Politics

If you watch the news much you learn that the White House routinely releases information it wants you to ignore on late Friday afternoons, so that it misses the last news cycle of the day and doesn’t get much attention over the weekend. Some bloggers pay special attention to the Friday afternoon news cycle for exactly that reason: because the scaryiest shit comes out then. Yesterday’s news: We have mad cow disease in the U.S.

WASHINGTON – Exhaustive tests have confirmed mad cow disease in an animal apparently born in the United States, officials said Friday. It is the second case of the disease confirmed in this country, but Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns stressed there was no threat to public health.
The animal, a “downer” that could not walk, was not killed at a slaughterhouse but at a rendering plant for animals unfit for human consumption, officials said. Johanns would not say where the case turned up, but he said there was no evidence the cow was imported.

Yeah, THE Red Cross… you know, the wonderful folks who come and save your ass after natural disasters. I’ll be this goes over as well as when they attacked the beloved AARP. Here, read about it for yourself:

Republican Senators believe the US should reconsider funds allocated to the International Committee of the Red Cross in view of its repeated criticism of rights violations by US troops in Guantanamo, Iraq and Afghanistan.
In a report titled “Are American Interests Being Disserved by International Committee of the Red Cross?”, the Senate Republican Policy Committee called for an audit of funds spent by the ICRC to ensure that American dollars are not being used for lobbying against US interests.

I usually link to one of my favorite Top Ten lists on Mondays, but this week I’m late. Of course they count down the best of conservative misbehavior, only this week, they included the best reader submissions. Here’s an sample of my very favorite:

Back in 1991-92 I was a volunteer escort at an abortion clinic in Fargo, ND. This was when Operation Rescue came to town to whip the local Lambs of Christ into even more of a frenzy. The very Reverend Keith Tucci gave a free public address, which some of us attended in the spirit of “know thy enemy.” Of all idiocy spewed that night, the real jaw dropper was when Reverend Tucci explained how he justifies denying an abortion to a woman who has been raped. He said, “You shouldn’t punish a rapist by killing his child.”

Now if you know enough information about me, you can guess why I might decide to take a swing at the very Reverent Tucci if he ever shows up here in Indianapolis.

This time they’re kicking out teenage boys (hundreds of them) so there’s less competition for the men who are marrying as many as a dozen teenage girls. Read the story in the L.A. Times.

Gideon is one of the “Lost Boys,” a group of more than 400 teenagers — some as young as 13 — who authorities in Utah and Arizona say have fled or been driven out of the polygamous enclaves of Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City over the last four years.
His stated offenses: wearing short-sleeved shirts, listening to CDs and having a girlfriend. Other boys say they were booted out for going to movies, watching television and staying out past curfew.
Some say they were sometimes given as little as two hours’ notice before being driven to St. George or nearby Hurricane, Utah, and left like unwanted pets along the road.
Authorities say the teens aren’t really being expelled for what they watch or wear, but rather to reduce competition for women in places where men can have dozens of wives.
“It’s a mathematical thing. If you are marrying all these girls to one man, what do you do with all the boys?” said Utah Atty. Gen. Mark Shurtleff, who has had boys in his office crying to see their mothers. “People have said to me: ‘Why don’t you prosecute the parents?’ But the kids don’t want their parents prosecuted; they want us to get the No. 1 bad guy — Warren Jeffs. He is chiefly responsible for kicking out these boys.”