my favorite musician in the entire universe

van morrison

here is a link to him performing
g l o r i a. two links. one, early van the other van and john lee hooker

thanks to my friend shawn, i got to see mr morrision a couple of years back. i cannot even describe the experience. i was literally mesmerized

Tech Tags: van+morrison john+lee+hooker gloria

how can they get away with this crap???

i don't know. i really don't. faux 'news' at it again

(yet someone says something which in all probability is true, like a certain someone who was in the texas air national guard really may never have 'served' and the world comes to a STOP)

Obama Smeared As Former ‘Madrassa’ Student, Possible Covert Muslim Extremist

This morning, Fox News featured a segment highlighting a right-wing report that Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) attended an Islamic “madrassa” school as a 6-year-old child.
Fox & Friends host Steve Doocy pointed out that madrassas are “financed by Saudis” and “teach this Wahhabism which pretty much hates us,” then declared, “The big question is: was that on the curriculum back then?” Later, a caller to the show questioned whether Obama’s schooling means that “maybe he doesn’t consider terrorists the enemy.” Fox anchor Brian Kilmeade responded, “Well, we’ll see about that.”
The Fox hosts failed to correct the false claim that Obama is Muslim. One caller, referring to Obama, said, “I think a Muslim would be fine in the presidency, better than Hillary. At least you know what the Muslims are up to.”..........

Tech Tags: barack+obama fox+news

site of the day

widgetbox

(stuff for your blog)

hope i don't go TOO crazy

found it through this nyt article

another loss

i am sorry for the loss of ms parhamovich. i was quite moved by this article. she seemed like a special woman.

i was also moved because the news out of iraq, if one can believe it, just is getting worse and worse.

so many lives lost, many of which NEVER picked up a gun

Ambush Kills an American Teaching Democracy to Iraqis

By DAMIEN CAVE
BAGHDAD, Jan. 18 — An American woman killed here on Wednesday when gunmen fired on her convoy of vehicles was ambushed just minutes after leaving the headquarters of a prominent Sunni Arab political party, where she had been teaching a class on democracy, party members said Thursday.
They said the woman — Andrea Parhamovich, 28, of Perry, Ohio — left the party’s fortified compound in western Baghdad around 4 p.m., heading east to her group’s offices outside the Green Zone, when she and her armed guards came under attack from all sides.
Les Campbell, Middle East and North Africa director for the National Democratic Institute, which hired Ms. Parhamovich about three months ago, said that during the fierce firefight, guards tried to escape, fought back, then called for reinforcements from other private security contractors.
The attackers — perhaps as many as 30 men, according to witness accounts passed on to Mr. Campbell — used heavy weapons, possibly rocket-propelled grenades, destroying the armored sedan that Ms. Parhamovich was in and killing three of her armed guards: a Croatian, a Hungarian and an Iraqi. Two other security contractors were wounded. The attackers then scattered back into the neighborhood. .............

Tech Tags: andrea+parhamovich sunni shiite baghdad iraq national+democratic+institute

can't wait to see this movie

Alan Markfield/Night & Day Pictures
Adrienne Shelly, left, Cheryl Hines and Keri Russell in “Waitress,” directed by Ms. Shelly, who was murdered in November in Greenwich Village.

i hope it does get released in my area. we do have a couple of 'art house' theaters around, so chances ARE it will

i liked ms shelly a great deal. i discovered her through hal hartley's early movies.

i posted on the foundation her husband set up in her name and her murder

i sure am happy her movie did indeed make it to sundance. sorry she never knew that though (in this lifetime that is)

Sundance Dream Most Notable for an Absence

By DAVID CARR
PARK CITY, Utah
MICHAEL ROIFF could be forgiven for seeming a little discombobulated on Tuesday night. A first-time producer with “Waitress,” one of the higher-profile movies at the Sundance Film Festival here, he had just arrived and was knocking around a rented condominium, trying to figure out where everything was and how to get a flat-screen television to behave for another look at the film.
But something more profound had him at loose ends. Adrienne Shelly, the writer, director and one of the stars of the film, was not there, and she was not coming.
Ms. Shelly was murdered on Nov. 1 in her Greenwich Village office. Although it was initially thought that her death was a suicide because she was found hanging from a shower rod, a construction worker has been charged with murder, accused of staging the scene after an altercation with Ms. Shelly.
Mr. Roiff, who worked with Ms. Shelly for two years on “Waitress” and was continuing to work with her on other projects, talked to her the night before her death.
“We talked about what we always talked about, which was the movie, Sundance and whether it would get in,” he said, idly tapping the remote control.
And it did, although Ms. Shelly, 40, did not know that before she was killed — the selections had already been made, but notifications had not been sent out. She leaves behind a husband, Andrew Ostroy, and a 3-year-old daughter, Sophie, along with a film that offers a tender-hearted rumination on a woman who is trying to find her place as she faces impending motherhood and the constant threat of violence from her brutish husband. The movie evinces sunniness amid all sorts of gloom, a prism on life that should come in handy in the next few days, as friends and family members fly in for its premiere on Sunday. .......

Tech Tags: adrienne+shelly sundance michael+roiff hal+hartley

i think they can talk till they're blue in the face

and i do think what sen leahy is doing is right BUT those that are responsible for travesties and torturing people (especially those who in the end are innocent) will NEVER 'get it'. they do not understand what they are doing is WRONG. they will never 'get it'. they are heartless and soul-less.

U.S. 'knew damn well' Arar would be tortured: senator

After sitting through withering criticism in a Senate hearing, U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has promised more information on the case of Maher Arar, a Canadian who ended up in a cell in Syria after U.S. officials grabbed him on a stopover in New York.
Gonzales was grilled relentlessly on Thursday by Senate judiciary committee chairman Patrick Leahy. Leahy said that when Arar — a citizen of both Canada and Syria travelling on a Canadian passport — was detained in 2002, American authorities knew he would be tortured if they deported him to Syria.
"We knew damn well if he went to Canada he wouldn't be tortured," said Leahy, a Democrat from Vermont. "He'd be held and he'd be investigated............

Tech Tags: alberto+gonzales patrick+leahy maher+arar canada

i hope everyone got a chance

to catch 'my name is earl' last night. it was a GREAT one AND it featured john waters!!!

hmmmmmmmm i guess this is for real

(but one can NEVER be sure with the onion)

Area Readers Get the Joke

By Frank Ahrens Washington Post Staff Writer Thursday, January 18, 2007; D07
The Onion, the Gen-X satiric newspaper, is coming to Washington and will partner with The Washington Post, which will print the paper and sell local ads.
The Onion, which also maintains a Web site, will be distributed free in news boxes and by hawkers in Washington beginning the first week in April. The Post will be paid for its business services.
Founded by University of Wisconsin students in 1988, The Onion was launched in Madison and expanded online, gaining a following for its edgy parodies of the news.
For example, The Onion's home page ( http://www.theonion.com) yesterday displayed the following headline and story: "Area Family's Trip to New Hampshire Sparks Rumors of Presidential Bid.".........

Tech Tags: washington+post the+onion

web site of the day

frieda & guido's interactive underwear

i wish i had the

money and the power to do something about faux "news". this is absolutely one of THE most outrageous things i have EVER heard. they ought to be taken off of the air. HOW DARE bill o'wrongly say such things. my skin is crawling

from at-largely,
Fox pundits claim kidnapped kids liked their ordeal


Outrage? We are well past that. TrueCrime blog has the transcript, which I will repost below. I suggest anyone with any sense of decency demand that Fox be shut down finally, for pandering to pedophiles and child abusers by blaming the victim, in this case, the child:
From TrueCrime blog, with emphasis:
Bill O'Reilly: You know the Stockholm syndrome thing, I don't buy it, I never bought it, I don't think It happened in the Patty Hearst Case. I don't think it happened here...Greta van Susteren: Woah, Can I just say something?Bill O'Reilly: Yeah go ahead and jump in................

Tech Tags: fox+news o'reilly von+susteren insanity evil

holy shite

i'm not a virginian (no, i wasn't going to say the OTHER word that starts like that), but if i was, i sure as shite would NOT want THIS "man" representing me in the state legislature

RICHMOND, Va. -- A state legislator said black people "should get over" slavery and questioned whether Jews should apologize "for killing Christ," drawing denunciations Tuesday from stunned colleagues.
Del. Frank D. Hargrove, 79, made his remarks in opposition to a measure that would apologize on the state's behalf to the descendants of slaves.
In an interview published Tuesday in The Daily Progress of Charlottesville, Hargrove said slavery ended nearly 140 years ago with the Civil War and added that "our black citizens should get over it................

Tech Tags: frank+hargrove virginia slavery

just what the hell have WE wrought

A woman walks through a pool of blood at Bab al-Sheik market in central Baghdad, Iraq, Tuesday, Jan. 16, 2007. Two bombs were detonated five minutes apart Tuesday in a used motorcycle marketplace in central Baghdad, killing at least 15 people and wounding 74 others, police said. The first bomb was attached to a motorcycle in the market. As the curious gathered to look at the aftermath, a suicide car bomber drove into the crowd and blew up his vehicle. (AP Photo/Karim Kadim)

60 university students. SIXTY. that's just in a few minutes of ONE day. it goes on ALL day EVERY day. AND WE STIRRED THE POT

Bombings Kill 60 at University In Baghdad
34,452 Iraqi Civilians Died Violently in '06, U.N. Says

By Joshua Partlow Washington Post Foreign Service Wednesday, January 17, 2007; Page A01
BAGHDAD, Jan. 16 -- The coordinated detonation of two bombs during the after-school rush at a Baghdad university killed at least 60 people Tuesday and wounded more than 140 in what university officials described as one of the deadliest attacks on academia since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.
The spate of killings, which also included a bombing outside a Sunni Muslim shrine in a predominantly Shiite neighborhood of central Baghdad, made plain the difficulties facing U.S. and Iraqi troops poised for their latest effort to tamp down rampant violence in the capital. It coincided with a report from the United Nations that said 34,452 Iraqi civilians died violently last year -- an average of 94 per day -- an estimate nearly triple the death toll provided by three Iraqi government ministries................

Tech Tags: baghdad sunni shiite mustansiriya+university

vegan stew

Everything but the kitchen sink roasted vegetable and tempeh stew

( you can use extra firm tofu instead. I freeze mine first for at least a week, and then defrost it. it changes the consistency to chewy. I happened to use tempeh which I don’t like. I buy it on occasion just to see if it will grow on me. it still has NOT. this time I used wild rice tempeh. The stew came out kick ass though)


1 pack of tempeh (or tofu)
Vegetable stock or vegetable 3 vegetable bouillon cubes
1 pack baby bella mushrooms (or any of your choice)
2 cups baby carrots
1 ½ large sweet onions
2 tomatoes (or a small can or box of tomatoes)
1 apple
4 potatoes
½ cup corn
½ cup peas
(hot) red pepper flakes
Fresh ginger
Curry powder
2 teaspoons kudzu or cornstarch
2 Tbs olive oil

Cut washed/cleaned vegetables (except peas and corn which you should put aside) and apple into bite sized pieces, not too very small though. throw a hunk of fresh ginger into the vegetables. mix with the olive oil and 2 tablespoons of water. put on lightly greased cookie sheet with sides (or even better one lined with foil) and bake in a 350 oven for at least one hour. Stir every 15 or 20 minutes or so.

Cube the tempeh and simmer for 10 minutes in 1 cup of vegetable stock (or 1 c water and 1 bouillon cube) along with a little hunk of ginger. Set aside.

When the vegetables are almost done, turn the stove on again and put the pot with the tempeh on the burner. Add another cup (or so) of stock and or water and bouillon cube. Toss in the peas and corn and simmer for five minutes. Take ginger out of both the tempeh broth and the roasted vegetables. Take a few tablespoons of hot broth out and mix the kudzu or cornstarch with it until it has no lumps. Add it to the tempeh and stock. Stir and cook for a couple of minutes. Add the rest of the roasted vegetables and stir. I tossed in some red pepper flakes and curry power when I added the cornstarch.

You can also add any vegetables you have laying around or beans for that matter. Fava beans and sweet potatoes would be nice. You can also stir in a tablespoon or two of peanut butter (first dissolved in a few tablespoons of the hot broth). I would have added fresh chili peppers too, but I didn’t have any.

more half-truths from the man who should refer to himself as THE MISTAKER

more misdirection. more of the same

wake up

Administration leaving out important details on Iraq

By MARK SEIBEL
McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON - President Bush and his aides, explaining their reasons for sending more American troops to Iraq, are offering an incomplete, oversimplified and possibly untrue version of events there that raises new questions about the accuracy of the administration's statements about Iraq.
President Bush unveiled the new version on Wednesday during his nationally televised speech announcing his new Iraq policy.
"When I addressed you just over a year ago, nearly 12 million Iraqis had cast their ballots for a unified and democratic nation," he said. "We thought that these elections would bring Iraqis together - and that as we trained Iraqi security forces, we could accomplish our mission with fewer American troops.
"But in 2006, the opposite happened. The violence in Iraq - particularly in Baghdad - overwhelmed the political gains Iraqis had made. Al-Qaida terrorists and Sunni insurgents recognized the mortal danger that Iraq's election posed for their cause. And they responded with outrageous acts of murder aimed at innocent Iraqis.
"They blew up one of the holiest shrines in Shia Islam - the Golden Mosque of Samarra - in a calculated effort to provoke Iraq's Shia population to retaliate," Bush said. "Their strategy worked. Radical Shia elements, some supported by Iran, formed death squads. And the result was a vicious cycle of sectarian violence that continues today." ..........


Mistakes Were Made, but There Is No Mistaker
by Beth Quinn

My, my. Such a great big mess, such a small little space in which to write about it.
I speak of George Bush's new Iraq plan, of course, and his speech last Wednesday night. My mouth was so long agape as he proclaimed one bizarre thing after the next that I fear I began drooling on myself.
And here I find myself struggling to wrestle it all into one coherent bit of commentary. A column should be about only one thing, and I've had to go through a painful process of elimination to zero in on just one thing to write about.
It is for that reason that I'm not going to write about the president's absolute contempt for the American people. Never mind that we made it clear in November that we want our troops out of Iraq. And never mind that the Iraq Study Group recommended that we fold up our tents and come home.
Never mind that. Not only did Bush announce that he'd be staying in Iraq against our wishes and against all common sense, but he's going to send more troops over — 21,500 more.
But I'm not going to write about that. Or about how this escalation of his is not actually a new plan at all but just the same old disaster, only bigger. Nope. I'm not going to write about any of that.
Instead, I've decided to write about grammar.
That's right. I am zeroing in only one sentence from his speech. And that sentence is:
Mistakes have been made. ............

Tech Tags: george+bush shiia sunni way+forward baghdad

a change is gonna come

from a link to a video of

you must see (and hear)
wow
wow
and wow

keep pressing for the legislation senator biden

violence against women (and of course children...well violence against ANYONE MUST STOP)

New Bill Would Help Domestic Violence Victims

By Allison Stevens, Women's eNewsPosted on January 15, 2007, Printed on January 15, 2007http://www.alternet.org/story/46601/
When it comes to domestic violence, Sen. Joseph Biden likes to compare the federal government to a lawnmower.
"Combating violence in the home is like cutting the grass," the Democrat from Delaware is fond of saying. "You can't just do it once."
In other words, the scourge of domestic violence can't be cured with one piece of legislation or one round of federal spending, he says. It's a persistent problem that needs to be addressed year after year, one congressional session after the next.
That is why Biden -- author of the 1994 Violence Against Women Act, which created and funded federal programs to help victims of domestic violence -- keeps thinking about new ways to reduce violence against women. And now with his party in power in the House and Senate, he is in position to find more support.
His current plan involves legal assistance.
Only 170,000 low-income domestic violence survivors have legal representation each year, less than 20 percent of at least 1 million victims who experience it annually, according to a 2005 report by the Institute for Law and Justice in Alexandria, Va., and the National Center for Victims and Crime in Washington, D.C................

Tech Tags: domestic+violence joe+biden vawa

website of the day

the birdhouse in dr ashen's soul

please click on 'cartoons and games' in the upper left hand corner. click on the 'poor monkey'. it's my personal favorite

i guess you cannot support

strong gun control laws if you're a republican. is that how it is? i didn't know that until now.

i accept people who change their minds about certain things. GUN CONTROL (or in the case of the united states, LACK THEREOF)? i'll NEVER accept (the lack thereof that is)


Romney retreats on gun control
Ex-governor woos Republican votes

By Scott Helman, Globe Staff January 14, 2007
ORLANDO , Fla. -- Former governor Mitt Romney, who once described himself as a supporter of strong gun laws, is distancing himself from that rhetoric now as he attempts to court the gun owners who make up a significant force in Republican primary politics.
In his 1994 US Senate run, Romney backed two gun-control measures strongly opposed by the National Rifle Association and other gun-rights groups: the Brady Bill, which imposed a five-day waiting period on gun sales, and a ban on certain assault weapons.
"That's not going to make me the hero of the NRA," Romney told the Boston Herald in 1994.
At another campaign stop that year, he told reporters: "I don't line up with the NRA."
And as the GOP gubernatorial candidate in 2002, Romney lauded the state's strong laws during a debate against Democrat Shannon O'Brien. "We do have tough gun laws in Massachusetts; I support them," he said. "I won't chip away at them; I believe they protect us and provide for our safety."
Today, as he explores a presidential bid, Romney is sending a very different message on gun issues, which are far more prominent in Republican national politics than in Massachusetts.......

Presidential prospect Mitt Romney checked out a display of shotguns Friday during his NRA-guided tour of a sprawling gun trade show in Orlando, Fla. (Gerardo Mora/ Getty Images for the Boston Globe)

Tech Tags: mitt+romney gun+control nra

the farther they go

the behinder they get

MORE disparaging news out of iraq. the people DO NOT WANT US THERE. we are only helping to create more and more and more terrorists. iraq didn't have anything against us. iraqis didn't fly planes into the world trade center (or for that matter bomb a federal building in oklahoma or birth control clinics across our country). BUT we invaded them anyway.

that's neither here nor there. we f**ked up their country so badly, i personally feel it will NEVER recover. well not for tens and tens and tens of years. we're still not leaving though. hell no

we're wreaking MORE havoc

U.S. and Iraqis Are Wrangling Over War Plans

By JOHN F. BURNS
This article was reported by John F. Burns, Sabrina Tavernise and Marc Santora, and written by Mr. Burns.
BAGHDAD, Jan. 14 — Just days after President Bush unveiled a new war plan calling for more than 20,000 additional American troops in Iraq, the heart of the effort — a major push to secure the capital — faces some of its fiercest resistance from the very people it depends on for success: Iraqi government officials.
American military officials have spent days huddled in meetings with Iraqi officers in a race to turn blueprints drawn up in Washington into a plan that will work on the ground in Baghdad. With the first American and Iraqi units dedicated to the plan due to be in place within weeks, time is short for setting details of what American officers view as the decisive battle of the war.
But the signs so far have unnerved some Americans working on the plan, who have described a web of problems — ranging from a contested chain of command to how to protect American troops deployed in some of Baghdad’s most dangerous districts — that some fear could hobble the effort before it begins.
First among the American concerns is a Shiite-led government that has been so dogmatic in its attitude that the Americans worry that they will be frustrated in their aim of cracking down equally on Shiite and Sunni extremists, a strategy President Bush has declared central to the plan.
“We are implementing a strategy to embolden a government that is actually part of the problem,” said an American military official in Baghdad involved in talks over the plan. “We are being played like a pawn.”...........

Tech Tags: shiite sunni aboud+qanbar baghdad

i did see him on 60 minutes

and i thought him pathetic. i thought the attempt at humility and sincerity was a waste. it DID NOT work.

his stupid-ass shite eating grin, his little guffaws, his lack of UNDERSTANDING of the lives he has ruined because he sent our men and women to iraq. THEIR lives as well as OURS

he is clueless and he is heartless

Opposition to plan surprises Bush team But they believe Congress won't have time to stop them

Peter Baker, Michael Abramowitz, Washington PostSunday, January 14, 2007
(01-14) 04:00 PST Washington -- The bipartisan opposition to President Bush's troop-increase plan has proved more intense than his advisers had expected and has left them scrambling to find support, but the White House is banking on the assumption that it can execute its "new way forward" in Iraq before Congress can derail it.
The plan to send 21,500 more troops to Iraq was virtually guaranteed to provoke a furor in Washington, Bush advisers said, but the storm was exacerbated by the slow, leaky way that the White House reached its decision. Aides now harbor no hope of winning over Democrats. Instead, they aim mainly to keep Republicans from abandoning him further.
Bush invited GOP leaders to Camp David this weekend and will argue his case tonight on CBS' "60 Minutes." Vice President Dick Cheney and national security adviser Stephen Hadley will also hit the airwaves today.
"We recognize that many members of Congress are skeptical," Bush said in his radio address Saturday, adding, "Members of Congress have a right to express their views, and express them forcefully. But those who refuse to give this plan a chance to work have an obligation to offer an alternative that has a better chance for success. To oppose everything while proposing nothing is irresponsible."
Many Democrats, in fact, have proposed alternatives centered around pulling out troops, an idea Bush flatly rejects...........

Tech Tags: way+forward troop+surge iraq george+bush

so they KNEW he had a young grrrl in his office

try on a swimsuit to model for his "niece". so, they decided it was innocent and didn't report it to any authorities. SO NOW, the school finds out not only has he asked several grrrls to try on swimsuits in his office BUT he also secretly videotaped them.

so if i was a parent of one of these grrrls, i'd sue the shite out of the school. yeah, i know they were only grrrls. it wasn't like they were boys or anything

Ex-Tampa Prep Coach Faces Video Voyeurism Charges

By VALERIE KALFRIN and ANTHONY McCARTNEY The Tampa Tribune and CHIP OSOWSKI News Channel 8 TAMPA - A former Tampa Prep swim coach and teacher charged with secretly videotaping students as they undressed and tried on swimsuits will remain in jail without bond.
Judge Walter Heinrich set Kimberly Brabson’s hearing off for tomorrow because of a potential conflict.
“I do not independently know this man, not that I’m aware of,” Heinrich said this morning. “But I do think I need to bring it to everyone’s attention in case there’s a potential issue. I see that he’s a swim coach and my wife is also a swim coach at a competing school.”
Brabson III is being held without bond because police fear if he gets out of jail he will leave the state.
Two years after Tampa Preparatory School officials reprimanded Brabson for having a girl try on a swimsuit in his office, detectives arrested him for secretly videotaping several other try-on sessions.
Tampa police on Thursday charged Brabson with 10 counts of video voyeurism, charges that could lead to 10 years in prison.
A physical education teacher and assistant swim coach at the school for nearly five years, Brabson, 29, was fired Nov. 10 after administrators learned that he had asked several girls to change into swimsuits in his office, head of school D. Gordon MacLeod said Thursday. ...........

Tech Tags: kimberly+brabson tampa+florida tampa+prepatory

speaking of

san francisco . . .

Questions, Concerns Swirl around Politics of Prosecutor's Forced Exit

By Justin Rood - January 13, 2007, 8:38 AM
The head of the FBI's San Diego office and several former federal prosecutors are publicly questioning the politics behind the Bush administration's effort to force Carole Lam to resign as U.S. Attorney for San Diego.
Lam focused her office's efforts on public corruption, including the sprawling Duke Cunningham scandal. That investigation has touched several Republican lawmakers, leading some to speculate that Lam brought political heat down on herself with that probe, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune.
The top FBI official for San Diego said that Lam's dismissal would jeopardize several ongoing investigations. "I guarantee politics is involved," special agent in charge Dan Dzwilewski told the paper. He did not speculate further.
“It will be a huge loss from my perspective,” Dzwilewski said..........

i guess if you do your job, are honest AND you follow the CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA you get your ass booted out (if king george and his court are still ruling the COSMOS that is)

Tech Tags: carol+lam san+francisco fbi dan+dzwilewski peter+nunez

speaking of

san francisco . . .

Questions, Concerns Swirl around Politics of Prosecutor's Forced Exit

By Justin Rood - January 13, 2007, 8:38 AM
The head of the FBI's San Diego office and several former federal prosecutors are publicly questioning the politics behind the Bush administration's effort to force Carole Lam to resign as U.S. Attorney for San Diego.
Lam focused her office's efforts on public corruption, including the sprawling Duke Cunningham scandal. That investigation has touched several Republican lawmakers, leading some to speculate that Lam brought political heat down on herself with that probe, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune.
The top FBI official for San Diego said that Lam's dismissal would jeopardize several ongoing investigations. "I guarantee politics is involved," special agent in charge Dan Dzwilewski told the paper. He did not speculate further.
“It will be a huge loss from my perspective,” Dzwilewski said..........

i guess if you do your job, are honest AND you follow the CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA you get your ass booted out (if king george and his court are still ruling the COSMOS that is)

Tech Tags: carol+lam san+francisco fbi dan+dzwilewski peter+nunez

website of the day

anomalies unlimited


be sure to check out the optical illusions

for the 30th anniversary of roe vs wade

Tech Tags: blog+for+choice

yet ANOTHER operation war on terror f**k up

well killing 70 INNOCENT nomads isn't a f**k up, it's a tragedy. why is this in a british paper and not on the front pages of OUR newspapers?

who will be held responsible? who is going on trial for this war crime?

instead of helping people in somalia or darfur or ethiopia we're KILLING them

STOP
STOP
AND
STOP

US strikes on al-Qa'ida chiefs kill nomads

By Anne Penketh and Steve Bloomfield
Published: 13 January 2007
The herdsmen had gathered with their animals around large fires at night to ward off mosquitoes. But lit up by the flames, they became latest victims of America's war on terror.
It was their tragedy to be misidentified in a secret operation by special forces attempting to kill three top al-Qa'ida leaders in south-ern Somalia.
Oxfam yesterday confirmed at least 70 nomads in the Afmadow district near the border with Kenya had been killed. The nomads were bombed at night and during the day while searching for water sources. Meanwhile, the US ambassador to Kenya has acknowledged that the onslaught on Islamist fighters failed to kill any of the three prime targets wanted for their alleged role in the 1998 US embassy bombings in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam.
The wanted men are Fazul Abdullah Moham-med, Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan and Abu Taha al-Sudani, who were all supposedly sheltered by the Union of Islamic Courts during its short reign in Mogadishu.
The operation, which opened a new front in Washington's anti-terror campaign, seems to have backfired spectacularly in the five days since it was launched. In addition to the scores of Somali civilians killed, the simmering civil war in the failed state has been rekindled.
Yesterday concern was mounting at the high number of civilian casualties, despite a claim by the US ambassador, Michael Ranneberger, that no civilians had been killed or injured and that only one attack had taken place. .............

Tech Tags: al+qaida somalia herdsmen nomads

sounds like bearingpoint is run like the clubhouse on the little rascals

they funnel 'contributions' to the republican party and king george's re-election campaign and we (well the we WAS the king and his court) give them a contract to rebuild iraq. only problem is (well not the ONLY one, but the BIG one is) they can't tell their arse from their elbow

'bad management'????? try let's shut our eyes and pay questionable companies millions and billions to rebuild a country WE illegally invaded FOR NO REASON. so the american taxpayers are not only paying to destroy iraq, we're paying to rebuild it too.

Shock and oil: Iraq's billions & the White House connection

Stephen Foley reports from New York
Published: 14 January 2007
The American company appointed to advise the US government on the economic reconstruction of Iraq has paid hundreds of thousands of dollars into Republican Party coffers and has admitted that its own finances are in chaos because of accounting errors and bad management.
BearingPoint is fighting to restore its reputation in the US after falling more than a year behind in reporting its own financial results, prompting legal actions from its creditors and shareholders.
According to the Center for Responsive Politics, BearingPoint employees gave $117,000 (£60,000) to the 2000 and 2004 Bush election campaigns, more than any other Iraq contractor. Other recipients include three prominent Congressmen on the House of Representatives' defence sub-committee, which oversees defence department contracts.
One of the biggest single contributors to BearingPoint's in-house political fund was James Horner, who heads the company's emerging markets business which is working in Iraq and Afghanistan. He donated $5,000 in August 2005.
The company's shares have collapsed to a third of their value when the firm listed in 2001, and it faces being thrown out of the New York Stock Exchange altogether. Despite annual revenues of $3.4bn, the company made a loss of $722m in 2005. Those figures were released only last month, nine months late, and the company has not yet been able to report any fully audited figures at all for 2006..............

Tech Tags: economic+reconstruction bearingpoint iraq james+horner