Hey, That’s Not Ola Ray. . .

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This is off topic, but I enjoyed watching this YouTube video of 1,500 plus CPDRC inmates of the Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center, Cebu, Philippines mimic Michael Jackson’s Thriller video.

Banned Books?

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Where they have burned books, they will end in burning human beings — Heinrich Heine (1821) I hadn’t paid much attention to the growing "banned books" problem in American schools and libraries, but I saw an ad on a Chicago train yesterday and dug in a bit.

The Decider Still Doesn’t Know Who Disbanded Iraq’s Military

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President Bush still does not know who actually controverted his policy on keeping Saddam’s military intact and instead disbanded it.  That’s an incredible admission — unbelievable!  This from a revealing New York Times piece today on Bush biographer Robert Draper’s interviews with Bush (and in his forthcoming book Dead Certain:  The Presidency of George W….

Larry Craig Should Seek Counsel from Former Senator Alan Simpson

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Larry Craig won’t be Idaho’s Senator after September 30th.  He made his resignation announcement today. There has been a lot of ridicule of Craig in the last several days — much of which was deserved given his well-preened anti-gay persona, but now he’s out. He’s terminated one of the big contradictions in his life.

Norm Ornstein’s Neocon Problem

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(photo credit: Jay Westcott, Washington Examiner) I’m going to out myself. I have friends — lots of them — inside the American Enterprise Institute. Some of them I can’t mention here as they used to work at AEI and then went to work for political players that this blog has been at cross-purposes with.

Purging the Neocons from the American Soul

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Here is some thinking I have written up about America’s ongoing neocon problem and the threat that that movement represents over at Andrew Sullivan’s Daily Dish. And for those in Chicago or at APSA, I’m blogging away in the fantastic lounge of the Sheraton Hotel on the Chicago River.

Americans Discover Corruption in Iraq

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David Corn has gotten hold of a secret report — still in draft form — outlining the concerns that the US military and foreign service have about a “norm of corruption” in the current Iraqi government.