We often complain - and rightly so - that the media lacks objectivity and is not sufficiently critical.  The media plays such a crucial role in forming public opinion that our democracy depends on these characteristics in our press.  Ill-informed voters a democracy doesn't make.  It is often said around these parts that blogtopia might someday - if it hasn't already - provide a "check and balance" to a media that's subjugated by corporate influence and pressure from the WH.  

If we believe that blogs might indeed be the solution to the bias in our media we would do well to be proactive in extending the reach of blogtopia.  The rise of BlogAds has already provided a market-like framework to help support and even grow sites like dKos.  Could a collaborative and proactive marketing strategy for blogs significantly increase readership... and therefore its political power?

Palm Beach Post:

The religious police of the wingnut division have been out in full this election season.  We've seen the Janet Jackson debacle earlier this year, the more recent "stupid, dirty girl" slip from Education Secretary of Cali and the Woopi G. "bush" jokes at Radio City.  The moral cops of the right are so unrelenting in their persecution of the "morally corrupt" that the religious police of Saudi Arabia pale in comparison.  

Of course, we're all well aware of the hypocrisy and absurdity of their attacks - no need to get into that discussion.  However, since we can expect an escalation of their holy war in the months to come, we need a proper label to refer to these nutjobs in the wings.

Have any ideas for a new epithet for these loonies?

Of course, the Repugs will use the success in France as fodder for their ridiculous attacks on the film. The Guardian:

The movie will open in Britain and many other countries across the globe tomorrow, ensuring that it will continue to make the headlines.

Meanwhile, the theater count in the US increase by 286 to 2,011.

CNN reported that Bush scribbled "let freedom rain" on a note that was handed to him during the NATO meeting indicating that the Iraqi handover had completed successfully.  The note, signed by Condi, was even displayed on CNN.

"let freedom rain".

How thoroughly dumb.  Did Bush actually mean to quote Dr. King, but didn't quite get it right?  Or did he somehow think rain more appropriate an analogy than the freedom bell?  After all, it gets pretty dry over there in I-Raq.  Maybe he meant "let freedom reign", but had a momentary lapse of spelling.  Whatever the case, what an embarrassment this man is.    

From the Guardian:

I'm worried that on June 30, when all the cablenews countdowns reach zero, there will much more of a disaster than is anticipated.  Everyone believes there will be increased violence, but with all the hype around this handover crap it seems too much of an opportunity for Al Queda to pass up.

What a massive slap-in-the-face it would be if June 30, the day America is to give I-Raq its "sovereignty" and "freedom", were to become a day of infamy.  I may be overly worried.  But considering Snarkmaster's record of disasters, can you blame me?

From the asia times:

A new site is up with a survey of Iraqi civilian casualties for the first 50 days of the war.

The director of the survey, Raed Jarrar, is the author of the Raid in the Middle blog, and part of the A Family in Baghdad blog.

"In respect to their sacred memory, I would appreciate it if you could spend some minutes reading the database file when I publish them, read their names, and their personal details, and think about them as human beings, friends, and relatives -- not mere figures and numbers." Raed Jarrar

How to unite the vastly diverse Democratic Party?  That question, in the face of the Mighty Wurlitzer of the right-wing, arises again and again.  Perhaps the answer lies in the process rather than the policy.  After all, no matter where the line is drawn on policy, with all our diversity, many voters on both sides of the line will be marginalized.  

The discussion seems to always focus on drawing the line on policy so as to cast the widest net.  But can a wider net be woven with ideology rather than a hodgepodge of positions on issues?  Shouldn't policy reflect a more abstract ideology anyhow?  You might say that liberalism/conservatism is the ideology, but the definition, or rather the perception of these terms seems both unclear and a moving target.

His name is unknown to most Americans and his legacy is largely excluded from our history books.  George Mason became unpopular, and therefore removed from history, by refusing to sign the Constitution.  He demanded, among other things, that a bill of rights be included.

The Bill of Rights was added four years later and was modeled after the Virgina Declaration of Rights, which was drafted by Mason himself.  Mason's Declaration of Rights inspired not only the US Bill of Rights, but also the 'The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen' resulting from the French revolution and 'The Universal Declaration of Human Rights" adopted by the United Nations in 1948.

A memorial was dedicated to Mason two years ago, but he deserves more than the tribute of a statue on a bench.  He ought to be remembered as the founding father that he was, on par with the rest of them.