through a coincidence

i became friends with a member of our deployed troops in iraq. she is career military and has been all over the world, more than once. i 'met' her while she was serving in iraq. i started up a correspondence with her (both snail mail and emails) and on occasion send a care package. i just knitted her up some lovely wrist warmers and a matching scarf. i have never once told her about how i feel about the iraq war. she (nor anyone else i correspond with that is over there), don't need to hear how i feel about them HAVING to be there. i DO tell them we all thank them for their service. we appreciate all they are doing. i say it and i mean it. i DO thank them. i DO keep them in my thoughts and prayers daily. them, their friends and family (yes, i pray. even though i am rather pagan/wiccan/stregha, i pray. guess that comes from being raised catholic.)

she was VERY recently sent to sudan for a bit. i will be keeping a good thought and prayer out for her AND the people there.

please don't ever forget what is happening in THAT region either

A Darfur Village Bears Up Under Janjaweed Yoke


By Stephanie McCrummen Washington Post Foreign Service Saturday, March 24, 2007; Page A01
KUTERI, Sudan -- The men with rifles lounged on a carpet in the sand. The five of them had come to the village that morning from the crumble of mountains nearby, and now the afternoon sun was blasting. Some sipped tea.
Since arriving four years ago in a herd of horses and camels and guns, the militiamen known as Janjaweed have killed several of the 500 people who live here, villagers said, beaten others and generally menaced the population into believing that their village could be destroyed at any moment, like hundreds of others across the Darfur region of western Sudan...............

............At least 450,000 people have died from disease and violence in the conflict, and more than 2.5 million -- around half the area's entire population -- have fled to vast displacement camps whose numbers continue to swell.............

sara corbett

NEW UPDATE: MARCH 26, 2007 AT 6:37 AM

i just came across this War story told by former sailor disputed in the navy news.

i felt it was important i linked to this story as well

Deployment to Iraq not in personnel record; paper issues correction
By Robert Hodierne - Staff writerPosted : Sunday Mar 25, 2007 12:34:28 EDT

The March 18 Sunday New York Times Magazine cover story was a gripping account of the emotional problems some female veterans suffer as results of their war experiences, sexual assaults or both.
One of the women featured in the story was a former builder constructionman Amorita Randall, 27, who served six years as a Seabee. Randall told the Times that while in the Navy, she was raped twice — in 2002 while she was stationed in Mississippi, and again in Guam in 2004. She also told the Times that she served in Iraq in 2004, which the Times reported as fact but which it now appears was not the case............



wrote an amazing and thorough piece, The Women’s War, in the ny times magazine

ms corbett tells a story we may not be quite familiar with. a story from the WOMEN who have been sent to iraq and afghanistan. the story of unwanted and unwelcome sex (did you know nearly 1/3 of all women vets who sought treatment from va hospitals have said they were raped or someone had attempted to rape them???) and ptsd at far greater rates than their male counterparts. a story of being ignored or pushed aside if the women attempt to get justice.

it's a long read, but worth it.

....................No matter how you look at it, Iraq is a chaotic war in which an unprecedented number of women have been exposed to high levels of stress. So far, more than 160,000 female soldiers have been deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan, as compared with the 7,500 who served in Vietnam and the 41,000 who were dispatched to the gulf war in the early '90s. Today one of every 10 U.S. soldiers in Iraq is female.
Despite the fact that women are generally limited to combat-support roles in the war, they are arguably witnessing a historic amount of violence. With its baffling sand swirl of roadside bombs and blind ambushes, its civilians who look like insurgents and insurgents who look like civilians, the Iraq war has virtually eliminated the distinction between combat units and support units in the military. ''Frankly one of the most dangerous things you can do in Iraq is drive a truck, and that's considered a combat-support role,'' says Matthew Friedman, executive director of the National Center for PTSD, a research-and-education program financed by the Department of Veterans Affairs. ''You've got women that are in harm's way right up there with the men.''...........

............Two years after deployment to the gulf war, where combat exposure was relatively low, Army data showed that 16 percent of a sample of female soldiers studied met diagnostic criteria for PTSD, as opposed to 8 percent of their male counterparts. The data reflect a larger finding, supported by other research, that women are more likely to be given diagnoses of PTSD, in some cases at twice the rate of men............

..............Rape, in particular, is thought to be the most likely to lead to PTSD in women (and in men, in the rarer times it occurs). Participation in combat, though, he says, is not far behind.
Much of what we know about trauma comes primarily from research on two distinct populations - civilian women who have been raped and male combat veterans. But taking into account the large number of women serving in dangerous conditions in Iraq and reports suggesting that women in the military bear a higher risk than civilian women of having been sexually assaulted either before or during their service, it's conceivable that this war may well generate an unfortunate new group to study - women who have experienced sexual assault and combat, many of them before they turn 25..............

i am shuddering, i am seething with anger

(and disbelief). i don't know how a MAN could do this to a woman, but to have a WOMAN DO IT TO ANOTHER WOMAN is something i just in a kazillion years would never understand.


in a divorce case in germany, the judge, christa datz-winter wouldn't give the wife a speedy divorce (the wife alleged her husband abused and beat her) because the koran said it was ok for a husband to beat a wife. yes, that is what this judge said. it's on record. i'm not making it up. it's 2007 and it's in germany.

the wife was born in germany of moroccan descent - i'm guessing the big steamin' abuser is moroccan

i've not read the koran and i don't know whether that is true or not and i personally don't care if it's true or not. it's NOT something i believe and it's not something i think is in any way shape or form right. if someone else thinks that it's ok to beat a woman (a wife in this case) well then i don't want them in my life. in ANY part of my life.

the wife appealed and was turned down. however, her lawyer started talking and whoop der it is! whoop der it is! datz-winter was REMOVED from this case. (isn't it a shame people aren't moral unless they HAVE to be. unless they are threatened with exposure?)

by the way, it seems like the muslim community in germany DISAGREED with the judge's ruling as well. i just wanted to say that too. my comments are NOT about islam, they are about people who think it is OK TO BEAT WOMEN. it's NOT ok to beat women. IT'S JUST NOT

German Judge Cites Koran, Stirring Up Cultural Storm

By MARK LANDLER
FRANKFURT, March 22 — A German judge has stirred a storm of protest by citing the Koran in turning down a German Muslim woman’s request for a speedy divorce on the ground that her husband beat her.
In a ruling that underlines the tension between Muslim customs and European laws, the judge, Christa Datz-Winter, noted that the couple came from a Moroccan cultural milieu, in which it is common for husbands to beat their wives. The Koran, she wrote in her decision, sanctions such physical abuse.....

.......The court in Frankfurt abruptly removed Judge Datz-Winter from the case on Wednesday, saying it could not justify her reasoning. The woman’s lawyer, Barbara Becker-Rojczyk, said she decided to publicize the ruling, which was issued in January, after the court refused her request for a new judge........

andy thibault shares a story with us

a real story but one i do NOT want to believe

from the cool justice report

Firing Teachers Who Encourage Students To Think
Poet Cites Injustice Against Students And Teachers

Editor’s Note: World-renowned poet Marilyn Nelson is speaking out against the outrageous firing of two California teachers who celebrated Black History Month in part by examining the life and death of Emmett Till. Following are Nelson’s letter to California education officials and a news account of the controversy. Nelson read her poem, “A Wreath For Emmett Till,” to thunderous acclaim and a standing ovation at the Litchfield Inn on Jan. 6, 2006. Her reading was broadcast on the Connecticut Network, CT-N, as part of a tribute to Bill Cibes, Chancellor Emeritus of the Connecticut State University System.“People in power often wield that power unjustly and unwisely … it is our responsibility to speak truth to power and to resist injustice.”

March 20, 2007
Dear Ms. McFarlane and Ms. Canada:
It has come to my attention that controversy apparently related to my book, A Wreath for Emmett Till, has led to the firing of two of your teachers. I feel compelled to defend Marisol Alba and Sean Strauss, who were fired because they had signed one of several letters written by students to protest the summary cancellation of the seventh grade’s contribution to the Black History Month program at Celerity Nascent Charter School............

one woman's story

but it IS the story of many women.

property
second class citizens
abuse


Does the prospect of arranged marriage and abuse warrant asylum in the US?

An immigration judge said no, but an appeals court panel found a valid fear of persecution.
By Warren Richey Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

WASHINGTON - When Hong Ying Gao arrived in the US from China in 2001, she pleaded with authorities for asylum, expressing fear that if deported, she'd face abuse and even torture.
But what separates Ms. Gao's case from thousands of other asylum seekers is that her fear of abuse is not tied to iron-fisted tactics of the Chinese government. Rather, it stems from anticipated mistreatment at the hands of her future husband.
At age 19, Gao was sold by her mother for the equivalent of $2,200 to become the wife of a man in her home village who, Gao says, will physically abuse her. Instead of facing that prospect, she fled China.
Is Gao a legitimate refugee deserving US protection? Or should she be returned to China and a future husband who has already paid for her? An immigration judge said that Gao had no claim to asylum in the US. But an appeals court panel reversed that judgment, ruling that the woman had a valid fear of persecution and was entitled to remain in the US. ...........

you go gene!

you know they (king george and his entire court) don't give a flying yoo hoo about the people of your state (or the people of the entire gulf region for that matter.)

sounds like gene is the kind of person i'd like to sit down and have a cup o' java with.

don't back down. you represent the AMERICAN PEOPLE. sounds like they CAN count on you to speak the truth

Democrat silenced on House floor for Katrina remark

Democrat silenced on House floor for Katrina remark

After questioning a Republican congressmember's "decency" for seeking to restrict housing reconstruction funds for Hurricane Katrina and Rita victims, a Democratic Representative was barred Wednesday from the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives. By a vote of the House's membership, his speaking privileges were quickly restored, and the Member apologized.
But in an interview with RAW STORY, the staff of Democratic Congressman Gene Taylor of Mississippi stood by the sentiment of his remarks, and seemed eager to get in the last word.
"He apologized to [Rep. Tom] Price, and everybody lived happily ever after, except the people of southern Mississippi who are still living in travel trailers," said Rep. Taylor's spokeswoman...........

i accidently left my car radio dial

on the station flush limberger is on. sometimes i listen to the show following his (if i happen to be in my car sometime between 3 to 6 that is). i listened a couple of minutes (which is a couple of minutes longer than i have ever listened before). he was foaming at the mouth about carter and clinton and what they did with the us attorneys.

i don't know the scoop on that. at this point i do NOT care. THEY are NO LONGER the president of the united states of america. king george is. the administrations of carter and clinton are no longer in power. the one of king george is

i am going to paraphrase jon stewart here (whom i love dearly),

why the hell can't rove take a hike over to congress, slap his hand down on a bible and START TALKING THE EFFING TRUTH!!!

E-Mails Show Machinations to Replace Prosecutor

Administration Worked for Months to Make Rove Aide U.S. Attorney in Arkansas
By Dan Eggen and Amy GoldsteinWashington Post Staff Writers Friday, March 23, 2007; Page A01
Two months before Bud Cummins was fired as U.S. attorney in Little Rock, a protege of presidential adviser Karl Rove was maneuvering with the Justice Department to take his place.
Last April, Tim Griffin, a Rove aide and longtime GOP operative, sent the attorney general's chief of staff a flattering letter about himself written by Cummins, the prosecutor he was trying to replace, internal e-mails released this week show. Rove and Harriet Miers, then the White House counsel, were keenly interested in putting him in the position, e-mails reveal...........

...........Some of the thousands of pages of e-mails released this week underscore the extraordinary planning and effort, at the highest levels of the Justice Department and White House, to secure Griffin a job running one of the smaller U.S. attorney's offices in the country........

toyger!

Photograph by Bob Rohrbaugh, WildFX Cats


Photograph by Bob Rohrbaugh, WildFX Cats Photograph by Bob Rohrbaugh, WildFX Cats

rocky anderson, hero of the week

speaks the truth

In Utah, an Opponent of the ‘Culture of Obedience’

............[“President Bush is a war criminal,” Mr. Anderson, a Democrat, said at a rally here on Monday marking the fourth anniversary of the war in Iraq. “Let impeachment be the first step toward national reconciliation — and toward penance for the outrages committed in our nation’s name.”].............

king george and his court (specifically in this case, the BIG dick)

were invovled in changing scientific documents? say it AIN'T so!
the earth is falling apart....what the heck do THEY care, the rapture is a comin'

example after example. from lack of service during the viet nam era to katrina to wmd to our men and women being sent perhaps to their deaths. we are allowing this to happen. why?

clean house and DO IT NOW
Democrats focus on Cheney office's involvement in manipulation of global warming documents

Mike Sheehan

Democrats are scrutinizing the role that Vice President Dick Cheney's office may have had in helping to manipulate global warming reports, according to Environment & Energy Daily.
"A House probe into reports that the Bush administration improperly edited federal climate studies took a new turn yesterday," writes Lauren Morello for E&E, "as Democrats focused on interactions between the White House Council on Environmental Quality" (CEQ) and Cheney's office.............

this is quite interesting as well

a 22 year justice department veteran is claiming king george and his court hosed the american people ONCE AGAIN

Prosecutor Says Bush Appointees Interfered With Tobacco Case


By Carol D. Leonnig Washington Post Staff Writer Thursday, March 22, 2007; Page A01
The leader of the Justice Department team that prosecuted a landmark lawsuit against tobacco companies said yesterday that Bush administration political appointees repeatedly ordered her to take steps that weakened the government's racketeering case.
Sharon Y. Eubanks said Bush loyalists in Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales's office began micromanaging the team's strategy in the final weeks of the 2005 trial, to the detriment of the government's claim that the industry had conspired to lie to U.S. smokers...........

IS this going to be the first step

in our freedom fight against tyranny?

ARE we going to have a chance to finally have king george and his court admit at the VERY LEAST they are incompetent liars living in a fantasy world?

of course i'm not going to get TOO excited.

House Panel Authorizes Subpoenas Of Officials
White House Again Says Aides Will Not Testify

A House panel authorized subpoenas yesterday for top White House and Justice Department aides, including White House counselor Karl Rove, setting up a constitutional clash with the Bush administration over the U.S. attorneys investigation.........

now get a LOAD of this pile of steamin' shite

...........But White House officials held firm to Bush's offer to turn over thousands of pages of correspondence and to make the aides available only for private interviews and not under oath, with limited questions and no transcriptions. White House spokesman Tony Snow called that offer "extraordinarily generous."
The choice facing Congress is plain, he said: "You want to get at the truth? Or do you want to create a political spectacle?".........

how the hell do they have the NERVE to say stuff like this?

this is SO wrong in SO many ways

the tip of the iceberg is right. we haven't even seen a TENTH or a TWENTIETH of the problems that are going to happen to the veterans of this UNJUST IMMORAL ILLEGAL war.

we're not equipped to deal with the casualties of the VIETNAM war much less this one. i am sure the va hospitals are OVERWHELMED by the influx of new patients.

all blame must trickle up to king george and his court. ALL of it. for the abuse of our war wounded (both MENTALLY AND PHYSICALLY) at our own hands to the destruction of an entire country (iraq) who did us NO HARM at the time we INVADED THEIR country (to line the pockets of many an ol' already rich white boy)

five overdose deaths in a california va hosptial and they ONLY took action when they found out friends and family of those who died were going to go public.

a man, dmitris rentzis, who works on 'king of the hill' befriended one of those overdose victims. when mr rentzis found out about the death of his friend, HE gathered evidence of at least SEVENTEEN times the staff at the va hospital was warned mr bailey was abusing his prescriptions. the staff (allegedly. i HATE to say allegedly but one must) ignored all warnings and mr bailey, VETERAN, is now dead

to the friends and family of marine lance corporal justin bailey, my thoughts and prayers are with you as they are with all of the friends and families of ALL of the men and women who have served and not come back whole

A Fatal Dose

A rash of drug overdoses at a Veterans Administration hospital in California raises new questions about the quality of military health care.

By Jonathan Alter
Newsweek
Updated: 5:58 p.m. ET March 20, 2007
March 20, 2007 - The poor conditions uncovered at Walter Reed Army Hospital may be only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to sub-standard treatment of veterans. At the Veterans Administration hospital in West Los Angeles, hospital administrators confirmed to NEWSWEEK and NBC News last week that five veterans there died of overdoses of illegal and prescription drugs in less than three months this winter. After learning that family and friends of a dead Iraq War veteran were about to go public, VA administrators ordered major policy changes at the 660-bed facility.............

in another time (and place)

this would be funny. of course it's NOT, it's absurd.

there must be a TON of rodrigo sanchez' in the world. to be denied entry into the united states (to perform music mind you, NOT for citizenship. after all his skin is NOT quite white enough for most) simply because your name is rodrigo sanchez is absolutely absurd

Guitarist 'is denied entry to US'

A Mexican guitarist who has become a star on the world music scene has said he has been denied entry to the US.
Rodrigo Sanchez of the group Rodrigo y Gabriela said his application to renew a visa had been refused and they had been forced to cancel part of a tour.
The US State Department refused because Sanchez has a similar name to a man who is banned from the US, he said.
Eight US gigs have been called off so far and Sanchez said it may take up to three months to resolve the situation.
A statement from the duo's record label ATO said Sanchez had been going in and out of the US with no problem during the last nine months before his P-1 Entertainer Visa ran out............

you can question my aides BUT

you can only ax 'em the questions I WANT YOU TO AX 'EM

now THAT'S justice. now THAT'S truth. now THAT'S the american way!

N O T

king george and his court MUST GO the emperor has NO clothes

put those 'aides' on the HOT SEAT AND GRILL 'EM UNTIL THEY ARE WICKED WELL DONE!

Bush Offers Aides For Hill Interviews
Democrats Probing Firings Chafe at Conditions


By Michael Abramowitz and Paul Kane Washington Post Staff Writers Wednesday, March 21, 2007; Page A01
President Bush sought yesterday to defuse the controversy over the firings of U.S. attorneys, offering strong support for embattled Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales while proposing to make Karl Rove and other top aides available for private interviews with congressional investigators.
The White House, however, limited the kinds of questions the aides would answer and said the interviews may not be conducted under oath or transcribed. The conditions enraged congressional Democrats, who vowed to go ahead with plans to issue subpoenas as early as today that would compel the aides to testify.

as if sending your sons and daughters and husbands and wives

off to an unjust immoral illegal war weren't enough...

king george and his court are literally killing the future for your GRANDCHILDREN and THEIR GRANDCHILDREN

how many lies and coverups is it going to take for the rest of america to wake up?

(free speech? we don't need no effing free speech!!!)

Congressional hearing heats up over changes to climate reports

Democrats lay out a paper trail that they say shows how non-scientists edited scientists' work to downplay the impact of global warming.
By Nicole Gaouette, Times Staff WriterMarch 20, 2007

WASHINGTON — Government scientists, armed with copies of heavily edited reports, charged Monday that the Bush administration and its political appointees had soft-pedaled their findings on climate change.The accusations led Democrats and Republicans at the congressional hearing to accuse each other of censorship, smear tactics and McCarthyism. To underscore their charges of the administration's oil-friendly stance, Democrats grilled an oil lobbyist who was hired by the White House to review government climate change documents and who made hundreds of edits that the lawmakers said minimized the impact of global warming."You were a spin doctor," Rep. John A. Yarmuth (D-Ky) told the lobbyist. Republicans targeted a NASA director who testified about administration pressure, accusing him of political bias, of politicizing his work and of ignoring uncertainties in climate change science. And they disputed his contention that taxpayer-funded scientists are entitled to free speech. "Free speech is not a simple thing and is subject to and directed by policy," said Rep. Chris Cannon (R-Utah).

thumbelina is raising money for children (this story is for you annie and beth)

you just GOTTA love a mini horse!

Michael Goessling stops to pet a cocker spaniel while walking Thumbelina, left, a five year old dwarf miniature horse, around the pasture at Goose Creek Farms in St. Louis, MO on Friday, Oct. 3, 2006. At 17.5 inches, Thumbelina is the smallest living horse in the world, and holds the record for the smallest horse in history. Goessling said she often spends more time with tThe tiny horse and her charitable foundation have helped raise about $10,000 for children's charities since she gained World record status as the smallest horse ever recorded, at 17 1/2 inches at the withers.

World's Smallest Horse Has Tall Order

........... At just a hair over 17 inches tall, the miniature horse is more inclined to walk under fences than jump them. And her owners have sheltered the mare from ever gaining "circus-sideshow" or "one-trick-pony" status. As the world's smallest horse, 5-year-old Thumbelina, weighing in at 57 pounds, has a bigger mission: to raise $1 million for children's charities this year................
............. The tiny horse and her charitable foundation have helped raise about $10,000 for children's charities since she gained World record status as the smallest horse ever recorded, at 17 1/2 inches at the withers. When a Guinness official came from London to certify the record, a photograph was taken of Thumbelina and the world's largest living horse, Radar, a Belgium Draft horse from Texas standing at 6-foot-7 - about 40 times larger than Thumbelina.
She wasn't intimidated.
"I got the impression that Thumbelina wasn't so keen on sharing the limelight with the tallest horse at all," said Michael Whitty, who's in charge of Guinness' Picture Media.
The picture will appear in the 2008 World Record book to be released this fall. .....

extras

one of the BEST comedies on television. unfortunately for us, ricky gervais and stephen merchant will only write ONE more episode, a finale

they by no means are prolific. there were only six 1/2 hour episodes for season one and six for season two.

if you've NOT seen this series, please rent it (it's also still on demand i believe).

you'll bust a gut laughing

Extras to bow out with final show

Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant have decided they will only write one more episode of their TV comedy Extras.
They will end the BBC Two show with a special finale rather than writing a third series - exactly as they did with their earlier hit, The Office.
"We don't have a date or any details about the cast yet," said a spokeswoman for Gervais, adding that the idea was in its "very, very early" stages.
But "they will, at some point, sit down together and write it", she confirmed. .......

Tech Tags: ricky+gervais stephen+merchant comedy extras

iraq veterans memorial

The Iraq Veterans Memorial is an online war memorial that honors the members of the U.S. armed forces who have lost their lives serving in the Iraq War. The Memorial is a collection of video memories from family, friends, military colleagues, and co-workers of those that have fallen.

another reason why david ortiz is my favorite bosox player

not that i needed this one mind you.

but this isn't really about mr ortiz. it's about mr rollins.

to the family and friends of spec justin allan rollins, my heart goes out to you. my thoughts and prayers are with you

Red Sox Slugger Keeps Soldier's Memory Alive


By Jerry Markon Washington Post Staff Writer Tuesday, March 20, 2007; Page B01
When Justin Allan Rollins learned that he was being deployed to Iraq last year, the soldier had a mission of his own: to see his beloved Boston Red Sox play at Fenway Park one last time.
Spec. Rollins saw more than just a game that summer day. He got to meet one of his heroes, Red Sox slugger David Ortiz. Ortiz signed a ball for him. Later, in the stands, Rollins turned to his father.
"He said, 'If David Ortiz hits a home run, I can die a happy man in Iraq,' " recalled Kathryn Hanson, a close family friend. "His father thought it was the most eerie thing he had ever heard."...........

............The Red Sox won that June 24 game against the Phillies -- with a home run by Ortiz. And this month, Rollins, 22, of Newport, N.H., died in Iraq. He was killed March 5 in Samarra, when an improvised explosive device detonated near his unit during combat...........

how THEY feel

and i think most of our deployed troops DO feel this way. i don't believe they are the exceptions.

when will we stand up and say ENOUGH

it's time. it really is

US troops in Iraq want out

..................Added yet another, "Bush can come fight here. He can take my 1,000 dollars a month and I'll go home."
Commander of the night operation, Lieutenant Brian Long, said the anger was understandable.
"One of the men has five children, another has three. Another has a boy aged four -- he's missed two of those years. He'll never get them back," said Long.
"It is like the movie 'Groundhog Day'. Each day is the same and nothing ever changes," he added, referring to the 1993 movie in which the principal character is doomed to repeat the same day endlessly.
"It's tough. Everyone just wants to get home to their families," said the officer.................

today is national back up your birth control day

all women 18 and older can now get OVER THE COUNTER emergency contraception

the purpose of this day is to make sure YOU know emergency contraception IS AVAILABLE

please stop by back up your birth control to find out (wayyyyyyyyyyyy) more!

WHAT IS EC?

Emergency Contraception – or EC for short – is a back-up method of birth control. EC is also known as the "morning after pill."
EC or “the morning after pill” is a safe and effective way to help prevent pregnancy AFTER unprotected sex or birth control failure.
EC is available without a prescription for women 18 years and older and can be obtained at the pharmacy. Women younger than 18 will need a prescription from their doctor or other heath care provider. Visit http://www.ineedec.info/ for information.
EC is a higher dosage of the same hormones found in birth control pills.
EC - when used within 5 days of unprotected sex - can significantly reduce the risk of unintended pregnancy.
EC is NOT the same thing as Mifeprex or RU-486. EC will not terminate an existing pregnancy. EC will not work if a woman is already pregnant.
Plan B® is the name of the "dedicated" EC product on the market. Plan B is available to women 18 and older and can be obtained from a pharmacist. Women younger than 18 need a prescription from their doctor or other heath care provider....................

they got this right - we are in a DEATH SPIRAL

and i'm not sure we can ever recover. how and why the people are not up in arms over what king george and his court have done is beyond me. they have chipped away at everything we hold dear from our constitution to the lives of our sons and daughters and husbands and wives.

they have ignored laws and lied and made new laws ONLY to help themselves. some believe in the rapture, some just believe in lining their pockets.

stand up and be heard. don't let them get away with ONE more thing.

oh and think about this, WHO is going to defend us if we really DO need defending?

Military Is Ill-Prepared For Other Conflicts


By Ann Scott Tyson Washington Post Staff Writer Monday, March 19, 2007; Page A01
Four years after the invasion of Iraq, the high and growing demand for U.S. troops there and in Afghanistan has left ground forces in the United States short of the training, personnel and equipment that would be vital to fight a major ground conflict elsewhere, senior U.S. military and government officials acknowledge.
More troubling, the officials say, is that it will take years for the Army and Marine Corps to recover from what some officials privately have called a "death spiral," in which the ever more rapid pace of war-zone rotations has consumed 40 percent of their total gear, wearied troops and left no time to train to fight anything other than the insurgencies now at hand...........

alex's father carlos

and his legacy. he's right. we are seeing our sons and daughters off but we are not allowed to see the ones coming home in boxes and those coming home with pieces missing (both physically AND mentally). we will be feeling this for GENERATIONS

(i remembered carlos' initial story from the news. i didn't know what he was now doing)

Father Turns his Grief into Action


by Amy Goodman

The United States is entering the fifth year of its violent, failed occupation of Iraq, longer than the U.S. was involved in World War II. Through the grimly deepening quagmire, a strengthening, pervasive U.S. anti-war movement is emerging. An increasingly powerful voice comes from soldiers and their families, turning grief into action. Take the Arredondo family.
On Aug. 25, 2004 -- Carlos Arredondo's 44th birthday -- a U.S. Marine van arrived outside his house. He thought that his son Alex had managed to come home from his second deployment to Iraq to surprise him. Instead, the Marines informed him that Alex had been killed in action in Najaf.
Carlos lost his mind. He asked, he begged, the Marines to leave. He pleaded. They didn't leave, so he ran to his garage and grabbed a hammer, gasoline and a blowtorch. He began pummeling the van. He climbed in, pouring the gasoline. His mother, distraught and wailing, tried to pull him from the van. The blowtorch accidentally sparked, and Carlos was blown from the van into the yard, in flames.
Then his wife, Melida, arrived. She saw her husband burning. Carlos' younger son, Brian, 16, in Bangor, Maine, saw the incident on television. Thatwas the day he learned that the brother he loved and emulated was dead. ..........

the woman's war

from the ny times

via

feministing

faux news, all the news that's fit to print - - N O T

what a load most each and every faux 'newscaster' has coming out of their mouths

AND

people watch and eat it up

i shake my head

Hume Launches New Smear: Plame Lied Under Oath

Today on Fox News Sunday, Brit Hume continued his campaign to smear Valerie Plame Wilson. Previously, he had falsely said that it was “unlikely she was” covert.
Instead of apologizing this morning, he launched a new attack against Plame, claiming that she had lied under oath when she testified on Friday about whether she recommended her husband be sent to Niger to investigate Iraq’s supposed nuclear ambitions.
Hume said Plame’s testimony “flies in the face of the evidence” adduced by the “bipartisan” Senate Intelligence Committee, which said that “she very much did have something to do with it, that she recommended him and that she put it in a memo.”.........

cheney? the WHOLE damn court should be impeached

starting with the king on down...

ENOUGH

from peaceteam

TELL CONGRESS TO DO THEIR CONSTITUTIONAL DUTY AND IMPEACH BUSH AND CHENEY NOW
Call your members of Congress now toll free at 800-828-0498, 800-459-1887 or 800-614-2803.
ACTION PAGE: http://www.peaceteam.net/impeachment_now3.php

Yesterday the U.S. Senate AGAIN failed to exercise meaningful oversight for the national suicide which is our policy in Iraq. It is by now abundantly clear that the Republican caucus is determined to go down with the Bush presidency, and take our military and our country with them while they do nothing. Instead, a bipartisan cattle stampede of senators approved two "we don't hate the troops" resolutions, nothing but vain puffery, swearing to take "no action" about this or that. We don't in the slightest care about what action Congress is NOT going to take, we want to know is what they ARE going to do to reverse the insanity of current policy.On the occasion of the guilty verdicts against Scooter Libby, Howard Dean was quoted as saying we would have a new president "soon enough." If he is talking about the 2008 election that is NOT soon enough, not even close. Day by day, ever more outrageous scandals and abuses of power spew forth from the White House, as we now learn that they have been so corrupted beyond redemption by their power grabs, that they even used the U.S. attorneys themselves for nakedly partisan witch hunts, to try to influence our elections, and fired all who would not bend under their political dictate.And what was Bush's response when called on this monumental affront not just to the checks in our government, but also to the independency of our very justice system? "What was mishandled was the explanation of the cases to the Congress," he said. In Bush's mind there are no policy mistakes, let alone policy crimes. In his world there are only SPIN mistakes, when we the people aren't quite stupid enough to buy their criminal hypocrisies. We hear admissions that "mistakes were made," as if mistakes somehow made themselves. But even where there is verbal responsibility taken, there is NEVER actual accountability. The sacrificial fall guys will reluctantly resign, but NEVER is there a price paid by the core perpetrators for their conduct.The Bush presidency is one of false appearances, phony and disingenuous words of compassion and democracy, while the true underlying agenda is the embezzlement of our national treasury, and even those of other sovereign countries, on behalf of their biggest campaign contributors, who then remorselessly relocate to evade taxes on their ill-gotten profits. The Bush presidency is to create wars out of whole cloth, to demonize not only their critics but entire innocent populations, first Iraq, then Lebanon, now Iran. It is a mission to exacerbate terrorism to the maximum extent possible, while ignoring its actual roots causes and laying off its ringleaders, at the mortal peril of our true national security. And it is not going to STOP in any respect until the day that Bush is lawfully removed from office.It was not enough that president Bush should pack our courts with radical ideologue judges, one of whom just this week presumed to overturn two centuries of 2nd amendment case law, to let the NRA rewrite our very Constitution. No, even the choice of cases to bring to court they must warp so that only Democrats could ever be prosecuted for any crime, despite the fact that most of the wrongdoing they were actually finding was by Republicans. How their talking head cronies howled after the Libby verdicts that it was just a political prosecution. Their new rule of law is that it's against the law to prosecute Republicans, no matter what the crime, and that any attempt to do so is by definition a political vendetta. And if the Libby trial exposed anything, it was that Cheney was the king culprit.And hanging over everything is the preemptively declared threat of a presidential veto of any attempt, no matter how timid, to confront these high crimes. And that is why we have concluded that Dennis Kucinich is speaking the essential truth. We have long known that Bush was planning an illegal war of aggression against Iran. Shame on the leadership of the House for the sudden demise, without even a vote, of the provision in the war supplemental appropriations bill to preclude an attack on Iran without express congressional consent. Let there be a vote so we can know which members of Congress think it's OK for the president to launch horrific and disastrous new wars without even a peep from them.What Kucinich so clearly understands in his call for impeachment is that all these things are mere symptoms of the foundational problem, the cowardice of members of Congress as they run away from actually restraining the abuse of executive power. What are non-binding resolutions except avoidance of actually challenging the policy issue? What are bills that write into themselves exceptions if the president takes "responsibility" for them? Is the role of Congress to be relegated to courteously writing the president's signing statements for him?ACTION PAGE: http://www.peaceteam.net/impeachment_now3.phpBush loves to lecture the American people on the lessons of 9/11. There was only one lesson to be learned from 9/11 . . . that we had the WRONG president.And in five years since there are still too many who have not learned that critical lesson, which failure is the reason New Orleans was left to sink by a guitar strumming photo-op president, which failure is the reason even the administration drafted Patriot Act has been abused to conduct massive illegal surveillance of innocent American citizens. That failure is the reason for torture of those even suspected of being our enemies has become official U.S. policy, in utter defiance of all norms of international law and civilized decency.That failure is the reason our entire intelligence operation against weapons of mass destruction, the life long specialty of Valerie Plame, was sabotaged and jeopardized to try to gain cheap political advantage. Or was it to keep concealed even more heinous acts of treason. That failure is the reason our military is still pursuing a fool's mission in Iraq, chasing an enemy who is not there in any significant numbers. We face nothing but two more years of such disasters and outrages every minute that George Bush, Dick Cheney and their pod people remain in any office of authority.So what if Gonzales bites the dust. He is just one more water-carrier. He would already have been long gone had not Bush PERSONALLY intervened to quash investigation into the abuse of administration's warrantless domestic eavesdropping program, when that first came to partial light. We have a president and vice president for whom obstruction of justice is just another burglar tool in their black bag, as they rob the balance of powers in our Constitution. Let the subpoenas now issuing in the U.S. attorney scandal lead to door of the oval office, where the trail surely does directly lead.ACTION PAGE: http://www.peaceteam.net/impeachment_now3.phpAnd let us renew again and again our call for Congress to impeach ALL those who have harmed we the people so grievously, and to prosecute those impeachments at the most mercifully swift speed.Please take action NOW, so we can win all victories that are supposed to be ours, and forward this message to everyone else you know.If you would like to get alerts like these, you can do so at http://www.usalone.com/in.htm

lucy, 'splain this to me please

the fbi releases a statement saying FOREIGN EXTREMISTS (i.e. TERRORISTS) are driving our children around in SCHOOL BUSES. then the next statement they make is, parents and children have NOTHING to worry about.

huh?

either terrorists are driving our school buses OR THEY ARE NOT

if they are, PARENTS AND CHILDREN DO have something to worry about. if they are not, and the powers that be are just trying to rile us up (which of course i do NOT for one second doubt) wtf?????????? (oh, i DO believe there ARE terrorists out there and i DO believe there are plots against us and i DO believe we must guard against such attacks). i just don't get THIS story at all

FBI: Foreign extremists sign up to drive school buses

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Members of extremist groups have signed up as school bus drivers in the United States, counterterror officials said Friday, in a cautionary bulletin to police. An FBI spokesman said "parents and children have nothing to fear."
Asked about the alert notice, the FBI's Rich Kolko said "there are no threats, no plots and no history leading us to believe there is any reason for concern," although law enforcement agencies around the country were asked to watch out for kids' safety.
The bulletin, parts of which were read to The Associated Press, did not say how often foreign extremists have sought to acquire licenses to drive school buses, or where. It was sent Friday as part of what officials said was a routine FBI and Homeland Security Department advisory to local law enforcement.
It noted "recent suspicious activity" by foreigners who either drive school buses or are licensed to drive them, according to a counterterror official who read parts of the document to The Associated Press.........