Prepare yourselves for all kinds of anti-Islam vitriol in the coming days and weeks; stuff that will likely dwarf anti-teabagger sentiments and provide some sort of twisted justification for prolonging our military's stay in Iraq and Afghanistan.

-On a more upbeat note, Will Wilkinson maintains that Maine was just a hiccup:

"My new dog groomer has a husband. He told me so Tuesday afternoon. We live in Iowa where, since April of this year, a man can legally marry a man. Since May, it has been possible in Maine to do the same. Or it was until Tuesday, when a slim majority of Maine voters chose to repeal their state’s new same-sex marriage law. Some conservatives are elated. Over at National Review, Maggie Gallagher was dancing a jig. "The People have exercized [sic] their veto. This is huge. I am so happy," she gushed. But traditionalists shouldn’t be so happy. Because this is not so huge. My dog groomer still has a husband. And marriage equality is coming back to Maine."

-Erik Wemple's "Final Thoughts on Allen v. Roig-Franzia" is a worthwhile read, and not just for the gratuitous cock-sucking references.

- The National Journal reports that the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a leading conservative think tank which prides itself on rejecting any sort of government approach to environmental preservation, is in the red:

But this year, amidst economic turmoil, contributions are down 15 per cent and the group is running a deficit of roughly 10 per cent, Smith told National Journal's Under The Influence. That comes to about $450,000 worth of red-ink--though some sources suggest the hole may be deeper. Smith says the group's reserves have cushioned the loss and that he has seen an uptick in fundraising recently.

This kind of financial upset isn't just common in the think tank community--the American Enterprise Institute, home of the Iraq War, faced calamity earlier this year--it also gives layers of meaning to the phrase "currency of ideas."

-To bring us back full circle, The Agitator has the link to a series of ACLU video profiles of "Gitmo prisoners detained, tortured, and then released without charge." Proving, once again, that sick shit begets sick shit.

1.) In a column titled, "Medical marijuana is an insult to our intelligence," Lane mocked a woman named Angel Raich, a U.S. Supreme Court plaintiff who said she needed marijuana for a litany of illnesses. Though someone at WaPo has since scrubbed Lane's remarks from the post, this is what he had to say about Raich: that she "might consider a consultation for hypochondria, or perhaps marijuana dependency.”

If I were Lane, I would've had this removed too. Why? Because it looks terrible to first say that, and then have to include a correction wherein you admit that the person you just made fun of "is about to undergo an operation to reduce her Schwannoma, which is a benign brain tumor."

Raich also got in contact with the Marijuana Policy Project. That "benign" brain tumor? Here's how the MPP reported it: "Raich is having highly risky surgery October 28 – surgery that her doctors had originally ruled out because it is too dangerous — because her brain tumor has now become life-threatening."

2.) So, not only did Chuck Lane mock someone with a brain tumor, but then he turned around and painted medical marijuana activists as thugs. The opening line of his follow-up post (the one I blogged about last week) reads like this: "My post about 'medical marijuana' stirred a lot of comments, some of them approving, the vast majority hostile and vituperative -- and one or two actually threatening."

His email to me read: "I thought marijuana was a peaceful drug, but for some reason a lot of its adherents got really verbally violent over my writings."

Look, Chuck. They made a movie about you, so you must realize by now that you're not spouting off in a vacuum, and that regardless of how few of your usual readers are marijuana users, lying* about the effects and support of medical marijuana in the web pages of a nationally respected newspaper is probably going to draw out the whole gang. That's how the Web works, and I think you'd agree--if you weren't on the business end of the pitchfork—that it's a very democratic way to do journalism.

But what's most offensive is your implication that the reaction to your columns (95% of the comments were pro-medical marijuana and anti-Chuck Lane), were somehow out of character; that stoners and potheads are supposed to be peaceful and politically unengaged and quiet and dumb. (Or something.) But you couldn't put us in the category of passionate, politically engaged citizens--we had to be "violent" instead, which plays to an entirely different stereotype, one that casts weed users and advocates as violent criminals.

If you expected that you could write a nasty hit piece with bad facts and escape unnoticed, well...surprise. You can't, because we're watching you, and we'll continue to respond in intelligible, stereotype-defying ways for the foreseeable future/ fo' evah evah.

[*Ed. note: Yes, Chuck, you lied to your readers. If you navigate your way to the MPP's response to your first column, you'll see a bevy of statistics that contradict the few you googled. Among them, this one: "And last year, the American College of Physicians – 124,000 doctors of internal medicine – stated, 'Evidence not only supports the use of medical marijuana in certain conditions but also suggests numerous indications for cannabinoids,' marijuana’s unique, active components."]

Twitter users frequently retweet something--essentially pass it along--without checking the content of the link. My guess is that the magazine assumed Brandee C.'s retweet, since it arrived via Random House, was legit. Brandee C., however, obviously likes to read about books while surfing Japanese porn, and in her/his excitement, confused the links.

I responded to the magazine via twitter, and The Week has since fixed the link, and deleted the original retweet.

Let this be a lesson to us all: Check those links before you retweet.

Do I want to be elated? You betcha. But then I had a total downer moment this morning, courtesy of the Washington Post's Charles Lane. In a post titled "'Medical Marijuana' Is a Trojan Horse," Lane argues that weed has very few medicinal properties and that we're all just using it for recreation, and that that's wrong because it's not honest.

Then he compares the medical case for marijuana to the scientific case for creationism.

For a guy who once edited The New Republic and teaches a class on journalism (yeah, going ad hominem here), Lane has an awfully inconsistent argument.

For starters, he first calls the findings of an American Cancer Society's literature survey "mixed," when they're not...actually...mixed. So, Mr. Lane, let me help you. The proven findings will be highlighted in black. The "possible" findings will be highlighted in red.

First, it found that scientific data indicate that cannabinoids, particularly THC, have some potential to relieve pain, control nausea and vomiting, and stimulate appetite. Cannabinoids probably affect control of movement and memory, but their effects on the immune system are unclear. It found that some of the effects of cannabinoids, such as reduced anxiety, sedation, and euphoria, may be helpful for certain patients and situations and undesirable for others. Based on the many studies reviewed, researchers also found that smoking marijuana delivers harmful substances and may be an important risk factor in the development of lung diseases and certain types of cancer.

Get that, Mr. Lane? There's plenty of evidence of marijuana's medicinal properties, much less for its harms. But what do you say next?

• "This is especially pernicious when it involves selling phony remedies for real diseases (or real drugs for phony diseases)."
• "I don’t know what you call it when a doctor “recommends” smoking a dried plant (perhaps under a brand name like “Afghan Gold Seal”) at a lounge where the dosage and purity of the active ingredient cannot be systematically controlled. It sure doesn’t sound like medicine to me."
• "laws like California’s, which, in practice, permit people to get pot for practically any purported malady under the sun, show that the medical rationale is a cover for recreational use"
• "Or does pot have “no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States” as federal law provides -- and, I would add, the evidence suggests?"

Wait! What does the evidence suggest again?

...have some potential to relieve pain, control nausea and vomiting, and stimulate appetite...some of the effects of cannabinoids, such as reduced anxiety, sedation, and euphoria, may be helpful for certain patients...

So, Chuck Lane, how does it feel to be a highly paid, well respected hack? You do realize, don't you, that Mexico is falling apart over this drug? That the United States locks up mothers and fathers and sons and daughters in cages--FUCKING CAGES, CHUCK--for possession of marijuana? You do realize, too, Chuck, that medical marijuana is cheaper and easier on the body--because there's more than one way to get your nug buzz on--than the immorally over-priced anti-nausea pills that cancer and AIDS patients have to empty out their fucking pockets to afford?

Take it back, Chuck Lane. Or better yet, just shut the fuck up until you have something worthwhile to contribute to the conversation.

More half-rightness after the jump.

So, lots of Rush Limbaugh buzz buzzing around! There's that thing about the NFL, which I refuse to understand because the American Sports Industrial Complex is killing children in Africa by diverting spare American dollars into the pockets of men who eat too much and then run into each other. Then there's that other thing, wherein anchors at ABC and CNN, in classic Ron Burgundy style, parroted to their audiences two "facts" about Limbaugh they read in a book that was copied from Wikipedia:

I mean, let’s face it, we didn’t have slavery in this country for over 100 years because it was a bad thing. Quite the opposite: slavery built the South. I’m not saying we should bring it back; I’m just saying it had its merits. For one thing, the streets were safer after dark.

You know who deserves a posthumous Medal of Honour? James Earl Ray. We miss you, James. Godspeed.

I can't outdo Toby Harnden for eloquent outrage, because Limbaugh is a bastard assclown and defending him is like openly wanting to be canonized. But I can say this: John Huberman very well could be fucked for starting the horrible, no good, untrue rumor of the week. Three years ago, Huberman wrote the book 101 People Who Are Really Screwing America, and god, who knows, possibly copied everything in the book from the free encyclopedia, including the two made-up quotes above. Where is this guy? I smell an exclusive Q&A! Also, why did it take someone this long to dig up those quotes? Probably because Huberman's book was remaindered right after Christmas. BREAKING: I just realized that there will never be another "TK # of People Who Are Screwing up TK" book ever again; thanks to Internet!

Arts stuff: "Hell awaits for illegal file-sharers"; an ape on a crucifix; the FTC responds incoherently to my antagonistic Internet posts!

Introducing: The Belstaff® Che Guevara replica jacket:

Only $795!

Here's a question for you: If your revolutionary themed jacket is tainted by excessive consumerism, are you still celebrating one of history's worst political murderers? Or are you simply a trendy shitbag?

Discuss!

H/t Jonah Goldberg

Incidentally, the Taliban are also disappointed in the Norwegians:

"We have seen no change in his strategy for peace. He has done nothing for peace in Afghanistan," Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told AFP....

"When Obama was elected president, we were hopeful he would keep his promise to bring change. But he brought no change, he has continued the same old strategy as (President George W.) Bush.

I don't mean to further offend the sycophants on the prize committee, but I have to say, the Taliban kinda sorta have a stake in this. Granted, they are shitty and stupid and regressive. But they're also getting bombed and shot by USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA!

USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA!USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA!USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA!USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA!

You know what's got my goat this morning? Ward 7 Councilmember Yvette Alexander's horrendous crusade against single cigar sales. The kids use them to smoke the marijuana, sure. But the kids will smoke out of anything! The cigarette foil, the hollowed-out apples, the dented cans, the Sobe bottles, the garden hoses, the seasonal squash, the hollowed-out hot dogs, the pens, and even the ground! And you know what? A 14-year-old who can score weed and a single cigar knows how to make things happen. Smoking out of the ground will be a cakewalk for these kids!

And the worst thing about Alexander's crusade--the worst!--isn't her nanny instincts, but this horrible, off-the-cuff lie:

"I believe the major source of income at a gas station should be gasoline and the major source of income at a corner store should be nonperishable food items, so I wonder what kind of business they're really in."

Newsflash, councilmember: Despite what you "believe," gas stations DO NOT MAKE MOST OF THEIR MONEY ON GAS. In fact, the sale of gasoline eats into their profit margins in much the same way that a stoner eats into that seasonal squash once it has done him/her right. But I gotta hand it to you; that closing insinuation is brilliant. My next story will be titled, "Gas station owners are using petrol as a front for a MASSIVE BLUNT RUNNING OPERATION."

Yesterday, an Egyptian cab driver picked me up at the corner of Georgia Ave. and Ingraham St. NW., where cab drivers seldom go, and we chatted about Norman Borlaug, the recently deceased father of the Green Revolution, for the entire ride to Adams Morgan. The driver said that Borlaug's death had inspired him to tuck away even more money every month so that he could return to Egypt and make things grow.

This does not happen on WMATA. Operators do not talk to you about how, thanks to agricultural engineering, Eqyptian farmers can finally grow apples.

IN OTHER WORDS: Fuck the medallions/'Feel The Power' of Taxis/(It's A Haiku, Y'all!)

Dear Environmentalists: I know where you're coming from. I grew up playing in cricks and forests, boogie-boarding in roadside ditches filled up to the brim with storm-water runoff, and walking around barefoot. I took nature into my heart, ringworm and everything, ya'll. But it just ain't right to fuck the Midwest like this, if for no other reason than it gets really cold there this time of year:

"The carbon-based free lunch is over," declared Exelon CEO John Rowe, neglecting to mention that his company's free lunch is only beginning. Under the House's climate-change bill, a few utilities—primarily those that have made big bets in renewable and nuclear energy—are poised to clean up once Congress hands them carbon emission credits. The bill sets aside 35% of the free credits for utilities. Exelon and other "renewable" utilities will get a huge piece of that pie.

An internal memo produced by Bernstein Research in June described how Mr. Rowe met with investors to rejoice that the House legislation will allow Exelon to rake in additional revenue—by some estimates, up to $1.5 billion a year. Others will pay for this Exelon privilege, of course—notably, Midwestern customers of traditional coal utilities who will see their energy prices double.

God, I have a headache I'm so angry. Don't get scammed, y'all.

Does this mean that Loza promised someone taxi cab regulation in exchange for money after he knew the regulation was going to be approved regardless of his influence? If so, that's brilliant and appalling. Then again, Graham could be lying his head off. Note to bribe-easy pols, we need more cabs with fewer regulations. Why? Because people need jobs and I NEED RIDES AND NOT THE KIND AT THE CARNIVAL.

The Trans-Siberian Orchestra's remaining fans are over at our new blog, the Arts Desk, sulking and waiting for an apology. I made fun of their nuts, you see, and they're not happy. Also, I am not going to apologize.

For all you bicyclists who can't seem to stop at red lights (urm, that's me as well, so don't shit your lycra), a harrowing story:

After two hours of deliberation, a jury Tuesday found a Denver Police officer not guilty of using excessive force by slamming a man's face into the ground and breaking his teeth, even though the event was caught on videotape.

Heaney, who was riding his bike past Coors Field on his way to see his mother in a hospice, claimed [Officer] Cordova and other undercover police officers pulled him off his bike, kicked, punched and beat him, then slammed his face into the ground, breaking two front teeth. He says all this happened while he was on his stomach about to be handcuffed.

Whole thing here. H/t to Radley Balko.

Good morning, y'all! I'd say, "welcome to a blah blah Freedom Friday," but I'm not really feeling it today. You see, our annual Fall Arts Guide hit the streets yesterday, and that's got me happier than a pig in shit, what with all the blood, sweat, and open weeping I put into it. That also means we're avoiding politics on Freedom Friday today, and instead celebrating fun things that we can all enjoy!

After the jump: IS CHEESE DIP DEEP SOUTHERN? DOES THE DUDE ABIDE?

Nick Rogers did a little documenting of the cheese dip phenomenon in Central Arkansas, and made this:

"In Queso Fever: A Movie About Cheese Dip" from Nick Rogers on Vimeo.

My brother, an Arkansas native, says, "Cheese dip is universal, Velveeta dip is Southern." I love Velveeta dip, even though I always hate myself after eating it. This link, and many other fine ones, came from the OxfordAmerican.com.

One of the things I like to do when I have the apartment to myself is eat multiple bowls of cereal and then feel bloated with milk gas for the rest of the day. The other thing I like to do is watch The Big Lebowski with the subtitles on and take notes. (Did you know that during the scene where the two thugs beat up the Dude in his bathroom {very beginning of the movie}, the Asian thug who pisses on the Dude's rug says, "Ever thus, Lebowski," as he pulls out his dick? How fucking deep is that?)

Anyway, Mariane Combs at Minnesota Public Radio hosted a segment on "Dudeism." I've only listened to the first interview, but I'm hooked and plan on finishing it up today. Y'all should do the same.

Video and a radio episode--that shit should keep y'all covered for a while. Ima eat some cereal. Catch you on the TWI-TAH!

Gerima's film follows Anberber, a displaced Ethopian who studied medicine in Germany with hopes of bringing his skills back home, only return to a country  ravaged by the Marxist dictator Haile Mariam Mengistu.

An interview with Gerima, and venue details, after the jump.

Tonight at 8 p.m. at Avalon Theater, 5612 Connecticut Ave. NW. $30.

"All Hands on Deck," Chief Cathy L. Lanier's unconstitutional excuse for setting up roadblocks and checkpoints, is done--but not because it violated the Fourth Amendment. No, AHOD is dead because "police union officials have long decried the AHODs as essentially a publicity stunt that generate goodwill for politicians at the expense of rank-and-file officers."

Christ almighty: "We'll stop this thing we're doing that's illegal, but only because the people we've asked to do it ARE TIRED OF DOING IT SO MUCH. " If you're disappointed that AHOD is kaput--and at least one of you is--then you obviously never had anything to hide and are probably an incredibly boring person.  The rest of us will be celebrating the return of our right to no unreasonable searches and seizures at an undisclosed location. ORWELLIAN SAPS ARE NOT INVITED.

ACORN workers did a bad, bad thing in Baltimore. Some folks at Big Government (another project by conservative maestro Andrew Breitbart) visited ACORN's offices posing as a pimp and prostitute in search of cheap housing for 13 El Salvadoran girls, who, the BG pair implied, would be underage prostitutes. ACORN had a lot of good ideas for them, including tax evasion. Check out the transcript.

Annnnnd a wingnut from Falls Church brought his shotgun to the Capitol during Obama's health care speech. Look, here's a message from one gun lover to another: We don't need this. "We" as in gun lovers, "we" as in emotionally neutral defenders of the Second Amendment, "we" as in the people who manage to detest big government without scaring other people. I don't think y'all represent the rise of the militia movement, I just think y'all are dumbasses. So cut it out and save that shottie for the gobbler in your backyard back.

Really, the good thing about the blowup was that it drew additional attention to Jones, providing further publicity to the allegation that he is a 9/11 Truther.

Here's Jake Tapper:

Van Jones, the Special Advisor for Green Jobs at the White House Council on Environmental Quality, is Number 46 of the petitioners from the so-called "Truther" movement which suggests that people in the administration of President George W. Bush "may indeed have deliberately allowed 9/11 to happen, perhaps as a pretext for war."

In a statement issued Thursday evening Jones said of "the petition that was circulated today, I do not agree with this statement and it certainly does not reflect my views now or ever."

He did not explain how his name came to be on the petition. An administration source said Jones says he did not carefully review the language in the petition before agreeing to add his name.

Shoe's on the other foot, right? Believing that your country murdered more than 3,000 citizens in order to fuck with gas prices is very similar in its paranoia and emphasis on imagined facts to believing that Pres. Barack Obama is not an American. What's fascinating is that Obama can hire a 9/11 Truther and not be called a traitor, yet any Senate Republican would be dead to rights if he came within 10 feet of bringing a Birther on staff. You know what the Birthers need? Professors.

Sorry for the short roundup, y'all. It's FALL ARTS GUIDE TIME!

Anna Shoup emailed City Paper with news that Alice Swanson's aunt was at the intersection of Connecticut and R streets NW today, where she replaced her niece's memorial ghost bike (which the Department of Public Works removed on Friday) with flowers and a hand-written sign that reads, "Why has the mayor taken the bike?"

The ghost bike memorializing cyclist Alice Swanson has been removed. Swanson was killed at the intersection of Connecticut Avenue and R Street NW on July 8, 2008. The snow-white bike had remained there since shortly after the tragedy.  She was hit by a trash truck while she was riding her bicycle to work.

The bike's removal came in response to complaints from Dupont Circle business owners, according to both Anna Shoup, Swanson's roommate, and the Washington Area Bicyclist Association.

"WABA called me this morning to say that the mayor's office had taken down her ghost bike, pretty much without giving her family and friends time to put together any sort of response," said Shoup. Ghost bikes are supposed to remain in place in perpetuity.

According to Shoup, WABA was able to locate the bike today and confirmed to her that the removal had been ordered by the city. Shoup contacted Swanson's parents today, and learned that they had not heard from the city prior to the removal.

"When we were informed of the decision to remove the bike, we requested some additional time to contact the family to see what their wishes were," said Eric Gilliland, WABA's executive director.

The city told WABA it would until to Monday to act, but this morning, Gilliland found that "the lock had been cut and the bike was removed."

"We were initially told that the Department of Public Works left the bike at La Tomate, but we ended up finding it at Cosi," he added. Both restaurants are located close to the memorial, and Gilliland said neither had complained to the city or asked to have it removed.

When asked if Swanson's family or friends had plans for a new memorial, Shoup said, "We were working on the assumption, perhaps very naively that the ghost bike would remain up as it has in many cities across the country."

Photo by Darrow Montgomery.