A Growing Afghan Prison Rivals Bleak Guantánamo - New York Times:

While an international debate rages over the future of the American detention center at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, the military has quietly expanded another, less-visible prison in Afghanistan, where it now holds some 500 terror suspects in more primitive conditions, indefinitely and without charges.

We can't even give these people the dignity of knowing what they're being imprisoned for? Check this out:

unlike those at Guantánamo, they have no access to lawyers, no right to hear the allegations against them and only rudimentary reviews of their status as "enemy combatants," military officials said.

Arguably even more important than the fact that this is obviously morally and ethically obscene, it's illegal - one of several impeachable offenses committed by this administration.

This site's pretty high on the unintentional comedy scale right now.

Alterman: Slacker Friday - Altercation - MSNBC.com:

Pablo Picasso: Shortly after WWII, an American went to visit Picasso in his Paris studio and asked, “How does it feel to be Picasso, the master of the art?” The artist replied, “Give me a dollar bill.” The American complied, and Picasso signed his name on it. “There, that dollar is now worth $500. That’s how it feels to be Picasso.”

That's something I noticed while I was down there this week. Contrary to what you might have heard, South Florida is a terrible place to live and really not even a particularly great place to vacation. I can only speak for the Palm Beach/Boca Raton/Fort Lauderdale area, but they suck bad enough to infect the rest of the region with suck as far as I'm concerned. The weather's peachy, but that doesn't make up for the following bulleted list of unforgivable annoyances and flaws:

• Even more than it sucks, it stinks. Everywhere you drive, you encounter foul stenches: diesel fumes, sewage, and other unidentifiable yet no less offensive aromas. That's unsurprising, however, given all of the...
  
• ...delapidated strip malls that line every inch of every street, everywhere, each of which boasts at least one pawn shop. The result is that you never see, say, a tree along the side of the road, just ugly-ass strip malls as far as the eye can see.
  
• The people are dicks. I can always count on South Florida drivers to reassure me that people suck. Try driving on I-95 down there sometime and you'll see what I'm talking about.
  
• Gated communities. As far as I can tell, either you live in one, or you live in a trailer park. Having a "house" in a "neighborhood" isn't one of the options.
  
• It really smells really bad. I'm not kidding around.

Can't remember how I discovered this, but it's really, really funny and well done.

I can be a pretty ornery consumer when it's warranted, but it really doesn't take much for a company to get on my good side. Case in point: My Xbox 360 had a relatively minor albeit frustrating issue: it would sometimes incorrectly recognize games as DVDs, meaning that I'd have to keep taking them out and putting them back in until it finally figured out what they were. I called MS about it, they sent me a postage-paid DHL air mail box, and I sent it away. True to their word, it was back in Rochester via air mail three days later. The kicker - they just sent me a brand new system rather than trying to figure out what was wrong with mine. I'm impressed.

Knicks reportedly pursuing Magic's Francis - NBA - MSNBC.com:

The New York Knicks, losers of 10 straight games, are trying to trade for the Orlando Magic's Steve Francis and put him in the backcourt along with Stephon Marbury, ESPN reported Wednesday.

The Knicks have an insatiable appetite for overpaid "stars" who have repeatedly proven that they can score plenty of points while losing games. Just like Marbury, Francis is a selfish player who'd rather shoot than pass the ball (which, last time I checked, is pretty much the point guard's job). He was miserable in Houston because Yao Ming was there, he's being obnoxious in Orlando, and he'll absolutely hate sharing a backcourt with Marbury. Naturally, this is a situation Isiah Thomas can't resist.

CNN.com - Two dead in Pakistan rioting - Feb 14, 2006:

...Witnesses said rioters also damaged over 200 cars, dozens of shops -- many locally owned...

Let's do the hypothetical thang: You're a Muslim. A second-rate Danish newspaper has published cartoons that included pictures of the prophet Muhammed, which is forbidden according to your religion. You're pissed, because... you read Danish newspapers all the dang time. To demonstrate your outrage, you... burn cars and businesses in your hometown, which likely belong to your friends and neighbors. Because that'll show 'em!

Letterman: "But here is the sad part -- before the trip Donald Rumsfeld had denied the guy's request for body armor."

Jon Stewart: "Now, this story certainly has its humorous aspects. ... But it also raises a serious issue, one which I feel very strongly about. ... Moms, dads, if you're watching right now, I can't emphasize this enough: Do not let your kids go on hunting trips with the vice president. I don't care what kind of lucrative contracts they're trying to land, or energy regulations they're trying to get lifted -- it's just not worth it."

That's it. Only two. I hope you enjoyed them. Go away.

If you're as pale and pasty as I am, you'll probably find this article pretty interesting. I, for one, hope Sony bites it hard, so all the game developers will be forced to focus on my 360. Selfish? Yes please!

It's just worded far more intelligently than I could ever manage.

Cartoon Debate - The case for mocking religion. By Christopher Hitchens:The prohibition on picturing the prophet—who was only another male mammal—is apparently absolute. So is the prohibition on pork or alcohol or, in some Muslim societies, music or dancing. Very well then, let a good Muslim abstain rigorously from all these. But if he claims the right to make me abstain as well, he offers the clearest possible warning and proof of an aggressive intent. This current uneasy coexistence is only an interlude, he seems to say. For the moment, all I can do is claim to possess absolute truth and demand absolute immunity from criticism. But in the future, you will do what I say and you will do it on pain of death.

I refuse to be spoken to in that tone of voice, which as it happens I chance to find 'offensive.' ( By the way, hasn't the word 'offensive' become really offensive lately?) The innate human revulsion against desecration is much older than any monotheism: Its most powerful expression is in the Antigone of Sophocles. It belongs to civilization. I am not asking for the right to slaughter a pig in a synagogue or mosque or to relieve myself on a 'holy' book. But I will not be told I can't eat pork, and I will not respect those who burn books on a regular basis. I, too, have strong convictions and beliefs and value the Enlightenment above any priesthood or any sacred fetish-object. It is revolting to me to breathe the same air as wafts from the exhalations of the madrasahs, or the reeking fumes of the suicide-murderers, or the sermons of Billy Graham and Joseph Ratzinger. But these same principles of mine also prevent me from wreaking random violence on the nearest church, or kidnapping a Muslim at random and holding him hostage, or violating diplomatic immunity by attacking the embassy or the envoys of even the most despotic Islamic state, or making a moronic spectacle of myself threatening blood and fire to faraway individuals who may have hurt my feelings. The babyish rumor-fueled tantrums that erupt all the time, especially in the Islamic world, show yet again that faith belongs to the spoiled and selfish childhood of our species.

Iran to take revenge on Denmark with Holocaust cartoons - Pravda.Ru:

Iran has reacted to Denmark’s publishing of the cartoons in turn. The largest state newspaper Hamshahiri which holds conservative views has announced that it will hold a competition to find the most amusing cartoon based on the theme of the Holocaust.

The rules of the competition will be published in a number of newspapers which are printed on Tuesday. The twelve people that send in the best cartoons will each receive gold rings from unnamed private individuals. It was decided that twelve prizes would be awarded since this is the number of cartoons portraying the Prophet Mohammed which were published in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten.

The graphic editor of the Iranian newspaper Farid Mortazawi said, “Western newspapers which printed these sacrilegious cartoons defend themselves by speaking of freedom of speech and self-expression. Therefore we shall see if they really follow these principles and will print the cartoons about the Holocaust.”

Let's hope that the West, including Israel, reacts to the Halocaust cartoons with indifference, and shows the Muslim world what a big bunch of babies they've been acting like.

Thanks for screwing up the HD feed halfway through the first quarter last night, and not fixing it until the second half.

ABC has no ‘Satisfaction’ with Stones’ lyrics - Music - MSNBC.com:

Two sexually explicit lyrics were excised from the rock legends’ performance Sunday. The only song to avoid the editor was “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction,” a 41-year-old song about sexual frustration.

In “Start Me Up,” the show’s editors silenced one word, a reference to a woman’s sexual sway over a dead man. The lyrics for “Rough Justice” included a synonym for rooster that the network also deemed worth cutting out.

It means male chicken.

This will only be fine with me if we're no longer allowed to call the Vice President by his first name.

Check Your Sitter

I'm open to constructive/destructive/intentionally insulting criticism.

Bloomberg.com: U.S.:

The U.S. House of Representatives narrowly approved legislation today cutting $39 billion from government programs benefiting the poor, elderly and college students.

Lawmakers voted 216-214 to slice federal spending on the Medicare and Medicaid health insurance programs and student loan programs over the next five years. Republicans said the vote, almost a year after lawmakers first agreed to cut federal benefit programs, showed the party isn't afraid to make unpopular choices to help put federal finances in order.

How brave of them! They're willing to take away Grandma's pills and Junior's college money to make up for their own fiscal irresponsibility! If only the American public wasn't so jaded, perhaps these kinds of decisions wouldn't be so unpopular.

"Any time you hear the United States government talking about wiretap, it requires—a wiretap requires a court order. Nothing has changed, by the way. When we're talking about chasing down terrorists, we're talking about getting a court order before we do so." -George W. Bush

We know now that he was lying - and he knew it then.

The Political Power of Truth - Newsweek Politics - MSNBC.com

(Why isn't this a smoking gun for impeachment? How could he defend this?)