by TChris

By taking a reasonable position regarding stem cell research, Sen. Frist alienated the extremists he needs to support his presidential aspirations. As TalkLeft noted here, Frist hoped to bring them back into his fold by advocating the teaching of Intelligent Design in public schools. Frist's desire to placate the extremists may nonetheless be doomed to failure, given his inability to elicit a kind word from Trent Lott:

Asked Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press" whether Frist, who challenged and succeeded Lott as Senate majority leader in 2002, has the character to be president, Lott paused before answering.

"I think I'd have to think about that," said Lott, R-Miss.

(Why anyone thinks Lott is a fit person to be commenting on the subject of character is another question.)

The war that keeps on taking...

Four American soldiers were killed and three wounded when a roadside bomb hit their vehicle in southern Afghanistan. In a separate attack, two employees of the United States Embassy were injured when their convoy was hit by an explosion west of the capital, Kabul.

In southern Afghanistan, a religious cleric and another man were killed outside a district mosque in the latest in a series of attacks on pro-government clergy by suspected Taliban insurgents.

Today's attack brings to 65 the number of American soldiers who have died in Afghanistan this year, making 2005 the deadliest year for the United States military in Afghanistan since the war began in 2001. A total of 181 American soldiers have died in Operation Enduring Freedom in and around Afghanistan since military operations began in October 2001, more than 100 of them in hostile attacks.

The Economist reports:

A Supreme Court ruling that allows the government to seize private property has set off a fierce backlash that may yet be as potent as the anti-abortion movement...IF YOU ever doubted the importance of the Supreme Court, consider the fuss about Kelo v New London. The five-to-four ruling by the court on June 23rd, apparently giving the government the power to bulldoze homes on flimsy grounds, has set off fiery protests across the country.

Americans used to believe that their constitution protected private property. The Fifth Amendment allows the state to seize it only for “public use”, and so long as “just compensation” is paid. “Public use” has traditionally been taken to mean something like a public highway. Roads would obviously be much harder to build if a single homeowner could hold out forever or for excessive compensation. The government's powers of “eminent domain” have also been used to clean up “blighted” slums.

What a victory for democracy (not.)

The U.S. has backed the Shi'ites in the Iraq Constitution fight - which would make Islamist law predominant. The Sunnis want the U.S. to withdraw their support for the draft document.

A retreat to Sharia law would be the antithesis of a democratic state. Didn't George Bush tell us we were going to war to bring a democracy to Iraq? What a total failure both Bush and his war are.

A letter written in jail by Saddam Hussein has been distributed by the Red Cross and published.

"I and my family offer ourselves as a sacrifice for this nation, including dear Palestine and our steadfast, beloved, and wretched Iraq," he writes."Life without faith, love and the inherited traditions of our nation is destruction.

"He who sacrifices his property and soul for his nation is but doing a little because this nation deserves much to be done." He ends the letter: "Long live Palestine. Love your nation."

by Last Night in Little Rock

My wife, from a long line of anti-war protestors, whose father fought in the Pacific in WWII and came home to protest the Vietnam War outside Nixon's San Clemente Western White House, just returned from two days protesting at President Bush's Crawford, Texas ranch.

She reported that the pro-Bush supporters were taunting Cindy Sheehan just before Sheehan departed "We don't care." I was appalled and couldn't believe it. No, she was dead serious. She was tearing up talking about it. It was, in fact, reported in the DailyKos here.

This is no surprise to those of us who have followed the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal, but still, it's gratifying to hear one of the already sentenced guards, with nothing left to lose, say the abuse occurred at the orders of higher-ups:

Sergeant Javal Davis was sentenced to six months in jail after admitting to having deliberately stepped on the hands and feet of handcuffed prisoners. In an interview aired on Channel 7, Sgt Davis said he was instructed to make life as unpleasant as possible for those he was guarding.

"I was left with an open door to pretty much almost do whatever I want, you know like 'hey, make sure this guy has a bad night you know' or 'make sure this guy gets the treatment'," he said.

Sgt Davis says he found some of the things he was asked to do distressing. "For example, the nakedness, the hooding, the handcuffing of the detainees in compromising positions, like handcuffed behind their back in an uncomfortable way or handcuffed to the bar door door or something," he said.

He says he asked that orders he was given to abuse prisoners be put in writing.But despite repeated requests, his superiors never agreed to do so.

In other words, they covered their as*es.

Frank Rich has a scathing account in the Sunday New York Times about the current administration's mismanagement and deceit about the Iraq War.The Swift Boating of Cindy Sheehan is a must read.

But this time the Swift Boating failed, utterly, and that failure is yet another revealing historical marker in this summer's collapse of political support for the Iraq war.

....THIS summer in Crawford, the White House went to this playbook once too often. When Mr. Bush's motorcade left a grieving mother in the dust to speed on to a fund-raiser, that was one fat-cat party too far. The strategy of fighting a war without shared national sacrifice has at last backfired, just as the strategy of Swift Boating the war's critics has reached its Waterloo before Patrick Fitzgerald's grand jury in Washington. The 24/7 cable and Web attack dogs can keep on sliming Cindy Sheehan. The president can keep trying to ration the photos of flag-draped caskets. But this White House no longer has any more control over the insurgency at home than it does over the one in Iraq.

There's an interesting article in today's Globe and Mail about Patrick Fitzgerald and his prosecutorial strategy. Here are the money quotes:

And always, he has methodically, inexorably pursued his investigations to target the man at the top of the organizational pyramid....People who have watched Mr. Fitzgerald operate in Chicago, and before that as assistant U.S. Attorney in New York City, are not surprised by his zeal in pursuing the journalists. But don't expect him to stop there.

That's how he operates: Apply maximum pressure to reluctant witnesses in order to build an air-tight case against the most senior member of a criminal conspiracy.

[hat tip Patriot Daily.] I wonder if he believes the top dog here is Libby, Rove or Cheney.

This is just too bizarre not to mention:

A controversial exhibit of human corpses, stripped of their skin to reveal muscles, organs and blood vessels, opened in Tampa, despite the state Anatomical Board's refusal to approve it....The "Bodies: The Exhibition" show includes human bodies and body parts preserved with a process that replaces human tissue with silicone rubber.

The dissected and preserved corpses belonged to Chinese people and went unclaimed or unidentified before being turned over to a medical school in China, according to the exhibit's owner, Premier Exhibitions of Atlanta.

Remember Operation Tips, where neighbors and workers were going to be recruited in the Government's war on terror to inform on their neighbors?

It seems some local law enforcement agencies are creating their own "tips" programs. In this case, it's pest control workers:

Technicians from Truly Nolen Pest Control of America are being trained by local law enforcement to spot anything unusual as they visit customer's homes...."Our vehicles really get into the bowels of the neighborhood and we're back there where all the homes are, in the cul-de-sacs," Truly Nolen spokesman Barry Murray said. "And part of being a good neighbor is looking out for one another." The pest control workers will call police if they see something unusual during their stops, according to the report.

Nonsensical statement of the day (so far):

"Our point is not to invade people's houses or make them feel like their privacy is being invaded. It's just to try to have an extra set of eyes and ears out there," Truley Nolen worker Ronnie Rachels said.

The LA Times today explores the topic of radical muslim groups in California state prisons:

Federal investigators suspect that an Islamist prison gang, called Jamiyyat Ul Islam Is Saheeh, or Assembly of Authentic Islam, may have links to three Muslim men recently implicated in a possible plot to attack National Guard Recruitment Centers in California.

....Last month, police in Torrance arrested Gregory Vernon Patterson, 21, and Levar Haney Washington, 25, in connection with a string of gas station robberies. Washington converted to Islam in Folsom while serving time for assault and robbery, authorities said. Police staked out the pair and were led to Hammad Riaz Samana. Sources familiar with a federal investigation of the trio say they are suspected of planning to stage a series of terrorist attacks in California.

The vast majority of Muslim inmates are peaceful.