Oh, not me. This isn't a GBCW diary. I'm not going anywhere. I just wanted to say goodbye to all the people who are currently sure they're not voting for Hillary Clinton if she's the nominee--or even worse, voting for McCain.

Or, hilariously, Bloomberg.

So, having read about Mitt Romney's bigoted remarks about the possibility of appointing a Muslim to his cabinet, I was led to the original op-ed in the Christian Science Monitor penned by a Mansour Ijaz.

"Gee," I thought, "that name sounds familiar. Could it be the same Mansour Ijaz that claimed to have negotiated the arrest of bin Laden only to be rebuffed by the Clinton administration--otherwise known as Wingnut Conspiracy Theory #43?

For those of you who know the sad story of Genarlow Wilson, he has been freed by the Georgia Supreme Court:

The Georgia Supreme Court on Friday ordered that Genarlow Wilson be released from prison in a 4-3 decision, ruling that his sentence for a teen sex conviction was cruel and unusual punishment.

For those of you who don't, the background and why "kind of" after the flip.

'Cause Diebold Election Systems doesn't exist anymore.

Ladies and gentlemen, introducing Premier Election Systems.

Diebold Election Systems to Become Premier Election Solutions

ALLEN, Texas, Aug 16, 2007 PRNewswire-FirstCall via COMTEX -- In conjunction with the announcement today by Diebold, Incorporated, to create a more independent structure for its elections systems subsidiary, Diebold Election Systems is changing its name to Premier Election Solutions.

Story

Newsday has learned that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice recently called a top-secret meeting of the four major pro sports commissioners at the Waldorf, and apparently it wasn't merely to campaign to join their ranks as Paul Tagliabue's replacement.

It's gotta be a joke, right? Some sports page snarkery?

More below.

Where are the sites?

Where are the sites in this Net Neutrality battle? Yes, blogs are doing their part. But if I was in a position to make things happen at something like YouTube, or photobucket, or eBay for that matter, I'd order that a link to savetheinternet.com be placed on every page.

Maybe the really popular commercial sites are thinking that they have the edge, and the killing off of net neutrality will suffocate all of their smaller, less financed competition. But if you look long term, every business, large or small, benefits by the internet as it is. Why agree to permanently increasing your overhead?

Maybe that paragraph only explains why I'm not in a position to make things happen. But I'm honestly surprised that with all the money flowing into K Street that companies like Google have remained silent.

Tonight's ABC Nightly News aired a story entitled "Spanish 'Star Spangled Banner' - Touting the American Dream or Offensive Rewrite?" (read it here)

It made me both proud and ashamed to be an American.

Find out how it makes you feel by reading below.

[Armstrong] told reporters that the small shotgun pellets "broke the skin" and that the blast "knocked him silly. But he was fine. He was talking. His eyes were open. It didn't get in his eyes or anything like that."

and this, from a story about tonight's Australian news program's showing of more photos from the Abu Ghraib abattoir:

Some of the photos are similar to those published in 2004, others are different. They include photographs of six corpses, although the circumstances of their deaths are not clear. There are also pictures of what appear to be burns and wounds from shotgun pellets.

it's impossible to ignore the lack of humanity and compassion that seems to bind the Right together, no matter whom the victim is.

Q: Everyone who's seen this movie thinks it humanizes Gore in precisely the way he needed to be humanized. He got tagged as being cold and robotic, and this film shows him to be warm, very genuine, passionate even. There are a lot of people who think that if this had been shown on primetime, it could have really made a difference in the election.

SJ: I wonder. I don't know, really. I like Harold and Maude.

I heard about director Spike Jonze (Being John Malkovich) shooting some footage of Gore, but I never knew what happened to it until yesterday's trip to the bookstore.

More below.

Now, I'll admit that I have no plans to attend any event honoring King. But, like I do on Labor Day, Memorial Day and even the 4th of July, I try to learn something new that's specific to the occassion, or at least reflect on what I already know. Surely, I thought this morning, there'll be plenty of stuff on the boob tube. I could get some work done while commemorating the man, albeit in an infinitesimally way.

My stupidity on trusting the television on Side B...

But just now, I saw something different: A well-dressed couple, taking turns speaking directly to camera. Their message?

Vote 'No' on all California measures.

More below.

Then I watched tonight's local news. More below.

More below.

(Oh, if only fake piety was also illegal, but it's not a perfect world. More below.)