my only question is

WHO are the FOUR FAMILIES who DO approve of him?
Bush loses ground with military families
By Faye Fiore, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
......................Nearly six out of every 10 military families disapprove of Bush's job performance and the way he has run the war, rating him only slightly better than the general population does.And among those families with soldiers, sailors and Marines who have served in Iraq or Afghanistan, 60% say that the war in Iraq was not worth the cost, the same result as all adults surveyed."I don't see gains for the people of Iraq . . . and, oh, my God, so many wonderful young people, and these are the ones who felt they were really doing something, that's why they signed up," said poll respondent Sue Datta, 61, whose youngest son, an Army staff sergeant, was seriously wounded in Iraq last year and is scheduled to redeploy in 2009. "I pray to God that they did not die in vain, but I don't think our president is even sensitive at all to what it's like to have a child serving over there."................

where was their fury

over everything else? over the outing of a covert cia agent. over warrantless wiretapping. over the treatment of katrina survivors (and those of other storms/fires/floods). over the lack of health care for children (and adults for that matter). over the deaths of 3,886 deaths of american men and women. over the illegal immoral and unjust invasion of a country who did NOTHING to us. over the acceptance of a country such as saudi arabia (or libya) who sentences a victim of gang rape to 200 lashes AND prison time. where is their collective FURY over all of that shite (plus so much more)

where?
Democrats' fury grows over destroyed tapes

By Randall Mikkelsen and Tabassum ZakariaReuters

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democrats charged cover-up and demanded investigations into the CIA's destruction of videotapes showing terrorism suspects being subjected to severe interrogation techniques.
The United States has been widely criticized by European allies and human rights groups for methods like "waterboarding" in which prisoners are made to fear that they are drowning. President George W. Bush, who has repeatedly said the United States does not torture, had no recollection of being told about the tapes or their destruction, the White House said.
The CIA's disclosure that it had made and destroyed the tapes plunged the spy agency again into the glare of public scrutiny it has been unable to shake since prewar intelligence on Iraq turned out wrong.
Leading Democrats called for a inquiries by the Justice Department and Congress and criticized the CIA for acting above the law. .........

i googled the name

Sgt Hicham Benkabbou and surprisingly NO american msm (i looked at two pages of hits) was there. why not? is it because he was born in morocco? is it because he's muslim? could be, BUT he's also been serving IN THE UNITED STATES ARMY (paratrooper) in AFGHANISTAN.

why did i look his name up? well, because upon his return to the united states FROM HIS POSITION AS A PARATROOPER IN THE UNITED STATES ARMY, STATIONED IN AFGHANISTAN, THERE IS A CHANCE FOR HIM TO BE DEPORTED

thanks for serving america hicham, but don't like the door hit you in the ass when we kick you out

Arab-American paratrooper faces deportation after Afghan service
Highly decorated sergeant ordered to stand trial· Anti-discrimination committee protests Ed Pilkington in New YorkMonday December 3, 2007The Guardian
A highly decorated Arab-American sergeant in the US army, who is currently serving as a paratrooper in Afghanistan, faces deportation on his return to the United States because of an irregularity in his immigration papers.
Sgt Hicham Benkabbou has been served with an order to stand trial for deportation as soon as he arrives home, despite the fact that he has been on active service in Afghanistan for almost two years with the 508th parachute infantry regiment, known as the Red Devils..........

was it REALLY a mistake?

or did king george WANT to direct callers to the freedom christian academy?


Hilarious But True: Bush Reads Wrong Phone Number in Speech

“Call 1-800-DUMBASS.”
You just can’t make this stuff up:
ABC News’ Jennifer Duck Reports: President Bush announced new steps to help homeowners struggling with their mortgage payments. However, the president gave the wrong phone number to millions of viewers watching his statement on live TV.
President Bush said, “I directed Secretaries Paulson and Jackson to expand the public awareness campaign. And I have a message for every homeowner worried about rising mortgage payments: The best you can do for your family is to call 1-800-995-HOPE.”
However the president was off by a few digits. The real phone number is 1-888-995-HOPE.
The original phone number President Bush read to viewers apparently belongs to the Freedom Christian Academy* which has a full mailbox according to a recorded message heard by an ABC News producer.........

i carry my camera with me 24/7

i feel naked without it (sort of like how i feel without my jewelry). i take pictures. i LIKE to take pictures. my skin isn't very dark though, so i guess it's ok

New York City sued for harassing photographers
By Edith Honan
NEW YORK (Reuters) - New York City police officers need better training to distinguish between law-abiding citizens who snap pictures of city landmarks and those suspected of plotting terrorism, a lawsuit filed on Thursday by the New York Civil Liberties Union said.
The lawsuit was filed against the city and Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly on behalf of Arun Wiita, 26, a Columbia University graduate student of Indian descent who said he was handcuffed and detained after a police officer spotted him snapping pictures near a Manhattan subway station in July.
The civil liberties union said the department has harassed photographers, "particularly those who fit Middle Eastern or South Asian racial and ethnic profiles," according to papers filed in federal court.
"There has been a constant refrain that we've heard from the photography community for several years now," said Christopher Dunn, NYCLU associate legal director and the lead attorney on the case...........

one billion wouldn't solve all of america's ills

but it sure would feed a lot of familes. cover a lot of dental and medical exams for kids without health coverage. buy a lot of books for schools. help rebuild the gulf coast. aid in getting injured veterans the treatment they not only need but deserve

but NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
$1B In Military Equipment Missing In Iraq
Exclusive: Report Shows Vehicles, Machine Guns And More Meant For Iraqi Forces Unaccounted For
CBS) This story was written and reported by Laura Strickler of the CBS News Investigative Unit.
Tractor trailers, tank recovery vehicles, crates of machine guns and rocket propelled grenades are just a sampling of more than $1 billion in unaccounted for military equipment and services provided to the Iraqi security forces, according to a new report issued today by the Pentagon Inspector General and obtained exclusively by the CBS News investigative unit. Auditors for the Inspector General reviewed equipment contracts totaling $643 million but could only find an audit trail for $83 million.
...........

yet another of my favorite subjects

ABSTINENCE

it doesn't work. we all KNOW it doesn't work. yet not only do we fund programs here (with an inordinate amout of money. HUNDREDS of millions) we fund abstinance ONLY programs in other countries. IT DOESN'T WORK
a shout out to dan abrams and rachel maddow for actually speaking the truth (AND SANE VIEW) ON AIR

MSNBC: Why fund abstinence-only programs that don't work?
Mike Aivaz and Muriel Kane
A new study has concluded that abstinence-only education programs do nothing to reduce or delay sexual activity among teenagers, confirming a Congressional report released last spring. Yet these programs are receiving nearly $200 million in federal funding and Congress is prepared to increase this by another $28 million.
MSNBC host Dan Abrams commented on the proposed increase, saying, "It seems to me absurd that Democrats in Congress can't say 'We're going to cut it off.' Instead they're using this as bait and constantly saying, 'Oh, you know, we'll trade you.'"
"I'm hoping this is a trick," added Abrams' co-host, Rachel Maddow of Air America Radio. "For the Democratic Congress to go along with it? I'm hoping there's something I don't understand about that."

duh

this isn't new. documents, emails, video tapes, letters they are destroyed ALL of the time. not just by republicans either.

HOWEVER, under king george's administration it happens left and right. it happens day and night. it happens here and there. we don't torture either. except when we torture

CIA Destroyed Videos Showing Interrogations
Harsh Techniques Seen in 2002 Tapes

By Dan Eggen and Joby Warrick Washington Post Staff Writers
The CIA made videotapes in 2002 of its officers administering harsh interrogation techniques to two al-Qaeda suspects but destroyed the tapes three years later, CIA Director Michael V. Hayden said yesterday.
Captured on tape were interrogations of Abu Zubaydah, a close associate of Osama bin Laden, and a second high-level al-Qaeda member who was not identified, according to two intelligence officials. Zubaydah has been identified by U.S. officials familiar with the interrogations as one of three al-Qaeda suspects who were subjected to "waterboarding," a technique that simulates drowning, while in CIA custody. ..................

................All the tapes were destroyed in November 2005 on the order of Jose A. Rodriguez Jr., then the CIA's director of clandestine operations, officials said. The destruction came after the Justice Department had told a federal judge in the case of al-Qaeda operative Zacarias Moussaoui that the CIA did not possess videotapes of a specific set of interrogations sought by his attorneys. A CIA spokesman said yesterday that the request would not have covered the destroyed tapes............

extreme knitting

i LOVE LOVE LOVE it. i've posted patricia waller's work before, but now a VID!
(for more extreme knitting and other crafty stuff stop by the reformed pirate)



vid found via extreme craft

to all my sister grrrlfrens'

it's baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack

(via feministe)

king george 'doesn't remember'

if he brought up the case of a 19 year old woman who was GANG RAPED by ARMED MEN then sentenced to 200 lashes AND prison time. king george didn't tell king abdullah he couldn't play in our sandbox anymore until he started playing fair. i sure would have booted king abdullah's ass right out of MY sandbox and kicked him in the shins while i was at it
oh yeah, and asked how he would have felt if this happened to HIS daughter, king george said, he would have felt very 'EMOTIONAL'. emotional indeed (i'm stopping now)

Bush on Saudi Rape Case: I "Don’t Remember" If I Brought It Up with King Abdullah
Posted by Amanda Terkel,
This morning, CNN's Ed Henry pointedly asked President Bush why he hasn't used his "influence" to "do something" about the 19-year old Saudi woman who was the victim of a brutal gang rape and later sentenced to 200 lashes. The Saudi court blamed her for being an "adulteress who invited the attack."
Bush refused to answer Henry's question, simply stating that King Abdullah "knows our position loud and clear." He said he recently spoke to King Abdullah "about the Middle Eastern peace," but isn't sure if he mentioned the Saudi case. "I don't remember if that subject came up."
When asked what went through his mind when he first heard about the case, Bush brushed aside his role as head of state, instead saying he would have been "very emotional" if it had happened to his daughter.
BUSH: My first thoughts were these.
What happens if this happened to my daughter? How would I react?
And I would have been -- I would have been -- I'd had -- I would have been very emotional, of course..........
(shout out to you ed henry for asking)

grace is gone

john cusack tells tavis smiley all about his new movie. john cusack appears to have both a HEART AND A SOUL
(video of the interview at the link)

Cusack: Bush photo ban one of 'most cowardly political acts' in my lifetime
David Edwards and Jason Rhyne
When the Bush administration began enforcing a controversial policy banning photographs of military caskets returning from Iraq, the move provoked outrage -- and now, a film -- from actor John Cusack, who calls the media ban "one of the most cowardly political acts" of his lifetime.
Appearing on PBS with host Tavis Smiley, Cusack explained that his new movie, Grace is Gone, is the result of a storytelling interest largely inspired by the Bush photo policy.
"The screenwriter, James Strouse, had approached my company and I had been looking for a story, a human drama to tell about the Iraq conflict," said Cusack. "It stemmed from a place of outrage for me when the Bush administration banned the photos of the dead coming home." That directive, ordered in 2003 at Dover Air Force Base, was technically on the books prior to Bush's presidency, but was seldom enforced. .........

amen

Religious leaders push back against right's "War on Christmas"
By Bill Berkowitz


............."At a time when soldiers and innocent civilians are dying in a real war in Iraq and 37 million Americans live still in poverty we should be focusing on those moral scandals not having petty shouting matches on television about a supposed `secular conspiracy' to subvert Christmas."
"When we consider the true meaning of Christmas, its sacredness is not validated by prescribed greetings or slogans in department stores," said Rev. Derrick Harkins, Senior Pastor of the Nineteenth Street Baptist Church in Washington, DC, and a Board member of the evangelical humanitarian relief agency World Relief, "If we are truly serious about the importance of Christmas, we will remember that its message of love and hope was shared with disenfranchised shepherds first, which should prompt us to be far more concerned with how the season is shared in word and deed with the poor and hurting among us." .......

mike huckabee, a man (AND an ordained preacher)

for all seasons CONVICTED rapists
(because he RAPED a relative of bill clinton, the right-wing asswipes in arkansas deemed dumond INNOCENT and UNFAIRLY JAILED. huckabee, then governor, let him OUT of prison. what did dumond do? not only did he rape AGAIN but he MURDERED).
a shout out to chuck norris and that wrestler dude who is also supporting huckabee. after all god loves rapist/murders just as much as she loves me
Documents Expose Huckabee's Role In Murderer's Release
Murray Waas
Little Rock, Ark -- As governor of Arkansas, Mike Huckabee aggressively pushed for the early release of a convicted rapist despite being warned by numerous other women that the convict had sexually assaulted them or their family members, and would likely strike again. The convict went on to rape and murder at least one other woman.
Confidential Arkansas state government records, including letters from these women, obtained by the Huffington Post and revealed publicly for the first time, directly contradict the version of events now being put forward by Huckabee.
While on the presidential campaign trail, Huckabee has claimed that he supported the 1999 release of Wayne Dumond because, at the time, he had no good reason to believe that the man represented a further threat to the public. Thanks to Huckabee's intervention, conducted in concert with a right-wing tabloid campaign on Dumond's behalf, Dumond was let out of prison 25 years before his sentence would have ended. "There's nothing any of us could ever do," Huckabee said Sunday on CNN when asked to reflect on the horrific outcome caused by the prisoner's release. "None of us could've predicted what [Dumond] could've done when he got out."
But the confidential files obtained by the Huffington Post show that Huckabee was provided letters from several women who had been sexually assaulted by Dumond and who indeed predicted that he would rape again - and perhaps murder - if released............

...........The records revealed in this story -- including correspondence between Dumond's victims and Huckabee, as well as the governor's own file regarding Dumond -- were provided to me in the fall of 2002 by a Republican staffer to then Gov. Huckabee.
I made the decision not to make the files public at that time because of concern for the privacy of the rape victims and their families. I felt that their right to privacy outweighed the public's right to know, although I understand why many people would disagree.
Now that Huckabee is running for president, and after consulting with the victims and their families, I have decided to proceed, given what his actions on the case - and his attempts to whitewash his involvement in it -- say about his judgment and integrity.............

you should all be SO effing ashamed

yes, you king george. your court. da liebs, EVERYONE who was responsible for sending our men and women to fight in that unjust illegal and immoral war. as if THAT weren't bad enough (and of course it IS bad enough), IT JUST GETS WORSE. our returning heroes aren't getting the treatment they not only need but deserve. AND KING GEORGE DOESN'T CARE. when will the people on the other side of the fence see that? is money what makes the difference? do you not care about our returning service men and women who are injured (outside as WELL as in)? i can't understand why this is happening. why WE allow it to happen. where is our collective voice? HELP them and do it NOW

to sgt. darren mischke, thank you for serving and i am so very sorry for your treatment. for the family and friends of sgt. mischke, NEVER give up. there ARE people who care. it may not seem like it but i do and i know many others who do as well

Treatment for Vets' Brain Injuries Should Be a No-Brainer
by: Jim Spencer

There is no question that Sgt. Darren Mischke is a wounded warrior. After two tours in Iraq, the 27-year-old Army vet suffers from nosebleeds, memory loss, mood swings, dizziness, blurred vision and severe headaches.
Only instead of treating him for what are classic symptoms of traumatic brain injury - or TBI - Mischke's wife and father say the U.S. military has tried to force him from the service for domestic abuse.
Jim Spencer :: Treatment for Vets' Brain Injuries Should Be a No-Brainer
"He'd be out of the service if his wife hadn't fought for him," Tom Mischke said of his son.
Darren Mischke got knocked out in a wreck during his first tour in Iraq, said his wife, Teresa. He was riding on the turret of a military vehicle that got hit by a mortar in his second tour......

.......But even after Salazar succeeded in getting the extra 900 grand for brain trauma treatment into the Labor-Health and Human Services Appropriations Act, President Bush vetoed the bill.
The president wasn't aiming at TBI programs so much as overall spending. Still, as Salazar noted, "this is not the time to pull back on traumatic brain injury research and treatment."........

........On Nov. 5, almost a year after he returned from Iraq, a special scan finally showed his brain trauma, Mischke's wife and father said, yet discharge procedures continue.
For anyone who still needs to put a face on this country's failure to help its brain-injured vets, a portrait of the sergeant would work just fine. ........

army of darkness was a good movie

funny and campy and creepy - but of course it wasn't real
(don't you just love bruce campbell???)
THIS is
Sadr tells Bush to get out of Iraq
From correspondents in Najaf
RADICAL Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr overnight blasted US President George W. Bush for signing a deal with Baghdad that ensures a long-term American military presence in Iraq.
"I say this to the evil Bush - leave my country," Sadr said in the Shiite holy city of Najaf.
"We do not need you and your army of darkness," he said.
"We don't need your planes and tanks. We don't need your policy and your interference. We don't want your democracy and fake freedom. Get out of our land."
Sadr's salvo comes a week after the US president and Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki announced a deal ensuring a long-term presence of US forces in the country. ..........

army of darkness

one person deemed him a terrorist

because he prayed during the us national anthem? holy shite (so to speak). HE'S NOT AN AMERICAN. he had no 'obligation' to put his hand over his heart during the national anthem of a country that is NOT his. he was determined NOT to be a terrorist BY americans. WHY IS HE STILL IN GITMO? (oh if someone is deemed a REAL terrorist AND they are judged to be a REAL terrorist in a FAIR and IMPARTIAL trial, WHICH IS THEIR RIGHT, then i DO believe they should be jailed. oh one more thing, we have domestic terrorists too you know. like those that bomb gay bars and abortion clinics. THEY should be in gitmo too)

Evidence Of Innocence Rejected at Guantanamo


By Carol D. Leonnig Washington Post Staff Writer
Just months after U.S. Army troops whisked a German man from Pakistan to the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in 2002, his American captors concluded that he was not a terrorist.
"USA considers Murat Kurnaz's innocence to be proven," a German intelligence officer wrote that year in a memo to his colleagues. "He is to be released in approximately six to eight weeks." But the 19-year-old student was not freed. Instead, over the next four years, two U.S. military tribunals that were responsible for determining whether Guantanamo Bay detainees were enemy fighters declared him a dangerous al-Qaeda ally who should remain in prison. ............
.....................In newly released passages, however, Green's ruling reveals that the tribunal members relied heavily on a memo written by a U.S. brigadier general who noted that Kurnaz had prayed while the U.S. national anthem was sung in the prison and that he expressed an unusual interest in detainee transfers and the guard schedule. Other documents make clear that U.S. intelligence officials had earlier concluded that Kurnaz, who went to Pakistan shortly after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, to visit religious sites, had simply chosen a bad time to travel. ..............

mad men

i LOVE this show. i watched all of the available episodes. it's on amc of all channels. i find it hard to describe but marcia g. yerman did a darn good job in the following article. (it was on demand, that's how i watched it. however, i don't know if the season of episodes is over or what. it's no longer on demand).
it DOES show racism, sexism, anti-semitism and everything in between. yet the show is NONE of these things. it makes you cringe and draws you in at the very same time

AMC's 'Mad Men': Sexism and the '60s
By Marcia G. Yerman, AlterNet.
When I first saw the previews for Mad Men on cable's AMC, I was sure it wasn't going to be my cup of tea. Too many smug white men chain smoking, drinking and enjoying their power. Women with Marilyn Monroe figures were on the fringes, minorities were invisible. In short, I didn't think there was much to engage me. But I decided to watch the first episode, followed by "The Making of Mad Men," with creator, writer, and executive producer Matthew Weiner discussing his vision. I became totally hooked.
Here was the type of show that invariably got yanked from network television for being edgy and cerebral. As I watched the series unfold, I realized that the show could be a window for today's young women, illustrating the conditions that shaped previous generations of feminists, from whom they often feel estranged.........

madmen on amc

$800 to $900 to tune a guitar by robotics

is a small price to pay if you're a musician (in my most humble opinion). i have posted on gibson before (i own one. a 12 string sunburst)

Gibson shows new self-tuning guitar
Gibson Shows New Guitar With Self-Tuning Robotics Technology in Tokyo
YURI KAGEYAMA
Musicians of the world are getting a new kind of artistic freedom with technology that eliminates the challenging chore of tuning. Robotics technology developed by German company Tronical Gmbh in partnership with Gibson Guitar Corp. enables Gibson's newest Les Paul model to tune itself in about two seconds.
For users who purchase the add-on technology, the guitar recognizes pitch. Then, its processor directs motors on its six tuning pegs to tighten or loosen the strings accordingly. Tronical has offered its "Powertune System" online and through retailers in Germany since March, according to the company's Web site..........



Gibson gets official with the self-tuning Robot Guitar

it really is hard to believe it's 2007 sometimes

yesterday i posted a 'go to the back of the bus story'. today it's the world is flat story (again)
this stuff scares me the most. george bush will eventually go away. his court will eventually go away. we'll have good people in the white house and bad people in the white house. we'll have good politicians and bad ones. we'll have good leaders and bad leaders.
but
we'll always have people who want to discredit science. SCIENCE. people and dinosaurs did NOT roam the earth together. the world is NOT a few thousand years old. my body is MINE and i make the choices about it (just thought i'd add that in here.)

science schmience. science? we don't need no stinkin' science!!!

Texas Science Curriculum Director Canned for Mentioning Evolution
By Brandon Keim
A Texas science education official forced to resign in October wasn't -- as her bosses inisted -- fairly punished for insubordination. Her real crime: daring to tell people about a lecture critical of intelligent design.
The Austin-American Statesman reported last week that science curriculum director Chris Comer's ouster followed her circulation of an email announcing an upcoming speech by Barbara Forrest, co-author of Creationism's Trojan Horse: The Wedge of Intelligent Design and an expert witness in Kitzmiller v. Dover. That lawsuit was brought in 2005 by Dover, Pennsylvania parents upset with a school board's decision to teach intelligent design -- the belief that some phenomena can only be explained as divinely manufactured -- as a scientific theory comparable to evolution.
A federal judge sided with the parents and legally established intelligent design as religion, not science. But Texas education officials seem to disagree. .............

and more

Official Leaves Post as Texas Prepares to Debate Science Education Standards

...............Ms. Comer said state education officials seemed uneasy lately over the required evolution curriculum. It had always been part of her job to answer letter-writers inquiring about evolution instruction, she said, and she always replied that the State Board of Education supported the teaching of evolution in Texas schools.
But several months ago, in response to an inquiry letter, Ms. Comer said she was instructed to strike her usual statement about the board’s support for teaching evolution and to quote instead the exact language of the high school biology standards as formulated for the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills test.
“The student knows the theory of biological evolution,” the standards read, and is expected to “identify evidence of change in species using fossils, DNA sequences, anatomical similarities, physiological similarities and embryology,” as well as to “illustrate the results of natural selection in speciation, diversity, phylogeny, adaptation, behavior and extinction.”
The standards, adopted in 1998, are due for a 10-year review and possible revision after the 15-member elected State Board of Education meets in February, with particular ramifications for the multibillion-dollar textbook industry. The chairman of the panel, Dr. Don McLeroy, a dentist and Sunday School teacher at Grace Bible Church in College Station, has lectured favorably in the past about intelligent design. ..............

.....Ms. Comer said that barely an hour after forwarding the e-mail message about Dr. Forrest’s talk, she was called in and informed that Lizzette Reynolds, deputy commissioner for statewide policy and programs, had seen a copy and complained, calling it “an offense that calls for termination.” Ms. Comer said she had no idea how Ms. Reynolds, a former federal education official who served as an adviser to George W. Bush when he was governor of Texas, had seen the message so quickly, and remembered thinking, “What is this, the thought police or what?”...................

top picture: gary markstein bottom picture taken from: mattdowling.blogspot.com/2006_08_01_archive.html looks like rex babin is the artist though

dr bronner's soap

is one of my favorite things in the world. it smells nice. it feels nice. it IS nice. you could tell he wasn't on the same path as everyone else if you read the labels. he was out there all right.

'Dr. Bronner's Magic Soapbox': An Unscrubbed Portrait

By Ann Hornaday Washington Post Staff Writer

Quick: What do the scholar Hillel, the philosopher Baruch de Spinoza and the Olympic swimmer Mark Spitz have in common, other than their Jewish roots? They're all quoted on the label of Dr. Bronner's peppermint-infused Castile soap, familiar to anyone who's frequented Whole Foods or their corner food co-op.
For years, the aromatic suds have been the all-purpose cleanser of choice for hippies, health enthusiasts and the practically minded (it can go from the shower to the sink to the laundry basin in a trice, with a stop to scrub the dog along the way). And its prolix label, crammed with such theological musings as "Absolute cleanliness is Godliness!" and "Listen Children Eternal Father Eternally One!," has come to resemble modern marketing by way of outsider art. But who is the Dr. Bronner of his self-proclaimed "magic" soap? This is the never-quite-resolved question that propels "Dr. Bronner's Magic Soapbox," Sara Lamm's absorbing portrait, not just of an alternately inspired and deranged eccentric, but of an American family. (The film will be shown tonight at the Washington Jewish Film Festival.) ......

(note: the article was from YESTERDAY so if you are in dc, you've missed the film)

the rhetoric won't stop

it will continue. the fear mongering will continue. we have some of the people actually still believing it (they also believe iraq had something to do with 9/11 and there is NOTHING you can tell them to change their minds). then you have some who don't believe it but still want to attack the shite out of countries like iran (i call them da liebs types). then you have people like me who never bought into it and still don't and are speaking up. we're speaking up but no one (who CAN do anything. like the nancy pelosi's of the world) are doing anything

p.s. in case you are wondering i am NOT a fan of irans. i don't trust them and i don't like them (the government. most of the people are likely just like you and i though)
A Blow to Bush's Tehran Policy

By Peter Baker and Robin Wright Washington Post Staff Writers
President Bush got the world's attention this fall when he warned that a nuclear-armed Iran might lead to World War III. But his stark warning came at least a month or two after he had first been told about fresh indications that Iran had actually halted its nuclear weapons program.
The new intelligence report released yesterday not only undercut the administration's alarming rhetoric over Iran's nuclear ambitions but could also throttle Bush's effort to ratchet up international sanctions and take off the table the possibility of preemptive military action before the end of his presidency............

look at

abuse aware

all colored to the back of the bus NOW

no, it's not 1955, or is it?
Swimming in Rosa Parks' Footsteps: Workers for the Wealthiest Still Struggle for Dignity
Posted by Eliseo Medina, AlterNet
...........On Thursday, December 1st, 1955, Rosa Parks put in a full day at her department store job in Montgomery, Ala. After work she got on the bus, paid her fare, got back off and re-boarded through the bus’s back door (as was required of black passengers at the time), and took a seat in the “colored” seating section…
On Friday, August 31st, 2007, security officer Wisly Jonatas clocked out of work at 11 p.m. after his evening shift on Fisher Island, an exclusive, private island off the coast of Miami, Fla. Like all Fisher Island service workers, Wisly took the ferry to and from the island for work every day. Tired from a long day at work, Wisly walked onto the ferry and sat down in the ferry’s segregated employee lounge…...........

.................Wisly had just taken his seat in the ferry’s segregated employee lounge when the ferry captain summoned and reprimanded him for not following a newly-instituted rule that prohibits workers from walking past island residents’ parked cars on the ferry to get to the employee lounge. For his insubordination, Wisly was forced to get off the ferry and wait for the next one. Five days later, he was fired from his job on the island….............

a five part abc series

on drugs in the military

High at the Mountain Post (Part 1 of 5)

it's NOT even extraordinary rendition

it's some bank dudes NOT terrorists (although i'm not sure those in charge know a terrorist from an 80 year old landing in logan from a european destination. tis' true. a friend's grandmother who DOES NOT SPEAK ENGLISH, who was NOT flying in from a country known for harboring terrorists, who also does not read or write period was detained. pulled off to a 'special room'. her relatives who were picking her up were not notified she was being 'detained' for quite a while. again she is 80!!!)

US says it has right to kidnap British citizens
David Leppard
AMERICA has told Britain that it can “kidnap” British citizens if they are wanted for crimes in the United States.
A senior lawyer for the American government has told the Court of Appeal in London that kidnapping foreign citizens is permissible under American law because the US Supreme Court has sanctioned it.
The admission will alarm the British business community after the case of the so-called NatWest Three, bankers who were extradited to America on fraud charges. More than a dozen other British executives, including senior managers at British Airways and BAE Systems, are under investigation by the US authorities and could face criminal charges in America.
Until now it was commonly assumed that US law permitted kidnapping only in the “extraordinary rendition” of terrorist suspects. ...........

hypocrite of the day

there are far too many out there for him to have the position for the entire week

Tom Tancredo Hired Illegal Laborers to Renovate His McMansion
By Max Blumenthal, AlterNet
When Republican Representative Tom Tancredo isn’t railing against the “scourge” of illegal immigration on the presidential campaign trail, he relaxes in the 1053 square foot basement recreation room of his Littleton, Colorado McMansion.............

...............When Tancredo hired a construction crew to transform his drab basement into a high-tech pleasure den in October 2001, however, he did not express concern that only two of its members spoke English. Nor did he bother to check the workers’ documentation to see if they were legal residents of the United States. Had Tancredo done so, he would have learned that most of the crew consisted of undocumented immigrants, or “criminal aliens” as he likes to call them. Instead, Tancredo paid the crew $60,000 for its labor and waited innocently for the completion of his elaborate entertainment complex.
During the renovation process, two illegal workers hired by Tancredo were alerted to his reputation for immigrant bashing. They went straight to the Denver Post to complain. ............

'it wasn't stripper stuff

it was ALMOST like being a kid again'

that's what one babe said.

i left the living room for a bit. i just came back in. my laptop is in front of the tv. what's on? an infomercial for 'flirty girl'.. what is it? it's DISGUSTING is what it is. you get some dvds AND a 'sexy pink' FEATHER BOA. with the ELITE edition you GET THE F**KING POLE.

(booty beat is one of the 'workout' songs on the dvd. just teasing is another - where is my barf bag when i really NEED it???)

now two skanks are on telling me how much fun this 'system' is. i wish i had that pole right now. i know what i'd do with it

oh shite, the same babe that said it wasn't stripper stuff JUST SAID GOD TOLD HER TO GET THE FLIRTY GIRL SHITE. oh shite shite shite. another one was crying because she was so pleased.
setting women back a hundred years..................(it's like an accident, I CANNOT LOOK AWAY. HELPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE)

yup this is an example of how

we're bringing freedom and democracy to iraq
(not that i'm pointing fingers at ANYONE but king george and his court here. we made iraq what it is right now)
Nonstop Theft and Bribery Are Staggering Iraq
By DAMIEN CAVE
BAGHDAD, Dec. 1 — Jobless men pay $500 bribes to join the police. Families build houses illegally on government land, carwashes steal water from public pipes, and nearly everything the government buys or sells can now be found on the black market.
Painkillers for cancer (from the Ministry of Health) cost $80 for a few capsules; electricity meters (from the Ministry of Electricity) go for $200 each, and even third-grade textbooks (stolen from the Ministry of Education) must be bought at bookstores for three times what schools once charged.
“Everyone is stealing from the state,” said Adel Adel al-Subihawi, a prominent Shiite tribal leader in Sadr City, throwing up his hands in disgust. “It’s a very large meal, and everyone wants to eat.”...............

article 32

this soldier, officer, with an EXEMPLARY record COULD get life in prison. her record speaks for itself. she VOLUNTEERED to go to iraq. however, while there, she had a psychiatric episode and attempted to commit suicide. it was in the presence of a psychiatric nurse.

now she is charged with kidnapping, endangering another solider and attempting suicide. the attempting suicide part is true. her doctors at walter reed are on her side. the army is not. they are thinking (quite hard) about prosecuting her.

did you know if you're a psychiatric patient at walter reed, your family is not eligible for the amenities other families are allowed?
'A Soldier's Officer'

Dana Priest and Anne Hull Washington Post Staff Writers
In a nondescript conference room at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, 1st Lt. Elizabeth Whiteside listened last week as an Army prosecutor outlined the criminal case against her in a preliminary hearing. The charges: attempting suicide and endangering the life of another soldier while serving in Iraq.
Her hands trembled as Maj. Stefan Wolfe, the prosecutor, argued that Whiteside, now a psychiatric outpatient at Walter Reed, should be court-martialed. After seven years of exemplary service, the 25-year-old Army reservist faces the possibility of life in prison if she is tried and convicted. Military psychiatrists at Walter Reed who examined Whiteside after she recovered from her self-inflicted gunshot wound diagnosed her with a severe mental disorder, possibly triggered by the stresses of a war zone. But Whiteside's superiors considered her mental illness "an excuse" for criminal conduct, according to documents obtained by The Washington Post. .............