Hot Potato Mash

Jalen Rose Will Only Vote For Presidential Candidates With Great Left Handed Jump Shots

Cleaning out my computer I came across the above video which I never got around to posting. In it, former NBA player and left-handed jump shooter Jalen Rose describes what he looks for in a presidential candidate. It was filmed a few months before the election.

VIDEO EXCLUSIVE: Shirley Phelps Roper Interview Outside Of The Academy Awards

In his acceptance speech last night Sean Penn mentioned the "signs of hatred" he passed on the way into the Academy Awards. He was referring specifically to Shirley Phelps Roper and the rest of her "God Hates Fags" brethren from the Westboro Baptist Church. Since I didn't have a ticket to get into the awards ceremony I spent a bit of time interviewing Shirley Phelps Roper. Note that many of my questions were culled from the comments section of a video I posted last year of Shirley Phelps Roper also from outside of the Academy Awards.

NOTE: There are some really entertaining parts if you can stand to make it through the entire video!

And last year's short video:

Tanner Kinda Apologizes For Racist Email

Former DoJ Voting Rights Chief John Tanner kinda apologizes to Professor Mary Frances Berry for his recently publicized racist email about her (from Talking Points Memo):

And University of Pennsylvania Professor Mary Frances Berry briefly responds:

Tanner has a history of ridiculous apologies as evidenced by the following exchange with Rep. Keith Ellison during Congressional hearings spurred by other racist comments he made which I caught on videotape:

Bush's RACIST Civil Rights Division at Justice Department

NEW VIDEO UPDATE AT BOTTOM OF POST

People have often asked me whether I felt even the slightest guilt for my role in John Tanner losing his job as the Voting Section Chief of the Civil Rights Division at the Department of Justice at the end of 2007. Briefly, I videotaped Tanner making racist and untrue comments about Photo ID laws which led to embarrassing Congressional hearings and his resignation. The Washington Post's Dana Milbank would later tell MSNBC's Dan Abrams that Tanner had to be "cut loose because of [that] one bad line" captured on videotape.

Well, today the DoJ released a report that contained a few nuggets about John Tanner. For example:

In that incident in August 2004, Voting Section Chief John Tanner sent an e-mail to Schlozman asking Schlozman to bring coffee for him to a meeting both were scheduled to attend. Schlozman replied asking Tanner how he liked his coffee. Tanner's response was, "Mary Frances Berry style-- black and bitter."

Berry is an African-American who was the Chairperson of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights from November 1993 until late 2004.

Only in the perverse Bush administration could you have a bunch of racists in charge of civil rights at the DoJ. For much more on the racism at DoJ and the Justice report in general, see Brad's latest post or watch the Olbermann video above. The Tanner racism stuff begins at the 4:00 mark.

BTW, I have never felt even remotely guilty about Tanner's forced resignation.

UPDATE: A great video about Tanner from TPM...

BEST VIDEO BLOG NOMINATION FOR HOT POTATO MASH

In a BIG surprise, Hot Potato Mash was nominated for a Weblog Award -- Best Video Blog -- for a second consecutive year. My immediate joy in garnering the nomination, however, has quickly given way to embarrassment as my current vote tally barely registers. Thus, I encourage, no, implore, my humble readers to vote for me everyday for the next week!

Now while I am clearly not beyond begging for the sympathy vote, I actually do believe there is good reason to cast one's vote for this blog. So here's my pitch...

The year began with my confrontation of Karl Rove about the wrongful conviction and imprisonment of former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman. Rove's expressions in the video below are great and few things were more satisfying to me in 2008 than Siegelman's release from prison a month later.

By the way, Hot Potato Mash has the largest Don Siegelman video archive on the internet!

Karl Rove would also figure prominently in a few more of my bigger posts including one where I asked Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi about whether she planned to authorize a full House vote on contempt charges for Rove. Unfortunately, as an article I wrote with investigative journalist Jason Leopold at The Public Record illustrates, the Secret Service would have none of it:

Immediately following his query to Pelosi, Alan Breslauer was grabbed by Secret Service and dragged away from the table where Pelosi was signing copies of her book. The Speaker did respond to Breslauer's question, however, saying a vote on contempt charges against Rove is "up to [House Judiciary Committee Chairman] Conyers."

Below is a video mashup I made of Pelosi's talk which included confrontations between a visibly upset Pelosi and protesters:

I was also the first to question Ambassador Joe Wilson about Congressman John Conyers' subpoena of Karl Rove:

While the above posts rank among my best of 2008, I would be remiss if I didn't also mention my greatest achievement of 2007 which occurred barely more than a year ago -- the resignation of John Tanner. Tanner was the chief of the Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division Voting Section when I captured him on video stating that it's a "shame" that the elderly might be disenfranchised by Photo ID laws, but that minorities were not disenfranchised because they "don't become elderly the way white people do. They die first."

After posting the video on Brad Blog, it spread like wildfire which led to embarrassing Congressional hearings and Tanner's resignation. Here's the vid:

EXCLUSIVE VIDEOS

Hot Potato Mash also featured numerous exclusive videos in 2008 of some of the years most prominent voices. Few posts proved as popular as Vincent Bugliosi talking about his bestselling book, "The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder". C-SPAN would eventually show the same talk a month later.

"The Prosecution of George W. Bush For Murder" (Vincent Bugliosi)

That was not the only Hot Potato Mash video exclusive of Bugliosi in 2008. A few weeks later I was the first to get Bugliosi on camera speaking about his support for the compassionate release of Manson Family member Susan Atkins:

"Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders" (Vincent Bugliosi, Curt Gentry)

After Bugliosi, the most popular video exclusives in 2008 involved 9/11 "conspiracy" gurus Dr. William Pepper and David Ray Griffin.

In addition to 9/11, Dr. William Pepper also spoke about war crimes, the MLK, Jr. assassination and Sirhan Sirhan's innocence in the RFK assassination. The latter of which can be seen in the video above.

"Orders to Kill: The Truth Behind the Murder of Martin Luther King, Jr" (William F. Pepper)

In the video above David Ray Griffin states, among other things, that "the evidence that 9/11 is an inside job is now overwhelming".

"The New Pearl Harbor: Disturbing Questions About the Bush Administration and 9/11" (David Ray Griffin)

Other video exclusive highlights include:

Questioning presidential hopeful Ralph Nader about election integrity in the 2008 election.

"The Seventeen Traditions" (Ralph Nader)

A conversation between Gore Vidal and Missouri Congressional candidate Byron DeLear.

"Empire (Modern Library)" (Gore Vidal)

Reza Aslan talking on a variety of subjects including American misperceptions about the Muslim community above.

"No god but God: The Origins, Evolution, and Future of Islam" (Reza Aslan)

Shirley Phelps Roper (AKA The Crazy Christian Lady of the God Hates Fags Church) explaining to me why Heath Ledger is going to hell.

Election integrity guru Mark Crispin Miller explaining the state of American democracy.

A Senator John Edwards presidential rally in Los Angeles.

Tony Snow proclaiming that Fox News "has enough conservatives" well before his untimely death.

Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair telling the story of the spilled soup.

Exclusive Entertainment Videos

In addition to the exclusive political videos sampled above, Hot Potato Mash also provided some exclusive entertainment videos including:

Lili Haydn playing "Denied" off her latest album.

"Place Between Places" (Lili Haydn)

Hilarious political comedian Betsy Salkind.

Opera singer KB Solomon singing, "The Impossible Dream".

Chris Bennett singing a song she wrote for George W. Bush.

"Chris Bennett" (Chris Bennett)

Rebirth Brass Band from the French Quarter in New Orleans.

"Do Whatcha Wanna" (Rebirth Brass Band)

Finally, Hot Potato Mash is nothing without mashups! So here are some of my favorites from 2008:

ABC News - George Stephanopoulos and Charles Gibson - debate protest!

Thought Control.

John McCain and the economy.

Outside the democratic debate in Hollywood.

May Day Rally.

And that's my pitch. If I won you over OR you still feel compelled to give me a pity vote, please visit the Weblog Awards and cast your vote my way! And while you are there, might I also recommend voting for the witty Jon Swift (Best Humor Blog) and The BRAD BLOG (Best Liberal Blog). FYI, you are allowed to vote once a day but there is no rule against coming back day after day for the next week!

Finally, I bid you farewell with my favorite video of the year:

My 89-year-old (now 90) great uncle Julius dancing and singing, "Yankee Doodle Boy".

VIDEO EXCLUSIVE: 'UNVEILED' Author Deborah Kanafani

Deborah Kanafani is the author of the 2008 autobiography, "Unveiled: How An American Woman Found Her Way Through Politics, Love and Obedience in the Middle East," which details her marriage to Marwan Kanafani, a senior advisor and spokesperson for Yasser Arafat. Deborah also documents the stories of many of the courageous woman she encountered, including Queen Dina of Jordan and Yasser Arafat's wife Suha, while living in the Middle East.

Last Thursday in Los Angeles Deborah spoke about her book and her experiences...

Part 1 - Introduction (3:59)

Deborah opened by talking about her engagement and marriage to the "charming and dashing" Palestinian Marwan whom she met at the United Nations. But Deborah quickly discovered that she "lived with somebody that really had a very secret life" and that she had failed to understand his "connection to the Palestinian 'Cause.'"

After they were married the couple moved to Washington, D.C. where Marwan became the Arab League representative and Palestinian Ambassador. In the nation's capitol Deborah's life became very isolated because, "the world that those people live in -- not only diplomatic world but within the Palestinian political community -- is not a world where they like to let outsiders in."

Despite the isolation and some horrible circumstances of her marriage (see below), Deborah was able to find some positives in her situation: "The one good thing that happened, beside my two children, during the marriage was that I got to meet many fascinating women who were married to Arabic leaders. And these women just impressed me so much. They were strong, they were leaders in their own right. They were rebelling against the fundamentalism in their countries. They were fighting for women's rights. They were doing remarkable things."

"Unveiled" is the story of these women as well as Deborah's own journey.

Part 2 - Yasser and Suha Arafat (8:42)

Despite talking to Yasser Arafat many times over the phone, Deborah did not meet the PLO leader until his first trip to the U.S. in 1993 to sign the Declaration of Principles with Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin which paved the way for limited Palestinian self-government in Gaza and the West Bank.

Upon meeting Arafat Deborah was sure that, "he knew that he had something that [she] would never have -- [her] husband's complete devotion."

Much of this segment, however, is dedicated to telling a couple of interesting stories about Suha Arafat who did not accompany her husband on his historic trip to the delight of Arafat's advisors who universally "hated" her. Much to their chagrin, however, Suha was still able to steal the spotlight during the signing statement from "her living room in Tunisia."

Deborah also reveals how Arafat's marriage to Suha was leaked to the press by Suha's mother who was worried about public perception of the relationship between Arafat and her daughter.

Part 3 - Baha Kikhia (2:07)

In Part 3 Deborah briefly tells the story of Baha Kikhia whose husband Mansour was the Libyan Foreign Minister and Ambassador to the United Nations. Mansour eventually resigned from his posts in protest of Libyan leader Muammar Gadhafi's human rights violations. The couple then started a human rights organization for the Libyan people. Three years later Mansour was kidnapped in Cairo, Egypt.

Baha's subsequent search for her husband eventually led her to a surreal meeting in the middle of the Libyan desert with Gadhafi (excerpted from page 115 of "Unveiled"):

"You know, I love Mansour very much," Gadhafi said.

"Me, too," Baha answered again. They laughed despite her tears.

"You know what I think? I think it was the CIA that took him. Mansour wasn't the opposition. He was my friend."

"No, let's speak honestly. We know he was a leader in the opposition, but there is nothing wrong with that. Opposition means, they disagree with your thoughts. It means being against certain ideas, not against you, there is nothing wrong with that. He always said you were his friend, but he disagrees with you. Remember, Mansour didn't like to fight with anyone."

Despite Baha's heroic efforts Mansour was never found. The CIA would eventually give Baha a piece of paper with two lines written on it saying that her husband was executed but she refuses to accept it as valid.

Part 4 - Spying on Hamas and Kidnapped Children (9:53)

Like Baha, Deborah has also found herself in the middle of some rather scary situations. At one point the United States government tried to leverage her 70-year-old father's freedom and assets to get Deborah to spy on Hamas.

"The FBI started contacting me and asking me to meet them at this airport hangar in Santa Monica. So I went a few times and basically they were saying to me, 'if you go spy on Hamas we'll let your father go'. So they were holding him like a pawn," Deborah stated. But she refused the Agency's offer stating, "I don't know anything about Hamas and I would never risk my life or my children's life and I refused to do it."

Because of her father's burdensome legal troubles Deborah made the fateful decision to send her children to visit their father in the West Bank city of Ramallah. When Deborah later followed them to the Middle East she was informed by her ex-husband that their children would remain with him, that she no longer had any rights to them, that he would not provide her with any financial support and that she should return to the United States.

"The next day I started to call the consulate, the embassy, I called the state department in America, I called this woman that my children had given me the phone number of who was with the World Bank and basically everyone told me the same thing -- you no longer have any rights to your children. You are under Islamic law. There are no reciprocal agreements. There is absolutely nothing you can do."

With few options other than trying to kidnap her children back, Deborah met with Yasser Arafat who, limited by Islamic law, offered her a job so that she could obtain a visa from the Israelis and remain near her children.

Part 5 - Queen Dina of Jordan and Toujan al-Faisal (6:59)

Two other woman whose stories are told in Unveiled are Queen Dina of Jordan and Toujan al-Faisal who was Jordan's first female Member of Parliament.

Queen Dina became the first of King Hussein's four wives when they married in 1955. When they divorced two years later she became known as Her Royal Highness Princess Dina Abdul-Hamid of Jordan. Queen Dina eventually fell in love with the King's enemy - a Palestinian guerilla leader - which resulted in thousands of people dying when the King declared war against the Palestinians in what is now referred to as Black September. Queen Dina is also remembered for secretly arranging one of the largest prisoner exchanges ever.

Toujan al-Faisal was accused of apostasy and there were calls for her execution when she stood up to religious fundamentalism in Jordan. The court eventually dismissed her case and she was elected to Parliament in 1993 where she served until 1997. During their time together Toujan explained how Deborah could help Jordanians:

"People in the Middle East are either born as an oppressor or they were born to be oppressed. The only way to make change was to embarrass her country and its laws. The only way to change our laws is through retention from outsiders. Now that they know outsiders are watching Jordan wants to appear progressive. That's why I wanted to meet you [Deborah] so that you can be our messenger."

Part 6 - Return of her Children (9:10)

After three years of living in the West Bank in order to be close to her children, Deborah took a trip to the U.S. Shortly thereafter the Second Intifada occurred and her children were evacuated to Jordan by her ex-husband's current wife. Scared herself, the American born current wife was amenable to sending Deborah's children back to the U.S. but needed to get them passports since her husband had sent them to Jordan with Palestinian documents.

With the help of her cousin Donna Shalala, who was Secretary of Health and Human Services under President Clinton, Deborah got her children passports overnight. And her children, then 13 and 15, were put on a plane out of Jordan just as her ex-husband was returning to get them.

Deborah was quick to point out that it was not quite the Hollywood ending her book publisher was looking for as her children went through difficult adjustment periods. However, she did end the talk on an extremely positive note:

"One of the great thrills of being there was meeting these incredible Palestinians and Israelis who wanted to work together for peace. And I don't mean a few, I mean a lot... and there is just a huge grassroots civil movement going on and unfortunately it is not shown on the news. The news would rather show the war that is going on. But I tell you that these peacemakers are out there and they are strong and the people have a big desire to work together."

"Unveiled: How an American Woman Found Her Way Through Politics, Love, and Obedience in the Middle East" (Deborah Kanafani)

HPM MASHUP: EVEN MCCAIN SURROGATES CAN'T DEFEND MCCAIN

EXCLUSIVE: PELOSI CLASHES WITH PROTESTERS OVER IMPEACHMENT

By Jason Leopold and Alan Breslauer, Cross-posted at The Public Record

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi's appearance Monday at a West Los Angeles college to discuss her recently published book was marred by dozens of protestors and several angry outbursts by audience members who demanded Pelosi immediately authorize a House committee to hold impeachment hearings against President George W. Bush.

The Speaker made it clear she would not support any effort to hold impeachment hearings against President Bush saying that the president "will be gone in a hundred days."

Halfway through her discussion at The American University of Judaism, where more than 300 people paid $30 each to hear Pelosi speak about her upbringing and her family's impact on her political career as detailed in her book Know Your Power: A Message to America’s Daughters, the topic shifted to Congress's historically low approval rating and how it reflected on Pelosi’s tenure as Speaker.

American University of Judaism's Rabbi Robert Wexler, who led the 75 minute interview, asked Pelosi to analyze a recent Rasmussen poll that found nine percent of individuals polled believed Congress was doing a good job, far lower than President Bush's overall approval rating.

Pelosi responded by defending her performance and the performance of her Democratic colleagues in Congress.

"I preside over the greatest collection of integrity and idealism," Pelosi said.

Prior to her appearance in West Los Angeles Monday evening, CNN’s Larry King interviewed Pelosi. She told King she was willing to drop her staunch opposition to offshore drilling and would likely allow the House to vote on the issue.

She said, in her opinion, the reason behind Congress’s low approval rating was largely due to the fact that Democrats could not muster up the votes to end the Iraq war, which the Democratic Speaker from San Francisco said she could not do much about because of the Democrats’ razor-thin majority in both Houses.

Wexler, however, continued to press Pelosi to elaborate on her response given that the Rasmussen poll suggested that a wide-range of issues beyond the Iraq war was responsible for Congress’s single-digit approval.
Pelosi, visibly flustered, said she was well aware that “much more work needs to be done.”

In November 2006, Pelosi explained the significance behind the record voter turnout that helped shift the balance of power in Washington for the first time in 12 years.

“People voted for change and they voted for Democrats who will take our country in a new direction,” Pelosi said during a victory speech in San Francisco on Nov. 8, 2006.

But Pelosi, who became House Speaker, never managed to exact the change she promised. She explained that she and her colleagues tried vigorously to pass legislation to end the war in Iraq.

"The public doesn’t want to know about process and 60 votes, they want outcomes, they want results," Pelosi said, explaining why Democrats could not end the war as promised prior to the midterm 2006 elections.

But Pelosi’s comments appeared disingenuous to many, since she was largely responsible for crafting an appropriations bill in backroom discussions with House Democratic leaders, passed in June, and then worked secretly with the White House budget director offering up concessions on Iraq war benchmarks if Bush would agree to the domestic spending attached to the final bill with little debate preceding a vote on the measure.

In fact, since the electoral victories in November 2006, the Democratic-controlled Congress has approved more than $300 billion in emergency spending bills for Iraq and Afghanistan without the benchmarks or withdrawal timetables that Pelosi and other leaders said they would demand.

When Pelosi launched into the reasons an administration led by presumptive Republican nominee Sen. John McCain would be dangerous for the country, identifying the candidate's support for an endless war in Iraq and his intention to uphold many of the questionable constitutional interpretations relating to torture and civil liberties during the Bush administration, Pelosi said the only way to "dig our way out" is by electing Sen. Barack Obama, the presumptive Democratic nominee.

“Whether it’s the deficit or the challenges to the constitution we have to dig our way out,” Pelosi said, adding “this election is like death for life on this planet as we know it today."

Her response led Peter Thottam, founder of the LA Impeachment Center, to demand Pelosi do her job and pursue impeachment hearings against President Bush for launching a war on false pretenses.

"Who gave you the right to take the constitution and shove it down the toilet? Who gave you the right to take impeachment off the table? Nobody told them to do this,” Thottam shouted at Pelosi moments before Secret Service agents removed him from the packed auditorium. “One million Iraqis are dead. Five thousand Americans are dead. You have destroyed the First, Second, Fourth, Fifth and Eighth Amendments."

Pelosi seemed stunned by the outburst, but the way she addressed Thottam’s charges further fanned the flames and led to additional verbal protests over her decision not to hold the administration accountable for what many individuals in the audience believe are High Crimes and Misdemeanors by President Bush.

When a member of the activist group Code Pink stood up and insisted Pelosi brush up on her reading regarding evidence of the Bush administration's long list of alleged constitutional violations, Pelosi reacted angrily.

"I take an oath of office to uphold the constitution of the United States and don't tell me that I don't do that,” Pelosi said, using hand gestures to emphasize her disdain over the impeachment demands. "Why don't you go picket the Republicans in Congress that will not allow us to have a vote on the war. This is not very effective. Not very effective."

"As Speaker of the house, the third highest office, first is the president, then vice president, and then Speaker, I take my responsibilities deadly seriously,” Pelosi said. “I try to promote bipartisanship but that's not what the other side wants."

Before Election 2006, Pelosi declared impeachment “off the table,” in part, to avoid alarming centrist voters. Now, with Democrats hoping to gain additional seats in Election 2008, a similar political calculation applies, fearing a backlash against a last-minute drive to impeach Bush and Cheney. Bush knows that Pelosi long ago rejected impeachment proceedings, the one instrument included in the Constitution for Congress to wield against a President who has abused his powers.

At the conclusion of Monday evening’s presentation, Pelosi signed books but refused to answer questions about her policy decisions. The Public Record asked Pelosi whether she would authorize the full House to vote on contempt charges against former White House political adviser Karl Rove, who has refused to comply with a congressional subpoena to testify about his role in the alleged political prosecution of former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman, a Democrat.

Immediately following his query to Pelosi, Alan Breslauer was grabbed by Secret Service and dragged away from the table where Pelosi was signing copies of her book. The Speaker did respond to Breslauer's question, however, saying a vote on contempt charges against Rove is "up to [House Judiciary Committee Chairman] Conyers."

UPDATE: The L.A. Times picks up the story

THIS DAY IN HISTORY: Nixon Resigns and more

The Los Angeles Times from August 9, 1974...

Washington -- Richard Mihous Nixon announced his resignation Thursday as President of the United States, the first chief executive to resign in the republic's 198-year history.

Gerald Rudolph Ford, Vice President since Dec. 7, 1973, will take the oath of office at 9 a.m. PDT today to become the nation's 38th President, the first ever to take office without having been elected by the people to either the Presidency or Vice Presidency.

In a 15-minute television speech to the nation, Mr. Nixon, his face drawn, his expression somber, said he no longer ha a "strong enough political base in the Congress" to warrant continuing his fight against impeachment and that he was resigning in "the interests of the nation."

He admitted mistakes of judgment in his handling of the Watergate scandal but stopped short of acknowledging any guilt for the coverup conspiracy that ended his 28-year career as a public servant...

President Nixon's failure Thursday night to acknowledge guilt of impeachable crimes virtually guarantees that Congress will not act on proposals to support immunity from prosecution for "Citizen Nixon," reaction from House and Senate members indicated.

Thus the question of Mr. Nixon's future legal liability apparently will be left to incoming President Ford and special prosecutor Leon Jaworski. Thursday night Jaworski would say only that no agreement had been made with the White House before the President quit.

The proposals for a pro-immunity expression from Congress had appeared to be dying even before the resignation, because of doubts about their constitutionality and widespread sentiment that Mr. Nixon's guilt should be publicly recorded in such a way that it could not be questioned later...

MUCH MORE HERE

EXCLUSIVE: Mysterious Liquid Sidelines Airplane While TSA Considers Action

My flight from Los Angeles to Dulles Airport outside of Washington, D.C. on Sunday was delayed on the runway without explanation for more than two hours. Our Virgin America jet was pulled off to the side of an LAX runway where we watched plane after plane taxi by us and takeoff.

At one point the man next to me asked a flight attendant for an explanation but was told that the decision to keep us informed was solely up to the pilot. After an hour the Captain finally came on over the loudspeaker:

"We've been talking to our company about regulatory compliance concerning the boarding of liquids on this aircraft. I had to know exactly for sure what I was talking about before I gave you any sort of announcement. I don't want to cause undue alarm about this. It is not a threat against the aircraft. You really have nothing to be concerned about safety-wise...

Right now where we stand, we are talking to TSA right now. They're the ones that kinda make the decision on what happens with this. Whether or not we are, in fact, allowed to take off at this point. I'll be honest with you, we're about 50/50 whether we're gonna go back to the gate and have to do a re-screening or we can leave. That decision is being figured out right now."

Our wait continued interrupted only by the occasional moving of the airplane to different parts of the airport. Finally the Captain returned:

"We are still waiting word. Just trying to keep you up to date with as much as I know. And right now we do not have word. This has gone on to TSA - they are not known for being particularly fast with their decisions. So that's what's going on."

Good dirt on TSA but the info hardly helped us passengers as we waited still longer. Finally the pilot returned and announced we had been cleared for takeoff but failed to give any explanation:

So, upon debarking the aircraft I asked a member of the crew about the mysterious liquid that held up the full plane for hours and learned a passenger had brought aboard liquid medication.

So there you have it. A plane delayed for hours, without explanation, parked in multiple spots on the runway, while awaiting word from TSA about whether or not a return to the gate was in order to re-screen all the passengers because some passenger made the ginormous mistake of bringing onboard their liquid medication.

And the "War on Terror" continues...

VIDEO MASHUP EXCLUSIVE: EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT JOHN MCCAIN AND THE ECONOMY

WHY IS MY TONY SNOW LINK AT WIKIPEDIA BEING CENSORED?

Between 4:04 a.m. and 7:51 a.m. Hot Potato Mash received 160 hits from Tony Snow's Wikipedia page from a link I added on May 3rd of this year titled, "VIDEO: Tony Snow stating that Fox News has enough conservatives April 28, 2008". Clearly Tony Snow is a popular search item today because of his untimely death this morning at the young age of 53.

But the hits stopped coming because the link to the Snow video was suddenly pulled and I want to know why. I'm no expert about Wikipedia but would be much obliged if someone who understands the machinations of the site could investigate the matter. It seems to me that the unique video is newsworthy and helpful to understanding Snow. Incidentally, I reposted the link at 12:12 p.m. but that one was pulled as well.

The video which was clearly found offensive by some Wikipedia member follows...

VIDEO EXLUSIVE: Vincent Bugliosi Supports Compassionate Release Of Manson 'Family' Member Susan Atkins

Susan Atkins spent the last 37 years in a California state prison for the murders of the actress Sharon Tate and musician Gary Hinman. Tate, who was 8 1/2 months pregnant with director Roman Polanski's son, unsuccessfully begged Atkins for mercy stating, according to prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi, "please let me live so I can have my baby."

Atkins, however, showed no compassion and replied to Tate, "look bitch I do not have any mercy on you, you are going to die," before stabbing her to death.

Now Atkins, who suffers from brain cancer, has had her leg amputated and has been given six months to live, is requesting that the state parole board grant her a "compassionate release". Surprisingly Bugliosi, who sought the death penalty for the entire Manson Family and opposes parole for of all of its members, supports Atkins' petition.

"I'm not sure that you can say that just because she was this monster that 37 years later under these new conditions that it necessarily follows that we cannot give her whatever little mercy it is," Bugliosi said. "I think it's a non-sequiter to say that," he continued before adding, "and if she were not in the condition she's in obviously I would be against her ever being released on parole."

The state parole board will also likely consider the testimony of the surviving relatives of Atkins' victims, many of whom oppose any mercy, before issuing it's ruling in the coming months.

The L.A. Times has more

UPDATE: Bugliosi appears to be in the minority when it comes to Atkins compassionate release.

"Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders" (Vincent Bugliosi, Curt Gentry)

VIDEO MASHUP EXCLUSIVE: John McCain - The President Americans Have Been Waiting For!

John McCain, mashup

VIDEO EXCLUSIVE: VINCENT BUGLIOSI: The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder

On Wednesday, famed Charles Manson prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi spoke to a packed and enthusiastic crowd of more than 350 Angelinos about his new book, “The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder.” While Bugliosi’s talk will eventually appear on C-SPAN, you can view it first in its entirety below…

Part 1 (19:45)

In my book, “The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder,” I present evidence that proves beyond all reasonable doubt that George Bush took this nation to war on a lie, under false pretenses, and therefore under the law is guilty of murder for the deaths of over 4,000 young American soldiers who died so far in this war.

Bugliosi began the evening by explaining to the Los Angeles audience that George W. Bush is guilty of murder, according to the law, if he brought the country to war under false pretenses. And Bugliosi emphasized the legal aspect of the case in order to fend off likely attackers:

So although Bush supporters can argue that Bush should not be prosecuted because they don’t think he did anything wrong, they cannot legitimately say that he should not be prosecuted if he has done what I say he did. To say that is to admit that you have no respect for our American system of justice and democracy and that you would prefer that presidents have the same rights as tyrannical dictators like Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Saddam Hussein.

Bugliosi had a similar answer for those who simply believe it is impossible to prosecute Bush for murder:

There’s this sense out there among many that prosecuting Bush for murder can’t be done. Which is the equivalent of saying what - that he is above the law. That ordinary laws simply don’t apply to him.

Bugliosi also had some special words for the American Right Wing which has expressed its disapproval with his book:

The third group of people responding to my book is the nation’s right wing. And they of course have contempt for me and my book. But whatever contempt they have for me, I can assure them and I can assure you I have much much much more contempt for them. There are no more repugnant, hypocritical and un-American – and that’s the word I want to emphasize – un-American people in our society today than the right wing.

Bugliosi, however, made clear that this book was not political for him and even said he would have written the same book had Bush been a Democrat. So fair is Bugliosi that he even offers up some mitigating evidence for Bush and his co-conspirators:

And there is one thing that I should probably say in partial defense of these people that goes in mitigation, arguably reduces their moral culpability. And what I’m talking about is that many of these people are incredibly stupid. And they make up for their stupidity by being extremely ignorant. And when you combine stupidity with ignorance that’s a toxic combination.

Finally, Part 1 ends with the law:

If a conspirator, or anyone for that matter, deliberately sets in motion a chain of events which he knows will cause – that’s the key word – cause a third party innocent agent to commit an act, the defendant is criminally responsible for that act. Bush, in invading Iraq, caused Iraqis to kill American soldiers in much the same fashion that a person causes a gun to fire a bullet that kills someone by pulling the trigger.

Part 2 (17:54)

Part 2 begins with Bugliosi explaining the only way Bush might be innocent of murder:

Bush can only wash his hands of culpability if he did not take this nation to war under false pretenses. If he did, which the evidence overwhelmingly shows, he is criminally responsible for the deaths of all those American soldiers who have died fighting his war in Iraq.

The main issue would be whether or not George Bush went to war, as he always claimed, in self-defense – the so-called pre-emptive strike. Hussein had weapons of mass destruction, alleged as so, therefore he was an imminent threat to the security of this country so Bush had to strike first in self-defense. If the war was not in self-defense but one that the prosecutor can prove Bush took us to under false pretenses than all of the killings of American soldiers in Iraq become unlawful killings and therefore murder.

While Bugliosi's animus was mostly reserved for Bush and his co-conspirators, he did find time to also criticize Ken Starr, The New York Times and the Supreme Court:

I seem to be getting more angry and acerbic and caustic and that’s because I am always in a state of rage. How can I help but be -- the monstrous, grotesque, obscene Ken Starr almost destroyed the Clinton presidency over absolutely nothing while being totally and completely supported and funded by the federal government. They funded his seven year, seventy million dollar effort, the federal government. And the so-called liberal media, The New York Times savaged Clinton on a day to day basis, supported this monstrous, grotesque, obscene figure – one of the most reprehensible figures in American history – Ken Starr.

The US Supreme Court 2000, stopping the recount in Florida which was specifically authorized by Florida law, taking the election away from the American people and appointing George Bush president, one of the biggest crimes in American history.

The heart of Part 2, however, is reserved for Bugliosi's evidence against George W. Bush. And first on the list was Bush's lies to the country that were contrary to the National Intelligence Estimate:

In George Bush’s first speech to the nation on Hussein and Iraq, October 7, 2002 in Cincinnati, Ohio, Bush told Americans that Saddam Hussein was a great danger to this nation either by his attacking us with the so-called weapons of mass destruction or by giving these weapons to a terrorist group to attack us. And Bush said that this attack could happen, ‘on any given day,’ meaning what, that the threat was imminent.

The only big problem for George Bush is that on October the first, six days earlier, the CIA sent Bush its 2002 National Intelligence Estimate – a classified top secret report that represented the consensus opinion of all 16 US federal intelligence agencies on the issue of whether or not Hussein was an imminent threat to the security of this country and on page 8 of that 91 page report it clearly and unequivocally says – and by the way what I’m about to tell you to my knowledge has never been said or never been written or never appeared in any major newspaper or magazine in America – page 8 clearly says that Hussein was not an imminent threat to the security of this country. That he would only be a threat if he feared we were about to attack him.

So we know then, not think but know, that when George Bush told the nation on the evening of October 7th, Cincinnati, Ohio, that Saddam Hussein was an imminent threat to the security of this country, he was telling millions of unsuspecting Americans the exact opposite of what his own CIA was telling him. Now if we had nothing else at all, and there is so much more, that alone shows what, that George Bush took this nation to war on a terrible terrible lie. Therefore all the killings in Iraq became unlawful killings and murder.

But it gets worse! In fact, it gets evil, perverse, sick and criminal:

But it gets worse. It gets worse. October 4th, three days later, Bush and his people had the CIA release an unclassified summary version of the October 1st classified report so that this October 4th unclassified version could be released to the American public and to Congress. This unclassified version came to be known as the White Paper. And in this White Paper that was shown to the American people and to Congress, in which contained the opinion of 16 US intelligence agencies that Hussein was not an imminent threat to the security of this country, that conclusion was completely deleted, completely eliminated. Every single one of these all important words, the most important conclusion in that classified document, was completely deleted from the White Paper. And the question I have of you, is how evil, how perverse, how sick, how criminal can George Bush and his people be?

The next piece of ever damning evidence, according to Bugliosi, is the January 31, 2003, Manning Memo written by Tony Blair's chief foreign policy advisor after a top level meeting in the Oval Office less than two months before the invasion.

He says that George Bush was so worried about the failure of the UN inspectors to find weapons of mass destruction that Bush started to talk about three ways to ‘provoke a confrontation’ with Saddam Hussein. One of which he said was to fly U2 reconnaissance aircraft over Iraq falsely painted in United Nations colors and he said if Saddam fires on those planes it would be a violation of UN resolutions and therefore justify our going to war. So here is George Bush telling Americans, telling the world, that Hussein is an imminent threat to the security of this country, but behind closed doors this very small human being was talking about how to provoke Hussein into a war.

Part 3 (15:50)

Part 3 begins with another piece of evidence against Bush. Mainly, how Bush responded to the ever positive testimony of chief UN weapons inspector Hans Blix on March 7, 2003, by throwing him and his team out of the country and quickly invading Iraq. Blix had told the UN Security Counsel that the inspectors were getting proactive cooperation from Saddam Hussein and that their investigation would be completed in a few months:

Blix and his people became Bush’s biggest adversaries because if Blix and his people confirm that there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, that would rob Bush of his main argument for war – a war that he wanted to fight at all costs.

The bulk of Part 3, however, does not concentrate on evidence of Bush's guilt but rather Bush's state of mind. Bugliosi takes great offense to the fact that Bush has often described his days as perfect and that he proclaims himself to be so happy:

Even if George Bush was only guilty of making an innocent mistake in taking this nation to war in Iraq, not murder as I firmly believe, with all of the death, horror and suffering he has caused, what type of a monstrous individual is it who could be happy with his life? What type of a human monster is George Bush?

If I ever killed one person in my life, even accidentally – a car accident – I’d never have another perfect day as long as I lived. George Bush is responsible for the horrible deaths of thousands of human beings and he is talking about having a perfect day. Bush’s plans to have a perfect day right in the middle of all the death and horror in Iraq goes so far beyond acceptable human conduct that no moral telescope can discern its shape, form and nature.

Bugliosi concludes by telling the audience that he will not rest or be satisfied until George W. Bush is prosecuted for first degree murder:

I don’t like to see anyone get away with murder, even one murder. [O.J.] Simpson got away with two murders and I got so angry that I wrote a book - Outrage, the Five Reasons O.J. Simpson got away with murder. If I can get so angry about someone getting away with one or two murders you can imagine how I feel about George Bush who has gotten away with over 100,000 murders and has been smiling and enjoying himself throughout the whole period. It may sound presumptuous of me but I can tell you that while I may not succeed, I’m not going to be satisfied until I see George Bush in an American courtroom being prosecuted for first degree murder.

The first degree murder of over 4,000 American soldiers:

If justice means anything at all in America, if we are not going to forget about those 4,000 young American soldiers who came back from Bush’s war in a box, I say we have no choice but to bring murder charges against the son of privilege from Crawford, Texas.

"The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder" (Vincent Bugliosi)

George W. Bush, Ken Starr, Manning Memo, Murder, NIE, Right Wing, Saddam Hussein, Supreme Court, video, Vincent Bugliosi