outrageous

out f**king rageous. this is the first i've read of this (even though it's happening in my back yard, mass.)

Feds Won't Let Go of Case Accusing Artist of Bioterrorism
By Patricia Williams, The Nation.
In May 2004 Steve Kurtz's life was turned upside down. Kurtz, a founding member of the award-winning collective Critical Art Ensemble, was a tenured art professor at SUNY, Buffalo. His work and that of the collective was of a kinetic conceptual sort, much of it aimed at informing audiences about the lack of regulation and potential risks of genetically modified (GM) food. Shortly before his show was to open at MASS MoCA, a museum in North Adams, Massachusetts, Kurtz's wife of twenty years died in her sleep. When police responded to his 911 call, they saw petri dishes in his home -- part of the scheduled installation -- filled with bacteria cultures. They called the FBI.
At that point, the nation was still reeling from the 2001 anthrax scares. Kurtz was detained (not arrested, not charged but held beyond the range of due process, under the USA Patriot Act) on suspicion of bioterrorism. Within days, FBI tests showed that there were no harmful biological agents in his house and that his wife had died of natural causes. But the case against Kurtz has not gone away.
Forced to drop charges of weapons manufacture, a federal prosecutor charged mail fraud against both Kurtz and Robert Ferrell, a professor of genetics at the University of Pittsburgh who sent Kurtz the uncontestedly harmless, legal, unregulated bacterial cultures used in his artwork. The "fraud" alleged is that they did not reveal, in a requisition form, the purpose of the mailing. Neither the University of Pittsburgh nor Buffalo has asserted fraud, and neither Ferrell nor Kurtz believed that there was anything fraudulent in their dealings. The allegation of fraud is made exclusively by the federal prosecutor -- a first as far as anyone knows.
Even assuming that there was a defrauded party, one wonders why any putative misrepresentation regarding paperwork isn't being handled as a civil rather than a criminal matter. But to give it the ultimate Kafkaesque twist, the charges against Kurtz and Ferrell have been pursued under the Patriot Act. This means that the sentence for otherwise ordinary crimes will be doubled. Since mail fraud carries a sentence of ten years, Kurtz and Ferrell each face a possible sentence of twenty years..............

faux news

they should all have a giant "L" tattooed on their foreheads cause they ARE a bunch of losers (i really think they are pieces of steamin' shite)

Fox News Immediately Begins Smear Campaign Against Al Gore, Nobel Prize
Posted by Faiz Shakir
This post, written by Amanda Terkel, orignally appeared on Think Progress
On Fox and Friends this morning, co-host Steve Doocy wasted no time in attacking the announcement that Al Gore has been named a co-winner of the Nobel Peace Prize. "Here's something extraordinary," Doocy sarcastically said. "What do Al Gore, Yasser Arafat, and that crazy Jimmy Carter have in common?" Co-host Gretchen Carlson responded, "They all won the Nobel Peace Prize?"
Fox then displayed a chyron of the last few winners of the Nobel Peace Prize, causing another co-host Brian Kilmeade, to complain: "There's the last five winners -- see Mohamed El Baradei. What do they have in common? I don't know about the 2006 winner, but I will say 2005 and 2007 both anti-Bush.".........

justice?

no, not in ANY way shape or form

Guards acquitted in boot camp case
By MELISSA NELSON, Associated Press Writer
Eight former boot camp workers were acquitted of manslaughter Friday in the death of a 14-year-old boy who was videotaped being punched and kicked. The scene sparked outrage and changes in the juvenile system, but it took jurors just 90 minutes to decide it was not a crime.

Anger over the verdict was obvious outside the courtroom, where bystanders screamed "murderer" at former guard Henry Dickens as he described his relief at the verdict.

Martin Lee Anderson died a day after being hit and kicked by Dickens and six other guards as a nurse watched, a 30-minute confrontation that drew protests in the state capital and spelled the end of Florida's system of juvenile boot camps.

"I am truly, truly sorry this happened. Myself, I love kids," said Dickens, 60. He added that Anderson "wasn't beaten. Those techniques were taught to us and used for a purpose."

The defendants testified that they followed the rules at a get-tough facility where young offenders often feigned illness to avoid exercise. Their attorneys said that Anderson died not from rough treatment, but from a previously undiagnosed blood disorder.

The boy's mother, Gina Jones, stormed out of the courtroom. "I cannot see my son no more. Everybody see their family members. It's wrong," she screamed.

"You kill a dog, you go to jail," said her lawyer, Benjamin Crump. "You kill a little black boy and nothing happens." He spoke outside court, which is across the street from the now-closed Bay County boot camp..........

"negligent and incompetent"

puts it mildly. murdering pieces of steamin' shite is how i see 'em

thanks for speaking out (ret) general sanchez. i know you couldn't do it while you were actively commanding. i DO hope you said it to king george behind closed doors though. i know he (well NONE of 'em listened, but i do hope you let them know exactly what they were doing)
Ex-Commander In Iraq Faults War Strategy
'No End in Sight,' Says Retired General Sanchez

By Josh WhiteWashington Post Staff Writer
Retired Lt. Gen. Ricardo S. Sanchez, who led U.S. forces in Iraq for a year after the March 2003 invasion, accused the Bush administration yesterday of going to war with a "catastrophically flawed" plan and said the United States is "living a nightmare with no end in sight."
Sanchez also bluntly criticized the current troop increase in Iraq, describing it as "a desperate attempt by the administration that has not accepted the political and economic realities of this war."
"The administration, Congress and the entire interagency, especially the State Department, must shoulder the responsibility for this catastrophic failure, and the American people must hold them accountable," Sanchez told military reporters and editors. "There has been a glaring unfortunate display of incompetent strategic leadership within our national leaders." .............

disturbing and sick

NOT trendy and chic





an incredibly thin model on a runway wearing an alcohol monitoring anklet. this is how women want to look? NOT ME

this isn't trendy. this isn't fun or funny. it's downright f**ked up


Alcohol monitoring bracelet hits the runway





..........Now I have seen it all! The alcohol monitoring bracelet, which is usually pegged as an embarrassing thing to wear, is now a fashion accessory. The "accessory" was just spotted in Karl Lagerfeld's Chanel runway show.With celebrities like Eve, Michelle Rodriguez and Lindsay Lohan sporting the court-required anklet, we've grown somewhat accustomed plastic black trackers, but to morph it into an accessory -- that's just plain weird............

YEAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

(i want him to run SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO badly. he really is the ONLY one i want to vote for)
Gore, U.N. Body Win Nobel Peace Prize


By DOUG MELLGREN The Associated Press Friday, October 12, 2007; 5:19 AM
OSLO, Norway -- Former Vice President Al Gore and the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change won the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize Friday for their efforts to spread awareness of man-made climate change and lay the foundations for counteracting it.
Gore won an Academy Award this year for his film "An Inconvenient Truth," a documentary on global warming, and had been widely expected to win the prize.
"His strong commitment, reflected in political activity, lectures, films and books, has strengthened the struggle against climate change," the citation said. "He is probably the single individual who has done most to create greater worldwide understanding of the measures that need to be adopted."
It cited Gore's awareness at an early stage "of the climatic challenges the world is facing.
The committee cited the Panel on Climate Change for two decades of scientific reports that have "created an ever-broader informed consensus about the connection between human activities and global warming." .......

why would a mother

buy a FOURTEEN YEAR OLD AN ASSAULT RIFLE? even nra members should be wondering about that one. without a DOUBT that woman SHOULD BE AND MUST BE held accountable for putting that rifle in the hands of her son. it is JUST WRONG


Boy, 14, Seized in Plot to Open Fire at School
By JON HURDLE and IAN URBINA
PLYMOUTH MEETING, Pa., Oct. 11 — A 14-year-old boy was arrested Wednesday night after the police received a tip that he was plotting a shooting spree at a high school in this northern suburb of Philadelphia, the authorities said.
The police said that the boy had been planning a “Columbine style” attack on students at Plymouth Whitemarsh High School and that in searching his home, they had found a 9-millimeter assault rifle, dozens of authentic-looking BB and air guns, and seven hand grenades he was making, four of which were operational.
At a news conference Thursday, the Montgomery County district attorney, Bruce L. Castor Jr., stood before a table that held the seized weaponry, which looked daunting even though most of it was air-powered imitations.
The genuine assault rifle, for which no ammunition was found in the home, was bought legally at a gun show by the boy’s mother, the police said. But she bought it for her son, Mr. Castor said, adding that as a result his office was still deciding what charges to file against her, if any........

i love joni

so very much. i love her voice. i love her words. i love her art
Joni Mitchell's Muse Returns on 'Shine'
By CHARLES J. GANS Associated Press Writer
Oct 11th, 2007 NEW YORK -- A few years ago, Joni Mitchell had rejected her musical muse, refusing to write or even play music as she devoted her life to painting, watching old movies on TV and reconnecting to the daughter she had given up for adoption in 1965.
Now, at age 63, newly inspired by family, nature and anger at today's politics, Mitchell is enjoying an outburst of creativity. The iconic Canadian singer-songwriter, whose poetic verses on songs like "Both Sides, Now" have inspired countless musicians from Madonna to Wayne Shorter, has released "Shine," her first album of new songs in nearly a decade.
On Sept. 25, Mitchell returned to the public eye as Starbucks' Hear Music label played her new 10-song album in 6,500 coffee houses. Later that evening, Mitchell found herself at the Manhattan premiere of the film "The Fiddle and the Drum" (scheduled for Oct. 22 broadcast on Bravo), an anti-war ballet based on her songs that she co-created with choreographer Jean Grand-Maitre of the Alberta Ballet.
She then rushed to the gallery opening of an exhibition, entitled "Green Flag Song," of her triptychs. Focused on the themes "war, torture, revolution," they were created from ghostly green-and-white negative images photographed off her dying TV set from the History Channel, CNN and Turner Classic Movies............

the fiddle and the drum
joni mitchell

And so once again
My dear Johnny my dear friend
And so once again you are fightin' us all
And when I ask you why
You raise your sticks and cry, and I fall
Oh, my friend
How did you come
To trade the fiddle for the drum

You say I have turned
Like the enemies you've earned
But I can remember
All the good things you are
And so I ask you please
Can I help you find the peace and the star
Oh, my friend
What time is this
To trade the handshake for the fist

And so once again
Oh, America my friend
And so once again
You are fighting us all
And when we ask you why
You raise your sticks and cry and we fall
Oh, my friend
How did you come
To trade the fiddle for the drum

You say we have turned
Like the enemies you've earned
But we can remember
All the good things you are
And so we ask you please
Can we help you find the peace and the star
Oh my friend
We have all come
To fear the beating of your drum

the worst part isn't that he said this

it's that he's still on the air (i don't want him or them censored. what i want is people to stop being dopes and NOT LISTEN or TUNE INTO these horrid beings). that he still has an audience. same goes for flush limburger, dill o'wrongly and the giant blond haired skinny mantis creature


On the October 10 broadcast of his nationally syndicated Fox News Radio show, while discussing 14-year-old Asa H. Coon, who earlier that day shot four people at his Cleveland high school before killing himself, Fox News host John Gibson asserted that "because the school is very heavily African-American, I did leap to a conclusion" that "the shooter might have been African-American." Gibson went on to say that he "knew this was not a classic hip-hop shooting" once he learned Coon killed himself. Gibson continued: "Hip-hoppers do not kill themselves. They walk away. Now, I didn't need to hear the kid was white with blond hair. Once he'd shot himself in the head, no hip-hopper." Gibson later stated, "I know the shooter was white. I knew it as soon as he shot himself. Hip-hoppers don't do that. They shoot and move on to shoot again." Gibson added: "I know there's a few of you who want to call me racist. But when you do, remind -- let me remind you, African-Americans are dying in major cities because people won't face this problem."......

AND THEY DRAW THEIR GUNS ON OUR TROOPS

if this doesn't make king george (and condi) and his court of jesters IMMEDIATELY FIRE ALL BLACKWATER MERCENARIES i don't know what will

Blackwater Is Soaked
An arrogant attitude only adds fuel to the criticism.

By Rod Nordland and Mark Hosenball
Newsweek
Oct. 15, 2007 issue - The colonel was furious. "Can you believe it? They actually drew their weapons on U.S. soldiers." He was describing a 2006 car accident, in which an SUV full of Blackwater operatives had crashed into a U.S. Army Humvee on a street in Baghdad's Green Zone. The colonel, who was involved in a follow-up investigation and spoke on the condition he not be named, said the Blackwater guards disarmed the U.S. Army soldiers and made them lie on the ground at gunpoint until they could disentangle the SUV. His account was confirmed by the head of another private security company. Asked to address this and other allegations in this story, Blackwater spokesperson Anne Tyrrell said, "This type of gossip has led to many soap operas in the press."..........

the answer is YES

leblanc IS responsible. ESPECIALLY when one is in a b&d or s&m relationship, one has to go a step beyond. ssc. safe sane and consensual. it's a MUST. if one is the top or dominant one, it is their responsibility their partner(s) are always SAFE. BOTH (or all) parties should be smart though. don't ever give up your rights OR your life for a quick thrill.

S&M Death Raises Legal Questions
By DENISE LAVOIE Associated Press Writer
LYNN, Mass (AP) -- Adrian Exley was wrapped tightly in heavy plastic, then bound with duct tape. A leather hood was put over his head with a thin plastic straw inserted so that he could breathe, and he was shut up in a closet.
That, apparently, was the way Exley liked it. But the way it ended - with Exley suffocating - was not what he had in mind when he traveled from Britain for a bondage session with a man he had met through a sadomasochism Web site.
Exley's body was discovered in the woods last year, two months after he was bound up in the bondage "playroom" Gary LeBlanc had built in the basement of his suburban Boston home. LeBlanc, a 48-year-old Gulf Oil sales executive, detailed his responsibility in the fatal bondage session in a five-page suicide note, just before he put a gun to his head and killed himself.
Now the question is: Since Exley consented to the sex play, can LeBlanc be held responsible for his death?............

you know

if i knew this shite was going on, don't try to tell me king george and his buds didn't know. of COURSE they knew they just don't give a flying f**k. well they have to now. it's out in the open
(and i haven't forgotton about the ONE blackwater op who tried to stop this incident. ONE with what seems to be a soul)
Blackwater Guards Fired at Fleeing Cars, Soldiers Say
First U.S. Troops on Scene Found No Evidence of Shooting by Iraqis; Incident Called 'Criminal'

By Sudarsan Raghavan and Josh WhiteWashington Post Foreign Service
BAGHDAD, Oct. 11 -- Blackwater USA guards shot at Iraqi civilians as they tried to drive away from a Baghdad square on Sept. 16, according to a report compiled by the first U.S. soldiers to arrive at the scene, where they found no evidence that Iraqis had fired weapons.
"It appeared to me they were fleeing the scene when they were engaged. It had every indication of an excessive shooting," said Lt. Col. Mike Tarsa, whose soldiers reached Nisoor Square 20 to 25 minutes after the gunfire subsided.
His soldiers' report -- based upon their observations at the scene, eyewitness interviews and discussions with Iraqi police -- concluded that there was "no enemy activity involved" and described the shootings as a "criminal event." Their conclusions mirrored those reached by the Iraqi government, which has said the Blackwater guards killed 17 people.
The soldiers' accounts contradict Blackwater's assertion that its guards were defending themselves after being fired upon by Iraqi police and gunmen.
Tarsa said they found no evidence to indicate that the Blackwater guards were provoked or entered into a confrontation..........

my original posting

let us not forget the uss liberty

and i mean it. let's NOT forget it AND let's tell our children about it too. why was this burried? why still isn't it on the front page of every news source?

The "Hidden Day" Israel Deliberately Attacked American Ship, Killing 34

By Ray McGovern, Consortium News

The American Israel Public Affairs Committee brags that it is the most influential foreign policy lobbying organization on Capitol Hill, and it has demonstrated that time and again, and not only on Capitol Hill.
Nowhere is the lobby's power more clearly demonstrated than in its ability to suppress the awful truth that on June 8, 1967, during the Six Day War:
Israel deliberately attacked the intelligence collection ship USS Liberty, in full awareness it was a U.S. Navy ship, and did its best to sink it and leave no survivors;
The Israelis would have succeeded had they not broken off the attack upon learning, from an intercepted message, that the commander of the U.S. 6th Fleet had launched carrier fighters to the scene; and
By that time, 34 of the Liberty's crew had been killed and over 170 wounded.
Scores of intelligence analysts and senior officials have known this for years. That virtually all of them have kept a 40-year frightened silence is testament to the widespread fear of touching this live wire.
Even more telling is the fact that the National Security Agency destroyed voice tapes seen by many intelligence analysts, showing beyond doubt that the Israelis knew exactly what they were doing.
But the truth will come out -- eventually. All it took in this case is for a courageous journalist (of the endangered species kind) to listen to the surviving crew and do a little basic research, not shrinking from naming war crimes and not letting senior U.S. officials, from the president on down off the hook for suppressing -- even destroying -- unimpeachable evidence from intercepted Israeli communications..........

what really happened

uss liberty memorial

uss liberty

dept of the navy uss liberty

nsa uss liberty

and to be fair

here's a link that says it was NOT a deliberate attack (which i DO NOT for one second believe)

knitting

extreme

knitting

for psychos

stop by and say hola to

Editorials from Hell's leading daily newspaper the dis brimstone-daily pitchfork

(note, SOME things here may not be sfw)

i hope it was stoli

man, i never heard of such a thing. an intravenous pumping an equivalent of 3 drinks an hour for THREE DAYS. dang!
(guess they didn't have any grappa)
Doctors save poisoned tourist using vodka drip
With treatment, Italian visitor made successful recovery in Australia
BRISBANE, Australia - Australian doctors said they plugged a poisoned Italian tourist into a vodka drip after running out of the medicinal alcohol they would normally have used to save his life.
The 24-year-old Italian, who was not further identified, was diagnosed as having ingested a large quantity of ethylene glycol, a common ingredient in antifreeze that can cause renal failure.
Pure alcohol is often given in treating such cases because it can inhibit the toxic effects of ethylene glycol..........

talk to your daughter

from flimsy sanity with a hat tip to cv rick

i had no idea

king george and his court wanted us to deny the genocide of armenians in 1915. turkey can deny it all they like. it happened. hey, i'm italian and THEY did some NASTY things throughout history. i don't LIKE it, but i'm NOT going to DENY it. when you deny things such as this it just makes it MUCH EASIER for it to happen again.

i have a question for king george and his court-what next, the holocaust (cause you don't want to piss off the germans)?
AND
to all of those who backed out of supporting this measure. you are a bunch of COWARDS
Panel Labels Armenian Killings Genocide

By Elizabeth Williamson Washington Post Staff Writer
A House panel voted yesterday to approve calling the mass killings of Armenians that began in 1915 genocide, defying the White House, which warned that the measure could damage U.S.-Turkey relations.
The Foreign Affairs Committee passed the nonbinding resolution on a 27 to 21 bipartisan vote. Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has promised she will bring the resolution to the full House for a vote.
Turkey, one of Washington's most staunch Islamic allies, lobbied hard to kill the measure, launching a multimillion dollar campaign and threatening to curtail its cooperation in the Iraq war. President Bush, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates were joined by eight former secretaries of state and three former defense secretaries in condemning the proposal. ......

the recipes in today's food section

of the wapo go VEGAN! ('bout time)

mmmmmmmmm soul food vegan mmmmmmmmm

Vegan Soul Grows in Anacostia

By Bonnie S. Benwick
Every weekend in a leafy, friendly Anacostia neighborhood, Levita Mondie-Sapp's low-key revolution gets underway. The 37-year-old Maret School teacher makes sweet potatoes with a light orange glaze or spicy peanut vegetable stew or her semi-famous hibiscus tea, often with the help of her young daughters. The folks down the street, relatives and church members drop by to see what's in the oven or to watch as she prepares for a private cooking lesson or someone's housewarming buffet. Everybody gets a taste.
[See Recipes: Vita's Vegan Orange-Glazed Sweet Potatoes, Vita's Barbecue Tofu, Vita's Collard Green Won Tons, Vita's Vegan Corn Bread and Vita's Vegetarian 3-Bean Chipotle Chili] .........

happy halloween

googhoul.com

there are places in the world

where women are safer IN prison than out. life goes on. but NOT as it should. people are starving. people are being tortured. kids are in danger and exploited. women suffer, men suffer. families are torn apart. devastation, wars. my god is better than your god and i'm going to kill you if you don't believe it.

i don't understand. i just don't. why does it have to be this way?

Freedom Called Lethal Risk for Jailed Afghan Women

By Aunohita MojumdarWeNews correspondent
Women are jailed in Afghanistan for "crimes" that would make them victims of domestic abuse elsewhere. As the annual festival of Eid brings the prospect of presidential pardons, advocates warn that many women are safer inside prison.
KABUL, Afghanistan (WOMENSENEWS)--Each year the festival of Eid that ends the month-long Ramadan holiday season is commemorated in Afghanistan with presidential pardons for prisoners.
It's a show of cultural benevolence since Ramadan is traditionally celebrated with families coming together.
But as Eid approaches on Oct. 13, women's groups and international organizations are warning that many women, if released, will become homeless, ostracized and vulnerable to sexual exploitation. Others may wind up back in custody for being "unaccompanied" women.
Some may become victims to relatives who carry out punishments as severe as execution.
"Women die after leaving prison," said Dr. Anou Borrey, a gender justice consultant for the United Nations Development Fund for Women in Afghanistan.
"Afghan women in jail are lucky, at least they are alive," said Carla Ciavarella, the justice program coordinator of the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime in Afghanistan, who has worked with Afghanistan's penitentiary system for four years. "We do not know how many women are killed or abused at home every day."............

family values

while i don't think there is anything wrong with wearing rubber or using certain apparatus or practicing certain things, people like this did think there was something VERY wrong. yet, under cover of darkness (and goddess only knows what else) they do NOT practice what they preach (so to speak)

i was torn between posting this (again i have NOTHING against what he did except for the fact what he did was DANGEROUS and he was UNSAFE) because it's private BUT i had to because a LOT of 'these type of people' are hypocrites

"Friend of Falwell" Minister Dies During Bizarre Sex Play

Posted by Paddy

This post, written by Paddy, originally appeared on Cliff Schecter's Brave New Films Blog
It started pretty innocently in June....
A Montgomery minister was found dead in his home Sunday.
Lt. Mark Drinkard, a police spokesman, said the Reverend Gary M- Aldridge was found about 10 a-m by a member of his church who became concerned after he failed to show up for church services.
(snip)
Montgomery Mayor Bobby Bright, in a newspaper interview, hinted that the minister may have been the victim of foul play.
Aldridge had been a senior pastor at Thorington Road Baptist Church for 15 years.
But the Smoking Gun got the details thru the police report today (warning-disturbing)
OCTOBER 8--An Alabama minister who died in June of "accidental mechanical asphyxia" was found hogtied and wearing two complete wet suits, including a face mask, diving gloves and slippers, rubberized underwear, and a head mask, according to an autopsy report.
Investigators determined that Rev. Gary Aldridge's death was not caused by foul play and that the 51-year-old pastor of Montgomery's Thorington Road Baptist Church was alone in his home at the time he died (while apparently in the midst of some autoerotic undertaking). While the Montgomery Advertiser, which first obtained the autopsy records, reported on Aldridge's two wet suits, the family newspaper chose not to mention what police discovered inside the minister's rubber briefs.............

well they'd be hard pressed

to find someone MORE self-absorbed. that be fo sho

UPDATE: 10/10-THANKS TO ANONYMOUS FOR THIS LINK
to the ACTUAL LIST (and stink does NOT rule you silly goose)
Sting tops Blender’s list of worst lyricists
Music mag says rock star’s words betray ‘pomposity,’ ‘cloying spirituality’

LOS ANGELES - Maybe Sting should start writing more instrumentals.
The school teacher-turned-rock star topped Blender’s list of the worst lyricists, thanks to lines that betray “mountainous pomposity (and) cloying spirituality,” the music magazine said.
The survey, contained in the November issue that hits newsstands next week, placed Rush drummer Neil Peart at No. 2, Creed front man Scott Stapp at No. 3, Oasis guitarist Noel Gallagher at No. 4, and soft-rocker Dan Fogelberg at No. 5.
Blender assailed Sting for such alleged sins as name-dropping Russian novelist Vladimir Nabokov in the Police tune “Don’t Stand So Close to Me,” quoting a Volvo bumper sticker (”If You Love Someone Set Them Free”), and co-opting the works of Chaucer, St. Augustine and Shakespeare.
A spokeswoman for the English rocker, who is currently in Belgium on the Police’s reunion world tour, did not respond to a request for comment.............

(hope neil diamond made the list SOMEWHERE)

what am i doing right now?

i'm in HEAVEN

i'm listening to k d lang doing her bbc radio show on npr called music from the middle of nowhere

holy shite!

joni mitchell talks

a woman (whose name i didn't get) talks about canadian crows

leonard cohen talks

oh and they sing too.

holy shite!

HEAVEN

Close Up: Music From the Middle of Nowhere

...........Grammy award-winning Canadian singer-songwriter k d lang pays tribute to her favourite Canadian songwriters, including Leonard Cohen, Joni Mitchell, Jane Siberry, Ron Sexsmith and Neil Young, in a three-part series
In the first programme k d, who has described herself in song as the "big-boned girl from Alberta", is in her home town of Edmonton. Here, at the Sidetrack Cafe, where she performed with her band The Reclines, she talks about her early forays into music. Against the background of the Alberta Scene arts festival in April and May, when hundreds of musicians flock to Edmonton, k d introduces some of her emerging favourites - Nelly Furtado, Doc Walker and The McDades...........

Hallelujah – Leonard Cohen
I've heard there was a secret chord

that David played,

and it pleased the Lord

But you don't really care for music,

Do you?

It goes like this,

the fourth, the fifth

The minor Fall,

The major lift,

The baffled king composing,

hallelujah Hallelujah, Hallelujah Hallelujah, Hallelujah

Your faith was strong but you needed proof

You saw her bathing on the roof

Her beauty in the moonlight overthrew you

She tied you to a kitchen chair,

she broke your throne

she cut your hair

and from your lips she drew the halleujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah Hallelujah, Hallelujah

Baby I've been here before

I know this room, I've walked this floor

I used to live alone before I knew you

I've seen your flag on the marble arch

love is not a victory march

it's a cold and it's a broken Hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah Hallelujah, Hallelujah

There was a time you let me know

What's real and going on below

but now you never show it to me, do you?

Well remember when I moved in you

the holy dove was moving too

And every breath we drew was Hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah

Maybe there's a God above

And all I ever learned from love

Was how to shoot at someone who outdrew you

It's not a cry you can hear at night

It's not somebody who's seen the light

it's a cold and it's a broken HallelujahHallelujah, Hallelujah Hallelujah, Hallelujah Hallelujah, Hallelujah Hallelujah, Hallelujah Hallelujah, Hallelujah Hallelujah, Hallelujah…

(listen to it by tim buckley as well)

how to lead a 'possibly more funky'

life

first, move to soviet georgia

second, listen to DISCO!

Georgia's latest weapon against rebel separatists: disco

each and every one of us

should remember what a bunch of pussies the democrats are (most of 'em, NOT all of 'em) come next time they're up for re-election. this makes my soul cringe
(i am NOT against wiretapping in case you were wondering. i AM against illegal surveillance)

Democrats Seem Ready to Extend Wiretap Powers
By ERIC LICHTBLAU and CARL HULSE
WASHINGTON, Oct. 8 — Two months after insisting that they would roll back broad eavesdropping powers won by the Bush administration, Democrats in Congress appear ready to make concessions that could extend some crucial powers given to the National Security Agency.
Administration officials say they are confident they will win approval of the broadened authority that they secured temporarily in August as Congress rushed toward recess. Some Democratic officials concede that they may not come up with enough votes to stop approval.
As the debate over the eavesdropping powers of the National Security Agency begins anew this week, the emerging measures reflect the reality confronting the Democrats.
Although willing to oppose the White House on the Iraq war, they remain nervous that they will be called soft on terrorism if they insist on strict curbs on gathering intelligence. .......

duh

respectfully senator webb (i like you), we KNEW that already. i guess you're one of the first to say it ALOUD though. nothing will be done. keep pushing senator webb. i ask you, PLEASE. i ask you for humanity's sake make them ALL accountable
(the spelling below is NOT mine.)
Webb: Blackwater contracts 'awarded for political reasons'
Greg Wasserstrom and Mike Aivaz

The security contracts awarded to Blackwater USA in Iraq were done so for primarily political reasons, Senator Jim Webb of Virginia told Joe Scarborogh today on MSNBC's Morning Joe. In an extensive discussion about US foreign policy, Webb brought up the controversy over Blackwater's actions in Iraq and the attempt by congress to bring them under US law. "With respect to Blackwater, we've allowed mercenaries to actually conduct combat operations, and we've never done this before," Webb said. "And they're doing this with no legal structiure over them."
There are also no international agreements that govern the handling of mercanries, Webb said, and it now up to the Congress to decide how best to deal with them, Webb said.
"But the other piece of it, let's be honest about it, a lot of the contracts, under this quasi military functions have been awarded for political reasons, and Blackwater is a really good example of that," Webb added. "That's something like half a billion out of their nearly billion dollar contracts were awarded without proper competition, according to the house committee report last year."
The following video is from MSNBC's Morning Joe, broadcast ..........

an editorial

you should read.
(why is it i hear checkov saying, 'captain, i had no idea where the nuclear wessels were')?

Navy veteran questions why six nuclear missiles were flown on combat aircraft to staging area for Middle East
John Byrne
A retired lieutenant commander in the Navy Reserve who served with the Navy's Supervisor of Salvage questioned in a little-noticed editorial Sunday why six active nuclear armed cruise missiles were being transferred to an active bomber base that "just happens to be the staging area for Middle Eastern operations."
"The United States also does not transport nuclear weapons meant for elimination attached to their launch vehicles under the wings of a combat aircraft," Navy veteran Robert Stormer wrote in the Texas-based Star-Telegram. "The procedure is to separate the warhead from the missile, encase the warhead and transport it by military cargo aircraft to a repository -- not an operational bomber base that just happens to be the staging area for Middle Eastern operations."
Six nuclear W80 nuclear-armed cruise missiles were flown to Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota to Barksdale AFB in Louisiana where they sat for ten hours undetected.
"Press reports initially cited the Air Force mistake of flying nuclear weapons over the United States in violation of Air Force standing orders and international treaties, while completely missing the more important major issues, such as how six nuclear cruise missiles got loose to begin with," writes Stormer................

(p.s. i have FRIENDS in minot. as a matter of fact, i almost had to GO to minot - for work - but ended up NOT having to go. i think the fact i refused to get on a plane in the middle of winter flying into temperatures WELL below zero had something to do with it)

even when they have

what appears to be GOOD SOUND evidence, king george and his court just do what they do best. F**K IT UP

this is absolutely unbelievable
how much more evidence of incompetence, ineptness, lying, killing, money grubbing do we as a nation need? i passed my quota for this shite YEARS ago.

Leak Severed a Link to Al-Qaeda's Secrets
Firm Says Administration's Handling of Video Ruined Its Spying Efforts


By Joby WarrickWashington Post Staff Writer
A small private intelligence company that monitors Islamic terrorist groups obtained a new Osama bin Laden video ahead of its official release last month, and around 10 a.m. on Sept. 7, it notified the Bush administration of its secret acquisition. It gave two senior officials access on the condition that the officials not reveal they had it until the al-Qaeda release.
Within 20 minutes, a range of intelligence agencies had begun downloading it from the company's Web site. By midafternoon that day, the video and a transcript of its audio track had been leaked from within the Bush administration to cable television news and broadcast worldwide
The founder of the company, the SITE Intelligence Group, says this premature disclosure tipped al-Qaeda to a security breach and destroyed a years-long surveillance operation that the company has used to intercept and pass along secret messages, videos and advance warnings of suicide bombings from the terrorist group's communications network. .......

i'm NOT racist

why some of my best friends are.............................(fill in the blank)

Student tells paper she's sorry for 'Jena 6' re-enactment
CNN) -- A student who videoed a re-enactment of the "Jena 6" incident apologized and said the video was not intended to make fun of the six black students arrested in the beating of a white classmate, according to The News-Star newspaper of Monroe, Louisiana.........
...........In a Tuesday interview with the News-Star, a tearful Smith denied being racist.
"This is so not me," she said in the Wednesday article. "It wasn't that we were making fun of the Jena 6 incident. We were just fed up with it ... I have just as many black [friends] as I do white friends...............

what have i discovered about humanity? i think we are ALL racist and prejudiced about something or someone or another. instead of denying it, let's just say, 'what can i do to change my perception(s), to change my outlook'? (after all they ARE just perceptions and outlooks)

helen thomas

a woman after my OWN heart

The Democrats who enable Bush
By HELEN THOMASHEARST NEWSPAPERS
WASHINGTON -- President Bush has no better friends than the spineless Democratic congressional leadership and the party's leading presidential candidates when it comes to his failing Iraq policy.
Those Democrats seem to have forgotten that the American people want U.S. troops out of Iraq, especially since Bush still cannot give a credible reason for attacking Iraq after nearly five years of war.
Last week at a debate in Hanover, N.H., the leading Democratic presidential candidates sang from the same songbook: Sens. Hillary Clinton of New York, and Barack Obama of Illinois and former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards refused to promise to withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq by 2013, at the end of the first term of their hypothetical presidencies. Can you believe it?
When the question was put to Clinton, she reverted to her usual cautious equivocation, saying: "It is very difficult to know what we're going to be inheriting."
Obama dodged, too: "I think it would be irresponsible" to say what he would do as president.
Edwards, on whom hopes were riding to show some independence, replied to the question: "I cannot make that commitment."
They have left the voters little choice with those answers............

what's wrong with

THIS picture?

people are afraid to air 'howl' by allen ginsberg on the radio waves. but we can be illegally spied upon and the fcc does NADA?

Public radio station in NYC won't air "Howl" for fear of the FCC
Posted by Cory Doctorow
The FCC's war on dirty words is having a chilling effect -- even WBAI Pacifica, the radical radio station in NYC, is scared of airing Allen Ginsberg's magnificent poem, Howl. "Why, 50 years later after a judge ruled that children could read this poem, people are afraid the courts will say that their ears shouldn't hear it," said Ron Collins, a constitutional law instructor and First Amendment advocate who is leading a small group of authors, broadcasters and free-speech advocates pushing to broadcast the poem eventually. "Yet they can go on the Internet and see far, far worse things."
Another irony: WBAI, the Pacifica Foundation station in New York that plans to post "Howl" online, is the same station that took on the FCC more than 30 years ago over the right to air George Carlin's comedy routine featuring the "seven dirty words." The challenge led to a 1978 Supreme Court decision governing what naughty words can be broadcast and when. ........

FCC refuses to probe telecoms over giving customer data to NSA
As Reuters reports, FCC Chairman Kevin Martin has declined to look into allegations that telecommunications companies colluded with the NSA to collect information on American citizens in conjunction with warrantless wiretapping.
Martin cites "national security concerns."
EXCERPTS:
#
The reports have prompted scrutiny by the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Democratic Rep. Edward Markey, the chairman of a key Energy and Commerce subcommittee, asked Martin to investigate.
In his response, Martin included Tuesday's letter from McConnell. A spokesman for the FCC declined further comment..........

these people are our 'friends'

i didn't choose them, our government did (not just king george either). they treat women like SHITE, most all of the 9/11 terrorists came out of the country and on and on and on.

i wonder what will happen to this maid. she committed a capital offense (which means, in most cases DEATH) against her male employer by BEWITCHING HIM. so it's the salem witch trials (by the way, the FIRST witch trial and death was in connecticut) in saudia arabia all over again.

Maid arrested after Saudi employer 'bewitched'
Saudi Arabia's religious police have arrested a domestic worker accused of having put a spell on her employer, the Al-Madina newspaper reported on Sunday.
The arrest of the maid, whose nationality was not revealed, followed a complaint by the wife of the employer who she said had been "bewitched by the maid".
The woman said she suspected her husband had been put under a spell because he fiercely defended the maid from criticism every time she neglected her work.
Members of the religious police, known as Mutawas, discovered "talismans and products of charlatanism" in a search of the maid's quarters in the eastern city of Damman, the newspaper added.
The paper said the maid, who is to face trial, "admitted she took refuge in sorcery so as to make her employers like her".........

when i go a visitin' i'm going to have to watch my lexus

(not really, i have a VERY OLD subaru. i call her little green after the joni mitchell song)

UK: 'Gay' peacock attacks blue Lexus

Posted in: International Daily News By GayNZ.com News Staff - 6th October 2007

A British aristocrat has been forced to warn visitors to his manor home not to park cars painted a particular shade of blue on his property, after his "gay" peacock caused thousands of pounds worth of damage to a luxury car it mistook for a mate. The over-excited bird caused £4,000 (NZ$10,750) worth of damage to an employee's "peacock blue" Lexus parked on the grounds of Sir Benjamin Slade's country manor in Somerset in the south of England, reports newspapers in the UK.
Sir Benjamin says the car was left with numerous scratches and dents as a result of the frisky bird's amorous attack, and he has now put up signs in his carpark warning drivers of blue cars of the danger presented by his bird............

i believe it's available on amazon.com

i also believe it may be available in some libraries (don't know about that though) and i'm SURE it's available in bookstores.

i'm NOT saying it should be on everyone's reading list. i'm not recommending it. i haven't read it and i'm not interested in reading it. what i am saying is it's a BOOK. we're not in the middle of fahrenheit 451. we shouldn't be charged with terrorism because we seek knowledge.

Boy in court on terror charges
A British teenager who is accused of possessing material for terrorist purposes has appeared in court.
The 17-year-old, who was arrested in the Dewsbury area of West Yorkshire on Monday, was given bail after a hearing at Westminster Magistrates' Court.
It is alleged he had a copy of the "Anarchists' Cookbook", containing instructions on how to make home-made explosives.
His next court hearing has been set for 25 October.
The teenager faces two charges under the Terrorism Act 2000.
The first charge relates to the possession of material for terrorist purposes in October last year.
The second relates to the collection or possession of information useful in the preparation of an act of terrorism. ..........

more proof (as if we needed it)

of what the hell we did. even the iraqis KNOW they can't get it together within the next few years. it will take almost forever for them to all synch. it's NOT a good thing and king george and his court are directly responsible.
Top Iraqis Pull Back From Key U.S. Goal
Reconciliation Seen Unattainable Amid Struggle for Power

By Joshua Partlow Washington Post Foreign Service
BAGHDAD -- For much of this year, the U.S. military strategy in Iraq has sought to reduce violence so that politicians could bring about national reconciliation, but several top Iraqi leaders say they have lost faith in that broad goal.
Iraqi leaders argue that sectarian animosity is entrenched in the structure of their government. Instead of reconciliation, they now stress alternative and perhaps more attainable goals: streamlining the government bureaucracy, placing experienced technocrats in positions of authority and improving the dismal record of providing basic services. "I don't think there is something called reconciliation, and there will be no reconciliation as such," said Deputy Prime Minister Barham Salih, a Kurd. "To me, it is a very inaccurate term. This is a struggle about power." ............

i'm not going to look for it now

but JUST a couple of days ago, they (i don't know if it was wapo or nyt or whatever) published an article saying the american embassy (that HUGE high priced already falling apart hunk of uselessness) in iraq was NOT going to cost (US i might add) one more cent. why? because they had a SET contract with the builders

why aren't i shocked and surprised then to see this headline now?
Iraq Embassy Cost Rises $144 Million Amid Project Delays
Planning, Workmanship Cited as Problems

when are we going to STOP this out of control regime?

when when when

By Glenn Kessler Washington Post Staff Writer
The massive U.S. embassy under construction in Baghdad could cost $144 million more than projected and will open months behind schedule because of poor planning, shoddy workmanship, internal disputes and last-minute changes sought by State Department officials, according to U.S. officials and a department document provided to Congress.
The embassy, which will be the largest U.S. diplomatic mission in the world, was budgeted at $592 million. The core project was supposed to have been completed by last month, but the timetable has slipped so much that the State Department has sought and received permission from the Iraqi government to allow about 2,000 non-Iraqi construction employees to stay in the country until March............

uh oh (yet another one)

of course they are JUST allegations (for now). but a bunch o' 'evangelists' doing illegal and immoral things? NAW it CAN'T be true.

mmmmmmmmmmm HUGE clothing bills (you know god wants us to look nice, right?), involved in a company jet transporting a daughter of the righteous to a VACATION SPOT (yet it was billed back as evangelism). involved in HUGE cell phone bills (at questionable hours to questionable sources)............mmmmmmmmmmmmm

Scandal Brews at Oral Roberts University

By JUSTIN JUOZAPAVICIUS,
AP
TULSA, Okla. (Oct. 6) - Twenty years ago, televangelist Oral Roberts said he was reading a spy novel when God appeared to him and told him to raise $8 million for Roberts' university, or else he would be "called home."
Now, his son, Oral Roberts University President Richard Roberts, says God is speaking again, telling him to deny lurid allegations in a lawsuit that threatens to engulf this 44-year-old Bible Belt college in scandal. Richard Roberts is accused of illegal involvement in a local political campaign and lavish spending at donors' expense, including numerous home remodeling projects, use of the university jet for his daughter's senior trip to the Bahamas, and a red Mercedes convertible and a Lexus SUV for his wife, Lindsay. She is accused of dropping tens of thousands of dollars on clothes, awarding nonacademic scholarships to friends of her children and sending scores of text messages on university-issued cell phones to people described in the lawsuit as "underage males." ..........
...........The university jet was used to take one daughter and several friends on a senior trip to Orlando, Fla., and the Bahamas. The $29,411 trip was billed to the ministry as an "evangelistic function of the president." Mrs. Roberts spent more than $39,000 at one Chico's clothing store alone in less than a year, and had other accounts in Texas and California. She also repeatedly said, "As long as I wear it once on TV, we can charge it off." The document cites inconsistencies in clothing purchases and actual usage on TV. Mrs. Roberts was given a white Lexus SUV and a red Mercedes convertible by ministry donors. University and ministry employees are regularly summoned to the Roberts' home to do the daughters' homework. ..........