from the theater of the absurd

because we have SO MANY people joining our military now, we can afford to kick out all sorts of people who are ALREADY TRAINED MILITARY PERSONNEL for the silliest of reasons........

Does This Woman Look Professional to You?

When you look at this woman, what do you see? A young Air Force officer, maybe? Someone serving her country in the military? Someone who looks neat, polished, and put together? That's what I see.
But according to Treasured Locks, the military disagrees. This soldier, Kim Andrews, has been in the Air Force for seven years, but her mother says she's being threatened with a dishonorable discharge because of her hairstyle, which involves twisting her hair into cornrows, a style that's allowed in the Air Force. Dreadlocks aren't allowed, and apparently Kim's commander thinks they're dreadlocks.

on this new year's eve

we have:

The 2007 GOP Adulterers Hall of Fame Nominees...

Posted by GottaLaff , Cliff Schecter's Blog




(i know not just republicans are adulterers. however, they are the biggest hypocrites and that's a fac(t) jack)

'survival sex' is a good name for it indeed

and who is directly responsible? we are. and i think we should all be hanging our heads in shame. we could have and should have stopped king george long ago. we didn't and our children's children will STILL be paying the price

FEATURE-Iraqi refugees turn to sex trade in Syria
Source: Reuters
By Alistair Lyon, Special Correspondent
DAMASCUS, Dec 31 (Reuters) - A score of young Iraqi women in tight, shimmering gowns shuffle across the nightclub dance floor under the hungry eyes of Gulf Arabs at nearby tables.
The band blasts out Iraqi songs into the early hours as the watching youths join the dancing or summon girls to sit with them -- there is little pretence about what gets transacted at this neon-lit nightspot half an hour's drive north of Damascus.
The dancers, some in their early teens, do not want to talk, but one said she had no other way to support her family. "My father was killed in Baghdad and our money is finished," muttered the dark-haired girl in a black and silver dress.
The United Nations refugee agency UNHCR calls it "survival sex", a desperate way to cope for Iraqi refugees whose savings have run out since they escaped the violence at home............

more on my favorite presidential candidate

and by favorite i mean the one that i spend the most attention on because of his LUDICROUS beliefs and statements (plus he has chuck norris on his side. need i say more?)

Mike Huckabee: Homosexual behavior 'is a choice'
David Edwards and Katie Baker
According to presidential candidate Mike Huckabee, homosexual behavior is a choice.
"We may have certain tendencies, but [we choose] how we behave and how we carry out our behavior," Huckabee said in an interview Sunday with Tim Russert of MSNBC's "Meet the Press."
Huckabee is known for his controversial remarks regarding homosexuality; as Russert reminded him, Huckabee once said he felt it was a "aberrant, unnatural and sinful lifestyle."
Although Huckabee asked Russert to understand that "when a Christian speaks of sin, a Christian says all of us are sinners," he asserted that "the perfection of God is seen in a marriage in which one man, one woman live together as a couple committed to each other as life partners."..........

................He believes that a ban on abortion would not be an example of imposing his faith on Americans, but that his pro-life stance is "a human belief. It goes to the heart of who we are as a civilization."
"If you take the life and suction out the pieces of an unborn child for no reason than its inconvenience to the mother, I don't think you've lived up to your Hippocratic Oath of doing no harm," Huckabee said.
Therefore, he said he would support "sanctioning" doctors who perform abortions..............

ellen mcilwaine

i've posted about her before and i'm sure i'll post about her again. i love her. i really love her. she is in my top five. when she lived in connecticut i was lucky enough to hear her several times. i also met her (in passing. nothing she would remember but i sure did). there are only a couple of videos of her on youtube and only this one seems to work without breaks.
ellen's website

the suburban guerrilla has a great perspective

on the nyt hiring satan william kristol

Quote of the Year
Pinch Rosenthal on the hiring of William Kristol by the New York Times:
“The idea that The New York Times is giving voice to a guy who is a serious, respected conservative intellectual — and somehow that’s a bad thing,” Rosenthal added. “How intolerant is that?”
“Serious.” “Respected.” Respected by whom - the 27% of the true believers who still agree with him? “Intolerant”? How many people have to die in Iraq before the paper of record buys a clue? Gee, I’m sorry that bloggers place such a high premium on truth at the expense of Beltway show business.
Kristol is not a conservative, anyway. He’s a dangerous, radical neocon.
I’m disgusted by the New York Times newspaper (as Jimmy Breslin calls it). These Very Serious war-loving assholes are pathetic and the Old Gray Lady is now a crack whore. ...........

and what would YOU do and say if

you happened to be in iran and were waterboarded? if a member of our armed services was in iran and was waterboarded? i know what i'd say. the same thing andrew williams said (and meant)

waterboarding IS torture

Navy JAG Resigns Over Torture Issue
"It was with sadness that I signed my name this grey morning to a letter resigning my commission in the U.S. Navy," wrote Gig Harbor, Wash., resident and attorney-at-law Andrew Williams in a letter to The Peninsula Gateway last week. "There was a time when I served with pride ... Sadly, no more."
Williams' sadness stems from the recent CIA videotape scandal in which tapes showing secret interrogations of two Al Qaeda operatives were destroyed.
The tapes may have contained evidence that the U.S. government used a type of torture known as waterboarding to obtain information from suspected terrorists.
Torture, including water-boarding, is prohibited under the treaties of the Geneva Convention.
It was in the much-publicized interview two weeks ago between Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) and Brig. Gen. Thomas Hartmann, who is the chief legal adviser at the Pentagon's Office of Military Commissions, that led Williams to resign. ...........

i like lynda barry!

i have liked her forever. a lot of her books are out of print and that's just a damn shame.

marlys magazine

an old salon interview with lynda from cnn (yeah i don't get why the cnn???)

a bunch of salon hookups

an old talk of the nation 50 minute interview with lynda

if you think you can copy a LEGALLY purcharched cd

to your computer, THINK AGAIN
(this is scary)
we all knew or know it's NOT cool to steal music BUT THIS is ridiculous

Download Uproar: Record Industry Goes After Personal Use

By Marc Fisher Washington Post Staff Writer

.................Now, in an unusual case in which an Arizona recipient of an RIAA letter has fought back in court rather than write a check to avoid hefty legal fees, the industry is taking its argument against music sharing one step further: In legal documents in its federal case against Jeffrey Howell, a Scottsdale, Ariz., man who kept a collection of about 2,000 music recordings on his personal computer, the industry maintains that it is illegal for someone who has legally purchased a CD to transfer that music into his computer.
The industry's lawyer in the case, Ira Schwartz, argues in a brief filed earlier this month that the MP3 files Howell made on his computer from legally bought CDs are "unauthorized copies" of copyrighted recordings.
"I couldn't believe it when I read that," says Ray Beckerman, a New York lawyer who represents six clients who have been sued by the RIAA. "The basic principle in the law is that you have to distribute actual physical copies to be guilty of violating copyright. But recently, the industry has been going around saying that even a personal copy on your computer is a violation."...................

my reproductive rights are my own

as they are of my sisters and their sisters. they do NOT belong to king george or any of his asinine appointees. they're all coming in with some sort of SICK religious agenda (i don't necessarily say religion is sick, i am saying THEIR particular beliefs are sick).

keep your laws OFF of MY body

get a load of these ten picks he made
Bush in Your Bedroom
By Heather Wokusch, HeatherWokusch.com.

here are the first three. go to the link for the others (if you can stomach it)

..................1. Patricia Funderburk Ware
In 2001, Bush named abstinence-only proponent Patricia Funderburk Ware to be Executive Director of the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS (PACHA). Ware's qualifications for the job of promoting "effective prevention of HIV disease" included criticizing condom use and lobbying against HIV/AIDS being in the Americans With Disabilities Act. Two years later, Ware recommended that a controversial character named Jerry Thacker join the PACHA panel. Thacker has called AIDS a "gay plague" and homosexuality a "deathstyle." Amid public protest, Thacker soon withdrew his nomination and Ware left her PACHA post.
2. Tom Coburn
Bush nominated then-Rep. Tom Coburn (R-OK) to be PACHA co-chair in 2003. Coburn supports mandatory reporting to public authorities of the names of those testing positive for HIV/AIDS. He favors "the death penalty for abortionists and other people who take life."
According to Coburn, the gay community "has infiltrated the very centers of power in every area across this country, and they wield extreme power… That agenda is the greatest threat to our freedom that we face today. Why do you think we see the rationalization for abortion and multiple sexual partners? That's a gay agenda." Who else would you want advising the Bush administration on AIDS?
3. David Hager
Hager was one of three religious conservatives that Bush put on the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Advisory Committee for Reproductive Health Drugs in 2002 and only public outcry prevented him from becoming its chairperson. Critics argued that in his gynecology practice, Hager had refused to prescribe contraceptives to unmarried women and had recommended Scripture readings to alleviate headaches and premenstrual syndrome. A memo which Hager wrote helped persuade the FDA to overrule its own advisory panel in 2004, thus preventing the emergency contraceptive "Plan B" from being made more easily available. Critics assailed the FDA's decision as ignoring scientific evidence, but in Hager's assessment: "Once again, what Satan meant for evil, God turned into good." A downright criminal side of Hager emerged when his former wife went public with the fact that he had been emotionally, physically and sexually abusive during their 32-year marriage, forcibly sodomizing her on a regular basis. As Hager's ex-wife told The Nation magazine in May 2005, "it was the painful, invasive, totally nonconsensual nature of the [anal] sex that was so horrible."..................

beware

if a blog (blogspot) you come across has a holiday card posting on it DO NOT OPEN IT or DO NOT CLICK ON ANY OF THE LINKS.

Blogspot Blogs Help Spread Storm Worm Attacks
Brian Krebs on Computer Security
In an attack that showcases what cyber criminals have in store for Web 2.0 next year, the individual or group behind the Storm worm is distributing new versions of the malware with the help of hijacked and newly-created Google Blogspot blogs.
The Storm worm, one of 2007's most prolific e-mail-borne Trojan horse programs, has always come wrapped in holiday-themed messages or disguised as videos from some recent high-profile news event. The latest Storm versions -- predictably spammed out as Christmas and New Year's greeting cards - don't break with that tradition. It urging recipients to click on a link that then tries to install the Trojan through hook (unpatched Web browser vulnerabilities) or by crook (tricking the user into believing he or she needs to install some "video codec" to view the holiday message)................

i believe in evil too

the evil i believe in stems from humankind, NOT the devil. there is no devil other than those that are flesh and blood and born. WE (no, not all of us) are the evil forces (we are also the GOOD forces as well)

Pope's exorcist squads will wage war on Satan
By NICK PISA
................The Pope has ordered his bishops to set up exorcism squads to tackle the rise of Satanism.
Vatican chiefs are concerned at what they see as an increased interest in the occult.
They have introduced courses for priests to combat what they call the most extreme form of "Godlessness." ...........
............Thanks be to God, we have a Pope who has decided to fight the Devil head-on," he said.
"Too many bishops are not taking this seriously and are not delegating their priests in the fight against the Devil. You have to hunt high and low for a properly trained exorcist. ............

want to know what's really in that bottle of nair?

well wired magazine tells us (and it's not like we didn't know this shite was in there)

.......Fragrances
Nair is loaded with a secret concoction of scents — and it's a good thing. Anyone who used the stuff in the 1970s will tell you it smelled like skunk juice. Today Nair smells sweet as it burns away unsightly stubble.

Potassium thioglycolate
That skunky stench is a signature attribute of this compound, a member of the perennially pungent thiol family. A sulfur-hydrogen atom group gives thiols their sharp scent. They eat into keratin (a skin and hair protein), which is what makes actual skunk spray (and Nair) lock onto human flesh and fuzz. If the process stopped there, the result would be a home perm — weakened hairs can be easily shaped into curls. .............

friday's book

My Life as a Traitor
Zarah Ghahramani & Robert Hillman

...........Zarah Ghahramani was born in Tehran in 1981, two years after Ayatollah Khomeini returned to Iran to establish the Islamic Republic. Her life changed suddenly in 2001 when, after having taken part in student demonstrations, she was arrested (literally snatched off the street by secret police) and charged with ‘inciting crimes against the people of the Islamic Republic of Iran’.
While imprisoned in Tehran’s notorious Evin Prison she faced brutal interrogation: her head was shaved, and she was beaten. After being released, she was forbidden to return to university, and soon realised that she had no future in her native land. Robert Hillman, an Australian writer, met and befriended Zarah in Iran in 2003, and helped her to escape to Australia, where she now has permanent residency.............

a very interesting (and telling)

article in harpers by scott horton
do i believe king george knew you ax? oh hell YES i do believe king george knew
in the holiday news section
Did Bush Watch the Torture Tapes?
...............Are Bush’s denials that he has seen the torture tapes really credible? I don’t think so. And having seen them, the interest in their destruction would be equally fierce, which helps account for the involvement of the White House’s four most senior lawyers in the process. No doubt about it. The White House desperately wants to scapegoat some CIA people over this. (Laura Rozen’s article “Operation Stop Talking” is the best treatment so far of this phenomenon, which finds its best current expression in the effort to “get” John Kiriakou). But the trail leads to the White House, and that is clearly where the decision was taken. It will be interesting to see the techniques used by the Justice Department to obscure all of this. At this point, no one who’s tracked Justice Department antics over the past six years is anticipating anything but a crude cover-up. ..............

let's have a big ol'

yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee haaaaaaaaaaaaaaawwwwwwwwwwwww for jesus y'all!

this story has it ALL. manly men. EX-homosexuals. christian comedians. jesus. and of course men who hate women

GodMen: A more manly form of Christianity
Mike Aivaz and Muriel Kane
Studies show that 60% of regular churchgoers are women, and one group of men believes the reason is that "Christianity is too soft."
ABC's Nightline visited a meeting at a Tennessee shopping mall of nearly 300 men who call themselves "GodMen" and say they want to "cowboy up as followers of Jesus." At the meeting, the men were encouraged to get in touch with their feelings about Internet pornography, adultery, and homosexuality.
Christian conservative standup comic Brad Kline, who co-founded the GodMen group, told ABC that Sunday church services are excessively strait-laced and disconnected from men's concerns. "We have nothing to lose," he said. "We don't have any congregation we have to answer to. We're just guys trying to be straight and being real."
Paul Coughlin, author of No More Christian Nice Guy, explained to ABC that Christianity suffers because "we only emphasize the tender stuff. We cut out the tough stuff about Jesus, and that's awfully unfortunate ... You cannot love without courage."........

Benazir Bhutto

(this picture was taken moments before her assassination)

i don't know much about her. i know i always liked her (and certainly hoped the corruption charges were false). i know i admired her and thought she was very strong indeed. her family was torn apart. she was jailed in solitary confinement. her husband was jailed. her father was killed. then her brothers were killed. she went into exile.

she then did something either so very foolish or so very brave. she came BACK to her country. to pakistan. is that courage or is that insanity? i vote for courage. she knew her life was in danger. she put her very life on the line for her country, her people AND for democracy. she paid the ultimate price

Obituary: Benazir Bhutto

Obituary
Benazir Bhutto, 54, Weathered Political Storm

some amazing photos by john moore of getty images. the final moments of ms bhutto's life

i stink at geography

it's a fact. a well KNOWN fact. however, i did surprisingly well (for me that is) on this annual geo quiz from the sf gate / chronicle

John Flinn, Chronicle Staff Writer

1. Are there any countries where you can you see lions and tigers and bears in the wild?
2. What is the only U.S. state to allow its residents to cast absentee ballots from outer space?
3. If you could somehow hover at a point in space just above the equator, roughly how fast would the ground below be moving relative to you?
4. It was originally named the Flavian Amphitheater, but nobody calls it that today. What is its more common name?
5. Every nation whose name begins with "A" also ends with "a" - with two exceptions. What are they?
(the other 45 questions at the link above)

an interview you should listen to

craig unger being interviewed for truthout

this was SO bizarre

i had to post it (bizarre AND funny AND just downright odd)

Martha Stewart shows off nativity scene she made of clay while at West Virginia prison in 2005
The Associated Press

..................On the Christmas Day episode of her television show, Stewart showed off ornate clay forms of the baby Jesus, Joseph, Mary, three camels and others she sculpted at a pottery class at the Federal Prison Camp in Alderson, W.Va.
"Even though every inmate was only allowed to do one a month, and I was only there for five months, I begged because I said I was an expert potter — ceramicist actually — and could I please make the entire nativity scene," she said.
Her creations were all fired and glazed at the prison. She completed the effect with tiny artificial palm trees imported from Germany by a New Jersey distributor................

who are they kidding?

the white house doen't give a flying YOO HOO about turks killing civilians. NOW OR IN 1915 when they committed genocide against the armenians (and the white house is mad some people are insisting turkey own up to that genocide so long ago. we can't let ANYONE forget that happened)

US concerned about escalation of Turkish attacks: White House
The White House Wednesday said it had expressed concern to Ankara over the possible escalation of Turkey's attacks against Kurdish PKK rebels inside northern Iraq.
"We've also made it clear to the Turkish government that anything that could lead to escalated concerns or civilian casualties; we have concerns about those steps," White House spokesman Scott Stanzel told reporters aboard Air Force One.
The comment came amid new attacks early Wednesday by Turkish bombers on positions inside Iraq of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), the third round of such strikes in ten days confirmed by Ankara............

juan cole

has the top ten myths of 2007

to start off with, here's number 10 (go to the link for the other 9)

10. Myth: The US public no longer sees Iraq as a central issue in the 2008 presidential campaign.
In a recent ABC News/ Washington Post poll, Iraq and the economy were virtually tied among voters nationally, with nearly a quarter of voters in each case saying it was their number one issue. The economy had become more important to them than in previous months (in November only 14% said it was their most pressing concern), but Iraq still rivals it as an issue...

cv rick

wrote a post yesterday about our democratic leadership. please stop by and read it. it's EXACTLY how i feel as well

this is not only absurd BUT obscene

we're 'winning' both the war on terror AND the war in iraq (or so 'they' say). why then are billions more requested than was requested in 2007 and 2006?

what are we allowing 'them' to do? is it too late, i wonder?

we've literally killed an entire country and now we're working on killing our own
Wars Cost $15 Billion a Month, GOP Senator Says

By Walter Pincus Washington Post Staff Writer
The latest estimate of the growing costs of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the worldwide battle against terrorism -- nearly $15 billion a month -- came last week from one of the Senate's leading proponents of a continued U.S. military presence in Iraq.
"This cost of this war is approaching $15 billion a month, with the Army spending $4.2 billion of that every month," Sen. Ted Stevens (Alaska), the ranking Republican on the Appropriations defense subcommittee, said in a little-noticed floor speech Dec. 18. His remarks came in support of adding $70 billion to the omnibus fiscal 2008 spending legislation to pay for the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts, as well as counterterrorism activities, for the six months from Oct. 1, 2007, through March 31 of next year. ............

merry christmas

i collect ornaments. i love ornaments. here are some of them. lots are blown glass and wonderfully tacky - take for example the christmas mermaid (you can't see her tail from the angle but she's the pink and green one)! i had a blue space man that was my favorite but he's not on the tree this year (my sister decorated and i didn't feel like going to find him). the one with the carrot and moon also has the little bell in the picture. that bell ornament is as old as i am. it's beat up but it's special. my grinch (glass) and my ostrich and my purple moon pictures didn't come out. perhaps next year.

anyway, please have a merry christmas, joyous holiday season and safe and prosperous upcoming new year

an ordinary boy and his ordinary dad?

no. an extraordinary boy and an even more extraordinary dad.

GI saves Iraqi boy in unlikely adoption
After Meeting Disabled Iraqi Boy in Baghdad Orphanage, American GI Adopts, Brings Him to US
CARRIE ANTLFINGER
Capt. Scott Southworth knew he'd face violence, political strife and blistering heat when he was deployed to one of Baghdad's most dangerous areas. But he didn't expect Ala'a Eddeen. Ala'a was 9 years old, strong of will but weak of body — he suffered from cerebral palsy and weighed just 55 pounds. He lived among about 20 kids with physical or mental disabilities at the Mother Teresa orphanage, under the care of nuns who preserved this small oasis in a dangerous place.
On Sept. 6, 2003, halfway through his 13-month deployment, Southworth and his military police unit paid a visit to the orphanage. They played and chatted with the children; Southworth was talking with one little girl when Ala'a dragged his body to the soldier's side.
Black haired and brown eyed, Ala'a spoke to the 31-year-old American in the limited English he had learned from the sisters. He recalled the bombs that struck government buildings across the Tigris River.
"Bomb-Bing! Bomb-Bing!" Ala'a said, raising and lowering his fist.
"I'm here now. You're fine," the captain said.......

how does this work?

let's see. 700 million get taken away from our children and our needy. then king george turns around and gives pakistan 5 billion (to build weapons to threaten india)???????? so our kids and elderly and our needy get thrown down the sewer and pakistan gets big guns courtesy of the united states of america.

why aren't people shouting from their rooftops? why are we allowing this to continue? when will we wake up?

Medicaid Funding for Schools Cut
The Bush administration yesterday eliminated about $700 million a year in Medicaid reimbursements to schools, sidestepping an attempt by Congress to block such a move.
The new rule, issued by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, is expected to save the federal government $3.6 billion over five years, transferring those costs to school districts.
Lawmakers this week passed legislation to place a six-month moratorium on Medicaid implementing the rule change, but President Bush had not signed the bill.
A wide range of medical services, such as speech and physical therapy, are furnished to students in schools. Medicaid, the government's health insurance program for the poor, will continue to pay for those services for low-income children............


Billions in Aid to Pakistan Was Wasted, Officials Assert
By DAVID ROHDE, CARLOTTA GALL, ERIC SCHMITT and DAVID E. SANGER
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — After the United States has spent more than $5 billion in a largely failed effort to bolster the Pakistani military effort against Al Qaeda and the Taliban, some American officials now acknowledge that there were too few controls over the money. The strategy to improve the Pakistani military, they said, needs to be completely revamped. In interviews in Islamabad and Washington, Bush administration and military officials said they believed that much of the American money was not making its way to frontline Pakistani units. Money has been diverted to help finance weapons systems designed to counter India, not Al Qaeda or the Taliban, the officials said, adding that the United States has paid tens of millions of dollars in inflated Pakistani reimbursement claims for fuel, ammunition and other costs........

holy shite

another referral from feministing

i am at a loss here. not only did they commit a heinous act, it sounds like they have NO IDEA WHAT THEY DID WAS BEYOND WRONG. they wanted her to 'take one for the team'??????

six or seven other men standing around and not doing a THING? some of those men must have mothers and wives and girlfriends and sisters and aunts. would they want the women in THEIR lives to be forcibly held down and have her underwear chopped off with a knife? i just don't understand. i don't

2 arrested after woman's underwear cut off in bar 'joke'
By Paul Walsh, Star Tribune
Two men thought it was just a joke - cutting off a woman's underwear as other men in the bar laughed and the bartender turned down her plea to come to her rescue, authorities allege.
Now, the two are facing years in prison if convicted.
Michael S. Puhalla, 39, and Russell J. Baumgardner, 40, are accused of holding down a woman against the bar in Sartell, Minn., and cutting off her underwear with a pocketknife and placing it on a fan in the bar.
They were charged Wednesday in Stearns County with second-degree sexual assault with a dangerous weapon and second-degree assault with a dangerous weapon in the incident Sunday.

Puhalla, when questioned by police, said that he and Baumgardner were joking around when the topic of underwear came up. Puhalla, referring to the incident, said it was time for the woman "to take one for the team."

these people are TERRORISTS

Contractor Opens Up About Abortion Protesters

hat tip to feministing for the link to the video

THEY ARE TERRORISING WHOLE NEIGHBORHOODS WITH PICTURES NO THREE YEAR OLDS SHOULD SEE. THEY ARE TERRORISING FAMILIES WHO ARE DOING THEIR JOBS (CONTRACTORS, CONSTRUCTION WORKERS). THEY ARE TERRORISTS AND WE SHOULD BE PROTECTED FROM THEM

the nutmeg grater: i had surgery a few years back#links#links

the nutmeg grater: i had surgery a few years back#links#links

this is NOT right

it's all shite. i don't have a complaint against someone in the service wanting to worship or wanting to worship ON BASE. i DO have a giant complaint about published materials including this VERY frightening video (click the link to see it) FLAUNTING ONLY a christian based evangelical type of worship that will 'save your life AND your soul. it would appear from this video the air force academy ONLY exists to promote evangelical christianity. again, it's just plain WRONG
Evangelical video shows cadets pressured to be missionaries
Katie Baker
A video made by Campus Crusade for Christ, a Christian ministry group, shows Air Force Academy cadets being pressured to participate in religious activities and become "government paid missionaries when they leave."
Mikey Weinstein, president of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF), which released the video this week, says the video is "absolutely out of control."
"You cannot engage the U.S. government to propel your religion," said Weinstein.
The video, filmed in the summer of 2002, opens with tranquil shots of "Colorado's most frequently visited man-made attraction." The unnamed narrator describes the chapel in detail, which "resembles a formation of fighter jets shooting into the sky."
While the narrator says that students receive a "well-rounded education" at the Academy, the video focuses mainly on how stressful the environment is and not so subtly suggests that cadets can find solace in religion. ...........

i've written about this before

and i'll continue to write about it.

i have been fingerprinted for work. they're on file somewhere (as a matter of fact, i was fingerprinted in kindergarten. i don't know why. we're talking WAYYYYYYYYYYYY back in the day. there were NO amber alerts. it wasn't for that reason. odd, no?). there was a reason i was fingerprinted for work (i used to sign checks. BIG checks. that was my OLD department. i don't sign checks now). i consented. i KNOW about it.

i'm a law abiding citizen. i pay my taxes (and i really don't cheat). i don't steal. i don't own a gun nor do i want to. i don't beat any one up (although i must admit the thought has crossed my mind from time to time). i don't play loud music in my house OR my car (sometimes i do crank it up but never where anyone can be annoyed by it). i come to a full stop at stop signs (yes, even at 3 am when i am usually leaving for work). i drive the speed limit (well, ok, i TRY to drive the speed limit). i am polite and i MEAN it. i say excuse me (which, i think is something LACKING in our country. not enough say EXCUSE ME. that is a whole other story) and please and thank you. i hold the door for the person in back of me (ah, we relocated to our new building for work. we have wickedly high tech revolving doors at a couple of the entrances. i'll talk about them sometime too). i apologize if i accidentally let a door close on someone or cut across their path or whatever.

i am NOT a criminal. i am NOT a terrorist. i do NOT want secret organizations in the united states having a pattern of how i walk or knowing who i email or talk to on the phone (that's easy - not too many people i HATE HATE HATE the phone). i don't want to be spied on by my OWN country.

FBI Prepares Vast Database Of Biometrics
$1 Billion Project to Include Images of Irises and Faces

By Ellen Nakashima Washington Post Staff Writer
CLARKSBURG, W. Va. -- The FBI is embarking on a $1 billion effort to build the world's largest computer database of peoples' physical characteristics, a project that would give the government unprecedented abilities to identify individuals in the United States and abroad.
Digital images of faces, fingerprints and palm patterns are already flowing into FBI systems in a climate-controlled, secure basement here. Next month, the FBI intends to award a 10-year contract that would significantly expand the amount and kinds of biometric information it receives. And in the coming years, law enforcement authorities around the world will be able to rely on iris patterns, face-shape data, scars and perhaps even the unique ways people walk and talk, to solve crimes and identify criminals and terrorists. The FBI will also retain, upon request by employers, the fingerprints of employees who have undergone criminal background checks so the employers can be notified if employees have brushes with the law. ........

chris,

i love you dearly but there is NO need for this. it's just WRONG

(how often DO you go snowboarding?)

2007 Burton Audex Down Jacket - True Black

Burton teamed up with the tech gurus at Motorola® to create the world's pinnacle wearable communication and entertainment system.
This breakthrough Bluetooth Stereo technology creates a seamless communication link with Bluetooth-compatible mobile phones. Bluetooth Stereo even allows you to stream downloaded music wirelessly from your phone to your jacket. No music phone, no worries – the jacket comes with an iPod®-compatible cord.
Built-in DJ-style speakers in the hood, or the integrated headphone jack, let you crank up the music and pick up phone calls without ever taking off your gloves or unzipping any pockets.

hmmmmmm

fixing trains AND table dancing? now THAT'S a reneissance man woman BOT

Russian railways seek help from dancing robots
Russian railways want tiny robots to replace humans in difficult maintenance work, and they want Russian-made androids that can dance and talk.
Prototypes of tested Russian robots "surpass foreign-produced robots with their technical characteristics," according to a statement from Russian railways on Thursday...........

.............Russian television on Thursday showed the robots dancing on tables in front of amazed members of the public. One robot said "Hello" and a few words on its capabilities. ........

makes ya wanna go

w t f ?????????????????????

IRS paid $188,000 for $38,000 clerk
IRS Paid Contractor $188,000 to Provide $38,000 Clerk
JIM ABRAMSAP News
The Internal Revenue Service paid a contractor $188,000 to provide one person to do clerical work over 11 months
The contract was included as one example of financial waste in a government report Thursday on the tax agency's involvement in a new program ordered by President Bush in 2004 to develop more secure ID cards for federal workers.
The Treasury Department's inspector general for tax administration said the IRS also needlessly spent almost $2 million on a computer security system that the tax agency doesn't plan using at this time.
The IRS was responsible for developing and implementing the program for providing more secure identification cards to some 150,000 employees at the Treasury Department. The projected cost of the Treasury program was put at $421 million over 14 years.............

tell the truth?

we can't handle the truth! apparently if you DO tell the truth, you get kicked in the 'junk'

(oh i MUST add this now - THE US DOES NOT TORTURE [yeah right])
CIA Seeks Investigation Of Ex-Officer's Claims
Waterboarding Statements Raise Concern

CIA Seeks Investigation Of Ex-Officer's Claims
Waterboarding Statements Raise Concern

The CIA has asked the Justice Department to investigate whether a former agency officer illegally disclosed classified information in describing the capture and waterboarding of an al-Qaeda terrorism suspect, officials said yesterday.
In interviews last week with The Washington Post and other news organizations, former CIA officer John Kiriakou discussed details of the capture of Zayn al-Abidin Muhammed Hussein alleging that he resisted cooperating with interrogators until he was subjected to waterboarding, which makes a captive believe he is being drowned. ........

please at the VERY LEAST

we must protect and help ALL of our men and women serving. there should never again be another Pvt. 1st Class Jason Scheuerman. it is our duty and responsiblity to care for ALL of our service people AND veterans too.

this is a wicked sad story. i am sorry for this loss (as well as every other one)

AP Special Report: Soldier Who Killed Himself in Iraq Had Been Ignored and Mistreated
SANFORD, N.C. -- Pvt. 1st Class Jason Scheuerman nailed a suicide note to his barracks closet in Iraq, stepped inside and shot himself.“Maybe finaly I can get some peace,” said the 20-year-old, misspelling “finally” but writing in a neat hand.His parents didn’t find out about the note for well over a year, and only then when it showed up in a government envelope in his father’s rural North Carolina mailbox.The one-page missive was among hundreds of pages of documents the soldier’s family obtained and shared with The Associated Press after battling a military bureaucracy they feel didn’t want to answer their questions, especially this: Why did Jason Scheuerman have to die?What the soldier’s father, Chris, would learn about his son’s final days would lead the retired Special Forces commando, who teaches at Fort Bragg, to take on the very institution he’s spent his life serving — and ultimately prompt an investigation by the Army Inspector General’s office.The documents, obtained by Freedom of Information Act requests filed by Chris Scheuerman, reveal a troubled soldier kept in Iraq despite repeated signs he was going to kill himself, including placing the muzzle of his weapon in his mouth multiple times................

just don't let the good ol' boys

and grrrls from blackwater near 'em (see a couple of postings ago where blackwater blew away a dog belonging to the nyt)

US troops in Iraq to get some doggie love
The US army will for the first time send skilled therapy dogs to Iraq to help comfort traumatized soldiers struggling to overcome mental health problems.
Black labrador retrievers, Boe and Budge, who have been in training for months, will be stationed with the Army's combat stress units in the Iraqi towns of Tikrit and Mosul to provide "emotional comfort" to the troops.
The two dogs were given to the 85th Medical Detachment by America's VetDogs, a subsidary of the Guide Dog Foundation for the Blind, which provides dogs to veterans.
"Dogs have been the unsung heroes of our war efforts. Bringing therapy dogs into Iraq will take dogs to the next level on the battlefield," said Major Stacie Caswell, the commander of the 85th.
"The therapy dogs will be another method that our Combat Stress teams can use to break down mental health stigma -- to assist soldiers so that when they go home 'Iraq is not on their backs.'"............

how many times

does this have to be printed (in little headlines, off of front pages, NOT on the front pages of the nyt or wapo or whatever) for us to finally (well not US, i say it out loud. i guess by us i mean king george and his court AND the bulk of the american peeps) say al qaeda is full of saudis? the 9/11 terrorists (most of them) were trained in saudi arabia. saudi arabia not only doesn't allow women to drive OR HAVE SURGERY WITHOUT THEIR HUSBAND'S PERMISSION but JAILS AND PUNISHES FEMALE VICTIMS OF RAPE? why did we attack iraq? why aren't we making king george AND his buds in places like saudi arabia accountable? why are WE suffering? why are our men and women dying? why did we allow millions of iraqis to be displaced? why did we systematically destroy their country? why are we allowing them to be killed and tortured? WE DID ALL OF THIS. WE DID

yet we are turning a blind eye and allowing all of this shite to continue

Saudis biggest group of al Qaeda Iraq fighters-study
By Kristin Roberts
WASHINGTON, Dec 19 (Reuters) - Most al Qaeda fighters in Iraq are from Saudi Arabia and Libya and many are university-aged students, said a study released on Wednesday by researchers at the U.S. Army's West Point military academy.
The study was based on 606 personnel records collected by al Qaeda in Iraq and captured by coalition troops in October. It includes data on fighters who entered Iraq, largely through Syria, between August 2006 and August 2007.
The researchers at West Point's Combating Terrorism Center found that 41 percent of the fighters were Saudi nationals.
Libyan nationals accounted for the second largest group entering Iraq in that time period with about 19 percent of the total, followed by Syrians and Yemenis each at 8 percent, Algerians with 7 percent and Moroccans at 6 percent...........

is this the REAL

DON'T ASK - DON'T TELL???

Mukasey Limits Agency's Contacts With White House

By Dan Eggen Washington Post Staff Writer
Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey issued new restrictions yesterday on contacts between Justice Department and White House officials regarding ongoing criminal or civil investigations, implementing his first major policy revision since taking office on Nov. 9.
Mukasey had promised to institute new guidelines in the wake of the U.S. attorney firings scandal, in which lawmakers and some prosecutors alleged that White House political aides and other officials were inappropriately informed about details of criminal or civil probes. .........

am i on crack?

i swear i am NOT on crack.

how come i NEVER KNEW ABOUT THIS? i swear i never did.

i accidently JUST came across this.

i have to go now - i need some crack

(it's a man's world, BUT it wouldn't be nothin' NOTHIN' without a woman or a grrrrrrrrrrllllllll)

bbc you made the right decision

it's part of the song. it's IN CONTEXT. if you LISTEN to the song you'll see that. they're drunk, they're fighting. i don't like the words but it fits the song
it is my fourth favorite christmas song of all time.

my third is: the first noel by crash test dummies
my second is; The Hallelujah Chorus by the roches
my first is: the christians and the pagans by dar williams (a sure way to get me to cry is to play this OR talk about the movie field of dreams OR the wizard of oz OR.....)

Radio 1 backs down in Pogues row

BBC Radio 1 has said it will allow the Pogues' Fairytale of New York to be played on the station uncut, after criticism of a decision to censor it.
The words "slut" and "faggot" had been dubbed out from the 20-year-old festive hit by station executives.
But after a day of criticism from listeners, the band, and the mother of singer Kirsty MacColl, they changed their minds.
Controller Andy Parfitt said the original decision was "wrong".
The BBC had said that an edited version would be played because "some members of the audience might find it offensive". .........

(i miss you kristy mccoll)

wicked cool

internet radio station (FOR FREE) pandora

you can create your own 'stations'. i typed in van morrison and i'm getting a nice bunch of tunes. everything from of course van to otis redding and an occasional stones tune, allman brothers, fiona apple, bob dylan (stuck inside of mobile is playing RIGHT NOW) and on and on. when something comes on you don' t like (let's say u2, whom i dislike with my whole heart and soul, you can nix the tune). give it a try, really!

(update: hey rick, i just created a buffy station! piney wood hills just came up. we'll see who else and what else plays)

................The Music Genome Project®
On January 6, 2000 a group of musicians and music-loving technologists came together with the idea of creating the most comprehensive analysis of music ever.
Together we set out to capture the essence of music at the most fundamental level. We ended up assembling literally hundreds of musical attributes or "genes" into a very large Music Genome. Taken together these genes capture the unique and magical musical identity of a song - everything from melody, harmony and rhythm, to instrumentation, orchestration, arrangement, lyrics, and of course the rich world of singing and vocal harmony. It's not about what a band looks like, or what genre they supposedly belong to, or about who buys their records - it's about what each individual song sounds like.
Since we started back in 2000, we've carefully listened to the songs of tens of thousands of different artists - ranging from popular to obscure - and analyzed the musical qualities of each song one attribute at a time. This work continues each and every day as we endeavor to include all the great new stuff coming out of studios, clubs and garages around the world.
It has been quite an adventure, you could say a little crazy - but now that we've created this extraordinary collection of music analysis, we think we can help be your guide as you explore your favorite parts of the music universe.
We hope you enjoy the journey.
Tim Westergren
Founder
The Music Genome Project ...................

et tu democratic senators?

yup! (remember this - i'm pissed AND i vote)
Iraq Funds Approved In Senate Budget Bill
Antiwar Democrats Rebuffed in 70-25 Vote

By Paul Kane and Jonathan Weisman Washington Post Staff Writers
The Senate last night approved a $555 billion omnibus spending bill to fund the federal government for the rest of the fiscal year, shortly after bowing to President Bush's demand for $70 billion in unrestricted funds for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Democrats had vowed only weeks ago to withhold any Iraq-specific money unless strict timelines for troop withdrawal were established, but they instead chose, on a 70 to 25 vote, to remove what appeared to be the final obstacle to sending the spending bill to the White House, where Bush has indicated he will sign it. Senators then passed the omnibus bill, 76 to 17. ...

i guess shooting people isn't good enough

now those f**kers are shooting dogs (a dog that belonged to the nyt)

Guards Shoot Dog at Baghdad Bureau
By Maria Newman

Investigators from the State Department have made two visits to The New York Times’s news bureau in Baghdad as they look into the shooting of one of the bureau’s dogs by Blackwater bodyguards last week.
Employees of the bureau said that the Blackwater guards shot the dog, named Hentish, during a search of the Times compound for explosives. A security team was conducting the search ahead of a visit by an American diplomat.
Anne Tyrrell, a spokeswoman for Blackwater, the private security firm, told Reuters that the dog had attacked one of Blackwater’s bomb-sniffing dogs.
“The K-9 handler made several unsuccessful attempts to get the dog to retreat, including placing himself between the dogs,” she said in an e-mail to Reuters. “When those efforts failed, the K-9 handler unfortunately was forced to use a pistol to protect the company’s K-9 and himself.” ...........

QUESTION: how does one lose SIX GARBAGE TRUCKS?

answer: AX THE US ARMY

US Army loses another 12,000 guns and trucks

IAN BRUCE, Defence Correspondent
The US military in Iraq has lost track of another 12,000 weapons, including more than 800 machine-guns, and everything from 2100 new electricity generators to half a dozen garbage trucks...........

.........Six modern garbage trucks from a delivery of 18 on Baghdad's rubbish-strewn streets could not be located. They were valued at £350,000. The auditors said that the Multi-National Security Command Iraq could not give reasonable assurance that money for the Iraqi forces was being used properly and properly protected from "waste and mismanagement"..............

if i had a son (or daughter)

and they were in a bit of trouble, i think i'd try to help them out. HOWEVER if it was a moral matter or an over the top legal matter or something of real importance, i'd NOT deny my child's wrongdoing. it would be important to me for my child to acknowledge their wrongdoing and PAY for it (not necessarily by money but in some form or another). then again, i don't think i could EVER HAVE A CHILD WHO HUNG A DOG (and let's say i DID have a child who was capable of hanging a dog. I WOULD NEVER LET HIM OR HER OFF. I'D MAKE SURE THEY UNDERSTOOD WHAT THEY DID WAS WRONG, I'D FIND OUT WHY THEY DID IT. I'D MAKE THEM ACCOUNTABLE AND I'D MAKE THEM PAY)

A Son’s Past Deeds Come Back To Bite Huckabee

By Michael Isikoff and Holly Bailey NEWSWEEK

As Mike Huckabee gains in the polls, the former Arkansas governor is finding that his record in office is getting more scrutiny. One issue likely to get attention is his handling of a sensitive family matter: allegations that one of his sons was involved in the hanging of a stray dog at a Boy Scout camp in 1998. The incident led to the dismissal of David Huckabee, then 17, from his job as a counselor at Camp Pioneer in Hatfield, Ark. It also prompted the local prosecuting attorney— bombarded with complaints generated by a national animal-rights group—to write a letter to the Arkansas state police seeking help investigating whether David and another teenager had violated state animal-cruelty laws. The state police never granted the request, and no charges were ever filed. But John Bailey, then the director of Arkansas's state police, tells NEWSWEEK that Governor Huckabee's chief of staff and personal lawyer both leaned on him to write a letter officially denying the local prosecutor's request. .............

picture: Pulaski County Sheriff-AP
Dogged: An incident involving his son David could hurt Huckabee

UPDATE: shoot, this is TOO GOOD to be true. i JUST now came across this (after i posted the above). Mike Huckabee: Playing Both Sides of the Pulpit

By David Corn

..............The book, Kids Who Kill: Confronting Our Culture of Violence, was hardly a call to come together. Huckabee wrote it with George Grant in response to the March 24, 1998, school shooting in Jonesboro, Arkansas. The book was published in early June of that year, its cover featuring a blurry photograph of a young boy pointing a gun at the reader.
In Kids Who Kill, Huckabee argued that school shootings were the product of a society in decline, a decline marked (and caused) by abortion, pornography, media violence, out-of-wedlock sex, divorce, drug use, and, of course, homosexuality. Huckabee and his coauthor bemoaned the "demoralization of America," observing, "Despite all our prosperity, pomp, and power, the vaunted American experiment in liberty seems to be disintegrating before our very eyes." Huckabee, who was governor at the time and a well-known social conservative, blasted away at those whom he held responsible for America's ills, and he took a rather tough stand against government social programs and their advocates. In lamenting the "cultural conflicts" besetting the country, he wrote............

and then when i googled david huckabee - i found THIS:

Huckabee's Son Arrested With Gun at Little Rock Airport note that was in april of 2007

HEY MIKEY HAS ANYONE TOLD YOU KIDS WHO GROW UP TO KILL PEOPLE USUALLY KILLED ANIMALS AS KIDS?

oh and if you're wondering HOW two 17 or 18 year old boy scouts killed that dog

So, how exactly did Mike Huckabee's son David kill that dog, back in the day when he was a Boy Scout?

.............I believe the following is the faxed description of the “particular process.” It’s on a reputable site, Utopia Animal Rescue, which is run by, of all people, Kinky Freidman:
(Miller County, Arkansas) Two boy scout counselors, 17 year old Clayton Frady and 18 year old David litickabee, the son of Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, have admitted to catching a stray dog during their summer session at Camp Pioneer in Hatfield, AR, and hanging the dog by his neck, slitting his throat and stoning him to death.
Why do I believe that this post came from the fax? Because “litickabee” for “Huckabee” is exactly the kind of error you’d get if you ran a fax through your scanner to get it into your computer for posting.
Now, that’s a pretty gruesome “particular process.” Could it be true? Again, the adults don’t give details. Frady’s father says:
… the younger Frady helped “put it out of its misery.”
But that doesn’t say how Huckabee and Frady did it. However, in our earlier thread on killing dogs, consensus seemed to be that at least in the country dogs, when “put out of their misery,” are generally shot, if no animal control officer is available.
Now, for whatever reason, Huckabee and Frady didn’t decide to call animal control (or any of the 65 staff members at the Camp), and it’s unlikely they were carrying guns. (There’s no indication that they were getting merit badges in rifle or shotgun shooting that day.)
More plausibly, Huckabee and Fraly could simply have used the tools that came to hand: Their (Boy Scout) knives, for the throat-slitting; a (Boy Scout) belt or rope, for the hanging; and surface rocks, for the stoning. So there you are. Frankly, when I started this post, I thought that the Utopia Animal Rescue post just had to be over the top, but as soon as you ask yourself How did they kill the dog with no adult supervision and no gun, it becomes much, much more plausible.
No, I wouldn’t call their actions “kind.”........................

we have two senators in connecticut

a halfway (well a little bit more than halfway) decent one, chris dodd and of course the OTHER one, da liebs (who is a steamin' pile)
(now if all of 'em, including dodd can grow a set an filibuster against ALL of king george's crap, THEN we'd have some representation)

Dodd's filibuster threat scuttles immunity in Senate, for now
Nick Juliano
Senate to return to controversial FISA update after new year
After nearly 10 hours of discussion Monday, the Senate decided to delay a final vote on a controversial domestic spying bill until the new year, under the threat of a protracted filibuster from Sen. Chris Dodd.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid spent the afternoon Monday huddling with Senate leaders and fellow Democrats to try to work out a deal over an update to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. As the FISA update was written, it included a provision for legal immunity to telecommunications companies that facilitated a warrantless wiretapping scheme that Dodd and other Democrats said was illegal...........

hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

i could have SWORN i heard them (them being the u.s.) DENY helping turkey (who, by the way are our buds ONLY because of their location. they are OFF of my christmas card list until they admit the genocide of armenians.) i actually DID hear it several times. what happend? why tell the truth now? perhaps because turkey INSISTED we (the u.s.) helped them? THAT they won't deny

can anyone else see how this is especially f**king up EVERYTHING MORE? (if that's possible)

U.S. Helps Turkey Hit Rebel Kurds In Iraq
Intelligence Role Could Complicate Diplomacy

By Ann Scott Tyson and Robin Wright Washington Post Staff Writers
The United States is providing Turkey with real-time intelligence that has helped the Turkish military target a series of attacks this month against Kurdish separatists holed up in northern Iraq, including a large airstrike on Sunday, according to Pentagon officials.
U.S. military personnel have set up a center for sharing intelligence in Ankara, the Turkish capital, providing imagery and other immediate information gathered from U.S aircraft and unmanned drones flying over the separatists' mountain redoubts, the officials said. A senior administration official said the goal of the U.S. program is to identify the movements and activities of the Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK), which is fighting to create an autonomous enclave in Turkey. .............

monday humor

Bolton: Bush must 'rein in' Rice
Former American ambassador to UN slams president's foreign policy, says Bush 'doesn't supervise Secretary of State Rice enough'
US President George W. Bush's foreign policy is in free fall and puts the nation's security at risk, former ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton told a German magazine on Sunday.
Bolton , who was a leading hawk in the US administration and favored a tough stance against Iran, North Korea and Iraq, told the Der Spiegel weekly that Bush needed to rein in Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
"His foreign policy is in free fall. The president is acting against his own judgment and instincts (and is) under the influence of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice," he was quoted as telling the magazine.
Bolton said Rice's was the dominant voice on foreign policy and that she was a channel for the views of liberal career bureaucrats in the foreign ministry. .......

the nutmeg grater: da liebs

the nutmeg grater: da liebs

blood brothers

a four part series from the army times.

part i, adhamiya and back

part ii, i've seen enough (accessible from the link above, as all other parts are)
part iii, we're not going
part iv, picking up the pieces

shite, she shouldn't have been there any damn way

she should have been HOME cooking for her husband

the other day when kbr released a statement on the OTHER rape accusation from ms jones, they included a statement about ms barker. well here is ms barker's story and it ain't any better

i don't know if mr mokhtare is guilty or innocent. what i DO know is a THOROUGH investigation never took place


EXCLUSIVE: No Prosecution for State Dept Official Accused of Sexual Assault
Justice Department Says Case 'Declined for Prosecution,' Request to Suspend Official's Security Clearance Denied
By BRIAN ROSS, MADDY SAUER and JUSTIN ROOD

The Department of Justice declined to prosecute a State Department employee who allegedly sexually assaulted a female Halliburton/KBR worker in Iraq, despite a recommendation from the State Department that he be charged, according to an internal document obtained by ABC News. Ali Mokhtare, who is still employed by the State Department, was investigated in 2005 after a female Halliburton/KBR employee said he sexually assaulted her at the company-run camp in Basra, Iraq. Mokhtare was a diplomatic official in Basra who first came to Iraq as a Farsi translator interviewing detainees.
The U.S. Diplomatic Security Service investigated the allegations against Mokhtare and presented the case to the Justice Department for prosecution, but "the case was declined for prosecution" states the document..........

kbr statements

at this point i'm not sure you should even bother

our constitution is ripped to shreds, we're being spied upon without warrants, our king is lying to us each and every day, our people are not being helped after natural disasters, our covert cia agents are being exposed, our children aren't getting health care, we're attacking countries who NEVER did anything to us, we're NOT helping countries that need our help, we're allowing women to get raped then jailed and humans and dinosaurs existed at the same time. oh, and no one gives a flying f**k

Congress will defy Justice Dept. on destroyed CIA tapes; Harman: 'We're in Constitutional crisis'
Mike Sheehan and David Edwards
Despite the Justice Department's objections, a Congressional panel will press ahead with its investigation into destroyed CIA interrogation tapes, according to a key Republican on the panel.
"I think we will issue subpoenas," said Rep. Pete Hoekstra (R-MI), the House Intelligence Committee's ranking Republican, on Fox News Sunday (video below). "And once these witness appear in front of the committee, then I think we'll have to make the decision as to whether we're going to provide them with immunity or not. But our investigation should move forward."
As RAW STORY reported earlier, the Justice Department has refused outright to hand over any information about interrogation tapes destroyed by the CIA two years ago.
"The CIA did not tell us about the existence of these tapes," Hoekstra argued. "They did not tell us that they were going to be destroyed. ... [T]here's a Constitutional responsibility for them to keep Congress informed and they have not and we need to hold them accountable.".......

for YOU

cv rick



i know it won't change your mind about blogger, but i HAD to post it.



The latest from Blogger Buzz
OpenID Commenting
December 13, 2007 — permalink
After just two short weeks of testing on Blogger in draft, OpenID commenting is now available for all Blogger blogs. This means that your friends and readers can leave authenticated comments on your blog using their blog URLs from OpenID-enabled services such as WordPress.com, LiveJournal, and AOL Journals, or with their AOL/AIM accounts.We've chosen a few popular OpenID providers to highlight on the comments form, but OpenID is, well, "open"! You can use any OpenID service to post a comment by choosing "Any OpenID" and filling in your OpenID URL..............................

birthday meme (which i added poetry to - BAD poetry)

i saw the danger sign, i didn't care


who needs to beware?


i don't need a train or crane


i need my dark oven under the terrain


i set my timer for 30 mins

and popped the muffins from my tins

(i couldn't resist. the meme is from cv rick who got it from a ton of folk such as; This is a meme that's been going around. I first saw it on Sideon's Site. He got it from Sara Sue and she got it from Tethered Cow. Then I saw it over at Cele's Site and at E.F's blog, but JulieAnn raised the bar by making this meme with accompanying haikus.
Here is the meme...Go to Google Images and enter your birth date as six figures: ddmmyy (or mmddyy if you are an illogical American). Pick any five pictures from the first page of results only. Then post them somewhere we can see.)
check our rick's meme and all the others. very interesting and cool as well!