(10 am. – promoted by ek hornbeck)

Dear Dr. Dean, It’s not a mosque, it’s a Cultural Center that will house a culinary school, an auditorium, a swimming pool, a basketball court, and yes, space for prayer. It is intended to be open to ALL, to promote understanding through education. If I remember correctly, that is how we are supposed to fight ignorance and prejudice.

It is not at Ground Zero. It is located two blocks away and not even within sight of the World Trade Center site. It has operating there for a year without any opposition until a hate campaign was started by Pamela Geller, a anti-Muslim right wing blogger and the New York Post using fear, lies and innuendo.

Did you know that Muslims worship at the Pentagon and have a prayer room there, 80 feet from where the plane crashed into the building? Should that be moved, too?

This is more than the rights of people to worship where they live and work or even the private property rights as Mayor Bloomberg so eloquently spoke in his support of the Cultural Center. It is standing up against fear, ignorance and bigotry. Where would the Civil Rights movement be if we had not marched in the streets and died for equality for African Americans? Where would women be if not for the 19th Amendment and the Feminist movement if we hadn’t marched, petitioned, got arrested and, yes, burned our bras in protest?

So big deal the majority of people think the Center should be moved. So what? Since when, especially when we know the majority is dead wrong about an issue, do we cave to their wishes?

Even Republicans understand why it is important to support the building of the center. Ted Olson, former Bush White House Solicitor General, who lost his wife on 9/11, has come out in support. And Peter Beinhart, of all people, is telling Democrats to “grow  pair”. It is hard to believe you don’t have the courage of these two men.

American Muslims died on 9/11, too. Americans Muslims did not attack us on 9/11. Are we to allow fanatics to hijack a religion of 1 billion because we are afraid? The fear mongering about Islam over the last 9 years has addled peoples’ brains. Has it addled yours, too?

Your reasons for opposing this project are lame, to be kind, and go against the grain of every principle that we have fought for over the last 234 years. There are some times we need to be “inflexible” this is one of them.

I expected better of you, Dr. Dean.

Sincerely, TMC

This is your morning Open Thread. Pour a cup of your favorite morning beverage and review the past and comment on the future.

August 19 is the 231st day of the year (232nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 134 days remaining until the end of the year.

On this day in 1909, the first race is held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, now the home of the world’s most famous motor racing competition, the Indianapolis 500.

The rectangular two-and-a-half-mile track linked four turns, each exactly 440 yards from start to finish, by two long and two short straight sections. In that first five-mile race on August 19, 1909, 12,000 spectators watched Austrian engineer Louis Schwitzer win with an average speed of 57.4 miles per hour. The track’s surface of crushed rock and tar proved a disaster, breaking up in a number of places and causing the deaths of two drivers, two mechanics and two spectators.

The surface was soon replaced with 3.2 million paving bricks, laid in a bed of sand and fixed with mortar. Dubbed “The Brickyard,” the speedway reopened in December 1909. In 1911, low attendance led the track’s owners to make a crucial decision: Instead of shorter races, they resolved to focus on a single, longer event each year, for a much larger prize. That May 30 marked the debut of the Indy 500–a grueling 500-mile race that was an immediate hit with audiences and drew press attention from all over the country. Driver Ray Haroun won the purse of $14,250, with an average speed of 74.59 mph and a total time of 6 hours and 42 minutes.

 43 BC – Octavian, later known as Augustus, compels the Roman Senate to elect him Consul.

1561 – An 18-year-old Mary, Queen of Scots, returns to Scotland after spending 13 years in France.

1612 – The “Samlesbury witches”, three women from the Lancashire village of Samlesbury, England, are put on trial, accused for practising witchcraft, one of the most famous witch trials in English history.

1666 – Second Anglo-Dutch War: Rear Admiral Robert Holmes leads a raid on the Dutch island of Terschelling, destroying 150 merchant ships, an act later known as “Holmes’s Bonfire”.

1692 – Salem witch trials: in Salem, Massachusetts, Province of Massachusetts Bay five people, one woman and four men, including a clergyman, are executed after being convicted of witchcraft.

1745 – Prince Charles Edward Stuart raises his standard in Glenfinnan – the start of the Second Jacobite Rebellion, known as “the 45”.

1782 – American Revolutionary War: Battle of Blue Licks – the last major engagement of the war, almost ten months after the surrender of the British commander Lord Cornwallis following the Siege of Yorktown.

1812 – War of 1812: American frigate USS Constitution defeats the British frigate HMS Guerriere off the coast of Nova Scotia, Canada earning her nickname “Old Ironsides”.

1839 – Presentation of Jacque Daguerre’s new photographic process to the French Academy of Sciences.

1848 – California Gold Rush: the New York Herald breaks the news to the East Coast of the United States of the gold rush in California (although the rush started in January).

1862 – Indian Wars: during an uprising in Minnesota, Lakota warriors decide not to attack heavily-defended Fort Ridgely and instead turn to the settlement of New Ulm, killing white settlers along the way.

1895 – American frontier murderer and outlaw, John Wesley Hardin, is killed by an off-duty policeman in a saloon in El Paso, Texas.

1919 – Afghanistan gains full independence from the United Kingdom.

1934 – The first All-American Soap Box Derby is held in Dayton, Ohio.

1934 – The creation of the position Führer is approved by the German electorate with 89.9% of the popular vote.

1940 – First flight of the B-25 Mitchell medium bomber.

1942 – World War II: Operation Jubilee – the 2nd Canadian Infantry Division leads an amphibious assault by allied forces on Dieppe, France and fails, many Canadians are killed or captured. The operation was doomed to fail, and was intended to develop and try new amphibious landing tactics for the coming full invasion in Normandy.

1944 – World War II: Liberation of Paris – Paris rises against German occupation with the help of Allied troops.

1945 – Vietnam War: Viet Minh led by Ho Chi Minh take power in Hanoi, Vietnam.

1953 – Cold War: the CIA helps to overthrow the government of Mohammed Mossadegh in Iran and reinstate the Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.

1960 – Cold War: in Moscow, downed American U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers is sentenced to ten years imprisonment by the Soviet Union for espionage.

1960 – Sputnik program: Sputnik 5 – the Soviet Union launches the satellite with the dogs Belka and Strelka, 40 mice, 2 rats and a variety of plants.

1965 – Japanese prime minister Eisaku Sato becomes the first post-World War II sitting prime minister to visit Okinawa.

1981 – Gulf of Sidra Incident: United States fighters intercept and shoot down two Libyan Sukhoi Su-22 fighter jets over the Gulf of Sidra.

1989 – Polish president Wojciech Jaruzelski nominates Solidarity activist Tadeusz Mazowiecki to be the first non-communist Prime Minister in 42 years.

1989 – Raid on offshore pirate station, Radio Caroline in North Sea by British and Dutch governments.

1989 – Several hundred East Germans cross the frontier between Hungary and Austria during the Pan-European Picnic, part of the events which began the process of the Fall of the Berlin Wall.

1990 – Leonard Bernstein conducts his final concert, ending with Ludwig van Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7.

1991 – Collapse of the Soviet Union, August Coup: Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev is placed under house arrest while on holiday in the town of Foros, Crimea.

1999 – In Belgrade, tens of thousands of Serbians rally to demand the resignation of Federal Republic of Yugoslavia President Slobodan Milosevic.

2002 – A Russian Mi-26 helicopter carrying troops is hit by a Chechen missile outside of Grozny, killing 118 soldiers.

2003 – A car-bomb attack on United Nations headquarters in Iraq kills the agency’s top envoy Sergio Vieira de Mello and 21 other employees.

2005 – The first-ever joint military exercise between Russia and China, called Peace Mission 2005 begins.

2009 – A series of bombings in Baghdad, Iraq, kills 101 and injures 565 others.

Mormonism is no more ‘Christian’ than Islam.

Now the things I’m going to tell you about Mormonism may seem unfair, but they are core principles of the faith and I personally don’t think they’re more ridiculous than any other religion.  I’m using Wikipedia as my source where I can because, however much you may despise the depth of its scholarship, its contentious nature means that what is presented is generally agreed on (except for temporary aberrations like Colbert’s Elephant).

First of all, Mormons worship the God of Abraham, just like Jews, Christians, and (gasp) Muslims.

Like Islam, it is a Restorationist religion which believes that priesthood authority was lost and the text of the Bible changed.  This condition of Apostacy was rectified by a special revelation to a new prophet succeeding Jesus of Nazareth.

The story of the Mormons starts about 600 BC when a man named Lehi, his family, and several others are led by God from Jerusalem shortly before the fall of that city to the Babylonians in 586 BC.  After some wandering around the Arabian Peninsula they travel by sea to a new promised land- the Americas.

There’s some serious debate among scholars of Mormonism whether the events described take place in Central or Northern America and there is also a description (the Book of Ether) of an earlier migration by a group of Jews from Babylon called the Jaredites around 2500 B.C.  “The Jaredites grew to become a civilization that exceeded two million people just prior to their destruction.  They finally destroyed themselves about the time Lehi and the other refugees from Jerusalem arrived in America.”

Lehi and his refugees soon divided into two camps, the Nephi and the Lamanites, and they were almost constantly at war.

In the 3rd Book of Nephi there is a description of a miraculous visitation by Jesus of Nazareth after his death, resurrection, and assumption where he personally communicates the ‘Good News’ of the Gospel to the Nephi and for several generations after that there is peace.

The Book of Mormon as a whole is an account of the life of Mormon, the last great warrior king of the Nephi who is said to have written most of it (some transcribed from other records), and his son Moroni who finished it and hid it after the final defeat of the Nephi around 350 AD.

The chronology of Jesus of Nazareth’s visitations to America (North or Central) is somewhat confused as he appeared not only around the generally accepted dates of his life (say 33 BC to 50 AD) but also to the Jaredites some 2500 years previous and to Lehi and his followers shortly after their arrival some 600 years before he was even born.

It’s a miracle.

There is no God but God and Mohammed is his Prophet.

Now I’ll try not to be as harsh on Joe Smith Jr. as Sam Clemens.  If a man tells me he’s hefted something, I’m willing to believe it.

However.

Accepting the story at face value, the last Nephi and Lamanite died 1000 years before Columbus sailed the ocean blue and 1300 years before Joe Jr. dug up those tablets in Palmyra, New York and translated them from ‘reformed Egyptian’ with the aid of the Ghost of Angel Moroni.

It will take someone with much tougher theological chops than I (and as you can see I have some) to explain to me the difference between that and Mohammed’s revelations in a desert cave.

When you listen to Glenn Beck, or Mitt Romney, or Harry Reid, remember that these truths are articles of faith to them that they believe as firmly as you believe in the Miracle of the Menorah, the Resurrection of Christ, that Mohammed ascended to heaven with the angel Gabriel, or that Siddhartha Gautama sat under a lotus tree.

U.S. jobless claims jump to 9-month high of 500,000.

Unexpected climb is yet another setback for already frail recovery

Civilians to Take U.S. Lead After Military Leaves Iraq



By MICHAEL R. GORDON

Published: August 18, 2010

WASHINGTON – As the United States military prepares to leave Iraq by the end of 2011, the Obama administration is planning a remarkable civilian effort, buttressed by a small army of contractors, to fill the void.

By October 2011, the State Department will assume responsibility for training the Iraqi police, a task that will largely be carried out by contractors. With no American soldiers to defuse sectarian tensions in northern Iraq, it will be up to American diplomats in two new $100 million outposts to head off potential confrontations between the Iraqi Army and Kurdish pesh merga forces.

Eat your art out: Artists develop a taste for food

Antony Gormley’s bread bed is back in a new exhibition, and Tate Modern has bought a couscous installation

By Matilda Battersby Thursday, 19 August 2010

The aesthetic significance of a plate of food is usually considered only for the few seconds it takes to bite into it. In fact, when taste and not style is of the essence, a bowl of grey-coloured slop could be just as satisfactory as a tower of carefully constructed haute cuisine, so long as said slop is well seasoned. In the age of culinary pretentiousness (ie now) with chefs like Heston Blumenthal producing food that has been tweaked, preened and garnished with the artistry of, well, an artist, it’s unsurprising that some of it should have found its way into an art gallery.

USA

  Poll shows more Americans think Obama is a Muslim



By Jon Cohen and Michael D. Shear

Washington Post Staff Writer

Thursday, August 19, 2010

The number of Americans who believe — wrongly — that President Obama is a Muslim has increased significantly since his inauguration and now account for nearly 20 percent of the nation’s population.

Those results, from a new Pew Research Center survey, were drawn from interviews done before the president’s comments about the construction of an Islamic cultural center near Ground Zero, and they suggest that there could be serious political danger for the White House as the debate continues.

Mediator takes reins on gulf oil spill claims

‘No more beating up on BP,’ Kenneth Feinberg tells claimants. Next week, he will take over from the oil giant the $20-billion fund for spill compensation claims.

By Kim Murphy, Los Angeles Times

August 19, 2010

Reporting from Houma, La. – Wayde Bonvillain, who makes his living selling Louisiana’s tender softshell crabs, said Wednesday that his problem is he doesn’t know yet how broke he is. How can he know, when crabs make their home thousands of feet down on the ocean floor, and now people are saying there’s spilled oil on the bottom of the sea?

BP has offered him $143,000 for six years of lost earnings, he told Kenneth R. Feinberg, the mediator who next week will take over from the British oil giant a $20-billion fund for oil spill compensation claims. But, Bonvillain continued, who says the crabs are going to be back after six years? What if it’s more like 100?

Europe

Quelle horreur! Asterix surrenders to McDonald’s

A new McDonald’s advert featuring Asterix enjoying a hamburger and fries has sparked outrage among French comic purists who claim the Gallic hero has surrendered to the American fast food chain.

By Henry Samuel in Paris  

The mustachioed warrior and his larger-than-life chum Obelix, famed for defending a village in Gaul from Roman invaders, are shown revelling in a McDonald’s outlet while the village’s tone-deaf bard, Cacofonix, sits outside tied to a tree, his harp by his side.

The scene is a send-up of the comic book’s normal village banquet. Instead of feasting on ale and wild boar, they tuck into Coca Cola and a Big Mac. “Come as you are”, reads the slogan on the bottom of the billboard, which was designed by Euro RSCG, the advertising agency.

Outspoken French politician presents new statue of Lenin

Nearly 20 years after statues of the Bolshevik revolutionary were torn down en masse across eastern Europe, Vladimir Lenin has been immortalized again – in France. A regional politician lists Lenin as one of his heroes.  

HISTORY | 19.08.2010  

The southern French city of Montpellier has unveiled five imposing bronze statues of leading historical figures – including Russian revolutionary Vladimir Lenin.

The figures will memorialize “the great men of the twentieth century,” according to the project’s brainchild, opinionated regional leader Georges Freche.

“Lenin was no blood-thirsty dictator,” Freche, president of the Languedoc-Roussillon region, said. “He shaped the world in the twentieth century.”

Middle East

Wikipedia editing courses launched by Zionist groups

Two Israeli groups set up training courses in Wikipedia editing with aims to ‘show the other side’ over borders and culture

Rachel Shabi in Jerusalem and Jemima Kiss

Since the earliest days of the worldwide web, the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians has seen its rhetorical counterpart fought out on the talkboards and chatrooms of the internet.

Now two Israeli groups seeking to gain the upper hand in the online debate have launched a course in “Zionist editing” for Wikipedia, the online reference site.

Yesha Council, representing the Jewish settler movement, and the rightwing Israel Sheli (My I srael) movement, ran their first workshop this week in Jerusalem, teaching participants how to rewrite and revise some of the most hotly disputed pages of the online reference site.

In impoverished Gaza, electric company can’t collect its bills



By Liam Stack | McClatchy Newspapers    

GAZA CITY, Gaza – The Islamic holy month of Ramadan, marked by daytime fasting and nighttime feasting, was just a few days away, but the Abu Hassan Sweet Shop in Gaza City was eerily empty recently.

Gaza’s power plant had run out of fuel and had shut down the day before for the second time in two months, plunging the Strip’s 1.5 million residents into 12 to 16 hours of darkness at a time. Mohamed Hassouna stood behind a wide tray of flaky desserts inside his shop, shouting over the constant thrum of its gasoline-powered generator.

Asia

Pakistan floods: Saudi Arabia pledges $100m

Oil-rich country overtakes US as main aid donor as second wave of flooding hits new areas in southern provinces  

Saeed Shah in Islamabad  

Saudi Arabia has overtaken the US as the largest donor to Pakistan’s flood relief effort, following criticism that Muslim countries were not giving enough for victims of the disaster.

The oil-rich country is to give $105m (£67m) in aid, according to Pakistan’s National Disaster Management Authority, though just $5m of this is in cash, with the rest in the form of relief goods. The Saudi public has separately raised $19m.

Obama wants Burmese rulers to face UN war crimes investigation

US move reflects the failure of engagement with Rangoon

By Andrew Buncombe Thursday, 19 August 2010

The administration of US President Barack Obama has decided to throw its crucial support behind moves to establish a special UN commission to investigate alleged war crimes perpetrated by the military rulers of Burma.

In what represents a marked rollback of one of President Obama’s most controversial foreign policy initiatives, US officials said Washington would now back the war crimes investigation, as urged earlier this year by the UN special rapporteur for human rights in Burma.

Africa

South Africa strike: 1.3 million government workers push for wage hike

More than 1.3 million government nurses, teachers, and office workers went on strike in South Africa on Wednesday, pushing for higher wages.

By Savious Kwinika, Guest blogger / August 18, 2010

Johannesburg, South Africa

A nationwide strike of South African government workers – some 1.3 million of them – threatened to bring South Africa’s government to a virtual halt on Wednesday.

Nurses, teachers, clerks, immigration officers, and home affairs personnel all walked out on the job, bringing almost all essential services to a halt.

The strike was called when talks broke down over wage increases. Unions had demanded an 8.6 percent wage increase, while government negotiators stuck to an increase of just 7 percent, along with a small housing allowance.

Latin America

Haiti election: Struggle over Wyclef Jean’s eligibility could spark crisis

The Haiti election commission postponed its ruling on who is eligible to run for president. Critics charge that the commission opposes Wyclef Jean’s candidacy.

By Alice Speri, Contributor / August 18, 2010

Port-au-Prince, Haiti

It was the news everyone in Haiti had been waiting for: Would hip hop star Wyclef Jean be officially cleared to run for president on Nov. 28?

Haiti’s Interim Electoral Commission (CEP) was supposed to announce Tuesday who among the 34 aspiring candidates meet all constitutional requirements to run for president. But late afternoon came and went with no word, and the CEP waited until 10 p.m. to put out a press release postponing the decision to Friday.

Although the CEP’s deliberations should be largely technical, critics say they have become subject to political manipulation by a Haitian political elite seeking to limit the participation of powerful Haitians living abroad. Mr. Jean, who recently announced that if president he would fight for the diaspora’s right to vote in Haitian elections and has gone into hiding after reportedly receiving death threats, has become the symbol of that power struggle.

Ignoring Asia A Blog

Hello, all!  This is Translator, the newest and most likely the worst editor at The Stars Hollow Gazette.  I am new to editing, so please bear with me.  I also post things, mostly about science, and hope that you like them.

For tonight, I just thank the folks that run this site for allowing me to be somewhat more than an observer.  Here are my rules for responding to my, or others’ who post here.  I think these rules are consistent with everyone else.  No bad language, no hurtful comments about others, and good thinking about everything else.

I shall welome everyone by saying that the Mosque is not bad, but the FOX “News” makes it seem very bad.  I shall talk about other things tomorrow, but not this morning.

I appreciate all of you that want to talk, and I will be available for that on the morrow.

Warmest regards,

Doc

I hope that you all want converse, and as always,

Warmest regards,

Doc

(10 am. – promoted by ek hornbeck)

“The commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan says he is not bound by the July 2011 date set for a troop pull-out. General David Petraeus said he could well advise President Obama not to go ahead if he believes it’s the wrong time. American public support for the war is at an all-time low, with July being the deadliest month for U.S. and NATO troops since 2001. With frustration growing about the occupation of Afghanistan, politicians in Germany have even suggested talking to the Taliban and terrorist organizations to avoid a further escalation of violence.”

RT talks with political economist and author F William Engdahl, author of “A Century of War: Anglo-American Oil Politics and the New World Order” and “Full Spectrum Dominance”, about his thoughts on the Afghanistan occupation and the 30 year war scenario to prevent the independent economic development of Russia, China, and the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) states. Engdhahl has written on issues of energy, politics and economics for more than 30 years, beginning with the first oil shock in the early 1970s. Based in Germany, Engdahl contributes regularly to a number of publications including Asia Times Online, Asia, Inc, Japan’s Nihon Keizai Shimbun, Foresight magazine; Freitag and ZeitFragen newspapers in Germany and Switzerland respectively.

The last combat troops are leaving Iraq, crossing the border into Kuwait. It is being carried live on MSNBC. Keith Olbermann broke in to the Ed Show with the announcement

NEAR THE IRAQ-KUWAIT BORDER – The last U.S. combat troops were crossing the border into Kuwait on Thursday morning, bringing to a close the active combat phase of a 7½-year war that overthrew the dictatorial regime of Saddam Hussein, forever defined the presidency of George W. Bush and left more than 4,400 American service members and tens of thousands of Iraqis dead.

The final convoy of the Army’s 4th Stryker Brigade Combat Team, based at Fort Lewis, Wash., was about to enter Kuwait shortly after 1:30 a.m. (6:30 p.m. Wednesday ET), carrying the last of the 14,000 U.S. combat forces in Iraq, said NBC’s Richard Engel, who has been traveling with the brigade as it moved out this week.

Peter Daou:

   

The Iraq war is officially over: http://bit.ly/bVM4JO …question is, how many more lives will be lost there?

Now when do the others come home, out of harms way?

When so we start scaling down Afghanistan?

These are wars we can no longer afford either in expenditures of money or precious lives.

Ugh.  It’s no wonder why a majority of Americans (well, US Americans, but it’s just not as melliflous) no longer watch first run Television live and instead record it on their DVRs for later viewing.  Tonight certainly makes me envy my SciFi friend and her extensive collection of Pit Boss.

• AMC– Inside Man (a Spike Lee joint)
• ESPN– Giants @ Phillies, Rockies @ Dodgers
• ABC Family- Two Weeks Notice
• Food– The Great Food Truck Race (Series Premier repeat)
• Lifetime– Antwone Fisher (Denzel Washington night)
• Turner Classic– Torrid Zone, Kings Row (Ann Sheridan night)
• Discovery– Man v. Wild (last week’s and new)
• Travel– Man v. Food

Do you want to know what I’ll really be watching?  Probably The Great Food Truck Race and Mets @ Astros now, the new Man v. Wild at 9, and then maybe Kings Row.  Murder, insanity and sadism in a small town at the turn of the century with Ronald Reagan, Ann Sheridan, and Love that Bob.

I mean, Wild Hogs twice in a row?  Not if you paid me.  As far as I’m concerned it’s cruel and unusual punishment of the type that used to be banned by the Constitution and the Geneva Convention before we decided waterboarding and anally raping children with chem sticks in front of their parents was ok.  Even Ronald Wilson Reagan in his best role ever isn’t as eye gougingly bad.

Later-

No Alton, no Dave, not even Jay.

• AMC– The Negotiator
• Turner Classic– The Man Who Came to Dinner
• FX– Tomcats

Jon has Edward P. Kohn (have your people post a Wiki entry, idiot), Stephen Thomas French.  Jon has Back in Black which is usually so nice you want to see it twice.

Now You Museum, Now You Don’t.  For those of you who worry about our Boys, Dr. Richard “Dick” Impossible is voiced by Christopher McCulloch in this episode.  No Colberts attemped suicide by swallowing a bomb during the animation.

Yahoo TV Listings

Evening Edition is an Open Thread

1 Aid begins to flow to flood-ravaged Pakistan

by Marwan Naamani, AFP

1 hr 15 mins ago

2 Flood-hit Pakistan faces economic catastrophe

by Hasan Mansoor, AFP

Wed Aug 18, 1:16 am ET

3 Pakistan, Russia back Afghanistan at rare summit

by Anna Smolchenko, AFP

2 hrs 20 mins ago

4 WikiLeaks says US willing to talk about leaked papers

AFP

Wed Aug 18, 1:01 pm ET

5 Weather shifts behind disasters need ‘urgent’ probe: UN

AFP

2 hrs 35 mins ago

6 Obama tries to boost faith in US economic revival

by Tangi Quemener, AFP

34 mins ago

7 Model Macedonian school aims to bridge the ethnic divide

by Jasmina Mironski, AFP

Wed Aug 18, 12:07 pm ET

8 To US students Beethoven’s a dog, Michelangelo a virus

by Karin Zeitvogel, AFP

Tue Aug 17, 5:15 pm ET

9 BHP Billiton targets Potash Corp with hostile 40-bln-dlr bid

by Roland Jackson, AFP

Wed Aug 18, 1:05 pm ET

10 China lashes out at Pentagon military report

by Marianne Barriaux, AFP

Wed Aug 18, 9:03 am ET

11 Ex-governor defiant after hung jury on Obama seat scheme

by Natasha Korecki, AFP

Wed Aug 18, 7:07 am ET

12 India rachets up pressure on BlackBerry

AFP

Wed Aug 18, 1:19 am ET

13 U.N. secures more Pakistan flood relief funds

By Alistair Scrutton, Reuters

Wed Aug 18, 11:03 am ET

14 GM files for IPO and plans dual listing

By Clare Baldwin and David Bailey, Reuters

9 mins ago

15 Muslims in Manhattan say they need a place to pray

By Daniel Trotta, Reuters

2 hrs 49 mins ago

16 Security firm ban could affect Afghan aid

By Paul Tait, Reuters

Wed Aug 18, 12:18 pm ET

17 SEC charges New Jersey with securities fraud

Reuters

22 mins ago

18 Obama seeks new design for housing, Fannie/Freddie

By Kevin Drawbaugh and David Lawder, Reuters

Wed Aug 18, 1:32 pm ET

19 Gulf surface cleaner, but questions lurk far below

By SETH BORENSTEIN, AP Science Writer

Tue Aug 17, 9:30 pm ET

20 First oiled turtles released in Gulf after rehab

By ANTONIO GONZALEZ and JANET McCONNAUGHEY, Associated Press Writer

1 hr 16 mins ago

21 FACT CHECK: Islam already part of WTC neighborhood

By CALVIN WOODWARD, Associated Press Writer

20 mins ago

22 Some Muslims question mosque near ground zero

By RACHEL ZOLL, AP Religion Writer

1 hr 1 min ago

23 AP Poll: Obama at new low for handling economy

By LIZ “Sprinkles” SIDOTI, AP National Political Writer

17 mins ago

24 Jurors were close to convicting Rod Blagojevich

By DON BABWIN and DEANNA BELLANDI, Associated Press Writers

13 mins ago

25 American activist turns self in to Peru police

By CARLA SALAZAR, Associated Press Writer

19 mins ago

26 Favre comes back for 2nd season with Vikings

By JON KRAWCZYNSKI, AP Sports Writer

26 mins ago

27 Review finds flawed NC cases, including executions

By MARTHA WAGGONER, Associated Press Writer

56 mins ago

28 On political tour, Obama gets in a backyard chat

By BEN FELLER, AP White House Correspondent

Wed Aug 18, 2:31 pm ET

29 Dr. Laura plans to end radio show at end of year

By DAVID BAUDER, AP Television Writer

27 mins ago

30 WikiLeaks: Pentagon ready to discuss Afghan files

By KARL RITTER, Associated Press Writer

2 hrs 28 mins ago

31 ACT scores dip, but more students college-ready

By ERIC GORSKI, AP Education Writer

Wed Aug 18, 6:59 am ET

32 Pivotal Senate primary in Washington decided

By CURT WOODWARD, Associated Press Writer

Wed Aug 18, 1:28 pm ET

33 Pakistan floods shape an archipelago of misery

By TIM SULLIVAN, Associated Press Writer

35 mins ago

34 Neb. AG won’t defend law on abortion screenings

By TIMBERLY ROSS, Associated Press Writer

2 hrs 2 mins ago

35 Georgia archaeologists find Confederate POW camp

By RUSS BYNUM, Associated Press Writer

2 hrs 56 mins ago

36 Toyota Camry still the top-selling car

By ANN M. JOB, For The Associated Press

Wed Aug 18, 1:02 pm ET

37 Vonnegut memorial library to open in Indianapolis

By RICK CALLAHAN, Associated Press Writer

Wed Aug 18, 3:09 am ET

38 City of Bell says it has terminated ‘loan program’

Associated Press

Wed Aug 18, 2:29 am ET

39 War comes home: Day-by-day, services honor fallen

By SHARON COHEN, AP National Writer

Wed Aug 18, 12:00 am ET

“Punting the Pundits” is an Open Thread. It is a selection of editorials and opinions from around the news medium and the internet blogs. The intent is to provide a forum for your reactions and opinions, not just to the opinions presented, but to what ever you find important.

Glenn Greenwald: What political courage looks like

The toxic right-wing campaign to impose a Muslim-free zone around Ground Zero intensified today, while Democrats — following in the cowardly footsteps of Senate Majority “Leader” Harry Reid, whose book is one of the most ironically titled in history — ran faster and faster away from the controversy.  New York Governor David Paterson made it known  that he wants to meet with Park 51’s developers to encourage them to move to a new site.  One Democratic official, Rep. Michael Arcuri of New York, actually attacked his GOP challenger, Richard Hanna, for having bravely broken with his own party to support the project; Arcuri’s Gingrich-replicating attacks caused Hannah, one of the few Republicans in the nation to have defended Park 51, to reverse position by arguing today that it should move.  And it is hard to imagine anyone surpassing Rep. Anthony Weiner in the cowardice department after the unbelievably vapid, incoherent letter he issued, ostensibly setting forth his views on this matter (stringing together words randomly chosen from the dictionary would likely create more meaningful sentences than the ones Weiner wrote).

Aside from Michael Bloomberg’s impassioned, principled speech  in defense of Park 51 — and, if one wants to be generous about it, Barack Obama’s initial, voluntary defense of the religious freedom values at stake — there have been very few commendable acts in this dispute.  Until now.

Joan Walsh: Dr. Laura’s pity party

The angry radio quitter is another right-winger who misunderstands the First Amendment and loves playing victim

So Dr. Laura Schlessinger told CNN’s Larry King Tuesday night that she’s giving up her radio show, after being criticized for an on-air flameout in which she abused a black caller and used the word “nigger” 11 times. “I want to regain my First Amendment rights,” she told King. “I want to be able to say what’s on my mind and in my heart and what I think is helpful and useful without somebody getting angry, some special interest group deciding this is the time to silence a voice of dissent and attack affiliates, attack sponsors. I’m sort of done with that.”

Katrina vanden Heuvel: It’s about Main Street, not the mosque

Pundits and politicians are working themselves into hysteria over a mosque near Ground Zero. But this election won’t be about mosques in Manhattan. It won’t even be about the deficit, really. It will be about manufacturing on Main Street, and which party can talk effectively about the progressive solutions Americans desire.

Not surprisingly, polls from Gallup to the Wall Street Journal show Americans are worried most about the economy and jobs. And a just-released poll  — from progressive outfits Campaign for America’s Future and Democracy Corps with sponsorship from MoveOn.org Political Action and two labor unions — gives a more detailed look at what voters are looking for. Respondents, in particular the “rising American electorate” — youth, single women and minorities that constitute a majority of voters and are President Obama’s most supportive base — support bold steps for renewing the economy.

Thomas L. Friedman: Really Unusually Uncertain

Over the past few weeks I’ve had a chance to speak with senior economic policy makers in America and Germany and I think I’ve figured out where we are. It’s like this: things are getting better, except where they aren’t. The bailouts are working, except where they’re not. Things will slowly get better, unless they slowly get worse. We should know soon, unless we don’t.

It is no wonder that businesses are reluctant to hire with such “unusual uncertainty,” as Fed chief Ben Bernanke put it. One reason it is so unusual is that we are not just trying to recover from a financial crisis triggered by crazy mortgage lending. We’re also having to deal with three huge structural problems that built up over several decades and have reached a point of criticality at the same time.

And as Mohamed El-Erian, the C.E.O. of Pimco, has been repeating, “Structural problems need structural solutions.” There are no quick fixes. In America and Europe, we are going to need some big structural fixes to get back on a sustained growth path – changes that will require a level of political consensus and sacrifice that has been sorely lacking in most countries up to now.

Harold Meyerson: Rebuilding the Democratic brand with jobs

So how do the Democrats defend and improve their brand? Is there a type of governmental activism that still retains public support — and actually extricates us from the deepest hole we’ve been in since the ’30s?

There is. If the Democrats focused on boosting manufacturing, with a corollary upgrade to our infrastructure, they’d tap into the only area in which the public wants a more activist government

Several recent polls have called the Democrats’ attention to what should have been obvious to them: That helping America regain its industrial preeminence is one government activity that wins support across the board. One recent survey  by Democratic pollster Mark Mellman found 78 percent support for having a “national manufacturing strategy,” while 92 percent said they supported infrastructure improvements using only American-made materials. Another survey from Democratic pollster Stan Greenberg found 52 percent of respondents preferred government investment “in the future,” while just 42 percent favored the alternative course of large spending cuts.

Robert Wright: Why Not to Bomb Iran

Has the Atlantic magazine become a propaganda tool – “a de facto  party to the neoconservative and Israeli campaign to initiate a global war with Iran”? That question was being discussed last week on The Atlantic’s own Web site, among other places, after the magazine unveiled a cover story saying that Israel is likely to bomb Iran within a year.

The article wasn’t an argument for bombing, just a report on Israel’s state of mind. So why all the outrage – why, for example, did Glenn Greenwald of Salon title his slashing assessment of the Atlantic article “How Propaganda Works: Exhibit A”?

In part because the author of the article is Jeffrey Goldberg, who has previously been accused of pushing a pro-war agenda via ostensibly reportorial journalism. His 2002 New Yorker piece claiming to have found evidence linking Saddam Hussein to al Qaeda is remembered on the left as a monument to consequential wrongness. And suspicions of Goldberg’s motivations only grow when he writes about Israel. He served in the Israeli army, and he has more than once been accused of channeling Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu.

Eduard Freisler: Satisfaction, at Last

IN a stadium in Prague, 20 years ago today, a hundred thousand people, including my father and me, saw something we were not supposed to see. For decades it had been forbidden. The music, we were told, would poison our minds with filthy images. We would be infected by the West’s capitalist propaganda.

It was a cool August night in 1990; the Communist regime had officially collapsed eight months earlier, when Vaclav Havel, the longtime dissident, was elected president. And now the Rolling Stones had come to Prague.

I was 16 then, and to this day I recall the posters promoting the concert, which lined the streets and the walls of the stadium: “The Rolling Stones roll in, Soviet army rolls out.”