For years, Iraqi women were seen as more vulnerable to violence than men. Many men carried weapons, and some harassed or even threw acid at women without headscarves. But now, twenty-five-year-old driving student Hadeel Ahmed says, "It bothers me to have to depend on my brother or father to take me everywhere. [...] I want to be independent." She adds that, "driving means someone is brave. [...] They're strong. Not only in their body but in their spirit." And bravery is an important quality for drivers in Iraq, who must deal with U.S. checkpoints, blast walls around many buildings, and the complete absence of traffic lights.

Some women have a motivation beyond independence. Leila Muhaibis needs to learn to drive the blue Honda parked outside her parents' house. It's her brother's; he has been missing for three years, ostensibly taken by U.S. forces. With her brother's return increasingly unlikely, the car is her responsibility now.

As more women get behind the wheel, more women are directing traffic as well. Many are entering the police force, both because they want to help their country and because limited education for women has left them with few other career options. But female police officers make less than men — the equivalent of $500 a month to men's $600. And most of them are not allowed to carry guns.

As Turmoil Ebbs, Iraqi Women Seek Freedom Of Road Again [Washington Post]
Female Officers At Risk In Iraq [UPI]

• A new study claims that eating extra amounts of choline, a chemical found in eggs, while pregnant can lead to an increased risk of developing breast cancer in offspring. • Nielsen Online says that the number of employees visiting porn sites while working has increased 23% over the past year. • A new study reports that young gymnasts are suffering new types of injuries to their hands, wrists and arms .• Women who have undergone breast augmentation and are being treated for early-stage breast cancer may have more treatment success with brachytherapy, a partial-breast radiation treatment.• Inducing labor before the 40 week gestational age has become more common in the U.S. • The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is taking the estate of Beverly Rogers to court over the estate's planned auctioning of Mary Pickford's 1930 Oscar for best actress. • Honor killings have increased by 70% in the southern Iraqi city of Basra where women can be murdered for "honor killings" by hired hitmen for as little as $100. • Amnesty International is asking the Haitian government to do more to stop the widespread rape of girls in the country's slums.• A BBC reporter's 12-year-old daughter gets the Somali pirates on the Sirius Star to talk. • Canadian researchers say that gay men who feel undesirable are more likely to engage in risky sexual behavior and develop psychological problems. • A recent survey claims that British men and women beat out the people of Italy, Germany, France and the US as the most sexually liberal. • We may have just missed the beginning of Advent, but surely this condom Advent Calendar will keep us up-to-date. • An Italian book that reveals unpublished excerpts of Amanda Knox's diary says that sex was a "predominant aspect of her life" and influenced her relationships with men and women. • A new study claims that individuals who wash their hands before making judgments tend to make less strict rulings. • More and more men are beginning to take primary care of their elderly and ill parents. • Meanwhile, the Gender-Based Violence Forum estimates that 60% of Sri Lankan women have experienced domestic violence.• An art critic for the BBC's Antiques Roadshow received criticism when he referred to a woman in a portrait as having "Shropshire ankle" (or fat ankles). • Are you ready for a relationship boot camp? • A Texan man claims that God told him to ram into a woman's vehicle on a highway while going 100 mph on Friday because she "wasn't driving right" and needed to be "taken off the road." The two only suffered minor injuries. •

• The fighting that began Wednesday in Mumbai is continuing today. Nearly 200 people have been confirmed dead so far, with almost 300 others injured. Militants are still fighting and holding (and killing) hostages in the Taj Mahal hotel and in a Jewish community center. [NY Times, Huffington Post, NY Times]
• Barack Obama has issued a statement condemning the attacks. [Washington Post]
• The Iraqi Parliament has passed the Status of Forces Agreement, which could have us out by 2010, but will have us out no later than 2012. [Washington Independent]
• In other news, former First Lady Barbara Bush has been moved out of the ICU following surgery to repair a perforated stomach ulcer. [CNN]

• The Vatican says that cell phones and the Internet are killing our souls. Fuck, seriously, is there anything fun you're allowed to do as a Catholic anymore? (Click through for a bonus picture of Pope Benedict in a funny, non-Pope hat.) [Telegraph]
• Iowa's Supreme Court will hear an equal protection challenge to its gay marriage ban, which may or may not invalidate the marriage of the 2 people who managed to get married in the 9 business hours the ban was struck down before the court issued a stay. [LA Times]
• The police have charged someone in the murder of Arkansas reporter Anne Pressley, who was beaten to death in her home last month. Despite the extreme level of violence that police initially said indicated it could be someone that knew and hated her, it turns out it was a random attack by a violent psycho named Curtis Lavelle Vance. [MSNBC]
• Mitchell Wade, the former defense contractor who bribed the shit out of former Congressman Duke Cunningham, apparently bribed other people and is singing like a canary. He's implicated at least 5 other thus-far-unnamed Congressmen and various other government officials. [Washington Post]
• The Congressional probe of all of Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charlie Rangel's (D-New York) shady business dealings will be done before the new Congress is sworn in, according to Nancy Pelosi. This means, in all likelihood, that he'll get a slap on the wrist and continue on as Chairman, which is how it always worked when the Republicans ran Congress that Pelosi promised to change when she came to power. [Washington Post]
• Now that Democrats have voted to keep Joe Lieberman in his position of power atop the Senator Homeland Security Committee, someone bothered to notice that he gave a bunch of money to Republican Senatorial candidates, too. [Washington Post]
• Jill Biden might keep teaching at a D.C.-area community college as Second Lady, which would make her the first Second Lady to carry on with a paying job after moving into the Vice Presidential Mansion. Also, she's probably cooler than you even thought she was. [Politico]
• And although Hillary Clinton hasn't officially been offered or officially accepted a gig as Secretary of State in the Obama Administration, let alone resigned her Senate seat, New York State Attorney General (and enormous asshole) Andrew Cuomo has already begun a whisper campaign to make himself the front runner in the race to be appointed to the seat. Earlier this year, Andrew Cuomo referred to Barack Obama with a racial slur, which his staff rushed to cover up and intimidate bloggers and reporters from covering, swearing that the racially-loaded term "shucking and jiving" was no such thing. Hopefully, someone reminds Governor David Patterson of this every time he gets a damn phone call encouraging him to appoint Andrew Cuomo to anything. [NY Times, Pam's House Blend]

The documentary, part of PBS's “Independent Lens” film series, follows five women in an engineering battalion — part of the first "Team Lioness" group which volunteered to accompany male combat units to central Iraq. The women have diverse backgrounds — from supply clerk to West Point grad — but all are thrown into an unprecedented military situation. A Pentagon spokeswoman told the Times, “A recent RAND report confirms that the Army and all other services remain in compliance with the DOD policy regarding the assignment of women in the military" which prohibits female troops from direct combat. But, she continues, “Women will continue to be assigned to units and positions that may necessitate combat actions within the scope of their restricted positioning — situations for which they are fully trained and equipped to respond,”

As the documentary makes clear, in this new military world, with its guerrilla warfare, there is no distinction between "combat" and the discharge of normal duties — which included searching and communicating with Muslim women. As a result, more female soldiers than ever before have ended up in combat, often without adequate training, and are suffering the same consequences as their male counterparts — PTSD and depression. Indeed, statistics from the British Ministry of Defense suggest that female soldiers are affected at a far higher level than their male counterparts. And, by the same token, therapists are not necessarily trained to help women in combat situations where they are not "officially" supposed to be. The film, which airs on November 13th, is apparently not polemical — one of the soldiers profiled says she is very much for women in combat, provided they're trained — but makes the need for scrutiny of women's roles in modern warfare very clear.

Women Soldiers Suffering From More Mental Problems [Telegraph]
Battleground: Female Soldiers In The Line of Fire [New York Times]

• Celebrity gossip sites like TMZ and E! Online have seen a boost in cellphone readers since they have begun introducing mobile updates to keep readers up-to-date on the latest Kim Kardashian mishaps. • A New York cat therapist poses for New York Magazines "Look Book" with her formerly panic attack-having kitty and talks about helping cats with behavioral problems. • A Welsh woman has created a blog that asks women to share their stories of domestic abuse in hopes of illustrating how widespread domestic violence is in the UK. • According to a recent survey of online behavior, men are more likely than women to feel as strongly about their online communities as they feel about their off-line ones. • Chris Hardy, an ex-Mormon who created a beefcake calendar featuring Mormon hunks, had his recent BYU degree put on nonacademic hold after BYU found out he had been excommunicated between the time he completed his studies and the time he attended graduation ceremonies. • An 89-year-old Ohioan woman was arrested last week after she refused to give a child back his football when it landed in her yard. • A judge in Pennsylvania has ordered a woman and her husband to take down the woman's makeshift "bubble," which she says helps her environmental illness which makes her sensitive to substances. • A speculation ad from the CLM BBDO Paris advertising agency caused a bit of trouble for Pepsi last week when an ad that suggested a lifeguard was willing to look the other way while a young boy molested a woman in exchange for a can of Pepsi was leaked on the internet. • A representative for the Nebraska State Legislature announced today that the state would be altering its safe-haven law to apply only to infants who are up to 3 days old. • Researchers are currently studying the link between past birth control use and a lowered risk uterine and ovarian cancers by examining the amount of estrogen that is found in the urine of monkeys who are given birth control. •

• The Republican National Committee has finally released its speaker line-up for the convention, which McCain spokesman Rick Davis says is designed "to showcase the 'diversity' of the Republican Party." [HuffPo]
• Which is why the line-up is 75% male and 86% white. "Diversity." [Washington Post]
• John McCain's doesn't question Obama's patriotism, just his judgment, so Obama should just shut up and accept that we need to keep on keeping on with the war in Iraq. [Politico]
• Which is why McCain would be cool with having a draft again, since once we're done in Iraq we'll still have Osama bin Laden to chase down and we won't have enough troops for that. [ThinkProgress]

• Rush Limbaugh is just dying for Obama to pick Biden because Biden says stupid crap. And Rush Limbaugh knows all about saying stupid crap. [Time]
• Like this gem: "it is striking how unqualified Obama is and, and how this whole thing came about with, within the Democrat Party. I think it really goes back to the fact that nobody had the guts to stand up and say no to a black guy." [Media Matters]
• Moe's intellectual nemesis, if you want to call Linda Hirshman an intellectual, agrees with Rush Limbaugh that Obama's critics were silenced too early and she agrees with John McCain that Obama is the new Paris Hilton. Guess we know who's decided our reproductive rights are less important than her ability to say "I told you so." [Washington Post, Washington Post, Huffington Post]

• Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, facing perjury charges in one case and assault charges in another, has been ordered to remain in Detroit instead of attending the Democratic convention. He tried to argue that his presence was really important to the Democratic party, but if Obama doesn't feel it's necessary to play nice with John Edwards, it's no surprise that his spokesman denied wanting Kilpatrick around either. [Washington Post]
• In other convention news, Hillary Clinton's going to get the opportunity to watch people vote for her Presidential campaign one last time before really, totally turning her delegates over to Obama. [Washington Post]
• And while some people I know are against Evan Bayh for VP because of war-mongeriness, others will probably turn against him upon finding out that he'd bring Mark Penn aboard as an adviser. Ugh. [Attackerman, The Atlantic]

• Jackson Browne is suing John McCain for copyright infringement for using his song "Running on Empty" in anti-Obama ads. He's not just mad about not getting paid, though — he, too, is an Obamaniac. [LA Times]
• John Moore, author of an anti-Bush book, like a number of other prominent Democrats (like Ted Kennedy) and anti-Bush types has found his name on the government's no-fly list. The FBI swears it's not political as though people actually believe that, and Moore says, "I'm stuck with everyone else on this list, wondering, am I someone's political enemy or do I live in a country where the government is just utterly and completely incompetent." Dude, like it can't be both at the same time? [CNN]
• Female suicide bombers returned to their regularly scheduled bombing programming earlier than I predicted on Tuesday. [Associated Press]
• Victoria Osteen prevailed in the lawsuit filed against her by a supposedly-wronged flight attendant. It might be actual justice, but where's the justice in my loss of Schadenfreude? [Associated Press]
• Uncle Pervy might resign, but it might not save him from prosecution. If it doesn't, why wouldn't he just hold stage another coup or something? Like we'd complain? [HuffPo]

• Two women have been charged in the murder of a British couple honeymooning in Antigua and Barbuda. • The Maricopa County Sheriff in Arizona has violated a ruling that he is not allowed to require female inmates to receive a court order before they are granted an abortion. • In (somewhat) related news, there is a new program at the Ohio Reformatory for Women that allows inmates to raise their children in their cells and in in-house prisons to keep the bond between mother and child tight. • More than 80% of women in the Air Force in Iraq reported persistent fatigue, difficulty concentrating and nearly 20% reported one symptom of PTSD. • Meanwhile in the region, a man has been arrested in Jerusalem for helping beat, threaten, and rob a divorced Israeli woman under the self-proclaimed title of "chastity guards." •

Generally speaking, if I commit (or try to commit) suicide in this country (generally done for personal reasons), that's considered a criminal act so that they can lock me up and get my the psychiatric help I need. When a person of either gender straps explosives to their body and kills him or herself and as many other people as possible — is that a rational act? Can it be a rational act? Is it any less of a sign — regardless of gender — that the person in question is in need of a mental health intervention?

By now, male suicide bombers are de rigueur in the Middle East (if not in other countries where suicide bombings are common). The stories are played out, the irrationality of the situation accepted, the coercion and indoctrination involved go without saying. And so the question for the Western media, tired of "yet another" suicide bomber story is — why women now and why not all along?

Obviously, the recruiting and coercion is different, given that much recruiting of men is reportedly done in sex-segregated religious settings. The personal reasonings are probably also different — given that men and women have significantly different and entrenched roles in those societies, and what they lose by making an early exit from them is going to be different. The rationale of the clothing provides a stepping-off point to understand why a male-dominated terrorist organization would think of recruiting women (or more women than ever before) when they come from a supposed religious ideology and secular background in which women are not normally allowed in combat situations.

On Sunday, Lindsey O'Rourke argued in her New York Times OpEd that the media is sexist in the way it reports female suicide bombings because the political context in which men and women choose to become suicide bombers is the same, while admitting that recruiting tactics for men and women remain significantly different. If men and women are recruited differently, then doesn't it stand to reason that the differing recruitment works because men and women have different person motivations that they are more likely to share with others in their gender? The external motivating factors — or, if one accepts the premise that suicidal impulses are inherently irrational, the rationale given for an inherently irrational act — might be similar but, at the end of the day, the personal reasons for getting involved in a situation are going to be different and in a society in which gender plays a huge role on your place in that society, it's probably going to be gendered, at least in part.

While there is no shortage of other string of female suicide bombers — particularly in a secular context — through which we can contextualize the recent spate of Iraqi suicide bombings committed by women, the fact remains that such bombings are an anomaly in that country at this time. There is obviously something driving the increase, and understanding why Chechnyan women or Tamil women agreed to participate in suicide bombings in their respective countries doesn't really get us that much closer to understanding why Iraqi women are doing it now — or how to stop it. And that, really, is what the media and our governments are trying to understand — why women, why now, why there, and how do we stop it.

If, as Faith suggests, the sexism comes from the world is wondering what is making women irrational enough to start becoming suicide bombers, what they're actually proposing is that women have been more rational all along. And that might be sexist, but it might also be aimed at men.

Three Women Held In Iraq Suicide Bomb Plots [CNN]
The Vulnerable Robed Women: Coverage Of Women Suicide Bombers [Muslimah Media Watch]
When The Suicide Bomber Is A Woman [Marie cCaire]
Behind The Woman Behind The Bomb [NY Times]

• Obama responds to McCain's Britney-and-Paris ad: "is that the best you can come up with?" We're all kind of hoping so, actually. [ABC News]
• Meanwhile, McCain's camp is accusing Obama of playing the race card. I guess they really weren't paying attention during the primary season when Hillary tried that. [NY Times]
• He'd probably just rather you not know that Exxon Mobil's earnings last quarter were $11.68 billion, the largest quarterly earnings by a U.S. company ever — or that their share price fell upon that news because they were expected to be higher. Because if you knew, you might think that there was something hinky with his energy plan, or lack thereof. [HuffPo]
• Speaking of hinky, the House held hearings into the teeny-tiny sexual assault problem the military seems to have in Iraq, though they didn't touch specifically on LaVena Johnson. The link has a great video of a rant about how fucked that whole situation is; it totally gave me a ladyboner. [Crooks & Liars]

• Tim Russert's son is going to be doing convention coverage for NBC. I'm pretty sure that sounds kind of wrong to me. Oh, and why doesn't Rachel Maddow have a show yet? [AP]
• A California court has ruled that the evil early termination fees the cell phone companies are charging you aren't legal. Not that I have a contract, but I might get one now if it means I won't have to pay a fee the next time I'm feeling flighty. I mean, if I move to California, that is. [Yahoo News]
• A judge has ruled that the White House doesn't have the power to ignore subpoenas from Congress. Expect nothing else to happen for a while, wheels of justice moving slowly, etc. [NY Times]
• Cynthia McKinney says that if the Mainstream Media gave the Green Party more press they'd be the second-biggest party in the U.S.. I say: not with Cynthia's kind of anti-Semitic crazy at the helm, it wouldn't. [Washington Post]

So it's like with injured horses and Jell-O! Anyway, I know suicide bombers don't write notes, maybe because a good carnage photo speaks a thousand words as they say, but here is what I imagine one of them might have written:

Dear Allah,
Go to Hell.
If you existed I would ask to be reincarnated as the lesbian test tube spawn of Ayaan Hirsi Ali and Pamela Geller.

Or maybe:

Dear Allah,
And maybe bring back Lynndie England to guard my husband's cell.

Or:

Dear Allah,
I just don't see why the Sunnis and the Shiites can't come together to celebrate all the beliefs they share, such as the one about how women who have sex before marriage need to be killed. Come to think of it, a lot of religions commit "honor killings," right? How come no one ever stops and thinks about how much we all have in common?

Dear Allah,
Because then people would stop killing each other so much and spend all their time fucking. I get it.

Dear Allah,
If you pack our torsos with explosives, do we not bleed?
Rhetorical question.

Love, Blackmail and Rape: How Al Qaeda Grooms Women As "Perfect Weapons" [Times]
Muslim Extremist Women Fight For Right To Join Al Qaeda [CBS 13]
Why Women Become Suicide Bombers [Newsweek]

Photo via Photobucket

SPENCER: It is 8:11 a.m. and the dude sitting near me at the BWI airport 50s-kitsch diner counter just ordered a 20 oz Miller Lite
MEGAN: Well, at least is isn't a 40? I am sitting in the hallway outside of security watching the tourists parade on by and watching the security people wonder what I'm doing. The security lady says it's coldest in the hallway between the A and B gates, a truth to which I can currently attest.
SPENCER: Interesting fact about the difference between A & B gates: for the purpose of eating or using the bathroom, you're better off using B, even if your flight is at A. No bathrooms at A, and the only stuff to eat is like Arby's and such.
MEGAN: Ooh, I remember that but please don't remind me how much I need to pee after all that coffee I drank to be awake enough to drive you up here. So, I feel like we should lead off with the story about how when Jesse Jackson suggested castrating Barack Obama, he also dropped the n-word, in reference to, well, pretty much every African-American person in America.
SPENCER: Also I bought an issue of Wired for the first time ever — I had a girlfriend who subscribed and my lack of interest in the magazine was a minor issue between us — because Julia Allison is on the cover and I still do not exactly know who she is, but she has extremely impressive cleavage.
MEGAN: Really? If you wanted a picture of impressive cleavage, you didn't have to pay for it.
SPENCER: Ah yes. You know who's upset that she doesn't get to use the N Word? Internment-camp apologist Michelle Malkin. Yes you have very impressive tits and I would never say otherwise.
MEGAN: I prefer that such knowledge be widespread, I will admit it. Also, how much does Michelle Malkin really suck, truly?
SPENCER: Hahahaha the waitress just brought me the Miller Lite by mistake
MEGAN: Dude, the man bought you a beer, it's only polite to accept.
SPENCER: I suppose with my Blackwater t-shirt and tattoos I look like the sort of air traveller who'd have a beer with his omelet
MEGAN: I can't believe that you're getting hit on by dudes this morning and I am not, I need to step up my game.
SPENCER: What is it with right-wingers and their desire to say the n-word? Like, what's in it for you?
MEGAN: Spencer, I mean, obviously, it's not faaaaaair that black people get to use the "n" word and get to be all offended about it when other people do. It's, like, practically anti-American. It's hating on our freedoms (to be racist, disgusting sonsofbitches).
SPENCER: Life is unfair to Michelle Malkin but I feel it is so for reasons independent of her inability to type the N-word.
MEGAN: I don't think like is unfair to MM. I think she is probably pretty damn content with her life. If we want to talk unfair lives, we'd talk about my life. Or yours.
SPENCER: So what are we supposed to believe follows from the apparent fact that Jesse Jackson used the N-word? The significance is...? My life is pretty great right now: I'm about to fly to Austin to attend and speak at a conference of the anti-American terrorist supporting left. i shaved my mustache down and grew out my beard so i could look like a Salafist.
MEGAN: Well, I think it's the hypocrisy of him being part of the campaign to get rappers and the like to stop using it.
I did notice your beard was longer, but I don't notice when the 'stache is shorter, I'll admit.
SPENCER: Oh that was Jackson? Should I blame him for the fact that Nas' record is called Untitled and not N Word? I feel like this is the sort of thing that only a non-black person could possibly find hypocritical
MEGAN: Yes, he was one of the anti-n-word campaign which, frankly, I'm not completely opposed to as I cringe when I hear someone say the word regardless of race, but it is the height of hypocrisy to moralize about it publicly and then use it privately. And/or to threaten to cut off the balls of the first black candidate for President when he suggests that some black men should take responsibility for their children when you've knocked up your mistress.
SPENCER: Like, I don't agree with this argument, but there's nothing a priori hypocritical about saying the n-word but not wanting prominent black figures to use it as the titles of their books or albums or movies or what-have-you. I don't think it's hypocritical! oftentimes I say things in unguarded moments that it's better not see print/publication/distribution. that's an issue of judgment, not hypocrisy. as Dave Chappelle taught us, a world in which everyone constantly keeps us real is not one we'd actually like to live in.
MEGAN: Well, I think that if you're going to argue for a word to be banned from use, then it shouldn't be a word that you're wont to drop yourself. Also, I'm mostly just disappointed in Jesse Jackson the way I am in Geraldine Ferraro, because I thought he was so awesome when I was a little kid and now he's just another big jerk. Plus, whenever I hear Rainbow Coalition, I think Rainbow Connection and now I feel like he has besmirched Kermit.
SPENCER: Have you ever listened to his "I Am Somebody" speech? It's beyond awesome. liberals should remember their history — we tend to think of the 80s as a wasteland of Reaganesque triumphalism but there were some real high points, and Rev JJ's 1984 convention speech is one of them
MEGAN: No, I completely agree. 1984 is really the first election I remember (him and Geraldine being little girl highlights of mine) and so that's really the source of my disappointment.
SPENCER: Jesus fucking CHRIST the Miller Liters are shouting out "Strong Island" to some women who sensibly left the diner-counter in a hurry. ok now i need you to explain something to me
MEGAN: Oh, God, I'm glad I'm not with you right now.
SPENCER: On our internal FDL email listserv, my blogospheric colleagues noted that there was a near-riot at an IndyMac branch in California. I have no idea why or what happened, nor what IndyMac, like, is, so I'm counting on you to explain.
MEGAN: Um, so, I take that back, a woman just sat down next to me out here and started clipping her toenails.
SPENCER: Done with breakfast now!
MEGAN: Ok, so, IndyMac: was a bank in California, still sort of is. The Feds moved in last Friday after it was determined that they didn't have enough money to meet their depository obligations because of tighter credit and foreclosures. Though, it might be eventually facing fraud charges.
SPENCER: and this is Housing-Crisis-related?
MEGAN: Yes, mostly. I mean, housing crisis and financial mismanagement, which are basically being seen as one and the same these days. But, so, like, if you didn't know, any savings accounts and CDs and the like are insured by the federal government up to — and only up to — $100,000.
SPENCER: I did not know
MEGAN: And the FDIC has determined that up to 10,000 IndyMac customers have deposits in excess of the FDIC limits, which is like up to $1 billion in uninsured deposits, and the FDIC expects to have to pay $8 billion + for the bail out. But those people with more money in than the FDIC insured, those people will basically be considered the bank's creditors and will wait years or more to get their money back (if they ever get their $$ back), which is why people were freaking the fuck out yesterday
SPENCER: Okay, I think I found the incident in question — it appears to have occurred in the San Fernando Valley:

Police ordered angry customers lined up outside an IndyMac Bank branch to remain calm or face arrest Tuesday as they tried to pull their money on the second day of the failed institution's federal takeover.
At least three police squad cars showed up early Tuesday as tensions rose outside the San Fernando Valley branch of Pasadena-based IndyMac.

So this is a riot of the formerly-rich?
MEGAN: Welcome to the Depression, and why the government started the FDIC in the first place, though it does provide a significant financial disincentive for banks to not do a great job self-regulating. Well, "formerly rich"
SPENCER: or is it only bloggers who don't have $100,000-plus in the bank these days?
MEGAN: I mean, some of these people, that might be their retirement savings because when you get within 5-10 of retirement you're told to take your money out of the stock market and put it in insurable, risk-averse assets.
SPENCER: Whoa you used the D-word
MEGAN: Ben B can come by and flog me later.
SPENCER: I am sure when I arrive at Netroots Nation there will be no shortage of invective on this, and i don't mean that pejoratively. Oh hey could I refer back to yesterday's CH for a second?
MEGAN: Which part? I know not the food parts...
SPENCER: The Iraq/Afghanistan parts
MEGAN: Sure
SPENCER: My friend Elle Reeve — someone else that TNR fucked over — read yesterday's CH rather attentively, as her husband Scott, a rather unfortunately infamous Iraq veteran, is scheduled to return for his second Iraq tour in the fall and she grounded yesterday's discussion of the Obama/McCain debate over Afghanistan/Iraq troop levels in a really compelling way, so I hereby introduce CH readers to the awesome Elle Reeve:

Obama wants to send two brigades to Afghanistan, and now McCain wants to send three. Where would these dudes come from? They're not going to pluck guys from one war zone and deposit them in another, right? So will troops scheduled for Iraq get sent to Afghanistan instead, and the guys in Iraq won't be replaced as their deployments expire? If Obama's elected and starts pulling out, wouldn't guys in Iraq have shortened deployments, while the guys in Afghanistan would still be deployed for 15 months at a time?

MEGAN: Oh, geez, that sucks that he got re-upped.
SPENCER:

Scott's brigade is mechanized, so there's little chance he'd be sent to Afghanistan, since tanks and Bradleys don't work well with mountains, right? The brigade is set to be in Iraq through near the last of Obama's 16 months. So what will happen to last of the guys in Iraq? Will they pull out of less volatile areas first? Because his co-workers totally deserve someplace nice in Kurdistan after serving in Baghdad last year. Basically, I'm looking to seize on any possibility that he'll be in a marginally less dangerous area. Or an area I can sneak in to. Kidding! Sort of. Give me the illusion of control.

Given that I need to board a plane in like 10 minutes, I sympathize deeply with Elle's desire for the illusion of control
MEGAN: I mean, who doesn't? I always prefer to have the illusion that I have any control over anything. And have a kickass time in Austin!

MEGAN: Let us kick off the first of two airport-edition Crappy Hours! Impressions of Frankfurt: very large and very shiny, and the people behind me are either eating egg salad or changing a baby's diaper.

SPENCER: Part I: Germany. What's in german egg salad? Is it like the potato salad, which is like potato salad here except flossy?

MEGAN: I'm going to take a wild guess and suggest it probably includes dill, since I always think dill smells like ass and have trouble eating it without a touch of a gag reflex kicking in. There was a potato salad consumed at some point this weekend, but I'll be damned if I really noticed a difference.

SPENCER: you're out of your mind! Dill is one of the most soothing aromatics you can have. My mother immediately disapproves of this CH and speaking of things to disapprove of, should we talk about McCain & Obama on Iraqhanistan or is that just me hijacking your feature?

MEGAN: We should definitely talk McCain and Obama and the Surge and whatever. And please apologize to your mom for me. If she wants me to give it a second chance, I will. So, like, they disagree about it, is what I'm given to understand.

SPENCER: what's amazing is that as recently as two months ago, McCain was denying the need for additional troops in Afghanistan

MEGAN: Oh, well, I mean, if we're going to be in Iraq in 100 years, we probably need a refueling point.

SPENCER: even as 2008 casualties in Afghanistan are nearly match the US death toll in all of 2007 and we're only at July 16 but Obama has been saying for almost a solid motherfucking year that we need to redeploy some forces from Iraq, which is not strategically crucial, to Afghanistan, which is.

MEGAN: Oh, man, that ain't good. Actually, I was talking about that with some Germans, too, they think we've fucked up Afghanistan pretty well.

SPENCER: yesterday McCain flipflops and basically adopts Obama's position, except he starts acting a bitch and saying Obama doesn't understand the "success of the surge":

“Senator Obama will tell you we can’t win in Afghanistan without losing in Iraq. In fact, he has it exactly backwards. It is precisely the success of the surge in Iraq that shows us the way to succeed in Afghanistan. It is by applying the tried and true principles of counterinsurgency used in the surge, which Senator Obama opposed, that we will win in Afghanistan.”

MEGAN: Oh, well, that's me, you, Obama, more than half of all Americans and a majority of Congress, so I feel like Obama's in good company.

SPENCER: now, on the one hand, I admire McCain's tactical savvy — he's disguising his retreat with an artillery barrage, which is sensible, but substantively, it's fucking crackers

MEGAN: Wait, so, like, when we're done surging in Iraq we're going to surge in Afghanistan? Is that what McCain's suggesting?

SPENCER: the idea that we can apply the "lessons" of Iraq — and McCain is dead-set on applying the wrong lessons — to a much, much much different country is insane yeah and that we've got to call it a SURGE because SURGEs are totally rad and he was in favor of the SURGE and the SURGE worked except when it doesn't.

MEGAN: I'll bet you he calls it surging rather than thrusting when he takes his once-a-year Viagra and bangs Cindy, too. Also, what are the lessons of Iraq? If you stick enough cannon fodder on the street the insurgents will quiet down until we go? Good plan.

SPENCER: and the most asinine thing? Obama is saying, fine, ok, you want to say Iraq is safer, whatevs, that means we should take our troops from a safe place and put them in a place that we need to make safe McCain says that security in Iraq means we have to stay forever; violence in Iraq means we have to stay forever; we need to redeploy some forces from Iraq so we can SURGE in Afghanistan; but not too many because that will mean Iraq will become less secure and that means we have to stay there forever. Okay, what else should we talk about?

MEGAN: Does McCain think that if he talks about it in the most confusing and obfuscating way possible that the rest of Americans will be as confused as the 30 percent that still like Bush and vote for him?
SPENCER: oh man - i want to make a web video of the 26 percent that still supports Bush

MEGAN: We could talk about McCain advisor Phil Gramm's porn career? And particularly the Nixon-imitator porn film, only I might start gagging again if I think too hard about that. Nixonland has a whole new meaning to me over here.

SPENCER: as, like, forming the 26 Percent Nation and harassing people on their way to work as street preachers dressed in weird robes and vestments with swords

MEGAN: Oooh, I would totally go harass Bush supporters. Only it would be hard to find any in Germany outside the Merkel government and even really in.

SPENCER: "You know you know you know Katrina was a hoax! They they they they said the levees broke but they they they they never broke, they never broke! We fight in Iraq so the terrorists won't make us fight in Dubuque and they'd follow us home because they like to chase freedom because they they they they hate freedom! You only chase what you HATE!"

MEGAN: And don't forget how they want to hurt our malls. Our malls! The symbols of our culture!

SPENCER: i recall reading a Doonesbury comic like 15 years ago about Phil Gramm bankrolling pornosbut Mighty Max gets yet another hot story.

MEGAN: And, yet, it's actually fucking true? The hell? And his bankrolled Nixon porn. He might as well have bankrolled Reagan bukkake porn.

SPENCER: hahaha Truck Stop Women

MEGAN: No rig too big?

SPENCER: i had a girlfriend last year who's an artist and she also used to drive trucks w her ex-bf; she designed an entire metallurgy show around truck stops, and made this awesome belt buckle around the 'No Lot Lizard' symbol, lot lizards being truck-stop whores

MEGAN: Yeah, I'm actually aware of the term. Actually, every time I drive home, between Hazleton and the NY border, there are all these billboards for massage parlors and every single time I wonder... that would be easy for the cops to figure out, right?

SPENCER: I'm waiting for Rick Perlstein's take on naked Nixon. Yeah, you should get a massage, see what they offer you.

MEGAN: I'm going to guess we will all be equally horrified.

SPENCER: oh before I forget, the new Nas record totally shouts out Jezebel
on a great track called "America".

MEGAN: Usually, by that point in the ride, I am considering it even though I'm totally sure it wouldn't be as good as my normal masseur, Antoine's, hands.

SPENCER: You have a normal masseur?

MEGAN: When I had a grown-up job I hated that paid me a lot of money, I paid Antoine to rub my naked body with oil and talk to me with his French accent once every two weeks in the middle of the work day. Usually about the time my Wonkette column was set to run. Both made me hate my life marginally less.

SPENCER: And at this point every dude who reads CH has just excused himself to furtively enjoy a tender moment.

MOE: OMG someone named Emily Weiss just befriended me on Facebook and I thought it was the Stepfordy Teen Vogue intern from The Hills but it's not, it's just some other girl born in 1984. I am sure she is an infinitely nicer and better and more appealing person than the F-list socialite Emily Weiss but you know.
$PENCER: ok go
are you sure you just IMd that to the right person
because i don't know at all who any of your reference refer to
MOE: What is going on today besides this Jackson thing and FISA? Did you read the front page spy story in the Times? Because I did not, although I made an admirable effort at the deli.
$PENCER: no, but if you want an excellent recap of what just happened with FISA, i refer you to the Windy's Mike Lillis
MOE: Oh that picture is fierce
$PENCER: did you see Ta-Nehisi Coates' reaction to JJ?
i know it's like Chris Dodd is Oliver Hardy
anyway here's Ta-Nehisi getting all Too Hot For The Root or the Atlantic:

My Dad is gonna kill me. But here's Jesse—on Fox News no less—telling some other dude that he'd like to cut Obama's nuts out. Nice. I'm not even sure this hurts Obama in anyway. Even Jesse's own son condemned him. There is a certain strain of the civil right era that really just needs to have a Jack and Coke and call it a day. It's not that we aren't grateful. We so really are. But this is getting embarrassing...

MOE: oooooh too hot for The Root??? But The Root is the hotness ...
$PENCER: about that spy story, i leave all things China to you
MOE: one of the links on The Root's blogroll is something called "Conversate is not a word" and that blog has made this point before w/r/t Wright and Sharpton and I think Clinton and maybe we could add Linda Hirshman to that mix.
$PENCER: i use conversate
don't make me call the Grammar Police
BECAUSE THAT SITE IS DOWN
so give me your thoughts on China and then I want to talk about the other huge fucking deal that people are ignoring, which is that Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki of Iraq just endorsed Barack Obama's Iraq policy
MOE: Well the thing about Chinese espionage that I think is kind of the point of the story is that they can't really decide if its spying for the government or just intellectual property infringement, and while spying is inherently awesome patent law is less so so the use of the word "Spy" in the headline does not guarantee amazing content. Although I'm mining it.
$PENCER: interestingly enough this was kind of the plot of one of James Webb's lesser-known war novels from 1991
except with employees of a Japanese company selling secrets of (deep breath) a software firm that had a Pentagon contract to nefarious North Koreans
in order to divert attention from the scandal, a chickenhawk defense secretary entangles the U.S. in an Eritrean-Ethiopean war
... and to thinkWebb could have been vice president
MOE: Oh that would be a big deal, please share your ideas. So basically the Iraq president agrees that it was a stupid idea to invade the Iraq even though that is the only reason he got to be president of the Iraq and yes, that is how much Iraq sucks that he is willing to say he would rather step into a time machine back to when he was hanging out in Syria or whatever?
$PENCER: unfortunately only the Iranians make the component parts for the Wayback Machine, so to step into it would be to admit the close ties between Baghdad and Teheran so Ryan Crocker really doesn't want that, but anyways
let's conversate on Iraq
on Monday, maliki went to the UAE to get some debt relief, and said "You know what? We should really set a timetable for the US to withdraw"
the State Dept response was LALALALALA I DONT HEAR YOU AND WHATEVER YOU WERE PROBABLY MISTRANSLATED OR MISQUOTED YOU KNOW HOW THOSE REPORTERS GET
MOE: Oy!! Can we get an awkward press conference clip or not right now? How often does the State Dept have to give press conferences anyway?
$PENCER: but then a longtime U.S. (and Iranian!) stooge named Mowaffaq al-Rubaie met with the most important Shiite religious leader in Iraq, and said explicitly that we need to get the hell on
i think that was Sean McCormack's tuesday am briefing
anyway here's the best part
Maliki was like, no, I really mean it
from today's Wash Post:

Iraqi spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said in Baghdad on Wednesday that a U.S. pullout could be completed in several years. "It can be 2011 or 2012," he said. "We don't have a specific date in mind, but we need to agree on the principle of setting a deadline."

so now you tell MOE: how does Barack Obama lose the Iraq debate?
MOE: Okay here's the ish on the China spy shit: for one thing, all this shit seems to involve Taiwanese. Taiwan is supposed to hate China but actually they are a little too interested in cheap labor and gargantuan consumer market to bother with that, you understand, so anyway, blah blah blah a few big things China would like to figure out how to make: night vision goggles, military-grade accelerometers for smart bombs and "refinements that make missiles more difficult to detect." mmmmmm yeah I'm not sure how sexy this is. What's an accelerometer look like even?
$PENCER: oh wow gurlz know NOTHING about defense LOL
it looks like this, duh
so nothing to see in the NYT china spy story but Pulitzer-bait?
what a shame, Ting Ting
MOE: oooh cylindrical like a TAMPON. btw I was explaining to my 2 girlfriends yesterday that missile test stories i.e. The Iran yesterday are sooooo boring to cover, because they invariably boil down to the shop-worn cliche of "sabre-rattling" and my BFFs were like "whoa, really? They use that term, 'sabre rattling'?" And then they started fighting with imaginary sabres and i was like "No seriously guys it's THAT STUPID."
MOE: Lolz. And yeah it's not Pulitzer material. No Efraim Diveroli that's for sure.
$PENCER: yeah what you don't see in Pentagon press conferences is the pre-conference saber rattling that reporters do with their DONGS
poor Martha Raddatz and Pam Hess, always left out of the fun
no wonder Pam moved to the AP intelligence beat
MOE: What's this about Obama regretting letting his kiddies on TV?
$PENCER: you tell me!
MOE: I mean, sure, Access Hollywood isn't Charlie Rose, but…
$PENCER: before I have to go — — i need you to say, just once in CH, what you think about a story of the day
MOE: Here is that. I certainly respectfully disagree. I actually had a dream the other night that Michelle got knocked up again in the White House.
$PENCER: oohhh NPR i forgot how it soothes my liberal's soul now that i have no radio
so you disagree with the decision to put the Obama girls on TV?
i need to know what the age's best working writer thinks about this!
MOE: I don't think I know what to think of Jesse Jackson. On one hand, wait, what?That really happened? On the other hand, of course it happened, because this entire campaign has consisted of a marathon real time PSA dedicated to hammering it home to our generation time and time fucking again that Boomers Are Officially Unfit To Run The Country; In Fact They Fucking Always Were; We Were Just Too Busy Updating Our Myspace Pages To Notice And Hey, By The Way, What Happened To The Economy?
MOE: I think you compromised a bit of the credibility you built up calling me the world's greatest living writer by implying that it was a good thing no one ever turned in Bill Clinton for sexual assault because you see while the whole sexual assault thing was resurfacing to embarrass him in the media he heroically tried to distract the country by bombing Al Qaeda.... comparing me to Bill is just a messy analogy is all I'm saying. Unless it was purposely that way?
$PENCER: wait huh?
i was making a point about clinton and al-qaeda, and the structure of Winstead's argument, not Clinton and sexual assault
victim blaming
i don't think Clinton is a problematic analogy at all under those circumstances and in this context
MOE: I was just kidding!
$PENCER: ok i am reading galleys way way past deadline so i am unable to catch the subtler points made by our finest living writer

• There's probably some economic metaphor to be had in a story about 13 people being trampled by bulls in Pamplona, but then again it might be a cautionary tale about what the tourism industry can convince you is "fun." [Washington Post]
• Speaking of a snow job, guess who is the latest politician calling for a withdrawal timetable in Iraq sooner rather than later? Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, that's who. No worries, Bush and McCain will find other reasons not to withdraw yet. [Washington Post]
• Jim Webb, though, is totally withdrawing from VP consideration, though. [HuffPo]

• In possibly the smartest logistical decision made to date, Barack Obama will accept the nomination at Invesco Field, which seats 75,000 people instead of the 20,000 they can cram into the Pepsi Center where the rest of the convention is being held. Here's to the speech being slightly less of a clusterfuck than every other acceptance speech in the history of televised party conventions. [NY Times]
• Oh, and he's kind of kicking ass at the polls right now, so maybe it won't even be his last? [CQ Politics]
• And, if we're lucky, the good corrupt politicians of Alaska might get their asses kicked both by exorbitant legal bills and at the polls this year. I'll take either one, actually, since they're using donations from lobbyists (mostly oil company types, one assumes) to pay them. In the immortal words of Nelson: Ha-ha. [HuffPo]

Seriously, given that you got attacked from the left for appearing a little squishy on abortion during your time in the Illinois legislature and you've still got Hillary supporters to court, it probably wasn't the most prescient time to say this:

I have repeatedly said that I think it’s entirely appropriate for states to restrict or even prohibit late-term abortions as long as there is a strict, well-defined exception for the health of the mother. Now, I don’t think that "mental distress" qualifies as the health of the mother. I think it has to be a serious physical issue that arises in pregnancy, where there are real, significant problems to the mother carrying that child to term. Otherwise, as long as there is such a medical exception in place, I think we can prohibit late-term abortions.

Baby, that ain't what we need to hear. I miss the days when you used to whisper sweet nothings in my direction, things about that timely Iraq withdrawal and supporting a woman's right to choose. I'll admit my heart beat faster hearing you yell "Yes we can," and "We are the change that we have been waiting for." But, Barry, baby, "as long as there is such a medical exception in place, I think we can prohibit late-term abortions" is a total lady-bonerkiller.

And, honey, you totally put the kibosh on my mood with this little nugget:

I think we know that abortions rise when unwanted pregnancies rise. So, if we are continuing what has been a promising trend in the reduction of teen pregnancies, through education and abstinence education giving good information to teenagers. That is important—emphasizing the sacredness of sexual behavior to our children. I think that’s something that we can encourage. I think encouraging adoptions in a significant way. I think the proper role of government. So there are ways that we can make a difference, and those are going to be things I focus on when I am president.

Barry, ignorance is not sexy. Abstinence education? Oh, Barry, we all know that's not effective even though the fundies love hearing about it. Whose love do you want? Ours or theirs?

Look, I'm not trying to be clingy here. I know that everyone needs friends in their life, and I'm all about you making new friends. Don't think this is about that. I'm trying really hard not to be worried about your fidelity or to how you'll live up to the promises you made, but you're not making it easy. You can't just whisper "January 2009" in my ear anymore and send tingles up my spine. You have to say things like "universal health coverage" and "your body, your choice" and "comprehensive sex education" and "complete withdrawal from Iraq" and you have to mean it if you want to get my juices flowing again. Just try it, you'll remember how damn good it feels, and so will I.

— Me

Obama: Most Liberal Senator In 2007 [National Journal]
A Q&A With Barack Obama [Relevant]
Obama Supports FISA Legislation, Angering Left [Washington Post]
Bush's Faith-Based Programs Will Remain [San Francisco Chronicle]
Obama May Consider Slowing Iraq Withdrawal [Washington Post]
Abstinence-Only Education Ineffective In Preventing, Delaying Sex Among Teens, Study Says [Medical News Today]

MOE: Okay, first of all, re the companies chosen for those coveted Iraq oil contracts of course they did, some people are complete idiots, Paul Krugman thinks Obama needs to be more like Reagan than Clinton…so what's Obama doing here??



MEGAN: On the first story, gotta love this quote:

The advisers — who, along with the diplomatic official, spoke on condition of anonymity — say that their involvement was only to help an understaffed Iraqi ministry with technical and legal details of the contracts and that they in no way helped choose which companies got the deals.

I mean, does anyone actually believe that?



MOE: Also I don't know if you've been reading about this book but it's been eliciting some really surprising rarely-articulated viewpoints from pundits such as:

The people who fund and run the GOP are simply too committed to the idea of cutting taxes for affluent people and reducing government spending… In fact, even saying the GOP estabilshment is "committed" to these things understates the grip of economic libertarianism over the party. It suggests a worldview that's the product of some reflection, when in fact the economic libertarianism of big GOP donors is mostly an expression of their self-interest

And in case you didn't catch what he was trying to say there:

—i.e., they want to keep their own taxes low.

MEGAN: As for McCain's record, not to bash on John Aravosis whose work I normally like, but Jeffrey Klein did that story way better, like two weeks ago without going into the gutter at all.



Well, the problem with Noam Scheiber's analysis in that review is that he repeats the claptrap that the GOP is ostensibly committed to reducing government spending, which is utter bullshit.

Let's bust that myth people. They are committed to saying they want to reduce government spending, and committed to spending more of it in ways that appeal to them ideologically (i.e., defense, abstinence education, marriage-promotion) or appeal to their constituents (i.e., earmarks)

MOE: Okay here's the thing:

The authors say they blew their chances to capitalize on their opening to these voters “by confusing being pro-market with being pro-business, by failing to distinguish between spending that fosters dependency and spending that fosters independence and upward mobility, and by shrinking from the admittedly difficult task of reforming the welfare state so that it serves the interests of the working class rather than the affluent.”

To "distinguish between spending that fosters dependency and spending that fosters independence and upward mobility" is, as near as I can figure, the opposite of "pro-market."

MEGAN: Yes, I would agree with that completely. Of course, apparently, "spending that fosters independence and upward mobility is — surprise! — serendipitously spending on things like marriage promotion and putting more black people in jail and abstinence education!

Douthat and Salam say to the contrary that the social issues are a major part of working-class insecurity. “Safe streets, successful marriages, cultural solidarity and vibrant religious and civic institutions make working-class Americans more likely to be wealthy, healthy and upwardly mobile. Public disorder, family disintegration, cultural fragmentation and civic and religious disaffection, on the other hand, breed downward mobility and financial strain — which in turn breeds further social dislocation, in a vicious cycle that threatens to transform a working class into an underclass."

Great, so, the government is now going to be able to solve the problems of family disintegration by.... making divorce harder? Making marriage necessary for all pregnant women? They're going to solve religious disaffection by... making religion mandatory? And, God knows the Democrats love them some public disorder. Yum, goes perfectly in my coffee.

MOE: The thing that is so dreamy about talking about this stuff as a failure to distinguish between the different kinds of "spending" is that it really cuts to the heart of the issue that, as some guy points out on today's WSJ edit page OF ALL PLACES…numbers lie!

MEGAN: Whoa, seriously, someone spiked the coffee with LSD at the WSJ this weekend:

there is no such thing as "the economy."

MOE: The first Harper's reading last month said this a lot better, but I'm not sure where it is online. Maybe I'll just screengrab it here.

Dammit, it doesn't want to let me, oh well.

MEGAN: Although, back to the intersection of economics and politics, I spent hours yesterday obsessed with the implications of this chart. Which goes with this article but the article's less interesting and not just because I like pretty pictures.

MOE: Oh here it is. Anyway we forgot to discuss < a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aftgJ3S0euEQ&refer=home">Steven Hatfill, whose name is not Mohammed and therefore actually got some money out of his whole post-9/11 harassment, or we never did, because that happened on Friday and I was too tired out from Dimitri the Lover to do a proper news roundup, but hahaha he did well for himself. And Mallaby who I generally love has something on oil and speculation and whatnot.

And now I have to try to get on the internet bus

BRB as they say.

9 minutes

MOE: And I'm back! On the bus. But I'm still using the free Dupont wifi signal so I'm not sure if that's sustainable.

MEGAN: I think it kicks in on the bus pretty soon, but we can totally hurry up.

Anyway, what's fascinating about the chart I sent is about the redistribution of wealth in this country, from the Midwest to the Coasts (by and large) and the weirdness that Alaska and Hawai'i were two of the richest 12 states in 1976.

And about how the richest states — and by and large, the richest people — are increasingly turning to the Democratic party. Fucking elitists.

—-—-—16 minutes—-—

MOE: Hey

Do you read me?

MEGAN: Yup

MOE: The wifi server is allegedly just getting reactivated

So I'm on bberry.

Anna is going to kill me but. If this works it isn't a bad thing. Free wifi in DuPont is good!

MEGAN: No problem! I got grabbed coffee and a yogurt and plugged my computer back in as I was previously sitting on the front porch watching my neighbor playing with his baby and the cats of the 'hood stare at me

Anyway, the wifi bus worked fine for me the one round trip I took it. I, um, spent most of the time IM'ing with people.

MOE: So Cass Sunstein co authors an oped in the Wash Post... Cass sunstein is the Obama policy adviser yes? It doesn't mention that. But anyway it is about the death penalty. I wanted to bring up Juan Williams admirably

MEGAN: Juan Williams?

Also, Cass Sunstein, I'm not sure if he's an adviser but he's definitely a fan

MOE: Frustrated performance on fox news Sunday re the supreme courts striking down the gun ban

MEGAN: Sadly, I have no cable but I will find a clip.

I mean, my parents have no cable because my mother doesn't believe in it.

MOE: Maybe I can find a clip. What he lacked in eloquence he made up for in abject what the fuckitide

My dad and I talked about whether murder is the worst crime. He believes in the death penalty for people who cut off peoples legs and gouge their eyes out and such.

MEGAN: On the other hand, I think blind people and amputees would probably disagree, right?

MOE: If I can't get wifi on this bus I'm going to make them drop me off on the side of the 295

MEGAN: As though there's wifi along 295?

MOE: Well if you had your arms and legs cut off and your eyes gouged out by som