yo yo yo search it!

Friday, March 10, 2006

koufax awards

don't forget the voting for the koufax awards is open over at wampum

i wish i could have voted for more than one blog in MANY of the categories.

one (south dakota) down, 49 to go (plus guam and puerto rico of course

Tenn. Senate Backs Anti-Abortion Step
Tennessee Senate Makes First Step Toward Amending Constitution to Eliminate Right to Abortion

By LUCAS L. JOHNSON II
NASHVILLE, Tenn. Mar 9, 2006 (AP)— The state Senate on Thursday passed a proposal to amend the Tennessee Constitution so that it doesn't guarantee a woman's right to an abortion.
The 24-9 vote was the first step of many toward officially amending the state constitution. The measure would go before voters if the General Assembly approves it twice over the next two years.
The state Supreme Court has ruled that the Tennessee Constitution grants women a greater right to abortion than the U.S. Constitution.
Abortion rights supporters are attacking the measure as a stepping stone to prohibiting all abortions in Tennessee if the U.S. Supreme Court overturns the landmark abortion decision in Roe v. Wade.
"The resolution is an all-out attack on the women of Tennessee and seeks to rob women of their right to make choices about their own health, safety and personal welfare," said Hedy Weinberg, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee.
Sen. David Fowler, a Republican sponsor of the bill, proposed a similar resolution last year that cleared the Senate but stalled in a House committee.
"I regret this will cast me as being hardhearted, unsympathetic and unkind but that's not who I am," Fowler said.......

yesterday, i read an article in my local paper the hartford courant. it was about GOVERNMENT CUTS in medicare and how those cuts effect our elderly. the cuts aren't allowing them to live the full active PAIN FREE lives they USED to live. so i say to myself, i says, 'a rose is a rose, the government is thinking soooooooooo much about little fertilized eggs they are putting aside the needs of real LIVE PEOPLE who have REAL LIVE LIVES'. i say to myself i says, 'wtf is up wit dat????' how in the WORLD can they justify that if "life" is so effing important to them? is it only CERTAIN LIVES that are important? is there a cut off age (and is that cut off age the actual BIRTH of the little fertilized egg??????). i had to stop talking to myself because i was making myself mad

Cuts In Medicare Painful For Some

One Treatment Out Of Reach For Thousands
March 9, 2006By RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR, Los Angeles Times

WASHINGTON -- Until a few months ago, Jim Hill led an active life as a retiree involved with his church and family. But lately the 80-year-old has been forced to spend much of the day in a hospital bed. What happened? It's not just the disease attacking his nervous system, he says. It's also Medicare. To remain mobile, the Los Angeles resident depended on regular intravenous infusions of healthy antibodies. But recently, in a budget-cutting move, the government health care program for the elderly has reduced what it will pay for such treatments - to less than what doctors and hospitals say it costs to provide them.As a result, Hill and many others no longer receive their regular treatments. And the medical alternatives are often less effective. Hill's predicament is shared by more than 10,000 Medicare patients nationwide, according to a conservative estimate............

yesterday i was reading what l ron hubbard had to say about gay people

(you can guess because i'm NOT going to link to ANYTHING that has to do with him) and now this. just goes to show ya - the trains better run on time OR ELSE. no it just goes to show you what a bunch of asswipes there are in the world (but we already knew that)

Better fascist that gay - Mussolini's granddaughter
Thu Mar 9, 2006 8:05 PM GMT
ROME (Reuters) - The granddaughter of Italy's wartime dictator Benito Mussolini has defended being a fascist by saying it was better than being a "faggot".
Alessandra Mussolini's televised derogatory remarks came less than a month after Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi welcomed her far-right political party into his coalition before a general election in April.
Mussolini, proud of her ancestral ties to "Il Duce", had been criticised by a drag queen-turned-politician about being a fascist on Italian TV talk show Porta a Porta.
"I'm proud of it," she snapped in comments due to be aired later on Thursday.
Vladimir Luxuria, who hopes to be Europe's first "transgender" MP and is running with the Communist Refoundation party, then asked if Mussolini wanted to lock up homosexuals.
"Better to be a fascist than a faggot," Mussolini said, using the highly offensive Italian word "frocio", according to Porta a Porta's press office..............

Thursday, March 09, 2006

leonard cohen-musican of and sad tale of the day


i grew up with leonard cohen. i love leonard cohen. i listened to him, sang along with him, read him. he inspired me. he crept into my dreams. he soothed me. he upset me. he stimulated me (in many ways)

Cohen 'unlikely' to recover money
Singer Leonard Cohen is "unlikely" to recover $9.5m (£5.4m) which a court has ruled was stolen by his ex-manager.
Kelley Lynch, who worked for the musician for 17 years, has failed to respond to allegations that she plundered his retirement savings.
Ms Lynch, who was fired by Cohen in 2004, refused to return photographs and memorabilia despite a court order.
The 71-year-old's case against Ms Lynch claimed that he was left with funds of approximately $150,000 (£85,592).
Cohen's lawyer Scott Edelman said of Ms Lynch: "She's hard to get in touch with. I don't know where she lives and I don't have a phone number for her.
'Creative endeavours'
"We don't know what she did with the money. But she knows what's going on because she leaves me with phone messages at all hours," he added.
Mr Edelman also said that an attempt to recover Cohen's possessions from her home with a truck and a police presence was unsuccessful.
Ms Lynch was unavailable for comment.
A Superior Court judge in Los Angeles granted the default order in favour of Cohen earlier this week.
A second person named in the legal action, tax expert and lawyer Richard Westin, reached an out-of-court settlement with Cohen last month, the details of which were not disclosed. .

Hey, That's No Way To Say Goodbye
I loved you in the morning, our kisses deep and warm, your hair upon the pillow like a sleepy golden storm, yes, many loved before us, I know that we are not new, in city and in forest they smiled like me and you, but now it's come to distances and both of us must try, your eyes are soft with sorrow, Hey, that's no way to say goodbye. I'm not looking for another as I wander in my time, walk me to the corner, our steps will always rhyme you know my love goes with you as your love stays with me, it's just the way it changes, like the shoreline and the sea, but let's not talk of love or chains and things we can't untie, your eyes are soft with sorrow, Hey, that's no way to say goodbye. I loved you in the morning, our kisses deep and warm, your hair upon the pillow like a sleepy golden storm, yes many loved before us, I know that we are not new, in city and in forest they smiled like me and you, but let's not talk of love or chains and things we can't untie, your eyes are soft with sorrow, Hey, that's no way to say goodbye. Written by Leonard Cohen, Stranger Music Inc. (BMI).

Teachers
I met a woman long ago her hair the black that black can go, Are you a teacher of the heart? Soft she answered no. I met a girl across the sea, her hair the gold that gold can be, Are you a teacher of the heart?Yes, but not for thee. I met a man who lost his mind in some lost place I had to find, follow me the wise man said, but he walked behind. I walked into a hospital where none was sick and none was well, when at night the nurses left I could not walk at all. Morning came and then came noon, dinner time a scalpel blade lay beside my silver spoon. Some girls wander by mistake into the mess that scalpels make. Are you the teachers of my heart? We teach old hearts to break. One morning I woke up alone, the hospital and the nurses gone .Have I carved enough my Lord? Child, you are a bone. I ate and ate and ate, no I did not miss a plate, well How much do these suppers cost? We'll take it out in hate. I spent my hatred every place, on every work on every face ,someone gave me wishes and I wished for an embrace. Several girls embraced me, then I was embraced by men, Is my passion perfect? No, do it once again. I was handsome I was strong, I knew the words of every song. Did my singing please you? No, the words you sang were wrong. Who is it whom I address, who takes down what I confess? Are you the teachers of my heart? We teach old hearts to rest. Oh teachers are my lessons done? I cannot do another one. They laughed and laughed and said, Well child, are your lessons done?are your lessons done? are your lessons done? Written by Leonard Cohen, Stranger Music Inc. (BMI).

you HAVE to be kidding


there is ONLY ONE edna and that is divine period - end of sentence.

this article makes NO mention of
john waters i HOPE he has NOTHING to do with this AT ALL. i'm upset - this STINKS

his movies have gone downhill (in my opinion). i disliked
cecil b demented and REALLY disliked a dirty shame (although both movies DID have some great parts here and there) . pecker was the last decent movie he made. HAD to love that one!

uh oh, in checking
the imdb i see john IS the screenwriter for the new hairspray. WHAT A DISAPPOINTMENT damn damn damn!

Travolta 'set for Hairspray lead'
Actor John Travolta (gag gag and more gagging) is to play the lead female role in the new film version of Hairspray, according to reports.
The 52-year-old will play dowdy housewife Edna Turnblad in the movie, says Hollywood newspaper Daily Variety.
Hairspray, which has become an award-winning Broadway stage musical, was first made into a film in 1988.
It starred actress turned talk show host Ricki Lake, while Edna Turnblad was played by transvestite performer Divine, who died the same year. ............

a friend of mine was arrested on ash wednesday

Members of Witness Against Torture (Photo: Jeff Leys)
in washington dc. a group (catholic workers mind you) went down there to protest the united states torture practices. i saw him yesterday, gave him a high five and bought him a guinness!

15 Arrested At White House Protesting U.S. Torture Practices
Mike Ferner, Electronic Iraq 2 March 2006 Washington – Fifteen people were arrested yesterday in front of the White House after winding their way for two hours through the streets of the nation's capital, demanding the U.S. stop torturing detainees in military prisons. Members of Witness Against Torture began their protest at the steps of the U.S. Supreme Court, continuing to the Capitol and the Department of Justice, and ending at the White House where U.S. Park Police carried out the arrests. Speakers called on officials in each of the buildings to cease planning and executing policies that have injured and killed people in prisons such as Guantanamo Bay, Bagram in Afghanistan, and Abu Ghraib in Iraq. Arrested were Art Laffin, of the Dorothy Day Catholic Worker House in Washington, Amanda and Matt Dalaisio, and Tania Theriault of the Catholic Worker's Mary House in New York, Susan Crane from Jonah House in Baltimore, Matt Vogel, Mark Colville, Brian Kavanaugh, Carmen Trotta, Jacqueline Allen-Doucot, Alice Gerard, Bill Streit, Tom Feagley, Edith Tetaz and Jordan Manuel.The march took place on Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent, an annual period when Catholics pray and fast to repent for sins. Speakers included many Biblical references in their remarks. At the Department of Justice, Bill Streit used passages from the Book of Isaiah to condemn the DOJ's role in torturing prisoners. "Your hands are stained with blood, your fingers with guilt; Your lips speak falsehood, and your tongue utters deceit...Right is repelled and justice stands far off; for truth stumbles in the public square. Honesty is lacking, and the man who turns from evil is despoiled."........

Wednesday, March 08, 2006

this is EXACTLY why i am loved


i KNOW someone who is in the regional finals for a ROCK PAPER SCISSORS contest tonight. the connecticut finalist will get 15,000 AND a trip to vegas for the national title AND 50,000.

YES I SAID ROCK PAPER SCISSORS

he needs it so wish him luck

in order to be fair (re: the co high school teachers bush comments)....

here is something (from my own state) completely the OPPOSITE..........

Settlement over peace letters
March 7, 2006
BRIDGEPORT, Conn. --A teacher who said she was fired from a Roman Catholic elementary school for refusing to have her students write letters protesting the war in Iraq has reached an out of court settlement.
Bonnie Allen Lazor sued the Diocese of Bridgeport after she dismissed in March 2003. She said her firing came after she refused to instruct her second-grade students to write letters to President Bush.
"It was settled to the mutual satisfaction of the parties," Lazor's lawyer, Anthony Pantuso told the Connecticut Post. He would not disclose the amount of the settlement..........

i knew WE (pwp; people without penis') were worth something

and a little piggie it shall be

A little piglet makes a big difference
In Nepal, families promise not to let their daughters become indentured servants in exchange for a free pig.
Page 1 of 2
By Louisa Kasdon Contributor to The Christian Science Monitor DANG, NEPAL – A parade of young Nepalese girls, about 900 strong, in blue school uniforms or long swirling shirts marched through the village square in Dang Valley earlier this year. They chanted and held banners that said: "Let's send our girls to school!" and "An end to bonded labor!"
The march was part of the Maghe Festival, a month-long event in January when families in this western valley look forward to warmer weather and family reunions....


.....Until a few years ago, the square was filled with fathers negotiating with city labor contractors for their daughters to work as kamlaris for the coming year. A girl's average annual wage: $50. The money would be sent home to support the family's remaining children. But this annual custom has started to change. Pressure to stop the practice of indenturing daughters has come from two sources: hundreds of former kamlaris and the Nepalese Youth Opportunity Foundation (NYOF), a Nepali-American nonprofit group...........

NOT A SERVANT: Rama Chandari, age 12, had been working as a bonded laborer for two years far away from her home village in Dang valley. Her father had planned to bond her again, but was allowed to stay home after the family received a pig to raise and sell. ALISON WRIGHT

some interesting observations from

wonkette

interesting to see what websites can get through and what can't. i am sending care packages to three deployed members of the armed services. i have mentioned this before. i do NOT talk politics with them nor have i provided them with the address of this blog. they are over there and i am not. i'm certainly not going to tell them how and what they should feel. oh and the other day i got an AMAZING letter from the base commander of one of the deployed service members i'm writing to. a special shout out to all of THOSE men and women (of course they won't see this particular shout out, but it makes ME feel better)


Our Boys Need Gossip! (our GRRRLS do to by the way)
If we may do a brief update to a post of ours that got a substantial amount of attention last week:
We were originally going to say that we don't actually believe that we here at Wonkette are being “censored” by anyone just because military computers in Iraq are blocked from viewing our site...........


update.
Unfortunately anonomizers don't work out here (never have). Anyway, I had a few minutes today and thought I'd look and see what else was banned on the Marine web here. I think the results speak for themselves:
Wonkette – “Forbidden, this page (http://www.wonkette.com/) is categorized as: Forum/Bulletin Boards, Politics/Opinion.”
Bill O’Reilly (www.billoreilly.com) – OK
Air America (www.airamericaradio.com) – “Forbidden, this page (http://www.airamericaradio.com/) is categorized as: Internet Radio/TV, Politics/Opinion.”
Rush Limbaugh (www.rushlimbaugh.com) – OK
ABC News “The Note” – OK
Website of the Al Franken Show (www.alfrankenshow.com) – “Forbidden, this page (http://www.airamericaradio.com/) is categorized as: Internet Radio/TV, Politics/Opinion.”
G. Gordon Liddy Show (www.liddyshow.us) – OK
Don & Mike Show (www.donandmikewebsite.com) – “Forbidden, this page (http://www.donandmikewebsite.com/) is categorized as: Profanity, Entertainment/Recreation/Hobbies.”.......

i have always thought he was a steamin' piece of shite

this just drives it on home even farther (and by the way, i don't know what joy behar is doing on the view. she is the ONLY one with half of a brain)

Trump Jokes About Dating His Daughter

Donald Trump joked that he would date his 24-year-old daughter, Ivanka — if he weren't her father.
Trump and Ivanka, a vice president of real estate development at the Trump Organization, appeared Monday on ABC's "The View" to promote her five-episode stint as a boardroom adviser on "The Apprentice."
When asked how he would react if Ivanka, a former teen model, posed for Playboy, Trump replied, "It would be really disappointing — not really — but it would depend on what's inside the magazine."
He added: "I don't think Ivanka would do that, although she does have a very nice figure. I've said if Ivanka weren't my daughter, perhaps I'd be dating her."
His comments drew laughs from the audience, and prompted "View" co-host Joy Behar to crack, "Who are you, Woody Allen?"
Trump's representative, Jim Dowd, told The Associated Press on Tuesday that Trump "was absolutely joking."....


hey donnie, SOME 'JOKES' JUST AIN'T FUNNY

things just keep getting worse and worse........


a line from a marianne faithfull song, BROKEN ENGLISH keeps coming to mind...............'what are you fighting for. what are you fighting for'

IRAQ: Women attacked for removing headscarves, NGO says
07 Mar 2006 15:00:33 GMT Source: IRIN

BAGHDAD, 7 March (IRIN) - Since the fall of Saddam Hussein in early 2003, the number of women attacked for choosing not to wear head scarves and veils has more than tripled, according to the Women's Rights Association (WRA), a local NGO in the capital, Baghdad.
"Women are being killed because they don't wear headscarves and veils," said WRA spokeswoman Mayada Zuhair. "A life is being taken because of a simple piece of cloth, and someone should prevent more women from being killed by these ignorant people who that believe honour depends on what you're wearing."
According to WRA, there have been 80 attacks to date against women and reports of four women being killed by their families in 2005. This is compared too 22 attacks between 1999 and March 2003 and one death.
"Women's interest in using headscarves/veils in Iraq has decreased, not because they've forgotten their religion, but because, when Saddam's regime was ousted, modernism and development stood before us and everyone wanted to be part of the change," Zuhair maintained. "Not wearing the headscarf/veil is one of the characteristics of modernisation." ..............


..............Compounding the problem, the law allows for abuses against women, say women's rights activists. The Iraqi Penal Code, for example, states that "the penalty for killing a woman should be reduced if a crime was committed for reasons of honour". A so-called "honour killing" is where a woman's relative kills her for what is described as an act which brings dishonour to the family. Not covering up, according to Zuhair, can be perceived as such an act. .............


BROKEN ENGLISH
Could have come through anytime, Cold lonely, puritan What are you fighting for ? It’s not my security. It’s just an old war, Not even a cold war, Don’t say it in russian, Don’t say it in german. Say it in broken english, Say it in broken english. Lose your father, your husband, Your mother, your children. What are you dying for ? It’s not my reality. It’s just an old war, Not even a cold war, Don’t say it in russian, Don’t say it in german. Say it in broken english, Say it in broken english. What are you fighting for ? What are you fighting for ? What are you fighting for ? What are you fighting for? Could have come through anytime Cold lonely, puritan. What are you fighting for ? It’s not my security. It’s just an old war, Not even a cold war, Don’t say it in russian, Don’t say it in german. Say it in broken english, Say it in broken english. Say it in broken english, Say it in broken english.What are you fighting for ? What are you fighting for ? What are you fighting for ? What are you fighting ...

i'm not buying it

US soldier's rape sentence cut due to Iraq stress


By Robin Pomeroy Tue Mar 7, 3:12 PM ET
A U.S. soldier who raped a Nigerian woman in Italy was given a lighter sentence because the court deemed his tour of duty in Iraq had made him less sensitive to the suffering of others.
According to an Italian court document obtained by Reuters on Tuesday, James Michael Brown, a 27-year-old paratrooper from Oregon stationed in northern Italy, was sentenced to five years and eight months for rape in February 2004.
Brown beat and handcuffed the woman, a Nigerian resident in the town of Vicenza. He raped her vaginally and anally and left her to wander the streets naked in search of help.
The crime would have earned him an eight-year sentence, but the judges reduced the penalty due to the "extenuating circumstances" of the psychological effects of Brown's year of service in Iraq, the document said.
Brown, who is being held at a U.S. military prison in Mannheim, Germany, may never serve his rape sentence as, under Italian law, he may be allowed to return to the United States pending an appeal to the conviction..........


........For about a year, the professional role of parachutist Brown was not just to kill and capture the enemy, but also to avoid unpredictable ambushes set using all kinds of methods........

soooooooooooooooo that is an excuse to rape women? should we expect this of ALL of our troops upon their return home? watch out women in south dakota. you'll be screwed TWICE

he has the BALLS to say iran is 'meddling' in the war?

wtf are WE doing?????????????????

Rumsfeld sees potential for Iraq civil war
Tue Mar 7, 2006 01:51 PM ET

By Will Dunham
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said on Tuesday there has always been a risk Iraq could plunge into civil war but he accused the news media of exaggerating the gravity of the current situation.
Rumsfeld, during a Pentagon briefing, also accused Iran of sending Revolutionary Guards forces into Iraq, his latest accusation of Iranian meddling in the war, adding, "I don't think we could consider them religious pilgrims."
"I do not believe they're in a civil war today," Rumsfeld said of Iraq, but added "terrorists" want to foment one. "There's always been a potential for a civil war. That country was held together through a repressive regime that put hundreds of thousands of human beings into mass graves."
Hundreds of people were killed in sectarian violence that flared after the February 22 bombing of the Golden Mosque in Samarra, one of Iraq's four holiest Shi'ite shrines, and some experts said Iraq appeared to be on a verge of civil war.
The top U.S. envoy to Iraq, Zalmay Khalilzad, was quoted in the Los Angeles Times on Tuesday saying the U.S.-led invasion in 2003 that ousted President Saddam Hussein opened a "Pandora's box" of ethnic and sectarian tensions. Khalilzad said the "potential is there" for an all-out Iraqi civil war.
A new Washington Post-ABC News poll found that 80 percent of Americans believe that recent sectarian violence makes civil war in Iraq "likely" and more than a third thought it was "very likely."................

another sleaze ball move

the rest of us know this is a mistake. how the hell do they get away with cancelling a review? aren't they elected BY the people FOR the people? i think the people want some answers...............i know i do

Democratic chairman of Intel committee says canceling NSA hearings mistake
03/07/2006 @ 7:06 pmFiled by RAW STORY
The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence rejected a proposal by Vice Chairman Sen. John D. Rockefeller to conduct a Congressional review of the NSA warrantless spying program Tuesday afternoon.
In a statement released by Rockefeller's office to RAW STORY, a single line stands out: “As one of the few members of Congress who have been briefed on this program, I can honestly say the worst mistake we could make at this juncture is to legislate or attempt to amend FISA without having all the facts.”
The remainder of his statement follows


.................“Without knowing all the facts, I fear that any proposed legislation could have the unintended effect of jeopardizing the potential effectiveness of the program, while at the same time granting the President unfettered authority.
“Make no mistake about it, this program has the potential to be a valuable tool in the war on terror. But, it has to be done within the law, it has to have proper congressional oversight and it has to withstand judicial scrutiny................

Tuesday, March 07, 2006

i really DO have a wicked crush on keith

from media matters

a lil' somethin' somethin' from mr olbermann (video on the link site)

Olbermann on O'Reilly's "Fox security" threat: "Bill thinks he has his own police"
Summary: On MSNBC's Countdown, host Keith Olbermann devoted an entire segment to responding to Bill O'Reilly's threat to turn over to "Fox security" the personal information of a caller to O'Reilly's radio show because the caller mentioned Olbermann's name. Olbermann commented: "Bill thinks he has his own police."
On the February 24 edition of MSNBC's Countdown with Keith Olbermann, host Keith Olbermann devoted an entire segment to responding to Fox News host
Bill O'Reilly's March 2 threat to turn over to "Fox security" the personal information of a caller to O'Reilly's radio show because the caller mentioned Olbermann's name. Describing the incident as evidence of O'Reilly's "trolley coming completely off the tracks merely when my name gets mentioned," Olbermann said, "Bill thinks he has his own police."..........

a woman's life is more important than a potato - you GO grrrl!!!

found the link to this on buzzflash and it was TOO GOOD to pass up
rush gets his ass kicked!

whan an asswipe

Monday, March 06, 2006

Lott on Low-Income Heating Pleas: "I thought we were having global warming."
How cruel and indifferent is Republican Senator Trent Lott of Mississippi?With a bipartisan alliance that included Rhode Island Democrat Jack Reed and moderate Republican Olympia Snowe of Maine arguing passionately in favor of badly-needed emergency funding for the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), Lott took to the microphone to give his take on providing warm homes to the elderly and disabled.“What is it we are not going to give people for free? Is there any limit? Is there any limit to the amount of money?” asked Lott, adding snidely “I thought we were having global warming.”

(that was from the bob geiger blog. ya gotta love it because his banner says; i didn't vote for mr bush - let's just leave it at that - johnny cash)

i have yet ANOTHER idea; let's have BROWNIE run the ports deal

it COULDN'T get any worse. sweep those objections under the table. DON'T record them. pretend there WERE no warnings (i.e. pretend there WERE NO breeches in the levees)

can you in fact IMAGINE what would happen if anyone other than THIS republican administration even SUGGESTED this deal? c'mon think what would happen
WAKE UP WAKE UP WAKE UP

Pentagon, Homeland Dept. objected to UAE port deal

At least three security agencies raised objections to a takeover by a United Arab Emirates state-owned company of the operations of six major U.S. ports.

Congressional sources said the Defense Department, Homeland Security Department and Coast Guard expressed objections during the review by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States of the state-owned Dubai Ports World, which bought the British-owned Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Co. P&O has managed port operations in New York, New Jersey, Baltimore, Miami, Philadelphia and New Orleans.

"All of the rules were bent on this one," a congressional source said. "We had a major security review managed by political appointees."

But most of the objections were not recorded in the proceedings of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), the sources said. They said the objections remained off the record for "technical reasons." Later, the heads of some of the agencies denied that their representatives raised concerns..........


and a very good analytical article from russ baker at tom paine

Appointees Guarding The Henhouse
Russ Baker
March 06, 2006
Investigative reporter and essayist Russ Baker is a longtime contributor to TomPaine.com. He is also the founder of the Real News Project, a new not-for-profit investigative journalism outlet. He can be reached at russ@russbaker.com .
Even the most over-reported Bush Administration scandal can lead the curious to more fertile ground. Let’s take the approval of the $6.8 billion sale of a British company that manages ports in the United States to Dubai Ports World, a company owned by the United Arab Emirates. The debate has centered on whether this poses a security risk.
But there’s another matter of equal—and probably greater—import: how the approval of the ports deal fits a pattern in which federal agencies have been handed over to the inappropriate, the unqualified, the inane—and, in many cases, to the very companies the agencies are supposed to regulate.
With the ports scandal, the outlines of the decision-making process are emerging only slowly. But we do know that two key administration figures have direct ties to Dubai Ports World.
Treasury Secretary John Snow, whose department headed the panel that approved the Dubai Ports deal, came to the Bush administration from the chairmanship of CSX, a rail firm that sold its own international port operations to DP World the year after Snow joined the administration. The new head of the Maritime Administration, David Sanborn, worked for both CSX and Dubai Ports.
The incest boggles the mind. In February, 2003, the same month Bush appointed Snow, Snow’s company sold its container shipping division, CSX Lines, to the Carlyle Group. CSX Lines does substantial business with the U.S. military; Carlyle’s big shareholders include Bush’s father and family consigliere James Baker III, former British PM John Major and members of the bin Laden family............


and as joe conason says in his new york observer article

.......'If none of that makes sense to you, then you’re obviously a racist, bigoted, xenophobic protectionist. Remember that for most if not all critics of the Dubai Ports World takeover, the most troubling issue is the Bush administration’s casual approach to vetting the deal. The more we learn about this process, the less confidence we have in it. To doubt the competence of this government is neither xenophobic nor racist.'........

Who Dares to Question The Dubai Port Deal?
How fortunate that the opinion pages of our mightiest newspapers are open to diverse viewpoints. We would otherwise miss the opportunity to learn from liberal, conservative and centrist pundits alike that opponents of the Dubai ports deal—which now include about 70 percent of the American public—must be crazed, racist and xenophobic.

One original thinker after another insists that there can be no honest criticism of the Dubai deal. They tell us that every critic, no matter how measured, is a protectionist bigot; and that every argument, no matter how rational, is a calumny against Arabs and Muslims. There is a strange whiff of demagogy in these screeds.

In The New York Times, David Brooks laments America’s sudden inundation by “a xenophobic tsunami.” That newspaper’s Thomas L. Friedman warns us against “global ethnic profiling.” And Nicholas Kristof huffily declares in its pages that “this fuss about ports is really about Arabs.” Mr. Brooks proclaims that any concern about potential security problems is “completely bogus,” while Mr. Friedman describes such concerns as not only “bogus” but “borderline racist.” Mr. Kristof refers slyly to “the arguments of those who believe we should discriminate against Arabs.”

The same ugly insinuations can also be found in The Washington Post, parroted under the bylines of Richard Cohen and David Ignatius. Mr. Ignatius regards dissent from the Dubai deal as simply “racist,” while Mr. Cohen prefers to squawk “xenophobic.”

Such is the conventional mainstream wisdom, which blesses all trade as “free trade” and venerates corporate globalization as the one truth faith. To question those assumptions, even in the name of national security, is considered a sign of benighted partisanship, economic ignorance or worse..............

Monday, March 06, 2006

now i know why we're offering six of our u.s. ports to the uae

because WE ARE NOT CAPABLE OF HANDLING THEM

(or NATIONAL AND/OR HOMELAND SECURITY FOR THAT MATTER)

Guards Say Homeland Security HQ Insecure
Mar 6, 3:53 AM (ET)By LARRY MARGASAK

WASHINGTON (AP) - The agency entrusted with protecting the U.S. homeland is having difficulty safeguarding its own headquarters, say private security guards at the complex.
The guards have taken their concerns to Congress, describing inadequate training, failed security tests and slow or confused reactions to bomb and biological threats.
For instance, when an envelope with suspicious powder was opened last fall at Homeland Security Department headquarters, guards said they watched in amazement as superiors carried it by the office of Secretary Michael Chertoff, took it outside and then shook it outside Chertoff's window without evacuating people nearby.
The scare, caused by white powder that proved to be harmless, "stands as one glaring example" of the agency's security problems, said Derrick Daniels, one of the first guards to respond to the incident.........

i believe part ii

  • the reverend fred phelps doth protest far too much
  • king george the mighty just may have met his waterloo - and
  • abba sucks but everytime i see muriel's wedding i hear waterloo in my head for days
  • whoever asked neil diamond to perform at/in the last waltz was at the very least temporarily insane
  • if elizabeth cotton and mississippi john hurt ever got together it would have been one HELL of a recording (and their kid could have been named mississippi cotton)
  • the best part of the whole day is 3 am when not even the birds are up
  • for every bit of ugliness there is at least twice as much beauty (even if we cannot at first see it)
  • i have to be nicer to people. most don't understand my sense of humor and others are too dense to know they shouldn't EVER invade my personal space

one of my favorite lines from last night's oscars

"For those of you who are keeping score at home, I just want to make something very clear: Martin Scorsese, zero Oscars; Three 6 Mafia, one."— Jon Stewart

it would seem trouble is a brewin'

AND IT'S ABOUT DAMN TIME

On security, it's Congress vs. Bush

Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are taking on the president over terrorism and American power.
By Gail Russell Chaddock Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor WASHINGTON – Republican lawmakers are moving into open confrontation with the White House on everything from its conduct of the war on terrorism - at home and abroad - to its vision of American power.
It's a shift that reframes the final 35 months of a presidency that has counted on the Republican-controlled Congress to follow its lead, especially on issues of national security.


The GOP-controlled Congress has sparred with the White House before, on issues like spending restraint and Social Security reform. But since the Katrina debacle and, more recently, the Dubai ports deal, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are taking on the president over what has been his strength: national security.
So far, most of the fireworks have been in the Senate, where lawmakers last week forced changes in the USA Patriot Act, blasted the Dubai ports deal - including calls for a congressional veto - and held a second hearing to help craft a new law to curb domestic spying without a warrant.
This week, the revolt spills into the House, where GOP leaders have traditionally given President Bush his most dependable support.
Monday, Rep. Duncan Hunter (R) of California, the chairman of the Armed Services Committee, will propose legislation that not only axes a Dubai firm's takeover of terminals at six American ports but also would require all foreign owners to divest management of US port facilities and other assets deemed critical to national security.....

.....Later in the week, the International Relations Committee is expected to begin tough hearings examining Mr. Bush's proposed US-India Civilian Nuclear Cooperation Agreement, which provides American assistance to India's nuclear power industry but does not require concessions on its nuclear weapons program............

neil shakespeare has more on bushwhacked, india and nuclear weapons

i am SURE

if the dog was mambo sven there would be NO PROBLEM(s) what so ever!

Priests Purify Shrine After Bush Visit

Hindu priests who look after the memorial of Indian independence leader Mohandas Gandhi conducted a purification ceremony at the shrine after a visit from President Bush. But it wasn't the president who offended them, it was the sniffer-dogs who scoured the area ahead of his visit.
After the dog visit, the memorial was cleansed with water brought from the Ganges river, which Hindus consider holy, the Hindustan Times newspaper reported Sunday.
Bush visited the memorial on Thursday during his three day visit to India. The site, where pacifist icon Gandhi was cremated, is considered sacred and all visitors, including Bush and his wife Laura, removed their shoes before going in.
The dogs, flown in from the U.S., were part of the intense security surrounding the president, but the Hindu priests believe they tainted the site.
Letting dogs into the memorial also drew sharp protest from Hindu politicians and Gandhi's great grandson, Tushar Gandhi, who called the incident a "national shame," the Press Trust of India news agency reported
.
this is NOT MAMBO SVEN

A U.S. security personnel inspects near the eternal flame at the Mahatma Gandhi memorial, before the visit of U.S. President George W. Bush at the memorial in New Delhi, India, in this Thursday, March 2, 2006 file photo. Hindu priests who take care of the memorial of Indian independence leader Mohandas Gandhi conducted a purification ceremony at the shrine after a visit by U.S. President George W. Bush, reports said Sunday. It wasn't the American leader who offended them, but the sniffer-dogs that scoured the area ahead of his visit. (AP Photo/Ajit Kumar, File)

all of our 'official' spokespeople are denying a civil war exists

in iraq. yet most military analysts OUTSIDE of being official say it DOES indeed exist. it's low level (so far) and if we don't realize it, we are in even bigger trouble than we think we are.

Expert on Iraq: 'We're In a Civil War'

U.S. Officials Deny Violence Has Risen to That Level, but ABC News Analysts See a 'Serious Lack of Realism'
By JAKE TAPPER
BAGHDAD, March 5, 2006 — - As Pentagon generals offered optimistic assessments that the sectarian violence in Iraq had dissipated this weekend, other military experts told ABC News that Sunni and Shiite groups in Iraq already are engaged in a civil war, and that the Iraqi government and U.S. military had better accept that fact and adapt accordingly.
"We're in a civil war now; it's just that not everybody's joined in," said retired Army Maj. Gen. William L. Nash, a former military commander in Bosnia-Herzegovina. "The failure to understand that the civil war is already taking place, just not necessarily at the maximum level, means that our counter measures are inadequate and therefore dangerous to our long-term interest.
"It's our failure to understand reality that has caused us to be late throughout this experience of the last three years in Iraq," added Nash, who is an ABC News consultant.
Anthony Cordesman, the Arleigh A. Burke chair in strategy at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told ABC News, "If you talk to U.S. intelligence officers and military people privately, they'd say we've been involved in low level civil war with very slowly increasing intensity since the transfer of power in June 2004."
Since the elections last year, Cordesman says, more radical Islamist insurgents have made "a more dedicated strike at the fault lines between Shiites and Sunnis." And they have succeeded.
In an interview on Fox News Sunday, however, U.S. Marine Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, disputed that. ...............


denial denial denial.

Murtha transcript: The only people who want us in Iraq are Iran, al Qaeda and China

Filed by RAW STORY
FULL TRANSCRIPT from an interview between CBS News and Rep. Jack Murtha (D-PA) on Sunday's Face the Nation. Video here

MR. SCHIEFFER: And good morning, again. Joining us in the studio, Congressman John Murtha. Of course, he is an ex-Marine. He was wounded in Vietnam. He was a hawk on Iraq, but then last November, he said it is time to bring the troops home and it re- kindled a debate, made it even fiercer.
Congressman Murtha, thank you for coming this morning. And I want to start by quoting something that General Peter Pace, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said this morning on "Meet the Press." He said he believes the war in Iraq is going, in his words, very, very well. What is your assessment?
REP. MURTHA: Why would I believe him? I mean, this administration, including the president, have mischaracterized this war for the last two years. They first of all, they said it will take 40,000 troops to settle this thing right after the invasion. Then they said there's no insurgency, they're dead enders is what the secretary of defense said -- on and on and on this mischaracterization of the war. They said there's nuclear weapons. There were no nuclear weapons there, there's no biological weapons there, no al Qaeda connection. So why would I believe the chairman of the Joint Chiefs when he says things are going well?
I asked my staff -- when they make a statement like this, I said look, look in the latest report that the State Department puts out, the weekly report, and tell me how much progress we've made. So they look at it and we've made no progress at all. Sixty percent unemployment, the Iraqis want us out of there -- 80 percent of the Iraqis want us out of there -- oil production's below prewar level, water production -- only 30 percent of the people getting water.
Now our troops are being fed well and being taken care of. They're doing everything they can do militarily, but they're in a situation where they're caught in a civil war. And there's two participants fighting for survival and fighting for supremacy inside that country and that's my definition of a civil war...........

Sunday, March 05, 2006

a few days ago i did a posting on a 16 year old grrrl who was (allegedly) raped

(i'm not going to go on and on. i just wanted to speak my mind a bit. i was very upset and this is catharsis for me.)

the judge in the case was going to FORCE her to watch a videotape of the act OR find her in contempt of court. one of the young men on trial was found NOT GUILTY on friday. i have no more to say on that verdict. i didn't hear all of the evidence, i cannot say. i CAN say a few things about rape and about the comments left by 'anonymous' on my first posting

to 'anonymous' i say; i have watched enough judge judy in my time to know you cannot hold a minor to a contract. you have stated the sixteen year old girl who was (allegedly) raped CONSENTED to be videotaped during the 'sex'. lets say that were true, that to me would constitute a contract between the SIXTEEN YEAR OLD GIRL AND THE SEVERAL BOYS who (allegedly) raped her (i believe two were found not guilty, one was found guilty of child pornography since he filmed the incident and one has LEFT THE COUNTRY. the man who is 20 now that was just found not guilty ALSO initially left the country). not only should the video tape be null and void, it should BE DESTROYED forever. she was a MINOR and a DRUNKEN MINOR to boot. the man who was just found not guilty in this case, even admitted on the stand, the grrrl was so drunk she started PASSING OUT. yet, he was found not guilty. i've not seen the videotape. i don't want to see the videotape. to be fair (and yes i CAN be fair) i cannot say what i would have voted if i was on that jury (although i would NEVER have passed voir dire).

on rape:

rape has very little if anything to do with sex. if you think it does, you are very mistaken. it's a crime of violence and violation, power, abuse, force, assault. i remember reading a while ago, about a man who was actually castrated (i forgot if it was by his own hand or not but believe it was) who CONTINUED to rape his young granddaughter. he didn't need a penis at all. it was all in his BRAIN NOT HIS DICK. most but not all people who rape are men. that's a fact. most but not all people who are raped are women. that's a fact. i believe most rapes go unreported. we can never know that, we can never know exact figures. those that DO report them are treated like sluts and are the ones put on trial. it is better than it once was, but far from perfect. is it because women dress 'too sexy' or were 'asking for it'? was that 91 year old who was raped in connecticut (and the perpetrator was JUST convicted i will add) dressed too provocatively? was she asking for it because she was a tease?


from the rape abuse and incest national network
Rapes Still Not Being Reported The National Crime Victimization Survey includes statistics on reported and unreported crimes in America. Sexual assault is one of the most underreported crimes, with more than half still being left unreported. Utilizing services such as The National Sexual Assault Hotline can help encourage victims to get help and report what has happened to them so that more perpetrators can be brought to justice.
Young females are four times more likely than any other group to be the victims of sexual assault, and the least likely to report their victimization.

silent victims

One of the most startling aspects of sex crimes is how many go unreported. The most common reasons given by women for not reporting these crimes are the belief that it is a private or personal matter and the fear of reprisal from the assailant.
Approximately 28% of victims are raped by husbands or boyfriends, 35% by acquaintances, and 5% by other relatives. (Violence against Women, Bureau of Justice Statistics, U.S. Dept. of Justice, 1994)
The FBI estimates that only 37% of all rapes are reported to the police. U.S. Justice Department statistics are even lower, with only 26% of all rapes or attempted rapes being reported to law enforcement officials.
In 1994-1995, only 251,560 rapes and sexual assaults were reported to law enforcement officials -- less than one in every three. (National Crime Victimization Survey, Bureau of Justice Statistics, U.S. Department of Justice, 1996.)
An overwhelming majority of rape service agencies believe that public education about rape, and expanded counseling and advocacy services for rape victims, would be effective in increasing the willingness of victims to report rapes to the police. (Rape in America, 1992, National Victim Center with Crime Victims Research and Treatment Center.)

from cease


In the United States, 1.3 women are raped every minute. That results in 78 rapes each hour, 1872 rapes each day, 56160 rapes ech month and 683,280 rapes each year.
1 out of every 3 American women will be sexually assulted in her lifetime.
The United States has the world's highest rape rate of the countries that publish such statistics. It's 4 times higher than Germany, 13 times higher than England, and 20 times higher than Japan.
1 in 7 women will be raped by her husband.
83% of rape cases are ages 24 or under.
1 in 4 college women have either been raped or suffered attempted rape.
1 in 12 males students surveyed had commited acts that met the legal definition of rape. Furthermore, 84% of the men who had commited such acts said what they had done was definitely not rape.
75% of male students and 55% of female students involved in acquintance rape had been drinking or using drugs.
Only 16% of rapes are ever reported to the police.


some of these statistics don't match exactly BUT they are indeed close.

remember this-you are a victim WHEN it happens. you are a SURVIVOR AFTER.

men can stop rape
aware


i love raw story

and try to read it every day. one of the few places to get REAL TRUE news. i love when they expose slimy weasels. i love it when they show how the slimy weasels prey on the elderly. i love it when they make the slimy weasels SQUIRM. hey babies (at the national center for public policy research) what goes around comes around.

After critical article, conservative nonprofit accuses Raw Story of violating copyright
03/03/2006 @ 11:20 am Filed by John Byrne

The National Center for Public Policy Research, the conservative nonprofit where fallen lobbyist Jack Abramoff served as a director, has instructed RAW STORY to remove a fundraising letter the group sent in 2004.

Noland MacKenzie Canter, III, a lawyer for the group, says the publication of the center’s fundraising letter violates their copyright. To many outside Washington, the center is known for being the group that Abramoff used to cover posh junkets for former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-TX).
RAW STORY published the letter in January of 2005. The story it accompanied detailed the effort by the conservative nonprofit to raise money from senior citizens by disguising a solicitation for a political donation under the guise of a “Task Force” to save Social Security.
Sent amidst a climate of growing concern about the Social Security program, the group's letters targeted seniors of both parties, aiming to convince them their Social Security benefits were in jeopardy in hopes of inducing them to donate money. The mailings also encouraged seniors to keep the missive secret from others, perhaps even from family members.
"Inside your sealed envelope is information regarding the potential collapse of the Social Security system -- and how it can endanger you and the entire United States senior citizen population," NCPPR president Amy Ridenour writes on behalf of the National Social Security Task Force (Read the
letter here).
"It is also critical that you share this pertinent information ONLY [sic] with other trustworthy individuals."
The task force appears little more than a paper dragon. When asked about why it wasn’t mentioned on the center's website, NCPPR executive director David Almasi told RAW STORY in 2005, “We [don’t] currently have Internet access in our office.”
Canter says the letter came to his attention only after this site ran an article raising questions about Ridenour and her ties to an Abramoff client, the prime minister of Malaysia. When asked why the group declined to seek the letter’s removal when it was initially published, Canter said, “I don’t have any comment.”...............