Karen Butler maintains that after being heavily sedated she awoke speaking with a thick British accent. Can it be true?

He showed a clip from a local news station that equated the portrayal of homosexuality on 'Glee' to product placement. "You throw a soda in a movie and within a few seconds everybody in the theater is thirsty for that particular brand," the woman in the clip said.

London is unprepared for a terrorist attack on the 2012 Olympics because of a chronic shortage of air ambulance crews and other fast response teams, Lady Justice Hallett warned in her report into the July 7, 2005 terrorist attacks.

Joystick Division looks at gamers' reactions to the PSN hack and outage.

Here’s a headline you don’t see too often: “Rubber Chicken Turned NASA Mission Mascot Embarks on a Flight to Space.” Seriously, this is a true story.

New data from comScore for this past March has pointed to Apple nearly passing RIM in smartphone market share for the US. Shipping 18.65 million iPhones helped Apple gain half a point since December to hit 25.5 percent share in its home country.

Trash talking and sports go together like apples and pie. They are synonymous like chicken and dumplings. They mix beautifully like peanut butter and jelly!

The Long Island Serial Killer may one day take his place alongside the Gacys and the Bundys. Or he may be all but forgotten like these poor lunatics.

Looks like Skype is in play, again. Unlike last time, both the suitors have good business reasons. Between Google and Facebook, the social networking giant makes perfect sense. We actually suggested this deal six months ago. Question is: why does Skype want to sell?

How bad does Project Gunrunner get?

Even lowbrow drama may have a more human voice than highbrow reality TV.

Pretending to be a bulwark against extremists, President Assad uses the Islamists to screen his oppression of secular democratic elements in Syria. (Also read "You Want to Appease Syria? Not to Worry, Hillary’s Out in Front" at the Tatler.)

TOKYO (Reuters) – Sony said on Saturday it had removed off the Internet the personal details of 2,500 people that had been stolen by hackers and posted on a website.

The data included names and some addresses, which were in a database created in 2001, a Sony spokeswoman said.

Read More...

WAR DOGS:  Don’t Bring a Cat to Kill a Terrorist.

CHANGE: “The good news is that the economy added about 268,000 new jobs. The bad news is that 25 percent (62,000) were from McDonald’s. Were Obamacare Waivers Responsible for 25 percent of Private Sector Job Growth?”

AT LEAST THEY ACKNOWLEDGE HE’S DEAD. Here is a photo gallery showing thousands of reactionary Islamists taking to the streets in Egypt and Pakistan to protest the death of Osama bin Laden.

Laura Nyro: Bookmark It

Slate Everyone has been making such a big deal about how dogs played an important role in the wars in the Middle East, but what of the cat? Slate has the full story! Rgds, Tengrain

One can only hope that public opinion based on reality will move the Floridians off the pot and into the voting booth.

Brave New Foundation's latest video project, Koch Brothers Exposed, launched a video yesterday that features activists knocking on the doors (or talking through the intercoms at the gates) of five mulitimillion-dollar homes belonging to either Charles or David Koch, the principal …

What do you think? Joy Behar openly spoke on the "View" that the use of Enhanced Techniques should not be used to get information from Terrorists. Ms.

Nonetheless, like my liberal friends, I’m against torture. Really! They’re against it 100 percent of the time. I’m against it 99 percent of the time. I’m against it to punish jay-walkers and litterbugs and car thieves.

The American People, especially women, better take notice what the Republican - Tea Party is slowly trying to do. They are slowly stripping women of rights when, it comes to their health, and their own bodies.

Much was written last week about how much thanks George W. Bush deserves in tracking down Osama bin Laden. The answer is: a great deal. Information extracted from al-Qaida operatives under Bush's interrogation policies ultimately led us to the compound in Abbottabad.

Free Press: Is the U.S. really still the leader of the Free World? A string of attacks on the press by the White House press office is starting to add up to more than hostility to individual outlets.

Chris Wallace, Juan Williams, and Bret Baier—who asked questions of a bunch of also-rans without even pretending to listen to their answers.

In the wake of the killing of Osama bin Laden, the goal post shifting and Monday morning scrutiny of the President reached a level leagues beyond even the Nixon tapes, the Zapruder film, or Monica's blue dress.

That is what one writer suggests is happening in Missouri. I’m sure there is a more complex political story here but it does seem odd that Democrats in the state legislature would vote to approve a plan that costs the Democrats a house seat.

There have been some great spoofs of Obama in the past and this impersonator, Alphacat has been responsible for a good chunk of them. This new video has to be one of his best yet – an alternative to the speech he gave announcing the death of Usama. Enjoy.

David Weigel at Slate reports last night’s GOP debate as Sweet Nothings: In the South Carolina debate, Republicans tell one another what they want to hear“: ... The very first question to the candidates was about Bin Laden’s death; the first yes-or-no question was whether they’d want to release the military’s photo of a bullet-riddled [...]

From the massacre of the Israeli Olympic team in Munich to the snatching of Elian Gonzalez, CNN looks at some of the more dramatic rescue attempts and covert actions that were successful, and those that ended in tragedy.

But with all due respect to EW's ferocious logic, I think there's a philosophical angle that she's missing. The powers-that-be on the right understand the theoretical implications of their political stances -- whether it's the various rhetorical dog whistles to awaken their base's tribal instincts, or their systematic, long-term assault on the societal safety net.

Dudley Moore and M.A.M.M.A. -- Mama Don't Allow (without The Electric Mayhem), from episode 407 of The Muppet Show.

Source: [b]CNN[/b]

(CNN) -- The father of a U.S. soldier captured in Afghanistan nearly two years ago made his first public appeal for his son's release Friday, empathizing with his captors but saying Spc. Bowe Bergdahl "is being exploited."

Robert Bergdahl, who lives in Hailey, Idaho, released ...

Source: [b]CNN[/b]

(CNN) -- A former Rutgers University student who allegedly watched a web video secretly taken of a male student's sexual encounter with another man has been admitted to a pretrial intervention program.

Molly Wei pleaded not guilty Friday to two counts of invasion of privacy, a...

Source: [b]Associated Press[/b]

NEW YORK — More than a decade of delays in bringing the man accused of being Osama bin Laden’s representative in Britain to the United States for trial appears to be nearing an end, according to a lawyer seeking to represent him against charges in the deadly 1998 bom...

Source: [b]The New York Times[/b]

An immigration judge in Newark on Friday suspended the deportation of a Venezuelan man who is married to an American man, responding to an unusual signal this week from the Obama administration that it is exploring legal avenues for recognizing same-sex marriages i...

Source: [b]Associated Press[/b]

CLEVELAND — U.S. prosecutors asked a judge Friday to reject a federal public defender’s request to represent a retired Ohio autoworker who is on trial in Germany for alleged Nazi war crimes.

John Demjanjuk, 90, already has a U.S. attorney willing to work for free,...

Source: [b]Associated Press[/b]

WASHINGTON — The White House is welcoming the European Union’s decision to sanction Syrian officials for cracking down on anti-government protesters.

An EU official said the organization next week will freeze the assets of 13 Syrian government officials and ban th...

Source: [b]msnbc.msn.com[/b]

The U.S. economy added a stronger-than-expected 244,000 jobs in April, the Labor Department said Friday, as employers continued the solid pace of job creation seen in the prior two months.

The number of jobs created last month was well above the 185,000 new jobs that...

Source: [b]The Independent[/b]

Max Mosley, the motor-racing millionaire awarded £60,000 in damages over News of the World claims that he took part in a Nazi orgy, is bankrolling phone-hacking victims' fight against the tabloid.

He has agreed to underwrite the legal costs of an unknown number of ...

Source: [b]BBC News[/b]

Singapore is going to the polls today in the most hotly contested general election in recent memory.

Politics in the tiny but hugely wealthy state have been dominated by the current ruling party since independence in 1965.

But a decision by opposition parties to co-ord...

Source: [b]Aviation Week[/b]

Air Force officials are proposing in their fiscal 2012 budget plan to fund a launch of a NASA satellite to provide competition for potential new entrants to the rocket market.

The service is requesting $135 million in the fiscal 2012 budget, sent to Congress in Febru...

Sailor take warning.

Signed,
Not Atrios

Thor.

Put it down to my tender Jewish heart, but I’m glad to hear that Mel Gibson’s stricken career, like the man said in Holy Grail, isn’t quite dead, and may even pull through. The Beaver, Gibson’s new film, in which he stars opposite Jodie Foster, opened today to mixed, but mainly positive, reviews. Many [...]

Friday night boogie woogie!

No, we don't get any George Soros money. No, we don't sell your name to other organizations.

Yes, we appreciate every dollar you send us. Thanks for your support!

Yep, we messed up. That's the word out of the Cambridge-based consulting firm Monitor Group. Between 2006 and 2008, the company maintained a highly questionable business relationship with the regime of Muammar Qaddafi, the Libyan dictator. Monitor helped Muammar Qaddafi's son Saif write his PhD dissertation at the London School of Economics. It also hired some of the US and UK's foremost international relations experts to write glowing editorials and essays about the Qaddafi regime's efforts to clean up its act and enact democratic reforms. And the firm never revealed that it was all was part of a coordinated—and well-funded—effort to end Libya's status as a pariah state.

Not long after Mother Jones reported on Monitor's Libya project, questions arose about whether the firm had taken the proper steps to register as a lobbyist for Libya with the Justice Department. Offering advice on economic or governing reform without registering isn't illegal. But the Foreign Agent Registration Act (FARA) stipulates that groups like Monitor must register if they're planning on conducting "acts in a public relations capacity for a foreign principal"—which, as we reported, is primarily what Monitor's Libya project was all about. As we wrote back in March, Monitor decided to conduct an internal investigation into whether it had violated FARA, initially led by Eamonn Kelly, a senior partner at the firm. Later, the company brought in outside lawyers from the firm of Covington & Burling to finish the job.

The lawyers' conclusion: yes, Monitor most certainly did break FARA law. Today, the company announced that it is retroactively registering some of its past work in Libya, as well as its more recent work with Jordan. And on Tuesday, Monitor CEO Mark Fuller, who played a key role in the Libya project, resigned. Monitor also issued a press release on the findings of its internal investigation:

These decisions reflect a thorough fact-finding and legal investigation initiated by Monitor after issues concerning its work in Libya were raised earlier this year. The investigation, conducted by the law firm of Covington & Burling, included a review of Monitor engagements with foreign governments. That review concluded that some elements of Monitor’s work in Libya from 2006 through 2008 should have been registered under FARA. It also became apparent that a more recent item of work on behalf of the Kingdom of Jordan should have been registered. Monitor will now take all appropriate measures to remediate these errors.

The Boston Globe reports that Monitor is also likely to release details on how much it paid its academics, including British academic Sir Anthony Giddens. How did Monitor mess this up so bad? From the Globe:

[Eamonn] Kelly said the failure to register was due to a misunderstanding about legal requirements. But others said it reflects a deeper problem: The company was not transparent about the fact that it was engaged in a calculated effort to burnish Khadafy’s reputation, even to professors recruited in the effort.

"If I had known that a primary purpose of the visit to Libya was to influence public opinion in the United States, I would not have gone," Robert Putnam, a professor at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, said in a telephone interview yesterday. Other professors said they did not feel misled.

Whether the DOJ actually brings charges against Fuller, et. al, remains to be seen. But given the intellectual firepower and general worldliness of the people involved in its project, Monitor's excuse—"We didn't know, sorry"—is less than satisfying. Hopefully, the DOJ feels the same way.