Father Alberto Cutié joins Episcopal church, will marry by Jaweed Kaleem and Robert Samuels The Rev. Alberto Cutié, the celebrity priest removed from his Miami Beach church after photos of him kissing and embracing a woman appeared in the pages of a Spanish-language magazine earlier this month, has left the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Miami to join the Episcopal church and announced that he will marry the woman he has dated for two years.
It just doesn't get any worse than this by Dennis Rahkonen I'm stopped at a red light when a decrepit old Chevrolet pickup with its windows rolled down pulls into the adjacent lane.Its radio is bleating Rush Limbaugh, and the rear bumper bears a sticker that reads, "My wife, yes. My dog, maybe. My gun, NEVER!"
‘Priestess-scribe’ dragged from Obama appearance by Mike Sheehan George W. Bush had his Jeff Gannon.Now Barack Obama has his own bizarre reporter story.A woman named Brenda Lee, who’s being referred to in media reports as a writer for an obscure news site called the Georgia Informer, was “forcibly removed from a press area near Air Force One” just as Obama was to arrive at L.A. International Airport.
Michelle Malkin: Bill O’Reilly ’smeared’ my Hot Air blog by David Edwards and Muriel Kane Right-wing blogger Michelle Malkin is angry with conservative pundit Bill O’Reilly for describing an anonymous comment left at the group blog Hot Air which she co-founded as though it was one of her co-blogger’s own postings.During a round-up of reaction by right-wing bloggers to the nomination of Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court, O’Reilly quoted a comment at Hot Air, left on a post written by Ed Morrissey, which said, “Unqualified, militant and socialist. NEXT, please. The GOP has to block any of Husseins extremist picks.”
Barr remembered as 'true gentleman' by Associated Press ALLEN PARK, Mich. -- Former Lions defensive back and receiver Terry Barr, a rookie on Detroit's last championship team in 1957, has died. He was 73.Barr died Thursday at his Bloomfield Hills home after a long battle with Alzheimer's disease, said team spokesman Tim Pendell.
Bringing the war home: Alternatives to our military's new psychiatric wards by Jane Stillwater I just heard from a reliable source that the U.S. military is currently building new psychiatric wards on several of its major bases here in America. The new wards are designed to provide treatment for the increasing number of military personnel returning from Iraq and Afghanistan who have "brought the war home with them". This is both good news and bad news.
Is Sotomayor a threat to Roe v. Wade? Don't ask the NY Times. by Mary Shaw An article in Thursday's New York Times reveals that some pro-choice groups are concerned that "Judge Sotomayor may not be a reliable vote to uphold Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 abortion rights decision."The article quotes NARAL president Nancy Keenan as calling for the Senate to press the issue during the confirmation hearings:
No going back: India hitches her wagon to the global economy by Alan Bisbort No question about it, India has accomplished great things. This is not like saying Iceland or Ireland has accomplished great things. Small, compact nations with relatively manageable populations can turn things around pretty quickly.India, on the other hand, juts out from the bottom of Asia like an ancient, angry carbuncle, a land mass so big it is called a "subcontinent" — geological evidence suggests it was once separate from Asia. Home to more than 1 billion people, India has, since independence in 1947, been roiled by sectarian and religious violence and dogged by an image (unfair though it is) as a land of abject poverty whose people sleep on beds of nails, go to the bathroom outdoors, burn their dead and toss the ashes in the Ganges.
Peace rising: My God, what kind of war requires the death of a country? by Robert C. Koehler In sacred remembrance of all those we have killed, and are continuing to kill...The flag waves, the heart stirs, the music rends the air. Memorial Day 2009. I stood at a bubbling fountain in downtown Chicago and listened to speakers from Vietnam Veterans Against the War -- speakers with hard-earned and grown-up attitudes about war -- apologize for the wars still going on today and plead for awareness that they must stop, that we must learn how little they solve and how long they linger, and that only in committing ourselves to the end of all wars can we honor the dead. Then, toward the end of the small, solemn gathering, the passing of Zak Wachtendonk was mourned.
Sotomayor Confirmation Fight as Vehicle for Discussion of Race, Class, Gender and Privilege by David Sirota Between the Wall Street Journal telling us that business groups are confident that President Obama's Supreme Court nominees won't rock the boat and the New York Times telling us that Obama shunned so-called "favorites of the Left" in his Supreme Court search, I'm not (yet) fully confident that the selection of Sonia Sotomayor will mean huge policy change from the court. However, I am increasingly confident (and happy) that the Sotomayor nomination and ensuing confirmation fight could open up a much-needed discussion of taboo subjects like race, class, gender and privilege.
US toddler shoots younger brother by BBC News A three-year-old girl in the US state of California has accidentally shot her younger brother dead with a gun found in her home, say police.The girl is believed to have found the .45 calibre semi-automatic handgun under her parents' bed.Her two-year-old brother was taken to Kern County hospital with a critical chest wound but later died.
Majority of Americans oppose gay marriage by Jeremy Gantz Depending on how you feel about same-sex marriage, the results of a Gallup poll released this morning might surprise you, or seem to state the obvious.The poll's big finding is that 57 percent of Americans currently oppose making same-sex marriages legal – essentially the same number as last year. And support for those marriages appears to have stalled at 40 percent, after peaking at 46 percent in 2007.
Abu Ghraib Abuse Photos 'Show Rape' by Duncan Gardham, Security Correspondent and Paul Cruickshank Photographs of alleged prisoner abuse which Barack Obama is attempting to censor include images of apparent rape and sexual abuse, it has emerged.At least one picture shows an American soldier apparently raping a female prisoner while another is said to show a male translator raping a male detainee.
The Next Leg Down by Mike Whitney Collapsing home prices and credit markets continue to put downward pressure on consumer spending, forcing the Federal Reserve to take even more radical action to revive the economy. Last week, Fed chief Ben Bernanke raised the prospect of further monetizing the debt by purchasing more than the $1.75 trillion of Treasuries and mortgage-backed securities (MBS) already committed. The announcement sent shock-waves through the currency markets where skittish traders have joined doomsayers in predicting tough times ahead for the dollar. Foreign central banks have been gobbling up US debt at an impressive pace, adding another $60 billion in the last three weeks alone. That's more than enough to cover the current account deficit and put the greenback on solid ground for the time-being. But with fiscal deficits ballooning to $3 trillion in the next year alone, dwindling foreign investment won't be enough to keep the dollar afloat. Bernanke will be forced to either raise interest rates or let the dollar fall hard.
