dali is one of my favorite artists

(left: cayomecenas.com)

i am going to follow the progress of this movie. of course they've not announced who the leads are yet. i'm dying to know

(right: rad.msu.edu)


Dali framed for "Surreal" movie

By Borys Kit

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - "Lord of War" director
Andrew Niccol is attached to shoot a movie about Spanish surrealist painter Salvador Dali

Dali & I: The Surreal Story," based on art dealer Stan Lauryssens' autobiographical book "Dali and I," is set to start shooting next spring.
The movie will span the 1960s-1980s, when most of Dali's great work was behind him.
"What I think is interesting about this period in his life is that he painted less and sold more, just as modern art became more commercialized," said producer David O. Sacks. "There are pictures of him turning his mustache into dollar signs. He became very obsessed by money and this was spurred on by (his wife) Gala."...

uh oh

(and just a little side note. if you click on the link to read the whole story, the FIRST comment by a reader, BLAMES CLINTON FOR THIS. yes, the women involved with this is 22 years old. she was barely old enough to drive when clinton was in office, YET this asswipe blames HIM for the security breach. UNEFFINGBELIEVABLE)

a 22 year old women with wicked high (pun intended) security clearance is found to have ALL SORTS of classified nuclear weapons type documents in her (alleged) drug trailer. uh oh is right

Nuclear Lab Breach Could Be 'Devastating'

(CBS) The recent security breach at Los Alamos National Laboratory was very serious, with sensitive materials being taken out of the facility — possibly including information on how to deactivate locks on nuclear weapons, officials tell CBS News. Officials say there is no evidence the information taken from Los Alamos was sold or transferred to anybody else, but there is no way to be sure right now. As CBS News correspondent Sharyl Attkisson was the first to report, secret documents apparently taken from the lab were found during a drug raid at a Los Alamos-area home last month. The FBI was called in to investigate. Multiple sources now tell CBS News that the material includes sensitive weapons-design data...........
............. But one federal official recently briefed on the issue says "It's devastating." If a nuclear weapon were stolen, the information "would tell the terrorists everything they need to do to get a weapon to fire." Sources say she also had something called Sigma-15 clearance allowing her to access to documents explaining how to deactivate locks on a nuclear weapon. The woman believed to have taken the information — Jessica Quintana, 22, who owned the trailer — worked in three classified vault rooms across Los Alamos: ...........................

Tech Tags: los+alamos nuclear+weapons security jessica+quintana

i've always respected him

how can you not? someone who gives 100% of one of his businesses to charity...

now this, supporting ned is just icing on the cake!!!

what an articulate and moving letter

from frank schaeffer. a soon to be EX-republican


Frank Schaeffer: I should be supporting Allen. Instead, I'm leaving the party.




07:52 AM CST on Wednesday, November 1, 2006

I'm a Christian, a writer, a military parent and a registered Republican.

On all those counts, I was disgusted by an e-mail I just received that's being circulated by campaign supporters of Republican George Allen, who's trying to retain his Senate seat in Virginia.

The message goes like this: "First, it was the Catholic priests, then it was Mark Foley, and now Jim Webb, whose sleazy novels discuss sex between very young teenagers. ... Hmmm, sounds like a perverted pedophile to me! Pass the word that we do not need any more pedophiles in office."Democrat James Webb is a war hero and former Marine, wounded in Vietnam and winner of the Navy Cross. He was writing about class and military issues long before me and has articulated the issue of how the elites have dropped the ball on military service in his classic novel Fields of Fire. By the way, that's a book Tom Wolfe calls "the greatest of the Vietnam novels." ........

Tech Tags: frank+schaeffer jim+webb george+allen virginia

diebold or is that die bitch die

i read a headline yesterday (never read the whole story) that said something like, it's too late now to do anything about the diebold machines. we found out too late there may be problems with them. i tried to find that article again this morning to post it. i could not. i believe it was in the hartford courant, but then again, i'm not certain. i wanted to post it because EVERYONE really DID know there was something wrong with those machines for a LONG time. sure diebold has been burying the true information, but we all STILL knew

EXCLUSIVE: LEAKED 2003 REPORT ON MARYLAND'S DIEBOLD VOTING SYSTEMS REVEALS SERIOUS SECURITY CONCERNS WERE WITHHELD FROM ELECTION BOARD, GOVERNOR, PUBLIC!

Long-Sought Document Finally Surfaces Showing America's Largest Voting Machine Company, MD State Election Director, Hid Major Flaws From State, Country!
Original 200-Page Security Report — Said to be 'The Pentagon Papers of Electronic Voting' — Previously Released Only in 38-Page Highly Redacted Form…Until Now…
Special to The BRAD BLOG by Guest Blogger and Freelance Network News Producer, Rebecca Abrahams
In September, 2003 Linda Lamone, the Administrator of Maryland's State Board of Elections and President of the National Association of State Election Directors (NASED) hands over a critical study on the security of the Diebold Election Systems machines that count all of Maryland's votes.
Between the time that the State of Maryland commissioned the highly respected Scientific Applications International Corporation (SAIC) to evaluate the effectiveness and security of their electronic voting machines and the time that the study is made public, critical pieces of information have been edited, omitted and, in some cases, words added, to fundamentally alter the original meaning of the report's conclusions.
The original SAIC report, coming in at nearly 200 pages, was reduced, redacted and altered such that the only version the public — or even state officials including the Governor and the full State Board of Elections — would ever be allowed to see was a wholly sanitized 38-page version of the report.
Until now.
For the first time, we've been able to review the complete, much sought-after, unredacted version of the SAIC report which has been kept at bay from Maryland state officials…as well as the computer science and security community…as well as the election integrity community and public at large since it was originally completed in 2003.............


whoops found the article!!!! it actually deals with the hbo documentary. here's the courant article: Persuasive Critique Of Electronic Voting Is Shown Too Late To Help This Year and here's another article on hbo's answer to diebold's complaints about the documentary

Tech Tags: diebold whistleblower maryland elections saic+report hbo

halloween is over, are YOU SCARED YET???

chaos in iraq - as determined by the u s military, NOT ME. the u s military. are you going to believe now? how can you ignore this? our men and women are dying and now, more are being shipped over. for what? MORE DEATH??? bring them home NOW





United States Central Command
A slide titled “Iraq: Indications and Warnings of Civil Conflict” lists factors that are destabilizing Iraq.

Military Charts Movement of Conflict in Iraq Toward Chaos

By MICHAEL R. GORDON
WASHINGTON, Oct. 30 — A classified briefing prepared two weeks ago by the United States Central Command portrays Iraq as edging toward chaos, in a chart that the military is using as a barometer of civil conflict.
A one-page slide shown at the Oct. 18 briefing provides a rare glimpse into how the military command that oversees the war is trying to track its trajectory, particularly in terms of sectarian fighting.
The slide includes a color-coded bar chart that is used to illustrate an “Index of Civil Conflict.” It shows a sharp escalation in sectarian violence since the bombing of a Shiite shrine in Samarra in February, and tracks a further worsening this month despite a concerted American push to tamp down the violence in Baghdad.
In fashioning the index, the military is weighing factors like the ineffectual Iraqi police and the dwindling influence of moderate religious and political figures, rather than more traditional military measures such as the enemy’s fighting strength and the control of territory.
The conclusions the Central Command has drawn from these trends are not encouraging, according to a copy of the slide that was obtained by The New York Times. The slide shows Iraq as moving sharply away from “peace,” an ideal on the far left side of the chart, to a point much closer to the right side of the spectrum, a red zone marked “chaos.” As depicted in the command’s chart, the needle has been moving steadily toward the far right of the chart.
An intelligence summary at the bottom of the slide reads “urban areas experiencing ‘ethnic cleansing’ campaigns to consolidate control” and “violence at all-time high, spreading geographically.” According to a Central Command official, the index on civil strife has been a staple of internal command briefings for most of this year. The analysis was prepared by the command’s intelligence directorate, which is overseen by Brig. Gen. John M. Custer........

Tech Tags: war casualties classified+information military iraq

one by one

they are starting to see the emperor (well, in this case, king george) HAS NO CLOTHES and he has a VERY ugly body (figuratively of course)

After President Meets Reporters, Sullivan -- Once a Bush Backer -- Now Suggests He May Have 'Lost His Mind'

By E&P Staff Published: November 01, 2006 10:00 PM ET
NEW YORK In a move that no doubt sent a shiver through several candidates in his own party, President Bush, in a special interview with wire service reporters in the White House, today guaranteed a job for his Pentagon chief for two more years, adding that both Donald Rumsfeld and Vice President Cheney "are doing fantastic jobs and I strongly support them." But it wasn't only endangered Republicans who have been calling for Rumsfeld's ouster who may have blanched. Andrew Sullivan, the conservative writer who was once a key media supporter for the Iraq war, denounced the latest Bush statement on CNN on Wednesday night, stating that the president is so delusional, "This is not an election anymore, it's an intervention."Sullivan said the president was "so in denial," comparing the Rumsfeld endorsement to applauding the job FEMA's Michael Brown did on Katrina: "It's unhinged. It suggests this man has lost his mind. No one objectively could look at the way this war has been conducted, whether you were for it, as I was, or against it, and say that it has been done well. It's a disaster. ........

Tech Tags: george+bush donald+rumsfeld dick+cheney delusions denial republicans

more truth and it ain't pretty (day two story)

i am sorry for the family and friends of army specialist alyssa peterson. she to me was a hero and a patriot and had honor. she knew the difference between right and wrong. i am sorry i am sorry i am sorry you had to take your life

Revealed: U.S. Soldier Killed Herself After Objecting to Interrogation Techniques

The true stories of how American troops, killed in Iraq, actually died keep spilling out this week. Now we learn, thanks to a reporter's FOIA request, that one of the first women to die in Iraq shot and killed herself after objecting to harsh "interrogation techniques." By Greg Mitchell (November 01, 2006) -- The true stories of how American troops, killed in Iraq, actually died keep spilling out this week. On Tuesday, we explored the case of Kenny Stanton, Jr., murdered last month by our allies, the Iraqi police, though the military didn’t make that known at the time. Now we learn that one of the first female soldiers killed in Iraq died by her own hand after objecting to interrogation techniques used on prisoners. She was Army specialist Alyssa Peterson, 27, a Flagstaff, Az., native serving with C Company, 311th Military Intelligence BN, 101st Airborne. Peterson was an Arabic-speaking interrogator assigned to the prison at our air base in troubled Tal-Afar in northwestern Iraq. According to official records, she died on Sept. 15, 2003, from a “non-hostile weapons discharge.” ...........

............“Peterson objected to the interrogation techniques used on prisoners. She refused to participate after only two nights working in the unit known as the cage. Army spokespersons for her unit have refused to describe the interrogation techniques Alyssa objected to. They say all records of those techniques have now been destroyed….”.......

Tech Tags: alyssa+peterson iraq torture foia kevin+elston

happy

In an experiment, an Asian elephant named Happy repeatedly touched her trunk to a white X painted on her forehead while looking in a mirror. This suggests that the animal recognized herself in the reflection, scientists say, making the elephant one of the few animals known to be capable of self-recognition.Photograph courtesy of Joshua Plotnik, Frans de Waal, and Diana Reiss/PNAS

Elephants Recognize Selves in Mirror, Study Says

John Roachfor National Geographic News
October 30, 2006
Elephants can recognize themselves in mirrors, according to a new study. Humans, great apes, and dolphins are the only other animals known to possess this form of self-awareness.
All of these animals also lead socially complex lives and display empathy—concern and understanding of another's feelings—researchers report.
"There seems to be some correlation between an ability to recognize oneself in a mirror and higher forms of social complexity," said Joshua Plotnik, a graduate student in psychology at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia.
To assess elephants' self-awareness, Plotnik and his colleagues tested three adult female Asian elephants in front of a mirror.
All three pachyderms sized up their mirror images by inspecting behind the mirror, rubbing their trunks the length of the mirror, or probing their mouths with their trunks to see if their reflections did the same. ............

you GO w michael stark!!!

by the way mr stark, one of our former governors also had sealed divorce records and refused to discuss all sorts of allegations made about him (regarding the divorce of course. he did do time in the big house for OTHER infractions). i don't think his thugs attacked any reporters though

Letter from Mike Stark


Richmond Times-Dispatch
Oct 31, 2006
The following is a letter to NBC29 from Mike Stark, the man who was tackled for a comment he made at Senator Allen's campaign stop in Charlottesville on Tuesday.
My name is Mike Stark. I am a law student at the University of Virginia, a marine, and a citizen journalist. Earlier today at a public event, I was attempting to ask Senator Allen a question about his sealed divorce record and his arrest in the 1970s, both of which are in the public domain. His people assaulted me, put me in a headlock, and wrestled me to the ground. Video footage is available here, from an NBC affiliate.
I demand that Senator Allen fire the staffers who beat up a constituent attempting to use his constitutional right to petition his government. I also want to know why Senator Allen would want his staffers to assault someone asking questions about matters of public record in the heat of a political campaign. Why are his divorce records sealed? Why was he arrested in the 1970s? And why did his campaign batter me when I asked him about these questions.
George Allen defends his support of the Iraq war by saying that our troops are defending the ideals America stands for. Indeed, he says our troops are defending our very freedom. What kind of country is it when a Senator's constituent is assaulted for asking difficult and uncomfortable questions? What freedoms do we have left? Maybe we need to bring the troops home so that they can fight for freedom at George Allen's campaign events. Demanding accountability should not be an offense worthy of assault..........

Tech Tags: mike+stark george+allen thugs virginia

they are dying

our men and women are dying in iraq and their families don't even know how or by whom they were killed. look at the pat tillman story. his family had to DIG and DIG and DIG to get at the tip of the truth. some families don't have that within them. some families actually believe the stories about how their loved ones were killed. we invaded another country for NO reason. those responsible lied about it. yet, no one does anything. they are still running the country when i believe they should be serving time. how many more coffins is it going to take?

U.S. Soldier Murdered By Iraqi Police -- And Then the Cover-up

An article in today's Washington Post reveals that an American soldier was ambushed and killed this month in Baghdad by our alleged allies in the local police. What it doesn't say is that the official reports on his death by the U.S. military were complete distortions. By Greg Mitchell (October 31, 2006) -- USA Today revealed in a front page story on Monday that a study of several hundred American deaths in Iraq turned up at least seven cases where families were given the wrong information about how their loved ones died (most of them, it turned out, were killed by friendly fire). Now, on Tuesday, The Washington Post reveals that a U.S. soldier was ambushed and murdered by our friends in the Iraqi police. My additional digging now shows that the military willfuly covered up this significant detail in releasing the news of his death to his family and to the press.
The Post story by Amit Paley visits the Sholeh police station in Baghdad, where posters "celebrating Moqtada al-Sadr, head of the Mahdi Army militia, dot the building's walls.” One rainy night this month, it seems, the Sholeh police set up an ambush and killed Army Cpl. Kenny F. Stanton Jr., 20, said to be a “budding journalist.” At the time, Paley writes, Stanton and other members of the unit “had been trailing a group of Sholeh police” escorting known Mahdi Army members............

Tech Tags: troop+deaths iraqi+police lies

how many more of these stories is it going to take?

for us to realize we ARE NOT 'winning' ANYTHING. we are losing. losing lives. theirs AND ours. what the hell did we do to those people? we've created a real-life hell. at LEAST 103 us troop deaths in october. for what?

CBS video: US to stay in Iraq 'longer than anyone's expected'; PM fears country 'nearly out of control'

David Edwards

Iraqi Prime Minister Maliki is telling his inner circle that the situation in Iraq is "nearly out of control," according to CBS News intelligence sources.
Pentagon sources tell the network that General Casey will require 100,000 more Iraqi troops than the 325,000 who were to be trained in order to secure the nation. The security situation, however, has worsened and Iraqi troops have proven to be less effective than their American counterparts. Additional American troops may be called up to help train the new Iraqi security forces, and the U.S. may also double the number of advisors in each Iraqi unit.
As of Tuesday morning, the Pentagon is reporting 103 US casualties in the month of October.
Prime Minister Maliki has ordered that all checkpoints in Baghdad be lifted. Lara Logan of CBS News reports that some American troops expect that violence will now increase and are left questioning why U.S. Commanders would allow checkpoints to be removed now. The move is widely seen as a victory for Muqtada al-Sadr of Sadr City, who controls one of the largest militias in Iraq.....

Tech Tags: war iraq pentagon troops casualties

some cool glowing fungi

Photograph by Rodrigo Baleia

hey lynn cheney

how do you 'splain THIS one? y'all (y'all equalling the republican party in this case) being so clean and pure and judgemental. 'splain it to us all please

GOP porn scandal widens: In addition to accepting donations from gay "porn king," GOP also took money from "porn queen" Mary Carey

by John in DC - 10/29/2006 04:58:00 PM


You'll recall that late last night Josh Marshall reported that the national Republican party has repeatedly accepted donations from one of the top gay porn producers in the country. This story is relevant since the Republicans have been hitting Democrat Harold Ford in Tennessee with ads claiming he took donations from a Hollywood porn producer.Now, as you might imagine, the Republicans will probably say they had no idea they were taking money from a man whose living is making films such as "Fire in the Hole", "Flesh and Boners", even a "Velvet Mafia" series.But that excuse rings hollow when you consider that the GOP had no problem tarring Harold Ford with the same charge. But far more damning is the fact that the Republican party has a history of accepting money from the porn industry. It hasn't just happened before - the GOP openly welcomed porn money.Case in point, my girl Mary Carey, who just last year gave $5,000 to the GOP, the GOP knew who she was, and they gladly accepted her money made from screwing guys on film. (Visit Mary Carey's Web site, but be warned, this link is not work-friendly, though Lynne Cheney might disagree.)Mary is one of the top female porn stars in America.

Tech Tags: nrcc donations republicans porn hypocrites

and the king claims democrats have no idea how to 'win' the war

king george claims if you vote other than republican in november, you'll be voting for someone who has NO plans regarding iraq. he actually said, non-republicans had NO IDEA how to WIN the WAR IN IRAQ. can you believe that? i couldn't but i heard him say it. i was sober when i heard him say it. i was awake when i heard him say it.

what i want to know is; WHAT THE HELL IS KING GEORGE'S PLAN FOR 'WINNING' THE WAR IN IRAQ???

does he, does his court have the WINNING plan(s)??? if they do, i wish they'd share it with the families of the 2,810 dead service members. i wish they'd share it with the 300,000,000 american citizens. i wish they'd share it with the citizens of iraq

yet more discomforting news coming out of iraq. the mid term elections are the week after next. we MUST do something to STOP THIS UNJUST UNNECESSARY IMMORAL war

PLEASE STOP IT

Audit finds missing U.S. weapons in Iraq

By JOHN HEILPRIN, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - Nearly one of every 25 weapons the military bought for Iraqi security forces is missing, a government audit said Sunday. Many others cannot be repaired because parts or technical manuals are lacking.
A second report found "significant challenges remain that put at risk" the U.S. military's goal of strengthening Iraqi security forces by transferring all logistics operations to the defense ministry by the end of 2007.
A third report concerned the Provincial Reconstruction Team program, in which U.S. government experts help Iraqis develop regional governmental institutions. "The unstable security environment in
Iraq touches every aspect of the PRT program," the report said.
The
Pentagon cannot account for 14,030 weapons — almost 4 percent of the semiautomatic pistols, assault rifles, machine guns, rocket-propelled grenade launchers and other weapons it began supplying to Iraq since the end of 2003, according to a report from the office of the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction.
The missing weapons will not be tracked easily: The Defense Department registered the serial numbers of only about 10,000 of the 370,251 weapons it provided — less than 3 percent........

Tech Tags: iraq reconstruction missing+weapons defense+department

what's november 5th?

two days before the midterm elections AND the day saddam is going to be sentenced. coincidence? nah.


Surprise! Saddam Death Penalty to be Announced Two Days before U.S. Elections

Posted by Jon Ponder Oct. 28, 2006, 6:30 am

You probably missed this story because it has barely been covered, but earlier this month the Iraqi court that is trying Saddam Hussein re-scheduled the dates for announcing its verdict — twice.
An earlier date was bumped to Oct. 16, only to be rescheduled for the current date: Nov. 5. Yup, two days before the U.S. midterm elections.
According to Media Matters, the court explained the first delay by saying it might need to hear more witnesses. The excuse for the second delay was a real howler: The court said it was having difficulty choosing between the death penalty and life imprisonment for Saddam.
As if! There’s no way they’ll give him life.
This is way too perfect. The sensationalism of the headline, “Saddam Is Going to Fry,” will be irresistable to the TV newsers. The verdict will be a strong second lead in the coverage of the elections’ final 48 hours. It will accrue as a win for the president and provide an updraft for Republicans as voting begins. ..........

i am proud to say i have NEVER had a starbucks coffee

(or tea if they sell tea). i have always avoided a beverage from starbucks like the plague. even at work at one of the kiosk's there used to be starbucks. never had one there either (it's since changed to some other designer brand whose name i can't recall). the people running starbucks appear to be real pricks. NOT that that should come as a surprise to ANYONE

Starbucks, the coffee beans and the copyright row that cost Ethiopia £47m

Ashley SeagerThursday October 26, 2006The Guardian
Starbucks, the giant US coffee chain, has used its muscle to block an attempt by Ethiopia's farmers to copyright their most famous coffee bean types, denying them potential earnings of up to £47m a year, said Oxfam.
The development agency said the Ethiopian government last year filed copyright applications to trademark its most famous coffee names - Sidamo, Harar and Yirgacheffe. Securing the rights to these names would enable the impoverished African country to control their use in the market and allow farmers to receive a greater share of the retail price.

Starbucks, the coffee beans and the copyright row that cost Ethiopia £47mAshley SeagerThursday October 26, 2006The Guardian
Starbucks, the giant US coffee chain, has used its muscle to block an attempt by Ethiopia's farmers to copyright their most famous coffee bean types, denying them potential earnings of up to £47m a year, said Oxfam.
The development agency said the Ethiopian government last year filed copyright applications to trademark its most famous coffee names - Sidamo, Harar and Yirgacheffe. Securing the rights to these names would enable the impoverished African country to control their use in the market and allow farmers to receive a greater share of the retail price.

The move would have increased its annual export earnings from coffee by 25%.
But Oxfam said Starbucks, which enjoyed a 22% rise in annual global turnover to £7.8bn in the year to October, has acted to block Ethiopia's application to the US patent and trademark office. The USPTO has denied Ethiopia's applications for Sidamo and Harar, creating serious obstacles for its project............

Tech Tags: starbucks ethiopia oxfam

canaletto in london. whoops i mean at yale

i'm off of work next week. perhaps a drive to new haven is in order

Exhibition Offers Fresh View Of Canaletto's English Years

By DEBORAH HORNBLOW, Courant Arts Writer
The 18th century artist Giovanni Antonio Canale - better known as "Canaletto" - was a reluctant traveler, but at the height of his career as Venice's leading view painter, he left his native city for an almost decade-long tour of England.This period of Canaletto's career was previously regarded by most curators and academics as one of decline. The traditional view of the artist's time in England was that "he spent a lot of time waiting for the phone to ring," says Charles Beddington, guest curator of the major new exhibition "Canaletto in England: A Venetian Artist Abroad, 1746-1755," which opened Oct. 19 at the Yale Center for British Art in New Haven. Beddington's aim in the new show is not only to refute the notion that Canaletto's English years were idle but to demonstrate beyond a doubt that the artist's sojourn marked a fertile and impressive period of his career.
"Canaletto in England" does just that. Five years in the making, the exhibition presents 59 drawings and paintings that provide glorious and ample evidence of just how productive and creative Canaletto's English years were. Chief among them are the view paintings or "verdute," renderings of architectural monuments from Westminster Bridge to Warwick Castle, the Old Horse Guards from St. James Park to Syon House. .......


Giovanni Antonio Canal, called Canaletto (1697-1768), Rome: The Arch of Constantine from the South (The Colosseum beyond), ca. 1752/4, oil on canvas. The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles.
(Photo courtesy of the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles.)

Tech Tags: canaletto yale exhibit artist

ron suskind talks about torture

and king george and the secret prisons and terrorism. what he has to say should make EVERYONE sit up straight and listen

"The President Knows more than He Lets on"

One hundred suspected terrorists from all over the world are still being held in secret American prisons. In an interview with SPIEGEL ONLINE, CIA expert Ron Suskind accuses Washington of "running like a headless chicken" in its war against al-Qaida. He reserves special criticism for the CIA's torture methods, which he argues are unproductive.
SPIEGEL ONLINE: Mr. Suskind, the Red Cross recently visited all of the prisoners at Guantanamo who had been transferred from secret CIA prisons, including Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and Ramzi Binalshibh. Do we know more about these CIA prisons, or "Black Sites" as a result of this visit?
Suskind: We know that almost everything from the tool kit was tried: extraordinary techniques that included hot and cold water-boarding and threats of various kinds. We tried virtually everything with Binalshibh. But he was resistant, and my understanding of that interrogation is that we got very, very little from it. At one point, there was some thinking that we should put out misinformation that Binalshihb had been cooperative, he had received money and he was living in luxury. So that would mean that his friends and family, who obviously are known to al-Qaida, might face retribuition, and we ended up not doing that........

.........SPIEGEL ONLINE: With all your access to high-level sources, have you come across anyone who still thinks it is a good idea for the US to torture people?
Suskind: No. Most of the folks involved say that we made mistakes at the start. The president wants to keep all options open because he never wants his hands tied in any fashion, as he says, because he doesn't know what's ahead. But those involved in the interrogation protocol, I think are more or less in concert in saying that, in our panic in the early days, we made some mistakes.
SPIEGEL ONLINE: Because they could have gotten information through normal interrogations ...
Suskind: ... yes, and without paying this terrific price, namely: America's moral standing. We poured plenteous gasoline on the fires of jihadist recruitment. ..........

Tech Tags: ron+suskind torture terrorism george+bush interrogations guantanamo

a few words from michael schiavo

i'm not at all surprised musgrave acted and/or reacted as she did. she made judgements and diagnosis about mr schiavo's family and went on the floor of congress to plead HER agenda about someone else's PRIVATE FAMILY MATTERS. ah, and then she doesn't have the BALLS to face one of those family members. never even met one of those family members. as far as i'm concerned you're a waste of space ms musgrave (as is former television 'star' patricia heaton. sticking her views onto not only the schiavo case, BUT the michael j fox stem cell research issues). i had to make a decision myself - having a family member removed from life support. that was the business of ME and MY FAMILY. NOT the business of a congresswoman in colorado OR a television performer in hollywood.

My unreal night in Colorado - with radio link

by Michael Schiavo
Thu Oct 26, 2006 at 08:05:14 PM PDT
If it were fiction, you wouldn't believe it.
Sadly, what happened in Colorado on Tuesday is true and unbelievable.
At the conclusion of a three-day, three-state campaign trip to promote candidates who will bring needed new leadership to Washington, I flew to Ft. Collins, Colorado to attend the only "debate" between Congresswoman Marilyn Musgrave and her courageous and forceful challenger Angie Paccione in the Colorado 4th district.
What happened there made the clearest case I could ever imagine for why change isn't just needed - it's required.
Michael Schiavo's diary :: ::
That was Tuesday.
But before we even got to Colorado, I had a great meeting with Joe Sestak who's running an incredible campaign against Republican Curt Weldon in suburban Philadelphia. My PAC gave Sestak's campaign a $1,000 check to assist his efforts in restoring some sanity to Congress.
And I was impressed with Joe's candor, compassion and decency and I have no reservations in saying he'll be a great Congressman - they kind who will have the courage to stand up for our rights and the wisdom to know the difference between national policy and divisive politics.
Back to Tuesday in Colorado...a little background, first. Back in mid-July I travelled to Colorado and delivered a letter to Congresswoman Musgrave's office. asking her why she felt compelled to interfere in my family's personal affairs - questioning, in fact trying to refute the medical facts of my wife's case on the floor of Congress.
Not surprisingly, Marilyn Musgrave never responded to my letter.
So on Tuesday I joined about 1,000 citizens and members of the local and regional media in the Windsor High School Auditorium to hear the debate and try to get an answer to my question from Congresswoman Musgrave...

.......But just minutes after taking my seat, I noticed a flurry of activity around my seat including about four uniformed police officers who were - I would learn later - called in by Musgrave staffers and asked to remove me from the building.
At this point, I had made no speeches, I had no signs, had made no attempt to disrupt or cause any commotion. I only came into the auditorium, spoke to a dozen or so reporters and took a seat.
To their credit, the police refused the Musgrave campaign's appeal to have me removed. ........

...........If you need to re-read that again, it's okay. A member of Congress who took to the floor of our Congress to speak about my wife, my family and my values made the debate timekeeper move so she wouldn't have to look at me. Just amazing...........

Tech Tags: michael+schiavo marilyn+musgrave congress debates