] Schwarzenegger, who has acknowledged "behaving badly
] sometimes'' toward women, has denied groping or defaming
] Richardson. The two aides have also denied liability. But
] the libel suit, filed in London, has withstood all
] attempts at dismissal, shielded by a plaintiff-friendly
] British libel law under which Schwarzenegger himself once
] filed suit.
]
]
] Unless the governor wins a late judicial reprieve or
] reaches an out-of-court settlement, he may find himself
] spending part of the 2006 election year -- his
] re-election year should he choose to seek another term --
] in a witness box, answering questions under oath before
] 12 British jurors and a bewigged judge.

London groping case dogs governor / British libel law seen as benefit to TV host's suit

] DeLay's congressional office turned to someone they
] trusted far more than any travel agent or concierge:
] lobbyist Jack Abramoff. "He ran all the trips," recalls a
] former top DeLay aide. "You ask where the itineraries
] came from, who made all the travel arrangements%u2014it
] all came out of Jack's shop."
]
]
] Previous trips had taken DeLay and members of his staff
] all over the world, but none had been planned quite as
] meticulously as this one.
]
]
] Three sources who worked with Abramoff at the time say
] the majority whip's office ran one of Abramoff's
] assistants ragged with its constantly changing requests.
] Indeed, say two of those sources, the whole idea for the
] expensive London jaunt originated with DeLay aides as an
] additional stop on a golf outing that Abramoff had
] proposed to Scotland's famous St. Andrews course.
]
]
] Abramoff delivered on virtually everything DeLay's staff
] requested.

TIME.com: When Tom Met Jack -- Apr. 25, 2005

] Some detected animus toward Edwards in Ifill's
] interrogations but for me the overwhelming impression,
] which I've gathered over the years from watching her on
] PBS's Wash Week in Review, is that this is a person with
] a case of the cutes. There's a preening coyness to her,
] as if she's smiling at herself rather than at the camera
] and expecting a cookie.

[ I kinda felt that way too. Some seriously silly moments she cooked up. I'm glad Edwards brought it up when he said "I can use his name again now?" That's was pure silliness. -k]

I was unimpressed by her. I did think she was more even handed than Jim Lehrer was during the first debate -- I thought he hit Bush with harder questions than Kerry. But Lehrer's questions were harder hitting and more interesting.

I'm not expecting much from tonight's moderator: Good Morning America's Charlie Gibson. He's about as light weight as you can get, and both he and Diane Sawyer were fairly open about their support for Bush's Iraq policy (for those who don't know, Diane Sawyer was a Nixon speechwriter).

That said, I'm less concerned about his bias than his unlikeliness to ask tough questions. This is the guy who said he thought the Vice Presidential debate was way too nasty.

Gwen Awful

] Some stops on the five-state Whiskey Trail, places where
] George Washington made or drank whiskey:

ABCNEWS.com : Whiskey Trail Stops

] Here are some foolproof ways to tell if your wife is
] making dirty movies behind your back:
]
] -- Every couple of weeks she has to fly to California to
] care for a "sick aunt."
]
] -- When in bed, she just lies there until you yell
] "Action!"
]
] -- Just as you're about to make love, she asks, "What's
] my motivation?"
]
] -- She keeps getting mail addressed to "Patty O'Plenty."
]
] -- Whenever you go out, drooling men ask her for her
] autograph.
]
] -- She looks suspiciously like the Hustler pin-up in your
] neighbor's garage.
]
] -- She knows sexual positions that would put a circus
] contortionist in the hospital.
]
] -- She wears a micro miniskirt and six-inch spike heels
] to go grocery shopping.
]
] -- On your joint tax return she lists her occupation as
] "passion princess."

YOUR WIFE COULD BE PORN STAR!

"The principal goal of terrorism -- to seize power in Muslim countries through mobilization of populations galvanized by jihad's sheer audacity -- has not been realized," Kepel writes. In fact, bin Laden's followers are losing ground: The Taliban regime in Afghanistan has been toppled; the fence-sitting semi-Islamist regime in Saudi Arabia has taken sides more strongly with the West; Islamists in Sudan and Libya are in retreat; and the plight of the Palestinians has never been more dire. And Baghdad, the traditional seat of the Muslim caliphs, is under foreign occupation. Not what you would call a successful jihad.

Are the Terrorists Failing? (washingtonpost.com)

A mental-health counselor (Ryan C. Moore) was charged with aggravated battery Friday after witnesses said he unleashed two pit bulls on a crowd of hurricane refugees in a Stuart office building just as Frances' eye wall was passing Sept. 4.

One dog was muzzled and left in Moore's back seat alongside U.S. 1 after Moore, who authorities said smelled strongly of alcohol, was arrested on a curfew violation.

Moore specializes in treating patients with addictions and sexual and anger-management problems.

Moore, who has previous arrests on charges of domestic violence, sexual assault and aggravated assault with a weapon, was charged with two counts of aggravated battery Friday and released from the Martin County jail after posting $100,000 bail.

Drunk Anger Management Therapist Unleashes Pit Bulls on Refugees

] Graduates from St Blasien Jesuit College, near Freiburg,
] were complaining about the new wrappers for Haribo's
] Maoam sweets.
]
] In a letter to the firm, they wrote: "We are shocked at
] the shameless presentation of sexual practices on the
] wrapping, which includes not only sexual intercourse but
] also fellatio and cunnilingus."

[ Well, they are pretty suggestive, but it's probably the kind of thing that you only notice if you aleady comprehend sex, so i'm not sure if it's really harmful. Pretty funny if you ask me. -k]

Ananova - Fruity sweet wrappers spark complaint

] PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - A Pennsylvania law allowing the
] state to force Internet service providers to block access
] to child pornography sites is unconstitutional, a federal
] judge ruled on Friday.
]
] Judge Jan Dubois, of the U.S. court for the Eastern
] District of Pennsylvania, found that the law was
] unconstitutional because technology used to block the
] sites would also prevent users from accessing sites that
] had nothing to do with child pornography.
]
] "With the current state of technology, the act cannot be
] implemented without excessive blocking of innocent speech
] in violation of the First Amendment," the judge wrote.
. . .
] Federal courts including the U.S. Supreme Court have
] several times rejected efforts to curb online
] pornography, as violations of constitutional free-speech
] protections.

I am encouraged to see that as the lawsuits involving the internet are moving through the U.S. legal system, that we're seeing more and more courts and judges who "get it" when it comes to the internet. Not so many years ago, much of mainstream society was completely baffled by cyber-culture. But they're catching up and better understanding how things work.

Not that I'm glad that ISPs are allowed to link to child porn -- I just think that the better solution is that once such porn sites have been identified, that legal action should be taken directly against those sites, and not at the ISPs that provide access!

U.S. Judge Rejects Law to Block Child Porn on the Web

] This section will be updated as often as possible with
] several new lists at a time.

Continually updated, with tons of interesting articles and well, lists.

Timothy McSweeney's Internet Tendency: Lists