i was just listening to this the other day

i LOVE art of noise and i always loved max headroom

great song

the truth came quickly this time

just a few days after the first story (or was it lie) was told. my hearts and prayers go out the the four soldiers who were kidnapped and killed and the fifth who was killed fighting the attackers.

(my heart and prayers go out to all of our troops)

UPDATE: Military Confirms AP's Claim of False Report on 4 Brutal Deaths in Iraq Last Week

BAGHDAD Contrary to U.S. military statements, four U.S. soldiers did not die repelling a sneak attack at the governor's office in the Shiite holy city of Karbala last week. New information obtained by The Associated Press shows they were abducted and found dead or dying as far as 25 miles away.In perhaps the boldest and most sophisticated attack in four years of warfare, gunmen speaking English, wearing U.S. military uniforms and carrying American weapons abducted the four U.S. soldiers last week at the provincial headquarters in Karbala and then shot them to death.The U.S. military confirmed a report earlier Friday by The Associated Press that three of the soldiers were dead and one was mortally wounded with a gunshot to the head when they were found in a neighboring province, about 25 miles from the compound where they were captured. A fifth soldier was killed in the initial attack on the compound.The new account contradicted a U.S. military statement on Jan. 20, the day of the raid on an Iraqi governor's office, that five soldiers were killed "repelling" the attack..........

Tech Tags: karbala american+troops iraq military+dead

they claim there is a liberal media bias

the 'they' being goddess only knows who. MOST of the news coming out of iraq is rather candy coated even if they do list deaths and injuries.

our vice king says the situation is NOT terrible.

i say all these people are full of shite.

the situation IS terrible. the people in iraq are suffering. our troops our suffering. their families and friends at home are suffering.

our country is spending BILLIONS of dollars on evil yet our citizens are not being educated properly nor receiving proper health care.

yet, we allow ALL of this to continue to happen.

wake up and allow the truth into your hearts


CBS Refuses to Broadcast Iraq Footage

By Rory O'Connor and David Olson, MediaChannel.org. Posted January 26, 2007.

Sometimes it's hard to swim in the mainstream.
There has been much heated debate over the past few years over media coverage of the Iraq War. The Bush administration has repeatedly attacked the 'liberal bias' of the mainstream news industry, claiming that it doesn't report enough of the "good news" from Iraq and focuses instead on the sensational and violent.
Those critical of the war and the occupation say just the opposite; that the mainstream news media has ignored much of the "bad news" coming out of Iraq, leaving Americans with an impression of the war based more on a desire to follow the official White House narrative than facts on the ground. MediaChannel has long been in the latter camp, sponsoring (for example) last year's "Show Us the War" project, which published video pieces showing an Iraq overrun with violence and chaos -- and an administration that seemed more intent on faith and "spin" than reality. We at MediaChannel believe that an informed citizenry is necessary to keep our democracy viable, and we have been strong advocates of the call for all news outlets -- mainstream or independent -- to produce and distribute accurate stories on the situation in Iraq.
Which brings us to Lara Logan.
One would assume that Ms. Logan, as CBS chief foreign correspondent, has a fair amount of influence as to what stories she gets to cover, and that most of her important stories, once produced and delivered, will be broadcast.............

Tech Tags: lara+logan cbs media+bias baghdad

first it was soy

NOW it's music. careful or you'll TURN GAY at the drop of a hat

from down with tyranny comes a warning list of WHO NOT TO LISTEN TO unless of course you want to TURN gay

THE CHRISTIAN RIGHT'S MESSAGE OF HATRED AND BIGOTRY TARS THE SCISSOR SISTERS AND TED NUGENT AS CAUSES OF HOMOSEXUALITY

I don't think John Mayer is gay or even just a Republican. Does his music suck? Well... some people-- including straights and Democrats and independents-- love it. On the other hand, you probably never heard of Donnie Davies, who is gay (or was, if you believe the hype) and is a Republican and does suck; so does his music. That abysmal-sounding song I linked to back there includes the GOP-ish lyrics
God hates a fagGod hates fagsAnd if you're a fag, He hates you too...........

we denied being in cambodia too, didn't we?

how does one RECOGNIZE an iranian in iraq? do they wear identifying labels? they must otherwise, how could our king tell our troops to shoot them when they see them in iraq. he's never steer any one wrong. he's our king

Bush OKs Countering Iranians in Iraq

By TERENCE HUNT

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Bush has authorized U.S. forces in Iraq to take whatever actions are necessary to counter Iranian agents deemed a threat to American troops or the public at large, the White House said Friday.
"It makes sense that if somebody's trying to harm our troops, or stop us from achieving our goal, or killing innocent citizens in Iraq, that we will stop them," Bush said. "It's an obligation we all have ... to protect our folks and achieve our goal."
The aggressive new policy came in response to intelligence that Iran is supporting terrorists inside Iraq and is providing bombs - known as improvised explosive devices - and other equipment to anti-U.S. insurgents.
"The president and his national security team over the last several months have continued to receive information that Iranians were supplying IED equipment and or training that was being used to harm American soldiers," National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe said..........

Tech Tags: iranian+agents cambodia george+bush ied

stop!

stop honour killings

Tech Tags: honor+killings

the king's appointments just keep getting better and better

well, this dude has been in office a while, but his slide show is new. please CHECK out that slide show. it will let you in on who we (the citizens of the united states) are saddled with thanks to king george

of course when a couple has PRE marital sex, it's not only the WOMAN'S FAULT, BUT it's the WOMAN who gets unbalanced by it as well

Top 10 Reasons You Should Be Terrified that "Dr." Eric Keroack Runs Bush's Family Planning Program

Posted by Evan Derkacz on January 25, 2007 at 3:29 PM.
The following is a guest post from Andrea Lynch, with the kind permission of RH Reality Check.
Not since the appointment of Dr. W. David Hager to the FDA's reproductive health drugs advisory committee have Americans been so abuzz about an anti-family planning zealot appointed by the Bush administration to a federal body responsible for providing family planning information and services. Just over two months into his tenure as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Population Affairs at the Department of Health and Human Services (where he administers $283 million annual budget of federal family planning grants), we are still uncovering evidence of "Doctor" Eric Keroack's staggering lack of credentials. The latest exhibit is "OXYTOCIN: Is this NANO-PEPTIDE a chemical type of HUMAN ‘SUPER-GLUE'?" (emphasis most definitely NOT mine), the PowerPoint presentation that sealed his infamy in the eyes of self-respecting scientists, physicians, and non-crazy people everywhere......

Tech Tags: david+hagar women's+rights reproductive+rights family+planning

virginity and family honor

this is going on all of the time in many parts of the world. men desire women. yet, it's always the woman's fault if bodies bump. in this case, the 17 year old girl kept running away from home (the article says for unknown reasons. well, it's easy enough to figure out. she kept running away because her father accused her of not being a virgin and i'm sure he also kept threatening her). turns out she WAS a virgin. that wasn't good enough. HE EFFING SHOT HER FOUR TIMES IN THE HEAD.

women are worthless. they are not cherished or honored or treated like PEOPLE. this is an extreme case and it happened in another country. it happens (to lesser degrees for the most part) here too and don't be fooled into thinking it doesn't

Jordanian man fatally shoots teen daughter in family honor killing, official says

By Associated Press Thursday, January 25, 2007 - Updated: 07:52 AM EST AMMAN, Jordan - A Jordanian man fatally shot his 17-year-old daughter whom he suspected of having sex despite a medical exam that proved her chastity, an official said Thursday.
The man surrendered to police hours after the killing, saying he had done it for family honor.
A state forensic pathologist, who works at the National Institute of Forensic Medicine in Amman where an autopsy was performed, said in a phone interview that the girl had run away from home several times for unknown reasons.
Weeks ago, the girl had returned home from a family protection clinic after doctors had vouched for her virginity and the father had signed a pledge not to harm her, the pathologist said on condition of anonymity due to the sensitive nature of the case.
”The tests proved that she was a virgin,” the pathologist said. The girl returned home only after her father signed a statement promising not to harm her, he added.
The father shot the girl four times in the head on Tuesday. On Wednesday, an autopsy was performed that again showed ”she was still a virgin,” the pathologist said.
Authorities have not disclosed the names of the father or the daughter or even their hometown, saying only that they lived in a southern province.
The crime is the first ”honor killing” this year in Jordan, where many men consider sex out of wedlock to be an almost indelible stain on a family’s reputation. On average, about 20 women in the country are killed by their relatives in such cases each year. Women have been killed for simply dating. ............

Tech Tags: honor+killings women's+rights

and the beat goes on......

the news coming out of iraq is worse every day. our vice president, the big dick gets on the airwaves the other day and says the situation is NOT terrible. our president gets on the air and says he is going to be sending MORE of our men and women into harm's way.

he neglected to mention we can't even take care of ourselves (katrina for example) but we have no problem effing up other countries....

Mohammed Ameen/Reuters
A woman walked past the scene of a car bomb attack in Baghdad. The police said that the attack killed two people and wounded six.

Iraq Leader and Sunni Officials in Sectarian Clash on Security

By MARC SANTORA
Published: January 26, 2007
BAGHDAD, Jan. 25 — Iraq’s Shiite prime minister and Sunni lawmakers hurled insults at one another during a raucous session of Parliament on Thursday, with the prime minister threatening a Sunni lawmaker with arrest and the Sunni speaker of Parliament threatening to quit.

The uproar revolved around the new Baghdad security plan, but it came as the prime minister, Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, is under increasing pressure to demonstrate even-handedness. President Bush’s new strategy for Iraq hinges in large measure on the Iraqi government’s ability to rein in both Shiite and Sunni militants. .......

Tech Tags: baghdad+security iraq+parliment al+maliki

this story is self-explanatory

it's a shame. not only do our troops stand by when goddess only knows what is happening between shias and sunnis but then they threaten the journalists who got it on tape....

normally i try NOT to say negative things about our troops. they are in a foreign land. most are very young and inexperienced. most are indeed doing the very best they can (given the circumstances).

'Shocking' video: Shi'a Iraqi soldiers beat Sunnis as US trainers watch
David Edwards

Dramatic footage of mostly Shi'a Iraqi soldiers delivering a "brutal beating" to several local Sunnis has been obtained by a British public-service television station.
US soldiers assigned to train the Iraqi troops look on as the Iraqi soldiers push the beaten men into the rear compartment of an armored vehicle.
"It is a shocking insight into the sectarian violence that is tearing Baghdad apart," Jonathan Miller reports for Channel Four. "Two journalists – embedded with the First Cavalry division – witnessed suspected insurgents being viciously beaten and abused."........

Tech Tags: shi'a sunni iraq american+troops baghdad

punk vegan

i posted on this before, but this is a new article

check out the three recipes accompanying this article. i haven't made them yet, but they DO sound divine!

Strict Vegan Ethics, Frosted With Hedonism

By JULIA MOSKIN
ISA CHANDRA MOSKOWITZ, a vegan chef, does not particularly like to talk about tofu. Ditto seitan, tempeh and nutritional yeast.
“I think vegan cooks need to learn to cook vegetables first,” she said last week during a cupcake-baking marathon. “Then maybe they can be allowed to move on to meat substitutes.”
Ms. Moskowitz, 34, was born in Coney Island Hospital, lives in Brooklyn, and is a typically impatient and opinionated New Yorker. She can’t stand how slowly most cooks peel garlic, makes relentless fun of Rachael Ray and rolls her eyes at the mention of California hippies.
But as a vegan and a follower of punk music since age 14, she is also part of a culinary movement that helped turn the chaotic energy of punk culture of the 1970s and 1980s into a progressive political force.
“Punk taught me to question everything,” Ms. Moskowitz said. “Of course, in my case that means questioning how to make a Hostess cupcake without eggs, butter or cream.”
The charm of Ms. Moskowitz — in person, in her cookbooks and on her public-access television cooking show, the Post-Punk Kitchen (theppk.com/shows/) — is that she makes even the deprivations of veganism and the rage of punk seem like fun. Like feminism that embraces makeup and miniskirts — the frivolous bits — Ms. Moskowitz’s veganism embraces chocolate, white flour, confectioners’ sugar, and food coloring.
Wearing a black “Made Out of Babies” T-shirt (it’s a friend’s band) above a red-and-white checked apron, she bent maternally over a batch of strawberry cupcakes. “Don’t you just want to pinch their little cupcake cheeks,” she said. ............

the post punk kitchen

Tech Tags: isa+moskowitz vegan+chef vegan+cupcakes

website of the day

where the hell is matt

WATCH THE VIDEO

and yeah, he's a connecticutter

someone MAY have

dropped one too many tabs of acid in the 60s. or so it appears.

why else would anyone be delusional to this point? well, ok, there ARE other answers. that was just one possiblity

hey big dick, HOW many of our troops did we lose this past weekend? NOT terrible? yeah, it's just a drop in the proverbial bucket. not ONE of those troops were relations of yours i'm sure.

well big dick, i have friends in iraq. i have friends who have been to iraq. their politics aside, my politics aside, NOT TERRIBLE?
open
your
eyes
no better yet
OPEN YOUR COLD BLACK HEART

Cheney downplays Iraq violence; Not 'terrible situation'

Ron Brynaert

Although twenty-seven US troops were killed in Iraq this past weekend, Vice President Dick Cheney appears to still be downplaying the violence, CNN reports.
During CNN's Situation Room, Cheney took offense when host Wolf Blitzer referred to the situation in Iraq as "terrible."
"But there is a terrible situation," said Blitzer.
Cheney responded, "No, there is not. There is not. There's problems, ongoing problems, but we have, in fact, accomplished our objectives of getting rid of the old regime, and there is a new regime in place that's been there for less than a year, far too soon for you guys to write them off. They have got a democratically written constitution, first ever in that part of the world. They've had three national elections. So there's been a lot of success."
"We still have more work to do to get a handle on the security situation, but the President has put a plan in place to do that," Cheney added. ..........

Tech Tags: dick+cheney cnn wolf+blitzer iraq

please stop by marcie's blog

and wish her and her husband well

acinetobacter baumannii


The Battle over multiple drug resistant microbes: MRSA, Acinetobacter, C. Difficile, etc. "Irresponsible medicine"
Early this year an outbreak of MDR Acinetobacter Baumannii swept over Arizona, 236 cases in just two months. It was reported by the state disease monitoring systems, but ignored on the national level.
Now dubbed "Supergerms", they spread without warning and seemingly without official notices since they are infections instead of diseases. The government is taking advantage of this technicality. .........
-

Tech Tags: acinetobacter+baumannii acinetobacter mrsa

this story isn't from the national enquirer

it's from the national geographic

Sex-Changing Chemicals Found in Potomac River

Amitabh Avasthi for National Geographic News
January 22, 2007
Ever since the discovery of gender-bending fish in the Potomac River, scientists have wondered what could be changing the sex of large numbers of fish in the waterway outside Washington, D.C.
They may not have to wonder much longer.
A recent U.S. government study has found large quantities of chemicals in the river and its tributaries—pollutants that are known to cause sex change in animals.
These chemicals, from both residential and industrial sources, may be linked to the unnatural fish, says the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) report, which was released late last month. ..................

good news about one of my favorite bands

crowded house

Crowded House 'plan world tour'

Australian and New Zealand band Crowded House are set to reform for a world tour 11 years after they spilt, according to newspaper reports.
Singer Neil Finn and bass player Nick Seymour are currently seeking drummers in Australia, with more auditions planned for New Zealand and the US.
The band's original drummer, Paul Hester, committed suicide in 2005.
Crowded House, whose hits include Distant Sun, will confirm the tour this week, New Zealand's Dominion Post said. ....

and one of my favorite songs of all time:



Don't Dream It's Over (Neil Finn)
LYRICS
There is freedom within, there is freedom without
Try to catch the deluge in a paper cup
There's a battle ahead, many battles are lost
But you'll never see the end of the road
While you're traveling with me
Hey now, hey now
Don't dream it's over
Hey now, hey now
When the world comes in
They come, they come
To build a wall between us
We know they won't win
Now I'm towing my car, there's a hole in the roof
My possessions are causing me suspicion but there's no proof
In the paper today tales of war and of waste
But you turn right over to the T.V. page
Now I'm walking again to the beat of a drum
And I'm counting the steps to the door of your heart
Only shadows ahead barely clearing the roof
Get to know the feeling of liberation and relief
Hey now, hey now
Don't dream it's over
Hey now, hey now
When the world comes in
They come, they come
To build a wall between us
Don't ever let them win

Tech Tags: crowded+house neil+finn

yet another example of sheer insanity

and i mean it. not only is this organization promoting EX gays (there is NO such thing and we all know that) BUT this organization ALSO said the africans brought over here as slaves WERE BETTER OFF (because africa was a 'jungle' at that time). PLEASE

how ANYONE could promote ANYTHING from this organization is OUTRAGEOUS.

Schools required to distribute 'ex-gay' literature; Truth Wins Out slams move

by Michael Rogers
With additional reporting by Kyle DeVries from Fort Collins, CO

WASHINGTON -- Some suburban Washington, DC high schools are being forced to hand out anti-gay literature from a group that aims to "cure homosexuals," PageOneQ has learned.
The flyers, produced by Parents and Friend of Ex-Gays (P-FOX), will be the sole information distributed to students on February 1st. Wayne Besen (r.), president of Truth Wins Out an organization that dispels myths of the so-called 'ex-gay' movement, immediately condemned the move..........

..........There is another way, or other ways, to look at the race issue in America," wrote Gerald Schoenewolf on the website of National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH), an organization advocating that gays can be "cured" with therapy. "Africa at the time of slavery was still primarily a jungle…Life there was savage… and those brought to America, and other countries, were in many ways better off," he asserted.......

Tech Tags: anti+gay ex+gay slavery washington+dc p+fox narth

from jim webb (and yes, i wanted to publish the WHOLE thing)

Good evening.
I'm Senator Jim Webb, from Virginia, where this year we will celebrate the 400th anniversary of the settlement of Jamestown – an event that marked the first step in the long journey that has made us the greatest and most prosperous nation on earth.
It would not be possible in this short amount of time to actually rebut the President’s message, nor would it be useful. Let me simply say that we in the Democratic Party hope that this administration is serious about improving education and healthcare for all Americans, and addressing such domestic priorities as restoring the vitality of New Orleans.
Further, this is the seventh time the President has mentioned energy independence in his state of the union message, but for the first time this exchange is taking place in a Congress led by the Democratic Party. We are looking for affirmative solutions that will strengthen our nation by freeing us from our dependence on foreign oil, and spurring a wave of entrepreneurial growth in the form of alternate energy programs. We look forward to working with the President and his party to bring about these changes.
There are two areas where our respective parties have largely stood in contradiction, and I want to take a few minutes to address them tonight. The first relates to how we see the health of our economy – how we measure it, and how we ensure that its benefits are properly shared among all Americans. The second regards our foreign policy – how we might bring the war in Iraq to a proper conclusion that will also allow us to continue to fight the war against international terrorism, and to address other strategic concerns that our country faces around the world.
When one looks at the health of our economy, it’s almost as if we are living in two different countries. Some say that things have never been better. The stock market is at an all-time high, and so are corporate profits. But these benefits are not being fairly shared. When I graduated from college, the average corporate CEO made 20 times what the average worker did; today, it’s nearly 400 times. In other words, it takes the average worker more than a year to make the money that his or her boss makes in one day.
Wages and salaries for our workers are at all-time lows as a percentage of national wealth, even though the productivity of American workers is the highest in the world. Medical costs have skyrocketed. College tuition rates are off the charts. Our manufacturing base is being dismantled and sent overseas. Good American jobs are being sent along with them.
In short, the middle class of this country, our historic backbone and our best hope for a strong society in the future, is losing its place at the table. Our workers know this, through painful experience. Our white-collar professionals are beginning to understand it, as their jobs start disappearing also. And they expect, rightly, that in this age of globalization, their government has a duty to insist that their concerns be dealt with fairly in the international marketplace.
In the early days of our republic, President Andrew Jackson established an important principle of American-style democracy – that we should measure the health of our society not at its apex, but at its base. Not with the numbers that come out of Wall Street, but with the living conditions that exist on Main Street. We must recapture that spirit today.
And under the leadership of the new Democratic Congress, we are on our way to doing so. The House just passed a minimum wage increase, the first in ten years, and the Senate will soon follow. We've introduced a broad legislative package designed to regain the trust of the American people. We’ve established a tone of cooperation and consensus that extends beyond party lines. We’re working to get the right things done, for the right people and for the right reasons.
With respect to foreign policy, this country has patiently endured a mismanaged war for nearly four years. Many, including myself, warned even before the war began that it was unnecessary, that it would take our energy and attention away from the larger war against terrorism, and that invading and occupying Iraq would leave us strategically vulnerable in the most violent and turbulent corner of the world.
I want to share with all of you a picture that I have carried with me for more than 50 years. This is my father, when he was a young Air Force captain, flying cargo planes during the Berlin Airlift. He sent us the picture from Germany, as we waited for him, back here at home. When I was a small boy, I used to take the picture to bed with me every night, because for more than three years my father was deployed, unable to live with us full-time, serving overseas or in bases where there was no family housing. I still keep it, to remind me of the sacrifices that my mother and others had to make, over and over again, as my father gladly served our country. I was proud to follow in his footsteps, serving as a Marine in Vietnam. My brother did as well, serving as a Marine helicopter pilot. My son has joined the tradition, now serving as an infantry Marine in Iraq.
Like so many other Americans, today and throughout our history, we serve and have served, not for political reasons, but because we love our country. On the political issues – those matters of war and peace, and in some cases of life and death – we trusted the judgment of our national leaders. We hoped that they would be right, that they would measure with accuracy the value of our lives against the enormity of the national interest that might call upon us to go into harm’s way.
We owed them our loyalty, as Americans, and we gave it. But they owed us – sound judgment, clear thinking, concern for our welfare, a guarantee that the threat to our country was equal to the price we might be called upon to pay in defending it.
The President took us into this war recklessly. He disregarded warnings from the national security adviser during the first Gulf War, the chief of staff of the army, two former commanding generals of the Central Command, whose jurisdiction includes Iraq, the director of operations on the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and many, many others with great integrity and long experience in national security affairs. We are now, as a nation, held hostage to the predictable – and predicted – disarray that has followed.
The war’s costs to our nation have been staggering. Financially. The damage to our reputation around the world. The lost opportunities to defeat the forces of international terrorism. And especially the precious blood of our citizens who have stepped forward to serve.
The majority of the nation no longer supports the way this war is being fought; nor does the majority of our military. We need a new direction. Not one step back from the war against international terrorism. Not a precipitous withdrawal that ignores the possibility of further chaos. But an immediate shift toward strong regionally-based diplomacy, a policy that takes our soldiers off the streets of Iraq’s cities, and a formula that will in short order allow our combat forces to leave Iraq.
On both of these vital issues, our economy and our national security, it falls upon those of us in elected office to take action.
Regarding the economic imbalance in our country, I am reminded of the situation President Theodore Roosevelt faced in the early days of the 20th century. America was then, as now, drifting apart along class lines. The so-called robber barons were unapologetically raking in a huge percentage of the national wealth. The dispossessed workers at the bottom were threatening revolt.
Roosevelt spoke strongly against these divisions. He told his fellow Republicans that they must set themselves “as resolutely against improper corporate influence on the one hand as against demagogy and mob rule on the other.” And he did something about it.
As I look at Iraq, I recall the words of former general and soon-to-be President Dwight Eisenhower during the dark days of the Korean War, which had fallen into a bloody stalemate. “When comes the end?” asked the General who had commanded our forces in Europe during World War Two. And as soon as he became President, he brought the Korean War to an end.
These Presidents took the right kind of action, for the benefit of the American people and for the health of our relations around the world. Tonight we are calling on this President to take similar action, in both areas. If he does, we will join him. If he does not, we will be showing him the way.
Thank you for listening. And God bless America.

Tech Tags: jim+webb virginia democratic+response

the other day

i mentioned this article was supposed to be coming out in wired. i also said i hoped and prayed it wasn't true. well, it does appear to be true

it's a long article, but well worth the read.

yet ANOTHER thing our deployed men and women have to worry about

The Invisible Enemy in Iraq

By Steve Silberman Also by this reporter 02:00 AM Jan, 22, 2007
A homemade bomb exploded under a Humvee in Anbar province, Iraq, on August 21, 2004. The blast flipped the vehicle into the air, killing two US marines and wounding another - a soft-spoken 20-year-old named Jonathan Gadsden who was near the end of his second tour of duty. In previous wars, he would have died within hours. His skull and ribs were fractured, his neck was broken, his back was badly burned, and his stomach had been perforated by shrapnel and debris.
Gadsden got out of the war zone alive because of the Department of Defense's network of frontline trauma care and rapid air transport known as the evacuation chain. Minutes after the attack, a helicopter touched down in the desert. Combat medics stanched the marine's bleeding, inflated his collapsed lung, and eased his pain. He was airlifted to the 31st Combat Support Hospital in Baghdad, located in an old health care facility called the Ibn Sina, which had formerly catered to the Baathist elite. Army surgeons there repaired Gadsden's cranium, removed his injured spleen, and pumped him full of broad-spectrum antibiotics to ward off infection.
Three days later, he was flown to the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany, the largest American military hospital in Europe. He was treated for his burns, and his spine was stabilized for the 18-hour flight to the US. Just a week after nearly dying in the desert, Gadsden was recuperating at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, with his mother, Zeada, at his bedside.............

............Gadsden had a seizure and a heart attack the next day. The neurology team discovered that his cerebrum and cerebellum had swelled up overnight; he was clinically brain-dead. His family and minister were called to the hospital, and on October 22 he was taken off life support.
The Marine Corps public affairs office sent out the customary press release attributing Gadsden's death to "injuries as a result of enemy action." But then a few weeks later, Zeada's dentist told her a Florida newspaper was reporting that her son had died of bacterial meningitis. Aided by US representative Bill Young, Zeada - who works as a cardiac-care technician in South Carolina - demanded an investigation.
She discovered that an autopsy was performed shortly after her son's death. The coroner recorded the "manner of death" as "homicide (explosion during war operation)" but determined the actual cause of death to be a bacterial infection. The organism that killed Gadsden, called Nocardia, had clogged the blood vessels leading to his brain. But the acinetobacter had been steadily draining his vital resources when he could least afford it. For weeks, it had been flourishing in his body, undetected by the doctors at Haley, resisting a constant assault by the most potent antibiotics in the medical arsenal.............

Tech Tags: pathogen wounded+GIs mrsa acinetobacter iraq walter+reed

blog for choice day

today is the 34th anniversary of roe vs wade
the request was a simple one.

why am i pro-choice

i am pro choice for many reasons. the first and foremost is, THIS IS MY BODY. i have a mind and a heart and i believe i also have a soul. i believe i can make sound rational decisions. i believe MOST women can also make sound rational decisions about their OWN bodies. i believe a bunch of good old white boys had NO RIGHT to pass laws ON MY BODY. i believe a bunch of good old white boys should NEVER have been allowed to make or pass ANY laws regarding women's bodies and reproductive rights. times are changing and now there are also some good old white 'grrrls' making and passing laws too. some are just as bad as the white boy network. the good news is SOME men and women who are lawmakers (these days) DO believe women should have the right to decide if they should have a child or if they should not. i believe i don't EVER want to go back to the time when a friend of mine had to travel clear across the country (2,500 miles give or take) to have an abortion in secret because it was illegal or at least it was in connecticut. she told me years later, but i knew at the time. i just never said anything. i SHOULD have. i SHOULD have told her i understood. it was HER body and SHE had the right to decide. i was very young though (as was she). i don't want to worry about our daughters and their daughters having to go to secret dirty rooms to have coat hanger abortions by men with dirty finger nails. a close relative of mine told me recently she had an abortion MANY years ago. it shocked me because i just never suspected. she told me she just wasn't ready. she KNEW she wasn't ready. she KNEW she would NOT have been a good mother at that point in her life. when she WAS ready, she did have children and is an exceptional mother. i believe we should support SOUND SCIENTIFIC birth control education in our schools. (ABSTINENCE DOES NOT WORK IT WILL NEVER WORK) i believe no one who has an abortion is going to hell (for the abortion at least. then again, i don't believe in hell at all but i'm making a point here). i believe no one should feel shame for making a decision to have an abortion. i believe no woman or no GIRL (there are states where they would want to force a 12 year old who was incestuously raped to have that child) should be FORCED to bear a child. that is barbaric. i believe if you don't want an abortion DON'T EFFING HAVE AN ABORTION. i believe my body is mine and if i want one IT IS NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS nor is it the business of any one other than the medical staff performing it and anyone else I CHOOSE TO TELL
bush vs choice
Tech Tags: blog+for+choice

?

speechless i tell you, speechless

Military Surplus Parts Illegally Find Their Way to Iran, U.S. Officials Say

Fighter-jet parts and other sensitive U.S. military gear seized from front companies for Iran and brokers for China have been traced in criminal cases to a surprising source: the Pentagon.
In one case, federal investigators said, contraband purchased in Defense Department surplus auctions was delivered to Iran, a country President Bush has branded part of an "axis of evil."

please check out

net rights advocates AND their special section on protecting kids on the net (i agree, the frontline IS indeed the parents)

Hightower Download: BUSH'S BACKFIRE

music and memories of a war gone by

but a war that will never be forgotten

and i think we all know how special music is. how it is indeed able to transport us back, like magic to a different place, a different time. unfortunately, it's not always a GOOD time

Same Old Song, but With a Different Meaning


By Shankar Vedantam Washington Post Staff Writer Monday, January 22, 2007; Page A08
Another Saturday night and I ain't got nobody/ I've got some money 'cause I just got paid/ Now, how I wish I had someone to talk to/ I'm in an awful way . . .
It came to him unbidden, that song from his college days. Only now it meant something completely different. There was a man on a stretcher before him, draped in a poncho. Blood dripped off the end of the stretcher, the only sign of life from a lifeless body. It was 1967, but Howard Sherpe had already decided that the war in Vietnam was pointless, that the dead man before him had died for nothing...........

...........Music hooks deep into emotions and memories in ways that words do not; in fact, Sherpe is contributing to a project that aims to get at a history of the Vietnam War through the music of the era. At the University of Wisconsin, scholar Craig Werner and Vietnam vet Doug Bradley have found that music is a highway into veterans' memories of the war..........

Tech Tags: music history+vietnam+war vietnam+veterans

some goings on in iraq on sunday

and NONE of it is good news (none, unless you consider 12 dead in the helicopter crash instead of 13 is good news).

why are we continuing to allow this to happen to our men and women? 25 dead in one day. that is the highest toll (i believe) in two years

why aren't we collectively raising our voices shouting BRING THEM HOME NOW?

why

3,200 US troops arrive in Baghdad as violence continues; 25 American soldiers die in single day

Deutsche Presse Agentur/RAW STORY
Bus bomb kills seven
BAGHDAD - Unrest and violence raged on in Iraq Sunday as an additional 3,200 US soldiers arrived in Baghdad under a Washington-backed extended security plan.
The forces would begin operations on Feb. 1, spokesman General Ray Odierno said. Forces are to be beefed up around Baghdad and joint US-Iraqi forces are expected to crack down on militants in extensive neighbourhood-by-neighbourhood raids.
The death toll of US soldiers killed over the previous 24 hours rose Sunday to 25 - including 12 in a helicopter crash - as five soldiers died in a militia attack on a security centre in Karbala and eight soldiers elsewhere, the US military said.
It revised downwards from 13 to 12 the number killed when the helicopter crashed in a region north-east of Baghdad inhabited by Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds.........

...........In Karbala, an "illegally armed militia group" attacked the Provincial Joint Coordination Centre where US and Iraqi forces hold security meetings, killing five US soldiers.........

.........Police said three kidnapped US soldiers were killed in Mahaweel, near Karbala, around 80 kilometres south of Baghdad as US and Iraqi troops tailed vehicles believed carrying militants from Karbala..........

Tech Tags: baghdad karbala troop+deaths iraq extended+security

we're going to have to watch out for this article

on wired.com. it's not out there yet, but then again it's only 1:29 am. so i'll keep checking. may not be able to post it today because i'll be at work

i pray (literally i am going to pray) it is NOT true.

Wired to report US unwittingly evolved superpathogen in Iraqi combat hospitals

Filed by John Byrne
A drug-resistant bacteria that is infecting wounded US soldiers in Iraq -- and has spread to civilian hospitals in parts of Europe -- accidentally evolved in US military hospitals in Iraq, Wired Magazine will report in a massive expose on Monday, RAW STORY has learned.

The several thousand word expose is set to bring uncomfortable new light to the bacteria Acinetobacter baumannii that Pentagon officials previously said was likely a product of Iraqi soil.

Tech Tags: acinetobacter+baumannii bacteria wired+news iraq

8.4 billion a month

i wonder how many school books that would buy? how many new job programs that would set up, how many veterans hospitals could be updated?

how much that would help with talks on world peace (talk is ALWAYS the first step)

i wonder....

and i guess i'll continue to wonder

Pentagon sees U.S. war cost in Iraq rising

By Richard Cowan WASHINGTON, Jan 18 (Reuters) - The steadily rising Iraq war price tag will reach about $8.4 billion a month this year, Pentagon spokesmen said on Thursday, as heavy replacement costs for lost, destroyed and aging equipment mount.The Pentagon has been estimating last year's costs for the increasingly unpopular war at about $8 billion a month, having increased from a monthly "burn rate" of around $4.4 billion during the first year of fighting in fiscal 2003.During testimony at a House Budget Committee hearing, Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England said that nearly four years into the war, the Pentagon's war costs were rising because it was having to replace big-ticket items such as helicopters, airplanes and armored vehicles that are wearing out or were lost in combat."We have a backlog and are seeing an increase," England told the panel.When factoring in U.S. combat costs in Afghanistan, the Pentagon will spend about $9.7 billion a month during the fiscal year that ends on Sept. 30, according to Pentagon spokesmen..........

band of the day

the smithereens

man, i hadn't thought of them in YEARS. then i came across this

The Smithereens cover Beatles, plot February tour............

Tech Tags: the+smithereens

i didn't know dali made a short for disney

well, was making a short. it was finished in 2003 by someone else (a relative of disney). it even played in america (which i obviously didn't know either). now it's in london. i will have to see if it's on tape anywhere.

Tate to feature Disney Dali film

An unfinished short Salvador Dali hoped to make with Walt Disney will form part of a Tate Modern exhibition about the Spanish artist's fascination with film.
Dali worked on Destino for more than nine months between 1945 and 1946, but money ran out before it was completed.
The six-minute film was eventually made in 2003 by Disney's nephew Roy and was nominated for an Academy Award.
The short will feature in Dali & Film, running at the Tate Modern gallery in London from 1 June to 9 September.
Destino - which features several of Dali's famous surrealist images - has screened in the US, France and Australia but has yet to be seen in the UK. ..........

Tech Tags: salvador+dali destino tate+museum london