Browns WR Stallworth suspended indefinitely by NFL by The Associated Press NEW YORK -- Cleveland Browns receiver Donte' Stallworth was indefinitely suspended by the NFL on Thursday for driving drunk and killing a pedestrian in Miami.'The conduct reflected in your guilty plea resulted in the tragic loss of life and was inexcusable,' Commissioner Roger Goodell said in a letter to Stallworth.
Carrie Prejean -- Clear My Name or I'll Sue by TMZ Carrie Prejean says she means business. She's giving the Miss California USA team one last chance to clear her name -- or she's gonna sue.In a letter Prejean's lawyer fired off to the lawyer representing pageant honcho Keith Lewis, the attorney says Lewis defamed her by making her seem uncooperative and difficult to deal with. He did not address Donald Trump's comment to us ... that Carrie treated people 'like s**t.'
NHLers: Our Cash Was Blown on MLB Porn Party by TMZ 14 major NHL hockey playersare suing a developer named Kenneth Jowdy for allegedly screwing them out of millions of dollars -- and then blowing the cash on escorts, strippers and private jet rides for some of the biggest names in Major League Baseball history.
Judge to review Cheney interview in CIA leak case by Nedra Pickler WASHINGTON (AP) -- A federal judge said Thursday that he wants to look at notes from the FBI's interview with former Vice President Dick Cheney during the investigation into who leaked the identity of a CIA operative.U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan's decision to review the documents followed arguments by Obama administration lawyers that sounded much like the reasons the Bush administration provided for keeping Cheney's interview from the public.
Bush hopes closing Guantanamo won't risk security by Genaro C. Armas ERIE, Pa. (AP) — Former President George W. Bush said Wednesday that he hopes that his successor's plans to close the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, will not compromise domestic security. Bush, though, maintained during an appearance in northwestern Pennsylvania that he would not criticize President Barack Obama, though he did discuss his policies.
Von Brunn had child pornography, officials say by Stephen C. Webster An awful, awful story just got worse.Investigators who searched an apartment registered to James von Brunn, suspected of murdering a security guard at the Washington, D.C. holocaust museum, claim to have found child pornography on his computer.The Washington Post reports:
Barack Takes Sides in New York by Gail Collins 'I have thousands of people calling me, telling me not to run,' said Representative Carolyn Maloney, rather proudly. Maloney, a New York City Democrat, is thinking about making a try for the Senate seat now held by Kirsten Gillibrand. Generally, people who are contemplating a race for higher office try to convey the impression that they’re bowing to popular demand so intense that the drumbeat has become all but deafening. Let’s give Maloney props for originality for making it clear that people are beating a path to her door, begging her to cease and desist.
Obama and Anti-War Democrats by Norman Solomon In mid-June, a warning shot from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue landed with a thud on Capitol Hill, near some recent arrivals in the House. The political salvo was carefully aimed and expertly fired. But in the long run it could boomerang.As a close vote neared on a supplemental funding bill for more war in Iraq and Afghanistan, the San Francisco Chronicle reported that “the White House has threatened to pull support from Democratic freshmen who vote no.” In effect, it was so important to President Obama to get the war funds that he was willing to paint a political target on the backs of some of the gutsiest new progressives in Congress.
Gays in Great Danger in Iraq by Bill Berkowitz After months of silence, the US State Department finally condemns the murders of 24 young men who were gay, or perceived to be gay.In 2005, during the height of internecine violence and resistance to the U.S. occupation, the country's most influential Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali a-Sistani, issued a religious decree that said that gay men and lesbians should be 'punished, in fact, killed.' He added, 'The people should be killed in the worst, most severe way of killing.' According to the New York Times, 'The language has since been removed from his Web site.'
Iran and Thinking Before You Speak (or Tweet) by Allison Kilkenny John Kerry writes in today's New York Times: We are all inspired by Iran's peaceful demonstrations, the likes of which have not been seen there in three decades... There's just one problem. If we actually want to empower the Iranian people, we have to understand how our words can be manipulated and used against us to strengthen the clerical establishment, distract Iranians from a failing economy and rally a fiercely independent populace against outside interference. Iran's hard-liners are already working hard to pin the election dispute, and the protests, as the result of American meddling. On Wednesday, the Iranian Foreign Ministry chastised American officials for 'interventionist' statements. Government complaints of slanted coverage by the foreign press are rising in pitch.
Extramarital Politics by Matt Taibbi So here's the picture of Cynthia Hampton, the aide Senator Ensign got caught banging. There are lots of jokes one could make about this picture, and I'm not going to make any of them. I will say that I am going to really enjoy the inevitable media fragging Ensign is going to take because of his holier-than-thou attitude during the Lewinsky scandal, when he called on Clinton to resign for having an affair. What's especially delicious about this is that Ensign back then and during the Larry Craig scandal played the 'Because of these bad apples, even God-fearing, recreational-sex-disdaining politicians like me are now going to be called sexual deviants' card. He's sold that angle hard on a number of occasions ('There's too many people that paint with a broad brush that we're all corrupt, all amoral,' he once said). He said a lot of stuff, and it's all going to be dragged back out now and shoved in his defeated, suddenly elderly face.
Worker rights: No balls, no gains by Joe Bageant In looking back on growing up, I always remember 1957 and 1958 as 'the two good years.' They were the only years my working class redneck family ever caught a real break in their working lives, and that break came because of organized labor. After working as a farm hand, driving a hicktown taxi part time, and a dozen catch as catch can jobs, my father found himself owning a used semi-truck and hauling produce for a Teamster unionized trucking company called Blue Goose.
