Saturday, January 19, 2008
one of my ALL TIME FAVORITE SONGS
tuck and patti. i hope you enjoy them half as much as i do.
they're AMAZING
to steven howards:
Denver lawyer seeks to depose Cheney in assault case
By Sara Burnett, Rocky Mountain News
Secret Service agents have given such varied accounts of what led to the 2006 arrest of a Denver man accused of assaulting Vice President Dick Cheney, the man’s attorney says there may be only one way to clear things up — depose the vice president.
David Lane, lawyer for Steven Howards, said he plans to file a motion in federal court in Washington, D.C., next week to question Cheney under oath. Attorneys for the vice president have refused repeated requests for a deposition, he said.
“Given the wide differences of view, he is the only one with certain knowledge,” Lane said, according to a story in Friday’s New York Times.
According to depositions already taken of the five Secret Service agents involved in the Beaver Creek arrest, only some of the agents saw the encounter, in which Howards critized the administration’s policies in Iraq.
The agents give differing accounts of what occurred, with some saying there was no assault............
is our fbi egging on AND PAYING a neo-nazi
Computer Hackers Allege That Notorious Neo-Nazi Radio Host Is on FBI Payroll
By Mark Potok, Hate Watch.
New Jersey radio host Hal Turner is well known as one of the most vicious neo-Nazis in America, a man who routinely suggests killing his enemies.
Railing against President Bush, he told his audience last June that "a well-placed bullet can solve a lot of problems." He has written that "we need to start SHOOTING AND KILLING Mexicans as they cross the border" and argued that killing certain federal judges "may be illegal, but it wouldn't be wrong." In 2006, after he published an attack on New Jersey Supreme Court justices that also included several of their home addresses, state police massively beefed up security for the members of the court, checking on one justice's house more than 200 times.
Hal Turner is one serious extremist. He may also be on the FBI payroll.
On Jan. 1, unidentified hackers electronically confronted Turner in the forum of his website for "The Hal Turner Show." After a heated exchange, they told Turner that they had successfully hacked into his server and found correspondence with an FBI agent who is apparently Turner's handler. Then they posted an alleged July 7 E-mail to the agent in which Turner hands over a message from someone who sent in a death threat against Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wisc.). "Once again," Turner writes to his handler, "my fierce rhetoric has served to flush out a possible crazy." In what is allegedly a portion of another E-mail, Turner discusses the money he is paid..........
in montana, global warming
Global Warming Talk Canceled at Montana School
Posted by Josh Dorner, Sierra Club
It all started with the Scopes Monkey Trial in Tennessee way back when. Then more recently many of us have been asking "What's the matter with Kansas?" Well, today I'm wondering just what the deal is in Montana?
Seems that in the tiny hamlet of Choteau, Montana (pop. 1781) a few grumbling conservatives are enough to keep a Nobel laureate from discussing global warming at the local high school.
Dr. Steven Running, a professor of ecology at the University of Montana and one of the lead authors of the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's report, was due to speak to high school students in the small agricultural town located on the plains that spread out east of the Rocky Mountains. It seems that a vocal minority objected to his talk before 130 high school students because it would be "one-sided," so the local school superintendent, Kevin St. John, canceled it.
St. John went on to lamely explain that there simply wasn't time to explain to everyone that Running was a "leading scientist" and not an "agenda-driven ideologue." (I'm guessing I'd be in that latter category. And just how long could it possibly take to explain things in a town of 1,781 anyway?) Sensing he might have some 'splainin' to do, St. John added -- rather unconvincingly methinks -- that "academic freedom is very important here, and science education is very important here.".............
more dirt on the huckster
Huckabee gave speech to white supremacists
Max Blumenthal
As South Carolina's Republican primary election draws nearer, Mike Huckabee has ratcheted up his appeals to the racial nationalism of white evangelicals. "You don't like people from outside the state coming in and telling you what to do with your flag," the former Arkansas governor told a Myrtle Beach crowd on January 17, referring to the Confederate flag. "If somebody came to Arkansas and told us what to do with our flag, we'd tell them what to do with the pole. That's what we'd do."
Making coded appeals to white racism is nothing new for Huckabee. Indeed, well before he was a nationally known political star, Huckabee nurtured a relationship with America's largest white supremacist group, the Council of Conservative Citizens. The extent of Huckabee's interaction with the racist group is unclear, but this much is known: he accepted an invitation to speak at the group's annual conference in 1993 and ultimately delivered a videotaped address that was "extremely well received by the audience."
Descended from the White Citizens Councils that battled integration in the Jim Crow South, including at Arkansas' Little Rock High School, the Council (or CofCC) has been designated a "hate group" by the Southern Poverty Law Center. .............
does HIS jesus only like white folk i wonder? (i'm not saying the huckster is a racist. i sure don't know. i DO know if i gave a speech to an organization such as the coc, i'd 'splain my actions. like i was temporarily insane or something like that)
i don't know if he is THE biggest ass out there
Video: O'Reilly's 'No homeless vets' claim disproved
David Edwards and Katie Baker
On January 4th, 2008, Fox Pundit Bill O' Reilly denied the existence of any homeless veterans in the United States. In an effort to prove O'Reilly wrong, Brave New Films visited Homeless Vets – a non-profit organization dedicated to helping homeless and at-risk veterans – so that they could speak with some homeless veterans themselves.
"I talked to over a dozen homeless vets, some who had served as far back as the Korean War," writes the video’s co-producer Jonathan Kim on Foxattacks.com. "These veterans are homeless, they exist, and no matter what [O’Reilly] says, there are way too many of them."
Brave New Films showed the men at Homeless Vets a clip of O'Reilly mocking presidential candidate John Edwards for discussing the topic of homeless veterans in a speech.
"This guy has no clue!" O'Reilly said in response to Edwards. "I mean, come on. The only thing sleeping under a bridge is that guy’s brain. 10 million illegal alien workers are sending billions of dollars back home and Edwards is running around saying nobody has any money.".......
Friday, January 18, 2008
fatrobot
i hope i'm not being immodest when i say, don't i look kick ass in my apron and feather duster?
from bifurcated rivets (one of my favorite sites)
well all we really ARE good for is birthin' babies after all
Fox Anchor Gibson Celebrates Increase in "Anglo" Birth Rate, Asks "Do You Still Think I’m a Racist?"
Posted by Matt Corley, Think Progress
In May 2006, Fox News host John Gibson sparked controversy when he claimed on air that "twenty-five years and the majority of the population is Hispanic" because "Hispanics are having more kids than others" and "white people are having fewer." Worried about the demographic shift in America, Gibson urged his audience to "do your duty. Make more babies."
On his radio show yesterday, Gibson returned to the controversy, touting an Associated Press article about the "baby boomlet" in the U.S. in 2006 as vindication for his call that "the dominant, or largest, population sector, which is Caucasians" should "make more babies." Declaring "I was right," Gibson celebrated the increased birth rate of "non-Hispanic white women":
"The nearly 4.3 million births in 2006 were mostly due to a bigger population, especially a growing number of Hispanics. That group accounted for nearly one-quarter of all U.S. births." As you can tell, Hispanics are doing the hard work of child raising. "But non-Hispanic white women and other racial and ethnic groups were" also "having more babies, too." A big round of applause for all of you out there having those babies.
Claiming that "people were following my advice," Gibson exclaimed that he was "not only right," but "prescient" and that it was time for "a John Gibson victory lap." ........
while we're investigating steroid abuse in mlb.....
how sad is this? how many places is this happening other than denver? why aren't we protecting those that protect us? my goddess what hath we wrought?
Ailing GIs deployed to war zones
Ft. Carson sent ailing GIs to meet deployment goals, notes say
By Erin Emery The Denver Post
COLORADO SPRINGS — Fort Carson sent soldiers who were not medically fit to war zones last month to meet "deployable strength" goals, according to e-mails obtained by The Denver Post.
One e-mail, written Jan. 3 by the surgeon for Fort Carson's 3rd Brigade Combat Team, says: "We have been having issues reaching deployable strength, and thus have been taking along some borderline soldiers who we would otherwise have left behind for continued treatment."
Capt. Scot Tebo's e-mail was, in part, a reference to Master Sgt. Denny Nelson, a 19-year Army veteran, who was sent overseas last month despite doctors' orders that he not run, jump or carry more than 20 pounds for three months because of a severe foot injury.
Nelson took the medical report to the Soldier Readiness Process, or SRP, site on Fort Carson, where health-care professionals recommended Nelson stay home.
The soldier, who has a Bronze Star and is a member of the Mountain Post's Audie Murphy Chapter, was sent to Kuwait on Dec. 29.
Nelson says he was one of at least 52 soldiers deployed who should not have been, and a veterans group says the military is endangering soldiers to meet its goals.
But Fort Carson officials say they do not believe unfit soldiers have been sent to the Middle East and say there is no repercussion for not meeting goals. They say the battalion commander has the final decision as to who is deployed.
On Jan. 5, a physician in Kuwait sent a strongly worded e-mail to Tebo urging him to send Nelson back to the U.S. .........
canada steps up to the plate
as i mentioned the other day, i work for the insurance/financial industry. we're effected by the patriot act and anti-money laundering laws. we have certain countries we cannot deal with/accept money from. now WE are one of those countries (not the money part but the watch part) on someone else's list!
Canada puts U.S., Israel on torture watchlist -CTV
OTTAWA, Jan 17 (Reuters) - An official Canadian government document has put both the United States and Israel on a watch list of countries where prisoners run the risk of being tortured, CTV television reported on Thursday.The revelation is likely to embarrass the minority Conservative government, which is a staunch U.S. ally.The document mentions the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba where a Canadian man is being held.CTV said the document was part of a course on torture awareness given to Canadian diplomats to help them determine whether prisoners they visited abroad had been mistreated.It said the document mentioned U.S. interrogation techniques such as "forced nudity, isolation, and sleep deprivation."Other countries on the watch list include Syria, China, Iran and Afghanistan, CTV said...........
apology or not
believe me i am NO fan of hillary. i will N OT ever in a million years vote for her. it's NOT because she's a woman though. it's because i think she's a lyin' weasel. i don't trust her as far as i can throw her. i don't think she's a senator because her husband stepped out on her. i think she was elected because she's BRIGHT, charismatic and a good liar.
Chris Matthews Backs Off 'Nasty' Remark on Clinton
By Howard Kurtz Washington Post Staff Writer
Under pressure from feminist groups and his own bosses at MSNBC, Chris Matthews apologized yesterday for remarks about Hillary Clinton that he now admits sounded "nasty."
For 10 days, the "Hardball" host had doggedly insisted he was just reciting a bit of history when he said on the air that "the reason she's a U.S. senator, the reason she's a candidate for president, the reason she may be a front-runner is her husband messed around."
But protests against those and other remarks by Matthews reached a peak yesterday when the presidents of such groups as the National Organization for Women, Feminist Majority and National Women's Political Caucus sent a joint letter of complaint to NBC News President Steve Capus. ...........
David Brock Issues Open Letter to NBC News President Steve Capus
Washington, D.C. -- Today, Media Matters for America President & CEO David Brock issued an open letter to Steve Capus, the president of NBC News, raising serious questions about the on-air conduct of MSNBC Hardball host Chris Matthews. Given Matthews' long history of degrading commentary, Brock has urged Capus to protect the network's trusted reputation for fair and equal coverage and, as Capus himself articulated, "continue the dialogue about what is appropriate conduct and speech" on the air.
Highlights from the letter include:
"Senator Clinton's candidacy aside, Matthews' degrading attacks on women constitute a broader and more troubling pattern that has unfolded over the years. During his coverage of the 2000 presidential race, Matthews repeatedly referred to author Naomi Wolf as "the political equivalent of Viagra." His on-air treatment of CNBC anchor Erin Burnett ("Could you get a little closer to the camera? ...You're beautiful. ...You're a knockout.") has been described by Emily's List President Ellen Malcolm as "sexual harassment brought to you by MSNBC."'........
Chris Matthews addresses firestorm
On the January 17 edition of MSNBC's Hardball, host Chris Matthews addressed the firestorm sparked by his comment about Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) that "the reason she's a U.S. senator, the reason she's a candidate for president, the reason she may be a front-runner is her husband messed around. That's how she got to be senator from New York. We keep forgetting it. She didn't win there on her merit."
From the January 17 edition of MSNBC's Hardball with Chris Matthews:
MATTHEWS: Good evening, I'm Chris Matthews. Welcome to Hardball. Well, we're in a time of a lot of frustration in this country -- Iraq, of course; the lack of health care for people who work every day; gas prices going up; the weakening economy that scares us every day -- and I come on here every night and try to wrestle with these frustrations, and also the changes in our country. We might soon have the first woman president, the first African-American president, or a man older than we've ever elected before. And of course, we always treat things here with hope -- our uniquely American hope that we can actually make things better, that we can make the greatest of countries, not only survive, but as [author] William Faulkner once said, "prevail.".........
Thursday, January 17, 2008
surreal moment of the week
Dog teams gather ahead of races
Mushers have arrived in Aviemore for the town's annual dog sled rally.
About 200 teams from all over the country will do practice runs on Friday ahead of two-days of competition. The event finishes next Tuesday.
Organised by the Siberian Husky Club of Great Britain the rally is run on tracks around Loch Morlich.
Competitors include schoolchildren and veterans who will mush teams of two and eight dogs running at up to 20mph over four-mile track..........
more
Tom Cruise
Church of Scientology Claims Copyright Infringement
Claims Copyright Infringement
The Church of Scientology, and Tom Cruise, the organization's most prominent evangelist, are both notoriously litigious. The sect's founder, science fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard, wrote in a 1955 magazine article, "The purpose of a lawsuit is to harass and discourage rather than to win." At the peak in the 1990s, according to the St. Petersburg Times, the organization spent $30m in one year on legal action, in part to win tax-exempt status as a religion, but also to parry and tire its many critics. So it's hardly surprising that the Scientologists' lawyers would at least threaten a huge lawsuit against the author of this week's controversial new biography of Tom Cruise, which also exposes many of the sect's most embarrassing secrets. ........
my original posting on the ONLY person in the entire cosmos who can save someone who was in an accident or is addicted to drugs or on and on and on and on
my new circular knitting needle case arrived
how much more?
oh wait, we have something WAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY more important to do. yes, that's right, INVESTIGATE STEROIDS IN MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL (how many people does THAT encompass? a couple of thousand give or take) and now the rap industry??????????????? yup, mlb players and rap artists are FAR MORE IMPORTANT THAN OUR SERVICE MEN AND WOMEN
Rate of Traumatic Stress Triples Among U.S. Troops
TUESDAY, Jan. 15 (HealthDay News) -- The incidence of new cases of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among combat-exposed U.S. soldiers has risen threefold since 2001, a new study finds.
PTSD is an anxiety disorder involving nightmares, flashbacks and panic attacks linked to event "triggers" that develop after exposure to combat or other extremely disturbing events.
Researchers at the Naval Health Research Center in San Diego analyzed data on more than 50,000 participants in the Millennium Cohort Study, which is tracking the health of U.S. military personnel over 22 years. The researchers compared data collected in July 2001 and June 2003 against data collected from June 2004 to February 2006.
The data included details about combat exposure, new onset PTSD symptoms, cigarette smoking and problem drinking...........
at work
White House Says It Routinely Overwrote E-Mail Tapes From 2001 to 2003
By Elizabeth Williamson and Dan EggenWashington Post Staff Writers
E-mail messages sent and received by White House personnel during the first three years of the Bush administration were routinely recorded on tapes that were "recycled," the White House's chief information officer said in a court filing this week.
During the period in question, the Bush presidency faced some of its biggest controversies, including the Iraq war, the leak of former CIA officer Valerie Plame Wilson's name and the CIA's destruction of interrogation videotapes.
White House spokesman Tony Fratto said he has no reason to believe any e-mails were deliberately destroyed.
From 2001 to October 2003, the White House's practice was to use the same backup tape each day to copy new as well as old e-mails, he said, making it possible that some of those e-mails could still be recovered even from a tape that was repeatedly overwritten. "We are continuing to analyze our systems," Fratto said last night........
did he really help terrorists on purpose
i work in the insurance/financial industry. i can tell you there are WICKED STRICT anti-money laundering laws out there (as part of the patriot act i will add) for the industry (i know, i worked on the implementation of the laws into some of our systems).
Ex-Congressman Indicted In Terrorism-Funding Case
By Dan EggenWashington Post Staff Writer
A former Republican congressman from Michigan who has dedicated himself to building ties between Christians and Muslims was indicted in federal court yesterday for alleged ties to an Islamic charity that sent money to suspected terrorists.
Mark D. Siljander, who served more than two terms in the House in the 1980s and later ran as a Republican candidate for the House from Northern Virginia, was charged with money laundering, obstruction of justice and conspiracy.
The indictment alleges that he lied to the FBI about his work on behalf of the Islamic American Relief Agency, which the Treasury Department designated as a terrorist organization in 2004. ........
Ex-lawmaker charged in terror conspiracy
Former Congressman Charged in Conspiracy Involving Terror Fundraising Ring
LARA JAKES JORDAN
A former congressman and delegate to the United Nations was indicted Wednesday as part of a terrorist fundraising ring that allegedly sent more than $130,000 to an al-Qaida and Taliban supporter who has threatened U.S. and international troops in Afghanistan. Mark Deli Siljander, a Michigan Republican when he was in the House, was charged with money laundering, conspiracy and obstructing justice for allegedly lying about lobbying senators on behalf of an Islamic charity that authorities said was secretly sending funds to terrorists.
A 42-count indictment, unsealed in U.S. District Court in Kansas City, Mo., accuses the Islamic American Relief Agency of paying Siljander $50,000 for the lobbying — money that turned out to be stolen from the U.S. Agency for International Development.
Siljander, who served in the House from 1981-1987, was appointed by President Reagan to serve as a U.S. delegate to the United Nations for one year in 1987..........
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
harold bloom speaks
Harold Bloom: 'What We Are Seeing Is the Fall of America'
By Eva Sohlman, The Wip
Harold Bloom, Yale literature professor and cultural critic, is one of America's most prominent and provocative intellectuals. Unabashedly, he has always spoken up for what he calls "the fight for truth and beauty" making a lot of foes in the process, but also some friends. As one of the first critical voices against the Bush administration and the war in Iraq, Bloom landed in the hot seat with the satire "MacBush" in 2004. Lately, he sparked worldwide outrage by calling Harry Potter "garbage." Speaking at his home in New Haven where he is recovering from a recent health scare, a pale and weak Bloom seems to have symbolically embodied what he calls the "poor state of the nation."
"I am 77 years old and I have never seen this country in such a bad state. It is madness. What we are seeing is the fall of the Roman Empire, only now it is the fall of America, the glory of our Empire. This war is what Parthia was to Rome.........
(for the record, i disagree with him on harry potter)
yeah, it's getting better all right
Iraq's healthcare left in disarray after invasion
Sarah Boseley, health editor Wednesday January 16, 2008 The Guardian
The full extent of the destruction of Iraq's healthcare system and the devastating impact it has had on its people is documented today in a new report which indicts the allied invasion force for failing in its duty to protect medical institutions and staff.
The report, by an independent team of researchers and advisers from Iraq, the UK, the US and elsewhere, says the provision of healthcare "has become increasingly difficult" since the invasion. "Doctors and nurses have emigrated en masse, exacerbating existing staff shortages.
"The health system is in disarray owing to the lack of an institutional framework, intermittent electricity, unsafe water, and frequent violations of medical neutrality. The ministry of health and local health authorities are mostly unable to meet these huge challenges, while the activities of UN agencies and non-governmental organisations are severely limited."...............
see what i mean?
GAO questions report on Iraq
GAO Says Figures in Administration's September 'Benchmark' Report Were Unreliable
PAULINE JELINEK AP News
The Bush administration, in its last so-called Iraq "benchmark" report, used questionable financial data to assert that the Baghdad government was making progress in managing its budget, a new study says. The study released Tuesday by the Government Accountability Office focused specifically on whether Iraqis were spending their capital budget, that is money for infrastructure needed to boost the country's lagging economic growth and improve poor public services.
The administration reported in its September Iraqi benchmark assessment that Iraq's central government ministries had spent 24 percent of their 2007 capital projects budget as of July 15, 2007. "This report is not consistent with Iraq's official expenditure reports," which show that the central ministries had spent only 4.4 percent of their investment budget as of August, the GAO said. It said capital projects are 90 percent of Iraq's investment budget.....
honey
(that's why i can't consider myself 100% vegan. i eat and use honey AND i use wool in my knitting as well)
The Healing Power Of Honey
Mainstream Medicine Rediscovers Natural Infection Fighter, Treatment For Non-Healing Wounds
By LINDA A. JOHNSON Associated Press
Amid growing concern over drug-resistant superbugs and non-healing wounds that endanger diabetes patients, nature's original antibiotic — honey — is making a comeback.More than 4,000 years after Egyptians began applying honey to wounds, Derma Sciences Inc., a New Jersey company that makes medicated and other advanced wound-care products, began selling the first honey-based dressing last fall after it was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.Called Medihoney, it is made from a highly absorbent seaweed material, saturated with manuka honey, a particularly potent type that experts say kills germs and speeds healing. Also called Leptospermum honey, manuka honey comes from hives of bees that collect nectar from manuka and jelly bushes in Australia and New Zealand......
(prior posting i did on it why do i keep honey in my bathroom?
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
before this video is taken down
it is THE MOST frightening thing i have ever seen in my whole life. AND i have seen someone
die (due to VERY UNNATURAL causes)
wow wow wow
cruise on down (so to speak) to the video (from gawker)
The video that Scientology apparently didn't want you to see is back again
............Cruise goes on to say that the religion is all about helping others,"being a Scientologist, when you drive past an accident, it's not like anyone else. As you drive past you know you have to do something about it because you know you're the only one that can really help.""We are the authorities on getting people off drugs," says Cruise. "We are the authorities on the mind. We are the authorities on improving conditions. We can rehabilitate criminals ... we can bring peace and unite cultures. Once you know these tools and you know that they work, it's not good enough that I'm just doing okay."Cruise also lets out a hearty laugh talking about suppressive persons (or anti-social persons), which are referred to by Scientologists as SPs. He recalls a member of the church asking him "So have you met an SP?" After gathering himself from chuckling, Cruise says "I looked at them and I thought, what a beautiful thing because maybe one day it will be like that. SPs, you'll read about them in the history books."............
jim hightower
(get up stand up - for your RIGHTS. get up stand up - don't give up the fight - apologies to bob marley)
We're Mad as Hell and the Dems Aren't Listening
By Jim Hightower, Hightower Lowdown.
What I am hearing from across the country is a surge of angst and discouragement. In conversations, calls, emails, and letters, people in general (and progressives in particular) are expressing profound dismay at the deterioration of America's democracy, not only because of the BushCheney regime, but also, and especially, because of the fecklessness of the Democratic Congress.
"For crying out loud! Why do we even bother to have elections?" Mark wailed in an email.
I am afraid of what this country has become and that at any minute the people in charge may bomb Iran, and I have lost all hope that there will be any checks and balances," Marshaleigh wrote, adding bluntly, "Congress doesn't work."
Jay bemoaned the dismal performance of Congress in this letter to the editor: "Despite the 2006 congressional elections and the overwhelming antiwar sentiment among our citizens...[Democrats] have become enablers of the White House's misbegotten Iraq venture."
Susan wrote, "What little optimism I had is vanishing. I am much more overwhelmed by the Democratic party's lack of gumption than I was by Bush's wickedness. And the small ideas offered by the presidential candidates make me cringe. I need help."
The damage now being done to America's political psyche by the Democrats' fizzle is way out of the ordinary............
if this is an example of
Lawmaker kicks photog during prayer
Colorado Lawmaker Kicks Photographer Who Took His Picture During Statehouse Prayer
STEVEN K. PAULSON
Carrying a family Bible, a state representative-elect kicked a photographer who took a picture of him during a statehouse prayer — then was sworn into office. Douglas Bruce went to the House floor Monday morning as a guest of Rep. Kent Lambert, a fellow Colorado Springs Republican.
When Rocky Mountain News photographer Javier Manzano took his photo during the traditional morning prayer, Bruce, who was standing, brought the sole of his shoe down hard on the photographer's bent knee.
"Don't do that again," Bruce told him.
Later, Bruce refused to apologize.
"I think that's the most offensive thing I've seen a photographer do in 21 years," he said. "If people are going to cause a disruption during a public prayer, they should be called for it. He owes an apology to the House and the public.".....
we shouldn't be giving weapons
New US weapons sale for Saudis
US Announces Sales of Advanced Weaponry to Saudis As Bush Visits Riyadh
MATTHEW LEE and ANNE FLAHERTY
The Democratic-led Congress is unlikely to block U.S. plans to sell $123 million worth of sophisticated precision-guided bomb technology to Saudi Arabia, despite concerns from some members that the systems could be used against Israel
The Bush administration on Monday officially notified Congress of its intent to sell the bomb-delivery systems as part of a multibillion-dollar arms package to bolster the defense of U.S. allies in the Gulf.
Rep. Tom Lantos, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, does not intend consider a resolution of disapproval, said spokesman Lynne Weil. Otherwise, Lantos declined to comment..........
draw your brakes brodda*
US drafting plan to allow government access to any email or Web search
National Intelligence Director Mike McConnell is drawing up plans for cyberspace spying that would make the current debate on warrantless wiretaps look like a "walk in the park," according to an interview published in the New Yorker's print edition today.
Debate on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act “will be a walk in the park compared to this,” McConnell said. “this is going to be a goat rope on the Hill. My prediction is that we’re going to screw around with this until something horrendous happens.”
The article, which profiles the 65-year-old former admiral appointed by President George W. Bush in January 2007 to oversee all of America's intelligence agencies, was not published on the New Yorker's Web site........
things like this just leave me wondering. right now let's just say, screw MY rights (just for now). i must wonder why our government is spending money on shite like this when our returning veterans (just as ONE instance out of a kazillion) aren't getting the care they need.
*one of my favorite reggae songs. it was on the album the harder they come by jimmy cliff
right now
xavier rudd was performing. i MUST listen to more of his work (white moth is his new cd). his music seems wicked cool. he had a didgeridoo (what looked like a TRIPLE didgeridoo at that)
Monday, January 14, 2008
world bank
World Bank pledges to save trees... then helps cut down Amazon forest
month ago it vowed to fight deforestation. Now research reveals it funds the rainforest's biggest threat. By Daniel Howden
The World Bank has emerged as one of the key backers behind an explosion of cattle ranching in the Amazon, which new research has identified as the greatest threat to the survival of the rainforest.
Ranching has grown by half in the last three years, driven by new industrial slaughterhouses which are being constructed in the Amazon basin with the help of the World Bank. The revelation flies in the face of claims from the bank that it is funding efforts to halt deforestation and reduce the massive greenhouse gas emissions it causes.
Roberto Smeraldi, head of Friends of the Earth Brazil and lead author of the new report, obtained exclusively by The Independent on Sunday, said the bank's contradictory policy on forests was now clear: "On the one hand you try and save the forest, on the other you give incentives for its conversion."
There are now more than 74 million cattle reared in the Amazon basin, the world's most important eco-system, where they outnumber people by a ratio of more than three to one. Fuelled by massive illegal ranches, the South American giant has become the world's leading beef exporter, rearing more cattle than all 25 EU members put together. This industrial expansion comes despite international agreements to combat deforestation, and claims from the government of Brazil that it is succeeding in slowing the destruction of the world's largest standing forest............
center for economic justice-boycott world bank bonds now
wtf?
is a STRONG FAMILY one where the woman needs the man's permission to not only drive BUT TO HAVE SURGERY OR LEAVE THE COUNTRY? wtf wtf wtf? that is in NO WAY A FAMILY THAT IS ANYTHING BUT DYSFUNCTIONAL.
no vote, no voice, no face. non-existence. a lashing for being raped. there is absolutely NO JUSTIFICATION FOR THE TONE OF THIS ARTICLE. NONE
security? or is it prison?
(yeah once again, NO political correctness from me on this one)
Pursuing happiness behind the veil
To be the American wife of a Saudi is to forsake familiar freedoms — or enjoy them secretly — in exchange for a secure, family-centered life.
By Jeffrey Fleishman, Los Angeles
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia -- Teresa Malof knew she wasn't in Kentucky anymore when a cleric issued a fatwa against her secret Santa gift exchange.Malof proposed the idea at the King Fahad National Guard Hospital, where she has worked for more than a decade. It was supposed to be discreet, but rumors were whispered amid veils and hijabs that the lithe, blond nurse, raised on farmland at the edge of Appalachia, was planning to celebrate a Christian tradition in an Islamic kingdom that forbids the practicing of other religions."Even though I'm a Muslim too, I like to celebrate the holidays and have gift exchanges," said Malof, a convert to Islam who is married to the son of a former Saudi ambassador. "But word got out and the religious people came with a fatwa [or edict] against the Santa party. My husband was having a heart attack. He was worried I'd be in a lot of trouble.".......
................Malof said her husband's family has been very accepting. But it took her a while to adjust to the religious police and the brazen boys in their buffed cars. The police patrol stores and sidewalks looking to fine or arrest women deemed to be improperly veiled. And the boys and young men, living in a country where the only contact with women is arranged through families, are bored and seek titillation by leering and driving alongside cars carrying women, sometimes boxing them in on highways...............
clark hoyt, public editor of the nyt
Braking Kristol: 'NYT' Public Editor Hits Hiring of Columnist
NEW YORK In a message that probably is not going down well in The New York Times' front office, the paper's public editor, Clark Hoyt, has called the controversial hiring of William Kristol as an op-ed columnist a "mistake."He also wrote, in his column today, that of nearly 700 messages he has received about the selection, only one praised the pick. Public Arthur Sulzberger, he revealed, "was surprised by the vehemence of the reaction." Kristol made a bad mistake in his very first column this week, attributing a quote by Michael Medved to Michelle Malkin. And he has been criticized by liberals for his arch-cosnervative views and ardent support for the war in Iraq. But Hoyt writes: "That is not why I think Sulzberger and Rosenthal made a mistake, and I agree with their effort to address an Op-Ed lineup that, until Kristol came aboard, was at least six liberals against one conservative who isn’t always all that conservative."What bugs Hoyt, however, is remarks such as the one Kristol made on Fox News Sunday on June 25, 2006, when he said, “I think the attorney general has an absolute obligation to consider prosecution” of The New York Times for publishing an article that revealed a classified government program to sift the international banking transactions of thousands of Americans in a search for terrorists..........
and here's hoyt's piece
He May Be Unwelcome, but We’ll Survive
By CLARK HOYT
..................Of the nearly 700 messages I have received since Kristol’s selection was announced — more than half of them before he ever wrote a word for The Times — exactly one praised the choice.
Rosenthal’s mail has been particularly rough. “That rotten, traiterous [sic] piece of filth should be hung by the ankles from a lamp post and beaten by the mob rather than gaining a pulpit at ANY self-respecting news organization,” said one message. “You should be ashamed. Apparently you are only out for money and therefore an equally traiterous [sic] whore deserving the same treatment.”
Kristol would not have been my choice to join David Brooks as a second conservative voice in the mix of Times columnists, but the reaction is beyond reason. Hiring Kristol the worst idea ever? I can think of many worse. Hanging someone from a lamppost to be beaten by a mob because of his ideas? And that is from a liberal, defined by Webster as “one who is open-minded.” What have we come to?.............
Sunday, January 13, 2008
to the person who commented on my 'bishop' eddie long posting
Bling Bling Fake Bishop Eddie Long
(from pastor sin alot )
and
Bishop Eddie Long Biggest Beneficiary of Charity He Founded
(from black voices )
and
OUR OPINION
The sin of false profitsBishop Eddie Long shouldn't count himself among the needy that his charity was created to help
(from national committee for responsible philanthropy via the atlanta journal constitution)
i thought i misread this
War Torn
Across America, Deadly Echoes of Foreign Battles
By DEBORAH SONTAG and LIZETTE ALVAREZ
Late one night in the summer of 2005, Matthew Sepi, a 20-year-old Iraq combat veteran, headed out to a 7-Eleven in the seedy Las Vegas neighborhood where he had settled after leaving the Army. This particular 7-Eleven sits in the shadow of the Stratosphere casino-hotel in a section of town called the Naked City. By day, the area, littered with malt liquor cans, looks depressed but not menacing. By night, it becomes, in the words of a local homicide detective, “like Falluja.”
Mr. Sepi did not like to venture outside too late. But, plagued by nightmares about an Iraqi civilian killed by his unit, he often needed alcohol to fall asleep. And so it was that night, when, seized by a gut feeling of lurking danger, he slid a trench coat over his slight frame — and tucked an assault rifle inside it. ........
The New York Times found 121 cases in which veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan committed a killing in this country, or were charged with one, after their return from war. In many of those cases, combat trauma and the stress of deployment — along with alcohol abuse, family discord and other attendant problems — appear to have set the stage for a tragedy that was part destruction, part self-destruction. |
'VICTORY LAP'?
Bush Meets With Petraeus
In Kuwait, President Seems to Claim Vindication for 'Surge'
By Michael Abramowitz Washington Post Staff Writer
CAMP ARIFJAN, Kuwait, Jan. 12 -- President Bush ventured to this sprawling U.S. base near Iraq on Saturday to begin exploring further troop reductions with his top commander and take something of a victory lap over the country's improved security conditions a year after announcing "the surge."
Bush seemed anxious to avoid another moment similar to one in 2003 soon after the fall of Saddam Hussein, when he appeared on the USS Abraham Lincoln below a giant sign reading "Mission Accomplished." In a statement to reporters here, Bush spoke of the difficult challenges ahead, such as defeating the insurgent group al-Qaeda in Iraq and reaching political reconciliation among Iraq's feuding sects. ........