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Love and Rockets: New Stories, Vol 1

Posted by jenniferfitzgerald from Feeds.feedburner

National treasures Jaime and Gilbert Hernandez have relaunched Love and Rockets with a new format and a new approach. I can hardly wait.

Love and Rockets: New Stories #1 reboots the beloved ongoing "Love and Rockets" comic into a fat, all-new annual graphic novel length package.

Jaime launches the new format with a story that's unusual even for him... A full-on, pulse-pounding super-hero yarn! Maggie's longtime friend Penny Century has finally realized her longtime dream of acquiring super-powers, but at a terrible personal cost. Now she rampages through the galaxy, half mad with grief, and a motley group of super-heroes assembles to try to stop her -- led by Maggie's girlfriend Angel and her mysterious neighbor Alarma, and involving a number of characters longtime Love and Rockets fans will delight in recognizing.

The epic-length 50-page story (only the first half of the saga!) combines Jaime's razor sharp characterization and superlative art with wildly inventive, Kirby-style slam-bang super-hero action.

Then Gilbert Hernandez explodes with a similarly generous helping of his fantastically creative one-shot short stories: "Tamanny" (rookie cop vs. demonic drug users); "Papa" (a turn-of-the-century story involving a traveling businessman); "The New Adventures of Duke and Sammy" (super-powered Martin and Lewis impostors in outer space); "The Tender Room" (Into the Wild as re-imagined by Beto); "Chiro el Indio" (written by third brother Mario Hernandez); and "Never Say Never" (a kangaroo gets lucky in Las Vegas).

One hundred pages of Jaime, Gilbert and Mario Hernandez at the peak of their powers: this is a major graphic-novel event!

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Chet Edwards: Obama's Vice President?

Posted by Jeff from Huffington Post

AUG 22 -- Officials Say Edwards Is A Finalist: The rarely-mentioned Edwards is on Obama's short list, Democratic officials say.

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama prepared to name his running mate, perhaps as early as Friday, from a small field that included at least one dark-horse finalist.

Democratic officials said little-known Texas Rep. Chet Edwards was one of the few Democrats whose background was checked by Obama's campaign and he was a finalist for the job. [...]

Edwards is a favorite of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who praised his "extraordinary credentials" on ABC's "This Week" on Aug. 3 and said: "I hope he will be the nominee."

One Democratic official with knowledge of the conversation said Obama told Pelosi recently that she would be pleased with the choice. Other Democratic officials said he was on the short list. All spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss Obama's selection process.

Edwards, chairman of the Military Construction and Veterans Affairs Appropriations Subcommittee, is a nine-term moderate Democrat representing the GOP-leaning Texas district. He is well-known in Texas but does not have a national profile.

The Case For Edwards: By Matt Glazer of the progressive Texas blog Burnt Orange Report:

He is a nationally recognized veterans champion in Congress, with strong military support in deep connections in the U.S. Army and at the Pentagon. Just this year, he's been honored by the Veterans of Foreign Wars and the American Legion. And as chair of the House Military Construction and Veterans Affairs Appropriations Subcommittee, he just authorized the largest increase in veterans' funding in the history of the VA.

Edwards is fresh face who won't overshadow Obama. He's a southern, moderate, white male in his late 50s who brings geographic and demographic balance to the ticket. He has humble blue collar roots, and has been known to speak Spanish from time to time.

Chet Edwards is a pretty darn good campaigner, with a record of winning in Republican turf. But in spite of (or perhaps because of) his broad appeal to Democrats as well as Republicans and Independents, he is well respected on Capitol Hill - with a wide range of support among liberals and conservatives. (An example: Congressman John Lewis, a liberal African American from Atlanta who fought beside Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr, has been known to campaign with Edwards in Central Texas).

The Case Against Edwards: By Dylan Matthews at the American Prospect:

While the appeal of picking a Texas Democrat, especially one who has beaten back adversaries like DeLay in past elections, is understandable, Edwards would be a poor choice. Not only did he vote for the Iraq war authorization in 2002, a vote which could undermine the Obama campaign's emphasis on foreign policy judgment, he has an, at best, mixed record when it comes to votes on withdrawal.

While he voted for the House leadership's Responsible Redeployment from Iraq Act in 2007, he also voted for a Republican resolution in 2006 rejecting an "arbitrary date for withdrawal or redeployment", and for a 2007 emergency appropriations bill for the war without a timetable for withdrawal (he even voted against an amendment adding such a timetable). The latter two votes, along with his votes in 2007 and this past week for telecom immunity have led to his inclusion on Matt Stoller and Chris Bowers' list of "Bush Dog Democrats".

His conservative record doesn't stop with national security issues; he voted to make permanent the repeal of the estate tax, in favor of the Bankruptcy Reform bill, for drilling in ANWR, and against the 2007 House renewable energy bill. Perhaps most egregiously, he was one of thirty-six House Democrats to vote in favor of the the Federal Marriage Amendment in 2004. Is it really too much to expect the Democratic vice presidential nominee to be, at least, not to the right of John McCain on LGBT equality?

AUG 3 -- Pelosi Suggests Chet Edwards: The Speaker says she hopes Edwards will be the VP nominee.

In an interview Sunday, Pelosi said, "I didn't want to see a discussion of candidates for vice president without showing the House of Representatives... I just wanted people to be aware of the extraordinary credentials of Chet Edwards. And I hope he will be the nominee."

Pelosi told ABC's "This Week" that "for years, our colleagues have said to him, why don't you run for president? He is an extraordinarily talented person. He is a champion for veterans in the Congress. Under his leadership, we have passed, including just on Friday, the biggest increase in funding for veterans' health benefits and other benefits in the history of our country. "

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Joe Biden Is Totally Going To Be Veep Nominee

Posted by Jeff from Wonkette

Let’s review the list of people who will not be Barack Obama’s running mate: Hillary Clinton, because she would poison him; Jack Reed, because he isn’t interested; Tim Kaine, because of the eyebrows; and Joan Allen, because of her rumored college sex orgy. Now there is only one human left on the planet who meets Barack Obama’s stringent requirements of gravitas, foreign policy chops, and hair plugs…

It’s Joe Biden!

Biden has been in office for 400 zillion years serving the pirate state of Delaware. He ran fairly convincingly for president once before he was felled by a plagiarism scandal that people would probably just yawn at today and be like, “Get back to us when you have a half dozen illegitimate children, a couple felony convictions, and an underage boyfriend in Cuba.” Yes, his hairline has grown suspiciously more lush with age, and yes, he does have a tendency to run on sometimes, but he also has a decent sense of humor and seems like an OK dude.

We mention this because when Barack Obama sends you a sexy text message this week saying, “I LOLZ JOE BIDEN,” you will not be so shocked.

Obama VP buzz squarely on Biden [Political Ticker]

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Syria and Lebanon establish first full diplomatic relations

Posted by Jeff from International Herald Tribune

The agreement was made during an official visit to Syria by President Michel Suleiman, the first by a Lebanese head of state since Syria withdrew its troops from Lebanon in 2005 under international pressure.

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Suskind posts transcript of interview implicating White House in forged letter.

Posted by Jeff from Think Progress

One of the sources for Ron Suskind’s explosive revelation that the White House forged a letter on Iraq-9/11 ties, former CIA official Rob Richer, recently retracted his statements. Suskind has posted the transcript of his interview with Richer, where Richer states that the CIA was asked by the White House via George Tenet to write the letter:

Rob: To characterize it right, I would say, right: it came to us, George had a raised eyebrow, and basically we passed it on–it was to–and passed this on into the organization. You know, it was: ‘Okay, we gotta do this, but make it go away.’ … It was: ‘This is unbelievable. This is just like all the other garbage we get about … I mean Mohammad Atta and links to al Qaeda. ‘Rob,’ you know, ‘do something with this.’ I think it was more like that than: ‘Get this done.’ […]

Rob: What I remember is George saying, ‘we got this from’–basically, from what George said was ‘downtown.’

Ron: Which is the White House?

Rob: Yes.

“In the next couple days the transcripts will be coming out,” Suskind said yesterday. “[T]he issues, in this matter, are simply too important to stand as discredited in any way,” he added.

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Bob Schaffer's Son May Face Discipline At School For Racist Facebook Page

Posted by Jeff from Feedproxy.google

Looks like its not only Colorado Senate Candidate Bob Schaffer (R) whose troubled by his son's Facebook page.

From the Dayton Daily News:

University of Dayton officials said Tuesday, Aug. 5, they are considering charging student Justin Schaffer for a violation of the Standards of Behavior for posting offensive information on his Facebook page.

The 19-year-old son of Republican Senate candidate Bob Schaffer of Colorado on Monday apologized for an entry that had the words "High Five ... Who's Gay" over a photo of a waving Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill. It also had a picture of the Pyramids with the words "Slavery Gets (expletive) Done."

UD said the Code of Conduct standard calls for students to respect all members of the community and the community at large.

Sister Annette Schmeling, vice president of student development and dean of students, said she will have an initial conversation with Schaffer about the postings and "explore the ways his Facebook page is not showing respect."

"We are addressing it and we expect to begin the adjudication process before classes start on August 20," Schmeling said in a written statement.

Over at the main TPM blog, Josh has a pretty thorough summary of the implications a "Slavery Gets **** Done" image has on a candidate who has previously been tied to sweat shop labor in the Mariana Islands.

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Bus blasts kill 2 in southwestern China

Posted by Jeff from International Herald Tribune

The explosions, which authorities described as deliberate attacks, come as China has experienced a spate of riots and public protests in recent weeks ahead of the Beijing Olympics.

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