Marvel and DC are asserting that they and they alone have the right to use the term superhero; they’ve already bullied a small publisher into changing the title of one of their books.

I said basically the same thing yesterday, but Whiskey Bar has a great rant on the bizarre reactions to the boob flashed ’round the world.

Slacktivist once again nails it, this time on the bizarre claims the administration is now making about how it was mislead on the Iraqi WMD issue by the CIA and the intelligence community. It’s been amply documented that in the rush to war, the White House disregarded any intelligence that suggested their cassus belli of choice was inaccurate; they cannot not credibly claim that the CIA is to blame for their own cherrypicking of only the most damning (and unverifiable) data.

Agent Mohney points us to the libertarian publication Reason for this discussion of the efficacy and competency of the Transportation Safety Administration. Hint: it’s a sick joke, and we’re no safer for our loss of privacy and liberty when flying.

Okay, when I made a snarky remark about how some people seemed up in arms about Janet’s bare breast, but were utterly untroubled by the other crass exploitation of sexuality surrounding the Super Bowl, I was making a joke.

From where I sit, this bit of exposure is only different in degree, not substance, from the countless scantily-clad dancers surrounding P. Diddy and Nelly, for example, not to mention the cheerleaders for teams themselves. It didn’t occur to me that anyone would actually think of this as materially different than these other exploitations of sexuality, or to even think that something like this (deliberate or not) wasn’t inevitable. Sex and titilation sell. The networks and the NFL trade on this very fact, and to pretend otherwise is simple mendacity.

I say all this now because the FCC is looking into whether or not there should be some sort of sanctions for this “classless, crass, and deplorable stunt” (as FCC chairman Michael Powell described it). He goes on to suggest that we as a nation “deserve better.” (Frankly, I thought the breast in question was perfectly nice, but maybe Whatever, Michael. Were you similarly scandalized by Nelly grabbing his crotch, or by the skimpy costumes the cheerleaders wore? I doubt it. Show a nipple, though, and these boobs freak right the hell out.

Apparently, that really was Janet Jackson’s boob (or, at least, her nipple jewelry) that Justin Timberlake exposed last night at the finale of their “flirtatious” duet. Timberlake, for his part, has apologized for the “wardrobe malfunction,” which is a phrase I hope makes it into the popular lexicon. The grouches at the NFL were not amused, though, and have stated that MTV will no longer be doing the halftime show, which strikes me as hilarious given the sexual aspects of virtually every beer ad shown during the broadcast. Bikini-clad girls selling beer with little left to the imagination: OK. Janet Jackson’s (pierced! (NSFW)) nipple: Horrors!

Salon discusses the widespread nightmare that zero tolerance policies in schools create. Like mandatory sentencing minimums, zero tolerance policies ignore any extenuating circumstances, and remove all possibility of flexibility in response to infractions.

California voters are already having trouble with their $12 million Diebold voting system. It seems some votes go to the wrong candidates sometimes. Diebold, of course, insists they’ll fix the problem, but won’t show anyone the code since it’s a trade secret.

Surely the conflicts involved here are obvious, right?

This, of course, surprises no one

The 9/11 panel finds that existing security measures should have caught at least some of the hijackers, something that’s been widely asserted in the 2 years since the attacks. Of course, this won’t stop the Feds from continuing their police-power-grab.

At least all those new security measures make airports safer, right?

A woman at LaGuardia got past security with a stun gun and a knife last week. Ooops.

In the 2000 elections, one of the most amazing things to me was that the Democrats made NOTHING of Bush’s Vietnam reserve record, and that the press — whom you’d think would have been all over it — let the whole issue slide.

Now, with two solid records running for the Democratic nomination, the issue may get legs after all, especially since Clark has thus far refused to repudiate supporter Michael Moore’s claim that Bush was and is a deserter. Is he? Well, here’s a discussion and examination of precisely that claim and the coverage surrounding Moore’s statement.

Two facts, though, aren’t even in dispute:

1. In the spring of 1972, Bush failed to get a flight physical in direct violation of orders.
2. Bush performed no duties or drills of any kind between early May and late November of 1972.

Now, that’s not really desertion (technically), but it’s damn sure being AWOL, and it seems pretty clear that somebody without a super-connected family would have probably been discliplined. Since the “liberal media” had such a field day with Clinton being “draft dodger” back in ’92, I eagerly await their tenacious coverage of these charges.

High school students in Florida were disqualified from a theater competition because their anti-totalitarian play (James Clavell’s 1963 one-act “The Children’s Story”) includes a scene wherein students are encouraged to cut up a flag following the US’ defeat at the hands of some powerful enemy. The episode is designed to illustrate the dangers of mindless obedience, a fact apparently lost on the competition’s administrators, who appear to have missed the last 14 years of Constitutional law. Co-chair and theater teacher Melody Wicht disqualified the team based on Florida Statute 876.52, which bars flag desecration. “My problem was that they took an American flag off the flagpole and cut it into pieces. They were disqualified based on Florida law,” she said.

Of course, just such a statute was struck down in 1990 by the Supremes; writing for the majority, Scalia (!) noted that flag desecration was clearly an expression of disagreement, and was therefore protected speech. This means the Florida statute is no good, either.

Perhaps the theater teachers in Florida need a refresher from the government and history departments. What they taught here was that (1) they don’t actually understand the First Amendment; and (2) they’re incapable of experiencing a work in any but the most literal senses. And people wonder why smart kids hate high school.

Part of the PATRIOT Act has been found unconstitutional. Now, for the rest of that damn creeping totalitarian law. Just to remind you: it got passed in a panic after 9/11, and our elected representatives by and large DID NOT READ IT before passing it. If that’s not dereliction of duty, I don’t know what is.

Scarier, of course, is the fact that it almost certainly had to exist on 9/10/2001, waiting for the right moment to be introduced to Congress.

Israeli cops abandon their station — because of marijunana fumes from the storage locker, where a few tons of pot languished.

Those poor, poor cops.

Last week, he insisted in some interviews that we knew Saddam had WMD, and that we knew Saddam was in bed with Al Queda.

Trouble is, both of those claims have been repudiated by the CIA, the Pentagon, and his own administration. Ooops.

For months — well, years — the Bush administration has been stonewalling the group empaneled to investigate the events around the 9/11 attacks. Specifically, they’ve been trying to figure out how Atta, et. al., managed to get their elaborate plan to fruition without anybody noticing, or least without anybody noticing and DOING something about it.

Perhaps because of the uncooperative nature of Bush’s White House, they want more time. Predictably, the administration opposes this, and perhaps consequently the chairs are reluctant to force the issue. The families are, of course, livid. The media is, of course, giving the White House a pass on the issue; Salon’s coverage is the only I’ve seen.

Time reports that a Grand Jury has been convened to review the leak affair. We’ll see what happens now.

In a separate but related event, a group of decorated former CIA officers sent a letter to House Speaker Dennis Hastert this week calling for a formal Congressional inquiry into the affair as well.

I suppose there’s some hope that justice might actually happen. I wish I were more optimistic.

Yesterday, I got Jon Krakauer’s new book about Mormons — or, more specifically, about a disturbing and bloody murder committed by members of a fundamentalist offshoot of that sect.

Today, Teresa Nielsen-Hayden highlights a story about a similar batch of Mormons, this time concerned with forced marriages and escapse therefrom. Take a look.

Elizabeth Mitchell has pointed me toward a strange little story thatÕs developing in Colorado City (formerly Short Creek) Arizona: The townÕs children are fleeing. It started less than a week and a half ago, when two girls named Fawn Broadbent and Fawn Holm ran away for fear of being forced into polygamous “marriages”. It wasnÕt the first time children have tried to run away from Short Creek. The difference was that this time, the authorities didnÕt return the Fawns to their families. They escaped and stayed escaped. That story went round the FLDS (Fundamentalist Latter-Day Saint) community at lightning speed, and in the week that followed, eight more children ran. All it took was the hope of real escape, and some indication that help was available in the outside world.

The Department of Defense is planning to use an Internet-based system called SERVE to streamline voting for overseas citizens during the 2004 primary and general elections. In brief, the system would theoretically allow these citizens (primarily military personnel and spouses) to vote from any Internet connection.

A review by outside experts — available at ServeSecurityReport.org — makes the argument that the SERVE system is so insecure that it should be shut down immediately. Frankly, it’s hard to read their conclusions without realizing they’re exactly right if you know anything at all about the Internet.

Ed Felton has more at Freedom To Tinker.

Two defendents apparently winning their medical pot case in California court have been arrested by the Feds to stand trial under Federal laws, which of course don’t recognize California’s decision to allow medical use.

While their defense attorneys were meeting in the judge’s chambers to discuss the case with Tehama County assistant district attorney Lynn Strom, Strom announced that she was dropping the state charges because Davidson and Blake were being arrested in the courtroom on a federal indictment.

Good God, when will this kind of crap stop? Actually, I know the answer: never, unless we get ideologues out of the White House and DOJ. Remember this in November.

Specifically, he lives in Oregon.

Some tourists saw some killer whales off Port Aransas this weekend.

That’s Port Aransas, TEXAS. Who knew? Well, apparently several people; the article notes that they suspect about 70 of ’em live in the Gulf, but they’re not often seen. Neat. Just don’t tell the game and fish commission, or some good ol’ boy will try to hook one.

Oh, and recognizing that this is a story linked to a TV station’s web site, let’s try not to imagine the dialog surrounding this story during whatever newscast it graced, since it almost certainly included “Some local fisherman had a whale of a time on Sunday…” Gack.

The Wacko Moonie Washington Times is reporting on a study ranking Mississippi as the most corrupt state in the union. Oh, joy.

The best part, though, is probably this Baton Rouge headline.

Some rural California firefighters are walking off the job to protest the fact that one of their colleagues has an adult web site.

In their never-ending quest to establish more-or-less unfettered, unregulated industry, the Office of Management & Budget is attempting to get control of governmental peer review. This is blatent power grab, and yet another attempt by this Administration to have ideology trump science.

Predictably, it’s getting very little coverage.

The second Gulf War had many victims, but perhaps the least of those was the career of Jerry Haleva, Saddam Impersonator (as we noted back in March).

Weep for Jerry no more; he’s back, and insurgent-quagmire be damned.

Wired News is reporting on the Administration’s newest power grab, the Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2004, which grants the FBI access to financial records without judicial oversight. The law also, of course, prohibits intitutions from disclosing that the Feds are sniffing around, natch.

The bill passed the House in November with no uproar at all — it’s of course part of a larger bill with politically untouchable provisions. The Senate approved it on a “voice vote,” which means there’s no record of how our representatives voted.

From the Wired News piece:

But Rep. Betty McCollum (D-Minnesota), who opposed the legislation, told the House, “It is clear the Republican leadership and the administration would rather expand on the USA Patriot Act through deception and secrecy than debate such provisions in an open forum.”

This Must Stop.

The Guardian is running an op-ed by Osama bin Laden calling for jihad.

While initially disturbing, there’s a significant argument to be made that this is a case of “give ’em enough rope and they’ll hang themselves.”

Steve Spurrier resigns. His 122-27-1 record at Florida became 12-20 over two years leading the Washington Redskins. He lost his last two home games with a combined 58-7 score.

Buh-bye.

Fish considered harmful.

TV chef/geek Alton Brown weighs in on the origins of BSE. Hint: it’s our own damn fault.

They’re selling an extreme young-earth book at the Grand Canyon explaining how it’s only a few thousand years old, and have prevented park Rangers from publishing a rebuttal of said book.

Fortunately, a rebuttal by an actual geologist is available online. That some religious kooks believe the world is 4,000 years old is one thing; they’re certainly free to do that. However, the Park Service has no business peddling this anti-science pablum from its gift shops, even along side real analysis. It lends respect to a point of view that deserves none.

Three Yemenis are suing NASA for trespassing on Mars, which they contend they inherited 3,000 years ago.

Right.

The Second US Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that the government may not arrest US Citizens and hold them as “enemy combatants” without charge and without access to an attorney. The government will of course appeal; it’ll end up in front of SCOTUS before it’s all over, but this ruling is encouraging.

(Update) It’s like a one-two punch for the Constitution! The 9th Circuit ruled today that the Gitmo prisoners could have access to lawyers and the courts as well.

Speaking for the court, Justice Stephen Reinhardt said:

Even in times of national emergency –indeed, particularly in such times — it is the obligation of the Judicial Branch to ensure the preservation of our constitutional values and to prevent the Executive Branch from running roughshod over the rights of citizens and aliens alike,” Judge Stephen Reinhardt wrote for the majority.

The commission appointed to study how 9/11 happened has come to the conclusion — after much stonewalling by the Bush administration — that the events of that day could and should have been prevented. We’ll know more in January.

Those tired of me ranting about the foibles of my home state will be pleased to see that I’m not above calling out silly shit in my adoptive one.

Joanne Webb, a former fifth-grade teacher and executive board member of the Burleson Chamber of Commerce, now faces criminal charges after selling a vibrator to an undercover cop at a Tupperware-style party focused on sexual products.

Apparently, if she’d marked them “novelties,” it would have been okay, but since these were expressedly for sexual purposes, they’re EVIL and ILLEGAL.

What the Fuck?

US forces took custody of the former Iraqi president only after he’d been captured and drugged by Kurdish militia.

Why do they keep lying to us?

The right-wing-nuts at the American Family Association have a poll running on gay marriage that they insist they’ll present to Congress. Go vote.

Salon coverage of the police riot against unarmed and peaceful protesters last month. The police conduct is being heralded as the new way to handle protest — i.e., overwhelming aggression, arrest everyone protesting, shoot riot-control rounds at those already retreating, and generally doing their best to quash any real demonstration or dissent.

This Is Not America. What is happening to my country?

Memo to the WFAA news production staff: always check the background of your lockerroom footage before broadcast. ALWAYS. (3.2mb MPG)

Today, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 10,008.16; it’s the first 10K+ closing number since May 24, 2002, and only 15% off its all-time high of 11,722.98 (in the halcyon days of January, 2000).

Of course, the poor NASDAQ didn’t do quite as well. It closed up only 2%, at 1,942.32, which is still more than 60% off its high point of 5,048.62, set on March 10, 2000. That’s three days before my thirtieth birthday, which sort of explains the car, really.

…but at least my alma mater isn’t on academic probation.

Auburn University was placed on 12 months probation Tuesday by a national accrediting agency that said the school violated rules regarding the school’s board of trustees and intercollegiate athletics. School officials said they were “disappointed and surprised” by the ruling, which is one step short of revoking Auburn’s accreditation. Lack of accreditation would result in the loss of millions of dollars in federal funding, including federal financial aid. Montgomery Advertiser

I mean, the Tide has been on NCAA probation for a few years now, but at least the academic side of the house is in order.

Fundies in Presque Isle, Maine have created a curriculum for their schools that bans instruction about non-Christian cultures. Like, say, the Greeks, which would presumably hamper efforts to teach the history of democracy, or science, or math, or just about anything. On the plus side, at least for the Fundies, it’s sure to produce a crop of kids utterly incapable of critical thoughts.

Of course, they’ll also be incapable of algebra and have no notion of “zero,” so there you go.

From the Guardian:

So they’ll get ’em lawyers, but only if they don’t attempt to zealously represent their clients? Oh, those wacky Pentagon types!

From today’s Houston Chronicle: “Fran’s Fight: Dismal year has A&M coach battling to stay afloat.”

Weasel.

An unnamed British Airways pilot is said to have glimpsed Air Force One over the Atlantic:

BA Pilot: Did I just see Air Force one?
Air Force One: (Identifying self) Gulfstream 5.
(pause)
BA Pilot: Oh.

The pilot has not come forward, so he’s the only one who knows who he is. BA has no idea.

Talkleft points out this ABCNews story on the release of some of the Gitmo detainees. Why are we letting some of them go, you ask?

The U.S. Supreme Court, in a case involving two Britons, two Australians and 12 Kuwaitis, has agreed to decide if foreign nationals can use U.S. courts to challenge their incarceration at the base. [. . .] According to Time, activities leading toward release of the 140 prisoners have accelerated since the Supreme Court agreed to hear the case. It said U.S. officials had concluded some detainees were kidnapped for reward money offered for al Qaeda and Taliban fighters.

Yep; some folks in Afghanistan said “hey, these are bad guys!”, so we took ’em to Gitmo and paid the bounty with no apparent regard for the veracity of our local warlords’ claims, and in doing so jailed innocents for two years. Great. I’m so fucking proud.

Time’s feature is online as well.

This quote is just impossible to ignore. From a New York Times piece (link rot is certain; NYT are awful that way):

By any stretch, Mr. Jackson, who is 45, must be considered wealthy. But according to accounts of his close advisers and industry friends and court records, he is also an extravagant spender whose wealth is being consumed by an appetite for monkeys, Ferris wheels and surgery.

No comment.

Their WinXP-based ATMs already have a worm infection. Raise your hand if this surprises you. (Not.)

Idiot injured at Klan initiation. See, they shoot guns into the air in celebration, apparently unaware of the implications of things like, you know, gravity.

Bush has called on Democrats to stop the ugly politics” at work in their 30-hour filibuster.

This, of course, from the head of an administration that:

• has used 9/11 for political gain for 2 years;
• leaked the name of a CIA operative because her husband disagreed with the President on WMDs in Iraq;
• that is bent on dismantling social programs while creating enormous tax breaks for the rich;
• continues to use the “war on terror” as an excuse for just about anything, including a de facto suspension of habeas corpus;
• characterized dissent as unAmerican (“you’re either with us or against us”);
• is spending every dime it can get its hands on and more despite being from the “fiscally responsible” party;
• used 9/11 as an excuse to go to war in Iraq, risking and losing hundreds of American lives for nebulous gain, and pissing off just about every ally we have in the process; and
• seems bent on stuffing every Federal bench with folks somewhere to the right of Pat Buchanan, and without the customary review by the American Bar Association, despite having the thinnest of majorities in the Senate and holding office based on a vote of 5 to 4.

So, yeah, I’d say “ugly politics” is a problem, but I’m pretty sure this problem is on your own side of the aisle, George.