News Roundup- March 20

Liberal Muslim Cleric Bashed: Interesting, and sad. Still, at least it shows such a thing does indeed exist, contrary to what some might have people think.

Also, am I the only one who finds this ironic? Perhaps even a form of karma (obviously for Gush Katif, though, right?)

Other news:

- A 95-year-old member of the Nazi-allied security police in Lithuania has gone on trial there for war crimes. This is only the THIRD such trial in any of the Baltic states since the Soviet Union collapsed (though whether that's due to the age of the defendants, the extended period between when the acts occured and now, and basic anti-Semitism and/or indifference is debateable. I say it's a combination of all of the above).

- The Simpsons has been commissioned for another two seasons. Is this good news, dear readers? Well it is if, among other things, you like feeling superior to your fellow Americans, or just towards Americans in general. (I got four out of five, btw.)

- Also, two interesting developments in the ongoing War on Terror morrass. One, the family of the football star that the right-wing all adored when he became a martyr for their cause (and provided another example of "liberal bombthrowing" they could beat people over the head with) has decided that they aren't satisfied with his various posthumous promotions, medals, or memorial bridges. You see, Pat Tillman was killed by friendly fire, and his family's understandably a bit perturbed. What's the Army's response? Zip, apparently.

Mr. Tillman, 51, is a grieving father who has refused to give up on his son. While fiercely shunning the public spotlight that has followed Cpl. Pat Tillman's death, Mr. Tillman has spent untold hours considering the Army's measurements, like the 70 yards.

He has drafted long, sometimes raw, letters to military leaders, demanding answers about the shooting. And he has studied — and challenged — Army PowerPoint presentations meant to explain how his son, who had called out his own name and waved his arms, wound up dead anyway, shot three times in the head by his own unit, which said it had mistaken him for the enemy.

"All I asked for is what happened to my son, and it has been lie after lie after lie," said Mr. Tillman, explaining that he believed the matter should remain "between me and the military" but that he had grown too troubled to keep silent.

Lies? From this administration? No way!
The debacle continues:

No one wants answers more than the Tillmans. But by now, they said, they have lost patience and faith that any Army entity, even the Criminal Investigation Command, can be trusted to find the truth.

..."There is so much nonstandard conduct, both before and after Pat was killed, that you have to start to wonder," Mr. Tillman said. "How much effort would you put into hiding an accident? Why do you need to hide an accident?"

An examination by The New York Times of more than 2,000 pages of documents from three previous Army administrative reviews reveals shifting testimony, the destruction of obvious evidence in the case and a series of contradictions about the distances, the lighting conditions and other details surrounding the shooting.

Hey, maybe all those Republican theories about "trickle-down" immorality actually do have some basis in fact. Sorry, conservatives. I know it's easier to memorialize dead soldiers than actually do anything about investigating their deaths.

Second, in another sad & ironic twist- Bush has finally succeeded in bringing some investment to Iraq. Well done, Dubs. Maybe next we can divert some of the valuable resources we're spending on researching alternate fuel (snicker) to invent a non-explosive car. We can call it the "Sand Turtle".

Or something.