Palin, An Alternate Read

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Going Rouge! Looks like this has been out there for a few weeks but it's the first I saw it and certainly worthy of a willis post! Its full of contributions by writers like Jim Hightower, Juan Cole, Joe Conason, Chrstopher Hayes, etc. and can be purchased at the publishers ("Or Books") website. There is also an activity/coloring book out there by the same title. Either of these books I'll guess would be more entertaining and probably more honest than the book Palin quit her governor position to write for us.

Animation of US Airways Ditching

Additional related animations at the link. Presents a "real time" exchange of information with the visual of what's transpiring at the same time. Old news I know, but this enhanced version of the animation was just released......that and I think it's really cool!

A Fair Sunday

Live recoding of Bonnie Raitt doing "Too Long At The Fair". That's "Freebo" on bass behind her in the beginning of the song. Haunting melody that has stuck with me since I first heard it played by a solo guitarist at a coffee shop in Denver. Hard to find tunes in those days without Internet abilities. Bonnie did it in `72 on her "Give It Up" album which I believe is the only time it was recorded. I doubt anyone could have done it better.

Today is Bonnie Raitt's 60th birthday.

Death by "Numbers"

This is Khristian Oliver. He was executed last night in Texas at 32 years old. He committed a horrible crime when he was 20 when he shot and beat to death a man whose house he was burglarizing. The victim was shot 5 times and bludgeoned so badly he was unrecognizable. I'm not going to get into how I feel about the death penalty as we could be hear all night and you don't deserve that. The reason I bring up Mr Oliver is that his sentencing was determined by jurors who relied on bible passages to support their determination for execution. Specifically some sections of the Book of Numbers; "the murderer shall surely be put to death" and "the revenger of blood himself shall slay the murderer". Mr Oliver was a bad guy and maybe deserved what he got, I don't know. But I wonder if the jury happened to be all Muslim and used the Koran to arrive at their decision, how it would fly for Mr Oliver or anyone.

Doubt We've Seen the Last of Her

Carrie Prejean and the Miss California USA organizers have apparently settled their legal battle with each other. They were suing her for not showing up and she was suing them for religious discrimination so she can say "god" as much as she wants. The settlement is confidential of course however, the folks over at TMZ.com say she "folded like a cheap suit" during settlement negotiations when confronted with a solo sex tape. "We're told it took about 15 seconds for Carrie to reduce her demand for more than one million dollars to.....just validate my parking please."

So lets see..... fake boobs, hates gays, loves god and porn, zero contribution to society (except for maybe the porn, I'll have to see it first), and rivals "Joe the Plumber" for milking her notoriety for every thing it'll get her....yep, she's a republican. She'll be writing a book, running for office, or providing insightful analysis on Fox any day now.