Wilson Pickett
“Funky Broadway”

Get down y’all!

Ok, call me stupid, but I think this woman killed both husbands. I’d bet on it.

Sonny Graham was in dire need of a heart transplant twelve years ago. On the verge of congestive heart failure the then 59-year-old Georgia man received the news that there was a heart in Charleston, South Carolina. In 1995 Terry Cottle, a 33-year-old father of four had taken his life with a shotgun blast to his throat and now his heart would become Graham’s.

After receiving the heart Graham felt so indebted to Cottle’s family that he wrote to his widow. By 1997 Graham met Cheryl Cottle, the 28-year-old widow of Terry, and by 2004 the two were married.

The couple, along with their children from previous marriages, moved into a home in Vidalia, Ga. On Tuesday it all came to an end as Graham followed the same path as the man whose heart has been beating in his chest fro the past twelve years. With a single shot to the throat Sonny Graham was found dead inside a utility building in his back yard.

Source

Carnival of the Liberals #62 is due out later this week, hosted by A Revolution of One. The theme is “new media,” but apparently submissions are still needed, with a deadline of Wednesday, 4/9. If you can, write a brief post to help out. As A Revolution of One explains:

I’d like to ask for submissions that either include, or are on the topic of new media, with special emphasis on video. I’ll leave it as broad as possible, but topics could include anything from how new media has affected this years presidential campaign, or the war in Iraq, to citizen journalism around the world. As long as it somehow involves new media in some way.

The blogcarnival.com form is the best way to submit.

Meanwhile, I’m hosting carnival #63 at Vagabond Scholar on April 23rd (a BH hosting down the line would be cool). I’m happy to read all submissions, but I’d like to concentrate on “Human Rights” posts, which can cover torture, due process, Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib or any of a number of related subjects. Given the recent release of the 2003 Yoo torture memo, Philippe Sands’ new book Torture Team, the upcoming Guantanamo trials, the stances of our presidential candidates, and situations around the world, there’s plenty of angles to take on material that unfortunately needs far more attention than it’s receiving.

Consider submissions open. I’m asking for a Monday, 4/21 submission deadline, but earlier is better and much appreciated. Again, I’m happy to read all submissions, but posts related in some way to human rights are preferred. Thanks!

(Cross-posted at Vagabond Scholar)

Original Siegelman segment on 60 Minutes

A follow up on Don Siegelman’s release from prison. All roads lead to Rove.

Senator Byron Dorgan speaking on the floor about the DOD contract for $300 million contract given to a 23 year old.

A most excellent post by diary owner, “droogie6655321“, of Daily Kos. A snippet:

People are just people. As Jim Cacy said in Steinbeck’s “The Grapes of Wrath,” there’s some things that folks do that’s good, and there’s some things they do that ain’t so good. But that’s all a man has a right to say.

They’re not so different from you. They are your brothers and your sisters. And were you born where they were born, don’t pretend that you’d be so very different either.

So please don’t forget about your brothers and sisters in areas of the country that have been written off time and again by so-called “progressives.” You may think yourself mighty open-minded, but when you call an entire city, or a whole state, or even a region of the country “racist,” or “hopeless,” or “a lost cause,” you are only revealing your own prejudices.

Go read the full post. Well worth your time!

Bed wetter, Robert Novak, may not be able to survive one more day on planet Earth if he can’t come to a conclusion on where Barack Obama stands on the Second Amendment. It weighing pretty heavily on his mind.

I posted on this once before. There is no way anyone can win an argument with idiocy. It’s ongoing. It’s futile. The only thing that pisses me off about the whole gun issue is that there aren’t more AK-47-toting gang members living on Novak’s street. Cause if there were, I would happily supply the bullets!

John McCain’s senility has kicked in:

McCain: Iraq no longer abyss of defeat

WASHINGTON - Disregarding a serious flare-up of violence, Republican presidential candidate John McCain says the United States is “no longer staring into the abyss of defeat” in Iraq, opening a campaign week that will draw him and his Democratic opponents back to Washington to question commanding Gen. David Petraeus about the conduct of the unpopular war. [...]

“We are no longer staring into the abyss of defeat, and we can now look ahead to the genuine prospect of success,” McCain said.

“The dramatic reduction in violence has opened the way for a return to something approaching normal political and economic life for the average Iraqi,” McCain said.

It must really suck to be in McCain’s shoes right about now. Only a true idiot believes we have a chance of winning (whatever the hell that means) in Iraq. And he can’t touch the more pressing issue of the faltering economy. Economic-wise, we’re sitting in a shit-hole. And McCain has made it abundantly clear he’ll be of no help there.

A few things really haven-t changed much in terms of Iraq and Iraq coverage over the last few years. The Bush administration, at best, rarely offers accurate accounts capturing the complexity of the situation, and at worst, distorts what’s happening or outright lies. Sadly, many pundits, television talking heads and the rest of the press are content to repeat the Bush line. Thus, we have Charlie Gibson bullying the Democratic presidential candidates in a nationally televised debate a while back to acknowledge that the “surge” is working, and you can hear the same delusional blather far too often. Here are some pieces to counteract that.
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