Obama gets mixed report card.

Barack Obama took office with a pledge of "unprecedented level of openness" in government -- a pledge that his critics on both the left and right have accused him of abandoning. His decision to oppose the release of photos of Iraqi and Afghan detainees being abused by American troops, his insistence that White House visitor logs are exempt from mandatory release under the Freedom of Information Act, and the Justice Department's invocation of the state secrets privilege in cases involving alleged CIA torture have all tended to undercut Obama's pledge, which he expressed in a memo to government employees when he took office.Link

Obama Is Embracing Abusive Bush Policies.

For disillusioned Obama supporters, the ACLU's July report "Establishing the New Normal" is not a heartening read. After being voted into office on promises that included undoing abuses carried out under the Bush administration - promises to protect privacy, to end government-sanctioned torture and rendition programs and to end the use of military commissions for non-enemy combatants - President Obama's administration is proving it is far easier to tow the line than buck a trend.Link

US joins Baghdad battle.

BAGHDAD – Days after the U.S. officially ended combat operations and touted Iraq's ability to defend itself, American troops found themselves battling heavily armed militants assaulting an Iraqi military headquarters in the center of Baghdad on Sunday. The fighting killed 12 people and wounded dozens.Link

Ghosts in the Hollow from Jim Lo Scalzo on Vimeo.

This Sucks........RIP Mr. Schimmel.

Some sad news in the world of comedy tonight. The hilarious and popular Robert Schimmel died tonight at the age of 60. On August 26, Schimmel was in a serious car accident in Arizona. His 19-year-old daughter was driving the vehicle, with Schimmel in the passenger seat and his 11-year-old son in the back seat. His daughter quickly swerved to avoid a collision and the vehicle ended up rolling over on the side of the freeway. His daughter was later listed in stable condition and Schimmel’s son was released from the hospital unharmed. Schimmel, sadly, was listed in “very serious” condition at first, and ultimately died as a result of his injuries earlier tonight.Link

God did not create the universe.

LONDON (Reuters) – God did not create the universe and the "Big Bang" was an inevitable consequence of the laws of physics, the eminent British theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking argues in a new book. In "The Grand Design," co-authored with U.S. physicist Leonard Mlodinow, Hawking says a new series of theories made a creator of the universe redundant, according to the Times newspaper which published extracts on Thursday. "Because there is a law such as gravity, the universe can and will create itself from nothing. Spontaneous creation is the reason there is something rather than nothing, why the universe exists, why we exist," Hawking writes.Link