perhaps harry taylor IS for real

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS/GERALD HERBERT

Real estate broker Harry Taylor criticized President Bush at a town-hall meeting at Central Piedmont Community College in Charlotte, N.C. Bush seemed to take the criticism in stride

i'm still dubious but he just MAY be what he seems to be (a true patriot)

Bush critic talk of town

JIM MORRILL
jmorrill@charlotteobserver.com

Friday was not a normal day for Harry Taylor.

He did two national TV interviews. His phone rang all day. E-mails flooded his inbox. People he never met called him a hero and a patriot. He became a darling of Internet blogs, including one called simply: thankyouharrytaylor.org.

"It's like I've got 10,000 butterflies jumping up and down in my stomach," he said in an afternoon interview. "It's been that way for 27 hours now."

A day before, President Bush called on Taylor during a question session after a speech at Central Piedmont Community College. "I have never felt more ashamed of, nor more frightened, by my leadership in Washington, including the presidency," Taylor told Bush. "And I would hope from time to time that you have the humility and the grace to be ashamed of yourself."

"I'm not your favorite guy," Bush interrupted at one point, waving off boos directed at the Charlotte businessman and giving him a chance to speak.

Even Taylor lauded the president's gracious response. But his comments made waves way beyond CPCC's Halton Theatre.

His public scolding was picked up by media from around the country and as far away as South Africa. Even the official Chinese news agency reported it. The media reaction began when a flock of reporters mobbed him right after he left his seat Thursday.

"I felt like I had just hit the home run to win the World Series," he told CNN's Soledad O'Brien Friday morning. When she asked if he'd spent a lot of time thinking about what to say if given a chance, Taylor had a ready answer.

"Yes, about six years worth," he said...........

liar liar pants on fire

we know he's a liar
we know he promotes his friends (capable OR NOT) to prominant positions in the government
we know he's NOT the brightest bulb in the box
we know he talks to his little imaginary friend jesus
we know he doesn't care about the environment
we know he doesn't care about the masses
we know he's got balls the size of watermelons (well in his mind at least. in reality they are most likely the size of a split pea. i don't want to personally verify this though)
we know everything he touches turns to shite (EVERYTHING)
we know he's a liar (oh i said that didn't i)

NEWSVIEW: Leak-Hating President, As Leaker

By TOM RAUM
ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Bush insists a president "better mean what he says." Those words could return to haunt him.

After long denouncing leaks of all kinds, Bush is confronted with a statement - unchallenged by his aides - that he authorized a leak of classified material to undermine an Iraq war critic.

The allegation in the CIA leak case threatens the credibility of a president already falling in the polls, and it gives Democrats fresh material to accuse him of hypocrisy.

"In politics, what gets bad gets worse," said GOP strategist Ed Rogers. "And we've been on a a bad roll for quite some time. We're in an environment now where every mistake is a metaphor."..........

from the great state of hawaii

(where i've never been mind you. i WOULD have gone to my friend heidi's wedding {yeah her name is heidi and she's from hawaii and of asian ancestry. i tease her mercilessly about being named heidi} but i cannot be in a plane that long. she DID make the 1000 origami cranes though. i sure would have LOVED to have seen that) at any rate:

SENATE RESOLUTION

CALLING UPON THE GOVERNOR OF HAWAII TO TAKE STEPS TO WITHDRAW THE HAWAII ARMY AND AIR NATIONAL GUARD TROOPS FROM IRAQ

with so many other things going on in the world

i forgot this had happened. i forgot what a horror story this was (and is). i forgot how many were tortured and killed. i forgot how many babies were stolen (we will never know the real numbers here), ripped from the wombs of innocent women. can you imagine being one of these children. finding out the people you thought were your parents were indeed imposters. imposters who were responsible for your REAL parents murders?



Children stolen during Argentina's dirty war begin to resurface

By Jack Chang
Knight Ridder Newspapers

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina - For most of her life, Claudia Victoria Poblete lived a lie that began when she was 8 months old, during the darkest years of Argentina's brutal military dictatorship.

Poblete, now 28, was Mercedes Beatriz Landa then and was raised as an only child in a military family. It wasn't until 2000 that she learned the truth: Her father and mother, Jose Liborio Poblete and Marta Gertrudis Hlaczik, had been kidnapped by soldiers on Nov. 28, 1978, tortured and killed. The man she'd known as her father, Army Lt. Col. Ceferino Landa, had been a colleague of her parents' killers.

"When I first learned this, I couldn't believe it was true," said Poblete, who's now married and works as a computer systems analyst in Buenos Aires. "But when I saw the pictures of my parents and my relatives, it was like a shock of truth. And it brought me tranquility."

The man who raised Poblete was charged with the "retention, concealment and suppression" of her identity and sentenced to nine years of house arrest. After years of court battles, Argentina's Supreme Court used the case last year to declare unconstitutional two amnesty laws passed in the 1980s that had set a 60-day deadline for bringing human rights charges against military and police officials and had protected lower-ranking members of the military from prosecution.

That opened the floodgates. Since then, 1,400 people, civilians and military personnel have been charged with a range of offenses related to the kidnapping and murder of dissidents.

Poblete is one of an estimated 500 children whose parents vanished during Argentina's so-called dirty war, which began with the overthrow of President Maria Estela Martinez de Peron on March 24, 1976, and ended with the fall of the military government after the country's defeat in the Falklands war in 1983.

During those years, the government had as many as 30,000 dissidents, intellectuals and innocent bystanders kidnapped and killed while it battled armed guerrillas in what it called the Process of National Reorganization.

The terror campaign included abducting hundreds of babies along with their mothers or kidnapping babies born to female prisoners in the hundreds of concentration camps that dotted the country.

Witnesses said many of the mothers gave birth gagged, blindfolded and bound. Doctors often induced labor and performed unnecessary Caesarian surgeries. Almost all of the women were later executed, their bodies never found.............

more good news about homeland security doing their job

by arresting (in front of the elementary school children) a BELOVED elementary school teacher doing his job.

Local Teacher's Run-In With Homeland Security Creates Insecurities

A local school employee said a rough run-in with a couple of Homeland Security officers has left him with a strong sense of insecurity.

Leander Pickett, a teacher's assistant at Englewood Elementary, said he was manhandled and handcuffed by two plain clothed Homeland Security officers in front of the school Tuesday for no reason at all.

"I would like to treat people the way I would want to be treated, and yesterday I wasn't treated that way," Pickett said.

Pickett has been working at Englewood for two years, and his principal and colleagues told Channel 4 they have never met a harder worker or nicer guy.

"He's well loved by everyone because he's willing to do anything to help children," said the Englewood Elementary Principal Gail Brinson.

However, Tuesday afternoon Pickett's niceness turned to anger, disappointment, and betrayal when, as Pickett was directing bus traffic, he said he was handcuffed and roughed up and humiliated by the very people that were supposed to protect him.

"I walked up to him and said, 'Sir, you need to move.' That's when he said 'I'm a police officer. I'm with Homeland Security ... I'll move it when I want to.' That's when he started grabbing me on my arm," Pickett said.

However, Homeland Security tells a different story.

The department said the only reason the officers were at the school was because they pulled over to look at a map.

The department also said it's looking into what happened, and that Pickett's version is wrong. It claims he was antagonizing the officers.

Several people were outside of the school, watching the incident take place, and those witnesses agree with Pickett's story............

watership down down down?

(image: somethingshappinin.tripod.com)

Armed guards hunt Were-rabbit of Mouldshaugh Lane

Sam Jones Friday April 7, 2006The Guardian
Martial law has been declared on a Northumberland allotment after a series of devastating nocturnal raids by a freakishly large and hungry rabbit.
The residents of the village of Felton believe the creature - which has feet as big as a dog's - bides its time in its burrow before emerging at night to plunder parsnips, spring carrots, leeks and onions at the allotments on Mouldshaugh Lane.
The proud vegetable-growers have become so angry at the animal's depredations that they have appointed two armed watchmen to guard the allotments at night. Both have orders to shoot the beast on sight........

RUN THUMPER RUN!

i was unaware of THIS story

on the subject of child pornography. world wide............and yet, it continues. on and on and the pedophiles ARE PROTECTED. the people that expose them are arrested. i can even understand corruption and protecting your friends (i'm not saying it's right, i'm just saying i understand it) BUT to protect someone who is a pedophile? oh if only there WAS a hell

Mogul's probable porn trial tests integrity of Mexican legal system
By Kevin G. Hall
Knight Ridder Newspapers
MEXICO CITY - Mexican prosecutors are preparing for the return from the United States of a wealthy Cancun businessman whose child-sex and pornography case gained notoriety last year after a journalist who wrote a book about the allegations was arrested.
U.S. District Judge David K. Duncan ruled from the bench in Phoenix on Tuesday that Jean Succar Kuri, 61, would be returned to Mexico to face charges ranging from child rape and corruption of minors to participation in an international child-pornography ring. Seven girls and a boy allege sexual abuse that was filmed or photographed.
Succar Kuri, who's a legal U.S. resident, has been in jail in Arizona since Feb. 6, 2004. He's likely to be returned to Mexico within 90 days, though defense attorneys said they'd try to block the judge's decision.
The case exploded onto the international stage in December, after the arrest of journalist Lydia Cacho, who wrote "The Demons of Eden: The Power That Protects Child Pornography." The book, published in Mexico, asserts that powerful politicians have pressured Mexican prosecutors to back off from charging Succar Kuri.
Police from the state of Puebla, near Mexico City, seized Cacho in Cancun, 900 miles outside their jurisdiction, and took her back to Puebla to face local charges of criminal libel. Cacho eventually was released and the charges were dropped after an outcry from international rights and media organizations.
Her arrest became an even bigger issue in February, when leaked audiotapes purportedly showed that the governor of Puebla, Mario Marin, had engineered the arrest as a favor for Mexican clothing magnate Kamel Nacif, whom Cacho describes in her book as a Succar Kuri confidant and protector. .........

i'm not a conspiracy theory person

but it sure does sound like to me this dude was a plant. a sort of reverse psychology ploy. let's pretend the king is so human and understanding he will take criticism from the teeming masses............. i don't know. yeah the dude (the questioner) SOUNDS good, but for some reason or another, i'm just NOT buying it (yet)

Questioner sharply criticizes President Bush at appearance
By Ron Hutcheson and Jim Morrill
Knight Ridder Newspapers

CHARLOTTE, N.C. - President Bush isn't used to tongue lashings, but he got a scolding Thursday from a North Carolina man who told the president that he should be ashamed of himself.
"While I listen to you talk about freedom, I see you assert your right to tap my telephone, to arrest me and hold me without charges, to try to preclude me from breathing clean air and drinking clean water," real estate broker Harry Taylor told Bush at a town hall meeting. "I have never felt more ashamed of nor more frightened by my leadership in Washington."
The audience at Central Piedmont Community College booed, but Bush seemed to take the criticism in stride.
"I'm not your favorite guy," the president said. "What's your question?"
Taylor didn't have one, but he wasn't finished. ...........


T. ORTEGA GAINES, Charlotte Observer
President George W. Bush has a Q & A with local Charlotte leaders and members of the World Affairs Council of Charlotte in North Carolina

i don't read her column

(lily this is in regards to a comment you left here on another coulter posting i did)

i cannot read her column. she is vile, evil, mean-spirited, has NO sense of humor, is offensive (yes, even more so than i), cares not for her fellow earthlings, promotes violence and intolerance and so much more.

i am a very emotional and passionate person (duh!!!). i cannot handle reading her at ALL, not in the least. it's bad enough to read ABOUT her. (hell, i had to stop reading the right leaning blogs on my homestate site ctweblogs because i was foaming at the mouth. i do like to get ALL points of view, but at this stage in my life, i am going to say eff 'em. i have my views and i'm sticking to them!)

Coulter Is Paid $32,000 to Give 30-Minute Speech at College By E&P Staff Published: April 06, 2006 11:30 AM ET
NEW YORK Columnist Ann Coulter certainly gets paid well to give audiences an earful of her right-wing views.The Gainesville (Fla.) Sun, in a story about Coulter's Wednesday appearance at the University of Florida, noted that UF's student-run speaker's bureau shelled out $32,000 of its $370,000 annual budget to bring Coulter to campus. The $32,000 includes her speaking fee, travel, and lodging.During her speech, Coulter insulted liberals yet again. The Universal Press Syndicate columnist called them "traitors," "cowards," and "idiots," according to the Sun.Jeff Adelson's Thursday story added: "In response to a question about whether Islamic beliefs could be problematic in the creation of an Iraqi democracy, Coulter repeated what has become perhaps her most controversial comment. 'We should invade their countries, kill their leaders, and convert them to Christianity,' she wrote shortly after Sept. 11."..........

editor and publisher says uproar grows over king george's (alleged) role

in the libby leak. well to tell you the truth, i don't see MUCH uproar. a few stories here and there, mostly in the 'liberal' press but nothing much in mainstream media. no LEAD story on this (sure the nyt ran the story but it's not the LEAD story) and let's face it even if there WAS a ton of coverage chances are NOTHING will come of this like NOTHING came of everything else the king and his court have done not only wrongly BUT illegally. in the press conference yesterday morning (with mclellan) why didn't ANYONE ask ANY questions about this subject? there was NOT ONE question. sure, it is only in the allegation stage now, BUT what do you think is going to happen?

Uproar Grows Over Bush Role in Libby Leakage
By E&P Staff and The Associated Press Published: April 06, 2006 11:00 PM ET
NEW YORK Leading newpapapers in articles for Friday papers portrayed the revelation that President Bush may have authorized Lewis "Scooter" to feed sensitive intelligence information to reporters as another major blow to the White House. Michael Fletcher in The Washington Post, for example, wrote that this "introduces a new dimension to the long-running CIA leak investigation, while posing troubling new political problems for the administration."Until now, the investigation had been about aides to Bush and their alleged efforts to attack the credibility of a vocal administration critic, including by possibly leaking classified information. Bush cast himself as a disinterested observer, eager to resolve the case and hold those responsible accountable."The New York Times in a news story observed that the latest information "provides an indication that Mr. Bush, who has long criticized leaks of secret information as a threat to national security, may have played a direct role in authorizing disclosure of the intelligence report on Iraq."......

a very good article (essay) on pedophilia

you know i agree with her on this. pedophiles CANNOT be cured. it is something within them. part of them. something that cannot be removed. they must be taken OUT of society. they cannot share the same space as the rest of us. you think me cruel if after they've served there time they aren't allowed to live with us? no, not in this case. i KNOW what a pedophile CAN do (and WILL do). i know they don't belong among us. i know i know i know what they can do


Pedophiles in Our Midst
By Christy Hardin Smith, Firedoglake
Posted on April 6, 2006, Printed on April 6, 2006
http://www.alternet.org/story/34528/
Take a good long look at Brian Doyle, deputy press secretary for the Department of Homeland Security. Alleged pedophile.

He could be your neighbor, your babysitter, your youth minister, your grocery check-out guy, your best friend's husband. He could be anyone you know. Not exactly a big, flashing sign that says "alleged pedophile" around this guy's neck, is there?

The fact that a Bush administration Department of Homeland Security official was arrested yesterday for attempting to solicit sex from a 14-year-old girl over the internet is a shock for some people. But it shouldn't be.

The fact that this arrest also happened on the day that Justin Berry was testifying about his abuse at the hands of internet sexual predators before Congress makes this all the more horrid, in my mind -- the juxtaposition between Brian Doyle and Justin Berry is just painful when you read the news articles side by side. Taylor Marsh has a fantastic article about this -- it's a tough read but a necessary one to understand the mindset behind this sort of behavior.

Warning: I'm going into a bit of detail below, and I didn't want it to come as a shock for anyone. Know what you face and face it head on.

I've prosecuted a number of pedophiles in my time, as well as participated in ongoing probation supervision for already convicted sexual predators, and there is one thing about which I am absolutely certain: You can never cure a pedophile. You can work with them, you can do aggressive therapy to help them control urges, you can do any number of things that require them to limit contact with children and porn, but there is no cure.............

al franken (in the huffington post)

NAILS little miss goody two shoes...;

an evening with ann coulter

and from al's midwest value pac website his opening 'ann coulter' statement

goody two shoes
adam ant/marco pirroni

With the heartbreak open So much you can’t hide Put on a little makeup makeup
Make sure they get your good side good side If the words unspoken Get stuck in
your throat Send a treasure token token Write it on a pound note pound note
Don’t drink don’t smoke - what do you do? Don’t drink don’t smoke - what do you
do? Subtle innuends follow There must be something inside he’s hiding We don’t
follow fashion That would be a joke You know we’re going to set them set them So
everyone can take note take note When they saw you kneeling Crying words that
you mean Opening their eyeballs eyeballs Pretending that you’re al green al
green No one’s gonna tell me What’s wrong or what’s righ tOr tell me who to eat
with sleep with Or that I’ve won the big fight big fight Look out or they’ll
tell you You’re a superstar Two weeks and you’re an all time legend I think the
games have gone much too far If the words unspoken Get stuck in your throa tSend
a treasure token token Write it on a pound note pound note Don’t drink don’t
smoke - what do you do? Don’t drink... etc.

better and better........

Katherine Harris Hires New Campaign Team
POSTED: 7:33 am EDT April 5, 2006
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- U.S. Rep. Katherine Harris named her new U.S. Senate campaign team Tuesday, replacing President Reagan's political director with a former Tom DeLay spokesman who more recently fought gay marriage in Massachusetts.On the day DeLay, R-Texas, resigned from Congress in scandal, his former press secretary, James Lafferty was named Harris' senior adviser. Since leaving DeLay's office, Lafferty has also led an attempt to ban gay marriage in Massachusetts and served as executive director of the Christian Seniors Association, a division of the Traditional Values Coalition.
He is married to Andrea Lafferty executive director of Traditional Values Coalition, which is known for its anti-homosexual and anti-abortion agenda.
Lafferty replaces Ed Rollins, a Republican strategist who was Reagan's political director and campaign manager for Ross Perot's presidential bid. Rollins resigned last week along with the last remaining members of Harris' core campaign team.
"I look at our campaign today and I am so excited," Harris said in a press release. "Like most campaigns, we have made changes that make us stronger. We are not looking back and have our sights set on victory in November."...........

believe me kathy i am SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO excited too! i'm excited you hired a close minded, homophobic hate monger. i'm excited you're spending 10 milliion of your daddy's moolah, i'm excited you got new breasteseseseesesesese (or so they say) .

kathy - this is for YOU baby!
(i cannot find who actually WROTE these lyrics but of course they are from the pointer sisters recording and they reflect my TRUE feelings about kathy)

Tonight's the night we're gonna make
it happenTonight we'll put all other things aside Get in this time and show me
some affection We're goin' for those pleasures in the night I want to love you,
feel you, wrap myself around you I want to squeeze you, please you, I just can't
get enough And if you move real slow I let it go I'm so excited and I just can't
hide itI'm about to lose control and I think I like itI'm so excited and I just
can't hide it And I know I know I know I know I know I want you We shouldn't even
think about tomorrow Sweet memories will last for long long time We'll have a good
time, Baby, don't do worry And if we're still playin' around boy that's just
fine Let's get excited, we just can't hide it I'm about to lose control and I
think I like it I'm so excited and I just can't hide it I know I know I know I
know I know I want you, I want you I want to love you, feel you, wrap myself
around you I want to squeeze you, please you, I just can't get enough And if you
move real slow I let it go I'm so excited, I just can't hide it I'm about to lose
control and I think I like it I'm so excited and I just can't hide itI know I
know I know I know I know I want you

i wish i could say i was making this up

from the perfectly ridiculous there comes this:

Man held as terrorism suspect over punk song

LONDON (Reuters) - British anti-terrorism detectives escorted a man from a plane after a taxi driver had earlier become suspicious when he started singing along to a track by punk band The Clash, police said Wednesday.
Detectives halted the London-bound flight at Durham Tees Valley Airport in northern England and Harraj Mann, 24, was taken off.
The taxi driver had become worried on the way to the airport because Mann had been singing along to The Clash's 1979 anthem "London Calling," which features the lyrics "Now war is declared -- and battle come down" while other lines warn of a "meltdown expected."
Mann told British newspapers the taxi had been fitted with a music system which allowed him to plug in his MP3 player and he had been playing The Clash, Procol Harum, Led Zeppelin and the Beatles to the driver.

(good thing he wasn't listening to nomber nye un nomber nye un nomber nye un)

THE CLASH LYRICS

"London Calling"

London calling to the faraway towns Now war is declared, and battle come
down London calling to the underworld Come out of the cupboard, you boys and
girls London calling, now don't look to us Phoney Beatlemania has bitten the
dust London calling, see we ain't got no swing 'Cept for the ring of that
truncheon thing [Chorus 1:]The ice age is coming, the sun's zooming in Meltdown
expected, the wheat is growing thin Engines stop running, but I have no fear
'Cause London is drowning, and I live by the river London calling to the
imitation zone Forget it, brother, you can go it alone London calling to the
zombies of death Quit holding out, and draw another breath London calling, and I
don't wanna shout But when we were talking, I saw you nodding out London
calling, see we ain't got no high Except for that one with the yellowy eyes
[Chorus 2: (x2)] The ice age is coming, the sun's zooming in Engines stop
running, the wheat is growing thin A nuclear era, but I have no fear 'Cause
London is drowning, and I live by the river Now get this London calling, yes, I
was there, too An' you know what they said? Well, some of it was true! London
calling at the top of the dial After all this, won't you give me a smile? London
calling I never felt so much alike [fading] alike alike alike

forgive me for quoting her (as i CANNOT stand even the THOUGHT of her)

but..........PAPA DON'T PREACH!!!

Elder Bush decries 'ugliness' in capital

(wtf???? who does he THINK caused the 'ugliness' to begin with?)


Web Posted: 04/05/2006 12:00 AM CDT
Greg Jefferson Express-News Staff Writer
Former President George H.W. Bush gently condemned the polarized politics that dominate Washington in a speech Tuesday night in San Antonio.
These aren't pleasant times in Washington, D.C.," Bush said. "It's pretty tough — there's an ugliness there."
At the same time, his son's presidency is under siege, but Bush offered little commentary on George W. Bush's time in the Oval Office.
Relaxed and quick with a joke, Bush, 80, spoke to a nearly packed house in Trinity University's Laurie Auditorium. It was a largely friendly crowd, giving him two standing ovations.
Barbara Bush got her own as she entered the auditorium before the address, a Flora Cameron Lecture on Politics and Public Affairs.
In his 20-minute speech that dealt with life after the presidency, Bush highlighted his work with former President Clinton to drum up relief after the Asian tsunami of late 2004 and after Hurricane Katrina slammed into Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana. .........

please take a gander at a posting the lovely and talented vanx at verb-ops did the other day. vanx was witness to speech given by papa (with a VERY inappropriate joke thrown in). it's under the paragraph "who's your daddy" toward the end of the posting.

one day we (people that is - humans that is)

WILL COME FIRST. corporations will come AFTER us. we will get the education, health coverage, food and care WE need. the world WILL be a good place. well that is if the rapture doesn't happen FIRST

Hospitals' Watchdog Raises Violation Threshold

The private group that accredits institutions will permit more lapses before taking action.
By Charles Ornstein and Tracy Weber, Times Staff Writers April 6, 2006
The group that gives a seal of approval to the nation's hospitals — already accused of being too lenient — now will allow medical centers to rack up more patient care lapses and other violations before sanctioning them.The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations last month raised the number of deficiencies a hospital may accumulate during an inspection before being punished.Critics say that the new rules are a step back for the influential group and that it may be more eager to please hospitals than protect patients."I don't know how far below zero they intend to go," said Rep. Pete Stark (D-Fremont), who has called for more federal oversight of the commission. "They're not doing the job of making sure that hospitals are delivering quality, safe care."Commission accreditation is not purely symbolic; state regulators and private insurers consider it a key measure of a hospital's quality.............

how can they get away with publishing lies?

The Tiktaalik has a flat head with eyes positioned on top (Image: Ted Daeschler)

everyone knows the world is only a couple of thousand years old. everyone knows there is NO such thing as evolution! write a letter to this paper (and all of the other papers -too numerous to mention- that are carrying this story. the truth MUST be told.)

Arctic fossils mark move to land

By Rebecca Morelle BBC News science reporter

Fossil animals found in Arctic Canada provide a snapshot of fish evolving into land animals, scientists say.
The finds are giving researchers a fascinating insight into this key stage in the evolution of life on Earth.
US palaeontologists have published details of the fossil "missing links" in the prestigious journal Nature.
The 383 million-year-old specimens are described as crocodile-like animals with fins instead of limbs that probably lived in shallow water.
'Missing link'
Before these finds, palaeontologists knew that lobe-finned fishes evolved into land-living creatures during the Devonian Period.
But fossil records showed a gap between Panderichthys, a fish that lived about 385 million years ago which shows early signs of evolving land-friendly features, and Acanthostega, the earliest known tetrapod (four-limbed land-living animals) dating from about 365 million years ago. ........

just because i felt like it is why i am posting the lyrics to

and the band played waltzing matilda by the pogues (and yes i cry each and every time i hear it)


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
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 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
And we buried ours and the turks buried theirs
Then started all over again
Now those
In mad world of blood, death and fire
And for weeks I kept myself alive
while the corpses around me 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 wasDead
Never knew there were worse things than dying<
and> no more I’ll go waltzing matilda
the green 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 Maimed
And they shipped us back home to australia
the legless, the armless the blind and insane
Those proud wounded heroes of suvla
And as our ship pulled into circular quay
I looked at the place where
me 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
and they turned all their faces away
And now every april I sit on my porch
And I watch the parade pass before me i see my old comrades,
how proudly they march
Reliving the or their dreams of past glory
i see the old men, all twisted and torn
The forgotten heroes of a forgotten wa
And the young people ask me
what are theyMarching for?
And I ask myself the same question
And the band plays waltzing matilda
And the old men still answer to the call
But year after year their numbers get fewer
Some day no one will march there at all
Waltzing matilda, waltzing matildaWho’ll go a-waltzing matilda with me?

the rapture damn well better get here right quick!

we don't have too much time left. Decision after decision is simply mind boggling. untreated syphilis causes dementia doesn't it?

EPA air-toxics plan sparks internal rift
A draft rule would weaken clean-air standards, officials say. Their memo could figure in Senate hearings Wednesday.
By Mark Clayton Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
The Environmental Protection Agency has drafted a plan that would allow so much extra industrial air pollution that 7 of 10 of the agency's own regional air-quality directors have signed on to a memo condemning it.
While disagreement on policy issues is not unusual, former EPA officials say the regional directors used particularly strong language in criticizing the plan developed on William Wehrum's watch in a December memo, which surfaced Monday.


The stinging internal criticism is likely to pop up Wednesday at Senate confirmation hearings for Mr. Wehrum, who is nominated to become the nation's top air-quality officer.
The plan proposes loosening limits on toxic emissions from scores of industrial sectors, including refineries, chemical plants, steel mills, and smelters.
The changes, the memo said, would "essentially negate" today's limits on industry toxic air emissions like arsenic, mercury, and lead, also called "hazardous air pollutants" or "air toxics."
Such poisons are considered by the Clean Air Act to be far more dangerous to public health than air pollutants like nitrous oxides or sulfur dioxide.......

well now i've heard it all

it's a joy to be a second class citizen OR an ass. whichever you prefer
this is BEYOND belief.

Textbook: Donkeys Better Than Housewives

A textbook used in western India compares housewives to donkeys — and concludes that the pack animals make more loyal companions, a newspaper reported Tuesday.

"A donkey is like a housewife," declares the Hindi language primer approved by the state of Rajasthan, according to The Times of India newspaper. "It has to toil all day and, like her, may even have to give up food and water."

"In fact, the donkey is a shade better," continues the text meant for 14-year-olds, "for while the housewife may sometimes complain and walk off to her parents' home, you'll never catch the donkey being disloyal to his master."

The book, reportedly used in Rajasthani schools, has sparked protests from the women's wing of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, which controls the state government and approved the text, the Times reported..........

no fine (for speaking true words) after all!

Woman off hook over bumper sticker

By CHANDLER BROWN , DAVID SIMPSON
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 04/05/06
Bashing President Bush will not cost an Athens woman $100 after all.

Denise Grier, who was cited in DeKalb County for her "I'm Tired of All the BUSH—" car decal, has had her case thrown out.
"We couldn't prosecute it," DeKalb Recorders Court Chief Judge R. Joy Walker said because Georgia's lewd decal law was ruled unconstitutional in 1990. Walker said a letter of dismissal was mailed to Grier's home last week.

Police Sgt. R.S. Caviness pulled Grier over on Chamblee Tucker Road about 9:30 p.m. March 10, according to police records obtained under Georgia's Open Records Act. He issued her a ticket for $100.

The portion of the Georgia code that Caviness cited on the ticket prohibits on vehicles "any sticker, decal, emblem, or other device containing profane or lewd words describing sexual acts, excretory functions, or parts of the human body."

However, the Georgia Supreme Court declared the law unconstitutional in 1990, ruling it violated the First Amendment right to free speech............

this has nothing to do with politics

it has to do with protecting our children. there IS no devil but there IS evil out there in the form of REAL men (and women too). watch your babies and keep them safe

Homeland Security Deputy Press Secretary arrested

POLICE REPORT:

Deputy Press Secretary for U.S. Department of Homeland Security Arrested on Polk County Charges

Brian J. Doyle, DOB 4/7/50, the Deputy Press Secretary for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Office of Public Affairs in Washington, D.C., was arrested this evening at his residence in Silver Springs, Maryland, on 23 Polk County charges related to the use of a computer to seduce a child and transmitting harmful materials to a minor. Doyle's arrest is the result of a joint investigation by the Polk County Sheriff s Office, working with Florida’s 10th Judicial Circuit State Attorney Jerry Hill s office, and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Inspector General s Office.


The Investigation
On March 12, 2006, Doyle contacted a 14-year-old girl whose profile was posted on the Internet, and initiated a sexually explicit conversation with her. The girl was actually an undercover Polk County Sheriff s Computer Crimes detective. Doyle knew that the girl was 14 years old, and he told her who he was and that he worked for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. During future online chats, Doyle gave the undercover detective posing as a 14-year-old girl his office phone number and his government-issued cell phone number, so that they could have telephone conversations, in addition to their online chatting. Doyle used the Internet to send hard-core pornographic movie clips to the girl and used the AOL Instant Messenger chat service to have explicit sexual conversations with her. The investigation revealed that the phone numbers given to the detective were in fact Doyle s, and that the AOL account used was registered to Doyle. Doyle also sent photos of himself to the detective, which were not sexually explicit but did serve to further positively identify him..................

and this

Sex tourism thriving in Bible Belt

By Verna Gates and Mickey Goodman

ATLANTA (Reuters) - In a sleazy hotel room, "Brittany," then aged 16 and drugged into oblivion, waited for the men to arrive. Her pimps sent as many as 17 clients an evening through the door.

A "john" could even pre-book the pretty young blonde for $1,000 a night, sometimes flying in and then flying out from a nearby airport.

None of this happened in Bangkok or Costa Rica, places that have become synonymous with sex tourism and underage sex.

It took place in Atlanta, the buckle of the U.S. Bible Belt, where the world's busiest passenger airport provides a cheaper, more convenient and safer underage sex destination for men seeking girls as young as 10.

"Men fly in, are met by pimps, have sex with a 14-year-old for lunch, and get home in time for dinner with the family," said Sanford Jones, the chief juvenile judge of Fulton County, Georgia.

A new federal law passed in 2003 ensures that American sex tourists landing on foreign soil and hiring prostitutes under the age of 18 can get 30 years in prison.

But in Georgia, punishment for pimping or soliciting sex with a girl under 18 is only five to 20 years, according to Deborah Espy, the Deputy District Attorney of Fulton County.

"Men are coming to Atlanta to have sex with a child," said LaKendra Baker, project manager for the Center to End Adolescent Sexual Exploitation (CEASE)...........

wow, MORE good news to make us feel even SAFER

if i were a terrorist (which by the way i AM NOT) this is the sort of info i'd be looking for. now i wonder to myself, 'self i say, why is THIS public'? i sure as hell wouldn't release this bit o' news UNTIL AFTER it was corrected.

nbc30.com
Coast Guard, FBI Tension Threatens Sea-Based Response
Justice Watchdog Asserts Potentially Dangerous Reactions
POSTED: 9:17 am EDT April 4, 2006
WASHINGTON -- Squabbling between the Coast Guard and the FBI could lead to confused and potentially disastrous responses to terrorism incidents at sea, a government investigator said Monday.
Disagreements over the roles the two agencies should take in responding to a maritime terrorism threat or attack come as intelligence analysts continue to believe that al-Qaida and other terror groups are likely to launch attacks on ports, warships, cruise ships or ferries, said Justice Department Inspector General Glenn A. Fine.
The bickering came to a head in last year's weeklong anti-terrorism drill, TOPOFF 3, in which the Coast Guard said the FBI repeatedly blocked Coast Guard plans to try out a new team in a mock assault on a ferry off the coast of Connecticut, Fine said in a partially blacked-out, 103-page report. The FBI wanted to limit the assault to its elite Hostage Rescue Team. The Coast Guard ultimately changed the scenario to circumvent the FBI's role as the lead agency, Fine said. ..........

Glenda in the Land of Oz: Cake Pony

Glenda in the Land of Oz: Cake Pony

i HAD to link to this. strange isn't even the word for it. there IS no word for it

the nutmeg grater: i had NO idea glenn tilbrook was going to be in new haven tonight~

the nutmeg grater: i had NO idea glenn tilbrook was going to be in new haven tonight~

while i was at the guardian, i found this too

and i just couldn't resist........

The strange case of the man who took 40,000 ecstasy pills in nine years · Usage increased to 25 tablets a day at peak· Memory problems and paranoia may be lasting (duh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

David McCandlessTuesday April 4, 2006The Guardian
Doctors from London University have revealed details of what they believe is the largest amount of ecstasy ever consumed by a single person. Consultants from the addiction centre at St George's Medical School, London, have published a case report of a British man estimated to have taken around 40,000 pills of MDMA, the active ingredient in ecstasy, over nine years. The heaviest previous lifetime intake on record is 2,000 pills.
Though the man, who is now 37, stopped taking the drug seven years ago, he still suffers from severe physical and mental health side-effects, including extreme memory problems, paranoia, hallucinations and depression. He also suffers from painful muscle rigidity around his neck and jaw which often prevents him from opening his mouth. The doctors believe many of these symptoms may be permanent.
The man, known as Mr A in the report in the scientific journal Psychosomatics, started using ecstasy at 21. For the first two years his use was an average of five pills per weekend. Gradually this escalated until he was taking around three and a half pills a day. At the peak, the man was taking an estimated 25 pills every day for four years. After several severe collapses at parties, Mr A decided to stop taking ecstasy. For several months, he still felt he was under the influence of the drug, despite being bedridden..........

it is rather difficult for me to feel sorry for mr a. as a matter of fact, i don't give a flying yoo hoo (i do NOT wish him ill mind you)

from the guardian: silence in class

some observations about us from a foreign eye

University professors denounced for anti-Americanism; schoolteachers suspended for their politics; students encouraged to report on their tutors. Are US campuses in the grip of a witch-hunt of progressives, or is academic life just too liberal? By Gary Younge

Tuesday April 4, 2006
The Guardian


After the screenwriter Walter Bernstein was placed on the blacklist during the McCarthyite era he said his life "seemed to move in ever-decreasing circles". "Few of my friends dropped away but the list of acquaintances diminished," he wrote in Inside Out, a memoir of the blacklist. "I appeared contaminated and they did not want to risk infection. They avoided me, not calling as they had in the past, not responding to my calls, being nervously distant if we met in public places."
As chair of African American studies in Yale, Paul Gilroy had a similar experience recently after he spoke at a university-sponsored teach-in on the Iraq war. "I think the morality of cluster bombs, of uranium-tipped bombs, [of] daisy cutters are shaped by an imperial double standard that values American lives more," he said. "[The war seems motivated by] a desire to enact revenge for the attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon ... [It's important] to speculate about the relation between this war and the geopolitical interests of Israel."..........

he's just vile

and disgusting and a hypocrite

Limbaugh called alleged Duke rape victim a "ho[ ]"


Summary: On his national syndicated radio program, Rush Limbaugh referred to the alleged victim of a rape by members of the Duke University lacrosse team as a "ho[]."
During the March 31 broadcast of his national syndicated radio program, Rush Limbaugh referred to the alleged victim of a rape by members of the Duke University lacrosse team as a "ho[]." During an on-air discussion with a caller, Limbaugh said that former Democratic presidential candidate Al Sharpton was "trying to figure out how he can get involved in the deal down there at Duke where the lacrosse team ... supposedly, you know, raped some, uh, hos." Limbaugh's made the comment about a recent incident in Durham, North Carolina, in which an exotic dancer was allegedly raped by three members of the Duke lacrosse team. The incident has invoked further controversy because the victim, an African-American, has alleged that her attackers used racial epithets. Prompted by another caller to apologize for his words, Limbaugh said that he had made the statement because he was "running on fumes today," and called it a "terrible slip of the tongue." But he then added that there are "some inconsistencies" in the case and rephrased his apology, telling the second caller, "I regret that you heard me say it." .........

(he didn't APOLOGIZE FOR saying it. he apologized the caller HEARD him say it)

audio here

i don't know if this is frightening or sad

(from raceandhistory.com)

or a combination of both.

Khaleej Times Online >> News >> TODAY'S FEATURES
Fatwa against statues triggers uproar in Egypt
(AFP)3 April 2006
CAIRO -A fatwa issued by Egypt’s top religious authority, which forbids the display of statues has art-lovers fearing it, could be used by Islamic extremists as an excuse to destroy Egypt’s historical heritage.
Egypt’s Grand Mufti Ali Gomaa, the country’s top Islamic jurist, issued the religious edict which declared as un-Islamic the exhibition of statues in homes, basing the decision on texts in the hadith (sayings of the prophet).
Intellectuals and artists argue that the decree represents a setback for art -- a mainstay of the multi-billion-dollar tourist industry -- and would deal a blow to the country’s fledgling sculpture business.
The fatwa did not specifically mention statues in museums or public places, but it condemned sculptors and their work.
Still, many fear the edict could prod Islamic fundamentalists to attack Egypt’s thousands of ancient and pharaonic statues on show at tourist sites across the country.
“We don’t rule out that someone will enter the Karnak temple in Luxor or any other pharaonic temple and blow it up on the basis of the fatwa,” Gamal al-Ghitani, editor of the literary Akhbar al-Adab magazine, told AFP.
Wave of criticisms
Gomaa had pointed to a passage from the hadith that stated: ”Sculptors would be tormented most on Judgment Day,” saying the text left no doubt that sculpting was “sinful” and using statues for decorating homes forbidden.
Gomaa’s ruling overturned a fatwa issued more than 100 years ago by then moderate and highly respected mufti Mohammed Abdu, permitting the private display of statues after the practice had been condemned as a pagan custom.
Abdu’s fatwa had “closed the issue, as it ruled that statues and pictures are not haram (forbidden under Islam) except idols used for worship,” Ghitani pointed out.
Novelist Ezzat al-Qamhawi said Gomaa’s ruling would “return Muslims to the dark ages.”
Movie director Daud Abdul Sayed said the fatwa “simply ignored the spiritual evolvement of Muslims since the arrival of Islam... Clearly, it was natural that they forbid statues under early Islam because people worshipped them............



by the way, isis is a personal favorite of mine

(from moonlightmysteries.com)

if in fact the following is true:

representative mckinney was NOT wearing her identification pin, an officer asked her THREE times to stop and she DID NOT, THEN he placed his hands upon her at which point she hit him

SHE SHOULD HAVE HER ASS ARRESTED.

if that is NOT how it went down of course she should be vindicated..........(she claims she was ASSAULTED and feared for her life)

i have NO idea if the officer in question let WHITE MEN who were NOT wearing their identification pins into wherever ms mckinney was going. i have NO idea if he was racially profiling her OR simply doing his job. just because someone is a democrat doesn't make 'em right (look at the liebs for example)

U.S. Attorney Reviewing McKinney Case


By LAURIE KELLMAN, Associated Press Writer Mon Apr 3, 7:14 PM ET
WASHINGTON - U.S. Capitol Police on Monday sought an arrest warrant for Rep. Cynthia McKinney after she tangled with a uniformed officer last week. A spokesman for U.S. Attorney Kenneth L. Wainstein said he was reviewing the merits of the case.
We are working with Capitol Hill police to fully understand and appreciate the incident," principal assistant U.S. Attorney Channing Phillips told The Associated Press in a telephone interview.
McKinney framed the matter in terms of race. "The issue is racial profiling," McKinney, who is black, told CNN.................

and from cnn McKinney: Race sparked tiff with police

Lawmaker faces possible charges after allegedly striking officer


Saturday, April 1, 2006 Posted: 0234 GMT (1034 HKT)
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- As U.S. Rep. Cynthia McKinney, D-Georgia, faces possible criminal charges for a Wednesday altercation with a Capitol Police officer, one of her lawyers said Friday that the real issues were "sex, race and Ms. McKinney's progressiveness."
In a news conference featuring actor Danny Glover and singer Harry Belafonte, McKinney said she would be exonerated and that "this whole incident was instigated by the inappropriate touching and stopping of me, a female, black congresswoman."
She had little else to say, citing the ongoing investigation into her allegedly striking a police officer after he failed to recognize her at a security checkpoint and tried to stop her from passing.
One Republican congressman dismissed the star-studded news conference. "Rep. McKinney appearing with the star of "Lethal Weapon"? Not exactly the message you want to be sending," said Ron Bonjean, spokesman for House Speaker Dennis Hastert............

casey austin sheehan has been dead for two years today

i posted the other day on rep kingston calling cindy sheehan a beatnik among other things......

she has gotten an apology from him (AFTER writing him a letter and calling him a liar).

Congressman apologizes for calling Cindy Sheehan 'nutcase'

After a sharp note from anti-war mother and activist Cindy Sheehan to a Georgia congressman who dubbed her a "nutcase," the congressman has apologized.
Over the weekend, Sheehan responded to a blog post from Rep. Jack Kingston (R-GA), who had called her a "nutcase" over her criticism of the Iraq war.
"How dare you psychoanalyze me and call me a 'nutcase!' Sheehan quipped. "How dare you call me a beatnik and lie about me in your blog!"
"This upcoming Tuesday, will be the 2nd anniversary of my son's death," Sheehan added. "Casey Austin Sheehan was a man filled with integrity and courage. He was a hero who never backed down from the right thing his entire life. He was an amazing person who did not hide when his commander in chief sent him to a war based on lies even when he knew they were lies. He carried out his duty, unlike his commander in chief."
RAW STORY received the following letter from Kingston's office Monday afternoon.
According to Kingston's blog, "Kingston commented [to a Democratic staffer who told CongressDaily] that Sheehan was "a nutcase" and lamented that too many of the human interest stories coming out of the war in Iraq center on anti-war activists like Sheehan and filmmaker Michael Moore and do not give proper service to heroic tales of U.S. soldiers.".......

one down (but way too many more to go)

not to worry though, he's going to pursure a career where he can help chuch (christian only i'm sure) and state do the vulcan mind meld

Tom DeLay Says He Will Give Up His Seat
The embattled former Republican leader tells TIME that he will leave Congress and not seek reelection
By MIKE ALLEN/SUGAR LAND, TEXAS
Rep. Tom DeLay, whose iron hold on the House Republicans melted as a lobbying corruption scandal engulfed the Capitol, told TIME that he will not seek reelection and will leave Congress within months. Taking defiant swipes at "the left" and the press, he said he feels "liberated" and vowed to pursue an aggressive speaking and organizing campaign aimed at promoting foster care, Republican candidates and a closer connection between religion and government.
"I'm going to announce tomorrow that I'm not running for reelection and that I'm going to leave Congress," DeLay, who turns 59 on Saturday, said during a 90-minute interview on Monday. "I'm very much at peace with it." He notified President Bush in the afternoon. DeLay and his wife, Christine, said they had been prepared to fight, but that he decided last Wednesday, after months of prayer and contemplation, to spare his suburban Houston district the mudfest to come. "This had become a referendum on me," he said. "So it's better for me to step aside and let it be a referendum on ideas, Republican values and what's important for this district."
DeLay's fall has been stunningly swift, one of the most brutal and decisive in American history. He had to give up his title of Majority Leader, the No. 2 spot in the House Republican leadership, in September when a Texas grand jury indicted him on charges of trying to evade the state's election law. So he moved out of his palatial suite in the Capitol, where he once brandished a "No Whining" mug during feisty weekly sessions with reporters, and moved across the street to the Cannon House Office Building, home of many freshmen. ......

just wondering here. is it 'christian' to lie and cheat?

and this from wapo DeLay to Resign From Congress

remember this: if you DON'T feed the animals (and i'm NOT talking the four legged ones here) they WILL go away

in connecticut, we have what is known as

the tracey thurman law

tracey was a young woman with a child living in torrington connecticut. on many occasions she called the police to report abuse and threats by her husband. the police did little IF anything.

tracey was brutally attacked (slashed to pieces) by her husband. she lived but had and still to this day (MANY years later) severe injuries. tracey sued torrington and WON (2 million i believe). so now our state arrests ANYONE (man OR woman) who they think has perpetrated domestic abuse. NO IFS ANDS OR BUTS. it's a GREAT law.

and when i saw this, i had to tell you about tracey

Yanni Won't Face Charges in Florida

This March 2006 file photo originally provided by the Palm Beach Sheriff's Office,shows music star Yanni after his arrest at his Manalapan,Fla., home on March 3. Authorities said Friday, March 31,2006, that the 51-year-old musician, whose legal name is John Christopher, won't be charged with domestic battery in an alleged domestic dispute with his girlfriend. He was arrested after allegedly verbally abusing and pushing his girlfriend during a late night argument. (AP Photo/Palm Beach Sheriff's Office)

if you like the sopranos OR even if you don't

here's edie falco doing a psa on animal cruelty

http://www.petatv.com/tvpopup/Prefs.asp?video=edie_link1

Edie Falco: Stop the Violence

leave the coyotes (and bear and wolves and others) ALONE

Coyotes have little impact on United States sheep-farm fortunes, according to a new conservation study. The report argues against long-running predator-killing programs managed by federal and local governments as well as by private livestock associations. Photograph courtesy USFWS

Coyote-Kill Programs Don't Protect U.S. Farms, Study Finds
Nicholas Bakalar for National Geographic News
March 28, 2006
Predator-control programs are very effective at killing coyotes, but they do little to help the United States sheep farmers they are designed to protect, according to a new study.
Black bears, grizzly bears, mountain lions, bobcats, and wolves have been effectively removed from most U.S. farming areas, leaving coyotes as the top livestock predators.
(Related news: "Are Coyotes Becoming More Aggressive?")
To protect sheep from coyotes, U.S. federal, state, and local governments—along with private livestock associations—have killed about 80,000 coyotes a year in recent decades, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
But these efforts have not prevented a dramatic decline in domestic sheep populations—and the sheep industry—over the past 60 years, according to a report in the March issue of Conservation Biology. ..............

according to mccain, falwell is no longer an agent of intolerance

if falwell isn't i shudder to think WHO would be

VIDEO: McCain Says Jerry Falwell is No Longer an ‘Agent of Intolerance’
This morning on Meet the Press, Sen. John McCain declared that right-wing Rev. Jerry Falwell is no longer an “agent of intolerance,” as McCain described him in 2000. Watch it:....

Transcript:
RUSSERT: Do you believe that Jerry Falwell is still an agent of intolerance?
MCCAIN: No, I don’t. I think that Jerry Falwell can explain to you his views on this program when you have him on...................

here are a few falwell quotes:

“Grown men should not be having sex with prostitutes unless they are
married to them”

“I had a student ask me, "Could the savior
you believe in save Osama bin Laden?" Of course, we know the blood of Jesus
Christ can save him, and then he must be executed”

“If you're not a born-again Christian, you're
a failure as a human being”

“Textbooks are Soviet propaganda”

“(re: 9/11 attacks) "...throwing God out of
the public square, out of the schools, the abortionists have got to bear some
burden for this because God will not be mocked and when we destroy 40 million
little innocent babies, we make God mad...I really believe that the pagans and
the abortionists and the feminists and the gays and the lesbians who are
actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People for the
American Way, all of them who try to secularize America...I point the thing in
their face and say you helped this happen."”

another surprise (NOT)

from americablog a link to a story in the washington post

describing how we effed up the construction of 142 heath centers across iraq - at the cost of MILLIONS of course. the health clinic construction project was awarded to parsons, inc. they have a total of approximately one BILLION dollars worth of total contracts in iraq. yup, let's just give 'em one BILLION dollars and have them walk away from their half assed never finished projects

a three part story (with part iii coming tuesday)

from the la times

the lifeline
part i: bringing back the wounded
part ii: the journey through trauma
part iii: battle on the homefront

the series is by david zucchino
photographs by rick loomis

awwwwwwww condo-loser had a bad lil' trip?

and i don't mean 'shrooms either

Rice heading home after bumpy British visit
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was to head back from her trip to northwest England after a visit which shaped up as a public relations nightmare.
Anti-Iraq protests again dogged Rice and her host, British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, throughout her two-day trip to his constituency of Blackburn, a dreary former mill town of 100,000 people best known as a footnote in a Beatles song.
Some 200 demonstrators posting banners proclaiming "War on terror, war on Islam" and "Bring the troops home" greeted the two as they arrived at the town hall Saturday to meet with local Muslim leaders.
At a joint news conference, Rice reacted to a statement by her host that the Guantanamo detention centre was "an anomaly," by saying the US would close the facility the day it was no longer needed.
"The United States does not desire to keep Guantanamo in being any longer than it is needed," she said.
"We don't want to be the world's jailer," she said. "That's not the United States, (or) the purpose of US policy."
Rice came to Lancashire on what was supposed to be a feel-good visit to Straw's constituency to repay his October trip to her home state of Alabama. But the journey was plagued by problems from the start.................

(image from: theheretik.typepad.com/ the_heretik/images/)

isn't this what they're already doing?

planting stories and the like? of course this takes it one step beyond (GREAT song by the way). it's frightening to think of the truth being CONTROLLED, isn't it?

America's war on the web
While the US remains committed to hunting down al-Qaeda operatives, it is now taking the battle to new fronts. Deep within the Pentagon, technologies are being deployed to wage the war on terror on the internet, in newspapers and even through mobile phones.
Investigations editor Neil Mackay reports
IMAGINE a world where wars are fought over the internet; where TV broadcasts and newspaper reports are designed by the military to confuse the population; and where a foreign armed power can shut down your computer, phone, radio or TV at will.
In 2006, we are just about to enter such a world. This is the age of information warfare, and details of how this new military doctrine will affect everyone on the planet are contained in a report, entitled The Information Operations Roadmap, commissioned and approved by US secretary of defence Donald Rumsfeld and seen by the Sunday Herald.
The Pentagon has already signed off $383 million to force through the document’s recommendations by 2009. Military and intelligence sources in the US talk of “a revolution in the concept of warfare”. The report orders three new developments in America’s approach to warfare:
Firstly, the Pentagon says it will wage war against the internet in order to dominate the realm of communications, prevent digital attacks on the US and its allies, and to have the upper hand when launching cyber-attacks against enemies.
lSecondly, psychological military operations, known as psyops, will be at the heart of future military action. Psyops involve using any media – from newspapers, books and posters to the internet, music, Blackberrys and personal digital assistants (PDAs) – to put out black propaganda to assist government and military strategy. Psyops involve the dissemination of lies and fake stories and releasing information to wrong-foot the enemy................

i'm not embarrassed. i'll admit it, i'm addicted

to kingdom of loathing

a sort of parody of rpg. in kol you get to be an accordian thief or turtle tamer or a few other things. you get to drink all sorts of liquor and eat all sorts of nasty foodstuffs and go on all sorts of quests. you get to take goofballs and have a 20 pound mosquito or sabre toothed lime as a familiar (rather similar to a pet). you get to fight wacky fruit monsters and dress up in dirty hobo gloves and bloody clown pants.

(i first heard about it through jodi's weblog.)

IF THE LINK DOESN'T WORK GOOGLE KINGDOM OF LOATHING!!!

looks like her sweater puppies*** are a pussilicient mess

i cannot do ms harris the amount of justice rex kramer, DANGER SEEKER does as in this posting harris-palooza (***sweater puppies mr kramer, danger seeker?????)



Harris' Senate campaign 'imploding'
With more key workers set to flee, it could be the final lap for the troubled race. New hires are expected.
Jim Stratton Sentinel Staff Writer April 1, 2006
The last of U.S. Rep. Katherine Harris' key staffers appear ready to abandon her campaign for the U.S. Senate in a wave of resignations expected to start this weekend.Sources close to the campaign said Friday that the defections would touch virtually every level of her operation.Harris, who is running against Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson, is likely to lose her chief political strategist, her campaign manager, her spokeswoman, her director of field operations and even a traveling aide who helps hand out stickers at campaign appearances.It is the latest and most dramatic indication so far that her campaign is on the verge of collapse............

yup, there is no civil war.........

the GOOD news is it appears american casualties are down, the BAD NEWS IS they seem to be concentrating on killing one another. would they have a civil war if we didn't interfere? i don't know. i DO know, we did NOT help. we did NOT help them at all. we went over with our big boots and started kicking up the dust

Civilians in Iraq Flee Mixed Areas as Killings Rise

By EDWARD WONG and KIRK SEMPLE
BAGHDAD, Iraq, April 1 — The war in Iraq has entered a bloodier phase, with American casualties steadily declining over the past five months while the killings of Iraqi civilians have risen tremendously in sectarian violence, spurring tens of thousands of Iraqis to flee from mixed Shiite-Sunni areas.
The new pattern, detailed in casualty and migration statistics and in interviews with American commanders and Iraqi officials, has led to further separation of Shiite and Sunni Arabs, moving the country toward a de facto partitioning along sectarian and ethnic lines — an outcome that the Bush administration has doggedly worked to avoid over the past three years.
The nature of the Iraq war has been changing since at least late autumn, when political friction between Sunni Arabs and the majority Shiites rose even as American troops began to carry out a long-term plan to decrease their street presence. But the killing accelerated most sharply after the bombing on Feb. 22 of a revered Shiite shrine, which unleashed a wave of sectarian bloodletting.
About 900 Iraqi civilians were killed in March, up from about 700 the month before, according to the Iraq Coalition Casualty Count, an independent organization that tracks deaths. Meanwhile, at least 29 American troops were killed in March, the second-lowest monthly total since the war began.
The White House says that little violence occurs in most of Iraq's 18 provinces. But those four or five provinces where most of the killings and migrations take place are Iraq's major population and economic centers, generally mixed regions that include the capital, Baghdad, and contain much of the nation's infrastructure — crucial factors in Iraq's prospects for stability.
The Iraqi public's reaction to the violence has been substantial. Since the shrine bombing, 30,000 to 36,000 Iraqis have fled their homes because of sectarian violence or fear of reprisals, say officials at the International Organization for Migration in Geneva. The Iraqi Ministry of Displacement and Migration estimated at least 5,500 families had moved, with the biggest group, 1,250 families, settling in the Shiite holy city of Najaf after leaving Baghdad and Sunni-dominated towns in central Iraq.............