In addition to the song being catchy, the video for the Decemberists’ “16 Military Wives” is darned entertaining. And timely.

Why must the GOP oppress Christians by using this as the banner graphic on their Web site?

It’s not enough that our President and his crew spied on Americans without a warrant, which in this country we call a “crime”. In fact, I’ll go so far as to say it’s a “high crime”. Even a “high crime or misdemeanor”. Hint hint.

But now we find out via the NY Blade that

[NBC News] reported that the law school’s gay advocacy group, OUTlaw, was classified as “potentially violent” by the Pentagon…

NBC also reported that a “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” protest at University of California Santa Cruz, which included a gay kiss-in, was labeled as a “credible threat” of terrorism by the Pentagon.

“To suggest that a gay kiss-in is a ‘credible threat’ is absurd, homophobic and irrational,” [Servicemembers Legal Defense Network executive director] said.

Yes, that’s right – we haven’t caught bin Laden yet, but we sure are keeping close tabs on those potential suicide bombers at the NYU Law School.

(link via Gawker)

The Mailboxes Etc. in my town has this image printed out, laminated and on display right by the cash register.

Rep. John Dingell of Michigan is my new hero for reading this poem on the floor of the House, after that body passed a resolution stating that the symbols of Christmas should be protected.

(via YesButNoButYes)

Apparently, the electronic voting machines in use are not secure. Really. Florida is waking up to this.

But when Ion Sancho, Leon County’s Supervisor of Elections, tested the Diebold system and allowed experts to manipulate the card electronically, he could change the outcome of a mock election without leaving any kind of trail. In other words, someone could fix an election and no one would know.

Newsweek has this insightful article on the degree to which Bush is isolated from, well, everything.

Baby Bush Toys: because not every child can grow up to be Einstein.

We here at Bray have already registered our opinion on the matter, but you might be interested in seeing what an informal poll has to say about ranking the Presidents.

Frightening.

“Zombie flicks, with their built-in return-of-the-repressed theme, have always served as allegories of their sociopolitical moments”, writes Dennis Lim in this review of the movie Homecoming. But Homecoming eschews metaphor for direect political statement:

“This is a horror story because most of the characters are Republicans,” director Joe Dante announced before the November 13 world premiere of his latest movie, Homecoming, at the Turin Film Festival. Republicans, as it happens, will be the ones who find Homecoming’s agitprop premise scariest: In an election year, dead veterans of the current conflict crawl out of their graves and stagger single-mindedly to voting booths so they can eject the president who sent them to fight a war sold on “horse**** and elbow grease.”

…How fitting that the most pungent artistic response to a regime famed for its crass fear-mongering would be a cheap horror movie. Jaw-dropping in its sheer directness, Homecoming is a righteous blast of liberal-left fury (it was greeted with a five-minute ovation in Turin, the most vocal appreciation seeming to come from the American filmmakers and writers in attendance).

At once galvanic and cathartic, Dante’s film uncorks the rage that despondent progressives promptly suppressed after last year’s election and that has only recently been allowed to color mainstream coverage of presidential untruths and debacles. For all its broad, bludgeoning satire, Homecoming is deadly accurate in skewering the callousness and hypocrisy of the Bush White House and the spin industry in its orbit.

…Though Bush is never named, Homecoming tailors its provocative scenario to accommodate a devastatingly specific checklist of accusations, from the underreporting of war casualties to last November’s dubious Ohio count. As if in defiance of the Pentagon’s policy to ban photographs of dead soldiers’ coffins, Dante’s film shows not just the flag-draped caskets at Dover Air Force Base but their irate occupants bursting out of them.

Question: who said these quotes?

“An announcement of a fixed timetable for our withdrawal would completely remove any incentive for the enemy to negotiate an agreement. They would simply wait until our forces had withdrawn and then move in.”

“The precipitate withdrawal of American forces… would be a disaster not only for [our ally] but for the United States and for the cause of peace.”

“If necessary … we will withdraw all our forces… on a schedule in accordance with our program, as the [ally's forces] become strong enough to defend their own freedom.”

Answer: Nixon, November 1969. 8,000 more soldiers died before US forces left Vietnam.

Regardless of whether you agree or disagree that Iraq is turning into another Vietnam, you have to be nervous that Bush’s language so closely resembles that of his predecessor. Read more at Salon’s War Room.