sahar hussein ali al-haydari, hero?

or was she just like you and me? woman, mother, patriot, journalist, neighbor

heros ARE ordinary people

she gave her life to tell a story AND to save her country (and so did 105 OTHER journalists in iraq since 2003)

A Reporter Pays Iraq's Final Price

By Anthony Borden

We do not know why Sahar went that last time to Mosul. But we do know why she was killed. A democrat, a journalist and a woman -- it's a lethal combination in Iraq.
Sahar Hussein Ali al-Haydari, 44, was fearless in writing about attempts by extremists to establish an Iraqi Islamic emirate based around her home town of Mosul. She was harsh on efforts to foment sectarian conflict: The last article we received was a Romeo and Juliet tale of a girl stoned to death for converting from Yezidism (a Kurdish sect) to Islam because she fell in love with a Muslim boy. She wrote, too, about restrictions placed on women by religiously driven insurgents........

329

329 (MORE) us deaths in iraq in the past three months. that is THE highest 3 month total since the king STARTED this unjust, illegal and immoral war against terrorists (who didn't exist until HE invaded their country)

how long are YOU going to let king george and his court get away with the murder of our sons and daughters and husbands and wives and neighbors and friends?

Worst 3 months for U.S. in Iraq since war began
5 GIs killed in latest attack, bringing U.S. toll to 329 for the past 3 months

BAGHDAD - Insurgents launched a deadly coordinated attack on an American combat patrol, the U.S. military said Friday, killing five troops and making this the deadliest quarter for U.S. soldiers in Iraq since the war began.
Assailants detonated a roadside bomb, then fired guns and rocket-propelled grenades at the soldiers. Seven troops were wounded in the attack on Thursday in southern Baghdad and were evacuated to a military hospital; one has since returned to duty, the military said.
The deaths brought to 99 the number of U.S. troops to die in Iraq this month, according to an Associated Press count. The toll for the past three months — 329 — made it the deadliest such period for GIs since the war began in March 2003.......

5 U.S. Soldiers Killed in Iraq Attack


By Joshua Partlow Washington Post Foreign Service

BAGHDAD, June 29--A coordinated attack in southern Baghdad killed five American soldiers and wounded seven others, raising the total number of U.S. fatalities in June to 100, the U.S. military said Friday.
The soldiers were on a combat patrol Thursday when a roadside bomb exploded near them. Insurgents quickly followed with small arms fire and rocket-propelled grenades, according to a statement. Of the seven soldiers evacuated to a military hospital, one was able to return to duty. The soldiers' names were withheld until their families could be notified.......

this posting is for YOU beth

----------> (not ketchup BUT tomato ice cream: mdn.mainichi-msn.co.jp

you know, ketchup NEVER got it's due. all the talk now is about salsa. yes, i like, well love salsa, but c'mon, salsa is NO ketchup. as the old grrrl scout adage goes, make new friends, BUT KEEP THE OLD - one is silver and the other is gold

KETCHUP is my favorite condiment. it always has been and always will be. it can and does go on just about ANYTHING. it can be mixed with things (mayo, mustard, sweeteners, vinegar and my favorite mix - wasabi) and forms the BASE of things such as b-b-q sauce (a WHOLE other love of mine. and yes, i'm vegan but STILL love me some b b q)

when beth and i worked together years ago, we used to occasionally go out after a hard day o' sweating over the papers on our desks. the morning after our outings when i'd open my handbag to get my makeup out (or whatever) i'd ALWAYS find a mini bottle (or two) of ketchup (it MYSTERIOUSLY APPEARED ONLY AFTER OUTINGS WITH BETH). i miss those times and i miss seeing beth every day - but we're still friends and she's always in my heart

AS IS KETCHUP!!!

Ketchup is better with upside-down, bigger bottle

By Frank Greve McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON - People used to reach for the ketchup bottle with a little dread.
Would they have to poke a knife up the bottle's neck to get the ketchup going? If the bottle was an old-fashioned squeezable, would it emit that conversation-stopping sound that made kids giggle? Would the first thing out of the bottle be a sneeze of watery juice?
Those days are virtually over, and the liberation is especially worth celebrating around Independence Day, the year's peak holiday for ketchup.
The condiment's founding fathers were East Asian spice exporters who sold British and Dutch traders something like Worcestershire sauce that they called "ketsiap." That was in the 1600s. A century later, Nova Scotia farmers added surplus tomatoes and sugar to the mix. The rest is history......

four bottle picture: bradleysalmanac.com

broken bottle picture: mehrzweckbeutel.de

linux wrapper: linux.duke.edu/~icon/bizarre/linux_ketchup.jpg

hellskitcheninc.com
groups.msn.com/.../ketchup%20cake.jpg
ragtimepiano.ca/images/ketchup.jpg

al qaida al qaida al qaida al qaida al qaida al qaida al qaida al qaida

ummmmmmmm NOPE - it's YOU YOU YOU YOU and YOU king george. iraq was NEVER a threat to us UNTIL YOU illegally, immorally and unjustly invaded THEIR country. what was NOT a terrorist harboring country NOW is certainly leaning that way. if they are there (the terrorists) YOU helped PUT THEM THERE. you are a GIANT weenie and NOBODY likes you

we WON'T get fooled again!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Bush plays al Qaida card to bolster support for Iraq policy

By Jonathan S. Landay McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON — Facing eroding support for his Iraq policy, even among Republicans, President Bush on Thursday called al Qaida "the main enemy" in Iraq, an assertion rejected by his administration's senior intelligence analysts.
The reference, in a major speech at the Naval War College that referred to al Qaida at least 27 times, seemed calculated to use lingering outrage over the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, to bolster support for the current buildup of U.S. troops in Iraq, despite evidence that sending more troops hasn't reduced the violence or sped Iraqi government action on key issues.
Bush called al Qaida in Iraq the perpetrator of the worst violence racking that country and said it was the same group that had carried out the Sept. 11 attacks in New York and Washington.......

what a GREAT ambassador

for truth, JUSTICE and the american way!!!

N O T

a judge who also (in addition to king george and his court) spits on our constitution

i too think we have to defend ourselves against terrorists (many of which WE are responsible for creating. NO not all of them, but many). BUT this is america not north korea, or cuba, or iran. WE have to do it within the boundries of our OWN laws

Secret trials for terrorists, says US judge

David Nason, Chicago

A TOP-RANKING US judge has stunned a conference of Australian judges and barristers in Chicago by advocating secret trials for terrorists, more surveillance of Muslim populations across North America and an end to counter-terrorism efforts being "hog-tied" by the US constitution.
Judge Richard Posner, a supposedly liberal-leaning jurist regarded by many as a future US Supreme Court candidate, said traditional concepts of criminal justice were inadequate to deal with the terrorist threat and the US had "over-invested" in them.
His proposed "big brother" solutions flabbergasted delegates at the Australian Bar Association's biennial conference, where David Hicks's lawyer, Major Michael Mori, is to be awarded honorary life membership.
"We have to fight terrorism with our strengths, and our strengths evolve around technology, including the technology of surveillance," said Justice Posner, a prolific legal scholar who sits on the US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. .........

speaking of animals (but NOT cruelty this time, thank goddess)

i don't think ANY of us are surprised at this: Why Do Cats Hang Around Us? (Hint: They Can't Open Cans)
Genetic Research Suggests Felines 'Domesticated Themselves'


By David Brown Washington Post Staff Writer

Your hunch is correct. Your cat decided to live with you, not the other way around. The sad truth is, it may not be a final decision.
But don't take this feline diffidence personally. It runs in the family. And it goes back a long way -- about 12,000 years, actually.
Those are among the inescapable conclusions of a genetic study of the origins of the domestic cat, being published today in the journal Science.
The findings, drawn from an analysis of nearly 1,000 cats around the world, suggest that the ancestors of today's tabbies, Persians and Siamese wandered into Near Eastern settlements at the dawn of agriculture. They were looking for food, not friendship...........


Study Traces Cat’s Ancestry to Middle East

By NICHOLAS WADE

Some 10,000 years ago, somewhere in the Near East, an audacious wildcat crept into one of the crude villages of early human settlers, the first to domesticate wheat and barley. There she felt safe from her many predators in the region, such as hyenas and larger cats.
The rodents that infested the settlers’ homes and granaries were sufficient prey. Seeing that she was earning her keep, the settlers tolerated her, and their children greeted her kittens with delight.
At least five females of the wildcat subspecies known as Felis silvestris lybica accomplished this delicate transition from forest to village. And from these five matriarchs all the world’s 600 million house cats are descended.
A scientific basis for this scenario has been established by Carlos A. Driscoll of the National Cancer Institute and his colleagues. He spent more than six years collecting species of wildcat in places as far apart as Scotland, Israel, Namibia and Mongolia. He then analyzed the DNA of the wildcats and of many house cats and fancy cats..........

oh by the way, i'm a dog person. i love cats, don't get me wrong. i lived with five cats once (not mine although one was JUST like me. that was duchess kahanamoku de la tunette). the others were, pearl (a shear beauty and delight. almost every day she'd leave us a present on our doorstep. it was very noble of her. she could very well have eaten it herself, but no, she left it for US ), sven (a scamp), mustapha (an all around good egg of a feline) and of course EVERY ONE'S favorite jean-paul. i believe i have mentioned him from time to time. we thought he was a runt. when we got him he was supposedly eight weeks old. NO WAY, when we took him to the vets we found out he was about 3 1/2 weeks old. we named him jean-paul (and he did speak french) after pope jean-paul i. we figured like the pope, he wouldn't last more than 33 days. we were wrong. that cat was so un-catlike it was amazing! you had to be VERY careful when you got out of your car. as soon as you opened the door, he'd jump in. HE LOVED GOING FOR RIDES. he loved kids too. any large gathering of folk - as i said, that cat was NOT like any cat anyone had come across before. he'd seek out groups of children in our hood. he just wanted to get in the middle and play with them. he LOVED going for walks with you. he'd follow along. when he saw there was no giant canary or mouse at the end of the walk, he'd get pissed and you'd have to pick him up and carry him home. jean-paul also loved going to the vets. do you know ANY cat (or dog) that LIKES going to the vets? well i don't. he fought a lot so he WAS at the vets a lot. he was silver and buff colored-stripes. when they shaved him (to put the mostacholi like drains in him every time he got an infection from a fight) you could see his skin was striped too. his ears were HUGE and bat-like. he was gorgeous and he KNEW IT. the vet technicians delighted in having jean-paul as a visitor. they never left him in a cage. he was always allowed to roam the premises freely. they also discovered what a fan of peanut butter jean-paul was.

sometimes jean-paul wouldn't come home for a day or two. nothing to worry about - he always turned up. then the times away from home, started getting longer and longer. i wasn't worried though. he ALWAYS came back fatter, sweeter smelling AND cleaner than when he took off. he obviously adopted another set of humans. one day jean-paul just never came home. i just think he decided to stay with that other family.

NOTE: the picture is NOT jean-paul. the ears are too small, the eyes are not green and the markings aren't as distinctive as jean-pauls. i have pictures of him somewhere. i'll keep searching till i find them

do YOU want this dog torturer to be president?

i sure don't. how cruel. how uncaring. how insane.

Romney's Cruel Canine Vacation

The reporter intended the anecdote that opened part four of the Boston Globe's profile of Mitt Romney to illustrate, as the story said, "emotion-free crisis management": Father deals with minor — but gross — incident during a 1983 family vacation, and saves the day. But the details of the event are more than unseemly — they may, in fact, be illegal.
The incident: dog excrement found on the roof and windows of the Romney station wagon. How it got there: Romney strapped a dog carrier — with the family dog Seamus, an Irish Setter, in it — to the roof of the family station wagon for a twelve hour drive from Boston to Ontario, which the family apparently completed, despite Seamus's rather visceral protest. .......

on the surface this may NOT seem like good news

but NOT to worry. IT IS

we can sleep tonight. we can rest easy right now. IT WAS ALL AN UGLY UGLY UGLY MISTAKE. the giant weenie did NOT have stolen plates on it (whewwwwwwwwwwww)

Oscar Mayer Wienermobile pulled over by mistake

By Dale Quinn

Cops everywhere can rest a little easier today — there's no longer a need to be on the lookout for a hot Wienermobile.
Oscar Mayer's super-sized fiberglass hot dog on a bun was pulled over about 10:30 Wednesday morning on Interstate 10 near the South Sixth Avenue exit.
Blame a few bad keystrokes rather than the munchies for the unscheduled stop.
A bad computer entry mistakenly showed the Wienermobile was sporting a stolen license plate, prompting an officer in an unmarked car to pull the dog over, said Officer Carmen Figueroa, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Public Safety. .........

speaking of gypsies

there's a movie playing on one of the movie stations on cable called

black cat white cat

or

Crna macka, beli macor

no need to bore you with details or plot outlines (if you NEED them, here they are at the ny times)

one word for you

Z A N Y

catch it if you can

now they'll only dance IF and WHEN THEY want to!

it's wonderful news! now if only we can get ALL of the animals out of ALL of the circuses. they don't belong there. tigers, lions, elephants, chimps, orangutans and on and on. they are NOT treated well - no matter what you read. bring your kids to cirque de soleil instead. wonderful entertainment and NO animals

Animal rights activists buy freedom for Bulgaria's last 3 dancing bears

VESELIN TOSHKOV Associated Press Writer
(AP) - SOFIA, Bulgaria-Bulgaria's last three dancing bears are being sent to a mountain sanctuary after activists bought their freedom Friday in an effort to stamp out the centuries-old tradition which has survived in the Balkans despite being outlawed.
The trio - 8-year-old Mima, Misho, 19, and Svetla, 17 - will join another 20 brown bears in their new home on Mount Rila, a 12-hectare (30-acre) sanctuary 180 kilometers (110 miles) south of Sofia partly funded by a foundation run by former French actress Brigitte Bardot............

four paws

bear photo: four paws

gypsy photo: A member of Bulgaria's Stanev gypsy family and owners of dancing bears is seen in the village of Getsovo some 400km (250 miles) east of the Bulgarian capital Sofia, Friday, June, 15, 2007. The last three of Bulgaria's famed dancing bears have now stepped down from the floor. Animal rights activists bought on Friday the animals their freedom by giving small grants to the people in the eastern village of Getsovo who exploited them. 'The three bears dubbed Misho, Svetla and Mima will not dance on hot surfaces anymore. (AP Photo/Petar Petrov)

help needed desperately

if you have any extra size 36 or 38 custom made navy blue uniform pants

well then the baltimore police sure could use them

i have it i have it

the secret of the universe

how to make friends and influence people

how to make a kazillion dollars

how to pick up dudes or chicks

how to drive your friends and family WILD with envy

how to feed the hungry

how to heal the sick

how to stop wars





here

it

is



just click here for the ELVIS WIG pattern

it's no bad news thursday: check out cultureproject

women center stage

how in the HELL could i have missed this?

talk about a slap in the face!

At Picnic, Bush Tells New Orleans Jazz Musician to ‘Pick Up Trash’ After Performance

Posted by Jon Ponder

At the annual congressional picnic yesterday, Pres. George Bush, addressing the crowd of 1,500, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, suggested that the African American musicians performing for the event should earn their keep after they performed:..........

this is right from the whitehouse website: (i'm NOT making this shite up. wish with all my might i was, but i'm not)

President and Mrs. Bush Host Congressional Picnic

THE PRESIDENT: Kermit Ruffins and the Barbeque Swingers, right out of New Orleans, Louisiana. (Applause.)
MR. RUFFINS: Thank you. Thanks for having us. We're glad to be here.
THE PRESIDENT: Proud you're here. Thanks for coming. You all enjoy yourself. Make sure you pick up all the trash after it's over. (Laughter.)

photo: neworleansmusiciansrelief.net/artists

seems to me

da liebs, da big dick and the king do NOT make up 30% of the american population. so WHO THE HELL ARE THIS 30%

Poll: GOP support for Iraq war beginning to waver

after lugar

i guess no one wanted to be first. little by little they WILL come to the side of light. to the side or right. to the side of the law. to the side of morals and ethics. to the side WITH A SOUL

GOP Skepticism On Iraq Growing
Key Senators Urge Reduction in Troops


By Karen DeYoung and Shailagh Murray Washington Post Staff Writers

Key Republican senators, signaling increasing GOP skepticism about President Bush's strategy in Iraq, have called for a reduction in U.S. forces and launched preemptive efforts to counter a much-awaited administration progress report due in September.
In an unannounced speech on the Senate floor Monday night, Sen. Richard G. Lugar (Ind.), the ranking Republican on the Foreign Relations Committee, said the U.S. military escalation begun in the spring has "very limited" prospects for success. He called on Bush to begin reducing U.S. forces. "We don't owe the president our unquestioning agreement," Lugar said......

.........Sen. George V. Voinovich (R-Ohio), a member of the Foreign Relations Committee, sent a letter to Bush yesterday urging the president to develop "a comprehensive plan for our country's gradual military disengagement" from Iraq. "I am also concerned that we are running out of time," he wrote.......

part iv - the big dick goes stealth

when you read all of this series, it mades you MORE frightened than before. frightened, angry and certainly in a state of disbelief

Leaving No Tracks

By Jo Becker and Barton Gellman Washington Post Staff Writers

Sue Ellen Wooldridge, the 19th-ranking Interior Department official, arrived at her desk in Room 6140 a few months after Inauguration Day 2001. A phone message awaited her.
"This is Dick Cheney," said the man on her voice mail, Wooldridge recalled in an interview. "I understand you are the person handling this Klamath situation. Please call me at -- hmm, I guess I don't know my own number. I'm over at the White House."
Wooldridge wrote off the message as a prank. It was not. Cheney had reached far down the chain of command, on so unexpected a point of vice presidential concern, because he had spotted a political threat arriving on Wooldridge's desk.........

claire mccaskill, senator from mo, returns from iraq

and she has plenty to say.

let's just hope her actions echo her words

prospect.org/cs/articles?article=auditing_the_war

Terence Samuel

Claire McCaskill, who has Harry Truman's old Senate seat, returns from Iraq with some blunt talk on the war and contracting abuse.

Claire McCaskill, the freshman senator from Missouri who sits in Harry Truman's desk in the Senate and who has earned her own reputation as a straight-talker, went to Baghdad last week. She wanted to get a look at how we were spending the $2 billion that is gushing out of the Treasury each and every week for the war in Iraq.
The former state auditor, who has been railing about the need for more congressional oversight since she got to Washington, returned from her visit lamenting the 'cost-plus' contracts that have enriched so many of the independent contractors doing business with the U.S. government in Iraq. Such contracts pay contractors a profit as a percentage of whatever the project costs. ....

........... "I will tell you that anyone who has come over and spent time talking to the troops and comes home and says, 'They all think what we're doing is great and we need to stay here as long as it takes,' are not honestly talking to the troops," McCaskill says. "There are many of them at this point, especially those, I found, that have been deployed for the second or third time, that are very discouraged and do not believe that we are making meaningful progress in terms of what we're trying to accomplish over here." ..........

uh - oh

someone with a set of stones............(now if only MORE could grow them. it's possible, we've seen it happen.......)

GOP Senator Says Iraq Plan Not Working


By ANNE FLAHERTY The Associated PressTuesday, June 26, 2007; 4:50 AM
WASHINGTON -- Sen. Richard Lugar, a senior Republican and a reliable vote for President Bush on the war, said that Bush's Iraq strategy was not working and that the U.S. should downsize the military's role.
The unusually blunt assessment Monday deals a political blow to Bush, who has relied heavily on GOP support to stave off anti-war legislation.
It also comes as a surprise. Most Republicans have said they were willing to wait until September to see if Bush's recently ordered troop buildup in Iraq was working.......

i wanted to post this by dr edward rhymes

i think he has a few good points but some of the article is shite.

first, what i'm getting from the article is he's blaming 'the man' (the man being the white man) for hip hop and rap. cause the man owns all record labels and recording studios and every other thing in the universe (while i agree to an extent the world IS indeed owned by the good ol' white boy network, i also know many a rap, hip hop and OTHER types of music are owned by, produced by and distributed by black-owned or people-of-color owned companies). there is NO equality however. white man wins (understand, i do NOT think that's right)

dr rhymes states white music (in addition to gangsta rap, hip hop) also has horrid lyrics - lyrics about murder, killings, drugs and certainly treating women in a more than derogatory fashion. i couldn't agree with you MORE there dr. rhymes. i'm only going to talk about the misogyny portion here. not enough space OR time right now to talk about the death and blood and drug portions. so let's STOP IT ALL in ALL colors of music (does music HAVE a color dr rhymes?). let's teach our children, both our grrrls AND our boys to treat each OTHER with respect. let's teach our children grrrls and women are NO LESS equal than our boys and men. let's teach them grrrls and women MUST be treated with honor. they are NOT to be owned and used and abused and treated like 'hos' and 'bitches'. let's teach ALL of our children that, ALL COLORS of our children.

not only do i NOT like the music of snopp dogg, but i sure as hell DO NOT like the music of kid rock or eminem or guns n' roses or on and on and on. i'm NOT afraid of sexuality in music (the songs of leonard cohen, the early works of al green, prince singing 'do me baby' or tim buckley singing 'get on top') but it has to be a GOOD HEALTHY sexuality. one where women DO NOT get hurt mentally OR physically

p.s. dr rhymes, i watched sex and the city for one FULL episode and i attempted to watch it twice more. it made my stomach churn. i HATED it. i felt it did a giant disservice to ALL women. what makes me angriest is how many women, my friends included, LOVED that show. i simply do NOT understand. dr rhymes i also think if, let's say nicole kidman flashed her nipple for a milisecond in the halftime show at the superbowl, things would have proceeded EXACTLY the same way as it did when janet jackson did it. think about it.........

let's all stop pointing our fingers and let's all EDUCATE EDUCATE EDUCATE (and it doesn't hurt to lead by example)

Caucasian Please! America's Cultural Double Standard For Misogyny & Racism

By Dr. Edward Rhymes, Black Agenda Report. Posted June 26, 2007.

.........Introduction
In this composition I will not be addressing the whole of hip-hop and rap, but rather hardcore and gangsta rap. It is my assertion that the mainstream media and political pundits -- right and left -- have painted rap and hip-hop with a very broad brush. Let me be perfectly clear, hardcore and gangsta rap is not listened to, watched, consumed or supported in my home and never has been. I will not be an apologist for anything that chooses to frame the dialogue about Black women (and women in general) and Black life in morally bankrupt language and reprehensible symbols.
In the wake of MSNBC's and CBS's firing of Don Imus, the debate over misogyny, sexism and racism has now taken flight -- or submerged, depending on your point of view............

..........Gangsta and hardcore rap is the product of a society that has historically objectified and demeaned women, and commercialized sex. These dynamics are present in hip hop to the extent that they are present in society. The rapper who grew up in the inner-city watched the same sexist television programs, commercials and movies; had access to the same pornographic and misogynistic magazines and materials; and read the same textbooks that limited the presence and excluded the achievements of women (and people of color as well), as the All-American, Ivy-league bound, white kid in suburban America........

'we don't take this as a burden, he's our son'

well there are many other sons and daughters out there. we can't let this continue

to the brisenos, my thoughts and prayers are with you.

you are stronger than i am

'Most severely wounded' soldier endures: blind, quadriplegic, struggling to breathe

TAMPA, Florida: He lies flat, unseeing eyes fixed on the ceiling, tubes and machines feeding him, breathing for him, keeping him alive. He cannot walk or talk, but he can grimace and cry. And he is fully aware of what has happened to him.
Four years ago almost to this day, Joseph Briseno Jr. was shot in the back of the head at point-blank range in a Baghdad marketplace. His spinal cord was shattered, and cardiac arrests stole his vision and damaged his brain.
The 24-year-old is one of the most severely injured soldiers — some think the most injured soldier — to survive.
"Three things you would not want to be: blind, head injury, and paralyzed from the neck down. That's tough," said Dr. Steven Scott, head of the Polytrauma Rehabilitation Center at the Tampa VA Medical Center, where Briseno has twice been hospitalized for extensive care. In recent days, Briseno was hospitalized yet again, this time at the Washington, D.C., VA Medical Center.
As a high schooler, Briseno liked the Discovery Channel and CSI, and wanted to be a forensic scientist or investigator. He was 20, attending George Mason University, when he was called up from the reserves and sent to war.............

who said high school kids don't care these days?

NOT me that's for sure. these kids are KICK ASS!!!

Students hand Bush letter urging ban on torture

While meeting with a group of high school seniors from the Presidential Scholars program in the East Room of the White House, President Bush received an unexpected surprise: a letter signed by 50 of them urging Bush to halt "violations of the human rights" of terror suspects held by the United States.
According to AP, "The White House says Bush did not expect the letter but took a moment to read it and talk with a young woman who'd handed it to him."
White House spokesman Dana Perino said Bush let the student know "the United States does not torture and that we value human rights," a statement seemingly contradicted by Bush's signing statement which gave him power to largely ignore a Congressional ban on torture spearheaded by Sen. John McCain (R-AZ)..........

how safe does this

make YOU feel?

(i know it makes me want to puke my guts up)

Report blasts U.S. for failures in fighting terrorism

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A just-released report slams the federal government for failing to coordinate the work of U.S. law enforcement agencies overseas to fight terrorism.
The Government Accountability Office found that in one country a lack of clarity about the roles and responsibilities of the FBI and the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency may have compromised several investigations intended to identify and disrupt potential terrorist activities.
The GAO did not name the country in its report.
The White House has long issued directives asking that U.S. law enforcement agencies assist foreign nations' anti-terrorism efforts.
But the report finds that embassy and law enforcement officials told the GAO "they had received little or no guidance" on how to accomplish that.
The issue of roles and responsibilities "remains unresolved and is still subject to ongoing debates within the administration," it said.
The 2003 National Strategy for Combating Terrorism instructed the State Department to develop and coordinate U.S. counterterrorism policy abroad, but the report says that was not done.........

part iii: the big dick uses his hands

for more than jerking off

A Strong Push From Back Stage

By Jo Becker and Barton Gellman Washington Post Staff Writers

Air Force Two touched down at the Greenbrier Valley Airport in West Virginia on Feb. 6, 2003, carrying Vice President Cheney to the annual retreat of Republican House and Senate leaders. He had come to sell them on the economic centerpiece of President Bush's first term: a $674 billion tax cut.
Cheney had spent months making sure the package contained everything he wanted. One thing was missing.
The president had accepted Cheney's diagnosis that the sluggish economy needed a jolt, overruling senior economic advisers who forecast dangerous budget deficits. But Bush rejected one of Cheney's remedies: deep reductions in the capital gains tax on investments.
The vice president "was just hot on that," said Cesar Conda, then Cheney's domestic policy adviser. "It goes to show you: He wins and he loses, and he lost on that one."
Not for long..........

4.5 million will buy a lot of food

so we're presented with YET ANOTHER story about a halliburton company (or 'former' halliburton' company) screwed us. and what will we do? most likely we'll HIRE THEM AGAIN AND AGAIN AND AGAIN AND AGAIN AND AGAIN. ask big dick. he knows..

(of course certain 'sources' are denying kbr overcharged. 22.5 BILLION and you tell me they didn't overcharge)


Audit of KBR Iraq Contract Faults Records For Fuel, Food
U.S. Says It Will Increase Monitoring in Baghdad


By Dana Hedgpeth Washington Post Staff Writer

KBR, the government contracting firm formerly under Halliburton, did not keep accurate records of gasoline distribution, put its employees in living spaces that may be larger than warranted and served meals that appeared to cost $4.5 million more than necessary under a contract to perform work in Iraq, according to an audit by a government oversight agency.
The report, to be released today by the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction, addresses a sliver of a $22.5 billion contract that KBR won to provide services for the U.S. military. The inspector general's office focused on four services that KBR was paid to provide in Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone: supplying gasoline, food services, and housing and various morale and recreation services.........

director of the week (ok, year): robert mugge

i was at my pop's house yesterday (i don't have cable) and on one of the movie channels i stumbled upon last of the mississippi jukes

i was so enthralled, so exicted, so entertained, so saddened, so happy. i didn't see it from the beginning (i will get a copy of this movie) but what i saw not only were performances by unbelievable blues entertainers, but history of the mississippi juke, the state they are in now AND insights from the blues players/singers themselves as well as the club owners. (i especially loved the subway and it's bucket o' beer)

this is the same man who ALSO did another spectacular movie i stumbled across on cable new orleans music in exile

i cannot recommend these movies enough. i just can't . if you're a fan of blues, jazz or making joyous noise, RUN to get a copy of these (i've not seen anything else by him, but he's got quite the stable of movies. i'll go through them one by one)

robert mugge

robert mugge

(p.s. there are far too many artists to mention. some you've heard of, some not. i love most of them. i just have to link to theresa andersson though. i had never heard of her prior to seeing her in music in exile. i'm enthralled)

i happened to see this ass on the today show

the other morning. he and another guest (i believe an nbc or msnbc newscaster) were on to talk about 'prejudices against catholics' in the media. both are catholics. i was DUMBFOUNDED by what donohue was spewing (the newscaster had a well rounded SANE point of view)

NBC's Today Show features bigoted, homophobe Bill Donohue as authority on bigotry
by
makeprofilelink("Joe Sudbay (DC)");
Joe Sudbay (DC

This is rich. This morning, the Today Show ran a piece on alleged anti-Catholic bigotry. The guest they used to defend Catholics from bigotry? Bill Donohue.So, let's review Bill Donohue's record. A couple months ago, after the Associated Press treated Donohue like some kind of credible arbiter of what's right and wrong in America, John also did a post on Bill Donohue. Doesn't take much research to find out that Mr. Donohue is a hater:
The "Catholic group" in question is none other than the Catholic League, a far-right fringe group of activists run by a loud-mouthed and somewhat-unhinged-appearing president William Donohue. Donohue is AP's expert on bigotry and religion. And in fact, Donohue is an expert on religious bigotry and hate speech - an expert in spewing it, that is.Donohue said the following on December 9, 2004 on MSNBC about Jews:
Hollywood is controlled by secular Jews who hate Christianity in general and Catholicism in particular. It's not a secret, OK? And I'm not afraid to say it. That's why they hate this movie. It's about Jesus Christ, and it's about truth. It's about the messiah. Hollywood likes anal sex..............

more of the truth

NOT everyone attacking the us forces in iraq is al-qaeda. as a matter of fact, FEW are

yet, that is NOT what you're reading or going to read about in the future

UPDATE: In War Coverage, 'Insurgents' Morph into 'Qaeda' -- But McClatchy Resists

NEW YORK As E&P has noted in the past week, the U.S. military has increasingly referred to insurgents in Iraq as "al-Qaeda fighters" or "Qaeda militants." When and why this is happening is not certain, although linking the insurgents to those who attacked us on 9/11 would appear to have certain benefits in the court of public opinion.In the past, however, both military and outside observers have long stated that so-called "foreign fighters" or members of the group Al-Qaeda in Mesopotamia have made up only a tiny fraction of those who are actively battling the U.S. occupation.Blogging at Salon.com this weekend, Glenn Greenwald has a lengthy take on this issue. "What makes this practice all the more disturbing is how quickly and obediently the media has adopted the change in terms consciously issued by the Bush administration and their military officials responsible for presenting the Bush view of the war to the press," he concludes. ..............

scary

and no wonder more aren't up in arms over our illegal, unjust and immoral occupatian of iraq

Number of Americans who believe Saddam-9/11 tie rises to 41 percent

part ii of the wapo series on the big dick

and i do mean BIG

constitutional rights? WHAT constitutional rights?

Pushing the Envelope on Presidential Power

By Barton Gellman and Jo Becker Washington Post Staff Writers

Shortly after the first accused terrorists reached the U.S. naval prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, on Jan. 11, 2002, a delegation from CIA headquarters arrived in the Situation Room. The agency presented a delicate problem to White House counsel Alberto R. Gonzales, a man with next to no experience on the subject. Vice President Cheney's lawyer, who had a great deal of experience, sat nearby. The meeting marked "the first time that the issue of interrogations comes up" among top-ranking White House officials, recalled John C. Yoo, who represented the Justice Department. "The CIA guys said, 'We're going to have some real difficulties getting actionable intelligence from detainees'" if interrogators confined themselves to humane techniques allowed by the Geneva Conventions...........

the other day

i think it was friday (i took it off from work. yeah, it was nice except for the part where i went into work yesterday because i knew i'd have to do way too much catching up on monday. that's another story thoough) while watching the morning news shows, i saw the anchors (both national and local) joking about intelligence and birth order. it was cute and i smiled.

then on one of the local shows, the weather dude happened to mention the study was only done with MALES

MALES YES MALES

yet ANOTHER example of women not being included in a study (sure it's not an important study but that sure isn't the point. as an example, for YEARS during drug testing, etc women were EXCLUDED.)

Study Says Eldest Children Have Higher I.Q.s

(now shouldn't that headline read, eldest child with a PENIS????)

By BENEDICT CAREY

The eldest children in families tend to develop slightly higher I.Q.s than their younger siblings, researchers are reporting, based on a large study that could effectively settle more than a half-century of scientific debate about the relationship between I.Q. and birth order..........

..........In the study, Norwegian epidemiologists analyzed data on birth order, health status and I.Q. scores of 241,310 18- and 19-year-old men born from 1967 to 1976, using military records. After correcting for factors known to affect scores, including parents’ education level, birth weight and family size, the researchers found that eldest children scored an average of 103.2, about 3 percent higher than second children and 4 percent higher than the third-born children.
The scientists then looked at I.Q. scores in 63,951 pairs of brothers and found the same results. Differences in household environments did not explain elder siblings’ higher scores.
Because gender has little effect on I.Q. scores, the results almost certainly apply to females as well, said Dr. Petter Kristensen, an epidemiologist at the University of Oslo and the lead author of the study. His co-author was Dr. Tor Bjerkedal, an epidemiologist at the Norwegian Armed Forces Medical Services..............

(notice how they say, the results would almost CERTAINLY apply to females. what a load of steamin' shite. if one WANTED to know if it was true or not, one WOULD have included females as subjects, wouldn't one???)

don't like particular reports on how the situation in iraq is going?

well then, make shite up! switch things around. make things better.

don't you wish you could do this in real life?

we can't make all of the soldiers who have died in iraq come back to life. we can't make all of the iraqis who have lost their lives come back to life. we can't make all of the iraqi children who have seen things we can't even dream about - well we can't erase their memories.

we CAN stop this shite RIGHT NOW. demand king george and his court bring OUR MEN AND WOMEN HOME NOW

General’s Iraq Progress Report Has Competition

By DAVID E. SANGER and THOM SHANKER

WASHINGTON, June 23 — Last month, Congress set a deadline for the American commander in Iraq, declaring that by Sept. 15 he would have to assess progress there before billions more dollars are approved to finance the military effort to stabilize the country. The commander, Gen. David H. Petraeus, said in recent days that his report would be only a snapshot of trends, strongly suggesting he will be asking for more time.
But even before he composes the first sentences of the report, to be written with the new American ambassador in Baghdad, Ryan C. Crocker, the administration is commissioning other assessments that could dilute its findings about the impact of the current troop increase. The intent appears to be to give President Bush, who publicly puts great emphasis on listening to his field commanders, a wide range of options...........

he rules 'quietly' - well .... not that quietly

we're all aware of it AND we're all frightened by it. he is rather like THE most evil cartoon character you've ever seen. yet he is real and true pure unadultrated evil

from the wapo a series on the evil one beginning today and continuing through wednesday

part i

'A Different Understanding With the President'

By Barton Gellman and Jo Becker Washington Post Staff Writers

Just past the Oval Office, in the private dining room overlooking the South Lawn, Vice President Cheney joined President Bush at a round parquet table they shared once a week. Cheney brought a four-page text, written in strict secrecy by his lawyer. He carried it back out with him after lunch.
In less than an hour, the document traversed a West Wing circuit that gave its words the power of command. It changed hands four times, according to witnesses, with emphatic instructions to bypass staff review. When it returned to the Oval Office, in a blue portfolio embossed with the presidential seal, Bush pulled a felt-tip pen from his pocket and signed without sitting down. Almost no one else had seen the text.
Cheney's proposal had become a military order from the commander in chief. Foreign terrorism suspects held by the United States were stripped of access to any court -- civilian or military, domestic or foreign. They could be confined indefinitely without charges and would be tried, if at all, in closed "military commissions."........