gary indiana - city of the week!

you go gary!

Midwest City Fights Back Against Iran War-Mongering
By Erik Leaver, AlterNet
When the new National Intelligence Estimate on Iran was released noting that Iran gave up its nuclear weapons program in 2003, the council moved into action. Unanimously, it passed a resolution ensuring that no preemptive military attack by the United States against Iran takes place.
Surprised you didn't hear about this courageous act? That's because it happened in the town of Gary, Ind., not in our nation's capitol.
Organized by the Northwest Indiana Coalition Against the Iraq War and introduced by Councilman Charles Hughes, the City of Gary has passed the most common-sense strategy to deal with Iran. The resolution called for Congress to:
Ensure that no preemptive military attack by the United States against Iran takes place.
Make clear to the administration that such a preemptive attack has not been authorized by any law, resolution, court ruling or article of the Constitution.
Support diplomatic engagement with Iran.
Maintain pressure against all escalations of war in the Middle East...........

a powerful piece on coal

and the land that is being raped to get at it. AND the illness and ugliness it brings to the people in the area. incredible slideshow at the link.

Big Coal's Dirty Plans for Our Energy Future [With Shocking Photos]
By Antrim Caskey, AlterNet

Big coal is hoping for government subsidies to replace oil. But their "clean coal" plan is an ecological nightmare for everyone. Just as the American people and the world are beginning to recognize the necessity of shifting to renewable energies, Big Coal, in collusion with an out-of-step administration, is pushing their dirty fossil fuel as the solution to our nation's energy crisis.
Big Coal and its cohorts envision a "clean coal technology" future fueled by liquifying and gasifying coal, capturing the carbon emissions and injecting them underground. By 2030 the West Virginia Division of Energy -- a nascent state agency formed in July, 2007 -- wants to oust oil and exalt coal by displacing the 1.3 billion gallons of foreign oil the state currently imports every year.
The WVDoE believes "that higher energy prices are providing and will continue to provide market opportunities" for a variety of alternative coal technologies including "coal waste, coal fines and coal bed methane," according to a document released in December 2007 called, "A Blueprint for the Future.".........................

so what?

we have a constitution and many other laws and THEY don't pay attention to THEM either. what makes anyone think any NEW law or rule will waylay them?

House Passes Bill to Ban CIA's Use of Harsh Interrogation Tactics


By Joby Warrick and Walter Pincus Washington Post Staff Writers
The House approved legislation yesterday that would bar the CIA from using waterboarding and other harsh interrogation tactics, drawing an immediate veto threat from the White House and setting up another political showdown over what constitutes torture.
The measure, approved by a largely party-line vote of 222 to 199, would require U.S. intelligence agencies to follow Army rules adopted last year that explicitly forbid waterboarding. It also would require interrogators to adhere to a strict interpretation of the Geneva Conventions on the treatment of prisoners of war. The rules, required by Congress for all Defense Department personnel, also ban sexual humiliation, "mock" executions and the use of attack dogs, and prohibit the withholding of food and medical care. ........

snow

click it

i'm not kidding, click it

it speaks for itself

what planet should YOU rule

You Should Rule Mars

Mars is a planet that shines brightly and loops wildly around the solar system. You are perfect to rule Mars, because you are both energetic and independent. Like Mars, you seems attractive and bright to others - but you're difficult to pin down. You are a great thinker, but you only think in the present and ignore the future. Full of enthusiasm and inspiration, you are into your own thing... and rather insensitive to others.

What Planet Should You Rule?

'aren't you glad they chose football'?

(hat tip to extreme craft

it's happy thursday

only happy stuff today. from 1935, the sunshine makers (hat tip to boing boing). get rid of those SOURPUSSES

graciously submit

my big fat ass. it ain't EVER going to happen. NOT in THIS lifetime or the next (or a lifetime of lifetimes). the more i read about this huckabee (who set free a CONVICTED rapist that went on to rape and KILL again) dude the more i want to vomit
Huckabee and Wife Signed ‘98 Ad Encouraging Women to ‘Graciously Submit’ to Husbands

Jon Ponder
In August 1998, Gov. Mike Huckabee and his wife Janet were among 131 signers of an advertisement opposing same sex marriage and in support of a resolution enacted by the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) earlier that year that erroneously suggested that prototypical 1950s-era “Ozzie and Harriet” style marriage and family life had its origins in the Bible:................

......................Graciously submitting herself” to her husband is a deceptively benign formulation to describe the status of women in biblical times. In the Hebrew scriptures that form the basis of the Old Testament, for example, women were treated as harshly as they are treated today in conservative Islamic cultures:
Unmarried women were not allowed to leave the home of their father.
Married women were not allowed to leave the home of their husband.
They were normally restricted to roles of little or no authority.
They could not testify in court.
They could not appear in public venues.
They were not allowed to talk to strangers.
They had to be doubly veiled when they left their homes.
Polygamy was commonplace, and, of course, only men could have multiple spouses. Famous polygamists from the Bible included Abraham, Jacob, King David and especially Solomon, who had 700 wives and 300 concubines................

hey huckabee BITE ME

get this!

Tom Tancredo is a Big War Advocate But Was a Vietnam War Draft Dodger Due to Claims of Depression
Submitted by mark karlin
He's a flame throwing supporter of the Iraq War and demagogic opponent of "illegal" immigration (as in Mexican immigration, not white people immigration). As a college student, he also was a rabid enthusiast for our war in Vietnam.
But Tom Tancredo, the congressman who invites guests over to his Colorado mansion to watch John Wayne movies, was given a 1-Y deferment from serving in Vietnam. Why? Because he claims that he was treated for mental illness while in high school.
No, that doesn't stigmatize mental health problems. Lord knows we need to pay more attention to them as a nation and get more coverage for them in our health insurance programs -- and hopefully national health insurance.
But it is a bit too consistent that one of the current bottom tier GOP presidential contenders is just another Chickenhawk. Like Cheney who got multiple deferments that kept him from serving in Vietnam, like Bush who used Daddy's help to get him in the cushy Texas Air National Guard to avoid combat, Tancredo got himself out of the army during a war he supported by declaring that he was mentally ill..............

merry tesla christmas

Tesla Coil Artist Sparks Up for Christmas

i knew about this a while ago

you MUST have a specific name and address for mail, any mail, to be delivered to members of the serivce.

there is a wonderful organization out there called soldiers angels that will be MORE than happy to provide you the name of a serivce member you can adopt (you must promise to write to them on a REGULAR basis AND send a care package now and again).

a shout out to my department AGAIN this year. they completed more than 1,000 holiday cards! i packed them up and mailed them to one of my adoptees (who is deployed of course) and asked him to pass the cards out to his unit.

U.S. refuses `Any Wounded Soldier' mail
Holiday Mail Addressed to `Any Wounded Soldier' Will Be Returned or Thrown Out, Pentagon Says
JAY REEVES AP News
Hundreds of thousands of holiday cards and letters thanking wounded American troops for their sacrifice and wishing them well never reach their destination. They are returned to sender or thrown away unopened. Since the Sept. 11 attacks and the anthrax scare, the Pentagon and the Postal Service have refused to deliver mail addressed simply to "Any Wounded Soldier" for fear terrorists or opponents of the war might send toxic substances or demoralizing messages.
Mail must be addressed to a specific member of the armed forces — a rule that pains some well-meaning Americans this Christmas season..........

she was ten

she was born with fetal alcohol syndrome, she was gang raped and the men all pled guilty AND HER SKIN WAS BROWN





so the WHITE judge WHO IS A WOMAN mind you - said she (the TEN year old) wasn't forced. she probably wanted it. the judge let the men GO. yes, it's true





Child gang rape case horror


By Sue Dunlevy


PRIME Minister Kevin Rudd says he is "disgusted and appalled" at a decision not to jail nine young men who gang raped a 10-year-old girl in the Aurukun Aboriginal community in Queensland.
Cairns-based District Court Judge Sarah Bradley said the victim "probably agreed" to have sex with the men and did not record convictions against six of them.
Three older men involved were given a suspended sentence.
Queensland Premier Anna Bligh yesterday expressed outrage at the judge's ruling which she said was "so far from community expectations I have to say I am alarmed".
But she refused to support calls for the judge involved to be sacked.
Concerned the sentence could be part of a trend, Ms Bligh ordered a review of all criminal sentences in Cape York communities over the past two years.............

Nine child rapists go free in Australia e

Here's your horrifying lede of the day, from The Guardian: "A judge in Australia was facing calls to step down today after she failed to jail a group of nine males who admitted gang-raping a 10-year-old girl in an Aboriginal community, saying the young victim 'probably agreed' to have sex with them." I...what the...sigh.
Australia has been struggling over the problem of sexual assault of in indigenous communities; a recent report showed that sexual abuse against Aboriginal children is happening at staggering levels.
In the case of this young girl, who was raped by three adults and six juveniles, communities across Australia were horrified by Queensland District Court judge Sarah Bradley's leniency and disgusting comments.

it is our DUTY as human beings to never let this happen again. ANYWHERE in the world (and it's happening EVERYWHERE right now. EVERYWHERE, yes, even here.

to contact the judge:

Judges Chambers

District Court

PO Box 7515

Cairns Q 4870

AUSTRALIA
DX 41349

CAIRNS
Telephone : 07 4039 8909Facsimile : 07 4039 8006E-mail: associate.bradleyjdc@courts.qld.gov.au

bravehearts.org.au is having a call for action on the matter today (link goes to pdf).


picture: from the daily telegraph-judge sarah bradley


This story gets worse.
Child safety failed rape girl

these are just allegations

nothing has been proven yet. however, it DOES appear ms jones WAS rescued from a prison like 'container' AMERICANS were keeping her in, while she was in iraq. it does appear her congressional rep from texas, ted poe was called. it does appear NOTHING is happening to anyone from kbr. what i want to know is, why did the army doctors turn over the rape kit to kbr? it doesn't make sense to me


Victim: Gang-Rape Cover-Up by U.S., Halliburton/KBR
KBR Told Victim She Could Lose Her Job If She Sought Help After Being Raped, She Says
By BRIAN ROSS, MADDY SAUER & JUSTIN ROOD

A Houston, Texas woman says she was gang-raped by Halliburton/KBR coworkers in Baghdad, and the company and the U.S. government are covering up the incident. Jamie Leigh Jones, now 22, says that after she was raped by multiple men at a KBR camp in the Green Zone, the company put her under guard in a shipping container with a bed and warned her that if she left Iraq for medical treatment, she'd be out of a job.
"Don't plan on working back in Iraq. There won't be a position here, and there won't be a position in Houston," Jones says she was told.
In a lawsuit filed in federal court against Halliburton and its then-subsidiary KBR, Jones says she was held in the shipping container for at least 24 hours without food or water by KBR, which posted armed security guards outside her door, who would not let her leave. ........

................In a statement, KBR said it was "instructed to cease" its own investigation by U.S. government authorities "because they were assuming sole responsibility for the criminal investigations."
"The safety and security of all employees remains KBR's top priority," it said in a statement. "Our commitment in this regard is unwavering."
Since the attacks, Jones has started a nonprofit foundation called the Jamie Leigh Foundation, which is dedicated to helping victims who were raped or sexually assaulted overseas while working for government contractors or other corporations.
"I want other women to know that it's not their fault," said Jones.............

wait wait don't tell me

is a great npr show. every once in a while i'll catch it if i'm in lil' pi (that's the name of my subaru). it's also coming to hartford on april 17th! anyway, i read this and thought it very apt

White House press secretary admits she didn't know what Cuban Missile Crisis was
John Byrne
History has a way of repeating itself.
White House press secretary Dana Perino has been front and center of the White House's push to continue to label Iran a rogue state for its pursuit of uranium enrichment technology.
This comes against the backdrop of a new intelligence estimate positing that the Islamic state abandoned its nuclear weapons in 2003.
Turns out she doesn't know quite so much about nuclear weapons as she supposes. And we're not talking about Iran.
Appearing on National Public Radio's quiz show, "Wait, Wait ... Don't Tell Me," this weekend, Perino admitted a story she'd previously only shared in private: When a reporter asked her a question during a White House briefing in which he referred to the Cuban Missile Crisis -- she didn't know what it was.
"I was panicked a bit because I really don't know about . . . the Cuban Missile Crisis," said Perino, who at 35 was born about a decade after the 1962 U.S.-Soviet nuclear showdown. "It had to do with Cuba and missiles, I'm pretty sure."............


wait wait don't tell me

more on 1st lt elizabeth whiteside

and it's decent news too! there is a recommendation NOT to court martial. of course it's not a final decisison yet but my fingers are crossed for her (and everyone else too)

Leniency Suggested for Officer Who Shot Herself

By Dana Priest and Anne Hull Washington Post Staff Writers
An Army hearing officer recommended yesterday that 1st Lt. Elizabeth Whiteside, a patient undergoing psychiatric treatment at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, should not face a court-martial or other administrative punishment for having endangered the life of another soldier and attempting suicide while in Iraq.
"One of the Army values is integrity, which is defined as doing what is right, legally and morally," Maj. Mervin H. Steals, the investigating officer assigned to conduct a preliminary hearing, wrote in his decision. "The moral thing to do is dismiss these charges, to allow 1LT Whiteside to end her military service and receive the benefits that she will desperately need for the remainder of her life." ............

original posting article 32

you know how your moms and everyone else for that matter

tell you to STOP playing video games. it will rot your mind and do you NO good? well they were ALL WRONG

Boy Saves Sister from Moose Attack with Skills Learned in Warcraft Video Game

huh?

CASH STARVED FOREST SERVICE SPENDS $600,000 TO BUY TASERS — Devices Remain in Boxes Because Rangers Lack Training

Washington, DC — The U.S. Forest Service has bought $600,000 worth of “Electronic Control Devices” without any training program, rules for use or even a written explanation as to why the devices are needed, according to agency records posted today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). The devices, known as Tasers, are sitting in storage and cannot be issued because the agency has yet to develop a training course.........

.......“There must have been a fire sale on Tasers, otherwise why would an agency buy 700 of them without a program, protocol or need?” asked PEER Executive Director Jeff Ruch, noting that the federal fiscal year ended September, around the time of the hurried single source purchase. “The Forest Service has many more pressing law enforcement priorities that should have received any end-of-fiscal-year surplus.”
In addition to the cost of training its entire law enforcement staff, the Forest Service may be assuming significant financial liability for injuries and deaths. In October, Amnesty International released a study estimating that 290 civilians have died from police use of Tasers since 2001..........

what would smokey say?

(smokey image from boingboing.net)

let's put all else aside about huckabee

EXCEPT for these two things. the pardon/parole of a CONVICTED rapist (who later went on to rape and KILL again) - who was pardoned/paroled because he had found the lord AND most likely because one of his victims was a (distant) relation to bill clinton

AND
this: (when i read it just now, it was like a slap in the face). parole to someone who did all of that to a woman (click on the link for the full article) - because his minister said it was an accident? an accident that he beat her with nunchucks? an accident he raped her 'while her body was still warm'? an accident he took her out of the car and placed her on the ground in front of the car then proceeded to run over her SEVERAL TIMES? an accident he threw her body into the water?

does the god mike huckabee 'serves' condone this? does the god mike huckabee 'serves' want to parole someone who committed this 'accident'?

Why parole a monster like Green
Garrick Feldman

....... In usual fashion, Huckabee's office didn't even contact the victim's family about the clemency. ___ Although he's required to by the Constitution, the governor, as is his custom, won't say why he granted clemency to this crazed killer (over the unanimous objections of the Post-Prison Transfer Board). ___ Huckabee apparently listened to Green's minister (and a friend of the governor), who thinks the murder was an accident and Green was forced to confess.___ The Jacksonville police, who arrested Green in 1974 after a witness linked him to the crime, think the minister and Huckabee are both delusional, which is the mildest epitaph we can print.___ This old police reporter knows a genuine confession when he sees one, and Green's depravity has the ring of truth.___ Green, a 22-year-old sergeant, kidnapped Helen Lynette Spencer on Little Rock Air Force Base, where he beat and kicked her as he tried to rape her in a secluded area. She broke loose and ran toward the barracks' parking lot, where he caught up with her and beat her with a pair of nunchucks.___ He then stuffed her into the trunk of his car and left her there while he cleaned up. Several hours later, he drove down Graham Road, past Loop Road and stopped near a bridge in Lonoke County. Green told investigators he put her body in the front seat and raped her because her body was still warm.___ He dragged Spencer out of his vehicle and put her in front of the car and ran over her several times, going back and forth. He then collected himself long enough to dump her body in Twin Prairie Bayou.___ This is what the Rev. Johnny Jackson, interim pastor at Bethel Baptist Church in Jacksonville, calls an accident, and apparently Huckabee believes him................

more examples of how we are

bringing freedom and democracy to iraq

Vigilantes kill 40 women in Iraq's south
Religious Vigilantes Have Killed 40 Women This Year Police in Southern City of Basra Says
SINAN SALAHEDDINAP News

Religious vigilantes have killed at least 40 women this year in the southern Iraqi city of Basra because of how they dressed, their mutilated bodies found with notes warning against "violating Islamic teachings," the police chief said Sunday. Maj. Gen. Jalil Khalaf blamed sectarian groups that he said were trying to impose a strict interpretation of Islam. They dispatch patrols of motorbikes or unlicensed cars with tinted windows to accost women not wearing traditional dress and head scarves, he added.
"The women of Basra are being horrifically murdered and then dumped in the garbage with notes saying they were killed for un-Islamic behavior," Khalaf told The Associated Press. He said men with Western clothes or haircuts are also attacked in Basra, an oil-rich city some 30 miles from the Iranian border and 340 miles southeast of Baghdad.........

i don't know if i am reading this correctly

or not. BUT ALL of the saudi prisoners (except for 10) at gitmo are being SET FREE. while all others from elsewhere (guilty OR INNOCENT) languish without rights at the prison? is that what this is saying?

i'm stunned but at the same time, NOT surprised. a country who shielded, trained and funded the 9/11 terrorists are our friends BUT iraq, who had NOTHING to do with 9/11 was invaded by us?

when will we collective realize these (king george and his court) are madmen?

After Guantanamo, 'Reintegration' for Saudis

By Josh White and Robin Wright Washington Post Staff Writers
For five years, Jumah al-Dossari sat in a tiny cell at the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, watched day and night by military captors who considered him one of the most dangerous terrorist suspects on the planet.
In July, he was suddenly released to his native Saudi Arabia, which held a very different view. Dossari was immediately reunited with his family and treated like a VIP. He was given a monthly stipend and a job, housed and fed, even promised help in finding a wife. Today, he is a free man living on the Persian Gulf coast. ..........

i said it before and i'll say it again

nancy pelosi is a steamin' pile
she got what she wanted and that's it. she has the power to start something. something about how horrid king george and his court are. personally, i think she signed a deal with the devil. it sure looks like that to me

Hill Briefed on Waterboarding in 2002
In Meetings, Spy Panels' Chiefs Did Not Protest, Officials Say

By Joby Warrick and Dan Eggen Washington Post Staff Writers
In September 2002, four members of Congress met in secret for a first look at a unique CIA program designed to wring vital information from reticent terrorism suspects in U.S. custody. For more than an hour, the bipartisan group, which included current House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), was given a virtual tour of the CIA's overseas detention sites and the harsh techniques interrogators had devised to try to make their prisoners talk.
Among the techniques described, said two officials present, was waterboarding, a practice that years later would be condemned as torture by Democrats and some Republicans on Capitol Hill. But on that day, no objections were raised. Instead, at least two lawmakers in the room asked the CIA to push harder, two U.S. officials said. ..............