Ludis' Open Letter to Ralph Nader
cc: All Nader Suppoters

Dear Ralph,

Go fuck yourself.

F 9/11

Saw the movie last night, and have been thinking about writing about it, but by thoughts aren't quite organized yet. So here it goes:

Go and see it. It is an amazing film.

Pessimism

You gotta go see the newest Bush web ad. I don't even know what to say.

It's what's for dinner

click
here for free music downloads

Feeling the heat!
First Cheney tells Leahy to fuck himself, then on the day when over 100 people die in Iraq, Bush says the world is safer with Saddam out of power and gets super pissy with the reporter. We need more reporters like this woman.

To see the video click here

Excerpts:

Coleman: "The world is a more dangerous place today."

Bush: "Why do you say that? . . . "

Coleman: "I think there is a feeling that the world has become a more dangerous place because you have taken the focus off Al Qaeda and diverted into Iraq. Do you not see that the world is a more dangerous place? I saw four of your soldiers lying dead, on the television, the other day. . . . "

Bush: "You know, listen, nobody cares more about the death than I do.

Coleman: "Is there a point at which --

Bush: "Let me finish. Please, please, let me finish, then you can follow up, if you don't mind. Nobody cares more about the deaths than I do. I care about it a lot. But I do believe that the world is a safer place, and becoming a safer place. . . .

"People join terrorist organizations because there's no hope and there's no chance to raise their families in a peaceful world where there is not freedom . . . so the idea is to promote freedom and at the same time protect our security."

Actual reporting?

Ron Fournier unexpectedly treats us to a modicum of journalism.

Bush is not the first president to hold his own in polls while events tumble against him. "It takes a lot to vote a president out of office," Kohut said. "There's a tendency to stay the course."

That may be the only thing keeping Bush afloat amid a raft of bad news, much of it his own making. The lowlights include:

-- Bush delivers a State of the Union address, with his opposition to performance-enhancing drugs in sports standing out against a bleak roster of new policies.

-- Former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill, in a book by Ron Suskind, says Bush was determined from the get-go to overthrow Iraq's Saddam Hussein.

-- The president's shaky performance on NBC's "Meet the Press" fuels anxiety among GOP allies about Iraq and the fledgling re-election campaign.

-- Richard Clarke, the top counterterrorism official for Presidents Clinton and Bush, undercuts the president's tough-on-terrorism claims during congressional testimony.

-- National security adviser Condoleezza Rice at first refuses to testify before the Sept. 11 commission, then bows to pressure.

-- Bush's economic adviser, N. Gregory Mankiw, says the transfer of U.S. jobs overseas is sometimes a good thing.

-- Bush scuttles plans to name Anthony Raimondo as manufacturing czar after Democrats point out that the businessman's company laid off 75 workers in 2002 while announcing the construction a $3 million plant in China.

-- The death toll in Iraq mounts through the spring as Republican governors, busy attending funerals of slain servicemen and shipping National Guard troops overseas, warn the White House that voters are getting antsy.

-- Four U.S. contractors are killed and mutilated near Baghdad.

-- Train bombers strike Madrid. Voters throw the Bush-backing Spanish government out of power. Spain later withdraws its troops from Iraq.

-- Vice President Dick Cheney comes under fire for past business ties, secretive deliberations on energy policy and unsubstantiated suggestions that his office might be behind the leak of a CIA operative's name.

-- U.S. weapons inspector David Kay concludes that Iraq did not have stockpiles of forbidden weapons, undercutting Bush's main justification for war.

-- Democrats unite behind Kerry after a short nomination fight, allowing him to raise record amounts of money and turn quickly against Bush.

-- Democratic lawmakers call for an investigation into whether the Bush administration's Medicare chief pressured a subordinate to withhold estimates of the cost of last year's Medicare legislation.

-- Clarke follows his testimony with a book claiming Bush was so preoccupied with Iraq both before and after the Sept. 11 attacks that he failed to effectively confront threats from al-Qaida.

-- Gas prices top $2 per gallon.

-- Revelations that U.S. soldiers abused prisoners in Iraq fuel anti-American sentiment in the Muslim world and raise questions at home about U.S. moral authority in Iraq.

-- Militants linked to al-Qaida behead American Nicholas Berg.

-- The leader of Iraqi's governing council is assassinated.

-- A memo reveals plans for the Bush administration to slash domestic programs after the Nov. 2 presidential election.

-- Al-Qaida militants in Saudi Arabia behead American helicopter technician Paul M. Johnson Jr.

-- Militants in Iraq behead South Korean Kim Sun-il.

-- Insurgents launched coordinated attacks that kills more than 100 people, including three U.S. soldiers.

With a list that long, it's no wonder the public needs infotainment.

Daily Line

Bush is going to Turkey next week, I'm putting $20 down that he makes a "surprise visit" to Iraq on the 4th of July.

F-911

Joel Siegel just reviewed the movie for Good Morning America, calling it in part reprehensible and propaganda. As a reviewer he defended the Bushies by calling into account Moore's questionable use of the facts, but used no facts of his own. He's also picked up on the meme that although a good piece of movie making "it's not a documentary." That's right, documentaries never take a position.

The fact that the movie got a bad review doesn't bother me at all, I could care less. What bothers me is that fear of the Administration Thugs have turned pussy movie reviewers into partisan attack dogs.

For those of us in Portland

Courtesy of Kos

This Saturday, there will be a convention in Portland, Oregon to attempt to place Ralph Nader on the Oregon ballot. They will need 1,000 registered voters for his name to be on the November ballot and an independent. A few months ago, they attempted but came up short.

I am a Democrat who, a short while ago, gave my email address and phone number to the local Republican party to receive updates on what they were up to. Today I received a phone call from the local Republican party asking me if I wanted to go the Nader convention. They explained the need to get Nader on the ballot to help President Bush. The name on the caller ID on my phone said ?Bush Cheney? implying that they were calling from the Oregon Bush Cheney headquarters.

He goes on to post the phone script here.

UPDATE: 6/25 9:30am

Nader getting support from unlikely voters
Groups allied with President Bush are encouraging their conservative members to do the seemingly unthinkable: attend a convention Saturday to help put left-leaning independent candidate Ralph Nader on the Oregon presidential ballot.

The groups -- with the encouragement of some Republican political operatives -- are telling their members that Nader would draw votes from Democrat Sen. John Kerry and boost Bush's chances of winning Oregon...

Officials from two groups that have been calling members -- the Oregon Family Council and Citizens for a Sound Economy -- said they had no qualms about trying to help Nader despite opposing most of what he stands for.

Nope, they really did take Telfair

Blazers GM John Nash has been known to have a lot of luck drafting gems in the NBA draft. He's going to need all of that luck after spending the #13 pick on Sebastian Telfair, an undersized point guard who can't shoot and can't defend. Hmmmm...

Dick's getting pissed!

Cheney curses senator over Halliburton criticism
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Typically a break from partisan warfare, this year's Senate class photo turned smiles into snarls as Vice President Dick Cheney reportedly used a profanity toward one senior Democrat, sources said.

Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, who was on the receiving end of Cheney's ire, confirmed that the Vice President used profanity during Tuesday's class photo...

Using profanity on the Senate floor while the Senate is session is against the rules. But the Senate was technically not in session at the time and the normal rules did not apply, a Senate official said.

The story, which was recounted by several sources, goes like this:

Cheney, who as president of the Senate was present for the picture day, turned to Leahy and scolded the senator over his recent criticism of the vice president for Halliburton's alleged war profiteering.

Responding to Cheney's comment, Leahy reminded him of an earlier statement the vice president had made about him. Cheney then replied with profanity.

The CNN article leaves out some important info about the argument, but Wonkette has more:

CNN is reporting that on the floor of the Senate yesterday, Dick Cheney told Sen. Pat Leahy, "Go fuck yourself..."

Wonkette operatives tell us that the fighting words sprang from an exchange in which Cheney told Leahy he didn't like what Leahy had been saying about Halliburton, to which Leahy replied that he didn't like Cheney calling him a bad Catholic. So you'd see how "Go fuck yourself" is the only appropriate response.

Cheney's people call it a "frank exchange of views." Wow, so that's the kind of dialogue and frank exchange of views this administration has led us to...

It's not my bag, baby

I was trying to come up with a name for this guy, but I figured some of you could have fun with it.

Judge Suspected of Masturbating in Court
OKLAHOMA CITY (Reuters) - An Oklahoma state judge frequently masturbated and used a device for enhancing erections while his court was in session, charges a petition by the state's attorney general seeking his removal...

The judge flatly denies the charges made in the petition, his lawyer, Clark Brewster, said on Thursday. He said the judge received a penis pump for his 50th birthday as a gag gift, which became a source of a running joke in the courthouse...

"On one occasion, Ms. (Lisa) Foster (Thompson's court reporter for 15 years), saw Judge Thompson holding his penis up and shaving underneath it with a disposable razor while on the bench," the petition reads.

Several witnesses, including jurors in Thompson's court and police officers called to testify in trials, said in the petition they heard the "swooshing" sound of a penis pump during trials and saw the judge slumped in his chair, with his elbows on his knees, working the device. The witnesses said the pump sounded like a blood pressure cuff being pumped up.

Name away...

Building a Democracy?
The Christian Science Monitor has a great piece today on how the new Iraqi government is being formed.

Old Iraqi council clings to key roles
In a little-noticed edict, the defunct council guaranteed itself seats on Iraq's Interim National Council, a 100-member assembly that will have power to approve the 2005 budget, veto executive orders with a two-thirds majority, and appoint replacements to the presidency. The former council also guaranteed itself seats on a headspinning array of committees that will select other members of the new body.

As political players jockey for positions in the upcoming council, the selection process is being dominated by members of the Governing Council - including Ahmed Chalabi, whose office was raided last month by US and Iraqi security forces investigating charges of kidnapping, corruption, and robbery. The role of former council members is raising concerns among many Iraqis that their involvement may taint the legitimacy of the new government. It is especially troubling to those who had hoped for a more homegrown leadership to emerge.

"There are very important and gifted and honest Iraqi personalities who up until now have been distanced from the new government," said Jawadat al-Obeidi, secretary-general of the Iraqi Democratic Congress, an umbrella group of 216 Iraqi political parties. He reels off a list of names of academics, doctors, and other prominent Iraqis who have been excluded from the process. "These people are trying to go to the Governing Council members, but no one answers or returns their calls..."

"Essentially, the Iraqi Governing Council seems to have granted itself life after death," said Nathan Brown, a political science professor at The George Washington University in Washington.

Chalabi, who fought bitterly with Mr. Brahimi, tried to veto several of his choices for the Supreme Commission. "When we looked at Brahimi's list, we saw people on it who weren't respected in Iraq - some of them live abroad, and some were people who had strong relations with former regime," said Salama al-Khafaji, a Shiite professor also on the committee. "So Chalabi and I protested; Chalabi said he has files on some of the people on the list."

With the former Governing Council calling the shots, many fear that the national conference will merely rubber-stamp its decisions. "I wish it was a different group of people who are selecting this government, rather than people who lived abroad in New York, London, and Washington, drinking whiskey and going out to nightclubs," said Hameed Hassan al-Obaidi, who is sheikh of a 750,000-member Shiite tribe.

Mr. Obaidi's comments reflect the deep dissatisfaction many Iraqis feel with the presence of exiles on the former council and in the new government. (Iraq's new prime minister, former council member Iyad Allawi, is a former exile with CIA ties.)..

Even insiders are dissatisfied with the way the new government is being planned. Dr. Khafaji blasted what she calls the exclusion of anyone from the Sadrist camp - a political movement that includes not just followers of the militant young cleric, but those who adhere to the tradition of his more moderate father, Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Sadiq Al-Sadr, a dissident Shiite cleric assassinated by Saddam Hussein in 1999.

Wednesday, the chairman of the Supreme Commission said Sadr's followers had been invited to join. But a Sadr spokesman said the cleric declined the offer of one seat as only a token measure.

"In the Supreme Commission, there is an important Iraqi social movement that is not represented, which is Sadr and the entire Sadrist movement," said Khafaji.

Though a former Governing Council member herself, Khafaji said she opposed the guarantee of seats for herself and her colleagues. "But the CPA argued that the Governing Council members have expertise in running the country, and that different bodies will gain from our experience," she said. "I argued for having a debate and discussion, and competing for seats.... I think it is something that is not democratic, and it is not Iraqi."

Energy Crack Force

Supreme Court sends Cheney energy panel case back to lower court
The Bush administration won't have to reveal secret details of Vice President Dick Cheney's energy task force before the election, after the Supreme Court ruled Thursday that a lower court should spend more time sorting out the White House's privacy claim.

NewsCrax

I was just over at NewsMax, and apart from being very funny it also shows how stupid or brainwashed our opponents are. Check out these headlines.

Justice O'Connor Continues Leftward Tilt
Particularly galling is her retreat on abortion wrongs and racial quotas.

More Blacks Run as Republicans


"Environmentalists" fail in their attempt to block shipping and cause flooding. Bonus: Tom Daschle is mad. (too funny)

The Mens Choice™: ‘The Most Comprehensive Study Into Male Sexual Enhancement’. Each year, 20 men compare two different Natural Products for Male Sexual Health and publish their results. Click Here To See Recommended Effective Products.

And enough stuff on Michael Moore that makes me think right wingers want to have sex with him almost as bad as they do with Clinton.

Any ideas?
Nader is really starting to confuse me. Yesterday he got in a shouting match with members of the Black Caucus when they asked him to drop out of the race. Then he sends a letter to John Kerry telling him to pick John Edwards as VP. Finally, he says on NPR that people should come to his rallies, but actually vote for Kerry... Any idea what he's up to?

The Environmental President
I remember when Dubya was elected, I was primarily scared for the fate of our natural resources and the environment. This war in Iraq and the war on terra switched my focus. Unfortunately, everything is tied together. While it is important to be aware of all the bullshit his gang has created in the world, we need to be especially diligent in the attention we pay to the problems that are being created under the radar screen here at home.

Bush Administration Secrecy Imperils Environment and Public Health
The Bush administration is applying new levels of secrecy to public information, using the excuse of "national security risks" to undercut the public's right to know about contamination of the environment, transport of hazardous materials, pipeline routes, and more—putting public health at risk and chilling community activism.

"We've had national security exemptions for a long time under the Freedom of Information Act, and the ability to classify information if needed under other laws, and for good reason," Paul Orum, director of the non-partisan Working Group on Community Right-to-Know, tells BushGreenwatch. "Now, secrecy is creeping forward into other areas, and in subtle ways."

According to the Working Group, over six thousand public documents have been removed from the web sites of over a dozen government agencies since the fall of 2001.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), for example, has removed parts of formerly-public Risk Management Plans from the web, documents that helped communities identify nearby chemical hazards. The Department of Energy has taken down environmental impact statements related to nuclear power plants, and hazardous materials transport information. The Department of Transportation removed from its web site much of the national pipeline mapping data that allowed communities to find hazardous pipeline routes.

President Bush has also issued executive orders that broaden the authority of agencies to withhold information from the public. May 2002's Executive Order 12958 gave the EPA Administrator authority to designate documents "Secret" or "Confidential," two of the three highest possible security classifications. It also allows the Administrator to delegate classification authority to senior EPA officials. Once classified, a person can gain access to information only when an agency head or their designee reviews the request, the person signs a non-disclosure agreement, and the person can establish a "need-to-know" to the satisfaction of agency officials.

The Bush administration has also reduced the public's access to unclassified information. 2002's Homeland Security Act allows agencies to withhold "sensitive but unclassified" information from the public. Information can be restricted with no review, even if public under other laws.

"The Bush administration is hostile to the idea that citizens need to watchdog the government, " says Orum.

We will not negotiate with terrorists
...But we will let 'em off scott free***

Saudis Offer Militants One-Month Amnesty
JIDDAH, Saudi Arabia - Saudi Arabia offered Islamic militants a limited amnesty Wednesday, saying their lives would be spared if they surrendered but they would face the "full might" of state wrath if they did not.

The ultimatum, issued in the name of King Fahd, called on militants to turn themselves in within a month — suggesting the kingdom was paving the way for a stepped up campaign against al-Qaida-linked fighters who have shaken the country with a series of deadly attacks.

***You have one month to take advantage of this great deal

Toxic Wonderland

Toxic Emissions Rising, EPA Says

Industry released 5 percent more toxic chemicals into the environment in 2002 than the year before, the Environmental Protection Agency reported yesterday.

The latest statistics, compiled in the agency's annual Toxic Release Inventory, represent a setback: In 2001, according to the inventory, toxic emissions had declined by about 16 percent. Environmental groups, moreover, charged yesterday that polluters were releasing four to five times more toxic material than they reported.

P-Town

Portland continues to draw the young and educated

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Young people continue to migrate to Portland, and they are bringing their college degrees with them.

A new study discovered that Portland's population of college-educated people between the ages 25 to 34 is growing at five times the national rate, putting the city in an enviable position for future job growth.

The researchers, Joe Cortright, a Portland economist, and Carol Coletta, an urban consultant in Memphis, Tenn., also found that Portland's proportion of such residents is much higher in the city's central areas than in other cities with similar geography.

The percentage of the young and educated is twice as high in central city as it is outside, making Portland more similar to New York and Chicago than to Phoenix or Denver, where growth is in the suburbs.

The study combines data from the 1990 Census and 2000 Census, the 2002 American Community survey and driver's license surrender lists.

Their findings reinforce the data about the influx of young educated people that emerged from the 2000 Census.

Despite Portland's economic difficulties over the past few years, "we're pretty confident that these trends are continuing," Cortright said.

The study was paid for by the Westside Economic Alliance, a trade group, and the Portland Development Commission, a public economic development agency. Additional financing came from Nike and the cities of Hillsboro, Beaverton and Tualatin.

Cortright said his study's findings should comfort those who lament Oregon's scarcity of Fortune 500 companies.

"Over the next five to 10 years, the creativity and entrepreneurship of people in this age group will create companies that we can no more imagine than the timber barons could imagine a shoe company being in the Fortune 500," he said.

Nike is the only Oregon company on the magazine's list of largest public companies.

I've always thought having less megacorps was a good thing.

October Surprise

It is inevitable that as meticulous as Karl Rove is, he will have the campaign plotted out to include one last October surprise to get voters hot for the Bush. Here's Waingroh's list of the Top 5 most likely possibilities:

5. Red Alert! The Terrorometer hits red for the first time, making anxious undecideds cower under Bush rhetoric; fearing that if Bush isn't re-elected, 9/11 2 (tm) will happen immediately.

4. We found Osama! Everyone rejoice, Osama has been captured and the War-on-terra (tm) is a continuing victory.

3. Photos of John Kerry released to Fox News proving that he is a homosexual flag-burning drug addict who has several black and latino kids out of wedlock and enjoys setting fire to the homeless and eating babies.

2. 10/11 - a terrorist attack, with incredibly useful political timing, strikes in the US, doing enough enough damage for Bush to declare a state of martial law and thus suspending national elections indefinitely.

1. Last, but not least probable, Diebold to the rescue. Kerry may win by millions of votes, but who could prove it? The Supreme Court votes down any attempt at a recount by a vote of 5-4, right on party lines.

Call it cynical, pessimist, or paranoid, but if the track record of calculated political moves from this band of thieves proves anything, it proves that you should expect the "shocking" to be anything but.

Sex and the Kerry

Via Cursor, Link

More than 20 million unmarried American women, a group polls have found are more liberal than the average person, never even voted in the 2000 presidential election. They didn't think it was worth the effort. If he reached out to those women as aerobically as George W. Bush has to evangelicals, Kerry could be working on his Inaugural speech right now. Instead the Democrats seem to be figuring that most female voters have nowhere else to go.

The Democrats have been accused of this a lot the last few years, but mainly in reference to minority voters. We could make this one a landslide, but Big John is gonna have to reach out to his base with the same fervor that Dinky does to his.

It's the cool thing to do
So by now everyone knows that the man from South Korea, Kim Sun-il, was beheaded, as well as Paul Johnson on Friday, Nick Berg last month and there will obviously be more to come since there were 10 other captured with Kim Sun-il. This is scary shit that is way out of control. What's more, our administration and news media would like to portray these extremists as barbaric and completely devoid of any humanity and the opposite of all that is great about the good old U.S. of A. Which, sounds great until you find out, WE'RE doing or supporting the same shit! It's not too obvious because our news reports it like this:

Four Suspected Taleban Militants Killed in Afghanistan
Afghan military officials say U.S.-led coalition forces and government soldiers have clashed with suspected Taleban rebels in southern Zabul province, killing four of them.

The officials say the fighting occurred late Monday in the Arghandab district of Zabul province after the militants kidnapped and executed an Afghan interpreter and a soldier earlier in the day.

However, if you dig a bit deeper and read how these people were killed, you get a very different story...

Afghans Behead Taliban in Revenge for Beheadings
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Afghan soldiers beheaded four Taliban fighters after guerrillas cut off the heads of an Afghan interpreter for U.S.-led forces and an Afghan soldier, a government commander said on Tuesday.

The interpreter and the soldier were beheaded after becoming separated from a patrol of Afghan and U.S.-led foreign troops in the Arghandab district of the southern province of Zabul on Monday night, Namatullah Tokhi, commander of the government's 27th division in the province, told Reuters.

He said government troops later captured and killed four Taliban guerrillas in the same way.

"They cut off their heads with a knife, so when our forces arrested four Taliban, we cut off their heads too."

Combining the two:

U.S.-led coalition forces and government soldiers have beheaded four Taliban fighters after guerrillas cut off the heads of an Afghan interpreter for U.S.-led forces

Lovely.

It's Not Just a Fad

Sadly, they're just facts of life in the New W. Order.

Afghans behead Taliban in revenge for beheadings

Iraqi Militants Behead S. Korean Hostage

Even though the media has stopped counting...

14 coalition troops killed in the last 7 days, including 5 today...

Hersh Strikes Again, pt. 2

A few more gems from Hersch's report:

A few days later, the Administration, rattled by the violence and the new intelligence, finally attempted to change its go-it-alone policy, and set June 30th as the date for the handover of sovereignty to an interim government, which would allow it to bring the United Nations into the process. “November was one year before the Presidential election,” a U.N. consultant who worked on Iraqi issues told me. “They panicked and decided to share the blame with the U.N. and the Iraqis.”

A former White House official depicted the Administration as eager—almost desperate—late this spring to install an acceptable new interim government in Iraq before President Bush’s declared June 30th deadline for the transfer of sovereignty. The Administration turned to Lakhdar Brahimi, the United Nations special envoy, to “put together something by June 30th—just something that could stand up” through the Presidential election, the former official said.

The Saban Center’s Flynt Leverett said of the transfer of sovereignty, “If it doesn’t work, there is no fallback—nothing.” The former senior American intelligence official told me, similarly, that “the neocons still think they can pull the rabbit out of the hat” in Iraq. “What’s the plan? They say, ‘We don’t need it. Democracy is strong enough. We’ll work it out.’”

Clear cut evidence that this Administration lives in a vacuum. Instead of spinning politics to defend their policies, Bush & co. actually create policies strictly for its political potential. Instead of making the real world fit to live in, the Bushies rape reality so that they can polish their image on Fox News . It is a bizarre reverse-thinking; I'm half expecting to see a worm hole open up and the good Spock & Kirk come back from the alternate universe to save us.

Hersh Strikes Again

Ehud Barak, the former Israeli Prime Minister, who supported the Bush Administration’s invasion of Iraq, took it upon himself at this point to privately warn Vice-President Dick Cheney that America had lost in Iraq; according to an American close to Barak, he said that Israel “had learned that there’s no way to win an occupation.” The only issue, Barak told Cheney, “was choosing the size of your humiliation.” Cheney did not respond to Barak’s assessment. (Cheney’s office declined to comment.)

In a series of interviews in Europe, the Middle East, and the United States, officials told me that by the end of last year Israel had concluded that the Bush Administration would not be able to bring stability or democracy to Iraq, and that Israel needed other options. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s government decided, I was told, to minimize the damage that the war was causing to Israel’s strategic position by expanding its long-standing relationship with Iraq’s Kurds and establishing a significant presence on the ground in the semi-autonomous region of Kurdistan. Several officials depicted Sharon’s decision, which involves a heavy financial commitment, as a potentially reckless move that could create even more chaos and violence as the insurgency in Iraq continues to grow.

The whole story.

Reaching More People

Ludis is pleased to announce, in our all inclusive nature, that Ludis is now available in Latin. In our never ending quest to expose the right-wing, you can now read our diatribes in the language of Ancient Rome and the Vatican.
Have fun.

*UPDATE*
12:21 pm

Due to funding constraints and limited readership, the Latin Ludis website has been scrapped. We're sorry for this inconvenience.

WHOA!

I hope it's true:

ORLANDO, Fla. -- Orlando Magic general manager John Weisbrod said Monday that contract discussions with Tracy McGrady have failed, and the Magic will pursue trading options for the star player.

Team sources told the Orlando Sentinel Monday that a three-way trade was being discussed with the Houston Rockets and the Portland Trailblazers. The deal would likely involve McGrady going to Portland, with Shareef Abdur-Rahim, Ruben Patterson, and the no. 13 and no. 22 pick to Orlando, and Eric Piatkowski would also be shipped to the Magic, with Houston receiving undisclosed second round draft picks. Though details were yet to be finalized, one source in the Magic team office called the deal "imminent".

T-Mac to the blazers, now all we need is Shaq!

You've got to Be Kidding Me

Bradbury: Change 'Fahrenheit' title

Ray Bradbury is demanding an apology from filmmaker Michael Moore for lifting the title from his classic science-fiction novel "Fahrenheit 451" without permission and wants the new documentary "Fahrenheit 9/11" to be renamed.

"He didn't ask my permission," Bradbury, 83, told The Associated Press on Friday. "That's not his novel, that's not his title, so he shouldn't have done it."

The 1953 novel, widely considered Bradbury's masterpiece, portrays an ugly futuristic society in which firemen burn homes and libraries in order to destroy the books inside and keep people from thinking independently.

"Fahrenheit 451" takes its title from the temperature at which books burn. Moore
has called "Fahrenheit 9/11" the "temperature at which freedom burns."

Have the firemen from "451" gotten to Bradbury?