yo yo yo search it!

Saturday, December 30, 2006

will cooking and cleaning and

doing 'housework' cut the risk of prostate cancer in men i wonder? will it cut the rist of breast cancer in men as well?

i wonder......

this is effed up AND i think it's mighty damn suspect to boot and of course I'M NOT BUYING IT FOR ONE INSTANT

Worried About Breast Cancer? Try Cleaning

Doing housework can reduce the risk of breast cancer, according to a study of 200,000 women in Europe.It also found that cleaning up can have even more benefit than having a physically demanding job or playing sports.Housework cut breast cancer risk by 30 percent among premenopausal women and 20 percent among the post-menopausal women...........

flash game of the day

alchemy

i'm impressed the military times published these figures

they are NONE too flattering to the king and his court.

who is still supporting the king on this horrid mistake that will likely take at a MINIMUM 3,000 of our lives and who knows how many tens of thousands who will be maimed both inside and out?

i know who. DA LIEBS. besides him, WHO ELSE?

open your mouths. write to your elected represtatives tell them YOU WANT US OUT OF IRAQ AND YOU WANT US OUT NOW

Poll for Military Papers Finds Troops' Support for War Plunging

By E&P Staff Published: December 29, 2006 11:25 PM ET
NEW YORK It's often written or said in the media that, despite public opposition to the Iraq war here at home, military personnel strongly back President Bush's handling of the conflict. But a poll for the Military Times newspapers, released Friday, shows that more troops disapprove of the president’s handling of the war than approve of it. It came on the day that at least four more Americans died in the war, pushing the monthly total to 107, the high point for the year -- and the total figure to 2,997, near the milestone of 3,000.Barely one in three service members approve of the way the president is handling the war, according to the new poll for the four papers (Army Times, Navy Times, Air Force Times and Marine Times). In another startling finding, only 41% now feel it was the right idea to go to war in Iraq in the first place. And the number who feel success there is likely has shrunk from 83% in 2004 to about 50% today. A surprising 13% say there should be no U.S. troops in Iraq at all. This comes even though only about one in ten called their overall political views "liberal." The annual mail survey was conducted Nov. 13 through Dec. 22. Among the respondents, two in three have deployed at least once to Iraq or Afghanistan. Nearly three-quarters of the respondents think today’s military is stretched too thin to be effective. ..........

and now for a little levity

he sends our men and women out to fight in an illegal and unjustified war with (sometimes) inadequate armor. yet at his home in the state of TEXAS he's all safe and cuddly

i wonder if they saw elvira gulch whist they were awaiting the weather to clear???

Bushes put in armored car for tornado warning
Stormy weather swirls at president’s Texas ranch


CRAWFORD, Texas - President Bush and first lady Laura Bush were moved to an armored vehicle on their ranch Friday when a tornado warning was issued in central Texas, the White House said.
The vehicle was driven to a tornado shelter on the ranch at 1:30 p.m. CST, and the president, his wife and their two Scottish terriers, Barney and Miss Beazley, sat inside until the weather cleared, deputy White House press secretary Scott Stanzel said. They were never moved into the shelter, he said. The shelter is a few hundred yards away from the president's house on the ranch.
"The was in the vehicle for about 10 minutes and then he went back to the house," Stanzel said, adding that other members of the staff at the ranch were sheltered as well...............

this man has served TWO COMBAT TOURS OF DUTY

yet, they're calling him up for a THIRD??? no wonder the armed forces are 'meeting or exceeding' their quotas. they're making everyone do more than one tour.

mr henderson did his time. mr henderson just got married. LET HIM LIVE HIS LIFE IN PEACE. CALL UP THE EFFING BUSH TWINS. they've not served ANY time yet. LET THEM GO FIGHT. OR call their pops up. we all know he really DID NOT in any way shape or form SERVE HIS TIME when he was in


Third time's the harm
After two tours of duty in Afghanistan, Steven Henderson says his latest callup 'not to exceed 545 days' in Iraq is asking too much.


BY DAVE NEWBART Staff Reporter
Steven Henderson served his country during two tours of duty as an Army sergeant in Afghanistan -- repeatedly coming under enemy fire and seeing fellow soldiers maimed and U.S. helicopters gunned down.
The Chicago native is back home now after being honorably discharged 20 months ago. He's married and working toward a college degree -- but the Army has called upon him again.
A letter he received two weeks before Christmas orders him to report to Fort Benning, Ga., by Jan. 14. Under the order, he is required to fight in Iraq for a period "not to exceed 545 days."
But this time, Henderson says he will not serve his country. .............


here are the figures:



3 Marines killed in Iraq, making December deadliest month for U.S. troops in 2006

Friday, December 29, 2006

THIS should never have happened part ii

another tragic death due to the war in iran

this should never have happened part i

there is more on the life of james e dean in today's washington post

Distant War May Have Claimed Md. Soldier Veteran Slain in Police Standoff Was Devastated by Call-Up, Family Says
By Megan Greenwell Washington Post Staff Writer James E. Dean's first Christmas as a married man was supposed to be a joyous affair. The man everyone called Jamie had received a diagnosis of depression, but things were looking up. He frequently told Muriel, his wife of four months, that she was the best thing that had ever happened to him. He had plans to celebrate his 29th birthday two days before the holiday. His parents and grandmother, to whom he was extremely close, lived just a few miles away in the same St. Mary's County town -- perfect for sharing Christmas dinner and opening presents together.
But everything good in Dean's life had been overshadowed by a letter he received three weeks earlier. The letter, from U.S. Army headquarters, instructed him to report to Fort Benning, Ga., on Jan. 14. From there, he was likely to be sent to Iraq.
Dean had already fought in one war, serving 12 months as a sergeant, leading a small infantry unit on the front lines in Afghanistan. Army records show that he was an excellent soldier, and he had a fistful of awards to prove it: for service in defense of the nation, good conduct and outstanding marksmanship with rifles and grenades. He was such a good soldier, in fact, an Army spokesman said, that the military needed him back just three weeks after his first Christmas with his wife.
He couldn't stomach the thought. His post-traumatic stress disorder, which was diagnosed shortly after he returned from Afghanistan, became worse immediately after he received the letter -- and so did his drinking and his rages, family members said. He would break down in front of his wife, telling her over and over that nobody knew what it had been like....


he was diagnosed with ptsd. WHY oh WHY was he re-called and told he was going to be sent to iraq? from all accounts he fought with dignity in afghanistan. from all accounts he lived his life (back home) quietly and honorably. from all accounts he was a happy man UNTIL he came back from war (the FIRST time).

why is our country not taking care of it's veterans? if they come back home INJURED and that damn well INCLUDES MENTALLY too (how can you NOT be affected when you serve in afghanistan or iraq???). why are we sending our men and women back out to fight and unjust and illegal war?

can ANYONE tell me?

i sure don't know

who is going to be left to protect us in a few years if we keep throwing away the lives of our men and women? oh i know, THE BUSH TWINS!!!



the nutmeg grater: if i didn't know better#links

the nutmeg grater: if i didn't know better#links

i don't usually get preachy


BUT i just saw this ad and thought it was wonderful!

friends of animals

it is once again time for me to

post the lyrics to

and the band played waltzing matilda (the pogues)



When I was a young man
I carried my pack
And I lived the free life of a rover
From the Murrays green basin to the dusty outback
I waltzed my Matilda all over
Then in nineteen fifteen my country said Son
It's time to stop rambling 'cause there's work to be done
So they gave me a tin hat and they gave me a gun
And they sent me away to the war

And the band played Waltzing Matilda
As we sailed away from the quay
And amidst all the tears and the shouts and the cheers
We sailed off to Gallipoli


How well I remember that terrible day
How the blood stained the sand and the water
And how in that hell that they called Suvla Bay
We were butchered like lambs at the slaughter
Johnny Turk he was ready, he primed himself well
He chased us with bullets, he rained us with shells
And in five minutes flat he'd blown us all to hell
Nearly blew us right back to Australia

But the band played Waltzing Matilda
As we stopped to bury our slain
We buried ours and the Turks buried theirs
Then we started all over again


Now those that were left, well we tried to survive
In a mad world of blood, death and fire
And for ten weary weeks I kept myself alive
But around me the corpses piled higher
Then a big Turkish shell knocked me arse over tit
And when I woke up in my hospital bed
And saw what it had done, I wished I was dead
Never knew there were worse things than dying

For no more I'll go waltzing Matilda
All around the green bush far and near
For to hump tent and pegs, a man needs two legs
No more waltzing Matilda for me

So they collected the cripples, the wounded, the maimed
And they shipped us back home to Australia
The armless, the legless, the blind, the insane
Those proud wounded heroes of Suvla
And as our ship pulled into Circular Quay
I looked at the place where my legs used to be
And thank Christ there was nobody waiting for me
To grieve and to mourn and to pity

And the band played Waltzing Matilda
As they carried us down the gangway
But nobody cheered, they just stood and stared
Then turned all their faces away

And now every April I sit on my porch
And I watch the parade pass before me
And I watch my old comrades, how proudly they march
Reliving old dreams of past glory
And the old men march slowly, all bent, stiff and sore
The forgotten heroes from a forgotten war
And the young people ask, "What are they marching for?"
And I ask myself the same question

And the band plays Waltzing Matilda
And the old men answer to the call
But year after year their numbers get fewer
Some day no one will march there at all

Waltzing Matilda, Waltzing Matilda
Who'll come a waltzing Matilda with me
And their ghosts may be heard as you pass the Billabong
Who'll come-a-waltzing Matilda with me?

and who could forget some of these pearls of

wisdom from 2006?

(not me unfortunately)

Most Outrageous Right Wing Comments of 2006

By , Media Matters for AmericaPosted on December 28, 2006, Printed on December 28, 2006http://www.alternet.org/story/45983/
How extreme were conservative commentators in their remarks this year? How about calls to nuke the Middle East and an allegation that a "gay … mafia" used the congressional page program as its own "personal preserve." Right-wing rhetoric documented by Media Matters for America included the nonsensical (including Rush Limbaugh's claim that America's "obesity crisis" is caused by, among other things, our failure to "teach [the poor] how to butcher a -- slaughter a cow to get the butter, we gave them the butter"), the offensive (such as right-wing pundit Debbie Schlussel's question about "Barack Hussein Obama": Is he "a man we want as president when we are fighting the war of our lives against Islam? Where will his loyalties be?"), and the simply bizarre (such as William A. Donohue's claim that some Hollywood stars would "sodomize their own mother in a movie"). Since there were so many outrageous statements, we included a list of honorable mentions along with the top 11, which, if not for Ann Coulter, we might have limited to 10..........

............Nationally syndicated radio host Neal Boortz on Rep. Cynthia McKinney's (D-Ga.) hairstyle: "She looks like a ghetto slut. … It looks like an explosion in a Brillo pad factory. … She looks like Tina Turner peeing on an electric fence. … She looks like a shih tzu!" [3/31/06]..........

holy shite


how long are we going to allow this crazed administration to pound us into the ground (much less what they are doing to a foreign country THEY invaded WITHOUT cause)

are you scared YET? (i was a LONGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG time ago)

how many more of our men and women are we going to allow this crazed administration to destory? not just physically but mentally as well. even if they don't come home in a box, you KNOW tons of 'em are going to be effed up

THIS INSANITY MUST STOP NOW

Bush Considers Up to 20,000 More Troops for Iraq

By DAVID S. CLOUD and JEFF ZELENY
WASHINGTON, Dec. 28 — The Bush administration is considering an increase in troop levels in Iraq of 17,000 to 20,000, which would be accomplished in part by delaying the departure of two Marine regiments now deployed in Anbar Province, Pentagon officials said Thursday.
The option was among those discussed in Crawford, Tex., on Thursday as President Bush met there with his national security team, and it has emerged as a likely course as he considers a strategy shift in Iraq, the officials said.
Most of the additional troops would probably be employed in and around Baghdad, the officials said.
With the continuing high levels of violence there, senior officials increasingly say additional American forces will be needed as soon as possible to clear neighborhoods and to conduct other combat operations to regain control of the capital, rather than primarily to train Iraqi forces.
“The mission that most people are settling on has to do with using them in a security role to quell violence in Baghdad and the surrounding area,” said a senior Pentagon official involved in the planning.
Any plan to add to American forces in Baghdad would have to be negotiated with the government of Prime Minister
Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, which has expressed interest in using Iraqi forces, not American ones, to assert more control over the capital.........

the crazed brigade: Evan Yucci/Associated Press
President Bush and his top advisers at his ranch in Crawford, Tex. They discussed ways to regain control of Baghdad, officials said
.

and this:

Many U.S. troops in Baghdad say surge in soldiers is bad idea

By Will Weissert, Associated Press Writer December 28, 2006
BAGHDAD, Iraq --Many of the American soldiers trying to quell sectarian killings in Baghdad don't appear to be looking for reinforcements. They say the temporary surge in troop levels some people are calling for is a bad idea.
President Bush is considering increasing the number of troops in Iraq and embedding more U.S. advisers in Iraqi units. White House advisers have indicated Bush will announce his new plan for the war before his State of the Union address Jan. 23.
In dozens of interviews with soldiers of the Army's 5th Battalion, 20th Infantry Regiment as they patrolled the streets of eastern Baghdad, many said the Iraqi capital is embroiled in civil warfare between majority Shiite Muslims and Sunni Arabs that no number of American troops can stop.
Others insisted current troop levels are sufficient and said any increase in U.S. presence should focus on training Iraqi forces, not combat.
But their more troubling worry was that dispatching a new wave of soldiers would result in more U.S. casualties, and some questioned whether an increasingly muddled American mission in Baghdad is worth putting more lives on the line.
Spc. Don Roberts, who was stationed in Baghdad in 2004, said the situation had gotten worse because of increasing violence between Shiites and Sunnis.
"I don't know what could help at this point," said Roberts, 22, of Paonia, Colo. "What would more guys do? We can't pick sides. It's almost like we have to watch them kill each other, then ask questions."
Based in Fort Lewis, Wash., the battalion is part of the 3rd Stryker Brigade Combat Team of the 2nd Infantry Division. Deployed in June, its men were moved to Baghdad from Mosul in late November to relieve another Stryker battalion that had reached the end of its tour..........


i learned a long time ago, NOT to drink and fly

this is way way way long ago. prior to federal air marshals being on planes on a regular basis.

i don't fly well. i HATE flying. plus it's not fair to the people in back of me when i go through the metal detector (it's a bitch to get called for jury duty as well).

anyway, last time i flew (again, prior to 9/11), i got loaded at the airport bar. i figured it would relax me. all it did was make me have to PEE EVERY FIVE MINUTES. by the way, when the plane is taking off they DO NOT LET YOU GET UP TO PEE

moral: don't drink at the airport bar and expect to fly unless you're wearing depends

Oops! Unruly flier slaps undercover air marshal


From Jeanne Meserve CNN Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A US Airways passenger faced charges of interfering with a flight crew Thursday after he apparently unknowingly slapped an undercover federal air marshal, said an official familiar with the case.
The man, who'd been drinking liquor, threw a mid-air temper tantrum Wednesday night after attendants refused to serve him any more alcohol during his flight from Washington's Reagan National Airport to Fort Myers, Florida, the official said.
The passenger then slapped a fellow passenger, who happened to be an undercover air marshal assigned to the flight, said the official.............


flash game of the day

a NON-VIOLENT (kid's version) of hangman

(beach bum, it's harder than it sounds. i had trouble with the THREE letter words!!!)

Thursday, December 28, 2006

another game for YOU mr beach bum

lights out

(once again from the los angeles public library.)

a cool find in africa


we, humans are SUCH fascinating creatures. i especially love stories of rites and rituals.

"Python Cave" Reveals Oldest Human Ritual, Scientists Suggest

Brian Handwerk for National Geographic News
December 22, 2006
A team of archaeologists has discovered what it says is evidence of humankind's oldest ritual.
Africa's San people may have used a remote cave for ceremonies of python worship as much as 70,000 years ago—30,000 years earlier than the oldest previously known human rites—the team says.

"The level of abstract thinking within the peoples of [this period] and the continuity of their cultural patterns is proving to be astonishing for such an early date," said Sheila Coulson, an archaeologist at Norway's University of Oslo.
Coulson and colleague Nick Walker base their findings on artifacts found in Rhino Cave, a cavern discovered in the 1990s in the remote Tsodilo Hills of
Botswana.
The researchers found a large rock inside the cave that they say resembles a giant python, with natural features in the stone forming an eye and a mouth.
The 20-foot-by-6.5-foot (6-meter-by-2-meter) stone was also scarred by several hundred human-made grooves that may have been meant to resemble scales. ........


A large rock in Botswana's Rhino Cave marks the site of humankind's oldest known rituals, according to a team of archaeologists. Africa's San people may have used the remote cave for ceremonies of python worship as much as 70,000 years ago—30,000 years earlier than the oldest previously known human rites—the team says.Photograph courtesy Sheila Coulson

i'll put a permanent link to this on my sidebar

(later)

i'm sorry this site (has to) exist

iraq coalition casualty count


U.S. "Joe Blow" keeps track of Iraq war dead

By Matthew Bigg
STONE MOUNTAIN, Georgia (Reuters) - When Michael White, a self-described "Joe Blow off the block," set up a Web site to track U.S. casualties in Iraq he never imagined it would become a leading resource on the subject.
Nothing in his background suggested White had anything to contribute to an understanding of the Iraq war.
The 50-year-old joins the traffic every morning to get to work as a software engineer at a firm outside Atlanta. He's never been to the Middle East, has no military training and speaks no Arabic.


But his "Iraq Coalition Casualty" site, which keeps a log of the dead and wounded among the military and contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan, gets a million hits a day on peak days and at least four million hits a month, White said.
It attracts analysts, journalists and defense departments as well as ordinary readers with its near real-time updates, statistics, and the names of casualties. Web audience measurement firm Hitwise calls it "one of the most visited non-partisan sites aimed at U.S. politics junkies."
White set up www.icasualties.org in May 2003 when the war was supposed to be winding down and says it flourished in part because of his obsessive desire to make the names, dates and places listed on the site as accurate as possible..........


Wednesday, December 27, 2006

when i grow up i'm going to be.......

this article is far too important to ignore. ESPECIALLY if you have grrrl children. however, i'd recommend it to everyone.

just yesterday i was sitting next to a man (in a pub i frequent) trying to hook into wifi. i told him it wasn't working (i KNOW it wasn't working) but he proceeded to try to hook up anyway (fine, i guess i COULD have been wrong - but i KNEW i wasn't). anyway, one of the staff asked him if he indeed got through to the net and he said, 'no'. she then asked him what the problem was and he said, 'well, i don't know if i can answer you without being too technical'. i effing went through the roof and of course but in and said ' well if she had a penis, could she understand you then'????. (oh, he was none too pleased, but then again, NEITHER WAS I)

please understand ms orenstein has NOTHING against princesses. she tries to make that point several times. she has issues (as do i) with how we are training our grrrl children and our boy children. training them to either be "number 1" (boy) or "spolied" (grrrl).

it's fairly long, but please DO give it a read:

What’s Wrong With Cinderella?

By PEGGY ORENSTEIN
I finally came unhinged in the dentist’s office — one of those ritzy pediatric practices tricked out with comic books, DVDs and arcade games — where I’d taken my 3-year-old daughter for her first exam. Until then, I’d held my tongue. I’d smiled politely every time the supermarket-checkout clerk greeted her with “Hi, Princess”; ignored the waitress at our local breakfast joint who called the funny-face pancakes she ordered her “princess meal”; made no comment when the lady at Longs Drugs said, “I bet I know your favorite color” and handed her a pink balloon rather than letting her choose for herself. Maybe it was the dentist’s Betty Boop inflection that got to me, but when she pointed to the exam chair and said, “Would you like to sit in my special princess throne so I can sparkle your teeth?” I lost it.
“Oh, for God’s sake,” I snapped. “Do you have a princess drill, too?”
She stared at me as if I were an evil stepmother.
“Come on!” I continued, my voice rising. “It’s 2006, not 1950. This is Berkeley, Calif. Does every little girl really have to be a princess?”
My daughter, who was reaching for a Cinderella sticker, looked back and forth between us. “Why are you so mad, Mama?” she asked. “What’s wrong with princesses?”..........


..........Mooney has a point: There are no studies proving that playing princess directly damages girls’ self-esteem or dampens other aspirations. On the other hand, there is evidence that young women who hold the most conventionally feminine beliefs — who avoid conflict and think they should be perpetually nice and pretty — are more likely to be depressed than others and less likely to use contraception. What’s more, the 23 percent decline in girls’ participation in sports and other vigorous activity between middle and high school has been linked to their sense that athletics is unfeminine. And in a survey released last October by Girls Inc., school-age girls overwhelmingly reported a paralyzing pressure to be “perfect”: not only to get straight A’s and be the student-body president, editor of the newspaper and captain of the swim team but also to be “kind and caring,” “please everyone, be very thin and dress right.” Give those girls a pumpkin and a glass slipper and they’d be in business. .......

........It’s hard to imagine that girls’ options could truly be shrinking when they dominate the honor roll and outnumber boys in college. Then again, have you taken a stroll through a children’s store lately? A year ago, when we shopped for “big girl” bedding at Pottery Barn Kids, we found the “girls” side awash in flowers, hearts and hula dancers; not a soccer player or sailboat in sight. Across the no-fly zone, the “boys” territory was all about sports, trains, planes and automobiles. Meanwhile, Baby GAP’s boys’ onesies were emblazoned with “Big Man on Campus” and the girls’ with “Social Butterfly”; guess whose matching shoes were decorated on the soles with hearts and whose sported a “No. 1” logo? And at Toys “R” Us, aisles of pink baby dolls, kitchens, shopping carts and princesses unfurl a safe distance from the “Star Wars” figures, GeoTrax and tool chests. The relentless resegregation of childhood appears to have sneaked up without any further discussion about sex roles, about what it now means to be a boy or to be a girl. Or maybe it has happened in lieu of such discussion because it’s easier this way........

JUMP BACK!!!

this should NEVER have happened

suicide by cop (imagine how that officer feels) commited by a man who served his country in afghanistan and found out he was being deployed AGAIN to IRAQ. oh,, the police were justified in shooting mr dean. he pointed a gun at them. i just feel we may be seeing a LOT more of this in the future. this should NOT be happening. is no one screening these men and women? not only the ones going to the middle east for the FIRST time, but those who HAVE TO GO BACK AGAIN.

i am sorry for the loss of this life

(please check out the series of articles in my hometown newspaper, the hartford courant called mentally unfit, forced to fight)

Reservist Due for Iraq Is Killed in Standoff With Police


By Megan Greenwell Washington Post Staff Writer Wednesday, December 27, 2006; Page B02
Army Reservist James E. Dean had already served 18 months in Afghanistan when he was notified three weeks ago that he would be deployed to Iraq later this month. The prospect of returning to war sent the St. Mary's County resident into a spiral of depression, a neighbor said.
Despondent about his orders, Dean barricaded himself inside his father's home with several weapons on Christmas, threatening to kill himself. After a 14-hour standoff with authorities, Dean was killed yesterday by a police officer after he aimed a gun at another officer, police said.


Wanda Matthews, who lives next door to Dean's father and said she thought of the younger man as a son, described him as a "very good boy."
"His dad told me that he didn't want to go to war," Matthews said. "He had already been out there and didn't want to go again.".....


from raw story (one of my favorite news sites)

you may, should you so choose, download the new NRA graphic novel

(scary huh)


at a link from the site below
NRA comic called a hoax, but accusations later withdrawn

A controversial, leaked graphic novel that may have been produced to bolster the National Rifle Association's agenda was called a hoax over the weekend. But further analysis of the source material appears to confirm that the purported NRA publication, which contains alarming racial overtones, is legitimate.
Last Friday, the website Wonkette
published exclusive images from Freedom in Peril: Guarding the 2nd Amendment in the 21st Century. The expertly illustrated graphic novel alleges a coordinated strategy on the part of gun control advocates to roll back the second amendment and strip Americans of their rights to bear arms. Many of the images contained in the graphic novel suggest deliberate racial overtones. Other drawings in the book focus on liberal politicians and celebrities who have made statements the NRA considers anti-second amendment...........

i know some of my friends bear arms. NOT in my presence however. i am of the belief only police and the military should be in possession of firearms (generally speaking). it is also my personal belief the nra is FAR FAR FAR too powerful. THAT, i don't get either

ok beach bum, try THIS one

book sort from the los angeles public library

OR

the goodhue codex (also from the los angeles public library)

Monday, December 25, 2006

get up...................get on uppppppppppppppppppppp

my friend beth and i were mulling over

going to see him later this week. for some reason, we both decided NOT to go, even though we BOTH wanted to so very badly

i am sorry to say, the godfather of soul, the hardest workin' man in show-bidnez has passed

James Brown, 73, Dies; ‘Godfather of Soul’

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 6:01 a.m. ET
ATLANTA (AP) -- James Brown, the dynamic, pompadoured ''Godfather of Soul,'' whose rasping vocals and revolutionary rhythms made him a founder of rap, funk and disco as well, died early Monday, his agent said. He was 73.
Brown was hospitalized with pneumonia at Emory Crawford Long Hospital on Sunday and died around 1:45 a.m. Monday, said his agent, Frank Copsidas of Intrigue Music. Longtime friend Charles Bobbit was by his side, he said.
Copsidas said the cause of death was uncertain. ''We really don't know at this point what he died of,'' he said.
Along with
Elvis Presley, Bob Dylan and a handful of others, Brown was one of the major musical influences of the past 50 years. At least one generation idolized him, and sometimes openly copied him. His rapid-footed dancing inspired Mick Jagger and Michael Jackson among others. Songs such as David Bowie's ''Fame,'' Prince's ''Kiss,'' George Clinton's ''Atomic Dog'' and Sly and the Family Stone's ''Sing a Simple Song'' were clearly based on Brown's rhythms and vocal style.
If Brown's claim to the invention of soul can be challenged by fans of
Ray Charles and Sam Cooke, then his rights to the genres of rap, disco and funk are beyond question. He was to rhythm and dance music what Dylan was to lyrics: the unchallenged popular innovator.
''James presented obviously the best grooves,'' rapper Chuck D of Public Enemy once told The Associated Press. ''To this day, there has been no one near as funky. No one's coming even close.''.......

i'm eatin' popcorn, with my hotpants, on my goodfoot with my brand new bag, but PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE (don't go)

it's no longer the night before BUT do stop by

make it stop! make it stop

to read (the rest):

Twas the night before Christmas
And all through [White] HouseThe creatures were stirring
Including head louse
The neo-cons sat one by one with great air
And looked at their mess with nary a care
They laughed with glee at where they had led
As visions of "victory" floated in their heads
And Cheney at his desk with W in his lap,
Who had just settled down for his afternoon nap.
When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter
They jumped from their desks to see what was the matter
And "whish" past their eyes what was that mad flash?
Was it, could it, have been making a dash?
Past the secret service and with something in tow
It looked like a sleigh to eyes watching below.............................

Sunday, December 24, 2006

joyous yule

a very happy healthy joyous holiday season to all

may peace find us in the upcoming new year

Saturday, December 23, 2006

just how does being sworn in using a quran hurt YOU

mr goode? organized religions, MOST organized religions give me the skeeves. it's their way or hell. it's their god or hell. it's their beliefs or hell. what gives them the right to think THEIR god is THE god? funny, no?

so mr goode, how does mr ellison being sworn in using a quran hurt YOU and hurt the rest of america? i'm not going to convert to islam are you? are any of your constituants or anyone in the rest of the united states going to convert to islam simply based on the ONE act of mr ellison using a quran to be sworn in? are earthquakes going to happen because the quran is being used? is your god going to be pissed at YOU mr goode because mr ellison is using the quran to be sworn in? is modern civilazation going to collapse immediately when mr ellison puts his hand on that quran?

you are full of hate and fear and your heart is pumping bile.

oh and mr goode, the bible was written BY man FOR man. just like the quran, it was NOT written by ANY god

Lawmaker stands firm on Quran criticism


By SUE LINDSEY, Associated Press Writer Fri Dec 22, 9:38 AM ET
A congressman said Thursday that he will not retract a letter warning that unless immigration is tightened, "many more Muslims will be elected" and use the Quran to take the oath of office.
Republican Rep. Virgil Goode (news, bio, voting record) triggered angry responses from a civil rights group and some colleagues with a letter this month to constituents concerned about a decision by Rep.-elect Keith Ellison of Minnesota, the first Muslim elected to Congress, to use the Quran when he is sworn in.
"I will not be putting my hand on the Quran," Goode said at a news conference Thursday at the Franklin County Courthouse.
Goode, who represents Virginia's 5th Congressional District, said he is receiving more positive comments from constituents than negative.
"One lady told me she thinks I'm doing the right thing on this," he told Fox News. "I wish more people would take a stand and stand up for the principles on which this country was founded."
Goode also told Fox News he wants to limit legal immigration and do away with "diversity visas," which he said let in people "not from European countries" and "some terrorist states."
In his letter, Goode wrote that strict immigration polices are necessary "to preserve the values and beliefs traditional to the United States of America."
"The Muslim representative from Minnesota was elected by the voters of that district and if American citizens don't wake up and adopt the Virgil Goode position on immigration there will likely be many more Muslims elected to office and demanding the use of the Koran," he wrote........


and i found this in the smirking chimp

WONDERFUL just WONDERFUL, from cenk uygur

Virgil Goode is Directly Attacking Me and I'm Pissed

The more I think about it, the angrier I get. Virgil Goode thinks he can challenge how American I am. Here's an American response - screw you!
Does this barbarian really think we are not equal citizens because of our heritage or our beliefs? Does he really believe people like me need to be kept out of the country?
Look at what he says. He
literally says less people like me need to come to America:
[I]f American citizens don't wake up and adopt the Virgil Goode position on immigration there will likely be many more Muslims elected to office and demanding the use of the Koran ... I fear that in the next century we will have many more Muslims in the United States if we do not adopt the strict immigration policies that I believe are necessary to preserve the values and beliefs traditional to the United States of America and to prevent our resources from being swamped. [emphasis added]
My family is Muslim and we immigrated to this country when I was eight years old. We made an active choice to seek this nation out because we believed in its principles and we believed that it was the land of opportunity. America became my home, not just in where I lived, but in my heart. So, I became a citizen sixteen years ago.
I chose America because I love America. It's one thing to be born in Nebraska and call yourself an American. But it's another to move to a country where you weren't born, go through the long legal process, profess your allegiance to that country and adopt it as your own because you believe in it. That's not an accident of birth, it's an act of faith.
I chose to be an American because America is a light unto the world. America is the greatest country on earth because we do not discriminate, we are not a religious state and we do not exclude people based on their race, color or creed. We are an open society that believes in liberty and human dignity..............


Friday, December 22, 2006

here's a good one



Iraqi Fugitive Donated to Bush Campaigns
Contributed Before, After Appointed Iraqi Govt. Minister

IraqSlogger has learned that the ex-Iraqi government minister who is the subject of a nationwide manhunt in Iraq contributed to George W. Bush's presidential campaigns before and after being appointed by U.S. authorities as Iraq's minister of electricity.
Aiham Alsammarae, an Iraqi-American who considered the Chicago area home for 27 years until 2003, escaped his Baghdad Green Zone jail Sunday in an effort to avoid facing prosecution on corruption charges.
After escaping, Alsammarae, in telephone interviews with U.S. newspaper correspondents, taunted Iraqi authorities, said he was fleeing death threats in Iraq, and claimed he had already left the country.
Campaign contribution records show Alsammarae donated $1,000 to the Bush campaign in 1999 and, after being appointed by U.S. Iraq administrator Paul Bremer as Iraq's electricity minister in August 2003, donated $250 to the Bush campaign in April 2004.
Also while serving as Iraq's minister of electricity, he donated $1,500 to the U.S. Republican National Committee and $250 to the Illinois Republican Party...........

photo: White House Photo
Bush-Alsammarae meeting Sept. 2003

i found a posting on


feministing

and here's the original it came from

Kmart's "Domestic Violence" T-Shirt Irritates Shoppers

A shopper at an Augusta Kmart was shocked, shocked to see a children's t-shirt featuring "two panels of stick figures, with a male figure pushing a female figure out of a box." The shirt is captioned "Problem Solved." Shoppers offended by the shirt have been complaining to the manager.
"I thought that shirt was very offensive, and I'm sure people who made that shirt thought it was cute," District Attorney Evert Fowle said Friday. "But when you prosecute 728 domestic violence cases a year, it's not cute."................


not that i shop at k-mart (i don't even know if there is one around here) but if i ever considered it, i'll do some RE considering now

pom do NOT buy it do NOT drink it

i like to think of myself as sticking up for the rights of animals. however, i would NEVER even dream of causing others harm over this. if i see someone wearing fur, i don't preach to them. i cringe, but i do it privately. IF someone asks about my beliefs, i sure as heck will share them, but i do NOT attack. that never helps. well let's put it this way, i don't attack unless i am attacked first. then WATCH OUT. as a matter of fact, my friend shawn and i were talking about fur yesterday. we both agreed how wonderful it felt, but we both agreed (it's easy for one to understand MY beliefs, but i was SHOCKED shawn agreed with me here. he's quite the carnivore) one should NOT wear fur. it is obtained in such a cruel way. shawn and jen do have two kids you know, monty and lu (english bulldog and pug). i just got this year's christmas card featuring them in all of their holiday finery (they are SO cute. lu was in a bit of an accident while shawn and jen were vacationing. monty accidentally caused lu to lose one of her eyes. she's going as a pirate for halloween next year!!! she's just fine by the way. shawn and jen aren't but lu and monty are doing a-ok)

when i found out pom was using animals to test on (including YES erectile dysfunction) i vowed to NOT drink the shite (and i haven't. there ARE other brands). i won't make threats against them, i think that is just NOT right. what i WILL do is tell people what pom does to animals and post about it on my blog. i may write to them as well. i wouldn't in a million years think to do anything like poisoning their products.

i am unsure it's even been confirmed an animal organization REALLY threatened to poison the juice.......

Activists take credit for juice poisoning

LOS ANGELES, Dec. 19 (UPI) -- Animal activists claim they have poisoned 487 bottles of POM Wonderful's juice on the U.S. Eastern seaboard to protest animal testing.
A POM Wonderful spokesman told United Press International the company has not confirmed the validity of the claim, but it was contacted by the FBI regarding the issue. The spokesman said the company is preparing a statement on the matter.
The North American Animal Liberation Press Office distributed a communiqué it received that claimed
credit for the juice poisoning and was signed "animal rights militia." POM Wonderful, which makes pomegranate juice, has been a target of animal activists since it was revealed the company uses animals, such as newborn mice and rabbits, to test its juice and show its health benefits. .......


my original posting

Thursday, December 21, 2006

iraq violence of the day (yesterday december 20th)

76 anonymous bodies found in baghdad today.........like it's the MOST natural thing in the universe. how sad is this?

Roundup of violence in Iraq - 20 December

By Laith Hammoudi
McClatchy Newspapers
The daily Iraq violence report is compiled by McClatchy Newspapers Special Correspondent Laith Hammoudi in Baghdad from police, military and medical reports. This is not a comprehensive list of all violence in Iraq, much of which goes unreported. It’s posted without editing as transmitted to McClatchy’s Washington Bureau.
Baghdad . According to the Ministry of Interior operation room
-- 11 people were killed including 6 commandos and 30 injured including 9 commandos when a suicide car bomb attacked a commandos checkpoint near Baghdad University in Jadriya neighborhood downtown Baghdad at 7:15 am today.
-- 4 civilians were killed and other 7 injured in a parked car bomb explosion near the Identity directorate building in Al Kasra neighborhood, a part of Adhamiyah neighborhood downtown Baghdad.
-- Anonymous insurgents assassinated early today Mahmood Mohammed Rasheed, the brother of the famous comic actor Zuhair Mohammed Rasheed. Moahmood Rasheed who was a teacher was assassinated near the Al Hikma school where he works in Al Baladiyat neighborhood east of Baghdad. Mohamood is a Palestinian citizen.
-- 4 civilians were injured in two car bomb explosions. Two were wounded in a parked car bomb explosion near Al Baiyaa court in Al Baiyaa neighborhood south of Baghdad. The other two were injured in another car bomb parked near the farmers association in Al Riyadh neighborhood eastern Baghdad.
-- 76 anonymous bodies were found in Baghdad today. 63 were found in the west part of Baghdad ( Karkh) and only 13 found in the east part of Baghdad (Rusafa) ............

wow, this dude got elected?

scary

(by the way, in my connecticut blog i did go off, MORE than once, on an islamic yale student. it wasn't the fact he was muslim i went off on. it was the fact he WAS A MEMBER OF THE TALIBAN)

and who the hell is this dude kidding? saying a muslim student came by his office and asked why there was nothing on his wall about the quran? shoot...........that is almost funny

in MY opinion neither a bible NOR a quran should be used for swearing in ceremonies. there IS a (well supposed to be a) SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE

traditional american values? what the hell.......didn't the colonists come to america because THEY were being persecuted for religious reasons? is representative goode a native american i wonder? if not, he better think twice (or make that a million times) before opening his hate and fear filled mouth

Lawmaker won't apologize for 'Islamophobic' letter

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A Virginia congressman will not apologize for writing that without immigration reform "there will be many more Muslims elected to office demanding the use of the Quran," his spokesman said.
Republican Rep. Virgil Goode's letter to constituents also warns that without immigration reform "we will have many more Muslims in the United States."
Spokesman Linwood Duncan said Goode's letter was written in response to complaints his office received about Minnesota Rep.-elect Keith Ellison's request to be sworn in using the Quran.
Ellison is the first Muslim to be elected to Congress.
Goode's office released the letter to CNN Wednesday.
In it, Goode wrote, "When I raise my hand to take the oath on Swearing In Day, I will have the Bible in my other hand. I do not subscribe to using the Quran in any way........


...........He added, "The Ten Commandments and 'In God We Trust' are on the wall in my office. A Muslim student came by the office and asked why I did not have anything on my wall about the Quran.
"My response was clear, 'As long as I have the honor of representing the citizens of the 5th District of Virginia in the United States House of Representatives, the Quran is not going to be on the wall of my office.' ".........


when howard stern was on terrestrial radio

i used to listen to him while i was at work (earphones of course). hey, it made the mornings go by

everyone once in a while he'd have debbie schlussel phone in (or more likely she did it on her own). i thought it then and i think it even more now..............(being careful what i say because i believe she's also a lawyer) the woman is not quite on the same track with reality. she seems to find a conspiracy theory in EVERYTHING.

oh and i didn't know we were fighting a war on islam. i, mistakenly thought it was a war on TERROR we were fighting!

Schlussel: Should Barack Hussein Obama be president "when we are fighting the war of our lives against Islam"?

In a December 18 column headlined "Barack Hussein Obama: Once a Muslim, Always A Muslim" and posted on her website, right-wing pundit Debbie Schlussel argued that because Sen. Barack Obama's (D-IL) middle name is Hussein, his late, estranged father was of Muslim descent, and he has shown interest in his father's Kenyan heritage, Obama's "loyalties" must be called into question as he emerges as a possible Democratic presidential candidate. In the column, Schlussel asked: "So, even if he identifies strongly as a Christian ... is a man who Muslims think is a Muslim, who feels some sort of psychological need to prove himself to his absent Muslim father, and who is now moving in the direction of his father's heritage, a man we want as President when we are fighting the war of our lives against Islam? Where will his loyalties be?" She ended her column by asking if Obama becoming vice president instead would be acceptable. Answering her own question, she wrote: "NO WAY, JOSE ... Or, is that, HUSSEIN?"..........

the nutmeg grater: AND our senator dodd is doing something about it!!!#links

the nutmeg grater: AND our senator dodd is doing something about it!!!#links

the nutmeg grater: more on 'unfit for duty'#links

the nutmeg grater: more on 'unfit for duty'#links

Wednesday, December 20, 2006

why

why why why

why is it BREAKING NEWS when some rich asswipe kind of dude with THE worst comb over in the ENTIRE COSMOS says some effing 'beauty queen' can keep her title?

why are the networks, the newspapers, the periodicals and the cable news channels covering this as NEWS?

don't they know the 'beauty pageant' hasn't made money in a LONG time? don't they know the asswipe kind of dude with THE worst comb over in the ENTIRE COSMOS is just out for publicity?

shite. NEWS?

HOW MANY OF OUR MEN AND WOMEN ARE BEING BLOWN UP WHILE THE CHANNELS AND INTERNET AND NEWS MEDIA IN GENERAL are covering this TRIPE?

can you tell how i feel about this?

my friend paulie sent this to me

the penguin show

the nutmeg grater: talking is ALWAYS a good start#links

the nutmeg grater: talking is ALWAYS a good start#links

iraq violence of the day (yesterday december 19th)

i didn't post the violence from the 18th. it was JUST as nasty as the 17th and todays

now it's doctors and actors. shite shite shite

Roundup of violence in Iraq - 19 December

By Mohammed al Awsy
McClatchy Newspapers
The daily Iraq violence report is compiled by McClatchy Newspapers Special Correspondent Mohammed al Awsy in Baghdad from police, military and medical reports. This is not a comprehensive list of all violence in Iraq, much of which goes unreported. It’s posted without editing as transmitted to McClatchy’s Washington Bureau.
Baghdad . -- at 8 o'clock this morning an IED exploded in al zafaraniah area southern Baghdad, 6 civilians were injured.
-- at 9 o'clock this morning 4 employees of the ministry of industry were taking the salaries from al zuiah bank in karada area back to the ministry when unknown gunmen driving 4 vehicles stopped their car near abdul majeed private hospital and force them out from their car and took the car with one billion and two hundred million dinar.
-- at 1:30 this afternoon the head of doctors department at al alwia hospital was kidnapped from inside the hospital by unknown gunmen.
-- the actor MITASHAR AL SUDAMI was found dead today on haifa street, he as kidnapped yesterday.
-- today 53 bodies were found in Baghdad, some were handcuffed and tortured. 3 bodies were found in sadr city, 2 kamaliyah, 1 hussainiyah, 1 talbiyah, 1 aour, 5 dora, 4 kadhumiah, 4 hurriyah, 2 adil, 6 amil, 3 bayaa, 2 saidiyah, 2 risalah, 3 abu atsheer, 3 jihad, 1 mansour, 4 shoala, 5 ghazaliyah,and 1 yarmouk ................

women in iraq

HORROR STORIES, more and more

just what the HELL did we do. it keeps snowballing and snowballing. i am so afraid we can never heal the wound we created

Iraqi Women's Bodies Are Battlefields for War Vendettas

By Kavita N. Ramdas, Global Fund for Women. Posted December 19, 2006.
The United States' so-called "liberation" of Iraqi women has made them less free than they were under the Baathist regime, with abduction, rape, and "honor" killings now a daily reality.

The Organization of Women's Freedom in Iraq (OWFI) recently issued a frightening report documenting the growing practice of public executions of women by Shia Militia. One of the report's more grisly accounts was a story of a young woman dragged by a wire wound around her neck to a close-by football field and then hung to the goal post. They pierced her body with bullets. Her brother came running trying to defend his sister. He was also shot and killed. Sunni extremists are no better: OWFI members estimate that no less than 30 women are executed monthly for honor related reasons.
Almost four years into the Bush Administration's ill fated adventure in Iraq, Iraqi women are worse off than they were under the Baathist regime in a country where, for decades, the freedoms and rights enjoyed by Iraqi women were the envy of women in most other countries of the Middle East...........


abstinance does NOT work

it never worked nor will it EVER work. i don't have any issues with abstinance being mentioned in sex education classes. what i DO have a problem with is our government ONLY funding abstinance based organizations. it's NOT in the realm of reality. we are a certain type of creature. we are not going to change. what we need is PROPER education on birth control. that includes at the VERY least CONDOMS (and i mean at the VERY least).

Reality check: 95 percent of Americans had premarital sex

NEW YORK (AP) -- More than nine out of 10 Americans, men and women alike, have had premarital sex, according to a new study. The high rates extend even to women born in the 1940s, challenging perceptions that people were more chaste in the past.
"This is reality-check research," said the study's author, Lawrence Finer. "Premarital sex is normal behavior for the vast majority of Americans, and has been for decades."
Finer is a research director at the Guttmacher Institute, a private New York-based think tank that studies sexual and reproductive issues and which disagrees with government-funded programs that rely primarily on abstinence-only teachings. The study, released Tuesday, appears in the new issue of Public Health Reports.
The study, examining how sexual behavior before marriage has changed over time, was based on interviews conducted with more than 38,000 people -- about 33,000 of them women -- in 1982, 1988, 1995 and 2002 for the federal National Survey of Family Growth. According to Finer's analysis, 99 percent of the respondents had had sex by age 44, and 95 percent had done so before marriage.
Even among a subgroup of those who abstained from sex until at least age 20, four-fifths had had premarital sex by age 44, the study found...................


Tuesday, December 19, 2006

flipping channels the other morning


as i've mentioned i am up at 12 or 12:30 am most every day. i'm at my laptop with the tv on in the background. sometimes i strike gold

like with this:
secrets of the dead: amazons


the little girl above, neiramgul, was found in mongolia. she is blond and she is a decendent of warrior women. yup, she is (not all warrior women were blond mind you. it is just unusual to come across a blond in mongolia. but you do from time to time)

if you ever see a listing for this episode of secrets of the dead. i highly recommend it. wicked cool

which leads me to this......

It Wasn't Feminism That Killed the Neanderthals

in recent days there has been a LOT written about why neanderthals perished. of course it was blamed on WOMEN. of course i don't buy that for ONE second and neither does the author of the piece linked above

.........By Caryl Rivers, Women's eNews

Did Homo sapiens survive because they were a prehistoric version of "Leave It to Beaver," while Neanderthals perished because they practiced an early brand of feminism?
Did unisex hunting doom the big bipeds, while male Homo sapiens played the part of Ice Age Ward Cleaver, marching off to hunt big game while June tidied up the cave in her pearls? Did this behavior ensure that humans would take over the world?
Is it true that, as a headline in the Toronto Star put it, "Equality Killed the Caveman?"
A study in this month's issue of Current Anthropology argues that division of economic labor by sex helped early humans win the survival race.
With Neanderthals, so this story goes, both men and women hunted big game to fuel their large bodies, got themselves whacked too often and went on their unisex way to extinction. Scientists Steven L. Kuhn and Mary C. Stiner, both of the University of Arizona, authored the article, after examining skeletal remains of Neanderthals, male and female, that bore the marks of rough wear and tear........

...........It's likely that Neanderthals, like early humans, scavenged kills by other predators and often set their sights on the most vulnerable prey. They ate shellfish and tortoises, and probably hunted game like ibex and wild horses. They needed to take in many calories for their large bodies, and communal hunts in which men, women and children took part may have been the most effective way to fend off starvation. They only had stone weapons, which were not optimal for the sort of male pack hunting that developed when iron weapons were invented.
It probably wasn't equality, but climate, that killed off the Neanderthals, some scientists say. Recent deep-sea core research shows that temperatures dropped sharply around 24,000 years ago. This could have created a severe drought that could have reduced the number of prey Neanderthals could catch. This would have been especially damaging to a species that needed a lot of food..............

once again, it's mind boggling

who the HELL are these 31% (except for da liebs, whom i am PROUD to say i did NOT vote for, i really DON'T know)

CNN poll: U.S. support for Iraq war falls to 31 percent

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Fewer than a third of Americans still support the war in Iraq, and more than half say they want U.S. troops out of the country within a year, according to a CNN poll released Monday.Support for the conflict fell to a new low of 31 percent in the poll, conducted Friday through Sunday by Opinion Research Corporation, while a record 67 percent expressed opposition to the nearly 4-year-old war.Nearly three-quarters said Bush administration policy needs a complete overhaul or major changes. But only 11 percent of those polled backed calls to send more American troops to Iraq, as President Bush is said to be considering.Pollsters interviewed 1,019 adults for the survey, which had a sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.But only 32 percent of those questioned in Monday's poll said they would support keeping U.S. troops in Iraq "as long as necessary" to hand over control to a new Iraqi government. By comparison, 21 percent said they wanted to see Americans leave immediately, and 33 percent said they wanted to see a U.S. withdrawal within a year.Despite that opposition to a continued conflict, a solid majority -- 59 percent -- said they opposed any move by Congress to end the war by cutting off spending for the U.S. deployment.......

ah they tell him he MAY have done something not quite legal

and NOW he 'sees the light'. not really of course. the woman in question simply attended a committment ceremony for a LONG TIME NEIGHBOR'S DAUGHTER. i really don't even know how she feels about same-sex couples. i really don't think senator brownback knows how she feels EITHER.

the man makes my skin crawl. especially his views on censorship

NYT: GOP senator removes his block on federal court nominee

A Republican senator with his eyes on the White House has pulled his block on a nominee for federal court, The New York Times will report on the cover of its Tuesday edition.
"Sen. Sam Brownback of Kansas, who had blocked the confirmation of a woman to the federal bench because she attended a same-sex commitment ceremony for the daughter of her long-time neighbors, says he will now allow a vote on the nomination," writes Neil A. Lewis for the Times.
Brownback is mulling a run for the GOP nomination in the 2008 presidential primary season.
Lewis reports that Brownback, who remarked earlier "that he still believed [nominee Janet Neff's] behavior raised serious questions about her impartiality," now says "he did not realize his proposal -- asking a nominee to agree in advance to remove herself from deciding a whole category of cases -- was so unusual as to be possibly unprecedented.
"Legal scholars," Lewis continues, "said it raised constitutional questions of separation of powers for a senator to demand that a judge commit to behavior on the bench in exchange for a vote."...

and the ny times article:

Senator Removes His Block on Federal Court Nominee

Monday, December 18, 2006

this man IS an american citizen AND navy veteran

it can't happen to our own citizens? well think again. not only CAN it, it DID happen.

shite shite shite

Former U.S. Detainee in Iraq Recalls Torment

By MICHAEL MOSS
One night in mid-April, the steel door clanked shut on detainee No. 200343 at Camp Cropper, the United States military’s maximum-security detention site in Baghdad.
American guards arrived at the man’s cell periodically over the next several days, shackled his hands and feet, blindfolded him and took him to a padded room for interrogation, the detainee said. After an hour or two, he was returned to his cell, fatigued but unable to sleep.
The fluorescent lights in his cell were never turned off, he said. At most hours, heavy metal or country music blared in the corridor. He said he was rousted at random times without explanation and made to stand in his cell. Even lying down, he said, he was kept from covering his face to block out the light, noise and cold. And when he was released after 97 days he was exhausted, depressed and scared.
Detainee 200343 was among thousands of people who have been held and released by the American military in
Iraq, and his account of his ordeal has provided one of the few detailed views of the Pentagon’s detention operations since the abuse scandals at Abu Ghraib. Yet in many respects his case is unusual.
The detainee was Donald Vance, a 29-year-old Navy veteran from Chicago who went to Iraq as a security contractor. He wound up as a whistle-blower, passing information to the
F.B.I. about suspicious activities at the Iraqi security firm where he worked, including what he said was possible illegal weapons trading.
But when American soldiers raided the company at his urging, Mr. Vance and another American who worked there were detained as suspects by the military, which was unaware that Mr. Vance was an informer, according to officials and military documents.
At Camp Cropper, he took notes on his imprisonment and smuggled them out in a Bible.
“Sick, very. Vomited,” he wrote July 3. The next day: “Told no more phone calls til leave.” ........