arsehole

there is NO CALL to kill a dog (or any animal) in order to sell this piece of medical equipment. i of course have beliefs that go FURTHER than that, but in this instance, there is NO question this doctor did something immoral and WRONG. i do hope this doctor is punished accordingly. more importanly, i hope somewhere down the line he or she grows a heart

Aneurysm induced in dog sparks USDA inquiry
Cleveland Clinic says sales-demo procedure unauthorized; animal destroyed

CLEVELAND - The U.S. Department of Agriculture will send an inspector to a hospital where a neurosurgeon demonstrating a medical device to salespeople deliberately induced a brain aneurysm in a dog, which was later destroyed.
The Cleveland Clinic, known for its heart center and for treating high-profile patients such as royalty, said that it had not authorized the procedure. The hospital reported itself to the USDA, which regulates animal testing.
A neurosurgeon caused the brain aneurysm in the anesthetized animal Wednesday at the clinic’s Lerner Research Institute in Cleveland to demonstrate a medical device to a group of 20 to 25 salespeople. The large, mixed-breed dog was destroyed afterward because of the damage caused by the aneurysm, the clinic said.............

of course i see it differently than faux news

and the new york raggy post. what i got out of what ms boxer said was, SHE (ms boxer) was lucky because her kids were too old to be in iraq fighting and her grandchildren were too young. she also said ccoonnddoolleeeezzzzaaaa didn't have to worry about an immediate family member either because she didn't have anyone around 'fighting' age in her family. i didn't hear it AT ALL as a crack against a 'childless woman'. i heard ms boxer say the king and his court are making all of these life and death decisions for OTHER people's children, yet THEIR family members are safe and sound AT HOME (or partying in argentina like the bushwacked twins were). i am childless and i didn't take it as a slam against WOMEN in general. i took it like it was said, A SLAM AGAINST THIS INSANE COLD UNCARING HEARTLESS ADMINISTRATION. once again faux and friends are missing the ENTIRE point - but that's no surprise is it?

Video: Fox crew 'bashes' Boxer for 'childless Condi slur:' White House spokesman later calls senator 'tacky'

David Edwards and Ron Brynaert
Taking its cue from an article in today's New York Post, Fox News Channel panelists took shots at a Democratic Senator for her "low blow" against Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Thursday.
Later in the day, the White House spokesman called Senator Barbara Boxer "tacky."
"Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer, an appalling scold from California, wasted no time yesterday in dragging the debate over Iraq about as low as it can go – attacking Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice for being a childless woman," the New York City tabloid reported on its front page Friday. "Boxer was wholly in character for her party – New York's own two Democratic senators, Chuck Schumer and Hillary Rodham Clinton, were predictably opportunistic – but the Golden State lawmaker earned special attention for the tasteless jibes she aimed at Rice.".........

Tech Tags: condoleezza+rice barbara+boxer fox+news ny+post tony+snow

i LOVED

this!!!

this article really DOES say it all

the king visited a base after his speech the other night. of course all of the troops on the base were FORBIDDEN to talk to reporters (i'd forbid them to talk to reporters too if i were the base commander. there is only one thing those men and women can be thinking). it's not that, that i'm upset with. it's the fact some of these troops will have to return to iraq apparently for a THIRD time. this is insanity. let's put aside how we invaded a country for NO reason (no LEGAL or MORAL reason that is). what are MORE troops going to do for iraq? do IN iraq?

all of them should be brought home and NOW. raise your voices. let your elected representatives (especially da liebs if you're from connecticut) know YOU WANT US OUT OF IRAQ AND YOU WANT US OUT NOW NOW AND NOW

At Fort Benning, a Quiet Response to a Presidential Visit


By Peter BakerWashington Post Staff Writer

Friday, January 12, 2007; Page A12
FORT BENNING, Ga., Jan. 11 -- The pictures were just what the White House wanted: A teary-eyed President Bush presenting the Medal of Honor posthumously to a slain war hero in the East Room, then flying here to join the chow line with camouflage-clad soldiers as some of them prepare to return to Iraq.
There are few places the president could go for an unreservedly enthusiastic reception the day after unveiling his decision to order 21,500 more troops to Iraq. A military base has usually been a reliable backdrop for the White House, and so Bush aides chose this venerable Army installation in western Georgia to promote his revised strategy to the nation while his Cabinet secretaries tried to sell it on Capitol Hill...........
..Soldiers being soldiers, those who met the commander in chief Thursday saluted smartly and applauded politely. But it was hardly the boisterous, rock-star reception Bush typically gets at military bases. During his lunchtime speech, the soldiers were attentive but quiet.................

Tech Tags: fort+benning troop+surge george+bush medal+of+honor

site of the day

muscle guild

a fond farewell to carlo ponti

anyone who produced la strada gets a shout out from me!

he produced some crap too of course, but if you've never seen the movie two women (la ciociara) i'm advising you to do so

Italian film producer Ponti dies

Italian film producer Carlo Ponti, the husband of actress Sophia Loren, has died in Geneva at the age of 94.
He produced a number of classic films including Federico Fellini's La Strada, David Lean's Dr Zhivago and Michelangelo Antonioni's Blowup.
Ponti was admitted to hospital about 10 days ago for pulmonary complications, the family said in a statement.
Ponti married Loren in 1957 when she was just 22 but the marriage was later annulled. They remarried in 1966.
"He died overnight," Loren's niece Alessandra Mussolini said. "It was a peaceful death, there was not a particular problem.
"His wife and children were with him. Sophia has always been with him throughout."
The producer spotted Loren when she took part in a beauty contest when she was just 15 and he was a 37-year-old judge. .....................

carlo ponti

Tech Tags: carlo+ponti sophia+loren la+strada fellini two+women

i read about the birds in austin the other day

i had no idea the REST of this happened

Birds falling from the sky all over the globe!

Australia -- http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,2103... THOUSANDS of birds have fallen from the skies over Esperance and no one knows why.Texas --http://www.statesman.com/news/content/news/stories/loca... The discovery of dozens of mysteriously dead birds shut down Congress Avenue on Monday morning, closing dozens of businesses for hours and keeping hundreds of workers away from their jobs in part of the city's most important commercial center.Idaho (ducks) --http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_4855994 Preliminary test results indicate a bacterial or fungal infection could be to blame for the deaths of as many as 2,500 mallard ducks in a bizarre cluster along a southeastern Idaho creek bed, a state game official says. More tests are now planned on water and grain, said David Parrish, supervisor for the Magic Valley region of the Idaho Department of Fish and Game."We have some preliminary results," he told The Associated Press late Thursday in a telephone interview. "It could be some type of bacterial infection or a fungal-related infection. But we haven't confirmed that for sure."Parrish and members of the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality, the state Department of Agriculture, the federal Homeland Security Department and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service conferred by conference call late Thursday. Parrish said the die-off was not typical. "It's fairly uncommon, especially in these types of numbers and in such a confined area," he said. http://www.todaysthv.com/news/news.aspx?storyid=38739 Last year, about 500 mostly mallard ducks died in similar circumstances at a pond in Waterloo, Iowa. The Iowa Department of Natural Resources said the ducks likely died from Aspergillosis.

YOU voted for him, YOU got him

YOU also got his desire to send YOUR sons and daughters, YOU, YOUR family members, YOUR neighbors to be MAIMED OR KILLED.

for WHAT? in the king's case, oil. in da liebs case, a mistaken belief taking iraq out will calm the entire middle east (by calm i'm talking about empowering israel MORE)

to this day, i still DO NOT understand (or accept) why we are in iraq. no one has actually explained it in TRUE words

they are ALL a bunch of sick f**kers. ALL of them

Lieberman backs Bush 'surge'

Brian Beutler
Tonight, Senator Joe Lieberman (I-CT), who chairs the Homeland Security and Government Affairs committee, came out in support of President Bush's plan—already underway—to send over 20,000 more troops to Iraq."I applaud the President for rejecting the fatalism of failure and pursuing a new course to achieve success in Iraq," Lieberman said in a statement acquired by RAW STORY. "There is no more difficult decision that a President can make."However, Lieberman characterized the troop surge as a necessary strategic change in what he characterized as a "vital" fight to ensure our national security. "No objective is more worthy," he added, "than aiding a struggling democracy and supporting brave moderates who are in a life and death struggle against totalitarian extremists supported by Al Qaeda and Iran."Lieberman, who has a history of taking hawkish stances on foreign policy issues, remains one of the most vocal of the few Democrats still supporting the war............

Tech Tags: joe+lieberman troop+surge george+bush insanity

surge

HOMEWARD!!!

i LOVED the title of this piece. well, that and the fact that it's a damn fine hunk o' writin' and thinkin'

Surge Homeward
Katrina vanden Heuvel
As the President prepares to escalate (aka "surge") the war in Iraq, the new Democratic Congress and peace activists across the nation are searching for the most effective ways to respond to the continuing Madness of King George. Here is a look at what some legislators, former and current military personnel, and peace groups are doing to end a war that has stretched the military to the breaking point, and sacrificed more than three thousand American men and women to what columnist Paul Krugman calls "the quagmire of the vanities."
*Representative John Murtha has already taken a strong stand in announcing that he will oppose funding for any escalation as Chairman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense. Murtha told Arianna Huffington that "he wants to ‘fence the funding,' denying the president the resources to escalate the war, instead using the money to take care of the soldiers as we bring them home from Iraq…."
Murtha's stance is critical since the rightwing will wrongly spin (as they have post-Vietnam) that opposition to funding a war is tantamount to not supporting the troops. How best to counter the rightwing political blame game will require hard work and courage in the coming weeks and months. ............

Tech Tags: surge iraq john+murtha democratic+congress edward+kennedy

goodbye sneaky pete

a GRAND musician. he backed up a TON of people and his flying burrito brothers twern't that bad neither!

Steel guitar player Kleinow dies

US country-rock star "Sneaky" Pete Kleinow, a steel guitar player and one of the original members of the Flying Burrito Brothers, has died aged 72.
He co-founded the band in 1968 with the Byrds' Chris Hillman plus Gram Parsons.
He recorded with John Lennon and Joni Mitchell, and was said to have influenced groups such as the Eagles.
Kleinow also worked as an animator, special effects designer and director of commercials, and won an Emmy award for TV series The Winds of War in 1983.
Other credits included The Empire Strikes Back, Under Siege, Fearless and the relaunched version of The Twilight Zone...........

Tech Tags: pete+kleinow steel+guitar burrito+brothers

get ready for january 18th

colbert and o'wrongly will appear on each other's shows

O'Reilly, Colbert to Trade Appearances


NEW YORK (AP) - It may feel like looking into the mirror for Bill O'Reilly and Stephen Colbert next week.
The Fox News Channel host and Colbert, who has essentially based his comic character every evening on Comedy Central on him, will trade appearances on each other's programs Jan. 18.
"I'm really looking forward to speaking to a man who owes his entire career to me," O'Reilly said.
On "The Colbert Report," Colbert portrays a self-involved talk-show host who has tried to bring "truthiness" to the world. His character owes an obvious debt to O'Reilly, who holds court in the "no-spin zone" each evening.
On "The O'Reilly Factor," O'Reilly portrays a ... um, he hosts the top-rated program in cable news................

Tech Tags: stephen+colbert bill+o'reilly

whoops - guess you didn't destroy ALL of the evidence

Bush and Abramoff have met. Here is the photo.

As we saw as recently as last Friday, the Bush Administration has gone to great lengths to prevent any access to information documenting a relationship with Jack Abramoff. But that relationship exists. CREW was provided a photo of President Bush and Jack Abramoff taken at a campaign fundraiser in December 2003. The White House did not want anyone to see this photo. So, that begs the question: What else are they hiding?

Tech Tags: jack+abramoff george+bush

a great little essay on jon stewart

i like colbert a great deal but i REALLY LOVE jon stewart. being in awe of someone (like tom waites) one moment and ripping someone to shreds the next (you know anyone in the current king's court). being funny yet giving us the news in a way no one else can (or will)

sure, it's on comedy central but give me jon over katie ANY day

Jon Stewart's Gandhian Struggle


by Kelly Rae Kraemer

I'm a college professor who usually despises TV, yet I'm addicted to the Daily Show. I'd love to cancel my cable subscription; I'm sure there's a better way to spend $38.04 every month, but I have to have my nightly dose of Jon Stewart. I was a bit alarmed to learn that many young people rely on Stewart as a news source, but not at all surprised when researchers found that his viewers are better informed than those who watch CNN or Fox. It could be a matter of self-selection, better-informed people choosing to watch the "Daily Show" because it addresses itself to a better-informed audience, but I think there's a different answer.
Jon Stewart wages a daily satyagraha, an on-going nonviolent struggle in which he clings to the truth, Gandhi-style, making us laugh as he gets us to think. As a result, Stewart, on his fake news show, often does a better job revealing what's going on in the world than the real news media. That's why so many young people turn to his show for their daily news, and that's why I'm glued to the boob tube every night.
Now, let me be the first to say, Jon Stewart is no Gandhi. Moments of profound wisdom are interspersed on his show with fart jokes and penis humor only a twelve-year-old boy could really enjoy........
.......Stewart routinely challenges his interviewees. When Anderson Cooper told him CNN has a "sense of mission," Stewart asked, "When's it gonna show on air?" His tenacity in holding on to the truth as his interviewees try to spin it showed clearly when he debated marriage with Bill Bennett:
JS: Why not encourage gay people to join in that family arrangement if that is what provides stability to a society?
BB: Well, I think...gay people are already members of families. They're sons and they're daughters.
JS: So that's where the buck stops? That's the gay ceiling.
BB: Look, it's a debate about whether you think marriage is between a man and a woman.
JS: I disagree. I think it's a debate about whether you think gay people are part of the human condition or just a random fetish.............

Tech Tags: jon+stewart comedy+central bill+bennett anderson+cooper

even the very conservative

are slowly waking up to this; land of the FREE and home of the BRAVE? surely not so much any more

seems we are booting out some people who not only HELPED us, but FOUGHT WITH US in certain places.

Conservatives Decry Terror Laws' Impact on Refugees
Administration's Interpretation Means Many Asylum-Seekers Are Wrongly Considered Security Threats, Critics Say


By Darryl Fears Washington Post Staff Writer Monday, January 8, 2007; Page A03
Conservatives who supported President Bush's reelection have joined liberal groups in expressing outrage over his administration's broad use of anti-terrorism laws to reject asylum for thousands of people seeking refuge from religious, ethnic and political persecution.
The critics say the administration's interpretation of provisions mandating denial of asylum to individuals who give "material support" to terrorist groups is so broad that foreigners who fought alongside U.S. forces in wars such as Vietnam can be denied asylum on the grounds that they provided aid to terrorists.
Advocates for refugees add that people who were forced to aid terrorist fighters at gunpoint could be labeled as supporters and turned away; such cases include a nurse who was abducted and told to treat a guerrilla fighter in Colombia and a woman in Liberia who said her father was killed and she was raped and forced to stand by as rebels occupied her home for several days.
"This is so indefensible," said Michael Horowitz, a fellow at the conservative Hudson Institute and a former lawyer in the Reagan administration. "It is causing heroes who fought for the United States to be afraid of being deported."................

Tech Tags: anti-terrorism+laws george+bush immigration refugees asylum

website of the day

the electric frog




check out the pre-emptive prayer cards!!!!!


beach bum, please note there is also a link to a flash game on this page!

i don't know if this is true or not

i sure do hope it's the NOT choice. if it IS true, why wasn't this story carried by more outlets?

In Iraq, frogs and rabbits will scatter

By C.W. GUSEWELLE The Kansas City Star

It was only a brief item in our paper — small enough to perhaps be easily overlooked — although it got more extensive play in the Eastern press.
The story concerned the transfer of responsibility for security in Najaf province of Iraq from coalition forces to U.S.-trained indigenous soldiers and police.
It is the hoped-for ability of Iraqis themselves to maintain order that is the cornerstone of the U.S. administration’s strategy for salvaging something resembling a victory from the wreckage of that broken country.
President Bush is expected to share his plan with Congress and the American people in a major address early in this coming week.
What Bush declares to be steady gains in the competence of Iraq’s own forces are sure to figure greatly in his “new” blueprint for avoiding full-scale civil war and extracting U.S. forces from a worsening nightmare.
If so, the events at the security-transfer ceremony were not terribly encouraging.
In a Najaf soccer stadium, troops from the Iraqi army, the police and other emergency units paraded for an hour before a reviewing stand filled with U.S. and Iraqi dignitaries.
Then, in what seems to have been the high point of the affair, the members of a commando unit gave a dramatic demonstration of their courage.
According to published accounts, each commando plucked a frog from his pocket, bit off its head and flung aside the twitching lower parts. Then their leader cut open a rabbit and passed it to the others to chew on its still-beating heart................

Tech Tags: najaf+province iraqi+military special+forces

i am not the least bit surprised if this is true

for years i've been bitching and moaning about us polluting space. did you know we dump a TON of crap in space? a bunch of garbage that we either throw out or falls off of our rockets and satellites? how DARE we? we eff up our OWN planet and now we've effed up others AND space

Scientist: NASA found life on Mars - and killed it

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Two NASA space probes that visited Mars 30 years ago may have found alien microbes on the Red Planet and inadvertently killed them, a scientist is theorizing.
The Viking space probes of 1976-77 were looking for the wrong kind of life, so they didn't recognize it, a geology professor at Washington State University said.
Dirk Schulze-Makuch presented his theory in a paper delivered at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Seattle, Washington.
The paper was released Sunday.
Based on a more expansive view of where life can take root, the paper's findings may prompt NASA to look for a different type of Martian life when its next spacecraft to visit Mars is launched later this year, one of the space agency's top scientists said.
Last month, scientists excitedly reported that new photographs of Mars showed geologic changes that suggest water occasionally flows there -- the most tantalizing sign that Mars is hospitable to life.
In the 1970s, the Viking mission found no signs of life.
But it was looking for Earth-like life, in which salt water is the internal liquid of living cells.
Given the cold dry conditions of Mars, life could have evolved on Mars with the key internal fluid consisting of a mix of water and hydrogen peroxide, said Schulze-Makuch..........

Tech Tags: nasa viking+probes pollution mars

the new goals are set

they are the same (well most are) as the OLD (meet the new boss - same as the old boss) goals that WEREN'T MET.

this is INSANITY. we are letting the lunatics run the asylum (no offense to those who really DO reside in asylums)

NYT: Bush's new policy will set benchmarks Iraq must meet; Many 'carried over from old list' but 'never met'

A senior administration official revealed elements of Bush's new Iraq policy to The New York Times which the president is expected to discuss in a speech on a still undetermined day this week.
"President Bush’s new Iraq policy will establish a series of goals that the Iraqi government will be expected to meet to try to ease sectarian tensions and stabilize the country politically and economically, senior administration officials said Sunday," Michael R. Gordon and Jeff Zeleny write for the Times. "Among these 'benchmarks' are steps that would draw more Sunnis into the political process, finalize a long-delayed measure on the distribution of oil revenue and ease the government’s policy toward former Baath Party members, the officials said."
The paper notes that many of the goals had been "carried over from the old list of benchmarks," which Iraq "never met."........

Tech Tags: iraq+policy george+bush troop+surge

i was just thinkin' da liebs MUST be living a wet dream over this

and lo and belhold, i find this!

Live From AEI: Holy Joe and St. McCain Say "Surge!"

and he must be DOUBLY excited at THIS Revealed: Israel plans nuclear strike on Iran

raise your voices

we cannot allow MORE troops to be sent to iraq. we CANNOT. raise your voices - we must bring home the men and women who are currently there. this is sheer lunacy and i just don't understand. to this day i don't understand how we allowed the king and his court to get this far. will no one tell the emperor he has NO new clothes?

Critics Say 'Surge' Is More of The Same
Past Troop Buildups Have Not Quelled Iraq


By Michael Abramowitz, Robin Wright and Ann Scott Tyson Washington Post Staff Writers Sunday, January 7, 2007; Page A01
President Bush is putting the final touches on his new Iraq policy amid growing skepticism inside and outside the administration that the emerging package of extra troops, economic assistance and political benchmarks for the Baghdad government will make any more than a marginal difference in stabilizing the country.
Washington's debate over Iraq will intensify this week as Bush lays out his plans, probably on Wednesday or Thursday, and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and other administration officials face tough questions from Democrats in congressional hearings.............

Tech Tags: iraq george+bush condoleezza+rice troop+surge