we 'accidentally lost' millions of emails

if we 'accidentally find' them, we want to SEE them FIRST before showing anyone else. why? in case they contain any sensitive (i.e. INCRIMINATING) evidence

are we going to sit by silently and accept THIS too?

probably

White House Wants First Crack at RNC Emails

By Matt Renner t r u t h o u t Report
Friday 20 April 2007
The Congressional investigation into the US attorney firings has revealed that Bush administration officials have been communicating through unofficial email accounts, many of which are administered and archived by the Republican National Committee.
The RNC has stated that some records of these emails exist, but the RNC has yet to turn over any of the information to Congress, despite repeated requests from multiple Congressional committees.
Now, in an extraordinary move, the White House is demanding preemptive access to the emails held by the RNC, claiming the emails may contain information regarding ongoing Congressional investigations.
In a letter to the RNC, the White House instructed the committee to turn the emails over to the president's lawyers before Congress has access to them.
There are signs that the White House is preparing to invoke executive privilege to prevent the RNC from turning the emails over to Congress. The Supreme Court has recognized the right of presidents to refuse to give certain types of information to Congress or the Judicial Branch.
According to Colombia University Law Professor Michael Dorf, in the area of executive privilege, "the law remains remarkably unclear."
Neither the White House nor the RNC returned repeated requests for comment for this article............

too bad there's not an organization to make someone

an 'EX' ass(hole)

Ex-gay leader has tantrum on CNN [VIDEO]

Posted by Pam Spaulding

The head of the anti-gay National Association for the Research and Therapy of Homosexuals (NARTH), Dr. Joseph Nicolosi, was featured on the CNN special on "What is a Christian: Sex and Salvation" last week, and reporter Gary Tuchman tried to engage with Nicolosi about his research and claims that effeminacy and affinity of the arts are signs parents to watch out for lest their child become a homo. ................

one of THE most disturbing stories i have ever read

what is going on in the world? how are we to save ourselves and our planet? it is NEVER going to happen i fear

(there is NO link to the video in question or i would not have posted this at all)

Jihadist video shows boy beheading man

By ABDUL SATTAR -- Associated Press Writer

This photo taken from a video, Friday, April 20, 2007, shows a boy speaking shortly before hacking off a captive's head in Pakistan. A video circulating in Pakistan records the grisly death of Ghulam Nabi, a Pakistani militant accused of betraying a top Taliban official who was killed in a December airstrike in Afghanistan. An Associated Press reporter confirmed Nabi's identity by visiting his family in Kili Faqiran, their remote village in southwestern Pakistan. The video, obtained by AP Television News in the border city of Peshawar on Tuesday, appears authentic and is unprecedented in jihadist propaganda because of the youth of the executioner.

how much more

are we as a nation going to put up with?

Baghdad bombings kill more than 170
By Shashank Bengali, Laith Hammoudi and Nancy A. Youssef
McClatchy Newspapers

BAGHDAD, Iraq - At least 173 people died in Baghdad on Wednesday in a series of major explosions, making the day the capital's deadliest since the onset nine weeks ago of a much-touted U.S.-Iraqi security plan.
The violence capped a dreadful seven days that began with a stunning suicide attack in the Iraqi parliament building in the heavily fortified Green Zone, which killed a lawmaker. At least 363 people died in Baghdad in the past week, including 118 whose bodies were found dumped in various parts of the city.

Training Iraqi troops no longer driving force in U.S. policy
By Nancy A. Youssef

WASHINGTON - Military planners have abandoned the idea that standing up Iraqi troops will enable American soldiers to start coming home soon and now believe that U.S. troops will have to defeat the insurgents and secure control of troubled provinces.
Training Iraqi troops, which had been the cornerstone of the Bush administration's Iraq policy since 2005, has dropped in priority, officials in Baghdad and Washington said.
No change has been announced, and a Pentagon spokesman, Col. Gary Keck, said training Iraqis remains important. "We are just adding another leg to our mission," Keck said, referring to the greater U.S. role in establishing security that new troops arriving in Iraq will undertake. ...........

bill moyers is back

AND he's gonna kick some media ass

'Devastating' Moyers Probe of Press and Iraq Coming

By Greg Mitchell

NEW YORK The most powerful indictment of the news media for falling down in its duties in the run-up to the war in Iraq will appear next Wednesday, a 90-minute PBS broadcast called “Buying the War,” which marks the return of “Bill Moyers Journal.” E&P was sent a preview DVD and a draft transcript for the program this week.While much of the evidence of the media’s role as cheerleaders for the war presented here is not new, it is skillfully assembled, with many fresh quotes from interviews (with the likes of Tim Russert and Walter Pincus) along with numerous embarrassing examples of past statements by journalists and pundits that proved grossly misleading or wrong. Several prominent media figures, prodded by Moyers, admit the media failed miserably, though few take personal responsibility. The war continues today, now in its fifth year, with the death toll for Americans and Iraqis rising again -- yet Moyers points out, “the press has yet to come to terms with its role in enabling the Bush Administration to go to war on false pretenses.”...............

the berlin wall

nope, THE BAGHDAD WALL

THIS my dears IS progress???

wtf????????????????????????????????????????


U.S. to cut off Baghdad neighborhood with barrier
Commanders hope the wall will prevent attacks on the Sunni Arab districts it surrounds.

By Edmund Sanders, Times Staff Writer

BAGHDAD -- A U.S. military brigade is constructing a three-mile-long concrete wall to cut off one of the capital's most restive Sunni Arab districts from the Shiite Muslim neighborhoods that surround it, raising concern about the further Balkanization of Iraq's most populous and violent city.U.S. commanders in northern Baghdad say the 12-foot-high barrier will make it more difficult for suicide bombers, death squads and militia fighters from sectarian factions to attack one another and slip back to their home turf. Construction began last week and is expected to be completed by the end of the month.Although Baghdad is replete with blast walls, checkpoints and other temporary barriers, including a massive wall around the Green Zone, the wall being constructed in Adhamiya would be the first to essentially divide a neighborhood by sect............

i have been deposed

and the last time, they flew three lawyers up from georgia (i don't fly well) to question me. i said 'i don't know' MANY times. however, with ME, it was true. i DIDN'T know because i had NOTHING to do with the situation they were asking about.

i was doing some errands yesterday and had npr on in the car. i truly forgot gonzo was going to be 'testifying'. i just lucked out. the commentators on the radio broadcast (this is my interpretation of course) were saying what a dope gonzo was BUT they had never seen or heard anything like what was going on. how even republicans were dissing the gonz YET EVERYONE sort of pitied him (i didn't detect any pity but then again, i listened to very little actual testimony). one of the analysts then said something about how NO ONE was making the gonz give an ACTUAL REAL answer to THE question. how he denied giving his permission to his 'staff' to do some axing yet the axing indeed took place. WHO was running the SHOW???



Maybe Gonzales Won't Recall His Painful Day on the Hill


By Dana Milbank Friday, April 20, 2007; Page A02
Alberto Gonzales's tenure as attorney general was pronounced dead at 3:02 p.m. yesterday by Tom Coburn, M.D.
The good doctor, who also happens to be a Republican member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, made this clinical judgment after watching Gonzales suffer through four hours of painful testimony. The Oklahoman listed the cause of death as management failure and other complications of the Justice Department's firing of eight federal prosecutors.........

...............The hearing was billed as Gonzales's chance to explain the contradictions, omissions and falsehoods in his response to the firings. But instead of contrition, the attorney general treated the committee to a mixture of arrogance, combativeness and amnesia. Even his would-be defenders on the Republican side were appalled.................

Senators Renew Bipartisan Call for Gonzales to Go

by Pam Fessler

NPR.org, April 19, 2007 · Attorney General Alberto Gonzales faced renewed calls for his resignation Thursday during a contentious daylong hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee. After lengthy questioning about what led to the firings of eight U.S. attorneys last year, both Democrats and Republicans said they had lost confidence in the attorney general and his handling of the department.
"The best way to put this behind us is your resignation," Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) said..........

...............The hearing shed little light on the role of the White House in the firings. Gonzales acknowledged that he had a conversation with chief White House political adviser Karl Rove and President Bush about complaints that former U.S. attorney David Iglesias was not pursuing voter fraud cases more aggressively in New Mexico. But Gonzales said he did not know how and when Iglesias' name was added to the list of those recommended for firing, although he said he was not "surprised" to see the name ..............

on april 28th

take back the blog

As announced, this page will host the April 28, 2007 Take Back the Blog! Blogswarm in support of the rights of women to participate fully in all aspects of our society, including specifically online in the world of blogging but indeed everywhere and at all times, day and night, without fear of harassment, intimidation, sexual harassment, online stalking and slander, predation or violence of any sort.

our bodies

please be happy with WHO and WHAT you are on the OUTSIDE because that is the part of you that is NOT important at all. be comfortable with yourself and NEVER let anyone tell you differently OR make you feel uncomfortable with how you look.

i will never 'blend'. i do NOT look like anyone else (as a matter of fact, when i was with my little sister last time, little as in big brothers/big sisters, she asked why i made up my eyes in a particular fashion. in addition to the colors i use and 'doe eyes' i draw, i also draw little straight lines under my eyes, rather like a clown but of course NOT that bold. i told her i did it on purpose. i told her i did it so i would be different than everyone else. i told her it was ok to be different. i told her it was ok to be who you were. i told her she should be PROUD of who she was. not to worry though, that kid has NO problem in the self-confidence aisle). i'm not skinny and i came to terms a LONG time ago i was NEVER going to be skinny. i wear funky clothes and i LOVE my clothes. some people look at me like i'm the devil, yet many smile when they see me. not smiling because they think i'm nuts but smiling like there goes a woman who is her OWN damn self and not afraid to show it. the OLDER i get, the MORE comfortable i get with myself. sure, we all have some doubts about ourselves. that's normal. we all have a thing or two we're self-conscious about. that's normal too. i won't let it get to me though. if it's something that is REALLY bothering me i'll attempt to work on it and change it. i do it for ME though. i don't do it for anyone else.

The Frightening New Normalcy of Hating Your Body

By Courtney E. Martin, AlterNet. Posted April 18, 2007.

This article is excerpted from "Perfect Girls, Starving Daughters" by Courtney E. Martin. Copyright 2007 by Courtney E. Martin. Reprinted by permission of Free Press, a division of Simon and Schuster, Inc.
There is a girl, right now, staring in a mirror in Des Moines, scrutinizing her widening hips. There is a girl, right now, spinning like a hamster on speed in a gym on the fifth floor of a building in Boston, promising herself dinner if she goes two more miles. There is a girl, right now, trying to wedge herself into a dress two sizes too small in a Savannah shopping mall, chastising herself for being so lazy and fat. There is a girl, right now, in a London bathroom, trying not to get any vomit on her aunt's toilet seat. There is a girl, right now, in Berlin, cutting a cube of cheese and an apple into barely visible pieces to eat for her dinner.
Our bodies are places where our drive for perfection gets played out. Food is all around us, as are meals and the pressure that goes with them. Well-intentioned after-school specials teach us, from a very young age, how to purge our snacks. We are inundated with information about "good" and "bad" foods, the most effective workout regiments, the latest technological advancements in plastic surgery. We demand flawlessness in our appearance -- the outer manifestation of our inner dictators.....................

ken silverstein reviews seth hettena's new book

i find this stuff fascinating. the spies and the sex and the shite that goes on in the power struggles of the good old white boy network (not just of this country mind you but of most countries). the societies and cultures of the world powers (power being the operative word) are so effed up. why do we feel the need to conquer? feel the need to impose our will upon others? i just don't get it (i DO get trying to stop horrors and murders and genocide. things of that nature of course.)

Sex and the C.I.A.

I recently received an advance copy of Seth Hettena's Feasting on the Spoils: The Life and Times of Randy “Duke” Cunningham, History's Most Corrupt Congressman, which will be published this July and which I highly recommend. In addition to being a terrific piece of political reporting, the book is filled with juicy details concerning the seamier side of the Cunningham affair, otherwise known as “Hookergate.”
I was particularly interested in stories Hettena unearthed about Kyle “Dusty” Foggo, whom former CIA director Porter Goss had named as executive director, the agency's number-three official. Foggo resigned last year not long after FBI agents raided his home and office. The Feds suspected that Foggo, who was later indicted, had funneled CIA contracts to his long-time friend Brent Wilkes, the defense contractor who is accused of bribing Cunningham with money and prostitutes.................

a shout out to the hippy chix shop

i put in an order to hippy chix shop. no sooner had i ordered, THAN IT ARRIVED AT MY HOUSE!

wonderful customer service so i'm recommending them. they get my a rose is a rose shout out

oh, what did i buy you ask?

an angry little girls tote and a miso (get it MISO) pretty tote (i'll use both for my knitting stuff)

i got THE coolest knitting book the other day

hip graphic knits

Hip Graphic Knits: Unique Patterns and Techniques for Adding Stylish Graphics to Your Knitted Designs (Domestic Arts for Crafty Gals) (Paperback) by Rochelle Bourgault (Author), Lisa Evans (Author)

there is even a chart/graph to knit (my boyfriend) jon stewart into a sweater (or bag or whatever)

more on bees

(and by the way, my mother's father was a bee keeper back in the old country)

A stinging loss for U.S. farms as honeybees vanish
Experts fear their disappearance will take a toll on the nation's food chain

BY AMY ELLIS NUTTStar-Ledger Staff
Jean-Claude Tassot felt the sunshine spilling over his shoulders. It was unseasonably warm for January -- a good day, he decided, to check his honeybees. So Tassot jumped in his truck and rumbled over the back roads of Morris County to the first of the eight farms where he stores his boxes of hives.
"When you first take the cover off, usually you can see the bees," said Tassot. "But when I looked, there was nothing. I kept looking (but) the hives were all dead."
Tassot drove to the next farm, then the next and the next. At every stop it was the same thing.
Out of 171 hives, 140 were wiped out. Even the few dozen that remained were weak at best.
"It was a catastrophe," he said.
In New Jersey, as in at least 26 other states around the country, commercial beekeepers and hobbyists are reporting catastrophic losses of honeybees this year. As many as 700,000 of the nation's 2.4 million bee colonies have been affected, according to the American Beekeeping Federation.
"I've talked to several beekeepers up and down the state, and they're reporting from 30 to 99 percent bee losses," said Bob Hughes, president of the New Jersey Beekeepers Association. ..............

yet someone else who (seemed to have) dropped one too many tabs of acid in the 60s

wow. you'd have think he would have crouched down and slowly crawled away but NOPE, he's still spurting nonsense

Perle still clinging to 'Qaida, Saddam direct connection'

David Edwards

Richard Perle, the American Enterprise Institute fellow who helped build the case for the Iraq War prior to the US invasion in 2003, appeared on CNN's Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer last night and continued to cling to the existence of links between Saddam Hussein's regime and al Qaida terrorists.
While admitting Hussein's government had nothing to do with the 9/11 attacks, Perle continued to point to a "direct connection" between the two.
"There is evidence of a connection between al Qaida and Saddam Hussein's intelligence," he insisted............

now king george says it's a "VITAL" war

vital? for whom? we invaded a country for NO reason (well saddam was an evil man and yes he did kill many people but WE supported him initially). no reason that any SANE person can understand that is.

did they attack us? no
did they destroy the twin towers? no
did they threaten us? no
did they dis the king's daddy? yup

hmmmmmmmmmm what's wrong with THAT picture?

we MUST get out of this war. report after report is saying the neighborhoods (including those that are supposed to be safer) are getting worse. the king wants to keep spending and it's BEYOND frivilious. then the king starts blaming the democrats for the shite that has happened and IS happening? no, it's INSANE

Bush rejects any Iraq pull-out deadline

US President George W. Bush, ahead of talks with lawmakers pushing for an Iraq withdrawal timetable, warned Monday that he would reject a pending war-funding bill if it comes with a deadline.
Two days before hosting congressional leaders, Bush accused Democrats who have attached a 2008 withdrawal timeline to the president's 100-billion spending request of trying to "legislate defeat in this vital war."
"The consequences of failure would be death and destruction in the Middle East and here in America," he warned. "I hope the Democratic leadership will drop their unreasonable demands for a precipitous withdrawal."..........

my america

now is not the time for me to rail against this or that. now is the time for me to do everything in my power for this NEVER to happen again

Gunman Kills 32 at Virginia Tech In Deadliest Shooting in U.S. History


By Ian Shapira and Tom Jackman Washington Post Staff WritersTuesday, April 17, 2007; Page A01
BLACKSBURG, Va., April 16 -- An outburst of gunfire at a Virginia Tech dormitory, followed two hours later by a ruthless string of attacks at a classroom building, killed 32 students, faculty and staff and left about 30 others injured yesterday in the deadliest shooting rampage in the nation's history.
The shooter, whose name was not released last night, wore bluejeans, a blue jacket and a vest holding ammunition, witnesses said. He carried a 9mm semiautomatic and a .22-caliber handgun, both with the serial numbers obliterated, federal law enforcement officials said. Witnesses described the shooter as a young man of Asian descent -- a silent killer who was calm and showed no expression as he pursued and shot his victims. He killed himself as police closed in.....................

from pbs tonight

two hour long documentaries
(note: most stations are going to edit operation homecoming - thank the threat of fines from the fcc for that)

warriors
Filmed in 2005 in some of the most dangerous areas in and around Baghdad, WARRIORS profiles a handful of Army soldiers: five men and one woman. They range from a squadron leader just weeks into his first combat command to a seasoned sergeant on a night raid in an insurgent hotspot. WARRIORS opens a compelling, harrowing, and at times humorous, window on some less familiar sides of a soldier’s life: a look at who they are, what they do and why.
and

operation homecoming
OPERATION HOMECOMING is a unique documentary that explores the firsthand accounts of American servicemen and women through their own words. The film is built upon a project created by the National Endowment for the Arts to gather the writing of servicemen and women and their families who have participated in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

cptv in connecticut
and
wgby in western mass

wow, i hope this is just a far-fetched

bizarre theory. however, it COULD be real. how frightening is THIS? (and i for one want to rip many a cell phone out of many a hand to ear. it's RIDICULOUS. i once saw and heard someone using their cell phone in a grocery store. WHO WERE THEY TALKING TO? someone ONE AISLE OVER. and no, i'm NOT making this up. i've yelled at people at work for talking on their cell phones in the loo. i sure don't want to be 'freshening up' while someone on the phone is listening. do we REALLY need to talk on our cell phones as much as we do? NO we don't. i am not innocent. i have a cell phone. i don't use it frivolously though)

Are mobile phones wiping out our bees?
Scientists claim radiation from handsets are to blame for mysterious 'colony collapse' of bees

By Geoffrey Lean and Harriet Shawcross

It seems like the plot of a particularly far-fetched horror film. But some scientists suggest that our love of the mobile phone could cause massive food shortages, as the world's harvests fail.
They are putting forward the theory that radiation given off by mobile phones and other hi-tech gadgets is a possible answer to one of the more bizarre mysteries ever to happen in the natural world - the abrupt disappearance of the bees that pollinate crops. Late last week, some bee-keepers claimed that the phenomenon - which started in the US, then spread to continental Europe - was beginning to hit Britain as well.
The theory is that radiation from mobile phones interferes with bees' navigation systems, preventing the famously homeloving species from finding their way back to their hives. Improbable as it may seem, there is now evidence to back this up.................

john j sheehan is being polite

that is how i interpret his piece. i think what he's really saying is IT'S A(N) (EFFING) MESS

well that's how i read it

Why I Declined To Serve


By John J. Sheehan Monday, April 16, 2007; Page A17
Service to the nation is both a responsibility and an honor for every citizen presented with the opportunity. This is especially true in times of war and crisis. Today, because of the war in Iraq, this nation is in a crisis of confidence and is confused about its foreign policy direction, especially in the Middle East.
When asked whether I would like to be considered for the position of White House implementation manager for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, I knew that it would be a difficult assignment, but also an honor, and that this was a serious task that needed to be done. ...........

..............What I found in discussions with current and former members of this administration is that there is no agreed-upon strategic view of the Iraq problem or the region. In my view, there are essentially three strategies in play simultaneously.............

want to know who is responsible for all the ills of the world?

not just iraq mind you but elvis' death, pluto's not being a planet any more status, evolution, kids not abstaining from s - e - x, the cost of stamps going up, prussian blue no longer being a shade of crayola crayons and i could go on but i'm crying too hard to type

Bush: Emphatic no to timeline to withdraw troops

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush said Saturday that a Democratic plan to set an end date for the war gives "our enemies the victory they desperately want."
Bush and Democratic congressional leaders are trying to bolster their positions on the Iraq war before a scheduled White House meeting.
At Bush's invitation, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi are due at the White House on Wednesday to discuss the war, particularly a bill funding the military mission through September.
In both the House and Senate, Democrats have attached timelines for withdrawing troops to the bill containing $96 billion in military funding.
Bush: Timeline restricts commanders
Bush says the meeting will be about his nonnegotiable stance on a timeline.
"Instead of approving this funding, Democrats in Congress have spent the past 68 days pushing legislation that would undercut our troops," he said in his weekly radio address. "They passed bills that would impose restrictions on our military commanders and set an arbitrary date for withdrawal from Iraq, giving our enemies the victory they desperately want."............

BIG rug

and i DO mean BIG

from artist christien meindertma

(check out her 'poof' too)

found via extreme craft

in his own words

NONE of which i believe mind you

danger danger will robinson. let's do some damange control (a bit late, no?)

he created 'confusion' and for that, he be jammin, whoops, i mean he be sorry

Nothing Improper


By Alberto R. GonzalesSunday, April 15, 2007; Page B07
My decision some months ago to privately seek the resignations of a small number of U.S. attorneys has erupted into a public firestorm. First and foremost, I appreciate the public service of these fine lawyers and dedicated professionals, each of whom served his or her full four-year term as U.S. attorney. I apologize to them, their families and the thousands of dedicated professionals at the Justice Department for my role in allowing this matter to spin into an undignified Washington spectacle.
What began as a well-intentioned management effort to identify where, among the 93 U.S. attorneys, changes in leadership might benefit the department, and therefore the American people, has become an unintended public controversy........

hey king george and court just keep on funding abstinance programs

AND making excuses why when it's pointed out abstinance teaching does NOT work, the data is flawed (yeah, right)


even a study by congress finds ABSTINANCE PROGRAMS DO NOT WORK. while i think absinance should be taught along side every thing else (LIKE SAFE SEX AND BIRTH CONTROL), i knew it didn't work and i didn't need a study by a bunch of researchers

our children (and MANY adults) really do need to learn about safer sex practices. you don't like abortions? (well then don't have one AND teach others how NOT to get pregnant. oh by the way i don't 'like' abortions either. i DO think they should remain SAFE AND LEGAL though).

Study: Abstinence classes don't stop sex

By KEVIN FREKING, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - Students who took part in sexual abstinence programs were just as likely to have sex as those who did not, according to a study ordered by Congress.
Also, those who attended one of the four abstinence classes that were reviewed reported having similar numbers of sexual partners as those who did not attend the classes. And they first had sex at about the same age as other students — 14.9 years, according to Mathematica Policy Research Inc.
The federal government now spends about $176 million annually on abstinence-until-marriage education. Critics have repeatedly said they don't believe the programs are working, and the study will give them reinforcement..............


and

Burying Release of Abstinence Only Report on Friday the 13th Seems Fitting

By Scott Swenson on Friday, April 13, 2007.

The news for the Bush Adminstration's abstinence-only policies just seems to be getting worse, some might liken it to a swiftly sinking boat or ship.
So a burial at sea is appropriate, and by releasing the latest federal report on abstinence-only, Impacts for Title V. Section 510, Abstinence Education Programs: Final Report, from Mathematica Policy Research, Inc. late on a Friday, that is exactly what the Bushies are doing.
“After 10 years and $1.5 billion in public funds these failed abstinence-only-until-marriage programs will go down as an ideological boondoggle of historic proportions,” said James Wagoner, President of Advocates for Youth.
“The tragedy is not simply the waste of taxpayer dollars, it is the damage done to the young people who have been on the receiving end of distorted, inaccurate information about condoms and birth control. We have been promoting ignorance in the era of AIDS, and that’s not just bad public health policy, its bad ethics”................