According to Al Jazeera, Italian journalist Enzo Baldoni has been "executed" in Iraq by a group calling itself the "Islamic Army in Iraq."

Baldoni's captors, a group calling itself the Islamic Army in Iraq, had on Tuesday threatened to kill their hostage unless Italy withdrew its 3 000 troops from Iraq within 48 hours.

The Italian government initially rejected the kidnappers' ultimatum, saying it would maintain its "civil and military" presence in Iraq, but early on Thursday Rome said it was prepared to pull its soldiers out if the interim government in Baghdad requested it.

Damned animals.

Posted by: mhking at 02:02 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 120 words, total size 1 kb.

The US Olympic Committee is getting into the Bush-Kerry race for the White House in an unanticpated way.

The USOC is requesting that President Bush's campaign pull an ad that mentions the Olympics, even though the recognizable trademark of the Games, the five rings, does not appear in the ad.

The ad has angered Olympic officials because they feel it hijacks the Olympic brand -- a registered trademark -- even though it does not display the Games logo.

The U.S. Olympic Committee had asked the Bush election "campaign to withdraw the advertisement they are running," International Olympic Committee spokeswoman Giselle Davies told reporters.

The television advertisement, ahead of the presidential elections in November, does not feature the five Olympic rings -- one of the world's most recognizable images -- but an announcer tells viewers that at "this Olympics there will be two more free nations," referring to the U.S.-led invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq under Bush's presidency.

Posted by: mhking at 01:20 PM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
Post contains 198 words, total size 2 kb.

While the Southwest Florida coast continues to clean up from Hurricane Charley earlier this month, Hurricane Frances has formed out in the Atlantic Ocean.

As of 5P ET this afternoon, Frances is located near 13.7° North 46.4° West, or about 1000 miles east of the Lesser Antilles. It's moving to the west-northwest at 16 miles per hour.

Sustained winds on Frances are at 80 MPH.

According to the National Hurricane Center, forward motion is expected to decrease over the next 24 hours, while strengthening is also forcast, with Frances being expected to become a Category 2 storm by this time tomorrow.

Hurricane City is tracking the storm, but not expecting to do any livecasting just yet.

The current forecast track is expected to take Frances to the north of Puerto Rico, but of course, this is an inexact science.

Posted by: mhking at 01:09 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 161 words, total size 1 kb.

13 years ago, William Kennedy Smith was found not guilty of rape in a Florida trial that, among other things, helped to create CourtTV.

Kennedy Smith, nephew of US Senator Ted Kennedy (D-MA), is in the hotseat again, this time, accused of raping his personal assistant.

He forced my head into his lap and wouldn't let me sit up," says Audra Soulias.

This Chicago woman is talking about her former boss, William Kennedy Smith.

"I was gasping for air. It was like I was being held under water," she said.

"I continued to cry. I continued to plead," said Soulias.

The same William Kennedy Smith who is now a doctor in charge of a world renown non-profit group headquartered in Chicago that helps landmine victims.

"He dragged me into his house, dragged me to his upstairs bedroom, and he raped me," she said.

Soulias was Smith's office assistant. She claims smith showed up at a small office party for her 23rd birthday.

It was there where she says smith was buying drinks for everyone, and said he would make sure she got home safely.

Instead she says he took her to his Lakeview house and allegedly dragged her into his bedroom.

"He pushed my shirt over my waist, pulled my tights down and forced his hand inside me."

Paul Ciolino, a private investigator working with Soulias' legal team says he checked out her story, gave her a lie detector test and she passed.

Posted by: mhking at 12:57 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
Post contains 269 words, total size 2 kb.

This is getting real old, real fast.

An Islamic militant group posted pictures on its Web site on Wednesday of what it said was the beheading of a man it called a U.S. Central Intelligence Agency spy in Iraq. Army of Ansar al-Sunna's site showed five sequential photographs of the apparent beheading and threatened the same fate for other people who it caught spying. It was not immediately possible to verify the authenticity of the pictures.

The group said in an accompanying statement that Jamal Tewefic Salman, who became an U.S. citizen in 1980, confessed to be masquerading as a journalist in Iraq to spy on Islamic fighters for the CIA. "A group of mujahideen were able to kidnap a spy called Jamal Tewefic Salman, who got U.S. citizenship in 1980. He changed his name to Khaled Abdul Messih," it said. "We have implemented God's judgment on him and the accompanying pictures show his beheading. We call on those living off the blood of the mujahideen to repent to God and stop what they are doing ... or else the mujahideen's and God's hands will reach their necks one by one," it added.

Posted by: mhking at 10:39 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
Post contains 241 words, total size 2 kb.

Mike Adams points out the potty-mouthed bleatings of a tenured professor at Rutgers University in his column today.

The prof in question, Norman Levitt, is a math professor at Rutgers. Adams notes that a column by GOPUSA.com columnist Mike Bayham on John Kerry offended Professor Potty-mouth so bad that he had to write back.

I think turd eating, s*** sucking mother f***** fits you just about right (although your mother was hardly worth it; my Lab Retriever up and caught the clap when he f***** your mama).

The height of polemical eloquence? Perhaps not. But then thrice-used scumbags like you hardly demand much recourse to the thesaurus. Die before you plan to, and in much pain.

NL

There are lots of people I don't like and who don't like meÂ… I must say, however, that of all the fools and knaves currently polluting our culture, the scurviest are the two-bit, loudmouthed, spirochete-ridden flacks who peddle horses*** on behalf of the scumbag GOP.

Wear it if it fits.

NL

President McCormick's e-mail address is president@rutgers.edu, and his telephone number is 732/932-7454.

Posted by: mhking at 10:20 AM | Comments (8) | Add Comment
Post contains 270 words, total size 2 kb.

The NAACP is sending lawyers and election workers to monitor the August 31 Florida Primary election -- and to "help" voters who may have "trouble" casting their ballots.

"The NAACP will not allow another 2000 voter fiasco to occur," said NAACP President and CEO Kweisi Mfume. "We will have observers and lawyers on the ground to assist voters and to make sure they are not intimidated. Our goal is to see that all eligible voters register and vote, and that every vote is counted."

Mfume said the NAACP decided to send a rapid-response team to the Florida primary, following reports that elderly black voters may have been harassed and intimidated during last spring's mayoral race in Orlando -- and because of "recent attempts by state officials to illegally purge over 2,000 registered voters."

"The election of local leaders and the next president of the United States is too important to trust the process to Florida election officials," Mfume said. "We saw what happened the last time we did that," he added.

The NAACP calls itself a nonpartisan group, but it supports liberal causes, and its members have given an enthusiastic reception to Democratic candidates -- most recently, Sen. John F. Kerry, who spoke at the group's annual convention.

Deigning to "help confused voters" in light of their partisan stance, smacks of attempts to "drive" the election's outcome.

Posted by: mhking at 05:03 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 280 words, total size 2 kb.

The wreckage of the second downed plane has been located by Russian officials, who said that a "Hijack" signal was received before the plane went down.

The first plane, official have said, broke up in mid-air.

The two planes disappeared within minutes of each other late yesterday.

Jeff Quinton has been live-blogging, and his coverage continues.

Posted by: mhking at 02:47 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 66 words, total size 1 kb.

Kwame Jackson, runner-up of the first season of NBC & Donald Trump's The Apprentice, has pieced together a deal that would make "The Donald" proud.

With two other partners, Jackson has made a deal with officials in Prince George's County in Maryland to develop an 80 to 130 acre area into commercial and residential property.

The deal is worth $3.8 billion and will provide over 32,000 jobs, Jackson said.

Season one of The Apprentice was released on video this week; season two premieres on NBC on Thursday, September 9.

Posted by: mhking at 02:16 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
Post contains 121 words, total size 1 kb.

The bodies of three Austrian soldiers have been found preserved in ice more than 80 years after their deaths in World War I.

They were found by Maurizio Vincenzi, the director of the military history museum at the small town of Peio in the Trentino region, member of a mountain rescue team and military history buff.

The bodies were found 3,400 metres up a mountain called San Matteo and are said to be exceptionally well preserved.

They had been spotted by Vincenzi as he scanned the glacier with binoculars and noticed marks on it.

Posted by: mhking at 01:43 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 154 words, total size 1 kb.

The Republican Party of Florida is being sued by former Southwest Florida employee Nadia Naffe. Naffe's suit alleges that she was required to perform job assignments against her will that concentrated on black organizations, events and issues.

Naffe alleges that she complained to the party's officials about this illegal practice, known as "race matching," but that her complaints were ignored. Instead, Naffe was told she was being "insubordinate" and "not a team player."

After seeking and failing to get assistance from the Republican Party, Naffe contacted the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in March 2004. The lawsuit alleges that shortly afterwards she was verbally threatened with firing by the RPOF's General Counsel, Robert Sechen. As retaliation, Naffe was fired a month later for reasons that her lawsuit alleges were fabricated.

The lawsuit alleges that Naffe was subjected to racially insensitive and stereotypical statements by RPOF Executive Director of Party Development Terry Kester including the following:

-- Instructing Naffe to contact African-American Republican Clubs to discourage their members from attending an NAACP march because "The last thing (the RPOF) want(s) to see is some black guy on television wearing a Republican shirt and responding to the press in an ignorant way."

-- Routinely referring to African-Americans as "you people" or "your people."

-- Telling Naffe that she was being given race-matched job assignments because "you understand your people."

-- Showing Naffe a portrait of the late Senator Strom Thurmond and boasting that he believed Thurmond was "the best Senator who ever lived."

The lawsuit alleges that when Naffe complained to the Chairman of the RPOF, Carole Jean Jordan, about the discrimination she was experiencing, she was told that the offending supervisor could not help the way he was because "he comes from a redneck part of the state."

No associated coverage has been noted in any of the local media, either in Tampa, Orlando or Miami.

We'll have to see whether this is truly an object of concern, or someone trying to play politics during the election year.

Posted by: mhking at 06:37 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 370 words, total size 3 kb.

The Illinois Attorney General's office is bringing charges against rocker Dave Matthews after an incident involving his tour bus earlier this month in Chicago.

The Illinois Attorney General's office says they're responsible for dumping up to 100-gallons of raw human waste from a tour bus onto the Kinzie Street Bridge earlier this month.

The nasty mess rained down on passengers aboard a sightseeing boat two weeks ago.

The suit charges both the band and the bus driver with violating state water pollution laws, as well as common law public nuisance laws.

"Where are you going," indeed....

Posted by: mhking at 06:22 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 132 words, total size 1 kb.

One Russian airliner has been confirmed as crashed, the second airliner is reported as "missing."

The two planes left Moscow's Domodedovo Airport, one, a Tupelev Tu-134 with 62 aboard, confirmed as down near Tula, about 125 miles south of Moscow; the second, a Tupelev Tu-154 with 44 souls on board, went missing near Rostov-on-Don, about 600 miles south of Moscow.

Jeff Quinton at Backcountry Conservative is live-blogging, and has the best coverage going now.

Posted by: mhking at 04:31 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 98 words, total size 1 kb.

California Supreme Court Justice Janice Rogers Brown is one of a number of conservative jurists whose nomination has been held up by Democrats in the US Senate.

The Congress Of Racial Equality (CORE) is urging Democratic Vice-Presidential candidate and US Senator John Edwards to support the nomination of Rogers Brown, and is encouraging him to help break the deadlock that Senate Democrats have undertaken to block Rogers Brown and other jurists from being brought before the Senate for an up or down vote on their nomination.

The Congress of Racial Equality is airing the ad in Edwards' home state of North Carolina, where the Democratic Party is hoping for victory this year with Edwards on the ticket as the vice presidential hopeful.

"Judge Janice Rogers Brown is the daughter of sharecroppers and an American success story," a female announcer says in the ad set to air for about a week starting Wednesday on cable and network news broadcasts in North Carolina.

"For her remarkable work, she has been nominated to the federal bench ... Tell John Edwards and Ted Kennedy to stop blocking the nomination of Judge Janice Rogers Brown."

CORE national spokesman Niger Innis said the group hasn't made an endorsement in the presidential race. But he said it's no accident the ad is airing in a Southern state Democrats hope to win.

"Frankly the fact that we're doing this in the heat of a political season when the whole world is watching, is a good thing," said Innis, a registered Republican. "We're not affecting the election, it's John Edwards' timidity and cowardice in dealing with this question, it's the Democrats' filibustering tactics that could affect this campaign. We just want to let black Americans know what is happening within the Democratic Party."

Posted by: mhking at 06:21 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 338 words, total size 2 kb.

Details magazine, in their September issue, is "outing" young Republicans in Hollywood.

It just so happens that, in its September issue, Details magazine is outing Hollywood GOP sympathizers. The magazine claims that, in order to address the celebrity deficit that the GOP currently has, the Republican National Committee has unveiled a list of stars who veer toward the Republican side of the aisle.

Some of the names, like Jessica Simpson and Shannen Doherty, are already known. But others are more unexpected, like Adam Sandler and Freddie Prinze Jr., although PrinzeÂ’s wife Sarah Michelle Gellar has been known to lean right in the past.

In a related article, Sony producer Mike DeLuca has stepped up and acknowledged his Republican affiliation, describing the reaction in Hollywood as the equivalent of being “exposed as a serial killer.” DeLuca pointed out some lefty hypocrisy, saying, “They scream about the environment before they hop onto their private jets and blow 8,000 pounds of fuel getting to the Hamptons.”

One of the celebs named in the Details article has responded to the outing incident via her publicist and has done so in an entertaining and quasi-historical manner. The star is Mandy Moore, and the New York Post has reported the response as, “Mandy is not, nor has she ever been, a Republican.”

Fascinating...

Posted by: mhking at 05:21 AM | Comments (13) | Add Comment
Post contains 243 words, total size 2 kb.

1 Vin Diesel is a conservative?

Posted by: La Shawn at August 24, 2004 05:32 AM (Qa+f/)

2 It's a shame the conservative actors are ones I don't like.

Posted by: Joe R. at August 24, 2004 02:48 PM (DHwcf)

3 Jessica Simpson? Dear Lord. Why couldn't we get someone with 1/4 of a brain at least?!?!?!

Posted by: Jay G at August 25, 2004 05:23 AM (1Z0tY)

4 Law of averages: There's got to be more out there than what Details discloses. Let's don't worry about Simpson's brains. She seems to be able to take care of herself just fine so far. ;-)

Posted by: George at August 25, 2004 09:57 PM (QvA96)

5 Well, Bruce Willis is a smart guy and I hear he is a Republican and I think his ex-wife, Demi Moore, is too. So is Bo Derek and she is not only beautiful but smart...must be if she votes GOP. Anyway, there might not be very many Republican actors in California but two of them have been elected Governor. Not a bad percentage when you think about it, eh?

Posted by: jane m at August 26, 2004 05:06 PM (K9zCz)

6 The statement that SMG "has been known to lean right" has made my day, if not my month. Go, Buff!

Posted by: Brian Jones at August 27, 2004 04:18 AM (E4NcZ)

7 Have you noticed that many of the stars that support the GOP are how do I put this... semi-retarded, says a lot for the GOP where as the Dems lean towards stars such as Matt Damon - Harvard educated.

Posted by: Michael at August 27, 2004 06:01 AM (t/5zT)

8 "I'd rather trust the government of the United States to the first 400 people listed in the Boston telephone directory than to faculty of Harvard University"--William F Buckley, Jr I imagine this sentiment would also apply to most Harvard alumni, although I am pretty sure Matt dropped out of Harvard a few semesters shy of graduation.

Posted by: Rob Smith at August 27, 2004 08:58 AM (wRwj0)

9 In Hollywood, everyone claims to be liberal, but the reality is very different. While I am sure there is a majority of liberals in Hollywood, there is probably more Republican representation than one would think. Claiming to be a conservative in Hollywood is like claiming you think communism might be a good thing back in the days of McCarthyism. That particular industry and ones standing in it is very fickle and fragile. To announce ones right wing leanings would probably damage ones career (Not according to Tim Robbins with his 'ill wind' and his oscar nomination a year or two later). It's only heavyweight stars such as Bruce Willis and Arnold Schwarzenegger who have the firm standing in Hollywood to be able to announce their pact with the devil. Oh, and my Brother in law works in Hollywood, and he claims to be a liberal to those he does business with, while at the same time, he is a devout Republican voter. Perhaps this is why they make claims about having liberal values and then act like Republicans with their private jets. Then again, they may just be hypocritical liberals.

Posted by: DelphiGuy at August 27, 2004 12:36 PM (c0oME)

10 Ha Ha Ha.. Hey Michael, get some accurate info before you start spouting off... Did not know this, but Vincent Gallo.. republican.. and IFC award winner.. whoa!!

Posted by: Shawn at September 15, 2004 07:08 AM (XVYZE)

11 can someone e-mail me a list of websites with actors and actresses who support Bush? Thanks!

Posted by: Elizabeth at October 28, 2004 06:28 PM (jrY+U)

12 Of course I expect Matt Damon who graduated from one of the most liberal universities in the world to think the way he does. You may be semi-retarded if you believe Harvard is not extreme left. Most of what gets taught in the humanities departments of colleges is derived from Karl Marx. Boy Communism sure worked like a dream. You would think academics would discard ideologies of failure.

Posted by: Frank at March 16, 2005 12:41 PM (kUMLM)

13 Does anyone care which political party a hollywood movie star supports? They still only have one vote like any working Joe. besides, all the liberal stars that came out to help Kerry get elected may have actually turned off many middle of the roaders like myself. I am educated and can make up my own mind about who to vote for. Hoyywood needs to realize that they may have more money than the average voter but they are no more educated than the average voter. In fact they may be less educated because they live in an artificial bubble that keeps them away from average hard working american families.

Posted by: Jim Dixon at October 31, 2005 06:05 AM (lnhQX)

Hide Comments | Add Comment

"Someone set us up the bomb..."

This was a split second prior to impact from a US missile in the "holey" city of Najaf on Monday.

Posted by: mhking at 06:11 PM | Comments (19) | Add Comment
Post contains 32 words, total size 1 kb.

This morning, Indymedia posted the personal information on more than 1600 delegates attending the Republican National Convention in New York City next week.

In the release that accompanies the file, Indymedia claims that they are in the business of doing what they can to "shut down the RNC."

At the 2004 Republican National Convention, the self-appointed managers of the world will be discussing their party platform of racism, imperialism and the violent suppression of human liberty. They will proudly renominate the unelected president of an illegitimate government.

We view the Republican Party as one of the most important organizations of the ruling class, selling and intellectualizing this system to all thanks in part to a compliant corporate media system.

This list includes the names, address, phone numbers, and e-mail addresses of RNC delegates in addition to what hotel each one is staying at during their invasion of New York City. It is not a complete list, but does include information on over 1600 delegates gathered from a variety of sources. It is based on a list that was released on the Internet earlier this summer by an anonymous affinity group. We have verified much of this data, expanded upon it, and republished it more
broadly.

Our objectives are to:
- Supply anti-RNC groups with data on the delegates to use in whatever way they see fit.
- Supply a body of information that can be easily added to.
- Encourage the republishing and redistribution of this data.
- Facilitate making local connections. Many of these delegates are involved in politics and business on a town or county level.

Personally, I think they're lower than slime and pond scum. After all, a right to privacy is OK, as long as it's not their privacy that's being violated.

Just damn.

Posted by: mhking at 05:51 AM | Comments (9) | Add Comment
Post contains 341 words, total size 2 kb.

Interesting piece from One Hand Clapping from over the weekend, where Donald asks that fateful question with a single caveat: the respondent cannot simply say "Because he's not Bush."

• It will be insufficient merely to declare that Bush is wrong on Iraq, taxes, education, etc. You must explain why and how Kerry is right.

• You must cite and provide links to Kerry's speeches or campaign releases to back up your claims. These cites can reach all the way back to when Kerry declared his candidacy for the 2004 race.

Donald's deadline is next Saturday morning at 7A CT.

Posted by: mhking at 05:09 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 142 words, total size 1 kb.

From Drudge:

Janet Jackson now claims that her "Nipplegate" Super Bowl incident was used by the Bush administration to distract people from the war in Iraq!

Mike Slezak, managing editor of GENRE magazine, tells DRUDGE he has set the provocative Jackson interview for October's issue.

Posted by: mhking at 01:44 PM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
Post contains 79 words, total size 1 kb.

From Reuters:

U.S. journalist Micah Garen was on Sunday freed by an Iraqi group who had held him hostage in the southern Iraqi city of Nassiriya.

"I am very grateful to everyone who worked to protect me and guarantee my release and I thank my friends in Nassiriya and my family and fiance who spent three months with me in Nassiriya," Garen told Arab satellite television Al Jazeera by telephone.

He was speaking from the Nassiriya office of rebel Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.

Posted by: mhking at 01:36 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 106 words, total size 1 kb.