what is called 'the tyranny of the majority').

Womens rights advocacy? Special interests.

Gay and lesbian organizations? Immoral special interests."

(Via AlterNet.)

Who Really Made the Revolution?: "Now I agree that veterans have been shortchanged, but not because they are disrespected by the general public. It’s this war-happy administration which tried to cut veteran’s benefits and underfund veteran's hospitals, even as men and women were coming home from Iraq hideously maimed or mind sick from stress. The philosophy of the Bush administration is talk big and carry a twig, aka fight wars on the cheap. It hasn’t worked in Afghanistan, where the Taliban are resurgent, or in Iraq, which has proved the shamefully humiliated Gen. Shinseki absolutely correct on necessary troop levels. (To obtain a correct figure on troop levels (and war costs) in Iraq, you have to add in all the recently privatized, sub-contracted once-military functions and count not only their employees in Iraq, but also all the back up people, not to mention lobbyists, in the US and elsewhere.) In the end, Congressional Democrats shamed their Republican colleagues into upping the money for veterans in the impending Federal budget."

(Via WhirledView.)

Sticking Feathers Up Your Butt Does Not Make You A Chicken...: "...just like claiming that’[President Bush] took advantage of every possibility to try to resolve this without having to use military force’ doesn’t make it true – even if you’re the Vice President.

Yes, ACW readers know that the administration was lying. But the administration and its right –wing fluffers keep insisting that Bush exhausted all peaceful options. And those clowns need to be rebutted."

The real reason to check the link is for the graphic. It's wonderful.

(Via ArmsControlWonk.com.)

Illinois to Pay for Cell Research: "Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich signed an executive order on Tuesday making Illinois the fourth state to devote public money to embryonic stem cell research."

(Via The New York Times > Washington.)

RNC Chief to Say It Was 'Wrong' to Exploit Racial Conflict for Votes: "It was called 'the southern strategy,' started under Richard M. Nixon in 1968, and described Republican efforts to use race as a wedge issue -- on matters such as desegregation and busing -- to appeal to white southern voters."

Past tense? Oh yeah, now it's Arabs and Homosexuals, completely different.

(Via A Section.)

Was Ari the Other Leaker?: "Bloomberg News raised eyebrows today with this vague mention of former White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer:

People familiar with the inquiry say Fitzgerald also is reviewing testimony by former White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer, though it is not clear whether the prosecutor is focusing on him or seeking information about higher-ups. Fleischer last night refused to comment.

This actually isn’t the first time Fleischer has been mentioned in connection to Plamegate — a Los Angeles Times report from last October noted that Fleischer has denied he was one of the leakers.

But we know he has been interviewed by the FBI in relation to the leak. And it’s worth noting that Fleischer was among the very first Bush officials to go on the record criticizing Wilson. "

(Via Think Progress.)

doctor's orders: "Dear Dr. Dean:

We at Night Light conducted a poll of likely Democratic voters, asking them to suggest which topic they would like to see you publicly address next in your role as DNC Chair.   Here's what we found:   The largest group of voters would like to see you address the Downing Street memo and its implications, closely followed by the topics of 'Halliburton & Republican War Profiteering' and my personal favorite, 'The GOP's the Crookedest Bunch of Guys Since the Hole-in-the-Wall Gang.'  Several people mentioned Social Security, but the Republicans seem to be sucking wind on that one already.   Judging from their comments and emails, I might add that our voters support you wholeheartedly.  While there are only a couple hundred of them, they represent a much larger group out there. "

(Via Night Light.)

Kentucky Governor's Subordinates Indicted: "Members of Kentucky Governor Ernie Fletcher's staff have been indicted for their politically motivated attacks on Democrats who work for the state:

A special grand jury indicted three of Gov. Ernie Fletcher's subordinates, including his deputy chief of staff, on various misdemeanor charges, including criminal conspiracy and political discrimination."

(Via DNC: Kicking Ass.)

Is Virginia About to Execute an Innocent Man?: "Robin Lovitt was convicted based on DNA evidence that has now been destroyed.  The only witness to clearly identify Lovitt as the attacker was a jailhouse snitch.  At his trial, prosecutors claimed that DNA test results showed that the victim’s blood was on the murder weapon and that Robin Lovitt’s sweat was left on the murder weapon.  In fact, the only identifying allele was one that is common to 35% of the male African-American population, including Robin Lovitt.  None of the blood found on Robin Lovitt’s jacket matched the victim, which would be expected if he were the actual murderer.

The use of current DNA techniques would likely exonerate Robin Lovitt, as in the case of Earl Washington, the only exoneree from Virginia’s death row.  But we’ll never know because the evidence has been destroyed."

(Via Democracy for Virginia.)

Salon.com Politics: "The head of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting defended his leadership Monday, telling Congress he's seeking political balance in public-affairs programming and is not bent on silencing liberal voices.

Kenneth Y. Tomlinson, a Republican, has come under fire in recent months for complaining about 'Now with Bill Moyers' -- saying the television show's 'left-wing bias' was unhealthy and jeopardized support for public broadcasting. Moyers has since left the show.

Tomlinson's hiring of GOP lobbyists and a consultant to track the political leaning of guests on Moyers' show also has raised the ire of Democratic lawmakers and public-interest groups, and it is the subject of an investigation by the corporation's inspector general."

(Via Salon.)

Salon.com Politics: "There are still plenty of questions about Karl Rove's involvement in the Valerie Plame case, and we trust that special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald will eventually get to the bottom of them. But given what we know today, the very best that anyone can say of Karl Rove is that, on July 11, 2003, he broke the cover of a CIA analyst in order to discredit criticism of the way George W. Bush used intelligence in the run-up to the Iraq war.

That's not partisan hyperbole; incredibly, it is Karl Rove's defense."

No matter how much I wish I could, you can't make this shit up.

(Via Salon.)

Schneier on Security: London Transport Bombings: "I am on vacation today and this weekend, and won't be able to read about the London Transport bombings in depth until Monday. For now I would just like to express my sympathy and condolences to those directly affected, and the good people of London, England, Europe, and the world. Targeting innocents might be an effective tactic, but that doesn't make it any less craven and despicable.

I would also like to urge everyone not to get wrapped up in the particulars of the terrorist tactics. We need to resist the urge to react against the particulars of this particular terrorist plot, and to keep focused on the terrorists' goals. Spending billions to defend our trains and busses at the expense of other counterterrorist measures makes no sense. Terrorists are out to cause terror, and they don't care if they bomb trains, busses, shopping malls, theaters, stadiums, schools, markets, restaurants, discos, or any other collection of 100 people in a small space. There are simply too many targets to defend, and we need to think smarter than protecting the particular targets the terrorists attacked last week."

(Via Schneier on Security.)

Memo says US, UK preparing for Iraq pullout | AfterDowningStreet.org: "A leaked document from Britain's Defence Ministry says the British and US governments are planning to reduce their troop levels in Iraq by more than half by mid-2006, the Mail on Sunday newspaper reported.

The memo, reportedly written by the Defence Minister, John Reid, said Britain would reduce its troop numbers to 3,000 from 8,500 by the middle of next year.

'We have a commitment to hand over to Iraqi control in Al Muthanna and Maysan provinces [two of the four provinces under British control in southern Iraq] in October 2005 and in the other two, Dhi Qar and Basra, in April 2006,' the memo was reported to have said."

(Via AfterDowningStreet.org.)