FBI director Robert Mueller testifying on National Security Letters (NSLs aka warrentless wiretapping) at the House Judiciary Committee under John Conyers.

Update: Go to Part 3

Streaming at CSpan 3

Rules:NO PICTURES or videos. They slow things down too much.

Joseph Wilson, husband of Valerie Plame, et. al testifying before the Conyers Committee.

Part 1 here.

I confess to being a spelling and grammar purist, but I hope not a troll. Most of the time I resist the temptation to point out the errors of others, but they still make me cringe. English is not an easy language, but there's one class of error that is so common yet so unnecessary, I'm willing to risk a diary about it. I'm talking about the misuse of the apostrophe.

There is only one thing you need to remember to never misuse the apostrophe again:

One Simple Rule

The purpose of the apostrophe is to indicate that part of a word missing. Period.

That's all you need to know. Well, there is one teeny-tiny exception, but that's easy to remember too.

The New York Times quotes Newt Gingrich as calling for the resignation of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales (AGAG).

The reason? Because of the corruption and cronyism? Nope. Because they exaggerated or invented charges against Democrats while ignoring enormous and blatant crimes of Republicans like those taking bribes from Jack Abramoff? No. Because he turned the Department of Justice into an election-stealing machine? Not even close. Torture, extraordinary rendition, eliminating basic rights like habeus corpus?

No way. The Newt's worried that the political attacks will make it impossible for AGAG to keep on doing these things.

The details aren't important, but a right-wing caller to a radio talk show prompted this post.

This wing-nut railed against socialism because it "depresses the economy, reduces productivity, discourages innovation, and eliminates incentives for people to work hard."

Sorry, dear wing-nut. That's not socialism, that's communism you're talking about. Not the same thing! I think it's time to rescue the word "socialism" from its ignominious confusion with communism.

So much smoke has been blown about "The War on Terrorism" that we've lost sight of the simplest things. Why do they hate us? Why were we attacked on 9/11?

The 9/11 highjackers attacked us because they were pissed off at American foreign policy in the Middle East. Support of corrupt dictators like the House of Saud and yes, even Saddam Hussein (Who sold him the poison gas he used on his own people?) protected the interests of Big Oil at the expense of ordinary citizens. In short, "U.S. Big Bully: Unfair to Muslims!"

So, if the problem is pissed-off Muslims, why is the solution pissing off even more Muslims by occupying Iraq like some kind of big, unfair-to-Muslims bully?