ABC News declares that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone in killing President John F. Kennedy.

ABC News has conducted an exhaustive investigation of the Kennedy assassination, complete with a computer-generated reconstruction, which irrefutably confirms that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone, the network said Monday.

A two-hour special on the event is scheduled to air Nov. 20, two days before the 40th anniversary of President John F. Kennedy's killing. "It leaves no room for doubt," said Tom Yellin, executive producer of the special, narrated by Peter Jennings. He called the results of ABC's study "enormously powerful. It's irrefutable."

ABC News declares that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone in killing President John F. Kennedy.

ABC News has conducted an exhaustive investigation of the Kennedy assassination, complete with a computer-generated reconstruction, which irrefutably confirms that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone, the network said Monday.

A two-hour special on the event is scheduled to air Nov. 20, two days before the 40th anniversary of President John F. Kennedy's killing. "It leaves no room for doubt," said Tom Yellin, executive producer of the special, narrated by Peter Jennings. He called the results of ABC's study "enormously powerful. It's irrefutable."

Nation columnist and MSNBC Altercation blogger Eric Alterman gets a new writing gig: As a newly appointed fellow of the new liberal think tank Center for American Progress, he launches a new media column called Think Again. The debut column is here.

Congrats, Eric.

Nation columnist and MSNBC Altercation blogger Eric Alterman gets a new writing gig: As a newly appointed fellow of the new liberal think tank Center for American Progress, he launches a new media column called Think Again. The debut column is here.

Congrats, Eric.

Instapundit reports that Greg Easterbrook has been fired from ESPN for his distasteful comments about Jewish movie executives earlier this week.

Eric Alterman at Altercation says we should accept Easterbrook's apology. Jonathan Alter of Newsweek writes Romenesko to say he knows Easterbrook very well and he is not anti-semitic.

Atrios says he didn't want Easterbrook fired either. He says, "I just am pretty disturbed that he didn't confront the main issue - or that he even embraced it - and his defenders gave him a pass."

For those not familiar with Gregg Easterbrook until this (and that includes us) he is a senior editor of New Republic, a contributing editor of The Atlantic Monthly and a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution, with a column at ESPN.

Here's the column that started the embroglio (which, by the way, wasn't published on ESPN). The column was a review of Quentin Tarrantino's new movie, Kill Bill. Here are the comments at issue:

We used to not mind Westchester County DA Jeanine Pirro. She always pushed victims' rights, but she was never evangelical or off- the- wall about it. That's changed. She is pitching her new book --on victims' rights--and yapping non-stop spewing all sorts of nonsense on every cable channel that will have her. We just had to mute her. Her voice has gotten shrill, she's speaking a mile a minute and repeating herself over and over. And she's talking nonsense.

But, it's her new message we find most offensive. Her tag line is that we should change the name of the criminal justice system to the victim's justice system because the system has become about criminals rather than about victims.

Hey, Jeanine, we have news for you. The system has been about the accused for more than 200 years --ever since the Bill of Rights was passed. The intent of the framers was to protect the rights of persons accused of crime - not the rights of the victim.

Quoting ourselves from a 1997 article published in NACDL's Champion, "The foremost purpose of the Bill of Rights is to restrain the power of the majority and its elected government to act against an individual. As one author put it: "The Bill of Rights was designed to protect personal liberties from governmental infringement, not to protect private individuals from each other." [James M. Dolliver, "Victims' Rights Constitutional Amendment: A Bad
Idea Whose Time Should Not Come," 34 Wayne L.Rev.87, n.7, at 91 (1987).]

We are not anti-victim. In fact, we have consistently urged that victims of crime be treated with dignity, fairness and respect. But ideas such as Jeanine's and those behind the Victims' Rights Amendment looming in Congress are unwise and dangerous.

And that's our rant for the day.

Margaret Cho minces no words in her disgust for the blonde she-pundit the left loves to hate. The right needs to get a clue. [link via Atrios.]

Ms. Cho is right up front about her own biases:

My prejudice and hatred of the establishment, the judicial system, anti- abortionists, racism, misogyny, the integration of church and state - can spiral downwards out of control.

As Atrios says, Rant on. We need more of this.

Update: Both the concert and the assisted suicide have been postponed one week.

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Hell on Earth, the band planning on featuring a live assisted suicide tonight at its concert said the threat of criminal charges will not deter it. The show will go on as planned.

The assisted suicide is scheduled to be simulcast on the band's website, hellonearth.net. We haven't been able to access the site this afternoon, so we suspect the police forced the site's hosting company to block access to it or remove it.

Jason Trindade, the operator of a San Diego-based technology company that hosts the band's Web site, said he would continue serving the site and carry the concert until he receives complaints from law enforcement officials to shut it down. "They haven't broken any law and I can't just turn them off," he said. "Myself, I think it's pretty twisted."

The band is proceeding against the advice of its legal counsel. We'd point out that Jack Kevorkian was denied early release this week.

Kevorkian, 75, was sentenced to 10 to 25 years after being convicted of second-degree murder in the death of Thomas Youk, 52, who had Lou Gehrig's disease. Kevorkian is eligible for parole in 2007....Kevorkian has said he assisted in at least 130 deaths. Michigan banned assisted suicide in 1998 to stop Kevorkian from helping terminally ill people die.

We hope the band reconsiders and follows its lawyer's advice.

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We received this from Dan at 5280, Denver's excellent glossy monthly magazine:

Bruce has been making similar statements for some time now, including at his recent show here in Denver.

The first comment (about impeaching the president) is a joke that he makes during the band introductions -- he offers up sax player Clarence Clemons as Bush's replacement, as well as "Emperor of Colorado" (or wherever they're playing that night). He's done similar schtick for years, during administrations of both parties. So, while I'm sure Bruce is no Bush fan, I don't think it's entirely accurate to say that Springsteen is calling for the president's impeachment.

The comments about holding our leaders accountable, however, are obviously made in all seriousness. At other shows (yes, I'm a bit of a fan), he has introduced the oft-understood "Born in the USA" as a "prayer for peace." Prior to the invasion, he opened a number of shows with Edwin Star's "War" ("what the hell's it good for? absolutely nothing").

What was new at the Shea gig were the pre-recorded soundbites of Bush
talking about WMDs. They preceded the show's opening number, a song called "Souls of the Departed," that was written after the first Iraqi war:

On the road to Basra stood young Lieutenant Jimmy Bly
Detailed to go through the clothes of the soldiers who died
At night in dreams he sees their souls rise
Like dark geese into the Oklahoma skies

Well this is a prayer for the souls of the departed
Those who've gone and left their babies brokenhearted
This is a prayer for the souls of the departed

That, I think, is a perfect demonstration of where Bruce's heart and art have always been focused: On the regular folks who are left to clean up the messes created by those in power.

The Boss gets political in his closing concert at Shea Stadium:

Springsteen wove strong criticism of the administration of President Bush (news - web sites) into the first of the final three shows at Shea Stadium on Wednesday night, playing a recording of Bush talking about weapons of mass destruction, questioning America's motives for the war in Iraq (news - web sites) and calling for Bush's defeat as he seeks re-election next year.

"It is time to impeach the president and put in somebody that knows what they're doing," the musician, known as "The Boss," told the crowd.

Heading into the hit "Born in the U.S.A.," he said: "The question of whether we were misled into the war in Iraq isn't a liberal or conservative or Republican or Democratic question, it's an American one.

Demanding accountability from our leaders is our responsibility, our job as citizens," he said.

[link via Hamster]

Rush Limbaugh may be under investigation for illegally purchasing painkillers. We would have dismissed this out of hand as malicious gossip, except the lawyer mentioned is a friend of our's and he's a terrific lawyer. So, the fact that he is representing someone who claims to have sold painkillers to Rush is probably true. Does that mean his clients' allegations are true? Absolutely not.

It also sounds to us like the target of the investigation is Rush's maid's supplier--she may be cooperating to get a deal for herself. That is, she rats out others and either gets immunity or some kind of sweeheart deal. For her to admit publicly she sold narcotic painkillers means to us she already has her deal. Otherwise, what lawyer would let their client go forward and publicly admit it? Certainly not a good one like Ed Shohat. We'd also point out that her admitted conduct, selling drugs, is viewed more harshly by prosecutors and judges than Rush's alleged conduct of using drugs.

If Limbaugh was overusing painkillers, we think it's a medical issue and we're not going to trash him for it. Drug dependency is a medical condition. It should not be a crime. If he is in legal trouble for it, we hope he gets the best legal help possible. We know some excellent defense lawyers in Palm Beach.

From the news article: