The Hollywood Liberal

Kennedy Rushed to Hospital
Sen. Ted Kennedy is hospitalized in Boston, reportedly with symptoms of a stroke, according to CQ Politics.

The Boston Globe notes Kennedy family members “were called this morning and told to rush to Boston.”

Come Saturday Morning: How Does Your Garden Grow?
It’s spring up here in the Northern Hemisphere! With spring comes rains, if we’re lucky (sometimes too much rain, if we’re not lucky), and then flowers. Even in the city we find flowers in the oddest places, such as underneath a stairwell. Even in the city, gardens and farms can grow.

It’s spring up here in the Northern Hemisphere! With spring comes rains, if we’re lucky (sometimes too much rain, if we’re not lucky), and then flowers. Even in the city we find flowers in the oddest places, such as underneath a stairwell.

Even in the city, gardens and farms can grow. More and more cities are turning to CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) groups to repurpose land that once had houses on it. For the soil polluted by industry of the past, non-feed crops like switchgrass are grown for bioremediation and to provide raw materials for biofuels, all without pulling currently arable land out of production for foodstuffs.

So go put on another pot of coffee or tea and then come back and tell me: How does your garden grow?

Ted Kennedy Hospitalized With Stroke Symptoms

Bump and Update(TL): Mass General Hospital is expected to make a statement shortly.

CNN is reporting. Let’s hope he is ok. Our thoughts are with you Senator Kennedy.

Update (TL): News report here.

Justly Married
It was a pretty awesome moment when Gavin Newsom started issuing marriage licenses to same sex couples. There was something exciting about it. People were lining up to get married, and random people all over the internet were sending flowers to the couples in line.

Plenty of my gay and lesbian friends have mixed feelings about marriage being the centerpiece of the gay rights movement, especially as it crowds out everything else. I can understand that, but nonetheless it is in both real and symbolic terms an important step in making gays and lesbians equal under the law.

Newsom’s actions were derided by many at the time as just a stunt. Perhaps it was. But it ultimately led to this week’s ruling. Hopefully California voters don’t bring on the stupid in November and change their constitution.

In 25 years this will all seem so stupid.

The Poblano Effect: Obama Could Score Huge Electoral Victory over McCain
If the huge African-American turnout numbers Obama received in the primaries occurs on Nov. 5, Obama could win 350 electoral votes.

Will Durst: Obama Gets NARAL’s Stamp of Approval
The day after Obama got trounced in West Virginia, he pulled off a major-league liberal endorsement.

Bush Quits Golf, Starts Golo
By zwoof at 2008-05-17LATE NITE ‘TOONINGBush,” This is not golf and this is not polo which is for the elite. This is golo and it’s the most I can do for my country.  Plus, there’s none of them horses around.  I hate horses and ponies too.  Now watch this ….uh whatever it is”
—- link

LeftWord: The Best Liberal Blog Posts

Sen. Kennedy Hospitalized
Sen. Teddy Kennedy (D-MA) rushed to hospital in Boston … “symptoms of a stroke”. Breaking Update: Kennedy reportedly fell ill in Hyannisport and was first taken to a local hospital before being airlifted to Boston. Further Update: More from the…

Senator Kennedy taken to MGH

Senator Kennedy who is 76 years old and very overweight was airlifted to Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH). As far as I can tell no one really has a handle on what is going on. The news media is reporting that Senator Kennedy has symptoms of a stroke whatever that is. (As a physician I get very frustrated with the media’s use of medical language. What is symptoms of a stroke? He couldn’t walk or did he lose feeling on one side of his face. What?)

I pray for his speedy recovery.

Update from the Boston Globe:

Doctors believe that Senator Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts suffered a seizure at his home in Hyannis Port this morning, then a second seizure as he was being transported by helicopter from Cape Cod Hospital to Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, according to an official briefed on the situation.

His condition was unclear early this afternoon, as a special police security detail gathered at Mass. General. Kennedy family members were called this morning and told to rush to Boston, according to sources.

Protests at UC Berkeley law school
BERKELEY — Some 50 protesters, clad in orange jumpsuits and black hoods to emulate the infamous photos of prisoners in Iraq, picketed the Boalt Hall graduation today, demanding that UC Berkeley’s law school fire Professor John Yoo for his reported authorship of the Bush administration’s policies on torture…

U.S. planning big new prison in Afghanistan.
In “a stark acknowledgment that the United States is likely to continue to hold prisoners overseas for years to come,” the New York Times reports today that “the Pentagon is moving forward with plans to build a new, 40-acre detention complex” at the Bagram air base in Afghanistan. As Justin Peters notes at Slate, the […]

In “a stark acknowledgment that the United States is likely to continue to hold prisoners overseas for years to come,” the New York Times reports today that “the Pentagon is moving forward with plans to build a new, 40-acre detention complex” at the Bagram air base in Afghanistan. As Justin Peters notes at Slate, the Times’ article doesn’t reveal until its final paragraphs that “some detainees have been held without charge for more than five years” at the current Bagram detention facility:

Military personnel who know both Bagram and Guantánamo describe the Afghan site, 40 miles north of Kabul, as far more spartan. Bagram prisoners have fewer privileges, less ability to contest their detention and no access to lawyers.

Some detainees have been held without charge for more than five years, officials said. As of April, about 10 juveniles were being held at Bagram, according to a recent American report to a United Nations committee.