Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Page 1 Consider (09/26)

  • Dum-Fuk: When our illustrious and verbally gaffe-prone president addressed the U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday, the White House inadvertently showed us exactly how they try to get George Bush to be able to pronounce the "hard words" -- with a phonetic pronunciation guide on the teleprompter to get him past troublesome names of countries and world leaders. The White House was left scrambling to explain after a marked-up draft of Bush's speech popped up briefly on the U.N. Web site as he delivered his remarks, giving a rare glimpse of the special guidance he gets for major addresses. It included phonetic spellings for French President Nicolas Sarkozy (sar-KO-zee), a friend, and Zimbabwe leader Robert Mugabe (moo-GAH-bee), a target of U.S. human rights criticism. Pronunciations were also provided for Kyrgyzstan (KEYR-geez-stan), Mauritania (moor-EH-tain-ee-a) and the Zimbabwe capital Harare (hah-RAR-ray). (Reuters)

  • Feeling Goofy: Holding hands with your gay lover, threatening someone with a gun? Is there a difference? And they call this the Happiest Place on Earth ...(Advocate)

  • Nothing Friendly About This Fire: That whole covering up the murder of at least 11 of Iraqi civilians by American mercenaries, Blackwater USA? The State Department says it's just a big "misunderstanding. (NYT)

  • Did He Order a Loofah? After eating dinner at a famed Harlem restaurant recently, Fox News Channel's Bill O'Reilly told a radio audience he "couldn't get over the fact" that there was no difference between the black-run Sylvia's and other restaurants. "It was like going into an Italian restaurant in an all-white suburb in the sense of people were sitting there, and they were ordering and having fun," he said. "And there wasn't any kind of craziness at all." Bill O'Reilly is the No. 1 cable television personality in America. Put 2 and 2 together. It's really sad, and scary. (AP)

  • The Withdrawal Method: Larry Craig's lawyers are going to have their hands full today in court trying to withdraw the frisky senator's guilty plea. (AP)

  • Mary Richards Thanks You: A bill that for the first time would give journalists limited protection from efforts to force them to reveal their sources in the federal courts will be taken up by the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday, and its sponsors said its prospects are good. (NYT)

  • Hill Billies: So you send a former Tennessee football player to Congress and this is the best he can come up with -- legislation to censor what films are shown on airplanes. (NYT)

  • Latter-day Creep: Warren Jeffs, the leader of a polygamous Mormon splinter group, was convicted Tuesday of being an accomplice to rape for forcing a 14-year-old girl to marry her 19-year-old cousin -- whom she "didn't even like." (Time)
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