yo yo yo search it!

Saturday, June 23, 2007

why do the people of alaska keep electing stevens?

i just don't know

Fisheries Netted In Federal Alaska Probe

By Laura McGann

Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK) had his son, former state Senate President Ben Stevens, head a board that distributed $12 million in federal grants to promote seafood companies that, at the same time, paid the younger Stevens upward of $775,000 in "consulting fees."
This arrangement has caught the FBI's attention. Last fall, at least three fisheries were issued grand jury subpoenas to hand over documents related to the lobbying and consulting work provided by the younger Stevens and a former aide to Sen. Stevens, Trevor McCabe. The subpoenas also sought any documents connected to the older Stevens. Two of the companies are based in
Seattle, and another is in Juneau....................

and their congressman is not any better. he made one of the top five pricks in congress (at cracked)

...........REP. DON YOUNG (R-ALASKA)

In a Nutshell
Don Young is a buffoon who's constantly trying to steal money from the federal government, but is too obnoxiously stupid to get away with it.
Why He's a Prick
When he's not misquoting Lincoln, brandishing an 18-inch walrus penis on the House floor (yes, he did this), or directing hundreds of millions of federal dollars to roads bearing his name, he's just generally being a total ass. One gem: "Environmentalists are a self-centered bunch of waffle-stomping, Harvard-graduating, intellectual idiots." After all, if there's one thing our senators should be teaching the children of tomorrow, it's that graduating from college and being intelligent is for hippie fags.
Biggest Prick Moves
Earmarking $223 million in federal funding for an enormous—and egregiously unnecessary—bridge connecting the small Alaskan city Ketchikan to Gravina Island, which boasts a population of—drumroll—50 people.
When questioned by House members why he'd removed a limiting of carbon emissions from a bill, Young claimed that it was unnecessary, because Greenland is already cooling down (it’s not; Greenland's ice loss doubled between 1996 and 2005), that it’s not America’s fault it needs to burn more oil, since it’s so darn big (China’s also pretty big, and it burned 7 million barrels last year to the USA’s 20.6), and that the polar bear population is increasing (it’s actually due to be placed on the Endangered Species list later this year). Take-away point: Don Young has no problem making up shit to support whatever he feels like doing. That’s a skill they simply don’t teach at them fancy Harvard intellectual schools. ............

yeah, but i don't have an extra $516,348 to spare

do you?

Rules 'hiding' trillions in debt Liability $516,348 per U.S. household

By Dennis Cauchon, USA TODAY

The federal government recorded a $1.3 trillion loss last year -- far more than the official $248 billion deficit -- when corporate-style accounting standards are used, a USA TODAY analysis shows. The loss reflects a continued deterioration in the finances of Social Security and government retirement programs for civil servants and military personnel. The loss -- equal to $11,434 per household -- is more than Americans paid in income taxes in 2006. "We're on an unsustainable path and doing a great disservice to future generations," says Chris Chocola, a former Republican member of Congress from Indiana and corporate chief executive who is pushing for more accurate federal accounting. Modern accounting requires that corporations, state governments and local governments count expenses immediately when a transaction occurs, even if the payment will be made later. The federal government does not follow the rule, so promises for Social Security and Medicare don't show up when the government reports its financial condition. ............

a funny headline

as far as giving king george credit for anything - you have to give it to him for STONES. the man sure does have a set (unlike all of congress and the senate)

Bush Prods Vietnamese President On Human Rights and Openness


By Peter Baker Washington Post Staff Writer

President Bush pressed Vietnamese President Nguyen Minh Triet yesterday to address human rights abuses and open up his communist nation's autocratic system, during the first White House visit by a head of state from Hanoi since the countries were at war.
Bush hailed the growing trade ties between the two former enemies and the signing of a new agreement that could lead to formal free-trade talks. But as flag-waving Vietnamese American protesters demonstrated outside the White House gates, Bush used the opportunity to urge Triet to permit opposition and end crackdowns on religious minorities.......


so who's going to talk to king george about all of HIS abuses???

and we are shocked and surprised .... because???

well we're NOT shocked and surprised are we. they are following the same pattern they have from day one. THEY HAVE NOT DONE ANYTHING WRONG. THE CONSTITUTION IS JUST A PIECE OF PAPER. LAWS, WHAT LAWS? WE DON'T NEED NO STINKIN' LAWS

and, we've let them (king george and his court is the them as if you didn't know) get away with it from jump street and we'll continue to let them get away with it. LET'S EVERYONE GROW A SET AND STOP THEM NOW

('oversight' that's a GIANT laugh all in itself)

White House Defends Cheney's Refusal of Oversight


By Peter Baker Washington Post Staff Writer

The White House defended Vice President Cheney yesterday in a dispute over his office's refusal to comply with an executive order regulating the handling of classified information as Democrats and other critics assailed him for disregarding rules that others follow.
White House spokeswoman
Dana Perino said Cheney is not obligated to submit to oversight by an office that safeguards classified information, as other members and parts of the executive branch are. Cheney's office has contended that it does not have to comply because the vice president serves as president of the Senate, which means that his office is not an "entity within the executive branch."..........

Friday, June 22, 2007

women's rights

WHAT rights?

i am making NO judgement about the defendant here. i don't know anything about his guilt or innocence. what i AM making a judgement about is how women are treated. LIKE SHITE. at a 'rape trial' the prosecution cannot use words such as rape, assault, victim and sexual assault kit??????????????

wtf??????

why was this allowed AND why is it going to be allowed to happen again since the first trial ended in a hung jury?
we are your mothers, sisters, wives, lovers, friends, aunts. don't forget that

don't EVER forget that

Judge Bans the Word 'Rape'...During a Rape Case.

Posted by Guest Blogger

This post, written by Jessica Valenti, originally appeared on Feministing
It's not enough that rape survivors are re-victimized in the courtroom by having their sexual histories brought up or are accused of "wanting it." Now they can't even call their assaults, well...assaults.
From Dahlia Lithwick at Slate:
...a Nebraska district judge, Jeffre Cheuvront, suddenly finds himself in a war of words with attorneys on both sides of a sexual assault trial. More worrisome, he appears to be at war with language itself, and his paradoxical answer is to ban it: Last fall, Cheuvront granted a motion by defense attorneys barring the use of the words rape, sexual assault, victim, assailant, and sexual assault kit from the trial of Pamir Safi--accused of raping Tory Bowen in October 2004.
The first trial resulted in a hung jury last year, and in the retrial the words will once again be banned. The only word left to use by both the defense and the prosecution to describe what happened? Sex. Uh huh, that's lovely.............


............Even worse? Jurors won't be told about the banned words.
They are not merely too emotional to hear the phrase rape kit. They are also evidently too emotional to know it's been hidden from them in the first place.......



the feministing link

trent lott - asswipe of the day

.........."If the answer is 'build a fence' I've got two goats on my place in Mississippi. There ain't no fence big enough, high enough, strong enough, that you can keep those goats in that fence."Now people are at least as smart as goats. Maybe not as agile. Build a fence. We should have a virtual fence. Now one of the ways I keep those goats in the fence is I electrified them. Once they got popped a couple times they quit trying to jump it."



-- Sen. Trent Lott (R-MS), quoted by the Biloxi Sun Herald, on the solution to illegal immigration. Hat tip: Cotton Mouth.

from political wire's quote of the day

when they actually DO something

like hold king george and his court accountable, THEN i'll be happy. lots of talking, lots of investigations. perhaps a lower level court member gets 'punished' yet no one REALLY responsible for the injustices, illegal activities and treasonous activities gets their just due

maybe one day.....

i can dream


Judiciary Committee subpoenas warrantless wiretapping documents

Nick Juliano

The Senate Judiciary Committee voted Thursday to subpoena Bush administration documents related to a secret spying program that authorized warrantless wiretaps on Americans, RAW STORY has learned.
Committee chairman Patrick Leahy and Ranking Member Arlen Specter wrote to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales last month requesting documents relating to what President Bush refers to as the "Terrorist Surveillance Program," and Thursday's subpoenas came in the face of the White House's apparent refusal to share the documents.
The subpoena was approved on a 13-3 voice vote of committee members Thursday, a Judiciary Committee source told
RAW STORY. Three Republicans -- Specter; Sen. Orin Hatch, R-Utah; and Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa -- supported the authorization, according to a release from Leahy's office...............

don't like the rules?

change 'em!!! (don't you wish we could ALL do that sometimes)

he IS the darth vader of 2007 america (for real)

why isn't he (and king george and most of his court) behind bars by now? how many more laws do they have to break?

Cheney Defiant on Classified Material
Executive Order Ignored Since 2003



By Peter Baker Washington Post Staff Writer

Vice President Cheney's office has refused to comply with an executive order governing the handling of classified information for the past four years and recently tried to abolish the office that sought to enforce those rules, according to documents released by a congressional committee yesterday.
Since 2003, the vice president's staff has not cooperated with an office at the
National Archives and Records Administration charged with making sure the executive branch protects classified information. Cheney aides have not filed reports on their possession of classified data and at one point blocked an inspection of their office. After the Archives office pressed the matter, the documents say, Cheney's staff this year proposed eliminating it..............

Thursday, June 21, 2007

horrid nightmare insane not real

not only should this man lose his medical license (along with his wife, who, i guess ALSO participated in this scene from a horror movie), his son should be IMMEDIATELY taken away from him (and her). NEVER EVER IN A KAZILLION YEARS RETURNED!

i have not a doubt in my mind, guinness will NOT publish this. they better not

this is OUTRAGEOUS

Surgery Performed by Teen Sparks Outrage

By MUNEEZA NAQVI
AP
Posted: 2007-06-21 17:40:34
NEW DELHI (June 21) - The 15-year-old son of two doctors performed a filmed Caesarean section birth under his parents' watch in southern India in an apparent bid to gain a spot in the Guinness Book of World Records as the youngest surgeon. ......

,.......Murugesan, who could possibly be prevented from practicing and face criminal charges for allowing his son to perform the operation, expressed no regret and accused the Manaparai medical association of being "jealous" of his son's achievements, Prasad added. "He said this was not the first surgery performed by his son and that he had been training him for the last three years," said Prasad. Murugesan told the medical association that he wanted to see his son's name in the Guinness Book of World Records. ............

i wasn't going to write about this at all

it is a tragic story. parents have lost their daughter. people have lost a friend. a university did the ABSOLUTE WRONG thing (it is MORE than wrong actually).





a case of a covered up murder on a college campus.





then, something kept bothering me about this (this story in particular but many other stories quite similar to this one).





it was only a couple of hours since i read it but something was pinging in my brain.





laura dickinson was found murdered in her dorm room. she was naked from the waist down and a pillow was over her head. she had semen on her body. the university for a LONG time covered ALL of this up. they never mentioned murder and never told ms dickinson's parents the facts UNTIL there was an arrest a couple of months later. they never warned the students directly after finding ms dickinson's body either.





why was this especially bothering me (aside from the horrible tragedy and the asinine actions of the university). i'll tell you why. because this was a CRIME OF POWER AND IT WAS AGAINST A WOMAN. yes, a WOMAN. she was violated. anyone can tell that just by a very general description of the crime scene (you don't need csi vegas to figure it out).





why was this bothering me so? i'll tell you why. women are (thought to be) worth less than men in our society (and in every current society i am aware of right now). oh they are NOT worth less mind you. we must rise up and in the memory of laura dickinson and all others like her, never stand for second class treatment again. we are NOT yours to violate. we are NOT yours to be commanded. we are NOT yours to use for YOUR sexual pleasure alone. we are NOT yours to be your maid or chauffeur or baby-popper-outter-er. we are NOT yours to put in a cage. we are NOT yours to abuse. we are NOT yours to cower under your power. we are NOT yours to violate.





we are our own persons. we are strong.
AND




we MUST fight like grrrls



University Accused of Lying to Hide Killing
Eastern Michigan Official Apologizes


By Kari LydersenWashington Post Staff Writer

CHICAGO -- A janitor found Laura Dickinson dead in her Eastern Michigan University dorm room in December, naked below the waist, a pillow over her face. The door was locked, and her keys were gone.
No foul play was suspected, the university announced. As the campus mourned and Dickinson's family gathered to bury the 22-year-old rower, police opened an investigation. But school authorities stuck to their story for more than two months -- even after they learned that the medical examiner had found semen on her body and even as police questioned other students and faculty and took DNA samples -- until the arrest of a fellow student on rape and homicide charges......

the headline says it all

Officials: Iraq security plan succeeding despite 3 more mosques bombed
By Mike Drummond and Laith Hammoudi McClatchy Newspapers

yeah stick your head in the sand and everything is wonderful. pull it out and open your eyes and then you see the truth! deaths maimings destruction

BAGHDAD — Inside a fortified conference room and through the prism of U.S. and Iraqi military officials, a security plan to pacify the country was working on Wednesday. Outside, extremists blew up mosques, lobbed mortars into Baghdad's heavily protected Green Zone and generated a steady drumbeat of violence.
Just hours before a top U.S. military spokesman said that troop buildups, added checkpoints and other measures launched in February were showing signs of success, suspected Shiite militiamen bombed two Sunni mosques south of Baghdad. An explosion damaged a third Sunni mosque south of the capital hours later.
No deaths were reported in the morning bombings of the Usama Bin Zaid and Abdallah Al Jobori mosques in Iskandariyah and in the afternoon one at the Sfoog mosque in Jbala. But coming the day after a truck bombing outside a Shiite mosque in the capital killed at least 78 people, the attacks stoked fears that retaliatory bombings of Muslim religious sites would escalate.............

you giant ASSWIPES

perhaps if you didn't KICK PEOPLE WHO SPOKE ARABIC out of the service solely because of their sexual orientation, we wouldn't have such PROBLEMS (problems IS an understatement of course)
U.S. military continues to discharge gay Arab linguists, and Congress members seek hearing


Slim Chance Of Finding an Arabic Speaker at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad

Jonathan Karl and Maddy Sauer Report:

Of the 1,000 U.S. employees at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, only 10 have a working knowledge of Arabic, according to the State Department.
That is still a slight improvement from last year when, according to the Iraq Study Group, six people in the embassy spoke Arabic.
A 2006 Government Accountability Office (GAO) report noted the shortage of speakers of Arabic, which the State Department classifies as "superhard," is acute at U.S. embassies in the Muslim world.
The report found that more than one-third of public policy diplomacy positions at Arabic language posts were filled by people who did not speak the language at the designated level.
In April, the director of the International Affairs Office at the GAO said the State Department had started taking action to correct the problems from last year's report.
"State has begun to address these language deficiencies by increasing its overall amount of language training and providing supplemental training for more difficult languages at overseas locations," Jess Ford told the House Committee of Foreign Affairs............


Gay Arabic Translator: "I'm Here, I'm Willing to Serve"

By Adam Howard, AlterNet. Posted June 20, 2007.

Over 11,000 service members have been discharged from the military in the past 14 years because of their sexual orientation. It's time to lift the ban on openly gay people in the military.

Stephen Benjamin describes himself as a "recruiter's dream." He is a highly trained, award-winning Navy Arabic translator who is eager and "willing to serve," yet because of the outdated and discriminatory "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy of the U.S. military, he has been discharged and denied the opportunity to serve our country. Celebrated filmmaker Robert Greenwald and his Brave New Foundation, in collaboration with the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network (SLDN), hope to set this injustice right with a new campaign being launched at LiftTheBan.org.
"The 'don't ask don't tell policy' is legalized discrimination," said Greenwald. "Stephen Benjamin is the subject of our film, but the problem is a huge disgrace."............

i don't care how one (generally) feels about immigration

THIS is just NOT right.

this woman should get immediate citizenship, period

and if you don't think that - well then i don't think YOU are patriotic
oh and while we're at it, please keep a good thought out and say an extra prayer for her husband. miracles DO happen. i know that for a fact

DHS trying to deport missing soldier's wife

Nick Juliano

Her husband volunteered to defend this country, and he has been missing in the deserts of Iraq for more than a month. Now the US government is trying to kick her out of the country.
Army specialist Alex Jimenez married Yaderlin Hiraldo in 2004. Hiraldo entered the US illegally from the Dominican Republic in 2001, and when Jimenez petitioned for her green card while he was stationed in Iraq it alerted the government to her presence, according to a
report on Boston television station WBZ.
Jimenez went missing May 12 in Iraq when he and two other soldiers were captured by al-Qaeda following an ambush. An immigration judge stopped Hiraldo's green card processing when her husband went missing, and the government has so far refused to grant a so-called hardship waiver that would allow her to stay in the country, WBZ reported.............

uninsured veterans

this shouldn't happen to ANYONE in american. NO ONE. especially NOT a vet (but as i said NO ONE). we're rich. well as nations go we WERE rich. that is until king george and his court threw billions and billions and billions (and are continuing to do so i might add) out of the proverbial window.

(hey peeps who bomb clinics who perform abortions why aren't YOU up in arms about the lack of decent health care for americans children - at the very least)

Study Finds 1.8 Million Veterans Are Uninsured
Figure Has Grown by 290,000 Since 2000, Professor Tells House Veterans Panel



By Christopher Lee`Washington Post Staff Writer

As the nation struggles to improve medical and mental health care for military personnel returning from Afghanistan and Iraq, about 1.8 million U.S. veterans under age 65 lack even basic health insurance or access to care at Veterans Affairs hospitals, a new study has found.
The ranks of uninsured veterans have increased by 290,000 since 2000, said Stephanie J. Woolhandler, the
Harvard Medical School professor who presented her findings yesterday before the House Committee on Veterans Affairs. About 12.7 percent of non-elderly veterans -- or one in eight -- lacked health coverage in 2004, the most recent year for which figures are available, she said, up from 9.9 percent in 2000. Veterans 65 and older are eligible for Medicare..........

an update to

my posting of the other day on a..............shocking find....

24 Emaciated Boys Found At Baghdad Orphanage
Iraqi Official Denies Allegations of Abuse


By John Ward Anderson and Dahlia Farooq Washington Post Foreign Service

but get THIS excuse: (it's a good one!!!)

............."The American forces attacked the house about 2 a.m. and broke the doors and caused a huge mess everywhere in the house," she said. "The kids were naked because there was no electricity and the weather is very hot, so we wanted to reduce the heat, and the workers took off the kids' clothes."................

i wanted to post this:

i received it as a comment on the 'why am i crying at 12:57 am' posting i did a couple of days ago:


Concerning the article on PTSD, I just wanted to write that it may benefit active duty & veteran family’s / friends of veterans to read a recently released book titled, “Still the Monkey: What Happens to Warriors After War?” "Author Alivia C. Tagliaferri became inspired to write Still the Monkey: What Happens to Warriors After War after she visited the Walter Reed Medical Center in the summer of 2003, and saw first hand the casualties of the War on Terror. Her later interview with a former Marine and Vietnam Veteran with post-traumatic stress disorder helped cement her determination to express the devastating toll of war. Still the Monkey is a historical fiction novel about a Vietnam veteran plagued with pain and sickness, and his fateful meeting with an Iraq veteran who lost both his legs. For ten days inside the walls of Walter Reed's Monologue House, the two of them begin a painful yet ultimately cathartic progression toward healing and learning to live again, one day at a time. A poignant and powerful novel, written out of the deepest respect and admiration for the men and women who put their lives on the line for the sake of their nation.” - Midwest Book Review. At http://www.ironcuttermedia.com/ you can learn more about this book, which is reality-based work of historical fiction that depicts the problems caused by post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among returning veterans. I hope this post helps educate people out there that need assistance. Take care and God bless.

Wednesday, June 20, 2007

THIS

is who we have guarding walter reed hospital

(please note: the guard in question fired six to ten shots AND DIDN'T HIT HIS INTENDED TARGET. well i mean, thank goddess for that, it's just, well, you know...)

Walter Reed Security Officer Arrested for Firing Gun

the oldest gunshot victim

has been found in the americas (there may be others that were shot BEFORE him, but their remains have yet to be found).
he was killed sometime during the 1530s.


so the sharks (spanish) kicked the shite out of the jets (incas)

nova special on pbs NEXT tuesday! i'll be sure to watch. i'm fascinated with the native peoples of north and south america

Inca Skull Rewrites History of Conquest


By Marc Kaufman Washington Post Staff Writer

The 500-year-old skull, found in a long-forgotten Inca cemetery outside Lima, Peru, had two round holes just across from each other. Nearby was a plug of bone, recovered intact, that carried the distinct markings of an old musket ball.
Archaeologists sensed they had unearthed an important find, but it wasn't until months later that a powerful electron microscope scan confirmed it by finding traces of lead in the skull. The victim, who was between 18 and 22 years old when he died, had been shot by a Spanish conquistador........

another side effect in iraq

of couse this never even crossed my mind but it makes sense - that it would happen due to OUR illegal, unjust and immoral invasion of THEIR country

women and children are ALWAYS hurt

Report: Iraq Violence Leading to Abortions, Drug Abuse Among Civilians

Justin Rood Reports:

Pregnant Iraqi women who have been forced from their homes by worsening violence are obtaining illegal abortions because they are unable to get medical care for themselves and their unborn, according to a new report by a national humanitarian group.
A record number of Iraqis -- most of them women and children -- are fleeing their homes to escape the bloodshed of sectarian violence and anti-U.S. attacks, according to a new report by the Iraqi Red Crescent organization, the largest aid group operating in Iraq.
Health care is inadequate and difficult to access for those people, according to the IRC report.
"Pregnant women, infants and children are unable to get...required medical care," states the report, which was translated from Arabic, "and criminal abortion became [sic] the norms." .........

not only are king george and his court

sending our men and women into imminent danger, the rest of the court (jesters) aren't allowing them to get a MUCH NEEDED break now and again.

king george threatens vetos for this and that. why isn't king george veto-ing this? why isn't he INSISTING our men and women get breaks?

why? i'll tell you. because HE and EVERY OTHER ONE OF THOSE ASS WIPES DON'T GIVE A SHITE that's why.

i do. i care and i want our men and women home safe. their job is to defend america. iraq NEVER attacked america nor did it have plans to do so. we don't belong there.

at the VERY LEAST let our men and women rest now and again. get them OUT of harm's way for a bit

Iraq commanders say no to breaks in combat

By Gregg Zoroya - USA Today

WASHINGTON — U.S. commanders in Iraq are rejecting a recommendation by Army mental health experts that troops receive a one-month break for every three months in a combat zone, despite unprecedented levels of continuous fighting and worsening risks of mental health problems.
Instead, commanders are trying to give troops two to three days inside heavily fortified bases after about eight days in the field, said Brig. Gen. Joseph Anderson, chief aide to the ground forces commander in Iraq, Lt. Gen. Raymond Odierno.
“We would never get the job done of securing [of Baghdad] if we went out for three months and came back” for one, Anderson said.
U.S. forces in Iraq spend more time in continuous combat without a break than those who fought in Vietnam and World War II, according to Army psychologists who studied troops in Iraq.
U.S. commanders can’t match the World War II policy, Odierno said in a news conference late last month. “Even in World War II and other times ... we would pull forces off the line and bring them back on. Here we don’t do that,” Odierno said. “They [U.S. troops] are out there consistently every single day. So you have to be mentally and physically tough.”.....

a shocking find in iraq

but it's happened elsewhere. it's even happened here. not so much in orphanages but in private or semi-private residences

anyone that can do this to a child .......... well i think you can guess how i feel


a special shout out to the troops (both us and iraqi) who rescued these boys (but i have to wonder, what the heck will become of them now???)

Iraqi Orphanage Nightmare
Exclusive: U.S. And Iraqi Troops Discover And Rescue Orphan Boys Left Starving, Chained To Beds


(CBS) It was a scene that shocked battle-hardened soldiers, captured in photographs obtained exclusively by CBS News.

On a daytime patrol in central Baghdad just over than a week ago, a U.S. military advisory team and Iraqi soldiers happened to look over a wall and found something horrific.

"They saw multiple bodies laying on the floor of the facility," Staff Sgt. Mitchell Gibson of the 82nd Airborne Division told CBS News chief foreign correspondent Lara Logan. "They thought they were all dead, so they threw a basketball (to) try and get some attention, and actually one of the kids lifted up their head, tilted it over and just looked and then went back down. And they said, 'oh, they're alive' and so they went into the building."

...........

Tuesday, June 19, 2007

rick, i thought of you

and all of the other ex-mormons whose words i read (thanks to YOUR blog).

it's not just some in the catholic church and it obviously isn't just some mormons either. it's world wide. it doesn't matter your color, your gender, your wealth or your religion.

in some circles it's NOT ok to be gay but it IS ok to be a pedophile

pedophiles MUST be stopped and NOTHING should get in the way of doing so. GOD TOLD ME THIS. you bet your ass she did!

Rory O'Connor: Mirror, Mirror

A BUZZFLASH GUEST CONTRIBUTION by Rory O'Connor
In Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the beautiful but wicked Queen would ask her mirror each day, "Mirror, mirror on the wall, who is the fairest one of all?" And the talking mirror would respond, "Oh My Queen, it seems to me, there is none fairer in the land than thee!"The fairy tale sprang to mind recently at the first annual Mirror Awards for "the best in media industry reporting," sponsored by Syracuse University's S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications. It's no secret (at least in media circles) that the media loves nothing as much as awards ceremonies. This is especially true when the awards are being presented to the media... And given this century's explosion of new forms of media content and technology, with its concomitant boom in reporting about that media, it's not surprising that awards ceremonies for media about the media would soon follow. The Mirror Awards, which honor reporters, editors, and teams of writers "who hold a mirror to their own industry for the public's benefit," are but the latest entrant in the media awards sweepstakes..

......The Post Register ran a six-day series about the affair. The first story featured a 14-year-old camper -- "the son of a Mormon seminary teacher and a cinch to become an Eagle Scout" -- who forced adult leaders to call the police about the pedophile.Then the backlash began. Mormon church members were among the first to complain, characterizing the paper's coverage as an attack on their faith. "The drums banged, and we were flooded with calls and e-mails and letters to the editor from readers who told us that holding the Grand Teton Council accountable was Mormon-bashing," Miller recounted...........

what? as in BOWEL?

Bush demands 'movement' from Iraqi leaders

the nutmeg grater: voices in conflict#links#links

the nutmeg grater: voices in conflict#links#links

at the very least this is sobering

i don't even have words for it, at it's very most

these men are absolute savages. they are evil and ugly inside. absolute power corrupts absolutely

they MUST be taken OUT of office.

The General’s Report
How Antonio Taguba, who investigated the Abu Ghraib scandal, became one of its casualties.


by Seymour M. Hersh

On the afternoon of May 6, 2004, Army Major General Antonio M. Taguba was summoned to meet, for the first time, with Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld in his Pentagon conference room. Rumsfeld and his senior staff were to testify the next day, in televised hearings before the Senate and the House Armed Services Committees, about abuses at Abu Ghraib prison, in Iraq. The previous week, revelations about Abu Ghraib, including photographs showing prisoners stripped, abused, and sexually humiliated, had appeared on CBS and in The New Yorker. In response, Administration officials had insisted that only a few low-ranking soldiers were involved and that America did not torture prisoners. They emphasized that the Army itself had uncovered the scandal. ..............

............“Here . . . comes . . . that famous General Taguba—of the Taguba report!” Rumsfeld declared, in a mocking voice. The meeting was attended by Paul Wolfowitz, Rumsfeld’s deputy; Stephen Cambone, the Under-Secretary of Defense for Intelligence; General Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (J.C.S.); and General Peter Schoomaker, the Army chief of staff, along with Craddock and other officials. Taguba, describing the moment nearly three years later, said, sadly, “I thought they wanted to know. I assumed they wanted to know. I was ignorant of the setting.”.............

yeah..........so...........

what? yet another instance of wrong doing (granted not THE worst find of wrong doing) and NOTHING will be done (well if anything is done, some little squirrel will have to be the sacrifice. none of the big dogs are going to go down)

and oh by the way, we all know NO email can EVER be destroyed. you can destroy the pc, the laptop, the hard drive. that email will LIVE ON FOREVER ON THE SERVER

Bush Aides' Misuse of E-Mail Detailed by House Committee


By Michael Abramowitz Washington Post Staff Writer

White House aides made extensive use of political e-mail accounts for official government business, despite rules requiring that they conduct such business through official communications channels, according to new evidence disclosed yesterday by congressional investigators.
The
Republican National Committee told the investigators that White House senior political adviser Karl Rove alone sent or received more than 140,000 e-mails between 2002 and 2007, more than half of which involved individuals using official ".gov" e-mail accounts, a report from the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee said. The RNC said it still has copies of those e-mails.............

a budget of 1 billion (and i'm sure there's a plus sign after that)

over 1,000 employees (doing the 'lords's work'). well they need all that shite to 'do the nation's most important work'????????????????? huh?

why are they building the BIGGEST, COSTLIEST, MOST SECRET embassy in the universe in iraq? this article isn't about the new embassy but the old. old or new it gives me the chills.

they want 'the best people' to work there. WHO IN THEIR RIGHT F**KING MINDS WOULD WANT to work there?

why isn't more money being funneled into health care (mental and physical) for our returning troops? why are we tossing them aside (yet giving bonus money to the powers that be on the va staff???)

if you don't see injustice, lack of morals, insanity here, well then, there is absolutely something WRONG with YOU
Embassy Staff In Baghdad Inadequate, Rice Is Told
Ambassador's Memo Asks for 'Best People'



By Glenn Kessler Washington Post Staff Writer
Ryan C. Crocker, the new U.S. ambassador to Iraq, bluntly told Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in a cable dated May 31 that the embassy in Baghdad -- the largest and most expensive U.S. embassy -- lacks enough well-qualified staff members and that its security rules are too restrictive for Foreign Service officers to do their jobs.
"Simply put, we cannot do the nation's most important work if we do not have the Department's best people," Crocker said in the memo.

The unclassified cable underscores the State Department's struggle to find its role in the turmoil in Iraq. With a 2007 budget of more than $1 billion and a staff that has expanded to more than 1,000 Americans and 4,000 third-country nationals, the embassy has become the center of a bureaucratic battle between Crocker, who wants to strengthen the staff, and some members of Congress, who are increasingly skeptical about the diplomatic mission's rising costs......


Monday, June 18, 2007

someone better put down that crack pipe

and back away slowly


Bush warns he'll use veto power to rein in spending

IS HE KIDDING ME?????????????WTF?????????????

look below for what HE is spending:


Cost of the War in Iraq
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instead of worrying about scooter

why don't they worry about army spc gerald lee meeks OR better protecting sgt robert j. montgomery, jr?

why? BECAUSE NOT ONLY DON'T THEY KNOW HE EXISTS THEY DON'T GIVE A F**K that's why

Carrying friend in body bag haunts soldier

By Cal Perry

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- U.S. Army Spc. Gerald Lee Meeks says all he wanted in Iraq was to "keep everybody alive, all my buddies."
That hope was shattered last month when a roadside bomb blew up one of his best friends, and Meeks had to carry his slain buddy more than a mile back to base.
"I didn't want to believe it until I actually had to carry his body bag, which was pretty bad," he says, making a fist with his left hand and smashing it against a wall. "We had to carry him two clicks [kilometers] all the way back here."
There's a long silence as Meeks looks at two comrades. Finally, after a pause that seems like hours, he slowly says, "Those images will always be in your head. I'm sure many people over here got them, but I mean ... it just sucks. ... He has three kids and a wife."
He pauses again, correcting himself: "A widow."
His friend was Army Sgt. Robert J. Montgomery Jr., 29, of Scottsburg, Indiana. He was killed May 22 when a roadside bomb went off during a patrol not far from Fire Base Red, which is in Iraq's "Triangle of Death" about 15 miles (25 kilometers) southeast of Baghdad..........



he says it all in the first paragraph

man do i love him

saving scooter vs sending our men and women into imminent danger

what do YOU think king george and his court care MORE about?


Begging His Pardon

by Bill Moyers
We have yet another remarkable revelation of the mindset of Washington's ruling clique of neoconservative elites—the people who took us to war from the safety of their Beltway bunkers. Even as Iraq grows bloodier by the day, their passion of the week is to keep one of their own from going to jail.
It is well known that I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby—once Vice President Cheney’s most trusted adviser—has been sentenced to 30 months in jail for perjury. Lying. Not a white lie, mind you. A killer lie. Scooter Libby deliberately poured poison into the drinking water of democracy by lying to federal investigators, for the purpose of obstructing justice............

shite

LITERALLY

Turds found in Capitol, but no 'blossoms' in sight

According to a Capitol Hill newspaper, police are unable to solve the mystery of the "caca caper."
"Usually, if a turd gets into the Senate, it’s because he or she was elected," Emily Heil reports for Roll Call. "But on Wednesday, several large piles of actual, nonmetaphorical 'No. 2' found their way into the Capitol, and the source isn’t yet clear."
Heil continues, "On Wednesday afternoon, Capitol Police cordoned off a section of the hallway on the third floor of the Senate side of the Capitol, where at least three piles of the stuff were causing a stench — and a stir. At first, the word circulating among the staff was that a visiting child had fallen ill while in the gallery. But then the prevailing theory was that the foul stuff had come from an adult or group of adults making a yet-to-be-determined political statement." .........

why am i crying at 12:57 am on monday morning?

my eyemake up is all put on. i'm doing a little posting prior to going to work. why am i so sad? because our king and his court don't give a flying yoo hoo about the men and women they are sending into danger. not only don't they care while our sons and daughters and mothers and fathers and friends and neighbors are in iraq and afghanistan, but they don't care when (OR IF) they come home.

no matter what, even if they're whole on the outside, they all come back a bit (degrees vary) broken on the INSIDE. we OWE them. we OWE them big. it is the responsibility of the king and his court to ORDER they get THE BEST treatment possible. not tomorrow, BUT TODAY

Little Relief on Ward 53
At Walter Reed, Care for Soldiers Struggling With War's Mental Trauma Is Undermined by Doctor Shortages and Unfocused Methods



Anne Hull and Dana Priest Washington Post Staff Writers Monday, June 18, 2007; Page A01

On the military plane that crossed the ocean at night, the wounded lay in stretchers stacked three high. The drone of engines was broken by the occasional sound of moaning. Sedated and sleeping, Pfc. Joshua Calloway was at the top of one stack last September. Unlike the others around him, Calloway was handcuffed to his stretcher.
When the 20-year-old infantry soldier woke up, he was on the locked-down psychiatric ward at
Walter Reed Army Medical Center. A nurse handed him pajamas and a robe, but they reminded him of the flowing clothes worn by Iraqi men. He told the nurse, "I don't want to look like a freakin' Haj." He wanted his uniform. Request denied. Shoelaces and belts were prohibited.............

Sunday, June 17, 2007

severe and chronic

that is the condition of some of our returning (not even counting the ones still serving in the middle east). in need of IMMEDIATE treatment.

king george sent these men and women into harm's way. not only has he NOT attended ONE funeral, HE is NOT doing anything to help those returning home in pieces (physically as well as mentally). i read the other day (and i didn't post it because i didn't want to use someone's name - who had died in this evil, unjust, immoral and illegal war) he met with the parents and girlfriend (or wife, i've forgotten) of a solider killed in iraq. yeah, king george gave the family a few medals - and my favorite part COLORING BOOKS FOR THE KIDS. yeah, if i was a child and king george sent my father into iraq to be killed i know how i'd feel if he then turned around and gave ME coloring books........... at any rate, THE LEAST KING GEORGE AND HIS COURT CAN DO IS SHUT THE F**K UP ABOUT EVERYTHING ELSE AND GET THESE MEN AND WOMEN THE TREATMENT AND HELP THEY NEED. AND DO IT NOW

The War Inside
Troops Are Returning From the Battlefield With Psychological Wounds, But the Mental-Health System That Serves Them Makes Healing Difficult


By Dana Priest and Anne Hull

Army Spec. Jeans Cruz helped capture Saddam Hussein. When he came home to the Bronx, important people called him a war hero and promised to help him start a new life. The mayor of New York, officials of his parents' home town in Puerto Rico, the borough president and other local dignitaries honored him with plaques and silk parade sashes. They handed him their business cards and urged him to phone.
But a "black shadow" had followed Cruz home from
Iraq, he confided to an Army counselor. He was hounded by recurring images of how war really was for him: not the triumphant scene of Hussein in handcuffs, but visions of dead Iraqi children.........

............At a low point, he went to the local Department of Veterans Affairs medical center for help. One VA psychologist diagnosed Cruz with post-traumatic stress disorder. His condition was labeled "severe and chronic." In a letter supporting his request for PTSD-related disability pay, the psychologist wrote that Cruz was "in need of major help" and that he had provided "more than enough evidence" to back up his PTSD claim. His combat experiences, the letter said, "have been well documented."
None of that seemed to matter when his case reached VA disability evaluators. They turned him down flat, ruling that he deserved no compensation because his psychological problems existed before he joined the Army..............