From the Washington Post: Five weeks after Hurricane Katrina laid waste to New Orleans, some local, state and federal officials have come to believe that exaggerations of mayhem by officials and rumors repeated uncritically in the news media helped slow the response to the disaster and tarnish the image of many of its victims. Claims of widespread looting, gunfire directed at helicopters and rescuers, homicides, and rapes, including those of

1.  Thanks so much to Trevor Smith, for Michael Ritchie’s Survivors.  I love Walter Matthau, and I even like Robin Williams in this flick (probably because he was almost certainly abusing coke and not trying for an Oscar).  And thanks, too, to Todd Day, for Season 2 of “Reno 911.” I loved the first season, so I suspect I’ll like this one, as well. 2.  In other DVD news, I

This whole idea of personal autonomy—I don’t think most conservatives hold that point of view.  Some do.  They have this idea that people should be left alone to do whatever they want to do, that government should keep our taxes down, keep regulation low, that we shouldn’t get involved in the bedroom, that we shouldn’t get involved in cultural issues, people should be able to do whatever they want.  Well,

From the Austin American-Statesman: A Travis County grand jury last week refused to indict former U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay as prosecutors raced to salvage their felony case against the Sugar Land Republican. In a written statement Tuesday, Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle acknowledged that prosecutors presented their case to three grand juries — not just the two they had discussed — and one grand jury refused to

From The Washington Times: Iran’s new president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has placed the military firmly in control of his nation’s nuclear program, undercutting his government’s claim that the program is intended for civilian use, according to a leading opposition group. Leaders of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), the force created specifically to defend the 1979 Islamic revolution, now dominate Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, the country’s top foreign policy-making body

In a “shift” from his original position, Oklahoma University President David Boren, a former chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, is now refusing to describe the explosion as a suicide: Dustin Ellison said the student visited his store on Wednesday and asked to buy the fertilizing ingredient often used in bombs. Ellison said Hinrichs didn’t know how much he needed, and the store operator asked why the fertilizer

How many of you who self-identify as Republican or conservative support legislation like this?  Personally, I can’t, off the top of my head, find a single legal reason to do so (but then, I thought McCain-Feingold was on its face unconstitutional); and while I think restrictions on abortion are a matter for the legislature to take up (insofar as we’re in the peculiar position of having to balance the mother’s

The FOXNews teaser for tonight’s “O’Reilly Factor” suggests that Bill—in an effort, no doubt, to “look out for us”—is going to blow the lid off of the blogosphere, which he evidently believes is being used as a “weapon” by the “smear merchants” to muddy the political discourse and push partisan political agendas. …Unlike, say, “The O’Reilly Factor,” whose populist agenda—from boycotting France to pushing for mandatory sentencing in child predator

From Reaganites Unite: The Northeast Intelligence Network is reporting that the investigation of this weekend’s suicide blast in Norman Oklahoma is leaning heavily toward it being a failed suicide bombing aimed at a packed OU Football game at Oklahoma Memorial stadium and not simply the suicide initially claimed. Law enforcement sources close to the Northeast Intelligence Network have confirmed that search and seizure warrants were served today upon the residence

From UPI Officials of a poor, predominantly black Florida town plan to relocate about 6,000 residents to make room for a billion-dollar yachting and housing complex. The coastal community of Rivera Beach in Palm Beach County may use eminent domain, if necessary, to claim 400 acres of land for the project, The Washington Times reported Monday. “This is a community that’s in dire need of jobs, which has a median