showtime's masters of horror

showtime has a new series called masters of horror. six have aired so far. they are by famous horror directors. some were very good and some were so so. today i watched the sixth and it was outstanding. it's called homecoming. there is an ann coulter-like creature, a cindy sheehan type character, there is a holy roller type (you know the kind) there is a news caster type and there are ZOMBIES. these zombies do not come back to life to eat brains or kill the living. i'm NOT going to say why they do, i don't want to spoil it for anyone. please watch this episode. it's funny too by the way. some good lines get uttered and the story is QUITE PERTINENT. oh if it were only so....................

homecoming

directed by joe dante

help stop the killing of our (connecticut) monk parakeets

i'm surprised i haven't written about this before now. we have some monk parakeets (i just found out about them earlier this year) down by our shore area. i believe a few initially escaped from a shipment thirty years ago. they settled here and stayed here even though they are tropical. i've never seen one, but i may take a trip this weekend. i do NOT want them killed. they are nesting on power lines and transformers. i KNOW this is dangerous, but they do NOT have to be killed. Stop the Reported Gassing of Connecticut's Monk Parakeets Stop the State-Sanctioned Killing of Connecticut's Monk Parakeets stop killing the parrots

c'mon when you hire anna nicole, you KNOW what you're getting

as a matter of fact, i've NEVER heard or seen her act rational EVER Intoxicated Anna Nicole Spurs Live 8 Suit
Charity claims Trimspa welshed on $320,000 promo deal DECEMBER 2--Claiming that an "intoxicated" and "scantily clad" Anna Nicole Smith marred this summer's Live 8 concert in Philadelphia, organizers of the charity fundraiser yesterday sued the Trimspa diet firm for failing to control its erratic spokesmodel and not paying a six-figure promotional fee. According to a federal lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, a copy of which you'll find below, Trimspa agreed to pay Live 8 Productions $320,000 for commercials during the ABC broadcast of the July 2 show and for Smith to be "integrated" into the production. The Live 8 complaint, which seeks in excess of $500,000 in damages, contends that Trimspa not only stiffed the group on the promotional fee, but "to add insult to injury, when Ms. Smith showed up to the Philadelphia concert to be integrated into the ABC broadcast...she was intoxicated and scantily clad in revealing attire that was totally inappropriate for a broadcast that would be seen by millions of people in the United States and then rebroadcast throughout the world." While Smith did eventually appear on the ABC broadcast, the group alleged that she "damaged Live 8's reputation and goodwill in the entertainment industry by her unbecoming and erratic behavior." Live 8, which organized concerts worldwide to coincide with the G8 economic summit, seeks cancellation of African debt and the doubling of aid to the impoverished continent.

i finished watching the ten episodes of family bonds

in addition to what was in the FIRST five episodes, in the next five................you get to see the big fight between the boss and his brother-in-law. you get to meet the boss' mom who appears to have a house in the back of the main house (you know the house where EVERYONE appears to live. the family AND the relations and the NON relations too). her dog is ill and she has to collect a stool sample. you get to see the sister-in-law have MORE plastic surgery and yes, you do get to see her entirely naked. you get to see the wife hire a litte-person cross dressing stripper for the boss. you get to see more nail salon and hair salon gossip. you get to see the nephew date (actually he appears to be a nice guy if you take away the alcohol. i like how he is when he spends time with this three young daughters). you get to see the daughter have her baby (and that baby IS adorable). the ENTIRE clan is in the waiting room too. i don't just mean immediate family either. i mean EVERYONE. that's kinda nice when you think about it. then you get to see the wife and the non-relation go shopping for christmas decorations. the family front yard ends up looking like you KNOW it will look. the last scene is the family palatial estate for christmas dinner and present opening. don't tell anyone, but it reminded me of my family at christmas. i really do recommend this show. another slice of life. they're rough around the edges (hell who isn't) but all seem to love one another. you don't even need to watch the parts where they go out and look for bail jumpers. the BEST parts are the family parts.

a soldier in iraq writes (and writes well)

i found this letter on buzzflash today who in turn got it from the petrelis files blog . i also went to the stars and stripes website for extra verification

War based on a lie
Weapons of mass destruction? I’m still looking for them, and if you find any give me a call so we can justify our presence in Iraq. We started the war based on a lie, and we’ll finish it based on a lie. I say this because I am currently serving with a logistics headquarters in the Anbar province, between the cities of Fallujah and Ramadi. I am not fooled by the constant fabrication of “democracy” and “freedom” touted by our leadership at home and overseas.This deception is furthered by our armed forces’ belief that we can just enter ancient Mesopotamia and tell the locals about the benefits of a legislative assembly. While our European ancestors were hanging from trees, these ancient people were writing algebra and solving quadratic equations. Now we feel compelled to strong-arm them into accepting the spoils of capitalism and “laissez-faire” society. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy watching Britney Spears on MTV and driving to McDonald’s, but do you honestly believe that Sunnis, Shias and Kurds want our Western ideas of entertainment and freedom imposed on them? Think again.I’m not being negative, I’m being realistic. The reality in Iraq is that the United States created a nightmare situation where one didn’t exist. Yes, Saddam Hussein was an evil man who lied, cheated and pillaged his own nation. But how was he different from dictators in Africa who commit massive crimes again humanity with little repercussion and sometimes support from the West? The bottom line up front (BLUF to use a military acronym) is that Saddam was different because we used him as an excuse to go to war to make Americans “feel good” about the “War on Terrorism.” The BLUF is that our ultimate goal in 2003 was the security of Israel and the lucrative oil fields in northern and southern Iraq.Weapons of mass destruction? Call me when you find them. In the meantime, “bring ’em on” so we can get our “mission accomplished” and get out of this mess.
Capt. Jeff Pirozzi Camp Taqaddum, Iraq

it IS frightening what we are exposing our kids to

(when i see wording like what is on this sign, i get the chills. i can't help but think of the nazis-you know ABSOLUTE truth and all)


Right-Wing Rock
Coming soon to a school near you, and at taxpayer expense.
By Brian D. Greer Wednesday, November 16, 2005
First there was Ted Nugent. Then Foghat. (Okay, that was just an ugly rumor.) Now there’s a new right-wing band to vying for the hearts and minds of America ’s youth: Junkyard Prophet.
But, instead of trying to beg its way onto MTV to build its audience, this band is performing directly inside of America’s high schools.
Oh, and the federal government is footing the bill.
That’s right. Over the last few years, a band called Junkyard Prophet (through its youth outreach organization, You Can Run But You Cannot Hide) has been touring across Middle America, spewing its ultra-conservative message at hundreds of school assemblies along the way. And it’s received hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars for its efforts. Armstrong Williams, eat your heart out.
To be fair, unlike the Williams situation or the grossly misleading abstinence education program that the Bush Administration promulgated, there’s no allegation that the federal government is promoting or even tacitly endorsing Junkyard Prophet. Nonetheless, the band’s activities stand as yet another example of the publicly-funded, conservative indoctrination of America’s youth, and someone should put a stop to it...........

update

FINALLY first selectman palmer grew a set and STARTED an investigation. what the hell took him so long?


Allegations Of Threats By Oxford Officer Probed
By TRACY GORDON FOX
Courant Staff Writer
December 1 2005

State police have opened a criminal investigation into whether an Oxford police officer made threats to a former girlfriend and two resident state troopers who supervised him."We have initiated an investigation, and have consulted with the state's attorney," Public Safety Commissioner Leonard C. Boyle said Wednesday. He declined to say anything else about the case.The investigation into Oxford police Cpl. James Burr was initiated this week after a Superior Court judge in Danbury extended a restraining order against Burr for six months. Burr's former girlfriend, Diane Gaudett, testified Monday that Burr, 44, of Prospect, had threatened her, called her 94 times in one weekend and that she was afraid of him. Burr, who has had two other restraining orders filed against him and whose guns have been taken away twice, was suspended with pay this week by Oxford First Selectman August Palmer III, pending the outcome of the state police investigation. Palmer asked the state police to open an internal investigation into Burr's action, Boyle said.For the duration of the restraining order, Burr is not permitted to possess or carry a weapon or work as a police officer. Waterbury State's Attorney John Connelly confirmed that his office is looking into whether a warrant should be signed, but declined to comment further.State Police Union President David LeBlanc said he has been concerned for some time about the safety of his troopers who work with Burr and does not understand why it took so long for the department to react."We were very concerned about the safety of our troopers out there," LeBlanc said. "We went to the agency with our safety concerns. This has been going on for quite some time."The two resident state troopers, Pat Carozza and John Butkevicius, had repeatedly warned Palmer and state police supervisors that Burr was unstable, possibly abusing drugs and potentially violent, according to state police reports about Burr's behavior. Burr, a local officer, is supervised by the resident state troopers, but only Palmer, who by town charter is also the police chief, can hire, fire or discipline him...........

wow my kind of general - peter pace

he sounds fair AND honorable AND moral(not that many aren't, it is just that i don't think many would stand up to rumy in this way). how proud he makes ME!

Top U.S. military officer contradicts his civilian boss
Posted: 11/30/2005 07:00:35
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The nation's top military man, Marine Gen. Peter Pace, said American troops in Iraq have a duty to intercede and stop abuse of prisoners by Iraqi security personnel.
When Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld contradicted Pace, the general stood firm.
Rumsfeld told the general he believed Pace meant to say the U.S. soldiers had to report the abuse, not stop it.
Pace stuck to his original statement.
The unusual exchange occurred during a discussion at a news conference about the relationship between U.S. forces in Iraq and an Iraqi government considered sovereign by the United States.
A questioner asked whether the United States and its allies might be deemed responsible for preventing mistreatment of people under arrest in Iraq, given that the U.S. and its allies train Iraqi forces.
"There are a lot of people involved in this, dozens of countries trying to help train these Iraqi forces. Any instance of inhumane behavior is obviously worrisome and harmful to them when that occurs," Rumsfeld said. "Iraq knows, of certain knowledge, that they need the support of the international community. And a good way to lose it is to make a practice of something that is inconsistent with the values of the international community."..............

once again, i have absolutely NO comment

It's ruled sleep sex
By NATALIE PONA, TORONTO SUN
It wasn't a sexual assault -- it was sleep sex.
In an unusual case in a Scarborough, Ontario, courtroom, Jan Luedecke was acquitted of sexual assault after a judge ruled he was asleep during the attack -- a disorder known as "sexsomnia."
"This is indeed a rare case ... His conduct was not voluntary," said Justice Russell Otter, as Luedecke's victim shook, sobbed and then left the courtroom.
The judgment has outraged women's groups.
"This is infuriating. It's another case of the courts not taking a woman seriously, adding yet another list to the list of excuses which men use for sexual assault," said Suzanne Jay, of the Canadian Association of Sexual Assault Centres.
Luedecke, a 33-year-old landscaper, met his victim at a party on July 6, 2003. Both had been drinking.
WOKE UP HAVING SEX
The woman, who can't be named, had fallen asleep on a couch. She woke up to find him having sex with her. She pushed him off, then reported the rape to police. .............

project annoy your friends and coworkers (for a good cause)

i believe i mentioned this before, but i adopted a deployed soldier. all i have to do is write to him and send him an occasional package. i’ve yet to hear from him by snail mail, but we have exchanged several emails. james (my soldier) keeps apologizing for not writing and i keep telling him i’m sure he has OTHER things on his mind and to please please please not worry about it. he has not told me where he is and i believe i'm not supposed to ask, so i have not. of course i do not discuss politics with him, nor have i given him the site address of this blog. i strongly feel that would NOT be the right thing to do (this gets me started on my jane fonda rant. i had NO problems with her vietnam protests UNTIL she actually went over to north vietnam for a visit. NOT with civilians or health care workers or peace activists either but with the MILITARY powers that be. that to me was over the line and reprehensible. 'nuff said). anyway, i "asked" people at work and some of my friends to write up some holiday cards (christmas, chanukah, kwanzaa or just general ones). they could sign them with their names and addresses and email addresses or just their first names. i am going to stick them all in a package and mail them to james. i’ll ask him to distribute these cards to those serving who may not be getting much or any mail. the cards have been coming in fast and furiously. my co-workers have even gotten their entire families involved; children and in-laws even a brownie troop! they’ll get mailed along with my christmas care package to james on friday. i've asked james what he needs and wants and all he has said so far is 'chocolate'. my first package contained a TON of it along with a bunch of other things like phone cards and toiletries and a pokey (from gumby and pokey of course). he's not yet received it and i'm getting anxious. it won't stop me from sending more though. in james' christmas package, i'll include some dvds (action and horror) a couple of hand held games, some cds (he said he likes most types of music so i've made some executive decisions since he wasn't more specific), some magazines (rolling stone types), MORE chocolate and some torrone (my personal favorite italian candy. i found some wonderful torrone at the brand spanking new whole foods market that opened in my town. the candy is imported and looks homemade. the labels don’t even have an english translation on them. i hope i can wait for christmas to taste mine!

dinos, the bible and the republican party

Dinosaurs, evangelicals and the state
By Justin Webb BBC Washington correspondent
Should the views of the religious right, many of whom are Republican party supporters, be adopted by the US government? In Washington, Justin Webb considers the implications and asks whether politics and religion make a good mix.
We are having dinner at the house of some friends who are supporters of President Bush.
Their five-year-old son, a classmate of our children, takes me upstairs to see his collection of dinosaurs.
Little Meade is a passionate palaeontologist and this is a land of plenty so the room heaves with prehistoric life.
I am suitably impressed, but unknown to Meade I am not here to admire the bone structure of the dinosaurs.
I am in this room on assignment, because in modern America Meade's dinosaurs are at the heart of the travails of a political party and I need to find out something about Meade's parents which will affect our relationship.
I need to know what they told him about when the dinosaurs existed.
Millions of Americans, most of them supporters of the Republican party, believe that the world was created only a few thousand years ago as per the account in Genesis and the dinosaurs can only date from then, so the Tyrannosaurus Rex romped around with Adam and Eve.
In other words these Americans, heirs to every scientific advance in history, deny rational accounts of how the world came to exist.
And Meade's parents - I know his mum teaches Sunday school - might be among them.
I put the question to Meade: "When did the dinosaurs live?"
There is an agonising pause as he considers it. American children are wonderfully earnest and Meade is not going to be rushed.
Eventually he says it is in a book his Dad bought him.
We hunt the tome, find it, open the page and behold a diagram which has been explained to Meade.
It all floods back.
The dinosaurs, he informs me with great authority and aplomb, are millions and millions and millions of years old. I could have hugged him and his parents; we are, after all, inhabiting the same mental planet. .............

they can't drive but................

Two women win in Saudi election

Two Saudi businesswomen have been elected in the kingdom's first ballot in which women were allowed to stand.
Lama al-Suleiman and Nashwa Taher were among 12 successful candidates voted onto the board of Jeddah's chamber of commerce and industry.
The turnout was low and the election was only a local affair, but analysts say it is a significant step.
Earlier this year women were barred from voting or standing in elections for seats on local councils.
"I'm happy, but I'm still in shock," said mother-of-four Mrs Suleiman, 39.
"It's a big leap for Saudi women, an answer to what people want," she told AFP news agency.
Male support
Seventeen women competed with 54 men for seats on the board.
Women voted on Saturday and Sunday, and men on Monday and Tuesday, in line with Saudi restrictions on unrelated men and women mixing in public places.
But the turnout was low among the female electorate, with only 100 women voting compared with about 4,000 men.
That means the women were elected with strong support from their male counterparts.
In general, voting is still a novelty in the kingdom, says BBC analyst Roger Hardy - and for the many Saudis who want reform, progress has been painfully slow.
Eight months after the elections for the all-male municipal councils the councils have yet to meet.
King Abdullah has made the promotion of women in society a priority of Saudi Arabia's 2005-2009 development plan, but the authorities have emphasised it will have to be in line with what they see as the principles of Islam. ..................

dowd to letterman

scene: last night - letterman talking to dowd and asking her to help explain the novak, miller, woodward, covert agent (treasonous) fiasco. dowd says something to the effect, dave, you’ll only have to remember two words; CHENEY’S GUILTY. Put a smile on my face it did!

i know al franken made mincemeat of her

when they were at the bushnell a while ago. however, he won't be there this time if she does speak at uconn. well for that matter, NEITHER WILL I

"It's not that she's a Republican. It's her reputation as a hate promoter,"

Coulter's UConn Invitation Opposed
By GRACE E. MERRITT
Courant Staff Writer November 30 2005

STORRS -- Conservative Ann Coulter hasn't even stepped foot on the UConn campus, but her scheduled appearance there next week has already stirred up students.Her speaking engagement Dec. 7 and the student government's decision to spend $16,000 to bring her to campus have spawned letters to the editor and an editorial in the student newspaper and have prompted some students to plan an alternative event called "Stop the Hate."The UConn College Republicans invited Coulter, a nationally known political commentator and author, as part of their mission to bring conservative speakers to the University of Connecticut and to promote conservative thought on campus."We're here at college to hear everything and challenge everything. Having a speaker like Ann Coulter lets us do that," said Kareem Mohni, 19, of New Milford, spokesman for the UConn College Republicans."Most universities are very liberal and most professors are very liberal. This is not a criticism, it's just a fact of being at a university. The idea here is that it will inspire discussion among students," Mohni said.But some students on campus said Coulter is a "hateful" speaker and fear she will marginalize certain student groups."I guess my problem is the amount of money - spending all that money on a speaker who in the past has said such awful things," said Eric Knudsen, 19, of Deep River, who has helped organize "Stop the Hate," an event after Coulter's talk that aims to celebrate diversity and promote acceptance."We're not protesting. We just feel there is nothing to balance Ann Coulter. It sounds touchy-feely, but it's not like that. It's just different representations," Knudsen said..........

link to the uconn student paper letters to the editor

a lil' somethin somethin else on joe-joe

Feel the Joementum!
Time magazine Baghdad bureau chief Michael Ware on Morning Sedition this morning:
I and some other journalists had lunch with Senator Joe Lieberman the other day and we listened to him talking about Iraq. Either Senator Lieberman is so divorced from reality that he's completely lost the plot or he knows he's spinning a line. Because one of my colleagues turned to me in the middle of this lunch and said he's not talking about any country I've ever been to and yet he was talking about Iraq, the very country where we were sitting.

now i'm going to have to listen to her cd!

great letter via buzzflash from consuelo luz (don't you just LOVE her name???)

Media of Oz
A BUZZFLASH GUEST CONTRIBUTION by Consuelo Luz
Hi Folks,
I'm a regular reader of BuzzFlash (and Tony Peyser just reviewed my CD "Missing Water" for BuzzFlash). The following is a letter I wrote to NBC Chairman Bob Wright in response to his comment to Tucker Carlson at a recent media conference that one of the reasons TV is right-leaning is that "liberals don't watch TV".
* * *
Dear Mr. Wright,
Your comment to Tucker Carlson that liberals don't watch TV and that's why your shows are right-leaning is ludicrous. First of all, I would watch more TV if it contained intelligent, unbiased truth-telling programs and was not the right wing and corporate propaganda machine it has turned into. I tune in occasionally now just to be informed of the dangerously slanted view of the world you are spreading to the unsuspecting folk.
TV is doing a disservice and harm to the millions of uninformed viewers who are under the impression they are getting a fair and balanced view. That leaves them unable to make intelligent decisions which will affect their, their families' and their communities' lives. This generation of media moguls will go down in infamy in the history of this country. You have helped destroy this country and no ludicrous excuses like "liberals don't watch TV" is going to change that. Why don't you just tell the people the truth and just get it over with? Tell the people that their "beloved President Ronald Reagan," a true agent of the corporate world, started selling them out of the truth when he deregulated media and made it possible for the mergers and the selling of America's publicly owned airwaves that have created a centrally controlled corporate mainstream media which serves only the bottom line and the handful of financial masters who control it and the marriage of these with the political party who slavishly does their bidding so that they will do likewise.............

my new favorite tv show

i'm addicted. i discovered it yesterday and i watched five episodes. i'm going to attempt to watch the other five today. it's about an extended family of bail bondsmen (and women) and bounty hunters on longgggggggggg island. they are loud, they are pierced and tattooed and swear and drink like sailors. the women have big hair and big breastesesesesesesesese. they seem to spend an awful lot of time at the nail and beauty salon. they wear TIGHT belly shirts (and are proud of it). the men smoke and are strapped (i think). the heads of the family, tom and flo talk about having sex five times a day. the nephew chris is ummmmmmmm a firecracker who seems to be going off every second or two. one son just turned 18 and he got tattooed and a party (with liquor) and a job with his pops. they all (the sisters and cousins and in-laws all seem to live together or at least spend one hell of a LOT of time sleeping over at the evangelista palatial estates). it's so hard to describe. you just HAVE to see it to believe it. makes me proud (roflmao) to be eye-talian

more on the big dick

from intervention magazine

When Dick Cheney gave President Bush distorted pre-war intelligence it was more than a simple lie to advance a war, it was the “noble lie” necessary when superiors are inferior. By Scott O'Reilly Dick Cheney’s 19% approval rating makes him about as popular as an IRS agent at a bingo parlor. Cheney may have even one less admirer these days -- the president himself. The reason is both simple and compelling: the man Bush relied on to provide him with unvarnished advice may have buffed up the intelligence reaching Bush so that the president would reach a pre-determined conclusion. In other words, Cheney provided the president with information and advice that favored war while suppressing intelligence that might have led the president to reach a different conclusion.This would fit a well-established pattern with Bush going back to his days as the governor of Texas. As reported in Vanity Fair, Alberto Gonzales provided then-governor Bush with one-sided and wholly inadequate death penalty briefs upon which Bush was asked to make life and death clemency decisions. Similarly, as Stephen Hall reports in his book Merchants of Immortality, Bush was inadequately briefed on the merits of stem cell research; the president listened to two ethicists on different sides of the political spectrum, but both opposed stem cell research. Unfortunately, Bush, who has boasted he doesn’t read newspapers or follow the media, has put himself at the mercy of advisors who may have an agenda.............

i am stunned

that NO investigation has taken place regarding officer burr. if i lived in oxford, i'd protest the actions of firstselectman palmer. what the hell is HE thinking? one police officer was just murdered by her state trooper ex-boyfriend a week and a half ago. do we need ANOTHER murder to believe domestic violence exists? hell, burr allegedly threatened his state trooper supervisors (who took some incredible action i must add. applause to THEM BOTH). HEY PALMER, WHAT IF HE WAS THE EX OF ONE OF YOUR DAUGHTERS? i'm not saying he's guilty. i don't know. all i am saying is an investigation appears to be warranted

Judge Orders Cop Off Job Acts After Troopers' Complaints, Three Restraining Orders

By TRACY GORDON FOX
Courant Staff Writer
November 29 2005
Oxford Police Cpl. James Burr has had three restraining orders filed against him by two women and has been suspended from duty and had his guns taken away twice. Two state troopers who supervise him say they think he's dangerous and fear he will hurt them or someone else. But it took a court appearance Monday by a former girlfriend to ensure Burr would not be returning to work or carrying any firearm for six months. "I feel my safety is in jeopardy and I feel scared of him," Burr's former girlfriend, Diane Gaudet, said Monday to Judge Deborah Frankel in Danbury Superior Court. Frankel agreed to extend the restraining order Gaudet filed on Nov. 18 for another six months, during which time Burr, 44, of Prospect, cannot work as a police officer. Oxford First Selectman August Palmer III was going to allow Burr to return to work, over objections from Resident State Troopers Pat Carozza and John Butkevicius, who supervise Burr. They repeatedly warned Palmer and state police supervisors that Burr was unstable, possibly abusing drugs, and potentially violent, and asked for an investigation, according to state police reports about Burr's behavior. Resident state troopers supervise local officers in towns where there is no independent police department, but they don't have hiring and firing capabilities. Palmer, who by town charter is also the town's police chief, took no action against Burr, and the state police administration declined to conduct an internal affairs investigation, despite the fact that Burr had made threatening statements to his ex-girlfriend and the troopers, records show. Palmer would say only that it was a personnel matter and "a personality problem" between Burr and the state troopers.Public Safety Commissioner Leonard C. Boyle said that state police were taking the matter seriously but they cannot hire, fire or discipline a local officer. "We don't have as much ability to address it [when it is a local officer], but that doesn't mean we ignore it," Boyle said.Victims' advocates say the case is an example of how police are often slow to react in domestic abuse cases when one of their own is involved, and that more training is needed."Domestic violence should be seen as any other crime," said Lisa Holden, executive director of the Connecticut Coalition Against Domestic Violence. Monday's hearing came one week after State Trooper Victor Diaz fatally shot his former girlfriend, Newington Police Officer Ciara McDermott, and then killed himself.Burr, a U.S. Marine Corps veteran, has been a local police officer for 19 years. Besides his service weapon, he owns many firearms that have been confiscated as part of the restraining orders............

i really do think sacha baron cohen is a genius

it makes me VERY uncomfortable to watch da ali g show, but man oh man what interviews he has done as ali, the german gay dude AND borat. i don't know how i feel about borat being from kazakhstan. perhaps mr cohen could have chosen a made-up land instead. what i AM going to justify is his singing of 'throw the jew down the well' (as borat). it is my opinion mr cohen was MAKING A POINT. A VERY UGLY POINT, but a POINT. he went into some red-neck bar (oh ok, i'll use the term rural instead) - he went into some RURAL bar in arizona i believe (it could be another state so don't quote me on that) as borat. he got up to the mik and asked to sing a "folk song from his country". by the second verse EVERYONE in the bar was singing along with him PROVING people ain't so nice after all. the lyrics certainly were anti-semitic and nasty and hurtful. no one in the audience batted an eyelash under their cowboy hats. they LOVED that song. are people racist and anti semitic and prejudiced? oh yes they are and they are you and me.

Take That, Borat: Kazakhstan Runs 4-Page Ad Section in 'N.Y. Times'
By E&P Staff Published: November 28, 2005 12:05 PM ET
NEW YORK As if responding to the escalating battle with famed TV personality Borat Sagdiyev, a character on HBO's "Da Ali G Show," the Kazakhstan government today published a four-page advertising section in The New York Times. The section, titled, "Kazakhstan in the 21st Century," carried testimonials to its oil production, its democracy, education system, and purported "power and influence" of women.The feud has been simmering for the past year, after Borat and his frank depictions of life in his homeland (where, he claims, gypsies are still hunted for sport and women rank somewhere below farm animals in the pecking order) gained wide popularity in both the U.S. and the U.K. He also wrote the popular folk song, “Throw the Jew Down the Well.” A feature length film, “Borat: The Movie,” is currently in production.Many, for some reason, suspect Borat is actually comic Sacha Baron Cohen, who plays Ali G.The latest round of charges began this month when Borat appeared on an MTV awards show in Europe accompanied by a drunken, one-eyed Kazakh pilot and mentioned the joys of shooting dogs. (He also suggested that Madonna was a transvestite.) He signed off with: "To the world, I love you, apart from Uzbekistan, a--holes."A Kazakh foreign ministry official responded: "We view Mr. Cohen's behavior at the MTV Europe Music Awards as utterly unacceptable, being a concoction of bad taste and ill manners, which is completely incompatible with ethics and civilized behavior." He added: "We do not rule out [the possibility] Mr Baron-Cohen is serving someone's political order designed to present Kazakhstan and its people in a derogatory way.” A lawsuit was mentioned.Borat fired back at his Web site, http://www.borat.kz/, with this statement:"I like to state I have no connection with Mr. Cohen and fully support my government's decision to sue this Jew.........

this dude is my senator

i voted for him, but i swear i will NEVER make that mistake again. i will NEVER EVER VOTE FOR LIEBERMAN AGAIN. what the hell world is HE living on. signs that life is returning to 'normal' in iraq because people are using cell phones?


Lieberman 'encouraged' by Iraq visit
By Andrew Miga, Associated Press Writer November 29, 2005
WASHINGTON --Sen. Joe Lieberman, fresh from a two-day visit to Iraq over the Thanksgiving holiday, said Monday he was hopeful U.S. forces could begin a "significant" withdrawal by the end of next year or in 2007.
"The country is now in reach of going from Saddam Hussein to self-government and, I'd add, self-protection," the Connecticut Democrat said in a conference call with reporters. "That would be a remarkable transformation ... I saw real progress there."
Lieberman, one of the most hawkish Democrats in the Senate, said the effectiveness of Iraqi security forces and the ability of a new Iraqi government to rule after the Dec. 15 elections are critical factors in determining when U.S. troops could come home. But if all goes well, he foresees a pullout beginning a year from now.
"If Iraqi forces continue to gain the confidence the American military sees there now ... We will be able to draw down our forces," he said.
Lieberman has visited Iraq four times in 17 months. He said there are signs life is returning to normal, including a profusion of cell phones and satellite TV dishes on rooftops.
"About two-thirds of the country is in really pretty good shape," he said, noting most attacks are in the so-called "Sunni Triangle" region. "Overall, I came back encouraged."
Lieberman said he hopes President Bush's speech Wednesday night will give a clearer picture to the American public of the progress being made in the war.
"It's time for some details," said Lieberman. "He's gotta describe some of the progress that I saw there. It's gotta be realistic."
U.S. military officials told him they hope that by next year, two-thirds of Iraq's military will be able to carry the fight to insurgents with limited logistical support from U.S. forces. Lieberman said U.S. commanders had learned from their early mistakes and were successfully pursuing a "clear-hold-build" strategy against rebel forces.
He cautioned, however, that "prematurely" pulling out U.S. forces would jeopardize the ...........

more on moyers (i've always had a secret crush on him)

i think it is his voice that does it to me
Moyers Has His Say
Former Now host on media bias and his feud with former CPB Chairman Ken Tomlinson
By John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable, 11/28/2005
Bill Moyers became the central figure in absentia in the controversy surrounding former Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) Chairman Kenneth Tomlinson. It was Tomlinson who pointed to Moyers' Now newscast on PBS as a chief reason for his efforts to bring “balance” to public broadcasting by adding conservative shows. Moyers has since left Now and is currently president of the Schumann Center for Media & Democracy. He spoke with B&C's John Eggerton in the wake of a CPB Inspector General report concluding Tomlinson had violated the law by dealing directly with a programmer during the creation of a show to balance Moyers' program.
You are the exemplar of liberal PBS bias, according to Ken Tomlinson. Was your show liberally biased?
Right-wing partisans like Tomlinson have always attacked aggressive reporting as liberal.
We were biased, all right—in favor of uncovering the news that powerful people wanted to keep hidden: conflicts of interest at the Department of Interior, secret meetings between Vice President Cheney and the oil industry, backdoor shenanigans by lobbyists at the FCC, corruption in Congress, neglect of wounded veterans returning from Iraq, Pentagon cost overruns, the manipulation of intelligence leading to the invasion of Iraq.
We were way ahead of the news curve on these stories, and the administration turned its hit men loose on us.
Tomlinson actually told The Washington Post that he was irate over one of our documentary reports from a small town in Pennsylvania hard-hit by outsourcing.
If reporting on what's happening to ordinary people thrown overboard by circumstances beyond their control and betrayed by Washington officials is liberalism, I stand convicted.
It is an old canard of right-wing ideologues like Tomlinson to equate tough journalism with liberalism. They hope to distract people from the message by trying to discredit the messenger.
Now threw the fear of God into Tomlinson's crowd because they couldn't dispute the accuracy of our reporting.
And when we weren't reporting the truth behind the news, we were interviewing a wide variety of people: Ralph Reed and Ralph Nader; Cal Thomas and Molly Ivins; Robert Bartley, editor of the Wall Street Journal; Katrina Vandenheuval, editor of The Nation; The Conservative Union's David Keene; Dorothy Rabinowitz (also of the Wall Street Journal); Charles Lewis of the Center for Public Integrity; the Club for Growth's Stephen Moore; historian Howard Zinn; and Indian activist Arundhati Roy. And on and on.............

if anyone thinks WE didn't help start this civil war

they are sadly misled or mistaken or misinformed OR stupid. how sad is this? yeah the country was effed up before we even got there, but we just keep throwing firebombs into the mix (literally AND figuratively). we have NO right to be there. the man is getting richer while our men and women are dying and getting maimed. and of course, THIS is what is happening to the people of iraq----------------

Sunnis Accuse Iraqi Military of Kidnappings and Slayings
By DEXTER FILKINS
BAGHDAD, Iraq, Nov. 28 - As the American military pushes the largely Shiite Iraqi security services into a larger role in combating the insurgency, evidence has begun to mount suggesting that the Iraqi forces are carrying out executions in predominantly Sunni neighborhoods.
Hundreds of accounts of killings and abductions have emerged in recent weeks, most of them brought forward by Sunni civilians, who claim that their relatives have been taken away by Iraqi men in uniform without warrant or explanation.
Some Sunni men have been found dead in ditches and fields, with bullet holes in their temples, acid burns on their skin, and holes in their bodies apparently made by electric drills. Many have simply vanished.
Some of the young men have turned up alive in prison. In a secret bunker discovered earlier this month in an Interior Ministry building in Baghdad, American and Iraqi officials acknowledged that some of the mostly Sunni inmates appeared to have been tortured.
Bayan Jabr, the interior minister, and other government officials denied any government involvement, saying the killings were carried out by men driving stolen police cars and wearing police and army uniforms purchased at local markets. "Impossible! Impossible!" Mr. Jabr said. "That is totally wrong; it's only rumors; it is nonsense."
Many of the claims of killings and abductions have been substantiated by at least one human rights organization working here - which asked not to be identified because of safety concerns - and documented by Sunni leaders working in their communities. .....

i'm sorry they have to hide. i'm even sorrier

someone turned them in.

Gay Arabs may face hormone injections
JIM KRANE Associated Press
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates - More than two dozen gay Arab men -- arrested at what police called a mass homosexual wedding -- could face government-ordered hormone treatments, five years in jail and a lashing, authorities said Saturday.
The Interior Ministry said police raided a hotel chalet this month and arrested 22 men from the Emirates as they celebrated the wedding ceremony.
The men are likely to be tried under Muslim law on charges related to adultery and prostitution, said Interior Ministry spokesman Issam Azouri.
Outward homosexual behavior is banned in the United Arab Emirates, and the wedding has alarmed leaders of the Muslim country as it grapples with an influx of Western culture.
Police acting on a tip raided the hotel and found a dozen men dressed as female brides and a dozen others in male Arab dress.
On Friday, a government official called on parents to be vigilant for "deviant" behavior.
The 26 men arrested have been questioned and were undergoing psychological evaluations Saturday. Azouri said the Interior Ministry's department of social support will try to direct the men away from homosexual behavior, using methods including male hormone injections.

this story is for you jean

'Crazy for Lego' man steals thousands of setsBy Rukmin Callimachi Portland, Oregon -

A 40-year-old man is behind bars, accused of stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars of Lego sets.William Swanberg was indicted on Wednesday by a Washington County grand jury on two counts of felony theft and one count of attempted felony theft.Swanberg - who is being held on $250 000 (about R1,6-million) bail - allegedly stole Lego sets from Target stores in Oregon by switching the bar codes on the boxes, covering over the pricing labels of expensive sets with labels from inexpensive ones, said Detective Troy Dolyniuk, a member of the Washington County fraud and identity theft enforcement team.Target, a discount retailer, estimates that Swanberg stole, and then resold on the Internet, up to $200 000 worth of the multi-coloured brick sets which authorities claim he pilfered from Target stores in Oregon, as well as Utah, Arizona, Nevada and California.US Postal Service agents who searched Swanberg's Reno, Nevada, home had to use a 6m truck to haul away all the sets they found at the residence.Target officials contacted police after noticing the same pattern at their stores in the five states...........

a man looking for honor finds death instead

A Journey That Ended in Anguish
Col. Ted Westhusing, a military ethicist who volunteered to go to Iraq, was upset by what he saw. His apparent suicide raises questions. By T. Christian Miller Times Staff Writer November 27, 2005

"War is the hardest place to make moral judgments." Col. Ted Westhusing, Journal of Military Ethics* WASHINGTON — One hot, dusty day in June, Col. Ted Westhusing was found dead in a trailer at a military base near the Baghdad airport, a single gunshot wound to the head. The Army would conclude that he committed suicide with his service pistol. At the time, he was the highest-ranking officer to die in Iraq. The Army closed its case. But the questions surrounding Westhusing's death continue. Westhusing, 44, was no ordinary officer. He was one of the Army's leading scholars of military ethics, a full professor at West Point who volunteered to serve in Iraq to be able to better teach his students. He had a doctorate in philosophy; his dissertation was an extended meditation on the meaning of honor. So it was only natural that Westhusing acted when he learned of possible corruption by U.S. contractors in Iraq. A few weeks before he died, Westhusing received an anonymous complaint that a private security company he oversaw had cheated the U.S. government and committed human rights violations. Westhusing confronted the contractor and reported the concerns to superiors, who launched an investigation. In e-mails to his family, Westhusing seemed especially upset by one conclusion he had reached: that traditional military values such as duty, honor and country had been replaced by profit motives in Iraq, where the U.S. had come to rely heavily on contractors for jobs once done by the military. His death stunned all who knew him. Colleagues and commanders wondered whether they had missed signs of depression. He had been losing weight and not sleeping well. But only a day before his death, Westhusing won praise from a senior officer for his progress in training Iraqi police. His friends and family struggle with the idea that Westhusing could have killed himself. He was a loving father and husband and a devout Catholic. He was an extraordinary intellect and had mastered ancient Greek and Italian. He had less than a month before his return home. It seemed impossible that anything could crush the spirit of a man with such a powerful sense of right and wrong. On the Internet and in conversations with one another, Westhusing's family and friends have questioned the military investigation. A note found in his trailer seemed to offer clues. Written in what the Army determined was his handwriting, the colonel appeared to be struggling with a final question. How is honor possible in a war like the one in Iraq?...............

movie review - the mists of avalon

i just finished watching the mists of avalon. i have the book somewhere, but i’ve not yet read it. the movie was lovely, beautiful. the clothing was ethereal and garments i would choose to wear. julianna margulies, anjelica huston and joan allen were the three female leads. julianna is one of THE most beautiful women i have ever seen (yeah, even though she did er, i won’t hold it against her. after all, she did a movie entitled traveller), there are few words I wish to use to describe angelica. she is in my top five of actresses. if you’ve not see the movie agnes browne, DO SO. however, joan allen startled me with her performance, especially toward the end of the movie (it’s long, three hours, but I believe it was a tv miniseries). she just downright blew me away.

the mists tells the story of camelot, king arthur and avalon from the eyes of morgan le fey, the character's name is actually morgaine. (by the way, the morrighan is my goddess. I hold her near and dear to me. she is even inked on my body. somewhere along the line the morrighan lost her goddess self and became morgain). she is in no way evil. morgaine was trying to save her land from the saxon invasions and to live in harmony with the christians, each to their own. obviously, it just was not meant to be.

i did have fault with the accentuation on christianity. how it took over (not the land, that is a fact, but took over the movie) and how it was (in my eyes of course) proposed to be the TRUE GOOD religion. maybe i misinterpreted, i will just have to read the book.

on the whole i recommend it. not only is it fem-based but as i said, it’s lovely to watch. the battle scenes don’t overwhelm either. i do have problems with that (as an example the clive owen king arthur had WAY too much fighting. but clive is fine to look at plus the man can act. I just fast forwarded through the battles). perfect casting choices, lovely costumes and damn fine story. the end of one and the dawning of another age

the mists of avalon by marion zimmer bradley

if it's not on tv, it isn't real

“‘There's a dearth of seriousness in the coverage of news, at a time when, in my view, it couldn't be more serious.’—Christiane Amanpour”

While We Were Sleeping
Where Was the Media Between Invasion and Murtha? Networks Gave Vietnam War Twice the Minutes Iraq Gets; Baghdad Bureaus Cut Back; Amanpour: ‘Patronizing’

By Rebecca Dana, Lizzy Ratner


On the morning of Aug. 3, 1965, a 33-year-old CBS correspondent named Morley Safer, in fatigues and with a bulky recording contraption on his hip, stood in Cam Ne, Vietnam, before a backdrop of burning thatch-roof huts. He clutched a battered metal microphone. Moments earlier, a unit of baby-faced American soldiers had set the huts on fire. Young women ran wailing, cradling babies; an elderly man hobbled toward Mr. Safer, pleading in Vietnamese.

“This is what the war in Vietnam is all about, the old and the very young,” Mr. Safer said, turning to face the camera.

Forty years later, the United States is in a desert war, transmitted instantly by satellite and broadband. There are no boundaries on our technical capabilities to cover events.

But there are other limits—commercial, political, editorial. And they have kept the war in Iraq marginal in the American media, from soon after the initial invasion in the spring of 2003 till last week, when Representative John Murtha hurled it back into the spotlight.

While Vietnam is remembered as the television war, Iraq has been the television-crawl war: a scrolling feed of bad-news bits, pushed to the margins by Brad and Jen, Robert Blake, Jacko and two and a half years of other anesthetizing fare. Americans could go days on end without engaging with the war, on TV or in print.

“There’s a dearth of seriousness in the coverage of news,” said veteran war correspondent Christiane Amanpour, “at a time when, in my view, it couldn’t be more serious.”

• Dead troops are invisible. The Bush administration’s ban on capturing flag-draped coffins is echoed in the press’ overall treatment of American war dead. A May 2005 survey by the Los Angeles Times found that over a six-month span, a set of leading United States newspapers and magazines ran “almost no pictures” of Americans killed in action, and they ran only 44 photos of wounded Westerners...........

this is NOT MY america

A Nation Under God Let others worry about the rapture: For the increasingly powerful Christian Reconstruction movement, the task is to establish the Kingdom of God right now—from the courthouse to the White House.
John Sugg November/December 2005 Issue
TRINITY CHAPEL in suburban Atlanta’s Cobb County is hardly the picture of a revolutionary outpost. It’s a stylishly modern Church of God—a denomination that, though conservative, is certainly mainstream. Parishioners are drawn from a community whose average income is a comfortable 35 percent above the national norm, whose tree-lined country roads intersect McMansion subdivisions. If Norman Rockwell were painting suburban sprawl, he’d likely pick Cobb County.
On a Friday last April, Trinity’s parking lot filled with SUVs and luxury sedans as about 400 faithful gathered inside the sanctuary. The church was host to Restore America, a rally to “celebrate faith and patriotism” sponsored by Christian publisher American Vision. In the lobby, neatly blue-blazered youths were hawking So Help Me God, Roy Moore’s account of his dethroning as chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court. Tables were piled with textbooks for homeschoolers, tomes denouncing evolution, booklets waxing nostalgic for the antebellum South. That afternoon the congregants, who’d come to the conference from conservative churches around the region, would hear from Sadie Fields, president of Georgia’s Christian Coalition, and they’d sway in rhythm as country crooner Steve Vaus sang “We Must Take America Back.”
But the marquee pitchman of the day was Moore. Ruggedly handsome, with the military bearing he acquired at West Point, Moore has gained a rock-star following on the Christian right—a Moses to lead the chosen from a godless society. The judge has a stunning memory for long literary passages and judicial opinions, and he chants them in the singsongy, down-home style of Southern demagogues from Theo Bilbo to George Wallace—“God” is “Gawud,” with an upward lilt. When he proclaimed that “God is still sovereign, no matter what federal judges say,” the crowd tittered and applauded. When he intoned that “there is no right to sodomy in the Constitution,” they cheered. When he roared that unless judges “acknowledge God,” they “should be impeached,” the righteous noise shook the rafters.
It could have been nothing more than a half-hour rebel yell—except that Moore is more than the latest prophet of the religious right. He stands a good chance of being the next governor of Alabama; he’s also arguably the single most significant politician to owe his ascendancy to Christian Reconstruction—an obscure but increasingly potent theology whose top exponents hold that Christian crusaders must conquer and convert the world, by the sword if necessary, before Jesus will return. ......................

a man who should be remembered

from doug ireland

PIERRE SEEL, Last Living "Pink Triangle" in France, Dies
Pierre Seel, the last known surviving French homosexual victim of the Nazi concentration camps, has died at the age of 82, it was announced in Paris yesterday. Anyone who has seen the remarkable documentary "Paragraph 175," by Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman -- about the Pink Triangles, the homosexual victims of Nazi repression -- will remember the unforgettable sequence in the film in which Pierre Seel (above left) recounted his arrest and torture for being gay -- this included his multiple rapes, and being sodomized with a wooden stake, which left his ass bleeding all his life long --and how the Nazis fed his lover to be eaten by dogs before his eyes..................