Has Tom Reynolds become radioactive? John McCain may think so.

Erie County Republicans on Tuesday quickly recruited White House power hitter Karl Rove to speak at their annual black-tie dinner Oct. 20 after the front-runner for the party's presidential nomination, Sen. John McCain, dropped out unexpectedly.

In addition to speaking at the dinner, McCain was scheduled to lead a rally in Buffalo for embattled Rep. Thomas M. Reynolds, R-Clarence. McCain's office Tuesday scrubbed both events, claiming that the popular Arizona Republican had a scheduling conflict.

The Senate Majority Project may have been a factor in McCain's sudden pull-out:

Via the Guardian:

North Korea is threatening war against the United States for its ``hostile attitude.'' As North Korea warned of physical retaliation for increased U.S. pressure over its reported atomic test, South Korea discussed preparations for a nuclear attack that could include an expanded conventional arsenal. North Korea said in its first formal statement since the test that it could respond to U.S. pressure with ``physical'' measures.

``If the U.S. keeps pestering us and increases pressure, we will regard it as a declaration of war and will take a series of physical corresponding measures,'' the North's Foreign Ministry said in a statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency. The statement didn't specify what those measures could be.

[Hat tip Patriot Daily.]

If you thought the U.S. used dogs only to scare detainees in foreign prisons, think again. Five states allow the use of dogs not only to scare, but to bite inmates.

Dogs are allowed to terrify and even bite unruly prisoners who refuse to leave their cells in five U.S. states, a human rights group said on Tuesday, comparing the policy to abuses at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison.

U.S.-based Human Rights Watch said it was unaware of any other nation where such a practice exists, describing it as a well-kept secret and drawing similarities to U.S. soldiers terrorizing Iraqi prisoners with dogs.

"At Abu Ghraib, it was not intended for them to bite the prisoner. Here we're using dogs to terrify. If the intimidation by the dog doesn't work, then the dog goes in and bites," said Jamie Fellner, Human Rights Watch director of U.S. programs.

The states are Connecticut, Delaware, Iowa, South Dakota and Utah.

Legally, I don't think the woman had a shot. Nonetheless, it's good news that the Supreme Court has decided not to hear the appeal of the woman who was the plaintiff in a companion case to Roe v. Wade.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday turned aside the case of Sandra Cano, one of the women behind the legalization of abortion, who had sought to reverse the victory she won 33 years ago.

Cano says she never wanted an abortion and that her difficult early life resulted in her becoming the anonymous plaintiff in Doe v. Bolton, the lesser-known case which the justices ruled on the same day in 1973 as the landmark Roe v. Wade.

by TChris

A hidden cost of the war in Iraq, a cost you won't hear Republicans talk about as they run for reelection:

Nearly one in five soldiers leaving the military after serving in Iraq and Afghanistan has been at least partly disabled as a result of service, according to documents of the Department of Veterans Affairs obtained by a Washington research group. ...

"The trend is ominous," said Paul Sullivan, director of programs for Veterans for America, an advocacy group, and a former V.A. analyst. Mr. Sullivan said that if the current proportions held up over time, 400,000 returning service members could eventually apply for disability benefits when they retired.

Perhaps the president could explain how he intends to pay the war's hidden costs as he urges voters to vote Republican to save their tax cuts. The cost, of course, isn't solely borne by the taxpayer. The disabled soldiers and their families pay a price that can't be measured. Voting for "stay the course" Republicans assures that the number of disabled veterans will continue to climb.

by TChris

Does the president ever think about the pain he has rendered in Iraq? The shattered families, the missing fathers, the widows and orphans left behind? Does he believe no accounting is due for the innocent lives lost? Does he feel no sorrow, no responsibility, for the relentless march of death that defines Iraq today?

In the new study, researchers attempt to calculate how many more Iraqis have died since March 2003 than one would expect without the war. Their conclusion, based on interviews of households and not a body count, is that about 600,000 died from violence, mostly gunfire. ... ''Deaths are occurring in Iraq now at a rate more than three times that from before the invasion of March 2003,'' Dr. Gilbert Burnham, lead author of the study, said in a statement.

The president's supporters will dispute the "controversial" study, but even if deaths now occur at only twice the pre-invasion rate, the consequences of the invasion to the Iraqi people have been monstrous. How can the president expect Americans to feel anything other than shame for his reckless conduct of our foreign affairs?

by TChris

Maybe he thinks better when he's not confined by clothing.

A security camera caught a city prosecutor walking around naked in a government building after business hours, authorities said. ... The night before, security video had captured Blauvelt naked in another area of the building, where city offices are located, he said.

Despite being charged with public indency, it appears the prosector was roaming empty halls alone, save for the prying lens of the security camera.

by TChris

The police arrested three Burger King employees in New Mexico who sprinkled marijuana on the officers' burgers. The officers ate half the burgers before discovering the extra ingredient. The officers went to the hospital to be examined; no word on whether they developed a case of the munchies and returned to finish the burgers.

Update: (TL) The employees and Burger King manager are being charged with "possession of marijuana and aggravated battery on an officer, a felony." Talk about over-charging....

[George Harrison and Eric Claption, Live In Japan - 1991]

October 15, the last date for filing tax returns, is right around the corner. My accountant says tomorrow is my due date, so I'll be buried in paper until the wee hours.

For those of you smart enough to have filed on April 15, here's an open thread.

Update: It's 11:05 pm and I just found my accountant's "tax organizer" that I have to fill out by tomorrow. It was buried at the bottom of the 10th moving box I just unpacked. I hope this isn't an all-nighter, but it's looking that way. On the bright side, what did people do before Quicken?

As the House readies for hearings Thursday in Foleygate, Sen. John McCain has called for an independent investigation.

Chief witness at Thursday's hearing will be former Foley Chief of Staff, Kirk Fordham.

In other news from Foleyville, former Congressional page Jordan Edmund and his lawyer, Stephen Jones, met with members of the U.S. Attorneys' office in OKC for 2 1/2 hours. And Arizona Rep. Jim Kolbe says he warned of the House official in charge of the page program of Foley's e-mails to pages back in 2001.

Update: Arianna says Republicans are whistling past the Foley graveyard.

(Guest Post from Big Tent Democrat)

All of us, Democrats and Independents, and Republicans for that matter, we're all FDR liberals. I have written it here before, liberals won the battle of ideas during the New Deal. Some extremist Republicans want to refight that fight, but no Republican who wants to get elected will fight that fight.

I write this because Harold Meyerson writes an incisive reaction to Markos Moulitsas's theory of Democratic Libertarianism:

Writing from the perspectives of a more New Dealish American liberal and an avowed social democrat (the latter tendency, I need not be reminded, being one that has fewer avowed adherents in America than libertarianism, though more than Trotskyism), I want to make a couple of points that Markos doesn't touch on. First, I want to point out the areas of overlap between libertarianism--or, at least, the preservation of personal liberties--and New Deal democracy, and even social democracy. Second, I want to look again at some of the new libertarianism Markos documents within the Democratic Party--not just where it extends, but where it can't extend, and why it can't.

On the other side, I'll talk more about Meyerson's cans and can'ts, but if I may, it seems to me that what Markos is attempting is a packaging of New Deal policies in attractive garb for those who consider themselves libertarian in outlook. In that sense, I think Markos' exercise is a valuable one. And to consider it an academic discussion of libertarianism is to miss the point.

Think Progress says House Speaker Denny Hastert is now trying to blame others for the Mark Foley mess. From the news conference today,

QUESTION: How satisfied are you with how your staff handled the scandal so far and whether anyone resign in your office?

HASTERT: I understood what my staff told me, and I think from that response, they've handled it as well as they should. However, in 20/20 hindsight, probably you could do everything a little bit better. If there is a problem, if there was a cover up, then we should find that out through the investigation process. They'll be under oath and we'll find out. If they did cover something up, they should not continue to have their jobs. But I -- but I didn't think anybody at any time in my office did anything wrong. I found out about these revelations last Friday. That was the first information I had about it.

News coverage here.