i thought this was a joke

after all i had just been to the onion. read some pretty funny articles and saw some pretty funny pictures. perhaps, i thought, one of those onion articles accidentally escaped and made it's way over to the progressive. really. i thought that. surely this article COULD NOT be real. wtf is the king of the united states issuing signing statements or executive orders or directives about LEBANON for? wtf gives him the RIGHT to issue signing statements about LEBANON?

it's NO joke

Bush’s Executive Order on Lebanon Even Worse than the One on Iraq
August 3, 2007 By Matthew Rothschild

George W. Bush is churning out executive orders and Presidential directives just as fast as Dick Cheney’s lawyers can fill up yellow legal pads.
The power that he is asserting—no, grabbing—with these executive orders is astonishing and alarming. Such power imperils our liberties and our democratic system of government.
Two weeks ago, Bush issued an extraordinary executive order entitled, “Blocking Property of Certain Persons Who Threaten Stabilization Efforts in Iraq.”
It gives to the Secretary of the Treasury the authority to freeze the property of people who are engaging in violence or who “pose a significant risk” of engaging in violence against the Iraqi government or the economic and reconstruction plan for Iraq.
It also bans donations of “food, clothing, and medicine, intended to be used to relieve human suffering” to anyone whose property has been frozen.
On August 1, Bush issued a similar executive order, this one entitled, “Blocking Property of Persons Undermining the Sovereignty of Lebanon or Its Democratic Processes and Institutions.”
Syrian meddling in Lebanon constitutes an “unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States,” Bush asserted, adding, “I hereby declare a national emergency to deal with that threat.”
This executive order is even more sweeping.
Where the one on Iraq applies to people who engage in violent acts or pose a significant risk of engaging in violent acts, this one doesn’t even bother to limit it to that. Anyone who engages in any act—violent or nonviolent—against the government of Lebanon can now have his or her property frozen.........


please note, the white house website confirms it is NO joke

at&t - all around the world

but not a truth in sight

Band's lyrics cut in Webcast
Pearl Jam protests to AT&T about omission of anti-Bush lines; firm calls editing a mistake

By Jon Van Tribune staff reporter

A live Internet broadcast of Pearl Jam's performance at Chicago's Lollapalooza music festival Sunday went off without a hitch -- until singer Eddie Vedder criticized President Bush.Lyrics critical of the president didn't make it past editors of the show's Webcast, the band complained Wednesday on its Web site.The performance, sponsored by AT&T Inc. and carried on AT&T's "Blue Room" site, omitted the lyrics "George Bush, leave this world alone" and "George Bush, find yourself another home" as part of a version of the song "Daughter," according to the Pearl Jam Web site......

babylon

yet another day with a religion and the military posting. it's out there, i'm just sharing it
i'm also sharing this bit of personal information. i would NEVER choose to believe in a god such as the one carver believes in. a god of war a god of wrath a god of vengence a god of prejudice.
nope, not for me

New Army Head of Chaplains Thinks He's "Chosen By God", Predicts Apocalyptic Religious War

Posted by Bruce Wilson

.......................Recounted November 9, 2006 in the Sierra Vista, Arizona Sierra Vista Herald, Chaplain Carver spoke at a November 2006 Fort Huachuca Thanksgiving Prayer Breakfast before a crowd of over 400 and, as Sierra Vista Heraldreporter Bill Hess described:
"As a minister, Carver, an ordained Southern Baptist preacher, talked about the main problems facing America in Iraq.
There is a biblical aura when it comes to the Iraqi situation, something written about in the Book of Daniel, the chaplain said.
It was to what is now Iraq that the Israelites were taken.
Babylon, a place that exists today in Iraq, was mentioned in the Bible, and its leader, Nebuchadnezzar, ruled with an iron fist. Carver said it is strange Saddam Hussein believes he is the reincarnation of Nebuchadnezzar.".................

.............Addressing the luncheoning Southern Baptists, Douglas Carver said: "Times are dangerous and difficult. But God has raised you up for a time such as this", and went to wield the rhetoric of absolutist apocalyptic religious war :
"I believe that this long war we're in - against violent religious extremism - is a war contending for the future of humanity as you and I know it. We're living in challenging and distressing times.
But as chaplains, this is my time and your time, your destiny. Like Daniel, you've been raised up to speak light into the darkness. Like Moses, you and I have been made shepherds to walk people from the darkness into the light of Christ Jesus. Like Caleb, we have been given a mountain and a vision to claim for the glory of God. Like Gideon, we have been given an army to lead.".
Ding Ding Ding ! ! Brigadier General Carver's rhetorical sledgehammer rang the bell to win the "apocalyptic religious warfare rhetoric" competition. Was his kewpie doll the career promotion to be Army Head Of Chaplains ? Or was that a gift from God ? .................

coldplay isn't my favorite band

but they're not really THAT bad

Karaoke singer attacked after starting song
Woman punches man on stage

By HECTOR CASTROP-I REPORTER
It could have been the Coldplay song "Yellow" that upset the patron of a Wallingford neighborhood bar. Or perhaps it was the karaoke singer who belted it out.
Employees at Changes, on North 45th Street, said they don't know, but the ensuing melee just past 1 a.m. Thursday was one unlike anything seen at the bar before.
As soon as the man on stage started singing about the stars in his best Chris Martin impersonation, the woman reportedly said, "Oh, no, not that song. I can't stand that song!"
Witnesses said her distaste for Coldplay quickly took a violent turn, and she leaped at the would-be crooner, shouting expletives and telling him that his singing "sucked," while expressing the same opinion of the song, according to a Seattle police report.
She pushed the man and punched him, all in an effort to stop his singing.
Other patrons went to the singer's aid and hauled the 21-year-old woman outside.
"It took three or four of us to hold her down," said Robert Willmette, one of the bartenders at Changes.
The woman, Willmette said, "went crazy" when she got outside, punching him twice in the face, and throwing blows at the others gathered around her..........

wow, that babe is one tough mama w9nder how she would have reacted had he chosen 'feelings' instead of 'yellow'

one of the problems all along

has been we do NOT know who 'our enemies' are in iraq. we never will. MOST of whom WE created ourselves i might add. they didn't give a hoot about us (they were NOT going to attack us, they didn't attack us on 9/11, they were incapable of attacking us. terrorists were NOT training in iraq, etc). they didn't until we invaded their country. killed many, displaced many, maimed many. caused them to be without the basics of food, water, housing, electricty.

we don't belong there. we must bring our men and women home

'In the Land of the Blood Feuds'
South of Baghdad, U.S. Troops Navigate Fault Lines of Sect and Tribe


By Sudarsan Raghavan Washington Post Foreign Service

KHIDR, Iraq -- In the pre-dawn gloom, through weary villages shaded in gray, the soldiers of the 3rd Battalion, 509th Parachute Infantry Regiment, searched for the enemy. An aerial drone had spotted men burying weapons in a nearby Sunni cemetery.
The soldiers walked along a thin ribbon of sandy road, flanked by tall reeds and palm trees, until they reached this forlorn place covered with crumbling gravestones. Silence mocked the unit, for the men had vanished. Soldiers pried open graves searching for the cache and 15 minutes later found four guns and some ammunition. Lt. Thomas Murphy, 32, wondered who the men had been. Members of al-Qaeda in Iraq? Loyalists of the former government? Tribesmen? "Here we have so many different enemies," he said.
On the unruly outer fringes of the Sunni area south of Baghdad known as the Triangle of Death, American soldiers navigate more than a dozen battle zones straddling the fault lines of sect and tribe. Al-Qaeda in Iraq -- identified by President Bush and his generals as the main U.S. enemy -- is just one of myriad armed groups competing here for influence and authority. ........

wapo writes an article about chauncey bailey

SEVEN days after his murder. it's NOT easy being green (or in this case, black)
in all fairness, they did write about his murder when it happened, but certainly not as much as mr bailey deserved

(here's the posting i did on mr bailey the other day, in memory of chauncey bailey

For Some in Oakland, Editor's Death Shows Subversion of Black Activism

By Karl Vick Washington Post Staff Writer



OAKLAND -- In a city where murder has taken on an element of routine, the shotgun slaying of Chauncey Bailey, in broad daylight by a young man who allegedly stood over the fallen journalist and pumped a second blast into his face, has galvanized Oakland as no single killing in decades.
It was not just the brutality that stunned the city. To some, the suspect's ties to a black Muslim bakery held a darker significance, a symbol that Oakland's radical black movement -- a history that spawned such national figures as Huey Newton and Angela Davis -- had over the years gone awry, and that the violence that infused parts of that tradition had been tolerated too long.......

why do i keep honey in my bathroom?

for MANY reasons. it's medicinal. yes, it is. plus it's great for your skin too. if you have a red spot or a blemish or a cut or burn, just dab a bit of honey on it (overnight). i've never tried manuka honey - well, i'd never even HEARD of manuka honey until i read this article.

(by the way, i also believe if you take a tablespoon [give or take] of honey every day - you develop a resistance to many allergies. PLEASE NOTE, HONEY SHOULD NOT EVER EVER EVER IN A KAZILLION YEARS BE GIVEN TO BABIES - EVER. they could have a severe reaction to it).

Sweet Salve
Could Honey, an Ancient Remedy, Make a Comeback in Contemporary Wound Care?


By Eric Frederick Trump Special To the Washington Post

For biochemist Peter Molan, honey's ancient power to heal is not a matter of faith. So sure is he of the science behind it that he frequently applies the stuff of his research on himself -- and on his wife.
"She had a persistent boil on her buttocks," he explained. Since no standard salves had helped, he liquefied a dollop of a particular variety of honey known as manuka in the kitchen microwave, poured it over gauze and applied it.
The molten honey burned her.
"Fortunately, manuka is effective in treating burns as well as boils," Molan said cheerfully. Within a short time, he said, both boil and burn healed.
Manuka honey -- widely used for wound treatment in New Zealand, where Molan is co-director of Waikato University's Honey Research Unit -- is becoming increasingly accepted for this purpose around the world. Research over the past two decades, much of it conducted in Molan's lab, has focused on the potential for manuka to be used as an antimicrobial that may one day stand alongside such standard wound treatments as silver dressings and penicillin........

(p.s. i consider myself mostly vegan. i must say 'true' vegans would never use honey. i am only a partial vegan in that case. i also use wool to knit. again, a 'true' vegan would never think to do such a thing. i am NO saint)

i think i'm in LOVE

Bridge Hero Gets Offer: Paid Tuition

By ELLEN BARRY

Among the dozens of wrenching accounts to come out of the collapse of the Interstate 35W bridge in Minneapolis, the actions of 20-year-old Jeremy Hernandez were a bright spot: Trapped in a tipping school bus with 50 children, he kicked open the back door and began helping them one by one to safety. Within a day, news outlets across the country were repeating the story of the school bus, along with a sad footnote — that Mr. Hernandez had recently been forced to drop out of an automotive repair program because he could not afford the $15,000 tuition.
That has changed. On Saturday, Mr. Hernandez learned that Dunwoody College of Technology had offered him a full scholarship toward a degree in applied science.......

...........Mr. Hernandez was not available to comment on the offer; Ms. Schwartz said he left town for northern Minnesota late on Friday, overwhelmed by the attention and concerned that his co-workers were being overlooked. He spent the weekend fishing. When President Bush’s staff contacted him to request a photo opportunity, “He was just, like, ‘Nope,’ ” she said........

(sounds like a REAL hero to me. oh, not just about ignoring king george. i mean his concern about his co-workers)

an interview with ilona meagher

who researched and wrote about our vets and ptsd

Ilona Meagher Is Taking a Stand for Our Vets


..........BuzzFlash: You've written a book, Moving a Nation to Care: Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder in America's Returning Troops. In terms of the Iraq and Afghanistan veterans who are returning home, how big of a problem is this?
Ilona Meagher: We won't have a clear idea, just as we didn't with the Vietnam War, until many, many years after. But we can say that, of troops that have returned and separated from service, about one-third have already come in for some form of counseling. That's not necessarily PTSD. But about 75,000 troops who have returned from combat have been given a psycho-social disorder diagnosis from the VA. Of those, about 50,000 have the PTSD diagnosis.
The thing to keep in mind about these figures, though, is the stigma. We know that many troops don't seek help, because they are worried that having something on their record about some sort of emotional problems might not allow them to get a police officer job, or a different type of job that they might want. If they're in the Special Forces, they might not get the mission. So a lot of people don't get the help that they need.
One final figure I'm going to throw out that will really show you the extent of the problem is that even of those troops who filled out the post-deployment health assessment form - PDHA - and checked off that they needed some help, only 22% got follow-up care. ...............

"Io sono Hina,"

i am hina. you are hina too.

your mother is hina
your wife is hina
your daughter is hina
your aunt is hina
your neighbor is hina
your best friend is hina

WE are hina

NO MORE HONOR KILLINGS

(and if caught and convicted, the guilty should do ALL of their time. NOT a portion thereof)

'Honor Killing' in Italy Spurs Quest for Justice

By Angela Boskovitch
WeNews correspondent

After a Pakistani woman was slain by relatives in Italy, an immigrant women's advocacy group moved into action to make the murder the last "honor killing" in Italy and also deflect anti-Muslim sentiment stirred by the crime.
BRESCIA, Italy (WOMENSENEWS)--When the preliminary hearing in the "honor killing" trial for the murder of 20-year-old Hina Saleem adjourned in late June, Moroccan-born Souad Sbai was on the scene.

"We want justice for Hina and we ask that her dreams of freedom and her sacrifice should not be forgotten," said Sbai, president of the Rome-based Italian Association of Moroccan Women.

Then she and other demonstrators outside the courthouse carried white lilies to Saleem's gravestone in a part of the cemetery designated for Muslims.

The defendants in this case--Saleem's father and three male relatives--have chosen an abbreviated legal procedure. The trial will reconvene on Oct. 25 for a day of witness testimony, followed by closing arguments to be delivered on Oct. 26. Saleem's father has admitted his guilt to the police. Despite the confession, as yet none of the four defendants has been formally convicted.

The defendants will receive a one-third reduction of any sentence under the arrangement with the court. If they receive life imprisonment, the sentence would be reduced to 30 years. The sentence could be even further reduced resulting from "extenuating circumstances" as defined by the judge.

The Italian Association of Moroccan Women is composed of Moroccan and Italian women working to reduce gender-based violence in immigrant communities and at the same time promote Muslim social integration.

.................

a bit more on religion and the military (specifically ACTIVE duty troops in iraq)

and 'christian' video games. games that decry evolution.

why post this? i'll tell you. BECAUSE I CAN'T GET ENOUGH OF IT. that's why
Pentagon Chaplain Blesses Sending Badass Apocalyptic "Convert or Die" Game to Troops

Posted by Bruce Wilson
Bruce Wilson: Will Bold New 'Crusader' Language Turn Tide In Iraq?

"Left Behind : Eternal Forces" Game To Go To US Troops In Iraq, Afghanistan


Courtesy of the Pentagon, and the Pentagon Chaplain's Office, troops in Iraq will soon be able to unwind, after a hard day's urban warfare, by playing a video game in which they command a Christian fundamentalist army waging urban warfare in America ! On the streets of New York City ! Plus, in the game screens appear, between different levels of play, with short, helpful essays such as one that explains how the Theory of Evolution is clearly impossible. And, the game will be provided to US troops free of charge ! How cool is that ?

The United States Pentagon Chaplain likes "Left Behind: Eternal Forces" and the religious warfare the game depicts so much that the Chaplain's Office is sponsoring a prayer breakfast in the Pentagon's main executive dining room this Friday morning, where the founder of an apocalyptic fundamentalist "extreme sports" ministry that will distribute the game to US troops in Iraq (thoughtfully included in care packages along with baby wipes) will address top officials of the most powerful military on Earth.


Religious war is way cool. On the smoking battlefields of the religious wars that erupted in Europe in the wake of the Catholic/Protestant rift, victorious armies would entertain themselves by making small incision in the sides of wounded enemy soldiers and pulling their intestines out to wind those around sticks and so extract the entire intestinal tracts, very, very slowly
........................

those WILD (and as it turns out GAY) young republicans!

(don't misunderstand my humor. i am NOT making fun of the gay part. just the YOUNG REPUBLICAN part. THE MOST weasley bunch o' hypocrites one can come across. well, not just the YOUNG ones either).

methinks thou doth protest too much (as in the MORE one rails against homosexuality.....)

Young Republican National President resigns; Says sex with man was consensual, not harassment

The President of the National Young Republicans, under allegations of sexually harassing another man, has resigned from his post.
An older complaint, from 1988 alleged that Glenn Murphy, whose term at the helm of the group began last month, "had the blankets pulled up over the waist of [redacted] and was committing oral sex on him when he awoke."
Murphy sent an email to friends saying he was resigning from the post he has held for a month for business reasons. Later in the day, his attorney confirmed that Murphy had a sexual encounter with a man, claiming, however, that it was consensual.............

ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

the old lyme disease defense! (or excuse whichever fits).

well he's only allegedly had it for a year. how do we 'splain what happened in the PREVIOUS years?

Bush Apparently Had Lyme Disease
President Was Treated for Rash in 2006


By David Brown
Washington Post Staff Writer

President Bush was treated a year ago for what appears to have been Lyme disease, the White House said yesterday in disclosing the results of his annual physical exam.
A report of the president's recent medical examination said his case had "complete resolution" and was "without recurrence" since being treated last August. The illness, an infection carried by deer ticks that is prevalent in the Northeastern United States, had not been previously revealed.
While untreated Lyme disease can cause arthritis, an abnormal heart rhythm and problems with the nervous system, those complications usually can be prevented by taking antibiotics at an early stage of the infection. The medical record did not describe the details of the president's therapy.
Up to 15 percent of people treated for Lyme disease later complain of symptoms such as fatigue and muscle pain. ................

(i'm NOT making light of lyme disease. i have friends who have it and it ain't pretty)

the nutmeg grater: in memory of jeffrey lucey#links#links

the nutmeg grater: in memory of jeffrey lucey#links#links

more on the military and religion (forced OR proselytized)

i can only shake my head (and feel that vein in my forehead stand out)

max blumenthal brings you:
Kill Or Convert, Brought To You By the Pentagon

Actor Stephen Baldwin, the youngest member of the famous Baldwin brothers, is no longer playing Pauly Shore's sidekick in comedy masterpieces like Biodome. He has a much more serious calling these days.
Baldwin became a right-wing, born-again Christian after the 9/11 attacks, and now is the star of Operation Straight Up (OSU), an evangelical entertainment troupe that actively proselytizes among active-duty members of the US military. As an official arm of the Defense Department's America Supports You program, OSU plans to mail copies of the controversial apocalyptic video game, Left Behind: Eternal Forces to soldiers serving in Iraq. OSU is also scheduled to embark on a "Military Crusade in Iraq" in the near future.
"We feel the forces of heaven have encouraged us to perform multiple crusades that will sweep through this war torn region," OSU declares on its website about its planned trip to Iraq. "We'll hold the only religious crusade of its size in the dangerous land of Iraq."
The Defense Department's Chaplain's Office, which oversees OSU's activities, has not responded to calls seeking comment. ...

once again i ask you to head on over to

immigration orange and check out

citizen's for boycotting chiquita

(please)

watch this (you have to click the link) it's a SCREAM

xThe Republican Plot to Stall Congress, Starring Jason Alexander [VIDEO]

(well it WOULD be a scream if it all were not true)

i agree with the author (Shaun McCanna) of this article

it will be YEARS before this problem (and do NOT be fooled it IS going to be a MAJOR problem - and just the tip of the iceburg too) comes to the surface.
are we prepared to treat our veterans? are we prepared to treat everyone who has ptsd or will have it in the future? are we prepared to take care of them for years?

are we prepared to rehabilitate our veterans who have been wounded? are we prepared to give them therapy and to construct limbs for them?

are we prepared to take care of those who come back with ADDICTIONS?



It's easy for soldiers to score heroin in Afghanistan
Simultaneously stressed and bored, U.S. soldiers are turning to the widely available drug for a quick escape.

By Shaun McCanna

Aug. 7, 2007 BAGRAM, Afghanistan -- Just outside the main gate to Bagram airfield, a U.S. military installation in Afghanistan, sits a series of small makeshift shops known by locals as the Bagram Bazaar. For Afghans, it is the place to buy American goods, but the stalls that make up the heart of the bazaar are also well known for what they provide American soldiers stationed at Bagram. Walking through the bazaar it takes less than 10 minutes for a vendor in his early 20s to step out and ask, "You want whiskey?" "No, heroin," I tell him. He ushers me into his store with a smile.
The shop is small, 9 feet wide by 14 feet deep, and dark. The walls at the front are lined with dusty cans of soda, padlocks and miscellaneous beauty supplies. As we enter, a teenager is visible at the back, seated in a chair next to a collection of American military knives and flashlights. The shopkeeper speaks to him in Dari. The teen stands and heads for the door, where he stops and asks my Afghan driver a question. My driver translates, "He wants to know how much you want? Twenty, 30, 50 dollars' worth?" From past experience, for I have arranged this same transaction a dozen times in a dozen different Bagram Bazaar shops, I know that the $30 bag will contain enough pure to bring hundreds of dollars on the streets of any American city. Afghanistan, after all, is the source of 90 percent of the world's heroin. I say 30 and the teen jogs off. .......

according to general petraeus

the SUN was in their (the bookkeeper's) eyes! the dog ate my homework. i was late cause i had a flat tire (well on monday i actually DID by the way. and guess what, i had to get FOUR new tires, not just one. it was NOT a good day). at any rate, i didn't 'lose' 190,000 weapons. oh, one more thing. if the government is telling us it's 190,000 what do you think the number REALLY is? think about that one

by the way i'm almost starting to feel sorry dor petraeus. the crap they make him say. sort of like tony snow. it's ALL crap

General Blames Clerical Errors In the Case of Missing Arms


By Josh White
Washington Post Staff Writer

Bookkeeping deficiencies allowed thousands of weapons issued to Iraqi security forces in 2004 and 2005 to then go missing, Gen. David H. Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, said yesterday.
"Some percentage" of weapons the U.S. military provided to the Iraqi army and Iraqi police units were not tracked by serial number because there were no procedures in place to do so within the Iraqi units, Petraeus said in an interview to be broadcast last night on Fox News Radio's "Alan Colmes Show."
From a practical standpoint, Petraeus added, it was more important to get the weapons to the Iraqis as they started to enter the fight against a strong insurgency than it was to keep meticulous records.
"We occasionally likened it to building the world's largest aircraft while in flight and while being shot at," the general said. "But we gradually started putting those procedures into place."..............

i don't know if beauchamp's personal stories are true

i tend to think many are. and, i DO believe things he describes DO happen in iraq (and elsewhere for that matter). americans are not above heinous acts.

you take a bunch of scared kids (mostly male), put them in very dangerous situations, where they don't know friend from foe and what do you get? hint: it's not pretty
(i do NOT believe most military people commit horrid acts. just a few. i believe they have always existed and always WILL exist. i think in years past they were more easily routed/rooted out and gotten rid of. not so much these days. the branches of the service keep some folks that really should be gotten rid of)

Army Concludes Baghdad Diarist Accounts Untrue


By Howard Kurtz
Washington Post Staff Writer
Army investigators have concluded that the private whose dispatches for the New Republic accused his fellow soldiers of petty cruelties in Iraq was not telling the truth.
The finding, disclosed yesterday, came days after the Washington-based magazine announced that it had corroborated the claims of the private, Scott Thomas Beauchamp, except for one significant error.
"An investigation has been completed and the allegations made by Pvt. Beauchamp were found to be false," an Army statement said. "His platoon and company were interviewed and no one could substantiate the claims."
But New Republic Editor Franklin Foer is standing his ground. "We've talked to military personnel directly involved in the events that Scott Thomas Beauchamp described, and they corroborated his account," Foer said. The magazine granted anonymity to the other soldiers it cited...............

this is in memory of chauncey bailey

who was murdered in broad daylight last week. he was a journalist. the mainstream, cable and network news shows didn't mention him or his murder. i have been reading about him in print. if it wasn't for the print/internet media i would never have known any of this

this story is by chris thompson (who wrote LOTS about the yusuf bey family. google chris thompson and yusuf bey or chris and your black muslim bakery). i had never heard of chris thompson nor had i heard of the bey family prior to reading about the murder of chauncey bailey.

tragic

The Killing of a Journalist


Voice staff writer Chris Thompson not only knew the Oakland reporter shot dead by a follower of the Yusuf Bey family, he'd also incurred the family's wrath
August 6th, 2007 2:49 PM
Related:Chris Thompson's Other Stories on the Yusuf Bey Family
How Official Oakland Kept the Bey Empire GoingThe troublesome history of Oakland's most prominent Black Muslims — and the political establishment that protects them.Published: November 20, 2002
Blood & Money: EndgameEven in his death, Yusuf Bey is lionized as an elder statesman rather than branded as a thug. Meanwhile, his victims reflect.Published: October 8, 2003
be social


Five years ago, Voice staff writer Chris Thompson, then with East Bay Express, had to go into hiding after publishing a hard-hitting series of reports on the Yusuf Bey family and its Oakland headquarters, Your Black Muslim Bakery. One of the people Thompson talked to for his stories was local journalist Chauncey Bailey, who was working on his own investigation of the Bey family – until he was murdered in broad daylight by a 19-year-old family follower last week. On Friday, more than 200 police officers raided the bakery.
Thompson’s 2002 series exposed how Bey family members allegedly tortured a man for four hours after a real estate deal went bad, then attacked Oakland police officers who tried to stop them. The Bey family allegedly beat and intimidated countless black residents of West Oakland, and patriarch Yusuf Bey brutally raped and sodomized girls as young as thirteen. But Oakland’s political establishment embraced the organization as the legitimate voice of disenfranchised black youth, and even offered family members a $1 million loan. Meanwhile, the mainstream press ignored years of alleged violence and fraud, even lionizing Yusuf Bey when he died in 2003.
After the East Bay Express published its series, the retaliation began. Someone smashed up the windows of its offices, and Thompson received numerous death threats. Men repeatedly tried to follow Thompson home, or staked out routes he took leaving the office. Eventually, Thompson was forced to go into hiding for several months.
Yusuf Bey and his followers spent thirty years building an empire of bakeries and security companies around Northern California, promising a way out of violence and drug addiction for the Bay Area’s young black men. But as the following stories will show, they have also been accused of murder, rape, kidnapping, torture, intimidation, and fraud. If police officials truly have the goods on these men, Oakland might finally be able to close one of the most sordid and tragic chapters in its history........

............This story was originally published in the East Bay Express on November 13, 2002.
The Sinister Side of Yusuf Bey's Empire

The troublesome history of Oakland's most prominent Black Muslims — and the political establishment that protects them.by Chris Thompson
Olasunkanmi Onipede should know a little something about torture. An immigrant from Nigeria, he left behind a country that by 1994 had fallen under the iron hand of General Sani Abacha, who unleashed a plague of mass arrests, kangaroo courts, and the practice of lashing political prisoners until their backs were open wounds. But now that he was safe upon the shores of America, Onipede must have thought he would never encounter anything like that again. Then he met Nedir Bey.
On March 4, 1994, Onipede pulled his Hyundai into the courtyard of an apartment complex at 530 24th Street in Oakland. He was here on business: A man named Larry Chin had just bought a house Onipede had renovated, and some of Chin's friends weren't too happy about the markup and asked to meet him for a little talk. Onipede wasn't clear what the problem was -- after all, Chin had never complained about the deal -- but he and business partner Olen Grant dutifully climbed the stairs and knocked on the door of a dingy second-floor unit, located far back from the street, safe from prying eyes. When the door opened, five men in bow ties stared back at them. .......

white drinking fountain

colored drinking fountain

now c'mon. this isn't 1950. WE invaded their country. if they are good enough to go on foot patrol with you AND good enough to sleep in your barracks or tents well then they certainly are good enough to SHARE YOUR LATRINE (and good enough to sit down long enough to enjoy a meal with you)

At U.S. base, Iraqis must use separate latrine

By Mike Drummond McClatchy Newspapers

FORWARD OPERATING BASE WARHORSE, Iraq — The sign taped to the men's latrine is just five lines:
"US MILITARY CONTRACTORS CIVILIANS ONLY!!!!!"
It needed only one: "NO IRAQIS."
Here at this searing, dusty U.S. military base about four miles west of Baqouba, Iraqis — including interpreters who walk the same foot patrols and sleep in the same tents as U.S. troops — must use segregated bathrooms.
Another sign, in a dining hall, warns Iraqis and "third-country nationals" that they have just one hour for breakfast, lunch or dinner. American troops get three hours. Iraqis say they sometimes wait as long as 45 minutes in hot lines to get inside the chow hall, leaving just 15 minutes to get their food and eat it.
It's been nearly 60 years since President Harry Truman ended racial segregation in the U.S. military. But at Forward Operating Base Warhorse it's alive and well, perhaps the only U.S. military facility with such rules, Iraqi interpreters here say........

picture: Mike Drummond/MCT
A segregated latrine in Iraq

it's ok

even if they broke the law. it really IS ok. after all it's a CHRISTIAN organization

New Evidence Challenges Pentagon Testimony In "Christian Embassy" Scandal

Posted by Bruce Wilson on August 6, 2007 at 8:18 PM.
On Monday, researchers working for the Military Religious Freedom Foundation ( MRFF ) uncovered evidence calling into question the veracity of the testimony given to the Pentagon Inspector General in the investigation in the wake of MRFF's lawsuit concerning top Pentagon officials and US military officers who appeared in a promotional video, made for fundraising purposes, of an organization called "Christian Embassy", an offshoot of Campus Crusade For Christ, that evangelizes Pentagon members, foreign diplomats, and White House employees.
Last Thursday, July 26th 2007, as I subsequently reported, the Christian Embassy video scandal broke open again in the form of a Pentagon Inspector General's report [see Truthout story linked for full PDF of report] which concluded that Air Force Maj. Gen. Jack Catton, Army Brig. Gen. Bob Caslen, Brig. Gen. Vincent Brooks, Maj. Gen. Peter Sutton, and two other officers whose names were redacted "improperly endorsed and participated with a non-Federal entity while in uniform"..............

be good or else.......

Hello Kitty to punish bad-boy Thai police

Thai police said Monday they have recruited Hello Kitty, the moon-faced global icon of cuteness, as a new disciplinary tool for officers found engaging in "inappropriate" behaviour.
Officers who speak too aggressively to civilians, who fail to turn off their engines when they park their cars, or commit other minor violations of proper conduct will be forced to wear bright pink Hello Kitty armbands as punishment, police Colonel Pongpat Chayaphan told AFP.
Previously such offences were punished by a written reprimand, but Pongpat said that seemed to do little to deter future breaches of conduct.
He said he hoped the Hello Kitty armbands would shame officers into shaping up..........

here's a big ol' whoops

Woman Sells Ashes of Hubby's Former Wife

A woman who was quick with the bargains at her rummage sale mistakenly accepted 50 cents for a ceramic turtle with the ashes of her husband's previous wife inside.
Now, Anita Lewis is desperately searching for the buyer who said she planned to use the urn as a cookie jar.
Lewis said she had hauled items into her yard early Saturday while her husband slept. The buyer quickly selected the large turtle container, despite being unable to get the lid open.
Her husband's previous wife collected turtles...............

nothing to add to this one

After wiretapping victory, Bush says he wants more authority from Congress

september is even closer now

than it was when i mentioned it last week.

five more cabinet ministers have quit. more children are dead. the country is in ruins. the water is hard to come by as is electricity. people have been forced (those still alive that is) to become refugees. oh and we've lost more of OUR troops as well.

and why?

i don't know. i can't answer that (except to say king george, big dick and the rest of the cabint have big wood over this war)

Iraqi Crisis Deepens as 5 More Ministers Quit Cabinet Meetings


By Sudarsan Raghavan Washington Post Foreign Service
BAGHDAD, Aug. 6 -- Iraq's political crisis deepened Monday as five more ministers withdrew from cabinet meetings, delivering a major blow to Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's fractured unity government and efforts to reconcile Iraq's warring parties.
Hours earlier, a truck bomb in a Shiite village near the northern city of Tall Afar killed 31 people and wounded scores more, striking an area that was once hailed by President Bush and U.S. military commanders as an oasis of stability, following U.S. operations against insurgents there. Six children were among the dead, police said.
The U.S. military also announced the deaths of six American soldiers, including four killed in an explosion Monday in volatile Diyala province, where U.S. forces are engaged in a major offensive against Sunni insurgents. The blast injured 12 other U.S. soldiers, the military said in a statement. One soldier was killed by a sophisticated roadside bomb in west Baghdad on Monday, and another was killed during combat in eastern Baghdad on Sunday, the military said...........

if we did our homework

which we did NOT do, we would have known about the troubles we would be causing when we unjustly, illegally and immorally invaded iraq. of course iraq NEVER did anything to provoke us. they didn't fly planes into a field in pa, or the pentagon or the world trade center. they didn't have weapons of mass destruction. they really didn't have any terrorists. well they do now and WE helped to create them.

look at the mess that CONTINUES to happen. this is going to go on for GENERATIONS

As British Leave, Basra Deteriorates
Violence Rises in Shiite City Once Called a Success Storya


By Karen DeYoung and Thomas E. Ricks Washington Post Staff Writers

As British forces pull back from Basra in southern Iraq, Shiite militias there have escalated a violent battle against each other for political supremacy and control over oil resources, deepening concerns among some U.S. officials in Baghdad that elements of Iraq's Shiite-dominated national government will turn on one another once U.S. troops begin to draw down.
Three major Shiite political groups are locked in a bloody conflict that has left the city in the hands of militias and criminal gangs, whose control extends to municipal offices and neighborhood streets. The city is plagued by "the systematic misuse of official institutions, political assassinations, tribal vendettas, neighborhood vigilantism and enforcement of social mores, together with the rise of criminal mafias that increasingly intermingle with political actors," a recent report by the International Crisis Group said............

hey some of my close personal friends

could now be fbi agents!!!

FBI Bows to Modern Realities, Eases Rules on Past Drug Use
Policy Change Comes as Agency Struggles to Fill Openings

what with the army taking hoodlums and now the fbi taking drug users..........(i am kidding here - sort of. i don't think one being a FORMER hoodlum or a FORMER recreational drug user should automatically prohibit one from being in the service or the fbi. each person should be judged on their OWN merits)

big black dudes MADE me do it

well well well. if it weren't so sad and pathetic and racist, it would almost be funny (and hey bob, if you're so afraid of stocky black dudes and there were stocky black dudes all over the park, what the HELL were you doing there?)

State Rep. Allen explains sex case: Fear made me play along

TITUSVILLE - State Rep. Bob Allen told police he was just playing along when a undercover officer suggested in a public restroom that the legislator give him oral sex and $20 because he was intimidated, according to a taped statement and other documents released Thursday.Allen has already denied any wrongdoing, but the recordings and documents offered new details about what he and police say happened on July 11 inside the men's room at Veterans Memorial Park."I certainly wasn't there to have sex with anybody and certainly wasn't there to exchange money for it," said Allen, R-Merritt Island, who was arrested on charges of soliciting prostitution.
"This was a pretty stocky black guy, and there was nothing but other black guys around in the park," Allen, who is white, told police in a taped statement after his arrest. Allen said he feared he "was about to be a statistic" and would have said anything just to get away..........

...........As Allen turned and motioned for the officer to follow him to his car, Kavanaugh identified himself as a police officer by raising his shirt and exposing his badge.When Allen was being placed in a marked patrol car, he asked whether "it would help" if he was a state legislator, according to a police report. The officer replied, "No.".........

vinegar, cotton and a halogen lamp

may save TENS of thousands of women's lives (or even millions...........)

Cheap, simple method can spot cervical cancer
Using vinegar, cotton not as precise, but may save millions in poor countries

LONDON - A cheap method to detect cervical cancer using vinegar, cotton gauze and a bright light could save millions of women in the developing world, experts reported Friday.
The study, published in The Lancet medical journal, found a simple visual screening test to look for the early signs of cervical cancer reduced the numbers of cases by a quarter.
“This is a landmark study,” said Dr. Harshad Sanghvi, medical director at JHPIEGO, an international health organization affiliated with Johns Hopkins University that has worked on preventing cervical cancer in poor countries. Sanghvi was unconnected to the Lancet study........

picture of the day

(click the link on the title for picture explanation)

Green Aurora Over Lake Superior Credi & Copyrightt: Jeff Hapeman

wow OUR lunatics are just as crazy as THEIR lunatics

but we knew that already. it just makes one sit up and have their eyes bug out when one reads shite like this

US lawmaker defends Mecca bombing comments

Fiery Republican presidential long-shot Tom Tancredo Sunday defended his suggestion that America should threaten to bomb Muslim holy sites in order to deter a nuclear attack on US soil.
Tancredo first mooted his controversial position last week, prompting the State Department to describe it as "absolutely crazy."
"Yes, the State Department -- boy, when they start complaining about things I say, I feel a lot better about the things I say," Colorado representative Tancredo said in a presidential debate in Iowa televised on ABC.
"My task as president of the United States is primarily to do one thing -- by the way, not to make sure everybody has health care or everybody's child is educated -- my task is to do one thing: to protect and defend this country.
"And that means to deter -- and I want to underline "deter" -- any kind of aggression, especially the type we are threatened with by Al-Qaeda, which is nuclear attack............

there is NO stopping him

unless WE (starting with congress) stop him NOW. he is OUT OF CONTROL and i'm getting more and more frightened. our liberties are ebbing away. no one seems to care

our congress (and senate) is/are full of yellowbellies. cowards. people without stones. i'll remember all of this everytime my reps and senators come up for election. i can only pray everyone else remembers as well

Bush Signs Law Widening Reach for Wiretapping

By JAMES RISEN

WASHINGTON, Aug. 5 — President Bush signed into law on Sunday legislation that broadly expanded the government’s authority to eavesdrop on the international telephone calls and e-mail messages of American citizens without warrants.
Congressional aides and others familiar with the details of the law said that its impact went far beyond the small fixes that administration officials had said were needed to gather information about foreign terrorists. They said seemingly subtle changes in legislative language would sharply alter the legal limits on the government’s ability to monitor millions of phone calls and e-mail messages going in and out of the United States.
They also said that the new law for the first time provided a legal framework for much of the surveillance without warrants that was being conducted in secret by the National Security Agency and outside the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, the 1978 law that is supposed to regulate the way the government can listen to the private communications of American citizens.
“This more or less legalizes the N.S.A. program,” said Kate Martin, director of the Center for National Security Studies in Washington, who has studied the new legislation..........

(and what the hell is he doing signing laws on sunday. shouldn't he be in church or on vacation or something?)

another voice heard from

as if they aren't being bombarded by us enough. now the turks are warning them. well not the shiia or the sunni. they're warning the kurds. that is just such a complicated part of the world. we (we meaning king george and his court) didn't do our homework BEFORE we illegally, immorally and unjustly invaded iraq.

Turkey to Warn Iraq on Rebel Sanctuaries
Cross-Border Attack on Separatists Appears Likely If Baghdad Fails to Act


By Ellen Knickmeyer Washington Post Foreign Service

CAIRO -- Turkish leaders this week will give visiting Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki what Turkish military commanders and analysts said could be a final warning to act against anti-Turkey Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq -- or to stand by while Turkish forces go after the rebels themselves, risking a new front in Iraq's war.
Leaders of Turkey's governing Justice and Development Party appear to be in agreement with Turkey's generals that the time has come to move against the Kurdistan Workers' Party, known by its Kurdish initials, PKK, in its bases in the mountains of northern Iraq, former generals and a military expert close to the Turkish military's general staff said........