When Bush was selected for president, there were those of us who bet

That we would be at war with Iraq within his first term. So this is no surprise:

A new book by the author Ron Suskind claims that the White House ordered the CIA to forge a back-dated, handwritten letter from the head of Iraqi intelligence to Saddam Hussein.

Suskind writes in “The Way of the World,” to be published Tuesday, that the alleged forgery – adamantly denied by the White House – was designed to portray a false link between Hussein’s regime and al Qaeda as a justification for the Iraq war.

The author also claims that the Bush administration had information from a top Iraqi intelligence official “that there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq – intelligence they received in plenty of time to stop an invasion.”

I deny everything!

Someone googled "stun gun sex domination" and got my blog...

Maybe I should post something in honor of this:



WITH a stun gun!



I hope I have made someone somewhere very happy....

No, you first. Really!

McCain likely to let Obama choose VP first: John McCain's extended circle is divided on whether he should announce his running mate in the days ahead — but the Republican is more likely to wait for Barack Obama to announce his choice first, according to advisers.

I wonder why....(/snark)

What a way to start the morning...

Celebrity John McCain slaps Obama around for daring to be presumptuous (in other words: uppity).... and pairs him up with the most vacuous of blond bimbos. It just made Obama look vital and healthy and young. I wonder how pairing up McCain with young vital ... uh ... bikini clad cuties would make him look?

Oh never mind. Ignore that. Here's the weekly list.

Blog sprinkles

Hoots at Hootsbuddy's Place has complied an excellent list of sites about Obama's background as a professor.

David at Twenty One Times Two discusses (after the major rumpus caused by Google's spambot shutting out people from their blogs) how to back up your blog's content.

Mustang Bobby at Bark Bark Woof Woof notes the Republican huffiness on being called over playing the racism card:

Mr. Tapper would seem to prefer that Sen. Obama, like all Democratic Party nominees before him, not respond to the attacks from the McCain campaign. But Mr. Obama insists on standing up to them. It's like he doesn't know his place.

Oh, and if Mr. Obama and his campaign is too politically savvy to come out and say outright that the McCain campaign and his minions are doing the racist/xenophobic dog-whistles, a lot of other people are.

Steve Benen of The Carpetbagger Report: Keeping track of the amazing flips and counterflips of flipflopping John McCain.

Blue Girl of Blue Girl, Red State talks about the ugliness exposed with the undocumented worker raids and the harsh treatment following.

Morse of Media Needle observes that Obama is too fat.

Tengrain of Mock, Paper, Scissors has a comparison picture for you to puzzle out.

And finally, from Think Progress, the best ever response by a judge:

Last Friday, police in Des Moines, Iowa arrested four people who attempted to make a citizens’ arrest of former top White House aide Karl Rove, who was in town to speak at a GOP fundraiser. A retired minister and three members of the Des Moines Catholic Workers community were cited for trespassing. However, according to a press release, the judge presiding over the case praised their efforts:

[Mona] Shaw was the first called before Polk County Fifth Judicial District Associate Judge William Price.

After entering her plea, the judge asked Shaw, “Mamn, what were you doing at the Wakonda Country Club?”

“I was attempting to make a citizen’s arrest of Karl Rove, your honor,” Shaw answered.

“Well,” the judge looked up and said, “it’s about time.”

Not to worry

Read Phila of Bouphonia's Friday Hope Blogging.

I am unimpressed.

Finally.

Someone asks the right question.

Thank you, Rachel Maddow

Google Blogger on a rampage

Your favorite blogs strangely silent? Several bloggers found last night they were shut out of their blogs with this at the blogger dashboard:

WARNING

This blog has been locked by Blogger's spam-prevention robots. You will not be able to publish your posts, but you will be able to save them as drafts.

Save your post as a draft or click here for more about what's going on and how to get your blog unlocked.

and an email:

Hello,

Your blog at: (your blog here)blogspot.com/ has been identified as a potential spam blog. To correct this, please request a review by filling out the form at http://www.blogger.com/unlock-blog. (etc.)

Your blog will be deleted within 20 days if it isn't reviewed, and you'll be unable to publish posts during this time. After we receive your request, we'll review your blog and unlock it within two business days. If this blog doesn't belong to you, you don't have to do anything, and any other blogs you may have won't be affected.

We find spam by using an automated classifier. Automatic spam detection is inherently fuzzy, and occasionally a blog like yours is flagged incorrectly. We sincerely apologize for this error. By using this kind of system, however, we can dedicate more storage, bandwidth, and engineering resources to bloggers like you instead of to spammers. For more information, please see Blogger Help: http://help.blogger.com/bin/answer.py?answer=42577

Thank you for your understanding and for your help with our spam-fighting efforts.

Sincerely,

The Blogger Team

P.S. Just one more reminder: Unless you request a review, you won't be able to use your blog. Click this link to request the review: http://www.blogger.com/unlock-blog.g?lockedBlogID etc....

I realize it is a free service, but anything like this that suddenly silences voices makes my hair stand on end and I reach for my tinfoil hat.

SteveAudio has been blocked as has Sinfonian of Blast Off who cleverly could fix his template to post this on the sidebar:

Thursday, July 31, 2008
10:00 pm EDT

Blogger has seen fit to lock this blog, thanks to spam-prevention robots, until a human can review it. I'll be back posting soon. Thanks for your patience.

Updating as I collect shutdown blogs:

Libby of The Impolitic

Fourlegs at Plush Life

Dr. Dawg at Dawg's Blawg

skippy of skippy the bush kangaroo

Guys from Area 51

Elayne of Pen-Elayne

Hoots at Hootsbuddy's Place

Blue Gal has more.

Update: Blogger apologizes:

Spam Fridays

August 1, 2008 — permalink

While we wish that every post on this blog could be about cool features or other Blogger news, sometimes we have to step in and admit a mistake.

We've noticed that a few users have had their blogs mistakenly marked as spam, and wanted to sound off real quick to let you know that, despite it being Friday afternoon, we are working hard to sort this out. So to those folks who have received an email saying that your blog has been classified as spam and can't post right now, we offer our sincere apologies for the trouble.

We hope to have this resolved shortly, and appreciate your patience as we work through the kinks.

Well... Thanks. And hurry up, would you? We have a lot of people going through withdrawal.