CNN won’t run this ad because it’s “unfair”:

Douchetastic!

Editor & Publisher:

Like many other news orgs, the AP today is reprinting excerpts from the online diary kept by George Sodini, who killed 4 women and then himself at a Pittsburgh area fitness center last night.  The diary focuses on his problems with women and other worries, but also has some comments about the “liberal media,” the “Obama economy” — and it opens with remarks about last fall’s election, the election of “The Black Man” and jokes about black men and white women.  All left out of the AP excerpts and nearly everywhere else.  Here is the full diary.  UDPATE:  The diary has now been taken off the Web.

Google cache is here.

AP Omits Killer’s Obama References [E&P]

Oh, Dick Morris.

It was wrong to do it. This trip gives North Korea the ability to act like the good guy in world public opinion by releasing people they shouldn’t have seized in the first place. Considering their record, bomb explosions, and missile tests, we should not be in the business of letting North Korea score propaganda victories.

One: the two people released were journalists.  Don’t you think that they would have some decent reporting to do about the justice system of North Korea, and areas of improvement with regard to, um, justice?

Two: Bubba got a free-roll on intel regarding the health (physical, mental, otherwise) of Kim Jong-il.  That might be somewhat useful to Barry et al.

Three: See that picture up there?  That’s the photo going to 99.9% of the world right now.  Pictures speak louder than words.  In particular, yours.

So: a propaganda victory?  Dude.

We wish we could get excited about the Gallup map making the rounds this week — the product of 160,236 phoners over the first half of 2009.

The bright colors represent states where one party enjoys at least a 10 percent advantage in voter self-identification. Contrary to conventional wisdom, only the Mountain West remains solidly wingnut — even the South is in play.

So why aren’t we celebrating? The Democrats have the most promising opportunity in our adult life, and they still can’t get shit done. Why not? No, it’s not the GOP pushback, or the lobbying money, or even Fox News.

The answer instead is very simple, and very depressing: They’re fucking cowards.

Political Party Affiliation: 30 States Blue, 4 Red in ’09 So Far [Gallup]

CNN has confirmed that Laura Ling and Euna Lee are, in fact, out of North Korea and on the plane with Bill Clinton.

All snark about Bubba succeeding (and perhaps showing up Bill Richardson in the process) aside: allow me to say the only thing that matters.

They’re coming home.  Thank God.

And you don’t need a pilot’s license!

I can only begin to imagine the injuries and property damage that thing will cause. I smell a Darwin Award.

Who, exactly, thought this was a good idea?

Will we ever finish cleaning up the Boy King’s messes?

A former Blackwater employee and an ex-US Marine who has worked as a security operative for the company have made a series of explosive allegations in sworn statements filed on August 3 in federal court in Virginia. The two men claim that the company’s owner, Erik Prince, may have murdered or facilitated the murder of individuals who were cooperating with federal authorities investigating the company. The former employee also alleges that Prince “views himself as a Christian crusader tasked with eliminating Muslims and the Islamic faith from the globe,” and that Prince’s companies “encouraged and rewarded the destruction of Iraqi life.”

Just another Sociopath for Jesus.  Nothing to see here.

Blackwater Founder Implicated in Murder [The Nation]