i like her

i've not written about gaza on purpose

a dead palestinian child and a dead israeli child are EXACTLY the same to me. it's sick how we as humans act. there is NO right and ALL wrongs here.

i AM going to link to the following story though because i'm STILL NOT OVER israel attacking one of OUR ships IN INTERNATIONAL WATERS the uss liberty, lying about it and our government covering it up (they're just as guilty)

Gaza relief boat damaged in encounter with Israeli vessel
(CNN) -- An Israeli patrol boat struck a boat carrying medical volunteers and supplies to Gaza early Tuesday as it attempted to intercept the vessel in the Mediterranean Sea, witnesses and Israeli officials said. CNN correspondent Karl Penhaul was aboard the 60-foot pleasure boat Dignity when the contact occurred. When the boat later docked in the Lebanese port city of Tyre, severe damage was visible to the forward port side of the boat, and the front left window and part of the roof had collapsed. It was flying the flag of Gibraltar.

The Dignity was carrying crew and 16 passengers -- physicians from Britain, Germany and Cyprus and human rights activists from the Free Gaza Solidarity Movement -- who were trying to reach Gaza through an Israeli blockade of the territory.

Also on board was former U.S. Rep. Cynthia McKinney.

Penhaul said an Israeli patrol boat shined its spotlight on the Dignity, and then it and another patrol boat shadowed the Dignity for about a half hour before the collision.

One patrol boat "very severely rammed" the Dignity, Penhaul said.

The captain of the Dignity told Penhaul he received no warning. Only after the collision did the Israelis come on the radio to say they struck the boat because they believed it was involved in terrorist activities, the captain said.

But Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor denied that and said the patrol boat had warned the vessel not to proceed to Gaza because it is a closed military area.............

wonderful wonderful wonderful

..........Zbig to Joe: "You have a such stunningly superficial knowledge of what went on it's almost embarrassing to listen to you.".......

(hat tip talking points memo)

time after time after time

women get kicked off of planes for breastfeeding

or
you have to make a choice between career and motherhood (as in nursing your baby). you CAN'T be a doctor AND a mother??????????? hmmmm

or

you can show your breasts to sell cars BUT NOT to keep your children healthy

now it seems you can't even have a breastfeeding facebook group:
Facebook facing protest over removal of nursing photos
WASHINGTON (AFP) — Facebook is facing an online protest after removing pictures of breastfeeding mothers found to be overly revealing from the pages of members of the social network.

A Facebook group entitled "Hey, Facebook, breastfeeding is not obscene!" has attracted nearly 85,000 members as of Tuesday and a handful of activists held a rally outside its California headquarters over the weekend.

The organizers of the page, which is hosting a lively debate, receiving more than 10,000 comments, said they launched their "Official Petition to Facebook" after Facebook pulled profile pictures showing women nursing their babies.

"The pictures have been reported as 'obscene' and have been removed -- their posters warned not to repost or fear being kicked off of Facebook," the group's organizers said.

"We're wondering: what about a baby breastfeeding is obscene? Especially in comparison to MANY other pictures posted all over Facebook that really are obscene."

Facebook, which has more than 120 million members, said there was no ban on breastfeeding pictures but it did have a policy on how much of a woman's breast can be revealed similar to that of US newspapers and other media outlets............

i DO NOT think edwina froelich would be happy about this AT ALL

letterman gives us the top ten

favorite double ya moments

and i think we're DANGEROUSLY

close to this. far closer than most think in fact. some pooh pooh the idea. i don't. i'm a realist (well, in THIS case i am)

Unrest caused by bad economy may require military action, report says
By Diana Washington Valdez / El Paso Times

EL PASO -- A U.S. Army War College report warns an economic crisis in the United States could lead to massive civil unrest and the need to call on the military to restore order.

Retired Army Lt. Col. Nathan Freir wrote the report "Known Unknowns: Unconventional Strategic Shocks in Defense Strategy Development," which the Army think tank in Carlisle, Pa., recently released.

"Widespread civil violence inside the United States would force the defense establishment to reorient priorities ... to defend basic domestic order and human security," the report said, in case of "unforeseen economic collapse," "pervasive public health emergencies," and "catastrophic natural and human disasters," among other possible crises.

The report also suggests the new (Barack Obama) administration could face a "strategic shock" within the first eight months in office.

Fort Bliss spokeswoman Jean Offutt said the Army post is not involved in any recent talks about a potential military response to civil unrest...........

bye delaney!

you kicked ass while you were here and we thank you!
Delaney Bramlett, 1939-2008

Delaney Bramlett, who co-wrote songs such as “Superstar” and worked with a who’s-who of rock royalty, died Saturday. He was 69.

According to a Reuters report picked up by The New York Times and other outlets, the guitarist and vocalist died in Los Angeles following gallbladder surgery.

“I held him and he held on up until the last breath with which he went in peace to the light and on into eternity,” his wife, Susan Lanier-Bramlett, said on Bramlett’s Web site, www.delaneybramlett.com.

Bramlett was born in Pontotoc, Mississippi, in 1939. After becoming part of the house band for the ABC rock ‘n’ roll show “Shindig” in the mid-‘60s, he met and married Bonnie Lynn O’Farrell, a backup singer for Ike & Tina Turner, in 1967, according to Allmusic.com. The pair formed Delaney & Bonnie, which became Delaney & Bonnie & Friends in 1969.........

wow

powerful

and moving

and true

and almost ALL of us, to the one, have been through one or many of the things ms peterson writes about

it is not only important for us to educate our girl children, it's important for us to educate our boy children as well.


Original Essay: The Not Rape Epidemic

Written by Latoya Peterson

*Trigger Warning*

Latoya’s Note: So, as promised, here’s the original version of the essay that appears in Yes Means Yes. If you see this popping up in your reader, I do not recommend you read it at work.

Rape is only four letters, one small syllable, and yet it is one of the hardest words to coax from your lips when you need it most.

Entering our teenage years in the sex saturated ’90s, my friends and I knew tons about rape. We knew to always be aware while walking, to hold your keys out as a possible weapon against an attack. We knew that we shouldn’t walk alone at night, and if we absolutely had to, we were to avoid shortcuts, dark paths, or alleyways. We even learned ways to combat date rape, even though none of us were old enough to have friends that drove, or to be invited to parties with alcohol. We memorized the mantras, chanting them like a yogic sutra, crafting our words into a protective charm with which to ward off potential rapists: do not walk alone at night. Put a napkin over your drink at parties. Don’t get into cars with strange men. If someone tries to abduct you, scream loudly and try to attack them because a rapist tries to pick women who are easy targets.................

..........This is how the Not Rape epidemic spreads - through fear and silence, which become complicit in perpetuating the behaviors described here. Women of all backgrounds are affected by these kinds of acts, regardless of race, ethnicity, or social class. So many of us carry the scars of the past with us into our daily lives. Most of us have pushed these stories to the back of our minds, trying to have some semblance of a normal life that includes romantic and sexual relationships. However, waiting just behind the tongue is story after story of the horrors other women experience and hide deep within the self behind a protective wall of silence.............

a big fat DUHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!

just because one hides one's head in the sand doesn't mean the ass end isn't gonna get kicked

if one doesn't allow their children to be instructed in a good thorough COMPREHENSIVE SEX EDUCATION program, we all know there is more chance for pregnancy AND health issues.

it's sex, almost ALL of us ARE gonna do it. get real (AND GET EDUCATED)
i hope now that king george's ass is almost out the door, the ridiculousness of ABSTINENCE only education is also out the door

it's JUST downright FOOLISH

Premarital Abstinence Pledges Ineffective, Study Finds
Teenagers Who Make Such Promises Are Just as Likely to Have Sex, and Less Likely to Use Protection, the Data Indicate
By Rob Stein
Washington Post Staff Writer
Teenagers who pledge to remain virgins until marriage are just as likely to have premarital sex as those who do not promise abstinence and are significantly less likely to use condoms and other forms of birth control when they do, according to a study released today.

The new analysis of data from a large federal survey found that more than half of youths became sexually active before marriage regardless of whether they had taken a "virginity pledge," but that the percentage who took precautions against pregnancy or sexually transmitted diseases was 10 points lower for pledgers than for non-pledgers.

"Taking a pledge doesn't seem to make any difference at all in any sexual behavior," said Janet E. Rosenbaum of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, whose report appears in the January issue of the journal Pediatrics. "But it does seem to make a difference in condom use and other forms of birth control that is quite striking.".........

no five year old or seven year old or twelve year old girl should EVER have to go through this ANYWHERE. in some cultures women are thought to be UNCLEAN unless fgm occurs. well lots of cultures think females are unclean PERIOD.

EDUCATION IS THE KEY TO EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE INCLUDING FEMALE GENITAL MUTILATION


For Kurdish Girls, a Painful Ancient Ritual

The Widespread Practice of Female Circumcision in Iraq's North Highlights The Plight of Women in a Region Often Seen as More Socially Progressive

By Amit R. Paley

Washington Post Foreign Service

TUZ KHURMATU, Iraq

Sheelan Anwar Omer, a shy 7-year-old Kurdish girl, bounded into her neighbor's house with an ear-to-ear smile, looking for the party her mother had promised.

There was no celebration. Instead, a local woman quickly locked a rusty red door behind Sheelan, who looked bewildered when her mother ordered the girl to remove her underpants. Sheelan began to whimper, then tremble, while the women pushed apart her legs and a midwife raised a stainless-steel razor blade in the air. "I do this in the name of Allah!" she intoned.

As the midwife sliced off part of Sheelan's genitals, the girl let out a high-pitched wail heard throughout the neighborhood. As she carried the sobbing child back home, Sheelan's mother smiled with pride.........

she was five when this happened:

They pinned me to the ground, and I just cried and cried," said Shaker, who spoke barely above a whisper. "I was just so astonished. But now I realize that they want to prevent women from living their lives normally." Her mother, Shukria Ismaeel Jarjees, a 38-year-old housewife, said she was forced by her relatives and elderly women in the community to have her daughter circumcised. "I made a huge mistake, and now my daughter is always complaining of pain in her pelvis," Jarjees said. Her eyes began to fill with tears. "I now advise my daughters to never circumcise their children."

i agree with ccoonnddoolleezzaa

rice. i think we and generations yet to come WILL thank king george for all he's done IF WE'RE F**KING HIGH on acid that is

no one in their RIGHT MIND would even CONSIDER most everything that man has done as beneficial to people OR the earth

ccoonnddii WTF are YOU smokin grrrlfren'?

Rice: 'This generation' will 'soon thank' Bush
Andrew McLemore
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice defended the last eight years of President Bush's policies as an achievement that is not reflected in the lowest approval ratings of all time.

Rice said it won't be long before Bush's contributions to the world will be acknowledged and that recognition of big achievements sometimes take a long time.

"I think generations pretty soon are going to start to thank this president for what he's done," Rice said in CBS interview Sunday. "This generation will."

Asked what grade she would give the administration on foreign policy, Rice said some decisions merited an "A-plus" while others "deserve a lot less." But she remained adamant that Bush's central decision to invade Iraq was the right one......

this is the funniest horror i have ever heard of

i mean it's not REALLY funny in any way shape or form of course. it's absurd. it's obscene. it's ridiculous. it's insane. it's fucked up

we're getting our asses handed to us on a plate so what do we (the we is NOT me or any SANE person, it's king george and his band of merry white boyz) do?
this:

U.S. will give free weapons to Afghan civilians
David Edwards and Stephen C. Webster

One way to quell a violent and deteriorating situation, according to the U.S. military, is to flood the place with guns. That's exactly what is planned for Afghanistan, where a rising tide of chaos is slowly pushing the country past Iraq as the most dangerous battlefield Americans tread upon.

"The U.S. military plans to help the Afghanistan government recruit, train and arm local Afghans to fight a resurgent Taliban," reported CNN's Barbara Starr.

"For the United States, the most sensitive part of the proposal will be the use of American military funds to purchase small arms, most likely AK-47 rifles, that will be given to local Afghans, according to a U.S. military official."

"There are worries," Starr continued, "putting even more weapons in the hands of local communities could lead to tribes fighting each other instead of the Taliban. U.S. troops could get caught in the middle." The plan would also hinge upon the weak Afghan government to maintain the loyalties of the newly armed populace...........

this land is your land

n Harriman, Tenn., flooding from fly ash sludge on Monday after a storage pond wall broke. (Photo: J. Miles Carey / Knoxville News Sentinel / AP)







this land is my land. woody guthrie wrote the following words and i'm sorry to say he's wrong. this land was not his land nor mine. now, it belongs to king george and the good ol' white boy network. ESPECIALLY big big big bid-nez who cares NOT a wink for woody's legacy OR me

This land is your land, this land is my land
From California, to the New York Island
From the redwood forest, to the gulf stream waters
This land was made for you and me

As I was walking a ribbon of highway
I saw above me an endless skyway
I saw below me a golden valley
This land was made for you and me

Chorus

I've roamed and rambled and I've followed my footsteps
To the sparkling sands of her diamond deserts
And all around me a voice was sounding
This land was made for you and me

Chorus

The sun comes shining as I was strolling
The wheat fields waving and the dust clouds rolling
The fog was lifting a voice come chanting
This land was made for you and me

Chorus

As I was walkin'  -  I saw a sign there
And that sign said - no tress passin'
But on the other side  .... it didn't say nothin!
Now that side was made for you and me!

Chorus

In the squares of the city - In the shadow of the steeple
Near the relief office - I see my people
And some are grumblin' and some are wonderin'
If this land's still made for you and me.

"Empty Promise": The Broken Federal Commitment Behind the Tennessee Coal Ash Disaster

by: Sue Sturgis, Facing South

When Earthjustice Attorney Lisa Evans testified earlier this year before a congressional committee about the looming threat from coal combustion waste, she warned that the federal government's broken pledge to regulate disposal of the potentially dangerous material threatened the health and safety of communities across the country.

Speaking before a June 10 hearing of the House Subcommittee on Energy and Natural Resources titled "How Should the Federal Government Address the Health and Environmental Risks of Coal Combustion Waste?," Evans pointed out that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said in its Regulatory Determination on Wastes from the Combustion of Fossil Fuels published in 2000 that federal standards for disposal of coal combustion waste were needed to protect public health and the environment.

The federal failure to regulate the waste has put 23 states -- including Tennessee -- in a special bind, since their statutes have "no more stringent" provisions prohibiting them from enacting standards stricter than those found in federal law. Without federal action, those states can't regulate coal combustion waste disposal beyond the few obviously inadequate safeguards that now exist...........

more from drb

'holiday' pictures

(don't know who took either of these, i LOVE the ladder one.)

gifts: (image credit: Rob Sheridan)

please do check them ALL out at dark roasted blend

seems like LOTS of people feel this way

(from dark roasted blend Labor union members in Newark, New Jersey march against Prohibition, 1931.)

in his own words

one of THE biggest travesties of justice out there

an interview with don siegelman

Karl Rove Destroyed My Life
By Paul Alexander, The Daily Beast.
Last week, Al Gore sent an email message urging supporters to give money to Don Siegelman's legal defense fund. Gore is the latest in a string of high profile supporters to suggest Siegelman, the former Governor of Alabama, was the victim of a Republican plot when he was found guilty of bribery, conspiracy and fraud in 2006, and sentenced to seven years in prison.

Now, in the waning days of the Bush administration, Siegelman is trying to win back his freedom -- not to mention his good name -- in a courtroom in Atlanta. Earlier this year, an appeals court granted his release after he had served nine months, saying the Governor's appeal had raised "substantial questions" about the case against him. Siegelman's cause was helped by a bipartisan group of 54 former state attorneys general from across the country who filed a federal appeals brief supporting his bid to overturn the conviction. Republican insiders have also come forward to say Siegelman was unfairly targeted by Rove and his circle.

Making it in prison depends on one's level of tolerance. I'm used to mopping in my wife's kitchen. It was just a bigger floor.

Siegelman's appeal was heard earlier this month and the verdict will determine whether he returns to prison to finish out his sentence, or goes free.

How did a former governor -- and a rising star in the Democratic Party -- end up in a situation like this?.................

this isn't racist

no, NOT at all

with cute lil' songs like:
barack the magic negro
or
the star spanglish banner

these f**kwads are the f**king SCUM OF THE EARTH

listen you wads, be as racist as you want to be. i am never going to be able to change you. BUT BE MAN (or woman) ENOUGH TO ADMIT IT

RNC candidate distributes controversial Obama song
By Reid Wilson
RNC candidate Chip Saltsman’s Christmas greeting to committee members includes a music CD with lyrics from a song called “Barack the Magic Negro,” first played on Rush Limbaugh’s popular radio show.
Saltsman, a personal friend of conservative satirist Paul Shanklin, sent a 41-track CD along with a note to national committee members. “I look forward to working together in the New Year,” Saltsman wrote. “Please enjoy the enclosed CD by my friend Paul Shanklin of the Rush Limbaugh Show.”

The CD, called “We Hate the USA,” lampoons liberals with such songs as “John Edwards’ Poverty Tour,” “Wright place, wrong pastor,” “Love Client #9,” “Ivory and Ebony” and “The Star Spanglish banner.”

Several of the track titles, including “Barack the Magic Negro,” are written in bold font..........

RNC chairman candidate defends 'Barack the Magic Negro' song
CNN) -- A candidate for the Republican National Committee chairmanship said Friday the CD he sent committee members for Christmas -- which included a song titled "Barack the Magic Negro" -- was clearly intended as a joke. "I think most people recognize political satire when they see it," Tennessee Republican Chip Saltsman told CNN. "I think RNC members understand that."

The song, set to the tune of "Puff the Magic Dragon," was first played on conservative political commentator Rush Limbaugh's radio show in 2007......

and this my dears is EXACTLY why we're

f**king up in afghanistan AND elsewhere

(see previous posting)

our right hands don't know what our left hands are doing. our government is promising people that help them payment or other incentives, then backing out. our government uses whatever means necessary (again see previous story) then denies denies denies. one agency swings one way, another agency swings another and no one knows what's in the middle (or who is caught there).

the ONLY people i feel sorry for are the troops who have lost their lives or come back unwhole AND the innocent people of the countries we've 'brought our form of democracy' to

Tangled U.S. Objectives Bring Down Spy Firm
Private Agents Snared Afghan Drug Kingpin
By Richard Leiby
Washington Post Staff Writer
After a federal jury in New York swiftly convicted a major Afghan heroin trafficker and Taliban supporter named Haji Bashir Noorzai, the government promptly issued the usual celebratory news release thanking the men and women of the DEA and FBI for their "countless sacrifices" in making the case.

Left out was any credit to the party most responsible for the government's victory: an unusual three-man private intelligence firm called Rosetta Research and Consulting.

At the instigation of the Drug Enforcement Administration, Rosetta agents lured Noorzai to America and delivered him right into the feds' hands. He spent 11 days in an Embassy Suites Hotel in Manhattan in 2005, enjoying room service and considering himself a guest of the U.S. government -- until he was arrested. He was imprisoned for three years awaiting his trial, which concluded in September. He faces up to life in prison when he is sentenced in January. .......

whatever it takes

including 'pharmaceutical enhancements for aging patriarchs with slumping libidos'

well normally i wouldn't care about such things EXCEPT
isn't almost all intelligence coming out of afghanistan saying WE ARE UP SHITE'S CREEK?
don't most of the people that support this king and all he has done under his reign believe not only should a woman's choice be abolished BUT THERE SHOULD BE NO CONTRACEPTION? so women can't choose regarding THEIR bodies, but MEN GET ENHANCEMENTS LEFT AND RIGHT.

the story mentions a 60 something year old tribal chief with four younger wives. the cia tosses viagra at him so he can get it up. yet it says NOTHING about how the wives feel or for that matter are treated (then again i think we all know how women and grrrls are treated in afghanistan)

hmmmmmmmmmm
Little Blue Pills Among the Ways CIA Wins Friends in Afghanistan
By Joby Warrick
Washington Post Staff Writer
The Afghan chieftain looked older than his 60-odd years, and his bearded face bore the creases of a man burdened with duties as tribal patriarch and husband to four younger women. His visitor, a CIA officer, saw an opportunity, and reached into his bag for a small gift.

Four blue pills. Viagra.

"Take one of these. You'll love it," the officer said. Compliments of Uncle Sam.

The enticement worked. The officer, who described the encounter, returned four days later to an enthusiastic reception. The grinning chief offered up a bonanza of information about Taliban movements and supply routes -- followed by a request for more pills.

For U.S. intelligence officials, this is how some crucial battles in Afghanistan are fought and won. While the CIA has a long history of buying information with cash, the growing Taliban insurgency has prompted the use of novel incentives and creative bargaining to gain support in some of the country's roughest neighborhoods, according to officials directly involved in such operations. ...........

the REAL scoop on rick warren

do YOU want someone leading YOU in prayer that believes humans and dinosaurs roamed the earth TOGETHER, that women are and/or should be submissive to men, that really CANNOT PROVE anything they say about helping the 'poor folk in africa'? well i sure as shite DO NOT

Max Blumenthal on 'Rick Warren's Double Life'
By Amy Goodman, Democracy Now!.

Beyond that, he compares pro-choice advocates to Holocaust deniers. He recently was interviewed by Sean Hannity, and Sean Hannity asked him, “Should we attack Iran?” And Rick Warren said, “Well, it’s our God-given obligation to take out evildoers.” He has recently scrubbed material from his Web site claiming that man walked the earth with dinosaurs, basically that, you know, history is one big "Flintstones" episode. He will not allow homosexuals to be members of his church, and he recently scrubbed that from his Web site..........

..............eyond that, you know, Rick Warren says he’s for the environment. Rick Warren says that he’s for fighting poverty, which is great. But what has he actually done? You know, I’ve spent hours scouring the Internet, calling around, trying to find some results that Rick Warren has produced in Africa against AIDS, results he’s produced against poverty. And all I can find is that his peace programs, which he calls them, are sort of recruitment vehicles for the churches that he’s planning in Africa and that he is using these programs actually to evangelize, and there’s no real way of measuring his results. And there are Christian groups that are doing good work, you know, in the Third World, that are fighting poverty, and they measure results, groups like Medical Teams International. Even World Vision measures results. But we have no way of knowing what Rick Warren is doing..............

and of course MY personal favorite

.........Warren has a doctrine of women’s submission, which he preaches to his church, and he tells the female members of his church that they have to support their husbands’ decisions, even if they make bad financial decisions, because women have to submit in a biblical manner to their husbands..............

i look forward to this EVERY year

girls

if they're not being threatened with murder (see a couple of postings ago), they're being beaten and sexually abused and made to work their fingers to the bones. this story is about OTHER countries, but it happens HERE too. it happens to girls AND women. we must make this stop worldwide. we must protect ALL of our children. it seems to me, girls and then women ALWAYS get the worst of everything though.

we are your mothers and daughters and sisters and aunts friends. don't allow this to happen to us

In Togo, a 10-Year-Old's Muted Cry: 'I Couldn't Take Any More'
As the Global Trade in Domestic Workers Surges, Millions of Young Girls Face Exploitation and Abuse
By Kevin Sullivan
Washington Post Foreign Service
LOME, Togo -- Adiza ran scared and crying into the street. Ten years old and 4-foot-9, she fled the house where she had worked for moire than a year, cleaning and sweeping from before dawn until late at night.
She ran to a woman selling food in the street and told her that since the day she had arrived in this capital city from her village in the country, her employer had beaten her almost daily and kept her in slavelike conditions.

"I couldn't take any more," recalled Adiza, a slight girl with close-cropped hair and almond-shaped eyes, who talked in a halting whisper as she described how her employer beat her with her hands and with cooking pots before the November day she ran away. ...........

normally i DO NOT condone shoplifting

but one MUST make an exception here



Media goes ape over Christmastime shoplifting dog
Ron Brynaert
Are things getting so tough with America's economic woes that even man's best friend can't be counted on to obey man's commands anymore?

Or perhaps the real story is that news during Christmastime is traditionally so dull that outlets (like, um, this one) are forced to hold their noses as they go to the dogs?

Either way, a canine is capturing attention for doing the opposite of giving this holiday season on nightly news reports and in newspapers across the country.

"A thief remains at large after pulling off a daring heist - in the pet food aisle," the Associated Press reports. "Surveillance video at a supermarket in this Salt Lake City suburb caught a dog shoplifting, KSL-TV reported Wednesday."......

girls

are no better off than before. worse even. and how much money did we toss into pakistan anyway? not millions my dears BUT EFFING BILLIONS. and yet, grrrls CANNOT GO TO SCHOOL WITHOUT THREATS OF MURDER. fuck the taliban and fuck ANY person who doesn't think grrrls belong in school

Taliban threaten to kill Pakistani schoolgirls: officials
Agence France-Presse
ISLAMABAD (AFP) — Taliban extremists in Pakistan's troubled northwest Swat valley have banned girls from attending school, threatening to kill any female students, officials said Thursday.

The threat was delivered this week by local Taliban commander Shah Durran in an address carried on an illegally-run radio station in the area, local officials told AFP.

"You have until January 15 to stop sending your girls to schools. If you do not pay any heed to this warning, we will kill such girls," one official quoted the commander as saying...........

i loved her

she was a woman. a strong woman. a smart woman. a high yellow woman (HER words not mine). she opposed the viet nam war and said it out loud (AT the white house i believe) and for that she was black listed. she came up from a TOUGH life. she wasn't afraid to ooze sex YET still OOZE HER SMARTS

Eartha Kitt, a Seductive Talent, Dies at 81
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

NEW YORK (AP) -- A family friend says Eartha Kitt, a sultry singer, dancer and actress who rose from South Carolina cotton fields to become an international symbol of elegance and sensuality, has died. She was 81.

Andrew Freedman says Kitt died Thursday of colon cancer and was recently treated at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital in New York......

The Purrrfect Diva
Eartha Kitt Had a Taste For the Best Things in Life
By Wil Haygood
Washington Post Staff Writer
In her fantastical life, Eartha Kitt came to like a great many things. Men, sex, bawdy songs. I personally know about the lemon sorbet, the mango sorbet and the strawberry sorbet.
I found myself dining with Kitt -- who died of cancer at the age of 81 yesterday -- at the swanky Cafe Carlyle in Manhattan several years ago. I was working on a book about Sammy Davis Jr., once a romantic interest of Kitt's. Kitt's office suggested the Carlyle. Being on book leave, without a steady income and counting pennies, I gulped: The Carlyle wasn't the place for a penny-pincher. But I needed the interview, so I dared not back out of the chance to talk with her. Kitt had known Davis when both were very young and both were hanging out at the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco. .............
eartha kitt

merry christmas

this is a wonderful

christmas story. scott arnold is my kind o' person!

For a Va. Neighborhood's Dogs, Santa Arrives on a Mail Truck
By Nick Miroff
Washington Post Staff Writer
In the troubled and toothy history of canine-mail carrier relations, the northwest corner of Zip code 22101 is something of an anomaly. There, dogs do not erupt in an angry frenzy at delivery time, nor to do they savage the mail when it comes through the slot. Some are known to leap up and down in celebration when postman Scott Arnold arrives each day; others simply throw their heads back and howl. But it is during the holidays that the humans along Arnold's route through McLean especially look forward to seeing him. That is when Arnold, a 27-year U.S. Postal Service veteran, transforms into a kind of dog-themed St. Nick, powered not by reindeer but by the force of a curious tradition he calls Santa Paws (he couldn't resist).

Each year, rain, snow or shine, Arnold delivers more than 100 doggy stockings along his route, writing each pooch's name in careful lettering across the cuff.......

merry christmas

beverage courtesy of brian at the half door

merry christmas eve

holiday humor

well this is neither funny NOR holiday related BUT you CAN laugh cause the gatsu piedi is really, well, a gatsu piedi

(i am in shock as to how these people not only function in life BUT CONTINUE TO GET RE-ELECTED. no wonder life as we know it is in serious trouble)

Shuster Pushes Inhofe On Global Warming Skepticism: ‘If There Is A Hoax, Isn’t It This Report Of Yours?’»

Earlier this month, Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK) released a report citing “more than 650 international scientists” who back up his claims that manmade global warming is a hoax. This list was a revision of his original compilation of 400 names earlier in the year. That list fell apart, however, when experts pointed out that many of those people 1) had no background in climate science, or 2) “demanded to be taken off, since they didn’t disagree with the scientific consensus on climate change at all.”

Inhofe’s new report with 650 “experts” doesn’t seem to be much better. Anja Eichler, one of the scientists cited by Inhofe as believing that half of the earth’s warming is caused by the sun, said that her work was “misinterpreted”; in fact, she believes that “Earth’s temperature does not change randomly — it changes when it is driven to do so by an external forcing.” TNR’s Bradford Plumer also found others on this list new who appear to support the theory of manmade global warming.

Yesterday on MSNBC, David Shuster grilled Inhofe on his report, bringing up the case of Eichler. After pointing out all the problems with the report, Shuster asked, “Senator, if there is a hoax, isn’t it this report of yours?” Inhofe continued to dig in his heels, insisting that the “majority” still agreed with him:

INHOFE: Let’s assume that you believe that CO2 caused, as you obviously do, causes…............

you (the authorities) say nearly 2/3 of the children

of this sect were abused YET YOU RETURNED ALMOST EACH AND EVERY ONE OF THEM? you say 12 girls who are between the ages of 12 and 15 were married (to OLDER MEN of course) and 7 of them gave birth to babies? this sect (i must add, along with many 'mainstream' religions and beliefs)believes women are practically meaningless. they're used to sew and cook and clean and pop out young 'uns (the girl children to be married off to geezers of course). wtf? why did you return the children? why? just because someone f**king bears a child or is the biological father of a child DOES NOT MEAN THEY ARE A PARENT

Texas report: Abuse widespread in polygamist sect
By MICHELLE ROBERTS

SAN ANTONIO (AP) — Nearly two-thirds of the families living at a polygamist group's ranch — targeted in a high-profile raid last spring — had children who were abused or neglected, Texas child welfare officials said in a report released Tuesday.

The Department of Family and Protective Services concluded there was evidence that 12 girls, ages 12 to 15, were "spiritually" married to adult men in the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, which runs the Yearning For Zion Ranch in Eldorado. Seven of them had one or more children, the report says.

Another 262 children were listed as neglected because the agency said their parents knew there was sexual abuse in the household but did not move to protect their children from possible abuse.

The report, which summarizes the investigations done on all 439 children at the West Texas ranch, was issued at the request of the Health and Human Services executive commissioner, a gubernatorial appointee who oversees the protective services agency.

"We received what we believed was a bona fide abuse/neglect report. We were required by law to investigate," said DFPS spokesman Patrick Crimmins.

The report, an unusual step taken to help satisfy expected questions from the state Legislature when it convenes in January, summarized individual investigations and the history of the case. The findings, though shared with law enforcement, are separate from the ongoing criminal cases..........

a pre christmas gift from ME to YOU

(i must admit i found this through boing boing)

i'm telling you if you love this only HALF as much as i do, you'll thank me for bringing henrietta and merna to your attention

because i love her

matthieu ricard

i heard him being interviewed by the bbc on npr this morning on my way to work. i was quite moved

matthieu ricard

i heard him interviewed by the bbc on npr this morning. i was moved NOTE: if the video isn't working, here's the link for you to watch it

the nutmeg grater: you know i read this yesterday

the nutmeg grater: you know i read this yesterday

on friday you couldn't belong to saddleback church

if you were gay. i guess today you can (ha ha ha). i guess rick warren thinks all 'the' gays left (you know the ones NOT dying with aids - because it appears only 'the' gays get aids) are f**king stupid

Rick Warren pulls anti-gay language from his Web site
Deny me three times, Rick?

So Rick Warren pulled the anti-gay language from his church Web site. The site used to explicitly ban gays from membership in the church.....................

i guess god herself told rick warren on friday that she hates fags, but she must have changed her mind today

i think this is important

and i wanted to post it. there are three VERY simple things you can ask/do to recognize a stroke. read on at the link below


Want to Save Some Lives? Here is a Simple Formula for Identifying Strokes
By Don Hazen, AlterNet.
Do you know when someone might be having a stroke and what to do about it? I didn't, and it spooked me. My sister died earlier this year -- probably from a stroke. But she lived far away from me, and when she noticed something might be wrong, she insisted she didn't want to go to a hospital. She was found dead the following morning.

A fellow board member of Talking Eyes Media, an energetic woman in her 50s, slurred her speech during the day some months ago and didn't think enough of it. She had a massive stroke that evening and will never recover.

Each year, 600,000-700,000 Americans experience strokes, which are defined as "interruptions of the blood supply to any part of the brain, resulting in damaged brain tissue." Stroke is the third-leading cause of death in the United States. Persons surviving strokes often suffer lifelong physical problems involving their speech, limb movement and thought processes..............

because i love her

and because i don't understand why everyone knows madonna's name and brittney spears name and hardly anyone knows ellen mcilwaine

oh shite

THIS is NOT boding well at all

well it's not like the bush administration had anything to do with this...........(hmmmmmmmm oh wait, aren't they pouring BILLIONS o' bucks into one if not both of these countries and helping the other country develop their nuclear weapons capabilities??????? hmmmmmmm)

Pakistani Jets Scramble As India Hardens Tone
All Options Open, Minister Says in New Delhi
By Rama Lakshmi
Washington Post Foreign Service
NEW DELHI, Dec. 22 -- In signs of growing regional tension since the Mumbai attacks last month, Pakistan scrambled fighter jets over several of its larger cities Monday, and India's foreign minister told a gathering of Indian diplomats in New Delhi that the country is keeping all its options open to bring the perpetrators of the attacks to justice. "We have so far acted with utmost restraint," Pranab Mukherjee told the more than 120 envoys from posts around the world. But he added, "We will take all measures necessary as we deem fit to deal with the situation." ........

it appears penn & teller

are running our banking system (well i think it actually would be going a whole hell of a lot BETTER if they were)

where the hell is the accountability in this administration? (don't answer, i know the answer already. the question was rhetorical)

Regulator Let IndyMac Bank Falsify Report
Agency Didn't Enforce Its Rules, Inquiry Finds
By Binyamin Appelbaum and Ellen Nakashima
Washington Post Staff Writers
A senior federal banking regulator approved a plan by IndyMac Bank to exaggerate its financial health in a May federal filing, allowing the California company to avoid regulatory restrictions only two months before it collapsed, a federal inquiry has found.

The same regulatory agency, the Office of Thrift Supervision, allowed similar legerdemain by other banks, according to a letter sent yesterday to members of Congress by the Treasury Department's inspector general, Eric Thorson. The letter did not provide details about the other incidents.

The finding that OTS on several occasions "blessed a fiction," in the words of one congressional staffer, renews questions about the agency's relationship with the companies it regulates and about its complicity in the collapse this year of several of the nation's largest thrifts, including Washington Mutual and Countrywide Financial.....

teacher says every time a bell rings.........

(while on the subject) you don't remember her but i sure as shite do

my personal favorite all time religious nut evangelist, pentecostal, preacher, whatever

and my goddess, WHO could forget dino 'at the piano'? (not i)

i don't know when these stupid-ass people

will EVER learn!

1) the earth is about 3 or 4 thousand years old
2) dinosaurs and humans lived at the same time. as a matter of fact, fred flintstone REALLY did ride dino just like roy rode trigger
3) the rapture is coming
4) 'the' gays, 'the' blacks, 'the' jews, 'the' rest of 'em who aren't like US don't count
5) THERE IS NO EFFING THING SUCH AS GLOBAL WARMING OR POLLUTION

Boxer calls for withdrawal of 'blatantly illegal' EPA memo
Muriel Kane
Senate Environment Committee Chair Barbara Boxer (D-CA) has sent a letter to Attorney General Michael Mukasey urging him to require Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Stephen Johnson to withdraw a "blatantly illegal memo" which would prohibit carbon dixoide emissions from being taken into consideration when issuing air pollution permits.

In a press release accompanying the strongly worded letter, Boxer states, "This illegal document issued by Stephen Johnson makes it clear that he has become a renegade Administrator. He defies the clear language of our environmental laws and acts without legal authority. Mr. Johnson's latest action is intended to make the job of combating global warming more difficult and will add to the millions of taxpayer dollars he has wasted in defending his illegal decisions. The Attorney General has an obligation to intervene when the actions of the Administration are so clearly outside the law."......

YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

the waffle house wedding (found via supertouch

letter to the president

this was made in 2003, but it still fits. it was found (of course) via wooster collective

Wooster Essentials: The Motion Paintings of David Ellis and The Barnstormers

Back in 2002, Sara and I purchased a DVD from Japan that featured an incredible motion painting by David Ellis and the Barnstormers. The film was called Apostrophe and it absolutely blew us away.

Much like what Blu did in MUTO, David's animated films are created by first painting, then erasing, and then replacing the artwork while a stop-action camera captures each moment. Similar to an incredible jazz performance, the Barnstormer's films were improvised and done completely collaboratively.

While Apostrophe is not available on the web, many of The Barnstormers films (as well as those done by David Ellis alone) can indeed be found on Vimeo and Youtube. For us, they're about as good as it gets. ..............


.....The Barnstormers painting in this film include Sonia Rubinstein, West One, Shie One, Chuck Webster, Yuri Shimojo, David Ellis, Christian Mendoza, Kenji Hirata, Che Jen, Mike Ming, Doze Green, Michael Houston, Martin Mazzorra, Jose Parla, Rostarr, Alex Lebedev, Madsaki:.......

need money?

sell your 8 year old daughter to a 58 year old man. that's legal in the country (or countries) of some of our VERY BFFs!!!

even when a mother tries to save her daughter, it can't happen because WOMEN HAVE NO EFFING RIGHTS

Saudi court rejects divorce plea from EIGHT-year-old girl married to 58-year-old man
By Mail Foreign Service

A Saudi court has rejected a plea to divorce an eight-year-old girl married off by her father to a man who is 58, saying the case should wait until the girl reaches puberty.

The divorce plea was filed in August by the girl's divorced mother with a court at Unayzah, 135 miles north of Riyadh just after the marriage contract was signed by the father and the groom.

Lawyer Abdullar Jtili said:"The judge has dismissed the plea, filed by the mother, because she does not have the right to file such a case, and ordered that the plea should be filed by the girl herself when she reaches puberty.".........

oh YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

this is news?

honestly, the news will be when and if they ever actually GET any of these emails (we all know you can never really delete OR lose an email)

come on now

Bush E-Mails May Be Secret a Bit Longer
Legal Battles, Technical Difficulties Delay Required Transfer to Archives
By R. Jeffrey Smith
Washington Post Staff Writer
The required transfer in four weeks of all of the Bush White House's electronic mail messages and documents to the National Archives has been imperiled by a combination of technical glitches, lawsuits and lagging computer forensic work, according to government officials, historians and lawyers.

Federal law requires outgoing White House officials to provide the Archives copies of their records, a cache estimated at more than 300 million messages and 25,000 boxes of documents depicting some of the most sensitive policymaking of the past eight years.

But archivists are uncertain whether the transfer will include all the electronic messages sent and received by the officials, because the administration began trying only in recent months to recover from White House backup tapes hundreds of thousands of e-mails that were reported missing from readily accessible files in 2005. .........

f**k old spice

and 'manliness' too. a real man is someone who is not uncomfortable (or as in the case of matthew chancey, AFRAID ) around women who are comfortable being who they are. strong, beautiful, smart, hard working, thoughtful, nurturing, and capable of making a decision to vote for the best candidate they deem worthy.

According to Old Spice, the Art of Manliness is Anti-Woman
Meet Matthew Chancey, the epitome of "manliness," says an Old Spice-sponsored contest.

Religious Dispatches has a piece on how an this contest created by web zine The Art of Manliness included a finalist who is a part of a movement that doesn't believe women should vote. And that finalist ended up being the winner of the Man of the Year Award.

Chancey was chosen with nine other finalists that the contest claims "epitomize the manliness that used to exist before the arrival of metrosexual pretty boys." But apparently this "manliness that used to exist" regresses all the way back to when women didn't have the vote. A member of the Christian Reconstructionist movement, a homophobic, anti-choice, anti-contraception group. In short, Chancey, his wife and nominator Doug Phillips is, according to author Kathryn Joyce,

"the staunchest promoters of the Quiverfull conviction and the patriarchy lifestyle, both of which hold that Christian couples should have as many children as God gives them, forgoing any form of family planning, as both a demonstration of their obedience and trust in God and as a militant method of demographic battle with nonbelievers."

Yes, Quiverfull, the movement that believes women's bodies aren't their own, but in fact sacrificial wombs used to build God's army. .............

it snowed here yesterday

quite a bit and i guess it's going to snow again tomorrow. it's NOT like this though



(found via boing boing)

this is EXACTLY why i love larisa

stories like THIS:


A hillybilly succubus or simply a magnet for corruption?
by Larisa Alexandrovna
My bad feeling about Sarah Palin has lately become more of a philosophical theory on the nature of good and evil. Either that or I had some really bad Chinese take-out. But I am starting to think that rather than a joke, Sarah Palin is like some sort of curse unleashed on anyone who enters her orbit and a person surrounded by an assortment of strangely dark and even criminal elements. She is also a menacing force against those whom she perceives as foes. She is like some hillbilly succubus around whom bad things tend to happen and bad people seem to gravitate. ....

So here is the latest (emphasis mine): WASILLA -- A 42-year-old Wasilla woman was arrested Thursday at her home by Alaska State Troopers with a search warrant in an undercover drug investigation. Sherry L. Johnston was charged with six felony counts of misconduct involving a controlled substance. Johnston is the mother of Levi Johnston, the Wasilla 18-year-old who received international attention in September when Gov. Sarah Palin and her husband, Todd, announced their teenage daughter was pregnant and he was the father. Bristol Palin, 18, is due on Saturday, according to a recent interview with the governor's father, Chuck Heath. Troopers served the warrant at Johnston's home at the "conclusion of an undercover narcotics investigation," said a statement issued Thursday by the troopers as part of the normal daily summary of activity around the state. Troopers charged Johnston with second-degree misconduct involving a controlled substance -- generally manufacturing or delivering drugs -- as well as fourth-degree misconduct involving controlled substances, or possession. I cannot imagine that Mrs. Johnston suddenly began to "manufacture or deliver" drugs only in the last two months. The investigators involved in the bust have even said their sting had been going on for "a while." This means that more than likely, Mrs. Johnston's alleged activities were going on during this election cycle. Think about this for a moment. Here you have Johnston, whose son has knocked up Palin's teenage daughter, allegedly manufacturing or delivering drugs (meth?) during a Presidential campaign in which Palin is running for Vice President of the United States. Palin is still at this point also governor of Alaska. Did no one think to do a background check on the family of a boy soon to marry the daughter of a governor/VP candidate?

three men

jump a 12 year old girl. they yell out, you're a prostitute, you're coming with me. remember she's TWELVE YEARS OLD.

who were the tree men? undercover galveston cops. who were they looking for? WHITE PROSTITUTES. what color was the 12 year old? black. why did they think SHE was a prostitute? because she had 'tight' shorts on. she grabbed onto a tree and yelled for her daddy. well a few days after this happened, the galveston cops came to her SCHOOL AND BUSTED HER FOR ATTACKING A COP. yes, that's right. they arrested her AT SCHOOL. they also busted her father and accused him of attacking a cop too. let me tell you, when i was 12 if three men jumped out of a van and attempted to put their hands on me, my father would have kicked the shite out of 'em. there's no ifs ands or buts about that part. i know it for a fact.

this may not seem real, but unfortunately it is.

Police Get The Wrong House In Galveston, Allegedly Assault 12-Year-Old Girl
It was a little before 8 at night when the breaker went out at Emily Milburn's home in Galveston. She was busy preparing her children for school the next day, so she asked her 12-year-old daughter, Dymond, to pop outside and turn the switch back on.

As Dymond headed toward the breaker, a blue van drove up and three men jumped out rushing toward her. One of them grabbed her saying, "You're a prostitute. You're coming with me."

Dymond grabbed onto a tree and started screaming, "Daddy, Daddy, Daddy." One of the men covered her mouth. Two of the men beat her about the face and throat.

As it turned out, the three men were plain-clothed Galveston police officers who had been called to the area regarding three white prostitutes soliciting a white man and a black drug dealer......

Police assault 12-year-old girl after mistaking her for a prostitute

........The lawsuit against the officers also alleges that the men thought Dymond, an African-American, was a hooker because of the "tight shorts" she was wearing. Police have not yet apologized for the incident.

The case has gone to trial, but the judge declared a mistrial the first day and a new trial is set for February.

"I think we'll be okay," said Anthony Griffin, Milburn's attorney. "I don't think a jury will find a 12-year-old girl guilty who's just sitting outside her house. Any 12-year-old attacked by three men and told that she's a prostitute is going to scream and yell for Daddy and hit back and do whatever she can. She's scared to death."

The officers' lawyer, William Helfand, said Milburn's father had also been arrested for attacking the officers after his daughter called for him when the police attacked her. Helfand said both would face consequences for their actions.

"It’s unfortunate that sometimes police officers have to use force against people who are using force against them. And the evidence will show that both these folks violated the law and forcefully resisted arrest," Helfand said..............

we knew this happened

i don't think we knew to what extent. i also am shocked NOTHING has been done. although i shouldn't be shocked. next to nothing has been done (by the government) to help MOST of the people effected by katrina. OUR people, OUR country. if you don't think the rate of help to people of natural disasters is directly proportionate to their wealth and/or their color, you're just kidding yourself.

Katrina's Hidden Race War

By A.C. Thompson

The way Donnell Herrington tells it, there was no warning. One second he was trudging through the heat. The next he was lying prostrate on the pavement, his life spilling out of a hole in his throat, his body racked with pain, his vision blurred and distorted.

• 
  

  
  

It was September 1, 2005, some three days after Hurricane Katrina crashed into New Orleans, and somebody had just blasted Herrington, who is African-American, with a shotgun. "I just hit the ground. I didn't even know what happened," recalls Herrington, a burly 32-year-old with a soft drawl.

The sudden eruption of gunfire horrified Herrington's companions--his cousin Marcel Alexander, then 17, and friend Chris Collins, then 18, who are also black. "I looked at Donnell and he had this big old hole in his neck," Alexander recalls. "I tried to help him up, and they started shooting again." Herrington says he was staggering to his feet when a second shotgun blast struck him from behind; the spray of lead pellets also caught Collins and Alexander. The buckshot peppered Alexander's back, arm and buttocks........

A.C. Thompson: White vigilante justice tore through New Orleans after the storm. But no official investigation has shed light on the violence.

picture: CHANDRA MCCORMICK AND KEITH CALHOUN
A vigilante shot Donnell Herrington twice shortly after Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans.