McClatchy's top story today tells how a Kuwaiti subcontractor to our old friend KBR has been holding about a thousand men from India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh in warehouses near Bahgdad for three months. These poor guys paid more than $2000 for the privilege of being treated this way.

The story has more heartbreakers in it than I have time to extract, so go read. Just a taste:

A group of about 50 men living in tents about a mile away were even worse off than the men in the warehouses, and they appeared to be victims of human trafficking. They live in huts they built with tarps and pieces of carpet, and said they had no access to food or water.
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One couple with chronic conditions struggles with high premiums and high co-pays

If a picture is worth a thousand words, McClatchy's front page today lays the blame for the current financial crisis at Bill Clinton's feet. Over the headline "Wall Street crisis is culmination of 28 years of deregulation" we see a photo of Bill grinning and giving the thumbs up, captioned "Bill Clinton in 1999 signed legislation that overturned nearly 70 years of regulation of the financial industry."

The commenters strike back with the facts, supported by linky goodness: it was a Republican bill, passed in the Senate on a straight party-line vote with exception of the DINO Hollings.

You know that gesture wherein you put your forefinger sideways in your mouth, puff up your cheeks, push the finger out sharply to make a "pop" noise, then wave finger in the air? Signifies "big whoopin' do" in a rude and vulgar way. I was all ready to do that when I saw this headline...Times Names Public Editor, and since I couldn't click the mouse and raise that finger to the mouth at the same time I clicked first. Good move:

The New York Times today named its next public editor, Clark Hoyt, a former Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter and editor who oversaw the Knight Ridder newspaper chain’s coverage that questioned the Bush administration’s case for the Iraq war.

Hmm. Not to sound like a racetrack tout trying to pick a winner in the Derby but this dude's bloodlines and recent workout times look good.

Interesting that this is the first time I've heard NYT say that "Public Editor" is a time-limited position.