A post by George Lakoff, over at Rockridge Nation, (via C&L), addresses conservative name-calling of the “Aw you liberals just hate America” type.

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If you didn’t see this game try and catch the highlights. Whew it was a good one! Da Bears won it in overtime.

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Jack McDuff
“Rock Candy”

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An interview with Noam Chomsky from Information Clearing House (video here):

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Three years ago, The Sunday Times published flight logs of CIA civilian jets in Europe, setting off a controversy over the whether countries across the continent have been secretly involved in America’s rendition of terrorist suspects to countries that carry out torture.

The row is now set to be reignited. Inquiries by Ana Gomes, a Portuguese member of the European parliament, have uncovered not only more CIA flight logs but also more sensitive military flight plans, which until now have remained a closely guarded secret.

The logs show how most prisoners changed planes at a Turkish military airbase and flew across Greek, Italian and Portuguese airspace. Others reached Cuba after touching down in Spain, whose governing socialist party once expressed indignation at conditions in Guantanamo.

The flight logs show that three Britons - Shafiq Rasul, Jamal Udeen and Asif Iqbal - were flown across Europe to Cuba on January 14, 2002. Moazzam Begg, another Briton, was taken by the same route to Guantanamo on February 2, 2003; and Binyam Mohamed, a British resident whose release the British government is now trying to negotiate, arrived in Cuba after crossing Europe in a special flight in September 2004.

According to the flight plans, the first 23 prisoners to arrive at Guantanamo - including another British citizen, Feroz Abbasi, then 21, and an Australian, David Hicks - had arrived at the American naval base in Cuba after flying from the Moron airbase in Spain.

Abbasi has claimed in a statement that prisoners were abused within hours of arriving. “We were made to sit on our heels, one foot over the other, supported by one foot’s toes alone, for hours. Some of us were old, weak, fatigued, and injured - they were the ones to drop first in the searing Caribbean heat.”

Described by the Pentagon as the “worst of the worst” from Al-Qaeda and the Taliban, the images of prisoners such as Abbasi dressed in orange jumpsuits, their heads shaved and shackled by their wrists and ankles, shocked the world. Within a day, Donald Rumsfeld, then US defence secretary, announced that the Geneva conventions would not apply to what were now called “enemy combatants”.

Full article at Times Online

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WOW! So it’s not just progressives who can see the FOX News slant. So much for “Fair and Balanced”.

Former Sen. Fred Thompson (R-Tenn.) suggested on Sunday that Fox News is biased against his campaign, charging that the network highlights commentators who have been critical of his run for the presidency.

In an interview on “Fox News Sunday,” host Chris Wallace pressed Thompson on how some conservatives have lambasted Thompson’s campaign and showed clips of Fox conservative commentators Charles Krauthammer and Fred Barnes criticizing the former senator.
[...]

Thompson, in a firm, but measured tone, scolded Wallace: “…for you to highlight nothing but the negatives in terms of the polls and then put on your own guys who have been predicting for four months, really, that I couldn’t do it, kind of skew things a little bit. There’s a lot of other opinion out there.”

Thompson should be pissed. Everyone knows FOX News favors Rudy.

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I hate these things and think they should be banned. Why is it all the sudden cops can’t do their jobs without them? They’ve tasered kids, grandmas, people in wheelchairs……. it’s ridiculous.

A United Nations committee said Friday that use of Taser weapons can be a form of torture, in violation of the U.N. Convention Against Torture.

Use of the electronic stun devices by police has been marked with a sudden rise in deaths - including four men in the United States and two in Canada within the last week.

Canadian authorities are taking a second look at them, and in the United States, there is a wave of demands to BAN them.

The U.N. Committee Against Torture referred Friday to the use of TaserX26 weapons which Portuguese police has acquired. An expert had testified to the committee that use of the weapons had “proven risks of harm or death.

More at CBS News

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Garry Kasparov, the former chess champion and opposition leader, was arrested Saturday and sentenced to five days in jail after trying to lead a march to the offices of the federal election authorities.

Mr. Kasparov was taken into custody during a scuffle between protesters and security officers on the route to the offices, where he had intended to present a letter asserting that the parliamentary election on Dec. 2 was biased toward President Vladimir V. Putin’s party.

Taken into a small bus, he gave a victory sign through the back window as he was being driven away.

On Saturday night, a Moscow judge ordered him to serve five days in jail for holding an unauthorized march. City officials had given his loose opposition coalition, Other Russia, permission to conduct a rally on Saturday, but not a march.

In a statement, Mr. Kasparov said the court proceedings had been “a choreographed farce from beginning to end.” He added, “It was a symbol of what has happened to justice and the rule of law under Putin.”

More at the New York Times

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Hey Scottie……if you’re out there, tell us what you think of Rudd. I know there are MANY Aussies glad to be rid of Howard.

Australia’s new prime minister, Kevin Rudd, made climate change his top priority on Sunday, seeking advice on ratifying the Kyoto pact and telling Indonesia he will go to December’s UN climate summit in Bali.

Rudd, who swept aside 11 years of conservative rule by John Howard in Saturday elections, also spoke to U.S. President George W. Bush by phone, but would not say when he planned to start a promised withdrawal of 500 Australian combat troops from Iraq.

“I emphasized to President Bush the centrality of the U.S. alliance in our approach to foreign policy,” Rudd said in his first media conference on Sunday as prime minister elect, adding he would visit Washington early next year.

Rudd, 50, presented himself to voters as a new-generation leader by promising to pull troops out of Iraq and ratify the Kyoto Protocol capping greenhouse gas emissions, further isolating Washington on both issues.

More at Reuters

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SUNDAY TALK

* MTP: James Carville, Bob Shrum, Mary Matalin, and Mike Murphy discuss the pres. race
* FTN: WaPo’s Robin Wright, “Looming Tower” author Lawrence Wright, WaPo’s Rick Atkinson, and retired Gen. Anthony Zinni
* This Week: Gov. Bill Richardson (D-NM) and Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) on Iraq; roundtable of Andrew Sullivan, Jon Karl, Cokie Roberts and George Will; actress Marlo Thomas on her work for St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital.
* FNS: Fred Thompson (R-TN); Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI) and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) on Iraq
* Late Edition: Mike Huckabee (R-AR); ex Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi; National Journal’s Ron Brownstein; roundtable of CNN’s Ed Henry, Hotline’s Amy Walter and CNN’s Gloria Borger.

TV ALERTS

* Charlie Rose: Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-NY) 11/23; Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) 11/23;
* Political Capital w/ Al Hunt (Bloomberg, repeats throughout weekends): Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX); a preview of the Mideast conference in Annapolis; Margaret Carlson and Bob Novak on the presidential race
* Chris Matthews Show 11/24-25: David Brooks, Norah O’Donnell, Clarence Page, Elisabeth Bumiller discuss “Is Obama on a roll to beat Hillary? Can McCain come back and win New Hampshire?”
* 60 Minutes (CBS, Sun): Legendary band The Eagles; minimally conscious people who ‘awaken’; high tech financial information thefts
* NBC Nightly News series: “African American Women: Where They Stand.” Week of 11/26.
* Tavis Smiley (PBS): Bill Frist R-TN) 11/26
* GOP CNN/YouTube presidential debate 11/28.

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This is from an article titled “Paul says he won-t support GOP nominee”, from The CarpetBagger Report. Some commenter there made the mistake of dissing Ron Paul, and this is what he got.

This is THE rant of a lifetime, folks. It doesn’t get any better than this!

(Oh how I would LOVE to see someone get up in Limbaugh’s or Beck’s face and repeat the following!)