the morrighan

as you are aware, the address of my blog starts off with the morrighan.

crows and ravens are my totem animals (isn't my photo on my blog profile rather raven-like?). well wolves are too. BUT this story is about crows not wolves.

crows and ravens are just AMAZING animals. smart AND they have a sense of humor as well.

Cleverest crows opt for two tools

By Rebecca Morelle Science reporter, BBC News

Crows have shown that two tools are better than one when it comes to problem solving, scientists say.
A University of Auckland study has revealed that New Caledonian crows can use separate tools in quick succession to retrieve an out-of-reach snack.
The birds were using reasoning that was more commonly seen in great apes and humans, the New Zealand team reported in the journal Current Biology.
New Caledonian crows are renowned for their tool-making ability.
The birds (Corvus moneduloides), which are found on the South Pacific island of New Caledonia, use their bills to whittle twigs into hooks and cut and tear leaves into barbed probes that can extract bugs and grubs from crevices. ..........

picture: heartofthemorrighan.org

smaller picture: amy brown design

tattoos (on me) two from amy brown designs
the three raven design (i actually have three of them in different areas) i got from a rubber stamp i saw. it's also on the label of some wine. it represents the three stages of a woman's life (as well as other things)

i can't stop!!!

(another one who is NEVER going to get ANY EVER EVER EVER)

here is this double-bagger (and i normally don't call people ugly BUT this evil piece o' steamin' crap is UGLY STARTING FROM THE VERY CORE OF HIS GASEOUS INNARDS to his jowly drooling outsides

HE has the NERVE to tell ME what a WOMAN'S ROLE IS. oh and please do NOT get mad at me (after listening to this steamin' pile o' shite). i HAD to share it. i want to meet this crud. i really do. unfortunately my mother is dead, but i still have two sisters and four nieces i would bring with me. (oh and i'm the short one at 5'8")

this dude really shouldn't worry about abstinance

he ain't getting any EVER

(read the comments at godtube. they are ALMOST as good as the video itself. the songs lyrics are A M A Z I N G. i'm STILL singin' along )

(oh, found via americablog - you KNOW i'd never come across something like this without someone else's help!!!)

china?

naw, THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. land of the free and home of the brave (in our dreams only)

wonder if the ranks will ever see any of the 80 Gs?
Feds pay $80,000 over anti-Bush T-shirts

CHARLESTON, W.Va. --A couple arrested at a rally after refusing to cover T-shirts that bore anti-President Bush slogans settled their lawsuit against the federal government for $80,000, the American Civil Liberties Union announced Thursday. Nicole and Jeffery Rank of Corpus Christi, Texas, were handcuffed and removed from the July 4, 2004, rally at the state Capitol, where Bush gave a speech. A judge dismissed trespassing charges against them, and an order closing the case was filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Charleston.
"This settlement is a real victory not only for our clients but for the First Amendment," said Andrew Schneider, executive director of the ACLU of West Virginia...........

i did hear this on the car radio yesterday

or the day before. the bill they were talking about was ONLY 49 pages though. the interviewer also got comments from at&t. it was quite funny actually. at&t was SHOCKED their iphone customers were shocked about the length of their bills. at&t said, they TOLD the customers to expect detailed (even though this article says the bills are LONG they are NOT detailed) bills.

this is RIDICULOUS (and no, i don't have an iphone OR an ipod and i do NOT want one. i did just get myself an mp3 player though. it's a creative zen and so far, i LOVE it. i'm using the yahoo jukebox for it and THAT i'm having HORRIBLE issues with. aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh)

AT&T iPhone Bills to Kill Planet Earth

Posted by Jonathan Schlaffer at 11:58 AM on August 16, 2007.

Jonathan Schlaffer: Bills that come in boxes, what's next, quality products out of China?
This post, written by Jonathan Schlaffer, originally appeared on TECH.Blorge
The first iPhone bills are arriving to owners of the new device and none of the bills are tame, not by a long shot. I'm not talking about actual charges but the length of the bills themselves that have very little descriptive information on them.
USA Today is reporting on one bill that was 300 pages long in the form of double sided 150 sheets of paper that arrived in a US Mail cardboard box. A bill that has to be sent in a box? Is that a joke? Sadly, it's no joke.
It seems every iPhone bill is excruciatingly long with very little detail on them. Every data transmission, sent or received whether on WiFi or on AT&T's network is recorded but no actual information about the usage is except dates and times, with a charge of $0.00 if you are within your usage limits. So, you get a bill that tells you that you aren't being charged because you're still within your limits. Okay?..........

more ba-byes?

starting with tony??? (some one i sort of but not really but still and all, feel sorry for)

Tony Snow Signals His Resignation, Plus ‘A Couple’ More ‘Coming Up In The Next Month’

After the recent resignation of Karl Rove, media outlets speculated on what the rest of President Bush’s term will look like without “the Architect.” The President is “fighting lame duck status,” reported the AP. In response, White House Press Secretary Tony Snow shot back: “As the president has said many times, he’s going to sprint to the tape.”
But even Tony Snow doesn’t want to be around for that sprint. In an interview with the conservative Hugh Hewitt show, Snow signaled that he will not stay until the end of the term. He also mentioned that there are “probably a couple” of other high-level resignations “coming up in the next month or so.”.......

................Snow’s upcoming departure makes him one of a bevy of top administration officials who, since November, have left their posts. ThinkProgress has compiled a list of some of the key resignations:
- White House Senior Political Adviser Karl Rove- White House Counselor Dan Bartlett- White House Budget Director Rob Portman- White House Counsel Harriet Miers- White House Political Director Sara Taylor- White House Director of Strategic Initiatives Pete Wehner - White House Deputy National Security Adviser J.D. Crouch- Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty- Acting Associate Attorney General William Mercer- Justice Department White House liaison Monica Goodling- Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld- Army Secretary Francis Harvey- Joint Chief of Staffs Chairman Peter Pace- Secretary of Veterans Affairs Jim Nicholson- U.N. Ambassador John Bolton- USAID Director Randall Tobias.................

whew!

we can ALL sleep soundly tonight! just in case...in CASE, mind you, YOUR king, king george, declares MARTIAL LAW, his friend lil' jesus will be there to console us

as i said, WHEW

Homeland Security Enlists Clergy to Quell Public Unrest if Martial Law Ever Declared

Could martial law ever become a reality in America? Some fear any nuclear, biological or chemical attack on U.S. soil might trigger just that. KSLA News 12 has discovered that the clergy would help the government with potentially their biggest problem: Us. Charleton Heston's now-famous speech before the National Rifle Association at a convention back in 2000 will forever be remembered as a stirring moment for all 2nd Amendment advocates. At the end of his remarks, Heston held up his antique rifle and told the crowd in his Moses-like voice, "over my cold, dead hands." While Heston, then serving as the NRA President, made those remarks in response to calls for more gun control laws at the time, those words live on. Heston's declaration captured a truly American value: An over-arching desire to protect our freedoms. But gun confiscation is exactly what happened during the state of emergency following Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, along with forced relocation. U.S. Troops also arrived, something far easier to do now, thanks to last year's elimination of the 1878 Posse Comitatus act, which had forbid regular U.S. Army troops from policing on American soil............

YOUR (and mine for that matter)

tax dollars HARD at work. while victims of katrina still suffer. all of our children do not have health care or proper educations. our elderly cannot afford their medications. our men and women are dying for no just reason and of course on and on and on

oh yeah, seems like king george (YET AGAIN) made a wicked bang up job of choosing williams too! man, we are SO LUCKY we have king george. choice after choice he stuns us!
Construction Woes Plague U.S. Embassies
Shoddy Work, Contract Choices Cited


By Glenn Kessler
Washington Post Staff Writer

The new air-conditioning system in the $66 million U.S. Embassy in Mali broke down in June, sending office temperatures soaring to 100 degrees. An electrical fire erupted in the rehabilitated annex to the embassy in Rome. And the U.S. ambassador in Belize had to personally help workers sand the floors for new housing.
As the United States seeks to rapidly modernize and fortify its diplomatic missions around the world because of terrorism and other security concerns, the State Department's $5 billion construction efforts abroad have come under increasing strain. In a series of cables sent to Washington this summer, U.S. diplomats complained of building delays and shoddy workmanship, underscoring problems with State's one-size-fits-all approach to building that results in the same air-conditioning system being shipped to embassies in Africa and in Europe..........

...........At the center of the controversy is the man who has run the OBO since the start of the Bush administration -- Charles E. Williams, a retired major general in the Army Corps of Engineers, who quit under fire as chief operating officer of the D.C. public schools in 1998 when a botched roof repair project delayed the opening of District schools by three weeks. State Department officials who have worked with Williams assert that the serious construction problems now coming to light flow directly from Williams's mercurial management style.............

and then there is THIS:

Defense Contractor Was Paid $1 Million to Ship 2 Washers


By Renae Merle Washington Post Staff Writer

A South Carolina defense contractor pleaded guilty yesterday to bilking the Pentagon out of $20.5 million over nearly 10 years by adding hundreds of thousands of dollars to the cost of shipping spare parts such as metal washers and lamps. The parts were bound for key military installations, including those in Iraq and Afghanistan. In one instance, in 2006, the government paid C&D Distributors $998,798 in transportation costs for shipping two 19-cent washers. Charlene Corley, 47, co-owner of C&D Distributors, used the money to pay for luxury homes, cars, plastic surgery and jewelry, according to court documents.
"It is a troubling case because the fraud took place during a time of war," said Kevin McDonald, the first assistant U.S. attorney for the District of South Carolina. The $20 million "that could have gone to assist our military was diverted and used in a fraudulent manner for excessive personal enjoyment."...........

please understand, i do NOT condone

THIS

as a matter of fact, a person would be taking their life in their hands by attempting this with any kitty i personally know.
i just HAD to share though

there's a video

at this link

it's one of the scariest things i have EVER seen

odd

odd

odd

relax

it's just a tattoo - from street anatomy

cool website of the day

want to make a q*bert quilt (a QUILTBERT)? it's EASY! (yeah, right. we all know i do NOT sew. knit yes, sew no)

Quiltbert: a Q*bert Quilti

yeah ms mcdermid

ian rankin sounds like a complete id-jit (an , i had never heard of him before this)
Rankin slated over lesbian claims

Author Ian Rankin has been criticised by a fellow writer for suggesting lesbians write the most violent crime novels.
Val McDermid, 52, who is gay, described Rankin's comments as "offensive" and suggested his books were among the most violent she had read.
She was speaking at the Edinburgh International Book Festival.
Edinburgh-based Mr Rankin, 47, made his original comments during a newspaper interview last year.
He said: "The people writing the most graphic novels are women. They are mostly lesbians also, which I find interesting." ..............

...........Ms McDermid said Mr Rankin had himself written some of the most violent crime passages.
She said: "Have you forgotten the chilling opening to Mortal Causes, for example?"
In the book, a man is shot through the ankles, knees and elbows before being killed and dumped in an Edinburgh alleyway. ............

(by the way, ms mcdermid was responsible for the series 'wire in the blood'. i saw a few episodes on bbc america (i believe that's where they were). that's all they gave us. not too many. i really LOVED the show. unusual. thoughtful. the main (male) character was NOT a macho blowhard. he was a man with a mind AND a heart and a conscience and a soul (played by the WONDERFUL robson green)

here is some perspective on things

and it's VERY thorough

All-time Highs in Iraq: Escalation by the Numbers
By Tom Engelhardt, Tomdispatch.com.

.........This September, General David Petraeus, our escalation commander in Iraq, and Ryan Crocker, our escalation ambassador there, will present their "progress report" to Congress. ("Progress" was another word much favored in American official pronouncements of the Vietnam era.) The very name tells you more or less what to expect. The report has already been downgraded to a "snapshot" of an ongoing set of operations, which shouldn't be truly judged or seriously assessed until at least this November, or perhaps early 2008, or ...........

..........Estimated number of U.S.-(taxpayer)-paid private contractors in Iraq: More than 180,000, again undoubtedly an all-time high. That figure includes approximately 21,000 Americans, 43,000 non-Iraqi foreign contractors (including Chileans, Nepalese, Colombians, Indians, Fijians, El Salvadorans, and Filipinos among others), and 118,000 Iraqis, but does not include a complete count of "private security contractors who protect government officials and buildings," according to State Department and Pentagon figures obtained by the Los Angeles Times.........

..........Number of trucks on the road each day as part of the U.S. resupply operation in Iraq: 3,000.
Number of attacks from June 2006 through May 2007 on U.S. supply convoys guarded by private-security contractors: 869, a near tripling from the previous twelve months.........

..........Percentage of dollars annually appropriated by the U.S. government and spent on Iraq-related activities: More than 10 percent, or one dollar out of every 10, according to the CBO's Sunshine.
Estimated monthly cost of the Iraq (and Afghan) Wars: $12 billion -- $10 billion for Iraq -- a third higher than in 2006, according to the non-partisan Congressional Research Service...........

....Estimated number of bullets fired by U.S. troops for every insurgent killed in Iraq (or Afghanistan): 250,000, according to John Pike, director of the Washington military-research group GlobalSecurity.org......

...........Cost of a coffin in Baghdad: $50-75. Cost of a coffin in Saddam Hussein's time, $5-10..;.

..Number of unidentified bodies, assumedly murdered by death squads, found on the streets of Baghdad in June 2007: 453, a rise of 41 percent over January 2007, the month before surge operations began, according to unofficial Iraqi Health Ministry statistics taken from morgue counts......

i mean i only picked out a FEW of the figures in this article. i highly recommend it. it's long but you have nothing else to do (do you?) read it!

and now

a VERY warm and fuzzy lil' story for the kiddies!!!

(tearing the heads off of small animals and all!)

Rove Finds Himself in PETA's Crosshairs

-mary ann akers

Rove Finds Himself in PETA's Crosshairs
As if he hasn't taken enough heat for what he did in the White House, Karl Rove is coming under fresh attack for what he plans to do after he leaves on August 31. Specifically, his Labor Day weekend plan to go dove hunting down in Texas, which The Sleuth disclosed earlier this week.
PETA, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, was so outraged to learn about Rove's hunting excursion that it faxed a letter to the White House late Wednesday.
"Dear Mr. Rove," began the letter from President Ingrid E. Newkirk. "From your frequent hunting trips to your bizarre little rap at the Radio and Television Correspondents' Association dinner ("I like to go home, get a drink, and tear the tops off of small animals"), it is clear that you lack the ability to empathize with other living beings. You consistently prove that you care less about animal welfare than Alberto Gonzales cares about habeas corpus.".............

i take that back

i just mentioned how the truck bombs in iraq (on tuesday) killed over 250. i was mistaken
(and i'm not really buying all of this was al-qaeda either. SECTARIAN violence. CIVIL WAR)
Iraqi officials: Truck bombings killed at least 500

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- The death toll in the suicide bombings Tuesday in northern Iraq has risen to at least 500, local officials in Nineveh province said Wednesday. Iraqi Army and Mosul police sources earlier put the number at 260, but said it was likely to rise. 320 were reported wounded.
The Tuesday truck bombs that targeted the villages of Qahtaniya, al-Jazeera and Tal Uzair, in northern Iraq near the border with Syria, were a "trademark al Qaeda event" designed to sway U.S. public opinion against the war, a U.S. general said Wednesday.
The attacks, targeting Kurdish villages of the Yazidi religious minority, were attempts to "break the will" of the American people and show that the U.S. troop escalation -- the "surge" -- is failing, Maj. Gen. Benjamin Mixon said.
The bombings highlight the kind of sectarian tensions the troop surge was designed to stop.....

a sad statistic

Army Suicides Highest in 26 Years

we are the american people

YOU work for US. WE DEMAND the september report on iraq be delivered in public AND be honest. WE DEMAND IT and we should NOT roll over and shut up if those two conditions are not met. we ALL know how things are going over there. yesterday more than 250 dead in a bombing. the benchmarks we've set are NOT being met. the war is going on and on and on. we were never in any danger from iraq. our men and women are now. it's the fault of our administration. they are accountable for thousands of american lives and perhaps hundreds of thousands of lives in the middle east.

we demand truth AND justice for ALL. do NOT allow them to bullshit us again

An Early Clash Over Iraq Report
Specifics at Issue as September Nears


By Jonathan Weisman and Karen DeYoung Washington Post Staff Writers

Senior congressional aides said yesterday that the White House has proposed limiting the much-anticipated appearance on Capitol Hill next month of Gen. David H. Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker to a private congressional briefing, suggesting instead that the Bush administration's progress report on the Iraq war should be delivered to Congress by the secretaries of state and defense.
White House officials did not deny making the proposal in informal talks with Congress, but they said yesterday that they will not shield the commanding general in Iraq and the senior U.S. diplomat there from public congressional testimony required by the war-funding legislation President Bush signed in May. "The administration plans to follow the requirements of the legislation," National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe said in response to questions yesterday........

i was going to wait until this weekend

to write a review of my favorite new tv show, john from cincinnati. the last episode of season one (and, as it turns out FOREVER) aired sunday night. i watched it monday on demand. the review is (yes, i'm still going to write it) going to be rather long and i just don't have the time right now. i specifically waited until the last show to write the review.

yesterday, i read the show was CANCELLED already. i think i read it on cnn, but not sure. (i just saw this too HBO Cancels 'John From Cincinnati')

my friend chris (he loves it as much as i do) and i are in deep despair. we are going to contact some lawyers and sue hbo for them wasting our time (THAT my dears was humor. we're not in the same league as the several million dollar pants lawsuit dude).

chris and i are PISSED

john from cincinnati

after they're done bombing abortion clinics

and denying people basic human equal rights and yelling FOR the death penalty, some die-hard christians need a way to just kick back and relax!
(please note: this ALLEGEDLY happened)
2 Accused Of Dragging Girl Behind Van
Girl Allegedly Dragged At Christian Boot Camp

BANQUETE, Texas -- Two officials at a Christian boot camp in Texas are accused of tying a 15-year-old girl to a van with a rope and dragged her after she fell behind during a run.
The two officials with Love Demonstrated Ministries face aggravated assault charges for the June incident.
Authorities said Charles Flowers ordered camp worker Stephanie Bassitt to run alongside the girl after she fell behind.......

Pastor accused of dragging girl behind his vanA trainer also faces charges in incident at boot camp
By JEORGE ZARAZUASan Antonio Express-news

A San Antonio pastor and an employee of his Christian boot camp were arrested Friday on aggravated assault charges, accused of dragging a girl behind a van after she failed to keep up during a running exercise.
Investigators with the Nueces County Sheriff's Office arrested Charles E. Flowers, 46, shortly before noon at the Faith Outreach Center in northwest San Antonio, said Brad E. Bailey, a spokesman for the Schertz Police Department.
Bailey said boot camp trainer Stephanie Bassitt, 20, was later arrested without incident at her home in Kirby.
Flowers and Bassitt each were being held on $100,000 bail at the Nueces County Jail in Corpus Christi.
Girl alleges second assault
Authorities said both Flowers and Bassitt restrained the girl June 12, tying her to the back of a van with a piece of rope before dragging her on her stomach at the Love Demonstrated Ministries' boot camp in Banquete, about 10 miles west of Corpus Christi.
Schertz police assisted Nueces County authorities in the arrests because the camp's orientation sessions are held in Schertz, and the 15-year-old girl claimed she was assaulted there, too.....

he's right

they're NOT there as guests. they ARE there to AX questions. someone has to have the stones to ask king george SOMETHING. ANYTHING

If he’s so smart, how come you lost Congress?’

When the president and Karl Rove delivered brief statements at the White House yesterday, reporters were not allowed to ask questions. One spoke up anyway.
As Karl Rove embraced President Bush today following an emotional farewell announcement on the South Lawn, the solemnity of the moment was shattered by Bill Plante of CBS, who bellowed to Bush: “If he’s so smart, how come you lost Congress?”
Now, I consider myself a fairly polite guy, and if the president had just made a statement regarding something truly solemn — about, for example, war casualties — I can understand reporters showing some restraint. Under truly somber circumstances, the press corps almost certainly shouldn’t shout cheeky questions.
But Karl Rove is a controversial, nearly-indicted, currently-subpoenaed political advisor. His departure is not “solemn.” The White House seems to have trained much of the press corps not to disrupt the president’s preferred media dynamic — reporters are to spoken to, not heard from — but why should they play along? What’s so awful about Plante trying to get a response from officials after public remarks at the White House?...............

see?

didn't i just say this a couple of posts ago? and i'm just a rose is a rose. i'm not even a us comptroller general!

Senior US official likens challenges facing America, Roman Republic

John Byrne

The US comptroller general David Walker issued a report last week in Chicago in which he likened the present situation in the United States to the Roman Republic or an organization that fails to adapt and "may not survive."
Nobody reported it. The first report of the speech came today in London's Financial Times.
Walker, who heads the Congressional, nonpartisan Government Accountability Office has offered dire forecasts for the United States in the past. In interviews with 60 Minutes and NPR, he's said that he believes the US cannot continue to live at such levels of prosperity indefinitely, since much of current prosperity is erected upon debt.
"Throughout history, many great nations have also failed to survive," Walker told an audience in Chicago last week. "I should point out that the longest standing republic and the major superpower of its day no longer exists, and that's the Roman Republic.".........

this is comforting

NOT

Gonzales to Get Power In Death Penalty Cases
Rules Would Expand Fast-Track Authority


By Dan Eggen
Washington Post Staff Writer
Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales, under political siege for his handling of the U.S. attorney firings and other issues, is to get expanded powers to hasten death penalty cases under regulations being developed by the Justice Department.
The rules would give Gonzales the authority to approve "fast-track" procedures by states in death penalty cases, enabling them to carry out sentences more speedily and with fewer opportunities for appeal if those states provide adequate representation for capital defendants.
Such powers were previously held by federal judges, but a provision of the USA Patriot Act reauthorization bill approved by Congress last year hands the authority to the attorney general........

talk about balls, or stones, or nerve. this to me is absolutely SHOCKING. although with what king george and his court are getting away with, i should no longer be surprised at anything. wtf? why does gonzo need THIS power? next thing you know, he's going to be lining us ALL up at the gallows (and i'm not even kidding)

they are going to have to

pry my polly pockets from my cold dead hands!

Mattel Recalls More Chinese-Made Toys
Lead-Based Paint, Design Flaws Prompt Second Action in Two Weeks

listen, here's my take on all of this shite. the tires, the toys, the toothpaste and on and on. you get what you pay for. you send all the jobs over to other countries where you can pay the workers pennies (give or take) a day. we STILL have to pay top dollar for the goods though. why? i'll tell you. once again, to line the pockets of a few good ol' white boys. the execs MUST get their kazillion dollars. they MUST. no, one million isn't good enough. they want MORE MORE MORE. who pays? we ALL pay - one way or another

i hope everyone realizes

how very close to the brink we are. we're teetering on the edge. we're going to start world war iii (well i think we already started it) and we are all doomed. i think the rapture IS right around the corner. congress and the senate are sitting on their asses. not taking action. our men and women are dying. THEIR men and women are dying. now, we're going after iran. no turning back
(once again i will say, i am ALL for defending our nation against terrorists. DOMESTIC ones too. let's not forget the abortion clinic bombers in this group as well. at any rate, iraq wasn't bothering us. no terrorists from iraq bombed the world trade center, the pentagon or took a plane in pennsylvania. WE invaded iraq to line the pockets of a bunch o' good ol' white boys. now they're ALL coming after us)
Iranian Unit to Be Labeled 'Terrorist'
U.S. Moving Against Revolutionary Guard


By Robin Wright Washington Post Staff Writer
The United States has decided to designate Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps, the country's 125,000-strong elite military branch, as a "specially designated global terrorist," according to U.S. officials, a move that allows Washington to target the group's business operations and finances.
The Bush administration has chosen to move against the Revolutionary Guard Corps because of what U.S. officials have described as its growing involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as its support for extremists throughout the Middle East, the sources said. The decision follows congressional pressure on the administration to toughen its stance against Tehran, as well as U.S. frustration with the ineffectiveness of U.N. resolutions against Iran's nuclear program, officials said..........

the nutmeg grater: let's hear it for russ feingold#links#links

the nutmeg grater: let's hear it for russ feingold#links#links

wikipedia. we knew what was happening

now thanks to virgil griffith, it can be PROVEN
(click on the link to see SOME of the spin jobs. who is doing the spin? well some corporations and of course on political entries, oh, the nsa, the justice department.....)

Vote On the Most Shameful Wikipedia Spin Jobs
By Kevin Poulsen

Caltech graduate student Virgil Griffith just launched an unofficial Wikipedia search tool that threatens to lay bare the ego-editing and anonymous flacking on the site. Enter the name of a corporation, organization or government entity and you get a list of IP addresses assigned to it. Then with one or two clicks, you can see all the anonymous edits made from those addresses anywhere in Wikipedia's pages.
Griffith's work is a neat example of what can be uncovered just by reorganizing public information. Wired News writer John Borland has the full story here.
THREAT LEVEL predicts a lot of sad, embarrassing secrets will emerge from this project once netizens dive into it -- and we'd like to be a part of that. So visit the Wikipedia Scanner and do some sleuthing. Post what you find here on our wall of shame, where you can join other Wired News readers in voting submissions up or down. We've seeded the list with a few finds of our own. Happy hunting!..........

oh my goddess NO NO NO

say it isn't TRUE

what is THE WORST thing that could happen in the ENTIRE universe? that's right -

Pipe Cleaners, Googly Eyes Cut From Elementary School Arts Budget

i'm apt to believe this over king george's sources

i don't think i care about the real reason as long as there are less deaths. of course there should be NO deaths. that's a given.

a rose by any other name........
(war is war and there is NO reason we invaded iraq. NONE. well, save for lining the pockets of a few already rich white men)
The Real Reason Why Fewer U.S. Soldiers Are Dying in Iraq

By Robert Parry, Consortium News.

Mindful of the political fallout from the rising American death toll in Iraq, the U.S. military has pulled back from widespread use of aggressive tactics with ground troops this summer.
The number of U.S. military fatalities declined to 80 in July after three months of a death toll in the triple digits (104 in April, 126 in May, and 101 in June). The lower death toll has been cited by some U.S. commanders in Iraq and Bush administration supporters in Washington as a sign that President George W. Bush's "surge" of U.S. troops is working.
But the sources told me that the lower death toll reflects not some impending victory but just a slowdown in the U.S. ground offensive after the early phases of the surge, which poured more than 20,000 additional troops into Iraq. The sources cited a variety of factors contributing to the decline in U.S. casualties.
One U.S. military source said the American troops have not pushed as far from their forward operating bases as the U.S. news media has been led to believe. When Bush unveiled the surge, a key goal was to get American forces out of their secure bases and into small police outposts in Iraqi neighborhoods.............

get a warrant

it's EASY. what the f**k is the problem here? better yet, if you want to read MY emails (and they do at work by the way. they keep them on file - has to do with nasd or something or other. please don't even get me started on what we have to do for the PATRIOT ACT. i work in the insurance/financial industry. if you only knew the kinds of problems and the work - YES I PERSONALLY HAD TO DO- the patriot act caused. you'd tap me on the shoulder and say, 'there there a rose is a rose. is there anything i can do?) ASK ME. if i'm in a decent enough mood (ok ok, that's rare), you never know. i MAY say oui. then again, i may not. GET A WARRANT

oh and one more thing. i'm NOT a terrorist or a spy or a traitor or an ugly american. i do NOT cheat on my taxes (really), i don't steal. i try not to lie and i'm watching out for both my elderly father AND my elderly landlord.
Lawsuits May Illuminate Methods of Spy Program


By Dan Eggen Washington Post Staff Writer

In 2003, Room 641A of a large telecommunications building in downtown San Francisco was filled with powerful data-mining equipment for a "special job" by the National Security Agency, according to a former AT&T technician. It was fed by fiber-optic cables that siphoned copies of e-mails and other online traffic from one of the largest Internet hubs in the United States, the former employee says in court filings.
What occurred in the room is now at the center of a pivotal legal battle in a federal appeals court over the Bush administration's controversial spying program, including the monitoring that came to be publicly known as the Terrorist Surveillance Program..........

here's a cute headline

Rove: Departure Unrelated to Investigations

#1 - i wonder who's buying this shite? unrelated? bullshite. it's ALL related

#2 - NO need for any of king george's court to worry about any f**king thing. they can ALL testify. they can ALL admit to ANY and ALL crimes they've already committed (or are GOING to commit) and NOTHING will be done to them. they'll all be safe in their sweet mama's arms again.

the democrats have NO spines. crimes have been committed. the guilty must be charged AND brought to justice

bye

of course i'm overjoyed on one hand. on the other, king george and his court will NEVER be charged therefore not convicted of their crimes against the united states of america AND humanity

Top White House aide Rove resigns

Top White House aide Karl Rove has said he will resign at the end of August.
"I just think it's time," Mr Rove said in an interview for the Wall Street Journal, adding that he was quitting for the sake of his family.
Mr Rove is a senior political adviser to President George W Bush and has worked with him for more than a decade.
As Mr Bush's chief strategist, he is seen as instrumental in delivering two presidential and several congressional election victories for the Republicans. ........

(please note where i got this. THE BBC. none of the american papers had it - yet. well of course wsj did but you have to be a subscriber)

i think we found some of those missing weapons

and they're not being used to play games either

they're not just in iraq either.

and tell me, WHO, just WHO is accountable? who is going to come to justice? if anyone, it will be some lower level stooge they offer up. we all know who SHOULD come to trial. for this AND for crimes against humanity

Iraq's Arms Bazaar
How firearms intended for Iraqi security forces are winding up in the hands of extremists across the region.


By Christopher Dickey
Newsweek
Aug. 20-27, 2007 issue - On the afternoon of Feb. 5, 2006, at a small church in the Turkish Black Sea city of Trabzon, Father Andrea Santoro was kneeling in prayer when a bullet from an Austrian-made Glock 9mm pistol hit him in the back and pierced his heart. The soft-spoken 60-year-old Italian priest, who lived in poverty ministering to the city's tiny Christian community, slumped to the floor, and the killer squeezed off another round. "Allahu akbar!"—"God is great"—said the shooter, a 15-year-old boy with a grudge against the West..............

.....There are many more where those came from. At least three U.S. government agencies are now investigating the massive "disappearance" and diversion of weapons Washington intended for Iraqi government forces that instead have spread to militants and organized gangs across the region. The potential size of the traffic is stunning. A report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office last month showed that since 2004, some 190,000 AK-47 assault rifles and pistols, bought with U.S. money for Iraqi security forces, have gone missing.............

haven't we pissed off the iraqis enough?

haven't we f**ked up the lives of our men and women deployed in the middle east enough?

yes and yes

and here is MORE on 'faith' in the military

Holy war! Game tests troops' rapture readiness

BY ZAY N. SMITH Sun-Times Columnist As If We Weren't Putting Our Brave Soldiers Through Enough (cont'd):
The Defense Department at www .americasupportsyou.mil is endorsing an Iraq tour by Operation Straight Up to offer "faith-based entertainment" there.
It does not mention that Operation Straight Up views its entertainment tours as a "holy crusade" to convert soldiers and Iraqis to fundamentalist Christianity.
The entertainment includes the distribution of packets with religious tracts printed in both English and Arabic, along with a rapture video game, "Left Behind: Eternal Forces," in which the player is assigned to convert or kill the unbelievers left behind after the rapture.
The game's virtual character shouts "Praise the Lord!" every time a nonbeliever is killed.
The Bush administration knows what our soldiers in Iraq need -- additional holy wars......

i am shuddering. what the heck kind of god do these people believe in? it's SICK

from 1994

the lovely and talented dick cheney on why bombing iraq would lead to a quagmire (video at the link)

hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

the nutmeg grater: that's right da liebs wants to see#links#links

the nutmeg grater: that's right da liebs wants to see#links#links

a day in the life...

this is NOTHING. wait until 5, 10, 15 years from now. those that actually survived are going to need a LOT of treatment (and it DAMN WELL better be forthcoming from the va). king george and his court will be long gone by the time the real shite hits the fan. and guess what? THEY DON'T CARE. they don't give a flying yoo hoo about our deployed troops NO MATTER WHAT THEY SAY.

can you imagine the tens of thousands of cases of ptsd in the future?

Fatigue cripples US army in Iraq

Exhaustion and combat stress are besieging US troops in Iraq as they battle with a new type of warfare. Some even rely on Red Bull to get through the day. As desertions and absences increase, the military is struggling to cope with the crisis

Peter Beaumont in Sunday August 12, 2007 The Observer

Lieutenant Clay Hanna looks sick and white. Like his colleagues he does not seem to sleep. Hanna says he catches up by napping on a cot between operations in the command centre, amid the noise of radio. He is up at 6am and tries to go to sleep by 2am or 3am. But there are operations to go on, planning to be done and after-action reports that need to be written. And war interposes its own deadly agenda that requires his attention and wakes him up.


When he emerges from his naps there is something old and paper-thin about his skin, something sketchy about his movements as the days go by.
The Americans he commands, like the other men at Sullivan - a combat outpost in Zafraniya, south east Baghdad - hit their cots when they get in from operations. But even when they wake up there is something tired and groggy about them. They are on duty for five days at a time and off for two days. When they get back to the forward operating base, they do their laundry and sleep and count the days until they will get home. It is an exhaustion that accumulates over the patrols and the rotations, over the multiple deployments, until it all joins up, wiping out any memory of leave or time at home. Until life is nothing but Iraq..............

merv

i am of the age where i grew up watching the merv griffin show. merv and the staid arthur treacher. i thought that the oddest combination ever (even at a young age i thought that). yet, it WORKED. (at least for a while)

i saw everyone on merv. people i'd never heard of but fell in love with. jack douglas and meiko or keiko (i can't quite remember her name). politicians, actors, comedians.

totie fields, monte rock iii, mrs miller, jackie vernon, moms mabley and oh so many more!

the ONLY thing that pained me a GREAT deal was merv's singing. and sing he did. every show if i remember correctely. the WORST was when he'd attempt to interpret a rock n' roll song. TORTURE.

The Host Who Was Everyone's Guest


By Tom ShalesWashington Post Staff Writer

Merv Griffin had friends in the right places, and for the 20 years that "The Merv Griffin Show" aired on television, in one form or another, those places included millions of American homes.
He was fun to have around, and so the news of his death yesterday, at 82, was poignantly dispiriting. Especially considering he was that form of celebrity unique to television: a professional personality, someone whose singing (despite a big-band career in the '40s) was unexceptional, whose dancing was limited to ballrooms at haute blowouts, and whose major talent may have been his prowess at dealmaking behind the scenes.
Though members of post-boomer generations may seldom or never have seen Griffin perform -- impishly interrogating the famous and infamous who joined him on his talk show -- they may still be aware of his presence in pop culture. Nearly everyone knows he invented the game shows "Jeopardy!" and "Wheel of Fortune" and hugely profited from them, while continuing to gambol and scamper across the pop landscape as gadfly and entrepreneur.........

Merv Griffin, Television Innovator, Dies at 82

By RICHARD SEVERO and EDWARD WYATT

Merv Griffin, a big-band singer who became one of television’s longest-running talk-show hosts and formidable innovators, creating some of the medium’s most popular game shows before becoming a major figure in the hotel and gambling businesses, died yesterday in Los Angeles. He was 82.
His death, at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, was caused by prostate cancer, according to a family statement issued by Marcia Newberger, a spokeswoman for Mr. Griffin’s companies. Mr. Griffin had been treated for the disease more than 10 years ago but was recently hospitalized after a recurrence.
Mr. Griffin, as a singer with the Freddy Martin band, had a hit in 1950 with the recording, “I’ve Got a Lovely Bunch of Coconuts” but had traded in singing for acting in movies, served as game-show host and filled in for Jack Paar on late-night television. Then, in 1962, NBC gave him his own daytime show, “The Merv Griffin Show.” ..........

i'm ALL for it!

spying on terrorists or even suspected terrorists. one has to do what one has to do. IF those suspected terrorists are american citizens, one MUST get a warrant. there is a special process for that and from what i understand only two or three cases in the past 20 (give or take) years have been rejected. GET A WARRANT. this is AMERICA. we are AMERICAN CITIZENS.

i expect our agencies charged with 'certain duties' to protect us. i'm not an idiot. i know all sorts of underground activities go on. YET i do not want our constitution to be ripped apart when it comes to the citizenry of the united states of america. there is NO need

oh and to the democrats - stop it. take your vaginas out of your mama's handbag RIGHT NOW

How the Fight for Vast New Spying Powers Was Won


By Joby Warrick and Walter Pincus Washington Post Staff Writers
For three days, Mike McConnell, the director of national intelligence, had haggled with congressional leaders over amendments to a federal surveillance law, but now he was putting his foot down. "This is the issue," said the plain-spoken retired vice admiral and Vietnam veteran, "that makes my blood pressure rise."
McConnell viscerally objected to a Democratic proposal to limit warrantless surveillance of foreigners' communications with Americans to instances in which one party was a terrorism suspect. McConnell wanted no such limits. "All foreign intelligence" targets in touch with Americans on any topic of interest should be fair game for U.S. spying, he said, according to two participants in the Aug. 2 conversation.
McConnell won the fight, extracting a key concession despite the misgivings of Democratic negotiators. Shortly after that exchange, the Bush administration leveraged Democratic acquiescence into a broader victory: congressional approval of a Republican bill that would expand surveillance powers far beyond what Democratic leaders had initially been willing to accept..........